Prologue: A Train Ride to Everywhere
Rainbow lay half asleep on the makeshift bed on top of a bookshelf in Twilight’s library. The magical pony had long since faded into a monotonous droning sound that vaguely resembled a list of activities that were required to go forward, but it was better than waiting at Rarity’s place, and she was less likely to get left behind due to having fallen asleep by the hyper organized Alicorn. The three of them had been invited to the palace for another session of “Show off for the dignitaries” that had been getting more and more frequent since Twilight’s ascension to princessedom. Something about soothing the griffon dignitaries about some imagined insult or something of the sort, Dash wasn’t sure, but it had something to do with honor and politeness. All Dash really knew for sure was that this was a meeting with somepony that used to be a general, and that the only old generals that she had ever met were long winded and boring. Rainbow was frustrated that she couldn’t even go pranking with Pinky to pass the time, as the hyperactive mare had gone ahead to “deal with a McGuffin,” whatever that meant. Fluttershy had to skip out due to spring meaning lots of animal babies, and Applejack had ended up with too much work on the farm, leaving Rainbow to either make the trip alone, or wait on Rarity and Twilight… which was a very close race in terms of “which one was more boring.” The chromatic maned Pegasus sighed as she stared at the ceiling, “TWI, are you almost done yet?”
Her innocent question was met with a huff of indignation from the lavender Alicorn, “Well, if you would help me get everything together, I would have been done half an hour ago.”
Rainbow rolled over on her bookcase to eye the lavender mare below, “Yeah, well, if you would make the stuff you were doing more awesomer, I’d pay attention to help, maybe.”
“That’s not a word.”
“Yeah, it is, you use ‘attention’ all the time.”
“That’s not what I… You know what? Fine, just stay up there, see if I care. I’ll take all day, then we’ll miss the train, and it’ll all be your fault.”
Rainbow grinned devilishly at the former unicorn’s tactical error in this battle of words, “Right, we’ll be late, which will throw your ENTIRE schedule off track right from the beginning. That would be TERRIBLE, wouldn’t it?”
A pair of purple eyes slowly grew wider as the Pegasus pony talked, “Oh... my... gosh… WE HAVE TO HURRY!” Things all around the room began glowing purple, filling the bags far beyond what they should have been able to hold, until everything was sealed away with spacial manipulation spells and much effort. The lavender mare yelled upstairs as she bolted, “SPIKE! We’re leaving; you’re in charge of the library until we get back!”
Rainbow smirked at the baby dragon as he appeared on the balcony, “See ya, Spike, we’ll be- ACK!” She was interrupted when a purple glow appeared around her tail and pulled her forcefully through the window, which was currently closed, “TWI! What’re you trying for? You wanna get me killed or somethin’?”
The mare in question didn’t even check up as Rainbow appeared flying at her side, “No time for that, Rainbow, we’ve got to get Rarity before we’re late to catch the train.”
The Pegasus rolled her eyes, “Twi, I was joking, we’ve got plenty of time, and I doubt Rares is even done getting ready.”
Twilight didn’t slow down, however, keeping herself at a steady pace, “Well, then, we’ll just have to hurry her up, won’t we?”
Rainbow raised a brow, “You’ve already worked out how close she is to being ready, haven’t you?”
Twilight’s answer was interrupted by their arrival at the boutique, she knocked once, and opened the door, beginning to talk before she even saw the scene, “Rarity, your mane is plenty shiny. You don’t need more than one dress of each color, so the second red one is superfluous, making room for the hat you can’t do without, and solving the wardrobe fiasco you were about to have a serious problem with. It’s too warm for more than four scarves, despite their having come in handy that one other time, and you shouldn’t use that suitcase, as it has structural damage that is irreparable without needless wastes of magic and time, which we do not have.”
Rainbow‘s eyes widened as she looked in amazement as she looked in at Rarity seemingly putting shining powder in her mane, and suitcases strewn about the room in a disorganized mess. Rarity, however, seemed to be thoughtful, “You are absolutely right, darling, however did I not see that before?”
“You would have soon, but I hadn’t planned on you reaching those conclusions for another ten minutes to an hour and a half. I tested it as a part of my recent study into probability magics. It works like fortune telling is thought to, except...”
Rainbow yawned loudly, magic stuff was permanently on her “Things to tune out and ignore” list, which was admittedly long. She wondered if the Wonderbolts would still be in Canterlot after their last show, since their next scheduled appearance wasn’t for another week. Maybe they would be at the palace for… some reason… Hey, it could happen! She idly wondered if that future spell of Twilight’s could tell her if they would go to the palace, or even where they would be. Maybe she could use it to get free tickets to their next Cloudsdale gig, that would be awesome. Or maybe Twilight would be able to tell her how much longer it would take for- “RAINBOW!” The Pegasus in question jumped as she was jarred from her daydreaming to discover a frustrated Alicorn, and an apparently amused Unicorn staring at her, “Hey, I know you live in them, but come down out of the clouds for a minute, we’ve got to get to the train station before they start loading too many ponies. I already have the seats I want us to get picked out in my head, since they have the optimal…”
Rainbow looked over to Rarity, who was smiling politely, but clearly holding back a snicker. Looking back to the Alicorn in the room, Dash lifted her hoof, cutting the lavender mare off, “If we’re late, we should probably go ahead and get there, right?”
