Dash watched in horror as the creatures closed in on Twilight, their intentions made obvious already. Frozen like a statue from the fear for her friend, she screamed in her own head, begging her body to move, wanting so desperately to do something instead of just sitting there watching as Twilight’s demise came closer and closer. Then, in a sudden spark of action, she brought herself out of her fear induced trance, just as the lead creature raised its sword higher, preparing to bring it crashing down onto the other alicorn’s head.
“No, don’t hurt her!” It was all she could think to say, however, all three of the creatures immediately obeyed, backing away from Twilight, far enough so that the two alicorns could clearly see each other, holding their weapons by their sides they stood to attention. Twilight breathed deeply three times before she stopped shaking from having the massive blade only a few centimetres from her face. Dash let go of a breath she didn’t realise she was holding in and made her way over to her friend who was still trying to get over the fact that she had been mere seconds from a slow demise. It took a moment for Twilight to catch her breath and wipe away the tears on her face. Dash was angry, no not just angry but furious at what had just transpired. Putting on a brave face she walked up to the creatures who had been so close to ending her friend’s life.
“What the hay is your problem huh?” Using her wings to be at eye level with the smallest of the three she glared at the creature, its glowing blue eyes staring back at her. It was quite unnerving for her, being so close to the unblinking blue eyes of the creature, just the fact that they glowed was enough to make her nervous.
“Apologies ma’am, we heard your screams and believed that you were under attack, we should not have assumed that Twilight was responsible” At a guess she would have to say the creature was male, or at least sounded male. Twilight, having recovered from her previous state, looked up at the creature Dash was questioning. Both of them did a double take of the creature, unsure if they had heard him correctly.
“How do you know my name?" Silence followed, he continued to stare at Dash, still standing perfectly still. Twilight waited for an answer that wouldn’t come and it only made Dash angrier, first they were going to kill her for no good reason and now they wouldn’t even speak to her, needless to say she was going to rectify that, somehow.
“Hey, she asked you a question” She surprised herself with her words; they came to her naturally as if she were talking to just another pony. He looked to Twilight before turning back to Dash.
Do you wish to mark Twilight as an ally and give privileges?” Not knowing exactly what the he had meant did make her slightly hesitant to agree but figured it was a fancy way of asking for permission to tell Twilight what they knew. She still wasn’t sure why they were asking her that or even why they were talking to her in the first place, she had no idea why they were referring to her as the ‘Empress’ either.
Twilight watched as once again the smallest of the three creatures walked towards her, this time she was ready for it though, preparing to blink out at the slightest hint of danger, the creature stopped only a short distance away from her. It held its left arm up, directing it at Twilight. A blue glow emanated from the end of the arm, illuminating her face in the calming light.
“Twilight Sparkle, Barer of the element of magic, princess of the new supremacy, friend to the Empress, you are recognised as an ally to the Empire” Two orbs appeared in the air around Twilight and started spinning around the startled mare, creating trails of lights as they moved. After they had rotated a few times the orbs began to spin faster, moving higher above her, getting closer and closer to each other until the orbs merged into one larger orb. A shower of light ensued as the orb burst into particles, raining down over Twilight, who remained still as the odd ceremony ran its course. Once the orbs had completely vanished the creature stepped away from Twilight, standing to attention once more.
“Access to our knowledge is now authorised, what do you require to know?” It would be an understatement to say she was curious about the creatures; there were many questions for them, such as where they were from, who exactly they are and why they were calling Dash their Empress. However, after some thought she decided that going back to her first question would be best.
“How do you know my name?” Both alicorn’s waited for the answer, anxious to learn how they had known about Twilight.
“Our garrison is responsible for monitoring all residents of the Ponyville area, including you since you arrived here” An awkward air passed through the room, she wondered to what extent they had monitored her. It felt awkward just talking to the creature, not just because it had recently threatened her life but rather that he was so formal, the only equivalent she could think of would be trying to talk to a royal guard while on duty. Dash remained quiet, knowing that Twilight would have quite a lot of questions for the creatures.
“You can monitor everypony in Ponyville?” A question they both had on their mind, it would be an impressive feet to keep constant tabs on everypony, made only more impressive by the fact that they had never been seen while doing it.
“Correct, although it has become increasingly more difficult over the years” For years they had been watching them without a single pony ever noticing them, she found the idea rather unlikely.
