//------------------------------// // Archives // Story: Little Choices // by Skijarama //------------------------------// “Oh, this isn’t gonna be fun…” Twilight muttered while doing one last preliminary observation of the room and its contents. There was a lot of stuff in here to go through. Her ears fell flat against her head when she glanced up and was reminded that there was an entire second level to this wing of the archives. “This is going to suck. I can tell…” she continued before her ears stood straight up. The door to the room swung wide open, somepony cantering in. Twilight turned to look. “There you are!” She called out when she saw that it was Rainbow Dash stepping into the archives. “Took ya long enough. Where were you?” “Paying Aunt Luna a visit,“ Rainbow answered before examining the wing of the archives they were in. A two-story square room with rows upon rows of tall bookshelves filling it, making up long aisles and halls. The whole room was softly illuminated with the orange glow of candles, flickering gently from the center and casting long shadows across the walls. There was also some residual ambient light streaming in through the windows, where the rain could still be seen assaulting the city outside. “Whew… Never been in this archive before. How is it sorted?” “That’s what I was trying to figure out while waiting for you,” Twilight said while trotting up to one such set of shelves. Its highest shelf was easily two times higher than Twilight herself was tall. She reached a hoof out to a simple sheet of parchment sealed onto the side and frowned. “From what I can tell, each of these shelves is for a different city in Equestria. There’s a shelf over in a corner marked ‘other,’ so I am assuming that’s where all of the records for the smallest villages and hamlets are kept.” Rainbow nodded and studied the first shelf that she saw. On it was a long row of boxes, each one labeled with a year and a range of letters, filled with stacks of parchment. For this shelf, the year was then followed by a dash and another single number, increasing incrementally. “Looks like they sort them by year…” “Yeah, but some of the cities are so large that they needed several boxes just to house all of the information.” Twilight grimaced while furrowing her brow. “And this is all information from annual census checks, right?” Rainbow asked. Inwardly she acknowledged that she really should have known this already, but she hadn’t ever had cause to visit the archives for this type of information before. “Right. Our best bet would be to simply go through the boxes for last year. I think they are sorted alphabetically, so it’s really just going to be a matter of finding the ‘S’ section and going from there.” Twilight explained while reaching out with her magic for the latest box on the shelf next to her. After a moment, Rainbow sighed heavily. “This is gonna take a while, isn’t it?” She asked, dreading what was bound to be a very long and very boring ordeal. Twilight paused and glanced over at Rainbow uneasily. She shifted on her hooves before speaking. “It’s not too late to call this off, you know,” She said carefully, looking at Rainbow with deep concern. “I mean, I know the possibility of Starlight trying something scares you, but…” “But nothing,” Rainbow suddenly said firmly with a shake of her head. “I’m not going to take any chances with this.” She then moved to the next shelf and grabbed the newest box from its place. “Holler if you find anything, okay?” Twilight’s ears fell a bit, but she nodded. “Alright. You, too.” “Mom? Dad?” Rainbow called out uneasily, her tiny hooves echoing on the hard soil as she trotted slowly and fearfully down a dirt road in the middle of what appeared to be the Everfree forest. She felt afraid, tiny and weak. A breeze washed over her, rustling the branches and making her shake from wind chill. “Where are you?” A voice drifted into her ears, making her blood run cold and her muscles tense. It was a cold, quiet and distant. A sinister laugh, whispered by the wind. Rainbow felt the fur on the back of her neck stand on end. “C-come on, guys! This isn’t funny!” The laugh came again. Louder, clearer. It sounded familiar… “Rainbow?” A deep, masculine voice called out from a ways ahead. Rainbow felt her heart sore of hope and relief before breaking into a gallop. “Dad! It’s me! I’m here!” she called out, eager to be taken out of this place. “Rainbow Dash, sweetie? We’re here!” Windy Whistles' voice came next, spurring the filly on. She put on an extra burst of speed, flapping her tiny wings as hard as she could to propel herself forward faster. Her parents kept calling out to her, giving her something to follow. “MOM! IM OVER HERE!” Rainbow called out. There was a wall of bushes and foliage just ahead. Gritting her teeth, Rainbow closed her eyes and forced her way through. A wave of confusion washed over her when she opened her eyes again. Gone was the dark and dreary forest, replaced with the inside of Canterlot Castle. It was night time, by the looks of things. Most of the normal sources of light were out, plunging the whole castle into a dark shadow. A full moon shone just outside of a tall stained glass window to Rainbow Dash’s right, bathing everything its light touched in a soft pale glow. “What the…?” Rainbow muttered under her breath, shaking herself and realizing she was no longer a small and easily frightened filly. She was back in her adult body. She shook her head in confusion and looked around. “Rainbow Dash…” a new voice called, this one drawing Rainbow’s attention hard. She turned and began to canter after the voice when it called again. It was the voice of Princess Celestia, repeatedly calling for Rainbow Dash and growing more distressed with every repetition. “Rainbow Dash… Rainbow Dash! RAINBOW DASH!” “Mom?!” Rainbow shouted out, a small sliver of fear working its way into her voice. She slid along the floor just before the entrance to the throne room, where the voice of Celestia seemed to be coming from. With a grunt of effort, Rainbow hurled her shoulder against the doorway and threw it open. When she looked at the throne room, her face went pale. She saw the floor, walls, and ceiling of the throne room just… stop. About halfway to where the throne would normally sit, the room looked to have shattered. Various chunks floated away slowly in an endless white void with a prismatic ribbon of energy weaving through it, shaking softly. At the edges of the break, Rainbow