//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 
// Story: Darkest Ambitions 
// by Llyander 
//------------------------------//


Darkest Ambitions
Chapter 1


“Why did the griffin cross the road?”
“HEARD IT!”
“Well, uh… Erm… Knock Knock?”
“….
“I said, uh, knock knock?”
“Not answering. Go away and come back tomorrow.”
Every night it was the same. The situation changed, the voices changed, but it was always the same.  She was alone on the stage, the floodlight’s glare obliterating the world, pinning her in its merciless stare, the air hot, thick, the audience lost in the shadows but she knew they were there. The mocking voices made sure of that.
She glanced down at her flank, noticing her cutie mark, the three balloons that signified her special gift in making ponies laugh. It was her destiny to make them forget their troubles and be happy, her special talent was to make them laugh, make them smile, and yet night after night she stood here and they mocked and derided her.
Every joke, every silly trick, every attempt at a magical act backfired on her or faltered in the face of their mockery.  The voices were growing louder now, jeering, laughing, booing. “Please. If you’d just, I mean, please if you’d just give me another chance-“
“Useless!”
“Fraud!”
“‘Bout as funny as a bout of hoof rot!”
“Failure! Loser! Imposter!”  The voices grew louder, the insults thrown faster, merging into a cacophony of noise that drove her down to her knees, curving her wings over her head as she huddled away from them, desperately trying to block them out.
“No! Please! I just want to make you laugh!”
Fluttershy jerked awake with a strangled squeal, frantically waving her forehooves in the air before her to defend against her phantom tormentors, “No, please!” She squeaked, “I… I…” She yanked the blankets up and off her body, shuddering in relief as she found the butterflies adorning her flank as they always had ever since the day of the rainboom. Well, almost always, anyway.
That day. That was all any of them needed to call it.  None of them would be forgetting it anytime soon and some days she wasn’t sure she was going to get over it at all.  The day of Starswirl the Bearded’s last spell, when her destiny had been changed in the blink of an eye thanks to an accidentally invoked spell.
She rolled over in the bed, hugging the blanket tighter to herself as she remembered her feeble attempts to entertain the folks of Ponyville, seeing the sceptical looks on their faces melting into annoyance and anger at her antics to the point where she’d been prepared to flee the town to try and escape what she had thought was her fate.
It had all worked out in the end, of course, these things always did.  They had each been restored to their normal selves and the courses of their lives had been set right. Twilight had even ascended to join the three princesses as an alicorn!  Life, it seemed, was going to get right back to normal but within a few days the nightmares had started and she’d had barely any respite in the weeks since then.
She slowly rolled out of bed, blinking blearily out at the darkness that blanketed the land.  Oh dear, she’d barely been asleep for any time at all!  She looked at the warm bed and soft pillows that would normally be so inviting and all she could feel was a deep unease as the last lingering remnants of the dream tugged at her subconscious.  No, she decided, she was done with sleeping for tonight. She’d just have to have lots of tea tomorrow morning to help her stay awake.  
Her decision made, the yellow pegasus tugged the blankets back into some semblance of order before she opened the door of her room and peeked outside, nearly bumping into the silent frame of the guard that was standing his post outside.  He turned his head slightly, the lights in the hallway glittering on his crystal coat as he gave her a quizzical look. “Ma’am?” He murmured, his voice pitched soft. He’d been warned that this particular guest of the Princess was shy to say the least, “Is there something I can help you with?”
“Oh, er, no, nothing,” she whispered, shrinking back a bit as she saw the frown on his face, “I just had a, uh, nightmare. I was going to go and make myself some tea.”
“I can have some brought to your room if you need, Ma’am? It would only take a moment to alert the kitchen staff.”
“Oh no, no.” She squeaked, horrified at the thought that some poor pony would be roused from their beds just because she’d had a bad dream, “I don’t want to be a bother at all.  I’ll just go down and make myself some, no need to bother anypony just for a cup of tea.” She faltered a little, ducking her head down so that her mane hid her eyes. “If that’s okay with you, of course, mister guard sir.”
