Chronicles of the Ponyverse

On this bright sunny morning Twilight felt dizzy and exhausted, and while she didn't remember having any cider it was entirely possible Pinkie spiked the punch again for the celebration party. Was there even a celebration party? What could they be celebrating? As Twilight thought through the previous day, she found it extremely hard to remember any of it.

As Twilight opened her eyes, she spotted the practically unmissable fact that the ceiling was made of fluffy white clouds. And as she began to notice her surroundings, the apparent cloud covered room was obvious. Twilight stretched and realised that she probably passed out due to being drunk or exhausted or something. This had only happened one other time to Pinkie, and Dash joked about it for only a couple of days so it wasn’t that bad. Twilight got up and was content with the prospect of facing Dash.

Twilight also knew that she didn't have to do that unpleasantness right away, so she looked around, noticing that Rainbow Dash had a few toys lying around. This was interesting; Rainbow Dash never mentioned she was a toy collector like Pinkie. But as her eyes scanned the room, she noticed the scattered mess in the room. Was this a spare room? Must be. Twilight knew nopony besides Dash lived here.

Fully awake now, Twilight noticed that the bed, desk, and side table were a bit too big for comfort, and quietly pondered whether clouds grew when moisture got in them. Her eyes focused on a photo of Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo, with ponies that Twilight assumed were her family. That, combined with the toys, gave Twilight enough confidence to assume she was in Scootaloo's room. Twilight found it endearing that Rainbow Dash took her role as honorary big sister so seriously.

As she entered the ensuite to wash up, Twilight noticed that the mirror was too high. That was strange, but she was too tired to really worry about that for now. She spotted a red step and dragged it over. She stood on it and looked in the mirror.

“AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!” She fell back as she spotted her reflection. She took a second look, and it was definitely her; the orange fur, the purple mane, the lack of horn. She was Scootaloo, and – despite how – this was definitely something that she needed to fix. What was she thinking? Of course it was!

‘This is insane!’ she thought, panicking as she stared at her reflection. ‘Calm down,’ said her brain, ‘this isn’t the weirdest thing that has happened.’ Twilight protested, ‘Yes it is! You’re an idiot!’ Her internal critic mentally rolled her eyes. ‘There are other possibilities. You could just think you’re Twilight or be dreaming. Either way, you aren’t going to get anywhere by staying here!’ Twilight sighed and left the ensuite.

As she went back to Scootaloo's room, Dash was there, looking concerned and floating in the doorway. “You okay, squirt?”

Twilight looked at Dash. Why couldn't it have been something simple? It's never simple!

“Yeah, I'm okay,” Twilight said, smiling reassuringly, which made Dash feel a bit better.

“Okay, breakfast is nearly ready. Come downstairs soon.” She smiled and flew back downstairs.

Twilight thought of possibilities. 'Okay, so it might be a mind swap… but if that's the case, then why did I do it? And why wouldn't I remember?' Twilight paced and thought. 'I need to find out why Scootaloo is here. That's important, makes it clear what type of magic we are dealing with.' With that reassuring thought, Twilight searched the room until she found a scrapbook bound in strong bookbind, with a hardcover and simple protective magic that was the first spell Twilight learned for her job in the library.

She opened the book, and the first thing she saw was an inscription.'These are the memories and tokens of Scootaloo do not reed unless you are invited bestest wishes Scootaloo' Twilight smiled at the misspellings and the childish hoof-writing. She opened it to the first page and spotted a copy of an adoption certificate. As she smiled, she crossed time travel off her list. Rainbow Dash never adopted Scootaloo, and she was pretty sure she had parents anyway. As she flicked through the photos and notes, Twilight crossed off being insane, because if she was Scootaloo who thought she was Twilight  –  or vice versa – she would know about the adoption.

Twilight settled on the fact that she needed more facts, and so she put the scrapbook away and went down to eat breakfast… which smelled burnt. Dash was flying around the kitchen, trying to stop the smoke and save what Twilight assumed were pancakes, though it was hard to tell. “Dash, you need help?”

Dash was still frantically trying to fix the burning pan. “No, squirt, I think I've got it. Don't worry!” Dash ultimately failed, and when the pancakes were served, they were practically inedible; something that, fearing food poisoning, Twilight pointed out. “I don't think these are safe to eat.”

Dash exaggerated offence. “You don't like my cooking? But I think they look magnificent, and I bet they taste just as good!”

