After traversing through the dangerous storms of the Thunder Plains, the party had entered the Macalania Woods. The trees, leaves, and the floor of the forest seemed to be made out of crystal, glittering faintly in the dim lighting shining through the clear foliage. As soon as they were far enough away from the thunderstorms, Pinkie was back to her energetic self, her mane and tale inflating back to its poofy style.

"Whew! No more thunder! Yay!" Pinkie bounded on ahead, Rainbow and Rarity lagging behind as the pegasus had so many thoughts running through her head.

"You're worried about Fluttershy, aren't you?" Rarity asked, Rainbow Dash's silence all the answer she needs. "We're all in the same boat, Rainbow. All of us are concerned."

"Then why the hay did you all just agree to this marriage?" Rainbow asked back. "This is by far the dumbest thing Fluttershy has ever thought of to make everypony in Spira happy. Isn't stopping Sin enough?"

"Nopony truly knows what true happiness is. Fluttershy is naive, never asks for help as every single living being relies on her to save the day...Even she doesn't like the idea of marrying Blueblood." Rainbow growled as Rarity began speaking cryptically again.

"Then she should just say no! It's like she's being forced into marrying him! I don't want that to happen!" the pegasus shouted.

"Because you love Fluttershy?" Rainbow stammered as she blushed, unable to hide it any longer as she lowered her head. "...You're bad at running away from things, including your feelings." She didn't say anything as her ears drooped. "Don't look away from the harsh reality in front of you. Things tend to happen because of the choices a pony makes. Stories either continue with the next chapter, or they end abruptly with an epilogue never expected to happen."

"...I don't understand what's with you and stories. Is this supposed to be some kind of metaphor or something? Cause it's really ticking me off more than Fluttershy wanting to marry Blueblood just to make everypony else happy." Rarity didn't reply, walking back to the others and leaving Rainbow more confused than ever. "And just leave me without any answers...Find the answers on my own, huh? How can I find answers when everything around me just gets more complicated?"

She caught up with the group and made their way across the winding trail of roots. The fiends in the Macalania Woods were tougher than any others in the previous areas, dealing massive amounts of magical damage or annoying status ailments, like poison or silence. It was a bit hilarious to see Twilight unable to actually speak while inflicted with silence, though it mostly hindered her ability to use her magic to easily take care of elementally weak foes.

Rainbow hovered over the others as they walked along the winding maze of roots, incredibly bored as she overlooked the pathway for any fiends while still conflicted about everything since coming here to Spira. Up ahead, she spotted a familiar white and buff pegasus stallion, running in the opposite direction in a blind panic. Ironically, Trixie wasn't with him, either something happened to the unicorn summoner or she laid Bulk Biceps off because of his overbounding muscle mass.

"Hey!" He ran up to the party, looking all around to find no sign of his summoner. "Have you guys seen Trixie anywhere!?"

"No. What happened?" Fluttershy asked.

"I don't know!" the stallion guardian shouted. "We got separated as soon as we got here in Macalania! I've looked all over, and I can't find her! I'm the worst guardian in the history of guardianship!"

Rarity walked up to the freaked out stallion, slapping him in the face. "Calm down. In order to find your summoner, you have to control your emotions. Lose your cool, then you'll lose your head. Understand?"

"...Y-You're right," Bulk said, immediately calmed down by his idol. "I lost myself. Thank you, Lady Rarity! I always looked up to you for a reason!"

He bowed to her and ran past them, determined to find Trixie. Pinkie was about to chase after him, but stopped. "Uhh, Pinkie? What were ya doin'?" Applejack asked.

"...I uhh...wanted to wish him good luck!" Pinkie giggled nervously, getting back with the group as they continued on their way.

Now Pinkie was acting strange again. Though, as Rainbow thought, Pinkie was always strange since the day she met her, but everything she's done after being reunited with her again just fell under the suspicious category of strange. The Al Bhed mare tried to kidnap Fluttershy, no sign of the other stallion who was helping her after destroying her machina, rumors of summoners disappearing are actually true, and now Trixie was somehow gone, though her guardian was still alive.

The pegasus growled, getting a migraine. Over a week being in Spira has already gotten her nearly killed several times, learning all the terrible and pointless customs of this world of chaos and destruction, and finding nothing logical is applied to the use of machina, stopping Sin, and Blueblood's proposal to Fluttershy to make Spira overlook the sorrow and depression they were suffering in. It was bad enough memories of her past resurfaced, her hatred toward her father growing stronger after learning he was now Sin, somehow, and remembering how much her mother had suffered after he disappeared.

