Alicorn

by Aldea Donder

02. Worlds Fall Apart

ALICORN
by Aldea Donder

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is property of Hasbro, Inc.
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CHAPTER TWO
Worlds Fall Apart

Originally Published 7/14/2011

She was trapped, she was suffocating, she had to get out, if she stayed here another minute she was gonna lose it, she had to get out, she had to get out RIGHT NOW.

So she did.

Out she went, out through the window, and up, and up, so high nopony on the ground could see her, because she didn’t want to be seen, not like this, not while she had tears on her face and a horn coming out of her head and her mom and dad weren’t really her parents and Celestia didn’t want her so she gave her away as a foal oh goddesses why

The wind clawed at her, tangling the orange and yellow of her mane, but she didn’t care, she just wanted to be home, she just wanted to be alone someplace she could think, because she couldn’t think right now with all this wind and Truth howling in her ears, she couldn’t she couldn’t she couldn’t—

gave me away, gave me away, gave me away

She flew and she flew and she didn’t stop until she threw her shoulder against the door of her cloud house, and in she stumbled, legs flailing underneath her like greased lead, her hoof grasping for the knob, desperate to shut it, shut it out, shut the whole world out, she didn’t want to think about it anymore, shut it out, it wasn’t true, shut it out, shut it out shut it out shut it out shut it out SHUT IT OUT SHUT IT OUT SHUT IT OUT

Her legs buckled, the room tilted up to meet her, the granite corner of the table caught her haunch and dug a swath of pain across the left side of her body, her mouth wrenched open in an anguished yelp, and a heartbeat later, she was flat on the floor with her cheek pressed against the tile and a twinge blossoming in the wing she’d landed on. She heard something go wobble-wobble-wobble and her eyes shot open, her head lifting just in time to see the picture on the table she’d knocked go tumbling off. She reached out to catch it, but it fell right through her hooves. It fell right through and it hit the floor and it shattered, it shattered into a million pieces, it shattered and the glass went everywhere, but the photograph stuck in the damaged frame and she lunged for it, not even caring if she cut her stomach and got blood all over the broken glass, because it was shattered, it was shattered and there was no way it would ever be whole again.

Her hooves found the picture, and she picked it up and clutched it to her chest. Something caught in her throat, half gasp and half sob, as she looked down at it with bleary eyes.

The elderly pegasus couple in the photograph smiled back at her.

The same as they always did.

all a lie, everything, all a lie, mom, dad, why didn’t you ever

“I’m sorry,” her voice trembled out. “S-Sorry…”

gave me away, gave me away as a foal, gave me away and never told me, all this time, never said anything, why, why, why

“TANK!” she shouted, hoarsely.

She climbed unsteadily back to her hooves. Her wing still hurt and so did every other part of her, she needed Tank, she shambled on over to the stairs and started taking them two at a time, she needed Tank, she reached the landing and poked her head in the bedroom, the guest room, the closet, she needed Tank, she needed Tank, she needed—

Probably at Fluttershy’s.

The lone, logical thought surfaced on the sea of her emotions. But still there, roiling just beneath the tide: what was wrong with me, not good enough, not good enough, gave me away, not good enough, why, why, why

She stumbled into the bathroom, still in the vain hope of tracking down her tortoise. Her hoof fumbled for the switch. Light filled the room. When her eyes adjusted, there was no tortoise to be found.

But she did see her reflection.

The horn spiraled upward, seven inches from base to tip. It wasn’t a fat, stubby thing, like so many unicorn horns she had seen. It was slender and graceful, cyan blue, and when she turned her head just right, it caught the light and shimmered with all the colors of the rainbow.

She stared at it with something between awe and horror. A fearful hoof came up to test it, prodding it gently.

It didn’t move.

She tried again, more forcefully this time.

It still didn’t move. It stood there, tall and gleaming, as resolute as reality itself.

A reality she could never, ever cover up.

She sank to the floor with her back against the wall, despair pressing in on her. Her throat was tight. She couldn’t breathe. She gasped for air as though she were drowning, tears breaking against the bathroom floor.

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

A cold wind swept up and down the halls of Canterlot Castle, rocking through the ancient timbers, along the chill-touched stones. Everything was darkness, and all the world a blue melancholy as by the stained glass oriels, Celestia traipsed. A thousand years of glossy history peered down at her: laws passed, treaties made, peace fought for and won. But she walked past them all with her head held low, thoughtless of all her exploits but the one seventeen years ago that was wrapped around her heart, squeezing so hard, she couldn’t feel anything else.

Her hooves pattered, her breath hitched, and she didn’t hear any of it. Only her inner monologue, drenched with hate, SCREAMING at herself. She roamed the corridors and all she could see was Rainbow Dash cowering in the corner, struggling to get away.

She was ANGER! She was RAGE! Rage at herself, at how PATHETIC she was, and how STUPID!

‘Not in her blood?’ NOT IN HER BLOOD?

And oh, to think how FREELY she’d given herself over to that CONVENIENT misassumption! When Nightmare Moon returned to stalk her dreams—when she peered into the cradle and caught a vision of Luna, so trusting, so helpless—

When a week turned to a fortnight, and a fortnight to a month, and the leaves of autumn were covered up by snow, and there was still no sign—how EASY it had been to go along with it! To trust the ‘experts’ and let herself be convinced. IDIOT! She wasn’t pureblooded! Only a quarter of her was alicorn. OF COURSE her maturity might be delayed!

“Your Majesty?”

Celestia halted mid-stride, barely turning her head to acknowledge the guard.

“Forgive me, Princess,” he addressed her. “Captain Armor notified us you were away on a diplomatic errand, and that we shouldn’t expect you back for several days yet.”

“I’m back now.”

Celestia’s voice was curt and barely restrained. The guard wisely picked up on it, deferring with a bow as he took an obeisant step backwards. “Of course, Princess. My apologies.”

“Guard.”

He dutifully lifted his eyes. No oblique glances this time: Celestia’s hawk-like gaze was on him, full-bore.

“Post yourself down the hall. If anypony should come looking for me, do not admit them. Under no circumstances am I to be disturbed.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Celestia continued on her way with nary another word. A minute later, she found the knob on her study door and slipped inside.

She stood perfectly still for a moment.

Then she erupted.

“AIUUUUUUUUUUAAAAARRRRRGHGHHHHH!”

Her hoof found the marble bust and flung it across the room before she even put eyes on it, and it SMASHED against the fireplace in an explosion of debris. Her horn blazed with magic, snatching up an armchair in her levitation aura and bringing it CRASHING down over the coffee table, even as she ripped the books from the shelves. The books littered the floor. The table cracked down the middle, throwing off splinters.

There was a mirror mounted on the wall next to her, and she barely had time to glimpse her own APOCALYPTIC expression before her hoof went once through the glass, then again, and AGAIN, and AGAIN—

She sank to her haunches, nursing her bloodied foreleg with its embedded glittering shards, emptying her heart and soul onto the floor as another anguished scream WRENCHED out of her—

‘It WOULDN’T happen!’

‘It COULDN’T happen!’

IT HAD HAPPENED.

And now the girl’s whole life was destroyed—her dreams obliterated—her future blown to pieces—and she would never be forgiven for any of it.

She didn’t deserve to be forgiven.

Through her grief, Celestia spied what little was left of the marble bust. The carved and polished likeness of herself had been brought to rubble, fragments of her noble face dashed beyond recognition. A fate justly earned.

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

“How long ago did you say it was?”

“Can’ta been fifteen minutes ago. I tell ya, Twi, they were real anxious to find her. I don’t blame ’em. T’ain’t right, her bein’ alone right now.”

Twilight tapped her chin, her brows knitted. Above her, perched atop one of the many bookcases in the Golden Oaks Library, Owlowiscious rotated his head to peer down on them with interest.

“You’re sure it was the same guards who’ve been posted outside the hospital for the past few days?” the unicorn pressed.

Applejack nodded. “It was them, all right. I’ve been seein’ some more of their kind comin’ into town on the Friendship Express since the weekend, too. I expect they’re all out and about searchin’ the town right now.”

“You aren’t wrong to be worried,” said Twilight.

“Well, when a couple unicorns in golden armor come bangin’ on the door of my farmhouse, wakin’ up Granny Smith, I’m gonna be worried regardless. I don’t get it, though. Princess Celestia’s been by her bedside this whole time, hasn’t she? How could she have given’ her the slip like that?”

“It is Rainbow Dash we’re talking about,” Spike pointed out.

“It is Rainbow Dash, but Applejack’s right. That doesn’t mean she should be by herself after everything that’s happened,” Twilight said. “We should—”

There was a loud BANG-BANG-BANG, and all four pairs of eyes turned to the front door.

Twilight cast the others a wary look before getting up to answer it. She stuck her head outside. “Oh! Good day, gentlecolts! …Actually, yes, I did hear you were looking for her. …No, I’m sorry, I’m afraid she isn’t here. If we see her, you’ll be the first ponies we… Oh. Um…”

She looked over to Spike and Applejack. “Can either of you think of any place she might have gone?”

“Her house?” Spike suggested helpfully.

Twilight shook her head. “They say they’ve already checked her house.”

Applejack pulled her stetson low over her eyes, slouching unhappily in her chair. “T’ain’t right, any of this,” she muttered.

With a grimace, Twilight went back to talking to the guards. “No, I’m sorry, I guess we can’t think of anywhere else she might have… Okay… No, that’s not a problem. I have Spike—my baby dragon—with me. I can have him send a letter if she turns up… Okay, will do. Okay. Okay. Yes, we’ll keep our eyes out, thank you. Good luck, officers.”

She closed the door. Her head drooped.

“We need to find her,” she said flatly.

Applejack was on her hooves in an instant. “That’s the most sensible thing I’ve heard you say yet! What’s the plan?”

“You make the rounds around town. The Carousel Boutique and Sugarcube Corner first, then anywhere else you can think of. I’ll use my cloudwalking spell to go to her house.”

Spike interrupted, “But you said the guards already checked—”

“She’s our friend,” Twilight said with a note of exasperation. “I don’t care if they already checked. We’re going to double-check, just to make sure.” She looked back at Applejack. “We can meet up at Fluttershy’s cottage. Hopefully, one of us will find her.”

Applejack nodded. “All right, Twi. Best of luck to both of us.”

She was out the door in a hurry. Twilight allowed herself half a moment to collect herself before gathering Spike on her back and setting out the door as well, her lips pressed together with worry.

What’s going on with you, Rainbow Dash? she wondered.

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

It didn’t take them long to make the short journey out of town to Rainbow’s cloud house. Spike sauntered up the path and rapped his scaly knuckles against the door while Twilight tied down the hot air balloon.

“Hellooooo? Is anypony home?” he called.

There was no reply.

Soon enough, Twilight joined him at his side. “Any luck?”

“Nope. It’s just like the guards told you. I don’t think she’s here.”

“Or maybe she just doesn’t want visitors,” Twilight speculated. Frowning, she tried her own luck knocking on the door. “Rainbow Dash? Are you in? It’s us—Twilight and Spike!”

Still no answer.

Spike pressed his nose up against a window, struggling to see inside. Twilight just turned the handle. She had expected to find it locked and to have to finagle it open with her magic, but to her surprise, there was no such obstacle. The door opened without protest.

“Huh. That’s kind of peculiar,” said Spike.

Privately, Twilight agreed, but she bit down on her apprehensions for the time being. Perhaps the guards had taken license to invite themselves in when they’d swung by earlier.

They entered the house. Almost immediately, Twilight heard something go crunch under her front left hoof, eliciting a small wince of pain. She stuck out her foreleg to bar Spike from going any farther.

“Be careful,” she cautioned him. “There’s broken glass here.”

The little dragon picked up his feet. Sure enough, the floor next to the entrance was strewn with tiny shards, which glittered as they caught the daylight shining in from outside.

Spike rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Double peculiar. Oh, wow, are you okay? That didn’t hurt, did it?”

Twilight made a face. She lifted the affected leg and rubbed her sole against the neighboring hoof, causing a few powdery motes of glass to come off. “I’ll be fine. Just watch your step, okay?”

“No arguments there!”

They took a few seconds to look around the airy foyer.

Twilight had never been to Rainbow’s house before. It was a difficult place to reach without wings, and the usual parties and get-togethers among friends were much more easily accomplished at Sugarcube Corner or Sweet Apple Acres. She was taken aback at just how beautiful it was. The architecture was so exquisite, so refined, so… un-Rainbow-like. From the polished blue cloudwalls to the tall, fluted columns with their volutes and their plinths, every surface waltzed a graceful arc, not a hard edge or a corner to be seen.

It was all so delicate, and so very, very fragile.

And yet, even though it seemed at odds with her friend’s brash, swashbuckling personality, Twilight knew from Applejack and Fluttershy that Rainbow had built this place herself.

A frown creased her brow as she pondered that.

“Rainbow Dash? Hello?” Spike tried calling out again. His voice echoed back on him, unanswered.

“Why don’t you try looking for her upstairs?” Twilight suggested.

“I’m pretty sure she isn’t here, Twilight. She would have said something.”

“Spike,” Twilight said firmly. “Go look for her upstairs.”

Her tone of voice brooked no room for argument. Grumbling and shaking his head, he legged it up the steps.

Twilight’s frown deepened as she swept her gaze across the broken glass again. She levitated a piece and examined it meticulously, holding the oblong shard up to the light.

A minute passed. Behind her, she heard the pitter-patter of little dragon feet coming back down again. “No sign of her,” said Spike.

“This wasn’t forced entry. I’m sure of it.”

“Who said it was?”

“For one thing, none of the windows are broken. For another, this isn’t pegasus-enchanted glass, so it can’t have come from the superstructure.”

Spike looked at her oddly. “Um, no duh? This is Ponyville. Like, the safest town in the history of really safe towns? Preeeeetty sure there aren’t a lot of burglars in the neighborhood. Let alone burglars who can reach a floating house two hundred feet in the air.”

Twilight put down the piece of glass. “I’m just being thorough.”

“Hmph. Being paranoid is more like it. Who would even want to break into Rainbow’s house, anyway? Aside from, like… some kind of crazy Wonderbolts memorabilia collector, or somethin’. ”

“Things change, Spike.”

She turned her eyes to the window to avoid his curious look. Outside, the sun was near its midday height, and the whole world was bright as can be. All except for the shadows of the house’s pinnacles, which draped across the cumulus lawn in long, shady stripes.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” asked Spike.

“It means I’m not taking anything for granted. This situation is already beyond stupid… She even shouldn’t be out there, alone and unsupervised, after suffering a neurological trauma like that. And—”

The sun hid behind a cloud, and an overcast darkness engulfed the pinnacle shadows. Her voice died along with the light.

“Yeah? And what?”

She hesitated. Two beats. Three.

“There’s… a reason why princesses have guards,” she said finally.

Spike stared at her. By the time he burst out laughing, she was already halfway to the door. “Bwahaha! You aren’t being serious right now, are you? Please tell me you aren’t being serious!”

“Enough, Spike.”

“Pa-ra-noid! Hey, hold on a sec—what’s that?”

Spike was a lot shorter than Twilight, which made it easy for him to spot the small, rectangular object lying forgotten under the little table by the door. He got down on claws and knees, grabbed it, and handed it to her.

It was a picture frame. An empty picture frame, by the looks of it, for there was no picture in it. And a broken one: it was obvious now the fragments on the floor were what was left of the glass inset.

“Mystery solved, courtesy of the Spike Detective Service!”

Twilight shook her head. “Now I’m even more worried.”

“Seriously? Oh, come on!”

She set the picture frame down gingerly on the table before heading outside. Spike raced to keep up with her. Briefly, they paused on the doorstep, and Twilight used her magic to lock up the house.

“You worry too much,” said Spike. “This is Rainbow Dash we’re talking about. You know Rainbow Dash, right? Total athlete? Black belt in karate? Fastest pony in the world? If anypony picked a fight with her, they’d be in for a total butt kicking. Not that anypony would.”

“I’m just worried about her in the condition she’s in. She shouldn’t have left the hospital without telling anypony. Now she’s disappeared, and we have no idea where she’s gone.”

“I’ll bet she’s fine! She’s probably flying high, practicing an awesome new trick right now! And besides—” He made a sweeping gesture with his arms. “This is Equestria! Nothing bad ever happens here.”

“I hope you’re right.”

Twilight peered up at the dizzying heights of the cloud house. Daylight filtered through the variegated waterfall spouting off the top, casting a prism of colors across the white turf. She looked back at Spike.

“It won’t stop me from being concerned, though. Call me paranoid all you want. The world isn’t all sunshine and rainbows.”

Worry weighed on Twilight’s mind as she ushered Spike back into the hot air balloon. She paused for a moment to glance over her shoulder and give the cloud house one last rueful look. Then she climbed in after him, working on autopilot as she magically adjusted the outlet on the parachute valve. The two of them began to descend.

