Speed of a Different Dash

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 2
Chapter 19

Chapter 1

“ And then this marker goes there and you get what, Dash?”

“ Um… a rainbow?” the young girl looked at the smaller pile of markers.

“ Other than that.” A deep sigh escaped the man’s lips as he tried to return his daughter’s attention to her homework. “ Come on, Rainbow Dash. You know this. If I have one hundred soccer balls and twelve go flat, how many soccer balls do I have left?”

“ Um…”

“ Let’s try this. What’s one hundred take away ten?”

“ Isn’t that ninetee?”

“ Not nineteen.”

“ I said ninetee, not nineteen! The bigger one with the nine and the zero.”

“ You mean ninety.”

“ That’s what I said!”

Another sigh. “ Okay, so now you have ninety soccer balls. How many would be left if I took two away?”

“ Um…”

“ Come on, Dash. I know you can do it. It’s an easy number.”

“ Um… eight?”

“ Yes, almost.”

“ Eight… eight?”

“ Eighty eight, yes that’s right. And that was the last question. Well done, Rainbow Dash.”

The little girl was ecstatic, jumping up and down in her seat. A few seconds later, they heard the sirens growing louder and louder. Living on a quiet backroad, it surprised Rainbow Blaze that the police were coming this far away from the main streets. He only managed to look up in time to see the silver minivan skid into his front yard and come hurtling towards the dining room table which both he and his daughter sat at. Before he could react, the car slammed into the side of his house, crushing his ten-year-old daughter’s back into the table with a sickening crunch.

“ Rainbow Dash!”

“… Dash.”

The words were faint at first but got stronger with each second. Then – with a strong southern accent – the world returned.

“ Rainbow Dash!”

Magenta eyes blinked in shock and looked up into fierce green eyes that looked upon her in worry. Instantly, the harshness in those green orbs softened and soft pink lips tweaked at the corners, producing a small smile that only Rainbow Dash could see. The shadow created by the girl’s Stetson allowed just enough light to fall upon the tanned face to accentuate the hidden emotions that somehow still managed to shine through her green eyes.

“ Ya’ll okay, RD? Ya blanked out there a few seconds.” The southern drawl of her girlfriend asked, causing an equally soft smile to appear on Rainbow’s face.

“ Yeah, just…” Rainbow Dash turned to the two science geeks that stood before their little group of friends. “ Mind repeating that in English?”

The two science lovers turned to each other, the red-head giving her partner a smug grin whilst the darker haired girl adjusted her glasses with a heavy sigh. It was almost like the two had made a bet with each other before their friends had arrived at their makeshift laboratory (Principal Sombra wouldn’t allow the girls to use one of the science labs in the school, so they had to make do with the old caravan that had once belonged to Vice Principal Discord. And even now the girls wondered how he managed to get the thing to school grounds when it didn’t even have wheels. He did, however, provide an accessibility ramp for it). Then again, knowing how those two were, Rainbow Dash had a sneaky suspicion that Sunset may have ‘forced’ the bet onto Twilight.

But before a word could be muttered from anyone, the room suddenly dropped in temperature and the sound of rattling glass entered the ears of those within. Confusion was clear on everyone’s faces – except Fluttershy. She was going that step further and already starting to hide from possible danger. But whether it was the faint squeak that forced its way out of the girl or the sound of the hissing snake coming from somewhere in the room that alerted all seven girls to the probing feeling was unclear. All they knew was that something bad was happening. And it obviously worried the two lab coated girls enough for them to turn back to their experimentations rather than focusing on their friends.

It was Sunset Shimmer who spoke up a few seconds later, having remembered Rainbow’s recent question. “ Long story short; Twilight here was following some strange readings on her machines and they led to some crazy vortex thing out near the wondercolt statue. With my help, we were able to make this device that could contain whatever it is so we could do some research, maybe even see if we could use it as some sort of power source. But, obviously, it doesn’t like being contained. It’s been doing weird stuff like this since we trapped it yesterday afternoon.”

“ I wouldn’t like being contained either if it were me.” The soft voice of Fluttershy reached the ears of her friends despite the din that was currently being created by the unknown power.

“ Don’t worry, Fluttershy. As soon as we figure out what it is, then we’ll figure out what to do with it… even if it is either letting it go or destroying it.” Twilight reassured her.

A memory of similar words spoken flashed into Rainbow’s mind. A memory that still gave her nightmares, especially concerning the crazed look in Twilight Sparkle’s eyes as she tried to understand the uniqueness that was Pinkie Pie. That look constantly creeped her out. And the strange science stuff that littered the old caravan (some of which were used on Pinkie) was an all too clear reminder of what happened in those early weeks after meeting the purple haired science geek. To be honest, and she hated to admit it, but for that reason alone, Rainbow Dash feared her friend.

“ This isn’t going to turn into something like that Pinkie incident, is it?” she found herself asking even as the aforementioned girl gave off a grin so large how it managed to stay on her face was a mystery.

“ I surely hope not.” Rarity muttered, the farthest away from where Rainbow Dash sat.

Another unbidden memory entered Rainbow’s mind at the very sound of the fashionista’s voice, one that made her insides cringe. Out of the corner of her eye, Applejack noticed the tenseness enter her girlfriend’s body and stealthily placed her hand over the light blue hand that gripped the armrest of the wheelchair. Having only been together a few months, Applejack knew just how much it was hurting Rainbow Dash to be near Rarity just now… especially after what had happened between the two of them. Alas, no matter what the farm girl did, she was still unable to stop Rainbow from turning away from her and backing away from the group.

“ Well, as fascinating as this is, watching you girls fight with a glass jug,” She started before being interrupted by a mutter from Twilight.

“ It’s called a beaker.”

“ Whatever. I have to be somewhere else. Time crunch and all. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

“ Be safe.” Applejack muttered as she leaned down and pecked her girl on the lips.

“ Always am.”

With that, Rainbow Dash turned her wheelchair around and wheeled herself out of the caravan. But it didn’t take long at all for the sense of dread to follow and take a hold of her. And the fact that she heard a massive explosion rattle the converted vehicle and the screams of shock raced through her like electricity told her that not everything was fine. To be honest, the dark blue haze that was making its escape from the caravan was enough to settle the matter.

In a matter of seconds, Rainbow had her hands on the edges of her wheels and was pushing with all her might to get back to her friends in the fastest time possible to make sure they were all okay. What she planned to do when she got there… well, she was still trying to figure that out for herself. Once she got there, it would probably come to her. That is if she got there. For some reason, despite doing everything she could to move forward, she was being forced back instead.

Then something hit her. She wasn’t sure what, but it felt like something similar to a really tall, really heavy building of some description. The closest one being the school. Half of her thought it was the school that had slammed into her, the other half was more logical in thinking and figured that whatever was happening to her had nothing to do with the school. Either way, the next few moments were all a blur to her.

Somewhere in all the blurriness that was her current state of mind, Rainbow Dash felt the tingling sensation of travelling through fog. Now there hadn’t been a cloud in the sky for three days, so she was fairly certain that the fog was actually the blue haze that had been pouring from the caravan. She also managed to forget and then remember again that she had been pushing her wheelchair along with all the speed it was capable of. Finally, the darkness settled and the only thing she could feel was something that wasn’t solid lifting her up and carrying her somewhere.

That’s when she lost all thought trails.

As the final cord rang out through the halls of Canterlot High School, disappointment followed like a wave crashing against the beach. The reason, or so was later discovered, was that the lead guitarist of the Sonic Rainbooms was having a bad day. Bad grades, broken guitar strings, you name it, she missed it. Not even her brain was working for her, refusing access to things she knew were there. And everyone in the school seemed to know it. Tentatively – as the rainbow haired girl bashed her head into her hands out of her own failure – the door to the music room opened.

“ Everything okay, Rainbow Dash?” someone asked, breaking through the girl’s self-abuse.

In shock, Rainbow Dash looked up only to notice the bright, fire-coloured mane of hair that encased the worried look the newcomer wore.

“ Oh, it’s you Sunset.” She grumbled, returning her gaze back to the guitar that lay in its open case on the floor by her feet.

“ Expecting someone else?”

“ Wasn’t expecting anyone.”

Confused, Sunset Shimmer walked into the room and placed her school bag down by the grand piano that was there. As she got closer to the instrument, however, it became clear just what Rainbow Dash was doing in the music room. Littered across the top of the piano were pages upon pages of score sheets and lyrics. In fact, some of the pages had giant scribbles all over them, crossing out obvious failures in the girl’s eyes while others still had been transformed into paper balls and thrown across the room where a nice little pile was beginning to form.

“ New song?” she asked, trying to understand what it was that her friend was doing.

“ More like trying to figure out how to turn old songs into new ones.” Rainbow Dash replied “ I mean, what was Twilight thinking when she wrote that song?”

“ I heard my name.” Another voice popped up seconds before a purple skinned head wearing glasses showed itself around the frame of the door.

“ Not you. The other Twilight.”

“ Oh.”

Twilight entered the room, shortly followed by a bouncing Pinkie Pie and a worried looking Fluttershy. Without a care in the world, Pinkie bounced her way over to her drum kit and did a little drum solo as soon as her butt was on the seat. Fluttershy and Twilight opted to stand next to the grand piano as Sunset went to collect her guitar from the storeroom (for some strange reason, she refused to take it home in order to practise). Rainbow looked on in confusion, trying to figure out why her friends were suddenly showing themselves when practice wasn’t due to start until after school had finished.

“ What are you all doing here?” she found herself asking.

From her drum kit, Pinkie giggled, easily getting on Rainbow’s nerve. “ We’re here for band practice, silly!”

“ But… practice isn’t until after school.”

“ Rainbow, darling, school finished ten minutes ago.” Rarity’s voice came from the door.

Turning, Rainbow Dash found not only her fashionista friend but also a concerned looking Applejack who was resting her back against the nearby wall and had her arms crossed over her chest.

“ When did you two get here?” the rainbow haired girl asked, clearly confused and now worrying everyone around her.

“ I just got here. Is everything okay?” Rarity questioned.

“ It’s fine. And you?” Rainbow turned to the cowgirl.

“ Been ‘ere the whole time.” Applejack admitted.

“ You have?”

“ Eeyup.” Applejack peeled herself off the wall and made her way over to her friend. “ And Ah’ve been watchin’ you freak out like Winona at bath time. What’s gotten into ya today, Dash?”

Rainbow’s eyes suddenly met her shoes. Six pairs of eyes felt like they were burning holes into her. A chill ran down her spine. But she forced any memory of the day into the back of her mind so that she didn’t have to say anything. She didn’t want to admit that even compared to before the group had gotten back together again, this had been one of the worst days ever. Yeah, teachers yelling at her was a common in her life, but not to this extent.

What was worse was that dream that she had had the night before. It was more like a nightmare, actually. One that she hadn’t had in a long time. The only difference was that instead of her old man getting crushed by the car, it was her that was crushed. Even the colour and type of the car were the same. And it seemed that nightmare had followed her all the way from the bed in order to torment her throughout her school day. How she managed to keep it from her friends earlier, she couldn’t say.

“ Dash?” Applejack’s voice cut through her thoughts, bringing her back to the room.

“ You know what? I think I’ll skip practice for today. You guys go on without me.”

With that, Rainbow Dash closed her guitar case and walked out of the music room with it in hand. The others could only watch on in confusion. After a few seconds, they turned to each other in an attempt to figure out what had just happened. But before anyone could question anything, Pinkie had zipped off her drum seat, grabbed something that had been lying on the floor near the drums and rushed over to the doors.

“ Wait, Dashie! You forgot your… bag?”

Beyond the music room, the hallway was deserted save for Pinkie’s head and arm hanging out of the doorway. A few steps away, a black guitar case lay open to reveal the well-known blue electric guitar that her friend played. Of Rainbow Dash, however, there was no sign.

Chapter 3

(Wheelchair World)

Rainbow was not expecting to wake up out the front of Canterlot High School. If anything, she expected to wake up in her bed to either her father or her uncle yelling at her to get up. What she got – aside from the view of her school towering in front of her – was the blast of afternoon sun and the faint smell of smoke in the air. And if there was anything that could get anyone up faster than you can shake them awake, it was the scent of smoke.

Unfortunately, snapping her eyes open wasn’t the best idea. A strange blue haze covered her vision for a few seconds only to produce little sparks of light as it faded into oblivion. Even worse, the haze had made her mind feel like it had been stuffed with wet cotton that had expanded her entire head. In the act of trying to stand up, she had, instead, fallen back onto the pathed ground beneath her.
That’s when she decided she had to take things slow.

She closed her eyes and focused her mind just like she would if she were in any one of her martial arts classes, letting out a deep breath. Then she sat herself up. Slowly, she opened her eyes and took yet another look around. No lights danced in her vision this time and her sight wasn’t dominated by the strange blue haze from earlier. Unfortunately, the blue haze was still there, shading the edges of her vision a dark blue colour.

Why the blue haze was there, Rainbow didn’t know. All she knew was that it was annoying. Especially seeing that it had tricked her into thinking it was temporary. That was just plain rude. Now she had to go around looking at things through a tunnel with blue, hazy walls. How was she supposed to play soccer with a blue haze in the edge of her vision? An irritated growl erupted from within at the prospect of not being able to play her sports properly thanks to this strange blue haze.

Eventually, the rainbow haired girl got to her feet, trying not to worry about the blue haze that edged her vision. The scent of smoke was lingering in the air still and it was starting to send warning bells to play an eerie tune in her head. Even worse was the fact that there were no alarm bells blaring the possible danger for everyone to hear.

Knowing she had to do something, she went in search of the place where the smoke was coming from, hoping that no one was hurt.

What she found, however, was an overturned wheelchair. She had no idea who it belonged to, but that rainbow lightning bolt logo on the back of the seat looked awfully familiar. Regardless, it was in the middle of the pathway that she was running down. And as much as she liked running hurdles, she hated feeling responsible for someone else’s injury should they happen across the wheelchair. And that was a feeling that not even the bad Sunset Shimmer could take away from her… no matter how much she denied it.

The wheelchair was moved onto the grass beside the path and righted, taking a few precious moments from what Dash could believe was a potentially life threatening predicament. Yet that only served to push Rainbow Dash into moving faster in order to make up for lost time. Thankfully she was able to follow the faint trail of smoke that her haze clouded eyes were leading her down.

With that thought, Rainbow realised one thing. This blue haze was a lot trickier than she first thought. Now it was starting to show her invisible trails where the haze covered her sight. She wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing to have blue haze clouding her vision and showing her things that weren’t usually there. But there was one thing she did know.

She was stuck with it.

At the end of the trail – Rainbow Dash discovered – was an old caravan. No wheels were attached to the thing and there was rust covering the bottom half of the vehicle, suggesting that it hadn’t been road worthy for ages. Despite this, a new coat of paint had been applied to the outside of the caravan. Not to mention the access ramp which led to the only door. But the most disturbing thing was the black smoke that was billowing from the open windows as well as the previously mentioned (and wide open) door.

For a moment, Dash just stood there, staring at the caravan like she had just witnessed it come to life and swallow something akin to a small building before somehow managing to instantaneously sprout facial hair. Somewhere in her mind, she was more than sure that Canterlot High School did not have any caravans on campus… or wheelchairs for that matter. But something else was telling her that this was not her home per say. There was something different about it that was hidden amongst all the familiarity that she supposedly knew.

Perhaps this is what Twilight first thought when she came through the portal for the first time. Dash found herself thinking.

That’s when she saw it. It was charred slightly around the rim, but there was no mistaking it. The brown fabric seemed to shine as the afternoon sun shone through the door, making it contrast heavily against the supposedly white linoleum floor. For sitting in the centre of the open caravan door, just out of reach of the tanned hand that lay limp on the ground, was Applejack’s Stetson.

“ No!” finally, Rainbow’s voice decided to work, though it came out sounding more like a dying rat than the girl would have liked to admit.

Without even thinking, Rainbow Dash leapt over the railing that edged the access ramp and rushed into the smoke-filled caravan. As she hurried to the nearest person (which just so happened to be Applejack herself) she grabbed the Stetson and placed it on her friend’s chest for safe keeping. Then she grabbed Applejack’s ankles firmly and dragged her safely from the smoke and into the fresh air outside, staying as low as she could to keep herself from danger.

Once Applejack was safely on the grass, Dash did a quick look over her friend to make sure that there were no other injuries before checking her breathing. Being closest to the door, the farmer should have gotten a better supply of air than Rainbow feared the others did. But she had also been facing inward. First aid training kicked in and forced her to make sure that her friend was still alive before leaving her to come round on her own in a position which made her look like she was running with her back facing the sky.

She did that for every one of her friends, hunting for them in the black smoke before grabbing their ankles and dragging the found friend out to safety. And boy was she glad of the wheelchair ramp. Now she wouldn’t have to explain any bruises that showed up on her friends’ bodies. It also made things a lot easier when running back and forth in and out of the caravan. And the fact that none of her friends seemed to need any extra attention other than letting them rest in a safe position once she was sure they were no longer in any serious danger was just a blessing in disguise.

Not long after finding Fluttershy and laying her next to Applejack, she found Rarity. Obviously the fashionista had been trying to open some more windows before she had passed out because she was found with an arm extended towards a still closed window even as it lay against the wall. Taking the fashionista’s advice, Rainbow opened the window in an attempt to dissipate the thick air that still hung within the caravan. Then she dragged the girl out of harm’s way.

Following Rarity came Pinkie Pie… though when she was brought out into the fresh air and sunlight, Rainbow could tell that she had reverted to her darker ‘Pinkamina’ self during – if not just before – unconsciousness. The rainbow haired girl only hoped that getting her friend out of the filthy air would be enough to literally bring the bounce back to Pinkie’s hair as she returned to the depths of the caravan.

One thing was for sure, though. Rainbow Dash never realised how big the caravan was on the inside. It honestly looked smaller on the outside than it did on the inside. She really had to fight with herself not to take a breath of smoke in as she searched for her two remaining friends. And the blue haze in her vision only seemed to intensify the smoke that surrounded her for some reason.

Luckily she was able to find her remaining friends in the far end of the caravan. Of course, she also had to find them holding hands like they had just said their final farewells to each other before blacking out. Yet, despite the confusion about the scene before her fading eyes, Rainbow somehow managed to find something to tie Sunset’s wrists to Twilight’s ankles and drag them both out at the same time (she didn’t know if she would have been able to find the other if they were taken separately).

But by the time she had returned to the outside world with her two quite heavy passengers, the fresh air had started to do its job. Even as Rainbow lay Sunset and Twilight down on the grass beside each other after untying them and without managing to do more damage to either one of them than the smoke had done, she could hear the easy breaths that her other friends were taking, thus clearing out the smoke that had gathered in their lungs. Even so, there was still one thing she had to do before tending to them some more.

Searching desperately for a nearby source of fresh water, Dash dug through the nearest bag to find a reusable bottle. She didn’t know who the bag belonged to, but just like with the wheelchair, there was a rainbow lightning bolt insignia attached to the front and zippers of the bag. Even so, she drained the bottle of whatever liquid was currently residing within before hurrying over to the nearby tap. She made sure to wash the entire bottle before filling it up (Phys Ed taught her much more than sports) but she also worried that she had spent too much time waiting and that her friends had spent too much time within the smoke filled caravan.

As she hurried back to her friends, though, she found them still fairly unconscious… with one exception. Applejack was starting to stir.

“ Wha’ tha hay jus’ happen’?” the country girl slurred, trying to sit up just as Rainbow Dash had returned from the tap.

The rainbow haired girl hurried over to Applejack, helping her sit up slowly before holding out the opened water bottle.

“ Woah there, cowgirl. The last thing you wanna do is strain yourself.” She said, gently coaxing the water bottle to her friend’s lips. “ Take a sip. And don’t backwash.”

“ Rainbow?”

“ Yeah. I’m here. Now come on, Rarity’s starting to wake up.”

Silently, Applejack took a few sips of the relatively cool liquid. And what a blessing it was. Feeling the water run down her scratchy throat sent waves of relief rushing through her body. Yes, her mind was still hazy about what had happened, but it was clearing a lot faster now that she had something in her other than whatever it was that had made her head spin in the first place.

Unfortunately, her mind was so high up in the clouds that she could only pick out a few words about Rarity and someone needing to go see her. She was a little confused about the whole thing, yes, but she knew that the only thing she could do was wait out the time it took for her mind to function properly. Eventually, the next words Applejack heard came through her ears as distant and repetitive to what she had first heard after waking up.

“ Easy, Rarity. Take a drink. It’s all I’ve got, so not too much.”

“ Rainbow Dash? I thought-” Rarity’s words were cut short by the rough barking cough that emerged from deep down in her chest, surprising the fashionista quite a bit as well as deepening Rainbow’s worried look even more.

“ Come on, Rares. You need a drink.” The rainbow haired girl urged.

Without another word, Rarity took a few short sips of water. Rainbow waited, deciding it was okay to risk losing some water as her fashionista friend finished her drink, before wetting her free hand and spreading it across Rarity’s face. Yes, it shocked the girl. But there was no denying the fact that the cool liquid was refreshing. Eventually, Rainbow Dash figured that Rarity was going to be okay and went back to Applejack, making sure that she was still doing all right. Though she didn’t realise that her walking was confusing her friend a lot more than the smoke had.

“ How in the hay are ya-” Applejack started. Rainbow cut her off by wiping water over her face.

“ Questions later, AJ. Right now, I need to tend to Fluttershy.” She added before dashing off to help her other friends.

The one thing Rainbow noticed as she worked from friend to friend was that each one of them was surprised to hear her voice as they woke up. Of course, she ignored it, instead choosing to focus more on making sure everyone was okay. Her first aid training was really getting a workout, though. Not only had she subconsciously used it to get everyone out of the caravan, but she was also currently using it to make sure that both Twilight and Sunset were okay and getting enough oxygen into them considering they seemed to have inhaled the most smoke. And Pinkie?

Well… Pinkie Pie was scaring her.

For some reason, even though Pinkie was awake, she was looking very depressed. And no one could understand why. Fluttershy and Rarity had both recovered enough and were trying to cheer the usually bouncy girl up, but her mood just wouldn’t change. The last time Rainbow Dash had seen her friend this depressed… she didn’t want to think about it, it was that creepy. Unfortunately, Twilight was having a minor asthma attack thanks to all the smoke, so that left Rainbow Dash attending to her alongside an extremely worried Sunset Shimmer.

All this while, Applejack looked really confused.

Then, just as Twilight Sparkle was able to overcome her asthma attack, Dash remembered a day from not too long ago. For some reason, she had been quite sad. What about, she couldn’t remember, but it had something to do with her tortoise, Tank. Either way, nothing had worked in cheering her up - not even a surprise visit from her old soccer team mates Spitfire and Soarin cheered her up – and that had been physically irritating her friends.

Then Pinkie made up a dance and everything changed. It was a stupid little dance, really. And Rainbow didn’t quite have the plethora of items that Pinkie had that day (the silly face, wondercolt’s ears and tail, pink polka-dotted monster blow-up tube, clown shoes and a chicken costume weren’t things that she carried around let alone owned). What she did have, however, was the song and dance playing over and over in her head.

Taking a deep breath to steel herself for the humiliation that she was about to put herself through, Dash got up and looked around to make doubly sure that her friends were the only ones to be witnessing this. She would be the laughing stock of the entire school if things went wrong now. Nonetheless, she focused solely on her depressed friend.

“ Hey, Pinkie Pie! I am going to put one hundred and twenty percent into this so I expect you to watch and laugh after it. And you better mean it!” the rainbow haired girl called out inwardly thinking that she was about to die from humiliation. For added effect, though, she made sure it became one of her friend’s famous pinkie promises.

First, the Egyptian Shuffle complete with both arms pointed and making her body move like one of those picture things that the ancients used to paint on the walls of their kings’ graves. To tell the truth, Rainbow was surprised that Pinkie even liked Beyoncé.

“ I’m a chimi cherry,
I’m a cherry changa.
I’m a chimi cherry,
I’m a cherry changa.”

Making a silly face and waving her hands in the air like an octopus on drugs made Rainbow Dash wonder what in the world had enticed her to act as stupid as she currently was. She made the tune for this part herself because she forgot what was really sung.

“ I throw my hands up
In the air,
And start acting like I
Really just don’t care.”

The Can-Can ended up a visual disaster and ended up turning into something that Rainbow would later describe as the ‘Can’t-Can’t’. Nevertheless, it happened anyway… even if she had forgotten what exactly it was that Pinkie had sung to her. Why the Can-Can dance was paired with ‘she’ll be coming round the mountain’ was beyond anyone’s comprehension.

“ This is really starting to make me feel stupid,
But I really don’t know what else to do.
I just hope that this thing ends soon,
‘cause it’s really, really, humiliating.
It also doesn’t help that I’ve forgotten part of this song.”

Poor Rarity looked like she was about to faint after that, but she made an obvious effort to keep from doing just that. Fluttershy, Twilight and Sunset just stared at Rainbow Dash as she continued with her self-humiliation, wondering what had gone wrong in her head. Applejack looked like she was starting to enjoy this awkward situation a little too much. But the most humiliating part was yet to come... and Rainbow remembered all of it.

“ I’m a chimicherrychanga,
I’m a chimicherrychanga,
I’m a chimicherrychanga,
And I’m here to make you smile!”

Thankfully it was only a small part of the entire thing. But it was still even more humiliating than the made up section. At least it was about to end soon. So Dash put all she could into the made up dance that came next, the song being that crazy that it had actually stuck in her head.

“ So it’s the ning nang nong
Where the cows go bong.
The nong nang ning,
Where the trees go ping.
The nong ning nang,
When the mice go clang.
What a noisy place to belong.
And it’s the ning nang ning nang ning nang nong,
the ning nang ning nang nong.”

With a flourish of her hands and a beet red face, Rainbow Dash finished, only to be greeted by shocked silence so thick with awkwardness that a hot butter knife would have been able to cut through it easily.

Author's Note

Hello All,
just wanted to let you all know that I do not own the quoted section of the song 'On The Ning Nang Nong' that was created for the Australian's Children Television Show 'Play School'. I was purely thinking of random things I could add to the section and you really can't get any more random that that song. As a kid, I loved the song. As an adult, surprisingly, I still love it. So, just because I can, I've added the song just below for all of you to listen to (and you don't have to listen to it with the story :twilightsmile: )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD-yG2XnxpU

Chapter 4

(EGW)

“ Um… what just happened?” Fluttershy asked innocently, turning to face Rarity.

Looking around with Applejack sitting in a chair that was next to the one previously occupied by who they thought was their friend, Rarity and Fluttershy looking at each other with equal amounts of concern on their faces, and Sunset and Twilight whispering amongst themselves, Pinkie was pretty sure that this was not what was supposed to happen. Her mind raced with ways to get everyone to cheer up despite not having answers to the questions that were being asked. The next thing she knew, her little Gummy shaped lightbulb was glowing green.

“ I got it!” She exclaimed happily, gaining everyone’s attention. “ We should have a sleepover!”

Cue looks of uncertainty.

Twilight was the first to break the silence that followed. “ Uh, Pinkie? I don’t think now is the best time for a sleepover.”

“ Nonsense! It’s the perfect time for a sleepover! We just need to go find Dashie and then we’ll be all set!”

Before anyone could stop her, Pinkie Pie was skipping down the hallway without a care in the world.

“ Shouldn’t we go after her?” Fluttershy asked quietly.

“ Nah. Ah reckon she’ll find us wherever we end up.” Applejack then stood from where she sat. “ But Pinkie does ‘ave a point.”

“ She does?” Twilight asked, clearly confused.

“ Eeyup. We gotta go fin’ Dash afore somethin’ ‘appens to her.”

Confirmations echoed throughout the group at those words with Rarity and Sunset Shimmer leading the way down the hallway that Pinkie Pie had skipped down. Vice-Principal Luna excused herself from the search, however, stating that she had some important work to attend to within her office. Yet she made sure that Applejack, at the very least, knew the phone number of Rainbow Dash’s father. She feared that the Rainbow Dash in the wheelchair did not have the same contact numbers that their Rainbow Dash had and wanted to make sure that everyone who needed to knew about what had just transpired within the school’s grounds.

Surprisingly, though, the search for Dash was a silent search. Neither did anyone split away from the group. Instead, they all seemed to be following an invisible trail that led to the front doors of the school… at least, that’s what Applejack thought. Even weirder was that Pinkie Pie was standing there, waiting for them to arrive and with everyone’s bags and instruments (minus the drum kit, microphone and Sunset’s guitar).

How that girl was able to get everyone’s bags and instruments, then meet up with everyone at the front of the school in the time it took the others to get to the front themselves was beyond their knowledge. But Pinkie’s warm smile was somehow enough to turn any confusing questions on the matter away from the front of the mind. All that could remain was awe for how she did things… even if those things were extremely confusing.

“ Wow, Pinkie. That was fast.” Sunset exclaimed, taking her bag from the pile that sat at the party planner’s feet.

No explanation was given by the pink girl except a massive grin growing from what was already on her face. A few minutes later, however, the grin was wiped clean only to be replaced by a sad and worried expression that she rarely sported. Instantly everyone was on high alert. They all knew that from this stage the girl could turn into either the depressing Pinkamina or the hyperactive Pinkie Pie. With any luck, hyperactive Pinkie Pie would return quickly. But first came figuring out what was wrong.

And Applejack planned to do just that.

Going over to the girl and swinging an arm around her friend’s shoulders, she asked, “ What’s wrong, Pinkie Pie?”

“ Just before you girls showed up, I saw Dashie. She looks really, really sad sitting next to the statue like that. But I didn’t want you guys to wonder where I was and why all the bags were down here instead of in the music room where we had left them, so I decided to wait for you before going out to see if Rainbow was okay.” Pinkie replied, pointing out beyond the glass doors of Canterlot High School.

Six pairs of eyes turned to look out the glass doors of the school building, each one landing on the statue in the near distance. Sure enough, there was someone sitting on the ground and slamming their fist into the side of the statue. The only indication to who it was – other than Pinkie’s word – was the flash of rainbow-coloured hair that whipped around with every exertion of energy that was used. The wheelchair that Vice-Principal Luna had given her didn’t seem to be anywhere near her.

Applejack led the way out of the school, not even bothering to pick up her bag or her bass guitar. In fact, she barely took notice of the rest of her friends following behind her or that Sunset had gathered her belongings. She just took a quick sweep of her surroundings – noticing that the wheelchair was lying on its back on the lawn a short distance away from Rainbow Dash – before turning to make sure that the others weren’t about to follow her to the statue.

Without so much as a word, the country girl was making her way down the stairs before anyone could so much as agree to anything. Not even Pinkie Pie was bouncing along after Applejack, knowing full well the seriousness that seemed to surround the moment. Just watching the scene before them made each one of the girls still standing in front of the school doors realise that Applejack was a girl on a mission. One that would reward her with some form of answer to at least some of the questions that were buzzing away on the edges of everyone’s minds.

