Rainbow Dash rolled out of bed and groaned. She was more used to the strange sense of where her center of gravity was now after about a week of what Rarity would probably call graceful messes or something equally bonkers. She felt every bone in her neck shift as it went back to normal. Glancing at Fluttershy splayed out, her legs up in the air and lightly snoring, she groaned again. She quietly wondered if every one of her friends saw her like that- a pony that could sleep at any moment and anywhere as long as the place she was sitting was at least able to hold her weight. Cause these beds in the castle were hard as rocks and somehow capable to make the simplest motion feel like you were laying on cardboard. Not to mention she had been kept awake by the mission given by Celestia.

Glancing at the mirror she quickly looked at her reflection, the bags under her eyes reflecting her four hours of good sleep and two hours fidgeting as she felt Fluttershy rub herself against her side and mumble about fluffy clouds. Not very awesome to hear her voice say how great a cloud felt besides how large and full of rain and productive it was. She glanced at the nearby clock and she sighed. This would be a rather uncomfortable moment. Reaching a hoof towards Fluttershy, she reached her sides and poked her in the side. Rainbow did not like admitting it but her sides tended to be one of her tickle spots.

"Wha- ha- haha, what are you, ha, doing?" Fluttershy rolled away and rolled off the bed with a thud and a tangle of hooves. "Ouch. Dash, I'm good but ow."

"Uh yeah, sorry, probably should have, uh, thought that through a bit but yeah you want breakfast or at least get out of bed or something?" Rainbow pushed a few loose strands of hair out of her eyes and tried to smile.

Fluttershy nodded and pulled herself up. Quickly dusting herself off, she stretched the blue wings she had now and sighed. "Yeah sounds good." Glancing over to the mass of beauty products, she grinned. She cantered over to the table, glanced back at Dash, and quickly smirked. "Well I guess I should be getting somepony's makeup on."

Dash shuddered. "Don't you dare."

Fluttershy picked up a color palette and began switching between different looks. "Hmm, no. No. No. Maybe? But the hair."

Dash crept over and craned her neck to see the damage to her self esteem. "Do you have to do this like now?"

Fluttershy wryly smiled. "I have to make ponies think you know how to dress yourself and I bet if you walked into a room not looking your best- or at least the best I could make myself look in this situation- then you'd not even be noticed. The lives of the rich and famous are built on spectacle here. Though now I realize that with Blossomforth mentioning she had some racy pictures of me I do wonder what that might mean for my reputation." Fluttershy frowned.

Dash quickly wrapped a large forearm around her friend. "Okay, Rarity, get off your high horse and bring Fluttershy back. But fine. If you think you need to put makeup on me do it. But promise me to never speak of this ever cause this ruins my awesome cred. I'd Pinkie Pie Swear but the last time I did that with Applejack, Pinkie came out of the ground and scared us half to death so I just need to know that you won't like spread the news that I might- just might- be anywhere near okay with dressing up."

Fluttershy laughed, her voice hoarse and scratchy. "Okay."

"But like do this after breakfast cause I can't handle the, what's that word Rarity uses so much, indignation? Indigestion? Well whatever, I won't like it all that much."

Fluttershy grabbed a towel and grabbed a few different bottles that looked to be indistinguishable to Rainbow Dash. Small bottles with liquid that wasn't some form of alcohol that she could drink to lessen the continual mess of revoking more and more of her coolness.

Fluttershy floated up the few inches to her friends back and laid down with her legs splayed out and yawned. "Oh boy that was sure hard work. I guess I should totally take a nap before breakfast. Good thing I have this friend that would love to walk down to breakfast and do all the hard work." Fluttershy closed her eyes and giggled.

Rainbow turned and looked. "I don't sound like that. And come on you'd probably get there faster anyway if you didn't ride around on me. Not like it really matters."

She felt a pressure of hooves climbing up her back and Fluttershy glanced upside down, her now magenta eyes and, to Rainbow, perfectly awesome face making it so awkward. /the two stared at each other for a moment before Fluttershy poked her on the nose. "Dash, you want to talk about it?"

"About what?" Rainbow's cheeks felt hot as she turned to the defensive mode that she often used to get out of situations. Then she took a breath as she glanced up at Fluttershy, her rainbow mane hanging there in the air and intently watching her. "I mean it's like nothing."

Fluttershy smiled. "Nothing is ever truly nothing. For example, with how Twilight talks about science and magic, even when there's 'nothing' as you put it, there's something there taking up some kind of space. How about we share our nothings right now totally free and without any sort of harm involved."

"You sure you won't like laugh at me or something?"

"Well I won't perform a Swear but seriously yes. I won't laugh at you." Fluttershy floated down and pulled up a nearby chair, just in case this talk would turn into a much longer discussion. Her animal friends tended to have slightly easy problems. Ponies were another matter.

Rainbow breathed in and out. "Well first I'm still not entirely happy that this spell hasn't worn off and then I get stuck in this body and you get the one I'm way more comfortable with and now I just kind of thought off the top of my head what if we kind of mess up with this task we got from Celestia and I don't want to have the fault of losing the Wonderbolts just because we mess up and then I'd have that on my head like forever."

Fluttershy smiled and hugged her friend before walking back and looking her in the eyes. "Wow. Well I'm nervous too, Rainbow. Though I know enough on how to get into the good graces of Canterlot, I might be a tad bit rusty. Let's just do the best we can and maybe if we are lucky we will be fine. But we can't ever truly know and so I'd say let's do the best we can. So can we just go downstairs and eat some breakfast cause I'm hungry."

"Yeah." Rainbow felt the room get a little rain as she walked through the door with Fluttershy walking ahead. Maybe her mind was playing tricks on her. Weird spot for a rain cloud to appear.

Raven awkwardly glanced between Celestia and Discord while the breakfast spread sat there being uneaten and left to cool. "Princess, you should get going on your day. Already we are two minutes behind schedule and the sheer idea of keeping the Saddle Arabian ambassadors waiting could cause an international incident." She quickly straightened her glasses and tapped on the schedule to prove how dire the situation truly was.

Celestia smiled. "I doubt they'd mind. Now Discord, where were we?"

Discord grinned. "Lesson five: Let chaos guide your hand or hoof. Order and chaos are two sides of the coin and therefore every chaotic action if worked towards completion is just order through another lens."

Celestia nodded sagely. "So if I get what your saying, I just have to continue being okay with the result of actions and everything is mostly okay?"

