Two Worlds, One Destiny

by Charles Spratt

Rating: teen
Tags: Crossover, Alternate Universe, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Rainbow Dash, Other, Adventure
Length: 18760

When an abstract entity elliminates Rainbow Dash and Blossom from their respective worlds, can they join forces to save both worlds from total destruction?

Every character has a purpose. If not, why would you write them? This idea is forcibly explored when two characters from two very different stories suddenly disappear from their respective worlds, all due to an invading force. Blossom and Rainbow Dash now have to put aside their differences to escape purgatory and save their worlds from complete destruction. Can the combined forces of Loyalty and Everything Nice triumph over this parasitic force, or will they disappear from reality forever?

Once again, give me a comment about what you thought after you're done reading. Hope you enjoy!

Published 2014-07-04 21:00:02 UTC
Last updated 2014-08-06 23:55:33 UTC

Vanished

Blossom slammed into the monster's side, trying her hardest to knock it to the ground. Despite her strength, the monster remained unphased, and simply turned to face her. It then tried to blast her with its fire breath. Blossom quickly dodged, but the monster just kept trying to blast her. This was just what Blossom wanted, as she kept the creature distracted while Bubbles and Buttercup got behind it. While the monster tried to incinerate Blossom, Buttercup grabbed Bubbles' ankle, and started to spin her around as quickly as she could. After a bit, Buttercup released Bubbles, launching her toward the beast at top speed. Bubbles rearranged her body into a kicking position, and slammed the monster at full force. This caught the monster by surprise, as it started to fall down onto Blossom. Blossom immediatly flew up, and unleashed a powerful uppercut on the monster, launching it up a few yards. It probably would've flown higher, but it was dropkicked by Buttercup before it could do so, sending it speeding back to the ground. The monster slammed into the ground, creating a large crater in the street below. The three Powerpuff girls then reunited a little distance above the monster. They looked down at the creature for a moment, who wasn't getting up, but was still clearly alive.

"So, should we finish him?" asked Buttercup with a determined grin. Blossom didn't answer right away, and instead looked at the monster's eyes. The creature's eyes showed nothing but malice as it desperately tried to get back up. Blossom then turned to her sisters and nodded. They nodded back, and flew quickly into the air. After getting about 500 yards up, they joined hands and flew right back down at the monster at top speed, all while spinning like a drill. They got within a hundred yards of the monster, when suddenly a bright flash of light appeared right in front of the three girls, blinding them temporarily. Bubbles was the first to recover. Once her sight returned, she saw that Blossom had disappeared! Without a third person to hold on to, Bubbles and Buttercup lost control, causing them to slam into each other for a bit before launching them in opposite directions. They ended up getting launched through a Toys R Us and Burger King, respectively. Despite this, Buttercup remained relatively unscathed, and soared into the hole in the opposite building to find Bubbles. She didn't have to look for long, as she quickly found Bubbles, who had passed out on a large teddy bear. Buttercup nudged Bubbles arm, forcing Bubbles to reopen her eyes. Once they had opened, Buttercup began talking.

"What the heck was that? Why'd you let go, Bubbles???" Buttercup asked.

"I never let go!" replied Bubbles defensively.

"Really? Then how'd we end up crashing during something as mind numbingly simple as a drill finisher?" asked Buttercup with a raised eyebrow.

"Because Blossom disappeared!" Bubbles answered.

"WHAT??" Buttercup exclaimed.

Bubbles nodded and said, "After I recovered from that flash, I saw that Blossom was gone! Without a third person to hold on to, we lost control! We need to find her now!"

"Not just yet, Bubbles" said Buttercup.

"What? Why not??" asked Bubbles. Buttercup simply pointed her head toward the hole in the wall. Bubbles soared to the wall and looked out, to see the monster was almost fully risen.

"Oh..." said Bubbles quietly. Buttercup flew around her and rushed straight for the monster. However, she ended up getting slammed to the ground. Bubbles gasped and flew down to pick up Buttercup from the cement. Once Buttercup was back up, the duo flew right at the monster. Unfortunately, this time the monster was prepared. Before the girls could do anything, they got slammed back to the ground. They then tried splitting up and attacking the monster from the front and the back, kind of like they did back when Blossom was around. Sadly, the monster just ducked when they came at different angles, causing Bubbles and Buttercup to just slam into one another. The duo were then knocked several blocks away by one swing of the monster's tail. When they landed, they tried to get up, but didn't have enough strength to get back up. They looked at each other, then looked up at the giant monster who was looming over them. Bubbles closed her eyes and cringed in anticipation of the monster's finishing attack. Buttercup held Bubbles close to her and glared up at the monster. She then fired her laser vision at the colossal beast, as a last ditch effort to make it go away. The creature, however, didn't seem to be discouraged by her beams, and raised its foot right above the Powerpuff girls, with the intent of stomping them into the dust. Just before it did however, it suddenly disintegrated in a flurry of purple smoke. Buttercup smiled, clearly pleased with this turn of events... for about two seconds. When she saw the view that the creature had been blocking, her smile quickly switched to a look of both shock and fear. Buttercup started shaking Bubbles to get her to opened her eyes. Once they were open, the duo stared at the incoming purple haze that was beginning to consume the sky...

Elsewhere...

Discord laughed while he sat atop his throne, savoring the sweet taste of victory. He had all of the Mane 6 corrupted, Twilight was leaving Ponyville forever, ensuring that the elements would never be used against him, and Ponyville had officially lost all logic, making it the chaos capital of the world. There was truly nothing that could stop him, and that was truly something heavenly for him.

"Chaos is a wonderful, wonderful thing!” said Discord to himself as he filled a cup with the chocolate rain coming from the cloud next to him. He was on top of the world… until he heard a feminine voice yell out to him.

“Not as wonderful as friendship!” the voice said.

Discord looked up and saw that the Mane 6 were in front of him, all with their elements in tow.

"Oh, this again?” he said smugly, as he drank the glass that the chocolate rain was in. Upon finishing that, he threw the milk away, letting it safely explode a few feet away.

Applejack took a step forward and said, “That's right! You couldn't break apart our friendship for long!” Discord simply rolled his eyes and levitated AppleJack’s element to him, which dragged AppleJack along with it.

"Oh, Applejack, don't lie to me. I'm the one who made you a liar” He said just before he levitated the other necklaces to him, dragging their bearers with them. “Will you ever learn?”

Twilight Sparkle gasped and teleported between her friends and Discord, putting up a bubble shield around them to break Discord’s hold on her friends. After she brought them gently to the ground, she turned to Discord and said, “I'll tell you what we've learned, Discord. We've learned that friendship isn't always easy. But there's no doubt it's worth fighting for!”

Discord teleported right in front of Twilight and said, “Ugh, gag. Fine, go ahead, try and use your little Elements, ‘frenemies’. Just make it quick.”

He then teleported back to his throne and sat down, before saying, “I'm missing some excellent chaos here!”

Twilight Sparkle let off a determined grin and called out to her team, “All right, ladies, let's show him what friendship can do!” All of her friends got into position. Well, all except Pinkie Pie, who quickly excalimed, “Wait wait wait!”

The others turned towards her, and saw that she was underneath one of the cotton candy clouds, guzzling the chocolate milk rain that came out of it. The other members of the Mane 6 rolled their eyes, but allowed her to finish her drink. After a moment, Pinkie rushed back to the others and growled at Discord. Once that was finished, the Mane 6 began the element process. Discord simply yawned and closed his eyes, all while showing a smugly confident smile. However, after a bit he felt something breeze past his ear. He opened his eyes and saw that the elements were firing at him.

“Huh. What's this?” he said. After a second though, he realized that the elements were actually working. His eyes became wide, as he knew what was coming. Twilight opened her eye lids, revealing eyes that were pure white.

“NOOOOO!!!” yelled Discord, as he braced himself for the incoming rainbow of doom. However, just when Twilight’s eyes opened up, a bright flash of light was set off right behind her. Twilight didn’t notice, as she was looking the other way, but the other five sure as heck noticed it. The light blinded them, and they immediately covered their eyes. Next thing anypony knew, the Mane 6 were falling to the ground. After she landed, Twilight looked up, and saw that the attack had apparently failed, as Discord was still on his throne bracing himself. Twilight then looked backwards, and instantly saw why it had failed. Behind her were four of her friends, who were getting back up after the crash. However, Rainbow Dash was nowhere to be seen. The only thing left was her necklace, which was lying right below where she had been just a few seconds ago. Twilight then turned toward Discord, who by this point had stopped bracing, and was now just staring with a slight grin on his face.

“Discord, what did you do with Rainbow Dash???” yelled Twilight in anger.

Discord stared at her with a confused expression for a moment before responding.

“I did nothing. She was here, now she’s not. Pretty convenient, if you ask me.” He answered.

“Stop lying, Discord! Bring Rainbow Dash back, right now!!” yelled AppleJack angrily.

“I’m not lying, AppleJack. I haven’t a clue where she went. Perhaps she’s not as loyal as you five always thought she was.”

“Then how do you explain her leaving in the middle of an assault, while not taking her necklace with her????” asked Rarity

“Who knows, who cares?” Discord replied smugly. “I guess when you’re one with chaos, things just go your waaaAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!” yelled Discord, as he was interrupted by a beam from the sky that blasted him, causing him to evaporate in a flurry of smoke.

Once he was gone, all of the chaos in Ponyville dissipated, returning the town to normal once more. The Mane 5 stared for a moment, trying to comprehend what the heck just happened. After a bit, Pinkie Pie jumped in joy and started saying in a rapid tone of voice, “WOOOOHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! WE WON!!! Y’KNOW WHAT THIS CALLS FOR??? A PARTY!!! OMIGOSH, I’LL GET EVERYPONY TOGETHER AND…” Once she noticed that none of her friends were smiling, Pinkie stopped talking. Everypony except for Twilight gathered around Rainbow’s element of Loyalty. They looked down at it for a moment, before Pinkie asked, “Umm, guys, is Rainbow…”

“I don’t think so, Pinkie. Rainbow is a tough pony; I don’t think she would be downed this easily.” Said Fluttershy

“Alrighty then, what do ya’ll think happened to her?” asked AppleJack.

“I don’t know, but I don’t think that’s our biggest concern at the moment.” Said Twilight, who was still staring out in a different direction

“Not our biggest concern?!?! What could possibly be a bigger concern than having one of our friends mysteriously vanish??” asked Rarity. Twilight didn’t answer, and instead kept staring out at the horizon. After a moment, the others looked up and saw what Twilight was staring at: A purple haze that appeared to be consuming the sky and parts of the ground in the distance, as well as turning a few small animals into purple crystalized versions of their normal selves, complete with glowing yellow eyes and an inherent desire to spread this purple stuff to both the environment and other creatures. Rarity looked over at Twilight and asked, “That stuff?”

