Origins of a Rainbow - A Dashie Tale

Chapters

Fatherly Advice
A Mother's Touch
A Pirate's Life For Me
A Fire in the Heart
Brotherly Love
Talons of Trouble
An Apple a Day
The Chef and Cider
The Doctor What?
Nightmare of Time
A Blast of the Past
Letter #1

Fatherly Advice

Origins of a Rainbow – A Dashie Tale
By: Shorty Sparkle

Fatherly Advice

Lightning shot across the sky and wind tore up the trees in the Everfree Forest. A torrent of unending rain and extreme winds broke what might have otherwise been a calm scene. Trees cracked and snapped like twigs as large gusts of wind would blast straight through them. Cracks of thunder resounded across the forest no more than five seconds apart.

Natural, or unnatural as known to Equestria, storms were extremely unpredictable and caused major damage to the Everfree Forest quite often. This storm was one of the bigger ones and would no doubt cripple the forest immensely. The mountains surrounding Canterlot seemed to intensify the storms in ways that would devastate Equestria if not for weather patrol teams keeping them away.

The team flying over Everfree now was no such team. The five fliers that made up the Wonderbolt’s Charlie team were the greatest rescue team to ever join the group. However, even with their experience in the field of flying, the storm was affecting them as well. Hawkeye, the leader of the group, found himself struggling to keep flying as the wind blasted the team.

The other four were having an even worse time trying to keep up with the stallion. It took all their power to keep from being tossed around like a dog’s chew toy. The rain beat on them like hail and lightning sent shocks up their spines. One of the ponies in particular was having an extremely hard time.

“Come on Hawkeye, this is useless, there is no way we will find the source before that storm hits!” The younger of the five screamed out in an attempt to keep his voice over the storm with little to no success.

The other four shot the rookie menacing glances before continuing to search the ground for any clues that might possibly lead to the source of the noise. The lead Pegasus, a sky blue stallion by the name of Hawkeye, responded to his comment. “It seems you forgot the oath we took Jackhammer! If you don’t want to follow the code of ethics then you can leave right now! I for one, am not about to leave until we find those ponies that went missing!” He was also shouting to keep his voice over the howling winds to no avail.

Lightning struck the ground a few miles behind them. The flight squad dipped with the feeling of shock as the electricity rippled through the air. That was the final push for the rookie who turned tail and flew as fast as he could to safety

“Caster! You follow him and make sure he cleans out his locker before we get back!”

Caster nodded and veered to follow the stallion as he flew away.

That is all that remained of the memories of that team. The two Pegasi that came back early were the only to return. A later search would turn up absolutely nothing pertaining to the location of the other three. The rest of Rescue Squad Charlie never came home.

Many mourned the loss of the team members. One in particular mourned a stallion she loved very much. Peirce looked to the sky for months hoping to see her stallion come home. She hadn’t told him about the baby yet. She had been pregnant for a few weeks before he vanished. Looking again to the sky, she just wanted him back.

She spent months becoming more and more distant from the other ponies. Soon, they just stopped visiting and she stopped caring. It had taken long for her to finally get over the loss of the one pony she had fallen in love with. She could only wish she had told him that he was going to have a daughter.

She had to learn the hard way that loosing track of time when pregnant is not the best thing. A strike of pain hit her womb as she felt the contractions start; instantly throwing her to the floor. She screamed for help but no one came. Right there she had her baby. It took nearly an hour after giving birth for her to get out the door and get help.

The next few days consisted of staring at a ceiling while the doctors took care of her baby. When they finally let her out she found herself in even deeper trouble. It only took a few weeks for the filly to begin flying. The foal hadn’t even started walking yet. Pierce found herself at a loss of patience and hope. The filly was just too much for her to handle and she knew very well that she couldn’t take care of it herself.

That is why she stood there now, looking at the orphanage that she would be trusting with the care of her filly. She set the small foal on the ground in front of the door removing the blanket on last time; looking at the sleeping baby just once more. A smile crossed her lips and she knelt down to the baby. “Fly safe Rainbow Dash, fly safe…” She trailed off for a few moments contemplating whether she should do this. She knew she had to, the foal was much better off here. So with that she knocked on the door and took off to her home. Stealing one last look as the door opened.

---{}---

A flash of colors went flying past the judges! Ducking and weaving through every obstacle in its way. The crowd cheered as the mare blasted through the cloud hoop, did a buccaneer blaze, and then launched around into the much easier hurdles.

Rainbow Dash was feeling good about today, she had this in the bag! There was no way they could let her down this time. Doing everything those blue wings would let her was what she did best and her best was the best ever! She let her thoughts wander a little bit.

She thought about how her father would have reacted to her amazing skills in flying. She never knew the stallion that had been her father and only vaguely remembered her mother. The only memory she had left of her mother was a song she heard as a filly. She knew that the lady at the orphanage hadn’t had sung her that song.

Her thoughts were cut off by a loud crack as she broke a hurdle. She moaned but kept going knowing that only one hurdle was only a few seconds on the time. She finished the hurdles and spun around to do a speed lap around the whole track, but as she started flying she took a look down at the hurdle she broke and gasped at what she saw. She had hit a lot more than just one. At least 15 of the cloud hurdles were broken apart.

She looked at the judges who were just shaking their heads. This day wasn’t the day she would get into the wonderbolts and all because she let herself get distracted AGAIN! Her head drooped down and she let her wings carry her back to the dressing room.

How could she have let herself get so distracted? Again the thought of her dad entered the mind of the mare. She sighed as her legs stepped out of the uniform she had put on for the performance.

A yellow mare stepped into the dressing room and stepped up next to Dash. “Hey there Dash,” she mumbled. “You did pretty well. You know, besides losing focus and crashing into 13 hurdles.” A wince covered the mares face as she thought about what she just said. “What I mean to say is, don’t let it get to you. All you need to do is work on focusing and next time you will get it for sure!”

“Listen, thank you Spitfire, for all the help you gave me to get this far. In all honesty though I don’t think I am ready to be a Wonderbolt anyway.” She sighed. Never once had Dash expected to say that sentence in her life. “There is just too much on my mind to do this and I just need to think it threw before I go.”

“Dash, don’t let it get to you that badly, heck I know for a fact that you are an amazing flier and that being in the wonderbolts is exactly where you belong. Remember that Rainbow Dash never gives up no matter what gets in her path!”

“It isn’t that I am not skilled enough because I know I am. However, I also know that my mind is in different places right now and until I can get passed that I won’t be ready for the wonderbolts.” She let out a long sigh and started packing her things away.

Spitfire nuzzled her friend’s neck. “Listen, I don’t know what is getting on your mind so let me tell you this. I was a lot like you when I tried for the wonderbolts. You see, I lost something when I was young and my mind seemed to always go to that, but I found a way to get passed that and got my focus. I ended up using that thing I lost as an advantage to get myself into shape to get to the wonderbolts.”

“Thanks Spitfire, but I don’t think that is going to help me all that much. I have done everything I could to get my mind off of everything that I am going through but it isn’t the same as just losing something. I didn’t lose something; I never had it at all.” She felt the tears welling up in her eyes and she did her best to hold them back.

“You know what, Rainbow, wait here for a little bit. I am going to go get something that should help you.” She didn’t even give time for Dash to respond when she flew out the door.

Rainbow sat down in the room and continued to fight the tears back while she waited for her friend to return. She remembered when Spitfire had found her. She had been flying around over the Everfree Forest when a blast of heat singed her wing and electricity coursed through her body. Her blue body was thrown into a seizure and she fell from the sky only to be caught a few feet from the tree tops.

The older mare had seen Rainbow flying when the blast of heat lightning had struck. She had taken a dive to catch her and did quickly. Spitfire took Rainbow to the hospital and stayed with her the whole time. A few days later she got into the wonderbolts and did her best to stay in touch with Dash but was normally too busy to do so.

“It is easy for her to say all that, she actually got into the wonderbolts.” She got back up and continued to pack her things before Spitfire got back. She just wanted to go home and she doubted anything that Spitfire would tell her could change that. A prolonged packing process preceded Spitfire’s return who was holding a box to her chest.

“Now, what I am about to show you is something I have never shown anypony except my flight squad.” She set the box down on the ground and pressed a small button on the side. The box popped open revealing old pictures of a wonderbolts flight team. Rainbow recognized the team from a museum that she had gone to a while back. The wonderbolts museum being the only one she ever visited in her life.

“Why do you have a bunch of pictured of the old Rescue Team Charlie?” She thought about how the team would be relevant to Spitfire. It being the first team to have a Griffin in its squad was the only thing it was famous for, except disappearing in the Everfree Forest.

“Well, if you look there,” she pointed to the left most pony on one of the pictures. “That is my father, he was with them when they went missing on that mission over the Everfree Forest; so many ponies and griffins alike came together to find them.”

“You… you lost your father too?” Spitfire looked Rainbow in the eyes to see her tears welling up again. “I never even knew mine. I grew up in an orphanage with only a few memories of my mom. I try to think that he would be proud of me if he saw where I was but I don’t even know that for certain.”

“I was just a filly when my father disappeared and so I didn’t exactly understand it. I knew him enough though and I remember meeting his team. I honestly wish I had known him better than I do currently. However, I used my memories of him to help me get into the wonderbolts.”

“How did you do that exactly? I have been trying for years to get passed not having a father and you used it for your benefit?” Her maroon eyes pleaded with Spitfire to tell her.

“Well, I knew that he was a wonderbolt and one of the best at that. So I just decided to live up to him and used the example he set as a template for getting into the wonderbolts. I also remember that when I found you and found out that you didn’t have any parents…” Her mind wandered off in thought.

“You realized that losing just your father wasn’t the worst thing that could happen?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Exactly, because of you I got into the wonderbolts. When I heard from you that you wanted to get into the wonderbolts I did everything I could to help you simply because of how much you helped me without even trying.”

Dash smiled for the first time in a while. The tears finally let loose and she cried with her friend. “I have an idea, how about we go to your mom and ask her about your father?”

Spitfire looked up in pure shock at what Rainbow had just asked her to do. “What? Why on Equestria would I do that?”

“Well, you said you wished you knew more about your dad and no one could know him better than your mom so we can ask her about some of those things. We are not that far from her place anyway it would take just a few minutes to get there and you never know, maybe it will help.”

Spitfire nodded and smiled at her friend. “I think that is a great idea!” Her smile faded though, “but she never told me about him at all. I doubt she will tell the both of us at once.”

“I am sure she will understand that you need to know more about him anyway. Come on Spitfire, let’s go and just ask her!” Spitfire thought for a minute before giving the green light to go. So Rainbow grabbed her things and they both flew out together. Dash was happier now knowing that she would be helping her friend.

It only took them a few minutes to get to Spitfire’s mother just as Rainbow had expected. They walked up to the house that Spitfire remembered living in for such a long time. She walked to the door and knocked. They heard hooves walking to the door before the fire red mare opened it.

“Spitfire, what do I owe a visit from my daughter?” She gave her daughter a nuzzle. “It has been so long since you came here last that I thought you would never come back. As for you Rainbow Dash! You have grown so much since I last saw you! Such a little filly and you grew into such a well formed mare!”

Rainbow Dash gave Spitfire a shocked look before responding. “Umm, I have never met you before in my life. Ever.” Spitfire was dumbfounded at how her mother knew Rainbow Dash.

“Well of course you did little one! I remember your mother coming to me and telling me what to do with you! You played with Spitfire the whole time. You two were such good friends that day.”

Spitfire gasped. She looked at Rainbow Dash and almost facehooved. “Oh my Celestia, how could I have not noticed that!”

Rainbow Dash was completely baffled at the strange spectacle that her friend and her friend’s mother were providing. “What is going on here!”

“Dash, I met you a long time ago; long before I saved you from that fall. You were just a tiny little filly but there is no doubt it was you! I can’t believe that I forgot about you after how much I had talked about you afterward!”

“Oh dear, I am sorry, I remember now what your mother did after realizing she couldn’t take care of you…” Dash and Spitfire turned their heads to Spitfire’s mom. “Your mother couldn’t take care of you so she decided to do what she thought was best for you. For some reason she decided that was living in an orphanage. I am sorry you have to learn from me.”

Rainbow Dash didn’t know if she should be in a total rage or in ecstasy from what she was hearing. “So you are telling me that you know my mom?”

“Yes dear, I knew your mother very well. The wives of the Rescue Team’s stallions were very close. We all stayed together for the most part. Your mother is the only one left now besides myself and if you take a look at me,” she gestured to her body. “I am not too far behind the others.”

“Do you know where she lives? I really need to talk to her, I have been torn apart recently thinking about who my parents were and this will help me so much!”

“I guess that I could, actually, I can do even better than that. Let me go get something really quickly.” She trotted back into her home and they could hear her rummaging through a drawer in the background.

She came back to the door carrying a list. “This is the list of all the ponies my husband helped over the years. I have crossed off any that have died but kept track of all the others. This has all their current locations as well. Your mother is at the top right there.” She handed the list to Spitfire, “keep good care of this list dear. I use it to remember all those ponies they saved and how they are currently doing.”

“Of course mom, I will make sure to not lose it.”

Rainbow Dash took a peek at the list and saw the top name, ‘Pierce’, and a smiled took control of her muzzle. After all those years she finally knew the name of her mom. “Thank you so much for this. You don’t even know how much I owe you for this.”

“Oh, don’t mention it at all young one. I am happy to help you like this. And honestly I think that your mother could use this as well.”

So with that Spitfire and Rainbow Dash flew off and headed to Spitfire’s home so she could pack some things before they left. After that Rainbow remembered that she would need to tell her friends why she wouldn’t be around for a little while. “Spitfire, is it ok with you if we stop by Ponyville on the way?”

“I don’t see why not, it is only a few minutes off our course.” She looked at her rainbow maned friend. “Let me guess, you need to make sure your friends know?”

“Yeah, they would get worried otherwise.”

“That is understandable, one course correction to Ponyville on the way!” It was a little bit longer of a flight to get to Ponyville but the two well seasoned fliers had not trouble tackling the distance in minimal time.

As Ponyville came into view Rainbow Dash wondered how her friends would take what she was about to tell them. No doubt the trip would take quite a long time if they were going to find that many ponies on the trip.

They landed next to the Ponyville library. “Are you sure they are here? All the lights are off.” Spitfire gave a skeptical look to the library that seemed to be empty.

“Oh don’t worry, I am sure they are there right now.” Rainbow opened the door and walked into the hollowed tree with all the lights off. “Oh I wonder where on earth my friends are!” She said with an easily noticeable amount of sarcasm in her voice.

A few seconds later the lights turned on and five ponies jumped out from behind assorted objects that sat around the room. Pinkie jumped out of an opened book lying on the ground. “Surprise!” They all screamed out at once.

“Hey, great job on becoming a wonderbolt Dash!” Dash felt a pang of sadness hit her heart. She had almost completely forgotten about the trial in the excitement.

“Actually, I didn’t get it girls. I am actually here to tell you all something else.”

“What is wrong Rainbow? Nothin’ a good apple can’t fix right?” Applejack asked.

“Well, actually it isn’t a bad thing anymore. In fact, if I hadn’t had lost I wouldn’t have learned about something that is far more important.” Everypony in the room gasped at what they just heard Rainbow say.

“Wait, more important than becoming a wonderbolt? Dear, this must be quite an important thing! Oh, let me guess, you found a stallion finally?” Rarity asked.

“Did you find a REALLY good book?”

“Get to go to an A-mazing party?”

“Meet a really nice animal?”

Rainbow intervened before they could ask any more questions. “No, none of those; I found out who my mother is because of Spitfire here.” Spitfire stepped forward smiling to the group. “Now I need you guys to know that I am going to meet her.”

Before she could finish what she was about to tell them Twilight interrupted. “Well that is great, learning about where you come from is a great thing. Good luck learning about that and I suppose we will see you tomorrow!”

“No, Twilight you won’t see me tomorrow. In fact, I am probably going to be gone for a while. You see-“

“Oh I see, you want to spend some time with your mother before coming back. We understand perfectly and-“

“Twilight listen to me!” Dash cringed at the volume of her own voice. “I am going to find out a lot more about my dad with Spitfire. We have a list of a lot of the people he has saved over the years and we will go meet them to hear about their stories to try and find out some about our fathers.”

“So, you are going for a long time? How long do you expect to be gone exactly?”

“I am going to be gone for probably around a month, but I will be back I promise.”

Pinkie Pie, who looked as if she was deflated, looked at her blue friend before asking. “Pinkie Pie Promise?”

“Yes, I cross my heart, hope to fly, and stick a cupcake in my eye!”

Pinkie reinflated and hugged her friend. “Good enough for me!”

Twilight was the next to voice her concerns. “You do realize how dangerous this could be? You don’t even know these ponies you are going to go visit. Just, be careful ok Rainbow?”

“You got it Twilight.”

