Pony Trigger

Chapters

The Shy Princess
Larry
The Doctor
Jailed
Metal Dragon
Bad Future I
The Cathedral

The Shy Princess

"It was the day of the start of the Millennium Fair when our lives changed forever. If they had told me I would be rescuing a princess and fighting an evil goddess, I would have said that they were totally nuts!" - Rainbow Dash

JANUARY 1, 1000 AD

"Dash..." The voice came through the darkness. "Dash!" More insistent. "Wake up, Rainbow Dash!" The teen mare with rainbow mane sighed and opened her eyes. Her mother was there, gently shaking her. She apparently had not noticed her daughter was awake, and was growing a little irritated. "Rainbow Dash, if you don't wake up right now I'll..."

"It's okay, mom. I'm awake." Rainbow Dash grunted. "What? More clouds to clear up?" The blue pegasus mare really looked tired, her mother almost regretted waking her up so early, but a promise was a promise after all.

"No, don't you remember what day it is today?" She went over to the blinds and opened them wide. "Luna's Bell sounds so nice in the morning, doesn't it?"

"Hey! Bright light! Bright light!"

"Oh, please. If you want to miss the start of the Millennium Fair... go ahead." Without another word, she walked downstairs.

Dash opened her strong rose eyes wide as she remembered last night, watching the clock tick down the last seconds of the year 999 A.D. There was great celebration when it turned over to 1000. The New Millennium had finally come. That day there was to be a great fair held in Posey's Square, the center of the town of Ponyville. And tomorrow, it was going to be the longest day of the year! Princess Celestia was going to visit the town and raise the sun there.

Twilight had told Dash that the princess had actually pushed the sun to make the longest day get earlier. But it's not like Dash cared about those things anyway. After all, she lived in a world ruled by magic, in the kingdom of Equestria; for her having a winged unicorn raise the sun and the moon was normal. Celestia was not only the ruler of Equestria, she was a goddess, their goddess. They trusted and loved her because she cared for her citizens and was a kind ruler.

Rainbow Dash got out of bed and was surprised to find that the cat was not around. "Mom, where is the cat?" She then could smell that her mother was baking some cookies. Cookies for breakfast? No, that just could not be, then it must mean that...

Rainbow Dash walked down the stairs looking angry "Mom, are you baking cookies to sell them in the fair? You promised we would hang out together today!"

"Rainbow dear, you know we need the money, besides, your friend Twilight Sparkle wants to show you that crazy invention of hers, right?"

"Ahh fine! I will go to hang around with her." Dash's stomach then grumbled. "After eating something, what we got for breakfast?"

"Oatmeal as usual."

"Argh, fine, I will eat with Twilight then, she is usually awake at this time anyway!"

Rainbow Dash's mother smiled as her daughter washed her face and then went outside, she was so easy to manipulate!

Dash's eyes closed a bit once she was outside as the sun shined brightly. She put her hoof up over her eyes to block the glare. Slowly she adjusted to it, and looked around. The sun gave her an odd feeling but she chose to ignore it. It was a long walk to Twilight's house. Dash dug in her secret spot and found 200 golden coins, or bits, her savings from months of hard work.

And hard work, in this case, meant she only cleared the sky of clouds whenever they nagged her too much about it. Dash then realized that in the hurry, she had forgotten her backpack. She didn't really want her mother to see her back again so soon, so she flew to the back of the house, opened the window, picked up her pack and then exited her room, forgetting to close the window as she left. Once she had her pack on her back and the money inside it, she walked to Twilight Sparkle's house.

Once there, Rainbow Dash found out Twilight was already at the fair, she sighed, and walked all the way to the Millennium Fair. On the way, she saw several ponies standing by a fountain at the entrance of town, chatting. What else was on their lips but the Millennium Fair. She also heard something about a crazy pink pony, maybe it was one of the clowns in the fair?

Dash's stomach protested again and she walked down the street. She could see the gates in the distance. Huge balloons hung in the sky, and the crowds were pouring into Posey's Square. She smiled and walked off, ready to enjoy the day. But her mind was focusing more on buying some yummy food than the fun for the moment.

Rainbow Dash walked through the arch of Posey's Square and stood back in awe. Ponies were everywhere. Stands containing all kinds of goods and foods were set up in every corner. Balloons and tents filled the area. Traders tried to strike bargains. Exotic creatures were being shown, not caged, because that would be rude, but as special guests. And in the center of everything was a large Bell, Luna's Bell, the origin of the name lost long ago.

Then she found what she was really looking for, a food stand. Her hunger was almost unbearable by now. So she ran to it without looking and getting in the way of a young mare, about her age, that was slowly walking by.

"OW!" Both of them crashed together. The other mare was the first to recover. She said nothing, touched her neck and became shocked, starting to search the ground. Whatever she had lost seemed important.

Dash got up and walked over to her, where she was frantically searching the ground. She was a pegasus like Rainbow Dash, only she had a yellow coat and a pink mane. Her cyan eyes looked nervous.

"Hey, are you alright?"

She mumbled shyly. "Um... I lost my pendant." So faint was the mumbling that Rainbow Dash could not hear her.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Dash asked.

"Uh... my pendant, um, I lost it." The other pegasus mumbled.

"Whatever, if you don't want to talk you don't have to talk, sorry about crashing into you by the way." Dash said and turned to leave, when she saw something glittering on the other side of the large bell. She went and picked it up, it was a pendant. She then walked over. "Is this yours?"

The yellow mare did an ecstatic jump. "YES! Thank you! It's a family antique, and has a lot of sentimental value!" She hastily placed it back around her neck. "Oh, sorry I was so shy. My name's Fluttershy. And you are...?"

Dash grinned. "The name's Rainbow Dash, but calling me Dash is ok."

"Nice to meet you Rainbow Dash." She suddenly seemed nervous. "Er... I'm kind of a stranger around here. Would you mind... showing me around?"

Dash thought for a moment, then grinned again. Why not? "Sure, no problem!"

Fluttershy smiled, relieved. "Great! Where to first?"

Dash's stomach roared, making her blush. "Eh... eating something first would be nice."

After eating some muffins sold by a strange mare with a gray coat, a yellow mane and odd eyes that looked in different directions, the duo continued their talking.

"So, my friend Twilight Sparkle made a battle robot, want to fight it?" Dash asked, after all she came to the fair to spend time with her friend.

"Fight? No... that would not be right, what has the poor robot done to you?" Fluttershy said. Dash had to put her hoof in her mouth to avoid laughing.

"Was it something I said?" Fluttershy asked confused

"No, not at all." Dash chuckled. "Anyway, there are all kinds of stands in this fair. Some sell exotic foods and there is the exotic creature exhibition. There are also a few tents with games, like one where you have to mimic the moves of a marionette, and others where you have to guess cards, a soda drinking contest, a fun house, and even a prehistoric dance." Dash said. She had helped with many of the preparations for the fair, in exchange for some bits; that was why she knew so much about it.

"Well, whatever you want is fine." Fluttershy said. Then they noticed an old colt looking around frantically. "Where'd my lunch go? It was here just a second ago!" Dash saw movement out of the corner of her eye, and turned. She laughed. Fluttershy and the old pony followed her gaze and also began laughing at the site of a tiny kitten attempting to drag a large pink package down an alley.

Dash picked up the kitten, which gave a squeaky growl and sank its teeth into her foreleg. The teen winced. "Ow." She dropped the kitten and it ran away. A pink mare picked it up,

The mare looked kind of strange, wearing a cloak made of many different colored patches of cloth, giving the cloak all the colors of the rainbow. She also had an old looking backpack. She had a curly dark pink mane and her light blue eyes eyes had a strange spark in them. Just looking at the strange pony made the two of them smile.

"Thank you for finding my kitten. Opal loves to run away. Here, let me give you something." The pink pony gave a wooden sword to Rainbow Dash, who looked at her confused. "Trust me, you will need this, my Pinkie sense said so!"

Then they saw the pink mare do some strange twitches and involuntary motions, and her eyes looked really weird for a moment. "Oh no, I gotta go! By the way my name is Pinkie Pie!" Pinkie Pie put the kitten in her backpack and ran away.

Fluttershy started to laugh as soon as Pinkie Pie was gone. "Hahaha! That was so strange!" She seemed really happy for some reason, maybe because of the absurdity of what they had just seen. Maybe it was something else. Dash did recall feeling happier and more playful when the pink mare was near them.

After that Fluttershy seemed more eager to try stuff, she came in second in the soda drinking contest, got two of three tries in the card guessing game and even danced with Dash, who was pretty embarrassed as she was an awful dancer. There was also a race they could bet on, but Fluttershy said that gambling was bad, so Dash didn't bet. That made her angry, when the one who she was going to bet on, a mare called Carrot Top, won.

"Oh, sorry about that, want to do something else? I won't say no this time, I promise." Fluttershy asked, feeling bad for forcing Dash not to bet.

Dash smiled evilly, planning her revenge. "How about that?" She pointed at a black tent in a small corner. The entrance was a giant (and fake) dragon skull. "The Tent of Horrors!"

Fluttershy lowered her head and spoke nervously. "That? What if... it's not safe?"

"Don't worry, I helped to test it, it's totally safe. The proprietor, Norstein Bekkler, is a little creepy, but he's a good colt. You'll love it."

The tent was like the inside of the dungeon. In the back, a large barred door housed a pair of glowing eyes. Fluttershy stifled a scream and hid behind Rainbow Dash as she saw the proprietor. Norstein Bekkler was a floating pony head, with two floating pegasus wings.

"Welcome to Norstein Bekkler's Lab! The spine-giggling ghostie show is about to start!"

Dash waved. "Hey, Bekkler! How ya been?"

The head smiled. "Rainbow Dash! Come to win another Wonderbolt Doll? I am sorry to say this, but we are out of Spitfire dolls."

"Nah. The Spitfire one I got yesterday has survived the cat so far. I think I'll try the 40 bits game."

Fluttershy was still hiding behind Dash, Bekkler smiled at her. "Don't be afraid, girl, I don't eat ponies, not even for breakfast."

"Don't be rude, shake the guy's wing" Rainbow Dash said. Shyly, Fluttershy got close to the head and shook one of his floating wings, then looked at the creature's eyes. It was like she felt a spark inside her; she knew just then that this... monster, was not evil. How strange, until that day she had actually been a bit scared of every creature that didn't look harmless.

"You have good eyes girl, want to play?" asked Norstein Bekkler, winking at the shy mare.

"No thank you, I want Dash to win something for me first." She giggled.

Dash blushed and handed over the forty bits. "So, Bekkler, what's the game?"

The weirdo flipped a switch, and the door in the back slammed open. "For 40 bits! The game is... COPY DA PONY!" Fluttershy gasped as a perfect clone of Dash walked out of the back. Norstein laughed. "The game is simple! Mimic what the clone does!" Dash followed along perfectly until near the end, where she tripped and smashed head first into the clone. With a poof of smoke, it disappeared. "Too bad! Game over!" Bekkler turned to Fluttershy. "Care to play a game young lady?"

Fluttershy thought for a moment, then asked "What are the games?"

He smiled. "There's the 10-bits game, the 40-bits game and the 80- bits game. The names of the games and the prizes are surprises! Hey, I made a rhyme!" He seemed quite pleased with himself.

But before Fluttershy could answer, somepony rammed inside the tent. It was a unicorn mare with a purplish gray coat. She wore a metal helmet with a hole for her horn, large glasses, and had a colorful mane, with the colors dark blue, purple, and a pink purple line. Instantly Dash recognized her best friend Twilight Sparkle.

"Rainbow!" The unicorn shouted. "Rainbow, my invention is finished!" She panted. "Come see it, you'll love it!"

"Fluttershy, this is my best friend Twilight Sparkle. Twilight Sparkle, this is my new friend Fluttershy." Dash said, introducing each other. And, knowing full well that her friend Twilight seemed to be in a hurry, she took her time with the introduction, it was her revenge for calling her 'Rainbow' in front of others.

But if the glasses wearing mare had noticed what was in Dash's mind, she did not show it. Instead she just shook hooves with the yellow pegasus. "Hi, sorry for being so rude, but I really want Dash to see my latest invention."

"That sounds like fun." Fluttershy said, staring at the violet eyes of the unicorn, for some reason she trusted her. Maybe the experiences with that strange pink pony and Bekkler had boosted her confidence.

"Great, follow me!" Said Twilight, and the young mares exited the tent.

"What? No one says goodbye anymore?" Said the poor floating colt head, noticing they had totally forgotten about him.

The pegasi followed the unicorn north, ending in front of two large metal platforms that stood next to each other. There were several ponies standing around. They all had skeptical looks on their faces. A tall muscular colt with a red mane and brown coat stood fiddling with a control panel between the two platforms. This was Taban, Twilight's father.

After he was done he yelled "Gather around, fillies and gentlecolts! Behold my amazing daughter Twilight Sparkle's greatest invention: the inter-dimensional transport warp!"

Twilight shook her head and patted him on the shoulders, then walked behind him to the control panel. She flicked a switch. "Show 'em how it works, Taban!"

Smiling, the colt walked over to the platform on the left and gestured to it. "Just step in here," he said, then pointed to the platform on the right, "and you'll end up here! Who will be the first to try it?"

Nopony seemed willing to test the machine. Rainbow Dash couldn't really blame them after what some of Twilight Sparkle's other inventions had done. The scientist herself was yelling at ponies to come up. Nopony was listening. Then she saw Dash. "Dash! Get yer lazy butt up here and show them it's safe!"

Dash reluctantly came forward. "I dunno, Sparkle. Remember the moon rocket incident?"

Twilight smiled. "Ah, but we got out of that alive, didn't we? Please, you owe me, remember?"

"Ah ok, but this is the LAST time, got it?" Dash yelled at the unicorn mare and limply shuffled onto the left pod. "Why do I get the feeling I'm gonna regret this?" Her vision blurred for a moment and the next thing she knew, she was on the right pod and everypony was cheering. Her eyes automatically found Fluttershy, who was yelling at the top of her lungs. "GO DASH! YAY!"

Twilight looked amazed. "It WORKED?"

Taban looked up at Dash and smiled. "My little girl is a genius!"

"Whaddaya mean it worked? I thought you said you tested this on yourself!" Dash yelled.

Twilight grinned. "Well... kinda. I ended up in the tree out front." Dash face-hoofed and got down from the platform.

"Eh..." Fluttershy said, looking at Twilight. "May I try?" It seemed her confidence boost was still going strong.

