Dash was in a daze. All six of them were: Twilight over Spike’s disappearance, Rarity and Applejack over the random kiss, and Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy over the two unexpected twists in an otherwise normal trip. Nopony had seen any of it coming, not even Dash. What troubled her most was how it connected with her story, where she had thrown in the two events haphazardly. But stories didn’t ever become real, did they?
“I want to show you a new spell I’ve been working on. It allows normal paper to make whatever’s written on it into reality!”
That was it! Twilight had told her about magic paper that had recently gone missing. Could she possibly have that paper?
“Ridiculous,” she said to herself. Twilight would have figured it out by now. But Spike was missing...Would she really be able to think straight after losing her brother? No. There’s no way even Twilight could think logically at this point in time.
Hesitating on what to do with her discovery, Dash decided to test her theory. She flipped over the first page of her story, where neat cursive read, ‘It was a rainy day in Ponyville.’ Frowning at the sentence, Dash couldn’t help but wonder if that was where the random storm had come from earlier in the week. There was only one way to find out if this paper was, indeed, magic. Grabbing the quill in her mouth, she scrawled out, ‘Dash fell to the ground.’
Instantly, she felt herself fall through her cloud floor. Wait! She had meant the house’s floor! Quickly, the ground began to rush up at her and she unfurled her wings, hoping to minimize the damage. The breath was knocked out of her with a low grunt as she hit the hard earth below. It was a good thing she had lowered her house recently so Fluttershy would have an easier time visiting to take care of Tank.
Dash stood and shook the dirt off her coat. That definitely proved that the paper was magic. There had never been a time that she could recall where she had fallen out of her own house.
Flying back up to her home, Dash set down the papers, grabbed a quill, and began writing.
Using her natural connection to animals, Windwhisper sent out woodland creatures to find the dragon. They reported back, showing the group a series of scorch marks leading into the mountains, where its lair undoubtedly was.
Fluttershy was busy comforting Twilight.
“I can’t believe he’s just…gone!” Twilight moaned.
Reaching a reassuring hoof around her friend, Fluttershy said, “It’s okay, Twilight. He’ll turn up eventually.”
“I just wish there was a way you could find him,” Twilight said, sniffling.
That was it! “Twilight, you’re a genius!” Fluttershy said, involuntarily taking flight. Landing, she said more quietly, “Um, that is, you already were. But this idea is great! I’ll send all my animals out to find him.”
Wiping her eyes, Twilight asked, “Is there a way they can do that?”
Fluttershy lifted her head, feeling uncharacteristically proud. “Oh, yes. He’s a dragon that sends letters. He’s bound to spit fire at some point.”
“Fluttershy, that’s brilliant!” Her shy friend blushed and hid behind her mane. Twilight’s brow furrowed. “But can we really count on him receiving enough letters to leave a trail?”
“I thought you could send letters to him with a spell. Princess Celestia is able to.”
Twilight sighed. “She showed me how to once. The trick would be in finding his magical signature. Sending a letter by dragon requires two magical signatures: One for the sender and one for the dragon. The spell doesn’t require knowing exactly where the dragon is, but it is extremely taxing to cast the spell when you don’t know the dragon’s location.”
Just then, Dash flew by, her writing materials stowed inside her saddle bag.
“Rainbow Dash! Could I borrow some of your extra paper?” Twilight asked.
“No, I, uh…need it.” Dash said, looking nervously around.
“For what?” Twilight asked incredulously.
Dash rolled her eyes. “My story of course!”
Rolling her own eyes, Twilight went over to the desk to grab paper for her letters. Fluttershy couldn’t be sure, but she thought Twilight said something like, “I hope these aren’t the magic papers.” Returning with a quill, Twilight quickly wrote a letter. With a glow from her horn and a soft ‘pop’, the letter disappeared.
Outside, Dash exclaimed, “Whoa! I dunno what those birds saw, but they didn’t like it.”
“Where were they?” Fluttershy shrieked, flying through the library’s open window. She hoped the poor things weren’t hurt.
“Looked like they were in the mountains someplace.”
Excited by the prospect of finding her brother, Twilight hurried outside, running toward the mountains.
Dash started to follow, but stopped. “Wait, I’m one of Fluttershy’s animals?”
Three hours later, with all six mares together, the group was now more or less lost in the mountains. The birds had long since lost track of Spike. Twilight sent another letter, hoping for some clue. With no green flash on the horizon, she reached in her saddle bag for another piece of paper. Her hoof touched nothing but the fabric of the bag.
“Rainbow, I’m out of paper,” she called to her friend, who was hovering over the group.
“I don’t understand. We should have found him by now,” Dash muttered to herself.
“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight shouted. Nearly startled into falling, Dash recovered and flew in closer. “I need more paper. I’m all out.”
“Twi, I already told you. I need it.”
“What in Tartarus do you need paper for?” Twilight snapped. “Your story is not as important as finding Spike!”
“But my story can help find Spike!” Dash protested.
Twilight rolled her eyes. Dash was not usually this delusional. “Dash, simply writing a happy ending to your story isn’t going to solve our problems.”
“It is if it’s written on magic paper!” Dash responded. Twilight seemed stunned, either from surprise at the revelation or surprise that she hadn’t figured it out herself. The others looked confused.
“Magic paper?” Applejack said.
Dash sighed and flew over the others. “Yes. It’s like this: I ran out of Daring Do to read, so Twi suggested I write my own story. Twi had been working on a spell to make anything you write on a piece of paper become real. She accidentally gave me the pieces of paper she had used the spell on. So now everything I write becomes real.” Her ears drooped and she lowered her head. “It’s my fault we’re in this mess.”
“So, everything in the past day or two was part of your story?” Fluttershy inquired.
“More or less,” Dash shrugged.
“So Rarity didn’t really kiss AJ?” Pinkie Pie chimed in. Dash shook her head. “Aw, that’s no fun! I was planning a ‘Two of our friends are now a couple so let’s party’ party.” Rarity sighed and put a hoof to her chest. Applejack lowered her head, ears drooping slightly.
“Write a story to get Spike back,” Twilight pleaded.
Dash grinned. “I have a plan to do just that, and be way cool at the same time.”