Rainbow Dash stared at nothing and at everything at the same time.
"Gone? Princess, I'm not sure what you . . .OH! This is a prank, right? To get me to loosen up? Not working, princess," l
laughed Rainbow. She continued laughing, deliberately ignoring the serious look from Twilight and the pitying look from Celestia.
"I'm so sorry, my little pony, but your home universe is gone," Celestia said in a quiet but serious tone.
"G-gone? What do you mean GONE?!" her voice raising in pitch and volume as she screamed that last syllable out, like it pained her to say it.
"I'm so sorry, Rainbow, I meant no—" Celestia attempted to say
"SHUT UP!"
Celestia fell silent at the outburst
"They. . .they. . .they can't be dead. . .they just can't. . . Fluttershy, Rarity, Scoots, Applejack. . . Pinkie. . ." Rainbow uttered. She then fell silent, everypony allowing her some peace. For a while, the only sound audible was the soft pitter-patter of tears falling.
"How?"
"What?" Twilight asked
"How are they gone?"
"It’s—"
"I shall handle this, Twilight," Celestia answered in a voice full of steel. Twilight immediately fell silent at the command of their immortal monarch.
"It’s called the Red Queen. We have precious little information on this subject, so forgive me if it doesn't answer many questions. It has many names in many tongues, but their meaning is constant: The Destroyer," Celestia continued in a foreboding voice. An ethereal chill came into the room, causing the occupants to shiver.
"Its form is a vast blood red nebula of stars that randomly drifts through the never-ending canvas of reality and all that is in-between. Before you ask, no, it is not Nightmare Moon, nor did my sister create it," Celestia spoke in an uncharacteristically sharp and fierce voice.
"It randomly appears in a chosen universe, seemingly driven by its hunger and a 'need to consume.' It usually takes a very long time to materialize, thus more often than not the Order of Destiny is able to evacuate the occupants of that universe. To this day, we still do not know how it feeds on universes, or why. All we know is that when it arrives, in the span of five minutes, all matter detectable, from dragons to parasprites, from mountains to sand, is erased from reality."
The room was awfully quiet after the revelation. It did not matter how many times Twilight heard it, it still chilled her to listen. How could a collection of stars simply eat an entire universe? It was almost blasphemous, but in her heart, she felt that the Red Queen was . . . the Anti-Goddess, created by the forces of balance.
Rainbow Dash sat on the cold floor, slowly digesting the information.
"It can't be real. It can't be. I'm sure that everypony is still alive, that the egghead finally noticed me and Pinkie's disappearances and is on her way to stop her," Rainbow frantically thought. "They can't be . . .dead, Twilight was working on that new illusion spell, Rarity was making that dumb new fashion line, Flutters was going with me to Cloudsdale for the flight school reunion, Applejack was training for the Running of the Leaves and Pinkie was. . .was. . . "
Rainbow just didn't know what to do. This wasn't a problem that she could solve with speed. If only that Queen-thingie hadn't appeared, she would be…what? Getting her wings torn out? Donating organs to charity without painkillers? Unable to bear with the tension, Rainbow Dash began to sob.
"Rainbow Dash."
At that moment, she didn't care who said it, just that she wanted to be-
"Rainbow Dash."
"What?"
"Look at me."
She looked up and saw Twilight staring at her, grief on her face, but determination in her eyes.
"I know what its like, to have all that you owned, all that you've ever known get tossed away like a spoiled apple,” Twilight said. “I've seen it myself. The Red Queen."
Rainbow tensed at the name, but relaxed soon after.
"I've seen it appear. At first it was just an anomalous red dot, hanging in the sky. Then some suited ponies came and called for everypony to come with them. Berry Punch laughed at them, calling them crazy for missing the cider line. Lyra was on her bench, sitting with Bon Bon. Cadence and I were the only ponies to even look at them properly. There was a high-pitched whine resounding from the overhead, and then IT came. It blotted out the entire sky, turning it a crimson red. My brother, Shining Armor immediately—”
"Whoa, hold up there, egghead! You mentioned before you have a brother, and you never told us?!" Dash exclaimed in shock.
