Kindred Spirits

Rainbow Blitz tore through the town, darting left and right, dodging over the large cottages and swooping through the streets. He looked at the town as he flew through it, noting how similar it looked to his second hometown and previous work place, Ponyville. As he continued flying through the town, he had a mare yell, “Hey Dashie! Wait up!”

He stopped right in his tracks, painfully snapping out his wings to slow himself down. He turned to the source of the voice and saw a pink earth pony mare.

“What the buck did you just call me?” He asked angrily glaring at her.

The pink pony was obviously taken aback, she looked at him again, squinting and putting a hoof above her eyes.

“Ohhhhh… I’m sorry!” She said, bouncing up and down, “I thought that you were my friend Dashie, because you know, she always flies really, really fast and leaves a rainbow trailing behind her. Just like you. Also, have you ever tasted a rainbow before? It tastes like-”

“ENOUGH!” Rainbow Blitz yelled, his face contorted with rage, “Oh my Solaris! You’re even more annoying than Bubble Berry! How is that even possible?!”

The pink pony drew back a little, her smile turning into a frown.

“Now that was a little rude wasn’t it?” She asked, pouting.

“Look, I don’t care who you are or what you want,” Rainbow Blitz said, frustrated, “All I want to know is where this place is. For a pony as talkative as you, you can do at least that, right?”

“I want an apology first,” The earth pony said, turning away from him. Rainbow Blitz rubbed his aching head with a hoof, mumbling a curse.

“Alright, I’m sorry, you happy?” He said, “Now can you please tell me where I am?”

“You’re in Ponyville silly!” The pink pony said, regaining her initial zealousness, “Oh by the way, are you new here? If you are, we could totally throw you a welco-”

Rainbow blitz took off before she could finish, beating his painful wings hard and fast.

“She seems like a nice pony, but I’ll dance with a manticore before I engage her in a full conversation,” He said to himself as he rose into the stratosphere. He flew higher and higher until he was above most of the clouds. He looked around him, noticing groups of pegasi forming a large rain cloud.

“Must be time for the ol’ downpour,” He said. He winced as his body screamed at him to take a break. He had been flying ever since he woke up only a half hour ago, his body should be able to take much more than this.

“Hey you!” A voice called out from behind him, “You new in town?”

He turned and saw a cyan pegasus flying behind him, her rainbow mane flowing in the wind.

“What do you want?” He asked her, rubbing his head with his hoof again.

“Nothing,” She said casually, landing on a cloud, “Just wondering cause I’ve never seen you before.”

“I could say the same for you,” He replied, taking a rest on the cloud, “I lived here until six months ago.”

“Six months?” the mare asked, her magenta eyes wide with astonishment, “Funny. I don’t recall meeting you before.”

Rainbow Blitz lay back on the cloud, relaxing his muscles. He just lay there, contemplating today’s events: meeting with the five ponies he never wanted to see again, the black tentacles, the pink pony, the pain and now, this random mare. He was about to drift off to sleep when he heard the mare ask him, “Hey, wanna race?”

“Not particularly,” He replied lazily, covering his eyes with some cloud.

“Aww… scared to lose to a mare?” She taunted, pacing around him, “Well, It is to be expected, I am the one and only, Rainbow Dash after all.”

“Never heard of you,” He said, rising to his feet, “But I’ll take you on for the race.”

“I’ll burn my name into your brain,” Rainbow Dash said, getting into position, “See how you forget me then.”

“So let’s do this,” Rainbow Blitz said, feeling rejuvenated from the prospect of a good race. He had never felt such a vibrant energy radiating from any pony in a long time. He pointed to a distant raincloud and said, “First there and back wins.”

“You’re on!” Rainbow Dash said, “I’ll leave you in the dust!”

“Let’s see you try,” Rainbow Blitz replied smugly, readying himself, “three… two… one… Go!”