“Now, Sugarcube, make sure you keep plenty of food with you and remember to keep safe no matter what. I don’t exactly agree with what yer doing here but I understand that you need to know who yer parents are.”

“Thanks Applejack, I knew you would understand the most.”

“Don’t forget to pack plenty of clothes alright Rainbow? Make sure to make good first impressions on these ponies and that you don’t scare them off with, well with all of you.” Rainbow laughed. “No, I am serious.”

“Also, Dash, be sure to look out for things like Manticores and stuff. They are really scary and could probably hurt you a lot.”

“I know that Fluttershy, everyone knows that. Thanks anyway though.”

“I don’t suppose there is any way to talk you out of this is there?” Twilight asked.

“Probably not, I need to do this Twilight.”

“I understand, just don’t stay away longer than you have to alright?”

“I know, you already said that earlier Twilight.”

“I know I did. Anyway, good luck out there and be careful.” She hugged her friend and was joined by all the others. Spitfire gagged in the background.

Rainbow Dash broke the hug with her friends. “Anyway, I better get going before it gets too late. I will be back soon girls and I will try my best to write to you when I can.”

Spitfire and Dash walked together to outside the Library. They both took off to fly to Cloudsdale with Rainbow’s friends waving goodbye. An adventure waiting for them that would change the world in a way they could never imagine.

A Mother's Touch

A Mother’s Touch

A rainbow is many things. A symbol of happiness is one of them. And this rainbow was no acceptation. Rainbow Dash was ecstatic about meeting her mother for the first time in her life. She was also ready to hear about her father for the first time in ages. Although there was a pang of doubt that since her mother had left her back those many years ago that she may not like her daughter.

Spitfire's mom said that she had lived in Cloudsdale after Dash’s dad disappeared. After that, she had become depressed and when I was born... Well, she nearly completely fell apart.

“So, Dash, are you excited to finally get to meet your mom?”

“Honestly, I would rather not talk about that just yet.” She thought for a minute. “However, you know, I don’t think I ever caught anything about your dad.”

Spitfire sighed, “I wondered when you were going to bring that up. Well, I guess I am going to have to tell you. My dad’s name was Radar, an expert tracker who always succeeded in finding the source of something no matter what. You know, I wonder sometimes if he kept that record.”

Dash looked over to her friend. “Why wouldn’t he have?”

“Well, the last night he was seen alive, they couldn’t seem to find the source of this screaming. It is mostly all of the story anypony knows because after that the only two living witnesses flew off.”

Dash made a mental note to ask her about those two and see if she could talk to them later. However, Cloudsdale was looming up and they would be in the streets in a matter of minutes.

“Rainbow, are you sure you are ready for this?”

Rainbow Dash gave her friend a look that spelled it all. “I have to do this no matter what.”

The two Pegasi landed next to an old house on the outskirts of town. Spitfire walked over and knocked on the door. After a few seconds they could hear silent hoof steps across the ground coming towards the door.

“Hello, is anypony home?” Spitfire called to the door. Knowing very well that somepony was on the other side. “We are here to visit a Mrs. Peirce. Anypony here by that name?”

“Please, I can’t pay it. I lost my job and I can’t pay my bills anymore, but let me please keep my house.”

The two mares shot a worried look. Rainbow Dash was the first to speak up. “Mo-” She caught herself. “Ma’am, don’t worry. We are not here for bills or anything like that. However, we do wish to see you and give you some company.”

“Why on Equestria would anypony come to visit me? I have no friends. Just go away, I don’t wish to speak with anypony.” The hoof’s on the other side of the door began walking up the stairs.

“Mom wait!” The hooves stopped.

“Did you just call me, mom?” She paused for a minute, staring the mare down. “Dashie, is that you?”

“Yes mom, it is me. I am your daughter. Please let us in, we have to talk.” The door gave way to an old Pegasus. At least 40 years old with her hair already completely gray. The poor woman looked to be Rainbow’s grandmother.

She let the two Pegasi enter. “I would offer you something to drink but unfortunately I don’t have any tea sitting around.”

“That is alright; we are not here for tea anyway. I just wanted to visit to see my mother!” Rainbow Dash dashed straight to her mother and wrapped her up in a big hug.

“So, I take it this means you are not mad at me.” She looked down at the mare, last time she saw the little sky blue Pegasus was when she was just a little filly. “After leaving you I figured you hated me. Why did you wait so long to come if you didn’t?”

“I never knew who you were mom. I always wanted to find you and dad but didn’t know where to look.” Her face never left her mom’s coat.

“Then, then how did you find me?”

“I have Spitfire here to thank for that. She saw that I was falling apart without my parents so she talked to me about it. Then we went to talk to her mother about her dad and found out that you were still alive and where you were. I was so happy to hear about it that I came straight here!"

The old mare looked out a window overlooking Equestria. “Ah, your father was an amazing stallion that did so many great things. I still remember some of the things he did; amazing feats of flight and rescues that hold records even today.”

“Mom, can you tell us the stories you know? It would be the best place to start.”

“I am sure I can do that. I should start with some need to know information about your father first. His cutie mark was a telescope which symbolized his ability to see far distances with one eye. He had always found two eyes to be a burden but wouldn’t do anything to stop it, after the hawk attack though. He had lost one of his eyes and was forced to wear an eye patch. The nickname Hawkeye became a joke. Now, for the stories.”

---{Note}---

Note: Recollected stories are going to be in First person as to help readers ascertain the difference between current times and past.

---{Story}---

I flew across the forest, dodging trees and branches as they flew at my face. I was in trouble and I knew it. The monster chasing me roared as it got closer. That dang thing was fast, no doubt about it. The Everfree forest loomed over me. There was no clear way out of the tree tops. I was trapped with the only way of escaping through a dense forest.

I finally saw light off in the distance, but I could hear the panting of a lion directly behind me. I looked back right as the large paw struck me. I went tumbling out into the clearing. Badly injured and unable to feel my right wing at all. I was grounded with a Manticore just meters away from me. Another roar blasted the forest as the large creature came running straight at me.

I cringed, expecting to be completely pulverized by the Manticore. However, the attack never came. When I looked up I saw that the Manticore was already on its side, fighting to get back up. A griffin in hand to hand combat with it, I couldn’t believe my luck at all! I saw the uniform on the griffin and realized quickly what this was. It was a rescue mission.

Four more members of that squadron came down.

“Radar, Caster, go help Catcher with the Manticore.” The accent was strange. Something I had never heard before. He called it a sailor’s accent which he got from working as a captain for many years. “Alright then, as for you.” He gave me a glare. “You really shouldn’t be messing with Manticores you know!”

“I didn’t exactly mess with him. I was picking some flowers for a sandwich when he attacked me. I just ran.” The response was what he was looking for, I think, he looked rather odd. His hair was in dreadlocks with strange beads all in it.

“Alright then, so you know, I am Sparrow, the captain of this here team. This man here is Hawkeye and he will be your escort back to our base for a good medical checkup.” I nodded and then was grabbed by Hawkeye and he started flying me to their camp.

When we finally made it I had to get my wings checked out to make sure they were ok. My dreams of one day becoming the best flier in all of Equestria were dashed that day. As I looked on the X-Rays I cried. My wing was hurt far too badly to ever fly again.

“Hey, it’s ok, I know it must be hard to lose your wings, but trust me when I tell you that everything will be ok.” He had come up behind me scaring me half to death. It was Hawkeye; he looked a little fatigued from carrying me across the Everfree forest.

“Well, I guess it could be far worse. If it wasn’t for you five I would be dead right now.” The stallion turned to me, for the first time I saw his right eye. An eye patch covered it with the scar coming out from underneath. No matter how much I tried though, I couldn’t feel that it scared me at all. I nuzzled his neck. “Thank you, for carrying me.”

---{Main}---

“That is the story of how me and your father met. He saved my life and I ended up falling in love. Of course I should have known what I was getting into.” She laughed. “That stallion was a mess and a half!”

They all laughed for a few minutes. The three mares all sharing a good laugh.

“Thank you, the two of you for coming. I haven’t been this happy in a long time and I am not sure if it is because my daughter still loves me, or that she is going out on an adventure to find herself.” She walked up and nuzzled Rainbow. “Thank you for coming home Dashie, I really do love you.”

The two Pegasi stayed for dinner and the night with the old mare. The stories they all told at the table were great. Rainbow told her of the Sonic Rainbooms that she did and Spitfire told the story of her training to get into the wonderbolts.

After a great night of family bonding and food the three all went off to sleep. Rainbow couldn’t help but replay that one story of her father in her mind. It was the first piece to a puzzle she was going to solve.

“Hey Dash?”

“Yeah, Spitfire?”

“Thanks for dragging me into this. I really do need this.” She sighed. “It was nice to hear that story of our fathers.”

“Yeah, it was, and there are many more to come for that matter.” She sighed. “I think we better rest up. Who is the first pony on that list of yours anywho?”

“That would be…” There was the rustling of paper as she jostled a note. “A sailor known as Pipsqueak the Pirate.”

“What’s a pirate?”

“I have no idea.” The two laughed as the thoughts entered their minds of who in Equestria was Pipsqueak the Pirate.

---{Notes}---

Alright! Massive outburst on that first chapter which totally killed my Notification! Sorry for the slightly shorter chapter this time around. I am working on making them as long as I can without dragging certain aspects on far longer than they need to go. I found that this was a good way to do it. Anyhow, I should have everypony know that I am super crazy happy to see the reactions that you all have given to my story. You never know, maybe this story will actually make it to EQD some time.

Well anyway, I just thought that you would all like to know that the story is fully planned out and I have a full list of fun stories and an amazing ending all set up ready to go for you all. Believe me when I tell you that this story has an ending that will Blow. Your. Mind. Too bad that is a long ways away and you will all have to wait for that to happen. Well, thanks for reading and remember to take a few seconds to like this story! Every vote helps!

A Pirate's Life For Me

A Pirate’s Life For Me

The two Pegasi were flying away from Cloudsdale now, the massive Pegasus city fading away as they gained speed. They both talked about how that story didn’t exactly tell them much. However, it did show them that their fathers did do their jobs well.

After a long and mostly quiet trip they saw the port in the Neigh Area. Massive ships floated amongst tiny fishing boats, the two Pegasi landed at the port where they had learned to find the Pirate.

They walked up to the bar which was filled to the brim with screaming sailors as they fought over one thing or another. Beer flowed like water and profanities seemed to overpower all the other words. The ponies here had muscles too big for their own good. Dash and Spiritfire walked up to the barkeep.

“Hello sir!” Rainbow Dash had to yell to be heard.

“Hrg? What?” The Barkeep peeked over the bar at the two Pegasi. “Ah, what can I get a few,” he took a look at Spitfire, “’fine’ mares today?”

Spitfire nearly gagged at the complement from the burly horse. “Listen, we just want to know where one ‘Pipsqueak’ is at.”

Most of the bar went quiet. The barkeep shot them a look of displeasure. Then he laughed. “Ah, I see that the old coot already got you two reserved then! I can’t say he doesn’t have fine tastes!” This time it was Rainbow’s turn to gag.

“If it be Pipsqueak the Pirate you be looking for though, you be too late. He sailed off earlier today saying something about never returning.”

The two mares shot each other looks. “If ye wish to find him. Out into the water ye must go. He went to the west. You should find him out there.”

They didn’t waste any time, not even to hear the warning that came from the barkeep. “Be careful! There be a storm coming!”

There is a downside to being a Pegasus. It isn’t the point that you don’t have any magic, or that they can’t pull as much as an earth pony. No, their biggest downside is their ability to control weather. They don’t expect a storm to hit when it isn’t scheduled. It is the reason you will see so few Pegasi fair the oceans where weather roams free. It is also why these two Pegasi got into such a huge mess.

They had seen his ship right as it entered the rain. They flew as fast as they could to get to the ship to help him. A quick flight and they caught it. The pirate on the ship refused to help us keep his ship from sinking. Wind was knocking the boat around as it caught the sails. The lightning in the distance was getting much closer. The waves were nearly 10 feet tall and crashing into the side of the boat.

“Come on Spitfire, keep the mast upright!” Rainbow Dash screamed over the howling storm. Another massive gust of wind knocked a board straight off the boat and onto her head. She shook it off and kept a hold of the steering wheel, trying to turn the boat to be with the wind. The sooner they could get out of this storm the better.

Spitfire put all her power into holding the mast so it didn’t fall over, sending a glare over to the earth pony watching them do their work. Pipsqueak had wanted to die when they saw him, and driving straight into the blasted storm was his way of doing it.

“I told you a long time ago! Get off my ship!” Pipsqueak screamed at the two Pegasi. “I have no need to live anymore and I am not about to be stopped by two intolerable mares!” He was furious that these two would just get on his ship and try to save him!

“We flew from Cloudsdale to talk to you and gosh darn it we are going to talk to you!” Spitfire was doing all the talking. Rainbow was too busy biting down on the wheel.

“I do not wish to talk to anypony anymore! I have lost every reason to live and you can’t take my death from me!”

“We will have to see about that then wont we?” Spitfire gave him a challenging look. “Go ahead and jump off the ship then. You wanted to die, so here is your chance!” Rainbow Dash couldn’t believe her ears. Spitfire did know that we wanted to SAVE him right?

As much as Rainbow Dash expected the sailor to jump off the boat he didn’t. He yelled back at her. “I am here to die with my boat! That is how a true pirate should die!”

“I am sure that Captain Sparrow would disagree!” With those words the old stallion looked at the mare holding his ship in place.

“You know about Captain Sparrow?” He didn’t even give her a chance to answer. He ran over to the mast and brought down the sails as quickly as he could. He slapped on a line to hold them in place and walked up to Rainbow. “How about ya step away from my wheel there missy! I have a ship to save!”

She let go and he grabbed the wheel with his forearms. He spun the wheel to change directions and this time without the wind hitting the sails, the boat turned. Now riding the waves and the wind from behind it lurched forward, crashing into the waves in front of it as it went. After a pain staking amount of time and throwing up by the two mares they finally got out of the storm.

“Now, we need to be talking about how you know the name of Captain Sparrow.” The pirate had sat back and pulled out a whisky from his hold.

“Captain Sparrow served alongside our fathers as a wonderbolt. From what I understand, he saved your life once.” Spitfire was the first to speak to the stallion.

“Aye, he did in fact save my life. I was just a colt at the time. If it wasn’t fer him, I never would have become Pipsqueak the Pirate.”

---{Story}---

I was walking along the road running around my father’s trade cart. He worked as a merchant and sold a lot of things to ponies who would buy them. Personally, I liked to just tag along and help him sell things. However, I always seemed to love boats and every chance he got he would buy me a toy boat or something to play with. He was a great man and a great influence on me.

One day we got a call to set sail and bring some goods to the Equestrian Isles. While on the trip a few peculiar looking boats came and crashed alongside us. Stallions from both ships lunged aboard and ransacked our boat, stealing everything we had left and then started killing the mares.

It wasn’t long after all of it had begun that a group of five fliers flew straight onto the boat. The lead stallion pulled out a sword and started fighting the others that had boarded our boat; screams had filled the air as they killed the pirates who had attacked our boat.

The battle was amazing. One of the stallions branched off and grabbed the wheel for the ship; he turned the boat in a way that managed to unhook the two others. Another of the Pegasi with an eye patch flew up and used his wings to blow air into the sail, causing our boat to get quite the burst of speed as the three others fought the pirates on board.

When the battle was all said and done they looked around for survivors. My father was not amongst that group. I can’t say that I didn’t cry, losing your father is no easy thing to do.

It was Captain Sparrow who came to my side. “What did you lose son?” He had asked.

In between sobs I did my best to answer. “My father, I lost my father sir.”

“Well, we will have to see what we can do about that then.” After they had fixed up the ship with a route and got everyone safe the Captain came back for me. “Come on little one, you will be coming with us.”

He flew me over the sea to a port of harbor. The other four waited for him to speak with the owner of a boat leaving me with them. I don’t exactly know what he told the man on that boat, but I do know that from that day on I lived with the man on his boat. I came to respect certain pirates who go by a code. I have since then done my best to enforce that code amongst others.

---{Main}---

“So you see there girls, that is why I am a pirate. The attack on my boat was by no means in the code and because of that I to this day enforce it immensely.”

The two mares pulled themselves away from the story. “Thank you so much for telling us your story. I am sure it can’t be easy for you to talk about your father.” Spitfire again was the one to talk.

“Yeah, I lost my dad before I was even born. I ended up growing up without my parents either.”

The sailor looked at the two mares and realized they went through a lot too. He still wanted answers though. “Now tell me girls, where exactly did you meet the Captain?”

“We didn’t, My dad was the stallion who blew wind into your sails.”

“I have no doubt that my dad was the one who navigated the boat in the way it was done. That was his special talent after all. You see, our fathers worked alongside Captain Sparrow until he retired. The next mission they did, didn’t end well.”