"Oh, right, I forgot to mention that. Erm, how to do this?" Twilight pondered. "There was a wedding around four years ago, in which the bestest, best foalsitter in the world and niece of Princess Celestia, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, married my brother Shining Armor, who is also a captain of the Royal Guard, and we fought changelings, black monsters from the outskirts of Equestria who feed on ones love for another and we fought and we were captured and we beat the changeling queen with the power of love and Princess Luna appeared and—"
"Twilight. Breathe," Celestia deadpanned.
"Huh? Oh right, silly me," Twilight chuckled. Sucking in a huge breath, Twilight's face turned from dark blue back to its customary purple sheen.
Rainbow Dash gave her a look of utter confusion.
"Anyway, if it's okay with you, would you want to see it for yourself?"
Rainbow Dash thought for a moment before replying in a voice that held some of her trademark cockiness:
"Why not?"
Twilight then moved towards Rainbow and touched her horn to Rainbow's head. There was a flash of light, and then she saw no more.
. . .
"Attention all ponies, do not panic, we are here to help! Keep calm and—"
"Get outta the line if you aren't buying, the cider's already half gone!!!"
"Ma'am, it is imperative that you listen to us now, the Red Queen is almost here and—"
"Yea, yea, whatever, some crazy pony in red is here, hooray, now move! I still haven't tasted Sweet Apple Acres cider yet!"
The offending pony, who had a grape and strawberry for a cutie mark, barged through the two officiously suited ponies and joined the growing line of other ponies.
"It’s no use Agent K, nopony is noticing us, and the Red Queen is almost through the dimensional rift. Think we should break out the memory modifiers?" said the smaller pony clad in a black suit complete with sunglasses.
The agent beside him, unlike his partner, wore an immaculate white suit and a black bow tie as well as a pair of sunglasses.
"No, Agent J, we're still not allowed to modify memories. It’s too much work for the OoD. Besides, I'm certain that the paperwork department is still behind by three months due to that stunt you pulled in Las Pegasus in that other universe," Agent K said with a sigh.
"It was an accident! How was I supposed to know that that universe's Celestia was emotionally unstable? Look at Lady Shard! She laughs at the recruits for running away from dragons, and then sends them to the VR room to fight Quarry Eels BLINDFOLDED! BLINDFOLDED! I can't even SEE blindfolded!" J said with panic in his voice.
K was a master of appearing stoic and looking impassive, but in his mind, the statement "Don't kill the rookie" repeated several times, each time sounding softer and softer.
"Hey look K, I think that that pony wants to talk to us! Let’s go tell her about the danger and then maybe she can tell the others!" Agent J said before bouncing off towards a familiar-looking purple unicorn and a pink winged unicorn.
Agent K asked whatever force that controlled him why he was forced to do this before joining his 'eccentric' partner.
"Greetings ma'am, we are from the Order of Destiny. It is imperative that you listen to us," he said in an authoritative voice.
"Well, if you insist, what seems to be the problem?" inquired the local prodigy.
"Oh, fine, but hurry up! I'm supposed to meet Shining Armor in 20 minutes!" urged the niece of the sun goddess.
"Thank you, honestly, you two are the first two that I have actually been able to talk to. The Red Queen has arrived in your dimension and we need to evacuate everypony right now!" K said with urgency in his voice.
"What is the Red Queen and why—”
An alarm blared from J and K's suits, cutting off Twilight in an instant. Both J and K paled at the same time, and were about to scream for evacuation protocols, before the sky turned blood-red. Ponies everywhere balked and cried out in shock at the maddening sight, visible to all from Trottingham to Zanzebra. Terror soon spread throughout the little town and chaos ensued.
The ever-calm Agent K spoke into his transmitter, speaking a phrase that contained both fear and urgency.
"HQ, HQ, this is Receiver, do you read me? We've got a Code Black, I repeat, Code Black, require the mass transporter now, at dimensional coordinates Gamma Gamma 29-123, I repeat GG 29-123. Require emergency room to be cleared as well."
