//------------------------------// // A lifelong dream // Story: The lost princess // by Minagoesmew //------------------------------// A soft, warm feeling enveloped rainbow dash as she stared up, a figure of all light colours stood over her, speaking soft words she couldn't make out, then a pressure on her forehead, the figure retreated, rainbow dash tried to raise a hoof, to call out for the figure to stop but it was too late, rainbow awoke with a start and then a groan. The cyan pegasus rolled out of bed onto her soft cloud flooring, again with that damn dream, she groggily walked towards her kitchen, placing a kiss on the still sleeping tanks shell as she passed by his bed. As rainbow entered the kitchen she flapped her wings, taking flight to reach a high up cupboard, opening it to reveal a box which she quickly took down to her table "Come on head, lets try and get SOMETHING more than just a few blobs on the paper this time" she sighed before removing a piece of paper and a paint set from the box, taking a brush in her mouth before she got to work as she had many times before, first the few definite features she had down, two blobs of light purple that she had long decided must be eyes, a light colour framing what must be the mystery ponies head, interpreted as a mane, rainbow went with a light pink this time around, and finally, she realised with a start, what must be a horn on the forehead, quickly adding it to the vague attempt at trying to get the visage of this pony. Rainbow dropped her brush into a mug of now murky water with a sigh, this was definite progress, but she was no closer to finding out who the pony was, after all, there had to be millions of unicorns with light purple eyes and a light coloured mane, she couldn't even pin down what colour their coat was. It had been years since the first time rainbow had had that same dream, at first all she could remember from it was the gentle voices unintelligible words, for over a year that was all she could remember, until she first performed a sonic rainboom, then it was like a barrier between the dream and her mind had been broken, then she could see the eyes, as it stayed for years, until the summer sun celebration a year ago, then came the mane, and now had come the horn, but the only thing that had happened was the areal relay tryouts at the rainbow falls yesterday, the wonderbolts pin was currently hanging in her room on a lanyard that she'd kept from the event and that wasn't as magical as the rainboom and when she and her friends had saved luna. Rainbow sighed as she moved the paper aside and dropped her head to the table, she really thought she'd found a link to what let her remember more things with the magic idea, yet the horn had come today and not after something like discord or the cutie mark switching spell twilight cast, therapists had tried their hand at explaining this dream, she didn't want to think how many times they tried to suggest she try something else in the dream, and how mamy times she'd had to switch therapists due to breaking their muzzles. Heck once she even asked princess luna to take a peak at her dreams, that was one of the few times she'd had a normal dream, it was like the dream itself was fighting her need to make sense of it. Rainbow was about to move the painting away to dry when she realised something, even if only two out of three times were magic events, this would be right up a certain purple alicorns alley, a mystery that has some link to magic, that egghead would be all over trying to make sense of it, quickly setting the painting back down she rushed to a drawer in her room, taking several similar paintings from it and slipping them into her saddlebags, she tossed some lettuce into tanks food bowl before rushing out the door, making a beeline for the tree slash library slash house that her friend resided in. Twilight looked over the paintings as her cyan friend explained the strange dream to her, inspecting each element closely "and then today i finally managed to get down that they had a horn, and that didn't happen the day after some big magical thing, but i figured you might be all over figuring out what this is, so what do ya think?" "I think that normally I'd be killing you for waking me up this early, but the idea of figuring out a dream that even princess luna couldn't cracks saved you for now, but just to be sure, you HAVE tried to do anything else, even just looking around or not raising your hoof?" The alicorn spoke calmly as she took out a quill and notepad, writing down all known info "As I've told you and several therapists before, yes, it's like the dreams pre programmed to only happen like that" rainbow sighed from her place opposite twilight. "Just making sure i have all the data correct, so obviously the first step is to monitor you whilst you're sleeping, follow me" with that she led the pegasus down to her basement where a machine sat, currently inactive. "So first of all I'll need you to lay down and get comfortable, I'll need you asleep for the tests" Rainbow quickly obliged, setting down a cushion she'd pilfered from the main room of the tree before a dome with wires leading towards the machine was dropped on her head "ya'know this