Chapter Four – The Game is Afoot
“So I guess that’s it, innit? It’s plainly stated right there… Searchin’ for clues ain’t gonna get Spike back.”
“Indeed. We have to, what was it?”
“Find out what it is that each of us seek.”
“I know what I seek!”
“Really? Great. Problem solved. What is it?”
“Cupcakes! And parties! And fun!”
There was a collective groan.
“‘Pinkie Pie, the one who has all of the fun, what is it that makes her so undone?’ Our dragon-napper already knows that about you, Pinkie. We know you like fun. But what makes you so undone?”
“Um…”
Silence. Rainbow stared at her friend, who was suddenly quiet and biting her lip. ‘Strange,’ Rainbow Dash thought. ‘She wasn’t so serious a second ago. In fact, she was always the least worried out of all of us… That could have been her just being Pinkie. But what if she knows more than she’s letting on? What if… No. I was with her all last night,’ Rainbow reminded herself, shaking her head slightly. But then another nasty thought crept into the back of her mind. ‘Not the whole time, you weren’t,’ it snarled, prodding her. ‘You woke up and there she was… She gave you a shrug when you asked if she even got any sleep… Who knows what she was doing while you rested your eyes? Maybe she was out dragon-napping your friend and writing rhyming riddles…’ Rainbow’s eyes widened as she remembered the song Pinkie had been singing to wake Rainbow up. That rhymed, too… In fact, Pinkie loved rhyming more than any of them.
Pinkie noticed Rainbow’s staring and turned away. Almost guiltily. Rainbow grinded her teeth. This is why she hated thinking. Now she was suspecting Pinkie of all people of dragon-napping Spike. What reason could she possibly have for doing that? She was her best friend! But her head panged from the concussion, almost chastising her for letting Pinkie go so easily. After all, it had to be one of them, didn’t it? Why not Pinkie?
“Do you know what you lust?”
The question broke Rainbow’s train of thoughts. She blinked and looked at Twilight. “What?”
“The riddle. Do you even know what you lust?”
“Um…”
Rarity intervened before Rainbow could even seriously think about the question. “Lust implies a sexual relationship.”
“And she doesn’t like anypony like that! Right, Dashie?”
“Uh…” Rainbow Dash felt the color rush to her face and suddenly she was stuttering like Fluttershy. “Um. No…?” Well, she didn’t currently like anypony. It wasn’t a lie. But everything about this situation felt so strange and the note made it seem like she was lying even to herself. “Besides the Wonderbolts, maybe. I mean, everypony knows how much I want to join them.”
“Right,” Twilight agreed, thinking. “But the note seems to imply that whatever you lust is something that even you are unaware of. Or at least it’s something you aren’t open about. So it can’t be the Wonderbolts…”
They all stared at Rainbow expectantly, as if her mind was an open book and they could just peer into her thoughts and snatch the answers for themselves. As if Rainbow was supposed to suddenly start talking and share everything about her life until they were satisfied with her answers and could gleam another hopeful hint into where Spike was. But Rainbow couldn’t see how whether or not she liked somepony had anything to do with Spike and she felt the anger boiling inside her.
“What?” she snapped. “Look, I don’t know, okay? I don’t like anypony! What about Rarity?”
“What about me? You don’t like me, do you?”
“No! I’m talking about what it says about you. It called you a monstrosity, remember?”
“Well! I never!”
“But it did say that… What could that have meant?”
“That is certainly not what it said! It was merely wondering what kept me from becoming a monstrosity. And the answer is so very simple. Good skincare, obviously. My spa visits keep this mane and this fur ever so soft and glamorous –”
“Ah have a feelin’ that ain’t what it meant by that.”
“Oh, go ahead! Act all… stubborn! That’s what it says about you, isn’t it? You’re just a stubborn youth.”
“That’s not what it said at all! It said Ah was more than a stubborn youth!”
“Fine. Be stubborn about how stubborn you are.”
“Ah’m not being… Oh, for Celestia’s sake!”
“Um… Maybe…”
“Ooh, it’s Twilight’s turn! Stop being all transfixed-y, Twily! How do we unaffix you?”
“That doesn’t even make any sense. I’m not transfixed or affixed! Or I wasn’t, until somepony dragon-napped my number one assistant!”
