Little Changes

Chapters

2 - A Glimpse of Change
3 - A Flash of Rainbow
4 - A Shift in Scenery
5 - Missing in Action
7 - Fear of One unto Another
8 - Without a Trace
9 - Opening Up
10 - Travel Dispute
11 - Another Ponyville
12 - Double Rainbow
13 - A Faint Connection
14 - Inner Turmoil
15 - The Universal Constant
16 - The Problem with Empaths
17 - Reaching Out
18 - The City on the Mountain
19 - Mirror Image
20 - Projections and Plans
21 - Elements of Amnesia
22 - Where Memories Hurt
23 - Reunion
25 - A Proper Chance
26 - Miscalculations
27 - The Rift
28 - Little Changes
29 - Epilogue
1 - Prologue
6 - More Questions, Less Answers
24 - The Weight of the Heart

2 - A Glimpse of Change

In another world, great ribbons of light stretched across the sky for as far as the eye could see, bathing Equestria in an ever-shifting prism of colour. Every so often, a coil of energy would spring from one curtain of light to the next, like electricity between tesla coils. And all of it was completely silent. It was just like watching the northern lights again.

Rainbow Dash and Twilight stared up at the sky from their position on a cloud over Ponyville. Aside from their perch, the heavens were mostly clear, giving them an unobstructed and nearly-perfect view of both the sky and the earth. Neither of them had said a word in a while, merely watching the colourful display and enjoying each other’s company.

“...It’s beautiful,” Twilight finally whispered quietly, a small smile on her face.

“No kidding,” Rainbow answered just as quietly. “I mean, I don’t normally care much about pretty views or anything, but…” she gestured vaguely up at the sky. “C’mon. That’s a pretty awesome view. Even I gotta admit that.”

Twilight giggled quietly and offered a short nod. “Yeah… pretty awesome. Prettiest thing I’ve ever seen, I think.”

Rainbow’s smile twitched uncomfortably, and her ears briefly drooped. “Well, you only have a few weeks of memories to go on,” she thought bitterly. She had to resist the urge to let out a heavy sigh. She looked at Twilight with solemn eyes.

The purple alicorn that rested next to her had, once upon a time, been her dearest friend and, for a brief time, also her lover. They had gotten incredibly close over a series of shared trials that led to them facing off against Queen Chrysalis and King Sombra back-to-back up in the Crystal Empire. It had been a brutal, nightmarish string of events, and more than once Rainbow had been on the verge of giving up.

But through it all, Twilight had been there to support her, encourage her, and pull her back to her hooves when she buckled under the pressure. If Rainbow had anypony to thank for their success, it would have to be Twilight; Twilight, and the love they shared.

...Used to share, she reminded herself.

“...You know,” Rainbow spoke up, nodding up towards the sky and thing her eyes off of Twilight. “This weird cosmic storm thing kinda looks like the northern lights.”

Twilight looked at her curiously. “The northern lights?”

“Yup,” Rainbow rolled over onto her back and pointed lazily towards the sky. “See, back when we were traipsing about in the Crystal Empire, whenever the local ponies were really happy or activated the Crystal heart, the sky all around Equestria would light up with a bunch of really pretty curtains of light. It would practically rain light and good feelings. It looked kinda like this, but, you know, lower to the ground and not from space.”

Twilight hummed quietly at that before turning her eyes heavenward again. “Right… do we even know what this storm is?” she eventually asked, narrowing her eyes inquisitively. “I’ve never seen anything like it, or read about it in any of my books.”

“No clue,” Rainbow replied before flopping onto her belly again. “But Luna didn’t seem to think we had anything to worry about.”

Twilight hummed at that before falling silent. The two didn’t say anything for a while after that. They simply enjoyed the view some more, each one absorbed in their own thoughts. Every so often, one of them would glance at the other before focusing on the sky again.

Eventually, Twilight let out a rather large and unattractive yawn. Rainbow quirked her brow at her and smirked. “Tired?”

Twilight hummed drowsily. “I’ve been up all night, Rainbow. It’s almost midnight,” she pointed out before pushing herself up to her hooves. “The view’s nice, but I think we should head back inside and go to bed.”

Rainbow frowned, briefly glancing towards the Ponyville Clocktower. It hadn’t been that long since they had come out here, had it? To her dismay, it had. It was well past eleven-thirty. “Oh. Shoot, that late, huh?”

“Yup.”

“Hm,” Rainbow grunted in disappointment. She glanced up at Twilight and gave her a small smile. “Well, you go on ahead. I’ll come down in just a few.”

Twilight paused, raising a brow of her own. “You’re staying up here in the cold? How come?” she asked curiously.

Rainbow hesitated before looking up again. “I just wanna have some time to think, that’s all. Plus, you know, this cloud is really comfy,” she explained, rolling onto her side and planting a hoof on her hip for emphasis. “I could nap up here all day.”

Twilight took a second to process that before rolling her eyes. “Alright, fair enough. Just don’t take too long, alright?”

“Sure thing. G’night, Twi,” Rainbow answered with a lazy wave.

Twilight waved back before unfurling her wings and leaping down from the cloud, swiftly vanishing from view. Rainbow allowed her hoof to drop once Twilight was out of sight and let out the quiet sigh she’d been holding in. Without another word, she rolled back onto her belly and stared up into the heavens, allowing her thoughts to wander where they may.

The movement of the light was… soothing. Rainbow’s eyelids slowly began to grow heavy...

Something was wrong.

Rainbow’s eyes snapped wide open when a gust of wind blasted over her and the cloud she rested on. Lifting a hoof to shield her face, she raised her eyes up to see what the cause of the gale was. She didn’t see anypony flapping their wings at her or any other sign of natural wind. What she did see, however, was the light of the cosmic storm all around her cloud, almost blinding her.

“What the?!” she exclaimed, wide awake and alert now. She jumped up from her clouds, flaring out her wings and fighting against the wind to hold herself aloft. Her mane was swept back from the force of the wind, and she actually wobbled in place against it.

Suddenly, a bolt of energy snapped through the air mere feet in front of her. Rainbow yelped in alarm as the current of energy, easily twice her size in girth, connected two of the greater curtains that made up the cosmic storm. A deafening squeal of electricity and magic energies filled the air and rattled her bones, making her shudder and compress her body defensively.

Confused and scared, Rainbow turned around in the air and flew down towards the ground, hoping to get inside the library and take cover. Sadly, her efforts were fruitless. The wind was too wild, too chaotic. She couldn’t even hear her own shouts of effort over the howling in her ears. Her wings trembled against the onslaught and, before she knew what was happening, she was sent flying back through the air.

Another current of energy erupted mere inches in front of her, flashing like lightning before fading away. Her eyes snapped shut from the brightness, and a pained shout tore itself past her lips. The wind latched onto her and lifted her higher into the air, throwing her around like a ragdoll. She could feel her fur standing on end, feel her skin tingling as the energy around her washed over her body.

“WHAT’S HAPPENING?!” she screamed at the top of her lungs, only able to hear the cry inside of her head. Another series of bolts erupted around her, one of which singed the fur on her left flank. Crying out, Rainbow uncovered her eyes to try and find out where she was.

She was completely surrounded by the storm. On all sides, it was endless light of several colours, mostly gold and white. Even looking down towards the earth revealed nothing but more light.

Now hyperventilating and on the verge of complete panic, Rainbow tried once again to fly for the ground. She had to get out of here, she had to get back to Twilight and make sure she was alright!

Alas, fate had other plans.

Another bolt, this one smaller than the others, came from the nearest wall of light, striking her head-on and swallowing her whole. Rainbow’s eyes went wide with shock, her vision briefly flickering. She could see Chrysalis grinning at her in the Crystal Empire, and her ribs burned with agony. She could hear the queen’s sadistic, insane laugh echoing in her ears, along with the sound of snapping bones.

Just as quickly as the vision came, it was replaced with something else entirely. A bassy boom filled Rainbow’s ears. Her heart began to hammer wildly in her chest, its frantic beating even managing to drown out the roar of the wind in her ears. Her legs became heavy as if filled with lead.

She gasped, her hooves flying up to cover her eyes.

Her vision was consumed with white.

Deep within the halls of Canterlot Castle, a group sat in the royal dining room, contemplating the revelation that had shaken them all to their very cores.

“I just find it hard to believe that the egghead was a bug this entire time!” Rainbow groaned.

“Rainbow Dash, we will not devolve into using such derogatory terms about our friend, or her kind!” Rarity glared at the cyan pegasus in disapproval.

“Well… it’s true!”

As the “to-be” Wonderbolt and the fashionista bickered, the others sat in an uncomfortable silence. Princess Celestia stared out of the window, her eyes distant.

Princess Luna grew irritated with the nearby bickering and moved in to stop them. “Rarity and Rainbow Dash, your friend has been taken against her will and your bickering isn’t helping.”

“But what if Twilight was in on the plan!?” Rainbow lashed out. “What if she’s been playing us the entire time and-”

“Rainbow Dash, that is quite enough,” Luna calmly, but angrily, silenced the pegasus.

“Just because Twilight is a changeling doesn’t mean we should judge her, she’s been nothing but a friend to us and we shouldn’t abandon her now!” Fluttershy interjected with a rare bout of confidence. “I mean, would it matter if I was?”

Rainbow bowed her head and slunk back into her chair guiltily. “No, Fluttershy’s right, it doesn’t.”

“Do you think Twilight has a different name?” Pinkie pondered out loud.

The others looked at her with raised eyebrows.

“Think about it, her name might have just been part of her cover; I think Amaryllis would be a good name.”

“Ama-what now?” Applejack questioned.

“I don’t know.” Pinkie shrugged. “I just think it would be a good name for a changeling Twilight.”

Rainbow Dash gasped heavily as the vision shattered, finding she was still being thrown about by the winds like a ragdoll. Her entire body was sore from the blast of energy that had hit her, and now her mind was dull and unfocused in the wake of a Flash. A very unsettling one at that.

“Twilight… a changeling?” she thought to herself, horrified even by the mere concept. She shook her head, trying to focus. “No! No, don’t be stupid! Twilight ISN’T a Changeling! She’s not!”

Before she could consider that matter any further, though, her situation very abruptly changed. The sensation was best compared to have a sledgehammer strike the side of her skull from the inside. She was jolted off to the right with a cry of pain, her entire body spasming uncontrollably as she passed through one of the walls of energy.

And then she was free-falling through open skies over an expansive, rocky desert. She had only the presence of mind to note that it resembled the Badlands on the southern border of Equestria. The night sky was perfectly clear, a crescent moon casting a limited amount of pale light on the world below.

“...Where’s the storm?”

The sky was completely clear. There weren’t even any clouds, much less the swirling nightmare of light and energy she had just been trapped inside. What in the world just happened?

Her still-groggy mind did not have time to ponder that mystery. A far more pressing matter was swiftly rising up to draw her attention. Namely, the ground, and her imminent, surely-fatal impact with it if she maintained this velocity.

Growling through clenched teeth, Rainbow fanned out her wings to try and slow her descent. She was successful, but not by as much as she would have liked. The ground was too close, and her descent wasn’t slowing anywhere near fast enough. Swearing internally, Rainbow screwed her eyes shut and braced for impact.

She let off an agonized shriek when she finally reached the ground. The speed and force of her landing sent her into a wild, uncontrolled series of rolls across the hard, dusty ground. Try as she might, she could not bring her momentum under control. Finally, all of her efforts were silenced when her forehead cracked against a stray stone jutting up from the earth.

Spots exploded across her now fuzzy vision, and she finally came to a rest on the ground. She could feel a warm trickle running down her face from where she’d hit the rock, along with intense, burning pain.

The last thing she saw before falling into unconsciousness was the crescent moon far overhead, and a single thought echoed in her mind.

“...Where am I?”

3 - A Flash of Rainbow

A small group of changelings walked through the halls of the Badlands Hive, their outward silence being quite misleading—at least, to anything outside the hive—about the contact they were conducting within the hive mind itself. But to those outsiders, they would look stern-faced and professional, their gazes set firmly ahead as they moved in the direction of the atrium.

They were all adorned in a dark blue set of plate armour, the design complementing their already-insectoid appearance. They were members of Queen Chrysalis’ Royal Guard and had weapons safely sheathed at their sides as they followed their usual patrol route through the hive. Trouble was scarce in a race bound together by a joined mind, but there was always an exception. Perhaps a drone getting a not-so-bright idea and finding themselves in a spot of trouble, or perhaps a creature from the outside desert finding its way into the hive by chance.

Either way, in this place, the Royal Guard had a job to do.

This patrol, in particular, held a distinction few others did, being led directly by the Captain of the Royal Guard himself. A changeling by the name of Carduus, his armour well-fitting and proud. He had been serving in that role for quite some time, having presided over the operation to retrieve Princess Twilight Sparkle from Canterlot and bring her home.

Granted, said operation had required a full-scale invasion of the city, but the alternative was allowing the princess to die of starvation. Not exactly a thrilling idea.

They seemed to have forgiven him, though. If many of them even realized he commanded much of the force.

He wasn’t first in line to mention that detail in general conversation. Necessary as it was, that whole event wasn’t the proudest moment of the Badlands Hive. Still, Princess Twilight Sparkle seemed to be fitting in rather well, at least after the unpleasantness surrounding her initial return was taken care of.

He had to wonder how she was-

“Carduus, dear, are you ignoring me?”

He blinked. “Huh?”

“I was talking about dinner plans for the night. Then you spaced out. Judging by the feelings of nostalgia, remorse and such I was getting from your end I’m guessing you got bored and your mind wandered off.”

Uh-oh.

“Uh, no! Sorry, I was just thinking about this patrol and then my mind wandered to the Princess. I wasn’t ignoring you… on purpose.”

“Smooth, buster.”

“Would you prefer I lied?” he asked. “Oh no! I heard every word you said! Super swear, would I even tell a fib? What example would that set for Iuvenes?”

“Okay, you can stop with the cheek before the sofa becomes your future,” she shot back with a smirk he just felt over the hive mind. “But I was thinking something pony-themed. Iuvenes has taken a shine to hayburgers lately.”

“Of course she has. It’s junk food and she is a little nymph.”

“It’s so rare in the hive and we recently got an import from one of those pony companies. The Princess has been doing work to open up the hive, and I think you could let her have this one.”

“Alright. Alright. Hayburgers it is. Could you at least add some meat to mine? Chicken hayburger?”

“I’m not sure the ponies who invented it would approve,” she joked.

“Well I’m a hungry changeling omnivore and I need the right proteins.”

“Chicken it is.”

“It’s a dinner date. We’re coming up on the atrium, by the by. I should turn my attention to the patrol. Give Iuvenes my love."

“I will. Don’t let me keep you, you have more awkward reminiscing to do.”

“You’re horrible.”

“I know~”

Mares.

Returning to the here and now, Carduus gave a nod to his fellow changelings as they moved through and entranceway that opened up into a vast space absolutely filled to the brim with changelings of all shapes and sizes. Even with the young night having started to draw in, there was still plenty of life yet in the hive’s atrium.

The area was reminiscent of a shopping mall, in a way, though notably a prime example of changeling architecture. There were several floors going deep into the ground and expanding upwards all the way to the surface. The night sky was visible through a shimmering shield that, on the surface, was glamoured up to look like a perfectly ordinary stretch of landscape. Down here, though, it provided the changelings with quite the skylight.

Further down, past all the floors and establishments the changelings had set up, sat a gigantic statue of a changeling queen right in the centre. The visage was of Avia, the mother of Queen Chrysalis, and the former ruler of the hive. The late queen’s hoof was outstretched, in it sitting a crystalline orb that glowed with the magical energies providing the barrier high above them.

“It’s all looking pretty normal,” Carduus noted, gazing around the level he and his squad were on, which was around the middle of the stack. “Come on, we’ve got a few floors to traverse. Wings at the ready!”

His gossamer wings started to buzz on his back, the changeling stallion preparing to kick-off and fly out into the atrium and down several floors. Just as he did, however, he made one final glance up at the night sky. He wasn’t sure why he did, but it was like he just caught a flicker of light out of the corner of his blue orb-like eye.

But there was nothing, just the moon…

Only what happened next was definitely not the doing of Princess Luna.

Just then, a figure about the size of a pony, silhouetted against the pale moonlight, struck against the barrier from the sky. It rolled along for a few feet before coming to a rest. Its general shape was clearly that of a pegasus, but from this far away, it was impossible to make out the finer details.

“What in the...?” one of the other guards questioned, having seen the sudden event as well. “Is that a pony?”

“Sure looks like it,” Carduus said with worry. “Come on, in the air you lot! This needs investigating.”

Carduus took to the air, his squad following as they started an unexpected flight upwards rather than downwards into the atrium. Several other changelings, some hovering mid-flight and a few with their hooves firmly on the ground, had also seemingly seen the strange impact, judging by their glances and confused stares.

He let them be, focusing on heading all the way up to where Queen Avia’s shield separated the hive from the wasteland outside. Despite the light of the shield, which was admittedly directed mostly inwards, Carduus found it difficult to make out much outside due to the rapidly-descended darkness. He came into contact with the shield, stopping his flight and sticking his hooves to the surface so he was standing upside down on it. The others did the same, all lighting their horns with a simple illumination spell as they approached the silhouette that was firmly sprawled against the barrier.

They reached her, their spells lighting up her face.

“By the hives, isn’t that...?” Carduus muttered.

“I think that’s Rainbow Dash,” one of the others remarked, his eyes wide and his hoof drifting up to his muzzle. “Yeah… yeah, I think she punched me in the face back in the invasion.”

Sure enough, the pony that had just crashed unceremoniously atop the Badlands Hive was none other than Rainbow Dash. Her eyes were closed, and one of her wings was bent at a very uncomfortable-looking angle. If that wasn’t bad enough, the more Caardus looked at her, the more he got the feeling that something was off about the pegasus. He just couldn’t put his hoof on what...

“I thought she’d be better at landings,” another commented, jarring the captain from his momentary silence.

“Shut it, changelings!” Carduus barked. “She’s clearly hurt and needs help.”

“Panacea!?” Carduus called out.

“Huh? What?” his wife called back, clearly confused by his urgent tone. “What is it?”

“Gather your fellow medical drones and meet us on the surface, atop the atrium,” he asked of her. “A pony is injured. It’s one of the Princess’ friends.”

“What!? Alright, I’ll be right there.”

It seemed dinner was going to be served late tonight.

“Ow, ow, ow!” Twilight winced, quickly withdrawing from the hive mind after only a few seconds. Chrysalis sat to her right with an amused, knowing grin on her face.

“Yes, Twilight? Did something go wrong?” she asked, although her tone of voice made it perfectly clear that she knew exactly what had just happened.

Twilight huffed indignantly. “Ugh, yes, it did,” she groaned, lifting a hoof to rub against her temple. Her head was throbbing and her ears were ringing. “It was like the mess with too many Pinkie Pies all over again…”

Chrysalis’ expression soured. “You mean when that pink menace somehow made a couple dozen copies of herself and you had to be called in to fix it?” she asked in a deadpan, her ears folding back in dismay. “And did you seriously just compare our drones to your pink friend?”

Twilight was quick to correct herself. “I- I meant with how many there were! And how hard it was to make heads or tails out of any of it!” she said, waving her hooves in front of her placatingly. “It was just…”

“Overwhelming?” Chrysalis ventured, raising an eyebrow and one corner of her lips into a devilishly amused smirk. “Too much at once?”

Twilight’s cheeks slowly began to burn. “Er, yes…”

“I told you,” Chrysalis lightly chastised with a shake of her head. “Jumping in horn-first to the full size of the hive is not the wisest thing you can do when so short on experience.”

“Yeah, I get that now…” Twilight lamented, rubbing her head again. “I thought I could handle it, though.”

“Confidence is a good thing to have, but overconfidence is a surefire way to fail,” Chrysalis stated plainly. “As good at organization as you claim to be, using the tools is another matter entirely. Now, let’s try again. Not the whole hive, this time. Maybe a couple dozen or so. That should be more reasonable than literally thousands.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Twilight agreed. She took a deep breath and prepared to open up her mind again. Before she could take the plunge, however, a ping came to her over the hive mind.

“Your highnesses,” Carduus said. “We have a situation up top. Rainbow Dash has just crash-landed over the hive, and she’s injured.”

Chrysalis’ eyes narrowed in confusion while Twilight’s flew wide. “What?! Rainbow Dash? What is she doing here? She’s supposed to be back in Ponyville with the rest of my friends!”

“How bad are her injuries?” Chrysalis asked, her tone calm and collected. “Has she been attacked? Are there any threats?”

“None that I can see,” came Carduus’ reply. “It’s mostly her wing. It’s dislocated, and she’s kinda scuffed up from her landing. She also has a scar on her hoof, which I don’t remember her having before.”

“Neither do I,” Twilight said before rising from her seated position. “Bring her to the infirmary!”

“Right away.”

The link went dead, and Chrysalis and Twilight shared a look.

The older queen sighed. “It’s always something with you, isn’t it?” she asked tiredly before also rising to her hooves. “Very well, our lesson can be postponed until your friend has been seen to.”

Twilight smiled brightly at her and lunged in for a quick hug. “Thanks, Mother,” she said before turning and sprinting out of the room, leaving Chrysalis behind. She reached a hoof up to her chest and smiled softly before taking off after Twilight at a more measured and even pace.

The infirmary made up a modest section of the hive’s lower levels, not far from the base floor of the atrium. A long hall ran the length of it with a series of smaller rooms off to each side, each one capable of housing somewhere between five and ten individuals, depending on how much care they needed. A few other levels above that one were reserved for emergency situations. Changelings, or ponies too, now, with grievous injuries or contagious illnesses would be taken there for special care and treatment.

Though this was the first time they actually found themselves treating one of the latter. But, as they say, there is a first time for everything.

It was thankfully on one of the lower levels that Twilight found Rainbow was being kept. The room was devoid of any other patients, leaving Panacea and a few other medical drones to tend to Rainbow without distraction. Carduus stood off to one side, a cautious look on his face. Twilight made her approach, her ears lowering when she saw the sorry state of her friend.

Scrapes and scratches marred her body, largely around her shoulders, side, and chest. Her wing had been bound in a cast to keep it rigid, making her look rather lopsided. All in all, she wasn’t at any risk of dying. She would recover from this easily, but the question still remained…

“What happened to her?” Twilight asked quietly as she drew closer, a few of the drones parting to make some room for their princess.

“I’m not sure,” Panacea replied, moving around to check Rainbow’s other side for any other injuries. “She’s mostly in fine physical health, though… I imagine she’ll probably wake up sometime tomorrow.”

Twilight hummed thoughtfully to herself, giving the prone form on the bed before her a critical examination of her own. Not that she didn’t trust Panacea to do her job, but Twilight really knew how to look for little things.

It only took her a few seconds of scrutiny to spy several things that immediately struck her as odd or out of place. First off was the thick blue band bound around the end of her mane, not unlike how Applejack kept her’s. That was confusing in its own right.

‘Since when has Rainbow ever cared about how her mane looks?’ she had to inwardly wonder at this strange observation.

Moving on from that was the scar on her right hoof. Even a cursory glance was enough to tell Twilight that it was a month or two old at this point, and its general shape looked to be that of a bite mark from a sharp, fang-filled maw. She instinctively ran her tongue over her fangs at the sight, and inwardly noted that the bite mark was somewhat larger than her own mouth. Not that she could even imagine biting anything in that way, the very thought made her sick to her stomach.

‘I don’t remember Rainbow having any scars on her hoof, much less like that. Did something happen? If it did, how come nopony told me?’

“Aside from all of that,” Panacea spoke up, bringing Twilight out of her trance. “She seems fine. A little banged up and her wing’s busted, but she’ll be alright.”

Twilight let out a sigh of relief. “Oh, that’s good…” she said before looking down at Rainbow again. “I think I’m going to stay here for a while if you don’t mind. Just to keep an eye on her, you know?”

“That’s fine,” Panacea replied with a nod and a warm smile. “I’m sure seeing you will help put her mind at ease when she wakes up.”

It was at this point that Queen Chrysalis strode into the room, her eyes quickly locking onto Rainbow’s prone body.

“You hadn’t informed me of any impending visits from your friends,” she noted.

“Hey, you know I’m just as in the dark on this as you are!” Twilight shot back. “They would have told me if they were planning to. And the others sure aren’t here, so I have no clue.”

Chrysalis hummed in thought, her attention turning to the present Captain of the Royal Guard who had been silent up until that point. “What of you, Captain Carduus? You discovered her. What did you see?”

“Nothing to give us much of an insight, I’m afraid,” he said apologetically. “There was a brief little flash in the corner of my eye coming from the skies above the atrium. I thought it was the moon at first. Hay, maybe it was and her landing was just a timely coincidence.”

“A flash?” Twilight questioned. “Can you say anything more? Think. Anything at all that might explain why she crashed.”

“Aside from being an inefficient flier,” Chrysalis mumbled to herself.

Twilight chose to ignore the jab at her friend.

“I’m afraid not, Twilight,” he reiterated. “It was a light, I barely caught it. The next thing I saw was an equine shape sprawling from the clouds and impacting against the shield. Her scar sure didn’t come from the crash, I can tell you that.”

“You don’t need my medical training to know it’s old. The lack of flowing blood is a giveaway,” Panacea pointed out.

“Ah yes, one of the signs of death. Blood on the outside of the body.”

“We don’t tend to talk like that in front of patients, dear. It’s called a bedside manner.”

“Right. My apologies.”

“It’s fine,” Twilight said. “I know she appreciates a good bit of sarcasm and goofing around… If she were actually awake to hear it.”

“Well, I see no reason why she shouldn’t wake up sooner rather than later,” Panacea informed her. “So it’s a good thing that you’ll be staying by her side.”

“Then you can ask our little intruder about all these mysteries when she wakes up,” Chrysalis said irritably. “And do make sure she knows that she interrupted important royal changeling business.”

“It’s nothing that can’t be finished later,” Twilight chided her mother. “Once she wakes up and explains just what is actually going on, I’m sure we’ll be back to my lessons in no time.”

“I would ask you to let her recover from her self-caused bruises while we continued our lesson, but I know you value your friends too much to comply with such a wish. I’ll leave you to it, do let me know if her answers are anything I should worry about.”

“If it doesn’t bother you too much,” her daughter deadpanned.

“It does if it means something for the hive,” she shot back. “But if that’s not the case, she’s your friend and so she is your responsibility.”

“You’re all heart.”

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “Carduus, Panacea, I believe you can return home. I trust you two could use the family time.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty,” Carduus said with a nod of his head, nodding at his wife to follow him out of the infirmary.

“And with that, I shall also take my leave.”

Chrysalis turned, starting to make her way towards the exit as Twilight turned back to Rainbow Dash. Chrysalis stopped, however, seems to hesitate at the door as she glanced back at her daughter.

“Do not worry, daughter. Your friend will be fine, she has the best care here.”

Twilight smiled. “See, you do care.”

“Don’t push it.”

And with those final words, Chrysalis departed back to the throne room. That left Twilight alone with Rainbow, her smile fading as she examined her stricken friend once more. Her injuries… especially her seemingly older ones just didn’t make any sense.

She hoped Rainbow did wake soon. And that she had some really good answers for them.

4 - A Shift in Scenery

Rainbow Dash let out a low, tired groan as consciousness slowly snaked back into her throbbing skull. Her entire body was sore, and her right wing had the now-all-too-familiar pain that came with recovering from a break. Wonderful. How many times had she broken that darned thing, now? Three?

She let out another groan before slowly opening her eyes. She had been expecting a hospital room or even her bed in the library. What she was not expecting was to be alone on a bed in a dimly lit grey stone room, the main source of illumination coming in the form of glowing green crystals along the walls amidst strange, chitinous growths. The walls appeared to be made of dark-coloured bricks and stone, those aforementioned growths pervading the structure at varying intervals.

‘What the heck? Where am I?’ Rainbow thought to herself. She’d never seen anywhere like this before, and it was more than a little unsettling. The chitinous growths made her skin crawl, and the low green light was eerily similar to the magic of changelings. Trying to keep herself from focusing on that particular part of her environment, she racked her brain to try and remember what had happened.

‘Okay, okay, let’s see here… uh… I was sleeping on a cloud and Twilight was inside. There was that really kinda awesome storm thing in the sky we’d been watching. Uh… it…” her blood steadily began to turn cold as the memory fully resurfaced. The storm, how it had pulled her away, the odd flash she’d been subjected to, and then her less-than-graceful landing in the middle of a vast, barren desert.

Thanking her lucky stars that nopony had been around to see that - not that she had seen, at least - she turned her attention to her wing. She cringed, finding it bound in a cast.

“Oh, great,” she mumbled irritably to herself before checking over the rest of her body. She had a few small bandages here and there, little more than band-aids for paper cuts but on a moderately larger scale. All things considered, broken wing aside, she had come out of that crash pretty okay, especially given her uncontrolled landing and high velocity.

She wiggled each of her legs a little just to be sure they weren’t in any extra pain and was relieved to find them more or less fine. “Okay, okay, so far so good,” she whispered before sitting upright on the bed. She grimaced with effort from the movement, her muscles stiff and uncomfortable. “Ack! Gah… hello?! Anypony there?!”

“Gack!” a surprised shout, and one that was strangely familiar, came in from outside of the nearby doorway sitting beyond the empty row of beds.

Seriously, did it or did it not sound like Twilight whenever she’d been caught doing something all egghead-y? But… different. Rainbow couldn’t put her hoof on it, but something about that voice had made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. Maybe she’d just hit her head even harder than it felt like she had. That had to be one heck of a painkiller she was on in that case.

But if it was Twilight, then that meant-

The door opened.

“Oh, Rainbow! You’re awake!” a creature that was definitely not Twilight greeted with no small amount of relief as she trotted on in, looking at a spilt cup of coffee with no small amount of disdain. “Ow, hot! Ugh. Sorry, I had just stepped out to get this and your shout startled me. At least I don’t have any fur to get all sticky when I’m like this…”

Rainbow sucked in a deep breath, a rush of adrenaline flooding her veins. ‘Changeling,’ her mind screamed at her, heart starting to hammer brutally inside of her chest. The creature before her stood a little taller than most changelings Rainbow had met thus far and sported a mane and tail of green and teal. Her lavender eyes and their reptilian slit pupils turned back to look at her, and Rainbow’s own dilated.

‘She looks like Chrysalis,’ Rainbow thought, her nostrils flaring and her eyes narrowing. She moved quickly, springing off of the bed in spite of her injured wing’s protests. She lowered into a defensive stance, her good wing flaring out instinctively while her lips curled back into a vicious snarl. “Who are you?!” She demanded in a shout, her eyes briefly darting left and right to look for an escape route.

‘I gotta get out of here.’

The changeling blinked in confusion. “Uh, Equus to Rainbow, you okay? It’s Twilight. You didn’t bump your head that hard, did you? Here, if it’s hurting, I can probably fix it with a quick healing spell.”

“Do you think I’m stupid?!” Rainbow snapped, her blood starting to burn hotter in her veins. “You’re not Twilight! That’s not even a good attempt at looking like her! What do you want with me, huh?! Are you holding me hostage?! WELL?!”

The changeling took on an aura of concern, placing aside her ruined coffee as she started to approach. “Seriously, Rainbow, you’re starting to scare me. You crashed into the atrium’s shield. But you came here, remember? Why aren’t you in Ponyville? And how in Celestia’s name did you get that?”

The self-professed Twilight Sparkle pointed at Rainbow Dash’s hoof, specifically the one that held the little reminder left to her by Queen Chrysalis in the Crystal Empire.

Rainbow’s coat bristled. It was getting pretty clear that this thing wasn’t breaking off its act. ‘Fine, then,’ she thought to herself. ‘I don’t wanna play along anyway.’

She gritted her teeth and snarled. “Alright, I’ve had enough!” she snapped before kicking off and launching herself at the changeling. “Outta my way! I’m going home!”

“Rainbow!?” Twilight shouted out in both surprise and a little bit of annoyance, her horn suddenly lighting a bright lavender as her magical aura reached out for the pegasus. “Sit. Down. Now!”

Rainbow’s breath hitched in her throat, a violent tremor building up in her body. Her momentum was brought to an abrupt halt, her hooves mere inches from her target’s face. She had been ensnared in magic, and already the world was losing its shape. Her eyes flew wide, the face of the alarmed changeling before her being shattered and replaced by the sadistically grinning face of Chrysalis.

It was the same as it always was, and it was no less painful. Rainbow’s throat burned as a scream of agony tore itself past her lips, the sensation of sharp fangs plunging into her hooves and her ribs breaking overwhelming everything else. But worse than that was the fear. The raw, unfiltered terror of being on death’s door, staring it in the face and knowing that, no matter what she did, her fate was out of her hooves.

She screamed and she thrashed uncontrollably, desperate to just get away. But like always, she was completely and utterly powerless. For what felt like an eternity she suffered, her wails echoing into the world around her.

And then, just as quickly as it had started, it ended. Rainbow fell to the floor in a crumpled, gasping, quivering heap, her entire body drenched in a cold sweat.

“R-Rainbow…?” the not-Twilight said more shakily, stepping forward and crouching down next to the incapacitated pony. “What happened!? That was only a low-level levitation spell, that shouldn’t have hurt you! Did I mess up somehow? Am I… Rainbow, can you hear me? Rainbow!”

Rainbow could barely hear those words through the sound of her heart hammering in her ears, and the primal voice of her fight-or-flight instinct driving her into action. Still shaking horribly, Rainbow rolled onto her hooves and launched herself at Twilight again, this time too close to be stopped. Her hoof struck the changeling in the side of the head hard enough to knock her off to one side and to the floor.

Without even looking to make sure the bug would stay down, Rainbow barreled through the door, her mind shrouded in a panicked haze. Hyperventilating, she chose a direction and ran as hard and as fast as her still trembling legs could carry her, leaving the chamber behind as she disappeared deeper into the hive.

“Did I mess up somehow? Am I… Rainbow, can you hear me? Rainbow!”

Then something hit her. Hard. Twilight felt herself be launched to one side as a cyan hoof met the side of her muzzle, sending her vision swimming as the entire room swirled. She saw a blur rush by her, vanishing through the door and into the corridor.

So many thoughts ran through Twilight’s head in the following nanoseconds. Why had one of her best friends just punched her? Why did she not remember her being a changeling? Was it amnesia? Mental trauma from the crash? Was some other force at play? And why was her vision suddenly-

And then her head was pain.

Her mouth opened in a silent scream as it felt like hot nails were being drilled into her skull, her body feeling heavy as her breaths became erratic and deep. Her eyes were jittery and unfocused, her heart sinking as she saw strange white tendrils begin to claw at them. And they… they weren’t right. Weren’t natural. Moreover, they looked almost sickly. Like they were phasing in and out of existence, convulsing as if struggling against some kind of barrier that she couldn’t see. Whatever was happening, it was confused and struggling to manifest.

And it hurt like hell.

And then everything went white.

The Friendship Express. Twilight recognized it, but the scene playing out before her was completely foreign to her. She was seated next to Rainbow Dash, albeit her entire mane had been dyed a shade of pink with a dark purple strike running through it. In the central aisle next to them, a lilac-coloured mare with a purple mane and tail stood with an expression of nervousness and discomfort rapidly replacing a friendly smile.

Suddenly, Rainbow’s fur bristled, and her pupils dilated. Her entire face morphed into one of hatred and rage that Twilight had never seen before. Had she not been so utterly confused by what she was seeing, she might have reached out to Rainbow on her own to try and calm her down.

Her body decided it did not need her permission to act.

Two lavender-coloured hooves, those of the unicorn all had once believed her to be, reached out and grasped the furious pegasus by the shoulders. Her mouth opened, and words spilt out unbidden. “Rainbow, wait-”

Rainbow wasn’t listening. She suddenly shoved Twilight back onto the seat and then lunged past her at the other unicorn. Twilight’s ears rang as Rainbow let out a furious scream, and her hoof collided with the face of the other unicorn, sending her flailing back into the unoccupied seat behind her.

Then everything became fuzzy and disjointed. Static flashed through her vision, and the entire image took on a look reminiscent of shattered glass. A sound like crumbling boulders echoed in the back of her mind before the vision suddenly snapped back into place. The layout was much the same, but now she was reaching out and wrapping her hooves around Rainbow from behind in a desperate bid to pull her back and restrain her.

“Rainbow Dash, stop!” she shouted out, her eyes blurring with tears.

“LET ME GO, TWILIGHT!” Rainbow shouted in response, struggling against Twilight’s hooves and reaching for her target, who appeared to be in a shocked daze.

“Rainbow, please, you have to stop!” Twilight tried again, her voice shaking with desperation and emotion.

The vision distorted again. If Twilight had any control over her eyes, they would have gone wide when Rainbow’s elbow collided with her muzzle. The headache she had already been subjected to was amplified several times over. Colours and dots exploded across her vision, her hooves flying up to cover her muzzle as she fell back onto the seat again.

“GET BACK HERE!” Rainbow’s voice echoed from the other side of the cart, followed shortly by the sound of shattering glass.

A deathly silence filled the air for a moment before Twilight recovered. She hauled herself back to her hooves and moved to the window, her eyes wide. She watched, eyes wide with horror as Rainbow descended through the air for the lilac unicorn again, only to be shot from the sky by a beam of cyan magic.

Before anything else could happen, the image fractured in her mind, and the vision shattered.

Twilight dropped, giving a sharp gasp of breath as her ears started ringing in such a way that really didn’t help her splitting headache. The tendrils were gone as the pain started to subside, though the Princess of the Badlands Hive was left with the distinct impression that whatever she had just experienced wasn't meant for her.

“What in all of the infernal hives, every single accursed one of them, was that!?” Chrysalis raged over the hive mind. “Twilight Sparkle, why did we all suddenly get a telepathic shockwave from your end of the egregore?”

“I… uh… I don’t really know.”

“Are… you alright? Please tell me there is a good reason you briefly incapacitated half the hive.”

“I don’t know!” Twilight stressed back.

And then she yelped, jumping to her hooves as the room began to vibrate. Dust was kicked up off of the walls and several pieces of medical equipment previously laid neatly out on nearby tables jolted from their positions and crashed to the floors. All this lasted for a few seconds at most before stopping again.

Great. Because another tremor was just what they needed right around now.

“Blasted tectonics,” Chrysalis cursed. “Bah, never mind that. Again, what happened?”

What had happened? Whatever that alien sensation was, the images she saw… It was fuzzy, disjointed, but she definitely saw some kind of memory. Her memory. But… she’d never had that happen to her. Had she? Would she?

“I’ll figure that out later,” Twilight decided. “More to the point, Rainbow Dash seems to be really freaked out for some reason and has escaped the infirmary.”

“Why do these things always happen only to you, daughter?”

“Not helping.”

“I’ve already pinged Carduus to try and locate her. I can multitask in my own hive mind, thank you very much.”

“Alright. But try not to freak her out any more than she already is! I don’t know why she’s acting like this, but we need to calm her down.”

Whatever was going on, whatever that… ‘flash’ had been, it was a mystery for later. For now, her friend was in big trouble for reasons yet unknown. And until Rainbow Dash was safe and her health examined, nothing else mattered.

‘Who designed this place?! It makes no sense!’ Rainbow wondered as she sprinted down the corridors of the hive. The place was massive, and not a single window afforded her a view of the outside world. There were a fair few changelings occupying the environment as well, but to her great shock, none of them made any effort to stop her. Most of them were quick to back out of her way or watch on with confused looks.

‘Just a trick,’ Rainbow dismissed, focusing on trying to find a way out of here. She was surrounded on all sides by creatures that probably wanted her dead for what she and her friends had done to their queen, and the fact they weren’t trying to do that right now made her more afraid than relaxed.

She rounded a corner, hoping for a staircase or something she could use to climb higher. To her dismay, she was met with a long corridor that was wider than the one she had just exited. A series of raised stone flower beds ran down the middle of the corridor, putting on display a collection of plants that softly glowed in the darkness. Subterranean and nocturnal growths, she figured. Scattered around were yet more changelings, all of whom had turned to her in surprise. A few smaller ones, nymphs if she recalled correctly, ducked behind taller changelings for protection.

Growling deep in her throat, Rainbow turned to keep going.

“Rainbow, please, stop!” the two-toned voice of ‘Twilight’ called out to her from behind, making her blood run cold.

Rainbow spun around to face her, and sure enough, there she was. ‘Twilight’ approached slowly, one of her hooves raised in a placating gesture. The nearby drones quickly began to back off as if ordered to clear out, but no words had been exchanged.

Rainbow grit her teeth and shifted back. “Leave me alone!” she snapped, ready to defend herself at a moment’s notice.

“Rainbow, please. You need to calm down,” Twilight insisted. “If you’ve forgotten the past year then you sure as hay won’t find your way out of here running around in circles like that. But you don’t need to, just think a minute. Canterlot, my brother’s first wedding attempt and all the things stemming from it. You were there when my disguise first dropped, just think.”

Rainbow snorted, her ears folding back at the reminder of Canterlot, and how she had been unable to help keep the city safe. She felt a brief flicker of confusion at the mention of a wedding, though. “Wedding? Don’t make me laugh!” she spat. “But I do remember Canterlot, thank you very much! I remember watching the city I grew up in being all but burned to the ground by you monsters! I had to sit there and watch my home being taken over, and all the while, I could only keep telling myself it was my fault!”

Now it was Twilight’s turn to have her ears fold. “What? That’s not what happened, they were just trying to- Wait, grew up?”

Before Twilight could get an answer, or Rainbow could even ponder the changeling’s confusion, several of the onlookers behind Twilight started to part away as a small group of armoured changelings made their up to the small Changeling Queen and flanked her sides.

“Twilight, there you are!” the lead drone addressed.

“Carduus, keep your changelings back,” Twilight asked. “She’s confused or… something! Don’t panic her further.”

“Yes, on it. You heard the Princess, get back!”

“That goes double for the rest of you!” another drone barked, and Rainbow visibly scrutinized the owner of the strangely familiar voice.

His eyes were purple rather than the blue most of the drones had, a trait shared by his wings as seen when they raised up in a show of dominance and authority over the more common drones.

“Come on, Pharynx, you could just ask nicely…” one of those drones asked meekly.

“I’m on duty, Thorax. Get back with the others!”

Wait…

Rainbow blinked, a lump forming in her throat. Pharynx? Thorax? But that didn’t make any sense. Thorax was supposed to be in Canterlot, and Pharynx had all but dropped off the face of the world after Chrysalis got trapped in her tree. But she recognized those two drones perfectly, and there was no mistaking their voices.

Her eyes wandered back to Twilight, the adrenaline in her veins slowly starting to taper off. As much as she hated to admit it, no matter what lies these changelings were feeding her, she wasn’t prepared to make an escape. Twilight had been right, she had no idea where she was going, and she was not in any condition to try and fight through the swarm.

She let out a frustrated growl before dropping to her haunches and sighing in defeat. “Fine… whatever, you win,” she spat out, her eyes focused on the floor. “I surrender… do your worst.”

“Worst?” Twilight parrotted, appalled at her expectation. “I am Twilight! Not your regular old unicorn as it turns out, and I’m sorry I hid that for so long that it’s a thing you can actually forget, but I am me! You know… uh, the Egghead, and… See, here’s my cutie mark! Not many changelings have those! Not unless there’s another Element of Magic I don’t know about! Eheh…”

Rainbow glanced up as Twilight turned, and sure enough, there was the familiar starburst cutie mark she had seen so many times in the past. Her keen eyes narrowed, analyzing it for even the tiniest differences. Aside from being plastered on a changeling’s flank, it was practically identical.

These changelings had really done their homework, it seemed. But that only served to make her blood boil more, as was evidenced when her ears folded back and her teeth showed themselves in a snarl. “I don’t wanna hear it. Just chuck me in a cell or whatever you do with prisoners.”

“Is she okay…?” Thorax asked in confusion.

“Ponies are just crazy, seriously,” Pharynx dismissed.

“Quiet!” Carduus dismissed before he then glanced at Twilight with worry. “Twilight, you’re bleeding.”

Twilight’s eyes widened, wiping a hoof across her nose and finding a small amount of blood. Not much, but the blow from earlier had drawn a little.

“Don’t tell my mother,” Twilight asked him. “She won’t take it well.”

“I know. I’ll do as you ask,” he confirmed. “But only if she doesn’t ask. I won’t lie to the Queen, I can’t. She will know if I try.”

“I know. At least delay until I can calm things down. Speaking of…” Twilight turned back to Rainbow Dash. “Rainbow, I’m still confused as Derpy when the mail schedule changes between you and that vision, but… Look, if we wanted to trick you then why would I only replicate a cutie mark and my mane style? We’re not going to place you in a cell. If you want, I can bring you back to my room, just the two of us, and have Spike grab us some refreshments while we figure this out.”

Rainbow snorted. “...Whatever,” she grumbled before forcing herself slowly to her hooves. With the adrenaline rush well and truly ended, her entire body succumbed to a wave of lethargy and mental exhaustion. The world around her became dull and unfocused as her mind retreated into itself. She was only numbly aware of it as she was escorted away by the changeling that called herself Twilight and of the sound of their hooves echoing in the dark stone halls.

And she was only barely aware of those slits studying her, particularly her mane and the scar she wore on her hoof.

Those, the vision, the contradictions…

“I wonder…” the changeling muttered, right before Rainbow all but lost focus altogether.

Author's Note

So... Princess Twilight now remembers more about Flashes Twilight's life than Flashes Twilight herself does at this point in the latter's timeline. Appreciate that for a moment...

5 - Missing in Action

Twilight groaned in discomfort as the piercing light of the morning sun filtered in through the library’s loft window, hitting her square in the face. Annoyed at having her peaceful slumber disturbed, she rolled over onto her other side and did her best to ignore it. ‘Just a little longer,’ she silently wished. ‘I don’t want to get up yet…’

Unfortunately, that thought did not reach Celestia, despite what Twilight’s drowsy mind had hoped. The sun continued to rise, unhindered and growing ever warmer. Her blankets and sheets swiftly began to heat up, and soon it was getting to be uncomfortable. Sighing in resignation, Twilight peeled open her eyes.

The bedroom was more or less as she had left it. Spike was slumbering peacefully in his bed basket on the floor by Twilight’s bedside, his soft snores reverberating in the cosy space. A collection of books and sheets of parchment were scattered across the nearby desk, a sign that Twilight had been doing research last night before Rainbow had dragged her up to watch the storm.

Speaking of whom, Twilight turned her head to look at Rainbow’s bed, expecting to find the blue pegasus there. However, to her surprise, the bed was completely empty. There was no sign of Rainbow Dash having ever come back into the room. Even her hairband was missing from her bedside table.

Twilight frowned and slowly sat up in her bed. “Huh… that’s odd,” she mused before looking back towards the window. Had Rainbow stayed outside and fallen asleep on the clouds? It didn’t seem like an unlikely scenario. Rainbow was excellent at napping just about anywhere she wanted, and clouds were exceptionally comfortable to sleep on.

‘Might as well check,’ Twilight decided. The cloud they had been on hadn’t been all that far from the tree, she remembered, and with Rainbow’s hearing, she could probably shout up at her and wake her up.

Her course of action determined, Twilight quietly pulled open the window with her magic, faltering for a moment. Nonetheless, it soon stood open, and she was quick to poke her head out and look up towards the sky. It had drifted a few yards to the south overnight, but the cloud was still there.

“Rainbow!” Twilight called up to the cloud. “Did you fall asleep up there?!”

Twilight strained her ears for several seconds, listening for a response.

Nothing.

Twilight’s frown deepened. She pulled her head back into the building before turning and easing herself out of the room, careful not to wake a still-snoring Spike. Her descent brought her down to the living room, where yet again, there was no sign of Rainbow Dash.

Twilight felt a small flicker of anxiety forming in her chest, but she was quick to shove it down. Rainbow was probably just in the kitchen, or maybe the basement, or something. “Rainbow? You in here?” she called out, heading for the kitchen first. Just like before, Rainbow was nowhere to be found. “Rainbow Dash?!”

Something didn’t feel right about this. Twilight swallowed heavily before turning and quickly making her way back up the steps. The moment she was back in the bedroom, she reached out and shook Spike awake. “Spike, wake up!”

“Wh-wha? Huh?” Spike snorted before lifting his eyes blearily from his blanket. “Twi… mmbuh. What is it? What time is it?”

Twilight glanced over at the window. “It’s sunrise. Look, Spike… did you see or hear Rainbow coming back inside last night?” she asked, nervously rubbing one of her hooves against the opposing shoulder.

Spike slowly sat up on his knees. “Uh… no? I was sound asleep,” he replied before going into a languid stretch. “She’s probably just downstairs. Now, if you’ll excuse me-”

“I already checked downstairs,” Twilight dismissed with a quick shake of her head. “She wasn’t there either. And I’m pretty sure she wasn’t on the cloud over the library, either, she would have heard me shouting to her if she was.”

Spike paused. His expression soured into one of concern before he looked up at Twilight. “What? So, she’s not anywhere inside?”

“No, she isn’t, and it doesn’t look like she even came back,” Twilight acknowledged, her gaze drifting over to Rainbow’s bed. “None of her stuff’s moved from where she left it, and her hairband’s gone.”

Spike’s eyes widened. “She doesn’t leave the library without that,” he realized before hopping up and running over to her bed. He jumped up and gave it a quick look over himself before turning back to Twilight. “I got a bad feeling about this…”

“Where do you think she would have gone?” Twilight asked uneasily, her new wings ruffling unhelpfully at her sides. “I don’t know her as well as you do…”

“I know, that’s why I’m worried,” Spike said with a slow nod. “She does a good job hiding it, but Rainbow has a lot of mental health issues. And it’s not like her to just up and disappear on us without saying something, not unless there’s something really wrong.”

Twilight swallowed heavily. “Okay, okay, well, uh, l-let’s not jump to any conclusions too quickly,” she said with an anxious chuckle. “Let's look around town and ask our friends. Maybe they’ve seen her?”

“Maybe…” Spike agreed before jumping down from the bed and heading for the stairs. “I’m gonna grab a few gems from the kitchen for breakfast and go to Rarity’s. Why don’t you start with Fluttershy? Other than you, she’s Rainbow’s oldest friend.”

“Okay,” Twilight agreed, falling into step beside Spike. “Once we’re done, let’s meet up at Sugarcube Corner, ok? Pinkie’s there, and if Fluttershy or Rarity don’t know where Rainbow is, Pinkie definitely will.”

Spike raised an eyebrow. “Oh, yeah, good point. Then why not hit her first?”

Twilight cringed. “Spike… I just got up. I don’t have the energy to deal with her yet. Maybe when I’ve woken up a little.”

“Ah,” Spike nodded without another word, totally understanding Twilight’s sentiment.

Without any further ado, the two split up. Twilight quickly made her way out the front door and departed at a canter, making her way for Fluttershy’s cottage.

“I’m sorry, Twilight, but no, I haven’t seen her,” Fluttershy said softly some while later, much to Twilight’s disappointment and rapidly-mounting worry.

The two of them were presently seated in Fluttershy’s living room, the pegasus having happily poured Twilight a cup of tea from her pot once Twilight had arrived. A few birds watched them from the rafters, while an angrily-pouting white rabbit glared at Twilight from the farthest end of the kitchen. His whiskers twitched every so often, and somehow, Twilight just knew he was not fond of her.

She did her best to ignore the little devil and instead focused on Fluttershy again. “Are you sure? Absolutely sure? When did you see her last?” she asked, hoping to maybe get a lead or something.

Fluttershy hummed before taking a thoughtful sip of her tea. “I think the last time I saw her was during Pinkie’s big party at the library a few days ago…” she said after a second.

“The one to welcome me back to Ponyville after…” Twilight trailed off, her throat constricting involuntarily at the reminder of her condition. She looked down at the tea in her hooves, her ears drooping. “...After I got amnesia.”

Fluttershy sighed softly from her end of the sofa. Twilight’s ear twitched at the sound of Fluttershy setting down her teacup. Then Fluttershy set a hoof on her shoulder drawing Twilight out of her momentary trance. The pegasus offered her a small, kind smile. “It’s okay, Twilight.”

Twilight was quiet for a moment before lightly brushing Fluttershy’s hoof aside with her own. “I know… but I’m not worried about me right now. Spike’s really worried about Rainbow. It’s not like her to just run off in the middle of the night, according to him, and he mentioned she has a lot of mental health problems or something,” she said, trying to get the discussion back on track.

Fluttershy winced and looked away. “Erm… yes. You already know about her PTSD, but, um, she’s had a history of depression and anxiety issues ever since her, um… her parents died.”

“Do you think she might have relapsed?” Twilight asked uneasily, a lump forming in her throat.

Fluttershy raised an eyebrow, turning back to Twilight. “Relapse? What do you mean?”

Twilight hesitated for a second. “I mean… I know that, out of all of our friends, she took my condition especially hard… I mean…” she paused long enough to down some more of her tea, letting the heat of the steaming beverage melt the stubborn lump in her throat. “W-we used to be a couple… but…”

Fluttershy’s expression hardened considerably. “Twilight, no. Do not blame yourself for this,” she said sternly, surprising Twilight. This was the first time in all of her few weeks of memory that she had heard the pegasus talk like this.

“B-but-” she tried to interject, but Fluttershy kept going.

“Rainbow took your amnesia really hard, but she’s in a much better place than she used to be. Trust me, I know… I saw her at her worst when she was put in an orphanage in Cloudsdale,” she paused, her ears lowering and her voice trailing off. For a moment she was completely silent before shaking her head and speaking up again. “Wherever Rainbow has gone, it is not your fault. And I’m sure that she’s fine, wherever she is. Now…”

Fluttershy threw back the rest of her tea before standing up. “I don’t know where she went, but I’m sure we can find her if we look around together,” she decided before suddenly shrinking back. “Uh, I mean, if that’s alright with you…”

Twilight smiled and swallowed the remainder of her tea as well before standing up. “It’s perfectly fine with me. Come on, let’s head to Pinkie’s. Spike will probably be there soon anyway. He was asking Rarity if she’s seen Rainbow anywhere.”

Fluttershy rolled her eyes. “Sure he is.”

“What?”

“Huh?”

“Alright, so lemme see if Ah got this right,” Applejack said, one of her hooves pressing tiredly up against the side of her head. “Nopony - not even Pinkie - has got any clue where Rainbow’s gone and disappeared to?”

“Nope,” Pinkie replied with a shake of her head on the other side of the table. “Which is super duper weird. Usually, I can find her wherever she goes, but not today! It’s like she fell off the face of the world or something. Just: POOF!”

Fell off the face of the world? Well, that wasn’t exactly an encouraging thought. Twilight winced and took a deep breath before closing her eyes to try and get her thoughts in order.

She was currently seated at a table next to a window in Sugarcube Corner, along with the rest of the group. Fluttershy sat to her left, followed by Pinkie, Spike, and Rarity, and Applejack was positioned to her right. They had all gathered there not long after Twilight and Fluttershy showed up, with Pinkie having made a few passes around town, asking the locals if any of them had seen Rainbow that morning.

But nopony had seen any sign of the rambunctious pegasus. The most recent recounting anypony could give was seeing Rainbow preparing the cloud that she and Twilight had used to watch the storm last night. It was deeply concerning, to say the least. How could nopony have noticed her? Rainbow wasn’t exactly subtle or quiet, most of the time, and her colours did not lend well to blending in with just about anything.

When Pinkie had come back, it was with a confused and concerned Applejack at her side, the two having bumped into each other in the streets in the middle of Pinkie’s rounds.

“Wherever could the dear have gone?” Rarity asked, shifting uncomfortably in her seat.

“No idea,” Spike mumbled, scratching his shoulder with his claws. “I already sent a letter to Celestia while I was at Rarity’s to see if maybe she stopped by Canterlot, but there wasn’t any sign of her there, either.”

“I’m starting to get worried,” Fluttershy said quietly, lightly tugging on her mane in a display of anxiety. “If she was going somewhere, she would have said something… right?”

Pinkie gasped at that as if an idea had struck her. “What if she CAN’T say anything?! What if she was foalnapped or something?!” she asked, her ears standing at attention. “What if some mean, nasty changelings came by looking to snatch her away for revenge?! We did turn their queen into a fancy tree, after all!”

“That don’t seem likely to me, sugarcube,” Applejack was quick to shoot down that idea. “It’s barely been a couple months. The Hive’s still gonna be in an uproar if what Thorax told us up north is true.”

“Besides, there would have been signs of a struggle near her cloud,” Twilight added in with a solemn frown. “It had moved a little bit, but it was pretty much the same as we left it, from what I could see.”

Spike sighed and set his chin on his palm, resting his elbow on the table. “Right, okay, so how do we figure out where she went?” he asked impatiently. “I’m not exactly comfortable with the idea of waiting for her to turn back up on her own, either.”

“Well, she is a Princess,” Applejack pointed out. “If she’s missin’, that’s gonna cause a lotta problems.”

“Especially given her new position,” Pinkie added with a series of rapid nods. “Princess of the Skies, right? So she’s in charge of the weather across Equestria, isn’t she?”

“In emergencies,” Spike clarified. “The individual weather teams for each town are usually self-sufficient. She has authority over them, yeah, but she doesn’t like to use it unless she has to.”

“Which is all well and good, but need I remind you, it is also not the point,” Rarity was quick to nudge the discussion back on track. “A princess has gone missing, dears.”

Twilight hummed thoughtfully to herself. “Okay, well… what if we tried to organize a search party?” she suggested helpfully. “In the time it would take to get one put together, especially given the fact Rainbow is royalty, there’s a chance she might turn up on her own. If not, then we go ahead with the search and find her that way.”

“Celestia and Luna’ll wanna get involved if we do that,” Applejack noted before nodding in agreement. “So Ah say we do it. It might be nothin’, but Ah don’t think we should be takin’ any chances.”

“Hear hear,” Rarity agreed.

“I can send out the notifications!” Pinkie declared while thrusting a hoof up into the air. “I’ll treat it like I’m sending out party invitations!”

“Good idea,” Applejack said with a smile. She then turned to Spike. “Why don’t y’all send Celestia and Luna another message, there, Spike? Let ‘em know what we’re up to?”

Spike threw a quick salute. “Will do! Just as soon as Twilight and I are back at the library, I’ll send them a letter right away.”

“I can try and talk to some of my little creatures,” Fluttershy suggested. “Maybe some of them saw something. And if not, I might be able to convince them to help in the search.”

“And if we do have to start looking everywhere, I would be more than happy to lend myself to the search effort,” Rarity added, puffing up her chest.

“Ditto. But, Rarity,” Applejack glanced sideways at the fashionista. “Are ya sure yer all on board fer that? There’s a lotta dirt involved…”

“Applejack, I assure you, after everything we went through in the Empire, a little bit of dirt on my hooves is the least of my worries.”

Twilight swallowed heavily, suddenly feeling very small and insignificant as the conversation carried on. Already, all of her friends were leaping into motion and picking out roles for themselves in figuring out what had happened to Rainbow Dash. But here she was, barely able to think of any way she might be of help.

‘I can’t fly very well yet, I can barely use my magic, and I know almost nothing about everything around us…’ she lamented internally, her expression souring. ‘How am I supposed to do my part?’

She felt a nudge on her shoulder, and turned to see Fluttershy offering her a kind smile. “You and Spike could probably help coordinate the search,” she suggested quietly. “His dragonfire thing is really helpful for sending letters.”