"Sure!" Twilight said. After all, since the machine was working as it was supposed to, she did not see any harm if somepony else tried a ride.

"I don't think that's..." Dash started to say, but before she knew it, her pegasus friend was on the right pod.

"Okay, fillies and gentlecolts," said Taban. "Behold the vision of loveliness as she is about to try a trip aboard the inter-dimensional transport warp! Get set Twilight!"

"Right! I'm throwing the switch." Twilight flipped the lever, then looked up at the yellow pegasus.

Dash watched as the machine hummed, starting up... but nothing happened. Then Fluttershy's Pendant started to glow. For a moment everypony stared in awe as the pendant started to change colors and shapes, first it went from its usual pink and opal shape to a red ruby and then to magenta six-pointed star. And then, things went really wrong!

Fluttershy was the first to shake out of the trance and looked at her pendant, confused. "Huh? What is going on? My pendant..." The control panel shot sparks. Twilight and Taban leapt back. Fluttershy broke off with a scream as she began to see floating rainbow sparkles around her body. Then there was a crack of thunder.

The bystanders screamed and left the area. Desperately, Fluttershy wrenched the pendant off with her teeth, but it was too late. A rainbow portal appeared above the machine, and Fluttershy disappeared into it, screaming.

Only Dash, Twilight, and Taban were left. "Sparkle... what the HAY just happened?" Dash asked furiously.

Twilight stood up, adjusted her glasses with magic and looked at the space where the rainbow portal had just disappeared. "It had something to do with that pendant." She ran through all her knowledge of scientific properties. Something provoked her. She kept seeing Fluttershy's face over and over in her mind. "I know I've seen her somewhere before..." She trailed off. Taban stood there, still puzzled.

Dash said nothing and headed to the telepod that Fluttershy had just vanished from. There sat her pendant. She picked it up and looked at it, then looked at the space where the portal had appeared. She realized what she had to do.

"Twilight, got any weapons?" Rainbow Dash asked, looking serious

"What? Are you thinking of going in after her?" Twilight said surprised "Are you out of your mind?"

"Look, this is all my fault, I let her try this damn thing!" Dash cried "Eh... she is actually someplace else right? Cause I don't want this machine to kill me or something. I am brave, not stupid."

Twilight smiled, "I think she may be someplace else, just have no clue where. And don't think I will let you go alone! After all now I am the one in debt to you."

Dash grinned "Sparkle, honestly, you are a genius, not a fighter. You can't even do any unicorn magic besides that moving things around stuff!"

"And what if you get stuck in the other side? Who is gonna find a way back? You? Don't make me laugh!"

"Fine, got any weapons for me at least?"

"No, just use the wooden sword in your pack. Besides, who says you have to fight whatever is on the other side? You can just fly away!"

"And leave you all the fun? No way!"

Twilight put some stuff in a backpack and then put it on her back. "Ok Dad, we are going to infinity and beyond, any complaints?"

Twilight Sparkle's Dad stood silent for a moment then hugged his daughter. "Just be careful, ok?"

"Okay Dash," Said Twilight. "Just hang on to the pendant till I crack open the portal. I don't know where this machine will send us." She turned to Taban. "Okay, get set!"

Twilight threw the switch and raised the lever. Dash looked at the pendant, which was already glowing intensely, yet it didn't change shape like before. She clenched it in her mouth and closed her eyes.

"Full power!" yelled Taban.

Dash's mane flew up as she heard the rainbow sparkles fly around and she smelled something burning; she hoped it was not her. She heard Taban yell and jump back. A whooshing sound swirled around her. Rainbow Dash found it difficult to stand. Then Twilight hugged her and a new rainbow portal sucked them up. But before the mares could see what was on the other side, they both blacked out.

*End of Chapter One

Special thanks to rhiiazami from from #mylittlepony at irc.irchighway.net for editing this story

Larry

Then Gilda the griffon guided the two ponies to the Cathedral, which was set miles away from Ponyville in a very wild part of the Everfree forest and looked abandoned. Twilight noted the crescent moon symbol on the top of it and found it interesting; she would have to find out more about that later. Gilda said goodbye and warned them they had better save Posey or she was going to go after them.

Twilight and Rainbow Dash walked up to the front door, finding it unlocked. It creaked as they pushed it open and went inside. The interior was made of wood, and was barely illuminated by some torches. A row of long bench seats was on either side of the center aisle. There was an altar in the front, with a white cloth draped over it. Colorful stained glass windows graced the back of the Cathedral, and off to the left was a pipe organ.

No one was there, no one was praying, yet the lit torches indicated somepony had to be there. There was a broken statue in the right corner, the head was missing, but it had wings, and was a bit too small to be a statue of princess Celestia. Twilight looked at the crescent moon on the statue's flank; it was almost the same as the one she saw on the top of the Cathedral.

Rainbow Dash slowly walked around, looking at the statues on the walls. They were grotesque and horrible, with small versions of Princess Celestia, depicting her as a demon. There were also some beautiful tapestries and paintings. On one of the paintings, she saw a black winged unicorn mare fighting Princess Celestia.

"Come here, Rainbow Dash." Said Twilight. The pegasus turned from the wall and looked at Twilight. She was kneeling in front of the altar, looking at something on the ground. She reached down and picked it up, then held it in the dim light.

It was Fluttershy's pendant? It couldn't be. Sparkle had it, right? Then Twilight Sparkle took out the strange watch device Dash had seen before and held it close to the pendant. For a brief moment, both the watch and the pendant were enveloped in a rainbow glow.

CRACK!

Both ponies looked to where the winged mare statue was, only the statue was now broken. And they saw two beautiful black unicorn mares.

"Hey, what's going on?" asked Twilight.

"You should be home little fillies." One of the black mares said.

"You should be home in bed and not causing trouble!" Said the other.

Both of the black mares burst into a brilliant red flame. Twilight screamed and Rainbow Dash pulled her sword out of her backpack.

When the flames died down, instead of two mares there were two horrible zombie-like ponies in front of them. Instead of hooves they had lions' paws with long sharp claws. Their skinny legs were glowing with a ghostly red aura. They had a gray coat and their teeth were long and sharp, and they had long, purplish, scraggly manes.

"Rainbow Dash!" Yelled Twilight.

The creature on the left let out a hideous scream. It slashed viciously for Rainbow Dash's throat. She held back the creature's claws with her iron blade, trying to push it back. The other creature tried to come up behind the pegasus. It raised its claws, ready to rip into her back.

It let out a scream of pain. Rainbow Dash took her eyes off the creature she was defending herself from for a split second. Twilight had driven a big piece of the broken statue into the back of the other creature and had it pinned to the floor.

That was a bad idea. The free monster took the chance to attack Dash; only her wings saved her as she used them to quickly dodge backward. Then she cut off the creature's front claws. The monster yelled in pain and Rainbow Dash took the chance to cut its head off.

"I... I killed it?" Dash said surprised, the expression of horror in Dash's face distracted her unicorn friend. And the remaining creature got free of its hold and headed right for Sparkle's throat, she panicked and could not react.

Then there was a loud crunch, and the creature's face became distorted. Its eyes rolled back in its head, and it collapsed at the mare's feet. "Wha...?" said Twilight.

She looked down at the corpse and saw a strange creature. It was a two and a half foot tall, purple and green baby dragon. But it had gills at the sides of its neck and membranes between its fingers. It had buried a heavy looking sword deep in the monster's back.

"Lower thy guard and thou art allowing thine enemy in." The strange dragon said in a raspy voice.

"I... I killed!" Rainbow Dash stammered, starting to cry and falling down. "I am not supposed to do this! And... if this goes on, I will probably have to kill again. Every creature deserves to live, this is wrong!"

Twilight Sparkle was also shocked, but unlike her friend, she had seen death before. There was only one thing she could do right now.

The purple unicorn hugged Dash tight. "It's okay; this is a war, Rainbow. You are not a killer. You did it to defend yourself. To defend me, you did it for Fluttershy and for Equestria. And there is more at stake here than just that, you remember what will happen if we fail, right?"

Rainbow Dash stood up, her friend was right. This wasn't just about saving Fluttershy or history as they knew it; if they failed, there was a huge chance of the universe being destroyed. Dash didn't know much about time traveling, but she trusted Sparkle with her life, and if she said the universe would be destroyed unless the Queen was saved, she believed it.

Dash cleaned the tears from her face. "Sorry, I lost it for a moment. I am better now." Dash then looked at the strange creature that had saved Sparkle's life. "And who the hay are you?"

"A friend, thou canst call me Spike."

"So, we do call him Spike or we can't call him Spike?" Dash asked, confused.

"I think he means we can call him Spike." Twilight said, smiling.

"Spike will do. Perhaps a hidden door lurks nigh? Let us search the environs." said the small dragon.

"That sounds OK. By the way I am Rainbow Dash and this is my best friend Twilight Sparkle," Dash said. Once they shacked claws with hooves, the three spread out around the Cathedral, pushing along the walls, searching for a crack that might conceal a hidden door or such.

Twilight pressed against the stained glass windows, looking through them for some kind of other room while Spike checked for loose boards in the floor. Dash looked under the tapestries and paintings. Yet, they found nothing.

Rainbow Dash took off the white cloth of the altar in the front, and found a broken statue of princess Celestia. The search was starting to become frustrating. she silently cursed and pounded her hoof onto the pipe organ. The moment she did, a grinding noise was heard, and a section of wall disappeared next to the organ, revealing a secret door.

Good job, Lady Rainbow Dash!" Spike congratulated, and the trio entered the doorway. On the other side of the door, they found a spiral staircase that led the trio down into the depths of the Cathedral. Several candles cast dim light in the hallway.

Dash glanced to the left and dodged backwards. "Shh!" she said, putting her hoof in front of her mouth. Spike peeked. To the left of the stairs stood three gray three gray gargoyle-like monsters. They were a bit taller than Spike and had sharp claws.

Spike grinned. He seemed anxious for battle, but Twilight pulled him back. "I'll handle this." With that, she threw a green jar to the three gargoyles. There was a green flash, and all three felt asleep. "Sleeping flash potion. Let's go."

"Wait a minute, since when do you know so much about magic?" Rainbow Dash asked, looking suprised

"I don't! I just bought the stuff, OK? That zebra Zecora even have me a discount!"

"Zecora? You saw that witch? But..."

"Just because she is not a pony that doesn't make her evil!"

"But, the rumors say that she's an evil enchantress, that she'll mix up an evil brew and gobble you up. Or something like that! There is even a song!"

"SHE IS NOT EVIL! SHE IS MY SECOND-BEST FRIEND, OK!" Twilight Sparkle screamed angrily

Unfortunately, screaming in a place full of monsters just wasn't a good idea. They soon found themselves surrounded by a dozen green imps, and a chimera zombie pony like like the ones that had attacked them before.

"Sparkle, you got any more of that sleeping flash thing?" Rainbow Dash asked

"No, but I've got this!" Twilight said pulling out a hammer from her pack, just when a big, green one-eyed snake decided to join the fun.

Spike grinned and head for the snake, Dash ducked the evil gray mare claws while Twilight started hammering the imps. That probably wasn't the best way to deal with a place full of monsters, but at least they seemed to be having fun.

Spike was definitely having fun. The giant snake was three times longer than him, and twice as wide, but the dragon's jumps were so frog-like and powerful that evading its blows was like child's play to him.

Dash fought the chimera mare, her sword blocking the monster's claws, while Twilight had already knocked out four imps.

Spike finally decided to start attacking and leapt into the air, then bounced off the wall, heading to the reptile's head, and stabbed his sword into the snake's only eye. The now blind monster screamed and cursed at him.

Twilight seemed to be in trouble, as the eight remaining imps decided to Twilight was surprised as the eight remaining imps decided to attack the unicorn all at once. But then Sparkle took the upper hand when she used her magic to raise two imps and make them crash with the others.

Rainbow Dash was able to cut off one of the chimera's claws, but got herself a bleeding cut slightly above her right eye.

The snake, while blind, was not dead yet. It moved violently and smashed against the walls, trying to get Spike off her back.

Spike leaped off the serpent's head and screamed a vicious battle cry. The snake struck out at him, but at the last minute, the miniature dragon jumped away. The snake crashed into the wall behind him, leaving a big crater.

The blood coming from the wound above Rainbow's eye was making it hard for her to see. She heard something behind her and barely dodged a slash. Speeding herself up with her wings, Dash turned around and charged the monster at full speed, slicing it in half. But it was not a flawless victory, as the monster clawed one of the pegasus' wings before dying, making the blue pony scream in pain.

Twilight had knocked out four more imps, but the remaining four grinned at her, as if they had something planed. They started to run around her in circles. she could only lift two at the same time at most, and if she forced in doing that, she would be attacked.

The imps had managed to land a few hits on Sparkle. But they had gotten so close to her, that one of them had already had its head crushed with the purple pony's hammer.

Rainbow Dash wanted to help, even with her right wing injured, but Spike stopped her. "Let the lady do it herself." The blue mare understood the reason. Whoever had kidnapped the Queen was sure to be a lot tougher than a bunch of imps, and if her friend Sparkle couldn't even beat those, then they would have to put her somewhere safe and just continue the mission as just the two of them.

The unicorn was enraged, and her hammer started to float around her very fast. Twilight was able to knock out two imps that way. The remaining imp looked around scared, finally noticing another imp was dead next to him, and that he seemed to be the last one standing.

Then, he did something no one expected. He bowed to Twilight Sparkle "Please don't kill me, I will do anything!"

Spike put his blade to its throat and looked at Twilight Sparkle, who shook her head. "Don't! Let's question him instead." Spike nodded and shook the imp.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash took a few jars of healing cream and started to heal herself. The wound above her eye sealed, but even with medicine, she would have to see a doctor about her damaged wing later. Though at least she hadn't broken any bones.

The scared imp grunted, and its eyes went wide open. "I'll say this for you. You know what you're doing!"

Spike glared. "What be thy name, imp?"

The imp gulped. "Larry. Larry the imp. Please don't kill me."

Spike growled at him, showing him his dragon fangs. "What be the way to the Queen?"

Larry looked at the blade, gulped again, and answered as quickly as he could. "B-behind me, a switch in the wall. It opens a room upstairs. It's behind the broken Celestia statue. There is a spare key; with that key, you can open the door at the end of this hallway. No other way; the door its sealed with magic from Rarity herself! But the spare key is heavily guarded."

Rainbow Dash looked at him, surprised. "Hey, why'd you tell us it was guarded? You could have kept that quiet and had us wiped out by surprise."

