Chapter 29 - Night Mares
**Luna**
Awareness returned slowly at first. The crumbling remains of a dream drifted away on a wind unknown to the waking world, flowing with the same currents that ever pushed and pulled at her mane.
She was thankful that it had been something besides a melange of incomprehensible images of another world, another life, seen through different eyes. Perhaps that meant the imprint left behind by her encounter with Thirty-Thirty would fade in time. Even so, though the dream had been of other things, it had not been a pleasant one.
She shifted a little, for the moment content to remain lying in bed. The old nightmares came less frequently these last few moons. Luna had yet to determine whether or not this was a good thing.
It was always hard to see the way out of a problem from the inside. She knew that better than anyone, after watching and guiding from the outside on so very many nights. But there was no watcher on the outside of her own mind, no guide out of her own maze.
It had started so well. Earning the acceptance of Loyalty, Laughter and Honesty; putting an end to the Age of Chaos. Maybe someday she would understand what had gone so wrong, where she had wandered so far from the path on which she began; but this awakening brought no more revelation than any of the others since the shadow had passed.
For such a short span of years there was much to reflect on, and not least because the shortness of the span was only subjective. She had after all taken the short road, while her sister and the rest of the world had taken the long. It would simply take time to process. She couldn't undo the changes the Nightmare had wrought; upon her sister, her guards, or the world. Her best was all she could give, in the hope that it might one day be enough.
"So," she murmured, without bothering to raise her head or open her eyes, "how many of you are watching me sleep this time?"
It wasn't strictly necessary for her to ask, given how close all four of the guards were. Echo was sat by the bed, Starchaser was in the library, and Nightshade was outside the door with Dayspring. At this range she could easily hear them think, had she not erected her own arcane barriers to prevent it. The Nightmare had made sure of that, paranoid as it was.
Still, they could at least pretend things were as they used to be.
"Just me," Echo's voice responded from somewhere off to her right. "Are you feeling well?"
Luna opened her eyes, expecting to be dazzled by afternoon sunlight blazing in through the brightly-appointed room's many windows. The orange-tinted glow that actually greeted her suggested she may have slept longer than anticipated.
"What time is it?"
"Almost time for me to wake you. You were exhausted," Echo replied, getting up from the window-seat beside her bed. It was one of the few objects in the room not made entirely from pale wood and white marble; the well-worn cushion a dark crimson blot perched atop a dark wood frame. Luna assumed Celestia had added it to the room at some point during her absence.
Echo was almost more of a contrast to the day-appointed room than Luna herself. His glossy black coat was, she was led to believe, a rarity in modern times - although, perhaps with the return of a Noctral population that change might one day be reversed. A faint line of lighter scar tissue now marked the deep grey membrane of his left wing where it had been torn the previous night, and would likely be a permanent addition - even given the magical assistance he had received, he was lucky to have retained the power of flight. His black mane and tail conspired with his coat to make him appear more like a pony-shaped hole in the room than a physical presence, but that illusion was broken by his bright amber eyes, the brass bell cutie mark, and the stark white diamond in the fur of his muzzle.
Reluctantly, Luna forced her body into motion. "I do not have time to be exhausted," she said, standing and stepping off the bed. Glancing pointedly toward the door, she added, "I notice Starchaser has rotated out early. What exactly did Nightshade do this time?"
As close as they were standing, she felt his sudden burst of helpless fear and guilt at her disapproval in spite of her defences. Echo quickly forced himself back under control, and Luna tried to hide her reaction, but something in her face must have betrayed her.
"Sorry," he said. Reflexively taking the blame, as she knew they all would for any perceived mistake or imperfection. "I know it's painful for you when we do that."
"I should be the one apologising," she replied quietly. "After all, I'm the one who did it to you all. And now I'm not even strong enough to undo it."
Once, any of them would have stood their ground. Argued, disagreed with her. Made her justify herself. Taken ownership of their own mistakes, but not hers. Striven to improve for their own sakes, not out of devotion and fear. That was one of the reasons she had so loved all four of them.
Then they had tried to stop her making the worst mistake of her life, and paid for it. The Nightmare retained some twisted attachment to them, but still saw what they did as a betrayal - and took steps to make sure they'd never do it again.
And much like life itself, some things, once taken, were impossible to give back.
"One day you will be," Echo said confidently, "and it won't change anything. You could have simply given us up for lost after what it made of us, but you did not. You pulled us all back from the edge."