The guard’s expression lightened, just a little, “I don’t think the Princess will mind you helping yourself to some tea, Ma’am,” he assured her, “of course if you were to perhaps bring me back a nice blueberry muffin when you’ve had your tea, I can guarantee that not a whisper of this will ever reach her ears.” He added a playful little wink and a hint of a grin that she couldn’t help but return with a sweet, shy smile of her own.
“Blueberry, right, got it.” She giggled softly as she slipped from her room and closed the door behind her, “I’ll be back in a while.” She promised and trotted off down the hall before quickly taking to the air and fluttering along so that she wouldn’t wake anyone up with her midnight excursion.
Even this late at night the place wasn’t entirely devoid of life and Fluttershy exchanged quick, shy greetings with a number of other guards standing silent vigil at their posts as she flew down the hallways.
She’d been here long enough now that the Crystal Palace was no longer quite as confusing or intimidating as it had been in the beginning but it still took her more than a few wrong turns before she finally found what she was looking for – The palace kitchens.
She pushed the heavy door open and was startled to find there were already lights flickering within.  Was someone else having trouble sleeping as well?  She peeked cautiously in to make sure she wasn’t going to be bothering someone and her eyes widened in surprise. “Rainbow Dash?”
“Oh hey, Fluttershy. What’re you doing up so late?”  The rainbow-maned pegasus waved her over. She was leaning up against one of the counters, a half-eaten sandwich lying on a plate next to her along with a mug of steaming black liquid, the acrid scent of coffee reaching Fluttershy’s nose as she came closer.
“I, uh, had a bad dream,” she admitted. “I couldn’t sleep anymore so thought I might as well come and have some tea.”
“You too, huh?” Dash replied without thinking as she turned to put the kettle back on the stove to heat for her friend. “I mean, er, not that I have bad dreams ever! I’m far too awesome for nightmares!” She puffed her chest out as she did her best to quickly gloss over that little chink in her armour. Dammit, what was it about Fluttershy that made her slip up like that all the time around her? Totally not cool. That little pegasus was far more tricky than she let on, that was the only explanation for it. She’d been able to do this ever since they’d both arrived in Ponyville, coaxing her into revealing those little, personal snippets of information that she otherwise kept securely hidden away from her other friends.
“You too?” Was all Fluttershy said, “Are they about… You know… That day?”
Dash could feel her shoulders hunching up despite her best efforts to remain cool, calm and awesomely collected. What else would they be about but that? The day of Twilight’s biggest screw up and her biggest triumph. “Yeah.” She finally managed to force the word out from a throat suddenly gone dry and tight.
“Oh.” Fluttershy stared down at her hooves, rubbing them together nervously as she debated if she should pry into Dash’s personal affairs. The dreams, whatever they were, had obviously upset her even if she did her best to deny it. “Can I-“ she started, but Dash cut her off.
“I’m in the cottage. Your cottage.  The animals are all there and no matter what I do, they just won’t listen to me.  They run around and fight and break things and then… Then it all turns dark. They all stop and their eyes are glowing red and then they’re all over me, grabbing onto my wings so I can’t get away, and I’m swatting at them trying to get loose and they’re biting me and…” She broke off, suddenly realising how high pitched her voice had got, how the words were tumbling over one another in their haste to leave her mouth. “And then I wake up.” She finished lamely.
It took Fluttershy a moment or two to think of something to say. Rainbow Dash was having nightmares? Rainbow… Dash.  Bravest pegasus in Cloudsdale if not Equestria itself, who had faced down Nightmare Moon and once kicked a dragon? It just didn’t compute, but then if she thought about it… The last three years had been one crisis after another.  Nightmare Moon, then Discord, the Changeling invasion, the return of Sombra, plus her own more personal issues through all that. She’d been in and out of the hospital with various flight and stunt related injuries and then, of course, there had been dropping out from the Wonderbolts flight camp.  It all added up to a heavy emotional burden for any pony to try and carry.
