It was late at night in Ponyville, and the Golden Oaks Library was quite dark. Well, except for a ceiling lamp shaped like a banana peel that stood proudly at attention projecting out of the floor of the main room. Or was that the ceiling? A wall? Discord could frankly say he didn't care. Gravity was something one played bridge with on weekends, not some kind of fundamental force that had to be obeyed at all times. It didn't even have a carrier particle he had to contend with for control of things! It was practically asking to be twisted around to his whims!
The draconequus himself sat comfortably in a plush corduroy armchair next to the lamp, weighing carefully his choices of literature for the night. Daring Do and the Feather of the Phoenix, or the much more substantial Complete Compendium of Cacti? He recalled an old adage he'd come to appreciate particularly well since that dusty old manual he'd eaten when they'd first made the grievous error of releasing him for “reform” gave him indigestion for a week; some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested. Obviously, that particular word salad had not been among the ones amenable to digestion. But would Complete Compendium be like that, or would he just have to douse it in sauce? And would it be ketchup or some form of fruit preserve? Ah, decisions, decisions...
A flash of light came from above him and drew his attention to the floor of the library. There, standing upside-down above him, was a being he was quite sure he'd never, ever seen before...except maybe since his freeing from a prison of stone a year or so back. And then his second freeing, mere months before! Just the pony who could help, too.
“Twilight Sparkle!” he chuckled, teleporting her before him. She blinked disorientedly – her inner ear was probably trying to reason things out. He thought of a particularly bad bit of wordplay and smiled as he snapped his fingers and attempted to cast a transmogrification spell on her. “You are just the bookworm I wanted to see. Tell me, O devourer of good books, which of these tomes should I – oh, sun and moon, you figured that one out, didn't you.”
Twilight Sparkle – was she Twilight Sparkle? She seemed to have had her model swapped – looked down upon Discord the Small Green Inchworm Bedecked in a Scholar's Cap and giggled. “I've been expecting something like this for months, Discord. The whole Library has been properly enchanted against ponies casting magic on me. Though I think you might have noticed that and deactivated some of my decoys.”
“I'm sure I haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about, Twilight,” he replied, reverting to his typical form and dusting himself off. “Things around here have been far too hectic for me to even consider breaking into your home and place of employment, disabling thirty-seven separate and diabolically devised security spells that all seemed to inexplicably be activated by my presence alone, sampling your finest vintage – the oh-eighty-seven Starswirls were particularly fine, salty but with a delicate hint of oak and a delightful aftertaste - “ He broke off, puzzled. “You seem to be taking that news rather well in stride.”
“I imagine they tasted like raspberries as well,” she added smugly, smiling.
“Why?” Now he was puzzled – had she tried to eat them before?They had tasted mainly like that, but – oh. Oh, she had played him for the fool, hadn't she?
“Illusory magical duplicates usually do.”
“There may have been a hint of raspberry as well...” he admitted grudgingly. “I have underestimated you, you conniving little warlock. I must ask – is this room even real, or do you have a pair of pills you'd like to offer me?”
“As much as I'd like to continue, Discord, there are more pressing concerns occupying my mind.” With a flash of light in her eyes, she flipped the room over and grit her teeth visibly as a shower of books plummeted from the shelves. “I should never make assumptions when you're around.”
“What assumption did you make?” he asked. His chair, of course, had remained firmly in place. If gravity was going to throw a fit like that, he saw no reason to give it more ammunition by releasing his seat into its tender book-hating grasp.
“That my inner ear was off because of a gravity differential between Domhan and Equestria.” She sighed, and reverted the room to its prior state. Even more books tumbled off the shelves, though most were caught in her aura and returned to their proper places. The ones on the ground followed suit. “What was I – right, more pressing concerns. What did you mean by 'hectic', by the way? Have any new threats come up that would require the Elements of Harmony?”
“None that Sun-Butt has seen fit to inform me of.” He took a testing bite out of Complete Compendium and chewed, considering the flavor and whether it would be worth a few weeks of indigestion for. Raspberries – bah! “And if one had, Equestria would essentially be unrecognizable at this point, considering every villain requiring their deployment has had excessively grandiose, half-baked and ultimately self-destructive schemes that would impact the whole world, with one exception.”
“You?”
