There was an air of unease during the walk through the hallways of Canterlot Castle, silence being the dominating force as the pegasus at the heart of the present incident trudged along with her head held low and her mannerisms sagged. It seemed like with every passing day some new bombshell was dropped on her that made her time in this other world increasingly stressful.
Only a week to get her home? Just the one? With what little they currently knew, that small amount of time did little and less to ease her troubled mind. Add onto that Luna’s own willful admission of inexperience, and one had a recipe for a situation that filled Rainbow’s being with dread from top to bottom.
She spotted Twilight shooting her a concerned glance out of the corner of her eye. No doubt the changeling princess could sense her growing doubt and anxiety over this whole ordeal. ‘She’s already sticking her neck out for me quite a bit,’ Rainbow thought with a grimace. Not wanting to drag her new friend down with undue concern, she took a deep breath before flashing Twilight a small, reassuring smile.
Twilight appeared to notice, turning her head back to say something to the pony before being unceremoniously prevented from doing so by an announcement from the younger of the two royal alicorn sisters leading the way.
“Alas, we have arrived.” Luna gestured a wing at a typically ornate door guarded by two alabaster unicorns in golden armour. “I trust it is the same location as you are familiar with, Princess Rainbow Dash?”
Rainbow stared at the door for a second before offering a helpless shrug. “Okay, see, I’m a princess… but, uh, I only ever had to actually do anything with that position a month ago. So…” she pointed at the door. “I’ve walked by this door from time to time, but I never actually bothered to peek inside. I was usually too busy trying to get away from journalists or find my Twilight so I could pester her about Daring Do, or show her a cool moth that I found on my bedroom lamp, or drop a cockroach on her head or something.”
“You what?” Twilight growled.
“Ha! Epic…” the native Rainbow supported with a smug grin.
Rainbow turned to the changeling with an embarrassed smile. “I was thirteen, gimme a break. Besides, I did other stuff with other you, too. We played dodgeball sometimes, or I let her hop on my back so she could see things like a pegasus.”
“So romantic…” Rarity swooned.
Rainbow’s smile instantly became strained. She turned to the pearly unicorn and gave her a gently warning look. “Rarity, look, I get what you’re about, but… can you not? Please? It’s kind of a sensitive subject and I got enough to worry about right now.”
“Seconded,” Twilight and the second Rainbow both echoed.
“As… interesting as this conversation may be…” Luna got their attention with a thoroughly uninterested expression. “The coming days shall not wait for idle conversation. Should we not press on?”
“While I do find myself somewhat curious as to this… revelation,” Celestia remarked while glancing oddly between her daughter figure and both cyan pegasi. “She is not wrong. Guards, please open the way.”
“Yes, your Highness!” one replied dutifully, his horn lighting up and opening the entrance with an audible ‘click’.
The door swung open to reveal a rectangular chamber almost entirely dominated by a large empty table sitting silently in the centre. No other furniture was dotted around the room aside from the lights on the walls, all of which were off until Celestia gave a swish of her horn and brought forth the light.
The group all moved inside, Celestia leading the way while Luna moved to the rear, where she sealed the door behind them once the others had fully entered the war room. The Princess of the Sun rounded the table, her horn still alight as she studied the empty surface. Then, as her magical aura brightened, the table came to life in a flurry of vibrant blues that rippled across the wooden structure.
It took form after a few moments, an entire 3D representation of Equestria springing up in all its transparent, and yet highly detailed, glory.
Rainbow’s eyes widened at the display, her jaw falling open. “Holy… wow. Okay, that’s, uh, that’s pretty cool, not gonna lie,” she said. She reached out with a hoof to swipe it through one of the mountains. Her hoof passed through it without resistance, the visual flickering just slightly in response to the disturbance.
“See! Super glowylicious!” Pinkie remarked as she jumped up onto the table and flattened Manehatten. “Oh, whoops! Sorry, little ponies!”
“Laughter, please vacate the table,” Luna deadpanned.
“If only warfare were that easy…” Chrysalis lamented.
As the party pony did as she was told before Luna physically dragged her away, the others all gathered around the projection to get a good look at it. Right now, the map was static, nothing standing out in particular.
“So… what now?” the native Rainbow Dash asked.
“Now I get my earthquake data from Carduus and we can fill in the map as we go,” Twilight explained. “I think we can include one at the Badlands Hive.”