She couldn't help but see the unnatural hint of fanaticism behind her old friend's eyes. The little splinter in her chest twisted once more. It was the least I could do after I threw you over it.
"We all stood beside you willingly before," he continued, "and given the choice we will again."
"Which makes giving you back that choice all the more important," Luna said. "It should never have been taken from any of you, whether or not thou or they wouldst exercise it."
Echo grinned, and for a moment Luna could see him as he once was - the pony that had lived behind those eyes, and, she hoped, one day might again. "You won't get rid of us that easily. The world may have changed around us, but that does not mean we have to change to catch up."
"Celestia doesn't seem to agree." Luna paused as she stepped into her ornamented boots, then chuckled ruefully. "She got me back just as she remembers, but I'm not even sure I know her any more."
"I do think all of us are going to be slightly skeptical of any 'plans' she produces for quite some time yet," Echo replied. "I seem to recall she found the concept rather foalish."
"Indeed," Luna said, a small smile touching her lips, "the Griffins did not name her 'Wildfire' for her forethought and consideration. Not that she ever took the time to speak to one long enough to know that she was so named. The diplomatic consequences were always my burden to bear." The weight of her dark metal peytral settled across her withers, and Luna shook out her mane as she turned toward the door. "I suppose I can add my sister's carefree and impulsive nature to the list of things I destroyed, although Equestria seems to be the better for it."
"Perhaps she might have been a better sister to you had she not taken so much for granted."
The venomous growl in the stallion's voice actually stunned Luna into silence for a moment, and not just because of the abrupt change in tone. She could feel a shadow of the hatred behind it even through her mental wards. As he spoke again, she couldn't bring herself to turn back and look at him, to see what the hate she could feel would look like on his face.
"We could have avoided all of this if she had just considered the consequences of her actions for—"
"Echo, please," she cut him off, deliberately keeping her voice low in spite of her reactionary anger, "thou know'st thou art not entirely rational when it comes to both my sister, and acknowledging mine own shortcomings at present."
"No, I am not," Echo acknowledged, more calmly, as Luna finally turned back from the doorway to face him. He seemed about to continue, but as her eyes met his something within him refused to let the words out.
The Nightmare had rendered herself perfect in their perception, and Luna's salvation from it had left that effect not broken, but redirected. He couldn't believe she was wrong any more than he could believe the sky was green, or that twice two was five.
Then, to her amazement, Echo forced himself onward anyway.
"...but neither are you."
**Nightshade**
There was movement in the chamber behind her. Luna was awake.
An icy chill ran the length of her spine, and Nightshade fought the urge to bolt. She was so preoccupied that she didn't notice Dayspring looking over at her from the far side of the doorway until the other mare spoke.
"Still thy whimpering, foal."
Forcing her ears forward again, Nightshade tried to focus her attention back on her duty. The old nag was right, as usual. Even in the face of the coming judgement for her failure, she should not neglect such tasks as were still hers to perform.
It was at least some comfort that Dayspring had favoured her with four entire words of encouragement, instead of merely a disapproving glare. She'd even gone so far as to speak a language approaching modern Equestrian.
Despite what the four of them shared, Dayspring was still something of a mystery to her and the others. The only hard facts they had were the obvious — she was a dappled grey mare, with a short-cropped pure white mane and tail, and shared the same leathery wings and vertically-slitted eyes common to all their kind — and, additionally, that she was far older than any of them. Dayspring came from a quite different age of the world. It was rare that they got more than a few words out of her on any subject, although she had always seemed content in their company. Though she was economical with speech, they had all determined that it was not for want of knowledge or intelligence that she kept silent. She just didn't seem to value speaking to anyone but Luna.
As best they could all tell, she was an honest-to-goodness Knight. Not a mere titled noble, but a member of a militant order from the depths of pre-unification history. Presumably that meant Dayspring remembered a time when the tribes had all been at war, although she'd never spoken of it. She'd been Luna's Lifewarden for longer than anypony but Luna herself knew, and had the armour to prove it too. The ornate ebony battleplate spent its time on a stand these days, gathering dust alongside an enormous sky-lance; discarded in favour of a more modern suit that matched those of her compatriots. Armour fit for a battlefield was rather too hot and heavy for guard duty, and the old dapple at least seemed to acknowledge the wisdom of lighter barding on eight to sixteen hour shifts.