“Ah I see, ya ladies went through a lot to hear my story. I am glad you did too. I would be at the bottom of an ocean if you didn’t.” He grabbed an extra bottle of Whiskey and handed it to Spitfire who accepted it.

“Hey, what about me?” Rainbow shot him a mad stare.

“Sorry, last one.”

She screamed before seeing the bottle move in front of her face. “Want a sip?” She looked over to see Spitfire giving her the bottle. “I don’t mind sharing.”

Rainbow Dash took the offer. “Thanks.” They all laughed as the boat approached the shore. Dash and Spitfire helped the sailor dock his boat before bidding him farewell. They flew off to find a place to stay for the night. The two mares were exhausted.

When the two mares walked into the hotel they were quickly greeted and quickly in their rooms. They had no mood to talk to the people around and were more than happy to be left alone.

They both fell asleep in their beds before their heads even landed on the pillows.

Hey Everypony! Sorry about the short chapter again. It actually looks like this is going to be the norm for a good chunk of these first chapters. That will be until I get more into the character development stages.

I would like to give a shout out to my editor Penguin. An awesome guy and a great editor for sure. He knows what he is doing!

Finally, I got a message asking about if this was going to become a Dash/Spitfire ship fic. All I have to say is... Really? I don't see any reason that Dash should be shipped with another mare. As for shipping in general, I am having a few bits of it but it will not be the full driving force behind the story.

A Fire in the Heart

The morning brought oatmeal and silence. Rainbow was reflecting on the story from yesterday about yet another thing her father did to keep somepony safe. He had helped fight off two ships of pirates to keep one boat of people safe; her father had been so brave.

Spitfire was thinking about her own father. He hadn’t had helped in the combat according to the pirate. Instead the first thing he had done was get control of the boat, he wasn’t that great of a fighter no doubt but he did do well with tactical support.

After breakfast the Pegasi went up to get their things together and get ready to leave. “Hey Dash, I have to ask you. How are you feeling so far about all this?”

“I am learning so much about my father, he was so brave. The only thing is; not many of these ponies have told us much about him, but instead more about the others in his squad.” She sighed.

“Yeah, I noticed that about my father as well. I can’t wait to meet the next person though that will tell us about them.”

“Yeah, who is it this time?” Dash poked her head out of the bathroom with a toothbrush hanging out of her mouth.

Spitfire went over to her pack and pulled out a piece of paper. “It looks like-“her voice was cut off by a scream from downstairs. She dropped the paper and ran outside, Rainbow Dash following right behind her. They ran down the stairs to the bottom floor where a fire had just started raging.

The two ponies quickly got to work. The fire was already too strong to stop by themselves, so they started grabbing ponies, two foals at a time which allowed them to blast through fire at high speeds. Rainbow noticed a ripple in the flame as they flew at those speeds. An idea caught her mind and as she flew outside she let the two foals down.

“Spitfire, I have an idea. I will be right back ok?” The other Pegasus nodded, she learned many years ago in wonderbolts training to always trust your partner. Dash flew off at speeds which made even Spitfire jealous. She didn’t have time to be jealous though and quickly got back to work.

Rainbow flew straight for the water. When she reached it she dived straight into the shimmering water making sure to make her coat as soaked as she could and filling her mouth with water as well, blasting right out of the water as soon as she was fully drenched. Soaked to the bone she flew back to the hotel reaching it in ten seconds flat.

She didn’t even stop outside the hotel, instead Dash flew in and started spinning her whole body as she flew through, making sure to spit all the water out as well. It worked; the water doused a large amount of the fire. The move didn’t stop the fire completely but it did help enough for everypony else to exit the building.

Spitfire came from upstairs with two colts in her arms. “What did you do?” She asked Dash with a puzzled look at the now mostly doused fire.

“How about we talk about it later? We have to get out of here!” Spitfire agreed and they flew out the building. Everypony else was already out watching the fire. It had spread to the second floor before Dash had arrived.

Spitfire gasped as the room they were in exploded in flames. “The list!” She tried to fly to the window only to be stopped by Rainbow biting her tail. “Let go Dash! We have to get that list; we can’t afford to lose it!”

Rainbow gave her a pleading look that asked her to stay, when Spitfire landed back down Rainbow spit out her tail. “The list is already gone. Don’t bother giving yourself up too. Hey, we still have that next person right? Maybe we can find out whom to go to next afterward and if not then we can go to my mom. She is bound to know of somepony else that was rescued by our dads.”

Spitfire nodded, she knew that Rainbow was right about it. The list would be ashes by now anyway. Everypony cheered as a loud clap of thunder sounded and three Pegasi in wonderbolt costumes flew in, a raincloud in tow behind them which they positioned above the burning hotel. A few minutes of a combination of rain and unicorn magic and the fire was extinguished. Ponies eagerly trotted back inside to see what they could salvage from their things, with many parents thanking the two Pegasi that had saved their children’s lives.

One of the wonderbolts flew down from the cloud and landed in front of Spitfire. “Hey Spitfire!” Soarin’s voice was coming from behind the wonderbolt mask.

“Soarin, it is so great to see you again. How is the rest of the team doing with my absence?”

“Oh, well, we did fine until we ran into a slight issue yesterday.” He hung his head in extreme shame. “I got lonely.”

The two Pegasi laughed hysterically at Soarin who was blushing underneath the mask. After they calmed down Spitfire walked over to Soarin and nuzzled him. “It will be fine Soarin, I won’t be that long I hope. Just keep yourself together and buy yourself a pie to pass the time. I will be home before you know it.”

Soarin grinned from ear to ear. “A Pie! Why hadn’t I thought of that yet?” He extended his wings and took off without even saying goodbye.

“Hey Spit, I think you have some competition for your husband’s heart.” Spitfire glared at Rainbow before realizing she meant the pie.

They trotted into the hotel in much brighter moods, though those moods were dashed as the reality of what they had lost sunk in. The fire had completely obliterated their room and all their things were burned to a crisp.

The two Pegasi got what was left together and prepared to fly out. Luckily for them, clothes were optional where they were going. All that remained of their things was a toothbrush, a mane brush, half a bottle of shampoo, and Rainbow’s bag. They quickly realized they would have to restock on a few things before they left for sure. However, they had no money and nothing really to barter with.

They decided to cross that bridge when they came to it. First thing was first, they would have to find out where they were going next. “So, who was next on the list?” Rainbow asked.

“Her name is Trixie, a traveling magician.”

Rainbow groaned. “Not Trixie, please anypony except Trixie.”

“Dash, Trixie is the only other person I know for a fact is still alive and where she is right now.”

The last pony Rainbow Dash wanted to ever see was their last hope of finding where to go next. Her luck seemed to get worse the longer she was away from her friends. She got ready to go though and they flew off to Trottingham.

This time the flight consisted of them talking about the fire. “Dash, we saved so many ponies in that fire. You saved so many more than me as well thanks to your quick thinking and athleticism. I think that when your mind gets cleared you won’t have any issue getting into the wonderbolts.”

Dash smiled, hearing that was good for her self esteem. She hadn’t even thought about making it into the wonderbolts since that day. Her father had completely filled her mind for the past couple of days and Spitfire’s complement had helped her feel better. “Thanks Spitfire, that really does mean a lot to me. I hope I can get my mind off my dad or maybe get it on him in a good way instead. I have a feeling though that Trixie is going to piss me off.”

Spitfire gave Dash a disapproving glance. “What is so bad about this Trixie anyway?”

“Oh Celestia, she is only the all time worst magician and most self centered pony I have ever met in my whole life! She is even worse than I am and that is definitely saying something!” The frustration in her voice was rising. “And before you say I am over reacting. She calls herself the ‘Great and Powerful Trixie’ which is by far the most annoying thing in the world!”

“Alright, alright, you got me, she is probably really self centered. I still plan on asking her what happened though. You never really know what she might be able to tell us. Heck, her story might even make you feel bad for her.” After that the conversation went into many different directions.

After a few hours of flight the Pegasi were flying over Trottingham, the earth pony settlement was full of strange machines and factories. Not far away from the entrance was a crowd of ponies who were boggling over a magic show with a light blue, silver mane mare on the stage. All the stallions were boggling over her magical abilities. No doubt an earth pony settlement was a great place for Trixie.

They landed just outside the crowd and came up with a plan of attack for this. It was difficult to concentrate with the Great and Powerful Trixie screaming in the background.

“Alright, she won’t just talk to us so we will have to appeal to her good side. As much as it is going to make me gag, we are going to have to call her the Great and Powerful Trixie.” Rainbow advised Spitfire with the procedure they would have to follow.

The performance ended and the plan went into effect. Spitfire walked up to Trixie and addressed her. “Oh Great and Powerful Trixie! What a magnificent show you put on there! Do you mind if we can ask you to tell us a specific story?” Rainbow Dash came up next to her.

“Yeah, The Great and Powerful Trixie is great at stories!” Dash let out a smile that somehow managed to squeak.

“Well, I am sure the Great and Powerful Trixie can manage a single story for you lowly Pegasi. What story do you have in mind?”

“Well, I hope it won’t be too much for the Great and Powerful Trixie to tell us about the time you were rescued by the wonderbolts.”

Trixie gasped at the request. “How do you… how do you know about that? The Great and Powerful Trixie never told anyone about that day.” A tear dropped from her eye. “That day, I owe my life to those Pegasi while at the same time I hate them.”

---{Story}---

Note: Funny thing about Trixie, writing in first person is EXACTLY the same as third person.

You see, the Great and Powerful Trixie was just a small filly who was just learning magic with the Great and Powerful Trixie’s parents. One day, when the Great and Powerful Trixie was training her amazing magic abilities, we heard a noise from the forest. The Great and Powerful Trixie’s dad had walked over to the edge and peered into the forest. At that point an Ursa Minor had started looming over the forest, stepping into our clearing taking up almost the entire land.

My mother had decided to run first. A scream belting from her which attracted the attention of the Ursa. The Great and Powerful Trixie guesses it annoyed the Ursa because it went over and grabbed her. My father launched a lightning spell at it which just seemed to anger it more. The Great and Powerful Trixie started running away being careful not to make any noise.

I heard a crushing noise and another scream from my mother. I can only imagine that the monster had stepped on my father. I just ran as far as I could go which was most certainly not far. It grabbed me too and started carrying us back into the forest. At that moment a team of Pegasi flew from the sky and tackled the beast.

It fell to the ground with a deafening thud, letting the Great and Powerful Trixie go from its grasp. I looked up and looked around for my mother. The Great and Powerful Trixie heard the battle going on next to me with a series of grunts from the Ursa. However, the Great and Powerful Trixie saw her mother under a tree. It seemed that she had been thrown there by the Ursa.

The Great and Powerful Trixie ran to go assist her mother but was stopped by one of the Pegasi. He had a radar screen as his cutie mark and he wrapped the Great and Powerful Trixie up in a hug. “It will be ok there little one. You will be just fine.”

The Great and Powerful Trixie had struggled to get free from the stallion and she managed to do so after much of a fight from him. She ran to her mother and knelt by her side. Her mother told her one last thing before she managed to pass away. “Remember, you are the Great and Powerful Trixie and nothing can stop you from being the best.”

The Great and Powerful Trixie had cried next to her mother for hours and… I couldn’t stop. (Spitfire and Rainbow Dash gasped at her saying “I”) I must have fallen asleep there because when I woke up I was on a Pegasi’s back. The Pegasi carried me to his home where I lived for a few weeks. His eye was scary with a scare running down the length of it.

He told me one day that he wanted a daughter as perfect as I was. A few days later the stallion had disappeared and I lost yet another dad. The mother couldn’t take the pain and moved out of the house to Cloudsdale, I couldn’t go with her though because I couldn’t walk on clouds. Everypony I ended up loving left me.

The only things I had left were my hat, my magic, and my parent’s old cart. Since that day I lived on the road and tried my best to be the Great and Powerful Trixie. I… I think I got a bit carried away actually…

---{Main}---

“Trixie, I hadn’t known about that. I am so terribly sorry for thinking you were terrible.” Rainbow Dash had run up and hugged the unicorn.

“No, it is I who should be sorry. I forgot what I had gone out to do, and that was make my father proud. I think that all the lies that I have told over the past few years have shamed him. From this point on the Great and Powerful Trixie, err, I will try to be a better person.” She returned the hug that Dash had been going for.

And so they stayed the night with Trixie learning about the weeks she spent with Rainbow’s father.

Phew! Longer chapter this time. Trixie is a pain to write too. Otherwise a pretty fun chapter. I have submitted the story to EQD and it took two days to get to the pre-readers. still no message back from them though so just cross your fingers everypony! Anyway, if you liked the story so far, which if you didn't I can't understand why you would still be reading this, then leave a like on the board which will get some more views for us! Don't hog the story everypony...

Make sure you leave a thanks for penguin in the comments for his awesome editing! He is helping me get better along the way so I owe him big time. Well, keep an eye out for us on EQD today and maybe into tomorrow.

Brotherly Love

Trixie had been kind enough to let the two Pegasi stay the night. She had also provided them with some bits to buy things in Fillydalphia which they had thanked her for. After restocking their supplies, they went out to get some lunch where Trixie told them a few things about their fathers.

“You know Dash; your father was a really nice man and treated me so kindly. Back then my magic wasn’t that powerful so I just did things like getting stuff off the top shelf. Any time I did anything though he congratulated me and gave me an approving look. I am sure you would have loved him.”

“Yeah, I wish I had met him but I was a little bit too late to the party. He had disappeared a few months before I had come along and-” She was cut off by a loud noise of some sort of machine coming their way. It sounded like a train but there were no tracks close enough. They looked down the road to see some sort of train coming down the road. Rainbow’s moan was almost loud enough to overpower the locomotive’s sound.

“What is it this time Dashie?” Spitfire asked.

“Oh would you look at that!” Trixie had also noticed the strange vehicle. “The Flim Flam Brothers are here!”

The noise coming from the machine was almost musical to the ears. Two brothers stepped off and looked around at the ponies of the restaurant.

“Well Lookie what we got here brother of mine! It’s the same in every town!”

“Ponies with good food great fun but not a drop of cider to be found!”

“Maybe they are not aware of the cider that we could share!”

“Maybe in this ciderless town you and I would shaaare!”

“Cause you got Opportunity in this very community.”

“He’s Flim.”

“He’s Flam.”

“And we are the world famous Flim Flam brothers! Traveling sales ponies nonparey!”

“Whoa Whoa! Stop there boys, you aren’t ripping off these ponies too!” Rainbow intervened. She didn’t know why she was singing as well.

“Rip them off? Why how on Equestria could you think such a thing?”

“My brother and I will show you opportunity!”

“I know very well the tricks you play! You did them on us back in Ponyville!”

“Oh little filly don’t you think it through? Our machine works just fine don’t you see?”

“Because it is the Flim Flam Brothers Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000!”

“It doesn’t work as you say! The Cider is terrible and you just can’t admit!”

“Well if you say then sister! Why don’t you try a cup of the real stuff!”

“You see little filly, you had a malfunctioned batch that came from me and my brother’s eagerness to win!”

“However the cider we really make it the best of the best and nopony can disagree!”

“And that is opportunity!”

“Because he’s Flim!”

“And he’s Flam!”

“And we are the Flim Flam Brothers! Traveling Sales Ponies nonparey!”

The song ended with a massive chorus from a lot of ponies in the crowd that formed. Rainbow Dash shot a look at the Stallions that had almost run Sweet Apple Acres into the ground with their terrible cider before.

“Well, now since that is done. Little Filly, I assure you that our cider would have won that contest had we not pushed our machine too far. The speed we tried to make it run at was far too much for it and it ended up ruining the apples we were harvesting.” Flim said.

“So in our desperation to win we overrode the good/bad apple sorter; which ended up messing up our cider and causing us to lose. So you see we just got desperate and lost because of that. We are terribly sorry for anything we did to upset your town.” Flam finished.

Spitfire stepped forward. “We are the ones that should be sorry. Rainbow Dash was being critical about the whole thing. You think she would learn her lesson after finding out yesterday that somepony else was not as bad as her first impressions lead her to believe.”

Dash looked to the ground in shame. She realized her friend was right. “I am terribly sorry; I really should start learning my lesson.” The brothers chuckled before crowding the Pegasus.

“Don’t you worry missy, we have had far worse in our years!” Flim looked over at Flam. “In fact, I remember that time we almost died! We owe our lives to a few Pegasi!”

Spitfire’s ears perked up at the mention of that. “Can I ask you two, was it a wonderbolts team?”

“Of course it was! It was many years ago though when me and my brother here had first started on our journey of being salesponies!”

---{Story – Flim’s point of view}---

We were just little colts at the time but we had made something magnificent! It was an item that increased magical abilities that we created in our bedroom. Of course like any great inventor we tested it until we were sure it worked. Our magical prowess was so much higher from what we normally had because of this great machine!

