While time moved on Rainbow Dash continued to rest, her chest rising and falling as she slept. Sunlight poured in from a single window, bathing the bedroom in golden rays, the only sound coming from Dash and the occasional bird outside. To Dash’s dismay, this peace would not last as she began to stir, squirming around on her bed in an attempt to remain asleep for a few more glorious seconds. Her efforts were in vain and after a moment, Dash’s eyes shot open before tightly snapping shut, the invading sunlight causing a blinding pain in the back of her retinas. She prepared to try again, this time taking a slower approach as to lessen the pain. Slowly, she opened one eyelid and then the other, blinking a few times to allow her eyes to adjust to the intense light. She could see the sun through the bedroom window, judging by its position she guessed that it was around ten in the morning. Dash quickly sat straight up in bed, a panicked expression plastered across her face.
“Oh my gosh, I’m late!”She leapt from her bed, galloping downstairs to her living room were, using her hooves and teeth, she quickly grabbed one of the many tortoise food bags that had been piled together near the entrance to her kitchen, haphazardly pouring at least half of its contents into a pet bowl with the name tank engraved onto it. Tank slowly moved his head to look up at his frantic owner, a small knowing smile crossed the tortoise’s face, it wasn’t the first time he had seen her like this.
“Sorry tank, have to go” She dropped the bag next to the tortoise. Grabbing her half loaded saddle bags from a nearby counter, she bolted out the front door heading towards the weather control offices as fast as possible, knowing that she was likely to be in trouble as soon as she got there, again.
Her ten minute flight to the floating building did nothing to calm her nerves, most of the time instead being used to come up with a way of sneaking in unnoticed. Once she arrived at the large cloud structure, she quietly opened the front door and crawled passed the receptionist’s desk, thanking Celestia that the receptionist was so occupied with her work. She used all of her stealth tactics to sneak around to the briefing room without being detected by her co-workers, most of which were currently getting the day’s weather duties inside said room.
While she was responsible for most of ponville’s weather control, it did not excuse her from being late to briefings and it in fact only made the punishment for missing them much worse. She would have reconsidered taking the position if it weren’t for the extra bits that came with the job, she didn’t realise how costly her house could be when it came to taxes. She still believed that having a tax for clouds was borderline ridiculous.
She peaked through the small window of the wooden door to the briefing room, being careful not to make herself obvious to anyone; she could see that the head weather pony hadn’t started giving out her orders yet. Dash once again thanked Celestia for her luck. She cautiously opened the door ever so slightly, just enough for her to slide into the room without being noticed. She moved to the back of the crowd that was gathered inside the room, she made sure not to step into their line of sight as she moved.
“I’m glad you could grace us with your presence today Rainbow Dash” She cursed under her breath, she had been caught, again. Dash sighed before rising to her full height and turning towards her boss. She gave a sheepish grin, only to have it vanish at the stern look she was given from the lead weather Pegasus.
“It is one thing to be late for the briefing but this is something else, Rainbow Dash” Dash replaced the look of uncertainty on her face with one of confusion at the Pegasus’s words. She opened her mouth to speak only to close it again, finding herself unsure about what her boss was talking about.
“Now take that silly thing off and sit next to Storm Chaser” Dash looked to her saddle bags before turning her gaze back to her boss, she questioned why her boss refused to continue until she took them off, she knew they weren’t something that she would normally bring to work but didn’t think that they would be too big of a distraction. She mentally shrugged, deciding not to question the odd request. Using her wings and teeth, she managed to remove the bags and place them neatly on the ground without much fuss, she turned back to face an annoyed glare from the very Pegasus that had ordered her to remove them. Her glare turned into a tired expression before she let a small sigh escape her lips, some of the other pegasi in the crowd sniggered at Dash’s actions.
“If you’re going to be difficult you may as well go home, I suppose there isn’t really much for you to do anyway” Dash was extremely close to straight up demanding that her boss tell her right that moment what she was talking about but instead decided that getting out of work was a much better idea, she could use a break after all.
“Fine” was all she said before she picked up her bags with her teeth and walked out the door. She continued down the hallway that she had only just came from, heading for the main entrance. As she walked through the hallways, she received a range of looks from the workers she passed by on her way out, one of the newer workers even ran away when she walked by her. She only stopped once she reached the desk of the receptionist, who also gave her a rather strange look as she asked for her work papers. She noticed the frustration in Dash’s face and quickened her pace, which led to some of Dash’s frustration being turned into more confusion. She retrieved the text heavy papers, handing them over to Dash who placed them into her saddlebags. She thanked the receptionist who in turn nodded. She opened the door to the outside, enjoying the cool breeze that rolled through the open doorway.