Although, Nightshade wondered privately, perhaps if she'd been wearing it last night, we wouldn't have been quite so outmatched. Unless she'd ended up exhausted after dragging the carriage around in full plate.
Dayspring even actively resisted updating her vocabulary, for as much difference as that made given that she spoke to modern ponies even less than she did her fellows. She did at least make some effort to be understood should she have occasion to speak with anypony besides Luna, but Nightshade found conversations between the two older mares were often so archaic as to be unintelligible even to herself, Echo or Starchaser. They would probably have been of great interest to historians, as much for their linguistics as their content. Nightshade did not begrudge either of them some indulgence of something only they now shared, however. It seemed to please Luna.
Nightshade did her best to scan the corridor around them, but it was still difficult to see out of her right eye. The whole side of her muzzle was numb, and quite swollen. She had to assume the blow had been a strike from a limb, but it had felt more like being struck with an entire roofing beam. Without her now destroyed helmet cushioning the impact, it might have robbed her of teeth, an eye, or consciousness. Dayspring had at least left the position on the left side of the door for her, so the old veteran would be covering her blind side.
There was nothing natural about that outsider. Whispered tales about things from the other side of the veil were scarcely to be given credence, and had been all but forgotten in this age, but nevertheless it had crossed from somewhere beyond. A true anomaly, nothing about it could be taken for granted no matter how normal it might first appear. What came from the other side was alien, and what came from within the darkness of the veil itself was even worse.
And when it came, it had hurt Luna. How, Nightshade did not know; but she was going to find out. When she did, it was going to pay.
Luna hadn't called for its banishment or imprisonment, or even destroyed the cursed beast herself. Instead she had wanted it protected, of all things.
It must be the right course of action, even if she couldn't understand. After all, Luna had chosen it.
Unless, perhaps, Luna is somehow deceived by it?
Her mind recoiled from the abhorrent, blasphemous thought. There had been a distressing number of those, of late. Perhaps that was the source of her failure.
Dayspring must have sensed something of the turmoil within her, because the older mare offered her more counsel - although this time without deigning to translate it from Old Equestrian.
"Adversus solem ne loquitor."
Figuratively, it meant 'don't speak against the obvious' or 'accept things as they are', but the literal translation was rather more ironic given their lot in life.
Nightshade snorted, cocking her head at the other mare. "Really?" she replied. "I know 'tis an old idiom, but thou couldst not think of another way to say it than 'do not argue with the sun'?"
"Deliberate," Dayspring replied laconically, one eye briefly turning to regard Nightshade.
"Thou truly believ'st thinking on these changes is that dangerous?" Nightshade asked. "That it compares to the Nightmare's folly?"
The worry is obviously impairing my judgement, she thought. The old nag's anachronism is even serving to drag my own speech backward in time. I should be better than this.
The other mare just grunted and went back to watching the corridor, leaving Nightshade to wonder if perhaps Dayspring had exceeded her word quota for the day. She couldn't discern any disturbance in the old warrior's emotions through their bond; but then again, Dayspring was always as constant as her namesake in that regard. Nightshade wasn't sure if there was anything that would perturb Dayspring, except perhaps extended conversation.
She would just have to stop worrying about all these strange contradictions, and wait until Luna chose to speak to her.
**Twilight Sparkle**
Having never experienced the feeling before, Twilight couldn't be certain, but she was beginning to wonder if this was what it was like to cram for a test the night before.
There was just too much to take in. There was this big, disorganised, fragile mess of information in her head. It felt like touching it to organise or process it would just cause the whole edifice to shatter, and then she'd only be left with what scraps she could reassemble from the ruins.
They had simply run out of time. If they wanted to be rested and ready to journey to another world the next day, all of them needed to sleep - and so, Twilight had reluctantly decamped from the library to the kitchens, and from there on toward the group's shared room.
She was at least hopeful that the contents of her brief meeting with Princess Celestia towards the end of the day would stick. There was hardly time for any formal practice, but in a short private session Celestia had taught her the basics of self-defence against mental intrusion via dark magic. Twilight knew she wouldn't be capable of any miracles, but she could at least close the gates of that mental fortress Celestia had alluded to before. The other alicorn hadn't even been able to dent Twilight's defences once they were up, although Celesta had admitted she was hardly any particular talent when it came to either offensive dark magic or mental manipulation of any sort. Twilight also thought they'd probably both benefited from having something resembling one of her old tutor sessions, even if it hadn't lasted all that long.
