//------------------------------// // Chapetr 2: a chain of events // Story: Something Small // by Jera_Sparkz //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash’s eyes seemed to reject the idea of opening when she first woke up yet they instantaneously shot open; staring perplexedly at the alien room around her, she took and inoperative gasp for air as she launched the sheets of the bed away from her. Her hoof was caught on the last fold of the sheet and she stumbled straight onto the crystal floor with a loud THUD! “Uh..wha?” she rubbed her head with her right hoof, using her left to get her mane out of her vision. The sudden realisation had come across her as she was struck by a bolt of memories. She was in Twilight's castle, the spectrum of blue walls lined with purple and gold tapestries was a big giveaway but the green glass stained windows were the icing on the cake. “I gotta’ go tell Twilight my awesomely, amazing, awesome heroic deed.” and with that she flew, full speed, at the exit of the dormitory that she had stayed in, however that came with another loud THUD! She repeated the previous actions she had performed last time and pushed the door handle down. The door clicked open and she continued her endeavours, aviating at full speed. She darted down the staircase to the first floor as multiple blurs of all kinds of colours had whipped past her when she finally came to an indefinite stop; the shrieking sound of hoofs skidding across the immaculate floor had filled the castle and echoed in its vastness. Dash opened the purple wooden door in front of her, the edges of her face lifted itself, she closed her eyes and pointed a hoof towards her chest in an attempt to make herself look cooler “so Twi I bet you’re wondering.” “Why you’re in my room, talking to yourself?” The voice seemed to originate from behind her. She flinched turning to the sound and was met with the very mare she was looking for, who was standing there smiling ever so gently, Twilight giggled and continued “yes, I am.” “When? How? What!?” Dash was utterly confused by how Twilight was behind her, she didn’t see any purple glows so that rules out magic. Twilight simply let out another small giggle and motioned her hoof, beckoning Dash outside of the room. “The world doesn’t wake up when you do, you know. I was already awake before you and heard two loud bangs coming from upstairs so, when confusion turned into curiosity, I went to check on you but you zoomed straight past me as I was making my way upstairs. Anyways come on, Spike and starlight are making tea and there’s plenty extra.” She gyrated to face the throne room, Twilight slowly and swiftly closed her eyes and with a purple glow of her horn, the ground started to shake vigorously around the thrones, all of them of which was now emitting a soothing glow and a relaxing low humming sound, the cutie map had erected itself in the centre of the room, inactive but present. How Twilight was able to perform all kinds of magic effortlessly confuddled Dash every time, despite not actually knowing how hard it was to perform any kind of magic, she assumed it was quite the burdensome task. Twilight bent her legs down, opening her eyes a little and lifted herself off into the air. “Wait Twilight don’t!” Despite her attempts to advocate Twilight about her damaged wing, she was too late. Twilight felt a sharp stabbing pain in her left wing and a sudden shock in her head. She was pulled to the ground in excruciating pain that held her down, stabilising herself with one hoof and holding her head with the other. The pain was unbearable as it crept throughout her head trying to reach the inoperative wing. “Ok I might need that explanation.” she turned around trying hard to hold herself so she stood up, stabilising with all four hoofs now. “Well, you see, what happened was.” “In the ponyville hospital waiting room,” Twilight said with an unamused look that faded into a smirk. Dash’s face stood still as it was still shocked by being intervened mid-sentence yet soon adjusted to the circumstances. “Right I’ll get you there!” “How?” Twilight reluctantly asked, dumbfound of her statement until Dash flapped her wings twice. Her expression soon turned into that of concern however before she could protest about the situation she had been swooped up over the shoulders of Rainbow Dash, she expected them to be broad and sharp like her personality gave off yet they were smooth and firm providing as a rest instead of an inconvenience. Despite the softness of her fur she still felt like she was being forced through the sound barrier at every moment of the journey from start to finish. The speed was intoxicating and the suddenness of the attack had her speechless the whole way. Twilight had appreciated the sentiments of the situation but she wishes it was toned down a bit. When they did stop, it