She flew to a nearby cloud cluster, setting down on the accumulated clouds. She removed her saddlebags once more and sprawled out onto the cloud, after some effort she rolled onto her back, staring off into the sky, the wind stirred, a small breeze making its way past her, to her it almost sounded like whispers. She ignored it, chalking it up as just being her overactive imagination. She considered what had happened so far, her first question being why everypony had been acting so strange around her and why her saddlebags had caused such an adverse reaction from her boss. She looked over to the culprits in question, they sat on the cloud beside her, it was now that she was reminded of the effort Rarity had put into making them as well as the thanks that had been given to Twilight for making them not fall through her cloud house whenever she set them down. Though they weren’t very extravagant, they were sturdy, not to mention reliable. She smiled at the memories of what she used to do before she had a fashion guru and a unicorn - now turned alicorn - as best friends. Usually she would've had to see seven different ponies before she could get something to stay inside her house instead of having it land on the unlucky pony's that had the misfortune of walking below her house at the time. Her more personnel belongings were trickier still, in these special cases she would have a box enchanted instead so that it could hold these more private items, while elaborate she preferred it over having prying eyes looking at her more personnel belongings.
Her thoughts returned to Rarity, she had planned on meeting up with the unicorn after work as she had asked for her help in creating a new design for a Pegasus outfit but seeing as she had no work today, she decided that she could just visit a bit earlier than intended, she was sure that Rarity wouldn’t mind.
Having made her decision, she picked up her saddlebags once more and placed them back onto her back. Making sure they were secure, she crouched low to the cloud preparing herself, she flapped her wings in one mighty downward thrust, taking off into the clear blue sky. She zoomed forward towards Rarity’s boutique, enjoying the feeling of the wind moving over her body; it was in these moments that she remembered why she enjoyed flying so much. Looking to the ground she could see all kinds of ponies scurrying around, moving from place to place with only a few of them staying still, she never tired of the view she got while flying. Even though most ponies thought she took her wings for granted, she truly did appreciate having them, knowing that they gave her something that not everypony had or could ever have. She supposed that Twilight was one of the very lucky few to have both the abilities of the pegasi and the unicorns; she might even have resented her a little for it.
“No, I should just be happy for her” She spoke the words to herself in a hushed voice, barely audible over the winds. As much as she had wanted to remove the feeling, she still felt a little annoyed that Twilight had been gifted with both a horn and wings while she only had the latter. There was a dark moment where her mind had spewed out a horrifying image in which everypony she was close to had abandoned her in favour of Twilight, the idea was quickly pushed out of her mind some time ago. She shook her head at these thoughts, knowing full well that her friends would never abandon her. She also knew that she would never walk out on her friends, no matter what.
She looked to the ground once again, spotting Rarity’s boutique she adjusted her body into a nose dive straight towards the building. She had practiced her knew trick enough to be confident in showing it off and was going to give Rarity the honour of being the first of her friends to see it. She dived faster and faster, a streak of rainbow colours following her as she flew down towards her target. A window, one that was often left open to allow ventilation to the boutique, she aimed her fast moving body in line with the window. She could feel the beginnings of a sonic rainboom coming on. As she entered through the open window she reader her head upwards as sharp as hard as she could, flaring her wings as she did so to pull herself into a somersault creating a circle of colours which then spread outward from her form, she used her wings to counter the spin before landing on her hooves.
Rarity had dropped the dress she had been so carefully repairing with her silver thread, the dress now lying at the hooves of the stunned unicorn. Her boutique had suffered a little from the Pegasus’s stunt, some materials had been thrown around a bit, a dress stand or two had been knocked over, however this wasn’t what Rarity was currently fixated on.
Dash had stayed in her heroic position since she landed, waiting for Rarity to give applause or at least some kind of acknowledgement of her entrance. In the minute of Rarity remaining completely still, jaw agape in astonishment, Dash had become rather concerned about her friend’s condition. She looked around the boutique, noticing the mess she had created with her trick.
“Oops...Sorry Rarity” She used one of her hooves to scratch the back of her head as she wore a sheepish look on her face. She placed the hoof back onto the floor, now genuinely worried at Rarity’s lack of movement, speech or anything really, she hadn’t done a thing since the Pegasus had entered and it was really getting to Dash, she hated being ignored, it made her feel alone.
“It was pretty awesome though wasn’t it?” Dash was grasping at straws, trying to find a way to break her friend out of her trance. She breathed a sigh of relief as Rarity finally began to regain her composure, using her magic to place the fallen dress to the side, she began inspecting Dash closely.