Her emotions were going to tip over the breaking point again, wanting to scream it all out. Take it out on something, somepony, anything. While lost in her overwhelming thoughts and memories of her youth and the horrible events that happened recently, the party down below were fighting one of the toughest fiends that roamed the Macalania Woods; a chimera, a bipedal fiend with the heads of a bull, an eagle, a wolf, and a snake as the tail. Looking down, she saw the perfect dummy to vent out her anger.

Pulling out her blade, she screamed ferociously as she dove down onto it, slicing off the bull head clean off. Before it or the others could react, she slashed into the beast, cutting off the snake head on the chimera's tail, then repeatedly thrust her sword deep into its chest several times, even as it fell from her blind fury. Her thrusts slowly died down as the fiend disappeared in a flurry of spirits, panting heavily.

"...Rainbow?" She turned her head to look at her friends, more specifically at Fluttershy. She was really concerned about her, as well as the others with her sudden berserk state. "Are you alright?"

"...No." Rainbow looked away, unable to look at the summoner. It wasn't out of spite or anger toward Fluttershy for her decision. As much as she wouldn't want to admit it, Rarity was right as she had been fleeing from her own feelings; she lashed out not in anger, but in sadness and confusion. "I saved you from that thing...It was about to attack you..."

She trudged forward on the path, not feeling up to flying anymore, the others catching up to her, but giving her some space. Rainbow just wanted something to go right for once. No conflicts. No death or remembrance of those she knew who died. No Blueblood. No Sin. But this was the world she had to live in now, and it only made her more miserable with each day, no matter how much she hid her true feelings away.

After finally making it through the winding root trails of the forest, they were getting closer to Macalania, feeling the temperature drop as it got colder. Before she could venture further, Rarity grabbed Rainbow's tail with her magic, dragging her back to some crystal roots blocking a pathway.

"Hold on, darling." Rainbow groaned, not wanting to stay in the forest any longer. "I want to show you all something, especially you, Rainbow Dash."

"What?" she asked.

Rarity pulled out her diamond katana, slashing her way through the bark of the trees until the path was clear. The others followed the unicorn to a special spring, the water similar to what was used to create those recording spheres back in Luca.

"This place is where spheres are made, preserving the memories of ponies with each one made. Jet Stream left one here ten years ago." While the others were amazed, curious to know what Jet had made, Rainbow wasn't all that interested. Suddenly, from the water, a massive sphere of liquid seeped up and floated in front of them, a nucleus resting in the center of the strange amoeba fiend. "Although, fiends also like to come around here, especially Spherimorphs like these."

"Spherimorphs!?" Twilight exclaimed. "My magic is useless against them!"

"It's a giant ball of water, Twilight!" Rainbow shouted, pulling out her sword. "Just zap it with lightning!"

Before she could lunge at the inanimate fiend, Twilight pulled Rainbow's tail and dragged her back. "No, you don't understand, Rainbow! I can't use any magic unless I know what spell it casts! If I use the wrong spell, I'll end up healing the Spherimorph instead! Even weapons imbued with elemental properties won't work as well! And these fiends use 'Shift', changing their element to something else to confuse its prey, or keep it the same without any physical changes to its body!" While in her panicking lecture, she snapped out of her shock when she saw the bubbles forming out of Rainbow's blade. "...Wait, since when did the sword do that?"

"Ask Pinkie," the pegasus grumbled. "So, I'm useless as well, having no other weapons to help fight!? Perfect!"

"Rainbow Dash, you can assist the others," Fluttershy said to try and help make the sour pegasus feel better. "Maybe you know some spells?"

"I DON'T KNOW MAGIC!" she shouted, having no clue how to even use any magic when the others clearly could.

"Let's just kill this thing before it kills us!" Spike rushed forward, spear in hand, thrusting it into the floating amoeba.

As soon as he leapt back, the fiend countered the purple dragon by firing a spell, freezing him with ice. Taking the advantage as she saw what spell the Spherimorph used, Twilight cast a Fira spell, dealing a good amount of damage to it. The nucleus began to shudder as its clear blue body began to glow green for a seconds, then return back to normal.

"And it just shifted," Twilight mumbled, no clue what its element is now.

"Well, as long as we're findin' out what it uses, we'll hopefully take care of this thing before it takes care of us!" Applejack struck it with her blitzball, getting burnt by a countered fire spell.

