Chapters 1
"C'mon Egghead, catch me if you can!" said a blue pegasus with a rainbow-colored mane to her purple follower. She turned her head around and expected to see a purple dot far away in the sky, instead she saw her friend just a few feet away and coming closer.
"You have to admit that I'm pretty fast" said Twilight.
"Uhm yeah, compared to a young pegasus, who had as much flight lessons as you did.", responded Rainbow Dash, then she added: "but you aren't nearly as fast as I am!" That said she flew away very fast, quickly bringing distance between her and Twilight. Even though Rainbow still wasn't flying at her maximum speed Twilight couldn't keep pace with her, so she had nothing to do except watching her friend getting smaller and smaller. That was until Rainbow stopped and waited for her to catch up. Twilight was again amazed by the flying skills of her friend. If she would fly with such a high velocity she could never simply stop from one moment to another. Even at her maximum speed, which is far below Rainbows, it takes a couple of seconds for her to stand still.
Suddenly Twilight realized why her friend was waiting for her, of course: When two ponys are moving and one of them watches the other one, the first pony doesn't see the second ponys actual speed. Instead the first pony will see the speed of the second one in relation to her own. So if Rainbow wants to see her actual speed she first has to stop. It's so simple! Based on her logic Twilight decided to fly as fast as she can and doesn't stop until she passed Rainbow Dash so Rainbow can see her maximum speed.
Too late Twilight realized that Rainbow didn't stop because of her, but rather because she hit something. Too late for Twilight to stop herself from hitting the same thing.
2
It was one of these days, that start with having a great idea right after waking up. Of course, when you are the great and powerful Trixie every day starts like this, or at least every day that counts. The idea she woke up with this day was that since this no-good unicorn Twilight Sparkle became a princess - dear Celestia they make everypony a princess lately - she hoped that Twilight moved to Canterlot or any other place that fits a princess better than some small town and she could try her luck again in Ponyville. Her idea turned out to be not as great as she thought when she found out that not only is her nemesis still in the town, no, she also got a nice castle. How could things be worse?
Of course Trixie, no matter how great and powerful she was, couldn't know that things were about to turn way worse.
The only thing good that happened was that she was able to snatch an apple at that farm without anypony noticing when she leaved town. Well, maybe no pony but a little squirrel saw the apple magicaly floating infront of the unicorn, and it was a hungry squirrel. For a moment Trixie thought about sharing the apple with the starving critter, or she would have if she was anypony else. But the great and powerful Trixie had more important things on her mind so she didn't even notice the squirrel staring at the apple nearly drowling. When the chipmunk noticed that the unicorn wasn't paying any attention, it decided to take action into it's own hands and jumped at the apple.
Surprised by the sudden attack on her food, Trixie let the apple fall, which made the chipmunk miss the apple, and the apple rolled a few feet downhill. Trixie gave the squirrel an angry stare which didn't last very long since the critter only cared for the apple and was already running towards it.
That was when the apple suddenly split in half.
The squirrel didn't care and grabbed one of the halves and was already mashing it's teeth into it as Trixie, still stearing meanly at it, tried to grab the other one. However, instead of getting half of an apple she got an electric shock. She could have sworn that the squirrel laughed.
3
"Ouch" said Scootaloo as she crashed into a large pile of bags of flour resulting in a giant white flour-cloud.
"And, did it work?" asked Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom added: "Let me see your flank!"
Apple Bloom wiped away some of flour on the now-white pony to discover a blank orange spot.
"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks for asking." said Scootaloo sarcastically, she was a bit angry right now, being covered in flour isn't as much fun as it sounds, and Scootaloo thinks it sounds like it it no fun at all in the first place.
But she wasn't as angry as the pony they heard suddenly:
"WHAT THE HAY ARE YOU KIDS DOING IN HERE?! "
Scootaloo was about to answer the question but Sweetie Belle stopped her, whatever she would say it wouldn't help them. Instead Apple Bloom tried to find an excuse for what they were doing but she got interrupted by the angry pony:
"I'LL TELL YOU WHAT YOU ARE DOING, YOU ARE WASTING MY FLOUR, THAT MEANS YOU ARE WASTING MY BREAD! And now get out of here or i'll bill you the flour you wasted!"
And with that the three fillies left, although Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom had to hold Scootaloo back from picking a fight with the baker pony.
