02 Awakening

The sun rose over the east horizon, on schedule as usual. The moment the light entered her room, Applejack rose from bed, on schedule as usual. She headed for the bathroom to prepare herself for the days activities, on schedule as usual. She gripped the handle of the door and promptly ripped it off its hinges, on schedule as- wait, what?

She stood there mouth agape, eyes wide, staring at the door she casually held aloft in one hand. She carefully leaned the door against the wall and, with her hands now free, slapped herself two consecutive times.

Nothing.

Well, guess that rules out dreamin’.

She went over to the doorway and inspected the part where the hinges used to rest. She looked over the wood and carefully knocked on it a few times.

Wood’s still good as ever.

Yet, it was obvious that the screws were torn clean off from it. This was, disturbing, to say the least.

After a moment of pondering and staring at the displaced door, she remembered the events of last night.

Could it have somethin’ to do with that beam of light we used on Sunset?

She’d have to talk to the others about this, but first she needed to wash-up. So she entered the bathroom and handled everything like it was Granny Smith’s finest porcelain.

BEEP BEEP BEEP

A pale hand rose from the silken covers of the bed and reached over for the clock. With a precise push of a button, the alarm was silenced. The rest of the covers had been roused and from them Rarity emerged and assumed a sitting position. Blinking the sleep from her eyes and checking the time, she considered whether or not she should get up. After all it was a Saturday, and last night definitely put… last night.

The memories of what transpired suddenly came back to her. As she reminisced, she wasn’t sure if she should be happy, sad, or angry. She was angry at what Sunset Shimmer had done to their friendship, what she tried to do at the dance, and what she did to her personally. She was happy that she had met someone as wonderful as Twilight and that their group came back together, stronger than ever. But she was also heartbroken that Twilight had to leave so soon. They weren’t even sure if they would ever see her again. Perhaps if the portal ever opened again, she’d come visit them. A wistful smile graced her lips.

Seeking to strengthen what she remembered, she searched for her phone to view some of the pictures taken of last night. She noticed it sitting neatly on the other side of her night stand. She reached out a hand to grab it but as she did so, the strangest thing happened.

Her phone slid across the table and met her hand halfway there. She stared, wide-eyed, at the apparently magical phone in her hand. Or was she the one who was magical? Did it have something to do with last night? In any event, none of these questions really mattered as her brain had decided to go back to sleep. Not long after, her body had decided to follow suit. On the bright side she no longer had to choose whether or not to get up.

Pinkie’s eyes shot open. As she lay in bed she wondered why she woke up so suddenly. She was certain she’d end up sleeping in, especially after last night. She was even having such a great dream. It was primarily about a land of talking ponies where she was a pony too, it was kinda what she imagined Twilight’s home would be like. As a matter of fact, the last thing she remembered happening in the dream was that her knee began to tremble. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but she had a feeling that the trembling was significant somehow.

BRIIIIIING!

Her attention was now turned towards her alarm clock.

Huh, weird. I’ve never beaten my alarm clock before.

She sat up and turned off the bothersome timekeeper. Her lips were pouted as she stared at it in thought. She shrugged and put it back down. Since she was already up, she might as well get ready for the day.

Fluttershy had gotten up bright and early, it was something she had already gotten used to. She learned to do this primarily for two reasons. One, it was hard not too considering that if she didn’t, she wouldn’t be able to see her parents off before they had to show up for work. Two, a number of her animal friends needed to be fed at the crack of dawn. She had to admit, one of the best perks of being the daughter of two Equestrian Air Force Generals was that they had a huge personal lot; within the secondary wall of Canterlot Castle even.

It was large enough that she was able to use it as an unofficial second animal shelter for the city. When she first brought home that injured puppy, her parents had been skeptical, but as she showed both the responsibility and skill necessary, they supported her new ‘hobby’ wholeheartedly.

So after greeting her parents and a light breakfast, she went outside towards the food shed. She grabbed what was necessary and went to the animals that were awake. The first little friend she approached was a particularly yappy terrier she had named Terrence. After giving him his meal, she watched him eat for a moment. Terrence then looked at her and pointed to the water bowl outside his cage. She smiled as she brought the water to rest beside his food. She closed the door and immediately noticed something was off with that entire situation.

Did Terrence just point at the waterbowl?

As she worked through the animals, she noticed some seemed to wave as she passed by, others seemed to visibly smile at her, and some of the birds produced a sound that was suspiciously close to her name. Once she was certain that their needs were taken care of, she stepped aside and held her chin in absolute bewilderment.