“That stuff.” Twilight said in response

To Be Continued…

An Akward Reunion

Rainbow Dash opened up her eyes. The second that she did so, however, she wished that she had just kept them shut, as where she had ended up was blindingly bright. She squinted for a moment, allowing her eyes to adjust to the blinding light. After her eyes had finally adjusted, she took a look around to see where she had ended up. However, all she saw was white. There was a floor, considering she was lying on it, but other than that, it was just empty white space in every direction. She then remembered where she was last, and launched upward, yelling, “HELLO?? Can anypony hear me?? Is Discord gone? What’s going on??” However, her shouts were just met with silence. Clearly, no one could hear her. She then looked down, and saw that her element was missing! Once she saw that, her blood froze as she thought, “Am… Am I… Dead?” She quickly shook off the idea though, since thinking negatively like that could only make things worse. She then wondered if she was in a dream. However, that also seemed unlikely, as she was pretty sure she would never have a dream this boring. However, just to make sure, she flew up a little distance, and then soared down at the ground. She merely hit her head, causing her to grasp it. That settled it; this was real. After she recovered from the head injury, she flew out in a random direction, hoping to find… well, anything really.

Meanwhile, Blossom had just recovered. She immediately soared up a little distance, and started yelling, “Bubbles? Buttercup? Where are you two? Where’s Townsville? Where am I?” However, she too was replied to with nothing but silence. She then went through a similar process that Rainbow Dash went through, except minus the element bit. After she’d stopped massaging her head to get the pain out of it, she looked carefully in the distance and saw a very, very faint outline of something that looked kind of like a plank in the distance. Immediately, she zoomed off towards it, hoping to get a clue about the situation.

A few minutes later, she suddenly rammed into something that was also flying by at a high speed. The two of them bounced back a few yards, and then got up and glared at one another. However, the second they looked into one another’s eyes, their expressions changed. Blossom’s eyes switched to a look of surprise, and Rainbow’s eyes switched to a look of fear. Blossom was about to say something, but Rainbow beat her to it, saying, “Oh no, not you again!!”

“Ummm… yes me again?” said Blossom in a questioning voice, despite clearly being able to tell that Rainbow remembered her.

“STAY AWAY!!!” yelled Rainbow, as she backed away from Blossom in panic.

“Wait, I just wa…”

“I SAID STAY AWAY!!!” yelled Rainbow Dash, as she soared off in the opposite direction. Blossom immediately gave chase, knowing that if she lost track of this rainbow colored pony, she’d have lost a potential lead and ally. The two of them soared away at top speed for 10 minutes, before Rainbow suddenly stopped dead in her tracks, almost like she were a fly zooming into a windshield. Blossom didn’t have time to react to this, and as a result, crashed into Rainbow Dash. The two then slowly slid down the invisible wall, eventually lying down flat on the ground. Blossom didn’t waste any time, and wrapped herself around Rainbow right away, taking care to hold down both wings. This kept Rainbow Dash from fleeing, but it also cost Blossom her eardrums, as Rainbow was constantly screaming words of anger and panic at a volume that was unmatchable.

After a few minutes of this, Blossom got sick of her yelling, and put one of her hands over Rainbow’s mouth, quieting her down just enough for Blossom to communicate if she shouted. “STOP STRUGGLING AND LISTEN TO ME!! I DON’T WANT TO BRING YOU HOME THIS TIME! I ONLY WANT TO TALK!!” yelled Blossom. This got Rainbow to stop screaming, as she looked up at Blossom with a bewildered look. Blossom nodded and said, “Look, Rainbow Dash, I just want to say one thing. You probably hate me because of our last interaction, but for what it’s worth, I’m sorry about our behavior. It was really inexcusable, considering we tried to take you home without even asking you if you were ok with it. I honestly don’t know what we were thinking that day. Now, you probably won’t trust me, but I would just like to put it behind us for now. Can we?”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow and said, “You’re right, I don’t trust you. I mean, you kidnapped me and brought me to a weird white world! Do you have any idea what that’ll do to my home?! Ponyville is probably floating sideways inside of a jug of apple juice, all because you took me here while I was battling Discord! I sure hope you’re happy.”

Blossom furrowed her brow, and replied with, “First of all, that sentence didn’t make sense. Secondly, I didn’t take you here!”

“Well, FIRST of all, neither does Discord, and SECOND of all, you obviously did. I mean, look at this place! It’s empty except for two beings, you and me. Who else could’ve done it? And now you come to me with a fake apology, trying to throw me off guard before you kidnap me. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t buck you across this dimension.” Said Rainbow, as she got on her guard.

Blossom almost bursted in rage, but regained control of herself at the last moment and calmly said, “Simple. I was also taken from my world while battling a monster.”

“NOT GOOD ENO… wait a minute, say what?”

“I said, I was also taken from my world right when I was about to finish fighting a monster.”

“Hmm… I need some details before I believe that story. Tell me how you were going to finish that monster, and what brought you to this world.” Said Rainbow Dash with a hoof to her chin

“Gladly.” Said Blossom, who was clearly relieved to finally just talk with her on a mouth to mouth level.

“You see, we were fighting a giant monster, and…”

“Hold it! How big are we talking?” asked Rainbow Dash

Blossom tilted her head, and said, “About the size of a skyscraper. Why?”

“So, roughly the size of a large hydra then?”

“…Sure. Why not?”

“Alrighty then, carry on.”

“Anyway, after some intense fighting, we had knocked it to the ground, and decided to finish it with a drill finisher, as I saw no remorse in its eyes. We soared up about 500 yards, and zoomed down, all while spinning like a drill, with the obvious intent of drilling a hole through it. However, once we got down to about 100 yards away, I saw a bright flash of light right in front of me that blinded me. Next thing I knew, I was in this place.” Said Blossom. Rainbow Dash just stared at her with a face that revealed not a single obvious thought. Blossom stared back for a moment, before saying, “Well? Was that like your experience?” Rainbow nodded in response, and said, “Yes, it’s a lot like my experience. There’s only one major difference.”

“And what might that be?” asked Blossom with her head tilted slightly.

“The only major difference is that you’re sick.”

“WHAT?!” yelled Blossom angrily.

“I’m sorry to say so, but that’s the case. I mean, you were going to drill into that monster, spilling his blood all over the city?? I mean, sure, it seemed irredeemable, so purification is out of the question, but why didn’t you just depower or petrify it instead of killing it in the most gory way possible?” Rainbow asked.

“Because, if we had done it that way, it could’ve just been repowered by some over villain, and then we’d be back at square one!”

“So that’s a reasonable excuse to gore it alive??”

“Well… Yes!”

“As I said, sick.”

“WELL, THAT’S…” Blossom started yelling before she regained herself again.

“…not the point. The point is, we both need to get back to our worlds on the double before they get wrecked. You probably still don’t trust me fully, and I’m not sure I trust you fully, but in this case, we really have no choice but to work together. Truce for now?” asked Blossom as she held a hand out for Rainbow. Rainbow stared for a moment, carefully considering Blossom’s offer. On the one hand, she did remember that time where she was in Townsville. She knew this little girl was a strong ally. On the other hand, if she let down her guard, she could be forever stuck as this girl’s personal house pet. She thought for a second, then decided that any world would be better than here. At least if she was in this girl’s world, she could do some research on how to get back to Equestria, and sneak out in the night or something. She then looked up at Blossom and put her hoof on her hand, saying, “Very well, truce for now.”

Blossom smiled and said, “Ok, good, glad we’re on the same team. I guess I should introduce myself. My name is Blossom. I already know your name, Rainbow Dash, since I did a bit of research after our little…‘episode’.”

“Ok then, Blossom, what should be our first goal? I haven’t seen a single thing in this dimension yet!” said Rainbow

“Well, I was rushing over that way toward something that looked like a plank in the distance. Then I rammed into you and blah blah blah, you know the rest of the story. I say we should go check out that plank first.” Said Blossom

“Lead the way!” said Rainbow. Blossom nodded and zoomed off toward the right, with Rainbow Dash following close behind.

After about ten minutes, the duo arrived at the plank, and found out that it was really… just a plank. Aside from a crudely drawn smiley face on one end, nothing really stood out about it. However, the stuff around it garnered some attention. Around it was a large mess of other objects, including a paddle ball, a katana, a collar with an SD tag on it, a wrench, a pipe of some description, a large golden tooth with a hole in it, several pairs of sunglasses, some sort of Boy Scout attire, and a cornucopia of other random mismatched items just strewn about with no rhyme or reason. They duo didn’t waste any time, and immediately started to dig through this junk, hoping to find any sort of clue that could lead them in the right direction. After a couple minutes, they uncovered a button that appeared to be attached to the floor. Rainbow immediately pressed it, which caused a bit of the floor to open up a little distance away from the pile of random stuff. Rainbow and Blossom took cover behind the junk, just in case whatever came out of the floor was dangerous. However, when the smoke from the rising floor panels had finally subsided, they saw that all that had risen was an ordinary looking box. It was just a partially transparent black box with a purple trim. However, it was the inside that really caught the girl’s eyes. Inside of it were two glowing white spheres that gave off a powerful aura that could be felt even from the safe distance. Blossom and Rainbow Dash stood there for a minute, taking in the feel good aura, before Blossom looked at Rainbow and said, “I have a feeling that those spheres should help us get out of here. Wait here, I’ll go open the box.” Blossom was about to grab the box, when suddenly Rainbow yelled out, “WAIT!!!”

Blossom stopped in her tracks, and asked, “What’s wrong, Rainbow Dash?”

Rainbow stared at the box for another second, before she said, “I don’t know. I’m just getting a terrible feeling of dread from that box. Sure, the sphere’s aura feels good, but when I look at this box, I can just feel my tail bristle up. It’s as if every bone in my body is saying that I’m in real danger from that box. I think I know why that is. Just give me a moment.”

Rainbow slowly walked up to the box. When she got within a few feet, she grabbed a nearby elvis wig and threw it at the box. Once the wig hit the box, the wig immediately dissolved into ashes. Blossom gasped when she saw this, terrified that she was that close to becoming ashes herself. Rainbow, however, remained relatively calm. “Thought so.” Said Rainbow Dash to herself. She then turned towards Blossom, and asked, “Can you create a cloud?”

“A what?”

“A cloud. I need a cloud to get rid of this type of magic.”

“Umm… Sure, I can create one…”

“Good. When I say now, you fire your heat vision at the box. I’ll tell you when to stop, and then I’ll take care of the rest.”

Blossom simply shook her head, completely stumped as to what Rainbow was planning. Regardless, Blossom made a cloud, and then sent it floating up to Rainbow Dash. Rainbow grabbed it, and then stood on it. After a moment, she yelled, “Now!”

Blossom complied, and started firing her heat vision at the box. After about 90 seconds, Rainbow yelled out, “Ok, that’s good!” Blossom stopped firing her eye lasers, and watched as Rainbow started jumping up and down on the makeshift cloud, quickly making it into a raincloud. The cloud then released a heavy downpour on the box, which lasted for twenty seconds before running out. Once it had stopped raining, Rainbow kicked the cloud away, and then flew over next to Blossom. Without stopping to say anything, Rainbow gently flapped her wings, creating a light breeze. The second this breeze hit the box, the dark magic on the box gently blew away, leaving nothing but a glass cube with two bright orbs inside of it. Blossom then turned toward Rainbow Dash, staring up at her in pure fascination.

“So, how was that? Awesome, right?” asked Rainbow.

Blossom nodded and simply stated, “How did you know what to do against that magic?”

Rainbow chuckled and said, “If you had a friend like Twilight, you’d probably know what to do against that magic too. Anyway, enough of that, let’s open this box!”

Rainbow slammed her hoof into the box, which broke the glass, releasing the two glowing white spheres. They rolled out of the box, and stopped right in front of Blossom. Blossom tossed one orb over to Rainbow and kept the other one in her own hands. The two of them stared at the orbs in confusion, trying to figure out what they do.

