Rainbow Dash stretched her shoulders and tried to ignore the buzzing in her ears. This close to the Core, the buzz was a constant annoyance, but just quiet enough she could drown it out with her own thoughts. “Hurry up, Scootaloo,” she said. “And careful with the wings!”
Scootaloo made a few more adjustments to the pilot restraints. “I’m sorry, Rainbow Dash,” she said. “Is this okay? It looks kind of loose.”
“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Dash said. “I don’t like them tight. Last time I swear I had bruises all down my legs.”
Scootaloo took a few steps back. “Okay then, Rainbow Dash! Good luck on your mission!”
“Ha, I don’t need luck. Those nightmares don’t stand a chance against me.” Dash tried to puff out her chest, but the pilot restraints didn’t give her enough room. “Sorry you won’t get to watch me fight, squirt. All the cool stuff happens in Nightmare-town. All you get to see here is a light show.”
“Don’t worry, Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo said. “Someday I’ll be able to pilot, too, and then we’ll get to fight together!”
Dash smiled. “Of course we will, kid. Now go help Pinkie and the Princess, all right?”
“You bet, Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo said, and scurried off.
Watching her go, Dash felt the familiar tickle in her ears indicating that Pinkie Pie had activated her half of the communication spell. It was not Pinkie who spoke to her over the link, though; it was Princess Celestia. “Rainbow Dash,” she said, “please remember that this is only a scouting mission. I wish to know if the dreamscape has any established landmarks, or if the nightmares show any form of organization. Most importantly, avoid getting into any unnecessary battles. I do not wish to see you hurt.”
“You got it, Princess,” Dash said.
Pinkie came back over the link. “Then you’re ready, Dashie?” she asked.
“Pinkie, I’m always ready. Let’s get this party started.”
Pinkie laughed. “Silly, this isn’t a party! You’re getting zapped into unconsciousness so you can spy on a bunch of crazy pony-eating ghosts and stuff. Have fun, Dash!”
Dash was about to respond when the electrodes pasted to her head and body switched on. The momentary shock distracted her, and the buzzing ache of the Nightmare Core grew suddenly louder. Dash barely managed to slur out an “I will” before she lost consciousness.
Rainbow Dash opened her eyes in a warm, damp void. Emptiness, as always. That voice/not-voice spoke again, as always, the same questions every time.
Why do you fight?
Who do you fight for?
Who will stand by your side?
When you are alone, who will come to your aid?
Dash leaned back and put her hooves behind her head. “What are you, anyway?” she asked. “I’ve asked Twilight, but she just gives me a long explanation I don’t understand. I kinda think she doesn’t actually know what the answer is, and she’s just trying to hide it. Isn’t that kind of funny?”
The void didn’t respond. Dash called out again. “Hey, I’m talking to you! Anypony home?”
Still no answer. Dash sighed.
“Fine, be that way. Pinkie Pie’s anchoring, so she’s a given. Applejack and Scootaloo. More, I think... Rarity and the Princess. Be quick about it, would you?”
Despite Dash’s request, the ANIMa took some time to form. A bullet-shaped central body. Two pairs of massive, powerful wings. Hard spars of metal twisting out into deadly spikes. Rarity added another layer of armor, a bejeweled carapace, and Princess Celestia was a halo of flames. The entire creation shimmered, throwing off sparkles and glimmers and fragments of shattered rainbows.
Dash grinned, and then she was inside the ANIMa, hooves locked into the controls, the machine itself all quivering eagerness for the mission at hand. “All right,” she said. “Let’s go have some fun.”
Rainbow Dash entered the dreamscape proper: a cloudless, starry sky, the full moon hanging above, and the ocean below her, a black mirror stretching out to the horizon. There was no land in sight, nowhere to rest if she got tired. If she were no longer able to fly, she would simply sink into the ocean and drown.
Dash spoke over the headset. “I’m in, Pinkie Pie. It’s as boring and empty as ever. There aren’t even any nightmares to kick around.”
