//------------------------------//
// Act 2 - Chapter 3: Terrific Power 
// Story: A Rainbow Rises 
// by xXOriginXx 
//------------------------------//

Grunts of effort was the only noise coming out Dash’s mouth at this point, no longer able to form coherent replies from all the concentration she was expending on trying for the fortieth time that hour to lift the small objects from where they sat. They still refused to budge more than a few centimetres in any direction before her magic would give out. Her head was starting to hurt from the constant stress she had been putting on her mind but she still refused to give in, though giving up was starting to seem more and more like a good idea.

Probably the worst thing was that in the last hour she had been practicing she still could only manage about as much as she could when she started, her impatience was reaching dangerous levels, the last time she had been so frustrated was when she ended up visiting the hospital for nearly dislocating her jaw trying to open the harmony box, it seemed like a much better idea at the time and Twilight hadn’t made any progress, though in hind sight she really shouldn’t have tried her tongue afterwards, that had been a fairly embarrassing afternoon all in all.

Once more she tried, getting the exact same result as every other failed attempt. One of the royal guards had dozed off at some point, apparently aware that there wasn’t going to be a disaster any time soon, not at the rate she was progressing.  Her hurt pride did nothing to deter her from going on, it in fact only served to push herself further, prove that she could be focussed and  use magic before she passed out in the corner from a brain haemorrhage or something, that’s where she felt like she was going anyway.

“You’ve just got to focus Dash, remember to feel it flow through you, you can do this” The words of encouragement had served to boost her moral before but after hearing those same words for the third time she was starting to lose face. 

So in one last valiant attempt she breathed in deeply, in and out, closing her eyes for maximum focus she reached deep within herself, pushing her hooves as hard as she could into the imaginary waters. A blue aura surrounded the trio objects in front of her, like every other time the waters began to swirl around her submerged hooves signalling the imminent up burst that would no doubt push her away, this time she wasn’t going to let it.

With all her mental might she pushed down against the waters, the previous tickles they induced morphed into a powerful buzz that made her limbs feel numb; her head feel light and her stomach turn upside down. Outside her mind the field that held the objects grew stronger becoming more established with each passing second. Slowly but surely the assorted clutter began to rise off the ground again and this time at a much faster rate, climbing higher than they had previously. They quickly rose past her head upwards towards the ceiling.

“That’s it, you’ve got it!” As the trio of items climbed higher Twilight’s smile widened, the sudden not to mention amazing amount of progress had her excited. 

Oddly enough the raging waters calmed back to a still surface only broken by her small movements. Thinking herself victorious she let her guard down and allowed herself to celebrate her triumph over it. Sadly, it had been a trick and the pool swatted her away so hard her eyes snapped back open , in turn the glow that had held the three weights aloft disappeared and they came nosily crashing down to the floor, although somehow not loud enough to wake the still sleeping guard. What followed could be described as a low toned sigh that rapidly changed into a drawn out wail.

“It’s alright Dash you did very well, you just need to try again” Around ten minutes in, her bank of encouraging words had ran out and repeating ‘try again’ had become her one and only answer, which made the frustrated glare being directed her way understandable.

“I have been trying, for an hour now, that’s all I’ve been doing and I’m starting to think that I might not be cut out for magic!” While she was unlikely to just give up on it all together, she had become tired of the constant failure that met her at her every attempt, normally success came quickly to her.

“Don’t give up now, you’re so close” Another sigh escaped her lips, magic really wasn’t her thing but the encouraging smile from Twilight did help somewhat, she would try again and then when that didn’t work she would eat lunch and go find the fluffiest cloud she could to brood over the failure.

Closing her eyes she found herself standing beside the pool, its calm stillness mocking her. If this was going to be the last attempt for the day then she was going to try it her way, the Rainbow Dash way.

She flapped her wings down sending her high above the malevolent pool, into the void that surrounded them. Closing her wings she dive bombed straight into the waters splashing the glowing substance over the rim of the water body. 

Outside the imaginary realm the trio of objects floated just above the two alicorns, remaining perfectly suspended in mid air. Twilight didn’t say a word, the last time she aired her joy it had only served to distract Dash, so she remained silent. After a couple of seconds it was evident that the three weights were not moving from their new positions.

Something was wrong, she could feel the same familiar buzz that came before but it was still growing into a greater feeling, the power, the energy that coursed through her was mind numbing, too real to be imaginary. The world around her seemed to fade away into nothing; all that remained was the power.

Worrying signs began to crop up, for one the magic surrounding the weights was exchanged for a dark blood red; another one was a similar change in the aura surrounding Dash. There was no fiery anger like last time but the same pulsating red energy was present, any magic user could tell that something bad was about to happen.