“How did you, do it?” The unicorn didn’t stop eyeing the Pegasus as she spoke but it didn’t matter to Dash, she grinned at Rarity. She began to remember what Twilight had suggested to her after their last flying lesson. Something about aerodynamics, lift, drag, air resistance, she couldn’t quite recall exactly what she had said but she did know that after some practice it had worked. She quickly brought herself out of her thoughts, returning to her conversion with Rarity.
“Twilight gave me some help with it but I mostly figured it out for myself” Dash continued to smile at her friend, a look of triumph on her face. Rarity ceased to inspect Dash; she looked at her with a graceful smile. Dash stood there, still smiling at Rarity who simply nodded at her words, content with her answer, she started replacing the materials and other objects that had been knocked around. It took only a few minutes to rearrange everything, after which the unicorn turned to Dash with a grin of her own creeping its way onto her white face.
“Oh this is fantastic!” the comment surprised Dash slightly, she was starting to wonder if they were talking about her stunt or not. She knew that Rarity would always try to at least appear interested in her friend’s antics, something which could be said about all her friends, but she had never shown this level of interest in her flying tricks before now.
“I’ll have to create you a whole new dress range, something beautiful, no, graceful and extravagant!” The familiar feeling of confusion was returning to Dash’s mind. She opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by Rarity.
“To have the opportunity to work on such a project as this, especially after having Twilight’s coronation so recently, it is simply marvellous darling” She looked to Rainbow Dash with excitement in her eyes and was met with an expression which consisted of a mix between both confusion and annoyance.
“Although I do hope this doesn’t become a regular thing, not that I’d mind of course” As Rarity continued to talk, Dash became increasingly unsure about what they were talking about.
“Oh, I know exactly what materials I need, I’ll be back later darling, wait right here” Dash thought Rarity looked as giddy as a filly who had just been presented with a box of new toys to play with.
A magical aura surrounded a pair of saddlebags hanging on one of the mannequins, the bags floated from the mannequin onto Rarity where they clipped themselves into place. Rarity did a once over of herself before she walked out the door of the boutique, leaving Dash alone to herself. Her right eye twitched slightly, she breathed in deeply before releasing it in a drawn out sigh. She was tired of the abnormal day she was having. One half of her wanted to go find a comfy cloud to sleep on, however her more logical half wanted to see twilight about both her nightmares and to ask her if she knew anything about why pony’s that she knew very well were acting so strange around her. For once her logical half prevailed.
She sighed as she began to fly back up and out the window she had come in from; she began her flight to the library. She could take a little strangeness from her colleagues, Rarity on the other hoof was a close friend, a pony she had grown close to, so for her to be acting odd around her was a little too strange for her liking. She knew that the fashion pony could get excited from time to time but it was still a rare occurrence and it was especially unlikely that she would ever be so excited over one of her tricks.
It wasn’t long before she arrived at the library; the old tree was a familiar sight by this point. Rather than her usual entrance of breaking through something to get into her friend’s home, she opted to use the front door this time. What she saw inside was yet another familiar sight for her, the library’s shelves fully stocked with books, not a single one of them out of place. Then the there was the library’s owner, busily rearranging books in a large pile and taking a quick bite of an ice cold hay sandwich every so often, inbetween the sorting of course. If she hadn’t of cleared her throat to make herself known, it was likely that Twilight would have continued her work for some time without noticing her.
“Oh hey Rainbow Dash...” The alicorn trailed off, scanning around for something that wasn’t there or for something that Dash couldn’t see it, either way it didn’t help to alleviate her agitated mood. She stomped her hooves on the ground in an attempt to grab the alicorn’s attention. Unfortunately for Twilight, Dash’s stomp had unintentionally broken through the old oak floor causing Twilight to yelp in surprise at her actions. Twilight wasn’t the only one who was surprised though. Dash was without words as she stood there, her two front legs embedded into the library floor. She gritted her teeth as she looked back up at the alicorn, putting on an apologetic expression.
“Err...sorry Twi” She honestly had no answer for what she had just done; she had intended to merely grab the alicorn’s attention, not put a hole in said alicorn’s floor. She questioned how she had even managed to break through the thick oak floor so easily, she knew she was strong but she hadn’t reached the point where breaking through a fifteen inch piece of oak wood would be a similar task to breaking through glass.