“So, now what?” asked Rainbow Dash

“I don’t know…” began Blossom. However, the second she said those three words, the orbs shot into the bodies of their respective holders. The duo collapsed to their knees, grasping their stomachs in complete agony. They looked up at each other for a second, before Rainbow yelled, “Was this a trap?”

“Let’s hope not…” yelled Blossom back. After another moment of intense abdominal pain, Rainbow and Blossom suddenly heard a rhyme inside their heads. The voice reciting that rhyme said, “It’s time to look at your home sweet home, and see what’s happening since you left it alone.” Blossom and Rainbow Dash grasped their heads, as they felt something inside their heads burn. After a bit of this burning, Blossom and Rainbow felt their eyes become pure white, and then collapsed to the ground, powerless to fight against this feeling inside of their bodies. As their consciousness slowly slipped away, the only thing that they could do was hope that this wasn’t an elaborate trap…

To Be Continued…

A Losing Battle

Blossom and Rainbow opened their eyes. Once they did, they saw that they were floating in some kind of odd light blue warp thing that was going through… something. In short, they had no idea where they were. They looked at each other, before hearing a booming voice say, “For those whose existence both is and is not, what is the location from which you were brought?”

Blossom and Rainbow Dash glanced at each other, and shrugged. The rhyme this voice was asking simply didn’t make sense. From which you were brought? What was that even supposed to mean? Rainbow then turned her head and yelled, “Where are we? Who are you? What does your question mean? WHY ARE YOU RHYMING??”

“The place you’re at is inside of your minds. It’s because of the orbs that this place you could find. As for my name, that I cannot say. Even if I knew, a secret it would stay. The question I ask, to put it in poem: what is your turf, where do you call home?” came the booming voice’s answer.

“But, why are you…” began Blossom

“Why do I rhyme? Why do you care? Do you want to get home, little red hair?” asked the voice in a slightly irritated tone.

Blossom blushed a little, and said, “Fine, I live in Townsville.”

“I see, so that’s where you survive. A town that’ll always get wrecked, but will always revive. Now what about you, Ms. Rainbow Mane? What is the place that you call your domain?”

“I came from Ponyville, and I need to get back right now to stop Discord!” said Rainbow Dash quickly

“Ponyville, huh? Quite a fine home indeed. A place where flight, magic, and earth all live peacefully.” Said the voice

“Alright, then… voice. Bring us back to our homes!” said Blossom, who seemed a bit weirded out to be talking to a voice with no body.

“No can do, Ms. Powerpuff girl. I lack the skills to send you back to your world.”

“Then why did you ask where we were from??” asked Rainbow Dash in a slightly irritated voice.

“Because your worlds are in danger, they’re in a losing fight. You need to see for yourselves; it’s quite the sight.” Replied the voice. Right after it finished saying that, Rainbow and Blossom felt their bodies start to tingle. They looked down and saw that they were vanishing from the legs up. Their eyes widened, but before they could give any verbal statements, they completely disappeared.

Blossom opened her eyes, and found herself lying down on some grass in a field. She got up and took a look around. Around her she saw several tall buildings, a few trees, a sign that was advertising some sort of soft drink, and the town hall. She recognized all of these things, and immediately jumped up in joy, overjoyed that she had made it back to Townsville once again. Once that jump was over, she heard the sound of people screaming in the distance. Blossom immediately rushed off in the direction of the screams, ready to help Townsville against… well, against whatever they were screaming about. Almost immediately after arriving there, however, she saw something that made her stop dead in her tracks. The buildings in this area of Townsville were now all made of purple crystals! More shocking than that, however, were that some of the townsfolk appeared to be made of these crystals as well! She looked to the side, and saw that the screams were coming from a bus full of passengers that was slowly being pushed off the roof of a building by a few of the crystalized townspeople. Why a bus was on the roof was an odd ordeal, but it wasn’t something that Blossom was willing to waste valuable seconds thinking about. She immediately rushed to the bus, which had started to fall. She soared down underneath it and flew upward, hoping to catch it before it hit the ground. However, the bus simply passed clean through her when she got close. Blossom didn’t think about that, simply assuming that she’d missed. She immediately made a U-turn and soared down, hoping to grab the bus by its rear bumper. When she tried to grab it that way however, the same thing happened, with her hands just going through the bumper, almost as if it were a ghost. She attempted to grab it a few more times before the realization sank in; she was a ghost of some description. When she realized that, she stopped trying to save the bus and sadly watched it fall toward the ground. It was just about to hit the ground, when the vehicle suddenly stopped. Blossom flew down to ground level, and saw that Bubbles was holding it. However, Bubbles looked a little bit worse for wear. Her outfit was a bit torn up, she had scrapes and cuts all over her, and her eyes appeared to be very close to shutting, almost like she hadn’t slept in days. Bubbles immediately put the bus down, and flew over to the town hall as quickly as she could, stunning a few crystalized townsfolk along the way. Blossom followed Bubbles, and in a few minutes, they arrived at town hall. When they got there, Bubbles went to the grassy field that Blossom had started out in, and just lied down in it, looking up at the purple sky. Blossom flew down next to Bubbles and said to her in a somewhat loud voice, “Hey, Bubbles!”

Bubbles didn’t answer, and instead just picked up a nearby dandelion and blew on it.

“BUBBLES!!!” yelled Blossom at the top of her lungs. Bubbles didn’t even blink. She simply turned to the side, looked straight at Blossom, and then turned to the other side. “Why is she ignoring me?” Thought Blossom to herself. She then remembered that she was a ghost of some sort, so that might have something to do with it. Blossom simply sighed and lied down on the field next to Bubbles, also looking at the purple sky. After a minute though, Bubbles suddenly stood up and launched upward. Blossom followed suit, and quickly found out that Bubbles was rushing toward Buttercup. Blossom smiled that Buttercup was alright, but quickly switched to a look of horror at how bad she looked. She also appeared to be just as tired as Bubbles was, but in addition to that, she was sporting a black eye, a burn mark that spread all across her right side, and several puncture holes in her arms and legs, implying that she had been bitten a lot. She flew next to Bubbles, who squeaked in shock and asked, “Are you okay, Buttercup? It looks like you got hurt pretty badly.”

“I’ll be fine. Anyway, how’s Townsville doing?” asked Buttercup

“Terribly, Buttercup. I’ve been doing everything I can to fight off this stuff, but whenever I’m about to break one of the larger crystal structures, I immediately get a scream for help from somewhere downtown. Have you been doing any better, Buttercup?” asked Bubbles hopefully

Buttercup shook her head, and said, “No, I haven’t. I’ve looked everywhere for Blossom, but all I’ve found is more crystalized… everything. I did find something that might belong to her in Citiesville, though.” Answered Buttercup.

“Really? Do you think she could be there?” asked Bubbles in a happy voice.

Buttercup’s expression remained solemn, which came as shock to both Bubbles and Blossom, as Buttercup was the last girl who would ever look that down and defeated. Bubbles immediately lost her hopeful grin when she was handed the item: a slightly torn red bow with what appeared to be dried blood on it. “If that’s hers, than she’s probably dead, since I know that Blossom’s bow never goes anywhere without Blossom.” Said Buttercup as she looked around at the purple crystalized buildings that appeared to be closing in on town hall. Bubbles stared at the bow, and started to lightly cry.

“W-wait… what if this…” began Bubbles

“If that’s not hers, than she might still be alive. But if that’s the case, then she’s probably trapped somewhere that we can’t get to…” said Buttercup before Bubbles could finish.

“But… couldn’t she…” Bubbles stammered

“Bubbles, listen to me.” Said Buttercup, gently putting an arm on Bubbles shoulder. “It’s been a week since this invasion started, and the only thing that could have come from her is this bow, which may or may not even be hers. Even if it’s not hers, the fact that she hasn’t come back for this long means that she can probably never come back. I think we need to face it, Bubbles: Blossom is gone…” said Buttercup, who sounded like she was trying to avoid tearing up. Bubbles immediately started crying like a baby, and rushed over to hug Buttercup. Buttercup looked shocked by this, but didn’t try to push her away, instead letting her cry the tears she needed. Throughout all of this, Blossom stared at her sisters, dumbfounded that they thought she was dead. Then again, for all she knew, she might very well be dead, since she was a ghost at the moment, and she had reawakened in a white limbo after that flash. The thought of her possibly being dead, combined with her sisters reactions to her being gone, forced her to tear up slightly. Before she could drop any tears, she suddenly heard a loud screeching sound coming from the east. Bubbles and Buttercup heard it as well, and spun around to see about twenty crystalized jetpack monkeys flying towards town hall, screeching as loudly as they could. Bubbles and Buttercup immediately soared straight at the monkeys, who immediately changed route and soared straight at the Powerpuff girls. The 2 groups then slammed into one another, prompting a fight.

After 10 minutes of intense hand to hand combat, the Powerpuff girls launched the last monkey away with a combined punch. However, that last monkey pulled out two blasters and blasted the girls at close range with them just before getting launched into space. The blasts sent Bubbles and Buttercup rocketing toward the ground like a pair of falling stars, until they hit the ground, at which point two large explosions reared up right where they landed. Blossom gasped in horror and flew down into the lingering flames, hoping that her sisters were alright. The first one she found was Buttercup, who thankfully appeared to be alright, save for a couple more burn marks. Buttercup blew out the flames, and then spun her head around, trying to find Bubbles. This proved to be unnecessary however, since almost immediately after the flames were blown out, Buttercup heard Bubbles voice making some kind of grunting noise, sounding like it was in extreme pain. Blossom and Buttercup flew over to Bubbles, and saw that she was slowly beginning to crystalize from the tips of her toes up! Both of them gasped in horror, and Buttercup quickly yelled, “Bubbles! You’re starting to crystalize!!” Bubbles looked down and, to her horror, saw that Buttercup was right! Buttercup didn’t waste any time, and immediately slammed her fists down onto the crystal as hard as she could. This only resulted in Buttercup hurting her hands. Buttercup then tried her laser vision, but that proved ineffective as well. She tried everything, but nothing she tried had any effect on the crystals. After a minute, Bubbles was completely covered in crystal. Immediately after that, Bubbles closed her eyes and started screaming, as if the inside of her head was on fire. When she had finally finished screaming, she opened her eyes to reveal that they were now glowing yellow. Bubbles immediately punched Buttercup away, before slowly getting back up. After recovering from the punch, Buttercup stared at Bubbles dumbfounded, as Bubbles was the last person Buttercup ever expected to punch her. Bubbles immediately soared right at Buttercup, then unleashed a powerful uppercut onto her chin, launching her up into the air. Bubbles then bounced upward and dashed after Buttercup. Blossom was about to join in the pursuit, when she suddenly she felt her stomach cringe up again. Once more, she collapsed to the ground, gripping her stomach in agony. After she fell, she heard a rhyme in her head say, “As you can plainly see, your home is almost dead. As is the home of the mare with the 6 colored head.” Blossom gripped her head and watched as Townsville appeared to dissolve into a blurry mess of random colors in front of her…

To Be Continued…

Return To Reality

Rainbow Dash stirred a bit, then slowly opened her eyes. The second she opened them, she immediately saw that something seemed very off about the sky. It looked like it was purple, for some reason. She grabbed her slightly aching head as she looked around. She wasn’t a hundred percent sure where she was, but she knew one thing for certain: this wasn’t Ponyville. For one, Ponyville had buildings, and two, Ponyville’s ground wasn’t made of purple crystal. She then looked behind her and saw Ponyville behind her. Ok, so she was in a field close to her home. The question was, what field was she in? There was no field that Rainbow knew of that was made of crystal, especially not one so close to home. Suddenly, Rainbow remembered: Discord was still on the loose, so chances are he was behind this weird crystal. Why he would choose to switch from soap to crystal was beyond her, but she didn’t spend much time thinking about that, as she something in the corner of her eye that caught her attention. She turned her head and saw that Ponyville was… smoking? Was there a fire or something going on? Rainbow raised an eyebrow and flew back to town at top speed to investigate.

