Twilight led the way off the paths into the Everfree. Outside of eternal night, and with a couple years of living near its borders, the forest has lost most of its mystery to her, and the retraced path carried none of the desperation of their first journey, but as they walked together in silence, a heady nostalgia gripped them.
The treeline broke at a steep decline, and they made their way down with care, arriving at a worn groove where the sod had torn away at the edge of a cliff. Twilight glanced at Applejack, then stared at the long drop down. “This is where I let go,” she murmured. “I let go, and then Fluttershy and…” She swallowed the lump in her throat “—and Rainbow Dash caught me.”
Fluttershy took them down to the valley one at a time: first Twilight, followed by Pinkie. While they waited for the others, Pinkie turned to Twilight. “Everything okay, Twilight? You’re kinda out of it.” She waved a hoof in front of her friend’s face.
“Hmn? Oh, I’m fine.”
“You had another dream, huh?”
Twilight jumped, staring at Pinkie wide-eyed. “How did—?” At her friend’s shrug, she sighed and rubbed her face. “Nevermind. Let’s not talk about it just yet; I’m still figuring everything about it out.”
Applejack landed in front of them as Fluttershy went back for Rarity. “Twi, ya look like ya seen a ghost.”
Pinkie opened her mouth, but Twilight pressed a hoof to her shoulder. “It’s nothing, Applejack. At least, nothing yet.” Frowning to herself, she flipped back the flap of her saddlebags and lifted the book she’d shoved in at the last minute, floating it in front of her face to read the cover: Bodhism, A Historical View.
As Rarity and Fluttershy settled on the valley ground, they set off again with Twilight half-absorbed in the book. She made a concerted effort to avoid eye-contact with either Applejack or Rarity.
The sheer cliffs surrounding the valley broke at a narrow choke point, and they stopped, looking around the tranquil patch of grass, searching out any remaining signs of their struggle with the manticore. If they didn’t know they were in the right place, it might have been any unremarkable stretch of wilderness.
“To think what might have happened if you weren’t with us, Fluttershy,” Rarity marveled. “Even if we had been victorious, that poor beast was as much a victim of circumstance as we were.”
Fluttershy stared through the bottleneck, and chewed her lip. “He was just a poor, hurt critter, but if he wasn’t…” She took a steadying breath. “I don’t know if I could do something to keep everypony safe. That was...that was what Rainbow did.”
As they passed between the two cliffs, the breeze picked up the gamey fish smell of running water. They entered the woods, heading towards the river.
The trees grew older and thicker as they went, and the dappled golds of sunlight through the canopy pulled Twilight back out of her book. The charm and character of the trees made her smile despite herself, and as she glanced around the group, she found she wasn’t alone in grinning.
Pinkie stopped at a fat, twisted tree, with limbs stretched up like claws and thick knots forming a face in the trunk. Pinkie snorted, and fell to her back, giggling and kicking her legs. “I’m sorry!” she choked out. “The trees are still so silly-looking!”
Applejack choked and clapped her hooves over her muzzle. A ripple of laughter assaulted them, and they joined Pinkie on the grass, howling with joy, gripping their aching bellies. A current of melancholy passed through, as they all recognized the absence of brash and raspy laughter, but one look at the goofy tree got them all going again.
Eventually, they regained their senses, staggering back to their hooves with their sides aching and cheeks sore. Twilight hugged Pinkie around the neck, whispering, “Thank you.”
Pinkie bounced in the embrace. “For what, Twiley-wiley?”
“For being you.”
Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy joined the bouncy hug, before they separated and continued through the trees, the smell growing stronger and being joined by the rushing sound of the river.
The stopped at the edge of the river and watched the water flow by at a calm pace. Rarity giggled to herself. “Oh, I wonder if that delightfully stylish serpent has kept his mustache in good order.” She looked at her tail and sighed. “I’d hate to think through I went that awful shorning for him to simply grow it out.”
Applejack shook her head, smirking at Rarity. “Ya lost your tail for all a’ five minutes, Rarity.”
“A dreadful five minutes, I assure you.” She winked at Applejack, but didn’t notice her friend look away quickly. Frowning, Rarity looked up and down the bank. “I don’t see any stepping stones; how shall we cross without getting wet?”
Rarity shrieked as she was lifted off her hooves. She through out her forelegs for support, and hugged Applejack around the neck as she settled onto her friend’s back.
“C’mon, miss prissy, we ain’t got time for findin’ bridges.” She leapt into the water while Rarity sputtered in indignation.