Dash was ripped from her thoughts as Twilight reached out with her magic for an ancient looking tome decorated in a golden pattern, the book also had a picture of an alicorn on the cover. She flipped through the pages, only glancing at Dash once or twice. She replaced the book back onto the shelf once she had seemingly finished looking at whatever she was reading, although Dash would’ve have preferred that she kept on reading rather than slowly walking up to her with a stern expression on her face. The alicorn came within a few inches of Dash’s face, she didn’t look angry but at the same time she didn’t look very happy either, it was enough to make her nervous. She slowly began to circle the Pegasus; inspecting her in a similar way to how Rarity had done when she had first seen her this morning. When she finished her inspection and had come back around to face her again her eyes where wide with comprehension. She continued to gawk at Dash, staring at her without saying a word. Now Dash was worried for Twilight too, she had been getting odd reactions all day but to have Twilight act this way was too much.
“What the hay is wrong with you!” The words left her mouth without permission. Twilight wilted at the loud and angry question to which Dash silently hated herself for. She was just so very confused as to why everypony she had seen today was acting so weird towards her and now she had just gone and shouted at one of her best friends who also happened to be probably the only pony who could help her. Needless to say she felt terrible about it and was about to apologise for her outburst until Twilight began to speak again, regaining her regular stance.
“Sorry Dash, I’m just a little awestruck at how you achieved ascension without the aid of another alicorn” Dash gave Twilight a scrutinizing look who in turn smiled happily back at her. If it was somehow possible, Dash found herself in an even more confused state then when she had arrived.
“Have you told anypony else yet, I wonder how the others are going to react to having another alicorn around” She continued to beam at Dash as she spoke. Dash let her head drop so that she now faced the ruined floor below her; she removed her hooves from the floor and let out a lengthy sigh before she looked back up at Twilight.
“Twilight, what are you talking about?” For a few seconds the alicorn’s face went through a number of expressions ranging from surprise to quizzical to confusion. A number of theories ran through her mind, most of them being irrational and unlikely. She eventually came to the conclusion that she would need more information to come up with a more accurate theory, so she started with the most obvious question.
“Dash, have you looked in a mirror today?” Now that the she had mentioned it, Dash hadn’t really taken the time to look at herself that morning, not since she rushed out of her house. Normally she wouldn’t put much time into her appearance, only making herself presentable enough for her friends. However, Twilight’s question did have her wondering if something was different about her; it could very well be the reason behind her strange day. So she brought one of her hooves up to her face to inspect it and soon found some noticeable differences, the most important being that her fur was now a slightly darker shade of cyan.
“What happened to my fur?” She really didn’t feel upset about it. She was simply wondering why she had a different shade of fur since yesterday, so she looked to Twilight for an answer.
“Heh, that’s not all that’s different” she gave a nervous laugh that died down quickly as she saw the worried look on her friends face. Twilight’s horn lit up again, this time reaching for a mirror that had been left out, she was glad it had been as it made her next task much easier. She carefully brought the mirror towards Dash and held it in front of her face. For the next two minutes Dash was speechless, she couldn’t believe what she could see staring back at her in the mirror.
To start, she was now a good two inches taller, similar in height to Twilight. Her reddish-pink eyes had been replaced by dark piercing blue ones; her fur while still cyan was darker than usual but the most noticeable difference was the new head piece she was sporting. She looked closely at the bonelike object that now was apparently a part of her head. Her eyes widened at the sight, with great haste she reared back from the mirror in shock at her appearance. She was an alicorn.
“I...I...what?” She struggled to get the words out, finding it difficult to form a coherent sentence. The only thing on her mind was the question of how she had gone to sleep as a Pegasus and woken up as an alicorn. Twilight could tell that her friend was having problems coming to terms with her sudden transformation, she tried to think of something to tell her but she couldn’t find the right words, she desperately whished that Celestia herself were there, which only led her mind to wander at the implications of her friends ascendance, she thought about what Celestia would say, what their friends would say and as she thought Dash continued to sit there. She realised that neither of them had said anything since she had shown Dash her new appearance.
“Isn’t it a good thing though?” It was an odd thing to ask but it did snap Dash out of her memorized state.
“Huh?” She didn’t understand what Twilight’s reasoning was until it hit her. She was an alicorn now, a creature that possessed the best traits of all three races, one of the strongest creatures in all of Equestria. Twilight could see the gears turning in Dash’s head, her smile returning.
“I’m... I’m an alicorn, that’s awesome!” A massive smile rapidly grew on the new alicorn’s face. She wanted to hug her friend in excitement but decided against it, not knowing her own strength did make her hesitant of doing certain things. She couldn’t believe it, she considered the possibility that she was dreaming, though it seemed too real to be a dream. There was still one question she had on her mind.
