//------------------------------// // Taking Precautions // Story: Apart From The Pegasi // by KillerChainsaw //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Spike all looked back to Twilight with slightly concerned expressions, wondering why she was refusing to come along with them at the moment, the Princess seeming to have something else on her mind right now, as she just softened her expression and looked back to the others. "Twilight are you sure you can't come along with us now?" Spike asked as he bit his lip a little, kind of hoping that the Princess would change her mind and choose to come with them since he didn't want to leave Twilight all alone for too long, however she simply nodded her head in response. "Don't worry Spike," Twilight reassured the young dragon as she smiled to him, before looking back to Pinkie Pie, and causing the earth pony to turn back to her in response, "Where is this 'surprise' happening Pinkie?" the Princess asked as she was sure to meet up with Dash and the others once she had done what she needed to. "At Sugarcube Corner of course," Pinkie simply said cheerfully as she smiled to Twilight, while she just nodded back to her in reply. "Then you all go on ahead, I'll catch you up soon enough okay?" Twilight stated as she gave another reassuring smile to the other three and encouraged them to all go on without her, Spike and Dash being a little apprehensive as they both looked nervously back to the Princess for a few moments, while she just nodded to them both in response. Spike and Dash looking to each other, as they soon both sighed and nodded back to Twilight, clearly seeing that the Princess wasn't come along just yet, and it seeming that they accepted it as they guessed they would just have to wait for Twilight to come later on instead, the two deciding to leave with Pinkie for now as Dash gave her marefriend one last slight look of unceratinty while Twilight just smiled back to her, giving her another nod, before Dash just gritted her teeth and turned to follow along behind Pinkie and Spike. Twilight now being left alone in the library as she watched the door slowly close, and sighed slightly, biting her bottom lip, as she nodded to herself with a determined expression resting on her face, as she knew just what she needed to do from here, while hoping that this wouldn't take all that long and she could get back to her marefriend and the others soon enough. .... Pinkie, Dash and Spike now all walking to Sugarcube Corner together as they were going at a rather slow pace, since it was obvious that Dash couldn't walk very fast while her legs were still in their wounded condition, Spike looking to Pinkie as he currently had a curious expression on his face at the moment. "So Pinkie what exactly will this 'sursprise' involve? I mean I know you already told us a little bit about it at the library, but you weren't really being all that clear on what actually would be happening so..." the young dragon trailed off as he looked to the earth pony, hoping that she would explain to him just what is 'surprise' was really all about. However Pinkie just smiled as she looked back to Spike in reply, "You'll soon see," she simply said as she turned away from Spike and continued to walk towards the bakery, having both Dash and Spike following close behind her as they glanced to each other slightly, before they shrugged and decided to just wait and see for now, guessing that they would see just what this 'surprise' was all about soon enough once they got to their destination. The three soon coming to Sugarcube Corner as Pinkie quickly led both Dash and Spike inside the bakery, the earth pony smiling as they all walked into the main entrance room and seeing the pegasus's eyes widen as she looked all around the bakery and was clearly surprised to see what was going on in front of her right now. Dash seeing the bakery completely decorated with colourful streamers, all kinds of party snacks laid out on the tables, and also seeing all her other friends as they all stopped what they were doing and came walking over to Dash with smiles on their faces, the cyan mare looking at all of them as she clearly wasn't expecting them all to be here together. "D-did you set this all up Pinkie?" she asked as she looked back to Pinkie, while the earth pony just smiled and shook her head slightly in reply. "Actually this was all Applejack's idea," she stated gesturing to the farm pony, causing Dash to now turn to Applejack as she simply smiled to the pegasus, and rested a comforting hoof on her shoulder. "Twilight said that you and her have been thinking about everything going with Lightning Dust so much, when really you two should be focusing on yourselves's at the moment, and so I orgainsed this get together for us all to get your minds off it all, plus it has been a long time since we all hung out together like this," Applejack explained as all the others smiled to Dash and were clearly all more than happy to be here together as well. "Also Applejack told us about what Lightung Dust had done to you, and let us just say that...we will be here to support you and Twilight in whatever you choose to do from here," Rarity added as she looked to Dash with an understanding expression, while Fluttershy, Applejack and Pinkie all nodded in agreement, causing Dash to widen her eyes again as she felt a smile slowly form on her lips as she sighed slightly and looked around at all the others. "You guys," She smiled as she felt slight tears welling up in her eyes and the others all just smiling back to her in return, all of them coming closer to give the cyan mare a caring hug, welcoming her and Spike to come and join in on the little get together. "So where is Twilight, wasn't Pinkie meant to bring her along too?" Fluttershy