"How has nopony seen you yet?” She was sceptical of the idea that huge, lumbering creatures donned with heavy armour could successfully sneak around Ponyville without being seen or caught once and they had been there for years.
“We have our ways of staying hidden” Cryptic as the creature was it did bring about some revelations, for one, whoever they were, they had been in Ponyville for some time, longer than she had judging by his previous comments, her curiously told her to push on in her questioning, she needed to know more.
“Just who exactly are you?” Dash put forward her own question, having grown tired of listening to the pair. To Dash’s surprise the leading creature spun around to face her, seemingly perturbed by what she had asked.
“You are, unaware of us?” She nodded her answer to him.
Then once again I must apologise, the situation is far different than what we had expected” Twilight watched in confusion as the three creatures bent down onto one knee in front of Dash, their swords in a downwards position with their shields to their sides. In that moment Dash, Twilight thought looked just like a king from one of her fantasy books. Bowing, the leader of the three spoke again.
“We are the High Guard of the council of ascension and you, are our leader” For the second time in the last hour Twilight found herself speechless at what she was witnessing.
Dash’s reaction wasn’t much different from Twilight’s. One thing that was certain in her mind was that they must have mistaken her for somepony else, even though she may had the tendency to brag about being the most awesome pony to date, she couldn’t say she was a ruler of anything let alone an empress of an entire empire and she didn’t want to be one either. It just wasn’t her kind of thing, being put up onto a pedestal above everypony else, she hated ponies like that.
“Sorry to disappoint you but I’m not an empress, I’m just a weather pony” The two larger high guards chuckled quietly for a second, somehow finding amusement in her words, something that she didn’t appreciate. They rose to their feet, taking a glance at Twilight for a moment, the leader spoke again.
"I assure you that you are the Empress, daughter to the original prime and the sol goddess” It was infuriating to have some random creature tell her what she was, she hated when other ponies did that. Her bullies used to do it too, except that the things they called her were much worse. She was ready to argue against their claim some more, that is, if it weren’t for Applejack’s intervention.
“What in tarnation happened here?” Applejack examined the holes that had replaced the library’s windows as well as the poor state of the door that had fared badly from the impact it had received. To the say the place was a mess would be an injustice. Glass littered the floor along with the many books that had been knocked off of their respective shelves after the high guards’ forceful entrance. Large indents had been left in the oak floor where they had walked.
“Twilight I love what you’ve done with the place, it’s really creative of you” A voice that was easily recognisable as the town’s resident party pony, both alicorn’s watched the pink earth pony happily bounce towards them, a big smile on her face. Apart from Pinkie and Applejack, they could also see the rest of their friends heading towards the library, each one having a different expression as they saw the damage that had been done to the old oak structure.
“Unmarked residents approaching, possible threat, defensive action recommended” One of the large high guards moved in front of the alicorn’s, putting itself inbetween them and the ponies outside, which along with their friends included a number of other ponies who had gathered, curious to the commotion going on in the library. With the other two following the first’s lead, they created a wall using their shields to close the gaps inbetween their line.
“Twilight darling, who are your friends here?” Having forgotten about her original reason for visiting the library, Rarity was now wondering why a sizeable chunk of the library’s front was missing and why she was being blocked from seeing her friend by a trio of two legged creatures that she had never seen or heard of before. In her innocence, Pinkie approached one of the larger high guards, smiling from ear to ear with the intent on making them feel welcome to the town.
“Nice to meet you there big guy, I’m Pinkie Pie, the number one party pony in all of Ponyville!” Throwing confetti from seemingly nowhere the pink pony stood back, grinning madly, awaiting a response from the large creature.
“Stand Back Miss” It was nothing like the response she had wanted, she imagined that the creature would respond with hugs or a happy smile, not a stern warning. When she failed to move away from the line that the high guard had created, the nearest one to her bashed its shield down into the ground at her hooves, causing her to jump backwards in fright. Dash moved closer to the line of High Guard’s ready to give the bulking mass of armour a piece of her mind for scaring her friend.
"It’s all right, their friends, they don’t want hurt me, let them through” Her confidence left her as the memory of the massive creatures lurking towards Twilight replayed in her head and while it was far from what she had wanted to say, it would have to do.