Twilight was just about to cast Blizzara, but the fiend was too quick using Shift, changing its element and leaving it as a mystery again. "Urgh! This thing is a nightmare!" Spherimorph began to hover over everyone, changing its body's shape into a large block. "And it's gonna crush us."

"INCOMING!" Pinkie screamed as everyone scattered just in time before the fiend could crush them. As they recovered, the mare had a crazy idea, but she didn't know if she could pull it off revealing who she was. "I have an idea! All we gotta do is-OH NO! CHIMERA BEHIND US TO ASSIST THE SPHERIMORPH!"

Everyone panicked as they looked in the opposite direction, except for Rainbow, still sulking even after avoiding getting crushed. While they weren't looking, Pinkie pulled out a few grenades she kept safely in her tail, pulling out their pins and shoving them all deep in Spherimorph's liquid body, planting them right next to its core. Thankfully, the explosions were muffled inside its body as they blew up, destroying the nucleus as its form shuddered to try and keep itself solid.

Its body began to melt down into liquid as the remains of the core disappeared, spirits flying out of the used to be amoeba. "...I can't believe the others actually fell for that," Rainbow mumbled.

"I saved the day!" The others turned around to see the spirits floating out from where the fiend used to be, Pinkie doing a victory pose. Whatever it was Pinkie did, they were glad she dealt with it. Behind the Al Bhed, a small sphere dropped down from out of nowhere, the pink mare turning to look at it. "Hey! It's a sphere!"

She showed the others, which seemed pretty old and worn out. "That's Jet's sphere. Just what we were looking for." While Twilight, Fluttershy, and Applejack were excited to see what was on it, Rainbow didn't want to know what her father had recorded. "Play it."

With no choice, Rainbow took the sphere from Pinkie and played it.

As the sphere began playing back its recording, it showed Jet Stream looking into it, testing to see if it was working. "Ok...I have no clue how the hay this thing works. Whatever happened to a 'Record' button with a lens to view from?"

"What in Spira are you doing?" The camera turned around, recording a younger Rarity without the scar and sunglasses and Kindred Heart approaching the stallion, walking away from a grand city.

"It's gonna be a long trip, right? I thought I'd record our adventure to show my wife and daughter." Rarity groaned, shaking her head as she sneered at the pegasus recording them. "By the way, Kindred, where the hay's the celebratory farewell!? No cheering fans? No crying mares worried for your safety? No mares to spend a night with before leaving? Oh wait. We have Rarity to fit that role."

"How dare you!?" The unicorn fumed, pulling out a diamond from her robes.

"What? You gonna throw a gem at me?" Jet taunted.

He ate his own words as Rarity's aura surrounded the rich gem, transforming it into her patented diamond katana. "Ever hear of transmutation?" Behind the sphere, Jet shook his head, his terrified look unable to be seen in the sphere's recording. "Well, I'm sure you know the meaning of 'castration' and 'neutering', because I will do that to you if you cross me."

"Rarity, relax," Kindred said, resting a hoof on the disgruntled mare's shoulder. "I chose the both of you as my guardians for a reason. Your strong for a mare of your stature, and Jet can provide us some entertainment on our pilgrimage. And to answer your question, Jet...I don't like long goodbyes." The summoner looked back at the city sadly. "It makes leaving more difficult, thinking twice about their decisions."

"...Whatever. But after we beat Sin, we're gonna party hard!" Jet cheered as he flew up, the recording ending at that point.

The sphere flickered on again as it now showed Macalania Lake, snow falling down in the area as Jet and Rarity were in front of another Al Bhed Travel Agency. The pegasus stallion posed as they were being filmed, though the unicorn mare leered at him from a distance.

"Rarity, stand next to Jet Stream," Kindred said from behind the sphere.

"I'd rather not," Rarity muttered, able to be heard by the sphere.

"Aww, come on, Rares! I don't bite!...Hard." Jet Stream wiggled his eyebrows at Rarity, making her growl. His attempts to flirt with the young mare falling flat on his face, he turned his head back to Kindred. "Hey, Kindred! You should make one of these for little Flutters! She'll love to see her dad beat Sin over and over again! Plus, she's as cute as a button, more adorable than any fan I've ever had!"

Jet squished his cheeks together in his hooves as he gushed over Fluttershy. "You know you have your own daughter, right?" Kindred asked. "I'm sure she's just as cute."