“Yes, hives know the dreaded things have caused their fair share of trouble,” Chrysalis remarked, sending a very deliberate glance at Princess Rainbow Dash. “Some more than others…”
Rainbow’s expression flattened. “We get it, ya don’t like me, moving on.”
“Ah please, she ignores ponies she ain’t taking a likin’ to,” Applejack retorted. “You’re practically best buds ah think.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Chrysalis retorted. “She is… withstandable.”
“Aww, you like me, Queenie?” native Rainbow asked coyly.
Chrysalis seemingly didn’t hear her speak.
“See?” Applejack demonstrated.
“Hey!”
Rainbow rolled her eyes. She then looked down at the map, eager to put the banter aside for the time being. “Okay, c’mon, ponies. Can we focus for a minute and figure this thing out? Like Luna said a minute ago, time won’t wait for us. I know that lesson personally.”
“That’s fine, I’ve just been updating the map while you were at it anyway,” Twilight stated. “There, I’ve added in the data for earthquake volatility for the Badlands Hive. Though, from what I recall, I don’t think there’s going to be anything with sufficient power that indicates a large enough rift at this point.”
“Good. I would hate to have left the hive unnecessarily. This has been irritating enough,” the Queen remarked. “What of Ponyville? Anything of note that happens to Equestria will most certainly happen to that accursed place.”
“Well, Rainbow did fall through a rift there,” Twilight agreed. “Let me just check…”
“Carduus?”
“On it! Let me see… Alright, I think I have it. No offence, Twilight, but your filing system is a little… odd.”
“It’s efficient! Ahem, do you want to start listing off my notes on the Ponyville quakes?”
“Yes, Princess! Let’s see here…”
To Rainbow Dash’s eyes, Twilight was silent for several moments before her horn lit up again and her brow became furrowed. The representation of an earthquake surrounded Ponyville with little numbers and statistics she didn’t fully grasp listed next to it.
“Well… We’re not going back that way either. I recorded an extremely high magnitude earthquake just before all this happened, during a lull in my lessons with mum.”
“Right, just a short while before her little interruption came,” Chrysalis recalled. “You mentioned a changeling in the town reporting it. There was another tremor occurring for us around the same time.”
“Which cannot be a coincidence,” Twilight concluded. “I noted it down and then returned to our lessons. It wasn’t long after that when we were interrupted again, this time by Carduus reporting your crash landing, Rainbow Dash.”
“So the quakes have something to do with me turning up here,” Rainbow said matter of factly. “Which means they probably have something to do with that big magic storm that washed by in my world. Cool, we got that confirmed now, but weren’t we supposed to be looking for the biggest of these quakes, like AJ suggested?”
“We are. But this helps confirm our hypothesis,” Twilight pointed out. “Evidence that we’re on the right track. A storm occurs in your word, a rift opens, a corresponding earthquake occurs here. The issue is that Ponyville’s have receded, so I don’t think we’ll get another like the one that brought you here in the town again.”
“So is there such a place still experiencing such… unfortunate disturbances?” Rarity asked. “I would hate to think we’re too late to get the poor dear back to her beloved.”
“Still going on about that, huh?” native Rainbow muttered to herself in annoyance.
“Hold on…” Twilight said, listening to Carduus’ voice regaling back her own work over the hive mind. “Well, Canterlot itself has been shaken a few times.”
“It has indeed. Though not in the past couple of days,” Celestia replied regrettably.
“Hm, a bad bet. But might not be a bad idea to check for one while we’re here,” Twilight responded, adjusting the map accordingly.
Rainbow watched, keeping quiet for the most part as, slowly but surely, more and more points of data were added to the map, showing the locations and times of each quake. She gradually tuned out the discussions of the others when a pattern began to become apparent to her eyes. A pattern that made her feel distinctly uncomfortable.
The quakes were scattered sporadically across Equestria, yes, but they were the most prevalent in a few key places. Ponyville, Canterlot, Manehattan, The Crystal Empire. There were also a lot of quakes concentrated in some empty grassland in the middle of nowhere. But the one that stood out to her more than the others was Baltimare. Compared to every other place on the map aside from the wilderness, that city was practically blinding with how many data points there were clumped on top of it.
“Oh my, so many ponies must have been so scared by all the shaking. All the poor animals that must have been startled by it all…” Fluttershy noted sadly, taking it all in. However, she then gave a curious tilt of her head. “But… Oh, um, forget it. It’s probably not important…”
Twilight gave her a sympathetic smile. “Come on, Fluttershy. If you have something to add, feel free!”