Twilight’s brain stalled for a second before she smiled. “Thanks, Fluttershy… I think I’ll do that,” she said before looking down at Spike herself. “And on that note… Spike, come with me. I want to try something!”

“Wha?” Spike went to ask, but Twilight as already cantering for the door. She heard plenty of movement behind her a moment later. Her friends must have taken her sudden departure as their cue to break and do their respective tasks.

'But if my hunch is right,' Twilight thought, focusing on the Golden Oaks Library. 'We won’t need a search party at all.'

“So, what is it you want me to do?” Spike asked curiously once he and Twilight were back inside the library.

‘Paper, ink, pen,’ Twilight thought, quickly making her way up the stairs towards her bedroom, her mind set on her desk. “I’m going to write a letter to Rainbow, and you’re going to send it,” she said plainly. “With any luck, if Rainbow is okay, it should let her know that we’re worried and that she should come home right away.”

“Oh, clever thinking,” Spike complimented with a toothy grin.

Twilight took some pride in the assurance before entering her room. Her eyes briefly lingered on Rainbow’s empty bed before she pulled herself over to her desk. “Alright, here we go…” she mumbled. Her horn lit up with magic, and she pulled a sheet of parchment in front of her before lifting up a quill and getting to work.

Rainbow Dash,

You weren’t in the library when I woke up this morning, and nopony had any idea where you are. It’s like you just disappeared on us. We’re all a little worried, so if you’re alright, please come home and let us know.

Sincerely,
Twilight Sparkle

She gave the letter a quick look to make sure all was well before nodding in satisfaction. “Alright, we’re set,” she determined before floating it over to Spike. “Send it.”

Spike nodded. Without a word, he inhaled deeply before unleashing a torrent of green flames over the drifting parchment, causing it to vanish into a swirling cloud of smoke that lifted into the air.

Something was wrong, though. Twilight watched with a rapidly-growing sense of dread as the ball of smoke remained stationary. Normally, it would go flying off at high speeds in the direction of the intended recipient. So… why was it just floating there?

Suddenly, without warning, the smoke flashed with more green flames, and the letter was sent flying out of it back at Spike, the edges blackened and charred.

“Woah!” Spike exclaimed, throwing himself to one side to dodge the projectile letter. It landed uselessly between the two beds in the room, slid a few inches, and then came to a complete stop.

Twilight and Spike both eyed that slowly smouldering letter with horrified eyes. A heavy, uncomfortable silence filled the room until, finally, Spike turned to Twilight. “That’s... not supposed to happen.”

She gulped, the dread in her gut growing exponentially. “Oh, Rainbow… what happened to you?” she asked in a whisper, her eyes never leaving the letter that failed to find her first friend.

7 - Fear of One unto Another

The air seemed to constrict, an unseen force wrapping itself around Rainbow Dash’s windpipe and preventing the act of breathing altogether. An intense chill washed down her spine, tempered by the bubbling of her blood as it heated to a boil.

‘How can she be here?’ She thought, unconsciously taking a step back.

But she couldn’t be. No. It was impossible! She’d been defeated! Contained! Being here, now, ready to… to…

She would hurt ponies again.

“Ah, good timing!” Twilight said cheerfully, in stark contrast to Rainbow’s growing terror. “Good news! This is Rainbow Dash! But it’s not!”

Chrysalis gave her a bemused stare. “How puzzling. Explain.”

“Other universe,” Spike said casually. “Like Power Ponies!”

“Enough with the Power Ponies!” Twilight stressed. “But yes, this is a Rainbow Dash from another world! Exciting, right?”

Chrysalis examined Twilight for a moment, seemingly attempting to find any sign of amusement or jeering. Anything at all to indicate that she was jesting.

Alas, it was never found.

“You’re certain?” she asked discreetly over the hive.

“Very much,” Twilight responded. “Like the mirror, remember?”

“Why should I be surprised by anything?” she deadpanned, turning her attention to the frozen Rainbow Dash. “So, you are an interloper. Do tell, how did you come to interrupt my trying to teach my daughter some valuable lessons in hive management?”

Rainbow took another step back, her heart pounding against her ribs as if it were trying to escape. Her eyes darted left and right, desperate for an exit while a freezing sweat built up under her coat. “H-how?” she choked out before spreading out her stance defensively, her voice growing into an angry shout. “How are you here?! How did you get out of that tree?!”

Twilight’s eyes widened, and she turned to Rainbow with rapidly growing unease. One of her hooves drifted up to the scar on her chest as the tension in the air increased.

Chrysalis raised an eyebrow. “And you’re entirely certain she isn’t simply delusional?”

Twilight gave a nervous glance between the two, her mind shifting back to their earlier conversation as she cursed herself for forgetting a small detail that, at the time, seemed utterly implausible to the young changeling.

But this was other universes they were dealing with, here.

“I’m sure, things are… different, clearly, where she comes from,” the Princess responded, shifting her focus solely on to the prismatically-maned pegasus. “Rainbow, remember what we talked about. Whoever you’ve met in your world, and no matter how mind-bendingly strange that individual might be, this isn’t her.”

“Daughter, what aren’t you telling me?”

Rainbow’s pupils dilated at the word ‘daughter.’ She didn’t really register it as Twilight turned back to Chrysalis. Her breath hitched in her throat, and the fire in her blood swelled several times over. ‘I gotta get out of here,’ she thought, her coat visibly starting to bristle. ‘Now!’

With a grunt, and with all of the memories of her past torment driving her on, Rainbow kicked off of the ground and launched herself at Chrysalis as hard as she could. The stone floor under her hooves cracked from the force of her leap, and a small cloud of dust was kicked up from the movement. Rainbow was only vaguely aware of an alarmed gasp and shout from Twilight and Spike, her hoof raised up to punch Chrysalis in the face like she had done to Twilight earlier.

The queen took a step back, her expression flattening and her horn flaring up with green light.

Rainbow stopped in mid-air, her eyes going wide as a withering rasp slid past her lips. She twisted in the changeling’s grip, the familiar tingle of her magic sending Rainbow’s senses into complete and utter pandemonium.

“PUT ME DOWN!” she shrieked, even as the face of the startled queen before her morphed into one of malice and sadism. Rainbow’s heart leapt into her throat as her ribs began to tingle under her skin. Her eyes screwed shut involuntarily, a terrified scream slipping past her lips.

There was an echo on the edge of her hearing: a familiar voice crying out. She couldn’t discern the words, however. Not over her own screaming, or the sound of her blood rushing in her ears, or that horrible song flooding her soul and making her heart shrivel with despair.

“This day is going to be perfect, the kind of day of which I’ve dreamed since I was small… Who says a girl can’t really have it all?”

“MOTHER, PUT HER DOWN!” Twilight’s voice finally broke through the veil just as it was lifted.

Rainbow dropped to the ground like a stone, shivering uncontrollably and hyperventilating with her hooves wrapped protectively over her chest. Her eyes frantically looked around, desperate for an escape route. She could see Chrysalis and Twilight standing over her, the former looking confused while the latter was kneeling down to check and ensure Rainbow was okay.

“Twilight. Explain. Now,” Chrysalis demanded as her already strained patience abandoned her. “This… pony from another world, as you so describe; why is she here and why is she making a nuisance of herself?”

“Take it easy!” Twilight chided the older Changeling Queen. “I… I didn’t want to believe what she said, but that was before I had my theory confirmed. The… the version of you she knows seemingly attacked her. Killed somepony, she wasn’t exact as to who. You’re the spitting image of something she thinks is a monster.”

“A pony getting one look at a changeling and seeing but a beast. How quaint.”

“Mother!”

Chrysalis gave a frustrated sigh between gritted teeth. “I’m still uncertain as to how much of this I believe, Twilight. Another me? One who caused her such pain? That ruthlessness sounds more like other Queens I know.”

Twilight filed that comment away for later as she continued to gently pat the hyperventilating pegasus on the back. “Just look at her! It’s clear she has some serious psychological trauma.”

“Even if what you claim is true, then she’s an outsider. How can we trust her?”

“From what I’ve seen, she’s still Rainbow Dash. She's just… hurt. Don’t you trust me?”

That question caused any retort the Queen had to catch in her throat, her eyes pierced by her daughter’s own determined ones. Inwardly cursing to herself, Chrysalis found herself in a position where she couldn’t really argue, and so, despite her lingering concerns, she gave a slow nod of concession.

“You know I do, more than anyone. Very well. If you believe in this theory, then I will abide by it, but in the meantime, what do you intend to do with this pegasus?”

Twilight looked down at Rainbow sympathetically, her scar continuing to itch as she considered her options. She’d made a mistake presenting her for this meeting. She clearly needed space. Figuring out the specifics of this… ‘jump’ between worlds could wait for later. For now, she had to fix her error.

“Maybe we should take her outside. She might respond well to some fresh air,” Twilight suggested, standing up and leaving Spike to tend to Rainbow Dash as she moved on to peering down the corridor towards where some curious changelings were watching on. “It’s better than simply-”

It was then that Rainbow Dash made her move.

With a hard flap of her wings, Rainbow righted herself on her hooves, belly low to the ground. Then, with a powerful kick, she shot from her position in a blur of colour. She passed through Chrysalis’ legs, drawing a yelp of alarm from the Changeling Queen, and then immediately tore down the first corridor she came across, vanishing from view. The gust left in the wake of her departure was strong enough to throw one or two of the curious onlookers into the air to smack into the stone wall.

“There she goes again,” Spike remarked.

“Spike!” Twilight chided sharply. “She’s completely freaking out!”

“Twilight, I will not have this creature disrupting the hive any further!” Chrysalis barked harshly, clearly at the end of her already frail patience. “Get that pegasus under control. If you consider her your friend, otherworldly as her nature might be, then she is your responsibility.”

“I know!” Twilight shot back quickly. “I know! We’ll need the guards’ help again, but please tell them to be gentle. Please.”

Chrysalis grit her teeth, but nodded nevertheless. “Carduus, our ‘guest’ is on the loose once more. In the event my daughter cannot calm her again, detain her however you can. Just don’t leave any bruises or my daughter’s displeasure shall be my burden to bear.”

“On it!” he replied dutifully.

With her mother dishing out commands, Twilight turned to Spike with a worried and worn-out expression.

“Spike, come with me. You’re not a changeling, you can be of help getting her to calm down again.”

“And how are we meant to do that? She’s lost it!”

“She’s hurt, scared and confused! If we can just convince her of the truth…” Twilight trailed off, giving a rueful sigh. “We just have to try. Rainbow would do it for us.”

“Yeah, ours would.”

“And this should be no different!” she retorted. “Now come on! Celestia knows what she’s feeling right now…”

No words could describe the amount of terror and panic Rainbow was feeling as she zigged and zagged down the halls of the hive. Unlike last time, when she had been driven by confusion, now she was driven by raw panic and survival instinct. Chrysalis was behind her, somewhere, and Rainbow was not eager to be near her without a lot of backup.

She rounded a corner, spotting a pair of doors that seemed larger to her than the others she had passed so far. An exit, maybe? There were two armoured changelings walking away from it, seemingly having just left. That would be a problem, but what other choice did Rainbow have? If she wanted out, she’d have to get through them.

With no other options, and still no idea of this place’s layout, she gritted her teeth and charged the duo. They saw her coming a moment too late, opening their mouths to say something right as she shot between them. With her momentum and a quick outwards push with her hooves, both guards were knocked off balance and sent stumbling into the walls, leaving Rainbow’s path clear.

The resulting echo that rang in her ears when she slammed the doors open was much louder than she had been anticipating, making her stop for a second. Her eyes widened when she fully registered the sheer enormity of the chamber she had staggered into. It was several levels tall, there were a lot of changelings flying around inside, and many of them were now looking in her direction in surprise.

Ignoring them, Rainbow leapt into the air, despite the complaints of her wing, and swept her eyes around for an exit. The longer she looked, the more it occurred to her that this place was oddly like a gigantic shopping mall in its construction; the sort that Rarity would fawn over in Manehattan. The only thing that really made it seem different was the stone construction and the large statue resting in the centre of the bottom floor.

Rainbow’s eyes widened when she noticed the crystal held in the hoof of the changeling statue, and the beam of light that was subtly shooting up for the roof. Following it, she grinned triumphantly at the sight of daylight streaming in through an elongated hole in the ceiling. ‘A way out!’

Spurred on, Rainbow flew up, eager to taste fresh air again and figure out how to get home. She could almost feel the wind outside on her face as she drew closer-

Thunk.

‘What the buck?!’

Rainbow’s momentum came to a grinding halt when she came into direct contact with an invisible barrier right where the hole in the ceiling was. With a sound not unlike a dove hitting a window, Rainbow dropped like a stone, falling back down towards the floor below with a cry of confusion, indignation, and pain.

She was quick to regain control of her flight a few feet above the statue. She shook her head to clear away the stars that were floating across her vision before looking around to look for an alternative way out. ‘Open holes don’t work, apparently.’

Her hopes for an easy exit were dashed to the stones when she saw more and more armoured drones storming into the massive chamber. The sound of so many insect wings buzzing in the air filled her ears and, for a moment, she was back in the Empire, watching the swarm approaching on the horizon.

“GET AWAY FROM ME!” She shouted as the first batch got close, quickly backing away. “LEAVE ME ALONE!”

One of the guards moved forward as if to make a grab, triggering a fight-or-flight response. With an almost primal wail, Rainbow lashed out, her hoof colliding with the side of the drone’s helmet and sending him spiralling off to one side with an echoing dong.

Any catharsis that may have come from that punch was swiftly undone when the remaining drones in this group narrowed their eyes and bared their teeth at her in warning. With her scar starting to tingle and burn, Rainbow’s ears folded back, and she shot down for the floor as fast as she could. There was no thought or reason behind her actions anymore. She just had to get out of here.

To her growing panic, the moment she touched down, she realized it was a mistake. More and more armoured drones were positioning themselves on all sides around her, both in the air and on the ground. She was surrounded with her back pressed up against the base of the statue.

“Hold her there, but don’t touch her,” the changeling Twilight’s voice again shouted out from amidst the crowd, the young queen herself emerging forth and giving the other changelings all authoritative glances. “Hold her if she tries to break through, but no magic! That would make things worse.”

Twilight turned to regard Rainbow Dash, her indignant expression turning back to one of sympathy. “Rainbow, I’m sorry about my m- Chrysalis. I should have told you, but what you told me… I couldn’t believe it. I refused to. I ignored the blatant facts that anything could be different where you come from, and I’m sorry for not taking more time to consider it. But please, she won’t hurt you. I would never let her even if she did want to. Which she doesn’t.”

Spike, meanwhile, finally reached the changeling’s side while desperately trying to catch his breath. “Pah… You guys and your… running… Give up, RD. Please, for the sake of my lungs!”

Rainbow’s coat bristled with rage, her chest heaving with every hyperventilating gasp she made. “SH-SHUT UP!” she shouted, her voice cracking. Another drone made the mistake of inching forward a few inches to her right. Rainbow turned to him and swiped out with her hoof with a guttural growl, making him back up again.

She turned back to Twilight and Spike. “JUST GO AWAY!”

Even Spike seemed to be taken aback by the ferocity and fear in her tone, knocked clean out of his deadpan mood. “H-hey now! Come on, this, uh… T-Twilight…?”

“It’s okay, Spike,” she assured the dragon, keeping her eyes firmly on Rainbow Dash. “Look, I know you’re scared. I know this place must be completely messed up in your eyes, but things really are different here. If you could just believe that for one second-”

“I SAID SHUT UP!” Rainbow roared, a vein bulging in her throat as her voice went raw. “I DON’T WANT TO HEAR IT! IM NOT LETTING HER HURT ME AGAIN! NOW GET OUT OF MY WAY!”

Rainbow Dash scuffed the ground with a hoof in a way that indicated an incoming charge. Twilight’s eyes widened as she did so, the Princess pushing Spike safely aside with a hoof as she tried to think of something to say that could placate the distraught pony.

No luck.

She charged. It was only Twilight’s own force of will pervading the hive mind that kept the guards from pouncing then and there as she braced herself to take the brunt of it, if only out of a vain hope she could resolve the situation in the process.

Then the changeling saw a flash of green out of the corner of her eye, a magic bolt striking Rainbow Dash clean in the chest. She gave a yelp of surprise, dropping like a stone to the ground and skidding to a halt at the shellshocked Twilight’s hooves.

“W-what just happened?” Spike asked. “Who…?”

His questions ceased when Chrysalis strode confidently past the line of guards, rounding both the dragon and her daughter as she set her predatory gaze onto the unconscious intruder. She gave a satisfied ‘hmph’, moving her eyes on from Rainbow Dash and settling them onto Twilight specifically.

“Was that really necessary?” Twilight snapped, kneeling down and checking on Rainbow’s general health. “I asked you to-”

“Nopony lays a hoof on you. Ever,” Chrysalis rebuffed in an eerie calm that sent shivers down Twilight’s spine. It was an odd calm that seemed to promise the fiery demise of any who threatened her child. “And she holds no permanent damage. A mere sleep spell was all that was required, hardly the toughest foe I’ve had to face in recent memory.”

“So… she will be okay?” Spike asked cautiously. “Because, uh…”

“She will live,” Chrysalis answered coldly.

Twilight sighed. This was why she never wanted to tell her mother about the pegasus’ previous attack on her. She was protective to a fault, a blessing and a curse in equal measures as far as Twilight was concerned.

“Carduus, can you take her back to my room? I’ll be along shortly.”

“I can,” the Captain answered. “But… what if she simply tries to leave again?”

“I’ll cast a ward on the door when I return, keep it firmly closed off,” the Princess answered. “Hopefully, though, rest will reset her state of mind.”

“And if not?” the Queen questioned.

Twilight didn’t answer, simply watching as Rainbow Dash was hauled up onto a gathered stretcher and moved back into the halls of the hive. The other guards started to return to their duties, though seemingly concerned about their princess’ continued well-being, while other changelings continued to watch on in complete bewilderment.

Chrysalis, for her part, turned her back on Twilight and stared up at the statue behind them.

“Mother, what has found its way into our hive?” she quietly lamented to the statue, Twilight just catching the sound. “This distraction comes at an inopportune time, Twilight. And if she tries to hurt you again…”

“She didn’t mean it!” Twilight protested. “Look, I know you’re worried about me. But it’s Rainbow Dash! I can get through to her!”

“Tell me: are you truly certain, or are you letting her resemblance to your friend get the better of you?”

“I can do this. She won’t hurt me. You don’t need to press so hard.”

“The last time a pony-”

“He wasn’t a pony,” Twilight instantly rebuked, her voice lowering to a monotone while her hoof wandered up to her scar. “And she’s not him.”

“Perhaps not. But what of Sombra? Or that centaur, Tirek! How often must you place yourself in harm’s way, daughter? I almost lost you the first time, how often can you rely on your skill of avoiding disaster through luck?”

Twilight was silent a moment, wandering closer to her mother and leaning into her affectionately. “It’s not luck, you know that. My friends always come through, and you don’t need to worry about me so much. And this? I know this is strange, but it’s nothing like those other times. She’s just a scared pony.”

“Scared ponies are the ones who followed Serpens. For the same reasons this Rainbow Dash does, no less.”

“I’ll be careful,” she promised. “I can do this. Consider it a test of my diplomatic ability.”

“Your tests frustrate me.”

Twilight chuckled, sharing a nuzzle with her mother. “Someone has to keep you on your hooves. But please, let me do this my way. After all, you did say it’s my responsibility.”

Chrysalis sighed in defeat. “I did say that. I cannot stop you. Just tread carefully. I won’t let any harm befall you, so don’t give me a reason to come to your defence.”

“I won’t, so leave the ‘Knight in Shining Armour’ act for another time,” she replied. “Hm, I should tell my brother he has severe competition.”

“Please, that oaf couldn’t protect a wet towel.”

“Hey!”

“You never asked me to lie.”

Twilight groaned, rolling her eyes in irritation. “Alright. I’m going to go calm down my distraught friend from another world now before I give you any more chances to completely demean my pony side.”

“Hey,” Chrysalis called out more softly as Twilight made to leave. “I didn’t intend to demean anything about you, Twilight. I’m sorry if I-”

“Don’t worry. I can’t ever force you to like them,” Twilight responded, glancing back with a small smile. “But… thanks for looking out for me. As always. I love you.”

“I love you too, daughter,” Chrysalis responded, relieved to receive her daughter’s forgiveness. “But do not fret, you know I’m rather fond of those two ponies who protected you for all those years. Especially the one with the photographs.”

“Alright, leaving now.”

Twilight lifted Spike up and onto her back, departing the atrium in a hurry while leaving behind an amused Chrysalis.

The Queen’s expression fell again, however, once she was gone. She returned her attention to the statue, looking up at the stone queen’s face in reminiscence.

“Did I ever give you such grief, I wonder?” she muttered aloud to the eternal visage of Queen Avia. “Watch over her, mother. Do not let me fail.”

She then turned from the atrium herself, giving a few nods to the remaining drones to indicate that everything was well and that they could return to their business. She then departed, intent on returning to the throne room. Nothing could banish Twilight from her mind, though, and the memory of losing her remained as fresh as the day she was torn from the hive itself.

It would never happen again. She’d die first.

8 - Without a Trace

“Where are you, my niece?”

Princess Luna frowned as she soared lazily through the dream realm, weaving between the countless bubbles of light that were each an individual dream. Her eyes swept across them slowly and deliberately, searching for the tell-tale prismatic shimmer that she had come to recognize as belonging to Rainbow Dash.

But much to her dismay, there was no sign of the pegasus. She was completely absent from the dream realm, just like the previous night.

Luna grimaced as her hooves lightly touched down upon a wispy tendril of pale blue light. “This makes no sense…” she muttered to herself, turning in place to scan the bubbles yet again.

When she had initially noticed a lack of Rainbow’s mind in the dream realm the previous night, she hadn’t thought much of it. Some ponies were occasionally prone to staying up through the night and sleeping in the day. It was more common in the modern-day than it had ever been before she was banished, at least.

But then the letter had come from Ponyville, and suddenly Rainbow’s disappearance had taken on a whole new, far more unsettling feeling. The fact that Spike had apparently failed to contact her with his dragon fire made it worse, as did Rainbow’s continued absence from the dream realm.

The world suddenly shook around her, and Luna frowned. Somepony was shaking her in the waking world. She closed her eyes and focused. With a subtle pop and whoosh, the motionless void of the dream realm gave way to a chilly breeze, and the sound of birds singing their morning songs reached her ears.

Luna opened her eyes, and was met by the sight of a still-groggy Princess Celestia.

Luna smiled. “Good morning, sister,” she greeted, briefly sweeping her eyes around to ensure she was where she meant to be.

Seated on a cloud over the heart of Ponyville. Just as she had intended. The sun was just starting to appear on the horizon, prompting Luna to subconsciously lower the moon to make way for the dawn.

“Luna,” Celestia managed to offer up a small smile before leaning in and giving Luna an affectionate hug. The lunar alicorn flinched from the sudden contact, her eyes darting down to the world below. Luckily, at this early hour, there were few ponies out and about to spot the public display of affection, and those that were had the manners to not look up.

After a moment, Celestia backed out of the embrace, her expression hardening into a far more serious one. “Have you found my daughter?”

Luna winced and looked away, her ears drooping. “I am afraid not, sister. Wherever she is, she is either not among those that sleep, or is beyond my reach entirely. Neither of which are particularly thrilling possibilities.”

Celestia’s shoulders slumped, her face falling with disappointment. “I see… your lunar guards have nothing to report either,” she said, turning to look out over Ponyville herself. “I know. I checked with one of them as I was coming up here.”

Luna’s frown deepened, and she took another more careful look at the village. Sure enough, off in the distance, her eyes could pick out the unmistakable shapes of thestrals and pegasi flying around outside the edge of the town.

“So she is not near Ponyville itself, then…” Luna deduced after a moment, her expression twisting with concern and suspicion.

“It would seem that way,” Celestia agreed, sitting down by Luna’s side and closing her eyes. She heaved a tired sigh before lazily slumping to rest against her younger sister’s side.

Luna couldn’t help the teasing smirk that spread on her face. “Tia, if you require more sleep, then please, go and take a nap. But my shoulder is not a pillow.”

Celestia lifted her head and pouted indignantly at Luna. “And my belly is?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.

Luna’s cheeks burned at the reminder of one of her less-dignified fillyhood habits. Coughing into a hoof, she looked away to hide her blush. “T-that is different! We were but foals at the time and had not the weight of the crown upon our heads. Besides…” she managed to get her smirk back as she glanced over her shoulder at Celestia. “All of those pastries you so love to ingest make for a very plush belly.”

Now it was Celestia’s turn to blush. “I beg your pardon? Did you just call me fat?!” she asked, appalled.

Luna tittered, glad to have turned the tables. “I would not know, sister. I am not the one who had cake for dessert every night.”

“No, you eat bananas. Or rather, their peels.”

“Admirable riposte. Touché.”

The two broke down into a fit of giggles after that. The levity, sadly, could not last for long, as the matter of their missing family came back into their minds. Luna’s smile faded away, her eyes staring longingly into the distance. “...Sister, you have known Rainbow Dash for far longer than I have, and far better,” she began uneasily, an unpleasant thought creeping into her mind.

Celestia turned to Luna with a curious look.

“...Tell me. Do you believe it is possible that Rainbow has, for one reason or another, decided to run away?” Luna eventually asked, her ears folding back with distaste at the mere idea.

Celestia’s eyes widened. “What?! Of course not! What in the world makes you think that is even a possibility?” she asked, taken aback by the idea.

Luna frowned guiltily. “Forgive me, but as I said, I have not known Rainbow as long as you. The vast majority of my interactions with her have, to date, been in her dreams, and most of them were during all of that recent carnage with Chrysalis and the Empire. I have only shared a few scattered interactions with her face to face. As much as it pains me to admit it, I cannot claim to predict her behaviour as well as you can. You are her mother, after all.”

Celestia fell quiet at that before shaking her head. “I see. No, I do not believe Rainbow would flee and abandon her friends. It is contrary to her very nature, and the Element of Harmony she represents. Her actions in the Empire have proven to me that, no matter how painful things become, she will always stay with her friends. And that goes double for Twilight.”

Luna hummed quietly at that before slowly rising to her hooves. “Very well… if there is nothing else, then I believe it is your turn to keep watch,” she said, slowly unfurling her wings. “I shall head for the library and have Twilight organize a meeting with the rest of her friends for later this morning. With any luck, maybe one of them knows something useful that we have yet missed.”

“Just make sure you get some rest, little sister,” Celestia called after her. “I understand how protective you are of Rainbow after everything she has done for you, but running yourself ragged will not help us find her faster.”

Luna nodded, smiling back at Celestia in understanding. “Of course, sister. Good luck,” she replied before leaping from the cloud and sailing down to the streets below, her eyes set on the Golden Oaks Library.

Twilight had not been able to sleep at all the entire night. In the short amount of time she had dealt with her amnesia, she had been used to having Rainbow within reach at any given time. The pegasus had been the one to welcome her into the world, along with Spike, and so to have her missing out of the blue like this…

It was just like those first few days all over again. Confusion, fear, anxiety, and dread filled Twilight’s entire being. Combine all of that with the disturbingly loud silence left in the wake of Rainbow’s snores, and Twilight was left an insomniac for the entire night. What little rest she did get was not enough to chase away her drowsiness or her fears, and she knew it was plainly visible to the mares gathered in her living room.

Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Princess Luna were all gathered together, each one occupying their time in their own way while waiting for Applejack to arrive. Pinkie Pie was making rounds around the room, quietly checking up with each of her friends. Doubly so with Twilight, giving her more encouraging smiles and bumps than all the others put together.

Rarity had plucked some novel from the shelves and was silently reading to pass the time. Fluttershy was curled up next to her with her muzzle partially hidden by her hooves. Luna, meanwhile, was pacing anxiously across the room, her hooves moving in a steady, unchanging rhythm across the hardwood floor.

Finally, the silence was brought to an end when the door opened and Applejack wandered in, looking just as tired as all the rest of them. “Howdy, girls. Yer Highness,” she greeted, bowing her head to Luna. “Sorry to keep y’all waiting.”

“It is fine, Applejack,” Luna assured her before nodding for a vacant chair. “Please, have a seat.” Once the farmer was settled, Luna took a look around the room to ensure she had everypony’s attention.

Pinkie settled down next to Applejack, a hopeful look on her face. “So, is there any sign of Dashie?” she asked.

Luna cringed. “I am afraid not… it would appear that she has left the area entirely. I cannot even reach her through the dream realm. It is as if she disappeared altogether,” she relayed to the gathered mares, her eyes falling in regret. “I could not find her all through the night.”

“Oh, my…” Fluttershy whimpered, shifting closer to Rarity for support.

“But wherever could she have gone?” Rarity asked while draping a hoof over Fluttershy in a comforting manner. “Rainbow Dash is fast, but Princess, you can search the dreams of anypony so long as they are asleep, regardless of distance, can you not?”

Luna frowned. “I can, yes, but forming the connection is typically a longer and more strenuous process depending on distance,” she explained before striding for the end of the room to face the ponies head-on. “But that is not the point. As matters stand, Rainbow has vanished. My night guard proved ineffective in scouring the areas around Ponyville, and I cannot help but fear that my sister’s own efforts will prove much the same. As such, I want all of you to explain to me exactly what happened the night of her disappearance. Spare not a single detail!”

Pinkie Pie grimaced. “I was too pooped from hosting a birthday party for Rumble that day, so I hit the sack early. The only thing weird I noticed was that the flamingoes were all really happy to see me, but I just think that’s because they’re pink and I’m pink and pink is great fun.”

“Alas, I cannot say that I saw much out of the ordinary, myself,” Rarity added with a lamenting sigh. “All that comes to mind is that gorgeous light show in the sky. Sweetie Belle and I admired that for a short time before retiring to bed.”

“Ah dunno how any of y’all were able to sleep with that goin’ on,” Applejack grunted with a small frown. “Them lights were brighter then Twi after studyin’ the history of light bulbs.”

Fluttershy shuddered. “Um… do any of you think that the storm had something to do with it?”

Luna turned to Fluttershy with a sceptical look. “I sincerely doubt it, Fluttershy. I scanned the storm extensively when it first appeared to determine its origin and nature, and whilst most of its nature eluded me, the lack of risk did not. It should have been utterly benign.”

Twilight swallowed heavily, the same idea locking into place in her mind. She cleared her throat. “Ahem. Ah, actually, I think Fluttershy might be on to something,” she said hesitantly, drawing the attention of the whole room. Her anxiety creeping up on her again, and her next words came out with far less strength than before. “I-I mean… the timing is just too perfect to be a coincidence, right? The storm comes, and when it goes away, Rainbow’s gone, too.”

The idea settled over the room, and everypony present became visibly uncomfortable with the idea. It wasn’t a reassuring notion that an unknown cosmic storm had somehow swept Rainbow away to who-knows-where. If it was magical in nature, then who knew what kinds of experiences Rainbow was suffering at that very moment?

She shivered as the memory of Rainbow thrashing and screaming in her magic flashed through her mind. The look of raw, unfiltered terror and panic on the pegasus’ face had been beyond unsettling for Twilight to see, especially so suddenly. If all it took to set that off was a gentle magical hold, then…

Luna hummed, rolling her jaw in thought. “Hmmm… I still harbour my doubts about this idea, but it is nevertheless an avenue worth exploring. After all, conventional methods of searching have, as of yet, proven fruitless…”

“Is there anythin’ we can do to help?” Applejack asked after a moment of tense silence. She leaned forward in her seat. “Ah’m not crazy ‘bout sittin’ on mah rump and doin’ nothin’ while RD’s out there in some unknown situation. What if she’s in danger?”

“Here, here,” Rarity agreed, lifting her head high. “If there is anything we can do-”

“For the time being,” Luna cut her off with a sympathetic and apologetic look. “It would be for the best if you all kept out of the way. I mean no disrespect, but if the storm was responsible for my niece’s disappearance, then Rainbow’s whereabouts will be impossible for any of you to discern. I will bring this idea to my sister, and we’ll begin making plans on how to proceed.”

“So we can’t do anything?!” Pinkie whined pitifully, her ears lowering while she waved her hooves in front of her in exasperation. “Oh, come on!”

“I am sorry, truly,” Luna replied with a sigh. “Believe me, I know all too well how unpleasant it is to be powerless when I wanted to help. My time imprisoned in a changeling pod in Canterlot educated me on that feeling more than well enough… but this is one matter where, for now, there is nothing you can do except wait and hope.”

Pinkie frowned. “Nuh-uh! I’m doing something! Maybe it won’t help you find her, but I am absolutely going to plan a ‘welcome back Rainbow Dash’ party for when she comes home!” she declared with enthusiasm.

Luna managed a small smile at that. “Heh. I imagine she would not have it any other way. Now…” she turned for the door and made to take her leave. “If any of you think of anything else that may be of help, tell one of my or my sister’s guards.”

Twilight watched as Luna pulled open the door with her magic, allowing early morning sunlight to filter in. Something tugged at her heart, and before she knew it, she was standing up and trotting forward. “W-wait, Luna!”

The princess stopped and glanced back at Twilight with an unreadable look. “...Yes?”

Twilight hesitated, briefly cowering back from Luna’s eyes. Then, with a shaky breath, she managed to lock gazes with the taller alicorn. “Just… find her. Please. I need her…”

Luna’s eyes lowered for a moment, her ears flicking with indecision. She then nodded her head and offered Twilight a small, timid smile. “I shall do my best, Twilight Sparkle. Do not forget, she is my family… and I owe her much.”

With that, Luna took her leave, closing the door behind her with a reverberating click.

Author's Note

What does Luna have up her sleeve? Will it help get Rainbow Dash out of Chrysalis' mane before she sets her and it on fire? And what constitutes as a sleeve on an eternally nude alicorn princess pony?

Find out next time... on Little Changes Z! Z not included.

9 - Opening Up

When Rainbow Dash finally came back to the waking world, it was with a splitting headache and no small amount of confusion filling her cloudy mind. She wasn’t sure where she was, or how she had gotten there. Truth be told, she barely even remembered the last thing that had happened to her. It was an unpleasant and unsettling sensation, one that she was only too eager to be rid of.

Thankfully, as her grogginess slowly made its exit, she found her headache and confusion being very swiftly washed away. She was surrounded on all sides by warmth and comforting weight provided by thick, lavish blankets. She couldn’t help but let out a small coo and snuggle deeper into the comforters. Taking a deep breath, she savoured the warmth and determined that the waking world could wait for another fifteen minutes.

And then she remembered what had happened. The bolt of magic that had come from the side and struck her in the chest before the world went dark...

Her eyes snapped open and looked around while the rest of her body went rigid. She was still in the hive, and back in Twilight’s bedroom, no less. 'I’m okay?' she thought, her brow furrowing in confusion. ‘They didn’t hurt me…? What the hay is going on in this stupid place?!’

Stifling a groan, Rainbow slowly sat up on her haunches, allowing the blankets to slide down her body. She looked around slowly, finding the room to be much the same as it had been when she left it earlier. The only thing that stood out as being notably different was the changeling princess passed out on a couch, surrounded by a practical pillow fort of books and covered in a blanket of her own.

There was a brief flicker of nostalgia in Rainbow’s heart at the sight, finding it similar to how she might sometimes find her own Twilight back when they had lived in Canterlot together. Eerily familiar. The nostalgia was quickly replaced with discomfort.

Feeling quite unsettled, Rainbow looked ahead at the far door. ‘Well, running like a chicken with its head cut off didn’t do me much good last time,’ she thought after a moment before silently sliding out of bed. She glanced back at her injured wing and, to her relief, found that it was more or less back in fine shape. A little stiff at the joint, but in working order nonetheless.

Moving as quietly as possible, Rainbow went for the door. If she could just slip out without drawing any attention, maybe she could finally figure out where she was and make her way home-

Her hoof made contact with the door handle, and an all-too-familiar tingle shot through the limb. She gasped and tore her hoof away, the faint cackling of Chrysalis echoing in the back of her mind. ‘This door’s got magic on it!’ she thought to herself, a cold sweat starting to form under her coat. She shuddered uncontrollably and backed off, trying to calm herself down.

She must have been louder than she thought. The sound of shifting blankets and Twilight’s groggy voice groaning reached her ears. Rainbow spun around to face her and found the changeling lifting her head from the book she had been using as a pillow—and also drooling on. She blinked a few times before turning her head to look at Rainbow.

“Huh… You’re, er… Huh…?” Twilight seemed to lazily nudge some of the books off of her, the cogs slowly turning in her sleep-addled brain before her eyes suddenly shot open with a look of shock. “GAH! You’re awake! Oh! What time is it? Did I fall asleep? No, I was supposed to be researching! Spiiiike!”

Rainbow’s headache spiked slightly from all the shouting.

To make things worse, there was no answer from the drake.

“Dang it! Stupid dragons and their lack of a hive mind…”

Rainbow grimaced. It all came together in her head pretty quickly. She was trapped. With magic on the door, there was no way she could safely get out of here. With an agitated snort, she turned and dragged herself back towards the bed, sending a cold glare in Twilight’s direction.

“Hey! Don’t walk away!” Twilight irritably protested. “I’m sorry about my mother and not warning you and it’s totally my fault, but could you just stop? Look, I’ve been spending all night trying to research anything I could to help get you home and-”

“Stop. Talking,” Rainbow spat out, turning her eyes back to Twilight. “Pretty sure I made it clear that I didn’t wanna hear it.”

Twilight’s eye twitched. “Well, I’ll make you hear it, buster! Maybe I’ve been going about this all wrong, but I have so much on my mind right now it’s not even funny! I’m trying to help you, Rainbow Dash! And that’s twice you’ve run around the hive causing a scene. Hay, you hit me and caused that weird vision thing!”

Rainbow’s coat bristled. “You think you have a lot on your mind?!” She challenged, only passively taking note of the mentioning of a vision. She stalked forward, her eyes narrowing. “How d’ya think I feel?! I’m trapped in a scary place without any idea where I am, surrounded on all sides by some of the greatest enemies I have ever had, I just found out Chrysalis is out and about, I have an amnesiac friend waiting for me to come home so I can help her put her life back together, my family is probably worried sick and organizing huge search parties, and I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT’S EVEN GOING ON ANYMORE!”

She pointed an accusatory hoof at a wide-eyed Twilight. “So no, you don’t get to tell me that you have a lot on your mind! You do not get that privilege!”

Twilight’s wings flared in anger, seemingly coming dangerously close to tears. “NEITHER DO I! But that’s what I’m trying to figure out, and your constant freaking out isn’t helping! I appreciate that this has to be… alarming to you, and from what little I’ve been able to make out you’ve been through terrible things. But two things: one, welcome to the club. Second, I am Twilight Sparkle! I’m your friend! My Rainbow would trust me, why can’t you!?”

Rainbow stopped her advance, though her anger remained just as hot as before. “Why? WHY?!” she asked, her pupils dilating. “You wanna know why I can’t trust you?! Because apparently, you’re the daughter of the creature that gave me this!” she lifted up her scarred hoof for emphasis. “And even if this is some weird alternate world, Chrysalis is still Chrysalis! Chrysalis darn near killed me! She almost killed my Twilight, and…”

She trailed off, closing her eyes and looking away before taking a deep breath to force herself to calm down. She set her hoof down and turned away. “...I already told you about that. If you can’t wrap your head around it by now, I’m not gonna waste my breath, or your time.”

Twilight gritted her teeth, her eyes screwing shut as a hoof instinctively went back to her scar. “I… I don’t want to believe that any version of my mother could be capable of… doing that so callously, without a good reason. But that’s how alternate worlds work, Rainbow. And…”

Her breath caught in her throat, memories she had tried to forget flooding back all at once, just as they had in the days following their formation. The blade, the burning throughout her body, the darkness consuming her despite Celestia’s desperate pleas…

“I’m sorry to hear about your Twilight, I really am…” she said in a whisper. “But I had an entire group of ponies dedicated to… to murdering me. So don’t tell me that I can’t wrap my head around it!”

Rainbow blinked in surprise. She glanced back at Twilight, and her eyes landed on the ugly scar that ran down her chest, and the hoof that was furiously rubbing at it.

“...Huh?” she asked, taken by surprise.

“It was a changeling infiltrator leading them, ironically enough,” Twilight recalled with a humourless laugh. “Replaced the second in command of the Solar Guard, recruited a good amount of ponies to the cause of eliminating me for the holes I have in my hooves. This? That was the dagger an inch from my heart. Celestia… My mother… They fought so hard for me. Somepony I knew, though my brother knew him better… Well, not everypony made it back. And I came so close to dying.”

Twilight put her hoof down, her magic lighting up as she went into autopilot cleaning up the books and placing them back on the shelves where they belonged. She didn’t even seem to really pay attention to what she was doing, but she still did it.

“The worst part? We don’t even know who he was. The infiltrator, I mean. But I still remember his smirk, and the hate on the faces of those ponies. But I don’t need to remember, do I? I can see it on yours.”

That gave Rainbow pause. She hesitated for a second, her ears lowering as a small flicker of guilt and shame sprang up in her chest. She took a moment to compose herself before she spoke again. “...Did you do something to earn that?” she asked carefully. “Because ponies aren’t usually the sort to go for blood… not in my experience, anyway.”

“I was a changeling, that was enough,” Twilight bitterly informed her. “He played on their xenophobia, convinced them that I was such a threat that no assurances from Celestia or anypony else could dissuade them. Even when Celestia brought the entire might of the guard down upon them, they refused to surrender. They all fought to the end.”

Rainbow was quiet for several seconds. “That doesn’t seem right to me,” she eventually said before shaking her head. “Then again, none of this does. Nothing like that ever happened for me… For me, changelings invaded Canterlot when me and my friends were away, took over, locked most of the population in cocoons so they could be farmed and forced me on the run…” she recounted before looking at Twilight directly again. “Not to mention everything else I already told you about that Chrysalis did to me. So I have a reason to be distrustful of you. I can only imagine the ponies you met had a reason to distrust you, too.”

Twilight sighed. “It was a very small minority. Only a few were actually trained guards, the rest were ‘volunteers’. But…”

Twilight sighed, calming herself down a little as she returned herself to the sofa and took a seat.

“Let me try to give you the rundown. When I was an infant, the hive was undergoing a famine. My father died. I never knew him. Mother sent me to Equestria so I wouldn’t starve due to the love shortage, and Changeling Queens need a lot of it early on. My other parents took me in, raised me… I always knew I was different from other ponies, but I hid it. I was young and scared, so I hid my true face behind a lavender mask.”

Rainbow didn’t say a word as the changeling spoke, simply listening and taking the information in. She was still taking it with a grain of salt, as all of this was far too strange for her to take at anyone’s word. But thus far getting angry and panicky hadn’t served her very well. ‘Let’s try this Twilight style… think it through and learn.’

Seeing Rainbow’s refreshing lack of rebuttal, Twilight saw fit to continue.

“I got my cutie mark, and Celestia made me her student. Eventually, I got wind of Nightmare Moon’s return and was sent to Ponyville. I met the girls there, including you. We stopped Luna and saved her soul. Then Discord came, plus all the other misadventures in between. But then came the day of my brother’s wedding to Cadance… How similar is this sounding so far?”

Rainbow’s brow furrowed in thought. “Well… some details are the same. Nightmare Moon and Discord are the standouts to me. But…” she looked away, her ears drooping. “...Everything before and after that is just… really different. I mean, for one thing, I met you when you were ten years old and still in Canterlot. Or, well, my Twilight…”

She dragged herself over to the couch, feeling the strength steadily leaving her legs as she thought back on all that she had been through. She sat down next to Twilight, albeit with a healthy bubble of space between them. She sighed and continued. “See, when I was eight years old… my parents… d-died. There was an accident in Baltimare, and they were crushed by falling debris from a construction site. I was orphaned and didn’t have any extended family to take me in.”

She leaned back in her seat and glanced over at Twilight. “It was rough. I was alone for a good while, stuck in a stuffy orphanage with nothing to do, no real friends, and… no family…” She closed her eyes again and shook her head to dispel the unpleasant memory of her time in that place. Although, in retrospect, most of the unpleasantness hadn't been due to the orphanage itself, but rather to her own suffering and depression at the time.

“Oh Rainbow, I’m so sorry…” Twilight said sympathetically, her senses feeling the despair within the pegasus. “I can’t imagine… Even if I too was adopted, and I always knew it, I did have a family. What you went through…”

Rainbow opened her eyes. “Well, it didn’t last for long. Maybe a month? I don’t really remember, exactly. But uh, well… one day, Princess Celestia suddenly showed up… and she adopted me.”

Twilight blinked in surprise, but then she smiled. “Heh, I guess that’s one thing we share. One mother out of the rest…”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “I’m sorry, you wanna run that one by me again?”

“Three-mothered mare right here,” Twilight joked. “After I became Celestia’s student, I went to live at the castle. She knew I was the destined Bearer of Magic, so she kept me extra close. That proximity bred… something of a bond. She practically raised me for my latter formative years. One thing mother and her have been able to agree on.”

Rainbow’s expression momentarily soured at the mentioning of Chrysalis, but she was quick to shove it aside for the moment. Nodding, she looked directly ahead. “Hmm… well, I didn’t really feel that way at the time. When Celestia adopted me, I didn’t see her as ‘mom.’ Never called her that, either. Far as I was concerned, I only let her do it in the first place because my real mom and dad would want me to be safe and happy. I took the advice of a… a friend I should really reach out to one of these days, and let Celestia take care of me for them.”

Twilight nodded. “I'm not entirely sure when it happened for me either. It wasn’t overnight, but… Well, it did happen.”

“Hm…” She glanced at Twilight again. “And then I met my Twilight. Celestia’s student, like you said. At first, I didn’t really trust her all that much… she, ah…” she frowned, her brow furrowing. She hesitated for a second, choosing her words carefully. “She looked a lot like somepony I kinda blamed for my parents dying. Stupid of me, yeah, but eh…”

Rainbow looked down, a tiny smile spreading on her face. “...I grew up with her in that castle. Whenever I wasn’t with Celestia, I was with Twilight. She became my best friend pretty fast. I… I think I really needed her. I wouldn’t be the mare I am now if it hadn’t been for her…”

Twilight blinked, her stomach suddenly feeling a little more full as a blush made its way to her cheeks. She thought to ask but then gave out a small awkward squeak as her brain rushed to change the subject.

“Ah… Anyway…” she trailed off. “Back to the wedding…”

“Oh, right,” Rainbow sat upright again as she was reminded of how this topic even came up. “Sorry, it’s kinda easy to get lost in all that. So uh, right, wedding. Uh…” she frowned. “I… don’t recall a wedding. Cadance and Shining are a thing, yeah, but there wasn’t any wedding planned, as far as I could tell.”

“Well, I only learned at the last minute. The big doofus…” Twilight said with a huff. “Celestia wanted us to help Cadance put everything together. Rarity designed the dress, Pinkie and Applejack helped with catering… I was the organizer, go figure.”

“Yeah, I can see that,” Rainbow quipped. “If you are Twilight, then that makes total sense.”

“I am,” she insisted. “But anyway… When I met up with Cadance for the first time since I left for Ponyville a few months previously, she was super clingy. Like she didn’t want to be away from me for a second. I thought it was odd, but little did I know that Cadance was actually Chrysalis. My mother who I had never met.”

Rainbow’s expression visibly darkened, but she said nothing.

“See, what I didn’t know at the time was that I was on the cusp of my final maturation into a changeling capable of creating a hive mind all my own,” she said, pointing at the crown-like antennae on her head. “I am now capable of breaking from mother’s hive and starting my own at any time, though at the time I would have been unable to cope with the stresses. And with this final maturation to be able to cope comes a very dangerous time for us.”

Twilight leaned back, casually using her magic to retrieve a book all about the subject that she promptly dropped onto the table. Rainbow Dash probably wasn’t going to read it, but that didn’t stop her.

“It’s all in here. We need a ridiculous amount of love energy, usually straight from our hive’s main storage, the reservoir. With the famine long since over and what I was getting in Equestria not being enough despite my friends and family—which should give you an idea of just how much I needed—my mother decided to collect as much of that energy as she could and retrieve me. If she didn’t, I was going to die.”

“And so she attacked?” Rainbow ventured slowly. “Am I understanding that right?”

“Kinda…” she admitted sheepishly. “I passed out the night before. I was getting weaker. On the day of the wedding, she shattered my brother’s shield and brought in her drones to restrain ponies and collect as much love energy as they could without being lethal. She’s not a murderer, but she was desperate. Heck, even after I saw her form and how similar she appeared to my own reflection, I tried to fight her. To get the Elements of Harmony. But… I collapsed again.”

“Well, that sure ain’t how things went for me,” Rainbow said, not bothering to hide the bitterness in her voice. “The Chrysalis I had to deal with is a monster, plain and simple.”

“She’s… severe. But she’s not a monster, believe me on that,” Twilight insisted in an extremely assertive manner. “Once the deed was done, I was moved here to recover while Canterlot was left intact. Injuries on both sides were minor at their worst, luckily. I was… angry. I still don’t approve. But I came to understand, as did my friends when I came back. But… Well, you know the rest of it. Things are better now, but I still remember what happened that day…”

Rainbow hummed. “Well… if Canterlot was attacked, even non-lethally, I can’t say I hold it entirely against ponies for being hostile towards you,” she eventually said, being careful with her words. “Not that I think the ones that tried to kill you were in the right. That’s not how Equestria’s supposed to do things. As a princess myself, I had to figure that one out the hard way.”

“Most of Equestria’s on the right page, but those were some very… I don’t really want to think about it anymore…” Twilight muttered, rubbing her scar again in distress. “But I think it’s your turn if it’s okay to ask. You mentioned me, or at least my counterpart. What happened to me in your world? I almost died? Something about amnesia, is that also me? What… what did my mo- Chrysalis do?”

Rainbow fell silent for a moment, her mind briefly going blank as the memories of her time in the Empire came rushing back. Stifling a shudder, she forced herself to look directly ahead. “...When my friends and I were forced on the run, we wound up in the Crystal Empire,” she began to recount the tail in an almost robotic voice. “It was our base for a while. The only place where we were safe. Chrysalis kept spreading over Equestria, bringing her armies along to attack towns and capture ponies so she could harvest them for food.”

She wasn’t able to suppress her shudder this time. “...We had a lot to deal with. I was barely able to talk King Sombra into staying in the snow while we worked in the city, and Chrysalis and her army were well on their way. When they showed up, we did all we could to hold her at bay, but… she had the strength of all three alicorns and the population of Canterlot at her beck and call. Not a chance we could defeat that as we were…

“And she had a vendetta against us… Twilight had given her a pretty nasty scar back in Canterlot, and she was out for revenge. When she arrived, I tried to fight her off on my own, and… well…” Rainbow lifted up her hoof, putting her scar on display. “I… I lost. I was so outclassed it wasn’t even funny. She beat me to within an inch of my life… she tortured me for fun. I think I only survived because Twilight came in to save me. But that was exactly what Chrysalis wanted…”

Rainbow cringed, her ribs tingling at the memory of being broken. “Chrysalis beat us both… but we got lucky. A few allies got my family loose, and, well… Celestia, Luna, Cadance, Shining Armor, and a few others popped into the Empire last second. We got the Elements, we blasted Chrysalis, turned her into a tree, and then had to deal with Sombra. We beat him, too, turned his smug face to dust with the Crystal Heart. Then...”

Rainbow trailed off at that point, her hoof dropping into her lap. She looked down, her eyes going distant.

“Then… something happened?” Twilight asked. “How could she hurt anypony at that point?”

“It wasn’t Chrysalis. Not directly.” Rainbow shook her head. “It was a drone… Tell me; do you have one named Stinger here?” she asked, glancing sideways at Twilight. “Zealously loyal to Chrysalis, aggressive, good in combat?”

Twilight shuffled uncomfortably.

“Stinger? You there?”

“Yes, Princess? I’m currently helping Panacea fix up a nymph that scraped her knee while playing a spontaneous game of tag with Private Pincer. Ah, the life of a medical drone…”

“Uh, right. Well, I might need you to avoid Rainbow Dash for a while, okay?”

“Uh… Okay? Might I ask why, Princess?”

“No.”

“She’s no threat to you,” Twilight said with a nervous smile. “She’s a nurse.”

Rainbow’s eyes narrowed, her heart beating a little faster in her chest. She looked down and took a deep breath. “...I’m taking your word for it,” she snarled quietly. “If you’re lying to me about her…”

The sentence was left hanging in the air for a moment before Rainbow forced herself to continue. “...The Stinger I know… s-she murdered her. M-my Twilight, I mean…” she forced the words out, all of the hostility in her voice replaced with dull sorrow and emotional exhaustion. She slumped back in her seat and sighed. “She put herself in front of a killing spell meant for me… it killed her instantly.”

Twilight recoiled. “Wait, I’m dead!? That’s the best friend you mentioned? But that makes no sense! Judging by your context of previous conversations, it indicates that I’m very not-dead!”

Rainbow sighed. “...’Cause she isn’t. Not physically, anyway…”

“Physically? I spent a while in a nasty coma dream, but I’m pretty sure I never died physically or mentally. So… Wait, the amnesia?”

Rainbow nodded. “Yup… My Twilight was dead for a few minutes before mom did… something. I dunno how it all works, but she used some powerful magic and brought my Twilight back to life by turning her into an alicorn. But…” her ears drooped, an audible tremor creeping into her words. “B-but… she forgot… everything. All she k-knew when s-she woke up was her name and… t-that was it.”

Rainbow’s eyes began to glisten before a tear slid down her cheek.

Twilight, slowly and tenderly, placed a hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder. “I am so, so sorry, Rainbow. If I were to forget… I can’t imagine it. But… she still has you, right? All you girls? I-If I were to lose you…”

“I promised her I’d be there,” Rainbow went on, seemingly not fully registering the changeling’s words. “That I’d help her remember… or at the very least, that I’d help her find her future. She’s counting on me, and…” she looked over at Twilight, her expression one of subdued desperation. “And I’m stuck here… who knows how far away… I gotta get home...”

“And that’s exactly what I’ve been trying to help you do,” Twilight told her. “I want to help you, Rainbow. But I can’t do it if you’re fighting me every step of the way. I-I don’t need you to like me, but please. Just let me try to help. I… I might have an idea of where to start.”

Rainbow looked away long enough to wipe away her tears and pull herself together. “Oh yeah? Where?” she asked, taking a deep breath to steady her quivering voice.

“Canterlot,” she replied simply. “My books here are insufficient for a problem like this. It’s all theory. What I need is concrete information about the action of inter-universe travel itself, and only one pony has achieved this: Starswirl the Bearded.”

“Right, right…” Rainbow muttered with a slow nod, thinking back. “Mom did mention he had a hoof in stuff like that, once. And there’s also that dusty old mirror in the vaults she never let me touch.”

“Oh, you have that too? Great, you might meet another you someday!”

“What?”

“Doesn’t matter, back on topic,” she redirected. “The Royal Archives have his works. Celestia can give us access. Plus, my status as a former student of hers and an Element of Harmony has some weight attached to it. We could also stop by Ponyville on the way, to meet yourself if you still need proof.”

Rainbow hesitated. “...Stopping by Ponyville sounds fine by me,” she eventually agreed with a reluctant nod. “If you’re telling me the truth about any of this, then it’ll be different to how I remember it, right? This is your chance to prove you’re being upfront with me.”

“Somehow, I suspect Ponyville will always be Ponyville,” Twilight mused with a nostalgic smile. “But we’ll find something. I’ll just need to gather up some transport and send a message ahead of time to arrange a stay in my old library. The new tenant is usually pretty nice about these things.”

“On the other hoof,” Rainbow added. “If this is all some elaborate lie, then when I get home, I can confirm that for myself.”

“It would be pretty dumb to go there if this wasn’t legit, Rainbow,” Twilight pointed out. “But fair. And… one more thing…”

“What?”

Twilight bit her lip. “There are really no friendly changelings where you come from?”

Rainbow hesitated. “...I never said that,” she denied with a slow shake of her head. “Just that the ones I have dealt with were my enemies. Only two were on my side…”

“I’m glad some of my kind are making something of themselves, at least.”

“Yeah, well…” Rainbow hopped down from the couch and took a few steps away. “I’m not a total idiot, you know. I know that there are good changelings in that swarm… but I only ever met two of them.”

“I know you’re not an idiot, Rainbow, you’re just struggling. I know the feeling,” Twilight sympathized. “And incredibly stubborn and quick to act without thinking so much that I swear Applejack’s teeth are turning multicoloured from all the times she’s had to bite your tail.”

Rainbow shook her head with a tiny chuckle. “Yeah, yeah… When are we leaving?”

“Tomorrow morning, if you don’t mind staying the night. You can take my bed again since I’ll be up all night anyway,” she responded. “I can have Spike keep you company and get you anything you need. I’ll even get rid of the ward if you promise not to give any of my subjects another heart attack.”

Rainbow paused for a split second. “The only thing I need right now,” she began before turning and marching back for the bed. “Is a long nap.”

Without further ado, the pegasus princess reared up like a seal playing with a ball and flopped unceremoniously back down onto the bed. A muffled thump echoed throughout the room, followed shortly by the sounds of loud, obnoxious snoring as Rainbow fell right back to sleep.

Were she awake, she might have given thanks to how easy it was for her to nap.

10 - Travel Dispute

The night was a long one for Princess Twilight Sparkle, though it did give her an opportunity to flex the muscles in her brain that made up the hive centre. An impromptu continuation of her earlier interrupted lesson, she decided. Plus, she could arrange the coming trip back into Equestria while likewise being able to keep an eye on Rainbow dash and read at the same time.

How had she ever managed without the hive mind before? She loved multitasking!

The pegasus in question, fortunately, seemed utterly dead to the world. Though her snoring was typical of the Rainbow Dash she was more familiar with, the pony here was all but spread out across the bad with limbs flailed, and she was also occasionally twitched in a rather cute manner.

Though Twilight decided not to think about anything being remotely cute about Rainbow Dash, considering what she suspected and all but knew. That was a can of worms she was still not entirely sure about how to approach. Likewise, she was utterly stunned and terrified by the absurdity of the concept.

Multiverses. Are. Weird.

Still, ‘interesting’ emotional responses aside, the quiet did give Twilight all the time she needed to think and make her plans. Her drones were more than happy to carry out her commands the moment she issued them, and her mother had been forty percent less nosy and intrusive during the exercise. Improvement!

It’s the little things that are important in life.

Still, there were little adjustments she had to make. She had to make sure everything was airtight and foolproof, less cobbled together like her earlier efforts to help her. Cobbled together had led to a lack of consideration as to her mother’s initial meeting with the pegasus, after all.

She had to be logical and efficient. Perfection was required. It was just lucky that she had many hours before Celestia was due to raise the-

“Good morning!”

“MORNING!?”

Spike gave the Princess of the Badlands Hive and odd look as she jumped up, looking predictably unhinged as her eye twitched and a bit of her mane panged out of place.

“Er, yes? That thing that happens when the sun rises,” he deadpanned. “You lost track of time again, didn’t you?”

She gave a manic laugh. “Noooo, why would I lose track of time? It’s not like I have so many things to do and oh Celestia how did I lose track of time this badly!?”

“Stop. Screaming,” Rainbow’s groggy voice came from the bed, muffled by the pillows of the bed.

“I shall not stop screaming! There is PLENTY to scream about!”

“I’m sleeping, you dodo.”

“And you thought this wasn’t Twilight Sparkle?” Spike asked in amusement. “No other changeling could get Twilighting this perfect. It’s an art.”