Rainbow Dash, on the other hand, had no idea that she was about to receive company. She was too focused on trying (and failing) to return home through the way she had supposedly entered this world from; the side of the Wondercolt statue that was facing towards the city. And her hand was starting to go numb with the pounding it was giving out thanks to her failing attempts.

Finally, something stopped her. And no matter how hard she tried to move her hand, that same force got tighter and tighter until her hand was completely immobilised in mid-air. Slowly, and more annoyed than anything else, Rainbow Dash turned to see what it was that was stopping her from dishing out an even harder punishment on what she believed was the thing preventing her from returning home.
Her eyes landed on a tanned hand, rough from hard labour but somehow still soft to the touch. A very familiar sensation ran through her body at the realisation at who it could have possibly been that had stopped her. An almost electric jolt that seemed to fry every inch of her body from the inside out. Breathtaking moments emerged unbidden from the back of her mind of nights alone together and passion-rich kisses between them.

But she was quick to remember that the person behind her was not the girl she shared those moments with, no matter how much she wished that it was. It didn’t even matter that the feeling was the exact same when she first discovered that she was in love with one of her best friends. Rainbow knew that her heart – her love – was in another world entirely.

Slowly, practically begging that this was some really bad dream that she was having, her eyes travelled along the tanned arm. Unfortunately, Rainbow Dash could feel her dread rising within her, alerting her to the fact that this was clearly not a dream. She really was trapped within another world and surrounded by people who looked and acted like those she cared about.

At last, magenta eyes met green. Around them, the world seemed to fade into non-existence. Yet those fleeting seconds with the two girls looking at each other seemed to witness an entire conversation silently pass between them. One that made Rainbow Dash’s heart ache with the realisation of just how different this world was to her own.

Alas, the words spoken by one’s eyes are never what one’s mouth speaks. And this was no exception.

“ Ya know. Magic don’t work like that.” Applejack said, letting go of Rainbow’s hand and breaking the connection to her electrified and fear filled thoughts and feelings.

“ Magic?” came the farmers reply.

“ Can Ah sit?” After receiving a nodded confirmation, Applejack placed herself next to the disabled girl.

“ Ah have a feelin’ that wha’ever it was tha’ brought ya ‘ere was magic. Ah dunno ‘ow or why, but that’s what mah gut is tellin’ me. An’ mah gut’s usually righ’. But ‘cause magic’s such a fickle thang, ya never can guess wha’ it’s gonna do. That’s why ya aint gonna get very far bloodyin’ yer han’ up like yer doin’.”

“ What else am I supposed to do then?”

“ Let it come ta you.”

“ Yeah, right. Magic isn’t even real. It’s just a bunch of hidden tricks that people pull to make other people love them.”

“ It can be. But it can be somethin’ diff’rent as well.”

A curious look crossed Rainbow’s face. Even in her own world, the Applejack she knew – the one that she loved and will love until the end of time – was not known to lie. Yes, she had the ability, but she always felt bad about it and would usually try to fix the issue whenever possible. Now, as Rainbow Dash looked over to this world’s Applejack, she realised that the trait of honesty could not change between worlds. Therefore, that could only mean one thing.

Applejack was telling the truth.

But it seemed AJ wasn’t finished with her little speech. “ Now Ah think it’s a time fer us ta get goin’. Pinkie’s plannin’ a sleepover fer ya, ya lucky devil.”

“ No.”

The command was that strong that it managed to reach the ears of those watching just in front of the doors. And that was despite the fact that Rainbow Dash had not raised her voice any higher than when she was usually talking.

“ Beggin’ pardon?” the quick speed at which Applejack turned her head forced a loud crack to sound from it.

“ I’m staying right here so that this magic or whatever it is can find me and take me home.”

“ But we dunno when that’ll ‘appen. Now Ah’m not tryin’ to be pessimistic or nothin’ but gettin’ ya back ta where ya belong could take us weeks, even months. And Ah aint gonna sit around an’ watch ya waste away like a farm without no water! Nor am Ah gonna watch ya freeze ta death out ‘ere by this ‘ere statue!”

“ I’m not budging, Applejack!”

“ Yer jus’ as stubborn as a mule!”

Silence fell between the two with Rainbow Dash turning her glare towards those by the door. It wasn’t an intentional glare towards them. It was just that the only direction she could turn and not see the girl with the Stetson was by looking to her right; the same direction as the doors to Canterlot High.

Applejack, however, had her eyes still planted upon Rainbow Dash. Just by looking at the girl, it was clear that – disabilities aside – nothing could change the feisty, sports loving, thrill seeking daredevil that happened to be Rainbow Dash. And there was no doubt that a fierce sense of loyalty was strong in each form of her if what Princess Twilight said about her was true.

It actually brought a smile to Applejack’s face knowing that this Rainbow Dash was willing to sacrifice herself so that she could do whatever it took to get back to her own world; back to her own friends. And in her mind, she was comforted with the idea of her own Rainbow Dash doing the exact same thing in the other world. But then her smile slipped off her face as she remembered something that this Rainbow Dash had said before racing off away from them. Something about friends being in danger.

“ Ya know, Rainbow Dash, you stakin’ out ‘ere in front o’ the school aint gonna do much.” she finally said after some thought.

“ Your point?” the question was gruff, but it was enough to prompt Applejack to continue.

“ What Ah’m trying to say, Ah guess, is that if’n it were me bein’ turned around like tumbleweed in the wind, then Ah’ll be doin’ everythin’ Ah possibly could ever do… includin’ askin’ fer help.”

Rainbow Dash finally turned back to look at Applejack, a scowl still visible on her face though showing confusion more than anything else.

“ Now Ah may not be the same gal ‘ere that Ah’m guessing Ah am where you come from, but Ah know somethin’ that’s purdy important. Ah feel we both care fer ya… even if Ah don’t know ya like Ah know my Rainbow Dash.”

“ You don’t know the half of it.”

“ Then maybe ya need to help us understand wha’ is goin’ on. If’n we help each other, we’ll learn more about what’s goin’ on an’ be able ta help ya more efficient like. Now, whaddaya say? Ya really wanna disappoint Pinkie Pie an’ not come ta one of her sleepovers? It’ll do ya some good ta take a step back an’ unwind ya mind a bit… er… so ta speak.”

Silence reigned supreme once more as Rainbow Dash lowered her head in thought. Everyone seemed to hold their breaths, awaiting her response. Even the other girls who still waited by the school doors. Pinkie was even bouncing on the balls of her feet in barely contained anticipation on the verdict.
Finally, after what felt like a lifetime of forevers, Rainbow Dash looked up, a sly smile on her face.
Her mind having been made up, four words managed to escape her lips.

“ Get me that wheelchair.”

Chapter 5

(WW)

The awkward silence between Rainbow Dash and the others was only broken by the sound of insects chirping. Whether they were Fluttershy’s friends or just really confused insects was unknown because it was only mid-afternoon. Regardless, their calls were well timed.

Rainbow’s arms dropped slowly to her sides, the strain from all the strange positions that the girl had put them through finally making them heavy with weariness. Apparently, Rarity took that as her cue to close her eyes for a second or two to try and understand what had happened herself. Applejack – for some strange reason – was drooling slightly with wide eyes staring in Rainbow Dash’s direction and adding to the athlete’s unease.

Similar to Rarity, Fluttershy was covering her eyes out of pure embarrassment and possibly to help Rainbow regain some of her dignity, while Twilight and Sunset were turned back to each other, concern clear on their features. Pinkie Pie, on the other hand, remained unsmiling. Not even her eyes smiled and that was usually a clear indication to the kind of mood she was in.

A burning sensation grew within Rainbow Dash at the sight before her. She wasn’t sure exactly what was fuelling it, but she had a sneaky suspicion that humiliation had a play in it. It was that strong that it made her eyes sting slightly and her ears burn, but she had built her dam walls strong and was able to hold back the floodwaters that lay beyond. Just to be sure, though, she built up a bit more of a defence by setting her jaw.

And yet, the most important thing that seemed to plague her was the way that this burning sensation seemed to make her question what she had just done and how humiliating herself was a good way to make others smile. Yeah, Pinkie did it practically every day. But doing a song and dance routine as crazy as the one that she had just done? Rainbow Dash blamed the blue haze for making her act as strange as she had been. That was her story and she was sticking with it.

Unfortunately, it also made her want to go disappear under a rock or something due to the obvious failure. Not to mention it was probably school-wide by now. She knew that Scootaloo and her two friends had learnt their lesson from last Christmas, but she couldn’t be sure that someone else had picked up on where they had left off… even if the girls had done everything they could to fix the problem.

Eventually, her body turned of its own accord while her ears picked up on the sound of someone calling out her name. A few seconds later, the words penetrated her brain.

“ Dashie, wait!” Pinkie’s voice echoed within Rainbow’s head. “ You did great! Only, you really needed the chicken suit and you needed to get the nutbush in there somewhere. But it was still a good try for a beginner.”

The rainbow haired athlete turned to face the group once more. The first thing she noticed was that Pinkie Pie was right behind her, easily forcing her to jump back so that there was some space between them. It was only once Rainbow had taken a calming breath that she noticed the bouncy hair and the small but growing smile. Finally, Pinkie’s final sentence was absorbed into her brain. How it escaped her ears earlier was a question that would end up going unsolved, but hearing it sent a chill rushing down Rainbow’s spine.

“ But what’s better is seeing you out of your wheelchair!”

“ Wait, what? What wheelchair?” The words came out of Rainbow before she even knew she was saying them.

“ Uh, the wheelchair that you usually sit in.”

“ If you’re talking about the one that’s down the path a bit, then that’s not mine. I only moved it out of the way so no one would trip on it. That can’t be mine. If you haven’t noticed, I clearly don’t need a wheelchair. That’s like some really old, really lame joke that’s no longer funny.”

Without realising it, Rainbow Dash had started to back away from the group of girls before her. Unless it was to sit in her father’s lap as a kid when he would drive her around in his wheelchair, she had never been in one for herself. They were too much of a bad reminder to what had happened and what could have happened the day of the accident. So to imagine herself in one and not be able to leave its confinements like Pinkie was suggesting… it was then that reality struck and she found herself realising that this world was not her world.

Memories of that day returned with a vengeance after having been locked in a titanium cage that was cemented to the bottom of an electric eel filled tank that was surrounded by a shark infested moat and numerous land based defences such as mines, spikes and barbed wire and finally buried under the deepest mountain within Rainbow’s mind. The sound of bones cracking and a young scream of terror were the first to appear, shortly followed by the surprise at having been pushed out of the way by her father. Sirens blaring just outside the house was also prominent in the memories.

But then there was the fear. The fear of the accident itself, the fear of having your only link to a respectable family and upbringing being hit by a car, and the fear of possibly losing her father – the greatest man ever to live in her young eyes – to whatever lay beyond were always there to accompany each memory whenever freedom was gained.

Having all that raw fear bearing over you, especially at a young age, it was enough to break someone. Even the memories had the same strength in them like the day it happened… no matter how many years had passed since then. As soon as those memories and emotions are free, they encase the body within a chilling grasp that inhibits all movement, even making it so that you can’t breathe properly. Being lost to trauma like that can change even the best of the best. And Rainbow Dash was no exception.

Finally, natural response kicked in and urged Rainbow’s legs to escape. And her mind allowed it, forcing her mouth to say something not even her own ears could pick up before she finally sprinted off towards the front of the school. To her eyes, everything was a blur, and not because of liquid welling within them. For some reason, she couldn’t focus on anything clearly. But she could tell one thing thanks to the numerous times she had travelled the path. Her legs weren’t leading her to the front of the school; they were leading her to the soccer field.

She sensed rather than saw that she was passing the wheelchair that she now suspected was the one that Pinkie Pie had been talking about. And the wondercolt statue felt like it was watching her despite it looking away from the school building and thus in the opposite direction. But those two things only seemed to add to her inner fear and make her sprint faster down the path.

Other obstacles like fences weren’t a bother in her hazed mind as she flew over them as easily as jumping hurdles. In fact, she felt her body doing moves that would otherwise require thought and calculation to execute perfectly. Only later would she realise that her continuous use and practice of those very moves had subconsciously ingrained them into her mind.

Before she knew it, Rainbow Dash found herself in the school soccer field. The goal posts were up and ready and someone had conveniently left a soccer ball lying in the middle of the field. A little suspicious, especially since the ball looked too brand new and shiny for it to belong to the school (usually after one day of use, the new school soccer balls stopped looking brand new). This one looked like it had barely been touched. But in a time like this, she took what she could get without question. So, without even pausing in her sprint, she charged at the ball and placed her foot in a perfect position to score a goal from where she had started.

Just like with her sprint, Rainbow’s mind shut down on all thought processes as her body sought for a natural - and more practical – way to unleash what had been forced awake inside of her. With each goal she scored, she imagined the pent up feelings sailing through the air much like the ball itself. It honestly made her feel better to have something to take her emotions out on. Alas, there was still a lot of memories crowding her mind and that made her wonder if she would ever find a place to sleep that night, after she had finally calmed down.

The thought stalled her. Over everything that had happened with the smoking caravan, the humiliating dance routine and the wheelchair talk, she had completely forgotten about the fact that she was in a completely different world. Thinking about it now, as the soccer ball flew over the field, she realised that to go home would be something that she found herself fearing. If this world had her in a wheelchair, then that could only mean one thing; her father from this world was not in one… and meeting him like that, she realised, scared her.

Of course, while her mind was trying to sort things out for itself, Rainbow Dash failed to notice the small crowd that was gathering to watch her solo game. The first to arrive were a trio of girls all around the same age and clearly best friends. At the sight, however, all three girls felt their jaws hit the ground in front of them. Especially the orange skinned girl with the purple hair who really couldn’t believe the skills that were being performed as well as the fact that her adopted sister was no longer in her wheelchair.

Confusion tore through the young girls as the game continued, but - unlike Scootaloo who was currently unable to move let alone question her sister – Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle had witnessed the arrival of their sisters and their friends and had gone to get themselves some answers. It was just their luck (or so the girls thought) that neither Applejack nor Rarity could provide what they were looking for. And yet, despite the fact that all they were doing was looking at each other, the younger girls could tell that Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer had some sort of idea about what was going on. Unfortunately, no one got the chance to say anything thanks to their Vice Principal showing up from seemingly nowhere.

An old man with pure white hair which you could somehow tell used to be black and the wonkiest looking red eyes any person could have, Vice Principal Discord was a man known for his… uniqueness. When he was around, you really couldn’t tell if he was being serious or just joking around. And his unique sense of fashion was always making Rarity cringe whenever she saw him, no matter which direction he was going in.

Yet he was somehow a favourite of the entire school. Some of the students even believed him to be some sort of ex-magician who, for some strange reason, retired into the teaching career. Even one of his own granddaughters believed it… though she was also the kind of person to believe anything that was said and only think on it much later, bringing it back into the light a long time after it had ceased to be so popular.

“ My, my. It seems that little project of yours isn’t quite so little anymore, is it miss Sparkle.” The vice principal said, scaring all nine girls in front of him. “ I wonder how you are going to get her back to where she belongs.”

“ Mr Discord?” Sunset questioned, trying to work out his puzzling words.

“ Miss Shimmer, how many times have I said that ‘VP’ is quite fine with me? Mr Discord, after all, is my father.”

“ Right.”

“ But I am quite serious about this predicament you girls have gotten yourselves into. I may no longer be as youthful as I once was, but even I can tell that you have been playing with some dangerous things lately. One of you may want to ‘bring her up to speed’ as you young ones say.”

“ Excuse me for asking, VP, but… what do you mean?” young Sweetie Belle asked as she looked from her sister to her Vice Principal in confusion.

“ Yeah! Why is Rainbow Dash, well, walkin’?” Apple Bloom added.

“ To be honest, I don’t know why. But I just have this feeling inside that this Rainbow Dash is not who you think she is. Her… rather impressive skills in soccer prove that much.” Vice Principal Discord then turned to leave when he suddenly sprouted a rather mischievous look on his face. “ It looks like your father is here to pick you up, Scootaloo.”

At that, the Vice Principal walked back into the school building, leaving a horrified Scootaloo to look out towards the adjacent carpark.

Walking towards the soccer field with an increasingly confused scowl creasing his face was a blue skinned man similar to Rainbow Dash. In fact, the only differences between father and daughter were the darker tone of his skin, the short yet stylishly messy hair style and the golden colour of his eyes. It seemed Rainbow Dash had gained her mother’s eyes. Even just looking at him, one could tell that Rainbow Blaze was a kind man who loved both his girls equally, no matter where they came from. But all knew that if one or both of those girls did anything to anger him, you can bet your life he’d do nothing short of skin them alive.

And that was what Scootaloo feared; angering her father over something that she hadn’t taken any part of. Thankfully Sunset Shimmer was there to save her, starting her rather slow and cautious walk towards the businessman. Of course, luck would not be on their side that day.

“ Rainbow Dash?” The rainbow haired man called out across the field.

Upon hearing her name being uttered, Rainbow Dash skidded past the soccer ball in surprise and abruptly ended her one-sided game. For a few seconds, she lay on the grass, looking up at the sky and wishing with everything that she had that her father was not there, that it was all a figment of her imagination. But, of course, that would be impossible. Her father was in a wheelchair, at home, in another world. He couldn’t be here… could he?

Eventually, when the young athlete decided that she was not a chicken like her thoughts were calling her, Rainbow Dash sat up and turned her eyes to the man who had called her name.

There stood Rainbow Blaze, almost exactly as she had left him that morning; dressed well for a day out to the social services offices with her uncle, and his hair as tidy as could be considering it was untameable. The only difference to this image and the image from this morning was that Rainbow Blaze was not in his wheelchair. Well, that and Uncle Prism Break was nowhere to be seen.

Rainbow Dash shook her head. This was all too confusing and not even soccer was proving a good relief method from it all. But she knew someone had to give her answers, so she finally got up and made her way towards the group of teens who looked and acted almost exactly like her friends. She didn’t get very far, though, when her father from this world called out to her again.

“ Rainbow Dash, how are you walking? Where is your wheelchair?” He asked, taking a step towards the athlete.

“ I can ask you the same question. Hell, I’m just as confused as you are. I don’t even know if I should call you Dad or Other Dad because my dad should be in a wheelchair.” Rainbow Dash replied, her confusion coming across as anger.

“ I know your confused, but you don’t need to take that tone with me!”

“ Sorry.”

“ If I may, Mr Blaze.” Sunset Shimmer butted in, gaining the attention of both Rainbows easily. “ I think the girls and I would best be able to explain what is going on. I admit, we are a little confused about it ourselves, but we were kind of there when it happened.”

“ Please, Sunset. Tell me what happened to my daughter.” Rainbow Blaze pleaded.

“ I’m not exactly sure, but I think our Rainbow Dash – the one in the wheelchair – may have somehow been switched with this walking Rainbow Dash.”

“ And you can fix this?”

“ We can try, but I think, personally, that it would be best if we get to know each other first – you know, girl to girl… like a sleepover. Then we can all help each other figure out what’s going on.”

“ I don’t know. But if it can help Rainbow Dash, walking or not, then I guess I’m going to have to trust things to play out on their own. But don’t hesitate to tell me anything. This is my daughter we’re talking about here.”

“ Of course not.”

“ Then you have my permission.” Rainbow Blaze then looked over to his other daughter. “ Scootaloo, come on. It’s time to go home. Rainbow Dash will be spending the night with her… friends.”

“ Okay. But can Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom come over?” the purple haired girl replied, hurrying to pick up the soccer ball before Rainbow Dash kicked it again.

“ We can drop them off at their places but they can’t come over.”

“ Aw, man.”

The discovery that Scootaloo was her sister – or adopted sister – confused Rainbow Dash even more. But she was too stunned to say anything. Instead, she found herself surrounded by the very girls that she had saved from the smoking caravan nearly half an hour earlier maybe even less. Once more silence filled the area that surrounded the girls as Rainbow Blaze, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom were ushered into the car and taken home. Then Sunset Shimmer placed her hand on Rainbow’s shoulder.

“ Rainbow Dash. We need to talk.”

Chapter 6

(EGW)

Pinkie Pie never knew how hard it was to find a perfect location for a sleepover until now. Usually it was no problem where they went. But with this Rainbow Dash being confined to a wheelchair, it made things a little difficult. Rarity had stairs at her house. So did Fluttershy, Twilight and Applejack. No one but Sunset knew the layout of her house. And, as much as she would have liked to host the sleepover at her own house, she couldn’t because it also had stairs. Not to mention Rainbow Dash didn’t want to meet up with her father just yet, so that house – though wheelchair friendly – had to be ruled out.

“ I got it!” She finally yelled from the corner seat of the booth they sat at in Sugar Cube Corner.

Around her, six girls turned to look at her in surprise. In the quiet that had surrounded them all as each one tried to think of what to do about Rainbow’s predicament, none of them had expected a yell like that. As a consequence, Twilight Sparkle now had a new fashion statement in the form of her drink being spilled over her front, Fluttershy decided it was safer to hide under the table and Rarity’s cake decided it wanted to be eaten by the floor instead of the fashionista. Pinkie had no choice but to look sheepish as all eyes turned to her, despite the obvious excitement that bubbled within.

“ Got what?” Rainbow dared to ask.

Upon those words, the excitement returned. “ We can have a slumber party at the farm!”

“ Uh, Pinkie. The farmhouse has stairs.” Applejack argued.

“ But not the barn!”

Admittedly, Applejack hadn’t thought about the barn, forcing her to scratch the back of her neck in slight embarrassment. A sleepover in the barn would mean that there would be more than enough space for not only a number of games and sleeping bags, but also for food as well. Getting the place cleaned up, unfortunately, would be the challenge… especially seeing that Old Butterscotch the horse also lived there and liked to make a mess of his food some nights. And, knowing Rarity, that girl would not like it one bit if she woke up with bits of oats and straw in her hair thanks to the horse.

Speaking of Rarity, she already looked like she was debating between having a fun sleepover with friends and having to deal with the muck and grime that could no doubt be found in the barn that the sleepover was being held in. The fashionista hated to admit it, but there was even that teeny, tiny little voice in the back of her mind telling her to miss out thanks to the ‘unsanitary habits of barn life’. To make matters worse, everyone seemed to be focussing on her as if waiting to see what she would do about the location.

Rainbow Dash, however, seemed to have concerns of her own.

“ What about Butterscotch? No offence to you, Pinkie, but those party cannons can really spook a guy if they’re not expecting it.”

“ Since when ‘ave you been innerested in Butterscotch?”

If Rainbow didn’t know better, she would have thought that Applejack was being harsh in her questioning. Truth was, she was just confused.

“ I’ve known Butterscotch ever since you… I mean, the other you first introduced him to me. And that day was awesome. I never knew what speed was until I got on the back of that amazing horse. He handles voice and rein commands like a dream! And I can jump with him!”

“ Jus’ don’t forget that things have changed ta what ya know from back home, alrigh’?”

“ Oh… yeah.”

Applejack couldn’t help but sigh at her friend’s look-alike. Just because she was in a different world, Rainbow Dash certainly wouldn’t change much. Her surprising ‘fan-girlish’ behaviour over the horse was just as powerful as her ‘fan-girling’ over those Daring-Do books and movies that were out. Mind you, it was good to see the girl – who had previously been moody and trying to pound open a locked magical portal with only her fist – as happy as she was now; almost bouncing out of her chair despite not being able to move her lower half.

“ As much as I love talking about butterscotch,” a dreamy look momentarily took over Pinkie Pie’s face, making everyone around her wonder if she was aware that they had been talking about a horse and not the lollies, before it quickly snapped back to one of seriousness, “ we have more important things to talk about. I need to know if the sleepover is a go ahead in the barn!”

“ Ah guess Ah could put the horse out ta pasture fer the nigh’.” Applejack thought aloud.

“ Now, why would you do that?” surprisingly, it was Rarity who asked the question.

“ Because that Butterscotch likes playin’ with his food. Some nights, he’ll fling roun’ his feed like some kinda lasso. And we never can pick ‘em when he does. I dunno what ta do with ‘im.”

“ I suppose we could have a look at him.” Fluttershy said, turning to face Sunset Shimmer.

Sunset, at first, looked confused about what the shy girl was suggesting… then she remembered that, even in this world, she had a thing with horses. Most people would say that she was a horse whisperer, much like Fluttershy with all her animals. But a small handful of girls – the ones that surrounded her now minus Rainbow Dash who was currently in another world – knew the truth. And if things were going to play out like she had a feeling they would, then Sunset Shimmer was about to explain where she came from to the Rainbow Dash that was currently sitting in a wheelchair at the end of the table.

Regardless of what was on Sunset’s mind, however, Pinkie Pie had already set up various lists for everyone with what to bring for the sleepover and had handed them out. Applejack found that she had to find Pyjamas and a sleeping bag for Rainbow Dash as well as gather drinks. Fluttershy and Sunset both discovered that they were helping clean the barn considering that they were going to be talking with the horse. Twilight and Rarity got assigned the job of bringing food while Pinkie announced that she was going to be in charge of games.

Being the guest of honour, Rainbow Dash got to do nothing.

But once again, hidden fears emerged from within Rainbow that she couldn’t help but voice. “ What about Tank? He needs his dinner each day to keep him strong and awesome.”

“ Don’t you worry, Dashie. Little Tankie is in good hands. I’ve already asked your uncle to keep an eye on him for you. And I’ve told him that we’re having a weekend sleepover with you! So, because it’s the weekend, we get to spend three nights of quality party time!” Pinkie Pie replied happily, easily ignoring the shocked gasps coming from everyone else. “ How else did you think you were going to be able to spend the night trying to figure everything out? And there is a lot to figure out. So I texted him for you.”

“ Pinkie Pie, darling. You don’t expect me or Twilight to prepare enough food for three entire days, do you?” Rarity was the first to speak up to the new arrangements.

“ No way, silly. That list is only for tonight and maybe tomorrow morning. A whole weekend of sleepover awesomeness means a whole weekend of mega-awesome-amazing bonding time between friends new and not so new! I mean, Applejack can teach us how to make the bestest of the best Apple fritters of all time! I can teach us how to make super-duper delicious cupcakes! I know for a fact that Sunset Shimmer has the best pancake recipe in the world! Plus we can pig out on that famous Sweet Apple Cider all weekend long!”

“ That all sounds great, but… are you talking about my uncle as in Prism Break?”

“ Well, he is the only uncle of yours that I know of.”

“ Are you sure?”

“ Absotively posolutely! Why?”

“ Uncle Prism should be in jail!” the words were almost screamed at the girl sitting in the corner.

“ Not in this world, he’s not!” Pinkie just as easily sang back, leaving a clearly confused Rainbow Dash in her wake.

Twilight then placed her hand on Rainbow’s shoulder as the awkwardness of someone from a different world began to settle over the group once more. “ We’ll add that to the explanation list.”

A short while later found Rainbow Dash sitting by a bale of hay and using it as a make-shift table as she worked on a secret project of hers. Applejack was currently in the farmhouse hunting down the required items from Pinkie’s list while Fluttershy and Sunset Shimmer both worked to clean up the barn for the weekend.

The cleaning process, however, wasn’t going so fast as both girls were currently taking a break beside the horse stall that was in the barn and were talking to a rather handsome looking bay appaloosa gelding that could only be the troublesome Butterscotch. And the weird thing was that Sunset seemed to be actually talking in horse. Hence why Rainbow was currently hovering her pencil over the paper that she had borrowed from Apple Bloom; she was trying to figure out what was going on on the other side of the barn.

Before she had even decided to move, however, Applejack returned carrying a rolled up, red sleeping bag and a pair of pyjamas with clouds on them. Her brother followed, rolling in a large keg of apple cider from the cellar. With Applejack’s directions to place the keg in the corner, Big Macintosh proceeded to roll two more kegs into the barn. But it was as he left for good that Big Mac noticed Rainbow Dash sitting alone and in a wheelchair. It clearly confused him, thanks to the look on his face saying everything, but he said nothing and continued on his way.

“ So, what’s up with ol’ Butterscotch?” Applejack asked, heading over to the two by the stall.

“ Well, he… um…” Fluttershy stuttered before fading off for some reason.

Sunset ended up having to explain, seeing that the shy girl was once more unable to talk. “ You know how you pulled out of the rodeo this year thanks to, uh, the other me?”

“ Ah try ta forget.” Applejack admitted.

“ Well, you weren’t the only one to be disappointed about not going.”

“ Really?”

“ Yeah. Turns out Butterscotch wasn’t too happy about it either. And he blames you for it. I mean, I tried to tell him the truth, but he doesn’t believe me.”

The dark look that Applejack gave Sunset was enough to make anyone cringe, but something about it struck Rainbow in a number of ways. It took her a little while, but she soon realised that the pang in her heart was more a want for a girl that she couldn’t touch here in this world… and it made her realise, just then, that she was already starting to feel homesick. In her usual style, however, she set her jaw and berated herself for even thinking like that.

Applejack, on the other hand, had turned her attention to the horse, offering the appaloosa an apple she had brought with her. It was obviously a gesture of apology, yet Butterscotch seemed to be a little wary of it. But some whispered words of encouragement and promise seemed to win him over and he gladly accepted the apple.

Of course, the horse just had to look up as Rainbow made her way over to the group, having made the decision to finally confront the girls about the sight she had just witnessed.

“ What’s going on?” Rainbow Dash asked, seemingly innocently, as the other girls turned to look at her.

“ Oh, we were just finding out what was wrong with Butterscotch.” Fluttershy replied softly.

“ By talking to it?”

“ Sometimes jus’ askin’ is the best way ta solve a problem.” Applejack said with a nod and a quick pat of Butterscotch’s muzzle.

“ It also helps to be able to understand the answer, though.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Rainbow Dash noticed Sunset raise her arm and scratch the back of her neck, clearly feeling uncomfortable. What she couldn’t see, however, was the concerned look Fluttershy was giving her bacon-haired friend on the matter. Heck, even Applejack was feeling a little awkward about the subject.

Only one soul didn’t seem to care about what was going on around them and that was the horse. Instead, Butterscotch reached his head over the stall door and began sniffing at Rainbow Dash. It was obvious that he could sense something different about the girl, especially seeing that she was sitting down instead of standing up like he usually saw her. And, without realising, a snort and a flick of the ears told the one he deemed the ‘Horse Talker’ exactly what he was thinking.

Yet, despite not caring about what was happening in front of him, he could still sense the unease that hung in the air. So, he did the only thing he could do. He reached his head over to Rainbow’s and started eating her hair.

“ Hey! I’m not food, Butterscotch!” Rainbow called out, gently batting the horse’s head away from her own as well as the tension that had been forming between the four girls. She still ended up turning around and patting the horse, though. “ Maybe we can get a run later, if Applejack lets us.”