The plan, of course, was for them to head straight to Fluttershy’s cottage to link up with Applejack. That changed when Spike leaned over the basket, a claw raised to his brow as he squinted at the ground. “Look!”

Twilight looked. Then, frowning, she piloted the hot air balloon down to the earth. A pair of voices came gradually into earshot:

“I thought you said you was gonna bring a ladder.”

“I did bring a ladder! Whaddaya call that thing right there, genius?”

“Uh… It looks like a slide you pushed all the way here from your mom and dad’s back yard.”

“Well… Yeah! But it’s got a ladder on it, see? You’ve gotta climb up the ladder before you can slide down it, don’t ya?”

“Um… I don’t know. I don’t think it’s gonna be tall enough…”

“SNIPS! SNAILS!” Twilight called out. She set the balloon down, anchored it with a flick of her magic, and trotted over to them.

The two young colts shared a look. Their eyes lit up, and a pair of grins flashed across their faces.

“Hi, Twilight!” said Snails.

“Yeah! Hi, Twilight!” said Snips. “What brings you out here today?”

Twilight frowned at each of them in turn. “I could ask both of you the same. Town is miles away. What are you doing out here? Do your parents know where you are?”

That line of questioning wiped the joy of Snips’ face. “Uh… Well, actually, it’s like this…”

“We’re trying to get up to Rainbow Dash’s house so we can talk to her!” Snails blurted out. Snips shot him a glare.

“Why?” Twilight asked.

Snips rubbed the back of his head. “Um… Er… Y’see…”

“We was hoping to score an interview for the Foal Free Press!” Snails said. This time, the look Snips gave him was pure venom.

“You two are with the Foal Free Press?” Twilight asked skeptically.

Snails stuck out his chest, puffed up with pride. “We’re reporters!”

“And you want to interview Rainbow Dash… why?”

“Uh… Well, I mean, practically the whole town saw her get carried into the hospital the other day, screaming and yelling and stuff… It’s kind of a big news event, you know?”

“Yeah!” Snips agreed. “I heard Princess Celestia was there, too! I heard she flew into Ponyville, and she’s been in the hospital room with her ever since!”

“What’s up with that?”

“I know, right? Oh! And I also heard when they brought her to the hospital, she was crying for her mommy! Totally uncool, huh?”

Snails snickered. “Yeah! And all this time, I thought she was supposed to be… uh… cool, and stuff.”

“I’m totally questioning her image now!” said Snips.

“I heard,” said Snails, “the reason she was in the hospital was because she grew a unicorn horn out of her head.”

Twilight’s heart skipped a beat. “Who told you that?”

“Um… I dunno. It’s all over town.”

“Yeah! Everypony’s talkin’ about it!”

“Uh-huh! Diamond Tiara thinks it would make a great story for the next Gabby Gums column!”

Snips elbowed his buddy in the side. “Jeeze, Snails! You don’t gotta tell her everything, y’know!”

“Ouch! S-Sorry.”

“Um… Hey, Twilight, d’ya think you could give us a ride up to Rainbow Dash’s house in that balloon of yours?” asked Snips, putting on his finest pout.

“Oh! Hey! That’s a great idea, Snips! We’ve been tryin’ to get up there for an hour now!”

“I brought a ladder—”

“Slide.”

“But it ain’t tall enough, see? With your help, though, we could be up there lickety-split, real fast-like!”

“And then we can interview Rainbow Dash for the column!”

“Yeah! Diamond Tiara says this story’s sure to move papers! And the people, they got a right to know!”

“The people’s got a right to know what’s going on with Rainbow Dash,” said Snails, nodding in agreement.

“It’s a reporter’s job to cover big stories like this! It’s about responsibility!”

“Ethics!”

“Journalistic integrity!”

“And if we sells a lotta copies, Diamond Tiara says she’ll cut us in on a portion of the revenues on the paper!”

The candid remark earned Snails another punch in the ribs.

“Ow!”

Twilight had spent less than two minutes listening to the little rabble-rousers spew their guts, and she could already feel the twinge of a headache blossoming behind her eyes. Irrespective of that, she couldn’t allow this to go on. She had to get out ahead of it; to defuse it before Snips and Snails took their story to print, and the situation blew up into something even worse.

She made a theatrical show of shaking her head. “Honestly, I’ve never heard anything more preposterous in my life!”

“P-Preposterous?” Snips stammered.

“Preposterous,” Twilight affirmed. “Rainbow Dash, growing a horn… Ha! You two have quite the imagination.” She smiled down at them good-naturedly and hoped they bought it.

It was a hard sell. “But we didn’t come up with it! Everypony in town—”

“Rainbow Dash fell and hit her head. She was taken to the hospital because she was hurt. That’s all.”

“Yeah, but—!”

“That’s all.” Now Twilight allowed the look on her face to shift to something closer to disapproval. “By the way, I know there’s such a thing as access journalism, but that doesn’t give you the right to access somepony’s private property. If you don’t desist trying to ambush Rainbow Dash in her home, I’m afraid I’m going to have to take it up with your parents.”

“What? No!”

“In fact, you might as well forget about this story altogether. Tomorrow, I’m going to raise the matter with Cheerilee and make sure your column is scrubbed from the pages of the Foal Free Press. The school newspaper shouldn’t be misused to violate other ponies’ privacy like this.”

“Aw, man!”

“Come on.” Twilight jerked her head. “I’ll give you a ride back to town.”

She waited for them to give up their quest and begin the reluctant trudge over to the hot air balloon. When they dithered, she rolled her eyes and levitated the slide, bringing it along with her as she started back. That was enough to motivate them, it seemed, as they hurried to keep up.

“Are you a hundred percent sure Rainbow Dash didn’t grow a horn, Twilight?” Snips asked suspiciously. “Because I’m sure I heard—”

“Rainbow Dash is fine. She’s just… recovering. And for the record, everything you’ve heard is an unsubstantiated rumor.”

“And you’re sure you can’t substantiate it?” Snails asked.

Twilight smirked. As she opened the door to let them into the basket, she gave herself an invisible pat on the pack for dealing so expertly with the situation; for keeping Rainbow Dash and Princess Celestia far away from the gnashing teeth of the press.

“No comment,” she said cheekily.

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

Meanwhile, aboard an eastbound train to Manehattan—

“…Well, you know I don’t like to spread gossip,” a tawny earth pony mare was in the middle of gossiping to her traveling companion, “but back at the Ponyville Station, when all those guards disembarked? I heard it was some kind of medical incident happened there.”

“No!” the other mare gasped into her hoof.

“Yes! Nothing contagious, mind you, but… Well, I heard it was a pegasus girl. Only rumors, but just the same… I heard it from a pair of blokes, one of ’em’s sister actually works there at the Ponyville hospital, right? According to her, this pegasus filly, she gets brought in over the weekend, all screaming in pain about her head—and by sunrise the next day, she’s had a unicorn horn sprout up out of her noggin, just like that!”

“Ahem! Pardon me, ladies…”

So wrapped up had the two mares been in their idle chitchat, neither one had paid any attention to the stallion seated across from them. Up until a second ago, all they could even glimpse of him was a pair of hooves grasping the back of a newspaper, he’d had his nose buried so deep in the A section. But now the paper lowered to reveal a sharp-eyed unicorn with roguish good looks and a press pass jammed in the ribbon of his slate-gray fedora.

“If it’s not too much trouble…” he asked, subtly levitating a notepad and quill as he flashed them a million-bit smile, “would you mind filling me in some more on the recent tidings… out of Ponyville?”

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

If Rainbow Dash had nothing else to be glad about, she could be grateful for the fact that Fluttershy’s cottage was far, far out of town. Tucked right up against the edge of the Everfree, it was about as secluded a place as she could hope for at a time like this.

That didn’t keep her eyes from darting about nervously as she crept up on the little arch bridge over the stream. She heard the sound of frogs croaking on the lily pads, and her chest tightened with anxiety. She felt a gentle breeze sweep at her bangs, and she wished her mane was normal-colored, less recognizable, like everypony else’s.

She knocked on the cottage door, anxiously checking her baseball cap as she stood there waiting. It was still propped awkwardly overtop the horn, the same as she’d left it. Probably not the best camouflage, but it got the job done. And it made her feel less vulnerable. Less exposed.

The door opened.

“Rainbow Dash! You’re all right!”

Fluttershy’s hooves were instantly around her, sweeping her up in a desperate hug. Rainbow Dash cringed to hear her name announced to the world in what, for Fluttershy, amounted to a relatively loud voice. Her mind was at work imagining ponies staring at her from behind the trees and bushes, silently judging her. She stiffened in her friend’s embrace.

“H-Hey, Fluttershy…” she mumbled into that taffy-pink mane.

“You were so hurt before, and we were all so scared—none of us knew what was wrong—”

She forced herself to let go. Rainbow didn’t miss the tears in her eyes.

“Do you feel okay? You aren’t in any pain now, are you?

“Yeah, I’m… I’m good. C-Can I come in?”

Fluttershy was slow to answer. For the first time, she had stopped to take the measure of the newly minted alicorn. Her gaze swept up to the baseball cap on Rainbow’s head, then down again to the expression of barely concealed terror on her face.

“Yes, of course,” she finally said.

On any ordinary day, Rainbow Dash might have swaggered in with confidence and bravado. That was not this Rainbow Dash. No, the wide-eyed Rainbow Dash who came slinking through the door was a different pony entirely than the one Fluttershy had known all her life. She had been swallowed up by timidness. By something dark and fearful.

“Rainbow Dash… Are you okay?” she felt it right to ask again.

“Y-Yeah. You know me. Can’t keep the Dash down!”

The corners of Rainbow’s lips wobbled, as if the fragile smile she’d plastered to her face might come crashing down at the first gust of wind. Her skittish eyes flitted to the still-open door.

“Hey, um… Do you mind closing that?”

Slowly, without looking away from Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy laid a hoof on the door and pushed it shut. Rainbow actually seemed to relax a little, even if she was still a bundle of nerves.

“I was… I was actually looking for T-Tank. Is he here?”

“He’s here,” Fluttershy said softly. “I took him home with me while you were in the hospital, so he wouldn’t get lonely or hungry… He’s been so very worried about you.”

“Can I see him?”

Fluttershy nodded. “Of course you can.”

But she made no move to go and get him.

Seconds passed, and neither one said or did anything. The moment drew out like a wire, stretched taut.

Then Fluttershy began to approach, slowly and cautiously, as if creeping up on a wounded animal who might try to bolt. Her eyes raised again to the baseball cap on Rainbow’s head. Her hoof followed her eyes.

“F-Fluttershy…”

Rainbow flinched as the hat came off.

The Truth jutted out from her forehead, undisguised. Fluttershy sucked in her breath to see it again. That spiraling horn, that impossible thing that had attached itself to her oldest friend, forever marking her as an alicorn. Forever marking her as Celestia’s own.

Rainbow shrank into herself, instinctively trying to make herself small. Her body betrayed her with a tiny whimper.

“Oh, Rainbow…”

She felt Fluttershy’s hooves wrap around her again, gathering her in another hug. Rainbow tried to pull away at first, but her resistance was quick to crumble. Before she knew it, she was burying her face in Fluttershy’s shoulder. Something was building in pressure behind her eyes—and now something was stinging her eyes, running hot and wet down her cheeks—

No! No! Not like this! A little voice in the back of her head was in open revolt. She wasn’t supposed to fall apart like this! She wasn’t supposed to cry! Not in front of Fluttershy!

“Shh. There, there. It’s okay,” Fluttershy whispered.

And Rainbow could tell, from the thickness and the slight hitch in her voice—Fluttershy was crying too.

She tried to compose herself, to keep up her defenses, but it was too much, it was just too much. All those swirling feelings of worthlessness, of rejection, were crashing against the last vestiges of her self-control, fighting to make themselves heard. Rainbow’s whole body was shaking now, her chest heaving with the trauma of everything she’d been through, with the terror of what lay ahead, with the death of her own identity and everything she thought she knew about herself, with the memory of her mom and dad, with being lied to, with being unwanted, with sob after sob that RIPPED from her lungs, until all she could do was collapse against Fluttershy, a shivering wreck.

And Fluttershy was there to hold her, to cry with her, to share in her sorrow and grief, to rock her gently and whisper that it was okay to cry, that everything was going to be all right. In her mind were all the times Rainbow Dash had ever stood up for her since their school days in Cloudsdale. All the times Rainbow Dash had been her rock, her salvation, her shoulder to lean on whenever she was afraid and alone. This time, Rainbow needed her.

“She had me, and sh-she just—gave me away! Like I was nothing!” Rainbow cried into Fluttershy’s mane.

Fluttershy rubbed her back. “I know. I know.”

“And sh-she never told me—all this time—all this time, she could have said something—and she never—sh-she never—”

Something rough and scaly pawed at Rainbow’s leg, and she looked down to see Tank standing there at her side, his little head craned to peer up at her sadly. Fluttershy let go, and she crumpled to the floor, throwing her hooves around the tortoise and weeping, and weeping. A moment later, the yellow pegasus kneeled down to join them, wrapping them both in a blanketing wing.

They stayed that way for quite some time.

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

An hour later, Twilight’s hot air balloon made touchdown on the front yard of the cottage. Applejack was already there, leaning against a fence and chewing on a sprig of wheat.

“I’m sorry we’re late,” said Twilight, collecting Spike and hurrying over. “We had to make a slight detour.”

“That’s all right. Y’all can rest easy, now. Rainbow Dash is here.”

“Oh, thank goodness! How is she?”

Applejack frowned. “I don’t rightly know, to be honest. Fluttershy wouldn’t let me in to talk to her. Said she wasn’t up to seeing anypony, and she needed time alone. I reckon that means she’s in pretty bad shape.”

“Did something else happen?” Spike wondered.

“Nothin’ else happened, as best I know. She just didn’t take the news well from Princess Celestia is all. She roused this morning sometime around sunrise. The two of them had words, she didn’t like what she was hearin’, and she high-tailed it out of there.”

“Of all the short-sighted, irresponsible things to do,” Twilight muttered.

Applejack shot her a disapproving look. “It’s Rainbow Dash. Short-sighted and irresponsible are kind of what she’s all about. In this case, though, I can’t say I blame her too much. If’n Princess Celestia gave me that pill to swallow, I think I’d need to get some air, too.”

“Well, at least we know where she is now,” said Spike.

Twilight nodded. “If Rainbow Dash isn’t taking visitors, I think we should all head home. Spike and I can send missive to the Royal Guard. We’ll let them know where she is so they can call off the search.”

“Fluttershy says she wants to be alone, Twi,” Applejack interjected. “If you tell the Guard, they’re gonna be all up in her business.”

“No, sorry, I’m not going to aid and abet her going missing! As unbelievable as it may seem, Rainbow Dash is now a princess, and technically next in the line of succession after Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. She needs to be protected. What if somepony abducted her and tried to ransom her? Or used her as leverage against Princess Celestia and the Crown?”

Applejack looked at her doubtfully. “From talkin’ to Fluttershy this morning, and from all the years I’ve known R.D. myself, seems to me the biggest threat to her health and happiness right now ain’t somepony abductin’ her. It’s the private battle she’s fightin’ in her own heart, mind, and soul. Sugarcube, we’ve got to give her some space. If y’all roll up on her with a battalion of guards, she’s gonna feel cornered, and it ain’t gonna go over well.”

“We have a responsibility to tell somepony, Applejack. You might not like it, and she might not either, but it’s what has to be done. If it really is that important, I’ll put in a request for them to keep a wide berth.”

Applejack still didn’t look convinced, but she seemed to realize it was a losing battle. Gazing out into the impenetrable green depths of the Everfree, she silently chewed on her wheat.

“Can I give you a lift back to the farm?” Twilight offered.

“Nah. I’ll walk home. Reckon I’ve got a lot of thinkin’ to do.”

“All right. Spike and I will be on our way, then. Thanks again for all your help, Applejack. Take care of yourself.”

Twilight started back toward the balloon, but a half second later, she paused, thinking better of it. With a small, sad smile on her face, she laid a reassuring hoof upon the earth pony’s shoulder.

“Rainbow Dash is strong. She’s going to come out of this all right. You’ll see. With so many good friends by her side, how could she not?”

She gave Applejack a friendly pat, and then she and Spike were off. Applejack watched them go with an uncertain expression.

“I just hope you’re right about that, Twilight,” she mumbled.

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

Day turned to night, and Rainbow Dash stood alone by herself in the solitude of Fluttershy’s bedroom, staring at her own reflection. Her mind was hard at work, sifting through old memories.

As a kid, whenever somepony crossed her—like, really, seriously got on her bad side, usually when she was defending Fluttershy against Hoops and his gang—her go-to reaction had been to beat the living snot out of them. It was a habit that had landed her in hot water quite a few times during her days in Cloudsdale, and it earned her one heck of a reputation. Even though years and years had gone by since she’d last strolled out the doors of Little Wings, she liked to imagine her left hook was still legend there.

