Dash stretched her hooves and looked at her work. The wall that had caged them in stood with a large hole that could technically be squeezed through. Technically since she stared down at her yellow body and sighed, mentally chiding herself for eating one too many sweet treats these last few weeks since her hips just barely fit in the hole. Rainbow yawned, her eyes heavy and tired. Glancing out at the rising sun coming up over the Crystal Mountains, she pushed Fluttershy awake with the edge of her hoof and started to arrange her little message to Starlight.

Fluttershy wiped the sleep from her eyes and yawned. "Just a few more minutes."

Dash rolled her eyes. She knew her own body's reaction to sleep but being on the other end felt weird. "Come on, Shy. It's morning. Any longer and Starlight'd be up being all creepy."

Fluttershy rolled over and blew her medium length hair out of her face. "Yeah, but I finally just got to sleep. You know how hard a wooden floor is?"

Dash finished her masterful retort and looked back at Shy. "Yeah. And I"m the one that offered to have you sleep on the bed, but you said it was even worse."

Fluttershy rubbed her neck and stretched out her wings with a sharp pop. "Ow." She rubbed her joints. "At least with the floor I didn't feel like it was going to fall apart at any moment."

Dash looked at the ramshackle bed and cracked a sardonic smile, her tone full of sarcasm. "Starlight's a great host. Really wish the hotel situation here was better though, leaves a bit to be desired. I mean this is so much better than Manehattan and Savoy Row." Dash laughed.

Fluttershy cocked her head. "What?"

Dash blearily looked at her friend. "Just a bad joke I found funny." Dash checked out her yellow hooves, noticing the cracks and red blood staining parts of the floor. Grimly noticing the worn down state of her hooves, she gingerly touched them and felt numb pain as she ran over scabbed sections of it. "I really did a number on your hooves. I mean my hooves?" Dash shook her head."Celestia, I'm exhausted."

Fluttershy's eyes showed concern. "You know we don't have to leave. We could-"

Dash raised a tired and aching hoof. "And what? Tell Starlight we just wanted to open up some air in out room? I mean look at the wall." Dash gestured towards it. "It's not like we can just say 'oops, I broke down a wall and spelled out some mean message to you.' like that's not a fantastic plan."

Fluttershy frowned and stared at the message Dash had carefully laid out in planks of wood on the floor and felt a headache come on. "Dash, I thought we talked about not antagonizing anypony here."

Rainbow blew her long pink mane out of her face. "I remember that, but also I remember the pony we don't want to antagonize messed up Canterlot, intimidated you, and also brutally had Twilight beat up and our friends sent off to that giant mountain right nearby. So sorry I'm acting my least good self right now- but it's not the best time to be nice and wait." Dash breathed and noticed Fluttershy's body language close up as she stopped. "I mean, uh, I personally would say that was a great idea but if you wanted to, I'd be up for it." Dash tried smiling.

Fluttershy shook her head. "I get it, Rainbow."

"I mean you don't sound really convinced."

Fluttershy lay a hoof on Dash's shoulder. "Rainbow, like continue being the pony I know you are and just do what feels right. I'd tell you if I thought you were being an idiot."

Rainbow chuckled. "Shy, you've never called me an idiot."

Fluttershy leaned up and looked Dash in the eye. "Cause you aren't stupid. Now are we going to get out of here or not?"

Starlight smiled as she woke up from bed, her notes were all compiled away in her head. She decided to do that just so there wasn't some random pony scrounging around and casting a high level time spell without her permission. The last few days had taught her to be paranoid at that thought. She was slinging around high level magic and having that turn on her in any unforeseen way now made her stay awake that much longer.

Rolling out of bed with a prepared smile and checking if her painted on cutie mark was applied and dry, she winked at herself in the mirror and whistled a tune that Sunburst taught her all those years ago. Something about some old nursery rhyme about a shadow pony or something. She never was too into fairy tales, so the meaning was lost when Sunburst babbled on about it. Easier to see the influences of old artifacts and ponies, not some legend of the Pillars of Equestria fighting a cloud of evil. Sounded too much like some old author thought they were writing about Nightmare Moon or Sombra.

Clearing her head, she quickly teleported to Moondancer's door. She decided to cut out the chance for one of her ponies to ask some silly little question about morality or something. Quickly knocking on the door, she waited for Moondancer to speak.

"Come on in, I guess."

Starlight pressed open the door and noticed Moondancer lazily twirling the small mirror in her room in her hooves. "I see you found the mirror, now can we talk about yesterday?" Starlight had decided that the unicorn should have calmed down from her emotional high.

Moondancer flipped her blood red and deep purple mane with a hoof. "I've been thinking about it a lot and I don't want to murder you. So let's let bygones be bygones and team up."

Starlight cocked her head, believing it just was too good to be true. Sure she had been planning for the last day to have Moondancer help out and experiment on her prisoners, but she planned to use mind control. "But you said before you definitely didn't want to help me. With very strong words and. . ." Starlight let the thought go unfinished. She was too taken aback to put up her normal facade of calm- the boiling confusion trumped reason as she looked at Moondancer just sitting there. Smiling and fully calm.

Moondancer chuckled. "I know what I said before, but with this whole-" She hastily pointed to her chest. "thing right in there down deep, I guess I just had to sit around and be really, really bored and reassess my life." Moondancer set down her mirror and yawned. "Though do you blame me? Having your life flipped upside down like this really does a number on a pony."

Starlight checked if her mind spell still worked, silently casting it and feeling Moondancer's mind pliable. So if the worst came to worst, and with the ring still on the other unicorn's head, she could use her any way she needed. She wasn't scared of Moondancer, no way, just cautious. "Yeah, that makes sense. . .I think." Starlight awkwardly smiled. "I mean nopony's integrated amulets into others before so technically I could see this make all the sense in the world."