Everything blurred for Dash, no thoughts remained except for the need to release energy, to flex her magical limb. The need to do so couldn’t be ignored, it caused a maddening itch that she so desperately wished would go away, it began tear away at her mind, removing all that was Rainbow Dash from thought. In her occupied state she barely notice the energy spread outward from her, brushing up against a lot more than just the weights.

Around the room training equipment of varying sizes and weights became ensnared by the same aura Dash was giving off. Twilight was stunned into silence; the gripped equipment was lifted from the ground to float around in the air. Soon even the massive table couldn’t resist the pull of the out of control magic; it floated into the air to join the others, instilling fear within some of the royal guards that stood nearby it. Twilight knew she had to act now or else somepony was going to get hurt.

“Dash you can stop now, you’ve done it okay, Dash? Dash!”  No response.

A voice called to her in the warm embrace of pure magic, a familiar voice that called her name, she couldn’t quite remember who it was.

“Dash you have to stop” In an instant her eyes snapped open revealing two, pupil less, blood red eyes with a thin red mist evaporating 
from their corners. 

“Please Dash you have to stop, I need you to stop” Dash, if it was even Dash, looked around the room, glancing between the many objects in her magical grip, smiling at her own power. She looked back to twilight with a devilish grin on her features and closed her eyes again.

The energy, aura, and glowing red eyes disappeared abruptly when she opened her eyes again. Twilight relaxed only to tense up again, suddenly remembering that the objects that had been suspended in the air were no longer being held up by Dash, or anything else. It all came crashing back down in a moment with the table falling to the ground in an ungraceful explosion of splinters, creating a crater in the mahogany floor.

“Oops, I might’ve overdone it, just a bit” While the damage to the hall was extensive she still managed to smile at the sheepish alicorn examining the havoc she had wrought upon the old wooden floor. 

“I think you might have tried a little too hard” Choosing to push the horrifying image of Dash’s red aura, the need to scold Dash for the damage and the question of what Celestia was going to say about the wrecked training hall, all to the back of her mind, she focussed on what had been achieved.

“So what was that about you not being cut out for magic? Because I think the ruined floor may wish to disagree with you on that one” One eye switched for second when she noticed the guard that had been asleep, still asleep, at least she hoped he was asleep, in her mind the only way he could’ve slept through all that racket would be if he were in a coma, or Spike, the only time he woke up was when he wanted to.

“I guess I’m even more awesome than I thought” A grin cut across her cheeks and the unimpressed stare from Twilight did nothing to diminish it.

“So what’s next?” While it had taken an hour and she was far from mastering the spell they had already gotten as far as she had intended for her to go, leaving her not many choices for their next activity, save for one.

“Well, I think that’s enough for today, how about some food?” Disappointment removed her cocky grin, though she could not argue with her growling stomach, especially when it was making more noise than the stomping boots of an Imperial.

“Sounds good” Two hay burgers along with hay fries made their way over to them from their spot against the wall; they separated so that one of each sat in front of the two. Without hesitation Dash dug in getting only half the food into her mouth with the over half around her lips. Twilight giggled at the sorry sight.

“What?” Shaking her head she took a bite out of her own sandwich, smearing some of its sauce on her own face, she wasn’t much of a refined eater herself though some of that came from her tutor, not many ponies knew about that side of the Princess, she barely knew about it herself.

The food disappeared quickly, their hunger making it hard to pace themselves. Once the mix of tomato sauce and grease was wiped off of her face she did a quick scan of the room before sighing.

“What’s wrong?” She could tell by lack of enthusiasm that something was missing.

“I just wish the others were here, cause err, you know, what’s the point of showing off how great I am if nopony’s around to see it?” It was strange for Twilight to see her like this, awkward and avoiding eye contact like a love struck teenager, she could understand where it came from, she felt the same.

“Are you trying to say the invincible Dash is missing her friends?”  Frantically, she tried to quickly deny the claim.

“What? No I just, I...”  Twilight didn’t allow her to finish.

“Because I do” In truth neither felt very happy about spending so much time away from their group, it was almost unnatural for them to be apart.	 

“Yeah, I guess I am, I just thought that, that this was a pretty big deal and I wanted them to see it” Too many times before had she been alone in a moment of glory, the same old haunting memory of her graduation hanging around her mind, refusing to fade away like she wanted.

“Hasn’t even been that long and I still want to see them again” Internally something was different; she didn’t feel quite herself since she left Ponyville.

“Maybe it’s because you know we won’t be seeing them again for a while” The happy atmosphere of the room became rather solemn, replacing any of the joy that had been felt before.