Twilight’s eyes widened, “You’re right, let’s go.” The world disappeared in a flash, as they were suddenly on the platform for the train, “Good, we made it in time”
Rainbow blinked as her mane and tail smoked, dreading to look towards the surely devastated Rarity, but a pleading voice drew her eyes, “Tell me… how bad is the damage?”
It was atrocious, even by Rainbow’s lower standards. The purple curls had been wrinkled and blackened, her long lashes reduced to sizzling stubs over her eyes. The normally pristine white coat was splotched randomly with black spots, reminding Rainbow wryly of a Dalmatian. The cyan mare licked her lips and tried a line that had been used as encouragement after she had been training hard and looked dirty, “You’re still beautiful on the inside?”
Rarity sighed, “Thank you, darling, I was afraid of that…” Their luggage floated up, none the worse for wear as Twilight talked to the conductor, seeming to get more irate as she went, “I’ll simply have to fix it once we’re under way, it seems.”
Twilight walked up to them, clearly agitated, “Well, bad news, it seems that we won’t be sitting where I had planned. We’ve got to sit in the ‘royal coach’ for some reason. Can you believe that?”
Rarity and Rainbow looked at each other baffled at Twilight’s complaint, which the Alicorn in question took as agreement to the inconvenience of her interrupted plans, “I know, it’s terrible, I had everything planned out, and someone goes and says that they can’t have the princess of magic riding third class! Like my budget can afford to bump up any further. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO AFFORD ALL MY NEW BOOKS OTHERWISE? It’s ridiculous some…”
Rainbow facehooved, and mumbled under her breath, “Because it would be a tragedy if you got any less than a hundred books per stipend, now wouldn’t it?”
Rarity leaned in to whisper in the Pegasus’ ear, “And wouldn’t it be sad if one of the ones that didn’t make the cut starred a certain daring Pegasus pony?” She snickered as Rainbow visibly cringed, the entire exchange having been missed by the purple princess, still expressing her outrage at the injustice of… something, neither of her companions could quite make out what anymore, but it was clearly upsetting her. “I noticed that Twilight didn’t bring nearly as much luggage as she normally does, did you convince her not to be quite as... over prepared as she normally is?”
Rainbow waved the comment aside flippantly, “Nah, she packed everything she normally does, but she had some spell or other that made it all fit in fewer bags. I don’t really know the details, since I wasn’t actually listening when she explained, but it had something to do with bending space to make the bags bigger on the inside, which sounded cool until she started in on the how, which is too egghead for me, if ya know what I mean. So, yeah, she got a good spell, I guess.”
Rarity raised a brow, “Space distortion magics? That’s a bit risky, even for somepony of her caliber of magic ability. Did she mention any fail safes or anything of the like, darling?”
“She might have, I dunno, like I said, I was just-“
“FAT! Can you believe that? Why would anypony call me that? I’m NOT fat, and I don’t gorge myself on cake! It’s REDICULOUS!” Twilight’s rant came to an abrupt, but violently loud end as they reached the royal car, luggage still in tow, “Well, here we are… I guess I can make some adjustments to my schedule to make up for being in the wrong car…” She sighed as she glumly trudged into the private car, leaving Rainbow and Rarity to stand outside, dumbfounded at the magnificence of the carriage, gold plated siding, and plush interior, it was what everypony in their right mind dreamed of riding around in, and Twilight continued to act like it was the end of Equestria that she was being forced to ride in it instead of coach. Both of them shook their heads as they boarded.
Rarity wasted no time in confronting Twilight about the potential disaster that she foresaw, and Rainbow wasted even less as she started to zone out into the landscape, ignoring the talk of magic formulas and apocalypse prevention via boring means, which was an impressive thing to boringify. She examined a few stray clouds with mild disdain for her temporary replacement in the weather team. The cloud shortage meant that each cloud was needed to shade important areas, not to float randomly around the place. Whoever it was, had clearly not spent as much time with somepony highly organized as she had herself. She contemplated heading out to correct the problem, but the train jerked to life beneath her, and nap time called her name. She sighed and tossed her single bad up onto the luggage compartment along with Twilight’s and Rarity’s.
She heard a pair of gasps from behind her, then a thud, then everything went black.