Am I dreaming?

The animals for their part had apparently taken notice of their caretaker’s discomfort. Those in the cages went as close as they could to Fluttershy, whilst those that she allowed to roam around had crowded around her. She had no idea how to react and so, decided to think about what exactly was different about this situation. Did something get in the water? Did she hit her head again? Did Rainbow-

DOOT DOOT! DOOT DOOT!

She drew her phone out and saw that Applejack was calling her. She brought the phone to her face and answered it. As she heard what exactly it was Applejack had to say, her jaw dropped.

It had been midmorning by the time a head of messy rainbow hair popped out of the bed sheets. A blue hand rose up to meet a yawning mouth.

What a night. Rainbow thought to herself as she got up to go to the bathroom. A splash of water should do the trick.

Unfortunately, in her haste, she hadn’t noticed that her phone had four recently missed calls from four different people. She took a step forward, and another, and another, and ano-

*SMACK*

Well that got her well awake. She shook her head both to regain herself and in bewilderment. How’d she get from her bed to the door in three steps? She turned around and took a step, carefully watching her feet. Nothing peculiar seemed to happen.

Well that was weird.

Aw, well. Shrugging her shoulders, she proceeded out the door and towards the bathroom, and in short order hit its door face first.

Now this really got her attention.

Okay, what the heck? she thought as she looked back to the door of her room. I know I’m fast but even I don’t think I could go five meters in five steps. Let alone this early in the morning.

She shrugged it off as one of those days and entered the bathroom.

After taking baby steps around her room and handling everything around it as if it would explode, Applejack had finally readied herself for the day. So after putting on her hat, she carefully opened the door, stepped out of her room and headed for the kitchen. When she got there she had noticed Granny Smith sitting at the head of the table, reading the paper, with Big Macintosh on the next chair over fiddling with his tablet.

“Mornin’ y’all,” she greeted them.

Granny lowered her paper. “Mornin’ young’in.”

Big Mac was still focused though, and just let out an automatic, “Eeyup.”

“Ah take it Bloom’s still sleepin’?”

“Eeyup.”

Noticing her brother’s concentration, she snuck a peek over at what he was doing.

“Hey now, are those the new model bottlers for the plant?”

Big Mac turned his head to look at his sister and said, “Eeyup, should increase productivity by 30% and it’s energy efficient.”

Granny looked at the two skeptically. “You kids and you’re darned technology, why back in my day we had to do everything by hand, we had none of them ‘automatic bottlers’ and what not.”

The siblings just looked at each other and shared a knowing smile. Applejack looked back to her grandmother and said, “We know Granny, and y’all did a fine job, but you gotta admit, times are a changin’.”

Granny let out a good natured chuckle and continued reading.

Applejack looked to her family and considered for a moment. She could always look to them for help, so maybe they could help her find out more about this morning’s… incident. She made a mental note to fix that door ASAP. She approached the counter to grab an apple, and as she did she asked her family a question.

“Y’all remember what happened at the dance last night? The whole ‘demon Sunset’ thing, and me and ma friends firing a rainbow on her?”

The two had their eyes on Applejack now, and both their eyes had a look of utter confusion.

“The what now youngin’?”

“Uhh, AJ, what are you talkin’ about?”

Now it was her turn to be utterly confused. How could they not know? Especially Granny, she was a chaperone for the dance, she pretty much saw everything.

Unless…

“Sorry but Ah gotta go, I was supposed ta meet with mah friends in a few.” She quickly snatched an apple from a bowl, but since she wasn’t concentrating, accidentally squished it like a grape.

Everyone’s eyes were wide as they stared at her hand. Surprisingly, Big Mac was the first to say something.

“AJ, you been workin’ out?”

Applejack could only give a pathetic chuckle in reply.

“Hehe, you could say that. Gotta go now, see y’all later!” She then briskly walked out the door.

Her two family members glanced towards each other before hearing her truck start up and leave.

“Meetin’ her friends?” Granny looked towards her grandson and he nodded in understanding. He stepped outside and caught the tail of Applejack’s truck as it made a turn around the bend.

As he approached his car to give chase, a female voice called his attention.

“Hey there Big Mac!” She raised her hand. “Gimme five!”

He noticed it was his cousin Apple Fritter. She was wearing a dark blue blazer and black slacks. He smiled in greeting and allowed his hand to meet hers. When his arm had returned to his side he approached his car to… to… what was he gonna do?

