Twilight Sparkle sat in the library frowning down at a small pile of ash. “Dammit!” She screamed angrily at yet another failed attempt at the spell.
“Twilight, are you ok?” Spike asked as he came running in from the kitchen. Twilight pointed her hoof at the ash, still frowning at it.
“It happened again! I just don’t understand why I can’t get this!” Twilight yelled. Her horn lit up as she levitated an old tome in front of them. “I’ve read this passage a hundred times and practiced even more yet I still can’t get this spell to work!”
“Maybe something’s wrong with the spell”, Spike offered, “what’s it supposed to do anyway?”
“There’s nothing wrong with the spell, I’ve seen others doing it, I just can’t seem to get it right. Basically the spell is a form of fragmentation; using it correctly I should be able to break down any object into very specific parts.” Twilight explained. “For example, I’m trying to separate an apple into four parts, the stem, the skin, the solid inside and the juice.”
“Sounds like you’re just tearing it apart,” Spike said, with a small chuckle.
“It’s a little more complicated than that, Spike,” Twilight groaned, “and so far all I’ve done is completely incinerate the apples, I can’t seem to get the frequency of my magic right.”
Spike stepped over to Twilight’s side and rested his claw on her shoulder, “don’t worry Twilight you’ll get this, you can do anything you set your mind to.”
Twilight smiled down at her loving assistant and gave him a small hug, “thanks, Spike, I needed that. How about I give this one more try and then we’ll go down to Sugercube Corner for a snack break.”
“Sounds good to me” Spike said hugging back. “I do have one question though, why exactly do you need to be able to do this spell?”
“Oh it’s just for fun” Twilight giggled, turning back to her testing area and levitating a new apple into position.
“Right, fun, of course” Spike mumbled, rolling his eyes.
“Ok, here we go” Twilight said energetically as she lit her horn up once again.
In the air, just outside the library, Rainbow Dash was practicing her maneuverability. “Ok, gotta take these turns exactly right” she told herself as she shot through the air. She drew near her destination, “just another second”, she arrived at a group of clouds clustered close together and weaved through them at an incredible speed, avoiding even the smallest of contact with cloud. “Yes yes, almost got it” she narrowed her eyes and focused on the increasingly small gaps between the cloud. She was almost at the end, just a few more clouds.
“Hi Rainbow Dash” Pinkie screamed from her newest flying contraption that came out of a nearby cloud. Rainbow Dash, surprised by this, swerved to the side and went through the cloud. She lost her bearings and began to spiral out of control towards the building beneath them, “dammit Pinkie!” She yelled up to the giggling mare.
This is gonna hurt, she thought just as she was about to crash through the window.
Twilight crouched down, readying herself for one final test. She shot a rainbow coloured beam out at her target, however before it could make contact something came crashing through the window and into the beams path. From the sounds of the screams, it was Twilight’s friend Rainbow Dash.
“Oh Celestia, what the hay is happening!” Rainbow Dash screams barely audible over the sound of something being torn into several pieces. Smoke came from the end the end of the beam, covering the room in a thick fog.
Twilight quickly stopped the spell and called out into the fog, “Rainbow Dash! Are you ok?”
Twilight could hear what sounded like several ponies quickly moving throughout the fog. Each set of hoof steps sounded different, some were slow and soft, others were rough and heavy, one set sounded almost like pinkie pie’s bouncing. The library’s front door burst open, Twilight could just barely make out several pony shaped silhouettes leaving.
“Spike, are you ok?” Twilight called out.
“Yeah I think so, where’s Rainbow Dash?”
“I don’t know, but I saw a few ponies leaving.”
“A few?”
“Yes it’s strange… hold on a moment.” Spike could make out a small lavender glow amongst the fog, and suddenly it all started to clear up around him.
“Another one of your fun spells?” Spike asked sarcastically.
“Not now, Spike, Dash could be hurt,” Twilight barked at him.
The fog cleared and with Twilight now able to see around the room, she spotted Dash curled up on the ground next to the apple.
“Rainbow Dash, are you ok?” Twilight asked as she galloped to her friend’s side.
“Physically… I guess,” She moaned.
“What do you mean?” Spike asked, joining Twilight by Rainbow’s side.
“Oh you know,” she sighed “just thinking about how I’ll never achieve any of my dreams and I’ll probably just die some lonely old mare, wishing she was a wonderbolt while remembering all she did was clear clouds… just the usual stuff.”
“Rainbow Dash, this doesn’t sound like you at all, what happened to you?” Twilight asked, concerned she may have really done something terrible to Rainbow.
Rainbow Dash uncurled from her position and sat up, reveling her previously unseen mane and tail, which were no longer rainbow coloured, only cyan. Rainbow was slouched over and wore a sad look, giving off none of her usually bravado.
“Rainbow Dash! Your hair!” Twilight screamed, pointing a hoof at Rainbow’s head.
“I know it’s hideous,” Rainbow sniffled, tears starting to form in her eyes, “not even my hair can do anything right!” She cried, covering her face with one foreleg and mane with the other.
