Chapter 1: Rainbows Over Time
Beyond The Wall
Author: ChaosMedler
Chapter 1: Rainbows Over Time
“Hey Twilight! You awake in there?!”
Blinking awake, the frazzled Unicorn turned around room until she found the window. Through bleary eyes and muddled thoughts, a cyan Pegasus could be seen hovering beyond the window. “…Too early.” Twilight was more of a nighttime pony while a noisy visitor appeared quite lively. Keeping to her warm bed, the lavender pony looked around for something to look presentable and couldn’t find her assistant to do it for her. Summoning a hairbrush and mustering the least amount of energy needed, she shuffled to the window. Opening it only increased her headache.
“How you doing Twilight! Wonderful day isn’t it! You do know what day it is, right?” the cyan Pegasus leaned in with wide bright eyes. Being this close, Twilight noticed just how deep her eye color was.
“…Its early, couldn’t you have waiting just,” she glanced a clock and a ticking windmill in the background. “How about in another hour?”
“Sure, great, swag, awesome!” she stood hovering in mid-air for a bit. “Hey ah Twi—could I wait inside?”
“Sure just stay—” and she was gone long enough to bolt through the front doors and giddily fluttering around the library downstairs.
I thought I locked that door. “Spike…” she slunk around to the top of the stairs. “Spike… where’s the coffee?” where is he?
“I can make coffee!”
“No, that’s alright Dash, Spike usually—” she didn’t need to look to find a blur speed overhead and bring up a hurricane of wind. Turning around with a frazzled mane, Twilight sighed as she watched from a doorway her Pegasus friend fly around the kitchen trying to figure out where the beans were kept.
“Don’t worry a second Twilight, Dashie here will fix everything up!” she searched through cupboards and tried to grab a hoof full of cups. “Wheres the machine!”
“Beside the sink.” Twilight headed for the nearest mirror while grooming herself. Brushing away some loose strands away, she could see Spike stand in the door way watching as a cyan blur flew around the kitchen in a hail of noise. At least nothing broke, yet.
“Hey Twilight, who’s in the kitchen?” the little dragon struck a thumb to the racket. “And why are you awake so early? Last I remember, I saw you pressed to that physics tome in the middle of Luna-time.”
“I was, had some research to look up on.”
“Yeah, what’s new? You’re always studying up stuff.”
She shook her head, smiling. “No Spike, this time is different.” At the sound of metal pots falling from shoulder height, a little voice spoke up in quick ‘sorry’.
“Yeah, why?”
“Because a friend asked for my help.” She suppressed a tired eye and watched Rainbow scurry around the tree house as if riding on the wave of happiness. “Rainbow asked me for a favor, and I think I can help her.”
“Help her what? In another aerial maneuver, you do remember the last time you tried to help her corkscrew through trees?”
“Yes, I remember.” Twilight grimaced on having to treat broken featherbones, luckily she remembered her checklist of healing spells, and she always wanted a patient to try it out on! “But this was different, in a way, Dash’s favor also helps me… I’ve been wanting to try some spells I’ve been curious since coming to Ponyville.”
“Uh huh, and that’s what Rainbow’s so hyper about?” he looked back into the scene to see a usually boastful active Pegasus now try to play nursemaid. With a cup of hot coffee balanced precariously on one outstretched wing, Spike couldn’t help smiling at the change in mood. “Must be something, what’d she ask?”
Turning a now freshly brushed look to the assistant, Twilight couldn’t hold back a warm smile. “Rainbow Dash wants me to help surpass her Sonic Rainboom, she’s trying to test her limits…” She snickered as Dash fought to keep two cups of Joe stable on two wings. “And I think I've found a way.”
At first, the purple dragon could only squint at that answer. “…Dash wants to what!?”
***
“—So when you bring into the equation modern science on the activity of light and support it with Star Swirl’s ideas on the dual applications of magic… are any of you listening?” Twilight took a break from her theories to watch some of the best of her friends stare blankly. Blinking in turn to the sudden question, the lot of the main six looked for the best way to answer.