Author's Note
Okay, done waiting for editor, gonna post this now. Sorry it took so long, and sorry it's not super long, but I wanted this to be a cut off point for chapter 1. I'm still considering merging the two chapters into one, what do you guys think? Also, seriously, I'm super sorry about how late this is.
Match 1: Crash and Burn
Rainbow woke up with a strange lack of feeling, like she wasn’t actually there at all. She tried to open her eyes, but she couldn't tell if it worked. Suddenly, she “felt” something speaking to her, something that felt terribly familiar, “Rainbow? Is that you? Think at me if that’s you.” Rainbow was confused for a moment. Think at something? How would that work? “Just… think, and direct it at me. It's easier if you just do it. Twilight had a hard time coming to terms with that, too."
"Where are we?" The former pegasus "asked" the voice that felt a lot like Rarity.
She was answered by a voice that felt remarkably like Twilight, "Well, it seems you disrupted my storage magics on my bags somehow, and we were ejected from Equestria."
"So we're in a different world? Like when you went to the place with the things to get the Element of Magic?"
"Yes, Rainbow, like the place with the things. Except not. We're not in a different world PER SAY in a similar manner as to how being on the road between towns isn't a new town, it's simply the in between. The main difference here is that there is simply a large amount of nothing in this particular in between. WE don't even exist while here, and it's only through collective force of will that we've even kept in this one spot, which is essential if we're to be rescued."
"Okay, in my defense, I actually TRIED to understand that one, and the best I got was that we need to keep still to get pulled out of here. How can we not exist?"
"It's really interesting, actually, I think we... We're moving!"
Rarity chimed in, feeling considerably less calm, "Moving? How can you tell? Are you sure?" Rainbow hadn't questioned it, she felt like she were made of dust sitting in a pool and someone had just poked a hole in the side, a clear suction going in one "direction." Ugh, she hadn't been doing this for more than a minute, and her head was already hurting from trying to think like this.
"Yes, the currents around the worlds got stronger, or, one specific one did. I think we had been drifting slightly and hadn't noticed, but we are DEFINITELY moving now, no question. More specifically, I think we're being pulled somewhere."
Rainbow's hope soared, "You think we're getting pulled back? I know AJ and them haven't been sittin around, after all. Maybe they found out how to undo it, or maybe Spike got the Princesses to come down!"
"No, it's the wrong way, or, as much as anything can be the wrong way in a place that doesn't exist, and yet is everywhere at once. Either way, I did a scan of the 'place' that we 'were' and I found-" There was a mental shriek as their group felt smaller. "RARITY! Rainbow, she got pulled into a different-" A second mind shattering shriek went off, and Rainbow felt herself alone in a void, teetering on the edge of the unplugged hole in the nothing that drained the lack of everything into it like a reverse black hole. She felt herself slipping in, but without wings to push back, or legs to grab hold, or anything to even grab. She merely hoped and strove to pull away even as she felt herself being pulled further and further in until finally, nonexistence left.
The first thing to come back was the feeling of herself, she could feel her body again. Not feel actual sensations ON it, but she could tell that she had wings again, and they were in the right place. She tried to move them, but succeeded only in ruffling her own feathers. Immediately after the feeling of relief accompanying the return of herself, she felt something less relieving. The feeling of air as it ran down her. FAST. She was falling, and she was also waking from what felt like a coma, this is not the most awesome of combinations. It might, in fact, be one of the least awesome combinations. As she diligently considered less awesome combinations that COULD happen, she struggled to open her eyes, hoping to see which way would be the best way to veer to avoid collisions with things that wouldn't be fun to collide with. As the wind ripped at her eyelids, she forced them apart, despite their holding onto one another like smell on a gym locker room, and found that she, at least, had plenty of time to get things working.
She was looking down on a village, seemingly smaller than Ponyville, and completely surrounded on all sides by a forest. She seemed to be going down directly into said forest. She grimaced through the wind as she struggled to get her sluggish wings to beat, but their being already pinned to her sides by the air pressure wasn't helping the newly reformed muscles to recover any faster. She looked back to the ground to find that she had significantly less time than she thought she had, and quickly added falling too fast and not being able to fly to her list of things to not be cool with.
Her eyes squinted shut as she finally forced her wings off her back, which slowed her momentum a bit, but mostly just succeeded in sending herself careening off to one side. With her keen vision currently picking out panicking... somethings running around on the ground, she knew she was out of time for a smooth landing, but she still put every ounce of energy she could into making it a survivable one. Blue wings strained against the force of the drag pushing them back as the Pegasus put her all into shedding speed. At about fifty feet she began musing over how much more difficult it was to stop an uncontrolled fall than a true dive, but didn’t have the chance to come up with exactly why before she was rudely interrupted by her arch nemesis, the ground. Fortunately, she met her old foe at enough of an angle that the remaining speed would be bled off in a long slide. Unfortunately, Ground had brought friends his leafy henchmen the trees. Those turncoats that were sometimes great nap beds sometimes terrible things to run into full speed.