Pinkie Pie giggled. “Well, you did just get there, silly. You’ll have to keep looking for longer than that!”
Dash sighed. “Whatever,” she said, and glanced around. Still the same stars, the same ocean, nothing changed from the last fight. Wait, there—a dark spot on the moon, something she hadn’t seen last time. A lone cloud floating in front of the moon, maybe, blocking its light? Worth a look. “Hey, Pinkie,” Dash said, “I take it back, I might’ve found something. I’ll go check it out.”
“Roger dodger, Rainbow lodger,” said Pinkie Pie. Rainbow Dash shook her head. She dimmed the lights on her ANIMa, flapped her wings, and sped off in the direction of the moon.
Having four wings was even better than having two. With four wings, Dash was faster, stronger, more agile, and her ANIMa slid through the air with a grace even she couldn’t match on her own. Dash did a few loops and twists for the sheer pleasure of it, savoring the feeling of the blades circling her ANIMa as they carved the air into ribbons. She realized she was getting distracted, and glanced again at the blot on the moon. It was larger now, closer. There were smaller shapes darting around it, and she could see some structure to it now: it wasn’t just a formless blob. As she flew higher still, Dash noticed a few wispy clouds scattered around her. They weren’t enough to stand on, but at least they helped to break up the emptiness.
A trio of shapes in the distance resolved themselves into purple-black pegasi. They were smaller than the other nightmares Dash had fought—still much larger than any normal pony, larger than even the Princess, but dwarfed by the ANIMa. Scouts or guards, probably, and headed in her direction.
Dash grinned. Best to make sure they wouldn’t report back, then; they could ruin her stealth mission. Dash shook off a momentary pang of guilt from Princess Celestia’s words: “Don’t get into any unnecessary fights.” Well, this wasn’t unnecessary. Dash’s ANIMa—she was still trying to decide on a name, but for the moment she was calling it “Spectrum Impact”—was awesome at many things, but stealth was not really one of them. The lights were dimmed, yes, and the wispy clouds provided some concealment, but that didn’t count for much. Her main advantage was surprise, and once that had run out, speed. Best to destroy the scouts. Dash looped around to catch them from behind.
Dash scanned her enemies as she approached. The three scouts were the most ponylike of the nightmares she’d seen so far. They didn’t have any extra limbs, they weren’t on fire, and they even looked to be made out of flesh and bone rather than dust, smoke, and fog. Dash caught a glimpse of a red mane, and realized that the pegasi themselves weren’t black and purple. No, they were wearing uniforms: the same uniforms she had seen on the bridge the first time Nightmare Moon had attacked, what felt like a lifetime ago. The Shadowbolts. Those hadn’t been real pegasi, though, just some of Nightmare Moon’s tricks. These weren’t ponies, either, not really. They were monsters just like the rest, and Dash needed to destroy them.
Dash flapped her wings and dove toward the Shadowbolts. At the last moment they sensed her presence and turned to face her. They tried to flee, but Dash adjusted her path and plowed through the center of the group, the blades of her ANIMa slicing the trio into bloodless shreds.
The Shadowbolts started to dissolve—not even real flesh after all, just another of Nightmare Moon’s illusions. One of the Shadowbolts looked at Dash. It had been ripped in half, and the edges of the wound were falling apart into mere traces of glittering fog.
The Shadowbolt looked into Dash’s eyes, and Dash looked back. It wasn’t wearing goggles. Its eyes were darkness, full of falling stars. It did not speak as it died. It simply stared at her, and Dash hovered, staring back, until it had dissolved completely.
Dash shuddered, spun, and sped off toward the moon. Couldn’t waste any more time.