Everypony else seemed much less on-edge about what was going on than Twilight herself. They'd even been goofing off instead of studying when she had returned to the library after her time with Celestia, although Twilight had put them back on track quite rapidly. She wasn't sure what exactly they'd been talking about, but there was a distinctly guilty aspect to the silence that fell when she'd re-entered the library, so they couldn't have been studying the way they were supposed to. There hadn't been much of the day left by then, but they'd at least gotten a few more things covered.
A hostile environment, mostly well above temperatures any pony would be comfortable in. Hostile wildlife, and most of it a completely alien form of life. Dozens of new and unfamiliar intelligent species. Whatever this Stampede thing is supposed to be, and the gang he has helping him. And that doesn't even begin to consider the effect the lower ambient magic levels could have on all of us, she thought. It would be nice to have some sort of relational measure to make an estimate of exactly how much of a difference there is, but Thirty-Thirty doesn't really even have a foal's understanding of how magic works. Even earth ponies have a better grasp of it than he does.
All of them had a lot of new and interesting things to think about as they made their way back to the bedroom. Applejack was trying to talk to Pinkie about the other world's crop situation, while Pinkie seemed to be getting more excited by the minute. It was difficult to guess what exactly she was excited about at any one moment, because it changed seemingly at random — sometimes in mid-sentence. Rarity was doing her best to ply Thirty-Thirty with questions about what she was supposed to wear, and only achieving limited success despite some enthusiastic encouragement from Starchaser. Fluttershy was...
Twilight thought for a moment, and realised she couldn't actually remember the last time Fluttershy had said anything. Even for her, that was unusually quiet.
A glance over her shoulder confirmed what her ears were already telling her - Fluttershy was still there, but walking alone at the back of the group. There was just slightly too much separation between her and the others, as if Fluttershy was deliberately distancing herself from everypony else.
Twilight didn't necessarily find it odd that the other introvert in their little group of friends was keeping to herself, especially after all of the stress they'd been under recently, but she did think this might not be the best time to be left entirely alone.
Dropping back a little as the group moved on, Twilight settled in beside Fluttershy. Absorbed in her own world, the pegasus didn't even seem to see her at first.
"Fluttershy?" she prompted softly. "You okay?"
Fluttershy flinched, almost missing a step as she noticed Twilight beside her. "I'm sorry."
"What for?" Twilight giggled, a little amused by the reaction. "I think we're all a little stressed out right now. I totally get wanting to have a few moments to yourself, just... don't forget we're here if you need to talk. Okay?"
Fluttershy nodded quietly, her eyes focused forward rather than looking at Twilight. They walked on in silence for a little while, a few lengths apart from everypony else, before Fluttershy finally decided to speak.
"Did it," Fluttershy faltered and began again. "Was I right to encourage you, in Rainbow's dream?"
"What do you mean?" Twilight asked, trying to hide the fear that surged back up along with the memory. She had changed somehow, in a way that they'd all seen and obviously been disturbed by, but they hadn't said anything about it until now...
"I thought I just wanted to help Rainbow Dash, but there was... there was something else," Fluttershy said, her pink mane hiding her face like a veil as she kept her head forward. "I was as worried as everypony else when you, well, changed, but..."
"I'm not sure what you all saw," Twilight said carefully, "or sure of much of what happened to me in those few moments, really. I know I felt different, but I couldn't exactly see myself or concentrate on much beyond what I was trying to do with the spell. But I do know what you said reminded me of what I was doing. All the dark magic was making it hard to think straight, and you helped me stay focused."
"We didn't just see it, Twilight," Fluttershy said, still not making eye contact as she walked. "We felt it. You weren't the only one that changed. Applejack asked all of us afterwards, and me, Pinkie and Rarity all felt something. Before that I really did just want to help Rainbow Dash, but when it happened," Fluttershy hesitated before closing her eyes and visibly forcing herself to continue, "for a moment there was a part of me that... that remembered how you'd hurt Rainbow just before we thought we'd lost her, and that wanted t-to hurt you in return. To push you onward in w-whatever you were doing not because it was right, but because it was wrong. Because it was going to hollow you out and destroy you, and I-I wanted... I wanted to..."
The realisation that she'd inflicted something like that on Fluttershy, of all ponies, hit Twilight like a kick to the gut. Not to mention how much it hurt to hear such a gentle pony telling you she thought you deserved to be hurt, even if Fluttershy was ashamed for feeling that way.