He took a good look around the immediate area hoping to remember what exactly it was he was going to do. After a moment of nothing coming forward he simply scratched his head,  shrugged and walked back inside.

It had taken a while, but she had done it; Rarity was ready for the day. It wasn’t so much that it was difficult for her to do so, it was more because she was distracted by trying out her new little trick.

In fact, the only reason she had woken up again so soon after her fainting episode was because she got a call from Applejack. When the phone had buzzed her awake, she was even reluctant to simply touch it. It didn’t take too long for her to get over it of course. By the time Applejack had described to her her very similar situation she had come to the same conclusion that Applejack had.

This was related to what happened last night.

Something else that bothered her was that apparently both Granny Smith and Big Macintosh had no recollection of the events of last night. Did anyone else ‘forget’? She’d have to verify this later. As it stood she had to meet her friends and so went down the stairs through her boutique and out the door. As she approached her car she noticed one of her fellow fashion aficionados from school walking down the street. She saw her at the same time as well.

“Hey Rarity! You’re not opening today?” She put on a sly smile. “A bit tired from last night’s dance.”

Rarity rolled her eyes at her friend’s implication. “No, it’s just that I have a few errands that I need to run today. Although, tell me Star, did anything peculiar happen last night?”

“Peculiar? Like how so?” she replied as she tilted her head.

Rarity took a moment to consider how exactly to phrase her answer. “You know, magical, out-of-this-world, fantastic?”

Star Catcher’s eyes lit up a bit. “Oh! So I take it you heard about Lily and Varie?” she said with a grin.

Not quite what she had in mind. “Oh I did! But does nothing else spring to mind from last night?”

Her friend cupped her chin. “Not really. Why? Did something happen?”

That was all she needed. “Oh, nothing. Anyway I really must be going now. Pleasure seeing you.”

Star smiled. “Alright Rares, see you later.”

Rarity quickly proceeded to her car. Normally she’d drive top down, but today was an exception. When she was certain the roof was secure she grabbed her keys. She looked at them for a moment before dropping them to the car floor. She took a breath and concentrated.

The keys began to rise, and with it she had noticed something about them. As they floated they seemed to be engulfed by a faint blue light. I wonder, is this my magic that I see? She thought.

A few minutes and several awkward finger gestures later, she managed to get the keys into the ignition. Now all she had to do was turn it. Try as she might, she could not force the key to turn with magic and so opted for a more conventional method. She grabbed the keys with her hand and turned them. It was time to meet her friends and hopefully gain some insight into this.

Pinkie Pie was having a weeeird morning. She had been getting strange sensations all over her body. Not only that, but each sensation seemed to urge her to do exactly what was needed at that moment.

When she went downstairs, rather than go to the kitchen, she went to the door and opened it. Lo and behold, on the other side was a surprised Mister Cake holding a few groceries. After exchanging ‘good mornings’ she helped him sort out the things he had brought home. Carrot Cake had noticed Pinkie had a very serious, very thoughtful expression.

“I’m really not sure, Mister Cake.” Pinkie replied.

“Is everything alright Pinkie?” he asked.

The two blinked at each other. Pinkie cleared her throat. “Uh, I’ll be in my room of you need me Mister Cake.”

Carrot was still staring at her. “Okay, Pinkie.”

For whatever reason, Pinkie grabbed a waiting baby bottle from the fridge and climbed up the stairs.

As she got to the top she was greeted by the crying wails of Pound Cake. The baby was hungry and there she was ‘conveniently’ holding a bottle. This was enough to make her wonder, What is going on today?

Since Sugarcube Corner wasn’t due to open anytime soon she returned to her room to ponder her current situation. After a while she arrived at a conclusion.

“Oh my gosh, I must be psychic now!” she shouted to no one in particular.

She immediately grabbed her phone and brought it to her phone. As if on cue, it rang. Without even looking at the identity of the caller she greeted, “Hey Applejack! Did you know I’m psychic now?”

Whut? came from the other end of the call.

“I’m psychic. I grabbed the phone and got ready to answer it, before you even called me! Not only that but a while ago, I grabbed a baby bottle from the fridge. At the time I really didn’t get why, I mean I haven’t used one of those in years, not since I was a baby and maybe a few times after just for fun, but anyway when I went back upstairs Pound Cake started crying! He was hungry and there I was holding a bottle of milk, just for him I guess. And before that, Mister Cake was gonna ask me a question, but before he could even ask, I already gave my answer. Anyway what did you wanna talk about AJ?”

So that’s how it’s affectin’ you?

Pinkie gasped. “AJ, are you psychic too?”