“If you wish to see them, there is a way of doing so without leaving the castle” How he could sneak up on them without making a sound was beyond her but nevertheless the smallest High guard stood by the pair causing Twilight to jump back in shock, Dash however didn’t seem fazed by the intrusion of space.

“How?” Her interest peeked she listened closely, something she did not do often, not when she didn’t have to at least.

“There is a spell known as possession, its effects matches your desires” Possession, Twilight knew the word but had never heard of a spell called it, which left one of two possibilities,  she simply hadn’t found it yet or it was something dangerous, the latter seemed more likely seeing as she actively avoided such spells.

“What exactly does this spell do?” A rhetorical question really, if it was like most spells then the name gave away its effect; nevertheless she proffered certainty rather than assumptions. 

“It allows the caster to control the body of another, you can speak through their lips and see through their eyes” How a spell of such power had slipped by her unnoticed was unknown, though it wouldn’t surprise her if it had been hidden as to keep it away from those who would use it for more devious purposes.

“Hey, I know It may seem like I’m a master magician already but I don’t think I can manage that one quite yet, it doesn’t sound as easy as levitation” Bravado aside she knew that magic could be dangerous for newbie’s, she didn’t want to smash up the training hall any more than she already had.

“Do not worry, it will be simple” Slightly sceptical of the idea, she nodded to the High guard. Twilight’s interest had been caught by the High guard, which meant the only way to satisfy it would be to remain silent and observe, that said allowing Dash to try a potentially dangerous spell was still making her worried.

“Ma’am, focus on nothing other than Thompson, remove yourself from you, focus on him” He pointed to Imperial stood waiting and without a better way to see her friends she complied, closing her eyes to concentrate. 

“I will assist you” Even with her eyes closed she could see something glow blue in front of her. At first she felt nothing but then, slowly she started to feel some alien force pulling at the back of her mind, trying to yank her out of her own head. It wasn’t a painful feeling but she couldn’t say it was pleasant. Everything seemed to darken; her limbs became numb and cold, losing some of their sensation and it became increasingly more difficult to think clearly. Finally a sudden shock propelled her consciousness forward.

“Dash, are you okay? Dash?”  Dash was still, breathing, but not moving. The High guard watched Thompson, and soon she did as well.  
The Imperial rubbed his head with a metal hand, apparently having gotten a banging headache all of a sudden.

“Ow, my head” The voice of the Imperial was bold, deep and slightly feminine to Twilight’s surprise. Twilight recognised the familiar voice under the deep tone.

“Oh mare, what happened?” Two dark blue glowing eyes shot open under the helmet. Strangely, Dash found herself to be a lot taller than she remembered, and heavier, and wearing armour.

“What the hay?” She inspected her new limbs, clenching and unclenching her hands in attempt to grasp the difference from hoof to hand, as well as how her fingers worked.

“Wow, this is, this is so...” Her armoured body shivered causing the floor to vibrate along with her; she hugged herself, her mind trying to make sense of the change in physiology. 

“So weird! ugh, I think I’m going to be sick” She went to move forward, completely unaware that walking on two legs wasn’t the same as walking on four, the result was expected. In a swift movement she tipped forwards, the signs of an imminent face plant obvious to all present. Due to her new size she was likely to fall on her own body, as well as the other two that stood by her.

“I believe we should move” The High guard grabbed the practically comatose alicorn and ran for the nearest place that wasn’t about to be flattened by the falling Dash, Twilight, in complete agreement, ran alongside the High guard narrowly avoiding getting pan-caked by a few tonnes of metal. Once safe he placed Dash’s original body back onto the ground. Dash, that is the Imperial Dash, smashed face first into the floor bending some of the blanks upwards, creating a Imperial shaped outline within the wood.

“Well that sucked” From her Imperial shaped dent in the floor she groaned, it had been mostly painless except for the damage sustained to her pride.

“Are you alright Dash?” Hesitantly she prodded the face down body.

“Yeah, couldn’t be better” It took some considerable concentration and effort to do but she managed to stand upright again, wobbling for a moment before wiping off some of the splinters, hopefully Thompson wouldn’t mind the scuffed armour.

“How do you feel?” Other than the extra weight she couldn’t complain, she felt energized and alert, as if she could skip sleep that night, possibly even night after that.

“Like I gained a hundred pounds” Unfortunately none of it made up for the weight issue, even with the huge wingspan she wasn’t sure if it were physically possible for the Imperial to fly, in fact she was pretty sure it wasn’t.

“Sixty-one point three tonnes exactly” He chimed in with the little piece of info, it didn’t reach her, she was more preoccupied by her new body than boring facts. Her head hurt from trying to come to terms with the loss of two legs and the addition of two arms, getting the fingers to work was proving difficult.

