There was something calling to Rainbow Dash, dragging her away from sleep, not a voice or any other noise... a smell. There was something cooking, and although she didn't know what exactly it was, she did know that it smelled fantastic, so only put up minimal resistance to waking up. There was a moment of confusion as she opened her eyes, the walls around her unfamiliar to her barely conscious mind, before she remembered the day's events—finding the body, her frenzied flight, and how angry Twilight had been with her.
She stood up and stretched, moaning as she did so—her wings were obscenely sore, a result of pushing herself as hard as she had earlier. After flexing the wings a couple of times, it became obvious that there was no way she could fly on them... something that would prove to be rather problematic, since as she looked at her surroundings she realized that she was in Twilight Sparkle's bedroom.
Figuring out how to get home could wait. She was starving, a consequence of having not eaten all day. Walking out of the room, she found herself face-to-face with the unicorn who's bed she had just been occupying.
"Oh!" Twilight said, surprised. "I was just coming to get you. There's food downstairs, if you're hungry."
"I-wha?" Rainbow said, confused. "But..." Twilight wasn't making sense to her. Last thing she remembered, she had been screaming at her, and now she was standing there offering her food? "I thought you hated me!"
"What? No!" she exclaimed, shocked. "Of course I don't hate you, what made you think I do!?"
"So why were you... ya know, with the yelling and the magic and the..." she made a vague, circlish gesture with a hoof.
Twilight became visibly tense, her ears flattening back against her head. "I shouldn't have yelled at you like that," she said guiltily, "It's just... I freaked out, Dash, and I shouldn't have. I'm so sorry for yelling at you like that."
"It's alright, Twi," the pegasus said with a barely-detectable tremble in her voice. "I get it." She smiled weakly at her friend, and the unicorn visibly relaxed. "So..." Dash said, "you mentioned food?"
Twilight led the other mare downstairs to the kitchen. In the sink sat a strainer filled with spaghetti and a large pot of tomato sauce. Starving, Rainbow Dash loaded a bowl with as much food as she could, Twilight taking a somewhat more reasonable helping. Occupied thinking about the day's events, they ate in silence, and had both finished within ten minutes. For a moment the two mares looked at each other without speaking. Then Dash groaned, slumping over and bashing her head on the table loudly, dishes and silverware clattering.
In an instant Twilight was at her side, fearing some major injury or illness. "Dash! Are you alright!?" she yelled.
"No," the pegasus said miserably. "I'm not alright." She turned her head to face the unicorn. There were thin trails of blood trickling out her nostrils and down her face, and although her head was turned towards Twilight her eyes were staring off into space. "What you said, earlier..." she paused. "You were right, about all of it. Once someone finds out about this, everypony'll hate me." She raised her head a few inches off the table and let it fall, repeatedly, muttering, "Stupid, stupid, stupid," with each crash.
Twilight gently placed a hoof under her friend's head when it was at its farthest from the table and said softly, "It's going to be fine, Dash. Nobody's going to find out."
Rainbow Dash slowly raised herself about halfway off the table, a confused look on her face, and said, "What?"
With a clear tremble in her voice, Twilight said again, "Nobody's going to find out. We're..." she hesitated, knowing that if she actually said what she was thinking she would be beyond the point of no return. Would it really be worth it? After all, if she messed up or overlooked something and they got caught, there'd be a case against her as accessory to murder, and even if everything turned out alright she knew her conscience would trouble her for a long time. But... Rainbow was one of her closest friends. If she didn't help the pegasus, she'd feel like she had betrayed her. And she'd be thorough, make sure there was nothing left to trace. She had convinced herself what course of action she should take.
"We're going to get rid of the body."
The pegasus's ears twitched. Touches of hope and suspicion poked their way through the neutral tone she put on the word, "We?"
"You've always been there for me when I needed it. And besides, we're friends. Friends help each other out," Twilight explained.
"But... I..." she didn't know what to say, except for one thing. She wrapped her legs around her friend and said softly, "Thank you."
After a moment, Twilight backed out of the hug. "We need to get it done right away," she said. "Spike's going to be getting home soon and I want to be back before him. Just give me a minute and I'll be ready." She breathed deeply and closed her eyes as a magical aura surrounded her horn and hooves. A moment later, it disappeared, and the unicorn opened her eyes. "Right," she said, "let's go."
"Twi, you don't—"
There was a flash of brilliant white light, a loud "Pop!" and the wood underneath their hooves became clouds, walls and ceiling replaced by the deep reds and purples of the dusk sky.
"—have wings," she finished lamely. She swore there was a little smirk on the unicorn's face.