No, but Ah got somethin’ just as weird goin’ on. Pinkie, Ah think this might have to do with last night.

“You mean the big rainbow cannon?”

Well, yes that, and a few other things too. Point is, I called the others an’ apparently weird things have been happenin’ to them too. So we’re all gonna meet up at Memorial Park.

“Okay, I’ll be there lickety split!”

Oh, and I wasn’t able to get a hold of Rainbow, could you try her?

“Sure thing Applejack, but knowing Rainbow, she’d have slept in. Especially since it’s a Saturday.”

A sigh was heard from the other side of the line. Well could you just try? I think she’s gonna be havin’ her own little experience.

“Yes Ma’am!” She saluted.

When their call had ended she immediately initiated another, but to her rainbow haired friend this time.

RIING. RIING. RIING.

No answer. She tried once more.

RIING. RIING. RIING.

It seemed she was right about Rainbow sleeping in. She decided she’d just try again later, after all she had a meeting to get to. She grabbed her helmet and dashed down the stairs and out the door, pausing only to say ‘Going out for a while, be back soon’ to the Cakes.

Once outside, she pulled out her bike from behind the shop, got on, and pedaled furiously. Her legs were a blur as she sped through the bike lane on the way to Memorial Park. That is until she got another sensation. She stopped and pulled herself and her bike off the road and brought out her phone again. She decided to call Rainbow again.

RIING. RIING. RII-

Hello? came a raspy yet somewhat excited voice.

“Rainbow, you picked up!”

Uh, yeah hey Pinkie. Listen now’s kinda a bad time, I’m sorta in the middle of-

Pinkie’s eyes perked up, “Are you psychic too?”

Huh?

Pinkie recalled to Rainbow the events of her morning.

Are you telling me there’s something happening to all of us?!

“Oh yeah, I forgot to ask, what’s up with you?”

Well, let’s just say that I’m REALLY fast now. But anyway the girls are all meeting at the park right?

“Memorial Park to be exact”

Alright, well I’ll meet you there Pinkie, see ya.

“Wait, Rainbow-” Too late, the line was cut. Pinkie pouted and looked at her phone. “Bummer.”

She perked up again and jumped back onto her bike. She sped off into the sunrise, towards their meeting place.

Fluttershy, tell me has anythin’ weird happened to you this morning?

Fluttershy pondered this a moment. “Well not particularly Applejack, although…”

Although?

“Well, I don’t really know how to explain it, but I think the animals have been talking to me.”

Talkin’ to ya? So you’re able to hold a conversation with ‘em?

“Not really, they’re actually using some kind of vague body language, but I can still understand them perfectly. Almost as if they actually did talk to me verbally.”

Interestin’ Applejack relayed her bit of destruction earlier in the morning.

“Oh my. That sounds kinda scary.”

What’s scary is that it might be happenin’ to the five of us. I mean, if that big rainbow managed to take Sunset’s powers who knows what it could have done to us.

Fluttershy gulped in response.

Listen, I’ll be callin’ the others and seein’ if somethin’s happened with them. Whether or not somethin’ did, let’s all meetup at Memorial Park, alright?

“Okay Applejack. Bye.”

One more thin’, we’re to all show up alonealright Fluttershy?

“I understand, bye.”

Bye.

Alone. Well this could be a bit problematic. Since her parents were in the air force (and were pretty high up the ladder) and since she was also rather shy, her parents had assigned a bodyguard, a soldier named Stonefist, to shadow her throughout her day. At first she felt uncomfortable with the idea, but she never said anything because she didn’t want to cause an argument. Eventually though she warmed up to her guardian and felt safe knowing that someone was watching over her. It was also convenient that he acted as her chauffeur.

It did, however, make attending secret meetings troublesome. Usually she’d lose him through the more labyrinthine places in the city before going where she needed, but she always hated doing that. She knew it made his job really difficult and added unnecessary stress to the poor soldier, and she really hated being a burden on anybody. But she supposed that she really needed to do it this time.

Once she finished making sure her animals were fed and happy, she got dressed and asked Stone to take her to the Shopping Center. After all that place was close enough to Memorial Park. When they arrived she immediately went through some shops, window shopping and occasionally checking a few samples.

Several shops and an entire mall later, she leaned on an unremarkable spot of wall and looked around. She lost him. Satisfied that she managed to shave her shadow she proceeded to her real goal. Unbeknownst to her, when she had left, a figure emerged from a corner, not too far from where she was standing. It was Stonefist, but rather than wearing his relatively army-looking attire, he was wearing a grey blazer and black slacks.

