//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Antagonizing the Supreme Being // Story: Alpha Centauri // by StLeibowitz //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash cracked an eye open after a few minutes of sitting perfectly still, irritated by her apparent lack of success in performing an astral projection. Discord was sipping lazily from a glass of lemonade in his hammock, sunglasses covering his eyes completely. Angrily, she stood up. “It’s not working, Discord!” she shouted, to no response. He just kept sucking his drink through a crazy-straw that didn’t look like it confined its loops to a mere three dimensions of space and one of time. “Now what do I do?” No answer. Furious now, she stormed over to her saddlebag and tried to pick it up, grumbling. When her hoof passed right through the cloth, she realized that she hadn’t failed – she was too amazing to fail when she put her mind to something! She’d succeeded! She’d done magic! “Hah!” she laughed, spinning around to face the apathetic draconequus again – of course, he probably couldn’t see her now, could he? What she was about to say remained unsaid when she caught sight of her own body, still sitting placidly in the ring of phoenix beak dust. Curious, she walked around it, getting a good look at herself from every angle. There was some kind of golden thread connecting her projected form back to her physical form; she assumed that was the “astral tether” Discord had warned her about. She concentrated on it experimentally for a few moments, noting how it thickened and seemed to become more solid while she did so. It didn’t look to be in imminent danger of collapse when she wasn’t staring at it hard, though, so she let her attention lapse back to the almost-unconscious level it had been at before. “Okay, I did the projection thing,” she told him, satisfied that she did indeed look as good from the outside as the inside. “What next?” No response. He sipped from the lemonade again. Dash groaned irritably; of course he wasn’t answering – he couldn’t hear her at all, probably, or pinpoint her exact location. She was, effectively, a ghost. The image of Pinkie trying to exorcise her with music like she’d done for the trees in the Everfree brought a brief smile to her face. “So,” she thought aloud. “How am I supposed to find Twilight now?” “Perhaps you could ask,” Cloud Ferry suggested sweetly. Startled, Rainbow Dash whipped her head around and spotted the unicorn back near the door to the stairs, smiling. She wasn’t wearing a dress this time, and Dash could finally see her cutie mark – a pair of masks, a blue one laughing and a green one frowning. “After all, you do have a unicorn mage living in your head…” “Go away!” Dash shouted. “I don’t need your help!” “But Twilight Sparkle does,” Ferry retorted calmly. Her eyes narrowed. “Though perhaps I won’t help, if you’re intent on being so hostile. Do not presume to command your better, pegasus – you can’t get rid of me as easily here as in the physical world.” “You’re just a bunch of memories!” Dash scoffed. “But here, I am just as real as you.” She chuckled. “Time is wasting, Rainbow Dash. Does your friend need help, or not?” She sighed in defeat. “Fine. How do I – “ “Ah-ah!” Cloud Ferry smirked. “Apologize first.” “Why?” “Do you want my help or not?” “Fine,” she managed to spit out. “I’m sorry.” “For what?” Dash wanted to kill her again just to wipe that condescending smirk off her face. The idea that she’d ever been this mare was almost nauseating. “For being rude to you, I guess,” she finished quickly. “So, how do I find Twilight?” If Cloud Ferry could have smirked again while still smirking, Rainbow Dash was fairly certain she’d have done it. “I don’t know.” Discord picked that moment to yawn loudly and roll himself off the hammock, appearing next to Dash before he hit the floor and leaving a copy of himself behind on the ground. “As interesting as listening to you talk to yourself is, Rainbow Dash, I think it’s time I give you a few last important pointers on how to accomplish this mission.” “I’m not talking to myself!” she protested, glancing away from Cloud Ferry for a second. “I’m trying to get this stupid unicorn to help me!” “Who?” Angrily, she looked back to where Cloud Ferry had been, but the unicorn mare had disappeared. Frustrated, she shook her head. “Never mind.” Discord shrugged. “Very well then. Your madness is none of my business.” “I’m not crazy!” He patted her patronizingly on the head. “Of course you aren’t, Rainbow Dash. Now then, to complete your crash course in extremely advanced astral magic, it’s time to teach you how to navigate. It’s incredibly simple, really, even a neophyte like yourself should be able to grasp it: you simply imagine where you wish to go, and you appear there.” She gave him a flat look. “That’s it?” “That’s it,” he confirmed. “Of course, you’ve never actually been to the Celestial