“You need to stop being so suspicious of everypony you see” The trio paused before moving apart, allowing the six friends to speak freely. Although, there was a definitive lack of speaking in the group, all except Twilight and Rarity were taking in Dash’s new appearance.
“Could ya please explain to me why Dash has a horn on her head and who these unfriendly Knights are?” Twilight let a nervous chuckle slip from her lips. Having gotten no further with her investigation into Dash’s transformation or the appearance of the creatures, there was really nothing she could tell the earth pony. It wasn’t exactly a normal ascension and the appearance of the knights only complicated matters more, she desperately needed time to think. Unfortunately for her, the privacy of her library had been stripped away when the creatures had first entered the place. An observation that she had recently made was that the number of ponies watching them was increasing as time moved on.
“I think we might want some privacy for this” Turning to Dash, she could tell that the other alicorn was thinking the same thing. Rarity had also taken notice of the increasing number of curious onlookers that were watching them. Her words attracted the attention of the creatures, they silently agreed with Twilight’s suggestion. Thinking that the best thing to do would be to repair the two large high guard shaped holes in her wall she walked over to the damaged wall.
For the first time ever, she was glad to have a friend who made it a habit to enter her house through any way but the front door as it gave her plenty of practice using the restoration spell. With her horn illuminated in a mix of purples, she concentrated on the reconstruction of her windows as well as the broken door, both of which began to glow the same colours as her horn. Piece by broken piece the windows reconstructed themselves back into their original design, magically sealing themselves into place. The door buckled, its broken hinges reshaping themselves, it was over quickly, the damage to the structure being completely reversed. She stood back, only admiring her work momentarily.
“What heck is going on Twilight?” She supposed what little information she had would have to suffice for now, until she could question the creatures further there was really not much else she could tell her.
“Well, Dash is an alicorn now” It was hard to know where to start, so much had already happened in the little time since Dash’s arrival. Applejack rolled her eyes.
“I can see that, what I wanna know is how exactly it happened” A little known fact was that anypony could achieve ascension, something she had come across when she had been reading up on every book she had on alicorns, it only took her a day to read through them all. What complicated matters was that Dash had achieved it without years of practice and judging by her reaction to her appearance earlier, she guessed that the former Pegasus hadn’t even been trying to reach ascension in the first place, a difficult conundrum indeed. The only logical reason left to her was that another alicorn had helped her achieve ascension, possibly without her consent.
“The only logical reason I can see behind Dash’s ascension would be that another alicorn helped her” Although which alicorn had helped her she had no idea. The only two she knew that had the power to perform the spell were Luna and Celestia. Her brow furrowed as she contemplated the possibilities, why would they choose Dash for ascension, why now. Another thought occurred to her. While they could both help with ascensions, the spell still required that the one ascending be well versed in the magic arts and while Pegasi did have their own specific magic, it would be very difficult to become powerful enough to meet the ascendance criteria, it would require considerable effort.
“Correction, there is one other possibility” All eyes looked towards the smallest of the two legged trio, curiously waiting for him to continue.
“It would be simple to achieve ascension if the ascendant was directly related to an already ascended being” While the others listened closely, the meaning to the creature’s words becoming apparent to them all, Dash was ready to explode with rage. She knew who her parents were and she would be damned if somepony said otherwise. She had been raised by two, normal Pegasus’s, not some Godly ascended being.
"What, so Dash has a super powerful ascended uncle or something?” Pinkie bounced on the spot, eyes glazing over as her mind quickly began to imagine all manner of things from an all knowing, all powerful alicorn father to an alicorn mother from the future, sent back to stop some catastrophic disaster but instead found love in a simple town. Applejack waved a hoof in front of the day dreaming mare, bringing her back to reality.
“Hey, I know who my parents are, all right!” She didn’t want to hear any more of what the high guards had to say, she knew who her parents were. A few barely noticeable clouds began to form at the roof of the library, continuing to grow in size with each passing second.
"They’re not some, high and mighty, ascended beings all right!” They became larger, darkening in colour as electricity started to dance between them. The clouds gathered together, forming into the obvious beginnings of a storm. A crackle of lightning drew the attention of the ponies below the storm, all of them looked up at the raging winds that had materialized themselves inside the library, all except for Rainbow Dash that is.
