> A Rainbow Rises
>  by xXOriginXx
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Act 1 - Chapter 1: The Nightmare
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rainbow dash was running away from something, which was odd to her because if the mare was ever going to flee from anything, it would definitely be by wing and not hoof. What she was running away from eluded her but she tried hard to focus on whatever it was chasing her through the eerie forest. One thing she could determine was that it was night, which was rather obvious from the lack of light to be found. 

She unknowingly paused in her run, staying completely still, staring down at the dirt below her hooves. She willed her legs to continue, to keep going but they refused to move an inch further. To her, it felt as if she was merely watching somepony else, like she wasn’t even in control of her own body and as she continued to try and figure out why exactly she was running around in the Everfree forest at night, her head jerked upward suddenly. She found herself looking up at the princess’s old castle, except something was off about the ancient place.

For one, most of the damage to the structure had been seemingly repaired; she would even go as far to say that the castle looked like it was brand new or as close as it could be to brand new. Another noticeable difference was the golden glow that emanated from the castle windows. It was strange but at the same time it felt familiar and before she knew it she found herself flying towards the castle, as she flew towards the royal place she could see a bright light flare, flashing every so often. 

Eventually, by moving at top speed she quickly reached the looming entrance of the castle. She stopped at the castle doors, taking a quick scan of her surroundings; she noticed random pieces of golden armour and weapons strewn about the area. She figured some kind of battle had taken place recently and that one side had fared much worse than the other. Cautiously she walked through the open doors, the doors themselves being only just open enough to allow her to enter. Guided by some invisible force she moved through the castle rooms swiftly towards an unknown destination. 

After a few minutes she found herself staring at the entrance to the castle’s throne room. It was only now that she noticed that the castle seemed to be a lot larger than she remembered, either that or she had somehow shrunk, she mused. She braced herself, preparing all her strength she pushed past the damaged door only to be blinded by a bright white light.

“STOP!” She screamed the word out to the air around her, it was the seventh time in two months that she had woken up in the middle of the night, all having her coming out of the same dream, or more accurately a nightmare, the only consolation for Dash was that she hadn’t rolled off of her bed this time. Shaking, she sat upright on her cloud bed. Normally with her friends around she would never be so afraid but right now, she was alone, sitting in the darkness of her cloud home. Her friends, she had originally thought about telling her friends about the nightmares when she first started having them but soon decided against the idea, hoping that they would go away after a little while. Now that hope had diminished significantly, she just hadn’t been able to ask for help from the others with all that had been going on, a small smile found its way onto her face at the thought of her adventures with her friends.

“Ugh...I’ll get help tomorrow” For the second time in only a few minutes, she had spoken to the cold air of her house. She couldn’t deny that she needed help any longer, something had to be done about the nightmares, she couldn’t afford to keep sleeping through the day to try and make up for the sleep lost to them. She sighed as she once again tried in vain to piece together what exactly her nightmare was about and once more was lost without answers; although it wasn’t something she enjoyed thinking about she had to admit that it seemed like it could be something important.

She glanced around her bedroom, looking out of her window she could see the sun barely rising above the horizon, she sighed at how early in the morning she had woken up, knowing that it would be impossible to return to sleep after one of her nightmares. As a distraction from her tired state, she began to think about all the change that had been going in her life recently. The thing that stood out the most in her mind was the awkward three weeks that had followed twilight’s coronation, adjusting to her friend’s new status didn’t go very smoothly and was quite awkward for the Pegasus, especially when she came to her for flying lessons. She grinned at the memory; it was the first time twilight had ever asked her to teach her anything.

Her reminiscing was interrupted by the sound of shuffling feet, scraping metal and footsteps moving in her direction. She instinctively moved into a fighting position, staying low to the ground ready to pounce forward on the intruder, she waited silently on top of her bed. The noises continued at a slow pace all the while still moving towards her. She wondered who or what exactly was currently moving around in her house and with that her mind began to fill with horrible possibilities, images of vile creatures plagued her mind. For once she wished she didn’t have such a vivid imagination. In a moment of doubt her stance faltered and she fell back onto her haunches.

“Who’s there?” it came out as only a little more than a whisper, which dash silently cursed herself for. She looked into the darkness that surrounded her and was met with a pair of glowing blue eyes. The two glowing blue orbs began to rise higher until they were at a height that was more than twice her own. Both eyes looked down at her, piercing her very soul, she wilted against the intense gaze.

“My apologies, I did not intend to disturb you” The voice was ghostly, sounding wise and knowing to the startled mare. Dash continued to stare at the shadowy figure in front of her, its eyes never looking away, never blinking.

“I must leave now, you will require your rest for today’s events” she inwardly questioned what exactly the creature meant by its words. It turned to leave through the same way it had came but turned back to face Dash before leaving.

“One more thing before I depart, I am sorry to say that you will soon experience an intense pain in your cranium, followed by a dull migraine for a few hours” And with that last message, the creature departed leaving no trace of the unknown intruder. Dash was left confused, tired and very annoyed. She had no idea what had just occurred or what the creature had been talking about.

“What in the hay was that!” She waved her hooves into the air, glaring angrily at her ceiling as she expressed her agitated mood. She placed her hooves back onto her colourful bed, sighing in defeat. 

Dash then felt a slight itching sensation in centre of her forehead; she moved one of her hooves to rub the irritated spot while the other fell back onto the bed. No matter how hard she scratched the itch it wouldn’t stop, the itch then grew to a dull throb before becoming a full on searing pain. Dash reeled back onto her back at the terrible sensation, the blinding pain was unbearable and it only became worse as time slowly progressed. She could no longer keep quiet, she wailed and screamed for someone to help her but no one came. 
She desperately tried to stop the debilitating pain that was working its way through her head as she rived and twisted on her bed. She managed to scream for help one more time before passing out into silence. The room grew quiet, nothing moved as rainbow dash began to sleep peacefully after her very recent traumatic experience. As she lay there, content with her dreams of adventure and friendship, a lone figure watched as she slept, smiling at the spectacle before him.

> Act 1 - Chapter 2: A Peculier Morning
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

While time moved on Rainbow Dash continued to rest, her chest rising and falling as she slept. Sunlight poured in from a single window, bathing the bedroom in golden rays, the only sound coming from Dash and the occasional bird outside. To Dash’s dismay, this peace would not last as she began to stir, squirming around on her bed in an attempt to remain asleep for a few more glorious seconds. Her efforts were in vain and after a moment, Dash’s eyes shot open before tightly snapping shut, the invading sunlight causing a blinding pain in the back of her retinas. She prepared to try again, this time taking a slower approach as to lessen the pain. Slowly, she opened one eyelid and then the other, blinking a few times to allow her eyes to adjust to the intense light. She could see the sun through the bedroom window, judging by its position she guessed that it was around ten in the morning. Dash quickly sat straight up in bed, a panicked expression plastered across her face.

“Oh my gosh, I’m late!”She leapt from her bed, galloping downstairs to her living room were, using her hooves and teeth,  she quickly grabbed one of the many tortoise food bags that had been piled together near the entrance to her kitchen, haphazardly pouring at least half of its contents into a pet bowl with the name tank engraved onto it. Tank slowly moved his head to look up at his frantic owner, a small knowing smile crossed the tortoise’s face, it wasn’t the first time he had seen her like this. 

“Sorry tank, have to go” She dropped the bag next to the tortoise. Grabbing her half loaded saddle bags from a nearby counter, she bolted out the front door heading towards the weather control offices as fast as possible, knowing that she was likely to be in trouble as soon as she got there, again. 

Her ten minute flight to the floating building did nothing to calm her nerves, most of the time instead being used to come up with a way of sneaking in unnoticed. Once she arrived at the large cloud structure, she quietly opened the front door and crawled passed the receptionist’s desk, thanking Celestia that the receptionist was so occupied with her work. She used all of her stealth tactics to sneak around to the briefing room without being detected by her co-workers, most of which were currently getting the day’s weather duties inside said room. 

While she was responsible for most of ponville’s weather control, it did not excuse her from being late to briefings and it in fact only made the punishment for missing them much worse. She would have reconsidered taking the position if it weren’t for the extra bits that came with the job, she didn’t realise how costly her house could be when it came to taxes. She still believed that having a tax for clouds was borderline ridiculous.

She peaked through the small window of the wooden door to the briefing room, being careful not to make herself obvious to anyone; she could see that the head weather pony hadn’t started giving out her orders yet. Dash once again thanked Celestia for her luck. She cautiously opened the door ever so slightly, just enough for her to slide into the room without being noticed. She moved to the back of the crowd that was gathered inside the room, she made sure not to step into their line of sight as she moved.

“I’m glad you could grace us with your presence today Rainbow Dash” She cursed under her breath, she had been caught, again. Dash sighed before rising to her full height and turning towards her boss. She gave a sheepish grin, only to have it vanish at the stern look she was given from the lead weather Pegasus.

“It is one thing to be late for the briefing but this is something else, Rainbow Dash” Dash replaced the look of uncertainty on her face with one of confusion at the Pegasus’s words. She opened her mouth to speak only to close it again, finding herself unsure about what her boss was talking about.

“Now take that silly thing off and sit next to Storm Chaser” Dash looked to her saddle bags before turning her gaze back to her boss, she questioned why her boss refused to continue until she took them off, she knew they weren’t something that she would normally bring to work but didn’t think that they would be too big of a distraction. She mentally shrugged, deciding not to question the odd request. Using her wings and teeth, she managed to remove the bags and place them neatly on the ground without much fuss, she turned back to face an annoyed glare from the very Pegasus that had ordered her to remove them. Her glare turned into a tired expression before she let a small sigh escape her lips, some of the other pegasi in the crowd sniggered at Dash’s actions.

“If you’re going to be difficult you may as well go home, I suppose there isn’t really much for you to do anyway” Dash was extremely close to straight up demanding that her boss tell her right that moment what she was talking about but instead decided that getting out of work was a much better idea, she could use a break after all.

“Fine” was all she said before she picked up her bags with her teeth and walked out the door. She continued down the hallway that she had only just came from, heading for the main entrance. As she walked through the hallways, she received a range of looks from the workers she passed by on her way out, one of the newer workers even ran away when she walked by her. She only stopped once she reached the desk of the receptionist, who also gave her a rather strange look as she asked for her work papers. She noticed the frustration in Dash’s face and quickened her pace, which led to some of Dash’s frustration being turned into more confusion. She retrieved the text heavy papers, handing them over to Dash who placed them into her saddlebags. She thanked the receptionist who in turn nodded. She opened the door to the outside, enjoying the cool breeze that rolled through the open doorway.

She flew to a nearby cloud cluster, setting down on the accumulated clouds. She removed her saddlebags once more and sprawled out onto the cloud, after some effort she rolled onto her back, staring off into the sky, the wind stirred, a small breeze making its way past her, to her it almost sounded like whispers. She ignored it, chalking it up as just being her overactive imagination. She considered what had happened so far, her first question being why everypony had been acting so strange around her and why her saddlebags had caused such an adverse reaction from her boss. She looked over to the culprits in question, they sat on the cloud beside her, it was now that she was reminded of the effort Rarity had put into making them as well as the thanks that had been given to Twilight for making them not fall through her cloud house whenever she set them down. Though they weren’t very extravagant, they were sturdy, not to mention reliable. She smiled at the memories of what she used  to do before she had a fashion guru and a unicorn - now turned alicorn - as best friends. Usually she would've had to see seven different ponies before she could get something to stay inside her house instead of having it land on the unlucky pony's that had the misfortune of walking below her house at the time. Her more personnel belongings were trickier still, in these special cases she would have a box enchanted instead so that it could hold these more private items, while elaborate she preferred it over having prying eyes looking at her more personnel belongings.

Her thoughts returned to Rarity, she had planned on meeting up with the unicorn after work as she had asked for her help in creating a new design for a Pegasus outfit but seeing as she had no work today, she decided that she could just visit a bit earlier than intended, she was sure that Rarity wouldn’t mind. 

Having made her decision, she picked up her saddlebags once more and placed them back onto her back. Making sure they were secure, she crouched low to the cloud preparing herself, she flapped her wings in one mighty downward thrust, taking off into the clear blue sky. She zoomed forward towards Rarity’s boutique, enjoying the feeling of the wind moving over her body; it was in these moments that she remembered why she enjoyed flying so much. Looking to the ground she could see all kinds of ponies scurrying around, moving from place to place with only a few of them staying still, she never tired of the view she got while flying. Even though most ponies thought she took her wings for granted, she truly did appreciate having them, knowing that they gave her something that not everypony had or could ever have. She supposed that Twilight was one of the very lucky few to have both the abilities of the pegasi and the unicorns; she might even have resented her a little for it.

“No, I should just be happy for her” She spoke the words to herself in a hushed voice, barely audible over the winds. As much as she had wanted to remove the feeling, she still felt a little annoyed that Twilight had been gifted with both a horn and wings while she only had the latter. There was a dark moment where her mind had spewed out a horrifying image in which everypony she was close to had abandoned her in favour of Twilight, the idea was quickly pushed out of her mind some time ago. She shook her head at these thoughts, knowing full well that her friends would never abandon her. She also knew that she would never walk out on her friends, no matter what.

She looked to the ground once again, spotting Rarity’s boutique she adjusted her body into a nose dive straight towards the building. She had practiced her knew trick enough to be confident in showing it off and was going to give Rarity the honour of being the first of her friends to see it. She dived faster and faster, a streak of rainbow colours following her as she flew down towards her target. A window, one that was often left open to allow ventilation to the boutique, she aimed her fast moving body in line with the window. She could feel the beginnings of a sonic rainboom coming on. As she entered through the open window she reader her head upwards as sharp as hard as she could, flaring her wings as she did so to pull herself into a somersault creating a circle of colours which then spread outward from her form,  she used her wings to counter the spin before landing on her hooves.

Rarity had dropped the dress she had been so carefully repairing with her silver thread, the dress now lying at the hooves of the stunned unicorn. Her boutique had suffered a little from the Pegasus’s stunt, some materials had been thrown around a bit, a dress stand or two had been knocked over, however this wasn’t what Rarity was currently fixated on.

Dash had stayed in her heroic position since she landed, waiting for Rarity to give applause or at least some kind of acknowledgement of her entrance. In the minute of Rarity remaining completely still, jaw agape in astonishment, Dash had become rather concerned about her friend’s condition. She looked around the boutique, noticing the mess she had created with her trick.

“Oops...Sorry Rarity” She used one of her hooves to scratch the back of her head as she wore a sheepish look on her face. She placed the hoof back onto the floor, now genuinely worried at Rarity’s lack of movement, speech or anything really, she hadn’t done a thing since the Pegasus had entered and it was really getting to Dash, she hated being ignored, it made her feel alone.

“It was pretty awesome though wasn’t it?” Dash was grasping at straws, trying to find a way to break her friend out of her trance. She breathed a sigh of relief as Rarity finally began to regain her composure, using her magic to place the fallen dress to the side, she began inspecting Dash closely.

“How did you, do it?” The unicorn didn’t stop eyeing the Pegasus as she spoke but it didn’t matter to Dash, she grinned at Rarity. She began to remember what Twilight had suggested to her after their last flying lesson. Something about aerodynamics, lift, drag, air resistance, she couldn’t quite recall exactly what she had said but she did know that after some practice it had worked. She quickly brought herself out of her thoughts, returning to her conversion with Rarity.

“Twilight gave me some help with it but I mostly figured it out for myself” Dash continued to smile at her friend, a look of triumph on her face. Rarity ceased to inspect Dash; she looked at her with a graceful smile. Dash stood there, still smiling at Rarity who simply nodded at her words, content with her answer, she started replacing the materials and other objects that had been knocked around. It took only a few minutes to rearrange everything, after which the unicorn turned to Dash with a grin of her own creeping its way onto her white face.

“Oh this is fantastic!” the comment surprised Dash slightly, she was starting to wonder if they were talking about her stunt or not. She knew that Rarity would always try to at least appear interested in her friend’s antics, something which could be said about all her friends, but she had never shown this level of interest in her flying tricks before now.
“I’ll have to create you a whole new dress range, something beautiful, no, graceful and extravagant!” The familiar feeling of confusion was returning to Dash’s mind. She opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by Rarity.

“To have the opportunity to work on such a project as this, especially after having Twilight’s coronation so recently, it is simply marvellous darling” She looked to Rainbow Dash with excitement in her eyes and was met with an expression which consisted of a mix between both confusion and annoyance.

“Although I do hope this doesn’t become a regular thing, not that I’d mind of course” As Rarity continued to talk, Dash became increasingly unsure about what they were talking about.

“Oh, I know exactly what materials I need, I’ll be back later darling, wait right here” Dash thought Rarity looked as giddy as a filly who had just been presented with a box of new toys to play with.

A magical aura surrounded a pair of saddlebags hanging on one of the mannequins, the bags floated from the mannequin onto Rarity where they clipped themselves into place. Rarity did a once over of herself before she walked out the door of the boutique, leaving Dash alone to herself. Her right eye twitched slightly, she breathed in deeply before releasing it in a drawn out sigh. She was tired of the abnormal day she was having. One half of her wanted to go find a comfy cloud to sleep on, however her more logical half wanted to see twilight about both her nightmares and to ask her if she knew anything about why pony’s that she knew very well were acting so strange around her. For once her logical half prevailed.

She sighed as she began to fly back up and out the window she had come in from; she began her flight to the library. She could take a little strangeness from her colleagues, Rarity on the other hoof was a close friend, a pony she had grown close to, so for her to be acting odd around her was a little too strange for her liking. She knew that the fashion pony could get excited from time to time but it was still a rare occurrence and it was especially unlikely that she would ever be so excited over one of her tricks.

It wasn’t long before she arrived at the library; the old tree was a familiar sight by this point. Rather than her usual entrance of breaking through something to get into her friend’s home, she opted to use the front door this time. What she saw inside was yet another familiar sight for her, the library’s shelves fully stocked with books, not a single one of them out of place. Then the there was the library’s owner, busily rearranging books in a large pile and taking a quick bite of an ice cold hay sandwich every so often, inbetween the sorting of course. If she hadn’t of cleared her throat to make herself known, it was likely that Twilight would have continued her work for some time without noticing her.

“Oh hey Rainbow Dash...” The alicorn trailed off, scanning around for something that wasn’t there or for something that Dash couldn’t see it, either way it didn’t help to alleviate her agitated mood. She stomped her hooves on the ground in an attempt to grab the alicorn’s attention. Unfortunately for Twilight, Dash’s stomp had unintentionally broken through the old oak floor causing Twilight to yelp in surprise at her actions. Twilight wasn’t the only one who was surprised though. Dash was without words as she stood there, her two front legs embedded into the library floor. She gritted her teeth as she looked back up at the alicorn, putting on an apologetic expression.

“Err...sorry Twi” She honestly had no answer for what she had just done; she had intended to merely grab the alicorn’s attention, not put a hole in said alicorn’s floor. She questioned how she had even managed to break through the thick oak floor so easily, she knew she was strong but she hadn’t reached the point where breaking through a fifteen inch piece of oak wood would be a similar task to breaking through glass. 

Dash was ripped from her thoughts as Twilight reached out with her magic for an ancient looking tome decorated in a golden pattern, the book also had a picture of an alicorn on the cover. She flipped through the pages, only glancing at Dash once or twice. She replaced the book back onto the shelf once she had seemingly finished looking at whatever she was reading, although Dash would’ve have preferred that she kept on reading rather than slowly walking up to her with a stern expression on her face. The alicorn came within a few inches of Dash’s face, she didn’t look angry but at the same time she didn’t look very happy either, it was enough to make her nervous. She slowly began to circle the Pegasus; inspecting her in a similar way to how Rarity had done when she had first seen her this morning. When she finished her inspection and had come back around to face her again her eyes where wide with comprehension. She continued to gawk at Dash, staring at her without saying a word. Now Dash was worried for Twilight too, she had been getting odd reactions all day but to have Twilight act this way was too much.

“What the hay is wrong with you!” The words left her mouth without permission. Twilight wilted at the loud and angry question to which Dash silently hated herself for. She was just so very confused as to why everypony she had seen today was acting so weird towards her and now she had just gone and shouted at one of her best friends who also happened to be probably the only pony who could help her. Needless to say she felt terrible about it and was about to apologise for her outburst until Twilight began to speak again, regaining her regular stance.

“Sorry Dash, I’m just a little awestruck at how you achieved ascension without the aid of another alicorn” Dash gave Twilight a scrutinizing look who in turn smiled happily back at her. If it was somehow possible, Dash found herself in an even more confused state then when she had arrived.

“Have you told anypony else yet, I wonder how the others are going to react to having another alicorn around” She continued to beam at Dash as she spoke. Dash let her head drop so that she now faced the ruined floor below her; she removed her hooves from the floor and let out a lengthy sigh before she looked back up at Twilight.

“Twilight, what are you talking about?” For a few seconds the alicorn’s face went through a number of expressions ranging from surprise to quizzical to confusion. A number of theories ran through her mind, most of them being irrational and unlikely. She eventually came to the conclusion that she would need more information to come up with a more accurate theory, so she started with the most obvious question.

“Dash, have you looked in a mirror today?” Now that the she had mentioned it, Dash hadn’t really taken the time to look at herself that morning, not since she rushed out of her house. Normally she wouldn’t put much time into her appearance, only making herself presentable enough for her friends. However, Twilight’s question did have her wondering if something was different about her; it could very well be the reason behind her strange day. So she brought one of her hooves up to her face to inspect it and soon found some noticeable differences, the most important being that her fur was now a slightly darker shade of cyan.

“What happened to my fur?” She really didn’t feel upset about it. She was simply wondering why she had a different shade of fur since yesterday, so she looked to Twilight for an answer.

“Heh, that’s not all that’s different” she gave a nervous laugh that died down quickly as she saw the worried look on her friends face. Twilight’s horn lit up again, this time reaching for a mirror that had been left out, she was glad it had been as it made her next task much easier. She carefully brought the mirror towards Dash and held it in front of her face. For the next two minutes Dash was speechless, she couldn’t believe what she could see staring back at her in the mirror. 

To start, she was now a good two inches taller, similar in height to Twilight. Her reddish-pink eyes had been replaced by dark piercing blue ones; her fur while still cyan was darker than usual but the most noticeable difference was the new head piece she was sporting. She looked closely at the bonelike object that now was apparently a part of her head. Her eyes widened at the sight, with great haste she reared back from the mirror in shock at her appearance. She was an alicorn. 

“I...I...what?” She struggled to get the words out, finding it difficult to form a coherent sentence. The only thing on her mind was the question of how she had gone to sleep as a Pegasus and woken up as an alicorn. Twilight could tell that her friend was having problems coming to terms with her sudden transformation, she tried to think of something to tell her but she couldn’t find the right words, she desperately whished that Celestia herself were there, which only led her mind to wander at the implications of her friends ascendance, she thought about what Celestia would say, what their friends would say and as she thought Dash continued to sit there. She realised that neither of them had said anything since she had shown Dash her new appearance.

“Isn’t it a good thing though?” It was an odd thing to ask but it did snap Dash out of her memorized state.

“Huh?” She didn’t understand what Twilight’s reasoning was until it hit her. She was an alicorn now, a creature that possessed the best traits of all three races, one of the strongest creatures in all of Equestria. Twilight could see the gears turning in Dash’s head, her smile returning.

“I’m... I’m an alicorn, that’s awesome!” A massive smile rapidly grew on the new alicorn’s face. She wanted to hug her friend in excitement but decided against it, not knowing her own strength did make her hesitant of doing certain things. She couldn’t believe it, she considered the possibility that she was dreaming, though it seemed too real to be a dream. There was still one question she had on her mind.

“What happens now?” It sounded a simple question enough, although Twilight didn’t have much in the way of an answer for her.

“To be honest I’m not quite sure, normally Celestia deals with these things personally” Even though she too was a princess of Equestria now, she hadn’t really had any lessons on government or politics or how to deal with newly ascended alicorns, she was rather lost. 

“Do I get my own title, how about the princess of awesomeness?” Dash puffed out her chest in a heroic pose, excitement radiated from her face. Twilight could only laugh at the suggestion, noticing Dash’s regular personality already coming back.

“I don’t think they would let you have that one” She talked inbetween giggles of laughter, a single tear sliding down her cheek at her friends antics, she did know how to make the alicorn laugh.

