Dawn Stripes

@@Hypn0ticD, @~Shadow Wolf~,@Pripyat Pony, Fluttershy picked up the phone. Where are you? We're on our way? She gave the phone to Catherine, demurely folding her hands deep in her lap as she held onto the side of her seat, watching the scenery speed past at illegal rates outside. "We're close, aren't she?" she murmured to Catherine. "It can't be far now."

@@Pripyat Pony, (OOC: Clop it. What does it take to make one of these bugs mad? Chrysalis was a lot easier to tick off. Maybe I'll come up with another good pass in a few posts.) Twilight chewed the end of the pen as it levitated into her mouth, staring into space. Friendship and curiosity...there was nothing there the Changeling--or anypony, for that matter--couldn't have simply guessed without any special powers. She wondered...if she waited long enough around them, Twilight imagined she would get a demonstration, but as long as she was here. "How far can these senses reach?" Twilight asked, peering through the windowblinds into the night. "They aren't impeded by walls or floors, are they? Can you smell any of what Applejack is feeling right now?"

@@Pripyat Pony, "Amazing." Twilight scribbled for page after page. "The libraries have endless hoofbooks for the guard on how to disable a changeling--weak points in their wings and carapace--and how to try and tell a fake from a real pony. But there's so much we don't know about Changelings--their biology, their culture. Celestia will be fascinated..." For a moment, she entirely forgot her company and continued to monologue under her breath as she made a few marginal notes, speculations and questions for further study. The clock on her bedside which read a quarter to eleven was quite forgotten now. "Can you smell my feelings right now, Cicada?"

@@Hypn0ticD, @@Pripyat Pony, "So it's harder to consume positive emotions?" Twilight blinked in confusion, halting the tortuous progress of her pen across paper. Even with feather quills, this had been so much easier with magic. "Are negative ones easier to pull away from a...a pony?" What morbid curiosity for a Princess. Twilight reassured herself that it was purely scientific, and glared at her notebook for a second---maybe she could try what Rarity had, after all. With a bit of a paranoid lurch in her stomach, she let the pen dangle under her fingers and snapped them. For a moment, nothing happened. The second time she tried, however, a hot white spark jumped between her nails, and the pen slowly fluttered to life, enveloped in a pale purple light. -------------------------------- Rainbow hugged herself and grimaced, opening her eyes when she could again stand to do so. "She's a bitch," she said. "And she tries to kidnap ponies. You'd like her."

@@Hypn0ticD, What had she been doing before all this began, anyway....? Dash thought back. Chrysalis had been back. Everything had been spiraling out of control. It had hardly seemed over-the-top to find herself flung across the world at the time. "Chrysalis," she muttered. "We were fighting...I smashed inna' her horn. Some magic horseapples must've...I don't know. Probably all her fault."

@@Pripyat Pony, Like ice cream! Twilight leaned forward on her bed, heedless of her being dressed in pajamas. "So different emotions are like different nutrients?" she said. "Do you need an even mix? Or are certain emotions bad for you, like salt? Er--candy, since we're humans, I suppose. Do different changelings prefer different ones?" She found herself reaching for a notebook. When telekinesis failed to answer her unthinking call, she grabbed it in her hand and continued practicing her rapidly-improving handwriting as she made notes in broad strokes. ----------------------------------------------------- @~Shadow Wolf~, @, @Fireblaze "There has to be a way." Fluttershy knew that Dennis wanted to get Rainbow Dash back as badly as she did. Maybe he deserved to get her back more than she did; all that should have mattered was that her friend made it out okay. "There has to be a way we can convince them to let Pinkie and Rainbow go. They haven't done anything!"

@@Pripyat Pony, "Oh." Twlight's curiosity began to spark. "So...did you ever? I mean, I'd try not to get mad if you did, assuming you didn't take much or hurt anyone, and...it was before we all knew each other, so to speak." She stared. "Can you smell it? The way I used to be able to smell food?"

@Pripyat Pony, @@Hypn0ticD, Twilight sighed and spent a moment combing her hair, feeling a bit too restless suddenly to fall asleep. "I'm sorry about that," she said after another minute of weighing the words. "Applejack's just--well, she doesn't trust easily, and she doesn't want to see me hurt. I feel safe enough here with you." She bit her lip. "I hope this doesn't offend you, but--" But she had to get it off her mind. "You're not--eating, um--my emotions right now, are you?" ---------------------------------------------------- "The hay if I know," Dash shrugged, not meeting Abernathy's eyes.

