Twilight and Fluttershy step quickly through the door to the Ponyville library.  The wind had picked up on their way home, so they're freezing cold and just want to get inside by the fire.  The couple walks into the living area to see the fireplace already ablaze, with Spike sleeping soundly on the sofa.  Twilight quietly trots over to him and lays the blanket dangling off the edge of the couch over him while Fluttershy gets herself as close to the hearth of the fireplace as she can.  She stretches her wings and body out to try and warm herself up as quick as possible, quivering a little from all of the physical work that she'd done that day on top of her chilled bones.  

"My wings are killing me...  Those boxes were heavy,"  She says plainly, resting her chin on the top of the fireplace as she slowly begins to absorb the relaxing heat.  "I'm not used to picking stuff up like that."  Fluttershy closes her eyes and feels her body start to loosen up as the warmth permeates every fiber of her being.  Her eyes open as Twilight's hooves wrap around her waist and the unicorn's chin meets with her shoulder.  She turns to look at the lavender mare, who wastes no time in kissing her on the nose.

"Well at least we did our good deed for the day.  I can't imagine losing my home."  Twilight speaks softly into Fluttershy's ear as she warms herself, using the canary pegasus as a conduit.

"Me either.  But I guess at least she and Applejack seem happy.  I think even if I lost everything... uhm, as long as I have you I'd be okay..."  The pegasus feels a very familiar sting behind her cheeks as she mentions such a mushy fact.  Her thoughts wander as usual, but eventually manage to imagine how Courage would have reacted to such a thing.  She focuses on the fact that she's not showing up, even though partially welcome at this moment, and somewhat missed.

"N'aww, you're so sweet."  Twilight gazes softly into Fluttershy's eyes, moving slowly forward and analyzing her movements for signs of approval.  With the mare making it perfectly obvious that the feeling is mutual Twilight kisses Fluttershy, moving to her side and standing in front of the fire with her.  Both of them can feel their hearts beat quicker with each passing moment, and a feeling of euphoria building on itself to bring them further from reality.  Once the kiss breaks they look deep into each others' eyes with longing expressions.  Fluttershy loves the way Twilight looks with the orange light of the fire dancing on her face, casting a moving shadow over her already 'perfect' features.  The pegasus simply sits back and enjoys the view, not feeling any need to push for something else.  Twilight, however, pulls her into another kiss, though somewhat deeper this time.  The moment, wonderful as it is, just so happens to be shattered by Spike as he stirs in his sleep.  

Twilight rolls her eyes and pulls Fluttershy closer.  "Maybe we should head upstairs for a while,"  She whispers in the pegasus's ear and follows with a gentle giggle.  Fluttershy smiles and winks at her, dropping out of the hug and sneaking past the snoozing dragon, headed for the upstairs bedroom ahead of Twilight.  

Rainbow Dash sets down the purple box on the windowsill, carefully laying her pendant on top of it and curling the chain so that it's not hanging.  She sits down on the guest bed and looks at the objects, feeling a little bit silly for hanging onto such old trinkets, and even more so since they hold as much meaning to her as they do.  

She tilts her head back and closes her eyes, taking a few long, deep breaths through her nose.  The air somehow tastes cleaner when you're in a welcome home.  Rainbow looks over to the windowsill, laughing quietly at herself that it was the very same one she used to completely bail on AJ last night.  She can see a bare tree branch outside the window wave in the wind.  Not really acting on deliberation anymore, the pegasus steps lightly over to the window and looks outside.  She hates winter; the holidays are nice but the cold and the deadness of nature really start to weigh on her as it drudges on; she can't wait for wrap-up time.

She unconsciously tilts her head down to look at her two prized possessions.  The engraved metal of the pendant gleams in the soft light of the family home, and the little purple box gives it a gentle square backdrop against the varnished wood of the windowsill.  She picks the objects up and then moves back to the bed, sitting down with them in her lap.  As she manipulates the pendant in her hooves a little, she can hear the unmistakable sound of hoofsteps coming up the stairs.  She smirks a little, moving toward the door and glancing out through the small crack that she had left herself.  Applejack's lethargic climb up the flight of stairs seems to make Dash almost feel bad for not helping out with the nightly chores... almost.  