“Excuse me? Um, I think that…”
“Hmmm. Well, maybe the dragon-napper is all wrong then!”
“All wrong? But if they’re all wrong, how will we ever win this game?”
“What if…”
“Speaking of game, didn’t Fluttershy’s section mention something about that?”
“Yes... Like I’ve been trying to say…”
“So does that mean –”
“Well, hold on now. Let the pony talk.”
“Ahem. Um. Thank you. Um… I was saying… Well, I mean, I was thinking over my section and… it seems to be saying that normally I am very shy and, well… the other note was talking about the traits we already have and how they will seal each other’s fates. But it was also saying that we need to learn something new in order to, um, win, I guess. And in this new note, it says I’m shy and that…”
“‘Doesn’t she need to become more to win this game?’” Twilight reread the line for Fluttershy’s sake.
“Yes… exactly. A trait that I lack is needed in order to win the game. That’s what the notes seem to be saying… I think…”
“So, what?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Is it saying that if we act the way we are we’ll lose, and we have to act different in order to win?”
“I don’t think so,” Twilight replied, smoothing out the parchment and thinking, reading it over again. “It isn’t about becoming someone different…”
“Then what?”
“The common theme of all of these seems to be… ‘more’.”
“More of what?”
“Not more of something, but just more. Fluttershy needs to be more, Applejack is more than, what you deeply lust…”
“So…?”
“We’re focusing on our own sections too much. No one but ourselves can understand our own part. What we should be looking at is the last paragraph. Listen to this. ‘The Elements of Harmony are more than one thing, but it is to those labels that each of you do cling’… We’re focusing too much on the traits that we have been assigned. I think… I think maybe this pony is trying to –”
“Threaten us? I mean, they seem to be saying that the Elements of Harmony won’t be enough, with that whole ‘I promise that each of you will only find me dismissing’ line.”
“‘Unless you can find the pieces each of you are missing.’ Don’t you see? It isn’t a threat. Well, maybe it’s a threat. But the whole point is that our elements aren’t enough, and maybe there is more to us than what meets the eye. Or, or there’s a part of us locked away, something we’ve been ignoring that we’ll need in order to get Spike back.”
“Now you’ve completely lost me.”
“Ah well, figuring out this riddle here is provin’ to be harder than what we were tryin’ before.”
“But we won’t be able to get Spike back by just looking for clues!” Twilight shouted desperately. “We need to follow the rules of this game. There’s no other way.”
“Sure, there’s another way!” Rainbow flew up into the air, shaking off all the mumbo jumbo analytical crap Twilight was going on about. “I’ll find whoever is doing this and beat them up until they tell me where Spike is!” She surveyed the room, looking at each of her friends, hoping one of them would show a glint of fear in their eyes, that one of them would give a subconscious signal that would tell her which friend it was that was doing this…
“Ah’m thinkin’, maybe, we should just retire –”
“Give up?” Rainbow Dash flew straight in front of Applejack, so close that their noses briefly touched. Applejack took a surprised step back. But Rainbow didn’t even wince, even with the twinge of pain that shot through her head as her concussion throbbed. She was regarding her with sudden suspicion. It couldn’t be Applejack… But when has Applejack ever wanted to give up?
“Y-Yeah,” she said uncertainly. “Wait, no! Not give up. Maybe jus’ take a break. We all go back to our homes and mull over what the notes have been sayin’ about each of us. Too much craziness has gone on today. In all the chaos, we might have missed somethin’.”
Rainbow continued to watch her through narrowed eyes. Slowly, the pounding in her head dissipated and she blinked. Finally Rainbow deflated and sat on the ground, slumped over. She didn’t even bother listening to the replies from the others. She just stared at the floor beneath her hooves, wondering what to do next.
And then Rainbow realized how tired she was. When was the last time she slept, really slept? Knocked out unconscious didn’t count, and the hospital was filled with either bored, sleepless nights or she’d end up reading until the morning came. And when she got out of the hospital, Pinkie Pie had kept her up with the prank they were pulling. It was hard to believe it was still the very same day she had woken up from an hour long sleep and stepped out into Candy Land.