“Hey, this is pretty cool actually, feel like I could weight lift an Ursa” Underneath the metal exterior her muscles flexed, testing the extent of her own strength.

“Maybe you should just focus on visiting our friends first” It only just about registered, the power that she could feel, the strength, it was intoxicating.

“Huh? Oh right, yeah let’s do that then” Seeing herself sitting on the floor was starting to bother her anyway.

“It should be a less jarring shift this time” She nodded her large head; it was a lot harder to see out of the helmet than she had first thought, the slits were very thin. She closed her eyes again as the small High guard did whatever he had done the first time. In a split second she disappeared from the body and emerged in another, standing in Sugarcube corner by the looks of it. Twilight watched curiously, the Imperial had regained his lost stature since Dash left and had picked up its dropped weapon before returning to his normal position. Dash, the alicorn Dash, smiled, undoubtedly because of seeing one or more of their friends.

“Guess who marshmallow” Her lips spoke the words but there was no sign of life other than that, she remained perfectly still otherwise.

“Yeah it’s me, no Pinkie I’m not a ghost possessing, who? Taze, I’m not a ghost possessing Taze...No I’m not changing bodies 
either...Pinkie!” The small High guard looked to Twilight who only shrugged in response. 

“Yes I’m still at the castle...It’s a spell, no Twilight didn’t teach it me and I don’t think she would do that even if she did know how to do it Rarity” Of course the mention of her name got her attention, though by the sounds of it she probably didn’t want to know what they thought crazy old Twilight was doing to the town now, just because she was an alicorn didn’t mean she was going to mess the place up with a sneeze, that only happened once after all.

“I’m starting to get used to it, I still feel pretty sick” There was a nagging feeling in the back of her mind that she was being left out of the little talk and what made it worse was that she was in the same room as one of its participators.

“Everything’s fine, I was just learning my first spell, what? I aced it first try, must be naturally great at everything I guess” Even though she knew she couldn’t see it Twilight rolled her eyes, Dash’s boosting her own greatest once was cute, now it was starting to grate her. The High guard’s blue glow stopped and Dash’s real eyes shot open.

“Wow what the, Uh oh” Her cheeks bulged a little from the nausea, she dry heaved at the floor a few times, for a while minute she coughed trying to throw up the contents of her stomach but nothing came of it.

“What’s wrong?” Another dry heave came before she accepted it as a futile effort.

“I feel like my stomach’s trying climb up out of my throat, what the heck happened?” Her stomach tried once more to force its way outside but yet again it didn’t make it far enough to leave.

“If you spend too long possessing another the spell cuts its self off, preventing the caster’s mind from permanently merging with the target’s, it tends to cause nausea afterwards” A little stumble almost sent her to the ground for the third time that day.

“We could try again if you wish” Her uneasy stomach told her that trying again would result in a messy accident.

“I think I’d rather keep my lunch for a little longer” He nodded to her. She took a moment to rain in her pounding head and nauseous stomach, after a little while they calmed down enough for her speak without the threat of puking.

“So, what are we going to do now?”  In her haste she had failed to plan anything further than the simple lesson, there was a lot to do in Canterlot, for normal ponies that is. Celestia had warned her about leaving Dash alone with some of the other royals, apparently whenever they needed something signed they would latch on to the nearest Princess and they wouldn’t leave until either they got bored or the Princess did, she assumed that it would probably be the latter in Dash’s case.

“I don’t know” There wasn’t many things to do that came to mind, or rather many that would interest Dash.

“You know what, I actually kinda want to take a nap...Err, where’s my room? It wasn’t included in the tour” It was somewhat reassuring to see Dash being Dash again, rather than whatever she had been before, she made a mental note to check it out later, followed by another to remember how exactly she was staying calm about the whole situation.

“Follow me, I know where it is” During her last visit she had been to the guest room a number of times to meet it’s highly privileged occupant, Silver dust, the number one pony when it came to legal documentation, as well as the record holder of eating a hundred cupcakes in twenty minutes. Along with the High guard and Thompson they left the training hall behind as they moved back outside.



Normally the upper class ponies would stare quizzically at a Pegasus standing idly in the street, occasionally glancing around, but her golden armour protected her from their questioning glares and stares, one of the few benefits of the job. In truth it hadn’t been her choice, her father had wished it for her and when she got her cutie mark she could decline the offer no longer.

The reason behind her current idleness, apart from the fact that she was completely lost, was the rumours that had been going around. When what she had thought to be the way to her station was just another hallway splitting into other hallways, she had overheard a duo of unicorns speaking of a new princess with some strange body guards. So since then she had been searching for this princess, hoping to meet the new royal as well as possibly get directions back to her post form her bodyguards.