Twilight and Pinkie jumped in, while Fluttershy flew above the group. Pinkie giggled at the splashes she made, and jumped again. Twilight grinned with malice, and swung her hoof through the river, drenching Pinkie’s flank.
“Eep!”
In a flurry of giggles, Pinkie chased after Twilight, and they barraged each other with water. Fluttershy flew a few feet higher and out of firing range, grinning at her friends’ antics.
Rarity lifted her legs as far from the water as she could. “Really, Applejack, this is not my idea of crossing a river.”
Applejack chuckled, leering over her shoulder at her passenger. “I think ya oughta save it for somepony who ain’t keepin’ your hooficure neat.”
Color rose to Rarity’s cheeks, and she glanced away. “...Well, yes, I suppose.” She cleared her throat. “Thank you, Applejack.”
“T’ain’t nothin’.” Applejack grinned to herself as she climbed onto shore.
Rarity hopped down, and inspected her coat. The two smiled at each other, waiting for Twilight and Pinkie to finish their water fight. Applejack glanced away, and silence stretched out until Twilight jumped out of the river, breathless with laughter.
Pinkie followed and shook herself off like a dog. Rarity shrieked and leapt behind Applejack, who chuckled and poked her in the ribs.
“Not that this ain’t fun an’ all,” Applejack said, smirking at her friends, “but we’re burnin’ daylight here.”
Twilight siphoned off most of the water from her coat with the glow of her horn, still catching her breath. “Yes, we should keep going.” She dropped her voice and mumbled to herself, “I sure needed this trip, though.”
With their spirits raised, the walk through the forest went at a fast clip, and when the trees broke again, the sight of the rope bridge hit them like a lead weight. The deep chasm, bright and clear in the sun, had an image overlaid in all their minds: thick fog choking the line of sight, and Rainbow Dash soaring out of the soup, landing with a flourish, inviting them to cross with a smirk on her lips.
Twilight bowed her head and stepped onto the first plank, and they crossed in single file, not daring to break the silence.
The Ancient Castle of the royal pony sisters lay before them, overgrown with vines and decrepit. They pushed through the doors, rusted and creaky, and picked their way across cracked tiles dotted with sunlight streaming in through holes in the roof.
Twilight took careful steps up the crumbling stairs, and at last Twilight came to where the Elements had healed themselves before in her showdown with Nightmare Moon. She turned around and watched her friends finish the climb.
They had made the trek again, through less perilous challenges, but together, encased in the memory of their first adventure. Twilight felt gratitude flood her body, watching them each make it to safety, ever reliable, ever bonded as friends.
But as she looked, a spark didn’t dance across her eyes: without Rainbow Dash, the circuit had broken.
Twilight’s many tests and readings would prove fruitless.
Celestia rolled out of bed. She stretched and shook her head, dispelling the haze of sleep, and paced around her room, enjoying the brief reprieve that walking out of her formal regalia had become. She stepped to her window and gazed out at the nightscape of Canterlot.
Closing her eyes, Celestia’s horn sparked to life. She watched the sky lighten as the sun rose behind the mountain, bringing on another day. A yawn snuck up on her, and she stepped back, covering her mouth. She sagged her shoulders, and turned back to her plush bed-chamber, muttering, “Coffee…”
She stepped into her shoes, and floated the rest of her formal wear around her neck, taking a deep breath and rising to her full height. With a quick once-over in the mirror, she opened her door and stepped out into the hall.
A mug of coffee floated to her face. “Good morning, sister.”
Celestia stifled a second yawn, and took a sip from the cup. “Thank you. What are you doing up so early, Luna? Or late, depending on perspectives.”
She sighed and fell into pace alongside Celestia, heading towards the throne room. “I wish to ask you to reconsider, again.”
Celestia expelled a slow and level breath through her snout, and took a long sip of coffee. “Sister, we have been talking about this at the nightly meetings; there’s one tonight, so we’ll talk there.”
“Celestia, those meetings are just as much part of the problem as our argument.”
Trying to keep the annoyance from her voice, Celestia stopped and turned to her sister. “What do you mean by that?”
“They are always during my time. Always.”
“I’m just being mindful of your sleep sched—”
“Tia, I did not ask you for that; you choose to take all the burdens for yourself. The sun was late this morning; did you know that?”
Frowning, Celestia walked to a window and looked out over the clock tower. “It is not late.”
“You are two minutes behind, sister. I know that is not much, but it may well be three hours late knowing you. I can stay up late; I’m up late right now. We can switch off, Tia. I grow concerned for your health as I watch you struggle” She set a hoof on her sister’s shoulder. “You don’t need to do this by yourself. The old ways are just that to you now, Celestia: they are old. But they aren’t old to me.”