With practiced ease, he then opened a portal to a space between dimensions where all the inhabitants of the world would be safe while the OoD prepared the teleporters. All over Equestria, other retrieval teams were herding ponies into portals to escape the imminent destruction.
Agent J, in his exceedingly loud voice, screamed
"EVERYPONY! PLEASE, COME WITH US NOW IF YOU WANT TO LIVE!"
Unfortunately, the town was in chaos, such chaos unseen since Discord first came to Ponyville. Ponies screamed, wailed for their ancestors to pity them, prayed to Princess Celestia and gave up, but even in the face of imminent destruction the virtues of friendship were still displayed here and there.
Applejack was at the Apple farm, helping Granny Smith into a wagon filled with apples to take her to the portal faster, while Big Macintosh galloped over to the Carrot farm to oversee their evacuation.
Fluttershy was trying to get the patients of the hospital ready for transport, along with Nurse Redheart.
Pinkie Pie was seen in several places at once, at Sugar Cube Corner, taking food for everypony, at the Ponyville Elementary cheering up the foals gathered there, and also at several houses, helping ponies carry miscellaneous items.
Rarity was nowhere to be found, but she would later come with enough fabric to make clothes and blankets for everypony who left with nothing at all.
Twilight Sparkle and Cadence rushed to patrol the area around the Town Hall, Twilight organizing everypony's belongings. Cadence was using her magic to calm those assembled.
Rainbow Dash was seen sporadically, at Cloudsdale warning the pegasi, and also around Ponyville, helping with the evacuation process.
"They're always too slow," muttered Agent K. "The Queen's starting to phase into the dimension and we're only 30% done! I wish the rainbow-maned one would push everypony inside; that would really help," he thought.
There was a sudden flash of light, and a white unicorn clad in purple armor with a starburst badge on his chest teleported in. Twilight instantly ran over from trying to help prevent Berry Punch from getting intoxicated and dashed to her brother's side.
"BBBFF! Did you hear about the warning, was there enough time to—" Twilight's rant was cut off from continuing by Shining Armor's brisk tone.
"Twiley, relax! There was a team at Canterlot. They came about a few minutes ago and everypony is almost evacuated, so I came to help you here!" he replied.
Cadence, noticing the absence of Twilight, looked around for the lavender unicorn and spotted her husband. She cantered over while explaining the situation.
"Oh, Dear, you’re here! Canterlot must be evacuated, I'm sure the Captain of the Royal Guard wouldn't leave his post! We are nearly evacuated here, we just have the Apple family and they’re coming soon and the Cakes who have been passing out food to everypony else. According to the agent, we have a total of 1 minute and 25 seconds more before—"
Shining Armor pressing his lips against her, instantly blocked anything she was about to say. As newly-weds for a scant 5 months, their passion still burned as bright as their first date, the fire of their love augmented by Cadence's inherent trait for love. Breaking off the passionate kiss, Shining Armor whispered into Cadence's ear:
"I love you Cade, and you are the best wife I could ever hope for. I’m so glad I had the luck to marry you."
The fur around Cadence's cheeks flared a bright red as blood rushed to her cheeks. Not wanting to lose to Shining Armor,
she then whispered back into her husband's ear in a sultry voice:
"Wait till we're alone, then I can show you exactly how much I love you."
Cadence laughed daintily and trotted back to where Pinkie Pie and a cherry seller were still arguing over how many bits a cherry should be sold to the OoD, flank swaying suggestively in Shining Armor's direction.
Twilight edged over to her sibling and said: "Big brother, close your mouth, your jaw's almost hitting the floor!"
Shining Armor shook his head out of the gutter, blushed, attempted to look stern at Twilight and failed miserably as a smile crept up despite his best efforts to stop it. His face then contorted into a mask of seriousness and he sought out the agent.
"Hello Mr. Agent, I am Shining Armor, Captain of the Royal Guard. I am pleased to report that Canterlot is fully evacuated."
Agent K looked up from his transmitter, gave a rare smile and said:
"Well, nice to see somepony doing a great job around here. Name's Agent K, and thank you for helping us. We're doing quite well; the only place left to evacuate is Fillydelphia, and I think we're going to be long gone once 'it' comes! " Agent K said gratefully.
