Help!
"Did you hear that?" Twilight asked, frantically looking back and forth to locate the caller.
"Hear what, darling?" Rarity questioned, having not heard the cry.
Help me!
"I heard it too!" AJ exclaimed, taking a defensive stance. "Ah can't make out what they're saying though." She rotated her ears in all directions, trying to make out what was being said and which direction it came from.
Please! Please hurry!
"It came from zat direction!" Fleur called, pointing with her hoof before taking off to find whatever had made the plea. All of the others followed her quickly, Dawn, however, was a little reluctant.
"Really?" She said, far enough behind the group that no one heard her. "We're going completely out of our way here to help something that might not even need our help? We know nothing about this creature, and we are on a mission to save Equestria!" She paused in her trek and dialogue. "Well, I guess I don't really need to follow them, I could just wait for them. Or I could go on without them." She looked at the trail in front of her and then in the direction everypony else had galloped. Once. Twice. Three times. Then she sighed.
" ...Buuuuut they stuck by me through everything else. I guess it's my turn." She galloped at full speed ahead, following the mares who had so bravely stuck by her so far.
She was shocked to find AJ and Rainbow arguing fiercely. Sure, she had seen them get into a few disagreements, but it had never been this bad.
"You ain't even mah sister!" Apple Jet yelled at the earth pony. "What makes you think you'll get the farm?"
"Yeah? Well, you don't even have an apple on your flank! How can you call yourself an apple?" Rainbow Zap shot back, tears streaming down her face. "What, do you expect to get the farm for yourself? You? A Pegasus? At least I can work the farm!"
"Oh, and Ah can't?" The orange filly was really riled up now. Her wings flew out from her sides, almost slapping Pinkiamenia in the face. "I could do twice the amount of work you could."
"Girls, girls, break it up," Dawn said, stepping between them. "We have more important things to attend to."
Suddenly, the angry fire of words was turned toward the unicorn.
"Oh look who it is." Snorted the pegasus, her voice sounding unnaturally sinister. "The precious pink student of Princess Celestia. Ah bet you think you're all that, huh. You think you're just so high and mighty, you can just tell us what to do, is that right?"
Dawn was shocked. What had caused AJ to start acting like this? "No!" She replied, indignant. "I didn't want you guys to come along in the first place!" Despite Dawn's shock at the change of attitude, the words the pegasus was speaking really hit home for the unicorn, and a tear rolled down her face. Even though she hadn't been able to stop that tear, she refused to be any more visually affected by it.
"Oh is the wittle unicorn cwying?" The blonde mare taunted, circling around Dawn. "You think you can stop Nightmare Moon huh? The Princess herself didn't even believe you could, she tried to steer you clear of that."
As Apple Jet continued taunting her, Dawn felt each jeer like a stake through her heart. Slowly, her resolve gave way as the tears began pouring of their own free will. There was nothing to rebuke AJ with, it was all true! Princess Celestia had to have known Nightmare Moon was coming! Dawn wasn't competent enough. Everypony had always told her that.
She hid her face under her hoofs as she collapsed on the ground. She no longer had the strength to stay standing. The same thing had happened to Rainbow Zap, although she would later be the last to admit it.
The insults kept raining down on the unicorn, but the voice that carried them seemed to change. Celestia, Maud, and even Gummy. Suddenly, through all that teasing, insulting and crying, Dawn's ears picked up the last thing she would even think of hearing right now: Laughter. Removing her hooves from her eyes, Dawn hoisted her self up into a sitting position and looked in the direction the sound was coming from. To her right, she found it was Twilight Swish, who was laughing at a slightly familiar white unicorn. Dawn did not have time to recognize said unicorn, because he or she vanished into thin air in a puff of pinkish-purple colored smoke.
"Wha-". Dawn gasped, rubbing the tears from her eyes so she could see clearly.
"Everything has a logical explanation!" Twilight giddily replied--As if such a response could answer the given question.
"If the situation wasn't so crazy, I might have been convinced she was normal," Dawn muttered.
"Better get used to it," Rainbow whispered back, her voice still trembling from the cry. "She's also an egg-head..."
Twilight had, by then, zoomed over to to the rainbow-maned mare and pushed her towards the menacing AppleJet, who Rainbow had been inching away from. "Laugh." The accurately named twilight mare whispered. "Trust me."
"Ha?" Although Rainbow Zap's wasn't much of a laugh, the orange pegasus still vanished in a puff of smoke. "Whoa! What happened to 'Jet? I know she was mean, but-". She was cut off by the purple pony who turned her around so she could view the real Apple Jet. The real AJ was being taunted by a Rainbow Zap look-alike.
The indigo-maned pegasus gestured towards the other pegasus with her left hoof. "Go on," She spoke to Rainbow, "Help her to laugh. Your look-a-like's gotta have some funny faces going on."
Rainbow, a bit reluctant, headed toward her sister. The cyan mare came up from behind and put a steady hoof on her sister's shoulder. "Who knew I looked so weird when I was angry?" The earth pony asked, causing the pegasus to look up at the face of the Rainbow-look-a-like. The apparition was snorting, with visible smoke coming out of her nostrils. Her hair was more ragged than normal, and her normally ruby eyes seemed to glow as a red as a fire. The look-a-like's tail, swished back and forth as she crouched in a position that made her look like she was watching and waiting for the perfect opportunity to pounce on her prey. Which, in a sense, she was.
AJ let out a snort. "Why, you look like a bull trapped in a lion." She laughed as the look-a-like attempted a snarl. With all the laughing, it was reduced to a high pitched squeal as it disappeared in a 'poof.'
The lavender pegasus, meanwhile, had gone over to Fleur to help her with a green pegasus with a swirly pink mane. She surveyed the stallion until she spotted his cutiemark, a storm cloud. With all the laughter, however, it was beginning to change color and from the angle Fleur sat at...
"Hey Flower!" Twilight called for the butterscotch mare's attention. "This stallion has a cotton candy cloud for a cutiemark. How absurd!"
Fleur de Shy giggled daintily once she took notice of that. It was kind of funny. Although she would have to come back to the pegasus about calling her Flower. The butterscotch mare then went over to share the laughter with Rarity. She whispered something in the white mare's ear, that caused her to burst out laughing. This caused the small white unicorn filly that had been yelling at the earth pony to diessapitate.
"Now you got it!" Twilight laughed gaily as she delighted in the sharing of smiles.
Dawn was now the last pony with an apparition taunting her. Twilight sat down next to her and motioned the apparition forward. It was currently an all gray mare with straight as can be hair. "Challenge this gal to a staring competition, I bet she can't take it." Twilight sing-songed.The pink pony's resolve melted away not too long after that, thinking of the time her sister had stared at a rock for five hours straight, and Dawn let out a big ol' chortle at the kooky. And just like that, the last figmentation of their imagination disappeared.
Twilight cheered.
As they continued to go along laughing, Twilight began to sing, which only made the group laugh louder. (Don't worry, they weren't laughing at her. Twi was laughing too.)
The laughter was brought to an abrupt halt as the group came across a ravaging river. The waves were high and easily splashed any object within 20 hooves (10 ft.). Because of this, Fleur, who was just a smidgen ahead of the others, ended up soaked.
"Why I never." The yellow mare declared.