Only a few minor side effects plagued the machine. Anyhow, we went out on a great mission to test our machine in a place where magical abilities were normally hindered! So we went into the Everfree Forest without a second thought. My brother and I were sure our machine would work so we went deep into the forest to make sure our magic was much lower than normal.

After a few controlled tests we discovered that it had in fact lowered our abilities. So we grabbed the machine and threw it on. We picked up a rock and it lifted to the air quickly. Our machine was working great (Until it ran out of battery that is). The rock we picked up came crashing down and began rolling down a hill. We had to run away to keep from being crushed ourselves.

The rock tumbled down the steep decline and managed to clip none other than a cockatrice in the tail. It got angry and ran toward us already preparing to turn us into stone. I started running away only to find my brother had been stuck in his tracks. The Cockatrice stared him down and he turned quickly into stone.

I closed my eyes as fast as I could when the Cockatrice jumped on top of me knocking me to the ground, feeling it pull at my eyes to open them and it was starting to hurt. I was about to give up when I felt a whoosh of wind and the weight of the monster flying off me. When I opened my eyes again, I saw a griffin wrestling with it. Then I saw a few Pegasi land around it.

One of the Pegasi told the griffin to get off before it was turned to stone as well. The Pegasus had an eye patch on one eye and the other that landed had a massive scar on it. I don’t know what it was about that eye that made him unable to be turned to stone but it did just that. He stared straight at the cockatrice without being turned. It was amazing. After a conversation with the monster I saw my brother turned back to flesh and fur by that cockatrice before it flew off in terror.

I ran to him and we promised to never leave one another behind no matter what, and from that day we have stayed together. Afterward the Pegasus with the eye patch came over to us, this time the patch on the other side.

“Listen, you two should not be in the Everfree Forest no matter what. It is far too dangerous for anypony to wander without an adult. So before we carry you back I want to make sure you two don’t go running back in here. So I want you to promise me that you won’t do it again.”

Of course we agreed without argument, this had been far too scary for either of us to handle again and even though our machine worked it was now completely destroyed. So we let the Griffin carry us back to our home where we got chewed out by our parents.

---{Main}---

“So you see, we got saved ever so generously by a group of Pegasi and even a griffin!” Flim looked down for the first time since starting to story. He saw that Rainbow was almost crying and Spitfire had a huge smile on her face. “And why exactly are you staring at me like that?”

“Well, two of those Pegasi were our parents. The one that talked to you was Rainbow’s dad. You two got saved by our family!”

Flam’s mouth dropped to the floor and Flim had a rather similar reaction. Spitfire wondered if they were twins. “You are telling us that your family saved us from a cockatrice? You better not be bluffing!”

“We wouldn’t lie you know!” Rainbow spoke up the first time since the story started. “Ask Trixie, we came here to ask her the story of how she was saved by them.”

“Yes, they are telling the truth.” She sighed. “You see, I was just a filly when my parents were attacked by an Ursa Minor. It killed them and I survived thanks to their dads.”

“Whoa whoa back up there Trixie. ‘I’ was just a filly?” Flim expressed his amazement at how Trixie had said I.

“Yes, I realize now had terrible of a pony I had been and it was time to grow up. I am still having trouble adjusting to the whole ‘I’ thing as well.”

“You know, since we were both saved by those great ponies then maybe we should all stick together! I am sure your great showmareship would provide a great help to our routine.”

Suddenly a Pegasus was flying down from the clouds. A mail bag slung over the grey Pegasi’s body and her eyes a bit off kilter gave away just who it was. Rainbow Dash flew up to meet her before she could get too close to the ground. “Derpy! What are you doing way out this far?”

“It’s Ditzy, and remember I am a mail pony so I deliver mail. Anyway, I have a statement for the cost of those apples for the Flim Flam Brothers.” She shot a look down at the machine and the two brothers that came on it.

“Of course, hey you know what? Can you wait a few minutes so I can write a letter to Twilight that you can take to her?”

“I don’t see why not. Everypony is talking about how you went off to find yourself. I hope you are doing a good job!”

“I hope so too Derpy.”

---{Notes}---

Phew, a bit of a doozy here. Fun to write though for sure. The Flim Flam Brothers are the best background ponies and I got a chance to redeem them for what they really are! They just got wronged in Ponyville because of a generic mistake. Plus, who could POSSIBLY beat the Apple family in anything that relates to apples? They had no chance to beat them in the first place.

Anywho, I decided to write this chapter without the traveling scene that seems to plague every chapter. So I brought the Flim Flam brothers to them! I had originally thought I would have Ditzy give a story about how they saved her. I decided though that after the whole Derpy thing with the Last Roundup that I wouldn’t go there.

The next chapter won’t be a chapter at all but is the letter that Dash sends to Twilight. Basically a recap of what happened for anypony to lazy to read all five chapters. Seriously though, why wouldn’t they? It is a good story.

Anyway, I hope you are all enjoying the story and those of you who have been reading might want to recheck chapter one. I overhauled it to make it better. Rainbow was way too out of character originally so I changed it up a lot. I also changed how she found out about her father so make sure you know the new way she finds it out.

(Holy cow, Essay sized notes!) Lastly, I want to make you sure everyone understands that I like hearing about what I did wrong as long as it is put in a way that actually helps me fix it. And if you love my story then take a second to like it and give us a comment! Any little bit helps!

Talons of Trouble

Dash handed the letter to the gray mare. “Thanks Derpy, I owe you one for this!”

“Maybe you could actually start calling me by my name,” Replied the agitated mare. “Try to remember that next time alright?”

Rainbow was already checking a map to go to the next location. “Mhmm, yeah sure.”

Ditzy Doo sighed in frustration before taking off to go back home. She had a filly to feed and she couldn’t waste any more time trying to talk to this infuriating mare.

Rainbow Dash was too busy to notice the mare left already and kept looking at the map. “Hey, so where did you say this pony was at?” She peaked over to look at the two brothers and light blue mare staring back.

“He lives just outside the Neigh Area in an apple farm. He runs in the cider business just like us and is one heck of a cider man at that!” Flim Responded.

“Yeah he is a great pony to get to know actually. So you know; he runs some sort of station thing for Unicorns as well. We can pick up the magic waves and hear what he and a guest have to say. This pony is truly an innovator,” Flam finished.

Dash moaned at the idea of having to go right back to where she started. She decided it wasn’t that bad though. This way she got another story about her father and his crew and that was all that mattered to her.

Spitfire walked over to the brothers and show mare to give them proper goodbyes. The three ponies had been kind enough to let them hear the stories they had to tell and she was extremely grateful. A round of hugs for the four ponies and the goodbyes were over. Flim and Flam looked over at Rainbow expectantly.

“Sorry boys, not into the gushy goodbye stuff. You will have to hug yourselves.”

The brothers gave a look to the ground and turned to walk away. A surprise hit them when a certain light blue mare stopped them and gave them a hug that made the brothers gasp for air. “I was kidding, you guys are amazing ponies and I will talk to AJ about the apples.”

“Well thank you Miss Dash, we will do our best to not outplay anymore ponies like we did that dreadful day. Make sure to tell her we are sorry for what we did.” Flim replied.

“Agreed, what we tried to do was terrible and we are extremely sorry for it!” Flam pitched in.

Dash looked over to Trixie who was putting her stuff in machine that the Flim Flam brothers were using. “So Trixie, you are going to be a good girl right? I wouldn’t want to have to kick your butt now for lying to me!”

Trixie laughed again, a fairly new experience for her, and gave a huge hug to the mare that helped her find herself. “Thank you so much Rainbow, I don’t think I will ever be able to repay you for helping me like you did. Also, if you happen to find anypony from that team, make sure to tell them thank you for me.”

“Of course, I wouldn’t think of forgetting either!”

“Do you promise?” the sliver mane mare asked.

“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!” Rainbow recited the promise and hoof motions that her friends had gotten so used to.

Everyone she was with just gave her strange looks and chuckles. They all exchanged a final laugh before they went their separate ways. Trixie hooked her cart onto the back of the locomotive and the three of them jumped on board. The trio waved goodbye to the two mares now getting their own saddlebags together for a trip of their own.

Rainbow felt a tear running down her cheek as she thought of her own friends. She realized she missed them so much but knew that not even that feeling of sadness could stop her from completing this mission. A look to the sky, however, made her scream.

Spitfire shot a look over at her in confusion. “What is it?”

“Look at how late it is already! There’s no way we will make it to the Neigh Area before nightfall! Come on we have to go!”

Spitfire took a few seconds to comprehend what Dash just told her. “Whoa hold on a second there! I think you forget what lies between us and the Neigh Area!” Rainbow Dash stopped her frantic packing and stared at her friend. “The Everfree forest is not exactly a smart thing to fly over at night Rainbow! I don’t feel like having to be saved by my husband tonight!”

“We will get there in time I know it! We are both the fasted mares in the sky! No way can we be stopped by some dark forest. Now come on let’s go!” Rainbow bolted into the air and started flying away before Spitfire could even respond. So she threw on her saddle bags and took to the skies praying to Celestia her friend was right.

The forest loomed below them menacingly. Spitfire did her best not to look at the creepy, unnatural, and massive forest. “Rainbow, I think we should set up a camp in that clearing up ahead alright? Flying at night is dangerous enough with all those monsters flying around!”

“Oh come Spitfire, we are almost past it. It won’t be much farther now and-“Her voice was cut off by a loud roar followed by a blast of fire that barely missed Spitfire. Rainbow however was not as lucky. The fire burned her left wing and she went plummeting to the ground unable to recover.

Spitfire recovered just in time to see the monster dive after her friend at high speeds. She didn’t waste time making a similar maneuver to catch her friend. She could barely see Rainbow Dash through the massive monster that was right on her tail. Spitfire knew she would never catch up in time and right as she started crying about not being fast enough another strange object bolted passed her. This one let out a roar like a lion and tackled the first creature in mid air. This allowed Spitfire to grab her friend and start stopping their decent.

She slowed them down a lot but not enough to stop in time. They hit the tree tops with a loud crack and fell down to the bed of the dark forest. Spitfire got up right away to grab Dash. She knew just what walked around these places at night and wasn’t about to let her friend get eaten. Throwing Rainbow Dash on her back, Spitfire began moving towards the clearing she had seen earlier. Another loud roar sounded from a few hundred yards away. No doubt the creatures were fighting at this moment.

It wasn’t the sounds of the battle that worried her though. She could hear things chasing her as she ran through the forest. No doubt the screaming and combat had attracted whatever it was chasing her. As she said that another scream belted out this time from her back. Rainbow was awake again and was looking straight at whatever was chasing the two mares.

“Spitfire! Whatever you do, don’t stop running!” Dash yelled to her friend as she was being carried. She woke up looking at the eyes of three Timberwolves that were now chasing them across the Everfree Forest.

Spitfire could only barely see what was in front of her and it was not enough to keep from hitting the smaller branches which were scratching her face. However she could see a light up ahead that looked almost like a camp! A final push from her legs got them outside of the tree line into the clearing she had been running for. Only this happened to be the same place the creatures had landed before.

This was the first time she saw them clearly. The fire breathing monster was none other than a Wyvern which had decided to prey on the mares. It was now being attacked by a Griffin with some serious attitude.

“Come on you chicken! Fight me without your fire!” The Griffin was teasing the Wyvern. Clearly she was not in her right mind. “Oh, so you will attack small mares but a Griffin fights and you are far too scared to get close!”

The dragon like monster snorted in the air apparently deciding the Griffin wasn’t worth its time. With that it flew away into the darkness. The Griffin returned the snort at the Wyvern and turned to face the ponies it had saved.

“Well look what we have here! A couple of crazy mares flying over the Everfree Forest at night. You two are lucky I came along.” She took a good look at the mare on Spitfire’s back and chuckled. “If it isn’t the Flip Flop! How are you doing Rainbow Crash?”

Dash rolled off of her friend to face the Griffin that had bullied her friends only a year ago. She was about to chew Gilda out for what she had done her friends but remembered Trixie and the Flim Flam Brothers. So, she decided to put the past behind her much like they did. “I am doing great Gilda! Thank you for saving us like you did. I owe my life to you.”

Gilda was obviously not expecting that from her old friend. “Wait, you aren’t going to yell at me or anything for last time?” She shook her head. “Ha, I totally called it, cool one second and lame the next” She laughed at the two mares.

“Wow, she gives you praise and thanks for saving her life and you go and act like that?” Spitfire intervened. “You are kind cruel don’t you think? She just got burned up by a Wyvern you know.”

Gilda snorted at the interruption. “I don’t remember bringing you into this conversation! Who do you think you are anyway!?”

“I am Spitfire from the Wonderbolts!”

Gilda recoiled and dropped on her haunches. “Wait… You are… Wonderbolts?”

Rainbow laughed a little bit. “Yeah, you just totally yelled at Spitfire. Anyway, Spitfire, this is my old friend Gilda. We were together in Junior Flight Camp and I recently learned she was a total bully.”

Gilda glared at her ex friend. “Hey why don’t you just shut your mouth and tell me why you were out here huh.”

Spitfire jumped in to keep the two from fighting any more than they already did. “We got a late start heading to the Neigh Area and got stuck flying up here. Why were you here though?”

“I am here to help Pegasi like you keep from hurting yourself. You see, my dad was a wonderbolt back in the day and I wanted to live up to his name. He was the first Griffin on the wonderbolts after all.” She answered extremely smugly.

Spitfire shot Rainbow Dash a look which she was already returning. She looked back to Gilda who was staring at them already having noticed how they reacted to what she just said. “What are you two all worked up about for?”

“Gilda, if your dad was the first Griffin in the wonderbolts then that means he worked with our dads!” Rainbow exclaimed.

Spitfire interjected, “You see Gilda, our dads worked for that same team on the wonderbolts and went missing during that one mission. Actually, we have been going around looking for stories from people who were saved by them.”

Gilda’s smug expression was wiped completely from her face and replaced by one of surprise. “Are you serious?”

“Dead serious! You see, I didn’t know my parents but you know that. It turns out that Spitfire’s mom did know. She also gave us a list of people our dads saved. So we are going around finding these people to talk to them.”

Gilda got closer to them. “Can I see the list?”

Spitfire had been rummaging around grabbing dead sticks from the ground and shot up at the mention of the list. “Heh, well you see, we kinda lost the list in a fire. Now we are just going with the flow and finding ponies that have been saved. So far we are doing great!”

Gilda snorted at the two. “Of course you lost it. Although, you two need a Griffin with you and I wouldn’t mind hearing about my dad as well. You have yourselves a deal!”

Rainbow looked over at Spitfire who hadn’t been paying attention as she poked a stick in a fire to start one of her own. “I don’t remember inviting you but…”

“Oh come on you know you need me with you. Griffins are amazing at combat and intimidation and you know it!” Gilda walked up to her ex-friend, towering over the smaller mare.

“Alright, fine you can join us I guess. Just don’t do something to jeopardize the whole thing alright?”

So the two Pegasi and Griffin sat around the fire that Spitfire had created in the clearing and talked about the plan for the future. Spitfire wasn’t all that happy about letting the Griffin in but did agree to it as well. That night the three slept in shifts while waiting for morning; a morning that would bring a new type of journey.

Notes time!

So this chapter was a good amount of fun to write and now we have a new main character! How do you like THEM apples? Anyhow, I would like to let you all know that I have started an E-Mail for my Fan Fictions and also made a Twitter where you can see when I am going to start writing and even get a chance to hang out with me.

So send me an Email at ShortySparkle@Gmail.com or follow me @Shorty_Sparkle on Twitter to hear updates consistently throughout the week and even get a chance to contribute to my writing! Thanks for reading this far and make sure to give a thumbs up to my story and leave a comment or throw an Email my way!

An Apple a Day

(Hey guys, I just wanted to let you all know that I now have a Twitter where I will post when I am writing and when I send it off to my editor and all of that. I also will be posting times that I can hang out and actually talk to you guys. So follow me at Shorty_Sparkle on Twitter.)

An Apple a Day

Dash awoke to the sound of talking from the other side of the camp. It sounded like an argument between the newly arrived griffin and Spitfire. She twisted around on the ground she had been sleeping on and rose to her hooves.

All it took was a quick look at the damage that had already been caused by the battle between the mare and griffin. Rainbow staggered over to her friends feeling a little bit weaker than normal. Her legs feeling as though they weighed a hundred pounds and her wing felt terrible. She turned her ears to hear what the argument was about.

“She is in no shape to fly there and your talons will just poke her already damaged wing. We have to walk so she doesn’t get hurt alright!” Spitfire had screamed at Gilda.

“We won’t get there and out of this forest by nightfall if we walk! And you mares already know just what happens at night,” Gilda huffed. “So you listen to me… I will carry her and get us there without an issue.”

“I won’t listen to someone I just met yesterday! You may have saved our lives but that doesn’t mean you get my trust.”

