Dawn Stripes

@Pripyat Pony, (OOC: Somepony, say something? Anypony but me?) "You're out o' your fuckin' mind," growled Rainbow Dash. "No way I'm doing anything for you! We don't need your help to save Queen Chrysalis, and we sure as hell don't care about your personal problems, lady." She looked towards the windows. "You can't just bully and threaten everyone into doing what you want. You'll see, you don't have all of us you know." Fluttershy gasped, and Rainbow kept speaking to cover anything stupid she might say. "Spike's still out there. Spike'll save us." She exchanged a look with Rarity. "Yeah?"

@@Pripyat Pony, Rainbow Dash struggled to sit up under the weight of the metal pinning her down. "So what, you used to be a pony. Big...ergh..." She struggled to slip free, "fucking deal. You're still a total douchemuzzle!" She struggled to see what her cutie mark was of, but didn't see enough to make it out. Scowled again. "Why should we help you? All you did was kidnap all my friends and scare Fluttershy half to Tartarus? You think sharing a little blood means we're gonna' be buddy-buddy with you all of a sudden? What do you even want?"

@@Hypn0ticD, Rainbow Dash rocketed off the far wall, throwing a punch at the face of the first woman to open the door. It didn't hurt her vindictive speed that the first words out of her mouth were to mock the speech patterns of their beloved Princesses. Rainbow Dash could feel a prismatic streak behind her as she crossed the space in an inhuman time span, bringing her knuckles to connect with weak human flesh at barely subsonic speed.

@@Hypn0ticD, @Pripyat Pony, @~Shadow Wolf~, Rainbow Dash banged on the doors. Fluttershy whimpered on a small, white bench set into the wall of the small room. "Where do you think they're taking us?" she whispered to Rarity. She wanted Dash to break them out, and she wanted Colette, and she wanted to be home. It was obvious to most of her friends that she couldn't take this much longer without cracking.

@@Hypn0ticD, @, "Hey! You just let go of Fluttershy!" Dash tried breaking through the line of bodies when a terrified-looking Fluttershy was being ushered away without resistance. She shoved--and the a man three times her weight effortlessly hoisted her under one arm, invalidating her struggles. "Hey!" SHe pushed on his arms, to no avail. "Put me down! You think this is funny, huh? I'll get you...hnnghh...on Youtube..." She paused to pant, then disappeared behind closed doors. (which were somewhere)

@nioniosbbbb, (Hypno, yousa sayin' ponies gonna' die? Hoho! 'The funeral of Rainbow Dash'. Like 'The funeral of Derpy Hooves' except no one's problems are solved and Dash is actually dead...okay, sorry, that was creepy) Dash was trying to see what was going down below. It looked someone had gotten their act together enough to run out on the track and try to pull Preybird out of his car. She wanted to try to get back to her friends--Rarity must be losing it--but the crowd was suddenly all on their feet, and pressing through was impossible. ----------------------- @Pripyat Pony, Twilight awkwardly perused back to her menu, until the waiter came and took it away, removing her laminated shield. It was unusually awkward for someone to be singing at the table--in the magical land of Equestria, at least, they would have all been singing together. But the song was sad, and nothing Twilight could make heads or tails of. I knew Celestia shouldn't have picked me. I must be the worst diplomat in Canterlot! Then again, most unicorns in Canterlot would still be trying to kill the Changeling in revenge for the casualties suffered by the Royal Guard. She had to give herself some credit.

@@Pripyat Pony, (OOC: Well, that's too easy. Let's not all be friends ) "What?!" Twilight's voice let through complete surprise at such a wild hypothetical situation. "That would never happen! No one could ever kidnap Celestia! She would be the one rescuing me!" Raised in central Canterlot most of her life, a cosmopolitan city, Twilight was largely exempt from the near-cultic reverence of the Royal Pony Sisters that pervaded in Ponyville. If a mare had ever listened to the complaining of parliament, however, it would not be difficult to believe in the omnipotence of the Avatar of the Sun. Celestia was always the final prayer when other things failed. Twilight couldn't conceive of a world without her until after realizing that she'd missed her chance to find more common ground with the Changelings.