"Psst!  Hey, AJ!  C'mere!"  She half-whispers out the door, catching the mare's attention.  Applejack gets a slightly better perk in her step as her marefriend calls her over to the room.  

"Whaddya want Rainbow?"  She asks amidst another yawn; shoveling snow after helping Rainbow move all of her things back from the collapsed home really wore the orange pony out.  

"Just wanted to talk... Jeez AJ if you're gonna be like that maybe I should just leave again."  She snickers into her hoof as the earth pony rolls her eyes.  

Applejack spots the box and pendant on the bed and grins a little bit. "Ah... I'd almost forgotten about those...  You know you don't have to tell me about 'em if you don't wanna.  We're all entitled to keep our own little secrets."

"It's not a very interesting secret if nopony knows it...  Besides, I feel like I want to tell you about this.  It's been a little too long since I've really had a chance to talk to anypony about myself..."  

"Well Ah'm flattered that ya trust me so much."

"You kiddin'?  I'd trust you with my life.  Now Rarity on the other hoof... eugh...  I wouldn't tell her my favorite color."

"What is yer favorite color anyhow?"

"Oh, it's uhm... It's blue..."

"Hah!  I always knew ya loved yerself, Rainbow, bringin' it to a whole 'nother level I see?"

"Not like that, AJ...  I like dark blue...  It's calming.  Very different from my usual life..."

"That's fer sure..."

   "Wull what's yours then?"

"Ehm..."  Applejack stutters and hesitates to let this one slip out. "It's... Well, it's purple."

"Now that I never would'a guessed...  I always figured you liked red or green."

"Very funny... Naw, I've been around red and green all my life.  The first time I saw real deep purple was in Manehattan and it just seemed so... regal.  It still has that same feel to me y'know?"

Rainbow, like her usual self, doesn't waste any time in taking advantage of this fact.  She grins mischievously and brings her nose in very close to AJ's, making her look into her own two amethyst eyes.  "I bet you just love these things then dont'cha?"

"Heh, you could say that.  Provided they're not staring at my plot all the dang time."

"Oh you secretly love that."

"Says who?"

"Says the most awesome pony ever."

"Funny, I haven't seen Rarity in some time."

Neither of the pair could handle that sarcastic, jeering joke and both start laughing hysterically.  Applejack and Rainbow have a long-standing tradition of mocking Rarity behind her back.  They still love her dearly, but they also love to joke at her expense.

They calm down and Rainbow wraps her forelegs around Applejack's waist, looking her in the eyes and kissing her softly on the muzzle.  

"So then..."  Applejack speaks in a very gentle and calm tone, having let the stress of the day melt away with almost no effort.

Rainbow smiles and lets her face relax, not particularly happy about the things she keeps, but very much so about the fact that she can talk to somepony else.  "Well...  First the locket."  She picks up the silver thing, clicking the side and letting the small spring-loaded hinge pop open.  Applejack tilts her head down and rests it on Rainbow's shoulder, looking into her hooves and letting her eyes wander over the trinket.  She focuses on a very tiny picture of Rainbow Dash as a filly, sitting in the lap of a pink pony with a dark blue mane.  

"This your ma?"  Applejack reaches her hoof around Rainbow's waist and rests it on her hip, pulling her close and holding her there.

"Yeah...  It was..."

"Did somethin' happen?"

"There was an accident when I was still really young...  I barely remember her, but every time I look at this picture I know she loved me."

Applejack doesn't really know what to say.  She looks up to the pegasus and notices her eyes starting to well up with tears.  "You have her eyes..."  This makes Rainbow crack a smile, but she doesn't say anything.  "I take it your dad wasn't around too much?"

"He was...  But he didn't take losing her very well...  neither of us did.  He was always either sad or... or mad... and he never went and did anything with anypony else... me included.  He just bottled it all up and drank it away until he e-e-explo--"  Her reminiscing is interrupted by a pained gasp.  One tear from each eye streams down her cheeks and her voice becomes shaky.  She's trying not to cry but losing very, very badly.  