Just how many punches she’d thrown, how many kicks and bites and bruises she’d dealt out, who could say? It was always such a rush. But reliably, every time, whenever the fight was over, and her teachers managed to pry her off Hoops or another one of his big, stupid goons, and the adrenaline had worn off, and she was sitting all alone in time-out, isolated from everypony else, just thinking over stuff—somehow, she never felt good about herself after the fact.

It was no different in this case.

To her credit, she hadn’t given Princess Celestia a black eye. Even though she kind of really wanted to.

Maybe she should have. Maybe it would have made her feel better.

…No, it wouldn’t have. If her current mood was any indication, it probably would have made her feel even worse. And anyway, she didn’t want to get thrown in a dungeon for assaulting royalty.

Would they even do that to her now…?

She stared ahead. Her own face peered back at her, full of confusion.

And the horn sparkled brilliantly atop her head.

Buck Celestia. BUCK CELESTIA! Buck Celestia and all her bucking excuses! What kind of pony turns their back on their own kid? WHO DOES THAT? That was, like, the least loyal thing you could EVER do to ANYPONY, EVER! Her own mom and dad had NEVER—

Rainbow stopped mid-thought, crashing short. She spared a heartrending glance at the photograph of her mom and dad, brought with her from her house and set beside the mirror.

She swallowed hard. “Damn it,” she muttered, looking away.

Her mouth felt dry, her stomach tied in knots. Celestia’s shame-tinged words played over and over again in her head, like a record player bleating out the same unhappy notes. And every time she happened to glance over toward the bed, she swore she caught a flicker of the princess lying there, filled with so much sadness and regret…

She groaned. If Spitfire, Soarin, and every single other Wonderbolt personally wrote her a rejection letter proclaiming how much she sucked, it wouldn’t even come close to hurting as much as this did.

And still, her heart was caught in a dreamlike dance, flowing unbidden from memory to newly awakened memory…

Stop thinking about it. Stop thinking about it. Stop thinking about it.

For the love of Celestia, how the hay could she even bucking REMEMBER anything from when she was THREE MONTHS OLD?

She sneered and made a face.

For the love of Celestia. Yeah, right.

Why was she so broken up over this?

Why did she feel so… so bucking guilty?

Why was she standing here, surrounded by ghosts and phantoms, going over the conversation again and again and again, staring into a mirror like she didn’t even know who she was?

She KNEW who she was. She was RAINBOW DASH.

AND DAMN IT, SHE WAS ANGRY.

BUCK Celestia! BUCK HER!

Turning away, she rubbed her temple, where a vein was throbbing.

I shoulda given her that black eye.

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

Pegasus ponies. Pegasus ponies with painted wings, twirling in the air above her. Pegasus ponies orbiting just beyond her grasp… She stretched out her arm to bat at them, but they were too far away, she couldn’t reach… She just couldn’t reach… She couldn’t…

A window covered in frost, with snow piling up on the ledge outside, and it was cold… So cold… But it was warm in front of the fire, nestled in those white hooves, in those wonderful white hooves that cradled her, that rocked her, that promised her she would always be loved, that she would never be alone. That warm, wonderful mare who nuzzled her, who sang to her…

And now the other pony’s hooves were picking her up, taking her away—and she cried, and she cried, and she stretched out her arm for her mommy, but she was too far away, her mommy was too far away, and she couldn’t reach! She just couldn’t reach! She couldn’t—

Rainbow bolted awake with a sob on her voice.

Her wings flared in panic. Every part of her was gasping, was trembling. The shadowy, unfamiliar shapes of Fluttershy’s bedroom stalked the dark alleys of her imagination, and it took a whimpering minute just to remember where she was before she could start to get a handle.

She hugged herself. It would be hours before she’d fall back asleep again.

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

It happened by chance that Twilight awoke before dawn the next morning. She made herself ready for the day, put the coffee on, and plonked herself down in her upstairs study, her nose buried in a historical manuscript on the alicorns of ages past.

She had only just begun her early-morning reading when she heard the rustle of leaves outside her window, and the sound of flapping wings, almost too quiet to hear. She didn’t pay it any mind. It was probably just Owlowiscious returning from the day’s first hunt.

A few moments later, there came a faint knock at the terrace door:

Rap. Rap. Rap.

She froze. That wasn’t Owlowiscious.

Rap! Rap! Rap! Again the noise came, more insistent this time. Twilight shot a glance at the clock to confirm, yes, it was indeed four in the morning. Who in their right mind would come calling at this hour? And from out on the treetop balcony, no less?

Rap! Rap! Rap!

She picked up the oil lamp. Cautiously, she edged closer to the door, holding up the light to try and cast its rays outside. “Who’s there?” she queried.

Came the response, “Twilight Sparkle, is that you?”

“Erm… Yes, it is.”

“Would you kindly let me in? It’s Luna.”

Twilight’s mouth went suddenly dry. She threw open the door to admit the lunar alicorn, immediately falling into a bow. “P-Princess!”

She could be forgiven her trepidation. Twilight could count on one hoof the number of times she’d made Princess Luna’s acquaintance: after last year’s Summer Sun Celebration, when Nightmare Moon had escaped from her thousand-year imprisonment to banish Celestia and impose eternal night, only to be thwarted by the Elements of Harmony. That had been almost ten months ago, and the tall, midnight-blue royal who debuted in front of Twilight now was nothing like the tiny filly she had appeared as back then.

Luna strolled into the Golden Oaks Library, wrapped in a raven-black cloak that somehow made her seem even more formidable. She slipped back her cowl to reveal not the ordinary azure mane Twilight remembered, but a phantasmal mane, rippling with stars, which billowed and undulated behind her in the same fashion as Celestia’s. She was every inch of her a goddess now—literally, too, for she now commanded a towering height, although Twilight noticed she still stood perhaps a head shorter than her sister.

Something new had been imbued in her since Twilight had last seen her. Or perhaps something old had been given back.

Luna held up a hoof. “Please, don’t bow. You don’t ever need to bow to me, Twilight Sparkle. Neither you, nor any of your friends.”

“Sorry. I’ll remember for next time,” Twilight said, straightening up. “It’s good to see you again, Princess Luna. What brings you to Ponyville?”

“Urgent business. Please forgive me for the earliness of the hour. I would’ve come during the day, but… Well, I imagine there’s been a lot of talk around town already, what with everything that’s happened publicly to Rainbow Dash and my sister’s involvement in her long ordeal. I didn’t wish to create further spectacle by showing up in broad daylight and giving ponies a reason to talk more. Talk can be dangerous.”

Twilight frowned. “May I ask, where is Princess Celestia? I know she spent several days by Rainbow Dash’s bedside, but she left so abruptly without telling anypony, I was concerned.”

Luna was momentarily silent at the question. Her brows knit, as if weighing answers. Twilight felt more than a little uncomfortable when the alicorn paused to give her a long, appraising look.

“On behalf of my sister and myself, I’d like to thank you for the message you sent yesterday,” Luna cordially changed the subject.

“Oh! Um… Of course.”

“It showed diligence, good judgment, and dedication your friend. Celestia’s confidence in you wasn’t misplaced.”

A smile radiated from Twilight at the high praise.

Luna continued, “You kindly shared Rainbow Dash’s whereabouts with us, so I’ll return the favor. Celestia is in Griffi’la.”

“In Griffi’la?!”

“Please, speak more quietly! I know you share this home with a baby dragon. This information mustn’t leave this room.”

Twilight looked sheepish. “Sorry. I’ll try to keep my voice down. But still… The Griffin Kingdom is practically on the other side of the world. Shouldn’t she still be in Ponyville? Or in Canterlot, at least? Somewhere she can keep a close eye on the situation here?”

“The situation here is what I’ve come to discuss,” Luna said solemnly. “Please don’t think less of Celestia. She’s on a mission of vital importance to the safety of Equestria. She had already been attending to that mission when she received the news of your friend’s Unity, and she set aside her obligations to be with Rainbow in her hour of need. Now that the hour is past, she’s returned again to Griffi’la to gather what information she can.”

Twilight took a few seconds to mull over what Luna had told her. She gave a slow nod of her head. “I understand, and I appreciate you telling me. But I’m not sure Rainbow’s hour of need is in the past.”

“I’m sure she would be here if she could. If I may say something—and I hope I don’t come across too insensitive, for I do appreciate the trauma you and your friends, and especially Rainbow Dash, have all been through—but the timing on this has just been…”

Her voice trailed off. She expelled a weary puff of air from her lungs.

“Is there something going on?” Twilight asked.

Luna smiled weakly. “Tia told me you were perceptive.”

“If there’s anything we can do to help…”

“Certain events are gathering to a focus. Events that were set in motion last year, with my—”

Luna hesitated. Twilight thought she saw her flinch.

“—with—with Nightmare Moon’s unshackling from her prison. But that isn’t for you or your friends to preoccupy yourselves with. This burden is my sister’s and mine to bear. Now, come! Tell me what you know about Rainbow Dash. How is she? What’s her state of mind?”

Twilight spent the better part of the next hour filling her in on anything and everything she could think of concerning the pegasus-turned-alicorn. Luna was an active participant throughout, frequently pressing for additional details and chiming with questions whenever she thought of them. They talked far beyond Rainbow’s recent medical episode and her mental and emotional health, although those too were discussed. Luna seemed intensely interested in forming a fuller picture of Rainbow Dash in every respect. To that end, they discussed everything from her childhood in Cloudsdale, to her aspirations of joining the Wonderbolts, to her sonic rainboom.

When Twilight recounted how Rainbow had cried out for her mother in the hours of fevered anguish before her horn had grown, Luna nodded and tapped her chin sagely.

“It’s a natural reaction brought on by the genesis of the horn,” she explained. “As you witnessed, Unity can rob a pony of their wits and defenses, leaving them vulnerable. Who protects the child, then? The parent does, of course. Consequently, there’s a visceral psychological craving for the maternal figure approaching the hour of transformation. In the olden days, when I grew up, it wasn’t uncommon for an alicorn facing Unity to be completely inconsolable if they didn’t feel the touch of their mother’s skin.”

“So it was all just… endorphins and magic, then,” Twilight observed. “All of it was biological, instinctive.”

“In essence. You have to understand, though, the process usually happens a lot faster, and when the alicorn is much, much younger. Now, you were telling me about this book series she fancies—Daring Do…?”

They talked and talked, covering this topic and that one. At length, the sky outside Twilight’s window began to brighten with the first hints of the coming dawn, lightening from black to inky gray. When Luna noticed, she interrupted the conversation, a chagrined look on her face as she got up from the little stump table they’d been sitting at.

“Forgive me. I’m late,” she said. “Celestia is nothing if not punctual.”

Twilight nodded. She imagined her mentor and teacher standing alone on some forlorn mountain peak a thousand miles away in the griffinlands, her head bowed as she dutifully raised the sun. The mental image did nothing to improve her mood.

“May I use your balcony?” Luna asked.

“Of course.”

“Thank you. Why don’t you say your good mornings to Spike? It will take me some time to lower the moon. As soon as that’s done, I think we should head to your friend Fluttershy’s house before too many ponies are up and about. I’d like to pay Rainbow Dash a visit.”

Twilight hesitated. A warning impulse gnawed at the back of her mind. She pictured Applejack leaning against the wall, chewing on her sprig and shaking her head ever so slightly.

“With all due respect, Princess Luna, I don’t know if that’s such a good idea. Fluttershy said she didn’t take the news well, and she needed time alone. Maybe we should wait until she’s ready.”

“Ordinarily, I would agree with you, but time is a luxury we don’t have,” Luna said. “It’s important that I speak to Rainbow Dash as soon as possible. You’ll help me, won’t you, Twilight?”

Luna was a princess and a goddess. Who was Twilight to say no?

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

The morning found Rainbow and Fluttershy gathered at the kitchen table. Rainbow was much more calm and relaxed today, and Fluttershy’s heart swelled with gratitude to see that time, company, and a night’s rest had done her a world of benefit. She still wasn’t quite her normal self, and there were moments when depression stalked her face and grim thoughts of yesterday seemed to flash in front of her eyes, but mostly, she was holding together.

For her part, Fluttershy had woken up early and prepared a delightful meal for them to enjoy: scrambled eggs fried in butter, savory oats with tomatoes and mushrooms, pancakes smothered in maple syrup, red strawberries, golden hash browns, and even a box of blueberry muffins fresh from Sugarcube Corner. Angel Bunny complained when his precious carrots made their way into the blender for a fruit and vegetable smoothie, but Fluttershy only shook her head at him and didn’t think twice. Some things were more important.

A yummy breakfast seemed to do the trick. Rainbow’s spirits were on the up and up with every bite. Before long, the conversation began to take on shades of normality, and Fluttershy felt comfortable enough to broach the one subject she’d been curious about all along:

“So… What’s it like? Um, if you don’t mind me asking.”

Rainbow stared at her in confusion, her cheeks puffed out with a mouthful of half-chewed pancakes. “Whaf’s whuf wike?”

“Um…”

Fluttershy made a swirly gesture with her hoof, coming off her forehead.

Rainbow noisily gulped down her food.

“Oh… This thing,” she said not at all enthusiastically, crossing her eyes to look up at the horn. “It’s…”

Her shoulders sagged.

“I don’t know. If you told me a month ago I was gonna wake up with a horn, I woulda been super stoked. What could be cooler than that, right? But the way this has all gone down, it’s not cool. It’s anti-cool. It’s like… this constant reminder that I can’t get away from, right in the middle of my freaking face.”

She shrugged helplessly.

“I don’t know… I guess it’ll help make me more aerodynamic? I oughta cut through the air like a hot knife through butter with this stupid thing out in front of me, right?”

“Oh…” Fluttershy said.

She topped off Rainbow’s glass, smiling weakly.

“Have… Have you been able to do any magic since you got it?”

“No. Mostly I just keep bumping into doors.”

Fluttershy snorted out loud. She covered up a burgeoning grin behind her hoof while Rainbow stared at her incredulously.

“What?”

“Oh, nothing,” Fluttershy said, trying hard not to laugh. “What you said just made me remember…”

“Remember what?”

Fluttershy smiled innocently. “Maybe I could send word to my brother. He might be able to give you some pointers.”

Rainbow stared for another few seconds. Then comprehension dawned on her face, accompanied by a sweeping grin. “That one time when we were foals? And I totally lied and told him all the best pegasi know how to echolocate to see in the dark?”

“And he put on that blindfold to try to impress you—”

“And he went around all week long making those stupid clicking noises and bumping into everything!”

“Oh, my goodness!” Fluttershy giggled—both of them were cracking up now—“I can’t believe you did that! That was so mean!”

“I can’t believe I forgot about it!” Rainbow choked out between laughs. “That was the awesomest prank ever, wasn’t it? Your mom and dad’s walls probably still have the dents!”

They laughed together for a good long while. At the end of it, Rainbow sat back and wiped a tear from her eye.

“Thanks, Flutters. I needed that.”

Fluttershy smiled and helped herself to another slice of toast. “Remember all the times he said you were too good to be a weatherpony? How you should drop everything and become a free spirit, just like him? Run away together and be his perfect pony princess? If he could see you now.”

“Yech! Where would we even ‘run away together’ to? Your parents only had the one couch.”

“That’s not true. They also had the futon.”

“Oh, riiiiiiiiiight,” said Rainbow.

She tapped her hoof idly on the tabletop. A thought suddenly occurred to her and seemed to dampen her spirits.

“Speaking of weatherponies, I probably oughta head down to the office and clock in tomorrow…”

“You’re going back to work?” Fluttershy sounded surprised.

Rainbow gave her a dry look. “I kind of have to. It’s my job.”

“I just thought… I… Never mind.”

Fluttershy’s eyes crowded with concern, but if Rainbow noticed, she didn’t give any indication.

“Do you really think it’s a good idea to go back… so soon, though?”

Rainbow slumped. All the levity drained back out of her.

“It’s not like I really want to,” she mumbled, casting her gaze to the baseball cap, which even now sat in hoof’s reach dangling off a nearby chair. “You know, the farmers are all parched for rain before midsummer, and we were already way behind schedule getting it to them even before I fell out of the sky… I can’t leave Ponyville hanging. They need me, Fluttershy.”

“Actually, I heard they brought on Derpy Hooves to fill in for you while you were out. I know she’s already put in several hours since the weekend, and I think they said—”

“They did WHAT?”

Rainbow’s forehooves slammed against the table as she jumped out of her seat, all the color draining from her face.

“…And I think they said they were going to give her your shift today as well,” Fluttershy finished. She gave Rainbow a scolding look. “Don’t be mad at her. You know she needed the work.”

“Yeah, but—!”

There was a knock at the front door. They both looked up.

“Who could that be?” Fluttershy wondered.

She folded her napkin and got up to answer it. Meanwhile, Rainbow stayed put, sulking over the leftover crusts from her toast and pondering when exactly the world had gone totally insane.

Derpy Hooves. On weather.