“Actually, I was referring to an old pal of mine called Floral Infinity,” he replied. “I think she still has that old manor in her fragrant and incredibly evil clutches. Somepony should really get around to unleashing the rainbow of friendship upon her soon – it's occupied Equestrian soil after all, and she could try to conquer her neighbor's house at any time with her villainous army of tulips. I appreciate the vote of confidence, though. I'll remember that if I ever try to restore eternal chaos to the world again.”
“You mean it's not guaranteed?”
“It's predictable by now.” He licked the bitten-off corner of the book, regenerating it instantly. “I don't do predictable. Not on large scales, at least.”
“What about - “ She shook her head. “No, darnit! Now I have memories of you as a friend – of course now they come back – and it's making this conversation far more distracting than it should be.”
“Funny. I don't have any memories of the sort at all.” He burped and scratched under his lion arm – probably fleas again. He idly wondered what would happen to them. The last batch had become vegans and lived in a homeless shelter now.
“Getting kicked out of Caelum's court? Drunkenly promising her a night of passion and bad puns?”
He hid his surprise fairly well, he thought. Only one of his limbs went bald, and only with a sound like an elderly stallion's wheezing death rattle. The fur drifted gently to the ground in a cloud, followed by a brigade of parachute-equipped fleas. “So it wasn't a mistake. Interesting. Which name would you prefer now? Twilight Sparkle? Alpha Centauri? Your Supreme Royal Stickiness and Sparkle-Butt are options too. Or would you prefer something with numbers in it?”
“Twilight is fine,” she answered. With a frown, she added, “or Alpha, I suppose. Either works.”
“Twilight Centauri, perhaps? Alpha Sparkle?”
“Just Twilight,” she sighed. “I shouldn't have given you a choice.”
“I prefer Alpha Sparkle, actually. I think I'll go with that.”
“Just Twilight,” she affirmed, “and that's that. Are my friends all in town? Do they have access to the Elements of Harmony?” She turned towards the stairs. “If they're not here, I'll need Spike. Why he didn't stop you from coming in, I - “
“Oh, he's been living with Fluttershy since your sudden and inexplicable vanishment.” He waved his paw dismissively. “I'm curious as to what will result from it. If he starts wearing dog collars as a teenager, you'll know who to blame, at least.”
“Right. She wouldn't let him live here alone while I was away.” She spun back around. “So they're all here? Elements with them?”
“Well, all but one.”
“Who is - “ She chuckled. “Right, of course. Rainbow Dash had to go back to the Academy, didn't she?”
“I believe a one out of two is considered to be a failing grade by academic authorities in this day and age.”
Twilight frowned. “Where is she, then?”
In a burst of light, Discord was clad in formal attire and floating, and gravely lifted his hat off and placed it over his heart. “The Great Beyond, I'm afraid, dear Alpha Sparkle. Our fine feathered friend of the bluer persuasion has left our skies for greener ones in a burst of magical glory.”
She gave him an unamused look. “You're joking.”
“Oh, how I wish I was, old and dear passing acquaintance of mine!” he moaned in a quavering voice. Behind him a few duplicates of himself appeared, dabbing at their eyes with white handkerchiefs and wearing black dresses, weeping and wailing as a soft background to his announcement. “But through her own thickheadedness and obstinacy, Rainbow Dash had dabbled in magics far beyond her ken, heedless of the advice of her elders, and severed her soul from her body in a most lethal manner! Lo, how her cold, dead body lay sprawled before my eyes and the eyes of the aggrievéd princesses, in my very home which she had so unlawfully violated! It was not three days ago we laid her still form to rest in the equally blue and lifeless ground, surrounded by the crowds of her mourners – which was mainly Scootaloo and her friends, none of us actually knew where her parents live so we couldn't reach them. We should probably inform them some time.” He blew his nose. “Where was I? Ah, the funeral! Yes, it was attended by several dozen copies of Scootaloo, to fill out the ranks of the mourners a little and give her a grander sending-off to the great floating pasture in the sky. Fluttershy, as I predicted when Dash first came to me with her mad scheme, was utterly distraught; Applejack was weeping and giving herself character depth above and beyond the call of duty; Rarity sewed the death shroud herself and was there, crying, as her creation was lowered into the ground – and if you'd believe it, she didn't faint at all! Even Pinkie Pie seemed serious. The wake was serious and well-provisioned since Pinkie drowned her sorrows in her baking and leavened the cupcakes with her own tears - “
“I don't believe you.”