was too quick to be logical in Twilight's mind, she had that much of a conclusive stop that all of her organs should have been propelled to her skin. She was confused but thankful that this wasn't the circumstance. She put a hoof up to her mouth and inflated her cheeks but quickly reversed both actions as if she was going to be sick. “I’m going to need more help from this place if you do that more often.” Twilight wasn’t used to flying that fast and to go from average to light breaking fast is very sickening, she would have mentioned it earlier but she didn’t have the time to do so. “Oh right, probably should have gone a little slower for you huh?” Dash put on a shy smirk and lowered her head a little, half closing her eyes as if to say that what's done was done. “It was efficient though” Twilight rubbed her head slowly and opened her eyes with caution. “ it would have taken on average 10 minutes to get here; including the fact that I’m with a friend, I probably would’ve walked slower and the eternal pain in my head and wing would definitely slow me down as well. So make that more like, 26 minutes all reduced down to 1 and a half minutes of flying” Twilight gave a congratulating smile to her friend and started walking towards the doors as Rainbow Dash went ahead; straight through the doors to the reception pony and started to converse with her. Twilight opened the cyan tinted doors to reveal white walls scarcely decorated with paintings of many atramentous colours, slightly sky blue chairs were scattered in some kind of organised chaos, mostly accompanied by waiting ponies, plastic plants were placed around the edges of the room which added, somewhat decent, enlightening colour to its surroundings. The sound of screeching wheels, screaming children and subtle beeps of heart monitors surrounded the room in a constant siege “Oh right, I had forgotten why I don’t come here often.” Twilight flinched and her face pulled itself inwards as she heard a colt whining about false promises and ice cream, hitting pitches that high in screaming, she would have previously thought it impossible. She pulled one of her hooves to her head again, hoping it would alleviate the pain but instead made her lose her balance easier. She felt the crescendo pain attempt to invade the rest of her body from her head like a pathogen but she managed to keep it at bay. The conversation between Rainbow and the pony at the counter seemed to get more heated by the second and Twilight had realised that she was standing in the middle of the corridor doing nothing so she began her jaunt towards her friend and could overhear her saying something. “WHAT DO YOU MEAN! She has to wait!” that last bit of which, she added air quotation marks “SHE’S THE PRINCESS OF FRIENDSHIP!” Dash noticed Twilight drift closer to the counter so she pushed her in front with another hoof pointing towards Twilight's face “DO YOU RECOGNISE HER AT ALL! HMM!” Twilight swatted Dash’s hoof away and took a small step back. “Dash please,” Twilight said sternly and motioned towards the waiting area whilst simultaneously staring her down. Dash knew that she was in pain and didn’t want to cause anymore. “Fine” She pouted and reluctantly followed Twilight’s demands. “Now, what was the problem?” She turned to the pony who was standing at the counter with a genuine smile, she had a pale white coat with a cherry red mane and a recognisable nurse outfit, pretty much like every other pony who worked here, the only difference was that she had pastel green eyes and a name badge that read ‘CloudPrancer Ruby’. “I hope it’s not a problem, uh, your majesty.” Twilight giggled holding a hoof to her mouth as she calmed herself down and opened her eyes, taking a small enlightening sigh. “Just Twilight is fine.” “Ok, well i hope it’s not a problem Twilight but we are behind on schedule because of a sudden emergency surgery that happened earlier today and we don’t have many staff that are available to see ponies right now so we can't attend to you all that quickly” She was nervously staring at Twilight with an obviously forced smile all throughout the conversation yet darted her eyes away every now and then as she cleared her throat when she was finished. “Now, now, I wouldn’t hear of it, I may be a princess but I don’t see myself as better than anypony else and these ponies have come here before me so they deserve to be treated first, I understand how hard it must be in these situations and I don’t want to put any more fuel in the fire” Twilight was very animated throughout that semi-speech and was very pleased with it, she loved saying stuff like that and though she alway meant what she said, a little bit inside of her got over excited by how much she sounded like Celestia. “Many thanks your, um, Twilight for your understanding.” And with that Twilight had walked over to Rainbow