//------------------------------// // Chapter 8 // Story: Not Another Alicorn! // by LordBrony2040 //------------------------------// Chapter 8: Things Better Not Known? “Aliud quo animus est, a rerum optimus unus efficitur in media hora.” As hard as she tried, Twilight couldn’t find a way to explain what she’d just heard. Although her knowledge of Unicornian was pathetic at best, she would bet her horn that was what Rainbow Dash had just spoken. It wasn’t just a change in language either, the alicorn’s whole speech pattern seemed to alter. There was no Equestrian accent like she'd heard when ponies spoke Griff or Dragonese, or even her usual energetic way of speaking. It was as if some other pony had been saying the words. Then Rainbow turned back to look at with a disturbed frown on her face. “Twi, you sure Mother wants you looking at this stuff? It sounds a lot like Necromancy.” Twilight’s mind raced in confusion. She tried to say something, but her mouth wouldn’t work properly. Did she just…wait, Mother? But I told her that… Twilight found herself unable to complete the full thought. She was a bit too hung up on the first part of it to care. Did she just call Celestia her mother? “Uh, Twilight? You okay?” The question snapped Twilight out of her inner dialogue and she trotted up to the larger pony before looking up into her eyes. “Dash, what did you just say?” “I asked if you were-” “Before that!” Rainbow backed up a few steps as Twilight advanced on her until she ran into the table Twilight’s notes were resting on. “You mean when I was talking about my…ah horse apples,” she said before mumbling something to herself Twilight was barely able to hear. “Gotta learn to think before I open my mouth.” The alicorn looked above Twilight’s head. Several past experiences with her friend let Twilight prepare herself just in time to snag the end of Rainbow’s tail before she could get completely out of sight by taking to the sky in an attempt to escape. Then, things got rather uncomfortable when Rainbow stopped flapping her wings and dropped out of the air right on top of the purple unicorn. Twilight let out a squawk of surprise when the newest princess of Equestria came crashing down from above her, pinning the unicorn to the ground thanks to Rainbow’s newly gained larger than average pony size and weight. Unfortunately, as the unicorn's magic required line of sight to target her telekinesis and all she could see was a coat of blue, Twilight found herself unable to see all of Rainbow’s body and thus couldn’t wrap her in a telekinetic field to throw the larger alicorn off her back. “Rainbow?” “…yeah?” “Can you get off and talk to me now?” Twilight asked while doing her best to control herself since her best friend’s lower-rear anatomy was pressed against her cheek. When the alicorn didn’t respond, Twilight rolled her eyes. “I may not be able to grab your whole body with my magic like this, but I can keep hold of parts I already have. So either you tell me what’s going on, or we can just stay tangled up.” Twilight did her best to try and adjust her position, and a tiny tremble ran throughout Rainbow Dash’s body when the unicorn bushed up against her lower regions. With any options left open to her, Rainbow let out a sigh. “You win.” After Twilight stopped channeling magic through her horn, Rainbow got back on her hooves and helped Twilight back up. They looked at each other for a fraction of a second before Rainbow Dash broke eye contact, and seemed to shrink in on herself. “Look it’s…after I woke up from that coma,” she began. Twilight listened as Rainbow Dash began explaining her situation, saving her questions for the end. She told Twilight about all the ‘strange ideas and stuff’ that kept popping into her head at odd moments and how she found herself thinking of Celestia every time she tried to think of her own mother Firefly, as well as how she found herself comparing Canterlot to Trottingham before smacking her face with her hoof when she grumbled about the differences between the two educational systems of the past and present. That was when Twilight had to put a stop to it. “Rainbow! Don’t you ever do that again,” the unicorn scolded the alicorn as she grabbed the larger mare’s hoof with her own to try and do it by force. For a moment Twilight met the alicorn’s eyes again, and sucked in a breath. Rainbow’s eyes were wide and frightened, her hoof trembled slightly, and Twilight looked back to see that her friend’s wings twitched every few seconds. All the physical signs added up to one obvious conclusion: Rainbow was terrified. It was a rather frightening revelation for Twilight. Up until a few days ago, Rainbow Dash had always been a rock that Twilight knew she could depend on when things got tough. But after the costume stunt, she was starting to think that the alicorn’s bravado was just a mask she wore to hide a fragile interior. “I… It helps clear my head when…” Rainbow Dash gulped and turned her head back towards the table, away from the unicorn’s face. “Twilight…am I going crazy?” Twilight hesitated for a moment as she examined the situation. Based on what Rainbow Dash had just told her and everything gleamed from Celestia’s journal, Twilight knew without a shadow of a doubt that her friend was not losing her mind. At least, not in the traditional sense. However, the worry the situation was causing Rainbow was another concern. Just giving her an answer wouldn’t help her friend. Judging by her emotional state, the alicorn might have been already thinking something along the lines as what Twilight had theorized, and denying it for some reason that Twilight had yet to fathom. What it boiled down to was that even if Twilight told her, Rainbow Dash’s stubbornness wouldn’t let her accept anything but what she currently agreed with. So she decided to lead the larger pony to the answer. “Are you having delusions when you’re awake?” Twilight asked before she thought of another question to help clarify things for her. “Do you just stop and talk to ponies who aren’t there?” “Well, no,” Rainbow mumbled. “Did you just wake up and start going Celestia is my mom all the time, without remembering the mare who gave birth to you?” “No.” “Do you think you’re a pegasus who’s been dead over two thousand years, and that the Everfree Forest is really the capital, and one of Equestria’s largest cities?” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Uh no Twi. Now, you going to tell me where this is going?” “Crazy ponies don’t think they’re crazy Rainbow,” Twilight explained to her. “If you were crazy, then you’d be constantly zoning out, wouldn’t care about any of the facts that contradicted your memories, and wouldn’t even question yourself.” She did her best to give Dash a reassuring smile. “So no Dash, you’re a long way from crazy.” “…then what’s happening with my head Twi?” Twilight clenched her teeth as she thought of how she should answer that. She knew from her own experience and Celestia’s journal that something was indeed going on with her friend, but…that something was as of yet, unexplained. The idea that she could tell Rainbow not to think about it came to mind, but seeing her friend standing there looking so afraid made Twilight throw that option out the window faster than Dash could fly. Lying to her was out too, she wanted to help Rainbow, not let the alicorn delude herself. So that only left a half-truth or full disclosure. The fact she even considered one of those options for a few seconds made the unicorn want to buck herself. Still need to be careful how I handle this though, Twilight thought. However Rainbow was doing what she was doing, it wasn’t on a conscious level. She needed a way to shock the alicorn into realizing what she was doing on her own. And for that, she needed some kind of absolute proof that said ‘look at this Rainbow, the stuff in your head really happened.' “Tell me, was what you mentioned earlier accurate?” “What do you mean if what I mentioned earlier was accurate?” The question left Twilight frowning at her friend. “You mentioned Necromancy after reading about a spell in my notes.” Rainbow frowned at the smaller mare, but Twilight could see the fear still present in her eyes through the confused anger. “That’s just some stupid delusion-thing Twilight!” “I’m starting to think that isn’t the case,” she replied before making her face as serious as she could to help put her point across. She didn’t need Rainbow arguing with her over this. “I’ve never even heard of that school of magic before today, it was just mentioned by name in the journal I read. And even then, I don’t know what it does like you apparently do!” The alicorn flinched. “Twilight, you know the only thing I can do is Aeromancy, and only that cause I‘m a pegasus.” Aero-what? The unicorn shook off the confusion. “Rainbow look at my notes,” Twilight ordered. When the alicorn did, Twilight continued on. “Can you read them?” Rainbow rolled her eyes and looked back at Twilight. “Uh yeah,” she said while rolling her eyes. “Just cause I’m not a egghead doesn’t make me illiterate.” “How?” “Huh?” Rainbow asked, her visible annoyance fading to confusion. “How can you read those words Rainbow?” Twilight demanded as she took a step closer to her friend. Once again, annoyance blossomed on the alicorn’s face. “I look at the page and read, duh. Geeze Twi, you do it all the time.” Twilight’s eye twitched and she jumped up on her hind legs to force Rainbow Dash to turn her head towards the paper before she pointed at the top line of words. “I can’t read this Rainbow! Nopony can except for Princess Celestia and Luna! Aside from them, nopony has spoken this language in thousands of years!” As Twilight let the alicorn go, and backed away, she watched Dash struggle with idea. “Look at the symbols, that’s not Equestrian! You were even speaking Unicornian when you read it!” “No that’s…” Dash looked back to the pages and grit her teeth. Judging by the rapid movement of her eyes, Twilight could tell she was reading the words. “Well then that’s not what it really says. Just more of this stupid delusional stuff.” Twilight got as far into Rainbow’s face as she could thanks to their new difference in height and frowned up at her while trying not to think how less intimidating she was without them being equal height. “And how do you know that?” “Mother would never do something like this Twilight!” Rainbow Dash shouted at the unicorn, driving her back. After she recovered, Twilight cocked an eyebrow at Dash‘s wording. “You mean Celestia?” Rainbow’s attitude changed in an instant. Once again, her trembling increased and she sunk to the floor. “…I don’t want to talk about this anymore,” she said in a voice that sounded closer to pleading than anything Twilight had heard Rainbow Dash say in her life. The sight made Twilight’s heart ache. She wanted to pull away, tell Dash everything was okay and she could just forget about it. But, then her questions would be forever unanswered, and her friend would just go back to pretending everything was alright when it obviously wasn’t. Twilight just couldn‘t accept that. “Why?” she asked as low and sympathetically as she could. “Rainbow, please tell me. I…” Her mind searched for the right words. “I… If it’s embarrassing, I won’t laugh, or ever mention this to anypony ever again. Why do you keep calling Celestia your mom?” Rainbow stopped shaking for a moment and glared back at Twilight. “She’s not my mom!” “Then why do you keep talking about her like that?” the unicorn asked as gently as she could. “Because…it’s…” When Rainbow Dash just stopped talking, Twilight coxed her on with a sympathetic look in her eyes. “Please tell me.” “BECAUSE SHE JUST SHOWS UP LIKE THAT OKAY?” Rainbow yelled. “Every time I think about M-Celestia or see her, or try and talk about her, I get all these stupid images in my head and freaky feelings and I DON’T KNOW…why. Look, this is stupid, I’ll just work through it like everything else.” As Dash stopped for a second time, Twilight reexamined the situation. She had expected Rainbow to dig in her hooves and resist with everything she could if Twilight just outright told the alicorn what she thought was going on. She hadn’t expected Rainbow to be afraid. Twilight had no idea on how to deal with that. It was time to switch tactics. “Earlier today Princess Celestia left me alone in her quarters where I found those spells and a research journal from the past few days. I read her journal and…well, she…wrote some stuff about you.” That got her attention, Twilight thought as the other mare looked back at her with widened eyes. “She wrote about things like Andromeda’s magic, and the Tree of Harmony, and…and a bunch of other things I’m still trying to puzzle out.” Should I tell her about Celestia’s theory? Her inner Applejack said to do so, but the scientist in Twilight knew revealing a half-finished hypothesis might cause more harm than good. She still didn’t know the cause of all this, even Celestia didn’t know. If Princess Celestia hasn’t told her, then I shouldn’t either, the unicorn reasoned. Rainbow frowned at her for a moment, then sighed and