The chorus of the damned behind him fell silent immediately and gave her annoyed looks. Discord's attire vanished along with them in another burst of light. “What do you mean, 'I don't believe you'?”
“You're lying,” she said simply. “You're creating a falsehood as some kind of prank in incredibly poor taste. You've done it before.”
“When?”
“Caelum's hall?”
“Oh, very well, you have me there,” he sighed. He snapped his fingers and they teleported to the Ponyville Graveyard, directly in front of Dash's headstone. He even dispelled the modifications he'd made to it. Regardless of whether or not a dunce cap improved the aesthetic of the grave, he didn't think Twilight would appreciate it much at all. Unfortunate connotations were the truest enemy of the avant-garde artist that he was. “Look. In the living flesh.”
Twilight looked at the gravestone and was quiet for a while. Discord assumed she was probing it carefully with her magic senses, and probably her gravimetric and electroweak senses if she'd really come back into her powers as a star in full. If it was free of magic, had mass, and was actually newly placed, she might believe him. Of course, Alpha had always been a doubter. Though it occurred to him just now to ask himself why he even cared if she believed him or not. Rainbow Dash was dead as a doornail. Twilight could come home or stay on Domhan or fling herself miserably into the distant reaches of the universe, and he'd still be completely, wonderfully free.
“How did she die?” she asked quietly. He frowned at the lack of grief or misery or anything approaching the socially acceptable reaction of a friend who'd lost another. She sounded almost...distant. Like a portion of her wasn't entirely here.
“She was attempting an astral projection while being interdicted,” he answered, giving her a curious look. “What was most surprising was that she succeeded to the point where a mishap was possible, though she was a bit off her rocker by the end, and interdictions rely on predictions, and a lunatic is difficult to predict.”
“She'd have had to separate herself from her body for anything dangerous to happen,” Twilight – no, Alpha Centauri murmured. “Someone had to teach her how to do that.”
“Erm – well...” He cleared his throat awkwardly. “She was insistent.”
“You taught a pegasus without any prior training how to perform what is one of the single most dangerous spells possible for someone without prior training to perform,” Alpha summed up. “Why?”
“Well, she was trying to rescue you,” he answered. “I stopped her from doing anything really dangerous like charging in in an attempt to single-handedly erase kelpiekind from the face of Domhan for the crime of kidnapping you.”
“How?”
“I sent her to Caelum, of course.”
“Funny. She never mentioned it to me,” she murmured. “How did it go?”
“Well, she somehow managed to botch that,” he admitted. “She may have been attacked by Caelum for consorting with me...and then fought back.”
Alpha groaned. “Rainbow Dash...”
“And then she fell over into the extremely toxic material I'd had on paw to make a rudimentary ritual circle from,” he continued. He put on a pair of spectacles and summoned a scroll of parchment into existence. “One second, let me find my place...”
Twilight facehoofed. “There's a list?”
“Rainbow Dash, shall we say, was not cut out for interstellar adventures.” He cleared his throat and unraveled the scroll. “To recap: she made a crater several tens of feet long leading up to Fluttershy's door, bullied me into teaching her forbidden magic, assaulted the Queen of the Universe – Tia was very impressed by that one – received aid from a power or powers unknown, defied house arrest by somehow teleporting into the Everfree Forest, broke into my castle, defied the Princesses yet again and tried to astrally project to foundational-powers-know-where to find you, slipped through their interdict – their interdict with the power of two alicorns behind it – long enough to be harmed, and then was killed when her tether was severed quite by accident.” The scroll snapped shut and vanished in a puff of smoke. He crushed the spectacles and tossed them behind him, where they bounced off somepony else's grave and exploded in a small mushroom cloud. “Oh, and she tried to assault the Princesses and insulted all her friends while she was at it. I think that roughly outlines the story of how she died.”
“Power or powers unknown,” Alpha murmured thoughtfully. She looked at Dash's grave again for a long few minutes of silence. Was she mourning? Thinking? Plotting his imminent demise? Devising some fiendish spell of necromancy to call Rainbow Dash's corpse back from the grave to inflict 'awesomeness' once more upon the living? Had she fallen asleep with her eyes open? He couldn't tell. Her face was that expressionless. It was the expressionless he'd most often seen after pushing a joke too far. She was either about to snap and throw a tantrum...or do something they would both severely regret.