“I need to go to sleep,” Rainbow finally sighed. She wasn’t sure what conversation she had just interrupted with her announcement. But did it really matter? Her head gave another twinge of pain as she thought about it… If one of them was the mysterious writer, there was no point in conversing with any of them. Not until she could weed out the one bad pony… Wings drooping, tail down, Rainbow Dash walked away from her friends. She thought she heard someone calling out to her, but she didn’t bother turning back. It was like a wave crashing over her. She felt the pain in her head, she felt the lack of sleep she’d gotten this entire week… And then the emotional whirlwind involving Spike. “A pony can only take so much…” she found herself grumbling as she exited the tree house and walked into the night.
“It’s been tough,” somepony next to her agreed. Rainbow practically jumped out of her wings. She hadn’t heard anypony come up next to her, yet that was the effect Pinkie often had.
“What the hay, Pinkie! What do you want?”
“I thought you might want some company,” she said, strolling along. “You seemed kind of out of it.”
“Thanks, Pinkie, but I’m kind of going somewhere you can’t really follow,” Rainbow said, hoping her friend would get the hint before she had to start talking bluntly. After all, Rainbow Dash lived in the clouds, and while Pinkie figuratively lived in the clouds, she couldn’t walk on them like a pegasus.
“You could come back to Sugarcube Corner with me,” Pinkie suggested. “The doctor said you should stay off your wings. And you kind of look like you’re in an itsy bitsy bit of pain.”
“I think I can manage flying to my house,” Rainbow said, annoyed. “It’s not like it’s that far.”
“I know… I just thought. We didn’t get to finish our extra special day together, either. I had a whole thing planned that I knew you’d find extra extremely excitingly enticing!”
Rainbow Dash had forgotten that she was planning on spending the day with Pinkie. They had only stopped by Twilight’s to grab her book. Rainbow sighed as she realized she forgot her book at Twilight’s. Well, she had a feeling she’d be spending a lot of time there now, with the whole Spike situation, so she’d grab it tomorrow.
“Besides,” Pinkie continued, “Twilight said we should all meet back at her place first thing in the morning! You might oversleep and you need your Auntie Pinkie by your side as your very own trusty alarm clock.”
“Twilight,” Rainbow thought out loud, so tired she didn’t even really realize she was doing it. “I wonder if she’ll get any sleep tonight. I mean, Spike could be anywhere, and he could be slipping farther away everyday… Knowing Twilight, she’ll probably stay up all night reading those notes, trying to find some sort of clue that isn’t even there. Forget my situation, there’s gotta be something we can do to help her out…” Rainbow Dash sighed and yawned. Then she stopped, an idea forming. She noticed Pinkie was no longer next to her and turned around to see that Pinkie had stopped a few trots back. She was regarding Rainbow with an expression Rainbow couldn’t quite make out in the darkness.
“You okay, Pinkie?”
“Yeah…” Pinkie breathed. It was surprisingly soft coming from Pinkie. For a moment, she sounded more like Fluttershy. But Rainbow Dash wasn’t in the mood to make fun of her for it.
“I was actually thinking about crashing at Twilight’s,” Rainbow said thoughtfully. “If you still want to do a sleepover, you can come, too.”
Pinkie bounded over to Rainbow Dash, revealing a giant smile stretched across her face. “That sounds like a super-duper idea, Dashie! Let’s go!”
Rainbow managed to smile back, despite the fogginess of tiredness and pain she was shrouded in. That was what she liked about Pinkie, and why, she reflected quietly to herself, she would probably be okay with spending all her time with such an obnoxious fur ball. No matter what, Pinkie could always make Rainbow Dash smile.
Twilight had welcomed their presence. “Oh good,” she had said absentmindedly, “you can help me go over these notes…” And just like Dash had expected, she was already hoof deep in reading the notes provided by the mysterious dragon-napper. She had a strange grin on her face. Thin-lipped and stretching farther than Rainbow Dash thought was physically possible for a pony, except maybe Pinkie. But when Pinkie did a smile like that, she glowed happiness. Twlight, on the other hoof, didn’t appear overjoyed in the slightest. Rainbow shared a nervous glance with Pinkie, who tried to pass it off with a giggle, but regarded Twilight with a careful expression all the same.
“Listen, Twi,” Rainbow had begun, getting right to the point, “you need to rest. Sleep a little. I know finding Spike is important, but if you burn yourself out you won’t be help to anypony.” She carefully gave her friend a little nudge on the shoulder, but Twilight was resolute in staying where she was and reading over the notes again and again. Rainbow glanced at Pinkie, who shrugged. “Twilight… Come on…”
“I’m so close!” Twilight shouted, pushing Rainbow Dash off of her. “Just give a minute, I know I can figure this all out…”
“How about we take turns?” Pinkie suggested.