“Its… ah…”
“Twilight, pardon me, but I buck apples from trees; we farm ponies don’t really do those schmancy numbers”
“Then I said: ‘Oatmeal, are you crazy?’”
“Lovely dear, but you must remember not all of us ponies can… keep track.”
“So when can we do it!?” she looked down at her earth bound friends while darting from one side to the other, she had the energy to spare. While deciding to meet up at a local carrot juice café, Twilight also felt her work important enough for her close friends to also be told. The rest of the cast turned to the still hyperactive Pegasus flying about. Ever since meeting up with Twilight and Dash, the group couldn’t walk without grounding the flyer. Since morning to now, Rainbow had been thrilled by her newest plan as a daredevil, in some sense, she dared the world.
“We’ll do it after we get some distance from town,” Twilight said while trying to keep eye contact. “After some recent collisions and Derpy playing with storm clouds, Pegasus aren’t allowed to ‘experiment’ within a wide birth of Ponyville.”
“But Twily, how else is anypony going to see me break the sound barrier?”
“That’s exactly why,” She and a few other local ponies thought about the shattered window glass on a fly by too close to homes. “And stop saying that name!”
“But your brother calls you that.”
“I know,” She glared at a snickering Rarity.
“Oh Twilight, I just find it adorable your older brother calls you by such a love filled named, the ones I give my sister aren’t usually as so… tender. You should be proud of your relationship.”
“Not when she says it.” She grumbled a little under the attention of her brotherly associations.
“I’m just horsing with you Twi;” RD wanted to bring up the next question. “so, what about that plan?”
“The plan?” Twilight crunched a few numbers in her mind, and smiled again. “Today. Meet me up at your training field, in half an hour.”
“Today?”
“Really?” the light in Dash’s eye outshined the suns.
“I just need to fetch some things, material, instruments and Spike can help, and what about you four, do any of you want to come, I think Dash would like it?”
“It would be appreciated.” The cyan Pegasus beamed around to her friends who began to show their interest since the day seemed to be good for them all and the last few picnics were usually disturbed so maybe they would try again?
Waving off to her friends in high spirits, RD happily awaited the meet up later where she would have a chance at breaking. She sat at the now depleted café table with a carrot drink around her hooves, she plotted, imagined the possibilities of Twilights proposal. “This is going to be awesome!” she hid her squeal between her hooves, hoping no one heard one of her ‘special’ noises.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t help overhearing—”
Rainbow Dash bolted to the sky.
Looking up at a jittery dot in the sky, a brown-coated earth pony couldn’t help feeling amused by the reaction. “Sorry if I might have frightened you… want to come down?”
Looking back over the edge of a cloud and to the grounded onlookers, Rainbow couldn’t help feeling a little sheepish. Hovering down to the ground while trying to keep up an appearance, Dash felt a little embarrassed at the one pony she was sure had seen her… and possibly heard her. “Hi there… so ah, you said something?”
“Oh, I was just noting about the earlier conversations you had… now, where are my manners.” The brown manned, lighter chestnut coated colt stuck out a hoof to shake. Taking the hoof in a motion of greetings, RD also took the chance to glance at her acquaintance’s cutie mark, it was an hourglass. “I’m Doctor Hooves, but people that know me just call me ‘The Doctor’.”
“’Doctor’, alright, nice to meet you… and ‘people’?”
“—I mean pony, ponies I know call me that.” The Doctor seemed nervous at that hiccup. “So, I was interested in what your friend was talking about earlier.”
“Oh, you mean Twilight? She kind of went into her egghead moments there, was talking about how she saw her experiment.”
“Uh huh, and do you know what she was talking about?”
“Well, sort of; see, I’m her ‘test-pilot’ I do, not so much of the ‘thinking’ and making-up-crazy-magic part… but she did leave her notes with me to look at.”
“Could, could I maybe chance a look at those notes?”
