Love, And Other Felonies

by PatchworkPoltergeist

Light Up the Night

Teeth dragged through Rainbow’s shivering feathers. As the wings arched upwards and smushed against the headboard, Rarity dove to kiss the fluff at the bottom. She grinned when the pegasus seized and squirmed beneath her. “Now, what was that you said before, darling? Something about burning off energy?” Her magic flipped through the primaries. “Making ponies squeal?”

“Not a squeal.” Rainbow’s breath hitched. “Th-that was a grunt. C’mere, I’m sick of that hair.” Rarity’s black silk ribbon pulled away in her mouth. The last bit of her uniform dangled in Dash’s smile. “Yeah, that’s the stuff. No, wait—”

“Wait, what are—?"

Both hooves ruffled Rarity’s mane into a dangly mess.

“How dare you.”

“Oh, I dare alright, and I’m just getting started.” Dash hooked one hoof around Rarity’s neck, pulling her down as she dragged her tongue up the horn. A tactical error. This only pushed Rarity’s face closer to those fluffy twitchy feathers.

An error quickly realized, if Dash’s gasp was anything to go by. Her body tensed. “…’arriggie.” Dash’s voice muffled around the horn. “A’fink… ah fink I…”

Rainbow Dash launched upright in bed, and Rarity tumbled to the carpet in a white and purple ball of outrage. “I think I’ve seen that mare before!”

Slowly, Rarity shifted her tail out of her face. She glared up at the pony peeping over the edge of the bed. “You’ve picked an opportune time for great revelations.”

“Oh. Sorry about that, Rares.” She pulled her back up, with an earnest (if unsuccessful) effort to smooth Rarity’s mane into a respectable shape. “No, but seriously, I’ve seen her before—you know that purple alicorn who showed up tonight?”

So much for an evening of catharsis and lovemaking. “How could I not? The rambling madmare and her pet dragon are the talk of the town. And she didn’t show up tonight, she showed up three nights ago.”

No… two nights ago? She’d spent at least three hours in the soft interrogation room enduring Flim and Flam’s good-cop/bad-cop routine. Two hours, plus interest, convincing Moondancer that the world wasn’t going to end. Nineteen hours ducking Her Majesty’s wrath. Five hours running scrolls from end to end of the castle. A half hour eating, three more hours with The Colt in Crimson and literally worrying herself sick wondering whether Dash would come back in a box, if she made it back at all. Altogether, that made… too many hours.

All she’d wanted was an hour or so of peace without strange ponies barging through her head. A weak scream wailed in the distance, and Rarity pulled her hooves deep into the blankets. Of course, compared to certain alternatives, she couldn’t complain.

“Oh, and the stranger put Her Majesty in such a good mood at first.” It had been ages since Rarity had heard a threatening cackle from Nightmare Moon; She’d practically salivated at the chance to milk the mystery alicorn’s fear for all it was worth. Or perhaps She’d anticipated a cat-and-mouse battle of wits, if not a battle of horns. Whatever She’d wanted, the alicorn had stolen it from her.

Rarity rubbed the rings under her eyes and groaned. Even now, even here in the warmth of Rainbow’s wings, the purple unicorn—alicorn, whatever—haunted her. “Yes, I’ve seen her too. In dreams...”

They had to be dreams. What else could they be?

“…I think.”

“Nonono, that’s the thing—I don’t mean a dream this time! Not even one of those freaky hallucination maybe-it-happened-maybe-not memories either. I mean a for-real thing that absolutely happened.” Dash frowned at her. “You believe me, right?”

“I don’t… disbelieve you,” Rarity said. “You do seem sure. But how could there be another alicorn running around Equestria all this time, and nopony’s noticed?”

“Dunno about all that, but it went like this: It’s back in Cloudsdale when I’m a foal, and me and these two jerks are in the middle of a race, right?” Dash hunched over the blanket, skimming her hoof over the velvet to illustrate. “We’re zooming along and I’m winning of course, then BAZZZAAP! Huge lasers right through the runway! And I’m like, ‘The hay is that?’ ZAP-BAP-ZAPPITYZAP! Cloud rings sliced in half. We start looking around and see these two unicorns duking it out in the sky—except one’s not a unicorn ’cause the wings—and the other mare’s floating around with magic or whatever and it’s like ‘Where’d these guys come from?’ but also like, ‘Who cares?’ because when else do you get to see an epic laser battle in the middle of the sky? Rarity, it was the third coolest thing I ever saw in my life.”

“Is that all?”

“There’s one thing.” The bright of Rainbow’s tail flickered through the dark sheets. “She was really, really set on getting us to finish our race for some reason.”

