AN' Kind of a short chapter but we're working on it. Next one up soon hopefully. Every body cross your fingers!

Like everything in her life, Twilight took the reappearance of her friend with quiet poise and dignity. Rainbow Dash couldn't help but feel it should be Twilight, not her, that should be the princess. She would have done a much better job. She would have made her mother proud. She wouldn't have run away. She-

Go away, depressing thoughts. Now is not the time.

The purple mare ushered her into the living room, staring at her. There was a mix of joy and frustration on her face and Bright didn't really know what to think. "Rainbow Dash..." she said quietly.

"Twilight, I never meant for-"

"Twilight, who's this?" came a quiet voice.

They both looked up. A tiny, chubby purple dragon toddled over to Twilight Sparkle and clutched tightly at her foreleg. "I'm Bright, I'm a friend of Twilight's. Who are you?" she asked, taking the liberty of introducing herself. Her friend shot her a hard look.

"I'm Spike. I'm Twilight's friend too," he sounded very proud. She smiled.

"Cool."

"Cool!" he echoed. "Yeah!"

"Spike, go back to bed. Bright and I need to talk," he yawned and nodded.

"Fine by me. Bye."

They waited until they heard the door close before beginning, pulling up two chairs. "Where have you been?" she asked. "Do you have any idea how worried I was? How worried we all were?"

"I've been here, where did you think?" Rainbow responded sarcastically. "You just don't get it, Twilight? Being cooped up in that castle was killing me. I had to get out of there."

Twilight stared hard at her, then sighed. "I knew you didn't like-"

"No, Twilight, I had to get out of there. No ifs ands or buts. If I stayed there any longer, I would have gone crazy."

"So you ran away."

"Yes. I ran away. And I'm sorry for worrying you. But I'm not going back. I'm home, Twi, for the first time ever, I'm home." She silently begged for her friend to understand, to look at things from Rainbow Dash's point of view.

Like always, Twilight did not let her down.

She sighed deeply and smiled. "It's a great town, Dash."

Bright felt as if the weight of the world had been lifted off of her shoulders. "Yeah, it really is, Twilight, you'll see. Everyone's so nice and welcoming. Way better than those stuffy royals."

They sat down in the den, huddled around piles and piles of books. Clearly the old librarian hadn't been much for cleaning.

"So what have you been doing?" the since you left us was politely left out.

"I've been staying with a friend. Her name is Fluttershy. She's great. And my friend Applejack let's me work on her farm for a few stray bits. I'm going to start on the weather team in a few days."

"That's great, Rain-Bright. I'm happy for you."

"It's great here, Twilight," she felt desperation creep into her voice. "Really it is." She looked at the floor. "Please don't tell Mom I'm here. I don't wanna go back."

"I won't, I promise," she swore. "I'll keep your secret for as long as you need me to."

"Thanks," she sighed, relieved. There was a long pause. "So, what's with the dragon?"

And like that, the tension was broken.

"His name's Spike. I had to hatch him for my final. I was the only one able to do it," she smiled proudly. "I got the princess to let me keep him."

"He's cute."

"Don't let him hear you say that!" she giggled. "But he is, isn't he?"

"How old is he?"

"A few months. It took me awhile to track him down. The princess had sent all the dragon eggs and him back to the murder* when we were done. But Spike wasn't doing so well. He's different."

"Poor little guy." She could sympathize with being the odd one out.

"Yeah. All the other dragons grew really quickly. Princess Celestia thinks it's my magic that made him so..."

"Pony?" she provided.

"Yeah."

There was a long, awkward pause.

"Shining Armor misses you."

"Ugh!" Rainbow Dash shot up, bright red, tipping her chair backwards. Twilight laughed. "He does! It's actually pretty adorable! When he wasn't freaking out of course! I think he tore Canterlot up looking for you!"

"Twilight! Please!" she whined, covering her face. "Stop!"

"Hahaha! You're blushing! I never thought I'd see the day!"

"Of course I'm blushing!"

"That's adorable!"

"Twilight!"

"He really misses you, you know," she said, taking on a more somber tone. "I don't think it would hurt to let him know you're alright. Spike can send the letter for you. Discreetly, of course."

"No, Twilight. No one but you can know. My whole life could fall into jeopardy."

"But Rain-"

"Bright!"

"Bright, he really misses you. He's really worried. We all were."

"No."

"But-"

"No."

"I just want to-"

"No, Twilight and that's that!"

"Hello, girls," came a familiar voice. "I'm so sorry to interrupt but-"

"Fluttershy! Thank the sun! Let's go!" Rainbow grabbed her yellow friend and began to fly down the stairs. "No!" she called again.

Twilight Sparkle snorted from the doorway.

"Fine. For now. Come again soon, Bright!" she called.

Somehow, Rainbow Dash knew she would.

---

*-A group of dragons may or may not be called a murder. I thought it sounded cool so they are.

And notice, you guys all pretty much agreed on ShiningDash so that's where we're going! Congrats! He's probably going to show up pretty soon. Maybe in the next 3-4 chapters. We want everyone to get nice and settled before we destroy everything they've worked for. *evil laugh*

Feed the author reviews!

AND THE BETA!

And the beta.

*crawls along the floor from hunger*