After some time, Annette and Lysithea met back up with the others at the entrance of Sweet Apple Acres. Annette bid her sister goodbye real quickly, once again being reminded of something that was going on at a shutdown library in town. With that, they were off, the apple twin having to wipe her eyes another time as the tear trails were still visible. Twilight and Spike didn’t ask what was wrong, the former too shy to do so, and the latter knowing it wasn’t his place to ask.
The group talked as they made their way out, Twilight staying mostly silent and only talking when specifically called upon. Lysithea kept in eye on her, though making sure not to stare in rudeness. Part of her couldn’t help but notice the odd glances that her sister in turn gave to Annette. She would have to ask if something was bothering her, though just thinking that told her exactly what was going through her sister’s head.
“So, Annette,” Lysithea said not long after they entered town. “You gonna tell me who is also here?”
Annette laughed. “Come on, Lysi, where is your sense of mystery? Wouldn’t you rather them tell you then myself?”
“Need I remind you what happened literally an hour or so earlier?” Lysithea reminded the mare, only getting more giggles in response. “What is so funny about it all? You scared me half to death.”
“Sorry, sorry,” Annette replied, cutting back the laughter but unable to hide a smile. “It’s just, you made this very goofy face before fainting and I can’t get it out of my head,” Noticing that Lysithea was still not amused, the earth pony changed the subject. “A-anyways, I think it is more important they re-introduce themselves instead of me. It would just be better in case anything uncomfortable comes up.”
Lysithea sighed at Annette’s less than willing nature to reveal anything, instead looking back to the list Celestia had created. One thing that caught her eyes now more than ever was the listing of the so-called Dash sisters. While she only had herself and Annette to go off of, she was starting to theorize a pattern. All it came to was if said sisters were twins, or that one twin was actually a former human.
“Annette, do you have any idea where we might find somepony here named Dash?” Luminous asked, the fields fading away as Ponyville once again started to surround them. “Apparently they are supposed to have a weather team helping around here.”
“Yeah, though are you sure you’re reading it correctly?” Annette asked in reply. Lysithea hooved the letter over to her old friend allowing her to take a look. “Ah, both of them are working together, it makes more sense then. If it was just Rainbow, you can bet she would be doing it on her own, but with her sister there…”
“Wait, are you saying one of these sisters would try and clear the whole sky by herself?” Spike asked, getting a nod from the earth pony in response. “Though she isn’t saying it, I’m pretty sure mom would say how impossible that sounds.”
Twilight nodded, but didn’t notice as she seemingly took the lead in front of everypony else. Annette had held her hoof in front of Lysithea and Spike, ears perked at something she was clearly hearing that nopony else was. She watched the sky, hearing what sounded like somepony screaming in the distance. It wasn’t pain or help, but something else, and by the time she realized, it was already too late.
Unbeknown to Twilight, who hadn’t stopped with those behind her, a pegasus was currently on a collision course straight for her. The pony, finally hearing something resembling a voice, looked up and felt her heart skip a beat. She didn’t care for what the voice was telling her, the first thing in her eyes being that of a rainbow blur heading straight toward her. In her mind she saw the end, but that would turn to confusion in a matter of seconds.
Before the blur hit her, she found herself suddenly blocked from it by a mass of white and yellow. A pegasus, she quickly realized, was shielding her, but that shielding meant absolutely nothing as the blur steamrolled the white pegasus. That was followed by the blur tackling her, and then proceeding to carrier into a nearby bush with the white pegasus in tow. Lysithea, Annette, and Spike simply watched as it all played out in stun and shock, the first of them only sprinting once everything had happened.
“Twilight!” Lysithea called out in worry, rushing over to help her sister out of the bushes. Twilight wrapped her in a hug the moment her sister was in reach. “You okay?”
“I-I don’t know, is there anything sticking out of me?” She asked, looking her body up and down. She heard someone laughing, but didn’t pay attention to it. “Nope, still purple. Thank Celestia.”
“Rainbow, what did I say about reckless flying!” Lysithea shuddered as she recognized one of the voices from behind the brush. Parting the way, she was greeted to the sight of a white pegasus with a blond mane and tail scolding another pegasus with a rainbow mane. “Perhaps, if you had even been the slightest bit cautious, you wouldn’t have, I don’t know, rainchecked a unicorn!”
