498 - Headlong Rush
A sigh escaped Twilight’s lips as she returned her book to its place in her saddlebag, her expression forlorn as she turned to stare out the window of their train.
“Aw, why the long face, sugarcube?” Sitting across from her, Applejack gave Twilight a sympathetic smile. “Last time I saw a book upset you that much was when you flipped through that one about déjà vu and couldn’t remember if you’d read it before.”
“Spoiler alert,” called Spike from the other side of the aisle, his head in Soft Mane’s lap. “She had.”
Blushing a little at the memory, Twilight didn’t have a chance to reply before a new voice cut in. “Ooh! Ooh! I know!” Suddenly hanging upside down from the luggage rack, Pinkie’s eyes gleamed at the chance to get in on a guessing game. “Were you reading a cookbook that said that you could make a triple-decker chocolate-almond peanut butter fudge marshmallow-cream cake with only four pounds of butter and not five? Because that happened to me once, and I was so sad imagining all the poor ponies out there making the cake from that book only to find that it wasn’t as rich and thick and creamy-yummy-licious as it should be!”
The anecdote earned a giggle from Twilight, still enjoying how nice it was to have Pinkie back. “No, that’s not it-”
“Oh good!” interrupted Pinkie, walking along the underside of the overhead rack and down the interior wall of the train in complete defiance of gravity before plunking herself on the seat next to Twilight. “Because then you’d have to go see the publisher and beg and plead for them to tell you everypony that they’d sold that book to and then go and track down every copy so you can cross out where it says ‘four pounds’ and write in ‘five pounds’ instead! Because that can be pretty hard work, let me tell you!” Spotting a dessert car being wheeled down the aisle, Pinkie didn’t hesitate, reaching out with her mane and snagging a slice of triple-decker chocolate-almond peanut butter fudge marshmallow-cream cake and shoving it in her mouth, squealing happily as she devoured it. “Buh ih wah wof ih!”
“Chew with your mouth closed, darling,” admonished Rarity gently from where she was sitting across from Spike and Soft Mane, telekinetically holding a napkin up in front of Pinkie’s mouth as she turned back to Twilight. “You were saying?”
Her dejected expression returning, Twilight gestured at her saddlebag. “Ever since the lhaksharut smashed the mirror portal to Canterlot High, I’ve been corresponding with Sunset Shimmer through our journals about ways to try and repair it, but so far nothing’s worked. Sunset had a few ideas she wanted to try on her end, but since she’s still not sure how magic operates in that world, she’s not making any progress either.”
“Is that all?” scoffed Rainbow Dash. “You’ve already got that dimension-hopping spell down, remember? The one you used to bring us all back here from Everglow when we got Princess Celestia’s letter about what Lex did to Luna? Just use that to zap over there if Sunset needs your help again.”
“Um, I don’t mean to contradict you,” offered Fluttershy timidly, giving Rainbow Dash an apologetic expression. “But I think maybe Twilight’s upset because she can’t just use that spell to, um, ‘zap’ over there.”
“Fluttershy’s right,” admitted Twilight, her ears folding down. “That spell requires a special tuning fork made out of specific materials and set to a specific pitch, but I don’t know what either one is for that world. It might help if I had something from there, but I don’t.”
“Which is why you should always bring back souvenirs,” added Spike.
The smug tone in his voice garnered him a glare from Twilight and a wry grin from Soft Mane, the latter cocking a brow. “You know, you went with Twilight to Everglow both times. Did you bring back anything?”
“Oh, um…I guess I forgot,” admitted the little dragon sheepishly.
After the subsequent round of good-natured laughter died down, Applejack spoke up again. “Well, what about that other portal of yours, Twilight? The one that accidentally sent me and Apple Bloom and her friends to Everglow that one time? Can’t you just make some adjustments to it or somethin’ and have it send you to that world instead?”
The question made Rainbow Dash frown. “Wait, that lhaksha-thingy didn’t break that portal too?”
Twilight shook her head. “No. It was only after ‘non-volatile planar apertures,’ meaning portals that were permanently open. That one only activates if a drop of blood is spilled on it.”
“Well, that sounds rather ghastly,” admitted Rarity with a shudder, before making herself smile, “but now that you don’t need it to go to that Everglow place, I bet you could adjust it to go to Canterlot High easily!”
“Ooh, then we could have…” Turning, Pinkie opened the window and stuck her head outside, craning her neck around and out of sight…only for her face to then reappear from around the edge of the window on the opposite side of the train, grinning. “…a portal party!”
The sight brought yelps of fright from Rarity, Fluttershy, Soft Mane, and Spike, staring at the spectacle in shock before Pinkie pulled back from the window and took her seat again, grinning.
But Twilight shook her head. “I don’t know if I can. That portal was an accident. I’ve left it as-is so that I can study it, but I’m still not sure how I made it in the first place. Trying to alter where it goes could wreck it altogether, or worse!”
“W-worse?” gulped Fluttershy. “Oh. Oh my. Maybe it would be safer to keep researching the proper tuning fork, don’t you think?”