Then she returned her attention to Discord and her face looked like it was carved in heaven-stone, unreadable and unchanging. Even the expressionlessness was gone, were that physically possible. “That's a major unknown in this situation. I'm assuming her attempted assault of Celestia and Luna happened after her first projection and contact with this power?”
“You would be correct, actually. The rest was in chronological order.”
“Rainbow Dash can be a bit...aggressive, sometimes, but that sounds extreme even for her,” she said to herself, the mask breaking and her features betraying thoughtfulness, finally. He'd almost been worried there for a second! “I'm missing something...unless you aren't telling me everything, Discord.”
“I have told the whole truth and nothing but the truth,” he scoffed, affronted. “Cross my heart, hope to fly, and that third part of your ridiculous oath that involves baked goods.”
“Hm,” she hummed doubtfully. Nevertheless, her eyes flickered as she summoned magic and opened a wormhole. A wavering image of an underwater throne room formed in the air behind her, as if seen through a thin ornamental waterfall. She looked back as she prepared to leave again. “If she really is dead, Discord, I will hold you accountable. You taught her how to perform an astral projection, and you enabled her to perform one. If she is possessed, seriously injured, or actually dead – permanently dead, since she would be a loose soul without any kind of protection – I will come for you.” For a brief instant, her pupils were slits in orbs of colored glass sunken into angular, almost sinister features, and Discord felt like he was staring into the heart of a black hole, lethal radiation exposure and all. She smiled. She giggled a little. Softly. “If that happens, Discord, I hope you won't be squatting in Fluttershy's little cottage. You'll need to find somewhere much stronger to make things interesting at all.”
“Wait!” he said, frowning. “Are you – are you actually just leaving? Leaving dramatically? Why, I'd be almost proud if I weren't so puzzled!” An abacus appeared in the air next to his head, the beads shifting back and forth at random. “It doesn't add up! What about the power of friendship? Your dear old mentor? Surely, you can't just leave them without even saying goodbye! Why, Celestia's teeth could start to fall out any day now! You'll miss her getting fitted for her first dentures!”
“I'll pay a social visit later,” she answered absently, stepping through the portal. She sat down and gave him an appraising look – not in any kind of friendly way, either. It was the look of an alpha wolf sizing up its prey, and it actually came close to unnerving him. “There...there's a mistake I need to fix first. Without Rainbow Dash, they're useless to me. I'll keep them out of harm's way for now.” The wormhole began to narrow, then jerked to a halt. That look was back – not the look of a wolf, but the look of a black hole like the kind young stars saw in their nightmares. “And, Discord...”
“I assume this will be about my browsing in your library?”
“If I were you, I'd hope – for my own sake – that Rainbow Dash somehow survived.” She grinned. He noticed how uncannily wolflike her teeth were now. Kelpielike? They were both carnivores, he supposed. “I might even try to make myself useful and search for her. Or, Discord – I'd run.” That giggle again – more of a chuckle, really. “I'd run until I couldn't find anywhere else to run to, and then I'd keep running, because I'm starting to remember some of my spells from the War of Nightmares.”
“Erm...”
“Until we see each other again, Dissy.” The wormhole began to narrow again. “I hope you pick somewhere fun to hide...”
The wormhole closed, the wound in space healing and sealing like it had never been there at all. He floated somberly in silence for a few moments. That...she had sounded serious. Deadly serious. And 'dangerously off-kilter” was not a description he'd ever found apt for her before, as Twilight or Alpha Centauri. Something had changed, that was certain – however thick the skein of Twilight's personality was still, it had had a hole punched straight through it to something much less friendly and forgiving. He felt a faint tingle of genuine concern. No, worry. It was something that wouldn't hesitate to challenge a foundational power like himself, however insane the idea might be...and might even win. Getting mixed up in this business with Rainbow Dash had been a bad mistake, however enjoyable mucking about in interstellar politics again had been.