“ Yer not thinkin’ of ridin’ Butterscotch, are ya?” The farm girl questioned, quickly understanding what was being said to the horse.

“ Maybe I am, maybe I’m not. I did say that I knew how to ride.”

“ Ah’m jus’ sayin’ that this fella can be a bit wild at times.”

“ Like I’m not? Both me’s, if I’m starting to understand what’s going on.”

“ Okay, ya got me. But it is startin’ ta get late an’ Ah’m sure the others will be gettin’ ‘ere very soon.”

Rainbow Dash was about to argue some more when, sure enough, the barn doors opened to reveal a bounding Pinkie Pie carrying a large box full to the brim with all sorts of things. Behind her came Twilight and Rarity, each carrying a few different platters of foods. And Rarity was quick to notice that the barn was only half cleaned; instantly bringing a frown to her face.

“ I thought you would have had the barn ready by now.” She said, placing her trays of food in a clean patch of barn that was dangerously close to Rainbow’s hidden project.

“ We had a bit of a problem.” Sunset admitted, gladly leaving the group by the horse for the trio who had just arrived.

Looking at the still somewhat concerned look on Fluttershy’s face and the fact that the group of four had been surrounding the horse stall, Rarity had a pretty good guess as to what kind of problem they had managed to come across. Though she respectfully didn’t elaborate any further on the matter. Instead, she directed Twilight and Pinkie to an unclean portion of the barn before taking in hand an abandoned broom.

“ Well, I guess we better hurry and get this place sorted.” She said instead. “ I may have brought with me an old bolt of woollen fabric that I may have forgotten about, but that does not mean I want it to lay down on a dusty floor.”

“ Why’d ya go an’ bring fabric ‘ere?” Applejack grumbled, also leaving the group. “ This is a sleepover, not some froufrou sewing club fer beginners.”

“ I thought we could use it as some sort of rug. At least to put our sleeping bags on.”

“ Rarity, we don’t need a carpet! These ‘ere sleepin’ bags will provide us with all the carpet we need.”

“ I’m more surprised she didn’t bring a tent.” Sunset found herself whispering to Twilight who had to stifle a small giggle.

Unfortunately for her, though, Rarity heard her.

“ I had thought about it, but then I reasoned with myself that the barn roof would hold up okay.”

“ Of course it would! There’s a whole other room up there, two if ya count the attic!” Applejack replied.

“ Right.”

With that, the arguments stopped and the work resumed. Thankfully it wasn’t too much and with everyone managing to pitch in to help somehow, the barn was ready for the night in a matter of minutes. Plus, once things were nice and tidy, Applejack opened up one of the kegs while Pinkie got to work on setting up some of the games. Rainbow, however, had to make sure that her secret project had remained undiscovered and quietly made it so that only she would find it again. But she still added her two bits in and helped place the food trays on the long table that Applejack had provided for the occasion. Before the girls knew it, the sleepover weekend was in full swing.

Unfortunately for Butterscotch, it turned out to be a ‘girls only’ event. He ended up in the paddock for the night.

Author's Note

You know the horse that was seen in the 'friendship through the ages' song clip? well, I decided to name him (just a little quirk of mine; animals must have names... unless they're legendary pokemon, in which case they are too awesome to have names). Also, the reason behind the name Butterscotch (aside from it being the only one that seemed to stick in my head) is that a young Apple Bloom named him.

As for Rainbow Dash's uncle Prism Break, he is an OC. Because we know next to nothing about Rainbow's family except possibly her dad having similar looks to her and having the name Rainbow Blaze, I've had to work on a few of my own ideas; Blaze being in a wheelchair being one and now Blaze having a brother who happens to be Prism Break.

My main issue for this story, though, is keeping everyone in character to the best of my abilities. Obviously, there will be differences between the worlds, but I would more than definitely appreciate it if someone reassured me with the accuracy of our main Equestria Girls. Please and Thank You :scootangel:

With that, I hope you have been enjoying this story so far. I will try to push out chapters on a regular basis, but with me having to find time to write and then type the chapters between everything else that I do, I can make no promises.

Chapter 7

(WW)

“ So, Rainbow Dash. Have you ever kissed a girl?”

The girls had taken Rainbow Dash to Sunset’s house for the night as it was the closest of the houses to the school. It was a decent little house with a lovely little cottage style garden out the front and a massive backyard which housed an in-ground pool. A two car garage was built into the house’s design which opened into the living room. The kitchen and dining rooms were connected to each other and were located just off the living room and with a door leading out to the backyard. A hallway led towards the three bedrooms and the bathroom, connecting to the living room by a similar archway that led to the kitchen/dining area. Beyond the dining room sat the laundry room with yet another door leading out to the backyard, making easier access to the clothes line.

Sunset’s room was the room right next to the master bedroom… and it was massive. A double bed was able to fit comfortably within while still making room for a large wall television complete with game console and dvd player, a large book case that looked like it was practically overflowing with books, a miniature science lab in the far corner of the room, a walk in wardrobe, and a rather large terrarium which was the home of a white snake. Not to mention there was still plenty of room for a seven-girl slumber party.

Currently, those same seven girls were playing a game of twenty-four questions with Rainbow Dash getting to answer all that was asked. It had been Fluttershy’s idea, but somewhere along the line, Pinkie Pie had decided to spice things up a bit. Of course, the game was half over thanks to the fact that anything that sounded like a question directed towards Rainbow Dash was counted as part of the score, no matter how small the question was. But despite Pinkie’s added ‘spice’, Rainbow had not been expecting the type of question that had come out of Rarity’s mouth – and the look on her face showed it.

“ Well, there was that one time,” she finally started after a few minutes of thought. “ but it was a dare. Nothing more.”

“ Who was the dare with?” Applejack asked curiously, a dangerous spark shining in her eyes as the words tumbled out of her mouth.

Rainbow Dash, however, felt the need to explain. “ We were at Pinkie’s place, having a sleep over, and we were playing truth or dare. With how that night was turning out, I should have known that Pinkie was going to dare me to do something like that. But kissing Fluttershy? The poor girl nearly fainted on me… kind of like now. Don’t worry, Flutters. Nothing happened. We were all a little tipsy on some of AJ’s hard cider, anyway, and… well… I don’t swing that way.”

Instantly, the room seemed to get colder upon those last words. Even the snake noticed the change as he raised his head and flicked his tongue in order to find out what had happened. The fire in Applejack’s eyes also vanished only to be replaced with something akin to pain a few seconds later, not to mention Rarity seemed to deflate a little at the discovery. Fluttershy tried to hide the fact that she was worried about how Applejack was feeling, but her hand was noticed as it went to rest on her friend’s knee. And Sunset and Twilight both turned to look at each other before one of them picked up a pen and wrote something down on the piece of paper that they had between them.

Only Pinkie Pie remained unfazed about the discovery.

“ Uh… was it something I said?” Rainbow questioned though not focussing on anyone in particular.

“ That depends.” Pinkie replied.

“ On what?”

“ On what is natural to you and what is natural to everyone else. You see, you answered a question by saying that you weren’t gay, which, if you were in your own world, would be totally fine, not that it isn’t fine with us around. We just kind of hoped that there weren’t that many differences between you and the other you. But I guess that this is just one of those differences that we’re just finding out about.”

“ So… what you’re saying is…”

“ Yeperoonie! Our Rainbow Dash is gay! So it kind of came as a little surprise that you weren’t, but that is totally fine! Even though you’re from a different world and have different differences and our Rainbow Dash is most likely in your world discovering that she has different differences from everyone else, that doesn’t mean that we aren’t going to help you get back to your world because it doesn’t really matter what you are no matter what world you’re in because we are friends and friends make everything right again because that’s what they do; friends find out what’s wrong, friend’s find out how to fix what’s wrong, and friends fix what’s wrong. Which is what we’re going to do with you! It just means Applejack’s going to have to wait a little longer for her ‘sweet times’.”

“ Pinkie Pie!”

Rainbow Dash had never seen anyone go as bright red as Applejack had done in mere seconds as she called out her friend’s name. It was practically a world record in the athlete’s mind. But something about what Pinkie Pie had said during that odd spiel seemed to be playing like a broken record in her head, leaving her jaw attempting to try and touch the ground despite its physical inability. That then left a question of her own to roll off her tongue unbidden as her brain tried to catch up to what was happening around it.

“ So, how many of you are gay?”

Surprisingly, the only one who didn’t raise her hand was Fluttershy. Both Pinkie and Rarity admitted they were bi-sexual, though Rarity seemed a little cautious about the fact. Why, Rainbow Dash had no clue, but she figured it had something to do with this world’s version of her. That left Applejack, Twilight and Sunset to confirm that they were lesbian.

Twilight, however, had remained silent during the reveal, leaving Sunset to do all the work despite there not being much work to be done on the matter. She actually looked quite embarrassed about the subject, refusing to look anyone in the eye, least of all Rainbow Dash. But it was the fact that Sunset had raised both their hands as they were linked together that gave Rainbow the feeling that she knew where those two were going to end up.

It was during the silence that followed – in which Rainbow was allowing her mind to digest what had just happened – that Applejack finally decided that Pinkie was right and that she was going to have to accept this Rainbow Dash the way she was in order to get the Rainbow Dash that she knew back to where she belonged; in her arms. So, with a small shake of her head to shrug off her earlier disappointment, she turned to face Fluttershy. The smile that was on her face when the shy girl turned to face her was one of gentle warmth.

“ Yer turn, sugarcube. What’s yer next question?” the farmer asked gently.

“ But what about you? Isn’t it your turn?” Fluttershy replied.

“ Ah asked ‘bout that dare. An’ you know what them rules are that Pinkie made up. So that means it’s yer turn.”

“ Oh… well, uh… How long have you been with your friends, Rainbow?”

Trust Fluttershy to say something as innocent as that. Unfortunately, the question still made Rainbow Dash cringe at the memories.

“ Well… Fluttershy and I were friends since Cloudsdale Junior High and we ended up going to Canterlot High together. We met Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Applejack at the Freshman Fair and our awesomeness couldn’t have been better.”

Yet something was wrong, and the other girls could sense it. Not to mention, the look on Rainbow’s face had gotten darker as she said those last few words, despite the fact that she was clearly trying not to make a big deal out of it. And it was that look which sent waves of concern rushing, unbidden, through Applejack. Weird thing was, half of that concern was reserved for Rainbow while the other half was making its way towards Sunset Shimmer thanks to the cautious look that the rainbow haired girl was giving her.

It was almost like Rainbow Dash was trying to convince herself of something.

Of course, there is always one person who just happens to be clueless about the current situation and this time was no exception. And, of course, that person had to be Pinkie Pie.

“ Then what happened, Dashie? Did you meet Sunny and Twilight and everyone was the bestest of best buddies?” she asked, practically bouncing in her spot.

“ Not exactly.” Rainbow Dash replied, making Pinkie hug her pillow with eager anticipation. “ Shimmer did show up, but she was nothing back then to what she is now… or here, I guess.”

“ What do you mean?” Twilight found herself asking, worry starting to seep into her voice.

“ You’re not going to like it, but Sunset was a monster.” Cue collective gasps of shock. “ She bullied, blackmailed, heck, she forced every one of us apart and ruled the school. At one point there, she even turned into a real monster, you know, with horns and wings.

“ But before that…” Surprisingly, a tear managed to sneak its way into one of Rainbow’s eyes at the dark memories despite the dark look on her face. “ I stopped talking to Applejack and Applejack stopped talking to me. Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie all hated each other’s guts. And Sunset Shimmer was having the time of her life keeping us all apart and generally making life hell for the rest of us. But Fluttershy and I, we still hung… maybe not at school, but we were still cool. A bond like we had was too strong – and way too awesome – to be broken by the likes of that Sunset Shimmer!

“ Then, two-three days away from the fall formal, Twilight appeared practically out of no-where, like she literally stumbled out of a portal that was apparently built into the wondercolt statue. And she was looking for the fall formal crown… or rather, her crown.”

“ ‘Her crown’? Please explain how Twilight could have a crown.” Sunset urged, gaining an indignant cry from her girlfriend which she hurried to mend.
“ Easy. That Twilight was a magical winged princess unicorn from another world… kind of like me just without the whole princess unicorn thing. She kinda sorta gave us all a slap upside the head and made us realise what Sunset had done and made us all friends again. Then we kicked Sunset’s demon butt with this amazing rainbow laser thing that gave us all pony ears and tails and Twilight, Fluttershy and me wings. But even though we all had to say good bye to Twilight because she had to go back home through the portal before it closed, we all promised her that we’d look after Sunset. And that’s how we ended up befriending Sunset Shimmer and helping her discover her good side.

“ It was thanks to Sunset that we managed to stop a bunch of singing horse demon girls from taking over the world in the battle of the bands. Princess Twilight helped as well, but Sunset really knocked it out of the ball park and earned herself a place in the Sonic Rainbooms… eh, that’s our band, though I started it.”

At that point, the only thing that could be done other than stare at Rainbow Dash with a highly confused look as the mind tried to comprehend everything that was being said was a slow shake of the head. The reason for this was because, once again it was proven that there were some similarities between the two Rainbows that would obviously never change. In this case, it was the somewhat egotistical nature both Rainbow Dashs seemed to have acquired.

But still Rainbow continued with her rather long story.

“ Meeting my world’s Twilight, however, was not what we expected at all. You see, we had to compete against her in the Friendship Games this year. Yeah, my world’s Twilight Sparkle first went to Crystal Prep before coming over to join the awesome Wondercolts. I mean, she was still being her geeky self, going around Canterlot High with some weird device that sucked the magic right out of us, but after she decided it was her turn to turn into a weird magic obsessed demon and tried to destroy not only Canterlot High School but also two worlds, and Sunset somehow managed to turn into some magical angel or something and basically prevented those two worlds from destroying each other, everything turned out just fine. That’s when we all became great friends and now we’re all awesome! Plus we’re all super excited to be going to Camp Everfree soon. Hopefully I can get home before then.”

Sunset couldn’t help it. A smile managed to break through her face despite the many questions that buzzed around in her head.

“ Well, I’m sure we’ll get everything sorted out in time. You’ll be home before you know it.” She said, though under her breath she added “ Hopefully.”

Twilight, however, had other things on her mind.

“ What’s this about magic?” She asked, the game now completely forgotten.

Cue return of the earlier awkwardness. Rainbow Dash instantly went searching for a way to change the topic, though her attempts came off as being both obvious and desperate. The reason? Rainbow had completely forgotten that anything to do with unnatural occurrences within the world were a specialty of Twilight’s which obviously transferred between the two worlds. And having to explain magic to the girl a number of times was going to get on her nerve. Not to mention the fact that she was sure she had already said something about magic to the group. Then again, she was pretty sure she would remember telling everyone about giant winged unicorn holograms in the sky and giant rainbow laser beams.

It took her a little while to remember that she actually had said something about rainbow lasers, but she still focused her attention on looking for a way to escape her current predicament. She was not going to be the one to explain something like magic to anyone, especially when she didn’t understand it herself, and even more especially since the only known magic experts that she knew of couldn’t explain it either.

Plus, knowing both Twilight and Sunset, one question was bound to lead into a million more, and Rainbow Dash really wasn’t ready to deal with another massive headache on top of the one she was currently trying to dispel from her brain. She was just glad that the headache hadn’t exploded into a migraine what with everything that was currently happening to her and the fact that the blue haze was still surrounding her vision, giving everything an off colour look that seemed to be partnering with the headache in order to torture her.

But the one thing that did manage to penetrate through the headache was the thought of her tortoise, Tank. The poor, little guy was probably starving by now, wondering where his dinner was and, more importantly, where she was. Tank was a smart tortoise and he knew that Rainbow would never forget to feed him, so not being fed at his usual time (despite his owner’s usual lateness on a lot of other things) and not having Rainbow greet him after school was probably starting to worry him. And – not that she would ever admit to it – Rainbow was starting to worry about Tank as well.

That’s when she saw it, propped up against the game console like it had been calling for her attention all this time. Two cars raced down a bridge road and into a large city that rested in the distance; a giant robot had been captured mid jump and now hung suspended in mid-air yet still looking like it was about to destroy the city; and – just like the cars and the robot – the game’s title was forced to freeze mid-run for the rest of eternity as it, too, tried to speed towards the city.

“ Oh… my… gosh.” The words were barely a whisper, like faint wind before the storm that was Rainbow’s excitement that poured from the girl’s mouth. “ You have ‘Road Rage 5: Mecha-fusion’! Do you know how long I’ve been trying to get this game? A long time! It probably didn’t help that I needed to use the money I’d saved for it on my new guitar, but oh man, you have it! Is it true that the mecha-cars have turbo boosters built into them? And rocket launchers? Do they really have rocket launchers?”

“ I do have it.” Sunset replied with a small laugh. “ But I’m not giving away any spoilers.”

“ Aw man.”

“ Why do you have such a game, anyway?” Rarity asked, not having known about the game until now herself.

“ I actually got it on Rainbow’s insistence… uh, our Rainbow, I mean. She totally whooped my ass the first time we tried it out, but I’ve been addicted ever since. You can put it on if you want, Rainbow Dash.”

“ Sweet!” but someone clearing their throat mad Rainbow Dash think twice before she even got up to set up the game. “ Uh… anyone else wanna play?”

“ So kinda ya ta ask, RD. Ah think Ah will.” Applejack’s smirk suggested she was the one who had pulled Rainbow’s enthusiasm back down to Earth.

Needless to say, Rainbow lost her first race to Applejack as she was still getting the hang of controlling giant robots and making it so that she wasn’t blowing everything up whenever she tried to gain some speed (unlike the last four games, the button that usually controlled speed had been changed in order to accommodate for the new game play). That, and she couldn’t force Applejack to lose due to the fact that the game controllers had been modified by Twilight to be wireless. Not to mention, the console itself was out of reach of anything remotely dangerous to it (like Rainbow’s hand).

The next game, however, was Rainbow Dash’s to win. And the next one. And the next one. Pretty soon, Applejack’s win felt more like a dream than anything else. But no matter how many times she won or how hard the adrenaline pumped through her despite her being stationary, Rainbow couldn’t help but wonder what this feeling that hung on the edges of her mind was.

It was almost like a faint headache was beginning to form, but it was also numbing at the same time, like an invisible iceberg had been slammed into the back of her head. The blue haze on the edge of her vision had also darkened in colour, fading into black, which Rainbow could only think of as being a bad thing. To make things worse, she also got the feeling that she was forgetting something really important, and that’s what started the irritation that she was feeling.

Not even when Sunset’s father - a tall, dark man with dark and light blue hair and a steel look in his eye that was hard enough to kill – came to tell the girls that he was heading out to work while his wife was asleep and trying to fight off a nasty stomach bug, did the feeling go away. Instead, it seemed to only get worse as faint pinpricks started making themselves obvious once Sunset’s father had closed the door.

And her annoyance at whatever it was that was wrong with her head was clearly showing in how competitive she was getting with the game.

Author's Note

Warning:
Next chapter starts out a bit dark and romantic. My beta has said that it's still vague in description, but I just want to make sure that I don't scare off any of my readers.

Hope you guys are still enjoying my story, though.

Chapter 8

(EGW)

The moon shone silver through every open window that they passed, leaving large patches of silvery light to lie against the darkness of the small house. Nothing moved except the creaking floorboards underneath the feet of its two only occupants… and even then, only one of those occupants was the cause of the noise. The other was wrapped snuggly within the arms of the first and had their eyes closed gently as if in sleep.

Finally, the two reached their destination; a lone wooden door in a seemingly long hallway. In one swift motion, the first person turned the knob and kicked open the door, the motion not even jostling their passenger despite the awkwardness of the sight. And still no words managed to pass between the two since they had first entered the small cottage. Not even as the door was once more closed and the two made their way over to the only piece of furniture in the room – a large double bed – was there sound. There was only silence.

As gently as if they were holding a baby, the first person carefully lay their charge on the bed before accompanying them on the other side. The bed gave a creak in protest to the sudden weight of two bodies, but despite its age, it still held strong, not bothering to protest further about the situation. It was then that the silence was finally broken.

“ Now can I open my eyes?” The second person asked, an edge of annoyance clear in their voice.

“ ‘Course ya can, sugar. Just not sure ‘bout what you’ll see, is all.” The first replied, a southern drawl gracing their own voice.

No attention was paid to what was said after the initial ‘yes’. Instead, magenta eyes opened to darkness. Panic was quick to set in as the thought of being blind as well as paraplegic started to envelope the mind, but the silver light that stretched across the room from the only window was all that was needed to dispel the fear that had formed. But just to make sure, those same eyes turned to the side, catching the twin green shapes that seemed to glow with moonlight themselves.

“ Told ya ya wouldn’t see much.”

The faint silhouette of the owner of those currently smiling, green eyes was all that was needed to bring a smile to the face of the other. Her hair was down, flowing over her shoulders like a waterfall that glowed in the moonlight, shimmering gold with just the barest movement possible. Her hat lay against the nearest bedpost, close to its owner and bowed slightly as if trying to make the moment as private as possible.

It couldn’t be helped. A sigh managed to sneak out from between the usually brash and self-appraising lips of the other.

“ You don’t get it, Jackie. I don’t need light to be able to see you.”

“ Look at mah little Rainbow, getting all sappy.”

The next thing Rainbow Dash knew was that Applejack had swung herself over the top of her and was proceeding to linger her lips just above her neck and jawline. The fresh scent of wood and worked soil combined with the other, more rustic scents that arose with farm life hit like a bullet train speeding past her, just like it always did whenever their ‘pleasure nights’ occurred, almost reminding her of her true calling within Applejack’s arms. And the musty apple scented breath that escaped the farmer’s lips… just being close enough to those lips to touch them was enough to send electricity running through Rainbow’s body.

But Rainbow also knew that she was being teased and it infuriated her to no end, being so close and yet so far to what she desired. She could feel herself rising to the challenge, though, as her mind started working on ways to get her lover even more closer to her than she already was.

Her hands, however, seemed to have a mind of their own. As if of their own accord, they snaked their way under Applejack’s shirt and trailed over the girl’s firm muscles that ran along her back and sides, making them twitch ever so slightly with just a single touch. But they didn’t stop there. Instead, Rainbow’s hands made their way towards the more sensitive areas of Applejack’s body, eliciting a small hum of pleasure from the girl.

Just as things started to get extra exciting, though, the door slammed open, forcing both girls away from each other in surprise.

“ Ah thought Ah locked that.” Rainbow Dash heard Applejack mutter under her breath.

“ Obviously not.” She couldn’t stop the words from falling out of her mouth as her irritation at being disturbed shrouded her mind.

“ Give her back.”

These new words were practically hissed at the two on the bed… and they sent a thousand waves of ice cold snow rushing down Rainbow Dash’s spine, effectively destroying any good feeling she had had previously. Unfortunately, the owner of the voice remained hidden in the shadows, so there was no way to make sure that it was who Rainbow thought it was. But that all changed when the once beautiful, silvery night was transformed into one filled with thunder and lightning as far as the eye could see.

The change was so sudden that both girls ended up screaming a little when a flash of lightning lit up the room unexpectedly; also revealing the new arrival to be none other than Rarity.

But there was something different about the fashionista that the other girls couldn’t quite put a name to. And it was that difference which made both Rainbow Dash and Applejack cautious. Especially since her voice seemed to have grown darker with the change. Not to mention both her skin tone and her hair colour had greyed considerably since she was last seen.

“ Rarity?” Applejack whispered, trying to understand what was going on.

“ Give me back my Rainbow, Applejack!” Rarity growled in response.

“ What?”

“ Rainbow Dash is mine! Now give her back!”

“ Ah think yer a little confused, Rares. First, though, ya need ta calm down. Yer givin’ us both a scare ‘ere. Mind explainin’ what this is all about?”

“ There is nothing to explain, Applejack. You took my Rainbow Dash and I want her back.”

“ Now wait just a gold pickin’ minute. Ah didn’t take Rainbow Dash offaya, she dumped ya. Ah got her fair an’ square after that, helped her back on her feet after what you did. You sure as hay can’t come bargin’ in ‘ere demandin’ anythin’ offa her that she don’t want. Now why don’t ya just go home.”

Usually, Rarity would have followed orders, apologised and left, but not this time. This time Rarity stayed where she was, her dulled eyes flashing dangerously with every clap of thunder that rang in the air outside. Not to mention her darker nature was just plain freaky. Yeah, she was capable of scary stuff when she was mad or upset, but acting all dark and obsessive was just plain unnatural. It just wasn’t her.

But the way Rarity stalked into the room after Applejack’s little speech sent waves of terror rushing through both girls. And the flash of silver in one of her hands was more than heart-stopping. Rainbow Dash couldn’t help it, she snuck a glance beside her, hoping that the silver flash was just a bracelet or watch and not what she thought it was. Applejack, however, seemed to know better and planted a last kiss on her girlfriend’s lips. That was when Rarity lunged, the silver gleam showing itself to be Rainbow Dash’s worst nightmare.

Rainbow Dash jolted upright with a start, her breath coming in short rasps as her heart tried to escape from her chest. The last thing she remembered was Rarity flying at Applejack with a knife in her hand, but looking around the darkened barn, she realised that it wasn’t real. It had all been just a dream.

Applejack was snoring slightly as she lay asleep on her back, one arm thrown behind her head and towards the centre of the circle that the girls had formed with their sleeping bags. Rarity was sleeping right next to her and just as peacefully. In fact, the only one who wasn’t sleeping well – aside from herself – was Sunset Shimmer who was grumbling about ponies and princesses and lashing out occasionally as if attacking some invisible foe.

Did she think it was strange that someone around her age was dreaming about pony princesses? Yes. Yes, she did. Just like she thought everyone was making up some really elaborate game about magic being introduced to this world because of some strange portal to a third world where everyone was a pony. It only took one look at Applejack to realise that the strange story was actually true. And just to prove her point, the farm girl was more than happy to do a small bass guitar solo to show her that magic was real.

But at that moment, Rainbow had more troublesome things on her mind to deal with… like the dream she had just had deciding that it was going to play over and over again in her head. And just thinking about that knife was making things very difficult for Rainbow Dash. Especially seeing as she was trying to get back to sleep. The image of moonlight shining on the blade as it was forced upon Applejack kept flashing in her mind like flashes of lightning in a storm… and she usually liked lightning.

With a soft sigh escaping her lip, Rainbow knew she wasn’t going to be able to go back to sleep any time soon. So she grabbed one of the conveniently placed flashlights that Pinkie Pie had left nearby for her ‘in case of an emergency’, gathered herself and her pillow in the sleeping bag and somehow managed to shuffle her way over to where she had stashed her secret project. She figured, if she couldn’t get to sleep, she may as well be productive in some way.

If there was one thing about Rainbow Dash, it was that she was considerate… to a point. If someone was sleeping and otherwise slacking off when they should have been working, then she would harass them to no end. Being the only one awake in the middle of the night, however, was a different story altogether.

Yet, even though the minutes ticked by in the pretence of being hours, and the limited amount of colours she had on her, not to mention the fact that she was working by torchlight, Rainbow Dash made quick use of her inability to sleep. Not only had she managed to complete the outlines of her work, but she had also managed to colour it. She was almost finished too, when the pencil she was holding dropped out of her hand. The reason; sleep had finally found its way back to the rainbow haired girl and had quickly snatched her back into its grasps.

As is normal for farm life, Applejack was the first to wake the next morning; her internal body clock getting her up in time to start the day’s chores despite the fact that she knew she didn’t need to thanks to the sleepover weekend that was happening in her barn. Shortly after her – and for similar reasons – Fluttershy woke, a gentle smile on her face as she went to say good morning to all around her. She gave herself a slight shock when she realised that Applejack was the only one up beside herself.

“ Good morning, Applejack.” She whispered, getting out of her sleeping bag and rummaging around for her clothes.

“ Mornin’, Fluttershy. Sleep well?” The farmer replied, also in a whisper.

“ Surprisingly, yes. Not having Butterscotch in his stall for the night concerned me a little at first, but I guess things turned out okay. How did you sleep?”

“ A bit like you, Ah guess.”

“ What do you mean?”

“ Well, Ah slept okay. But Ah was worried a lot, too.”

“ Because of Rainbow Dash?”

“ Ah know that gal can defend herself just fine, but that Rainbow Dash tends ta have a hot head at times. Now, Ah don’t know about this’un, but our Rainbow could be gettin’ herself in some serious danger - provoked or otherwise – an’ she wouldn’t ‘ave us ta drag her kickin’ and screamin’ from whatever monster she was gonna get herself killed by. An’ Ah mean that figuratively.”

“ Or she could be totally fine. If this Rainbow’s world is anything like our world, then I’m sure our Rainbow Dash has found that world’s version of us. I bet they’re taking care of her right now.”

“ That’s the thing, Fluttershy. What if there’s a third Rainbow Dash or even a third world involved an’ by some unforeseen disaster, our Rainbow’s found herself in trouble?”

“ Do you really think that’s what’s happened?”

Applejack fell silent for a few minutes, her thoughts finally able to slow down. Yes, she was worried about her friend… her best friend. Fluttershy was probably worried about her herself. In fact, she currently had that look in her eye that clearly said that she was. But, unlike Applejack, the other girl was not letting that worry consume her. So, with a deep breath to help calm herself down, the farm girl gave a small nod.

“ Yer righ’, Fluttershy. Ah am worryin’ too much. Thanks fer snappin’ me back.”

“ Oh, you’re welcome.”

The two sat quietly after that, talking about what they were going to do with ‘Wheelchair Dash’ as Pinkie Pie had affectionately started calling Rainbow Dash the night before. It was a nickname that her own Pinkie Pie had come up with almost as soon as the two had first met, but Rainbow was more than happy to let her new friends use it. At least it stopped some confusion from spreading around.

By the time the list they were making reached its eighth idea, Sunset had joined them, adding ‘learn wheelchair sports’ to the list alongside ‘playing music’, ‘baking’ and ‘The Sonic Rainbooms’ to name a few. Sunset Shimmer also made Applejack and Fluttershy swear that they would stop her from drinking any form of apple cider before bed time, and only if they managed to catch her with the stuff. When asked about it, she only stated one thing; night terrors.

Dark memories of times past in both her old world and her new world obviously still plagued Sunset’s mind from the night before. Every now and then, her ears would twitch – much like she would have used them to swivel around in any direction in search of possible danger if she had been in her pony body. And the way she bit her bottom lip in an attempt to hide her fear was easily noticed by her friends despite her efforts.

Because of that, both Applejack and Fluttershy chose to leave any more questions they had about their friend’s night deep within the backs of their mind… at least for another time. Distressing a friend was not on their to-do list. Yet, despite the silence the two had fallen into, Sunset knew that if she really needed to, they were willing to sit by her and listen to her problems. Any of her friends would, no matter how large or small the issue was.