@@Pripyat Pony, Twilight chilled under Cicada's gaze. She had to force herself not to shrink down into her seat, the way she might have done if she was still a unicorn. With every word, more was uncovered about the Changelings that hadn't been revealed by months of study undertaken after the assault on Canterlot. "I feel like Celestia's sister the same way!" she found herself blurting. "A really--little sister, okay, maybe sometimes a daughter. But I was raised with her looking over me...and..." Twilight raised her menu a few inches. Stupid. Why did you say that? Does it look like she cares? ------------------------------------------------------------------ @, "I'll show you some fucking happy thoughts," Dash said pointlessly, gripped to the rail along with most of the audience in either direction. She wanted to run down onto the track again, but Dash knew there was nothing she could do. Nothing whatsoever.

@@00Pony, @Hypn0ticD,@~Shadow Wolf~, (OOC: Okay...I think these are the right mentions for who's in this restaurant. I'm assuming Twilight doesn't know much about anyone but her friends here...and also, the library computer is bolding everything for no discernable reason and can't be undone) Twilight fidgeted nervously in her seat, giving into physical restlessness before reminding herself that as a Princess, it was in no way appropriate for her to just drop decorum altogether. After all, she was in a room with native humans, as well as Changelings, with whom she now knew she had to cooperate...she was by default the representative authority of all of Equestria in this room. The thought was enough to set her teeth chattering, and she tried to calm it by shielding herself with the oversized, laminated menus. Nor was (hey, bold text is gone!) she oblivious to the way Logan's hand draped over the back of Applejack's chair. It really wasn't her place to question Applejack's decisions, she knew. Applejack was probably the steadiest of all of them, and she knew how to take care of herself. But it just wouldn't cease shocking her--the evidence of what AJ had admitted to her herself. Of all the things to be doing in this world, falling in love! Focus--she took a deep breath. Just focus on making it through this meal for now. She tried to skim the menu without looking at it too much, finding a salad that looked like it didn't have any meat in it (why on Earth, or Equestria, would someone put meat on a SALAD of all things? It was just wrong). Good. That done. She was on a mission, after all. She wasn't sure how or why the others could be so very calm, but how could she spend time thinking about what she wanted to eat when there was something so important on the line? She glanced in one direction and the other across the table. "S-So..." She cleared her throat, set herself. "Cicada, is it? And...Diliges." The names were foreign, not reminding her of either pony or human names. (Gimme' a breif reminder physical description in your reply if you would) "I understand you're of....a position of something authority in...the Changeling Nation? Should I call it the HIve?"

@, "Bleghck!" Rainbow Dash was yanked back a bit by Dennis, who wanted to go with her. Because apparently she wasn't safe wandering around on her own. Rainbow Dash gestured with her arm 'come on then' instead of yelling, and continued to work her way across the stands, with him now in tow. It perhaps wasn't the best idea, navigationally speaking. Instead of trying to leave the stands and walk around the stadium, which would have taken forever, Rainbow tried circumnavigating the stands themselves. This involved pushing her way past large number of people who were trying to watch the race. But the rainbow section of the stands saw her coming, and a couple came out to meet her, waving. So nice of them to wear custom Ts, Rainbow thought. She could spot them all a mile away. "Hi!" She shouted when she thought they were within shouting distance, which was a couple feet. There was a loud screech and a boom on the raceway--how noisy! "Sorry the Tumblr's been down! Had some stuff to deal with!" The brony in charge, a fellow with an incredible mullet, waved it off as if to say No big deal. "By the way, Dashie! We took some of your posts and went to a few indie businesses. You've got merchendising and photo-ops lined up if you ever want to take a road trip to Pennsylvania." Rainbow Dash smiled electrically. "That's a good minion!" She shouted, and they all had a good laugh. They introduced another one to her, who practically acted as though he couldn't feel his hand after she shook it. "He wants to interview you about breaking the sound barrier!" "Aw!" Rainbow leaned back against Dennis, gesturing with her hands. "Lemme' tell you, then! They think they only teach any physics in Canterlot, but I see I gotta' set the record straight here..." Rainbow Dash stopped when she began to smell smoke. It wouldn't have worried her as a pony, but if she could smell smoke with this nose--at what distance? She looked down at the track, suddenly gasped and grabbed Dennis' arm. "Is that Jack's car?" She squealed to him. --------------------------- (Fluttershy is in shock an unable to move! Fluttershy, retreat! I choose you Bulbasaur!)