“Well, Twilight doesn’t usually show her working material, but since she lent it to me I think she wouldn’t mind at least a second opinion, and its mostly math stuff.”
Hooves stepped closer. “Equations? Don’t worry, if its math then even I’d be able to understand it… unlike this phenomena called ‘magic.’”
“What were you saying?”
“Oh, nothing,” the earth pony brushed off then sat across from RD, looking to the files with an interest that drew upon his curiosity and concern. “Might a take a look, you know, check if all your friends math is correct?”
“Well sure,” RD passed over the same notes and equations Twilight had also tried to explain to her friends, didn’t take long for Rarity to zone out and tellingly think about what kind of hat would look good on Twilight. Rainbow herself could testify trying to understand, since she was part of the numbers and had some stake in the whole plan not burning up in their faces. “So what do you think?”
“Looking good, quite interesting since I once knew some of the original creators of some of this math… mind you that was before found myelf a pony.” Then the bucks eyes grew wide, flashes of wonder crossed his face while his eyes flicked from one set of brackets to mixing formulas. Coming closer to the end of the equations soon stopped the avid reader. “I don’t recognize this part, did your friend explain this?”
“Which part?”
“Here,” he tapped at the center of a red circle and associated with posted notes. “What’s this?”
“Oh, that’s where I come into all this whacky science, Twilights working on this theory trying to combine her magic with my speed when doing the sonic rainboom.”
“Really… so what does RDs stand for, that her measurement for Rainbows?”
“Yep!”
“And divided by time?”
“That’s what she said.”
“So in this equations its dependent on ‘Rainbows over Time’?”
“Uh huh,” Rainbow gave a nod and sipped on.
Dr. Hooves stared at the benign Pegasus and turned back to the equations, thinking it again as a complete picture, his eyes scrunch up and stare darkly over the numbers, now he didn’t like what he saw.
“Hey Doctor, I got snacks from Sugarcube—”
“Ahhhh—” the pony turned to another Pegasus, the own he’d been waiting for. “Derpy, don’t sneak up on me like that!”
“I wasn’t trying to. Oh hey Dash!”
“Morning; how’s the post office?”
“On time, no accidents today, and thanks again for helping me with those short cuts, I didn’t know the wind currents around ponyville had pockets.”
“Not a problem, so you know this ‘Doctor’?” She motioned to the earth pony who went straight back to the equations with a fresh muffin under his hoof.
“Yeah, I’ve been working as his assistant, something to do when Dinky’s at friends and my day job’s finished… what is he doing?”
“Derpy, can you check these numbers?”
“What am I looking at?”
“Just tell me if these numbers ends up positive or negative.”
“Sure thing Hooves.”
“You do math Derpy?” Rainbow asked curiously.
“Sure I can… I just have to find it interesting enough.” The gray Pegasus scanned over the numbers and soon went into a trance, still staring at sheets before her.
Rainbow wondered about her mailmare, ‘Who’d a thought’, then turned back to the earth pony now holding a nervous stare at her. “What you thinking ‘Doc’, you have any clue?”
“A clue? No—yes, just a little overview…” he eyed the rainbow Pegasus then turned to his blonde friend. “So Derpy, those numbers?”
“Calculating Pie—another minute.” Derpy uttered then continued to mumble in another language. After another few seconds, the gray Pegasus stared crossly over the pages then turned it back to the original owner. “The math looks fine,”
“Well, if that’s everything,” Rainbow began to gather together her friend’s notes and slip into a saddle pouch. “I’ve got an experiment to prove in a minute, so I’ll catch you two later for a longer intro.”
“Bye RD, don’t crash.”
“I won’t, bye Derpy,” she jumped into the air. “See yah Hooves.” Rainbow Dash then kicked off and shoot into the sky like the high-speed flyer she way.
Watching the cyan blue soar towards the open fields, the Earth pony kept watch while small gears twisted in his head, trying to grasp an idea he dared not ponder the outcome. Turning to a still waving Pegasus, the Doctor insisted on his questions. “Derpy, just who was that friend of yours?”