Twilight could tell she was acting offended; this was either due to her training in the art of friendship, or because it was totally obvious. “Fine, you eat it then."

Dash looked at it and made a disgusted face before floating over to the fridge with a pile of apple waffles, which smelled great. “Applejack made these just in case my cooking was...”

“Not very good?” Twilight offered.

“Horrendous I think was the word Applejack used.”

While they ate, Rainbow Dash talked about the weather. Now, for normal ponies, this is a sign of boredom, but in this case Dash was in charge of the weather, so it was probably important.

“Okay, squirt, here's the thing. This huge storm we have scheduled is going to be big, huge even, could be the biggest on record.” Twilight nodded and kept eating. “It’s important because there are a lot of unnecessary clouds building up. Ponyville voted, and they decided to have one huge overnight storm instead of constant rain throughout about 2 weeks...” Dash took a deep breath. “So I will need to stay there overnight to keep an eye on it. You, on the other hoof, get to stay with Applebloom for tonight.”

Twilight knew Scootaloo would be excited about this, so she got up and started bouncing around the table, cheering. Rainbow Dash smiled and stopped her with a hoof.

“Stand up straight and repeat after me.” Twilight stood up and faced Dash who was a lot taller than her. “I, Scootaloo...” Dash said with her hoof over her chest.

“I, Scootaloo...” Twilight repeated, watching her with curiosity.

“Swear by the honor of the Pinkie Promise...”

Twilight looked confused. “That's not how it...” Dash gave her a look that suggested that she should shut up. “Swear by the honor of the Pinkie Promise...” she said.

“To not do anything stupid or dangerous and to listen to whatever Applejack says, even if I don't understand it.”

“To not do anything stupid or dangerous and to listen to whatever Applejack says, even if I don't understand it,” Twilight repeated. Dash nodded approvingly.

They finished getting ready and Dash flew her to school. Twilight wondered why Scootaloo didn't just fly herself, but as she rested into the blue fur, she didn't care. When they landed and Dash hugged her, Twilight was at a loss with what could be happening, so she just went along with it.

Twilight stood in front of the school building, which looked bigger and more intimidating than she expected. Sure, she could go in there and basically ace any test, but she really didn't want to. Twilight added another possibility to the list. She probably got Twilight to cast a spell on her, or she stole a potion to make her as smart as Twilight and that gave her the memories of Twilight. It didn't explain how Twilight didn't know she was adopted, but that was still a theory she could get behind, and after the storm passed she would find Twilight and get her to reverse the spell.

With that thought lifting her spirits, she started walking into the school grounds. She didn't know she was been snuck upon and didn't notice, possibly because she was in such high spirits or because her stalker was just that sneaky. Twilight felt herself being tackled and held in a tight hug. She looked and saw Applebloom's bow.

“Howdy, Scoot! It's so awesome that we get to have a sleepover!” Twilight tried to break free due to the lack of oxygen and she spotted Spike waving at her.

“Hi, Twilight,” he called happily, then vanished, much to the confusion of Twilight. Applebloom either didn't know or care what just happened.

“Oh boy, this is going to be so much fun! We can play bobbing for apples and pin the apple on the apple tree and tell ghost stories about the evil pear who tries to ruin the apples...”

Twilight broke free and tumbled a bit. “Sounds great, Bloom.” Twilight smiled and looked to the fillies walking up to them. One was wearing a silver tiara and the other wasn't. They walked towards them with their noses up, trying to act as pompous as possible – which is really easy when you have practised this much.

“You know, Silver Spoon? Our sleepover is going to be so good. Daddy says we can have caviar.”

Twilight looked at them. “Caviar? Really?”

Diamond Tiara smirked. “Oh yes, only the best for us. What will you have? Apples, I assume?”

Applebloom was going to yell at them but Twilight stopped her. “Do you even know what caviar is?”

Diamond Tiara rolled her eyes in disgust at such an obvious question. “Of course I do! It's fancy food you can't have!”

“It's fish eggs. Ponies don't eat caviar, we eat sea weed to be fancy.”

Diamond Tiara looked shocked. “You're lying!” Twilight explained in detail what caviar really is. “You’re wrong! If it was true, dad wouldn't eat it... and what do you know anyway, blank flank?”