Larry shook. "L-look, I'm not a f-fanatic like the others here. I was d-drafted, and these b-bums never did anything for m-me. Quite the opposite, actually. P-please don't kill me."

Spike scowled. "What they are planing to do with the queen? Are the rumors of a sacrifice true?"

Larry looked at him hopefully. "Yes, but she's still alive, I guess. The boss came in just a few minutes ago, and he always takes an hour at least to prepare... sacrifices..."

Spike stood in silence, shocked and cursing Rarity in his mind "Larry. When mister dragon removes his sword, you will leave this place and never come back. Do you hear me?" Rainbow Dash asked. Larry nodded.

Spike disgustedly removed his sword, and Larry ran up the stairs like a bat out of hell. "Cowardly vermin."

Twilight Sparkle glared at him. "It's better then being an evil fanatic like the rest."

"You are too soft young lady, but the time is nigh." Without another word the dragon headed to the secret switch, a candle lamp, and pressed it. They heard a rumbling sound upstairs.

The ponies and the dragon went back to the first floor and noticed that indeed, there was a secret door behind the broken Celestia statue. After moving it out of the way, they headed inside.

The room was made of stone and had a wooden bed in the middle. There was very little in the way of decoration, and the place looked cheap.

"W-who goes there?" called a scared voice.

Spike and Rainbow Dash got out their swords. Twilight Sparkle pulled out her hammer. "Who is there?" asked the unicorn.

A helmeted colt head popped up from under the bed. The colt then went out from under the bed and stood straight. He wore heavy armor, but had no weapons. He studied the trio intently and shook his head. "You guys look too weird to be monsters in disguise," said the pony.

Twilight Sparkle frowned and Spike growled. "What are you doing here?" asked the unicorn."And where is the spare key?"

"I'm one of the queen's knights. I was defeated by Yakra, the... thing that captured the queen and imprisoned me here," said the colt. "He's one of Magus's minions. They took my weapons and threw me in here. I know nothing of a spare key, though; you must have been lied to. Yakra is somewhere in the back of the underground place, and he has the queen with him. You must save her!"

"Yakra..." said Spike. "I faintly recall such a fiend."

"There is something else," said the knight. "Somewhere in this chapel is a shrine dedicated to Magus. There are many weapons and items in there. I suggest you find this secret room."

Twilight looked at Dash. "Hey, that does sound like a good idea. We may need some better weapons if we're gonna take on this Yakra thing," she said. "Let's find that place!"

The knight looked at both of them. "Good," he said, "cause I'm out of here!" He ran right past the secret door closed behind him

"It was a trap! Let's get out of here," said Twilight Sparkle. And just then, the roof above them broke and they were attacked by three purple gargoyles.

"Damn Larry! He tricked us!" Dash said heading right into one of the gargoyles, while Twilight smashed the bed into another and Spike had a sword fight with the only gargoyle smart enough to carry a sword.

The gargoyle Twilight was fighting just fainted after having a whole bed crashing in his head. The unicorn would be amazed of lifting something that heavy if she wasn't so enraged.

Dash had her right wing injured, so she could not fly and had pain even if she was a bit stubborn to admit it. The purple monster was good at flying away of her attacks. Then it screamed as a hammer crushed its head. "Thanks Sparkle" Dash said looking at her unicorn friend smiling at her.

While his fight with the gargoyle seemed at first to be in a stalemate, Spike was gaining the upper hand quickly . As his partners had finished their battles, he remembered what was at stake. As his partners finished their battles, he remembered what was at stake, and with a swift move, knocked the sword out of his enemy's grasp." Thou shalt tell me where the key is or else thou shalt taste the sharpness of mine sword."

"What did he say?" the gargoyle asked, a confused look on its face

"You tell him where the spare key is, or he will kill you," Twilight said.

"The snake that was disguised as a soldier and ran away had it"

Then the door opened, bringing with it a voice the two ponies knew well.

"Hey, are you missing this?"

Gilda entered the room, holding a key in one of her front claws "I found it weird to see a soldier running away, so I stopped it. Then it transformed into a giant snake. Bad move! I eat snakes for breakfast!" Gilda smiled. "Anyway, it had this key."

Rainbow Dash hugged Gilda, making her blush."Thank you! Thank you!Thank you!" screamed the blue pegasus "Will you stay and rescue the queen with us?"

"No, but good luck" Gilda gave the ponies the key and left, but not before Twilight have her a goodbye hug. Spike seemed confused but didn't said anything.

"Eh, can I go now?" asked the scared gargoyle. Spike knocked him out with the flat of his sword.

"He shall not rise for a while" Spike said grinning

The group of so-called heroes went back downstairs and walked the long hallway. There were a few doors to the sides, but they had no time to lose. At the end they found a large set of metal double doors. Spike had the honor of opening the doors. As he put the key in the door and turned it twice to undo the lock, a flash of blue light emanated from the doors, and they spread wide open.

he trio looked inside the big room. An old gray colt stood behind an altar while the true Queen Posey was tied to a long rectangular stone table. He held a bronze dagger over her with both hooves.

Spike narrowed his eyes. "Tis the Chancellor that has captured Queen Posey!"

"Prepare yourself, Queen Posey. It is time!" The Chancellor looked at the queen, too lost in the ritual to have noticed the two ponies or the dragon behind him, and smirked. "You shall be sacrificed to the great-"

His speech was cut short when the dagger was knocked out of this hooves by a flying strike of Twilight's hammer.

"OUCH! Who DARES?" the Chancellor screamed. Rainbow Dash and Spike charged. With one swing each, their swords severed Queen Posey's bonds.

"Oh Spike, you have come to my aid! Thank you!" The queen said. She looked just like Fluttershy but had no wings.

Spike smiled. "Stand back, m'lady, and allow us the pleasure of vanquishing this traitor!"

She nodded and took cover behind the unicorn. Rainbow Dash looked at the Chancellor, who had jumped from behind the altar and had begun walking toward them.

"Ah, Spike." said the Chancellor. "We meet again. I have not forgotten what you did to me upon our last meeting!"

A confused look crossed Spike's face. "Who art thou?"

The Chancellor laughed. "None of you will leave here alive!" he screamed. "TRUE... FORM... CHANGE!" With that, he began spinning wildly in place, and there was a huge flash of green light.

When the light faded away, a huge green bug-like humanoid stood where the Chancellor had been. It had large horns near its tiny eyes and mouth, and it was about four feet long and four feet tall. Three large tubes stood on its back. It had three eyes, but the one in the middle was closed and had a scar over it.

"I am Yakra, Rarity's best Captain! Prepare to die!" the monster said

Special thanks to rhiiazami and H-land from from #mylittlepony at irc.irchighway.net for help editing this chapter

The Doctor

"Well... eh... um... I really wish we could have just deal with things peacefully, I honestly don't like to fight. But when I saw my friends in danger I... did what it had to be done. I am not proud of it, I cried for hours after hurting those monsters. But it was the only way to save my friends." Princess Megan Fluttershy of Equestria

JANUARY 10, 600 AD

"You!" Spike growled. He leap at the giant bug, ready to strike it with his sword, but the monster charged forward with amazing speed and blocked the dragon's sword with one of the tubes on his back. The force of the strike made Spike fall back.

Sparkle had to protect the queen, so she couldn't move much, but her horn glowed and her hammer came flying back to her.

Dash didn't know if it was okay to help Spike. After all, those two seemed to have some sort of rivalry, and maybe the dragon would take it as an offense to his honor if she got into the fight.

Just as the small dragon stood up, Yakra charged toward the unicorn and the queen. Twilight threw a red jar at the monster, and it broke in the creature's face, burning it with fire and making it scream in pain.

Dash then charged to the monster and slashed her sword at the monster. Honor or not, she wasn't gonna let anyone harm her best friend. She was surprised when the monster blocked the sword with his arm, without getting any kind of injury.

"Thy hide is still strong" Spike said. He headed for one of the monster's eyes, but the monster stared to jump and bounce around the room, hitting Spike and Dash, almost flattening them.

But when it tried to do with same with Twilight and Posey, the unicorn's magic stopped him in mid air. Twilight Sparkle looked like she was pushing herself to the limit; her face showed an expression of fatigue and pain. She wouldn't be able to stop the monster much longer, especially since it was growling and shaking, trying to get free.

Dash stood up, her right wing hurting more than before. The monster's skin was just too tough! Unless...

Dash ran into the monster, and since it was still floating, she easily kicked it up. When it came back down, Dash stuck her sword into the monster's stomach, and thanks to the monster's weight, the blade made it in.

Yakra roared, bleeding green blood, and punched Dash away. The punch sent Rainbow Dash flying away, but Spike caught her before she crashed into the wall. She struck the monster a blow, but with her weapon still stuck in its hide, the pegasus was left unarmed.

"You... you cannot defeat the mighty Yakra!" the monster roared, as two red jars crashed into its back, making it burn with fire.

As the monster rolled on the ground to extinguish the flames, Dash took the wooden sword from her pack and handed Spike two yellow jars, whispering something so softly that only the dragon could heard it.

Dash charged toward the monster as soon as it stopped rolling around. Yakra laughed, a wooden sword would do him no harm! While the sword snapped swiftly as he blocked it with his arm, he quit laughing when he heard the cracking of two jars at his feet. He tried to move, but found himself glued to the ground.

"Bwahahaha! You fools!"he screamed. The bug monster curled its back, the tube-light projections on his back contracted, and something spat out of them. A gray mass of big spines descended on Rainbow Dash, and she almost avoided them, but one of them struck her left flank.

"Argh!" she screamed as she fell to the ground, noticing the area around the wound becoming a dirty purple.

"Now my poison will kill you, you miserable-" A scream was heard all over the Cathedral as Spike's blade pierced the bug's right eye, and Spike pushed Dash's sword deeper inside Yakra. Both the eye and the stomach were bleeding a lot, but the monster wasn't dead just yet.

"I won't die... alone!" The bug's eyes glowed a bright red, and the whole room started shaking and falling apart. They had to get out of there!

"Run!" Twilight screamed. She didn't need to say it twice.

Spike helped Dash to get up, while the poison slowly spread over her flank. They all ran upstairs; they barely got out the Cathedral before the building collapsed.

"That does not look good. If only I had my pendant..." Posey said while she looked at Dash, who was quivering and could barely stand up.

"I feel... cold..." said Dash. The world was spinning. Her vision was blurry. Everything went dark.

Rainbow Dash woke up in a comfortable bed, her right wing barely hurting. She moved the sheets away and looked at her left flank, it had been bandaged but it felt a lot better. With some effort she was able to stand up. The blue pegasus looked around; there were many beds like the one she was in, and several colts sleeping in the beds. It was dark, the only light coming from a few lit torches. The room was huge and made of stone with a few windows; the pegasus guessed she was in the knights' quarters.

Then Rainbow Dash noticed another pegasus sitting in a chair next to her, a yellow mare with a pink mane. She was so quiet it was no wonder Dash had not noticed her before.

"Fluttershy! You're ok!" The blue mare said, hugging her. Fluttershy blushed and hugged her back.

"I... I am sorry!" The yellow pony said, looking down. "Because... because I used your friend's machine... you almost died!"

"I am better now. So, you are Princess Megan, right? Why did you lie?" Rainbow Dash asked. Fluttershy relaxed a bit when she noticed her friend was not mad at her.

"I'm Princess Megan Fluttershy of Equestria. My mother is Queen Tiffany Posey XII. Listen... the reason I called myself by my second name was because... I didn't think you would help me around if you knew-"

"You silly pony!" Dash hugged Fluttershy tighter. "So, where are Twilight and Spike, and how did you explain looking like the Queen of this era?"

Fluttershy was a bit surprised about Dash's reaction. "Well, Twilight told Queen Posey that I am from a land far away, and that I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. There was also a prophesy about the Queen being in great danger if one day she grew wings, so they didn't ask much else."

Spike entered the room. He had been waiting outside until he heard the two mares talking. "Lady Rainbow Dash, It's nice to see you well. But I failed to protect my Queen and in doing so I have dishonored the Equestria dynasty. Never again will I bring shame to the kingdom. I must leave"

"Now wait one minute mister!" Dash said, looking at him. "It's true the Queen was almost killed, but you also repaired you honor by saving her, why the hay are you leaving?"

Spike looked at Dash's strong rose eyes for a moment, then rubbed his chin as if thinking about the pegasus' question.

"It was my irresponsibility that caused the Queen to be kidnapped. If I hadn't been so negligent none of this would ever have happened. Rainbow Dash, thou hast potential with the sword. But do not slack off, I want a duel with ye in the future!"

Rainbow dash grinned. "So be it. The next time we see each other, I will be at your level of skill!"

Spike shook Dash's hoof with his claw and then looked at Fluttershy. "I hardly knew ye lass, but you have kind eyes; please try to keep Lady Rainbow Dash out of trouble."

"I will, Sir Spike." Fluttershy said and bowed to him.

Then Spike left the knight's quarters and walked out of the castle. Outside, Twilight Sparkle gave him a goodbye hug with tears in her eyes, making the dragon blush.

"Milady, do not cry. I am sure we will meet again soon." Spike said before running away into the Everfree forest, where he encountered a certain griffon.

"So, are you leaving just like that?" Gilda asked. "You know how much Posey cares about you, right?"

"I do. Lass, you helped us against Yakra, will you take care of the Queen for me?" The dragon asked.

"No, she will be alright. Most of the elite soldiers are coming back from the South to protect the Queen. Besides I talked with Posey and she liked the idea of having a spy in Rarity's army."

"That's a dangerous game you are playing lass, but I admire ye for that." Spike said and offered his claw to the griffon; shaking claws before they both parted ways.

After gazing at the Everfree Forest for a moment, Twilight Sparkle walked to the knight's quarters and found the two pegasus mares chatting together in high spirits.

"I hate to ruin the moment guys, but I think the queen wants to see us. And after that I think we should get back to our time as soon as possible." She said.

"Oh, right," said Fluttershy. "Eh... do you think... Spike will be OK?"

"Yes, I do." The purple unicorn said. "Now let's go, before we cause another time paradox."

The three mares went to see the queen, who thanked each one personally. While the heroes rejected any reward money, the queen insisted on giving Fluttershy a crossbow and a pink backpack.

"I... I don't like weapons." Fluttershy said in a low voice.

"Dear child, you look a lot like me, and there is a prophesy that if I grow wings I will be in grave danger. Since I have not gained any wings, the prophesy must be about you. Please accept it, this weapon is easy to use, and if you want, I can have my personal instructor teach you."