Dash. She had taken a seat and less than a minute later a small young filly walked over to her and tugged on her tail she had bright golden fur with orange and brown in her mane and bright ruby red eyes that glistened in the lights that hung above them, the small pegasus looked like she couldn’t keep a certain excitement in yet was forced to due to pain. “Hi, Princess Twilight, I just wanted to tell you that you’re my favourite princess and that you’re amazing and that I want to be just like you when I grow up.” The filly pegasus seemed to wag her tail all throughout saying that and was now accompanied by what seemed to be an older stallion version of her except his eyes were a deep sea blue instead of red. “Aww thank you, you are?” Twilight paused, expecting a name. “Morning Dew, my name is Morning Dew and I also wanted to say that I’ve been feeling bad for a couple days now but being around you is making me feel so so so much better.” “About time too.” the stallion that stood next to her had ruffled her hair and a grin appeared on his face “you’ve had to take a couple days off of school for it.” “Oh no that sounds horrible,” Twilight said looking back down to her small admirer. “I can’t wait to tell mommy all about seeing Twilight when she comes back from her journey. Can you wait, dad, huh, can you?” The mention of her mother seemed to place a sombre mood on the stallion wrapping itself around him tightly. Twilight instantly knew that she wasn’t with them anymore. “I’m sorry for your loss” Twilight spoke sincerely and gently to the stallion so that the filly didn’t hear her. “It’s ok, I guess these things happen and we” he paused, staring into space for a couple seconds “We have to move on.” The stallion seemed to choke on those last words with a stoic expression on his face but he soon transfigured that and hid in a fake smile as he looked down to his daughter “come on let's go see what new flavours they have in the ice cream shop.” He and his daughter departed through the main doors and Twilight watched them with a satisfied smile. “So, you got yourself some fans, huh?” Dash had listened to the whole conversation and was smiling at her. “You’re just jealous” Twilight playfully responded whilst lightly pushing her. “Jealous!” Dash laughed at her remark “I’m a wonder bolt. Of course, I have fans.” She faked a shiver at the thought “just be happy you haven’t encountered anypony like my parents.” “Yeh and you’re lucky they stopped that.” “Twilight, they only stopped doing it in public.” “You should still be thankful for that.” Twilight sat down next to Dash. “Now about that story.” She was waiting; watching her expectantly. “It was amazing, you were falling to the ground after an impact with an object that had been thrown at you and I swiftly caught you before you hit the ground and.” Dash frivolously said as she reluctantly opened her eyes hoping Twilight would believe her story. “As enlightening as that was, I’d like the real story now” a smile had derived on her face and a small chuckle had left her grasps. “Fine, so boring” She sighed and slouched a little “I had just finished with the weather and I saw you flying in the sky, you got hit by something, you fell and I took you to your castle” the whole story seemed to drone out in a lukewarm monotone. Twilight simply watched her as she sat up a looked her right in the eyes, the deep magenta seemed to portray care with the small reflections of light that bounced off. “Twilight” She spoke softly but then abruptly gained a smirk and a more relaxed demeanour “ you really need to work on your flying.” Twilight let out a fake gasp and a laugh as she nudged Dash away. “Says the expert flyer, no way I’ll get anything like you, I was sick on the way to the hospital for Celestia's sake and for you, that probably wasn’t very fast.” They both shared laughs and outrageous idea, the laughter of the two seemed to fend off the cacophony and depressive mood in the waiting room. Pony by pony the numbers of those waiting had gone down but it was still going to be a while until Twilight was seen. “Can you imagine if you were a Wonderbolt!?” Dash leapt out of her chair bound to the ground by shackles of laughter, unable to pick herself up while trying desperately to catch her breath and regain control of her body. “Or even a captain of the Wonderbolts at that!?” She fell back down on the floor. “Well, at least it would be organised” A soft glow of bright purple surround Dash as she was lifted into the air and gently placed on the chair next to Twilight. “Twilight, you know I don’t like it when unicorns use magic on me.” She was now completely calm and in control. “Well it’s a good thing I’m an alicorn then and not a unicorn.” “THERE!” a voice had called as the doors to the hospital had swung open grasping the attention of everypony in the waiting area “Oh, uh, sorry, everypony