Having almost given up hope she had been thrilled to see the rainbow mane alicorn walking her way, and then she started to panic. Numerous problems with what she was doing popped into her mind, from being away from her post to a guard trying to start up a conversation with a princess, all of which had the same punishment as far as she was concerned. Darting from left to right she searched for somewhere, anywhere to hide, to remain out of sight of the obviously professional princess who would no doubt punish her severely for leaving her post. Sadly for her there was nowhere to hide herself and so she did the only thing she could think of, stand to attention in the middle of the street, praying that she wasn’t about to get fired, or worse.

“Wait, so I can’t rename anything I like?” Her armour felt very tight at that point even though it was two sizes too big.

“No, that would require a lot of paper work, and I don’t think ponies would appreciate you renaming Ponyville to Rainbow city” Each step they took brought them closer to her, making her panic grow into fear as she practically shook from the feeling with only the armour to hide it.

“Bet you’d want to call it something lame, like Bookville or something” What made her fear worse was the fact that it was not one but two princess’s coming her way, and a really big monster that could probably throw her all the way to Ponyville once she got fired.
“I’d never rename Ponyville, besides I would have to go to the bureaucratic offices then the Ponyville council before speaking with the Canterlot registry council and so many other departments first ” Somehow it was getting hotter, it had to have been, she was starting to sweat underneath her father’s gear.

“Wow, way to make being a princess sound boring” Her hyperventilating had attracted their attention, that as well as the fact she stood directly in their path.

“Are you okay?” Her stuttered reply didn’t make it to yes, or even a word, leaving her embarrassed and about to be fired.

“Err, alright then” They continued on past her without much of a fuss, their armoured body guard walking along with them, with all the commotion about him she had expected him to be bigger, it didn’t matter to her all that much, she was glad that she wasn’t going to be chewed out by royalty.

“Thompson what is delaying you brother” He called back behind him and not a second later a huge stomping monster came into her view. Whatever movement she had been able to regain left her at the sight of the thing walking towards her.

A  stone fell nearby her, causing her to yelp in surprise as it smashed to pieces against the ground. Giant stomping creature forgotten she craned her head upwards to locate source of the falling stones that were coming down around her, what she saw made her eyes go wide in terror. Above her one of the tower tops hung over the edge of its tower, threatening to fall at any moment. Fear gripped her very being, so much so she couldn’t move from where she stood; she could do nothing as the tower top ripped itself from the rest of the structure and began descend rapidly towards her.

“What’re you doing get out of the way!” She couldn’t, she was frozen stiff. Turning her head to the ground she closed her eyes, useless tears welling up within them, she braced for the bone crunching impact. For a while she stayed like that until eventually she realised that if it was going to, the falling debris would’ve hit her by now. One eye creaked open to peak around, followed by the other, in front of her stood two massive legs connect to a massive body. She craned her head upward again to look at her saviour. Thompson towered over her, supporting the broken tower piece with his upper body, he was staring down at her.

“I recommend you get out of the way sister” Without hesitation she darted over to join Dash and Twilight who had been watching the event unfold. Thompson strained to lower the tower top to the ground carefully, propping it up against the very tower it had come from.

“Whoa, that was close, you hurt?” Unable to talk to Dash from her near death experience she meekly shook her head in response. Thompson joined them once he had ensured that nothing else was going to come off of the tower.

“Nice save” He nodded and Dash turned her focus to the Pegasus guard in front of her.

“Maybe you should go inside or something err...what’s your name?” For a second she thought she misheard a princess ask for her name, hers, it stalled her for a minute until she managed to come back to the question.

“V-vigilant sky, P-princess” In an effort to regain at least some of her dignity she stood to attention, though it really did nothing but confuse Dash.

“Okay, sky, we kind of have to get going, important princess business of course” She nodded vigorously understanding that the princess had far more pressing issues than talking to her. After that she was away with Twilight and the other two following close behind her leaving sky on her own, thoroughly embarrassed about the whole ordeal. At least It did give her something nice to think about as she began again to wonder the hallways in her search.

Dash on the other hoof had some less than happy thoughts clouding her mind, no, they were less than thoughts, more a combination of urges. One wished for her to leave, to run away from the castle, away from the others but she didn’t know why or what for. Another begged her to return to the energy, loss herself within the magic and let it run free. And then, there was the quietest, most suppressed feeling, the loudest of them all, one that she could barely understand, it whispered something that burned her mind to hear, it didn’t scratch away or push its own desires forward but instead, it remained content to stay a simple reminder of its own existence.