"Well... it is getting really late your majesty, and we have a long journey ahead of us." Fluttershy said. "I... I don't want to sound rude but we really have to go."

"I understand, but please, take care. We are at war, and this may not be the last time that looking like me gets you in trouble."

"Yes, your highness." Fluttershy bowed, picking up the crossbow and putting it in her new backpack. Then she put the backpack on and the trio of heroes left the castle.

It was past midnight by the time the group had returned to the clearing in the Dragondorado Mountains where they had emerged from the portal. Unlike last time, there weren't any monsters there. The clearing was perfectly calm, and birds chirped in the woods.

Twilight's horn had served as a flashlight, illuminating their path. It was a very simple spell, but effective.

"Hey Sparkle... you can do the light trick? Since when?" Dash finally asked.

"Well, I forgot to bring any flashlights or candles, and one of the unicorn archers taught me. He was surprised I didn't know how to do such a simple spell.

"Well, I guess what makes sense, and... how did they cure me?" Rainbow Dash asked, curious.

"Well, I gave Queen Posey her pendant back and she used it to remove most of the poison from your system, and I used a general poison antidote on you. Then once we got to the castle, the doctors treated you." Twilight Sparkle said. "Any more questions? We have to leave as soon as possible you know!"

"Sorry." The blue pegasus said. She didn't want Fluttershy to disappear again or something like that.

Twilight Sparkle smiled and pulled a metallic clock-like object from her backpack. She held it high in the air and turned a dial on its back.

The air around them shifted and they could hear a whooshing sound. Then, in the middle of the clearing, a portal appeared. This one, however, didn't try to suck them inside, and was at ground level.

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy stepped back, amazed. "How did you do that?" The Princess asked.

Twilight Sparkle held her new toy high in the air and grinned. "These portals are passages through time," She said. "I call them 'gates'. Using a certain alloy, and some stuff I got at a garage sale, I created a device which recreates the conditions in my inter-dimensional transport warp machine. I call it a gate key. In short, this little wonder in my grasp lets us go back and forth through time using these warps. Same place, different era. I'm 99% sure there are more of them scattered throughout the world."

Fluttershy looked at purple unicorn, impressed, then said "Twilight Sparkle, you're a genius!"

"Ain't it the truth?" Cackled the glasses wearing mare. She caught herself suddenly. "Um... I mean..."

But then both she and the pegasus heard some snoring, Rainbow Dash had fallen asleep during the explanation!

The unicorn got close to the pegasus with the rainbow mane and screamed "Free cookies!" in her ear. Rainbow Dash jumped awake and looked around excitedly. "Free cookies? Where?" She then saw her friends laughing at her and a cold expression covered her face. "Not funny."

"Oh please, a grown up mare like you getting all exited for free cookies? It's really funny, don't you think, princess?"

"Well... yes it is funny..." Fluttershy said in a low voice, sounding a bit nervous and looked at Dash. "You are not mad at us, right?"

"Nah, it's okay." Rainbow Dash said, smiling. "I will just have to think of something to make Miss Twilight Sparkle pay, but we do this kind of stuff all the time, so don't worry!"

"That is good I guess." Fluttershy said, smiling back, then she looked at the unicorn. "Twilight, would you please just call me Fluttershy? I... prefer it that way, thank you."

"Okay, Fluttershy." Twilight smiled, then turned and looked at the whirling rainbow gate. "Well, I'm sure we should be getting back to good old 1000 A.D."

"What makes these gates?" Asked the princess, and Dash hit her hoof on her face frustrated, she wasn't in the mood for more explanations. "Ah, ok, don't worry, you can tell me later!" Fluttershy quickly said, she didn't want her friends to fight.

"Well, let's go!" Dash said, impatient.

The other two nodded and they all stepped into the portal at the same time. The gate closed behind them.

JANUARY 1, 1000 AD

The trio instantly emerged at the teleportation machine at the Millennium fair grounds. No one was around. The air was crisp, and the trees were green. There were no knights or monsters hanging around. It was midday.

Twilight Sparkle turned and looked at Fluttershy. "Sorry for putting you through all that, Fluttershy."

Fluttershy looked at the girl with a strange expression on her face. "Are you kidding?" She asked. "That was the most fun I've had in years! We'll have to do it again sometime!"

Twilight Sparkle laughed. "Okay guys," She said. "I'm going to head back to my house. I have some reading to do, stuff to fix, and my dad is worried sick. He needs to know everything is okay now." She turned and looked directly at Rainbow Dash. "Hey, Rainbow Dash, be a nice mare and escort Fluttershy home!"

"Yeah, I can do that in ten seconds flat!" She said and her friends looked at her. "Just kidding! Even with the use of wings it's going to take longer than that to get to Canterlot."

"Dash, you are so funny!" Fluttershy said, smiling. "So, will you take me home?"

"Of course I will! Besides, I heard the royal palace has like, the best cookies ever!"

All the mares laughed, and after the two pegasi said goodbye to the unicorn, they started their flight To Canterlot.

It was past 1:00 PM by the time the two got to Equestria Castle. After four hundred years, it seemed unchanged by time. Fluttershy knocked on the front door with a heavy knocker.

A small slide in the door opened. Two eyes peered out, searching rapidly. They landed on Fluttershy and opened wide.

"Princess Megan! Where in Equestria have you been?" yelled a guard from the other side.

As she was about to explain, the small slide closed. The princess looked confused. "What gives?"

The doors flung open wide, and a barrage of golden pegasus knights ran out and tackled an unsuspecting Rainbow Dash. She fell to the ground, fighting desperately to escape the grasp of the armored soldiers. Fluttershy turned around and screamed furiously.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING? STOP THIS NOW!"

The soldiers let Dash free. "What is the meaning of this?" The yellow pegasus asked.

Before the soldiers had any chance to explain, the Chancellor burst outside. Rainbow Dash noticed a resemblance between him and the one from 600 AD. Only he looked younger. "There she is! Seize that blue pegasus you idiots!" Before either of them could move, soldiers had surrounded Rainbow Dash again.

The knights grabbed Rainbow Dash's front hooves and held her up. One of them placed a sword across her throat, ready to slit it at a seconds notice. The others brought her front hooves and cuffed her. Rainbow looked around with a confused expression.

"What are you doing to my friend?" the princess asked.

"Protecting your best interests, my dear." said a voice.

She whirled around and saw a short gray colt in green clothes. He had a white beard and round hat. "Chancellor?" She asked.

"Rainbow Dash of Ponyville. You have been accused of treason and ponynapping." He waved his scepter in Rainbow Dash's face. "You will be subjected to a fair trial."

"This is outrageous!" Fluttershy yelled. "She has done nothing to me!"

The Chancellor shook his head and turned to face her. "You have obviously been brainwashed, my dear." The Chancellor said. "This fiend is obviously guilty. Stand back while we decide her fate!"

The knights dragged Rainbow Dash through the door and headed down one of the hallways. The Chancellor followed them, chuckling softly.

One hour later...

The Royal Court of Equestria was a grand sight to behold. The judge's seat sat on the ground floor, and the podium of prosecution stood in the center. Behind the judge's seat was a thirty-foot high stained glass window with a picture of a mare with a black blindfold over her eyes, holding the scales of justice.

Great balconies hung over the room, where senators and royalty sat to view the prosecutions. Behind the central area was a semi-circle of seats for the common crowd. It surrounded the floor, giving the spectators a full view of the person on trial.

That day the seats were filled. Angry and unruly commoners sat anxiously, waiting for the trial to begin. It was not usual for them to be held with such short notice, but it had been an emergency, as the defendant was accused of treason and, worse, the ponynapping of the next successor of the royal family!

A door behind the judge's seat opened, and a masked colt walked out. The bailiff stood and yelled, "All rise!"

The entire crowd stood up. The judge walked to his desk and sat down. "All sit." The bailiff said. The crowd returned to their seats.

The main door to the courtroom swung open. The Chancellor walked into the room. Several ponies cheered him on. He turned and raised his front hooves in the air, trying to gain more approval. The crowd stood on their back legs, whistling and hollering. The short colt smiled and turned. He walked up to the judge's stand and sat down on a chair next to it.

"Bring in the accused." said the bailiff. He looked at the main doors.

Three golden pegasus knights carried a bruised and beaten mare into the court. Rainbow Dash raised her head and tried to look back at the crowd who was booing her. Her eyes were blackened, some of her bones were broken, and she was bruised all over. At least they didn't touch her wings.

The knights walked to the podium and dropped Rainbow Dash flat on her face. The crowd laughed and cheered. The pegasus stood up and clasped onto the wooden top of the podium. She looked wearily at the judge.

The masked judge looked at the poor mare. "Rainbow Dash of Ponyville, you have been charged with the crime of ponynapping Princess Megan," he said. "How do you plea?"

The blue pegasus tried to shake her head, but she could barely move a muscle. She opened her mouth to speak.

"She pleads innocent!" said a voice.

The mare mustered up the strength to turn around. A brown colt carrying a briefcase walked into the court room through the front door. He wore a gray vest. He also had spiky hair and an hourglass cutie mark in his flanks. Everyone looked at it, as they had no idea what a cutie mark was.

The Chancellor stood up and waved his scepter at the stranger. "This is an outrage!" yelled the gray colt. "This girl has no rights!"

The judge slammed his gavel on his desk. "Objection overruled. Everyone has a right to a fair trial, which includes a lawyer."

Grumbling, the short colt sat back down in his seat.

"I will be Rainbow Dash's lawyer," said the brown colt. "My name is the Doctor. Call me Doctor Foreman if you want."

Author's Note

Special thanks to rhiiazami from #mylittlepony at irc.irchighway.net for editing this story

Jailed

The judge nodded, and the short Chancellor got up from his seat. He paced back and forth in front of the judge's desk, then turned to face the crowd.

"Citizens of Equestria, I as the prosecutor, will intend to prove prove that Rainbow Dash here kidnapped the princess."

It was then the Doctor turn to talk to the crowd "And I as the defender, will try to prove that my client, Rainbow Dash is innocent" The brown colt then looked at the masked judge "Shall we proceed now your honor?"

"Yes, the prosecutor goes first, so are the rules" The judge said, the Chancellor then looked at Rainbow Dash

"Rainbow Dash, the accusations state that you ponynapped the princess," he started. "After which you went to Twilight Sparkle's little sideshow and disappeared. Where did you take her?"

Rainbow Dash said nothing. "He'd never believe me anyway..." She thought.

"The young mare declines to answer," said the short colt. "She is obviously guilty!"

"Objection!" yelled the Doctor. "Rainbow Dash is not much of a speaker. But her character is very good. We have witnesses that will testify to her virtues!"

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. The Doctor motioned to the knight at the door. The armored colt turned around and walked out of the court. After a few minutes he came back, leading a familiar yet strange earth mare into the court.

The mare was pink, dressed in a beautiful white and pink dress. And she had a curled up rose-magenta mane. She waved her hoof to Dash, looking at her with her curious bluish cyan eyes. "Hey Dash, are you excited? I am excited! I have never been in a court room before!"

"Ahem, miss Pinkie Pie, you are here to talk about how a nice pony miss Dash is, remember?" The Doctor said to the pink mare

"Ah yes, sorry! This nice pegasus, she found my cat Opal and have it back for me!" said Pinkie Pie, most of the crow cheered, there where many cat lovers in it it seemed.

The Doctor smiled, more relaxed, but the Chancellor jumped up and yelled, "Objection!"

The judge slammed his gavel down on the desk again. "She has a right to speak."

"Thank you for being so kind," said Pinkie Pie "Can I stay to watch? I never ever seen a trial!"

"Well, this is a public trial, you can sit down and watch if you want..." said the judge, but before Pinkie Pie went to sit down in the ground, since all chairs where full, the Chancellor crossed her path.

"Miss... Pinkie Pie.. isn't it? Since you are so kindly to stay, would you mind answering some questions?" The short gray colt grinned

"Yes, of course!" Pinkie Pie said

"Aren't you... the owner of a lot of cats? Aren't you always seen doing strange things? Don't many ponies on town thing that you are a bit... strange?"

The Doctor could see where was this going "Objection!" the brown colt yelled "Miss Pinkie Pie is not on trial here!"

The judge slammed his gavel down on the desk yet again. "Objection overruled, the prosecutor has the right to interrogate any witness, please proceed"

"Thank you, your honor. So, Miss Pinkie Pie, as I was saying before being so rudely interrupted, you are not what we could call normal, right?"

"Well... I... while my behaviour may seem weird I am also the local Jester and party planer of the town of Ponyville. My actions, while strange, they just are meant to cause joy and fun!"

The Doctor smiled, that was a nice save, the Chancellor grunted, there was no way he could make Pinkie Pie look like the 'crazy cat lady' now.

"Very well, you can go and take a seat with the crowd now..."

"Take a seat? But they are no chairs left!"

"Whatever!" yelled the Chancellor "Just... you can leave now if... you want?" Pinkie Pie went to the crowd and just say down on the ground.

The gray colt prosecutor then looked at the injured blue pegasus. "Now, Miss Rainbow Dash, just because you do return kitties to crazy... um... to Jesters, that does not mean you lack motives to have kidnapped out lovely princess!" The gray short colt knew that after such a beating, Dash would have trouble to answer, that would make her look like he was lying.

The Doctor smirked "Your honor, since my client is obliviously is not a good shape to answer for herself, I would like to do it for her."

"Well, what does the crowd thinks?" asked the Judge, most of the crow agrees shouting "Yes!"

"Very well, you shall proceed, as unusual as this is" Needless to say, the prosecutor was not happy

"Thank you, I would like to point out that Rainbow Dash is Ponyville's weather mare, so she had a monthly income. Also she been doing all kind of odd jobs, helping to get the Millennium Fair ready. So she is not in desperate need for some bits. Besides, several witness saw my client giving the Princess her royal pendant back. That object is a royal treasure and is more than enough to have given my client, had she sold it, enough bits to be rich for life"

"Oh, and where are said famous witness?" Asked the Chancellor, since the trial was held in Canterot, the chances of ponies from Dash town to be in the trial where low.

Five ponies from the crowd did stand up and started to give their short testimony, all of them had actually see Rainbow Dash give Megan her pendant back. Unlucky for the Chancellor, some merchants from Canterot did go to Ponyville to sell their stuff in the fair, and had come back to Canterot in a hurry because of the trial.

"Very well..." the prosecutor said "There is still the fact that Miss Rainbow here crashed into our beloved princess, any explanation to that?"