“Yeah, they couldn’t describe my epicness in one word!” This had them both burst out laughing, something they both equally enjoyed.
Their joy was short lived however, as Dash heard a noise, one that seemed somehow familiar. The sound of metal moving against metal could be heard in the distance, she could tell it was moving towards them. This time, the sound was increasing much more rapidly than it had before. She was sure now; something was definitely heading towards the library with great speed. They stopped laughing as Dash looked over to one of the library’s windows, Twilight followed her gaze. They could see through the window that two fast moving, large objects were heading towards them at great speed. Before they could do anything the creatures burst through the library windows, taking large chunks of the window frames with them as they made their entrance.

The two creatures where massive in comparison to themselves, standing at around three meters tall, their hulking armoured bodies loomed over them. Their armour seemed reminiscent of ancient knight armour. It had sharp and curved edges giving it a rather angelic look, which along with the gold and white colours of the armour gave an overall feel of strength, protection and royalty. Twilight noticed that Dash was not focussed on the look of the creatures armour but instead was fixated on the weapons they were carrying. The left arm of both were equipped with large shields, both of which having a similar design as the armour itself, the shields also had markings and symbols that were unfamiliar to both of the alicorns. The other arm totted an intimidating sword which was also decorated in a similar fashion to the shield. Dash stared at the mighty weapon, her only thought being about how it was probably big enough to cut a tree down in one swing, or a pony.  

A third creature bashed down the front door, this one being only around twice Dash’s size, wearing a similar armour to the large two, only having some slight differences, but the third one was carrying a different weapon, one that seemed to have more of a balance between power and speed. The creatures two blue eyes were focussed on Twilight, as where the other two creatures.

“Step away from the Empress” It wasn’t a suggestion, it was an order. The smallest of the three creatures directed its order at Twilight. Without thinking she complied, moving further away from Dash, giving the creatures room to move into a triangle formation around the cyan alicorn, they took up defensive positions. With the two larger creatures flanking Dash, the third placed itself in front of her, directly inbetween the two friends. Twilight was more than afraid at this point, she was terrified, she had never once seen or heard of the creatures that now stood before her and that was the scariest part. Not once in all of her studies, research or lessons had she seen or heard of anything like them. 

Dash’s concern wasn’t immediately focussed on the creatures. She was instead far more concerned about her friend, who now had three armed creatures facing her. She knew alicorns where strong but even she could recognise that these creatures were of an unknown threat and so neither of them could accurately gauge how powerful or dangerous they could be.

“Are you unharmed Empress?” Its question was directed at Dash, who only responded with a single nod of her head. While what she considered to be the leader of the three creatures was distracted, Twilight saw this as her opportunity to act. Trying her best to be intermediating she stood to her full height, flaring her wings as she put on the toughest voice she could muster.

“Get away from my friend right now!” This, she soon realised, was a mistake, as instead of getting the reaction she had hoped for the creatures raised their swords in unison, readying themselves for a fight, the smallest of the three began to menacingly approach Twilight with the other two flanking its sides. She was surrounded from all directions, against an enemy she had no idea about. Her confidence failed her as they moved closer, she frantically moved backwards only to fall back onto her rump, all the while the creatures continued to close in.

She could feel tears welling up in her eyes. Her thoughts became erratic, the main one being that she didn’t want to die. She began to list all the things she still wanted to do, this only making her fear worse at the idea of never being able to fulfil them. She thought about how she wanted to see her parents and her friends again, wanted to continue her studies, wanted to live beyond this day. As they were only a small distance away, she shut her eyes tight, letting the first few tears roll down her cheeks she turned her head away from the oncoming attackers. Her normally quick and calculating mind breaking down by the second, she prepared for the worst.

“No need to exert yourself ma’am, we’ll take care of this one for you” It was cold without mercy. She could only think that the worst thing about her situation was that she had been having such a lovely day until now.

> Act 1 - Chapter 3: Strange Creatures
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dash watched in horror as the creatures closed in on Twilight, their intentions made obvious already. Frozen like a statue from the fear for her friend, she screamed in her own head, begging her body to move, wanting so desperately to do something instead of just sitting there watching as Twilight’s demise came closer and closer. Then, in a sudden spark of action, she brought herself out of her fear induced trance, just as the lead creature raised its sword higher, preparing to bring it crashing down onto the other alicorn’s head.

“No, don’t hurt her!” It was all she could think to say, however, all three of the creatures immediately obeyed, backing away from Twilight, far enough so that the two alicorns could clearly see each other, holding their weapons by their sides they stood to attention. Twilight breathed deeply three times before she stopped shaking from having the massive blade only a few centimetres from her face. Dash let go of a breath she didn’t realise she was holding in and made her way over to her friend who was still trying to get over the fact that she had been mere seconds from a slow demise. It took a moment for Twilight to catch her breath and wipe away the tears on her face. Dash was angry, no not just angry but furious at what had just transpired. Putting on a brave face she walked up to the creatures who had been so close to ending her friend’s life.

“What the hay is your problem huh?” Using her wings to be at eye level with the smallest of the three she glared at the creature, its glowing blue eyes staring back at her. It was quite unnerving for her, being so close to the unblinking blue eyes of the creature, just the fact that they glowed was enough to make her nervous.

“Apologies ma’am, we heard your screams and believed that you were under attack, we should not have assumed that Twilight was responsible” At a guess she would have to say the creature was male, or at least sounded male. Twilight, having recovered from her previous state, looked up at the creature Dash was questioning. Both of them did a double take of the creature, unsure if they had heard him correctly.

“How do you know my name?" Silence followed, he continued to stare at Dash, still standing perfectly still. Twilight waited for an answer that wouldn’t come and it only made Dash angrier, first they were going to kill her for no good reason and now they wouldn’t even speak to her, needless to say she was going to rectify that, somehow.

“Hey, she asked you a question” She surprised herself with her words; they came to her naturally as if she were talking to just another pony. He looked to Twilight before turning back to Dash.

Do you wish to mark Twilight as an ally and give privileges?” Not knowing exactly what the he had meant did make her slightly hesitant to agree but figured it was a fancy way of asking for permission to tell Twilight what they knew. She still wasn’t sure why they were asking her that or even why they were talking to her in the first place, she had no idea why they were referring to her as the ‘Empress’ either.

Twilight watched as once again the smallest of the three creatures walked towards her, this time she was ready for it though, preparing to blink out at the slightest hint of danger, the creature stopped only a short distance away from her. It held its left arm up, directing it at Twilight. A blue glow emanated from the end of the arm, illuminating her face in the calming light.

“Twilight Sparkle, Barer of the element of magic, princess of the new supremacy, friend to the Empress, you are recognised as an ally to the Empire” Two orbs appeared in the air around Twilight and started spinning around the startled mare, creating trails of lights as they moved. After they had rotated a few times the orbs began to spin faster, moving higher above her, getting closer and closer to each other until the orbs merged into one larger orb. A shower of light ensued as the orb burst into particles, raining down over Twilight, who remained still as the odd ceremony ran its course. Once the orbs had completely vanished the creature stepped away from Twilight, standing to attention once more. 

“Access to our knowledge is now authorised, what do you require to know?” It would be an understatement to say she was curious about the creatures; there were many questions for them, such as where they were from, who exactly they are and why they were calling Dash their Empress. However, after some thought she decided that going back to her first question would be best.

“How do you know my name?” Both alicorn’s waited for the answer, anxious to learn how they had known about Twilight. 

“Our garrison is responsible for monitoring all residents of the Ponyville area, including you since you arrived here” An awkward air passed through the room, she wondered to what extent they had monitored her. It felt awkward just talking to the creature, not just because it had recently threatened her life but rather that he was so formal, the only equivalent she could think of would be trying to talk to a royal guard while on duty. Dash remained quiet, knowing that Twilight would have quite a lot of questions for the creatures.

“You can monitor everypony in Ponyville?” A question they both had on their mind, it would be an impressive feet to keep constant tabs on everypony, made only more impressive by the fact that they had never been seen while doing it.

“Correct, although it has become increasingly more difficult over the years” For years they had been watching them without a single pony ever noticing them, she found the idea rather unlikely.

"How has nopony seen you yet?” She was sceptical of the idea that huge, lumbering creatures donned with heavy armour could successfully sneak around Ponyville without being seen or caught once and they had been there for years.

“We have our ways of staying hidden” Cryptic as the creature was it did bring about some revelations, for one, whoever they were, they had been in Ponyville for some time, longer than she had judging by his previous comments, her curiously told her to push on in her questioning, she needed to know more.

“Just who exactly are you?” Dash put forward her own question, having grown tired of listening to the pair. To Dash’s surprise the leading creature spun around to face her, seemingly perturbed by what she had asked.

“You are, unaware of us?” She nodded her answer to him.

Then once again I must apologise, the situation is far different than what we had expected” Twilight watched in confusion as the three creatures bent down onto one knee in front of Dash, their swords in a downwards position with their shields to their sides. In that moment Dash, Twilight thought looked just like a king from one of her fantasy books. Bowing, the leader of the three spoke again.
“We are the High Guard of the council of ascension and you, are our leader” For the second time in the last hour Twilight found herself speechless at what she was witnessing.

Dash’s reaction wasn’t much different from Twilight’s. One thing that was certain in her mind was that they must have mistaken her for somepony else, even though she may had the tendency to brag about being the most awesome pony to date, she couldn’t say she was a ruler of anything let alone an empress of an entire empire and she didn’t want to be one either. It just wasn’t her kind of thing, being put up onto a pedestal above everypony else, she hated ponies like that.

“Sorry to disappoint you but I’m not an empress, I’m just a weather pony” The two larger high guards chuckled quietly for a second, somehow finding amusement in her words, something that she didn’t appreciate. They rose to their feet, taking a glance at Twilight for a moment, the leader spoke again.

"I assure you that you are the Empress, daughter to the original prime and the sol goddess” It was infuriating to have some random creature tell her what she was, she hated when other ponies did that. Her bullies used to do it too, except that the things they called her were much worse. She was ready to argue against their claim some more, that is, if it weren’t for Applejack’s intervention.

“What in tarnation happened here?” Applejack examined the holes that had replaced the library’s windows as well as the poor state of the door that had fared badly from the impact it had received. To the say the place was a mess would be an injustice. Glass littered the floor along with the many books that had been knocked off of their respective shelves after the high guards’ forceful entrance. Large indents had been left in the oak floor where they had walked.

“Twilight I love what you’ve done with the place, it’s really creative of you” A voice that was easily recognisable as the town’s resident party pony, both alicorn’s watched the pink earth pony happily bounce towards them, a big smile on her face. Apart from Pinkie and Applejack, they could also see the rest of their friends heading towards the library, each one having a different expression as they saw the damage that had been done to the old oak structure.

“Unmarked residents approaching, possible threat, defensive action recommended” One of the large high guards moved in front of the alicorn’s, putting itself inbetween them and the ponies outside, which along with their friends included a number of other ponies who had gathered, curious to the commotion going on in the library. With the other two following the first’s lead, they created a wall using their shields to close the gaps inbetween their line. 

“Twilight darling, who are your friends here?” Having forgotten about her original reason for visiting the library, Rarity was now wondering why a sizeable chunk of the library’s front was missing and why she was being blocked from seeing her friend by a trio of two legged creatures that she had never seen or heard of before. In her innocence, Pinkie approached one of the larger high guards, smiling from ear to ear with the intent on making them feel welcome to the town.

“Nice to meet you there big guy, I’m Pinkie Pie, the number one party pony in all of Ponyville!” Throwing confetti from seemingly nowhere the pink pony stood back, grinning madly, awaiting a response from the large creature.

“Stand Back Miss” It was nothing like the response she had wanted, she imagined that the creature would respond with hugs or a happy smile, not a stern warning. When she failed to move away from the line that the high guard had created, the nearest one to her bashed its shield down into the ground at her hooves, causing her to jump backwards in fright. Dash moved closer to the line of High Guard’s ready to give the bulking mass of armour a piece of her mind for scaring her friend.

"It’s all right, their friends, they don’t want hurt me, let them through” Her confidence left her as the memory of the massive creatures lurking towards Twilight replayed in her head and while it was far from what she had wanted to say, it would have to do.
“You need to stop being so suspicious of everypony you see” The trio paused before moving apart, allowing the six friends to speak freely. Although, there was a definitive lack of speaking in the group, all except Twilight and Rarity were taking in Dash’s new appearance.

“Could ya please explain to me why Dash has a horn on her head and who these unfriendly Knights are?” Twilight let a nervous chuckle slip from her lips. Having gotten no further with her investigation into Dash’s transformation or the appearance of the creatures, there was really nothing she could tell the earth pony. It wasn’t exactly a normal ascension and the appearance of the knights only complicated matters more, she desperately needed time to think. Unfortunately for her, the privacy of her library had been stripped away when the creatures had first entered the place. An observation that she had recently made was that the number of ponies watching them was increasing as time moved on.

“I think we might want some privacy for this” Turning to Dash, she could tell that the other alicorn was thinking the same thing. Rarity had also taken notice of the increasing number of curious onlookers that were watching them. Her words attracted the attention of the creatures, they silently agreed with Twilight’s suggestion. Thinking that the best thing to do would be to repair the two large high guard shaped holes in her wall she walked over to the damaged wall.

For the first time ever, she was glad to have a friend who made it a habit to enter her house through any way but the front door as it gave her plenty of practice using the restoration spell. With her horn illuminated in a mix of purples, she concentrated on the reconstruction of her windows as well as the broken door, both of which began to glow the same colours as her horn. Piece by broken piece the windows reconstructed themselves back into their original design, magically sealing themselves into place. The door buckled, its broken hinges reshaping themselves, it was over quickly, the damage to the structure being completely reversed. She stood back, only admiring her work momentarily.

“What heck is going on Twilight?” She supposed what little information she had would have to suffice for now, until she could question the creatures further there was really not much else she could tell her.

“Well, Dash is an alicorn now” It was hard to know where to start, so much had already happened in the little time since Dash’s arrival. Applejack rolled her eyes.

“I can see that, what I wanna know is how exactly it happened” A little known fact was that anypony could achieve ascension, something she had come across when she had been reading up on every book she had on alicorns, it only took her a day to read through them all. What complicated matters was that Dash had achieved it without years of practice and judging by her reaction to her appearance earlier, she guessed that the former Pegasus hadn’t even been trying to reach ascension in the first place, a difficult conundrum indeed. The only logical reason left to her was that another alicorn had helped her achieve ascension, possibly without her consent.

“The only logical reason I can see behind Dash’s ascension would be that another alicorn helped her” Although which alicorn had helped her she had no idea. The only two she knew that had the power to perform the spell were Luna and Celestia. Her brow furrowed as she contemplated the possibilities, why would they choose Dash for ascension, why now. Another thought occurred to her. While they could both help with ascensions, the spell still required that the one ascending be well versed in the magic arts and while Pegasi did have their own specific magic, it would be very difficult to become powerful enough to meet the ascendance criteria, it would require considerable effort.

“Correction, there is one other possibility” All eyes looked towards the smallest of the two legged trio, curiously waiting for him to continue.

“It would be simple to achieve ascension if the ascendant was directly related to an already ascended being” While the others listened closely, the meaning to the creature’s words becoming apparent to them all, Dash was ready to explode with rage. She knew who her parents were and she would be damned if somepony said otherwise. She had been raised by two, normal Pegasus’s, not some Godly ascended being.

"What, so Dash has a super powerful ascended uncle or something?” Pinkie bounced on the spot, eyes glazing over as her mind quickly began to imagine all manner of things from an all knowing, all powerful alicorn father to an alicorn mother from the future, sent back to stop some catastrophic disaster but instead found love in a simple town. Applejack waved a hoof in front of the day dreaming mare, bringing her back to reality. 

“Hey, I know who my parents are, all right!” She didn’t want to hear any more of what the high guards had to say, she knew who her parents were. A few barely noticeable clouds began to form at the roof of the library, continuing to grow in size with each passing second.

"They’re not some, high and mighty, ascended beings all right!” They became larger, darkening in colour as electricity started to dance between them. The clouds gathered together, forming into the obvious beginnings of a storm. A crackle of lightning drew the attention of the ponies below the storm, all of them looked up at the raging winds that had materialized themselves inside the library, all except for Rainbow Dash that is.

“Damn it” It was barely a whisper. She looked to the floor, hoping to hide the tears welling up in her eyes from her friends, she hated to look weak. It was unlike her, she could normally hide this much better but the thought of somepony telling her that her parents weren’t who she thought they were only reminded her of pain she used to endure from her school bullies.

Her parents were always busy, so much so that they rarely had time for her and it led to a lot ponies questioning whether she really did have parents or not. The bullies picked on her because of it, calling her an orphan while the teachers weren’t around. It was torment to her and the only way she got through it was because she would always see them once she got home but it got worse once she went to the academy. An entire year passed, her only contact with her parents being letters. They stopped making fun of her once the academic year began; having already all assumed that she really didn’t have parents. Then on the day of her graduation, the day she would finally see them again, they never showed up to the ceremony. After that, she moved to Ponyville, got a job and since then hasn’t told another soul about her parents, especially not her friends.

Twilight and Rarity were no longer watching the miniature storm that was rapidly forming on the inside of the library, instead they watched Dash or rather somepony who looked like her as what they saw was nothing like the pony they knew. In her place was an alicorn with a raging fiery aura pouring off of her, horn glowing bright and eyes blood red. It would cause even the bravest of ponies to cower at the sight of the untamed raw power that Dash was giving off, it could equivalent a star. Rarity tried to make herself as small as possible with her hooves over her head, afraid of being caught in the wake of the angry demigod. Twilight had experienced what Dash was going through, during the first time practicing magic with Celestia she had almost accidently destroyed part of the training hall in her excitement, that was when she learned that undisciplined, raw magical energy could be very dangerous, not to mention destructive.

“Dash you have to calm down, you’re creating a lighting storm!” She strained her throat trying to shout over the noise of the storm raging inside her home. Dash didn’t take any notice, too lost in her anger to hear her. Any restraint that Dash may have had was gone now, washed away by the power of the alicorns.

A bolt of lightning burst from the storm, impacting the ground near where Fluttershy stood, she screamed in surprise, she moved quickly to hide under the room’s single table. Dash heard her screams and looked up to Twilight who was trying her best to not look afraid of her. More lightning bolts crackled in the air sending Dash’s gaze upwards to see the monster she was creating. Without looking she could feel the fear in her friends and it hurt her to know that fear was of her.

“Let it go Dash, please, you have to calm down!” The alicorn looked Twilight in the eye, she gave a reassuring smile. Dash smiled back before concentrating as hard on dispelling the storm, closing her eyes, nothing happened. The storm continued to grow, becoming more violent. She knew she had to come so she thought of one thing, being surrounded by her friends, laughing and enjoying themselves. Twilight watched as the aura around Dash changed, the red inferno being replaced by a blue fire before disappearing completely. The storm began to shrink, slowly dissipating till nothing remained of it. 

Once they had all calmed down, Twilight moved over to Fluttershy, hoping to coax her out from under the table now that the storm had been dispelled. She refused to look up as she approached, her eyes threatened tears as the voice in her head shouted at her, calling her a monster, undeserving of friends. She had been so close to hurting fluttershy, so close to hurting one of her oldest friends, one who would never hurt another living creature, she hated herself more than ever before. 

Twilight stopped, checking over all of her friends, ensuring that nopony had been hurt during the outburst. Even though she may have looked calm and collected, she was actually a mess. Seeing Dash’s aura had shaken her, for her to have such an immense amount of magical energy should have been impossible, in a literal sense it had come from nowhere. One moment she has the average power of a unicorn and the next she has enough magical energy to level the library as well as the surrounding area, only a fool wouldn’t be terrified by that kind of power. Though, as bad as she felt, she knew Dash was feeling much worse, she knew what it felt like to be in her situation. She still felt terrible days after the incident with Celestia in the training hall, blaming herself for the outburst.

Dash continued to look at the ground, finding it much easier than looking at her friends. Twilight knew what she was thinking, knowing that Dash would hate herself for nearly hurting her friends. She kept repeating to herself that she needed to help her friend, to reassure that it was nothing more than an accident.

“Dash” It was Pinkie who acted first. Dash raised her head to watch as the party pony approached her cautiously, along with Twilight, who was following her lead. Dash stepped forward; wanting to tell her friends how sorry she was at what had happened. She didn’t want them to hate her. The pair backed up a step in reaction to Dash’s advancement, which both immediately regretted doing as Dash’s fragile hope for redemption was crushed. She pushed past twilight, dashing to the front door but before she could reach for it something snagged her tail, stopping her from leaving. Turning her head around she saw that a purple aura surrounded her rainbow tail, the one thing keeping her from leaving and going home. She struggled against its grip, trying in vain to escape. 

“Dash it’s okay, it was just an accident” The dark cyan alicorn found herself completely surrounded by the aura as she was levitated through the air to land next to her friends, they had all gathered together , the creatures still remained in their positions, except for their leader who moved forward to the group of friends.

“That was no accident, that spell was cast almost perfectly” Twilight, forgetting what the creatures had been so close to doing before, glared at the leading one as Dash allowed a few more tears to roll down her face. The creature raised a hand to Twilight, effectively silencing her.

“The spell was cast correctly but it was purposefully directed away from you, it was no accident that none of you were hurt” Dash stopped crying, instead choosing to look over to the creature with uncertainty in her eyes. Twilight looked back to Dash with a greater understanding, even in her anger she had protected her friends. Dash looked to the group of her friends, receiving comforting smiles each one of them.

“Ya see sugarcube, no reason to go getting upset” The farm pony laid a reassuring hoof on her shoulder and after a hesitant second they moved into a group hug. Dash ignored the voice in her head, knowing that it told nothing but lies and that its only purpose was to torment her. At that moment, she felt she could let all of her worries slip away and forget that anything had happened in the first place. Reluctantly they separated, each moving into sitting positions in a circular pattern. She wiped away her tears, nothing had changed, she was still Rainbow dash and they were still her friends.

“I’m sorry I scared you all like that” Rarity shook her head at the apology; it was unwanted and unnecessary to the unicorn.

“No need to apologise, it’s easy for any magic user to lose control, especially inexperienced ones” Deciding not to dwell on it she looked up to the ceiling, it looked just the same as it always did. She smiled even harder than before, her only thought being how awesome her friends were.

“Oh err Dash, you’re having a nose bleed” The shy Pegasus pointed to her bleeding nose, it wasn’t gushing but it was still a steady flow of blood dripping from her nose. Twilight rose to get some tissues, only to be waved off as Dash pulled a cloth from her saddlebags. Clumsily she held the cloth up to her nose to stem the flow of blood, her blood steadily soaked into the white cloth as a few seconds passed.

“Guess I was concentrating too hard huh” Her voice was slightly muffled by the cloth being so close to her mouth but they understood her. Her eyelids felt heavy suddenly, her friends smiling faces changed into ones of worry as she started to sway slightly from side to side. Rarity reached out a hoof to the alicorn.

“Are you all right darling?” Dash came close to responding before her eyes rolled into the back of her skull as she fell sideways to the hard wooden floor, unconscious. All five of the friends paused as she fell to the ground. Twilight and the leader of the high guards rushed over to her, he pressed two armoured fingers to her throat in an attempt to find a pulse.

“What’s wrong, is she okay?” Worry evident in the fashion pony’s voice as she asked what everypony was wondering. Neither Twilight nor the high guard responded, both still checking on Dash. Taking a closer look at her head revealed that blood was also coming from a gash on the left of her forehead as well as the area around where her horn broke the skin. Twilight choked back a gag, most of her head was covered in the crimson liquid and it was enough to make her queasy.

“She’s had an overload from using too much magic; we need to get her to the hospital, now!” She looked up to the high guard in front of her and he nodded to her, picking up Dash in his arms he started for the door but Twilight stopped him.

“I’ll fly her there, it’ll be faster” She Gestured towards her back as she unfurled her wings, ready for flight. He placed the unconscious alicorn on her back, using the brown saddle bags as a harness he secured Dash onto Twilight before allowing her to move.
“I’ll escort you to the hospital” Not wishing to argue she opened the door to outside. It was still quite early, so many would still be at work, just like she should have been. No, she thought, no time for work, she had to get Dash to the hospital. It was her one and only priority.

“We’ll get her to the hospital, you can meet up with us there” She glanced at her friends, not wishing to waste any time she quickly galloped out of the door before taking off, there was no time for idle chit chat.