Twilight facehoofed as Sweetie Belle joined Applebloom in the small audience that was gathered around them. “Did you really just call me blank flank? Is that seriously the best you can do?” Twilight scoffed at them. “Not about the fact that I can't fly or seem to have been obsessed with Rainbow Dash? Hay, you didn't even go for the obvious 'you haven't got real parents' insult, that would at least be dark and a personal attack to me.” Twilight sighed and looked at their shocked faces. “I guess it was too much to expect. I mean, your cutie marks mean that you two are rich and don't have to do anything.”

Twilight walked away as Diamond Tiara called to them. “Rainbow Dash isn’t your real mother!” Twilight continued to walk, ignoring them as she went into the school, followed by Sweetie Belle and Applebloom who were still in shock.

Diamond Tiara watched them go and turned to Silver Spoon. “What just happened here?” Diamond Tiara looked worried.

“I think...” Silver Spoon pondered. “...that we were insulted and judged on our technique.”

Diamond Tiara sat and thought about this. After a while she shrugged it off as a fluke and went to the swings.

“That was so awesome, Scootaloo!” Applebloom practically squealed, bouncing around the orange pegasus.

“When did you learn how to speak like that?” Sweetie Belle pondered.

Twilight shrugged. “She was annoying. I wanted to shut her up.” Twilight was evasive to their questions. Apparently if they weren't going to get to talk about it with her, they were going to keep trying, but for now they sat in the back waiting for their teacher to walk in. As they did so, Twilight looked out the window and saw the first grey cloud being set in place, ready for the storm.

Diamond Tiara walked into the classroom just before it started to rain. She sat next to Silver Spoon who had gone in ahead of her, because Diamond Tiara wanted to be left alone for a bit. Before Silver Spoon had a chance to talk to her, Cheerilee came in.

She was wearing a raincoat, hat and a smile just big enough for Tiara to notice it was fake, but not big enough for her to be forcing it, so she said nothing. Not that she would be heard if she did, as the wind had picked up and the rain was hammering on the roof. She sighed and looked in the direction of Cheerilee.

“Now class today we… going… learn… carrotlot.” Diamond Tiara assumed she misheard, but this lesson was so unimportant she didn't actually care if she was really talking about a lot of carrots or whatever. No, now she needed revenge! Scootaloo had embarrassed her in front of the whole class, and now... she looked at Scootaloo waving her arms and talking to her friends… she was talking about her humiliation.

Perhaps she would print a really embarrassing story, like how she is dating Applebloom or something... no, that would be like insulting her for being blue which would mean, A, nopony would believe her, and B, nopony would care if she was. A loud squeak annoyed her and she couldn't concentrate. When she looked at Scootaloo again she saw the orange pegasus running towards her, looking panicked. Diamond Tiara shot up as Scootaloo tackled her off the seat.

They tumbled on the floor as the light fell where Diamond Tiara had been sitting. Scootaloo climbed to her hooves. Diamond Tiara looked at her, then at the crushed desk. She turned back. “You ruined everything!” she screamed at Scootaloo, and stormed to the back of the class room with Silver Spoon.

Twilight watched her go, confused at the hateful reaction to her good deed. She mentally added that to the list of things to figure out, but first she had a job to do. “Cheerilee!”

The pink pony was bracing the window with wood. “What is it dear?” she called back over the wind.

Twilight stood on the table near her and got the attention of the class. “This classroom is no longer safe.” She glanced towards the back and saw Spike standing in the classroom. “We must evacuate and go to the school library. It is small and secure.”

Cheerilee looked at what had happened to Tiara's desk, then around to the students. “You're right, Scootaloo! Okay, everypony, form a line by the door. We are going to follow the evacuation and lockdown procedures!”

The students formed a line and Twilight stood next to Spike at the back. “Well, Twilight, glad to see you are still as leaderish as you were before.” Twilight looked at him. Then, as they entered the library, she slipped into the reading room without being noticed by Cheerilee.

She saw Spike walk through the closed door like it was open. 'Cause that's not strange at all.' she thought to herself. But then she decided that enough was enough; she was going to get some answers right now! “How do you know I'm Twilight? How did you walk through the door without opening it? How am I Scootaloo? Why am I here? Why can nopony see you? How is Scootaloo adopted by Rainbow Dash when she has parents? What the heck is going on? Why are you wearing that suit?”

Spike was taken aback by the bombardment of questions. He raised his hand, one of which Twilight noted was holding some sort of input output device. “What do you remember before waking up here?”

Twilight thought back. “Nothing! I remember you saying you would ask Rarity out, I remember flashing lights and yelling, and that's it.”

Spike scanned her with the device. As he looked over it, he looked concerned. “You seem to have lost some memories... a side effect we expected.”