"My client was excited about the fair, and also a bit hungry, she just did not saw her, after that she did apologize, and as testified recently by five witness, she have the princess her pendant back."

The Chancellor seemed pale for a moment, but then smiled. "Even if anything that happened in the fair was pretty innocent, there is the fact that the princess did disappear with miss Dash, I request three months of solitary confinement for the accused!"

"Objection!" the Doctor yelled "The defense would like to request the testimony of the princess herself, sure not better than her to tell us what happened!"

The crowd seemed excited, they wanted to hear the princess version of the story, plus she was kind of cute.

"Overruled." said the Judge "Royal family members may never, under any circumstances, be requested for a trial, even as witness, unless they do it on their own will or is authorized the Queen or Princess Celestia herself. Does the defense have any more witness that aren't of royal blood?"

"No..." the Doctor said then spoke up. "But I believe we have established enough."

Growling, the Chancellor returned to his seat and sat down. The Doctor also sat down in silence. The judge looked at the blue mare. "Jury, how do you find the defendant?"

Several ponies in the balcony rose. A tall colt in front of them all looked at his paper. "We, the jury of Equestria, find the defendant, Rainbow Dash of Ponyville, innocent of the accusations of capturing the princess."

Some ponies of the crowd stood up, booing and banging on their seats. The judge bashed the gavel on his desk. "Order! Order! The issue stands that they did disappear together, however. Three days solitary confinement as punishment."

The Chancellor looked like he was having a heart attack. "Your honor, I... I requested three months!"

The Judge glared at him. "Chancellor, I feel it is my duty to inform you that all my decisions are final, and can only be overruled by the Queen or the Sun princess. If you insist in protesting, you will have your own three days of solitary confinement. Do I make myself clear? " The Chancellor looked like a fish out of water. "Yes... your honor..."

The crow cheered. Most of them hated the Chancellor, and loved to see somepony had put him in place.

As the guards stepped up to take Rainbow Dash to the dungeon, Fluttershy ran in, out of breath. "STOP THIS AT ONCE! I was locked in my bedroom, and I just was able to escape, I wanna testify! She is innocent! I swear it in the name of Celestia herself!" The normal calm Fluttershy looked... kind of scary.

The Judge looked unhappy. "I am sorry, princess, but there is nothing I can do. This comes from the Sun princess herself."

"WHAAAT?" Fluttershy felt down to her knees "But... how could she? We..." Fluttershy started to cry as they dragged Dash away.

Rainbow Dash was led across the bridge to the prison towers by two guards and the Chancellor, who had a disturbingly nasty grin.

Equestria Castle's prison was not located below ground like most castles. Instead, prisoners were kept high in towers above. Attackers and rebels found it difficult to get to the top, and were usually stopped by a group of ready soldiers.

The main prison tower stood high above the ground in one of the castle's spires. Only one route led into it, a shaky suspension bridge with a hundred-foot fall.

Heights did not seem to scare the Chancellor as he proudly marched across it. The two guards carrying the injured Dash were behind him, dragging the pour soul along by the handcuffs. The wind whipped about them, forcing them to keep a steady hold on the bridge.

The party made it into the main prison tower. A pinto pony sat at his desk looking over records and skimming them with his pen. He looked up at the short colt and the guards. "May I help you?"

"Yes," said the Chancellor, smiling. "This is the swine girl who kidnapped the princess. We have brought her here to carry out her sentence."

"Ah yes, the pegasus who snatched the princess. She gets three days of confinement, correct?"

"What?" yelled the Chancellor. "This villain is to be executed in three days!" He smiled.

"WHAT?" Rainbow Dash screamed at him. "YOU'RE LYING, THERE'S NO EXECUTION!"

Or... at least tried to, but as soon as she opened her mouth the Chancellor hit her mouth with his scepter, so the poor pegasus ended just saying a few cries of pain.

The Supervisor also was surprised. "Execution? Strange, I don't remember reading that in the..." He caught the Chancellor's glare, he seemed furious.

"What do you mean?" cried the short colt. "The... paperwork must have been held up in the system!"

"Well, alright," he said. Not like he was gonna argue with somepony that could get him fired. "Escort her to her cell, gentlecolts."

Rainbow Dash tried to struggle to get free, as painful as it was in her state. No way she was gonna let them kill her! But one of guards whacked to the back of her head.

Day 1

"Ugh... what hit me?... Oh, yeah... him" The world around Rainbow Dash blurred painfully back into place while she shook her head to clear out the fog in her mind. She was on a tiny bed in a dirty cell. There was a gray mug on a table, and next to the bed was a small package. It all came back to her now. The trial... The execution! They where going to kill her, even after she was declared innocent! At least she had a about two and a haft days left. Unless she had been sleeping all day. In that case, she would have less than two days or something like that! It was hard to think with the pain in her head and in almost all of her body.

The guards noticed she was awake, and yelled, "Some sympathizers left that for you, ya stinking ponynapper!" Rainbow Dash ignored them and opened it up, then stared. It was a bunch of herbs. It made sense, the guards where not that stupid to let her friends send her something she could use to scape, and they would probably eat the cake if they tried to sent her that. But herbs? Who would eat those things if they didn't know what they did or if they tasted good? Knowing her friend Sparkle, eating those would help to heal fast.

Yuck! It tasted worse than her mother cold medicine... yet Rainbow noticed how her body and head hurt less and she started to fell better. Those things were sure way more effective than the healing potions Sparkle had used in their little trip to the past. But Dash was sure that eating to much of that herbal mix would make her sick because, while her body was healing, her stomach was complaining. She went to the mug and noticed it was full of... honey? She hated honey! Still, it would help to get the bad taste out of her mouth. She ate the honey slowly. Honey had never tasted so good, must be because she was hungry.

The rest of the day was expended walking around the cell and flapping her wings slightly. She did that trying to make the less noise possible, as she did not want the guards to beat her up. At night, some strange pony visited her and gave her some water, it could not have been Fluttershy or Sparkle as it was way too tall. It was a cloaked white earth pony with a pink mane, the cloth covering most of her face. Rainbow Dash could swear she had seen her before, but could not quite place when or where.

Day 2

Dash woke up in her second day in prison. It was past midday. She felt way better; her body had barely a few scars left to show of her beatings. There was another bag in her cell and she opened it. There were some oatmeal cookies (the pegasus was sure the guards had stolen most of them) and a bottle with a green cream. Dash ate the cookies, then went to check the mug, honey again. Who was putting honey in her mug? Was it Fluttershy? Why she was torturing her like that? Still, she was hungry, so she ate it. She was also thirsty, she had been so since the other day. That strange mare had only given her a glass of water, after all.

Dash sighed, no use worrying about that at the moment. She took the bottle of cream and glanced at it. It appeared to be some sort of lotion or salve. She applied the whole bottle of cream over her entire body. It felt so soft and nice! In a few hours, her scars were gone. She took a quick nap because the cream had made her felt strangely tired. When she woke up, there was a bottle of water on the table, which she drank greadily.

Meanwhile...

Fluttershy looked around nervously to make sure nobody was watching, and opened the gate to allow Twilight Sparkle in. "Hurry! If we get caught..."

"Yes, I know." Twilight Sparkle muttered. "Which way to Prison Tower?"

"Left and forward, left door. It's about a ten-minute climb & walk."

Twilight Sparkle hit her face with her hoof. "Why didn't you tell me this before?"

Fluttershy looked offended. " I... um... didn't think it was that important?"

Twilight Sparkle sighed. "I hope my dad can keep the distraction up long enough..."

The Chancellor bolted upright in his bed. What was that loud rushing noise he had just heard? His question was answered when a large rock came sailing through his window and planted itself squarely on his... well you know, that place where it hurts a lot?

"AUGH! GUAAAAAARRRRRDS!" The Chancellor said with a very high pitched voice

KABOOOOOOOM! The castle gate busted open in a heavy explosion, while a series of explosions could be heard all around Canterlot. All of the guards rushed outside the castle in the middle of the confusion, finding a lone catapult, some explosives, and a clock counting backtracks.

"Oh, dammit! Somepony call the the Explosion Squad! It must be those Moonatics again!"

Meanwhile, another smaller explosion occured in the Prison Tower, as two mares, a unicorn and a pegasus, blasted a certain blue pegasus's cell door open after Twilight had knocked the guards out by clonking their heads together.

"What the hay?" Rainbow Dash asked surprised "Fluttershy, Sparkle, are you nuts?"

"Would you prefer to be executed tomorrow?" The unicorn asked, and gave Dash a steel sword. "Sorry we took so long, but a pony does not just plan a prison escape in just a few hours."

Dash took the sword in her mouth and noodled. She noticed both of her friends had their backpacks on and that Fluttershy had the crossbow in hers.

The mares ran out the door to the right and down the stairs. They kept going down as they reached the next set. Dash was surprised to see that no pony was after them, but most of the guards where busy with the bomb threat. And almost all of the rest had been defeated by Sparkle's trusty hammer.

After crossing a bridge, they found themselves at the start of a long hall with a lone guard. Twilight was shocked to discover that she had missed that one, but they had just missed him before because of a shift change. Dash took him by surprise and knocked him out cold.

At the end they found a torture chamber. Guillotines, iron maidens, racks... Fluttershy jumped as they saw a white mare earth pony in one of the guillotines!

Dash recognized her "You! You are the one that helped me!" Of course, since she talked her sword felt to the ground with a loud clank. She was going to get a sheath for that thing soon!

"Yes! Please, help me!" The mare called. Rainbow Dash freed her, while Fluttershy was still shocked and Twilight Sparkle stood in silence. The mare stood up "Thanks! I went on a shopping spree and ended up in here. The Chancellor was gonna execute me without a trial!"

Rainbow Dash nodded. "After this mess is over, I'm gonna kick that colt to the next week!"

"Stop wasting time, our distraction is about to wear off!" Twilight yelled, annoyed. She absolutely hated when her plans went out of control.

Meanwhile, the Explosion Squad, a bunch of ponies in heavy protective armor, had made the area around the bomb evacuate of all the civilian ponies. They began moving near the bomb to deactivate it. When the clock started to ring, everypony jumped to the ground, but nothing happened. The bomb was a fake!

The Chancellor came running outside the castle. "You idiots! There is a prison break! Go stop it, now!" The guards ran back inside the castle, followed by an hysteric Chancellor. Once they had left, a familiar colt came out of hiding from some nearby bushes.

"Okay daughter, I did what I could. You're in your own now." The colt, who was no other than Taban, then went back home now that he was not in danger of being caught. He hoped his explosions had'nt hurt anypony, but the places where he set the explosives where going to be demolished anyway.

At the prison tower, several hollow hoofsteps could be heard echoing against the cold stone of the tower. An even more worried expression came over Twilight Sparkle's face. She hit the floor with her hoof yelling loudly, "Let's get going for real!"

The white earth pony stood behind smiling while the three young mares ran out of the room and faced down the hallway. A large, heavy brown door blocked the entrance to the prison office.

"No problem," said Twilight. In their hurry they had failed to notice that the mare they had rescued was not with them, but thankfully Rainbow Dash had not forgotten her sword.

Rainbow Dash tapped on Twilight shoulder. She turned and looked at the pegasus and Rainbow pointed down the hallway.

Slowly a large iron gate began to rise into the ceiling. A puff of steam shot through the grating. Two red slit eyes shone through the darkness beyond the door. "I have a bad feeling about this..." said Fluttershy.

"No... no way, they build it! Awesome! I mean... we are in trouble!" Twilight Sparkle said (still unable to hide the happiness prevalent in smile).

The gate had fully retracted into the ceiling, and a green metallic foot with sharp metal claws stepped out from the shadow. The foot was attached to a long, thick, green leg. The leg fully emerged from the shadow, followed by another one next to it. The three ponies saw it was connected to a similar metal body with a tube that resembled a dragon's tail that was letting out puffs of steam. A long neck slowly uncurled, which was attached to a rectangular green head. The machine's mouth was lined with a row of sharp steel teeth. Its red ruby eyes glowed with a yellow light. Instead of back legs it had several wheels. Unlike the rest of the machine, they where made of wood.

"What... Twilight... what is that?" Fluttershy muttered, hiding behind Dash who growled at the beast. It was one of the few things she could do with her mouth without dropping the sword again.

"The Dragon Tank. I made the plans for it a few months ago..." Twilight said, her smile now gone.

Special thanks to doctorbrony from #fimfiction at irc.irchighway.net for editing this chapter

Metal Dragon

"The night had lasted so long no pony alive could remenber otherwise. The land was barren and bleak. No green was to be seen anywhere. Miles and miles of rocks and dirt stretched as far as the eye could see. All hope was lost, the hunger was slowly taking all of us away, and then the rainbow saved us bringing the seeds of life" - Pippi

JANUARY 1, 1000 AD

The mechanical beast gave out a loud roar and stuck its neck high in the air. A blast of fire shot from its open maw, scorching the stone ceiling.

"Run. NOW!" Twilight shouted. The machine roared and lifted its two legs from the floor, the claws now extended straight in front. It then shot out another gout of fire and began to charge down the hall as its wheels moved. The ponies noticed how its tail was letting out even more steam.

The unicorn ran for the door at the other end of the stone hallway, her friends following her. When they made it to the heavy wooden door, Twilight Sparkle tried to push it open but she discovered it was locked. She pounded on it with her hooves. "Open up! Open up! You want the princess Megan to be killed or what?" There was no response.

Twilight Sparkle started to hit the door with her hammer, the tool barely leaving mere dents in it.

Rainbow Dash started to violently slash away at the door with her sword as wood chips scattered everywhere. She struck harder with every blow, getting angrier and angrier.

The Dragon Tank roared again; belching more flame and started moving faster. "Hurry Rainbow Dash! Hurry Twilight! Break through the door!" yelled Fluttershy, trembling in fear.

The young blue mare stopped. She and Twilight had barely made a hole about three inches wide in the heavy wooden obstruction. "Dammit! It's too strong!"

The pegasus looked at the false dragon which was less than a minute from smashing into them. Thankfully her wings where in good shape, which gave her an idea.

Dash moved in front of Twilight and kicked her up with her hind legs, taking the unicorn by surprise and making her drop her hammer. Fluttershy screamed in a mix of confusion and panic but reacted quickly and flew to catch her, Rainbow Dash soon joined, helping Fluttershy to carry the unicorn weight.

Roaring, the mechanical dragon charged faster. When its dumb mechanical mind realized the enemy was out of the way, it tried to stop but its claws could not grip the stone fast enough. With an impressive force, the tank slid into the heavy wooden door and shattered it. Dust clouded the air and large pieces of wood were strewn about the floor.