Court, so that still presents a problem. I would just teach you how to scry and solve it like that, but time is evidently of the essence, so…” Rainbow Dash’s delicate internal navigation sense – the innate ability of every pegasus to orient themselves, no matter what the circumstances were – went completely haywire as the world bent around them. The spatial displacement wreaked havoc on her inner ear, sent her stomach into a tailspin, and gave her a headache to rival the sensation of being gored repeatedly in the face by a particularly cruel and sadistic mammoth. When her vision cleared and she could tell which way was up again, she realized she’d fallen over and vomited. Standing up and shaking herself a bit, hoping none of the green mess had gotten into her mane or coat, she froze in surprise as she found herself suddenly staring into the depths of space itself. Ordinarily, just that would have upset her navigation sense even further, but for now it still trying to reset, and so she was able to look long enough to pick out slight discrepancies in the illusion. Sure, it was almost perfect, at first glance, and probably could have fooled a unicorn or earth pony, but pegasi had better distance vision, and the parallax was just slightly off. She figured out why a second later – she wasn’t staring into space, she was staring into a field of columns! Giant columns. That were made of outer space. She swallowed nervously and wondered exactly what she was getting herself into, when Discord’s voice sounded close to her ear. “Friendly reminders: don’t lose your tether, don’t anger the Queen of the Universe, and try not to do anything else stupid. Good luck!” “Wait!” she said, but she was too late. He was gone, and she was alone, completely out of her depth, about to walk up to the purported Queen of the Universe and demand her friend back from an alien pony. Gathering her courage, she buried her anxiety and picked a direction at random, and started walking. ------ Caelum’s palace – the Celestial Court, or whatever – was huge, Rainbow Dash thought with dismay as she walked down infinitely long aisles between rows of huge columns. When she looked at an angle along the grid of pillars, she could still be fooled for a second into thinking she staring at the sky, which didn’t help her to orient herself at all; when she walked in the empty spaces of the grid, she felt absolutely dwarfed by the place. Up high, multicolored fog choked the air, and when she tried to fly up to reach it she discovered that it was absurdly high – so far beyond her reach that it may as well have been the actual night sky from Ponyville. Close to the translucent, muted-purple ground, the fog was absent, and she had an excellent view of the endless halls she walked. The entire place seemed to be designed to make visitors feel absolutely, cosmically insignificant. “Well,” Cloud Ferry murmured from behind Dash. “This is…rather impressive.” Rainbow Dash nodded mutely. “Perhaps we should…rethink this?” She shook her head. “No. Twilight’s been kidnapped, and I’m not going to abandon her just because things get a little…big.” “Enormous, I think, would be more accurate.” Ferry snorted. “You’re an idiot, following after her like this. What could you possibly feel for her that could compel this sort of irrationality?” “She’s my friend!” “Some more speculative ponies might think such unthinking devotion to another mare could be a sign of something less innocent,” she noted innocently. “Look, you creep,” Dash growled, rounding on Cloud Ferry. “Just because you never had a friend in your entire sad life doesn’t mean I’m just as lonely and disloyal.” “If you think this is loyalty, Rainbow Dash, then perhaps you are mad.” The unicorn shrugged. “I suppose it’s no concern of mine whether you prefer mares or stallions…after all, I’m just a memory.” “She’s my friend,” Dash repeated. “Just my friend.” “Of course, dear.” “Sicko.” She picked up her pace to get away from Cloud Ferry. It seemed to work, as far as getting her to shut up; when Dash glanced back over her shoulder, she was gone. Where does she even go? she thought. She rolled her eyes. As long as she isn’t talking to me, I’m fine. She walked alone for what felt like another hour, noticing no appreciable changes in her surroundings. Everything was the same, it seemed; a giant, endless room filled with rows upon rows upon columns upon columns of columns. Only the presence of the spidery gold line trailing behind her gave her the courage to press on, knowing that with it she would never be completely lost. Suddenly, she was in a throne room. She froze uncertainly, her hoof hovering just above the beginning of a gold-trimmed blue carpet that led up a series of steps to a gold throne, framed by a round window overlooking the depths of space. On the throne sat an alicorn with a kindly smile and an absolutely terrifying pair of solid white eyes that