Exiled unto Dawn

by ObCom

Pegasus: Part 1

Two weeks had passed since Nightmare attacked the small town of Ponyville. The damage the town sustained from the undead army had been repaired, although the families of the few slain defenders were still in mourning. The remains of the army had been collected by the Canterlot guards, where they were taken back to Canterlot and given the rest they deserved.

Twilight leaned back in her chair and yawned. An orb of light floated above, a spell she had long since mastered when she found that the spell had saved her from bothering with candles during her late night research sessions. And how the last night been interesting! She rubbed her eyes and blinked, trying to focus on the words in front of her. This was nothing, she told herself. She had spent days without sleeping. On the other hand, her mind was quick to remind her, she had never digested copious amounts of alcohol before. If she closed her eyes for too long, she could feel the room spinning and did not look forward to climbing up the stairs to get to her sweet, comfortable bed. Reluctantly, Twilight closed the book and stood slowly, taking time to acclimatize herself to the new sensation.

The room shifted slightly and a wave of heat rose to her face, but she could do this. She could climb those stairs! She was Twilight Sparkle, star student of Princess Celestia, one of the six who vanquished Nightmare! Stairs would be no challenge! Emboldened by the mental pep-talk, Twilight staggered to face her foe. Too much time sitting had left a terrible cramp in her leg, but there was no time to get caught up on the small stuff. Lightly slapping her face, she stared down the stairs and took the first step to bed.

Twilight woke up feeling like she had licked a skunk. Coughing and smacking her lips, she rolled out of her bed and fell to the floor. The dull pain she had started with suddenly became acute. Holding her forehead, Twilight screwed her eyes shut and resolved to never drink again. Although she wanted to crawl back into bed, Twilight knew that she had to get up eventually. Before thinking of the consequences, Twilight forced her legs underneath her and stood up. “A small victory,” she muttered and staggered out of the room.

The stairs were not an issue now that Twilight was coherent. She looked at the desk that still had all of the books she had been using the night before. Either Spike knew that she was going to resume her work or he was just putting it off. Grateful that she wouldn’t have to start over, she quickly scanned the passages to see if she retained anything.

“Good morning, Twilight!” Spike said cheerfully. After looking at her disheveled appearance, he said, “Did you just get up?”

“Yes,” Twilight groaned. “It was… a rough night last night.”

“What do you mean?” Spike asked. “You just went out with Applejack when she came over.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow at the youth’s ignorance. Would he understand if she told him that the ranger had taken her to the tavern to meet with the others? Maybe he would, but she couldn’t think of a witty retort when she had a pounding headache. “Yeah, I know. And I’m not going to do it again,” she said, massaging her temples.

“Why not? You sounded like you had a lot of fun when you came back.”

“Spike, do you have any tea? My head feels like it’s going to split in two.”

“Of course! Give me a bit and I’ll bring it out!” Spike said energetically before vanishing into the back. Twilight had learned that Spike loved to cook and would take any chance he got to show off his skills. She genuinely liked the boy, but part of her requested the tea so he would be quiet. With Spike gone for the moment, Twilight laid her head down on the desk, basking in the precious silence.

The silence was shattered when the door flew open. Twilight’s eyes shot open and found Rainbow Dash standing there. As always, the fighter was dressed in her black armor with golden inlays. The plumes on her helmet brushed against the top of the doorframe as she strode in confidently. “Hiya, Twi! What’re you up to?” she asked in a tone that did no favors for Twilight’s head.

“Hi, Rainbow. My head hurts.”

Rainbow made a show of thinking. “Ah, got a hangover, eh? Y’know, where I’m from, there’s only one way to get rid of that!”

“And what would that be,” Twilight groaned, but she was eager to be rid of the nausea.

“It’s easy! All ya gotta do is drink some virgin’s blood,” Rainbow grinned. “So, if you want to feel better, I guess you could just stay in here all day. You’re bound to get a paper cut.”

Twilight stared blankly at the fighter, who looked like she was barely containing the humor she found from her own joke. When the realization dawned on Twilight, she narrowed her eyes at her guest. Rainbow’s raucous laughter made her head feel like it was going to explode. “Oh ha ha,” she deadpanned. “You’re a real joker. Did you ever think of becoming a jester?”

Rainbow ignored Twilight’s sarcasm and looked at the books. “What’re ya reading?”

“I’m looking for ways to bleed annoying guests dry.” Twilight’s head fell back to the desk with a muffled thump.