"Oh, it was no problem, I assure you, and is there anything I can—"
The sky turned an even darker shade of red, not unlike the colour of streaming blood, and a sound like a million pieces of paper being ripped came from the direction of the sky. All activity paused, and ponies stared at the arrival of a force that could be considered a transcendental being. A rift appeared above, impossibly wide and darker than the darkness of death, tearing through the red sky and revealing a galaxy of stars. They were impossibly huge and possessed a swirling red core too bright to look at. The Red Queen was descending upon Equestria.
Acting upon instinct, Twilight added her power to Shining Armor and the two created the most powerful shield ever made, even more powerful than Princess Celestia's shield spell! The beam from which it originated was not purple or light pink, like Twilight's or Shining Armor's, but rather a white light. It was so dense that the magic that it contained leached away colour, but it did not blind those watching. Instead it glowed softly, pleasing to the eye. The beam shot far into the stratosphere and from there it blossomed into a shield. Despite its immense size, though, it was still small in comparison to the Red Queen. Slowly, seeing the valiant efforts of the two unicorns, the remaining unicorns who had yet to be evacuated added their own power and shield spells to the pair's power, steadily increasing the area the shield covered and the thickness of the barrier.
The power received soon spiked as the two princesses added their own vast powers, creating a shield of divine energy. The shield was now bolstered with the energy of several thousands of unicorns and the life forces of a few draconic magicians. The barrier, now several kilohoofs thick, encompassed half of the entire planet. The magic braced against whatever attack the Red Queen would send out.
Agent J and K were awed at the magical capacity of the two now shining unicorns in front of them.
"If we had their magic for that skirmish 3 weeks ago, we wouldn't have had nearly as many casualties and we could have employed 'shock and awe' tactics to intimidate the griffons. . ." Agent K sighed. "It still isn't close to being able to defend against 10% of the Red Queen's power, though, if the eggheads at HQ are right.
"Agent J? Get the dimensional signatures of the unicorns currently helping and send them the HQ. I'll scramble a mass transportation to the same shelter everypony else is going to. I'll pass on the message to the rest of the teams. Go now, we only have around 30 seconds," Agent K ordered.
"If we only have around 30 seconds, then shouldn't we bring them back now?" Agent J questioned.
"We should let them try their shield spell. Who knows? Maybe the Red Queen will have trouble breaking through and might expend more power, giving us more time in the future."
"Oh, I never thought of that Agent K. How do you think of all of these things?" Agent J asked in wonder.
"Because I'm the leader and you're the recruit," Agent K said in his mind. "Because, I've been around for years, while it's only your first month of active duty. It comes with experience kiddo," Agent K said with a smirk.
"Heheh, gotcha Agent K!" With a final smile at his leader and friend, Agent J set out to inputting the unique signature of each unicorn into his transmitter, while Agent K sent HQ his message.
While they worked, the Ponyville clock counted down to the next, and last, hour it would ever strike.
6...
5...
4...
3...
2...
1...
BONG! BONG! BONG!
A series of 'bongs' resonated from the clock, and at the same time, the image of the Red Queen burst into clarity as it fully materialized. It then glowed fractionally brighter. The glow quickly faded, though, and those who saw it would think that it was their imagination. They braced again for whatever would come next. One moment, they were refocusing their energies; in the next moment, the shield, the embodiment of hope for all of Equestria, simply fell. The ethereal barrier was in an instant fractured into an uncountable number of shards, the magical energy dissipating into the void. An invisible force also impacted the Everfree Forest head on, and all of a sudden the great forest vanished. In its place, a gaping hole yawned open, the chasm seemingly infinite.
As the shield fell, all of the remaining unicorns forcefully broke off the connection and clutched their throbbing horns; those whom were giving more power were affected more drastically. The backlash travelled throughout each and every pony, the feedback growing stronger and stronger until it reached its creators. The feedback was so great that Twilight and Shining Armor were knocked flying. The former was suffering from massive magical burnout while the latter was knocked unconscious, his horn losing its luster and turning dull.