In a puff of smoke, he was dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and had a large weather-beaten suitcase in either hand, with a fishing rod clutched in his tail; a pair of sunglasses perched atop the raffia hat that now crowned his head. He almost shivered, and a fuzzy sweater popped into existence around him. Great Lights, she really was Alpha Centauri! Shivering! Fear! Nobody before or since had ever been able to make him feel like that, not even Caelum herself!
Perhaps it's time for a short vacation from this orderly little mudball, he thought, trying to distract himself. A thousand years in one place is a bit much, after all. Indeed it was! He had to move on, pull up his nascent roots and find a new set of creatures to bother. Ah, but what about Fluttershy? Much as he hated to admit it, the little yellow flap-flap had been growing on him. The rabbit, though...he could live without the rabbit. Whoever had first pulled that misnamed little rodent out of a hat had made a grave miscalculation. Was the rabbit enough of a justification to prop up his illusion that he would flee Equestria uncoerced?
The answer, of course, was an ominously dramatic nope.
I wonder what the fishing's like in Andromeda this time of year, he thought. That's far enough, right? Perhaps the Tadpole Galaxy? Am I willing to tolerate that many amphibians for an indefinite time period? Oh, boiled mushrooms, it would be an indefinite time period, wouldn't it? She was a star now. That meant immortality, persistent grudges, and bad gas. Not a combination that lent itself well to forgiveness. She wouldn't forget this little promise. Perhaps he should put more distance between himself and her. Abell, out in Horologium, maybe. Markarian was nice and isolated. Zee-eight?
He had the sneaking suspicion that, if Rainbow Dash actually was dead irreversibly, even there wouldn't be far enough away.
Will Discord finally be taken down a peg in this story soon?
I don't know about not having a carrier particle. I mean, the graviton hasn't been detected yet, but the Higgs Boson also was pretty hard to find. Still, unknown physics, author fun.
A pair of pills! Go Discord! Show that 4th wall who's boss!
Wait Discord tried WHAT with Caelum? No wonder he's not welcome. And how does he even get drunk?
Ah yes, electroweak. Wonder if she's got access to the 3-fold Grand Unification Force or the 4-fold Superforce as well.
Yeah, Rainbow really wasn't herself by the end of that was she? In more ways than one.
Young stars saw in their nightmares. Lovely! It must be terrible for massive stars like Eta Carinae and Betelgeuse, since they live so short and that nightmare is real for them. Though I wonder about stars so massive that when they die the core is blown apart by the radiation, leaving a nebula with no remanent.
I absolutely love the way you write Discord. He'd better flap-flap away if he doesn't want to learn the average core temperature of a neutron star.
BAD GAS! I get it! Also, with that mention of distant galaxies, I now have to wonder what the Great Attractor is. Current theories put it as a large amount of dark matter, but...
3927677
I'd say he just was
3927718
Discord's time on Domhan was characterized by poor judgment, late nights, and offending the almighty. And as a physical incarnation of disharmony, I imagine he gets drunk just the same as the rest of us - by being filled with large quantities of fermented liquids!
From what I've read, the Great Attractor seems to primarily be the effects of the Shapley Supercluster and Norma galaxy cluster, which are both incredibly dense. There was mention of a possible other supercluster or cluster hiding off in that region of space, too. I personally prefer the Xeelee explanation of a giant ring to escape the universe through when it dies
Wow. Never imagined you'd manage to make Twilight seem ready to go to the same lengths Dash did for her friend, but you did it in one chapter. Very good scary Twilight writing.
3928559 Actually it's for Alpha's sister beta, Dash would just be the tool Twilight would prefer to use.
And Dash really needs to still be taken down a peg or two.
3929025
Beta can take another century in prison; the elements will eventually be an option again. Twilight's smart and patient. Pretty sure it was Dash being dead forever that got her.
3929653 Honestly in my opinion, with Dash being so recklessly rash, I think she got what she deserved... at least to be used as the tool she is. Thow in a way she does remind me of a certain team in episode one of mlp that tried to convince her to join. I mean can you see how far down the rabbit hole she's gone so far?
3929896
Dash was unstable from what Beta did to her, it really isn't her fault.
3930190 No she still chose to act on impulse rather than actually try and reason out what she was doing, as she should have. I mean if she had just gone to Celestia and told her that whatever the creature was that called herself beta did to her, caused her past selves to come to the surface and are now fighting A pitched battle with her current personality.