looked down at the floor in thought. “Never heard of the Tree of Harmony,” she said before looking up. “But Andromeda’s magic, Necromancy…my bucking head wont stop ever since you mentioned them. Stupid magic junk.” She rubbed the side of her head with a hoof for emphasis, maybe to stop what was probably a splitting migraine. “Are you alright?” Twilight asked as she prepared to use her magic to delve her friend’s body for any damage. Her knowledge of healing magic was mostly theoretical, but Twilight was certain she could heal anything short of a broken bone. “Did…did Mother’s journal…I mean Celestia’s…” Dash stopped to shake her head again. The rainbow alicorn let out a cry of frustration. “Look Twi, this is just me being stupid. In a few days I’ll be fine!” Twilight shook her head. “No. I‘m not just going to leave this alone,” the unicorn said. “Rainbow Dash, what’s going on? Why’re you so scared?” “I’m not scared!” Rainbow Dash defended herself looked down at the ground for several moments before she gulped and looked back up at Twilight. “What about that dinner party? Pinkie will be mad if we’re late.” “Rainbow, what’s going on?” Twilight asked again, making the alicorn even more nervous. Twilight wracked her brain for a moment. She was hurting her friend, every emotion in her mind was yelling at her to stop. To just drop it and let Rainbow go back to being her usual bragging self. But her logical side saw a problem with her friend that needed to be fixed, even if the path was a painful one. Like the whole thing that started this? Twilight asked herself. That was a mess that needed to be fixed too, and look at where we are now. The unicorn crushed the rouge thought beneath her existential hooves. She had made a mistake and learned from it, that was the end of it for now. She didn’t have time to feel guilty while one of her friends was suffering. “Can you read that page I copied?” she asked. Rainbow frowned at her. “Can you?” “Ummm…well, no,” Twilight admitted. “Then how do you know I’m reading it right?” the alicorn demanded as she rose to her full height and glared down at the unicorn. She had apparently found her counter to Twilight’s logic, and was using it for all it was worth. “If you can’t read that stuff and tell me what it says, then it’s just me making up junk because of all these crazy things in my head!” Twilight blinked as her thoughts hit the wall that Dash’s argument created. Okay…Dash might actually have a point there. She rubbed her chin for a moment in thought before inspiration struck. “Then, we should do something to prove it.” “What?” She looked back up at the larger pony and smiled. “You’re not going crazy Rainbow, and I can prove it,” Twilight assured her. “Just, wait until after the party.” “Twilight.” “And if you are…having problems, we’ll fix it.” Twilight’s ears twitched and she nodded before positioning herself so her face fill the princess’s vision. “Rainbow, whatever’s wrong, I’m here for you okay? We can figure this out. And whatever’s got you worried, we’ll take care of it, together. I promise.” Pinkie Pie hated being the focus of a limited 3rd person narrative when the author was taking her 4th wall breaking powers to the extreme. She also hated it when her plans for a party got hijacked by royalty to turn her Welcome Back Dashie Party into something it wasn‘t supposed to be. But as this was the first time such an event had occurred, she was willing to let the whole party thing slide. The author thing on the other hand… “Seriously, cut it out. The fourth wall isn’t the only thing this pony can break,” Pinkie grumbled before she took off her Gala dress‘s hat and set it on the dinning table she was sharing with her friends. “You say something Pinkie?” The pink party pony pulled herself back into the story and looked at the orange earth pony sitting on the cushion across from her. “No just arguing with-wha-oh!” All of a sudden, Pinkie felt her heart go all-aflutter, her lips moisten, and her lower female body parts become extra specially…uh, special! It was a triple combo of her Pinkie-sense that she had felt a few times before and knew what it meant! Unable to hide her excitement, Pinkie jumped for joy. “Hey guys! My Pinkie-sense just said somepony I know just fell in love!” Spike cut his conversation about how life was now that he had moved back to Canterlot with Rarity short and turned to face Pinkie with a hopeful expression. “Really?” he asked before looking back to Rarity. “Beg yer pardon?” Applejack asked as she fussed with her attire. Lots of hard work kept her in shape as not to need any alterations for her fancy dress that Celestia had shipped over from Ponyville while they’d been asleep, but that didn’t make it comfortable. Rarity was a bit more enthused. “It can do that?” she asked. “Who is it Pinkie?” Fluttershy asked with a bit more excitement than most ponies had seen her show about social things. Pinkie held up a hoof to stall any other questions as she closed her eyes and listened to her sense. A second later, she was rubbing the top of her head. “Itchy scalp! Must me a uni-wait! “Now I’m getting a scratchy back?” she told everypony before a tingling in her hooves made her look down. “And now an earth pony?” Confusion crossed her face as she looked over to her friends. “Hey girls, do you have any idea why I’d be getting signals that a pony with pegasus, earth pony, and unicorn parts just fell in love?” Her three friends at the table just gaped, which of course offered no answers to the confused pink pony before the scene changed again. Rainbow Dash followed the purple mare down the hallway that led to the ballroom as she struggled with her thoughts. A part of her was surprised at the new record of thirty minutes she had clocked for thinking about any one thing, but she was mostly concerned what these thoughts were about. As for as Rainbow Dash could see, there were two possibilities. The first possibility was that she was just plain crazy. Being turned into an alicorn had also driven her slightly nuts and mildly delusional. Everything she was experiencing was just something created by her crazy subconscious. The second possibility was that she was not crazy, and the stuff in her head actually came from some several thousand year dead princess. Which in turn meant everything in her head was true. All in all, Rainbow was just hoping for a mild case of insanity. If her delusions actually ended up being true, then insanity was the lesser of two evils by far. Then there was Twilight, and Rainbow’s changing opinion of the little nerd. In