She flew through the air, pushing herself to go as fast as she could, she had gotten significantly better at flying since she had started taking Dash’s lessons, although she hadn’t carried anything with her before and now she had actually gotten into the air with the full weight of an alicorn on her back she was starting to regret her decision. Already her wings were hurting from the strain of carrying two times what they normally would but she knew she had to press on, for Dash. In need of a distraction from the pain in her wings she looked down to the ground, hoping to spot something, anything, that could draw her attention away from the burning feeling in her feathery appendages. She supposed that a two legged creature leaping from roof to roof would be a sufficient distraction.

She marvelled as it went, watching it jump from one rooftop to the next, keeping perfect pace with her, all while not attracting too much attention from the ponies below. She was surprised at how agile the he could be with a full set of heavy metal armour on. He would occasionally glance upwards to her. She turned her head to the left to make sure that her cargo was still secure on her back. She stirred, thrashing her legs around a bit, nearly causing Twilight to lose control. They were ten minutes away from the hospital when she could take the strain of carrying the alicorn no longer as she started to lose altitude.

Lungs burning and wings cramping up Twilight started to panic, feeling like she was going to fall out of the sky at any minute. She pushed her wings harder in a desperate attempt to stay airborne but it was no use. Her wings gave out and she fell from the sky, spiralling to a grim fate, closing her eyes she prepared for the worst but before she could greet the dirt with her face, she was snatched right out of the air by a pair of large metallic arms. It was a rough landing, although she preferred it to the alternative. 

She opened her eyes again, taking a second to catch her breath she looked up to the high guard that currently held her in his grip. He paused to look back momentarily and, making sure his grip was tight enough, started running towards the hospital at high speed, intent on getting his Empress somewhere they could get help. 

“Mommy, daddy” The little whimper caught her off guard, she looked over to Dash who was in the high guard’s other arm, her saddlebags now dangling in the wind. Dash stirred in the strong grip that held her, Twilight could only think of how graceful she looked when she slept, minus the blood of course. 

What Dash had said brought an old realisation to the alicorn’s mind, not once had she heard about her friend’s parents. She continued to think about the subject. She couldn’t recall if Dash had ever mentioned anything about her parents in all the time she had known her, the one time she had asked Dash had simply spurted out an excuse and flew off. The fact that she knew nothing about her friend’s family bothered her. She knew about all of her other friends families but when it came to Dash she hadn’t told her anything. She had even once tried to locate her parents in the ancestral records that she ‘borrowed’ from the royal archives during her last visit to Canterlot, just to satisfy her curiosity. When she got home though, she had studied the text for a lengthy period of time, finding nothing about Dash’s family.

Once they reached the top the high guard released his grip on Twilight as they entered the white waiting room of the hospital. Ponies of all types were there, each having a different minor injury with the occasional broken something or other. All but the worst injured turned to watch as they entered. She supposed it would be rather strange to see an alicorn princess, with a two legged knight carrying another alicorn, walk into a hospital in the middle of the day, it was quite awkward, especially since practically all of them noticed just who happened to be that unconscious alicorn. Ignoring the fact that everypony in the room was staring at them they moved to the front desk.

“My friend’s had a bad accident and she needs immediate medical attention” Shockingly the nurse took one look at Rainbow Dash, ignoring the armoured high guard carrying her, and gestured to one of the empty seats in the waiting room.

“Take a seat and the doctor will see you when he can” She could tell that the nurse thought it was just another muscle tear or one of the other many injuries Dash had sustained during her numerous crashes. Anger bubbled inside her, she wanted to order the nurse to go get the doctor that instant to see her friend, the only thing that stopped her being that she didn’t like using her powers as a princess over others, she especially didn’t enjoy ordering ponies around, it just wasn’t her, her escort however, was an entirely different case as he placed Dash onto the ground ,freeing up his arms so he could put his armoured hands onto the wooden desk, leaning over it to come face to face with the nurse.

“I believe she said, immediate medical attention and that’s an order” The nurse physically gulped at the sight of the intimidating high guard looming over her, a single bead of sweat running down the side of her head.

“Yes, right away” She sped off, tail firmly planted between her legs. Twilight had to stifle a small giggle at the sight of the rude nurse running scared. She could tell that some of the other patients in the waiting had had similar treatment from the nurse, judging by their quiet laughing. The high guard picked up Dash again, being extremely careful to not hurt her. Rather than sit down they waited by the front desk, standing in silence. Around a minute later a unicorn dressed in a white coat rushed into the room, panic clearly displayed on his face.

“I can take it from here princess, I’m afraid you will have to...” He paused mid sentence, reconsidering what he was about to say as he saw the high guard that carried Dash as well as Twilight who also gave the stallion a vengeful look, causing him to put on a fake smile of enthusiasm.

“You know what, I’m sure it’ll be fine for you to go with her” He pointed down the corridor, already having a room in mind for his patient. All three moved together down the hall with the high guard still carrying Dash. She had to admit that while he could be rather extreme, something which she had experience first hoof, he was very dedicated to protecting Dash. 

After a couple of rooms they eventually reached a door, which read, noble suite. She was familiar with the name, a room that was especially reserved for royal or very rich ponies when they went in for treatment. Once inside, Twilight was blown back. Medical equipment of a huge variety lined the walls, all of it being in perfect condition. Purple and gold colours decorated the room, giving it the feel of royalty. Without invitation the high guard placed Dash onto the bed carefully, adjusting her position to make her as comfortable as possible. She giggled happily at the feeling of expensive cloth against her body, rubbing her bloodied head on her pillow, enjoying the comfort it provided.

The doctor first looked to both the creature and twilight for permission before he moved in to examine Dash. A couple seconds passed as his magic ran over the sleeping alicorn .After finishing, he scratched the back of his head. She had good idea of what he was thinking.

“She does have some minor head trauma from the eruption of her horn, the overload hasn’t caused any damage that I can see, other than that though there really isn’t much wrong with her, she just a bit exhausted from using so much magic.” Twilight breathed out, sighing in relief, content that her friend’s life wasn’t in any danger. She moved over to one of the fancy chairs that decorated the room, sitting down on it to rest her tired body, thinking to herself that she needed to start working out more.

“You can stay here until she recovers, she should be back to her normal self soon” Bowing he exited the room closing the door behind him. The room went silent, save for Dash’s breathing and the other various noises that came from the outside. Having ensured that Dash was in no immediate danger the high guard had taken up his regular stance, standing guard by the bed. A pleasant silence filled the room, it was the first time she had been alone with one of the high guard and it was quite awkward, or it was for her at least. She didn’t really know if he felt awkward, she mused that perhaps he enjoyed the silence.

“I wish to apologise for my actions earlier, it was foolish of me to assume that you would attack Dash” Well that was that idea out the window. Not knowing how exactly to respond she remained silent, the creature turned to her, causing alarm bells to start ringing in her head, she wanted so badly to blink out at that moment but her curiosity got the best of her as always.

“If it is possible to forgive me, I would be eternally grateful” Something about being around the high guard calmed her, she couldn’t tell what it was but she felt safer with him around. She took a moment to think about it, she supposed that it had been a misunderstanding and that having a high guard as a friend would be a much better idea than being on bad terms with one.

"I guess I can forgive you, I mean, you were only trying to protect her after all” She pointed to Dash. He bowed his head, returning back to Dash’s side where he resumed his duty of watching over her, weapon at the ready. She went back to resting her aching wings, trying to imagine what would happen next.

If Dash was an alicorn then she would have to tell Celestia, the idea of it made her smile, two new alicorns within only a couple weeks of each other would be a real surprise to everypony, maybe even a surprise to Celestia herself. She had to wonder why the Goddess had not showed up to speak with the new alicorn as she had done when she ascended. It was a very strange situation. As Dash quietly cried out for her mother again, the alicorn was reminded of the high guard’s words back at the library.

“You mentioned something about her parents before” Struggling to restrain herself from blurting out every question she had for the high guard she focussed on listening to his answer.

“Indeed, her father disappeared years ago, she was still very young at the time” As he spoke his tone shifted from informative to grave, as remembering it was difficult for him. She didn’t feel much happier though. Scolding herself for not showing more of an interest in her friends past, she moved over to the white bed. 

“What about her mother?” She whispered not wanting to wake the sleeping alicorn. 

“There are some gaps in our knowledge but if I’m correct, she left her a year after her father disappeared, it is unknown why” Now she felt even worse, looking over to Dash she could only imagine what it was like for her. She had always had somepony around, be it her parents, her brother or Celestia, there was always somepony there for her but Dash, she didn’t have anypony. 

“This is her room here” It was muffled slightly but she could still make out the words, it was the doctors voice and she had a fairly sure of who he was talking to. The door swung open revealing the four friends, along with the two other high guards. They thanked the doctor before moving into the room, all wishing to know about Dash’s condition. Gathering around the bed the four relaxed at the sight of the sleeping alicorn. The lead high guard nodded to the two larger ones, they nodded back and walked back out of the room to stand guard by the door.

“How is she?” A pink hoof prodded the sleeping alicorn, Dash just turned over to face Twilight and applejack instead, screwing up her face as the prodding continued regardless of her movements. Pinkie kept up her constant poking barrage until an orange hoof placed itself over hers, forcing her to stop.

“She’s fine, just a bit exhausted from her outburst earlier” Most of the group breathed a sigh of relief, Rarity’s  reaction to the news was to remain silent and exchange the worried look on her face for a happy smile, they had been doing that a lot recently. It was a little while before any of them spoke again, a much needed cool breeze swept over the room from an open window.

“Mom, Dad” An embarrassing blush burnt Twilight’s face as the dark cyan alicorn quietly cried out for her parents again, in front of all of her friends as well. Of course seeing as the one making the noise was currently unconscious she would be the next to go to, that’s what her friends seemed to think anyway, as they all turned to her for an explanation. 

“She’s been doing that for a while, I think she misses her parents” She decided that it would be best to keep what she had learnt to herself for now, besides, the high guard did say that some of his knowledge was missing, what if it was wrong about her parents, at any rate she would need to ask him more questions to be sure. Applejack opened her mouth, thought for a moment and closed it again.

“Do any of y’all know of somepony to contact, a sibling maybe” A chorus of disappointing answers rang in her ears, not a single one of them knew about Dash’s family, it was a rather disturbing realisation to all of them.

“I don’t remember her ever really talking about her family” Twilight sighed, trying to understand why her friend would be so reclusive when it came to her family, did she hate them? Did they hate her? She decided that once everything had calmed down a bit and when Dash was conscious again, she would inquire about her family, if it was something that Dash had trouble with then it was her responsibility as her friend to help her deal with it. She was about to ask for her friends help in the matter when the sound of hoofsteps echoed in the hall outside of the luxurious room.

“They’re inside Goddess, the Empress is currently resting after her overload at the library earlier” Every one of them turned their heads to the door. Twilight was only moderately shocked to see Celestia walk through the well decorated door. By muscle memory alone they bowed to the princess, even the high guard bent down onto one knee like it had done earlier with Dash. Twilight’s face lit up at the sight of the white Goddess, making her excitement well known to her.

“Hello my little ponies” She greeted them with a warm, radiant smile, although on the inside she couldn’t help but worry for the alicorn that slept on the sterile bed, she wasn’t visiting for just a friendly chat, she had a mission.

“There is really no need for you and your friends to be so formal around me Twilight” She got more than enough of that back in Canterlot, she hated it when ponies put themselves above others and she nearly hated ponies putting themselves below her just as much.

“How is Rainbow Dash?” Twilight looked over to Dash, she returned her gaze to Celestia quickly, a number of thoughts raced through her head, a reoccurring one being Celestia banishing her for not immediately informing her of Dash’s ascension. Mentally shaking away the irrational ideas in her head, she opened her mouth to speak.

“Breathing and heart rate within healthy standards, mental and vital signs are in the green” Only to be cut off by the creature’s analysis of Dash’s health, figuring it had been monitoring her vitals for some time she nodded in agreement to the princess. Dash’s breathing rate increased as she began to toss and turn in her bed, her cries becoming more frantic as well.

“Mommy” What followed next was more than shocking to all of them, they watched as Celestia casually strolled over to the side of Dash’s bed, moving her head close to Dash’s until she was within whispering range. Each one of them watched in a mix of conflicting emotions as the princess, their Goddess, nuzzled Dash.

Twilight was stunned into silence, her mind melting inside her own skull as she watched the princess continue to nuzzle her friend. A dizzying sensation overwhelmed her as the room began to spin rapidly, her legs buckled and before she knew it she was on the ground, the conscious world slowly slipping from her as her friends rushed over to her. It had indeed been a strange day. They shouted her name to her but all she could hear was the sound of the calm wind, it was like laughter to her as she closed her eyes.

> Act 1 - Chapter 4: Shadows
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dash was puzzled by her predicament. One moment she was in the library with her friends, the next, she is surrounded by darkness on all sides. Suffice to say, it was a jarring change of scenery and something she really could have done without; it had been a strange enough day already. Shadows danced along the floor of the seemingly endless void, never daring to approach her, only a few of them ever paused to glance at her. Sound was absent from this place, with only her breathing to break the silence. 

“Hello? Can you hear me?” Not a single one responded to her question, instead, they stopped slithering around the floor and looked to her with emotionless eyes. To he surprise, life moved into the walls as they pulsated, giving the illusion of breathing. Taking another look at the odd place, she found that some kind of solid shadow lined the walls rather than the room just being endless in every direction. Realising this, she quickly decided that the best course of action would be to leave immediately, though how she would achieve that she did not know. There was no sign of an entrance, no conveniently open window, nothing, just more shadows. 

“I can hear you quite clearly” Stunned by the deep, ominous response, she ducked her head, trying to shield herself from the booming voice. Soon after though, she raised her head again to locate the source of the voice. In the time she had looked away from them, the shadow creatures that once occupied most of the floor had vanished without  trace.

“Show yourself!” She shouted into the darkness around her, hoping for somepony to appear. Sadly, the only response to her demand was a deafening laugh full of malice; the walls seemed to close in on her as the laughter died down.

“If that is what you wish” Suddenly she wished that she hadn’t said that. Across the room a rapidly growing bulge of shadows formed on the wall. It continued to grow until it could no longer support its own wait against the wall. Falling with a sickening crack, it collided with the ground. Dash grimaced as four limbs uncurled themselves from the shadowy mass, each one accompanied by the sound of bones breaking. Eventually the strange creature rose to its feet, its limbs moving in an unnatural fashion. The head of the creature was bent backwards, facing the wall it had just materialised out of. In a flash, its head jerked forward, allowing Dash to see the suspicious grin it held upon its features. Blood red eyes burned right into the back of her skull.

“It is good to finally meet the wretched spawn of the prime and the Sol Goddess” Another laugh resonated around the room. Had this creature also confused her with another? Either way, she didn’t appreciate the nickname it had chosen for her.

“Uh huh, so who exactly are you?” Maintaining its creepy grin, it began to walk towards her, it arms dangling carelessly by its sides.

“Who I am is not important, what is, is the fact that you, don’t know who I am” A passing shadow crossed the larger one’s path and was rewarded with a kick to the head, sending it flying across the room to rest in a dark corner. Dash stiffened, standing tall as the intimidating creature approached, she wouldn’t show it the fear that was building up inside her. Only a short distance separated them by the time the shadow creature stopped walking. After what felt like an eternity to Dash, the creature, who had been staring at her the whole time, reached out a hand and directed it at her.

“Ah, I see, how very intriguing” Seeing no exit, Dash readied herself to fight as the creature took another step towards her.

“Get back or you’re going to be sorry!” Instead of following her order, the creature gripped its sides, laughing in a deranged manner. Dash maintained her defensive stance although she snarled at the creature for mocking her. After a minute or so passed, the creature finally managed to break free of its fit of laughter and sighed.

“Do you think you would even have a chance against me?” Arms spread wide, the creature gestured to its self before taking another step towards her. Before long, the creature closed the small gap between them, standing directly in front of her. Wet, dark, goo dripped from the creature’s mouth as its jaw lowered into an unnatural position. Flight came to mind as Dash watched the creature’s body grow a number of sharp spikes along its arms but before she could take off, a group of shadow tendrils burst upwards from the ground wrapping themselves around her legs, ensnaring her in their grip. Events from the library replayed themselves in her head and she grinned confidently at the creature.

“You better let me go or you're getting a lightning bolt to face, bet that would shut you up” A complete bluff, she hadn’t the faintest idea of how to recreate the lightning storm from the library or how she had summoned it in the first place but she hoped it would be enough to deter the creature.

“Foolish child, you may have power but you are yet to understand it, let alone control it” Her grin faltered, it had seen right through her little façade. She struggled against the slimy tendrils that held her in place. A grunt of annoyance came from the creature.

“I’ve wasted too much time already” Fear gripped her heart; she was alone against the monster that stood before her. No applejack to give it a buck to the head, no Twilight to magic their way out of there, nopony, there was nothing she could do to escape. She pulled her head as far back as she could in an attempt to put some distance between her and the shadowy claws that were slowly coming closer to her.

“I’d say it would be over quick but that would be a lie” Eyes closed tightly, she waited for the claws to sink into her. An entire minute passed without incident. Cautiously, she opened her eyes to see the creature again, unmoving, staring off at something behind her with a snarl. Without warning, the entire room shook violently. Behind her, the wall cracked and split, eventually breaking apart, allowing for a bright white light to shine through the newly created hole, causing many of the shadows that covered the room to retreat away from the light, even the tendrils that held Dash could not withstand it. The creature recoiled as the intense light burned its putrid flesh. 

“Remain in light, little one” That voice, she could only think of how it sounded wise, full of experience and knowledge. Unable to bare the suspense any longer she spun around to gaze at the light that poured through the open wall and it was a sight to behold. An alicorn, somehow even taller than Celestia herself, stood in the entrance he had created. He had dark blue fur, white eyes and a calming glow that emanated from within his body. A white mist poured from the corners of his eyes. Dash looked on in awe as he moved to her side to face the dark creature that was using its arms to shield itself from the light. The creature growled deeply, snapping Dash’s attention back to it.

“NO! YOU WILL NOT INTERVENE!” Its voice distorted becoming more demonic. With caution thrown to the wind the creature quickly moved its arms to its sides, summoning forth the dark energies that had so far stayed dormant within its body. Dash watched as the huge alicorn closed his eyes, focussing energy into his horn. The shadow fired a pillar of darkness at the alicorn, causing him to grits his teeth as it impacted, he needed to end it quickly. White, scolding hot flames danced around the bone like object until at one single moment, they were released in an inferno of fire that spread outwards from the alicorn. The creature began to melt as the flames reached it. One final look to Dash was all that it could manage with its body now basically a skeleton. It pointed a single finger to her.

“This is not over, I will have my freedom!” And then, the creature turned to ash and the walls crumbled around them. She had to close her eyes to shield her mind from the blinding light that flooded the room. Once the light had diminished somewhat, she opened them again to find that she no longer stood in a realm of shadows. Now, she faced the very same alicorn in a world of light instead. While it was stunning sight the lack of a visible floor did make her slightly nervous, especially since she wasn’t flying.

“You’re safe now, the shadows cannot enter your dreams again” Dash had had quite enough mysteriousness for one day.

“Thanks and all that for helping out with those shadow things but what the heck is going on?” Dash narrowed her eyes as the larger alicorn gave out a hearty laugh that lasted for a few seconds until dash sighed, exhausted by the mental strain of the day’s events.

“I’m sorry, it’s just, you always did prefer getting straight to the point” A nostalgic smile graced his lips. Dash however stood there with her brow furrowed in thought. Always? But she’d never seen him before, was he another of the ever growing list of creatures mistaking her for somepony else. She didn’t wish to disagree with the other alicorn, he had just turned that creature to ash and she would rather not anger somepony with that kind of power, it would be like arguing with Celestia herself.

“But my power here grows weaker by the second and I must deliver this warning first” He staggered a bit, weakened by the earlier attack but after a little effort he managed to stand up right. 

“The shadows are coming back young one, intent on finishing what they started and if we’re not prepared, they may very well succeed this time” His smile disappeared. Dash focussed hard on what the alicorn was saying; having acquired a great interest in his words since mentioning that something intended to hurt the ponies of Equestria and subsequently her friends.

“Trust your friends, as they will be your greatest allies and above all, stay away from the Everfree forest” The last part was more of an order than advice. Feelings of anxiety started well up in the back of her mind, her life nice simple up until this point, why did it have to change.

“So what should I do then?” Now genuinely worried about the safety of everypony in Ponyville, she posed the question.

“For now, nothing, just get used to being an alicorn first I suppose” A playful grin appeared upon the alicorn’s features, replacing the seriousness that had been there previously. Dash on the other hoof, sat back onto her backside and stared at him with her mouth wide open, thrown off by the instruction.

“That’s it?” She had just been warned, not mention threatened, by some terrible shadow creatures that have some diabolical plot for Equestria and her best option is to do nothing about it, needless to say, she was not pleased by the advice.

“Yep” Dash deadpanned, this time grunting out her frustration. Shivers ran down her spine suddenly as a cold breeze rolled in through odd place. The other alicorn looked around for a moment, seemingly saddened by the appearance of the wind. Something warm pressed against her back, forcing a yelp form the alicorn. Then, for some reason unknown to Dash, the dark blue alicorn simply nodded to her and turned, walking away from her.

“Looks like our time here is at an end, heh, you’re going to have quite the surprise when you wake up” He stopped moving and turned back around to face her, now a decent distance away from her, he kept the same smile on his face. Everything started to blur for Dash, making it hard to see the other alicorn.

“Oh and one more thing, if you ever need me, just call my name” Dash only half heard him, a quickly growing headache making it hard for her to think. Her legs buckled as she swayed from side to sid before eventually passing out on the ghostly floor.

Odd, it was the only thing that crossed her mind, though falling asleep to wake up was a rather odd occurrence, something which Dash could say for herself as she opened her eyes to see Twilight, sleeping in a fancy chair across from her. She smiled at her friend’s peaceful slumber.

Her head buzzed a little as she tried in vain to remember the dream she had, she vaguely remembered something about an alicorn. Another realization broke her concentration on the dream, she now noticed that she was currently lying in a hospital bed and not her own. She froze as she became all too aware that something warm was currently pressed up against her back and after hesitating momentarily, she worked up the courage to look behind her. What she saw nearly made her jump out of her skin.

“P...Princess?” The form of the sun Goddess lay next to her on the bed; she silently complemented the craftsmanship that must have gone into creating the bed to allow it to support both of their weights. Celestia smiled at the smaller alicorn beside her, happy to see that she had not hurt herself.

“Yes, Rainbow Dash, it is I” Her mind went into overdrive, trying to find a logical reason why the princess of the sun was lying in bed with her, although they were all either ridiculous or unlikely ideas. Celestia did nothing, choosing to remain silent as the gears turned furiously inside of Dash’s head. In the end she conceded, deciding that it would be much easier to just ask the Goddess.

“Err...Princess, w...why” Actually asking her though, was a lot harder than it seemed. It wasn’t everyday that you woke up in a hospital bed with a princess snuggling up next to you. Dash was beyond uncomfortable after that last thought.

“I suppose you’d like an explanation” A simple nod was the best she could do in her current, incredibly confused state. Celestia opened her mouth to speak but paused as Twilight groaned in her sleep, drawing their attention towards her. She tossed and turned in the chair.

“Oh hey there Dash...no it’s not too late to check out a book, come on in, the next Daring Do book? Sure, must be somewhere around here” Dash rolled her eyes and cleared her throat in a loud grunt, waking Twilight from whatever she had just been dreaming about. She stretched out her wings in a yawn, opening her eyes a second later to find both Dash and Celestia staring at her. 

“Rainbow Dash, Princess, what are you doing in my bedroom?” Twilight only then noticed where she was, the memories of the day’s events slowly coming back to her. Surprising both of the younger alicorns, Celestia chuckled at Twilight’s words. Twilight’s eyes widened as the memory of Celestia nuzzling Dash came back to her and, coupled with the new image of Celestia lying next to Dash in the bed, it almost made her mind melt all over again. Dash just turned back to Celestia, wishing to get a straight answer for once.
“Rainbow Dash, Its simple, I’m your mother” Okay, maybe that was a little too straight forward but, wait, what? Dash held a look of disbelief while Celestia smiled back at her. Twilight grunted, the feeling of light headiness quickly returning to her, she tried to steady herself with a hoof but nearly slipped off of the chair instead, barely catching herself in time. Twilight was the first to respond.