held Dash’s gaze like magnets. The alicorn blinked, and suddenly her eyes had pupils and magenta irises to match the pegasus’s own; for a moment, Rainbow Dash felt the absurd fear that her own eyes had been stolen. “I thought I felt the presence of a mortal within the Celestial Court,” Queen Caelum said, standing from her throne and trotting down the steps towards Rainbow Dash. “While I do have other pressing matters at hoof, I believe I can spare some time to entertain a guest.” She frowned. “You are not a unicorn. I know the structure Celestia set up for your world, pegasus; how did you reach my court? I am curious.” Dash shook herself out of her stupor. “That’s not important!” she said. “I’m looking for my friend.” “Then we shall come back to the matter of your arrival here in a moment,” Caelum allowed. “I may be powerful, little pony, but I am neither omnipotent nor omniscient. If I can help you, I will – it is only just, after the effort it must have taken to get here.” “Her name is Twilight Sparkle,” she told her. “She’s a unicorn a little taller than me, with a purple coat and a star for a cutie mark. Some crazy alien pony came and kidnapped her!” “I do not know where she could be,” Caelum answered sadly. “I am sorry your trip has been in vain.” “She’s lying,” Cloud Ferry declared, stepping out from behind the alicorn. “Did you see how she hesitated before answering? Sad, really, that a monarch can’t lie properly.” “What?” Dash frowned at Cloud Ferry. “She didn’t hesitate.” The unicorn sighed. “I would call you thick, but you wouldn’t understand what I meant by it immediately, and that takes a great deal of my enjoyment out of it. Yes, Rainbow Dash, she did hesitate, and she failed to look you in the eye when she answered, and her back hoof shifted subtly, and her heart rate increased, and her pupils dilated – how you missed all that, I can’t possibly fathom.” “Who are you talking to?” Caelum asked warily. Rainbow Dash looked back to her. “You’re lying,” she said, trying to ignore the fact that she was probably antagonizing the most powerful being in existence. “Where’s Twilight?” “I cannot help you,” the alicorn said. “And that is the truth.” “It is,” Cloud Ferry confirmed with a smirk. “Though, of course, being able to help you, and knowing where your friend is, are two completely separate things.” “What did you do with her?” Dash demanded, hovering so she could look Caelum straight in the eyes. “What did you do with my friend?” “I cannot help you,” Caelum insisted angrily. She turned away from Rainbow Dash, and the pegasus sensed space shifting around her. “I will ignore your insolence for now, mortal. I have, as I said, more pressing concerns to deal with.” “Like Alpha Centauri?” Dash demanded. Cloud Ferry winced. Space flattened again as Caelum spun back around. “How do you know of that name?” “Perhaps it would be best not to tell her it was Discord?” Cloud Ferry suggested nervously. “Why?” Dash asked. “He isn’t here with us because he is extremely unwelcome here,” she explained patiently. “So linking yourself to him would be a very bad idea and will likely only anger her.” “So what?” She frowned at Cloud Ferry. “Why are you even helping me, anyways?” “Because if you antagonize her into a homicidal fury, dearest host,” she replied saccharinely, “we both are killed.” She dropped back down to the ground. “Look, I’m no Applejack, but isn’t not telling her a lie, too?” “Of course it is!” Ferry groaned. “Yes, it’s a lie, you idiot. That’s the point. If you told the truth –“ “Lying’s just going to make her more angry!” “Not if she didn’t know you were lying.” The unicorn facehooved. “How did I ever reincarnate as somepony this inept?” “Maybe you would have had friends if you’d told the truth more often.” “You – is this the time for bickering?” Ferry spluttered. Rainbow Dash beat her wings and rose back to Caelum’s eye level by way of agreement, leaving the unicorn gaping up at her incredulously. “You’re going to tell her, aren’t you? You are.” “You try my patience severely,” Caelum said, her voice strained. “I repeat: how do you know that name?” “The alien pony called her that,” Dash answered. Ferry sighed loudly in relief. “Where is she? You know where she is!” “And how do you know that?” the Queen asked. “I’m the one asking the questions here!” She shoved her face close to the alicorn’s, but instead of forcing her to draw back like she’d expected, Caelum simply warped space and slammed Dash against the wall, her face contorted as if she’d smelled something particularly foul. The illusion of pupils in her eyes had been dispelled, and they were back to plain white globes as she advanced deliberately towards the pinned pegasus. “Now you’ve done it,” Ferry moaned. “What in Equestria were you thinking? You’re mad, that’s the issue – you’re not inept, you’re just absolutely insane!” “I’m not crazy!” she insisted, struggling against what felt like