“If Applejack can drop a bombshell like she did, anypony can,” native Rainbow snarked.
“Keep talking, Dash,” Applejack shot back.
“Um, oh, I wouldn’t want to be a bother…”
“Fluttershy,” Rainbow suddenly piped up in a firm voice that surprised even her, turning to the timid pegasus in question. She met her eyes for a second before speaking in a far gentler manner. “Just… just say it, alright? Anything and everything helps.”
“Oh, well…” The buttery pegasus took in a deep breath. “Thinking on all those poor animals made me think of a school trip we took to Fillydelphia once, before we got our cutie marks…”
“The Fillydelphia Zoo?” both Rainbows recalled instantly.
“It seems our worlds contain just as many similarities as they do their differences,” Celestia noted with a hint of amusement. “Continue, my little pony.”
“Oh, well… It’s just that, there are so many animals there that would have been so dreadfully scared by the shaking, like those cutie wootie little jackalopes in the petting section… But there aren’t any numbers there. So, I suppose they’re fine.”
“And why did that catch your eye? I would imagine that to be a good thing, darling,” Rarity noted.
“Oh, yes! I would hate for those animals to be scared! But… Why is it just these places? I thought it would be everywhere…”
Twilight frowned. “Yes… I see what you’re saying, why are these rifts occurring in these locations specifically? What makes them so important?”
Rainbow’s ears drooped. She knew why, or at least she strongly suspected it. The pattern was clear, and Fluttershy’s little observation had only confirmed it. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes before speaking up.
“Because those are where all of the biggest changes happened.”
She felt the eyes of everypony else in the room boring into her, and her heart began to beat a little faster. Usually, she would have let someone more qualified explain this, but she was literally the only pony here who knew about it right now, and that feeling of being in the spotlight was not welcome at the moment.
“Um, Rainbow?” Twilight asked as she suddenly found herself getting the uncomfortable feeling that there was something Rainbow Dash should have told her from the beginning. “What do you mean ‘changes’?”
Rainbow opened her eyes and looked down at the map. “...When I was eight years old, running the race that got me my cutie mark, I saw something… something I wasn’t meant to see. Two ponies, a unicorn and an alicorn, talking to each other, arguing…” she looked up to Twilight. “One of them was Twilight Sparkle… and both of them were from my world’s future.”
Twilight’s eyes lit up like a particularly studious Hearth’s Warming tree. “Wait wait wait, time travel!? You experienced time travel? Was it a paradoxical loop? I did that once, don’t recommend it!”
Rainbow scowled and looked back down at the map. “I didn’t experience it, not really. I just saw two ponies who came back… without the closed-loop failsafe. The moment I spotted them, my entire future was changed… I got distracted a lot wondering about who and what I had seen. In fact, I was so distracted by it all that, when my family took me to Baltimare to see a Wonderbolt’s performance… I wasn’t fast enough to save them from being crushed to death by a falling construction crane, like I was originally supposed to.”
Her eyes settled on Baltimare. “That was the major turning point… from there, I was brought back to Cloudsdale, put up for adoption, picked up by Celestia a while later, and, well… things just snowballed from there,” she said before tapping the map. “The bottom line is, these quakes show up a lot more in the places where I know things went differently because of what happened to my family. I was raised from the age of eight to sixteen in Canterlot, I’ve lived in Ponyville for around a year, and my entire future was thrown off track in Baltimare… Everywhere else is just… ripples, I guess.”
“And everything after Baltimare is as you told me back at the hive…” Twilight mused. “Rainbow, I’m sorry. I had no idea just how deep this went for you.”
“It’s fine,” Rainbow shook her head. “I probably shoulda said something sooner, but I just don’t like talking about it… it’s complicated… and it has a lot of bad memories attached to it.”
There was a moment of silence, Rainbow receiving glances both confused and sympathetic from the various parties gathered around the map. Twilight, on her part, rested her forehooves into the table as she did the mathematics in her head.
“Time travel…” Luna said distastefully. “Starswirl too dabbled in the concept. It was deemed too dangerous, the consequences unknowable.”
“It sounds like an eternal headache,” Chrysalis noted in profound irritation. “Ugh, if time had ever changed in our world, would we ever even know?”