Taking a deep breath, Celestia sighed and turned back to the hall. “I will consider it, Luna, but I have already explained my reluctance.”
“Part of it.” At Celestia’s flinch, she continued, “Do not think I cannot tell, sister. Our past is only a piece of that which is bothering you.”
Celestia grimaced and looked away. “It is...most likely nothing, Luna. We are all under enough stress.”
“So remove some of your burden by talking to me. Please. Please, Tia. If you must continue to consider everything else, let me help with this.”
They stopped in front of the throne room, and Celestia looked her sister over. Conviction poured from Luna’s expression. A wave of uneasiness rolled down her spine, seeing the strength of resolve. She knew that Luna’s resolve had led to cruelty with little persuasion, but beneath the resolve, she could read worry, fear, and compassion.
Taking a deep breath, Celestia opened the door. “It’s just a feeling at the moment, Luna. I received a letter from Twilight Sparkle yesterday afternoon—”
“I did as well.”
“She mentioned that she was writing to you, yes.” They stepped into the room, and Celestia waved to the guards, who followed the command and left, shutting the double doors behind them. “She also mentioned a dream to me, and some of the details reminded me of something.”
“A dream? Surely she would come to me if bothered by nightmares.”
“It is not nightmares that bother her...anymore.” At Luna’s surprise, Celestia chuckled. “You should know by now that my student is more than a little resistant to asking for help. I was unaware she was having sleeping problems until after she resolved them.”
Luna smirked and shook her head. “Well, if not nightmares, what troubles her?”
“It is not her, it is me.” Her eyes drifted over the stained glass lining the room’s windows. “I was reminded of a hard decision I made none too long ago...one I still question.”
Luna frowned and rubbed Celestia’s shoulder. “Do you wish to speak—” Luna yawned, and shook her head “—about it?”
“I believe I will, but later. Enjoy your rest, sister, and we shall talk more this evening at the meeting.” Luna opened her mouth to object, but Celestia continued, “I shall add a proposal for alternating morning meetings to the agenda.”
Luna smirked. “It is a paltry start, but a start nonetheless. Good morning, Tia.”
“Good night, Luna.”
Rainbow Dash did her best to listen.
Without Twilight’s presence, she sat in nothing, stared at nothing, and did her best to not miss her friend: talking to Twilight was probably counterproductive to doing nothing.
She let out a huff, and glared into space. “The heck am I s’posed to do? Or not do? How does this junk even work?”
Every time she pushed her thoughts away and tried to slip into emptiness, an idle chatter sprung into her mind, circling half memories, old comforts, and a loop of complaints directed at her lack of direction.
A purple mist drew her attention, growing brighter and drawing together before her eyes. She smirked to herself, understanding how she’d lost three weeks of time; it could have been ten minutes since Twilight left for all she knew.
“Hey, Twi.”
Twilight stood, and gave Rainbow an uneasy smile. “Hi, Rainbow…” She turned in a circle, searching for substance other than her friend. “...It seems less and less likely that I’m just imagining this…”
Smirking, Rainbow jumped out of her cross-legged sitting position. “Not surprised; imagining somepony as cool as me has gotta be impossible.”
Twilight rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out. “Not exactly. See, I found a book about the Bodhisattva, and some of what I learned from it matched up to things you’d said. I didn’t know it before, so if I was imagining things, that information either wouldn’t match up, or I would’ve remembered it while I was reading.”
Rainbow’s brow knit. She scratched her chin. “I’m...not sure I followed that. But anyway, did you find anything out that could help?”
“Well…” Twilight took a deep breath and began pacing back and forth. Rainbow’s grin turned rueful, as she recognized the start of a lecture. “Historically speaking, Bodhi trees have been a symbol for Bodhism, and within the religion itself a symbol of enlightenment, for as long as the religion’s existed.”
She cast a glance at Rainbow to confirm her friend was paying attention, before falling back into her steps. “There wasn’t any holy symbol or anything that fit the relic you’re looking for, but I found something interesting in the chapter about reincarnation.”
When Twilight glanced at Rainbow again, she was met with an unfocused look. Rainbow shook her head. “You’ve gotta stop using big words at me, Twi.”
Twilight stifled a snort and waved a hoof dismissively. “I was getting there, Rainbow!” She giggled, shook her head, and resumed walking. “Reincarnation is a Bodhist idea. It’s the idea that after a pony dies, they’re reborn over and over, until their spirit finds enlightenment.”