Together the two entered the house and set about their grim task. Most of the work was done by Twilight, Rainbow Dash doing little more than setting her refrigerator upright and answering the few questions Twilight had. Spheres of blood, ranging in size from barely a drop of rain to two small bowls put on top of each other, were telekinetically raised through the air and deposited in a pair of buckets magically summoned. When the buckets were filled, Twilight took them outside and forcefully dispersed the contents into mist.
Then it was time to take care of the body itself. Rainbow Dash removed the bit of cloud that was covering the body, quickly turning away as she did so. Twilight's face turned a shade paler, but refused to let the mild feeling of illness she was experiencing slow her task. Again there was a flash of light, and the ponies and corpse flashed into existence in the Everfree Forest.
While it had been bright and relatively warm up in the skies, the sun had long since set on the Everfree, leaving the forest gloomy and cold. Twilight, unaccustomed to such temperatures, shivered. The two had arrived in a small clearing, perhaps twenty feet across, the ground strewn in leaves. The sky was illuminated by only a few scattered stars; the moon had yet to rise.
"What are we doing here?" Dash asked.
"Getting rid of the body," Twilight said grimly. "Clear away all the leaves within five feet of it, quietly. I need to get a spell ready." The unicorn sat and shut her eyes, horn glowing as she prepared her magic for the task ahead. Rainbow Dash set about her own task, taking great care to not touch the body itself. Within three minutes the area specified had been cleared of leaves and sticks, and Dash moved away from the body over towards her friend.
One minute passed. Then two. Growing impatient, the pegasus whispered, "Are you almost—"
"Shhh!" Twilight hissed. "I'm trying to concentrate!"
"Well, sorry," Dash muttered.
"Shhh!"
Bored, she spent the next few minutes scratching around in the dirt with a hoof, not drawing any specific pattern. It was just as she was finishing a long spiral that a thick jet of magic shot out of Twilight's horn, engulfing the dead mare and startling the living one, who recoiled from the blast and fell over backwards. Scrambling to her hooves, she was greeted by the sight of Twilight standing legs spread apart and eyes squeezed shut, horn glowing a brilliant purple. There was a hemisphere of light around the body, which was obscured by roiling purple energy. A powerful wind had kicked up, tugging a mass of leaves towards the dome and even creating a noticeable pull on the two ponies. The entire clearing was bathed in the vivid lavender glow of the forces at work on the body. And then, mere moments after it started, the light vanished and the wind died, the only indicators that anything had happened being the wave of dry heat that rolled across the clearing, the perfectly circular charred spot on the ground, and the bits of ash floating through the air.
Stunned, Rainbow turned towards the unicorn and started to say, "What—" but was cut off as her horn flashed one final time, sending a strong breeze through the clearing and scattering the ashes. She turned her head to follow them as they began a voyage that would take them Celestia knows where, then back towards her friend... who promptly collapsed, panting heavily.
Rainbow hurried to her friend's side as she struggled to her hooves on shaky legs, and the unicorn slung a leg across her neck to prop herself up.
"What the hay was that?" she asked.
"Go that way," Twilight muttered, looking to the left. "Heating spell," she explained as they started walking. "Put as much magic into it as I could." She yawned. "Probably a bit too much," she said sluggishly. "Tired."
The two ponies forced their way through the undergrowth until they reached a path, which was fortunately only a few minutes away. By the time they left the forest, both of them were yawning, although Twilight was no longer using Rainbow Dash to keep herself upright.
An odd property of the Everfree was that the positions of the sun and the moon were rarely the positions visible from Equestria. Thus, while it had been almost pitch-black in the forest, in Ponyville the sun was still setting. The pair passed dozens of fillies and colts running through the streets, enjoying the newfound freedoms of summer while their parents chatted about their jobs or the weather.
"More to talk about tomorrow," Twilight mumbled as they approached the library. "But now, sleep. Wings working?"
Dash extended one of said wings and frowned as a dull bolt shot through it.
"Nope."
"Stay here tonight," Twilight said through a yawn. "Guest bedroom."
Opening the door, the mares were greeted by Spike. Although the young dragon would have liked to spend some time with Twilight, a hasty, yawn-filled explanation (with quite a bit of the actual events left out) convinced him that it would be in everyone's best interests for the unicorn to get some sleep, and that all would be explained tomorrow.
The ponies parted ways just past the stairs at the door to Twilight's bedroom. Rainbow Dash continued on, and when she reached the room where she'd be staying, the first and only thing she did was flop down down onto the bed face-first, and within a minute she had fallen asleep.