Rainbow Dash drifted closer to the clouds. There’d been more Shadowbolt patrols between her and her target, but she’d avoided them rather than attacking. No time to waste on those... things. She was at the outer edges of the atmosphere now; she would never have been able to fly this high unaided. In the real world, the clouds stopped miles below. Here, though, the cloud cover had finally thickened enough for her to land on. She darted from hiding spot to hiding spot until she got close enough to look at what the nightmares had been guarding. A mass of cloud, shaped into...
Rainbow Dash realized what she was looking at. “Cloudsdale?” she whispered. Then, louder. “Cloudsdale?” Louder again, nearly yelling. “Cloudsdale?!”
After Bliss Day, Dash had gone looking for Cloudsdale. She hadn’t found anything. Nor had Princess Celestia, in her daily patrols across Equestria. Other cities still stood, filled with sleeping ponies and besieged by nightmares. Even other cloud cities still existed, though without pegasus attention they’d drifted to the ground and sunk into shapeless disarray. But Cloudsdale, her home, had simply vanished, like the morning fog as it was blown or burned away by wind and sun.
That was the greatest cruelty Nightmare Moon had inflicted. Not cursing all those ponies to endless sleep, not sending her monsters to hunt down the survivors—it was Cloudsdale. The nightmares could be fought. Her friends could visit their family members, even if they wouldn’t wake. And even ruined, Canterlot and other cities served as grand memorials to the fallen.
Cloudsdale, though, had vanished, and nopony knew what had happened to it, and Dash had been robbed even of her ability to mourn properly.
Now a city lay before her, its structure mimicking her home with exacting precision. But where Cloudsdale had been made out of puffy white cumulus and stratocumulus, perfect for bouncing around or napping on, this city was carved from massive thunderheads, swollen dark with rain and lightning. And where Cloudsdale had been full of pegasi, this mockery, this... obscenity was infested with tiny nightmares. She screamed at the city before her, at this abomination—
“Rainbow Dash!” Pinkie yelled over the headset. “Stop shouting! What’s wrong?”
Dash realized that her throat was raw, and that Pinkie had been yelling at her for some time. She took a few moments to catch her breath before speaking. “Pinkie, it’s...” Dash’s throat hurt, and her voice trembled. “The Princess was right. The nightmares have some sort of base here. They’ve been building.”
There was a rustling on the other end of the comm spell, and then Princess Celestia’s voice came through. “Rainbow Dash? You found something?”
“Yeah, Princess. The nightmares have made, well, a city. It’s... it’s a replica of Cloudsdale.”
The spell was silent for a long while, during which Dash couldn’t keep from glancing back at the city behind her. Finally, the Princess spoke again. “I’m sorry, Rainbow Dash. I know this is difficult, but I need you to fly closer. Try to see if they’re doing anything in particular. Good luck.” The line cut off.
Rainbow Dash shuddered. Go closer to... to that? “It’s for the Princess,” she whispered to herself. “She needs me.” She took a deep breath, and flew closer.
She looked down at the nightmares’ new city. It looked so fragile, so breakable. Safe inside her ANIMa, Dash was as large as any of Cloudsdale’s houses.
Dash shook her head. Not Cloudsdale. This wasn’t Cloudsdale, just another trick. Another taunt from Nightmare Moon.
In the monstrous city below, nightmares fluttered back and forth in bizarre imitation of the real Cloudsdale. Some of the nightmares were shadows or mobile stormclouds, and others were monsters of flame or dust or rock, but most of them just looked like pegasi. Still, they were... wrong, somehow uncanny; whenever one of them glanced up, Rainbow Dash had to suppress a shiver. She flew on.
The residential district was swarming with nightmares, and nothing interesting happened there anyways. The Cloudiseum... Rainbow Dash didn’t want to see what kind of sports the nightmares watched. The factories, then. If the nightmares were up to something, they would be doing it there.
But... no, the factories were either too busy or too closed-in. Just making a quick fly-by wouldn’t get her any useful information. Dash grinned. The Princess hadn’t wanted her to get into unnecessary fights, but this wasn’t unnecessary, was it? No, this was simply the easiest way to see what those nightmares were up to. Dash flapped her wings. The blades on her ANIMa started to spin. She hurtled toward the factory district at top speed, rainbows bursting behind her. I’m done with subtlety and stealth, she thought. Let’s get this over with.