Her ears flicked. “‘Reborn’? So is that what I’m trying to do? Reintarnate myself?”
Twilight almost choked. She sputtered out a few coughs and fought to keep her laughter in check. “Reincarnate, Rainbow, and no. That idea is about a spirit being reborn as a whole new pony, with a new body and new life. This sounds like you’re supposed to come back as Rainbow Dash, just as you were before you died. But it’s not reincarnation in and of itself that caught my attention; it’s that the Bodhisattva was a pony who came back to life after he found enlightenment, so he could help others find their own way,”
Rainbow knit her brow and sat down again. “...So there’s more than one Bodhisatt-guy?”
Twilight grimaced, shifting from hoof to hoof as she tried to organize her thoughts. “...Yes and no. Yes, in that it’s known history that several ponies have been called the Bodhisattva over centuries. But no, in that all of them were said to be the same spirit, reincarnated over and over again.” She looked at Rainbow hopefully.
“...I think I get it. So, like, he kept being reborn, so it was sorta like he was the same guy, but he had a different name and junk each time, right?”
Twilight let out a sigh of relief, and nodded. “Exactly. So how this all connects to your relic is how the Bodhist temples found the Bodhisattva after he was reborn. They had a collection of stuff that older versions of the Bodhisattva owned when they were alive, and they found foals who seemed like they might be him, and looked to see if those foals could recognize any of it from a bunch of random things. Some of the belongings were said to be powerfully magical, and others were just normal things.”
Twilight straightened and took a deep breath. “The items that were magic were said to have changed, so what was powerful for one Bodhisattva might be just a brush to another, and what used to be a normal fan might have magic three generations later. These magical items had a lot of different names, but one of the translations I found called them ‘the leaf of the Bodhi.’”
Her eyes widening, Rainbow grinned. “That’s gotta be it! Did your book say anything about where it is? I’d feel way better if you and the others got ahold of it and kept it safe.”
“...That would be worthwhile, but I’m not sure where to even start.” She frowned in thought, tapping her chin. “The magic jumped around from item to item, and in addition to that, there hasn’t even been a recognized Bodhisattva in two thousand years.”
Rainbow sat down slowly and chewed her lip. “...Discord said that the Elements of Strife got...broken, or died, or whatever, a thousand years before the Elements of Harmony were made. That...kinda lines up, huh?”
Twilight shook her head and marveled, “If this really is just a dream, my brain’s pulling out all the stops. Anyway, I wouldn’t even know where to start looking. There are some Bodhist temples scattered all over the world, and they might have some of the Bodhisattva’s relics, but there were dozens of personal items. I’m not sure I’d even be able to tell which one is the real thing, and which is just a two thousand year old salad fork.”
Rainbow smirked, then nodded. “I get ya. But keep your eyes and ears open, alright? I sorta feel like it’s not gonna work right if everything’s all over the place on your side. I’m just guessing, but it feels like that.”
“You’re probably right, Rainbow. The Elements of Harmony never worked on their own…” She narrowed her eyes and frowned. “Although there’s no mention of five other relics appearing alongside the Bodhisattva.” Rainbow shrugged in response, and Twilight grinned at her. “I hope I’m really talking to you, Rainbow. I have no idea what I’m doing, but everypony’s counting on me.”
“Well, what’s going on right now? You didn’t have a chance to tell me what was up last time before I freaked out over how long I’ve been dead.”
Twilight sighed, and started pacing again. “I don’t know what we’re going to do when the bulls get here. Princess Celestia told me Canterlot’s beginning to prepare for war, but the only thing that seemed to hurt the thing at all was magic.” Twilight stopped, and turned to Rainbow with an eyebrow raised. “That reminds me: I’ve been wondering about your sonic rainboom.”
“Oh yeah?” Rainbow puffed out her chest and spread her wings. “What about it? How awesome it is?”
Twilight smirked and rolled her eyes. “Well, sort of. I cast a lot of spells at the bull, which slowed it down, or maybe confused it, but your rainboom killed it, which made me think about something…” She took a deep breath. “When we used the Elements to seal Discord again, he was hit by a rainbow beam, just like Nightmare Moon...but there were rainbow shockwaves that came off of all of us.”
Rainbow started, and shook her head. “You’re totally right...it looked just like a sonic rainboom.” She smirked at her friend. “Leave it to an egghead like you to notice that.” Twilight snorted in response, and Rainbow asked, “So what does that mean?”