“Such questions are unhelpful in our current situation,” Celestia retorted. “Our reality is not in question, but her own is another story. The Laws of Time have most certainly been disrupted.”
“Yes, and I have a thought about that…” Twilight finally spoke. “The thing about the time loop I mentioned? As far as paradoxes go, it’s clean. Stable. Nothing changes because it was always meant to be. But the paradox you describe, Rainbow, seeing somepony you were never supposed to and having your very reality altered? The paradox caused must have been far more traumatic. Rainbow… I experienced some sort of vision over to your world, a flashback I guess. I thought I was just glimpsing your world through you, but… Is there something more to it?”
Rainbow frowned. “Okay, we’re getting into the stuff I barely understand here, so, uh, just bear with me, here, ‘kay?” she said before running her hoof over her face. “Right, so… see, when the timeline changed, the future those ponies came from didn’t just stop existing. It hung around for a bit. Technically, it’s still hanging around and won’t be entirely gone ‘til mine catches up with it. That vision you had—we call them flashes, by the way—is more or less the ponies tied to the Elements of Harmony seeing bits of their previous lives. They usually only happen when something important is going on, so getting them is kind of a red flag for us.”
“Fascinating…” Twilight muttered in thought. “So not only was there one alteration, but multiple, and from what you’d describe, the final change wasn’t even instantaneous. It’s a slow effect, like a crawling explosion. A time boom erasing everything that was. But something like that… It had to have caused damage, right? The strain it must have caused… Yes, no wonder this is happening! I think this ‘time boom’ has fractured your world. Wounds in reality caused by the sheer brute force alterations these ponies caused.”
“Woah, hold up!” Applejack protested. “Y’all lost me. How can you have time travel that was always meant to happen like ya said, but also time travel that actually changes stuff as well? Doesn’t that, ya know, not work?”
Rainbow huffed. “Frankly, I stopped trying to figure that part out a long time ago. I’m a princess, not a theoretical physicist.”
Twilight raised a hoof. “I’m both, and Starswirl’s research had a failsafe for a closed-loop, but removing that could make it possible to change the course of history…”
“Ah still don’t see how. Why would time change and yet not and-”
“Applejack, darling, maybe you should not think too hard on the matter,” Rarity advised.
“B-but… How and… Why…?”
“Applejack,” Twilight got her attention again. “I have a relative understanding of the spell, but the absolute fundamentals of time and space itself? There, all I can say is to take Pinkie’s advice and go with ‘Haha please.'”
“It is pretty good advice!” Pinkie chirped.
“I would suggest leaving the matter of how and why for others to discover,” Celestia suggested. “Time is a fickle thing, it operates beyond mortal understanding.”
“But as it stands now, we do have a grasp of how time’s violation relates to our current predicament,” Luna continued on. “Scars at points of significant upheaval, bleeding through to our world due to what I presume is close proximity.”
“As close as multiple realities could possibly be…” Chrysalis mused. “I can tell you I would have enjoyed this conversation far more a few centuries back…”
“But these two places…” Twilight noted, pointing at the empty spot in the Equestrian countryside and the Badlands Hive itself. “Had you ever been to the hive before you met me, Rainbow?”
Rainbow shook her head. “Nope, nor do I want to. But over in my world, we did just get out of a short war with the changelings that led to their queen being sealed inside of a tree by the Elements of Harmony. Without a leader, there's a big power vacuum, and Thorax thinks there’s probably a big civil war or something going on as prospective new leaders fight over the throne. That’s probably what the deal is there.”
“Wait, a tree?” native Rainbow scoffed.
“Clearly I am the superior Queen of the Hive,” Chrysalis replied smugly.
“Well, you didn’t break half of my ribs and try to murder me, leaving me in a primal state of panic and terror, so yeah, I’d say so,” Rainbow added.
“Point being…” Twilight got them back on track. “Okay, so that’s why the hive is important. Butterfly effect, changes to your life caused consequences for the changelings too. But what about the field?”
Rainbow eyed the empty patch inquisitively. Something about it did seem familiar, and it did have the highest concentration of those quakes. But she couldn’t put her hoof on why an empty bit of wilderness would be so infused with the things. She didn’t recall being there, nor did she recall there being any towns of note in that spot. It was just a wilderness.
She shrugged helplessly. “Heck if I know. Maybe I spooked a bear or something at some point and a lot of stuff happened where I couldn’t see it?”