“No no no, I didn’t mean it like that,” Twilight said as she wrapped Rainbow Dash in a hug, resting Rainbow’s head on her shoulder.
“What happened to Dash, Twilight?” Spike asked from behind Rainbow.
“I don’t know, the spell must have done something awful.”
Spike scratch his chin in thought, “you said you saw a few ponies leaving right?”
“Well only silhouettes, but yes, they went through the door in a hurry,” Twilight gestured over to the library’s front door which was now almost off its hinges.
“Maybe the spell split Dash into multiple ponies” Spike offered “… would explain the tearing sound.”
“I don’t think it would do that… at least it shouldn’t,” Twilight looked down at the sobbing pony in her hooves then back up to Spike, “but your hypothesis does have some merit. Ok, I’ll grab the girls and we’ll take a quick look around town for any other Rainbow Dash’s.”
“Wait… what I’m supposed to do?” Spike asked.
“I need you to look through the book I was using and see if there’s a reversal spell, and take care of… uh… Sad Dash.”
“Sad Dash?” Spike asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Just for easy reference, if needed,” Twilight said.
“I’ve never seen Dash this upset about anything, so why’s this Dash crying over everything?” Spike asked.
“Well assuming you’re right, this Dash can’t feel anything but sadness,” Twilight explained. “When normal ponies are sad they can be cheered up, since Sad Dash is nothing but sadness, she must be some kind of extreme form of that particular part of Rainbow… I’d hate to see what the others will be like…”
“Just talk about like I’m not even here… like everyone else” Sad Dash sobbed.
“Um Spike… would you mind?” Twilight asked, gesturing at the pony wrapped around her neck.
Spike stretched his claws out wide, “ok, come here… Sad Dash,” he said before being tackled to the ground by the sobbing mare.
“Ok looks like you’ve got everything handled here, see you later” Twilight quickly galloped out the door.
“Twilight… help” Spike squeaked as he was being crushed by Sad Dash.
“Did I ever tell you about the time I didn’t suck? No? That’s ‘cause it never happened” She sobbed.
“Oh Celestia help me,” Spike sighed.
Twilight stepped out of the library and quickly scanned the area around her. “None here” Twilight said to herself, “guess I’ll go grab the others and-”
“Hi Twilight!” Pinkie yelled, jumping out from nowhere.
“Dammit Pinkie, stop doing that.”
“Sorry Twilight, I was just floating around on my flying bike then saw Rainbow flying around and I said ‘Pinkie you go surprise your friend’, so then I did and Rainbow was all like, ‘dammit Pinkie!’ Then she I fell I said ‘Pinkie you’ve really done it this time, go apologize to the girls. That’s when I saw you and I said ‘Hi Twilight!’ and you said-”
“Pinkie! I know what happened then, I was there” Twilight grumbled.
“Oh right” Pinkie giggled, “so is Rainbow Dash ok? I would feel awful if she was hurt.”
“She’s fine Pinkie, well… relatively speaking,” Twilight said, causing Pinkie to tilt her head in confusion. “I’ll explain on the way, right now we need to get the other girls, and keep your eyes out for Rainbow Dash.”
“Wait…” Pinkie began, even more confused than before, “but I thought Rainbow was-”
“Like I said I’ll explain on the way, come on,” Twilight began trotting off in the other direction, towards the center of town.
“… and now we need to get our friends and track down all the other Dash’s,” Twilight explained. “Hopefully Spike will be able to find the reversal spell.”
“I’m sure he will,” Pinkie affirmed, “it’s so sad to hear about a pony who can’t be happy at all, you sure there’s nothing I could do for Sad Dash?”
“the best thing we can do for any of the Dash’s is restore them to their original form,” Twilight replied.
“So where should we start?” Pinkie asked, bouncing at Twilight’s side, eager to help out her friend.
“I think the best place to try first would be around the market stalls,” Twilight answered. “Applejack, Rarity and Fluttershy might be there buying and selling whatnot, and I’m sure at least one part of Rainbow Dash would be hanging around there, so it seems to be a good place to start… hopefully if there is a Dash there, it’s not a bad one.”
“A bad one?” Pinkie asked, a little perplexed, “I didn’t think any part of Dashie was particularly bad.”
“Like I said before, these Dash’s aren’t going to be just like our friend, they’re each the extreme form of that particular emotion because they’ve been separated from all other emotions,” Twilight explained, “so for example, if one of Rainbow’s negative attributes is out there, no matter how small it may have seemed in Rainbow Dash, it will be very sinister alone.”
“So does this mean we could see some kind of… super ego Dash?” Pinkie asked.
“Actually Pinkie an ego and superego are two different things, you see-”
“Twilight,” Pinkie cut Twilight off, “do we really have time for this?”
“Right, later. For now, let’s go save our friend.”
The ponies shared a quick nod and sped off towards the market district. They kept their eyes sharp for any of the ponies they needed to find, weaving through various ponies scattered through the street, making their way there.
I’m sure it’ll be fine, Twilight told herself, I mean, how much trouble could a hoof full of Dash’s get up to anyway…… oh dear Celestia, we’re doomed.