“Well, uhh…” Twilight bit the tip of her hoof in thought. If she was talking to the real Rainbow Dash, the information she could glean would be invaluable. She couldn’t count it definitively, but it was well worth experimenting. “Do you think you could perform a sonic rainboom right here? If I could analyze the magical output of it…”
Twilight closed her eyes, and her horn sparked to life. The spell came to mind without trouble, after spending weeks casting it and similar ones on the Elements of Harmony, and motes of magic swirled through the void in front of her. “I think this’ll work, if we just—” She turned to Rainbow, and her jaw dropped.
Ponies in general had bright auras, tied to the magic inherent in all three tribes. Rainbow Dash wasn’t just bright: she was something else. Rivers of raw power pulsed through her body in waves, dazzling and ordered, and spilling off her form into the void. She was brightest in her wings and hooves. Each tip of her hoof, attuned to touch and control cloudstuff, jittered with energy, while her wings leaked tendrils of power into the air, rising close to five times her height.
“Rainbow…” Twilight marveled, “your aura…”
“What, is something wrong with it?” She danced on her hooves, trying to see through herself.
“It’s so…bright.” Twilight rubbed her eyes. “The only ones I’ve seen like this are…” she swallowed a lump in her throat as color rose to her cheeks. “The princesses and, well...erm...mine.”
Rainbow blinked, her jaw hanging open to match her friend’s. “My aura’s as bright as Princess Celestia’s, Luna’s, and yours? What the heck does that mean?”
Twilight cleared her throat several times. “I guess I shouldn’t really be surprised; you’d have to be a really powerful pegasus to be able to perform a sonic rainboom.” Twilight looked over Rainbow again, and noticed a glimmer of faint magic hovering over Rainbow’s head. “That’s strange; it looks like there’s something attached to your head that isn’t a part of you.”
Out of habit, Rainbow looked up at the nothing above her. “...Huh. Maybe I’m getting close to finding...getting...whatever with the Bodhi Leaf.” She exchanged a bewildered shrug with Twilight. “Anyway, I don’t see why I can’t pull off a rainboom right now. Want me to?”
Twilight blinked away her awe, and nodded.
Rainbow dropped into a crouch, and felt the void blur around her. She blanked her mind in reaction, and Twilight came back into focus.
“What was that?” Twilight asked.
“Well, I’m here ‘cause I’m meditating, and working on not doing anything...this might be kinda hard.” She chuckled and shook her head. “I’ve done a bunch of other stuff without losing my focus so far; I just gotta not think about it too much.”
Twilight opened her mouth to object, but Rainbow lifted up on her wings. Twilight watched the magic spreading from both limbs whip behind Rainbow, trailing back like kitetails as she sped up, flying in a circle over her friend’s head.
Rainbow flew faster and faster, buzzing around Twilight, her magical aura blurring into a strobing ring of light. Bolts of energy crackled away from her as she pressed harder, and specks of ambient magic flew away from their paths. Space bent in front of Rainbow Dash as the residual power piled up in front of her into a nearly solid barrier.
All at once, the cone of resistance tore open.
A thundering crack shook the very substance of the pocket dimension. A slipstream formed around Rainbow as the magical substance of space parted in front of her and piled up behind her, pushing her forward and dragging her faster through the open air, scattering dots of magic out in ripples, searingly bright to Twilight’s mental senses: a visual cacophony of power.
Rainbow’s aura grew solidly brilliant, like a miniature sun given life, exploding from every inch of her body and sending violent blades of magic into the void. The shockwaves rebounded around them, until Twilight’s mind hurt from the sight.
Slowing down, Rainbow circled a few more times and landed on Twilight’s plane. The writhing spike to her aura faded back to her baseline, and the chaos of rebounding waves gradually stilled around them.
Twilight locked the joints in her legs to keep them from shaking. She could feel the hairs of her coat standing on end from the display of power, and had she never experienced wielding the Elements of Harmony, it might have been too much to comprehend. Twilight stopped the spell, and Rainbow waited patiently while she struggled to collect her thoughts.
It took her a while.
“Rainbow Dash…” She blinked and rubbed at her eyes; they stung like she actually had stared into the sun. “I think...I think if you’d performed a sonic rainboom and flew into Discord, he might have turned back into a statue.”
Rainbow’s jaw fell open. “...What?!”
Twilight cleared her throat and blinked the tears of irritation out of her eyes. “The sonic rainboom’s magic isn’t just sort of like the Elements of Harmony; it looks identical.”
Rainbow’s throat bobbed silently as she gaped at her friend.