“Are you even listening?” Twilight had been going over most of the basic fundamentals of levitation and had gotten up to thorn theory before realising that the only one listening seemed to be the High guard.

“Huh, oh right yeah sure” Truly her mind was distracted; it was not the fact that what she remembered from earlier bothered, it was what she couldn’t remember. What had happened to her she could not understand, she had been submerged in a great power and had no recollection of what had happened during that time. 

“You seem distracted Dash, more than usual” The one thing that had stuck with her was the embrace of power, something she’d only ever felt from a sonic rainbow, this was different though, it was more than just a quick buzz, it was a promise of power eternal and it felt wrong.

“You in there, hello, okay how do you just zone out like that?” For the first time in forever she was starting to think something might be wrong with her, other than the obvious. Immense amounts of power and the complications that arose from having that power wasn’t something she thought about, so she was slightly beside herself now that those very thoughts were buzzing around in her head, she hoped they would disappear once all the celebrations were over and she could get back to her usual ways back in Ponyville.

“Oh, what a joyful coincidence for our paths to cross here” Another new voice just about snapped her out of her thoughts in time to stop herself from accidently burying her face in the night princess’s chest.

“Princess Luna, it’s nice to see you” Twilight smiled happily, it had been a while since she had last seen the princess, the odd sleep cycle made it difficult to find the time to chat.

“Likewise to the both of you, where art thou going t...” Her expression changed spontaneously, becoming wide with surprise and a stuttered breath passed by her lips. The small High guard walked past the two younger alicorns, coming to a stop right in front of the dark blue princess. They stared at each intensely, neither uttered a single word in the year long minutes that passed by. The others looked on worried by the silent face off they were having until the High guard quickly bowed, followed by the Imperial who could only just about fit in the hallway.

“We heard of your return, but it was unconfirmed” Her reply was stopped before she could air it, a panting unicorn being the one to interrupt the conversation. He came running down the hallway obviously having been trying to catch up with the illusive alicorn, he skidded to a halt next to her.

“Princess, I, there you are, there is a matter which requires you attention” He had a pompous air to him and a voice that coated every word with snobbery even as he wheezed between words.

“Ah yes, rearrange it for another time” The shocked look she got from him told her his opinion on the decision; nevertheless he still felt he had to air his objections.

“Princess it’s the meeting with the Gryphon empire ambassadors, they will not appreciate having to wait” She turned around and began to walk away.

“Then pass on my apologies, I must speak with my sister, I bid farewell to the rest of you” The white unicorn gave a stern look to each of them before sprinting off after the princess, leaving Dash and Twilight to get back to what they had been doing.

“What was that all about?”  Thompson and the High stood up again, Thompson once again had to duck to avoid punching a hole in the ceiling.

“I don’t know, now which way is my room?” They continued on without another mention of the strange encounter, eventually reaching the guest bedroom. Along the way Thompson had been ordered off after being unable to fit through some of the smaller passageways, so now three stood in front of the door instead of four. The door that led to the room already said a number of things about what to expect of the room, its golden frame and magnificent decorations suggested that it wasn’t an ordinary guest room.

Dash pushed open the door to reveal an expertly decorated bedroom that was almost as big as the first floor of her house. A king-sized bed with a cover of the same size supported by posts on each corner of the bed sat against the west wall. Two cabinets were placed in the corner along with a dresser topped with an extravagant mirror. Purple and gold curtains hung over a doorway that led to a balcony which overlooked the castle’s courtyard. It would likely be the most expensive room she’d ever stayed in, she was grateful that she wasn’t paying for it as the price would probably be twice what her house was worth.

“Guess nopony heard of overdoing it when they built this” She inspected the room, quickly becoming bored of task, so she went airborne to land on the incredibly comfortable bed. She sat at the edge, looking down at Twilight who was glancing around nonchalantly; they did nothing for the next minute but stand around.

“What do we do now?” Twilight held a look of puzzlement as she looked to Dash sat precariously on the edge of her bed.

“What do you mean? I thought you were going to take nap” Dash sighed, she would’ve have liked to, she really would have, sadly she was no were near tired enough, her energy had returned from before and she felt like she could go for coupe hours of flying, which of course she couldn’t do because she had to stay in the castle.

“I was going to but I don’t feel like it now, you can’t just nap whenever you want to you know, it’s an art really” The journey from the hall to the bedroom had mostly been spent trying to think up conversation topics, so she was as lost as Dash on what to do next, she did however wonder why Dash’s usual humour had changed . An idea came to mind, an odd but possibly enjoyable idea, one that wouldn’t be hard to convince Dash to participate, after all, she loved being the hero.