She was barely even aware of forming the thought before she was across the room and had both her forelegs and her wings wrapped around a somewhat startled Dash, burying her head down against the blue pegasus’chest as she blurted out, “I’m so sorry, Dash! My animals are normally so sweet, I’m sorry they were so mean to you! I never meant for you to have bad dreams!”
“Oh hey, come on Flutters…” Dash cleared her throat as she awkwardly patted the back of her friend’s neck, shifting uncomfortably in the sudden tight embrace, “It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t choose for me to end up with your job after all. I just...” She trailed off and sighed. “You know, it kinda opened my eyes to some stuff so it wasn’t really all that bad in the end.”
“Oh? What sort of stuff?”
“Well…” Dash shuffled in place, gently extricating herself from Fluttershy’s embrace to take another sip from her coffee, stalling for time before she went on. “I guess I never realised just how tough it is with all those animals. So many different ones, all with their own demands! It’s not like looking after Tank.  He’s happy with some carrots and lettuce and being allowed to hover around in town.  You’ve just got SO many and they all want something different to eat and some of them can’t be around the others and…” She shrugged and gave a little smile. “It’s just pretty impressive, y’know, what you do. I just thought you should know that.”
The building whistle of the kettle forestalled any further conversation as Dash nudged it from the hob. “Maybe best you fix your own tea, though,” she admitted with a faint little grin, “I’m not really the best at it. One time I tried to make tea for Rarity, you should have seen the faces she pulled!”
Fluttershy flitted quickly around the kitchen until she had what she wanted, adding the tea leaves to the pot before adding the steaming water, giving it a quick stir with a spoon before leaving it to steep. “So what do you make of them, Rainbow? We’ve been here a week now.”
“Mmm? Whossat?”
“Your trainees. Your… What are we calling them exactly? Your disciples?”
“You mean my awesome team of radical athletes who are TOTALLY going to win every single gold medal in the Equestria Games?” Dash couldn’t quite resist puffing her chest up at the mention of why they’d been invited to the Crystal Empire in the first place.
“Uhm, yes. Those ones.”
“Team Awesome, of course! As if there could be any other name!” Another sip of her coffee followed, “And they’re coming along. Slowly.” She hesitated, then groaned and dropped her head down to the counter with a loud thump. “Who am I kidding? They’re terrible.  I mean, you’ve seen them, Flutters. The individual athletes are doing great, I’ve got no problems with them, but all the team sports? We’re awful. I might be the Element of Loyalty, and I KNOW that’s why Cadence asked for me to come up here, but… I just dunno.”
“Oh Rainbow. It’s not like you to doubt yourself.  Who was it who whipped the Ponyville weather team into the envy of every other team in Equestria?”
“Well, me.” The pegasus admitted, giving her friend a curious look as she tried to figure out what she was getting at.
“And who was it who was so loyal to her friends that she wouldn’t abandon them even when offered her lifelong dream?” She paused. “Even if that dream WAS just an illusion, it still counts!”
“Well, me again.” Dash lifted her head up, her ears slowly straightening from being laid flat against her head.
“And what about tornado day?” Her voice was rising, growing firmer and more determined with every “and” that left her lips, hammering the point home until Rainbow couldn’t deny it any longer, “You rallied every single pegasus in Ponyville and got Cloudsdale the water it needed!” Fluttershy was really hitting her stride now, her excitement growing as she listed of all the times Dash had stood by her friends, or got them to work together when no-one else thought they could. “That’s why the Princess asked you to come here, Rainbow! You make ponies believe in things they never thought they could do! You make them believe that the sky really isn’t the limit!”
“Well, yeah, I did all those things, sure. But these ponies, Flutters…” She slowly shook her head, idly drawing little patterns on the table with some coffee that had dribbled from her mug, “They’ve never worked together in their lives. They were slaves to Sombra for so long that they’ve forgotten what any sort of teamwork or cooperation is.  They’d gladly have stabbed each other in the back for a handful of grain if that’s what kept them alive. I tried to explain it to them, that in things like the relay, they gotta all work together! They just stared at me like I was speaking Zebrican or something.”