“That’s Rainbow Dash, I’m surprised you haven’t known her yet?”
“I’ve been busy, you should know that, what does she do?”
“Do? Job wise? Weather patrol, makes sure the weather works on our time, but she’s also aiming to join the Wonderbolts.”
“Oh, that flying troupe I’ve seen those Canterlot nobles bet on? Good money in that, can she back it up with her wings?”
Derpy scoffed. “Can she? She’s the fastest flyer in all of Equestria! She can even do one of those legendary Sonic Rainbooms.”
“Wait—” he stole a look back at where RD had gone. “That mare I just shook hooves with can make one of those crazy energy surges like at Clouds Dale? I wasn’t there but I saw those ripples from here!”
“Actually that was her, cool huh!”
“Spectacular, I thought that was impossible to do naturally, bloody hell this land of ponies is flip-flopping my sense of reality… so tell me, positive or negative.” Please no, please no, please no—
“Positive!”
“Nooo!” the outburst drew a small crowd of onlookers. “That’s bad!”
“What, but positive is always good.”
“Not this time, sometimes its better to get things wrong.” He jumped off the seat and headed for the fields. “Come on Derpy, we got work!”
“But, but we just dealt with those crazy robots, and I don’t want to ever see again another mannequin!”
“We’ll worry about them another time!” he broke into a trot while the gray Pegasus made to the air to follow.
“Why, what’s so bad about those equations, math was right, why is this even a problem to you?”
“My problem is what those equations were leading to,” he jumped over a passing group of rabbits. “Those equations talked about converting mass to energy! Do you have any idea what kind of physics that accomplishes?”
“Like what?”
“Know what happens when we travel?”
“Uhh…”
“Something similar. Except this equation doesn’t have any controls! I don’t know how they’ll compensate for a capacitor but the inventor sure thought she could do it! Its too early for ponies to blunder into this type of world, we have to stop this! Now!”
***
Waving down a speeding blur visible just below cloud level, Twilight along with a picnic-sized group of friends was now ready and eager to test the boundaries of what she knew. “Rainbow, you still got my notes?”
“Yep,” She made a soft landing. “Right here Twi, safe and sound. So you got everything you need?” She hoofed over the notes from her saddle then eyed the sandwiches and apples already on display. “Hey guys, glad you could come.”
“Well, somepony’s got to stick around with a mind on the ground,” the apple rancher offered her fruits of livelihood. “Care for a big red one?”
Rainbow Dash stepped over then reached out for a bite but then had a second thought. “You talking about apples or your brother?”
“I—Dash! That’s not what I said!”
“It sure didn’t sound that way.”
“C’mere!” AJ ran at the Pegasus until the flyer escaped to the sky and beam down with raspberries. While Pinkie and Rarity were sharing laughs, Twilight grumbled away and noticed very red Fluttershy. Teasing while high above the ground, Rainbow Dash kept up her teasing until apples starting flying. Dodging one green then flipping around a red, Dash looked down in time to catch delicious red.
“Eat your apple and come down here, Twilight needs you healthy so I ‘ain’t doing anything to you just yet.”
Rainbow Dash floated back down and this time with an apple lodged in her mouth. Crunching on the red skin she munched away until she had room to lick off trailing bits. “Tasty,”
“Yer welcome.” AJ smiled and let Twilight snag away the Pegasus for a little pep-talk.
“Now Dash, I need you to understand the possible risks and take some precautions,” she levitated over goggles and vest made for wings and padded up with pockets. “The goggles are the same standard weather protection, the vest’s something I asked Rarity to modify in case you hurt yourself.”
“So, it’s a test suit?” She stepped into the vest and struggled her wings over the goggles.
“And with it a few enhancements, since the last few times, I’ve been trying to keep you out of the hospital, any problems after leaving?”
“Twi, my wings are fine, not even an itch, and hey, my time stuck in bed wasn’t completely worthless, I did get a chance to know what Ponyville’s egghead does in tree house. I got the chance to find out Daring Doo… Right about now I’m starting to feel just like her.”
