Twilight had gone all out in making sure that Rainbow's quarantine was a pleasant one. She'd stocked a shelf with all her favorite Daring Do books, given her a nice hospital room with a view outside, made sure her meals were a grade above the standard hospital fare, and had even provided a cloud bed for her to sleep on.
And yet, Rainbow felt restless.
The first time she'd broken out, there was only a paper-thin shield and a locked window in her way. Now there was a sturdy magical shield. The guard presence at her door had also increased to two.
She was pacing again, ruffling her wings irritably. The room was probably the largest in the hospital, but that barely left her enough space to fly, and certainly no chance of cutting loose. Twilight was also going to be busy for the rest of the day...with Chrysalis.
Letting out a frustrated growl, Rainbow knocked on the door to her room. A moment later it was magically opened by one of the guards behind the shield. “Yes, Rainbow?”
“Could one of you grab me a deck of cards? I'm about to start pulling my mane out here.”
“You got it,” said the unicorn on the left, closing the door. Rainbow could soon hear him trotting away. Letting out another sigh, she flopped backward onto the cloud bed and waited, entertaining herself with the pattern on the ceiling. That lasted her another three minutes.
Her eyes went over the shelf of books once again. At the very end was A.K. Yearling's latest title, but while she normally would have jumped at the chance to read it, right now it just didn't appeal to her. All she could think about was how nice it had felt, introducing Twilight to her new wings, excited at having a new flying buddy, and...Chrysalis.
With a sudden push of her wings, Rainbow leaped from the bed and landed on her hooves, striding toward the door with purpose now. Raising her hoof, Rainbow knocked sharply on the door three times in rapid succession.
Once again the door opened, the single remaining unicorn guard giving her a curious look from behind the shield. “Yes, Rainbow? Vigil should be back in just a minute.”
Rainbow nodded. “Good.”
Her forehoof pulled back, every bit of pegasus magic she could muster focusing into a single point...and then she punched forward. The shield shattered. Her second strike sent the stunned unicorn flying back into the opposite wall.
---
I let out a small yawn as I woke up, tangled in my sheets. I hadn't really felt the magical fatigue from my spells until the adrenaline from flying had worn off. I wasn't completely exhausted, but I was feeling fatigued enough that I'd opted to take a nap instead of pursuing the journal further.
I probably wasn't ever going to be the 'flying buddy' Rainbow was hoping for, but I was already thinking of ways to improve the spell and reduce the power drain. Checking the time, I saw there was just enough time to grab a snack before Fluttershy arrived.
“Anything interesting happen while I was out?” I asked Spike as I headed down the stairs and grabbed a couple apples.
“Well, we had one pony come in thinking we sold quills and sofas,” said Spike casually. “Are you really sure I should be getting paid for this?”
“As long as you keep dusting,” I teased. “Did you want to go anywhere? I'll be putting the shield up soon.”
Spike stretched and yawned, exhaling a small green flame. “Already got my nap in today. Think I'll go see what Rarity is up to.”
“A large order, last I checked. Have fun,” I said, chuckling as Spike ran to freedom. Before I could even close the door, I spied Fluttershy on the horizon. Perfect timing.
Leaving the door open, I brought out Starlight's journal and a magically reinforced glass jar. Now I just had to perform the difficult and delicate task of convincing the most timid pegasus in Equestria that this experiment was completely safe.
“Hello, Twilight, I hope I didn't keep you waiting long.”
“Not at all,” I replied quickly. “Come on in and have a seat, we'll get started right away.” As soon as the door was closed, I put up the shield.
The sudden flash of violet light startled her. “Um...we're not doing anything dangerous, are we?”
“Not even slightly,” I promised. “But in the one-in-a-thousand chance that something does go wrong, it's better to have a shield up than not.”
That did seem to reassure her a bit. “Oh, okay...so what are we doing?”
“Nothing complex, I'm just going to use Starlight Glimmer's spell to take away your cutie mark temporarily.”
Fluttershy's eyes widened. “Um...I'm really sorry, Twilight, I uh...just remembered the, um...”
“The very important thing that you absolutely have to do right this moment?” I finished patiently.
“If that's okay with you...”
“Fluttershy, this is completely safe,” I assured her. “Trixie went an entire week without her cutie mark, and the minute it was returned, she was perfectly fine. Please, I really need your help.”