“Oh, that poor bear…” Fluttershy said despondently.
“Huh… Well, it does appear to be the most violent as far as the earthquakes are concerned…” Twilight mused.
“Some bear,” Applejack remarked.
Fluttershy squeaked meekly. “Oh, dear… Maybe it was an ursa…”
“The bear is irrelevant!” Luna snapped. “This location does indeed hold the highest magnitude events, but it is a vast empty space. Searching for rifts would take time that we do not have. But Baltimare, the second-highest if I am translating Twilight Sparkle’s observations correctly… Rainbow, your parents perished here, correct?”
Rainbow nodded solemnly. She knew where this was going. “Yeah… they did.”
Luna nodded. “Then it stands to reason the place of their final moments would be the alteration in question. If you could lead us to that location, we may be able to locate a rift large enough to send you back to your realm.”
“It’s certainly plausible,” Twilight agreed. “Between that field and Baltimare, those two will have ongoing earthquakes strong enough for the longest duration. Everywhere else has probably already faded too far.”
Celestia hummed. “The wounds are starting to heal, time’s attempts at correction.”
Rainbow’s face fell, obscuring her eyes behind her mane. “So… if I wanna go home, I gotta go back to where I lost my folks, huh?” she asked quietly, not bothering to hide her displeasure at the idea. If she were being honest, she would rather search an empty wilderness for a way back than go back to that city. She never wanted to set hoof there again.
‘But what choice do I have?’ she thought. ‘Luna’s right. We can’t waste any time searching the wilderness. Baltimare’s our best bet…’
“Fine,” she eventually conceded, lifting her head back up. “I can show you where it happened. When do we leave?”
“I will update my ‘other’ tonight, you should all rest and prepare yourself here first,” Luna answered. “I will have your friends arrive at Baltimare as well, Princess Rainbow Dash. I would also suggest they bring their Elements of Harmony as a precaution. Assuming, unlike ours, they have access to them.”
“Oh, we do,” Rainbow said before frowning. “Although… we might not be able to actually use them. My world’s Twilight has amnesia, remember? She’s almost a different mare without all of those experiences. I dunno if the Elements will work with her as she is right now.”
“It is still worth a try,” Twilight supported. “Ours… Well, they’re where they need to be.”
“Yes, I would rather not disturb their task unless absolutely necessary,” Luna agreed. “They should stay where they belong. Hopefully, they will not be required at all, but all the same.”
“I will remain here,” Celestia announced. “In order to search out a possible rift in Canterlot, just in case it may be larger than we predict.”
“It’s good to be thorough…” Twilight said. “Rainbow, are you okay with all this?”
“No,” Rainbow said matter of factly. “I’m not. But I’m even less okay with being stuck in another world for the rest of my life. If it means I get to go home, I’ll do whatever I have to.”
“Then I do believe it is decided,” Celestia announced, her horn lighting up and all the markers on the map except for those on Baltimare vanished into nothingness. “I wish you all the best, Princess Rainbow Dash. Canterlot Castle is as open to you as your own until you depart. You are a Princess of Equestria. Even here.”
Rainbow managed to give Celestia a small smile. One of her hooves drifted lazily up to her ponytail. “Heh… thanks. I appreciate it,” she said before turning for the door. “So, we’re resting first? That’s the plan?”
“I think so. You can all go on ahead, I… I want to talk to Rainbow Dash alone for a moment, if that’s alright,” Twilight asked.
“If that is fine with her…” Celestia replied, pointedly looking at the pegasus in question.
Rainbow gave Twilight a confused glance before nodding. “Sure, I guess,” she said.
“I will wait outside,” Chrysalis told her daughter. “Do hurry. I’d rather not spend more time here than necessary.”
“You worry too much,” Luna scoffed, walking past the others and opening the door. “But alas, we must prepare. Begone! I must make arrangements!”
“What she means to say is ‘thank you’,” Celestia jabbed.
Luna huffed. “What I said is what I meant, sister!”
A collection of amused chuckles and entertained remarks went through the assembled ponies as they began to file out of the war room. Rainbow watched them all go with a distant look in her eyes. She was genuinely surprised by how far out of their way they were all going for her sake. She was an interloper here, after all, as Chrysalis oh so loved to point out. Yet even she hadn’t decided to bail and simply return to the hive until it was all said and done.