"I'm here, Sugar Cube...  You don't have to try and bottle it up for yourself no-more."  She places her other hoof on the mare's shoulder, hugging her tight and not letting her go.  As if by instinct Rainbow throws her forelegs around Applejack and breaks down completely.  Every painful memory rushes back into her mind, as well as every lonely night.  Every single time she'd ever want to cry that she just pushed down into herself.  Every single time she flew away just to feel the air across her body and calm down.  The night she ran away to join Flight School just to get away from it all.  Her repressed memories that had haunted her subconscious finally find a chance to surface, but at least she's in the arms of the one she loves.

Applejack sits with her and strokes her mane, still holding her close and trying not to speak too much.  Something about the strong, yet soft body of the earth pony gives her a loving quality like nopony else.  She knows that anypony walking past the door could probably hear the poor pegasus sobbing, and just hopes that Apple Bloom doesn't decide to make one of her trademark entrances.  

It takes a few minutes but the pained sobbing soon calms down into a steady rhythm of sniffling and heavy breaths.  Applejack even feels her eyes start to sting a little from the emotion in the air.  She hugs the pegasus extra tight one more time before pushing her just far enough away to look her in the face.  Rainbow tries not to make eye contact; she hates being seen like this, even with somepony she trusts.  

"Rainbow...  You've gotta be the strongest mare I know to have put up with so much and still managed to become who you are today."  

The appeal to her ego helps to try and bring her out of the slump, but such a painful past doesn't go away so easily.  "Thank you..."

"Yer welcome Sugar Cube...  If this is too much we can stop there.  I don't want to push you into anywhere you don't wanna go."

"I think this is good though..."  She rubs her foreleg against her nose and sniffles loudly again, having calmed down from the waterworks but still retaining the look of a miserable pony.  "I probably should talk about it with somepony.  Can't be bottling that up forever... right?"  

"Wull... yeah, but pace yourself, Rainbow... No need to go everywhere all at once, not if it's gonna hurt you."

The pegasus huffs out a small chuckle. "Have you even met me?  I don't know the meaning of the phrase 'pace yourself' AJ."

"This ain't a race, Rainbow."

"Nah, I know that... but it feels good to get it out."

"If you say so...  But anything you decide you don't wanna say right now... well, I'll always be here to talk whenever you need it though, you keep that in mind."

"Will do, AJ."  Rainbow lays the pendant aside very gently and moves the small purple box into her lap.  She unhooks the tiny clip that holds it shut and doesn't do anything else.  She looks over to Applejack with a slightly frowning face and plainly says, "Promise me you won't laugh..."

"Of course I promise that Sugar-Cube, why would I laugh?"

"Just because it's so... simple...  and kinda silly.  I don't usually cling onto things..."

"We all need things to cling onto, Rainbow."  Applejack gives her a soft glance and then averts her gaze back toward the box.  

Rainbow sighs and takes a deep breath, pulling open the lid to reveal a wad of dark blue satin cloth.  She gingerly uncovers a very small, semi-crude, and obviously hoof-made stuffed Wonderbolt pony.  The outfit is their slightly older one from before the upgrade to yellow lightning bolts on a dark blue backdrop.  Applejack reasons that it must be nearly as old as Rainbow Dash herself.  Beneath it lies a tiny note, one that has clearly seen the ravages of time and reads:

Dear Dashie,  

Reach for the skies sweetheart,

The only thing that can limit you is yourself.  

Love Always, ~Mom

Just the sight of the plush toy drives Rainbow to quiver a little more, but Applejack won't let her go.  

"This is all I have to remember her by..."  Her eyes stay remarkably dry, but her voice betrays the obvious sadness that's crushing her heart.  "She made this for me...  She gave it to me for my birthday just a few days before the accident and... and I promised her I'd never ever lose it."  The final straw.  The pegasus breaks down once again and gently places the note and toy back into the box, closing it up with the care that only a child-bearer could present, and sets it aside.

Applejack, having been empathizing with the pony for this whole ordeal, feels her own eyes begin to sting and blur with the onset of tears.  "I had no idea you were so sentimental, Dash..."  

The two of them reflect nervous smiles in each other, sharing emotions and love.  They find comfort and solace in each other, being able to share a side of themselves that they never share with anypony else.  As well, they find it impossible to resist ending their moment with a very deep, passionate, and emotionally charged kiss.  The heat of the moment drives them closer than they'd ever been.