Rainbow, with a defeated grumble, pulled her face up from the blankets with an almost audible pop. There was a small line of drool running down her jaw, one she did not seem to be aware of as her eyes glued onto the changeling in the room.

When Twilight went to open her mouth again, Rainbow lifted her hoof and narrowed her eyes in the ‘silence’ gesture that she had used before. If it weren’t for the drool and groggy eyes, it might have worked, too.

Alas, Twilight just kept going.

“Why are you not more entirely alarmed by this!?” Twilight asked the both of them. “I still have so many drones to micromanage for perfection. The exact timing of our departure and arrival to the convenience of all involved, filling the gaps in any guard rotations I’m disrupting, ensuring-”

“And you haven’t done all that already?” Spike asked doubtfully.

“Well, no, I have. But only a few dozen times! I need to get everything just right so that mother-”

Spike rolled his eyes. “One, this is overkill. Seriously. Two, you can literally do any leftover bits during the ride over. Three, seriously?”

“I am very serious, Spike.”

“How much better could you possibly get the timing that you haven’t done already?”

“I’m thinking another point-three to-”

“Uh, forget I asked,” Spike said, stopping a lecture before it could fully mature into the horrible prolonged beast it was. “Come on, I’ll whip you up some breakfast. Just relax, it’s going to be fine. You’ll see!”

Twilight bit her lip for a few moments, but then gave a huff of defeat. “Oh, fine. I suppose the drones have had enough of my directions for one night anyway.”

“Yes. Because I can’t imagine how a Princess adjusting her plans every few minutes could get annoying.”

“Oh hush, you,” she remarked, bopping him on the nose with a hoof. “You’ve made your point. I can talk the details with Rainbow there when she feels inclined to get her flank out of my bed.”

“I’m right here, y’know,” the pegasus in question deadpanned under her breath.

Twilight ignored her. “Still, thanks, Spike.”

“It’s why I’m here!” he said with a salute. “Good thing I’m around to stop you from freaking out so much, huh?”

Now it was her turn to roll her eyes. “I’m sure I could manage. Probably. Still, breakfast sounds good. Especially coffee, definitely feeling the lack of sleep.”

“Yeah, that ain’t helping the freakouts either,” he snarked. “Either of those things. But I’m on the case!”

He saluted again, turning around and marching towards the door.

“Oof!”

Right into the still-active ward on the door, the drake smacking into the magical barrier like a wet sack of tomatoes against an immovable object.

“Oh, right. Still can’t exit,” Twilight noted apologetically. “Uh, let me get that.”

“I wvoud apwciate it,” his muffled reply came, face still pressed against the barrier.

Vwoop.

Spike fell forward with a brief yell, but fortunately, he managed to catch himself this time around. He dusted himself off, adjusting his head fins and ensuring he hadn’t permanently squashed his facial features.

“You saw nothing.”

“Of course,” Twilight said with a giggle as the young dragon finally managed to depart.

“I saw everything,” Rainbow Dash called after him, the mare smirking in amusement at the scene.

Judging by the barely audible grumbles, he heard her.

The Hive was enormous. That much had been pretty apparent for a while now. But as Rainbow allowed herself to be guided through the halls by Twilight, the changeling rambling at her about its history or something, she gained a whole new appreciation for the sheer scale of this subterranean city.

No wonder she had gotten lost in it so easily.

Shortly after Spike had made his delightful exit, Rainbow had spent a short time tidying herself up before following Twilight out of her room and out into the halls of the hive proper. She had been hoping that they would just head straight for the exit so this trip to Ponyville could get underway, but the changeling princess had insisted that they make a few pit stops so she could provide historical lectures.

It was a snore. The only place that had really been interesting to Rainbow in the slightest had to be the atrium, if only because it had been neat to look at and gave her a chance, however brief, to stretch her wings and fly around a bit. Alas, their time there had been aggravatingly short-lived, and Twilight had dragged Rainbow along to their next destination on this consentless grand tour.

If nothing else, though, listening to ‘Twilight’ dive into a subject like this and blather on and on was… oddly comforting. It reminded Rainbow of better times. Before Discord, before Chrysalis, before the Amnesia…

Maybe that was the idea.

Mercifully, the tour eventually came to an end. They were just passing by a large residential corridor when Twilight suddenly stopped, her ears perking up and her head tilting to one side. A few seconds later, she nodded and turned back to Rainbow with a sheepish smile. “Ah, mother just contacted me over the hive mind. It’s time for us to go.”

“Bout time,” Rainbow rolled her eyes impatiently, falling into step behind the changeling princess as they changed course. “Not to rail on your ‘history lessons’, but I kinda just want to get home.

“Right. Well, it shouldn’t be too long a flight. A good few hours.”

“Uh-huh.”

A small smile of reminiscence briefly graced the Princess’ features. “You know… you were the one to teach me how to use these,” she said, buzzing her wings briefly.

Rainbow nodded slowly, her eyes lowering somewhat. “Yeah, makes sense. Still gotta teach my Twilight how to use hers reliably. She could barely make it down from a cloud at tree canopy height without banging her nose against the dirt.”

“Dirt, huh? For me, it was a rose bush.”

“Neat.”

They wound through the halls, occasionally passing by patrolling guards or civilian drones, all of whom would give her cautious glances while bowing to Twilight. It was still more than a little unsettling, being around so many of them without them attacking her. Her spine was still tingling with anxiety at every pair of glowing blue eyes she saw staring back at her.

Eventually, they ascended a staircase leading up, before coming to a large open chamber, at the end of which was a contrastingly small tunnel. At the end of the said tunnel, Rainbow saw a light.

A couple of guards stood watch by the tunnel, bowing at Twilight as she approached before taking up position behind the group as they passed through. Rainbow glanced back at them distrustfully but otherwise did not react.

Soon enough, they reached the light at the end of the tunnel, and Rainbow felt a wave of relief on feeling the unmistakable feeling of fresh-ish air washing over her face in a gentle breeze. She took in a deep breath and let it out in a relaxed sigh, her eyes squinting against the light of dawn as she, at long last, set hoof outside the hive.

The terrain she was met with was less than thrilling. It was just jagged red rock and sand as far as the eye could see, marked with the occasional dead tree. There wasn’t even a cloud in the sky, disappointingly, but that didn’t do much to sour Rainbow’s mood. She was just glad to be outside again.

What did spoil her mood, however, was the sight of a certain tall changeling standing by the carriage that was awaiting them some ways ahead. Spike stood in front of her, reading something off from a checklist, holding her attention.

“Done. Done. Ongoing…” She looked up, her gaze becoming somewhat displeased with the sight of the pegasus accompanying her daughter. “Ah. There is the source of the day’s annoyances. I trust you can keep yourself in check this time.”

“If you can shut up for once, maybe,” came the snapped response.

“Don’t presume to insult me in my own hive, cretin!”

“Mother!” Twilight chided in alarm. “The version of you that she knows is a bit of a tyrant, so please try to be understanding!”

“Whatever this other Changeling Queen has done, she is not I,” Chrysalis rebuked. “This pegasus would be wise to learn this. Especially if we are to solve this predicament in good time.”

“If you’re any different from the one I know,” Rainbow growled, her eyes narrowing. “Then you wouldn’t be insulting me with every other sentence. You want me to respect you in any way? Earn it!”

“Earn? Why you little-” A sour look from her daughter made any following insult catch in her throat. “Hmph. I do not need your respect, not from one who has struck my child.”

Twilight’s eyes widened. “You know about that!?”

A short distance away, Carduus shrunk down a little, Spike wandering over to join him with a similarly uneasy look on his face.

“She asked,” the changeling drone said regretfully over the hive mind. “You know how perceptive she can be…”

Twilight sighed. “Not your fault. Thanks for trying, at least.”

“Can you really blame me?” Rainbow pressed on in her argument with Chrysalis, her wings ruffling at her sides in frustration. “As far as I could see, I had just woken up in a completely unfamiliar cave with one of the creatures I just got done being at war with looming over me with the voice of my best friend, who, I might add, just got murdered by a changeling only a few weeks prior! I had plenty of reasons to be scared for not just my life, but the lives of my friends and family!”

“Yet you did it, despite supposedly being her friend. My presence notwithstanding,” she retorted. “I do not know how things are where you come from. Neither do I care to, that business is not my own.”

Rainbow snarled. “And there’s the problem. You’re not even trying to see things from my point of view!”

“She’s right,” Twilight said to her mother. “You need to calm down, mother.”

Rainbow grinned. “See-”

“And you!” She then turned on Rainbow. “Also try to see things her way as well! After what those ponies I told you about tried to do, are you so surprised she’s so hostile after what happened earlier?”

Rainbow paused, glancing up at Chrysalis with a frown. She hesitated for a second before taking a deep breath to calm down. “Protective, maybe. I’m protective of my family, too,” she said after a moment, easing off her voice. “But that doesn’t mean I’m going to start throwing insults and aggressive remarks at every single creature that wanders by that I happen to dislike. It never gets anything done; trust me, I tried.”

She pointed her hoof at Chrysalis, her expression slowly softening, although it was still considerably cold and guarded. “Look, I get it. Twilight told me about the whole thing with the assassin. She almost died, you don’t wanna let that happen again. But you’re only gonna make enemies by acting like this. Luna knows you’ve just about made one out of me already. So just… cool it, would ya?”

For a moment, Chrysalis fangs clenched together as if the point landed on deaf ears. But then, slowly but steadily, her features started to relax. She let out a slow breath in a manner that was oddly reminiscent of the routine Princess Cadance taught Twilight.

“I… apologize if I let my anger get the better of my judgment. It has been known to happen,” she admitted. “But understand that I cannot trust you as of now. Equestria may be our allies here, its rulers even might be considered my friends, but you are an unknown. The safety of my child is everything to me, so I will accompany you until I know that you are at least half the pony Twilight believes our Rainbow Dash to be.”

Rainbow briefly stiffened, her mind locking up. Chrysalis was coming with them? Her first instinct was to throw up a retort or refusal, but a quick glance towards the still stern face of Twilight made the words lodge themselves somewhere in her throat. After a moment, she let out a sigh and nodded. “Fine, fine. I can live with that. Just don’t give me a reason to lash out, and I won’t.”

“I can say much the same, Rainbow Dash,” Chrysalis stated. “Prove to me you can be trusted, and you will earn my respect. Perhaps. And who knows? We might even learn to like each other.”

Rainbow snorted. “Yeah, I don’t see that happening,” she said, albeit with a small amount of amusement in her voice. She lifted up her scarred hoof to show the queen. “Different or not, I can’t forget how many bad things I associate that face and voice with.”

Chrysalis chuckled. “Alas, I concur. After all, if you are half the pony Twilight thinks our Rainbow Dash is, you’ll probably crash into our personal library and I’ll need to organize the entire thing again!”

Rainbow pointed said scarred hoof at Chrysalis. “And you can stop that train of thought right there,” she said lightly, a small amount of warning in her voice.

Twilight had the strangest humongous grin on her face. “See! Friendship!”

“Shush!” Chrysalis and Rainbow said simultaneously in mild exasperation from the interruption, both then glancing at each other before giving their own huffs of irritation.

“We’re doomed,” Spike deadpanned.

11 - Another Ponyville

To say that the ride was long and tense would be an egregious understatement. Even with the brief moment of understanding Rainbow and Chrysalis had shared back at the hive before setting off, it was clear to all that neither was totally happy to share such a confined physical space with the other, especially for such a prolonged period of time.

More than once, Rainbow had actively considered leaping out of the carriage to fly alongside it, if only for the sake of fresh air, the feeling of wind on her face, and so she could get away from those eyes. Even if Twilight was telling the truth about all of this other world stuff—which Rainbow was still sceptical about—she just could not get over the way those slit pupils burrowed into her mind’s eye like a worm tunnelling into some particularly rich dirt.

‘I have to see those eyes in my nightmares enough as it is,’ she thought bitterly to herself, glancing out the window to watch the landscape rolling by.

Sadly, no matter how much she wanted to step outside, it would probably be a bad idea. She may have recovered enough to fly at this point, but her wing was still tender from her fall, and if she lost control mid-flight and fell, there was a decent chance the chariot would be unable to turn to catch her in time. One of these changelings would have to catch her in magic, an experience Rainbow was not eager to repeat. So, resisting the urge to sigh, she settled for staying in place and keeping her eyes trained on the outside world.

They were high in the sky, providing all within the carriage a sprawling view of miles upon miles of Equestrian countryside. It was all familiar, yet Rainbow could tell that there was something off about it compared to the nation she had grown up in. It was hard to pin down, exactly, but it sent her nerves on edge, making her shift on her haunches periodically with nervous energy.

“So, we are back in Equestria!” Twilight pointed out with a nervous chuckle. “I bet you’re glad to be away from the rocks and sand, at least, right?”

“Technically, it’s our pile of rocks and sand,” Spike quipped.

Chrysalis snorted. “It’s a wasteland, young dragon. We’d be long rid of it if it wasn’t so good at keeping us secluded. Just one more reason we’re underground.”

“Oh. Right…”

Rainbow hummed quietly in response. “Hm. It definitely looks like home…” she muttered, her eyes lazily following the path of a river that wormed its way through the countryside.

“But… it feels off, right? Probably because you know it isn’t your home,” Twilight mused sadly.

“Not technically,” Spike added. “But still kinda? My head hurts.”

“Something like that,” Rainbow eventually acknowledged. “I mean, it’s not like I know where all of the mountains and valleys are, or the layout of every forest. Equestria’s a big place, and I’ve only ever been to a few parts of it. I know those parts like the back of my hoof, but the rest? Broad strokes at best.”

She tapped a hoof against the window for emphasis. “So what I’m seeing out there could be just any other part of Equestria that I simply haven’t been to before… so it’s not like anything looks wrong… like you said, it feels wrong.”

“A whole number of things could be different. Or not. The cosmos is a large place,” Twilight stated factually. “But let’s run under the assumption that the landscape is more or less identical. It sounds to me from our conversations that it’s more so the people that are different. You have a Canterlot, a Ponyville...”

“Perhaps we should stop theorizing and focus more on the task at hoof,” Chrysalis deadpanned. “All this idle talk seems to over complicate matters.”

“Task at hoof: Ponyville,” Rainbow agreed before glancing at the wall she knew the drivers to be behind. She pouted impatiently. “Are we there yet?”

“How childish.”

“But are we?” Spike then asked.

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “Estimated time?”

“Twenty minutes, give or take,” one of the changelings responded.

“A while,” Chrysalis relayed.

“Ugh,” Rainbow and Spike droned in unison.

Twilight’s ears perked up. “How about we pass the time by hearing interesting facts on the multiversal logistical-”

“UGH!” This time, Chrysalis joined the chorus.

The rest of the trip, mercifully, did not take long, and soon enough Rainbow felt the tell-tale sensation of the carriage coming to a landing and rolling along uneven terrain. She had leaned back and closed her eyes to nap away the remainder of the trip, and so now opened them up to peer outside.

Ponyville. They were here.

“About time,” Spike declared as the carriage came to a slow stop. He sprung from his seat and gave a languid stretch, his back popping a few times. “Whew! I’m thinking I might hit up sugarcube corner while we’re here. I could use a good snack after that awkward ride.”

“You had to point it out,” Chrysalis deadpanned.

“Hey, you’re the emotion people, if you couldn’t detect it then there’s a problem.”

“Hardly the point.”

Rainbow tuned out the brewing light debate about what the point even was, her mind blanking with relief at the familiar village. It looked just like she remembered it, albeit she wasn’t familiar with this particular part of town. No matter, she could just fly up a few dozen yards and get the lay of the land without-

“The heck is that?” she asked when she caught sight of a building straight out of Cloudsdale floating around in the distance. It was extravagant by Ponyville standards, complete with its own mini rainbow waterfall.

“Huh? What?” Twilight questioned as she stepped out alongside Rainbow, both finding no small amount of relief at being free of the cramped space as the changeling started stretching the stiffness out of her gossamer wings.

Rainbow pointed again. “That big cloud house thingy.”

She gave her an odd look. “Uh… that’s your cloud mansion. Where do you live where you come from?”

“In a library with my Twilight,” came the automatic response.

Twilight’s scuffed the ground awkwardly. “O-oh… is that so… Um, but yes it’s a nice house I really think so what do you think Spike is it nice or do you think that- well, yes!”

Rainbow turned to look at Twilight as she went from awkwardly stuttering to her best rambling Pinkie impression in a matter of moments. Slowly, one of her eyebrows decided it was a good time to take an unscheduled vacation up north. “...Y’what?”

Twilight stopped. “What?”

Chrysalis raised an eyebrow as well, her gaze seemingly morphing into some renewed suspicion and disapproval for Rainbow Dash.

“Um… am I missing something?” Spike asked in confusion.

“Uh… Yeah, are we?” Rainbow asked likewise.

“Nope! Nothing at all, so stop talking!” Twilight proclaimed. “Cloud house! That’s the topic here! Stick with it!”

“Um… okay…”

“I’m kinda weirded out you live on the ground where you come from, Rainbow,” Spike stated.

“Meh. Wasn’t really my call,” she replied with a shrug. “There’s nothing stopping me from making a house like that, I suppose. But… well, I’m happy with what I got already.”

“Made one? Huh, I thought Rainbow just bought it and moved it here from Cloudsdale.”

“She did,” Twilight pointed out.

“Ah. Right. Thought so, your parents are loaded!”

Rainbow’s ears drooped to rest flat against her head. “Uh… y-yeah… right…” she muttered, her voice going quiet.

Twilight slowly turned her head towards Spike, her face very much conveying the message of “shut up now”. She then shook her head, giving a sigh as she planted herself right next to the alternate Rainbow Dash.

“So, you wanted concrete proof, there’s even more just inside the town. Let’s walk to the library, we can see about getting my friends in on this after you’ve had time to… process.”

Rainbow wasn’t listening. Without a word, she unfurled her wings and took to the sky, her mind well and truly somewhere else. If the others called out to her, she ignored them for the moment. Right now, all that mattered to her was getting to the library and finding out, one way or the other, if these bugs were being honest with her for real.

The presence of that cloud mansion in the distance didn’t help with her unease. Especially with what Spike had said about its origin.

“Your parents are loaded!”

Are loaded. Present tense. Rainbow had been around Twilight long enough that even that tiny detail stood out like a sore thumb. So… did that mean…?

She shook her head and pumped her wings harder, the wind starting to roar in her ears as she picked up speed. ‘No, nuh-uh. I can’t go thinking about that right now. They’re gone. I saw it happen. I watched them get crushed and I couldn’t do a thing about it!’ she stressed to herself, her teeth grinding inside her mouth. ‘Just gotta get to the library, find my Twilight, and figure out what’s going on.’

Soon enough, the library came into view, just as she remembered it. A simultaneous wave of relief and anxiety washed through her system at the sight. If this was her world, then she had just made the mistake of drawing Chrysalis to her home, and more concerningly, to an amnesiac, unprepared Twilight Sparkle.

With that notion burning hot in her veins, Rainbow came to a landing in front of the door. She hadn’t realized how much speed she had picked up, and so was taken by surprise when her landing kicked up a noticeable cloud of dirt, as well as put cracks into the soil beneath her hooves. She only stopped to ponder that for a fraction of a second before darting forwards and pushing open the door.

“Hey, Twi! Are you in here?!” she called out in a loud voice, her eyes scanning the room, searching for any sign of-

“Oh!” an unfamiliar voice yelped in alarm from the sudden shout and loud bang, drawing Rainbow’s attention to the middle of the room. Her eyes widened at the sight of a white unicorn mare with a vaguely loose brown mane and tail and pale blue eyes sitting at the table in the centre of the room, her eyes downcast at the rapidly-spreading stain of her spilt coffee. She then glanced back up at Rainbow and pouted in annoyance. “Princess Twilight is supposed to be in the Badlands Hive, isn’t she? Why are you trying to break my door?”

Rainbow went rigid, her eyes bulging in her skull. “Wha… but… b-but…” she babbled uselessly, her entire posture slowly sagging in disbelief.

The mare raised an eyebrow as she examined Rainbow more closely. “Wait… since when did you start wearing your mane like that? And what’s with the scar? Did something happen?”

Rainbow took a few steps back, her mouth opening and closing uselessly as her brain stalled.

“Open Book!” came a startled shout, a small gust of wind being picked up as said Princess of the Changelings zoomed on in at speeds Rainbow might have been impressed by if her brain wasn’t flatlined for the fiftieth time since yesterday. “I’m so sorry! She went on ahead and I couldn’t stop her.”

The mare frowned. “It’s… no issue, Princess Twilight. But- Ah! Queen Chrysalis! I had no idea- Welcome to Ponyville!”

Indeed, Queen Chrysalis likewise came in for a landing. Spike was riding on her back, something she seemed a little indignant about but otherwise didn’t protest. She was alone, none of the escorting guards in sight.

“Let’s not start with that, you are not one of my subjects,” Chrysalis pointed out. “But the welcome is appreciated. Twilight, I have sent the guards to park up the carriage in a more convenient location and to then check-in at the local hotel.”

“Unless you’ve upgraded the couch size,” Spike said with a chuckle.

“Not so, I’m afraid,” Open Book responded. “Well, if you need the library, it’s all yours! I’ve been meaning to visit my sister’s anyway.”

“Oh! Well, that’s good! I always feel bad taking it off your hooves, but now more than ever its familiarity is needed.”

“Princess, as I said when I took the tenancy, I’m only keeping it warm. It’s the least I can do for a hero of Equestria!” the mare said with a giggle. “Now, let me just grab my bags. Have a nice day your Highness, your Majesty, Spike, and Rainbow!”

Rainbow numbly shuffled off to one side as the mare gathered up a few things and strolled out, leaving the pegasus alone with the two changeling royals and Spike. But even as the others began to filter into the library to get settled, Rainbow remained planted in place, a deep pit forming in her heart.

‘They were telling the truth,’ she finally realized with the colour draining from her face.

But if they were telling the truth… if she was really stuck in another world, then…

Her hoof wandered up to her mouth while her mind wandered to her Twilight. How was she handling Rainbow sudden disappearance? How were any of her friends? Did they even know where she had gone, or how, or why? Those questions and many, many others raced through her mind at high speeds, each one draining more and more feeling from her legs.

Above all of them, though, one question boomed louder than the rest, a repeating mantra that hammered a wedge of dread deep into her mind.

‘What if I can’t go home?’

The storm that had swallowed her up had never been observed before as far as her world’s history was concerned. If it was some one-off occurrence, then the chances of another one rolling by to send her home were slim to none. And even if one came along, there was no guarantee that it would send her home, given what this world’s Twilight had said about the scale of the multiverse.

Would she ever get to go home?

“...Rainbow?”

The voice of Twilight snapped Rainbow out of her thoughts. Startled, she jumped in place before turning to look into the concerned eyes of the changeling princess.

Twilight took a step forward. “Are you alright?”

Rainbow took a shaky breath. “I… n-no, no I’m not,” she admitted after a few seconds of tense silence. “I, uh… I need to be alone for a little bit. I gotta… g-gotta wrap my head around some things.”

Without waiting for a response, she turned and leapt up into the air, making her way for the nearest bundle of clouds she could find.

Twilight watched her go from down below, ears drooping. But she let her go. If Dash needed space, then she wouldn’t be the changeling to stop her. Not now.

But maybe there was another pony in town that could help…

“Be careful, Rainbow.”

12 - Double Rainbow

A different world, huh?

Rainbow gave off a quiet snort at the thought, her eyes glued loosely to the distant sunset in the distance. She was resting on a cloud high above Ponyville, curled up into a ball in an effort to quiet down her occasional bouts of shivering. Her tremors were not from the cold, however.

No matter how hard she tried, she could not keep her mind from wandering back to her friends and family back home. She couldn’t stop worrying about how confused they must have felt over her sudden disappearance. She couldn’t stop worrying about Twilight suddenly losing the mare that had promised to help her find her life again. Or how Celestia would be on the verge of panic from her sudden disappearance so soon after their struggle with Chrysalis and Sombra.

She shuddered again, her wings ruffling quietly at her sides. “Just hang on, guys…” she whispered to herself, her eyes drifting closed. She let out a long, tired sigh. “I’m trying to get home… just hang in there.”

Silence fell over her for what felt like an eternity, leaving her with nothing to occupy her mind save for the doubts that already plagued her.

A sound reached her ears. Faint and distant, but rapidly growing closer. Perturbed by the disturbance, Rainbow cracked open an eye and perked up her ears to listen better. It was a steady, rhythmic sound. It only took her another second to recognize it as the beating of pegasus wings in the air.

The owner of those wings then came into view in front of her, rising up in a blur of many colours.

Rainbow blinked, her jaw falling wide open in shock.

“Woah! Twilight was noooot kidding!” the pegasus remarked with an amused snort. “This. Is. So. AWESOME!”

“Uh…”

“Ya know, at first I thought this was her idea of a prank. Like, she finally took a page out of my and Pinkie Pie’s book. You know how much the bug brain loves those. Probably. You’re me! But, uh, where was I?”

Rainbow’s brain stalled at the sight and sound of a perfect replica of herself, albeit without the hairband and dressed in the uniform of a Wonderbolt reservist, the goggles hanging around her neck like a necklace.

‘Y’know what? I shoulda seen this coming,’ Rainbow thought after a second before listening to what her other self had to say.

“Oh, right! Another me!” she then continued enthusiastically. “The Egghead said you went off this way. Something about ‘needing a sympathetic but effective dose of reality- yadda yadda’ boooring. You know. Egghead stuff! I zoned out, thought you might be a changeling or something, but she insisted this was legit and WOW! You’re here! Like, another actual me! Crazy! And, I know, pretty awesome!”

Rainbow stared at her counterpart for several long seconds, trying to catch up with everything that had just come flying out of the pegasus’ mouth. After a moment, she clamped her hanging jaw shut. “Y-yeah, uh… awesome,” she echoed quietly, mentally noting how long it had been since she had said that word and actually meant it.

“So, you a wonderbolt too? Oh! Looking at that scar there, I bet you’re a captain! You must have seen some real action! What was it? Dragons? Big monster from Tartarus? Bet it was sweet, whatever it was! What am I saying? OF COURSE it was! You’re me! And two of me is, like, at least twenty-five percent cooler.”

Rainbow’s expression went from shocked confusion to cold remembrance. “...Wonderbolt? Me? Ha, I wish. But… yeah, I’ve seen action. And trust me… nothing about it was sweet, or cool, or awesome,” she said quietly, allowing some bitterness to creep into her voice before raising her scarred hoof. “...It was terrible. And I never want to go through it again.”

That, combined with the unexpected dreariness of her tone, caused the wind the deflate almost entirely out of the Wonderbolt reservist’s sails. “Oh… Bad times, huh? Twilight might have said something about that, probably should have paid attention a bit more. Eh-heh, sorry.”

Rainbow shook her head before lowering her chin back to her hooves. “Bad times is an understatement, trust me on that,” she grumbled. “And yeah, you should probably listen to Twilight more often. Much as she tends to drone on and on, she’s smart.”

“Yeah, she is. Don’t tell her I said this, but she is kinda cool. Sometimes,” the pegasus admitted, landing on the cloud next to her alternate universe doppelganger and sitting down. “But I learn better by doing. Books are a bit of a no go. Except for Daring Do, Twilight got me into that one time when I was in the hospital with a broken wing. Back then, even when I tried to deny it, she always seemed to know how I was really feeling. Go figure now, huh?”

Rainbow frowned. “Right. Changeling…” she mumbled quietly, a small pang of guilt piercing her chest as it fully dawned on her just how horrible she had been treating her up until now. “...That’s not a thing where I’m from.”

“Wait, really?” the second Rainbow asked curiously. “Huh. A year back that would seem… almost normal. As normal as she could ever be, being the adorkable nerd she is. But now none of us, me and the girls I mean, could imagine her being anything else. ‘Course it means that she’s barely around anymore… Stupid royalty and hives and stuff…”

Rainbow got the tiniest ghost of a smile on her lips, giving the pegasus at her side a sideways look. “Careful. You’re talking to royalty right now,” she said in a lightly teasing voice.

The other Rainbow started chuckling to herself, before meeting the deadly serious gaze of her counterpart and having her humour quickly bleed away. “Uh… You serious? Seriously?”

Rainbow nodded, slowly hauling herself up to a sitting position. “Yup. Princess Celestia’s adopted daughter,” she replied before looking away, the mirth rapidly fleeing her voice. If she went on with this topic, she’d have to talk about her birth parents, and she was not willing to do that right now. “A-anyways, you’re a Wonderbolt reservist, huh? What’s that like? I mean, I’m probably never gonna get to know, so…”

“Never going to know? That was our fillyhood dream!” the reservist protested. “I mean, come on! Remember that rainboom? The look on the faces of those bullies. HAH!”

Rainbow screwed her eyes shut. “Yes, I remember the rainboom. It was great, yeah, but…” she looked away, letting out a long sigh. “It went different for me, alright? The rainboom was about when things started going downhill for me.”

The other Rainbow’s face fell, starting to shift somewhat uncomfortably. “Right… Well, being a Wonderbolt is pretty neat. Spitfire is a hardass, but eh, that’s just her leadership style. I’m top of the list to enter the main team when one of them retires next. Not sure when that might be, but my bits are on Fleetfloot or Fire Streak. Least that’s what Soarin thinks, and I mean, he always has the best ideas...”

“Soarin, huh?” Rainbow asked with a raised eyebrow. “Hmm… Well, I’m happy for you. Make the most of it, yeah?”

She got an odd look in turn. “Uh… Huh? Wadda you mean by that? I just mean we hang out a lot. He’s pretty smart, likes pies a bit much, but there you go. Kinda strong, bit like Applejack, she’s also fun to be around, but Soarin is-”

“Not what I meant,” Rainbow cut her off, her wings ruffling at her sides.

An even odder look. “Um, okay? I don’t really know what you meant. Come on, other me, I’m not the emotion-reading Egghead you’ve gotten to know.”

“I meant, I’m happy you’re in the Wonderbolts, even if you’re only a reservist right now,” Rainbow elaborated with a roll of her eyes. “Living our dream. I can’t do it in my position, so I’m asking you to make the most of it for both of us. Make sense now?”

The pegasus in question made an ‘o’ shape with her mouth as understanding dawned on her. “Ahhh, gotcha. I can do that. I guess being royalty is kinda a bummer, huh?”

“It has its perks,” Rainbow said slowly, leaning back slightly. “I mean, for one thing, I don’t really gotta worry about money at all. Royal coffers and all. Means I don’t have to work for money, though I do volunteer full-time hours at the local Weather Teams.”

“The Ponyville Weather Team! I lead it during my shifts. Hey, you have a Derpy over there? She ever get her weather schedules mixed up on accident? You know, general clumsy stuff?”

Rainbow nodded, the corner of her mouth twitching up at the memory. “Yeah, once or twice. Nothing major, but kinda funny at the time.”

“Yeah, ditto. Still, finally something we have in common. I… was starting to wonder whether you were actually a changeling with my face.”

Rainbow’s amused expression twisted into a grim frown. “...I was like you, once. Only a few months ago, really,” she said, her ears drooping as she thought back on the days just before Discord woke up and flipped everything on its head. “...But a lot of bad things happened really fast. And a lot of it was my fault. Or, at the very least, I made things worse by being stupid and reckless.”

“Hey, bad things happen. But you shouldn’t let it turn you into, to make Applejack proud in being entirely brutally honest, kind of a miserable-looking pony. No offence, but I can just see it on you. And I don’t just mean the ponytail but, I mean, what the hay are you thinking there?”

Rainbow’s frown deepened. “I have a responsibility, you know. Like it or not, I’m a Princess of my Equestria, and I have a duty there. I shunned it for a long time, and then I had to step up and lead when the chips were down. What kind of message would it send to the ponies following me if I looked like a rats nest that came alive?” she asked, glancing briefly back at her counterparts wild and messy mane. “No offence.”

“Eh, none taken. But I don’t think Celestia is as good a leader as she is because of her mane stylist. Whatever Rares might rant in the morning,” was the retort. “Don’t think I’ll ever give less than my best for the ponies around me. Especially my friends. But I’m not planning on changing myself in the meantime to reflect what they think I should be. I’m just plain Rainbow ‘Danger’ Dash. And I don’t think my friends would want me to, either.”

Rainbow was quiet for a second, reaching up to touch her hoof to the tuft of her mane sticking out of the end of her ponytail. “...Well, for me, it’s a way of reminding myself of my obligations. Making sure I don’t let things get that bad again, you know?” she asked after a moment before letting her mane fall out of her hoof. “It’s not about how it looks. It’s about what it means to me.”

“Well, just so long as you’re being loyal to who you actually are, I can dig it,” the other Rainbow conceded. “Hey, you work it. It’s not for me, but for… uh, me? Am I getting that right?”

“Let’s not overthink this. We’re two different ponies,” Rainbow pointed out with a small smile. “This chat’s been more than enough to prove that.”

“Eh, guess this is why it’s an alternate universe. Changes and divergences and stuff, pretty interesting to read about.”

Princess Rainbow Dash gave her alternate a curious glance as said alternate blushed.

“...Like I said, I read some of the things Twilight recommended.”

There was a silence for a moment, the Wonderbolt reservist being somewhat irritated at being caught out in anything even remotely considered to be an ‘Egghead’ moment. But it passed by quickly, the decidedly younger-feeling Rainbow Dash glancing up at the clear blue sky as she hummed in thought.

“Speaking of Twi… Is something up there? She seemed really beat up over something. She gave me a really odd look, like she was… I don’t know, worried? Nervous? It was directed at me, it was kinda weird. Then she shook whatever it was off and started her usual rant. Chrysalis looked kinda bugged about something as well. Ha! Bugged…”

Rainbow did not find it amusing. She looked away, her ears drooping. “Er… yeah. When I first woke up in the hive, I… I kinda punched her square in the face the first chance I got,” she admitted, her ears drooping in shame.

The uniformed pony frowned. “You what?”

Rainbow sighed. “I was scared, alright? I…” she hesitated, biting her lip for a second before turning back to her counterpart. “How much did she tell you about me? About what I’ve been through?”

“Like I said, it was a rant that I missed most of. Partly on me, but yeah…” she answered. “I don’t know why you did that, but I’m going to let it slide because as different as we’ve become, I still know myself enough that you must have had a really good reason to flip out. Still, don’t do that. Nopony hurts my friends, especially not me. I’ve already come close enough to making mistakes with her as it is.”

Rainbow was quiet for a second before shaking her head. “I got my scar from a changeling. Specifically, my world’s version of Chrysalis. To make a long story short, she damn near killed me, damn near killed my Twilight, and then her favourite drone did kill her. I had to deal with so many stressful situations over only a couple of months, and I only just got home from it all not all that long ago. Then I woke up in a changeling hive with one that looked just like my best friend looking back at me… How else was I supposed to react? I was scared and had no idea what was going on.”

“Wow, guess you do have good reasons. I suppose if I were you, and I am I guess, I’d be the same. But… don’t judge Twi because of her fangs. If I… I can’t do that to her. Not like I nearly did before.”

Rainbow glanced at her counterpart. “Nearly? You mean you managed not to screw everything up?” she asked before letting out a quiet, humourless laugh. “Better track record than me, I guess.”

“It was close enough for my tastes. She… doesn’t actually know this, but for a bit after the wedding I…” the local Rainbow Dash sighed regretfully. “For a moment, I hated her. I thought she’d betrayed us, lied to us. For a second I was so scared that she’d been disloyal to us that I was to her. The others snapped me out of it, I was being stupid. But then… She told you how she got her own scar?”

“Yup.”

“Well, bet she didn’t tell you that moments before it happened we just left her. Just wandered off like nothing was wrong!” the pegasus stressed. “Then she’s almost dead and I did nothing at all to stop it! I’ve never wanted to physically hurt a pony as much as I did back then. Another reason for me to join the ‘bolts. I failed Twilight then, I won’t the next time any pony or changeling tries to hurt one of my friends.”

Rainbow looked at her counterpart for several seconds before giving a slow nod. “Well, here’s to hoping you don’t have to prove that you mean that,” she said after a second before looking ahead. Her expression softened, a curious look appearing to replace her grim frown. “So… did your Twi want you to say something specific coming up here, or did you tune that out, too?”

“Eh, maybe? Hearing all this, pretty sure she just wanted me to cheer you up. Or maybe just convince you that this is another world or something. Probably both. I… It’s a little jarring. You aren’t quite what I expected.”

“How do ya think I feel?” Rainbow asked, putting a hoof up to her chest. “Not only am I talking to who I might have been like if things were different, I’m also, quite literally, a world away from home, with no guarantee I can ever get back, with all of my friends and family probably worried sick about me! One of which has amnesia and was kinda leaning on me like a crutch. It’s all… guh!” She flopped forward to bury her face in the clouds, trying to calm herself down. “It’s just… added on top of everything else, it’s almost too much.”

“Come on, our friends always come through. Either we’ll get you back to your weird world, or yours will,” she tried to cheer her more jaded self up. “Twilight will figure things out, just like she always does. Though…”

The rainbow maned pegasus paused, clearly somewhat hesitant to continue with the line of questioning in her head. But, taking in a breath, she decided that she needed to know the truth.

“Look, I’m not an idiot, I know my next question might be a rough one. But what you said about Princess Celestia and you… I’ve been running it around in my head and… are… are our parents…?”

And there it was.

Rainbow’s eyes screwed themselves shut as she forced the mental images down. “...Yours are alive?” she eventually asked, her voice low and quiet.

“The last time I saw them in pony was the last show I filled in for as a reservist. They were their usual overenthusiastic selves, had to convince security not to kick them out over a stray firework.”

Rainbow couldn’t help the small, crooked smile that spread on her lips at hearing that. Fond memories long buried rose up to the surface of her mind, bringing with them the knowledge she would never get another one. With a shuddering sigh, she turned to her other self and placed a hoof against her chest, right over her heart. “...The next chance you get, you give both of them a really, really big hug. You tell them you love them, and you thank them for raising you, do you hear me?”

“Uh, w-well, I mean-”

“Please,” Rainbow pressed, her voice almost coming out begging. “Don’t leave those kinds of things unsaid. Don’t make the same mistake I did… y-you never know which chance w-will be the last. S-so…” she looked away, trembling as her emotions crept up on her again. “...S-so you take the chances you do get, and you make them count, alright? Don’t let them slip away… ‘cause when they’re gone...”

She pulled her hoof away from her other’s chest. “...They’re gone for good.”

Her counterpart sniffed, bashfully trying to wipe away an errant tear. Though, realising she would only be hiding it from herself, she ceased her attempts and simply turned to face her other. Red, bleary amethyst eyes met an identical set, just as emotional.

“Yeah. I will. Thanks…” she said tenderly in response. “I’ve been meaning to introduce my sis- Uh, Scootaloo to them. They’d love her.”

Rainbow nodded. “Yeah… they would, wouldn’t they? Scoots is definitely a lot like us. Or, well… like you, anyway. Can’t say the same about me anymore.”

“Hey, I bet a little of me is still in there. I mean, you’ve still got a certain fire in those eyes of ours. And I bet loyalty is everything to you, right?”

Rainbow nodded shakily. “...In part, because I can’t bear the thought of losing anypony else, yeah.”

“Yeah… I suppose there must be a lot of you in me too. I… hope I don’t have to use it anytime soon,” she admitted slowly. “I… Before we get back to the whole ‘multiverse’ crisis, do you… Do you want to go home? Come with me, Dash. Our parents would freak out. Probably bake you a cake for… every birthday they couldn’t. But… they might help. They would help.”

Rainbow went rigid, her eyes snapping open at the idea. Getting to see her parents again? It was a very tempting idea, of that there could be no question.

But… was it really right to say they were her parents? The more she thought about it, the more the idea became more and more fraught with uncertainty and anxiety. Slowly, she looked back at her counterpart and, with a broken smile, shook her head. “No… no, I don’t think that’s a good idea. If I see them again, I… I might never let them go. And I can’t do that… I can’t latch on to yours and replace mine… they deserve better than that… And besides, as you said...”

She turned to face her counterpart directly. “...Loyalty is everything to me. I can’t give up mine for yours… no matter how much I want to. And no matter what I might say now, they’d never hear it. Get to hear how sorry I am. How I never said ‘I love you’ enough. How much I miss them. How grateful I am that they took care of me. The only ponies I could ever say those words to are the parents I lost, and I won’t find them here.”

Letting those words sink in, the Rainbow Dash of that world slowly nodded her head in understanding. “Yeah, I suppose I’d be the same. Still, it’s always an option. Even just to see what could have been, I don’t know. But…”

She stood up, quickly fluffing back up the piece of cloud she’d been sitting on before turning and reaching out a hoof to her scarred other-self.

“Come on, let’s get back before Twi freaks out so hard that she sends out half the hive as a search party. Trust me, it’s not fun when she does that.”

“You say that like it’s happened before,” Rainbow replied, managing a tiny smile before reaching out and taking her other’s hoof.

“I swear, you got lost in the Everfree Forest one time…”

“Wait, what?”

“Never mind. My friends can probably tell you, it was really not my fault anyway,” she claimed. “On the way back, you can tell me a few of the more happy times with your friends. Compare notes?”

Rainbow stared at her other self for a few seconds, then gave a slow nod of her head. “Yeah, sure… how about the time Twi used my status as royalty to absolutely own those bullies back in Cloudsdale?”

“Oh my gosh, that sounds AWESOME!” she squealed as she hopped into the air alongside her counterpart. “Heh, I’ve got one about the time Fluttershy tried to get me a pet. Tank is great, you should meet him!”

“It was awesome, yeah. Also, Tank? You have a pet?”

“Yeah, he’s the most amazing tortoise ever!” she bragged.

“Tortoise?”

“I know I know. But trust me, he’s almost as cool as us,” the reservist claimed. “Oh! Also, if you’re up for it, I have the greatest idea for a prank the two of us could pull off together. Had it in mind for a while, but Twilight is a killjoy and won’t help me with it.”

“Killjoy, huh?” Rainbow echoed, her smile slowly returning. “Yeah, she is, isn’t she? Heh… well, I dunno about a prank, but I’d be down to race ya.”

“Oh, you are on! But seriously, think about the prank. A certain friend of mine would be ecstatic to finally do it! Oh, and whatever differences we have, that has to be something pretty much the same, right?”

“The same? What is?”

“Only the one pony who has to be, to borrow an egghead term, a universal constant.”

The visiting Rainbow could almost hear the maniacal giggles of a party pony having a weird supernatural sense in the back of her mind.

“Ah.”

13 - A Faint Connection

Princess Celestia let out a weary sigh as she landed upon one of the few clouds scattered above Ponyville. Her tired eyes swept across the village and surrounding countryside, taking one last look for any sign of her colourful daughter amid the fading oranges and pinks of sunset. Alas, just like every time before, there was no sign of Rainbow Dash.

This was becoming ridiculous. Over the course of that day, she and her search party had widened their search to encompass several miles of countryside around the settlement. They had brought out every trick in the book, including some of the most potent spells Celestia had at her disposal for locating things that would otherwise go undisturbed.

Aside from a particularly magical pool of water hidden underground in the Everfree—which she saw fit to seal away—there had been nothing of note. Nothing that gave her an idea of where her daughter had gone, at least.

“I take it your search did not go well?” came Luna’s voice from behind and above her. Snorting, Celestia turned her gaze to her younger sister. The blue alicorn touched gently down by Celestia’s side, a grim frown on her muzzle. “Were it at all different, I imagine you would have brought word without delay.”

Celestia was quiet for a few seconds before turning her attention back to the distant horizon. Her brow wrinkled in thought. “...We aren’t making any progress,” she muttered under her breath. Her ears lowered, and her lips peeled back to show her teeth in a frustrated grimace. “It’s been too long… By now, she will be far away from Ponyville. Too far for us to reliably base our search in this area. But without even a direction, we can’t hope to find her like this.”

Luna placed a hoof on Celestia’s back in a bid to reassure her. “Send words to the other settlements, then,” she suggested quietly. “Spread the word that Rainbow is missing. If anypony should see her, they would more than likely report it with all due haste.”

Celestia looked down, her expression darkening with doubt and concern. There was a problem with that plan... “Perhaps, but… Lulu, I do not want to cause my subjects any undue stress, not so soon after our confrontation with the changeling swarm. Ponies are still reeling from that struggle, and to learn that a Princess of Equestria has gone missing without a trace…”

Luna winced before draping a comforting wing over Celestia’s back. The two were quiet for a time, sharing the warmth. After a moment, Luna found her words and spoke in a low, comforting voice. “While it is true that the ponies of Equestria suffered greatly during Chrysalis’ invasion, it is also true that they hold the royal family in high regard, especially you and Rainbow. They all know that it was her bravery that enabled our victory. Therefore, a great many will be eager to do whatever they must to ensure that their princess is brought home safe.”

Celestia pondered the point for a few seconds, and soon conceded that Luna had a point. She gave a reluctant nod as a small, tender smile spread across her face. “Thank you, Luna… I shall return to Canterlot and spread the word, then.”

“Very well,” Luna said, withdrawing her hoof and wing. “I shall remain here and continue to coordinate the search efforts in the region. In addition, with any luck, I might have a lead that may help us learn more about Rainbow’s disappearance.”

Celestia’s smile vanished, replaced with a curious frown. “Is that so? What?”

Luna looked up towards the sky. After a moment, she winced, her horn lighting up with her signature blue aura. As Celestia’s sun dipped below the horizon, the moon rose on the other side, and soon, the world was bathed in the gentle blues and purples of the night. In the heavens, the stars came into view, twinkling gently against an infinite tapestry of obsidian.

“...The storm,” Luna finally said, narrowing her eyes at the night sky.

Celestia raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t you say that storm was benign? An anomalous spectacle and little else?”

Luna looked back to her sister, her expression darkening. “I did say that, but there is a chance I was wrong. Twilight and the rest of my niece’s friends pointed out the timing of the event, not to mention the fact that, as far as I can tell, Rainbow Dash was outside and in the clouds when the storm reached its closest point. The following morning, she was gone.”

Luna gestured past at the sky around them. “As such, just maybe, if I can find a point where the residue of the storm is stronger, it may provide me with a thread that will lead me to Rainbow Dash.”

Celestia turned her own eyes up at the sky, thinking back on the curtains of light that had swallowed the heavens that night. They had been, somehow, magical in nature, that much was unquestionable. Ponies had been alarmed at the sight, but Luna’s own examination of it through magic and telescope both had lead to her announcing it as harmless. Ponies had slept well. Many had even stayed up to watch as it fell over the world. In most places, it stopped several miles above the ground before slowly fading, though it had apparently drawn much closer in others.

“Sister?” Luna’s voice drew Celestia out of her consideration. She turned back to Luna to see a curious look on her face.

Celestia shook her head. “Forgive me, I was lost in thought,” she explained before rising to her hooves. “If the storm did have something to do with my daughter’s disappearance, then we will need to learn all we can of it. Once I have sent word across Equestria for ponies to keep their eyes open, I aim to reach out to the best mages I know of to help study the phenomenon.”

A few names were already springing to mind.

Luna nodded. “Very well. I will see you soon, sister.”

Celestia gave her little sister a small smile before turning and leaping into the air, her eyes set on the city of Canterlot high on the mountainside.

Luna watched her elder sister fly away. Soon enough, Celestia disappeared into the distance, and the Princess of the Night was left to her own devices. She took a deep breath before looking ahead. Time to start searching.

Luna rose to her full height and leapt from her perch, reaching out with her magic in all directions. Her horn lit up, periodically pulsing at regular intervals. She sent out pulse after pulse of magic, and each one returned with little and less that was of any use. The town was all but devoid of magical energy, save for the unicorns who called the melting pot of a village their home.

For almost a full hour, Luna kept this up. She drifted lazily through the skies over Ponyville and even well past the town’s borders, barely registering the physical world in favour of observing the magic around her for anything out of place. She was about to give up and try another tactic when, finally, she got something.

Turning, Luna caught sight of the disturbance. Or rather, she caught sight of where she sensed it was coming from. Gazing at the seemingly unimportant spot of empty sky the disturbance occupied showed nothing out of the ordinary, but she could feel it as she drew closer. Her horn tingled with static the closer she got, like pins and needles along her most sensitive extremity.

After a moment of scanning, her lips twitched up into a gratified smile. “At last,” she breathed out. There was no doubt about it. This was a residue of the storm, all right. It was a mile or so outside of Ponyville, and so far from where Rainbow had been, but it was nevertheless more than she had started with.

Moving quickly, Luna gathered up a few stray clouds that had drifted out of the Everfree Forest nearby. It took a bit of force to make the primal weather submit, but it soon cowered under the wrath of the alicorn searching for her missing niece. She brought it back to the disturbance and settled down on her belly, trying to get comfortable.

She slowly relaxed, purging all unnecessary thoughts from her mind. After a few moments of what may have seemed like meditation, she lit her horn with pale magic. With a low rumble and a rush of intangible wind washing over her body, the waking world around her ceased to be.

When she opened her eyes, she was standing in the endless blue abyss of the dream realm. Orbs of light drifted past her, each one giving off faint echoes of the dreams within. She did not look at them for now, though. There were no nightmares that demanded her attention in Ponyville. Besides, she had a specific target she was looking for.

And it did not take her long to find it. Luna’s eyes widened when she saw a space in the void not far away from her that contrasted sharply with the surrounding calm. It looked almost like a thunderstorm, gold in colour and distorting the image behind it. It buzzed and crackled with energy, and the closer Luna drew to it, the more it became clear that this was the same disturbance she had found in the waking world. Or, at least, this was an effect caused by it.

“Odd,” she mused to herself, slowly circling around the churning mass of unfitting light to get a better look at it. It was at least four times her overall size, and when she peered through it at the dream realm beyond, she realized that something seemed… off about it. It was hard to place, but something was not right, and it set the fur on the back of her neck on end.

Taking a deep breath, she reached out and pushed into the golden light with a hoof. To her relief, it only offered minimal pushback before yielding under her weight. She passed through and was immediately hit by the sensation of being somewhere else. The jarring sensation was so abrupt that the flapping of her wings faltered for a moment. She was quick to regain her composure and touch down on a stray wisp of light.

“Alright…” she mumbled quietly to herself, glancing back at the anomaly. To her surprise, it seemed to have gotten smaller after she passed through. She quirked an eyebrow in confusion. “Strange… this whole ordeal grows more and more bewildering by the moment.”

Setting aside the oddity behind her for the time being, she turned her attention back to the dream realm. She somehow knew she wasn’t where she had started. She could feel it in her bones. When she had passed through the anomaly, it took her somewhere else…

Before she could contemplate the matter any further, though, her eyes were drawn to a familiar speck of light. She turned to look and saw a sphere of light, twinkling softly and slowly fading through all the colours of the rainbow. Her eyes widened. “Rainbow’s dream…” she breathed out, relief and hope filling her system.

Spreading out her wings, she kicked off and made her approach, reaching out with her hooves to touch the dream and gain entry.

She came to a stop a second later. Her eyes flew wide and shock flooded her system when a second orb, identical to the first, drifted lazily into view. Luna froze, her mind reeling. “What… two Rainbows?” she questioned, lowering her hooves. That should have been impossible. Every dream was unique. In all of her years, she had never once seen two dreams that were similar enough to be mistaken for one another, much less one that was identical to her niece's.

Deciding this needed further investigation, she resumed her journey for the nearest of the two orbs, hoping to get some answers.

Unfortunately, fate had other plans.

The further she moved from the anomaly that had brought her here, the more she realized that her representation in the dream realm was becoming less and less tangible. Looking down at her hooves, her eyes widened to see them distorting and blurring away. “What?! No, wait!” she cried out, hurling herself for the first orb in a desperate attempt to ground herself in a dream.

Too slow.

With an audible snap, Luna’s connection to the dream realm was cut. Gasping, her eyes snapped open back in the waking world, mind throbbing with every beat of her pounding heart. Taking a second to catch her breath, Luna closed her eyes to think about what had just happened.

She had been somewhere else in the dream realm entirely; somewhere far away from where she was now. How far, she could not say for sure, but the anomaly had served as her bridge and link to that location. It had shrunk when she passed through, and now…

Luna’s eyes opened again, and she reached out with her magic. After a few seconds, she allowed the glow to fade from her horn with a tired sigh. It was as she feared. Her interaction with the storm’s residue had disturbed it, causing its already unstable form to come undone. The disturbance in front of her had faded away completely.

She would get no answers here. If anything, she had been left with more questions, the biggest of which being why she had seen two separate dreams, both of which seemingly belonged to her strikingly-unique niece. Where had the anomaly taken her when she passed through it?

The silence around her yielded no answers. Soon, Luna gave a quiet growl of frustration before turning and making her way back to Ponyville. No matter. She didn’t need this specific disturbance to find her niece. She knew now that she could use them to track the pegasus down, and the storm had covered the entirety of Equestria.

All she needed was a bigger anomaly.

14 - Inner Turmoil

“A Rainbow Dash from another world?!” Windy Whistles exclaimed, her deep magenta eyes shimmering with delighted excitement. Her lips peeled back into a wide, ecstatic grin. “Best. Daughter from another dimension. EVER!”

Rainbow let out a weak chuckle, averting her eyes from her overly-enthusiastic mother and instead choosing to stare at her other self. The other, and more native, Rainbow Dash was looking back at her with a grin of her own, albeit a far more subtle and relaxed one.

“You’re looking good!” Bow Hothoof agreed emphatically. “Loving the ponytail.”

Rainbow lifted a hoof, tenderly lifting up the end of her mane. “Er… y-yeah, thanks, I made it up myself,” she said awkwardly, her voice barely audible.

They were standing in the living room of her foalhood home, her birth parents in front of her with their trademarked excitement, and her other self standing next to her. She wasn’t entirely sure how she had let herself get dragged over here, especially after that speech she gave on the clouds, but…

“Hey,” Windy’s voice called out to her, far gentler than before. A cyan hoof reached out, lifting Rainbow’s chin until she was face to face with her mother’s smile. “Are you okay? You’re being very… quiet.”

Rainbow hesitated, a lump forming in her throat. The moment they had walked in, her other self had gone to great lengths to explain the situation to them, and in the flurry of technicalities and excitement, Rainbow had, for a moment, become completely detached from what was happening. Who she was seeing.

Slowly, her eyes began to water up, her own hoof gently curling around Windy’s. “M-mum,” she choked out, her ears slowly lowering. “I… I…”

Windy’s expression softened even more before she pulled Rainbow into a gentle embrace. The pegasus screwed her eyes shut and returned the hug for all she was worth, burying her face into Windy’s shoulder and openly sobbing as years of pent up guilt and grief were given an outlet.

She felt Bow join in on the embrace a moment later, and her cries only grew louder. It was all so familiar… how long had it been since she had felt this embrace? How long since she had been surrounded in this blanket of warmth and affection? How long since she had heard her parents’ soothing voices whispering assurances to her?

Too long, she decided, squeezing Windy even closer. Far, far too long.

Eventually, the hug came to an end. Windy pulled back somewhat, a few tears of her own shining in her eyes. She sniffled and placed her hoof on Rainbow’s chest. “Why don’t you go ahead and sit down? I’ll be back in a second with some food, and we can talk as long as you want.”

Rainbow gave a stiff, shaky nod.”Y-yeah… yes, please. I’d like that…”

Windy put her hoof to Rainbow’s cheek, offering her one more tender smile before turning and exiting the room. Bow quietly led Rainbow over to the couch and set her down before sitting down beside her.

A peaceful silence fell over the room, then. Rainbow closed her eyes, taking several deep breaths. Her heart was pounding frantically in her chest from the sudden realization of what she had just committed to. But it wasn’t frantic with fear or grief. No, this was joy. Pure, unfiltered joy.

A draft blew through the room, soft and subtle. Rainbow shuddered and opened her eyes to look for the source of the disturbance. Which genius had decided to leave a window open now of all times?

She let out a frightened gasp at what she saw. In the brief few minutes her eyes had been closed, the home had seemingly gone completely to waste. A thick layer of dust had accumulated on every surface it could cling to. Cobwebs filled the corners, and the curtains had gone old and ratty from years of misuse. Worst of all? The furniture was all gone. Every sign of habitation had been completely removed. Even the couch was gone! Rainbow was sitting on her haunches in the middle of the room.

“What the?! Mum!? DAD?!” she cried out, standing up and spinning around. The joy rapidly bled out of her heart, replaced with abject terror. Confused, she darted into the kitchen, only to find it just as empty as the living room. A lone plate sat on the barren counter, a long-decayed lump of what was presumably once a sandwich residing on top with flies buzzing hungrily around it.

“Where are you?!” Rainbow tried again, flying up the stairs and checking the bedrooms. No voices answered her panicked cries, however, and the rooms were just as empty and devoid of life as the rest of the house. A deep, unsettling chill wormed its way into her soul, making her shiver as if caught in a fearsome blizzard.

She came back downstairs a moment later, hyperventilating. Her eyes darted around, desperate for any sign of her family, or even her other self. The house was empty. She would have to try outside. However, when she tried the handle, she discovered that the front door was locked. Grunting, she shoved her shoulder against it.

Once, twice, three times she hit before the door finally came loose with the deafening crack of twisting metal. Staggering out onto the front walkway, Rainbow’s eyes frantically scanned the yard for any sign of what was happening. All she found, however, was an old ‘for sale’ sign that had tilted slightly in the high-altitude winds. The rest of Cloudsdale lay beyond, seemingly untouched, but somehow no less terrifying to behold.

“Rainbow Dash,” a dry, raspy gurgle of a voice said to her right. Rainbow went rigid, a deep-seated fight or flight response going off in the back of her mind. She turned to look, her breath starting to come in laboured, heaving gasps.

Her eyes widened. “M-mum… D-dad…?”

Bow Hothoof and Windy Whistles both stood before her. But there was something different about them, something wrong. Their eyes were devoid of light or life, their coats had gone disturbingly pale, and old bruises and scrapes had festered across their bodies. Rainbow’s blood ran cold when she realized that she was staring at her parents as they were when she had been taken away from them in Baltimare.

Windy stepped forward, her bones creaking audibly under her flesh. “Why did you abandon us…?” she choked out, her words like nails on a chalkboard.

Bow followed after her. “How could you replace us like this?”

Rainbow backed away, slowly shaking her head in denial. “N-no, I… I d-didn’t replace you, I just…”

“You left us,” Windy croaked, her lips peeling back into an ugly grimace. “You left us to rot. You forgot us!”

“You couldn’t save us,” Bow added in a low, guttural snarl. “You couldn’t cope with that. So you replaced us the moment you got a chance!”

“NO!” Rainbow shouted before turning and running the other way, every instinct in her body telling her to flee, to find shelter and hide. But to her mounting horror, the angered words of her dead parents rang in her ears no matter how hard or fast she ran. It was as if they were breathing down her neck, their words making her skin crawl and her heart shrivel.

All around her, a wild storm had suddenly emerged from the sky, turning the sky black and lashing at her with furious rains and galeforce winds. The pushback from the storm was so intense that Rainbow had to slow down and lower her head to protect her eyes. An intense gust of wind rendered her efforts pointless, throwing her off of her hooves and sending her careening wildly through the air.

“HELP ME!” she cried out, her eyes wide with terror. “SOMEPONY HELP ME!”

The only answer she received was agonizing pain flaring up in her wings when she struck the ground. Two sickening crunches filled her ears, and when she came to a stop, a long, agonized wail tore past her lips. The sound was deafening in her ears but was swallowed immediately by the howl of the storm.

