Scent of Roses

by Winston

Part 1

Scent of Roses

Part 1

Rainbow Dash was sitting at the kitchen table of her cloud home. The letter had just been delivered minutes ago. A torn open envelope, addressed simply to "Rainbow Dash, Ponyville" and slapped with a couple stamps bearing Princess Celestia's face in profile, was tossed haphazardly in the middle of the table, discarded. The important part, the letter itself, was carefully folded open, laying flat in front of her.

"You gotta be kidding me." She said softly, incredulously.

It was difficult for her to believe what she was seeing. Five years, Rainbow Dash reflected, staring ponderingly at the sheet of paper. It was hard to tell... She couldn't decide whether this letter was a happy or an unsettling occasion, after such a long silence. She hadn't even thought about it in so long.

But some things never go away completely.

Five years. Sometimes even those five years seemed like they could evaporate into nothing, like there was no distance, like it all happened yesterday. When she read it, her experiences in the whirlwind of the war rushed back to the surface, from parts of her memory that would always be there no matter what. It was all still clear, vivid in surprising resolution. The sights and sounds, and maybe most strongly, the smells... Fire, and screaming, and blood...

More than anything, that was what always got to her the most, recalling the sight and scent of so much shed blood... The smell. The smell was the worst. The visions could fade with time, like an old photograph turning grainy, hazy, an unrealness to emphasize that it was over now, and distant... But the scent's recollection never lost even a little bit of the edge. It was true what she'd heard Twilight Sparkle read out of a science book once, that scent is the sense most strongly keyed to specific memories. Always like it was right there, fresh in her nose, every time something made her remember.

She started uncomfortably as her thoughts drifted into the upwelling of these memories, brushing up against it almost without even realizing at first.

This kind of sudden unsought recall hadn't happened in a long time. It wasn't even necessarily a very painful or distressing experience to her, now, with the distance of time and a rebuilt knowledge and confidence in herself, but it was still powerful nonetheless.

She shook her head and looked away, surveying her home, grounding herself firmly in the thought that she was here and not... Not there. Not for a long time now. It was over. What she could say, at least, was that for all she'd been through, she made it. She had a handle on things. Those first six months or so were rough, but by the time when she'd told her last, most painful secrets to Twilight Sparkle, she'd already been getting better, she knew she'd be able to overcome it. With time, her life and her mind were peaceful and happy again... Mostly... That was more or less enough. The slow, steady progress of a normal life, having quietly regained her peace. That, she finally realized, was about all any pony could ask for, and knowing what things would be like without that, she was eternally thankful to have it.

Truth be told, she was, most essentially, just content that it was over.

She was very glad for her five years of it being over, of not having to think too much about it these days. She hoped it would stay that way.

After a deep breath, she turned back and slowly read the letter again.

Hey Dash,

This is Gilda (the griffin). I'm writing this letter hoping that it gets to you, because I don't really know anyone else who can help. Sorry I don't remember your exact address, but I'm pretty sure there's only one Rainbow Dash in Ponyville, so it should be good enough to get where it's going. The postal services are usually pretty quick, so I'm hoping it arrives in time.

The whole story's pretty long, so here's the short version. I'm back in Equestria, and I'm in jail. And the best part is... The one time I get tossed behind bars is the time I didn't do anything to deserve it! They picked me up a little outside the city of Jennetstown, up north. I was crossing back into Equestria through the mountain passes up there. I didn't think about how they might not like griffins around that area so much, after the war. I guess I'm just dumb. I thought things would be cool, because I served on the Equestrian side of the war, have Equestrian citizenship, all that. I didn't think about how they might not believe me if I didn't have my paperwork or any identification, which of course I didn't. I've been out drifting the world for five years. I've been kinda homeless, to be honest with you. I got nothing but my fur and feathers and a backpack with some food and water I was carrying (which they confiscated, of course - jerks!).