Discord snapped his fingers and a small chessboard appeared. "In effect, yes. Think of Chaos in this little game as the black and Order as white pieces. White goes first and then black reacts to the new normal. Order often has an advantage- There's six different pieces in chess- King, Queen, Rooks, Bishops, Knights, and Pawns. Six Elements of Harmony. Each has it's role and since magic tends to bring out and amplify the good already within each pony exemplifying it- they work in exact and completely orderly patterns. I've never really tried fighting Twilight and her friends actually. Though if you want to consider what it would have been like for me to embody and work towards chaos instead of Chaos and Disharmony, I'd had amped up the chaos magic- bring out the weaknesses and inner demons of each and every one of them and have them slowly go insane instead of learning some lesson that there's a balance or whatever Twilight got out of fighting me."

Celestia nodded and glanced at Discord. "Well that explains the whole Smarty Pants Incident that Twilight still feels dreadful about."

Discord sighed. "Yes, looking back that wasn't my best current moment. But it was interesting to see a new crop of dark magic being used, if only for a moment. I'd say it was at least creative, though how Twilight got a spell out of the blue like that Postulo Vult spell I taught a few rather persuasive unicorns on a whim. I'd say it was a spark of genius, but you and I know that there's always some deeper purpose to these things." Discord sighed.

The draconequus and alicorn were interrupted by their guests. Fluttershy flapped her blue wings as slowly as possible to keep away from the priceless artifacts that littered the walls while Rainbow was trying to quietly correct her posture as quickly as she could.

"I told you they'd be here and stop keeping your legs splayed out like that. It's not like me and also it's rich jerks. They'd probably not like you walking up to them and pretty much asking for a date with that posture. I just don't want ponies to think I'm completely nuts out there."

Fluttershy eeped. Her tomboyish tone echoing a sense of Rainbow's original bravado left as she realized what Rainbow kept mentioning in her brief asides. She quickly slid down to the floor, her face beet red as she shuffled into the room, her posture stock still and locking her knees together to move around as little as possible. "Dash, I didn't really know about that."

Dash stopped and turned, briefly noticing the three spectators. "How? Like seriously how? " Dash glanced at Fluttershy and noticed a flicker of fear and pain dance across her eyes. Taking a deep breath, she refocused and breathed out. "Okay, not the time or place to wonder why you never asked anyone on how to hold yourself or not blast out a mating call for pegasi. Now that I think about it, it finally clicks." Rainbow laughed.

Fluttershy blinked and stared at Dash. "What?"

Rainbow coughed. "Oh sorry. It just makes sense why every single stallion I talked to in Ponyville thought you were like hot for no explainable reason. I thought they were just garbage at figuring out exactly what they liked besides, you know, the "sexy bits" and now I get it. I thought they were slightly dense. I never expected you to be blaring a sign of continuous rutting."

"-If you put it like that it sounds completely awful." Fluttershy tried to hide behind a shock of polychromatic hair and crouch down to get in her safe spot.

Raven cleared her throat. The discussion was becoming far too uncouth for one such as the Princess and as her formal Royal Adviser- her emphasis- she had a duty to get the topic back on track. The sheer idea that the wheel of power was being upended by a discussion of private matters such as procreation irked the mare. "Princess, I really think we should move this breakfast into some place more befitting of it." She fidgeted a little bit but she tried to hang onto the idea of propriety. Rule number one in the Etiquette of Clover that she followed was 'Be courteous and kind but please manners mind." Which was a nice thought to keep in one's head.

Celestia airily giggled. "I mean aren't we already in our breakfast chamber and anyway for the interruption. . .I do believe that Luna tried to cook an omelet once and accidentally burnt down an entire wing of the kitchens. I think having a lively discussion about these matters is so fascinating and anyway- you do tend to tell me to get more open with ponies."

Raven gawked. Thinking back of the five years of being the Adviser- she did mention that could be a way to help the majesty of the Court reach the pre Nightmare Moon levels again. But she mentioned it in passing and in such brief asides. . .

"Wait, so you listened to me?" Raven awkwardly pushed up her rimmed glasses and stared up at the white alicorn.

Celestia laughed. "Of course I did and anyway if you told those two to leave" Celestia rolled her eyes to glance at Fluttershy and Dash. "You'd also have to kick me and Discord out too. What do you think we use breakfast conversation for? It does tend to be rather invigorating to have a talk to a peer such as him." Celestia winked at Discord.

Discord chuckled. "Well of course, it's our post foreplay- pre work environment."

Silence reigned for a moment. Silence slightly broken by a loud snap as Raven took her clipboard and shattered it under her magic's pressure. This was not a thing Raven had predicted, her magic being generally well equipped to deal with general prediction. But having something so far afield come out like this? The Princess hadn't told her something. "I am going to have to, um, postpone that Saddle Arabian meeting until tomorrow. I guess I came down with something that has made my job performance slightly suffer for the, um, let's see, the day. That sounds good. Excuse me." Raven quickly got up and gathered the shattered pieces of her clipboard and bowed to everypony in attendance.

Celestia's facade broke for a second as the door slammed shut and she turned and smiled directly at the draconequus. "I thought we weren't going to broach that subject before we enacted Anti-Twilight measures."

Discord snapped his fingers and glanced down at his watch that he materialized onto his wrist, it's shape melted and malleable as its second hand dripped down into the bottom of his timepiece. "Gee, look at the time, it's slipping away."

Celestia scowled. She quickly took a breath and quietly composed herself. "Not entirely appropriate. Nice play on words, but no."

Fluttershy trotted up to Celestia and tried to smile. "So, um, congratulations?"

Dash groaned.

Dash grimaced as she glanced over to Fluttershy. Seeing her face done up in makeup was something she didn't need in her memory and yet somehow she didn't exactly hate it. Sure, she absolutely did. But like it wasn't Rarity going out on the town level of makeup. Dash thought Rarity just didn't understand restraint when it came to getting laid. Maybe it was the crazy cat mare vibe Rarity gave off when she was on the hunt for a date, but Dash silently thanked Applejack for getting the unicorn far off that market. She shook her head. She wiped her eyes and wondered if the change in location and hard bedding made her think about something sort of pointless flying around in her mind. Maybe it was the nerves. Dash blushed slightly, she felt the wind on her face and shivered. It wasn't like swapping bodies was a common occurrence in Equestria.

She felt a slight hoof on her shoulder and she felt her heart skip a beat. "Dash? You okay?"

"Doing great. Sorry. Just getting used to seeing makeup on my face."

Fluttershy giggled. "Were you worried I'd make you look not awesome?" Dash noticed a hint of a smirk on Fluttershy's smug face.