Rainbow Dash had just enough of the arguing and spoke up before things got more heated. “Girls.” The two looked away from each other in surprise at the now awake mare. “Gilda is right, we have to keep moving or we will get stuck in this forest.” Spitfire opened her muzzle to protest but stopped when Rainbow shot her a glare. “Spitfire, you know very well that we have to trust somepony that just saved our lives. You ask that of everypony you save as a wonderbolt so this is no different. Now if you would be as great as to catch me.”

Gilda jumped up at the last statement and ran over to Dash who had started to fall. Gilda caught the mare before any damage was done and set her down. Immediately after she walked over to the supplies and started packing everything up.

“What exactly are you doing?” Spitfire interjected before Gilda could get much done.

“We have to leave or she is going to die. That burn is bad and she needs to go to a doctor and fast! I am not about to let her die so if you want to help that would be great. Otherwise, I will take care of this myself.”

Spitfire stamped her hoof to the ground and huffed. This griffin would be unbearable for quite some time wouldn’t she. Spitfire knew she was right though and began packing their things. This would be a long and hopefully quiet trip.

The trip had been anything but quiet and Spitfire was getting closer and closer to murdering the griffin now flying to her right. The only thing that filled her ear for over an hour was complaining and criticism. “Man, Rainbow Dash is so heavy!” or “Why don’t you fly faster?” And even “Your flying techniques are all wrong!” are the phrases that plagued the flight. Luckily, Spitfire could see the town off in the distance. It looked exactly how it looked last time they came through here.

The final leg of the flight consisted of Gilda trying to find the Hospital and failing horribly. If Rainbow Dash wasn’t at risk then Spitfire could have let the griffin fly a good hour or so. However that wasn’t the case and Dash did need the help.

“Blasted! Where is this place you ponies call a hospital? I can’t find it anywhere for Pete’s sake.”

Spitfire facehooved as they flew right over it and grabbed the griffin before she could fly too far away. “Hey Griffin, you just flew over it.”

Gilda looked down at the massive sign on the building that said ‘Celestia Memorial Hospital’ and let out a deep and disappointed sigh. “I knew that!” She shot into the hospital before Spitfire could respond.

The inside of the place looked almost like a morgue. Bloodied ponies lay around and waited for their turn at treatment. Spitfire gulped and set on an extremely serious face. She ran up to the counter and addressed the nurse at the head.

“Can I help you right now ma’am?” She was chewing on a piece of bubble gum and wearing strange looking glasses. How cliché was that?

Spitfire didn’t let up her resolve at the obviously uninterested mare. Instead she strengthened it. “Hello, I am Spitfire from the wonderbolts and this mare here-“ Gilda flew over with Rainbow Dash still in arms. “was badly hurt in the Everfree Forest. I need her to get immediate medical attention.”

The nurse stared at the mare and started chuckling. “You want to get first in line do you? Well maybe you should come up with a better excuse then trying to act like Spitfire. You look nothing like her you ditz.” The nurse was about to collapse on the floor she was laughing so hard.

Spitfire just gave a look of confusion to the nurse billowing with laughter on the other side of the desk. Gilda had also started laughing realizing that the nurse thought Spitfire was faking it. Flustered from the arguing she already had with the griffin combined with the extremely rude nurse sitting there made her break. “I am honestly not in the mood to deal with your little game you intolerant mare! I have been flying for an hour straight with this extremely annoying griffin and now you are being extremely ignorant. I should have you know that I can in fact have you fired from your job in less than fifteen minutes because I am in fact Spitfire!”

Her breath was heavy now with all the screaming and she felt like she was going to be sick. No, she knew she was going to be sick. Her face went green and she bolted to get to the restroom.

Gilda, who was now very much so serious after being called annoying, decided to take over. “I am in no mood to agree with her, but she is telling the truth. She actually is Spitfire.”

The nurse just shot an angry look at the griffin. “If you think I am going to put you ahead of these ponies,” she gestured to the ponies in the waiting room. “Then you have got something else coming. They need a doctor just as much as she does!”

Suddenly one of the doctors, a mare, came out from her office to see what the yelling had been about. When she saw the griffin, and more importantly, Rainbow Dash she nearly fainted. “Dear Luna Aidy! Let me take care of this!” The blue mare rushed over while calling for a stretcher. “Make sure you are careful! Don’t injure her further!” Rainbow Dash was wheeled to the doctor’s examination room where Gilda lost track of her.

A short period later a small filly, this one a deep crimson red, came up to Gilda. “Excuse me, you know Miss Rainbow Dash?”

Gilda shot a look at the mare. Immediately she regretted giving the poor filly such a mean look. Seeing the cast on the tiny filly’s wing was hard to see. She realized her friend may end up with the same fate. “Yeah, I know Dashie, what about it?”

“Well, Miss Rainbow Dash saved me and my brother from a fire a few days ago and because of her I got out with only this,” she wiggled her now casted wing. “I wanted to know if you could tell her thank you for me. Oh, and give this to her please.” The little filly reached her head to her saddle bags and pulled out a small teddy bear and handed it to Gilda. “Tell her it is from Mustang ok?”

Gilda nodded, she hated the mushy love stuff but she had to admit, this was extremely sweet and sad. She made a mental not to ask Rainbow and Spitfire about that later. However, her pang of sadness was replaced with one of jealousy. She looked down at the bear and realized that she never got any sort of thing like this.

A short period of time later Spitfire came out of from the restrooms looking like someone had bucked her in the face. She walked over and sat down next to Gilda. “Are you alright?” Gilda asked; she had to admit that the Pegasus looked like crap.

“I am fine, just leave me alone.” She sighed and then her head shot up. “Never mind, not fine! Uuuugh.” The mare shot up and made another run to the bathrooms.

“Wow, that is amazing, both of the mares I pick to fly with get bed ridden on the first day. This is going to end amazingly.” She felt the tired and found herself falling asleep; before she knew it, sleep had engulfed the exhausted griffin.

She woke with a start as Spitfire shoved a hoof into her side. “Come on Gilda! Wake up already. We can see Rainbow now so let’s go.” Gilda stirred around and got out of the seat. A quick bit of stretching and she was walking down a corridor. This hallway was much cleaner and had less crying.

“So, I see you are done throwing up.” Gilda chuckled as the mare shot a menacing look her way. “So what was that about anyway?”

Spitfire looked down at the ground, obviously embarrassed about the whole ordeal. “Probably that stuff that we had last night.”

Gilda shot a suspicious look to the mare. Something else was going on but she couldn’t exactly put her finger on what it was. They finally reached room 343, the new room for Rainbow Dash (that is until they could find a place to stay).

They opened the door and walked in to their friend who was already arguing with the doctor. “I want to get out of here! We have things we need to do and I don’t want my friends stuck here!”

The doctor was physically holding the mare down and trying to get her to stay in one place. “Please, Miss Dash, we need you to stay in bed for at least a day and I know you have no place to stay.”

Gilda felt a hoof tap her back. She turned around to see a red stallion with a bright blonde mane behind her. A look at the stallion’s cutie mark brought a single jug with three Xs on it. She moved out of the way for the strange stallion. “Hello, yes I may be able to help with a place to stay.”

Rainbow Dash and the Doctor stopped arguing to look at the intruding stallion. “And who do you think you are?” They asked together.

The stallion let a large smile cover his muzzle. “Well Miss Dash, I am the stallion you and your friends came to see. My name is Apple Cider.”

BUM BUM BUUUUUM! Cliff Hanger.

Anyway, yeah I decided that why not give my all time favorite podcaster a chance at the lime light. The next chapter will be a lot of fun as the great Apple Cider gives his amazing story of being rescued by the wonderbolts gang. So stay tuned for that great chapter. I also decided that 13 chapters may or may not happen. Now, I don’t mean I will be cutting it short. It is either going to be 13 chapters long or LONGER so yeah. It all depends on how many chapters I decide to put into the story.

Alright well, thanks for reading this far into my author’s notes and be sure to give a like and favorite to my story. Anyway, I have a lot of plans for the future so stay tuned and make sure to give a watch to my page. And follow me @Shorty_Sparkle on Twitter. See you guys next chapter!

The Chef and Cider

The Chef and the Cider

Rainbow Dash stared at the intruder to her room with skepticism. The strange stallion looked around the bland room before talking again. “Blegh, I couldn’t imagine Rainbow Dash staying in this room for very long anyway. I am sure you won’t mind getting out of here anyway.”

The earth pony stallion walked over to Rainbow’s saddle bags and threw them on his back; Spitfire was having none of this though and stopped him before he could get any further. “What exactly do you think you are doing here? And why should we trust you exactly?”

He looked confused at the ponies and griffin that were now confronting him. Rainbow Dash was staring him down from her bed being unable to move without pain shooting through her wings. “Well, I told you already, I am Apple Cider. I am guessing the Flim Flam Brothers never told you my name did they. I am the pony you all flew here to see so how about we get moving and get out of this dump before I get sick myself.”

Rainbow Dash relaxed now that she heard the explanation. However, she still felt as though something strange was going on here. “Wait a minute, how did you know that the Flim Flam Brothers told us to see you? They were a long way away and there is no chance they beat us.” Her eyes narrowed at the blonde manned stallion. “Are you a spy?”

The stallion chuckled at the statement. “Oh, hardly, but I am here and will take you out of this bland place,” he said as he made a puking motion with his hoof and mouth. “It is immensely disgusting after all.”

Spitfire looked around the hospital room with new eyes and realized just how right this pony was. She smiled and nodded her head at Rainbow. “Alright, fine then. I guess we can trust you if it means getting out of here quickly.” She looked up at her wings which were wrapped up in gauze.

The Nurse took this moment to step in. “Alright then, first you will have to be checked out. Also, with those feather implants you will need to be very careful. They won’t hold you like your feathers would have.” So the nurse walked over to Rainbow Dash and carefully removed the gauze from the wings. When they all came off Rainbow Dash stepped off the bed and stretched her wings.

Gilda couldn’t hold her laughter and fell to the floor. Spitfire was doing her best to hold it as well but couldn’t with the griffin’s reaction. Dash looked in confusion at the mare and griffin, who were rolling on the floor. “What’s so funny?” She asked the two.

“Well, it looks like your wings match your hair!” Gilda screamed in between fits of laughter. Rainbow looked at her feathers to see that the implants were all different colors. In fact, they did look surprisingly like a rainbow. She stared at the nurse who shrugged.

“Sorry, all we had left actually. You should consider yourself lucky to have even gotten replacements.”

Rainbow Dash sighed and folded her wings back to their normal position. “Well fine then. Let’s get going before Gilda suffocates.” Gilda stopped laughing and shot a look at Rainbow.

The four ponies checked out and after a lecture by the doctor, much like the one the nurse gave them, they got on their way. “So, Apple Cider, I have to ask. Where do you live?” Rainbow Dash asked as she walked up from behind the red stallion.

“Well, you see that tower way over there?” The stallion pointed to a tower way into the distance which Dash remembered seeing the first time they came through. “That is a tower that sends out magical waves which unicorns can pick up and listen to me and Chef.” Dash smiled at the idea of being able to listen to somepony at any time of the day whenever you wanted. “We also have music from a lot of different ponies.”

“Do you have any examples?”

“Sure I do, there is Mando, Acoustic, Vinyl Scratch, Eurobeat, and The Octavian Orchestra. It is a great group of ponies for sure. We are still looking for more but it is hard to find.” He looked over at Rainbow Dash who was still looking at his tower. “Anyway, I have to ask you. Where are the others? I didn’t see Twilight or Rarity around with you.”

She broke her look with the tower and looked dumbfounded at Apple Cider. “How did you know about my friends?”

“Well, you are the Elements of Harmony are you not? I figured you all stuck together.”

“Well, normally that would be true, but I am with these two in order to find out about my dad. I heard that you met him a while back so I figured you might know something about him that I don’t. Or maybe you can just tell me what he did so I can bask in how awesome he was!”

Apple Cider chuckled. “Well, I will tell you now that he was an amazing pony for sure. He did save my life after all. He really was awesome in all manners of the word as well as being-”He was cut off by two ponies blocking the path in front of them from the alleyway. He turned as well, looking behind and noticed that two more were coming from behind.

A look of concern crossed his face and he stepped in front of a shocked Rainbow Dash. “I don’t know what you four want, but you are not going to be getting it any time soon by picking on injured ponies.”

The two ponies in front of them chuckled. “Oh please, you think we are scared of you? How about you move out of the way so we can take care of these mares the way they need to be taken care of.” The pony on the left said. He stepped into the light to reveal a pale white coat and bright red eyes. One of them had a scar running down through it. A grin crossed the face of the strange pony and he pulled a knife out of a holster using his magic. “Now, listen to me and no pony will get hurt more than they will need to be.”

With that a scream came from behind Apple Cider and he turned around to see what happened. He realized he was in the perfect position to buck the pony behind him and didn’t hesitate. When he bucked he noticed that the two ponies that had come up behind them were on the ground already. He kicked out and hit flesh.

A gasp came from Rainbow Dash as Apple Cider turned to see how bad he hit the assailant. He noticed right away that the pony he hit was not the one attacking them. None other than Pony Joe was lying on the ground in front of him with hoof marks on his side; the other two ponies laying much farther back.

“What in Equestria is Joe doing here?” Rainbow Dash asked in complete disbelief.

Spitfire and Gilda walked up and looked down at the unconscious pony. “What is that suit he is wearing too?” Spitfire inquired. “I need to get one of those for Soarin, he would look GREAT in it.”

Pony Joe stirred around and his eyes opened. The first thing he did was lash out with his rear hooves. In the process he managed to hit Apple Cider right in the face as he had been sniffing the unicorn. Cider staggered back and crashed on his flank using his front hooves to cover his muzzle. “I think he broke my freaking nose!”

Pony Joe rose up and stabilized himself. “And you broke a few ribs AND knocked me unconscious. I would say we are even now.”

“Alright, before we get any further with who did what I have to ask. Why are you here and why are you in that monkey suit!” Rainbow intervened.

“Well, I guess you should be asking with who I am.”

“No, I know that very well thank you very much.”

Pony Joe completely ignored her. “My name is Mane! Con Mane.”

Gilda couldn’t take it anymore. She dropped down on the ground and laughed uncontrollably for the second time that day. “What is going on in this crazy town?”

“Alright, well when you stop being crazy… You know what, just go back to Canterlot and make sure I never see you doing this again… Or I am telling Mrs. Pony Joe.” Rainbow Dash said.

“Wow, so I help save you and all I get is a kick to the ribs and a threat! See if I save you four ever again.” With that ‘Con Mane’ walked off.

“I am never going to Canterlot in my life. Ever.” Apple Cider said after the spy pony walked out of ear shot.

Gilda, who was still on the ground after her laughing fit, nodded her head in agreement. Spitfire was standing in pure shock at everything that had just happened. Rainbow Dash was too busy trying to wrap her head around Pony Joe’s actions. She would have to tell Twilight about her favorite donut shop’s owner.

“How about we just move on before something else weird happens.” Rainbow Dash said. The rest of the group agreed and they all walked off with Gilda retelling the story in between laughing fits.

When they finally reached Apple Cider’s house they were all exhausted and ready to kill Gilda. Who the whole way there kept repeating the story like they had already forgotten it.

“And then Apple Cider kicked him in the ribs! PFFFFFT! Could you believe that? He just kicked our rescuer!”

“I couldn’t imagine he did that much damage to whatever pony he bucked.” An unknown mare’s voice said from the porch on the house. A black mare came out from the darkness a few bright stars on her flank. “So, AC, who exactly are these ponies?”

“Well honey, this is Rainbow Dash, Spitfire, and Gilda. They are here to hear about when we got saved by their dads.”

She scowled at the two ponies and griffin now standing on her porch. “Well fine then, I thought we talked about you leaving me home alone with Sandy though!”

“What about me?” Another pony came out from the house. This one was bright yellow with a brown mane and tale. His Cutie Mark was a cactus with what looked like a chef hat. “Oh well would you look at that!” He rushed over to Rainbow Dash and grabbed her hoof shaking it vigorously. “Nice to meet you Miss Rainbow Dash! It is Miss right? You didn’t find that special somepony yet, did you?”

Rainbow Dash didn’t even know how to react. It took her a few moments to even realize what the pony was implicating. She tried to hide her embarrassment but the blush that filled her face betrayed her. “Uhh, no, no I haven’t found a ‘special somepony’.” She said shakingly. The combination of this strange day and the pony now trying to flirt with her was proving to be too much.

“Whoa now boy!” Cider bit down on Sandy’s ear. “Sorry about him, we don’t let him outside very often.” He said with Sandy’s ear in his muzzle while pulling the yellow stallion inside.

Gilda was about to break into laughter again, but was stopped by a look from Spitfire.

“Starrynight honey, can you let our guests in for me please?” Apple Cider asked as he locked the cellar door behind Chef Sandy.

“I guess I can manage that,” she replied dejectedly obviously not happy to see the two mares and griffon. “Well, what are you waiting for then? Get inside already!”