Rainbow Dash’s ANIMa lay on the floor, shedding feeble sparks. Only static came through Pinkie’s link. The flames granted by Princess Celestia had burned out, and Rarity’s gem carapace had shattered. Little nightmares crawled up the sides of the ANIMa, shredding themselves on its blades. As soon as Dash had crashed into the factory, the nightmares had swarmed her. Clouds of storm and dust, terribly deformed equines: all had turned toward her, as one, and attacked. They were weak, yes, but there were so many of them, and they were everywhere.
Dash tried to get her ANIMa back up, get back in the air, but the nightmares weighed her down. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. It hurt. They were crawling all over, scrabbling at her armor. It hurt, but she could keep going for now. She heaved herself onto her side, crushing several nightmares beneath her, and looked up at the thing in the center of the factory, the thing the nightmares had been guarding.
It was a complex arrangement of hundreds of glass and metal spheres, hanging from wires or affixed to metal bars, and the entire construction ticked quietly, like some sort of bizarre clock. Its sheer scale made her dizzy, even with her natural pegasus resistance to vertigo. The machine was playing with space somehow; something that impossibly large shouldn’t have been able to fit into all of Cloudsdale, much less a single factory. At the very center of the tangle, perched on a sphere of swirled blue and green glass, was Nightmare Moon. She watched Dash, impassive except for the barest hint of a smile.
Dash struggled toward the giant machine. It was made mostly of glass, she could at least do some damage before Pinkie pulled her out. The nightmares clinging to her weren’t letting her move, though. They dragged at her, held her back, scrabbled at the weak spots in her armor.
There was a sudden piercing pain, and Dash screamed and twisted around. One of the nightmares had teeth, sharp ones, and it had started chewing on her wing—
Dash took a deep breath. No, not her wing. It was the ANIMa’s wing. It wasn’t her, she was still okay—
The nightmare ripped a chunk out of her—no! Out of her ANIMa! Dash clenched her jaw. “Not going to give in,” she said through gritted teeth. These were the creatures which had taken Cloudsdale from her, had stolen her friends and family. Dash tried to say it again. “Not going to give in,” she grunted—
But the other nightmares crawling on her ANIMa had apparently caught on. They were on her, gnawing on her wings, her ANIMa’s wings, whatever—Dash screamed again: one of the nightmares, a twisted monkey-beast, had picked up a shard of Rarity’s shattered armor and jammed it through the joint at the base of her wing. Thoughts of smashing Nightmare Moon’s device fled from Dash’s mind. They were all over her, tearing at her wings, she needed to get out. Dash thrashed around, tried to dislodge them, but it wasn’t working. “Pinkie Pie!” she yelled over the voice-spell. “Pinkie, get me out of this thing!” The other end of the spell still held only static, but Dash felt a sudden jolt run through her. The emergency wake-up? If so, it hadn’t worked. Dash kept thrashing, kept yelling. In the center of the factory, Nightmare Moon gave a low chuckle.
“Why are you here, little one?” Nightmare Moon said. “Are you, perhaps, homesick?”
Dash was too busy struggling with the nightmares to retort. Nightmare Moon sighed.
“It was very rude of you to interrupt us,” she said. “Such rudeness should be punished.” Nightmare Moon gestured with a wing, and suddenly the clouds beneath Dash gave way. She found herself falling towards the ocean below. The nightmares clinging to her released their grips and fluttered back up through the hole in the factory floor.
Dash spread out her wings to break her fall, but all four of them were shredded, and she held back a gasp of pain as the wind yanked at their ragged edges. “Pinkie Pie, what are you doing?” she yelled. Another electric jolt ran through her, and Dash convulsed. She could smell burning fur. “For Celestia’s sake, Pinkie,” Dash cried, “get me out of here!”