“Damn it” It was barely a whisper. She looked to the floor, hoping to hide the tears welling up in her eyes from her friends, she hated to look weak. It was unlike her, she could normally hide this much better but the thought of somepony telling her that her parents weren’t who she thought they were only reminded her of pain she used to endure from her school bullies.
Her parents were always busy, so much so that they rarely had time for her and it led to a lot ponies questioning whether she really did have parents or not. The bullies picked on her because of it, calling her an orphan while the teachers weren’t around. It was torment to her and the only way she got through it was because she would always see them once she got home but it got worse once she went to the academy. An entire year passed, her only contact with her parents being letters. They stopped making fun of her once the academic year began; having already all assumed that she really didn’t have parents. Then on the day of her graduation, the day she would finally see them again, they never showed up to the ceremony. After that, she moved to Ponyville, got a job and since then hasn’t told another soul about her parents, especially not her friends.
Twilight and Rarity were no longer watching the miniature storm that was rapidly forming on the inside of the library, instead they watched Dash or rather somepony who looked like her as what they saw was nothing like the pony they knew. In her place was an alicorn with a raging fiery aura pouring off of her, horn glowing bright and eyes blood red. It would cause even the bravest of ponies to cower at the sight of the untamed raw power that Dash was giving off, it could equivalent a star. Rarity tried to make herself as small as possible with her hooves over her head, afraid of being caught in the wake of the angry demigod. Twilight had experienced what Dash was going through, during the first time practicing magic with Celestia she had almost accidently destroyed part of the training hall in her excitement, that was when she learned that undisciplined, raw magical energy could be very dangerous, not to mention destructive.
“Dash you have to calm down, you’re creating a lighting storm!” She strained her throat trying to shout over the noise of the storm raging inside her home. Dash didn’t take any notice, too lost in her anger to hear her. Any restraint that Dash may have had was gone now, washed away by the power of the alicorns.
A bolt of lightning burst from the storm, impacting the ground near where Fluttershy stood, she screamed in surprise, she moved quickly to hide under the room’s single table. Dash heard her screams and looked up to Twilight who was trying her best to not look afraid of her. More lightning bolts crackled in the air sending Dash’s gaze upwards to see the monster she was creating. Without looking she could feel the fear in her friends and it hurt her to know that fear was of her.
“Let it go Dash, please, you have to calm down!” The alicorn looked Twilight in the eye, she gave a reassuring smile. Dash smiled back before concentrating as hard on dispelling the storm, closing her eyes, nothing happened. The storm continued to grow, becoming more violent. She knew she had to come so she thought of one thing, being surrounded by her friends, laughing and enjoying themselves. Twilight watched as the aura around Dash changed, the red inferno being replaced by a blue fire before disappearing completely. The storm began to shrink, slowly dissipating till nothing remained of it.
Once they had all calmed down, Twilight moved over to Fluttershy, hoping to coax her out from under the table now that the storm had been dispelled. She refused to look up as she approached, her eyes threatened tears as the voice in her head shouted at her, calling her a monster, undeserving of friends. She had been so close to hurting fluttershy, so close to hurting one of her oldest friends, one who would never hurt another living creature, she hated herself more than ever before.
Twilight stopped, checking over all of her friends, ensuring that nopony had been hurt during the outburst. Even though she may have looked calm and collected, she was actually a mess. Seeing Dash’s aura had shaken her, for her to have such an immense amount of magical energy should have been impossible, in a literal sense it had come from nowhere. One moment she has the average power of a unicorn and the next she has enough magical energy to level the library as well as the surrounding area, only a fool wouldn’t be terrified by that kind of power. Though, as bad as she felt, she knew Dash was feeling much worse, she knew what it felt like to be in her situation. She still felt terrible days after the incident with Celestia in the training hall, blaming herself for the outburst.
Dash continued to look at the ground, finding it much easier than looking at her friends. Twilight knew what she was thinking, knowing that Dash would hate herself for nearly hurting her friends. She kept repeating to herself that she needed to help her friend, to reassure that it was nothing more than an accident.