“Yeah,” Rainbow said, suddenly smiling at this new idea. “Yeah! That’s a great idea, Pinkie. Right, Twilight? Isn’t that a great idea?” Pinkie looked proud of herself, but Twilight barely gave either of them a glance.
“What?” she asked airily. “Sure, sure…”
“I’ll give you another hour with those notes, but then I’m taking over,” Rainbow said harshly, like a drill instructor. When Twilight didn’t respond keenly to the idea, she added desperately, “Maybe different perspectives will shed light on something.”
Twilight suddenly looked up. She stared at Rainbow Dash as if she had just noticed she was there. “Different… perspectives… Yes… Yes, I suppose…”
“Is she talking to us?” Pinkie asked, waving a hoof in front of Twilight’s unseeing face.
“Another hour, okay, Twilight?” Rainbow said again, a little louder this time.
Twilight shook her head to clear things. When she responded next, it was the first time that she seemed like she was really there. “O-Okay. You’re right, Rainbow Dash. Different perspectives might help things to connect together in a totally new way.”
“Exactly!” Rainbow said, smirking. She didn’t actually believe that herself, but she knew it was the kind of smart talk that Twilight listened to. “So you can take first shift, then I’ll look it over after, and –”
“Ooh, can I go after Twilight?” Pinkie asked, bouncing up and down again. “I want to take second shift!”
“Uh…” Rainbow Dash had wanted Twilight and Pinkie to get as much sleep as they could muster. And Rainbow hadn’t been planning on actually taking a serious look at the note on her shift, anyway. She gave Pinkie a weary look. “You sure, Pinks?”
Pinkie Pie nodded in response so fast that it almost looked as if her head had completely disappeared.
“Okay, okay, fine! You can take second shift. Don’t hurt yourself, jeez. I guess you can take an hour or two with the note, then pass it along to me, okay?” Rainbow yawned. The achy tired feeling crept back and she found herself stretching her sore body. She walked over to Pinkie and whispered into her ear, “Make sure she sleeps, Pinkie. Okay? Pinkie promise it.”
“I will,” Pinkie replied, at first fiercely determined with those big, blue, sparkling eyes staring straight into Rainbow Dash’s own cerise ones. They seemed to linger over Rainbow Dash for a moment, scanning her in that way that made Rainbow feel like Pinkie had x-ray vision. She shifted uncomfortably under Pinkie’s gaze for a moment. Then the pink pony broke the stare, giggling, and began the Pinkie promise motions, chanting, “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” Rainbow smiled, satisfied. Then she yawned again and her eyelids became too heavy for her to keep up without struggling considerably.
“Wake me up when it’s my turn,” she mumbled, slouching off to a corner of the library where the light didn’t quite reach and curled up into a little ball. The cold floor was fine, it didn’t matter much to Rainbow Dash. She was out within seconds of hitting the ground.
When Rainbow opened her eyes again, it was from the sudden stream of light that beamed through the room as somepony opened the door to Twilight’s abode. Rainbow blinked a couple times, at first confused. Then the events of last night washed over her and she groaned, stretching out. She stood up and looked around. Applejack had just walked in and Twilight rushed over to greet her.
‘Pinkie was supposed to wake me up,’ Rainbow thought bitterly. She had slept the entire night, something that was unusual for the insomniac, speedster pony. And strangest of all, she had slept well. She felt more well-rested than she ever had before. Silently, she thanked her friend for letting her sleep, but on the outside she put on an angry face and scanned the room for Pinkie.
