Rainbow Dash hadn’t really been sure what she was expecting Starlight Glimmer’s home to be. She did know, however, that she had not been expecting it to be a small thrift store huddled between two, much larger buildings halfway down the block. The store in question named ‘Tinder’s Bits and Bobs’ was incredibly easy to miss. Peering over Twilight’s shoulder, Rainbow looked at the address on the paper one more time.
“227 East Trotlane Street, Upstairs Living Space,” She recited before her lips thinned slightly. “Huh… she lives in a thrift shop?”
“I guess so,” Twilight nodded along. “The address specified ‘upsatirs,’ so maybe she has a lodging agreement with the owner. Whatever the case, we probably shouldn’t stand here much longer,” Twilight answered while sagging a little bit. “We don’t want to get spotted. Come on, we should find a hotel and get ourselves a room.”
“At the risk of being rude, it’s about time!” Rarity added bluntly with a slight whimper in her voice. “My legs are killing me.”
“You’re the one who insisted we check every single side-stop on our way over here, Rarity.” Rainbow pointed out with a frown.
“But I… HMPH!” Rarity pouted and looked away with an indignant huff.
“Where even is the closest hotel, anyhow?” Applejack asked, scrutinizing the street ahead of them with a frown. “Ah’m not seein’ anythin’ from here.”
Twilight withdrew the map from her saddlebags before opening it up again. She gave it a very critical looking over for a few seconds before emitting an ‘aha!’. “Looks like there’s one just a block from here. Come on,” she said before snapping the map closed and returning it to her saddlebags.
“Sounds good. I’m about ready to pass out, frankly.” Rainbow nodded, feeling her body already trying to relax in anticipation of a nice, warm bed. She couldn’t help the enormous yawn that worked its way out of her, forcing her head to tilt up somewhat and her eye to close for the duration. When she opened her eyes again, though, she saw something that made her freeze and sent a shot of ice into her veins.
That’s her… she heard the words in her head over and over again, scarcely able to believe what it was she was looking at. Not far away, just on the other side of the street, making her way back toward Bits and Bobs, was Starlight Glimmer, carrying several plastic bags full of various grocery items in her magic. She looked almost exactly the way she had in the few flashes Rainbow had had of her. Her mane was, just as Rainbow remembered, a deep purple with two bright blue streaks running down. Interestingly, her mane was tied into a ponytail in the back, a natural curl causing it to drape over her shoulder.
Starlight seemed to notice Rainbow staring at her and turned to look back, a small, friendly smile on her face. The sort of smile one would give to a stranger as they passed.
Just for a second, Rainbow and Starlight’s eyes met.
Make her pay…
Rainbow tensed up, sucked in a deep breath through her teeth and looked away, screwing her eyes shut. After a few seconds, she slowly managed to look back in Starlight’s direction again. The lilac-colored unicorn didn’t stop moving and, aside from a somewhat confused looking glance at Rainbow over her shoulder, she didn’t pay the group of friends much mind. She stepped up to the door of Bits and Bobs and, with a quick flourish of magic, opened it and vanished into the building.
The moment the door of the building closed, the sound echoing heavily in her head, Rainbow Dash fell to her haunches, her legs giving out. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest and her cranium was throbbing to match. The ice in her veins was starting to feel more like fire. For a moment, the whole world stopped existing for her. There was just her, her thoughts, and the memory of what she had just seen burning itself into her mind’s eye. That was Starlight Glimmer… holy cow, I just saw Starlight Glimmer… that was her… right there… in front of me.
“Hey, Lilac!” a voice shouted, snapping Rainbow Dash out of her trance and making her look up. She saw that the rest of the group had stopped maybe halfway up the block, looking back towards her with worry. It was Applejack that had spoken. “Y’all comin’?” she called, beckoning Rainbow with a wave of her foreleg.
Rainbow, on shaky legs, managed to stand and used her tail to remove some stray pebbles from her rear legs before cantering back to the rest of her friends. As soon as she joined them, Twilight and Fluttershy came closer. “Are you okay? You look like you just saw a ghost.” Twilight asked gingerly, reaching out.
“Huh? Didn’t any of you see her?” Rainbow asked, her voice tinged with disbelief. She looked at each of them in turn, her brain still reeling.
“See who?” Pinkie asked, her voice much calmer than usual. “Did you have a flash or something, Dash- uh, I mean, Lilac?”
Rainbow’s muscles tensed slightly. “No! It was-” she began, her voice much sharper and louder than she had intended. She stopped herself and took a long, deep breath, forcing herself to calm down. “...It was her. I saw Starlight Glimmer.” she finally managed, her voice quiet.
Everypony reacted visibly, with Fluttershy wincing, Applejack and Rarity standing upright, and Pinkie and Twilight perking up their ears. A tense and oppresive silence fell over everypony present. Rainbow shifted slightly, feeling like this quiet was choking her. When it was clear nopony else was going to ask, Spike cleared his throat. “Where?” he asked softly, stepping forward with worry and anxiety etched into his face.
Rainbow jerked her head to the side slightly in the direction of Bits and Bobs. “The other side of the street. She just went to that thrift store we found,” she replied, her voice coming out slowly and with little emotion.
“Are you okay?” Twilight asked quietly, resting her hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder.