So anyway, these pegasus cops busted me and hauled me into the town jail. They questioned me for a long time. They haven't charged me with anything, but I'm pretty sure the way they see it, I'm guilty of being a griffin on a weekday. More seriously, I'm also pretty sure they think I'm a spy or some kind of scout for a griffin raiding party, like the old school kind of raiders that started the war in the first place. I told them that was stupid. Everyone knows there's treaties in place, every griffin is way too scared to break them after what happened in the war. I told them I was born in Equestria, worked for the Equestrian army in the war, that I'm allowed to be in this country, all of it... But they're not buying anything without my documents or someone to back my story up.

The reason I'm writing to you, Dash, is because if I can prove my story with a reliable witness or some papers or something in the next week or so, they said they'd let me go. Otherwise, they'd probably end up turning me over to the royal guard and I'll go into the royal judicial authority system. I'm not too worried about that because they can get into contact with the Equestrian Royal Army and get a copy of my paperwork, which should spring me, but it'll take forever and be a pain in the flank, and I know they'll keep me locked up until that all gets figured out. Not fun, dude. So I know this is a lot to ask, but I'm really hoping that there's some way you can get here and help me out. I know that Jennetstown has a train line that runs into it, so I guess it wouldn't be too hard to get here, though of course I have no way of knowing the train schedules. I guess you should know where it is pretty well, anyway, I think you said around here is where you were stationed in the war.

Please write me back and let me know. Just address it to the Jennetstown jail, I'm pretty sure they'll figure it out. I'm the only Gilda, and the only griffin, here, and I don't see that changing anytime soon. I understand if you can't do anything, or if you don't want to, and I wouldn't blame you. I don't want to mess with your life. I was a pretty bad friend back in the day, aside from me being a reminder of the war that I'm sure you could do without. I know it did bad things to both of us. I wouldn't even write except that I'm just really over a haybale here. I'm gonna owe you big time if you can help me out.

See you (I hope),
Gilda

Soaking in the somewhat disjointed, unreal-seeming novelty that this was really happening, Rainbow Dash felt a little numb in a funny kind of way.

"Man, Gilda..." She sighed and shook her head slowly. "You have got to be kidding me!" She repeated herself, a bit louder. Five years... That was also the time since Rainbow Dash had last seen that particular griffin, just after she came home from the war, during those critical first few months when they were both still struggling so bitterly inside with the residual effects, trying to reconcile the return to normalcy... Trying to deal with it all. Gilda couldn't. She'd paid a visit to make her apologies and inform Dash that she was leaving Equestria for... A while. An undefined, probably long while. Maybe forever, Dash had assumed. Since that day, though they parted as friends, that was the last they'd heard of each other.

Now this letter was here, showing up out of the blue. Rainbow Dash couldn't help thinking about the capriciousness of random chance that it even arrived at all. Derpy Hooves was the carrier who'd delivered it, and Derpy was occasionally known to misplace mail, causing it to be delivered later than it should have been. If fate had made it work out that way, maybe things would have been different, as Dash sat reading the letter - maybe not so urgent, because it might have been too late by then. Maybe it would have been somepony else's problem, some army clerk who'd have to dig out a record and transcribe a copy, and Rainbow Dash would be able to dust off her hooves and call it a day because there'd be nothing else she could do anyway. But as it was, with time to head off larger complications, Dash knew that this one fell on her. Whether that was fate or random chance, the luck of the Derpy draw, this was how it happened. Although she felt a tinge of guilt for thinking it, she wondered if she was relieved it had just happened to arrive promptly, or if she really wished it had been delayed long enough to remove the real necessity of her having to face it...

And Jennetstown.

Good Celestia, why'd it have to be Jennetstown?

Rainbow Dash figured that was also just part of the luck of the draw. Nothing to be done about it, anyway. Even as much as she knew her feelings were still all kinds of mixed up about that place... She couldn't ignore it. She knew, without having to really ask herself, that her feelings, the inner voice of her mind, would never let her. A friend's in trouble, you gotta go help them. That's just the rule. Loyalty. That's how it works. That's what it does.

