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Chapter One1,308 words
Chapter Two2,023 words
Chapter Three1,325 words
Chapter Four1,388 words
Chapter Five1,322 words
Chapter Six1,573 words
Chapter Seven1,666 words
Chapter Eight1,234 words
Chapter Nine1,172 words
Chapter Ten2,431 words

Chapter Seven

“What the heck is that thing?” Rainbow asked, looking from it to Twilight.

“I don't know! This is something entirely new!” Twilight said, a new thought forming in her mind. “Where is Princess Luna? Why isn't she here too?”

“I don't know. She talked a lot of dream mumbo-jumbo, said that she'd have to send someone else in, and I volunteered. She didn't say anything about a giant, black-coated, red-eyed, shadow monster!” Rainbow exclaimed.

“Enough! You cannot have her! We will stop you, Rainbow Dash,” the shadow being said, stomping its hoof on the floor.

The tremor of the giant being's hoof caused Rainbow and Twilight to lose their balance and fall to the floor. The pegasus attempted to return to her feet, but another tremor brought her down again.

“Rainbow! Help!” Twilight yelled.

Dash looked up to see Twilight engulfed in a black aura, floating up toward the creature. “Twilight!” Suddenly, driven by sheer adrenaline at seeing Twilight in danger, she spread her wings, and flew toward Twilight.

The Shadow attempted to swat Rainbow Dash down to the floor, but she was too fast for it, and dodged its blow expertly. This enabled her to fly through the black aura, and pull Twilight out of it.

“Fly, Twilight! We need to get out of here!” Dash said, holding the alicorn her in forelegs, and sped off away from The Shadow.

Twilight flapped her wings, but try as she might, she couldn't take off. “I can't! I've never been able to fly in this dream; or use my magic for that matter.”

Dash hesitated for a moment, then her usual, cocky smirk formed on her lips. “Get on my back, then. I'll fly us both out of here.”

At Rainbow's words, a sudden realization came to Twilight. The dream was starting to play itself out insomuch as Dash carrying her to safety. She had had a hard enough time seeing the dream version of the pegasus die, she wasn't about to let the real one sacrifice herself either.

“Rainbow, stop, please. Put me down now and get out of here. I can't let you sacrifice yourself for me,” Twilight said.

“No way! I'm not letting you go for anything. I'm gonna get you out of here.”

“If you don't put me down, I'll jump down. You need to get out of this dream and just forget about me,” Twilight said, and began to try to wiggle her way out of Rainbow's grasp.

“Stop it, Twi!” Rainbow protested, but Twilight wouldn't. She had begun wiggling around so much that Dash was about to lose her grip. “Alright! I'll put you down, but I'm stuck here with you.”

As they landed on the ground, Twilight looked at Rainbow. “What do you mean? Isn't there some way you can have Luna stop the spell she is doing?”

“Nope. Only way for me to get out is if you get out with me,” Dash said, a smug grin crossing her face.

“Rainbow Dash, you idiot! You're going to die in here, and there's nothing I can do about it!” Twilight said, hitting Dash in the shoulder with her hoof.

“Hey, Princess! You forget who I am! I'm me! I'm not some lame dream version of me. I'm the real deal. I'm awesome and I am going to get you out of here,” Dash said. “Besides, I think we lost big, mean, and creepy.”

The wall behind Rainbow was suddenly blown apart and the Shadow pulled its way through. “You must not leave, Twilight Sparkle,” the Shadow said. “Your fears are ours! We need them!"

“What are you? I don't understand why you trapped me here!” Twilight said, rushing passed Rainbow to stand defiantly in front of the Shadow monster.

“We are The Shadow. We are what form out of fear. We feed of the fears of ponies. Your fear of this pegasus learning of your true feelings for her proved to be an excellent source of sustenance for us."

“Wait, so is that why my magic doesn't work, and why I can't seem to fly?” Twilight asked.

“Yes. We could not have you teleporting or flying yourself to freedom. We thrive because you fear. We cannot be stopped."

"Then why can I fly?" Dash asked.

"Your arrival in this dream was unexpected to us. You also do not seem to fear this world, or the consequences that can come of your actions in it. But despite your interference, you cannot hope to stop us."

“Not unless I get Twilight out of this dream. And believe me, I will,” Rainbow said adamantly. “You don't scare me.”

“WE SHALL SOON SEE!” the Shadow exclaimed, stomping its hoof on the floor once again. This time, however, instead of a tremor, the floor cracked and gave way.