The two pegasi lowered Twilight down. Dash's plan had been risky, but It had to be done. Otherwise, Fluttershy's fear would have made her unable to fly; she had seen how her wings where shaking. Rainbow Dash had seen the same in Flight Camp. Some pegasi, when too scared, where unable to fly. "Fear cramp" it was called.

Sparkle picked her hammer back up while Rainbow Dash picked up her sword. The trio was glad the machine's wheels had not run over them. The Dragon Tank seemed to have stopped for now. The mares ran out the front door across the suspension bridge. The Dragon Tank gave another mighty roar and Twilight cursed herself for having created that thing, even if she had only made the plans.

The machine opened its mouth wide and shot out another blast of fire. The stone was scorched from the continuing blasts from the mechanized reptile. The dragon was too big to go out using the door, so it backed up as the young trio ran across the bridge. It then roared again and charged through the door, creating a huge hole as it broke through. The whole tower started to shake, pieces of it falling over the mechanical dragon and barely making dents in it.

The mares reached the end of the bridge, but the door was locked and this one was made of steel. They heard a strange sound, like a screech, and then turned around to see the Dragon Tank advancing slowly towards them.

"Now, if I remember things correctly.. Dash, destroy the wheels with your sword! Fluttershy, shoot arrows into that thing's eyes! I will jam the steam vent in the tail!" The unicorn known as Twilight Sparkle sounded confident. Dash nodded.

"Okay..." Fluttershy said. She felt braver for some reason. Maybe it was the tone in Twilight voice, maybe it was just being with her friends, but she was also angry. This thing had tried to hurt her friends; friends who had already saved her once. Fluttershy had one arrow already loaded in the slot in her crossbow. She picked it from her backpack and aimed at the Dragon Tank's left eye. She barely had any practice at all, having been forced into a crash course over the last two days by Twilight, so her best bet was to wait until that thing was really close.

Rainbow Dash attacked one of the wheels while the beast roared; a fire blast almost burning her wings. Unlike the door, the wood was not that strong and she had no trouble destroying one of the right wheels, making the machine shift a bit to the right. The thing moved its tail to the left to compensate the weight and stabilize again. Damn it was good! If it was not trying to kill her, she would feel proud for her friend having created such a powerful machine.

Twilight was looking at Fluttershy. Why the hay wasn't she shooting? No time to think about that now. The tank roared again, and Dash was still too damn close for her own good. Twilight threw her hammer with her magic at the dragon's chest to distract it. Its head turned to the unicorn and she could see the flames forming in its mouth...

CRACK!

The metal beast's left ruby eye was gone. It blasted it fire where Fluttershy should be, but the yellow pegasus had flown a few meters up after she fired her bolt.

Rainbow Dash was not going to waste time, taking out another wheel on the right side. The head then blasted a fireball at her, but Dash just flew away faster than the dragon could aim. Dammit, she hated not being able to taunt that thing, but if she did her sword would fall off!

Twilight jumped over the dragon, hearing a familiar sound. "Oh right..." Twilight jumped behind the dragon before whole metal body coursed with electricity. That would have fried her! Once behind the dragon she started to hammer on the pipe where the steam was escaping, slowly closing it. The dragon then opened a hole in its back, where a blast of scalding steam started to come out.

"Dash, go to pick up one of the stones that felt of the tower and jam it into that hole! Fluttershy, make this stupid mistake of mine blind!" The Dragon head did a full turn, its single eye glowering at the purple unicorn.

"Oh hay..."

Before a fire blast hit her, Rainbow Dash did a flying kick to the dragon's head, moving it to the side. The hole on the back closed, and the now almost sealed pipe was drooping. Lots of pressurized steam started to blast out of what was left of the hole in the tail.

"Dammit, Sparkle! Why did you have to make this thing so smart!" Rainbow Dash yelled, her sword falling out of her mouth. The dragon body charged with electricity and tried to hit Dash with a head butt, but the pegasus did not call herself one of the fasted pegasi in Equestria just to brag. Twilight ran towards the prison tower, hoping her friends would keep the machine she had the disgrace to create busy.

Fluttershy had gone down and charged a second arrow in her crossbow. "Hey ugly, you make real dragons look bad!" The beast roared, but instead of charging a fire blast it tried to run the mare over. Fluttershy shot; her bolt barely missed its mark. She was then scooped up into the air by Rainbow Dash.

Twilight had gotten a bunch of rocks from the prison tower and poured all the potions in her backpack over them. She then levitated the rocks around her with magic "Hey, ugly! Over here!"

The tank, without even turning around, crackled with electricity an moved fast backwards towards the violet mare. Twilight threw the rocks at the lower right of the dragon tank. The rocks exploded: the resulting blast destroying two of the machine wheels. Even with the help of its tail, the machine was still inclined to the right with only two wheels remaining in the left side. Twilight was happy that she filled her backpack with explosive potions, leaving Fluttershy the healing ones.

Unfortunately that move had depleted her few bottles. The dragon eye started to glow bright red, the hole in its back opened again, now looking at her. Twilight's horn glowed like never before, and she took a huge rock out of the wall behind her. She was panting. It was like with Gilda; she had to do it fast or else...

She dropped the rock over the dragon tail. Dammit!

The machine's fangs opened wide. It was not going to be a regular fire blast; it was going to be huge. Maybe she could...

CRASH!

The prison tower collapsed behind her, nowhere to run...

Rainbow Dash had destroyed the dragon's remaining wheels with her sword but was too late. The fire was about to... WHAT?

CRACK!

Fluttershy had done a flying kick to the dragon head, making the huge blast fire uselessly to the left. The dragon was not designed to use such a blast while not aiming to the front, so the machine ended melting some of it own armor. Twilight could hardly believe it; Fluttershy was being so brave right now. And that kick... had she copied it from Dash?

The Dragon Tank was now blind. Twilight climbed over it, and crossed to the other side.

"We... we did it? YAY!" Fluttershy seemed so happy, then there was the sound of chains moving; the steel door was being lifted.

"... surely the escaped prisoners must be dead by now." The Chancellor's voice was heard from the other side, but as soon as the mechanical door was fully open his mouth opened wide while the short colt's eyes almost went out into orbit "What? You... You defeated the... "

"Chancellor!" Yelled Fluttershy, staring down at him. "I heard you ordered for Rainbow Dash to be executed! What is the meaning of this?"

"I... guards, the prisoners have kidnapped Princess Megan! Get them!" Yelled the Chancellor, sending a group of guards to attack Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle.

"Stop this! I am Princess Megan Fluttershy of Equestria, and my word is law! The Chancellor had this mechanical beast attack me and these young heroes rescued me!"

"But... I... I mean..." The Chancellor said, looking at the guards that were slowly moving toward him. Then the Dragon Tank roared, a sound like an alarm clock ringing could be heard from it...

"Hay! I forgot the self destruct! Lets get out of here!" Twilight screamed; everypony ran down the steps to the ground floor. A huge explosion was heard and as the suspension bridge crumbled from the Dragon Tank's explosion.

Everypony let out a great sigh of relief. Then the guards remembered they had to arrest the Chancellor.

"Stop this nonsense!" The Chancellor protested while the guards surrounded him.

"Okay, let's get out of here!" Rainbow Dash said, sticking her sword in Fluttershy backpack. The trio made a mad dash for the front door. Thankfully, with all the confusion they had caused, the front door of the castle was wide open. Twilight Sparkle stepped outside first and looked at Canterlot; a lot of curious ponies had come close to the castle and there where a few guards outside.

"Going somewhere?" said a voice. They turned back and saw a pegasus that looked a lot like Fluttershy. Only it was all pink and its pink mane had a white line running through its length. She wore a magnificent and elegant red dress with a crown. Behind her there was the Chancellor and the royal guards.

"Mommy?" Fluttershy said "I... you do not understand..."

"What do we not understand? That you are going against the will of the sun princess? That you have helped a prisoner escape?" The pink pony said, looking furious.

"Foolish girl! You've been brainwashed by this scum!" yelled the Chancellor. "Arrest them, guards!"

The knights walked towards Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle

Fluttershy looked around frantically. She looked at the Chancellor, then at the group of soldiers, then at her mother. She then stared the guards and yelled "STOP! RIGHT NOW!" The lead guard stopped and backed off in fear.

Fluttershy then ran away, calling back to her friends. "Follow me quick, my stare won't last long!"

The young mares ran right into the suburbs of Canterlot. The Chancellor could not believe what was going on "What the hay? Snap out of it! Go after them! Go!"

The Queen smiled, only uttering a single word.

"Megan..."

The knights ran off from the castle and off into the suburbs; splitting up and looking for the escaped prisoner and her accomplices.

The Knights started to knock door by door; looking in all the alleys, (and even in the trash cans) until one of them noticed an open door in an abandoned house.

In the house's basement , the three ponies where hiding.

"We don't have much time. Did somepony leave the door open?" asked Twilight Sparkle. "Why did you lead us into this place?"

"Well, I used to hide here as a filly. This place has been abandoned for a long time..." Fluttershy said and looked behind some boxes, noticing a hole in the wall that was filled with rocks. "They covered the hole, we're stuck here! I can't believe I got you guys into this mess," she said despairingly. "I'll never forgive myself..."

"Quiet, Fluttershy!" said Twilight Sparkle. "We need to figure a way out of here!"

Fluttershy then clamped her mouth shut, tears welling up in her eyes.

"Fluttershy, I'm sorry..." Twilight Sparkle shook her head and looked at the two of them. Rainbow Dash sat in silence.

Suddenly they heard a beeping sound that seemed to come from the strange clock device known as the gate key.

"Why is it making that noise?" Rainbow Dash asked

"I built in a detector of dimensional tears, holes, and other anomalies," said the brilliant unicorn who then looked at the blue pegasus "I am 99% sure there is a gate nearby!" The unicorn moved the gate key to the covered hole, and turned a dial on the clock-like device back.

The air shifted and they could hear a whooshing sound. Then a portal appeared in front of the three.

"No way! I don't wanna risk destroying the universe again!" Rainbow Dash yelled "I had to kill. I almost died! Heck, I prefer to beat the guards if I have to! No more time travel!"

"But... we cannot face the Sun Princess even if we do defeat all the guards. She is the one who wants you in jail, remember?"

"Ah, right... sorry" Rainbow Dash said. There was no way in a thousand years she would be able to beat a goddess.

"Hah!" said Fluttershy. "We have nothing here anyway! Um... I mean... it will be fun?"

Twilight Sparkle nodded and looked at Rainbow Dash. "Hey, I am sure this gate will take us to the future, so no way to mess up the time-line this time, the resonance is..."

"Hey, lets go before you make me fall asleep!"

"Okay then, get ready to take another trip through time!"

"There they are!" said an all-too-familiar voice.

They all turned around and saw the short Chancellor standing at the Basement doorway with the guards "You're cornered, Rainbow Dash!"

Rainbow Dash picked her sword from Fluttershy's backpack and stood in front of the two ponies.

"Sparkle, lets go! Now!" said Fluttershy.

"Right! Twilight forced the door closed with her magic in the short colt's face. "Jump in!"

Fluttershy jumped into the portal banishing instantly.

Twilight Sparkle put the key in her backpack and dove into the void. The guards busted the door open, Rainbow Dash jumped into the gate just before it closed.

The guards were confused, and the Chancellor's jaw dropped. "Where did they go?"

"I think... I think they jumped into... some magic portal sir!" one of the guards said

"Listen! Half of you will stay here in case they come back. The rest, come with me back to the castle. The Queen and the Sun Princess won't be happy with this!"

JANUARY 13, 2300 AD

"OOF!" The three landed in a heap. "Twilight Sparkle, um, would you mind trying to fix this sometime soon?" came from Fluttershy at the bottom of the pile. Dusting themselves off, they looked around.

"Well... it seems we're inside a building this time." Rainbow Dash observed.

Twilight Sparkle was more interested in the details. The room they were in, while crude looking, was all made of metal and white crystals in the walls illuminated it. It was basically a big metal box, yet there were broken machines in the walls that Twilight had only (dreamt or dreamed) of! To her friends, however, they must just look like a pile of junk.

"The technology here is so advanced... I'd say it's quite obvious we're in the future, that or an alternate universe, but the chances of that happening are highly unlikely."

"The Future? How far?" Fluttershy murmured. The other two shrugged.

Rainbow Dash noticed a strange door in the back. Black, with silver markings all over it and having a crescent moon symbol in pink. "Hey, that looks like it could have some treasure." She tried to open it. The next thing the blue pegasus knew, she was flat on her back. "Uh... what hit me?" Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy were both standing over her.

Twilight Sparkle responded first. "There was this flash, and the door was covered with a pyramid of pink light. You got thrown back, and this weird yet familiar voice said 'This door is protected by the seal of the moon, silly.' "

"Huh." Rainbow Dash grunted as she sat up. "Can't you force it?"

Twilight sparkle looked around, that door seemed like the only exit, yet the place was full of breatheable air. She walked close to the walls and found an air current coming from behind one of the big machines. Twilight's horn glowed and she moved the massive object away, revealing a hole in the wall big enough for them to get outside one at a time. It was dark outside and the wind was strong, carrying a lot of dust. "No, but I found a way out"

"Girls, can't we stay here a bit longer? Outside... is hard to explain but... I feel like everything is dead." Fluttershy sat down and felt strangely scared, like all courage she had before was gone. Even worse, she feared they would all die if they went outside.

Twilight nodded and moved the machine back in place, then sat down to rest. "From what I could see, we seem to be in some kind of desert. Maybe we should wait until the morning."

"I don't think it is going to be morning any time soon." Rainbow Dash said with a sad face.

"What are you talking about?" Fluttershy asked, to see her courageous and brave friend like that scared her further.

"Its part of my training as a weather mare" Rainbow Dash explained "I can sense subtle changes in the weather, and know when the solar cycle has been altered. When Princess Celestia decided to make the longest day of the year be the day of the start of the Millennium Fair; the sun gave me a strange feeling. When we were in the past, that feeling was gone. Now, I sense something similar, but the opposite. Its like a void, like something is missing. We didn't get here during the night; its supposed to be day but the sun is not there!"

"And you can know all that being inside? I thought you had to be outside for that" Twilight Sparkle said, then finally noticed how scared Fluttershy seemed to be. Maybe the princess, though lacking weather mare training, still seemed to feel what Rainbow Dash did, only in a more instinctive way?