“Well, if this turns out getting you an adventure then I’m sure it’ll be something you can write about, maybe even write a book!”
“Who’d read it?”
“I would!”
“Heh, as long as its won’t turn out to be something about drooling in a hospital bed.”
“Yes, if nothing goes wrong and you don’t combust like a dying phoenix…” Twilight’s eyes dipped to the side and into the ground. “I really hope I got my numbers right… I don’t want you to get hurt.” A hoof pushed around the lavender’s eyes back into focus.
“Hey, hey, none of that moping on team Awesome.” The Pegasus patted the Unicorns back, pushing her from a slouch and into a stand. “Twilight, your one of the smartest mares I know around here and you do amazing things, easily 20% cooler then what anypony else does, let yourself have some confidence, you’ll do this right!” She strapped the goggles around her eyes and jumped into the air. “I can’t have my #1 supporter be down in the slumps, come on, let’s get famous!”
Twilight looked on, smiling as her foolhardy friend drew her away from her worries, in that way, she envied Dash for that point of view. The way she smiled and carried her so… carefree, and yet she looks for those around to help, but how far could loyalty be taken? She was the bearer of her element. “One last thing Dash,” the Unicorn levitated out the last of her equipment. “For this act, you’re going to need to wear this.”
“Twi, isn’t that…” She then held in her hooves the necklace she ever really had. “The Element of Loyalty,” upon phrasing that, she looked up to see four other curious mares turn their way. She raised to her eyes the jewel she’d had it on only two other official occasions, both to save equestrian, now she held it… for an experiment? “Is it alright to use this?”
“Don’t worry, I asked the Princesses if it was alright and were also interested in what I was looking into, actually, it was Celestia herself who told me to use your piece of the element to compensate for some missing parts to my equation.”
“Okay but, what if I break it?”
“You won’t, part of the magic in it and if its around the proper bearer, I’m not going to worry.”
“So, what do I do?”
“I have to charge up a spell, then the rest is up to you… how fast can you spool up a Rainbow special?”
“Oh-hoh, is that a challenge?” Dash eyed the Unicorn hoping to make this into an enjoyable game while others looked on the scene with different lights and filters.
“I swear Pinkie, there is something between those two. Just look at Rainbow turn on those jeweled eyes, its scandalous.” Rarity bit into her lips as she saw Twilight sit and concentrate on a long spell. “You have to know what I’m talking about, someone has to!”
“Oh I know that! It’s just a matter of time something happens and I smell a plot—not yours or mine. I can feel it… hey I got a runny nose, fluttery tail …twitchy hooves?” She looked around the sky and beyond the horizons, looking for another sign. “Hey Rarity, you know what today’s forecast is?”
“Why it’s supposed to be sunny, perfect for the demurring bonnet I have on. Except for a few puffs, I don’t see anything different.”
“Well, just incase, watch out.”
“For what?”
“Even I don’t know; it’s a twist!”
“Stop everything, stop!”
Pinki Pie and Rarity turned and saw an earth pony and a Pegasus rushing in their direction. “Is that—?”
“It’s my best muffin customer! And look! She brought a friend… they look like in a hurry.”
“Hi, hello, I’m the Doctor, where the rainbow?! Please tell me.”
“You mean Rainbow D—”
“Yes, where?”
“That’s a silly question.” Pinkie Pie giggled. “You don’t have to ask, you’ll know—”
From a blinding ray of rainbows, all of the colors shined outwards from a Sonic Rainboom. Far over the grassy plains and trees, Rainbow Dash skyrocketed towards the floor just as she once did for another friend. Struggling with the wind mopping her hair, Rarity warmed up on remembering her save from an early demise. Soaring down and just out of sight, the brilliant trail blaze of light followed Dash roar back and over the hills towards a sparking Twilight. Levitating just above the rustled leaves, the horn on the lavender pony began to expand and froth with magic. As the Pegasus soared at the waiting spell, one Earth Pony starred at the sight of his failure, now he was going to have an even bigger problem on his missing hands.