Rarity frowned. “And now, the same pony turns up spouting a bunch of fluff and sunshine. A madmare, clearly.” A madmare who’d known her name. Not Night Chamberlain Rarity, just Rarity. Only close family and Dash called her that anymore. The alicorn had spoken with the familiar urgency of a sister whose carriage had crashed outside.

“Madness isn’t uncommon. Some aren’t… blessed with the fortitude to thrive in Her Majesty’s Night.” The words fell stillborn, the way they had when she’d praised Sweetie Belle on Liberation Night. They came from somewhere else, and Rarity sat far away. “She’s… she’s withdrawn into her own delusions, that’s all.”

Rainbow Dash leveled a long look. “Yeah, well. She’s not the only one.” She shook her head as Rarity began to protest. “We’re trained to sniff out liars, and you’re not a good one. Not even to yourself. C’mon, you’re ‘overwhelmed with love’ for Nightmare Moon?”

“It’s not unusual to weep or tremble when one is in love.” Her hair. Her hair was a fright. She should fix it. Right now. Rarity fetched a brush from the nightstand and ran it through her mane in quick choppy strokes. “Love… appears in many forms.”

“It doesn’t look like that. Rarity, I’ve been watching you a long time. Nightmare says two words, and every time—every single time—you’re so scared you forget to breathe, and it hurts to look at. It hurts more every time.” Rainbow rested her head against Rarity’s. She ignored the hairbrush still fussing with the unicorn’s mane. “I know that face. I hate that face. Townsponies make it whenever we walk through their neighborhood.”

In a tender corner of the bedchamber, Night Guard armor gleamed like the Nightmare’s grin, half-hidden under the chamberlain uniform. Rarity let the hairbrush fall to the bed, and blinked slowly at their reflection in the vanity mirror: bedraggled, weary, unsmiling, but happier than they’d been in years. Ponies were rather silly creatures and didn’t always know when they were happy, but when it came so rarely, one learned to recognize it.

“That time in Cloudsdale… that wasn’t the only time you’d seen her before, was it?”

Dash tensed. “No. The second time I saw her, she… I know nopony left that library. We watched it go down to cinders, and Dust treated us to ’shroom burgers afterward. Maybe she didn’t have wings at the time, maybe she was just a crazy radical egghead who didn’t wanna let go of those stupid books, but—” She rubbed both hooves over her face. “Buck me, she’s the same pony, and that pony’s dead.”

Rarity’s free-flowing tail coiled around Rainbow’s docked split ends. “Do you think she could have teleported away, somehow?”

“Rider thought that, too. First thing after the alicorn vanished, we all went to dig up the mass grave in Canterlot. Body’s still there. Magic signatures matched. It’s her.” Rainbow glanced at the white hoof draped over her shoulders. She rested a wing on top of it. “If the others weren’t with me, I woulda thought I’d lost it or seen a ghost or… When that alicorn started showing up in my dreams, I figured it was just guilt at first.”

“I thought you didn’t dream.”

“She’s why I trained myself to stop. Turns out being asleep didn’t matter.”

A quiet moment passed while whimpers and pleadings oozed through the floor. On any other night, Moondancer’s wards barred the dungeon’s nightly miseries. Not tonight. Tonight, Nightmare Moon wanted the castle to hear.

“I remember when I used to like this job. Working under some of the best former Wonderbolts of all time? Finally feeling like I’m finally part of something bigger than cloudbusting? Awesome. But cracking down on ponies is a lot different than cracking down on dragons—and most nights I don’t feel so great about the dragons either.” Dash stared at the rolltop desk where Rarity wrote her weekly devotionals. “There’s this foal in the Academy, her name’s Scootaloo.”

That sounded familiar. Sweetie Belle mentioned a Scootaloo at Liberation Night, hadn’t she? The one who’d discovered the Sunwise sympathizers. “The orange filly with little wings?”

“Yeah. She says she wants to be just like me. I’m her hero.” Her ears wilted beside the rainbow mohawk. “Rider says it gets easier, but I don’t think so. Burning that library felt like losing one of my best friends. And when that alicorn left, I felt it again. I don’t get it. How do you miss—”

“—somepony you just met?” Rarity’s tail waved through the air as she thought. “It is a mystery.”

“She walked through the night like a burnt-out street sign through the Coltifornian smog—two letters left, flickerin’ like Horse code… A smile full of hope, with a rolodex of broken promises. One look and I knew: the dame was trouble.”

Indeed, all the players had been assembled: a mysterious mare on a dark night begging for help and rambling nonsense. The hardboiled law-pony with a past longer than a five o’clock shadow. And finally, a by-the-book dame, prudish and haunted—but haunted by what?

