Rainbow Dash sighed as she sat quietly in the small rectangular room which Twilight had positioned her in. The silence of the room was grating on the normally physically active pony's mind, and she began to tap her right front hoof on the table which she sat behind. Sitting on the wooden table was a stack of cards, which would be used to test the 'psychic abilities of non-unicorn ponies' as Twilight had put it. The blue pegasus wasn't exactly sure why Twilight wanted to run this test, even though she and her friends had come to Manehatten University for another purpose entirely, but Rainbow Dash chose not to complain too much about it. After all, orders were orders, even though the princess could probably care less about the non-existent mental powers of her city dwelling subjects.
The impatient mare glanced up at the clock which hung on a wall opposite from her, and sighed again when she realized that only five minutes had gone by since her last test subjects had left. To Rainbow it seemed like she had been waiting an hour, but then again, sitting still for even a couple minutes was hard. She would much rather be outside, soaring around in the sky. Even a walk down to the end of the hallway might ease her boredom, at least for a little bit. Another minute passed, and the blue pegasus decided that she would do just that.
The pony slid out of her chair and onto the floor. After getting up onto four hooves, she walked around the edge of the table and approached the door, the exit to the outside world. As Rainbow reached up to open it, it suddenly swung open with a great force, nearly nailing the surprised mare in the face.
"Hey!" she shouted. "Watch where you're-"
Rainbow stopped suddenly when she saw a familiar face poke around the edge of the door, looking a bit confused. The blue pegasus gulped and said, in a flustered voice,
"Oh...Sorry Spitfire...Didn't see you there, heh."
The blue pony chuckled nervously, but her insides felt as if they were tangled up in knots. She certainly didn't expect her Wonderbolt idol to volunteer for testing, even for an instant. Spitfire didn't seem angry, though. Instead, the Wonderbolt captain smiled and chortled at the mare's nervousness.
"Don't sweat it, Dash," Spitfire said. "Happens to everypony. You're supposed to be doing a bit of testing, right? To see if I have psychic powers or somethin'?"
"Oh, yeah!" Dash said, smiling and relaxing a bit. "Take a seat, I'll be with ya in a jiffy."
Spitfire grinned and wasted no time in taking a seat at one of the chairs sitting opposite Dash's spot. The blue pegasus turned around and was about to shut the door when a voice suddenly echoed down the hallway.
"Yoo-hoo!" it cried. "Miss Dash! Be a dear and hold the door for me!"
Rainbow Dash groaned silently and peered around the edge of the door. A plump, green mare with a decked up mane trotted into the room, carrying her head high and keeping her nose in the air.
"You have an appointment or something?" Dash asked bluntly as she finally managed to close the door.
"Oh, of course, dear!" the green mare said. "Just look me up! I'm 'Mayflower', that's under 'M', you see-"
"Yeah, yeah," Dash said, before the talkative mare could say anything else. "Take a seat, and we'll see how well you tick."
"Oh, of course," said Mayflower, who walked over to the table with elegant strides and took a seat next to Spitfire.
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes before returning to her seat at the wooden table. Upon sitting down, she reached across the surface and picked up the deck of cards. The pegasus shuffled them a few times, making sure that her questions would be as random as possible, before laying them face down on the table again. She then proceeded to pick a card off of the pile with the tip of her hoof. After looking it over, she turned to Spitfire.
"Now, try to guess what's on the card I'm holding in my hoof," Dash said, smirking slightly.
"Is it a...wheelbarrow?" Spitfire asked.
Dash looked back to her card. The picture on the card was not, in fact, a wheelbarrow, but a flower. Rainbow Dash frowned a bit and squinted slightly. Even though she knew that the tests were bogus, the blue pegasus wasn't exactly comfortable with the fact that her favorite Wonderbolt wasn't exactly that good at guessing. Without thinking, Dash changed her frown to a smile, and looked back up at Spitfire.
"Well, what do ya know? You're right!"
Spitfire smiled and shifted in her seat. Mayflower frowned a bit, but didn't say anything, though her discomfort was very clear.
"Alright, Maybelle, let's see how you match up," said Dash.
The blue pegasus reached into her card pile again and removed another card. This time an image of a wheelbarrow was clearly visible on her side.
Mayflower put a hoof under her chin and squinted. It seemed to Dash she was thinking really hard. Probably a little too hard, considering that no amount of thinking would reveal the image on the card, unless the earth pony could somehow sprout a horn and gain a talent for seeing through things.
"A cloud," Mayflower said at last, with a decisive look on her face.
"Nope," said Dash, shaking her head.
She placed the used card back on the table, and retrieved another one from the deck.
"Spitfire?"
The uniformed pegasus thought carefully for a few moments, before answering,
"A ball?"