Slowly, Fluttershy relaxed, her head drooping slightly. “I...suppose it can wait,” she said finally.
“Good. Now then, I want you to tell me exactly how you're feeling once I do this. Don't hold anything back because every detail might be important.”
Once she nodded in understanding, I took one last glance over Starlight's spell before letting it loose. The effect was almost immediate. Fluttershy's head shot up and her wings tensed as though something heavy had been placed on her back. Her teeth clenched, her legs trembled, and her cutie mark slowly slipped off her flank. Moments later it was secured in the glass jar.
“How do you feel?”
Fluttershy was shaking. “Empty...” she murmured, “Almost...hollow.” The lost look on her face made me want to smash the jar right then and there, but I resisted the urge and gently released the seal instead. Instantly, the cutie mark streaked toward her, rejoining Fluttershy with a blinding flash.
“Better?” I asked expectantly.
She turned, checking to make sure that her butterflies were back in place. “Much,” she said with a happy nod.
“Can you go longer?”
She only hesitated for a brief moment before nodding again.
And thus began my battery of tests. I started simple, hiding the glass jar under one of three boxes. Then I began putting shields up around them. Next, I expanded the 'game' to the entire library, but no matter how many times I ran the test or what protections I put in place, Fluttershy could always find her cutie mark.
With the control established, I moved onto phase two, taking one last read through Starlight’s notes on the specialized curse mark. Applying it was tricky, but her notes were quite detailed, and it only took a few tries before the equals sign appeared on her flank. With the new handicap in place, I began the tests again, starting with the three boxes. The initial results were promising, but as I widened the testing area to the whole library, Fluttershy began to falter, failing more often than not. Not unexpected, but worrying all the same.
Removing her cutie mark debilitated her magic, but the curse seemed to dull her emotions, too. Fluttershy even unnervingly commented that it was suppressing her anxiety over losing her cutie mark in the first place.
Now all I had to do was remove the curse without actually releasing the cutie mark. As it turned out, that was possible, but became much harder as time elapsed. Once the curse’s effects had time to spread, it was almost impossible to break without releasing the captive cutie mark.
At the one hour mark, I found all of my 'brute force' magical spells failing to make a dent in it. Two hours later, I called for a break.
“How are you holding up?” I asked, releasing her cutie mark and watching the color return to her eyes and coat.
“A little nauseous,” she admitted bashfully.
“We'll stop for today, then,” I assured her, offering her a pair of muffins. Even though I’d been doing most of the magic, being cursed a few times was clearly mentally taxing.
Fluttershy was quiet as she ate, nibbling daintily at the muffins in a manner similar to Rarity.
“Bit for your thoughts?” I asked.
“Oh...um...I'm just happy I'm able to help you in some way,” she said quietly. “I know I probably wasn't your first choice for these experiments...”
I flinched internally at the accusation. She wasn't exactly wrong. “I'm still happy with how things turned out. I'm much further along than I was before, and you're an excellent helper.”
“Oh good,” replied Fluttershy with a sigh of relief. “I was starting to think you didn't really need me anymore.”
I nearly choked on a bite of muffin. “What? Why in the...why would you ever think that?”
Fluttershy squeaked and recoiled as my voice jumped in volume. “W-well I haven't been on any of your adventures lately,” she mumbled, almost inaudible.
I blinked, caught off guard once again. How had I not picked up on any of this last night? Was this a recent worry?
“W-when I saw all of the adventures you went on with Chrysalis and Rainbow Dash, I felt...sad that I wasn't included,” she admitted.
“But...you're usually terrified of our adventures!” I protested. “Remember the dragon in the mountains? Nightmare Moon? The first changeling invasion?”
Fluttershy nodded meekly at each example. “Well, they were scary at the time, but looking back, we all became really close friends because of them, didn't we?”
There was certainly no denying that. “Alright, Fluttershy,” I said with a reassuring smile, “Next crazy adventure I plan, I'll be sure to include you.”
As if the universe had been waiting for that particular opening, a sudden ringing sound filled my ears. Something had just hit the shield surrounding the library. Racing outside, I saw Dusk and a pair of pony guards.
