Chapter 2
Rainbow Dash gently pushed open the Ponyville Library door and trotted inside. Twilight Sparkle and Spike were busy reorganising the bookshelves as they did every couple of weeks, and of course, by Twilight and Spike, Rainbow Dash actually meant just Twilight. Spike actually wasn’t helping, just pretending to look busy by swapping the places of two books back and forth over and over again, occasionally moving down the line so that Twilight wouldn’t notice he wasn’t actually doing any work.
‘Uh... Twilight?’ Rainbow Dash asked.
Twilight looked up at Rainbow Dash and smiled sweetly at her; she trotted over to Rainbow Dash and planted a kiss on her lips. The kiss was brief, lasting for no more than a few seconds, but during it, Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but feel horribly guilty, she was a terrible person, and here she was getting wonderful treatment from Twilight, ignorant of what Rainbow Dash had done. ‘Wha... what was that for?’ Rainbow Dash asked nervously.
‘Because I felt like it’, Twilight said sassily, and proudly, in a way that one would have expected out of Rarity, she grinned at Rainbow Dash and gave her a wink.
Spike gagged, pointing a claw at his mouth to show his disgust, but then immediately went back to pretending to do what he was pretending to do.
‘Uhh... heh’, Rainbow Dash said nervously, rubbing her hoof against the back of her head. ‘Uh... Twilight? I need to talk to you about something...’
Twilight’s grin faded. ‘Rainbow? Is everything okay?’
‘Can we go upstairs?’ Rainbow Dash asked.
Twilight nodded in agreement and the two mares trotted up the stairs and shut the bedroom door behind them. Spike looked up from where he was sitting on the floor, his interest in Twilight and Rainbow Dash’s relationship was minimal most of the time.
‘WHAT?!’ Twilight screamed.
Spike’s head shot up in interest. The door to the bedroom flung open and Rainbow Dash ran down the stairs as fast as she could, Twilight had taken to throwing various objects at her and chasing her with the very large and very heavy looking book that Raindrops had brought to her this morning. Rainbow Dash threw open the door and galloped out into Ponyville proper.
Twilight stopped at the front door and continued to shout after Rainbow Dash‘I DON’T WANT TO EVER SEE YOU AGAIN RAINBOW DASH! DON’T YOU DARE EVER COME BACK HERE!’ Twilight ended the ‘conversation’ by slamming the door shut.
‘Twilight? Is everything okay?’ Spike asked.
Twilight took a few steps and collapsed onto the floor in tears. Spike rushed over to her and knelt down next to her. ‘Twilight? What happened?’ he asked.
‘R... Rainbow Dash cheated on me Spike’, Twilight said, she got back up to her hooves and ran up the stairs to her room, still levitating the big book and pulling it along with her. ‘Leave me alone, Spike! I want to be alone!’ she cried out as she slammed the door behind her.
Twilight leapt onto her bed, grabbing her pillow and holding it close to her, she buried her head in it and sobbed heavily. Twilight cried, and cried, and cried, and cried, and cried, and cried. She only stopped crying when her tear ducts went dry, and even then she wasn’t feeling any better.
Part of what was making Twilight upset was who Rainbow Dash was. Rainbow Dash was the Element of Loyalty. What she had done to her was a huge slap to the face, the most disloyal thing that a pony could ever do to another had been done to her by loyalty itself. What did that say about the ideals that they all held dear? If Rainbow Dash could do that to her... what about the rest of her friends, what were they capable of?
Twilight sat up on her bed and wiped her eyes, and took notice of the book that Raindrops had brought to her this morning. It was lying on her bed. She pulled it close to her, the title wasn’t printed on it, which was odd for a book in this day and age, the book had to be pretty old, and it did look to be pretty old.
But if Twilight Sparkle had learned anything, it was this: never judge a book by its cover. Maybe a bit of reading would help take her mind of Rainbow Dash, she pulled the book under her face and opened it up to the first page and began to read.
...
Rainbow Dash trotted through Ponyville nervously. Her heart was filled with guilt, she knew that she had done wrong, she had done the worst thing that she could have ever possibly have done, how could she live with herself? What would she do now?