Twilight pulls her face away from Fluttershy's chest.  The couple has their forelegs entwined together with Fluttershy splayed out on Twilight's bed.  The pegasus rests her eyes as she lays comfortably on the soft thing, somewhat sore from the unusual amount of physical exercise that she had put out.  Twilight works her hooves in just behind Fluttershy's outstretched wings, gently massaging the sore muscles for her while listening in on her heartbeat.  The canary mare is oddly calm at the moment, simply relaxing and enjoying the attention.  The lavender mare actually manages to put some of her book-born knowledge to use with pegasus anatomy; she knows just the right spots to put pressure on to make Fluttershy melt.  

"That gets better and better each time, Fluttershy."  Twilight mumbles into the pegasus's coat.  She looks up to her and smiles, still working her hooves in circles around Fluttershy's wings.  

"It certainly does..."  The pegasus tilts her head down and smiles at Twilight.  The lavender mare rests her elbows on the bed and props herself up, pulling her body up Fluttershy's and meeting her muzzle for a kiss.

"So you did you decide whether or not you wanted me to study you while you slept tonight?"  

"Eager huh?" The canary pegasus giggles and wraps her forelegs around Twilight's back to hold her close.

"What can I say?  Your mind fascinates me."  Twilight grins kisses Fluttershy's nose; she promptly blushes and smiles at the unicorn.

"Well... Will you be able to join me?"  

"I uhm... Probably shouldn't, but I guess the EEG could just be given 8 hours of paper or so and let go on its own..."

"You don't have to if it would be too much trouble..."

"No no.  Now you've got me wanting to."  Twilight smiles and winks at the mare.  "I'll figure it out, all you have to do is put on the headpiece and go to sleep.  I'll be right beside you as soon as I can."

"That means a lot to me, Twilight...  I'm just a little scared."

"What's there to be scared of?  It's only a dream, you'll be perfectly safe.  To make it better I'll be right here with you when you wake up."

"Alright...  Where's the uhm... EEG, was it?"

"Just downstairs in the basement, I used a modified version of it on Pinkie to try and figure her 'Pinkie Sense' out but that was worthless...  It's been mostly unused ever since."

"S-should we head down?"

"Yeah...  As much as this fascinates me though I'm finding it hard to pull myself away from you and get to work right now."  Twilight giggles and rolls off of the pegasus, stretching her muscles and standing to trot downstairs.  Fluttershy, having nopony else to talk to since Courage started leaving her alone, follows suit, keeping almost perfect pace with the unicorn.  They sneak past the still snoozing Spike and head into the basement of the library.  Fluttershy quietly finds a spot that's out-of-the-way enough as Twilight uses her telekinesis to move and adjust the massive piece of machinery.  After a violent grinding noise that surely woke up the irritable baby dragon upstairs, Twilight moves on to get a spare mattress out of a nearby closet in the library basement.  Instead of setting up any kind of bed frame, Twilight simply drops it on the concrete floor and drapes a fresh pair of sheets and a comforter over the thing.  

"Okay... I'm gonna have to ask you to put on these extremely uncomfortable and unfashionable electrodes...  Sorry about that."

Fluttershy laughs and picks up the net of wires and plastic, glancing over it and then draping it over her head. "Oh I dunno, this isn't so bad..."

"You look like such a dork."

"Says the purple bookworm."

"Touche..."

Twilight steps over to the block of hardware and switches it on, feeding as much paper as she can fit into a large compartment toward the top.  She asks the pegasus to lay down and get comfortable, checking to make sure she has a base reading for her brainwaves before stepping over to her.  Fluttershy rolls onto her side and tucks her wings tight against her flanks, Twilight positions herself behind the mare and pulls her into a hug.  The spooning ponies both slowly attempt to sleep; no simple venture considering the whirring mass of lit-up metal not ten feet away from them.  