"So, we didn't got our Cutie Marks for baking. What's next on the list?" Asked Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom brought up a list full of ideas of what they could do to get their Cutie Marks. She checked 'Baker ' off and Scootaloo, who calmed down again, said: "Check 'beeing white ' for me too." and the other two fillies realized that Scootaloo was still covered in flour. They all laughed.
"Maybe we should get you a bath next, Scoot." said Apple Bloom, "You know what, we should call it a day and go to 'The Lake '. You can take a bath there."
'The Lake ' Apple Bloom was referring to was merely a pond between two big rocks just outside the town. The three fillies found it during one of their failed tries to get a cutie mark and so far the three are the only ponies that know about 'The Lake '. They like it there because the two big rocks separated them from anypony else but they still let the sun still shine on 'The Lake ' nearly all day which made it a great place to relax. They all agreed with Apple Bloom and so they went to 'The Lake '.
1
Trixie still couldn't believe her bad luck. First that annoying squirrel tried to steal her apple - even more annoying was that it actually got a half, then she gets shocked when she tried to grab the other one and now, as she tried again, her hoof is somehow blocked from reaching the apple. At least she didn't get a shock the second time.
As she sat down and waited for the squirrel to finish eating, hoping it would leave something for her (the squirrel on the other hand wanted to share as much as Trixie wanted to share in the first place, but she couldn't know that) she looked up towards a sky and saw two pegasi flying by.
'Yeah, flying, being free as a bird...or a pegasus, if I could do that my life would be great. ' thought she and with a blick on the squirrel she added 'then i wouldn't have to worry about stupid critters ever again '.
She quickly changed her mind as the first of the two pegasi crashed into something directly above her. That was strange because there was absolutely nothing there. It didn't take the second pony long to crash into the same thing.
While Rainbow hit whatever she hit with such a high velocity that she stayed in the air like a fly that got squished on a window, Twilights speed was low enough for her to fall down right after her crash, and she was falling directly towards Trixie and the squirrel.
Trixie, who didn't want to be crushed by a falling alicorn, quickly jumped to the left, leaving the squirrel behind.
The squirrel however also didn't want to be crushed so it jumped at Trixie and grabbed one of her legs before she got out of reach. For any bystander it might have looked like the great and powerful Trixie saved a helpless critter.
Trixie turned around and looked at the unconscious alicorn lying in front of her and thought: 'finally something good happening this day '.
She could stand there all day and stare at her fallen nemesis, litterally fallen of course, but from the brink of her eye she noticed another pony entering the scene. Her mood quickly turned bad again.
That yellow earthpony from the apple-farm must have seen the accident and is now coming to
help. Trixie couldn't stand her. Basically she couldn't stand anypony who refuses to accept how great and powerful she is, but this one is even more annoying. She wanted to avoid her at all cost but whatever blocked her from reaching the apple also blocked her from going any further into the direction she was initially heading, so she decided to just walk along this wall, getting away from the accident and the apple farmer.
2
When the Cutie Mark Crusaders reached 'The Lake ' they saw something none of them, probably nopony ever, saw ever before. In the middle of the lake there was a clear line of... nothing.
There was water on one side and water on the other but between this water there was a small line where no water was.
"Do... do you think something's wrong?" asked Sweetie Belle carefully, hoping that she wasn't the only one who was seeing this.
"I don't know," answered Scootaloo, "but as long as it has nothing to do with our Cutie Marks i don't care."
Scootaloo then jumped in the water getting rid of the flour.
"Don't get to close to that...nothing... " said Apple Bloom, but Scootaloo wasn't listening. She was already getting closer towards the line in the water. As she was close enough she reached out her hoof to touch it. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle watched, too excited and scared of what would happen.
Scootaloo's hoof got closer to the line. Closer and closer, just a little bit more.
"Ouch," said Scootaloo as her hoof hit the line.
"What?" asked Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle together.
"It zapped me." Scootaloo touched the line again. "It's some kind of wall. It blocks me from getting to the other side of the lake."
"A wall that gives you electric shocks?" asked Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle asked: "Shouldn't we... tell somepony about this? Like Twilight, I mean she is the princess, she should know about this"
They all looked at each other. They were thinking the same. If they tell somepony about this wall they also have to tell them about 'The Lake ' and then they will loose their secret spot, but if not, who knows what will happen if not.