When she got back into town, she stared down wide-eyed, as the town appeared to be very badly wrecked. Several buildings were on fire, there were a few dead bodies lying around, and there were several hundred crystal creatures running around, switching between attacking buildings and the inhabitants of Ponyville alike, and spitting lavender onto the ground and buildings, which covered the area in the purple stuff that she’d started out in. It didn’t seem like this was Discord’s doing, unless he’d decided to go with a murderous/arsonist theme for the chaos. Rainbow pondered that for a moment, until she saw a crystalized cat that looked kind of like Opal walk over to Carousel Boutique. Once the cat got in close, it proceeded to break the windows of Carousel Boutique and spit into them! This enraged Rainbow Dash, who glared down at the cat and yelled, “HEY!!! NO ONE DOES THAT TO RARITY’S HOME!!!” The cat didn’t even turn its head toward Rainbow. Rainbow became even more infuriated that this cat was ignoring her. She immediately flew toward the cat, preparing to knock it into next month. When she got in close, she rocketed her hoof toward the cat… and watched as it passed right through the cat, failing to make an impact. Rainbow’s eyes went wide as she continued her forward momentum, rocketing through a few houses in her path, until she flew headfirst into a slightly lifted hill, which stopped her dead in her tracks. She rubbed her head and got back up, then looked backwards to see that none of the buildings she had passed through had any holes in them, almost like she had literally phased through them. She then looked down at her hooves as she put two and two together, determining that she was a ghost of some description. Why that was, she didn’t know. Immediately, she took to the sky, as to see if there was anything worth watching.

After a couple minutes of aimless flying, she spied her friends down near town hall. Apparently, they were in some kind of struggle. What they were fighting against was unknown to Rainbow, as she was too high up to see the opposition clearly. Rainbow got in closer and discovered that they fighting off a large group of crystalized animals! She zoomed down to the ground, and watched as the Mane 5 took the crystals off of the last bear, who ran away after being purified. Once the bear was done, the Mane 5 collapsed onto the ground, and each one immediately started to look at the other 4. Rainbow took this time to look over each of her friends, who sadly appeared to be close to the end of their ropes. All 5 of them had many gashes all over them, they were all at least a little bloodied, and they all appeared to be exhausted, as if they were fighting these things for days straight, and were getting little to no sleep. Rainbow considered shouting out to them, but realized that the cat didn’t even turn its head when she yelled at it, so the chances of her friends hearing her were incredibly low. However, just to make sure, she lowered herself to ground level and lied down right in front of her friends. None of them seemed to notice, which confirmed to Rainbow that she was invisible to everypony. Her friends stared for a few moments, before Fluttershy finally started up a conversation.

“Ummm… do you think that’s all of them?” she quietly asked.

“It had better be! These ruffians are simply wearing me to the bone. I simply must get a spa treatment after this is done!” Rarity replied while she fiddled with her element.

AppleJack rolled her eyes and said, “Rarity, if there was ever anypony who needed to be worn to the bone, it’s you. Although I agree, these critters are really becoming a handful.”

“Yep…” sighed Pinkie, who seemed like she was actually somewhat tired, which was a first.

“I don’t think it’s done. I don’t think it’ll ever be done at this rate.” Said Twilight.

“Why?” asked the other four.

“Simple: We’ve already purified some of these animals before. For example, how many times now have we purified that flying turtle now?”

“You mean Tank? At least 3 times.” Said Pinkie

“Exactly. No matter how many times we purify these animals, they can just get corrupted again. With all of this purple stuff surrounding us, it’s like a never ending cycle. Unless we stop the source, we’ll never win this battle.”

“I suppose you have a point, Twilight.” Said Rarity.

“So then, Twilight, where exactly do ya reckon this source is?” asked AppleJack.

“I…I don’t know. I haven’t been able to find any information on this affliction.” Replied Twilight with her head bowed slightly. Nopony else responded, and instead remained quiet for a moment, until Fluttershy quietly said, “I wonder…”

“What’re ya wondering, Sugarcube?” asked AppleJack

“I wonder… if this purple stuff has anything to do with Rainbow Dash…” she said. The others silenced as they thought back. Fluttershy might be on to something. This haze started almost immediately after Rainbow had disappeared, so thinking that it might have something to do with Rainbow Dash was a fair guess. They then looked up at her, before Pinkie asked, “What do you think this haze has to do with Rainbow, Fluttershy?”

“I don’t know… It just feels like there’s a connection…” said Fluttershy as she looked down for a moment. She then sighed and softly said, “I miss her…”

“We all do, Fluttershy. However, there’s not a lot we can do about that. For all we know, she could be in another universe. Still, I think that Rainbow will find her way back to us sooner or later.” Said Twilight

“Why do you think that?” asked Fluttershy

“Because no matter how hard it rains, there will always be a rainbow.” Said Twilight

“So, the reason you think that our friend will return is a proverb?” asked Rarity with a confused look.

“That, and the fact that she would never leave us hanging. She said so herself.” Said Twilight with a slight grin. The grin spread to everypony’s face, including Rainbow’s. However, that touching moment didn’t last long, as they suddenly heard an odd sound coming from behind them. They spun around and saw something odd rolling right at them. It looked kind of like a large lamp on wheels, complete with two thin crystal arms. It stopped right in front of them, and just stared with a large yellow light that was coming from the center of its face. The mane 5 stared back, trying to comprehend what the thing in front of them is. After a bit, the eye fired a large group of light green crystals right into the center of the Mane 5. Before any of them could react, the crystals shot out a large light green net that ensnared all of them… except for Rainbow Dash, obviously. They tried to get out, but the net was immune to magic, and couldn’t be flown out of or broken through. The rolling thing then fired a spikey red crystal right below each member of the mane 5. Once it placed those, its eye turned red. Once its eye had become red, a beep could be heard from each red crystal, right before they suddenly exploded, launching the Mane 5 sky high. Fluttershy started to flap her wings and tried to grab the others, but before she could do so, the crystal bot thing flew up right next to the Mane 5 and suddenly exploded, launching the Mane 5 a long distance away. Rainbow gasped in horror and flew at top speed after her friends.

After a minute, Rainbow was right next to them. She instinctually tried to grab them, which failed, do to her being a phantom. Immediately after the failed grab, the Mane 6 crashed into a crystal hill, effectively halting their forward momentum. They slowly slid down and lied face down at the bottom for a moment. After a few seconds, Pinkie Pie’s head shot up and she yelled, “Woohoo!!!! That was a really fun ride!” She then rubbed her head slightly and said, “Could’ve stood to have a softer landing, though. Anypony disagree?”

“Pinkie, I’d normally ask you if you’re nuts, but I already know the answer to that. But yes, that could’ve stood to have a softer landing.” Said Twilight as she got up.

“Everypony ok?” asked AppleJack

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!” screamed Fluttershy. That scream made everypony jump, since Fluttershy was the last pony anyone expected to scream like that. Everypony else immediately rushed around Fluttershy, to see that she looked pretty bad. She had hit that cliff face first, which had given her a pretty bad nose bleed. Still, it didn’t seem like enough for her to still be switching between yelling and grimacing. Rarity then looked down and gasped in horror. The others looked where Rarity was looking, and had a similar reaction as they saw the purple crystals that were slowly encasing Fluttershy. They immediately started to try to hold it back, break it, or do anything to stop it, but all of their attempts were less than successful, as each one either caused Fluttershy to get more hurt, or make the crystals go faster. After a minute, Fluttershy became fully encased. Her icy blue eyes displayed nothing but pure terror as they quickly switched from one pony’s face to the next. Suddenly, they flashed yellow and shut, causing Fluttershy to start screaming in agony again. After a moment, the screaming stopped. Fluttershy just lied perfectly still while her friends watched over her. After a bit, the remaining four became unbelievably worried, as Fluttershy’s body wasn’t moving in the slightest, and she didn’t appear to be breathing. The four of them got in close and said in unison, “Fluttershy??”

The second after they said that, Fluttershy’s limbs shot out suddenly, launching all 4 of her friends backwards. Immediately afterwards, Fluttershy fluttered back up onto her feet, and opened her eyes, revealing glowing yellow eyes that were identical to those of the possessed woodland creatures! Her friends stared in shock, and watched as she rubbed a hoof over her busted nose, making the injury vanish. Once that was done, Fluttershy flashed a sadistic grin, and launched herself straight at AppleJack, kicking her right in the cheek. After that, she bounced off of her and headed for Twilight, releasing an uppercut onto her chin before Twilight had a chance to react. This launched Twilight a little distance up before Fluttershy grabbed her in mid-air and spinning her around for a bit. After a bit, she let go of Twilight’s leg, which sent her rocketing toward Rarity. The two unicorns crashed into one another, and landed in a two mare pileup on the ground. Fluttershy then soared after Pinkie Pie, raising up a hoof to try to punch her. Right before Fluttershy could do so however, Pinkie jumped over Fluttershy’s punch, effectively dodging it. Fluttershy wasn’t deterred, and instead reached up and grabbed Pinkie’s leg. Once she had hold of Pinkie, Fluttershy slammed her into the ground a few times and sent her flying right into AppleJack. Before they could collide, Fluttershy zoomed straight at them both. Rainbow was about to fly after Fluttershy, when her stomach suddenly started to cringe up again. She collapsed to the ground, and heard that rhyming voice in her head say, “If something begins, it also must end. That is the fate that’s befallen your friend.” Rainbow grasped her head and watched as her friends and the mountains became increasingly blurry, before dissolving altogether into a random mess of colors…

A couple minutes later…

Blossom and Rainbow Dash reopened their eyes, and saw that they were back in the blue floating void thing. They looked at each other, and said to each other in unison, “How was your world? My world was a disaster!!”

“What?!?! Yours too?” They both said simultaneously. They then nodded and looked up, upon hearing the booming voice say, “So do you two see the threat to your home sweet home, all because you were forced to leave it alone?” Blossom and Rainbow nodded.

“How can we fix this?” Blossom asked.

“You’ll need to be stronger to save everyone. You will find a way to do so back where you’d begun.” Said the voice

“You mean, back in our worlds? How do we get back?” asked Rainbow

“To return to the home from which you were dismissed, you simply need to do all of this: first put on the sunshades, then find the rift, muscle your way through, and in space you shall drift. Once you are both out, floating with the stars, you’ll find both your worlds, they won’t be too far.”

“That’s it? Just find a rift? Seems easy enough.” Said Blossom.