But not long after Sunset awoke, Applejack had a thought. So as not to wake anyone else up (as well as to check on how Butterscotch was doing) Applejack led the trio outside so that they may continue their conversation. Yet, even as the three of them made their way out of the barn, neither one of them noticed that Rainbow Dash was missing from their circle of sleeping bags. Apparently, Rainbow’s snores were loud enough not to warrant any concern as they obviously thought that she was – at the very least – still somewhere within the barn.

While they were gone (watching Butterscotch happily prancing around the paddock took a surprisingly long time thanks to the enjoyment of both the morning and the sight), Twilight, Rarity and Pinkie Pie also woke with the rise of the sun. And still no one noticed the missing person in their group. Though that may have been thanks to the still loud snores coming from somewhere within the barn curtesy of Rainbow Dash.

Of course, right as the others were walking back into the barn – being careful in case they accidentally disturbed anyone – someone had to notice the empty spot where a red sleeping bag should have been.

“ You know, these wheelchairs are actually quite uncomfortable when you think about it.” Pinkie Pie stated from where she sat on Rainbow Dash’s borrowed wheelchair. “ Someone remind me to tell her when we find her.”

“ What do you mean ‘when we find her’?” Sunset Shimmer asked, having been the first to open the barn door and walk inside.

“ Exactly what I said!”

“ But she can’t be missing. You’re sitting in her wheelchair.” Twilight said, voicing the confusion that was enveloping the barn.

“ Heeellooo! Do you not see the missing sleeping bag?”

All eyes turned to the spot next to the wheelchair. Sure enough, Rainbow Dash was nowhere to be seen. Instantly, everyone found themselves in a panic as they started to frantically search the barn for the missing girl. That is, everyone except Pinkie Pie. She was just rushing around for the fun of rushing around, not because she was in a panic about a lost, disabled Rainbow Dash.

And still the snores continued. Yes, they had lessened somewhat, but that was probably because Rainbow Dash was slowly being pulled awake thanks to the continuous calls of her name; the two most prominent voices being those of Applejack and Rarity. But, as with anyone who never wants to wake up in the first place, she ignored them and tried to return to a deeper sleep.

That’s when Pinkie Pie found her… and her project.

“ Here she is! She’s over here!” Pinkie screamed at the top of her lungs (how Rainbow didn’t wake up from that was a mystery) before noticing the piece of paper on the ground in front of her friend. “ Oooh. What’s this?”

“ Pinkie, darling, do keep your voice down. Especially when you’re next to someone who is quite clearly sleeping.” Rarity sighed as she and the others made their way to where Pinkie Pie was standing by Rainbow Dash.

“ Oh… sorry Dashie.”

Pinkie’s apology, however, seemed somewhat absent-minded and the others noticed it.

“ What have you got there, Pinkie?” Twilight whispered once she was close enough.

“ Rainbow Dash had it. I just stopped her from getting drool all over it.”

“ You really shouldn’t have taken that. What if it was private?”

“ Well, I was just going to move it out of the way, but then I saw what was drawn on it. And, let me tell you, it is amazing!”

Pinkie Pie then proceeded to turn the piece of paper she held over so that the others could see what was on it as well. And she wasn’t wrong. The picture was amazing.

It was a barn setting much like the one from the previous night with a food area to the right of the picture and a group of friends sitting in a circle in the middle of the barn with games of all sorts littering the surrounding area; including a few animal toys. Speaking of animals, there were seven very familiar animals scattered around the mid left of the picture with the only exception being the white snake that rested over the shoulders of one of the girls.

And it was with these expressively well drawn characters that everyone was getting confused with. They all felt rather familiar and even had familiar items and looks on their faces. Even the only oy that was in the group seemed somewhat familiar despite everything. What everyone was confused on was their skin colours. Two of the people (the boy included) had dark brown skin colouration and four of the girls had varying shades of light pigmentation. This left the remaining girls varying shades of tan, including one girl being a more yellowish tan than the others. Surprisingly, though, the hair colours seemed to look natural despite the rainbow they created – quite literally with one of them.

Other than the curiosity that was the skin colour and the somewhat familiar vibe that everyone was getting off the picture, the picture itself still lacked something. Something that would give it that extra push into the column of perfect artworks. Shading. With the fact that it was still unfinished clear as day before them, it was quite easy to work out that Rainbow Dash must have fallen asleep before she had gotten to finish what she had started.

“ If Wheelchair Dash is this good at arts, does that mean our Rainbow Dash has a talent for drawing as well?” Fluttershy asked quietly.

“ Who knows?” Rarity admitted. “ But we shouldn’t push her about it. Remember last time she was pushed to do something?”

Unfortunately for the group, Rainbow Dash chose that moment to wake up. and the first thing she noticed, despite her still sleepy state, was that her artwork was missing. Instantly, Rainbow Dash was sitting up and looking around for the piece of paper that she had been working on. No one was allowed to know about it. No one was allowed to think that she wasn’t as tough as she made out to be. She needed to get that picture back before it fell into the wrong hands.

The thought of Apple Bloom sneaking into the barn and snatching it while Rainbow had slept, only to share it with the world, blazed through Rainbow’s mind like wild fire, instantly making her look up in fear. And that was when she saw it. It wasn’t Apple Bloom who had taken it, it had been Sunset Shimmer (or so she thought as Sunset had taken the artwork from Pinkie Pie in order to take a closer look at the image, specifically the snake).

Instantly, her eyes blazed with anger. Rainbow Dash knew Sunset was a mischievous one, having teamed up with her and Pinkie Pie at times when she had needed legs. But she never thought she’d go as far as to take her private work! She didn’t even take into account that she was in an entirely different world. She just launched herself (verbally, mind you) right into the thick of things, accusations and all.

“ Give me back that paper, you art thief!” she growled, shocking everyone into looking at her.

Chapter 9

(WW)

Rainbow Dash had been having possibly the most amazing dream of her life. And what could be more amazing than being a superhero? True, she had this particular dream on and off ever since Princess Twilight Sparkle had arrived, bit it was still her favourite. And it never played out in the exact same way that it had previous nights, making it feel like a real superhero experience.

This time, she was flying around the city and making sure that there were no demon invasions occurring when she felt something slide over her wrist. It was sort of slimy, and definitely cold, but it felt dry at the same time. Not to mention, the way whatever it was moved felt like water flowing over her wrist and made her skin itch. Then her nose was poked by something sort of pointy and somewhat wet. And the strange thing about it was that whatever it was seemed to be licking her nose at the same time.

It wasn’t long after that that Rainbow Dash decided it was time to open her eyes. But, where she was hoping to see maybe some books or one of the other girls in the room, she instead saw a white and yellow scaled head and red beady eyes staring at her. And, thanks to her brain still thinking it was still asleep and thus on the lookout for any demon invasions, the first thing she thought of was that it was some kind of demon that had come to seize control of her body and force her to fight for the upcoming invasion that its leaders were planning.

The result of such thoughts was a rather loud scream of terror (though she would deny any fear she had). It practically echoed through the house, waking anyone who had still been asleep within a matter of seconds. Not even the ‘demon’ liked the sound of her scream, hissing its displeasure at Rainbow Dash as she moved as far away as she could from where she had been sleeping.

“ Dash, are you alright?” Sunset Shimmer asked as she hurried back into her room from the bathroom after taking a shower to help freshen up for the day.

“ Alien! Alien demon! It’s come to take me to its leaders so they can make an example out of me! They’re going to turn me against all of you! I need to defend myself before it can take me! Do you have any weapons I could use?” Again Rainbow was hissed at by the creature, though she paid no attention to it and instead looked around the room for anything she could use as a weapon.

“ Uh, Rainbow Dash?” Twilight yawned.

“ What? There’s a crisis going on here!”

“ No there’s not. That was Herman.”

“ Herman?”

“ The snake.”

Finally, Rainbow Dash turned to where Twilight Sparkle was pointing. Sure enough, there was the snake that had been in its terrarium only the night before, now coiling itself gently around Pinkie Pie’s arm as she raised it to her face so that it was at eye level with her. Only then did the rainbow haired girl realised that her ‘alien demon’ did not really exist. Unfortunately, it still sent a cold shiver down her spine just looking at the reptile.

“ Silly, Herman.” Pinkie laughed as the snake flicked its forked tongue out at her. “ You’re not meant to scare Dashie!”

“ I-I-I wasn’t scared!” Rainbow Dash tried to defend herself, but it was a weak attempt.

All she got in reply were a few drop dead looks from the others that clearly stated she wasn’t fooling anyone; Applejack adding to the humiliation with a knowing smirk on her face. Fluttershy, however, seemed to sense that there was more to the tough girl act than met the eye and her own concerned look proved it. But she obviously decided to drop the subject for a later time due to the fact that – as always – she remained silent.

“ Like you wouldn’t scream if you woke up and suddenly there was this white thing with beady, red eyes glaring at you.” Rainbow glowered, still trying to defend herself.

Applejack, however, was having none of it. “ Ah distinctly remember ya screamin’ ‘bout ‘alien demons’ an’ how they planned on turnin’ ya inta one of their slaves. An’ this was all before ya started goin’ off ‘bout somethin’ ta do with weapons. So, ya sure ya weren’t actin’ over the top a little bit, there?”

“ No.”

Rainbow’s response was quick, but the way she averted her eyes made It clear that she wanted to drop the subject before it developed into something more personal. And, as usual, her stubbornness was going to make sure that the subject was dropped. Not to mention the silence that once more hung in the air was starting to make the others a little worried about her. Herman even slithered over Pinkie Pie’s arms and shoulders in an attempt to find a safe area to hide. That was when Sunset decided to break the tension with a change of subject.

“ Well, now that we’re all up, we might as well start the day. How does pancakes sound?” She asked.

“ Oh, oh, oh! I want berries! Lots and lots of berries!” Pinkie leapt up from her seat, instantly forgetting about the snake on her shoulders. “ And whipped cream! We can’t forget the whipped cream!”

“ Of course, Pinkie. Just make sure you put Herman back in his tank before you come out into the kitchen, okay?”

“ Okie dokie, Sunny!”

With a salute, Pinkie Pie hurried to, gently, place the snake back in his home. She even almost forgot to close him in, too, she was that excited about pancakes for breakfast. Thankfully, she only had to turn around once before she remembered what was involved in placing Herman back in his tank and locked the terrarium so that he didn’t try to escape. After that, all anyone could do – and this included the snake – was watch as the hyperactive mass of pink practically charged out of the room in search of her pancakes.

Rainbow Dash tried to follow her out of the room, having seen an escape route open up before her, but there was one slight problem that stood between her and freedom. Fluttershy. The usually shy girl was standing by the door, trying to look confident in what she was about to do despite the worry from earlier still showing clearly on her face.

“ You do know that you can talk to us, don’t you?” She asked tentatively.

“ Of course I do! Why wouldn’t I?” Rainbow replied.

But again she received looks that told her that the others weren’t convinced with her words. This time, however, no one said anything about it. Fluttershy merely sighed before leaving for the kitchen with Twilight and Rarity in close pursuit. Applejack was the only one to coax Rainbow Dash forward before Pinkie Pie ate all the pancakes, using the grumbling coming from the girl’s stomach as a way to get her moving.

Speaking of pancakes, a massive stack of them were what greeted the girls when they arrived in the kitchen a short time later. And a smaller stack sat right next door awaiting the newest batch that Sunset was currently watching over. Not to mention the smell was starting to fill the house, making a number of stomachs growl hungrily in anticipation of what was to come.

Over by the table, Pinkie had seemed to find an outlet for all her pancake-loving energy as she was dancing around the table and setting it up for breakfast. Of course, this was worrying both Fluttershy and Rarity; they were practically cringing at even the slightest thud from the table. Neither Applejack nor Rainbow Dash could blame them. Even though they all knew that their friend was an anomaly to the world of physics - and that she was actually pretty focused despite the fact that she didn’t look it - it was still fearful to watch when glasses, knives and bowls full of various types of berries went flying through the air.

Amazingly, however, not one single berry found its way to the floor below as the bowls flew through the air. That was partially due to Pinkie Pie somehow sensing when a berry was going to escape the clutches of its ceramic plate and thus making sure that the berry ended up in her stomach. What was even more amazing was the fact that the energetic girl had managed to throw the bowls in such a way that they didn’t turn over themselves even once, instead only spinning like they were pretending to be UFOs.

It was then that Rainbow’s problems began, though no one realised. What started out as watching a seamlessly harmless bowl of berries spinning in the air towards the table one minute, turned into a slow throbbing headache the next. And the haze that surrounded the edges of her vision was starting to solidify as if it was trying to search for something invisible to the naked eye. This change alone was starting to make Rainbow’s eyes water, which the girl hurried to destroy any evidence.

“ Y’all righ’, Dash?” Applejack asked, noticing the mad dash Rainbow Dash had done to prevent her tears from falling.

“ I’m fine. Just hungry and way tired.” Rainbow Dash replied as she moved her head away and tried to act normal. It didn’t really work considering she almost tripped over on her own feet a couple of times as she made her way to the table.

“ Apparently that tired that you’re almost fallin’ flat on yer face.”

“ Well, it’s not like you focus properly when you’re tired.”

“ She has a point.” Twilight muttered, taking a seat at the table next to Rainbow Dash as she brought with her various condiments for the breakfast.

The other girls quickly followed their example, taking their places at the table as Sunset Shimmer brought the pancakes over. Pinkie instantly started bouncing in her spot the second she saw the food being brought over, unknowingly making the cutlery she held bang against the table. Yet the girl somehow managed to keep herself from diving on top of the massive stack, easily confusing Rainbow Dash who thought that – like the Pinkie Pie she knew – this Pinkie Pie would do just that.

Instead, a small stack of pancakes – four in total – was placed on the plate before her, curtesy of Sunset. The other girls also receiving similarly sized stacks. It was only once Sunset was seated, beside her girlfriend and with her own stack of pancakes, that the pink force finally erupted. In a matter of seconds, a stack of pancakes that easily doubled the four on Rainbow’s plate had appeared on Pinkie’s. A can of whipped cream and a few randomly sprinkled berries later and the tower looked more like a large cake rather than a stack of pancakes.

But even as everyone laughed at the whipped cream and berry moustache and beard that Pinkie Pie now sported thanks to her face-diving her food, the headache that Rainbow Dash had grew worse. Whether it was because of the laughter or the faintest memory returning to the front of her mind, she wasn’t sure. But it couldn’t have been the laughter. It was strange, though. The worse the headache got, the more prominent that memory became, quickly making Rainbow realise that something was supposed to be happening that day. Yet, the memory still seemed out of reach.

Vaguely, as she realised that the others were talking while she was fighting with herself, her mind registered the fact that someone had mentioned the word ‘race’. And just like that, the memory was at the front of her mind and giving her full access despite her previous attempts. Two similar looking faces emerged in her mind’s eye; one blue skinned and golden haired, the other blue haired and cream skinned. Following them came the memory of arranging a race between the two of them. Finally, the loudest of curses erupted out of her mouth since her arrival in this new world.

“ Ya sure yer okay, Dash?” Applejack asked once she had swallowed her mouthful.

“ No. I have a race I gotta win today. Against Lightning Dust and Indigo Zap. My reputation is on the line!” Rainbow replied as her panic grew into agitation.

“ But there’s nothing on the line.” As usual, Pinkie didn’t understand and so got up from the table to check the clothes line from out the side door.

“ It’s not literal, Pinkie.” Sunset sighed.

“ Oh.” A giggle escaped Pinkie Pie as she returned to her seat. “ Silly me.”

But Rainbow Dash wasn’t focussing on the hyperactive girl anymore. She was having a hard time just trying to focus on what was going on around her. And she could tell that her attempts at trying to stay focussed was forcing strain to show within her.

Almost as soon as she had mentioned her race with Lightning Dust and Indigo Zap, her headache had become unbearably painful. She honestly thought her head was going to explode on her, she was in that much pain from it. Not to mention the blue haze that covered her vision was getting thicker and thicker by the minute. It was almost like it was trying to blind her. And she wasn’t happy about that idea one bit, her annoyance easily slipping into her straining features.

The worst part about all this, though, was that both her legs had started going numb. It felt like a thousand burning pins and needles were constantly being forced into them in an attempt to break through the ice-cold feeling that was spreading up from her toes.

That sensation along was all it took to send panic rushing through the athlete, mixing with everything else that she was feeling. And, with the addition of that panic, it was easily noted by those who sat in front of her. But it was the sharp intake of breath, as Rainbow realised that she would have to stop playing sports if she lost the use of her legs, which gained everyone else’s attention.

“ Rainbow Dash, what’s wrong?” Fluttershy asked, concern sweeping through her voice with each word.

“ I… It’s nothing. Nothing’s wrong.” Rainbow Dash lied. She didn’t want the others to think of her as weak, after all.

But the pain she was obviously in and the fact that she clearly refused to even make eye contact with anyone was enough to let the others know that something was definitely wrong. They just didn’t know what. And the fact that Rainbow’s stubbornness was clearly aiding in her denial that there was something wrong just made things all the more difficult.

Eventually, Sunset got fed up with waiting for Rainbow Dash to let her and the others in on what was happening and, following her gut instincts, went to get her mobile phone from her room. When she returned, however, she noticed an entire table filled with solemn faces.

“ What happened?” She asked, her gut tightening as the words left her mouth.

“ She can’t feel her legs.” Applejack replied, indicating to Rainbow Dash who was looking down at the fists she clenched on the table.

“ Okay, that does it.”

“ What are you doing, Sunset?” Twilight asked, noticing the flash of reflected light from the phone’s screen.

“ I’m calling for backup. I have this feeling that we’re going to need it.”

“ Backup? What kind of backup?”

“ I’m calling Adagio. Now. She may be able to help us figure out what’s going on and how we’re going to get you home, Rainbow Dash.”

Chapter 10

(EQW)

Sunset Shimmer glanced at the picture she held for a split second before looking back over to where Rainbow Dash sat on her borrowed sleeping bag. And the look she was getting from the girl was pure murder. Rainbow’s eyes were practically blazing with fury. Just that look alone made Sunset wonder why she had decided to get on Rainbow’s bad side in the first place back when she had first arrived in this world.

Cautiously, so as not to anger the girl more, she handed the piece of paper back to Rainbow Dash. She even managed to avoid looking at Pinkie Pie as she did so, not wanting to make her feel worse that she probably already was. But even as Rainbow Dash took back her artwork and Sunset noticed the sorrow-filled looks Fluttershy and Twilight were wearing, Sunset Shimmer knew that she would have to prove her innocence on taking the artwork somehow.

She just never expected the opportunity to come from Rainbow Dash’s next words.

“ Why’d you take it?” Rainbow Dash growled, still glaring daggers at Sunset.

“ I didn’t… at least, not from you. I asked Pinkie if I could have a look. We didn’t expect you to wake up when you did… or how you did. We expected that we were going to have to wake you up.” Sunset admitted.

“ Pinkie? What’s she got to do with it?”

“ I’m sorry, Dashie. I didn’t mean to take it from you. I just didn’t want you drooling on it while you were asleep. I kind of figured that you wouldn’t want your amazing picture destroyed. But I guess I kind of forgot to let go of it again.” Pinkie Pie said, looking really sorry that she had made her friend angry. “ If it helps, Twilight tried to stop me, but I didn’t listen.”

“ So you all saw it?”

All eyes went from looking at Rainbow Dash to looking at the ground in shame. They all knew that they shouldn’t have seen the artwork; that they should have followed what their gut instincts had been saying about looking at something so obviously private. But, even without the shading, something that well drawn attracted attention like moths to a flame.

And they were dumb enough to be the moths.

“ It was very good, though, Rainbow Dash. There is no need to be ashamed of such talent.” Rarity exclaimed in an attempt to calm the other girl’s anger and possible embarrassment.

Sadly, it only made things worse.

“ Do I look like I care about that right now?!” Rainbow Dash growled. “ You all went and saw something I didn’t want you to see. Why do you think I was hiding it in the first place? Because I didn’t want you googling at my work like mindless zombies! Especially when I know you like the looks of more… interesting sights, Rarity.”

“ I never…!”

“ Rainbow Dash, that’s enough! What’s yer problem with Rarity anyway?” Applejack growled, finally fed up with how this Rainbow Dash had been treating her friend since she had arrived.

Rainbow Dash fell silent at Applejack’s words. To be honest, her brain had decided it was going to shut down on her. It couldn’t understand why the farm girl was defending the fashionista when she should have known what had happened between the two of them.

Out of the corner of her eye, however, she noticed Sunset, Twilight and Fluttershy urging a silenced Pinkie Pie out of the barn; obviously planning on giving the other three girls some much needed space in order to work things out. The only thing was, Rainbow had no clue as to what had to be figured out... unless it was the fact that Applejack was defending Rarity.

It was only when the barn door clicked shut that it finally dawned on Dash just what it was. Despite the familiar setting and the somewhat familiar people, this wasn’t the place that she called home.

Everything that had happened to her in the past twenty-four hours surged through her mind, instantly helping to catch her up on what was going on. But her silence as all this was happening made both Applejack and Rarity visibly nervous despite what had transpired only moments before.

Finally, someone dared to break that nervous silence.

“ What’s goin’ on with ya, Rainbow Dash?” Applejack asked, a little less aggressive than what she had been previously. “ Ever since ya came here ya’ve been cold ta both me and Rarity. An’ we wanna know why.”

“ We can’t help you if you don’t let us in.” Rarity added gently.

“ Jus’ don’ go givin’ us the silent treatment like ya did yes’erday. We don’ like being shut out like that.”

A sigh managed to escape Rainbow’s lips as she thought about what had happened between her and her world’s Rarity. She just couldn’t tell if she could trust this world’s Rarity with that same, sensitive information. Her gut was saying not to trust her, going off past experience and heartbreak. But her heart was already longing to return to her Applejack, and if being able to see her love again quickly meant that she had to share her past, then her heart was willing to say yes. It was just really confusing, trying to decide which to follow.

Then again, she thought to herself, if I don’t say anything now, then they won’t stop bugging me until they get their answers. And if this Applejack is as stubborn as the one I know, then she won’t give in that easily either.

Finally, just as Applejack was starting to get annoyed at the fact that it seemed Rainbow had ignored her, Rainbow Dash made her mind up.

“ She used to be my girlfriend.” She sighed, looking away from the two that stood in front of her. “ But I caught her in bed with… someone else. Someone I’d hoped never to see again. I mean, I knew she was bi, but I didn’t expect her to go behind my back. That was the day that she lost my trust. And to be doing it with my cousin of all people… that was just… I haven’t talked to her ever since and that was about four – five months ago. It was thanks to Applejack that I didn’t do anything stupid. She managed to stop me from going into the forest that edges her farm about three months ago, and it was a good thing, too. We’ve been together ever since.”

“ Is that why you barely talk to me?” Rarity asked softly.

“ An’ why ya keep givin’ me them weird signals? ‘Cause ya think we’re the folks from yer world?” Applejack added, equally as soft.

“ Well… yeah.” Rainbow admitted.

“ I can assure you, Darling, that I am not one to cheat on anyone. I may not have been the best of friends in the past, but these days, I will fully stand by my friends no matter what form of relationship I have with them. Why, if I met your version of myself, I would most certainly give her some stern words about how she treated you.” Rarity reassured her, noticing the dark look in Rainbow’s eyes despite the girl’s efforts to hide it.

“ You can say that again, Rares. I’m not sure how yer version of mahself acted once she found out ‘bout all this, but Ah know Ah would have had to be held back by Big Mac if’n that Rarity were ta survive a meetin’ with me. An’ there’s a reason fer that.” Applejack agreed, nodding her head.

“ There is?” Rainbow asked.

“ Of course there is.” Rarity said.

“ Yer our friend, Rainbow Dash. Even if ya are from a diff’rent world ta this’un.” Applejack added, kneeling down so that she was eye level with the girl. “ It wouldn’t be the firs’ time we made friends with aliens… so ta speak.”

“ Applejack! I’m sure neither Sunset nor Twilight would appreciate you calling them aliens!”

“ It’s true, ain’t it?”

“ Whaddaya mean? Why are you calling Sunset and Twilight aliens?” Rainbow asked, clearly confused.

Applejack sighed and looked up to Rarity, who had the same kind of look on her face that she would have given Sweetie Belle had the girl asked an awkward question that she clearly wanted an answer to. But Rainbow’s answer didn’t come from them like she had thought. Instead, all eyes were forced to turn towards the barn door where Sunset Shimmer was making her way towards the three.

“ Remember how I told you last night about how I came to this world in search of power and how I was quite a nasty piece of work?” the newcomer asked.

Rainbow Dash had to think for a bit but eventually she managed an uncertain, “ Yeah.”

“ Well, originally, I came from a world of magic and ponies. I used to be a unicorn. But I found myself here instead, transformed into a human. Our friend, Princess Twilight Sparkle, is an alicorn from that same world and she followed me here because I took her crown. That’s what Applejack meant when she said that Twilight and I were aliens. Just like you, we come from a different world.”

“ So the Twilight that is down at the farm house is a princess?”

“ Not exactly. Just like our world has a walking Rainbow Dash and your world has you, this world has a Twilight Sparkle that needs glasses and the pony world – the one where I came from – has a princess Twilight Sparkle. The Twilight you’ve met here is very much human. As for being called an alien… I understand what you mean, Applejack, just don’t go throwing it around where others can hear, okay?”

“ Righ’. Sorry.” Applejack replied.

But it was Rarity who questioned why Sunset had returned to the barn. “ Is everything alright, Sunset?”

“ I actually came to tell you something. Two things, to be honest.” Sunset replied.

“ Then shoot.” Rainbow Dash urged.

“ Okay, the first is that Granny Smith has made an Apple Family breakfast for all of us, so you might want to get over there before Pinkie eats it all on you. The second thing…”

And that’s when Sunset Shimmer fell silent. Nervously, she shifted her feet, refusing to look at Rainbow Dash. She knew that the girl could race; she’d seen just how fast she could go only yesterday afternoon. And something told her that she hadn’t even used her fastest speed. Sunset just wasn’t sure how the other two competitors would react to this Rainbow Dash and the fact that she was in a wheelchair.

Next to that, she didn’t want to make Rainbow feel bad despite the fact that she had ideas piling on top of one another as she tried to search for an answer. Yet, even now, she could not figure out how things were going to work out. But she also knew – and it was probably the only thing that she was sure about – that Rainbow Dash was not going to want to post pone this race. Make another one, yes, but definitely not postpone it.

Finally, with a deep breath, she continued.

“ Rainbow Dash has that race with Lightning Dust and Indigo Zap today in the school carpark.”

“ Wait… did you say carpark?” Rainbow Dash asked, not sure if she had heard correctly.

Chapter 11

(WW)

Meeting Adagio Dazzle was not what Rainbow Dash had expected at all. She still looked the same, with her yellowish skin and her orange hair which always seemed to look like it had gone through some massive tumble dryer, not to mention her piercing red eyes. But it was how she acted that completely freaked Rainbow Dash out.

Where before – during the Battle of the Bands – Adagio was a known sadistic and manipulative schemer who loved playing with dark magic and forcing everyone to love her (at least, that’s what the Rainbooms thought of her), this Adagio Dazzle wasn’t so dark. Yes, she tolerated her sisters and their antics, and she was highly intelligent, but the magic she seemed to work with was more like the friendship magic that Rainbow was used to. And, though she clearly still manipulated to some degree, it was more unintentional than anything else.

But one major difference that Rainbow Dash noticed was Adagio’s want to help others and generally focus on people who weren’t herself. And it freaked her out big time when, after arriving at the massive mansion that Adagio called home, Dash saw the siren replica standing at the front door waiting for her. Having not heard hide nor hair of the sirens in her own world after their defeat, she was having a hard time getting her mind around the fact that these people that surrounded her in Fluttershy’s family minivan knew the sirens… or at least their replicas.

Not even when Applejack and Twilight Sparkle helped her into the wheelchair that she had been forced to borrow to get to the mansion, could Rainbow even begin to understand how these people could be friends with people she believed to be evil. Then again, half of that disbelief was probably because she couldn’t understand how the siren replicas had managed to get their hands on such a massive mansion if magic wasn’t supposed to exist in this world.

The mansion was that big, it had to have an entire block just for the front yard if not more. There was a fully functioning fountain in the middle of the driveway complete with seahorses spouting water into the massive basin while balancing a platform with a giant penguin of all things on their heads, so it had to be massive. And the building behind it looked more like a miniature castle than a house. The covered entryway alone looked like it could house a miniature truck and still have room for people to move around under it.

So, with the fact that she was staring at something that looked like it had just popped up out of some cheesy fantasy movie that Sweetie Belle probably made her friends watch, it really wasn’t too surprising that Rainbow Dash was wide-eyed at the scene before her. Nor was it surprising (to Rainbow, at least) that she was staring at Adagio’s outstretched hand once the latter had reached the bottom of the stairs to greet her guests, considering what was going on in her mind.

Eventually, Rainbow realised that the siren copy actually wanted to help and greet her with that same outstretched hand and not magically whisk her away only to lock her up somewhere and drain all her magic out of her. Of course, this realisation had to come with the words spoken that accompanied said outstretched hand.

“ So you’re the Rainbow Dash Sunset was talking about earlier. It’s nice to meet you.” The yellow haired girl said, a warm smile gracing her face. “ Judging by your reactions, I gather you already know who I am?”

“ Adagio Dazzle, former world dominating siren from Equestria.” Rainbow replied darkly, still eyeing Adagio, though this time her line of sight had travelled from hand to face.

“ I can assure you, I am not who you think I am. Now come. Let’s get you inside so that we may talk more privately.”

Without another word, Adagio waved her outstretched fingers just slightly towards her. the next thing Rainbow Dash knew was that her body was being lifted out the wheelchair and onto her feet of its own accord. Behind her, a number of voices called out in both shock and horror, all focussing towards Adagio, but it was background noise. Rainbow was more ecstatic about the fact that her legs were holding up her weight once more. She hadn’t even realised that life had found its way back into them, she had been so focussed on other things.

A small chuckle managed to escape from Adagio at the look on Rainbow Dash’s face, making the rainbow haired girl look back over to her with mixed emotions clearly showing. “ You were ready to stand as soon as you passed those gates over there. Now come. The tea should be ready by now. If you would like, Fluttershy, you may leave your car keys with Belvadair and he will find a parking spot for your minivan.”

With that, Adagio led the group up the stairs and into the house, passing a tall man with light brown skin and blue and silver hair who was bowing and had his hand out, ready to accept Fluttershy’s keys. Applejack, however, walked beside Rainbow Dash just in case her legs gave way underneath her as she walked while Sunset folded up the wheelchair and returned it to boot of the minivan where it had been kept during the car ride.