Moondancer nodded her head. "Now, you still did some heinous things to get here, but hey, the reasoning is solid. So let's talk about what we can get out of this over breakfast I hope cause oh Celestia am I starving."

Starlight rubbed her eyes. "I. . .hold on a minute." Starlight quickly teleported to the hallway, her mind reeling. Maybe she hadn't had the requisite amount of coffee or the bottles of wine she had drank the night before but it felt like everything was coming up too well. "Okay, just have to check on those two." Starlight booked it over to their room. Space was an a premium and stashing prisoners took time and a lot of security. Starlight quietly opened the door and looked in.

And saw a big gaping hole.

She quickly closed the door, took a moment to breathe, opened the door one more time to check if her eyes didn't deceive her, and screamed.

Moondancer smiled as she heard Starlight's high pitched wail. It just sounded so right. While she wasn't the one who caused it at that exact moment, at least the unicorn knew she could make a sound like that. As if each plan slowly unraveled into dust as time moved ever forward.

Moondancer tried on her nice emotion and slunk into the hallway, the sound guiding her each and every move. She noticed a large bolted door as she went through the hallway, the room in this stuffy place far larger than she had expected- she noted that for later. She could always run with plan B or C. She liked those plans- those were the flashy ones.

She breathed and walked into the room that Starlight's voice was coming from. Starlight stood there like a child screaming at somepony who took her ball. How fitting. Moondancer decided that while she loved the sound of Starlight breaking under the slightest of unforeseen circumstances, she'd rather not have little miss unicorn shred her vocal chords over a silly thing. So with all the force she could muster, she decided to smack Starlight as hard as she could.

It would be far more convincing than suddenly sprouting magic powers when you were supposed to be bound and gagged. And Moondancer had to admit, it felt amazing to hit her after the last few annoying and life changing days she had. "Get a hold of yourself."

Starlight's voice cracked as she came back to reality. She coughed violently as air was forced back into her lungs and she stumbled a bit as her body registered a hit that she just now felt. "Ow. Wait. You punched me?"

Moondancer shrugged. "It was all I could think of." She tapped her useless ring. "You know, no magic? Kind of was limited in my options."

Starlight barely nodded. "Of course. Though you could have used less force." The pink unicorn rubbed her face gingerly, the sting of the punch making it hard to feel without a painful sting lighting up the side of her jaw.

Moondancer rolled her red eyes. "I mean what else was I supposed to do? Hit you with a chair? Honestly what has you so worked up-" Moondancer whipped her head around and almost died of laughter when she saw the massive hole in the wall and the message one of the room's occupants left. "Huh, well. I guess 'eat a dick, you crazy bitch' written in. . .yeah that's. . . pieces of the wall would set somepony like you off."

Starlight frowned. "How nice of you to mention that. But seriously, this mucks up all the plans I was going to have."

Moondancer raised an eyebrow. "I know I'm newly minted evil." Moondancer was decidedly not that, but running with the idea had weirdly put Starlight on edge and off kilter enough to make the lie palatable. "But like if you want them back here just use your infinite army of ponies to get them back." Moondancer yawned. "Whatever. Celestia damn it." Moondancer felt the pull of Starlight's magic faintly on her mind and shook her head. Looking down, she noticed a faint red tinge to the jewel. Moondancer chuckled at the thought that the gem that Starlight put in her chest was keeping her lucid, if not sane. She felt the piercing agony of the spell probing her mind and finding it come up short.

"I need somepony to lead them, archmage."

Moondancer mentally rolled her eyes. "Your wish is my command." If she had to act the part of a willing commander why not add in the flair for the dramatic? At least it made her less bored. And it wasn't like she'd follow the directions to the letter anyway. She had better things to do.

Pinkie stretched his limbs, the hard work keeping his mind off Twilight, who still hadn't opened her eyes yet. So he sighed and stood behind another cart, his body used to years of doing this work. He took comfort in that; it was easier than the alternative where he let the sad feelings in again. He hadn't stopped working since Fluffy brought him here in this cavernous room full of unrecovered gems. The dog was somewhere, probably sleeping, and Pinkie moved on like a steam train, his body moving robotically as he sped through days of work in hours.

"Darling, I'd say you earned a break." Rarity picked up a ruby in her magic and tossed it around her.

Pinkie frowned. "I'm fine."

Rarity sighed. "Oh I'm sure. But if you need an actual reason besides you haven't slept a wink and look like Tartarus froze over- the dogs said you singlehoofedly caught them up on their order."

Pinkie huffed. "Cool, what else do you want me to do?"

Rarity cocked her head. "Nothing. You don't have to do anything at all."

Pinkie tapped a hoof. "You sure? I mean I could widen some of these passages just so its easier to get around."

"Pinkie, what's wrong."

"Nothing."

Rarity's brow furrowed. "Twilight's not the only one who can cast her spell you know." Rarity's horn flashed and wove the counterspell to Twilight's gender switch spell. With a poof, a decidedly smaller and female Pinkie glowered at her. "Now tell me what's got your body in knots or I'm going to have to bring in the big artillery."

Pinkie crossed her hooves. "Not talking."

Rarity facehooved. "It's Twilight, isn't it? Come on Pinkie, like I'm tired and currently I've been trying to juggle being nice to talking dogs who still have a leader who honestly remembers kidnapping me as the best thing he ever did. I don't need more drama than I already have."

Pinkie whispered something.

"What was that?"

Pinkie groaned. "I said 'I just want Twilight to be okay.'

