After being shown to her quarters, Rainbow Dash is left alone in the cozy chamber, on the mid-floor of some tower or another. Clearly, somepony had been in here to make the room a little more comfortable, familiar, for the pegasus; the ground has been covered in a cloud carpet, and the furnishings are all vaguely reminiscent of Cloudsdale, though there is still a certain air of Canterlotian sophistication to the room.

  This is at least 200% bigger than my room back home. Rainbow Dash thinks to herself, diving onto the bed which is presently far rger than she actually needs, flopping over onto her back and staring up at the ceiling. Instead of familiar fluffy clouds, fine marble stonework hangs over Rainbow Dash.

  The bed is soft and comfortable enough that Rainbow Dash is a little tempted to stay in it, but having spent so much time in a hospital bed tely, in no time at all she hops back up to her hooves, fpping her wings and then taking off. Lazily, she floats over to the window where she can look out over the city beyond the pace. On the way in, she had been too distracted to really take in the sights.

  Wow, everything is so fancy... Rainbow Dash gapes. It's not quite as different from Cloudsdale as she might have expected, it at least looks more simir to the pegasid architecture back home than most towns or cities. She has to imagine that it's much harder to build, though, buildings built out of solid rock and gss rather than clouds. That will definitely take some getting used to.

  I'm free to go now, right? That means nopony will stop me from going out for a walk. Rainbow Dash reasons to herself, heading over to the door. She can get settled in ter, right now, she is sick of ying still and just wants to get moving. Even if she has to take it easy, any movement is better than nothing.

  It doesn't take much prodding from her own brain to convince Rainbow Dash to take off to explore the pace. Despite that, as she pokes her head out of the door, she still looks side to side cautiously as if worried somepony would stop her, before she takes off down the spiral stairs of the tower.

  There are a couple floors between her and where the tower connects with the rest of the pace, which Rainbow Dash passes by without much thought. In short order, she is wandering down the unfamiliar hallways of the pace, not entirely sure where she is actually headed. The echoing clip-clop of her hooves on the stone tiles beneath her distracts her, unfamiliar to a pegasus who'd spent her entire life until now walking on clouds.

  Just as she comes to the end of a hallway, she practically walks directly into a guardspony. At least, that's what she assumes he is, given that he is wearing armor, but he looks like no guardspony she'd ever seen; A unicorn with a dazzling white mane, pale blue coat, and bright golden eyes, wearing a silver breastpte with scale armor underneath in stark contrast to the usual golden armor of the pace guard. But the main confusing factors are his slouched, casual posture and age. By Rainbow Dash's reckoning, he looks only a handful of years older than her, in the tall-but-nky stage most ponies went through.

  "Woah, there! And just how did you get in here, huh little explorer?" The guardspony asks, cocking his head at her curiously. "The pace isn't open for visitors to just walk around, ya know." Despite that statement, his gentle smile dismisses any worries that Rainbow Dash was in trouble.

  "Uh, I'm supposed to be here!" Rainbow Dash procims, standing upright. "I'm just um... Looking for the princess, right now." She states, hopefully.

  The guardspony raises a brow, skeptically, but only for a moment before a look of understanding dawned on his face. "Ah, you must be Rainbow Dash! I remember 'Lestia talking about you. So you got released from the hospital ward, huh?" He chuckles. "I think my brother is still in there. Silly doc doesn't know how to treat fillies and colts, but he's good at his job at least. I'll take you to the princess, they'll wanna see you." The unicorn smiles warmly and jerks back with his head.

  Rainbow Dash hurries along after. "Um, thanks, sir..." Rainbow Dash trails off, realizing that she hadn't gotten the young stallions name.

  "Mooncrescent!" The stallion fshes a smile back at her, revealing a pair of sharp snaggleteeth. "I'm part of the Royal Companions! Lemme tell ya, Celestia took off right quick after you did that Rainboom. Didn't even have time to say goodbye to us." Mooncrescent giggles, trotting along down a long hallway lined with doors and rge arched windows, oblivious to Rainbow Dash gging behind as the filly looks all around in wonder. A handful of other guards pass by, giving Rainbow Dash confused looks, but since she is with Mooncrescent she doesn't get bothered.

  Mooncrescent reaches a particur door that seems to be his destination, an ornate door with intricate patterns in gold leaf running down it. Mooncrescent raises a hoof to kick the door open, only for it to magically swing open with the aura of Celestia's magic around it, leaving the Princess of the Sun standing on the other side staring down at Mooncrescent perplexed.

  "I believe I told you to stop opening my door that way." Celestia states, tone somewhere between irritation and bemusement. "Were you going to kick me...?"

  "Heh, sorry, Princess." Mooncrescent gives a half smile to the Alicorn and quickly bows his head; not nearly as formal as a proper bow, but still a show of some deference. "Somepony here wanted to see you." Mooncrescent steps aside, revealing Rainbow Dash standing behind him.

  Celestia looks surprised, and leans over. "My, are you supposed to be up?" Celestia asks, concern writ on their features.