“Finding the rift will be simple, getting through it will not. You’ll need lots of force to escape the spatial clot.”

“That was forced…” thought Rainbow Dash to herself

“I can read minds, you egotistical fool! Try changing your tone, or else you’ll be schooled!” said the voice in a really loud and angry voice that almost broke Rainbow and Blossom’s eardrums.

“Sorry…” Rainbow managed to squeak out. After she finished saying that, the voice immediately said, “I’ll send you back to the land of pure white. Good luck against this crystal parasite.” The second the voice finished speaking, Rainbow and Blossom regained consciousness in the white world. They shook their heads, stood up, and looked at one another for a moment, before Rainbow said, “You ok, Blossom?”

Blossom nodded and said, “I think so. While I was passed out, I heard that we need to find…”

“…the rift?” Said Rainbow, completing her sentence.

“So, you heard that voice too, huh?” asked Blossom

“Sure did. I guess we should try to find this rift, huh?”

“Yeah, let’s go get those glasses and find that rift!” said Blossom in a determined voice. Rainbow returned the determined look and zoomed off to get one of the pairs of sunglasses from the pile of random everything. Blossom and Rainbow Dash put on the sunglasses and immediately saw a bright group of colors that they hadn’t seen without the glasses about 200 yards away. They flew towards it and discovered that it was part of one of the invisible walls in this sector.

Rainbow stuck her head through and immediately yelled, “Hey Blossom, check it out!!” Blossom complied, and stuck her head through. The second she saw the other side, she also gasped in wonder. The other side was indeed space, complete with stars, asteroids, and several planets. The two of them looked around for a moment, and quickly found their respective worlds weren’t too far away from one another! They were maybe a few hundred thousand miles away!

Suddenly, Blossom said, “Wait a minute. Something’s weird about this.”

“What’s so weird about it, Blossom?” asked Rainbow

“Think about it. If our worlds were really that close to one another, why hasn’t anyone on my world heard about yours yet? I mean, we have a space program, and your planet is unbelievable close, so why has it not been announced that there’s nearby sentient life?”

“…I think you may be onto something there, Blossom. Our worlds being this close together doesn’t really make any sense. Unless…”

“Unless?”

“Unless this crystalizing force is pulling worlds toward it…” said Rainbow Dash

“Does that mean… this thing is hoarding our worlds?” asked Blossom

“I don’t know, but I don’t wanna wait around and find out! Let’s get out of this rift!” yelled Rainbow, to which Blossom nodded in agreement. The duo tried to push through the rift, but quickly found that they were unable to do so. It felt like the rift was made of rubber, to the point where it was stretching and bouncing them back into purgatory when they tried to get a flying start. After several minutes of failed attempts, Blossom turned her head towards Rainbow and said, “Any ideas, Rainbow?”

“Umm… I’ve got nothing.”

Blossom sighed and said, “I was hoping you wouldn’t say that.”

Rainbow nodded, then continued to go into deep thought. After a couple minutes of this, Rainbow said, “There’s only one thing I can think of that we haven’t tried yet…”

“And what might that be?”

“Well… I could try to do a Sonic Rainboom to blast through the rift…”

“A Sonic Rainboom? What’s that?”

“It’s my fastest move. If I did that, I might be able to muscle through…”

“Wait, why didn’t you try this earlier?”

“Well, if I failed to burst through the rift, then I’d be launched toward the wall at a speed so high that it could potentially kill me… That’s the main reason I was reluctant to trying it.” Said Rainbow in a voice that sounded just the tiniest bit nervous.

“Don’t worry Rainbow, you’re not going to be alone on that one. I’ll be with you. There’s no doubt that this Rainboom will cause this rift to stretch a lot, but if it starts to recoil, I’ll add in my strength to the spot you’re at. If we combine the two, it should be enough to burst through.” Said Blossom in a reassuring voice.

Rainbow looked at Blossom and nodded, saying, “Got it. All or nothing, right?”

“Right!” said Blossom, hopping on Rainbow’s back. Rainbow immediately launched up as high as she could go, eventually hitting her head on the ceiling. Upon doing that, she zoomed down as fast as she could go, got in the mach cone, and unleashed the Rainboom just before hitting the rift. The impact stretched the rift really far, but it still held strong as it started to slow Rainbow’s speed down. Blossom gasped and hopped off Rainbow’s back and zoomed backwards a little distance. She then spun around and rocketed right at Rainbow before bodychecking her. The increased momentum was enough to push them through, as they broke through the rift, arriving in space. They took a look behind them, and watched as the space behind them warbled in and out for a moment before it settled back to normal, blending in perfectly with the rest of the sky. After that little detour, Blossom and Rainbow shouted a triumphant yes, and gave each other a high five, both with smiles that were extending from ear to ear. After a moment, they lowered their grins and looked out at their worlds. They both seemed to be inching closer to a purple crystal thing that was really high in the sky, almost as if the crystal thing was a black hole.

“So, now what?” asked Rainbow

“I guess now we go home and get stronger. At least, that’s what that voice wants us to do.” Said Blossom

Rainbow nodded and said, “I guess so. Should we meet up here after we strengthen up?”

Blossom nodded her head and said, “Sure. However, just in case push comes to shove, I would like to know where you live on your planet. Would you mind pointing it out?”

“Sure thing. It’s on that big land mass that’s shaped kind of like a chip, near the center. When you get in close enough to see a city in the sky, just take a look south from there and you should be able to see my home.”

“Understood. If you need to find me, I can be found on the eastern end of that continent.” Said Blossom, pointing out the spot to Rainbow Dash.

“Got it. Meetcha when I’m stronger!” said Rainbow Dash in a determined voice

“Same here!” replied Blossom in a voice that sounded no less determined. The duo nodded, then rushed back to their worlds, which were becoming less and less welcoming with every passing second…

To Be Continued…

No Place for a Hero

Blossom flew back to her world at top speed, rushing to get home to try to help… well, everyone. Once she entered her world, however, she stopped in pure shock at the sight she saw. Everything on the ground was made of pure crystal; the buildings, the vehicles, the advertisement billboards, everything. In addition to that, there were a large number of fireflies or something flying around in… pairs? Blossom scratched her head, then flew in closer. Once she did, she saw that those weren’t fireflies at all, but rather the eyes of the infected townspeople! When Blossom realized that, she decided to be a bit stealthier when flying, as to not alert any townspeople to her presence, since the bus incident had proven that these crystalized townspeople were insane. She soared off and headed for town hall, as that was the only place she remembered that didn’t seem to be completely encased in crystal.

As she flew, Blossom tried to put together who was behind this. However, all she drew up was a complete blank. She had never seen a villain who operated with crystals before, or at least not to this degree. Maybe an old villain is trying something new? That was possible. Blossom had seen some pretty out of nowhere ideas, so crystallization was a possibility. However, that idea suddenly seemed somewhat unlikely when she considered one key fact: According to Buttercup, Townsville was the last place affected. Almost every villain she’d ever fought targeted Townsville first, or at least had it be one of the first spots to attack. Could it have been from Rainbow Dash’s world? Who knows? The only villain she knew of from her world was Discord, and even then the only thing she knew about him was that, according to Rainbow, he ‘didn’t make sense’. Not to mention, if this villain were behind this, why would he have been fighting Rainbow in her world, instead of just working out his plan from the sky? Blossom facepalmed when she realized that she should’ve asked Rainbow Dash if she had ever seen anything like this crystallization, or at the very least if their worlds were disasters in the same way.

After a few minutes of this, she suddenly saw something on the streets below that stopped her dead in her tracks. She crept in closer, and saw a large crystalized monkey with a capsule-esque head just doing his laundry at the Laundromat. Even with the purple crystals encasing him, Blossom knew that that was Mojo Jojo. Upon seeing that, Blossom figured that this crystallization might have been his doing, since she was pretty sure that he would never just be doing something as casual as laundry in Townsville unless he was positive that he couldn’t be stopped. Blossom instinctually gritted her teeth and crashed through the Laundromat doors, ready to knock him into oblivion. The second she entered, Mojo turned his head and saw her rushing straight at him. Blossom pulled her fist back, and shot it right at Mojo’s stomach. However, Mojo simply grabbed her fist before it reached him, grinned, and squeezed as hard as he could. This caused Blossom to let off a slight scream, before she blasted him with her laser vision. This caused Mojo to let off a quick screech and release her fist from his grasp. Once her fist was released, she jumped back and launched herself at his skull in a kicking position. However, the kick only resulted in her hurting her foot. She bounced harmlessly off of him and grasped her foot once she hit the ground. Mojo Jojo laughed, then grabbed her in his fist. He slammed her into the floor a few times, then launched her skyhigh. Before she had a chance to recover, Mojo jumped up right beside her, and spiked her right into the alley just outside the Laundromat. She slammed into the ground, creating a small dent in the crystal floor. Mojo then started screeching as loud as he could, which suddenly alerted everybody in Townsville to her position. Once Blossom had recovered, she got up and looked down the alley. When she did so, she saw that hundreds of angry townspeople were running straight at her, all while throwing rocks at her. Blossom took a few rocks to the head, then dashed straight upward… headfirst into a crystalized helicopter. She rubbed her head for a moment, then looked around her to see at least six helicopters in the sky, all with guns pointed straight at her. She dashed away the very second they started firing on her, just barely dodging the bullets. She rushed for Town hall at top speed, hoping that since it wasn’t entirely encased in crystal, it might have some people who had yet to be taken by this affliction.

Blossom rushed for Town Hall and slammed the doors shut once she got there. The windows were already blockaded, so all she had to do was barricade the doors. She immediately got all the furniture in the room that she could find and piled it all up in front of the doors. However, oddly enough, she heard no banging from the other side at any point, almost as if the angry mob that had been following her had stopped its pursuit. She peeked out one of the barricaded windows and saw that most of the mob had indeed stopped pursuit, and the few that remained were just standing there, staring at the door. Blossom shrugged, figuring that she had just caught a lucky break, and started quietly sneaking through the hall, hoping to see anyone who wasn’t purple. After a few minutes, she finally got her wish, as she saw Ms. Bellum at a desk, who appeared to be doing a crossword puzzle. She headed over to her, and tapped her lightly on her shoulder. Once she felt the tap, Ms. Bellum pressed a button on her desk, looked up, and said, “Hello, Blossom. Long time no see.”

Blossom stared at her with a confused look for a moment, as she was a bit confused as to why she sounded so casual during what was essentially Judgment Day with crystals, but shrugged it off and replied with, “Hello ma’am. Are there any others besides us who aren’t crystalized?”

Ms. Bellum nodded and said, “The others who aren’t crystalized are just in the other room. We’ve been holed in here for the past couple weeks, just trying to survive. Head on in if you want to.” Blossom nodded and entered the door.

When she came in on the other side, she immediately heard a familiar voice yell, “Blossom! You’re back!!” Before Blossom could see who had said that, she found herself being lifted on the ground. She looked down and saw that it was Buttercup! Blossom returned the hug, and they held the embrace for a moment. After that moment was up, Buttercup put Blossom down and said, “Man alive, am I glad to see you! Ever since you’ve left, the entire world has been getting absolutely wrecked by this crystal stuff! I tried to find you, but all I found was this purple stuff all over the place! I thought you were dead!”