The inside of the mansion wasn’t that much different from the outside in the sense that it was massive. However, the inside looked more like something from ancient times with all its pillars running down the length of the large hallway and leading to yet another massive stairway which led up to the second floor. But Adagio didn’t go up those stairs like Rainbow had thought. Instead, she led the group down a hallway to the left and into the third door on the right. Applejack had to pull Rainbow Dash along just so she wouldn’t go up the stairs and get lost.

And, just like everything else – as Rainbow Dash noted – this new room was massive. An elegant looking chandelier was the only source of light within the enclosed room. There was a fireplace on the side wall, but it was currently not in use. In the far corner stood a grand piano, much like the one that Rarity had once dragged into band practice with help from the Diamond Dog Boys. An acoustic guitar also sat in the corner, which Rainbow Dash eyed before being dragged over to sit at the group of lounges in front of the fireplace.

“ Can I interest anyone in some tea or hot chocolate?” Adagio asked, indicating to the warm beverages sitting on the table in front of them.

Rainbow Dash watched silently as the other six girls she had arrived with accepted either one drink or the other. She even watched Adagio pour herself some tea. But she was more concerned with what else could be in the drinks other than just tea or hot chocolate. It was clear to the others that she didn’t really trust their Adagio Dazzle, which in turn made them wonder what it was that the Adagio Dazzle from Rainbow’s world had done. And this was all despite the fact that Rainbow had summarised it just the night before.

Adagio, however, chose to ignore the suspicion that her guest was treating her with, instead choosing to take a sip of her tea before starting the conversation.

“ So, what brings you to my lovely abode?” She asked.

“ We need help.” Fluttershy said quietly.

“ I gathered. But why do you need me of all people?”

“ Because we don’t know how to get this Rainbow Dash back into her own world, how to get our Rainbow Dash back home, or why they even swapped places in the first place.” Twilight replied, a little rushed.

“ Twilight, Twilight, Twilight. You’ve been playing around with your gadgets again, haven’t you?”

“ Why is it always a bad thing that I like science?”

“ To be honest, I am completely fine with you studying science and so is everyone else in this room. It’s just, even in science, there are things that just shouldn’t be messed with. And, unfortunately, you have a bad habit of creating things that are perfect in finding the stuff that shouldn’t be found. In fact, I’m pretty sure I told you not to go collecting anything with those gadgets this week.”

“ You did?”

“ Yes. Two weeks ago.”

“ I must have forgotten. Sorry.”

Twilight had the decency to look embarrassed as Adagio gave her a small but smug grin. Rainbow Dash, on the other hand, had managed to pull herself from her silence.

“ Wait, wait, wait. Are you telling me that you knew that I was going to show up in this world?”

Adagio returned her focus to the rainbow haired girl. “ Did we not establish this?”

“ How can you know about the future?”

“ It’s quite simple considering you-”

That was when the conversation was interrupted by an extremely loud bang coming from the far wall as someone tried to make a new wall decoration using a door that Rainbow had managed to overlook when she had entered the room herself. Beyond the sound of the bang came the sound of a very excited squeal, almost akin to Pinkie Pie, especially when the squeal seemed to reverberate through everyone’s heads as well as the mansion they sat in.

Around her, Rainbow Dash noticed a number of worried looks being passed around with the exception of Pinkie Pie who was smiling excitedly and threatening to jump right out of her seat. Even Adagio was doing a slow motion faceplant when her sigh caught Rainbow’s attention. But the thing that sent shivers down Rainbow’s spine was not the familiar sounding squeal or the dread that, for some reason, felt like it was slowly thickening the air; it was the simple fact that someone was touching her hair.

She didn’t know how, but she could sense someone else’s fingers skimming through her rainbow locks and making her head feel like it wanted to shrivel up. And the only person she allowed to ever touch her hair – other than the odd hair dresser on those rare occasions – was herself. So it was understandable that she had frozen where she sat thanks to the touch. Rainbow was also thankful to Applejack, who had noticed her tense up and gotten a serious look to her features.

“ Sonata Dusk! How many times have Ah told ya ta keep yer hands offa Rainbow Dash’s head!” the farm girl growled as she turned to face whoever was behind the lounge she sat on.

“ Sorry, sorry. It’s just… rainbows…” Sonata stuttered, standing up and whipping her hands behind her back so as to keep them out of any more trouble.

“ Ah know. Just… go sit next to yer sister.”

Adagio finally removed her hand from her face, returning to gaze at Rainbow Dash, as Sonata sulkily made her way over to the other lounge.

“ You’ll have to excuse her. She has a disturbing fetish for hair.” The older of the siren sisters deadpanned. “ Now, as I was saying, my sisters and I are, in a sense, similar to you, Rainbow Dash.”

“ How so?” Rainbow asked, running her fingers through her hair just to get her head to relax.

“ Magic, duh.” A third voice answered, once more sending a chill down Rainbow’s spine.

From the same door that Adagio had led the group through, a shadow emerged. By voice and figure, this newcomer was definitely female. She also had her hair styled in pig-tails, though her clothes obviously styled a darker personality. Yet, Rainbow Dash was quick to notice that nothing seemed to have changed much between her world’s Aria Blaze and this world’s Aria Blaze. One just had to look at her to realise that she was a trouble-maker.

“ Isn’t that why you’re all here?” Aria continued, placing her left hand on the top of the couch her sisters were sitting on.

“ Actually, we came for help in figuring out how to send this Rainbow Dash back home to her world and bringing back our Rainbow Dash… preferably before something bad happens.” Sunset explained.

“ Yeah, like I lose my legs entirely!” Rainbow added in a slight panic.

Applejack sighed, like they had been over this before.

“ Yer not gonna lose yer legs, Dash. You’ll lose feelin’ in yer legs, but ya won’t lose yer legs entirely. I already told ya that mah Rainbow Dash is paraplegic, not an amputee. She still has her legs, she jus’ can’t use ‘em.” She said.

“ Regardless,” Adagio spoke up before any true panic could arise, “ We will help you, Rainbow Dash. But in order to do so, we’re going to need time; figure out if your magic has anything to do with why you’re here. We may even need to do some tests, I don’t know. For now, though, try not to get into too much trouble.”

Chapter 12

(EQW)

Turns out Sunset wasn’t kidding when she said that there was a race happening in the school carpark. After breakfast, the group of seven had all clambered into Fluttershy’s family’s minivan and had driven to school. Of course, once they had gotten there, the gates were all closed. But Sunset fixed that by producing a skeleton key from her pocket (complete with a skull and crossbones etched into the handle) and opened the gates.

Where she got the skeleton key from, no one knew. But some of the others had a sneaky suspicion that it had something to do with when she was new to this world. In any case, Sunset sure wasn’t shedding any light on the subject when she was asked. She just got a look on her face similar to a deer caught in the headlights and hurried to get out of the minivan.

As soon as the gates were opened, Fluttershy drove into the school carpark, parking in one of the farthest spots there was. It had been part of the plan that was made before they had all left the farm, but there was still some wariness about it. Mainly, there were a couple of people worrying about getting caught (read: Fluttershy and Applejack). But still, everyone piled out of the minivan – Rainbow Dash getting some help thanks to her need of a wheelchair – and started working on their various tasks, also planned before leaving the farm.

The first thing Rainbow Dash did was wheel herself straight over to Sunset Shimmer, who was acting as lookout by the carpark gate. Apparently, the other two contestants already knew to come around to the carpark, but it was the others’ concerns that forced someone to stand watch. Though, who was going to be watching the gate while the race was on was another story.

“ So. Explain to me, again, why we are racing in the carpark and not on a proper race track?” The wheelchair bound girl asked after a few minutes.

“ Because, knowing our Rainbow Dash, she probably wasn’t thinking about the sports centre in the city when she made the arrangements for the race.” Sunset replied. “ And because my skeleton key doesn’t work on the locks that lead to the school’s track field, we have to race in the carpark instead. And before you ask why the race had to be held here, it was because someone had it in their head that because there are two Wondercolts racing and only one Shadowbolt, we were hosting the event.”

“ Right. Why the skeleton key, though?”

“ Dash came to me asking for help after Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna both said that she couldn’t use the school field for a ‘personal’ race. Not quite sure how she knew about my skeleton key, but I agreed to helping her find a way into the school. Thus we are here.”

“ And now I’ve gone and thrown a spanner in the works by being in a wheelchair and swapping places with the one who made this race happen.”

“ Well, yeah.”

Silence fell between the two as Rainbow Dash contemplated what she had just been told. Behind them, the other girls were making quite a bit of noise as they worked (though the main source was Pinkie Pie and her excitement despite the obvious tune that Applejack was whistling to herself as she worked). In any case, Rainbow only glanced at the track before a smile formed on her face.

“ Well, you can’t keep me from a race, Sunset. No matter where I am. So I best get to checking that track is ready for me.” She finally said, making Sunset turn to her after having momentarily forgotten that the girl was beside her.

Before Sunset could even open her mouth with any kind of answer, Rainbow Dash had turned around and was already on her way to the finish line. The finish line was really only a line of silver tape on the ground with a fabric flag on either side curtesy of Rarity and Fluttershy. Pinkie Pie was currently still going around the edges of the track and placing down markers for boundaries. Dash kept that in mind as she pulled up to the edge of the track and pulled out the gloves that Rarity had managed to so quickly make for her along with a couple of extra pairs for the other runners. After putting on the gloves, she took another look around.

Over by the minivan, Applejack was helping Twilight with setting up a small table for food and drink that had been brought with them. It was on Applejack’s request that water be available for the racers and anyone else who was watching. Pinkie, however, just had to add the need for food for the spectators for some reason. Her argument was that her Pinkie Sense was telling her that something amazing was going to happen (though no one had seen her twitch or jerk about, so no one was actually sure about it or not. Nevertheless, they didn’t question it).

Fluttershy and Rarity, on the other hand, had finished with the starting area and were now over by the fence into the school yard, working on the old bolt of fabric that Rarity had brought with her the day before. Rainbow Dash wasn’t exactly sure what they were doing with the still massive lot of fabric, but from what she could see, it looked like Fluttershy was painting one particular swab of the stuff while Rarity was being all delicate with cutting strips off it for some reason.

Finally, pulling at her gloves to make sure they were on tightly, Dash lined herself up with the silver tape starting line and closed her eyes for a few elongated seconds. She allowed her mind to let go of all but one thought as she drew in a deep breath and slowly let it out, the majority of her surroundings leaving her alongside her breath. The next breath she took only seemed to reinforce the one thing that her mind was thinking about; getting across the finish line and winning first place.

With a third and final breath, she opened her eyes and leant forward slightly, trying to make herself as streamline as possible. It was a little awkward considering the wheelchair she was using wasn’t anywhere near racing standards, but it would have to do. Right now, she had a race to run. So, with a small shake of her head to get rid of any unwanted thoughts and a few strokes of her powerful arms, Rainbow Dash sped past the starting line, forcing the wheelchair to reach speeds it had probably never knew it could reach.

Rarity’s gloves worked brilliantly. The fashionista had padded the thumb and forefinger so much that they looked like they had mutated somehow, but considering it was protecting her hand from possible damage, Dash was more than pleased with the quick work that had been done that morning.

The wheelchair, on the other hand, really wasn’t what she was used to, and this level of uncomfortableness went way beyond the awkwardness from earlier. To be honest, it had taken the paraplegic athlete a little while to realise that her speed had been cut considerably thanks to the swap. But she put the thought aside and focussed on what she was doing; especially considering she had only just noticed that there was a turn coming up.

Just by looking at it, Rainbow Dash knew it was tight, but she could do nothing about it now. All she could do was swerve to the right in order to turn left, and make sure she was as wide as possible whilst still staying within the marked area. Even then, she was somehow able to sense that her back wheel had slid out of bounds ever so slightly as she reached the zenith of the turn.

Finally, she managed to pull out of the turn without knocking any markers. As soon as she was relatively straight, however, she slowed her speed until she could come to a stop in the middle of the track, unknowing to the fact that she had been watched until someone finally spoke up.

“ Everything okay, Rainbow Dash?” Sunset called from where she stood at the gate.

“ Yeah. Just… turn’s too narrow. Needs widening.” Dash panted in reply as she focussed on returning air to her lungs.

“ Sorry, Dashie. I’ll get right on it!”

With those words, and before anyone could stop her, Pinkie Pie had bounded off in the direction of the minivan in order to get more supplies. And, apparently, the supplies included the two wheelchairs that they had somehow managed to pool together the money to both rent and buy from the local pharmacies. Somehow she was pushing both of them towards her nearest turn with the materials needed to make more markers sitting on their seats. The only thing that the others could guess she was using the wheelchairs for was to help with the widening of the turns.

Rainbow Dash watched her pink, overenthusiastic friend for a few minutes, trying to figure out why she needed all those materials in order to fix a couple of turns. In reality, Pinkie would only need to make two or three more markers for each end, moving the markers that were already in use. But no one knew what exactly went on in Pinkie Pie’s head, so Rainbow Dash just ignored it and turned towards the refreshment table. Regardless of anything, she needed a drink.

“ So. Rainbow Dash is in a wheelchair. Never thought I’d see the day.” Someone called from the gates, forcing Rainbow to stop her advance on the refreshment table and turn her head towards where she had heard her name being called. “ What happened? Forget where the goalposts were?”

That was all it took for Rainbow Dash to turn her wheelchair around completely and start making her way to the new arrival. The girl in front of her had similar coloured skin to hers, but her hair was a deep golden blonde colour, almost like lightning. She also had a glint in her eyes that clearly portrayed her passion for sports as well as a clearly hidden curiosity as to why her rival was in a wheelchair in the first place. But the tone in her voice when she spoke had sounded like a challenge. And that was what Rainbow Dash took it to be.

“ Goalposts have nothing to do with the wheelchair.” The rainbow haired girl replied, a slight growl in her own voice. “ And I don’t want your concern either. I am perfectly fine with how I am now. So if you’re looking for a fight, I can bring it.”

“ Concern? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“ You didn’t have to say anything. I can see it.”

“ Whatever. I’m not here for a fight anyway. I’m here to run.”

“ Well, I’d hate to disappoint you, but we ain’t running. We’re racing… wheelchair style. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a date with a water bottle.”

On those words – which clearly left the newcomer slightly confused – Rainbow Dash spun around and wheeled herself over to the refreshment stand. And a badly needed drink wasn’t the only thing that was given to her once she got there. Sunset Shimmer could see that Applejack was taking it upon herself to let Rainbow know everything she needed to know about her fellow racers. So, with a quick look to check if anyone else was coming past the school, Sunset decided she needed to follow Applejack’s lead and explain what was going on.

“ Rainbow Dash saw some wheelchair race on the internet the other day and made a bet with Applejack that she could race like that as well as use her legs. It escalated, so now she’s in the wheelchair for the week.” She explained as she stepped up to the newcomer’s side. “ She said she was going to let you and Indigo Zap know that there are now two races, but you know how Rainbow Dash is; she tends to forget things like that, sometimes. Sorry about the late notice, Lightning Dust.”

“ That explains the wheelchairs. But why is Pinkie Pie using them if those two spare ones are for me and Indigo to use?” Lightning Dust replied.

“ The turns were too narrow. Pinkie decided to use them to help widen the turns, apparently. Plus, It’s Pinkie Pie. No one knows what goes on in her mind.”

“ True.”

“ Um, why are there wheelchairs on the track?” A third voice asked, making both Sunset and Lightning turn.

At the gates stood a girl very similar to Lightning Dust. The only differences between them were the tan skin colour and the blue hair. It was almost like they had swapped hair and skin colours. But before Sunset Shimmer could even think about mentioning anything on the subject, Lightning Dust was by the new comer’s side and giving her both a high five and a slightly more than friendly hug.

“ Indy! Been so long!” The blonde haired girl exclaimed.

“ Uh… not really, Dusty. The Friendship Games weren’t that long ago.” The other, presumably Indigo Zap, replied as she managed to pull herself out of the embrace.

“ I know. But compared to what we used to be like, before you went to Crystal Prep and that, it’s been a while.”

“ I guess. Now would someone like to answer my question?”

Lightning Dust looked over to where Rainbow Dash was over by the fence before turning back to Indigo Zap. “ Apparently, it was Dash’s idea.”

“ Right…” It was clear Indigo Zap wasn’t convinced.

Sunset decided she had better step in and explain once more. “ She made a bet with Applejack about racing in a wheelchair, it escalated from there so that now she has to be in said wheelchair for a week as well as race in it. Turns out today’s race was in the middle of the bet period so she changed today’s running race into a wheelchair race. We even tried to make it a fair race for you guys, spending all morning just to work things out and all.”

“ Which is why there are two extra wheelchairs. They are for you two to use.” A new voice piped up, forcing the three still by the gate to turn their attentions back on the carpark.

Sure enough, there was Rainbow Dash, sitting with a smug look on her face. Though, how she managed to get from one end of the carpark to the other in that short time, no one knew. However, it was now known as to why she had been by the fence in the first place; both her legs had been tied to the sides of the wheelchair she sat in as well as strapped to the foot stool. And it was clear on the girls’ faces that none of them could figure out why Rainbow’s legs were strapped up like they were.

Rainbow Dash, of course, left them guessing as she gathered a pair of thick padded gloves in each hand and passed them to Lightning Dust and Indigo Zap.

“ Trust me. You two are going to need these. Without them, you can probably say good-bye to the skin of your thumbs. And a tip; close your hand and use your thumbs, you’ll go places.” She said, noticing the confused looks on the other girls’ faces as they took the gloves. “ Oh, and one of you may need to wrestle the wheelchair off Pinkie Pie if you plan on racing today.”

The looks that she received clearly told Rainbow Dash that none of them – and this included Sunset Shimmer – knew what she was talking about. So, she did the natural thing and pointed her thumb behind her. Sure enough, over in the massive space that was beside the refreshment stand was a flying puffball of pink. Apparently, Pinkie Pie had just discovered how fun it was to sit in a fast moving chair, especially considering the fact that one had to power the chair themselves in order to get around.

She was spinning in circles and making herself quite dizzy.

Sunset instantly became worried, not just for the safety of her friend, but also for the wheelchair. Nether one of those chairs was exactly cheap when it came to buying and renting them (one of the pharmacies wouldn’t let them rent out a wheelchair) and Sunset had been forced to dip into her living money in order to pay for most of the second wheelchair. Not to mention the chair that Pinkie Pie was in was quite possibly the second wheelchair considering the chair from the first shop was now waiting at the start/finish line. Especially seeing that the wheelchair that Sunset was now the owner of now sported streamers around the handlebars to help tell it apart from the other.

“ I better go sort that out before she hurts herself or someone else.” She said hurriedly before dashing off to get the wheelchair back.

The three athletes watched her heave, a clear sense of awkwardness starting to settle over them, before turning to face each other. It was almost as awkward as the time that Rainbow Dash had come clean to Fluttershy about being gay. Not to mention the confusion that both Indigo Zap and Lightning Dust wore on their faces easily told Rainbow Dash that she was going to have to explain things. And not just about how to use a wheelchair. There was just one problem with all of this. She hated explaining things.

Author's Note

Finally, got this up for you guys. Hope it was worth the wait.

Chapter 13

WW)

“ We will help you, Rainbow Dash. But in order to do so, we’re going to need time.”

Those words echoed through Rainbow Dash’s head once more as she sat behind Sunset Shimmer’s shed. The image of the sirens standing on the Battle of the Bands Grand Final stage and looking like they had when they had knocked the band down accompanied those same words. But even with those two things the only things that were clear, the rest of her mind was a massive ball of chaos that she couldn’t figure out what to do with. Not to mention, those two completely different things repeating themselves in her mind were constantly fighting for dominance and giving her a massive migraine in the process.

Rainbow had no idea who to trust; the siren sisters (as they were known in this world) that lived in the massive mansion with a penguin water fountain, or the sirens that (once) sang to enslave people to do their evil bidding. Okay, she knew she shouldn’t trust the evil sirens that enslaved people, but that was the problem. She didn’t want to admit it, but she was afraid that the siren sisters were going to turn out to be just like the evil sirens. And no matter what she did to think otherwise, she couldn’t get that fear out of her head.

Those thoughts had been terrorising her for two straight hours. It was a wonder she hadn’t gone crazy, yet… though hiding behind the shed in the backyard of a friend from another universe probably could be counted as crazy. At least Sonata Dusk wasn’t after her hair like she had been earlier.

Unfortunately, that small (horror-filled) memory forced the quick return of Adagio’s words as she had tried to reassure Rainbow Dash that she and her sisters weren’t going to harm her and instead were going to help her. That lead back to the Battle of the Bands and, if Rainbow remembered correctly, she had probably frozen on the spot thanks to the same image that was now playing in her head about the sirens.

The fact that she had been practically unresponsive during the first hour clearly worried those around her. According to the others, Aria did some weird spiritual thing at the discovery. It obviously wasn’t that bad because nothing seemed to happen to her other than Aria grunting and exclaiming that she was going up to her room. Whatever the case, Rainbow’s mind had been that fuzzy that Adagio ordered her home to try and snap her out of whatever she had gotten herself into.

Sadly, nothing the girls did was able to help with sorting out the mess that was now Rainbow Dash’s mind. Admittedly, they took the better half of an hour just trying to figure out how they would help and doing everything possible to help (including trying to coax Herman the snake near her. But, thankfully, the snake wouldn’t have any of it), but nothing worked.

Eventually, Rainbow decided that it was better she tried to work things out on her own. That lead to her finding a nice, comfy spot behind Sunset’s shed where one would have a little more trouble finding her than if she had just decided to sit around the corner of the door. The weird thing was, as she made her way outside, she swore she could feel Applejack getting upset over not being able to help. Sadly, the thought was pushed from her mind the moment she had found her spot behind the shed.

But how can I trust those Siren Sisters if everything screams evil? She thought to herself, absentmindedly grabbing a nearby stick and starting to map out her current predicament. I seriously don’t want a repeat on what happened a few months ago. That was just too close.

By the time Rainbow Dash had managed to pull herself away from her thoughts again, she noticed that she had drawn two decent sized spheres in the dirt. The one on the left housed an almost identical image to her ponied-up form while the sphere on the right contained a wheelchair. Underneath these were images of three seahorses and three girls respective to the worlds that they currently resided in. And still further down the seahorse line was, in massive capital letters, the word ‘EVIL’.

Thing was, even as she stared at the roughly drawn image, Rainbow knew that the siren sisters were the only ones who were capable of helping her return home. Yeah, she appreciated all the work that the others were doing for her – in fact, she wished that the seven of them could figure out everything on their own and not get siren help. But given the fact that she knew of only three other people in this world with some type of magic, it almost felt like she had been backed into a corner.

And she hated being backed into a corner.

“ Gaarrrr!” She screamed out loud, her frustration finally making itself known. “ Why’d I have to go and get myself into this mess!?”

“ Ev’rythin’ alrigh’ out here, sugarcube?” a familiar voice asked from behind her, effectively scaring her away from them with a yelp. “ Sorry. Didn’t mean ta spook ya.”

Without an invitation to sit, Applejack made herself comfortable on the edge of the spot that Rainbow Dash has claimed for herself, leaning against the fence as she turned to the rainbow haired girl with a slightly dangerous glint in her eyes. To the farm girl’s credit, she was trying to keep her love lust in check around this version of Rainbow Dash. But – as expected – Rainbow Dash was more concerned about denying anything to do with having been scared to notice any fine details about her companion. She was even going as far as to destroy her little mind-map.

“ I wasn’t scared.” Rainbow growled, throwing the stick away before finally looking up and noticing the dark gleam being suppressed in Applejack’s eyes.

“ Whatever ya say, sugar.” Was her reply. “ Ya know, the Siren Sisters don’t actually turn inta any kin’ of evil sea critters. They’re jus’ good with supernatural stuff.”

A sigh escaped Rainbow’s lips once she realised that her clean-up attempt had failed. But at least the information proved that her fear of the Siren Sisters being magical creatures in human disguises was completely uncalled for. Now it just meant that they were possibly evil human beings instead. And that left only one question to form itself on the tip of her tongue.

“ Then what magic do they have if they can’t turn into creepy, mind controlling seahorse witches?” she asked, easily noticing when Applejack flinched at the description.

“ Well, there is the kind of magic that you would find in some circus or somethin’. Ya know, the ‘pull some varmint outta the hat’ type tricks.” Applejack replied after a few moment’s thought.

“ Yeah.”

“ They do that. Even put up a few shindigs here an’ there. Plus, they all do that liftin’ thing like Adagio did to ya earlier. Fer the life o’ me, Ah can’t quite remember what they call it, though. Anyway, each one o’ them has their own magic they use, too.”

“ What do you mean?”

“ Ya know how you’ve got ya sports that yer always workin’ on, and how Fluttershy always has her animals? Well, them Siren Sisters ‘ave their own type of magic that they work with. Adagio is all mystical with her predictions an’ whatnot. Ah don’t even understand half the stuff she does. An’ Ah’ve seen Sonata literally pop outta nowhere an’ start movin’ water from the well on the farm to the apple trees. That freaked me out big time, that did. Turns out, she’d gone and gotten herself stuck inta Aria’s secret stash.”

“ Secret stash? Really?”

“ Eyup. One of them many rooms in that big mansion of theirs is home ta Aria’s secret stash of alcohol. Ah have no clue as ta what she uses all that hard drink for, but Ah don’t think Ah’ve ever seen her drunk or drinkin’. Ta be honest, Ah don’t rightly know what Aria does, an’ Ah don’t just mean with all that alcohol. What Ah do know is that, ‘round these parts, the Siren Sisters will do whatever they can ta help someone if’n they just called… includin’ you.”

That made Rainbow Dash think. But even then, she came up with the same problem that she had started with back when she had first met this world’s Adagio Dazzle. Could she trust this world’s versions of the sirens or not?

Applejack easily noticed the hesitation in her friend’s eyes and allowed a small sigh to escape her lips. She wasn’t sure exactly what Rainbow Dash was thinking on the matter before them, though she could make a pretty good guess that it had something to do with having called Adagio a ‘former world dominating siren from Equestria’ wherever that was. Either way, she could clearly tell that whatever was playing in the girl’s head for the past hour or so was freaking her out big time. So she did the only thing she could think of; she stood up and stretched her hand out to the girl.

“ Ya know, sittin’ ‘round here and thinkin’ like this ain’t gonna get you nowhere. If yer like the Rainbow Dash Ah know, then yer more of a ‘do it’ kinda person, not a ‘read or think on it’ person like Twi. So Ah think me an’ you should walk back inta that house and start havin’ us a good time with our friends. Ah even heard Sunset say somethin’ ‘bout a guitar.”

“ You really think they won’t do anything to me?” Rainbow Dash asked. “ Those sirens from my world were pretty nasty. They managed to enslave pretty much the entire school after all.”

“ Ah’m sure of it, Dash. An’ if’n they do try somethin’, then Ah’ll stop ‘em. Jus’ like Ah did with Sonata when she went crazy fer yer hair.”

“ Yeah, why did you stop her?”

“ Other than the fact that Ah could see that you weren’t okay with it? In this world, there are only two others who Das’ll let touch her hair if she ain’t doin’ it herself and they are a hair dresser an’ me. Now come on. Ah can already smell the cakes that Pinkie and Fluttershy were bakin’. Ya don’t wanna miss out on them, now, do ya?”

“ Never missed a Pinkie cake in my life.” Rainbow Dash admitted with a smile, taking Applejack’s offered hand and getting up. “ And I don’t plan on starting now.”

That being said, the two girls allowed themselves to be led back into the house by the scent of freshly baked cakes coming out of the oven. Pinkie – being protective as ever of the still hot cakes – refused anyone even touching them while they were still on the racks cooling, but she let Rainbow Dash steal some of the chocolate chips that she had been planning to use as decoration for one of the cakes. Applejack took one of the little sugar ladybugs and popped it in her mouth as quick as she could before the two made their way to Sunset’s room.

Unfortunately, things went downhill not long after they walked into the bedroom. In fact, Rainbow Dash didn’t even make it past the doorframe before she noticed Herman the snake slithering around and checking out her borrowed things; his pink tongue flickering in and out of his mouth as he tasted her scent. She couldn’t even stop the tiny squeak that came out of her mouth when she noticed how close the snake was to her stuff… that she was going to be using later that day.

Applejack didn’t know what to do after she heard that. All she knew was that, one minute Rainbow Dash was beside her and the next minute, she wasn’t. In fact, not even Rarity, Twilight and Sunset could figure out who had moved the fastest out of the girl and the snake. The only thing they saw was Herman raise his head to look at Rainbow Dash – whose scent he had caught just as she was entering the room – then the two had hurried off in opposite directions; Rainbow heading back to the kitchen while Herman hurried back to the safety of his tank.

“ Somehow I get the feeling that Rainbow Dash doesn’t like snakes.” Rarity mused, looking out into the hallway to see if she could locate the athlete.

“ Really, Rarity?” Applejack deadpanned.

“ What did you think she was doing this morning when Herman woke her up? No Rainbow Dash that I know is ever happy about being woken up early unless it’s for something she wants. But this Rainbow Dash was certainly hiding something with the way she was acting.”

“ An’ that somethin’ has ta do with snakes.” The farm girl sighed, seeing reason in what her fashionista friend was getting at.

“ Precisely.”

“ Well, as much as I find this quite interesting, considering it was our Rainbow Dash who convinced me to get Herman in the first place,” Sunset interrupted, going over to her wardrobe and searching for something after having locked Herman in his tank. “ we better get out there before she, Pinkie and my dad all eat the cakes before we even get to try them.” At that point, she came out with an old looking acoustic guitar. “ Besides, regardless of any flaws or differences, we still have a friend to help.”

With that, she led the small group out into the kitchen where, sure enough, the cakes were already being fought over. And they hadn’t even been iced yet.

Chapter 14

EGW

Surprisingly, explaining wheelchair race mechanics ended up being the easy part. Once Indigo Zap and Lightning Dust were in their wheelchairs, Fluttershy and Rarity helped strap up their legs similar to how Rainbow Dash had hers. At the starting line, Indigo and Lightning pulled on their race gloves and waited, alongside Rainbow, for the race to begin; Fluttershy and Rarity finding ‘decent’ places to watch from… despite the fact that the only ones watching the race were Rainbow’s friends.

On the side of the track sat Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie (who, despite having been a little sad earlier about having to give up the wheelchair, was now stuffing her face with popcorn and somehow waving three massive #1 hands at the same time – each one representing each of the racers). Applejack was manning the water station for after the race with Sunset holding the flag.

But it was while she was waiting for the race to start that Rainbow Dash started fidgeting in her wheelchair. It was almost like she was starting to get uncomfortable with being in it. Unfortunately, if the others managed to notice it, they most likely thought that she was just preparing for the race to come.

And the constant pounding of her head was starting to drive her insane. It was that bad that Rainbow barely heard when Sunset had called the start of the race, having to physically shake her head a little in order to focus. At that point, as she put her head down and worked her arms – and thus the wheelchair – as hard as she could, both Lightning Dust and Indigo Zap had already flown off the starting line. And by the looks of things, it was going to be hard to regain the precious time that had been lost.