asked as she and others were all kind of wondering just why the Princess hadn't come along with Dash and Spike, the young dragon rolling his eyes in response, as Dash looked a little concernred while she thought of what her marefriend could be doing at this moment, while they were here without her. "She said there was something she needed to do, but also that she would 'catch us up' soon enough when she has done what she needs to," Spike simply explained as it was clear that he still was unsure of why Twilight had choosen to stay at the library instead of coming along with them, while Dash still seemed concerned for her marefriend right now. Applejack and the others just nodding to Spike as they guessed Twilight would be coming later, and they would just have to wait and see when she would get here. Spike soon quickly running over to the tables that had some party snacks laid out on them, while Applejack and Pinkie followed him and chuckled slightly. Fluttershy and Rarity still hanging around Dash as they looked to her concerned expression and wondered if she was okay. Fluttershy soon looking to Dash's briused legs and bandaged up wings, sighing a little as she gave the cyan mare a slightly worried expression as she caught Dash's attention and brought her out of her thoughts now, "Dash are you sure you're okay?" the yellow pegasus asked as she caused Dash to just smile to her in response and nod her head. "Yeah, I'm still a bit bruised up, and I can't yet use my wings at all, but my legs don't hurt as much, and I'm sure I'll be feeling like myself soon enough," Dash explained as she gave Fluttershy a reassuring smile, trying to cheer the other pegasus up a little, and seeming to do so as Fluttershy nodded with a small smile back to the cyan mare in return, clearly being glad that Dash hadn't been seriously hurt, but was still worried about her condition. "I'm still surprised to hear that Lightning Dust did such a terrible thing to you, and to think we trusted her when all she was doing was lying to us all," Rarity stated as Fluttershy just nodded in agreement, while Dash's expression formed into more of an annoyed look as she thought about Ligtning, and gritted her teeth a little. "She tricked us all, but...we are going to make sure she pays for all the harm she's caused," Dash said as she looked back to the other two mares with a determined expression, letting them know that there was no way she was letting Lightning get away with all that she had done. Rarity and Fluttershy just nodding back to her before they soon changed the subject and led Dash over to the snack table, distracting her and making sure she didn't focus too much on everything that was going on with Lightning at the moment, and just get her to hopefully relax with them all. However just as Dash was seeming to let herself go a little and begin to maybe start enjoying her time hanging out with her friends again, the group of mares (and Spike) all heard a rather loud rapping on the door, them all turning to the door as Pinkie quickly went to go and see who it was coming to visit her, guessing it would just be a customer and she could just turn them away since she had closed the bakery for this little get together for now. "I'm sorry, but we are closed so..." Pinkie said as she opened the door, and smiled to her visitors, but paused and widened her eyes as she was surprised to see just who had come knocking on her door. Standing in the doorway were two armored royal guards, as they both stood to attention and gave Pinkie a very serious expression it seemed. "We apologize for the intrusion miss, but we have been sent here by Princess Celestia to find Rainbow Dash and Princess Twilight Sparkle, the towns ponies told us that they where headed here," one of the two guards stated as they looked around the bakery for the two mares that they had been sent here to find, seeing Rainbow Dash almost immediately as they both were invited in by Pinkie Pie as she guestured to the cyan mare and let them know that she was one of the ponies that they were looking for, while they came walking over to talk to Dash. "Miss Rainbow Dash?" one of the guards asked, making sure this was the pegasus that they had been to told to find and bring back to Canterlot. "Yes?" Dash questioned nervously as she and all the others looked a bit confused as to why the two guards were here all of a sudden, and wondered what they could want with Dash and Twilight. "Princess Celestia wishes to speak with both you and Princess Twilight..." one of the guard started to explain, before both of the guards looked around the room again and noticed that neither of them could see Twilight anywhere, and so they looked back to Dash again, "Where is Princess Twilight?" the same guard asked as he gave Dash a questioning expression, while he and the other guard waited for Dash's reply. Dash just standing with an anxious expression as she looked to the two guards and really hoped Twilight would hurry up with whatever she was doing and get here fast, while Pinkie and the others all continued to look confused, wondering just what was going on at the moment, and what this was all about, as they all looked to one another and waited to see how Dash would answer the two guards. .... Meanwhile Twilight was on her way to deal with what she believed she needed to do, currently flying through the air, and trying to remember exactly where she was headed as it had been a long time since she had last gone to this place, looking around at her surroundings as she was a little lost at the moment, but thought she had a rough idea of where she was meant to be going. And luckily for her it seemed as though her memory was maybe better then she thought it was as she soon began to recognize just where she was now. Gliding through the clouds and soon coming to hovering just below a bunch of big fluffy, white clouds, knowing that they would lead to her marefriend's hometown which she hadn't gone to in so long. Stopping to take a deep breath as she looked up at the entrance to Cloudsdale and thought about just forgetting all this and going to see Dash and the others instead, but shaking that thought off as she knew she had to face this sooner rather than later. 