Rarity walked over and sat next to the dull pink mare. "I know that. We all do. And come on. She's an alicorn, I bet that even that rough. . ." Rarity stopped her train of thought and tried again. "I mean she's going to be okay. Just think of how old the Princesses have to be and they haven't died yet. So Twilight's going to be fine. And I mean Twilight needed a break even though I feel like this wasn't what I envisioned for her."

Pinkie looked up and vaguely nodded. "I guess, though you really suck at cheering somepony up."

Rarity frowned. "Well who has the Element of Laughter here? Decidedly not me. I just try to help so many ponies that I spread myself worryingly thin."

Pinkie rolled her eyes. "You got me there. But you don't have to live with seeing things before they happen and choking right before you could save somepony."

Rarity cocked her head. "Darling, what pray tell are you even talking about?"

Pinkie continued. "The thing I always have. Pinkie Sense or whatever it is. Psychic senses, Twilight called it. I can sense things that happen before they do and yet I didn't do anything. Sure I warned you guys right before things went bad, but I could have tried something. But I just watched Twilight go down. Imagine seeing multiple ways things can happen and being able to do something and the one moment you've expected with how important your marefriend is and your body acts like its made of boulders."

"Pinkie, I think we weren't expecting that outcome at all. And if you are worried about not doing anything, you just said you warned us, so by your own words, you did something."

Pinkie pushed the limp strands of hair out of her eyes and stared at Rarity, the emotionless orbs freaking out the unicorn. "I did, but it wasn't enough. And I tried to move and nothing. I froze. Do you know what freezing is, Rarity? Fear. I could feel the future coming and all I wanted to do was run away from it because it scared me."

Rarity fidgeted as she looked at the ground. "But everything worked out okay. I mean the dogs are nice, I mean sure hearing me say that out loud sounds wrong what with how I expected that to go. But things are looking up." Rarity felt the hollow ring of her words as Pinkie rolled a rock in her hooves.

"What about Dash and Fluttershy then? Like it's so magical we got everything here going flipping amazing, but we still have those two in that. . .in there." Pinkie breathed and slowly got up. "If only I had stood in front of Twilight. Maybe she would have had more time to beat those things. And then we'd have a completely different outcome and maybe we wouldn't be stuck here for days."

Rarity looked up in the distant eyes of her friend. "You'd have been killed though. Twilight's on the brink of death and she's an alicorn. You aren't."

Pinkie Pie walked away, her final bitter sentences echoing through the small passageways. "That'd have been better than beating myself up about it. But yeah, I guess I'll check on Twilight if I have nothing better to do."

Rainbow heard Starlight's animalistic scream as they rounded a corner. Rolling to her side, she skidded across the ground, her legs pistoning as fast as she could just to get as much distance when the inevitable horde of ponies came for them. "Shit. Shy, you okay?"

Fluttershy did a hoofs up gesture as she breathed a sigh of relief, the pegasus dropping down the ground, panting heavily. "Doing great. Though I still have to say that I feel like I should at least say I told you so."

Rainbow rolled her blue eyes. "Yeah, yeah, don't be mean to the crazy pony. You've got that idea on lockdown. But look, like we're like a mile away from at least a mine full of terrible shit and maybe I'm a bit worried that we won't make it out in one piece. So I know I messed up doing that, but it made me feel like I could do something besides run away from this."

Fluttershy said nothing and as she was going to open her mouth a familiar unicorn popped into existence.

"Hey, idiots. It sure was difficult tracking two ponies that looked aurally like a putrid rainbow. But boy I sure tried to give you a head start." Moondancer sauntered up and smiled at the two pegasi, almost bouncing with glee as she walked closer. "How are you two doing?"

Dash steadied herself, her stance ready for anything since she had expected something to happen. Though she had to quickly come up with something to fix the plan that had expected an army of crazies and come up with another in a flash to deal with one well trained unicorn with unknown powers. "Great. You?"

Moondancer yawned. "Tired. Had some studying to do. You know, the small stuff of trying to figure out a way to overthrow a pink idiot and destroy a town. Bomb everything. Burn everypony here and figure out a way to rip out my new heart. Normal stuff. Though I guess I'm immune to Little Miss Crazy's spell. So small miracles for this thing in my chest."

Fluttershy's face lit up. "That's fantastic, I mean that means we can all escape and-"

Moondancer shook her head. "Oh I know that'but Starlight's still thinking I'm all fine and on her side. And sure, this sucks for all of us, but be glad I 'went' with her plan of bringing 'everypony' here to capture you and never telling anypony else. It's almost like I talked her out of bringing the hammer down on you. I mean have you seen the streets? It's sure strange and empty out here." Moondancer whistled and picked up a rock in her magic lazily spinning it around her head as she talked. "I mean I really want to have fun and all, but having hundreds of ponies against two? That's unfair."

"So what? You're going to keep us in that room and study us or what?" Dash felt her blood starting to boil as she heard the unicorn talk. "This whole stupid plan was made up by Twilight. To rescue your stupid self. And what now? You're evil or at least helping a pony who's taking control of a town?"

Moondancer opened her eyes, her blood red orbs oozing excitement. "Twilight remembered me? That's wonderful." The black unicorn coughed as she heard silence. "I mean, yes. And I'm not evil. Sure the amulet constantly buzzes evil thoughts in my head and I have to choose to follow through on them or not, but this is just me carrying out a mission so I can save everypony. My way. So come along one of you."

Dash reflexively stood in front of Fluttershy. "And what if we say no?"

Moondancer slowly sharpened her rock, the sparks and scraping noise distracting the two pegasi. "Nothing good. Though I could just have some fun and only take one of you. I mean going by your auras, its pointless to take both of you. I'd say the big one, cause sorry I still remember your attitude in my shop."

Dash tried to laugh. "Come on, that feels like it was a lifetime ago."