a mountain pressing down on her and holding her helplessly. “I did not ask if you were,” Caelum growled. She stopped about ten feet from Rainbow Dash. “Though I find it likely that you, in fact, are. Phoenix beak dust – I should have noticed it the moment you entered my presence! It hangs like stardust around you. It is poisonous, of course, I hope you realize that. Your patron” – she put more hatred into that one word than Rainbow Dash had ever heard before from any one pony in her life – “sent you here to die, though he is rarely so wasteful for no purpose. What are you here for?” “My friend!” Caelum snorted. “You are working with Discord, pawn. He is known to me. I personally cast him out of the Court not three thousand years ago. Friendship is not in his vocabulary, and every move he makes has three ulterior motives. You are not here merely for your ‘friend’.” “Yes, I – “ The pressure doubled; she couldn’t breathe! “I have no patience for lies,” Caelum hissed. “Hypocrite,” Cloud Ferry grumbled. “At least be honest about it, though perhaps that’s asking a bit too much.” “I’m – not – “ The pressure increased again. She could feel bones straining. Blackness encroached on the edge of her vision. She managed to gasp one last word with the remainder of her air. “Twilight!” Just when she was sure the alicorn intended to crush the life out of her, the pressure relented, and she was allowed to drop roughly to the floor. Space began to bend again. “Perhaps you are here for her,” Caelum conceded. “But you are tainted by the draconequus’s touch. I will allow you to live. Get out of my sight.” Light began to lens around her as she prepared to leave. “I have a daughter and close friend who is trying to remember herself that needs me.” Cloud Ferry’s eyes widened as she sensed what Dash planned to do. “No, don’t – “ With a furious shout, Rainbow Dash peeled herself off the floor and leapt at the alicorn, bringing all four of her hooves together and beating her wings as hard as she could to give every ounce of force she could manage to her attack. She slammed into the alicorn’s flank, spinning her around abruptly and knocking her to the floor. She banked sharply around and landed heavily on Caelum’s side, on her sensitive wing, eliciting a gasp of shocked pain from the being. “Did you just assault the Queen of the Universe?” Cloud Ferry exclaimed incredulously. Rainbow Dash ignored her. “Where is she?” the small pegasus demanded of the most powerful being in Creation. The last thing she saw was the alicorn’s eyes flaring blinding white like the detonation of a supernova, and then the world disintegrated. ------ Hold on to the tether! Blackness. All-consuming, all-devouring, desolate, empty blackness. She’d been ripped apart. She could feel it while it happened, couldn’t remember the pain – her mind was blocking it out, thank Celestia – but she still knew it had happened. And now all that she was was scattered across the void of space, her consciousness a tiny spark of a soul bereft of an immediate form and connected to a body only by a millennium-long golden astral tether that she didn’t have the strength to pull herself back along. She was dimly aware that, back in the castle in the Everfree, her body had fallen over, sprawling across the phoenix beak dust circle – Is it poisonous? I should probably get my face out of it, then – and Discord was examining it worriedly. Her spark drifted aimlessly in space. She had to find Twilight; I have to find Twilight. Discord’s advice on navigation came to mind. Without anything else to try, she imagined Twilight – smashing into her Library occasionally to grab a Daring Do book – She’s never had to deal with any of this kind of stuff – adventures they’d been on with the rest of their friends; just bumping into her around Ponyville, really. She had to have a clear picture of her, so when she traveled – however that worked in astral projection – she’d come out next to her, or in the place she was. She hoped that appearing inside her wasn’t an option. That would be unpleasant for both of them. The tether started to fade slightly. Panicking, Rainbow Dash tried to focus her attention on it again, and lost concentration on travelling; she tried to focus on travelling and the tether began to thin again. One or the other. She had to choose. Buck it. I can’t get any more lost than I already am, she thought. She focused on the tether just enough to get it to solidify, then imagined herself next to Twilight and felt the universe shift around her. When she opened her eyes again – she had eyes again! – she found herself sitting on a hill on a moon. Barren reddish-grey wasteland spread out to the hilly near horizon before her, reflecting silvery light from a pair of suns that peeked around the shaded far side of a green-and-blue marble as a more ruddy hue. The planet was about half the size of the moon seen from Equestria, but it was