“I’ve never seen so much magic in a pony...Oh, I wish you were alive, Rainbow; we wouldn’t even need to fix the Elements of Harmony…”
“Wait, what’s wrong with the Elements?” Rainbow’s wings flew open at her sides, and for a moment she flashed translucent, before re-solidifying.
Twilight sighed, and fell back into pacing. “When you died, the magic in all six of the Elements of Harmony just sort of vanished. I’ve never heard of anything like that happening before, and neither has anypony else. Princess Celestia has the High Scholars researching, too, but nothing’s turned up that’s even close to giving us any clues.”
She huffed and shook her head. “We all even brought the Elements back to the castle in the Everfree Forest, but nothing happened and I’m running out of ideas. And it’s so annoying, because I feel like I’ve heard of magic dying before, but I can’t figure out where; it’s taunting me, but I just can’t seem to—”
“The Elements of Strife died.”
Twilight stopped dead in her tracks, and whipped around to stare at Rainbow, shock coloring her expression. Inspiration flashed across her eyes, and she clapped her forelegs together in excitement. “Rainbow, you’re brilliant!” She fell back into pacing. “If I focus on finding the Bodhi Leaf, I’d be able to compare it to the Elements! I’ve only looked at the one book on Bodhism, but there are more, and barring that, there are only so many temples! It’s simple process of elimination!
She bounced in place. “We can set out right away! —Well, I can set out, the other girls all have so many other responsibilities I couldn’t ask them to come, too, but I can set out and—”
A hoof caught her shoulder and brought her face to face with Rainbow, and the look of concern made her brow knit in confusion. “Twilight, I know you’re excited, but you need to slow down.”
Twilight shook her head. “Did...did you really tell me to slow down?”
Rainbow chuckled, but the seriousness never left her eyes. “Listen, if you go running off all over Equestria looking for something that you just told me could be anything at all, what’s it gonna help with? And leaving everypony else behind?” She shook her head.
“Well…”
“C’mon, you said the magic jumped around a bunch of times, what if there isn’t something out there to find at all?” She let out a sigh and sat down.
“I have to look, Rainbow, I have to.”
“You don’t, though, Twilight. You don’t have to do anything. And you totally don’t have to do it all alone. You’ve got our friends to help, and...and you’ve got me…” Rainbow looked down at her hooves. “...And I don’t have to do this by myself, either.” She caught Twilight’s gaze. “Listen, I’m gonna work my tail off to get the leaf here with me, and when I’ve got it, we’ll have a better idea what you’ve gotta find on your end. That makes sense, right? We’re gonna be partners on this, you and me. And until we know what you and the other girls are looking for, the best thing you can do is nothing.”
As the words left her mouth, a flash of white light blossomed above her head like a dancing halo. Her eyes lit up with the same energy, and she rose off her hooves into the air. The halo tightened, refining its shape, spreading out into a wide, fat heart.
Rainbow let out a gasp. Her voice echoed around the void as if from far away. “Twilight! We’ll talk again when I can…!” Her body blurred, turning hazy and transparent. “Partners?”
Twilight’s jaw hung open as the corona of light solidified into a green fig leaf, floating above Rainbow’s head. As she watched her friend glow brighter as she grew less distinct, she nodded sharply. “Partners.”
Rainbow faded away to nothingness, and the void changed to a normal dream.
Rainbow opened her eyes, and retched. Her lungs were on fire, and as she heaved in gulps of air between coughs, her whole body convulsed. Floating off the ground, her wings twitching and her back arching, she felt pins and needles in every nerve ending.
Her heart thundered in her chest, squeezing turgid blood through her atrophied arteries, and a red haze clouded her vision with every thump. She shut her eyes, seeing stars, and tears ran down her face.
Her nostrils felt raw and red, and acid burned her throat. Every second was agony, like ants made of broken glass were biting their way free from her insides. She was hungrier than she had ever been, more nauseated than she had ever imagined.
As she fell to the ground from her levitation, sending new sheets of pain lancing through her nerves, Rainbow Dash felt alive.
A single leaf fell off the tree. It caught the air and floated in lazy circles, descending a little at a time, until it settled just above Rainbow’s head. A flash of white light lit up the grove.
Rainbow’s breathing evened out, and her heartbeat slowed. She coughed once more, and dragged herself up onto her haunches, taking deep breaths and willing her hooves to stop trembling.
She opened her eyes and blinked the tears away until she could see the goat, and she watched him lower to the ground. He took a breath, and she could hear a rattle deep in his lungs. “You have...restored...your connection...to the world...of the living,” he choked out.