Spitfire glared at the rude mare and refrained from saying anything of consequence. Rainbow Dash was too confused with how bizarre her days was going so far and didn’t even notice the rude behavior while Gilda had no reason to hold herself back. “Oh please, like it is the worst thing in the world to have me in your house!”

Apple Cider sighed and mumbled something about no one liking his marefriend. Chef Sandy was barely audible crying from the cellar and Starrynight was already about to start an argument with Gilda when Rainbow Dash noticed what was going on. “Well, how about we get going on this story of yours before somepony does something they will regret.”

“Yes! Right that is a good idea how about we do that.” He ushered everypony to their seats and sat down at the largest chair in the room. “Anywho, it was just a few days after I came to Equestria from a land far far away.”

---{Story}---

I was walking along a path with Starrynight to my right and Chef Sand behind me with the night creeping along slowly. Unable to find out exactly how we had gotten to this place we had decided to walk down the only path we could find in the strange forest we had awoken in just a couple days prior.

The large forest towered over each side of the path and the moon was about to make it’s decent towards the horizon. We were in awe at how beautiful Equestria really was. I had felt my jaw slack at the untouched feeling of the wilderness which is something we don’t get much of where I come from. Heck, even Starry Night was made speechless by the environment of Equestria.

The walk had been mostly quiet because in all honesty none of us wished to speak. We felt it would disgrace the amazing place. So we walked in silence for a long period of time before we saw a light in the distance. It seemed to be a fire so we decided to check it out. The thought of a warm campfire and some friendly faces filled my head.

When we passed the threshold of the trees we saw three zebras which seemed to be worse for wear. The each wore old tattered cloaks which had a mix of brown, black, and green which created a camouflage of sorts. Each of them had the same hair style and looked almost identical. The one thing I didn’t notice was the one I wish I had.

The tallest of the three zebras stood up and walked to us. He had a scar across his eye with a nose ring hanging out of his nostrils. His nostrils themselves flared at us and he addressed us in an extremely gruff voice. “What are three little ponies doing out in the forest at night? It is a miracle a monster didn’t kill you yet. Or even a group of bandits that are feeling a bit blood thirsty.” The other two began laughing behind the larger zebra. “Oh wait…”

That is when I noticed the glint of metal on the moonlight. I peeked my head down to see a small blade tucked away in the zebra’s cloak. I winced as the blade began to glow and rose up to my face. “Oh ho ho, the pretty colt is eyeing my blade I see. Do you like it little stallion? The handle is made from ivory so generously gifted from the elephant herds. The blade was crafted a unicorn mage and enchanted with a spell that makes the blade never age or rust. It’s pretty nifty if I do say so myself. Ironic how it is amazing at cutting through horns.”

“How are you levitating it without a horn of your own anyway?” Starry Night blurted from behind them; probably more in an attempt to buy the time then to actually know how.

“Like I said, this is VERY good at cutting off unicorn horns and those make great ingredients for a nice tasty potion.” The other zebras began laughing again and slowly moved in on Starry Night. The blade floated slowly to her head. Suddenly a bright bolt of light and sound filled the sky temporarily blinding us.

When the light faded from our eyes and the ringing from our ears we got back up on our feet. A smoldering crater landed not 2 feet in front of my hooves. I looked up to see the source, four ponies and a griffon encircled the sky above them, each with a look of pure disgust on their faces. The zebras each held their grounds among the swarm of fliers. “Put down your weapons and surrender yourselves,” said the pony that floated in the center of the circle.

“If you think we will just give up then you are grav-”The lead zebra was cut off by another bright flash of light and loud crack from the lightning. This time when the light cleared only two living zebras stood their ground. The other, the leader, was twitching on the ground helpless as his body shut down from an electrical shock.

“Who is next?” The leading pony asked which got a quick response of cooperation from the two other zebras.

---{Main}---

“After that we got taken to Canterlot and asked a few questions. All I knew was the name of the team who rescued us. So I thank you, Rainbow Dash, in place of your father for saving my life. Now, who is in the mood for some tea?”

---{Author’s Notes}---

Wow, terribly sorry for the extremely late chapter, but the combination of writers block and being out of town for a week was too much to overcome for writing purposes. However, you should know that next week will be a double chapter weekend and the weekend after that will hold the first chapter in the three chapter finale! Then I will begin writing the next story which will be a touching love story about two mares. Do note that it is one of the two mare/mare ships I will actually do in this and that is because of how well it would work.

Also, we get a nice cameo from Apple Cider on this chapter so yeah, be sure to give their podcast a check if you haven’t already. They are awesome and funny as heck. Anywho, I would love to give a big shout out to my number one fan, drum roll please, Wazup970! Who comments most on this chapter uploads and is the only pony to subscribe to my twitter. I mean come on ponies, what is the point of having a twitter for spoilers and stuff if no pony follows me on it?

Well, thanks for reading through my story so far and I should have you know that things are going to be getting VERY interesting the last five chapters. Only one more flashback is planned and the rest is all action and stuff… Actually, a lot of action and fire and explosion and Rainbooms! Man, I am so ready to have you guys read this stuff I have planned.

Goodnight and sleep well Bronies!

The Doctor What?

Note: My Editor seems to have been abducted by aliens! Until I negotiate a treaty with them to bring him back my story may be a bit raw so bear with me. In an unrelated note, I am looking for more Beta testers for just this kind of purpose! So send me a message if you are interested.

The Doctor What?

Gilda awoke up the next morning to a familiar sound. She rose slowly from the bed and walked over to the door leading to the hallway which connected the four rooms in the house. At the end of the hall was a fifth door leading to the only bathroom in the whole place. Still groggy she pushed the door open with her claw to reveal Spitfire hunched over the toilet.

“Maybe you are the one who needed to go to the hospital, not Dash,” She stated as orange mare let another barrage of puke hit the toilet. “You seem to be worse off than she was.”

“I am fine!” She snapped defensively. “What makes you think something is wrong with me?”

“You are hunched over a toilet throwing your stomach into it,” Retorted Gilda.

“Touché, I am fine though alright Gilda? Just leave me alone please.”

Gilda obliged and left the room being sure to close the door behind her. She started walking down the hall to the kitchen. Suddenly a scream came from Rainbow Dash’s room and the door flung open just seconds later. The yellow stallion was flying out the door before it even opened all the way. Chef Sandy found himself lying on the door being chewed out by Rainbow Dash.

“How dare you sneak in my room while I am sleeping!” She screamed at the dazed stallion. The commotion had attracted the attention of Apple Cider who was now poking his head out the kitchen.

“Oh dear Luna, I am so very sorry about that! He is quite the strange stallion, I think the trip here messed him up a bit.” A broad smile stretched across Chef Sandy’s muzzle as Rainbow Dash stood over him. She looked down to see the creepy smile and backed off; feeling extremely exposed all of the sudden, she ran back into her room and slammed the door.

“Well, this is a great start to the day I guess,” Gilda said as she stepped over the brown mane stallion. “What have we got for breakfast?”

---{}---

Gilda had finished wolfing down her breakfast and carried a plate to Rainbow Dash who had locked herself in her room. She chose to opt out on giving Spitfire some as she seemed like she wouldn’t want anything to eat. Right as she reached Dash’s room the bathroom door swung open revealing a fully clothed Spitfire. “What’s with the getup?” Gilda asked.

“Well, since Rainbow Dash can’t exactly fly right now then we will need to take some sort of transportation. Seeing as we don’t have any of our own we will need to share some and I am NOT about to go onto public transportation back to Canterlot without clothing!”

“Wait, back to Canterlot? Why so soon, it isn’t like we are done or anything.”

“Well, I would think we would be. It isn’t like we know where to go next or anything. These people barely know anypony else who was saved by our dads; or for that matter anypony from Equestria,” Spitfire said with a bit of bite in her voice.

Rainbow Dash’s door creaked open slightly. “I am not about to give up. She is right though, not like there is anywhere else to go. You never know, maybe there is someone in Ponyville who knows something.”

Spitfire and Gilda both looked at each other. “I guess she is right. Maybe a trip back to Ponyville to see. Before that though, are you going to eat that?” Spitfire inquired as she eyed the food in Gilda’s talons. Gilda handed the food over to her.

Rainbow Dash Grinned. “Yeah, eat up then, we got a long flight to Ponyville.”

Spitfire nearly spit out her food and Gilda shot a look at the light blue mare. “Whoa there Pegasister! No reason to strain yourself now! You just got out of the hospital; there is no way you are going to be flying to Ponyville!”

“Well how else do you plan to get there? There are no roads leading to it except the one way on the north side that goes through Sweet Apple Acres. It would take days to walk that far. I am sure you guys can carry me as far as that though. We Pegasi are well known for being light after all.” Rainbow Dash tucked her wings in as tight as she could go.

“How about you take this?” They all turned to face Chef Sandy who was looking out the window. Gilda and Spitfire rushed over to the window. Rainbow Dash was more hesitant to get near the yellow stallion.

“That’ll work.”

---{}---

The chariot blasted through the sky; Gilda and Spitfire barely breaking a sweat as they flew the chariot to its destination. “So, what’s the plan then when we get there? I would rather not stick around too long that is for sure,” Gilda stated with slight disgust.

“Remember Gilda, you are the one who was a jerk during that. So I wouldn’t exactly be talking about that if I were you,” Rainbow Dash retorted.

“Quit it girls, no reason to be fighting right now. We need to work together to find someone who knows about our dads.”

“I think our best bet would be Twilight, she is super smart and knows a lot about that kind of stuff. Or maybe Pinkie Pie since she knows the most about everypony in town.”

The three fliers could see Ponyville pop up in the distance. Rainbow Dash found herself leaning forward to catch a glimpse of her floating home. She caught herself just in time before she fell off the chariot and broke something else.

As they got closer the anticipation rose. When they finally reached their destination Rainbow Dash found herself almost exploding from the excitement of seeing her friends after such a long time. They landed just outside the library. The blue mare jumped out the chariot and rushed to the door. What she found sunk her heart.

“Out of Town, be back tomorrow,” said the sign sitting on the door.

“Ah phooey! She went somewhere for the day. I guess we could go look for Pinkie Pie.” With that they all took off to the gingerbread house on the corner of a tri-street intersection. They walked up and entered the baking shop, a bell ringing above their heads as the door opened.

As they entered a head popped out from the doorframe. “Oh, hello Rainbow Dash, I will be right out ok?” Said the grown mare behind the door. “Let me just finish up this batch of cupcakes. Oh poor Pinkie Pie, she normally loves helping me make these.”

Suddenly Dash started to realize the pattern. “Where is Pinkie exactly?”

Mrs. Cakes head popped out again, this time covered in flour. “Oh she went off with the others to Canterlot. Something about finding an intruder in Equestria or some sort like that dear.”

“Wait, what? Why wasn’t I called for?”

“They said something about you being nowhere to be found. So they decided it would be best to go on their own.”

“Hang on a minute, intruder in Equestria? I didn’t think you guys were at war with anyone! I also thought the borders were open...” Gilda trailed off. “Ah crud, if they aren’t then I got to split and QUICK!”

“Calm down Gilda, they are open just as much today as they were a hundred years ago. Probably something to do with a dragon. Those things are always hanging around and threatening Equestria.” Spitfire responded.

“I guess so, and after what happened LAST time a dragon came around here I guess they wouldn’t need me then anyway,” Rainbow said in shame.

“Ah don’t worry about it Flip Flop! “ Gilda said punching the mare in the shoulder. “We are gonna have a ton more fun than those guys.”

“Yeah, we just have to find another person who met our parents in an extremely massive country. No problem at all,” said Spitfire sarcastically. “Heck, we might even find a human on the way!”

“Well it won’t do you three any good yelling at each other in my store now will it? Why don’t you dearies go ask Mister Smith over at the clock shop? If I remember correctly, he knows quite a bit about past events, more so than anypony should in my opinion,” Mrs. Cake interjected.

“Mister Smith? Why would we go see the blacksmith?” Spitfire asked. “And why on Equestria does a blacksmith have a clock shop?”

“He isn’t a blacksmith silly!” Rainbow Dash and the others all spun around to see none other than Ditzy Doo in the doorway. “He doesn’t just own a clock shop either. He is a Timelord!”

---{End}---

Don’t freak out, just the end of the chapter.

Oh, guess what guys! I am in need of a few Beta readers. I figured that while 1 has increased my writing abilities by quite a bit that three would do much better. Just shoot me a message and tell me why you want that certain job and I will check it out. Also, I am looking for an artist as well to draw me an image for the next story.

Sorry for the shorter chapter but the next one will be longer.

Shoot me a follow on Twitter at Shorty_Sparkle to get some spoilers before each upload. I promise they are 100% story quotes.

Nightmare of Time

Princess Celestia stood on the very top of the tallest mountain. It was the perfect place, no doubt Luna would agree. A small caravan of ponies moved below in the valley transporting their goods to the nearest village. The ponies had set up Equestria only a decade before and had called upon Celestia and Luna to help them keep peace between the ponies that now littered the landscape.

You see, after the story of Hearths Warming day, the ponies entered yet another power struggle. The earth ponies believed that they should be allowed to tell the unicorns how to control the sun and moon. While the Pegasi demanded that they receive more food since they protect the country. However the unicorns requested for the Earth ponies to build them large structures. After nearly a decade of bickering, a unicorn, by the name of Starswirl the Bearded intervened.

After reminding them of the story of the two Alicorn sisters that had saved Equestria from Discord, they all agreed to call upon those sisters to rule over the land as to keep balance between the factions. Of course, when they heard this they came right away.

Celestia smiled as she remembered the looks on the ponies as she had raised the sun for the first time. It was like nothing they had ever seen. A task that took large groups of unicorns to do was done by her without issue. Of course, the task was hard on her and at the night she asked her sister to raise the moon. Since then that had been their main tasks. Between those times however they dealt with the ponies issues and help them in any way possible.

Now, the ponies had decided to build a capital city and asked Celestia to find the right spot for it, and that she did. From the mountain they would build the city on you could see the entirety of Equestria. Celestia smiled at the sight below. However, suddenly a loud scratching noise rose above the winds. It sounded like the whole mountain was creaking. She pinpointed the sound to right behind her and watched in amazement as a little blue box materialized in front of her. Baffled by this strange device she began sniffing it, touching it, and she even licked it one time.

“I assure you, it just tastes like wood. Trust me; I did that when I first saw it do that too!” Celestia jumped at the voice of the mare that boomed out from what seemed like nowhere. Suddenly a stallion’s voice replaced it.

“Ditzy! What have I told you about pressing buttons? Get away from that! Ahem, I am so sorry about that princess, sometimes that mare is more trouble than she is worth. Just hold on a second we are all coming out! DITZY N-“

The princess looked on the box with a whole new level of amazement. It actually talked to her! She put her hoof on it and applied some pressure just to make sure again that it was real. “How fascinating! I wonder how this machine ac-“ She was cut off when the door opened, causing her to slam flat on her face. She scrambled back up to regain her composure and looked upon five ponies that stared up at her. “Oh, hello there My Little Ponies, how in the name of… well me, did you all fit in that tiny… little… box?” She drifted off as she looked inside the small box which had appeared so much smaller on the outside.

The princess found herself speechless. Short bursts of mumbling came out of her mouth. How did they fit all that in the little, tiny, box thing that stood erect before her? “Yes yes, it is bigger on the inside.” Oh, that too. “Well, let me introduce myself. I’m the doctor! This is Ditzy, Rainbow Dash, Gilda, and Spitfire. How do you do?”

“I have been better, much better. Why exactly are you here?”

“We don’t know yet! That is the best part,” Ditzy exclaimed. “You see, that box thingy is a Tardis which has some long name that I don’t care about; basically, it travels through time.”

“Don’t feel bad princess, you aren’t the only one of us completely baffled by this,” Rainbow Dash said as she looked around in amazement at view. Suddenly her face exploded in surprise. “Are we where I think we are?”

“Yes Miss Dash, we are on the mountain of Canterlot before Canterlot.”

‘Hmm, Canterlot, I like that!’ Celestia thought to herself.

Gilda shivered which reminded Celestia just where they were. “How about we all go down and come to my current residence. I am sure Luna would love to meet you. If she is still there that is,” she said with a hint of annoyance in her voice.

“That sounds fantastic! I think I should take the Tardis down first, no reason to make myself hike up and down the mountain. I can’t exactly fly like some other ponies.” Ditzy started laughing and took off following Celestia and Gilda who had started a conversation about Griffin Relations. The Doctor smiled to himself and let Dash into the Tardis with him. “Come on now, let’s get a drink on the way there.

Of course, Celestia and the others didn’t beat them there. Celestia didn’t quite understand how they also had time to get a fruity drink until the others reminded her he had a time machine. They probably got here five minutes before they had left the mountain.

After that they had sat around just looking at each other, none of them knew quite what to say. The other ponies didn’t want to alter time but saying something Celestia shouldn’t know while Celestia was too busy trying to wrap her mind around everything that was going on. ‘This is weirder than Discord’s idea of a cloud.’