Her imagination flooded with a dozen disaster scenarios that were probably unfolding over Ponyville even now, from black blizzards to upside-down tornados to ponies melting in the streets in a deluge of acid rain. A feeling of doom crept over her, and for the first time since she’d woken up in the hospital, she stopped dwelling on her own bucked-up situation long enough to consider how royally screwed everypony else probably was.

Derpy Hooves on weather! Hurricane’s nads, they were all going to die!

The front door opened with a squeak. “Oh! Good morning, Twilight! Good morning, Spike!” came Fluttershy’s voice, pleasant as can be. “And good morning to you too, Pr… Pr-Princess L-L-Lu… eep!”

Rainbow’s brow quirked. That didn’t sound the least bit normal. She turned around in time to see Fluttershy fall into a bow right there on the spot. Standing in the doorway was Twilight, smiling widely with Spike perched on her back, and standing next to them—

Her jaw dropped. No. Freaking. Way.

“Please don’t,” said Luna. Her astral, star-speckled mane easily landed a spot on Rainbow’s ‘top five coolest’ list of the month, but her face was stamped with discomfort as she beckoned Fluttershy to rise. “Not to me, and never in your own home. If anything, I should be the one bowing to you.”

Fluttershy made some pathetic mewling noises and stayed low to the ground. Luna glanced questioningly at Twilight, who just put on a nervous, toothy grin and shrugged.

“Er… I don’t suppose Rainbow Dash is here, is she?” Luna asked. She peered around the whimpering yellow pegasus, attempting to catch further glimpse into the cottage.

And Rainbow, who until a moment ago found this all pretty awesome, felt a sour taste come into her mouth.

Of course it’s about you, idiot. Why else would she be here?

Fluttershy answered the question with a fearful nod of her head.

“May we come in?”

Another nod. Twilight and Spike entered, with Luna following close behind. She stopped to glance cautiously both ways outside before shutting the door and flipping the bolt.

When she turned a second later, she saw Rainbow Dash sitting wrongways, legs straddling the back of her chair. There was a sharp intake of breath, then a long, hushed moment as Luna’s wide eyes lingered on Rainbow’s horn. The sight of it almost seemed to entrance her.

Rainbow felt her annoyance pique.

“Whoa, Rainbow! Looking awesome!” Spike was first to break the silence.

“Hey, Spike,” Rainbow said flatly.

Luna finally thought to meet her eyes. She smiled timidly. “Excuse me, I’m sorry. It’s just been so long since… Well, anyway, good morning to you both. I’m sorry if we interrupted breakfast.”

“I’m sure it’s no trouble, Princess,” said Twilight, trotting beside her.

“N-No! No trouble at all!” Fluttershy squeaked.

A kindhearted look softened the angles of Luna’s face as she glanced again at the cowering pegasus. She crouched down next to Fluttershy, offering a slippered hoof to help her up.

“Twilight told me you were the first pony Rainbow Dash came to yesterday after she left the hospital. You must be very good friends. Thank you for taking such good care of each other.”

Fluttershy’s trembling eased, though it didn’t abate completely. After a brief hesitation, she accepted Luna’s help getting back on her hooves. “Um… Th-Thank you, Your Majesty.”

“Luna,” the midnight-blue alicorn said firmly.

Turning back to Rainbow, she offered an apologetic smile.

“Rainbow, I can’t even begin to express how sorry I am for everything you’ve had to go through in recent days. The physical pain alone, I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. Then, to add onto it the shock of growing a horn, of coming to find you’re an alicorn… as well as the… the emotional trauma of… everything else that’s come with it…”

Words failed her, and her voice trailed off. A second later, she started again, awash with compassion.

“Please, tell me how you’re doing. Are you holding up okay? Is there anything I can do to make things—”

Rainbow cut her off with a slow clap.

Everypony stared, Luna included, but Rainbow wasn’t about to quail in front of any of them. She kept up her ovation, punctuating it with a frosty glare. “You might as well quit while you’re ahead. I’ve heard enough.”

The look on Twilight’s face was half panicked and half mortified. “Rainbow, that’s not how you address a princess!”

“No. It’s okay,” Luna said. “She’s free to speak her mind.”

Rainbow scowled. “Look. I don’t know you, and you don’t know me, so don’t lay it on so thick. If I hadn’t grown a horn—if I’d fallen off that cloud, knocked myself out for three days, and just broken my wings, or something—I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t even get a ‘get well soon’ card from you, let alone a personal visit and all this sympathy. So don’t go pretending you actually care about me. Why don’t we get real? You’re here to do Celestia’s dirty work.”

“Rainbow!” Twilight gasped.

Luna held up a hoof, and the whole room fell silent. Everypony looked at her, wondering how she might react.

To their surprise, she seemed to shrug off the criticism. A gentle, but genuine smile lit her face as she looked softly at Rainbow.

“It might be hard for you to believe, but I do care about you. I care about what you’re going through, and I care about helping you. You saved my life, Rainbow Dash. You, and Twilight, and Fluttershy, and Spike…” Here, she looked at each of them in turn. “I care about all of you. You saved me from the darkness. I could never turn my back on any of you.

“And if I’ve been too much a stranger… If you hold it against me, the distance I’ve kept… Then perhaps that’s something that needs to change. It isn’t an easy thing, catching up to a world that’s left you behind—and Canterlot never was a forgiving town, even when I knew it twelve thousand moons ago. I’ve fought my own battles, faced my own struggles, and I’ve made plenty of mistakes along the way. But this much, I promise you: coming here to see you this morning wasn’t one of them.”

There was a pained honesty in Luna’s voice. One that made Rainbow squirm, feeling like a bit of a jerk for the way she’d just savaged her. She rubbed the back of her neck uncomfortably. “Look, Princess Luna…”

“Luna. Just Luna.”

“…Okay. Just Luna, then. Look—”

“It’s all right, I understand. You want to get down to brass tacks. That’s fine. Truthfully, there are some things I need to talk to you about in private, Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy, may we use your back yard?”

“Yes, of course,” said Fluttershy.

Luna nodded. “Thank you, and please accept my apologies if I seem a rude guest. Given everything that’s happened and the way it’s affected Rainbow’s life, I hope you can understand—some things are personal, and I would be betraying her confidence if I were to speak of them openly in front of anypony else. Even her very best friends.”

She beckoned to the door that led out to the back of the cottage.

“Now, Rainbow Dash. If you please, a few minutes of your time…”

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

They exited into Fluttershy’s fenced-in back yard. The sunlight fell pleasantly on Rainbow’s face, and she had to stop and marvel at the lack of hurricanes and firestorms. Despite them having put Derpy Hooves on weather, everything was surprisingly peaceful.

Almost immediately, they were met by a tall, white pegasus stallion in golden armor, who descended from above and dropped neatly into a wide-winged bow in front of them. Rising, he addressed Luna directly:

“All’s well, Your Majesty. None have approached since we started our watch. There’s a pair of unicorns picnicking about three quarters of a mile that way, but otherwise, nopony to speak of.”

“The Fourth Estate?” Luna inquired.

“None we’ve spotted. I’ve had sentinels posted since daybreak and pegasi on flyover at fifteen-minute intervals. We’re fortunate this area’s so lightly-trafficked. There have been a couple reports from out of Ponyville, but for the most part, it looks like the lid’s still on it.”

“Let’s dial it back to thirty-minute intervals, just to be safe. As you said, the area’s untrafficked. No need to draw undue attention.”

“Of course, Princess.”

Luna nodded with satisfaction.

Rainbow’s ears splayed back. Beyond the bushes and the chicken coop and the heart-topped fenceposts of Fluttershy’s yard, the twisted flora of the Everfree Forest rose menacingly. But only now did she notice the guards, patrolling those woods. The guards, posted on every side of them. The guards, flying high above them overhead…

“Rainbow, I’d like you to meet Captain Tristar. He heads the Pegasus Corps of the Canterlot Royal Guard,” Luna introduced the armored stallion. “Captain, this is Rainbow Dash, also known as Princess Aurora. Celestia’s daughter, and my niece. I don’t need to tell you, that’s still privileged information at this time, as far as your subordinates are concerned.”

The pegasus removed his centurion helmet in a formal gesture of etiquette. Rainbow felt small looking up at him; he wasn’t quite as tall as Big Macintosh, but neither was he far off. As he peered down at her, she thought she could see a glimmer of disdain smoldering behind his violet eyes

At the same time, she felt her heart race, a panic rising in her chest to hear the Truth laid out again—Princess Aurora—Celestia’s daughter. That, on top of the enormity, the sheer enormity of everything else that was happening—standing here next to Princess Luna with all these guards—all these guards!—her courage and tenacity were buckling, threatening to yield to the same suffocating anxiety that had taken her over yesterday, with Fluttershy. It was lapping at her ankles, about to pull her back under.

No! She wasn’t gonna let that happen to her again! She was Rainbow Dash, damn it! She was Rainbow Dash! And Rainbow Dash didn’t lose her cool in front of anypony!

Swallowing her nerves, she stuck out her hoof for Tristar to shake.

“Yo,” she said feebly.

Tristar’s eyes flitted down to her proffered hoof. Then back up at her.

His lip curled, ever so subtly. As facial expressions went, it was tiny, almost invisible. But Rainbow caught it.

“Princess Aurora. It’s my sworn obligation to serve and protect you,” he said, falling into another bow.

Rainbow stared at him, her hoof stranded in mid-air. Slowly, she lowered it, feeling like an idiot. The stirrings of panic that had licked at her only a moment ago were rapidly ebbing, replaced by a much more grounded, much more useful emotion: supreme annoyance.

“Thank you for making your report, Captain,” said Luna. “I need privacy to speak without risk of being overheard, so for the time being, I’d like you to stake out a wider perimeter. Pull back the Guard as you see fit, but please continue to to keep an eye out for… malefactors.”

“As you wish, Princess.” Tristar donned his helmet and gave a martial salute. Then he rocketed off into the air, barking orders at his lieutenants: “Bravemane! Proudclad! Fall back three hundred yards! All wings down from the sky to plug gaps in formation! Let’s go!”

It didn’t take them long to disperse. A lead weight sank in Rainbow’s gut as she watched dozens and dozens of them fan out into the forest and surrounding countryside, heavy boots tromping across Fluttershy’s well-manicured lawn, into the overgrown brush.

Not too terribly long ago, Rainbow had teased guards like these, badgered and pestered them, clowned around and made funny faces at them. Even jokingly asked how to enlist. Now she found their very presence unsettling. Her muscles tensed as she stood and watched them clear out. She felt Luna lay a reassuring hoof upon her shoulder.

“What is all this?” she demanded of the other alicorn.

Luna grimaced. “More than a formality,” was her joyless reply.

A few minutes later, Captain Tristar retreated from view along with the last of his guards. Rainbow’s wings snapped tetchily as she watched him glance back from across the stream and throw Luna one final salute. Then he turned, and his silver mane and tail disappeared behind the embankment.

“Jerk…” Rainbow muttered under her breath.

“I’m sorry,” said Luna, with apology in her voice. “I should have mentioned inside that the Royal Guard was keeping watch. In the honesty and excitement of the moment, I suppose I forgot.”

Rainbow let out a long, upward breath of air, which caught in her forelock and tousled it. She tried to calm down, to let the tension and antagonism of the last several minutes roll off her. Her anger cooled, and her anxiety along with it. The thundering drumbeat of her heart in her own ears gradually began to play slower, to play softer.

She looked up at Luna. At the earnest regret in her eyes. As Rainbow came back down to earth, she remembered, once again, the “honesty” of the moment they’d just shared inside the cottage. The way she’d laid into the princess, and all the less-than-awesome things she’d said.

“Look, Luna… I’m real sorry for the way I acted in there a minute ago. That wasn’t cool of me.”

Luna shook her head. “No, I’m the one who’s sorry. Sorry for all the pain and misery you’ve been put through… and for everything you’ll have to go through, yet. Your reaction was completely understandable. And anyway—” She gave a small, pained smile. “—I’ve grown used to the judgment and suspicion of others by now. Don’t trouble yourself.”

Rainbow did trouble herself. As a matter of fact, she winced. She had heard the whispered rumors, seen them given platform on the editorial pages of the Sun and the Gazette, the same as everypony else. “Luna…”

Luna held up a hoof again to silence her. “How about this? I’ll make you a deal. I’ll forgive you for acting uncool a minute ago, if you’ll forgive me for what I’m about to do.”

“What are you about to—OOF!”

The air was ejected from Rainbow’s lungs as she found herself pulled into a bone-crushing hug. Rainbow’s wings flew in a frenzy, desperate to get away, but Luna’s grip on her was iron, clutching her emphatically to her shoulder.

Rainbow’s face buried in that ethereal blue mane. For a time, it was the only thing she could see. When those smothering hooves finally let go their captive, she gasped for air and flew back, feathers splayed in every direction. But it was Luna’s shimmering eyes—not the lack of oxygen—that left her speechless.

Luna smiled through her tears. “Walk with me, Rainbow Dash.”

They walked. Or rather, Luna did. Rainbow mostly kept to the air, as was her custom, a respectful distance away and conveniently out of hugging range. Luna didn’t mind. As they tracked along the boundary of the Everfree Forest, she fell into an easy comfort, freely bringing the newest, littlest alicorn up to speed on various matters of importance she had already discussed with Twilight Sparkle earlier that morning.

“Griffi’la?!” Rainbow’s jaw hit the floor.

Luna nodded. “I met with her briefly yesterday afternoon, some hours after she returned to Canterlot. She was…”

A troubled look passed over Luna’s face, but she quickly swept it away and pressed on.

“Well, never mind how she was. The long and the short of it is, she made me aware of your situation, and of everything that had happened. Then she flew for the Griffin Kingdom with the setting of the sun.”

A heartless laugh popped out of Rainbow’s mouth before she could contain it. “Couldn’t get far enough away from me, huh? She just hit the border and kept right on going.”

“In fact, she was in the Griffin Kingdom before any of this ever happened to you, on a secret undertaking whose importance I cannot even begin to describe. Your Unity forced her to return to Equestria prematurely. She’s gone back now to finish what she started.”

“I’m sorry I was such an inconvenience to her,” Rainbow said dryly.

“My sister is an idiot. Take me at my word. If there’s such a thing as an expert on hating Celestia, it’s me.”

Luna slowed to a halt and looked down at her hooves, toeing the ground in front of her uncomfortably. As she spoke, her voice sagged with guilt and bitter, bitter irony.

She glanced back up at Rainbow Dash.

“I love Celestia, and I’ve reconciled with her. I won’t ask you to do the same. If you can find it in your heart to forgive her, I think it would be a tremendous relief to both of you—but that’s something that can only happen with time, and it’s up to you to decide whether she’s worth it. I don’t pretend to understand her motivations for giving you up, nor for keeping you at a hoof’s length after your parents passed away. I won’t make excuses for her.

“But this much, I will say. If Celestia is absent right now, it isn’t because she’s walked out on you. She cares about you, and she cares about what’s happening to you. No, don’t give me that look—she does care! Trust me, I’ve witnessed the depths of just how much she cares.”

Luna looked uncharacteristically grim as she finished her speech. Rainbow just looked unimpressed.

“Anything else?” she asked.

Another nod from the moon princess. Luna’s horn glimmered, and a crisp, white envelope appeared in the air from out of a void of star-studded blue. She levitated it to Rainbow Dash, who accepted it reluctantly.

“Celestia wrote this letter for you before she departed. I don’t know what it says, but she wanted you to have these words.”

Rainbow stared down at the unwelcome thing in her hooves. On it was a red wax seal depicting a phoenix inside of a radiant sun. The royal seal of Princess Celestia. She knew it only too well from the dozens of times Spike had coughed up a scroll wrapped in an identical-looking seal. Always for Twilight and never, ever for her.

She crumpled it up and flung it into the forest.

Luna caught it in her levitation aura before it made it too far. Gingerly, she smoothed it over, then presented it to Rainbow again.

“Please take it,” she implored.

Rainbow folded her hooves. “You don’t get it. I don’t care about ANYTHING Celestia’s got to say.”

“Be that as it may, please, just take the letter home with you. I’m not telling you to consider what it says. You don’t even have to read it if you don’t wish to, but you mustn’t throw it away like that. The forest is no place to casually discard a private correspondence from a princess.”

Rainbow scowled and snatched the hated envelope out of the air, grudgingly tucking it under her wing. “Fine. Anything else?”

“Just one more thing, and it’s an important one. Rainbow Dash, I’d like you to seriously consider coming with me back to Canterlot.”

For a good few seconds, Rainbow was at such a loss for words, all she could do was stare. Then her mouth split with a derisive laugh. “You’re kidding, right? Is this some kind of joke?”

“I promise you, it’s anything but.”

“Ponyville is my home. My home. You get that? Not some stuffed-shirt unicorn town. And besides, there are ponies here who depend on me, who are relying on me to come through for them! I can’t—I won’t leave Ponyville hanging. Not in a million years.”