@@Hypn0ticD, (Sorry about that) Fluttershy took a deep breath, but held her peace. She couldn't stay behind while her friends were in danger and needed her to rescue them. She stepped a little closer to Colette, in case someone--her girlfriend especially--should tell her that it was too dangerous for her to do anything but stay behind.

@@Pripyat Pony, @@Hypn0ticD, Twilight tried to replicate the regal smile that Celestia was able to use whenever the situation got remotely out of control; most certainly, she failed horribly. "It's alright, Applejack. I'll be safe here with Cicada. You don't need to worry about me." To tell the truth, Twilight felt more justified in worrying about Applejack. Maybe it was the world, but something about humans still didn't entirely sit right. And Applejack was going off alone, with just one? "Just..." She nervously grabbed her bag from beside the bed and rifled through it for hair clips. "Don't stay out too late, okay? We--have to hit the road again tomorrow. Better be well rested." (OOC: Is Fluttershy in this rescue copter BTW? I assume so, but Colette might have wanted her to stay home.)

@@Pripyat Pony, "Oh! --Thank you." Twilight gratefully accepted the brush, standing there a moment too long and clearing her throat. "Normally I--try to plan better, but things have been a little--out of place with me ever since I got here. Too much is different." She tried to think of more to say to the Changeling, and ran into the bathroom to get herself ready for bed. When she finally threw a scrunchie around her hair to keep it in one place and fluffed up the pillows on Applejack's side of the bed she assumed they would share--there were only two in the room, but they were plenty large--she glanced over to watch the Changeling. It felt a little empty on that side of the room, when the both of AJ and her were over here. (So what is the Changeling doing?) "You seem to have gotten used to this place rather fast," she said, considering a tentative safe step in their conversation. @@Hypn0ticD, Rainbow Dash hugged herself and looked at the ground. (Man, is Dennis ever gonna' be pissed...)

@@Hypn0ticD, Rainbow Dash grimaced and moaned to herself. She felt violated in the worst way, and could barely move anymore to do anything about it. After the humans had taken their samples, she just sort of hung there, soundless, keeping herself from going under the dark left in her own consciousness.

@@Hypn0ticD, Rainbow Dash made a few struggling writhes just for the principle of it, looking over to Pinkie. "Give 'em Tartarus," she murmured, deciding that Pinkie senses were the only way she might ever get back at these villains. @Pripyat Pony, Twilight fell in a slump onto her bed, holding a forehead and rubbing it anxiously as though she could find her horn there if she looked hard enough. It had been a long ride. She was used to being able to travel to the edge of Equestria in shorter time than this. After finding a comb she could brush up with a bit, she patted her pillow and stared around the room. Cicada was nearby, having taken a bed in the same room. Twilight considered trying to strike up a conversation, but so far, the Changelings had been pretty terse. Was it even appropriate to just talk about the weather? Twilight didn't know how these things were supposed to go. What she wouldn't give for Celestia! Or a good book! She cleared her throat. "Er...I didn't pack a toothbrush. You don't happen to have a spare, do you?" Wow, was that dumb. Twilight looked away and decided maybe she should give up on diplomacy for the night. And her teeth would survive one night without being brushed...

@@Hypn0ticD, Fluttershy placed her hand on Colette's arm and nodded. There was too much emotion running around for her to do much of anything else--she could only hope that, as poor as she was as this whole girlfriend thing, Colette would know that she wanted to be there for her. It was different when one of Angel's relatives died. Why couldn't Fluttershy be like that? She was an expert at consoling the bereaved denizens of the forest who came to her home, and she'd buried plenty of small rodents with no fuss or tears. That had even seemed to carry over into St. Mary's for a while---but Fluttershy didn't accept as easily that Colette would just have to grieve for a while, the hard-snouted stance she took with her own animals. She didn't want Colette to cry--and, what's more, she reflected, she didn't exactly wear the dress in this relationship. She'd always been the one in charge when her animals were in trouble before.

@, Fluttershy frowned skeptically. But she heard the frantic sobbing from the other room--though her heart lurched to go to Colette, she allowed Dennis to pull her back with the others, and sat fidgeting with the hem of her shirt in quiet impatience.