“I’m glad to see you too, Buttercup. It’s good to know that there are at least a few people here who aren’t crystalized.” Said Blossom as she looked around the room to see the mayor and a few civilians were inside. After she took her look, she looked toward Buttercup and stared for a moment. The smile on Buttercup’s face slowly slipped off, until Buttercup asked, “What’s wrong, Blossom?”

“Well…” began Blossom. She really didn’t want to ask this question, as she was pretty sure of what the answer to it was, but she had to know for sure.

“Well?” asked Buttercup.

“Well… What happened to Bubbles?” asked Blossom

Buttercup looked down for a second, before she slowly replied with, “Blossom, Bubbles is now one of them…”

“…I thought so.” Said Blossom, her eyes seeming downcast.

“I tried to stop the process, but nothing I tried had any effect. After she became fully crystalized, she started relentlessly attacking me. I managed to fight her off, just barely. However, the next day she was right back up, as if nothing had happened! I kept on fighting her like this for a few days, but she eventually wore me out. I’ve been in Town Hall ever since.” Buttercup explained. Blossom nodded, then heard the mayor say, “That was about a week ago. The rest of us have been holed up here even longer. However, I don’t think that’ll be a choice for much longer.”

“Why not?” asked Blossom.

“Well, at this point, all we have left in terms of rations are two jars of pickles.”

“So, what you’re saying is…” Blossom began

“What I’m saying is that we won’t be able to stay here much longer. Sooner or later, we’ll have to either leave… or starve.” The mayor said.

“Oh…” said Blossom.

“Speaking of which, Buttercup, could you go get one of the last pickle jars and bring it here? I would like a moment to let Blossom know a bit more about everything here.” The mayor asked. Buttercup let off a determined grin, nodded, and flew out the doors.

“And don’t forget to open it!!” he yelled after her. After she had left, the mayor turned toward Blossom and said, “Now Blossom, I feel I should let you know that the second you came to Ms. Bellum when you got here, she put out a little summons for some folks who are real close to us. They should be here any moment.”

“Who?” asked Blossom.

Right when she said that, as if on cue, several crystalized FBI agents crashed through the windows, pointed their guns at Blossom, and yelled, “FREEZE!!” Right when they said that, columns of green flames rose up around the other non crystalized people in the hall. After a second, the flames dissipated to reveal that all of the regular people in the hall were now replaced by some sort of purple crystal horse thing with a horn and bug like wings! Blossom had no idea what these creatures were, but they kind of reminded her of Rainbow Dash, for some reason. Regardless, Blossom, not being stupid, crashed through the doors and rushed toward the kitchen to get Buttercup. She rammed into her about halfway between the mayor’s office and the kitchen, causing Buttercup to drop the pickle jar to the ground. The jar crashed onto the ground, releasing its contents all over the ground. Once Buttercup saw the smashed jar, she frowned angrily at Blossom and yelled, “BLOSSOM!!! WHY DID YOU DO THAT??? YOU JUST DESTROYED HALF OF OUR FOOD, YOU JERK!!!”

“Buttercup, we have a much, much, much bigger problem than that on our hands!” Blossom said in panic.

Buttercup softened her frown, and asked, “What problem?”

“The crystalized FBI broke in!!” said Blossom

“WHAT???” Buttercup yelled in response.

“And that’s not even the worst part! Y’know everyone who was normal in town hall?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“Well, they all shapeshifted into crystal horse like things!!”

“THEY CHANGED INTO WHAT??”

“Crystal horse things! The only differences were they had a horn and some bug like wings!”

“Hmm… That sounds kind of like a changeling…” said Buttercup quietly to herself.

“A what?” asked Blossom in a confused tone of voice.

“A changeling. However, I wanna make sure.” Said Buttercup.

“How are you going to make sure, Buttercup?” asked Blossom

“Tell me, did this horse happen to look something like…” Began Buttercup, before a column of flames suddenly shot up around her, knocking Blossom backwards slightly. Once the flames had vanished, all that was left was another of those horse things!

“…This?” finished the changeling. Before Blossom could react, the changeling blasted her with magic from its horn, launching Blossom backwards into a wall. Blossom slammed right through the wall, landing outside. She shook her head and immediately flew away from town hall. However, the second she did that, she suddenly heard a loud siren coming from one of the FBI helicopters, alerting everyone to her presence once more. She tried to outfly them, but only made it about a quarter mile before she was surrounded in every direction by changelings and helicopters. She tried to flee, but no matter what direction she headed in, the result was the same: her getting shot with magic beams, machine gun fire, rockets, or whatever else. After a bit, she realized she needed a way to fake out these guys, or else she was a goner. She looked at the ground, and saw a nearby downed skyscraper that seemed like a perfect place to hide from these guys, assuming she could make them think she was dead first. Once she took another blast, she plummeted to the ground, pretending that that last shot was enough to do her in. When she landed, she saw that her pursuers weren’t quite finished just yet. The second she hit the ground, the changelings all fired their magic beams at her, and the helicopters all fired their missiles straight at where she was lying. Blossom’s eyes widened, and she immediately started to roll out of the missile’s way. She just barely rolled enough to get launched into the ruins of the skyscraper by the explosion blasts. She crashed into the wall, and watched wide eyed as explosion after explosion was set off in the spot where she was lying just a second ago. After about a minute of this, the explosions stopped, which prompted another minute of silence as the flames slowly died down. After the flames had completely died down, she heard the helicopter say over its megaphone, “Attention, Townsville. This is an FBI report stating that the fugitive Blossom is now dead. Repeat, the fugitive Blossom is now dead. That is all.”

Blossom stayed completely silent throughout all of this, praying that no one would bother to look inside the ruins to see her standing there. Eventually, Blossom heard the sound of the helicopters get steadily softer before fading altogether. Once they were gone, she released a sigh of relief and sat down on the floor, considering her options. She knew she couldn’t just stay in the ruins, since it was only a matter of time before she was discovered. She also knew she couldn’t risk hiding back home, not just because her house was about 10 minutes away from her by air, but also because there was a distinct possibility that her sisters had been corrupted and were living there. After a couple minutes of unproductive thinking, Blossom ran the poem that the disembodied voice had said through her mind:

“You’ll need to be stronger to save everyone. You will find a way to do so back where you’d begun”

She thought about that, then shrugged her shoulders. She had no clue how she would find this strengthening thing on her own, now that her world was even more unfriendly than it was during that time when Him used that red dust on it to make everyone hate her and her sisters. She needed help, but there was only one thing left that Blossom knew she could trust. She thought for a moment, then decided that the only option she had was to get help from Rainbow Dash. Granted, she wasn’t sure if Rainbow Dash had found a way to get stronger yet, but she knew that she could at least fight better if she had a buddy with her. She debated for a moment, then decided to go get Rainbow Dash from her world and bring her over to Townsville temporarily, since she knew that the only way she was going to have a prayer of getting through Townsville alive was if she had Rainbow Dash with her. She nodded determinedly to herself, and launched through a window toward the sky at top speed. While she ascended, she turned her head and took one last look at Townsville. The entire place was still purple and crystalized. She was about to wave goodbye to it, when she suddenly got knocked a long distance away by something from above! After flying a fairly long distance, she suddenly got slammed by something with a drop kick, which sent her rocketing toward the field in front of Townsville. She slammed into the ground at full force, badly hurting her spine. She managed to crack it back into position before two small beings landed on the ground right in front of Blossom, and started walking towards her. When the smoke cleared, and Blossom saw who the duo was, she quietly said, “No… How…” in a quiet and somewhat scared voice.

She immediately backed away from her sisters, who kept walking towards her. Bubbles and Buttercup then flashed a sadistic smile and said simultaneously in an almost zombie like tone of voice, “You’re not going anywhere…”

To Be Continued…

Betrayal

Rainbow Dash reentered the atmosphere of her world, flying toward Ponyville as quickly as she could. She entered the cloudspace just above Ponyville and looked down. Right away, however, she noticed something was very wrong with Ponyville: it looked more like the Crystal Empire than anything else, and it had a sickening amount of purple all over. Not to mention, she couldn’t see the colors of any of the other residents, despite the fact that most of them would stand out like a sore thumb in front of this much purple. Confused, Rainbow flew in closer, and instantly discovered why nopony’s color stuck out: They didn’t stick out because everypony in town was now purple and crystalized. The only reason they could be seen from this angle at all was because they all had eyes and cutie marks that were glowing in a bright yellow color. Rainbow realized that everypony must’ve been possessed by the stuff that got Fluttershy. Thankfully for her, nopony seemed to notice her in the clouds, meaning that she was able to just lie low and think of an attack plan.

Rainbow had just started thinking about how she was going to search Ponyville without being detected, when suddenly an incredibly loud noise was set off right next to her ear, badly hurting her eardrums. She rubbed her ear and looked to her side to see a Pegasus staring at her with an almost sadistic smile. She was holding an airhorn in one hoof, and a few letters in the other one. It was a little tough to tell who it was, but Rainbow was pretty sure it was Derpy, due to her eyes not quite looking in the same direction. However, who it was ultimately didn’t matter, as that airhorn blast got the attention of the entire town, causing everypony there to drop whatever they were doing and immediately start attacking Rainbow. Rainbow got blasted off of her cloud by several unicorns, and was launched back a few feet. She immediately tried to fly away, but she was unable to get very far before she got slammed from above by a few pegasi who zoomed in from out of nowhere. At that point, Rainbow knew that she had no choice; she had to fight. She turned around and glared down at the crystalized ponies for a second, before saying, “So, you wanna do this the hard way? Fine, we’ll do this the hard way!”

Rainbow immediately soared down into the town below, heading straight for the unicorns, who by this point had gathered together in a group. The unicorns began firing their beams at her, with the intention of knocking her out. Rainbow was able to dodge these with relative ease, but the blasts just kept coming. She was within feet of the horde when she got hit by one of the blasts, which launched her sky high. After a few seconds, she landed on one of the clouds in the sky. Once she landed, she started to tend to her injury that came from the blast. The injury didn’t appear to be too severe, just a slight magic burn that could’ve been fixed in just a few minutes. However, Rainbow only got a few seconds before she got knocked off the cloud she was on by a Pegasus who was going too fast to identify. Immediately, she changed her strategy, ignoring the unicorns and instead opting to take out the pegasi, so she could at least tend to her injuries in the clouds without interruptions. She immediately soared after anypony who was in the air. She was able to knock a few out of the sky, but was ultimately outnumbered and outgunned, due to the fact that the unicorns were constantly firing their magic at her, forcing her to split her focus between two objectives.

After a while, a large pegasus who Rainbow was able to identify as Bulk Biceps, grabbed Rainbow in a head lock and flew her to the top of the highest row of clouds. Rainbow tried her hardest to break out of his hold, but this proved to be a fruitless endeavor, since Bulk was essentially pure muscle. Bulk landed on the top layer of clouds, still holding Rainbow in the head lock. He watched her struggle for a bit, then chomped down as hard as he could onto one of her wings. Rainbow screamed in agony as she felt her wing getting crushed by his jaws. She glanced down at the cloud below, blinking through her tears, and saw that the white cloud they were standing on was starting to become a deep shade of crimson, no doubt from the blood that her wing was releasing. She then heard a loud cracking sound from behind her. Almost immediately after hearing it, Rainbow let off another scream and clamped her teary eyes shut, unable to take the intense pain her wing was feeling. She looked down at the shadows on the cloud, and saw something long and thin in Bulk’s mouth. The shadow immediately spit out the long thing, and it landed right in front of her. Rainbow wasn’t positive, but she was pretty sure that thing was one of the bones in her wing. She then heard a loud “YEAH!!!” from behind her, that she was pretty sure had come from Bulk. At that point, she began to feel a bit light headed from blood loss. Regardless, Rainbow knew that she had to keep awake, or else she was dead. She immediately started trying to think of a way to break out of this headlock before Bulk could finish tearing her wings off.