Meanwhile, Agent K barked a phrase into his transmitter, and the remaining ponies, griffons, dragons and even some changelings were transported far, far away from the doomed land. The last thing Twilight ever saw in her home dimension was a wormhole appearing in Town Hall, originating from the Red Queen's core, and the whole fabric of reality swirling into the abyss, never to be seen again, only alive in memories and nightmares.
. . .
Rainbow Dash gasped, shocked back into reality, while Twilight smiled sadly. "So, now you see your enemy." Twilight began.
"Now you have witnessed firsthoof what the Red Queen does to home-worlds and home universes. So we have to ask you one last time, Rainbow Dash. Will you join us and become an Agent of Destiny?"
This time, the reply was not shaky, nor uncertain, but instead spoken with steel.
"Yeah, let's do this!"
Princess Celestia, having seen that although her subject was in no way completely healed but had learned how to manage, smiled. Her smile was full of emotion and love for her student, who was progressing independent of the teacher. Sensing that she was no longer needed, she departed the area, spying out the mess hall and licking her lips as she went to devour the hapless vegetables.
Twilight smirked, then exclaimed:
"Then I gladly welcome you to the Paladins!"
Dash stared at Twilight.
"Paladins? Somehow, that’s really awesome sounding!"
"Thanks Rainbow, it took us quite a while to decide. We were stuck on Team Awesome for a while. Hey! Why don't we meet the rest of the team? I know there's another new recruit as well! C'mon! Let’s go!" She then proceeded to grab Rainbow Dash's hoof and dragged her to a glowing, floating sphere. Not heeding Dash's protests, they both leaped into the sphere and popped out into the mess hall.
"I thought you might like some food. The special's hay fries and a salad with…Rainbow?"
'Rainbow' was currently emptying the contents of her stomach into a nearby dustbin, much to the chagrin of the cleaning bot stationed there.
"Oh don't worry Rainbow, its only bad the first time, you'll get used to it!" Twilight said in a voice too cheery for her. Dash instantly grew suspicious.
"Cough, cough, hack, ugh. . .Umm. . .why are you so happy, Twilight?" Rainbow said with a quaver in her voice.
"Oh, don't you worry about a thing, let's just eat, hehe," Twilight giggled. "I'm just surprised to see the 'Best Young Flier Competition Winner' be . . .airsick! Bwahahaha!!" Unable to control herself, Twilight burst out in laughter, and soon, Rainbow Dash herself joined in the fun poked at her.
"Hahaha, okay Twi, enough, let's go have some lunch, aye?"
"Okay Rainbow, c'mon, let’s go find ourselves a table."
. . .
On the other side of the base, the rest of the Paladins were at the barracks, intent on making their new teammate feel as at home as they could in the foreign environment.
"Well now miss Scootaloo, say hello to the darned best bunk o' the Paladins!"
It was a bunk that was marginally softer than the rest of them, but to the orange filly, the bed felt like a glove made to fit her.
"Oh, this is just heavenly! Thanks mister. . .err. . ."
"Braeburn's the name, hero-ing 's mah game!" and to complete it, he struck up a pose that was supposed to look gallant and would have if not for the mess surrounding him.
"Right, anyway, thanks mister Braeburn, mister Slate, and miss Cadence for helping me when you did," Scootaloo said.
"Aw shucks, t'aint nuffin ta preach about, any normal pony woulda done what I done there," Braeburn said with a blush.
"Mmhmm, you're welcome," Slate mumbled.
"Are you sure you're okay?” Cadence asked. “Do you need anything? Maybe a daffodil sandwich or some flapjacks?"
At that precise moment, Scootaloo's stomach betrayed her and let out an almighty growl. There was silence for a while before the entire room broke out in peals of laughter.
"Well there, Ah think that answers your question, Cade!" Braeburn roared out, tears threatening to fall from his eyes. Even Slate was holding back a chuckle for Scootaloo's sake.