I dispelled the shield and immediately connected with Dusk, my eyes widening as I processed the images he sent. In the next moment I was galloping toward the Everfree Forest.
“What is it? What happened?” asked Fluttershy, keeping pace with me in flight.
“Dash is trying to kill Chrysalis!”
---
“Evacuate the embassy, assemble my personal guard, and get Twilight out of the damn library! I'm getting as far away from Ponyville as I can!”
Chrysalis barely finished the order before her changelings scattered. A moment later she heard the embassy door crash open, not even a minute after Rainbow Dash had escaped the hospital. Dusk rushed to obey her orders, taking flight and streaking toward the library while Chrysalis listened to the sounds of crashes getting progressively louder. The queen frowned as she tried to reach out to Rainbow's mind, finding it swirling with anger, resentment, and...fear?
A final crash and the door to her office burst open. The pegasus on the other side looked unsettlingly calm. Even before she opened her mouth, the Changeling Queen knew diplomacy was going to be futile, but she had to try for Twilight's sake.
“Rainbow, control yourself. Violet is in your head right now. She-”
“Shut up.”
“Listen to me, Rainbow Dash! You have a duty to protect Twilight Sparkle! To protect-”
Rainbow's eyes narrowed at the mention of the unicorn's name. “I...said...shut up!”
It was fortunate that Chrysalis had raised her shield ahead of time, because the speed of the attack far outstripped her reflexes. Rainbow's hooves impacted her hard, pushing her off her legs and straight through the back wall.
Chrysalis dropped her shield, horn already glowing as Rainbow raised her hoof for a second strike. In a flash of green, she was gone, teleporting twenty meters closer to the Everfree Forest. Rainbow Dash charged again, closing the distance almost instantly.
The queen didn't wait before teleporting farther away this time, quickly turning tail and running into the forest while communicating with the changelings chasing after them. Dusk had made it to Twilight's place, but she had her containment shield up.
Borrowing the sight of one of her changelings, Chrysalis waited until Rainbow was almost on top of her before teleporting again, passing the treeline and landing within the Everfree Forest. Rainbow didn't even slow down, adjusting her course and arriving at her destination just as she appeared, slamming into her and bringing her to the ground.
The queen raised her hooves to guard her face and horn as Rainbow struck at her, magic sputtering as she tried to work through a spell...
“NOW!”
Several pops filled the clearing as changelings teleported in from all sides, their horns glowing as they surrounded the pegasus and grabbed her with their magic. One wasn't enough and three barely slowed her down. It wasn't until seven were working together to restrain her that she was finally stalled, and once all ten had a grip the blows finally stopped.
Panting, Chrysalis slipped out from beneath the struggling pegasus, her horn glowing as she forced open a connection. “Control yourself!” she ordered, pushing back the flood of rage that had built in Rainbow's mind.
Rainbow fought her for every inch, but this was one battleground where Chrysalis had an edge. More changeling minds joined her in the push until they finally broke through. Thoughts and feelings flooded the link. Resentment, self-doubt, envy...every negative emotion in her psyche was turned up to eleven, and behind that...a sliver of changeling magic.
As if provoked by its discovery, the foreign energy flared, spreading across Rainbow's mind and seeping into her consciousness. Chrysalis found herself pushed back, rapidly losing her mental hold. Outside, she could hear Rainbow growling. Inside, the changeling magic was tightening its grip, further enhancing those negative emotions.
Cursing, Chrysalis broke the connection, wincing from the feedback. The green magical aura around Rainbow flickered and her struggling began anew.
“We can't keep holding her!”
Chrysalis' mind began to race, giving orders as quickly as she could think them up. In a flash, the clearing was illuminated with green fire as all of the changelings around her shifted form.
“Drop it now!
The aura dissipated and Rainbow fell to the ground, her wings tensed. Around her were ten identical copies of Chrysalis, each one looking at her with a fanged smile. Rainbow barely took a moment to think before choosing a target and launching forward.
Green light filled the clearing again as all of them teleported at the last moment, heading deeper into the forest and scattering as Rainbow gave chase.
“She can't keep up this level of rage indefinitely, she's going to exhaust herself,” communicated Chrysalis. “If you're cornered, teleport. If you're drained, fall back. If you get hit, drop your disguise. She's only after me.”