all honesty, she didn’t know what to make of it. Part of her wanted to chalk it up to the past life insanity that seemed to be plaguing her since she woke up from the coma, but that didn’t seem right. Especially since her delusions said she had married a dork of an Aeromancer who had a bunch of silly ideas about how to incorporate cloud with land-based construction to make a type of building that gave a level of comfort to all ponies. In contrast, Twilight was definitely not a pegasus, or male. Not that any of that stuff was real of course, or had any determination on Rainbow’s choice in partners. Although Rainbow could appreciate a fast stallion with some big wings, she had gotten into mares a short while after her move to Ponyville thanks to a kind earth pony who recognized all the signs of an unsure homosexual. Their relationship had only lasted a few weeks before the passions cooled and Rainbow realized the affection she felt wasn’t really the romantic kind, but they had parted on good terms with an invitation to talk should the pegasus-turned-alicorn ever need it. “Hey Rainbow, you coming?” Twilight called out from down the hallway, knocking the alicorn out of her musings on the past. Unfortunately, it also put her attention back onto the lavender unicorn as Rainbow trotted up to Twilight. She found herself going over everything she knew about the unicorn to try and dissuade herself from getting completely gaga. Twilight’s not really all that cool, Rainbow told herself. She completely freaked out in the most adorkable way possible at the littlest of things after all. While cute and endearing, remembering how the purple unicorn was so worried over nothing just a few weeks ago made her pretty un-cool. [Or radical, she continued. She was a unicorn mage, and while useful, it didn’t have the same amount of flair and expert in pegasus magic did. Even if he was the best of the best at it with several tricks under her belt that made even a show mare like Trixie seem to be even more of a hack than her way of dealing with competition for her attention. Or awesome, Rainbow thought. Even the most built of unicorn’s were hardly athletes, and Twilight was the most non-athletic unicorn Rainbow had ever met. All she ever did was study…unless her friends needed her for something of course. Then she’d drop everything and do whatever needed doing like when AJ and Rainbow had asked her to judge the Iron Pony competition before the running of the leafs…where Rainbow remembered she had tried to help the pegasus keep her cool before Twilight placed fifth out of at least thirty other ponies. Rainbow should still remember how proud the unicorn had been to place that high…and she knew Twilight had more than earned it. The image of the cute little unicorn wearing her medal was one the athlete would never forget. The fact she had been so…not bragging about it also ran through Rainbow’s mind to strike another mark in the ’good things’ column of that memory. After tying for last, the former pegasus didn’t think she could take it if Twilight had been… Ah buck, Rainbow thought to herself when she realized her opinion of Twilight had just risen even more despite the attempts to make her less desirable. Even her less desirable traits just made her seem…cute. A little dismayed at the failed attempt to make Twilight Sparkle less awesome, Rainbow joined the most desirable unicorn in all of Equestria at the entrance to the ballroom before Twilight opened the door for them to wait for the inevitable Pinkie surprise. What they got was much more jarring than the pink pony’s usual party welcome. In fact, it left them both floored. “Got to hand it to Pinkie, did not expect this,” Twilight mumbled. Rainbow Dash could only nod to agree as she looked around. There were no balloons, party hats, or other such celebratory things that the pink party pony was known for. There was also no homemade banner, streamers, ribbons, confetti, little flags, or a barrel of monkeys. Although to be fair, she had only brought a barrel of monkeys to a party once and they ended up trying to steal everypony’s food. So Dash didn’t hold it against her for not trying that again. Instead of just her friends and family, what Dash guessed were nobles from across Canterlot and perhaps a few of the outlying estates filled the room, along with a few guards for show. Throughout the crowd, she saw serving ponies caring around bite sized food on trays. The same group from the Gala was playing that slow music that Rainbow Dash could barely stand, and her mother was at the top of the stairs surrounded by several important-looking ponies. “Well, now I think we know why that dress carrier was left on your bed,” Rainbow Dash mumbled. Apparently, Rarity hadn’t been hit by a quick wave of inspiration like Twilight had thought. The naked unicorn moaned and nearly face-hoofed. “ANNOUNCING PRINCESS RAINBOW DASH, AND TWILIGHT SPARKLE, STU-umph!” Rainbow silently thanked Twilight for zipping the announcer pony’s lips shut before she trotted into the room with the lavender unicorn trailing behind her. Common sense told Dash it would be best to try and appear as regal as she could, but since she had no desire to look like a snob, the alicorn marched in and looked around in confusion. Out of the corner of her eye, she made sure Twilight was keeping up. After all, Twilight grew up in these noble situations. She had to know how to deal with this kind of stuff. Socially inept or not, Celestia had to have dragged Twilight to some social functions in her life. A few seconds after she entered into the room, the sea of ponies parted for Celestia, and Dash found herself wondering if she should be bowing. It was a little disconcerting to find that Twilight was right beside her and doing just that. Being cheered at was cool, cheers had to be earned. Dash supposed that Celestia earned her bows, but the thought of anypony bowing to Rainbow Dash herself was just weird. “Welcome to your coming out party Granddaughter,” Celestia said with a little nod before she turned towards Twilight. “Twilight, I had instructed Spike and the pegasi who went to Ponyville with him to fetch your Gala dress to deliver it to your room. Was it not there?” The question had the unicorn up and in a fit. “Gala dress?! Was that what that package was? Oh, I knew it was important! Oh Princess I’m sorry I-” “It was my fault!” Rainbow Dash blurted out, being careful not to add the word Mother. She stepped in front of Twilight to block her view of Celestia. “I kind of held Twilight up at the university, then we