Her eyes found her where she least expected her, and she jumped slightly as a result. Pinkie, as it turned out, was curled up into a little ball, snoring softly at Rainbow’s very own feet. She could feel the warmth rise from her friend’s body and tickle the wings on Rainbow’s back. They fluttered slightly and Rainbow took an indecisive step back. Had they slept together the entire night? Didn’t her friend Pinkie promise to make sure Twilight slept? And Pinkie would never, could never, break a Pinkie promise. Unless…
Her head seared with the usual pain from her concussion. And there it was again. That doubt. What if Pinkie didn’t bother because she didn’t care about the note because she didn’t need to care about the note because she wrote the note. Rainbow’s thoughts were racing and connecting at such a speed that it took all her strength just to cling onto them long enough to even remember what she was thinking. ‘But,’ Rainbow reasoned, ‘I didn’t care about the notes, either. That doesn’t make me the traitor of the group.’ Although, and her stomach prickled uncertainly at this next thought, it did seem like Pinkie was becoming the main subject of her suspicions recently…
“Howdy, RD!” Applejack chortled, trotting over to her friend. Rainbow Dash gave the orange cowpony a onceover. She was in a happy mood today… What reason would Applejack have to be so happy? Unless she was the mastermind behind all this, and she was secretly laughing at her friends for not even being close to figuring it out. ‘After all,’ Rainbow suddenly thought, eyes widening, ‘she is the Element of Honesty. There’s no way she’d be able to hold in a lie like this without letting something like that goofy grin she’s wearing slip through the cracks…’
“Somethin’ wrong?” Applejack asked, breaking Rainbow’s thoughts. “You’re lookin’ mighty… fishy.”
“Fishy? Me? I’m not fishy. You’re the one who’s lookin’ all happy. What’s that all about?” Rainbow countered, bristling slightly, her wings opening in a defensive state.
“Whoa now,” Applejack said, raising a hoof apologetically. “No need to get all defensive. I was just talkin’ to Twilight here and she was sayin’ she’s got some real good news to share with the group.”
“Good news?” Rainbow’s eyes shifted to Twilight, head slightly cocked. “What good news?” She took a moment to take in her friend. Twilight had a small grin on her face and, although she didn’t look well-rested, she didn’t look like she had stayed up all night, either. Maybe Pinkie had kept her promise after all. Besides, Pinkie never broke a Pinkie promise. Never, ever.
“Another note came last night!” Twilight said, her voice broke and she gave a high-pitched giggle. Rainbow’s ears flattened at the sight of her friend’s slight dip into insanity. She had only acted like this once before, and that had not ended well… Then she registered what Twilight had just said.
“Wait, another note? But we were down here all night! How could they have –”
“Exactly!” Twilight responded shrilly. “I woke up this morning and you two were asleep and the note was here!” She watched Rainbow with that grin, and Rainbow thought that she’d never witnessed a more see-through façade. Her head gave another twinge and she rubbed it, her mind going back to Pinkie and how the clues seemed to be adding up more and more…
“Uh, that’s great, sugar cube,” Applejack responded, exchanging a nervous glance with Dash. They both realized there was no reasoning with Twilight at the moment. Their best step was to go along with her and hope that they could find Spike before Twilight went over the deep end completely. “What did it, uh, say, then?”
“Exactly everything we need in order to catch them!” Twilight squeaked, her smile widening. “I woke up this morning and I just noticed it sitting there and at first I couldn’t believe they had slipped in and out without any of us noticing but the note has everything we need and now I couldn’t be any happier!”
And once again, Rainbow Dash looked to Pinkie Pie. She should have been awake, or woken Dash up… But she hadn’t. Was this the reason why? So she could place the note and then pretend like she fell asleep and hadn’t noticed a thing? She gulped back her suspicions. She just didn’t want to believe her best friend could be that devious and dishonest.
“Did they leave a hoofmark?” Applejack asked eagerly. “How are we gonna find ‘em based on a note? Did they slip up somehow?”
“Nope!” Twilight said, giggling even harder. “No, they’re as sneaky as ever!” Rainbow and Applejack exchanged glances again.
“Uh, okay, Twilight…”
Rarity entered the tree house next, a mirror floating magically in front of her as she attempted to adjust her appearance. “This staying up all night worrying about poor Spikey-wikey is not good for my complexion,” she stated with a sigh. “Sorry I’m late, everypony, my morning pampering session took a little longer than it usually does.” Rainbow Dash and Applejack rolled their eyes.
A few minutes later, Fluttershy ran in, looking worried. “Oh, I’m so sorry I’m late, everypony… The animals are not doing very well after their candy binging yesterday. I had to clean up after them all morning and then I made some soup but it wasn’t enough and… Angel was very upset…”
“That’s alright, Fluttershy. Pinkie Pie is still asleep, anyway,” Applejack said, jabbing her head in the pink pony’s direction. “Nopony’s got the heart to wake her.”
