//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 // Story: Rainbooms of the Forgotten Mind // by Prof Yana //------------------------------// Twilight walked slowly through the cobblestone streets of Canterlot, her hooves echoing in the silence. It was dark and quiet out. Nary a single pony dared leave their homes at this time of night, so cold and sinister. Twilight’s shadow danced around as the dim street lights flickered through the blackness. She passed by many a house, all still and asleep, their shadows casting an evil presence across the street.. She recognized not a one. A crow cawed in the distance. Twilight gulped lightly and kept walking. Something wasn’t right about the echoes in her footsteps. They seemed... off time. Twilight sensed another presence behind her and spun around suddenly. Nothing. No pony was there. Twilight took a nervous breath and kept walking. A window slammed shut in the house right next to her. She looked around, but the lights were dark in the house. Twilight stood there for a moment, staring at the house. A flash of purple light appeared inside, followed by a loud scream from somewhere above the house. Twilight backed up to get a clearer few and her stomach dropped when she saw it. It was her, Twilight Sparkle, falling from high above her own house. Her hooves flailed as she fell, the wind billowing through her hair. Suddenly a deep blue pony appeared on the roof, and with a glow of his horn he caught his daughter. Twilight’s dad. They hugged, the younger Twilight crying into her father’s chest. “So, you opened the door, huh?” said a voice eerily similar to Twilight’s. Twilight turned her head and found herself inside Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, a location she knew all too well. A group of excited young unicorns ran out of a classroom and past her a few seconds after a bell rang. None of them seemed to have noticed her. Twilight stepped towards the classroom door, peeking inside. There was another younger version of herself, levitating various balls of different sizes up and down, while simultaneously reading a book. A teacher sat at his desk, grading the different students’ tests. “Twilight, haven’t you practiced enough?” he asked, looking up from his papers. “You get straight As and you’re already miles ahead of the other students.” Twilight wiped sweat from her brow. “No!” she exclaimed. “I-I need to practice even harder! I’m Princess Celestia’s personal protege! I can’t afford to only be miles better. I need to be... I need to be leagues better!” “But Twilight—” “No buts. I need to practice as much as possible. I can’t fail teleportation again.” “Twilight, we’ve been over this. That was months ago. You are exactly on the mark in the precision teleporting test nine times out of ten. That’s way better than the other students!” “That isn’t good enough! It needs to be ten times out of ten! I need to be absolutely perfect. I don’t want to fail to live up to the expectations of the princess or that pony who created the rainbow explosion!” “Twilight, come now. We’ve already established that was probably just a freak occurrence. We asked the pegasi school, the pegasi flight camp, and any unicorn research labs over there. None of them could produce an answer as to why it happened.” “But... But there has to be an explanation. There has to be...” Long ago, Twilight had stopped levitating the weights up and down. “Twilight... Why don’t you go home for the day. I’ll put the weights away,” the teacher offered. Without a word, the younger Twilight carefully set the balls down, placed a bookmark in her book, and put the book and her saddlebag that was draped across her back. She slowly walked out the door, past the older Twilight. The older Twilight turned to follow her, but found herself outside the cave where she created other-Twilight, high above Canterlot. The boulder was blocking the entrance. It was dark out. Just past sunset. “You know what this is, don’t you?” asked the same voice as before, so similar to hers. But when Twilight looked around, no pony was to be seen. A moment later, a purple glow encased the boulder, lifting it out of the way. The younger Twilight and a purple pegasus with a blue mane and a bandage around a wing reached the top of the hill. As expected, they couldn’t see the older Twilight. “You can stay inside that cave. No one comes up here that I’ve seen,” the younger Twilight told the purple pegasus. “Thank you. You have no idea how much this means to me. I should be out of your hair soon, though. I have a family to get back to,” said the purple pegasus, walking into the cave and looking around. All the furniture of a bedroom had been moved in, from a bed to a dresser. There was even a rug on the floor. “Where did you get all this?” the pegasus asked. “Well, when you’re a personal student of the Princess of Equestria, shopkeepers tend to be a little generous with their prices.” The younger Twilight smiled innocently at the pegasus. “Twilight, don’t