large enough that she could see the shapes of seas and continents on its surface – a completely alien world from Equus, and yet she couldn’t see Twilight anywhere. Wait, she thought. Two suns? Evidently so – one yellow, one yellow-white. She could look at them without blinding herself somehow. Then, they were obscured by a rising, thin cloud of moon-dust, as an unfelt wind kicked up a twister around her. Sensing danger, she jumped to her hooves, but before she could make another move the ground below her turned to quicksand and sucked her down until only her head remained free. Claustrophobia hit her like a tidal wave. The dust swirling around her stopped its frantic motion, and instead began lazily drifting in a counterclockwise direction. Whatever had trapped her seemed to be perfectly content to just let her stew. She struggled to free herself, but the analogy to quicksand held – the more she moved, the deeper she got herself stuck. Finally, she just gave up altogether and shouted instead, “Hey! What gives?” It looked like an invisible pony had stepped through the dust barrier, the ‘wall’ deforming around her form as she darted forwards, and continuing its drift groundwards when she withdrew. “Intruder,” the shape whispered before it left. “Hey!” she called after her – that voice had definitely been female. “I didn’t mean to be here! I was trying to find my friend!” “She isn’t here,” the voice said again, the dust exposing another pony-shape. “You’re intruding.” “Only because you won’t let me go!” The ground beneath Dash’s hooves solidified and thrust upwards, hurling her out of the dust pit and sending her arcing gently down a hundred feet away, the low gravity meaning she didn’t even have to extend her wings to survive the fall. The dust kicked up by her landing whipped around and organized itself into the shape of what Dash thought looked like an earth pony mare with eyes like golden embers burning in her face. “You are released. Go away. Do not visit Domhan, intruder. It is under my protection.” The dust form started drifting apart again. “Wait!” It resolidifed. “I have given you your freedom. I have ordered you to leave. Your reluctance tells me you were not being entirely honest.” “I’m looking for my friend,” she repeated. “She’s a unicorn named Twilight Sparkle. A thing named Beta Centauri kidnapped her from my planet. Have you seen her?” The form looked curious. “I have heard no such name. What is a unicorn?” “It’s pony with a horn on her forehead,” Dash answered. The form seemed confused, and she sighed. “What is a pony?” “Like me, but without wings, and with a stubby horn sticking out of her head,” she explained. After a moment, she added, “And she’s purple.” “That’s absurd.” The form frowned. “A kelpie cannot be purple. I have not seen a purple one in over ten thousand years of watching, at least.” “Kelpie?” Dash repeated. “No, a pony! They look like me, I said.” “You are a winged kelpie,” the form insisted. “I have seen those. That is the form the meddlers choose when they interact with my wards. A horned kelpie, I can accept; it is not too far from the realm of my experience. But kelpies cannot be purple.” “Well, ponies can.” “It seems to be a rather odd thing to make a distinction out of,” she mused. “Purple kelpies being ponies, and the rest not.” “It’s not just that!” she clarified. “Some ponies have wings like me, or a horn so they can do magic, and some don’t have either.” “What can those do?” “Farm, mostly.” The form frowned. “That seems a bit unfair. Flight or magic, or farming.” “They do it really well!” she said. “My friend Applejack can harvest an entire apple orchard in just a few days.” “Could a unicorn not do it in less time?” “Well…” She shrugged. “Yeah. Twilight did it in like, ten seconds flat, give or take. But it’s still impressive. They’re good with physical manipulation stuff, too.” The form nodded. “Then they are not kelpies.” “Nope.” “I have not seen one of these before,” she told her apologetically. “I apologize for my lack of aid. I will tell you if I see someone matching this description.” “Thanks.” A connection fired off in Dash’s brain, and she hastily asked, “Have you seen any purple winged kelpies lately? A purple version of one of the – what did you call them? Meddlers?” The form frowned and nodded slowly. “I have not seen one, but there have been rumors amongst the other meddlers. Would she be known by the same name?” “I think so,” she answered. “Wait, no! I think Beta Centauri called her Alpha a few times, but I was kinda out of it when she came, so…” “You know Beta Centauri?” the form asked, surprised. Dash nodded, and the other being grew suspicious. “Why do you wish to find her sister – Alpha Centauri, or Twilight Sparkle?” “Because she’s not Alpha Centauri, she’s my friend, Twilight!” she answered angrily. “When I find her, I’m going to bring her back home.” “And what of Beta?” “When I find