Dash looked down at her card and frowned again, for low and behold, Spitfire was wrong. The image on the card was a basket, an object that was most definitely not ball shaped. The blue pegasus furrowed her brow, unsure what to answer. Finally, after a few moments of thinking, she decided that the Wonderbolt captain deserved credit for trying.
"Heh, lookin' good, captain. Got another one right."
Spitfire smiled and chuckled a bit. "You're kidding me."
"Nuh-uh. You got it right," said Dash.
She put the card on the used deck, and slid another one out of the stack to use on Mayflower.
***
Time passed, and Rainbow Dash continued to keep up her ruse with the cards. However, after a while, the blue pegasus realized that giving Spitfire constant right answers probably wasn't the way to go. She would suspect something if it went on too long. So Dash decided to mix wrong answers in with right answers, just to keep things balanced a bit. In her mind, Spitfire deserved to guess the cards correctly, and besides, it was only a stupid test that didn't even make sense.
Sadly, Mayflower had not yet given a single correct answer, much to Dash's indifference. She didn't really seem to like the green earth pony, there was something about her that seemed arrogant and snobbish. And if there was one thing that Dash disliked, it was snobbery.
"Alright then, Mayflower," said Dash. "Last card's for you."
Mayflower seemed to perk up at these words, despite having sat limply in a chair for Celestia knows how long. The earth pony rubbed her hooves together and placed them on the table in front of herself, a determined look spreading across her face.
"Lay it on me, Miss Dash!" she said.
Smiling slyly, the blue pegasus flipped the card over to look at it. The image of a yellow star looked back at her.
"Alright, take a shot." she said.
Mayflower closed her eyes and wrinkled her face, which grew even more ridiculous as the seconds passed. Dash sighed slightly as the mare seemed to be thinking with all her might, even though, unbeknownst to her, the test was probably futile. Finally, Mayflower stopped squinting and opened her eyes, a decisive look on her face.
"A star," she said. "A yellow star."
Dash's eyes widened and a long frown appeared on her face. How on earth had the green mare been able to figure out the image? The rainbow-maned pegasus seemed to become a bit flustered for a moment, but quickly calmed down when she realized that it was probably just a lucky guess.
"Nope," she said casually. "Sorry about that."
Mayflower sighed sadly, admitting her defeat.
"Oh well, then," she said, slowly scooting out of her chair. "Guess I'm not exactly the psychic I thought I might be,"
Spitfire turned in the earth pony's direction, and seemed about to say something when Mayflower suddenly seemed to perk up as quickly as she had become sad.
"Well, then! I must be off. Places to go, ponies to see. Toodles!" she said cheerily.
Rainbow Dash watched in silent relief as the mare stood up, opened the door to the room, and departed through it, closing the wooden slab with a loud 'thunk'.
Spitfire turned back towards Rainbow Dash, seemingly concerned. Dash smiled a bit nervously as she noticed the yellow pegasus suspected her of something.
"Dash, did you rig the test?"
The blue pegasus froze in place, a cheesy, exaggerated on her face. A cold sweat began to roll down her back.
"Of course not, Spitfire," she stammered. "Heh, I'd never rig at test as pointless as this one. You're just a darn good guesser is all. That Mayflower gal...not so much."
This seemed to please the Wonderbolt captain, and she started to smile again.
"I'll take you're word for it, Dash," she said, leaning back in her chair a bit.
Dash sighed with relief, glad she hadn't been found out.
"So, how's life been treating ya?" Spitfire asked.
"Oh," said Dash. "Pretty good. Still clearin' the skies over Ponyville, but let me tell ya something..."
The winged mare leaned over the table in Spitfire's direction, getting into her personal bubble somewhat. Spitfire didn't seem to mind much, however she did lean back a bit farther in her seat.
"I've been practicing some special moves."
"Oh?" Spitfire chuckled. "What kinda moves?"
"Well," Dash said, leaning back in her chair. "There's this one I like to call-"
The rainbow-mained mare suddenly froze, her relaxed posture became tense, and her gaze moved towards the door. For she had heard a familiar sound. A sound which meant joy to most ponies, but at the moment, it meant dread to Rainbow Dash. It was the sound of a familiar giggle, one which belonged to a single pink pony with a curly mane and a balloon cutie mark, Pinkie Pie. The sound seemed to have come from just outside the door, and Dash only had to wait a few moments before the mare made her presence known to the two of them.
"Helloooo, Rainbow Dash!" Pinkie Pie said as she bounced into the room, a bunch of balloons trailing behind her on a string.
Dash groaned slightly, while Spitfire smiled and greeted the pink pony.
"Hey Pinkie," the Wonderbolt said, waving a hoof.
Pinkie Pie grinned, then turned her attention towards Dash, who was now laying her head on the table. Ignoring this, Pinkie Pie walked over to her friend and began to bounce in place.