@, ,@Pripyat Pony Rainbow Dash was busy trying to work out of more self-pity, when Dennis shouted something beside her. She couldn't entirely make it out. "Hey, Dennis! Are you trying to talk to me?" She spoke loud, but wasn't sure if it made it through. It sure made it through when he started flipping the bird to an entire section of the audience. Panic-stricken with wide violet eyes, Rainbow Dash seized Dennis' arm and yanked it down. "What are you doing? It's going to look like you're flipping off the bronies!" She watched him yell some more, but it wasn't all coherent in the melee of the beginning race. Rainbow Dash tapped her fingers on the edge of the next row of seats for a bit, then, increasingly antsy about her public relation, tried tapping Rarity and Pinkie on the shoulder and telling them she would leave their seat for just a few minutes. She did the same with Dennis, pointing towards the rainbow-colored stands. "I'm going to go say hi!" she shouted, and started walking over and around the others to get to the isle.

@,@@Hypn0ticD, Fluttershy hugged herself and tried to manage the noise while Colette was gone. --------------------------------- Rainbow Dash was finally at least beginning to work herself into enthusiasm. When the engines came, and the monstrous metal boxes wound their way onto the starting track, Dash felt a bit of activated shiver from her heelbones up to the base of her neck. She turned, and tried saying something at Dennis; Dennis gave no reaction. She tried a little bit louder; there was no way he was hearing her over this manic crowd, was there? Urgh! Rainbow Dash looked to Fluttershy and the random Scot she'd never really spoken to; what would be the point of trying to converse with them, either? Until the opening frenetics wound themselves down, she contented herself with watching, and shortly found a wide section of the stadium, almost cordoned off, decorated in rainbow T-shirts and receiving no small amount of flac from several of the other fans. What was this? Rainbow Dash looked closer--and a near-thousand eyes stared back. Almost creepy, really, but elating. No doubt word had been leaked, or someone had deduced--it couldn't be hard--that the ponies would be at the next race of Jack Preybird. Maybe she'd even mentioned it in that blog she'd been to awkward and meloncholy to update in the last couple days? But then she noticed something awkward; a hand motion. One of the fans would bob their arm in the air, four times repeatedly, then turn around to their neighbors and maybe repeat it again. She watched this fan for quite some time, trying to figure out if he was okay, before suddenly she noticed it at another bench halfway up the grandstands. And yet again a little to the right. Their fingers were extended...they were being counted. A lump formed in Rainbow Dash's throat. They were being counted, Dash, Fluttershy, AJ, and Rarity. And they were found not to be whole.

@@Hypn0ticD, "It's not over yet, is it?" Fluttershy would have covered her ears for the noise when the cars came very close, but that would have meant letting go of Colette, and possibly getting lost. So she let it all buffet he and stayed close. The girl with the streaked hair was her anchor--oh, how much it was so, she thought. "Don't leave, if everyone else does," she whispered, hoping it was too quiet for Colette to hear.

@@Hypn0ticD, Fluttershy agreed with Colette's judgment on the ridiculous. If the Best Young Flyers competition had been this crowded, spectators would have been falling through the cloudcrete left and right. She hugged closer to Colette, with both arms around her middle, as being crushed against another girl was a large step up from bumping into a hundred random strangers. And...she had to just ride this day out. To wait until Twilight and Applejack came back. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dash wanted to pay attention to the race. She even made a conscious effort to feel the revving engines in her bones like last time. But it all felt wrong without everyone here. Without the rest of her friends. Without the rest of her herd...she was just a lonely pony in a strange world Oh dammnit Dash quit being maudlin! It's just for a little bit!

