Twilight's Experiments: The Mushroom Kingdom Grand Prix

       “I hereby pronounce the one and only, amazing Rainbow Dash the winner of this year’s flying competition!  I am proud to say that this stunning athlete will receive the grand prize of being the Wonderbolts Captain for life!”  The host pony stated, placing a massive golden crown on Rainbow Dash’s head.

       Rainbow Dash showed little excitement in response.  She totally expected this to happen.  After all, she was quite obviously THE best flier that Equestria had ever known.

       She walked triumphantly down the cloud aisle as mobs of paparazzi tried to take her picture.  She flashed them a wink, and half of them fainted.  It was good to be famous.

…

       Suddenly, a loud bang woke Rainbow Dash up.  She cried out in surprise as she sat up in her bed, looking around crazily.  Once she found out what had happened, she groaned angrily.

       “Just when I thought my life was going PERFECTLY…”  She muttered.

       The bang happened again.  Rainbow Dash turned to the direction of the sound, and found that it was coming from the front door.  She got out of bed skeptically and trudged over to go answer it.

       Her lack of sleep was making her cranky.  Whoever was at the door, they were going to hear it.  It was a Friday night, and NO ONE was going to disturb her peace.

       Throwing open the door, Rainbow Dash prepared to give her visitor the scolding of a lifetime.  To her surprise, a familiar gray pegasus with a blonde mane and a lopsided eye stood on the other side, smiling eagerly.  When Rainbow Dash laid gaze on her, the pegasus giggled.

       “Hi there, Rainbow Dash!  Are you having fun?”  She exclaimed.

       “Having fun?  Derpy, I was sleeping.  What the hay are you doing here at one-thirty in the morning?”  Rainbow Dash asked groggily.

       “Your unicorn friend sent me here to tell you that she, uh……wanted you to meet there as soon as possible!”

       “Meet where?  What are you talking about?”

       “At the…the, uh……library!  Yeah, it was definitely the library.”

       “The library?  Ugh, it must be Twilight.  Doesn’t that egghead know the concept of a good night’s sleep?”  Rainbow Dash muttered.

       “Oh, and she wanted you to go tell your other friends the same thing.”

       Rainbow Dash groaned loudly.  She covered her face with her hoof.  “Fiiinnee………Knowing Twilight, I guess it has to be something important.”

       “Cool!  Glad I could help!”  Derpy beamed.

       “Yeah, yeah.  Whatever.  Guess I got somewhere to be now.”  Rainbow Dash grumbled.  She spread her wings, and took off into the night sky.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

       Applejack yawned tiredly as she slid herself out of bed.  This was definitely not the night to be disturbed while sleeping, hence the fact that she had a massive harvest to get to tomorrow.  But alas, someone was knocking at the door, and it’d be rude to completely ignore them.  The farmer just hoped that it wasn’t waking up the rest of the family.

       Swinging the door open with a sleepy hoof, Applejack looked up to meet her guest.  When she caught a glimpse of Rainbow Dash standing on the porch, she sighed.

       “Rainbow Dash, what’re y’all doin’ here?  It’s almost two ‘a clock.”

       “Don’t worry, Applejack.  I’m just as annoyed as you are.  But Twilight sent a messenger telling me to gather you all up for a meeting at the library, pronto.  I don’t know what it’s about.”

       Applejack grumbled.  “Ah darn…Big Mac’s gonna kill me…”

       “What was that?”

       “Nothin’.  Let’s just get a move on.”

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

       After ten minutes of walking, the exhausted duo made it to Fluttershy’s cottage.  Rainbow Dash balled up a fist, and rapped on the door.

       A stir of animal activity was immediately evident through the cracks of the wooden door.  A few lights turned on through the windows.  Applejack and Rainbow Dash took a deep breath.

       The door opened, and Fluttershy appeared on the other side, rubbing her eyelids.  She gasped when she saw her two friends at her doorstep.

       “Oh gosh……you’re a little early…my mane’s not even brushed yet……”

       Applejack and Rainbow Dash shared awkward glances.  Fluttershy looked back and forth at them, waiting for the information.

       “I think we know that we’re early, Flutters.  Twilight wanted us to meet at her library immediately.  We don’t know why.”  Rainbow Dash explained.

       “Oh, I see.  Well, I guess I’ll go with you.”  She shrugged.

       “Ain’t you mad that you had to be woken up so early in the morning?”  Applejack asked.

       “Not exactly.  Angel’s probably not happy, though.”

………………………………………………………………………………………………

       At precisely two ‘o clock, the five friends arrived at Twilight’s library.  The only ones who didn’t seem to mind being there were Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie.  Everyone else was groggy and impatient.

       “I’m glad you guys could make it here.  I know it’s pretty late at night.”  Twilight announced.

       “Gee, Twilight, you don’t say?”  Rarity replied sarcastically.

       “But the reason I brought you here tonight was to test out a new inter-dimensional teleportation spell that I have devised.  If it works, it’ll create duplicates of us to fill in life in Equestria, and send the real us to an unknown world to study the culture of life unseen.”  The unicorn explained.

       “Egghead, egghead, egghead, egghead, egghead, unseen.  That’s all I picked up.”  Rainbow Dash babbled.

       Twilight shot her an annoyed glance.  Fluttershy stepped forward, and interrupted the glare.

       “I’m sorry for asking, Twilight, but…why does this need to be so late at night?”

       “Primarily, I needed to do it without getting Spike’s attention.  This experiment doesn’t work on dragons, and I didn’t want him feeling left out.  He’s upstairs sleeping.  Also, I wanted to conduct the experiment without the citizens of Ponyville knowing, either.  The consequences of that could be disastrous.”  Twilight answered.

       “Whatever.  Let’s just get this over with.”  Rarity demanded.

…

       “Alright then.  I want all of you to stand in a circle.”  Twilight instructed.

       The six of them all did as Twilight ordered.  They arranged themselves in a loose circle, each holding hooves with one another.  Once Twilight was in position, she closed her eyes, and started up the procedure.

       A glowing ball of magic appeared at the tip of her horn, and began to grow steadily.  Once it was about the size of a head, it floated towards the center of the group.  The six friends watched the procedure in wonder.

       The ball hung in the center for a few seconds while everyone stared at it.  Twilight’s focus had not been broken, as her eyes remained shut.  A gentle wind was generated from the ball, which blew the ponies’ manes around in a counterclockwise fashion.

       Suddenly, six bolts of lightning shot out of the ball, enveloping the six unsuspecting subjects in a couple hundred volts.  They each began to convulse rapidly as the electricity ran up and down their spines.

       Slowly and irregularly, a second identical pony began to divide from each of the originals.  In a total of fifteen seconds, complete duplicates were made of each subject.  The electricity stopped, allowing the subjects to regain their consciousness.

       They all gasped in shock as they stared eye-to-eye at their doppelganger.  With only seconds to relish in the presence of their twins, the ball in the middle of the circle sent out another bolt of electricity.

       With triple the power from the last bolt running through their bodies, the six ponies blacked out in a matter of moments.  Once their senses shut down, their entire bodies disintegrated into a particulate mist.  The mist slowly dissolved into nothing.

       All that remained was the group of pony duplicates that were to fill in for the Mane Six while they were gone in another dimension.

To be Continued…