@@Hypn0ticD, @, Fluttershy stood as Colette ran off, unsure if she should follow. She looked back at Dennis and the others, questioning. But when she heard sobbing from the patients' room, she couldn't stand back any longer. She ducked down the hall and burst into the room after her. ------------------------------------------ "Eeee...." Rainbow Dash was squeaky and green-faced after the pain of the needle faded. But then she saw the tube they shoved Pinkie into, where she had to lie still for minutes at a time. Dash's bones tingled; pegasi did not do well with small spaces, and if there was anything Rainbow Dash prided herself on, it was being a pegasus down to the last drop of blood, even if she was stuck in another body. She was in a full-on panic attack of claustrophobia before they even managed to force her down onto the slab. "No no no no not in there!" she gargled and scratched, drawing blood from a few with untrimmed nails. When, eventually resorting to strapping her down, they slid her inside the scanner, her thrashes accompanied wordless screams. Sad to say, CT scans didn't work very well unless the patient held still. With Rainbow's moving about, the only pictures produced were hopelessly blurry. It looked like there might be no chance but to try it again...

@Pripyat Pony, @@Hypn0ticD, "Oh, fuck no." Rainbow Dash took two steps back at the sight of a needle. Needles did not get along well with Rainbow Dash. There was too much that was distinctly non-awesome about them. Too many shots as a kid, too many days being strung up in the hospital with bird flu or cloud cold or blood feathers, and an inherent fear of taking a crash-landing onto something sharp meant entire months spent far away from the ground, in clouds where everything was soft and nothing could tear her to ribbons if she botched a landing. She looked for the door, but it was already shut. Her forearms tensed.

@@Hypn0ticD, @, "Oh my..." She held the can as if it would bite her, screwing up her face in an attempt to dredge up gratitude. "Thank you so much for being worried, but, I don't know if I could." Rarity changed the color of her hair, and Colette took her out to the car. Fluttershy tried checking her image in the rearview mirrors of the car after Colette escorted her there. She thought that maybe she would have liked to chance it to just a little bit of a lighter shade, but she did have some bad experiences in the past with questioning Rarity's judgment, so she decided it was best not to say anything for now. "Do you really...like how I look...more--this way?" she said, trying to get used to the idea that her hair was no longer pink. It made her feel...even more human. "If you really like it--I could probably stay this way. If you want, I mean."

@, Fluttershy's brow creased with a murmur. Dennis seemed...angry. Fluttershy understood how he must be feeling that way, but rather than confident that Rainbow Dash would somehow find her way back to them, she was worried about what everyone might do. Everything was just getting so far out of control. "A-actually..." Fluttershy scratched the back of her neck. "Rainbow Dash was just...caught first. Pinkie stayed behind with her to make sure she was okay."

@, Fluttershy stayed back to watch for a while, until things seemed to settle down into a quiet enough situation that she could feel comfortable moving through it. Colette had accepted Louise, and so Fluttershy was less worried on that account. Dennis was poring over the materials she'd given him, with a concerned, ardent look in his eyes. Since Colette was busy, Fluttershy hopped down from the counter and trotted near to him, approaching from one side. It was so very awkward to talk to him, and yet... "You're...upset about Dash too?" she said, internally smacking herself for the statement's obviousness the minute it came out of her mouth. "I mean..."

@@Pripyat Pony, Rainbow Dash looked askance at Pinkie Pie for a long second. Then she blinked. "How come that doesn't sound the least bit reassuring coming from you, Pinkie?" ---------------------- @Hypn0ticD Fluttershy blushed and let herself down from Colette, swinging onto the counter so she could continue to keep most of her upper body wrapped around Colette and her nose in Colette's neck every couple of second. When Colette caught her eye, talking of Louise, she gave a light shrug, as if to say, I don't really know if we trust her.

@@Pripyat Pony, @Hypn0ticD Rainbow Dash could hear mischeif in Pinkie's voice. Just about smell it. She'd known the earth mare for long enough to tell when something was up in her demeanor. Right now, Pinkie was getting ready to cause trouble. Well that suited Rainbow Dash just fine. She originally planned not to shower, just to be contrary, but after a few minutes she began freaking out over when she'd get the chance again and on whether she'd be uncomfortable for the rest of the day wandering around sticky, so she gave up and used the tepid water to clean herself for whatever it was worth.

@@Hypn0ticD, @Pripyat Pony, Rainbow Dash made the effort to conserve her energy, not bothering to get up when Abercrombie or whatever-her-names was opened the door. Why should she jump for her? She let out a little smirk when Pinkie doused the woman in streamers, some of the glitter blast landing aside on her legs. She didn't bother brushing it off, or rising.