needed to rush over here, and we just threw her notes and stuff into her room before coming down as fast as we could.” Celestia nodded calmly, apparently not caring about their lack of attire. “I see.” With the brief lull in the conversation, Twilight looked around at the room, and then back to the largest pony there. “Princess, this party…um…how…” “I’ll admit, I had to take the reigns away from Pinkie Pie,” Celestia told her as she looked over to Rainbow Dash. “These past few days of scaring the hay out of us hasn’t allowed you to get acquainted with the public on schedule, so I had to skip ahead to your coming out party and give the nobility first crack at you.” The alicorn’s expression morphed into an apologetic one. “Sorry, but…it needed to be done.” Rainbow Dash blanched and looked around the room at all the ponies in fancy clothes. She didn’t even need her fake memories to give her a feeling of disdain for the whole affair, her time at the Gala did that all on its own. “So uh…where’re the girls?” If Rainbow put enough of her friends between the nobility and herself, she figured she might make it through the night without kicking somepony’s teeth in. “They have a table near the buffet with Spike,” Celestia informed her as she turned her head to face them for a moment. “Now come along, let us make our announcement and introductions to the heads of state.” A feeling of panic quickly settled in Rainbow Dash’s stomach at just what that entailed. “What?” “I think I’ll head back to my room and change,” Twilight said. Rainbow turned around to plead for Twilight not to abandon her with a look, but was only able to catch a glimpse of her before she disappeared in a flash. As Celestia led her towards the steps, the younger alicorn made a mental note to learn teleportation as soon as she got the telekinesis stuff down. That way, she could actually get away from crap like this without her mother dragging her back with telekinesis. Surprisingly, the introduction went about as well as she could have hoped. Celestia got everypony’s attention, called out Rainbow Dash’s name to everypony, Rainbow made a quick bow, and then spent the next half an hour saying hello to various important ponies from around Canterlot that had big responsibilities in the government. Thankfully, they didn’t ask her any questions about what she thought about anything, and Rainbow was headed back down the stairs before trotting over to her friend’s table as fast as she could while they practically swarmed Celestia after Rainbow’s departure. Least its not a coronation, she told herself. The last time she had one of those her unicorn speech writer had… Done nothing, because its not real, she reminded herself. Although, Twilight seemed to think something was going on beyond simple craziness, and she was freakishly smart… When Rainbow came to the table where her friend's sat and all the mare’s eyes turned towards her, she gave a nervous laugh and cleared her throat. “Hey girls…uh, sorry for just running out on you all like that this morning. I tried to see some of you earlier but…some of you were out of it, or gone, or asleep, and…uh…” Thankfully, Rarity rescued Dash for the awkwardness. “Oh think nothing of it Princess,” she said, getting a wince from Dash. “But if you really want to make it up to us, mind telling us who the lucky stallion is?” “Rarity you don’t need to-” Rainbow Dash managed to get out before the second half of the fashionista’s words hit. “Wait, what lucky stallion?” Applejack chuckled. “Come on now Princess, you know ya ain’t got nothing to be hiding from us,” she said with one of her mockingly knowing smiles. “Sides, you know ain’t denying Pinkie and that sense of hers.” “Yep! I was all like, hey guys I just felt somepony I know fall in love, then I got all these confusing signals telling me it was a uni-pegi-earth pony, and they were all like, duh! That’s Dashie! And I was all kinds of relieved cause the only two other alicorns I know of were Princess Luna and Celestia, oh! And Princess Cadence, but she’s not really Princess Cadence, you know, she’s Princess Mi Amori Cadenza! Which makes me wonder why some people spell it Cadance when Cadenza has the E.” Dash blinked as her brain worked through what Pinkie had managed to get out before becoming completely unintelligible. Wait…Pinkie sense…alicorn in love? That’s stupid, the only pony I was around all day other than Mother was… “Hi girls, I’m here.” “TWILIGHT!” Rainbow shrieked as she jumped into the air and flapped her wings to stay aloft. A few seconds later, the attention from the surrounding party goers made her slowly come back to the ground with a blush on her cheeks. “So uh…that was fast.” The unicorn smirked. “Hey when you’ve got telekinesis, getting dressed is a snap,” she said before looking over to the buffet table. “Think I’ll go get something to eat.” Rainbow took one look at the group of friends that were waiting for her to confess her newfound appreciation for the lavender unicorn, and quickly took off after Twilight. “Think I’ll come with you.” “Oh you’re not getting away from me that easily Princess,” Rarity told her as she joined Rainbow at her side. For a moment, Rainbow forgot about the horror of having Twilight finding out her affection and looked down at Rarity. “You don’t have to call me that Rares.” Instead of thankfully nodding, Rarity’s face became a pout and her voice took on a pleading tone. “Oh please Rainbow Dash? I know you’ll never wear gowns or anything proper so can’t I just have this one tiny thing from you?” For the second time Rainbow prepared to tell her no, but the image of the unicorn cowering in her own home from the alicorn’s magical outburst several days ago ran through her mind. “Okay,” she relented softly before giving more strength to her voice. “But, no bowing or anything else. Deal?” Rarity squealed in excitement as she quickly cantered for a moment. “Deal, Princess Rainbow Dash.” “So does that mean I can bow if I just call you Rainbow?” Twilight asked with a smirk. The image of Twilight bending down ran through Rainbow Dash’s mind and caused her to shudder. “No,” Dash told them as she fought off the image. “A lot of ponies think they’re better than others just because of a horn or some wings. I’d rather all ponies stood as equals rather than one putting their face to the floor thanks to some stupid piece of anatomy.” A moment later, Rainbow noticed that both of the unicorns were giving her an odd look. “What?” “That’s a very interesting thing for a princess to say,” Rarity told her with a grin that became