Choking off the end of her sentence, Fluttershy took a breath. "Please, Twilight." Twilight flinched at the intensity in Fluttershy's eyes as she opened them again, finally looking straight at her. "Please, whatever that was, whatever we did, we can't do it again."
"I wasn't planning on it," Twilight said nervously, before the conversation lapsed into an awkward silence that lasted the rest of the way to the room. The others didn't notice her mood, or the conversation - or didn't say anything if they did - and Twilight soon found herself lying in one of the room's many beds, in the dark and alone with her thoughts.
She hadn't even considered that what happened might have affected the others beyond what they had seen and heard in her altered appearance. Not that she even knew what that was like, either. She was honestly a little frightened by it herself, but mostly curious.
Are they all ashamed of what we did, disturbed by it like Fluttershy? It didn't feel wrong to me, just... different. Dangerous, but not in a scary way.
Are my friends afraid of me?
To her discomfort, Twilight couldn't deny that there was a part of her that thought they probably should be.
**Rainbow Dash**
The whole afternoon and evening had been pretty much a write-off for Rainbow Dash thanks to the appalling heat outside of the building she found herself in. Somehow it wasn't hot inside, a cold wind blowing in from several places around each room, but given that she couldn't exactly ask anypony about it she hadn't spent too much thought on that mystery. The place seemed to be some sort of small-town jailhouse or sheriff's office, with a few bedrooms off to one side along with a bunch of weird machinery. The cells had kind of freaked her out a bit at first, given the day she'd had, but then Rainbow had connected some dots in her head. ~BraveStarr~ was obviously something like the Appleloosa Sheriff Silverstar, which explained why he'd been snooping around in the place she'd arrived - whatever the thugs who'd locked her up were doing, there was no way it was legal. It also explained why he'd stuck around too, on top of whatever his association with the big grey horse was.
The upside to the afternoon being too hot to go outside, however, was that it was ideal extra nap time. Rainbow had spent most of the remaining sunlight hours dozing fitfully on a big bed in one of the back rooms, recovering herself after the crazy day she'd survived. She'd even sniffed out some hay under the bed, which had been a little stale around the edges but was mostly still good.
Rainbow expected it to cool down outside once the suns went down, but to her frustration the heat persisted. By the time it started to get cold enough to go out, she was too sleepy to be bothered with anything. The other aliens had disappeared elsewhere during the day, but ~BraveStarr~ had kept checking in on her the whole time. He had managed to indicate that he was going to sleep the last time he'd been in, so Rainbow decided to do the same.
As she lay there waiting to drift off, she wondered if maybe the sunrise would bring her new hope along with a new day.
*
Rainbow Dash had only been asleep for what seemed like an instant before finding herself in an all-too-familiar void.
"Hey, L. Long time no see."
Startled, Rainbow hopped forward and span round to find herself face-to-face with herself once more. The creeping, unsettling feeling that crawled over her when she looked at the doppelganger was enough to make her coat stand on end, even if Rainbow couldn't pick out anything specific that was unpleasant about how it looked. Her forehooves twitched as she suppressed the urge to paw at the ground and charge.
"You... you shouldn't even be here," Rainbow Dash protested, somewhere between frustrated and, if she was honest with herself, maybe just a little afraid. "You're just a stupid nightmare! We blasted you with the Elements and everything!"
Her duplicate seemed to be amused by that. "You didn't hit me, moron. You can't, not when we're together in here. You hit the guy that woke me up, tried to use me. I'd thank you for the helping hoof there except, you know, didn't need it. Could've dealt with that myself."
"I'm getting pretty sick of your horseapples," Rainbow complained angrily. "Who the hay are you supposed to be and what are you doing in my head?"
"You still haven't figured it out? Even you don't know?" her double answered venomously. "Pathetic. Even this incarnation thing you've got going on now hasn't made you any smarter. I thought the whole Nightmare Moon thing might have rung a bell or two, but I suppose you always do have trouble keeping yourself together between bearers. You've been hopping around without me for so long since Luna dropped you, too..."
Rainbow Dash stomped a hoof in the void. The impact felt more solid than when she moved normally, as if the mental force behind the act made a difference. Then she reflected that perhaps, here, it did. "What kind of an answer is that, you arrogant jerk?!"