Rainbow looked up and met Twilight’s gaze. Between the look in her eye, the frown on her muzzle and the horrible, uncontrollable shaking in her body, she didn’t need to speak for her answer to be known. Twilight, breathing out softly, reached out and pulled Rainbow in for a tight hug, one which Rainbow quickly returned, burying her face into Twilight’s neck. It took no time at all for everypony else to join in, offering whatever comfort they could.
“It’s okay, Rainbow. We’re here for you, okay?” Twilight whispered into Rainbow’s ear. Rainbow didn’t answer verbally, opting to instead nod into Twilight’s shoulder with a shudder.
“We should get to the hotel,” Rarity suggested carefully, disengaging from the group hug. “I think we could all use some rest and relaxation. Especially you, Lilac.”
“Good idea,” Twilight agreed, the group hug gradually untangling itself. “Let’s go.”
Reaching the hotel had been simple enough, though renting the rooms had proven somewhat problematic at first. Without a reservation, and also without a clear idea of how long they would be staying, it had taken a fair amount of negotiating and discussion with the receptionist before, at last, with moonlight now streaming in through the windows, they had their rooms settled. The group had resorted to two rooms, each one with two beds, for the sake of conservation of bits.
Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie Pie would be taking one room, while Twilight, Rainbow, and Fluttershy would take the other. There had been a very brief period of debate about Spike, but they had managed to convince the receptionist that he ‘wasn’t a pet’ and so was allowed to be here.
At last, the group made their way to their respective rooms, having to part ways on the first floor of the building, as Rainbow, Twilight, and Fluttershy’s room was on the second floor. With no small amount of sluggishness to her movement, Rainbow Dash pushed her way into the room just as soon as Twilight unlocked it with the key. Fluttershy and Twilight were right behind her, turning on the lights so they could see.
The first thing Rainbow Dash did was locate the nearest bed and hurl herself onto it face first. For several long seconds, Twilight and Fluttershy looked at her, worried. Twilight, after a second of silence, began her approach. “Hey, Rainbow?” she ventured gingerly.
Rainbow grunted in response.
Fluttershy also came forward. “You were really tense the whole way over here. Are you feeling any better?”
Rainbow shifted so one of her eyes could look back at Fluttershy. “No.” she mumbled before burying her face completely into the pillow again.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Fluttershy asked, coming up to the side of Rainbow’s bed.
“...I dunno.” Rainbow muttered, shifting and rolling until she was on her back.
“It might help,” Twilight pointed out gently while sitting down on the side of Rainbow’s bed. “And it can’t hurt anything.”
Rainbow nodded slowly before sitting back up. “It’s just that seeing Starlight like that… it was so surreal. It was uncanny as heck. Until now, I’ve only ever seen her in flashes and nightmares. Seeing her out there, looking her in the eye…” Rainbow visibly shivered and curled up slightly.
Fluttershy hopped up onto the bed and draped a wing over Rainbow’s back. Twilight also drew closer, putting a hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder. It was Fluttershy who spoke. “Oh, you poor thing… is there anything we can do?”
Rainbow relaxed somewhat from her friends efforts but shrugged. “I dunno, Flutters.”
“Well, we need to figure out what she’s up to if anything. If we can prove that she’s not planning on jumping back in time, then I think we can safely sweep this all under the rug.” Twilight pointed out simply.
“But how do we do that?” Fluttershy asked, furrowing her brow somewhat in thought.
Twilight sighed slightly, lowering her gaze away from Rainbow. “...As much as I think we would all like to see all of this done and over with as soon as possible, we can’t rush this. We need to be careful and not draw too much attention to ourselves. We also need to know more before about her living situation and routine before we can figure out a definitive a plan.”
Rainbow tensed slightly. “We’re gonna be here for a while, aren’t we?” she groaned out in frustration, reaching her forehooves up to her eyes.
“I’m sorry, Rainbow.” Was all Twilight could say.
For a moment, the room fell into silence. Eventually, Rainbow grunted and let herself fall back onto the bed again, causing Twilight and Fluttershy to release their comforting holds on her. “Meh. I’m gonna catch some z’s,” she muttered.
Twilight and Fluttershy got off of the bed, letting Rainbow get under the covers. After a few seconds, Fluttershy tried and failed to stifle a yawn, indicating she was about ready to hit the sack, too. “Um… we only have two beds…” she commented, a very small blush appearing on her face.
“Don’t worry, Rainbow and I slept in the same bed for a while, once.” Twilight said simply, shooting Fluttershy a reassuring smile.
“Really?” Fluttershy perked up a bit. “Why?”
“One of the beds in the library was broken,” Twilight said while moving over towards the bed Rainbow was in. “I’ll tell you more in the morning, okay?”
“Oh, okay.” Fluttershy nodded, satisfied with the promise of answers tomorrow. With all that said and done, Twilight used her magic to turn out the lights while slipping into bed next to Rainbow.
“...You’d better not tell her that story.” Rainbow muttered sternly, rolling over and looking at Twilight with a dry look.
Twilight smiled softly before playfully poking Rainbow in the nose again. “We’ll see.”
“Stop doing that!” Rainbow protested in a harsh whisper, lightly shoving Twilight’s hoof away from her nose.
Twilight giggled at that. “We’ll see.”
Rainbow pouted but chose not to respond, simply closing her eyes and trying to relax. As she gradually began to fall into slumber, she felt a forehoof lightly trace it’s way over her mane in a comforting pat. A voice whispered in her ear before she was well and truly asleep.
“Goodnight, Rainbow Dash. Sweet dreams…"