Beta,” she said slowly, “she is going to really, really regret messing around with my head.” The form smiled. “I can sympathize. She meddles far more than is healthy for my wards, and the schedule she maintains excludes me from performing my duties on all but the deepest nights of winter. I will help you – and you will need it.” “I can take care of this on my own!” she protested defensively. The form chuckled. “You are no meddler,” she said. “You are a mortal – a pony, as you have explained. Beta Centauri is a star. You will not be able to stand up to her in a direct confrontation if both of you employ the fullest extent of your powers, because she can call upon the seething heart of a sun – and you can flap your feathers at her and maybe kick her a bit.” Dash was silent. Her lack of response was all the agreement the form needed. “I am Ghealach, the Dust Sentinel,” the form introduced herself formally. “I am this moon. I extend to you my aid, and mark you as my agent in the universe at large.” The dust near Rainbow Dash’s hooves flowed up and encased her legs, allowing a cloud of the stuff to envelope her without difficulty. When it cleared, leaving her coughing and spluttering, she still felt like she was coated in the stuff. She had the awful suspicion her wings would never feel clean again, no matter how much she preened them. Ghealach still stood in front of her, much more substantial than a mere outline of dust – she looked more like a silver-grey earth pony mare, with a slenderer build and slightly longer legs and a much finer coat and most conspicuously of all, no cutie mark – and smiling brightly. “I will be with you,” she continued, “until such time as we agree to separate. Together, Rainbow Dash” – she chuckled a little at the name – “we will accomplish great things.” “Uh, thanks, I guess.” She shook herself, hoping some of the dust would come out. The feeling was fading a bit, but it was still there. “Now what?” “The next move is yours, Rainbow Dash,” Ghealach answered simply. “That is for you to decide. I will aid you in any case.” She smirked. “Staring at a world I am prevented from visiting was boring, anyways.” “Might I suggest a return home, to regroup?” Cloud Ferry offered. Dash whirled around in shock, and found the mare standing not ten feet away behind her, omnipresent smirk still gracing her face. “Discord, at least, deserves a bit of a tongue-lashing for attempting to poison us and get Queen Caelum to kill us.” “I did not sense your arrival here,” Ghealach said sharply, glaring daggers at the unicorn. “Who is this?” “This is Cloud Ferry,” Dash answered. She swallowed nervously. “Um…you can see her?” “Of course,” the kelpie responded. “Should I be unable to?” Cloud Ferry laughed. “It seems I may be a bit more than mere memories, Rainbow Dash. Maybe someday we’ll be rid of each other, hm?” “I hope so,” she grumbled. “Let’s get home. At least in the physical world, I don’t have to deal with you following me around.” “We shall see, dear,” Ferry sniffed. “We shall see.” Ignoring her, Rainbow Dash found the tether with her mind again – it had changed colors now, a silver strand winding its way along the gold thread that shot up through the rarefied atmosphere of Ghealach’s moon and out into the depths of the heavens. It hardly took any concentration at all to slip back up along it now; her strength was back, somehow, and she suspected her new companion was the source of its renewal. The world faded away, and for a brief instant she was lost in the blackness again. ------ She awoke with a rattling gasp of air that rasped against her dry throat, which terminated in a fit of coughing as air filled her lungs and pushed them past what they’d been used to for an indeterminate period of time. She seemed to be in a bed of some sort, tucked under blankets that had found the happy medium between tight and too loose, with a perfectly fluffed pillow under her head and a white rabbit staring straight into her eyes. Surprised, she recoiled and tried to turn the instinctive response into a stretch. How long was I out? She looked around the room, shifting to get a view past Angel’s ears. The walls were wooden and sparse, devoid of decoration; the door was directly across the room from the bed she was in. A pair of windows off to her left let in cheerful morning sunlight, and the right wall was dominated by an almost-empty bookcase that only held three or four thick tomes that seemed to be on animal diseases and anatomy. She recognized the place, and sank back into the pillow, relaxing. This was Fluttershy’s house; the guest bedroom, if she was right. “Hey, Angel,” she chuckled. “Crazy night, huh?” The rabbit blinked at her, climbed down off the bed, and hopped over to the closed door. She saw the thing open briefly and close just as fast as he left. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and waited for Fluttershy’s inevitable arrival.