"Well then, that answers my question indeed. Let's go to the cafeteria; I hear that the special is hay fries and a salad garnished with olives with a hint of orange rind!" Cadence's mouth inadvertently watered in anticipation.
Scootaloo sighed and followed the mildly drooling winged unicorn to the cafeteria.
"Say, Cadence, how big is this HQ place anyway? I didn't see any other buildings around here."
To her surprise, Slate's booming laughter echoed throughout the corridor before he answered:
"You didn't see any other buildings because there ARE no other buildings in this area. In truth this place is big enough to fit all the cities of any of the worlds several times over and still have space. Heck, you could fit several Equestria-sized planets in here. I've heard that a death sentence was to walk from the entrance to the halfway point of the HQ. That's the reason for the teleportation apparatuses. Oh and close your mouth, you might swallow a horsefly."
Scootaloo closed her gaping mouth with a barely audible 'clop.' She still couldn't wrap her head around the idea of a building being so . . .big! What she would give to have Applebloom and Sweetie Belle here. Then they could play hide and seek and search for cutie marks!
"Man, I wish I coulda brought my friends with me, you know what I'm saying? It gets mighty boring here quickly," whined Scootaloo
"Aww, don't say that, we're your teammates! We're supposed to be as close as two peas in a pod! We're here to dispel loneliness! And on that note, lunch time!"
The mess hall was packed to the brim with ponies, some in armor, some in uniform and some without any stifling clothes. There was one long line, neat and orderly, and ponies came, got their food and left without complaint. Agents tend to stick around, and unless they are killed they usually don't have anywhere to go. Thus the Agents bond with another to create a 'sense of family' to make up for the real families they lost. Everywhere you turned, there were Agents; junior Agents acting tough, recruits looking as scared as rabbits going to the vet, veterans laughing with other veterans, seniors reminiscing on how they were hurt worse than anypony else and deserved better treatment. The HQ held a frigid outside, filled with images of battle-hungry ponies, but it hid a warm interior, as cozy as any home.
"Cadence! Slate! Braeburn! Over here!"
Twilight's voice knifed through conversations, hacking through laughter and shredded rebuttals to reach the four ponies' ears. Cadence turned to Scootaloo and said:
"So, are you ready to meet your two remaining teammates?"
It would be a major understatement to say that she wasn't ready, yet she felt excited at being part of such an awesome team of ponies.
"No, but we're still going anyway, right?" Scootaloo remarked.
With a smile, Cadence then replied "Well, only if you want to eat . . ." She then walked off to join Twilight at the table.
Due to Scootaloo’s body being smaller than other ponies she was able to scoot to the table first, before Slate and Braeburn, who had to push their way through the mass of bodies and food.
"Our other recruit is SCOOTALOO?! That's wonderful! Hey, Rainbow Dash, guess who turned up?"
Scootaloo froze in a millisecond.
“Rainbow Dash was here?” Scootaloo thought to herself, terrified. “But how? I thought. . .I thought Cadence said she would be trialed, that the secret of making rainbows would be exposed, that—”
"Hey there squirt, how you holding—" Rainbow Dash began, holding out her hoof for a hoofshake.
"STAY AWAY FROM ME!!!" screamed Scootaloo. In an instant, all nearby conversation ceased to matter, as she focused on her...former idol turned betrayer.
"Scoots, what's wrong? Did I scare you somehow? What—"
"GO AWAY!! I'M NOT GOING BACK INTO THAT . . . PLACE EVER AGAIN, YOU HEAR ME? NEVER AGAIN!" Scootaloo screamed, her voice cracking at the last word. She didn't run from Rainbow Dash, but instead held her ground, reminiscent of how she had protected her fellow flightmate Aurora Dawn.
"Alright, seriously, does anypony know what’s going on? Scoots is really starting to creep me out," Rainbow said uncertainly.
"Oh, yeah, YOU have the right to say that ‘I'M creeping you out,’ eh? Imagine this: It’s the final flight exam, and the failures are sent to a factory that kills the failures and makes them into rainbows. Guess who the forepony there is. I'll give you a hint; she's standing directly in front of me.”