"Dashie! Listen! Something reeeeeally scary just happened over by the library! Twilight says you have to come over right now, 'cause the ghost might still be there, and we might get to see it!"
Rainbow Dash sat up and deadpanned over to Pinkie, cheerfully bouncing as always. It was hard for her to stay annoyed at the pink mare for very long, and right now, the thought of leaving the room and going on a ghost hunt seemed a somewhat enjoyable activity, though the blue pegasus wasn't exactly in the mood to leave Spitfire.
"Uh, sorry Spitfire," said Dash, standing up quickly. "Duty calls, ya know? Gotta go chase down a ghost."
"Oh, that's fine, Dash, " Spitfire said, also getting up from her seat. "I didn't really have time to stay and chat anyway. See ya around, then?"
Dash nodded, and the Wonderbolt captain exited through the door, which Pinkie had left open. As soon as she was out of earshot, Dash turned her attention back towards her cheerful friend.
"Couldn't this have waited a bit?" she said in a low voice. "I was a bit busy..."
"Nope! No way!" Pinkie replied. "Twilight wants us to come now."
Upon noticing her friend looked disappointed, Pinkie decided to offer some encouraging words.
"Come on, Dashie! Where's your sense of adventure? Excitement? We might be on the brink of a supernatural scientific discovery, even!"
Dash chuckled a bit. "Since when are you a scientist, Pinkie?"
"I dunno. Since today, I guess. I never knew ghost hunting could be so much fun!"
"You've been spending way too much time with Twilight, Pinkie."
Dash turned around and headed towards the exit, with Pinkie Pie trotting at her side. It seemed as if they were off on another adventure, though where it would lead them, and how involved they would get, the rainbow maned pony had no idea.
***
Soon the pair were on their way towards the collage's library, where apparently the 'ghost' had been seen. Dash was striding along the cement walkway, carrying a saddlebag full of miscellaneous paranormal equipment on her back. Normally she would have simply flown to the library, but out of courtesy to Pinkie Pie, who could not fly, at least, not all the time, she chose to walk instead. Pinkie was not walking, she was bouncing along beside her pegasus friend, a wide smile spread across her face, as usual.
"A library," Rainbow Dash muttered under her breath. "Kinda ironic that a library would be the first place Twilight would find a ghost."
She let out a slight sigh, then turned her attention to her bouncy companion. "Hey Pinkie. Did Twilight actually see this 'ghost' with her own eyes?"
"Well...no..." said Pinkie between bounces. "But...a librarian...saw...it...nearly...scared...her...to...death!"
"Could ya stop hopping for a minute, Pinkie? So I can actually hear you?" said Dash.
Pinkie stopped her bouncing, and changed her pace to a fast trot. Most ponies would have had trouble keeping up with the pinkie party-thrower's steps, but Rainbow Dash was used to quick paces, and had not trouble at all keeping up with her friend.
"A librarian saw the ghost." said Pinkie. "But Twilight hasn't talked to her yet. She's taking reading 'round the library first. You see, it showed up in the basement, but Twilight thinks that-"
"Twilight thinks," Dash chuckled. "But she hasn't actually seen a ghost herself."
Pinkie suddenly stopped bouncing for a moment, and sat down on the rough sidewalk. The pink mare scratched her chin thoughtfully for a few moments before replying.
"True, but why would Princess Celestia send us here to investigate the ghosts if there wasn't a problem?"
Rainbow Dash sighed heavily, and turned around to face Pinkie, her saddlebags swaying at her sides.
"Did you forget already, Pinkie?" she said in an annoyed tone. "Princess Celestra said this ghost problem wasn't urgent. That's why you, me, and Twilight are the only ones here."
Pinkie suddenly bounced to her feet. "And Fluttershy! Don't forget about Fluttershy!" she said, in her usual squeaky tone.
Dash sighed heavily and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, Fluttershy," she muttered. "Like she'd be any help."
Pinkie Pie's normally cheerful expression suddenly changed into a concerned one. "Why not? Fluttershy's the element of kindness, isn't she?" she said.
Rainbow Dash sighed again, though not as heavily this time, and turned her face to the direction she and Pinkie were headed in. She hung her head and kicked at the sidewalk with her front hoof, kicking up a bit of while dust as she did so.
"You know why," she murmured.
"Oh," Pinkie Pie uttered in a sad tone.
The two of them stood in silence for a short time, until Pinkie decided she was tired of being sad. She hopped to her hooves and began to bounce towards the library again, with a familiar smile on her face. Dash strode to her side and had to break into a trot to keep up with her bouncy friend, for she seemed to be moving even faster than she had been previously for some strange reason.
"C'mon Dashie!" Pinkie trilled. "We don't want to keep Twilight waiting!"
Rainbow Dash grinned slyly at her friend. "Wanna race?"
"Sure!" squeaked Pinkie. "Why not?"