“C’mon, Rainbow Dash, Think!!! How do I get out of this…?” She thought to herself. She looked down at the crimson colored cloud, then at her bone, then at the shadows, then back to the cloud. She stared at it for a second before she suddenly realized how obvious the solution to her problem actually was. She immediately slammed a hoof down on the cloud, stomping in just the right way to get a lightning bolt to come up right where Bulk was standing. Luckily for her, she succeeded on the first try, releasing a powerful bolt of lightning right into Bulk. The bolt didn’t kill him, but it was enough to get him to release Rainbow from her headlock. Rainbow didn’t waste any time, knowing she had to get some distance between Bulk and herself. She jumped straight up and hit him with a roundhouse kick, knocking him off of the cloud. She knew he’d be back later, but for now she had some solace.

Rainbow immediately collapsed onto the cloud, grabbed her bone, and looked up at her wings. Her right wing looked perfectly fine, as Bulk had yet to chomp into it. Her left wing, on the other hand, was far from normal. It wasn’t even something that could be recognized as a wing anymore! The top half’s feathers had been ripped almost completely off, revealing some of her bones, and the wing was pouring out blood by the gallon, which was drenching her coat, tail, and the cloud she was lying on in a deep red. She tried to fold her wings up, but only the right one complied. She wasn’t able to move the left one at all, and whenever she tried to get it to move, she just felt a sharp pain shoot through her body. Rainbow looked at her wing for a moment, then looked out at the horizon as she felt some tears build up in her eyes. She knew she needed some help pronto, but didn’t know who she could turn to in this dystopia that was once her home. With nopony to turn to, and the situation feeling completely hopeless, she lied down on the cloud, and began to cry.

However, after she had released only a couple of tears, a heavy force slammed into her from the side, knocking her off the cloud. She tried to fly, but was only met with more pain from her wing. She looked up and saw a Pegasus with a Wonderbolt outfit on giving her a salute, all while flashing an insanely sadistic grin that made Derpy’s sadistic grin look genuinely welcoming by comparison. She plummeted to the ground, but just before she landed, she felt a heavy blow to her side, one that was far stronger than anything she’d been hit by thus far (her broken wing not withstanding). She looked down and saw a large stallion wearing a harness (probably Big Mac) had been what kicked her. She was launched clean through a house before landing in an open area near the town fountain. She started to get back up, but was swarmed by an army of earth ponies before she could do so. Once more, she tried to fight back, but unlike last time, this time she couldn’t fight off a single one of them, due to every single attack they had hitting her with the force of a wrecking ball. Clearly, super strength was a natural ability in Earth ponies. She was beaten down like this for a few minutes until the Earth ponies backed off. Rainbow knew that the Earth ponies wouldn’t have stopped their assault unless she was unable to run or fight back, so she didn’t even bother trying to get up. Instead, she looked backwards to see how bad the injuries she had were. SWEET CELESTIA, WERE THESE SOME BAD INJURIES!! They were so bad, that even Rainbow Dash didn’t recognize herself! Her tail was stomped into a random mismatch of colored fur loosely connected to a cord, her legs ranged from bleeding to bending the wrong way, her cutie mark was either partially torn off, covered with blood, or both, her wing was still more reminiscent of a stump than a wing, her fur had bite marks, blood stains, and hoof prints all over it, and she had various cuts, bumps, bruises, and other things that she couldn’t even identify all over her body. In addition to that, Rainbow was also feeling extremely tired due to blood loss, and was struggling to keep her eyes open. She watched helplessly as the unicorns lined up for their final attack. They flashed another sadistic grin, lowered their horns, and fired a beam in unison. Rainbow clamped her eyes shut, waiting for the blasts to finish her off. However, they never came.

After a few seconds, Rainbow heard a voice that sounded a bit like Fluttershy yell out, “YOU??? I thought we’d killed you! How are you here??” Rainbow used all of her remaining strength to open her eyes. Once they were open, she saw Twilight standing in front of her, looking like she was fairly injured, but still able to fight. Rainbow then heard another voice say, “Ge…” before being cut off. The second that voice cut off, Rainbow immediately felt the atmosphere around her change drastically. Rainbow opened her eyes a little bit wider, and saw that she was now in some kind of lab. She looked up at Twilight, who was staring at her with a look that suggested that she was about to be sick, now that she’d seen just how bad Rainbow Dash looked. Twilight stared for a bit, before she gently put a hoof on Rainbow’s head. Rainbow gritted her teeth, no doubt due to her head hurting a bit, but it didn’t seem like Twilight’s hoof made Rainbow any more hurt than she already was. As a result, Twilight held her hoof there for a moment, before she finally started talking.

“Rainbow, I need to know: is that bone you’re carrying yours?” asked Twilight. Rainbow nodded in response, and then cringed a bit, as even the smallest of movements at this point hurt at least a little. Twilight then nodded, and gently draped Rainbow over her back. Once that was done, Twilight walked over to an odd pod like machine, and pressed her hoof on a control panel. It then flashed green and a door to the pod opened up. Twilight gently levitated Rainbow off of her back, and placed her into the pod, along with the bone that used to be part of Rainbow’s wing. She then closed the door and pressed a couple buttons, which in turn started filling the pod with an odd green liquid. Rainbow looked up, and said, “W…What is…”

Twilight put a hoof on the glass, right in front of where Rainbow’s mouth was. Rainbow took that as a hint and quieted down. She then heard Twilight say, “Don’t worry, Rainbow, this liquid will not drown you. This machine should heal you right up. All you need to do is just close your eyes and breathe. Do that, and you will get better, I promise.” Rainbow nodded and relaxed, allowing the green stuff to fully submerge her. Once she felt her hair floating, she closed her eyes and took deep breaths. At first, it came as a bit of a shock that she could breathe in this liquid goo, but the goo felt soothing enough to make Rainbow’s shock just fade away. After a couple minutes of this, she felt a bit of her fatigue wear off. She continued to breathe, and with every breath she took, she felt her strength slowly return to her and her injuries slowly fade away. After about 15 minutes, she felt completely revitalized. She knocked on the glass, letting Twilight know that she felt better. Twilight nodded, and placed a hoof on the monitor for a second. After Twilight released her hoof, Rainbow noticed the green liquid draining out of the machine. After it had completely left, Rainbow shook like a dog, getting the rest of the stuff off of her. Once that was finished, Twilight opened the door, letting Rainbow out. Rainbow rushed to Twilight and gave her a huge hug, saying, “Omigosh, Thank Celestia that you came!!! I thought I was dead, but you saved me!!! Thank you, Thank you, THANK YOU!!!!!!”

Twilight didn’t answer, and simply gasped for air. Rainbow took the hint, and let go of Twilight, letting her get her breath back. After Twilight did so, she looked at Rainbow and said, “Before I say anything, just let me heal up, ok? Just flick the screen when my body monitor is all green, and the machine will do the rest.” Rainbow nodded, and let her friend get in the pod and go through the process. Since Twilight’s injuries were nowhere near as severe as Rainbow’s, the healing only took a couple minutes to finish. After she got out, she gave Rainbow a hug and said, “Rainbow… I’m so glad you’re safe! When you disappeared during our Discord attack, we assumed the worst, and boy did we get it. I’m so happy you’re still alive.”

Rainbow nodded and returned the hug. After a minute or so, the duo pulled apart and looked at each other. This lasted for a couple seconds, before Rainbow began to speak:

“Alright, now that we got that out of the way, WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED TO PONYVILLE?? Why does everypony want me dead? Why did Fluttershy of all ponies seem disappointed that she hadn’t killed you??? What’s going on????” asked Rainbow.

Twilight sighed and said, “I guess I owe you that much, since you almost lost your life. Let me explain…”

“It all started after you’d disappeared. We were being talked down to by Discord, when suddenly, he disappeared in a puff of smoke that came from a laser from the sky. We looked up and saw a purple haze coming right at us, turning the world and its inhabitants into evil purple crystalized versions of their normal selves. The others and I tried to fight it off, but no matter how many crystalized creatures we took care of, we just couldn’t win, since that purple stuff was constantly possessing new creatures every moment. Eventually, we started to get worn out, and then it started hitting us the hardest, not just taking over easy to purify animals, but also ponies. Our techniques weren’t effective on ponies, meaning we were just getting swarmed by more forces every day. I called Celestia for help, but both she and Luna were busy fighting this stuff in Canterlot, meaning we were truly on our own. After two days of fighting these purplized ponies, it started to affect us. Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy were all taken by the haze on that day. Over the next week, AppleJack and I did our best to fight them off, but all we could do was take their elements off of them. No matter what we tried, our past friends just wouldn’t give up. After a few days of this, after we had won in an intense battle with some crystalized timberwolves, AppleJack collapsed in pain, and slowly started to crystallize. I tried my hardest to break the crystals with my magic, but it just didn’t work. AppleJack realized what was happening fairly quickly, and handed me her element, saying that I needed to run. I tried to refuse, but she put a hoof over my mouth and said, ‘Twilight, listen. It’s too late for me. Ya have all of the other elements, which means that ya have all of their power. If you or the elements get taken, then all’s lost. Get outta here, before I start having to hunt ya down. Please, Twilight.’ I released a tear and gave AppleJack one quick hug before I started running. I got about a mile before she and the others caught up with me. I got slammed around a bit, then used a ‘fake out’ spell I’d learned recently. This spell left a copy of me that appeared to be dead, while the real me teleported back to my tree dome lab. This fooled my friends, but I don’t think it fooled the possessed royalty, who still had my wanted posters up. I’ve been here ever since, quietly spying on the above world, occasionally taking things to hinder the crystalized ponies progress, like the healing machine from Dr. Whooves, for example.” Said Twilight.

“Wait a minute.” Said Rainbow Dash, “That may explain why you were being hunted, but why did they try to murder me?”

“Well, I’m not the only pony with a wanted poster up. Everypony who isn’t crystalized is considered a dangerous criminal, and gets a wanted poster to their name. Apparently, after Celestia became possessed, she looked up the names of everypony who’s currently living in Equestria. If a pony is found who isn’t crystalized, they get a poster which details an insane ransom if they can be either a) taken to the ‘dark side’ or b) just flat out murdered. From what I can tell, we’re the only two in Equestria who still haven’t been crystalized.”

“But, I wasn’t in Equestria when this started! Why was I on the wanted list?”

“Because you still live here, and you had yet to be written in the archives as MIA. Not to mention, if we are to assume that this crystallization and you vanishing at that moment are connected, then the force behind this crystallization will no doubt prepare a failsafe, just in case you did manage to return to Equestria. Anyway, once you flew down, everypony in town identified you as a criminal, and that’s why you were beaten that badly by everypony. I noticed your mane up in that red cloud through my telescope, and knew that I had to blow my cover to protect you. I teleported out of the lab and took cover behind town hall. Once I peeked out, I saw the unicorns lining up to finish you off, death by firing squad, if you will. I teleported in front of you, and blocked the beams. Due to my magical resistance, I was able to shake the shots off. I teleported you to the lab, and now… here we are.”