a chuckle. Rainbow frowned back at her. “Oh come on. Sure the sisters deserve it, especially Celestia, and maybe Cadence now that she’s talking with the Griffin Empire or Dragon Tribes, or whatever it is, but I’m just a fast weather pony who wrote a book. Hay, I’m not even sure I want that kind of stuff happening after I do enough awesome things to actually earn the title. You girls have seen how much everypony freaks out when Princess Celestia comes to Ponyville. All anypony seems to see is the Princess, and none of the Celestia. They all get so afraid to ask her things and tell her something as a bird might be sick. No leader should be so apart from her people that they can’t tell her their problems.” Twilight was a bit more cryptic in her response as her mouth hung half-opened at the alicorn’s declaration. “She was right about you,” the unicorn mumbled before she looked ahead towards the buffet with wide eyes, as if something had just shaken the foundations of her world. Before Rainbow could ask what all that was about, the trio of horned ponies reached the group of long tables that stretched the length of the room, loaded with food. It was little disconcerting to see that, unlike when the Gala was going on, Rainbow could actually name most of the foods this time. At least she thought she could until she realized where most of that info came from. Then Dash decided to try and stick to the fruits that looked naturally grown and the other stuff that she was pretty sure was some kind of cake. She looked over at the plates, but the top one alit with a blue telekinetic field before she could make a move on it. “Allow me Princess,” Rarity told her. “I wouldn’t want a plate getting in your way of telling me about this new stallion you’ve become enamored with.” “Stallion? You’ve found a coltfriend Rainbow?” Twilight asked, in surprise. She didn’t know what was worse: Twilight’s lack of disappointment, or Rarity’s incorrect assumptions about Dash’s sexuality. The mare was practically the gossip queen of Ponyville, how had she not heard about the relationship history of every single pony in town was a mystery to the pony with the chromatic mane. “I don’t have a coltfriend,” Rainbow growled. “Oh come now Princess, there’s no need to be so shy,” Rarity assured her. For a moment Rainbow Dash wondered if it would be worth it to just ditch Rarity and head back to the table with her friends, but the presence of the two unicorns were keeping the nobles at bay. If she jumped ship now, it would have been even worse than the Triple-G, since the rich snobs would actually be trying to talk with her this time instead of just making comments behind her back for wrecking the place. Rainbow blinked when she noticed that she had missed part of the conversation between Rarity and Twilight. “-ell if Pinky had one of her…things, I guess there’s no denying it,” the purple unicorn said. “So, Rainbow, who’s the lucky stallion? I don’t know that many ponies even around the castle, but Spike has a few friends and might be able to give you some information.” Just then, a stallion broke apart from the crowd to come to the rescue of the alicorn princess. He was dashing, handsome, well dressed, and perfectly groomed with a bit of magic around him that made his mane shimmer. He was also a stallion Dash remembered from her past. “Prince Blueblood.” “What?” Rarity shrieked at the princess while Dash and Twilight looked on in confusion. Of course that past had mostly involved a few days in Rarity’s boutique after the Gala where the two of them played darts using a picture of aforementioned price tapped to a ponequin where the face was with only fifty points and the crotch with one hundred. “Why in the world would you even bother with that ill manned, childish, buffoon of a pampered simple-” Rarity blinked and cut herself off for a fraction of a second as Twilight and Rainbow motioned for her to stop, “-ton that needs to be thrown in the mud with pigs so he can at least pick up their level of manners! And yes, I can tell he’s right behind me you two! I am not completely blind to facial cues!” she said at last before turning to glare at what was probably the biggest insult to the name of royalty in the past thousand years before addressing him. “Do you need something?” The large stallion ignored Rarity completely and simply addressed Rainbow Dash directly. “Ah, so you are the new commoner that Auntie has seen fit to elevate. I find its best to let ponies such as yourself know you wont be having any real royal duties as soon as possible. Auntie and I run the kingdom, but I’m sure we can find you a nice-sounding job out where you’re not going to cause any trouble.” Before Rainbow could break his face, Twilight stepped forward and let out a grunt of displeasure. “You and Princess Celestia run the kingdom, huh?” she nearly growled at him. “I’m sure Princess Luna would love to hear that.” For a minute Rainbow thought he was simply going to ignore Twilight as well, but Blueblood eventually turned his head towards her. “You look familiar. Have I seen you in the castle perhaps? One of Auntie’s attendants?” “I’m Twilight Sparkle,” the unicorn said with a frown that only deepened when no showing of recognition downed on Blueblood’s face. “Element of Magic? Leader of the Elements of Harmony? One of the six ponies who cured Nightmare Moon and defeated Discord?” When there was still no recognition from the prince, Twilight Sparkle let out a groan. “Princess Celestia’s personal student!” The last bit finally seemed to get through to the white unicorn. “Ah yes, the urchin Auntie took pity on,” he finally said before a shiver passed through his body. “Hm? I say did somepony open a window? I feel a terrible draft.” Rainbow frowned as she noticed the change in temperature as well, then purposely focused the cold on him while unfurling her wings a bit to generate a pocket of heat around Twilight and Rarity. Her Aeromancy was a bit clumsier than it should have been, but she just chalked that up to the alicorn transformation. It was a little disconcerting to find the one thing she might have been better at her mother at had been so stifled by her ascension. “So what exactly do you do for the kingdom?” Rainbow asked with a voice that was colder than the atmosphere. The desire to brag about his duties apparently warmed the station enough to stick around, as he held his head up high. “I am in control of the realm’s finances and tax collection, as well as the creator and head authority in the Equestrian Revenue Service!” So this guy’s in charge of