“Hey Dash, have you ever tried role play?” Dash was divided, she could tell Twilight about the recent vacation to a convention of a certain franchise that may or may not have involved her role playing the final battle of Daring Do and the half alicorn terror, she reminded herself then that she would have to find her role play buddy at some point, she hadn’t had the chance to tell the unicorn how awesome they did.

“No, what’s that?” Of course Twilight knew that Dash would never be involved with such a thing as role play, her on the other hoof did have a great deal of experience in the subject, thinking about it reminded her of the battle she had taken a part in re-enacting from the Daring Do series not too long, she didn’t normally role play the bad pony but she didn’t mind it since she had had such a good hero to fight against, she never did get to speak with that Pegasus.

“It’s basically when you pretend to be somepony else, like if you pretended to be somepony from a book, and then you recreate a scene from that book playing that character, I was thinking if you aren’t too cool to try it I might have a scene in mind” Dash hid her excitement under a façade of disinterest.

“Well I guess if we haven’t got anything better to do, what scene did yah have in mind?” Her excitement shone through in her question, she only hoped Twilight hadn’t noticed.

“Do you remember Daring Do’s final confrontation with Emperion the sorcerer?” She smirked; the famous battle between the hero and her greatest foe would always be fresh in her mind.

“Okay but what about the apex?” How could they possibly re-enact one of the franchises famous events without the creature that made fans for the first time question if Daring Doo could lose.

“I kind of have an idea for that ” A gesture to the High guard got her smirk to widen into a excited smile that was bordering on creepy as they both turned to look at him unison.

“I err, I, well, all right, If it is what you desire Ma’am” They shared a smile while the High guard glanced between them, wary of what he was getting into, he was even a little lost, having fun was not part of the job description.



Normally, if she had any other guests she would have sent one of her many maids to no doubt be chewed out by said guest due to the room not being made out of solid gold, her current guests however had much lower standards and also happened to be friends, hence the reason why she had ducked out of the pointless squabble between the Griffon and Zebra ambassadors to see them, her sister was supposed to be taking care of that situation anyway.

It had been a short walk to the guest room door that she now stood in front of, her occasionally chats with the guards didn’t slow her down too much. She raised a hoof to knock, stopping before reaching the door’s surface as she caught wind of the commotion inside. Instead of doing what was probably the polite thing do she creaked the door open just enough to peek inside.

“Ah Daring Do, what excellent timing you have, my creation is rather hungry” Twilight stood in the middle of the room with what seemed to be the bedroom’s curtains draped over her back in a cloak like fashion.

“Emperion you crazy fool what have you done?” Dash wore a similarly make shift costume from a combination of the many official outfits left in room in case an special occasion.

“What have I done? I have only created the greatest predator the world will ever know, the apex! An invincible creature that will soon be picking you from his teeth” She contained a giggle of amusement at seeing the High guard hunched over with bed sheets tied to random pieces of the armour and a zebra ritual mask attached to the helmet.

“Let’s see how tough you really are then” Dash took flight towards the High guard, in turn he charged at her taking a swing once she was in range though his punch was didn’t come close to grazing her, Dash did a somersault sticking her front hoof out to uppercut the High guard and while it didn’t connect he still stumbled back, hurt. Dash crisscrossed the High guard, each time landing another of her pretend blows until the High guard collapsed onto the ground, apparently dead.

“Ha! Some invincible creature he was Emperion” Twilight smirked, bringing out Celestia’s own little grin, the little re-enactment was far more entertaining than sitting in council meetings all day.

“Oh he’s far from dead yet, you see, he just needed a little time to adapt to your attacks” Dash’s grin vanished, replaced by a look of shock as the High guard got back up onto his feet. She went in for a full on attack, tapping against the armour lightly before flinging herself backwards away from him.

“There’s no way you can win against him Daring Doo” She had to admit that the three could almost pass as actors. Dash looked around for a moment before her eyes rested on the headband wrapped around Twilight’s head.

“I may not be able to beat him head, but I can stop what’s keeping him alive!” She gained altitude quickly, preparing to dive at Twilight.

“What? No, no! Stop her you imbecile!” The High guard charged forward while Dash began her dive and Celestia took the opportunity to speak up.

“Having fun are we?” At that moment all three heads turned towards her in shock, sadly this didn’t stop their momentum. The High guard turned his head back to Dash, he ducked quickly to avoid actually hitting her but at the same time sealed his own fate, he stumbled and twirled around falling backwards against a cabinet, leaving a deep impression in the wood. Dash had a similar reaction, she reeled back sharply to kill her speed but it wasn’t enough and she collided with a surprised Twilight, sending them tumbling into the bed, coming to a stop in a heap of limbs and feathers.

“Princess we were just, err, I, oh dear...” Celestia chuckled.