It was a good plan...in theory. In practice, it took less than ten seconds before the pegasus had cornered and pummeled one of her guards. Each teleport cost a second of delay, and in that second, Rainbow was moving to meet the changelings at their destination.
Chrysalis remained hidden, directing the fight as best she could, taking shots of opportunity each time Rainbow focused on a target, but even when attacking her flank, she seemed to have an uncanny ability to dodge.
Her guards were dropping quickly. Two from exhaustion, and four from Rainbow's hard-hitting hooves. More changelings were standing by, but Rainbow's attacks were starting to get harder and more painful as her frustration mounted.
When the seventh changeling hit the ground accompanied by a sickening crack, Chrysalis was done.
“Pull back and channel as much energy as you safely can to me,” she ordered. She could feel the worry from her hive, but no one questioned her orders.
As the last changeling fell and dropped his disguise, Rainbow took to the sky above the clouds, her eyes scanning for the queen. Chrysalis didn't make her wait long before stepping from her hiding place, glowing green with the magic of her hive.
Rainbow moved instantly, the bright trail of her flight path streaking behind her as she blitzed downward, a cone starting to form around her forehooves.
“My queen! She's going to-”
“I know!”
The Changeling Queen's horn glowed painfully bright, several members of her hive collapsing from exhaustion. When there was no more power she could safely take, Chrysalis aimed and fired a torrent of green energy into the sky toward the pegasus.
At that exact moment, the cone burst, filling the afternoon sky with an explosion of rainbow colors. The pegasus collided head-on with the massive wave of energy coming her way. For a moment it seemed like Rainbow was slowing down, then suddenly the beam split. Green energy scattered everywhere as Rainbow's sheer force plowed right through the magic, pushing it aside as easily as the air in front of her.
Chrysalis could only watch in shock as the pegasus drew closer. She couldn't cut off the power, teleporting would take too long, and trying to physically move wouldn't be fast enough.
POP!
The sound of somepony teleporting in filled her ears. Chrysalis saw a flash of violet before something took hold of her muzzle and shoved upward, sending her beam straight up into the sky. At that same moment, a shield sprang up, curved around Rainbow, whose body skimmed the top of the dome, her path redirected at a soft angle downward and into a magical cushion.
The impact still left a crater, kicking up dirt, rocks, and stripping the nearby trees of their leaves and several branches. And the pegasus was already starting to get up.
“Now, Fluttershy!”
Fighting back fatigue, Chrysalis watched as Rainbow was grabbed in Twilight's telekinetic hold and yanked out of the crater. Immediately, she began to struggle again, but it was too late. With a cry of, “I'm really sorry about this!” Fluttershy tackled the pegasus and stared directly into her eyes. “Stay still!”
The words were delivered in Fluttershy's usual soft tone, yet the command seemed to reverberate through the air, briefly making Chrysalis' body freeze up.
Panting and sweating from her own expenditure of energy, Twilight walked past Chrysalis, focusing on her motionless friend locked with Fluttershy's Stare. “What...did...we miss?” she panted.
It took a moment for Chrysalis to find her voice. “Violet...damaged something. Influenced certain emotions, suppressed others. Nothing direct. Didn't spot it. Very subtle and complex work.”
Twilight looked at Rainbow, her eyes determined. Chrysalis didn't even need to read her emotional state to predict her next words. “Chrysalis, anchor me. Don't pull me out unless the feedback threatens my life,” she ordered, her horn glowing as she forced open the connection to Rainbow's mind and dove in.
---
I was a little surprised when Twilight asked if she could watch me practice. I'd met unicorns like her in the past, far more interested in burying their heads in books than glancing at the sky, and most of them didn't even know the names of any Wonderbolts. Whatever her reasons, though, I wasn't about to say no to an audience.
“Try not to blink!” I called out before executing a series of tight loops and corkscrews that kept me in Twilight's field of view and away from the delicate cloud she was laying on. It was a standard Wonderbolt routine, but with my own personal twist added to it, and Twilight was eating up every moment, watching with rapt attention.
Several minutes later, I landed on the cloud, placing one forehoof in front of the other and flicking my mane to the side like Applejack often did after performing a feat of strength. “So?” I asked, trying hard not to make it sound like I was fishing for praise.