Gasping, struggling to keep a hold of herself, Rainbow opened her eyes, squinting against the storm. She was now on a nondescript bit of cloud, surrounded on all sides by the storm. But there was something up ahead. If she squinted, she could just about make it out. It looked like…

“Rainbow…?”

The voice was distant but… familiar… The shape seemed vaguely equine, and it was getting closer. The shadow of wings beating through the air, the figure seemingly entirely unaffected by the raging storm that threatened to swallow Rainbow whole, not quite unlike the very one that had brought her here, to begin with.

But for that figure…

“Rainbow!”

Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened as the figure emerged to reveal the form of Twilight Sparkle, the changeling princess who was a native of this world. Her slit-like pupils stared down at her with concern as she landed on the cloud.

“Is something wrong?”

Rainbow struggled to her hooves, her head pounding and her chest quivering as if it were being thrown around by an impossibly strong pair of hooves. Gasping for breath, she staggered for the changeling. “Twilight… h-help me,” she croaked out. Another intense gust of wind rushed by, forcing her to look down and away.

“Help you…? Why do you need help…?”

“What do you mean why!?” the pegasus retorted, closing her eyes in fear and aggravation, hoping to any divine beings out there that this familiar yet terrifyingly different mare would save her from this… thing!

But when she opened them again…

“Why did you leave me, Rainbow…?” her Twilight Sparkle asked, her lavender coat faded, her mane frazzled as her eyes stared on with little to no recognition. The total void of memory… “You said you would help me. Help me to remember, to be who I’m meant to be. You were supposed to love me! But you left me! Left our world! Abandoned me!”

With every word spoken, the storm grew louder and louder, yet never as loud as the voice of Twilight Sparkle. Rainbow took a step back, her ears folding flat against her head. “W-what?! N-no, no, Twilight! You have it all wrong! I’m trying to get home! Please! Just-”

“You left us! Hurt us!” With every accusation, the visage of the mare she loved seemed to spark with the briefest flashes of a royal changeling. “Again and again! You betrayed us! Killed us!”

“NO!”

Suddenly, there was a blast of green flames against the back of Twilight’s head. The fluctuating equine’s eyes widened in shock and pain, the smell of both burnt fur and chitin permeating throughout the erratic winds. Following that, as if in slow motion, she began to dissolve into dust.

Rainbow’s heart all but stopped in her chest when she saw the silhouette of a certain changeling drone glaring back at her from behind the dust, her eyes narrowed victoriously, and a malevolent crescent of a grin shining through the darkness like the blade of a glowing scythe.

Twilight’s voice echoed in her ears. “You never can protect the ponies you love, can you? In this, or any other world.”

Rainbow reached out a hoof, opening her mouth to scream. She never got the chance.

The clouds under her hooves disappeared with the sound of shattering glass. Plummeting into a wild freefall, Rainbow’s eyes were assaulted by image after image of all of her failures, every time she had failed her friends. All the while, the accusations of her dead parents and Twilight herself echoed louder and louder in her ears.

Frantic, Rainbow curled up into a ball as well as she could, covering her head with her hooves. “I’M SORRY!” she cried out at the top of her lungs. “IM SORRY, OKAY?! JUST STOP!”

Another flash, another image. But this one was different from the others. Instead of one of the many moments that haunted her mind and filled her heart with shame, all she saw was the full moon. Craters on its surface took on the vague shape of an alicorn’s head, something separate from the world around her, searching with an air of desperation for… something.

And then she woke up.

The negative emotions spilling into every empathic muscle in Twilight Sparkle’s brain was suffocating. Terror. Guilt. Rage. All swirling around in a toxic mist that, if other senses weren’t dulled compared to love, the changeling was certain she’d be overwhelmed and poisoned by the terrible mass.

And it all came from the erratically thrashing pegasus sleeping not so soundly in the bed, her terrified shouts bouncing off the walls of the Golden Oaks Library’s guest room.

“I’M SORRY! I’M SORRY, OKAY?! JUST STOP!”

“RAINBOW!”

“LUNA!” was the final shout as the pegasus jolted her way back into the realm of consciousness, sweat pouring in bucket-loads down through her fur as she breathed heavily in a complete panic.

“Rainbow! Please! You’re okay!” Twilight tried to assure the pegasus, hesitantly grabbing a hold of her with her hooves. “It’s me! Twilight!”

Rainbow’s eyes snapped over to her, still wide and frantic. “T-t-Twi,” she stammered out, her words quiet as if she were being strangled.

“It’s okay, it’s okay. It was just a nightmare. You’re okay,” Twilight went on, slowly lowering her voice to bring Rainbow back down.

Slowly, but surely, Rainbow’s panicking breaths began to calm down. Her hoof curled tightly around Twilight’s with a vice-like grip, as if the changeling’s hoof was a lifeline.

“You’re okay…” Twilight repeated calmly, though she was holding in her own internal panic as much as she could. “It was a nightmare. A big one. You were shouting and thrashing and… Well, you’re awake now.”

Rainbow stared at her for a few more seconds before looking away, a violent shudder running through her body. “R-right… okay… thanks,” she mumbled out. As if on auto-pilot, Rainbow pulled the blankets on her bed up and wrapped them tightly around herself for security and warmth.

“Uh…” came a decidedly more cautious call from the doorway, a hesitant Spike poking his way inside. “...Breakfast?”

“Spike…” Twilight gently chided.

“...We have eggs?”

Twilight sighed and looked to him directly. “Okay, go get it started, I guess. But…” she glanced back to Rainbow, biting her lip. The pegasus was staring out the window by her bedside. She was still shivering. “...We might be a while.”

Spike hesitated before offering a small nod and slipping out of view. With the dragon gone, Twilight quietly closed the door in her magic before returning her attention to the distraught pegasus in the room. “...Rainbow? Are you going to be okay?” she asked quietly.

Rainbow looked down for a moment before shrugging her shoulders. “...I ask myself that question a lot more than I probably should,” she grumbled before letting the blankets slide off her body and hopping down.

“That was… quite the dream, wasn’t it…?” Twilight scuffed the ground awkwardly. “Do you want to talk about it? It wasn’t about… us, was it?”

Rainbow didn’t say a word. Instead, she simply trotted for the door, dragging her hooves behind her. Twilight watched the pegasus open the door before coming to a stop. Then Rainbow looked down at herself and grimaced. “...Ugh. I need a shower.”

With that, Rainbow departed, leaving the door open behind her.

Twilight’s ears drooped, a new pit opening in her stomach as the last hair of Rainbow’s prismatic tail vanished from view. She looked aside dejectedly, feeling a sense of, unknowingly misplaced, guilt and shame at the thought of being the source of her friend’s misery.

‘She hates our kind so much that she dreams such… horrible things?’ she inwardly mused with an air of sadness any changeling could pick up a mile away. ‘Oh, Rainbow…’

And with that heartbreaking thought, Twilight moved to follow, her mind securely placed on the fact that one of her friends, no matter where they were from, still seemed to loathe her existence…

Author's Note

Double bill! Head straight on over to whatever the heck comes next...

15 - The Universal Constant

Nightmares were nothing new. Rainbow had dealt with them off and on for long periods of time before. That didn’t make them any less unpleasant, though, and this one had been particularly exhausting to experience. Luckily, the hot water from the library’s shower did wonders to calm her down and help pull her head together.

‘I’m not abandoning anypony,’ she told herself firmly as she stepped out of the shower. ‘I was taken away, but I’m going back. I won’t leave my friends hanging, and I won’t replace my family. Period.’

Taking one last look at herself in the mirror to confirm she was presentable, Rainbow did up her ponytail and made way for the dining room. Spike had talked about breakfast, and if this one was anything at all like her own, then the food was sure to help her mood.

As she came out of the hall and emerged into the living room, she briefly paused. Queen Chrysalis was in the back of the room, staring back at her with a cold but unreadable expression. Rainbow blinked and tilted her head. “...What?”

“...You are very loud.”

Rainbow snorted. “I mean… I’m Rainbow Dash. Kinda part of the package, isn’t it?” she rebuffed, trying not to think about why she was loud this time.

Chrysalis regarded her for a moment, but then gave a snort of amusement. “Yes, I suppose you are. Even with your different qualities, the typical annoyances my daughter finds so oddly endearing are still there. I suppose that is comforting in a way.”

“Always the charmer, eh Chryssie?” came the voice of a certain baby dragon. He poked his head out of the kitchen with a cheeky grin.

“Spike,” Chrysalis addressed with a glare. “Do not call me that. The pink one is annoying enough with it.”

“Chryssie, huh?” Rainbow parroted, a tiny smirk forming on her lips. “Ah. Nice. Ammo.”

“Oh, by the hives…” Chrysalis replied with an oddly childish pout. But then, in a Chrysalis-like fashion more familiar to the pegasus, she gave an evil grin. “Oh, but two can play at that game… Dashie.”

“My Twilight calls me that all the time,” Rainbow deflected effortlessly. “I like it.”

“Whatever you say… Dashie Washie.”

Rainbow stared at her for a second. “Y’know, we can do this all day, Chryssi-whissy.”

The Changeling Queen’s snout wrinkled. “Maybe we can, Dashie Whishie Wash-”

“Uh…” Twilight stared at the two from her place on the staircase, her hoof frozen mid-step as her mind blanked. “Wha…?”

Chrysalis paled. “...The hive must never know of this.”

Rainbow turned to Twilight. “Tell them everything!” she stated emphatically. “As a Princess of Equestria, that is an order!”

“Do that and you are so grounded.”

Twilight blinked. “...I have many confused feelings about all of this.”

“You and me both,” Spike replied, scratching the side of his head. “But, uh… well, food’s ready?”

“Oh, good,” Chrysalis said oddly quickly, standing upright and striding with very long steps into the dining room. “Something to stuff in that mare’s mouth. Perhaps she can choke on it.”

“Ha. Worth it,” Rainbow said.

“Trying to act tough doesn’t work so much after the cutesy talk, ya know,” Spike pointed out as Chrysalis strode past him.

“And the drake while we’re at it.”

“Hey!”

Twilight’s head slowly started to tilt sideways, her mind rebooting from its base software as she tried to process what just happened.

“That was… interesting.”

“I think she’s starting to like you,” Spike remarked, walking up to Rainbow and elbowing her. “She’s letting her guard down. She doesn’t do that around our Rainbow unless Twilight is around… and she forgets she’s there.”

Rainbow shrugged. “Meh. I’m kinda hesitant to admit it, but she might be growing on me a bit, too. Helps that I know she’s not the one that hurt me,” she said before turning to look at Twilight.

“Maybe it's the added severity? Frankly, I think you’re better at verbal jousting than my Rainbow…” Twilight noted analytically, wondering if she should start a mind chart on a blackboard. “She would probably have become indignant and quit out at the first Dashie, but your response shows an eighty-nine-point-nine percent increase in your-”

“Uh, Twilight?” Spike interrupted. “How about no?”

“Hey! I like math!”

“We know,” Rainbow noted.

“And what’s wrong with that?”

“Aside from you being a complete killjoy?” Spike shot back. “Way to kill the fun.”

“Maths IS fun!”

“Yeah, Spike, I dunno,” Rainbow countered with a sideways glance at Spike. “It can be fun sometimes.”

Spike stopped, looking at Rainbow Dash like the imposter she was. “...You aren’t Rainbow Dash. Either of them. What have you done with her and who the heck are you?”

Rainbow rolled her eyes. “I never said it was fun when I did it. It’s fun when Twilight starts rambling on and on because we can tease her about it.”

Twilight pouted, poking Rainbow with a hoof indignantly.

“...Math is still fun.”

Rainbow gave a sage nod. “If you say so, book bug.”

Twilight went to retort, but then stopped. She halted as she tried to process Rainbow’s sudden jovial attitude, especially considering her perceived meaning for now answering earlier…

Twilight suddenly found herself confused in a rather less fun way.

“...You’re in a good mood all of a sudden. Also, book bug?”

Rainbow paused, her good mood flickering just slightly. She shook her head slightly. “Er, yeah. Nightmares are nothing new for me, Twilight. I had a lot of them in rapid succession not all that long ago. I’m getting used to picking myself up from them,” she explained quietly before turning and poking Twilight on the nose. “As for book bug… try and tell me I’m wrong.”

“I, but, I… Hrmg…” Twilight grumbled to herself as she started to walk off, following her equally indignant mother into the kitchen.

“Wow, I think you just defeated two royal changelings at a verbal game of chess,” Spike complimented. “Care to teach me your ways?”

“How long have you lived with them?” Rainbow asked.

“I mean, Twilight? All my life. She hatched me, remember? As for Chrysalis… Eh, give or take a year.”

Rainbow nodded with a hum. “I see. Well, if you’ve lived with them for this long but can’t out-talk them, then I am afraid there is nothing I can teach you. It’s all about the experience,” she said before pausing and tapping a hoof to her chin. “Although, I was raised by Celestia since I was eight… so I had a lot of practice from her, too…”

“Ah. That explains everything,” Spike realized. “The Princess is pretty good at the art of verbal beatdowns.”

“Tell me about it,” Rainbow replied with a slow shake of her head. “You do not want to be on the receiving end of a mama Celestia scolding. The number of counters she just has at the ready to shut down any arguments you might have is aggravating. It’s like arguing with an unbreakable wall. You’re not gonna get anywhere, and you’re just gonna hurt yourself trying.”

“Tell me about it,” he remarked with a measure of nostalgia, before then looking a little more uncertain as he turned to face Rainbow. “Uh… Rainbow?”

“Uh-huh?”

He tapped his claws together in a timid, child-like manner. “Where you come from… You hang around with Twilight a bunch, so… we’re friends too?”

Rainbow’s eyes widened for a second before a small smile graced her lips. She reached down and ruffled the spikes on his head. “Sure are. Best dragon I ever met,” she said simply. “And judging from what I’ve seen here, you’re just as good. Hay, probably better if you can put up with Chrysalis all day.”

He blushed. “Aw, shucks. You’re pretty neat too! Thanks!”

“Don’t mention it.”

“So… is your Rarity just as cool?”

Rainbow’s expression deadpanned. “Oh, that’s a thing here, too, huh?”

Spike’s blush grew. “U-uh, well, uh…”

Rainbow shook her head with a slow chuckle. “Ha. Nevermind, Not my business,” she said before sauntering past. “In answer to your question, though… Yeah, I think so.”

“That’s… I mean… He coughed. “So, pancakes? I got syrup!”

“I’m down.”

“So… what’s the deal with that weird syrup stuff you’re eating?” Rainbow Dash asked both changelings as they contentedly ate their meals. Like Spike said, everypony had been given a stack of pancakes to sate their morning appetites. While Rainbow and Spike had settled for syrup fresh from the bottle, though, Twilight and Chrysalis had dumped a gratuitous amount of green something onto theirs.

Seeing Queen Chrysalis eating pancakes casually around a table was… disconcerting, to say the least, but at least she seemed to be enjoying them.

So did Twilight, for that matter. Very much.

“Hm, whawaz dat?” Twilight asked mid-bite. “Um, ahem. Sorry. I meant to say: What was that?”

Rainbow pointed. “The green stuff. What is it? Is it, like, changeling syrup or something?”

Sure enough, their pancakes were dredged in a green substance that, on occasion, seemed to glow a bright pink that almost seemed to gravitate towards them. Which was… odd.

“Oh, this?” Twilight looked down at her meal, preparing herself for her usual method of explanations. “This is a-”

“Let me handle this one,” Chrysalis beamed.

“But-”

“So, imposter Rainbow Dash from an upstart dimension,” Chrysalis said with a gleeful predatory smirk. “This is one of our… ‘exports.' Syrup is one of its many forms. A smoothie, also. Filled with all the love any creature could ever need. Here, try it…”

“Oh, yes. Please do,” Spike said, leaning forward in anticipation.

“I suddenly feel like I’m missing out on an inside joke, and that’s not fair, and I don’t like it,” Rainbow said slowly, eyeing the green syrup with rapidly-mounting disdain. Different Chrysalis or not, there was something about the way she was looking at her that set off the red flags in Rainbow’s brain.

Twilight shook her head. “Well, you see-”

“Yes, you see…” Spike began.

“GAH!”

“...it’s really not all that bad. Ignore the Queen, I mean, she’s always looking like she’s about to do something bad to somepony.”

“...I will not argue,” the Queen in question conceded. “However misguided a judgment it may be.”

“See, that doesn’t make me feel any better,” Rainbow pointed out with a raised eyebrow.

Spike wiggled his eyebrow-equivalents. “And yet, I’m also saying you should totally have a bite. You’ve already done it, actually! Other Rainbow did.”

Rainbow slowly raised a brow. “...And did she like it?”

“She loved it,” Chrysalis replied slowly.

“Actually-” Twilight opened her mouth to speak, only for Spike to stuff some pancake into it. With her mouth occupied, the Princess could only scream in frustration through a mouthful of syrupy goodness.

“See? Twilight likes it! What better seal of approval?”

Twilight gave him a death glare. Those royal changeling eyes and bared fangs would have made it quite intimidating… if the latter weren’t chock full of pancake still.

Rainbow stared at them all for a second, scepticism and morbid curiosity raging a long, bloody war in her mind. On the one hoof, there was the fact that she was obviously on the receiving end of some kind of malicious ploy, and the fact that Chrysalis was the main culprit sent a chill down her spine.

On the other hoof, she knew that this Chrysalis was not likely to hurt her. At least not in any physical or lasting way…

“Okay, fine, jeesh,” she eventually relented, her expression going flat. “I’ll try your goopy green syrup.”

Twilight stared at her as if pleading with her not to. Everyone else at the table grinned.

‘Oh boy.’

Without a word, Chrysalis levitated over a bite-sized piece of her stack, making sure to dip it in the green stuff on the way and really slathering it on there. Rainbow’s nose wrinkled when the smell reached her nose. Not unpleasant, but decidedly unusual.

Taking the fork in her hoof, she took a deep breath and opened her mouth.

And then she noticed Pinkie Pie.

“Hiya!” The pink mare in question greeted loud enough to make everypony else at the table jump in surprise.

“PINKIE!” Spike shouted as he fell back. “How did you get there?!”

Pinkie Pie looked down at her position on top of the dining table before smiling back at the dragon innocently. “Haha, please.”

Rainbow set down her fork with a knowing smirk. “Huh. Guess my other self was right. You are a universal constant, Pinkie,” she said simply.

“Universal constant?” Spike parroted. “Neeeerd.”

“I live with Twilight. This stuff rubbed off on me. I’m not ashamed of it. Besides, other me said it first.”

“Really? Oh-ho, speaking of ammo…”

“Ammo? Oh! Like ammo for my party cannon? Oh! Oh! I have one of those right here! Come on, I need to show you, Other Rainbow Dash I’ve never met until this very moment!” Pinkie splurged excitedly, reaching behind her and pulling her party cannon into sight.

Chrysalis leaned comically into sight behind her, her muzzle scrunched up in annoyance and disappointment that her little practical joke had been so masterfully and nonsensically foiled. “Pink one. Why are you on the dining room table?” she demanded simply.

“Because my pinkie sense got all weird and wibbly and I thought—GASP—there is something weird here, and then I got told by Rainbow that there was a Double Rainbow and at first I thought she’d made a double rainbow, but then WOW she really meant TWO RAINBOWS, which is supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, and I knew I had to throw a party, so I made all the plans and then came here to meet you and I thought TABLE and now I’m on the table!”

Twilight pulled the pancakes from her mouth and affixed Pinkie with a bewildered look. “...What?”

“Seems legit,” Rainbow said, unphased.

Chrysalis groaned, burying her face in her hooves.

“Oh! Nice to meetcha double RD!” Pinkie squeed as she turned to face said pegasus. “I’m here to-”

“Throw me the usual ‘Welcome to Ponyville Party’?”

“Oh, you’re good!” Pinkie replied happily. “Are you psychic? Oh! Is other-me also partylicious?”

Rainbow snorted in amusement. “Yeah, she is. First time I met her she broke the laws of physics by taking me and my Twilight to Sweet Apple Acres in about two seconds.”

Pinkie groaned. “Aaawww, why did you have to remind me about the laws?! Now I have to follow them! For like, five minutes!”

Twilight perked up. “Wait, what?”

“The ammo pile increases,” Spike mumbled under his breath.

Pinkie’s defeated look faded away rather quickly, turning into a playful smirk. “Lucky me, my party canon isn’t bound like I am! By the way, you are a teensy bit wrong about the ‘Welcome to Ponyville Party’.”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow, leaning back. “Hold on, what-”

There was an explosion of confetti and streamers from the barrel of the canon, all of which ended up right on Rainbow’s face. Her ears rang with the familiar rush of wind and rustling paper. In a matter of seconds, she was buried in the pile.

“Ooowww,” she moaned in discomfort, nursing a new headache before shoving herself up and poking her head out of the top of the mound.

To her surprise, the library was now fully decorated for a party. Suspended from the roof to shine over the room was a large banner that read ‘Welcome to the Universe, Rainbow Dash!’ in big, bold, prismatic letters that stood out wonderfully against the cyan background.

Rainbow needed a moment to take it all in. All of the typical things for a Pinkie party were present: a gramophone playing lively music, various games scattered around the edges of the room, a twister mat set up in the centre, and plenty of folding tables set up with cupcakes, cakes, cookies, doughnuts, and other assorted pastries.

Chrysalis poked her head out of the pile from Rainbow’s left, a flat look on her face. “Daughter, we were not fast enough to escape the storm,” she droned out in defeat.

Twilight came up from the right. “Oh, you hush. It’s fun.”

“It sure is!” Pinkie declared from the other end of the room, grinning widely at them. “Guests should be showing up any second now! But first…”

Rainbow hauled herself out of the pile of confetti as Pinkie approached, giving her head a quick shake to throw off a few streamers hanging over her eyes. “Ugh. But first what?”

Pinkie Pie paused, seemingly lost in thought for a moment before giving some sudden random spasms.

“That! Oh! Hm, what did that one mean…”

The front door swung open. “Hey, Pinks,” a familiar raspy voice called out. “So, how’s our Pinkie match up to yours?”

“Ah, ‘bout the same,” Rainbow Dash replied to her native counterpart.

“Wonderful. As if it couldn’t get worse,” Chrysalis deadpanned.

“Grouchy as ever, huh? Neat,” the newly arrived Rainbow muttered with a noncommittal shrug. “So, Twilight, she had that smoothie or something yet?”

Pinkie Pie lit up like a lightbulb. “Oh yeah! That’s my Pinkie Sense! You haven’t eaten your pancake yet!”

And then, before any protest could be made, a pink hoof holding a green syrup-laden pancake was thrust into Rainbow Dash’s maw.

To describe the flavour as bad would be like saying having her ribs broken was mildly annoying; an understatement of incredible magnitude.

Her indignant noises of disgust could be heard outside the library, accompanied by Chrysalis’ victorious laughter combined with that of Spike and the other Rainbow Dash. Twilight, meanwhile, just facehooved as Pinkie sat with her usual happy grin.

Pinkie Pie. The universal constant. When she arrives…

This was gonna be a long party.

Author's Note

We, uh... went a little mad with this one. The entire dream thing last chapter was ad-libbed and the extent of the humour here meant we had to split them into two for tonal reasons.

Pinkie Pie. That is my only explanation.

Besides, I think Rainbow deserves some R&R. Leave the usual doom and gloom to the future...

16 - The Problem with Empaths

Another universe or not, a Pinkie Pie party was a Pinkie Pie party.

Going in, Rainbow had been somewhat uneasy with the prospect of meeting the counterparts of all of her friends. It had just felt off to her, somehow. That feeling had stubbornly persisted once she met them, forcing her into an awkward and reserved position. Compared to her other self, Rainbow was more like her world’s Fluttershy.

But, as time went on, she gradually began to slip out of her shell a little bit. Coincidentally, that started happening at around the time Applejack busted out a keg full of cider. Rainbow had been all over that, and once she consumed a mug or two, the tension fled her muscles and she was able to open up and really lose herself in the party. The games were fun, the cider and punch were good, and the cupcakes were sweet and sugary. It was everything she could ever want from a Pinkie party.

It was even better because Chrysalis isolated herself to one corner, looking rather perturbed by all of the noise and activity. It was likely only her immense pride as a Queen of the Changelings that prevented her from turning tail and retreating into one of the guest rooms upstairs. She was one to fight her foes rather than turn from them, after all. Still, while the Queen was not the same one that had haunted Rainbow’s nightmares, it was still satisfying, in a perhaps misplaced way, to see her in less-than-ideal spirits. Rainbow made sure to never outwardly show it, though, or even bring it up.

The party went on for much longer than she had been expecting. She had anticipated a few hours of fun, sweets, and dancing, but no. It went on for many hours, and eventually, Rainbow realized that the sun was starting to lazily descend for the horizon. They had spent the entire day cooped up in here, listening to music, dancing, drinking and eating things that were unquestionably very unhealthy, and occasionally forming conga lines.

Doing so many things for so long was bound to take its toll on the energy of everypony present, and it began to show. Bit by bit, the party began to quiet down and lose some of its energy. The music was turned down, and the energetic dancing and shouts quieted down to something far more mellow. Some of the more occupied guests excused themselves around this time.

Once things began to calm down, Rainbow found herself once again in an awkward position, though not because of her being shy or uncomfortable. Now, everypony else was steadily segregating themselves into their smaller groups. Rainbow still received a fair few glances from all of the other guests, many of them no doubt curious to learn more about the ‘pegasus from another world,’ but most of them elected to keep to their own groups for now, probably not wanting to invade her privacy.

She might have wandered up to join one of them and start talking, but as things stood, she had something else she wanted to do. Taking the last mug of cider, Rainbow started to stealthily slink her way towards the library’s main entrance…

Or not so stealthily, it seemed.

“Hey, Dashie Dos!” Pinkie Pie squealed out eagerly, waving a foreleg as she poked out from one of the previously mentioned groups, this one composed of the expected suspects that were the rest of her friends. “Stop being so mopey and get yer rainbow butt over here! We have puuuunch!”

Rainbow stopped briefly, thinking of a way to politely decline as the rest of her frie- this world’s Element Bearers followed the party pony out towards her.

“You have been remarkably quiet,” Rarity added with a soft smile. “We know that some topics are, shall we say, sensitive, but we’d nevertheless enjoy the opportunity to get to know more about you and this other world you hail from.”

“And it might help you relax,” the other Rainbow pointed out, although the look in her eyes made it clear that she knew how lost of a cause that idea was. “I mean, c’mon, these are our friends, aren’t they?”

“And besides,” Applejack added with a grin. “Y’all are the guest of honour, aren’t ya?”

“Yeah!” Pinkie agreed with a bounce. “C’mon, whaddya say?”

Rainbow looked between them all for a few seconds before looking past them to Twilight. The changeling had hung back a little bit, seemingly unsure of how to approach the subject alongside her friends. In fact, she looked a little uneasy herself.

“She’s looked kinda like that since my nightmare, actually,” Rainbow thought after a few seconds. She set that aside for the moment, though, and returned her attention to the expectant mares in front of her.

“...We would like to talk for a bit, I’m really interested to hear what kind of animals you have over there,” Fluttershy bashfully admitted as she stepped forward, poking her head out through her concealing pink mane. “If you want to, of course…”

Rainbow chuckled quietly under her breath. “Heh. The animals are pretty much the same as they are here, Fluttershy,” she said before glancing back over her shoulder for the door again. She fell silent for a second and looked back to the others. “Look… I’d love to chat for a while, and we totally can later, but I’ve been inside all day, and Pinkie’s parties here are just as tiring as back home. I kinda wanna sit down by myself and get some fresh air for a bit. I’ll be right outside, though.”

There was a visible wave of mild disappointment from them, and Rainbow couldn’t help but wince slightly in guilt.

Rarity recovered first, pulling herself up to her full height. “That is quite alright, darling. We shall all be here for some time yet, I should think, and we’ll have plenty of time to talk to you in the coming days anyway.”

Rainbow blinked. “Huh?”

Her other self chuckled in amusement. “What? Did you think the rest of us were just gonna sit back here and do nothing? We’re comin’ with you and the book-bug to Canterlot tomorrow.”

“Wait, when did we decide this?” Twilight asked in bemusement.

The changeling’s more familiar Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes in a way that made Rarity feel like she was being imitated. “Come on, Twi! Since when have we ever let you go on a maybe-punch-a-monster-in-the-face adventure alone before?”

“I’m trying to get ‘you’ home, not start a war.”

“But-”

“What she’s tryin’ to say is…” Applejack quickly interrupted while giving her prismatic pegasus friend the stink-eye. “We don’t intend to let y’all do this alone. We stick together, remember?”

“Besides, it’s not often we get to go on our, ahem, ‘romps’ anymore,” Rarity pointed out.

Pinkie hummed. “Well, there was Mister ‘Meanie McStealYourMagicPants.”

“Hardly the point,” Rarity rebuked. “The actual point being that we should take the time we can when you’re not busy ruling a nation, darling.”

“And Rainbow is our friend,” Fluttershy added with a small nod and tender smile, her eyes affixed on the foreign counterpart of her fillyhood friend. “From another world or not. And we all want to help her get home. I’m sure her friends are missing her terribly. I know I would...”

Rainbow watched them all for a moment, her heart having started beating just a little faster in her chest from the sudden barrage of foreign-yet-familiar support. After a moment, she smiled at them and lifted her mug as if to say ‘cheers.’ “Well, glad to have you all along. We’re gonna take the train up to Canterlot, I’m guessing?”

“It would make the most sense,” Twilight acknowledged, smiling at her friends as well with a defeated sort of happiness. “Since the chariot can hardly fit this many ponies.”

Rainbow nodded. “Then we can talk all you’d like on the way,” she said before turning for the door. “But like I said, I’d like some fresh air. I’ll be outside if anypony needs me, kay?”

A collection of voices called their acknowledgement. The only one she couldn’t quite make out was that of Twilight’s. Odd, considering that the changeling’s two-toned voice should have been exceedingly audible compared to the rest of them. Rainbow paused by the door to give Twilight a curious glance. There it was again, that uneasiness.

‘Did I say something wrong earlier?’ Rainbow wondered to herself. She made eye contact with Twilight for a few seconds. The changeling looked away, her expression hard to read.

Losing her smile, Rainbow opened the door and slipped outside. The cool evening air washed over her face, rejuvenating her system. She took a long, deep breath, emptying her mind, and sat down on the front steps to look out at Ponyville. The setting sun cast the entire town in a gentle amber glow, the sort of orange that made her eyelids droop and quieted her mind and soul with sleepiness. A perfect atmosphere for thought.

It was still a lot for her to think about: being in another world, meeting another version of herself, Pinkie... It was always hanging over her, making her feel uncomfortable in her own skin. She knew on a deeply fundamental level that this was not where she belonged… and that knowledge was steadily eating away at the back of her mind.

That nightmare had been evidence enough of that.

‘Well, if nothing else,’ she eventually thought with a small smile, her mind wandering back to the promise of the rest of her friends joining them chasing away some of her anxiety. ‘I’ve got plenty of help getting back home.’

She had been alone for maybe twenty minutes before, finally, the door to the library opened again, and a certain changeling princess stepped out.

“I do miss her parties when I’m at the hive. I just miss it all, really,” Princess Twilight Sparkle spoke, standing behind Rainbow as she glanced off at the setting sun. “I would have stayed here for… well, a long time if fate hadn’t said otherwise. I could still come back, I guess. But… Well, I wouldn’t do that to Mum. She’s lost enough.”

Rainbow hummed in response to that, taking a sip of her cider. “She has, huh? I won’t ask. Not my business.”

“It’s a long story. I don’t even know much of it. I should do a project sometime…” the changeling mused. “But… I know how it feels to miss home. Because Ponyville still is, in a way, even though my connection to the hive is deep, and it is home too, this place… I feel myself here, you know? Even if I’ve lived in the hive for longer at this point, just barely.”

“I hear ya,” Rainbow acknowledged, subconsciously patting the step next to her in a gesture for Twilight to sit down. “I lived in Canterlot for a long time after Celestia adopted me, and then I came and started living in Ponyville for the last year. But…” she shook her head, her eyes drifting up to look at a stray cloud drifting through the sky. “...Cloudsdale’s always gonna be home to me. As wonderful as Canterlot and Ponyville are…”

She let the thought go unfinished, instead taking another, somewhat deeper draught from her mug.

Twilight looked at the beckoning hoof, biting her lip as she hesitated for a moment. But, after that moment passed, she steadily edged herself forward and sat down next to the otherworldly pegasus.

“I… I hope the party wasn’t too much. There’s no stopping Pinkie Pie, but…”

Rainbow shook her head, a tender smile appearing on her face. “Nah. The party was fine. A little overwhelming at first, but I got over that. Honestly? Being caught up in all the chaos?” she glanced sideways at Twilight. “It kinda helped me get my head together. Plus, you know, all your friends coming along… they’re just like mine, barring one or two tiny differences in Fluttershy. It really helped me feel more comfortable…”

She then looked down, her hooves curling tighter around her mug. “But I don’t think I’m gonna really feel okay until I’m back home… in my Ponyville. With my friends… my Twilight,” she said, her voice slowly lowering. Once more, her thoughts went back to her fillyhood friend, and how she was taking Rainbow’s disappearance.

“We’ll get you back, I’m sure you know how good at doing a science I can be!” Twilight remarked half-jokingly, though still in a bragging kind of way. “Hey, maybe I can poke a hole and talk to your Twilight. Think of the research two of us could do!”

Rainbow openly laughed at that. “Ha! I’d rather not! One is enough, no offence,” she replied between her chuckles.

The Princess pouted. “There is never enough research, ya heathen!”

Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Heathen? I think you’ve been reading too much old-time stuff if you’re busting out language like that,” she said in a teasing manner before swigging some more cider.

“I am well-versed in the histories of the world, thank you very much,” she retorted matter-of-factly. “I mean, come on, how many times has your Twilight gone around detailing the history of, I don’t know, that very interesting building over there which was one of the first built in Ponyville by a stallion by the name of-”

Rainbow lifted a hoof and narrowed her eyes at Twilight, silencing the bug’s oncoming tirade. After a moment, she lowered her hoof and grinned. “Diamond Hoe. He was a farmer for a long time, but he built that house for his son to live in when he turned out to be better suited for weather work in the heart of town. Yes, I remember. I’ve heard the story at least three times.”

“And you listened? I can never get Rainbow to listen unless it has at least one explosion! How does she do it?”

Rainbow shrugged her shoulders. “Honestly? I don’t think it has anything to do with what she does differently from you. It’s more about how different I am compared to your Rainbow. I mean, I grew up with my Twilight, remember? And, eventually, her little tirades… meh. I couldn’t help but listen to them with one ear whenever she’d go off. It was kinda cute, honestly.”

And there was that pink mist again. Unseen to any creature aside from a changeling, little wafts of energy lifting off of the pegasus as a thoughtful and… longing expression formed her features.

Twilight shifted uncomfortably, blushing. “...I’m not cute…”

Rainbow glanced sideways at her for a moment, unsure of how to reply to that. On the one hoof, she didn’t want to agree with her and accidentally insult her, but pressing the fact that she found her own Twilight to be adorable could make things kind of awkward. After all, for all their similarities, the changeling sitting next to her was not the mare that Rainbow had fallen in love with.

‘She’s back home, wondering where I am, and struggling with amnesia,’ Rainbow thought to herself before looking ahead again. “Well, you are two different creatures…” she eventually settled on as her response, though her voice was low and half-hearted.

“And yet…” Twilight muttered with an air of awkward uncertainty, eying the emotions she could see and feel radiating from the mare.

There was a new storm brewing. Guilt, shame… And yet the pink mist did not subside. In fact, as she stared at the mare and saw Twilight Sparkle, it only seemed to increase alongside that expression of longing…

Twilight took in a deep breath.

This was one crossbow bolt she had to take…

“Rainbow…? Are you in love with me?”

Rainbow blinked, her eyes going wide. She turned to Twilight again, finding the changeling looking extremely uncomfortable.

“I mean, not me mebut the other me who is also me from another universe so… Yes! Me! Are you?” Twilight finished, one of her eyes twitching as her cheeks turned a surprising shade of red for a creature made of chitin.

Rainbow stared at her for a few seconds before getting a small, amused smile on her face. “Okay, first off, let’s not make this any more complicated than it needs to be. I’ma tell you exactly what I told the other me. My Twilight and you are two totally separate mares. You share a voice, a face, a personality, and a skillset. But beyond that? It’s like comparing an apple to a watermelon.”

Twilight tilted her head at the odd analogy. If anything, it was more akin to a green apple compared to a red one, but she did not get to speak on it before Rainbow continued.

“But in answer to your question…” Rainbow’s smile faded, and she looked directly ahead. “...Yeah. To use the mushiest of all mush bombs, I l-love my Twilight. I… s-she means the world to me. I’d do anything for her… and I’m going to do whatever it takes to get back to her and help her recover. It’s… partly my fault she has amnesia, so it’s my responsibility to make things right.”

“I can tell…” Twilight said carefully. “That’s the problem with a race of empaths, Rainbow. From the moment you’ve arrived, every time you look at me I can feel and taste the love you hold for Twilight Sparkle. I hate to be blunt, but you clearly see a lot of her in me, the guilt and shame are there too for feeling that way…”

Rainbow fell silent, her ears lowering. “...Yeah. I do see a lot of her in you. I mean, you are really similar in a lot of ways. Minus, you know,” she gestured vaguely. “You being a changeling. But everything else… the voice, the personality, the books… once I got past the shell, it’s like I’m talking to the mare that died in my hooves in the Crystal Empire again…” she muttered before closing her eyes.

“I am her in a more literal sense than you’d find anywhere else,” the changeling mused with a nervous chuckle. “You clearly miss her, and trust me, speaking for the both of us I’m flattered. Really.”

Rainbow nodded quietly. “Yeah… I do miss her. More than anything right now.”

“I’m not going to replace her. And you shouldn’t feel ashamed for feeling the way you do, being her, it’s only natural I’m going to be… well, a mixed pile of weirdness. Ask Cadance, she’s better at the love analytics…” Twilight remarked. “But trust me, you don’t need to worry about me. I’m well and truly focused on stallions. I mean, he’s a bit quiet for my tastes, but have you seen Big Mac’s muscles?”

Rainbow managed to let out a weak chuckle at that. “Yeah, I have. I swing both ways, so before I got together with her, I had my eye on a few stallions myself,” she replied before shaking her head. “Kinda never went for them. Mushy lovey-dovey stuff is one thing I am never gonna get any good at.”

“I figured it's that way here too,” Twilight confirmed. “I’ve seen ‘you’ eyeing Applejack, though Rarity has literal bits on a certain fellow wonderbolt.”

“And that is something I do not need to know,” Rainbow shot back with another quiet laugh. “Other me’s love life is her business.”

“Just don’t ask Rarity then, or she’d explode. The only pony in Equestria scarier with love is my sister-in-law. Seriously, she’s practically axe-crazy,” Twilight joked.

Rainbow’s muzzle scrunched up. “Sister in… I’m assuming that’s Cadance you’re talking about?” she ventured, thinking back on Twilight mentioning a wedding up in Canterlot.

“Yup!” she confirmed. “And she’s even scarier now. Hormones increase by… well, a lot, when pregnant. Poor Shiny is the nearest punching bag.”

Rainbow’s eyes shot wide open. “O-oh. Uh, well, holy heck, that’s awesome. Grats on getting to be an aunt,” she said after a moment.

“Hey, I’m sure other me will get to be the BAE soon enough herself!”

Rainbow’s surprise turned into a deadpan frown. “Never say that word again,” she ordered simply. “Ever.”

“What? I am completely going to be the Best Aunt Ever! I already have all kinds of books on the subject!”

Rainbow’s eyes narrowed. After a few seconds, she let out an amused sigh and looked directly ahead. A companionable silence fell over the two. Rainbow finished off her cider with a quick swig before setting the mug down to one side. She stared ahead for a while before closing her eyes, an unwanted thought worming its way into the back of her mind.

“...Y’know, I can’t help but wonder if my Twi is missing me,” she mumbled.

“Huh?” Twilight asked.

Rainbow opened her eyes a little, her expression darkening. “You know she has amnesia already. She doesn’t know me anywhere near as well as I know her. With all of her missing experiences, she’s all but a different pony. She was relying on me to help her find her footing and get her life back in order with all those missing memories. But…” she looked up at the sky as the stars finally began to come into view. “She’s only known me for a few weeks. Maybe a month, if we’re being really generous. She’s met all our other friends and has their total support, too, so…”

She looked down and to one side, her ears drooping once again. “It’s probably a stupid idea, but I just can’t help but think about it…”

Twilight paused for a moment, studying the pegasus as Rainbow’s mood dropped and her expression sagged. She took in her emotions, the dread and regret, thinking back on the entirety of their conversation until now in a methodical manner only she could.

And then she gave Rainbow a small smile, placing a hoof on her shoulder.

“Rainbow Dash, don’t even start with that.”

The pegasus blinked in surprise. “Huh?”

“Maybe I have lost my memories, maybe I am struggling with who I am and my place in life. My memories are gone, I am confused and lost. But from all I’ve seen and heard, who is the one pony who has been there for every second? Trust me, I’ve noticed.”

“I…”

“AND!” she continued, this time her lecture was not to be interrupted. Some things were too important. “As a changeling, and a royal changeling at that, I can also tell you that when you feel something so deeply for somepony it's more than just a random memory. It becomes instinct. Something you can’t control. It’s wild and mysterious, and that’s why it’s so filling. So even if she doesn’t have the context, even if she’s muted and confused, she definitely feels something for you. An unexplainable bond, and more than that I just know that she trusts you. So, as Twilight Sparkle, let me tell you…”

There was a flash of green, black chitin being replaced with lavender fur as Twilight Sparkle walked around Rainbow until she was facing her dead on. Their eyes met as the feathery wings on the apparent alicorn’s back extended in an authoritative manner.

“I am coming for you, Rainbow Dash. And I won’t stop until I have you home again.”

Rainbow mouthed uselessly like a fish for several seconds, completely taken aback by the sudden display. She worked her brain for what felt like an eternity before, finally, she managed to get something out.

She lifted a hoof to weakly point at one of Twilight’s new wings. “...Your wings are too small.”

And she immediately regretted every life choice she had ever made leading up to that moment.

Twilight’s expression blanked. "What?”

Rainbow flinched back awkwardly. “Y-you gave yourself pegasus-sized wings. Twi’s are a lot… um…” she reached down and quickly lifted the empty mug back up to her face so she could hide her embarrassed blush behind it.

Twilight stomped indignantly, her pony cheeks puffing up in annoyance. “That’s it!? Come on! Do you know how many lessons in inspirational royal speeches from both Celestia and Mother I had to call upon?! Dumb pegasus…”

Rainbow shrank down in place, her ears lowering. “...Sorry,” she mumbled dejectedly before chucking the mug to one side. She was caught, might as well let the blush roam free. An awkward silence fell over the two for a second before Rainbow looked up and met Twilight’s gaze again. “But, uh… for what it’s worth… that was a pretty good speech. It just took me off guard… didn’t know what to say.”

“I’m sure I’m very good at that. Keeps you in line…” Twilight said with a very deliberate purr.

Rainbow’s wings twitched. “...Okay, stop that,” she said emphatically, her eyes wide.

Twilight smirked. “I may not swing that way, but I can totally appreciate the teasing. Again, same brain. And you’re incredibly cute when you pout.”

Rainbow quickly covered her ears and looked away, her face turning a surprisingly vibrant shade of Big Mac. “I am loyalty incarnate, I am loyalty incarnate, I am loyalty in-freaking-carnate!”

“And if I enjoy muscular stallion, then I’m sure she’s quite keen on your-”

There was a blast of air and a cloud of dust. Twilight coughed a few times, waving a hoof in front of her face to clear away the cloud. When the dust finally settled, Rainbow had disappeared.

“Now who’s the killjoy!?” Twilight shouted after her with a huff.

“It’s totally you!” came the echoing reply from somewhere out of sight.

Twilight rolled her eyes, green flames surrounding her as she retook her usual form. As much as her insides squirmed as she literally ingested all of the pegasus’ feelings, the slightly more… predatory side that came from her mother was certainly in full effect.

At least until she turned back towards the library and saw something she really should have anticipated.

All of her friends. Listening in. Right there.

“...What the heck was that?” Native Rainbow Dash asked.

“Uh…”

Rarity, meanwhile, had what can only be described as stars in her eyes. “Well then! That brings forth an entirely new set of possibilities! Why, Rainbow, Twilight, you just must-”

“Not going there!” Rainbow protested.

“Definitely not!” Twilight swiftly concurred.

“I think it’s sweet…” Fluttershy mused quietly.

“Ah think it’s plain nasty,” Applejack disagreed with a wrinkle of her snout. “Seriously, Dash, y’all been lookin’?”

The pegasus gaped like a fish, her hue shifting to match her absent counterpart.

“Right!” Twilight said with an air of finality. “This conversation is over.”

“All due respect, darling, but that was quite the series of flirts a few moments ago~”

“Done. Rarity. Done. Over. Complete. Le fin.”

“Twilight! You can’t simply-”

And then, in a teleport that steamed with regret over all her actions, Twilight was gone.

Far overhead, watching the whole spectacle unfold, Princess Rainbow managed a weak chuckle. She had fled to the cloud she had seen drifting by earlier, close enough to listen in and watch, but far enough away to escape Twilight.

With a shake of her head, Rainbow flopped onto her back and looked up at the night sky. For as embarrassing as that entire exchange had been, Rainbow had to admit… Twilight’s speech had done its job. She was feeling much better now.

‘She’s right,’ she thought to herself as she closed her eyes. ‘Memories or not, my Twi’s gonna be looking for a way to get me home just as hard as I am. I don’t gotta worry about that…’

With that comforting thought echoing in the back of her mind, Rainbow allowed herself to be whisked away by the cool night air and the softness of her cloud. She had no intention of sleeping up here. Last time she did that, she had been punted into a whole other universe.

But right now, she was glad to bask in the quiet and let herself finally relax.

Everything was gonna be okay. Somehow, she just knew it.

17 - Reaching Out

Twilight Sparkle ruffled her feathers to relieve some of her nervous energy, her eyes glued onto the fluffy white clouds beneath her hooves. Princess Luna stood a short distance ahead of her, her cool blue eyes locked onto the distant city of Canterlot. The sun was setting on the horizon, steadily plunging the world into the low, subtle glow of dusk.

A chilly breeze washed over them, making Twilight shudder and glance at the city herself. Princess Celestia was due to arrive any minute, now. Luna had made Twilight send her elder sister a message via Spike’s Dragonfire only a few hours ago, calling for her to return to Ponyville and join them immediately. Apparently, the lunar princess had a new lead on their search for Rainbow Dash, but wanted her sister and Twilight present before following through on it.

That part was fine. Anything to bring back Twilight’s friend. Were it not for another circumstance, she might have even felt excited at the prospect of getting Rainbow home and putting this confusing, stressful mess behind them.

But it was impossible for her to relax. Not when Princess Luna kept glancing at her from the side with that oddly cold look in her eyes. The more Twilight saw it, the more uncomfortable it made her. It was as if she were being silently judged and analyzed, making her feel increasingly self-conscious and on edge.

More than once, she had contemplated asking the other alicorn what the looks were for. Had she done something to Luna in the past to upset her? Had they been on poor terms before Twilight’s amnesia? But every time she did, Luna was no longer focused on her, her attention having returned to Canterlot.

Finally, Luna visibly perked up, a smile spreading on her lips. “Ah, at last. She comes,” she declared, pointing.

Twilight followed her hoof, and sure enough, there was Princess Celestia, gliding in from the distance. She came in quickly but gracefully, and with a few elegant flaps of her wings that made Twilight’s best attempt at a landing blush, she touched down a few feet ahead of them. She gave Twilight a smile and a nod before facing her sister. “Luna. I’m sorry I’m late, but my hooves were tied with another matter.”

Luna frowned and nodded. “I see. It is of little consequence. We are all here, so we may begin.”

Twilight released a sigh as the awkwardness in the air finally dissipated. “What have you found?” she asked, taking a few hopeful steps forward. “Do you know where Rainbow is?”

Luna glanced down at her for a moment. “...I am afraid not,” she stated apologetically before staring back up at the sky. “But I may have found a trail that will lead us to her. However, I wouldn’t dare follow it without aid. You two are the most magically-gifted ponies I know, and your aid shall be required for this to work.”

“What about Starlight?” Twilight ventured, calling back on her limited knowledge of the events preceding her awakening in the Crystal Empire. “Isn’t she a powerful mage, and an ally?”

Celestia grimaced. “...Truth be told, Twilight, it was Starlight herself who caused my delay,” she admitted sheepishly.

Luna turned to her. “Sister?”

“As you suggested last night, I sent word across Equestria for other cities to aid in the search for my daughter,” Celestia began, stepping forward slightly. “And I enlisted the aid of the finest mages I could think of to help study whatever residues of the storm were left behind… Including Starlight Glimmer and Sunburst. I asked both of them personally if they would be willing to offer me their assistance.”

Luna’s expression softened with understanding. “I see… and I take it they refused?”

Celestia nodded. “Sunburst was all too happy to volunteer for the task, actually, but Starlight… was quite adamant in her refusal. She told me in no uncertain terms that, as much as she respects the royal family, she is not ready to have anything more to do with us… especially Rainbow Dash…” she sighed and shook her head. “Her life has been inexorably altered by my daughter’s actions, and not necessarily for the better. I dared not make her help us if she did not feel ready to do so.”

Twilight blinked in surprise, confused. “...Did Rainbow Dash do something wrong?” she asked, racking her brain for any information about what could have caused Starlight to outright refuse the princess.

“In a manner of speaking,” Luna replied carefully, her eyes locking onto Twilight again. “The two have a… less than cordial history. However, it is not for me or my sister to go into detail. Even if it was, we have not the time to waste on such a story.”

Celestia cleared her throat, sitting upright. “Yes, of course. Do go on, Luna. What is your lead?”

Luna nodded. “Very well. To be plain, Twilight Sparkle was indeed correct. I now firmly believe the storm was responsible for Rainbow’s disappearance. I used my magic to search for residual pockets of energy left over. Using these disturbances in local magic as a ‘gate’ of sorts, I was able to locate Rainbow’s dreams via the Dream Realm.”

Twilight leaned forward, excitement swelling up in her chest like one of Pinkie’s balloons. “So you know where she is?!”

Luna shook her head, causing the metaphorical balloon to pop. “Alas, the gateway was severed before I could make contact or discern a location. My magic interacting with it caused it to destabilize and fall apart, and the line created by my magic was not strong enough to hold it open.”

Twilight frowned. “So… why us, then? How can we help?”

“To put it in simple terms, you will aid me in using your magic to boost the potency of my own, thereby stabilizing this ‘rift.’ This shall allow me to search on the other side for longer and reach out farther.”

Celestia hummed thoughtfully, her horn lighting up with magic. A few gentle pulses came from the tip, and her expression hardened. “...We are in the middle of the rift right now, aren’t we?” she asked. “I can sense the disturbance.”

Luna nodded. “We are. The first rift I jumped through was significantly smaller. It is my belief that a larger rift means more time to search, especially with you two supporting my dream walking spell with your magic.”

Twilight gulped, her ears slowly drooping. This was unexpected, and definitely not the good news she had been hoping for. It was good news, of course. They had a way of looking for Rainbow now. But part of her amnesia meant she did not remember the vast majority of her spells, leaving her totally lost as to how to do her part, here.

“I… I don’t know how much help I can be,” she mumbled timidly, her eyes turning down to stare at the clouds at her hooves. “I can barely even lift anything in my magic. How am I supposed to help you keep a rift open like that?”

“Luckily for you, this shall not require either you or Celestia casting any spells,” Luna said in reassurance. “Merely joining me in the dream realm and providing my spell with power. A simple exchange of energy, even easier than telekinesis to accomplish.”

Twilight looked up, meeting Luna's gaze. While the cold scrutiny was still there, it was now joined by something else. It took a moment to figure it out, but it was hope… almost as if the princess were silently begging Twilight to lend her strength with her eyes.

‘And why wouldn’t she ask for all the help she could get?’ she wondered after a moment. ‘Rainbow Dash is her niece, and they’re very close from what I’ve heard…’

With that thought burning in her mind, she steeled herself and nodded. “Alright. What do I need to do?” she asked, her voice firm with determination.

Her tone seemed to be exactly what Luna wanted to hear. She smiled wide and lowered herself to rest on her belly. “I shall cast a simple spell to put both of you to sleep. Once you are resting, I shall collect your minds to my side, allowing you to provide me with energy and even accompanying me in my search.”

Celestia’s face lit up with a smile. “Ah, a surf through the dream realm, is it? It has been a rather long time since you brought me along on such a trip.”

Luna snorted. “Partly because I’ve been away for a very long time. But do not think that I have forgotten what happened the last time I allowed you to come with me!”

Twilight’s expression blanked. “Wait, what?”

Celestia blushed furiously, suddenly looking quite flustered. “L-Luna! Not in front of Twilight! Besides, it was one time!”

“The flamingos were haunting me for weeks, sister,” Luna deadpanned. “One time or not, I am in no rush to repeat such a disaster. So please be on your best behaviour, lest I haunt your dreams!”

“But you’re not a ghost…”

“I am the night! Ghosts fear me!”

Twilight just sat there, watching the two sisters quibbling. In the back of her mind, she could not help but wonder what the story was behind this argument.

‘I mean, Flamingos? What do they have to do with anything?’

Alas, she would never know.

Luna spent a few more minutes chastising her sister over the sins of antiquity before an awkward comment from Twilight drove them both on to get on with why they were here. After a brief moment of explanation, Luna’s horn lit up with pale white magic, far different from her usual rich blue. Thin tendrils of light reached from the tip of her horn to touch Celestia and Twilight just below the horn. In mere moments, both of them got comfy on the cloud, falling into their magically-induced slumber.

Luna took a deep breath before closing her eyes. With a deep, bassy hum, the world around her bled away. When she opened her eyes again, it was to the sight of the endless expanse of the dream realm, with the orange distortion of the rift looming ahead of her. This one was far larger than the last, to be sure, and significantly more dense with energy.

“Woah!” Twilight’s voice exclaimed from nearby. Luna turned to see the lavender alicorn flailing her limbs and wings about in a frantic and comical attempt to find purchase on matter that did not exist. “W-where is the ground?!”

Celestia drifted smoothly in from the side with an amused smile. “We are in the dream realm, Twilight. Just imagine you are standing on something.”

A few seconds later, Twilight took a deep breath and did as she was instructed. A moment later, she gave off a sigh of relief as her hooves came to rest on an invisible surface. She looked down and gave off a quiet, fascinated giggle, stomping her hoof against the intangible surface to test its durability. “Wow… this is so strange.”

“Doubly so, seeing as you are sideways,” Luna pointed out with a coy smirk.

“What?” Twilight looked up and, sure enough, she had imagined gravity and ground beneath her hooves while floating at a roughly ninety-degree angle compared to the others. She blushed and coughed into her hoof, smoothly rotating down to match them without a word.

Luna chuckled, taking what was perhaps an unhealthy amount of joy from seeing Twilight’s blunder before looking back up to the rift. It loomed over her, almost enough to intimidate her with its sheer scale, as well as the numerous unknown factors associated with it.

But she had to brave it. Her niece was waiting on the other side.

She could hear Celestia and Twilight talking behind her, the latter squealing with fascination. Apparently, the dream realm was an exciting place for her to be in. Luna managed to put on a tiny smile on hearing the reaction. If only they could stay here and enthuse about it longer…

‘I shall have to explain it to her more another time,’ she decided before turning back to her companions. For now, they had a job to do. “Sister, Twilight. It is time. Are you ready?”

Twilight looked up at Luna, though her gaze became fixated on the rift behind her. She stiffened, taking a few steps back. “I-is that it?” she stammered out, pointing.

“I would imagine so,” Celestia said, her tone becoming serious.

Luna nodded. “It is. We shall pass through and explore on the other end. Rainbow Dash’s dream should appear as a sphere of light, like many of these other dreams, made up of all the colours of her namesake. It will be unmistakable.”

Celestia gave a sharp nod. “Very well. Lead the way…”

Twilight was far less confident, shrinking away from the anomaly with fear evident in her eyes. After a moment, though, she managed to find her strength. “A-alright…”

Luna glanced between them before turning to face the rift. On the other side was her best chance at finding her niece… and she was not going to fail this time.

As one, Luna, Celestia, and Twilight drifted forwards and passed into the rift, their minds passing from one world into another.

18 - The City on the Mountain

It was strange, seeing Canterlot in such an undamaged state. Rainbow Dash frowned at the city on the mountain as the train drew closer, thinking back on how her world’s version of the ancient city was visibly broken down after the series of battles that had taken place within its walls. She could clearly recall the perpetual haze of dust that had settled over the city and the omnipresent ruckus of construction as ponies scrambled to repair the damage. Piles of rubble, collapsed buildings, and scorch marks had been numerous.

None of those things were true for this Canterlot. It was the pristine image of what the city was supposed to be. A shining beacon displaying the dedication and ingenuity of ponykind to build a city on such a precarious slope and make it their capital.

‘Coulda just built in the clouds,’ she thought to herself. ‘But eh. Maybe I’m biased.’

She tore her eyes away from the city to survey the interior of the train cart. She was accompanied by Twilight, Chrysalis, and Spike, of course, all sharing her booth and talking idly amongst themselves. The rest of their friends were huddled up in groups around the cart, having broken off after the first half of the journey and their various questions had been answered.

Trying to get Applejack to understand how multiple worlds worked was, in Twilight’s implied words, a tangible nightmare.

Pinkie understood it far too quickly to be coincidental.

“So, you wish to have two Rainbow Dashes wandering around Canterlot in plain sight, hoping nopony finds something wrong with that,” Chrysalis snarked to break up a bout of silence that had suddenly filled their carriage, likely having quickly grown bored of listening in to the others’ drab conversations. “Might I interject and propose there could be complications with this plan, daughter?”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Hey, it’ll be fine. We’ll just say one of them is a drone or something.”

“And that is meant to increase their confidence?”

“To be fair,” Rainbow pointed out, glancing briefly at her other self by Pinkie and Fluttershy. “From what I’ve heard, I’m kinda famous over here. Having a drone admirer wanting to look like me, while creepy as all heck, wouldn’t be totally unbelievable.”

“I think your ego could go without the stroking,” she deadpanned in turn. “No drone would want to imitate you. Not from my hive.”

Twilight raised a hoof. “Um, actually-”

“Not. A. Drone.”

Twilight got the message and decided to stop her rebuttal then and there.

Spike chuckled at the banter. “Oh, relax you two. Two Rainbows is hardly the weirdest thing these ponies have seen. I’m sure they’ll just chalk it all up to some friendship problem that has nothing to do with them.”

“If anything, ponies might just assume she has a twin that’s little known about,” Twilight mused. “There are enough noticeable differences to make them assume you’re actually two different ponies. The scar, for one, the hairstyle, the way you carry yourself… If anything, two changeling royals just wandering about is more likely to raise some eyebrows. Not to mentions the fact that our drone escort is still shadowing us.”

“You didn’t expect them to stay in that backwater town, did you?” Chrysalis sneered. “They can stay out of sight. But yes, I do concede an unannounced visit might raise more questions than I can be bothered with. Fine, we will do it the usual subtle way.”