"Psh! Dash!? She's nothing but a pain, always crying and whining about everything!" Jet crossed his hooves and looked away from the sphere. "With my career as a blitzball star, she could have had anything she wanted, but instead, she just keeps complaining about what I do."

"Can we please move on!?" Rarity exclaimed. "We're wasting enough time as we speak!"

"Hey, lighten up, Rarity," Jet said, only further angering the unicorn with his arrogance. "We got plenty of time. I think you need to get laid, get rid of that bug stuck up your plot."

"THAT'S IT! I'm going to kill you, you sick excuse of a stallion!" Rarity shrieked as she lunged at the pegasus, beating Jet as he tried to defend himself from the surprisingly strong unicorn.

"Rarity, stop!" Kindred ran up to them as the sphere shut down, ending the recording.

"...So, you wanted me to see my dad acting like an idiot? On a sphere?" Rainbow Dash questioned Rarity.

"Wait, Dashie! There's still some more left on here!" Sighing, she looked back at the sphere as the rest of the recording continued playing.

As the sphere resumed playing, it showed the same spring everyone was currently at. The sphere was placed down on the ground, slightly lopsided as Jet Stream came into view, sporting a black eye from his scuffle with Rarity earlier. He sat down, looking a little conflicted as he cleared his throat.

"Uhh...Hey, Dash. I don't know if you'll ever get this, but...if you're watching this...then you're stuck here in Spira, like me." He looked down at his hooves, rubbing the back of his head. "...I wouldn't blame you if you start crying, lost in this strange world. But, there are times where you have to stop crying and be an adult, move on with the crap you've been dealt with.

"And remember...You're my daughter. And I...uhhh..." Jet took in a deep breath as he struggled to find the words to say. "I...I lo-...Mrf, forget it. I'm not good at this sappy stuff." He stood up and quickly approached the sphere, picking it up and holding it closer to see his slightly bruised face. "Anyways...just take care of your mom for me, if you can...Be a good girl...And...yeah. Bye."

He turned the sphere around and recorded the forest around the spring for a few seconds before ending the recording, ending the last of the playback on the sphere.

Rainbow stared at the sphere, then back at Rarity. The others were pretty shocked at Jet's immaturity when Kindred Heart began his pilgrimage, who was just as clueless as the pegasus mare before them when she arrived in Besaid.

"Jet always talked about Zanarkand on our pilgrimage," Rarity said. "He wanted to show you everything Spira had to offer, but as he went along with us, he had changed from the immature, drunk, egotistical, and perverted blitzball star he used to be and became a different pony. He was a lot more tolerable as he viewed Spira in a whole new light, staying by Kindred Heart's side to the end of his journey to defeat Sin."

"...So...he gave up trying to get home?" Rainbow asked.

Rarity nodded, and the pegasus knew the rest. Jet Stream became Sin, and runs amok in the world, ruining others lives against his will. He accepted his fate quicker than Rainbow did, and she still wanted to believe she could go home, even if it was a false hope. The others left the spring, mostly to give Rainbow Dash some time to reflect on her father's message, Rarity staying behind as she watched the confused pegasus look down at the sphere.

"Your father loved you, Rainbow Dash. He just wasn't able to express it that well." The young blitzballer cringed, wanting to smash the sphere to pieces, but couldn't bring herself to do it. "He really had changed."

"Enough about my dad!" she shouted. "If you think this is going to change my mind about him, it doesn't!"

"...I just wanted you to know. You'll change as well further on down the line." Rarity turned away and walked out of the area, leaving Rainbow Dash behind with Jet's sphere.

She wanted to smash it, hack it up with her sword, get rid of anything that had her father's face on it. She ruined her life, got her mother killed because of his disappearance, actually insulted her in front of Rarity and Kindred Heart ten years ago, liking Fluttershy more than her, and he thought acting like a father at the end of this sphere was going to change her perspective on the stallion that caused her so much emotional pain. But she couldn't, no matter how much she wished she could destroy it.

Instead, she put the sphere away in one of her pockets. Rainbow had no clue why she's keeping it. Either to keep it as fuel to unleash her rage against him on some unfortunate fiend, or some part of her wants to forgive him for his faults. The latter was quickly erased from her mind, not wanting to ever forgive him no matter how much he apologized, catching up with the others as they were about to head to Macalania Lake before Rarity dragged them to a detour on their journey. Next Chapter: Chapter 27: Pinkie's Secret Revealed Estimated time remaining: 7 Hours, 33 Minutes