". . .Me?. . .I was head of that factory place?. . ." Rainbow said in an empty, hollow voice.
"Yes. And worst of all, you were always either laughing at us or smiling, as if it were the best joke in the whole of Equestria! But why am I even telling you this? Aren't you supposed to be dragging me towards that Celestia-damned 'pegasus machine'?” Scootaloo said venomously.
The once-bustling mess hall was quieter than usual; its occupants subtly trying to listen to the heated conversation. The two ponies stared at each other, both coming from sick, twisted incarnations of their main universes. One pony came from a realm in which her best friend captured her and 'played doctor' on her body. The other, from a land in which pegasi were cruel and uncaring, where beauty was made from the destruction of others, where idols that stood like massive pillars who were thought to be paradigms of light instead casted dark shadows.
Rainbow Dash moved towards Scootaloo, one hoof extended in a form of surrender, but unfortunately, Scootaloo took it as an attempt to capture her. She pulled back and then leapt at the bigger pony, her blind rage and fear clouding her thoughts. Rainbow balked and shied to the right, avoiding Scootaloo, who landed, pivoted, and landed a solid buck on the bigger pegasus’ ribs. What sounded afterwards was not a dull thud of hooves landing on flesh but rather a clang emanating from the point of impact. Both ponies were understandably surprised, but Rainbow Dash was terrified. The two ponies separated, though Scootaloo was still keeping a wary eye on Rainbow Dash.
"Twilight! What the buck happened to me?!" Rainbow Dash screamed in a voice bordering on hysteria.
"I'm afraid, my little pony, that...we are the reason of that."
Everyone turned towards Celestia, understanding and sorrow dawning upon their faces. Beside Celestia stood Discord, who for once was not laughing or attempting to cause chaos. He actually looked serious.
"When you arrived, your vitals were so weak that frankly you could have died if we breathed too hard on your injuries. The only organs still working were your heart and lungs. The rest were...um...removed...by Pinkie. I'm sorry if this adds salt to your wounds, but you need to—"
"Ah, my dear Celly, you need to actually know what happened on the operating table to talk, I think?" Discord interrupted.
Celestia harrumphed and stepped back, letting Discord explain himself.
"Ahem, my dead, Oh! I mean ‘dear’ Rainbow Dash, you were in triage when Celly saw you. The medics were wondering if you would even survive morphine injection. I for one wanted to use chaos to attempt to heal you, but it is at best. . .chaotic. Anyhow, Celly begged medical to try and save you, so that's what we did. We worked primarily on your entire muscular and skeletal structure from your torso-up. We had to replace most of your destroyed muscle with a new synthetic muscle we made just for implantation into you. It made you around ...20% faster and stronger."
Rainbow nodded slowly, accepting Discord's kindness with about as much trust as somepony listening to a lying Applejack.
"Your organs were regrown with your own DNA to prevent rejection and your cutie mark was restored as well. We restored these key pieces of you as without your cutie mark your abilities would actually decrease, and your fastest time would be 10 seconds higher," Discord laughed at an inside joke of his before continuing on his story. "Your bones are coated with a mixture of materials found on alternate universes, namely Mithril and Orichalcum, with a second coating of Stubbornium. Your—"
"Stubbornium? What the hay is that?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Got it from a unicorn with a stubby horn who had a penchant for sacrifice and an exiled pegasus. Both of them were arguing about clipboards. Would you please let me continue?" Discord said in a snappish tone.
Rainbow grumbled, but that was the extent of it. Discord continued while eyeing Rainbow Dash slightly.
"Your ribs were to some extent intact, but we added a coating of DermoSteel just in case. DermoSteel reacts to how traumatized an impacted area is and concentrates power there. Theoretically, you have no weak points due to concentrated fire on points of impact. Wings are extremely hard to regrow, so please treasure this set? We pulled up several flight specialists, namely the Wonderbolts, who gave their suggestions as to how we should make your wings. They are now twice as durable as normal wings, half as heavy and have a wider area. In fact, spread them now; I still haven't seen my work," Discord said.