Rarity steepled her hooves and breathed slow.

“Spade spat out her lollipop stick, ground it beneath her hoof. The clues all came together in one smooth path. She started walking. ‘Celestia help me when I find where it leads.’”

In Rarity’s window, the Mare in the Moon hung like the condemned: striped like a catseye marble, all green and pink pastels. Soft, gentle shades. Not the brutal reds and oranges of the alicorn who thundered through Equestria’s bad dreams. Why should the colors in the moon be different?

“Your kingdom?”

“Who else?”

“Um... Celestia, of course!”

Because the mare imprisoned in the moon was not Daybreaker. There had never been such a pony.

“It’s an illusion,” whispered Rarity. Against the truth, illusions melted like nightmares at dawn. Faded like the dyed mane of the mare she once called Moonbow.

“Wait, what’s an illusion?” Dash blinked and tilted her head. “Did I miss something?”

“It felt like losing one of my best friends.”

Loath as she was to admit it, a familiar spark had flared within Rarity’s chest at the sight of the mystery alicorn. Warm, exciting, familiar, like a favorite old jacket she thought she’d lost at the bottom of a closet.

How do you miss somepony you just met? When you’d met them before.

“Darling, we’ve known each other for two years, yes?” Two and a half, counting Dash’s first few months patrolling castle grounds and winding up Rarity’s nerves (among other things). “Yet it feels longer than that. There are times I can scarcely imagine life without you.” Rarity nuzzled the soft bristles of Rainbow Dash’s mane. “I believe I’ve missed you for a long time.”

Dash pulled away with a frown. “What exactly are you getting at, Rares?”

“I breathe easy with you around, and…” She paused. Horrors had stormed the halls all night, unspeakable atrocities wailed underhoof, but since Dash had slipped into her chambers, Rarity hardly flinched at them. “It’s a little odd. I’ve been afraid so long, I’ve forgotten what it’s like not to be.”

Or because the dark chasm of her memories was better than illuminating the past few years. Better to pretend there’d never been a Mr. and Mrs. Cake who’d lived and loved in Sugarcube Corner before dying onstage, cold and alone, to the applause of hundreds.

Blueblood’s words came back to her, bitter and giggling: “Keep your head down and it can’t get chopped off.” He’d never stepped to Nightmare Moon’s drum. Performed less than the bare minimum for fealty rituals. He all but openly mourned Princess Celestia. All with no interference from Nightmare Moon or her forces. Why waste energy on somepony content to drown the past in liquor and self-loathing? He’d done their job for them long ago. Blueblood played ball and stayed out of the way; that was more than enough.

How many, Rarity wondered, were like him? Like herself? Dash aside, how long had it been since Rarity had seen a smile of joy? Not appeasement, not conceit, irony, lust, nostalgia, ennui, acceptance, or contentment, but real unfiltered joy?

Equestria turned from frivolity and hollow hedonism, but it was not a crime to be happy. Not unless that happiness sprung from somewhere beyond the Night. It wasn’t a crime to love, so long as that love didn’t surpass the love for Nightmare Moon. But what the Nightmare had squeezed and wrenched from their hearts hadn’t been love. Not really. Moondancer, perhaps, genuinely loved her—or fallen down a deeper rabbit hole than Rarity. If such a difference existed.

Rainbow Dash poked her, and Rarity sat up with a jolt. She realized she’d gone quiet for the last few minutes. “Dash, I’ve been thinking.”

“Yeah, I noticed. You gonna let me in on that or what?”

She took Dash’s hooves into hers. Rarity opened her mouth, but the scope of what she’d learned couldn’t fit inside of it. Instead, it compressed into one simple sentence. “Lieutenant Rainbow Dash, this is wrong.”

“Wait—what?! No.” Dash popped into the air, still gasping Rarity’s hoof. Her wings beat so furiously they ruffled the paperback on the nightstand. “I know what Nightmare Moon says, what all of Equestria says, but what we’re doing isn’t wrong—they are!”

“Dash, that’s—”

“No.” Rainbow Dash grabbed Rarity’s other hoof and pulled her to her hind legs so that they faced nose to nose. “Listen, you just said you don’t feel scared when you’re with me. If I have anything to say about it, you’ll never be scared of anything ever again. Especially not Nightmare.”

“Rainbow—”

“You can’t give up on us now. And what for? To marry some drunk coward and dump out noblemares for Nightmare’s stupid phony court? No.” She kissed her quick on the tips of her white ears. “I can’t—I won’t let her do that to you. Not anymore. That bully took away the Wonderbolts, my parents, and with that creepy boarding school, she took Scootaloo. Nightmare Moon’s got enough. She doesn’t get to have you, too.”