@@Hypn0ticD, @nioniosbbbb, "Shy? Eh, what's a' matter?" Dash leaned forward, flinging her arm around the headrest. "That isn't funny," Fluttershy said quietly. Rainbow Dash's skin went cold, and the car seemed to as well. Fluttershy didn't have to raise her voice. In fact, it was worse. Of all the pones who had ever yelled at Dash--some of them all of the time--well, she would have preferred any one of them. Fluttershy didn't say any more to her. She didn't have to. Rainbow Dash spent the rest of the ride in utter silence.

@@Hypn0ticD, @nioniosbbbb, Fluttershy had a hand on her own chest as well, tight against the swell in her shirt, clenching her teeth to calm her rattling breath and racing heartbeat. Her eyes shut tight. And when she finally got herself still, almost with a growl, she thought of turning around but coldly faced the front window and balled a fist into the car seat. "Rain-bow DASH!"

@@Hypn0ticD, Fluttershy froze entirely, her face hanging with puckered lips about halfway over the cup-holders. Rainbow Dash sweated a little as her neck hairs pricked, and patted them down with her hand as she stared with sudden interest out the window. "Oh...y-yeah! Totally. E-everyone...knows we did, actually..." With a cough, she ducked down into a smaller ball on the seat.

@@Hypn0ticD,nioniosbbbb "Er..." Fluttershy winced, leaning over the passenger's seat and the parking brake to get a little closer to Colette. "How crowded, Colette?" But she waited to answer when Colette invited Dash and Dennis to ride with them. --------------------- Rainbow Dash raised her eyebrow at first. Maybe she should...but then, Colette had invited them. And she wanted to be surrounded by friends right now, so without a word, she opened the door and climbed into the backseat.

@@Pripyat Pony, "Pinkie..." Dash rolled her eyes as she began to stroll out the door. "If Mr. Cake doused himself in flour every time those little twerps started up, there'd be no cupcakes left at Sugarcube corner. Don't you think that's a little bit exp---" Narrowing her eyes for a second, she tried to focus them on Pinkie's current location. Unsuccessfully. "Oh, nevermind."

@, @Hypn0ticD "Heh..." Rainbow Dash cleared her throat, grinned, rubbed an arm across her eyes as she looked back for a flash at the grain of the table. "Sounds about right. Let's be ready to do that." Dash bumped Dennis back and sat up, releasing a little sigh of relief. "Damn humans," she muttered once. "If we were meant to have hands we'd a been with 'em." but got up and grabbed a bannanna for herself and Dennis, much better for the wear. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fluttershy scooted away in surprise as first Colette, then Dennis also came to Rainbow Dash's emotional aid. She felt herself run out of space and watched silently from the sidelines as, to Dennis' encouragement, Dash responded, perking right up, though she'd barely even seemed to notice Fluttershy's attempt to make her feel better. Fluttershy clasped her hands in between her knees when Rainbow Dash offered her a piece of fruit, then latched back onto Colette's arm and closed her eyes, rubbing the end of her sleeve between her thumb and forefinger. If she could just wait right here until Twilight came back, everything would be all right.

@@Hypn0ticD,@nioniosbbbb Rainbow Dash leaned on the kitchen table, which increasingly held more and more of her weight as Twilight Sparkle, Princess and lone-wolf pony, drew farther and farther away from her. Her eyes dilated, focused only on the door as if Equestria itself lay beyond. By the time she heard the rumbling of the car that would take her friend away, she was practically laying on top of it. "She's coming back, right?" she said to no one in particular--almost mewling. "She wouldn't leave without of all of us. Not on--something like this! She could die!" It may have seemed selfish to the human, but for a mare bred and raised in the deep-Equestrian culture of Cloudsdale, Twilight's new--almost, Americanized behavior, was--unthinkable. Betrayal. Dash looked up at Dennis, as if expecting him to tell her this was a practical joke. "She...well....fuck!" ------------------------------------------------- Flutterhsy gapsed. Nuzzling her head against Colette's chest briefly to absorb comfort and let her know she had to leave Colette's embrace, Fluttershy floated to Dash and knelt beside the table, laying a hand on her friend's mane. "Rainbow Dash?" she whispered weakly, looking for a weak point in the girl's despair. "It's going to be okay. Twilight did this because she cares about you...can't you see?" Aghast as Dash's sorrow, she stroked her hair until the prismatic girl peeled herself from the table, unapologetically throwing herself against Fluttershy, who held her tight below her neck, continuing to whisper soft words while her wide eyes trembled in emotional panic.