“That’s probably a good idea,” added Rainbow Dash, earning a surprised look from all present.
“Are you bein’ serious?” Applejack didn’t even try to keep the skepticism out of her voice. “I thought you’d be all gung-ho to go off on another adventure.”
“Um, hello?” Waving a hoof to indicate the train car, Rainbow raised her eyebrows at the earth mare. “We’re on one right now! And I didn’t say that Twilight should be the one doing the researching.” Her next statement was directed at Twilight, giving her friend a pointed look. “You mentioned that Sunset Shimmer is in a band over there, right? So let her focus on finding the right xylophone or whatever it is you need while we focus on kicking Lex Legis’s butt!”
But Twilight’s response to Rainbow’s enthusiasm was to grimace. “I know we need to concentrate on the task at hoof,” she admitted, “especially since we’re almost to Vanhoover, but I’m just not sure that the map sent us here to pick a fight.”
“I’m sorry, darling, but I have to agree with Rainbow Dash,” interjected Rarity. “It can’t simply be a coincidence that that map of yours told us all to go to Vanhoover right after that Lex character put such a horrible curse on Princess Luna.”
“Not to mention that he killed one of her guards,” noted Soft Mane with a scowl, the way she did whenever Lex was mentioned. “He probably thought the guy looked too different from ‘normal’ ponies somehow.”
Twilight bit her lip at that, watching as Spike sat up and did his best to calm Soft Mane down. She had initially been against those two coming with them to Vanhoover, not sure if the map wanted only her and her friends to go there. Wouldn’t it have let them know somehow if Spike and Soft Mane were also needed to do…whatever it was that they were supposed to do?
But Soft Mane had been adamant about joining them, pointing out – both to Twilight and to her mother, when the latter had found out what her daughter was planning – that with Cadance and the crystal ponies returning to the Crystal Empire, she was the only one left with healing spells, “and you might need them if Lex attacks,” she’d insisted. Twilight hadn’t been entirely convinced healing magic would be necessary (and she still had that infernal healing spell she’d learned from Under Score, even if it was weak compared to divine healing), but she couldn’t be sure that it wouldn’t be either. And if she made a mistake and there wasn’t any on hoof, it might be her friends who paid the price for her oversight…just like they almost had during the fight with the lhaksharut…
So, reluctantly, Twilight had given Soft Mane permission to come with them. Which of course meant that Spike was going too, refusing to let his girlfriend head into potential danger without his being there to protect her. It was sweet, and the fact that Soft Mane found his chivalry adorable was doubly so. Twilight just hoped she wouldn’t regret it later. If something hap-
“WHOA!”
Twilight heard everyone calling her name in reaction to her sudden yell, but she couldn’t answer, too caught up in what she was feeling. It was only when Pinkie – now wearing a doctor’s head mirror – rapped her on the forehead with a reflex hammer that Twilight snapped out of it. “Ouch!”
“There we go!” beamed Pinkie. “Good as new!”
But Fluttershy didn’t look entirely convinced. “Are you okay, Twilight?”
Nor was she the only one, with Rarity giving her a concerned look. “Darling, what happened? You sounded like you’d just received some sort of horrible shock.”
Swallowing, Twilight nodded. “You could say that,” she admitted, turning her gaze toward the front of the train. “I can feel a huge burst of magic coming from Vanhoover!”
Applejack pushed her hat up as she rubbed her forehead. “What kinda magic?”
“I don’t know!” Closing her eyes, Twilight tried to concentrate, but abandoned the effort after only a few seconds. “We’re too far away. All I can tell is that it’s big – princess-level big, maybe even more – and that it’s coming from exactly where we’re headed.”
“So it’s Lex, right?” Smacking her fore-hooves together, Rainbow Dash glanced in the direction of the city – still a few hours distant according to the last attendant that had wandered through – with a grim look. “He’s probably cursing somepony again!”
“You don’t think he knows we’re coming, do you?” Fluttershy was already turning pale, pulling back as if trying to hide behind her mane. “Oh, what if he’s planning on using some awful curse on all of us before we even reach Vanhoover?!”
“Oh my gosh!” Pinkie’s eyes widened in alarm. “What if he curses us so that our birthdays don’t come around anymore?! None of us would get to have a birthday party ever again!”
“Somehow I doubt that’s the worst thing he could do,” replied Soft Mane dryly.
“Well whatever he’s doing, I’m not gonna let him get away with it!” Before anypony could stop her, Rainbow Dash was at the window, opening it up and vaulting outside.
“Rainbow, wait!” But despite Applejack’s admonition, it was already too late. In the half-second that it took her to stick her head out the window, Rainbow Dash was already speeding into the distance, easily outpacing the train as she headed for Vanhoover. “Consarn it, she’s gone!” Trying to stay calm, she pulled her head back in and looked at the other winged members of the group. “Y’all gotta go after her before she does somethin’ foolish!”
Fluttershy winced, curling up in her seat. “I can’t fly faster than a train!”