A jag of coughs interrupted him, and red foam splattered on the granite. He cleared his throat and spat, before raising his head to look at her with tears rolling down his cheeks. “This place is not meant for the living, but the leaf will protect you from its harm.”
Rainbow stood up, her legs shaking, and vertigo nearly drove her back to the ground. “Am I alive again?” She rubbed at her stinging face, almost welcoming the pain.
“You are connected to the living,” he said through ragged breaths. His voice was soft, and he had an exotic accent; it didn’t match the voice that had boomed through her ears.
“I wasn’t talking to you before, was I?”
“What you heard was the voice of the tree. Your communion with it began the moment you entered the grove.” His levitation continued to fade, and as he neared the ground, he leaned forward. “You have completed your communion, and the tree as given you its blessing, connecting your spirit with everyone and everything.”
Rainbow nodded, before the goat fell, clattering his hooves for support they wouldn’t give. She gasped, and rushed to his side, leaning into his shoulder to keep him from landing on his side. “Are you okay? What’s happening?”
“The tree never gave me its blessing,” he wheezed. “I was made one with everything, but in this place, I had to render my body so still as to be dead to escape the corruption.” He pulled in a deep breath of the air, and Rainbow winced, remembering the fire in her lungs. “I have been waiting for the true bearer of the Leaf of the Bodhi.”
She rubbed his back, wrinkling her muzzle at the thick wet sound in his breaths. “How long’s that been?”
“After countless cycles shepherding spirits along the path of enlightenment, looking for the bearer among the living, I stayed here to commune with the tree, two millennia ago.”
Rainbow jumped back in surprise, then pressed back into his side as her staggered. “...You’re the Bodhisattva, aren’t you?”
He closed his eyes with a pained smile on his face. “Please, call me Sid.” He fought his way up to his hooves, straightening his neck to stand tall. “My vigil has ended; you are the true bearer of the Bodhi Leaf.”
“...I don’t get it. Sitting still isn’t really my thing...I don’t even know what I did.” She smirked. “And it took me weeks to do whatever it is. I’m bad at this.”
Sid chuckled, which set off another series of coughs. He spat, and shook his head at her. “In my first life, it took me six years of searching to find the path, and forty-nine days of meditation to reach enlightenment. You found the path up the mountain in twenty-three days, and enlightenment in another twenty, all in a world where the flow of time is altered.”
Rainbow raised an eyebrow.
“You are not bad at this; you are exceptional. In your journey, you learned the act of stillness, discovered the cost of acting when you should not, and bestowed the knowledge of stillness on another, all in a remarkable amount of time.”
Shaking her head, Rainbow scoffed. “You’re making it sound like it was all special, but it wasn’t; I was just thinking and talking to Twilight.”
“Just because it was mundane does not mean it wasn’t special.” A flash of pain passed over his face, and he winced. He cleared his throat and stood straight again. “And special it is; you have become a true shepherd of ponies, faster than any being that has ever walked on four hooves. Your journey here is the true sign of worthiness.”
“What, dying?”
He snorted, and shook his head. “I was referring to the climb up the mountain. Attempting to find shortcuts up the path would render a pilgrim lost; it is only through true dedication and effort that one can find their way. Most give up the journey, whether they took it here, or in their minds from the world of the living. Those that do make it stray, and must start at the bottom. It is a journey of years, not weeks.”
Rainbow shook her head and smirked. “I knew there was some sorta trick…” She let out a sigh and a chuckle. “But, uh, I don’t really feel any different, Sid, how can I be enlightened now? Shouldn’t I feel all...I dunno, peaceful and junk?”
He grinned. “Most do not, but you will find moments of stillness in the heat of action, and calmness in the heart of confusion.” Irritation tickled his throat, and he covered his mouth with a hoof as he hacked, sinking down to his haunches, then onto his belly. “You will feel the difference in time; the presence of the Bodhi Leaf will be a burden to you. Being still is not in your nature, and it will be a constant struggle. It is because of this struggle that you were found to be worthy, when I was not.” He closed his eyes and rolled over onto his back.
Rainbow reached out and grabbed a hoof, frowning at the trembling. “...What’s happening to you, Sid?”
“My soul is dying.” He opened his eyes again and met her gaze. “I will lose what is left of my individuality, and truly become one with everything.” He smiled. “It’s what I’ve been waiting for.”
Rainbow stood up and nodded. She looked him over. “Do, uh, do you know what the other Elements of Strife are?”