taking money from other ponies and invented the ERS? Rainbow asked herself. It was then that she decided to be like Twilight, and run an experiment. This particular test was to see if stallion balls really could freeze off. Unfortunately, such an action would probably take a few minutes, and Blueblood didn’t stick around long enough for it to work. Another shiver passed through his body, and he began to trot off. “Bah, when I find the imbecile who left that window open in late Fall, she’ll be having to find a new job!” “And I’ll be telling Princes Celestia that mare deserves a promotion,” Twilight said with a smile. Although it faded a second later and the unicorn gave off a shiver. “Still, it is a little cold in here.” “Sorry about that,” Rainbow apologized before flapping her wings once to dispel the effect and adding some much needed warmth to the area at the same time. She looked back to the table and started telling Rarity what foods she wanted on her plate while the white unicorn rolled her eyes. “Don’t go apologizing for that beast. We need to speak of more important matters anyway, such as that stallion you’ve fallen for Princess Rainbow.” Actually, I’m pretty sure talking with Blueblood just killed the last of my heterosexuality, Rainbow mentally told Rarity, although she was wise enough not to voice it. “There is no stallion,” Dash insisted as they moved down the table to grab more food. They crossed the ice sculpture in the middle of the layout that separated the main course items from the deserts, and Rainbow found herself wondering if she could just take a whole cake back to the Elements table. “Come on Dash, I learned what happens when you try to argue with Pinkie-sense,” Twilight added with a smirk. The comment increased Rarity’s excitement. “Oh that’s right!” she said while trotting in place. “On second thought Princess Rainbow, keep denying it. I want him to walk over here so we can meet him.” Unfortunately for Rarity’s theory, the next pony that came up to talk to them was not a stallion, but she was a welcome sight for Rainbow. Spitfire of the Wonderbolts walked through the crowd and up to the party of three, much to the princesses delight. The fiery orange mare was dressed in her officer uniform instead of the flight suit Rainbow had seen her in most of the time, but she could have cantered around naked and Rainbow wouldn’t have cared. OhmygoshOhmygoshOhmygoshOhmygoshOhmygoshOhmygosh, the blue alicorn thought to herself as her personal hero approached while Rainbow fought to keep herself from dancing in place. Would it be cool to strike up a conversation? What could they talk about? Well, other than flying of course! Would it be okay to ask for Spitfire’s autograph on a napkin? But, before Rainbow could ask any of these questions, the Captain of the Wonderbolts put a stop to her fangasm and fantasies of actually being able to hang out with Spitfire during he party before it could truly begin. She walked right up to Rainbow Dash, and prostrated until her nose nearly touched the ground. “Princess Rainbow Dash, allow me to be the first of the Wonderbolts to…” The rest of the pegasus’s words were lost to the alicorn as she found herself unsure of what to do with the sight of a bowing Wonderbolt. While her first instinct was to tell the soldier to stop doing what she was doing, another part of her reminded Dash that wouldn’t be the best of ideas. It might have been okay for Twilight and the others to get a pass on the bowing and princessing, but Spitfire was a soldier. Even without the fake memories screaming at her, Rainbow knew that telling Spitfire never to do what she was doing in front of Canterlot’s nobility was a very bad idea. And she was in front of the nobility at the moment, even her mother, Luna and Cadence had broken away from the officials and were looking down at her for some reason Rainbow couldn’t understand. So what? Rainbow told herself. I just got done telling Twilight and Rarity how much I hate this junk, I’d be the biggest hypocrite in the world if I just took all that back now. But if she did do such a thing in front of the unicorns, it would be shown as a sign of weakness that they would use to excuse every action they could think of to undermine her authority. Most of them would even consider it a reason to rally against her. As if being a pegasus who had been promoted past them thanks to an accident of her birth wasn’t enough. The scariest part of that realization was: she didn’t know if it was her messed up memories telling her, or Rainbow Dash’s personal experience with Canterlot snobs. A nudge in her flank brought Rainbow out of her ruminations, and she looked back to Twilight with a frown and an expression that was demanding to know why she had been telekinetically smacked in the rear. “Tell her what you think about the idea,” the purple unicorn whispered through her teeth. What idea? Rainbow thought to herself before she looked back to the bowing Wonderbolt as Spitfire looked back up to the alicorn. Hadn’t Spitfire been talking to her? Instead of acting like an idiot and asking for her idol to just repeat the question, Rainbow Dash simply nodded in agreement. “Uh, great! Yeah, totally think that’s a great idea! And, uh…you can get up now.” After Spitfire rose to her feet, she looked back to where Rainbow had been talking to Blueblood. “Nice work with the temperature by the way, how’d you get it to stay in one place like that?” It took everything Rainbow Dash had not to do a back flip in joy as Spitfire praised the alicorn on her Aeromancy. She was even able to waved a hoof as if it was no big thing, playing it cool as ice. “Oh it’s no big thing,” she said, hoping nopony noticed the sudden change in volume at the start of her sentence. “You just need to create a tight vacuum wall around the affected area that your creating the cold, or the ambient temperature air will keep getting sucked in. Course it still does that anyway, but the wall keeps the majority of the heat away with redirection so you can keep lowering it instead of constantly fighting to keep things cool. It also helps keep the change around for a bit even after the effect is dispelled.” “A vacuum wall?” Spitfire asked as she gave Dash a confused look. “Is that a new technique you invented?” “Uh, Dash?” Twilight mumbled. Rainbow frowned at the pegasus’s question. “No,” she said slowly, a little confused at Spitfire’s response. She might have been the first to use that type of Aeromancy since the unification, but the Pegasi Tribe had done tons of stuff like that when they had