“What!” Celestia barely contained herself, with only the years of practice in the art of keeping one’s composure stopping her from bursting into a fit of laughter.

“Of course, why else would I comfort a pony who needs it, it couldn’t just be because of how much I care for all of you now could it” Desperately wishing to burst out laughing she held her breath, she didn’t get to do this often. Twilight raised an eyebrow at the smirking princess until it hit her, she faced hoofed, hard, making her head a little sore. Scolding herself for being so foolish she looked up to the princess with her hoof returning to its normal position.

“Sorry princess, I guess I shouldn’t have just assumed” She grinned sheepishly, embarrassed about her dramatic reaction. Her rational side started to reassert itself, now seeing how improbable the idea of Celestia being Dash’s mother was.

“There is no need to apologise Twilight, like I said, you don’t have to be so formal with me” A graceful smile formed on the wise alicorn’s lips. Dash, in her half awake state, remained confused by the whole situation, she groaned silently.

“If you don’t mind me saying princess, I didn’t know you could be such a prankster” She bit her tongue as prankster slipped past her lips without permission but upon hearing Celestia’s light chuckle, she relaxed. Twilight’s words caught Dash’s attention as she considered the idea of Celestia being a master prankster.

“I cannot say that I don’t enjoy indulging in the occasional prank or two” Dash watched as her smile wavered for a split second. It was an odd experience for Twilight, having Celestia being so open with her; she wondered what had brought on the sudden change. Normally, Celestia would only speak about lessons or minor things from her duties with her, so it was a first to be hearing something like this, even if it wasn’t anything major. Silence fell over the room and Dash preferred it for once.

“Shush, I can’t hear what their saying” Even though the fashion pony’s voice was muffled by the door, all four present could still hear them. Twilight suddenly became aware of the high guard as the sound of metal scraping against metal came from the room’s farthest corner. They looked to each other for second, puzzled expressions on all three of the alicorns faces. The high guard may even have had his own look of bemusement, although it would be hard for anypony to tell with his helmet on.

“Let me try!” The sound of hooves shuffling in the hallway could be heard soon after, followed by a grunt of effort and pain.

“Darn it pinkie, would you mind kindly getting off of mah back please” Having heard enough, and with a nod of agreement from Celestia.Twilight gripped the doorknob with her own magic and swiftly whipped it open. A pink and orange tangled mess of limbs rolled through the door, collapsing into a pile at the foot of the bed. Pinkie, now sat on top of Applejack, beamed cheerfully at Twilight, who in turn rolled her eyes. 

“Oh hey there Twilight” For a second, Twilight thought she heard a chuckle from the high guard, though when she looked her held the same stance that he always did. Applejack shook the pink mare off, were she rolled on the floor, coming to a stop not too far away. An awkward silence made its way into all of them. They glanced around for a while until, surprisingly, the shyest mare oout of all them spoke up.

“How’s Dash doing?” All at once they remembered the reason why they were the in the first place, with a few of them feeling a little sheepish for forgetting. They awaited their blue friend’s response.

“I’m fine girls, just a little confused, what happened?” Being the well read mare that she was, Twilight was the first to respond.

“You had what is called a magic overload from using so much magic at once, which was a lot for being a beginner, though it shouldn’t do any permanent damage” A thought occurred to her at that moment; she didn’t recognise the spell Dash had been casting. She knew of spells that could conjure up storms and rain but this was more focussed on the lightning aspect, which was strange, ther wasn’t much of a use for lightning. Deciding it would be best to not ask until Dash felt better, she resigned herself to being silent on the matter.

“Well if you’re feelin better sugarcube, ya might wanna come outside, there’s something I reckon you ought to see” The two alicorns currently lying on the bed, looked to each other before moving off of it. They allowed Applejack to lead their larger than usual group down the hallway to the lobby. 

When they arrived at the lobby, an odd sight was there to greet them. All of the ponies that had been there previously had left, leaving only the cowering assistant behind. However this isn’t what Dash was concerned about. Perhaps she had suffered some kind of memory loss from her accident, because if she recalled correctly, there had been only two other high guards, not twelve. Rarity saw the surprise in Dash and Twilight’s faces.

“That’s how we felt when they started showing up an hour ago” Upon noticing their supposed leader, they knelt in a similar fashion to how the trio had done at the library. Each wore the same armour as each other except for the one in front who had a different insignia on his shoulder pads, along with a few lines of gold running down his armour. Celestia blinked once before speaking, suddenly remembering her own reason for being there.

“It seems in all this excitement that I’ve forgotten something. Rainbow Dash” They looked to the Goddess, wondering what had been forgotten. It quickly became clear what she had meant as she bowed to Dash, with the others soon following her lead. Dash felt both gracious and disturbed by the gesture. Admiration by adoring fans was one thing, being bowed to by not one but two princesses, along with her friends, was another. The reality of it started to catch up with her. They rose to stand after a little while, though Dash remained taken back by it all. 

“May I have a moment alone with Rainbow Dash” The five friends nodded and, giving Dash a quick smile, exited the hospital, with the high guards following suit. Dash now stood alone with the princess, not even the assistant had stuck around. Made slightly nervous by her situation she stared at her. She called her name and she stood quietly, with no intention of interrupting the Goddess at any point.

“Now Dash, after discussing the arrangements with my council, we’ve decided to delay your coronation for the time being, it would be unusual to have another so quickly after the last” Celestia hadn’t been happy about the idea, it didn’t seem fair to have to hide a pony’s ascension but when she had considered it, it seemed to be the correct decision, besides, there was much Dash would have to learn. These were the times she regretted not teaching Twilight more about the duties of princess as now, she had to teach the both of them. Truly thinking about, Dash needed to know a lot more than how to be a princess, magic was another thing that popped into mind.

“So, in the meantime, you’ll be staying with me in Canterlot” The idea of being a princess was something she didn’t particularly think about often, if at all. She imagined that most fillies would do anything to have that chance but her; she wanted to be a wonderbolt, a member of the fastest team in Equestria, not some fancy, over privileged princess, not that she actually thought that about the current princesses. Reminding herself that she was currently speaking to a princess, or rather, the little Twilight in the back of her head reminded her of it, she nodded. 

“Good, there is a carriage waiting outside, we should leave as soon as possible, there is quite a lot for you to learn” By the meantime, she realised, Celestia had meant immediately, which bothered her. Starting to feel like the conversation was quite one-sided, Celestia paused to allow Dash to speak and she took opportunity gladly.

"Right now? But...but what about my job? Who’ll take care of Tank?” At the mention of her pet’s name Celestia raised an eyebrow, obviously unaware of the pet.

“He’s my pet tortoise” Complaints noted, Celestia smiled a knowing smile; there was need for Dash to worry.

“Everything has already been taken care of, I’ve arranged for storm chaser to take care of Ponyville’s weather in your place and as for your pet, he’ll be staying with Fluttershy” A round of errs and ums followed as Dash searched for any excuse to stay. She found none.

“It’ll be fine Dash, you shouldn’t worry. Now I believe your friends are waiting to see you off” Even though her council could handle the everyday matters, leaving them alone for too long had created panic before and if one of the occasional disasters were to hit, then she had no idea how they would respond. So, with graceful haste she left the hospital lounge, leaving Dash alone to think by herself. Not wishing to make her friends wait any longer, she opened went after the princess. Outside, as Celestia had said, awaited a carriage with eight royal guards attached. Her friends stood by it, smiling at her. The High guards had formed a semi-circle around them, standing watch for an unknown threat. 

“Were going to miss you while you’re gone” Dash was confused again, were they not coming with her? An image of herself sitting alone at a long dining table disrupted Dash’s thoughts; it made her shiver to think of being alone like that, again. Having finished her conversation with the guards pulling the large chariot, she walked over to the group of friends two. 

“Hey, I’m not going anywhere if my friends aren’t coming with me” Shocked by the demand and the slight glint of red in her eyes, they moved closer to their friend; of course the element of loyalty would resist leaving them. The princess was unfazed by the sudden demand, holding a kind smile as she looked to each of the alicorn’s friends.

“I see no reason why they can’t accompany us, you’re all welcome to stay at the palace anytime” While each one of them gave thanks to the princess for the offer, they had other commitments that require their attention, it wasn’t as if they wouldn’t have enjoyed being there for their friend,  it was just that most if not all of them had some important business or work to attend to.

“Sorry Dash, ya know I would if I could, but with big mac gone I’m gonna be real busy taking care of the farm by myself” Disappointed by Applecjack’s reply, she looked to Fluttershy, waiting for a better answer.

“Well, erm, it is a very nice offer but erm, my animals need a lot of care and I can’t just leave them alone, sorry” Undeterred by the loss of two friends, she looked to Rarity and pinkie, who, to her disappointment, had the same looks Applejack and Fluttershy had had.

“Normally I would jump at the chance to live in such luxury, sadly, I’ve had a large order and I am simply swamped with work” Hope now disappearing fast she listened to the pink mare’s excuse, starting to see a pattern.

“No can do Dashy, got a bake a thousand rock cakes by Sunday” She didn’t even want to ask what a rock cake was. With four of her friends resigned to staying in Ponyville, she looked to Twilight, not holding out much hope for a better answer. As Twilight spoke, Dash didn’t listen, she could tell by the apologetic look she had that she wasn’t coming, she didn’t even listen when Twilight stopped talking and looked to Celestia. She stared straight through Twilight, disappointed by her friends answers. 

“...and I want you to teach her” Twilight was slacked jaw, sitting back onto her haunches; it caused Rarity to cringe as she sat on the dirt road. Dash, now realising that while she wasn’t paying attention an entire conversation had passed her by, listened closely to what they were saying.

“You want me to teach her? No Disrespect princess but wouldn’t you be better suited to teach her?” Twilight was unsure of how to feel, conflicting emotions bouncing around in gut, of course it would be an honour to teach her friend everything she knew on magic, which could take some time, but she wasn’t much of teacher, not like the princess at least.

“Who better than a friend to teach our new alicorn magic” During the short time in which the group of ponies had taken their eyes off of the high guards that surrounded them they had repositioned themselves, now  closer to the ongoing conversation,  they listened carefully.

“What about the library and spike? Who will look after them why’ll I’m gone?” Celestia turned with an unseen roll of the eyes, she knew when her former student was worrying over nothing and it was a common occurrence. Spike could take care of himself and the library didn’t get much attention to begin with. Twilight’s stuttered a farewell to her friends and stepped inside the surprisingly spacious chariot, its metal interior reflecting the light around the cabin. She sat opposite Celestia. Finished with his own conversation with the other high guards, the smallest of them walked over to Dash, glancing at her friends briefly.

“Ma’am, shall I assign paladins to watch over your friends in your absence?” Putting a hoof to her chin she considered the idea, they could probably help them out in some way. So, having decided that it would be in no way a bad idea to have a tall, armoured and strong friend hanging around, she nodded to him, as did Celestia. The leader pointed to a few of the paladins, signalling for them to walk over to the now nervous friends, except for pinkie pie, her new protector didn’t seemed to bother her, in fact, she appeared to be excited by the possible friend.

“Rainbow Dash, we really must be going” Saddened by only having Twilight to come with her, she turned to her friends to bid them farewell, entering the chariot soon after she had. The high guard followed her in without invitation, making the carriage rather cosy. He leaned out the side, beckoning for the high guard with the special shoulder pads to come over. 

“Send a team to the Everfree forest, have them investigate the activity there, report back by dawn” A Nod of acknowledgment followed and the high guard closed the door, crossing his arms as he sat back. The two friends looked out the back window of the carriage to see their friends waving as they took off, the high guards raised their swords as well. Once they were out of sight they turned back around, both with solemn looks upon their faces, they’d never been apart for more than a couple of days, now they it was a couple of weeks. Guilt worked its way into Twilight’s mind, everypony had been so happy and supporting when she ascended, so why should Dash’s ascension be any different? Even if it was only just her, Celestia and the High guard there to celebrate with her. Determined to lighten the mood she thought of a topic that they both could talk about.

“So, how’re you feeling about learning magic Dash?” After she had gotten past the initial panic from having her role thrust upon her, she was fairly excited to be the one teaching her friend magic, other than Sweetie Bell there weren’t many ponies who wanted to learn magic beyond the essentials like telekinesis but Dash wasn’t the kind of mare who stops at good enough. 

“Huh, magic” Lost in her own day dreaming she slowly remembered the one thing that had caused everything so far, her horn. Tingles ran down her spine when she tapped a hoof to it. Focussing on it seemed to be the only way to feel anything from it, otherwise it was a barely noticeable headpiece, well, barely noticeable to her, not so much to others.

“What, did you think that horn was just for show?” A giggle escaped her lips at her friend’s clueless expression. Separation from her friends now pushed to the back of her mind, she allowed herself look back and smile over the day’s events, thankful that things had started to calm down.

“Heh, I haven’t really thought about that much” Then again, she hadn’t had much time for thinking recently. She had woken up around fifteen minutes ago and now she was on her way to canterlot to prepare for a coronation and learn magic. Prepare, hadn’t somepony else said something about preparing. Her mind finally caught up with the fact that she was going to learn magic and began to imagine what that would entail.

“Wait, are going to tell how to pick stuff up with magic? Or how to teleport, oh, oh, what about being able to became invisible” Dash was excited, quickly forgetting about all previous thoughts, her mind completely dedicated to imagining all the things she could  do the magic Twilight was going to teach her. Perhaps after coming home from the coronation she could trade flying lessons for magic ones. 

“I’ll have to ask the princess what she wants to you to learn first” Acting like a small excited filly, she eagerly looked at Celestia, practically bouncing in her seat. Nothing could beat flying in her books but magic came in a solid second place, especially now she had the potential to do it. She was on the verge of drooling with all possibilities bubbling away in her mind; she hadn’t been this excited since she got into the wonderbolts academy.

“She’s your student Twilight; I believe it is only right that you decide what she learns” Quickly engrossed in her own thoughts, Twilight fell into the same state as Dash, though she ended up like the day dreaming weather pony for an entirely different reason. It was likely to be the one of the fews times where she wished she didn’t know so much about magic as she found it hard ti know where to start with the amateur magic user. She shifted between a few ideas, not settling on one long enough to make a decision.

“I can’t wait; this is going to be so awesome! Just hope I don’t lose out on too much flying practice, gotta be the best if I’m going to be a full on wonderbolt, you know, not like I’m not already” Her confidence in her own abilities reassured in the others, she stared out the window, looking past the high guard next to her. Neither Celestia nor Twilight had the heart to tell her, so they remained quiet for the time being, they would cross that bridge when they had to and hopefully, at a time when less life changing developments were happening. A blue crystal on one of the high guard’s gauntlets flashed randomly, emitting a ping as it did so.  Another seven of these pings went off a second after the last and the high guard touched an armoured finger to the crystal, causing it to ping again, although in a lower tone. It stayed silent after that.

“What’s with the crystal?” Childish delight sparkling in her eyes, Dash stared at the crystal, curious as to its purpose. He allowed her to prod it with a hoof, it didn’t respond to her like it did with the high guard, she was disappointed by the lack of a result.

“It’s how we communicate when separated, only over relatively small distances” Interest peaked, Twilight leaned over Dash to get a better look at the gem lodged inside the metal gauntlet. Strangely, there didn’t appear to be anything special about the gem on a magical level. Stumped she turned to its owner in search of answers to the ever growing list of questions she had for the high guard.

“I’ve never seen anything like it before, what does it mean when it goes off like that?” He tapped the item of interest again and it glowed in response and it stopped again after a second touch from him. He extended his arm over to Twilight, giving her a better view of the crystal. 

“Each ping indicates a group of high guards responding to the empress’s awakening, and once they do this, they are to rally on Canterlot, as instructed” Ignoring most of what the high guard said she concentrated on one of the new pieces of information.

“There’s more like you on the way? How many more?” Turning where he sat, he faced Twilight with his piercing blue eyes. Dash and Celestia had a look of indifference on their faces, unfazed by the fact that more of the creatures where making their way towards them.

“A lot more”


Somewhere, deep within the forbidden lands of Equestria, a shadow groans atop his throne. To him, it was an extravagant throne room, decorated with the same shadow that made up most of the world outside it. The doors to the room opened slowly, revealing another shadow of equal size. The second moved over to kneel at the base of the throne. Both are dressed similarly, with heavy coats of black armour hiding their skin, a dark, red insignia on their chest plates. The sitting shadow peaked one of his eyes past his own hand, which was currently covering most of his face.

“Sire, I’ve completed the preparations as instructed” A sigh escaped the first one’s shadowy lips; his mind had not yet recovered from the melding before. The second, looked up to him, bringing himself to his feet a moment later, he was wary of the reasoning behind his master’s request. Noticing the tired state his master was in, he started to worry.

“Is there something wrong, sire?” The first shadow removed his hand from his face, revealing a number of battle scars, the second grimaced internally at the sight of his master’s torn flesh, he hated seeing them, it reminded him of what his master had sacrificed for them. One of the more noticeable features of his face where the two red lines that made their way from the corners of his mouth, down to his chin, the second had a similar set of his own.

“No, Dusk, I’m tired from my encounter with an old, friend. Do not worry, everything is going as planned” He stood up from his throne making his way down the steps up to it, down to where Dusk stood. Dusk’s eyes widened ever so slightly, giving away his surprise at the news.

“Do you mean...” He trailed off; unsure of how to take the information his master was telling him, it may have only been a few words to some but to him it meant a lot more.

“Indeed, I confirmed her appearance earlier, it’s her” The master placed a hand on Dusk’s shoulder, removing it a second later so that he could casually walk over to the large window that overlooked his empire. Dusk followed his master with dignified haste. The master looked out over the court yard and was pleased with what he saw beneath him.

“Sire, do you wish me to lead a team to capture her?” Ever ready to impress the master, he posed the question and in return, the master shook his head. He turned to Dusk, a stern expression on his face.

“She’s protected from us, as long as she remains within the Ponyville or Canterlot zones, we will be unable to reach her” Undeterred by the masters words he began to devise a way of entering the protective zone, though he stopped his feverous thinking when he realised that his master was still staring at him, a devilish grin replacing the stern look.

“A shadow may not be able to get close to her, but a pony can” Dusk wore his own grin as he came to understand what his master was suggesting, until another thought crossed his mind.

“What about her friends? there’s no doubt they’ll try to help her” The master pointed out of the window, towards the lands of Equestria, he laughed evilly, content with his brilliant plan, and it should’ve been, he had had a lot of time to work on it.

“Don’t worry, if she doesn’t take care of them herself, then the phantoms will and when they do” He chuckled darkly and turned back to the window, waving off Dusk, signalling that he wished to be alone. 

“Soon, old friend, all of this will come to an end, and we’ll be free again” He turned away from the window again and moved back to his throne to rest. Outside, far below the throne room, shadows moved between the busy streets of the city. Hundreds could be seen moving from one spot to the next, each carrying weapons or armour or even some of the materials for creating both. They knew that war was coming and with it, all of its glory’s.

> Act 2 - Chapter 1: An Honest Partnership
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Two hours, two whole hours since her friend Rainbow Dash had so kindly stuck her with the thing and ran off to Canterlot. Okay, so maybe saying that she went to Canterlot willingly wasn’t exactly true but it didn’t matter, not much anyway, she was the one stuck with whatever it was. She took a break from her bucking and glanced back at the creature that stood not too far behind her, she couldn’t understand how it could wear all that heavy, metal armour in the sweltering heat, which, might she say, was a bit of a surprise. The forecast had said modest but this was far beyond that, her body was on fire and it had only been an hour since she started.

“You just gonna keep on standing there aren’t yah” He stood to attention, weapon by his side as he held his head high towards the heavens.

“I’ve orders from the Empress to protect and watch over you Miss” She rolled her eyes at the mention of the word, still not quite believing what had happened, how could she? Rainbow Dash had become an alicorn, some big bulky creatures had shown up announcing Dash as their Empress and to top it all off, Celestia herself had come and whisked her off to Canterlot for lessons on how to be a princess. She smiled at the thought of Dash being a stuck up royal, attending fancy gatherings and what not. She shook her head, laughing quietly to herself; she needed to remain focussed if she was ever going to harvest enough to meet the day’s quota. 

She turned around and looked over the many trees that still needed bucking and sighed at the sight, it was going to be a very long day, possibly even a night too. After repositioning herself next to a new tree she bucked it, resulting in all of its apples falling into the many buckets she had placed underneath. After a little bit of struggling she placed one of the buckets onto her back and carried it towards the half full cart that sat waiting nearby, these were the times when she really missed her brother’s help.

She would look over to the creature every so often, every time glancing for a moment at the High guard’s weapon, wary of why he would need it. It wasn’t as if nothing bad ever happened in Ponyville, between ancient monsters coming back to make night eternal and chaos lords, Ponyville got its fair share of bad but carrying a weapon around at all times was something only royal guards did, or the very paranoid. 

“Do you require assistance Miss?” For the fourth time he asked and for the fourth time he got the same reply.

“No, I can handle it by myself thank ya very much” Unlike Dash, she wasn’t inclined to be so trusting of the creatures that had smashed up the library, especially after the way they acted towards Pinkie pie. Though, as she continued her work she started to think twice about his help, she had already learned her lesson for not asking for help the last time and she didn’t want a repeat of that, besides, if you got a walking pile a muscle, you may as well use it. She stopped moving the buckets to the cart, taking a quick breather before turning to face the High guard.

“Alright, if you’re so eager to help out, why don’t ya start by loadin up these buckets here onto the cart” She gestured to the full buckets that rested under a nearby tree and the High guard nodded. He raised his sword over his head, placing into the sheath attached to his back, a piece of equipment which she hadn’t noticed until now. He sprinted over to the tree, shaking the ground a little as he did so, he grabbed one of the buckets and lifted it onto his shoulder, it didn’t seem to be much of an effort, so much so that he grabbed another, and another until eventually he had four with two on each shoulder, supporting both stacks with his arms.

“Quite the strong one ain’t yah, bring em over here” She couldn’t deny how impressive the show of strength was as he walked towards her, seemingly unaffected by the load, at a swift pace he reached her quickly. She pointed a hoof to the cart and the high guard followed the instruction, placing all of the collected buckets into the old wooden cart. 

“I’ll just be a minute taking this back to the barn, don’t go doing anything suspicious now” Just because he was helping out did not mean that she had trust him or that he could wonder around on his own, it would take a lot more than a bit of lifting to earn her trust. She hooked herself up to the cart with speed, showing her skill at the practice, and was about to set off until she suddenly found herself hanging from where she was attached, dangling in the air above the High guard’s head.

“What the heck do you think you’re doing? Put me down this instant!” She struggled, flailing her legs widely in the air hoping to somehow free herself with the momentum. A cold metal hand grazed her side causing her to shiver from it’s touch as it went to work on the straps that connected her to the cart. She yelped as they came lose, expecting to hit the ground hard she was pleased when she didn’t, though that pleasant feeling didn’t last long as now the creature held her in its grip. Slowly, she was lowered to the ground and once back on the soft soil she spun around to glare at the High guard.

“I apologise for my haste but I cannot allow you to continue” Confusion spread like wild fire in her mind, which was evident from the look she gave the high guard. It was very strange, he had been so complacent seconds ago and now he was the one taking command, she wouldn’t allow that to happen without some kind of explanation at the very least. Eventually, after two or three small gestures, he got her soundless question.

“Were you to continue your work you would surely pass out from the heat, or worse, as it is my duty to ensure your health I shall take your place while you relax inside” Her confusion vanished, replaced by disbelief at the high guard’s words which slowly turned to anger. While it did sound nice to not have to work in the outrageous heat, she had a number of problems with the offer, namely, it was her job.

“Hey, I know that you’re just trying do your job an ‘all following your, empress’s, wishes” Taking a moment to get over the fact she just referred to Dash as that, she continued.

“But this here is my job and I won’t have anypony or anything coming along to take it away from me, besides, how come you can do all this work while I can’t?” Internally she grinned knowing that nothing could work in the blistering for heat for too long without suffering some kind of heat related problem and wearing full metal armour wouldn’t help.

“My armour offers some protection from the heat, an advantage you do not have” Either he knew something she didn’t or the High guard was a very poor liar but she ignored the flawed logic and continued her argument.