Twilight raised her hoof. “A side effect of what, exactly?”

Spike took a deep breath. “You were experimenting with teleportation to other worlds. Funding was being cut, so you decided stupidly to test the machine on yourself. This is the result.”

Twilight nodded. “Yes, of course, that's what happened. I mean, why not? The last time a spell went wrong I turned blue, but hay, this is fine, I am in another world! Why not?” Twilight started laughing. “Hay, or I could be dreaming, or insane, or both!” Spike took a step back. “I mean why the BUCK NOT? WHY NOT JUST GO TO ANOTHER WORLD? That's just a perfect idea, don't you think?”

Twilight felt water pour over her head. As she turned around, she saw Diamond Tiara standing in the door, the water jug landing back on the table where it came from. Twilight was more relaxed now as she turned to face the pony.

“Before you get mad, you were yelling!” Twilight watched as Diamond Tiara walked in front of her and took a deep breath. “You saved my life and I am from a noble family… so… I am indebted to you by strict rules as governed by my family's honour.” Twilight didn't know how to respond to this. “This doesn't mean I have to do whatever you say or that we are friends, I just have to be nice to you and repay the debt I owe you.”

Twilight did know how to respond to this; she had read about this sort of debt before.

“You are to leave me and all who are a member of the cutie mark crusaders, past, present, and future alone. Also, I may need a favour from you soon.” Diamond Tiara respected how much Scootaloo knew about this deal. Honestly, she had expected her to demand that she left everypony alone, which would not be an honourable request and the deal would be broken, but this was a noble deal so she bowed and left her alone.

Twilight turned to Spike who was checking his hand held. “Do you know what will happen?” Spike nodded. “Sort of. This,” he held up the handheld, “is connected to the Everfree program which allows me to input information, and she can determine the odds of something happening and make predictions from that.”

Twilight looked at him for a few moments. “We have a storm here, right now Dash is out there, I am Dash's daughter, all of this can't be coincidence… well it can, but I don't think it is.”

Spike nodded. “I will have Everfree run the numbers and determine what might happen, but for now you have children to help.” Spike vanished in purple light, and Twilight walked out and back to the library where a very worried-looking Cheerilee stood looking at her.

“You weren't outside, were you?”

Twilight wondered why...Oh yeah she was wet. “No,” Twilight said and Cheerilee looked relieved as Twilight joined Applebloom and Sweetie Belle.

“Listen, students. LISTEN!” The class grew quiet, shocked by the yelling. “You will have to stay here until the storm passes. It is unsafe for you to go home right now. This is a level 3 lockdown.” The class looked really worried; they couldn't remember what a level 3 lockdown meant, but they did know that it was the highest level.

As the class took the next 30 minutes to settle from fear into mild concern and hunger, Twilight walked past all the groups, making sure they were safe and as comfortable as possible.

As the class was talking and playing Cheerilee saw Scootaloo checking on all the students making sure they were comfortable and not scared. She checked and saw her cutie mark hadn't appeared. She watched her student walk up with a list.

Twilight held the list out frustrated without magic. "There is a general concern for the safety of themselves and their families. I suggest reassuring them."

Cheerilee nodded. "What about you Scootaloo? Are you okay?" Twilight sighed holding the list trying to keep balance. "Yes I am Dash will be fine she is probably at home by now." Twilight lied in order to comfort their teacher. Twilight spotted Spike again, he was looking at a drawing. "Cheerilee I need to go to the bathroom."

"Okay dear but use the staff one here do not leave!" twilight saluted and walked in followed by Spike.

"Hey Twilight listen!" Spike held up the hand held.

"You got me all wet!" Twilight yelled angrily. Spike held up his arms defensively sorry but listen carefully this is important." Twilight leaned on the sink. "Go ahead." Spike looked at his hand held. "Okay so Everfree ran the data and there is about a 75% chance that you are here to save Dash from being injured or killed in this storm." Twilight took a deep breath. "How dose it know?"

"I have know idea but I trust the designer."

"Who designed it?"

Spike gestured to her. "You did."

Twilight's mind switched into shut up and think of a bloody plan mode. 'Okay save Dash, I need help.' Twilight walked out and took Applebloom, Sweetie Belle and Diamond Tiara into the reading room.

"What the Hay?" The yellow mare squealed.

"Okay quickly Diamond Tiara is going to help me because she owes me an honorarble favour."

Diamond Tiara sighed. "What do you want?"