isn't doing wonders for the get comfortable part" "Sorry rainbow but you're going to have to deal with it or we can't get the readings we need" twilight called over, flicking some switches on the machine. Sighing rainbow did her best, soon dozing off, the dream once again coming to her with its unknown pony and their words that refused to make sense in her mind until, before the pony could retreat, she was shaken awake by the purple princess "Rainbow! Rainbow! I've figured it out!" "What the-" rainbow replied groggily before the words connected in her mind. "Wait, already!" The pegasus shot up, tossing aside the dome on her head. "Yes! It took me a bit to figure out why the readings didn't make sense until i realised it wasn't mormal readings for REM sleep, instead it was as if you were stuck in a memory, which is why luna couldn't help, because it wasn't a dream" she explained excitedly as she showed printouts from the machine that made absolutely 0 sense to rainbow, but the word memory certainly rung a bell. "Wait- so I'm not going crazy, this pony was real, do you know how we can figure it out?" Rainbow was quickly trying to think back to when a unicorn with a light coloured mane could have spoken to her that also included a light pressure to her forehead, but to no avail. "I have one thing that just might work, since this is a memory instead of a dream i have a potion that just might be able to bring you back to that moment and learn the identity of this pony!" Twilight explained as she rushed upstairs, quickly returning with a bottle with a gold, red gem encrusted neck and a white liquid within. "Zecoras potion?" Rainbow had seen how it looked from the outside, she didn't want to know what it felt like to experience it. "But i thought it only responded to alicorn magic" "Yes, but if i channel my magic into it whilst you drink it, the potion should work" twilight levitated the bottle to rainbow. "And if it doesn't?" Rainbow eyed the bottle suspiciously. "Hopefully nothing should happen if it doesn't" rainbow didn't like how twilight said that but, it was possibly her only chance of finally learning what her dream was about, who that pony was. "Okay, lets do this" and so twilight concentrated, sending a beam of her magic into the potion as she levitated it to rainbows lips, the pegasus took a gulp as the bottle was set aside, grimacing at the taste. "Ew, whelp that didn't wo-" she was cut off by a feeling of falling as her mind was dragged into the past. Next thing rainbow dash knew she was in cloudsdale at night time, but there was something strange, she didn't feel completely there, then she noticed a large cloaked figure. "Hello, sorry, can you tell me what's going on?" The pony didn't respond as she simply walked on, approaching a house rainbow remembered far too well. "What are you doing here?" Again the cloaked figure didn't respond, as if they couldn't hear her as they glanced from side to side before a basket was levitated from under their cloak, inside, rainbow noted, was bundled a light pink filly with light, rainbow hair and a horn. The filly giggled as they raised their forelegs up, causing the blanket to fall, rainbow gasped as she noted the pair of tiny wings on the fillys back that stretched out, an alicorn. "Hush now, sunlight, it's time to rest, when you wake you'll be in a loving home, with a loving family" the cloaked pony spoke, clearly a mare, voice soinding close to crying. "And please remember, no matter what, no matter where you are, your mama will always love you" the mare then placed a soft kiss and then a long, white horn on the alicorn fillys head, rainbow dash stared as the soft pink coat shifted hue to a hauntingly familiar shade of cyan, the pale rainbow mane becoming more vivid and the horn disappearing, rainbow dash stared in awe as she watched herself as a filly get swaddled up and laid back down before the cloaked mare retreated, rainbow followed her, wanting to stay with the filly that couldn't be anyone but her, but needing to know the identity of the mare who retreated to an alleyway before her horn lit up with a warm golden glow, rainbow could hear a knock at the door and commotion as it opened and two voices she knew too well before the mare dropped her hood, revealing a four light coloured mane, light purple eyes and a white coat, rainbow stepped back in shock as the face of princess celestia stared back at her, tears in her eyes before she was falling again. Rainbow shot up from where she'd clearly fallen, almost butting heads with twilight, who had clearly been sitting over her in worry, but she couldn't worry about that as she started pacing, trying to consolidate what she just learned with what she thought she'd known "rainbow, slow down! What did you see?" That was it! If that was all a bad trip then the spell celestia cast in the dream shouldn't be real. "Twilight i need you to check if there's a spell over me, not a normal one, alicorn magic!" "Rainbow- what? How could there be an alicorn spell on you, there's only four of us and i doubt any of us would do that to you" rainbow sighed. "Twilight, please, i need to know, i need to know that was all just a bad trip from a backfiring potion, please" she was