can do what they were doing before.” Spike walked through the doors straight toward Twilight attempting to look intimidating but failing to do so accurately; Starlight glimmer followed close behind. “Do you know how long we’ve been looking for you?” Twilight lowered her head and her eyelids. “No.” “Two and a half hours!” Spike practically shouted but in a lower tone to keep attention away from them, he got up on the seat next to Twilight and Starlight. “Oh.” “I just don’t get why you didn’t leave a message or anything, "Starlight asked as Twilight looked at Dash but didn’t mention anything. “Because I forgot to?” Twilight had intended on making something that sounded believable to pawn off the blame onto herself so that Dash wouldn’t have to deal with the anger and rage of the Two but was soon cut short. “Because I flew her here and I had forgotten about you two, no offence.” Dash walked towards the group and intervened in between Twilight and Spike, looking them in the eyes. “I didn’t think about the fact that you’d worry and go looking for Twilight even though she’s literally in the last place she would, usually, want to be.” Spike began to say something, opening his mouth and raising his hand in a stern manner but Starlight decided to advance the conversation. “Well, I’m glad that you were looking out for Twilight but you need to consider all possibilities next time; at least leave a note telling us you're gone because, spike here, practically had a heart attack.” Spike shot daggers through his gaze at Starlight but she was impermeable to it as she just stared back at him “Eh, look on the bright side, if he did then you would have brought him here, finding us even quicker.” Dash made a couple of awkward laughs in a diminuendo as both Starlight and Spike looked at Rainbow Dash with an unphased and unamused look. She repeated the awkward laughter. “Right, I'll make a note not to joke about that again.” nothing but silence had surrounded the group; juxtaposed to a couple of minutes ago. “So, Pinkie” Twilight said in an attempt to break the ice “is there anything else you wanted to talk about?” She was nervously smiling at the whole group, including Dash who had completely sat down now turning towards Twilight and then back towards Spike and Starlight when she had finished her question. Starlight pondered on the question for a moment but reciprocated with a simple. “I don’t have anything what about you spi-AHH!” Starlight was startled as she shot backwards. Pinkie seemed to have apparated out of nowhere and was sitting in between Starlight and Spike. “Twilight, Spike, Rainbow Dash, Starlight, Pinkie.” Pinkie was now somehow standing at the door glaring at her reflection “oh wait that one’s me.” She smiled and shot back to the group as Starlight began to sit up, recovering from her near death experiencePinkie “by the way I need to borrow Starlight, you're not using her right now are you, ok, bye” Pinkie was now pushing the confused Starlight who stood still because of how quickly the whole thing went down and because she learnt to never doubt pinkie pie, well that was rule 2, with pinkie, Rule 1 was never throw her surprise birthday parties (again). “Uh, Miss Twilight Sparkle, we will see you now.” A stallion had called, he wore the typical nurse outfit and the stereotypical white coat and red mane. Twilight stood up and looked back at Rainbow Dash and Spike. “Go on, Twilight” Rainbow Dash said “I’ll wait here, besides I have to tell Spike something about a new trick I’m doing” Dash simply smiled motioned for Twilight to continue. “See you in a bit” Twilight walked off. “You don’t have a new trick to talk about do you?” Spike had waited until Twilight was out of vision before he brought that up. “Well, technically I do but not with you, anyways I just wanted to talk to you about last night.” “Ok? I’m listening.” spike was calmed down by now not angry at either Rainbow Dash or Twilight. “You know how I was getting all sappy last night when I was talking to you, well could you. Kinda. Forget about it.” “Why would I do that?” Spike was perplexed by the meaning of what Rainbow Dash was trying to say. “I mean, I think I got it from my parents or something but when I’m tired, I start to act weird, different and well, how I was acting yesterday.” Rainbow Dash looked up at Spike behind from her mask of shame hoping that he would oblige. “So.” “I won’t forget about it.” “Oh come o-.” Dash was starting to raise her voice in disparity. “But.” Spike paused and also turned to Dash “I won’t tell anypony about it, ok?” “It’ll have to do for now.” Dash was ashamed that even one, in this case, dragon, knew about how she acted when she was tired or exhausted but had to deal with the fact. Spike had taken a journey back to the castle and Rainbow Dash was waiting patiently for Twilight in the waiting area.