“Dash” It was Pinkie who acted first. Dash raised her head to watch as the party pony approached her cautiously, along with Twilight, who was following her lead. Dash stepped forward; wanting to tell her friends how sorry she was at what had happened. She didn’t want them to hate her. The pair backed up a step in reaction to Dash’s advancement, which both immediately regretted doing as Dash’s fragile hope for redemption was crushed. She pushed past twilight, dashing to the front door but before she could reach for it something snagged her tail, stopping her from leaving. Turning her head around she saw that a purple aura surrounded her rainbow tail, the one thing keeping her from leaving and going home. She struggled against its grip, trying in vain to escape.
“Dash it’s okay, it was just an accident” The dark cyan alicorn found herself completely surrounded by the aura as she was levitated through the air to land next to her friends, they had all gathered together , the creatures still remained in their positions, except for their leader who moved forward to the group of friends.
“That was no accident, that spell was cast almost perfectly” Twilight, forgetting what the creatures had been so close to doing before, glared at the leading one as Dash allowed a few more tears to roll down her face. The creature raised a hand to Twilight, effectively silencing her.
“The spell was cast correctly but it was purposefully directed away from you, it was no accident that none of you were hurt” Dash stopped crying, instead choosing to look over to the creature with uncertainty in her eyes. Twilight looked back to Dash with a greater understanding, even in her anger she had protected her friends. Dash looked to the group of her friends, receiving comforting smiles each one of them.
“Ya see sugarcube, no reason to go getting upset” The farm pony laid a reassuring hoof on her shoulder and after a hesitant second they moved into a group hug. Dash ignored the voice in her head, knowing that it told nothing but lies and that its only purpose was to torment her. At that moment, she felt she could let all of her worries slip away and forget that anything had happened in the first place. Reluctantly they separated, each moving into sitting positions in a circular pattern. She wiped away her tears, nothing had changed, she was still Rainbow dash and they were still her friends.
“I’m sorry I scared you all like that” Rarity shook her head at the apology; it was unwanted and unnecessary to the unicorn.
“No need to apologise, it’s easy for any magic user to lose control, especially inexperienced ones” Deciding not to dwell on it she looked up to the ceiling, it looked just the same as it always did. She smiled even harder than before, her only thought being how awesome her friends were.
“Oh err Dash, you’re having a nose bleed” The shy Pegasus pointed to her bleeding nose, it wasn’t gushing but it was still a steady flow of blood dripping from her nose. Twilight rose to get some tissues, only to be waved off as Dash pulled a cloth from her saddlebags. Clumsily she held the cloth up to her nose to stem the flow of blood, her blood steadily soaked into the white cloth as a few seconds passed.
“Guess I was concentrating too hard huh” Her voice was slightly muffled by the cloth being so close to her mouth but they understood her. Her eyelids felt heavy suddenly, her friends smiling faces changed into ones of worry as she started to sway slightly from side to side. Rarity reached out a hoof to the alicorn.
“Are you all right darling?” Dash came close to responding before her eyes rolled into the back of her skull as she fell sideways to the hard wooden floor, unconscious. All five of the friends paused as she fell to the ground. Twilight and the leader of the high guards rushed over to her, he pressed two armoured fingers to her throat in an attempt to find a pulse.
“What’s wrong, is she okay?” Worry evident in the fashion pony’s voice as she asked what everypony was wondering. Neither Twilight nor the high guard responded, both still checking on Dash. Taking a closer look at her head revealed that blood was also coming from a gash on the left of her forehead as well as the area around where her horn broke the skin. Twilight choked back a gag, most of her head was covered in the crimson liquid and it was enough to make her queasy.
“She’s had an overload from using too much magic; we need to get her to the hospital, now!” She looked up to the high guard in front of her and he nodded to her, picking up Dash in his arms he started for the door but Twilight stopped him.
“I’ll fly her there, it’ll be faster” She Gestured towards her back as she unfurled her wings, ready for flight. He placed the unconscious alicorn on her back, using the brown saddle bags as a harness he secured Dash onto Twilight before allowing her to move.
“I’ll escort you to the hospital” Not wishing to argue she opened the door to outside. It was still quite early, so many would still be at work, just like she should have been. No, she thought, no time for work, she had to get Dash to the hospital. It was her one and only priority.
“We’ll get her to the hospital, you can meet up with us there” She glanced at her friends, not wishing to waste any time she quickly galloped out of the door before taking off, there was no time for idle chit chat.