A quick reply would be the first step. For that, a certain kind of assistance would be helpful in expediting things as much as possible, she thought, and to get what she needed, it was time to hit the library...

---

"That's kind of a ridiculous spell, you realize." Twilight Sparkle said, regarding Rainbow Dash a little strangely from across a small table. "I mean, sure, I think I can do it, but it's going to take a few minutes of concentration to map out exactly where this jail's front desk is. Teleporting anything across this kind of distance is a real test."

"I know, Twilight." Rainbow Dash said, looking up from the train schedule she was reading. "You know I don't like asking you to use your magic for stunts like this, but it's an emergency. I just really, really need this to get there, like, yesterday."

"It's no problem, really. I understand." Twilight said. She thought for a second. "Although I don't think I can do much for yesterday. Time travel's usually remarkably unhelpful, anyway..." She added with a knowing grin.

"Yeah, I guess not..." Rainbow Dash said, distractedly, looking over her schedule. "Right. So the train leaves Ponyville at 7pm tomorrow, runs through the night, and gets into Jennetstown by 7am the next morning. Guess that's as fast I'm gonna get there." She wrote down the details on a sheet of paper in front of her, finishing up the letter she was working on. She folded the sheet of paper, worked it into an envelope, licked the flap, and sealed it. Finally, she turned it over and addressed it to "Gilda, the griffin, Jennetstown Jail".

"Hey... I just realized, you save on postage this way." Twilight Sparkle noted. "Very convenient."

"Yep! You've uncovered my secret scheme to weasel out of paying for a quarter bit stamp!" Rainbow Dash laughed.

"Ha ha..." Twilight was briefly amused. "So... You're really going all the way to Jennetstown to spring that griffin friend of yours from jail?"

"Well... It isn't gonna happen on its own, and I don't know of anypony else who's gonna do it." Rainbow Dash shrugged. "So yeah. I guess I am."

Twilight pondered a bit. "Can I ask why she's in jail?"

"Not for any good reason." Rainbow Dash replied. "Her letter made it sound like they locked her up just for being a griffin without an ID."

"Well, that's kind of..." Twlight trailed off.

"Messed up?" Rainbow Dash suggested. "Yeah, it is."

"Are you sure that's the only reason?" Twilight asked.

"I haven't really known her to be much of a liar." Rainbow Dash said.

"It's just that I remember she was kind of... Not exactly very pleasant." Twilight remarked. "No offense."

"Last time you met her, she was being kind of a jerk, I agree." Rainbow Dash said. "But there's a difference between being a jerk and a liar. And anyway, last time I talked to her, before she left, she seemed... Different... The war, Twilight. It changed her... It changed her a lot. She knows how it... How it felt... I think she wouldn't be trying to get hold of me unless she really needed this help. This isn't some kind of game. She's seriously in trouble. I can tell."

"Alright." Twilight nodded. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to second-guess you."

"Nah." Rainbow Dash shook her head. "They're reasonable questions. I guess... I can't really expect most ponies to understand completely."

Rainbow Dash looked at the sealed letter in front of her, studying its surface for a few moments. She seemed fleetingly apprehensive about something.

"Alright... Let's get this over with." She said, with a sigh, looking up at Twilight Sparkle.

"Right." Twilight nodded. "Here we go." She concentrated, staring at the letter, and her horn began to glow, faintly at first, then gained intensity. Slowly, gently, she closed her eyes and her face softened, as if she was transfixed on something ephemeral, trying to grasp it. After a few moments, beneath her closed eyelids, Rainbow Dash could see Twilight's eyes moving, side to side, as if she was examining something, taking in a scene and learning the details, seeking something out. This lasted for several minutes, until finally a few faint white sparks flared from the tip of her horn. A few seconds later, the letter on the table in front of her became charged with the same pale purple glow as her horn, and it gently floated, briefly, a couple inches into the air, before disappearing with a faint pop and a gentle shower of the same small skittering sparks. The glow faded from Twilight's horn, and she opened her eyes and exhaled heavily, visibly relaxing a tension carried in her muscles, as if released from a heavy exertion.