“Ah bullocks—”
And then one more wall was shattered, by the very will of ponies.
***
Through hazes of luminescent lights, Rainbow Dash starred through her goggles at the world around her; it wasn’t made of blurs or open sky she saw… something. It was all around, wrapped around her and the visible distance appeared to her as a never-ending tunnel. There was no air current to slide around her wings or blankets of wind to impede her flying; there was nothing to feel as if everything felt weightless. Rainbow had never before seen or heard anything of this sort happening to a Pegasus. Was this a Unicorn thing or an egghead thing? While trying to brush the new changes, Dash wasn’t sure what she was to do, this was all her friend’s theories… maybe she should have taken a closer look at those formulas? Then reminded herself of her inadequacies with big convoluted numbers. Not everyone could be good at math! That was for smart ponies! She was smart too, math was just… not her element.
Turning to look over her shoulders, she could see again the same endless tunnel but this time escaping her eyes. It was all so different and completely new but neither was she sure this was good or bad, all she could do was accept it. Calmly if she could manage the train of thought, and then something changed. The Pegasus felt a wave of almost nauseous rippling ran through her coat. Blinking once then again the world around her came to sudden stop. There was no feeling of a direction or have once been flying or in a tunnel like had experienced. Rainbow turned left then right but could only see the open sky, pitch black and teeming with stars… but they weren’t blinking. Looking to where she might’ve been brought to, she could only find herself floating through a bodiless space. No clouds, no ground, as if the world had turned to night itself. To a Pegasus born in the ever sunny lands of the sky, the feeling of some emptiness clawed at her.
Where am I? What is this place? She wanted to go somewhere, anywhere but this place where nothing was familiar because she had nothing else to relate or even describe the existence of this place. To her it was eerie, mind wrecking if she didn’t have the courage to call out, say something. “Hel-Hello…” She called out the dim darkness. Trying to lean on one side, she found traction, but when she looked she only saw the same emptiness. She didn’t know why but finding that surface meant there existed more then nothing, but it was still the night sky everywhere. “Is anypony out there?” there was almost a plead in her voice.
“I wouldn’t care if you were a big dragon…” She decided to even hope for a worse then perfect development. She didn’t even know how long she was even here, was a minute or an hour since making that flyby over Twilight.
“Anyone…” Then there was the sound of steps, a pattern, hooves, trots, walking? It sounded like two… big feet. “Who’s there?” She turned into the direction, as if looking around distant blind spots, her eyes and ears strained to catch some life. Was she imaging things she thought were real? Right now is not the time to lose it Rainbow! Then again she heard that distant noise. “Hello?”
“Well, this is different.” came a new voice.
The cyan Pegasus spun around to meet the new sign of life to sees something unlike anything she’d met before.
“I’ve met all kinds of creatures passing through here but not many are on four hooves… You’re a Pony right, but it looks like you got nice extras.”
Rainbow starred widely at the being, talking in something understandable but looked distorted. Standing upright on two legs, arms and a head appeared fuzzed out, almost like a flickering smog, static, she just couldn’t properly picture this… sentient? No tentacles or big obvious claws, that was a good sign, right?
“Who—” She found herself starting to ask. “Who or what are you?”
“Who am I, what am I?” “Well, uh…” the strange body scratched its head. “I’m human.”
Rainbow was sure she heard that right, human? “…Pardon? Is that your name?”
He stopped in his tracks, a little taken aback by that. “…Heh, cute. No, no, just as you are of ‘ponies’, I am of humans.”
“Yeah, well why haven’t I heard or seen a creature like you before? Where do you come from, must be far, past the Evergreen Forest?”
A distinctly looking eyebrow on the human rose a touch, “Let’s just say we humans don’t go exploring much, nothing personal.” He sounded… well male enough, I think? The human didn’t have a very clear sound; the message was heard clear but still sounded… filtered? “So I heard a noise, came to check it and found you; you need something kid?”