“That was amazing!” said the unicorn excitedly. “The way you just push the air around you and form wind tunnels with your hooves, and the way you manipulate your own tailwind-”
“Woah, slow down, Twi, it's just the way I fly.”
“I know! You do all these complex air manipulations so easily, too! I think I've finally figured out the secret!”
“Er...what secret?”
“The Sonic Rainboom!”
I let out a small groan. Why did everything always come back to my Rainboom? To my surprise, Twilight seemed to pick up on my frustration. “I'm sorry, your entire performance was impressive, really! I even thought the variations you did on the Wonderbolt routine worked much better for a solo flight.”
Wait, she'd picked up on those? My annoyance faded as my curiosity increased.
“I just wanted to see if I could help out,” she assured me, withdrawing a small scroll from her bag.
I recognized the cutie mark immediately. “That's Commander Hurricane's seal! Where did you get that?”
“Librarian, remember? We have connections,” teased Twilight. “So look, remember when you saved Rarity and the Wonderbolts? You had gravity working with you, but with this technique and your unique way of flying, I think you could pull this off even if you were flying against gravity!”
Now that sounded like something worth listening to. “Alright, egghead, tell me more.”
What followed was a torrent of explanations I could barely follow, but to Twi's credit, she had a seemingly instinctive sense of when she started talking over my head, patiently going back and tackling the problem from a different angle. Fifteen minutes later, she had something for me to try.
“Just try not to break the mach cone too close to the ground. You might shatter some windows.”
With a grin and a salute, I dropped backward off the cloud, snapping my wings out and curving back upward before I hit the ground. As I picked up speed, using my magic to create a wind tunnel ahead of me and a backdraft behind, I revised my opinion about Twilight. She was less of a stick in the mud than most unicorns...and pretty cute, too.
---
With a gasp, I pulled away from the memory, my mind already working to separate itself from Rainbow's consciousness. As pleasant as that memory had been, I had to focus on the rest of Rainbow's mind and figure out what Queen Violet had done.
Passing her defenses, I quickly got my answer. Her emotions were unbalanced, her self-control suppressed, and her affection for me had been emphasized. Violet hadn't broken things so much as she had tweaked them, turning the pegasus into an emotional time bomb.
A tingle in the back of my mind alerted me to Chrysalis' presence. She was maintaining a tentative hold on my mind, but keeping herself invisible. “Violet has to have a seed here somewhere. Influencing emotions is easy enough, but unless there’s a constant source of magic reinforcing it, she should have recovered in quarantine.”
I felt myself nodding, although technically it was more like communicating the meaning that a simple nod would have implied. Slowly, I stretched my mind outward, sifting through memories of flying, reading, Wonderbolt rallies, time together with friends...and a quiet chord of magic that was out of harmony with everything else.
It was a single golden dot out of place on the vast canvas of Rainbow's mind, so subtly hidden that it was little surprise we'd missed it. Even now, I'd only noticed it because it was taking a more active role in influencing Rainbow's mind, thin tendrils spread out over her emotions and memories.
I had to restrain my anger at the sight.
Targeting the closest tendril, I burned it with my magic, shrinking the queen's influence a little bit at a time. It was careful, delicate work, patiently going after each and every thread and pushing it back to the source while stopping the seed from digging any deeper.
I could feel Rainbow gradually starting to regain control, working with me to drive out the influence. Soon, Chrysalis also made her presence known, helping with the mental cleansing until only the single seed remained.
“Chrysalis, I want to be sure. Is that seed connected to anything else?”
“I...can't be fully certain,” she confessed, sounding worried. “I don't sense any more connections, but I didn't detect the initial seed, either.”
I hesitated, checking over her mind again and again, but nothing changed. The seed was still fighting back, trying to get its tendrils into her mind. Would it damage something on its way out? Trigger something else when I tried to remove it? Taking a breath and calming my nerves, I made my choice.
“I'm cutting it out.”
I focused my magic into a scalpel, turning it into the finest precision instrument I could manage before plunging it into the golden seed, ruthlessly cutting it from my friend’s mind. Part of me wished it was Queen Violet there instead, though the sight of it writhing and dying was satisfying nonetheless.
Slowly, as Rainbow’s mind recovered, I felt Chrysalis pulling me back into the physical world.
I could only hope that there wouldn't be any lasting effects.