Moondancer didn't laugh. "It sure does. Not like I see that in a mirror now. So you can have your little blue friend go as fast as she can cause while I love chatting with you after days of only hearing Starlight blab about how great she is and how amazing her plans are- real pony contact feels nice. But Starlight's Starlight and she thinks she's in control. So very sorry."

Fluttershy's eyes were steel as she spoke. "This isn't happening to anypony."

Moondancer whistled. "Well, this is an impasse."

Dash tried to diffuse the situation as she glanced between the two, both waiting for the other to make the first move, Dash's senses were dulled in Fluttershy's body but she had enough knowledge of anatomy to see the taut emotions underneath the skin of each pony there. "Uh, can I talk to my friend for just one moment?" Moondancer shrugged and Dash quickly pulled Fluttershy aside in a hug. "Shy, I'm supposed to be the crazy one here and while I like you asserting yourself a little bit more, I really think this isn't a great time."

Fluttershy sighed. "I know that."

"And?" Dash could sense something coming up,

"But no. I promised myself to not have something like this happen again. Not after Rarity."

Dash cocked her head, her pink locks spilling over her eyes for a moment. "Flutter, you aren't making sense. Rarity's fine. Well probably fine, but that's Rarity for you, she'd whine herself out of a bad situation. I don't know what's got your body up in knots."

Fluttershy blew the hair out of her face and stared deep into Dash's eyes. "I promised that I wouldn't let Starlight do horrible stuff to any of you. Not after seeing what she could do."

Dash groaned. "That's. . .great to hear. But while I love that you finally got that Iron Will determination class to work right, I'd rather go and get this over with." Dash quickly ruffled Fluttershy's mane. "And anyway, who's going to save the others from the mine and come back and save everypony here?"

"You?" Fluttershy weakly offered.

Dash facehooved. "No, you. I mean I'm currently way too slow. No offense. But you can totally zip over there and come right back way faster without me slowing you down. Just go straight to that giant mountain way over there, pull out that inner fire you seem to be full of right this moment, and follow any big giant monster things. That's it. I mean I have the super hard job anyway. Starlight'd probably talk me to death." Dash quietly laughed to herself.

Fluttershy kicked a hoof and looked down. "But what if I mess up?"

Rainbow rested a hoof on her friend's shoulder. "Shy, even though you are currently in my body, I still think you are one of the most awesome ponies I know. And that's taking out the natural cool points being in my body gives you." Dash winked. "I mean sure, you aren't me. But you are pretty awesome. So let me handle the boring stuff and you go show the stupid monsters how awesome you are. Also say hi to Pinkie, he- or she- I can't really keep up- probably needs some cheering up."

Fluttershy hesitated. "But-"

Rainbow smiled, trying to put the reassuring smile that Fluttershy usually could light up a room with on her face. "Shy, just go. I'm going to be just fine. And if I'm not, well, you can tell me I told you so after we meet up again."

"I don't want to."

Dash almost wanted to laugh at how ridiculous Fluttershy was being. Almost like seeing a quiet mirror of herself with a ember of courage slowly stoking into a blaze. Maybe that was always there, maybe not. She quickly shook her head. "Sorry, Flutters, I need you to do this for me." Dash quickly leaned in and kissed Fluttershy on the mouth.

Dash moved back and saw Fluttershy blush like a cherry as she realized what happened. "Oh." Dash prodded Shy to let her get going. Finally, after what felt like minutes, Fluttershy lifted off into the sky. The rainbow trail showed her path away from town and towards a place that Dash hoped was better.

Moondancer leaned against a wall. "Touching, though I guess you know what's coming up next."

Dash sighed. "Shit." Dash stretched to Fluttershy's full height, the height advantage of what seemed like a foot on the unicorn made Dash a tiny bit hopeful. She cracked her neck. "Shy, you got to go now."

Fluttershy halted for a moment, her mind reeling as she tried to square the promise she made to herself in Canterlot and breaking it by leaving. She felt slight tears form in the corners of her eyes as she quickly nodded to Rainbow. "Dash, be careful." Flutttershy didn't wait to hear Rainbow's answer as she shot off into the sky, her rainbow trail telling the other pegasus all she needed to know.

Rainbow smiled and hunched down. "Ready?"

Moondancer yawned, her eyes glowing blood red as she glanced towards Rainbow. "One step closer to sleep."

Rainbow charged. Her body moved with the precision of a pony who knew how to fight, Rainbow's mind still knew the ideas that she was taught while she was in the circus, but her body still felt unnatural and sluggish since the added size and weight threw her off. Rainbow hoped that would be enough. She picked up as much speed as she could and lunged, aiming the first punch to Moondancer's face. Testing the waters to be sure, but that was all she had at the moment to work off of. Landing the first punch, she could feel the black unicorn's nose snap and a rush of blood mar her hooves.

Moondancer's horn glowed and Rainbow stopped dead in her tracks. "I gave you that punch. While I'd love to fight you, it'd be so weighted in your favor. Sounds totally fair to have a small unicorn like me versus a mountain of a pegasus like you. And I've never liked fighting anyway. Twilight always was the hothead, flashy and fun one. I tended to be the methodical one. Some called that boring, I call it result oriented."

Rainbow's leg twisted violently out of its socket as Moondancer's magical grip tightened on it. She screamed as she looked down and saw her leg bending backwards, the knee overflexing as the leg tried to compensate for it's dislocation. She could hear Moondancer clapping her hooves as she began to talk, her eyes glowing as she spoke.