"No. I'd just expect the Rarity method of applying makeup."

That made Fluttershy stifle a laugh. "Oh I figured. Rarity never was one for subtlety." Pointing at her face, Fluttershy tried to assuage some of Dash's fears. "I chose the more, um, rock look for you. It's hard to truly explain makeup to somepony that either doesn't care or just is unlearned in this kind of stuff. But I tried to highlight your eyes and since your natural colors are a bit much for most makeup techniques- I just went with black. Black eye makeup surrounding your eye? Draws attention and while it also makes you stick out like a sore hoof, it makes sense."

Dash tried to come up with a rebuttal but shut her mouth and sighed. "Fine." She would have dropped it and moved on until she realized that Dash had never truly seen pegasi with makeup. She cocked her head at that thought. "Wait. How'd you get so good with fashion stuff anyway? I thought that was Rarity's whole thing?"

Fluttershy faltered in her steps. "Practice. And I kind of had to. I couldn't fly back up to Cloudsdale. So I kind of had to adapt to just being on the ground and seeing a lot more earth pony habits and unicorn things. You didn't have any makeup in Cloudsdale? That sounds a bit strange and I'd think Rarity would have some sort of conniption fit at that." Fluttershy's laugh rang out hollow and slightly empty at the memories the question brought up.

Rainbow ran a hoof though her hair for a moment. "Yeah, well. I didn't really know of Cloudsdale much since I spent my childhood at the circus, but I saw the faces of every pegasi I ever saw during one of my performances. Twilight calls it something like photographic flight memory or something like that and I never saw much of makeup outside of Canterlot. Entering into Canterlot even know still makes me think of when I saw this town as a weird story book place. Not fully real you know. It still kind of creeps me out."

Fluttershy thought for a moment. "Well maybe it's just a pegasi thing then. I don't know."

Rainbow chuckled. "Yeah maybe. Might just be moisture in the air or pegasi are just too fast for dealing with makeup."

Fluttershy raised an eyebrow and grinned. "If that's a joke on how long it took me to put on makeup, I'm impressed."

Dash rolled her eyes. "Well you took an hour. By this point I'd say we wasted a day looking pretty."

Fluttershy stopped for a moment and turned to look at Dash. Her eyes slightly wide with surprise as what Dash said registered. "Rainbow, you just said I was pretty."

Dash groaned. "No. I said you wasted a day looking pretty. Which is, I guess, a different sentence. Twilight said once that 'A long and hard problem' didn't always mean a dick so I'm totally running with the idea that I said that and meant the completely other thing just so I don't have to worry about thinking that I pretty much said I'd have some alone time with myself."

Fluttershy giggled and flapped her wings, her moments slightly jerky as she was still slightly getting used to flying and consciously attempting to not have random ponies glance up in the sky and see everything. Dash had outlined the general gist to fly, as Rainbow put it, super fast and awesome while not ruining her image. "Okay, Dash, whatever you say."

Dash raced after her and tried to keep up while trying to backpedal on that compliment. "Shy, like come on, that's not the way to take that either." She ran to keep up with Fluttershy- whose laughter echoed through the old and decrepit alleyways that Canterlot was littered with.

Easyglider Stadium was slowly filling with spectators as the Wonderbolt Yearly Training Camp was being set up. Pegasi littered the crowds and a gaggle of fillies and colts ran around the stands trying to play their own version of Wonderbolt Academy.

A group of ponies walked into the private box often used for dignitaries or lower ranked nobles.

"Cloudkicker, like seriously where the fuck's those two? Did they fall down a well or something?" Blossomforth lazily drew doodles on her clipboard. She didn't really have talent per se, but it wasn't too hard to accentuate the positive attributes of the surrounding ponies.

Cloudkicker scowled. "Dude, you've been asking that shit for an hour. How should I know where our little lovebirds have ran off to?" She glanced over and noticed what Blossom was drawing. "Seriously? Can't you draw anything more subtle than a massive orgy?"

Blossom winked. "My parents always said focus on what you know. So Spitty, how big's Soarin' cause I know you two got it going on and I can't really figure out the dimensions I need for the masterpiece I'm tentatively calling 'Ten Gun Orgy".

Spitfire groaned and rubbed her temple. "I really wish I could punch the past version of myself for even thinking inviting you here was a good idea."

A airy laugh echoed through the box as Fleur sauntered in with Starlight in tow. "Well I thought I heard some commotion up in here. Though I wonder why this box is being used since there is a perfectly serviceable Wonderbolt location a few hundred feet in that direction." She walked up and gestured to Starlight. "Please can you start dictation now?"

Starlight hummed neatly to herself as she pulled an entire ream of papers out of her bag. "Of course that'd be no real issue since even being here in this splendid arena is just so very interesting. I mean there's hay fries and Yakyakistani food and I don't even know where that is." Starlight beamed.

Fleur breathed in and started. "Let's see. New upholstered seats in the entire stadium. Cost per chair I would estimate at around ten to twenty bits for one chair times ten thousand at the latest figures of this wonderful stadium. I'd say that'd be a range of a hundred to two hundred thousand bits. Upkeep of the stadium? I'd say the general consensus would be more safety and therefore a higher cost. I'd estimate a few million to keep it up to code. Do you want me to go on Spitfire because I could and I have all day." Fleur smiled.

Spitfire silently fumed and tugged at her administrator uniform. A badge was slightly askew with the motion and she straightened it was a quick motion. Taking a deep breath, she smiled. "Fleur, I'm surprised you even came here. I thought you hated sports or am I remembering our times in the Guard Academy wrong?"

The white unicorn waved a hoof. "Oh it wasn't my idea, I've been showing Starlight around the town recently and we've been seeing the sights. Don't you know Meadowbrook's crypt is in the Canterlot Gardens? I'd have never even known that fact if my studious maid hadn't drag me on a wild goose chase. But alas, wrapping up that flight of fancy, I'm just saying I've been noticing a lot of spending on current projects and hearing the plight of the bordertowns and the downtrodden have been rather eye opening for me."

Spitfire held back a laugh. "Sure this is coming from the one voted to be the absolute richest one in the Academy. Like where's this populist message even coming from? Is this a joke or something? Come on am I being punked? Cause Miss Prancy Pants having a change of heart is completely ridiculous."