“Oh, please,” Rainbow said, rolling her eyes. “If that’s what we’re waiting for, I’ll wake her up.” She would never admit it to anypony, but Rainbow Dash was a little angry at Pinkie Pie. Mainly for her fleeting thoughts that Pinkie Pie might be the mastermind behind the dragon-napping, as unfair as she knew that unfounded accusation was.
Rainbow flew over to her sleeping friend and hovered above her for a few seconds. And for a moment, she did feel a little guilty about what she was about to do. She hesitated and watched the rising and falling of Pinkie’s stomach as she breathed in and out, slowly and rhythmically. There was no trace of a smile on Pinkie’s face while she slept, Rainbow noted. Instead, her face was utterly placid. She was peaceful and quiet, besides the occasional snorts which had no order and often caught Rainbow by surprise. Right before waking her up, Pinkie made one of her snorts and Rainbow jerked back for a second. Then she let out a low chuckle. Even asleep, Pinkie somehow managed to make Rainbow laugh.
And then, unceremoniously, Rainbow brought her hooves down on Pinkie and shook her awake. “Wake up, wake up, wake up,” Rainbow belted, adding a little hint of a singsong voice as she recalled Pinkie’s own wake-up song.
Pinkie jumped into the air, suddenly very alert, eyes wide, and she hovered next to Rainbow Dash for a moment. Briefly, Dash wondered how her friend managed to stay airborne for so long, but she pushed the thought aside. These were things better left unmentioned.
Pinkie’s eyes fell on Dash and her entire body changed from surprise to glee. “Oh, hiya, Dashie!” she said loudly. Then, finally, she dropped to the ground. Rainbow landed next to her and ruffled her wings a bit.
“That’s for not waking me up,” Rainbow said, maintaining a mad expression.
If anything, Pinkie’s smile grew even wider. “I thought you might need the sleep,” she said, slyly. “You seemed okay with it last night! I said, ‘Hey, Dashie, if you want to sleep some more, snore loudly!’ and you did! You snored soooo, so, so, so loudly I thought you were gonna wake Twilight up! But nope, you both really needed your sleep. And so Auntie Pinkie kept her Pinkie promise and let you sleep!”
Rainbow felt the color rise to her cheeks, and she managed to grumble at Pinkie, “I didn’t snore.” But Pinkie just smiled knowingly. And Rainbow should have known what was about to come next.
“Really? It sure sounded like a snore to me. It was all like ‘GWA –’” And then Pinkie found a hoof in her mouth as Rainbow shoved it practically down her throat, glaring at her.
“Okay! Thanks, Pinkie. We really don’t need your commentary on the whole thing.”
Pinkie giggled. “Okie-dokie-lokie!” Rainbow sighed and turned back to her friends, who all seemed to be stifling laughter.
“What?” Rainbow growled. “Didn’t Twilight have some information on the dragon-napper to give us? Remember, Spike?”
“That’s right, y’all!” Applejack agreed. “Apparently another note came last night.”
“Oh, how awful!”
“Oh… but the awful dragon-napper got in unnoticed again…?”
“Yep!” Twilight said loudly, the grin widening on her face.
“Wow, Twilight. You sure are making a super happy-dappy face for some saddy-waddy news.”
“Well, this time we’re going to get Spike back for sure! The answer is all right here!” Twilight held the note up with her unicorn’s magic, her smile only widening.
“I love smiles as much as the next pony,” Pinkie said in a whisper to Rainbow Dash, “but that doesn’t look very happy.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Rainbow agreed. In any other situation, Rainbow might have found Pinkie’s comment funny, but here it was so true that it was actually sad. Twilight’s smile was one full of chaotic pain, not undisguised jubilee.
“Uh, well, dear,” Rarity began, struggling with retaining her decorum with Twilight so obviously cracking under the pressure, “what is it that the note says?”
“It’s the game!” Twilight said with another laugh. “The rules to the game! If we just follow the note perfectly and diligently, we’ll get Spike back and nopony will get hurt!”
“That’s… great…”
“What are the rules, then?” Twilight just glanced at Applejack, still holding her eerie smile.