been a separate nation. “It’s just been out of use since forever.” Spitfire’s eyes widened a bit. “Really? So, it was Princess Luna who showed you how to do it?” she asked. “I’ve been meaning to ask her about Sky Shaping. Princess Celestia is always telling us Princess Luna was the better Sky Shaper, but none of us can get up the nerve to ask her for training. Still, I suppose what we know is enough if the Wonderbolts ever have to see action on a large scale.” The senseless comment confused the hay out of Dash. What in Equestria is she talking about? Luna had shown some interest in Aeromancy, but she had never gotten around to reading all the old scrolls that explained how to manipulate the air on so many levels like Dash had needed to study and teach to others in order for the pegasi to begin her pet project of a cloud…city… Wait a second, Rainbow Dash thought as her mind ran into a conflict that had nothing to do with some stupid memory of Celestia. While the average pegasi had the ability to move clouds and stuff on an instinctive level like all unicorns could move stuff with their horns, creating of things like cold fronts, storm clouds, and other weather phenomena had to be done at Cloudsdale using machines or weather alters powered by runic magic imported from the Griffon Empire. On their own, pegasi could produce things like storm and rain clouds in a very inefficient way. But the Wonderbolts could, they did it all the time during their air shows. Dash had always thought it was some enchantment added to the Wonderbolt flight suits, but she knew differently. She knew she could do it herself. She knew she could do more. She could craft sculpted ice, create wing blades, gather storms with only her wings, and direct lightning. No real memories accompanied the knowledge, it was simply fact; like how everypony knew Celestia raised the sun, or that the sky was blue during the day. “Well, I think I’ll take my leave Princess,” Spitfire told her. “I know that is a bit out of line, but it’s a shame you ended up becoming an alicorn. A sky talent like yours would have made-” Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened as another piece of information floated across her mind, completely drowning out Spitfire‘s words in light of a more important realization. I…I know how the Rainboom works, the alicorn thought to herself. The emotional drive that accompanied all Aeromancy was part of it, but she understood there was more than just the mad rush of speed to push past the sound barrier and an extra burst at the right time that Rainbow Dash had always just chalked it up to. It was more than just a bright flash of light that spread out in all directions. But something she found even more amazing that was even with her added size and weight, she could still do a Sonic Rainboom. The realization made her eyes go wide. But…I…wait, she thought to herself as she tried to right her thoughts. Just how did she know all those things? Was it more of the made-up junk? But…I…the Aeromancy I used to change the atmosphere… “Darling, perhaps we should go sit down,” Rarity suggested as she placed a hoof on Dash’s shoulder and snapped her back to reality. The alicorn looked down to her friend and was surprised at the worried look in Rarity’s eyes. Rainbow didn’t think she had been distracted all that long. Oh mare, don’t tell me I’m actually doing what Twilight warned me about. “What? Why?” Dash asked before she looked back at where her atmospheric tampering had occurred. Spitfire was walking right through the middle and examining the alicorn’s handiwork. Twilight took up the question as she gave the alicorn a questionable look. “Because you’re obviously in shock, and I don’t think Rarity brought her fainting couch.” “O-Kay,” Rainbow Dash drawled out before the two unicorns led her back to the table where everypony and Spike were waiting for them. Dash took her seat on the large cushion while the two unicorns flanked her on the table. “-and then I said, peaches? Are you crazy?” Pinkie Pie said before she looked up and saw her friends had come back. “Oh hey girls, what’s up? Find out who Dashie has a thing for yet Rarity?” The question made the fashionista’s head spin away from the alicorn and over to the pink party pony. “Oh um, well…something more important came up.” “It wasn’t that Blueblood fella again, was it? I saw him crowding ya’ll from here,” Applejack told them. “That did seem a little rude of him,” Fluttershy added softly. “I mean, every other pony was keeping their distance and all. Well, except for Spitfire, but she only came after Blueblood, so she probably thought it was okay.” Rainbow Dash bent down to grab a bite to eat off her plate, but froze when she saw a few of the unicorns in her table's area giving the new alicorn a disgusted scowl. For a moment she thought about just ignoring it, but picked her head back up to look for some forks for a few seconds. Even if she could only see a few nobleponies from her seat, Rainbow was certain that all eyes in the room were upon her. She needed to at least make some effort to fit in. The least she could do was use utensils. The kind of stuff unicorns don’t need to use, she told herself after remembering it was Rarity who’d carried her plate earlier. Of course the white pony with a horn hadn’t taken any. Rainbow Dash looked around at her friends for a moment, just picking up the end of Rarity’s offhand comment about Blueblood as she looked for any unused eating utensils that her friends had grabbed. When none could be found, she started to rise and her wings brushed against both Rarity and Twilight. “Be right-” “So what did you talk to Spitfire about Rainbow? That must have been exciting for you,” Fluttershy said before Dash could move more than a few inches. Dash felt both the unicorns go completely rigid, and frowned at their sudden stiffness. What the? “Fluttershy,” Twilight practically whined between gritted teeth while slightly shaking her head back and forth. Rarity apparently decided to be a bit more vocal. “Bah! That mare was even worse than Blueblood!” she exclaimed. “Can you believe she just came up to Rainbow and after some cheap complements about our dear princess’s weather talents, she has the gall to tell Rainbow Dash she can’t join the Wonderbolts due to her newfound royal status?” All of a sudden, food and the perceptions of other ponies became the furthest thing from Rainbow Dash’s mind. “Wait…” she mumbled before turning to look at Rarity with an empty expression as she tried to process what her friend had just said. “What?”