Maybe just maybe she wouldn't be in the shitty ass predicament she finds herself now.
And don't say it wasn't her fault. it's like being drunk and accidentally crashing into someone while driving. it's still your fault for driving while inebriated in the first place.
3930262
She made poor tactical decisions, maybe, but her strategic plan (rescue Twilight at all costs) is admirable. Considering that her opposition is pretty much every divine being she meets, it's unsurprising she is in a poor position.
Honestly, when you consider that the alter ego stuff was caused by outside forces, she's done impossibly well. She crossed the impassible-to-mortals distance while retaining the ability to interact with the physical world. Her only obligation is to the being keeping her alive. I can't even conceive of an alternative way of reaching Donhan alive without patronage from the unhelpful local deities. She has yet to be asked to do anything less than heroic, and at this point getting lots of attention is the best way to find Twilight, who is more or less the only one who might offer support in freeing herself.
What mistakes has she really made beyond poor diplomacy with aloof immortals while some actively work to hurt her case? Diplomacy is clearly not her strength, but she has seemingly gotten closer to Twilight with every step.
3927906 He needs to be taken down a peg more then that.
3930955 ifrst of all the moon, wants to kill both of the suns on the planet, and free itself from it's prison. it wants Dash to have an alias so that it can sneak herself into a position to where she can be forced to help it escape. then it will continue using her most likely so that it can have an advantage against Twilight.
3931072
Her sole interaction with a sun of Domhan was overwhelmingly negative. At this point it's her biggest foe, since its what took Twilight. She still has no reason to believe Twilight is one of the suns or more than a prisoner. The moon may have suspicious motives, but she has no reason to think the sun is better (though she doesn't know, the sun is pretty terrible at ruling).
3931169 and when she learns how it all is it will be that much worse for her, that is what I'm waiting for.
3931173
What do you mean? She seemed pretty aware that she is on the losing side of the deal right now, and that the spirit is untrustworthy. Learning that Twilight is OK and really a sun is pretty ideal; her only hope is a shift in the dynamic of her and the spirit, and learning that she need not worry for her friend gives her both flexibility and an ally who is the most likely to have a means of helping her.
Of course Ghaelach will likely end up trying to sabotage any reunion and push them into conflict. But Rainbow Dash is the Element of Loyalty, and at that point the primary challenge is arguably one of Loyalty. While I wouldn't assume any supernatural benefit to that, it is in some ways a challenge tailored just for her. Of course the odds are looking poor right now... If they weren't the story of the two friends overcoming them would be less interesting.
Your overall stance is that Dash is an idiot who should get what seems to be coming to her. Mine is that she acted like Rainbow Dash would act, and that not only is she heroic, but that being the kind of person who makes some of those mistakes is part of why she's heroic.
To be a little more clear:
I think that the very traits causing her to make some mistakes (her willingness to go such insane lengths for her friend), will ultimately be to her benefit by the end of the story. Loyalty may seem to be leading to her being pretty screwed right now, but in the long run I think it will save the day.
3930262
There is a line, nay a canyon, between psychosis and inebriation. It would have been better for Rainbow to go to Celestia instead of Discord, however in her ailed state she believed there was no time for that.
3931438 Atleast we understand and respect each other's side of the issue. anyway the reason I don't like Rainbow Dash's brashness, is mainly her method of trying to to what she thinks and know's is right.
If somepony were to kill Celestia simply because they misinterpreted an invite to tea for a court order for slavery who would you think was the hero of the story?
Rainbow Dash would kill Caelum, Alpha's mother just to get Twilight back. I honestly don't think twi would be happy in the end if Rainbow Dash managed to succeed in that endeavor.
3931762 and I'm guessing in her ailed state it wouldn't have come to her that it was already too late to do anything that would save twilight immediately?
also while inebriated, you're just as bad, because you're judgement is skewed, in psychosis you're mind is seeing things that aren't there. since rainbow dash doesn't have any patience, she wouldn't take those few seconds to realize that she could if barely tell the difference between the real world and the fake one. just like if a drunk person is determined enough they can look, act, sound, and work normally. even though on the inside they are probably all kinds of dizzy.
3931793
Pretty sure there was no expectation on either side that Rainbow Dash would kill Caelum (even if she won somehow). She probably intended just to rough her up. Physical violence obviously was not helpful, but she was frustrated and Caelum was lying; it's not like continued debate was getting anywhere.