  Rainbow Dash nods. "Mhm! The doctor said I was free to get up now, I just had to check back in ter."

  Celestia raises a brow. "And he didn't send for me? I'm going to have to have some words with him, ter." The Princess says, strictly, before kneeling down to speak to Rainbow Dash at more-or-less eye level. "I was just on my way to lunch, and there is somepony I would like very much like you to meet. Would you care to join me?"

  Rainbow Dash blinks in surprise. There is something decidedly uncanny about the way Celestia talks to her; Like they are talking to an equal, and not a princess speaking to a filly commoner. Even most regur adults didn't do that, let alone ones that are royalty to boot. "Um, of course!" Rainbow Dash responds, trying to hide her sense of bewilderment. Celestia turns to Mooncrescent and narrows their eyes.

  "Incidentally, aren't you supposed to be off training about now..?" The Princess asks pointedly.

  Mooncrescent nods. "I was on my way when I stumbled on this little explorer here. I'll get back to it now." He smiles while saluting before trotting off, an odd bounce in his step as he goes.

  "Now, my little pony, follow me. Your timing could not be better, I was just on my way to lunch." Celestia beckons with a wing, making sure Rainbow Dash is following before trotting off.

  Rainbow Dash scampers after them, looking around in a daze. "Princess Celestia?" She asks, unsurely but trying to keep the foibles in her voice to a minimum.

  Celestia looks down at her with an expression of keen interest. "Hmm? Is something the matter?"

  Rainbow Dash shakes her head. "No, no. It's just... When I was in the medical ward, the doctor told me that the magic you used on me was really difficult, and you normally don't even use it on guardsponies. So... I was just wondering, why did you do that for me?"

  Celestia clucks their tongue in a pyful dispy of annoyance. "My, Bonezaw tattled on me, huh?" The princess giggles—A sound Rainbow Dash never thought she would hear. The monarch of all of Equestria, and here they are giggling like a schoolfilly. "I asked you to come down here personally, without thinking of how you would get here. I made assumptions that resulted in you getting hurt, and I simply couldn't conscience if such a brave young filly like you had to bear scars of that error of judgement her whole life." Celestia expins. "Besides, since your body is smaller, it didn't require as much magic as it would have for an older pony."

  Rainbow Dash falls silent, in an unusually thoughtful mood, as Celestia leads her up the same spiral staircase that lead to her room, stopping on the floor below at a nding Rainbow Dash had not paid any attention to when she passed by earlier that day. "Now, before we enter, try not to startle the pony inside. She is quite nervous, and does not need anything more to worry about. Do you think you can handle that?"

  Once Rainbow Dash nods affirmation, along with an "Mhm!" sound, Celestia opens the rge doors before them. Inside is a surprisingly cozy room, complete with a crescent shaped table and intricate firepce within which dances pale violet fmes. A rge window on one side of the room showcases a view of the lower parts of the pace. And sitting at the table, to Rainbow Dash's surprise, is a purple unicorn filly of about the same age as her, sitting with an anxious, bolt-upright posture, eyes wide with dark bags underneath them.

  The surprise that Rainbow Dash registers upon seeing the filly is mirrored by the other pony upon seeing Rainbow Dash. "My apologies for the dey, Twilight Sparkle, I was held up. Do you mind if Rainbow Dash here joins us for lunch as well?" Celestia asks in the characteristically warm manner they seem to ask everything.

  Twilight pauses for just a second. "O-of course not, Princess!" She nods her head sporadically.

  Celestia just smiles and strides into the room. "Go ahead and take a seat, Rainbow. Perhaps you can make friends with Twilight here, while I get lunch ready for us."

  Rainbow Dash sits down at the opposite end of the table from the unicorn, but despite herself can't seem to focus on anything other than the princess. This is not going at all how she had expected it to, seeing the sor princess personally taking a pan of soup off the fire and dishing up bowls for each of them is utterly surreal. She'd expected chefs, servants scurrying to and fro, but instead... It's just the three of them, in a cozy room just below her bedroom.

  The same confusion seems present on Twilight's face. Actually, considerably more, as Twilight is currently staring at Celestia as if they are a sleep paralysis demon. Her eyes flick between the other filly and the princess, barely contained panic screaming behind them.

  Thankfully, Rainbow Dash has some experience dealing with anxious fillies from Fluttershy. "Hey, so, you're name's Twilight, right? You doing ok?" She asks in what she hopes is a reassuring and empathetic voice.

  The reaction she gets is not what she had expected. Twilight's eyelid twitches spasmodically. "I'M NOT NERVOUS." Her breathe comes in short gasps as she shouts at a far louder tone than Rainbow Dash was expecting, prompting the pegasus to recoil in surprise. "NOPE. I'M FINE. NO PROBLEM." The purple unicorn's face curves upwards in a rictus grin.

  "O-kaaaay..." Rainbow Dash leans back and away. Clearly, the filly before her is crazy, and her experience is not as useful as she'd hoped.