Fluttershy took the time to fix her mug of tea before replying. She added milk and sugar and took a little sip before she turned back to face her friend, seeing the indecision on Dash’s face, the slump of her shoulders.  “But that’s why I’m here as well, Rainbow.” She assured her friend. “Between the two of us, we’ll get them ready.”
Dash fidgeted a little as she took another gulp of coffee, then finished her sandwich in one quick bite. “I hope so.  We’ve got so little time to get ready for this.. We can’t stay up here forever; we’ve both got things to do back in Ponyville, jobs and friends and… You know what, I’m tired.  Things’ll look better in the morning, I bet.  Just need to get a good night’s sleep.”
Fluttershy hesitated before speaking again, chewing on her bottom lip as she debated whether or not to say anything more. Rainbow hated having to ask for help, nearly as much as Applejack, “Have you tried talking to the Princess? Maybe she could help you sleep.”
“No, because then I’d have to tell her why I was having problems.  I don’t want her to know, I don’t want anyone to know.  You got that?” She jabbed the tip of one wing towards Fluttershy, the yellow pegasus shrinking away from the angry gesture with a startled squeak, “This is my problem to deal with and I’m not going to let some stupid bad dreams put me off my game!”
“Our problem.” Fluttershy gently corrected after giving Dash a moment to calm back down.
“Say what?”
“Our problem,” she repeated, “because if you’re not at your best, then it makes it harder for everyone, Rainbow. For you and me and the athletes and everyone around us. Do you really want to be out there trying to motivate them when you’re not a hundred percent?  You wouldn’t go trying any of your tricks when you were tired, would you?” Her point, hopefully, hammered home she placed her hoof gently over Rainbow’s, giving her a soft, hopeful little smile. “Please tell me you’ll speak to her. It can’t hurt.”
Dash stared sullenly at the tabletop, trying to ignore the strange little shiver that ran through her at the touch of that hoof on her own.  Huh, she really must be more tired than she thought, “Yeah, okay, Flutters,” she grunted at last, “I’ll go speak to her in the morning, see if she’s got any advice.”
Fluttershy squee’d in delight and clopped her forehooves together. “Thank you, Rainbow.”
“Yeahyeah.” She grunted in return as she finished her coffee and set the mug aside. “Look, I’m not going to get any sleep tonight, think I’ll go for a few laps around the city, see if I can tire myself out enough that there won’t be any more dreams. Feel like joining me?”
The yellow pegasus shook her head as she scooped the teapot up by the handle and topped up her mug, “Nff thks.” She mumbled around it, then cleared her throat as she set it down. “No thanks. I’m going to finish my tea and read a book, I think. I also promised the nice guard outside my room that I would bring him back a muffin!”
“Fair enough. See you in the morning, bright and early!” She moved to leave, then paused mid-step, “Ehn… maybe not QUITE so bright and early as usual though, huh?”  She grinned, flicking her mane playfully before she trotted out to find a good place to launch from. She’d learned the hard way that the guards didn’t take kindly to her simply flying in and out of any window she pleased.
Fluttershy returned to her tea, quickly transferring her mug onto a little carry-handle tray. A cursory search around the kitchen soon yielded the sweet treasure that she was seeking and so, two muffins sat proudly beside the mug and teapot, she trotted back to her room with the handle of the tray held in her mouth, trying to make sure she didn’t make too much noise as she passed through the long, echoing hallways.
The guard at her room saluted her politely as she arrived, pushing the door open for her to enter after he had taken the muffin from the tray.  Three bites later and it was all gone, only a crumb or two around his hooves betraying his midnight snack. “Thank you, Ma’am.  Another few hours without anything to eat and I think my stomach might have tried to climb out and go to the kitchen without me!”
“Oh, no problem at all, mister guard.  I hope you have a quiet night.” She nudged the door shut with a hoof and laid out on her bed with a lazy sigh. If she lifted her head she could see Dash out the window, flying her circuits around the city, the moonlight catching her rainbow mane and making it shine.
Funny.  She’d never really noticed how pretty Rainbow was.