“For most, I have heard tale told, but nothing else. They are like the gift of the tree, though; they might appear to be cruel or heartless, as doing nothing in the face of pain and suffering, but they stand for more than they seem on their surface. I do not know what they are, save one.” Sid crossed his hooves over his chest, and took a deep breath. “The one I know was wielded against me in my travels among the world of the living. If you encounter its owner, I ask that you do not judge him for what he’s become.”
“Can you tell me about it?”
“It is the Element of War.”
Rainbow winced and shook her head. “Cruel’s right. Is it, like, a leaf, too?”
“It is Tyr’s Right Hoof: the gauntlet of a god.”
Rainbow swallowed the lump in her throat. “Do you know where I can find it?”
Sid’s eyes slid shut again. He took one last breath, and whispered, “Listen to the universe.” As the words passed his lips, Rainbow watched his chest go slack. Sid lay still before her, and as she bowed her head, light filled the clearing.
His body lifted from the ground, glowing white, and Rainbow watched wide-eyed as he shimmered, growing indistinct, his body turning to mist. A swirl of light specks rose in a twisting column as he disappeared, and she watched the dots fill the Bodhi Tree. The tree, glowing like it was full of fireflies, flashed bright, and all signs of Sid vanished into the leaves and branches. The wrinkled fruit hanging from the tree grew fat and ripe as Rainbow watched.
She gasped as hundreds of buds erupted into a shock of white and purple flowers, raining petals that caught in a breeze Rainbow couldn’t feel. They danced to and fro, but never quite reached the ground. Rainbow rubbed at her eyes and gave the tree a weak smile. She nodded her goodbye, and caught sight of the leaf over her head.
Rainbow turned away from the tree and looked up at the sky. “Alright...he said if I listen, I’ll know where to go…”
She closed her eyes, and sent her senses outward. The thrum of her pulse slowed to a murmur, and she found stillness. Finding it was easier for her, but a sense of loss settled on her shoulders. A melancholy paled her mood as her senses expanded, racing down the mountain and filling the air. Every rock, every tree, every blade of grass, all of it was connected by a flowing tapestry of white energy, flowing in and out in constant motion. The world wasn’t static: it lived and breathed around her.
As she marveled, she felt something pull at her perception, dragging her focus to the north, and far off she saw a darkened peak, beckoning her.
The mountain, easily twice the height of where she currently stood, rose up into a perpetual thunderhead, which roiled with lightning and shrouded the rocky and threatening surface below. Her senses plowed through the cover, and she could see twisted shapes of magic lurch across the surface, over ledges and along paths.
A stone castle, carved into the mountain itself, pulsed with magic, and each beat pulled at her, demanding her attention, drawing her to listen. “That’s gotta be it,” she murmured.
Rainbow struggled to open her wings, and withdraw her expanded mind back to herself. As easy as it had been to find stillness, finding the will to move again felt overwhelming. Nearly crying out, she severed her connection to the flow of the world and found her way back to herself. As she did, the melancholy nearly drove her to her belly, feeling like she’d tore off a piece of herself.
“This is a burden.” She shook her head and trotted in place until she felt close to normal. Pushing the desire to replace Sid at the tree in an eternal vigil, she opened her wings.
Rainbow flew away from one mountain and towards the other, streaking through the sky. With several powerful flaps, she felt the air tighten around her. A thundering explosion shook the sky as she rocketed forward.
An impossibly high peak, blanketed in dark and crackling clouds, loomed in the distance.
Twilight yawned and stretched in her sleeping bag. A weight on her chest threatened to fall to the floor, and she wrapped her hooves around it out of instinct. Her eyes snapped open, and she bolted up to sitting.
Morning sunlight streamed through windows and missing chunks of roof and wall in the Ancient Castle, dappling her friends hunkered down in their own bags spread around her, laid out for the night in front of the altar of the Elements of Harmony. She shook the sleep from her head and stared down into her lap.
She held a fat, heart-shaped leaf made of marble, colored white with red veins that added a sense of life to the form. It was thin enough to be translucent, and far too smooth to be crafted by hoof. She lifted it reverently, closed her eyes, and sparked her horn to life.
The magic specks of the air made the whole room shimmer, and the glow of her sleeping friends drew her attention, but Twilight forced her attention into the leaf. The ambient magic of the room danced across its darkened surface, never getting close enough to touch. Magic neither entered nor left the stone, black as pitch, dead to the world.
Twilight leapt out of her sleeping back. “Everypony, wake up!” she cried. “It wasn’t just a dream; it’s really her! She’s coming back! Rainbow’s coming back!”