Another jolt, and this one worked. Dash screamed. Her eyes fluttered open. She coughed, spat on the ground. Her mouth was full of the taste of blood and bile, and her nose was full of the reek of scorched fur. Her fur. Scootaloo was there, saying something—was Scootaloo crying?—but all Dash cared about was getting out of these restraints—
The last straps came undone, and Dash’s knees buckled. She collapsed. She twisted around, grabbed the electrodes in her mouth, and tore them off. Scootaloo was pushing her head against Dash, trying to prop her up, and Dash’s side erupted in pain. She screamed—or had she already been screaming?—and then, mercifully, blackness.
Rainbow Dash opened her eyes. She was lying on her back, on a thin mattress, staring at the ceiling of Fluttershy’s cottage. Her sides still ached, but the deep, stabbing pain was gone. She’d been slathered in some sort of medicinal goo and wrapped with bandages. She was glad for the bandages. She wasn’t really in the mood to look at her injuries.
Fluttershy moved into view. “Oh, good, Dash, you’re awake. How are you feeling?”
Dash spoke, though her throat still ached. “I’ve been better, Fluttershy. Do... do you have a bucket? I need to—”
Fluttershy gestured to the side of the cot, and Dash rolled over and emptied her stomach.
Dash hung her head, breathing hard, and Fluttershy brought her a glass of water. “Thanks,” Dash said. She rinsed the taste of vomit out of her mouth, spitting into the bucket, then downed the rest of the water.
Then she looked up and caught sight of Pinkie Pie, lying on a similar cot with her eyes closed. She was covered with a thin blanket. “Pinkie? Pinkie Pie?” Dash whispered.
Fluttershy patted Dash on the shoulder. “She’s okay, just taking a nap,” she said. “Her console, um, exploded. It tore up her hooves, but she’ll heal.”
Dash sighed in relief. “That’s good,” she said. “That’s good. So, Fluttershy... what about me? What happened?”
Fluttershy kept patting her gently. “The electrical wake-up... failed. No deep tissue damage, thankfully, but you’ve got some bad burns down your sides. And you sprained a wing; your pilot restraints weren’t tightened correctly. I’ve given you some medicine and bandaged you up, and Twilight gave you a painkilling spell. Extra-strength. You’ll heal too, but it’s going to take a while.” She knelt and gave Dash a clumsy hug. “Princess Celestia wanted to talk to you. She shouldn’t be long, but you can rest for a little bit. If you want.”
Rainbow Dash shivered. She was in Fluttershy’s cottage, far enough from the Core that it shouldn’t affect her, but she could still hear its whispers. The sound made her teeth ache and her wings burn. No, she told herself, that’s just the sprain. It’s all in my imagination.
Dash nodded to Fluttershy. “Yeah, a nap would be good. Wake me up when the Princess is here.”
Fluttershy smiled, nodded, and carefully drew the blanket up to Dash’s chin.
That buzzing ache, like the indistinct chatter of a distant crowd. It was loud, all-consuming, filling her mind, drowning out thought and feeling. She was back in the dreamscape, but this time she was alone. No friends by her side. No ANIMa.
The Shadowbolts watched her. They towered over her, immense wings flapping slowly. They did not move to attack her. They did not open their mouths to speak to her. They merely watched.
Their eyes were beautiful. Empty pits, full of darkness, full of stars falling and dying. She felt her wings lock up, and then she began to plummet toward the ocean below. The Shadowbolts did not move to help her. They simply watched her as she fell.
Rainbow Dash woke up. A figure towered over her, wings outstretched. Dash shrank back—
No, that had been a dream. It was Princess Celestia here, standing over her. Not one of those nightmare tricks, the real Princess Celestia, with Fluttershy standing behind her.