"I didn't until you let the wind enter. All pegasi are naturally connected to the wind, like earth ponies are connected to earth. It sounds bizarre, but...the wind told me."

"So...I know I should not ignore you two being freaked out by all this, but we can't go back. If we go back; Rainbow will be executed, I will probably be put in jail, maybe executed too, and our (lovely or beloved) princess here will be grounded for life"

Rainbow Dash stood up firm on her four hooves "You're right. We defeated a robot dragon, so I'm sure we can take whatever is outside!"

Fluttershy stood up. She was still scared, but she was not going to remain there if her friends were going to risk their lives. "Let's go then, nothing's gonna stop us now!"

Twilight nodded, then moved the machine away. She went outside first, then looked at the sky. It was not what she expected at all; a beautiful sky with shining stars. The moon was full, giving them light, but the wind and the dust soon forced her to look down. What she saw was not pretty.

Author's Note

Special thanks to doctorbrony from #fimfiction at irc.irchighway.net and to Voldine from fimfiction.net for editing this chapter

Bad Future I

JANUARY 13, 2300 AD

"OOF!" The three landed in a heap. "Twilight Sparkle, um, would you mind trying to fix this sometime soon?" said Fluttershy at the bottom of the pile. Dusting themselves off, the three ponies looked around.

"Well... it seems we're inside a building this time." Rainbow Dash observed.

Twilight Sparkle was more interested in the details, the room they where in while crude looking, was all made of metal, and white crystals in the walls illuminated it. It was basically a big metal box, yet there where broken machines in the walls, that Twilight had only dreamed of! But for her friends, they must just look like a pile of junk.

"The technology here is so advanced... I'd say it's quite obvious we're in the future, that or an alternate universe, but the chances of that happening are highly unlikely."

"The Future? How far?" Fluttershy murmured. The other two shrugged.

Dash noticed a strange door in the back. Black, with silver markings all over it and having a crescent moon symbol in pink. "Hey, that looks like it could have some treasure." She tried to open it. The next thing the blue pegasus knew, she was flat on his back. "Uh... what hit me?" Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy were both standing over her.

Twilight responded first. "There was this flash, and the door was covered with a pyramid of pink light. You got thrown back, and this weird yet familiar voice said 'This door is protected by the seal of the moon, silly."

"Huh." Rainbow Dash grunted as she sat up. "Can't you force it?"

Twilight Sparkle looked around, that door seemed like the only exit, yet the place was full of breathable air, she walked close to the walls, and found an air current coming from behind one of the big machines. Her horn glowed and she moved the massive object away, revealing a hole in the wall, big enough for them to get outside one at a time. But outside it was dark and the wind was strong, carrying a lot of dust. "No, but I found a way out."

"Girls, can't we stay here a bit longer? Outside... is hard to explain but... I fell like everything is dead." Fluttershy sat down and was strangely scared, is like all courage she had got before was gone, even worse, she feared they all would die if they went outside.

Twilight nodded and moved the machine back in place, then sat down to rest

"For what I could see, we seem to be in some kind of desert, maybe we should wait until the morning."

"I don't think is going to be morning any time soon." Dash said with a sad face

"What are you talking about?" Fluttershy asked, to see her courageous and brave friend like that scared her further.

"It's part of my training as a weather mare," Rainbow Dash explained "I can sense subtle changes in the weather, and know when the solar circle has been altered. When Princess Celestia decided to make the longest day to be the day of the start of the Millennium Fair, the sun have me a strange felling. When we where in the past, that felling was gone. Now, I sense something similar, but is like the opposite, is like a void, like something is missing, we didn't get here during the night, is supposed to be day, but the sun is not there!"

"And you can know all that being inside? I thought you had to be outside for that." Twilight Sparkle said, then finally noticed how scared Fluttershy seemed to be. Maybe the princess who lacked weather mare training; was still able to feel what Rainbow Dash did, only in a more instinctive way?

"I didn't until you let the wind enter, all pegasi are naturally connected to the wind, like earth ponies are connected to earth, it sounds bizarre, but... the wind told me."

"So, I know I should not ignore you two being freaking out by all this, but we can't go back. If we go back Rainbow will be executed, I will probably be put in jail, maybe executed too, and our loved princess here will be grounded for life."

Rainbow Dash stood up firm on her four hooves "You're right, we defeated a robot dragon, I am sure we can take whatever is outside!"

Fluttershy stood up, she was still scared, but she was not going to remain there if her friends where going to risk their life. "Let's go then, nothing gonna stop us now!"

Twilight nodded then moved the machine away, and she went outside first, then looked at the sky. It was a beautiful sky full of shinning stars, the moon was full giving them light, but the wind and the dust soon forced her to look down. Equestria... was destroyed.

She looked at the place where the portal had landed them, it was a metal dome. Twilight Sparkle then looked around, they where in the ruins of what once had been a great city made of metal.

Nothing grew anywhere, and there were no animals. The only signs of life was a dome to the south similar to the one they had just exited, and a junked area that seemed to be a passage through the dead, gray mountains of the west.

The unicorn guessed they where the once beautiful Dragondorado Mountains.

Twilight then stood in silence until her two friends where outside too then she said "...We're bucked."

"What happened here?" Fluttershy murmured, almost on the verge of tears.

"What happened to the world?" Rainbow Dash looked grim.

"I don't know, Fluttershy. But we'll find out. And when we do, we'll make whoever did this pay."

"Yeah! No way anybody gonna get away with this!" Twilight Sparkle agreed. "Now, I think we should go to that second dome down there first."

Inside the dome, the three discovered the sorrowful remnants of ponykind.

Filthy ponies in brown rags, huddled around aimlessly. A gloomy fog hung over the mess. As soon as they walked in, a colt yelled out "New ones here!" They were met with bored glances, then ignored. Rainbow Dash decided to try and talk with the gray earth pony colt at the entrance.

"Hey, bud. What happened here, anyway?" The colt looked at her incredulously, then laughed. It was a short sound, completely humorless.

"Where you been, under a rock? Same thing that happened everywhere else. Welcome to Tartarus, girl. Where ya from, anyways?" Rainbow Dash thought, then responded.

"Ponyville." The guy blinked.

"Ponyville Dome? Where the buck is that? I've heard of Flim & Flam Domes, and then there's Apple and Orange Domes, but they're deserted. And there's that other place..." He shuddered, then continued. "And there's the Psycho's dome near Death Dragon Peak. But I ain't ever heard of no Ponyville Dome." Rainbow Dash shrugged.

"Hey, where can we get something to eat?" The colt laughed again.

"Eat? You crazy, pegasus? Ain't nothing to eat anywhere." He suddenly looked at Rainbow Dash sharply. "Wait... did you have food at this Ponyville Dome of yours?" Rainbow Dash thought fast. "Er... we did, but we ran out. That's why we came out here."

The gray colt sighed, depressed. "Shoulda known. We ain't gonna get no breaks in this life."

"Er... just asking, but how do ya live without food?" Twilight said

The earth pony pointed at the far end of the dome. "See that machine? It's an Enertron. It restores you energy in an instant, but you stay hungry." He grunted.

Twilight sure looked interested in the device, to the point Rainbow Dash had to hold back the unicorn by her tail to prevent her for going to examine it. It seemed something rude, but knowing Twilight Sparkle, it was for the best.

"Once, I was the best fighter in the world. I even made it to Eris Dome and back once. But now..." He snorted mockingly. "Wanna buy anything?"

Twilight Sparkle stepped up, forgetting her interest in the Enertron for the moment. "OK, let's see what you've got, " It turned out he had an assortment of hammers. The unicorn selected one big yet strangely light one, then payed him. He looked at the money doubtfully.

"You sure this is money? Never seen this strange symbol before. Ah, well, I need to lighten my stock anyways." Twilight found strange the colt did not mention the symbol was the sun, but said nothing.

As they turned to leave, he yelled, "Hey! Where ya going?" Rainbow Dash turned halfway as she walked. Then the pegasus looked at her two companions.

“Good question, where are we going?”

Fluttershy hid her head in her mane then looked at Twilight Sparkle “Well?”

Twilight looked around nervous, then took out the gate key From her saddle bags and have it a good look. “Uhh... well... taking into account the time passed, the fact the tectonic plates move and...time Wimey stuff! Ehh... maybe... if we get to that ruined passage to the east, we will find another time gate?”

The colt looked shocked, then took a long look at the mares, and his expression changed. He then started to laugh, it seemed he was having fun this time. “You sure are an odd bunch! My hammers are good, but taking out Mutants with them? That's a good one!”

“Mutants?” Fluttershy asked scared “What... what are those?”

The earth pony stooped laughing and took small short breaths to calm itself “You really don't know? Well, is hard to say. Some say they are just monsters, other say they are ponies who ate things they should have not, personally, I think is what happens when the night is eternal. The creatures who used to hide of light, don't have to do it anymore.”

Twilight fixed her eyes on the colt “Any way to beat those Mutants?”

“Well, weapons hardly have any effect on them, why else we will be here if that wasn't the case?” The colt said, he seemed slightly depressed now, more than when they first saw him.

Rainbow Dash gave him a confident smirk “Well, I am sure we can take them.”

The yellow pegasus confidence seemed to raise the princess spirit “Yes, we can do it, let's go! YAY!” Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy left, with Twilight Sparkle reluctantly following, there where so many things in the dome she wanted to disarm and see how they worked! But then, she didn't know if the time gate would wait for them, better hurry.

As they walked inside the passage, Rainbow Dash saw a sign that said "Lab 37". There were piles of junk everywhere, and giant rats ran rampant. One of them jumped into Rainbow Dash's pack and pulled out a Potion.

"HEY!" Rainbow attempted to give chase, but tripped over a rock and fell on her face. "OUCH!" Twilight Sparkle started laughing hysterically, while Fluttershy did her best to prevent her own laughter from even leaving her lips.

"Oh, haha, that was worth, heehee, a Potion from Zecora any day! Hahaha, Rainbow Dash tripping over, hoohoo, and there is a houseplant! WAHAHA!"

Fluttershy then kicked Twilight's flank, it was so rare of Twilight to laugh like that, maybe there was something in the air? She barelly noticed a weird and faint smell and flapped her wings really fast, Twilight seemed to calm down as the air got clearer around them. Then she looked at Rainbow Dash screaming “BE CAREFUL!”

Rainbow Dash looked, wondering what was the whole deal about, she felt a bit funny. In front of her was a plant, yeah, but not any houseplant she'd ever seen. Two vines grew out on opposite side of the main trunk almost like arms, while a large purple blossom was positioned at the top like a head.

Suddenly, a green octopus jumped out of the blossom and latched onto Rainbow Dash's head. "YOW!" Quickly, Fluttershy pulled out her crossbow and fired a shot which hit the slimy thing straight through the head, it felt and died.

“Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash looked at her pegasus friend in shock, had it just killed something in cold blood? That was so unlike her...

Unfortunately, the plant took the chance to atack Dash with her vines. Rainbow Dash reflexes salved her, she quickly jumped out of the way, picked her sword, and made a a salad out of it.

“What... was...” Rainbow Dash feel strangely tired, Fluttershy flapped her wings close to Dash, and the blue pegasus head cleared.

"Okay, it seems anything around here could be an enemy or a trap. Be on your guards." Fluttershy said “And, If you feel funny flap your wings or ask somepony close by to do so, it seems plants like those release a polen in the air, and that thing is bad news. "

Her friends nodded, and on they went, this time Fluttershy being the one leading the party.

Thanks to Nitz_X from #fimfiction for editing this story

Author's Note

I am sorry it took this long to have a new chapter ready, and that's so short, but I just wasn't felling inspired for writing pony -_-

The Cathedral

"My dream is to make a flying machine that will let anypony fly the skies and to build a robot able to think on its own. Oh! And to make a machine that makes the best ice cream ever and a cool looking battle dragon robot. And... Well, I guess I kinda have a lot of projects. I think that one day, machines will let us do anything without magic." Twilight Sparkle, when she was asked as a filly what her dream was.

JANUARY 10, 600 AD

Dash awoke first. She was lying on the ground in a clearing. Her biggest immediate concern, however, was the three strange creatures who were going through their packs. They sure were some of the most peculiar creatures she had ever seen. They stood two feet high and wore shredded clothing. They were covered with purple scales from head to toe and had sharp claws. Were those baby dragons? No, they were like... small scaled trolls or something. She remembered her mother telling her tales about those creatures; they were called Imps.

"HEY! Get away from that!" One of the Imps ran for cover, but the other two prepared to fight. Dash frowned. "The hard way, eh? Fine by me."

Less than a minute later, the two Imps had received such hard kicks from Rainbow Dash's hind legs that they where unconscious and would probably not have a pleasant awakening. Dash took the wooden sword from her backpack with her mouth and growled to the hiding Imp; it ran away screaming.

Twilight Sparkle woke up yawning. "Uh, did I miss something?" She asked, noticing the mess and the two unconscious Imps.

"Nah, just some idiots that wanted easy bits." Rainbow Dash said proudly after placing the sword back in her backpack. "But now you owe me two. Sparkle, I can't believe you kept sleeping with all that noise!"

"Well, let's just say that when my dad sleeps, I can hear his snoring from the other side of the house, so I'm used to sleeping through a lot of noise."

"Whatever. Where the hay are we, the Everfree Forest?" Dash said and looked at her surroundings.

She found Fluttershy's pendant on the ground and picked it up; it was not shining or anything. The sun seemed to be halfway through the sky. Trees surrounded them on all sides. The woods were alive with noises. Birds, running water, and the rustling of leaves filled her ears. No, this place looked too nice for the Everfree Forest.

Twilight looked around and seemed to think for the moment, they were in a forest clearing, the trees too tall to let her see anything else. She adjusted her glasses with magic, a purple aura surrounding them for a moment, her vision blurred and she almost fell. What was that? She then remembered the pendant.

"Are you OK?" Rainbow Dash asked, looking worried.

"Yes, I think so, Rainbow... Can I have that pendant?" Dash gave it to her, and the unicorn lifted it with magic. For just a few seconds, it changed into a magenta tourmaline six-pointed star.

"Wow, I think I want to examine this thing." Twilight Sparkle said, sounding really excited. She picked her stuff up and started to do the usual science stuff Rainbow Dash always had a hard time understanding.

"OK, fine. I will go explore. Will you be fine on your own?" Dash asked, Twilight's horn glowed and Rainbow Dash suddenly found herself surrounded by several rocks flinging past. "Jeez, I was just asking!"