"No," said Scootaloo, "I'm not ready to give up this place yet, I mean, we are the Cutie Mark Crusaders, there's nothing we cannot do!" "That's not our.." "We should investigate this first by ourselves. Maybe this is not that big of a deal. Maybe this is just something like a, umm, like, i don't know, but the point is that this maybe just something...small. And then it wouldn't be worth it to tell everypony about 'The Lake '."
Of course this wasn't anything small. But they agreed with Scootaloo anyway.
3
Everywhere across town ponies saw things they couldn't explain. There was the traveling merchant whose cart suddenly felt a lot lighter, the pony who was standing at a river that seem to stop like it was hitting a dam, even though there was no dam, nurse Redheart already had to deal with nearly a dozen ponies, mostly pegasi, who crashed into something and there was a line dragging through Sweet Apple Acres out of parts of treetops that have been cut off and a similar line led through a small part of the Everfree Forest. And as the word spread around more and more ponies came to see the miracles .
"I don't like this. I have a bad feeling about this." said Granny Smith as she watched the spectators walking around the line of treetops.
"Eeyup." Big Mac agreed with her.
Nopony had a good feeling and as they heard reports about a mysterious wall from every direction some ponies already assumed they were trapped and panicked so that the others had to calm them down. But as the time passed more and more ponies realized that this was just the beginning.
1
Trixie absolutely hated this day. There was no doubt left. That stupid wall was stealing her show. Not that she would have had any show, she was about to leave the town anyway, but nopony - not even an invisible wall - steals. Her. Show!
She walked around a quarter of Ponyville already and still this wall didn't seem to end. Considering her luck she was probably stuck inside this town together with that no-good pony working at the apple farm, that 'look at me, I'm sooo * awesome***-weather pony and last but not least that would-be-princess. Luckily the last two are taken out, at least for the moment - Trixie didn't had enough time to check if she got rid of her nemesis just for the moment or if her 'victory' was permanent. Both was good enough to cheer her up a bit.
After some time Trixie came to the place where the railway towards Canterlot crossed the wall. Oh my Celestia... Trixie thought. And everypony seeing what she saw would probably think the same. No wonder, considering that what she saw was a huge pile of metal that used to be a locomotive with a few wagons behind it on the outside side of the wall.
On the Ponyville-side of the wall stood a young purple dragon. Trixie thought a moment about whether she should talk to him or not, actually she was thinking about the best way not to talk to him, but he already noticed her and walked up to her.
"Looks pretty bad here, right?" said Spike.
"Yeah, right." said Trixie, still looking for the best escape option.
"So, what exactly are you doing here?" asked Spike, the way he said this made it obvious that he didn't want to talk to her either.
"I was about to ask you the same." said Trixie. She didn't paid much attention to the dragon, neither to his question. She only heard that he was asking her something and hoped that this answer would fit to whatever he asked.
"Somepony came to the castle saying something about a train-accident, and since Twilight was taking another flight lesson... well somepony had to go investigate this."
"About Twilight..." Trixie stopped. Why the hay would she tell this dragon what happened, she didn't even know what exactly happened.
"Yeah? What about Twilight? Have you seen her?" asked Spike.
"Uhm, forget it. Soo, how's your investigation going?"
"Well," started Spike, he looked at the train and continued, "I can most certainly say that this train won't get us to Canterlot anymore."
The next second a loud explosion-like sound came from the town-center. Spike and Trixie looked at each other for a moment, before both of them run towards the origin of the sound. Spike because of curiosity and Trixie because that it would probably be the center of attention, and she desperately needed this attention right now.
2
Applejack ran faster then she ever ran before, even though there were two unconscious ponies on her back. And on her way to the hospital she feared that she wouldn't be fast enough.
When she got to the accident she immediately regretted not to bring Big Mac with her. From afar the accident didn't look so bad and she hoped that some first-aid would be all her friends need, but she knows severe injuries when she sees them and once seeing her friends close-up she knew they need to go to the hospital.
A helpful pegasus helped her to get Rainbow Dash from the wall and the pegasus even offered to bring Rainbow to the hospital, but the pegasus wasn't flying fast enough and so Applejack decided to take both, Twilight and Rainbow Dash, to the hospital herself.
On a second thought Big Mac maybe wouldn't have been so helpful at all, he may have the strength but not the speed.