“Twilight!” Dash said, spreading her wings and flying to the alicorn's aid as she fell. There wasn't time to stop their descent, so Rainbow turned her back to the ground and held Twilight tightly in her hooves.

There was an audible crack as they hit the lower floor. Twilight jumped off Rainbow and looked down at her. “Are you okay?”

No response.

“Rainbow, please. Answer me!” Twilight said, placing a hoof on Dash's shoulder, shaking her lightly.

Still, no response was uttered.

Twilight placed her hooves over her eyes, and began crying uncontrollably. “No! Please! Not like this! Rainbow, please come back!”

“Twi...” came a weak voice.

Twilight moved her hooves and looked down at Rainbow, who was looking back at her. “Oh, thank Celestia you're okay.”

“I wouldn't... ow... say that,” Rainbow said.

The alicorn watched as her friend sat up. Twilight could see that Rainbow's shoulder didn't look right. It looked more like her shoulder had lowered itself closer to her wing joint. “I think your shoulder might be dislocated.”

“We don't have time to worry about that. Just help me, we need to find a place to hide,” Dash said.

“Okay. I think I know somewhere, but it's going to be hard to get to with the castle on fire,” Twilight said, putting her foreleg around Rainbow in effort to help her move.

“It's alright. Just get us there,” Dash said quickly.

* * * * *

Having managed to avoid the flames, Rainbow and Twilight made it to, what seemed to be, the last portion of the castle that hadn't been set on fire. They hadn't seen The Shadow for quite some time, and Twilight wasn't sure if it was good luck, or if the creature was just biding its time.

“Where are we going?” Dash asked.

“My bedroom. In this version of the dream, it hasn't been set on fire, and I'm not quite sure why,” Twilight said. “Here we are.”

Twilight pushed the large door open with her hoof and walked in. Everything was the same as it was in the real castle. Right down to Spike's little sleeping basket on the floor at the foot of her bed.

“Come on, Twi. I need your help with my shoulder,” Dash said, walking over to the bed and laying down on it.

“Uh, okay. What do you want me to do?”

“Well, the shoulder's easy enough to fix. It's happened before. I think I remember how the doctor fixed it, but I'm going to need your help,” Dash said.

“You actually remember something that's going to be useful here, yet you have a hard time remembering the history of the Wonderbolts?” Twilight asked, a sly smile forming.

“Hey! That's not cool. I remembered everything and passed that test, you know!” Dash exclaimed.

Twilight giggled. “I know. I'm sorry, I couldn't help it. What should I do to help?”

Dash moved her dislocated limb over the edge of the bed. “You need to grab my hoof with both of yours, and on the count of three, pull hard.”

Knots formed in Twilight's stomach. “Won't I hurt you by doing that?”

“Yeah, it's gonna hurt a lot, but I need it fixed so I can walk around on my own,” Dash said. “Now, take my hoof in both of yours.”

Twilight hesitated for a moment, then placed her hooves on Dash's.

“Ready?” Dash asked.

Twilight gave her a reluctant nod.

“One... Two... THREE!”

Twilight pulled hard on Rainbow's leg and, with a very loud “CRACK”, and a scream of pain from the pegasus, the leg popped back into it's socket.

Twilight let go of her friend's hoof, ran to a corner of the room, and promptly threw up. Even in a dream, that was too much for her to handle.

Sweat trickled down Rainbow's face as she sat up and looked over at Twilight. “I'm sorry, Twi. Are you okay?”

“Just give me a minute. I don't know what was worse: the horrific sound it made, feeling it pop into place, or your scream.”

Rainbow got off the bed, and stood on all four hooves. It hurt a bit to stand, but it was nothing she couldn't deal with.

Dash walked over to Twilight and placed a hoof on her shoulder. Twilight, who had tears in her eyes, turned and looked at the blue pony.

“No. Don't cry, Twilight. I'm alright and you're alright. No tears,” Dash said, wiping away one of Twilight's tears with her hoof and caressing her cheek.

Twilight smiled softly and looked into Rainbow's beautiful pink eyes. Their heads began moving closer together, but just as their lips were about to meet, the door to the bedroom shattered.

“TWILIGHT SPARKLE! YOU BELONG TO US!” the Shadow yelled.

Author's Note:

This chapter was a tad bit harder to write! I found a couple of continuity errors, but they should be fixed! Let me know if you see something that I need to fix and I will get right on it!

Thanks, as always, for reading!

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