The rich unicorn smiled. "It has been nearly twenty years. Let bygones be bygones. Anyway. . .coming back on track here. Let's mention that the commander of the air force is a bit hostile to my presence and that the total price of this one stadium was around ten million bits. And don't worry, I checked on that fact since even though I know Blueblood's known as the laughingstock of Canterlot nowadays with his playcolt methods but he's well informed of pecuniary matters. I told him to crunch the numbers and there's some little matter of how there's a deficit in a sector of the economy that rakes in oodles of cash."

Blossom yawned and waved a hoof. "Sorry but like this is boring so like can you get to the point? I'd love trying to parse through your bullshit, but I have not enough time in the day." She smirked and continued with her drawing.

Fleur closed her eyes and smiled daggers into her. "Yes, laypony's terms then. Your little sports show here and it's entire run is completely nonessential. You are the air force of Equestria- not dressed up showmares. That shouldn't be your focus. Act like the ponies you want or I'm slashing your funding and closing every single silly stadium like this for your sport."

Cloudkicker scoffed. "I'm not even a Wonderbolt and that sounds like a super insane overreach of rich bitch powers."

Spitfire sighed. "Can everypony please calm down for one moment?" Spitfire composed herself and looked straight at her old friend and rival in the Academy. "Fine. I'll run with the idea that somehow you got the ten or fifteen noble houses of Canterlot to agree to do something. Bravo. I'm not even sure if some of those ponies know what they do anymore besides party and waste their lives looking down on the poor. Fine. I'll even begrudge that maybe you had a change of heart, but you've been so focused on explaining how terrible I've been at running this ship that I have no clue what you even want to use the money for. So do it or else I'll write my own little report on how you seemingly walked in on a private gathering of Wonderbolt leaders and vaguely threatened us with your tone."

Fleur and Starlight stopped moving for one moment as the full force of her words hit them. The white unicorn and her maid looked at each other for a moment. "You may stop writing, Starlight. I believe Spitfire has got the point of the message. I just want to use the money you all get from the crown for better purposes. I mean there's always the poor and needy and helping them is a fantastic idea. I mean there should be a program for helping those less fortunate than I." The model unicorn smiled and waited patiently for Spitfire to talk.

Spitfire chuckled. "Really? That's it. You want to pretty much audit us for wasting money while you put forward an idea like that? Okay, maybe I was wrong about you changing cause that sounds like you forgot Equestria already has a social program." Spitfire laughed. "I mean with how often my recruits talk about growing up in bad situations, I know we have one of those."

Fleur's eye twitched. "Yes, well, we could always make them better. An influx of money could be useful."

Spitfire sighed. "Cool, I'll mention that to all my new recruits who know what we truly do in the 'nonessential' part of our job. If you read the news every once in a while we do provide a fair portion of our profits to charity- as laid down in the founding charter of the Wonderbolts. Well okay the wording is that we would provide merriment and foodstuffs to all but it was nearly a millennia ago."

"But-"

"And for those who might say that the Wonderbolts don't provide a service in their mission to the corners of Equestria- well patrolling the borders is always important and if we can provide a link to the little ponies in the far off lands that you seem to love so much now- well that's a bonus."

Fleur's eyes twitched and she took a deep breath and smiled. "Fine. Fine. Whatever. I'll just go and you and your friends can just deal with the problem of being a drain on our economy. Toodles." Fleur flipped her mane and strode out with Starlight in tow.

Spitfire sighed and ran a hoof through her hair before she walked back into a chair and stared up at the ceiling. She bounced her leg up and down to relax her nerves. She pressed her earpiece and began talking. "So anypony else got weird vibes about that convo or was that just me?"

A tired voice answered back. "You know I don't hand out my personal number to anypony so I'm surprised you even could get this to connect. But no while you were looking like a fool, I was running the tests that Celestia told me to do to keep the entire city safe. I can rule out changeling influence. Their magic is primarily based on hate. Green and putrid really. I then ran the more uncommon tests. Zebra, griffon, seapony, et cetera. Nothing. No strange xenomagic sources. LEt me pull up my notes on the different types of magic that could be used to alter personality. White sources-"

Spitfire sighed. "Moondancer, I know you have all the time in the world to lecture me on magic sources, but please focus on the important bits. I'm not one of your correspondents and I barely know the technical ways pegasi magic works outside of flying high and fast and knowing how to stop."

Moondancer huffed through the phone. "Fine. Rundown on the spell, seventeen percent white magic based upon muscle control, fifty percent black magic based on a mix of mental coercion and mental connection. That's a new one. And then the final third was some chaos spell. Running through the archives we have on hand thanks to current scholars and-" Moondancer sighed, "the newest princess- we have the most relevant spell as a very highly advanced and modified Want It Need It Spell."

Spitfire swore under her breath. "Great, so should I call the guards and have them surround the estate." Spitfire chuckled at the next thought. "Or maybe I could call the Elements of Harmony and we could blast the whole mansion with a friendship nuke. Worked on the last five or so things that ruined somepony's day."

"Haha. Very funny. But no this spell is an alchemical nightmare so it's horribly unstable. Reading the data I've been trailing for a week, I'm honestly impressed at this mage's work. I don't know how she did it but she somehow made chaos magic be the stabilizer in the spell as a failsafe kill switch. I'd say sit and wait. That would be the last resort even with two of them here in Canterlot- even if one of them's an idiot- getting to Canterlot from Ponyville could take hours. Teleporting that distance is out due to strain even if you plug in the alicorn variable. Do you want the responsibility of having a competent and cornered magic user out and about for hours casting the same spell or some even more unstable variant that could be like a suggestible virus?"

Spitfire sighed. "Fine, Miss Doom and Gloom. I was trying to make light of the situation and seriously lighten up. I got your number from Raven a while back and wanted to see if she wasn't punking me with it. Cool, I'll know who to ask when I need a doomsday weapon. But okay let's all chill and keep the highly trained guard companies on standby while somepony controls others like a puppet. But you know I'm great." The Wonderbolt captain took a moment and chuckled. "Okay, no I'm sorry. I should be at least thanking you for going out of your way and doing this for me."

A bored shrug echoed firmly in Spitfire's head. "Yeah. I used the last of my poison joke and tatzlwurm tongues so I'd say you owe me a lot."

Spitfire quickly racked her brain. "Well after how Raven told me you were doing over a couple drinks, I know this nice curry place that just got set up. Not the nicest place in town but the food's good and I know I could rope a Wonderbolt if I needed to. I mean Surprise really wants to settle down after that tabloid smear campaign messed her up. Or Fire Streak just retired. I bet I could rope him into something."

A small laugh. "Yes, well while I do find it charming you'd set me up on a date- I'd rather not.