“Ah uh, so… do you know where I can go from here?” Dash looked around her seemingly infinite surroundings with the few dots of oddity. “I’m trying to get back to a place called Equestria, do you know where that is?”
“Your asking directions?” the two legged creature stepped closer to have a better look. “No, you look far too lost to be a traveler, can you tell me how you got here?” and reached lightly to the Pegasus who immediately jumped back. “Do I look like I want to hurt you? I’m trying to help you, can you tell me?”
“Ah—” Dash tried really hard to find those answers only to come out short. “M-my friend is really smart and I decided—well, asked her if I could get help to move faster—”
“Drugs? Well that must be some good hooch you’ve been testing for your friend—so tell me, what’s your friends name? I’m going to have a talk with him,”
“What drugs—I’m clean! I just asked my friend Twilight for some magic help!”
“Magic well that’s not a new one,” He scoffed then looked for the better answer but just got a scowl from the smaller Pegasus. “…Your serious. You are.” He peered around the little pony. We noticed the goggles, vest and short coveralls, a test suit, he thought. Scrutinizing the pony, he began to wonder about that glowing necklace. “Well I’m not one to talk about what is and isn’t possible, I have a few good friends who make the same claim, I just don’t find their trait common enough to come by.”
“So… do you know where we are, how we came here?”
He sighed, “And this is why our business should be taught and understood before younglings come jumping into one random corridor to another… sure, I know my share about this place.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, you want to go home?”
“Yes, please, I don’t where the hay I am!”
“…hmm, follow me.” He looked around.
“So how do we?—” She watched as the world around her twisted from night to small ripples, from sudden inclinations, the surroundings shifted. Then doors came to the fore.
“You’re alright with doors, right? Do you have houses with them?”
“Uh yeah…” Dash looked from one distant end of sight where doors laid themselves out, then over to the opposite where the same had been mirrored. How did any of this happen, it didn’t make sense.
“Now I haven’t been around this block in awhile but the only pastel little ponies I know are…” he looked back and a door just the size of the human had formed, plain simple but the very center had its personal identification. Nervously walking up to put hooves on the door to look closely, she could only see an etched symbol of her life:
Friendship!
“Depending on your mood, the signs might change.” He leaned down to the pony’s side. “Your home is just beyond that door.” He patted her head. “Have no worries little lost pony.”
“Just like that,” A feeling of exuberant relief came and sat in her throat. She didn’t what to say, everything was so strange.
“Yep, no drama! If you’ve come here then its easy to leave but coming out where exactly can be tricky if you make a mistake, your lucky I came along.”
“T-thanks!” that was something you could definitely feel happy about! So long as the human wasn’t lying… “So all I have to do is get through that door and I’ll be home…” Well that was… quick.
“May I ask a question while your still around to talk?”
“Sure?”
“Why do you want to go back, I’m betting you just got here?”
Rainbow looked back, she was surprised to be asked that. Home was home… “Well, its home, my friends are there, its what I know…”
“Well, yes, being homesick is reason enough.”
“Yes… but where is any of this?” She raised a hoof to the infinite wall and depth of doors, as they stood farther away, the more different and alien they were.
“Where?” the human rose to that question, almost scoffing at it. “Little Pony, you were closer with the question of ‘what’? But just my words alone won’t answer that particular question. To my understanding, the best way to know is to experience it.” The human with a blurred smile looked to one distant corner, soon from the same direction came flying a door striped with happy bright colors. “I think this place could help let you understand…” then looking back, the human scaled the pony up and down, deliberating a decision he didn’t usually make. At least he needed a formal introduction.
“Sorry for not asking earlier, but what’s your name?”
“My name?” the Pegasus felt back in her home territory. “I’m Rainbow Dash, fastest flier in all of Equestria!”
“Quite a name you got there, tell me what you did to get here.”
“Oh well my unicorn friend had her own spell while I flew at high speed to do a Sonic Rain Boom maneuver.”
“Rain? Boom?”