'I have to do this, I can't just let Lightning Dust continue to hurt the ones I love, after all there's something more that I should be doing at the moment, rather than just waiting around...right?' she thought to herself, as even though she knew Princess Celestia was being involved now, it just felt like there was more she could maybe do as well to make sure that Lightning Dust wouldn't hurt the ones she held dear anymore. Now looking up to the entrance with a determined expression as she nodded to herself and took another deep breath, before swiftly flying through the clouds and looked all around as she hovered in place, having not been here in months, but seeming to remember it all well as she noticed all the pegasi going about their daily lives in the city and bit her bottom lip a little, feeling afraid as she was worried for how they would all treat her after everything that had happened with her and Dash, which had resulted in Dash having to live down in Ponyville with the Princess instead of up in her cloud home. Twilight quickly becoming apprehensive as she noticed that some of the pegasi were already looking to her and giving her slight stares, causing her to feel a little uncomfortable, but she just shook her head as she expected this, and it wasn't what she was here for anyway, she had to find Lightning Dust. However just as she had started to search for the turquoise mare a pegasus that she didn't recoginse came flying over to her, catching her attention and causing her to turn to them in response. "What are you doing here?" The pegasus asked as they gave Twilight a raised eyebrow, causing the Princess to look nervously back to them as she was about to answer but stopped when she saw two more pegasi come flying over to her, asking the exact same question as the first one had, as soon enough Twilight was surrounded by pegasi that she had never seen, all of them crowing around her, and waiting for her to answer them, as they all gave her a judging expression, seeming like they were getting a little impatient after a while of Twilight just staying silent. Twilight just sighing to herself as she looked round at all the pegasi surrounding her, and cleared her throat as the pegasi still looked to her with raised eyebrows,"I'm looking for Lightning Dust," the Princess stated as she caused the pegasi to all look to one another before they turned back to her again and gave her a blank stare in return. "Is she here?" Twilight asked when she didn't get a reply, nervously looking round at all the pegasi surrounding her, and hoping at least maybe one of them would know where she could find Lightning Dust. The pegasi all just staying silent for a little while, as they just continued to stare at the Princess with blank expressions still, "She's gone," one pegasus finally answered after a long pause and caused Twilight to look slightly confused now in response. Twilight widened her eyes as she tilited her head a little in reply, "Gone? What do you mean?" she questioned, as she froze at the fact that the pegasi were slowly closing in on her, while smirks were now forming on ther faces. "Didn't you know? This was all part of the plan," one of the pegasi stated as they began walking closer and closer to Twilight, and causing her to stand on guard, having a feeling that if she wasn't careful, this situation could go very bad for her, 'The plan?' she thought for a few moments, as she took a few steps back, slightly widening her eyes after a little while, realising just who all these pegasi surrounding her right now were. "You're-you're the pegasi that help Lightning Dust to trash Sugarcube Corner, and the pegasi that..." Twilight paused as she gritted her teeth to the pegasi crowding around her at the moment, "You're the pegasi that helped to hurt Dash, aren't you?" she stated glaring to all of the pegasi surrounding her and feeling anger building up inside her, while they all just chuckled slightly and smirked back to her in return. "Why? Why did you hurt Dash, and why are you helping Lightning Dust?" she asked as she raised her voice a little, baring her teeth and getting ready to defend herself if they decided to suddenly attack her like they had done to Dash. "Why you ask? Why should we tell you Princess?" one of the pegasi just chuckled as they all continued to smirk to Twilight and close in on her, some of them looking ready to pounce and attack the Princess, causing Twilight to constandly turn so that she wouldn't have her back to any of them for too long. 