When Applejack reached the hospital, a weak breathing indicated her that her friends are indeed still alive, but probably not for long without any help, she was shocked to find out that the hospital was more than overcrowded.
"I'm terrible sorry, but as you can see, we have all our hooves full. We know your friends need help but they have to get to the back of the line, and it is a looong line." said Nurse Redheart to Applejack as she took care of three patients simultaneously. Word gets around fast in a small town and so the rate of ponies that ran or fly into the barrier was decreasing, however, that did not change the fact that there were already a few dozen ponies with serious injuries, not to mention those who got off easy.
"One of 'em is the princess." said Applejack and Nurse Redheart stopped.
"I'll see what I can do" said she, before continuing her work.
Applejack had hoped she wouldn't have to play that card. Twilight never liked to get treated any better than anypony else just because she was the princess. In the end Applejack agreed to help out with the injured in exchange for an earlier treatment of her friends. Watching that deal get made many ponies with hurt friends decided to do the same and help.
It was already afternoon when Nurse Redheart released their volunteer workers, thanked them and told them that none of the ponies is in any life-threatening danger anymore and that the hospital staff can and should take care of the rest of their wounds. They may haven't been able to save everypony but together they could save most of em, including Rainbow Dash and Twilight. They still looked pretty bad, especially Rainbow Dash, and are still unconcious but the worst is over, at least that's what Nurse Redheart said.
Applejack walked towards Sweet Apple Acres, she had to see if her family was alright, she didn't saw them at the hospital which was probably a good sign, or a really bad one. For a moment she pictured them lying half dead on the floor with nopony helping them or bringing them to the hospital...She quickly dropped that thought, they looked fine when she left and the Apple-Family is tough.
Applejack then heard an explosion. For a moment the worries about her family were back but then she realized that the explosion didn't came from Sweet Apple Acres but from Ponyville. For a moment she was unsure weather she should go home to look for her family or go to Ponyville and check out the explosion, then she decided that her family can wait. If they are alright they probably heard that explosion too and will be there to check it out too, and if not, well, she probably doesn't want to go home at all if not.
3
"Logbook Entry Number Two: Our research on 'The Line ' has made huge progress. Sweetie Belle are you writing that down?"
"Why should I? We haven't found out a thing about 'The Line '."
"We know that it shocks you the first time you touch it and only the first time. We should note that."
"Then don't call it 'huge progress', that's basically nothing."
"Alright, alright. Ehem, Logbook Entry Number Two: Our research on 'The Line ' has made...progress. Sweetie Belle can you repeat that for me, please?"
"'Logbook Entry Number Two: Our research on 'The Line ' has made...progress. Sweetie Belle can you repeat that for me, please?'"
"You shouldn't write down the last part!"
"Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, would you please stop writing a logbook about that we didn't discovered a thing about this line even though we have been here since late morning?"
"It zaps you. The first time. Only the first time. How often do i have to repeat this!?"
"Also, it's pronounced 'The Line '."
It's true, the Cutiemark-Crusaders have been researching The Line since morning. However this wasn't a very productive research. First they had to set up a detailed production plan. That isn't very easy when you don't know what exactly you are researching. Then they had to get some equipment from the CMC-Headquarters. By the time they had everything planned and got everything they needed it was already time for lunch. They discovered that everypony in town was talking about a mysterious wall and some of the ponies looked like they were going insane, so after lunch they first had to discuss weather this wall-thing could effect their research and how far the wall and The Line are connected. Then Scootaloo had the idea that they should write down everything they discover in some sort of logbook. Basically that seemed like a good idea but it took them an awful long time to write the first entry. In the end the CMC made nearly no research at all.
Apple Bloom took the list with ideas for what they could do to get cutiemarks and checked something off.
"What are you doing?" asked Sweetie Belle.
"I'm checking off 'Scientists' because we obviously are horrible at researching." answered Apple Bloom.
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo looked at Apple Bloom. They realized that they had done nothing the whole day. Scootaloo sighted.
"You're right." she said, "we aren't researchers. We should go and tell somepony who is more qualified to do this about this."
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle agreed with Scootaloo and they decided to tell Twilight about The Line , after all she was the smartest pony they knew, but as they were about to search her they heard a big explosion.
"What was that?!" screamed Sweetie Belle.
"It came from Ponyville" said Scootaloo.
"Let's go and see if everything is alright." said Apple Bloom.