“You seemed to be having a little re-enactment of, which one was it again? Daring Doo and the Apex predator I believe, looked like you were enjoying yourselves quite a bit, though I fear my royal decorator my not appreciate having his curtains used as a make shift cloak” They untangled themselves from each other, the High guard also dislodged himself from the piece of wooden furniture and stood back up.

“You, read Daring Do and the apex predator?” Celestia smiled at the young blue alicorn.

“Of course, I have to keep up with latest best sellers and A.K Yearling happens to be one of my favourite authors” Being stuck in a castle for most of her time left a need for a little adventure, even if it was only fictional, she had always wondered what Daring Do would be like if she were real.

“Hey, maybe she could join us...” Her mouth moved without her mind’s intervention and she immediately regretted the words, Twilight had a similar reaction. Celestia went quiet considering the offer; it had been so long since the playful days, so long since she hadn’t had one worry or another on her mind. She decided then that she would take her own advice to her students and relax for once, spend some time with ponies she called friends that wasn’t just a fifteen minute chat over tea.

“I believe fun every once in a while is a healthy thing, very well, I can play along” She couldn’t remember the last time she had felt the anxious unease of her own decisions, it would be the first time in a thousand years that anypony had seen this side of her and she was worried of their reaction though Twilight’s gleeful smile did ease her worries somewhat.

“So princess, who do you want to be?” Already she was enjoying herself, just being able to think about adventuring made the constant demand of others seem like so much less.

“It is your play Twilight, I think it would only be right for you to decide” As long as she wasn’t a Mary sue in a saucy scene, she wanted to be a little more open with them but not that open.

“Oh, how about Sereana from Daring Doo and the nightmare queen, we could do the first time they meet, what do you think princess?” All wore smiles save for the High guard though of course they could never tell what he was thinking, the lack of any emotion in his voice did make it a little hard to understand how he was feeling.

“Very well, shall we get started?” With a plan in mind they went about creating more make shift costumes with the vast materials that had been gifted to them, they made sure not to damage the dresses and other clothes that had been left in the room. Soon enough they had their scene with Celestia wearing a curtain wrapped around her mid section leading down her back and a head dress coloured with as many dark colours as possible. Dash wore the same make shift Daring Do costume except for a few improvements while Twilight now had on similar wear to Celestia’s, including a set of golden shoes, even the High guard had a different attire, garnishing a fluffy rimmed, red cape and a golden stripe of cotton across his chest.  They were almost ready to begin when the door slowly slid opened.

“Sister I have been looking for you, I wished to, to...sister? What are thou doing with the guest rooms drapes?” Luna was met with embarrassment from all three of the alicorns, each looking rather sheepish before they could recover and recompose themselves.

“Ah Luna, we were merely having a little fun, would you care to join us? We could use a guardian of the light in our little re-enactment” Luna had to shake her head to ensure she was not dreaming and in fact was looking at her sister playing with the room’s curtains.

“Sister, we will most certainly not partake in such a silly game, it is unbefitting for a princess to act as such” Celestia smirked, her sister still carried with her the ways of old.

“Oh don’t be so stuck up, besides, it would be good for you to loosen up a tad, it’ll be like playing with your dolls” The blush was barely noticeable under her dark blue fur but it was definitely there.

“I thought we agreed that would remain a secret!” Celestia grinned and glanced up at the ceiling, a mischievous hoof gracefully covering her growing smile.

“Oops, it just slipped out” Seeing the two princess’s so casual almost made Twilight spontaneously hug the High guard, the playful happy mood that hung in the air told her things could only get better, but she was happy enough with her idol being so open around her, she never could have expected it though she had always hoped.

“They are not dolls they are collectables and I’d appreciate it if you would kindly remember that” She flared her nostrils and looked away, annoyed by hers sister’s mockery.

“Oh there’s no need to be dramatic sister I was only playing with you, come on, it’ll be fun” She couldn’t lie, it did seem like fun, even the High guard seemed less serious wearing the kingly cape.

“I, suppose it couldn’t hurt?” As soon as she uttered the words she was dragged over to them and a costume was quickly arranged for her.

For a long time they went through many a fictional scene, each and every one of them losing themselves to characters they portrayed. There, in that extravagant guest room, their differences were forgotten; power held no importance and race had no influence as they continued on into the night. The room was a world of its own were they could dismiss any sense of responsibility, each of them saw a different side to each other that night.

They were blissfully unaware of the watcher on a nearby rooftop, glaring at them in disgust, he remained hidden; knowing that tomorrow would be the day that would set everything in motion. That tomorrow, when the heavens cried and the beast awoke they would make their grand return. Tomorrow was the day.