Fluttershy coughed. “I’m sorry I didn’t wake you, Dash, the Princess just got here—”
Dash waved her off. “No big deal, Fluttershy.” Fluttershy nodded and left the cottage, throwing one last glance at Dash before closing the door.
Dash let out a breath. “Hey, Princess,” she said. “I’m sorry; I’d bow, but...” She gestured to the cot.
Princess Celestia smiled. “No need to apologize, Rainbow Dash.” Scarcely had the words left her mouth when her smile vanished. “On the contrary, I must apologize to you. It is my fault that you and Pinkie Pie are injured. This is... this should be my fight. You should not have to defend me.”
Dash shook her head. “No, Princess, it’s not your fault. I’m not doing this because I have to. I’m doing this because I want to, okay? There’s no way I’d let the nightmares get away with—” Images of the false Cloudsdale flashed through Dash’s mind. She gritted her teeth until the memories passed. “With what they’ve done. Besides, you’re the Princess. It’s my duty to help you, isn’t it?”
The Princess frowned. “If you insist, Rainbow Dash. Now, what did you learn about the nightmares before your unfortunate ejection?”
Dash started her story. She told the Princess about flying toward the nightmares’ base, and seeing the Shadowbolt guards, and sneaking up behind them—
“Rainbow Dash,” the Princess interrupted, “you mean to tell me that you engaged the nightmares? Even though you were outnumbered, and I gave you explicit orders to avoid combat?”
“Don’t worry, Princess,” Dash said. “There might have been three of them, but they were all really small—” She realized what else the Princess had said. “I mean—I had to do it, you know? They were guards! They could have seen me, and then the entire mission would’ve been ruined!”
Princess Celestia sat down and looked at her intently. “I see. Very well then, Rainbow Dash,” she said. “Tell me what else you did.”
Dash felt her mouth go dry, but she tried to explain what she had seen: the false Cloudsdale, the machine in the factory, Nightmare Moon. She managed to keep her stuttering to a minimum. “And... well, and then I woke up,” she finished. “So, uh, that’s... that’s it, right? We’re done? I should really get some sleep, heal up—”
Princess Celestia stood up, but she did not stop looking at Dash. She towered over Dash and flared her wings. “No, Rainbow Dash, we are not done yet,” she said. Her voice was empty of emotion. She lowered her head and brushed her horn lightly against Dash’s bandaged sides, and there was a flash of white light.
Dash was wracked with pain and nausea. Her sides were burned and blistered and raw and it hurt. She writhed on her cot, and the rough scrape of gauze on skin traced new agonies through her. Her eyes watered, she clenched her jaw to keep from crying out—
There was another flash from the Princess’s horn, and the pain stopped—at least the most acute pains. The numbing spell on the bandages was still gone, and Dash’s body ached everywhere. She gasped for breath.
“Rainbow Dash, actions have consequences. That is a memory of what your recklessness did to you. Pinkie Pie’s injuries are less serious, thankfully—still, for the sake of thoroughness, shall I show you what she felt?”
Dash couldn’t answer. She was still struggling to catch her breath. The Princess spoke again.
“Twilight had warned me of your eagerness for battle, but I had hoped your loyalty would temper your aggression. I had hoped that you would obey me from the start, and that I would not have to do this. I am sorry, Rainbow Dash—truly, I am.”
The Princess lowered her head again. Dash shut her eyes. I won’t scream, she promised herself. I won’t cry. I can do that much. The Princess’s horn brushed against her side, and there was another bright flash through her eyelids—
A soothing warmth flowed through Dash’s body, and the pain passed. She felt her muscles relax. She felt warm and heavy, but pleasantly so, as she sank back against her cot.
“You bear the Element of Loyalty,” the Princess said. “Loyalty to one’s friends, one’s beliefs. You say you have ‘a duty to help me.’” Dash shivered and opened her mouth to say something, but the Princess took no notice. “Rainbow Dash,” she continued, “loyalty is a powerful virtue, but it is not enough.” Her voice shifted, becoming softer and... almost pleading? “Loyalty and duty are wonderful, but right now I need your obedience. Please, Rainbow Dash. I need to know I can trust you.” She bowed her head, turned, and started to walk away.