Twilight is the first to drift into slumber, and Fluttershy can feel the relaxed, calming breath on the back of her neck.  The closer and closer she gets to sleep, the more she can feel the world around her fade away.  No dreaming, no observation, very little thought outside of her own worries.  All that happens is a total disappearance of her world.  Once more she finds herself falling in the black abyss, unable to move her wings or body and unable to see anything but the bright colors of her coat contrast to darkness.  She doesn't know precisely when she fell into her dream-state, and for the time being she has no idea that she's truly in a dream-state, but she does feel as if time has no passage in this place and notices a few things amiss.  She lands on the familiar nonexistent floor and looks off into the distance, whichever distance out of infinite ones that is.  She finds one single speck in the entire spectrum of darkness: her home.  The tree in which Fluttershy resides sits calmly in the dark void, no wind to rustle its leaves and no ground to hide its roots.  She steps toward the speck, and it seemingly rushes to meet her, for she's at the threshold of the door in no time at all.

The shy pony reaches forward and turns the knob, opening it very slowly to hear some other ponies rustling around inside.  She chews her lower lip nervously and looks inside, only to see what appears to be two nearly exact copies of herself having some inexplicable argument.

"Why did you drag her down here?  She's not even going to know how to manifest this place, what were you thinking?"  One of the 'Fluttershy's asks.  Upon closer inspection, this one seems to have a unicorn horn as well as no wings.

"Chill out, Numbers."  The extremely familiar voice of Courage falls out of the second pony's muzzle.  This one hasn't any wings and appears almost exactly as Fluttershy saw her the first visit.  From what she can gather, these are the only two here, and so goes in to meet them, fearing the worst.  

"Ah, Fluttershy.  You're here,"  The unicorn that Courage referred to as "Numbers" replies.  "Very nice to finally meet you...  I'm sorry you had to join us down here in such odd circumstances but I'm afraid this ruffian thought it would be a good idea to simply drag you into this place without any desire or preparation."

"W-w-where are we?"  Fluttershy stutters and pleas, shivering in a slight terror at the unfamiliar and unwelcoming environment outside.

"Oh dear... You still have no idea do you?  Well, Fluttershy, you're inside the portion of your mind that contains myself, Courage, and previously, your ideal self.  You can call it your psyche if you like...  But the reason it's so dark outside the home is because you have no idea how to envision this place.  Normally somepony who enters the realm of their on mind does so by choice through a lucid dream or extremely potent meditation, but you were taken in forcibly."

"Don't forget drugs.  If you take the right stuff you can find yourself in this place for days at a time having all sorts of awesome conversations with ponies and objects that don't really exist."  Courage chimes in as she 'reorganizes' the shelves full of illegible books, seemingly only to annoy the unicorn.

"Stop that!"  The obviously intellectual pony uses her magic to undo every single change that Courage had made and freeze the books in place.

"S-so I'm in my mind?"  Fluttershy tries to capture their attention long enough to get some answers.

"Yes and no, you're in the part of your mind devoted to your personality.  Not the part devoted to thinking.  On to business though, we're miss--"  

Courage interrupts the unicorn-Fluttershy with a brash statement, "There were three of us but now there's two, through a series of unfortunate events you've managed to repress your ideal self.  I like to call her Supershy, she's a real sweet kid but just as fiery as I am...  Having her gone for a while was really nice, but being stuck in here with nopony but Numbers here to talk to just gets... awful after a while."

"How can she be 'missing' if she's a part of my mind?"

"Well, Fluttershy..."  Numbers interrupts; it seems to the pegasus they can't both speak at the same time, or at least have some kind of mutual respect.  "Whenever you have a pony that goes... crazy...  It's because they're missing something in their head.  This doesn't mean it's gone, just that it's not where it's supposed to be.  We're not actually ponies, and this isn't actually your home.  Nor is this space a black void of nothingness, or well... Now it seems to be the Everfree Forest..."

Fluttershy looks out the window to see, unmistakably, the depths of the Everfree Forest surrounding her home in the middle of the night.  

"You're in a place that's scary and unknown to you, just like the Everfree forest, so that's how you see it."  Brash once again, Courage gives a simple explanation to her current conundrum.  

"Yes...  And we're simply components to your personality, we're not actually ponies... but you need somepony to tell it to you or else your mind would scramble itself trying to comprehend the idea of pure information... so you run it all through the filter of  what I have to say is one of the most bizarre dreams you've ever had..."

"So...  Where's uhm... Supershy?"  

"Well...  That's not really easy to explain."  Numbers stands up and steps toward the bookshelf that Courage was muddling up.  "Step over here and I'll just show you..."