“Ah, come on Ingrid, don’t be like that,” Rainbow said, the name confirming what Lysithea had figured out just from Ingrid’s voice alone. Rainbow looked to her with a smile. “Besides, it looks to me like they’re pretty fine.”
“Just because they are doesn’t mean you can just go charging into ponies!” Ingrid said, ending it all off with a sigh. “Ah, who am I kidding? It’s not gonna get through. My apologies for what my sister did Ms…”
The look that Ingrid gave Lysithea as the two locked eyes was nearly enough to make Lysithea giggle, just enough for Twilight, and more than enough for Rainbow Dash. Lysithea waved to the pegasus, though they seemed to be frozen in stone. She knew exactly what was going through Ingrid’s head right now, considering how Lysithea had remembered her dying during the battle on Gronder Field.
“Hey Ingrid, long time no see,” Lysithea said. The two groups of sisters sat there in silence, Annette joining them mere moments later. “So, sorry about Ignatz?”
--------
“Ow! Jeez Ingrid, I said I’m sorry!” Lysithea said, who was currently busy getting smacked on the head with a newspaper. When the horn broke through the middle of it, Ingrid tossed it into a pile of other newspapers that had also seen their lives ended the exact same way. Each time Rainbow would fetch her another one. “Also, that’s a lot of wasted paper.”
“It’s all from a propaganda paper, no pony will miss it,” Ingrid said, wapping the unicorn another time. “Also, Ignatz’s arrow is not the reason I’m angry at you. The arrow was his after all. What I’m angry about–” She whacked Lysithea again. “–is the fact you gave a heart attack by warping him literally five inches away from me. Five! If you were going to let him kill me the least you could have done was not give me a heart attack!”
Lysithea rubbed her head, feeling quite sore from her old friend’s beating. “Hey, at least it wasn’t Claude, right?”
Any amount of holding back Ingrid had been using was lost in that moment as she unleashed the power of the newspaper onto the poor unicorn's skull.
“I… feel like I’m missing something here,” Twilight said from a distance as Spike, Rainbow Dash, Annette, and herself watched the scene play out before them. “So, this Ingrid pony is also from this Fodlan place, right?” Rainbow and Annette nodded. “Why is she so angry at Thea then? Aren’t you all good friends.”
“Twilight, right?” Rainbow asked, getting a nod. “First off, I’m Rainbow Dash, the most awesome pony in Ponyville. Nice to meet you. Second off, this is pretty par for the course with Ingrid around here.”
Twilight looked to Ingrid, before looking back to Rainbow Dash. “Is there are reason for why she is like this or…”
“Nope she was pretty much the same back in Fodlan as well,” Annette explained. “Though, she’s gotten at least a little better in the time we’ve all been here. She’s still pretty open about who she feels about ponies, but she isn’t all serious now. Heck, RD here got her into Ogres and Oubliettes some years back. She took to it surprisingly well.”
“Wait, you two play O&O?” Spike asked.’
“Yep, started playing when I was, I don’t know, eleven or so,” Rainbow Dash replied. “Got Inny into it a few years later. Oh, don’t tell her that I still call her Inny, she would kick my flank to Las Pegasus if she heard.”
“Two ponies other than mom and Aunt Lysithea to play O&O with?” Spike said, a rather sinister grin on his face. “Finally, ponies who can possibly match me.”
Twilight shivered as she heard that, knowing exactly what was going through her son’s head. She looked to the sky, seeing pegasi were currently at work taking care of the clouds above them. Through it, she also saw the sun at around midday. Her heart rate picked up, knowing that the more time they spent idle talking was the less time until Nightmare Moon returned.
“W-well, it was nice to meet you, Rainbow, but we have to get going,” Twilight said. “Besides, you got work to do, right?”
Rainbow sighed. “Yeah, though it would already be done if Ingrid just let me go all out,” She shook her head. “Ah whatever, better than getting scolded again. See ya at the library tonight Annette!”
Annette waved goodbye as Rainbow Dash took to the air, quickly stopping over her sister to remind her of the work that still needed to be done. Ingrid looked away, embarrassed that she had gotten so wrapped up in scolding Lysithea that she had forgotten about work. As they left, Twilight, Annette, and Spike all walked back up to Lysithea, who was currently covering her head with her hooves.
“You okay Thea?” Twilight asked.
“I… I think I’ve had enough Ingrid for one day,” Lysithea whimpered in reply. “In fact, I think I’ve had enough of it for the rest of my stay.”