close to tears at this point. "I- okay, I'll see" with that twilight, with a bit of trepidation placed her horn on rainbows head, focusing, trying to find something, until she felt it, a spell, an old one, twilight gasped, a spell this old, only an alicorn could cast magic so strong to last this many years, twilight pulled, dispelling the magic before retreating, watching rainbow dash worriedly. The moment twilight retreated rainbows coat began to shift colour, from her normal cyan to a soft pink, lighter than cadences, her mane and tail shifting to a paler rainbow, her cutie mark even changed from a rainbow bolt coming from a cloud to a rainboom shockwave, a rainbow coming from the center leading into the original cutie mark, and then, she grew, as tall as big macintosh, and finally and most shocking of all, a long horn grew from her forehead, rainbow was an alicorn. "Wh- what the?" Rainbow looked down at herself, her body, her colouring, then she raised a hoof to her head, feeling the horn, then a sound caught somewhere between a laugh and a sob escaped her mouth. "So it's true, all this time, that dream- no that memory....." rainbow took a steadying breath as she tilted her head up trying to not let the tears drop. "My parents arent my parents, and princess celestia is my mom" All twilight could do was gawp at her transformed friend as she tried to not cry, what she said, it couldn't be true "...rainbow? Are you okay?" "No! I just learned that my life is a lie and I'm not even who i think i am! Of course I'm not okay" she snapped, then, she took a breath "i- sorry, twilight, I'm just- going through a lot right now" rainbow spoke, tears now freely flowing. It had taken a while to get the now alicorn to calm down, though there were still tears pricking at her eyes. "So now what do we do?" Rainbow asked, a faraway look in her eyes "I- I think we need to contact celestia, try and find out what exactly is going on" almost as if on cue spike came down the stairs. "Uhh twilight, princess celestia is here and- woah, i... think i know why now, uhh, hi there, I'm spike, what's your name?" Rainbow glared at the tiny dragon. "Spike! It's me, rainbow dash!" She growled. "Wh- rainbow, what happened?" He was clearly taken aback at the now pink alicorns appearance. "How did you become an alicorn?" "Questions for later spike, for now i think it's best we speak to celestia, come on rainbow" twilight quickly led rainbow dash upstairs where princess celestia was waiting as spike promised "Hello twilight, rainbow" the princess was not as composed as she usually was, her almost constant gentle smile was replaced by a tired one. "I can imagine that you have a few questions for me" "Yeah, like what the buck!?" Rainbow interrupted, twilight gasped at rainbows outburst. "Why did you leave me on that doorstep?" Celestia grimaced. "I can understand why you'd say that, you see i didn't have much choice" rainbow dash clearly had something to say about that but celestia raised her hoof. "When you were born i could not have been happier, i was lonely, before teaching sunset and twilight, before cadence became an alicorn, I had no one close to me, and then one day, i came across a spell that would allow me to have a child of my own without the need of a partner, i cast it, not realising the consequences, that first month i was happier than i had been since i had to send luna to the moon, but then i remembered, in only a few years my sister would return, and i feared what nightmare moon would do to you when she did, so i searched for a couple who would care for you, and cast a spell over you so that you could live among others without anyone being the wiser of your true nature, it broke my heart to leave you on that doorstep that night" the larger alicorn explained. "But then why didn't you say anything when we stopped nightmare moon, when rainbow wasn't in danger anymore?" Twilight questioned her mentor. "Because i saw the mare she grew to be and feared your reaction, i decided to just allow myself to be happy that my daughter was safe and happy, that she was surrounded by friends." That tired smile returned to the princesses face. "Did i even have a name, before you abandoned me?" Rainbow spat out, glaring at her mother. She winced at her daughters words before she spoke "i had named you Sunlight Heart, and it doesn't matter now, i can take you in, we can be mother and daughter again" a hopeful look came to the white alicorns face. "It seems to me that all i was to you was a poorly thought out way to keep yourself company, instead you dropped me off when you realised it and now you're trying to make up for that, well i don't want it" she growled before storming out, quickly taking flight and making her way far away from the tree and its current occupants. Twilight looked at the door in shock, glancing towards her mentor and her hurt expression before taking a breath "...i think that maybe you should give rainbow some space, she's learned a lot today and she'll need time to process it all, i can't make any promises, but I'll try and convince her to at least talk to you soon" with that she left towards a certain cottage, leaving the princess of the sun to sit there and process what happened.