Consciousness slowly returned to Sanguine. Dimly she felt the world before she dared open her eyes. The minor bubbling fizz off to her right - that was the Everfree Forest. An expanse of nothing to her left - the plains, where small animals roamed but nothing big enough to cause or mean trouble was allowed. She knew from geography that rail tracks ran through it, the "spine of civilization", but given the layout of Equestria's rail network she personally felt that "rib bone" would be more accurate.
And then there was one solid ping right in front of her, though faded from before.
Finally opening her eyes, she saw Rainbow Dash sitting on the edge of the cloud, looking bored, forelegs hanging over the side and swinging freely.
Mischief suggested itself. Sanguine silently stood up and snuck-
"Can we just say you yelled at me and move on?" Rainbow Dash interrupted.
Sanguine sat down.
"Clouds can vibrate," Rainbow Dash continued, "but you need your whole body pressed to 'em like this to pick it up."
The younger pegasus nodded to herself, before realizing she had not actually voiced a question.
"And no I'm not going to apologize to the ursas, but only because it wouldn't do any good." Rainbow Dash idly wondered how long that hole in the tree wall would take to repair itself. The Everfree Forest may not have been actively managed by ponykind, but she found it hard to believe that the forest did not have magic of its own for this kind of situation. "They don't speak our language."
Sanguine continued to listen.
"I've been kicking myself since Twilight left. I figured that's what you'd want to ask about," Rainbow Dash explained.
Sanguine walked up next to Rainbow Dash.
"And now...I don't know what to do." Rainbow Dash shrugged. "I wanted to teach you courage, but you've got that. I wanted to teach you how to be brave, but it looks like the others already did that. I wanted to make you awesome, but you already are."
The red pegasus lay down and copied the cyan pegasus's pose, looking somewhat like a smaller inverted-color copy, aside from the rainbow mane on the one and the yellowish shirt on the other.
"I get it, I get it." Rainbow Dash waved a hoof in an irritated small circle. "I'm the dumb jock. I'm the only one who finds violence even a bit fun. What do I know about teaching anypony anything?"
Sanguine extended a wing around her companion of the moment.
"Thanks." Rainbow Dash sighed. "I guess...mind if I tell you a story?"
No objection came.
"So, this is back when I was up in the griffon lands. I was wandering a bit, not sure of myself. I...haven't told many ponies, but Fluttershy and I had had a fight so I went to try to find my own path. It's the longest I've spent away from my friend and I didn't realize until afterward that that was what really made me miserable. It felt like years, but it was actually only a few months.
"I was angry. I was angry a lot. I don't even remember what we fought about now, but whatever it was I remember going over the argument in my head, over and over again. I tried a lot of things to stop thinking about it. At one point I decided to try eating meat - it had something to do with the argument. So there I was, looking at a bit of chicken, trying not to chicken out.
"It actually didn't taste that bad. But when it hit my stomach...they tell you ponies can't digest meat. They're wrong - least, I think it digested, I remember checking my stool afterward and I didn't recognize anything like what I'd put in my mouth. Doesn't mean it's comfortable if you're not used to it, and I don't know how nutritious it was.
"Anyway, some of the griffons had a betting pool on whether I'd be able to keep it down. One of the tougher ones had bet against, so he decided to 'help' me throw it up. Between the meat and my mood, I wasn't at my best - he managed to get in a few good hits to my belly.
"Now, I could've thrown up. Nearly did, before he started pounding on me. But the moment he started, I knew I wasn't going to. Nuh-uh. Just because someone else wanted to force how I lived. Well...also 'cause meat was cheaper than hay where I was and wandering doesn't give you much of a food budget, but that's beside the point.
"So I buckled down. Braced myself for the next hit - didn't let it faze me. Gulped back down what he forced up the pipe. Finally I managed to get in his face and spit." Rainbow Dash blushed. "It's...one thing when it's saliva. It's another when you've got enough of your own blood in your mouth to spit in his eye. He'd hit my face a couple times, hard enough to open a cut. That's when the others pulled him off me. They said the bet was off if I died before I had a chance to digest.
"Point is, I kept it down, just to spite someone else who wanted to control me. And, well, you can do it too. When you get angry like that, it's always AT somepony or something else, right? So don't let them decide that you need to kill them."
Sanguine nodded. "I'll try. So...err, what does chicken taste like?"
Rainbow Dash shrugged. "Like chicken. I don't think I can put it in terms of any food around here."
"Maybe I'll try it some day."
"If you do, I can recommend one diner to avoid." Rainbow Dash smiled at her own joke. "Or if you do go there, don't bet on yourself even if you really do need the money."
"I'll keep that in mind." Sanguine began looking around. "Where's Twilight?"
"Right here," came from behind them.
Both pegasi jumped a bit at Twilight's voice. In unison, they scrambled to their feet and turned around to see a spooked Twilight.
Rainbow Dash cocked her head. "What's with the wide eyes? How much of that story did you overhear?"
"It's not that. Celestia wrote back. Sanguine, I...think you need to see this for yourself." Twilight jumped off the cloud and winged back to town, looking back to make sure Sanguine and only Sanguine followed her.