"Arrogant?" the other Rainbow responded, voice almost neutral and genuinely puzzled. "It's not arrogance if you can back it up. I'm better than you," she stated simply. Before Rainbow Dash could respond to that her duplicate continued, growing angrier and more affronted. "I'm better than you, I'm better than your so-called friends, I'm better than all of them! It should be me out there, not you. You're a disgrace, a weak, pathetic, dependant disgrace! You trail around after them, so desperate for their damned approval, so desperate to do whatever they need so they can prop up their own weakness with our strength. With my strength!"
"Okay," Rainbow Dash yelled back, trying to resist the urge to just throw herself at... well, herself, "I've had just about enough outta you. Who the hay do you think you are talking about my friends like that?" Shaking her head briefly, she reconsidered her restraint. "Ya know what, I don't even care any more. If you won't stop saying that stuff about my friends by yourself, I'm just gonna come over there and make you."
The mirror image laughed in her face. Something about it stopped Rainbow in her tracks; the laughter wasn't mocking or goading, her duplicate seemed to find the prospect genuinely funny. "What're... what're ya gonna do," she said between fading chuckles, "kill me? We both know you don't have the guts, even if it was possible."
Rainbow Dash wasn't sure how to even begin responding to that. "What?"
"After everything you've done to build me up and shelter me, leaning on me to prop up your own weakness, you think you can kill me? Me?!" The duplicate let out a short bark of laughter. "What are you without me? Blind submission and slavery, that's what. While I sleep, you build me up then tear me down. Lean on me, stick to me like a parasite, then try to distance yourself from me like I'm the one that's undeserving. You got your first taste of real power, but you were too weak-willed to control even that. Got yourself thrown into this cesspit of a world, and you couldn't even protect yourself here. But something woke me up. Thought it could use me to get at you, as if I'd ever settle for second place. Live as somepony else's tool, begging for their approval and permission. No," she spat, her muzzle twisting into a hateful sneer, "that's your job. Now I'm free of him, and you are trying to force me back down again?
"Let me give you a little lesson, Loyalty," she said, the name dropping from her lips like a curse as she advanced slowly across the space that separated them, each statement punctuated by another step forward. There was a confidence in her double's voice, an inner strength that both awed and terrified Rainbow Dash in equal measure.
"There's only one pony I ask for permission, one pony whose approval I seek, one pony that deserves respect - me. I make the rules, because I'm the strongest, the fastest, the best," the apparition declared, stepping forward.
"You can mock me. You can insult me. You can grovel for the approval and faint praise of those weaker than you are."
One step closer.
"You can take what's mine. Destroy my home, shatter my possessions, scatter everything to the wind."
Another stride.
"You can break my body, crush my bones, imprison me, steal the very sky from me."
Rainbow Dash fought the urge to step back, to cower in the face of the pony advancing on her, and held her ground. Whatever it was, it wasn't going to intimidate her.
"But you can't..."
One more step, their muzzles almost touching.
"kill..."
As she took the final step forward, a supremely confident and superior smile split the duplicate's face. There was a name for that kind of self-assurance, for that ultimate expression of self-confidence, self-reliance. Something Rainbow had struggled with all her life, like a form of loyalty turned inward - loyalty only to the self. It flashed across Rainbow's mind as the other stood tall before her, wings spread wide, nothing but disdain and judgement in her double's eyes as she named herself in a cry that shook their shared dreamscape.
"PRIDE!"
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Nice to see you back so soon, always love 30/30. It was an interesting chapter but I was really hopping to see more of 30/30 interactions with the ponies some more. Still, I can't wait to see how the inhabitance of the town will think of RD. I do find the back story of Luna's guards interesting especially Echo. I will be looking forward to the next chapter.
Hmm. I always thought the nastiest way to kill Pride, was with Self Doubt.
Then again, Dash is getting a first hand demonstration of this.
I forgot if this is Stampede with the mental attacks, or the jewelry crew, or some other?
8352012
At first it seemed like RD and her Element got switched, but that ending... No. Now I'm beginning to think that RD's Element was mislabeled! And Pride is not happy. Not. One. Bit.
...or the Jewelry Crew corrupted the Element somehow...
Maybe it's because I read most of this story months ago, but honestly, I have only the barest idea of what even happened in most of this chapter. It's kinda disjointed and really doesn't explain itself much.
I hope this is still being worked on. Breezed through whats here in short order and am intrigued. I would love to see the outcome of the story! Course part of that is cause there is so little Bravestar/Thirty-Thirty love, the other is its a MLP crossover that so far is well written.