“Neither of us can,” admitted Twilight. “But we can tell the conductor that it’s an emergency and we need the train to get to Vanhoover as quickly as possible.”
“I’ll do it,” volunteered Spike, leaping up and heading towards the engine. “I bet if I breathe on the coals, I can kick this thing into overdrive.”
Twilight shot her assistant a grateful smile. “Good thinking, Spike. Everypony else, let’s start working on a plan just in case Rainbow Dash needs our help when we get there.”
“She’s gonna need help when I get my hooves on her, runnin’ off like that,” grumbled Applejack. But no one missed the nervous tremor in her voice.
Twilight could sympathize. Rainbow was brash, headstrong, and – unlike herself and Applejack – thoroughly convinced that Lex was a villain. If she didn’t like what she found when she got there, it was very likely that she’d blame him for it, and act accordingly. And as much as Twilight wanted to believe that Lex wasn’t all bad, she knew that if he felt like he was being attacked, he’d respond harshly…as Princess Luna could attest.
Although Twilight wanted to believe that Lex could understand the magic of friendship, she wasn’t willing to risk her friends’ safety to do it. Not when they’d finally all just been reunited. Not when she’d almost lost some of them during the lhaksharut’s attack. If Lex and Rainbow were fighting when they arrived, and couldn’t be talked down…
Then maybe the map really had sent them there to deal with Lex once and for all.
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As much as I want to facepalm myself at the potential fallout from Rainbow's actions, I can't help but smile at seeing the Mane 6 again and still able to seamlessly interact with each other as they've always done despite their experiences with the Everglow and lack thereof for Fluttershy and Rarity. Still, having Spike and Soft Mane joining them was unexpected but they might prove crucial to actually solve the problem instead of exacerbating it.
However, with Soft Mane's understandable dislike of Lex, she won't be of much help at first due to how Lex was with her in the past. I would like it if she learns about what Lex has actually done for Vanhoover and grow from it but given Lex's stance on non-ponies and half-breeds, it might be a hard sell unless circumstances work in favor of that outcome. Best I can hope for is for her to be indifferent to him.
Still, now all I can do is hope for Rainbow Dash not to cause an incident that would make Twilight's attempt to speak with Lex more difficult if not impossible. Something that Applejack is probably thinking of as well...or she's just worried that her girlfriend will bite off more than she can chew...again.
Dash is off the Leroy Jenkins WW3 yet again.
Cant blame the author, cannon just has her so Jocked.
I mean, what she got to overcompensate so much For?
10344633 I'll tell you what: a deeply-buried, crippling sense of low self-esteem brought on by bad parenting.
Now, obviously that's not canon (and not the case in this fic either, for that matter), but it really should be. I'm still horrified by how Parental Glideance (season seven, episode seven) presented Rainbow Dash's parents as sympathetic figures, and likewise made her seem ungrateful and petty in how she found them embarrassing. It was mind-boggling.
Now, I'm no child psychologist, and this is just my personal impression, but if your parents treat everything you do as being worthy of celebration – without differentiating based on things like the effort you put in, what the achievement means to you personally, how (of even if) it's recognized by your community, etc. – then I'm going to guess that rather than building self-esteem, it will erode it (or, I suppose, turn you into a massively entitled, spoiled little brat, but I'm going with eroding self-esteem here). How was Rainbow Dash supposed to feel when her parents celebrated her performing a sonic rainboom (something that had been regarded as just an "old mare's tale" before she did it) and earning her cutie mark with the same level of recognition and excitement that they do every time she brushes her teeth? If everything is worthy of a cheers, then nothing is. Rainbow's upbringing should have had her failing to take pride in everything she did, but instead the show put forward that the exact opposite happened, and that she was a relatively well-adjusted individual.
Putting all of that aside...as far as this chapter goes, I think Rainbow is just a "think first, act later" type. She hears that there's trouble, and so charges at it head-first. It's just who she is.
10344327 It was nice to see the Twilight and the girls back together again, wasn't it? Personally, I always get a bit nervous writing those scenes, since it can be hard to make not only their individuals characters come across as matching the source material, but also get their interactions with each other down pat. But I was quite happy with how this chapter turned out.
As for Spike and Soft Mane being there...that's a bit of a twist on things. Hopefully Soft Mane's antagonism toward Lex, well-founded though it may be, won't make an already-tense situation even tenser (notwithstanding Rainbow Dash's rushing ahead of the group). It'll also be interesting to see how Pinkie, Rarity, and Fluttershy react to him, since they've never actually met him before. Then again, Pinkie and Sonata are already buddies, so that has some interesting potential in-and-of itself. And then there's Aria's dislike of Twilight...really, this could go any number of ways, presuming that Rainbow doesn't kick-start a fight.
Of course, there's that little situation with Starlight Glimmer that needs to be resolved first (and Prince Blueblood).
The mane six we
Go checking on
But now it seems
That Rainbow's gone
This could spell 'trouble'
With capital 'T's
And also Starlight
Her power, release.
10346287 A very pithy summary! We can only hope that Rainbow won't make things worse...even if that seems to be the safe bet.