"Mum is out there in the storm and hooves to horse shoes she didn't go home for safety. So she needs my help." Twilight took a deep breath.

"You ain't going out there alone!" Applebloom protested and Sweetie Belle nodded. "She's right we are coming too!"

"I know you are you're as stubborn as me." Diamond Tiara looked terrified. "I vote for not dying in the storm."

Twilight giggled. "You aren't coming!" The look of relief on Tiara's face was instant. "You simply distract Cheerilee while we escape." Diamond Tiara thought about this and then nodded.

Cheerilee was leading the class in a song as Tiara was spotted. "Tiara dear why don't you join us?"

Diamond Tiara started singing. "Frog went a-courtin' and he did ride, uh-huh

Frog went a-courtin' and he did ride, uh-huh

Frog went a-courtin' and he did ride

With a sword and a pistol by his side, uh-huh."

As the class sang along the Cutie Mark Crusaders slipped out relatively unnoticed except a couple of ponies shivering from the quick breeze.

The sun was blocked by the hundreds of clouds that covered the sky. Rainbow Dash flew through the rain, making sure this didn’t cause a flood, or something horrible that she couldn’t even think of. Granted this was probably unnecessary; the other pegasi seemed to think so. Dash had told them that she couldn’t make them stay because flying in this weather was against health and safety. However, she was never one to be scared away. She separated some clouds which made the rain spread.

Lightning struck close to her, the heat radiating off her back for a few seconds. She was scared and felt like giving up, but her thoughts went to all the ponies down below in their houses; they were all relying on her, on Rainbow Dash, the best flier in Ponyville, good enough for the Wonderbolts! Now, Dash felt that taking care of Scootaloo was an experience that had humbled her… at least a little, but when the whole town was literally relying on her? She might as well enjoy the thought.

Below, on the ground, unnoticed by Rainbow Dash. Spike appeared and ran beside Twilight, who was trying desperately to keep the rain out of her eyes. “Spike, go ahead and see if you can find Dash!” Spike nodded and vanished, appearing a few seconds later on a cloud Dash was pushing. He scanned his location and teleported back to Twilight.

“Okay, I know where she is. Follow me.” The three of them ran, Twilight following Spike and the other two following her. They turned into the outskirts of town and ran towards the boutique. Spike stopped in front of a fountain and pointed up.

Dash was hard to miss, a rainbow in the rain. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle started shouting, while Twilight remained quiet as she thought. Then she spoke up. “Are you finished?” The others nodded and Twilight continued. “I need to get closer to Dash. It is way too dangerous for her to fly in this weather.”

Applebloom raised a hoof. “How?” she asked. This was a good question, but Twilight had a really stupid answer that was guaranteed to not work.

“Good question. This is a really stupid answer and probably won’t work. I need Sweetie Belle to levitated me up as high as she can so that Dash can see me.”

Sweetie Belle and Applebloom were in shock. “Last week I levitated my cat. That was hard. You weigh more than a cat... I don’t know the math, but I assume a lot more.”

Twilight nodded. “I know, I’m sorry, and if there was anything I could do to change this I would, but I can’t. Please?”

Sweetie Belle sighed and nodded. Her horn began to glow, and the silver aura surrounded both her horn and her friend. She saw Scootaloo start to float up high, higher than she had floated anything. She winced in pain as the spell pushed her limits, but she didn’t let it stop her. Rainbow Dash was out of earshot and too distracted to notice. The last thing Sweetie Belle heard before passing out was the high pitched scream.

Rainbow Dash heard the scream and saw Scootaloo falling. In the same amount of time it would take most pegasi to think of what they should do, Dash was already diving. Halfway down she realised that it was a pony, then half a second after that she realised it was Scootaloo and sped up, covering the distance separating them in the time it took Rarity to look out the window and think, ‘Huh? What was that noise?’

Rainbow Dash was flying towards her. It was meant to be in slow motion, that’s what she read, the victim falls and everything slows down, but the ground was getting dangerously close just before she felt the soft fur of Rainbow Dash’s arms. She nuzzled into her chest and closed her eyes.

As she felt her whole body relax, she thought that if she was going to be stuck anywhere, she was glad it was with a pony who loved her this much.

Twilight opened her eyes and saw Pinkie’s face smiling at her. “Hi Spike!” she yelled excitedly. In shock, Twilight fell off the bed and turned to the mirror. She saw her small dragon form, looking as scared and confused as she felt.