“What about when you do start to feel the heat? That armour can’t protect you forever and trust me, there is still a heck of a lot a work to be done” Victorious, she gave him a cocky smile having effectively proved that he was no better off than her in the heat. However, the high guard only cocked his head to the side wondering why she was trying to stop him.

“Why does it matter? If boiling alive under the sun means you don’t get heat stroke then so be it” Naturally she was shocked that he would willingly hurt himself for a pony he had only just met, just because he had been ordered to do so.

“Now wait just a second...” He didn’t allow her to finish, he placed the cart to the side and kneeled down close to her.

“Miss, if keeping you safe from harm requires me to give my life then that is what I shall do, my life is not important, yours is” Her jaw felt like it was going to snap off, never had she heard such talk and she never would have expected from a three foot tall, walking pile of muscle. For some reason she couldn’t quite explain, she felt sorry for the High guard, he was only trying to help and what had she done? Brushed him off like a rotten apple. She sighed, perhaps she had been a little too hard on him. She clenched her jaw shut and relaxed it, unsure whether what she was about to suggest was wise.

“Hey, I think me and you had a bit of bad start so how ‘bout this, we do this together, share the work, then I won’t be in any danger and you can let me do my job” He hesitated, considering the proposal for a minute, he knew it wasn’t his place to make such decisions but, after reasoning that it was the only way he could help her, he nodded.

“Alright then, I’ll get to work bucking these trees and you can cart the apples back to the barn, sound good?” Another nod and he was gone before she knew it, running down the hill with the cart in tow at a speed she wouldn’t have expected from him. She went back to bucking the nearest tree with buckets under it, though her mind remained distracted from the work, busy thinking about everything that had changed and all of the things that were going to change.

Surprisingly, the high guard returned with an empty cart just after she finished on the same tree, his speed didn’t match his stature. Soon enough, another cart was loaded and the high guard carried it away, coming back just as fast as he did the last time. Due to the rate at which he was going he would stand idle between trips, waiting for enough buckets to be filled to make the sprint to the barn worthwhile. An idea came to her as he stood still and she gave the current tree a strong buck before stopping to talk to the High guard.

“Hey, how’d you like to try a go at bucking these here trees while you waiting” If she were going to try and get along with the overcommitted guard then the best place to start would be farming, it was she did best after all, that and being honest of course.

“Alright, all ya gotta do is give it a good hit and the apples should come loose pretty easy” There wasn’t much more to it than that other the setup but she decided that carting and harvesting would be enough for one day. Fist drawn back as far as he could he readied a devastating punch, causing Applejack to tense up and grit her teeth at the sight.

“Wait!” It was just in time, as if she had waited a second longer the High guard would have most likely made a large fist sized hole in the tree’s trunk.

“Just a good hit remember, don’t put too much power behind it or you’ll end up putting holes in my trees” Feeling slightly uneasy she allowed him to continue. In one swift movement the High guard punched the tree making it shudder and drop its juicy fruit. It was a fairly good hit save for the slight mark left on the bark from the impact.

“Yeah, that’s good, set up some buckets under those trees over there and have at ‘em” With the lesson over the High guard got to work, as did Applejack. Within five minutes of working together they had already fully loaded a cart, took it away and brought it back. She allowed a small smile to crawl onto her features as she glanced over to the High guard working away beside her; he was just like her brother.

After about an hour she took a break to cool down under a shady tree, the hot sun was still high above them frying anything that stayed out under its heat for too long. She didn’t normally take breaks but she rather do that than have to argue with High guard, if she could even call it that, no matter what they were talking about his voice never held a hint of anger or frustration or any tone that’s normal when arguing, he was an odd creature.

Like a filly she played with her hair, flicking it from side to side with quick breaths. The peace of the afternoon was a nice change to the chaos of the morning. She closed her eyes to enjoy the cool breeze that passed by her, looking over to the High guard when she opened them again. She tried to consider him as another pony, complacent and willing to do anything to protect others, it reminded her of somepony else, a pony she had not seen in some time. A bit of frustration slid its way into her mind, they seemed to know a lot about Ponyville yet she knew nothing about them, she didn’t even know his real name.

“I never got your name did I?” She moved over to him as he slowly swivelled around to stare at her without a single word. She raised an eyebrow at the silent High guard and stopped walking when she was as close as she was comfortable with.

“What’s the matter? I’m only asking for a name sugar cube” The mention of her favourite nickname didn’t bother the High guard, but it did shake her a little. While she was trying to be somewhat hospitable towards her guest she had no intention of making a friend out of him and now she was starting treat him like just that. She blamed it on the odd circumstances and hoped that was the only reason.

“It is unusual for others to know our names, even asking is uncommon” Somehow she felt sympathetic towards him, by what little he had told her the High guards seemed to be treated as a tool rather than anything else and she knew how that felt. Often she would have to work entire nights to keep up with the demand for food and it wasn’t common for anypony but her friends to even show the slightest hint of worry for her own well being.

“I’m asking, if you’re going to be stayin here for a while then it’d be best if I knew your proper name” Not giving somepony their name was one of the worst things she could think of and she wouldn’t be another pony who did it, it reminded her of all the times she’d be referred to solely as farmer or worker, it made out her like work was all she was good for and that felt terrible.

“Alexander” It caught her off guard, so much so that she mumbled nonsense when she tried to speak. 

“What?” It was all she could manage to say in her mixed up state.

“My name is Alexander, Alex if it is more pleasing” It was, an unusual name, one that she had never heard before, though thinking about the owner it was rather fitting for a strange creature to have a strange name.

“Nice to meet you Alex, my name is Applejack” As a custom she held out her hoof and waited patiently for Alex to understand the alien gesture. He gripped her hoof as lightly as he could and shook it slowly, not really understanding the ritual, Applejack wriggled her hoof free soon after the hoofshake had gone on too long.

A rather awkward moment passed as the two stood in silence staring at each other, neither having much else to say. It dawned on her as she looked around, avoiding the High guard’s intimidating stare, that they had already harvested most of what they needed in the little amount of time they had been working together, so she decided that now would be a good time to take a real break, strange armoured creatures included.

“Well, I reckon we done almost the whole field, how ‘bout we break for a little while?” No wanting to disagree with his charge Alex nodded again and watched as she sat down against the closest tree. He followed her lead though with more of thud than a soft pat when he fell sat down against the tree.

For reasons unknown to her she found herself feeling calm, almost comfortable with Alex’s presence next to her. Internally she was debating whether or not start up a conversation, the awkward silence shared between two ponies just wasn't the same as the peaceful silence one found from the world, it was cold and unnatural. She supposed that maybe if she knew a little more about Alex, things wouldn’t be so awkward between them.

“So, where are, where are you from?” A good starting point if there ever was one, she always said that if you were going to understand a pony then you need to start from the beginning. Alex stared at her, knowing that he could never answer her question.

“I, cannot say, it’s one of the many things we aren’t allowed to divulge” Her smile weakened but remained; she would just have to try another topic.

“Oh, erm, how come this is the first time I’ve seen something like you?” If she had to guess, that was one question that anypony who saw them would have, and the next likeliest would be if they were dangerous or not and judging be the equipment the enjoyed carrying around, they were.

“We’re quite reclusive when it comes to our activities” This wasn’t getting her anywhere, she had expected it be tough to talk to him, especially about anything personal, but she hadn’t expected him to be so, secretive. She was starting release that being up front wasn’t going to work, if she were going to get to know him then she needed to start somewhere less personal.

“You think you could cut a tree down with that thing? I might have a few rotten ones if you don’t mind” There was no doubt the weapon was up to the job, what didn’t cross her mind however is if the one wielding it was. He pulled it out from its sheath and stared at it as it shimmered in the sunlight; looking at it like he had only just noticed he had it. 

“What is it?” He was making her nervous with the way he stared at, mesmerised by its glimmer.

“I’ve never really used it before, other than in training that is” Disbelief struck her, though she was unsure why, wars or even small battles were unheard of, had been for centuries, it was unlikely for even Celestia’s guard to have seen battle. Reflecting on that thought brought another, not a single Ponyville resident had ever experienced anything but peace, herself included. Even Granny smith had only ever heard tales from her great grandfather.

“Big sis, wha...What’s going on?” So wrapped up in her own thoughts she failed to notice Applebloom approach, looking rather confused at the sight of her sister sitting next to what looked like a living suit of armour.

“Hey sis, you finish school already?” Her casual attitude to her was a little off putting with Alex sat right beside her, blade still unsheathed and sparkling with malicious intent. She worked up the courage to move closer to the pair sitting under the tree, keeping an eye on the weapon most of the way.

“Yeah, Miss Cheerilee went home early since she was feeling sick today” Alex watched her as she approached, cautious of the new arrival. Applebloom left some distance between them, wary of her sister’s new friend, and his intimidating weapon. 

“I hope you ain’t caught nothin, don’t want you getting sick too” With the awkward memory of her trying to explain Alex to Granny smith now refreshed in her mind, she desperately tried to keep the subject away from him until she could at least think of something better than the story she told her, which was something along the lines of: Dash is an alicorn now, these are her guards and I got one too, even to her that sounded ridiculous and it was the truth.

Applebloom pawed at the dirt with a hoof trying to distract herself from the situation, normally she was the one bringing home strange creatures in numerous attempts to gain her cutie mark and Applejack always had something to say about it but now the roles were reversed she found her sister quiet. Applejack couldn’t find anything to say, thankfully though, she didn’t have to say anything.

“It is a pleasure to meet you Applebloom, daughter of Ambrosia and Arthur apple” Both snapped their focus onto the creature but remained in a stunned silence. Alex rose to his feet unaware of the impact of his words and walked over to Applebloom, extending a hand to greet her after replacing his weapon into its sheath.

“You, knew our parents?” Out of routine she placed a hoof in Alex’s massive hand to shake it, she had to quickly return to her side after nearly falling over without it, she could barely believe it. Applejack joined the two swiftly, very interested in what he had to say about her parents.

“In a way, we have records of all Ponyville residents and events dating back one-thousand, four-hundred and ninety-two years” At some point her mind wouldn’t be able to take all the strange things she was hearing not mention seeing, the sun was only past midway and already she had witnessed more than enough impossible things to satisfy her for a lifetime.

“We have detailed reports of your parent’s activities from their first meeting to your own conception, both of which may be of some interest to you” Applejack went stiff, hoping that Applebloom wasn’t about to have an early life lesson from a stranger.

“Ma what now?” Applejack blushed heavily and quickly placed herself in-between her sister and Alex, shooing him away with a couple nudges to his legs, she hadn’t gotten around to that conversation yet and she certainly didn’t want to have it now.

“I think it’d be best for you to go on inside Applebloom” Applebloom pouted in annoyance, she hated it when her sister told her what to do, she could make her own decisions.

“But Applejack I wanna hear the story” The stern, almost threatening glare from Applejack told her this would be one argument she was not going to win. Applejack pointed to the house down the hill with a strict hoof informing her of exactly where to go, she did not hesitate to walk away, grumbling as she went.

“Alright I’m goin, sheesh, I don’t know what all the fuss was about anyway” Mild mutters could be heard as she moved further and further away from them until they stopped reaching their ears. With Applebloom out of the equation she turned back to give another glare at Alex, though much like anything else he didn’t seem to understand the problem with what he was going to  say. 

She sighed and started to make her way to a new tree, knowing that trying to explain to Alex that talking about the activities of two ponies in the bedroom to a young fill was very inappropriate was likely a fruitless endeavour, she decided to spare herself the headache and return to work, there wasn’t much left to do anyway. Alex followed her again, placing fresh buckets under another tree.

Soon enough, her curiosity was eating her up inside, begging her to satisfy it ,and who would blame her? She had been presented with the opportunity to learn more about her parents, something she couldn’t resist. So, with one or two nervous glances, she breathed in to calm her nerves and tried to ask the nagging question.

“Were you speaking the truth when you said you had records or sumthin on my parents, cause I was just wonderin, you know if you do, then maybe...” The words eluded her, her anxious mood making it hard to find the right thing to say. She wanted to know but at the same time she didn’t, the fear of something awful being a part of her history was unwanted in her mind but never the less it was there.

“Ah forget it” She’d rather just finish work, go home, eat dinner and go to bed, besides she could always ask later if she really needed to.

But then as she continued to work with Alex barely glancing at her awkward mess of a question, she started to think. Even though it was highly likely that her parents ever did do anything, unsavoury, it would never change her opinion of them if they did, they were and always will be her parents and nothing could ever change that. 

She smiled as the memories of their time spent together pushed out any doubts she had. The times they played together in the light of Celestia’s sun or calm nights spent under Luna’s moon were a few of the many she treasured. The work passed by quickly as she reminisced and soon they had collected more than enough for the day. 

“We got what we need for today! Come on let’s get back to the house!” It may have been wiser to talk at a closer distance rather than stay by the full cart but Alex heard her and was already on his way over. With a flick of her head she gestured for Alex to go on without her for a moment as she cast a glance at two lonely rocks on a nearby hill and smiled. 

She galloped down the hill after Alex who had already made it halfway. They walked quietly with Alex pulling the cart and Applejack walking by his side, breaking the tranquil silence every so often to ask if he needed any help, to which he would reply that it was no problem every time.

Arriving back at the barn they had made numerous trips to over the course of three hours Alex wondered inside, cart in toe and emerged again a moment later having stored it with the day’s harvest. Then came the silence once more as both stood in the open area that sat between the house and the barn, she knew what she should say but was hesitant. If he were another pony she could easily ask him inside for dinner as thanks for the help, however that was wishful thinking and she knew it wouldn’t be right for her to leave him outside.

“I guess I should invite yah in, wouldn’t be nice of me if I didn’t after you did all that work” He shook his head, shooting down the idea.

“There is no need Miss” Of course her conscience wouldn’t allow her to leave at that.

“Hey, it’s not just a thank you for the hard work, you’re a friend now yah hear and I don’t leave friends all by themselves in the cold while I dig into a hot meal.” Maybe friend was a strong word to be putting out there so early but while strange she had to admit that she enjoyed his company over none at all. Alex couldn’t understand it, couldn’t understand why she wanted him inside the house or why she was calling him a friend, whatever that was.

“Miss, if you do not mind me asking, why are you concerned about me?” To her that sounded like a rhetorical question, she could tell from the continued staring that it was actually sincere. He could find no reason for her to care about his well being, she was not a guard and it was not her duty.

“Like I said I consider you a friend, besides, what kind a pony would I be if I didn’t look out for my partner” As the word left her lips she was presented with the first hint of emotion from her new friend, even if was just him tensing up.

“Partner?” Sometimes she wished her element wasn’t honesty, there were a number of things that had slipped by her lips in the past year thanks to her honest nature but she did mean it, she thought of him that way, even if they had only been together for a couple hours they had worked as an efficient team, they were partners if only for a little while.

"Yeah sure why not, heh, I’ll say it, I think we did some good work today partner” She felt something inside, a mild burning sensation in her chest made her quickly check over herself. She could feel something else too, not physical but definitely there. An orange glow from Alex’s direction distracted her from her own worries.Alex looked down at the crystal imbedded into his gauntlet, its glow was increasing by the second until eventually it released the built up energy in a bright flash becoming dim again soon after, the sensation in her chest also disappeared. Alex stared at the crystal, its new orange colour somehow important to him.

“What erm...What was that?” A strange calmness forced its way into her mind without want for it. Tranquillity achieved she stood back blinking a couple of times, wondering what exactly had happened.

“I’m not quite sure, I believe it means something good” The fact that was enough for her worried her slightly, though the worry was removed as fast as it had previously. She shrugged, turned around and began to cross the distance from the barn to the house, stopping just at the front door to notice that Alex had followed her the entire way. He stood some distance behind her, staring off at something in distant tree line.

“You coming or what” His gaze lingered on the tree line for a minute longer until he directed his attention back to Applejack, sprinting over to her to make up for his pause.

“What were you lookin at?” She nudged open the door and entered the house with Alex following behind her.

“Thought I saw something familiar, it’s nothing, don’t worry” Right then, she wasn’t sure if she could worry at all, that function had apparently been removed.

Thankfully, the house was large enough for Alex to stand up without having to arch his back in an uncomfortable way, he did have to crouch down when moving between rooms though. She led him into the kitchen where Granny smith and Applebloom were preparing dinner, well, mainly Granny smith as all Applebloom appeared to be doing was stoking the oven’s fire. Granny eyed Alex as he entered but didn’t say anything. 

Applejack joined her grandmother over by the boiling pot to have a smell of the delicious soup that was brewing; she loved her grandmother’s cooking hence why she preferred for her to make dinner rather than herself. Before she allowed the various aromas to push out any thoughts that weren’t related to food she remembered Alex. Another thing she had failed to ask was what he ate, something she would need to know if he was having dinner with them. 

“Hey Alex, what do you eat? If you got a favourite I’ll see what I can do” What she really wanted to know is if he did or did not enjoy meat, cause that may be a problem for a lot ponies.

“Anything is fine” She rolled her eyes at yet another bland response and went to went help Granny slide ingredients into the large pot.
It wasn’t long before she found herself sitting at a table with a warm meal steaming in front of her. Her Granny and Applebloom sat next to her, eating their food while quietly chatting about the day’s events, not mentioning anything about their guest who remained silent as he sat on the make shift chair. Having failed to realise that a chair meant for ponies would likely break under the strain of a High guard’s weight she had foolishly let him sit down on the regular chair and he had effectively annihilated the poor piece of furniture leading them to  create the makeshift stool that he currently sat upon.

It felt strangely natural to her like they didn’t actually have a giant bulking mass of armour and muscle sitting with them, staring at his food. As she took the odd scene in its entirety she smiled, perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad after all. Alex didn’t notice her new smile though; he was too busy looking out the window at something standing on the nearby hill. 

> Act 2 - Chapter 2: Rainbow's Tedium
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

With the window now open to allow some fresh air to reach her, she went about arranging various odds and ends that cluttered the work desk in the corner. It had been some time since she last seen her old bedroom which made the surprise of finding it the same way she left all the more, well, surprising. 

Having lost Celestia to her royal advisor soon after arriving from their hour long ride and with Dash currently occupied by a tour of the Castle somewhere with the High guard, she had been left alone, wondering around without much of a goal. So, as to not waste time she had decided to search for some of her old notes on basic magic, hoping that they may somehow prove useful in educating Dash in the magic arts. Sadly, finding said notes was proving rather difficult as they were lost among all of the other notes that she had accumulated over the years of study under Celestia. 

Nearly a thousand pieces of wrinkled paper lay strewn about the desk in large piles, they hadn’t started in this disorganised way of course, no; their current state was thanks to none other than the alicorn currently rummaging through them. She levitated each one by her face before placing them into a new stack on the floor, occasionally removing any relevant ones for later use. 

While it was a much more productive use of her time than just walking around the castle for the rest of the day, it was not in any way more fun. She giggled at some of the old scribbles, finding her own past naivety amusing which did make the repetitive task of shuffling through them slightly less dull, if only slightly.

There was another reason she was performing the mind numbingly boring task of sifting through a thousand hastily written notes or rather the real reason she had dedicated the afternoon to the task was that she had no clue as to where to start with the newly ascended alicorn. Alicorn’s normally would have already learned a great deal of magic by the time they were ascended, however, in Dash’s case the opposite was true. Without any prior knowledge of magic she was practically an accident waiting to happen and this was the root of her problem.

In order for Dash to not cause everything in a ten meter radius to explode she would need learn a number of important lessons in a short amount of time but which one to start with first was unclear. She could teach her how to stop herself from detonating inanimate objects only for her to start doing it to live ones. For her it had only taken a week to learn the basics of controlling one’s alicorn power but that was thanks to much of what she learned as a unicorn, trying to teach such complicated ideas to a novice level magic user was almost impossible.

She immediately dropped the large stack of papers back onto the desk, causing her to wince as it toppled every other stack like a set of dominos. An idea had formulated in her mind, she wasn’t going to start from the basics but from the beginning, as in the earliest spells she was taught and as long as she kept a watchful eye on Dash’s aura she could prevent her from accidently ripping Canterlot from its foundations, brilliant, eh at least it was something.

Realising that the sooner she started teaching the better, she lit up her horn, restacking the papers into six neat towers and galloped out the room closing the door behind her. Around the third long hallway she managed to slow herself down, knowing that sprinting to find her friend would look a tad strange for a princess to be doing, possibly even make some of the staff panic that disaster was on its way. She couldn’t stop herself from smiling though; the thought of spending time with a friend doing the one thing she loved most was new and exciting. 

Her plan was already running into its first hitch when she passed by the royal throne room, she had no idea where Dash was. By this point she could be in any number of Canterlot’s extravagant rooms, finding her by herself would be a challenge even for her, she needed help. Luckily a pair of guards stood vigilant not too far away, standing by the throne room’s door. They stood to attention as she approached them.

“Have either of you two seen Rainbow Dash?” They looked to each other and blinked, returning their gaze towards her shortly after. The younger of the two nervously shrank away under her questioning, the older stallion however, stepped forward to speak.

“Princess Rainbow Dash is being shown the castle’s facilities, I am sorry to say that we do not know her current location” This time the stallion was the one to shrink back from the displeased look on her face, she didn’t even notice his reaction right away. Once she did though, she tried her best to appear calm and pleased, remembering a lesson from Celestia about how much a guard feared a disappointed alicorn princess, or any royalty for that matter.

“That’s alright, thank you for your help” They nodded and returned to their positions. Not wishing to dawdle she started off again down the hallway with the hopes that at least one pony knew where her friend was.

A memory of a past nightmare started to creep its way forward in her mind, seeing the guard’s reaction had reminded of it. It was nightmare that she had been all too happy for Luna to remove. Not strictly dark or a detailed nightmare but it had had her shaken for the two days that followed.

In it, she would move from place to place, watching as every last pony she knew cowered before her, bowing to her title. Even her friends were not exempt from it, one or two even looked beaten and she knew why. She shook her head to dispel the horrid memory; she never wanted to be like that, ever. Thankfully a passing High guard got her mind back on track; she had a feeling that he would know where she was.

“Excuse me, hey err, High guard? Do you have a moment?” He stopped, turned around and nodded to her. Without allowing his impressive height to intimidate her she walked over to him, craning her neck upwards a little bit to look him in the eyes.

“Hi, I’m looking for Prin...Rainbow Dash, she’s on a tour of the castle and I need to find her, do you know where she is?” He extended a hand towards the direction he had come from, pointing a single finger out the same way.

“The tour finished some time ago, she is currently in the upper assembly hall, south side” Had she really spent that long in her room? No matter, she hadn’t time for idle dwelling if she was ever going to start teaching, she thanked the High guard and was quickly on her way to the aforementioned room.

Locating her had been a lot easier than she had thought; then again, she hadn’t gotten to hard part yet. Celestia had a thousand years of practice in the magic arts and all that time had aided in her ability to pass on that knowledge, she had all of about seven hours teaching experience and that was for just one spell. The enormity of the task was starting to overwhelm her again with a stray hair popping out from the rest of her brushed mane. To stave off the oncoming panic attack she tried to distract herself by considering what basic spell to start with.

Teleportation was fairly important, good for getting around not to mention that its usefulness in a number of bad situations, though, thinking about it Dash would most likely use it whenever she got bored in lessons or meetings and it was already hard enough catching her with her speed, adding the ability to teleport would make her almost untouchable. Perhaps restoration may prove a more useful one, especially after catching a glimpse of her medical bill last month, but that would just give her an excuse to take even bigger risks if she knows that she could just magic herself back to health.

She continued to consider what spell would be best, allowing her body to go on autopilot, letting her legs guide her to where she wanted to be. By the time she reached the excessively large doors of the hall she had decided upon what to teach first. Levitation, an essential for any aspiring to be a magic master and as a bonus it wasn’t anything she could accidently use to blow up Canterlot.

Oddly enough there were no guards to be seen, neither the royal ones nor the High guard variety. She sighed as she pressed her hooves against the large door but stopped before exhausting herself in an attempt to push them open. Her horn lit up as she focussed on the doors handles, creating a field that formed into a strong force that gripped onto the two handles. 





A sigh escaped the cyan pony’s lips, for what felt like forever she had been going through task after task with the high guard and it was borderline boring. Thinking about having to do that much work every day was daunting; she was starting to understand why Celestia didn’t visit more often. She had zoned him out around number twelve on the list, answering yes to every question so far. The entrance to the doors slowly opened snapping Dash out of her boredom induced trance.