"That'll do it." Twilight said, with a faint, slightly tired, smile. "I'm pretty sure I even saw the desk officer notice it appear. Boy, did it look like it surprised him, too."

"Awesome. Thanks, Twi." Rainbow Dash smiled back a little. "... Guess I have no choice, now..." she murmured.

"Something the matter?" Twilight asked, slightly surprised to notice her friend's apparent apprehension. "Don't you want to go?"

"And see Jennetstown again? Yeah, not so much, Twilight." Rainbow Dash replied. "But... This isn't really about what I want. So it doesn't really matter, does it?"

"Of course it matters!" Twilight said. "Why, what's wrong with Jennetstown?"

"... Nothing. The town itself is fine." Rainbow Dash said hesitantly. "It's just... You know, sometimes, there's things you know you need to face but... It's hard, and you don't know if you know how... So you don't really want to..."

Neither of them said anything for a moment.

"... But I know I'll never really know how until I just go do it, and the deal's done now anyway. I have to go there, this is what has to happen and that's it. I think some part of me's known that for a long time, and now there's just a convenient reason finally making me." Rainbow Dash said. "I'm... I'm scared, but maybe I'm kinda glad that the day's here when there's no way to run anymore, you know?"

"What are you scared of?" Twilight asked.

"Everything still waiting for me there." Rainbow Dash said distantly. "Everything that's been waiting there for five years."

Twilight couldn't get anything more than that out of Rainbow Dash. She had to be off, no more time to hang around the library... There was a train ticket to go buy.

---

The room was small. Standard enlisted quarters - not really a room, a tent, actually. The walls were heavy cloth, held up by a light metal framework. It was a plain tan, nondescript color, no designs or decorations, except for one thing, a bundle of dried flowers tied with a string to one of the metal crossbars supporting the ceiling. They were there for the slight, barely noticable fragrance they still emitted, set against the smell of earth from under the layer of canvas spread out on the ground, forming the floor. In the two corners opposite the wall with the door - a strapped shut flap of cloth, simple but effective enough at keeping out the elements - there were a couple of sets of saddlebags and small duffels that Rainbow Dash knew held carefully packed personal belongings and flight gear. Light was provided by a lantern placed near the wall midway between the two sets of bags. It was reasonably effective, if yellowish, light, filling the tent sufficiently.

She was laying down on her belly on top of a blanket, folded in half and spread out on the floor, made of a coarse but soft and comfortable thick woolen material, dyed the usual colorless neutral army-issue grey. There was another pony laying down next to her, facing her, the front halves of their bodies overlapping side by side. She was also a pegasus, with an off-white coat, the color of white stone, like a statue, and a just slightly deeper colored beige mane and tail. Her eyes were sky blue, her cutie mark a dark stormcloud pouring rain. Rainbow Dash recognized her with a familiar ease. It was her friend Alabaster. Being here felt normal - it felt like home. That was only natural, since for three years a tent like this had been home, and Alabaster had been the fellow soldier she'd shared it with... At least, until... Until it happened... But that didn't seem to matter. She was here now, and that felt like how it was supposed to be.

The two of them were oriented on each others' left sides, their left wings spread out before each other. Instinctively, Rainbow Dash was inspecting the white pegasus' feathers, every primary and secondary, noticing every gap or irregularity breaking the perfection of their surfaces, and running them gently through her teeth to comb and groom them back into top condition. Alabaster was likewise performing the same preening on Rainbow Dash's wing. It was calming, soothing, focusing on detailing every feather one by one and feeling the same being done to her own feathers and not thinking about anything else, letting go of all the stresses, fears, everything else negative. Preening was an important part of the day - it was a ritual, a necessity, a carefully performed essential point of maintenance. To the combat fliers, the condition of their wings was a matter of life and death. To any pegasus, letting another pony preen their wings was a bond of closeness and trust, but to them, especially so. The sense of intimacy, connection, wasn't quite like anything she had with any other pony, ever before or ever since.