“Yeah, if a Pegasus flys fast enough, then they will inevitably meet natural limits, like a sound barrier.”
“Yeah… and after that you make rainbows?”
“No, I make the rainbow.”
“Make?...Generating light?” but that’s not enough. “Alright then,” he pointed a finger to the Element of Harmony. “Is this the focus device? Hey that’s a solid piece of rare crystal, enchanted?” he touched it and Dash could see it glimmer once more just as when she needed it with her friends. “There we go, now, before you go on trotting home, how about I give you a choice, safe with all kinds of insurance.”
“Huh?” She looked from the door leading to home and the one gestured by the human.
“It’s my policy around here that anyone who manages to get this far, brains or pure luck, doesn’t go back empty handed, but in your case, empty hooved. What do you say Rainbow Dash, Want to know about this new world?” He gestured up and towards the vast open sky and infinite points of entrance and exits “Want to go down that rabbit hole, past the lens? Want to go on an adventure?”
Smitten with the request she herself had been looking for, RD looked at the vague creature with bright eyes and her answer to enticing challenge, she answered. “Your on!”
The human could only smile, “Glad you said yes, now need to remember a few key things to remember?” He pointed to the air and a fresh blank book and fountain pen sprung to life. “Just in case if you forget and you don’t where to look.” He said as writing pen scribbled across the front page. “When you want to come back, keep that necklace on you then pull off that maneuver you call the ‘sonic rain boom’ then, think of this place and then I’ll do the rest.” He flicked a finger to the book, which then clasped shut and fit into Dash’s short vest of deep pockets.
Like magic? Dash thought, “Thanks for everything!” She turned to the new door opening at her unconscious request. Stepping through, she looked back “But, what do I call this place, what is it?”
“For now, just call it the corridor, or—” He smiled then recalled an old phrase. “Where all roads crossover.” He waved as the door swung back shut, with Rainbow Dash on the other side.
***
Bright light, then everything became bearable. Rainbow Dash looked up to what she thought to be the sun, with all its rays shining down on a metropolis world standing at her hooves. Looking down, Dash found herself standing at the cliff tall building, a city type. “It’s like Manehatten… but different.” She gazed out over the world before her, feeling a sense of familiarity with the construction but knew it different. “Its not Equestria…” She looked back to find a missing door, there was a fire escape and a locked door but no sign of where she had come from. Blue skies, white clouds, at least looking up gave the same results. She pondered and looked over into the streets to see the local populace, with her eyes she wasn’t sure if she was looking at unicorns or earth ponies… but then looking closer showed none of them walked on fours. Scanning the skies, she wanted to look for flyers; she’d met others like manticores and griffins that could, why not here?
From one side of her glance came the blearing tear of a green object searing across the sky.
“There’s one!” Rainbow Dash shot into the air to feel its most wondrous texture, this was her element. Flapping wings to quickly build up into the fast cyan blur she was symbolically scene as. Bolting into the sky and travel on a flat plane, Rainbow worked her wings to catch and maybe ask some questions but noticed she had to work to catch up. “These, guys, are, fast,” she said to herself through the blanketing winds, but she still managed to close the distance. Then the green blur turned and zipped to one corner. “Your not losing me,” Rainbow did what she did; dash, dash, dash, dash! Hitting through a cloud and cork screwing onto her diving target, Rainbow Dash kept up with the surprised flier. “Hi there!”
“Aaaaah!” the green blur shot into a ceiling of clouds.
Following, Rainbow Dash came around and land on a bed of clouds. Searching the sky with her Pegasus trained eyes; she found the small yet larger then foal’s sized creature, almost similar to that human.
“What are you!” blurted out then turn to watch two other colored lines lead to the green ones side. They stood in the air, without wings or magic yet they still hovered in the high then air. “Who are you guys?”
“Who are we?” the three little girls said in team synchronicity “We’re the PowerPuff Girls, who are you?” They asked the pony, far from home and in an adventure she could never have hoped to be in. It was one adventure that could transcend whole worlds and and beyond walls
To be continued…