@, "Ah-HAH!" Rainbow Dash twisted her face into an unusual expression. "He's that guy I called illegally from forty-thousand feet. And then he started trying to give me love advice! When he was hanging out with the Queen of love parasites..." She shrugged. "I don't know... I guess we'd better, but I don't know if I'd count on the guy."

@, @Hypn0ticD, Fluttershy took the tissue, but her arms bunched and it was all she could do not to say something hurtful. How dare this boy intrude on her perfectly private pain? After taking Rainbow Dash, he though he was going to come make her feel better? Yes how was she ever going to get out of this situation? She could see the persistence which must have won him the beautiful rainbow girl. He didn't look ready to leave until he got what he wanted--in this case a smile. And Fluttershy's default route of escape from these situations was to cave. So she smiled--as genuinely as she could, given the circumstances, which may or may not have been convincing. "Thank you,' she said simply, and got out of the room when she could. Returning downstairs, she quietly latched herself back onto Colette's arm. With any luck, that would be a quiet place to stand and think.

@@Hypn0ticD, @nioniosbbbb, @Pripyat Pony, @MelancholicMemory, @Ragin' Red Talon, @Fireblaze, (OOC: At time's like this I'm grateful for only two characters to play.) Fluttershy turned away, drying her face and turning it away from Dennis. "I--it's okay," she muttered, more than once. "It's not your fault. It's my fault." She looked away from him a couple times more, then sighed and gave into meeting his eyes. "Oh, am I obvious?" A pink sigh. "There's nothing at all, though--not anymore. It's nothing but petty jealousy. You can Rainbow Dash all to yourself. She was never mine." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rainbow Dash scratched her chin, then gave Twilight Sparkle a good hearty clap on the back--AJ as well. "Not the kind of ass-kicking I was expecting," she said in her best voice of bravado. "I was expecting to kick Changeing ass. But we're savin' 'em." She shrugged and pulled a pair of sunglasses halfway out of her pocket--hesitated--slid them back in hoping that no one noticed. "But as long as there's enough ass-kickin' to go around, I can roll with it. Who am I shipping in with?" She shot a little glance at Cicada, whom she already trusted only half as much as Angel anyway. "There's no way in the nine rings of Hell--" a little girlish giggle--she had been waiting so long to use that one! "--ahem. That we're letting Twilight trot anywhere without us."

@, (OOC: Oh you seriously just made that reference...) "Oh..oh my..." Fluttershy blushed and looked down. "That's...awfully s--sure of you to believe in me like that." She spent most of her time looking at the floor, and not at Dennis' face. When he began talking about Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy moved one step back. ...She feels something... Dennis must be wondering by this point why Fluttershy was standing in place so long with her mouth clamped shut. She couldn't freeze up in the middle of an ordinary conversation. Get a hold on yourself, Fluttershy! "T--that's good to hear," she said to the floor. "I d-don't really know what you should do. That is, I know Rainbow Dash loves sports and having fun and always comes around when her friends really need her and-likes-popsicles-and-clouds-and-racing-and-secretly-green-is-her-favorite-color-but-she-won't-tell-anypony-and-she-almost-wanted-to-learn-baking-once-but-Pinkie-Pie-was-too-confusing-and-she's-really-afraid-that-she's-dumb-because-she-failed-all-the-written-tests-in-flight-school-and-she-wants-honesty-almost-as-much-as-Applejack...." Fluttershy clapped too hands over her mouth and shut her eyes to stymie the flow of words. "But I obviously don't know how to make Rainbow Dash love anyone," she whispered at last, and, unable to bear her conversation, ran away--to Colette's room, since she couldn't think of any other place in the house that might be quiet. There she could get a breather before trying to brave the company of the house again. She spent a couple minutes burying her face in a pillow, berating herself. How pathetic had that been? Dennis had just been so...intense, and the look in his eyes so serious. But he had just been trying to make simple conversation!