Dash saw Princess Celestia, looking back at her with a face frozen in shock and alarm. But there were two other ponies standing off to Celestia’s side who made Rainbow’s heart skip a beat and her breath hitch in her throat. Windy Whistles and Bow Hothoof, holding each other’s hooves, looked back at Rainbow with sad smiles. Rainbow could not believe what she was seeing. “Mom… Dad?” she breathed, slowly walking towards them with an outstretched hoof. The ground lurched violently beneath them and an almighty crash filled the air, assaulting Rainbow’s ears and causing them to ring. She fell to the side, unable to hold her footing. Looking back up, she saw the floor crumbling away behind Celestia, Bow, and Windy. They themselves seemed to be gradually dissolving into dust and mist. “NO! NOO!” Rainbow screamed in desperation, trying to stand back up. Her hind legs felt heavy and would not respond to her will, however. “PLEASE! DON’T LEAVE ME AGAIN!” There was that laugh again, whispering in her ear. Now Rainbow recognized that voice. She turned to look and went pale at the sight of Starlight Glimmer, a crazed look in her eyes. She laughed into Rainbow’s face, the latter powerless to stop her as the whole world dissolved and shattered into nothing around her. “ENOUGH!” Suddenly, the fear and sorrow were washed away, the blinding void around Rainbow swiftly replaced with a star-filled night sky. A full moon shone down on her, seeming to ease her frightened heart and calm her mind. “All is well, my niece…” a gentle voice cooed into Rainbow’s mind, drawing out a slowly relaxing sigh from her. “...That yours should be the first dream I visit…” “Aunt… aunt Luna?” Rainbow murmured before setting her head down. “I cannot maintain this link for long as I am now, my niece. Sleep, now. Rest.” Rainbow had no strength left to argue, closing her eyes and passing back into a restful slumber. Rainbow groaned drowsily, slowly opening her eyes. She saw a sideways view of the floor and grimaced. Must have fallen asleep, she thought to herself while gradually sitting back up and looking around. What light there had been shining through the windows earlier was gone, replaced with a pitch black sky. There was still the sound of rain pelting the glass panes, but it sounded like it had let up significantly. Rising to her hooves, Rainbow paused when she discovered the fluffy blue blanket that had been tucked around her. “Sleep well?” Twilight asked quietly from a little ways behind Rainbow Dash. Rainbow looked over her shoulder to see Twilight sitting at one of the study desks, another of the boxes on the surface and another sheet of parchment hanging in front of her. Twilight herself was looking back at Rainbow with a warm, gentle smile. ‘You were tossing for a little while, there, but you got pretty calm and peaceful before long.” “I guess…” Rainbow murmured before stretching, her stiff muscles thanking her very much. “Muh… how long was I out?” “About two hours. You just curled up and went to sleep after the sixth hour of our search when I suggested we take a break, remember?” Twilight answered, a flicker of concern in her eyes. Rainbow thought back. She remembered just how long they had been at this. Many of the sheets of parchment had a lot of information and took at least a minute of skimming their contents to make sure they weren’t missing anything. Add onto that the sheer number of pages they had to go through, along with finding them to begin with, and it was a recipe for an all-nighter. Twilight had suggested they take a break, as both of them were growing frustrated and impatient. Rainbow had agreed. “Yeah, I remember,” Rainbow nodded before a yawn worked its way out of her. “Find anything while I was out?” she asked, lifting a hoof to scratch at her side. “Not yet. I’m going through Manehattan’s files right now.” Twilight answered before turning her eyes back to the sheet in front of her. “And how’s that going?” Rainbow asked, trotting up to examine the box and parchment. Twilight’s face scrunched up in mild frustration. “Well, considering this is the second box of nothing but ‘s’ names for last year alone… not great,” she groaned while returning the sheet to the box and then pulling the next one. "Manehattan has too many ponies..." Rainbow gave a quiet hum of thought before reaching out and drawing out the next sheet. “You know if we were looking stuff up just for the hay of it instead of looking up Starlight… I might have actually found this relaxing,” she remarked in a quiet voice. Twilight looked sideways at her. “You? Enjoying studying?” Rainbow shrugged. “Well, I mean… not the studying part, I don’t like doing that. I just… I need quiet sometimes too, ya know? When I’m on break from being awesome and daring and all that. When you’re studying, nose in a book, you’re about as silent as can be. I dunno...” Rainbow shook her head and reached for another sheet. “It’s a stupid thought. Forget I said anything.” Twilight rolled her eyes and reached out with a foreleg to ruffle Dash’s mane. “If you enjoy spending time with me that much, you can just admit it.” “Hush,” Rainbow quipped before swatting Twilight’s hoof away. She looked over her new sheet for a moment before her eyes went wide. “Woah, woah woah woah!” “Huh?” Twilight raised an eyebrow and glanced at the parchment in Dash's hooves. “THIS IS HER!” Rainbow all but shouted with an enormous grin appearing on her face. She jabbed her free hoof excitedly into the page over and over. “Look, right here!” Twilight scooted over and looked at the page intensely. After a moment, she smiled widely and threw her foreleg over Rainbow’s shoulders. “Well, I’ll be! Nice catch!” “Okay, let’s see here… address, we’ve got an address!" Rainbow jabbed the parchment again. “227 East Trotlane Street, Upstairs Living Space.” “Keep a hoof on that! I need some scrap paper to write it down.” "Sure thing!” Rainbow called while Twilight scurried off to find the items she needed. Rainbow closed her eyes and took a deep breath before looking at the set of two small pictures next to the name. A photo of Starlight Glimmer herself and a drawing of her cutie mark. It was her, alright. In the back of her mind, Rainbow felt a familiar burning as she looked at the picture. She quickly forced the tingling of anger into the back of her mind. She took a deep breath and let a small smile work its way onto her face. They’d found her. Now they could go and make sure she wouldn’t take anything away.