It was surprising… but also comforting. ‘I guess they really are the best friends a mare could ask for, in my world or any other,’ Rainbow thought to herself, a small smile gracing her lips.
Soon, though, the door shut. The rest of her friends disappeared from view, leaving just her and the changeling that had welcomed her into this world. Rainbow took a deep breath before turning to face Twilight. “So, what did ya wanna talk about?” she asked carefully.
Twilight was quiet for a moment, glancing towards the map as she lit her horn and brought back a single other marker. “I just wanted to be sure that you are sure. Time travel… I never imagined how messy this would get, and your parents? Are you really sure about Baltimare? It may be a larger search area, but the field is still a viable option.”
Rainbow looked down at the field for a second, her ears drooping. “...For a minute, I was really thinking the field would be the better option,” she admitted before sighing and falling to her haunches. “But at the end of the day, we don’t have time for that. The sooner I can get home, the better, and with Baltimare I know exactly where I need to go. I have no clue what’s up with that bit of wilderness, but I don’t want to waste any time figuring it out. I just…”
Rainbow leaned forward and rested her chin on her forelegs against the table. “I keep saying this, and I mean it more every single time. I just want to go home. The sooner the better. And besides… maybe going back to where it happened could help me get some closure or something. I dunno.”
“Okay, if you’re sure…” But Twilight didn’t appear done, the mare biting her lip, showing off one of her fangs in the process, seemingly having something else bothering her.
Rainbow looked over at her. “...Okay, you may not be my Twi, but I still know that look,” she said with a small smirk. “Go on, out with it. What’s bugging you?”
Twilight gave her an unamused look. “Okay, I know that wording was deliberate.”
“Eh, so what? Come on, spill.”
Twilight sighed. “Okay, fine. It’s just… Now we know the rift-earthquake connection, it has me wondering about you ending up at the hive. You fell through a rift in Ponyville, so why didn’t you end up there as well? Why did you end up with us?”
Rainbow blinked. That was a very good question that she had never once given any thought to. “Huh… y’know, I have no idea,” she admitted, tapping at the side of her head with a hoof. “I was a little busy trying not to get incinerated by arcs of magic seven times bigger than me. And then I was busy being too scared of the changelings around me to form a thought beyond ‘run’. And ever since then, it’s just been one darned thing after another. Never had time to wonder why I popped up where you live...”
“Well, we’re here now,” Twilight pointed out. “In Canterlot Castle. You can’t think of anything? Anything you saw? What you did? Thought?”
Rainbow scrunched up her muzzle, thinking back on that fateful night. Her recollection of the event was hazy, to say the least, given how suddenly it had all happened. The flash she had been subjected to had also made swiss cheese of her memory of that night, making things even more difficult to piece together.
“Well,” she began slowly. “I was scared, first of all. I tried to fight back against the wind, but it just kept throwing me around. I was trying to think of some way out of it for a while, but when I finally figured out that I was stuck, that it was no use…”
She lifted her hooves and looked at them with a faraway look in her eyes. “I thought I was about to die… And I’ve only felt fear like that one or two times before. It was horrible. And… all I wanted was…”
Her eyes widened as the realization clicked into place. She lifted her eyes to look at Twilight, her heart thumping in her chest a little harder. “...Twilight. All I wanted was for Twilight to pull me out of the fire and back to a safe place, just like she did so many times before…”
Twilight was silent for a moment, the changeling mare turning away from the pegasus just enough so her face was hidden behind her mane.
“I… I see. You wanted Twilight, so you literally willed the rupture to bring you to the closest wound to me. That’s… really interesting…” she said, though she oddly seemed to deflate as she spoke. “Well, I’m sorry I disappointed you.”
Rainbow frowned. “...Er, what?”
“It doesn’t matter. I know what I am makes you- Ugh, forget it,” she dismissed, beginning to walk towards the door. “Get some rest. We’ll get you home soon...”
“Twilight, wait!” Rainbow called after her, but it was too late. The door shut behind Twilight, leaving Rainbow all on her own. She sat there for a few seconds, completely baffled and feeling more than a little hurt. She took a few deep breaths before holding a hoof over her heart to force it to calm down.
“...What you are?” she mumbled after a moment. “What does that have to do with anything? I don’t understand…”
Alas, the silence of the otherwise empty war room offered up no answers.
A moment later, the remains of the projection on the table flickered away, plunging the room into darkness.