Rarity pursed her lips. “That’s quite gallant of you, darling, but if you’ll only let me speak, that’s not what I meant.” They touched noses. “But I do appreciate the thought.”

“Oh.” Dash’s ears waggled awkwardly. “Not my fault you’re being vague and weird…”

“I mean this—” Rarity gestured to the window, the Kingdom of Night, and the ponies toiling within it. “All of this it’s wrong. It shouldn’t be.”

“Every world I come to is worse than the last!”

Rarity hummed under her breath. “I’m starting to think that madmare might have been the only sane pony in the country.”

“You believe all that whacked-out stuff about time travel and parallel worlds now?”

“Maybe. I think so. It’s insane, but what isn’t these nights?” Rarity raised an eyebrow. “Do you believe it?"

“My gut does, and my gut’s never wrong.” Dash’s mouth thinned into a grim slash. “And I know what I saw, and I saw that Nightmare Moon—”

“She believes it,” Rarity finished.

“A hundred percent. The time travel stuff, at least. That part’s real enough to drag the Guard through the Everfree searching for that glowy table, and when the alicorn vanished, I saw Nightmare’s face.” Her grip on Rarity’s hooves tightened. “It wasn’t like the Cadenza incidents—those made her angry, but this…” Dash froze. Her ears pinned flat against her head.

“What?”

“This scared her. Rarity, we gotta go. Now.”

Rarity fell back into bed, and blankets fell over her head when she landed. She rested her chin on her hooves, breathing in the comfort of her own little bed in her cage in the castle one last time. A part of her—specifically, the part that had stayed up for forty-eight hours—called her to close her eyes and sleep… but no.

Later. She’d sleep later.

Shaking off the blankets, Rarity hopped out of bed, twitching her ears. The dungeon had gone silent, and it prickled her coat. Either Moondancer had set the ward back up… or Nightmare Moon had left the dungeon.

Rarity fetched a cloak from the armoire—standard dress for fugitives, and the pink stitches and purple lining reminded her of dearest Sweetie Belle—as she felt along the mantle for aberrations in the stone. “It’s quicker through the passageways.”

Rainbow Dash raised her eyebrows, as if she’d expected more pushback.

“I trust you.” There. Third brick from the end. She lit her horn and led the way into the passage. Their shadows curled up the walls and over the ceiling. “But I presume you have a plan in mind?”

Judging from the pause, Dash didn’t. Not a full one. “I wanted to bug out the southern corridor, but that’ll be swarming with Shadowbolts by now.” She glanced at their own shadows swishing above them. “They’re not real, you know. I mean they are but they’re not, like actual creatures. Just magic and shadows, but if you let ’em in, they’ll tear your mind in half.”

“Let them in?”

“Yeah.” The cramped walls barely left room for Dash to stretch her wings, much less fly. She cozied close to Rarity with her ears flat. “It’s a trick from Sombra, I think. Don’t remember how it works, but it’s got something to do with fear and they climb in through your mouth. So don’t scream, don’t think, just run. Run and don’t stop. It’ll be okay.” Dash raised her head high. Held a breath. Let it out. “We’ll be okay.”

Rarity nuzzled her cheek. “No doubt of it.” Angling her head, the hornlight dipped ahead to where the corridor forked three ways. They moved two floors above the dungeon, one below the library. A left here, then straight on till moonlight.

“This goes west, right?”

“Yes, into Everfree and the path to Ponyville. It opens up by the water lilies; I found it with Fluttershy.” She blinked at Dash’s expression. “At least, that’s how I remember it.”

Full moons made for a terrible getaway. Feathers and a rainbow mane doubly so. Dash’s abandoned armor would’ve been a boon for disguise, but Nightmare’s signature was scrawled all over it. They’d need to work with what they had. Warped and reconstructed Ponyville might be, but Rarity still knew her way around her hometown. They could hide, find Dash’s candy maker, and go from there.

Moondancer’s voice came through a crack in the wall. “…sky is the color of her coat, and the sky goes on forever.”

Rarity paused.

On the other side of the wall, Viceroy Moondancer steepled her hooves at the archive desk. A pile of white ash rose in the glow of her magic, pasting itself together. Paper reformed and rebuilt. The burnt confessional. “I hoped that might show some sign of remorse, as the edited devotionals had, but—”

A second shadow fell over Moondancer’s desk. “I’d been warned what would happen if I strayed too close to the sun. I can’t claim ignorance, and I cannot claim naivety. I knew. I just didn’t care.”