Rainbow was happy. In fact, you could say she was very happy. The moment she woke up, for whatever reason, she was pretty much a speeding bullet. She could zoom here, there, anywhere!

The moment she went down the stairs, she noticed a note from her parents saying that they had gone on ahead and that she had breakfast waiting for her. So from the foot of the stairs, she took five steps and found herself in front of the counter in the kitchen. Seven steps later found her in the living room. She decided to put on some TV with which she to eat her breakfast with. After a few moments of channel surfing, she heard a noise, or rather a song. It was her phone, she had realized. It was still on her bedside table.

No problem she thought to herself.

She got up, zipped upstairs, and zipped back down. She looked at the phone and saw Pinkie calling. After a brief exchange on the apparent situation with the others, she quickly, and emphasis on quickly, finished up her meal.

A certain train of thought decided to arrive at the station of her mind. If walking a few steps could do that, what would running do? A goofy grin attached itself to Rainbow.

She put on her runner’s outfit and went out the door. She looked to the garage. Bike? Board? Skates? Car? Pffftt.. Those would be nothing on her. Once on the sidewalk she assumed a runner’s position.

5... 4… 3… 2… 1… “Go!”

She was a blur. Around her her surroundings had melted as she went at unbelievable speeds. Of course the speeds and g-forces didn’t compare at all to the adrenaline of it all. For a moment she wondered if her body could take this much pressure, but since nothing seemed to be wrong, she guessed it was a side effect of her ability. With nothing to worry about, she simply enjoyed the euphoria brought on by going at such speeds.

Where she passed birds were disturbed, papers flew and people were bewildered. In her haste though she didn’t notice that, on more than one occasion, she passed someone wearing a dark blue blazer, facepalming.

Five minutes after leaving her home she was at Memorial Park. The park was noticeably empty today, that probably being the reason they were meeting here in the first place. She noticed Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie on a nearby bench. They were wide eyed as they watched her approach them.

Rainbow still had her goofy grin. “Hey girls!”

“Oooooo,” Pinkie said in realization. “That’s what you meant by fast.”

Rainbow puffed up her chest and said, “Yup!”

She looked over the four others present. “So I hear you guys have your own little tricks. Care to share?”

“Well,“ Applejack began. “Ah managed to break off mah bathroom door without even trying. Ah even squished an apple usin’ nothin’ but my grip.”

“On mah weak hand.” she quickly added.

“Hmmm… So I suppose that means that you gained strength.” Rarity concluded.

Rainbow stuck in a comment of her own, “Wow, AJ. That. is. awesome.”

“As for myself, well I suppose I might as well show you.”

She brought out her phone and placed it on the ground in front of the bench. The girls watched with bated breath at what Rarity was going to do. She raised her hand over the phone and concentrated. A faint blue light encompassed her phone and it flew towards her hand.

The girls were awestruck. Pinkie broke the silence by saying, “Whoa! Rarity you can move stuff with your mind?”

“Apparently.”

“Alright,” Rainbow got their attention. “So we’ve got speed, strength and apparently telekinesis,” she said, pointing to the abilities’ respective owners.

“What about you, Shy?”

Fluttershy jumped from having all eyes point to her. “Oh, well I can talk to animals. Not verbally, but I’m able to understand when they’re trying to tell me something. Also, I think they can understand me too, cause when I started feeling a bit uncomfortable about apparently understanding them, they approached him ad sorta just snuggled.”

“Well, that seems awfully appropriate. Bet your l’il shelter’s doin’ pretty well with that kinda talent.”

Applejack turned her thoughts to their pink friend. “Alright Pinkie, could you please elaborate on what you meant by ‘you’re psychic’?”

The others raised eyebrows at this.

“Well, I get these weird feelings and they usually mean that something happens in the immediate future. So far they’ve all been pretty accurate, like when my finger twitches it means I should grab my phone, or when my elbow itches, I think it means- BRRRRRR”

Out of nowhere Pinkie got an extreme case of chills. Her friends had immediately jumped on this and checked on her. Once they were certain that their was nothing wrong with Pinkie they took a step back to allow her to speak.

“Thanks guys.” She smiled at the care her friends had presented. “I have no idea where that came from tho-BRRRRRRR.”

“Uhoh, girls I think this shivering is related to it. Worse, I think something big is going to happen…” she said as she looked up, down, and around for anything out of place.

Pinkie was right of course, because that’s when the ground started to vibrate.