"Interesting, I tried this once or twice on Changelings to get any information out of them after the wedding fiasco and they usually fainted after this point. Though that was because the drones tend to have low pain tolerance. Did you know that if you provide enough pressure to a Changeling they crack like an egg? I mean technically if I just pressed with enough magical force right near your carotid artery, you could faint or die or if I pressed your head, it'd crack like a walnut. So technically by a simple fact of similar reactions to pain, Changelings and ponies are too close for comfort. Everything has a breaking point and I know I'll find Starlight's cause she's categorically illogical." Moondancer wiped her face and pulled her hoof back, stained red with blood. "Oh that's not good. Seems like you did more damage than I expected. But anyway, you think I'm evil? Starlight's just been ranting about how important you and your blue friend are. Seems like you tend to bring out the absolute best in ponies. And I have a plan. Honestly a rather bloody and painful plan for some, but who's counting if I save the day?"

Rainbow grimaced through the pain as she felt her next leg pop out of it's socket, her mind reeling as she looked again and noticed that Moondancer had found a way to have her legs rotate freely without tearing every muscle there due to stress. It was sickening as she watched Moondancer lazily bat her around like a sock puppet. Her world was pain and stomach sickening movements as the world danced and spun around her. "Screw you."

The midnight black unicorn looked down at her strobing red gem and grimaced as she shook her head. "Bad idea brain. Bad idea. We don't want to cause them to hate us cause then Twilight would be mad." Dash could feel her legs spin back into place, the pain of the preceding minutes being the only thing she could rely on "I really hate this." Moondancer felt the worming influence of the jewel right behind her eyes and it brought things out of her that she didn't like. Quickly deciding that the 'scare and torture a pony' idea the jewel was just ecstatic about wasn't working, she went with the quick and painless solution. Anger always brought out the worst ideas.

Dash felt a feather light press of her main arteries and within a few seconds was out like a light.

Twilight jolted awake. Traveling in the world of dreams was highly interesting to her waking mind, but the way out was crushing rapids of decompression as her mind drowned itself awake. Gasping for air, Twilight flailed about as her body acclimated back to normalcy. She rubbed her body down and lightly pinched herself to test if she was awake and shuddered as she sputtered up blood. She quickly wiped her face and breathed in.

Taking a quick look around, she noticed the greyish pink pony that was slumped in the corner. Twilight winced as she wondered how long she had been out, the thought worrying her. Twilight tested out her limbs, the steps feeling heavy and methodical as she quietly walked over and tickled Pinkie's nose.

"Go away." Pinkie mumbled.

Twilight frowned. "Do I have to pull out my Pinkie voice? Cause I can." Twilight's voice rose into a high, bubbly voice, a close rendition of the earth pony's own. "You got to greet the day, Pinkie, you can't just let the sun say hello without being a ray of sunshine."

Pinkie raised her head. "That's kind of unnerving how well you pull off my voice."

Twilight nodded. "Well I have a lot of time to practice. Princessly duties can be long and boring and I have a lot of time alone in my castle on those days. So practicing voices is a hobby. You should see my attempts at imitating the other girls. Those are horrible." Twilight tried to smile as Pinkie slowly nodded. "Sorry for taking so long to get back. Got stuck for a bit trying to untangle myself from some unconscious mental gymnastics. And no Pinkie, it wasn't all that fun."

Pinkie rolled her eyes. "That wasn't the first question I would have asked. Maybe the second or third one."

Twilight sighed. "Pinkie, I tried to get back as fast as possible. Mainly because one of the last things I saw before, you know, was you." Twilight leaned down and stared directly into Pinkie's ice blue eyes. "And I didn't want to leave you too long, I mean you get worried I'll fall down a hole and break a leg walking to Canterlot. I can't imagine how tiring the last few. . .days, probably days due to your ragged look, must have been for you."

Pinkie curled up into a ball and turned away from Twilight.

Twilight frowned. She knew how to have Pinkie open back up to her normal self but it usually took a bit of prodding to get Pinkie to say the problem and work through it. Twilight's mind usually worked on logic and reason. . .usually. She had to concede that the last few weeks had shown that she still ran on emotions and had lapses in cognitive thinking. Twilight had ran tests on Pinkie during one of her depressive phases and found that she could understand the pony. Which was slightly terrifying in a way, Twilight mused, since Pinkie was normally a random machine that worked on whatever Pinkie felt like. A depressed Pinkie had a similar connection to uncertainty, but she could be observed partially. And Twilight had more fun with a excited state Pinkie than this Pinkie that always laid there under the surface of her marefriend. For Pinkie had issues, Twilight knew that for sure after hours long conversations about decidedly deep things that the earth pony talked about in her more low moments.

But Twilight needed Pinkie to be Pinkie, not that she wanted to invalidate any actual hurt that the pink pony was feeling, but because the bubbly pony was their bright light. How could they focus again without laughter? And also sadly there was a time and a place to talk about each others feelings and currently this probably wasn't the best time to psychoanalyze each other.

Twilight sat down on Pinkie, her body covering the medium sized earth pony like a purple feather blanket, her wings curling around the pair. "You want to hear a joke? I mean it won't be as good as your jokes, but it might lighten the weight from your shoulders."

Pinkie groaned. "You can get off then."

Twilight chuckled. "Don't interrupt my joke. Well you see there was a psychoanalyst and her patient and they were doing some ink blot tests and the psychoanalyst kept asking about what her patient saw. Now the tests usually ran fine but this patient wasn't like the others. See the patient usually came up with all these silly ideas for what the inkblots represented. Usually they were some mix of a long descriptive scene painted with words ending with a raunchy sex act. And the psychoanalyst thought that was problematic and told of some deeper psychosis of repressed emotional issues. The cycle continued like that, day in and day out, the patient saying weird things and the psychoanalyst asking probing questions with the test. Years went by, and the psychoanalyst couldn't take it anymore and in the midst of the inkblot tests asked 'Why do you keep coming back here if all your data is completely useless for what I'm testing? You know what the patient said?"