"Well okay then. I'll keep the offer open just in case though." Spitfire heard an echoing click and silence as the call dropped. "Shit. Shit. Shit."

Blossom stretched her limbs and tilted her head back to grin at the orange pegasus. "Come on, you didn't expect your date idea to satisfy the biggest hermit in Equestria? I'm shocked that didn't work out. Though I'm more surprised she didn't try teleporting all the way here to smack you silly. Come on it's like once a unicorn is ranked high enough in their magical tests, they all become weirdly too into the abstract ideas of magic and just leave our silly pastel butts out here to deal with reality. Sad though cause she has to be the loneliest pony in Canterlot who never got laid." She finished her sketch and waved it around. "Oh well I've outdone myself today. Look at that masterpiece."

Spitfire would have tried to parse what strange reality she hopped into when Blossomforth had a coherent and smart idea bouncing around in her head. She felt a light but firm hoof and noticed that Cloudkicker was just silently nodding her head. The grey pegasus smiled and began to quietly whisper, so as to not attract any major attention.

"Come on Fire, you have to remember that a clock is, at least, right twice a day. And I know you are a stressed out mess cause you've been fidgeting like crazy ever since your unicorn friend came in but you still owe me a house for the last time Blossom got all really on message. I'm not letting you forget that. So get your guard back up cause you are open and it isn't a good look for you. Be the dick pony that made my mortgage hopefully null and void cause that place was awesome. Totally freaking great." A jolting pain for a second registered on Spitfire's mind. "But you know having your best friend have a mental breakdown and destroy the house you built together thanks to a pony bringing up their past can be fun every once in a while. I mean I loved the chance of redecorating my pad that Blossom crashes at cause you got her all in a huff. But that's the past. I'm good, you're fine, and Blossom's Blossom which for her is as good as it's going to get. And anyway, don't we have to train these little baby Wonderbolts how to beat the sharpest of odds? Let's kick the collective asses of these newbies. But if you need a moment, I was rummaging around the cool couches and found some booze. Hit that and come on down."

Spitfire felt her leg go numb as Cloudkicker turned away. She groaned and flashed back to her own training days in the Guard Academy. She steadied her breathing as she felt the slight pinch of her leg shift back into place. Zebrican Nerve Pinch. Oh how she didn't miss that technique from the Academy. She hobbled on over to the comfiest chair in the room and slumped down. She scrounged around and pulled out a bottle at random. She took a deep swig of the burning stuff and coughed as she tried to keep it cool. "You are a totally awesome captain who totally loves her job. Happy thoughts. Nothing bad will happen. Nothing bad will happen. It isn't like I'm dealing with the two least sane ponies in Canterlot and some spell is turning one of the most headstrong and obnoxious ponies I know into a puppet. Things are super chill." Spitfire took a deep breath and focused. "Game face in three, two, one." She got up and left the room unsure of exactly what to do. Her legs were unsteady and shaking horribly, but she chalked that up to the alcohol and stress. Everything was going to work out and hiding the insecurity that she was feeling in this moment was of prime importance. She needed to put her best hoof forward because that was what all the ponies depended on her for. She felt something. Maybe she wasn't really happy about her situation right now but it was okay.

Dash stared up at the stadium, it's size now a bit smaller due to her new perspective and height, but a head or two taller wasn't much when compared to the grandest Wonderbolt stadium in the country. She sighed as she brushed her pink mane. "Yeah this is where we totally split cause I'm not going to let you walk around in my body wearing makeup. I can deal with a lot of things but that was never on my list of things I'm cool with."

Dash felt a small hoof on her shoulder. "Dash, it's okay. I understand. Just don't do anything reckless."

Rainbow blushed. "I mean it's not like Danger is my middle name or something. And I swear that I won't plan on showing off. I mean I broke down a wall and broke a few benches in my time but I've been super careful. Honest."

Fluttershy rolled her magenta orbs and sighed. "That sounds totally honest to me."

Dash grinned. "I don't need sarcasm right now. And with how late it is I'd have thought you'd need to go to some rich fake party where everypony's a jerk."

Fluttershy laughed. "Well I guess that is sort of true. Though with how fast I can go now I thought about finding a high cloud and taking a nap. I'm kidding. I know Canterlot pretty well Rainbow. I mean sure some of the streets are a bit different since time passed and I'd have to check if some others still live where I think they should, but it's fine. Now if nopony talks about the best new book on the shelves, I'd have no problems with this assignment."

Dash leaned in and smirked. "Didn't Rarity say it was the hottest book in the big city. If it was a normal situation, I'd say flaunt the hay out of it and just roll with it. Don't you start having rants about the sequel before you make it though. It did end on a horrible cliffhanger. I mean Speed Dazzler falling out of the sky to his doom as his awesome plane exploded around him. Seriously who writes a climax that doubles as the last ten pages of a book? I mean you could have just ended it a page before where Quiet and him break it off and they go their separate ways. You didn't have to amp up the tension with political intrigue."

Fluttershy blushed. "Well I just thought it worked better that way. I mean I ended it on a super down note and a lot of novels in a series like hyping up the next one."

The two pegasi stopped talking as Cloudkicker's echoing yell reached to where they were. Dash stood straight up to attention and nearly feel over. "Crud. Okay, we'll talk later. See you." Dash learned in and reflexively kissed Fluttershy on the cheek. She then realized what she was actually doing and quickly broke it off. "Oh yeah, well, that was not what I planned." Dash's cheeks burned and felt way too hot as she awkwardly backed away. "Okay, well, see you back at the castle."

Fluttershy blinked and tried to call out to her retreating friend. "Yeah, yeah, yeah." Fluttershy stopped for a moment and realized she was barely off the ground. She quietly clopped her hooves back onto solid ground and sat down on the cobblestone street. "Yeah."

"Now you pansies better drop and give me fifty." Cloudkicker yelled at the recruits. Most of the pegasi here were second or third stringers at best and the ones that had promise needed the ego bucked out of them. She spied the one pony that could give Rainbow the award for second worst ego in the Wonderbolts. Kicker sighed. "Now Lightning Dust get your back into this or I'll come up there and teach you the difference between my hoof and a mirror. Hint. It involves pain."

The greenish blue pegasus glanced over the cloud she was resting on and yawned. "Fine, I just needed to rest my eyes since I needed to compare myself to the competition and fell asleep." Lightning Dust stretched and glided down to the stadium, arcs of lightning following her as she descended. "I'll just do half as great as I usually do cause the last time I went all out I got demoted." Lightning Dust opened one eye and stretched her wings.