Luna gave her an empathetic look. “I understand your perspective. Actually, I admire it. I wouldn’t expect anything less from Loyalty. But you may come to find it’s Ponyville that leaves you hanging.”

“Come again?”

“I’m going to make a case to you logically, point by point, on why I think it’s in your best interest to accompany me back to Canterlot. I know you’ve already made up your mind and you aren’t about to change it, but please, just listen to what I have to say.”

Rainbow perched herself on the lower bough of a twisted old Everfree oak, peering down at the other alicorn skeptically.

“Number one,” said Luna. “You have a horn.”

“Uh, yeah. Amazing powers of observation, there.”

Luna carried on, undeterred. “You have a horn, which means you also have magic. And magic can be dangerous and unpredictable if you’re untrained. I’m sure you’ve heard horror stories of unicorn foals casting spells they didn’t mean to, haven’t you? Accidentally leaving their classmates stuck upside-down to the ceiling in a split second of anger, or lashing out and transmogrifying somepony they hadn’t intended to in a rush of fear?”

Rainbow ruminated quietly. She had heard stories.

“But where foals have the advantage of being young, you’re full-grown. Your magic isn’t limited in the same way theirs is. Coming to Canterlot Castle would be the best thing for you. It would allow you to learn and develop your talents in a safe environment outside the public eye, with the least amount of risk to both yourself and your friends.”

It was a sound argument, but not sound enough to convince Rainbow Dash. She shook her head adamantly and hopped to a higher branch. “Feh… Big deal. I’ll figure it out.”

“Number two,” Luna continued. “You have a horn, which means others are going to treat you differently from now on. This is important, so please, hear me out. Your life, as you knew it, is not going to be the same. There is no going back. I wish it weren’t the case, but ponies are going to look at you and see the wings and horn first and Rainbow Dash second. There are going to be rumors. There are going to be ponies who try to use you. You’re going to be hurt if you stay and pretend everything’s normal. Furthermore, on top of everything else, you’ll have the press to contend with.”

Luna noticed Rainbow seemed to make herself smaller, every lithe muscle bunched at the mention of the press. Sensing a weakness in the stubborn filly’s resolve, she hammered it.

“The press is going to come looking for you. How could they not? You’re the first new alicorn the world has seen since Celestia and I were crowned more than a millennium ago. The press will come to Ponyville in search of you. They will come in droves. They will leave no stone unturned until they find you, and when they do, their appetite will be insatiable.

“They will demand every intimate detail of your private and personal life. They will stalk every failure of your past. Every mistake you’ve ever made will be ink for their quills. If they’re able to discover it, they will gleefully reveal the truth of your parentage. They will publish rumors and innuendo with no regard for your reputation. I have firsthoof experience with this. Don’t stay here, Rainbow. Don’t allow yourself to be their victim, as I have been.”

Rainbow was clearly flustered now. There was a register of panic in her voice, but she remained intractable. “So what? It’s nothing I haven’t dealt with before! Ponyville is my home! My home! I’m not gonna abandon my home to go live in Celestia’s stupid house!”

With a flap of her wings, she bounded upward again, landing on one of the highest limbs of the withered old tree. There, she began to pace back and forth along the branch.

“Number three,” Luna said. “You have a horn, which marks you as Celestia’s daughter. Which means there are certain risks to your safety and security now that you didn’t have to worry about a week ago.”

Rainbow stopped and peered down at her in confusion. “Huh?”

Guilt crept back into Luna’s mien. She looked away.

“After you defeated Nightmare Moon, Celestia tried to keep a low profile for you, for Twilight, for Fluttershy, and the rest of your friends. Your heroism was publicly acknowledged, of course, but she did as much as she could to suppress the details, to keep the spotlight on me instead of on you. She did that to protect your safety as much as your privacy.”

She looked up the tree again with a hard expression.

“There are things going on right now that you aren’t aware of. And there are ponies, Rainbow—flesh-and-blood ponies—who might take the worst kind of interest in you. Who could seek to do harm to you as a way of getting to me and my sister. And you won’t be hard to overlook anymore. As soon as word of this gets out, you’ll become a known quantity. Canterlot is the best, safest place for you, if only in the short term.”

Rainbow looked uneasy. “That seems a liiiiittle far out there.”

“Trust me when I say there are worse things than sleeping dragons that have taken up residence in Equestria these days. I’m asking you, Rainbow. I’m begging you, not for Celestia’s sake, but for your own. Please, come with me. Come with me to Canterlot. It doesn’t have to be forever. Even if it’s only for a month and a half, until after the Summer Sun Celebration, it would be so much safer for you, and so much a relief for us.”

Rainbow shook her head and resumed pacing the upper branch, muttering under her breath. Luna watched her sadly.

“I’m returning to the capital within the hour,” she said. “The longer I remain here in Ponyville, the more my presence risks drawing attention to you. Under the present circumstances, with my sister abroad, it isn’t wise for me to be away from the throne for too long, anyway.”

She paused.

“I would love for you to be standing next to me on the chariot when I go. But I know you won’t be. Ponyville is your home, and your friends are your friends, and I can appreciate your reluctance to want to venture anywhere near ‘Celestia’s stupid house’ at a time like this. Rainbow… Twilight knows how to contact me. If… If you change your mind…”

Luna let the implication hang in the air. Rainbow looked like she was going to be sick, but she nodded her understanding.

“Think I’m gonna catch some sky…” she mumbled.

“It’s a lot to take in, I know. Take care, Rainbow Dash. Be safe, and be smart. It was an honor to meet you again.”

“Yeah.” Rainbow’s voice sounded more raspy than usual. “You too.”

Luna smiled soberly. “I’m sure it won’t be the last time. I only hope our next meeting will be under better circumstances. Go with my sympathies, Rainbow… and with my sincere remorse for everything that’s happened to you.”

Rainbow paid her a dull, glassy-eyed look. Then her wings fired into motion, bearing her up, up, away, and out of sight. Luna tilted back her head to watch as she disappeared over the green hills.

No more than twenty seconds later, Captain Tristar spiraled down out of the sky and landed in the tall grass at her side. This time, he skipped the bow. “She’s headed west. Orders, Your Majesty?”

“Follow her,” said Luna. Her eyes didn’t peel from the horizon. “Don’t lose her, Tristar, no matter what. It’s important that she be guarded. But don’t stray too near her, either. Give her space to breathe.”

Tristar nodded and took off again without another word.

Twilight had been watching the proceedings from the rear-facing porch of Fluttershy’s cottage, unable to overhear what was being said, but doing her best to decipher the state of affairs from the expressions and body language. When Rainbow Dash took off, followed soon after by Tristar, she broke into a gallop and hurried to Luna’s side.

“Where’s Rainbow Dash going? Is everything all right?”

For a long several seconds, Luna was quiet, thoughtful and reflective. Then she turned and regarded the unicorn with a frown.

“Twilight. I need to ask you for your help once more.”

“Of… course,” Twilight stammered. “I’m happy to do whatever I can. What do you need?”

“You are one of Rainbow Dash’s closest friends. I’ve just now invited her to Canterlot, for her own safety and protection. She’s reluctant, as I anticipated she might be. Twilight… I’d like you to talk to her for me. With the events that are now in motion, I would like it to be her choice to come to Canterlot. Do you take my meaning?”

The gravity of Luna’s words was impossible to miss. Twilight hesitated before responding, “Y-Yes, I do.”

“Twilight… I don’t wish to put you up to something you aren’t comfortable doing. Above all else, I don’t wish to jeopardize your friendship with Rainbow. The consequences of that would run deeper than you know. If I’m going too far by asking you to do this—if you’re uneasy or conflicted about my request—then please, be honest and tell me. You aren’t obligated to me, nor to Princess Celestia if you say no.”

At the mention of Princess Celestia, Twilight’s thoughts turned at once to her oldest teacher and mentor. She thought of the letter she had sent the princess as Rainbow Dash lay writhing, crying out in pain. The immediacy of the response to that letter, and the alacrity with which Princess Celestia had made the far-flung journey to answer Twilight’s call. She thought of the terror, the apprehension on Princess Celestia’s face before she’d walked into that hospital room. And yet she had gone in anyway.

She thought of Princess Celestia standing alone on that desolate griffin peak. Doing her solemn duty, even now.

She swallowed her qualms.

“I’ll talk to her,” she said.

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

Rainbow didn’t realize how badly she’d longed to feel the wind in her mane again until she was somersaulting through the sky, zooming from here to there, twisting and twirling, pounding out corkscrews and ailerons and barrel rolls and too many other feats of aerial daredevilry to count. In her heart of hearts, she was a bundle of worry, but she pushed down her anxiety over Celestia, and Canterlot, and Celestia, and all the bleak, nerve-wracking notions Luna had just ladled in her ears, and Celestia. She didn’t want to think about any of it right now. All she cared about was the taste of freedom.

The sun beat down on the countryside, giving birth to a rising column of hot air. Rainbow opened her wings, caught the thermal, and rode it a mile up. After it dissipated, she flapped and climbed five thousand feet more, until the air grew cold and her head scraped the bottoms of the altocumuli.

She allowed herself a contented grin, enjoying the frigid cold and the way it made her blood pump in her veins. “Man, what an awesome day for flying,” she said to nopony in particular.

Then her eyes flew wide in realization.

“Oh my gosh! I almost forgot! They put that featherbrain on weather! I’ve got to… got to… Hang on a minute. There’s no way Derpy is capable of engineering weather conditions anywhere near this perfect.”

She raised a hoof to her brow and scanned the countryside.

“Yeah, something’s definitely wrong here. There isn’t enough fire. Or floods. Or avalanches.”

She bit her lip.

“Well, she’s only been running the show for a couple days now. Maybe I’m just overreacting. I mean, what’s the worst that could happen?”

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

In the sky above Sweet Apple Acres, a maelstrom of sinister gray clouds belched thunder and lightning. Rarity milled about the orchard, obliviously transforming tree branches into cute little pony leaf sculptures.

Then a dark shape on the horizon caught her eye. A twister! And it was heading her way!

“Oh no! A twister! And it’s heading my way!” said Rarity.

Rarity tried the storm cellar, but it was locked, so she hoofed it for the barn. A powerful gust sent the door flying backward as she went to secure it, bonking her on the head. Dozens of tiny pegasi flew around her.

Suddenly, the building shook and rattled. The twister lifted the barn clear off the ground and sent it spiraling into the sky!

“Oh dear me! Help! Help! …What are you supposed to pack when you’re being carried off by a tornado?” she couldn’t help herself but wonder. “Are you supposed to pack warm?”

Just then, there was a horrible screeching laughter from outside the window! Rarity went over to investigate. There, hovering next to the barn, was… Pinkie Pie on her flying machine!

“Hello, Rarity!” Pinkie cackled.

But it wasn’t the normal Pinkie Pie. This was, in fact, an EVIL Pinkie Pie, dressed like a witch with long, straight hair!

“Pinkie Pie? Are you all right?”

“Okie-dokie-loki! Say, Rarity, would you care for some… CUPCAKES?”

Pinkie Pie reached into the basket of her flying machine and pulled out a whole armful of cupcakes! She started pelting them at Rarity through the window! Rarity just stood there as the crumbs ran down her face, and screamed, and screamed—

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

She blinked. “Okay. It probably wouldn’t be that bad.”

Rainbow continued to survey the land from her high vantage, searching for signs of an unscheduled early apocalypse. She was still in the middle of scoping things out when she spotted them.

The guards.

Rainbow’s eagle eye counted twenty armored pegasi, with Captain Tristar at the head of the pack. They had obviously tailed her from Fluttershy’s cottage. For the moment, it looked like they were hanging back about a quarter-mile, though that didn’t keep Rainbow’s hackles from being raised at the trespass against her privacy and solitude.

She stared at Tristar. He stared back at her.

She swore she saw his lip pull back in a disdainful sneer.

Anger boiled in her veins. What the heck was this jerk’s problem, anyway?

What a dirtbag! I’ll show him!

She tucked back her wings and extended her hooves, enjoying the rush as she plummeted back down to the earth. The wind lashed against her face and pulled her lips into a grin, the air howled in her ears like thunder. Then she spotted the wispy gray fingers of the mach cone out of the corners of her eyes, felt it resonate through her skull right down to the back molars. Now the ground was racing up to meet her, six thousand feet, three thousand, one!

KA-BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

At the very last moment, at breakneck speeds, with one final burst of velocity and adrenaline, she pushed herself over the edge! Rainbow Dash shattered the sound barrier, and the blue sky over the countryside exploded with the spectral brilliance of a sonic rainboom!

She opened her wings and blasted off like a sideways rocket, leaving Tristar and his goons to feast on her dust.

Heh. Rainbow smirked, even as she panted for breath. Still got it.

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

“Consarn it, Applebloom! I don’t wanna have to tell you again, Winona is a workin’ dog! She’s got responsibilities on this here farm! She AIN’T there so you and your friends can file away at her nails all day long!”

“But sis, how else am I supposed to get my pet pedicure cutie mark?”

“I reckon t’ain’t none of my concern how you get your gal-darned cutie mark, so long as it don’t hinder my ability to plant these here apple trees! Won’t be long before summer’s upon us, and if this new crop doesn’t take to root by then, we’re gonna be in a world of hurt by the time apple-buck season rolls around.”

“But Winona really enjoyed it!”

The little border collie gave Applejack a whine and a pleading look.

“Aw, horsefeathers, Winona! You know better than to shirk your duties like that! Now, see here, Applebloom, I can appreciate that you’re tryin’ to get your cutie mark, but you’re gonna have to find another pet to practice on. How ’bout givin’ Opal one of your treatments?”

Applebloom looked appalled. “But Opalescence scratches back!”

“In that case, why don’t you mosey on down to Fluttershy’s and see if you can’t borrow Angel Bunny for a while?”

“Angel Bunny’s even scarier than Opalescence!”

“That’s just too doggone bad! You’d best start makin’ a list of all the other pets in Ponyville so’s to ask their owners instead, because unless pigs take to flyin’ or a winged unicorn sets herself down here in the next three seconds, you AIN’T GETTIN’ WINONA!”

Two seconds later, Rainbow Dash alighted on a nearby tree branch.

“Trouble in paradise?” she asked.

“Yaaaaaaaaaay!” Applebloom and Winona shouted in unison. Although in Winona’s case, it came out sounding a lot more like, “Arrrrrrrrrrf!”

Applejack threw down her stetson hat and stomped on it. “GAL-DARN IT, RAINBOW DASH! AIN’T YOU GOT ONE LICK OF TIMING?”

“Huh? I have lots of timing! Do you know how much timing it takes to thread the needle on an inside loop and an outside loop while pulling off twenty barrel rolls? A lot, that’s how much!” She paused to peer over the trees in the direction of the Apple family farmstead. “Oh, good. The barn’s still there.”

“And why in the sam hay wouldn’t it be?”

“Oh. Heh. No reason,” Rainbow laughed nervously.

Applejack glared. “Rainbow Dash, you get your flank down here this instant so I can inspect you properly!”

“Yes, ma’am!” Rainbow swooped down to the ground and landed next to the vexed cowpony.

Applejack did just as she said she would, squinting at Rainbow as she circled around and examined her critically from every angle. Rainbow just stood there, feeling more than a little self-conscious.

A second later, Applejack threw her hooves around her, sweeping her up in an unexpected hug.

“Y’all don’t know how worried we were about you!” Applejack cried. “Don’t you ever put us through anything like that ever again!”

Rainbow smiled, doing her best to quash the niggling guilt in the pit of her stomach. Thankfully, she was a whole lot more put-together today than she had been before, with Fluttershy. She wasn’t about to break down. That didn’t mean she took any solace from these desperate hugs from her friends; from realizing how scared her episode had made them.

“Heh. Yeah… I’m real sorry you had to go through that, A.J. You’ve been my friend forever. Longer than anypony, except for Fluttershy. It’s not cool you had to worry over me.”

“You promise me you ain’t gonna go fallin’ offa no more clouds!”

“I promise I won’t go falling off anymore clouds,” Rainbow pledged, holding up her right hoof.

“And don’t go growin’ no more horns, neither!”

Rainbow rolled her eyes. “I will try not to grow another horn.”

Applejack looked her over from head to hoof one more time. “In that case, we’re square. Welcome back to the land of the living, sugarcube.”

“Are you feelin’ better now, Rainbow Dash?” Applebloom asked.

Rainbow crouched down. “I sure am, kiddo, and a little birdie told me you might have something to do with that. I heard you helped bring me back to town last week after I took that fall. Is that true?”

“Yeah, me and Big Macintosh did! And then Big Macintosh and Pinkie Pie went to fetch Zecora!” Her face fell. “Not that it did any good in the end.”

“Hey, don’t sell yourself short! It takes a lot of guts to do what you guys did. You were awesomely brave.”

The little filly tilted her head. “I was?”

“Heck yeah, you were! You can be on my rescue team any day.”