Thankfully, the wind rushing through her hair made Rainbow Dash forget all about what could be happening to her and made her focus solely on the race. It always did that; made her feel like nothing really mattered other than the task at hand. And it was that strong that she could barely hear what it was that Pinkie Pie was belting out at them… though that was probably a good thing. Distractions are easy when it comes to Pinkie Pie.

But, regardless of what was going on over at the sidelines, Rainbow was not the kind of person to willingly give up on a race. She would rather go down giving it one hundred and twenty percent rather than not at all. And that’s exactly what she did when she let the wind take away the uneasy feeling from before and help her focus on the race. With a smirk twitching at the edge of her lips, she lowered herself a little bit more towards the ground in an attempt to try and gain more speed.

Come on, Rainbow Dash. She thought to herself. Imagine this race is your ticket home. You’re going to need all the speed you can get if you want to pass whatever barrier it is that’s keeping you from going home to your girlfriend. So get moving!

The first turn was coming up, the same one that Rainbow had tested earlier. In front of her was Indigo Zap, having first been off the line, but it was obvious she was having troubles trying to figure out how to turn in her wheelchair. Lightning Dust was keeping her distance from Indigo, not wanting to end up in a collision with her. And, from the looks of things, she seemed to have witnessed the earlier turn that Rainbow Dash had made due to the fact that she was trying to replicate it. Unfortunately, every time she tried, Indigo would do something that would make her pull back in hesitation.

In the back of her mind, Rainbow Dash allowed herself to laugh a little at the situation. On the outside, however, she was as serious as if she had been told to quit all her pranking sprees… which she did not like the idea of one bit. Coming into the turn, she pulled a little to the right, just as she had done earlier, and curved around to the left. She even managed to pull up alongside Indigo as the two of them pulled out of the turn, but she made sure to give the blue haired girl her space given the way she took the turn.

Off on the sidelines, Pinkie Pie was still screaming stuff out to the racers as Lightning Dust finally made it round the corner, but she could feel that something wasn’t right with the race. She had itches in her shoulders and her toes wouldn’t stop tapping, not to mention the hair on the back of her neck was standing on end for some reason. What made it even worse was that this combination had never occurred until now, and because they were hidden signs, it was a little trickier to get the others to believe her. But she still gave it her best shot at warning the racers… despite the fact that half of her screams tended to be encouragements and the other half warnings which only those on the sidelines could hear.

Unfortunately, it was while Pinkie was trying to warn everyone that Rainbow’s problems had returned. The pounding in her head had returned with a vengeance so bad that she had to close her eyes in order for her to at least try and focus on the race. It was a dangerous move, though. Without realising it, she started drifting to the side where Indigo Zap was still clinging to her, making the two wheelchairs connect for a split second. The slightest tap, though, made Indigo lose control of her chair for a little bit even though Dash pulled away almost instantly.

“ Hey! Watch it!” Indigo growled, just loud enough to be heard over the wind.

But Dash could barely hear her at all… and it wasn’t because of the wind.

When she had pulled away from the slight collision with Indigo, the pounding in her head had somehow evolved into tiny, invisible mosquitoes – each buzzing their own solo musical numbers – that seemed to think that her ears were the best places for their annoying performances. Not to mention, it sounded like they were also fighting amongst themselves over who got the most ‘spotlight’ time.

Yet, all that was – strangely – nothing compared to the strange tingling she now felt travelling down her legs. It was really starting to freak her out and make her lose her focus. Especially seeing that she had never felt her legs tingle like that before. Not even in the vague memories from when she was younger, before the accident, did she ever remember her legs getting that kind of tingling feeling. She hated to admit it, but she actually considered stopping the race because of it.

She wasn’t the only one to consider stopping the race. Over on the sidelines, Applejack watched on with concern. Ever since the race had started, she had gotten this bad feeling in the pit of her stomach; and with the way Rainbow Dash was acting out on the track, she was pretty sure it had something to do with her. It also didn’t help that Pinkie Pie was bouncing around and saying stuff like ‘it’s about to start’ and ‘it’s getting closer now’ in amongst her screams of encouragement to the racers.

And Applejack wasn’t the only one worried. Sunset Shimmer had noticed Rainbow Dash’s earlier stumble at the starting line and so had been starting to question the race. But to see Rainbow Dash nearly crash into Indigo Zap was a real concern for safety to all three racers. So to watch the girls as they came up to the second (and last) turn was a little daunting for her… especially seeing that her mind was rushing into the worst case scenario and thus making her fear the worst.

Thankfully, ‘the worst’ never came. Somehow Rainbow Dash had pulled her thoughts back together at the last moment and swung wide once more. Indigo Zap was right by her side as the two pulled out of the turn, but she had one thing on the other girl; experience in wheelchair racing. Going as low as she could, Dash forced her arms to go faster, slowly pulling ahead as – even now – Indigo struggled to keep her speed. Even Lightning Dust had realised early on that this race was going to be a test of endurance and so had kept some of her strength for just this time.

Of course, by this time, Lightning had given up hope in trying to come first place. Rainbow Dash was proving herself to be too skilled to beat her in a once off race… which also made her question if that really was the Rainbow Dash that she knew. With each second that passed, Rainbow Dash continued to stream past Indigo until, finally, the girls were at the finish line. Yet none of the racers even realised that the race was over until someone blew a whistle to get their attentions (something which the flag obviously wasn’t capable of doing).

But no one expected Rainbow Dash to skid to a hold or what would happen afterwards. With the exceptions of Sunset and Applejack, the other girls went over to start congratulating Lightning Dust and Indigo Zap on their performances during the race (something Indigo was still getting used to after what had happened in the Friendship Games). So it was that – after giving each other looks that confirmed the other’s fears of something feeling very wrong – Sunset and Applejack turned towards Rainbow Dash in time to witness the girl’s wheelchair start to tip over.

“ Rainbow Dash!” they both called out, hurrying to get to their friend’s side.

They got there too late. It was like everything decided to shift gears into slow motion. Heads turned in confusion, arms moved out as if to reach for the girl, people called out in silent horror, but nothing could stop Rainbow Dash from tipping over and possibly hitting her head. She was only spared spilling out of the wheelchair thanks to her leg ties which Rarity had hastily made before the race.

Thankfully, as Applejack and Sunset arrived at her side, Rainbow appeared unharmed. In the seconds before landing, she had come to her senses and had quickly tucked her head to her chest. Her hand had even flown up to protect the side of her face, leaving her with a grazed arm that looked worse than what it actually was.

Regardless, Applejack worked as fast as she dared to remove the leg straps while Sunset went ahead and made sure that their friend was fine despite Rainbow insisting that she was. In fact, the only ‘damage’ that Sunset could note was that Rainbow seemed more dazed than usual.

“ What in tarnation jus’ happened?” Applejack asked, righting the wheelchair.

“ Too much speed.” Rainbow Dash slurred, closing her eyes and shaking her head once Sunset had helped her sit up. “ Forgot to slow down after passing the line. Easy mistake.”

“ Are you sure you’re okay, Rainbow Dash?” Twilight asked, the first out of the others to arrive at the scene. “ I don’t like the fact that you’re slurring your words.”

“ I’m fine. Jus’ need the chair.”

Cautiously, Applejack wheeled the chair closer to where Rainbow Dash sat. But she easily noticed the way the girl’s legs twitched and she couldn’t stop the knot in her stomach from twisting itself even more, like it was trying to tell her that something was about to happen. It also didn’t help that, in the back of her mind, Pinkie’s words were echoing around and generally making things worse. And no matter how hard she tried to hide the worry, it was clear that Rainbow Dash could see right through her.

“ Seriously. Don’ worry ‘bout me. I’m fine!” the rainbow haired girl tried to reassure her – patting Applejack’s leg like she would a shoulder.

That’s when it happened.

The tingling feeling that was running through her body suddenly stopped and her vision went dark. But she didn’t fall like she should have had she fainted. Instead, she grabbed hold of the wheelchair and started to pull herself shakily up onto her feet.

A wave of concern washed through those watching the scene unfold. Not only were they all concerned about the fact that Rainbow Dash hadn’t tried to pull herself into the chair like she usually would, they also noticed the awkwardness in the girl’s movements. It was pretty obvious considering – thanks to her extensive lack of leg use – she was trying to get herself up without actually moving her legs, which were extended out to her right.

Applejack stood on standby, judging when would be the best time to interfere with the attempts and get the girl properly on the chair, especially considering it looked like Rainbow was going to need a little bit of help pulling her legs in. But, apparently, help was not needed as the girl somehow managed to right herself, albeit a little wobbly. Just to make sure, though, Applejack moved to Rainbow’s side so that she was close enough to be there in case her friend’s legs did end up giving way beneath her.

“ See? Totes fine.” Rainbow Dash grumbled, before suddenly realising that Applejack was right beside her. “ Wow, AJ. Since when did you get so short?”

“ Ah didn’t get short, Rainbow Dash. You stood up.” Applejack explained, tensing a little as Rainbow Dash swayed on the spot.

“ Impossible. I haven’t been able to stand for years.” Apparently, along with her sudden standing, Rainbow seemed to have forgotten about the current company who was surrounding her.

“ Well, ya doin’ it now.”

“ No, I’m not.”

“ Yeah, y’are.”

“ No.”

“ Eyup.”

Dash continued to argue like this with Applejack, determined to get it through the farmer’s head that she wasn’t standing up despite the obvious. Meanwhile, Applejack could only do her best to not lose her temper with the girl... especially when Rainbow Dash started to flirt with her, obviously thinking that she was her girlfriend. But the worry was still there and it only seemed to grow more tighter into its knot when Applejack noticed the slight blue haze that was edging her friend’s eyes.

There was something odd about the blue haze, like it was somehow linked to how Rainbow Dash was currently acting, and Applejack didn’t like it. Unfortunately, she had no choice but to put it to the back of her mind once she realised that Indigo Zap and Lightning Dust were still amongst the group. And, more likely than not, they had questions… as proven by the formers sudden outburst.

“ What the heck is going on here?!”

“ Um…” Fluttershy mumbled, shying away from the outburst.

“ This has to be some kind of sick joke, right? Right?!”

“ This is no joke, Indigo Zap.” Twilight tried to explain before being cut off by Lightning Dust.

“ Then what else can it be?” the blonde haired athlete growled. “ You openly lied to us about Rainbow Dash willingly being in a wheelchair when she clearly needed one from the get go. For all we know, this probably isn’t Rainbow Dash!”

“ Oh, this is Rainbow Dash, darling.” Rarity offered. “ Just not the Rainbow Dash that you know.”

“ How can it not be Rainbow Dash? There is only one person on this planet with an ego as big as Rainbow Dash’s and that’s well… Rainbow Dash.”

Pinkie Pie decided then would be the best time to pop out of nowhere behind the girls and throw her arms over their shoulders. “ That’s where you’re wrong, Dusty! Wait, no, you’re right about that being Rainbow Dash. And I’m more than sure that there are other people in the world with as big an ego as Rainbow Dash’s if not bigger. But at the same time, that Rainbow Dash over there with Applejack isn’t our Rainbow Dash. You see, there’s this weird magic thing going on and it’s switched our walking Rainbow Dash with this wheelchair bound Rainbow Dash – kinda like how Sour Sweet always switches her voice whenever she’s talking but with a lot more danger and excitement – and our walking Dash is in Wheelchair Dash’s world because Wheelchair Dash is here with us and right now we’re trying to get her home so that we can get our Dash back here, but it’s not going too well at the moment. Kinda reminds me of the first time I babysat the Cake Twins but that turned out okay in the end and everyone was happy!”

Indigo Zap was confused. Not only did she not understand what it was that Pinkie was talking about, but she couldn’t even understand how Pinkie could have gotten behind her so fast. It was like she was someone out of a comic book or something. And this multiple Rainbow Dash thing was just making her head spin. In the end, there was only one thing managed to stick.

“ But there aren’t…” She started.

The looks everyone gave her instantly made her shut her mouth before she was able to continue with what she was saying. At that moment, memories of what had happened at the Friendship Games flashed into her mind; the giant hole in the ground that turned into the sky of another world; the other smaller holes that became other random places from that other world; the epic and somewhat scary battle between Midnight Sparkle and Daydream Shimmer; saving Rarity from falling into the massive hole herself. That last image ended up becoming a wakeup call for her, especially seeing that she had rightly forgotten about what had happened. Then again, what with life happening as well as school tests and currently worrying about Rainbow Dash, she had every right to have forgotten. More so because it wasn’t a daily occurrence.

“ Right. Forgot about that.” She admitted.

“ That’s okay! I forget things all the time!” Pinkie exclaimed happily. “ Like when I forgot my birthday that one time and when I forgot to make the turns wide enough for the wheelchairs. Rainbow Dash had to remind me both times!”

“ Of course, Pinkie.” Sunset sighed.

“ But I’m still not getting this multi-universe thing.” Lightning admitted, returning the topic back to its origins.

“ Me neither.” Indigo gladly took the opening that she was given.

“ Oh, that’s easy.” Pinkie Pie laughed. “ Just think that the universe had two baby worlds that are kind of like twins and then they had a baby Rainbow Dash each, making the two Rainbow Dashs cousins! Just like you two! Only something bad happened to one of the cousins and that’s why one of the Rainbow Dashs is in a wheelchair. But then something even worser happened and the two cousins had to swap worlds, so that’s why we have a wheelchair bound Rainbow Dash and not a walking Rainbow Dash.”

Silence followed the explanation as those present tried to comprehend what it was that had just been said. Even Applejack had stopped arguing with Rainbow Dash over the need to sit down so that she could take in the information as well. Unfortunately, that also included taking her eyes off of the rainbow haired girl as she turned to face her overenthusiastic friend. That then made it easy for Rainbow Dash to follow the sudden urge to move away from the wheelchair… which wasn’t really safe considering she was only just able to feel her feet for the first time in years.

“ You know, Pinkie. That was surprisingly-” Twilight started, breaking the silence, before being cut off by Applejack’s yell.

“ Rainbow Dash!”

It just went to show that even looking away for just a second could prove fatal for anyone. All eyes turned back to Rainbow Dash as her own eyes rolled into the back of her head and she finally collapsed. Thankfully, Applejack hadn’t moved from where she stood, so Rainbow Dash managed to topple right into her awaiting arms. At that moment, all thought of the argument disappeared and Applejack gently placed her friend in the awaiting wheelchair. But she was still concerned about what had caused Rainbow to faint like she had.

“ I knew something was going to happen as soon as I heard her slurring her words.” Twilight muttered under her breath.

“ I didn’t know that my Pinkie Sense was going to predict that!” Pinkie admitted, her hair deflating a little.

“ Maybe we should get her to the hospital.” Fluttershy suggested.

“ And risk the doctors finding out about our magic?” Sunset questioned. “ I really don’t want to explain that I come from a different world entirely.”

“ Then what do you propose we do?” Rarity asked.

Both Indigo Zap and Lightning Dust made their way over to the girl in the wheelchair, getting information from Applejack concerning the current situation. Compulsory attendance of first aid classes proved handy in times like this, especially when one was either an athlete or a working farmer. Finally, the trio decided on the best course of action for Rainbow Dash’s current predicament.

“ She needs to rest somewhere safe for a little while.” Lightning declared. “ But I can’t follow you. Indigo and I are needed at our grandparent’s place this afternoon.”

“ Yeah, massive family reunion.” Indigo added. “ Not looking forward to it though.”

“ And miss out on those cream-filled biscuits Grandma makes?”

“ Never! That’s the only reason why I’m going… other than mum and dad forcing me to.”

“ I can accept that.”

“ Uh, gals. We ‘ave a situation ‘ere.” Applejack butted in, quickly reminding the cousins of the unconscious Rainbow Dash.

“ Right.” Indigo said.

“ Like I said earlier, Rainbow’s going to need rest… even though I’m sure she won’t like it. Best get her home. In the meantime, Indi and I have to run. Let us know when this other race is one… if there is another race, that is.” Lightning said.

At that, Sunset offered a small smile. “ Trust me. There will be another race. This is Rainbow Dash we’re talking about after all.”

“ She’s got a point, Dusty.” Indigo smirked. “ Anyways, see ya folks later.”

With a wave from both girls, Indigo Zap and Lightning Dust made their way out of the carpark and down the road, leaving behind six girls who were quite worried about their unconscious friend. Apparently, the attempt to walk as well as stand had proven too much for her body because, not long after the cousins left, Rainbow Dash gave off a snore that sounded more like it was trying to be a hiccup. Trust Rainbow Dash to fall asleep like that.

The good thing about it, though, was that she was now oblivious to the whispered argument that now surrounded her; where she was going to spend her resting period.

“ Well, we can’t head back to the farm now.” Applejack whispered. “ It’s too far away off an’, magic or not, if it turns out Rainbow does need ta see one of them doctors in the hospital, then Ah wanna be near to the hospital.”

“ But the only home accessible for a wheelchair and that is close by is Rainbow Dash’s house.” Rarity pointed out. “ And she has said herself that she doesn’t yet want to see our world’s versions of her family.”

“ Well, there has to be somewhere we can go. We can’t stay here.” Twilight said in a matter-of-fact tone.

Sunset Shimmer tried not to wince at those words, or shrink back, but it was very hard to keep the others from noticing. It probably didn’t help that they were all watching each other for signs that one of them knew something the others didn’t. Even biting one’s lip was bound to gain attention… which Sunset found out thanks to her failed attempts at keeping herself from talking.

“ Of course there is, isn’t there Sunny!” Pinkie Pie announced rather excitedly, forgetting for a minute that Rainbow Dash was asleep, as she noticed the look on her friend’s face.

All eyes turned to the girl in question, this time visibly making her shy away from them.

“ You don’t want to go there.” Sunset tried to deter them.

“ An’ where is that exactly?” Applejack asked.

“ Um… a place.”

“ It is close by, though… right?” Rarity asked.

“ I guess. But it has stairs though.”

“ How many?” Applejack asked once more.

Sunset was tempted to lie and say there were a whole heap of staircases. But before she knew it, her mouth had already betrayed her. “ Only a couple. Out the front.”

“ An’ how far away is this place?”

Again, Sunset thought about lying and again her mouth betrayed her brain. “ A couple of blocks away. Just off Starswirl Crescent.”

“ Take us there.”

“ We’ll start packing up.” Twilight offered, leading Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie away from the other three.

“ But you really don’t want to go there.” Sunset tried again to deter the thought from their minds.

Applejack couldn’t help but sigh. It was clear that Sunset Shimmer was talking about her house… or where she lived, anyway. She just didn’t understand why her friend was so reluctant about going there. Though she did have a bit of an idea.

“ Sunset, ya know ya can talk ta us if’n things are getting ta be a problem fer ya, right. We don’t judge. Why won’t ya let us over?” she asked, placing her hand on her friend’s shoulder.

Again, Sunset hesitated with an answer before finally letting out a sigh. “ I guess I should have know this day was going to come.”

Author's Note

Finally I managed to get this chapter up onto the computer. And it's a long one (close on 4364 words). Hopefully I haven't lost anyone during the quiet period. I admit, I have been procrastinating a bit, but I've also been busy doing other things.

Anyway, for those of you wondering, I'm trying to make it so that every Equestria Girls chapter links to each other and every Wheelchair World chapter links to each other but still trying to make it so that the chapters show what is happening at the same time in the two different worlds.

For example:
World 1 has, say, a sleep over in the barn while, at the same time, World 2 has a sleep over in a house. or World 1 has a race while World 2 has a music festival.

That sort of thing.

Either way, I hope you're all enjoying.

Chapter 15

(WW)

At the sight before them, one couldn’t help but feel sorry for Fluttershy. She was currently sitting at the dining room table, quietly watching the cake argument unfold before her and occasionally cringing at some of the things that were said. Not to mention the look in her eyes was something akin to both fear and concern, though it wasn’t exactly clear on what she was afraid or concerned about.

Directly across from her, with her elbows propped up on the kitchen counter, was Pinkie Pie, casually listening to the banter before her. Just like Fluttershy, she also had a glimmer in her eye. But this time, there was something about that glint that made shivers run down the others’ spines. And it was clear just from that look that she was not going to enlighten anyone on what her plans for the cakes actually were, despite the supposedly reassuring signs she was giving Fluttershy.

As for the two in the middle of the room, they seemed more concerned about figuring out who was going to have the first piece of cake than anything else. Of course, for the split second that Rainbow Dash just so happened to look away towards the cakes, the man she was arguing with turned his head slightly and gave a wink to his daughter. At that point, Sunset Shimmer knew that her father, Moonlight Charge, was doing this just to get on Rainbow Dash’s nerve… again.

“ As the owner of this house, I believe it is within my rights to have the first piece of cake.” He was saying, a playful tone to his voice.

“ As if.” Rainbow Dash scoffed in reply. “ The first piece of cake should go to me.”

“ And why is that?”

“ Because I am the super guest around here. That’s why.”

“ How does that even work?” Applejack asked quietly, turning her eyes from the playful banter going on in the middle of the room.

“ I don’t know,” Sunset admitted, “ but I think Dash is trying to tell my father that she comes from a different world without actually telling him. Well, that and Dad is being his annoying self again and is going after his favourite victim.”

“ What I want to know is how Rainbow Dash can completely forget about what happened in the bedroom and start arguing about cake that quickly.” Twilight put in. “ She was barely out of the room before we were out of there. There couldn’t have been much time at all.”

Fluttershy chose then to make her way over to the group. “ Oh, that’s easy. Mr Moonlight is using the cake to distract Rainbow from whatever it was that caused her to race in here. My guess it that it was Herman. She was going that fast that she almost barrelled right into your father, Sunset.”

“ How’d ya know it was Herman who sent Dash runnin’?” Applejack asked.

“ Aside from the fact that she was shivering slightly, she was mumbling about something slimy and creepy as well. I put two and two together.” That’s when Fluttershy noticed the guitar that Sunset held. “ Are you going to play something, Sunset?”

Sunset merely smiled. “ I’m actually hoping Rainbow Dash would play us something, what with her going on about being in a band and all. Unfortunately, I think it’s going to be a while before anyone can get through to those two. Dad looks like he’s having way too much fun.”

The next thing the others knew was that Applejack had tipped her hat over her eyes and was making her way over to where Pinkie Pie was watching the argument with a smile on her face. Without a word, the farmer took in the situation; eyeing the cooling cakes and the decorating ingredients before turning her attention over to the two arguing before her. Finally, she returned her attention to Pinkie Pie.

“ Hey, Pinkie.” She called, loud enough to gain the attentions of both Rainbow Dash and Moonlight Charge. “ Ah have an idea.”

“ Oh! What kind of idea?” Pinkie replied excitedly.

“ Why don’t you an’ Fluttershy have those first slices of cake? The two of ya did make ‘m after all.”

“ But what about you guys?”

“ Ah’m sure we can handle any slice ya give us afterwards. Ah jus’ think that the two of ya deserve them first two slices.”

Pinkie Pie took in Applejack’s words, thinking for a short time before turning to Fluttershy. “ I don’t know… what do you think Fluttershy?”

“ Oh, um… why don’t we all just have some together?” Fluttershy replied, trying not to be too scared at having been put on the spot like that.

Surprisingly, it was Rainbow Dash who replied… but only after thinking for a few minutes on it. “ Ya know, that’s not a bad idea.”

Applejack could only nod to that. Though, at the same time, she was also giving Sunset the cue to mention her guitar… something which Sunset took up on as quickly as she could.

“ And while we wait for the cakes to be ready,” She piped up, “ we could play some music. What do you say Rainbow Dash?”

Rainbow Dash eyed the guitar that Sunset was holding out towards her before turning back to the undecorated cakes. When she returned her gaze to the guitar, a smile had found its way onto her face; one that clearly said that there was no way she was going to pass up the chance.

Just seeing that look on Rainbow's face brought a small smile to Moonlight Charge. It was true that he was still confused about why the girl was walking and not sitting in her wheelchair like the last time he had seen her, but he was just glad that he had been able to help get her mind off of whatever had scared her... even if she did refuse to acknowledge her fear. Quietly, he turned and started heading for his study room.

" If that's the case, then I'm just going to have to get called for some cake of my own." He said as he passed his daughter. " I have some things to work on in the study. You girls try not to destroy the kitchen."

“ Sure thing, Dad.” Sunset replied with a small nod of her head.

Unfortunately, she was paying more attention to Rainbow Dash and how she was strumming the strings of her guitar than to the fact that her father was leaving the room. She was just mesmerised by the skill that her visitor possessed… and this was just the warm up. There was no proper tune actually being played.

“ It’s been a while since I’ve had to play one of these,” Rainbow Dash admitted, finally finishing her warm up “ I’m more of an electric guitar kind of girl, but we’ll see…”

That’s when Rainbow Dash started playing properly. At first it didn’t even look like she was moving her fingers with the way she was plucking at the strings. The only give away was the movement of her left hand as it created the cords that were being played. But then she started getting into the song more.

She didn’t sing; there was no need to. The guitar was doing all the singing for her. But the fact that the music was already having an effect on her friends – making them move to the rhythm – was enough to make Rainbow Dash smile. Heck, she couldn’t even help her own body from being captured by the music she played. Her own foot was tapping in time to the beat and her body was rocking to the tune as well. And the fact that the guitar didn’t have a shoulder strap made her thankful that she had chosen to sit down after taking the instrument from Sunset Shimmer.

But the magic really happened once Rainbow Dash closed her eyes. By that point, memory had taken over her finger placing so she welcomed the change with an even greater smile as the first chorus rang from the guitar. The first things to show were her pony ears followed quickly by her hair growing into a longer ponytail. Finally, her wings finished the transformation with a flair.

Apparently, though, magic worked differently when it was transferred from one world to another because the usually tingly sensation that ran through Rainbow’s body whenever she ponied up seemed more aggressive than usual. It was usually a nice feeling but this time it almost felt like it was draining her powers, similar to what happened during the Friendship Games. Not to mention, it made her wince a little and forced her to stop playing for a second or two.

But even so, she still continued with the song.

To those watching her, though, the sight of pony ears and wings were not something they expected when hearing a song. They expected good music – which they got – but the bonus… that had gained looks of both shock and horror from the surrounding girls. Poor Rarity actually fainted at the sight and had to be moved over to the table with a glass of water. Even Fluttershy had to sit down with the shock she received from the sight. The only one who didn’t seem to care was Pinkie Pie; she just shrugged her shoulders and continued with her cake decorating like this was an everyday occurrence to her.

Finally, the song came to a close. The notes eventually died out and Rainbow Dash gave a small sigh. When she took the guitar off her knee, however, her magic instantly disappeared; leaving only a tired looking girl behind.

“ I haven’t played that in ages.” Rainbow admitted as she opened her eyes. That’s when she noticed the dumbfounded looks on the faces that surrounded her. “ Uh… why are you all looking at me like that?”

Twilight was the first to snap out of her stupor. “ Okay, now, don’t get any of us wrong. We really did enjoy what you just played. We’ve just… well… never seen anything quite like it.”

Applejack explained further, though rather bluntly. “ How the hay did ya get wings?”

She couldn’t help it, Rainbow laughed. “ This is my magic. When I play music, I pony up. Sometimes when I’m not playing my guitar, too. My friends back home are the same.”

“ Well, I think the Siren Sisters are going to need to know about this. It changes a lot of things, after all.” Sunset said, her expression turning from shock to thought.

Author's Note

Finally I have chapter 15 up. I am so sorry for the long wait. To make it up to you, I give you a chapter with a song in it. It's a song I personally like (especially played like this) plus I think Rainbow Dash would like it too (I had to look for pop/rock style songs just to try and get her personality right and this just wouldn't get out of my head while I was hunting). Anyway, here is The Script's Hall Of Fame performed by Gabriella Quevedo.

Chapter 16

(EGW)

The street just off Starswirl Crescent was full of neglected and dilapitated buildings and the further down the street Sunset's directions took them, the worse the scenery seemed to get. Admittedly, the first few houses on either side were relatively okay. But even the two appartment blocks that were on the street looked more hazardous than the school toilets - and those were pretty bad. Boards covered windows. Trash littered the yards and parking spaces. There were even some houses that were hidden thanks to the amount of overgrown foliage in the yards.

Applejack - who had managed to talk Fluttershy into letting her drive the minivan - now understood why Sunset Shimmer had been so reluctant to allow anyone even near her place. Poor Rarity actually felt like she was going to be sick as she looked out the van window and onto what humanity could turn a place into. In fact, both she and Fluttershy had decided to concern themselves with looking after Rainbow Dash, who sat between them. Even Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie were trying to immerse themselves in things other than what was beyond the minivan windows.

Only Sunset seemed to be interested in what was going on down her street. She almost had this hungry look in her eyes as she eyed the piles of junk that were strewn across the street. She also seemed to have at least one eye on all the people who were out and about, almost like she was trying to determine if the people who rummaged through the trash or who slept wherever shelter permitted were any threat to either herself or her friends.

Finally, as the car neared the end of the street, Sunset looked up from a particular pile of trash and noticed where exactly they were on the street.

“ It’s this one coming up on the left.” She said, pointing to an old looking house with a relatively clean yard despite the need for a good mowing.

Applejack nodded and pulled into the driveway, taking note of the fact that there was barely anything in the yard at all. She had noticed the couple of garbage bins to the side of the house, peaking over the tall grass, and the mailbox looked like it had seen better days, tied to what looked like the remains of an old chimney stack with wooden boards and chain ropes keeping it in place. Even the house number looked to have been painted on. And that was despite the amount of graffiti that littered the garage doors.

“ Are ya sure about this?” the farmer asked, getting a bad feeling in her stomach at the sight of the house.

“ You wanted me to bring you to my place; I brought you to my place.” Sunset replied curtly. “ Now wait a minute and I’ll open up the garage for you. Tanker and his boys are out. Don’t want him pulling the van apart on us.”

With that, Sunset dug through her bag and pulled out her keychain; the same one with the skeleton key. Then she was out of the van and opening the right-side garage door so that Applejack could drive through. But then she disappeared for a few minutes as Applejack parked the minivan, not showing up until after almost everyone was out of the vehicle. Without a word, Sunset flicked the garage light switch before closing the garage door and locking it once more.

“ Why the tight security?” Twilight asked as soon as Sunset returned her attention back to her friends.

“ Did you not see the state of the street outside?” Sunset replied rather rudely. A few seconds later, she realised just how she had spoken. And she didn’t need to look at the taken aback expressions on her friend’s faces to know it. “ Sorry. Just cautious… especially with Tanker and his boys out and about. This place is supposed to be abandoned, after all.”

“ Just who are Tanker an’ his boys?” Applejack asked.

“ We’ll talk more once we get Rainbow Dash sorted.”