“Yes.” The Viceroy shook her head with a sigh. “It’s a cut-and-dried Heartcrime.” She looked straight at the crack in the wall. “What a pity.”

Rarity and Rainbow Dash met eyes. One thought between them: run.

Stealth wouldn’t help them now. They fled through the hollow arteries of Castle Midnight, the clack of their hooves echoing in their ears.

Black yielded to grey.

There. A pinprick of moonlight. The scent of grass sweet and waiting for them.

It had been years since Rarity felt healthy sun-fed fresh grass, but the memory of it held fast. Yes. Grass and rainbows and violets and luxury fabrics in an unlimited color palette. Rarity’s fear melted like cheap vinyl. She surged forward, Dash galloping at her shoulder.

Rainbow Dash grinned the way she had that night in the gorge. “Heads up—we’ve got company.”

Guards clanked single-file behind them. How close, Rarity didn’t know, but the corridor still squeezed tight. If Dash couldn’t fly, neither could they. The speck of light bloomed wider. They could make it, but just in case…

With a toss of her head, Rarity shot a bolt of magic behind them. Light ricocheted off the spell-proofed armor, a firefly in the dark. It bounced against the millennia-old stone, and—

CRACK!

The impact nearly threw them off their hooves. Rarity dared a glance back. Her hornlight skimmed a pile of rubble blocking the path behind them.

Dash laughed her ember-pop laugh. “I didn’t know you could do that!”

“I told the mason to reinforce these old passageways dozens of times. For once, I’m glad she didn’t listen to me.” There was enough light that they didn’t need Rarity’s horn anymore. “I expect we’ll meet a welcome party outside, though.”

“Maybe.” Dash’s wings flexed, itching to stretch. “The Guard’s spread thin all over, though, and a third are outta commission between the Sunwise attack and Her Royal Nag-ness’s tantrums. We got an eighty-twenty chance—maybe even ninety-thirty.”

“Those numbers don’t add up!”

“Hey, leave the numbers to the eggheads.” Silhouettes massed around the exit. Dash’s grin clenched. “And leave the crunching to me!” She flapped her wings, tucked her legs, and swung into a swift arc up and out of the castle.

Clusters of bat-winged bodies broke and scattered. Regrouped. A rainbow in the dark ducked and sliced through the swarm. “Go, Rares! I’ll hold ’em back!”

Rarity galloped through the thickets of Everfree Forest, grey sweeps of her cape billowing behind her. Under the merciless moonlight, shadows stretched at her heels. Stretched longer than they ought.

Rarity’s shadow slipped and fell away, twisting and reshaping itself. Eyes glinted ahead of her. Dozens, dozens of glowing eyes in the dark.

Shadowbolts. A line—one, two, nine of them—barred the bridge between the Everfree and Ponyville. Between Rarity and safety.

Chills clawed at her.

Night Chamberlain Rarity.

Their terrible chorus snaked through her heart. She ran faster.

Her Royal Majesty requests your presence.

Rarity’s blood screamed for her to stop. Apologize. Fall to her hooves. Recant. Their eyes shone yellow over her face. Memories of silk and the sun shone brighter.

“So sorry, but I’m afraid I must decline.” Rarity burst through the Shadowbolts. She may as well have run through smoke and fog.

A new shadow swooped overhead. “Hey!” Dash dropped to fly at her side. Not a scratch on her, aside from the mussed hair. “You miss me?”

“Always.”

The streets of Ponyville lay empty before them. Damn it all, Rarity had forgotten about the curfew. In the castle or otherwise on royal business, she’d never had to worry about it.

“So much for blending in.” Dash twitched her ears. “Doesn’t matter anyway.” She jabbed her chin toward the silhouette watching them. “There’s more company.”

Rarity huffed. “And us without refreshments.” They braced haunch to haunch, ready to face whatever danger awaited them.

“Heh. Looks like somepony’s ready for round two.” The figure stepped into the moonlight: a familiar white stallion dressed in sky blue, with a mane and tail to match. Shining Armor shot them a sneer—a challenge, not a threat. He looked good for somepony who’d spent a moon in the dungeon. “But I’m afraid we’ll need to take a raincheck on the rematch, Dash. Somepony else has a couple of questions for you.”

Mi Amore Cadenza landed behind them, minus one trench coat but still bearing that fabulous hat. “Why, good evening lovebirds.” The hat tilted upwards, and she blinked down at them with gentle blue eyes. “We meet at last, Lieutenant Dash. Oh, but where’s your armor? Or your uniform, Night Chamberlain?”