Pinkie groaned. "What."

"She said, "Why wouldn't I come back here? I get to see you collection of porn and talk to you about my week and we get all the data and dates we need." Twilight didn't hear Pinkie laughing. Quickly deciding that she must have said something wrong since the joke worked perfectly in her own head, she spoiled the joke. "I mean, uh, the joke is that the patient did a play on words since date and data sound similar and then the second interlaced joke is that inkblots sometimes hint at sexual thoughts and like the patient thought it was porn." Twilight nervously smiled.

"Twilight, I don't want to say that you suck at jokes, but that was awful."

Twilight huffed. "I warned you it might be bad."

Pinkie rolled her eyes. "Yeah and I remember you testing my Pinkie Sense."

Twilight laid her head on Pinkie's and grinned. "Was I that transparent?"

The earth pony sighed, slight colors returning to her mane. "I wouldn't have got the massive blinding point unless you botched the joke, which you did, but I guess it helped."

Twilight opened her wings and stepped off of Pinkie. "Well look at that, it's like a weight just got off your shoulders." Twilight winked. "But if you want more enlightening jokes you will have to wait for a little while longer."

Pinkie frowned. "Did you somehow see into my head while you were asleep?"

Twilight cocked her head. "What? No, I'm talking about figuring out how to deal with a hostile town before we have to call in the army or Luna, whatever comes first. What are you talking about?"

Pinkie shook her head. "Nothing, nothing at all. . ." Pinkie yawned. "Actually I might go take a nap cause I'm exhausted. Who knew hauling all the diamond dogs jewels and staying up for two days might be tiring. I sure didn't."

Twilight shook her head. "Sounds like a great idea, Pinkie, though I keep telling you to keep a schedule." Twilight laughed. "But I guess me getting a comeuppance or two might have thrown your sleep schedule through a loop." Twilight rubbed her eyes and sighed. "You know what? If we get out of this and you at least get some sleep right now, I'll let you do whatever you want to me when we get home."

Pinkie's ears pricked up. "Does that mean anything or just a set number of things that cover most everything?"

Twilight rolled her eyes. "Yes, that even includes your weird ideas of mixing magic with sex. And it includes the really weird ideas within reason of course. Even though I really, really hate saying it. Maybe the weirdness of your silly ideas might numb my mind of the last week. Celestia knows I need something silly and fun after this nightmare."

Pinkie lightly hugged Twilight, her mane smelled of cotton candy and Twilight always liked that smell. "I feel like everypony needs a break after this."

Fluttersjy scooped towards the moutain, her wake billowing out behind her. She dug deep into Dash's memories, her memories lacked the experience necessary to pull off some of Rainbow's more death defying tricks. Her mind shook with dread as she stared down at the mine, the fear paralyzing her for a moment as her mind caught up with memories. The wash of new thoughts came in and she hoped that her plan worked.

She hadn't yet figured out exactly how to land.

Pulling her wings close to her body, she dropped and felt the beginnings of free fall make her have the sensation of weightlessness. She counted to five, her body knowing the idea of what came next. Scooping up a small bit of air in her wings, she opened them just a bit to slow her decent and the next step was keeping her eyes open to gauge how close she could be to swoop upwards and into the cave. "Here goes." Fluttershy jerked her wings open with a breath and pulled up, her falling momentum transferring into forward speed as she flew forward.

She hadn't planned out that far once she realized that flying as fast as she could into a presumably tight cave system might have some issues.

It was like her world slowed down as she dodged stalagmites and stalactites with relative ease, her feathers clipping the hard rocks as she performed quick turns that would probably make Dash proud or at least impressed. She had come up with the idea of rushing headlong into the mountain at full speed on the way over as she heard the pained screams of her best friend.

Fluttershy blinked to wipe away the small tears that had followed her. "Not now." She quietly chided herself as she took a turn into a large, open space that gleamed with light. Fluttershy's world went from semidarkness to light and her eyes watered as she tried to close them. Fluttershy skittered across stones as she tried to land. Crashing to the ground in a heap, she moaned as she stared up at the largest diamond she had ever seen. The brightness dimmed as her eyes became used to the room and she lay there for a moment- winded, bruised, and sad.

Fluttershy heard hooves skitter across the rocks, her mind ready for anything. She had to be, it wasn't like she had a choice. Her wings felt like daggers as she moved. Possibly a sprain. Fluttershy groaned as she ran into a rock wall and slumped on her side.

"Shy, what in tarnation are you doing here?" An incredulous Applejack looked down at Fluttershy and shook her head. "I mean seriously like barging in like the Headless Horse was on your heels?" Applejack sighed.

Fluttershy shook her head. "Can I talk to Twilight?"

Applejack winced. "I don't know if she's up yet-"

"Well I really need to see her, it's urgent."

Applejack rubbed her temple. "Of course. Except I don't know the first thing about these tunnels so you might need a guide to get there. They got Twilight holed up in some deep cavern or something."

Fluttershy weakly nodded. "Sure."

Applejack whistled to the darkness and a Diamond Dog stepped out. "Hey, Roxie, want to show my friend around cause I'd love to come with but somepony got my marefriend all emotional and all that. You get that?"

The large border collie nodded. "Yes, Roxie understands. Pack important."

Applejack awkwardly patted the side of the diamond dog and huffed. "Well, I got to go handle our diva cause she's the one who's keeping us here. See ya, Fluttershy."

Fluttershy watched Applejack turn a corner and her footsteps echo into the inky distance as the pegasi awkwardly looked up at the dog who towered over her. At that moment she wished she hadn't mentioned Dash's height so much. It wasn't cute when things were twice your height. It made everything bigger and more intimidating.