But my point has always been this: she did something very, very stupid because she refused to back down or accept stonewalling from even Caelum. But when Ghaelach tries its very best to convince her to harm Twilight, perhaps even threatening to let her die, which pony is more likely to obey Ghaelach instead doing every last, painful thing to disobey? Rainbow Dash, or the theoretical pony that let the lie go.
I think what bugs you most, though, is that she acts in ignorance. I tend to agree that it's a good idea to see the full picture and gather information, but acting immediately has some advantages, too. I would take a guess that you much prefer Twilight's response to her missing friend.
3931855 Or she would be lied to by Ghaelach and Rainbow Dash would attack alpha, not realizing that Alpha really was Twilight as well. I mean if she would be dumb enough to attack caelum and let firefly drive her into a rage forcing her to hit both princesses, I don't doubt that Ghaelach would be able to trick her into hurting her friend.
3931875
I'd say that acting without hesitation isn't the same as being gullible. Plus, the whole thing about attacking Caelum was because she refused to let the lie/omission go.
3931958 if she isn't gullible, then why does she not believe that her friend would be able to take care of herself? Twilight is the most powerful pony of their group of friends, even if Rainbow Dash does prove herself superior in several area's, yet she still would not allow Twilight to prove that she can take care of herself even under duress.
and honestly she didn't realize that trying to make Caelum do anything she didn't want to would be a bad Idea. she should have just let Caelum get away with the lie without pressing the issue, and found a different way of achieving her goal.
3932015
Just because a friend is capable doesn't mean they might never need help. (Pretty sure that was the lesson of an MLP episode...)
But that's the thing. Her goal is so impossibly hard. There are likely to still be impossible obstacles. What happens when there is no different way? Rainbow Dash would never give up. And even if it wasn't smart, it's who Rainbow Dash is. She got her cutie mark doing something everyone said was impossible. She was part of the group that defeated Nightmare Moon with artifacts that were mere legend. Her goal is to join the most elite of the elite fliers. What if she'd thought to herself "I'll never save Rarity, she's fallen too far, and we'd hit the ground anyway" and tried to think of another way? Twilight's the kind of hero who finds the hidden solution to the impossible challenge, but Rainbow Dash is the kind who simply succeeds at the challenge through determination.
alright with the falling Rainbow knew that she had the physical capacity to do it the Loyalty was whether or not she would do it, considering how Rarity was raining on her parade with her butterfly wings.
also there is not giving up, and just plain hitting a wall with your head until one or the other breaks.
Not giving up is continuing to run through you're options until eventually you find the one option that lets you succeed, whereas the other is more along the lines of the type of people you commonly put in the insane asylum because they are a danger to themselves and those around them.
Rainbow Dash in cannon has some Tact otherwise she would not have questioned Lightning Dust when they made the tornado. Nor would she have actually volunteered to quite the wonderbolts once she realized that they had accepted someone like lightning dust.
her goals are tempered by understanding, and as it is I don't see much of that from Rainbow Dash. just some noticing and Blind charging.
3932114
Rainbow in the cartoon is pretty dumb when she's not in the lead role. It's a kids cartoon with only so much time per episode. I prefer to view it in broad strokes, otherwise 99% of fics (including most of the best ones) the ponies are wildly out of character.
And Rainbows objection to Dust was her disregard of others.
As to the fall... She failed the Rainboom over and over again. She hadn't done it since her childhood. There was no reason to think trying it again would work. It was suicidal to rely on it to succeed.
3932754 Even so, at least she had done it once she could do it again.
Wheras forcing information out of a god via beating. yea she's had no experience doing it before.
3932782
Can't succeed if you don't try. Her bullheaded survival of the aftermath (also impossible to survive) was what impressed Ghaelach, right? Sometimes showing that you're willing to fight matters more socially than actually winning.
3932881 what show's more amongst others is a sense of self preservation. without that. a person can become extremely expendable.
3932937
Depends, really. Those wolves would probably respect her fighting instead of backing down. It also reduces the leverage Ghaelach has; the spirit can't threaten her with letting her die if she will be likely to call the bluff.
3932988 it really does depend, based on what the author will do with the information that is already there.