“Slowed me down. Wanted a change of pace.” Rainbow Dash pressed close enough for Rarity to feel the quick pulse under her coat. “What about you? Just passing through?”

Rarity peered above Shining Armor’s head to the black windows behind him. Curfew or not, Ponyville still should have had some activity. A night watchmare, some smoke filtering out of chimneys, or silhouettes shifting behind lit windows. Servants tossing out the trash. A stray cat sniffing around the trashcans. Something. Had the last few nights shuttered the town completely?

“Something like that. I like to come through town and keep an eye out for all those dangerous heart criminals and traitors. You could call love my specialty.” Grinning, Cadenza turned to the Bureau of Family Planning down the block. “Defectors are common in this area… lovers determined to follow their hearts, secret followers of Daybreaker…” She turned her eyes on Rarity. “Though I think you might know her by another name.”

The grey hood slipped off Rarity's head. “Are you here to offer us safety?” Caution be damned, they should have taken the offer back in Canterlot. If nothing else, they’d have other ponies instead of running on their own.

“I am,” Cadenza said.

Dash and Rarity exchanged looks. Where else could they go? The candy maker had been a long shot from the beginning, and the path from there to freedom probably crossed Sunwise along the way anyhow.

A second wave of Night Guards plumed out of Castle Midnight. The great cloud of them covered the pastel moon, thrice the number Dash fought off earlier.

“Tick tock, lovebirds.” Mi Amore Cadenza smiled. “You can come with me, or you can go back.”

“Those options suck, you know that, right?” Dash looked to Rarity, who sighed and nodded. “But if those are all we’ve got… yeah. Yeah, we’ll come.”

“It’s kind of you to extend the offer again, Cadenza,” Rarity said.

Her pink ears twitched at “again.” She chuckled. “I hoped you might say that. My friends call me Cadance.” The alicorn bowed her head to them, moonlight glinting off the sun brooch on her hat. “I hope you know what this means, ladies. You’ll be criminals. Fugitives. You’ll never be safe in this kingdom, or anywhere else.”

Dash narrowed her eyes. “We’re not safe now. We never were.”

Shining Armor stepped up. “Even so, you’re defecting from Moon’s forces; you know what that means. Is all that worth it? For just one pony?”

Rarity’s eyes had never left Cadance’s brooch. The little metal sun shone bronze and gold, with a carnelian in the center. When they’d met in Canterlot, the center was made of amber. Her stomach sank. She looked again at the Ponyville surrounding them: abandoned, lifeless, an empty stage waiting for the players.

“Yes.” Both of them said it, though who said it first, Rarity couldn’t tell. Despite her growing dread, she didn’t tremble. Rarity took some pride in that.

It had all happened so conveniently. A perfect little line of scenarios. Slipping through the corridors undetected. Dash defeating every guard single-hooved, despite the guards’ armor and her flying naked as a jay. The fact that they’d just happened to overhear Moondancer list their crimes while they passed by at just the right time.

And it all passed so swiftly, one location bleeding into the other without notice.

As if in a dream.

“Dash…”

Rainbow’s long bright tail curled around hers and held tight. “I know.” Her wings flared as she braced into a battle stance.

Cadance chuckled. “That’s cute. You know, a little birdie told me you’ve seen Shining’s sister around lately. You’ve seen her a lot.” She lounged on her side, sprawling over a cozy velvet pillow. Tresses of her soft tail curled under Rarity’s chin. “Maybe we can help each other out.”

“We’ve seen her, but we don’t know anything more than y—”

The tail lashed around Rarity’s throat. “I said you’re cute.” It squeezed. “Don’t get adorable.”

Dash flapped hard enough for a minor windstorm, but she couldn’t budge. The cobblestones had absorbed all four hooves into them, as if the pegasus had been built there. “Look, it’s just been in dreams. Stupid dreams, that’s all! They don’t mean anything.”

Cadance tilted her head. “I think we all know better than that.” The alicorn’s tail lifted, letting Rarity’s hooves dangle in the air.

“That doesn’t mean we know what they mean. We don’t know anything.” Rarity could only manage a hoarse whisper. Something sharp pressed into her, but she couldn’t see what it was. “We don’t!”

“Very well.” The tail lifted away, but pressure still squeezed against Rarity’s throat. Cadance removed her hat, still all cashmere smiles. Her teeth sharpened. Her coat darkened. The pupils of her blue eyes thinned to slits. “We’ll do this the hard way.”

---

Rarity crashed to the floor. A ring of iron circled her neck, lined with tiny metal spikes hooked deep into her skin. The prickled fur at her collarbone felt wet, but she couldn’t angle her head to see. Above her, a chain wound from her collar to a hook in the ceiling and down again.