For a few minutes, she enjoyed the easy silence, ruffling through feathers, cleaning and arranging, working them perfectly into place.

Eventually, they were done, and they both slowly folded their wings back into resting position against the sides of their bodies. Rainbow Dash turned her head and looked to the left. Alabaster looked over also, and the two of them locked eyes. As they did, Alabaster smiled, just slightly, in a friendly way. An aura of contentment and happiness was on her face.

When she looked into that face, something about it, something deep inside her own heart, brought a sudden unexpected welling of sadness into Rainbow Dash. She bowed her head a little and cast her eyes down, unable to keep meeting those of her friend.

"You alright, Dash?" Alabaster asked in a soft voice.

"I'm sorry." Rainbow Dash said in response.

"It's not your fault." Alabaster replied gently.

"It still feels like it is." Rainbow Dash said, in a cracking voice.

"Really, Dash, it's not your fault." Alabaster said, barely above a whisper. "It's okay."

"I'm sorry..." Tears broke over Rainbow Dash's eyes and rolled down her face. "I'm so sorry..."

"Hey, c'mon." Alabaster reached over with her forelegs and embraced Rainbow Dash. "Everything's okay now. It's alright."

Rainbow Dash hugged her back, and tears kept flowing forth. Gentle sobs escaped her. She never wanted to let go, even as she knew somehow that shortly there would be no choice. She closed her eyes and leaned her head on Alabaster's neck. She felt Alabaster lean her cheek against the side of her head.

"It's okay..." Alabaster's voice whispered in her ear.

"It's okay..."

Everything was black. Everything was gone.

Briefly, there was nothing, just a sense of utterly nothing at all.

Starting a little bit, Rainbow Dash woke up. She was laying in her bed, in her cloud house over Ponyville. It was the middle of the night, with the dark surrounding her. The faintest glow of gentle silver moonlight filtered in through a window, and in it, she could just make out the nightstand next to her bed, the one on which she knew that Gilda's letter, and her train ticket, bought that afternoon, were resting, paperweighted down by a rock - a random present at some point from Pinkie Pie, who'd said it was some specially particular kind of rock. Rainbow Dash had kept it around because she'd felt honored to get it as a gift - it seemed to mean something to Pinkie by the way she'd squealed with delight the day she found it laying by the roadside. Even though Dash wasn't quite sure what it was, herself, she liked it because it reminded her of her pink party animal friend.

Lots of the things in her home reminded her of her friends. The blanket and the sheets on her bed right now were birthday presents Rarity had sewed for her. A framed photograph of Fluttershy surrounded by an unbelievable swarm of butterflies was sitting on the dresser. Rows of books - the entire Daring Do series, among scores of others, mostly exciting adventure novels - that Twilight had passed down to her lined her bookshelf. Even the fridge did, full of vegetables and fruits from Applejack's farm.

But all those things, all her surroundings, were lifeless, cold and silent, no comfort in the dead of the night. Rainbow Dash found herself very conscious of feeling alone, so starkly alone, and she longed for Alabaster's presence, to feel it again the way she just had moments ago - but it was only a dream. Alabaster wasn't there in Ponyville, never had been...

... Never would be.

Rainbow Dash would never see her again. Never.

Never.

The word, the concept, hit with a finality that stung, suddenly, sharply, inside of her.

Rainbow Dash's tears were there with her, though. They wetted her pillow and they were still flowing down her face as her heart ached, lying there in bed, crying softly.

She knew, in that moment, that this trip would be even harder than she'd thought. She was at a loss for how she was going to do what needed to be done.

A small sense of despair at how impossible it seemed ran through her, and she laid awake for a while, being gnawed by it, until finally somehow the dark mercifully swallowed her back up into a sleep in which she didn't dream any further. A part of her wanted nothing more than to just lay there, forever, in unthinking oblivion, never having to face tomorrow... Never having to wake again.