"Oh yes, I read that in your file. So I won't mind telling you to run around the track fifty times. I mean I can't work with a pony that holds back her true potential just because she's butthurt about being demoted. You got demoted for a reason. Don't just say something fucking dumb like 'oh it's cause I was too cool and nopony could deal with it'. No, what you did- at least from what I could tell from even skimming your scant file- was that you just aren't a team player. Buck up princess, this is the Wonderbolts, not the Equestria Games."

"I-"

"Go now, else I'll have to bring in the real hardcase here."

Lightning Dust zoomed off, her electric trail arcing through the sky at faster and faster intervals as she sped up into a blur.

Cloudkicker whistled low. "Well I'll be slightly impressed. She has the speed but I'd bet somepony'd have to rubberize her suit better just so nopony's in danger. It's like if Dash had a trail that wasn't a giant rainbow." She itched her face quickly to clear her vision of the faint cloud of dust that was still drifting along from Dust's quick and sloppy takeoff. "Speaking of Tirek. . . Yo, 'Shy' what took you so long?"

Dash looked up. "Oh I was helping Rainbow try makeup on and it took way longer than she thought it would."

Cloudkicker smirked at the thought. "Oof, I would have loved to see that. Anyway, I got this teeny tiny- and completely silly idea when you walked in. You see I got this one really hard to train pony here and I would love seeing her get taken down a peg. And I remember that you can somehow break down a fucking wall no sweat so I was just thinking that I'd have you two in a completely safe fight and see who wins."

Dash violently shook her head. She had literally just been told by Shy to not go breaking ponies over the head and hurting herself or showboating. Or she thought that was what Shy had meant. Rainbow had always tried erring on the side of caution when it came to the yellow pegasus. She was so calm and quiet usually that any sense of actual anger creeping up on Shy was kind of terrifying. Not in the Iron Will retraining way- that was a weird time for the pegasus, but the passive aggressive and quiet anger that sometimes slipped out. Rainbow had once asked Fluttershy about her family and it had got a little too uncomfortable for her taste. She didn't even want to test Fluttershy even if she was currently in her own body. She'd just wait while she was asleep or something. Rainbow Dash shivered at the thought. "Not a chance."

"Come on it'd be hilarious. I mean think about it. A gentle giant like you versus someone like Dash. I mean she's brash, doesn't listen to orders, is a complete idiot, and has an ego larger than the sun. It's Dash but somehow worse. At least Dash has a continuous problem of never showing up to work and sleeping all the time. I mean sure she's fast and all but that just has to mean she finishes early-" Cloudkicker waited.

"Fine. I'll do it. But Dash totally isn't bad at her job. I mean she doesn't finish quickly, it's a lot of back and forth to clear the skies of clouds and it's probably a fulfilling experience for her-" Rainbow started walking away until she realized what Cloudkicker was trying to trick her into saying. "Crud."

Cloudkicker burst out laughing.

Fluttershy flew through the sky on a few different updrafts and downdrafts, weaving through the sky in a beeline fashion towards the Clover District. She had once been the sort of unfortunate recipient of a Twilight lecture on the multiple districts of Canterlot but she couldn't really figure out the way they were organized. Twilight might have mentioned they changed a lot in between the years before and after Luna's return. She was unsure because while Fluttershy herself was a better listener than most of her friends- even she couldn't keep up with the pile of dates, name lists, maps, population density and whatever else Twilight thought was relevant in the question- "What are the basic things I need to know about Canterlot so I don't look bad". Twilight was really bad at answering simple questions without getting caught up in every detail.

So Fluttershy had needed to find somepony else to teach her the ins and outs of Canterlot social graces. Fleur was at most an acquaintance now- they had periodically exchanged a few letters- but she knew at least the general location where she was. Banking her way past lush parks and a large crowd waving some weird signs with equal signs, she moved on. She felt a downdraft and curved down its edge into a nearby street corner and folded her wings just enough to land well enough. She skidded to a stop and checked her makeup in a nearby window. No big smudges greeted her. A few small streaks around her eye were somewhat noticeable, but she quickly plucked one of her loose feathers and brushed it out back to something close to normal. She couldn't be exactly picky with perfection, but at least it looked presentable again.

"And Dash thought I was lying about water resistant or waterproof mascara." She flicked the blue feather away and slowly walked down the street, the noise from the park echoed ever closer.

Cries of "Cutie Marks are Lies" and "The Princesses are lying about the Storm War" and "We Want Happiness, We Need Freedom" among other things mixed through the tiny street as a throng of ponies began advancing towards Fluttershy again. She quickly ducked into a tight alleyway and quietly thanked that she was currently in Rainbow's body or else the gymnastics required to fit normally would have taken way too long. She peered out behind a trashcan and noticed the large grey equal signs that they held. She had never heard of a protest in Canterlot before. Though she never really paid too much attention to the news. Maybe it was a really common thing. Still she waited until the mass of ponies left and she crawled out of the alleyway and flew as fast as she could to Fleur's house. She felt moisture on her face as she zipped in the sky. Maybe there was going to be rain, maybe not.

Starlight laid back in the rich upholstered chair that these aristocrats had. She heard the muffled shouts of the oh so random demonstration that she set up with some of her most loyal followers. She didn't want to enter Canterlot with a retinue of ponies or else she'd have stuck out like a sore thumb- especially since most of her closest ring were just some Manehattan sounding ponies in some tiny little town in the middle of nowhere. But she did enjoy Utopia. Sure it wasn't the original name, but giving the town what they always wanted, a true purpose, and also rebuilding the town to be some fun little science experiment just to test if cutie marks were truly a sham or not was fascinating. It was nice to spend days just telling ponies what to do and seeing progress. Almost felt like home and leaving it now felt weird, but she had things to do. She opened her eyes and sighed. "Oh deary me, if only I knew exactly where to find those artifacts. . ." She unfolded a nearby letter and crumpled it. "Stupid return address. Oh Sunburst if only I knew where you were I wouldn't have to do what I have to do." She got up and stretched. Walking through the door, she put the Want It, Need It spell back on Fleur. She yawned. It was just so easy to twist a pony's mind when she needed that it sadly felt hollow. Unlike her Utopians, this mare just was too simple- everyone was scared of bugs when they should be scared of their neighbors and their best friends. It wasn't exoskeletons ruining the world, it was the few unicorns peeved off with some facet of Equestria. There was a unicorn leading Old Stormy's army and also there was a unicorn across some mirror dimension. The help in the palace were ever so talkative when they couldn't see a pony in the room. Turning her head to ever more pressing things, she noticed the lanky unicorn in a maid's outfit. Starlight grinned at how easily the social order could be flipped with one measly spell. "Now what do we have here?"