  Thankfully, Celestia arrives at the table just then, levitating three bowls of soup before themself and both fillies, along with rge soup spoons to eat it with. The dish before them looks positively delicious, two halves of a hard boiled egg floating in a dark broth filled with noodles, potatoes, carrots, and some other vegetables not even Twilight recognizes. "My apologies if it's not to your tastes, I'm afraid I didn't have time to ask you two what kinds of food you like. I hope it is patable, regardless." Celestia apologizes preemptively, and takes a bite, making a delighted "Mhm!" sound as they swallow.

  "D-Did you make this yourself!?" Twilight gapes in astonishment at the monarch.

  Celestia just gives the purple filly a pyful wink. "Of course. You'd be amazed at all the things you pick up over more than a thousand years. Cooking is one of the simple pleasures of life."

  Twilight stares down at the dish, mouth agape. "Is it not to your liking? I can always try to make something else, if you'd prefer." Celestia prods gently, resting a hoof on Twilight's, triggering the unicorn filly to look back up with shock.

  "N-No, It looks delicious! See!?" She quickly starts digging into the food, simultaneously trying to do so in the most polite and formal manner possible while also showing suitable gusto for eating.

  Rainbow Dash just stares bnkly at the shenanigans unfolding before her, then back down at her own soup. Shrugging, she takes the spoon with her wing and lifts it to her mouth.

  Rainbow Dash is not a pegasus with very exacting tastes. Her usual idea of a good meal is smming as many types of carbohydrates as possible together and stuffing the resulting concoction into her mouth. But even she can tell the instant that she pces the spoon in her mouth that this is something truly special; every fvor perfectly banced and complementary to eachother, with only the finest ingredients and subtle but fulfilling taste. She can't even count how many distinct components she can make out in the dish, savory and salty and sweet and a little bit spicy all at the same time.

  "This ish really good!" Rainbow Dash shouts out, mouth partially full. Twilight stares at her aghast, as if she had just committed a capital offense on the spot.

  But Celestia just gives a genuine smile. "Well, I'm gd you both like it. Now that we're all settled in, allow me to introduce you two properly. Rainbow Dash, this is my other student, Twilight Sparkle. She performed a great magical feat by hatching a dragon egg, empowered by your Rainboom. And Twilight Sparkle, this is Rainbow Dash, also my student. She was the source of the Sonic Rainboom that enabled you to hatch Spike."

  Both ponies stare at each other as if seeing the other pony for the first time. After a long pause, it is Twilight who ends up breaking the silence. "You're the pegasus who performed the Sonic Rainboom? But... But... Your wing loading is way too high to exceed the speed of sound!" Twilight stammers out incredulously. "You'd have to fp your wings at least a hundred times a second!"

  Rainbow Dash narrows her eyes at Twilight. "What, are you calling me a liar too? Why doesn't anypony believe me?" Rainbow Dash growls. Just please don't ask me to prove it, I really don't think I can...

  "Hold on, you two. Twilight, I flew to Cloudsdale personally to investigate, and confirmed that Rainbow Dash was indeed the source. She has a well of talent and magical power unmatched by any her age save perhaps yourself. And Rainbow Dash, there is no need to get defensive, I believe Twilight was simply surprised." Celestia chides.

  Twilight freezes up again, then nods her head, drooping slightly. "I... Yes, of course Princess, I'm sorry for doubting you." Twilight apologizes, a definitive sound of shame in her voice.

  "Not at all, Twilight. You are my student, and as any student it is right to question your teachers. And even princesses have been known to make mistakes, from time to time." A flicker of a shadow passes across Celestia's face, and they finish the statement with a darkly muttered "Perhaps graver mistakes than most."

  But Twilight doesn't seem to notice the mood of the st statement, and furrows her brow in confusion and wonder. "Just, if she really did it... Could I see? I'm not meaning to doubt, I just don't understand how it's possible."

  Rainbow Dash cringes. Here it comes. The moment I've been waiting for. Do I admit I can't do it? Do I try to make excuses? The possibilities whirl through her mind as she hesitates, slowly opening her mouth to respond.

  But before she can, Celestia cuts in. "Rainbow Dash was injured on the flight here. She is still recovering, and I'm sure she isn't ready to perform at full strength again yet. Even after she heals, she may need some time to get back into shape as well."

  Twilight wilts in disappointment, but nods her head. "Yes, Princess, I understand."

  There is a long moment of silence, which Rainbow Dash uses to slide the chair around the table closer to Twilight and nudge her in the side with a foreleg. "Sooo... You hatched a dragon, huh? That's pretty awesome, I gotta say." Her voice is tinged with curiosity. She'd never seen a dragon before, but she would certainly like to.

  The question seems to raise Twilight out of her stupor, and she gnces back and forth between the two ponies present. "Oh, yes! His name is Spike!" Twilight beams, and looks over at Celestia. "Can we... Can we go see him?" She asks, a pleading look in her eyes.

  Celestia nods their head. "Of course, my dearest students. And, I think it might be a good time to take a tour of the pace, while we're at it. If you're going to be making your homes here, I should like you to get a feel for the pce."