---

*Tink...*

*Tink... Tink...*

The sound of something tapping on the window woke Rainbow Dash. She opened her eyes, slowly, to see that the sun was long since up. Despite sleeping in she still felt tired, drained and not fully recovered after that dream. It lingered unpleasantly in her thoughts and mood like a bad taste in her mouth.

The tapping persisted.

"Ugh." Rainbow Dash groaned, yawning. "Wha...?"

On the next tap, she saw that it was a piece of gravel, being thrown at the window, presumably to attract attention.

No. Not thrown. The stone was hovering. All the noises were just one piece of gravel, being repeatedly tapped on the windowpane.

Twilight Sparkle. Rainbow Dash realized it had to be her. None of her other friends were telekinetically talented enough. Or maybe some of them were - Rarity had some skill - but even so they would have had the sense to more simply find some way to just ring the doorbell or knock on the door. Not Twilight, though. Magic just 'cause she could, just for the fun of it. This was her kind of style. And she would keep it up until she got what she wanted.

Dash pushed the covers off of herself and got up. She cracked her neck and took a deep breath, shaking out lingering cobwebs of sleep, eyes still half-closed. Shuffling out of the bedroom and to the front door of the house, she blinked out the sandy feeling from her eyes and pushed disheveled hair from her mane out of her face. At the door, she stopped for a second and took a moment to stretch out... Front legs, then back legs, then wings, and a quick twist of her back. It helped get her blood flowing and wake up a little. She opened the door and walked outside onto the cloud layer underlying the house. Stepping to the edge, she looked down at the ground.

Yep. Twilight Sparkle was there, looking expectantly back up at her. She waved one forehoof in greeting. "Hi Rainbow!" She shouted upward.

"Hi. What's going on, Twi?" Rainbow Dash shouted back.

"I gotta talk to you about something!" Twilight shouted back. "I... Sorry. I didn't wake you up, did I?"

"Nah. It's alright." Rainbow Dash shouted in return. "It's already late, anyway. Just gimme a second, I'm coming down."

"Okay." Twilight nodded.

With that, Rainbow Dash stepped over the edge of the cloud, opening her wings just as she began to fall and caught the air. Without needing to flap, she rode the wind downward, gliding to the ground to land in front of Twilight.

For a moment, they stood there silently, looking at each other.

"Good morning, Rainbow." Twilight smiled. When she did, it seemed forced, uneasy. What a terrible poker face. Rainbow Dash was sure she was up to something.

"What is it, Twilight?" Rainbow Dash asked, deciding to cut to the chase.

"Umm... Alright... So, Rainbow..." Twilight began, speaking a little slowly, as if feeling her way around her words, "I was thinking... I mean, we talked about it... Me and Applejack and Pinkie and Rarity... And Fluttershy, of course... And we were all thinking... You know, you seemed worried, and... Well, this trip you're about to go on. You shouldn't have to do it alone, should you? We're your friends, and this is what friends are for, so... I just came over to ask, would you like us to go with you to Jennetstown?"

"Oh... Twilight, you don't have to do that." Rainbow Dash shook her head. "This is... My responsibility... Not yours. Not anypony else's."

"Oh. I see." Twilight said, in a crestfallen voice. She hung her head, but she looked up at Rainbow Dash with little bit of a smile, a hopeful, expectant expression. "That's unfortunate, because these train tickets we already bought would go to waste, then."

Silence. Rainbow Dash had a sinking feeling as she realized exactly where this was going. "Is this gonna be one of those times when you're pretending you're asking to make me feel better but I don't actually have a choice?" She sighed.

Twilight Sparkle just smiled a little bit wider and nodded yes, with a gleam in her eyes.

"Would it do any good at all to resist or sneak off alone?" Rainbow Dash asked, inflecting a note of hopefulness into her voice, even though she already knew the answer.

"Nope!" Twilight kept smiling, and shook her head. "Didn't help Applejack that one time, did it? Even with her head start. And we already know where you're going. I'd say you pretty much don't stand a chance."

Rainbow Dash had a troubled look on her face. Yes, this is just what they'd do, she thought. They would insist, because it's how they were... But they didn't understand. They didn't know what they could be in for. She waited, saying nothing, until Twilight's smile faded away.