Dazed, Rainbow Dash complied, spreading her wings, noting with some displeasure the odd feeling of the altered weight and size. That feeling was crumpled, burned, and shredded, though, as she saw her new wings.
Rainbow’s new wings were gossamer-thin, like the wings that Rarity had had for a time at the Best Young Fliers Competition. However, they were still in the form of Dash’s old wings. When she started flapping her wings experimentally, she saw that Discord was right. What would normally have generated a slight breeze was almost enough to lift her off the ground. Even Scootaloo was impressed for a second, and for a moment, stared at Rainbow Dash's new wings and at Discord repeatedly with a look full of longing. Content for now, Rainbow Dash sat and waited peacefully for Discord to finish his retelling of his modifications to her body.
"I take it that both you and the foal like the upgrade, hmm? It's quite dangerous for foals, but I might be able to give you a weaker version. How does that sound?"
Scootaloo's ear piercing shriek of joy answered his question.
"Ouch, trying to make me deaf? Anyway, next up is your spinal cord and skull. We ran out of Obstinatium, so we made do with Adamantium. That should prevent your bones from breaking so easily next time. In short, you've been upgraded, but not to Supermare levels. More like a cyborg Batmare I suppose. The downside is that you need to take in almost 3 times as many calories as you needed before, so greasy foods are required.”
Rainbow blanched at the thought. She had always hated eating oily foods; they always went down badly. She could probably just eat larger portions of her usual preferences.
A series of beeps interrupted her thoughts, similar sounds coming from the rest of the Paladins. Both Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash looked at the other Paladins, who then opened up their transmitters. Rainbow Dash peeked at Twilight's while Scootaloo saw Braeburn's transmitter.
PLDNS/MT_P3_L42/MISSION_BRIEFING/TR3/1630/SA,TU,LU,LSRD&DSCD
The gibberish made no sense to either of the new ponies, so Twilight and Braeburn explained it to both of them:
The first phrase named the callsign of the team, in this case, the Paladins. The second phrase stated that it was a meeting of Priority 3, which in this case was a mission briefing in Training Hall 3 on Level 42.
"Weird," Twilight said. "The briefing's inside the Training Hall for recruits. What are they—OH! We're getting briefed AND training both of you together! I see! But wait, that's weird. Shining Armor is always there, as are Tenebris Ultra and Lucem Ultra, but why are Lady Shard and Discord coming?" Twilight asked nopony in particular.
"Well, it’s to make sure that we operated on Rainbow Dash properly and that your recruits don't kill each other during sparring," Discord said in a flat voice.
"Twilight, who or what is this Tene-whatsit Ultra and Lucy Ultra?" Rainbow Dash said in a bored voice.
"That's Tenebris Ultra and Lucem Ultra! Ugh, I'll explain it after the briefing if Lady Shard doesn't answer your questions," Twilight replied, rolling her eyes.
"Slate, Braeburn, finish up your food. Cadence, Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash, let's go on ahead. It starts in ten minutes."
"Sure Twi, heck, we'll be there in five!" Braeburn cheerily laughed.
"Aww, I just started eating! Fine, coming soon. . ." Slate complained in a sad voice.
Rainbow Dash took the chance to glance over at Scootaloo. She saw the filly who had always asked her for flying lessons, and she remembered each and every time she had brushed Scootaloo off to nap in the clouds. Scootaloo’s eyes, though, told a different story. They said to anypony watching that 'I have seen things that nopony should see, let alone a filly. Come, test your conviction against mine, and we shall see who prevails.' They also pleaded 'Please, help...I'm scared and lonely...come and save me...'
However, when Scootaloo saw Rainbow Dash staring at her, all she saw was hatred for what another version of her had done, fear of what that other version did. And envy, for her new wings, but buried beneath all those emotions was a small light, a small hope, that THIS Rainbow Dash wouldn't hurt her. Sighing, Rainbow Dash joined the rest of the Paladins on their next mission, and their first training exercises. Chances were that Scootaloo would be so angry at her that she would maul her during the sparring sessions the first chance she got.
“Swell,” Rainbow thought to herself. “My life is perfect, just perfect.”
. . .