Applebloom turned this over in her head for a few seconds. Then her eyes lit up. “THAT’S IT! Cutie Mark Crusader rescue team! Wait until I tell Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle! This is gonna be great! Hey, Applejack, do you know where we can get us some jaws of life?”

Applejack facehoofed. “Oh, landsakes, would you and Winona just get out of here already? Shoo! But you’d best be back with that dog before suppertime, or I’m not gonna be happy!”

“All right! All right! I’m goin’! See you later, sis! See you later, Rainbow Dash! I’m glad to see you’re back on your hooves again!” Applebloom said. Then she and Winona bounded away, laughing and barking.

Rainbow turned to Applejack. “Where is Big Macintosh, anyway?”

“That sap should be along any minute with Rarity in tow. I sent him back to town to fetch her.”

“Rarity? What are you doing dragging her all the way out here for?”

“Somethin’ stupid. We had a storm here the other night, and the wind done blew in a bunch of the bedroom windows. Dang near spooked Granny Smith half to death. The rain got in and wrecked the curtains, so I asked Rarity to come take some measurements for the replacements.”

Sure enough, not a minute later, Rarity and Big Macintosh crested the hill, coming down the road from Ponyville. Rarity flashed a dazzling smile, waved, and trotted over.

“Good afternoon, Rainbow Dash, Applejack! Rainbow, I didn’t expect to see you out here. I’m so thrilled you’re up and about again!”

“Heh. Yeah. Good to see you too, Rarity. How is—”

“Macintosh, you lug! What in the SAM HAY are you doin’ over there?”

Bewildered, they turned to find Big Macintosh kneeling low to the ground.

“Genuflecting to royalty,” he said.

“What in the… See here, Macintosh, Rainbow Dash ain’t royalty! Well, she is, in a way—but you don’t gotta bow to her! Now get your big, dumb, clodhoppin’ self up and get over here already!”

Big Macintosh did as he was told. “Good afternoon, Princess Rainbow Dash. You gave us all quite a scare. I’m happy to see you pulled through your affliction all right.”

Rainbow was speechless, and more unsettled than she had been at any other point that day—except, perhaps, for the moment she’d walked out of Fluttershy’s house and been ambushed by the Truth laid bare by Luna, Tristar, and all those guards. Now, the Truth had her in its sights again. She could hear Luna’s words play back in her head, tinged with commiseration: “Others are going to treat you differently. Your life, as you knew it, is not going to be the same. Ponies are going to see the wings and horn first, and Rainbow Dash second.”

She scraped the ground with her hoof.

“Uh… Yeah… Good to see you too, Big Mac,” she said awkwardly. “You, uh, don’t have to bow down to me. Or call me princess.”

“Sure thing, Miss Rainbow Dash.”

“As a matter of fact, seems like I’m the one who owes you some respect. Mac, I don’t know what I woulda done the other day if you hadn’t got me out of that field. Guess I probably woulda laid there all day and night, alone and in a lot of pain… It wasn’t cool, what happened to me, but it coulda been so much worse if it wasn’t for you.”

She stepped forward and gave him a hug. “Thanks,” she said.

Big Macintosh blushed.

Rarity joined in the embrace. “We were all so very worried about you, darling!” she said. “And we’re all so very grateful that you came away unhurt. Incidentally, you should know Pinkie Pie is planning a party for you. She wanted to invite the whole town, of course, but Twilight and I were able to talk her down to a small get-together among friends. Do you feel up to it? Sugarcube Corner, tonight at eight o’clock?”

Rainbow considered. “Yeah, I guess I’m down for one of Pinkie Pie’s parties. Just as long as it’s only the six of us and not… y’know… the universe.” She made a deliberate effort not to look self-consciously up at her horn. She had forgotten her baseball cap back at Fluttershy’s.

“Delightful! Oh, but let me take a look at you!”

Rarity spun Rainbow Dash around, looking admiringly up at the object of her discomfort.

“Oh, your horn is simply exquisite, darling! It’s enough to turn any unicorn green with envy!”

Applejack nodded. “Yeah, I hadn’t mentioned it up ’til now, but that sure is one humdinger of a can opener you’ve got comin’ out of your forehead! I can see why it musta hurt so much!”

“A can opener?” Rarity regarded Applejack with scorn. “You would compare the majesty of a unicorn’s horn to something as—as crude and barbaric as—as a can opener?”

“Aw, stuff it, Rarity! I didn’t mean nothin’ by it!”

“A horn is more than just a can opener, Applejack! It’s a thing of beauty and grace! And beyond that, it’s a gateway to our magic—the greatest gift our kind possess! How uncouth of you to compare it to a rusty old can opener!”

Applejack was practically frothing at the mouth. “I’ll be hogtied if you ain’t the most pretentious pony I ever met, Rarity! First of all, I never did say a word about that can opener bein’ rusted, did I? For all you know, I coulda intended it to be made of gold! And second, I wasn’t tryin’ to cause you any offense with my analogy, so go soak your head!”

Rarity scoffed. “Well, I never! Perhaps you should go find somepony else to measure your silly curtains!”

“I didn’t need your fancy mathematics anyhow!”

Rainbow grinned lazily, falling out of the group and relaxing against a tree. At least for now, everything was back to normal.

Still, there was one all-important thing she had on her mind. When she saw an opening, she grabbed Applejack and pulled her aside. “So… You mentioned before you had a storm the other day, and that’s why you needed Rarity out here to do your measurements,” she casually remarked.

Applejack nodded. “Yep. Sure did.”

Rainbow had a greasy glint in her eye. “Then it would be fair to say you had some bad weather, eh?”

“Yeah, no thanks to you, ya gal-darn delinquent weatherpony, ’cause you were off sleepin’ on the job! Them thunderheads blew in overnight from the Everfree. Thankfully, the mayor put Derpy Hooves on weather duty the next day, and she had the problem taken care of lickety-split!”

Rainbow sighed and shook her head. Nope. Still unbelievable.

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

It wasn’t quite dusk yet by the time of Pinkie’s party. Rainbow had spent the rest of the day alone, keeping to her cloud house and the unpopulated environs that lay between it and Sweet Apple Acres. She needed time on her own to think, to come to grips with everything that was happening. The day-to-day trivialities of angry farmers and missing shipments seemed a lifetime away from her now, even though they weren’t even a week in her past. Back then, they’d grated on her, but how grateful she would be for the chance to go back in time and trade her current circumstances for those humdrum irritations.

She stayed out of the Royal Guard’s sight and everypony else’s. So much the better if she went unnoticed. She didn’t feel like getting noticed this afternoon, this week, this month, this century. Maybe someday, she’d remember how to be carefree and awesome, but not now, not today, not with this Truth sticking out of her forehead for everypony to trip over. As she circled in the sky high above Sugarcube Corner, she made sure to wait for the street to clear before swooping down, glancing both ways, and hurrying inside.

The bell gave a jingle above her.

Honestly, she didn’t even feel like partying. As mouth-watering as the smells and flavors of the bakery were, she was bone tired. She longed for the warmth of her own bed. Even after she was done here, sleep would be a long time coming. There was still one more thing she needed to do tonight before the evening was up. Two more ponies she had to visit.

If were anypony other than Pinkie Pie, she probably would’ve skipped out.

The strawberry-sweet joy on Pinkie’s face made it all worthwhile.

“DASHIE!”

Pinkie tackled her in a ferocious hug, which Rainbow was only too happy to laugh and return. They were joined soon enough by Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity. The five friends shared a giggling, impromptu group hug right there on the bakery floor. Soon enough, even Spike and Tank moseyed over and got in on the action.

Rainbow’s smile was a mile wide as Pinkie Pie helped her back to her hooves, but the party pony matched it and then some. “Oh my gosh, DASHIE! I’m soooo glad you’re all better!”

“I’m glad to be better!” Rainbow laughed, twisting her neck to track Pinkie as she bounced in circles all around her. Tank leaned his leathery head against Rainbow’s side, a content little smile on his green little face, and she crouched to rub noses with him.

She felt Fluttershy’s hoof on her shoulder, and she looked up. “We’re all glad,” said the yellow pegasus with a gratified look.

Spike nodded. “Yeah! Nopony likes seeing a friend get hurt the way you were hurt. And no dragon, either!”

“That’s right, sugarcube.” Now Applejack was hovering over her. “It was plum awful what you went through. But you pulled through it like the Rainbow Dash I know! We’re all mighty proud of you. Now, just don’t go usin’ magic to try and cheat at our next Iron Pony!”

“Ooh! That’s right! The horn! Can I touch it now?” Pinkie asked, craning her neck at a freakishly wrong angle to inspect the thing. She didn’t bother waiting for permission. “Touch! Touch!”

“Pinkie!” Rainbow laughed and fought her off.

Rarity arrived at her side with a helping hoof and a slice of cake. “It’s simply divine having you back again, darling. And don’t you dare think for one second that we don’t understand what you’re going through and support you, because we do! And we always will!”

“That’s right,” Applejack said. “No matter what happens, we’re all such good friends, ain’t nothin’ gonna come between us, right?”

Rainbow’s smile wavered just little a bit. “Yeah…”

She hoped not. More than anything.

“Now’s not the time for grumpy-frumps! Now’s the time to PARTY!” Pinkie exclaimed. “You see, Dashie? I told you I’d throw you a party once you were all better! You did your part, so now I’m doing mine! And I never woulda come up with the theme for this party if it weren’t for youuuuu!”

There were awkward looks all around.

Rainbow blinked. Only now did she bother to look around and take note of that theme: plastered on every wall, hanging from every hook and doorknob in Sugarcube Corner, the whole place was covered in…

“Encyclopedias,” Rainbow muttered with shake of her head and a roll of her eyes. “Of course.”

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

The party died down several hours later. Fluttershy excused herself to go put Angel Bunny to bed, followed by Applejack and Rarity for their sisters. Rainbow headed out shortly thereafter.

Tiredly, she ambled past the darkened homes and storefronts, grateful for the solitude of the night. Luna’s moon was a waning crescent, barely bright enough to light the winding road beneath her.

Not that it mattered. She knew the way well enough.

Her hooves carried her robotically down the road and out of Ponyville. The Winsome River veered inward and ran parallel for a spell, allaying her frazzled nerves with the quiet murmur of water through the brook. It kept her company for a few minutes, then meandered off to carve out a path toward Hoofington in the south.

Soon after, the broken-down windmill came up on her right, its tattered old blades creaking mournfully in the breeze. This was her landmark. She knew the path forked here, the main path continuing straight, a dirt trail shooting off to the left and disappearing into the overgrowth. She never would have noticed it if she hadn’t already known it was there.

She followed it through the woods, which soon gave way to rising foothills. In-between two of them, the trail ended at a black wrought-iron gate. It opened without making a sound.

In the vale on yonder side, hundreds of mares and stallions lay at rest. She walked quietly among them, the only noise the slow trudge of her hooves across the unmown grass.

At last, she came to her destination.

Two granite stones rose up out of the ground in front of her. For a while, she just stood and stared at them, lost in her thoughts.

Then she spoke. “Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad.”

The graves were silent.

“So… I haven’t come to visit you guys lately. I’m real sorry about that. I know I promised I would. It’s just… Things have been so crazy. Between weather duty, training, kicking around with my friends…”

She scraped the ground with her hoof.

“I know what you’d say, and you’re right. I could make the time. I… I should make the time. And I will. You guys always made the time for me, even when you couldn’t keep up as well. I guess I haven’t been a very good daughter lately… But I’m gonna try harder from now on. You’ll see.

“It’s been so long since… since… that day. I was just a little filly back then… Now your little girl is all grown up.” She cracked a smile. “I wonder what you’d have to say about that, Daddy?

“I remember the first time you took me up on your back and told me about the clouds. And two years later, when you ran down that field with me and lifted me up so I could catch the air and fly for the first time. Heh. If you saw some of the stunts I do today, you’d probably be terrified. And Momma would probably be passed out on the floor.

“You know… I won the Best Young Flyer Competition. Dazzled ’em all with a sonic rainboom. Just like you always knew I did, even when they said I didn’t. Like you always knew I could.”

She paused meaningfully.

“And—And I saved, like, four ponies’ lives in the process. And this one time last year, when Nightmare Moon came back, I even helped save the whole world.

“…I only wish you guys coulda been there to see me do it.”

Her throat clenched. She stared down at the earth.

“I never woulda come this far if you hadn’t believed in me. You’re the reason I’m the awesome pony I am today. I just…

“I always wanted you guys to be p-proud of me. You’re the ones I was always trying to impress, even when it looked like I was showing off for everypony else. And even though I didn’t turn out as pretty and ladylike as you always wanted, Momma, I just hope I—that I—”

Her legs buckled, her whole body wracked by quiet sobs.

“—that I m-make you proud.”

Rainbow buried her head in her hooves, her emotions spilling out onto the cold ground. She felt awful; physically sick and mentally torn. Her chest stopped heaving after several minutes, though the tightness in her throat remained.

“You guys will always be my mom and dad. I swear… I SWEAR! I don’t care about all this stuff! I don’t CARE about Celestia! She can’t take your place! She CAN’T! I—I won’t LET HER! I don’t CARE! I don’t…”

Red and orange bangs draped across her eyes as she bowed her head. “I don’t care… I don’t care… I’m sorry.” She sucked in her breath. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

“Rainbow Dash?”

She jumped and wheeled around.

Twilight.

“Damn it,” she growled, scrubbing furiously at her tears. “Damn it, damn it, DAMN IT! How long have you been standing there?”

Twilight took a step back, startled by her anger. “Only a second. I was just… uh… passing by, and I thought I heard somepony, so—”

“So you thought you’d stick your nose where it doesn’t belong and invade my privacy. Got it.” She opened her wings and took off.

“Wait!”

Rainbow stopped and spun in midair. “What?!”

“Please, don’t go,” said Twilight. “I honestly didn’t hear that much. You’re one of my best friends, Rainbow. Please don’t be mad at me.”

Rainbow was so furious, she had half a mind to leave Twilight in her dust, but something in her voice made her do otherwise. Grudgingly, she flapped back down to the ground.

“Fine.”

A long, uncomfortable silence passed between them. Twilight looked like she didn’t know quite what to say. Rainbow was still cross, but she made an effort to redirect her glare away from the speechless unicorn, shooting daggers off into the bushes instead.

“I didn’t see you at the party,” Rainbow said.

A token attempt to break the ice.

“Yeah, I was… preoccupied.”

“That’s nice.”

Dead silence.

“I… I’m not sure if it means anything to you, Rainbow. But if it does, I think Princess Celestia is just as intimidated by this situation as you are.”

Rainbow scowled. “I am not intimidated.”

Twilight edged closer, violet hooves padding across the dew-covered grass. That fiery pink gaze fell on her again, and she forced herself to meet it.

“What… happened between you and Princess Celestia yesterday morning?”

Rainbow’s face flashed with rekindled anger. “I gave her a piece of my mind, THAT’S what happened!”

Another step forward. “Rainbow, I never had the chance to meet your mom and dad, but from everything Fluttershy’s told me, it sounds like they loved you more than anything else in the world. Do you really think they’d want you to be doing this to yourself?”

“Doing what to myself?!”

“This,” Twilight said, gesturing broadly. “Dragging yourself in front of them in the middle of the night. Laying yourself across their graves like a wreath, and begging them to forgive you.”

Rainbow rounded on her. “I don’t see how it’s ANY of YOUR BUSINESS!”

“Look—”

“This is MY business, and MY life, and MY DAMN FAMILY PLOT! You’ve got NO RIGHT coming out here lecturing me about ANYTHING, Twilight!”

“I didn’t mean to—”

“SHUT UP! Why did you REALLY follow me out here?”

Twilight winced, and for a moment, she entertained the thought of backing down. Then she remembered what Princess Luna had asked her to do, and the tormented look that had adorned Princess Celestia’s face four days ago when she faced that hospital room, not so different than the one Rainbow had worn a few short minutes ago. She steeled herself.

“Your parents will always be a part of you,” she said. “Nothing can ever take away from who they were. But letting somepony else into your heart doesn’t mean you have to cut them out of it.”

The look of anger cracked, and confusion shone through on Rainbow’s face. “Huh? Let somepony else into my…” Then realization dawned, and her rage and fury came back in full force. “What, you mean CELESTIA? The pony who kicked me to the curb, then acted like I was NOTHING to her EVERY SINGLE TIME SHE SAW ME until the day she COULDN’T anymore? THAT’S the somepony I should let into my heart?”

“Listen, Rainbow—”

“No, YOU LISTEN! I knew my mom and dad for eleven years, and in all that time, they didn’t miss a birthday, or a flight expo, or a race. Even when they were sick and dying, they went to work EVERY DAY to put food on the table for me. I was never someone else’s daughter to them. But now you’re telling me to replace them with—”

“Princess Celestia would never try to—!”