"Look... This isn't going to be a fun trip." Rainbow Dash said. "I'm pretty sure none of you will like it there. It's not a tourist kind of town, and what I have to do is not pleasant. I also know that all of you have better things to do here at home. I just don't want to be a burden, taking everypony away from what they're already responsible for. It's better for us all if you just let me do this on my own."

"No..." Twilight Sparkle said, more serious now. "No, it isn't. Not anymore, not this time. I know that you always want to protect us, and I know you're worried. I would be, too, to have to go back to someplace associated with a tough part of my life. But you don't have to shield us from this, not anymore. We need you to let us help, because by always trying to keep us protected, you're keeping us out. You know you don't have to carry things alone. We want to understand more about what happened to you out there. We need to see it, with you. We're your friends and we need to do this for you. We can all make arrangements to cover things around here for a couple days, but we can't be there for you if we don't go."

Rainbow Dash and Twilight just stared at each other for a long moment.

"You fought a war for us... For everypony." Twilight finally said. "Just let us try and help fight for you for once. Really. Let us do this for you. Please?"

Differing thoughts ran through Dash's head, struggling with each other. She knew that if she really wanted to, she could make them not come with... She could get angry, she could yell at them, make them understand that it would just be too much to handle, having them along. But she knew it would hurt them if she did. They'd feel pushed away. They'd resent the rejection. But they'd get over it, of course. They wouldn't even show it, probably. They'd understand, in their own ways. They wouldn't blame her. And maybe it would be for their own good, whether they realized it or not. They didn't need to see this, they didn't need to experience... Not this... She'd been the one to volunteer, to go fight for all of them so that they wouldn't ever have to see it, not in this kind of way.

But if she didn't let them... Then nothing would change. They'd be kept at the same distance they always had - and this chance would be gone. Maybe there'd never be another one like it. That unspoken rift between her and them would be permanent. And that... That would disappoint them. It would make them feel, yet again, like they couldn't do enough, like they couldn't help. In the end... She couldn't stand the thought of making them feel like she was sidelining them, making them feel useless. Not again. Even if it felt in her own mind like it was for their own good, she had to admit that denying them wasn't fair, not anymore. Twilight was right. Trying to protect them would be outweighed by the pain she'd cause them by not being a good friend, and by not accepting their efforts to be good friends.

The truth was, they did need to do this. She knew they did because putting herself in their horseshoes, she knew that she would need to, also.

Loyalty should understand that best of all, shouldn't she? Wasn't one friend needing to help another the entire reason this trip was happening in the first place?

And even besides all that, Twilight Sparkle's implied threat that they, or at least some of them, would just show up anyway was reasonably credible, even if she could initially make them stay here. Inevitably, their consciences and their concerns would eat at them until they'd change their minds and and find a way to follow her, somehow.

She was forced to conclude there was no way out.

"Fine." Rainbow Dash said in a small voice, looking down at the ground. "If you've already bought tickets and everything..."

"Alright! Thank you!" Twilight smiled.

"Where is everypony else, anyway?" Rainbow Dash asked, looking around at the empty field as it occurred to her.

"Already at home packing." Twilight said.

Rainbow Dash looked at her with slight incredulousness. They really were coming with no matter what, weren't they?

"Sorry about being so presumptuous like that..." Twilight said with a sheepish little nervous grin. "But it was kinda short notice, we didn't have much time to lose. We're meeting back up at the library when we're ready. Train leaves at 7pm. Eh, but you already know that... Just meet us at the library when you're ready, we'll go from there."

"Right." Rainbow Dash nodded.

She found herself conflicted. It was an odd mixture of relief at knowing she'd have her friends, but apprehension about the uncomfortable things it might mean. She couldn't decide if this trip just got easier or even harder again.

Maybe both.

Probably both.

Comments

[dashybrony2012]

I love it!! This is such a good story I read the previous ones and I think I love this one the most but I still like all of them!