"Mistress, what do you want me to do today?" Fleur lazed about with a huge grin on her face as she was hit in waves of pure endorphins shot straight into her brain as the spell provided her eyes a dream world full of everything she ever wanted.

"Oh give me a moment, I'm so exhausted from acting like a country bumpkin." She rubbed her sore throat. "I don't envy actors now for attempting accents." Starlight glanced over at Fleur's slack face. "Can you not look like the dimmest one here. I mean seriously even the lamps look more lively. I mean what would any guest think of you just standing around with such a dopey look. They'd get suspicious."

"So do you want me to become a lamp? I just want to feel love. I need it."

The pink unicorn groaned. "Uh, no. Note to self. Tweak the spell more because while I love a good linguistic kerfluffle, I really didn't plan for turns of phrase to make my spell completely unusable. Fine, whatever do something. I don't know what you aristocrats do? Like go play dress up or just twiddle your hooves around in a pleasing manner. Leave me alone for just a bit."

Fleur glided off, her movements sloppy and unsure but Starlight at least had some peace. Maybe that unicorn would go masturbate for a bit- she didn't care. Her head hurt from the constant casting the spell required every few days. Sure she only had to do a few sessions until Starlight couldn't differentiate between her will and others, but it required a lot of focus. Starlight rubbed her temple. "Really shouldn't have attempted that puppet version of the spell cause all I want now is some aspirin. Stupid magic headaches." She turned and headed away as she could hear muffled noises coming from the bedroom. Starlight shrugged, at least she was out of her mane. After a year or two of controlling a town, she was completely desensitized towards most things.

A knock at the door roused her from her slight melancholy. She quickly cast a muffling spell towards where Fleur walked off to. She wasn't expecting visitors and she didn't need ponies to answer questions. She thought about teleporting to the bottom of the stairs, but decided against it, since she only had so much daily magic reserved to burn through and she had been casting spells willy nilly just to get some ponies to crawl out of the woodwork. She grasped the golden handle of the front door and quickly put on her accent. "Why yes, whatever do you want, miss?"

A blue pegasus with the worst mane color imaginable stared up at her slightly. "Yes, well, I was told by one of my friends to come see Fleur. I mean I was tasked by Celestia to see why they wanted to end the Wonderbolts and so that's why I'm here." The blue pegasus sheepishly grinned. Starlight didn't find it charming.

"Oh darn, I think she just went out. If ya want I can just tell who came in and called and that'd be for the best you hear?" Starlight cast the Want It, Need It spell silently and put the idea out into the ether that this pony should just go as far away as possible.

The blue pegasus did nothing but scratch her head lazily with a hoof. "Oh yeah, just tell her that Rainbow Dash, the greatest current Wonderbolt was here and that Fluttershy really would love to meet up. You know talk about modeling days, maybe go to a party. I dunno. "

Starlight cast the spell again. "Oh I would love to tell her. What was your name again? Rainbow Dash? I'll be sure to remember that for just how striking your hair is. I mean that's a shade I could never see back in my little town."

Rainbow cocked her head. "Well that sounds cool, where are you from?" A happy smile beamed out and Starlight's mouth twitched.

"Oh really just no place. No place at all. It's really so small you could have never heard of it. It's like it's not even on the map. But it's Manehattan area at least."

Fluttershy thought. "Near Manehattan and small? I mean there's not much out there. Might be just Dorbarrow or Irondeer out there. I mean I haven't been there in a few decades really but it isn't like small towns like that change."

Starlight swore in her head. Nobody was supposed to know the exact location of her little Utopia. She chose a town like, yes, that one, Irondeer, for that exact reason. She had to work through a lot of rejection issues and even now she couldn't find peace if some nopony walked up to her and couldn't get the magically induced hint. "Oh Irondeer. Yes. I'm honestly surprised you heard or even went to my town. It's ever so enlightening to find ponies that travel out into the roads less traveled."

Starlight's new favorite and least favorite pony kept rambling on. "Well I do have a friend who likes random history of small towns like yours. Do you still have that memorial statue of in the middle of the town? The one showing the union of the Whitetail tribe with pony settlers? It seemed like such a neat thing."

Starlight vaguely remembered that statue. It was still there but only because she still hadn't figured out ways to get the Utopians to smelt that thing down. Her little town was an ever changing thing and that project had been put on hold when forcing a few of her followers to touch that thing with purpose made them have violent seizures. A few died. It really was a shame. She just decided to rebrand it as "The Coming Era" and just leave it be. Too bad, she had had such a great idea for a statue reusing the jewels and gold from that monument for a truly magnificent statue. "Oh won't you look at the time. I really loved talking to you about my town but you know how these rich ponies can be. If you don't sweep away every speck of dirt then they get all mad at you. Well see you later and I will tell the mistress about you coming." Starlight smiled.

"Cool. Uh I'll see you tomorrow then. Oh yeah, quick question. I saw a mob on the next street over. You know anything about that?"

"Oh deary me. I don't believe so. Maybe it's some new movement. I can't keep track with all these strange things here in the capital." Starlight smiled and slowly closed the door. "See you tomorrow."

The blue pegasus nodded. "Yeah. Also for some reason I keep hearing this weird buzzing noise. Must just be my ears adjusting to silence or something. Well, uh, see you later."

Starlight waited until she couldn't see the new pony through the peephole and she felt a strange emotion come over her. Oh she would remember this Rainbow Dash. Something that was immune to high level mental spells was not completely disheartening. Infuriating, sure. She had gotten used to just waving her hooves and having her townspeople attend to her every want and desire just to fit in and feel loved by her and her society. But it was boring to be unchallenged by life. And a challenge could always give her a reason to create ever more fun spells. Maybe amp up the effect and range and then she could do whatever she wanted to find the two things she needed for her plan. The Meadowbrook artifacts ever so lovingly stolen from the tomb of a Pillar of Equestria and Sunburst's location. With the ever increasing influence Eqestrians had on the world, it was so much harder to find a little known archmage. So she had one plan to mess with ponies and check up on him. She would start tomorrow though. She quietly lifted the spells on Fleur and the mansion. When she came to, she'd just think she was tired and didn't get to do much today. Starlight may have been a complete egomaniac at times, but she had standards. Sunburst or bust.