The two pegasi shot off the cloud, both leaving behind rainbow colored trails. Rainbow Dash surged ahead initially, leaving the jagged trail behind but Rainbow Blitz caught up soon enough. They both sped toward the designated cloud, beating their wings as hard and as fast as they could.

“You’re not bad,” Rainbow Dash yelled through her teeth, her his lips pulled apart by the wind.

“You’re not too shabby yourself,” Rainbow Blitz yelled back, mouth being pulled back by same force.

Both of them approached the raincloud at high speeds, the sound barrier forming on their fore hooves. At the cloud, both pegasi shot backwards, breaking the sound barrier with a beautiful spectrum of light. A sonic rainboom. Both ponies turned toward each other, surprise painted all over their faces,

“You can do a sonic rainboom?!” They both shouted at each other. After their short exchange, they focused back on the race, each pony determined to beat the other. They eventually made it back to their starting cloud, Rainbow Dash coming in first, but only by a second.

“Hah! I win!” She proclaimed, proudly, puffing her chest out, “I told you I’d win, and I did! Though you could do a sonic rainboom so that makes you pretty cool. What do you have to say about that… uh… what’s your name again?”

She turned to see Rainbow Blitz passed out on the cloud. She flew over and shook him lightly.

“Hey, are you alright?” She asked, shaking him. He didn’t respond.

“Crap,” She said to herself. Then, thinking of a solution, she pulled the heavy stallion onto her back and flew off.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“So what’s the problem?” Dusk Shine asked. He and the others had made it to Twilight’s house, a large tree. Much like his own, or at least, before it was renovated into his fort. Twilight sent for the doctor to come after the storm subsided and fortunately, it was a short one.

“Well, it would appear that all of you have muscle fatigue and migraine,” The brown unicorn said, removing a piece of medical equipment from around Dusk’s foreleg, “Well, except Princess Twilight Sparkle.”

“You know you don’t have to call me that,” Twilight said, blushing a little upon hearing her name and title, “I visit you almost every time I get a checkup.”

“I insist on retaining the formality,” The doctor said smiling slightly, “Though it is nice to know that you don’t mind a little familiarity.”
“So what’s the treatment?” AJ asked, rubbing his head.

“Take a tablet of this and rest,” The doctor said, levitating a small bottle of pills over to AJ. He dropped it into AJ’s hooves and took his leave.

“Well, that’s over and done with,” Twilight said, then turning to Dusk, “So how did you get here?”

“Well, we were pulled into a violet liquid, presumably a portal, and ended up in the field you found us in.” Dusk said briskly, “That should sum it up.”

“So, may I know your names?” Twilight asked, sitting on a stool.

“Well, as you know, I’m Dusk Shine,” Dusk said, “The orange earth pony to my right is AJ, the three ponies on the mattress over there from left to right are Bubble Berry, Elusive and Butterscotch.”

“Hey, mister high and mighty,” AJ said, popping out a pill from the bottle, “Ya forgot the rainbow colored pain in the ass.”

Dusk glared at AJ but sighed and said, “Yes, there is another, Rainbow Blitz, the jerk cyan pegasus who flew off immediately after arriving here.”

“Wow, isn’t that a bit strong?” Twilight asked, “I mean, you ponies know his name so you must be at least acquaintances.”

“More like enemies,” Dusk said levitating the bottle of pills from AJ, “We used to be friends.”

“Key word being ‘was’” AJ agreed, swallowing his pill, “And that was about six months ago.”

“Well, what happened six months ago?” Twilight asked, levitating a book toward herself, “A falling out?”

“That’s… a sensitive topic,” Dusk said. Twilight noticed that both Dusk and AJ flinched at the mention of a falling out. Dusk shook his head a couple times before asking, “Um, might I know where we are?”

“You are in Ponyville,” Twilight replied, cocking her head to the side a little, “Why?”

“Really?” Dusk asked, looking a little puzzled, “Because I could’ve sworn my fort was in this very location you brought us.”