“Maybe, uh, maybe I should read it?” Rarity asked, using her magic to float the note gently in front of her so that she could see the words glistening on the parchment. Twilight didn’t respond to this act, so Rarity cleared her throat and read:
“Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow...
Your hearts I shall borrow…
The games finally will begin
But who, pray tell, will win?
“Your dragon friend has not been harmed
Into a deep sleep he has been charmed.
The rules to this game you must heed
In order to get what it is that you will need.
“First, with your opposite shall you grow,
And learn something you need to know.
Then, your counterpart will appear
And with them something that you fear.
Finally, a decision each of you must make,
In order for the prize to be yours to take.
“Each of you must look deep within your past,
And, most important of all, remember my last.
For the conclusion,
Regards, Illusion.”
***
Illusion.
There had been a long discussion on just that one segment of the note. Did the note actually mean to regard illusion? Or perhaps illusions were all a part of the game. Smoke and mirrors… Was that all this was to the dragon-napper? In the end, they had settled on calling their mystery writer Illusion. It seemed to be the penname that they had given themself, anyway.
Rainbow Dash flapped her wings, pushing herself to her very limit as she climbed straight up, barreling through clouds at such high speeds, with the wind gushing through her, that she practically obliterated every cloud that attempted to float near her. It felt good, she thought, finally getting the freedom to fly again. Her routine had been broken by the sudden twist of events, all starting with her hospital visit, that she really hadn’t had much of a chance to just fly.
And after the day she had, she was taking the full opportunity to deal with her insomnia by flying and practicing new tricks and flips and just generally not thinking at all. Whatever she did, she wasn’t letting her mind stray from the flying routine at hand. Not even for a single second…
They all had their theories. Everypony had shouted a great deal, except Fluttershy who attempted to get a word in edgewise whenever she could. Rainbow Dash was still considering the possibility that Illusion was one of her friends, but the idea seemed so stupid to her now as she flew through the night sky, her head finally clear. She just couldn’t imagine which of them would want to dragon-nap Spike, and why this strange riddle-filled mission to get him back would be beneficial in anyway. In fact, she couldn’t understand why this would be beneficial to anypony, not just her friends. Everything was just so weird, so strange and out of place, and it was bringing out the worst in everyone.
Twilight was the worst. She was beyond her crazy self when she was almost tardy with a letter to the Princess that one time. Her firm belief was that if they just followed Illusion’s rules and listened to every note she gave them, somehow Spike would come back to them. She was delving so deep into her studies and into reading and interpreting every line of every note that it was unbearable. Rainbow Dash, on the other hand, wasn’t going to trust what Illusion was saying so easily. It didn’t make sense, anyway. Why dragon-nap Spike and then give them clear instructions on how to get him back? This mystery pony didn’t seem to want anything in return. These weren’t ransom letters they were getting, they were directions. Rainbow Dash couldn’t understand it, and thinking about it only frustrated her further.
Flying upside down was always the hardest. She had trouble with flight control and often turned the opposite way that she wanted. But loop-de-loops were a favorite of hers. She loved to incorporate spinning and sharp turns in her routines. And although she knew she had the speed, the Wonderbolts were looking for aerobatic tricks that could be performed in groups. That, Rainbow realized with a sigh, was one of her weak points. Alone, she was a showstopper. She knew that, it wasn’t bragging or anything, it was just a fact. But in a group? She often relied on her instincts to perform crowd-dazzling stunts and daring acts that were not only hard to repeat, but would impede on her team if she attempted them on a Wonderbolts stage.
‘It’s so much easier being alone,’ she thought to herself. ‘I do everything so much better on my own.’ But that wasn’t what she wanted, she knew that. She wanted to be a Wonderbolt, after all. The thought would sneak in every once in a while despite herself, and it would make her throat dry and her heart sink. ‘You’re better off alone. Stop dreaming, kid. You aren’t that kind of pony.’
She was Rainbow Dash. A speedster, a trickster, a daredevil, and a solo act. She didn’t want to be anything different than what she was. And now here she was, flipping in mid-turns and spinning around clouds, and she was trying hard to not think because for some reason whenever she let herself think when she was alone it always gave her that needling feeling in her stomach. And it was awfully hard to practice her moves when her stomach felt like it was being stabbed from the inside out.