“So princess,”

“Please, call me Celestia.”

“Err, Celestia, Where is Luna at?” Spitfire asked.

“I wish I knew, she keeps running off to who knows where. Sometimes the only sign of her I would see for a week would be the moon rising every night. Some nights she even forgets to do that. I still have no idea what is going on.”

Rainbow Dash frowned. That story sounded quite familiar. ‘Where have I heard that story before?’ she thought.

“Last time I saw her actually we had a big fight about how much time her moon had above Equestria.” Celestia sighed, “she believes she deserves some sort of recognition and the ponies don’t appreciate her beautiful nights.”

‘Oh, OH! ‘ Dash bolted upright. “Doctor, can we talk really quick?” she asked without even turning her head. He nodded and they both walked outside. “I came to you to hear a story about my father. NOT to get involved in past stuff especially not with THIS specific time!”

“Listen, the Tardis brought us here. I don’t quite know why but it did. Now we have to find out what we need to do here. It wouldn’t bring us to this exact location if there wasn’t something we had to do.”

“Alright fine! But if the timeline changes then I am blaming you for it.” Dash huffed back into the house. Suddenly they heard a scream pierce the air. Dash scrambled into the house. She blasted her wings back breaking a probably priceless vase. She didn’t even bother opening the door. She just crashed right through it.

She prepared to tackle someone when she saw just what was going on. Celestia stood over Ditzy who was laughing uncontrollably. Celestia’s horn glowed as she used her magic on… a feather, which she was using to tickle Ditzy. Gilda of course had joined in and Spitfire was too busy laughing at the scene to notice Dash’s face turn a bright red.

“I thought one of you got hurt!” She screamed at the ponies making them all stop what it was they were doing.

Celestia stopped her torture of the mare below her and looked up, the guiltiest look spread over her face. “I- it was just- you see Gilda had- and then I just thought-“ Celestia stuttered. The Alicorn princess lowered her head in apology. “Sorry.”

Rainbow Dash realized just what happened and sighed. She started walking towards the princess. “You are the goddess of the sun. An Alicorn that is at least thrice as powerful as her. You should know better!”

Celestia dropped her head even lower.

“I mean, you should know better than to start an unfair fight!” With that Dash jumped up and spread her wings; and the tickle war began. This time Spitfire and Gilda joined in against Celestia. The princess who raises the sun and rules over the entirety of Equestria stood no chance. It took only thirty seconds before she cried for mercy.

Tears of laughter filled all the ponies eyes as they finished. “That was amazing! No pony has ever dared actually attempt to win! They always let me win the fights and what is the fun in all of that? Ahh, thank you ponies; you have made my week. You all are welcome to stay as long as you wish. However, I demand you spend the night.”

Rainbow Dash began to think of an excuse to leave when The Doctor interrupted her. “We would love to! Thank you very much!”

“PERFECT, the night will be glorious!”

Dash looked across the plains that rolled out in front of her. It was beautiful. Like nothing she had ever seen before. It was a farm, a wheat farm to be exact. She began galloping in the field, the sun beating down on her fur. Suddenly, she saw another pony. It was large, far larger than her and probably even larger than Big Mac. She cantered up to the pony and noticed something odd. There was no Cutie Mark on him and he looked strange. He was a dark brown with a very long face.

Suddenly she saw it. She screamed as another creature walked towards her. She knew the creature, she had heard the stories and knew better than to just stand and watch. However, that is just what she did. She just sat and watched as it walked on two legs straight at her. She called for the other pony to help her but it just sat there chewing grass. The other creature walked towards her and reached out its hands to grab her.

Dash woke to a scream; at first she thought it was her. However, a second scream broke that thought. Spitfire sat up surprisingly well rested. The moon was still high in the sky yet it felt so much later.

It took Rainbow a few seconds to put two and two together. Even then she didn’t have time to say anything. The Doctor blasted through the door. “It’s time, It’s happened. Luna snapped.”

Dash and Spitfire were the first to the door. Gilda was in no mood to get out of bed but managed to drag herself out. The griffin mumbled something to herself but got into the line forming anyway. “Alright girls, we knew this would happen sometime but if it isn’t clear yet, it’s morning now and there is still no sun so only one explanation is possible.” The Doctor paused for a second. “Nightmare Moon has arrived.”

Right then Celestia burst into the hallway. The others turned to see the disheveled princess’s pleading eyes. “I need your help, something has happened and I have a feeling you know exactly what.”

The four ponies nodded and Celestia motioned for them to follow. “My sister has gone crazy. She won’t lower the moon and I don’t know why. I think she became too jealous. We have to do something to stop her. Any ideas?”

The ponies all looked at each other. Gilda was in no mood to wait though. “The Elements of Harmony, duh.” All the others snapped their heads towards Gilda. “What?”

“Hello? Perhaps preserving the timeline? Did you forget that?”

“So what if we speed this up a bit? I want to go home now; you dweebs are starting to rub off on me.”

“Alright, well where could Luna be right now anyway? The legend didn’t tell much,” stated Spitfire.

“Well, I do know her favorite places. If we all split up we might be able to find her.” Celestia thought for a second. “Here, take these.” Her horn glowed brightly as she materialized four stones. “Just break this into the ground and we will come.” Celestia then stepped closer to the four ponies and activated her teleportation spell, taking them with her.

They all popped out dazed and slightly charred. When they regained their composure they saw the room they were in was a battle room of sorts; probably deep under the ground. “Alright, here is how it is. Luna is trying to take all the power of the world and will hurt many ponies in the process. So I need all of your help. I will be going here,” she pointed at a mountain overlooking a large lake. “She likes to go there sometimes. You ponies will be going to these four locations.” She pointed at the first three of the locations respectfully giving each of the ponies any details she could. “Dash, you will be going here. This is a recently discovered mountain on the outskirts of Equestria. It is very dangerous but I think you can handle it. Good luck everypony.”

She hadn’t wasted any time so far and she didn’t waste any then; the five of them all teleported to different spots in Equestria, looking for the princess that had snapped and refused to lower her moon.

Rainbow Dash shook her head. She had no idea how Unicorns could stand teleportation. She did her best to regain her composure, when she did she gasped at the mountain towering above her. The sheer steepness of the mountain astounded her. It was absolutely massive! Nothing she has ever seen before could possibly compare to this. Dash highly doubted she could ever fly as high as the mountain went even if her wings were not damaged.

It made her wonder, just what force had allowed for such a massive structure to be built naturally? She took a trot a few feet forward to make sure she could walk again before setting off towards the mountain. It was simply awe inspiring to see something so large before you and still be so far away from it! It took a good five minutes for her to gallop towards the base of the mountain.

Here she found something quite peculiar. It was a perfectly square object on the side of the mountain. Obviously, it was out of place compared to the rock and dirt that made up the mountainside. Dash walked up closer to it and scrutinized it closely. It was a metal of some sort, the kind of thing you only see used to build trains simply because it was strong but still light. You never saw it wasted in such large quantities on something as simple as a…

Door? She guessed it was a door because of the shape; and yet something told her that wasn’t entirely accurate. It had features normal doors tended to not have, and not to mention lacked features normal doors would. It lacked a doorknob as well as hinges and the door part of it was actually sunk farther in than the frame by quite a large margin. It also had a strange panel on the side of it. It looked alien to her without all the features it normally had.

Therefore, naturally, Rainbow stepped right up to it and knocked. The door responded with a metallic clang and the panel to the side swung open with a whoosh, startling Dash and making her take a few steps back. Then the blue mare stepped forward again, inspecting the newly revealed panel. It had a pad with twelve keys one through nine on the first three rows and the last row consisting of a star of some sort, a zero, and a hash tag.

“What in Equestria is THIS thing?” Dash found herself saying out loud. It looked to be a sort of keypad but the keys were far too small for her hooves. So, she outstretched her good wing and clicked one of the buttons. A small beep sounded as it was pressed in. She moved and pressed another one which produced the same result. She pressed a few more buttons but nothing seemed to happen except the beep. That is, until she pressed to star; this caused all sorts of not so great stuff to happen.

First, the panel whooshed shut, almost taking a feather with it. Then, a blast of loud noise exploded into Dash’s ears. A screeching which was so loud it would be impossible to ascertain the location of. It hurt, far too much for her to handle. The mare collapsed on the ground and felt the tears begin to well up from the pain in her ears. Suddenly, when she thought she couldn’t take any more, it just stopped.

Dash continued to lay on the ground, whimpering as the sound continued to ring in her own ears like an unwanted echo. When she finally brought herself to raise her head again she was surprised to see the door open and set of hooves standing in its place.

“Are you going to get up or am I just going to have to stand here?” the owner of the hooves asked.

Dash looked up again to be greeted with face she knew only because of Twilight’s constant history lessons. “Wait a second? Are you who I think you are?”

The stallion cocked his head. “That all depends on who you think I am. Might I say though, you are a rather strange filly,” he chuckled. “Not many ponies would have come this far away from the nearest settlement and not to mention doing so in the dead of night.”

“Well, I didn’t exactly come this way. It was more of a sent this way honestly. Also, it is really supposed to be night right now,” Dash gestured at the sky. “You see, Nightmare moo- I mean, Princess Luna is refusing to lower the moon for the sun and Celestia sent me to find her. For some reason she suspected she would be here. “

“Well, Luna is here alright but I assure you she hasn’t gone crazy. I just saw her a few minutes ago! Or was it a few hours? I really do need to find a way to tell time.”

“How about you let me inside and we can start looking for her,” Dash said as she got up on her hooves and began to step through the door. However, she was grabbed by a burst of magic which came from the stallion. “Hey! What’s the big idea?”

“I have never met you before in my life, yet you act like you know who I am,” the stallion stepped around to the front of Rainbow Dash. “Then, you tell me you are on some mission from Celestia herself and want instant access into this mountain!” His magic then flared and she was pulled back to the outside of the door. “So, how about we take a step back and you explain yourself!”

Dash staggered back as she was let go and fell flat on her flank. She just sat there shocked for a minute, thinking of how she would explain what was going on without sounding completely insane. “I’m from the future.” She instantly facehoofed. ‘So much for not insane,’ she thought.

Except, the stallion didn’t start laughing, nor did he have any reaction at all. He just stood there, expressionless for what had to be an hour. “Then tell me, what is my name, and how do you know it?”

Dash breathed a sigh of relief and sat up. She let herself think for a moment on what the Doctor would say before starting. “Well, your name is Starswirl the Bearded. I can’t tell you exactly why I know you ‘cause that would be a spoiler, and we can’t have that.”

Starswirl guffawed almost instantly. “In the words of a true time traveler! Please, do come in and let us start this search for the princess.” His smile brought instant warmth to Rainbow Dash.

The two then stepped into the door and Dash was surprised at the sight she saw. The room was filled with strange devices. Things she had only seen before in the basement of the library. Lights flickered on and off on the devices that were one. However, most of the more advanced ones seemed to be off. They didn’t show and light at all. A look at the ceiling brought a similar view. The more advanced lights were off while the room was instead lit with candles, lanterns, and torches.

“What is this place?” She asked the philosopher.

“Well, no pony knows for sure. We have done multiple experiments but nothing seems to bring any sort of hard results to the table. It isn’t like we can get most of these darned machines on anyway!” He emphasized his frustration by kicking one of the devices.

Dash stepped forward and looked at the machines herself. Some of them were made with a few pieces of the metal that seemed to fully build this entire room while being mostly made of glass. A few of the devices had keys on them. She laid her hand on one of the keys on one of the devices.

The reaction from the device was, unexpected to say the least. Instantly the console activated and the whole thing lit up with brilliant light. It startled Dash and she staggered back, rear ending another device which activated it as well. This one emitted a loud pitched whine for a second and scared her again. This time she took off running and something amazing started happening.

The lights started to turn on too. Starswirl looked dumbfounded as everything began to turn on. He almost didn’t react soon enough to grab her with his magic before she actually broke something. “How in the name of Celestia are you doing this!?” He quickly ran up to some of the devices which had started showing information on them. He tried to get as much of the information down as possible but it was all in another language.

“This looks like a derivation of Equestrian by the structure of the letters. However, judging by the age of this stuff I would say Equestrian is actually a derivation of it. Oh who the hay cares! We are getting results for the first time!” In his haste, Starswirl didn’t think of his reactions. So he didn’t quite think thoroughly what he was doing when he kissed Rainbow.

At first, it was strange. She didn’t know what to think about all of that mumbo jumbo he was talking about and that surprised her yet again. Although, she didn’t quite mind any of it at all. She let herself sink into the embrace. It didn’t last extremely long as Starswirl immediately backed off. A look of shock completely filled his face as he realized what he had just done.

“Oh my, oh dear I am so sorry there Miss,” he looked for the name and then realized, he never even heard it yet! “I don’t even know your name yet! I just did, THAT and I don’t even know your name. I am so horribly sorry; I didn’t mean to do that I- I let myself get too excited. Please just forgi-“ He was cut off by Rainbow’s lips locking with his again.

She pulled away after a few seconds. “Rainbow, my name is Rainbow Dash.”

Notes

Then there was shipping. Well, I didn’t really know how to end this chapter off with a bigger bang than that. I actually I thought about it for about five days and couldn’t think of anything better. Also, this is the rewrite of the chapter for the third time as I couldn’t quite get it during a planned writing. Literally, this came to me while riding in a car.

Anywho, I am quite confident with the Rainbow/Starswirl interaction part but the beginning is a bit off kilter I think. Also, I know there will be plenty of spelling/grammar issues as my beloved editor has vanished! *Gasp*

So for that reason I am looking for another editor so if you have decent English skills and are at least through college please then shoot me a message so I don’t have to post mediocre chapters!

Thanks for reading this chapter

A Blast of the Past

Ditzy Doo looked upon all the gadgets and gizmos spread out across the console of the Time and Relative Dimensions in Space machine, or the Tardis for short. She skipped over to one of the knobs and began turning it with her mouth. Then she outstretched a wing and began hitting buttons with it.

She may be clumsy but operating the Tardis was her specialty! She even felt she did better than the Doctor himself no matter how much he denied it. Quickly the device began to activate, and to note without the loud scratching sound that the Doctor couldn’t seem to get rid of. She felt the feeling of souring through space in time and it almost reminded her of flying. Although, flying was no were near as good as this!

As the Tardis flew around though she began thinking back to the last night and what the Doctor told her. She couldn’t afford to waste time because the fate of Equestria depended on her!

Rainbow looked into the eyes of the stallion standing before her with a stupid smile on his face. “I just don’t even know what to think! That was just amazing and to think that…” he began trailing off and getting lost in his own thoughts. Suddenly he jumped up. “Oh wait! We have an angry princess to find and we have to do it STAT!”

He began running around the room looking at the now activated monitors trying to understand any of the information that was now scrolling across all the screens. Dash just watched in fascination as the bearded stallion studied everything he could. She then looked away and began walking around the room itself. She noticed a wall that had a lot of decorative panels all over it and started walking towards it.

As she approached she began to study the carvings that were clad in what looked like gold. Suddenly however the panels twisted around making multiple doors into a single room. Stepping inside caused all the lights to turn on and more monitors to activate. Most of these also just had a scrolling language that she didn’t quite understand. One though, was showing a sort of graphic that looked almost like a map! “Hey, Starswirl come check this out!”

“Not now Rainbow Dash, I have to find out where Luna went!”

Dash began looking harder at the map and saw two dots in adjacent rooms. She wondered what those dots meant. She then stepped forward a bit and was surprised to see the dot move! However, just as quickly as it started moving it just stopped. She leaned it to get an even closer look and it once again moved, this time only slightly. Then she saw the other dot begin to move around as well.

She looked back to see Starswirl pacing between three of the larger monitors. Suddenly it hit her! “Starswirl! You have got to see this! It’s a map and it shows where we are!”

“What in Equestria are you talking about Rainbow Dash?” he said as he began stepping towards the room. Sure enough the dot moved with him. “Well, I never noticed this room before,” stated the unicorn as he stepped through the doors. He stepped up to the map and began to study it. “Well, it is certainly the easiest thing to understand in this place that is for sure.”

“Look, those dots there are us,” Dash began looking around the map looking for a third dot. Sure enough, “Look! There, that must be Luna! We have to get to her now!” Before Starswirl even had time to interject Dash had begun Galloping towards the still rather dark hallway. He looked in awe as the lights turned on in front of her as she ran through out of sight.

He sighed, “That is one heck of a mare.” Then he smiled and activated his magic; teleporting to farther into the hallway.

The Doctor had much easier time recovering from the teleport than Rainbow Dash did. Actually, he hadn’t had a single issue and was walking the second he exited. He took a good look at the castle sitting before him and smiled. He almost didn’t recognize the place without all the vines and trees growing all over it. “Ah yes, the Great hall of the Royal Pony Sisters,” he said as he began trotting towards the gates.