With that said, green flames surrounded the Changeling Queen that caused her form to noticeably shrink down, black fur replacing chitin as her messy and marginally translucent mane was replaced with an equally scuffed head of normal green hair.

The new unicorn leaned back in her seat, giving a rather pleased-with-herself smirk at the others.

Rainbow started snickering.

Chrysalis’ smirk drifted off into a snark. “What?”

Rainbow pointed a hoof at her, using the other to hide her giggles. “That’s the best you can come up with? Really? I don’t think anypony’s gonna mistake that. Heh.”

The snarl increased. “I’m hardly trying to infiltrate your garishly colourful little city, interloper. It’s enough that ponies won’t think much of it. It wouldn’t matter if I were a mere drone, but a royal gallivanting through the streets will get some attention.”

Another flash of green went off next to Rainbow, Twilight too shifting into her old pony form. This time without the wings, however.

“She’s not wrong. I haven’t been back to Canterlot since… Well…”

“Since they tried harming my child. So excuse our diligence,” Chrysalis said with her eyes narrowing.

Rainbow opened her mouth to ramble out an apology, the mirth quickly fleeing her system. However, before she could get the words out, a voice spoke out over the loudspeaker of the train. “We are now arriving at Canterlot Station. This is our final station, so all passengers, please prepare to depart. Thank you for travelling with the Friendship Express!”

Spike hopped down, looking relieved. “Whew! Finally! Let’s get a move on! Those archives aren’t gonna search themselves!” he declared.

Twilight followed him with a similarly eager smile. “No, they won’t! Do you have the checklist?”

“You mean of all the books you want us to find first?”

“Of course.”

Spike pulled it out with a fanciful flourish. “Right here!”

Rainbow watched them go for a few seconds before glancing out her window one more time. Her brow furrowed somewhat before she, too, slid out of her seat and went to follow Twilight. She paused by Chrysalis long enough to give her a sideways glance. “...Sorry. I was just trying to lighten my mood a bit, that’s all.”

“So I can understand, Rainbow Dash, but even for the aforementioned drones that do live in Canterlot full-time due to our embassy, being in our own forms is, unfortunately, an uncomfortable affair. We never know if somepony will react as they did before.”

Rainbow looked directly ahead, her eyes downcast. “...Right. I gotcha,” she relented before giving the Changeling Queen a sideways look. “But if it makes you feel any better… long as I’m around, I don’t plan on letting anypony hurt Twilight. Mine, or yours.”

Chrysalis gave her an odd look. “...You truly mean that. I can smell it on you. What are your intentions towards her, exactly?”

Rainbow snorted. “Well, I don’t plan to sweep her off her hooves or anything like that, if that’s what you’re worried about. I just won’t leave my friends hanging. Not again.”

Chrysalis seemed less than convinced but decided to accept this explanation for the time being. “Very well. I can see your words are as honest as the orange one would insist upon, and I appreciate the sentiment. In truth, she remains hopeful that past ‘incidents’ will fade from memory sooner rather than later. I remain unconvinced. There are reasons for our kind’s isolation for all these millennia, but… Well, I suppose her grandmother would be pleased…”

Rainbow hummed at that before moving forward, giving Chrysalis room to stand up. “Fair enough. Maybe if we get a moment, you and Twi could tell me a little more one of these days. It would be good to bring that kind of info back home if only because I know my Twilight will love to hear it.”

“They are studious like that, aren’t they? I do wonder where she would have gotten such things from where you come from. Seeing as I am, apparently, neither her mother nor particularly sane. An… amusing thought.”

Rainbow shuddered. “Not amusing for me,” she reminded before lifting up her hoof to show off her scar.

Before either of them could say anything else, the train finally pulled to a stop, and the crowds of passengers seeking to disembark began to grow increasingly thick. Rainbow looked down the cart towards where Twilight and the others were already trying to squeeze out the doors, the changeling royal among them glancing back at her with confusion.

“So I recall,” Chrysalis said slowly before brushing past Rainbow. “We may discuss this matter another time. For now, we should not keep the others waiting. We have work to do, after all.”

Rainbow had no complaints, and took off after the Queen, the two of them soon rejoining the others by the train door.

“Hey,” Twilight greeted them again as they finally reached the group. “What were you talking about back there?”

“Little of note,” Chrysalis dismissed. “Now, let us get this over with. I’ll feel better when we are back at the castle, assuming they have maintained the added security measures we suggested.”

“You know they have,” Twilight chided. “There’s nothing to worry about, Mother. You’ll see.”

“Wait wait, hol’ up,” Applejack interjected. “What’s she doin’ lookin’ like that?”

“What do you mean?”

“All pony?”

“Noooot exactly convincing, either. Sheesh, you’re losing your touch, Chryssie,” Pinkie Pie remarked.

Chrysalis’ eye twitched. “...You know what? Fine. You win.”

Another bout of green flames, one that proved quite alarming to the other passengers given the stares and yelps of surprise, but once it was done the blatant pony Chrysalis was replaced with a pale green unicorn mare with a darker orange mane giving them all an irritated glare.

“There? Is that more to your ‘approval’? If anypony asks, I am a photographer trailing royalty for some article somewhere. Shutterbug, how about?”

They all looked at her, snorts and giggles spreading through the ranks.

She growled. “NOW WHAT!?”

The native Rainbow Dash looked ready to burst into hysterics. “Shutter… bug…?”

“I hate every last one of you.”

Twilight rolled her eyes.

The trot through Canterlot was a brisk one, Chrysalis insisting that they not stop until they were within the castle’s walls. Twilight seemed more bemused at her mother’s continued disdain towards the city than anything else, feeling relatively at ease at the familiar streets she’d known since she was a child.

But she couldn’t fault her for her continued paranoia. Twilight’s pleasant memories here still outweighed that terrible day, even if the scars were still there, figuratively and literally. But her mother’s experiences here were nought but strife. Nearly losing her child once to natural causes, leading to the… ‘misunderstanding’ that followed, and then almost losing her again to a few misled fools and a shadow that continued to hang over them to that very day.

It really was no wonder she was as paranoid as she was, even if Twilight could feel the minds of their escort, disguised as ponies mingling among the crowd.

Maybe one day changelings could walk in their own forms in far greater numbers without fearing the past. One day…

But that was a question for tomorrow, today there were far more immediate matters on Twilight’s mental to-do list.

One, reach Canterlot. Check. Two, tell the Princesses of Equestria that the walls between universes have holes in them. Three, plug said holes.

Easy!

...Or perhaps not so easy. It was nothing she and her friends couldn’t figure out, though. If nothing else, if they needed something brute-forced, her mother was on-station for that.

“Do be careful about transmitting your thoughts whenever in ‘the zone’, daughter.”

Eep!

Their arrival at the castle could not come fast enough, and it came as a relief to the changelings present when they finally left the streets of the city behind. Twilight took a deep breath, savouring the familiar environment of the west castle courtyard, before turning and gesturing towards one of the interior entrances.

“Come on. Let’s get inside and figure this out.”

Rainbow Dash hummed. “Yeah, right. Come on, the archives are this way.”

The other Rainbow gave her a confused look. “Huh? How the heck do you know?”

“Grew up here, remember?”

“Oh, right. A little hard to keep this other-world stuff straight…”

“Tell me about it,” Applejack deadpanned.

“Oh, it’s not that bad. It’s really quite interesting,” Fluttershy said supportively. “Um, do you think we should talk to the princess first? You know, if we really want to…”

“Probably. Seems like they should know RD broke things,” Applejack commented.

“Did not!” Rainbow, both of them, protested.

“Yes, we should do that,” Twilight interrupted. “Extra insight is always welcome in a group study session!”

“To a point, I would agree,” Chrysalis stated. “I am eager to put this matter to rest. It has been an… unconventional few days.”

“Psh, that’s often for so many of our days,” Rarity noted. “But maybe you should leave those guards of yours out here? I’m hardly against being pursued by so many stallions-”

Applejack made a show of gagging.

“-but perhaps our little crowd is becoming a tad on the large side, hm?”

Pinkie took in a breath. “Oh! Like cooks in a kitchen! Like that time I had Mr Cake and Mrs Cake and the twins and Gummy and-”

They left her to babble as their conversation continued without the party pony.

“We might work quicker if we’re not being crowded. They can keep an eye on things out here, maybe in their usual forms so the Royal Guard knows they meant to be here,” Twilight agreed.

Chrysalis paused for a moment, but then gave a hum of agreement. “Very well. Just remain close.”

With a tiny twitch of her head, the guards received the command and green flames revealed them from their positions around the courtyard. They each saluted before going to integrate with their pony counterparts and ensure the safety of their charges.

“Carduus, we are in Canterlot. Hopefully, we shall return in a short time,” the Queen concluded with a short update to her Captain of the Guard.

“Noted. The hive is well, as I am sure you have noticed. Need anything else from us?”

“Just keep tabs on the drones here in Canterlot. They are your eyes in this matter.”

“Understood.”

Chrysalis turned back to the others. “Very well, are we ready?”

Rainbow Dash nodded. “Yeah. I wanna figure this out and get home.”

“Then let’s get going,” Twilight concluded, leading the way as the others moved to follow her into the castle. “Hopefully Celestia and Luna have some insight into this.”

With one very obvious exception, at least.

“-and Maud’s picture from that one Hearth’s Warming and that odd little stick Gummy found that one time and ME! It was a mess let me tell you!” Pinkie Pie finished with a reminiscent smile. “What do you think? Cupcakes or enchiladas?”

She turned, only to see the hind ends of her friends vanishing into the castle.

“Heeeey! Wait up!”

Rainbow’s eyes roved over the inside of the castle as the group made their way for the throne room. The general aesthetic was identical to the one she knew, albeit there were a few subtle differences in layout and proportion that her keen eye caught right away. The halls were a touch wider, the ceiling a little higher, and the windows were a little closer together.

Were it not for those slight tilts setting her senses off, she might have forgotten she was in a parallel world.

The group passed through a set of ornate double doors leading into what Rainbow presumed was the antechamber, a sort of waiting area for petitioners and court-attendees to wait their turn. But instead of an assembly of courtiers and ponies waiting to be admitted to the throne room, Celestia and Luna were facing one another, speaking in hushed voices. The two alicorns turned to face the group as they arrived.

“Ah, good, there you are,” Luna greeted with a warm smile. “We were just about to go…”

Rainbow’s mind didn’t pick up the following words. Her jaw had fallen open, her heart beating harder in her chest. They were identical to her family back home. Every detail… even the tiny imperfections she had long ago learned to pick out in Celestia’s otherwise pristine face were exactly the same.

Hearing her adoptive aunt’s voice again was the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back.

Rainbow suddenly kicked off the ground, throwing herself against the two alicorns and wrapping her forelegs in a tight hug. They both staggered back from the impromptu embrace, both of them falling back to their haunches in surprise.

Celestia didn’t immediately remove the pegasus, just shooting Twilight Sparkle a questioning look from over Rainbow’s shoulder as said disguised changeling, and all her friends, gave the scene one giant look of shock and disbelief.

Luna, meanwhile, had less patience for such nonsense.

“RAINBOW DASH!” Luna bellowed in a rather unnecessary example of the Royal Canterlot voice, stepping back and looking mildly displeased at being assaulted. “This is not a welcome intrusion! Twilight Sparkle, do explain the clinginess of the blue one this instance!”

And then Luna blinked, seeing a second Rainbow Dash shrinking back with an absolutely mortified expression that screamed ‘Oh my gosh I’m so dead’.

Her expression cooled. “Ah, now I see.”

Rainbow had backed out of the embrace the moment Luna had shouted at her. Her ears had folded back against her head in a desperate attempt to shut out the ringing sound now flooding her skull. She took a deep breath and backed up until she was standing a little behind Twilight. “S-sorry… just… impulse,” she mumbled, looking away.

‘They aren’t my family,’ she reminded herself solemnly. ‘The Rainbow they know isn’t anywhere near that close to them.’

“Luna!” Celestia hissed so as to chide her little sister. “That was unnecessary.”

The lunar alicorn huffed. “I do… apologize for the reaction, Rainbow Dash. But do try to keep to yourself. I do believe you are far from what is familiar.”

The words took a second to click in Rainbow’s mind. When they did, she looked up at Luna with wide eyes. “Wha- huh? You… how do you know that?”

“Yes, how do you know, lest you have developed a hive mind of your own in our absence,” Chrysalis’ voice spoke out, ‘Shutterbug’ stepping forward and reverting to her more familiar form. “It is an odd coincidence, don’t you think?”

“Ah, Queen Chrysalis,” Celestia greeted with a nod of her head. “I should have expected you, too, would be here.”

“You were expecting us at all…?” Twilight questioned further.

“Yes, Twilight. We were. Or, at the very least, we were planning on reaching out to you,” the Princess of the Sun confirmed, stepping forward and nuzzling the false unicorn on the head. “But leaving that aside for the moment, it is good to see you again.”

Twilight returned the nuzzle to her mentor and other mother-figure. “Likewise. It’s… been an odd few days.”

Celestia chuckled. “Isn’t it always?”

“And irritating,” Chrysalis added.

“I’m sure it was. But as Queen of the Hive, I’m certain you handled it gracefully.”

Chrysalis gave her a flat stare. “Do mind yourself, Celestia. You might accidentally bite off that witty tongue of yours.”

“I dunno about ‘gracefully,’” Rainbow said quietly. “I mean, she kinda punted me with a sleeping spell…”

It was now Celestia’s turn to level the Changeling Queen with a flat look.

“...She was being an irritant. A most distressed irritant,” the Queen retorted. “Causing untold havoc in my hive, not to mention striking at my daughter.”

Rainbow’s ears folded shamefully.

Celestia hummed. “I’m sure she was. But I suppose you are looking for a way to fix… this strange mess in which we have found ourselves.”

“Indeed. The disruption of my hive is one thing, but it seems there might be more at stake if we cannot get this other Rainbow Dash back where she seemingly belongs.”

“Then we are in agreement. It is good you came.”

“Yeah, ‘bout that,” the other Rainbow piped up, raising a hoof. “Sorry to cut the formalities and junk short, but do you guys know what’s going on already? ‘Cause we kinda ran up here to tell you about it.”

“Yeah, and yet y’all seem to have all the answers already,” Applejack pointed out.

“Seems oddly convenient, don’t you think?” Rarity agreed.

“That is certainly one way to view it,” Luna remarked as she stepped forward. “But we are hardly all-knowing of other worlds. Our view into such things vanished with Starswirl, for the most part. The stallion did have a knack for the strange and otherworldly.”

“Then do enlighten us,” Chrysalis demanded. “This pony fell through a tear and landed at the Badlands Hive, plain for all to see. How do you know of this?”

Rainbow stepped forward as well, forcing down any lingering embarrassment from her affection outburst. She came to a stop not far away from Luna, looking deep into the alicorn’s eyes. “...What do you know?” she finally managed to ask. “Please. I just wanna go home…”

Luna’s eyes softened, if only a little. “A great deal, as it was your own family who brought this matter to my attention.”

Rainbow’s eyes widened. “W-what?! How?!”

Luna closed her eyes for a moment. “...I was undergoing my patrols in the Dream Realm, as I always do. But a few nights ago I sensed another presence in my realm, if only briefly. It vanished… Until last night, when it returned. And I found it.”

Twilight tilted her head. “Another person inside the Dream Realm? Who?”

Luna levelled Twilight a cool stare, her answer coming both swiftly and decisively.

“Me.”

19 - Mirror Image

The previous night…

The little embers that made up the vast sea of unconscious minds swam magnificently through the blue-tinted void, dancing around the lunar alicorn like her children of the night. Every single one a window into another life, full of ideas and hopes and dreams that would take the mare lifetimes to understand. Lifetimes she had spent, and yet came no closer to witnessing the full scope of the dream realm. Lights would come and go, ponies rising up from young to old, and every single one held a new story for her to bear witness to.

Of course, they also held nightmares to vanquish along the way.

Yes, it could be taxing patrolling the realm, as was her self-given duty to the ponies of Equestria, and even beyond on some occasions. Not every mind was… clean of vice, some far worse than others, but all fell under her jurisdiction one way or another. The innocent majority, the brightest minds flying all around her all deserved her love and care; fear to lay to rest, torment to be ended, a duty she performed with all her ability and heart.

As for the less innocent? Well, nightmares were the least of their concerns.

Thankfully, though, such incidents were in the minority, and it was here that she now peered at the minds of those she enjoyed attending to the most. The children. The brightest minds of all, so full of life and imagination, many of their dreams filled with adventures with friends and the loving embrace of family.

As was the case with the dream before her, or at least it was now. A few moments prior, it had been a rather amusing nightmare of the young colt being chased around by equations from an incoming math test. Such were the dreams she imagined Twilight Sparkle to suffer as a foal.

‘And still does on occasion. But that’s confidential,’ Luna mused with amusement. ‘One day I’m certain she will stop trying to find the definitive end to ‘pi’.’

The dream’s terrifying contents had been resolved, however, and now the colt was instead experiencing an equally amusing scenario that involved something to do with a pencil, a piece of gum and a stormcloud.

The minds of ponies were incredibly strange at times, but at least this one didn’t have a flamingo. Those accursed feathers…

Her ruminations on past hijinks were abruptly cut off when she felt a subtle, but tangible, shift in the space around her. Luna frowned, her ears perking up while her eyes turned to zero in on the source of the disturbance. She had felt it once before, only a few nights ago, but when she went to study the scene, the disturbance had gone.

This time, the shift was stronger. Adding to her surprise, it was then followed by another. And another. Three subtle shifts in rapid succession gently rocked the Dream Realm like the cradle of a sleeping foal, causing everything around her to sway and drift from one side to the other.

Narrowing her eyes, Luna set off, her hooves gliding effortlessly along a long ribbon of pale blue light that carried her closer to the source of the disturbance. Whatever it was, she had no intention of letting it get away this time. If it was a threat, she needed to know at once.

A few short leaps and glides later, Luna came to a soft landing on a vaguely disk-shaped platform of stars. She looked down into a more or less empty region of dream space, where her eyes were drawn to a rippling orange shroud and the beings who stood in front of it.

Luna’s eyes widened. ‘What in the world…?’

Down below, she saw Princess Celestia, Twilight Sparkle as a pony alicorn, and another Princess Luna. All three were looking around, squinting into the Dream Realm as if searching for something.

“Odd… she was here the last time,” the other Luna mused to herself in thought. “Perhaps the rift took us somewhere else…”

“That would make this process exceptionally more difficult,” Celestia added with a grimace. “If these rifts aren’t guaranteed to take us to my daughter, then we’d almost be better off not using them…”

Luna’s eyes widened even more ‘Daughter? Sister, what are you talking about?’

“But what other options do we have?” Twilight asked uneasily, turning to the two alicorns with her ears drooping. “You found her here once! Can’t you find her again? I mean, this is your domain, isn’t it? Don’t you have more power here?”

The other Luna shook her head with a grimace of discomfort, the Dream Realm once more shifting around her for a moment. “Alas… wherever we are, the Dream Realm here is resistant to my attempts to pull on it. I do not believe I have ever been here, before…”

“Oh…” Twilight relented quietly, her ears drooping. “Well… I guess we do this the old fashioned way, then?”

Celestia nodded. “It would appear that way… but we could scour this place for a lifetime and only touch on a fraction of it. There must be millions of dreams in all of this. Even with Rainbow’s being as distinctive as it is, finding it in all of this would be akin to finding one needle in a mountain of haystacks.”

“Fortunately,” the other Luna added with a small grin. “You have a magnet. My influence is severely limited here, but I do still have some power. I know what to look for, what to feel for. If we draw close enough, I should be able to find her and guide us to her.”

“But… will that take long? I mean…” Twilight asked, gesturing out at the vastness of the void ahead of them.

“Time has little meaning in the world of dreams. It is as we need it to be, more or less. I believe I can give us the time we need, at the very least, but we should tread with care. My previous experience in this place was… unnerving. I’ve never encountered an area of the Dream Realm I couldn’t control such as this, nor one with such... anomalies as I saw.”

“Anomalies? Like what?” Twilight asked uneasily.

The other Luna frowned, falling quiet for a moment before turning to face Twilight and Celestia directly. “I do not know how to describe it, and it would be better if I did not leap to conclusions. Until I know more, I ask that you focus on just finding Rainbow’s dreams.”

“Agreed,” Celestia stated. “Let us be swift. This ‘rift’ may have taken us to a whole new aspect of the Dream Realm yet undiscovered, or something else entirely. If you do not know, sister, then I cannot claim to.”

“Stay close then, lest you cause more trouble.”

“I will be on my best behaviour, you have my word.”

“Good, this is my domain. Even if it is stranger here. Come, chatter will not find my niece any faster.”

Twilight sheepishly nodded. “Y-yeah. Right…”

And from above them, as the trio began to move out into the Dream Realm with the lead alicorn’s horn flaring out to scan the environment, Princess Luna stared down at the interlopers and clear imposters with a rather unamused frown. She had seen enough.

‘HER domain? The arrogance!’ Parasites? Facsimiles? One of Discord’s pranks? ‘Whatever the case, they intrude on my domain. The Night shall not abide by this insult!’

Smirking to herself, quite ready to see these imposters booted from her realm, Luna’s form dissolved into a blue smoke as she engaged her shadowform spell. Dark magic? Technically. But hardly harmful, and it was most useful in deterring the unwelcome…

Her shadow snaked its way through the void, weaving between the motes of light as Luna trailed the three ponies as they started to study the various dreams that passed them by. What would they do with them? Who were they looking for? The thought that these imposters might harm her subjects through the Dream Realm made the princess’ shadowy form bristle in anger. This simply would not abide.

Soon enough, the shadow settled behind them as they came to a stop, the lead imposter who dared wear her face seemingly trying to find a route through the realm, and so her own shadow began to expand, forming itself into a giant equine figure not unlike the Tantabus that haunted her own dreams. Her eyes opened as blotches of pure light to contrast with the shadow surrounding the rest of her form. A dreaded aura began to come off of her as she opened her mouth. The Royal Canterlot Voice bellowed out for all to hear.

“INTERLOPERS! WHEREFORE DOST THOU INTRUDE UPON MY DREAM REALM!? LEAVE! DEPART YOUR FALSITIES AND BEGONE, LEST YOU FACE THE NIGHT’S WRATH!”

The three ponies all turned around with a start, staring up at the shadow-bound being with their eyes widening in surprise. Twilight Sparkle shrank bank with a terrified help, retreating behind Celestia as she and the other Luna shared a glance.

And then Celestia spoke.

“...Luna? I do appreciate your theatrics, but this is hardly the time.”

The other Luna frowned, lowering herself into a defensive stance. “I assure you that this is not me. Not this time,” she said carefully, her horn softly shimmering with magic.

“Sister, this is clearly the kind of stunt you would have as a countermeasure. I would know, I have personally suffered from the ‘Wrath of the Night’ routine.”

Luna was rather taken aback by this development, her false form frowning in confusion. “FOOLS YOU ARE-”

The other Luna scoffed. “Enough. End this charade this instant.”

“WHAT!?”

“The mirror image is quite disconcerting, and from where I stand you are the interloper. Who are you to take one of my own visages?”

Now Luna was just offended. The audacity of this mare!

The shadow began to shrink, reverting back to the form of Princess Luna herself as she faced her own doppelganger and her little group of intruders.

“I am Princess Luna of Equestria! And this is my Dream Realm!” the Princess declared, sending out a pulse of magic that rearranged some of the dreams around them in demonstration. Her doppelganger blinked, becoming quite rattled at the sight. “You are the intruders here, not I!”

Celestia frowned, taking a step forward. “I believe you are mistaken. My sister stands next to me right now,” she said in a cautious, yet diplomatic, tone.

“I am so confused,” Twilight mumbled from behind her.

“I believe I would know if I had a twin, lest you hide yet more from me, sister,” Luna remarked mockingly.

“Yes. Why do I feel like she would do something like that?” the other Luna agreed dispassionately.

Celestia grimaced, giving the blue alicorn next to her a hurt look. “Luna! We shall have plenty of time to point hooves and make outdated accusations at a later time. But for now,” she turned to face the true Luna. “We have other matters to deal with.”

A brief silence fell over the group before Celestia took the lead again. “I do not know who you are, but your control over this place has been demonstrated, and thus cannot be denied. I assure you, we did not come here with violent intentions. We are merely searching for a missing family member so that we can return her safely home. If you would allow us to conduct our search in peace, or even lend us your aid, then there will be no cause for violence or conflict.”

Luna looked unconvinced. “I find it doubtful you would find any such member of one’s family in my realm, whether or not you are who you appear to be, which I have obvious reason to doubt has any real merit.”

The other Luna hummed, appearing intrigued by the comment. “Actually, there may be some merit… Two minds, both belonging to Rainbow Dash…” she muttered under her breath, rubbing at her chin with a hoof.

Princess Luna tilted her head. “I beg your pardon?”

The other Luna turned to her taller counterpart. “Celestia, the anomalies I mentioned. One of them was encountering two separate dreams, both containing the signature that I know to belong to your daughter. Two Rainbow Dashes.”

The native lunar alicorn’s eyes widened. “What did you just say!?”

The interloping Luna turned to her with a frown. “...I said that I saw the dreams of two separate Rainbow Dashes when last I was here,” she stated matter-of-factly.

“Preposterous. There is no way that...” Luna began, briefly turning her mind away from the discussion and focusing on the distant stars of the dream realm. Her eyes widened when, sure enough, she sensed two dreams, both identical in composition, albeit far different in contents, far off near Ponyville.

Luna blinked several times. “But… how? How is this possible?!”

Celestia frowned “I, too, would very much like to know the answer to that. I believe I would know if my daughter had a clone.”

As the intruding alicorns continued their discussion, Luna noticed Twilight’s face scrunching up in thought before she spoke. “Another world…” She all but whispered to herself.

All eyes turned to her. Celestia, in particular, raised an eyebrow in question. Twilight looked up, noticing the sudden attention, and shrank down further in a manner Luna would find more befitting of the Bearer of Kindness than that of Magic.

“Twilight?” the Princess of the Sun called out gently. “Care to elaborate?”

“Uh… I mean…” She shuffled uncomfortably on the spot. “I was just a… It was something I read about once after I got home from the Empire. Most of it went over my head, but it was talking about the possibility of other worlds.”

Celestia and the other Luna shared a glance, their brows furrowed, the former being the one to speak her thought first. “By chance, was that tome written by Starswirl the Bearded?” she asked after a moment.

Twilight nodded. “Er, yes. Why?”

The other Luna hummed. “He was our teacher when we were foals. The full extent of his research is not known to us, sadly, but we do know he dabbled in that area for a time. He even had something to show for his efforts, a mirror that, if his research is accurate, leads to another world. Although neither my sister or I have ever taken the liberty of passing through it. Too many unknowns, even for my tastes.”

Princess Luna gave a hum of contemplation, moving in a half-circle around the group as she studied them with cautious curiosity. “Starswirl the Bearded, you claim? I do recall the artefact in question; I, too, have never delved into his final creation. However… I remain sceptical. How could you come to be here?”

“How could there be two Rainbows?” her other self pointed out. “We are unclear as to the details, but we have developed a theory of sorts. There was recently an event where we came from, a cosmic storm that emerged from the heavens themselves. All of my initial examinations led me to believe it would prove to be a harmless spectacle and nothing more. However, Rainbow Dash’s abrupt disappearance coincided with the storm’s arrival in Equestria, and it touched very closely to Ponyville. When it passed, so too had my niece seemingly vanished without a trace. As for how we came to be here,”

She turned and gestured at the orange anomaly that yet lingered some ways away. “The storm left residual energy, mirrored in both the waking world and the Dream Realm. I passed through one previously, but it collapsed and snapped me back to my body before I could get very far. This is another such rift, albeit far larger than the last. We cannot physically pass through, but the Dream Realm has ever been an intangible space, unbound by the same limitations as the waking world.”

The native Princess of the Night frowned at her counterpart’s words. “Yes, that would make a degree of sense. Time’s laws have less meaning here, as do the laws governing what we would define as our reality. What say you, Twilight Sparkle? I would assume you are as studied as the changeling I know, even if your appearance suggests certain differences, what do you believe?”

Twilight shrank back again, her eyes widening. “Wha- changeling?!” she echoed in alarm. “But… but I’m not…”

Celestia glanced at Luna with a sceptical look. “...That raises a fair many questions,” she said plainly before leaping to her student’s defence. “But as it stands, I am afraid Twilight Sparkle is… not as able to contribute to such matters at the present.”

Twilight nodded shakily. “R-right… I have amnesia,” she admitted, her ears drooping. “I’ve only been like this for a month or two… Everything’s so… new.”

“...I see. A pity, as your mind has always been one my sister has cherished so, and one I respect,” Luna noted with sympathy. She gave her other self an odd look as she spied her somewhat disagreeing expression. “Even so, I must admit… Your minds are eerily similar, if not identical, to those I have tended to before in this place. There is… credence for what you claim. Which would indeed make Rainbow Dash the child of you, sister?”

“Adopted, but yes,” Celestia affirmed. “I take it this is not so on your side of the equation?”

“Indeed. My own sibling is as hopeless in romance as she is resisting a side order of cake,” Luna noted with a sly smirk. “Tis good you clarified the adoption, I was starting to think one of you actually managed to woo a stallion against all evidence to the contrary.”

Celestia pouted, the other Luna grinned, and Twilight frowned in confusion.

“Was that truly necessary?” Celestia asked in a deadpan.

“Ever and always,” the other Luna answered without missing a beat.

“Ugh.”

“And yet I am further convinced, for our usual sparring, and that expert sulk, to be so precise,” Princess Luna said in amusement. “But assuming it is so, what is it you intend to do? As… revolutionary as this development is, you are still outsiders in my Dream Realm.”

The other Luna nodded her head. “So it would seem. As it stands, we had come here oblivious to that fact, with our intent being to discern my niece’s location so we may find her and bring her home. However, if it is true that she is in an entirely different world from our own…”

“Then matters just got significantly more complicated,” Celestia finished with a growing expression of concern.

“And yet this meeting may prove favourable,” the native alicorn told them. “With this being an increasingly likely alternate reality, I am more than capable of leaving this realm and searching my own world. And if I had to guess… Hmph, it would be fitting for this to occur where they were involved. You should be aware that I can sense both your Rainbow Dash and my own in Ponyville.”

“Double Rainbows?” Twilight asked, her eyes going even wider. “...Can we see?”

Before Luna could give her answer, a low, bassy rumble rippled throughout the Dream Realm, the orange rift visibly spasming and growing smaller. The interlopers all let out pained grunts as their visible forms began to flicker and became transparent.

“Gah! The rift!” The other Luna turned to it in irritation. “I thought we would have more time!”

So, too, did the native Luna flinch at the sudden magical assault, reaching out with her own influence in an attempt to assist her other self in keeping the opening stable for a short while longer.

“I fear your time here is nearing an end. But fear not, for I also sense the minds of the other Bearers of Harmony with your progeny. You should know them, as you know your Twilight, amnesia notwithstanding. They will almost certainly deliver her to us, and I will do all I can.”

“You have our thanks,” Celestia replied. “Until we can find a way to bring her home, take care of her for me. Please.”

“And keep an eye open for any more of these rifts,” the other Luna added. “We shall do the same. When next an opportunity presents itself, I propose we attempt to make contact again.”

Luna nodded. “We will watch for your presence. Do not fear, if she arrived here as she has, there must be a way to return. Good luck… Wherever you come from.”

And with that, the rift snapped shut with a sound akin to a blast of thunder in reverse. With little fanfare, the three interlopers flickered and vanished from sight, leaving the Princess of the Night to hover in the midst of her Dream Realm, alone once more.

Present Day…

Princess Luna finished regaling those gathered around her about the visitors in her Dream Realm and all that had occurred between them. Princess Twilight was, rather typically, having Spike help her with an abundance of notes, and the Element Bearers all had mixed reactions while Queen Chrysalis looked merely disgruntled by the development.

“So, you see…” she began her conclusion. “They are searching for you, Rainbow Dash. These tears, in reality, are at least strong enough for us to communicate, but likely more than that seeing as you are here at all.”

“A troubling matter,” Celestia added. “Considering what could have caused such a thing.”

“Except for a troublesome chaotic jester believing himself hilarious?” Chrysalis suggested. “For all his supposed ‘reformation’, his antics are well documented.”

Rainbow Dash blinked at that, turning to face Chrysalis directly. “Woah, hold on. Chaotic jester?” she asked slowly, her eyes revealing a deep-seated anxiety. “Who are you talking about?”

“Discord. That draconequus has been no end of trouble, if only because he seems to be inconveniently absent whenever his foolery may be useful.”

The colour visibly drained from Rainbow’s face, her pupils shrinking to the size of pinpricks. “...Discord? W-wha… what?” she stammered out, her words coming out choked, as if she were being strangled by the mere idea. “He… he’s still around?!”

Fluttershy perked up a little too much for Rainbow Dash’s liking. “Oh, yes! You just missed him before you came to Ponyville. He always makes sure to be on time for our tea parties! But he can be a little hard to get a hold of when he’s… wherever he goes when he’s not around…”

Rainbow stood still as a statue for several moments, her eyes going distant. She took a few deep breaths before screwing her eyes shut and shaking her head. “R-right, okay, uh… just gonna try and not think about that,” she managed to say.

“Okay, maybe we should leave the implications and differences of two entirely different Discords out of this, huh?” Twilight said with a nervous half-smile. “Um, so… tears in time and space! That sounds interesting!”

Rainbow appeared to be distinctly aware of that topic change, but for the moment elected not to press it.

“Fascinating, and profoundly concerning,” Luna responded to the young changeling royal.

Twilight’s nerves didn’t improve. “What? Why?”

“Discord is unlikely to be responsible. His attempt would be far more… flamboyant. The lack of an obvious presence all but rules out his involvement, leaving the cause of this incident entirely unknown to us.”

“But the power required is certainly… worrying, in its implications,” Celestia also pointed out.

“So who is the foe we must face to be rid of this nonsense?” Chrysalis demanded to know.

“If there’s a foe at all,” Twilight remarked. “I mean, what if this is some kind of weird… multi-dimensional natural… disaster…”

Princess Luna saw the proverbial light bulb go off in Twilight’s eyes.

“Oh! You look like you’re about to give an epic Twilighting moment!” Pinkie Pie cheered on.

“That’s a good thing now?” Applejack deadpanned.

Rainbow shook her head at them. “Hey, let the egghead do her thing! I’m itching for anything that can help us figure this thing out!”

Native Rainbow shrugged. “Gotta hoof it to me, I’ve got a point.”

“Two separate ponies,” Rainbow grumbled at herself before turning to Twilight directly. “So what is it? Please tell me you’ve had some amazing epiphany that can get me home.”

“Well, I’m not so sure I can go that far yet, but thinking about this as a natural disaster made something occur to me…” Twilight continued. “Princess Luna, do you know how long these ‘rifts’ have been appearing for?”

“Alas, I do not. Not for certain,” she said with a shake of her head. “The earliest point I can currently imagine would be roughly around the same time our foreign friend here arrived in our world.”

“But what if they started appearing a little before that? I mean, it makes sense she just got caught up in a particularly bad one, right?”

“And how does that have anything to do with, well, anything?” Princess Rainbow Dash asked.

“Well, it coincides quite neatly with the entirely unexplained earthquakes that absolutely should not be happening within any reasonable scientific confines,” Twilight concluded. “Including the one that went off right as Rainbow Dash faceplanted into our hive!”

“Did ya have to word it like that?” Rainbow asked with a pout. “Couldn’t have said something a little less degrading?”

Chrysalis opened her mouth.

“Wasn’t talking to you.”

Chrysalis shut her mouth.

“This would explain a few things, if it rings true,” Princess Luna noted. “Perhaps I could study such locations in the Dream Realm and compare notes with these earthquakes. I’m sure you’ve documented them extensively.”

Twilight nodded. “I have, but they’re back at the Badlands Hive. So I’ll have to have Carduus relay them over the egregore.”

“Carduus!” Chrysalis chimed in over the hive mind at her daughter’s comment.

“Back so soon, my Queen?”

“Snide remarks are hardly required, Captain. Find my daughter’s research on these infernal earthquakes and be prepared to be our eyes regarding them.”

“Alright… Might I ask what this is about?”

“Later. Do as I command, if you would please.”

“On it.”

“He will see it done post haste,” Chrysalis reported in to the others.

“I see. Though, there is still the matter of how this information will help us,” Princess Celestia noted. “The rifts encountered so far are hardly enough to send Rainbow Dash back through to her native realm.”

Rainbow seemed a little deflated at that.

“Well, way ah see it, we just need a bigger ‘quake, right?” Applejack casually commented.

All eyes turned to the farm pony.

“...What? Something in muh hat?”

“Um, Applejack, darling?” Rarity addressed innocently. “Care to repeat that?”

The apple farmer shrugged. “Ah mean, a bigger shake would mean a bigger space hole thingy, right? Don’t need to be a changeling princess with a library for a brain to figure that. Just plain common sense is all.”

“That’s… actually rather brilliant!” Twilight chirped cheerfully. “An astute point, Applejack!”

The earth pony mare struck up a smug pose. “Well, ah do like to be appreciated.”

“Where did that come from?” native Rainbow whispered to Pinkie Pie.

“No idea. Just go with it!” was the response.

The other Rainbow nodded along slowly. “Well… it’s a start, I guess,” she said before nodding her head. “So, what are we supposed to do now?”

“Before we pursue the ‘biggest shake’, there is one last thing that you should all be aware of. Particularly you, Princess Rainbow Dash,” Princess Luna announced.

Rainbow turned to her, an uneasy look suddenly appearing on her face. “What…? What is it?” she asked, a small tremor working its way into her voice. It was clear she was anxious about possibly getting any more bad news.

“When I was in the Dream Realm, I spent some time after my encounter with your family studying the remnants of the rift,” she continued without missing a beat. “What I found was… concerning. Its collapse was inevitable, only accelerated by my counterpart’s usage of it. Based on my observations of the magical decay, I would gather that time is short before the storm passes by in its entirety, and with that, the remaining rifts will be sealed.”

An uneasy silence fell over the room with Rainbow, in particular, appearing to be shell-shocked. She stiffly cleared her throat. “S-so… if we can’t send me home soon, then… I m-might be stuck here? Like… forever?”

“How… How long do we have?” Twilight asked, instinctively moving closer to Rainbow as she sensed the sheer dread falling off of her.

“...Perhaps a week. It is hard to be sure. I may very well be wrong, as this is a matter I have little experience with. Likewise, I have nothing to reference, not even in my late mentor’s own research.”

“Um, maybe I could take a look…?” Twilight suggested.

“You could, but for all your brightness, can you claim to know the inner workings of such things?”

Well, she had looked into Starswirl’s mirror. But for this situation specifically? No, she couldn’t truly claim she did.

And would they even have the time?

Rainbow looked between them all for a few seconds, mouthing like a fish. She tried several times to speak, to find something to say, but the words never came. Eventually, she elected to simply sidestep to be closer to Twilight, trying to take some comfort in the changeling’s sympathetic presence.

“So, for fear of having her be forced upon us for all time…” Chrysalis chimed in. “How exactly do we help her?”

“You intend to follow us further into this matter?” Celestia asked with a raised eyebrow.

“...I fear I am committed.”

“Hm... I suppose you are,” the Princess replied with a knowing smile. “Then may the Crown of Equestria offer the services of its war room. We can use our map there to compare the rifts and the earthquakes our subjects have been suffering.”

“Ah! Good! A holographic projection is exactly what is needed for the cross-referencing of all the valuable data and making a comparison of points of interest!” Twilight squee’d in a scholarly manner.

“Not to mention it is a tad more fantastical than a drab piece of parchment,” Rarity also noted.

“What’s wrong with a good old-fashioned paper map!?” Applejack asked around in search for support, finding terrifyingly little.

Rainbow blinked. “...Holographo-what now?” she asked in bewilderment. “The heck are you talking about?”

“A big projection of sparkles and magic that look like itty bitty little buildings all over Equestria!” Pinkie explained in her usual fashion. “I can even see Limestone’s rock! I poke it just because I know it makes her all pouty!”

“Laughter, since when have you been able to access the war room for such… juvenile fantasies?” Luna demanded to know.

“Haha, please.”

Rainbow just looked confused.

Twilight gave her a small, reassuring smile. “How about we just show you?” she asked, putting a hoof on Rainbow’s back.

“Uh… sure.”

“Then let us be about it,” Luna said before turning and making her way to a nearby door. “The sooner we can discover another suitably large rift, the sooner we can find a means of sending you home.”

Everyone else fell into step behind Luna, shuffling out of the lobby and vanishing into the corridors of Canterlot Castle.

20 - Projections and Plans

There was an air of unease during the walk through the hallways of Canterlot Castle, silence being the dominating force as the pegasus at the heart of the present incident trudged along with her head held low and her mannerisms sagged. It seemed like with every passing day some new bombshell was dropped on her that made her time in this other world increasingly stressful.

Only a week to get her home? Just the one? With what little they currently knew, that small amount of time did little and less to ease her troubled mind. Add onto that Luna’s own willful admission of inexperience, and one had a recipe for a situation that filled Rainbow’s being with dread from top to bottom.

She spotted Twilight shooting her a concerned glance out of the corner of her eye. No doubt the changeling princess could sense her growing doubt and anxiety over this whole ordeal. ‘She’s already sticking her neck out for me quite a bit,’ Rainbow thought with a grimace. Not wanting to drag her new friend down with undue concern, she took a deep breath before flashing Twilight a small, reassuring smile.

Twilight appeared to notice, turning her head back to say something to the pony before being unceremoniously prevented from doing so by an announcement from the younger of the two royal alicorn sisters leading the way.

“Alas, we have arrived.” Luna gestured a wing at a typically ornate door guarded by two alabaster unicorns in golden armour. “I trust it is the same location as you are familiar with, Princess Rainbow Dash?”

Rainbow stared at the door for a second before offering a helpless shrug. “Okay, see, I’m a princess… but, uh, I only ever had to actually do anything with that position a month ago. So…” she pointed at the door. “I’ve walked by this door from time to time, but I never actually bothered to peek inside. I was usually too busy trying to get away from journalists or find my Twilight so I could pester her about Daring Do, or show her a cool moth that I found on my bedroom lamp, or drop a cockroach on her head or something.”

“You what?” Twilight growled.

“Ha! Epic…” the native Rainbow supported with a smug grin.

Rainbow turned to the changeling with an embarrassed smile. “I was thirteen, gimme a break. Besides, I did other stuff with other you, too. We played dodgeball sometimes, or I let her hop on my back so she could see things like a pegasus.”

“So romantic…” Rarity swooned.

Rainbow’s smile instantly became strained. She turned to the pearly unicorn and gave her a gently warning look. “Rarity, look, I get what you’re about, but… can you not? Please? It’s kind of a sensitive subject and I got enough to worry about right now.”

“Seconded,” Twilight and the second Rainbow both echoed.

“As… interesting as this conversation may be…” Luna got their attention with a thoroughly uninterested expression. “The coming days shall not wait for idle conversation. Should we not press on?”

“While I do find myself somewhat curious as to this… revelation,” Celestia remarked while glancing oddly between her daughter figure and both cyan pegasi. “She is not wrong. Guards, please open the way.”

“Yes, your Highness!” one replied dutifully, his horn lighting up and opening the entrance with an audible ‘click’.

The door swung open to reveal a rectangular chamber almost entirely dominated by a large empty table sitting silently in the centre. No other furniture was dotted around the room aside from the lights on the walls, all of which were off until Celestia gave a swish of her horn and brought forth the light.

The group all moved inside, Celestia leading the way while Luna moved to the rear, where she sealed the door behind them once the others had fully entered the war room. The Princess of the Sun rounded the table, her horn still alight as she studied the empty surface. Then, as her magical aura brightened, the table came to life in a flurry of vibrant blues that rippled across the wooden structure.

It took form after a few moments, an entire 3D representation of Equestria springing up in all its transparent, and yet highly detailed, glory.

Rainbow’s eyes widened at the display, her jaw falling open. “Holy… wow. Okay, that’s, uh, that’s pretty cool, not gonna lie,” she said. She reached out with a hoof to swipe it through one of the mountains. Her hoof passed through it without resistance, the visual flickering just slightly in response to the disturbance.

“See! Super glowylicious!” Pinkie remarked as she jumped up onto the table and flattened Manehatten. “Oh, whoops! Sorry, little ponies!”

“Laughter, please vacate the table,” Luna deadpanned.

“If only warfare were that easy…” Chrysalis lamented.

As the party pony did as she was told before Luna physically dragged her away, the others all gathered around the projection to get a good look at it. Right now, the map was static, nothing standing out in particular.

“So… what now?” the native Rainbow Dash asked.

“Now I get my earthquake data from Carduus and we can fill in the map as we go,” Twilight explained. “I think we can include one at the Badlands Hive.”

“Yes, hives know the dreaded things have caused their fair share of trouble,” Chrysalis remarked, sending a very deliberate glance at Princess Rainbow Dash. “Some more than others…”

Rainbow’s expression flattened. “We get it, ya don’t like me, moving on.”

“Ah please, she ignores ponies she ain’t taking a likin’ to,” Applejack retorted. “You’re practically best buds ah think.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Chrysalis retorted. “She is… withstandable.”

“Aww, you like me, Queenie?” native Rainbow asked coyly.

Chrysalis seemingly didn’t hear her speak.

“See?” Applejack demonstrated.

“Hey!”

Rainbow rolled her eyes. She then looked down at the map, eager to put the banter aside for the time being. “Okay, c’mon, ponies. Can we focus for a minute and figure this thing out? Like Luna said a minute ago, time won’t wait for us. I know that lesson personally.”

“That’s fine, I’ve just been updating the map while you were at it anyway,” Twilight stated. “There, I’ve added in the data for earthquake volatility for the Badlands Hive. Though, from what I recall, I don’t think there’s going to be anything with sufficient power that indicates a large enough rift at this point.”

“Good. I would hate to have left the hive unnecessarily. This has been irritating enough,” the Queen remarked. “What of Ponyville? Anything of note that happens to Equestria will most certainly happen to that accursed place.”

“Well, Rainbow did fall through a rift there,” Twilight agreed. “Let me just check…”

“Carduus?”

“On it! Let me see… Alright, I think I have it. No offence, Twilight, but your filing system is a little… odd.”

“It’s efficient! Ahem, do you want to start listing off my notes on the Ponyville quakes?”

“Yes, Princess! Let’s see here…”

To Rainbow Dash’s eyes, Twilight was silent for several moments before her horn lit up again and her brow became furrowed. The representation of an earthquake surrounded Ponyville with little numbers and statistics she didn’t fully grasp listed next to it.

“Well… We’re not going back that way either. I recorded an extremely high magnitude earthquake just before all this happened, during a lull in my lessons with mum.”

“Right, just a short while before her little interruption came,” Chrysalis recalled. “You mentioned a changeling in the town reporting it. There was another tremor occurring for us around the same time.”

“Which cannot be a coincidence,” Twilight concluded. “I noted it down and then returned to our lessons. It wasn’t long after that when we were interrupted again, this time by Carduus reporting your crash landing, Rainbow Dash.”

“So the quakes have something to do with me turning up here,” Rainbow said matter of factly. “Which means they probably have something to do with that big magic storm that washed by in my world. Cool, we got that confirmed now, but weren’t we supposed to be looking for the biggest of these quakes, like AJ suggested?”

“We are. But this helps confirm our hypothesis,” Twilight pointed out. “Evidence that we’re on the right track. A storm occurs in your word, a rift opens, a corresponding earthquake occurs here. The issue is that Ponyville’s have receded, so I don’t think we’ll get another like the one that brought you here in the town again.”

“So is there such a place still experiencing such… unfortunate disturbances?” Rarity asked. “I would hate to think we’re too late to get the poor dear back to her beloved.”

“Still going on about that, huh?” native Rainbow muttered to herself in annoyance.

“Hold on…” Twilight said, listening to Carduus’ voice regaling back her own work over the hive mind. “Well, Canterlot itself has been shaken a few times.”

“It has indeed. Though not in the past couple of days,” Celestia replied regrettably.

“Hm, a bad bet. But might not be a bad idea to check for one while we’re here,” Twilight responded, adjusting the map accordingly.

Rainbow watched, keeping quiet for the most part as, slowly but surely, more and more points of data were added to the map, showing the locations and times of each quake. She gradually tuned out the discussions of the others when a pattern began to become apparent to her eyes. A pattern that made her feel distinctly uncomfortable.

The quakes were scattered sporadically across Equestria, yes, but they were the most prevalent in a few key places. Ponyville, Canterlot, Manehattan, The Crystal Empire. There were also a lot of quakes concentrated in some empty grassland in the middle of nowhere. But the one that stood out to her more than the others was Baltimare. Compared to every other place on the map aside from the wilderness, that city was practically blinding with how many data points there were clumped on top of it.

“Oh my, so many ponies must have been so scared by all the shaking. All the poor animals that must have been startled by it all…” Fluttershy noted sadly, taking it all in. However, she then gave a curious tilt of her head. “But… Oh, um, forget it. It’s probably not important…”

Twilight gave her a sympathetic smile. “Come on, Fluttershy. If you have something to add, feel free!”

“If Applejack can drop a bombshell like she did, anypony can,” native Rainbow snarked.

“Keep talking, Dash,” Applejack shot back.

“Um, oh, I wouldn’t want to be a bother…”

“Fluttershy,” Rainbow suddenly piped up in a firm voice that surprised even her, turning to the timid pegasus in question. She met her eyes for a second before speaking in a far gentler manner. “Just… just say it, alright? Anything and everything helps.”

“Oh, well…” The buttery pegasus took in a deep breath. “Thinking on all those poor animals made me think of a school trip we took to Fillydelphia once, before we got our cutie marks…”

“The Fillydelphia Zoo?” both Rainbows recalled instantly.

“It seems our worlds contain just as many similarities as they do their differences,” Celestia noted with a hint of amusement. “Continue, my little pony.”

“Oh, well… It’s just that, there are so many animals there that would have been so dreadfully scared by the shaking, like those cutie wootie little jackalopes in the petting section… But there aren’t any numbers there. So, I suppose they’re fine.”

“And why did that catch your eye? I would imagine that to be a good thing, darling,” Rarity noted.

“Oh, yes! I would hate for those animals to be scared! But… Why is it just these places? I thought it would be everywhere…”

Twilight frowned. “Yes… I see what you’re saying, why are these rifts occurring in these locations specifically? What makes them so important?”

Rainbow’s ears drooped. She knew why, or at least she strongly suspected it. The pattern was clear, and Fluttershy’s little observation had only confirmed it. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes before speaking up.

“Because those are where all of the biggest changes happened.”

She felt the eyes of everypony else in the room boring into her, and her heart began to beat a little faster. Usually, she would have let someone more qualified explain this, but she was literally the only pony here who knew about it right now, and that feeling of being in the spotlight was not welcome at the moment.

“Um, Rainbow?” Twilight asked as she suddenly found herself getting the uncomfortable feeling that there was something Rainbow Dash should have told her from the beginning. “What do you mean ‘changes’?”

Rainbow opened her eyes and looked down at the map. “...When I was eight years old, running the race that got me my cutie mark, I saw something… something I wasn’t meant to see. Two ponies, a unicorn and an alicorn, talking to each other, arguing…” she looked up to Twilight. “One of them was Twilight Sparkle… and both of them were from my world’s future.”

Twilight’s eyes lit up like a particularly studious Hearth’s Warming tree. “Wait wait wait, time travel!? You experienced time travel? Was it a paradoxical loop? I did that once, don’t recommend it!”

Rainbow scowled and looked back down at the map. “I didn’t experience it, not really. I just saw two ponies who came back… without the closed-loop failsafe. The moment I spotted them, my entire future was changed… I got distracted a lot wondering about who and what I had seen. In fact, I was so distracted by it all that, when my family took me to Baltimare to see a Wonderbolt’s performance… I wasn’t fast enough to save them from being crushed to death by a falling construction crane, like I was originally supposed to.”

Her eyes settled on Baltimare. “That was the major turning point… from there, I was brought back to Cloudsdale, put up for adoption, picked up by Celestia a while later, and, well… things just snowballed from there,” she said before tapping the map. “The bottom line is, these quakes show up a lot more in the places where I know things went differently because of what happened to my family. I was raised from the age of eight to sixteen in Canterlot, I’ve lived in Ponyville for around a year, and my entire future was thrown off track in Baltimare… Everywhere else is just… ripples, I guess.”

“And everything after Baltimare is as you told me back at the hive…” Twilight mused. “Rainbow, I’m sorry. I had no idea just how deep this went for you.”

“It’s fine,” Rainbow shook her head. “I probably shoulda said something sooner, but I just don’t like talking about it… it’s complicated… and it has a lot of bad memories attached to it.”

There was a moment of silence, Rainbow receiving glances both confused and sympathetic from the various parties gathered around the map. Twilight, on her part, rested her forehooves into the table as she did the mathematics in her head.

“Time travel…” Luna said distastefully. “Starswirl too dabbled in the concept. It was deemed too dangerous, the consequences unknowable.”

“It sounds like an eternal headache,” Chrysalis noted in profound irritation. “Ugh, if time had ever changed in our world, would we ever even know?”

“Such questions are unhelpful in our current situation,” Celestia retorted. “Our reality is not in question, but her own is another story. The Laws of Time have most certainly been disrupted.”

“Yes, and I have a thought about that…” Twilight finally spoke. “The thing about the time loop I mentioned? As far as paradoxes go, it’s clean. Stable. Nothing changes because it was always meant to be. But the paradox you describe, Rainbow, seeing somepony you were never supposed to and having your very reality altered? The paradox caused must have been far more traumatic. Rainbow… I experienced some sort of vision over to your world, a flashback I guess. I thought I was just glimpsing your world through you, but… Is there something more to it?”

Rainbow frowned. “Okay, we’re getting into the stuff I barely understand here, so, uh, just bear with me, here, ‘kay?” she said before running her hoof over her face. “Right, so… see, when the timeline changed, the future those ponies came from didn’t just stop existing. It hung around for a bit. Technically, it’s still hanging around and won’t be entirely gone ‘til mine catches up with it. That vision you had—we call them flashes, by the way—is more or less the ponies tied to the Elements of Harmony seeing bits of their previous lives. They usually only happen when something important is going on, so getting them is kind of a red flag for us.”

“Fascinating…” Twilight muttered in thought. “So not only was there one alteration, but multiple, and from what you’d describe, the final change wasn’t even instantaneous. It’s a slow effect, like a crawling explosion. A time boom erasing everything that was. But something like that… It had to have caused damage, right? The strain it must have caused… Yes, no wonder this is happening! I think this ‘time boom’ has fractured your world. Wounds in reality caused by the sheer brute force alterations these ponies caused.”

“Woah, hold up!” Applejack protested. “Y’all lost me. How can you have time travel that was always meant to happen like ya said, but also time travel that actually changes stuff as well? Doesn’t that, ya know, not work?”

Rainbow huffed. “Frankly, I stopped trying to figure that part out a long time ago. I’m a princess, not a theoretical physicist.”

Twilight raised a hoof. “I’m both, and Starswirl’s research had a failsafe for a closed-loop, but removing that could make it possible to change the course of history…”

“Ah still don’t see how. Why would time change and yet not and-”

“Applejack, darling, maybe you should not think too hard on the matter,” Rarity advised.

“B-but… How and… Why…?”

“Applejack,” Twilight got her attention again. “I have a relative understanding of the spell, but the absolute fundamentals of time and space itself? There, all I can say is to take Pinkie’s advice and go with ‘Haha please.'”

“It is pretty good advice!” Pinkie chirped.

“I would suggest leaving the matter of how and why for others to discover,” Celestia suggested. “Time is a fickle thing, it operates beyond mortal understanding.”

“But as it stands now, we do have a grasp of how time’s violation relates to our current predicament,” Luna continued on. “Scars at points of significant upheaval, bleeding through to our world due to what I presume is close proximity.”

“As close as multiple realities could possibly be…” Chrysalis mused. “I can tell you I would have enjoyed this conversation far more a few centuries back…”

“But these two places…” Twilight noted, pointing at the empty spot in the Equestrian countryside and the Badlands Hive itself. “Had you ever been to the hive before you met me, Rainbow?”

Rainbow shook her head. “Nope, nor do I want to. But over in my world, we did just get out of a short war with the changelings that led to their queen being sealed inside of a tree by the Elements of Harmony. Without a leader, there's a big power vacuum, and Thorax thinks there’s probably a big civil war or something going on as prospective new leaders fight over the throne. That’s probably what the deal is there.”

“Wait, a tree?” native Rainbow scoffed.

“Clearly I am the superior Queen of the Hive,” Chrysalis replied smugly.

“Well, you didn’t break half of my ribs and try to murder me, leaving me in a primal state of panic and terror, so yeah, I’d say so,” Rainbow added.

“Point being…” Twilight got them back on track. “Okay, so that’s why the hive is important. Butterfly effect, changes to your life caused consequences for the changelings too. But what about the field?”

Rainbow eyed the empty patch inquisitively. Something about it did seem familiar, and it did have the highest concentration of those quakes. But she couldn’t put her hoof on why an empty bit of wilderness would be so infused with the things. She didn’t recall being there, nor did she recall there being any towns of note in that spot. It was just a wilderness.

She shrugged helplessly. “Heck if I know. Maybe I spooked a bear or something at some point and a lot of stuff happened where I couldn’t see it?”

“Oh, that poor bear…” Fluttershy said despondently.

“Huh… Well, it does appear to be the most violent as far as the earthquakes are concerned…” Twilight mused.

“Some bear,” Applejack remarked.

Fluttershy squeaked meekly. “Oh, dear… Maybe it was an ursa…”

“The bear is irrelevant!” Luna snapped. “This location does indeed hold the highest magnitude events, but it is a vast empty space. Searching for rifts would take time that we do not have. But Baltimare, the second-highest if I am translating Twilight Sparkle’s observations correctly… Rainbow, your parents perished here, correct?”

Rainbow nodded solemnly. She knew where this was going. “Yeah… they did.”

Luna nodded. “Then it stands to reason the place of their final moments would be the alteration in question. If you could lead us to that location, we may be able to locate a rift large enough to send you back to your realm.”

“It’s certainly plausible,” Twilight agreed. “Between that field and Baltimare, those two will have ongoing earthquakes strong enough for the longest duration. Everywhere else has probably already faded too far.”

Celestia hummed. “The wounds are starting to heal, time’s attempts at correction.”

Rainbow’s face fell, obscuring her eyes behind her mane. “So… if I wanna go home, I gotta go back to where I lost my folks, huh?” she asked quietly, not bothering to hide her displeasure at the idea. If she were being honest, she would rather search an empty wilderness for a way back than go back to that city. She never wanted to set hoof there again.

‘But what choice do I have?’ she thought. ‘Luna’s right. We can’t waste any time searching the wilderness. Baltimare’s our best bet…’

“Fine,” she eventually conceded, lifting her head back up. “I can show you where it happened. When do we leave?”

“I will update my ‘other’ tonight, you should all rest and prepare yourself here first,” Luna answered. “I will have your friends arrive at Baltimare as well, Princess Rainbow Dash. I would also suggest they bring their Elements of Harmony as a precaution. Assuming, unlike ours, they have access to them.”