“Wait, Princess,” Dash said, her voice shaky. The Princess stopped walking, but she did not turn. “Please, Princess Celestia. I... I’m sorry, okay? I can do better. I’ll do better next time.”
“I am disappointed in you,” the Princess said, still facing away. “You may have seen something important, but your knowledge is incomplete. Still, we must accept what we have. I will be back with Twilight to ask more questions. Until then, you should rest.”
Rainbow Dash lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling. The Princess had come back, accompanied by Twilight, and they had asked more questions about the mission and the nightmares’ machine. They had called it an “orrery” or something. Dash didn’t know what they were talking about, but she did her best to answer their questions. After Twilight and the Princess left, Applejack came by. They’d talked, and Applejack had brought snacks, and that was nice, but eventually she’d had to leave for chores or something. Then Rarity had come by to check in, and then Fluttershy had brought some more medicine... boring. Being injured was boring. Almost boring enough to put her to sleep, but not quite. And Dash shivered at the thought of her dream; she didn’t want any more dreams for now. The buzz of the Nightmare Core had faded, but when she closed her eyes she could still hear its faint echoes.
“Hey, Pinkie Pie,” Dash called. Pinkie had been sleeping the whole time, occasionally snoring. “Hey, Pinkie Pie! Wake up!”
Pinkie sat up abruptly. “Wha? Oh, hi Dashie! How are you doing?”
“Bored. I thought you might want to talk or something.”
Pinkie tilted her head. “Sure, Dash, I’d love to talk. I don’t know what to talk about, though. What do you want to talk about?”
“I don’t know,” Dash said. “Uh, how are you doing? Fluttershy said the console exploded. You okay?”
Pinkie Pie showed her front hooves to Dash. They were bandaged heavily, but her bandages were dry, unlike Dash’s, which were still sticky with medicinal paste.
“I’m a bit twingey,” Pinkie said, “but I’ll be fine. And now I know that prickly hoof means something’s about to explode!”
Dash chuckled. “...Yeah, I hope you don’t have to use that too much. But I’m glad you’re okay, Pinkie.”
Pinkie Pie smiled. “Don’t worry about me, Dash, I always bounce back. I’m a very bouncy pony.” She paused. “But what about you? You’re not a bouncy pony. You’re more of a zoomy pony. You know... zoom. Whoosh!” She waved her hooves in the air to demonstrate.
“I’ll be fine, Pinkie,” Dash said.
Pinkie narrowed her eyes, and Dash felt heat rise to her face. “I said I’ll be fine, Pinkie Pie. I’ve already had Twilight and the Princess grilling me. Can’t you at least lay off?”
A frown crossed Pinkie’s face, just for a moment, and then she was smiling again. “If you say so, Rainbow Dash!” Dash blinked, and suddenly Pinkie was at her side, hugging her tightly. “I don’t want to make you all grumpy, Dashie. Smiles are good medicine. Soon you’ll be all healed and whooshy again!”
Dash shoved her backward. “Damn it, Pinkie Pie, don’t you know what ‘lay off’ means?” Pinkie stumbled and fell to the floor. She looked up at Dash, her lower lip quivering, and Dash had to look away. “Just—just forget it, okay?” Dash said. “Just... forget it.” She rolled over, ignoring the momentary pain in her sprained wing. “Look, I’m going back to sleep. Sleep and medicine’ll do more for me than smiles will,” she said, and closed her eyes.
Pinkie pulled the blanket over Dash. “Sleep tight then, Dashie,” she said, very quietly, and padded back to her own bed.
Rainbow Dash lay there for a long time, listening. Though Pinkie Pie went back to sleep quickly—Dash could hear her snoring again—Dash herself could not fall asleep, not for hours.