"Uhm, hello?" Fluttershy tried to smile, her training as an animal caretaker flashing before her eyes and she tried to think of every weird thing dogs did and translate them into Diamond Dogs, not that that was the correct thing to do. It was because she had no other reference for Diamond Dogs outside of Rarity's little escapade and rescue. And she didn't want to taint the waters more than they already were.

Roxie bowed and licked Fluttershy's face. "Welcome to home. Follow my pads and we'll be in the winghorn's chamber in a few ticks of time."

Fluttershy nodded. "Um, if it's not a problem, I seem to have hurt myself landing so if it's no trouble, I mean, could I ride on you? " Fluttershy felt her cheeks redden at the thought since she didn't know how that might sound to a Diamond Dog. "I just want to get to Twilight as fast as possible."

Roxie bent over and stared at the blue pegasus. "Don't give rides. Not pets for horses." Fluttershy could feel the hot breath run across her face. "But if hurt, then guess the long way could be good." Roxie shook her head and ran a claw through her fur. "Much longer route. More talking and showing off space. Wailing Diamond only saw part of den."

Fluttershy looked at the banded minerals lining the walls as they passed through different corridors, the colors shifting throughout the entire spectrum and it was rather pretty. Sure she had things on her mind and places to be, but the beauty within nature always fascinated her. "So if this is a mine where is everyone?"

Roxie snorted. "Pony smart. Yes, this is mine but the gray pony that runs town outside doesn't know we protect the ponies here. Turn head when we pass this next corner and see them."

Fluttershy turned her head and noticed small holes in the rocks, like windows and as she looked closer, she could see pony snouts poking out of the walls. Fluttershy shivered at the thought. Being cooped up in pens that were smaller than her own bedroom felt wrong to her. Sure she was used to small, cramped spaces and the comfort they could provide in moments of worry, but this felt too claustrophobic for her tastes.

"Are they okay? I mean those look way too small."

The dog shook her head. "Space is important, yes. But keeping hundreds of ponies here for gray one make problems. Best solution is small cells. Still get food and water. And ponies still go in air when shipments go in and out. Not savages."

Fluttershy cocked her head. "I'm not calling you a savage, and I don't know where you are hearing that kind of language, but I was just worried about other ponies. Like you'd probably be worried about dogs."

Roxie sighed. "Understand. Roxie first from the Southland, big word there. Buffalo nice, ponies not."

Fluttershy lay down on the dog's back and ran her face in her fur. She wished there was a way to bridge the barriers of language but the hints of a past eluded her understanding. She did the thing that Dash always joked about her doing. Excessive apologizing. "I'm sorry."

Roxie stopped and turned her head. "You no problem. Other ponies bad. You not treat Roxie like pet. South ponies did. Some ponies nice, birdhorses nice too. Roxie went all around ponyland before coming home. Home nice. Outside sometimes nice."

Fluttershy nodded. "Yeah, home's usually better than a foreign place."

Roxie took a turn into the deep caverns and jumped over a large gap . "Sometimes Roxie want more. You nice, Wailing Diamond okay, orange one strange. Roxie worried home go away. Hear things from gray one. Ponies across bowl with monster army. Think things good here. Next months? Roxie unsure."

Fluttershy nodded. "I'm worried too. And if we get out of this okay, I bet you could see the world and whatever you want to do. Though that's in the future." Fluttershy tried to translate what the dog said in her head. "And if you want to travel the world and see stuff, I bet Canterlot would love to see a Diamond Dog. Though be warned. Canterlot's a bit- uh." Fluttershy tried to come up with a good way to put the mood she felt when in Canterlot while also having a term that might translate over well. "They look down on others if they don't follow certain rules."

Roxie rolled her eyes. "Roxie will think. Give Roxie idea for later."

Starlight tapped a hoof on her chair and stared at her cutie mark. The paint was peeling and she rolled her eyes at how dense the ponies were here. Sure she had them under her beck and call mostly, but not noticing a fake cutie mark? How sad.

She stretched herself out, the stress of the week pouring out of her body as she noticed Moondancer struggling to carry the yellow pegasus. Starlight closed her journal and tossed it aside for a moment to come and welcome her newest and sort of loyal friend.

Starlight poofed over and lifted the other side of her newest project. "Moondancer, please provide report."

The pink unicorn could swear she could hear a tinge of sarcasm in Moondancer's voice as she spoke. "Found them, one got away and I brought this one back. In summary, the mission wasn't all that difficult. Except the time it took to get back here."

Starlight nodded and moved on, her mind abuzz with possible tests and force breaking ideas to get at least some data on a spell that could get her into Sunburst's good graces again. She lightly shook her head at the thoughts running though her mind, clouding her thoughts with future hopes. "Yes, well, everything's going to plan. Now if you can drag our little escapee over to the lab, we can finally figure through the wonders of science why these two are immune to my charms."

Moondancer looked down as she violently rolled her eyes. "Yes, mistress." Moondancer faked weakness as she tried to be as nonthreatening as possible. Being a quiet, accommodating pony? Check. Being weak and unable to move the unconscious body of a pony she'd knocked out and did some horrible things to, She'd have to come to terms with her new issues and she wondered how good she was. "Mistress, I'm having some issue with the patient."

Starlight waved a hoof and coated Dash in magic. "Oh of course, silly me. I forgot you can't really use magic. Let's fix that. Though only if you promise to not go attacking me. Can we manage that?" Starlight's voice was sickeningly sweet again in a patronizing manner that annoyed Moondancer to no end.

Moondancer gritted her teeth and nodded. "Okay."