“Oh, we do,” Rainbow said before frowning. “Although… we might not be able to actually use them. My world’s Twilight has amnesia, remember? She’s almost a different mare without all of those experiences. I dunno if the Elements will work with her as she is right now.”

“It is still worth a try,” Twilight supported. “Ours… Well, they’re where they need to be.”

“Yes, I would rather not disturb their task unless absolutely necessary,” Luna agreed. “They should stay where they belong. Hopefully, they will not be required at all, but all the same.”

“I will remain here,” Celestia announced. “In order to search out a possible rift in Canterlot, just in case it may be larger than we predict.”

“It’s good to be thorough…” Twilight said. “Rainbow, are you okay with all this?”

“No,” Rainbow said matter of factly. “I’m not. But I’m even less okay with being stuck in another world for the rest of my life. If it means I get to go home, I’ll do whatever I have to.”

“Then I do believe it is decided,” Celestia announced, her horn lighting up and all the markers on the map except for those on Baltimare vanished into nothingness. “I wish you all the best, Princess Rainbow Dash. Canterlot Castle is as open to you as your own until you depart. You are a Princess of Equestria. Even here.”

Rainbow managed to give Celestia a small smile. One of her hooves drifted lazily up to her ponytail. “Heh… thanks. I appreciate it,” she said before turning for the door. “So, we’re resting first? That’s the plan?”

“I think so. You can all go on ahead, I… I want to talk to Rainbow Dash alone for a moment, if that’s alright,” Twilight asked.

“If that is fine with her…” Celestia replied, pointedly looking at the pegasus in question.

Rainbow gave Twilight a confused glance before nodding. “Sure, I guess,” she said.

“I will wait outside,” Chrysalis told her daughter. “Do hurry. I’d rather not spend more time here than necessary.”

“You worry too much,” Luna scoffed, walking past the others and opening the door. “But alas, we must prepare. Begone! I must make arrangements!”

“What she means to say is ‘thank you’,” Celestia jabbed.

Luna huffed. “What I said is what I meant, sister!”

A collection of amused chuckles and entertained remarks went through the assembled ponies as they began to file out of the war room. Rainbow watched them all go with a distant look in her eyes. She was genuinely surprised by how far out of their way they were all going for her sake. She was an interloper here, after all, as Chrysalis oh so loved to point out. Yet even she hadn’t decided to bail and simply return to the hive until it was all said and done.

It was surprising… but also comforting. ‘I guess they really are the best friends a mare could ask for, in my world or any other,’ Rainbow thought to herself, a small smile gracing her lips.

Soon, though, the door shut. The rest of her friends disappeared from view, leaving just her and the changeling that had welcomed her into this world. Rainbow took a deep breath before turning to face Twilight. “So, what did ya wanna talk about?” she asked carefully.

Twilight was quiet for a moment, glancing towards the map as she lit her horn and brought back a single other marker. “I just wanted to be sure that you are sure. Time travel… I never imagined how messy this would get, and your parents? Are you really sure about Baltimare? It may be a larger search area, but the field is still a viable option.”

Rainbow looked down at the field for a second, her ears drooping. “...For a minute, I was really thinking the field would be the better option,” she admitted before sighing and falling to her haunches. “But at the end of the day, we don’t have time for that. The sooner I can get home, the better, and with Baltimare I know exactly where I need to go. I have no clue what’s up with that bit of wilderness, but I don’t want to waste any time figuring it out. I just…”

Rainbow leaned forward and rested her chin on her forelegs against the table. “I keep saying this, and I mean it more every single time. I just want to go home. The sooner the better. And besides… maybe going back to where it happened could help me get some closure or something. I dunno.”

“Okay, if you’re sure…” But Twilight didn’t appear done, the mare biting her lip, showing off one of her fangs in the process, seemingly having something else bothering her.

Rainbow looked over at her. “...Okay, you may not be my Twi, but I still know that look,” she said with a small smirk. “Go on, out with it. What’s bugging you?”

Twilight gave her an unamused look. “Okay, I know that wording was deliberate.”

“Eh, so what? Come on, spill.”

Twilight sighed. “Okay, fine. It’s just… Now we know the rift-earthquake connection, it has me wondering about you ending up at the hive. You fell through a rift in Ponyville, so why didn’t you end up there as well? Why did you end up with us?”

Rainbow blinked. That was a very good question that she had never once given any thought to. “Huh… y’know, I have no idea,” she admitted, tapping at the side of her head with a hoof. “I was a little busy trying not to get incinerated by arcs of magic seven times bigger than me. And then I was busy being too scared of the changelings around me to form a thought beyond ‘run’. And ever since then, it’s just been one darned thing after another. Never had time to wonder why I popped up where you live...”

“Well, we’re here now,” Twilight pointed out. “In Canterlot Castle. You can’t think of anything? Anything you saw? What you did? Thought?”

Rainbow scrunched up her muzzle, thinking back on that fateful night. Her recollection of the event was hazy, to say the least, given how suddenly it had all happened. The flash she had been subjected to had also made swiss cheese of her memory of that night, making things even more difficult to piece together.

“Well,” she began slowly. “I was scared, first of all. I tried to fight back against the wind, but it just kept throwing me around. I was trying to think of some way out of it for a while, but when I finally figured out that I was stuck, that it was no use…”

She lifted her hooves and looked at them with a faraway look in her eyes. “I thought I was about to die… And I’ve only felt fear like that one or two times before. It was horrible. And… all I wanted was…”

Her eyes widened as the realization clicked into place. She lifted her eyes to look at Twilight, her heart thumping in her chest a little harder. “...Twilight. All I wanted was for Twilight to pull me out of the fire and back to a safe place, just like she did so many times before…”

Twilight was silent for a moment, the changeling mare turning away from the pegasus just enough so her face was hidden behind her mane.

“I… I see. You wanted Twilight, so you literally willed the rupture to bring you to the closest wound to me. That’s… really interesting…” she said, though she oddly seemed to deflate as she spoke. “Well, I’m sorry I disappointed you.”

Rainbow frowned. “...Er, what?”

“It doesn’t matter. I know what I am makes you- Ugh, forget it,” she dismissed, beginning to walk towards the door. “Get some rest. We’ll get you home soon...”

“Twilight, wait!” Rainbow called after her, but it was too late. The door shut behind Twilight, leaving Rainbow all on her own. She sat there for a few seconds, completely baffled and feeling more than a little hurt. She took a few deep breaths before holding a hoof over her heart to force it to calm down.

“...What you are?” she mumbled after a moment. “What does that have to do with anything? I don’t understand…”

Alas, the silence of the otherwise empty war room offered up no answers.

A moment later, the remains of the projection on the table flickered away, plunging the room into darkness.

21 - Elements of Amnesia

Twilight Sparkle eyed the tiara in her hooves with mixed feelings. It was a gorgeous thing, made of polished gold with a six-pointed lavender gemstone embedded into it as the centrepiece. She could practically feel the power contained within the elaborate accessory, like a vibration running just under the surface to tickle at the fur of her hooves.

This was her Element of Harmony, apparently. The Element of Magic. In all the time she had been suffering from amnesia, she hadn’t set eyes upon the item once. That had all changed that morning when Princesses Celestia and Luna suddenly arrived on her doorstep. They delivered a blue box to her, in which were all six Elements, telling her that she and her friends may have need of them in the days to come.

She had heard the stories about these things from her friends, of course. Rainbow, in particular, had taken to bragging about how they had used them to stop Nightmare Moon and Chrysalis from time to time.

And now she was being asked to go with them to the city of Baltimare later that day in the hopes of finding another large rift. Together with the Elements, it was their hope that they would be able to finally bring Rainbow Dash back home. And if the Elements were as powerful as everypony made them out to be, then if all went well, there was no doubt in Twilight’s mind that the Elements could bring Rainbow home.

But there was a problem. The Elements didn’t work for just anypony. They chose their wielders with a mind of their own, it seemed, and if the stories were true, that only Celestia and Luna had used them before Twilight and her friends, then these things were legendarily picky about their wielders.

“And the Twilight Sparkle they chose isn’t here anymore,” Twilight thought with a quiet sigh, setting the tiara back into the chest and closing it up. “Not really…”

She gave off a quiet sigh. Usually, that was enough to draw confused questions about whether or not she was alright from Spike or Rainbow. They knew her ques and her ticks, and they were quick to jump on it whenever they felt like she needed them. They were good friends like that, never hesitating to lend their support…

This time, though, there was only silence. Spike had taken off after Celestia and Luna departed to spread the word to everypony else about the plan. It was an efficient use of his time, sure, but it came with the obvious downside of leaving Twilight all on her own with nothing but her own doubts to keep her company.

She was knocked from her ruminations by a gentle knocking on her front door. Twilight blinked and looked up. It was still morning, with shafts of sunlight streaming in through the windows, providing a calming atmosphere that helped her dispel her doubts. She shook her head and put on a small, friendly smile. “It’s open!” she called over.

The door opened with a gentle creak, and Fluttershy poked her head in from outside. “Uh, hello, Twilight,” she greeted with a shy smile. “May I come in?”

Twilight nodded. “Of course, make yourself at home,” she replied, forcing herself to maintain her smile.

Fluttershy stepped inside and closed the door behind her. She stood there for a moment before looking over at Twilight with an uneasy expression on her face. “I, um… Spike came by my house a little bit ago,” she said. “He told me about how the Princesses brought you the Elements, and that we’re going to be heading to Baltimare today so we can bring Rainbow home.”

Twilight’s smile became visibly strained as any hopes of dodging that subject went flying right out the proverbial window. She dropped her smile as her gaze fell on the chest housing the Elements. “...Yeah. The Elements are right there,” she said simply with a sluggish nod of her head.

Fluttershy stepped forward and opened the box. She smiled softly at its contents for a few seconds before closing it again. She turned to Twilight to say something, but the words caught in her throat when she saw the glum expression on the alicorn’s face. “Oh… uh… Twilight? Are you okay?” she asked after a pause.

Twilight gave up on trying to hide her stress. Fluttershy apparently knew her well enough to see through any such facades anyway. ‘Which is completely unfair!’

“Not really,” she admitted, slumping back into her seat on the couch.

Fluttershy gave a quiet, worried squeak. She fluttered over and got comfortable by Twilight’s side, lending her comfort and warmth. “Do you want to talk about it? I mean, if that’s alright with you…”

Twilight waited for a few seconds before speaking up. “I’m just feeling a little overwhelmed, Fluttershy. Ever since Rainbow disappeared, I’ve been floundering for some way to help us find and bring her home. But now that I have a way, I can’t help but wonder how I ever managed to handle the strain of situations like this before I lost my memory. I mean, other worlds? A hard time limit? Possibly losing my closest friend forever?”

She covered her face with a hoof and took a few deep breaths. “It’s just… I don’t know what I’m doing, really. I’m just doing what everypony else is telling me and hoping for the best…”

Fluttershy draped a comforting wing over Twilight’s back. “I know what you mean… most of the time, whenever we go on our big adventures, I’m usually hanging in the back, waiting for something I can do…”

“But that’s different,” Twilight protested, turning to face the pegasus. “For you, it’s not really your fault. Your skillsets just aren’t very suited to those kinds of situations, but you still found ways to be proactive and helpful. But for me? I know that back then I was pretty much neck and neck with Rainbow, keeping everypony on task, helping figure out what we were doing, working out plans… Now I can’t do anything unless somepony gives me a direction...”

Her eyes returned to the Elements of Harmony. “And that’s not even going into whether or not I can still use the Elements…”

“Why wouldn’t you?” Fluttershy asked.

Twilight looked down, her ears drooping. “...I’ve had nothing but time to think it over since I woke up with amnesia. I know I’m not the same as I was before… I can tell. I can see the ways you all react whenever I do something that I didn’t use to do, or whenever I say something ‘out of character.’ You’re all doing your best to adapt and help me, and I appreciate that more than words can ever describe…”

She reached down and rested a hoof on the chest, her lips curling into an anxious frown. “But… at the end of the day, I’m still different. I’ve changed. I’m not even half the mare I used to be. Without my memories, I’m just short of being nothing… And I’m… I’m scared that the Elements won’t let me use them like I am now…”

“Twilight…”

“If I can’t use my Element, will the others still work?” Twilight went on, slowly losing herself to a storm of doubts and what-if scenarios. “Will they be enough? What if they don’t work at all because I couldn’t use mine? What if we can’t bring Rainbow home because I’m not the mare who was first chosen to wield the Element of Magic? What if-”

“Twilight!” Fluttershy’s voice interrupted her. Twilight gave a startled squeak when two hooves firmly pulled her head to the side until she was eye-to-eye with a very disapproving yellow pegasus. “That’s enough of that!”

“B-but-”

“No buts, miss!” Fluttershy cut her off again. She then pulled Twilight into a comforting embrace, holding the alicorn’s head to her chest. The two fell quiet for a few seconds, allowing Twilight a chance to calm down with the aid of the soothing rise and fall of her friend’s chest.

“...I’m sorry,” Twilight sheepishly apologized, finding the strength to return the hug. “I’m just really nervous… I don’t want to let anypony down, especially Rainbow.”

“You won’t,” Fluttershy assured her.

“But what if-”

“Shh,” Fluttershy shushed her. She pulled back and stared into Twilight’s eyes with an encouraging smile. “You won’t let her down. I know you won’t.”

Twilight swallowed heavily. “H-how do you know?”

“Because I know you,” Fluttershy said. “And I have known you for years. You’re, a teensy, eensy bit different now, sure, but you’re still Twilight Sparkle. And sure, maybe you’re lost, scared, and confused. But that’s okay. You’ve all told me it’s fine to be scared so many times…”

She leaned in, pressing her forehead against Twilight in an affectionate nuzzle. “But even if you’re really scared, I know you’ll find the bravery pull through. And if you stumble or fall down, we’ll all be here to catch you and help you get back on your hooves. That’s what friends are for, after all… and that’s what you, Twilight, taught us. That’s what you taught me.”

Twilight’s jaw gaped open as she tried to process the sudden rush of support and encouragement. She clamped it shut after a few moments and gave a small smile. “I… okay. You’re right,” she said, giving Fluttershy a squeeze. “Thanks. I needed to hear that, Fluttershy.”

Fluttershy pulled back and gave her a warm smile. “You’re welcome. Anything for my friends.”

Twilight’s smile grew. “Right. Anything for our friends…” she echoed before looking down at the chest. With a quick flicker of her magic, she opened it up and withdrew her Element of Harmony. She took the tiara in her hooves and looked it over again, this time forcing herself to ignore her own condition and instead focus on what needed to be done.

Rainbow Dash was stranded in another world, and she was counting on everypony here, in her home to bring her back. She was counting on Twilight. And after everything Rainbow had done for her since she woke up, after all of the stories, all of the effort, and all of the heartfelt promises of helping her find herself and put her life together… what else could Twilight do but her part to bring the cyan princess back home?

The tiara in her hooves seemed to vibrate more intensely as if to encourage her train of thought. She nodded to herself and set it on her head, just behind her horn. She turned to face Fluttershy and nodded with confidence and determination. “And anything for Rainbow Dash. She welcomed me back to the world, now it’s my turn to do the same.”

Fluttershy smiled widely and gave a sharp nod of her head. “Mhmm!”

Twilight beamed at the encouragement. Then, with a quick flick of her magic, she returned the tiara to its place in the chest and closed it up. “Alright. Thanks, Fluttershy. I think I’m going to start packing a few things for the trip. We’re supposed to be leaving soon, right?”

“In a few hours, yes,” Fluttershy confirmed, backing off of the couch. “Do you need any help packing?”

Twilight paused for a moment. She was about to say no when a thought occurred to her. In all honesty, Fluttershy probably knew more about Twilight’s things than Twilight did right now, and with Spike away telling the others about the plan…

With a sheepish grin and a small blush, she nodded. “Yes, please. Thank you.”

With that, the two friends turned and made their way upstairs for Twilight’s bedroom, ready to grab whatever they would need on this trip. Then, it would just be a matter of heading to Baltimare and bringing Rainbow Dash back home.

Twilight still felt the tell-tale tickle of doubt somewhere in the back of her mind, but she forced herself to shove it down and feed the fires of her resolve instead. She could do this. She had to do this. If she couldn’t, then Rainbow would be lost forever.

And Twilight was not about to let that happen.

22 - Where Memories Hurt

The journey to Baltimare had felt somehow as if it had lasted forever and passed in the blink of an eye simultaneously. Rainbow had spent the entirety of the journey staring out the window of the train, her head somehow empty yet full of anxiety and doubt. Barely a thought wandered through her head, but that didn’t stop the wordless storm of emotion and memory in her gut from raging on and on like a hurricane.

When the city itself finally came into view, though, time seemed to slow to a crawl. Rainbow couldn’t help but inhale sharply through her nostrils when she saw the flat roofs of the buildings squat skyscrapers in the distance. The last time she had seen those structures, her parents had died in front of her. Seeing them again now was giving her the most uncomfortable form of Deja Vu she had ever felt.

Chances were high that everypony else noticed her distance. She could hear them chattering amongst themselves for the duration of the ride, but she never listened or cared to participate. She knew they had spoken to her once or twice on the way, but she had usually sent them away with a quiet grunt or noncommittal hum.

The only one who wasn’t as active in approaching her was Twilight, oddly enough. As the train finally pulled into the Baltimare train station, Rainbow forced herself to tear her eyes away from the cityscape so she could find the changeling princess. Twilight was standing in the middle of the aisle, talking with Luna and Chrysalis about something. She briefly caught Rainbow’s eye before returning to her discussion.

Rainbow frowned. Twilight had been unusually distant and quiet around her ever since they left the war room. ‘Did I do something wrong?’ she wondered to herself. Not that she would be surprised if she did. It was pretty much her modus operandi at this point.

“We are now arriving in Baltimare Station,”a voice declared over the intercom. “This is our final stop. All passengers, please disembark. Thank you for travelling with the Friendship Express!”

“Tis as the disembodied voice says,” Luna noted. “Baltimare is upon us, as is the continuance of our quest.”

Her words were met with snickers and chuckles from the other ponies and changelings, even Chrysalis giving her a sidelong smirk.

Luna raised an eyebrow. “Pray tell, what is the humour you find in this situation?”

“Oh, dear…” Twilight muttered between a snort.

“No, we should be silent,” Chrysalis remarked. “The mystical disembodied voice may delve upon us more questing wisdom!”

“I feel mocked,” Luna deadpanned. “Am I being mocked?”

“It’s Chrysalis,” Rainbow chimed in automatically, leaping at the chance to distract herself from her tumultuous mind. “Mockery is to be assumed.”

“Especially when it’s well deserved,” Chrysalis defended.

The other Rainbow snickered. “Short answer is yeah, we’re totes mocking ya, Luna.”

Luna glared at them. “I fail to see the reason for this slander! Who are you, my sister?”

“And we won’t tell her if you don’t send us to the dungeons,” Twilight remarked in some attempt to defuse the situation. “Now! Misunderstanding basic technology not available a thousand years ago aside, she’s not wrong. We’ll probably want to get ourselves set up somewhere before we poke around too much. No telling how long we’ll need to find this rift.”

“Less than a week ideally,” Rarity noted. “But plenty of time to admire the sights. It’s no Manehatten, but it’s not so far off I should think.”

And just like that, Rainbow’s momentary respite from her own thoughts was ended. A small scowl appeared on her face as she jumped down from her seat. “There’s nothing admirable about this place,” she spat as she strode for the nearest exit. “And I’d rather not spend any more time here than I have to.”

The native Bearers of the Elements of Harmony all shared concerned glances, the Princess of the Night and Queen of the Badlands Hive merely giving her looks of pity. Rainbow may have even been taken aback by the latter’s show of empathy, had she been in any state of mind to notice.

Without another word, she slipped out onto the train platform after the train pulled into the station and the breaks brought it to a halt. The Deja Vu from earlier swelled in intensity as soon as she was outside. She came to a stop and took it all in, suddenly feeling incredibly small and weak. She swallowed heavily, the tips of her hooves going numb. She was actually here…

“Rainbow?”

Rainbow blinked and turned, seeing Fluttershy next to her. Rainbow cleared her throat and looked ahead.

“Are you alright?”

“I hate this place,” Rainbow replied, deflating with a heavy sigh. “My whole life got thrown on its head in this stupid city. I’m not exactly thrilled to be here again.”

Fluttershy hummed quietly and placed a comforting hoof on Rainbow’s back. “I’m sorry. But we’ll get you through this,” she said with a small, reassuring smile.

Rainbow nodded. “Yeah, I guess,” she mumbled before quietly shrugging of Fluttershy’s hoof. The others had already disembarked and were starting to make their way deeper into the city. The words all blurred together in Rainbow’s ears, but she picked out enough to know they were looking for a hotel to use as their base of operations for the duration of their stay.

“...Let’s go,” Rainbow eventually muttered, taking off after the others.

Twilight wasn’t sure why she couldn’t work up the courage to confront Rainbow Dash in some way. The dread, the terror. This city was bringing out the deepest depths of the pegasus’ highly troubled psyche. After all, this was where it all started for her. The complete shift in her timeline’s chronology, the source of a break so massive that it had bounded from her world to their own. But worse, it was where Rainbow Dash had lost something no child should have to. Her parents, and kickstarted her development into the haunted individual quietly sauntering on ahead of the changeling princess.

She should say something. She was the empath, she knew exactly how badly this was affecting her. Heck, she was the counterpart to the pony she loved, who else was she going to listen to?

Oh, but that was the problem, wasn’t it? The thought of it made Twilight’s stomach churn like no amount of love energy had ever done before. After all, that dream of hers back in Ponyville had made that clear, hadn’t it? A changeling with the face of the mare she loved? It was amazing to the mare that Rainbow had buried that fact as much as she had. Twilight was grateful for it, of course.

‘She tries. But beneath that, I’m not Twilight to her, am I? She laughs it off, as any Rainbow Dash would. But…’

Twilight sighed, the action going unnoticed to all but the ever-watchful eyes of Queen Chrysalis.

“What’s on your mind, daughter?”

“Always quick on the draw, aren’t you?”

“You are my child. It’s my job.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Yeah… Love you too.”

“Agreed. But you didn’t answer my question.”

Twilight remained defiantly silent for a few moments more, trying to pull ahead of her mother while not getting too close to Rainbow Dash in the process.

As it turned out, this attempt is what clued her mother in.

“Ah. The interloper?”

“Don’t call her that!”

“Should I call her your marefriend?”

“Mother! You’re worse than Rarity!”

“Don’t insult me,” Chrysalis retorted. “But the dramatic one is beside the point. Why are you avoiding her as you are? You were not so distant a short time ago.”

“I’d have thought you’d be pleased.”

“Pleased? You insisted we handle her your way, seeing as she is your responsibility, so this change is… disconcerting and unusual for you,” her mother pointed out. “And I will admit, she has some more likeable qualities than the usual flavour. She fights her battles rather than ignore them and then brag later as if she’d won.”

“Rainbow isn’t that bad.”

“One of them isn’t.”

Twilight shook her head. Sure, her Rainbow Dash wasn’t the wittiest soul in the immediate vicinity. But both pegasi did have the same heart, in both a literal and figurative way. Was that the price of wit? Her own happiness?

“But you really are taking a liking to her, aren't you?” Twilight noted with a hint of amusement.

“Her eyes show she is a soul with much wear and tear, but she is all the stronger for it,” Chrysalis confirmed. “So yes, against the odds I do believe I have come to respect at least one of your motley group of friends, albeit one as unusual as she is. And she does have her heart set on your protection, a task I do so share.”

Twilight blinked, her mental image of the scarred pegasus clashing with the description her mother had just given. “Protection? But I’m a-”

“Ah, I do believe this establishment shall meet our purposes,” Luna announced, ignoring the awed looks directed at herself by various bystanders as she gestured up at a grand highrise hotel. “Such marvellous architecture this century! How does it not blow over?”

Twilight took in a breath “Well, first they invented a new material that is-”

“Later,” Applejack said with a nudge. “Educate later.”

“Why yes, I do believe this is the Royal Ponesta Harbor Court,” Rarity noted with a glint. “Five stars, of course. Nothing but the best for royalty!”

“And a spa?” Fluttershy asked hopefully.

“Five stars, darling!”

“That a yes?” Applejack deadpanned.

“Oh, please. Five stars!” Rarity further insisted.

“That’s a yes,” Fluttershy translated.

“Bleh,” the native Rainbow Dash complained.

Rainbow gave her counterpart a sidelong glance. “That a bleh of disgust or the bleh of a mare succumbing to a damn good massage?” she asked knowingly.

“Say what, Rainbow Dash?” Applejack asked the native variant with a smug grin.

Said variant looked rather ashen. “I… Uh… Shaddup…”

“Like I said. The wit of a plank of wood,” Chrysalis demonstrated.

“Let the jesting cease, I believe royal funds should suffice to let us stay the maximum of a week,” Luna stated. “Let us see to a… what is it they call the best rooms available?”

“Penthouse Suite,” Rarity said helpfully.

“Yes! One of those!”

Eager to not show any further how the Princess of the Night was still out of date in certain areas, Luna thrust the doors to the hotel open and marched inside with the expectation that the others would follow. And, after noting the surprise from the ponies inside at the sudden arrival of the alicorn, they all started to pile in and see what was in store for them.

All except for one…

A short while later, a room was selected at the very top of the hotel. A room that seemed to have a rather large balcony and set of windows offering an impressive view of the whole city. And, of course, enough space and beds to accommodate the entirety of their admittedly large group. The bits weren’t cheap, but it wasn’t anything the funds of the Equestrian crown could not handle. Plus a nice discount for the Princess of the Night, the hotel all too happy for the inevitable publicity her presence would bring.

Chrysalis seemed slightly put off the same courtesy wasn’t extended towards her, but only showed it in idle grumbling straight to her daughter's hive link.

And soon enough they had the keys in hoof, the mare behind the desk giving a pleasant little wave to the entourage as they started their way towards the staircase. They went to ascend, mostly ignoring the elevator as it opened and a few heavily startled ponies stepped out to the sight of them.

And then Twilight realized something.

“Where’s Rainbow Dash?” she asked aloud, stopping and looking around in a mild panic as she realized there was only one of the pegasus with them. “She was right here! Didn’t anypony see her wander off?”

“Eh, I did!” Pinkie claimed. “But I just assumed she was going on the Baltimare youth scavenger hunt, so I didn’t say anything.”

“What does that even mean!?” Applejack demanded to know.

Pinkie pointed towards a nearby notice board with a flier stating just what she had. “Scavenger hunt! I kinda wish I went with her!”

“Pinkie Pie!” Rainbow shouted in indignation. “You lost ME!?”

“...Whoops?”

“Pitiful!” Chrysalis growled. “Gah, where would she have gone?”

“She hates this city! She could be in trouble!” Twilight said fearfully.

“...Or maybe she went to pay her respects,” Rainbow Dash said slowly.

All eyes turned to the pegasus. Twilight stepped forward, her eyes desperately glued onto the local counterpart of her quarry.

“Pay her respects?” the changeling parroted. “Do you mean…”

“It’s what I’d do,” Rainbow pointed out. “And what I am, so… Yeah. If my parents… died here, then I’d want to go there. I’d hate it, but I’d feel like… I dunno, like I had to, you know?”

“Oh my…” Fluttershy said sympathetically, placing a hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, Rainbow. But that is very brave. Loyal too.”

“She’s me, so yeah,” the pegasus replied. “And I think I know where that would be, too.”

“And how would you? Your counterpart she may be, but I do not recall you being able to know her mind so accurately,” Luna addressed.

“No, but… I mean, construction equipment. That’s what killed them. And there’s only one place, one time, I can think of that could be it,” Rainbow responded, turning towards the door. “Twi, ya coming?”

“Yeah, but where…?” Twilight asked, Chrysalis and Luna also following along with the latter gestured for the others to stay behind and claim their room.

“To the place where I saved my future, I guess…”

‘It’s exactly the same…’ Rainbow Dash thought. She was sitting on her haunches on a street corner, looking down the road towards a distant stadium. Sports teams would play there sometimes, and the Wonderbolts would put on displays for the city there from time to time as well.

This was where it happened. It was just as she remembered it. Even the crowd was more or less the same. The only difference was the distinct lack of steel beams sticking out of the broken stone street like spikes from a dragon’s back. The road was clean and clear of damage or obstructions, and the ponies were going about their business with nary a care in the world.

Some of them gave the pegasus odd looks as they passed, but she could not find it in herself to care about them just now. Her mind was well and truly focused on the street ahead of her.

It was hard to tell how long she sat there on her own. But as the sun dipped closer and closer to the horizon, the scene became more and more like the one that so often haunted the back of her mind. Her eyes began to glaze over as she got lost in the memory. She could feel the earth shaking beneath her hooves every time one of the steel beams pierced the ground, she could hear the metal ringing in her ears, drowning out the panicked screams of pedestrians. She could feel the dirt kicked up from the impacts clinging to her coat and stinging her eyes, she could taste the dust in her mouth as it flooded her lungs.

And then the harrowing silence that had come as quickly as the chaos had. In a few short seconds, her whole life had been thrown on its head, and she had been left without the only ponies she had ever relied on to guide her through such things.

She had seen them, she remembered. Their bodies pinned beneath the heavy metal crane that had snapped and dropped it all on the street.

Rainbow blinked, tears starting to come to her eyes. “No… no no no…” she choked out before looking at the crane. She felt her blood go from ice to fire, a spike of adrenaline and desperation flooding her body. Without hesitation, she backed away and then rushed at the crane. She slammed into it with her shoulder, hoping to move it off of her parents. There was a loud clang from the impact, and the nerves on her shoulder erupted into searing agony.

Rainbow fell back to the ground with a scream of pain but was quick to get back to her hooves. ”Ow! GAH! WHY IS THIS STUPID THING SO HEAVY!?” she shouted before trying again.

How long had it taken her, even with the aid of other ponies, to lift that crane so her parents could be hauled out, only for her to discover there was nothing left to save? It had felt like forever, at the moment.

“Mom...! P-please, wake up! Wha… w-we still have to go see the Wonderbolts, remember? It’s gonna be awesome! Mom!”

Her words fell on deaf ears, and Rainbow’s resolve was quickly fading away. She moved back to Bow and gave him a hard shake. “Dad! DAD! Dad, please! WAKE UP! YOU TWO HAVE TO WAKE UP!” She went back to Windy. “PLEASE! YOU GUYS, Y-... YOU CAN’T DO THIS! YOU CAN’T!”

“MOM! DAD! PLEASE! GET UP! DON’T LEAVE ME! Not like this… not like this…”

“Rainbow!”

Rainbow jumped in surprise on hearing the familiar voice of Twilight calling out to her. She turned in place and caught sight of the changeling in question flying down for her, alongside her other self, Chrysalis, and Luna.

“Oh... hey,” she greeted in a low, quiet voice once the group touched down.

“See, I knew it would be here…” native Rainbow Dash noted, looking around the place with an odd look as she seemed to try and reconcile her memories of the place with what she knew had happened to her other. “Yeah… Right there, it was all scrap metal and junk all over. We were out to see a Wonderbolt show, it was great. But… we almost got squashed on the way, I pushed my parents to the side when I saw them coming down. I… I got a couple over the top trophies and a cake for that one.”

Rainbow visibly tensed, her shoulders hunching. “...Stop,” she said, her voice coming out choked. “Just… just don’t.”

“But I guess it wasn’t like that, was it?” her native self pressed on. “I… I can’t really imagine it. Them like… that. I don’t want to… It hurts to just even think about, and you… I’m sorry.”

“I said stop,” Rainbow cut her off, struggling to keep the tremble out of her voice. “I’m happy you did better than I did, but I don’t want to hear it.”

“Then don’t run off like that!” her counterpart shouted, her temper flaring at being brushed off. “I get it. It scares the crap outta me to think about! But we always stick with our friends! And we sure as heck don’t scare them like that! Twilight almost popped a gasket!”

“Rainbow…” Twilight said softly.

“No, it has to be said,” she rebuffed. “We’re going to get you home, but you can’t leave us out of the loop on this. And I know I would have come here too, but we can’t do that alone! I’m not just some featherbrained athlete like some people think.”

Chrysalis glanced away awkwardly.

“And yeah, I might have had it better in some ways. I like to act first, wouldn’t have it any other way! But seriously, I know. I know us, and I know that we need our friends. So don’t go all lone-wolf like that, okay? Don’t scare them. Please.”

Rainbow was quiet for several seconds before giving off a quiet sigh. “...I’m sorry if I scared you, but there’s a reason I waited ‘til we had found a hotel, you know. I was gonna come right back once we had a meetup spot. And…” she turned back to her other-self. “Look, it went differently for you. You saved your parents and I didn't. Maybe you get how scary it is, but please don’t pretend you know how much it hurts. I just… ugh. I needed to take care of this myself, is all. It’s personal, and you’re all already sticking your necks out for me enough as it is…”

“Of course they are. It’s them. If they didn’t, it’d hurt more,” the other pegasus pointed out. “And take it from another you who does dumb stuff like this too. Don’t shut them out. I’m no good to anypony alone.”

“Be that as it may,” Luna interrupted carefully. “You are both two sides of the same coin. And yet you are the same at your cores, the same thoughts and fears, just which are further expressed and which are suppressed are reversed. I would not dismiss what each side has to say to the other. Believe me, ignoring one side of yourself has a terrible way of creeping up on you.”

Rainbow looked down. “Right…” she mumbled before turning and looking down the street. “Well, anyway… this is where it happened, like other me said,” she declared before pointing down the street. “Right there, by that red building. That was where the crane fell… If the rift’s gonna be anywhere, it’s gonna be there.”

Luna hummed, her eyes closing as her horn lit up. She focused for several moments, mana swirling around the appendage gracefully as the others remained still in apprehension. But then, as quickly as she had started, she halted her efforts and looked up at them with a nod.

“Indeed, I can feel the presence of another rift at the edges of the Dream Realm. Fortunate that it manifested here, but not unexpected. I can attempt the connection to my counterpart tonight. I do believe you will want to be present, Rainbow Dash.”

Rainbow nodded. “Yeah, I will. And… can you try and get my friends in there, too?” she asked hopefully. “I could really use some familiarity right now.”

“I would also like to be there,” Twilight said as she stepped forward. “If that’s okay. A rift in the Dream Realm? A chance to meet my counterpart? I cannot miss this.”

Luna raised an eyebrow. “And a chance to be there for one’s friend?”

“I mean, does that even need saying?” she said with a sheepish chuckle.

“Yes,” both Rainbows and Chrysalis said in unison.

Luna smirked at the young changeling’s discomfort, but she nevertheless gave a nod of confirmation. “If you wish it, I can include you.”

“Then I would like that,” Twilight confirmed. “While you prepare, I’d like to stay here a while and do some tests of my own. Nothing strenuous, don’t want to disrupt the portal, but just make some notes and observations.”

“I will also remain to make sure she keeps that promise,” Chrysalis added in.

“You have no faith in me, do you?” Twilight said crossly.

“In matters of rule, life and or death? Complete faith,” she assured her daughter. “In the sciences and matters of restraint? No, not at all.”

“Thanks…” she deadpanned with her cheeks puffed in indignation.

“Never change, Sparkle,” native Rainbow Dash remarked with a bop on the said changeling’s shoulder.

“Alas, they shall do as they wish, we must return to this ‘penthouse’ of which Miss Rarity speaks so highly,” the Princess of the Night announced. “Rainbows, do accompany me. There is much work to be done to ensure a safe transition.”

“Right. We’ll see you all tonight!” Twilight stated.

Rainbow nodded. “Right. Be careful, kay?” she asked before turning her eyes one more time to the street. She fell quiet before shaking her head and allowing herself to be guided away by Luna and her other-self.

And as they did so, Rainbow Dash saw her native counterpart come in and walk up by her side.

“Hey, look…” she started. “I meant every word I said. And like Luna said, if we’re two sides of the same coin, you know it’s true. But… Eh, I guess I coulda said it better. So, sorry if I came off too hard. But I don’t like freaking my friends out like that, any version of me.”

Rainbow hummed. “I understand. Again, I’m sorry I scared all of you…” she apologized before looking ahead. “Probably should’ve said something before I left… I still would’ve wanted to go alone either way, though. It’s just one of those things.”

“Yeah, I know. We’re Rainbow Dash, as Chrysalis would tell you, we’re an idiot,” native Rainbow joked.

“Heh,” Rainbow snorted. “Idiots, huh? Well, she won’t get any argument from me on that one,” she conceded with a small, wan smile.

“Buuut, we’re two idiots together. And, I mean, two sides of a coin makes one coin, right? That work out?” the less scarred pegasus wondered before shaking it off. “Whatever. Point is, we’re going to kick the multiverse’s butt, yeah?”

Rainbow snorted. Did the multiverse even have a butt to kick? She dismissed the thought after a second and lifted a hoof to knock against her other’s. “Yeah.”

“Hah! Ah… I’m awesome.”

“Yeah, we are.”

23 - Reunion

Princess Luna had been standing silent in the centre of the room for a couple of hours at this point. The sun had long since gone down, plunging the world outside into the darkness of the night. Twilight and Chrysalis had made their way back to the penthouse some time ago and had since joined the others in milling mindlessly about, awaiting the alicorn’s awakening.

But the Rainbows were never given to waiting.

“Is she about done yet?” The native Rainbow Dash asked from her position up near the roof. “I’m about ready to see if they have any board games.”

“Rainbow Dash!” Rarity chided. “Don’t rush the dear!”

“Can ya blame me? She’s been preparing this thing for hours!”

Luna’s eyes abruptly snapped open at that. “Probing the dream realm for a tear in the fabric of reality is a delicate matter, so I apologize if it took all of my undivided attention,” she pointed out, earning a startled yelp from the airborne pegasus. “But night has fallen, and I would hope that my other has done much the same on her side of the cosmos. If she has, then they will be prepared much as we are now.”

“Oh! I bet they’re in this room right now!” Pinkie squeed. “HI ME!”

Princess Rainbow rolled her eyes at the display, having been silently observing the whole room from a large window overlooking the city. “Okay, Pinks, tone it down a little,” she said while trotting over. “We’re going to sleep in a little bit, and shouting isn't gonna help.”

“Aw, but I’m so good at shouting!”

“We know,” the whole room replied in unison.

“Buuut, if they are in this room, that would be a good thing!” Twilight pointed out optimistically. “And they should, right? If they’re following the plan, and if I know me I probably have at least eighteen checklists keeping us on track.”

“Eighteen? Other you must be slacking,” Chrysalis snipped.

Rainbow grimaced, her wings ruffling uncomfortably on her back. ‘Or she doesn’t have any because she’s still struggling to make heads or tails of herself…’ she thought, though chose not to voice that notion at this time.

Luna shifted her gaze towards the pegasus, her dour thoughts unnoticed by the others as some continued to be lambasted by Pinkie’s usual bizarreness. Twilight, meanwhile, seemed more indignant due to her mother’s remark. But she did notice, her connection to the Dream Realm continuing to establish and bubble up within her, the Princess of the Night deciding that it was high time to put the scarred pegasus’ fears to rest.

“Alas, I think we can leave the foolery here,” she announced, gaining the attention of the others. “Twilight is correct about one thing, as is Laughter, they should be here. And I also know myself, so they are here. Which means it is time for us to begin. Twilight, Princess Rainbow Dash, prepare yourselves.”

“Alright, let’s get this whole dream thang goin’,” Applejack said as she grinned eagerly.

“No,” Luna denied. “Rainbow Dash and Twilight shall accompany me, but the rest of you should remain behind. It is intended for the Bearers of Harmony from their world to be in attendance, and I think that’s enough of a crowd. Lest there be confusion, and potential instability more than there shall be already.”

“Yes, I guess that makes sense… I think?” Rarity asked, not really sure how the mechanics of any of this really worked. “Very well, we know when to give a lady some privacy.”

“Awww, but I could have thrown a dream party!” Pinkie complained.

“You don’t do that anyway?” Applejack deadpanned.

“Oh, yeah!”

“Well, I hope your friends are there to meet you. Oh, they must be so worried!” Fluttershy said, stepping forward and patting the otherworldly pony sympathetically on the back. “I know I would be, er, am… Yes.”

Rainbow nodded her head. “Yeah, I hope so, too,” she said while giving Fluttershy a sideways smile. “It’ll be good to have some familiarity back…”

Rainbow then frowned and glanced back to Luna. “But, uh, before we get started, there is one thing that’s bugging me: If we’re all in the dream realm, if we rip open another hole to send me home through, then, uh… how am I gonna go through? I’m gonna be asleep, and I’ve been in the Dream Realm enough times to know ya don’t typically move around physically when in it.”

“That, Rainbow Dash, is the aim of tonight’s meeting,” Luna pointed out. “Coordination. We know where the rift is, but we must discuss how to proceed from here. Simply walking down the street and tearing open an unstable rift in the middle of a populated city centre is… inadvisable.”

Rainbow nodded. “Kay, fair enough,” she agreed.

“Yeah, seems kinda like a disaster comic waiting to happen,” the native Rainbow Dash commented. “But eh, we’ll figure it out tonight, yeah?”

Luna raised an eyebrow. “‘We’? Did we not just say-”

“Yeah, no,” she bluntly shot the Princess down. “Kinda feel like I’m in the middle of this. I’m not going to leave a me hanging there. I gotta see her home.”

“I… don’t think that’s necessary,” Twilight said with a frown.

The mare shrugged. “Eh, she’d do the same for a friend. Am I wrong there, RD?”

Rainbow shook her head. “You’re not. Honestly, I’d probably be even more adamant than you about it,” she agreed with a shrug. “If Luna thinks it’s safe for you to tag along, I’d be happy to have ya.”

“See, there you go!” she announced defiantly. “I’m coming, alright? ‘Til the end, as any loyal mare should.”

Luna sighed. “Oh, very well. But no more!”

The rest of the Element Bearers, and one loyal assistant, all groaned in great disappointment.

“This is pushing it, but I will allow her. But the rest of you must wait with Queen Chrysalis in another room. Let us do what we must.”

“Foalsitting, wonderful,” Chrysalis deadpanned.

“Like we’re real thrilled to be with you either, your Majesty,” Applejack shot back. “Real thrilled.”

“Could we not just get along for a while…?” Twilight sheepishly squeaked out.

“Don’t worry, I don’t bite,” Chrysalis replied with a deliberately fang-filled smirk. “But you, Daughter, must be safe in this Dream Realm. And… you too, Princess Rainbow Dash. If only because it’d be a waste of our time if anything were to happen to you now.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Chrysalis…” she winked sideways at Spike. “I don’t need to make an insight check to know that’s a load of it.”

Spike looked very happy just then.

Chrysalis raised an eyebrow. “...I beg your pardon?”

Rainbow’s grin grew. “Heh. Never mind.”

“With that in mind, I think we should begin in haste. Delaying matters will not help us here,” the Princess declared.

“Come, let the dears have their space,” Rarity said, starting to head towards a door leading to another room with the expectancy that the others would follow.

“Yeah yeah, we’re all followin’,” Applejack responded. “Spike, you coming with?”

“Yeah, one sec…” the drake replied, turning towards those that were staying. “You sure you don’t need your assistant, Twilight? Because…”

She nuzzled his head. “It’s fine, Spike. It’s the Dream Realm, nothing truly dangerous. We’ll be careful, I promise.”

“Um, okay. Just make sure you do, alright? You two, Rainbows!”

Rainbow nodded, taking a place by her native counterpart. “Sure thing,” she said with a nod.

Spike seemed mildly comforted by that, though still held no small amount of childlike worry. They all had to remind themselves that he was still technically a ‘baby’ dragon, even if the drake had matured much as time went by.

But there he went, running off with the others as they retreated to allow Luna and the others the time they needed to work. Chrysalis was the last out, giving her daughter a long look, and one look of warning to Luna that said “keep her out of trouble”, before she too departed.

And then they were alone.

“It is time,” Luna then said. “Get comfortable wherever you may. The couch, the floor, sleep will come with the assistance of my own magic. And then into the Dream Realm we shall wander, and there we will endeavour to find the friends you seek, Rainbow Dash.”

Rainbow nodded. She strode over to one of the many luxurious chairs that were scattered across the room and made herself comfortable. She then made direct eye contact with Luna. “Just as a heads up, Luna… magic can have a, uh… bad effect on me. So… just, y’know, be aware of that,” she said before closing her eyes and setting her chin down on her hooves.

“Just close your eyes, think of those you wish to see. You will not feel a thing, on that I promise.”

“Hm. Here’s to hoping,” Rainbow mumbled. She draped her tail over herself like a blanket before falling still and waiting. She allowed her mind to drift away from the here and now to think about her friends. With any luck, she’d be getting to see them again in just a minute. She thought of how happy Fluttershy and Twilight were going to be, not to mention her own Luna.

A tiny smile curled into place on Rainbow’s face.

There was a tingling sensation in her head. A shudder passed through her, and her eyes snapped open of her own accord.

She wasn’t in the penthouse anymore.

Rainbow blinked as her eyes were met with a long and expansive abyss filled with blue mist and gently drifting pearls of light. In front of her was a colossal distortion in space. It was shaped vaguely like a drop of deep orange ink dropped into a glass of water and frozen at its most chaotic. It crackled and practically hummed with energy, and Rainbow could feel the static tingle along her coat to attest to that.

A moment later, Luna appeared by her side, followed shortly by Princess Twilight and native Rainbow.

“Wow, this is fascinating,” Twilight squeed with scholarly joy. “The ripple reminds me somewhat of the void seen in a certain other portal I know, but more chaotic and uncontrolled. A literal wound in reality! I wonder if-”

“We are not here to conduct experiments on the fabric of the cosmos,” Luna chided.

“Hrmg, and I’m the killjoy?”

“Still yes,” Rainbow, both of them, piped up at the same time before smirking proudly at one another.

Before any further potshots could be made at the indignant changeling, the rift pulsed with light. All eyes turned to it as it began to shift and twitch, emitting a series of low booms and bassy hums. The distortion around it grew more intense for a second before solidifying in a pulse of blue light. Then, a moment later, another Princess Luna stepped through.

Rainbow’s heart soared as, one by one, the rest of her friends followed suit. Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie… and, of course, Fluttershy and Twilight. They came through together in the back. All of them were looking around in awe and wonder at the majestic space around them, no doubt stunned by their first time walking through the intangible Dream Realm.

Rainbow’s eyes locked onto Twilight’s. There was a moment of silence and total stillness.

“Twilight!” Rainbow sprang into motion, throwing herself forward and into the alicorn in a bone-crushing hug, sending both of them sliding along the ‘ground’ for several feet before coming to a rest.

“Oof!” Twilight grunted when they came to a stop, awkwardly splayed out on her back while Rainbow buried her face in her chest fur.

It was her. Actually her. Dream avatar or not, she could just feel it. This was her Twilight. Rainbow screwed her eyes shut in an effort to contain the wave of raw emotion rolling over her like an angry storm. “It’s you…” she mumbled, squeezing Twilight closer. For a moment, her mind went back to the nightmare she had experienced back in Ponyville and her heart skipped a beat. She looked up into Twilight’s eyes, pleading with her own. “It is really you… right?”

Twilight blinked at her before offering up a timid smile. “Yes… it’s me,” she acknowledged quietly.

Rainbow loosened her grip enough for Twilight to sit up, and then went right back into hugging her. This time, the embrace was returned, the two mares wrapping their hooves tightly around one another.

All the while, watching on at the sight, Princess Twilight Sparkle’s features seemed bright and happy at the sight of a task finally completed, a reunion long in the making achieved at last.

And yet, a cold feeling also emerged in her stomach. Ponyville sprang back to mind, their meeting at the Badlands Hive…

‘I’m not needed anymore…’

The rest of Rainbow’s friends joined in on the hug not long after, completely enveloping Rainbow in a blanket of warmth and affection. She could hear them offering relieved exclamations, or asking excited questions in the case of Pinkie Pie, and she answered all of them. But for the most part, she didn’t bother to commit them to memory. She was just happy to feel their warmth again. Words could wait, as far as she cared.

“Ahem.”

Rainbow looked up from the group hug to see her own Luna smiling warmly down at her. Her smile grew. “Aunt Luna…”

“It has been too long, my niece,” her Aunt said quietly. She leaned down and gave Rainbow an affectionate nuzzle. “I trust these ponies have been looking out for you?”

Rainbow nodded up at her. “Yeah, they have,” she said before turning to point at those who had come with her. “Princess Twilight, her mom, and other you, in particular.”

“Hey, I was kinda there too!” the other Rainbow Dash protested. “And I’m not getting any nuzzles or nothing!”

“And neither shall you ever, Rainbow Dash,” native Luna replied distastefully.

Her friends all turned to look at the ponies she had gestured to. Rainbow felt them all tense up at the same time, and she even heard a frightened squeak from Fluttershy. Applejack was quick to jump to her hooves in alarm. “What in tarnation? Is that a changeling?!” she asked in shock.

Rainbow resisted the urge to swear under her breath, Go figure that she’d forget to mention that. ‘Ah crud, here we go,’

“Wait, wait!” she exclaimed, springing up to her hooves and putting a hoof on Applejack’s shoulder. “She’s a friend! She’s cool, like Thorax!”

Applejack turned to Rainbow with a raised eyebrow. “...Ya sure?”

Rainbow snorted. “I let her help me for this long, haven’t I?” she rebuked. “She’s cool. I probably wouldn’t have gotten this far without her.”

That was enough to calm Fluttershy down, at least. “Oh. Uh, if that’s the case…” she poked her head out from behind alicorn Twilight and smiled. “Hello. Um… thank you for helping Rainbow. We’ve all been really worried about her.”

“Er, yes, hi…” Twilight’s ears folded down at the sight of her closest friends shunning her on looks, the doubts her mother tried to dissuade increasing all the more. “I’m… I’m Twilight Sparkle, my world’s Twilight. And… it was no problem, I’m sure I’d always do something like that…”

There were a few seconds of awkward silence. Rainbow bit her lip, anxiously looking back and forth between the two groups. Maybe she could move things along and break some of this tension… She opened her mouth to say something, but the words died in her throat when her Twilight suddenly walked in front of her, eyes glued onto her changeling counterpart.

Alicorn Twilight stared at her for a few seconds, visibly taken aback by the ‘tattered’ appearance of her other-self. But, after a moment, she was able to shove it away and offered up a warm smile. “Thank you for looking after Rainbow Dash. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost her,” she said softly.

Twilight returned the smile, though it retained its saddened edge. “I’m glad to have helped. You’re all she was able to think about, you know.”

Rainbow blushed. “Er…”

Alicorn Twilight’s wings ruffled slightly in discomfort, but she otherwise didn’t seem bothered. She looked around at everypony for a few seconds, looking as if she wanted to say something more, but the words would not come.

Rainbow knew, though. She could tell. She came up to the alicorn’s side and draped a foreleg over her shoulder in a comforting hug. “Hey… if you wanna ask her some questions, you go for it. We got time, I think.”

Twilight blinked. “Wha- are you sure?” she asked in surprise. “Aren’t you always the one telling me to not worry about who I am?”

Rainbow nodded. “Yeah, but, well…” she nodded at the changeling in the room. “How often do you get a chance to talk to a parallel version of yourself? I know she kinda wanted to talk to you, too… So go for it.”

Twilight swallowed a lump in her throat and smiled. “Okay… if you’re sure,” she said before trotting for her other-self.

It was at about that time that, no longer able to stand idly by, Pinkie Pie gave off a shrill squeal that pierced the dream realm. She sprang past Rainbow and slid to a stop in front of the native one. “Oh my gosh, two Rainbow Dashes! This has got to be the bestest, most colorfulrific day EVER! I had to keep quiet because Twi and Dashie were having their moment, but it’s past now and EEEE! Can I give you a cookie? I have cookies! I WANNA GIVE YOU A COOKIE!”

“Wha-” native Rainbow went to utter.

“Have a cookie!”

“Mmph?!” native Rainbow muffed out as a chocolate chip cookie appeared in Pinkie’s hoof and then disappeared inside her mouth.

Rainbow chuckled and shook her head. “Yeah… that’s Pinkie for ya,” she said in amusement.

The assaulted mare choked on the haphazardly applied treat, spluttering as she shot her other a glare. “This is payback for the smoothie, right?”

“Yes!” Pinkie said for her. “And, ya know, cookie! Nopony can say no to a cookie!”

“What if they’re lactose intolerant,” Princess Twilight asked.

“Coooookiiiieeees!” Pinkie declared like an oddly emphatic zombie.

“Laughter, you are insufferable in any world,” native Luna deadpanned.

“Aw, thank you!”

A few amused chuckles went through the assembled ponies. Rarity and Applejack took up positions next to Rainbow, the latter giving the pegasus princess a side-long glance. “So… two of ya, huh?” she asked quietly as Pinkie’s antics continued. “How’s that been? Y’all cause any chaos?”

Rainbow shrugged. “Not really. Ya remember how I was before Discord popped up?”

“Reckless, cocky, arrogant, and not able to take a hint?” Applejack deadpanned.

Rarity pouted at the farmer. “Applejack, must you use such harsh phrasing?”

“I ain’t gonna lie to her.”

Rarity rolled her eyes. “I would have said proud and confident, perhaps to a fault…”

Rainbow cut in to prevent the two from going off on a tangent. “The point is, she’s a lot like that. Just… without the baggage I already had at the time,” she said before affixing her other self with an odd look. The other pegasus was presently drifting a few feet in the air, watching with a mixture of horror and amusement as Pinkie took advantage of the fact that this was a dream to give herself a wide range of wings and new limbs.

“...It’s kinda weird, honestly, seeing how I coulda turned out if things had been different. How much happier I could have been...”

Rarity placed a hoof on her shoulder. “I’m not going to pretend I understand how stressful this has all been for you. But no matter what, I have every confidence that you will find that happiness yourself, darling.”

“Darn tootin’,” Applejack agreed. “And we’re gonna help.”

“Like we always do,” Fluttershy added, stepping around to be in front of Rainbow herself.

Rainbow smiled at her childhood friend. Without a word, she reached out and pulled Fluttershy into a warm, friendly embrace. “Ah, jeez… it’s real good to see you guys,” she muttered to the trio, a small tremble in her voice.

“It’s good to see you too, Rainbow…” Fluttershy said, giving the other pegasus a firm squeeze. “We’ve all been so worried…”

All the while that Rainbow’s friends fussed over her wellbeing, and the second variant remained transfixed by Pinkie’s usual nonsense and the Lunas just remained content to watch things transpire, the Twilights seemed to be in a world of their own. Each stared down the other, the brief distraction of the cookie passing as they returned their gazes to one another.

“So…” Princess Twilight spoke first. “I… Uh… Celestia, it really is like a mirror. I spent so long trying to delude myself into believing I was you. A pony, I mean. Not the monster I saw in my reflection when I was a filly.”

Alicorn Twilight scuffed a hoof along the floor, sheepishly looking down. “Heh… at least you remember what it’s like to be a filly,” she said. “Did Rainbow ever mention my, erm… my condition?”

The changeling nodded. “Yes, she did. What my… what Queen Chrysalis did, that drone of hers… Seeing me must be… I can’t imagine.”

Twilight sighed. “Yeah… It’s been pretty rough on my friends. I’m trying to put myself back together, I am, but… well, all I have to go on is what the others have told me,” she said. “It’s… really frustrating sometimes…”

“I can imagine. I wish I could help, and I will if I can, but our lives are obviously not identical.”

Twilight smiled at her. “I appreciate it. Maybe I can ask you a few questions? About us, I mean. About what it even means to be Twilight Sparkle. And, uh…” she looked down for a moment, taking in more of the changeling’s appearance. “Maybe you could tell me a little about what changelings are like in your world? I’ve never actually seen one in my condition until right now. I was expecting something… different.”

“Wow… that’s a loaded question, and I’m still asking myself that,” Princess Twilight admitted. “What it means to be Twilight Sparkle? Huh… When you spend your life believing you are one thing, only to find out you are a bug princess from the desert, you come to doubt that. But… I suppose the best answer to could give is that Twilight Sparkle is a mare who will always have her friends to pick her up at her lowest, and will always return in kind. Take it for what you will, I know it’s kinda vague, but… Well, I’m working on it. What’s pony and what’s changeling? I still don’t know how much of each I have in me. But my friends are the constant I can always rely on.”

Alicorn Twilight hummed at that. “Well… that is pretty vague,” she confirmed with a small smile. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. If you’re from a different world, and a different species no less, then, well… I guess it’s unreasonable of me to assume that you’d be in a position to magically fix all of my problems.”

“I wish it were that easy…” the changeling replied, rubbing her scar. “I know what it’s like to be hurt. Not like you, I know, but things like that can make you question everything. But you are who you are, don’t let them take that, memories or not. I know at least one mare who will always be there to make sure you don’t forget that.”

Twilight glanced back at her Rainbow, who was currently speaking with her aunt in hushed whispers. Asking about Celestia or some such, perhaps. She smiled. “...Yeah. She was the first pony I saw when I woke up. She and Spike. They welcomed me back to the world… and everything I’ve seen so far tells me I can trust and count on them.”

She turned back to her changeling self, her smile widening. “Everypony’s already been telling me that my friends are gonna be there for me, but, well… I guess it helps to hear me say it.”

“I’m glad. You’re a lucky pony, whether you know it or not. The way she looks at you is… Well, my kind knows what a pony feels in their heart, and she feels a lot.”

Twilight’s eyes lit up, just a little. “Wait, you’re empaths? I knew changelings could feed on love, but I didn’t know they could detect emotion like that! How does it work?” she asked, a degree of scholarly excitement slipping into her voice.

“Well, love is the most noticeable to us, other emotions can be a bit harder to read. But yes, we are,” she confirmed. “Along with a hive egregore that links us, I could talk to the hive even now. I don’t think your changelings have that from what Rainbow told me, but we definitely do.”

“Wow, that’s fascinating!” Twilight said, her ears perking right up. “And shapeshifting? How does that work? I know that Thorax turned into a big dragon back for a little while in my world thanks to a magic surge, though it drained him a lot. Could you do the same thing?”

The changeling’s eyes widened. “A DRAGON!? What? How? But? No! At least not a BIG one, a small one around our size, yes, but an elder? We’re generally restricted into familiar shapes, only the most skilled can do otherwise, like… a rock, for instance.”

“Roc as in the big bird of prey, or rock as in a stone?”

“The not alive version, but most changelings can’t do it. Even I struggle a little with inanimate things. But your Thorax turned into a freakin’ DRAGON!?”

“As far as I know,” Twilight confirmed. “I haven’t met him yet, so I can’t really verify. I was told that he was only able to hold it for a couple of minutes and that the drain on his magic was so intense he’s still recovering. But apparently, not even Chrysalis could have pulled off something like that for a long time without seriously draining herself. He was having a big magic surge at the time, I think…”

“Still, a dragon… Oh, why can’t I take my notes into dreams?”

“If you two are poking and prodding each other with science sticks over there…” native Rainbow called out with a smirk. “Both I and me are leavin’!”

“Grammar, Dash,” Princess Twilight chided.

“No!”

It was at around this time that the Lunas finally decided to speak up. Aunt Luna cleared her throat and spoke up to be heard over the various discussions. “Forgive the interruption, but we are here for a reason. More thorough reunions can be had at a later time. For now, my niece is still trapped in another world, and we must discuss how we are to remedy this.”

“Indeed,” the native Luna agreed. “Reunions and first meets must now be set aside, we have given room enough for them. We are all in our respective Baltimares, even in the same hotel, and now comes the task of approaching the rift under Tia’s sun and opening it without inciting disaster.”