But it was so frustrating. Because she could feel it, somewhere inside her she could feel it. There was something trying to get out and she just didn’t know what it was. ‘I’m happy,’ she’d assert. ‘I’m me! What more do I want from myself?’ Even now, she had no idea. But there was a spark, in the back of her mind. And then a distant memory…
For Rainbow Dash, who is concussed,
Does she even know what she deeply lusts?
‘No…’ Rainbow Dash admitted to herself. ‘Isn’t that why I come out here every night? Isn’t that why I wake up from some nightmare that I can never remember and keep getting haunted by thoughts I know I’m having but I just can’t…’
It wasn’t something she could articulate. It was a feeling. More than words, it was the way she felt. And that’s how she knew. She didn’t come out here every night to be herself. Or maybe she did, in a way. What was she doing, out amongst the clouds as she ran from her secret desires and kept busy with her less confusing tricks and stunts?
‘And now I’m thinking too much,’ she thought angrily, feeling not only her stomach turn, but her head reel as well. Instead of lingering on half-thought truths that only confused her, Rainbow dashed away.
Twisting and turning, she practiced her newest stunt. She grinned eagerly, back to imagining the look on the Wonderbolts’ faces when she showed them this move. Spinning, she cut neat holes through the clouds, finally reaching a height that turned the entirety of Ponyville into one tiny dot. Laughing, she nosedived, tears immediately streaming out of her eyes as she gained speed and the wind cut her skin like a knife. She could tell that she’d be able to pull off a Sonic Rainboom without any trouble if she pushed herself, but she didn’t want to cause a panic amongst the town. So she went just slow enough, but still maintaining a speed faster than most pegasus could ever even dream of flying.
Twilight’s had not gone well at all. While it was easy to blame Twilight for the rift and tension, if Rainbow Dash was honest with herself the real culprit was probably the rest of them. That was the way Twilight handled her pain, and the rest of them couldn’t deal with it. Going over every sentence, word by word, of every single note… And there was always a pony that disagreed with the consensus about what something meant. It wasn’t Twilight that was slowly driving them all to madness, it was each other.
Rainbow Dash hadn’t stuck around for the whole thing. At one point, she bolted. She couldn’t remember exactly what she said as she left, or if anyone really noticed or said anything to make her come back. At that point, it hadn’t really mattered. They most progress they had made was decided on calling the evil mastermind behind all the riddles Illusion. And even that was met with some hostility. Specifically from Rainbow, who didn’t want to give in to giving the bad guy the name they had chosen for themself.
In the end, it didn’t really matter. And Dash had left. And she had done some of her trivial weather duties that she had been neglecting. It didn’t take more than ten seconds. Then she had found a soft cloud and napped. At one point, she remembered a voice calling out to her and she opened an eye, half-awake from her rest. Then she realized it was Pinkie, just below her, and with a decisive groan she rolled over onto her stomach and pretended to be sleeping. Eventually, she heard the pink earth pony leave.
But tomorrow the games would begin. Or technically, they would start today. Rainbow Dash wondered for a moment exactly what was supposed to happen. Twilight was so sure they just needed to follow the rules, but Illusion hadn’t been that clear on the rules. Sure, there was some riddle about growing with an opposite and learning something, and then something about fear, and then a decision… But it still wasn’t clear. What were the rules? How was any of this supposed to happen? And how would Rainbow Dash even know if she was learning what she was supposed to learn? In fact, Rainbow Dash decided to completely shrug off the entire thing. It just brought them in circles and she didn’t feel any closer to finding Spike than they were during the first note. The one clue that Rainbow Dash had felt any security in had been eaten by a pack of rabid animals.
She was nearing the ground now. This was precision at its strongest. At exactly the right moment, she had to pull up. And then she would be soaring only an inch from the ground, the hair on her stomach tickling the grass. It was a trick that took concentration and courage. And she’d never actually tried it before, but she was confident in her ability to make it happen.
Almost there…
She could count each individual strands of grass.
Almost there…
She could see the tiny bits of dirt and rocks that the grass sprouted out of.
Almost there…
She could smell the grass as it was inches from tickling her nose.
NOW!
But instead of pulling up like she was supposed to, her wings locked into place. There was a moment of panic where her brain registered exactly what was going to happen before her hooves had any time to react. And then, as if in slow motion, she watched in frozen horror as her face made contact with the ground.
And with a sickening crunch, everything went black.