“What happens now?” It sounded a simple question enough, although Twilight didn’t have much in the way of an answer for her.
“To be honest I’m not quite sure, normally Celestia deals with these things personally” Even though she too was a princess of Equestria now, she hadn’t really had any lessons on government or politics or how to deal with newly ascended alicorns, she was rather lost.
“Do I get my own title, how about the princess of awesomeness?” Dash puffed out her chest in a heroic pose, excitement radiated from her face. Twilight could only laugh at the suggestion, noticing Dash’s regular personality already coming back.
“I don’t think they would let you have that one” She talked inbetween giggles of laughter, a single tear sliding down her cheek at her friends antics, she did know how to make the alicorn laugh.
“Yeah, they couldn’t describe my epicness in one word!” This had them both burst out laughing, something they both equally enjoyed.
Their joy was short lived however, as Dash heard a noise, one that seemed somehow familiar. The sound of metal moving against metal could be heard in the distance, she could tell it was moving towards them. This time, the sound was increasing much more rapidly than it had before. She was sure now; something was definitely heading towards the library with great speed. They stopped laughing as Dash looked over to one of the library’s windows, Twilight followed her gaze. They could see through the window that two fast moving, large objects were heading towards them at great speed. Before they could do anything the creatures burst through the library windows, taking large chunks of the window frames with them as they made their entrance.
The two creatures where massive in comparison to themselves, standing at around three meters tall, their hulking armoured bodies loomed over them. Their armour seemed reminiscent of ancient knight armour. It had sharp and curved edges giving it a rather angelic look, which along with the gold and white colours of the armour gave an overall feel of strength, protection and royalty. Twilight noticed that Dash was not focussed on the look of the creatures armour but instead was fixated on the weapons they were carrying. The left arm of both were equipped with large shields, both of which having a similar design as the armour itself, the shields also had markings and symbols that were unfamiliar to both of the alicorns. The other arm totted an intimidating sword which was also decorated in a similar fashion to the shield. Dash stared at the mighty weapon, her only thought being about how it was probably big enough to cut a tree down in one swing, or a pony.
A third creature bashed down the front door, this one being only around twice Dash’s size, wearing a similar armour to the large two, only having some slight differences, but the third one was carrying a different weapon, one that seemed to have more of a balance between power and speed. The creatures two blue eyes were focussed on Twilight, as where the other two creatures.
“Step away from the Empress” It wasn’t a suggestion, it was an order. The smallest of the three creatures directed its order at Twilight. Without thinking she complied, moving further away from Dash, giving the creatures room to move into a triangle formation around the cyan alicorn, they took up defensive positions. With the two larger creatures flanking Dash, the third placed itself in front of her, directly inbetween the two friends. Twilight was more than afraid at this point, she was terrified, she had never once seen or heard of the creatures that now stood before her and that was the scariest part. Not once in all of her studies, research or lessons had she seen or heard of anything like them.
Dash’s concern wasn’t immediately focussed on the creatures. She was instead far more concerned about her friend, who now had three armed creatures facing her. She knew alicorns where strong but even she could recognise that these creatures were of an unknown threat and so neither of them could accurately gauge how powerful or dangerous they could be.
“Are you unharmed Empress?” Its question was directed at Dash, who only responded with a single nod of her head. While what she considered to be the leader of the three creatures was distracted, Twilight saw this as her opportunity to act. Trying her best to be intermediating she stood to her full height, flaring her wings as she put on the toughest voice she could muster.
“Get away from my friend right now!” This, she soon realised, was a mistake, as instead of getting the reaction she had hoped for the creatures raised their swords in unison, readying themselves for a fight, the smallest of the three began to menacingly approach Twilight with the other two flanking its sides. She was surrounded from all directions, against an enemy she had no idea about. Her confidence failed her as they moved closer, she frantically moved backwards only to fall back onto her rump, all the while the creatures continued to close in.
She could feel tears welling up in her eyes. Her thoughts became erratic, the main one being that she didn’t want to die. She began to list all the things she still wanted to do, this only making her fear worse at the idea of never being able to fulfil them. She thought about how she wanted to see her parents and her friends again, wanted to continue her studies, wanted to live beyond this day. As they were only a small distance away, she shut her eyes tight, letting the first few tears roll down her cheeks she turned her head away from the oncoming attackers. Her normally quick and calculating mind breaking down by the second, she prepared for the worst.
“No need to exert yourself ma’am, we’ll take care of this one for you” It was cold without mercy. She could only think that the worst thing about her situation was that she had been having such a lovely day until now.