“Oh hey Twilight, how’s it going?” She thanked Celestia that the lavender alicorn had showed up; she didn’t know how much longer she could go on sitting there answering questions.

“I was looking for you actually” The high guard glanced at her for a moment before continuing on with the list attached to the tightly gripped clipboard.

“Item number seventeen, selecting a number of High guards to act as your Imperial protectors ” Four High guards lined up in front of her, cutting Twilight off from her friend. Seventeen tasks ago she had been on a dull tour of the fancy Canterlot castle, home of Equestria’s rulers, for almost an hour, her motivation to do anything had been basically drained. At least she wasn’t worrying about her every action around Celestia, she was probably the one pony that acting her regular cocky self around was not a good idea, she could recognise that to aggravate the immortal Goddess of the sun would be the equivalent to poking a sleeping Ursa major, though she had been rather relaxed during her time with the six of them.

“And Xavier has three victories against dragon raiding parties” She really had to start paying attention if she was going to get anywhere.

“Yes, very good, I approve” Five words that she had repeated around thirteen times now, her wondering mind was definitely going to get her into deep trouble one day. The High guard next to her turned to the four below and held a hand out above them.

“Do you recognise and accept this duty, to be the last ones standing between Equestria and its enemies?” They raised the swords into the air keeping their heads aimed towards the ground and their shields to the side.

“We will take on this responsibility and fulfil our duty” All four spoke in unison, placing their weapons tip first onto the ground, surprising both alicorns when they remained upright in perfect balance, not wavering for even a second.

Taking his own sword from its sheath he held it above them, it illuminated itself in a bright light that spread to the others below him. Twilight had to squint her eyes as the four High guards started to glow, their armour lighting up in the same blinding light. Eventually it was too much forcing her to close her eyes as to not go blind by the light’s intensity.

After a few seconds it died down, making it possible for them to open their eyes again. The four High guards that had previously occupied the area in front of the platform had been replaced by four seven meter tall, staff brandishing giants. Twilight was at a loss for words, what few she did find only came out as confused gibberish. 

Dash in her usual excitable nature was veritably giddy, with eyes wide in amazement. She very well may have been less than half the size of their legs but it didn’t matter, their tough looking dark blue armour and impressive bulk drew her attention away from the fact they could accidently crush her if they tripped. 

“That’s, their, awesome!” Their metal staffs each had blades on either end as well as being coated with the same runic symbols that covered even more of their armour now. Shields donned either arm, leaving both hands free to handle the staff weapon that they carried. But the most important, most interesting addition to their armoured bodies was the wings.

“Xavier and Artemis guard the door” Those addressed bowed and turned to leave, acknowledging Twilight on the way out with a ‘Miss’, they closed the two doors behind them. With them gone the remaining improved High guards walked to either side of Dash, holding their staffs with one blade against the ground.

It took about a minute more for Twilight to recover from the sudden appearance of the giant creatures, once she did she moved over to Dash to sit facing her on the platform. Dash smiled at her gleefully, a smile that she didn’t quite return as Twilight’s was more forced due to their proximity to the super sized High guards that stood nearby.

“Item number eighteen; do you require any concubine’s? You can select them personally of course” Twilight’s attention, that had been previously on the oversized High guard near her, switched onto the smallest High guard painfully fast as a fiery blush pushed its way into her lavender cheeks, turning them a shade of dark pink. Judging by the puzzled look on Dash’s face, she had no idea what a concubine was, thankfully. Dash went to open her mouth to answer but Twilight beat her to it.

“No she most certainly does not!” The High guard along with Dash looked at the flustered alicorn, blush still refusing to disappear from her face. She directed her gaze elsewhere to avoid their stares as she started to cool down.

“Erm, what’s a concubine?” That mild blush that had been so close to leaving came rushing back, she quickly found herself wishing to be somewhere else. Dash raised an eyebrow but decided not to push the matter further; knowing that if Twilight was freaking out then it was something she didn’t want.

“I guess I don’t want any concubine’s then” She shrugged, stretching her wings out to wake them up, being cooped up inside for so long wasn’t her style, she needed fly. Twilight managed to rain in her raging blush and regain her composure.

“So what did you want to talk about Twi?” She thought for a moment, remembering the reason why she had been looking for Dash in the first place.

“Ah right, I was just thinking that we could start on your magic lessons, seeing as we have some free time, if you want” While learning wasn’t her ideal way of spending her free time it did seem a like a better idea than sitting around in the training hall with her wings cramping up and even though she wouldn’t admit it, it did seem fun.

“Yeah sure, I guess I could fit that into my busy schedule” Twilight rolled her eyes, she looked to the smaller High guard. She had a nagging feeling that they were going to want to tag along on their journey to the training Hall, which was confirmed when the pair went to move towards the exit and the High guards followed.

She stopped halfway to the door to spin around and talk to the smaller High guard, thinking it to be unwise to tell the seven meter tall ones to stay where they were. Really she was worried that if they were to seen by anypony then they may cause some questions to pop up, such as why seven meter tall giants are following a cyan coloured alicorn they never seen before.

“Maybe we shouldn’t bring all of you with us,  it’s just that err, it might cause some ponies to err, panic you know” The nervous feeling welling in her gut was making it hard to talk without stuttering, she could barely keep eye contact with the set of blue orbs that burned into her. If there were a time to test the extent of the High guard’s friendliness, this was it.

“Agreed, multiple Imperials may stir up panic among the civilians, Alison you will remain here, Thompson, you are on escort duty” Settling for one instead of two seemed to be the best she could do, so she started for the door again with the High guard, Imperial and Dash following behind her.

They walked for some time through the many extensive halls of the large castle chatting about whatever came to mind, occasionally suppressing laughter whenever one of the maids spotted the Imperial. He had to duck every time they moved between hallways, the doors never having quite enough height for him to fit through naturally, one time ending with part of the doorframe missing.

Eventually they reached the outside courtyard where one could find a number of restaurants, shops or any other place of business imaginable. There wasn’t much of rush going on, most walked at a leisurely pace, many could be seen enjoying lunch outside in the warm sunlight, though when the Imperial came into view many stopped to stare as they walked by.

Dash breathed in the delicious smell of pastries that floated in the air tempting her to indulge in their sugary delight. Every shop she passed made the temptation to eat even greater, her stomach rumbled in protest as they passed by yet another bakery.

“Are you feeling hungry Dash?” Having missed breakfast she had not eaten anything since yesterday, then growing hunger pains were informing that it was time to scoff the nearest thing that could count as food. She didn’t need to reply, her grumbling stomach did that for her.

“I’ll take that as a yes then” She chuckled at the sheepish look on her friends face. She stopped to check the closest store, looking for something they could eat. Admittedly she herself felt fairly hungry, being taken to Canterlot before lunch did mean she had missed the midday meal, leaving her stomach mainly empty save for the half of breakfast she did eat.

“Well, let’s get some food and we can take it to the training hall” Knowing where they were going now was good, food was better. She practically started drooling over all the delicious smells that filled the air. They started for the nearest stand but were quickly stopped by the High guard and the Imperial standing in their way.

“We shall acquire food for you both and be back momentarily” Before she could say a word they were off, walking towards a very nervous looking cashier. This left the two alone standing awkwardly in the middle of the street with watchers switching between staring at the two strange creatures trying to order food and them.

“How nice it is to see you two out here” It would have been more difficult not to recognise the voice but they spun around just same as if a stranger had spoken to them, in any case, Celestia stood behind them having somehow approached unnoticed, probably due to the excessive amount of noise made by the big metal boots of the Imperial.

“Princess!” Both bowed, though only Twilight realised that she didn’t have to, leaving Dash staring at the Goddess’s royal shoes for half a minute longer until a gentle nudge got her to stand up straight again.

“Sorry Princess, force of habit” As always the Goddess had a peaceful smile on her face that radiated warmth.

“Oh there’s no need for apologies Twilight, where are you off to anyway?” Somewhere in the back of her head an alarm went off as the worry that the Princess may not appreciate her starting lessons earlier than planned started acting up, it was quickly ignored as ridiculous.

“We were on our way to the training hall, I thought we could start lessons early” With the worry alarm still banging away at her barrier of calmness she waited anxiously to hear her former tutor’s opinion, it had always been like that.

“Ah the earlier the better, now, I did wish to talk to you about something privately, if neither of you have problem with that of course” Who would have a problem with the extremely powerful Goddess’s will? Certainly not them, that would be plain foolish.

“No not at all, Dash I’ll be with you in a minute” Dash held a look of disinterest, she wasn’t particularly bothered by the delay, the fresh air was nice, just being outside was already making her feel better.

“Take all the time you need, I’m just going to be over there” She pointed to a not so terribly interesting patch of pavement nearby and walked off towards it, looking rather bored as she went, kicking small pebbles that she found on the ground. Once she was out of earshot Twilight and Celestia faced each other like a pair of old friends.

“I haven’t much time to talk but I wanted to apologise for how I behaved at the hospital, it was inappropriate” The princess apologising? To her? Now that was most certainly not something that occurred often or ever really, it nearly caused her to snap similar to how she did in one of her less than proud moments, the catastrophic event so suitably titled, want it need it, after the very spell that she had used to nearly cause a real disaster; the only thing that stopped her was the Princesses company.

“I allowed my emotions to get the better of me and I’m sorry that I shocked you like that” She had always been regal and composed but at that moment, at the hospital, she couldn’t help it. Twilight was in the strange position of both understanding and not understanding; she understood that a prank was a bit inappropriate at the time and that’s what confused her, it was prank wasn’t it? So why was Celestia talking about emotions?

“I don’t understand, emotions Princess?” For a second she thought that she had said something wrong as the Princess bit her lip, looking around as if to see if anypony could hear them.  Twilight was not only a Princess but an alicorn, by one way or another she was going to have to hear it and she preferred it if it came from her. She stared at Rainbow dash momentarily before looking back to Twilight again.

“When Rainbow Dash was lying there in that bed, hurting, it reminded me of my...” She choked slightly; a thousand years did nothing to sooth the pain.

“Of my own daughter and seeing her like that brought back a lot of old memories, it overwhelmed me” Possibly it was the calming breeze or the fact that she was currently surrounded by a number of high standard royals, not to mention one of the co-rulers of Equestria, but somehow she managed to not have a mental break down at the idea that Celestia had a unheard of daughter and everything that entailed, though it did reduce her ability to think by a substantial amount, leaving her only able to ask one simple question.

“You have a daughter?” The puzzled expression brought back the same peaceful smile to the white alicorn's lips.

“Once, a long time ago, there were...problems, and I lost her” Out of respect she stared at the brick pavement below her hooves. Very little was known about the Princess’s history past nightmare moon and a scattering of other major events.While she did pride herself with knowledge that the Goddess felt that she could share such a sensitive matter with her, right now she had to be sympathetic.

“Oh, I’m sorry Princess I shouldn’t have asked” She still kept the same smile, though it was weakened slightly by the reminder that only a few would ever know about her daughter.

“It’s quite alright Twilight, you don’t have time to be feeling sorry for a pony long gone, you have a friend to teach after all” With a head gesture behind her she went to take her leave.

“Wait Princess, I actually wanted to ask you about something” Celestia ceased her departing and turned back around to face Twilight again, a raised eye brow questioning her.

“Oh and what is that?” 

“I just wanted to know why, why we are letting these creatures treat Dash like some kind of ruler?” Celestia hadn’t really considered them much since she saw them, she knew what they were doing,  she had seen it before.

“Honestly, I believe it would be a useful experience if Dash is to be a Princess” Even if Dash didn’t realise it yet, one day she would have ponies looking to her for answers and she would need al the experience she could get to be able to handle that.

“But they follow her around all the time now, what if they hurt somepony?” Celestia looked up to see the Imperial and the High guard walking towards Dash from apologising for a trampled table.

“I doubt they’ll do anything Dash doesn’t want them to, besides, do you wish to be the one telling them to stop?” It was a scary imagine, the massive Imperial towering over her while she kindly asked it to leave.

“I suppose they haven’t really done anything yet”

“Don’t worry Twilight, trust me, everything will be fine, Now I really must be going before my council starts to panic” With that she left, leaving Twilight to return to the trio that was stood nearby drawing in the attention of everypony that walked by.

Dash, surprisingly, was laughing about something while the High guard and the Imperial stood next to her. The Imperial held a paper bag containing what she could only guess was lunch; silently she pondered how they had paid for it, hoping that it hadn’t been through the same persuasion that had been used on the assistant back at the hospital.

“You ready to go” Unable to speak through her heavy breaths she nodded and followed Twilight’s lead while wiping tears from the corners of her eyes.Their little group continued onwards towards the training hall where she could finally get on with what she had set out to do half an hour ago. She knew exactly how to begin, she still remembered her very first lesson her former teacher. 

As they turned the next corner into the gardens they caught sight of a royal guard bickering with another earth pony by a couple of odd looking statues that didn’t quite fit with the rest of the garden’s pieces. Three were of giant odd looking creatures that held resemblance to Ursa major’s, the rest were small pony shaped statues though they too weren’t quite right.

“I have the order right here, Princess Celestia signed it herself!” The stallion’s angry scowl showed the loss of patience, they must have been arguing for some time.

“Wait what? No, the order was from Princess Luna and it was not for whatever these things are!” They paid them little attention as they passed by, too enthralled in their argument to even glance at them. The guard scanned over the papers he had been given,  moving them closer to his face every so often.

“This can’t be right” Soon enough they dropped out of earshot and not long after out of sight completely. Twilight ignored the idea of inquiring as to the problem knowing that if they were going to get anywhere today they would have to start soon, it was already midday.
It only took a few more minutes of walking before they reached the tower that contained their destination. The Imperial jaunted forward to hold open the tower’s large wooden doors for them. In contrast to the castle hallways here were not decorated in royal gold or white.

Each wall was adorned with a number pictures all being of great sorcerers or sorceresses along with one their signature spells, all of which were unrecognisable to Dash though she had a feeling the giddy  alicorn next to her could name them off by heart. The windows detailed a number of, at a guess, important developments in the history of magic giving the whole place a strange feeling of power.

Twilight broke away from the rest of them, walking just fast enough to keep ahead and lead way towards her old training grounds. The doors creaked open in their age but she didn’t care, seeing the old place once more brought a smile to her face and warmth to her heart. A number of guards stood around the edges of the room, prepared to deal with any magical mishap that could occur. A massive table laid up against a wall was the most noticeable aspect except for the window panes of the two Celestial sisters.

Twilight was very excited, it was her first time really teaching, her usual crippling nervousness had been pushed to the back of her mind. She turned to Dash who sat down next to her giving casual glances around the room while the High guard and the imperial stood by the door, making the closest royal guard cautiously take a few steps away from them.

“Are you ready to start learning the wonders of magic Dash?” While it may have been the same cheesy line she had heard from the teacher at the beginning of magic kindergarten it did still hold meaning, in any case, she was brimming with excitement, the thought of having another magic user like herself gave way to many possibilities, even if it would take some time to catch Dash up on a life’s experience on the subject.

“I’d thought we could start with Levitation” She smiled excitedly at Dash, however her excitement was not mirrored. She quirked an eyebrow trying to pronounce the word, failing numerous times.

“Is that that thing you do when you float stuff around?” She giggled at the very basic description.

“It’s the ability to manipulate any object using only magic to do so” She closed her eyes, breathed deeply and concentrated on a number of objects behind her. They became engulfed by a purple aura that lifted them off the ground towards the lavender pony controlling them. She placed the assembled clutter in front of her before dispelling the magic.

“We’re starting with the basic magic for now, so you won’t be doing spells like turning things to stone quite yet, it’s fairly easy, first, you need to close your eyes and reach deep within yourself” Dash did as she was told, closing her eyes and concentrating hard. After a minute or so of concentrating without finding anything, she was starting to lose her confidence.

“Err Twilight? Nothing’s happening” Twilight put a hoof to her chin, trying to remember back to how she had been taught it.
“I want you to imagine a pool” Dash cracked an eyelid open to question the strange request but shut again, not ready to waste energy protesting.

“Imagine putting your hooves into the pool and spreading it to these weights here” She tried as best she could to imagine it, the calm tranquil waters of the pool mirrored the nothingness that was around it,, the waters had blue hue to them. She moved close to it, dipping her hooves into the pool of the glowing blue liquid and felt as it touched her fur, it tickled.

She moved onto to concentrating on the objects, allowing the strange liquid substance to run up her legs towards her horn. For a second nothing happened but then, a small flicker of a magic around appeared around the weights, encompassing them in it's grip. It was still quite ethereal and weak but it was definitely there.

Twilight held her breath expectantly, leaning in close to inspect the weights as the aura began to increase in intensity. It continued to grow until Dash felt a sudden shift in her imaginary pool. The waters started to swirl around her hooves and in one quick sudden up burst it threw her away from it, calming again after the removal of the intruder.

Back in the real world the aura that had managed to lift the objects off the floor by an inch fizzled away into nothing, allowing the objects to fall back down to the ground. Needless to say Dash was disappointed as well as confused as to why her own pool had rejected her. The disappointment was clear on her face.

“Don't worry that was good, it takes time to start okay? Just try again” And so she did, again and again and again, each time lifting the objects the same height only for them to clang noisily against the floor soon after they had left it.

“Hmm, this might take longer than I had thought” Dash couldn’t hear her, already trying again, refusing to be beaten.

> Act 2 - Chapter 3: One Saved, The Other Grateful
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

No matter how loud she hummed the old tune she couldn’t distract herself from her large houseguest, the one that was currently stood behind her staring at the back of her head. It would have been clear to any other pony that she was distressed by his presence, it had been an hour and she’d only finished three dresses, that was just not good enough, for her at least.

Another thing that was bugging her was the High guard’s choice in clothing; she could safely say that heavy metal armour was most definitely not ‘in’ right now. A brave thought had come to her mind earlier, though when she truly considered it, adding sequins and ribbons to improve his look would be something that he would probably not appreciate.

Glancing backwards for a moment to ensure that he was not doing anything suspicious she concentrated as hard as she could on the dress that she was so carefully constructing. Even if he hadn’t moved from the same spot since they had arrived she still didn’t trust him, or any of the High guard, they had not made the best first impression when they defaced the front of the library or threatened Pinkie Pie and since the whole dramatic incident nothing she had seen had given her any reason to trust them, hence the reason why she was using the desk closest to the exit.

Her horn lit up as she reached out with her magic for another gem to add to her new creation, only to find a lack of the precious stones on the desk, there was no reason to panic though, she had a box full of the shinning beauties nearby. Her calm composure lasted all of about five seconds once she found the box to only contain a few minuscule shards, not even enough to make one small gem.

“Of all the worst things that could happen, this is the, worst, possible, thing!” She stopped herself from pulling out the drama couch, suddenly remembering her current company, who now had his sword ready for a fight, frantically looking around for some unseen threat. Eventually he gave up scanning around the room for the non-existent enemy.

“What’s wrong Miss?” Annoyed at the lack of gems to be found as well as knowing that she would have to trudge around in the gem fields to find more, she sighed heavily, throwing the almost empty box across the room to rest in a corner, at least that was she had intended to do. What actually followed was a number of objects being knocked off one her shelves from the misaimed toss, including a number of rocks from a failed design idea.

“I’m completely out of gems and these dresses have to be finished soon” She frowned just thinking of how long it was going to take to get the dirt out of her fur. 

“Can you not simply create more, Miss?” She scoffed at the ridiculous notion, knowledge of the creation spells was reserved for only the most powerful of unicorns, a pony would need to train their entire life to just use one of them and there were only three who ever managed to cast those spells successfully.

“Sadly, I can’t perform such an advanced spell” The High guard didn’t seem to pick up on the underlining snarky tone of her words; she was fairly tired of the whole situation.

“I’ll have to go digging around in the, dirt, if I’m going to get these finished on time” She groaned, frustrated, with everything that had happened she was finding it difficult to not just go to bed and continue tomorrow. It had taken a lot from her, the surprise, frustration and confusion of Rainbow Dash’s visit that morning coupled with the almost thunderstorm at the library had left her drained of energy and it was becoming increasingly difficult to find the effort to go on.

Somehow, either because of being too enthralled with her own thoughts or by a cartload of luck, the High guard had managed to move right beside her without making a sound, she only noticed him when he reached down to grasp one of the rocks on the floor. Her heart nearly skipped a beat when she realised the sudden lack of personal space.

Frozen in shock from the heart stopping surprise she watched as he took the stone in his hands, a green glow emanated from inside his closed fingers while he moved his around the rock, affecting it in some way. A few seconds went by before the glow ceased and he opened his hands to reveal his creation to her, holding it in front of her face.

“Y-you, you can, you can, can, you can make gems!” It was the one thing on her mind, smothering everything else in a wave of excitement; if she could convince him to help her he could double her work production.

“I apologize for my naivety, I did not realise that you had not completed your engineer training yet” Whatever he may have said went unheard, she was mesmerised by the newly formed sapphire, it’s perfectly cut edges holding her attention completely.

“I hope it is good enough for your purposes” For moment she didn’t understand why he was still showing off the gem, until she realised that he had not made it for show but for her.

"Oh, Thank you, it’s beautiful” It truly was, she inspected it closer as she carried it through the air over to the nearest desk. Each edge was smoothed with a magnificent shimmer whenever the light caught it, it’s symmetrical shape was perfect for jewellery making.

She bit her bottom lip, internally debating whether or not to ask the one question that would make things a lot easier for her. On the one hoof it would be rather selfish for her to ask him to work for no sort of payment, she doubted that bits would interest him, but on the other hoof it didn’t seem to be that big of an effort, and it would mean that she wouldn’t have to spend hours washing dirt out of her coat every month on her trips to the gem fields.

“If it wouldn’t be too much to ask, could you possibly make more? If isn’t an inconvenience” When she turned back to speak properly with the High guard, she was surprised to find all of the dislodged objects back in their respective places.

“Of course, I’m ordered to do whatever you say, unless it contradicts other orders” She didn’t know what other orders he had but the idea of having a personal helper around did sound useful to her, spike was good but she didn’t enjoy having him working himself to death just to please her, the High guard, she imagined, could do the same without breaking a sweat. She levitated a box of assorted rocks over to him from the shelf along with the other empty one that she had so carelessly threw away.

The High guard began to sort through the rocks, quickly turning each one of them into a shining gemstone before placing them into the empty box. Rarity went to work as well, taking the ones she needed from the growing pile he was creating and applying them to the current dress.

Fifteen minutes into the work inspiration struck her and she began to frantically create, cutting and sewing pieces together like a madmare. Ribbons, gems, sequins and string flew through the air around her, her usual swift pace returning to her. Having regained her usual speed she quickly finished several dresses within an hour and another two fifteen minutes after that. With his help she could create any type of gem she wanted; it was a good partnership even if it was only for dress making. She would have continued on for another hour if it hadn’t had been for a bright white flash going off behind her, causing her to spin around to check on the High guard but when she looked she didn’t quite know what to say.

New red lines had been added over areas like the arms and legs, the shoulder plates had changed as well, gaining more bulk than before with added detail. His helmet had a number of new symbols covering large parts of it. Images of valiant white knights started to pop up in her mind, ready to protect the innocent from evil and save damsels from monsters, until she remembered who she was looking at.

"What happened?” He looked himself over checking out the new additions to his armour, Once he was finished he looked to the ground solemnly.

“I’ve been promoted” His tone was low, grave even, which only served to confuse her as to why a promotion would make somepony sad, she had a feeling that there something more to it than what she knew.

“Is it not a good thing?” He knew he shouldn’t be angry at her, she didn’t know, how could she?

“New positions are no longer created, if I’ve been promoted it means one of my brother’s has fallen, and I must take their place” Silence followed, neither had much to talk about after that. The High guard returned to the work and not knowing what else to say, so did she.  
She tried to get back into her speedy mindset, though she found it difficult, her thoughts kept returning to the High guard, she didn’t feel right. Her friends would be there in an instant when she needed them, she would always have them to comfort her in times of need, but what did the High guard have now? A pony that didn’t trust him and a pile of rocks, she couldn’t imagine being alone at a time like that.
It began to eat away at her as they continued to work, she had to do something or else she going to feel bad for days to come. Then, an idea came to mind, it wouldn’t do much to make up for the loss but at least it was something. She busied herself with a number of the fine gems, shaping them into the design she had in mind. After some tinkering and a couple remakes later, she had her gift.	 