It ended at the hooves of Nightmare Moon, who watched her on the other side of the dungeon’s bars. “Hello again, lovebirds. Did we have a nice nap?” Inches from where Rarity lay, a tendril of the Nightmare’s mane pressed a hyperventilating Rainbow Dash against the stone. The stars of her mane illuminated the harsh contours of Dash’s face. “It’s been so long since you’ve had a good night’s sleep; I thought I’d help.”

When had they fallen asleep? It had to be before the castle corridors, but after Dash remembered the race from her foalhood. Rarity recalled the soft call of her sheets as they’d fallen over her… then, perhaps. Dash must have gone under after that.

“I enjoyed your daring romantic escape. I admit, the one-liners were a nice touch.” A string of magic idly stroked the links of Rarity’s chain. “Pity you don’t dream more often, Rainbow Dash. Who knew you were such an artist?”

Dash said nothing and stared helplessly at the wet, prickly—bloody?—fur at Rarity’s neck. Aside from the usual scars and nicks, she herself was untouched.

The chain clinked as it slowly drew up, pulling Rarity to her hind hooves. Spikes pressed into the soft hollow of her throat.

Nightmare Moon blinked slowly. “What do we say, Lieutenant?”

“THANK you!” It spurted between Rainbow’s teeth like blood. “Thank you so much, your majesty. I-it was so generous of you.”

“Yes, it was. Especially for such treacherous, selfish little ponies.” No laughter curled in the words. No sinister smiles or cackling threats. Nightmare Moon only watched them, calm as an empty, bloody cradle. “I want to know something.”

“I told you before, I don’t know that mare! I-I mean I saw her once when I was a kid, sometimes weird stuff pops in my head and she shows up, but that’s it. I don’t—we don’t know anything more than you do.”

The Nightmare sneered. “You’re a liar. A liar, a blowhard, and a gloryhound—I offered you splendor and honor, yet you spit it back in my face. You never loved me. Not once.” Her muzzle wrinkled, fangs whetted. “You’ve had the sun in your heart from the beginning.”

Metal teeth sank into Rarity’s neck. She heard herself scream. Behind her, Rainbow’s protests collapsed into a panicked jumble of syllables and shouts.

“Ah, but my dear chamberlain. You, at least, tried so hard to be good. You’re as foul as the rest, but you did try. There’s still an honest pony in you, I think.”

Rarity’s scream died in her throat as the chain lifted higher. She couldn’t feel the ground anymore.

“Now to find it.”

Rarity had never trained in wards, magic blocks, or mind guarding, and for the most part, neither had Dash. Nightmare Moon could comb through a treasure trove of secrets with a glass of warm milk and another stroll through the dreamscape. Dungeon interrogations would get her next to nothing.

It didn’t matter what they knew.

The Nightmare had been humiliated by some wet-behind-the-ears upstart alicorn. An upstart with the power to turn her utopia of night upside down and inside out with a merry jog through the fabric of time. The alicorn had known their names, even if they didn’t know hers. Somewhere, in some other place or time, they mattered to her.

But more than that, Nightmare Moon was indeed afraid. Afraid of something or someone she had no power to stop. Somepony, anypony, had to pay for that fear.

The metal teeth dug deeper. Rarity sensed that something had punctured, but she barely felt it.

A great tremble ran through the castle, and the dungeon seemed to lurch like a boat on choppy waters. Through Rarity’s blurred vision, Nightmare Moon dropped the chain and jumped back, glaring at the moldy ceiling above her.

“Majesty!” Hoofbeats clambered down the stairs. “It’s happening again!” The dungeon lurched again, and in the dark, somepony new shrieked. “I-I’ve looked th-through every s-scroll I could find but I—w-we burned so many of—I don’t know what we’re going to do. There’s got to be someth—CHAMBERLAIN!”

Rarity groaned. She sprawled on the wet stone—wet with what, she didn’t want to know—and coughed. Voices echoed around her, as if all of them had been trapped inside a thousand tin cans. One of them belonged to Moondancer.

The unicorn huddled behind Nightmare Moon, clutching the tyrant’s hind leg for dear life. “Chamberlain, you have to help us.” She stared at them, wild-eyed in the starlight of the Nightmare’s tail. “Rarity, please, we-we’re friends, aren’t we? You have to fix this!”

Fix what? What did she—?

Rarity’s eyes creaked open all the way. She looked up.

Oh.

Above them, the ceiling—the sky? the world?—was ripping. Not all at once, but slowly, like a skirt caught in an elevator door rips. Caught fast and pulled in the other direction, the fabric of reality couldn’t keep up.