She flew through the air, pushing herself to go as fast as she could, she had gotten significantly better at flying since she had started taking Dash’s lessons, although she hadn’t carried anything with her before and now she had actually gotten into the air with the full weight of an alicorn on her back she was starting to regret her decision. Already her wings were hurting from the strain of carrying two times what they normally would but she knew she had to press on, for Dash. In need of a distraction from the pain in her wings she looked down to the ground, hoping to spot something, anything, that could draw her attention away from the burning feeling in her feathery appendages. She supposed that a two legged creature leaping from roof to roof would be a sufficient distraction.
She marvelled as it went, watching it jump from one rooftop to the next, keeping perfect pace with her, all while not attracting too much attention from the ponies below. She was surprised at how agile the he could be with a full set of heavy metal armour on. He would occasionally glance upwards to her. She turned her head to the left to make sure that her cargo was still secure on her back. She stirred, thrashing her legs around a bit, nearly causing Twilight to lose control. They were ten minutes away from the hospital when she could take the strain of carrying the alicorn no longer as she started to lose altitude.
Lungs burning and wings cramping up Twilight started to panic, feeling like she was going to fall out of the sky at any minute. She pushed her wings harder in a desperate attempt to stay airborne but it was no use. Her wings gave out and she fell from the sky, spiralling to a grim fate, closing her eyes she prepared for the worst but before she could greet the dirt with her face, she was snatched right out of the air by a pair of large metallic arms. It was a rough landing, although she preferred it to the alternative.
She opened her eyes again, taking a second to catch her breath she looked up to the high guard that currently held her in his grip. He paused to look back momentarily and, making sure his grip was tight enough, started running towards the hospital at high speed, intent on getting his Empress somewhere they could get help.
“Mommy, daddy” The little whimper caught her off guard, she looked over to Dash who was in the high guard’s other arm, her saddlebags now dangling in the wind. Dash stirred in the strong grip that held her, Twilight could only think of how graceful she looked when she slept, minus the blood of course.
What Dash had said brought an old realisation to the alicorn’s mind, not once had she heard about her friend’s parents. She continued to think about the subject. She couldn’t recall if Dash had ever mentioned anything about her parents in all the time she had known her, the one time she had asked Dash had simply spurted out an excuse and flew off. The fact that she knew nothing about her friend’s family bothered her. She knew about all of her other friends families but when it came to Dash she hadn’t told her anything. She had even once tried to locate her parents in the ancestral records that she ‘borrowed’ from the royal archives during her last visit to Canterlot, just to satisfy her curiosity. When she got home though, she had studied the text for a lengthy period of time, finding nothing about Dash’s family.
Once they reached the top the high guard released his grip on Twilight as they entered the white waiting room of the hospital. Ponies of all types were there, each having a different minor injury with the occasional broken something or other. All but the worst injured turned to watch as they entered. She supposed it would be rather strange to see an alicorn princess, with a two legged knight carrying another alicorn, walk into a hospital in the middle of the day, it was quite awkward, especially since practically all of them noticed just who happened to be that unconscious alicorn. Ignoring the fact that everypony in the room was staring at them they moved to the front desk.
“My friend’s had a bad accident and she needs immediate medical attention” Shockingly the nurse took one look at Rainbow Dash, ignoring the armoured high guard carrying her, and gestured to one of the empty seats in the waiting room.
“Take a seat and the doctor will see you when he can” She could tell that the nurse thought it was just another muscle tear or one of the other many injuries Dash had sustained during her numerous crashes. Anger bubbled inside her, she wanted to order the nurse to go get the doctor that instant to see her friend, the only thing that stopped her being that she didn’t like using her powers as a princess over others, she especially didn’t enjoy ordering ponies around, it just wasn’t her, her escort however, was an entirely different case as he placed Dash onto the ground ,freeing up his arms so he could put his armoured hands onto the wooden desk, leaning over it to come face to face with the nurse.
“I believe she said, immediate medical attention and that’s an order” The nurse physically gulped at the sight of the intimidating high guard looming over her, a single bead of sweat running down the side of her head.
“Yes, right away” She sped off, tail firmly planted between her legs. Twilight had to stifle a small giggle at the sight of the rude nurse running scared. She could tell that some of the other patients in the waiting had had similar treatment from the nurse, judging by their quiet laughing. The high guard picked up Dash again, being extremely careful to not hurt her. Rather than sit down they waited by the front desk, standing in silence. Around a minute later a unicorn dressed in a white coat rushed into the room, panic clearly displayed on his face.