“—somepony who wasn’t even THERE! WHERE WAS CELESTIA after they died? WHERE WAS CELESTIA when I was all alone in flight school, and every single day, I had to listen to ponies whisper about what a disappointment and a failure I was—until the day I finally dropped out? WHERE WAS CELESTIA when I had to eke out a two-bit living on third-shift backwater weather duty, or teach myself how to build my own cloud house? WHERE WAS SHE?”

Twilight bit her lip. She didn’t have an answer.

“Tell me how I’m supposed to feel, Twilight! TELL ME! Go ahead and look it up in one of your stupid books! Because from where I’m standing, I should be FURIOUS at Celestia! I should HATE Celestia! I shouldn’t want anything to DO with her!”

Rainbow’s hoof slammed! against a nearby tree. A web of cracks flourished across the bark.

Twilight fell quiet. Her eyes drank in the depths of her friend’s anguish and despair. Her brain rifled for something to say.

She opened her mouth and spoke:

“When I was a little filly, Princess Celestia—”

“I DON’T CARE!” Rainbow roared, reeling on her. “I DON’T CARE about ANYTHING you could POSSIBLY have to say about Celestia! I DON’T CARE how great a TEACHER she was to you, or a… a mother…”

Her voice broke.

“I… I don’t care. I DON’T CARE! I don’t care how many amazing things she taught you! I don’t care how good she treated you, or how much she… l-loved you. I DON’T CARE! None of it means anything to me, because I DIDN’T MEAN ANYTHING TO HER!”

Twilight took a step forward, desperate to bridge the rift. “Rainbow…”

“It was different for you! You got took in, and I… I got tossed out.”

Rainbow trembled. The pain went through her in shudders, pooling in tiny beads at the corners of her eyes. Then her whole body gave a hitch. Her hooves buckled. She slumped to the ground, choking on a sob.

“Why didn’t she want me, Twi?”

Twilight rushed over to her side at once and threw her hooves around her. Rainbow’s head hung limp.

“Why wasn’t I good enough? Why didn’t she want me? What was wrong with me?” she asked. “I don’t… get it.”

“There’s nothing wrong with you!”

“Then why? Why would she…?”

“Shh,” Twilight whispered, rocking her gently back and forth. She peered at the back of Rainbow’s mane, the mottled colors heaving in time with her sobs. The turmoil in her soul was all-consuming. Twilight numbly wished Fluttershy were here to offer comfort.

“And now—” Rainbow choked out, “—here I am, crying my heart out over her, right in front of the only two ponies in my whole life who ever actually cared about me—”

She squeezed her eyes closed as tightly as she could, but it wasn’t enough to stanch her tears.

“I’m sorry,” she cried out, tilting her head to the graves. “I’m sorry!”

Twilight cradled her tightly. “Oh, Rainbow,” she whispered, rubbing a hoof across her friend’s back. “What do you have to be sorry for?”

Rainbow sniffled.

“For being the worst daughter in the world. Because—Because every time I think about her, I get mad, I HATE HER!—But part of me keeps remembering all this… this stuff from a million years ago… Like how she used to hold me, and sing to me, and… and it DOESN’T EVEN MATTER! It doesn’t even MATTER anymore! But I still can’t help feeling like… like…”

“Like you aren’t being loyal to them,” Twilight finished for her.

With a pained expression, Rainbow pried herself from Twilight’s comforting hold. She huddled on the ground, little and alone, chest still heaving as her grief stabbed into her. A long time went by before either one broke the silence.

Then…

“When I was a filly,” Twilight began her story again, speaking softly, “I spent almost all my time under Princess Celestia’s wing, learning from her in person in-between classes at her school. It was a wonderful opportunity, but it meant I wasn’t able to see my family very often.

“I could still spend time with my brother. He was a part of the Royal Guard, so I saw him regularly enough. But… my parents…”

Something moved behind Twilight’s eyes.

“The first time I went away to study in Canterlot, I was only eight years old. I had never been away from my mom and dad before… and we ended up being apart for months. When the term ended and Princess Celestia accompanied me on the train to go see them, I was terrified they wouldn’t recognize me. I thought they’d just… I don’t know… glance over me on the platform and keep walking, wondering where their daughter was.

“But they did recognize me” she finished with a meaningful look. “And when I got off the train and they saw me, it was like nothing had changed between us. I was still their little girl. It didn’t matter to them that I had spent so much time with Princess Celestia, because they loved me, and they only wanted what was best for their daughter.”

Rainbow straightened up, rubbing her eyes as she sniffled. “Is this the part where you tell me what’s best for me?”

Twilight didn’t answer at first. As the sky above them began to lighten with the first gray hues of dawn, she sat pensively, seeming to weigh her next words. Far off in the distance, a robin began to sing, and a breeze blew through the vale and rustled the leaves on the hoof-scarred tree.

“Go with Princess Celestia,” she said finally. “Go with her to Canterlot.”

“What? No!”

Rainbow recoiled. She jumped up and stalked away several paces, turning to regard Twilight with a mutinous look.

“Why? Why the HAY would I do that?”

“Because you need to, Rainbow.”

“WHY?”

“Because you need to,” Twilight said, standing and moving close again. “From everything you’ve told me, you need to do this, more than anything. The things you keep remembering… Your heart and your memories are at war with each other, and it’s tearing you up inside.”

Rainbow scowled and turned away. “So what? I’ll get over it!”

“There are questions you need answered, and the answers aren’t anywhere to be found here in Ponyville. They’re in Canterlot. With her.”

Twilight rested a hoof on her friend’s quivering shoulder.

“Give yourself the chance to explore those spaces and discover the answers for yourself. You won’t be whole again until you do.”

“Celestia doesn’t deserve one SECOND of my time!”

“Don’t do it for Princess Celestia then. Do it for yourself. You deserve those answers, Rainbow. You deserve to have peace. And…

“And you deserve to let go of this guilt,” she said, watching sadly as Rainbow tensed and shrank in on herself. “Wherever your mom and dad are now, you’ll always be their little girl, and they’ll always love you. I know how loyal you are to them, but this doesn’t have to be a betrayal. It’s just… a new beginning.”

With that, everything was said that needed to be. They lapsed into silence, and a hush fell over the cemetery.

After some seconds had passed, Rainbow turned one last time to gaze on the two ponies who’d remained mute throughout the whole conversation. The two ponies who would never say anything ever again.

She looked back at Twilight with tears in her eyes.

“Do you—do you think—my parents would be proud?” she asked.

Twilight smiled. “I know so.”

They said their goodbyes and departed. Rainbow took to the sky, and Twilight went her own way on the ground.

Not long after they had gone, the sun broke over the eastern hills, carrying with it Celestia’s light, Celestia’s warmth—

—and Celestia herself.

The princess arrived in a flash of golden light. She stood still, her puffy eyes fixed on the spot near the graves where Rainbow had lain. She stood still, and she pondered the answer to a question.

Then she spoke:

“Watching over you every day, my Aurora. With every sunrise.”

Then she kneeled, lips brushing against the wet blades of grass. Reverently, she kissed the earth where Rainbow’s father was buried, then did the same for her mother.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “Thank you so much.”

She stood tall. A light enveloped her, and then she was gone.

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

The golden chariot stood waiting.

As the drivers scuffed their hooves restlessly, waiting for their passenger to board, Rainbow Dash sulked a short ways away, huddled with her closest friends. Her wings flicked anxiously at her sides as they gathered to see her off. Her legs bowed. Her hooves pointed inward.

She didn’t want to go.

Pinkie Pie was hopping around in circles like a rabbit on amphetamines. A description Angel Bunny might have taken umbrage with if Fluttershy weren’t inadvertently squeezing the life out of him.

“Ooh, Rainbow Dash, I’m so excited! You get to go to CANTERLOT! It’s such a super-duper-amazing place! Even if everypony there WAS a big mean-meanie-pants at the Grand Galloping Gala. I mean, jeeze, how can ANYPONY hear the Pony Pokey and NOT stick their right hoof in? HEY! I just had a great idea! You should invite me to Canterlot so I can throw you a PARTY! We can do all sorts of super fun things together, like submarining, making racecar noises, playing pranks on Princess Luna, shaving cats—”

Applejack wore a somber expression on her face as she gave a tip of her hat. “Take care of yourself, Rainbow Dash. It’s gonna be real boring ’round Ponyville without ya,” she said.

Rainbow felt a stab of heartache at Applejack’s forlorn look. Why had she let Twilight convince her to go along with this?

“Gonna be real boring in Canterlot without you,” she echoed back.

Leaning in close, she whispered into Applejack’s ear, “Be sure to let me know if you have any problems with the weather while I’m gone. You know, tsunamis, droughts, Armageddon, that sort of thing.”

Applejack chuckled. “Don’t y’all worry none. I’ll be sure to send you a letter if’n anything happens, Spike Express. Deal?”

“Deal.”

“—and the best part of it is, you’re going to live in a castle, and castles have moats, and moats have alligators, and that’s SUPER DUPER FANTASTERIFIC because Gummy’s an alligator too, and he would loooooooooove the chance to meet his aunts and nephews and sisters and cousins—”

Rarity’s blue eyes lit up. “Don’t be a stranger, Rainbow, darling! We’re all just a short train ride away! And do be certain to drop me a line if you find yourself in want of a formal gown. I’ll be happy to whip up something chic and feminine for you!”

Rainbow blanched. “Uh, sure. Thanks, Rare.”

Applejack snickered.

“—and stepfathers and brothers and grandmas and uncles and great uncles and great great uncles—”

Fluttershy smiled weakly. “Have a safe trip. We’ll all… miss you.”

Rainbow trotted over and pulled Fluttershy into a great big hug. Angel Bunny saw his chance to escape and made a break for it. He scampered away, coughing and gasping and wheezing and making a very rude gesture with his paw, though nopony noticed.

“Hey, Fluttershy, no worries, right? Canterlot isn’t far, so don’t you shed any tears over me. Besides, Ponyville needs you to stay strong in case anymore dumb dragons decide to show their ugly mugs around this place while I’m gone.”

“Hey! I resent that!” called out Spike.

Fluttershy smiled warmly. “Thank you, Rainbow.”

Then, at last, it was time to go. Rainbow flew to the chariot.

Almost a year had gone by since Nightmare Moon’s long-prophesized coup d’état ushered in the night. If you had asked her then, as she stood at the bounds of the Everfree, about to venture forth into the unknown—if you had asked her then how she felt about the five ponies standing next to her—she would never in a million billion years have predicted her feelings for them would ever amount to anything as much as this. So much had grown between them. They had been through so much together.

It hurt to part ways with them, these wonderful ponies. Her friends. And not just her friends, but the town as well. Only now, with one hoof in the cart, did she realize how painful it was to leave Ponyville behind.

Ponyville. Ponyville, with its thatched-roof cottages and cobblestone streets. Its wildflower meadows and its forests, softly breathing, swaying in the wind day by day. Its clear blue rivers reflecting clear blue skies, and groves and groves of apple trees rolling far and wide across the horizon.

Ponyville. Her home, for so much of her life.

She spared one last glance over her shoulder at it. Twilight must have caught the misty-eyed expression on her face, because she started to say something. But Rainbow cut her off.

“Shut up, Twi. I don’t know how I let you talk me into this dumb idea, but you did. Mission successful. Just shut up and leave it at that.”

Twilight smirked. “Actually, I was going to recommend a restaurant I thought you might like to visit in Canterlot. But since you snapped at me, now I’m not going to tell you.”

“You were not!”

“Was too.”

“—and then I said, ‘Oatmeal? Are you CRAZY?’ But then he started to laugh, and balloon animals and party favors started coming out of his ears. And that’s how Equestria was made!”

Twilight grinned. Rainbow rolled her eyes and stuck out her tongue.

With a flap of her wings, she hopped onto the golden chariot. Tank already lay sprawled out in the cart, soaking up the heat from the sun-warmed metal as he waited for her to board.

Up front, the pair of armored pegasus drivers shared a look and a nod, and then they took off running. Their hooves clapped like thunder against the road, the thicket of Whitetail Wood hurtling toward them like a towering green wall as the distance in front of them rapidly turned into distance behind them.

“WAIT! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIT!”

An orange blur exploded out of the shrubs and raced down the road, nearly bowling Rarity over.

Scootaloo ran faster than she ever had, her little wings beating against the headwind, hell bent on catching up, on seeing Rainbow one last time. But as the forest loomed, the pegasi drawing the chariot opened their wings and kicked off, bearing the chariot up into the air.

She stopped short, huffing and puffing, reaching out in vain as her lifelong hero disappeared over the trees. “RAINBOW DASH!”

Exhausted, she collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath.

Tears stung her eyes. “Too late. I just—I—I couldn’t make it in time.”

“Hey, kid. What’s eatin’ ya?”

Scootaloo perked up. “R-Rainbow Dash?”

Sure enough, there stood Rainbow, grinning and flexing her wings. She had ditched the chariot to fly back down.

“The one and only! Hey, Scoots, what are you—Whoa! Hey!”

Scootaloo ran at her so fast, she practically tackled her, knocking her down onto her bottom. The orange filly threw her hooves around Rainbow and buried her face in her mane. Rainbow was tempted to laugh, and she probably would have if Scootaloo weren’t crying her eyes out.

“I thought—I th-thought I wouldn’t get a chance—to—to s-say—”

“Goodbye?” she finished. “Aw, Scootaloo, this isn’t goodbye.”

She smiled and hugged Scootaloo lovingly, allowing the child to take refuge in her arms.

Scootaloo sniffled and looked up at her, hope shining in her eyes. “You mean you’re not going away after all?”

“No. I am.”

Scootaloo’s face fell, and Rainbow felt no small amount of chagrin.

“I wish I could stay here with you, kid. Really, I do. Sometimes in life, we’ve gotta do things we don’t want to do. It isn’t easy trying to figure out who you are.”

Scootaloo shot her a withering look. “Don’t you think I already know that?” she grumbled with a gloomy nod toward her blank flank.

Rainbow burst out laughing.

“Hey! It’s not funny!”

“Yes it is! Haha!” Laughing hysterically, she fell backwards onto the ground, taking the surprised schoolfilly along with her.

Scootaloo pouted. Her hero was laughing at her!

Rainbow brought herself under control. “Aw, hey, don’t be that way, Scoots. I didn’t mean nothin’ by it. Hey, come here! I’ve got something to tell you.”

She wrapped her hoof around Scootaloo and drew her close.

“I’ve got a really important job I need you to do. See, I’m gonna be gone for a couple months. I need you to take my place here in Ponyville for as long as I’m not around.”

Scootaloo blinked. “As a weatherpony?”

“Well, no… Although it’s hard to imagine you being any worse than the mare they actually picked for that job. No, I need you to take my place as the coolest pony in Ponyville. You think you can do that for me?”

Scootaloo’s jaw dropped. “Coolest pony in Ponyville? Me?”

“Of course, you! Do you want the job or not?”

“I—well—y-yeah! Sure!”

“It’s not easy. Not everypony is cut out for it. You’ve got to eat, breathe, and sleep coolness wherever you go. Think you’re up for the challenge?”

Scootaloo stuttered. “I—I—”

Rainbow gave her a wink. “I think you’ll do fine. You’re already the coolest pony in Ponyville in my book.”

“I am?”

“Well, second awesomest. After me, of course.”

Scootaloo’s eyes lit up. Rainbow Dash thought she was cool! She felt like she could soar!

“Hey, Rainbow Dash. What happened to the chariot you were on?”

“Oh yeah. That,” Rainbow muttered. She glanced unhappily at the sky beyond Whitetail Wood, where her ride was a tiny dot quickly retreating into the endless blue. “Yeah, I’m gonna need to shred some serious air to catch back up. Guess it’s time for me to make my exit.”

She gave Scootaloo a noogie, which had the schoolfilly giggling and feigning protest. Then she spread her wings and took to the air with a mighty gust. With a mock salute to Ponyville’s new coolest pony, she started to fly away.

Scootaloo ran after her. “Goodbye, Rainbow!” she called.

“Don’t sweat it, Scoots! I’ll be back before you know it!”

To Scootaloo’s surprise, she didn’t immediately fly in pursuit of the chariot. Instead, she went up… and up… and up… until Scootaloo could barely see her. Rainbow hovered at the height of her ascent, the sunlight reflecting off her horn, shining vividly. Then she dived, and dived, and just when it looked like she was about to impale herself on the treetops at eight hundred miles an hour—

KA-BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Scootaloo’s eyes filled with wonder as she beheld the awesome beauty of the sonic rainboom for the very first time.

Rainbow thundered away, laughing wildly. Yep. Definitely still got it.

She flew toward Canterlot. Toward tomorrow.

Comments

[Arco Iris]

does thjis m,ake scootaloo an alicorn as well?

[RainbowsAreMagic]

Twilight the troll. I like your style.

[Delicious]

You'd think that if Pinkie is also one of Celestia's daughters she would be getting the same treatment. (Shipped off to Canterlot, alicorness, etc.) but I suppose Pinkie can break ALL the rules.