“Here, I know it isn’t much but” He stared at the expertly crafted badge, its blue and white gems shinning in the afternoon light. Behind her smile she was admittedly nervous, she was starting to reconsider trying to cheer him up after losing a brother with a trinket, she hadn’t had that much experience with loss, it wasn’t made any easier by the fact that he could be mourning and still look scary. He opened his palm for the gemstone badge and she carefully placed it into his hand.

“I do not understand Miss, why do wish for me to have this?” His voice had changed back to its usual, stern tone.

“It’s a gift, you could wear it on your, magnificent armour” It wasn’t her kind of beauty but she supposed somepony would think it looked good, besides, it wasn’t about her, it was about him.

“I don’t recognise the configuration, what does it do Miss?” Apart from look pretty she couldn’t really say it did anything special, she didn’t know how to enchant items, though she was curious as to why he assumed she could do it.

“What do you mean?”  He pointed to one of fluttershy’s dresses that she had been fixing after an incident with a bear and a certain bunny in which Fluttershy had ended up inbetween the two of them.

“That layout appears to be for protection from animals” That would explain how she hadn’t gotten a scratch from the fight but she had no idea about configurations or layouts or whatever he was talking about, she just made high quality dresses, though she would never say that to another pony, that would be pretentious. 

"It is?” She watched as he walked over to the dress, touching a hand to one of the many gems that decorated it. After a second the dress lit up along it’s decorative lines, gems and seams, illuminating itself in a green glow that would look spectacular on the shy Pegasus, it stopped when he removed his had from the dress.

“I had no idea they could produce such a magnificent glow” All this time and she hadn’t known that the gems she put into every single dress actually could do something; she allowed her mind to fantasy over all the spectacular clothing that could be made with glowing gems.

Her thoughts quickly moved away from all the designs she could make when she remembered that the dresses needed to be fixed by tomorrow and she was all out of the correct sewing string, she would have to go buy some more. 

While the High guard attached the badge onto his chest plate she levitated her saddlebags onto her back, making sure that they were securely in place. In her rush earlier she had forgotten to attach them properly, which ended a rather nasty incident where the entire contents of her bags had been spilled across the ground. Remembering the embarrassing moment that morning only reminded her of how forgetful she had been when she passed by the very stall that had what she needed without so much as a passing glance.

She paused when she got to the front door, it was unlikely that the High guard was going to not want to follow her. Perhaps they could just make one quick journey to town, if they acted calm they could probably avoid attention of the entire town, she liked the idea, she really didn’t feel like dodging between the back alleys to stay hidden again and it couldn’t be that bad if they were seen, could it?

“Hey, oh wait, I don’t know your name?” That would have been a good question to ask when they had first arrived instead of if enjoyed sewing, she couldn’t be too hard on herself though it was where she started with most strangers.

“Dhelweard, Dale if it easier” An odd name if she ever heard one but it was no reason to say anything.

“I’m going to go get some more sewing thread for dresses, are you coming Dale?” There was no need to question it, she already knew what the answer would be which was good for her, she didn’t wish to let him out of her sight; earning her trust was not an easy task.

He nodded and they were out the door, strolling towards the Ponyville market. Unsurprisingly they drew quite the bit of attention as they walked side by side, turning heads like she had dyed herself pink or something as odd, though there were a higher number of ponies around than she had hoped. Thankfully the market wasn’t too far from her house.

Dale followed her as she moved past the first stands, already knowing which one had what she needed. It wasn’t a very impressive stand, the wood old and the sign had lost its colour over the years of its use. Cottonbud’s fashion materials, read the sign. Being one of the oldest stands there, Cottonbud’s small business was very well known by all of the fashion designers of Ponyville, as was its infamous owner.

If it were possible she would avoid buying there, sometimes however, it was the only place that had what she needed and today was one of those times. Cottonbud wasn’t a bad pony per say, he was just very difficult when it came to business, often raising prices at random when the demand was higher. She stopped before moving into the stallion’s line of sight, with a hushed voice she politely asked for the High guard to wait there, she did not want to make it any harder for her to get what she needed. 

Cottonbud didn’t say anything when she approached, he just held the same stern scowl that he always wore, sometimes she would wonder if he was so mean because of some pony’s snickering at the mention of his name, though she wouldn’t think about it for long.

“Could I please purchase these colours of sewing thread?” A written list found its way in front of the stallion, along with a number of bits that would cover the cost. He scanned over the list before looking to the small gathering of bits, then finally back to Rarity.

“That’ll cost yah fifteen bits, you’ve only given me ten” Repressing a sigh she prepared herself for a lengthy argument, practically every time she bought from him his prices always seemed to jump up whenever she drew near.

“It was only ten bits last time” Though it was mainly a fruitless effort she wasn’t going to give up five extra bits without a fight.

“Yeah well, now it’s fifteen, there’s a high demand for these goods right now and I got many left” The stand was not large enough to conceal the large quantities of materials that sat not too far behind him, including what she needed. 

"That is ridiculous! I can clearly see that you’ve got more than double what I need” Early on she realised that some ponies had a tendency to charge more than usual whenever she was in the market, it was the curse of financial success she supposed.

“If yah don’t like ma prices yah can buy from somewhere else then, I’m sure you’ll find what yah need at another store” Her face contorted into a angry glare along with dissapointned frown, there was nowhere else she could get what she needed and he knew that. The victorious smile upon his face disappeared at the sound of two large stomping feet moving closer.

“Is this one troubling you Miss?” She smirked as he wilted under the intense gaze of the High guard looming over him and his stand.

“No! Err, there’s no problem, I j-just remembered, there’s a sale on, and err, everything’s half price” It was amusing to see the usually cocky businesspony shake and stumble around behind the counter, gathering everything she had asked for quickly. The High guard reached behind himself, getting dangerously close to the handle of his sheathed sword. At that point Cottonbud froze before snapping his attention back to Rarity, having gathered together everything on the list in front of him.

“On second thought, it’s on the house, like yah said I got plenty anyway, just take ‘em” She did, placing them into her saddle bags along with most of the bits, leaving at least five for Cottonbud, it was funny to see his sudden generosity but she didn’t wish to take them without at least some payment, that would be stealing even if he did say was okay. Dale didn’t understand the stallions’ reaction, he had only been tightening his sheath’s joining attachments.

When they turned away from Cottonbud Sweetie Bell came into sight, accompanied by Scootaloo. They waved and she did in turn as well, they didn’t seem to notice or mind that Dale was stood next to her at all. Sweetie Bell started towards them while Scootaloo sat were she was staring up at the clouds.

“Hi sis, I needed ask you something from Pinkie Pie” She began to cross road that separated them when a cart came barrelling over the far off hill with a brown stallion coming up behind it, failing to keep  up with it.

“Watch out! Run away cart!” He shouted after it as he ran. Sweetie Bell caught sight of it and froze stiff in its path, too afraid to move out its way, she could only stand there with her eyes wide in terror. The cart was fully loaded with bricks, a much larger than usual one.

“Oh my Celestia, Sweetie Bell move!”  Rarity went to sprint forward but was almost knocked off balance by a gust of wind generated by the sprinting High guard. Dale positioned himself in front of the cart’s path with his shield forward, ready to take it head on, he wasn’t about to let it move past him. The car smashed into him with great force but he didn’t budge, his legs locked in place as he took the brunt of the impact. 

Everypony looked on in amazement as Dale removed his shield from the cart’s wooden frame, he brushed off the splintered wood that had separated from the cart on impacted and pushed his shield arm back into its natural position with a crack. Rarity ran over to her sister to embrace her in a tight hug.

“Sis, it’s okay I’m fine! Please stop, you’re crushing me!” Unable to help it she continued to hild her sister, she was overjoyed that she hadn’t been hurt, though she eventually let go due to the bear hug pushing most of the air out of her sisters lungs, she gasped once she released her.

“I’m so glad you’re alright, thank you so much Dale” He nodded to them, quickly looking away from the pair to find that there were many eyes currently watching them, or more specifically, him. The stallion that had been chasing after the runaway cart finally managed to reach them, though he was panting heavily from the exertion.

“So...Sorry about that, it, got away, from me” He spoke inbetween breathes which made it slightly harder to understand him but the only thing Rarity really cared about was that her sister was safe, shouting at those to blame could come later. Dale reached underneath the carts main harness and dislodged something strange.

“This harness is damaged, I recommend repairing to avoid future accidents such as this one” The stallion nodded without saying a word. One of the mare’s from the crowd walked up to Rarity, eyeing Dale as she closed in.

“Rarity, is he with you?” Suddenly going through the centre of town seemed like a bad idea with all the attention they were drawing in, she had to make something up, something that wouldn’t give away the fact that he was some creature from a species nopony had seen before and had only appeared when Dash had become an alicorn, she was fairly sure that the Princess wished to keep that quiet for now.

“Yes, he’s err...My personal, body guard, the princess wished to give me a guard to keep me, err, safe when I’m not with her ” Not entirely a complete lie, he was sent by a Princess just not the one they were likely thinking of.

“Wow Rarity, I didn’t realise you were so close with the princess” If the golden mane was anything to go by she believed she was talking to Gold Dust, one of the few upper class ponies residing in Ponyville, who was well known for her connections in Canterlot.

“Oh yes, I speak with her often” The crowd was starting to grow and she knew they would have to get out of there soon, lest somepony start asking too many questions. She needed an excuse to leave.

“In fact I’m on my way to Sugercube corner right now for her and we really must be going, come along now Dale” Dale’s gaze lingered on one of the rooftops for moment before he nodded to her. With a growing urgency to leave soon she swiftly walked away from the crowd with Dale following closely behind her. They were almost out of the crowd’s circle when Sweetie Bell galloped up to Dale and hugged his leg with her forelegs.

“Thank you Dale” She smiled up at him, which surprised him, seeing such a young filly not afraid was a first.

“You are most welcome” She let go and He sprinted away to catch up with Rarity who hadn’t stopped moving away from the crowd.
Her mind turned to Dale once more during their walk, considering what he had done; she found it hard not to trust him at this point. In the little amount of time he had been around he had already done so much for her, maybe she could trust him after all, maybe even become friends. She shook her head at the last thought, it would just be weird, it wouldn’t work out, then again, Fluttershy was friends with the lord of chaos so perhaps it wasn’t entirely impossible.

A mild burning sensation fluttered into her chest, causing her to shiver as her chest tingle, she was worried by the strange feeling but was distracted from it by a white glow next to her. They continued to walk forwards, both watching the white glow emanating from the crystal on his gauntlet change it from a dull grey to a brilliant white before it died down, similar to how the feeling in her chest did.
She didn’t have time to question as she soon reached the door of the party pony’s workplace; she guessed it was where she would be right about now. She tapped on the door with a hoof, finding it to be unlocked she ventured forward into the bakery.

“Oh hey Rarity how are you doing? I needed to see you because I wanted you to try out some of these delicious cupcakes I made with my new awesome friend over there his name is Tazeral but I just call him Taze and I bet you’re gonna think they’re really tasty” Inside the bakery it was nothing short of an utter mess, the floor, walls and somehow ceiling was splattered with some kind of cake mixture as well as a number of other things such as sprinkles.

“I am mixing cupcake batter” Seeing the state of the Bakery wasn’t exactly shocking, seeing a High guard wearing a chief hat and an apron over his armour was. Taze held a bowl of the sugar filled batter in one hand and a wooden spoon in the other, slowly mixing the ingredients around while Pinkie rapidly dumped ingredient after ingredient into her bowl, stirring them at what could only be described as Pinkie speed.

“Hey watch this!” Pinkie picked up the four trays of cupcakes on the counter and threw them into the air over Taze. Immediately he dropped the bowl onto the desk to catch the falling trays, he grabbed three with his hands and balanced the fourth on his leg with great balance.

“Tada!” Pinkie grinned happily, Rarity smiled at the spectacle, seeing Taze making Pinkie so happy settled her indecisive mind, she would trust them for now, as long as they didn’t do anything bad then she didn’t care. Dale looked to her, confused by his brother’s actions. Even with his helmet on she knew what he was wondering.

“She has that kind of effect on you” She couldn’t stop herself from smiling once she considered how much there was to be happy about.

Taze suddenly and randomly seized up, going stiff, thankfully after the trays had been placed on the counter again. His eyes shone in a dark blue light that pierced through the helmet so that all present could see their bright glow. He looked around for a moment, checking where he was for some unknown reason. Rarity was confused again, left wondering why Taze was staring at his hands as if it were the first time he had seen them. To her surprise his head jerked forward to stare at her with his two soul piercing eyes.

“Guess who Marshmallow” Only one pony in all of Equestria would ever call her that.

“Rainbow Dash?”

> Act 2 - Chapter 3: Terrific Power
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Grunts of effort was the only noise coming out Dash’s mouth at this point, no longer able to form coherent replies from all the concentration she was expending on trying for the fortieth time that hour to lift the small objects from where they sat. They still refused to budge more than a few centimetres in any direction before her magic would give out. Her head was starting to hurt from the constant stress she had been putting on her mind but she still refused to give in, though giving up was starting to seem more and more like a good idea.

Probably the worst thing was that in the last hour she had been practicing she still could only manage about as much as she could when she started, her impatience was reaching dangerous levels, the last time she had been so frustrated was when she ended up visiting the hospital for nearly dislocating her jaw trying to open the harmony box, it seemed like a much better idea at the time and Twilight hadn’t made any progress, though in hind sight she really shouldn’t have tried her tongue afterwards, that had been a fairly embarrassing afternoon all in all.

Once more she tried, getting the exact same result as every other failed attempt. One of the royal guards had dozed off at some point, apparently aware that there wasn’t going to be a disaster any time soon, not at the rate she was progressing.  Her hurt pride did nothing to deter her from going on, it in fact only served to push herself further, prove that she could be focussed and  use magic before she passed out in the corner from a brain haemorrhage or something, that’s where she felt like she was going anyway.

“You’ve just got to focus Dash, remember to feel it flow through you, you can do this” The words of encouragement had served to boost her moral before but after hearing those same words for the third time she was starting to lose face. 

So in one last valiant attempt she breathed in deeply, in and out, closing her eyes for maximum focus she reached deep within herself, pushing her hooves as hard as she could into the imaginary waters. A blue aura surrounded the trio objects in front of her, like every other time the waters began to swirl around her submerged hooves signalling the imminent up burst that would no doubt push her away, this time she wasn’t going to let it.

With all her mental might she pushed down against the waters, the previous tickles they induced morphed into a powerful buzz that made her limbs feel numb; her head feel light and her stomach turn upside down. Outside her mind the field that held the objects grew stronger becoming more established with each passing second. Slowly but surely the assorted clutter began to rise off the ground again and this time at a much faster rate, climbing higher than they had previously. They quickly rose past her head upwards towards the ceiling.

“That’s it, you’ve got it!” As the trio of items climbed higher Twilight’s smile widened, the sudden not to mention amazing amount of progress had her excited. 

Oddly enough the raging waters calmed back to a still surface only broken by her small movements. Thinking herself victorious she let her guard down and allowed herself to celebrate her triumph over it. Sadly, it had been a trick and the pool swatted her away so hard her eyes snapped back open , in turn the glow that had held the three weights aloft disappeared and they came nosily crashing down to the floor, although somehow not loud enough to wake the still sleeping guard. What followed could be described as a low toned sigh that rapidly changed into a drawn out wail.

“It’s alright Dash you did very well, you just need to try again” Around ten minutes in, her bank of encouraging words had ran out and repeating ‘try again’ had become her one and only answer, which made the frustrated glare being directed her way understandable.

“I have been trying, for an hour now, that’s all I’ve been doing and I’m starting to think that I might not be cut out for magic!” While she was unlikely to just give up on it all together, she had become tired of the constant failure that met her at her every attempt, normally success came quickly to her.

“Don’t give up now, you’re so close” Another sigh escaped her lips, magic really wasn’t her thing but the encouraging smile from Twilight did help somewhat, she would try again and then when that didn’t work she would eat lunch and go find the fluffiest cloud she could to brood over the failure.

Closing her eyes she found herself standing beside the pool, its calm stillness mocking her. If this was going to be the last attempt for the day then she was going to try it her way, the Rainbow Dash way.

She flapped her wings down sending her high above the malevolent pool, into the void that surrounded them. Closing her wings she dive bombed straight into the waters splashing the glowing substance over the rim of the water body. 

Outside the imaginary realm the trio of objects floated just above the two alicorns, remaining perfectly suspended in mid air. Twilight didn’t say a word, the last time she aired her joy it had only served to distract Dash, so she remained silent. After a couple of seconds it was evident that the three weights were not moving from their new positions.

Something was wrong, she could feel the same familiar buzz that came before but it was still growing into a greater feeling, the power, the energy that coursed through her was mind numbing, too real to be imaginary. The world around her seemed to fade away into nothing; all that remained was the power.

Worrying signs began to crop up, for one the magic surrounding the weights was exchanged for a dark blood red; another one was a similar change in the aura surrounding Dash. There was no fiery anger like last time but the same pulsating red energy was present, any magic user could tell that something bad was about to happen.

Everything blurred for Dash, no thoughts remained except for the need to release energy, to flex her magical limb. The need to do so couldn’t be ignored, it caused a maddening itch that she so desperately wished would go away, it began tear away at her mind, removing all that was Rainbow Dash from thought. In her occupied state she barely notice the energy spread outward from her, brushing up against a lot more than just the weights.

Around the room training equipment of varying sizes and weights became ensnared by the same aura Dash was giving off. Twilight was stunned into silence; the gripped equipment was lifted from the ground to float around in the air. Soon even the massive table couldn’t resist the pull of the out of control magic; it floated into the air to join the others, instilling fear within some of the royal guards that stood nearby it. Twilight knew she had to act now or else somepony was going to get hurt.

“Dash you can stop now, you’ve done it okay, Dash? Dash!”  No response.

A voice called to her in the warm embrace of pure magic, a familiar voice that called her name, she couldn’t quite remember who it was.

“Dash you have to stop” In an instant her eyes snapped open revealing two, pupil less, blood red eyes with a thin red mist evaporating 
from their corners. 

“Please Dash you have to stop, I need you to stop” Dash, if it was even Dash, looked around the room, glancing between the many objects in her magical grip, smiling at her own power. She looked back to twilight with a devilish grin on her features and closed her eyes again.

The energy, aura, and glowing red eyes disappeared abruptly when she opened her eyes again. Twilight relaxed only to tense up again, suddenly remembering that the objects that had been suspended in the air were no longer being held up by Dash, or anything else. It all came crashing back down in a moment with the table falling to the ground in an ungraceful explosion of splinters, creating a crater in the mahogany floor.

“Oops, I might’ve overdone it, just a bit” While the damage to the hall was extensive she still managed to smile at the sheepish alicorn examining the havoc she had wrought upon the old wooden floor. 

“I think you might have tried a little too hard” Choosing to push the horrifying image of Dash’s red aura, the need to scold Dash for the damage and the question of what Celestia was going to say about the wrecked training hall, all to the back of her mind, she focussed on what had been achieved.

“So what was that about you not being cut out for magic? Because I think the ruined floor may wish to disagree with you on that one” One eye switched for second when she noticed the guard that had been asleep, still asleep, at least she hoped he was asleep, in her mind the only way he could’ve slept through all that racket would be if he were in a coma, or Spike, the only time he woke up was when he wanted to.

“I guess I’m even more awesome than I thought” A grin cut across her cheeks and the unimpressed stare from Twilight did nothing to diminish it.

“So what’s next?” While it had taken an hour and she was far from mastering the spell they had already gotten as far as she had intended for her to go, leaving her not many choices for their next activity, save for one.

“Well, I think that’s enough for today, how about some food?” Disappointment removed her cocky grin, though she could not argue with her growling stomach, especially when it was making more noise than the stomping boots of an Imperial.

“Sounds good” Two hay burgers along with hay fries made their way over to them from their spot against the wall; they separated so that one of each sat in front of the two. Without hesitation Dash dug in getting only half the food into her mouth with the over half around her lips. Twilight giggled at the sorry sight.

“What?” Shaking her head she took a bite out of her own sandwich, smearing some of its sauce on her own face, she wasn’t much of a refined eater herself though some of that came from her tutor, not many ponies knew about that side of the Princess, she barely knew about it herself.

The food disappeared quickly, their hunger making it hard to pace themselves. Once the mix of tomato sauce and grease was wiped off of her face she did a quick scan of the room before sighing.

“What’s wrong?” She could tell by lack of enthusiasm that something was missing.

“I just wish the others were here, cause err, you know, what’s the point of showing off how great I am if nopony’s around to see it?” It was strange for Twilight to see her like this, awkward and avoiding eye contact like a love struck teenager, she could understand where it came from, she felt the same.

“Are you trying to say the invincible Dash is missing her friends?”  Frantically, she tried to quickly deny the claim.

“What? No I just, I...”  Twilight didn’t allow her to finish.

“Because I do” In truth neither felt very happy about spending so much time away from their group, it was almost unnatural for them to be apart.	 

“Yeah, I guess I am, I just thought that, that this was a pretty big deal and I wanted them to see it” Too many times before had she been alone in a moment of glory, the same old haunting memory of her graduation hanging around her mind, refusing to fade away like she wanted.

“Hasn’t even been that long and I still want to see them again” Internally something was different; she didn’t feel quite herself since she left Ponyville.

“Maybe it’s because you know we won’t be seeing them again for a while” The happy atmosphere of the room became rather solemn, replacing any of the joy that had been felt before.

“If you wish to see them, there is a way of doing so without leaving the castle” How he could sneak up on them without making a sound was beyond her but nevertheless the smallest High guard stood by the pair causing Twilight to jump back in shock, Dash however didn’t seem fazed by the intrusion of space.

“How?” Her interest peeked she listened closely, something she did not do often, not when she didn’t have to at least.

“There is a spell known as possession, its effects matches your desires” Possession, Twilight knew the word but had never heard of a spell called it, which left one of two possibilities,  she simply hadn’t found it yet or it was something dangerous, the latter seemed more likely seeing as she actively avoided such spells.

“What exactly does this spell do?” A rhetorical question really, if it was like most spells then the name gave away its effect; nevertheless she proffered certainty rather than assumptions. 

“It allows the caster to control the body of another, you can speak through their lips and see through their eyes” How a spell of such power had slipped by her unnoticed was unknown, though it wouldn’t surprise her if it had been hidden as to keep it away from those who would use it for more devious purposes.

“Hey, I know It may seem like I’m a master magician already but I don’t think I can manage that one quite yet, it doesn’t sound as easy as levitation” Bravado aside she knew that magic could be dangerous for newbie’s, she didn’t want to smash up the training hall any more than she already had.

“Do not worry, it will be simple” Slightly sceptical of the idea, she nodded to the High guard. Twilight’s interest had been caught by the High guard, which meant the only way to satisfy it would be to remain silent and observe, that said allowing Dash to try a potentially dangerous spell was still making her worried.

“Ma’am, focus on nothing other than Thompson, remove yourself from you, focus on him” He pointed to Imperial stood waiting and without a better way to see her friends she complied, closing her eyes to concentrate. 

“I will assist you” Even with her eyes closed she could see something glow blue in front of her. At first she felt nothing but then, slowly she started to feel some alien force pulling at the back of her mind, trying to yank her out of her own head. It wasn’t a painful feeling but she couldn’t say it was pleasant. Everything seemed to darken; her limbs became numb and cold, losing some of their sensation and it became increasingly more difficult to think clearly. Finally a sudden shock propelled her consciousness forward.

“Dash, are you okay? Dash?”  Dash was still, breathing, but not moving. The High guard watched Thompson, and soon she did as well.  
The Imperial rubbed his head with a metal hand, apparently having gotten a banging headache all of a sudden.

“Ow, my head” The voice of the Imperial was bold, deep and slightly feminine to Twilight’s surprise. Twilight recognised the familiar voice under the deep tone.

“Oh mare, what happened?” Two dark blue glowing eyes shot open under the helmet. Strangely, Dash found herself to be a lot taller than she remembered, and heavier, and wearing armour.

“What the hay?” She inspected her new limbs, clenching and unclenching her hands in attempt to grasp the difference from hoof to hand, as well as how her fingers worked.