'All of these pegasi look ready to attack, and although I could maybe take them all on, holding them off won't be all that easy, plus I doubt I will get anymore information out of them at this point,' Twilight thought as she sighed slightly, knowing that she was awfully out-numbered at the moment and was at quite the disadvantage here. However before the pegasi could make their move and attack the Princess they all heard a loud voice calling out to them, and causing them to all have their attention taken off of Twilight for a moment, as they all looked around for where the voice had come from all of a sudden. "Step away from Princess Twilight!" The pegasi all looked around with confused expressions, while Twilight was also confused at the moment, looking around as well, and then widening her eyes as she soon saw two pegasi of the royal guard flying over to her and the other pegasi. Being surprised at first and confused as to why they were here all of a sudden, but gasping a little and quickly flying over to them as she noticed that one of them was carrying a very familiar cyan mare on their back. "Dash what are you doing here?" Twilight asked as she looked to her marefriend, and showed her an expression of concern, while Dash just glared back to her slightly. "What are you doing here? You know it's dangerous for you to come into Couldsdale at the moment," Dash stated as she caused Twilight to widen her eyes slightly, as she looked nervously to her marefriend now, "You're lucky that I thought of coming here since you weren't back at the library still," the cyan mare added as she was slowly set down on a cloud by the royal guard that was carrying her, sighing slightly while the two guards now stood protecting Twilight and Dash from the other pegasi as they all just glared to the guards, most of them soon flying off as they didn't want to get into trouble for anything here. "D-Dash I...I'm sorry...I just thought that there was something more I could- Twilight tried to explain herself as Dash just sighed and shook her head in response to her, quickly cutting her off a moment later. "I know Twi, but right now we need to leave here," Dash stated as she caused Twilight to look confused again, wondering what the pegasus meant, "Princess Celestia wants to see us both," she added as she gave Twilight a serious expression and caused her to widen her eyes a little in response. Being puzzled as to what exactly was going on at the moment, before the two royal guards came flying back over to them both and told them that they should go now, Twilight looking back to Dash again as the cyan mare just softened her expression and sighed. "We're going to get this sorted out Twi," She stated as she gave an encouraging smile to Twilight, the Princess soon just softening her expression and nodding in reply as she nuzzled her marefriend, before quickly lifting her on to her back, and having the two royal guards lead the way for her, glancing back to the remaining peagsi as they all just glared to her still, before turning away and Twilight doing the same as she flew off and followed after the royal guards, while they started on their way to Canterlot together. .... It not taking all that long for them all to get to Canterlot thankfully, as Twilight let Dash off her back once they had reached their destination at the castle's entrance, as the Princess looked to her marefriend with a slightly concerned expression. "Are you sure your legs aren't hurting you too much?" she asked, as she noticed the pegasus limping a little, while Dash just looked back to her and gave her a slight nod. "I'll be fine Twi," she simply stated with a small smile, before she started to follow after the two royal guards as they led her and Twilight in to the castle, walking them both to the throne room to see Princess Celestia. "Princess Celestia!" Twilight called out as she came running over to the Princess, the elder alicorn standing up from her thorne and leaning down to Twilight, and the younger Princess nuzzling into her as Rainbow Dash just bowed to Celestia out of respect. Celestia hugging Twilight back as she smiled to Dash. Soon pulling away from Twilight, as she was glad to see that even though Dash looked quite beat up, it wasn't as bad as she thought it would be. "I read through the letter that you had Spike send me, and if all you said about this Lightning Dust is true, and she really is capable of causing the kind of harm she has already, then I feel Ponyville may be in grave danger, and we need to do something about her immediately," Celestia explained as she could tell from Twilight's letter that Lightning Dust was a dangerous pegeasus that needed to be dealt with as soon as possible, Dash agreeing with a nod, and Twilight doing the same as she widened her eyes and seemed to remember something. "That would be our best move but there's just one problem," she stated and caused Dash and Celestia to look to her with slightly confused expressions now, waiting for her to explain it seemed. "What do you mean Twi?" Dash asked as she gave the Princess a slightly concerned expression for a moment, while Twilight just sighed deeply in resopnse. "The other pegasi told me that Lightning Dust had left town, and I doubt they will give up her location easily, plus since she's gone from Cloudsdale now, there's no telling when or where she could strike from," Twilight explained as she caused for Dash to widen her eyes a little before she gritted her teeth in anger, while Celestia just nodded in response and seemed to be thinking for a few moments about what they should do next now that the location of Lightning Dust was unknown to them. "Then I will send out guards to search for her and as soon as we've found her, we'll put a stop to her plans. But as for the time being I'll also send a few guards back home with you two, after all we can't have Lightning Dust hurting anypony else," Celestia stated in serious tone, as Twilight and Dash just nodded in agreement, Twilight seeming a little nervous as she looked to her marefriend, while Dash just looked back to her with a determined expression. "Don't worry Twilight, wherever she is hiding we'll find her," Dash stated in a encouraging tone, as Twilight looked to Celestia and simply got a confident nod in return. Sighing slightly as she nodded back to Dash and knew she had to stay hopeful for now, after all with Princess Celestia on their side, finding Lightning Dust, and putting a stop to her plans shouldn't be too difficult, but even so Twilight knew not to underestimate that cunning turquoise pegasus as she always seemed to be one step ahead of them all somehow.