Starlight clapped her hooves together. "Wonderful. That's just what I wanted to hear." Starlight reached a tendril of her aura over and yanked up on the ring that was still on Moondancer's head. "There we go. I would have done that sooner but things got a little bit out of hand." Starlight lazily looked at the ring and tossed it towards a nearby table. "Now be careful. You've not had access to your magic for a few days so if there's any issues I wouldn't cast any high level spells."

Moondancer faked a smile. "Oh that feels weird." She let a weak spell falter and die with a flourish to make the whole charade still work. "Thank you." She hated acting like a weak willed yes pony but it was the only thing she could do right now so her plan of planting one little bomb somewhere could come about.

Starlight hummed a melody to herself and stretched her body out. "Well that's good. Do you want to help me break this stupid magic wall this bitch has? I would greatly appreciate it." Starlight smiled. "I mean with you being totally under my control and all, it'd be just too easy. See cause having one pony cast a spell like this is just fine and dandy. But having two ponies- and one having a priceless artifact in their chest- I'd expect this little wall to break."

Moondancer did not react, even though her heart raced as she realized that maybe her idea of Starlight being clouded by silly ideas was wrong. She breathed for a moment to not let her monotone voice crack. "Yes, of course."

Starlight laughed. "You passed the test." The pink unicorn fired up her magic and sent a long tendril out around Moondancer. "I mean of course you would. It's not like you had a choice. And if you somehow did. . .well I would expect you to have some kind of morals. I bet we're breaking like fifteen laws on torture right now." Starlight giggled. "And anyway, I made the variant of the Want It, Need It spell we're using. I mean if you failed the test and cast it on me, I don't think it would work super well."

"Of course." Moondancer copied the feel of Starlight's spell and prayed to Celestia that after this Twilight might not find her morally reprehensible. Taking aim at the table and the pony on it, she felt bile crawl up her throat as she cast the spell.

The yellow pegasus opened her eyes and started screaming at the top of her lungs while Moondancer saw her muscles start seizing up into locked and twisted positions. Moondancer could see Starlight firing her own spell while almost on the verge of gleeful optimism. The black unicorn wiped away a tear as she saw the aura flicker in and out, twisting between vile blacks and yellows and muted rainbows. She was the good guy and yet this made her feel awful.

She silently moved up her plan to get back at her new least favorite pony. Starlight had planned for Plan A, she couldn't plan for Plans B or C. She glanced at the ring that Starlight had tossed aside and smiled as she formulated a plan.

Twilight crossed her hooves as Fluttershy finished her explanation of the last few days. Her head swam with worry as she tried to connect the idea that Moondancer was working fully with Starlight and yet saying yet another thing entirely. Either she had a plan that would work and wouldn't backfire on everypony here, or the amulet was influencing her mind to make her fall down a path Twilight couldn't follow. Either choice wasn't good. "I see, thank you Fluttershy." Twilight breathed out her stress and rubbed her face with her hooves. "Now if anyone has a plan, I'd love to hear it at this moment."

Fluttershy looked up at Roxie and smiled. "I think I have an idea. I mean after speaking with Roxie here, she mentioned that they have all the prisoners that Starlight sent here. What if we give Starlight what she wants. I mean they have a mine for a reason."

Pinkie chirped up realizing the point. "Ooh, and Rarity kept mentioning some scheduled thing while I was working. I mean I wasn't listening all that hard since I was preoccupied with more important worries, but we could use that to get back into town without Starlight noticing."

Fluttershy felt excited for the first time in a while. She almost felt okay and ready to save Dash from whatever Starlight was doing, but as her heart felt light she felt a pang of cold heat emanate from her insides. Her eyes began to have double vision as she began to hear voices nearby.

"Hold it still. We need finesse here, not pure magical strength. Who taught you? An earth pony?"

That was a familiar voice. It was as if Starlight was right next to her, hurling insults at- most likely- Moondancer.

Fluttershy looked around and noticed Dash sitting right nearby, lazing on a rock. She looked faint and almost transparent as she saw Dash float through it and right through the Diamond Dog that was trying to talk to Twilight about a plan. Roxie shivered and looked around as the spirit passed through her, unaware at how unnerving the scene was making Fluttershy. Dash didn't take her eyes off her marefriend, the magenta orbs staring daggers into her soul. Fluttershy felt her blood run cold as she saw Dash's face start to bubble away, small chunks of flesh falling off and pooling at the specter's feet], her wings peeling off feathers like a trail of petals, the smell of burning hair and flesh pooling her senses and almost making her gag. Fluttershy tentatively reached out and poked the ghost, her hoof connecting with its face and an electrical connection passed between the two.

"Fluttershy? Are you okay?"A voice that sounded like Twilight's showed concern and as she turned back to answer, Fluttershy could only see red.

She only realized that her eyes were bleeding when she couldn't focus in the abject silence, the room turning a deep crimson as her body tried to register the massive hemorrhage of blood. All she could taste and smell was iron. "Oh." Fluttershy felt her body slump over as she was hit by the residual blast of magic that she was still connected to, the two lovers souls acting as a magical conduit to pain.

She could feel the hooves of her friends and a pair of paws carry her somewhere safe, the caress of Twilight's magic keeping her stable enough, the voice of the alicorn casting counterspells and attempting to staunch the bleeding with any medical knowledge she had. It only came in faint and distant as she could barely make out the words of worry that echoed through the caverns. But her vision was only full of red afterimages of Dash violently screaming her lungs out, her skin falling off in patches and bleached white bones underneath stuck in a skeleton dance of torture. Her wings frayed and split, blood pouring out of unseen wounds- the spirit floating above her staring down sat there in her vision, unmoving.

Fluttershy could only silently scream in horror.