Rainbow Dash decided it was just best to leave her friend alone, and took a path out of the clearing. They seemed to be on a mountainside, but as far as she could remember, there weren't any forests in the Dragondorado Mountains. Looking off into the distance, though, she could see more majestic peaks like the one she was on, with beautiful foliage covering their sides, just beginning to turn the bright colors of autumn.

How strange, she could swear that the sun was not where it should be. Maybe it was part of her training as a weather mare, or maybe it was just the pegasus' natural connection with the sky. The sun... didn't have that odd feeling she remembered from that morning. It had not been forced out of the regular cycle by Celestia. Maybe their goddess had regretted her choice to make the longest day come way earlier than it was supposed to? No, that wasn't like Celestia at all.

Rainbow Dash flapped her wings and flew down the mountainside. She could see more of those purple Imps and some strange eagle-like creatures that tried to attack her in the air. But Dash was much faster and just circled around them at high speed, making them dizzy. The dumb creatures crashed to the ground. She then looked around; despite the Imps and the weird eagles, they did seem like Dragondorado Mountains after all.

After that, it was only a few minutes before she came to the base of the mountain. She had seen a path down it for those that couldn't fly. It had some Imps, but she guessed it was nothing her best friend couldn't handle.

Miles away from the Dragondorado Mountains, deep underground beneath a secret fortress, was a dark room. A lone white unicorn mare stood in the center of it. She had an indigo mane and wore a black cape and hood. A blue glow seemed to hover around her, illuminating a small portion of the room.

A scared mare's voice broke the quiet. "Lady Rarity..."

The illumination disappeared. The mare did not need to turn around to face the intruder and identify her. "Yes, Trixie?" asked Rarity, the mare with the indigo mane.

The intruder was obscured by the sudden lack of light. A small light appeared from a blue horn, revealing the intruder as a blue unicorn mare.

"Did I say you could light the place up?" said Rarity, still not looking at Trixie.

"I am really sorry, my lady! Rumors are circulating that the queen has been found..." The blue mare said and turned off the light she had just made.

A light blue flame flashed towards the ceiling, enveloping Rarity for a few seconds, but it quickly disappeared, returning the room to darkness. "Impossible," said Rarity. "We have the queen in the basement of the Cathedral."

Trixie shuddered. "Um, yes of course, but the reports indicate that the queen is alive and well at the castle..."

The flame once again fired up. Trixie moved back a bit in fear.

"They are mere rumors, Trixie. They have been started to confuse us. Ignore them. But just to be safe, do redouble the security at the Cathedral."

"Y-yes my lady!" Trixie ran out of the room and up the steps.

Rarity revived her glow. She felt a bit of a chill. "The black wind begins to blow..."

Meanwhile, Dash flew down to the ground when she saw a town. Was that Ponyville? There was no Posey's Square, and the houses looked archaic to say the least. She frowned. Why did she have to pick up those strange words from Sparkle? Then she remembered all the signs of fall she had seen before, and smacked her hoof against her forehead. It wasn't only that the sun was not moving as it was supposed to; she clearly remembered that the tree leaves had not turned brown yet back at home.

Yet she had to be at home, only it was a different Ponyville. She recognized the royal palace off in the distance and the fountain, only the fountain looked new. Weird, since when was the Everfree Forest so huge, extending so close to the palace? And she could not see any buildings around the palace, where was Canterlot?

She was wondering what to do when she noticed what looked like a tavern. It was just like an illustration she had seen in a book, a story about a legendary earth pony explorer called Tamara, but who liked to be called Toma. Once in the tavern, she found it was basically like a bar combined with a cheap hotel. So that was what a tavern was? As a filly she used to believe it was a club for cool ponies or something like that.

Rainbow Dash pretended to be tired after a long journey and asked about the monsters, apparently she was lucky, the monsters she had faced so far were wimps. There was also a war with some group called the Mistics; most of which were monsters from what she heard.

A red earth mare with a green mane and missing an eye moved close to Rainbow Dash. Her single black eye looked Dash over.

"Listen, girl. If I were you, I'd try to not go around asking so many questions and try to blend in a little more. Ponies acting weird can get dragged off to the castle for being under suspicion of Mysticism. None of them ever come out again."

Dash blinked. "Hey, thanks!"

The mare grunted. "Didn't cost me anything to say it." She paid her tab, then turned to Dash again. "And whatever you do, stay away from the Cathedral. There's something weird going on there."

Without another word, the mare walked out. Dash stared after her. "Strange mare..."

The bartender chuckled. "Yeah. You'd never guess by looking at her that she was Toma Levine, eh?" Dash froze. That pony was Toma Levine? The famous explorer who she adored as a filly?

"Oh my gosh! That was Toma Levine? And I am without my autograph book!" Rainbow Dash screamed excitedly, then decided to leave because she was attracting too much attention. Where to go? Wait, Toma was the stuff of legend, what the hay was going on?

Then she saw an iron-clad knight colt walking to the fountain. Dash walked towards it, curious. Several other villagers had gathered around the fountain to see the armored warrior.

Their quiet murmur disappeared as the knight raised his hoof high in the air.

"Loyal subjects of the Kingdom of Equestria," The iron-clad pony said. "your queen has been found!" The crowd cheered unanimously. Dash kept silent. She had no idea what the knight was talking about.

"Let it be known that on today, January 10th, 600 A.D., that Queen Posey of the Equestria dynasty has been found! We shall live in darkness no more!" The crowd cheered once again.

So she had been transported back in time by the portal? This was the year 600. Dash tried to remember what had been going on at the time. Something about a war with a powerful unicorn, a witch of some sort...

"I am also happy to report that we are rebuilding the bridge to the Southern Continent. That means we will be getting closer to Rarity very soon!"

Then Dash noticed some soldiers coming after her, maybe she didn't really blend in, but she was not going to fly away. She would be probably shot down with an arrow if she did so, after all some of those ponies where unicorn archers, their magic made their arrows rarely miss the target.

The crowd was surprised when they saw a dozen soldiers surrounding the pegasus pony with the rainbow mane."Are you Rainbow Dash?" A white pegasus clad in golden armor asked. "Yes." Dash answered, and before she could protest, she was dragged off.

She could hear the crowd of ponies asking what was going on, but if the soldiers of Equestria were famous for anything, it was for not talking unless the situation required it. She grew pale when she saw where they were heading.

The Everfree forest was more dangerous than Dash remembered. Or at least that was what she thought, because she had hardly been there before. The soldiers fought monster shrooms, giant beetles, manticores, green imps and even a griffon named Gilda, who had an army of those eagle monsters Dash had seen before. She insisted lame ponies had to pay to go trough "HER" forest.

The soldiers however, made their way through with an efficiency that suggested they had done this many times. Gilda ran away when her eagles where defeated, for some reason the soldiers had been ordered to let her live. Dash looked at her wooden sword in shame and reminded herself to get a better one sometime soon.

At the palace, they were greeted by a young mare in a flowing white dress. "Queen Posey!" All the soldiers bowed, Dash did the same. The Queen looked at Dash, who saw something... oddly familiar... but it could not be, this mare had no wings!

The Queen turned to the guards. "The Sun Goddess would like to talk with her first. I shall be waiting in my room." She left through the large double doors behind her, and after a few minutes, the guards led Dash through as well.

Rainbow Dash barely stopped herself from gaping as she bowed before Princess Celestia; she looked exactly the same as the one from her time. Celestia looked down at her with a serious expression. "So, you would be the one who rescued Queen Posey from the Mistics. I thank you."

"WHAT?" Dash almost yelled then put her Hoof in her mouth. "I am really sorry princess." She bowed to her again in shame.

"Princess?" Celestia said, surprised. "I am over your Queen, I control the sun, and you call me princess? It's silly, I love it!" Celestia grinned. "I may think on changing my title to that. Princess Celestia, sounds good doesn't it?"

"Yes it does, your majesty." Dash said looking nervous.

"Now. The queen seems to be acting very odd lately. I noticed she hasn't been wearing her royal pendant, I hope it's not in bad hands, as it's very important. I believe the Queen would like to talk with you and... I hope I can see you again miss Rainbow Dash, I find you amusing!"

Dash felt nervous and hoped no guards caught Twilight with the pendant, as it would get her in trouble. Thankfully Celestia didn't seem to notice anything wrong.

"Oh don't worry, I don't eat ponies, not even for breakfast! And even if you get on my bad side, I never kill!" Celestia said. "After you are done talking to my lovely Posey, you may rest in the knights' quarters, to the left of the front door." Dash bowed again, but she noticed that to the left, the elderly Chancellor, an old gray colt, was glaring at both her and the guards with incredible hatred. 'What's with him, is he jealous?' She thought.

In the Queen's room, Dash found Queen Posey attended by two mare maids. As soon as the Queen saw her, she asked the maids to leave. Once they were gone, she almost whispered "Dash, come here..."

Rainbow Dash looked at her a bit confused. "All right, miss. If you don't mind, I'd like to know how you know my name, and why you said I rescued you."

The queen smiled. "What? Don't you recognize me? It's me Fluttershy!"

Rainbow Dash almost fell over. "Fluttershy? But... your wings!"

She smiled. "They are under the dress. When I woke up, I was in the clearing. I was attacked by Imps and flew away, but then I was attacked by eagles and fainted. When I recovered, I was here, wearing this dress, and everyone called me Queen Posey. They were concerned about my wings; some kind of prophesy they didn't care to explain."

"Wait wait wait. So they think you are the missing queen?"

"It was explained that I was found by two guards that thought I was the queen. They rarely go on patrol there, so I guess I was lucky. Oh and the fact they saw a strange rainbow before I arrived may have helped a bit. I decided to play along, I thought you would follow me, so I told everybody that you helped me escape from the enemy and asked them to find you."

She stopped for a moment before going on. "Dash... somehow, I knew you would come find me..." She stopped again, and Dash noticed the room was taking on an eerie green hue. Fluttershy fell over as if in severe pain. "AAH! Feels like... I'm being torn apart! Dash! HELP ME!" And with that, she vanished like a ghost, leaving nothing behind.

Rainbow Dash was in shock. What had happened to Fluttershy? She decided the best for now was to leave the castle before she was blamed for that. She exited the Queen's room. It was dark already; no one was in the throne room, so Dash found it easy to sneak by. Once she was out of the king's chamber, she snuck out the front door and left the castle.

The guards said nothing; they had no orders about stopping ponies from leaving the castle after all. After walking a bit, the path continued to the Everfree forest. She could try to fly over, but while she was sure to beat those eagles, that Gilda seemed tough.

She shivered, the night air was cold and she looked up, many stars lined the sky, no black spaces that indicated clouds could be seen. The moon was full, so the mare in the moon was easy to see. The pegasus heard a galloping sound. She looked to the Everfree forest, and saw a mare coming out of it.

"Rainbow!" called a very familiar voice, it was Twilight!

"Hey, where's the princess?"

Rainbow Dash mumbled "What princess?" She could not be asking about Celestia after all.

Twilight snorted. "You dummy! Fluttershy! She's princess Megan!" And for the second time in five minutes, Rainbow Dash was in shock.

"Oh my gosh! This is crazy!" Dash screamed and they covered her mouth with her hooves, she really needed to start controlling herself.

"What's wrong?" Twilight Sparkle asked, confused.

"She disappeared, like a ghost! Nothing was left behind!"

Now it was Twilight's turn to be in shock. "She... disappeared... like a ghost?"

"Yeah..."

"Rainbow?"

"Yeah?"

Twilight screamed, "WADDAYA MEAN SHE DISAPPEARED?"

Rainbow Dash jumped and covered Twilight mouth. "Hey Sparkle, scream a bit louder, I think some ponies back at the castle may not have heard you! I was the only one there, and I do NOT wanna catch the blame for this, OK?"

Twilight nodded, and Dash removed her hoof. "Okay. So, any idea WHY she vanished?"

Twilight frowned. "Easy. Queen Posey gets kidnapped. They look for her. They find Fluttershy and call off the search. Queen Posey dies, cutting off the royal line. Fluttershy is faded out of existence, and within a few hours, paradox destroys the universe."

Rainbow Dash was gaping at the end of this. "Damn... that is NOT good..."

Twilight jumped up. "Wait! If we find the real Queen and save her before she dies, we can change things back!"

And then Rainbow Dash's eyes lit up. "Hey! I think I know where they might have her!"

"You?" Twilight Sparkle asked surprised. "How can you know where she is?"

"First things first, we need weapons, real weapons. Just a wood sword and rocks won't cut it this time."

"Well..." Twilight put down her backpack; it looked heavy and full of stuff. "Good thing I came prepared."

Twilight gave Dash an iron sword. Then took out more stuff, there were small jars that looked like medicines, potions, and other magic stuff. There was also a strange clock like device and a heavy hammer.

"Where the hay did you get all this?" Dash asked, surprised.

"Well, I managed to get a stable portal from our time to this era, so I went back home, got my trusty hammer and even bought some stuff with my savings. There I found our princess Megan had gone missing and..."

"Fine! I get it, there is no time to lose!" Dash said, and then noticed something that didn't make sense. "But... if you did all this, how did you get here so fast?"

"Well, you see..." Then a voice could be heard screaming from the Everfree forest, a voice Dash had heard once already today. "Hey Twi, aren't you done yet? I want to get the reward for saving the Queen soon!"

"No way, you are with Gilda? That griffon wanted to kill me!"

"Well, she needs the money, OK? Besides once you beat her into submission with a huge rock, then heal her with some potions, she is not that bad!"

"If you say so, just get her out of my way. I think we should head to the Cathedral, somepony told me strange things were going on there, so if the Queen is not there, at least it's a good place to start looking."

"Wow, sometimes you can think!" Twilight Sparkle Chuckled.

"Don't spread the word, I have a reputation to protect." Dash said ironically. "Besides, I don't know where that thing is!"

"That's more like the Dash I know, let's go to town and ask."

The pegasus helped the less strong unicorn pony carrying half of the jars while Gilda gave Dash some odd looks. Once they had walked a bit and they reached a clearing, Gilda got in front of them.

"Listen you two, Queen Posey used to be my friend, even if she is a lame pony. We used to play when we both where young, but as we got older we grew apart from each other. Despite that, she has done all she can to avoid killing me. I am not helping you because Twi beat me or because of the money, but because I owe her my life. I will lead you to the Cathedral, but that's it."

Twilight hugged Gilda. "Ah, you are not evil after all, just misguided!"

Gilda blushed and pushed Twilight away. "Stop that!"

Special thanks to rhiiazami and H-land from from #mylittlepony at irc.irchighway.net for editing this story