//------------------------------// // Introduction // Story: My Little Dashie: The Return // by Brony MACH //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash lay in the infirmary sleeping quite soundly. The events of the past day had taken their toll on Twilight Sparkle and her friends, unimaginably more so for the resting blue Pegasus. Night had fallen, and Princess Celestia and Twilight Sparkle watched carefully over their friend. “How long until she makes a full recovery?” asked Twilight. “She will awaken within the next day,” answered the princess. “The memory spell should complete its work very soon.” Twilight had used the memory spell many times before, most importantly during the Discord incident to restore her friends. Afterwards, she had utilized the spell on other Ponyville residents to aid those suffering from mental ailments such as amnesia; however, never had Twilight cast a memory spell of this magnitude. Often her patients only needed a couple days’ or weeks’ worth of memory restored—months at the most—and while these routine procedures caused dizziness and momentary confusion, the patients usually recovered within an hour. But for Rainbow Dash, Twilight had to restore a lifetime of memories, nearly fifteen years’ worth. Much more than a day would pass before the pegasus returned to her old self. “She will be back to normal, just like the Rainbow Dash you know and love,” continued the princess. “Yes…but to erase her memories of the human world…do you truly believe it’s the right thing to do?” inquired Twilight. “So much as it pains me to see such cherished memories disappear, we must do everything to keep Equestria and the human world separate. We have already incurred great risk by letting the human keep his memories of Rainbow Dash, but I trust him to guard our secret." replied Celestia. "How can you be sure," said Twilight as she suddenly turned to her mentor, "that he...the human will keep his word? We have no idea how humans think, and there's no way stop him if he..." "Relax, my pupil," interrupted the princess as she looked into her student's doubting eyes, "It is true that I know very little of the humans, but I have good reason to trust him." "And what reason is that?" asked Twilight. Princess Celestia motioned back toward the bed, where Rainbow Dash slept peacefully, oblivious to the conversation taking place in her room. "When Rainbow Dash disappeared from Equestria, I feared that she would meet a terrible fate. It was because of him that she survived in that bleak human world at all. It takes someone truly special to care for and nurture a lost soul in a strange land, and that is someone that I can trust." explained the alicorn. "I see..." replied Twilight as she also gazed toward her pegasus friend. "Those two, living together like father and daughter, sharing precious memories…It would be wrong not to let him keep his memories given what he has done for us. But for Rainbow Dash, those memories are simply too powerful for her to control. We cannot let her know of her second life, lest she attempt to return to the world of the humans.” continued the princess. “I understand, Princess,” answered Twilight. Both ponies continued to stare at their blue Pegasus friend, trying to visualize the reconstruction of memories in her mind. “The box, then?” asked Twilight. “I promised the human that the box would be allowed to remain here in Equestria, but if we want to ensure that Rainbow Dash does not learn of her alternate existence, we must not let her see it,” answered the princess. The great white alicorn walked toward the window of the infirmary and gazed into the stars. “Yet, I do not wish to destroy it.” “Why not?” her student asked. “Because it serves as a reminder for us that the strongest love can come from the most unexpected places.” “Yes, this is true,” said Twilight as she too looked toward the sky. Somewhere beyond lived a man, the only one to know of the existence of Equestria meet its inhabitants. Unknown to them, history was about to repeat itself.