[EvilBob]

422070
I think you're confused. Pinkie isn't one of Celestia's daughters in this story.
Pinkie's Rainbow Dash's half-sister, related through their father. This was hinted at when Pinkie asked about several years' worth of birthday presents and Princess Celestia replied saying that then, Pinkie's father would owe for several years' worth of alimony/child support.

[Inkling Idea]

422070 I think that Pinkies dad is the parent that makes them sisters but I don't know for sure.

[Sunny Scriber]

Zecora’s stuff
lol drugs

[Phxntxm]

Gah...I hate it when people just make RD do Rainbooms willingly, SHE CAN'T DO IT. The only way she can do it is through pure adrenaline. And why is Applejack so pissy? Seems like it's that time of the month

[Rangerdash115]

427079 lol

[Brony2]

heh heh, ya know, to be correct with psychics, she's have to be flying 300,000 miles per hour to achieve the sonic rain boom, not just 800

[Slesh]

AW DAMMIT! This fic makes me so jelly...now I have to feel bad about my own writing style all night! Why is this so fricking...NNNGFFFFF-

Wait, I only read chapter one so far! There's no way the rest is gonna be this good right?

Right?

[StormyVenture]

427386
I believe the point is that the 800 is a rough approximation of the speed of sound near sea level which is 768 miles per hour (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_sound). I think Equestrian physics might be a tad different. It's not clear how the rainbow effect happens, maybe accelerating water particles at that speed allows to reflect light coming from many different angles in a relatively short amount of time?

[Joural]

427386

to be correct to physics, first of all you should be operating in meters and kilometers, and second of all the speed of sound is roughly 1230kmph, or about 760mph. so... yeah! rough numbers based on MATH. In other words, she could easily do the rainboom at 800mph, and in fact would have pulled it off some time before that point.

google is your friend.

427774

I did not notice this post before I wrote that.

As I understand, the rainbow is just pegasus magic. Rainbow has a particular affinity for rainbows, and actually leaves a rainbow trail even when not doing a rainboom.

[R_O_Y_G_B_I_V]

I loved this chapter! Made my damn night, and it sort of inspirational for the people in that 'coming of age' group. We all face forks in the road and sometimes we just have to go with the flow. have a mustache sir

[Toolkit]

427651 427774 428933 Watch this video. This guy will explain a few things for you. (Speed mainly) Can't wait to read more.

[Low-quality memes]

I congradulate you, not everyone on this site can make pinkie pie so "pinkie pie"

[SatoshiKyu]

>Rereading awesome story
>Dramatic scene with Celestia in front of the graves of Rainbow's adoptive parents
>“Watching over you every day, my Aurora. With every sunrise.”
>Aurora
>lolwut.jpg

What caused the sudden name change? Not that I don't approve--despite how awesome it sounds, Freyja isn't really a name that fits Rainbow Dash all that well.

[RazgrizInferno]

427079 Well that was true until the season 2 finale where Dash did a Sonic Rainboom at will while flying upwards.

[Xyz-Pendulum-Synchro]

427079

Actually the Season 2 finale proved that wrong.

[EnderPon]

“I owe you one,” Rainbow winked. Then she flew away.
Big Macintosh grinned from ear to ear. “Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeyup.”

>Implying

[Namara]

coughing and wheezing and making a very rude gesture with his paw, though nopony noticed

But Echo said this was a sign of respect!

[Sky Hooves]

“Well, that’s just too doggone bad! You’d best start makin’ a list of all the other pets in Ponyville so’s ta ask their owners instead, ‘cause unless pigs take to flyin’ or a winged unicorn sets herself down here in the next three seconds, you AINT’ GETTIN’ WINONA!”

Two seconds later, Rainbow Dash alighted on a nearby tree branch.

“Trouble in paradise?” she asked.

BEST SCENE EVER!!!

[Enderstorm]

“Just take the freaking compliment already.”

“Oh… um… well… if you want me to.”

[Viking Hoof]

603917 HAIL FREYJA!

[cringe]

LOL that Big Mac Part is funny xD

[Valiant Spiral]

“Because whether or not it was the correct decision, it was a decision you made out of love. That’s what’s matters. And anyway, it isn’t like you haven’t got any experience with raising a family. If you’re half as good a mother to Rainbow as you’ve been a sister to Luna, she’ll come around eventually. She has to.”

[Pinklestia]

2779582

Hahaha.

[Fourpony]

That way they’re not interested in your food anymore, because they’re all too busy hunting down and murdering innocent ponies.

It's for those times you really need a friendship report.

I’ve cared for my people through times of war, and hardship, and strife.

Would probably be ponies cause that is what she says all the time in the show.

But I am my people’s shield, and it falls to me to do what must to be done to keep them safe.

Unneeded "to".

If I should be forced to ask her to leave here for the sake of her own protection…

Would Rainbow be the only target? Twilight could very well be reasoned to be just as important. Hell, all the elements could be, though they probably aren't as well known nor did any of them sprout new parts after being cared for by Celestia. Whoever would harm Rainbow must have a good intelligence network.

There were Applejack and Applebloom, Rarity and Sweetie Belle, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie and—

Seems like Purple Smart is being a bad friend.

“Encyclopedias,” she muttered with a roll of her eyes. “Of course.”

Good reference back to the last chapter.

“I guess I can… give it a try,” Rainbow replied.

That seems a bit quick. A month, no friends, no support; that would be tough for Rainbow in Canterlot.

Not long after they had gone, the sun broke over the eastern horizon

That party went on for a long time.

Almost a year had gone by since Nightmare Moon’s long-prophesized coup d'état ushered in the night.

Reordering of show events or just something that got overlooked?

“It’s a new beginning!”

Seems a little odd for Rainbow to say with the animosity she held towards Celestia. I honestly would have thought it should have taken some strong arming to get Rainbow to go, and a friend.

Only issue I have is Rainbow gives in too easily. Maybe it is her feelings of confusion, but she is stubborn to a fault; just like AJ. I honestly expected Twilight to say she would go just to get Dash to think about heading to Canterlot.

[Aldea Donder]

5965284

I want to let you know, I took your critiques on the final two scenes of this chapter to heart. You were right. Rainbow really did acquiesce way too easily, and she sounded way too optimistic at the end.

Criticisms like these are the best, because they force you to self-examine and own up to your own mistakes. Deep down inside, I think I knew there was something discordant between this chapter and the rest of the narrative. You hit the nail on the head when you pointed out what that something was.

So axed it. I rewrote over half the scene between Twilight and Rainbow, and I took the opportunity to do a number of things which (I believe) strengthen the story:

1. Even more abandonment angst, because Rainbow tears are the best tears.
2. Downplayed Rainbow's enthusiasm about going to Canterlot a lot.
3. Acknowledged Shining Armor's existence early on, while also making it clear to the reader this fic happens before (or in an alternate universe to) A Canterlot Wedding.

I think it's a fair amount better now. I don't think it ever can be perfect -- realistically, you're right, Rainbow still likely wouldn't agree to go alone; she would need a friend to drag her to Canterlot by her ear -- but it's the best effort I can make in ~10,000 words without losing pacing.

[Spiritus Arcane]

“And if she decides she would rather stay, then I’ll have no other choice than to order the Royal Guard to take her by force.”

*Headdesks* Well, if those are the kind of decisions you're gonna be making this story Tia, I hope you enjoy Nightmare Prism or whatever Dash calls herself when she finally snaps...

[lunashonorguard]

and now i wish to smack Celestia

[DarkPinkie]

I don't know why but I always get so much sadder about people who dies of old age than people who's life gets cut short somehow. Thankfully the sadness of natural causes is one grand cry rather than weeks long depression for an accident or sickness.

Now you go to Canterlot RD, now is your chance to give Tia that black eye.

[Fourpony]

And if she decides she would rather stay, then I’ll have no other choice than to order the Royal Guard to take her by force.

I really find it odd how only 3 days or so pass and it is assumed Equestria's enemies know about Rainbow and her relation to Celestia. I feel Twilight would be in more danger than Rainbow since she has been with Celestia for years. I know I have brought this up in other chapters but I am rereading this one like I said I would and it caught my attention here.

And Twilight, who’d spent the whole time sitting there uncomfortably, making feeble small talk and wondering what she was supposed to say, felt suddenly compelled to say something—anything!—to make her mentor whole again
“Princess Celestia…”
“Yes?” the alicorn said, pausing mid-takeoff.

"I'll be your daughter!" Twilight blurted out, the realization of her words quickly bringing a look of horror to her face.
SHIT!

Won’t be long afore summer’s upon us, and if this new crop doesn’t take to root by then

But apple trees take years to mature.

“Yeah, I was… with Princess Celestia for most of the day.”

And night somehow as well.

“It was different for you! You got took in, and I… I got tossed out.”

I like this. Celestia's love does seem conditional, least when Rainbow confronted her about if Celestia would have ever told Dash is Dash never grew a horn. And that is something to be furious over.

[King of Kings]

What kind of pony turns their back on their own kid?

Oh, so what Celestia did was bad, or wrong, eh?
My response to that?

There are far worse things than what Celestia did here. FAR WORSE. I should know! They've happened to me personally!

[Dragon of Shadows]

Maybe I’m overreacting. I mean, what’s the worst that could happen?”

scontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xtp1/v/l/t1.0-9/12654379_987335421356658_3818115149288002131_n.jpg?oh=106f5a1b830fabc15a1e704e8ff263f1&oe=572AE0EF that that is what could happen. end. of. story.

She tucked her wings and extended her hooves, enjoying the rush as she plummeted back down to the earth. The wind lashed against her face and pulled her lips into a grin, the air rolled in her ears like thunder, then she spotted the wispy gray fingers of the Mach cone out of the corners of her eyes, felt it resonate through her skull right down to the back molars, and now the ground was quickly racing up to meet her, six thousand feet, three thousand, one!

KA-BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

i believe that video would be appropriate

[Dragon of Shadows]

Whatever it was that set those alarm bells a-ringing

alarms anyone?

[ZackAttack]

This deserves to be as well-known as My Little Dashie, Rainbow Factory, Fallout: Equestria, Cupcakes, and pretty much any other famous fic.

[RyGuy4TwinsFan]

“Well, that’s just too doggone bad! You’d best start makin’ a list of all the other pets in Ponyville so’s to ask their owners instead, ’cause unless pigs take to flyin’ or a winged unicorn sets herself down here in the next three seconds, you AIN’T GETTIN’ WINONA!”
Two seconds later, Rainbow Dash alighted on a nearby tree branch.
“Trouble in paradise?” she asked.
“Yaaaaaaaaay!” Applebloom and Winona shouted in unison, although in Winona’s case, it came out sounding a lot more like “Arrrrrrrrrf!”
Applejack threw down her stetson hat and stomped on it. “GAL-DARN IT, RAINBOW DASH! HAVEN’T YOU GOT ONE LICK OF TIMING?”

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!! That's what you get for tempting fate Applejack! HAHAH I couldn't breathe I was laughing so hard!

[Prismmirror]

It was different for you! You got took in, and I… I got tossed out.

Damn... *sniff*... damn onion ninjas...

[Lagrangian]

Why the removal of the "watching over you with every sunrise" line? I liked that line.

[Slender-EXE]

428933
Actualy, the sonic rainboom is based on the idea that Rainbow not only breaks the sound barrier, but the colour barrier as well. Plz, I beg of you, don't ask me how that works, because I have no clue.

[Helljumper206]

Applebloom turned this over in her head for a few seconds. Then her eyes lit up. THATS IT! Cutie Mark Crusader rescue team! Wait until I tell Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle! This is gonna be great! Hey, Applejack, do you know where we can get us some jaws of life?

My only thought to this is how dose she know what the jaws of life is?

[PrismStrike]

I have only this to say at this point in my reading of this. FUCK CANON this is better

[Centurion Pike-Wall]

9006610
A-Fucking-Men, Brother! A-Fucking-men!

[Nightflight406]

A Wizard of Oz reference. Asome
Rarity: Cow
Applejack: Another cow
Rarity: No I think that's the same one

[Chadbunger]

9249370
HELL YEAH, this is way better!!!

[Lord King Cocoon]

“That’s just too doggone bad! You’d best start makin’ a list of all the other pets in Ponyville so’s to ask their owners instead, because unless pigs take to flyin’ or a winged unicorn sets herself down here in the next three seconds, you AIN’T GETTIN’ WINONA!”

I don't even have to read the next paragraph to know what happens next.

Two seconds later, Rainbow Dash alighted on a nearby tree branch.

I promise I didn't read ahead. Although, Applejack may have the advantage. Does it count as setting down if it's on a tree branch?

---

“Oh, your horn is simply exquisite, darling! It’s enough to turn any unicorn green with envy!”

In all fairness, technically Rarity isn't treating Rainbow Dash differently. That's just Rarity being Rarity.

---

“Encyclopedias,” Rainbow muttered with shake of her head and a roll of her eyes. “Of course.”

Subverting expectations to the extreme. Then again, it's Pinkie Pie. It's actually kinda creepy just how perfectly Pinkie is Portrayed in this one scene.

---

“Do you—do you think—my parents would be proud?” she asked.

Their daughter is one of the best fliers in Equestria, has become an Element of Harmony and saved the world more than once, and is now technically royalty. What do you think?

---

Rainbow gave her a wink. “I think you’ll do fine. You’re already the coolest pony in Ponyville in my book.”

That line... is it any wonder why Scootaloo keeps getting covered with sap with how sappy that line is?

[Teraunce]

I want to smack Celestia so hard right now.

[ZanarNaryon]

THE FINAL SCENE WITH SCOOTALOO MADE ME CRYYYYYYYY

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah this fic just continues to be even better than i remember it and i remember it being really good so this is really really really good!!!! I mean i already rambled about it in the last comment but everything about Rainbow's very fucking conflicting feelings is so well conveyed, like you really get across the sense of her entire world being ripped away from under her and she doesn't know who she is and she doesn't know what to do and everything is wrong and messed up and she just wants things to be normal but there's a big horn growing out of her head that means things can definitely not be normal again (sidenote i love that her horn is more like Celestia's than it is a unicorn, really adds to the whole thing about her parentage being utterly inescapable no matter how much she wants to escape it) and aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah it's so goood you're doing an amazing job of depicting the emotional turmoil!!
And the scene at the grave!!!!! Aaaaoh my god, fuck all the emotions, like yeah it's been a lot about angst over being abandoned by her "real" mum, but like yeah getting all those happy memories aobut Celestia being her mother and then being ripped away from her is OF COURSE gonna mess with her feelings about her adopted parents and aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah im gonna cry!!!!!

But also all her friends being there and love her and Fluttershy makes her laugh and AJ telling big mac to knock it off with the worship and Rarity and AJ making her feel better just by arguing and Pinkie throwing a party and Twilight being really really fucking bad at this but she's trying and she did helpt a little bit even if she doesn't really know what she's doing and aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah friends I love them!!!!
Also, having already read the story once it's fun to see the seeds of the coming very bad schism between Rainbow and Twilight even this early. I get that some of the other comments didn't like her characterization, she's maybe a tad mean, but I do like how you write her cause I can very easily see what pre-existing flaws are causing her to act this way. Like, her borderline mommy issues with Celestia (I'm only calling it borderline cause she does have a real mom, compared to Sunset "worst mommy issues ever" Shimmer) doesn't really come up as a flaw in the show but it is very very present and something she has through the entire series (i think, haven't caught up on s8 and 9 yet) and it is just brilliant the way you bring it up and make it an actual series issue here. Like absolutely, in a conflict between one of her friends and Celestia I can absolutely see Twilight, especially earlier seasons Twilight like here, taking the side of her surrogate mom above all else, and have a real hard time seeing why Rainbow wouldn't be happy about this. Like yeah she understands that it's an emotional turmoil thing to learn something so shocking in theory, but can't really relate to not wanting Celestia as your mother because she already sees Celestia as her mother, and that starts out as just like a small disagreement between them and then over time is just gonna spiral wildly out of control.
also her being so loyal to the princesses that even when Luna tells her "Only do this if you feel comfortable with it" she still does it despite being uncomfortable because the princesses are always right and she doesn't wanna trust her own judgement in the matter is an extremely Twilight thing to do, and I really think you characterized her well.

Speaking of Luna. I love her. Not gonna go into luna fangirl mode, but her being nice but a bit distant as a royal until she's alone with her niece and then immediately hugging her is just aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah so sweet i love them, I seem to remember more Luna and Rainbow scenes in the future and I cannot wait. Also her using the same argument three times but different aspects of it is really good, have I mentioned that I love this story's prose?!?!?

Also the scene at the start with Celestia, love the subtle hints at things we don't know about quite yet but we can puzzle the pieces together about fairly well, love Celestia droppign the royal dignity when she's alone to jtsu throw a tantrum because she feels horrible and needs to get the feelings out (like mother like daughter, eh) , and just a great scene overall I love this fic and there is so much else in this chapter I really lvoed hell I loved it from beginning to end but my memory is so bad so I'll leave it at that, amazing fic im gonna go draw something from it now