Alicorn Twilight turned to look with a mildly disappointed frown. “So soon…?”

“We gotta get other me home, y’know,” native Rainbow pointed out. “C’mon, eggheads. We got work to do.”

A few moments passed as everypony gathered around in a loose circle. Rainbow was sure to park herself next to her Twilight, taking the chance to savour the proximity as much as possible. Once everypony was assembled and attentive, Aunt Luna took the lead.

“So, for the benefit of all present, allow me to briefly recount what we know about our situation,” she said before lighting up her horn and turning to her counterpart. “This is your Dream Realm, not mine. I require permission and a small amount of power from you if I am to provide visual aides.”

A flick of the other Luna’s head was followed by a nod, signalling the task was done.

Aunt Luna nodded, and an astral projection of the storm that had whisked Rainbow away in the dead of night emerged over a loose approximation of Equestria. “Several nights ago, a cosmic storm, as of yet the only of its kind observed in Equestria, descended upon the land. My examinations of it lead me to believe that it was, for the most part, utterly benign. An anomalous spectacle and nothing more. Evidently, however, I was wrong.

“The storm descended closer to the surface in several key areas, which, if I understand correctly, correspond to a series of locations in your world where severe and out of place tremors have been ravaging the land. It is our current belief that these two occurrences are directly linked.”

“Furthermore,” native Luna picked up. “We have reason to believe that this storm on your side of events was directly connected to an alteration to your timeline. A delayed after-effect of sorts, or a ‘Time boom’ as Princess Twilight put it.”

“Quite,” Aunt Luna confirmed. “The details of the change in history in my world are convoluted at best, and we have not the time nor the reason to explore it in its entirety. All we need to know for certain is that this time boom weakened the barriers between worlds, damaging the fabric of reality. Where the storm went, it left rifts connecting our worlds in its wake. Rainbow Dash was, by poor luck or fate, caught in one of the most intense of these regions, and thus hurled head-long from my world and into yours.”

“We are communicating now using those selfsame rifts,” native Luna continued. “They serve as gateways between our two worlds, enabling this form of contact. Is everypony following so far?”

A collection of affirmatives went through the gathered ponies.

“Now comes the difficult part,” Aunt Luna went on, her brow furrowing. “These rifts are increasingly unstable, and tampering with them, much like interacting with a bubble upon the surface of a pool of water, causes them to destabilize and crumble far faster than if left alone. But even were that not the case, the fact remains that these rifts are largely intangible in the waking world, save for disturbances that unicorns or magic-sensitive creatures can feel when passing near them.”

“So the question then becomes, how do we open such a rift in the waking world?” native Luna went on. “And furthermore, how do we do so without causing damage to the surrounding environment? If we are sending Princess Rainbow back to her world in Baltimare, safety is paramount. It is a populated city, and I will not have my subjects harmed by a careless transference.”

“Well, it might be wise to run a few tests first, but I don’t see why we can’t just open it with your magic,” Princess Twilight commented. “If we had enough control just to open up a small enough gap for a single pony to slip through before we shut it, theoretically the damage would be minimal. Though an evacuation of the block could help too, just in case…”

“Perhaps…” Aunt Luna mused. “Hmmm. Mayhap it would be possible to open a gate small enough for magic to slip through. Then we could have one of you teleport my niece across before returning to your world yourself. It would minimize the risk to the surrounding architecture on both ends.”

“The obvious downside being it would require far more precision,” native Luna added. “One mistake, and Princess Rainbow and her chaperone could be left adrift in the void between worlds. Were that to happen, neither of us would ever see them again.”

“Plus, I have my PTSD crud whenever magic hits my skin,” Rainbow pointed out with a glum frown. “I can take it if I gotta, but let’s save that if we can, kay?”

“Well, let me run those tests first. At least on our end, though you should too,” the changeling said to her pony counterpart. “Just to see how much pressure it could take. If you set a scanning spell to the frequency of-”

A deafening crash rocked the Dream Realm, cutting off Twilight’s words. Everypony clamped their hooves over their ears in a desperate bid to keep the cacophony at bay. Rainbow cried out from the volume. Another sound reached her ears, and she looked up to the rift. It was twitching erratically and starting to flicker.

“What is happening?!” Aunt Luna cried out in alarm.

A flurry of voices were all shouting to be heard over one another. Rainbow looked around in a wild panic, trying to make heads or tails of the situation.

“Rainbow?!”

Princess Rainbow turned to her Twilight, and her eyes widened. The alicorn, along with the rest of the ponies from her world, was now flickering just like the rift. She was looking down at her hooves as they became increasingly unfocused and distorted. She looked up to Rainbow with wide, frightened eyes. “Rainbow, what’s happening to me?!”

Instinct kicked in. Rainbow kicked forward, throwing her forelegs out in a bid to grab onto Twilight and hold her close. She saw the alicorn moving to reciprocate the gesture.

A deafening shattering sound filled the air, slicing at Rainbow’s ears like a thousand knives.

Twilight vanished just as Rainbow reached her.

She slid to a halt, her eyes wide. She looked back to the rift, only to find that it had shattered like a flimsy mirror. All of her friends had vanished, leaving her with the natives of the world she was trapped in.

Far off in the distance, the sound of more shattering windows rolled across the Dream Realm as flashes of orange light flared up before fading into nothing.

And then they woke up.

25 - A Proper Chance

Twilight could see Luna from her perch, though the alicorn was as of yet unaware of the changeling’s presence. Her horn was alight, the Princess of the Night seemingly having had local police forces close the road as she conducted her examination of the site. There were more than a few disgruntled pedestrians because of this, but none dared challenge the night itself over the matter.

Part of Twilight knew she should offer Luna a helping hoof solve the riddle of what happened back in the Dream Realm. Give her expertise as a scholar of magic, figure out a way to fix whatever went wrong.

But as much as she hated to admit it to herself, she felt far too tired to care.

Twilight sighed, laying on to her stomach and crossing her forelegs as she continued to watch on with glazed eyes. Something was frustrating the alicorn, that was for sure. Maybe it was bad news… What else was new? And that street…

Who knew something so mundane, a simple street in the middle of Baltimare, was the cause of so much chaos and heartache…

But she at least had some idea, not like these little ponies grumbling about the closure as if that was the worst thing in the world. Like any of them knew. A street or a castle courtyard, anywhere could become the worst place in the world at a moment’s notice, far beyond their stupid little grievances.

...Now, why would she think something like that? It wasn’t their fault, as she had to remind herself. She shouldn’t take her problems out on them.

‘What is wrong with me? Why can’t I get it out of my head? Why is everything about this making me… me…’

“-sends her regards.”

Twilight scrunched her eyes shut at the memory, taking in a deep breath in before releasing it slowly, hoof on her chest as Cadance taught her so long ago. She wished it helped like it used to, but at times like these, it barely alleviated what she was feeling.

She wanted it to stop. She normally could make it stop! So why couldn’t she get her head together now of all times!? Why would her old wound not stop itching!? Why couldn’t she put that memory to the back of her mind and focus on getting Rainbow Dash back home!?

Why did her disguised hatred of changelings hurt so much? Was it really because she was a copy of one of her best friends? The visage of her fears from before her reveal to Equestria? Or was it that look she saw back at the hive, the same they wore that day. As simple as that.

Things just seemed to get more complicated as the days went by. And then she saw her.

Twilight Sparkle. How Twilight Sparkle ‘should’ have been in the eyes of who knows how many? Lavender fur, rounded pupils, not a hole marking her entire body. The reflection she deluded herself into believing was really hers for almost two decades of her life. One she was willing to bet didn’t get looks of distrust just because she had fangs in her jaw.

‘That’s not fair, Twilight,’ she reminded herself. ‘She’s hurt too, Rainbow told you that.’

But at least Rainbow Dash had never looked at her that way before.

Twilight was abruptly jarred from her thoughts when somepony cleared their throat behind her. Jumping in place, she craned her neck to see Rainbow Dash standing a few yards away. Her brow was furrowed, her lips curled down into a solemn frown. Curiously, the hairband she used to tie her mane into a ponytail was absent. Were it not for her scar, Twilight might have thought it was her Rainbow that had found her.

A heavy silence fell over the rooftop. A gentle breeze swept by, sending Rainbow’s long and unkempt mane drifting lazily through the air. She looked like she wanted to say something, but wasn’t sure where to begin, her jaw opening and closing like that.

Finally, Rainbow found her voice. She drew herself up to stand straight and looked directly into Twilight’s eyes. “...I don’t hate you.”

“Eh, heh heh! W-what are you talking about?” Twilight tried to shake off the comment in a not-so-convincing manner, standing up and taking a step away from the pegasus while doubly trying to hide her facial features. “I was just… checking on Luna, and… I should probably get on with that.”

Rainbow took a slow, delicate step forward. “Twilight, please. You told me I’m not an idiot back at the hive, so please don’t treat me like I am,” she said carefully, her words soft and gentle. “I know what’s going on. And… and I’m sorry, alright? I should have said something sooner, and I didn’t, and I got nopony to blame for that but me.”

Twilight grew silent, the changeling mare turning her back on the pegasus as a dark shadow grew across her face. “...Said something sooner? No. Don’t be sorry about that. You tried to spare me, but you couldn’t hide it any more than I could hide this. You don’t hate me, you hate us. The stupid evil changelings that have no business being in Equestria.”

Rainbow’s ears drooped. “W-what?! Twilight, don’t say things like that! You have it all wrong!” she tried, but at that moment, the words fell on deaf ears.

“I must be such a joke to you!” Twilight gave a humourless laugh. “The face of the monsters who killed Twilight mixed with her own, like some weird perversion of everything you love and hate at the same time. Maybe you were right to hit me, to have night terrors about me. Changelings are threats, those ponies back at the castle knew that, didn’t they?”

Rainbow’s brow furrowed in disapproval, and she approached with more determination. “Twilight…”

“Don’t deny it! I can sense your emotions, remember? I could feel every bit of hate in the hive, all the longing for her. The little purple pony I should have been. Well, I’m not her. I’m a changeling. Every look at me will only remind you of that, just like every time I see you all I can think about is a poisoned dagger in my chest.”

“Twilight!”

Twilight’s tirade was brought to a grinding halt when Rainbow’s hoof grabbed firmly onto hers. It was only then that she realized how much her scar had started itching, and how furiously she had been fussing with it. She turned, making eye contact with the pegasus beside her.

“...My nightmare wasn’t about you,” Rainbow said in barely even a whisper. “It was about my parents… You were in it, yeah, but the dream was not about you… I don’t hate you, Twilight, and I don’t hate your people. And if you can really sense what I’m feeling, then do it right now. Look at me and tell me that I’m lying. Tell me, honestly, that I truly hate you.”

Twilight sat silently for a moment, breathing hard as her body shook from the emotion and adrenaline running through her system. But then she opened her mind, just a little, and there…

Love. Love for the form of Twilight Sparkle, her Twilight, as expe-

No.

This was different. It didn’t taste the same. It wasn’t romantic, more platonic in nature, but it was love nonetheless. Love for…

For her…

She took in another far more shallow breath. “...That’s not right. That can’t be right!”

“I think it’s about right,” Rainbow replied with a ghost of a smile playing across her lips. She lost it a second later and looked off to the side, her ears drooping. “...I didn’t say anything about my nightmare to you because I was just… I didn’t want to talk about it. I’m not good about opening up with my feelings and all that, y’know? I didn’t think you’d read into it so much and get such a horrible idea… that’s on me…”

Rainbow turned back to Twilight and looked directly into her eyes. “And I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. And as long as I’m here with all of you, I won’t let it happen again.”

Twilight’s silence returned, her eyes drifting from the pegasus and towards the street once more. Luna was gone now, but it didn’t matter, the fact barely registering as a war raged inside of her. She had truly believed Rainbow hated her like they had. She had felt it. It had made sense in every logical way, the logistics of the situation fit!

And logic aside, that memory remained. The cold steel, the burning of the poison as it destroyed her from the inside out. The anguish of her mother ringing in her head as Celestia held onto her with more desperation than she’d ever seen.

Everything the past few days had brought, it made the memory terribly clear. Every moment, sound and sensation. And her…

Her feelings supported her words. But how could it be true!? How could she actually care for her!? Who she really was!? A changeling!?

“...Liar…”

“Wha?”

Something twigged inside the royal changeling’s mind, something dark and primal and buried in the deepest depths of her psyche. Instinct flared along with her gossamer wings, her pupils dilating even further into violently thin slits as she regarded the pony.

Liar.

LIAR.

And then, in one quick movement befitting any predatory species, she was upon Rainbow Dash. A hiss made its way past her forked tongue and dripping fangs, pain and fury in her eyes as her scar burned like it never had before.

“DON’T LIE TO ME!” she bellowed, shoving the pegasus back with her hooves as she moved with her. “Don’t you DARE lie to me!”

“W-woah!” Rainbow yelped, scrambling backwards in a desperate attempt to get away. “Twilight, stop! I’m not-”

Another vicious hiss cut Rainbow’s protests off as the Princess of the Changelings continued to lash out at the pegasus, Rainbow merely attempting to stop any of her strikes from making serious contact as she remained on the defensive.

“YOU HATE ME!” she continued in agony. “A changeling! A monster! Just like them! Just another judgemental pony who will send me back to that place! The cold! The dark! The… agh!”

Twilight gave one final shove against the pony that pushed her up against a wall, planting her hooves firmly into her cyan fur with her fangs bared, eyes full of anguish as she suddenly lit up her horn with clear intent. Rainbow stared back at her with wide eyes, her pupils dilated in terror and confusion. Twilight could see the glow of her horn reflected in those deep pink orbs.

And then, whatever was to come next, did not.

All energy died, all will to keep on fighting her terror subsided as the killer instinct of a Changeling Queen bled away into the frail insecurity of Twilight Sparkle. And with that instinct went the magic, her horn blinking out as she fell forward and buried her muzzle into Rainbow Dash’s shoulder, a terrible wail ringing out as she finally let her pent up emotions out in their truest form.

Rainbow didn’t respond for a few seconds, seemingly taken completely off guard. But then, slowly and gently, she wrapped her forelegs around Twilight in a tight hug. She rested her chin on Twilight’s head. She even wrapped her wings around the hysterically weeping changeling, adding another layer of warmth, comfort, and protection.

“Twi… if any of those jerks ever came by while I’m here,” Rainbow whispered to her. “I’d fight each and every last one of them to keep you safe. Hay, I’d even take that knife for you if I had to… because you’re my friend.”

“I- I’m s-so sorry…” Twilight begged her forgiveness. “I’m so sorry…”

“It’s okay,” Rainbow assured her, running her hoof down the back of Twilight’s head in a soothing manner. “It’s okay, Twi. You’re okay. I gotcha.”

They remained that way for a little while longer, Rainbow more than willing to wait as Twilight cried away her remaining anguish until the tears steadily came to a stop and gave way to careful breathing.

And then, with one large gulp of air, Twilight shakily raised her head to look the otherwordly pegasus in the eyes.

“I… Thinking you hated me, my friend, it was too much. Ever since that day I’ve been able to block it out, just not think about it. But thinking that, everything was just so clear, and only got more so each hour,” she admitted, getting herself back under control. “Dammit… Here you are with your own terrible baggage, and I can’t keep myself together.”

Rainbow gave her a soft smile. “‘Kay, so, this doesn’t really mean the same thing to you as it does to me, but… that’s gotta be one of the stupidest things I’ve heard since I got here.”

Twilight blinked. “...Huh?”

Rainbow’s smile grew. “Did ya forget what friends are for or something? It’s not a one-way thing, ya know. You can’t expect to carry the weight of all your friends' problems on your shoulders and not expect them to do the same. That’s what friendship’s all about, isn’t it? Being there for each other and sharing the burdens?”

Twilight blinked again, staring at her evenly for a moment before a genuine smile graced her features alongside a laugh. “Oh, Rainbow. I know you’re right, I guess friends just need to remind each other of that sometimes. Heh… How about we write a Friendship Report together? Haven’t done that since my brother’s wedding exploded.”

Rainbow chuckled and lightly ruffled the changeling’s mane. “Ha. If we get a chance, sure,” she agreed heartily. She fell quiet for a second, her expression turning a little more serious. “So… you good?”

“No. Not entirely,” Twilight admitted. “But at least I’m being honest about it now. I don’t think that day will fade from my mind anytime soon. I still don’t even know who sent that changeling infiltrator who set the whole thing up. It’s a sore spot, that’s for sure.”

“Well, if you ever find ‘em…” Rainbow winked. “Gimme a ring. I’ll help ya sort ‘em out.”

“I’ll keep you in mind,” she agreed. “Eh, I think I understand why I’m a killjoy now.”

Rainbow lightly smacked her on the shoulder. “Ya think?” she teased lightly.

“You know, if I knew being an Element of Harmony would be this ironically chaotic, I might have given eternal night a shot.”

“Heh. Now I can’t help but wonder how that mess went for you compared to me,” Rainbow chuckled. “Was other me held hostage for the whole thing?”

“Um, no. She faced temptation from some fake Wonderbolt knock-offs.”

“Lame. That is so much lamer,” Rainbow deadpanned. “I mean, I’m glad she got off easy - again - but I had to put up with being stuck in a cage by my corrupted aunt and forced to choose between being turned into a slave or joining Nightmare Moon with mom and the rest of you as leverage against me. It sucked.”

“Wow. Luna really had a problem back then, right?”

“Well, she was a fallen alicorn, so ‘problem’ might be a bit of an understatement,” Rainbow shrugged. “But eh. We blew her up with a rainbow laser explosion. All was well.”

Twilight giggled, looking across at the cyan pegasus with friendly appreciation. With a small smile on her face, she took a step forward and planted a small kiss on Rainbow’s cheek before the mare could so much as react.

“Twilight’s a really lucky mare. As would I be, if I was another pony, different from who I am,” she said gently to her. “Thank you, Rainbow.”

Rainbow blinked a few times, her cheeks turning red and her wings twitching on her back. She coughed into her hoof and awkwardly rubbed the back of her head. “Heh… well, you are lucky. You got the best friends in the world waiting for you back at that hotel. Plus like, what, three really great moms?”

“I have. And I know they’re not going anywhere,” Twilight admitted. “But she has you. Now, if I actually liked mares…”

There was that purr again.

Rainbow’s blush intensified. “W-we really doing this again? Cause uh, we are alone, and if you tempt me, I have terrible impulse control.”

“Pfft. If I liked mares. Then I’d be tempted,” Twilight shot back. “But you are such an easy target. What can I say? Chrysalis is my mother, remember?”

“Course I do. Who do you think gave me permission to come after you?”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Of course she did. I suppose we’re lucky she didn’t send for half the hive. Oh Celestia, she didn’t do that, did she!?”

“I… don’t think so?” Rainbow echoed with a raised eyebrow. “I mean, I don’t have your egregorwhatsit, so… uh, ask her yourself?”

“Egregore,” Twilight corrected on principle.

“Gesundheit,” Rainbow replied automatically.

“Funny,” she deadpanned. “You do that too? Gah, whatever. I’ll leave cleaning up Mother’s political messes for later. I have an entire box full of charts, graphs and papers ready to go for such a situation!”

Rainbow’s smile softened. “Heh… yeah, you’re Twilight Sparkle alright,” she muttered before turning to look off into the night. “Anyway, we should probably get back to the hotel. Everypony’s gonna be worried if we take too long, and I don’t wanna miss it when Luna gets back.”

“Yeah, okay. Hopefully, Luna has figured out where we went wrong by now,” Twilight said. “We do still have to get you back home. Though, I’m going to miss you when you’re gone. These last few days seem like they’ve been both an eternity and a brief moment at the same time.”

“No kidding. Feels like six months or something,” Rainbow replied with a shrug. She then turned to offer Twilight another warm smile. “And I’m gonna miss you, too. I’m glad I got to meet you. Frankly, I don’t think I’d have ever made it even close to this far without you.”

“And this is why the multiverse needs its Twilight Sparkles,” Twilight bragged. “Ignoring the inevitable evil versions, which by calculations of the cosmos’ infinite nature we could potentially determine-”

“Twi,” Rainbow cut her off with a cheeky little smirk while lifting her hoof and narrowing her eyes, pulling that cheap princess trick of hers. “No.”

“Oh, fine. But I hope evil me at least has a Rainbow Dash of her own to count on. Hopefully to talk her down, but eh,” the Princess said with a roll of her eyes. “But… if I can, I’ll see about Starswirl’s old mirror technique I told you about. Maybe I can figure it out, visit sometime.”

Rainbow grinned. “Heh. That’d be cool. Here’s to hoping,” she said while lifting a hoof as if for a toast. She then turned back and began to head for the edge of the roof. “Anyway, we going or what?”

“Yeah. Just… one last thing…” Twilight hesitated a moment, but then took in a breath and allowed herself to speak frankly. “When I visit, and I will visit, I hope to find that the ponies of your world have given its own changelings a proper chance to have grown out of your Chrysalis’ shadow. Don’t make the mistakes that caused… this.”

She gestured towards her scar, the itch finally fading away. At least for the time being, the sting wasn’t so easily vanquished.

Rainbow paused for a second. She turned to look up at the sky as she pondered her answer. “...It’s not really in my hooves to make that happen,” she eventually admitted with a regretful sigh. “But… I can definitely try to help it along. And I can promise you this;”

She turned to face Twilight directly one more time. “I know that I’ll give them a chance whenever I meet them. I know they’re not monsters, and with my world’s Chrysalis gone, they finally have a chance to prove it. I’m not about to stand in the way of that. Not after all this.”

Twilight sighed in relief, looking up to smile at her. “Thank you. Now, let’s get back before Mother really does send out a search party.”

“Let it be known that the search party has arrived,” Princess Luna’s voice quite suddenly rang out above the pair, both glancing up to see her descending down towards them before landing on the roof and folding her wings. “Albeit not one of Queen Chrysalis’ doing, I saw fit to remain here while you worked out your… issues. And I resent that comment about my past, my former ‘issues’ are not to be discussed so flippantly.”

Twilight gaped like a fish. “Wait… You were there the whole time!?”

“Yes.”

“Honestly? Not surprised,” Rainbow deadpanned before shaking her head and staring at the lunar princess with a serious frown. “Yeah, we’re good. What about you, though? What’s up with the rift? Is everything alright there?”

“I had just finished my evaluation of the rift when I heard your voices. I am glad things turned out well here, I nearly intervened upon your… ‘outburst’. Alas, it wasn’t necessary. However, I am afraid things are not so positive where I stand.”

Rainbow gulped, her ears drooping. “...What went wrong?”

“That is best discussed in detail with the others,” Luna decided. “Come, we must not delay. For now, suffice to say, we do not have the week we believed.”

“What? Then… how long do we have?” Twilight asked, trying to do the math and figure out where they went wrong.

The next answer silenced those questions.

“Hours.”

26 - Miscalculations

“HOURS?!” came the surprised squeal of a pink party horse while her friends all stared in abject horror at Princess Luna’s announcement. “But that’s like… Days but not in hours in minutes and we really really need to get Dashie Deus back home or she will never see her lovey-dovey again and that would be sad and I could probably get a ‘sorry you missed it’ cheering up party going in a couple of hours but saving the world is-”

“Laughter,” Luna said cooly. “Silence.”

Pinkie stopped speaking, but her frantic movements suggested her rant continued as an inward monologue.

“Er, but Pinkie does have a point…” Rarity added. “This is… A bit sudden. Hours to get her home? That is a bit of a tall order, but at least we’re already by her exit.”

“I would hate to think what would happen had we not been here when the scary crash happened…” Fluttershy stated thankfully.

Luna grit her teeth.

“...And yet, I feel there is much left unsaid,” Queen Chrysalis noted, moving to be near her daughter as the latter glanced at the increasingly panicked-looking Rainbow Dash with worry. “What did happen out there.”

“Yeah, all I heard before Pinkie did her thing was the time bit,” native Rainbow commented.

“Cos all she literally said was, ‘Comrades, we have but hours to see witness our charge’s escape!’, and then Pinkie Pie did her Pinkie Pie thang,” Applejack said in an odd attempt at mimicking Luna’s tone.

There was a moment of silence.

Rainbow glanced at Applejack, setting aside her panic for a moment. “That’s a terrible impression.”

“But not inaccurate,” Luna replied, ruffling her wings. “To a degree. My actual wording was, ‘to bear witness to our charge’s escape’.”

Applejack's snout wrinkled in annoyance. “Ain’t my fault y’all have fancy words.”

“Can we focus?!” Rainbow suddenly snapped, her wings twitching open in a display of agitation. “We only have hours, right?! So banter later, explain the problem now!”

“Yes, let’s,” Twilight concurred. “To answer your question, we came to an understanding, and then Luna dropped that bombshell on us. And if I were to make a well-educated guess as to why the Princess looks so displeased, it’s because the rift here is closed, right?”

Luna glanced at the young royal changeling, a look of pity then forming as that gaze shifted to her counterpart’s niece.

“Alas, it is so. The connection between our worlds has grown more fragile than anticipated, and our meddling in the Dream Realm closed almost all of the rifts.”

Sometimes, Twilight hated being smart enough to be right about these things.

“But…” Spike started, looking somewhat mortified along with the rest of them. “You said ‘almost all’, right? So, there are others?”

“One, to be precise,” Luna confirmed. “Examining the network in my realm revealed it to be the only one stronger than the one here.”

“Above that empty field…” Twilight recalled.

“Right, the bear…” Spike muttered.

“There is no bear!” Luna retorted. “The circumstance behind its manifestation may be a mystery, but there is no denying its strength. But even that is rapidly fading away, and soon it too shall close.”

“What did we do wrong?” Twilight wondered aloud. “We examined the risks, and with your proficiency with the Dream Realm, we should have known if we were taxing it too much!”

“We always knew our intervention would weaken the connection,” Luna responded. “All of my previous meetings with the other side confirmed that. Our interaction should not have had such an effect as this, however, based on our original observations. All of this could only have happened if the connection between our worlds is much weaker than we first witnessed. As it is, the decay accelerated after we made our original estimate, and when we finally made our attempt, it proved too much for it to handle.”

“So we went from a week to maybe a few days between Canterlot and here,” Twilight surmised. “And because we called ahead and pulled so many ponies through, now it’s hours. Why didn’t Starswirl’s books mention things like this!?”

“My mentor didn’t encounter something quite like this, his experiments were far less grand in scope,” Luna pointed out. “This is an anomaly, it was never going to be predictable.”

“Okay, cool, we have the technicalities down,” Rainbow babbled, stepping forward while her eyes darted around the room. “So now, my question is what are we still doing here?! We have hours to get halfway across the freaking country! We gotta GO!”

“But how exactly?” the other Rainbow asked her double. “We could probably make it, sure! We’re us! Maybe even the other winged equines in the room, minus Fluttershy. No offence.”

“Oh, none taken!”

“But that might be all we need. The magical powerhouses compared to the random strays,” Chrysalis pointed out.

“Offence very much taken,” Rarity said with a huff.

“Or perhaps not,” Luna denied. “Should the Elements be required, it is not wise to leave them behind. And even so, this location is quite a flight away. As they say, the two Rainbow Dashes could make it. But the rest of us would only do so with mere moments to spare. Too close to be comfortable.”

“So we need transport, right?” native Rainbow remarked. “Something we can pull you all in!”

“And jus’ how’re we meant to find one of them?” Applejack asked. “Ah mean, we left Chrysalis’ back in Ponyville, and while the Princess has deep pockets and all, ah sure don’t know where the nearest rental is in this darned place.”

“Ask for directions?” Pinkie asked innocently, followed by a not-so-innocent: “Oh! Or we could make use of my ‘for robber emergency’ stashes!”

“Why do you even have that!?” Rarity asked, aghast.

“Haha, pl-”

“No! Never mind!” she decided right then and there. “Enough of that! We do not need to run around like such uncouth ruffians to get what we need, be it a rental or… another such provider.”

Luna gave her a level stare. “Explain.”

“Being something of a fashion icon…”

“Bragging much?” Applejack deadpanned.

“...I, of course, have a few connections dotted around,” Rarity continued. “And a few favours owed. Just give me twenty minutes, at most.”

“Rarity, we really don’t have time to waste if that’s an underestimation,” Twilight warned.

“Please, darling, you know me far better,” the alabaster unicorn responded with a confident flick of her mane. “I have things well in hoof.”

The next fifteen or so minutes passed by in a hectic blur for Rainbow Dash. Rarity departed the moment she had made her little declaration, instructing the others to park themselves out in front of the hotel and wait. Something about a ‘lady needing room to work her magic.’

A general air of anxiety hung over the group as they waited on that curbside. Rainbow couldn’t blame them, given how invested they all were in this at this point. But she held no doubts that her own stresses dwarfed theirs. It was paradoxical how long this short span of time was taking.

She couldn’t contain herself. Her stress, fear, anxiety, and dread were visible in her posture as she paced restlessly back and forth on the sidewalk. Her head was turned down, her ears hanging, and her wings ruffling and twitching on her back every few seconds. She imagined the changelings could sense it just as keenly as she could.

Her thoughts were confirmed when a gossamer wing was draped onto her back.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure she’s whining her way into a carriage as we speak,” Twilight said jokingly. “She will be back in no time. Besides, it should be quicker than the alternatives. Even using royal authority to ‘requisition’ one could become complicated if we cause a scene. Point being, with all of us helping, you’ll be home today. So chin up!”

“Yes please, because this aura is disgusting,” Chrysalis remarked. “Depression tastes as awful as it looks. And you have little reason, my daughter always pulls a metaphorical rabbit out of her ridiculous hat.”

Rainbow twitched and shot an annoyed glare at Chrysalis. “I get that you’re trying to be comforting, Chrysalis, but… you are not good at it. And as somepony whose had to deal with depression before, and as a Princess of Equestria I am gonna ask you to shut up for now.”

“Live for centuries and then tell me I don’t grasp your state of mind. Trust me, I know it too well,” Chrysalis shot back. “But succumb to fatalism and you shall fall. So until that time, as a Queen of the Changelings, I am going to demand you listen to my child and prepare to receive your beloved’s inevitable ravishment upon your return.”

Twilight blushed. “I didn’t need that image broadcasted directly to me…”

“You did not. But I saw fit to send it anyway.”

Rainbow looked down, briefly entertaining the mental image Chrysalis’ words sparked. Her wings twitched. “...You don’t wanna know what I’m thinking right now.”

Chrysalis shot her a smirk. “No, but you are thinking it, so we shall call it progress.”

Rainbow winced, a tiny blush forming on her cheeks as the mental image became more… intricate. “Ugh…”

“Yes, now that tastes better,” Chrysalis said in victory. “But… all kidding aside, this is but the final obstacle. And I know you are well versed in tackling what seeks to stop you. So, Princess of Equestria, show me just how strong you really are, and deny any fate other than what you wish for yourself!”

Rainbow glanced at Chrysalis again. “Heh. Put a horn on my head so I can open the rift and jump through on my own and I’ll get right on that.”

“If it were only that simple. I doubt even the full might of the Queen’s Council could achieve something to this scale,” Chrysalis mused. “Not without time and effort, never mind uniting them under a common cause. But you don’t require them nor a horn. I believe that much about you.”

Rainbow hummed before taking a series of deep breaths, trying to steady her frayed nerves. It worked, albeit only somewhat. “Well, this may be the final obstacle,”she said after a minute. “But that’s good and bad. If this works, then yeah, like Twi said, I’m going home tonight… but we won’t get another chance. We can’t mess this up. If we fail, then…”

She sighed and looked away. “Well, you get the idea.”

Chrysalis hummed, peering at the pegasus curiously. “Yes, should we fail. And to sate my own curiosity, what would you do with that outcome?”

“Mother!” Twilight hissed.

“It is a genuine question,” Chrysalis calmly retorted, taking note of several other pairs of eyes now on the conversation. “And not just for me, it would appear.”

Rainbow hummed quietly, giving the question a bit of thought. “I… I’m not sure,” she muttered, rubbing the back of her head. “I guess… I guess I’d just try and get integrated into your group? Help out where I can? Ya know, when I get a hold of myself. Maybe help Twilight with that idea she has to try and get a permanent portal made between our worlds? I mean…”

She turned to face Twilight, managing to put on a small smile. “I dunno how long it’d take, but I’m sure we could figure something out eventually, and I’d be happy to help out wherever I could until it was done. Even if it took years… Besides, I know my friends back home would look after my Twilight for me, if it came to that…”

“Should that happen,” Luna spoke up. “You would be more than welcome staying where you wish until the time of your return.”

“I… I would be happy to have a friend around the hive…” Twilight suggested.

“I allow visits, I do not think the hive is ready for permanent Equestrian habitation,” Chrysalis disagreed.

“Hey, that’ll all change eventually. I have policies all lined up!”

“You are not Queen yet, daughter.”

Rainbow snorted. “Right, well, how about we just dodge that whole mess by getting me home tonight? Having a backup plan’s a good idea, but I’d rather not use it if I don’t have to.”

As if on cue, the sound of wheels rolling along the stone streets reached the group’s ears. All eyes turned up to see two upper-class chariots speeding toward them, a tired-looking earth pony stallion pulling the lead carriage along while Rarity stuck her head out of the window with an ‘I told you so’ look on her face.

“Here we are, darlings!”

“Well, ah’ll be a timberwolf stuck in Big Mac’s rope traps, she actually did it,” Applejack said with a whistle. “How’d ya manage this one?”

“Ha. Ha. Please.”

“Hey!” Pinkie whined. “That’s my thing!”

“Consider it justice for that horrid plan of yours earlier,” Rarity scolded, exiting the carriage alongside a rather flustered looking stallion in a suit. “You should thank High Bid here, he was generous enough to offer them up for your cause, Rainbow Dash.”

“Uh, yes…” the stallion, High Bid, said nervously, looking up at the various royals present. “Anything for the crown! Now, Miss Rarity…”

“Hm, yes?”

“Seeing as I have fulfilled my obligation, perhaps you would consider joining me for a-”

“Oh, look at the time, we just must be off!” Rarity said as she glanced up at the moon without missing a beat. “Thank you for your service, but I do think you can go now.”

“But I-”

“So, Princess Luna, what have I missed?” Rarity turned and pretended not to hear his protests.

“Do I wish to know the manner of your ‘persuasion’?” Luna deadpanned.

“Psh. It was just calling in a favour like I said.”

“Did it come with eyelashes?” native Rainbow remarked.

“Does it matter? I do think the results speak for themselves.”

Chrysalis smirked. “I do think you were born the wrong species. You would have made a devilish changeling.”

“Why thank you… Er, I think? Ahem.”

“Yeah yeah, that’s great,” Rainbow interjected, taking a step forward and nodding at the chariots. “We going or what? Kinda on the clock here.”

“Looking at these carriages, they would definitely get all of us there,” Twilight noted. “One Rainbow Dash per carriage leading it. But it might be too large for a single pegasus to make the flight as timely as they could be without the added weight.”

“Um… we could help…?” Fluttershy suggested with a fluff of her wings.

“Yeah, I think you’re a little slow. Chrysalis and Luna, maybe…?” native Rainbow suggested.

Chrysalis’ smirk never left her face. “I would put forth a better idea. You see, my infiltrators are well trained in all they would need for a life and death situation. That includes as much their flying ability as much as their magical and martial skills.”

“Yeah, that’s great, but I don’t see any around here.

And, at that moment, alongside a ping across the hive mind heard only by Twilight, flashes of green occurred all around them as various unassuming ponies who had been scattered in the streets burst into flames. Their fur melted away into chitin, blue armour was likewise revealed to have been magically concealed, revealing the forms of several changeling drones.

“That is the point,” the Queen announced.

“That is terrifying,” Rainbow remarked in a deadpan, unable to stop a chill from running down her spine. She had honestly forgotten that they were being shadowed by Chrysalis’ guards since Ponyville. If these ones could hide from her so well, how easy would it be for hostile ones back home to do the same? She shook her head to dispel the paranoid notion. “But whatever. If they’re helping us pull these things, then let’s hop to!”

“You heard the interloper! Prepare the harnesses and prepare for flight, fast as you can! Do it!”

“Yes, my Queen!” the lead drone saluted. “Trapezius, Platysma, with me! The rest of you, get moving!”

With the changelings dutifully running to get set up, Princess Twilight turned to her mother with a thankful, if bemused, expression.

“You know, for once I am actually grateful you’re so paranoid.”

“I’m so glad to be appreciated,” she replied with no small amount of sarcasm. “But the time has come to leave. Another second of mindless talk and we may be stuck with her.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes before turning to her native counterpart as they approached the chariots. “So… up for that race we talked about?” she asked with a challenging glint in her eyes.

Her other gave a wide grin. “Oh, you’re on!”

With the two pegasi both rushing to join the changelings with renewed vigour, Twilight and Chrysalis both moved with Luna and Spike towards the carriage pulled by the otherworldly Rainbow Dash while the Bearer of Magic’s four friends moved into the one pulled by their more familiar friend. They all boarded, each Rainbow flanked by three changelings who would be supporting the flight. The doors swung shut, and the stamping of hooves indicated that take off was about to commence.

“Well, this is it…” Twilight said as a pang of sadness hit her heart. “I’ll be sad to see you go, Rainbow…”

“It is for the best,” Princess Luna spoke out, hearing the mare’s mutter.

“I know. But still.”

“Do you think we’ll actually get there in time?” Spike asked as the world beyond the carriage doors started to shift, the chariots began to be pulled forward and gain momentum. “You know, before this portal closes for good?”

“She will,” Chrysalis confirmed. “Barring anymore ‘miscalculations’.”

Luna hummed in contemplation. “Let us hope it does not come to that.”

Spike nodded. “Yeah, that’d really suck.”

“As much of an understatement as it is, young dragon, yes, it would.”

Twilight remained silent as the carriage jolted and the upper floors of the surrounding skyscrapers started to pass by the windows, the wind rolling past them as flight was obtained. They continued to pick up speed, Twilight hoping their changelings could at least somewhat keep pace with the two pegasi outside.

And as the silence persisted, other musings reentered her mind.

This rift, the strongest and most mysterious at the same time. High above a vast range of countryside, no civilisation anywhere for miles. Just grass, trees and wandering wildlife.

So why?

Why was it so important to Rainbow’s altered history?

27 - The Rift

The journey to the open field had felt far longer in Rainbow’s mind than it actually was. Even with the small entertainment factor afforded by the impromptu ‘race’ with her native counterpart, her mind could not stop fidgeting. What if they showed up too late, and the rifts closed for good? How long would it take for Twilight to find a way to send her home if they failed here today? How would her friends take it?

More than once she had to slow down for just a second to calm herself down with deep breaths. Despite this, she somehow managed to keep pace with her other-self. Either the native Rainbow was just slower than her, or the pegasus was willingly slowing down to match her. A silent sign of support, maybe? Trying to make her feel less powerless by giving her the win?

A touching sentiment and it did make Rainbow feel a little better. But only a little.

By the time they finally arrived at the open field, Rainbow’s lungs felt as if they were on fire, as did the bases of her wings. The sun was just starting to rise in the distance, and she became keenly aware of just how long she had been awake at this point.

‘First thing I’ma do when I get home: NAP,’ she decided with finality.

“Rainbow! I think this is the place!” Twilight’s voice shouted at her from the chariot behind her. “Set us down! We need to start looking!”

“Gotcha!” Rainbow called back, beginning her descent. As their altitude dropped, she looked out over the field again. A bewildered frown spread across her face. It was strange. Something about this place felt oddly familiar to her.

It was jarring when her hooves finally met the ground. She stumbled once or twice as she bled momentum before drawing to a complete stop. She sluggishly unhooked herself from her harness and glanced back at the changelings that had been assigned to help her. She winced with sympathy when she saw just how exhausted they were.

“Eheh… sorry, guys?” she apologized weakly.

“If I ever have to fly again,” one of them mumbled, flopping tiredly to the ground in a heaving heap. “It will be too soon.”

“We have to fly back after this,” the commanding officer remarked.

There was a resounding groan, the native counterpart to Rainbow Dash shooting them an apologetic smile.

“Hey, least it was a draw? I mean, I’d normally take that as a loss, but against myself, I don’t mind-”

“Not the time, Rainbow!” Twilight shouted out as she shot out of her carriage with enough urgent speed that the door almost came off of its hinges. She came to a landing on the roof as the others all piled out, her studious eyes scanning for something amidst the clouds. “I think I… Yes, up there! See it?”

All eyes turned up to where she was looking. Rainbow’s keen eyes picked it out immediately, her heart dropping a few inches into her guts at the sight. It was just like what they had seen in the Dream Realm; a rippling tear in the fabric of reality, crackling with orange energy. To her surprise, several other rifts, far smaller in scale, were scattered around it. She counted at least six of them.

“It would seem we have found our quarry,” Luna remarked as she exited her carriage.

“Of all the insane dealings of you and yours, my daughter, this by far supersedes any and all expectations,” Chrysalis deadpanned, though seemed in slight awe at the wound in reality. “You punctured a hole in the universe. I’m proud in a way.”

“Other me!” Twilight defended irritably. “And not on purpose!”

Rainbow hummed, looking around at the fields again. With a quiet huff, she unfurled her wings and kicked back into the air, heading for the Rift. Without the weight of the carriage to slow her down, she ascended quickly and easily. As she climbed into the sky again, it finally clicked with her where she was.

“...Of course,” she mumbled quietly, her ears drooping as a wave of nostalgia washed over her. “Of course it’s this place…”

“Rainbow, wait!” Twilight shouted out, following the pegasus up into the clouds with her gossamer wings buzzing frantically.

She landed on a cloud a short distance from where Rainbow Dash hovered, taking a moment to study the rift from her closer position. There almost seemed to be a night sky on the other side, and other images too were barely visible from the smaller wounds, but what they contained was not yet clear.

The mare then glanced back towards the ground, Luna’s horn alight as she presumably cast cloud walking spells on her friends. Once that was done, she lifted those who could not fly in a levitation spell and ascended up towards them. Chrysalis followed along too, Twilight then turning from them and focusing back on the otherworldly pony ahead of her.

Rainbow wasn’t looking at the rift anymore. She slowly rotated in place, taking in the silhouettes of the distant mountains, the specific landmarks in the landscape beneath her, and even the way the air felt against her coat. She took in a deep breath and let it out in a quiet sigh before turning to Twilight. “...This is where it happened.”

She turned back to the rift, and somehow, she knew that this was exactly where she had been. This exact spot. “...This is where I was when I saw you and Starlight… Where I did the Rainboom... When my future changed.”

Twilight frowned. “But that was in Cloudsdale, wasn’t it? You said…”

Twilight’s eyes lit up in realization, her mouth forming into an ‘o’ shape as she cursed herself for not seeing it sooner. It seemed so obvious now that she really thought about it, because the day that started it all, the smallest event that snowballed into HUGE consequences, was in Cloudsdale.

Cloudsdale. The mobile city of the pegasi that roamed across the skies.

And it had been here that day, so many years prior.

“Judging by the smell of astonishment, I’m guessing you realized something at the last minute,” Chrysalis spoke out as the others caught up, the Element Bearers being deposited on another cloud. “But astonishment is something you can ill afford, unless, Rainbow Dash, you don’t want to return to the ball and chain.”

“Oh, enough of that!” Twilight shot back. “Luna, how’s the rift looking?”

Luna hummed, her eyes closing as she elected to probe its existence in the Dream Realm before approaching it with her physical form for safety’s sake. After a few moments, she opened them up again, glancing towards the others with a relieved but severe expression.

“Barely stable, and just for the moment. We likely have minutes, though how many I cannot say. Definitely under an hour before its collapse is total, and I cannot say whether it will simply disappear the moment we intervene.”

“What’s with the other ones?” Native Rainbow inquired, gesturing at the six smaller rifts with a bewildered frown. “I don’t remember the last one we saw having all that goin’ on.”

“Didn’t y’all say this was the point of the big kaboom and all?” Applejack asked.

“So maybe the big kaboom went BANG and BOOM and then there were more BANGABOOMS!” Pinkie ‘helpfully’ added.

Rainbow frowned. “...Anypony wanna translate that into ponish and not caffeinated gerbil speak?” she asked, calling back to something her world’s Spike had once said.

“If I must,” Chrysalis remarked, tilting her head in thought. “If the divergence point is here, then it’s likely the source of the ‘time boom’ as well. The change occurred here, it is the starting point and thus the most volatile. And as the starting point, perhaps it produced ‘shrapnel’ that made smaller cuts in the fabric of other worlds alongside the larger one to our own.”

Twilight was beaming. “That’s… actually brilliantly put! Much like any explosion, the most damage is done by the detonation, but shrapnel and debris can cause secondary carnage. So, following that logic, these smaller rifts might lead to other worlds close to our own universe, but not so close as our two adjacent realities to be caught in the primary tear!”

“Um, yes… How obvious…” Rarity muttered, her head clearly hurting.

“I don’t like explosions…” Fluttershy whispered, shrinking back. “They scare the animals… and me…”

Rainbow frowned, her eyes drifting from one rift to the next. “Other worlds caught up in the blast zone, huh? Go figure,” she muttered before focusing on the big one. The image on the other side was still hazy, to say the least. But as she looked, it occurred to her it was slowly starting to come into focus. The vague appearance of a night sky shifter and rippled, before a perfect reflection of the very grasslands she was over now faded into view, also bathed in the morning light.

And as her own world faded back into view, so too did those in the smaller rifts become visible. Rainbow’s eyes widened in surprise. In the first, she saw a mare with icy blue fur and a long red mane, dressed in a tattered blue cloak staring back at her with wide amethyst coloured eyes while a small filly with teal fur hid under her. In another, she saw a freshly hatched changeling grub crawling along a smooth stone floor in what looked like a gloomy basement. In yet another, she saw Minuette as a little filly, before she even had her cutie mark, sitting alone in her room and staring up at an ornate mirror. She looked like she was talking to it, oddly enough.

“Rainbow…?” Twilight called out as she flew up directly next to the pegasus, her eyes trailing along the images the mare was studying before looking towards the remaining tears yet unobserved. “...And I didn’t even bring my notebook…”

The fourth rift contained a vast snow-filled wasteland, possibly the Frozen North, a tall mass of shadow seemingly studying the wound as it swirled aimlessly and… almost sadly. The next, meanwhile, showed a wasteland of another sort; a desolate desert surrounding a crater with a single cave entrance, an array of graves sitting before the dark abyss that told a tale of tragedy as a single zebra mare stood before them with her head hung low in mourning.

And then the final one showed a far softer sight, a foal’s bedroom in a Cloudsdale home with the said foal observing the opening with wide-eyed curiosity. The blue filly with the brown mane crept towards it while trying to poke the rift, seemingly finding no success. She frowned and seemed to utter something beginning with a ‘b’.

Rainbow blinked several times as the odd sights. Then, she gave them all a sheepish wave, a crooked grin on her face. “Uh… sorry? Don’t mind us?” she said weakly, though somehow she had the feeling her words did not reach them.

And then there was movement in the large rift. Focusing there yet again, her heart skipped a beat as her Twilight and friends came into view, guided by Celestia and Luna.

She acted on impulse, her wings flaring out. “Twilight! Aunt Luna!” she cried, throwing herself forward with her hooves outstretched.

Bonk.

“OW!”

Rainbow fell back a few feet, having collided with an invisible but completely solid barrier. A cold sweat had broken out under her coat the second she touched it, and a small amount of adrenaline had filled her veins. ‘Magic. That was a magic wall.’

“Rainbow!” her Twilight’s voice called out, muffled as if on the other side of a window. Rainbow shook her head and looked up to see the alicorn looking back at her, standing up on her hind legs and pressing her hooves against the wall. “Are you okay?!”

“That looked like it smarted a little,” Applejack pointed out on the other side, adjusting her hat.

“Looked fun to me,” Pinkie noted.

“Everything is fun to you,” came Rarity’s quip.

“So?”

Fluttershy didn’t say anything, merely coming up to Twilight’s side and placing a comforting hoof on her shoulder.

“The barrier is magical,” Aunt Luna noted with a grimace. “Try not to touch it, my niece. It’s already unstable enough, and we cannot afford to let you go into a flashback just now.”

Rainbow gave a shaky nod, drifting back a few feet. “R-right… are you guys alright?”

“As well as can be,” Celestia added, craning her neck down and giving Rainbow a reassuring smile. “We will have you home soon. Just hold on a little longer, Rainbow.”

“Rainbow!” Princess Twilight caught up to the pegasus, her eyes then locking onto the large alabaster alicorn before her with surprise. “P-Princess Celestia!”

Celestia’s eyes locked onto the changeling princess. She blinked and shifted back momentarily in alarm before regaining her composure and putting on a smile. “Ah, yes. You must be your world’s version of Twilight Sparkle, are you not?”

“Um, yes! At least, last I checked,” she replied with an awkward chuckle. “Oh gosh, that was a terrible joke I’m sorry!”

Celestia gave a good-natured laugh. “You’re fine,” she assured before her expression softened into something more meaningful. “I’ve heard of how you’ve taken care of my daughter ever since she arrived in your world, and of how far you’ve gone to help her get home. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you for all you’ve done for my family.”

“I… It’s nothing…” she muttered awkwardly, seemingly as intimidated by this Celestia as her own, even when there was little reason to be.

“Yeah, buggo here is always on point,” native Rainbow remarked as the others pulled up to them, the Elements Bearers from the changeling side watching on curiously from their cloud as they caught sight of themselves on the other side. “And super awkward because your, like, her ‘other’ other mother for us.”

Celestia raised an eyebrow. “Other… other? As in, third?” she asked in bewilderment.

“But there is only one that is true, so don’t you forget that,” Chrysalis remarked as she hovered into their field of view for the first time, speaking as one would to defend their territory.

A visible wave of tension washed over the gathered ponies on the other side of the rift. Several of them took steps back with frightened or hostile expressions, while Celestia immediately flared her wings defensively. A second passed before she slowly furled them up at her sides. “What is the meaning of this?”

Rainbow’s eyes widened, and she quickly put herself in between her mother and Chrysalis. “Woah, woah, hey, easy with the fire eyes, mom!” she called, waving her hooves placatingly. “This Chrysalis isn’t like the one back home! Trust me, she’s uh…” she glanced back at Chrysalis uneasily. The raised eyebrow the queen gave her in response set her at ease, and she gave Celestia a reassuring smile. “She’s cool. Kind of a jerk, but cool.”

“High praise. From an interloper,” Chrysalis responded with a smirk of endearment.

The wave of tension swiftly became a wave of confusion.

Then Applejack frowned. “Who are ya and what did ya do with our Rainbow Dash?”

Rainbow sighed and slapped a hoof to her face. “It’s me, AJ. Look, it’s long and complicated. Just trust me when I say she’s on our side, okay?”

There was another pause before Celestia nodded slowly. “Very well… if you are indeed the mother of Twilight in your world, then I assume you have been involved in helping her get back. If that is so, then I suppose I owe you my thanks as well, don’t I?”

“Truth be told, my daughter deserves much of the thanks. Persistent in friendship as she is,” Chrysalis admitted. “I merely guarded over them, and… ‘ensured’ your child didn’t sufficiently harm herself during those first hours.”

“She panicked and ran around like a headless chicken,” Spike deadpanned. “Then Chrysalis knocked her out with a sleep spell.”

“You deserved it at the time,” Chrysalis informed Rainbow.

“Yeah yeah, maybe I did,” Rainbow rolled her eyes before glaring at Spike. “And you can shut your drake mouth.”

Spike gave an evil little chuckle.

Aunt Luna cut in carefully. “As much as I hate to interrupt the moment, it might be best if we hold off on further gratitude until my niece is home safe. The rift is not stable. We must begin as soon as possible if this is to work.”

The native Luna nodded in agreement. “Indeed. It is fortunate that Rainbow Dash’s blunder a moment ago had no effect. Standing here as idly as we are, it remains stable. But if we don’t attempt the transition soon…”

Celestia hesitated for a second before giving a reluctant nod. “I understand,” she relented. She turned back to Rainbow. “Just a little longer, Rainbow…”

Rainbow offered a nod of her own. “R-right… uh…” she bit down on her lip, her ears drooping.

“Rainbow, please move aside,” Native Luna commanded gently. “You’re in the way.”

“One sec,” Rainbow said back to her before turning back to the rift. She took a deep breath and drifted up until she was right in front of it. She lifted a hoof toward Twilight, as if to reach out to her, but thought better of it. She licked her lips and put on a small smile. “Hey, so, uh… if this doesn’t work, and I get stuck here…”

“It will work,” Twilight tried to cut her off. “It has to…”

Rainbow lifted her hoof and narrowed her eyes, silencing the alicorn. “...If this doesn’t work, and I get stuck here, I just want you to know… know how much I really l-love you, alright?” she finally managed to force out, briefly stumbling on the ‘l’ word. “With everything I got.”

She then looked up to Luna and Celestia. “Same goes for you, two…”

Celestia smiled. “Of course, Rainbow. We love you, too.”

Luna gave a nod of her own. “Ever and always, my niece.”

Rainbow stared at them all for a second, then backed away. Her eyes never once left Twilight as she went. “...Kay, go for it. Let’s do this thing,” she said once she was by native Luna’s side.

The Princess nodded, locking eyes with her counterpart. “Ensure to keep half a mind on the Dream Realm to better monitor the rift’s stability, our combined magics should probe the wound and pry it open as best we can.”

Aunt Luna nodded and spread her stance. “Understood…” she said, briefly closing her eyes as her horn lit with magic.

Everypony looked on as the two Lunas set to work, their horns growing brighter and brighter. The rift trembled and shook, emitting a low rumbling sound at their touch, like a feral animal about to pounce.

“The bridge will be small,” Aunt Luna noted on her side, her voice strained. “But it should suffice for our needs…”

“Very well…” Both of their horns glowed brighter still, all eyes glancing around nervously as the portal flickered and spat orange ethereal embers. “Let us guide the way home…”

Seconds passed as the rumbling continued, the wound crying out as two identical auras probed it from parallel sides of the cosmos, the shimmering blue magic sweeping across the invisible barrier before coalescing in the middle and starting to gently tug at it…

And then, in an instant, the surrounding smaller portals all shut.

And the rift began to shrink with a sound like thunder.

Rainbow’s eyes widened, her heart skipping a beat. It looked like the rift was trying to collapse on itself! “H-hey! What’s happening?!” she shouted, her ears folding back.

“The rift…!” Princess Twilight shouted out. “It’s collapsing!”

“What?! No, Princess Luna, you gotta stop it!” native Rainbow called out to her version of the alicorn.

“We’re… trying…!”

Both blue alicorns grimaced as sweat formed on their brows, their bodies shuddering under the magical strain as they diverted all their efforts from opening the gateway to simply maintaining its existence.

“It ain’t working’!” both Applejacks from either side called out.

“Guh! It is taking all our power just to hold it where it is!” Aunt Luna shouted, screwing her eyes shut.

“Dangit, dangit, dangit!” Rainbow babbled, starting to panic, her eyes glued onto her friends on the other side of the rift. “What do we do?!”

She wanted to help, somehow. She wanted to jump in and so something, anything. But just like always, it seemed, when it really mattered most, she was utterly powerless to help the ponies she cared about. Powerless to even lift a hoof in support. This was far beyond her in every way…

The portal shuddered and groaned as reality itself seemed intent on forcing its will onto them, the orange flames around the rift flaring up and forcing the onlookers to shield their eyes. The early morning sky tinted and became an unnatural orange-red as if to say that they were meddling far past what was acceptable.

Princess Twilight refused to accept that decision.

“Twilight!” the changeling called out as she shot forward towards the barrier, stopping before it. “We have to be able to do something! You have your Elements of Harmony, can you do anything your end!?”

The alicorn’s eyes focused onto her changeling counterpart. She swallowed heavily, her eyes and a hoof drifting up to her crown. “I… I don’t know!” she admitted shakily. “I haven’t used them before, not like this! I don’t even know where to start!”

“And without Rainbow Dash…” Fluttershy added, her hoof curling around her necklace, a despairing grimace on her face. “Oh, dear…”

“Please, you must try something. For her…” the changeling pressed.

Alicorn Twilight hesitated for a second, before taking a step back and swallowing heavily. “O-okay, uh… I’ll try,” she said weakly before closing her eyes and igniting her horn with magic.

“Girls! It’s going to squish!” Pinkie Pie, though nopony was entirely certain which one, screamed out in warning as the wound starting to finally heal itself.

Rainbow’s heart all but stopped in her chest. That was it, then. It was over, wasn’t it?

“No, I refuse to be dictated by something as flimsy as this! If that is fate, then fate can begone!” Chrysalis barked out, jumping back onto a cloud next to Luna with her putrid green magic bursting to life on her horn. A stream of magic shot forth with a passion, merging with and assisting that of Princess Luna. “She shall be free of this, and I refuse to fail on this day when I have not failed on any other!”

At the same time, Celestia stepped up to Aunt Luna’s side, her horn glowing brightly with magic and similarly lending power to her side. “I’m not losing my daughter!” she shouted in defiance, the world around her growing noticeably brighter. “Not like this! I WILL have her home!”

Rainbow’s eyes widened, and a small spark of hope ignited in her chest as the rift began to spread open again, trembling under its own weight.

Aunt Luna grimaced. “Guh! It is not enough!” she shouted out through clenched teeth.

“Then it requires a lady’s touch!” the native Rarity close by to Chrysalis announced, her own horn lighting and joining the mix, though she was instantly assaulted far more by the strain than the royals around her. Much was the same on the other side, her counterpart following suit. “Agh, do hurry, darling! This is… deeply uncomfortable!”

Celestia, who had scrunched her eyes shut in concentration, peeled one open to stare imploringly at those on the other side. “Please!” she cried out. “Any of you with the ability, help us! Anything you can spare!”

Native Luna nodded at the amnesiac alicorn and her friends. “Same for you! Any of you who can use magic, lend us your aid! Help us get your friend back home to you!”

Without hesitation, the alicorn version of Twilight stepped forward, her horn flaring with magic. “Right!” she acknowledged before screwing her eyes shut and channelling magic into the slowly expanding rift.

“Drones!” Princess Twilight called out over the hive. “Magic. NOW!”

“Now! Tiredness is not an excuse, do it you fools!” Chrysalis added the weight of her voice to that of her daughter’s.

“Y-yes, your Majesty! Your Highness!”

There was a noticeable buzzing added alongside the growing roar and crackling of the rift as the changelings, tired as they were, pushed forth and added their auras to the growing mix around the unstable gateway. It was expanding faster with every layer of magic added, and yet its struggle still provided no opportunity to pierce the barrier that prevented Rainbow’s escape.

“Can we do something…?” the Fluttershy behind Princess Twilight Sparkle asked in alarm.

“You don’t have magic in the same form we do,” the royal changeling noted in frustration. “No, I won’t let it go like this!”

And so she too lit her horn, her lavender aura reaching out and joining in the mix. The plethora of colours swarmed in a blinding fashion, struggling against forces far beyond their full understanding in their attempts to defy the very fabric of the universe. It seemed a futile task, the whole weight of the universe, a power far beyond their own that they were barely affecting. Even combined, how could they hope to match it?

And then the two lavender auras in the sea of mana found each other.

And at that moment, it was like they could feel each other. Two Twilight Sparkles. Two minds. But then, it was almost like it was a single entity, their thoughts, feelings and emotions entangled and blurred. Their lives became one, their identities became one.

As did their memories.