Her uncontrollable momentum finally met its death at the branches of what tasted like a particularly old oak. Rainbow pulled her face off of it to examine the offender closely, and confirmed that she was correct. Happy in this fact, she promptly fell on her back to watch the sky for a minute, though that was impeded somewhat by the blue fuzzy thing looking down at her with a concerned expression, “Hey, you okay? Took a bit of a hit there.”
She blinked at the blue thing, then squinted, then blinked again, “Yep, and you wouldn’t believe it, but I apparently hit my head so hard that you look like a blue goffer. Crazy, right?”
The blue thing raised an eyebrow, “Ya know, I’d normally get mad at that, but you look like you might have some brain damage, and I make it a point to not beat people for things they won’t remember they did.” It leaned back and put forward its paw. The Pegasus stared at it intently, slowly coming to her senses. It looked an awful lot like Spikes claw, but it was fuzzier. “You gonna get up, or just leave me standin here with my hand out?”
Rainbow shook her head, “Oh, right, thanks.” She put her hoof on his hand and pushed, using it as leverage to pull herself off the ground before he even had a chance to try it himself, “Hey, uh… you look kinda odd. What are you, anyway?”
The blue thing grinned, “I’m a Yordle, and one of the best there is. The name’s Rumble. You must be one of the Ponies that have been popping up. I thought Twilight said there’d be one more.”
Rainbow grinned a bit, “So does that mean you’ve heard of me, then? Not in this world five minutes and I’m already- Wait, you said Twi’s here? Where is she? Is she okay? Is Rarity here? Are they alive?”
Rumble held his hands out, palms down and made a pushing gesture for some reason, “Calm down, they’re here, they’re fine. They’ve been here for months, a little over a year for Rarity, I’ll take you to em.”
“Woah woah woah, back the wagon up, they couldn’t have been here that long, I JUST saw them… er… whatever it is that you do with things in that space that wasn’t really… you know what, that actually makes more sense than the place I just came from, so never mind, we’ll just go with that.”
Rumble gave her a weird look, “Yeah… I’ll be right back…” With that, he walked off between some trees and into a fairly large metal shed. Studying the groove in the ground that she had made, it looked like she had barely managed to miss running headlong into the thing. She looked back at the oak and decided that she was, comparatively, lucky, counting this as one small victory.
Rainbow sighed and stretched, finally fully taking stock of the damage. It appeared that she had come away relatively unscathed, besides the usual cuts, scrapes, and bruises. Feeling the ground, she counted her blessing twinned with the soft, pliable soil she had driven through. It had acted more like a cushion than the normal unforgiving fist. Perhaps Ground’s alternate self was a nicer guy, and they could be friends, but she doubted it. She jumped straight up, to test her wings, and narrowly managed to dodge a blast of light that hit the tree behind her, burning a black circle into the bark.
The Pegasus took off like a shot, her still sore wings pumping to get speed to make herself a difficult target, but she wasn’t getting the air she was used to, barely getting enough to move, much less speed around. She pulled her wings in, allowing her to drop like a rock. She hit the ground at a crouch and took off to one side as another blast of red light turned the circle into an eight, “HEY! Stop hiding and show yourself, coward!”
The shack door blew open and a nightmare emerged. It was a gigantic machine with a spiked ball on one arm, and a spike sticking out of a hole in the other. Smoke billowed out the back like it was powered by an angry dragon, and the noise it made could shatter windows. Riding at the helm stood Rumble, face filled with indignation and fury as he scanned the tree line before firing off the spike like a harpoon that sizzled with lightning as it flew through the air, “Get out, you’re not gonna terrorize Bandle City! NOT ON MY WATCH!” Rainbow was… moderately impressed. She was also not squeeling like a little girl. She knew that because she was very intentionally stopping herself.
There was a commotion in one of the taller bushes and the sound of sparks that could be heard retreating. Rainbow ran to the spot, but Rumble called, “Leave em, someone like that, they’ll be impossible to track in this forest.”
Reluctantly, Rainbow stopped at the bush the coward had been hiding in, and snorted as she looked at the ground. Several pieces of red and black metal littered the forest floor. She scooped up a hooffull and looked at it closely, “Hey, you know what this junk is?”
The Pegasus looked up at the sound of pounding footsteps as the huge machine approached. Rumble climbed down to get a closer look, “Not sure… Looks like it was used in some kind of hextech, but I’ve never seen anything quite like it. I’m sure we can find out something where I’m taking you, though.” With that, he turned and began climbing back into his mech.
Rainbow put a bunch of the pieces away in that special space that most ponies have at least some access to, “And where exactly ARE you taking me?”
Rumble looked down from his perch, “The League of Legends.”