“Wow, this is, this is so...” Her armoured body shivered causing the floor to vibrate along with her; she hugged herself, her mind trying to make sense of the change in physiology. 

“So weird! ugh, I think I’m going to be sick” She went to move forward, completely unaware that walking on two legs wasn’t the same as walking on four, the result was expected. In a swift movement she tipped forwards, the signs of an imminent face plant obvious to all present. Due to her new size she was likely to fall on her own body, as well as the other two that stood by her.

“I believe we should move” The High guard grabbed the practically comatose alicorn and ran for the nearest place that wasn’t about to be flattened by the falling Dash, Twilight, in complete agreement, ran alongside the High guard narrowly avoiding getting pan-caked by a few tonnes of metal. Once safe he placed Dash’s original body back onto the ground. Dash, that is the Imperial Dash, smashed face first into the floor bending some of the blanks upwards, creating a Imperial shaped outline within the wood.

“Well that sucked” From her Imperial shaped dent in the floor she groaned, it had been mostly painless except for the damage sustained to her pride.

“Are you alright Dash?” Hesitantly she prodded the face down body.

“Yeah, couldn’t be better” It took some considerable concentration and effort to do but she managed to stand upright again, wobbling for a moment before wiping off some of the splinters, hopefully Thompson wouldn’t mind the scuffed armour.

“How do you feel?” Other than the extra weight she couldn’t complain, she felt energized and alert, as if she could skip sleep that night, possibly even night after that.

“Like I gained a hundred pounds” Unfortunately none of it made up for the weight issue, even with the huge wingspan she wasn’t sure if it were physically possible for the Imperial to fly, in fact she was pretty sure it wasn’t.

“Sixty-one point three tonnes exactly” He chimed in with the little piece of info, it didn’t reach her, she was more preoccupied by her new body than boring facts. Her head hurt from trying to come to terms with the loss of two legs and the addition of two arms, getting the fingers to work was proving difficult.

“Hey, this is pretty cool actually, feel like I could weight lift an Ursa” Underneath the metal exterior her muscles flexed, testing the extent of her own strength.

“Maybe you should just focus on visiting our friends first” It only just about registered, the power that she could feel, the strength, it was intoxicating.

“Huh? Oh right, yeah let’s do that then” Seeing herself sitting on the floor was starting to bother her anyway.

“It should be a less jarring shift this time” She nodded her large head; it was a lot harder to see out of the helmet than she had first thought, the slits were very thin. She closed her eyes again as the small High guard did whatever he had done the first time. In a split second she disappeared from the body and emerged in another, standing in Sugarcube corner by the looks of it. Twilight watched curiously, the Imperial had regained his lost stature since Dash left and had picked up its dropped weapon before returning to his normal position. Dash, the alicorn Dash, smiled, undoubtedly because of seeing one or more of their friends.

“Guess who marshmallow” Her lips spoke the words but there was no sign of life other than that, she remained perfectly still otherwise.

“Yeah it’s me, no Pinkie I’m not a ghost possessing, who? Taze, I’m not a ghost possessing Taze...No I’m not changing bodies 
either...Pinkie!” The small High guard looked to Twilight who only shrugged in response. 

“Yes I’m still at the castle...It’s a spell, no Twilight didn’t teach it me and I don’t think she would do that even if she did know how to do it Rarity” Of course the mention of her name got her attention, though by the sounds of it she probably didn’t want to know what they thought crazy old Twilight was doing to the town now, just because she was an alicorn didn’t mean she was going to mess the place up with a sneeze, that only happened once after all.

“I’m starting to get used to it, I still feel pretty sick” There was a nagging feeling in the back of her mind that she was being left out of the little talk and what made it worse was that she was in the same room as one of its participators.

“Everything’s fine, I was just learning my first spell, what? I aced it first try, must be naturally great at everything I guess” Even though she knew she couldn’t see it Twilight rolled her eyes, Dash’s boosting her own greatest once was cute, now it was starting to grate her. The High guard’s blue glow stopped and Dash’s real eyes shot open.

“Wow what the, Uh oh” Her cheeks bulged a little from the nausea, she dry heaved at the floor a few times, for a while minute she coughed trying to throw up the contents of her stomach but nothing came of it.

“What’s wrong?” Another dry heave came before she accepted it as a futile effort.

“I feel like my stomach’s trying climb up out of my throat, what the heck happened?” Her stomach tried once more to force its way outside but yet again it didn’t make it far enough to leave.

“If you spend too long possessing another the spell cuts its self off, preventing the caster’s mind from permanently merging with the target’s, it tends to cause nausea afterwards” A little stumble almost sent her to the ground for the third time that day.

“We could try again if you wish” Her uneasy stomach told her that trying again would result in a messy accident.

“I think I’d rather keep my lunch for a little longer” He nodded to her. She took a moment to rain in her pounding head and nauseous stomach, after a little while they calmed down enough for her speak without the threat of puking.

“So, what are we going to do now?”  In her haste she had failed to plan anything further than the simple lesson, there was a lot to do in Canterlot, for normal ponies that is. Celestia had warned her about leaving Dash alone with some of the other royals, apparently whenever they needed something signed they would latch on to the nearest Princess and they wouldn’t leave until either they got bored or the Princess did, she assumed that it would probably be the latter in Dash’s case.

“I don’t know” There wasn’t many things to do that came to mind, or rather many that would interest Dash.

“You know what, I actually kinda want to take a nap...Err, where’s my room? It wasn’t included in the tour” It was somewhat reassuring to see Dash being Dash again, rather than whatever she had been before, she made a mental note to check it out later, followed by another to remember how exactly she was staying calm about the whole situation.

“Follow me, I know where it is” During her last visit she had been to the guest room a number of times to meet it’s highly privileged occupant, Silver dust, the number one pony when it came to legal documentation, as well as the record holder of eating a hundred cupcakes in twenty minutes. Along with the High guard and Thompson they left the training hall behind as they moved back outside.



Normally the upper class ponies would stare quizzically at a Pegasus standing idly in the street, occasionally glancing around, but her golden armour protected her from their questioning glares and stares, one of the few benefits of the job. In truth it hadn’t been her choice, her father had wished it for her and when she got her cutie mark she could decline the offer no longer.

The reason behind her current idleness, apart from the fact that she was completely lost, was the rumours that had been going around. When what she had thought to be the way to her station was just another hallway splitting into other hallways, she had overheard a duo of unicorns speaking of a new princess with some strange body guards. So since then she had been searching for this princess, hoping to meet the new royal as well as possibly get directions back to her post form her bodyguards.

Having almost given up hope she had been thrilled to see the rainbow mane alicorn walking her way, and then she started to panic. Numerous problems with what she was doing popped into her mind, from being away from her post to a guard trying to start up a conversation with a princess, all of which had the same punishment as far as she was concerned. Darting from left to right she searched for somewhere, anywhere to hide, to remain out of sight of the obviously professional princess who would no doubt punish her severely for leaving her post. Sadly for her there was nowhere to hide herself and so she did the only thing she could think of, stand to attention in the middle of the street, praying that she wasn’t about to get fired, or worse.

“Wait, so I can’t rename anything I like?” Her armour felt very tight at that point even though it was two sizes too big.

“No, that would require a lot of paper work, and I don’t think ponies would appreciate you renaming Ponyville to Rainbow city” Each step they took brought them closer to her, making her panic grow into fear as she practically shook from the feeling with only the armour to hide it.

“Bet you’d want to call it something lame, like Bookville or something” What made her fear worse was the fact that it was not one but two princess’s coming her way, and a really big monster that could probably throw her all the way to Ponyville once she got fired.
“I’d never rename Ponyville, besides I would have to go to the bureaucratic offices then the Ponyville council before speaking with the Canterlot registry council and so many other departments first ” Somehow it was getting hotter, it had to have been, she was starting to sweat underneath her father’s gear.

“Wow, way to make being a princess sound boring” Her hyperventilating had attracted their attention, that as well as the fact she stood directly in their path.

“Are you okay?” Her stuttered reply didn’t make it to yes, or even a word, leaving her embarrassed and about to be fired.

“Err, alright then” They continued on past her without much of a fuss, their armoured body guard walking along with them, with all the commotion about him she had expected him to be bigger, it didn’t matter to her all that much, she was glad that she wasn’t going to be chewed out by royalty.

“Thompson what is delaying you brother” He called back behind him and not a second later a huge stomping monster came into her view. Whatever movement she had been able to regain left her at the sight of the thing walking towards her.

A  stone fell nearby her, causing her to yelp in surprise as it smashed to pieces against the ground. Giant stomping creature forgotten she craned her head upwards to locate source of the falling stones that were coming down around her, what she saw made her eyes go wide in terror. Above her one of the tower tops hung over the edge of its tower, threatening to fall at any moment. Fear gripped her very being, so much so she couldn’t move from where she stood; she could do nothing as the tower top ripped itself from the rest of the structure and began descend rapidly towards her.

“What’re you doing get out of the way!” She couldn’t, she was frozen stiff. Turning her head to the ground she closed her eyes, useless tears welling up within them, she braced for the bone crunching impact. For a while she stayed like that until eventually she realised that if it was going to, the falling debris would’ve hit her by now. One eye creaked open to peak around, followed by the other, in front of her stood two massive legs connect to a massive body. She craned her head upward again to look at her saviour. Thompson towered over her, supporting the broken tower piece with his upper body, he was staring down at her.

“I recommend you get out of the way sister” Without hesitation she darted over to join Dash and Twilight who had been watching the event unfold. Thompson strained to lower the tower top to the ground carefully, propping it up against the very tower it had come from.

“Whoa, that was close, you hurt?” Unable to talk to Dash from her near death experience she meekly shook her head in response. Thompson joined them once he had ensured that nothing else was going to come off of the tower.

“Nice save” He nodded and Dash turned her focus to the Pegasus guard in front of her.

“Maybe you should go inside or something err...what’s your name?” For a second she thought she misheard a princess ask for her name, hers, it stalled her for a minute until she managed to come back to the question.

“V-vigilant sky, P-princess” In an effort to regain at least some of her dignity she stood to attention, though it really did nothing but confuse Dash.

“Okay, sky, we kind of have to get going, important princess business of course” She nodded vigorously understanding that the princess had far more pressing issues than talking to her. After that she was away with Twilight and the other two following close behind her leaving sky on her own, thoroughly embarrassed about the whole ordeal. At least It did give her something nice to think about as she began again to wonder the hallways in her search.

Dash on the other hoof had some less than happy thoughts clouding her mind, no, they were less than thoughts, more a combination of urges. One wished for her to leave, to run away from the castle, away from the others but she didn’t know why or what for. Another begged her to return to the energy, loss herself within the magic and let it run free. And then, there was the quietest, most suppressed feeling, the loudest of them all, one that she could barely understand, it whispered something that burned her mind to hear, it didn’t scratch away or push its own desires forward but instead, it remained content to stay a simple reminder of its own existence.

“Are you even listening?” Twilight had been going over most of the basic fundamentals of levitation and had gotten up to thorn theory before realising that the only one listening seemed to be the High guard.

“Huh, oh right yeah sure” Truly her mind was distracted; it was not the fact that what she remembered from earlier bothered, it was what she couldn’t remember. What had happened to her she could not understand, she had been submerged in a great power and had no recollection of what had happened during that time. 

“You seem distracted Dash, more than usual” The one thing that had stuck with her was the embrace of power, something she’d only ever felt from a sonic rainbow, this was different though, it was more than just a quick buzz, it was a promise of power eternal and it felt wrong.

“You in there, hello, okay how do you just zone out like that?” For the first time in forever she was starting to think something might be wrong with her, other than the obvious. Immense amounts of power and the complications that arose from having that power wasn’t something she thought about, so she was slightly beside herself now that those very thoughts were buzzing around in her head, she hoped they would disappear once all the celebrations were over and she could get back to her usual ways back in Ponyville.

“Oh, what a joyful coincidence for our paths to cross here” Another new voice just about snapped her out of her thoughts in time to stop herself from accidently burying her face in the night princess’s chest.

“Princess Luna, it’s nice to see you” Twilight smiled happily, it had been a while since she had last seen the princess, the odd sleep cycle made it difficult to find the time to chat.

“Likewise to the both of you, where art thou going t...” Her expression changed spontaneously, becoming wide with surprise and a stuttered breath passed by her lips. The small High guard walked past the two younger alicorns, coming to a stop right in front of the dark blue princess. They stared at each intensely, neither uttered a single word in the year long minutes that passed by. The others looked on worried by the silent face off they were having until the High guard quickly bowed, followed by the Imperial who could only just about fit in the hallway.

“We heard of your return, but it was unconfirmed” Her reply was stopped before she could air it, a panting unicorn being the one to interrupt the conversation. He came running down the hallway obviously having been trying to catch up with the illusive alicorn, he skidded to a halt next to her.

“Princess, I, there you are, there is a matter which requires you attention” He had a pompous air to him and a voice that coated every word with snobbery even as he wheezed between words.

“Ah yes, rearrange it for another time” The shocked look she got from him told her his opinion on the decision; nevertheless he still felt he had to air his objections.

“Princess it’s the meeting with the Gryphon empire ambassadors, they will not appreciate having to wait” She turned around and began to walk away.

“Then pass on my apologies, I must speak with my sister, I bid farewell to the rest of you” The white unicorn gave a stern look to each of them before sprinting off after the princess, leaving Dash and Twilight to get back to what they had been doing.

“What was that all about?”  Thompson and the High stood up again, Thompson once again had to duck to avoid punching a hole in the ceiling.

“I don’t know, now which way is my room?” They continued on without another mention of the strange encounter, eventually reaching the guest bedroom. Along the way Thompson had been ordered off after being unable to fit through some of the smaller passageways, so now three stood in front of the door instead of four. The door that led to the room already said a number of things about what to expect of the room, its golden frame and magnificent decorations suggested that it wasn’t an ordinary guest room.

Dash pushed open the door to reveal an expertly decorated bedroom that was almost as big as the first floor of her house. A king-sized bed with a cover of the same size supported by posts on each corner of the bed sat against the west wall. Two cabinets were placed in the corner along with a dresser topped with an extravagant mirror. Purple and gold curtains hung over a doorway that led to a balcony which overlooked the castle’s courtyard. It would likely be the most expensive room she’d ever stayed in, she was grateful that she wasn’t paying for it as the price would probably be twice what her house was worth.

“Guess nopony heard of overdoing it when they built this” She inspected the room, quickly becoming bored of task, so she went airborne to land on the incredibly comfortable bed. She sat at the edge, looking down at Twilight who was glancing around nonchalantly; they did nothing for the next minute but stand around.

“What do we do now?” Twilight held a look of puzzlement as she looked to Dash sat precariously on the edge of her bed.

“What do you mean? I thought you were going to take nap” Dash sighed, she would’ve have liked to, she really would have, sadly she was no were near tired enough, her energy had returned from before and she felt like she could go for coupe hours of flying, which of course she couldn’t do because she had to stay in the castle.

“I was going to but I don’t feel like it now, you can’t just nap whenever you want to you know, it’s an art really” The journey from the hall to the bedroom had mostly been spent trying to think up conversation topics, so she was as lost as Dash on what to do next, she did however wonder why Dash’s usual humour had changed . An idea came to mind, an odd but possibly enjoyable idea, one that wouldn’t be hard to convince Dash to participate, after all, she loved being the hero.

“Hey Dash, have you ever tried role play?” Dash was divided, she could tell Twilight about the recent vacation to a convention of a certain franchise that may or may not have involved her role playing the final battle of Daring Do and the half alicorn terror, she reminded herself then that she would have to find her role play buddy at some point, she hadn’t had the chance to tell the unicorn how awesome they did.

“No, what’s that?” Of course Twilight knew that Dash would never be involved with such a thing as role play, her on the other hoof did have a great deal of experience in the subject, thinking about it reminded her of the battle she had taken a part in re-enacting from the Daring Do series not too long, she didn’t normally role play the bad pony but she didn’t mind it since she had had such a good hero to fight against, she never did get to speak with that Pegasus.

“It’s basically when you pretend to be somepony else, like if you pretended to be somepony from a book, and then you recreate a scene from that book playing that character, I was thinking if you aren’t too cool to try it I might have a scene in mind” Dash hid her excitement under a façade of disinterest.

“Well I guess if we haven’t got anything better to do, what scene did yah have in mind?” Her excitement shone through in her question, she only hoped Twilight hadn’t noticed.

“Do you remember Daring Do’s final confrontation with Emperion the sorcerer?” She smirked; the famous battle between the hero and her greatest foe would always be fresh in her mind.

“Okay but what about the apex?” How could they possibly re-enact one of the franchises famous events without the creature that made fans for the first time question if Daring Doo could lose.

“I kind of have an idea for that ” A gesture to the High guard got her smirk to widen into a excited smile that was bordering on creepy as they both turned to look at him unison.

“I err, I, well, all right, If it is what you desire Ma’am” They shared a smile while the High guard glanced between them, wary of what he was getting into, he was even a little lost, having fun was not part of the job description.



Normally, if she had any other guests she would have sent one of her many maids to no doubt be chewed out by said guest due to the room not being made out of solid gold, her current guests however had much lower standards and also happened to be friends, hence the reason why she had ducked out of the pointless squabble between the Griffon and Zebra ambassadors to see them, her sister was supposed to be taking care of that situation anyway.

It had been a short walk to the guest room door that she now stood in front of, her occasionally chats with the guards didn’t slow her down too much. She raised a hoof to knock, stopping before reaching the door’s surface as she caught wind of the commotion inside. Instead of doing what was probably the polite thing do she creaked the door open just enough to peek inside.

“Ah Daring Do, what excellent timing you have, my creation is rather hungry” Twilight stood in the middle of the room with what seemed to be the bedroom’s curtains draped over her back in a cloak like fashion.

“Emperion you crazy fool what have you done?” Dash wore a similarly make shift costume from a combination of the many official outfits left in room in case an special occasion.

“What have I done? I have only created the greatest predator the world will ever know, the apex! An invincible creature that will soon be picking you from his teeth” She contained a giggle of amusement at seeing the High guard hunched over with bed sheets tied to random pieces of the armour and a zebra ritual mask attached to the helmet.

“Let’s see how tough you really are then” Dash took flight towards the High guard, in turn he charged at her taking a swing once she was in range though his punch was didn’t come close to grazing her, Dash did a somersault sticking her front hoof out to uppercut the High guard and while it didn’t connect he still stumbled back, hurt. Dash crisscrossed the High guard, each time landing another of her pretend blows until the High guard collapsed onto the ground, apparently dead.

“Ha! Some invincible creature he was Emperion” Twilight smirked, bringing out Celestia’s own little grin, the little re-enactment was far more entertaining than sitting in council meetings all day.

“Oh he’s far from dead yet, you see, he just needed a little time to adapt to your attacks” Dash’s grin vanished, replaced by a look of shock as the High guard got back up onto his feet. She went in for a full on attack, tapping against the armour lightly before flinging herself backwards away from him.

“There’s no way you can win against him Daring Doo” She had to admit that the three could almost pass as actors. Dash looked around for a moment before her eyes rested on the headband wrapped around Twilight’s head.

“I may not be able to beat him head, but I can stop what’s keeping him alive!” She gained altitude quickly, preparing to dive at Twilight.

“What? No, no! Stop her you imbecile!” The High guard charged forward while Dash began her dive and Celestia took the opportunity to speak up.

“Having fun are we?” At that moment all three heads turned towards her in shock, sadly this didn’t stop their momentum. The High guard turned his head back to Dash, he ducked quickly to avoid actually hitting her but at the same time sealed his own fate, he stumbled and twirled around falling backwards against a cabinet, leaving a deep impression in the wood. Dash had a similar reaction, she reeled back sharply to kill her speed but it wasn’t enough and she collided with a surprised Twilight, sending them tumbling into the bed, coming to a stop in a heap of limbs and feathers.

“Princess we were just, err, I, oh dear...” Celestia chuckled.

“You seemed to be having a little re-enactment of, which one was it again? Daring Doo and the Apex predator I believe, looked like you were enjoying yourselves quite a bit, though I fear my royal decorator my not appreciate having his curtains used as a make shift cloak” They untangled themselves from each other, the High guard also dislodged himself from the piece of wooden furniture and stood back up.

“You, read Daring Do and the apex predator?” Celestia smiled at the young blue alicorn.

“Of course, I have to keep up with latest best sellers and A.K Yearling happens to be one of my favourite authors” Being stuck in a castle for most of her time left a need for a little adventure, even if it was only fictional, she had always wondered what Daring Do would be like if she were real.

“Hey, maybe she could join us...” Her mouth moved without her mind’s intervention and she immediately regretted the words, Twilight had a similar reaction. Celestia went quiet considering the offer; it had been so long since the playful days, so long since she hadn’t had one worry or another on her mind. She decided then that she would take her own advice to her students and relax for once, spend some time with ponies she called friends that wasn’t just a fifteen minute chat over tea.

“I believe fun every once in a while is a healthy thing, very well, I can play along” She couldn’t remember the last time she had felt the anxious unease of her own decisions, it would be the first time in a thousand years that anypony had seen this side of her and she was worried of their reaction though Twilight’s gleeful smile did ease her worries somewhat.

“So princess, who do you want to be?” Already she was enjoying herself, just being able to think about adventuring made the constant demand of others seem like so much less.

“It is your play Twilight, I think it would only be right for you to decide” As long as she wasn’t a Mary sue in a saucy scene, she wanted to be a little more open with them but not that open.

“Oh, how about Sereana from Daring Doo and the nightmare queen, we could do the first time they meet, what do you think princess?” All wore smiles save for the High guard though of course they could never tell what he was thinking, the lack of any emotion in his voice did make it a little hard to understand how he was feeling.

“Very well, shall we get started?” With a plan in mind they went about creating more make shift costumes with the vast materials that had been gifted to them, they made sure not to damage the dresses and other clothes that had been left in the room. Soon enough they had their scene with Celestia wearing a curtain wrapped around her mid section leading down her back and a head dress coloured with as many dark colours as possible. Dash wore the same make shift Daring Do costume except for a few improvements while Twilight now had on similar wear to Celestia’s, including a set of golden shoes, even the High guard had a different attire, garnishing a fluffy rimmed, red cape and a golden stripe of cotton across his chest.  They were almost ready to begin when the door slowly slid opened.

“Sister I have been looking for you, I wished to, to...sister? What are thou doing with the guest rooms drapes?” Luna was met with embarrassment from all three of the alicorns, each looking rather sheepish before they could recover and recompose themselves.

“Ah Luna, we were merely having a little fun, would you care to join us? We could use a guardian of the light in our little re-enactment” Luna had to shake her head to ensure she was not dreaming and in fact was looking at her sister playing with the room’s curtains.

“Sister, we will most certainly not partake in such a silly game, it is unbefitting for a princess to act as such” Celestia smirked, her sister still carried with her the ways of old.

“Oh don’t be so stuck up, besides, it would be good for you to loosen up a tad, it’ll be like playing with your dolls” The blush was barely noticeable under her dark blue fur but it was definitely there.

“I thought we agreed that would remain a secret!” Celestia grinned and glanced up at the ceiling, a mischievous hoof gracefully covering her growing smile.

“Oops, it just slipped out” Seeing the two princess’s so casual almost made Twilight spontaneously hug the High guard, the playful happy mood that hung in the air told her things could only get better, but she was happy enough with her idol being so open around her, she never could have expected it though she had always hoped.

“They are not dolls they are collectables and I’d appreciate it if you would kindly remember that” She flared her nostrils and looked away, annoyed by hers sister’s mockery.

“Oh there’s no need to be dramatic sister I was only playing with you, come on, it’ll be fun” She couldn’t lie, it did seem like fun, even the High guard seemed less serious wearing the kingly cape.

“I, suppose it couldn’t hurt?” As soon as she uttered the words she was dragged over to them and a costume was quickly arranged for her.

For a long time they went through many a fictional scene, each and every one of them losing themselves to characters they portrayed. There, in that extravagant guest room, their differences were forgotten; power held no importance and race had no influence as they continued on into the night. The room was a world of its own were they could dismiss any sense of responsibility, each of them saw a different side to each other that night.

They were blissfully unaware of the watcher on a nearby rooftop, glaring at them in disgust, he remained hidden; knowing that tomorrow would be the day that would set everything in motion. That tomorrow, when the heavens cried and the beast awoke they would make their grand return. Tomorrow was the day.