“Hmm, that’s funny,” Twilight said, tapping her hoof on her chin, “I don’t recall any construction occurring here recently.”

“Well, it was built about three months ago,” Dusk said, trying to reminisce the events that had transpired since the construction of his fort, “Anything then?”

“No, not really,” Twilight said, “Well, at any rate, it would seem that to understand how you came here, we would need to find out about that portal you came through.”

“Portal?” Dusk asked, swallowing his pill, “Oh the violet liquid?”

“Yes,” Twilight said, flipping through the book in front of her, “We need as much knowledge as we can possibly get.”

“Ah’ll let ya two get ta that,” AJ said, laying down, “Meanwhile I’m gonna take a rest.”

And with that, the orange farm pony dozed off.

“Lazy piece of crap,” Dusk said to himself, levitating a book over. The two alicorns then proceeded to continue leafing through their books for any clues on the portal.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Bubble Berry awoke to find himself in a large library. He stood up, rubbing a sleepy eye with his hoof.

“Hey, sleeping ugly, come and help out,” Dusk called out.

Bubble Berry turned to the source of the voice. He saw, seated around a wooden table, Dusk, Elusive, Butterscotch, AJ and three unknown mares that looked a lot like his friends. One of the ponies was a purple alicorn and the other two were earth ponies. One of them wearing a Stetson, and the other was pink and had a bubbly mane.

“Ooh! Is he awake Twilight? Is he awake?” The pink pony asked excitedly, looking at the female purple alicorn.

“Yes Pinkie, he is up,” The alicorn, presumably Twilight, said, now you may go over to give him a mini welcome party.”

The pink mare leapt over the table, landed in front of Bubble Berry, pulled out two party poppers and released them in his face.

“Welcome to Ponyville!” She exclaimed, beaming at him, “Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie! What’s your name?”

“I’m Bubbly Berry,” He replied, perking up.

“Hey stop slacking and come and help,” AJ grumbled, pushing a book aside for another one.

The two pink ponies walked over to the table talking excitedly about random stuff.

“Well we’ve found absolutely nothing,” Elusive said, flipping through the book in his hooves, “Can we wrap this up so that I might return to my work?”

“Work?” Dusk asked irritably, “You’re possibly in another universe and you’re concerned about work?”

“Well, you haven’t proven anything yet,” Elusive argued, “All you’ve found is the very first female alicorn and two look-a-likes of these vermin!”

He pointed to AJ and Bubble Berry.

“Those sound like fighting words,” AJ hissed through his bared teeth, “How about ah kick ya sorry flank?”

“Alright sugar cube, that’s enough,” The other orange pony said, “Let’s just resume the search.”

AJ mumbled something but began searching through a book. Suddenly, Bubble Berry cried out, “Ahah! I’ve found it!”

He promptly threw a heavy tome on the table and flipped some pages.

“Here it is!” He said, pointing to it with his hoof, “‘Violet liquid that burns and freezes’ That’s what we’re looking for right?”

The others looked at him, a face of wonder painted on their faces. Except Pinkie Pie who said, “Oh, I saw that book too!”

“And ya didn’t bring it here?” The other orange pony asked, “Why not?”

“Well, isn’t it obvious Applejack?” Pinkie said, bouncing up and down, “I wanted to see if Bubbles over there could find it too!”

Applejack facehoofed. Twilight and Dusk looked at the text, examining it closely.

“Well, it appears to be an inter-dimensional portal,” Twilight said, “So that would mean…”

“That we’re from parallel universes!” Dusk finished, “But how is that possible? The text states that this magic was lost to time.”

“Well, since we don’t know, we can’t go back,” Elusive said, “Is that what you’re saying?”

“Yes,” Twilight replied.

Elusive suddenly leaned back in his chair and said over dramatically, “Oh no! Of all the worst things that could happen, this is the, worst, possible, thing!”