"Now everypony please do be careful with this fight I've been roped into presiding over. No shots below the belt or unfair things that could give somepony like me a few hours of paperwork." Spitfire massaged her head as she just took the day in stride now. Maybe the slight buzz helped, but usually if she saw a fight she'd end that right away. Right now she was on the cusp of ending it, but her lesser judgments let her press on.

Lightning Dust smirked. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is so stupid."

Rainbow Dash stood there thinking of how exactly she'd explain to Fluttershy how she got in a sanctioned fight using the yellow pegasus' body. "Um, can't we like talk this out."

"Kid, I'd love to but I just spent the last five minutes arguing with a clown and a brick wall." Spitfire shrugged. "But I bet if you two give it your all in one shot, I could flub it and you walk away okay. It's really up to Cloudkicker cause she's the one who broke my zen happy place and told me what was going on."

Rainbow groaned. "Fine. Let's get this over with then. Hey, Dust, I'll let you hit me with your full strength and then fight back. Sounds fair?"

Lightning Dust nodded. "Yeah, whatever."

"By the power vested in me and the courage instilled in me from alcohol, I call this fight begun." With a flourish. Spitfire brought down her raised hoof and sat down. Either this was a horrible idea she'd regret or it was a teachable moment. She never really worked out a nice middle ground when it came to teaching.

Lightning Dust zipped off into the sky, her arcing trail flashing in time with the laps she was running through the stadium. As she swerved around the stands, she banked into a large updraft and was swept into the top of the Canterlot skyline. She quickly burst through the cloud layer and swung herself around to face the ground- barely seeing her target from this vantage point. That Fluttershy said anything went. So why not perform a death defying aerial maneuver that could backfire if not pulled off with one hundred percent precision? It made up for getting kicked down a few grades because she 'didn't work well with others.' More like she was too rad to be contained. She felt the freefall hit as the cone of air bent around her. She had tried to emulate that Rainbow Dash's 'signature' move but she still hadn't perfected the exact motions yet. She had spent a lot of time scanning reporter footage of that Sonic Rainboom, but it was just out of her grasp. She felt the pinpoint accuracy shape around her edge as lightning danced through her mane.

'Fluttershy' saw the coming hit from a mile away. "Oh Celestia, I really, really regret doing-"

The hit connected with Rainbow's face at just below mach one.

"Lesson Ten, Blue. Body control." Ponyacci looked down at the young filly. "The boss told me to toughen you up after your fight that you lost. Not really my forte, but move with the punch and use the pony's momentum to your advantage."

Rainbow turned her head to the side to truly see the clown. Her bandages made focusing difficult as she could only see out of her right eye. "When do we start the lesson?'

Ponyacci smiled. "That was the lesson. Roll with the punches."

Rainbow rolled her good eye.

'Fluttershy' moved away from the punch, He body running on pure adrenaline as the punch connected. Her neck braced for some impact and she kept one of her blue orbs on the punch. It felt right to do. She felt the short glimpse into a part of her past that she had taken for granted for years talk back to her in a way. She was part of a few fights when she was younger, to be fair, but it wasn't her forte. She felt the punch connect as she moved her head in the direction of it to lessen some of the impact but she couldn't deflect all of it. She was stronger than she was used to thanks to Fluttershy being absurdly lucky with her genes, but taking a punch at mach one and surviving was completely lucky. Unluckily for Dust, she hadn't worked out the risks correctly either.

Dash felt Lightning Dust's forehoof shatter as bone met face. She thought the sound of bones almost sounded like a carrot being snapped in half- a light crunching noise. That was when Dash opened her eyes again and the world went from sickening slow motion into regular speed. Lightning Dust's wordless scream was given audio as Dash felt her world spin. Dash slowly walked forward and vomited straight into the grass and slumped over. A quiet chuckle almost escaped her lips as she realized she could have actually died from that little stunt Cloudkicker tried to pull. She felt air come into her lungs in short, ragged breaths and she sat there just looking up into the sky.

"Oh my fucking hoof, what the absolute fucking shit. What are you made of, fucking diamond bitch c-"" Dust was hurling out profanity as she was trying to stay awake from the shock of breaking her entire leg.

Spitfire jumped up and took control. Slightly tipsy control but since Cloudkicker was being glared at by every Wonderbolt in the stadium and Blossomforth was ranting about how awesome that stunt was- it fell to the most responsible one there to take charge. And with how much adrenaline she was feeling from this accident, the alcohol really wasn't hindering her. She started yelling at the ponies that didn't look like they were deer in lamplights. "Okay, uh, let's see. One- no possibly two- hurt ponies. Okay. Okay Fleetfoot, call the hospital. I don't want the chance that those medical unicorns can't stitch this bone up. Yes, I know that she's screaming about it being completely broken, I'm saying the wonders of medical magic today might save her if you don't sit around debating moot points. I want a check up on Fluttershy here and maybe I won't have to cite all of you in a special meeting and interrogate you all to death." Spitfire felt a migraine coming on again as she looked out upon the field.

Fluttershy felt dizzy as she banked towards the stadium. Without a reason to stay near the aristocratic section of town , she had decided to check up on Dash. It wasn't that she didn't trust her- it was just that Dash tended to get stuck in situations without a great way out. She was almost blasted out of the air when she felt a splitting headache come on. A blaring alarm went off in her head as the now dim light of daytime was too unbearable to look at. The prodding headache was stuck right above her eye as she almost tumbled down to the ground, her hooves skidding the pavement and sending bits of gravel aloft.

"Oh that's new."

She glanced around. A few hundred feet away from the stadium now felt like a few miles but she began trudging her feet through her body's pleading to stop. "Just a bit more. Fluttershy furiously tried to flap her blue wings and she almost crawled her way to the stadium , each wingbeat causing a yard or so to be subtracted from the distance.

It was a struggle, but soon the light of the stadium greeted her and she slunk into the scene. "What's going on-" Fluttershy trailed off as the brunt of her exhaustion finally hit her.

Spitfire spied the blue pegasus out of the corner of her eye. Fluttershy could vaguely hear her voice as she wavered in and out of consciousness. "Shit. Yeah wasn't expecting Rainbow Dash to fall out of the sky. No, she wasn't even on the field. I dunno. How should I know. Maybe it's an Element thing. Okay Fleetfoot, scratch the medics. Just get, I dunno, the Princesses on the case. I don't know who to call first. I'd say Miss Magic herself but she's in Ponyville. Luna? She's still in Ponyville for some forsaken reason. Celestia then. Fine. If anypony needs me, I'm going to be writing the report. Surprise, tell Soarin' to come up and help. It's been a long day."