Rainbow stared at Twilight for a moment, wide-eyed at this tale. Eventually, Rainbow got her composition together, and said, “I have a few more questions.”

“And I probably have answers. Ask away, Rainbow Dash.” said Twilight.

“Alright, first question: Are we really considered criminals now, or is that an exaggeration?” Rainbow asked.

Twilight shook her head and said, “It’s no exaggeration, Rainbow. I grabbed two of the posters the other day, and brought them here.”

“May I see them?” asked Rainbow.

“Be my guest.” Replied Twilight, using her magic to unfurl the two posters in front of Rainbow:

Rainbow stared at the posters for a moment, before she turned toward Twilight and asked, “Alright, 2nd question: How exactly has nopony found you here? I mean, it’s not like this room is that well hidden or anything, it’s literally just a door in the library. How has no pony found this lab?”

“Several reasons: One, I have used my magic to make that door invisible, meaning that only those with a keen eye for detail could find it. 2nd, if they do enter the door, they just find a small platform that suspends over a very deep pit. The door that leads to this lab is also invisible, meaning that even if somepony made it through the first door, they wouldn’t dare to try to find the 2nd door. And 3rd, no pony is going to bother looking for an invisible door.” Said Twilight.

Rainbow nodded and asked her 3rd question, “How long have you been down here?”

Twilight looked up for a moment, before answering, “Ummm, about fifteen days now, and the invasion began about a month ago. Why?”

“THIS HAS BEEN HAPPENING FOR A MONTH???? IT FELT LIKE MAYBE A COUPLE HOURS WHERE I WAS!!!” Rainbow exclaimed

“Hmmm… I guess wherever you were taken had a different sense of time then time here. I guess your ‘couple hours’ was our month.”

“I guess. How can we undo this?” asked Rainbow.

“Well, I don’t know for sure, but I have a suspicion on what’s causing this and how it could be repaired. You see, while I was monitoring the outside a couple nights ago, I noticed something odd in the sky. It looked kind of like a crystalized molecule. I looked through all of my astronomy books, but couldn’t identify what that thing is. Whatever it is, it’s only visible at night, and it seems to be made of the same crystals that this purple haze is creating. I would guess that if that thing were taken out, then this crystallization would be undone.” Explained Twilight.

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” yelled Rainbow, as she dashed for the door. Before she could leave though, Twilight grabbed her tail with her magic, essentially anchoring her.

“Umm, Rainbow, there are several things preventing us from going there. One, I can’t fly. Two, everypony in town wants us dead, and now that everypony knows that I’m still alive, security around here is going to be upped tenfold. And three, you’re going to need a lot more power, as well some help from whoever it was that helped you escape from… wherever it was that you vanished to.”

“What do you mean, whoever it was? How are you so sure I didn’t escape solo?” asked Rainbow with a raised eyebrow.

Twilight raised an eyebrow back at Rainbow, and said, “Rainbow, I noticed that brownish redish hair in your coat when I brought you in here. Do you honestly expect me to believe that that’s part of your coat? And don’t even bother trying to say that it was fur that was stained by the blood, because that hair is still in the machine. If it was part of you, it wouldn’t have been left behind, but would’ve reunited with you.”

“…Good answer.” Said Rainbow, who turned a bit red in the cheeks.

“So, who was it that helped you escape? Do you know her name?” asked Twilight.

“Yes, I do. Her name is Blossom.” Replied Rainbow.

Twilight tilted her head and said, “Blossom? I don’t know anypony who just goes by the name of Blossom.”

“That’s because she’s not a pony. She’s a small pink thing with large eyes, white arms and legs, a black line across her stomach, and black and white feet. I’ve only seen two others who looked similar to her before, and that time all three of them were together.” Rainbow said, shuddering when she mentioned the three of them together.

“Hmm... I’m not really sure what that is. She sounds like she may be some form of human, but I’m not really sure from that description. Oh well, what she is isn’t important. What is important is that you need to find her.”

“Yeah sure, and what’s your plan there, Twilight? I almost got killed out there, and there’s no way I can outfly everypony.” Said Rainbow Dash in a somewhat cynical voice.

Twilight shook her head and said, “Maybe not yet, but you will be able to soon enough. I read a spell that can give you an exponential increase in your strength and agility.”

“Oh sweet! What spell might that be?”

“It’s a spell that’ll drain the elements power into your element of Loyalty.” Explained Twilight, “If you had more than one element’s power in your element, it would give you tremendous increases in strength and speed, as well as potentially give you some new abilities. If you had all of that, you’d have no trouble getting through the pony hordes.”

“That. Sounds. AWESOME!!!” Rainbow exclaimed. She then put a hoof to her chin and gave a confused look. Twilight tilted her head, and asked if Rainbow didn’t get something about the plan. Rainbow replied with, “Yes, there is something weird about this plan. Why didn’t you just use this spell on your element? You could’ve gotten the power of the gods! You could even have grown wings! You could’ve been the ultimate hero!”

“That’s true, I could’ve used it on myself. However, I had a feeling deep within my gut that you should’ve been the one to do it.” Said Twilight

“Huh? Why?” asked Rainbow

Twilight thought for a moment, before saying, “I think it was due to the fact that you were the one that disappeared. If this haze stuff just wanted to take over, why wouldn’t it have eliminated more of the bearers than just you? Wouldn’t it have been easier on it if it would’ve split us up in halves, with only three to fight the invasion, and three in purgatory? Not to mention, if it could only take out one of us, wouldn’t it have taken the one with the strongest element? No, the reason I think it eliminated you exclusively, is because it fears you, for whatever reason. I think there’s something about you that it just cannot stand, as is the case with this ‘Blossom’. I believed that, so I decided I’d wait about three weeks underground. If you didn’t come back by then, I would assume the worst, get the elements into my own, and launch out the lab to deal with that… thing myself. However, I think you would be far better suited for the task. Do you think you can handle it, Rainbow Dash?”

Rainbow Dash looked down for a moment, then looked up at Twilight and nodded, all while flashing a determined grin. Twilight smiled back, gave Rainbow her element, and levitated the other elements around her. She then closed her eyes, and her horn began to glow. Rainbow’s element then started blinking in brightening/darkening colors. The other elements then reacted, blinking in sync with Rainbow Dash’s element. After a moment, the other elements started firing small beams of colored light into Rainbow’s element, turning it from red to more of a wide range of constantly shifting colors, from blue to pink to orange to white to red to green to whatever. All throughout this process, Rainbow felt strength beyond anything she’d ever felt so far entering her body.

After the elements were about a third of the way drained, however, a bright flash of light appeared between Rainbow and Twilight, temporarily blinding the duo. While they were blinded, Twilight suddenly felt a sharp pain that hurt more than anything she’d ever experienced shoot through her horn. She collapsed to the ground, grasping her head. Because of this, the spell stopped, halting the draining process and sending Rainbow and the other elements to the ground. Rainbow landed rear first, looked up, and rushed over to Twilight, hoping to do whatever it took to help her. She looked over her, not sure what to do, when suddenly, Twilight’s horn started glowing with an odd orange energy. Rainbow watched in complete bewilderment, since Twilight’s magic was normally purple. Why was it orange all of a sudden? A bit of this orange energy dripped out of her horn, almost like her horn had a runny nose. When this energy hit the ground, it created a fairly large explosion, knocking the two ponies into opposite walls. When they crashed, Rainbow discovered that she wasn’t hurt in the slightest! It was like she’d hopped onto a pillow! When Rainbow looked over at Twilight, however, Twilight seemed like she was hurting badly. She was still clutching her head, her lower hooves seemed to be turning a bit darker a shade of purple than normal, and… WAIT A SECOND!! Rainbow gasped as she remembered Fluttershy’s crystallization process. This was exactly like that! Rainbow immediately rushed to Twilight, and started slamming her hooves down onto the rising crystal as hard as she could. Despite Rainbow’s increased strength, the crystal didn’t even crack. This stuff was harder than diamonds! Regardless, Rainbow kept slamming her hooves down, hoping to break through. Twilight took one glance down when Rainbow had punched her, and instantly saw the crystals. Her eyes shrunk to the size of pinpricks for a moment, before dilating back to normal size. She then looked up at Rainbow and yelled, “Rainbow! That’s your cue! You need to get out of here, before I become possessed!!”

“No way, No how! There’s no way I can leave a friend when she needs me most!” Yelled Rainbow, who was still trying to punch through the crystal.

“Rainbow Dash, this process isn’t reversible! The only way that it might be eliminated is if you destroy that purple thing in the sky! Go find Blossom, and destroy that thing! NOW!!” Yelled Twilight.

“I…I can’t leave you!”

“Yes… You… CAN!!!” yelled Twilight as she grabbed Rainbow Dash with her telekinesis and tossed her out the wall of the lab. Twilight then sealed the hole with her magic, as to prevent Rainbow from getting back in. Rainbow gave Twilight one last wave and started burrowing through the dirt back to the surface. “Good luck, Rainbow Dash…” said Twilight, shedding a final tear as she said that. The tear ran down her now crystalized nose and down her body. Twilight then felt her eyes start to burn from the inside out for a moment before lighting up in a bright yellow shade. Twilight had been possessed.

Rainbow blasted out of the ground and headed for the sky. However, just before she could get to the airspace, she felt some sort of light blue magic pull her back to earth. It then encased her and forced her to lie belly down on the ground. Rainbow looked up and saw that it appeared to be Rarity who was holding her. “What’s wrong, Rainbow?” asked the crystalized Rarity, “Why are you leaving so soon? We’ve yet to show you around!”

“I don’t WANT to look around!!” said Rainbow Dash through gritted teeth, as she tried to break out of the magic hold. Thanks to her strength boost, she was able to get one leg free, before it was brought down by another magic, this one being purple. She then turned her head and saw Twilight standing right next to her, with a sadistic grin on her face.

“That’s too bad, Rainbow, because the funny thing is, you don’t have a choice. Right, Rarity?” asked Twilight

“Yes indeed, Twilight! Now, what should we do first?”

“Let me go!!” yelled Rainbow Dash, who was trying in vain to break out of the combined magic of Twilight and Rarity.

Twilight and Rarity stared at Rainbow for a moment, and then gave a laugh that basically said, “You have got to be joking.” After they were done with the laugh, Rarity tilted her head and said, “You know Rainbow, now that I’m looking at you, I really do feel that you need a new look.”

“N-new look?” asked Rainbow, who was not liking where this conversation was going.

“Yes, a new look. Now, blue really is your color, of that I won’t argue, but I’ve always thought that you’d look simply ravishing in a nice purple or lavender. Don’t you agree, Twilight?”

“Hmm… I don’t know… Why don’t we give it a shot and decide?” Answered Twilight.

“NO!!!!” yelled Rainbow Dash in panic, obviously able to determine what they meant by that.

“Terribly sorry, Darling, but you’re outvoted. Next stop, Carousel Boutique!”

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SOMEPONY, ANYPONY, HELP ME!!!!!!!!!!!” screamed Rainbow at the top of her lungs, as she was levitated off the ground and dragged towards the boutique…

To Be Continued…