Down to Earth

“What do you mean, you didn’t do it?” asked Twilight furiously. “You’re the only one who could have done it with all the magical protection I placed on the portal!” she exclaimed, her mane beginning to smoke.

“What I am saying, dear Twilight, is that I did not modify, tamper, or interfere with the portal in any way, shape, or form. Besides, I cannot enter or modify their world. My place in Equestria is to keep balance and order. With too much harmony, the world becomes frozen and unchanging.” Discord freezes Twilight and her friends, minus Rainbow Dash, to prove his point. “No seasons, no plants growing, nothing. My chaos magic helps me keep the world moving, quite literally.” With a snap of his fingers, he unfroze the group of ponies.

“But conversely, with too much chaos, and the world becomes quite a cruel place. The weather changes on its own, ponies commit terrible crimes, and so on.” He said, beginning to continue until he was interrupted by Twilight.

“So you’re saying that I trapped Rainbow Dash in a giant Everfree Forest?”

“Oh Twilight, so worried about your marefriend.” Twilight blushed and began to protest, before Discord continued, “No, the human world is not quite as bad as that. They seem to be quite capable of taking care of themselves, if not without a little bit of trouble along the way. But if I stepped foot through that portal, or so much as touched it, I could quite possibly destroy their entire world. Seeing as those elements of yours haven’t put a magic bubble around all of you, I couldn’t have caused your poor marefriend Rainbow Dash to become stranded in the human world.”

“She’s not my marefriend!” replied Twilight, still embarrassed by his earlier remarks. “And if you didn’t do it, who did?” she asked accusingly.

“Any number of ponies who would like the elements to be non-functional or at least separated. Celestia herself may have even attempted to sever the bond between you six in order to regain the power of the elements for herself.”

“How dare you suggest Celestia tried to kill Rainbow? She wouldn’t do that!”

“Twilight, you have lived for a fraction of her life. Do you really know her all that well?” Twilight looked down, thinking, with a melancholy look on her face. “Besides, I’m merely throwing ideas out there. And considering we were having tea when the portal closed, I doubt either of us could have closed the portal from the moon.”

“You and Celestia were having tea? Together? On the moon?” replied Twilight.

It was about dawn in the human world, and Rainbow was tired as hell.

“Of course I had to come here and sleep in a tent the one night it rained.” She said, wrapped in blankets and shivering on John’s couch as he sat at his small dining room table and ate cereal. The forecast on the television said that it would be sunny the rest of the week.

“I told you to put the rainfly up, didn’t I?” replied John, smirking.

“Oh, shut it!” said Rainbow.

“You didn’t, you left the tent open all night.” He retorted, still smirking.

“If I weren’t freezing, I’d go over there and wipe that smirk off your face.” She replied, chattering her teeth.

John began to reply before he heard a loud snore coming from the couch. Rainbow definitely didn’t get enough sleep and was now passed out on his couch. A loud thud corrected him. She was now asleep on the floor, and still snoring. John sighed and continues to eat his cereal, ignoring the snoring coming from the floor by his couch.

Five minutes later, John was almost done with his cereal and Rainbow was still sleeping. Her arm was still up on the couch, with her hand holding a camera with no visible label on it. If someone looked at it at just the right angle, they would almost see it glow or shine a little, as if by some unnatural force. He shook his head; it was probably his sleep-deprived imagination. He hadn’t gotten much sleep either, thanks to the storm, although it appeared he was better than Rainbow at working with little sleep. Looking back to the camera, he noticed it has brightened significantly. Shielding his eyes slightly, he moves over towards Rainbow Dash, and poked her.

“Iridis, wake up. I think your camera might be about to explode.” ‘Iridis’ groaned.

“Ugh… thanks for waking me up.” She said, as she processed what John said. “Wait, what?” She sat up and looked at her camera. “Hold on, I’ll be right back.” She ran out the back door, leaving a confused, milk-covered John holding a, now empty, bowl of cereal. He groaned and walked to his room to change clothes.

“Hello Rainbow Dash, I have news. I haven’t been able to find out why the portal closed, but I’m still working on it. Also, did you know Discord and Celestia are dating? Weird, huh?” Twilight chuckles. “Apparently Discord thinks we’re in a relationship. Crazy, right?” Dash, for some reason, looks embarrassed and a little… disappointed? “But yeah, anyways, I’m working on getting the camera to receive and transmit audio and video at the same time. It’s all theoretical now, but I’m working on a test model here, and if all goes well I can implement it in your camera. Although, you’ll have to perform the changes to your camera yourself.

“Alternatively, if I get the portal working for small objects again, you could possibly send the camera over to me and I could work on it here in Equestria, then send it back over to you. If we do that, though, it’ll leave us out of touch for a while, or at least until I get enough magical energy stored to reopen the portal. I’m sorry I can’t open the portal for you to return yet, but transporting items will be the next step, seeing as we already know magic can transfer between worlds just fine.” She pauses. “Sorry, I’m rambling again aren’t I? Anyways, I just wanted you to know we’re still trying to get you out of there, so don’t worry. Bye for now, reply if you can.”

The camera screen went dim and Rainbow Dash sighed softly.. “Yeah, crazy.” She thought over the rest of what Twilight had said. Knowing me and my skills with magic, she thought, it would be easier for me to just give it to Twilight. “Well, I guess I have to find something to do…”

John sighed. He had all the chores around the house done, and didn’t really trust her with his money to go grocery shopping. Although, considering the girl looked bored out of her mind, he could take her to go shopping with him… though, her rainbow hair might attract some strange looks.

“I have to wear what?!” shrieked Iridis, when she saw the hat John got out. “What’s wrong with my hair? Why do I have to wear a hat??” John sighed again. This was going to be a long day.