The Mane 4 were on the cloud and peeked at the cloud castle, which was surrounded by some small clouds with eyes on them, presumably the castle's guards.
"Alright y'all," said Applejack, addressing her friends, "We have to come up with a plan to break into the castle without those clouds seeing us."
"But how are we going to do that?" asked Pinkie Pie.
"Yeah," said Fluttershy, "Even I'm not that quiet."
"Uh," Rarity spoke up, "Perhaps I have a solution."
...
The clouds were continue looking around for possible intruders. Unbeknownst to them, the Mane 4 were invisible, except for their eyes and they manage to sneak past them while also managing to keep their eyes shut when they come near a cloud. They soon make it into the castle where Rarity disables the invisibility spell.
"Where did you learn to do that?" asked Pinkie.
"Well after that whole debacle with Tirek, Cozy Glow and Chryalis, I decided to improve my magic for situations like this," said Rarity, "So I bought a spell book and began practicing."
"Okay you guys," said Applejack, "We're in. Now we just have to find Rainbow Dash."
"Well," said Fluttershy, "She's probably in her throne room. I mean, all castles are bound to have throne rooms."
"That's a good option Fluttershy," said Applejack, "But we don't know where the throne room is."
"We do now." said Pinkie Pie, pointing at something offscreen. Looking, the ponies saw a sign that said 'THRONE ROOM' pointing to the right.
"Well," said Rarity, "That's convenient."
"Yeah," said Applejack a little suspiciously, "Yeah, almost too convenient."
The ponies go to the right side and go down a hall that soon leads to a staircase pointing up and there is are some doors that lead to one room on top of it.
"Huh, Dashie was a fan of high spaces," said Pinkie.
The ponies walk up the stairs and soon make it to the door.
"Okay," said Applejack, "If Rainbow Dash is in there, we must go together and try to convince her to stop all of this and make her see that we do care for her as a friend."
"Alright!" the other ponies said together.
With that, Applejack bucked open the door. However, they were surprised to see the throne room empty, apart from a Rainbow-esque throne on it.
"Oh, I thought for sure she'd be here." Fluttershy said disappointedly.
"SHE IS!"
The ponies froze in shock before they were suddenly caught in some dark purple aura.
"What the hay!" said Applejack.
Suddenly, they saw Princess Dark Rainbow flying down to them.
"So, you thought you'd come to the castle and get the drop on me, huh?" asked Dark Rainbow harshly.
"We didn't," said Pinkie Pie in her usual happy-go-lucky self, "We came to convince you that you we do care for you."
Dark Rainbow looked rather incensed.
"Care for me?" asked Dark Rainbow as if it was a joke, "After all the years you and a bunch of other ponies have taken my feelings for granted?"
"But we do care for you, Rainbow-" Fluttershy began.
"It's Dark Rainbow, to you miss missy!" snapped Princess Dark Rainbow.
"You're still Rainbow Dash to us," said Applejack, "And it was wrong of us to treat you like that yesterday. We now know all those things were just bad accidents and if you give back Twilight, Cadance, Celestia and Luna's alicornhood, I will let you come back to the farm for cider season."
Dark Rainbow just giggled derisively.
"Oh, like I actually care about being let back in. Since I now rule over Ponyville, everyday will be cider season for me."
"Princess," said Rarity soothingly, "I'm sure that you have issues with us, but if you take a moment to gather yourself, we can work out anything. It's the magic of friendship after all."
"Funny you should mention that Rarity," said Dark Rainbow sinisterly, "Because the way I look at things is that things to work out among friends is if they see that both sides are in the wrong, and as far back as I've known you guys, you haven't seen your faults in the situations as much as I've seen mine."
"Huh?" the ponies said.
"Mare-Do-Well, you wanted to teach me humility. Fair enough. But the way you went about it, constantly stealing my thunder and making spectacles of yourselves when all of that could have been avoided if you took the time to try and tell me I was being a braggart because even then, braggarts are ponies too."
"Okay, I can see how you'd think that," said Fluttershy, "But how do we know you would've listened to us?"
"The same reason you don't know because you never tried!" snapped Dark Rainbow.
The ponies looked at each other in shock.
"And it's not just that!" Dark Rainbow yelled.
...
A while later, Dark Rainbow has vented her frustrations to her friends about all the times they wronged her.
"Wow," said Pinkie, "That's a long list of trangressies!"
"Yeah," said Applejack, "I had no idea we made you suffer so much."
"And I thought I was put through many hardships." Fluttershy said.
"Hardships, Fluttershy?" asked Dark Rainbow, "We've been friends since we were kids and throughout all our lives we've made sacrifices for you and you never seem to return the favor, like when I just mentioned the whole dragon migration thing. I know you were too afraid of dragons back then, but seriously, you couldn't be kind enough to return the favor to me when I saw the butterfly migration with you? Or when you decide to not partake in Nightmare Night because you can't just stomach that scaring is what the holiday is about? You know, the more I think about it, you seem to use your shyness to make other ponies feel sorry for you and you use that pity to make sure no one gives you a hard time! How manipulative can one pony be?"
Futtershy seemed rather taken aback at this harsh spiel Dark Rainbow has given to her and she starts to tear up.
"How dare you make such a cruel accusation against her!" Rarity snapped in Fluttershy's defense,.
"Oh, stuff it, drama queen!" Dark Rainbow snapped, making Rarity look taken aback, "Yeah that's right, I have had enough of the drama you dish out to everypony who comes your way! All you do is complain about the most inconsequential of things because you consider yourself this sophisticated mare with very high tastes when in reality, you are so incredibly shallow that the short end of a swimming pool has more to offer than you're irritable 'lady-likeness'!"
Rarity gasped in despair as she too starts to tear up.
"Well, that wasn't very nice!" snapped Pinkie Pie.
"What do you know about being nice, Pinkie?" Dark Rainbow asked, rounding on her now, "You often get into other ponies' faces, talk at a rapid pace, often interrupt things out of sheer excitement, throw parties for the most littlest of reasons and basically surprise other even when they do not want to be surprised! Has it ever occurred to you that ponies are not as excitable as you are and are in no mood for parties?"
Pinkie Pie looks utterly chastened and lowers her face into her hooves out of sadness.
"Why of all the-" Applejack began angrily, "How can you say all that bad stuff to us?!"
"Very easy, you hick!" shouted Dark Rainbow, which made Applejack gasp, "You are so self-righteous! You act like you are right about just everything in the world! Like when you first met Flim and Flam. I admit, I'm not their biggest fan, but the way their cider machine made cider could've given you a new perspective on making it without relying too much on quality. And what is it with you and wanting to be honest all the time. Like when I didn't want to tell Pinkie that I didn't like pies and you and Twilight got on my case about it! Has it ever occurred to you that even good friends won't always tell the truth to each other?"
Applejack gave a look of surprise at what Dark Rainbow just said. All of the ponies gave sad looks.
Suddenly, there as some clapping heard and the ponies looked and saw Bitter Taste in the doorway slowly clapping his hooves.
"Woah" he said cooly, "Talk about drama."
"You!" snapped Fluttershy, "You're the one who's responsible for all of this madness!"
"Oh, you haven't even seen madness yet, Dear Fluttershy." Bitter Taste said.
He quickly shot his magic at the incapacitated ponies. As they recoil in pain, thy suddenly gain red swirls in their eyes and have lax bodies.
"There we go," Bitter Taste said cooly, "Competely under my command."
"What do you plan to do to them, Butter Taste?" said Dark Rainbow.
"Oh, I have plans." Bitter Taste smiled deviously.
TO BE CONTINUED...