Rainbow Dash was still unconscious in the back of the van. Applejack wasn’t sure if it was because of whatever had tempted her to stand and walk that had really knocked her for six or if it was because she was just a really heavy sleeper. Judging by the snore the girl gave as she was moved from the van to the wheelchair, it was more than likely a combination of both (not even the Rainbow Dash she knew could have slept through accidentally getting her head bumped on the roof of the car). Regardless, Applejack still took hold of the handles and wheeled the sleeping Rainbow Dash over to the door that lead into the house itself.

“ I’m just going to say this now,” Sunset was saying, “ but I’m sorry for any messes or lack of things I happen to have around the place. Also, I hope these doorways can fit a wheelchair.”

Luckily, the wheelchair could get through the doors quite easily. It was the step from the garage into the house that posed a minor issue, but that was easily solved by a backwards lift by Applejack.

The first room beyond the living room was where Sunset slept, so Rainbow was placed on her bed to rest while Sunset led everyone else into the kitchen, pointing out the bathroom as they passed it. Sunset also cautioned about going onto the patio when Rarity tried to let some light into the living room, stating that the patio was decrepit and that it wasn’t safe to be seen outside or living in a supposedly abandoned house, as well as keeping out of the other two rooms in the house.

Once in the kitchen, it was easy to see exactly what Sunset had to live with. The dining room table was a mash of steel surface on mismatched wooden and brick legs that the girl had made the same length, and the four chairs weren’t that much different other than the fact that they had patched up cushions resting on them. There were very few kitchen appliances; a microwave, a toaster, a kettle and an oven with a stove top. There was no fridge.

Being the good friend that she was, Sunset pulled out a packet of biscuits from one of the cupboards as well as filled some glasses with water from the tap before disappearing once more into another part of the house, leaving the other five girls to talk amongst themselves about the state of their friend’s living conditions. Of course, the conversation was cut short as soon as Sunset entered the room with a few more chairs that she had managed to scrounge up from elsewhere. Unfortunately, the second she returned amongst her friends, Sunset Shimmer knew that she was the source for the current topic of conversation.

“ Everything okay in here?” She asked, trying not to let on to the fact that she knew she was being talked about.

“ Everything’s just fine, Sunset, dear.” Rarity replied.

“ You sure? You guys went kinda quiet pretty quickly.”

“ We’re just…” Fluttershy started before being forced to stop thanks to the look Rarity was giving her.

Sunset allowed herself a smile as she somehow found room to fit two more chairs around her small dining table. It was obvious to her that her friends didn’t really want to hurt her feelings considering the circumstances, but a part of her also wished that they would just say it so that there was nothing awkward going on between them. To be honest, it almost made her wish that Rainbow was awake due to her tendency to be quite blunt at times. Alas, she had to make do with what she had.

“ You’re all worried about me because I live in a house that’s supposed to be abandoned, with next to nothing except whatever happens to be a descent find in either a pile of junk on the side of the road or in the junk yard.” She guessed anyway.

The sea of guilty looks confirmed her suspicions but all she could do was give them all a soft smile as she made herself a cup of tea using the powdered milk she kept in the cupboard.

“ You don’t need to worry about me, guys.” She said, after offering her friends some tea. “ I’ve learnt how to care for myself around here ever since I found the place when I first arrived in this world. And half of what I earn goes into savings, anyway.”

“ But why live in such a… dreary state?” Rarity found herself asking.

“ My money goes into living, Rarity. I still need to pay for water and electricity, not to mention food and personal clothing. Plus I have to pay off Celestia and the school. I rarely get much for myself; that’s why all the furniture I own has been someone else’s junk at one point or another. I just fix them up so that I can use them.”

“ An’ mah guess is that ya fight fer the best stuff with that Tanker fellow?” Applejack asked.

“ Not really. Tanker is kind of like a crime boss or gang leader or something. He and his sons are always looking for trouble. Half the reason why I don’t bother tidying up the front yard is because I don’t want them to come in here and trash the place, which is also why I pretty much made you bring the minivan in. To put it simply, Tanker is the kind of guy who always holds grudges, but will threaten to do things and then order his sons to follow their father’s plans and they listen to him like his some kind of god or something. And when something doesn’t seem right to Tanker’s standards (which aren’t that high to begin with) – and this is despite the fact that you’ve been keeping out of his way and minding your own business – he will still come after you and force his boys to destroy what you own. And, currently, Tanker’s prime target is me, for some unknown reason.”

“ And you can’t just move away from him?” Fluttershy asked in quiet concern.

“ Wish I could, Fluttershy. But the money I have managed to put aside for when I finally do get out of this place is dangerously low at the moment thanks to what I have to pay to keep living and learning.”

Silence fell within the kitchen as everyone took in what Sunset had said; each mind thinking of ways to help their friend without seemingly being rude. Of course, Sunset could tell exactly what her friends were thinking about (it really wasn’t that hard considering the topic), but she chose to ignore it for now. Instead, she chose to think on the reason why she had everyone at her reject of a house; Rainbow Dash.

For some strange reason, sight of her house had slipped the current issue of a wheelchair bound Rainbow Dash taking the place of their own walking Rainbow Dash from everyone’s mind. It was only thanks to an unknowing Applejack that the conversation was easily switched back to the correct topic for the current situation.

“ Well, ya do know that if’n ya need some help, all ya have ta do is give us a holler, right, Sunset?” the farmgirl asked.

“ I know,” Sunset replied with a smile, “ and thanks. But right now, I think we should be focussing more on figuring out why Wheelchair Dash got the urge to suddenly stand up and how to get her home.”

“ Well, Ah did notice this strange blue haze in her eyes when Ah was arguin’ with Rainbow Dash.” Applejack admitted after a few minutes of silence.

“ Blue haze?”

“ Ah dunno. It’s what it looked like to me.”

And with that, Applejack proceeded to tell the others about all the details and warning signs that she had noticed ever since they had arrived at the school for the race.

Rainbow Dash woke up to a slight throb attacking her head and her body feeling like it had been hit by a car again, though the pain was dull. The last thing she remembered was having an argument with Applejack on standing up, but she wasn’t quite sure if it had been a dream or not. The tipping of the wheelchair definitely wasn’t – that’s probably what was causing her head to throb – but the fuzziness of the argument just didn’t feel real.

Neither was the fact that Lightning Dust and Indigo Zap were cousins. That was definitely a weird bit of information. Last time she checked, Lightning Dust didn’t have any cousins, but Rainbow put it down to whatever was messing up her brain.

Finally, after a few more minutes of relative silence that was only broken by the muffled sound of a group of people trying to work something out, Rainbow’s mind realised that it was supposed to be working and concentrating on what was around her. This prompted her to look around.

The bed she currently sat on looked like it had been through the wars. The right corner of the headboard had been broken off and smoothed over with sandpaper so that no damage could be done thanks to the jagged edges. The bed also seemed a little confused on what colour it was supposed to be thanks to the mismatched light and dark coloured bed ends. One of the end posts also seemed to be missing a knob. But the main thing was that it was sturdy. Even the two bedside tables, Rainbow Dash noticed, were mismatched with both the bed and each other.

Scattered on the floor were piles of books and dirty clothes that had yet to be put in the wash. By the only window was a massive desk area complete with a miniature science lab and a laptop. There was a bookshelf in the room, but it was only small and was already filled to the point where Rainbow Dash thought it would fall apart just from all the weight. It also looked like a bag or two had been thrown into the room thanks to the odd pile that lay by the door.

Yet the strange thing was that the room felt oddly familiar.

In the end, nature overruled all other thoughts when Rainbow Dash finally realised what the pressure below her stomach actually was. Thankfully, someone had had the sense to realise that the wheelchair needed to be within reach at all times (the last time she had awoken to find herself in a strange bed, Big Mac had forgotten to have the wheelchair next to the bed for her. He got an earful for it from Applejack, but that was also when Applejack decided that she best move downstairs for easier access for her girlfriend) because it was right where Rainbow could swing herself out and get herself moving.

When, finally, Rainbow was ready to face whoever may have kidnapped her (her mind was still a little fuzzy from what happened at the race) she wheeled herself down the familiar looking hallway – taking the wheelchair tight corners with practiced ease – and into the familiar kitchen. There, she found her friends all huddled around each other and obviously trying to work on something that no one seemed to be able to figure out. The funny thing was, and Rainbow was pretty sure it was out of coincidence thanks to the way everyone was so focussed on whatever it was they were doing, everyone had fallen silent almost as soon as Rainbow Dash had entered the room.

“ Wow.” She called as she looked around, remembering why everything seemed so familiar as everyone around the table recovered from the shock of silence being suddenly broken. “ I never imagined this place to look so empty. What happened, Sunny?”

Sunset took a breath to help calm herself before she responded. “ This place was abandoned when I showed up, so I made it mine. Government almost tore it down, too, before I put a stop to it.”

“ Why didn’t you tell us about this earlier, darling?” Rarity inhaled sharply at the news.

“ It was before I realised that having friends was a lot more important than ruling Equestria.” Sunset admitted.

“ Equestria?” Rainbow Dash asked.

Pinkie immediately bounced into view with her answer. “ That’s the name of Sunny’s old home and the home of Princess Twilight and all of the other pony people. Didn’t we tell you that when we told you the big story yesterday?”

Rainbow Dash tried to remember what had occurred the night before – her facial features told everyone that much – but her mind wouldn’t go beyond the nightmare she had had. And the snippets of memory that she did manage to get past the nightmare weren’t that much help at all. She remembered being the one to lead Butterscotch out to the field for the night, Pinkie getting drunk on helium, some weird game of twister which had Fluttershy helping her with her legs, and playing a twist on ‘twenty-one questions’ which included everyone bombarding her with questions before she got the chance to return the favour. But not once did she remember anything about ‘pony people’ or the name ‘Equestria’. So she ended up answering Pinkie Pie’s question with a slow shake of her head and a confused look on her face.

“ Oh well. Now you know!”

Rainbow Dash then watched her skip over to where Rarity was cutting herself a slice of jam role which Sunset had put out for everyone. Only, what Rainbow Dash saw was not what was really there. Thanks to the replay of the nightmare from the night before, Rainbow saw something much more darker than someone cutting through a rolled up sponge cake. And the fact that the sponge was almost the same colour as Applejack’s skin and that the jam was oozing out slightly made the image that much worse.

Subconsciously, she pushed herself back a little as she turned to face Applejack. It was an obvious attempt to calm her fears, and everyone else noticed, but the farm girl herself had her attention on looking for a clock. She could tell, just by the glow of the afternoon sun, that they should be getting back to the farm for Rainbow’s sake. She just wasn’t quite sure if Sunset had any other plans concerning her friends and her house.

“ What’s wrong, Applejack?” Sunset asked, finally noticing her friend searching for something.

“ Ya wouldn’t happen to ‘ave a clock, would ya, Sunset?” Applejack asked.

“ No, sorry. I use my phone to check the time. Why?”

“ The sun’s getting awful low in the sky, is all. An’ Granny Smith don’t like it if’n we’re late home fer dinner… especially if’n we don’t show up ‘till the next mornin’. She’d ‘ave my hide fer that. So, Ah jus’ wanted ta know if we’re heading back to the farm or if we’re stayin’ here so that Ah can let Granny know not ta worry ‘bout us.”

“ We shouldn’t be too much longer here.” Sunset put in before anyone could even suggest otherwise. “ I want to wait until sun-down to get out of here, though, that way we don’t get caught by Tanker and his boys.”

Rarity turned to face her fiery haired friend, “ Are you sure Sunset?”

“ The only place worth sleeping in would be the bedrooms, and I really don’t want to open up those other two rooms, which leaves only my bedroom with its one bed. And I’ve got nothing for dinner for seven of us. Plus everything is back at the barn.” Sunset replied, a matter-of-fact tone gracing her voice as she spoke.

She was right. The only things they had brought with them to the race were some tables, equipment from around the farm, a small amount of food and one five litre tank of water with a plastic tap. Plus there was whatever was left of Rarity’s bolt of fabric and the two wheelchairs that they would eventually have to return. There was nothing with them that could be any help with clothes, beds, or enough food for all of them. And Rarity was only one person even if she did use the last of her fabric, not to mention the possibility of not having enough of the stuff to do beds and clothes for all of Sunset’s guests.

A soft sigh seemed to pass through four of the five girls sitting around the table with Sunset Shimmer. It was almost like they had all realised that they weren’t going to learn much more of Sunset’s current life and had resigned themselves to the fact that they may probably never know. But still Applejack removed her mobile phone from her pocket and dialled her home phone number, quickly letting the rest of her family know what was going on.

All the while, Rainbow Dash was still by the doorway, trying to make sense of what was going on in front of her. The Apple family dinner curfew thing, she knew about. Somethings never changed even between the worlds. But this Tanker fellow didn’t sound too inviting to be around. And it was he who was playing in the back of her mind.
Eventually she was forced to ask the question which had formed since she had first heard the name.

“ Who are Tanker and his boys?”

Author's Note

I finally have all my data back. And that means I was finally able to give you guys the next chapter that I know you all deserve. Hope you all like it and it was worth the wait.

Chapter 17

(WW)

“ No!” Rainbow Dash practically barked out, fear showing slightly in her eyes at the thought of the Siren Sisters discovering her magic.

She honestly didn’t care that she and the others had defeated the sirens during the battle of the bands, thus destroying their gems in the process. It was the fact that they had been able to steal the magic in the first place that freaked her out. Okay, so she hadn’t realised that they were stealing it until Sunset had made them all realise what was going on. But it was their subtlety that made them dangerous.

To make things worse, the fact that her own friend, Twilight Sparkle, had found a way to capture the magic as well was still fresh in her mind. Especially the pain she felt when Twilight’s magic stealing device literally drained the magic from inside of her. Regardless of what was said or done, if there was any chance at all where she could avoid situations like that, she was willing to take it.

For now, though, it seemed the only thing she could do was blatantly refuse any help from the siren sisters (or whatever they called themselves in this world) and deny any fear that may have snuck through. The only problem was, she was just like an open book when it came to her friends. And because these people currently around her being almost the exact same as her friends back home, it meant that they could read her just as easily.

Not to mention that – due to having dated this world’s Rainbow Dash – both this world’s Applejack and Rarity seemed to be able to sense things about the girl that the others couldn’t read. This, of course, led to both girls noticing the inner turmoil that Rainbow Dash had managed to find herself in, which in turn led the two of them to turn to each other with looks of worry on their faces.

As if in silent agreement, Applejack gave off a heavy sigh before turning away and taking a step towards Rainbow… though she was forced to stop when she noticed Rainbow Dash flick her gaze in her direction. It was like looking into the eyes of a scared and injured animal.

“ We’ve been through this, Rainbow Dash. You can trust them Siren Sisters.” The farm girl said as gently as she could.

“ I don’t care. I’m not going.” Rainbow Dash replied stubbornly.

“ They’re diff’rent here than in yer world.”

“ I’ve been tricked by them before and I’m not going to fall for it again.”

“ Would Ah lie to ya, Rainbow Dash?”

Rainbow Dash merely glared at the farmer, her mouth drawn in a thin line of pure determination. At that point, the others knew they were fighting a lost cause. But Applejack was just as stubborn, if not more so. She tilted her hat a little over her eyes and glared right back.

Finally, after a good five minutes, someone broke.

“ As long as I can still walk on my own, there is no way you’re making me go over to the sirens.” Rainbow Dash growled.

With that, the rainbow haired athlete got off the stool she sat on, placed the guitar against it and walked out of the room. She didn’t care that pins and needles were rushing up and down her legs as she walked. And she refused to show how uncomfortable it was or that she was unstable on her feet because of it. She just needed some time to herself… even if it was in Sunset Shimmer’s room with her pet snake. At least she didn’t slam the door like she felt like doing.

“ Perhaps that wasn’t the best of ways to put things, Applejack.” Rarity said after a few seconds of silence.

“ You should know yerself that sometimes ya need ta force things on her jus’ ta get through that thick head of hers.” Applejack replied, a slight growl to her voice.

“ Yes, but given what happened a few hours ago, you could have been a bit more gentle.”

“ So mah guess is that ya didn’t see how tired she was after that one song?”

“ Of course I saw it, Applejack, but I was more concerned with… with whatever it was that gave her wings and those somewhat adorable looking ears.”

“ An’ that right there is the problem.”

“ What do you mean?” Fluttershy asked.

“ Clearly that magic – or whatever it was – is what drained Rainbow Dash. An’ Ah bet ya two kegs of mah family’s apple cider that that’s what’s makin’ Dash need that wheelchair. Now Ah’m gonna be honest, but ya’ll should know that we can’t help her with what she needs. We’re knee deep in mud when it comes ta magic an’ what not. But them Siren Sisters seem ta know what they’re doin’. An’ whether anyone likes it or not, Ah reckon they’re the only ones that can help Rainbow Dash get home.”

“ So what do we do?” Twilight asked. “ We can’t just do nothing.”

At that moment, Pinkie Pie popped up in front of everyone with three plates balanced on each arm, each carrying two generous servings of cake.

“ We can give her cake!” She exclaimed happily, holding her arms out to her friends.

For a few seconds, the girls just stared at her in confusion; each one trying to figure out what cake had to do with helping Rainbow Dash get home. They still took a plate each, though, leaving a plate in Pinkie’s hand. But even so, Sunset still had a question playing around in her head at the sight of the expertly decorated cakes.

“ How did you manage…” She started before being cut off by a pink finger being pressed to her lips.

“ It’s best not to ask that question.” Pinkie said. “ But now I have a cake to deliver. I’ll be right back!” With that, Pinkie Pie started skipping out of the kitchen. She only stopped when she got to the hallway entrance. “ Oh, and you may not want to call your dad back yet, Sunny. I still need to clean up.”

Sunset watched as Pinkie Pie disappeared around the corner – a worried look coming across her face – before turning to her girlfriend. “ Why do I have a bad feeling about that last bit?”

“ Because it’s Pinkie Pie?” Twilight suggested.

“ Uh, Sunset…” Rarity’s words faded out.

“ Ya may wanna turn ‘round.” Applejack finished for her.

Sunset dreaded what those words meant as she took a deep breath and followed Applejack’s orders. Needless to say, her dread did not go unwarranted.

Oblivious to the panic she had left the kitchen in, Pinkie Pie happily skipped down the hallway with Rainbow Dash’s plate carefully balanced on her palm. However, she was also oblivious to the fact that Rainbow Dash had closed Sunset’s bedroom door in her attempt to not let the Siren Sisters know about her magic. So it was, by some miraculous movement, Pinkie Pie managed to not splatter the cake when she skipped right into the door.

“ It’s cake time, Dashie!” the bubbly girl yelled enthusiastically as she pulled herself away from the door and opened it.

“ Thanks Pinkie.” Rainbow Dash replied almost with a sigh, her eyes not even turning from the screen before her.

Pinkie looked from Rainbow Dash up to the television screen and back again. Something was clearly wrong in the room, and it wasn’t the fact that Rainbow Dash was in second place to a computer player on the car racing game. But what it was exactly was another question. Everything seemed to be in order. Herman was locked in his tank. Nothing was out of place from when she had left the room. And Rainbow Dash was lying down in her sleeping bag and focussing on the game in front of her. It honestly brought a frown to the pink girl’s face.

“ You okay Rainbow Dash?” She asked, making her way over to the athlete and taking a seat beside her.

“ I’m fine.” Rainbow dash replied automatically.

Judging by the tone of her voice, however, Rainbow Dash was not fine. In fact, as she said those very words, Rainbow Dash forced herself not to wince as the final throbs of pain shot down her legs in time to the pounding of her heart. She couldn’t even find it in herself to swear at the computer game as she crossed the finishing line a close second to the car she was trying to beat.

And it was because of that that Pinkie knew that something was wrong.

“ You know I can tell when you’re feeling down, Dashie.” Pinkie smirked. “ Now tell Mama Pinkie Pie what’s wrong.”

“ Nothing is wrong, Pinkie Pie.” This time there was a definite growl in Rainbow’s voice.

“ If you say so. But I’ll tell you one thing. Cake will make it better! It always does!”

With that, Pinkie got up and skipped out of the room, leaving Rainbow Dash alone with her game and her slice of cake.

Rainbow watched her leave before looking down at the two slices of cake next to her. They were so innocent, so delicious… and so similar. Both were seemingly ordinary, vanilla cakes with what looked like a hint of orange in one of them (knowing Pinkie Pie, the orange one was hers). Yet on the outside, they showed two completely different scenes; the orange cake looked like it may have been part of a rainbow with chocolate rain clouds, the plain cake (possibly Fluttershy’s) looked like it was a meadow full of butterflies. Though it wasn’t until closer inspection that Rainbow Dash noticed the drops of chocolate rain on the meadow cake.

Maybe it was just a coincidence, but this was Pinkie Pie she was dealing with; anything was possible with that girl. Heck, there were some days where Rainbow and the others had more than a sneaking suspicion that her own Pinkie Pie regularly travelled between the portals to Equestria. So it wouldn’t be a total surprise if it turned out there was some hidden meaning behind the cakes.

Whatever the case, Rainbow Dash heaved a sigh and started eating, all the while, trying to avoid looking down at her now numb legs.

Pinkie Pie returned to the kitchen only to find that her mess was almost completely gone. Sunset and Twilight were both at the sink, cleaning up the various dishes that had once been strewn around the kitchen counter, while Applejack, Rarity and Fluttershy were busy cleaning up the mess that hadn’t been on the dishes. Even the cakes had been covered and placed on the dining room table, out of the way of the cleaning.

“ Aw, you guys. You didn’t have to do anything.” Pinkie called, alerting the others to her return. “ I was just coming to fix it all up.”

“ Don’t you worry about a thing Pinkie Pie.” Applejack said with a smile. “ We would have helped ya whether you were ‘ere or not.”

“ That and Dad would have had a fit if he walked in and saw the kitchen the way it was.” Sunset added.

Pinkie Pie could only smile. She would have gone to try and help clean up if it weren’t for the fact that everyone was pretty much finished with the work. Instead, she was forced to wait until her friends were finished with the clean-up job… which only lasted a few seconds before she started banging random rhythms on the counter with her hands. But there were times when even her hyperactivity was forced to a stop by a single question.

“ How is Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy asked.

“ She’s not happy.” Pinkie admitted, a frown on her face as her hands stopped their music making. “ She’s lying in her sleeping bag and playing that car racing game but I think her legs have gone numb again.”

“ So this is getting more serious than we thought?” A new voice asked.

It took a while for the girls to locate who was talking, but eventually they found a familiar, blue haired girl standing in the doorway to the laundry room. Surprisingly, there was a concerned look on her face, but none of the other girls were sure about how much she had heard or how long she had been there for. In fact, they were all trying to sus out if it really was who they thought it was.

Only one person was excited to see the newcomer, and that was because she was always excited.

“ Hi Sonata!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, running off to give the girl a hug.

Author's Note

Gah! 6 months without doing anything! :pinkiegasp: I'm so, so, so, sorry about that, guys. :applecry: I don't even know if i'm worthy of continuing this. i think i have an idea of where i want to go with this, and i sort-of still remember the dream i had that one time (surprisingly), it is honestly just a matter of getting there. anyway, i hope you enjoyed this chapter and i haven't lost any of you. you are all awesome! especially if you managed to stick with this for such a long time! :heart: 🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪

Chapter 18

(EGW)

“ Please don’t make me explain who he is again.” Sunset Shimmer seemingly mumbled to herself.

“ No one ya need ta worry yerself about, Rainbow Dash.” Applejack replied, having just gotten off the phone and noticed the look on Sunset’s face.

“ Aw, come on guys.” Rainbow Dash pleaded, rolling back a little. “ Don’t leave me hanging.”

“ No, Dash.”

“ They’re just bad people that everyone would be better off not knowing about.”Fluttershy supplied softly in an attempt to help.

Unfortunately, it only got Rainbow Dash worked up. With even just a passing glance around the kitchen, the immediate thought of some tough guy family coming in and trashing Sunset’s house came to mind. This, in turn, made her angry; thinking that it was something like that which had forced Sunset Shimmer to live how she did now. Regardless, no one was expecting what came out of her mouth next.

“ No one got hurt, did they? Because if I find out that this Tanker fella was hurting my friends, I’m gonna get some speed up and run him over with my wheelchair, then I’m gonna to get Butterscotch and trample the guy and I’m gonna make him hurt so bad that he would never even think about hurting anyone else again!”

All the others could do was stare at the ferocity of the chair bound girl in front of them. It was true that their Rainbow Dash had one heck of a loyalty streak, but this Rainbow Dash seemed to match her amount of loyalty if not surpass it. And the determined, borderline murderous, look on her face proved it.

Sunset was the first to break free from the shock.

“ No one is going to be hurting anyone.” She said, calming Rainbow Dash down before she charged out of the building. “ I’m not hurt and neither are the others. You don’t need to go after Tanker. We all just need to calm down, have a drink or something to eat, make sure we have everything in the minivan and get the heck out of here.”

It took a little bit of convincing – mainly from her grumbling stomach – but eventually Rainbow Dash decided that food was a much better alternative to hunting someone down without proof of them hurting or destroying the lives of her friends in some way. She wheeled herself over to the table where she noticed an almost empty packet of biscuits, a fruit bowl with some apples in it, and the jam roll from earlier. Despite the apples tempting her, she took the last three biscuits while Sunset got her a glass of water from the tap.

“ Sorry there’s not much.” Sunset apologised as she placed the cup down in front of Rainbow Dash. “ I actually need to go shopping again soon.”

“ It’s cool.” Dash replied.

“ Well, I’m going to make sure that everything’s in the minivan. If you need me, just give a holler.”

Replies of confirmation echoed through the house as Sunset Shimmer left the kitchen in search for any pieces of equipment that needed to be put back into the minivan before leaving. Finding nothing within the house, she turned to the minivan itself to make sure that everything was still there. And the hum of conversation coming from the kitchen followed her every move, not even managing to penetrate her mind as she counted and recounted everything that had been packed into the minivan back at the school.

In fact, she was that focussed in her work that Sunset failed to notice the form of someone leaning against the doorframe of the garage.

“ Ya know you can keep that table if ya need it, right?” The sure, accented voice of Applejack easily broke the train of thought that was running through Sunset Shimmer’s mind. “ It’s jus’ an old table from around the barn. Big Mac an’ I have been thinkin’ of getting rid of some of the old things ta make room for more of the new things we need. Besides, there’s more where that one came from.”

It took a few seconds for Sunset to overcome the slight shock at the arrival of one of her friends, but it was nothing a deep breath couldn’t handle. And as soon as that breath was released, she turned her attention to the table in question.

“ Are you sure?” She found her own mouth asking.

“ Darn tootin’ Ah’m sure. Judging from the story you’ve given us and the way this place looks, you darn well need it more than Ah do.”

“ What are we going to use in the meantime?”

“ Well, there are bales o’ hay we could use as well as some boxes and other tables that are stored away in the barn.” Applejack stopped herself when she noticed the worried look on Sunset’s face. “ But I’ll tell ya what. If ya what worried, we’ll still use that table. But right after all this is over, you an’ me are gonna go through the place, pack everything ya need into the truck and bring it over here for ya.”

“ You don’t have to do that you know.” Sunset sighed.

“ Yer our friend. It’s what friends do.”

Sunset Shimmer opened her mouth as if to say something more, but the second she did so, she quickly shut it again knowing that she was going to be fighting a losing battle if she continued to argue the point. And with that glint in Applejack’s eyes, she knew her friend wasn’t going to let her drop the subject so easily. Looking back at the minivan and closing the boot door, she let loose a small sigh.

“ Let’s just focus on getting these two Rainbow Dashes back where they belong.” The fiery haired girl finally said, turning to face the farm girl.

It wasn’t long before the girls were back at the Apple Family Farm and with full bellies thanks to Granny Smith feeding them course after course of delicious tasting meals. The old woman even said herself that she wasn’t going to stop until either she was satisfied with ‘the amount of meat on those bones’ of they were practically rolling out the door to the barn. And that was pretty much what Rainbow Dash did; rolling after the others in her wheelchair despite having a matching appetite to the girl that was so much like herself.

There was just one little thing that the girls hadn’t counted on once they got back to the barn.

“ Now Ah know those pencils are in here somewhere.” A young accented voice called from beyond the barn door.

Applejack stopped walking at the sound of her sister’s voice.

“ What in tarnation is Apple Bloom doin’ looking for pencils in the barn?” she asked herself aloud.

“ Don’t you remember, Jackie? Dashie used them to create that amazing picture of all the weird coloured people that look a lot like us but aren’t us and their pets which look a lot like our pets at home.” Pinkie supplied, bouncing over to her friend and tapping at her head as if that would force the memory to the front of Applejack’s brain.

The farm girl merely swatted her friend’s hand away.

“ But why would they be in the barn?” the sweet voice of Sweetie Belle asked from inside the barn.

“ Because Ah gave them to Rainbow Dash so she could borrow them for some reason.” Apple Bloom replied.

“ Apple Bloom, Rainbow Dash doesn’t draw.” The scratchy sound of Scootaloo’s voice was filled with uncertainty.

Wheelchair bound Rainbow Dash was shocked to hear that come out of her little sister’s mouth, forgetting for a few minutes that she was actually in a different world and this world’s version of Scootaloo quite possibly didn’t even know that there had been a magical mishap concerning the Rainbow Dash she knew. In fact, she was that affronted by Scootaloo’s words that she forced her wheelchair to the barn door.

“ Rainbow Dash, wait.” Applejack called softly.

The farm girl didn’t want to speak too loudly in case she alerted her sister to the fact that they were back. But she also knew that Scootaloo would totally freak out if she saw this Rainbow Dash in front of her. Of course, there was the problem known as Rainbow Dash herself, who was currently giving Applejack a questioning look as she lowered her arms back to her sides from where they were about to push open the barn doors. If she charged in there like she was planning, all sorts of things could happen.

“ What’s up, AJ?” the wheelchair bound athlete asked softly.

“ Ah don’t know how ya managed to get mah little sister ta lend ya her colouring-in pencils, but if Scootaloo saw ya like this, it’ll freak her out something fierce.”

“ How so?”

“ She looks up to ya almost like she’s her big sister. Wants ta be just like ya; winning just about every sport there is in the school, as well as being the top soccer player in the school’s junior team.”

“ What’s so bad about that?”

“ The last time Ah reckon she saw ya, you were on yer feet. She doesn’t know that you come from another world. So seeing you in a wheelchair could well hurt her.”

“ No offence, Applejack,” Twilight Sparkle butted in “ But unless we somehow figure out how to get Wheelchair Dash back into her own world overnight and get her there by tomorrow, most of the school will see her in a wheelchair. And those who don’t see her will most likely hear it at some point. Especially with Lightning Dust and Indigo Zap knowing about the issue already.”