abuse your title. The shopkeepers need to make a living, too. Thank you for the furniture, though.” “You’re welcome. Say, what’s your name? I told you mine, but you didn’t tell me yours.” “Oh, um... Firefly. Don’t tell anyone else about me, though. Please.” “Don’t worry, I won’t!” The younger Twilight beamed at Firefly. “Thank you, Twilight. Now, I don’t mean to be rude, but I haven’t slept in a proper bed in days. If you’ll excuse me?” Firefly asked, stretching and yawning. “Oh, no problem. I’ll see you later.” With that, the younger Twilight started down the mountain while Firefly curled up under the sheets to have a nice long sleep. Once again, Twilight turned to follow her, but found herself in another classroom in the princess’ school. Her parents were there, along with a number of teachers. And there her younger self was, struggling to hatch a dragon egg. Spike’s dragon egg. When it seemed she had given up, she walked sadly over to the window. The young Twilight stood there, gazing longingly towards the spires of the castle. The older Twilight wished she could tell her younger self that everything would work out. That she’d even become the princess’ protege. The young Twilight remained at the window for a few moments, when suddenly her eyes widened. There was a bright flash of light somewhere outside. The older Twilight went to look to see what it was. What she saw interrupted the entire sequence of flashbacks. The memories started coming back quicker and quicker. Lightning fast glimpses into her memory. There were so many. So many memories. Every single memory other-Twilight had stolen. It was becoming overwhelming. Almost unbearable. The only thing that kept her sane was what she had seen in the last clear memory. All that could keep her from passing out was the face of the pony responsible. There was only one pony keeping her away from the brink. Rainbow Dash. Twilight lurched up, gasping for air. She clutched her chest as she heaved. Her mane was matted to her face in a cold sweat. She looked around. She was back in the cave, back from the series of flashbacks. And now she needed to escape more than ever. Rainbow Dash awoke with a start. She looked around the unfamiliar room, and breathed a sigh of relief when she realized it was just Twilight’s guest room. Rainbow caught a whiff of pancakes wafting up through the floorboards. Her stomach growled. She hadn’t eaten at all since dinner the night before. Speaking of which, Dash thought, what time is it?  The scent of pancakes grew stronger and she quickly forgot about wondering what time it was. Rainbow followed the scent down to the kitchen where Twilight was standing over a skillet with a chef’s hat on her head. “Hey, Twi,” said Rainbow Dash. “Cookin’ pancakes? Sweet. I’m starved.” “Yes, Dash, I am. In fact, they’re just about done.” Soon they were sitting at the table, munching happily on the fluffy confections. “These are really good, Twi. I didn’t know you cooked,” said Rainbow Dash through a full mouth. She added an extra dollop of maple syrup to her pancakes. “Thank you, Rainbow Dash. I’ve always known how to cook. I guess we were never close enough for me to cook for you.” “Yeah, I guess not,” said Rainbow Dash. “Well, hopefully that will change soon. I was hoping that we could spend the day together. I figured I should reward you after putting all that work into saving me.” “Don’t worry, it was no problem. Besides, Spike helped out just as much as me. Where is the little guy, anyway?” Rainbow asked, looking around. “He’s out with that group of fillies. The Cutie Mark Crusaders, I think they’re called? Anyway, I gave him the day off as a reward. So, while he’s off with them, how would you like to spend the day with me? I promise we won’t do anything boring.” “No reading books?” Rainbow asked warily. “No reading books,” Twilight replied. Rainbow Dash smiled. “Sure. What first?” “Well, maybe we could... Hmm...” Twilight brought her hoof to her chin in thought. “What do you do for fun, Rainbow?” she asked. “Me? Well, I practice my flying, I nap, and sometimes I go pranking with Pinkie Pie. I suppose we could go pranking. You up for that?” “Sure! Well, if you could teach me?” Twilight asked innocently. She smiled hopefully at Rainbow Dash. “Sure, of course I will. First, we gotta plan who to prank...” The two sat there for a moment, thinking. “Let’s prank Rarity!” Rainbow exclaimed suddenly. And with that, the two quickly finished eating and walked out into the brisk autumn air, filled with the smell of dry leaves and smoke rising from the chimneys of homes housing many a warm and cozy pony. Twilight inhaled the scent deeply, sighing in content. “Ah... I love the smell of autumn. Don’t you, Dash?” Rainbow Dash took a light sniff. “I’ve never really thought about it too much, but yeah, it does smell pretty cool.” Twilight giggled. “I love the way you simplify everything you like into either cool or awesome. It’s pretty cool.” Rainbow Dash blushed lightly at the compliment. “Heh, thanks. So, we’re gonna prank Rarity, huh? Hmm... How could we prank her?” “We could simulate something similar to the feeling she experienced yesterday when she was falling,” Twilight suggested. Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow at her friend. “Whoa there, Twilight. That would be too mean. I was thinking more along the lines of something harmless, not traumatic.” “Come on, Rainbow Dash, Rarity knows how to take a joke. In the end, we’ll all laugh about it. Please? For me?” Twilight pouted lightly and made puppy dog eyes at Dash. “Ugh, fine. For you. But if it gets out of hand, we call it off, okay? This is a bit ambitious for your first prank.” For the rest of the trip, the two discussed their plan. Soon, they were standing right outside the Carousel Boutique. “Okay, you walk in and ask Rarity to make a dress for you, and in her confusion, I’ll cast the spell on her. Got it?” Twilight asked. “Yeah, yeah. I still don’t get why I need to ask her to make me a dress,” Rainbow grumbled, kicking the dirt softly. “Do you want me to explain it in detail? I’m sure it’ll just bore you,” Twilight argued. “I’m not as dumb as you think!” exclaimed Dash, stomping a hoof. “I just, um, find most subjects boring,” she said, her ears flopping and her cheeks warming slightly. “Sure, whatever you say. Anyway, I’m gonna go sneak in the back. You go distract Rarity.” Twilight disappeared around the edge of the building. “I’m not,” mumbled Dash at the ground, too quietly for anypony to hear. A moment later, she shrugged off the dejecting feeling and opened the front door of Rarity’s shop. “Hello?” she called. “Do my ears deceive me?” replied a familiar voice. Rarity walked out of a backroom. “Why, no they didn’t.” Rarity gazed curiously at Dash. “Rainbow Dash, what are you doing here? Not that I mind, but you almost never come here.” Rainbow Dash took a deep breath and hesitantly began. “I, um... Could you make a dress for me? I need it tonight, if that’s all right.” Rarity gasped. “A dress?! For Rainbow Dash?! What about your Gala dress?” “It, um, needs to be special.” Rainbow determinately stood her ground, despite the embarrassment. “A date?” When Rainbow Dash didn’t answer, it looked Rarity was about to faint. At that moment, Rainbow saw Twilight sneaking in from the backroom, her horn aglow. Rainbow swallowed her pride one last time. “Yes, a date.” And then Twilight released her spell and Rarity actually did faint, flopping on the floor in a white and purple heap. Back in her mind, the real Twilight was impatiently pacing around the cave. “Darn it! Why can’t I escape?!” She slammed her hooves against the floor in frustration. “Now I have my memories back, but they’re useless at the moment,” she grumbled, annoyed. “Well, I guess I can see what the other me is doing with my body.” Twilight stepped up to the mirror, swallowed, and walked in. Soon, she was looking through her other’s eyes. It seemed she was behind Carousel Boutique. “Oh, you’re back,” said other-Twilight’s voice in her mind. “Yes, and what might you be up to, other me?” asked Twilight. “Just doing some harmless pranking from Rainbow Dash and making her develop some feelings for me. You know, the usual. I presume you know the truth now?” Twilight took a deep breath to calm herself. “Yes! She caused me to get my cutie mark and turned my life into what it is now. And stop making advances on her!” “Why should I?” other-Twilight scoffed. “It’s not like you’re getting out of there any time soon.” “You just wait!” “For what? How do you plan to get out?” Twilight realized she didn’t actually have an answer. “I-I will. You’’ll see!” “Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say. I’m about to prank Rarity now, if you don’t mind.” other-Twilight stepped into the back door of Carousel Boutique. She crouched down low and snuck quietly through, while also preparing a spell with her horn. Twilight could muffled hear voices coming from the main room. She couldn’t make out what they were saying until other-Twilight opened the door and snuck into the main room. Rarity was standing by the door to the backroom and Rainbow Dash was by the entrance. “A date?” she heard Rarity ask. Twilight’s stomach dropped. “Yes, a date,” Twilight heard Rainbow reply. Then other-Twilight released the spell and Rarity fainted. “What did you do to Rarity? Twilight?!” “Nothing permanent, trust me. Just a harmless, potentially traumatizing prank.” “If you harm a hair on her head, Celestia help me I will...” Twilight trailed off. “Do what? Mope about how you’re trapped? Face it, you’re gonna be in there for the rest of your life. I control you now. Don’t forget that,” other-Twilight reminded her. Twilight groaned and withdrew from the mirror, desperately trying to formulate a plan to escape, stop other-Twilight, and rescue Dash from her mind games. And then her and Dash could live happily ever after. Wait, what was that last part? I... I don’t feel that way about Dash. I don’t.