“I can take it from here princess, I’m afraid you will have to...” He paused mid sentence, reconsidering what he was about to say as he saw the high guard that carried Dash as well as Twilight who also gave the stallion a vengeful look, causing him to put on a fake smile of enthusiasm.
“You know what, I’m sure it’ll be fine for you to go with her” He pointed down the corridor, already having a room in mind for his patient. All three moved together down the hall with the high guard still carrying Dash. She had to admit that while he could be rather extreme, something which she had experience first hoof, he was very dedicated to protecting Dash.
After a couple of rooms they eventually reached a door, which read, noble suite. She was familiar with the name, a room that was especially reserved for royal or very rich ponies when they went in for treatment. Once inside, Twilight was blown back. Medical equipment of a huge variety lined the walls, all of it being in perfect condition. Purple and gold colours decorated the room, giving it the feel of royalty. Without invitation the high guard placed Dash onto the bed carefully, adjusting her position to make her as comfortable as possible. She giggled happily at the feeling of expensive cloth against her body, rubbing her bloodied head on her pillow, enjoying the comfort it provided.
The doctor first looked to both the creature and twilight for permission before he moved in to examine Dash. A couple seconds passed as his magic ran over the sleeping alicorn .After finishing, he scratched the back of his head. She had good idea of what he was thinking.
“She does have some minor head trauma from the eruption of her horn, the overload hasn’t caused any damage that I can see, other than that though there really isn’t much wrong with her, she just a bit exhausted from using so much magic.” Twilight breathed out, sighing in relief, content that her friend’s life wasn’t in any danger. She moved over to one of the fancy chairs that decorated the room, sitting down on it to rest her tired body, thinking to herself that she needed to start working out more.
“You can stay here until she recovers, she should be back to her normal self soon” Bowing he exited the room closing the door behind him. The room went silent, save for Dash’s breathing and the other various noises that came from the outside. Having ensured that Dash was in no immediate danger the high guard had taken up his regular stance, standing guard by the bed. A pleasant silence filled the room, it was the first time she had been alone with one of the high guard and it was quite awkward, or it was for her at least. She didn’t really know if he felt awkward, she mused that perhaps he enjoyed the silence.
“I wish to apologise for my actions earlier, it was foolish of me to assume that you would attack Dash” Well that was that idea out the window. Not knowing how exactly to respond she remained silent, the creature turned to her, causing alarm bells to start ringing in her head, she wanted so badly to blink out at that moment but her curiosity got the best of her as always.
“If it is possible to forgive me, I would be eternally grateful” Something about being around the high guard calmed her, she couldn’t tell what it was but she felt safer with him around. She took a moment to think about it, she supposed that it had been a misunderstanding and that having a high guard as a friend would be a much better idea than being on bad terms with one.
"I guess I can forgive you, I mean, you were only trying to protect her after all” She pointed to Dash. He bowed his head, returning back to Dash’s side where he resumed his duty of watching over her, weapon at the ready. She went back to resting her aching wings, trying to imagine what would happen next.
If Dash was an alicorn then she would have to tell Celestia, the idea of it made her smile, two new alicorns within only a couple weeks of each other would be a real surprise to everypony, maybe even a surprise to Celestia herself. She had to wonder why the Goddess had not showed up to speak with the new alicorn as she had done when she ascended. It was a very strange situation. As Dash quietly cried out for her mother again, the alicorn was reminded of the high guard’s words back at the library.
“You mentioned something about her parents before” Struggling to restrain herself from blurting out every question she had for the high guard she focussed on listening to his answer.
“Indeed, her father disappeared years ago, she was still very young at the time” As he spoke his tone shifted from informative to grave, as remembering it was difficult for him. She didn’t feel much happier though. Scolding herself for not showing more of an interest in her friends past, she moved over to the white bed.
“What about her mother?” She whispered not wanting to wake the sleeping alicorn.
“There are some gaps in our knowledge but if I’m correct, she left her a year after her father disappeared, it is unknown why” Now she felt even worse, looking over to Dash she could only imagine what it was like for her. She had always had somepony around, be it her parents, her brother or Celestia, there was always somepony there for her but Dash, she didn’t have anypony.