“ In other words, come Monday, the entire school will know that Rainbow Dash is in a wheelchair.” Sunset surmised. “ Two, if you count Crystal Prep.”

“ The way I see it,” Rainbow Dash said after a few minutes of silence were spent soaking in the words between the friends, “ if Scootaloo’s going to find out about the wheelchair, she may as well find out the truth. As long as she keeps it between her and her two friends only.”

“ Keep what between the Crusaders?” A small yet scratchy voice asked,

The older girls all turned to face the now open barn doors. And standing in the doorway were three young girls, one with a packet of pencils in her hands. It seemed that the three of them had found what they had entered the barn for while the older girls had been talking. Unfortunately, with the confused expressions on their faces, it was hard to tell if the confusion was thanks to what they had heard or what they were now seeing.

After a few more minutes of strained silence, Applejack finally spoke up. “ Apple Bloom, Ah think you and yer friends should stay in the barn with us tonight. We have a long story to tell ya’ll.”

“ Does it explain why Rainbow Dash is in a wheelchair?” Scootaloo asked.

“ Yes, Scootaloo. Now go get yer sleeping bags and yer pyjamas and come right back here.”

“ Yes, Applejack.” The youngest Apple said before practically herding her friends towards the farmhouse.

Author's Note

Yes, I know. It's been ages. I hope this chapter can make up for that. I still have to type up the next two chapters and then I should be caught up as I am currently writing chapter 21. I am also trying to get to the end of the story. fingers crossed I get there soon.

On another note, I wrote this chapter before I even knew that Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo called themselves the Canterlot Movie Club, hence the 'Crusaders'. I will probably have a mixture of Crusaders and Canterlot Movie Club from here on out.

Sorry for the long wait. Hope the New Year has been good to you all.

Chapter 2

(Equestria Girls World)

BBRRRIIINNGGG!!!!

The sound of a school bell echoed not only around the campus, but also through Rainbow Dash’s head. Her eardrums almost threatened to burst, it was that shrill. And her growing headache did not approve, no matter how near or far she really was to the bell. The thunder of stampeding feet eager to get away from the bell didn’t help either. Especially once Rainbow Dash realised that the surface she was lying on was somehow vibrating with each second the stampede lasted.

Finally, after what felt like forever, the stampede faded into the afternoon and with it went the vibrations. Unfortunately for Rainbow Dash, that also meant that it was somehow safe for her to open her eyes. She didn’t want to, but unnatural forces seemed to have taken control of her body and were forcing her eyes to open for her. Of course, she resisted… or at least, tried to. But her efforts went in vain and she was forced to open her eyes with a groan, her brain trying to figure out what had happened all the while.

The last thing she remembered properly was being lifted into the air before the darkness closed in around her. To be honest, as her brain was in the early stages of waking up, she had gotten the feeling that she was now dead. She had no idea where that thought had come from, but she tried to keep herself from visibly showing that it had shaken her a little. Looking around, however, proved her wrong.

Somehow she had ended up in front of the school, and by the looks of it, dumped right next to the wondercolt statue. Everything looked as it should have… same castle-like school building, same arched pathway in front of the main stairs, same Canterlot High emblem statue out the front of the school. But then she turned to face the giant rearing horse she was next to. For some strange reason, the wondercolt horse looked cleaner than usual, definitely whiter. The statue’s base, on the other hand, looked just like it should have; worn with age and years of cleaned graffiti.

Finally turning herself over and managing to sit up with her legs out in front of her, Rainbow shimmied over to the base of the statue and started to run her hand along the surface. The statue felt cold to the touch and more than definitely solid – just like it should have right from the get go – but she couldn’t help but wonder why she was there in the first place.

Did whatever lift her up fail to get her across to wherever it was it wanted to take her? Or did it somehow manage to succeed in its task and had trapped her in a place so similar to what she already knew? Maybe she had been accidentally dropped in a place between what she knew and what she didn’t know? Going back to her death theory, was the afterlife really just another copy of her world, with everyone she knew copied from her memories and brought to life?

Yeah, she really hoped not. She didn’t want to be stuck as a high schooler for the rest of forever.
As fast as she could (which wasn’t that fast considering) Rainbow shuffled herself over to the back of the statue so that she was away from the road and thus had some sort of shelter behind her. It was tough work, but she was more concerned about how she was going to tackle the distance between her and the doors of the school without her wheelchair. Not to mention how she was going to get up those stairs without further damaging herself. In fact, those stairs were the biggest challenge so far.

That’s when she saw them. Three boys digging a hole near the front of the school. One was a little on the short side whilst his companions were clearly bigger and buffer than him. Even from her distance, Rainbow could tell that their clothes were all dirty and tacky. And if their clothes were like that, she didn’t want to imagine the stench. But the strange thing was that they reminded her suspiciously of the Diamond Brothers from back home.

Back home, the Diamond Brothers were the ‘elite’ of the school. Some even questioned why they were in a simple school like Canterlot High and not one of the posh boarding schools in the city or elsewhere in the country. They dressed elegantly. Their manners were over the top, but still a nice change to school life. They were more than willing to help a fellow student in need, even without having to be asked. And they would most likely have a heart attack if they ever had the misfortune of meeting these three boys.

Regardless of anything, Rainbow Dash knew that she would have to try her luck with those boys if she wanted to get anywhere.

“ Hey, you three! Get over here!” She called as loud as she could.

Surprisingly, her voice managed to carry over the empty school yard. Of course, the boys were sceptical at first, looking at each other in confusion, but they eventually agreed to go see what it was they were being called over for. Once they got to the wondercolt statue, however, Rainbow Dash noticed that they did not look pleased to see her. And judging by the empty hole in the ground with piles of dirt surrounding it and the shovel that the eldest (and biggest) boy had shouldered, they probably weren’t too pleased with having to leave their personal project behind them.

“ What rainbow girl want?” the smallest of the three asked rudely.

Something told Rainbow Dash to be careful just by hearing the tone of voice that the boy had used. But still she knew that she had to try. “Can’t believe I’m saying this, but I need help. Can you three get me up to the Principal’s office?”

“ What Diamond Dogs get back for help?”

That left her dumbstruck. These three boys definitely weren’t like the Diamond Brothers from back home. But still she steeled herself for any attacks that may occur. What happened, however, was not what she expected. Where she expected a fight to start, instead she found the three boys move away from her a few steps and begin to talk in a small huddle. The looks on those boys faces when they turned around made the blue skinned girl that nervous that she couldn’t even swallow down her negative feelings when she tried.

“ Rainbow girl no give shiny to Diamond Dogs, we no help rainbow girl.” The medium sized one stated as his brothers started to move back to their hole.

“ ‘Shiny’ hey?” the girl questioned, her brain already working on a way to get these boys to work for her. “ What if I say that I know where there are shiny things?”

That got the Diamond Dogs’ attentions.

A few minutes later, Rainbow Dash found herself being placed on the floor in front of the Principal’s and Vice Principal’s offices. A small row of chairs between two closed doors marked a waiting area, and there was a receptionist’s desk just to the left of one of the doors. As soon as the boys were gone (their curious need for shiny objects obviously taking a hold of them and leading them to the false hiding place that Rainbow had lied about in order to get to where she needed to go), Rainbow Dash shuffled her way over to the row of empty chairs and hoisted herself up.

It was fairly easy considering she had to do it all the time to get into her wheelchair, but it was still a nuisance. Especially because she didn’t like showing off the fact that she couldn’t use her legs (and this was despite the fact that she was in a wheelchair). In a wheelchair, she had something to stabilise her legs and keep them where she wanted them. Sitting on an ordinary chair, her legs kind of just hung there like the useless things they were. And she couldn’t control them properly. Also, she was more likely to fall off an ordinary chair than she was if she were strapped up to her wheelchair.

Thankfully, she didn’t have to wait long before someone walked around the corner and noticed her. She was a dark woman with dark flowing hair and she wore an expression that showed she meant business. When she saw Rainbow Dash sitting in front of the offices, however, that look melted into something similar to confusion. It was obvious that she thought it strange to see Rainbow Dash sitting in front of the principal’s office and not passing a ball between her feet or standing there like she would usually do.

“ Is everything alright, Rainbow Dash?” the woman asked, shocking Rainbow in the sense that she was surprised that someone she didn’t know knew her name.

Despite portraying herself as confident, just looking up at this teacher made Rainbow Dash nervous. There was something imposing about her that she couldn’t quite put a name to. Not to mention the familiarity that seemed to waft off her like a faint haze. Whatever it was, it would have to wait. Right now, Rainbow needed to get some movement… and the only way she could get that was by somehow getting this teacher to either get her to see the principal or get her a wheelchair.

“ Rainbow Dash?” the woman asked again, bringing Rainbow out of her thoughts.

“ I, uh… need to see either Principal Sombra or Vice-Principal Discord.” She replied uncertainly.

“ Miss Dash, you should know there is no Principal Sombra or Vice-Principal Discord at this school, nor has there been in the time before my sister and I took office. In fact, I shudder to think of any man as crazy as that business tycoon ever taking my place and teaching today’s youths.”

“ Uh…”

“ Miss Dash, did you hit your head?” now concern seemed to seep into the woman’s voice as she sat down next to the rainbow haired girl.

“ Uh… I don’t know?” Surprisingly Rainbow’s voice came out as an unconfident squeak, portraying the turmoil that her mind was currently trying to sort out at that moment.

“ Okay, let us start simple. Why are you here? Did you need something?”

Those were reasonable enough questions. It also snapped Rainbow’s mind back on track. The faint image of her wheelchair slowly emerged from the depths of her befuddled brain; shining as if brand new. Mostly black in colour, the padding on the seat and back of the chair was a vibrant sky blue colour personalised with her rainbow lightning bolt logo on the back. Yes, it had handlebars despite being a self-propelled wheelchair, but she was more than okay with having them (when she was feeling lazy, she was more than willing to let Applejack push her around). Plus, she was able to strap her legs in place to stop them from flying around and being utterly useless. It even came with a detachable railing for soccer and other such sports that she was determined to excel at. Not to mention, it won races like a dream.

Before the teacher could question Rainbow’s silence, she spoke. “ I… I need my wheels.”

This stunned the older woman for a few seconds. “ I’m sure your ‘wheels’ would be in the carpark along with everyone else’s cars.”

“ No. I don’t mean… that is, I… I need a wheelchair.”

There. It was out. And, for some reason, Rainbow Dash found herself embarrassed to admit even that. Not to mention the confused look that she received in return just made her feel worse. With a sigh, the blue skinned girl took a deep breath and forced herself up onto her feet.

It freaked her out big time when she had to do this. No matter what anyone said about her looking calm as she did it. She couldn’t feel her legs at the best of times, so to put all your faith on useless limbs just felt wrong to her. In fact, it felt like someone had gone and chopped her in half at the waist and left her hanging for her life strapped in a bungy cord harness. Even now, she could feel herself wobble as her torso struggled to find something to hold her up.

Then, after about ten seconds of being up on her feet, Rainbow Dash collided face first into the tile patterned floor below her. She sensed rather than felt the awkward positions that her legs had crumpled into upon ground collision. Within a few more seconds, however, the dark skinned woman was by her side and helping her back onto the chair that she had once occupied. Somehow, she managed to avoid hitting her head as she fell, but it was still spinning from what had happened by the time the teacher straightened herself out.

“ I see you are not from around here. Rest while I go in search of a wheelchair for you. Then we can talk in my office.” The woman said as she started to leave. She must have forgotten something because she turned back to face Rainbow Dash a few seconds later. “ Oh, before I forget. Around here I am known as Vice-Principal Luna.”

Once more, Rainbow Dash was plunged into silence as she watched the now known Vice-Principal disappear around the corner she had appeared from previously. Yes, it gave her time to think about what was going on, but she also didn’t want to think. She knew that thinking would make her brain explode, and that would not be pretty. One just had to look at her to know that she was in enough turmoil at that moment.

In the end, she opted to sort out her current situation in darkness, closing her eyes to do so.

“ Rainbow Dash! There ya are!”

The sudden sound of a very familiar southern accent shocked the rainbow haired girl into opening her eyes and nearly jumping off the chair in fright. It didn’t take long for her fear filled eyes to land on the one person she thought she’d never see in this world, and her heart actually gave a bit of a flutter when she saw her. For, coming down the hallway like a monster was chasing her, was none other than Applejack.

A small smirk forced its way onto Rainbow’s face; a dash of seduction hidden within that only Applejack would notice. But the meaning was lost on the country girl who seemed more concerned about having found her friend than making sure her lover was safe. In fact, as Applejack got closer and sat down next to her, Rainbow could tell that she was choosing to ignore what she thought of as odd behaviour coming from her friend.

“ Where have you been, darling?” another voice sent chills running down Rainbow’s back and tried to force her to shy away from both girls.

Instead, she forced herself to look down the same hallway that Applejack had run down to meet her. Sure enough, making her own way down the hallway towards her, was the one person she least wanted to see. Rarity. As usual, the girl was wearing the latest fashion trends before everyone else even knew what was ‘in’. Today, she was wearing a long purple skirt (that looked like it was ready to trip its wearer as she ran down the hallway) and a white kimono style top. Cleverly designed lace ran the length of the arms from shoulder to wrist whilst an intricate pattern of purple flowers wove its way through the white fabric of the top.

Rainbow Dash was almost certain that Rarity had made the outfit herself, and she almost had to force herself away from how good the outfit looked on her despite how obvious it was that the outfit should never be worn while running. Almost, because that memory was hanging in the back of her mind, reminding her of what she had seen and why she was angry with Rarity in the first place. It was because of this that Rainbow decided it was best to just not talk to either one of the girls.

As soon as Rarity was standing next to Applejack, she pulled out her phone and instantly started texting the others on the whereabouts of Rainbow Dash. The others didn’t need to respond in order to let her know that they were on their way. She knew that they would all change course the second they had read the message.

But it was as she was placing her phone away again that she noticed the odd angle of Rainbow’s legs. The girl’s right foot was pointing inwards with her left foot pointing straight down as if attempting a solo pirouette without the rest of the body knowing. As the girl was sitting on a chair, this made her left leg lie on a relatively natural angle. But it was her right leg that seemed to be rebelling against the position, looking more like Rainbow was trying to sit cross-legged but not succeeding. It honestly looked quite awkward, but what was even weirder was that it didn’t seem to be bothering Dash in the slightest.

“ What’s goin’ on today, Dash?” Applejack asked, not having seen the awkward position of her friend’s legs… or the look that Rarity was giving her.

No response.

“ Yer not gonna start ignorin’ us, are ya?”

Silence.

“ Rainbow, please. We only want to help you.” Rarity tried her luck, opting to ask about her friend’s weird posture later rather than sooner.

Rainbow Dash turned her head slightly but still remained silent.

“ At least we know her ears are workin’.” Applejack said to Rarity despite the obvious dislike showing on her face at having been ignored.

Still not a word came from Rainbow Dash, though she did close her eyes and bite her lip. She hated being this silent, especially around Applejack. But her mind was still trying to figure out what was going on around her. And having Applejack ignore her subtle messages, that was starting to tear at her as well. Having Rarity there also wasn’t helping keep her calm. She was just surprised that she hadn’t blown up in Rarity’s face yet.

“ True. But she is still worrying me. Especially with how her legs are.” Rarity replied, making Rainbow tense up at the mention of her legs. “ Please tell us if you are hurt, Rainbow Dash. We are all worried about you.”

“ And we have been ever since I found your guitar case lying in the hallway because I was trying to stop you so that I could tell you that you left your bag behind in the music room but you were gone by the time I went to try and stop you and by gone I mean you vanished!”

This new voice was so obviously hyped up with sugar that it was almost impossible to understand what was being said. And that was despite the fact that it was being said fairly clearly. Regardless of that fact, however, it scared Rainbow Dash into finally falling to the floor in fright, screaming out as she did so. After a few seconds of settling her racing heart, Rainbow looked up to find Pinkie Pie standing on the other side of where she had been sitting. And, judging from the sound of running feet, the others weren’t that far behind.

“ Sorry, Dashie. Didn’t mean to scare you. I was just so excited that we found you that I couldn’t help but pop up beside you.” The party lover said, offering a hand in order to help Dash back onto her feet.

“ I don’t need your help, Pinkie.” Dash grumbled, turning herself over so that her legs were once more in front of her and not crumbled underneath her.

The words did sting a little, Rainbow knew just by looking at the girl’s face, but she knew that if she accepted the help, she would have just fallen again anyway. It pained her to hurt her friends, but it had to be done… at least for this, it did. Thing was, Dash also knew that she was being watched like a hawk by every one of the girls that looked just like her friends.

Forcibly ignoring their confused and worried stares, she shuffled herself back over to the chairs and swung herself back into her seat, closing her eyes so that she didn’t have to face any questions. Sadly, she couldn’t close her ears to the questions that still came.

“ Darling, what happened to your legs?”

“ Oh, dear. You’re not hurt are you?”

“ So that’s why you refused my hand.”

“ There has to be a logical explanation. But I just can’t fathom why Rainbow Dash is acting this way.”

“ Why do I get the feeling that magic has something to do with this?”

“ Oh, I hope no one’s done anything bad to Rainbow Dash.”

“ Ah jus’ wanna know what the hay is goin’ on!”

To be honest, so did Rainbow Dash. Applejack’s words were the very words that were surrounding the group at that moment. And everyone was turning to Rainbow Dash for answers. But that was exactly what Rainbow Dash didn’t have. She was just as confused as everyone else, if not more. Her brain was almost at exploding point and she didn’t want these people around when it finally did explode. Finally, after what felt like forever, Vice-Principal Luna returned with a self-propelled wheelchair in hand, which she parked in front of the rainbow haired girl.

“ You’re in luck, Rainbow Dash. Nurse Redheart had this in storage for some reason. We’ve given it a clean, but it should still be useable for you.” The teacher explained once she was close enough.

“ Thanks, VP.” Rainbow replied, before hoisting herself from the stationary chair and into the wheelchair.

The wheelchair was a basic design, reminding everyone of something the hospital would give out. The padding was a plastic like blue fabric and the body was made out of steel. The foot rests were steel and there was no strip of fabric connecting the two so that the legs did not fall underneath the chair. The back of the chair didn’t even fold up for easy storage. But, considering the circumstances, Rainbow was happy that she was finally able to move. And that’s what she did as she finally turned to the group of students that looked so much like her friends.

“ Listen. I don’t know anything. I’m just as confused as you are, so stop bugging me about this. Right now, I need to figure out how to get back. For all I know, my friends are still in danger.” She growled as she slowly made her way past the girls. Then she turned to Applejack, a pained look in her eyes. “ And you… why did you have to look so much like her.”

With that, Rainbow raced down the hallway towards the front of the school, leaving behind seven very confused faces.

Chapter 19

(WW)

Sunset Shimmer was the first to recover from the sudden appearance of the rather jolly siren sister.

“ How long have you been standing there?” She asked.

“ For a little while.” Sonata Dusk replied.

“ And how did you get here?”

“ Well, I was in my room back at Siren Manor doing… something, when all of a sudden I got this tingly feeling inside of me and I just appeared here, leaning against your laundry room door. I think Rainbow Dash was about halfway through her song when I showed up. It was a nice song, too. I’m actually surprised I didn’t start singing along to it.”

“ So are we.” Rarity muttered.

“ Then why didn’t ya speak up when we were trying to get Rainbow Dash ta accept gettin’ help from you and yer sisters?” Applejack asked, completely ignoring the pointed look Rarity was giving her.

Sonata thought hard about that answer. To be honest, the smell of the cake and the song continuously playing in her head had pushed the memory of that point in time deep into the back of her mind. It took a little while (and a lot of face scrunching in the process), but as she watched Pinkie Pie serve up two more plates of cake, she finally remembered the reason to her silence. And the answer came as a shock to everyone in the room.

“ I couldn’t.” the blue haired girl replied honestly.

“ What do you mean ‘ you couldn’t’?” Sunset asked, once more the first to shake herself free from the clutches of shock.

“ I think I tried to call out, but something had taken my voice from me. When Rainbow Dash left the room, that’s when I was able to start talking again. It was like something had blocked me from talking… and I don’t know if it had something to do with that delicious rainbow cookie that Aria gave me earlier or not.”

That’s when Pinkie Pie stepped forward with the two plates of cake in hand. “ Well, I don’t think these cakes have any non-talking magical ingredients in them, just milk and flour and eggs and… yeah, so they should be free to eat. Have some and enjoy. I’m gonna go give this plate to your dad, Sunset, before his tummy starts turning into an evil, growly cake beast.”

Sonata Dusk could not help but lick her lips at the sight of the cakes beings handed to her. To be honest, she almost didn’t have enough time to grab said cakes before Pinkie Pie had left the kitchen once more to find Sunset Shimmer’s father. But once she had the plate in hand – with the glint that was in her eyes as she decided on which cake to devour first – the others knew that there would be no words coming from her mouth any time soon.

Unfortunately, Sonata’s words had gotten the girls thinking. If Rainbow Dash’s magic was powerful enough to not only drain her of energy, but also cause Sonata Dusk to practically freeze on the stop, silence her voice and possibly even speed up the numbing process in Dash’s legs, then things were getting worse by the minute. And as those thoughts ran though Twilight Sparkles’ head, she feared she and her friends may not be able to get this version of Rainbow Dash back to her rightful home… especially before any permanent harm could be done.

“ This is all my fault.” Twilight Sparkle found herself muttering.

“ Twilight?” Sunset called, turning to face her girlfriend with a concerned look in her eyes.

“ If I had just left that strange blue haze alone like Adagio had told me to do, none of this would have happened. Our wheelchair bound Rainbow Dash would still be here and this walking Rainbow Dash would still be back in her own world doing whatever she would usually be doing. What’s the bet Applejack hates me at the moment for losing her girlfriend on her. I have got to be the world’s worst friend.”

“ Now that’s not true.” Applejack said, also looking at the purple skinned scientist with concern in her eyes.

Twilight couldn’t help but look up at the farm girl with a look that clearly questioned what had just been said hidden beyond the tears that were forming.

“ Okay, so you should have listened to Adagio when she told ya to not go all science geek this week. But how were you supposed ta know that somethin’ like this was gonna happen? For all we know, that blue haze you captured could have done something worse if ya had left it alone. And Ah don’t hate ya for what’s happened. It wasn’t yer fault. Like mah Pa always used ta say ‘everything happens fer a reason’.”

“ But how are we going to help this Rainbow Dash get home if we don’t even know how she got here?” Fluttershy asked in an attempt to change the topic slightly.

“ Oh, that’s easy.” Sonata Dusk exclaimed happily, speaking up after finishing devouring her slices of cake. “ We just need to repli… repli… copy what it was that called the blue haze then find a way to use it to get Rainbow Dash back home. And, because you can’t really have two Rainbow Dashes in the same world, then the Rainbow Dash for this world will have to come back to this world.”

Sadly, her idea was met with looks of scepticism. If the girls were still trying to figure out how the two Rainbow Dashes had switched worlds in the first place, they weren’t about to try and understand what had just come out of the blue haired girl’s mouth. But, unfortunately, they weren’t able to get an explanation either because, just a few seconds after putting the now empty plate down on the table, Sonata Dusk had disappeared again. And to top it all off, Pinkie Pie walked back into the room and almost instantly noticed the missing girl.

“ Where did Sonata go?” the pink haired girl asked. “ I was just about to ask her what she thought of the cakes. Also, she didn’t say goodbye.”

“ I guess she went back home?” Fluttershy replied in an almost question like state as she managed to calm herself once more.

Instantly, Pinkie Pie got a suspicious look on her face as she thought about the ingredients used and the way the cakes were made in the case that someone or something had changed the make of the cakes.

“ So there was something in that cake.” She muttered to herself, albeit loud enough for the others to hear.

“ I don’t think so, Pinkie.” Sunset quickly said before her hyperactive friend could do anything drastic or strange. “ We haven’t disappeared, have we?”

“ Oh, right.” Unfortunately, the suspicious look remained as another thought occurred to the pink skinned girl. “ So it must have been the cookie! When I see Aria Blaze on Monday, I am so taking her into the kitchens and teaching her how to make a proper cookie with chocolate and sprinkles and chocolate sprinkles… And no magic disappearing powder!”

It was then that Rarity decided she needed to calm the situation down before it really got out of hand. With Rainbow Dash in a mood and Sonata Dusk appearing and disappearing from nowhere and back into nowhere, the last thing she believed they needed was Pinkie Pie running about challenging people to an all-party cannons blazing mega cook off with magic ingredients.

“ I highly doubt that, Pinkie Pie, darling. As good a chef as Aria Blaze seems to be at school – which I doubt changes significantly upon getting home – her giving her sister an enchanted cookie seems rather preposterous.”

“ You would think that, wouldn’t you Rarity.” The dark pink haired girl said, scrutinising her friend with a magnifying glass that she had somehow pulled from the confines of her hair.

“ Pinkie Pie!”

“ Okay, okay! So there probably wasn’t anything in the cookie or the cakes. But that doesn’t mean it can’t happen. Mad scientists need to eat too, you know.”

The looks Pinkie Pie received from that last statement clearly questioned what went on in that girl’s head. Even as they watched their friend return her magnifying glass back to her hair, no one could figure out how Aria Blaze and her cookies were somehow related to a mad scientist… or how food could make Sonata Dusk appear and disappear in random places. In fact, they couldn’t figure out how any of it seemed to fit in with their current predicament.

Eventually, the other girls decided it was best to ignore their friend’s randomness and opted to work out what they were going to do now that Sonata – at the very least – knew about the magic this Rainbow Dash contained within her. Sunset Shimmer even went to grab a pen and some paper from her father’s office; returning with what she had sought out as well as her father’s dirty dishes and his compliments to the chefs. After handing the pen and paper to her girlfriend, she went to clean up the kitchen once more.

“ Ah just have one problem with Sonata Dusk knowing about Rainbow Dash.” Applejack admitted once Twilight had the pen and paper.

“ What’s that, Applejack?” Fluttershy asked softly.

“ It’s the fact that Sonata Dusk and Pinkie Pie are that similar, it’s scary. No offence, Pinkie.”

“ Don’t worry, Jackie. Sometimes I even scare myself.” Came the rather bubbly reply.

Rarity, on the other hand, gained a worried look on her face following Pinkie’s confession. “ If that’s the case, then I really think Rainbow Dash should know about what’s happened. Who knows what kind of trouble Sonata could get into with that kind of information?”

“ Ah hear ya. If Sonata doesn’t keep her big mouth shut about this, then we could have some serious trouble showin’ up here. Folks might start believin’ Dash is some kind of alien or science experiment an’ take her away before we could do anything ta stop ‘em or to get her back ta where she belongs.” Applejack agreed.

“ On the other hand,” Fluttershy spoke up, “ Sonata could keep quiet about it and we wouldn’t have any problems to deal with.”

Pinkie Pie then bounced over, flinging her arms around both Applejack’s and Rarity’s necks. “ Did she make a Pinkie Promise? Because it would be a good thing if she did and I will be able to know if she breaks that Pinkie Promise. I mean, no one has ever broken a Pinkie Promise yet, but I’m telling you now, you do not want to break a Pinkie Promise.”

It was true. No one wanted to break one of Pinkie Pie’s Pinkie Promises for fear of her doing something really bad to them. There was even that one time where one of the girl’s ex-boyfriends almost did break a promise he had made to her and the resulting chase through the schoolyard scared everyone just from the looks and words that were being thrown around by the usually happy-go-lucky girl. How he managed to convince her that he hadn’t broken said promise was a mystery as they had been outside at the time, but after re-entering the school building, Pinkie was seen skipping to her next class like nothing had happened. Needless to say, he ended up breaking up with her shortly afterwards.

Pushing the memory out of mind, Sunset Shimmer dried her hands and walked back towards the group. “ I don’t think she did make a Pinkie Promise.”

“ Ooohhh. That’s not good then.” Pinkie Pie said, pulling back her arms. “ That is definitely not good.”

“ How worried should we be?” Rarity asked.

“ Worried. Because without a Pinkie Promise, no one knows what Sonata could do. And not even my Pinkie Sense can tell what a Siren Sister is planning. Trust me, I tried it. It didn’t work.”

“ So what do we do?” Twilight Sparkle asked.

No one knew the answer to that question. All anyone could do, however, was watch as Twilight Sparkle crossed out two options from her list of ‘possible ways to stop Sonata from telling’. Why that title, no one could say. It was more of a list to tell Rainbow Dash what had happened rather than one to stop Sonata Dusk from letting everyone in the world know about the magical switcher-roo.

But there was one thing on the top of the list that seemed to call to each one of the girls present. And, to be honest, it had also been playing on their minds. The only thing that stopped anyone from actually voicing it was the terrorizing thought of how Rainbow Dash would handle the news… especially when she was so vehement about not wanting to go to the Siren Sisters for help unless it was practically too late.

As usual, it came down to Applejack to speak up and break the silence.

“ Guess we ‘ave no choice but to tell Rainbow Dash what’s happened.” The farm girl said with a sigh.

With nods of agreement all around, and a couple of worried looks courtesy of Twilight and Fluttershy, the six friends went down the hallway towards Sunset’s room. Upon reaching the now open door, however, something didn’t feel right. And it seemed to get worse once the girls entered the bedroom. From the television speakers, the losing tune for the race car game played as the game’s timer showed to have run out. The console controller lay in front of Rainbow Dash like it had been dropped onto its side. Beside the rainbow haired girl lay an almost empty plate; the last remains of cake clearly displaying a lack of hunger of some description. But the main concern was the girl sleeping in front of the game.

It was true that Rainbow Dash was one to fall asleep anytime, anywhere. And it was highly possible that, due to the day’s events, Rainbow Dash was just exhausted. But with the way the girl was squirming in her sleep and the fact that she wasn’t moving her legs at all proved that everything was not alright. Not to mention, when Applejack went to try and break the girl from her obvious nightmare, Rainbow Dash almost punched the farmer in the face and continued sleeping.

“ Ah don’t think we’re gonna get through to her anytime soon.” Applejack whispered, returning to her other friends’ sides.

“ She seems like she’s in so much pain, though.” Fluttershy whispered in worry.

“ Ah know, Fluttershy. But there ain’t much we can do. We’re gonna have ta wait ‘til she wakes herself up to tell her what’s happened.”

“ But I can’t wait until she wakes up!” Pinkie Pie complained as she made her way over to the sleeping form of Rainbow Dash.

“ Pinkie Pie! Get back here!” Rarity hissed quietly.

The pink girl deflated a little at being caught before pouting up at her fashionista friend.

“ Then what do we do?” she asked.

“ The only thing we can do, Pinkie.” Twilight whispered. “ Figure out how we’re going to help Rainbow Dash.”

Author's Note

Here you go, folks. another chapter for you to - hopefully - enjoy. Let me know what you all think while i try to sort out the piles of stuff in my life that i need to sort out.