Twilight Sparkle had thrown her out, it was only going to be a matter of time before the rest of her friends found out, and they were going to be just as disgusted with her as Twilight had been. Now Rainbow Dash needed to figure out what she was going to do. She would need to find where she was going to be sleeping tonight. Since moving in with Twilight, Rainbow Dash had sold off her cloud home, and Cloudsdale had reclaimed it for material. She had no place to live, and she couldn’t ask one of her other friends, they’d be finding out soon, and they’d side with Twilight in the issue, as they should, Twilight was the victim, and Rainbow Dash had victimised her.
Rainbow Dash turned north, she knew one place she could go where she wouldn’t be in anypony’s way, while she knew where she was going, she hung her head low and wasn’t quite paying attention to what she was doing, and hadn’t noticed that she’d walked right into somepony.
Rainbow Dash’s head shot up. It was Doctor Nightly. ‘Oh, hey doc’, Rainbow Dash said plainly.
‘Hello Rainbow Dash, good thing I ran into you, I’m going to have to move your check up back a few days... is Tuesday going to be okay with you?’ Doctor Nightly asked.
‘Yeah, sure, whatever’, Rainbow Dash said unenthusiastically. Today was Thursday, and Rainbow Dash was fine, she knew she was fine, she didn’t need this extra check up, but the good doctor was very insistent that he keep a regular eye on her condition.
‘Rainbow Dash? Is everything all right? You look... down’, Doctor Nightly asked.
‘Yeah, I’m fine’, Rainbow Dash said plainly.
‘Are you sure? Because if something is wrong, you can tell me, doctor/patient confidentiality applies’, Doctor Nightly said.
‘I’m sure, bye doc, see you Tuesday’, Rainbow Dash said as she passed him and continued on her way without looking back. Rainbow Dash turned and headed along the east road out of Ponyville and into Whitetail Wood, where she happened upon a small cave opening. Rainbow Dash felt her way along the darkened tunnels of the cave until she reached the lowest point. At the end she discovered the big metal door to the Everfree Plains Ballistic Research and Development Facility, better known by its acronym of EPMB. Rainbow Dash went over to the control door, punching in the password of ‘aurora borealis’, and standing back as hazard lights began to flash, the air hissed with steam. Rainbow Dash covered her ears as the opening mechanism for the door pulled the door back, and the sound of metal grinding against metal split the air. The door rolled to the left and Rainbow Dash trotted inside, only flinching slightly as the door shut behind her. It wasn’t exactly the best place to sleep, but it was better than being on the streets.
...
Twilight Sparkle picked up her head from the book that she’d been reading when she heard a knock at her bedroom door.
‘Twilight! It’s me! Spike!’ Spike called out as he pushed open the door. ‘I know you said you wanted to be left alone, but I came to see if you wanted any dinner?’
Twilight raised an eyebrow at Spike’s question. ‘Spike? It’s far too early for dinner!’ Twilight said with annoyance in her voice.
‘Twilight... it’s six o’clock, you’ve been up here for hours...’ Spike said.
‘No it’s not Spike, I’ve only been up here for like ten minutes and...’ Twilight paused when she glanced at the clock on her bedside table, indeed, it did say six o’clock, it been a quarter to noon when she had come up here. Twilight looked out the window and saw that the sun was setting. ‘Wow, I knew that this book was good’, Twilight said with a smirk. ‘I didn’t realise it was THAT good’.
‘What have you been reading?’ Spike asked.
‘Oh, it’s this really interesting book! It’s called the Tome of Alhazred, and it’s sort of a book about everything!’ Twilight said. Though Spike didn’t think it was that helpful of a description.
‘Can I see?’ Spike asked as he walked towards her, and the book.
‘NO!’ Twilight cried out, snatching the book up and pulling it close to her. ‘Uhh... I mean... not until I’m done with it... heh heh...’ Twilight said, chuckling nervously and glancing around. ‘Dinner sounds good, Spike, I’ll be down in a minute... I just... uh... need to find a bookmark’.
Spike shrugged and walked out of the bedroom and back into the kitchen, Twilight set the Tome of Alhazred back down on her bed and continued reading, she didn’t know what it was about this book... but it was so... interesting, she just couldn’t stop.