“This is her room here” It was muffled slightly but she could still make out the words, it was the doctors voice and she had a fairly sure of who he was talking to. The door swung open revealing the four friends, along with the two other high guards. They thanked the doctor before moving into the room, all wishing to know about Dash’s condition. Gathering around the bed the four relaxed at the sight of the sleeping alicorn. The lead high guard nodded to the two larger ones, they nodded back and walked back out of the room to stand guard by the door.
“How is she?” A pink hoof prodded the sleeping alicorn, Dash just turned over to face Twilight and applejack instead, screwing up her face as the prodding continued regardless of her movements. Pinkie kept up her constant poking barrage until an orange hoof placed itself over hers, forcing her to stop.
“She’s fine, just a bit exhausted from her outburst earlier” Most of the group breathed a sigh of relief, Rarity’s reaction to the news was to remain silent and exchange the worried look on her face for a happy smile, they had been doing that a lot recently. It was a little while before any of them spoke again, a much needed cool breeze swept over the room from an open window.
“Mom, Dad” An embarrassing blush burnt Twilight’s face as the dark cyan alicorn quietly cried out for her parents again, in front of all of her friends as well. Of course seeing as the one making the noise was currently unconscious she would be the next to go to, that’s what her friends seemed to think anyway, as they all turned to her for an explanation.
“She’s been doing that for a while, I think she misses her parents” She decided that it would be best to keep what she had learnt to herself for now, besides, the high guard did say that some of his knowledge was missing, what if it was wrong about her parents, at any rate she would need to ask him more questions to be sure. Applejack opened her mouth, thought for a moment and closed it again.
“Do any of y’all know of somepony to contact, a sibling maybe” A chorus of disappointing answers rang in her ears, not a single one of them knew about Dash’s family, it was a rather disturbing realisation to all of them.
“I don’t remember her ever really talking about her family” Twilight sighed, trying to understand why her friend would be so reclusive when it came to her family, did she hate them? Did they hate her? She decided that once everything had calmed down a bit and when Dash was conscious again, she would inquire about her family, if it was something that Dash had trouble with then it was her responsibility as her friend to help her deal with it. She was about to ask for her friends help in the matter when the sound of hoofsteps echoed in the hall outside of the luxurious room.
“They’re inside Goddess, the Empress is currently resting after her overload at the library earlier” Every one of them turned their heads to the door. Twilight was only moderately shocked to see Celestia walk through the well decorated door. By muscle memory alone they bowed to the princess, even the high guard bent down onto one knee like it had done earlier with Dash. Twilight’s face lit up at the sight of the white Goddess, making her excitement well known to her.
“Hello my little ponies” She greeted them with a warm, radiant smile, although on the inside she couldn’t help but worry for the alicorn that slept on the sterile bed, she wasn’t visiting for just a friendly chat, she had a mission.
“There is really no need for you and your friends to be so formal around me Twilight” She got more than enough of that back in Canterlot, she hated it when ponies put themselves above others and she nearly hated ponies putting themselves below her just as much.
“How is Rainbow Dash?” Twilight looked over to Dash, she returned her gaze to Celestia quickly, a number of thoughts raced through her head, a reoccurring one being Celestia banishing her for not immediately informing her of Dash’s ascension. Mentally shaking away the irrational ideas in her head, she opened her mouth to speak.
“Breathing and heart rate within healthy standards, mental and vital signs are in the green” Only to be cut off by the creature’s analysis of Dash’s health, figuring it had been monitoring her vitals for some time she nodded in agreement to the princess. Dash’s breathing rate increased as she began to toss and turn in her bed, her cries becoming more frantic as well.
“Mommy” What followed next was more than shocking to all of them, they watched as Celestia casually strolled over to the side of Dash’s bed, moving her head close to Dash’s until she was within whispering range. Each one of them watched in a mix of conflicting emotions as the princess, their Goddess, nuzzled Dash.
Twilight was stunned into silence, her mind melting inside her own skull as she watched the princess continue to nuzzle her friend. A dizzying sensation overwhelmed her as the room began to spin rapidly, her legs buckled and before she knew it she was on the ground, the conscious world slowly slipping from her as her friends rushed over to her. It had indeed been a strange day. They shouted her name to her but all she could hear was the sound of the calm wind, it was like laughter to her as she closed her eyes.