Or at least, that was Rarity’s best guess for the gash of light tearing the castle from dungeon to turret. It blazed so bright her eyes watered—so bright she could hear it, a thin reedy whine in the back of her teeth. It sounded like biting into aluminum foil felt.

The dungeon trembled so fast they barely felt it. Vibrations upon vibrations upon vibrations.

Moondancer’s outline stuttered, doubling, tripling, quadrupling on itself like overlapping slides in a projector, all in different manestyles, and most of them afraid. “Y-you’re both a part of this—the time convergence. Please. Rarity, please, it’s getting worse! Just tell us how to fix it, and th—there’s got to be something we—” Moondancer hid behind her hooves and sobbed.

Nightmare Moon frowned at her. “Come, Moondancer. Try to have a brave face.” She nuzzled the unicorn’s mane.

In a blink, Rarity saw the image reflected five different ways with five different alicorns comforting their students. Three out of those five were the unicorn Twilight… Sparkle? Yes. That sounded like the right name.

“I don’t think we can hem this stitch, Viceroy,” Rarity croaked. Distantly, she felt the chain lift her. When she opened her eyes again, she dangled just above Nightmare Moon’s horn.

In the corner of Rarity’s eye, Rainbow Dash cursed and thrashed and kicked against the tendril of mane that pinned her to the trembling wall. Her hooves swam through the thinning little nebula—so thin it had become sheerer than chiffon. She’d break free soon.

Iron teeth bit deep into Rarity’s skin. Fine. Let the Nightmare throw a fit. It wouldn’t change anything, and everypony here knew it. “I think…” She smiled, giddy and stupid from it all. “We’re what’s being fixed.” She blinked at her foreleg, and for a moment, she saw it in ten different sleeves and fabrics. The grey jumpsuit was her least favorite.

“You’re one of hers.” Nightmare Moon trembled with rage and terror and sorrow. The great stomp of her hoof left a crater in the stone. “I KNEW you were one of hers! Even now, Celestia has to ruin EVERYTHING I do—everything I build!” She bared her teeth at the wounded sky. “You couldn’t let it be, could you? You’d rip time and space apart because for once—for ONCE, they loved me more than you!”

The sky split wider.

Her Royal Majesty, Equestria’s “best beloved” Princess Nightmare Moon sank to her knees. “Why can’t you let me have this?”

Rarity felt herself drop, but she never hit the floor. She slowly squinted at the horrid wounds staining her coat, then the mourning tyrant on the other side of the bars.

But above her, it was beautiful. Rainbows and the blue of the sky. Rainbow Dash’s face. In the pulsing jitter of the world, she saw several versions of Dash’s face—in daring manecuts, green face paint, eyepatches, helmets, glasses, and pirate hats—all of them lovely.

It hurt to laugh, but Rarity did it anyway. “You always catch me, don’t you?” She wanted to say more, but her throat hurt and they didn’t have the time. Instead, she kissed the bottom of Dash’s jaw. The poor dear had been crying. “I think you’re cool too, Rainbow Dash.” She’d meant to say it weeks ago, back in the infirmary. “I always did.”

“I’m sorry, Rarity. I didn’t mean to fall asleep, it just happened and… and…” It didn’t matter. Moments to the end of the world as they knew it, not much did. Dash buried her face in Rarity's mane. “Twilight better be right… she’s usually right about stuff. I think. Whatever’s on the other side, I hope it’s better than this.”

Behind them, the fabric of the universe tore wide open. Great and endless, so bright everything and everypony became silhouettes.

Daybreak. It was the second most beautiful thing in the room.

“I’ll see you in the morning, Rainbow.”

“You know it.” Dash met her in a kiss. “I love—”

Comments

[PatchworkPoltergeist]

Oh, the dawn won't stop weighing a tonne
I've done some things that I shouldn't have done
But I haven't stopped loving you once

[RoyalBardofCanterlot]

Wow, this was incredible! Dash's declaration made me swoon.

[TheJediMasterEd]

9522708

The letters that you left behind
No longer shall I read
Blood's between the pages
and I can't stand to see you bleed

[Lurks-no-More]

Woah. What a great escape, and a great climax to the story.

[TheFanFicPony]

“Darling, we’ve known each other for two years, yes?” Two and a half, counting Dash’s first few months patrolling castle grounds and winding up Rarity’s nerves (among other things). “Yet it feels longer than that. There are times I can scarcely imagine life without you.” Rarity nuzzled the soft bristles of Rainbow Dash’s mane. “I believe I’ve missed you for a long time.”

👏👏