“Oh, that’s easy! All you gotta do is stab ‘em right here.” Rainbow demonstrated by viciously poking Twilight’s sides with her fingers. Twilight jumped at the sudden contact. “Or here!” Another poke. Despite herself, Twilight found herself giggling as Rainbow found a ticklish spot, which the energetic fighter gladly attacked.

Spike had walked back into the room with a teapot and coughed politely. “Am I interrupting something?”

Rainbow was at his side in a moment. “Hey, Spike! Is that for me?” she asked innocently, pointing at the tea.

“Actually, it’s for Twilight. She has a pretty big headache.”

“I’m right here,” the mage grumped.

Rainbow ignored her. “Oh, don’t worry about that. I gave her a fool-proof way to get rid of whatever ails her. Speaking of which,” she looked over her shoulder and yelled, “I don’t hear any pages flipping!”

Twilight groaned. “I hate you.”

A steaming cup of tea was placed next to her head. The mage immediately drank it, letting the warm drink suffuse through her body. She felt her headache lessen and was about to thank Spike when she saw that the other two were giving her odd looks. “What did you do to this?”

“Nothing,” Rainbow said, making sure to inject her voice with as much sugar and good intentions as possible. “It’s just that you just drank my cup, and I might’ve had some back wash in there.” Spike said nothing, but he was wearing a very forced smile. Twilight looked at the cup in horror, and as soon as she did, the others broke out laughing. “I was just teasing, Twi,” Rainbow said between laughs. “But you should’ve seen your face!”

Twilight glared daggers at the fighter. “Is there a reason behind all this or are you just trying to make me miserable?”

Rainbow looked hurt. “Y’know, you’re nicer when you’re drunk.” Twilight didn’t respond, preferring to see if she could immolate Rainbow with a look. “But I just wanted to see if you wanted to do anything. The others are all busy, and I’m kind of bored, and it’s not like you have much to do right now.” The fighter had the decency to look ashamed as she spoke. Spike rolled his eyes and excused himself. Twilight knew he was probably going to Rarity’s.

“What did you have in mind? You look like you’re going to war.” Twilight felt her irritation slipping. The fighter was too good at making people feel better.

“Exploring!” Rainbow’s eyes lit up at the thought. Twilight rolled her eyes, not sure of what else she could have expected. “There’s this great place around here called Ghastly Gorge. It’s full of caves and I can’t wait to see what’s there. Except I don’t want to go alone because the last time I went, I might’ve been caught in an avalanche,” Rainbow finished with a blush.

Twilight looked at the fighter with incredulity. She had been in an avalanche and she was embarrassed? The mage wondered if Rainbow had a death wish. “As fun as that sounds, I was doing some research last night. Your constant boasting about your heritage made me curious,” Twilight said.

“Constant boasting? I might’ve been talking a lot, but I didn’t say anything about Cloudsdale.”

Twilight tried to imitate Rainbow’s voice. “I’m gonna show you how we do it in Cloudsdale! I’m the drinking champion of Cloudsdale! This place doesn’t have any good Cloudsdale wine, only this watered down piss. Cloudsdale, Cloudsdale, Cloudsdale! Do I need to go on?”

“I don’t sound like that.”

“Anyway, I didn’t know much about Cloudsdale, so I looked into it. It’s all very fascinating,” she saw that her friend was becoming bored and decided to get to the point, “and I found a spell that gives a person wings for a day.”

That got Rainbow’s attention. “Wings? Really? Can you cast it?” She was nearly hopping with excitement, and the sound of her armor still hurt Twilight’s head.

“Technically, yes,” Twilight said, flipping through a book until she found the spell. “This claims that it is the spell that gave Thunderstomp the ability to go to the clouds and release the rain that Equestria sorely needed in the drought of 83.”

Rainbow grabbed Twilight’s shoulders and spun the mage around. Her smile reached from ear to ear and Twilight found the sight to be unnerving. “And an amazing, talented mage like you can cast it no problem, right?” she asked.

“Like I said, yes?” Twilight was whipped out of her seat by the fighter. The room spun while she got her bearings. “I’m guessing you want to be the test subject?”

“Uh huh.”

“You’re not going to leave me alone until I cast it.”

“Yup.”

Twilight hated to give in to Rainbow’s demands, but she was curious to see what would happen. With a heavy sigh, she picked up her new staff that was resting against the table. Her hands glowed with the power of her magic, all of her focus on the amethyst embedded within the head of the staff. When the spell was complete and the staff was ready to fire, she looked at Rainbow one more time, eyebrow raised. “Ready?”

“Let’s do this!” Rainbow confidently yelled, lowering her shoulders and ready to take the shot.

Twilight took a deep breath, lowered the staff at her friend, and fired.

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