He was so fascinated by the great place that he didn’t even notice the Pegasi flying down behind him; hindering his escape. “Fascinating! The walls are so much larger when they are not completely crumbling apart.” He walked up to the gate and knocked three times and took a few steps back. He ended up backing straight into one of the Pegasi. “Oh well hello there fine sir! Do you min- Mmmphph!” He tried to fight back as they put a sack over his head which they then hit after the fight, throwing the doctor out of consciousness.

Celestia was panicking. There was really no other way to say it. She looked around the castle desperately. The castle itself had long since been abandoned after She and her sister left some time ago. She knew though that her sister come here from time to time. Celestia burst down door after door as a mix of rage and terror took over her body. She finally got to the last door in the hall. This door she didn’t burst down, she knew better than to upset her sister in such a way. Instead she threw it open with her magic. The room was by far the largest bedroom in the entire castle.

She had given it to Luna after she had given Celestia the saddest look she had ever seen. She couldn’t bear to let her continue and forfeited the room. She stepped into it letting the memories of when they were fillies flood into her. Both of them had been so innocent, blissfully unaware of the duties they would be asked to fulfill some odd centuries later. ‘Centuries, had it truly been that long?’ Celestia thought to herself as she brushed her hoof against the still pristine sheets on the bed.

The tears had already begun to overtake her as she knelt to the ground. She allowed herself to be overcome with the sadness. She dropped fully to the ground. The princess of the sun cried for what seemed like days but was in reality only just a few minutes. When she finally opened her eyes she felt the sadness completely disappear. In its place was wonder, wonder about what that strange orb was doing underneath Luna’s bed. She rolled it out with her hoof, looking into the swirling light that held itself inside the glass object.

Celestia investigated the foreign object having never seen anything like it before in her very long life. She reached out her magic to bring it closer to her face and then almost instantly blacked out. Her vision came back but to an entirely new place.

Spitfire was finding herself getting frustrated. She had flown across the desert for nearly an hour now and couldn’t even find a settlement! Her patience was fading and she wondered why the princess had even sent her here. “Something obviously went wrong in the spell, there is just no reason she would have sent me here of all places!”

However, as she said this she began to see the desert recede in favor of rocks instead of sand. A huge canyon had formed itself here and twisted along in hundreds of separate directions. She looked upon the twists and turns in awe as they diverged from each other and going on for miles. It reminded her of a maze except for one thing. None of the branches seemed to end, and soon enough the canyon littered so much of the desert floor that Spitfire couldn’t even see the edge of it anymore no matter which directions she looked.

It got her worried, extremely so in fact. ‘How am I ever going to get back home?’ she thought to herself as the desert canyon just kept dragging on. She began to think back to all the training she had received when working with the Wonderbolts. She pictured a map of Equestria in her mind to try to think of where there was not only a canyon, but also a desert larger than, well larger than Equestria itself.

The Wonderbolt cursed under her breath for not paying attention to the world geography class she took when she was just a young mare. She began trying to think back to that class and remember anything she could have learned that would have helped her pinpoint this place. “Soarin would have known not just what this place this is called, but the exact coordinates too,” she chuckled. Soon enough the chuckle became a laugh as she remembered all the great times she had with that stallion; with her stallion.

Her mind began to wander as she attempted to remember exactly every moment those two shared. Finally her thoughts went back to herself; to her particular predicament that she had dragged herself into. Suddenly panic began to take her over and she found herself gripping the strange device that Celestia had given her. The Wonderbolt expertly dropped to the surface of the desert and held the device in her hoof for a few minutes, staring at it, contemplating whether to use it.

The Doctor awoke from his slumber with a start that would have resulted in a near gallop had he not been chained to a chair. He looked at himself and the peculiar way the ponies had tied him to the chair, much like a human if he did say so himself. He always did find it strange how many human customs the ponies of Equestria had adopted without even remote contact with the bipedal creatures. He would have to do a check into that sometime.

The stallion began to lose his curiosity in exchange for a bit of panic as he remembered how he got into this position. “Hello there? Is anyone out there at all? My name is The Doctor and I would really enjoy getting a chance to know you guys just a little bit better!” The Doctor called out. Much to a surprise he actually got a response.

“Hello there, Doctor,” a mare responded from an unknown position. “Why exactly did you come to this place?” the mare asked.

“Oh well, you may have noticed that the moon is still up and the sun, well isn’t. You see, that is because Princess Luna wont lower it for her sister’s sun and because of that we need to find her and,” he paused as he thought of the next thing to say, “persuade her to lower it.” He finished.

The mare turned the corner, and much to The Doctor’s disappointment, a moon and stars adorned her flank. “Well, in that case I guess we should just,” The mare took a mocking pause, “Persuade you not to.”

“Oh bugger.”

Rainbow was following her namesake and dashing through the halls as fast as she could. The only way the stallion trying to follow her could keep up he had to teleport with her. “Wait a second Rainbow,” he teleported ahead of her. “Maybe we should talk about this,” He teleported again. “I mean come on, we need a, GAAAAH!” He teleported once again, this time his destination was right in the path of the speeding mare.

Dash tried to stop in time but without use of her wings she crashed right into the stallion. “What are you doing? We need to stop Luna!”

“Well first we need to make sure you don’t die! I mean, so we don’t die!” he corrected. “I mean come on! She raises and sets the MOON for a living for pony’s sake! I am rather certain she can handle a Pegasus that can’t seem to fly and unicorn that can barely cast telekinesis!”

Rainbow Dash looked at the stallion strangely before asking the question that immediately begged an answer. “Wait, I thought you were some super magical pony! You did make dozens of spells, didn’t you?”

“Well, yes but making spells and casting them are two VERY different things.” The stallion paused for a second before sighing. “You see, I was never good at magic but books are my strong point. I can go think of ways to conjure certain spells very easily and write it down on paper, but I don’t have the magical abilities to do more than that.”

“Well you seem to be good at teleporting.” Dash commented.

“Teleportation comes natural to almost all unicorns actually. It just hurts so much that most don’t like to use it.”

‘So it DOES hurt them,’ Dash thought to herself.

“However, when you get better at it then you can find ways around the pain very easily. It is ironic, I can’t telekinesis anything larger than a book or two but I can teleport my huge self nearly across Equestria without a sweat,” He scoffed.

“Well what ELSE are we supposed to do then?” Dash asked angrily.

The philosopher thought for a minute and his face brightened. “I have an idea!”

Celestia looked around at the strange place she now inhabited. It felt so strange; her senses were being bombarded and felt sharper than a tack. The room she was in smelled of freshly baked bread. The sun wasn’t bright as it was setting among the hills in the distance. For some reason, Celestia felt, smaller than usual. She tried to look to the right to peek at the mirror she could barely see out of the corner of her eye.

She was alarmed when her body didn’t respond. However, the alarm increased tenfold when she began turning the other direction against her will. ‘I have been possessed!’ she thought, being unable to talk through her body anymore. She began screaming in her mind for someone to help her. Suddenly, she saw a familiar face step through the door. It was her mother, who had left her so long ago. Celestia wanted to run up to her, to tell her what Luna was doing and get her help! No doubt Luna would listen to her.

“Well, look at that, if it isn’t my little princess!” Her mother said. Celestia would have started crying if she could control herself. Her absolute joy was being clouded but the feeling of how someone was manipulating her mother! “Oh you are just so beautiful Luna.”

‘Wait, what?’ the princess of the sun thought to herself.

Sure enough, her body began to speak, in Luna’s voice. “Are you sure, I think it looks a bit too, frilly.” Luna then turned towards the mirror, revealing her as a young mare, no older than her teens wearing an extremely feminine gown. “I don’t really like it mother.”

Celestia began to piece it together. What she had found was a memory orb, while rare; they could be used to fill with a memory which would then make the user forget the memory forever unless looked at again. Celestia gasped when she realized the quality of the memory. This hadn’t been done by her teenage sister and certainly not centuries ago. This memory had been stored recently, in last two weeks she would say.

She began to wonder what had brought her sister to deleting this memory from her mind.

She then saw her mother step up beside the reflection of Luna. “I think you look stunning there my little princess. I am sure your father would agree!” She chuckled before returning to seriousness. “Just remember that this is a big deal! Discord is giving a great gift to our kind today and we need to look our best for him!”

“I know I know, you have only said it like, a hundred times.” Celestia giggled as her sister tried to be rebellious; even though she herself could feel the love Luna had for their mother.

Her mother knew it too. She put her hoof on Luna’s shoulder and smiled down at the young mare as she turned to face her. “Just think of it this way. Red Blood will be there.”

Luna immediately perked up and smiled. Celestia laughed as she remembered the huge crush her sister had on that stallion. It was amazing those two, well mannered, royals managed to make such a jerk those many years later. Add to that he got his mother’s immortality made Celestia want to puke sometimes.

Celestia began to wonder, out of all the memories Luna could have remembered, why in Equestria she would pick this one.

Luna looked up to her mother and Celestia could feel her smile, and the fight to get rid of it. “Yeah well, after what Discord does for us! There will be plenty of other stallions out there.”

“Oh my little pony, maybe I should keep Discord from doing this. Who knows how many ponies you would ogle over,” their mother laughed. “I might have to buy you a leash!”

Luna blushed and turned away, wishing this would just stop.

“Well, I best go check on your sister, we all know how much she freaks out over these kind of things,” mom sighed. “I just wish she would calm down once.” She then kissed Luna on the forehead and began to step out. She turned her head right before and spoke. “Maybe you should just tell him Luna; you never really know unless you say something.”

Luna began to get her makeup on. Celestia could feel all the emotions tugging at her poor sister as she sat there thinking. However, she also began wondering how long this memory lasted. If it lasted too long then she did not want to be here. ‘I can’t live through this again,’ she thought to herself.

The Doctor screamed in pain as yet another bolt of Electricity shot him in the flank. “Now, tell us who sent you!”

“I bloody told you already you maniac! Celestia herself did! Luna is about to make a grave mistake and we have to stop her!” The Doctor did his best to not lose consciousness. The electricity was quickly hitting at his brain. He gave the ponies some credit though, when they did resort to torture, they knew what to do with it.

“Alright, so maybe you are not lying about that, tell me though why Celestia would want to betray her sister?” The mare asked.

“You are clouded! Luna is being possessed by something and you need to understand that what she is doing will cause Equestria to fall! How do you think you all will get food without sun?” The Doctor asked before being shocked again. The blackness began to ride at the corner of his eyes. “Without the sun the planet will get cold and the plants will die! After that the animals will die! Everything will die! You have to help us stop her before that happens!” he pleaded with everything he had left.

The Doctor had dealt with aliens of many different types; vampire fish, other time lords, Daleks, and yet it is colorful ponies that manage to get him in a situation he couldn’t escape from no matter what he tried. He hung his head in defeat before he noticed the distinct lack of electricity. Instead, he heard a second pair of hooves come into the room.

He raised his head and took a look at a mare with Derpy eyes standing behind the torture happy maniac. “Hey! That is my Doctor and you won’t hurt him!” She then jumped up; pumping her wings to get higher, and then did a pile driver into the crazy mare.

The other mare didn’t even have time to react. She was in the ground far too fast to cast a spell; the force of the Ditzy Doo smacking into her was too much. “Ah, Ditzy there you are! I was wondering when you would show up. You did do what I asked right?”

“Yup, past us and future Celestia know what to do! Oh, and I got you something!” Ditzy then reached into her saddle bags and pulled out a Sonic Screwdriver. “The Tardis just finished remaking it.”

“Fantastic! Alright, now we have to get into the castle and get the Elements and then make our way to Tartarus!” he said as Ditzy unhooked him from his bindings before they both bolted through the door; before they passed through it though The Doctor stopped her and looked straight into her eyes. “And Ditzy, thank you for showing up when you did.”

Ditzy smiled as massively as she could and hugged the time lord. “Oh you are welcome you silly colt!”

“Are you sure this is going to work?” Dash asked as Starswirl stood on top of her. “It just seems a bit, dangerous.”

“Oh, and running head first is so much better,” the stallion joked.

“Hey, at least we didn’t risk blowing up the entire mountain in that plan! How do you even know what this stuff does anyway?”

“I don’t that is the beauty of it!” he said as he moved another panel of strange letters away. Suddenly the screen changed to a different one, this one seemed to have statuses of stuff in the base. One thing stood out in the diagram though; the room Luna was in had a device that didn’t even require power to be turned on. “I knew those things did something! Alright then, Dash go over to the panel with all the buttons.”

Rainbow trotted over to the strange device that seemed to be the only one with actual buttons. “Alright, now what do I do?”

“Hit the squiggly one!”

“They are all squiggly ones!”

“Ok, good point, let me do it then.” The stallion then started running back and forth from the screen and the device hitting one button at a time. Finally he hit a seventh button and then the device lit up, and nothing happened.

Dash looked around expecting some sort of explosion or something. Instead nothing happened, at least at first. Suddenly red lights began to flare up and a loud siren started to blare. “Enough of the sirens!”

“Perfect! I think it worked then. Come on, let us go!” Dash almost started running until the stallion trotted up next to her with his horn glowing. Suddenly she felt the teleport spell surround her and let a curse escape her muzzle.

Celestia had been, literally, in Luna’s shoes for nearly an hour now. She had been listening to conversations from royalty for too long she felt. She knew that this was wasting time, but you couldn’t leave a memory orb no matter how badly you wanted.

She was happy to see everyone begin converging on the platform for, what was not known to them, Discord’s final gift to Equestria. Sure enough, the soon to be spirit of Chaos appeared before the crowd and smiled. Celestia looked at herself, much younger, on the stage with him. Celestia started to cry in her mind, remembering the Discord she used to know.

The now Alicorn stallion looked over the crowd and let his horn begin to glow. Celestia could remember her feeling as she had looked upon him the first time after he had given her, her sister and her mother the magic that gave them everything they had. Before they had just been horses, he had been an experiment from some sort of alien group apparently and they had made him a conduit to magic, much like all the ponies are today. With this magic he gave the ponies feelings and thoughts and even words.

And this was when he gave the rest of the world magic as well, Griffins, Dragons, Manticores, and the rest of the ponies. However, no one knew the sacrifice he ended up making. Celestia looked on as she relived that horrible memory as Discord began to be engulfed in the magic. It was too much magic for a single pony and so the magic transformed him into something else; an entity that could twist the world into his image.

Celestia just wished she could close her eyes for the rest of it. Discord quickly began to destroy the world and began making the ponies he had created into his own personal play things. It wasn’t very well known to pony kind that this tyranny had only lasted a short time. This is because of the sacrifice of another pony to transform herself into something that could stop Discord.

So Celestia watched again, as her mother sacrificed herself so selflessly to create the Elements of Harmony. Those Elements were her mother and everything she had represented. Luna and Celestia then wielded the Elements just as they would again and again to defeat any threat to pony kind. Celestia remembered how hard it was having just lost her love and her mother in less than two hours. She had to use every last bit of her feelings to use those Elements on the spirit of Chaos.

She realized now, she knew that no matter what happened, her sister must have done something similar and now Celestia would have to use the Elements against her. When she finally exited the orb; she began crying and couldn’t seem to stop.

Author’s notes

Hey guys, sorry about that abrupt ending. I realized that writing that entire past of Celestia would take an entire other chapter. So, how did you all like that past within the past? I did enjoy writing this though as it says what I see as my fanon past of Equestria.

So yeah, more will be talked about on the aliens in the future although I am sure most of you have already discovered who it is. If not then next chapter will have a HUUUUGE clue.

Still looking for another Beta reader guys. It would be nice to have someone who could read these stories before anyone else would get to and tell me what I did wrong.

Letter #1

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

Hey Twi, this is Rainbow Dash but you probably already figured that out. I just wanted to let you know how I was doing so far. I took the opportunity since Ditzy Doo was here to charge the Flim Flam Brothers for the apples they used during that last Cider season

So far I have had an amazing time looking for information about my dad after meeting my mother. I learned he was part of one of the greatest Wonderbolts team out there. I knew I got my awesomeness from somewhere.

Anyway, I learned that my father was a major contributing factor in so many ponies’ lives. He was amazing at his job and did his best to be the best! Also, I thought you may like to know that Trixie isn’t as bad as she was when she came through. The whole Great and Powerful act finished when she realized how self centered she was being. She is teaming up with the Flim Flam Brothers if you can believe it. I think we might be expecting a visit from them too.

Oh, and before I go, I saved a bunch of ponies from a fire in the Neigh Area. It was exilirating to do the type of thing my father did all the time back in the day. I have so much more to tell you but I need to get going to the next town. We learned from the Flim Flam Brothers that there was a pony that lived out in the woods. We are going to check it out now.

Your Friend,
Rainbow Dash

Notes!

Yeah yeah, notes for a letter and all that hooey. I just wanted to let you all know that I have the next story planned out and how I am going to do all my future stories. So stay tuned after this story finished (13 chapters) to get a classical party!