“What in tarnation?” The Applejack next to Aunt Luna, yelped when her Element of Harmony began to glow around her neck. “Uh, Anypony else gettin’ this?!”

“I am!” Pinkie chimed in, touching her hoof to her own. “Twilight, I thought you didn’t know how to use these?”

Neither Twilight answered. They shared a shout of effort, pulling more power from the bonds they had with the friends beside them. On both sides of the rift, the wielders of the Elements of Harmony began to glow, each one corresponding with their own element as wafts of magical energy emerged from their hides and wafted towards the portal. The Elements, drawing from the strength of the Bearers of two worlds, created a wave of rainbow that melded with the other auras and wrenched the rift wide open.

And then, with a deafening shatter and a spray of tiny particles, a hole that was barely the width of a sewing needle appeared in the barrier. A beam of near blinding light emerged from it, filling the air with an otherworldly, aetherial ringing sound.

Aunt Luna’s eyes snapped open. “THERE! An opening!”

“Get… moving… interloper!” Chrysalis managed to force out through clenched teeth. “This is your farewell, move!”

Rainbow turned back to her, her eyes wide. “Wha- I can’t fit through that!”

“No, but I can!” Princess Twilight shouted as she cut her magic stream, the portal immediately giving a loud groan. With the connection between the two Twilights cut, the power of the Elements of Harmony started to flicker. “Grab on!”

Rainbow barely even had a chance to register the command. She turned to the changeling princess just in time for her to grab Rainbow by the hoof. There was a flash of light, and for a moment, Rainbow’s world went dark.

A rush of cold passed through her veins as green flames erupted around her. Her eyes flew wide open, and just like that, she was back in the Empire, the face of Chrysalis looming at her from the embers. But not the one she’d come to know, no this was different, she felt different in every fibre of her being. The Queen’s lips peeled back into a bloodthirsty grin, and her tongue rolled across them hungrily.

Suddenly, there was a flicker, and the green flames vanished, replaced with a swirling mass of mismatched colours and blinding light. The face of Queen Chrysalis melted away, replaced with the sadly smiling face of Princess Twilight, her reptilian eyes glistening with tears.

Time seemed to stop. Just for a moment. But it was a moment in eternity. Their eyes were locked together, Rainbow’s fear morphing into surprise and confusion at the sight. A tear fell, shimmering in the light of everyone’s efforts as a small, sad smile graced the changeling's lips.

“...Goodbye, Rainbow,” she whispered.

“Hold on, what-” Rainbow went to protest, reaching out.

Twilight disappeared in a flash of light, and Rainbow realized that she was back on her side of the rift. She watched as the changeling reappeared on the other side just as the narrow hole between their worlds sealed shut.

Rainbow’s eyes went wide. “Twilight! WAIT!” she cried out, reaching out with a hoof.

There was a thunderous crack, and all at once, the rift snapped shut. It was like someone flicked a switch. The storm of colour and light and magic winked out all at once, and the blinding light was replaced with the mild glow of sunrise.

She sat there, completely dumbstruck by what just transpired. Her hoof remained in place, reaching out for a mare that was no longer there. With a trembling sigh, Rainbow let the hoof drop down to land on the cloud she was now sitting on. “...Goodbye,” she whispered, looking down. “And thank you… for everything…”

“...Rainbow?” a voice asked from behind her. Slowly, Rainbow turned to look and came face to face with her friends and family, all gathered together and looking on with a mixture of boundless relief and concern. It had been Twilight who spoke. She took a tentative step forward. “Are… are you okay?”

Rainbow stared at her for a few seconds, her wings drooping. She struggled to find words for a few seconds before smiling. She stiffly rose to her hooves and stumbled into a hog against the alicorn, burying her face into her shoulder. “...Y-yeah… Yeah, I’m okay,” she mumbled.

She felt Twilight returning the gesture. The others shortly joined them, enveloping her in an all-encompassing blanket of warmth, affection, and relief. The familiar sensation of being held by the ponies she loved most did wonders to chase away the shock and whiplash of what just happened, easing her sore, stiff muscles into relaxing.

“You’re back,” Twilight whispered, squeezing her a little closer. “You’re home…”

Rainbow pulled back to look into her eyes, those two purple orbs she had fallen in love with. Her heart fluttered softly in her chest, and a small, tender smile crept across her lips.

“Yeah… I’m home.”

Author's Note

And so a newfound bond between a changeling and a pony, both scarred and haunted in their own ways, comes to an abrupt end.

Fun fact: the strong relationship Rainbow and bug!Twilight ended up having wasn't originally planned. Twilight was always going to have the slight impression that Rainbow was put off by her species, but then the unplanned nightmare sequence happened some chapters back and a subplot was formed, Twilight suffering a massive PTSD attack and them then bonding over their pain. It was a bond beyond friendship, though stopped short of romance for many highly obvious reasons (never mind the Princess likes dudes).

But just as quickly as it was formed, it is gone. Such is life. :ajsleepy:

28 - Little Changes

It was a strange feeling for Rainbow Dash. She had spent a not-insignificant amount of time in that other world, and for the entire time she had been constantly assaulted by a haunting feeling of ‘wrongness.’ She had known, instinctually, that she did not belong there. It had been almost as if her body was being rejected, or that it was rejecting everything around it. She had been dealing with that harrowing sensation for so long that it had almost faded from her mind entirely. Just white noise, like a wind in the forest.

Now that feeling was gone. Rainbow Dash was home, and her mind and soul had started to relax with recognition. But with that familiarity, that sense of belonging, there was now an unwelcome sense of emptiness.

“...Goodbye, Rainbow,” she whispered.

“Hold on, what-” Rainbow went to protest, reaching out.

Rainbow’s eyes went wide. “Twilight! WAIT!” she cried out, reaching out with a hoof.
There was a thunderous crack, and all at once, the rift snapped shut.

That moment played out in her mind over and over again the whole way back to Ponyville. It had all been so sudden. She had barely had a chance to properly think about what was happening at the moment, and it wasn’t until it was too late that she realized what had happened.

Once everypony had ensured she was alright, the time had come to take her home. Celestia had insisted on carrying Rainbow the whole way back to Ponyville, not that the pegasus minded. The furry cushion of her adoptive mother’s back had worked as a wonderful bed, nostalgiac memories of simpler days soothing her mind enough for her to get some much-needed rest.

The journey home was longer than she would have liked. It was already well past noon before Ponyville finally came into view. It was a welcome sight, and Rainbow couldn’t have been happier for it. As the homely cottages passed by beneath her, she finally felt the stress in her mind start to ease and abate.

“It would seem this is where we are to part ways,” Luna addressed from one side, pulling along the carriage that housed those of the group that were incapable of flight. “I will deposit your friends in the marketplace so they may find their way home.”

Rainbow turned and nodded over at her. “Kay… Thanks, Aunt Luna.”

Luna stared at her for a moment, her brow furrowing in concern. “Are you sure you do not want us to remain with you for a while? We have both been incredibly worried about you…”

“Tomorrow, maybe,” Rainbow answered, lifting her head drowsily from Celestia’s back. “But right now, I just wanna go home and get some rest. It’s been a long few days…”

Luna hummed but otherwise offered up no answer. She pulled away and soon disappeared into the streets in the distance.

The remaining three ponies fell into total silence until, at long last, the Golden Oaks Library came into view. Rainbow’s eyes glued onto the old tree that had served as her home for the last year, a small smile creeping onto her face. Celestia slowed herself down and began into a gentle descent, alighting on the ground just in front of the building. Spike was waiting in front of the entrance, his claws tapping together over his chest.

Rainbow sluggishly slid off of Celestia’s back, her hooves touching down on the ground of her own world for the first time since the storm took her away. She sighed with relief.

“Will you be alright for now?” Celestia asked in a gentle whisper, craning her neck down. “And are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m okay,” Rainbow replied with a half-hearted roll of her eyes. “I get that you’re worried, but come on. The storm’s gone, I’m home, and you guys are staying in town for a few days. If I’m not okay for whatever reason, Spike’ll ping ya and you can come sort things out in a flash.”

Celestia eyed her daughter for a few moments. Then, a tender smile spread on her face. “Oh… how I have missed you,” she muttered before pulling Rainbow into a gentle hug, one the pegasus gladly returned. “My little girl…”

“Yeah yeah,” Rainbow mumbled into her mother’s chest fur. “I missed you, too… Just don’t go pulling out any onions, alright?”

Celestia hummed in amusement, nuzzling Rainbow on the mane. “Not in public, at any rate…”

“I will punch you.”

“And I will go see Twilight Velvet and see if she still has those photos of you with Twilight laying around.”

“I’ll be good.”

Celestia giggled at that. She pulled away and smiled down at Rainbow for a few seconds. “Rest assured, we will not be far. If you need us, you need only ask,” she assured Rainbow again.

Rainbow nodded. “I gotcha. Now go on…”

Celestia slowly and reluctantly rose to her hooves. She offered a tender smile as she backed away. “...Welcome home, Rainbow,” she said quietly. Her wings unfurled from her sides, and with a great flap, she launched into the air, soon disappearing in the direction of the marketplace to rendezvous with Luna.

Rainbow watched her go until she was out of sight, then turned back to the Library. Twilight had taken up a position next to Spike, a hoof on his shoulder to hold him back for the moment. It wasn’t until Rainbow nodded at her that she released her hold on the baby dragon, and he broke into a mad sprint for Rainbow.

She braced herself and caught him as he threw himself against her in a tackle hug. “Oh my gosh, Rainbow! You had us all scared half to death!” he blubbered into her chest fur, shuddering.

Rainbow hugged him back with one hoof, her ears drooping. “Heh. Sorry. I didn’t mean to…” she said apologetically. “But uh… hey, I’m home now, right?”

Spike pouted up into her face, and it was only then that she realized he must have been having a really hard time sleeping lately. He balled his claws up into a fist and lightly beat it against her chest a few times. “You are never sleeping in the clouds again!” he told her adamantly. “Ever!”

Rainbow blinked a few times before giving him a small smile and ruffling his head. “Deal. No more sleeping in the sky. I’ll just bring them inside.”

Spike pouted indignantly at her. “That’s not funny!”

“It’s kinda funny,” Rainbow dismissed him gently before quietly nudging him off of her and starting for the entrance. She locked gazes with Twilight, briefly pausing on the way in. Her mind wandered back to the changeling princess, and her heart twisted in her chest. It hadn’t even been a day, and already she was missing her…

'Heh… bet she’d be flattered to hear that,' Rainbow thought before making her way inside.

The familiar sensations of the Golden Oaks interior assaulted her senses, and all at once, it felt as if her muscles were melting. She took in a deep breath, held it in her lungs, and then let it out. “Ahh… good to be home,” she mumbled before dragging herself over to the nearest chair and throwing herself into it with all of the accumulative grace of a drunken giraffe on roller skates.

She stayed there for a time, closing the world around her out of her mind and just relaxing. Spike and Twilight followed her in. They spoke to each other in whispers for a few seconds before Spike waddled out. Twilight took the opportunity to walk over and take a seat in the chair next to Rainbows.

Rainbow opened an eye. Twilight was fidgeting in place, her ears partially lowered and her eyes boring into the cushion beneath her with hesitation. She licked her lips and spoke in a timid whisper. “So… are you gonna be alright? I know we all keep asking you that, but, uh… you looked pretty sad, uh, other me brought you over.”

Rainbow hummed, opened her other eye and looking up at the ceiling. “...Honestly? I dunno. It’s been pretty crazy… And… I’m gonna miss her.”

Twilight tilted her head. “I mean… she’s me, so…”

Rainbow shook her head. “No, not quite. She’s a lot like you, yeah, but she’s also really different. And not just because she’s a changeling,” she countered, sitting upright. “See, she went through a lot before I ever met her. And if there’s one thing we’ve learned over here, it’s that our experiences can and will change us, for better and for worse.”

Twilight grimaced at that, looking away. “Right…”

Rainbow briefly winced guiltily at the prod into Twilight’s amnesia but was quick to push on. “S-so, she’s like you, yeah, but she isn’t you. She was… somethin’ else. And she was definitely a great friend… I...” she sighed and closed her eyes, slumping in her seat. “...I just wish I had gotten a chance to say goodbye to her, ya know? It all happened so fast, and I never got the chance to say anything I wanted to say to her…”

Twilight nodded quietly at that. “I see…”

A few minutes passed in silence. Rainbow took the chance to just breathe and relax. After all of the flying and the chaos, she could feel herself starting to doze off. However, sleep would prove elusive when Spike came back into the room and set something down on the hoofrest of her chair. She cracked open an eye and caught sight of a plate bearing a freshly made pasta and potato sandwich with sourdough bread waiting for her.

“Oh… huh. Thanks, Spike,” she said, giving the drake a small smile.

He grinned at her, exposing a fang. His grin then faltered, his eyes widening. “Wait. Rainbow, where’s your hairband?!” he asked, his claws reaching out a little.

Rainbow blinked. “Huh?” she asked, lifting a hoof to the hair draped over her shoulder. Her heart skipped a beat when she realized that her hair was still loose and unbound. “...She never gave it back…” she whispered.

Spike and Twilight shared a look. “Uh… who?” Twilight asked quietly.

Rainbow let her hoof fall and gave off a small sigh of remembrance. “...Chrysalis.”

Spike visibly paled. “Wha… C-chrysalis?” he echoed, his voice shaking somewhat. “As in the big evil changeling queen who, uh… gave you that?” he pointed at her scar.

Rainbow looked down at her hoof. She gave off a small snort of amusement as she thought back on everything that had happened in that first couple of days. “Huh… ya know? At first, I thought so. But no… turns out this Chrysalis was nothing at all like the one we fought here.”

Spike tilted his head. “I’m… confused.”

Rainbow chuckled. She idly picked up the sandwich and took a bite. Once she swallowed, she flashed him a small, knowing smile. “Oh, so was I. A lot of stuff happened over there.”

Twilight leaned forward with a hopeful look on her face. “So… why don’t you tell us about it?” she asked, a small spark of scholarly interest in her eyes. “I’d like to know everything that happened if you’re willing to share.”

Rainbow smiled at her for a few seconds. There it was. That was one of the many faces Twilight had worn over the years that had made the pegasus fall so helplessly in love with the silly egghead. She took another bite from her sandwich before clearing her throat. After all, how could she say no to that face?

“Well, when the storm first hit me,” she began, her mind wandering back and reliving everything that had happened up until now. “I was scared and confused. I had no idea what was going on or where to go or what to do. The winds were throwing me in every direction, and these massive bolts of magic were blasting all over the place, threatening to swallow me whole at every turn.”

“Sounds scary…” Spike muttered, shuddering at the idea.

“Oh, it was,” Rainbow agreed. “And believe me, I was scared. For a minute there, I thought I was gonna die.”

Her eyes fell on Twilight. Her lips pulled up into a small smile, her heart fluttering in her chest. What she said next, she said slowly and deliberately. “I was terrified. And in all of the noise and chaos and light, all I could think about… was how much I wanted Twilight to be there, to pull me out of the fire like she had so many times before.”

Twilight’s eyes widened at that.

Rainbow locked onto that and continued in a whisper. “...And she did.”

29 - Epilogue

The hive was unusually quiet today.

Usually, it would be rife with activity, particularly the atrium. There was always something to be seen, something to be done, by both the underground structure’s majority changeling inhabitants as well as those non-changelings who had since come to call it home. But on this day, and every year without fail, the tone would become far more… sombre throughout its halls and great expanses. Even the ponies, odd hippogriffs, and the other species knew to leave their multi-coloured chitinous friends alone when this date came around.

After all, this wasn’t the Badlands Hive, but the Equestrian Hive. And on this very day, their Queen would remember the loss of their former home decades prior.

And they would remember the loss of Queen Chrysalis.

Twilight Sparkle sighed as that dour thought drifted through her brain, leaning against a balcony overlooking the two great statues of the original Avia and Chrysalis, her grandmother and mother respectively. They help up the great shield and perception filter above, just as the former had done for so long before the Crudelis’ foolish reign of terror.

Before the influence of Immortalis brought pain to everything the Queen of the Hive held dear.

A lavender hoof found its way to the scar on the Changeling Queen’s chest. It was as it ever was, and yet it felt all the wider as subsequent blows had come her way. Time had muted its pain, but it never truly left her. Especially after recent incidents, fresh blows that too would need time to seal shut.

But with this, Twilight had started to ponder on far older questions…

Her narrow pupils drifted over to the base of the two statues, fixating on an equivalent spot to where, so long ago, she’d witnessed a pegasus from another place be subdued rather unfortunately via her mother’s magic.

She had always wondered what became of Rainbow Dash. Had her Twilight regained her memories? Did they have their happily ever after? Did her own scars heal? Or did new wounds rush in to replace the old?

And, of course, a promise. A promise of reunion she had never been able to keep. Initial efforts were lain to waste when they were buried under the remains of the Badlands hive, and her subsequent ascension as Queen keeping her from such a lengthy and experimental project. And then, as the sting of her scar faded with Immortalis’ defeat in Canterlot, so too did the project fade from both priority and memory.

But now with the sting’s return, her thoughts strayed across the universal divide once more. And on this day of all days, the distraction was most welcome.

The Queen turned from the nearly barren atrium, retreating further down the corridor she’d initially emerged from. Her trip wasn’t a long one, and she saw few souls aside from two guards who respectfully bowed at their Queen’s passing and a single pony who looked rather like a deer in headlights at being confronted by royalty.

That reaction was enough to entice a giggle from the mare, though she moved swiftly onwards until she found herself back in the royal district and strode straight into a small side room not so far from her private chambers.

A click welcomed her as the door swung wide, the Changeling Queen slipping in as she was confronted by a large vanity mirror with a discarded sheet laying nearby. She studied herself in its polished surface for a moment, nostalgia pinging in her heart as she recalled a time when she was far shorter than she now found herself.

And there was no better example of this than the second changeling in the room, a younger royal humming happily to herself as she browsed a massive pile of research papers that filled Twilight’s scholarly heart with pride and joy.

“Okay, who was the one eager to get this project going again?” Twilight asked Princess Avia, her daughter, named suitably after her great grandmother.

“Yes!” the Princess chirped. “Interdimensional travel!? I mean, I know Sunset still talks to you from the human world but, come on, I never thought we’d make a portal ourselves! AND you never even told me about this other Rainbow Dash! How am I meant to study if I don’t know there’s something study-able!”

Twilight raised an eyebrow at her daughter’s rambling, the young mare never even looking up at her mother as she did so.

‘Ah, was I ever so young?’ she thought to herself. “Well then, daughter, do enlighten me.”

“Well, I was thinking the omega accentuation mana crystal could be adjusted by point-two degrees for extra alignment for the dimensional scan, for one.”

“Oh? What about the variance issue? I do recall your previous adjustment blowing out the last crystal.”

“Psh, science requires sacrifice!”

Twilight gave her daughter a deadpan look. “They aren’t exactly cheap, Avia.”

“Can you really put a price on science?” she further insisted.

Twilight rolled her eyes, but recalling such enthusiasm when she was Avia’s age, decided not to press the issue.

But if she did blow out another crystal, it was definitely coming out of her allowance.

The younger lavender changeling finally looked up from her scrolls, levitating up various arcane tools as well as a… power drill?

“Daughter, please tell me you’re not using that on a fragile mirror?”

“Hey, better to keep extra tools on hoof in case they become useful.”

If she broke the mirror, that would ‘also’ be coming out of her allowance. Just as soon as she’d found the guy who invented it in the past couple of decades and strangled him.

Ouch. Her Chrysalis was showing…

Twilight shook her head to rid herself of any feelings of annoyance, she instead calmly took hold of every last one of the tools and placed them aside. Avia’s subsequent pout only served to amuse the Queen, giving out a chuckle at her child’s expense.

“I am glad you have found this project to be so exhilarating, but try to exercise some patience. I have waited this long, I can wait a little longer.”

“But aren’t you curious about what’s happened over there since you saw her last?” Avia asked her mother curiously, taking hold of a nearby letter and presenting it to Twilight. “I’ve been talking with Uncle Spike, and he says you two got quite close.”

“Oh? What has he been saying exactly?”

Twilight took the letter, her eyes focusing in on the dragon’s dictated words with ample curiosity.

Avia,

Yeah, it was touch and go for a while. Twilight and the other Rainbow Dash had a little misunderstanding, but they talked and hugged it out and they were cool again. You know, I did question her sexuality that day, but luckily for your Dad, it was just a phase, right?

Don’t tell her I said that for the love of Celestia, she has somewhat taken after her mother since those days.

I mean it,
Uncle Spike

“Oh, that little traitor,” Twilight fumed as Avia flushed sheepishly. “Hrmg, I’ll have to talk with him later. But for your information, we bonded over shared baggage. That was all.”

Avia stifled a laugh behind a hoof. “Y-yeah, I figured. Heh… Though, can I ask you something?”

“You know you always can, what do you want to know?”

“I was wondering, well…” Avia hesitated for a moment, seeming to wonder whether the following question was worth prying into, or if it would be too sensitive. “He hasn’t told me about what happened when you sent her back. I mean, I’ve gathered that it was a little sudden. But was that really it? You never saw her again?”

Twilight’s smile fell, her eyes becoming distant as she glanced towards the silent mirror.

“No. We never did.”

It didn’t feel like a normal teleportation spell. And for good reason, given that she was teleporting through a hole the size of the tip of a quill. But it was enough, the smallest connection to the other world for her to lock on to and transfer them over.

It was over in an instant, their forms compressed into magical streams and passed through the gap in the blink of an eye, but the Princess of the Badlands Hive felt her horn burn from the strain and struggle of fitting through that gap while the cosmos itself protested her actions. Even with the Elements of Harmony and all the power backing them up, that rift was not going to remain open for more than a few seconds.

There was not going to be time for a goodbye, so she realised. No true conclusion to their friendship, no well-wishes or congratulations, not time to apologise for using magic on the mare with a severe phobia towards it.

This was it. This single moment, frozen in time as her subconscious processed all these things in but a second. All they had done together these past days, their final understanding mere hours earlier, their newfound bond founded upon shared pain and their strength to continue in spite of it…

It all ended here.

Twilight’s heart ached, her eyes blurring as she glanced at her friend and gave her a smile. It was all she could do. To tell her it was going to be okay, that they had succeeded, that she would be with her own friends and love again.

And she hoped that, in the absence of words and time, it would be enough.

“...Goodbye, Rainbow.”

The pegasus’ eyes widened in shock. “Wait, wha-”

Twilight lit her horn and in a single burst of magic, even as her reserves bled dry, she forced herself back to her own world where she collapsed onto a cloud in an exhausted heap.

“Twilight! WAIT!”

Snap.

The world suddenly became dark, the light of the Elements of Harmony, the magic of her friends and family, and that of the rift itself, all ceased in a moment.

A silence fell over the Equestrian countryside, the sun rising high into the sky as a new dawn came out to greet them. Yet its warmth felt muted on the mare’s black chitin, Twilight sitting up and observing the empty sky that was once a bridge between two worlds.

“...I’m sorry.”

“You should not be,” Princess Luna announced, looking over at Twilight with stern sympathy. “You did as you intended, it is done. Rainbow Dash is home, and for that, we can all rest easy.”

“Yeah! We promised a friend and we never break promises to friends because that would SUCK!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed as she bounced across a couple of clouds and landed next to the dejected changeling. “I mean, that IS good, right?”

Twilight nodded, managing a small smile. “Yes, it is. And I’m glad, but…”

“Yeah…” Rainbow muttered. “I’m going to miss me too.”

“Self-serving, much?” Applejack jabbed jokingly.

“Laugh it up, cowpony.”

“Do you think they will all be okay?” Fluttershy asked worriedly.

“I do believe so,” Luna replied. “I expect much celebration for the Princess of the Skies’ return. No less from Laughter, one would expect.”

“You know it!” Laughter herself chirped in confirmation.

“Then… Now what?” Rainbow asked around.

“I think… I think it’s time we returned home ourselves,” Rarity said, also making her way over to Twilight and patting her gently on the back. “I believe a good rest is in order. Spend a little while with us in Ponyville, darling. I think we’re due for a spa date.”

Twilight gave her a grateful nod. “Yeah, I think I will. Thanks, Rarity.”

“Hey, we’re here for ya, Twilight,” Rainbow affirmed. “So let’s celebrate for Rainbow, yeah?”

“You betcha!” Pinkie declared. “Friend hugs!”

And then, in practised swiftness, the changeling’s friends all gathered around and held her in a comforting embrace. She accepted wholeheartedly, taking the moment to let her sadness at losing a friend bleed away into just feeling grateful that the rest of them were all still with her…

“Chrysalis,” Luna addressed the Queen in the meantime. “Are your guards able to return us?”

“I do believe so,” she confirmed, silently telling them to prepare the carriage for departure back to Canterlot. “Though I do believe they have earned a reprieve once this is done.”

“Agreed. They performed admirably,” Luna noted, glancing from them back to the Element Bearers. “My little ponies, let us prepare to depart this place. And… let us leave mother and daughter alone for a moment, I do believe there is a discussion to be had.”

“Well perceived,” Chrysalis said in turn.

“Alright, ponies, let’s give the Princess her space,” Applejack corralled the others to pry themselves from the mare. “Ya good, sugarcube?”

“I’m fine, Applejack. Really.”

“Are you sure?” Spike stepped forward, poking his head past the bearers while giving the changeling a worriedly doubtful look. “You can talk to me if not, right?”

Twilight smiled, nuzzling the dragon affectionately. “Of course, Spike. I always know that. But go on, I’ll treat you to a few gems when we get back to Ponyville. And maybe that new Power Ponies you’ve been wanting.”

His eyes lit up with child-like glee. “Really?”

“Really,” she confirmed, nudging him forward. “Now go on and get yourself ready. It’s going to be a long ride back.”

“Yeah, tell me about it…” he confirmed. “I could use the nap… Oh, and can I get an extra gem for that trick with the book you pulled before?”

She looked amused at that. “This once. But don’t push it.”

“Sweet! Thanks, Twilight!”

With that, the mare’s friends made to depart with Princess Luna’s help, all heading back down towards the two carriages until only the Queen and Princess were left atop the layer of clouds.

Chrysalis approached her daughter, looking down at her with a level expression for a moment before she knelt and gave her a sympathetic smile.

“You remain hurt. Hurt because she is no longer here with us,” she noted, placing a wing around her child in motherly comfort. “You cannot hide that from me.”

Twilight sniffed. “Yeah, I figured… I just… I thought I’d at least get to say an actual goodbye. But that? That was just so… sudden. And right after…”

“Nothing about this last week has been a simple matter. But your determination saw her home, and I know she will always hold you dear for that. Interloper though she may be, her loyalty will reach beyond the concept of different worlds and the barriers dividing them. Find solace in one another’s presence, even though it is not immediately at your side, it will always be with you.”

“I… I suppose you would know, wouldn’t you?”

Chrysalis nodded. “There is not a single day where I do not wish upon my own mother’s wisdom. And, in her own way, she provides it still. The only difference here is that you both still live.”

“You think so?”

“I do. It is as sure as, when my time in this wretched world is done, I will not leave you for a second. My strength shall always be your own, daughter.”

“I… I will remember that…” Twilight sighed. “But I still have a promise to keep. If I can connect our worlds, I’ll find a way to do it. I don’t give up so easily.”

Chrysalis smirked. “Yes, our kind is tenacious to the last, you have never been so different.”

“I suppose I’m more changeling than I thought then, huh?”

“And yet still infuriatingly pony,” Chrysalis jabbed. “Oh, and for the record, if you did love her and don’t want to admit it, I’ll figure it out anyway.”

“You’re horrible.”

“Our kind is also good at that.”

“Pfft. Good thing I am infuriatingly pony, then,” Twilight retorted, standing up alongside her mother and looking down towards the carriages where the others gathered. “But no. She has her Twilight, and that is all that matters. But I’m sure I’ll find some stallion someday you can tease me to no end about.”

“I’ll hold you to that, child of mine.”

“Right. Come on, let’s head back. I know Pinkie’s dying to celebrate.”

“Oh, wonderful. Excuse me if I don’t express my joy at the prospect,” Chrysalis remarked in distaste before a thought seemed to cross her mind as she gently nudged her daughter as she made to depart. “Hold a moment, there is one other matter.”

“Oh? What’s wrong?”

“I… I do believe the feathered moron forgot something,” Chrysalis stated, holding out a hairband she’d been keeping around her hoof.

Twilight’s eye widened as she locked onto the item, taking it sheepishly into her magical aura. “This… Why do you have this? I mean… I noticed the hair, but…”

“She gave it to me when chasing after you. In the chaos, it must have slipped her brain ever so foolishly.”

“It’s not like you remembered.”

“Bah, that is beside the point,” she defended. “But… It is yours now to do with as your wish, this endeavour shall remain your responsibility. Do with it as you will. A memento, perhaps. Or…”

“Or… I can give it back to her when we see each other again,” Twilight decided with a fire in her eyes. “And we will. I promise, Rainbow Dash. I’ll see you again…”

And there it was. Sitting inside a battered box of a simple wooden design, a hairband sat snugly within as it was examined by a pensive Twilight Sparkle and an amazed Avia.

“You… still have it? What happened to it?”

“It’s one of my old personal items we recovered from the ruins of the Badlands Hive,” the Queen explained. “It was battered, as you can see, but the box protected its contents well enough. I don’t know if she still wears hairbands, or if we’ll even end up in the same time frame when we get this portal of ours working, but I made a promise to see it home. Both to Rainbow Dash… and to your grandmother.”

“Huh… I never realised…” Avia muttered, gently closing the box so the band remained protected for the time being. “You really think we can do it?”

“You’re doubting us now?”

“Well, no, but… I suppose I never really got how much this meant to you until now. I’m sorry…”

“Don’t be. After all that has happened to us, you have no reason to be,” she gently informed her child. “And truthfully? Starswirl was a genius, so there’s no telling if we can actually recreate his work. If he was still around he’d be an amazing help, but as it is…”

Avia smiled up at her mother, placing her hoof atop of her’s. “Well, I’m no Starswirl, but I won’t rest. There’s at least a city’s worth of books I can still read to figure this out.”

“I’m sure there are. But for now, you need a break.”

“Aw, but-!”

“No buts. I’m still your mother, and I’m putting my hoof down,” she retorted decisively. “Go find your father, I’m sure he’s wondering why his only child hasn’t seen him all day.”

“Oh, fine. But that goes for you too!”

“I’ll follow. Now skedaddle! I have to write a reply to a certain dragon…”

“Oh boy…” Avia let out a breath, feeling slightly responsible for her uncle’s incoming fate. “Well, good luck with that! Love you, Mum.”

“And I you, daughter.”

Avia nodded to her, turning and leaving her work behind for the time being as the Queen of the Equestrian Hive watched her heir go. She shook her head, understanding a little better what it was like to be in Chrysalis’ shoes back in the day.

But that was then…

And this was now. This mirror, Twilight now looking into its depths once more as the face of her friend from so far away stared back at her in her mind’s eye.

They would meet again, she knew that in her heart.

And with that knowledge, her scar burned just that little bit less...

Author's Note

And so our tale comes to an end, but the series shall continue on both sides of the multiverse. Queen Twilight and Princess Avia still face a threat from a New Kingdom, and the darkness of Midnight stalks Princess Rainbow and the love of her life...

And then, perhaps at the close of both paths, they shall meet once more...

1 - Prologue

The Badlands. It was a largely desolate place, a mixture of bare rock and sand for as far as the eye could see. It was the natural divide between the magical land of Equestria and the Southern Ocean, a place where nothing lived aside from the occasional scavenger. That scavenger might be an animal or a person, but a scavenger nonetheless. Almost nothing actually lived out here, the most obvious form of civilisation being a hive of scum and villainy towards the landmass’ bottom coastline. A haven for the desperate and the dying, a wasteland in almost every sense of the word.

And yet, that was only completely true of the surface. Below the harsh beats of the sun and whirling sands laid a great underground city, a home for a group of individuals famously predisposed to remain unseen. What better location to do so than a land where no one would ever go?

This, of course, was the Badlands Hive. One of the many changeling hives across the surface of Equus, and by no means one of the more populated or sizable ones at that. A home for ten thousand souls, and for them they had created an oasis amidst the desert. They had their reservoir of love energy, they had the protection of a Changeling Queen, they had the hive mind.

All a changeling could want.

For them, the desert was their ally. As much of a shield as the perception filters and glamour shielding that hid the entrances to their home away from those few who might wander too close. It was home, the hive existing peacefully beneath the cloudless blue sky and under the scorching sands of the Badlands.

Crash.

“Gah, SPIKE!”

Most of the time.

“I’m on it!” the young dragon announced, dutifully running forward with a dustpan and brush held in his claws. “Always your Number One Assistant.”

“Ugh. Thanks, Spike. Why won’t these quakes stop already!?”

Twilight Sparkle let out a breath of irritation as her head thumped down onto her desk, glancing in abject horror and dejection at all of her previously pristine stacks of papers now scattered all across her bedroom. She didn’t even need to look to know that the bookshelves lining left and right walls had undoubtedly lost some of their contents, the bedsheets on her bed becoming crumpled and both the sofa and table at the room’s centre had vibrated a few centimetres out of place.

How was a changeling princess meant to organise anything in these conditions!?

And the vase…

“Sorry about it breaking, Twilight,” Spike apologised as he finished picking up the shattered pieces and scattered flowers. “But to be fair, they weren’t the most edible flowers in the world.”

“They were for decoration, not eating!” the changeling protested, a black hole-ridden hoof meeting her chitinous face with a clop. “And they were a gift from my parents, remember?”

“Velvet and Night Light, I remember,” he confirmed in reference to the two ponies who had raised the shapeshifter for most of her formative years. “Their ‘we hope you are doing well’ present.”

“Well, yeah. We’ve been here a couple of months; they were bound to worry.”

“You would have thought they’d be used to it by now. Especially after moving to Ponyville for the good part of a year.”

“That was different. They still thought I was a unicorn for one,” she shot back. “But we’re getting off track. These earthquakes have been occurring for the last few days, it’s getting more than a little… strenuous.”

“Hey, at least the most damage they’ve caused is some scattered papers.”

“I know! It’s horrible!”

“Uh-huh…” the drake deadpanned, crossing his arms as he tapped his foot. “Want me to run over to Ponyville and get Rarity’s couch?”

Twilight blushed. “Um, that… won’t be necessary. Let me just…”

Twilight’s horn lit up a bright lavender, almost all of the objects that had been displaced around the room getting caught in her aura as all the papers swirled into the air and back into position. She quickly put everything back where it should be… Probably, she’d have to have Spike triple check them to their precise measurements.

Later.

“Better. Now that just leaves these,” Spike said as he gestured towards the shards. “I’ll go dump them off. What’re you working on right now, anyway?”

“Researching the history of the Council Hive,” she recounted. “I’ve been trying hard to find out who founded it, but nobody seems to know. Oh, how I’d love to actually go and see it for myself.”

“Too bad the Changeling Queens don’t meet all that often,” he mused. “You could always go yourself.”

“If only. Things are too busy at home. Maybe someday, if I can get mother’s leave for it. But I’m going to put my research on hold for a moment.”

“Huh? Why’s that?”

“Because I need to break out my charts,” she announced as she deftly retrieved several scrolls of notes, graphs and diagrams from the pile. “Another quake means another round of investigation. There has to be a reason for these tremors, they can’t just happen for no reason. But I can’t find any indication of tectonic shifts being the cause, which is super strange as that’s the whole point of earthquakes. I’ve ruled out nearby tunnelling operations by roaming diamond dogs as there is no sign of such a thing AND the quakes are spread all throughout Equestria and-”

“Okay! I get it! The quakes are weird and you want to find out what makes them tick,” the dragon interrupted her lecture. “But do you really think you are going to be able to find the source after trying multiple times already? They’ll probably pass before long.”

“I have to try,” she responded determinedly. “Everything has a logical explanation.”

“What about Pinkie Pie?”

“We don’t talk about that.”

“For the best. The party one does emit an aura of… an unsettling nature. Not to mention her cheerfulness is just sickening.”

Twilight yelped and jumped up in surprise at the new voice, almost falling off of her chair as she whipped around to see a tall and slender figure standing in the doorway. Her gossamer wings buzzed at her sides, green eyes with slit pupils staring at her in bemusement. Her horn was long and jagged, a green carapace sitting on her back and with hooves filled with holes of varying sizes. A crown-like antenna sat atop her head, a signifier of her nature as a Changeling Queen.

Queen Chrysalis.

Twilight Sparkle’s biological mother, one whom she had only recently been reunited with.

“Uh, hi! I didn’t hear you come in!”

“You seldom do. Especially when you are muzzle deep in some book.”

“Which is most of the time!” Spike helpfully pointed out.

The Princess glared at him. “Yes. Thank you, Spike. Weren’t you dumping those shards?”

“Sheesh, fine then,” he conceded. “I’ll be back in a jiffy!”

The two changelings watched him depart, finally seeing his purple scaled tail slip through the door as it shut up behind him. This left mother and daughter alone, Chrysalis turning to Twilight with an expectant gaze.

“Now then, I must wonder…” she began. “You were supposed to meet me for lessons in commanding a hive around… what, twenty minutes ago?”

“Oh!” Twilight got up quickly, clearly flustered. “I completely lost track of the time! And… and why didn’t you just ping me over the hive mind?”

“Like this?”

“Yes, that. Thank you for that demonstration,” she said flatly.

Chrysalis gave a chuckle at Twilight’s expense. “Truth be told, I decided I could use the walk. And to see you. I assume some subject of interest had captured your attention?”

“Between looking into changeling history and these earthquakes, you could certainly say that. Again, I’m really sorry for being tardy. It’s my fault, I should have been paying more attention.”

“It is of little consequence. The night may be due to fall soon, but I assume you won’t object to staying up a little later.”

“Heh. Late-night study sessions aren’t exactly something new to me.”

“As I’ve noted. But useful in this case. You have yet to completely explore the capabilities of our hive mind. And managing so many drones simultaneously is going to be a taxing experience when you first try it.”

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I like to be organised. I’m sure I can manage it.”

Chrysalis smirked in an almost predator-like manner. “Oh really? I do look forward to seeing the attempt. It should make for an interesting cautionary tale for your own daughter someday.”

That didn’t bode well.

“Well…” Twilight started a little nervously. “I suppose we should find out. Lead the way?”

“Yes. But first…” Chrysalis held out a wing to stop Twilight from further approaching the door. “I had a rather peculiar experience last night. Never before have my dreams been invaded by another.”

“Princess Luna?” Twilight questioned. “Why would she be in your dreams?”

“I did make it clear in no uncertain terms that I do not usually appreciate such an infraction,” Chrysalis stated. “But given our discussion, and her concerns, I will forgive it on this occasion.”

“Concerns?”

“You are dreaming about him again.”

Twilight flinched, her hoof reaching out to scratch the scar in her chitin on reflex. In the back of her mind, she could almost feel the old injury burning as a blade was plunged into her chest and poison seared through her system.

Chrysalis didn’t miss the reaction.

“So, she was correct.”

“I… didn’t think the Princess saw it. Since she didn’t interrupt it, I mean.”

“She apparently caught sight of the ending,” her mother explained. “The beast is long dead. What more is there to fear from the pathetic creature?”

Twilight averted her eyes, both orbs becoming downcast as her hoof remained placed against the wound.

Chrysalis’ eyes softened, the changeling giving out a sigh. “But… I know what happened still hurts you. You still scratch it whenever you are nervous.”

It was only then that Twilight actually realised she was doing it, awkwardly lifting off her hoof and placing the appendage back down onto the ground.

“It’s just nightmares. And they’re nowhere near as frequent as they were right after it happened,” Twilight reassured Chrysalis. “They’re going. I’m fine, so don’t worry about the onset of PTSD or anything like that.”

Of course, her research indicated it could manifest some time after the incident. She wouldn’t mention that part. Besides, she was past it. Serpens was no longer a danger to anything or anyone, there was no reason to fear him.

Still…

“Alright. I trust your judgement on the matter,” Chrysalis said in a way that indicated in incoming ‘but’. “However, I want you to talk to me if they don’t go away. I almost lost you to that assassin, I won’t have him continue to cause you harm from beyond his deserved grave.”

“Really, I’m fine,” Twilight insisted one last time. “Can we please just not talk about it, him or anything else revolving around that incident. Dump me into the deep end of hive management if you want, but I want to get back on task.”

Chrysalis studied her for a moment, but she did seem to relent. At least for the moment. She was her mother, and the two still had comparatively little time being together. Serpens was a black cloud she couldn’t wish harder to become a forgotten name in the annals of history.

And the moment her agents found who sent that changeling drone after her child, the Changeling Queen in question would sooner beg for mercy from the Princesses of Equestria than face her wrath. That she swore to the hives and back, they would burn for the audacity of their attack!

But the Queen had to put her vengeance aside for the time being, she could see Twilight giving her a look of concern. No doubt she could feel the edges of her anger leaking out through the hive mind.

She could be that Queen later. For now, she just had to be a mother.

It was still wonderful to be able to finally do that.

“Then the matter is settled,” Chrysalis decided. “Come, Twilight. I think you will find the experience of delving deep into the hive amongst hundreds of voices to be as rewarding an experience as it is taxing.”

And so the two royal changelings departed, leaving that morbid business behind them and each eagre to spend some time with one another. And as they did, Celestia began to lower the sun into the horizon and Luna brought forth her moon. The temperatures dropped drastically, a cool chill entering the Badlands as the night came into effect.

But even the dark couldn’t remain undisturbed, a strange flash crackling amongst the clouds high above the hive.

Author's Note

So begins a new fic! This first one was by me, tom117z. The next chapter will be created by Skijarama. All chapters after that will be written collaboratively.

Enjoy this meeting of universes!

6 - More Questions, Less Answers

Rainbow Dash groaned uncomfortably as consciousness slowly came back to her. She wasn’t entirely sure when she had fallen asleep, but she sure as heck was not ready to be up yet. Sadly, her mind had other ideas, and sleep became all but impossible. Huffing in disappointment, she pried her face off of the pillow it had been stuffed in and looked around.

Her drowsiness immediately disappeared at the sight of the room she was in. She was resting on a remarkably fancy four-poster bed in a long room made up of dark bricks and chitinous growths. A series of bookcases lined the left and right walls, each one stuffed to the point of overflowing with tomes of all shapes and sizes. In the centre of the room was a low-resting round table surrounded by some plush cushions and a lavish sofa. An end table sat next to the bed, nothing on its surface. There was also a desk that had been loaded up with writing supplies and parchment. In general, all anything anypony could ever want or need to be a giant book nerd.

It all came flooding back. Rainbow Dash quickly leapt down from the bed and looked around, her heart beginning to beat faster in her chest. The changelings, the ‘hive,’ and that one that had dared to take the name Twilight for herself. Rainbow took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. The last thing she remembered was being escorted through the halls by ‘Twilight’ and a contingent of armoured drones. They had told her they were taking her to the Princess’ room.

‘So, is this her room?’ Rainbow thought to herself before making her way up to one of the shelves and scanning the titles. Some of them were in a language she couldn’t make heads or tails of, but most were in common ponish. And all of them were carefully organized in a very familiar pattern. Rainbow would know. She had helped with this sorting method at least six or seven hundred times since moving to Ponyville.

A lump formed in her throat, one which proved hard to push down. How had the changelings figured this out? And why would they even need to? As far as she knew, up until recently, Chrysalis was in total control of what her drones were and were not allowed to know. It was part of how she had managed to maintain such total authority for so long. And it hadn’t been nearly long enough for the changelings to start reforming their society to such a degree. They were supposed to be locked in some kind of internalized power struggle. A war of succession or something.

So then, what was all of this?

The door at the far end of the room suddenly opened with a loud creak, making Rainbow all but jump out of her skin. She spun to face the new arrival, ready to defend herself at a moment’s notice.

The adrenaline died away when she saw a familiar lavender unicorn stepping inside.

“H-hi…” Twilight began nervously, seemingly unable to make full eye contact with Rainbow Dash. “So… How are you feeling? Between the crash and stress, all of my avenues of study and research indicates that it would lead anypony to having a- GAHP!”

Rainbow had tuned out the other mare’s scientific mumbo jumbo and instead elected to launch herself across the room and yank her into a tight hug, ignoring the sharp bout of pain it brought into her injured wing. She buried her face into Twilight’s shoulder, shuddering uncontrollably with relief. “Twi…” she whispered after a moment, her grip tightening. “You’re here…”

“Yes, I’m here…” Twilight said, patting Rainbow’s mane somewhat awkwardly.

When had Rainbow Dash ever been this clingy? Like, ever?

Twilight coughed awkwardly, trying in vain to pry the emotional pegasus off of her. She instead opted for a simple sigh and toleration, especially given her strange amount of…

...Of love energy? That was a question for much later.

“So… you remember me, then?” she said, pushing down a blush forming on her cheeks.

Rainbow suddenly tensed at that question. Her eyes, which had been closed, snapped open with dread. Slowly, she looked down at Twilight’s sides, and her relief was replaced with fear in an instant at what she found. Or rather, what was missing.

She abruptly yanked herself out of the embrace and backed away, her ears folding back. She cringed and had to force herself not to gag as a very unpleasant memory of a Chrysalis assuming Twilight’s shape in Canterlot entered her mind.

Twilight’s ears folded in resignation. “I guess not…”

Rainbow scowled and jabbed a hoof at Twilight’s sides. “You missed the wings,” she said simply. “Kind of a dead give away.”

Twilight blinked. “Wings? I can make myself a pegasus if it makes you more comfortable, but I’m not sure why…?”

Rainbow snorted and backed away another few paces. “You know what? Nevermind,” she dismissed, deciding it would be better if her enemy didn’t know what had happened to the real Twilight. It would make it easier for her to tell who the fakes were. “Now, what do you want with me?”

Twilight shrunk down, hurt written clearly on her face.

“I just wanted to make you more comfortable after earlier. I thought since this was the form you knew when we met it might make things easier, but… I guess I was wrong.”

In a flash of swirling green flame, the visage of the unicorn was wiped away and replaced once more with the royal changeling that the rainbow maned pony had awakened to find earlier. One thing that didn’t change with her features, however, was the saddened look in her eyes.

Neither did her general body shape, now that Rainbow got a calmer glance at it. Maybe slightly taller at most. Nor did the cutie mark on her flank, the stripe in her mane, and the colour of those eerily Chrysalis-like eyes of her’s.

Rainbow bristled at the sight, but was quick to reign herself in. Last time she’d lashed out hadn’t ended well, as she recalled. Slowly, she drew herself up to her full height and met the changeling’s gaze directly. “Obviously. I don’t like being lied to,” she said simply. “Especially not where Twilight’s concerned.”

“And here I thought Applejack was the Element of Honesty,” she tried to joke, but any humour quickly disintegrated under the pegasus’ hateful gaze. “Ahem, what I mean to say, I just don’t understand why you think I’m lying to you. I mean, I have some theories, but they’re so outlandish and unusual that the variables dictate that there might be some other explanation, but if they prove false then whatever is left must be the truth which I have calculated to be-”

Rainbow held up a hoof and narrowed her eyes, and the words died in Twilight’s throat. Inwardly, Rainbow couldn’t help but chuckle to herself. She knew that little trick of her Mum’s would come in handy someday. She didn’t let it show outwardly, though, and set her hoof back down. “Well, you’ve got the rambling down, at least,” she admitted slowly.

“That’s a cheap trick…” Twilight complained. “And Celestia’s. How the heck did you know it?”

Rainbow blinked in confusion. “Uuh… because she taught it to me when I was like, fourteen?” she pointed out with a raised eyebrow.

Twilight frowned, yet more evidence and pieces rolling into place. Evil cheap stare and hoof raising or not, more variables and calculations ran through Twilight’s mind as she tilted her head to give ‘Rainbow Dash’ a curious look. It wasn’t possible, was it? The magic required would be immense, and Starswirl was long gone. Never mind the lack of any magic mirrors in the hive…

Her train of thought, and any comment from Rainbow on it, was interrupted when the door opened again. In came a small and heavily familiar purple dragonling, one who seemed to, for some reason, be wearing a pink apron with a heart on it while holding a tray containing some coffee.

“Got it, as requested! Yes, I’m amazing, I know,” Spike bragged as he casually strolled in and placed the tray down onto the table as Rainbow watched on in bewilderment. “Hey RD, heard you had an epic landing! What’s with the scar?”

Rainbow leaned back, entirely unsure of what to make of this sudden development. “Uh… hi,” she said awkwardly before quickly regaining her composure and glaring at Twilight. “And you say I have the dirty tricks?”

Spike gave her an odd look, then glancing questioningly at Twilight. “Uh… what’s with her? Did she hit her head super hard?”

“I’m currently trying to figure that out,” Twilight answered. “She might think you’re a changeling.”

Spike snorted. “Nah, you guys have too many holes. Me? I’m a fire breathing dragon through and through!”

He tried to demonstrate the point by pulling a pose and showing off his muscles. Or, as it turned out, his lack of them.

Twilight gave him a deadpan look. “Uh-huh. Nice pose, Bulk Biceps.”

Rainbow looked back and forth between the two for a moment before getting a bright idea. Without looking, she reached over the nearest bookcase, plucked a random book from the shelf, and chucked it at ‘Spike’s’ head. “Think fast!” she called out as it went flying.

“Gah!”

Not having the time or speed time to think, the dragon was entirely blindsided by the heavy tome straight to the side of his head. He immediately fell onto his behind, looking immensely displeased at this development.

“Owch! What the hay, Rainbow? Is this about that time I singed your tail? I told you, not my fault, you and Pinkie shouldn’t have pranked me with that sneezing powder!”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “You done complaining? If you’re really Spike, then do the thing only Spike can do,” she said simply.

“Sheesh, weird Rainbow is mean,” Spike muttered, picking up the book and taking a deep breath. “Fine, check this out!”

Twilight widened her eyes. “Spike, don’t!”

Too late. With a torrent of green flames, the book was reduced to dust. That dust swirled in place for a moment before wooshing off and out of the room towards its destination, before dissipating entirely.

Rainbow’s other eyebrow flew up to join its twin in the north. “Uh… okay, but, why didn’t you just send it to me?” she asked sceptically while patting a hoof on the chest. “I mean, I’m right here.”

Spike gave her a strange look. “Huh? Why would I do that? I never formed a Dragonfire connection with you.”

Rainbow went quiet for a second. “...The heck’s that? Spike can send letters to basically anypony, as long as he happens to know them,” she said before shaking her head. “Meh, whatever. Worth a shot.”

“My theory seems to be getting stronger,” Twilight said hesitantly. “A dragonfire connection is required between a dragon and a-”

Twilight’s lecture was, once again, interrupted. This time by another swirling mass of dragon flame from Spike’s mouth, which proceeded to materialise the same tome from before.

Which then dropped back onto Spike’s head with an almost vindictive intent.

“Gah! Come on!” Spike complained crossly. “Why me?”

“You’re not the one who can’t seem to finish educating anypony…” Twilight mumbled in irritation. “But there’s a note with it. I don’t think it’s going to be happy.”

“Ugh, it’s not,” Spike noted as he took the note and read it aloud. “Dear Spike. Please stop sending random things and dropping them on my head during Day Court, it’s getting old. Most sincerely, Princess Celestia.”

“WHAT!?” Rainbow suddenly yelped before shooting over and snatching the note right out of Spike’s claws, despite his protest. Her eyes scanned the page over several times, hunting for any and all differences between this and the horn writing she knew.

There were none. This was unquestionably her mother’s horn writing. It had all of the elegant curves and twirls that were customary, and even the slight jaggedness that she deliberately added when she was annoyed with the recipient. Rainbow would know. She’d gotten a few such notices in her more… rambunctious years in Canterlot.

“See? We are who we say we are,” Spike said smugly. “Dragon all the way! Now, what’s with the scar?”

Rainbow’s attention was drawn away from the note by that question. Slowly, she lowered it and turned to face the drake with an unreadable expression. She lifted her hoof to look at the car and cringed at the memory of its acquisition. “...If you don’t remember that, then you’re not Spike. Not mine, at least,” she mumbled before closing her eyes. “Queen Chrysalis gave it to me in the Crystal Empire. And a few other scars, too…”

“WHAT!?” now it was Twilight’s turn to exclaim. “No. That’s just wrong and stupid and illogical. She would never do anything like that! Not to you, anyway. Never mind the fact that you’ve been in Ponyville all this time with little to no contact from changelings and… Your injury looks weeks old at the very least.”

Rainbow’s sombre expression hardened, a fire burning at the base of her skull. She slammed her scarred hoof back down onto the ground and bared her teeth. “You weren’t there!” she snapped angrily. “Don’t even try to tell me what that monster would and would not do! I remember who gave me this clear as day! I remember what she did to me, to my friends, to my family!”

“I remember the Crystal Empire’s return very well, the hive could have lost a lot defending that place if we hadn’t gotten the Crystal Heart back and vanquished Sombra. And she wasn’t even there! She would have liked to have been, but wasn’t. So there!”

Rainbow snarled deep in her throat. “As I recall it, the hive was the one on the offensive. And Chrysalis was there! I fought her! I almost died! And her favourite drone KILLED MY BEST FRIEND!” she all but screamed before screwing her eyes shut and taking a series of deep, shaking breaths to try and calm herself down.

Twilight took a step back at her anger, her empathic senses, even if they were more dulled towards any emotion beyond love, almost felt like they were about to overload with the sheer hatred and guilt mixing in an unholy way within the pegasus.

And the thought of the Queen of the Badlands Hive, her mother, doing something to an innocent pony.

“But who…?”

Before Twilight could ask, Spike just shook his head.

“Yeah, she hit her head really hard if that’s how she thinks the Sombra thing went down. The ‘lings were there to protect you, Twilight, not hurt anypony.”

“SHUT UP!” Rainbow shouted at that, her eyes snapping open and her pupils dilating. “JUST SHUT UP! BOTH OF YOU!”

Silence fell over the room in the wake of her outburst. Rainbow was visibly shaking, now, her breath heavy and uneven. A small choking sound came from the bottom of her voice before she wiped the back of a hoof over her face. “Let me go,” she said plainly between her quivering breaths. “Just… Just let me go home.”

Twilight bit her lip. Maybe now she could finally get some words in without interruption. Things just didn’t add up for a bit of head trauma-inducing selective amnesia and confusion. The physical evidence, the way Rainbow presented details with absolute certainty…

She might be wrong. Maybe there was a more logical explanation. Like time travel! That was always a mess! Or maybe she had just taken a strong knock, or…!

But no. Her injury and hairstyle. Her reaction to changelings. That vision. The fact that she was so sure that Rainbow should be in Ponyville right now...

And she probably was.

There was just one thing she had to ask to be sure, to eliminate those last few threads allowing her mind to cling to the other explanations. She had to be certain.

“Rainbow…” Twilight asked slowly. “Before you arrived at the hive… How exactly did you come to crash? You never explained. You should.”

Rainbow took another deep breath, her head hanging low from the sudden weight pressing down on her mind. “...I… I was up in the clouds,” she began numbly. “I was with T-Twilight. The real Twilight. We were watching some sort of storm going on up in space. She went to bed, I stayed up, fell asleep on the cloud. Next thing I knew, the storm came down and swallowed me up, and then I crashed… and then I woke up here.”

Twilight nodded along with Rainbow’s explanation, glad that she was finally calm enough to give a clear and concise tale as to how she came to be at the hive. She hadn’t exactly been cooperative the last time she asked.

And, if all was as it seemed on paper, it confirmed her most hesitant theory.

“Rainbow, you’re right. I’m not your Twilight.”

Rainbow glared at her. “No kidding. Tell me something I don’t know.”

“But I am Twilight Sparkle. Just another one.”

“...Huh?”

“Yeah, huh?” Spike parroted.

The changeling took in a deep breath. “See, the scope of reality is far bigger than you may yet realize! There are so many branching paths, certainties and uncertainties that the variables are quite literally infinite!”

To go along with her explanation, her horn lit up as various books and scrolls from the shelves started to dance through the air and display various paragraphs, research notes, graphs and other bits of random jargon that neither of her audience really grasped.

“Some theorists say that the multiverse is like an endless ocean with even more endless bubbles, each one being its own, self-contained world. Others say that it’s like a tree with so many branches and sub-branches and sub-branches of sub-branches, and each one has its own cosmic alignment and outcomes, some the same and some different, which must mean that somewhere in this cosmic tree or pond or however you want to imagine it, there must be a universe with a set of variables that created circumstances with a point-three or maybe a point-two difference in that cosmic alignment that meant-”

“You fell from your world into ours. You know, like the mirror universe in Power Ponies,” Spike concluded quickly. “Where everyone is the opposite!”

Twilight glared at her assistant. “Hey, I said that!”

“Yes. In a Twilighting way, but yes.”

Rainbow stood still for a few seconds, her brain doing some pretty impressive mental gymnastics to properly catch up with whatever all of that was. She blinked a few times before shaking her head.

“Huh. You actually almost sounded like Twi for a second,” she mumbled nostalgically before her expression hardened. “But you do realize that all of that went right over my head, right? I’m gonna need something a bit more tangible than ‘the egghead said so’ before I believe you. As far as I care, my friends and family are probably wondering where in Tartarus I am, and I need to get back to them. So if you’d let me go before you cause a diplomatic incident, that would be lovely.”

Twilight bit her lip. “Rainbow, you can’t go home. I don’t know how to send you there. This isn’t your Equestria, there’s another you probably hanging out at Sugarcube Corner or doing Wonderbolt reservist stuff right about now. My Rainbow, who very much knows what I am.”

Rainbow paused, her head leaning back a little bit at the reminder of her long-discarded desire to join the Wonderbolts. She sighed and shook her head. “Ya got proof or not?” she asked simply.

Twilight sighed in a strange mix of relief and annoyance. “There are ways. We will have to sort this out one way or another, so we may end up showing you the proof. But before we can do that, I should probably inform my mother of all of this. And she’ll want to hear it from you. Just remember that, whatever you’ve seen at home, things aren’t the same here. And I am your friend. Just not the one you know. You’re safe here.”

Rainbow grunted. “You’re my friend, but not the one I know? Yeah, sure, that makes sense,” she shook off before shaking her head back and forth to wake herself up from her prior lethargy. As much as she hated to admit it to herself, she wasn’t in a position to offer up any further resistance. She still had no idea where she was or the full extent of her situation. Until she had a proper window to make good on her escape, she was at their mercy. “Guess I haven't really got much of a choice but to play along, though, have I?”

“Not really,” Spike quipped.

“Of course you have a choice,” Twilight amended, flicking the drake with her tail. “Just not many good ones.”

Rainbow sagged in place. “Right. Go figure,” she grumbled before clearing her throat and standing upright. “Okay, fine, whatever. Let’s go see this ‘Mum’ of yours. Can’t be any worse than the real Twilight’s. Stupid foal photos...”

“Ugh, I know right!” Twilight complained earnestly. “Both of them are the worst at it. Big bad ‘Queen of the Hive’ sharing foal stories with my pony parents…”

Rainbow paused, one eyebrow flying up. “Queen of the Hive?” she echoed quietly. “When did you get a new one?”

“She questions that but not ‘pony parents’?” Spike asked in a deadpan.

“Hush,” Twilight chided. “Later, Rainbow. We can continue this talk in the throne room. Come on.”

Rainbow’s spine tingled with an unpleasant chill, and an uneasy feeling began to develop in her gut. This changeling was hiding something from her, wasn’t she? That was the impression she was getting, at least. Slowly, adrenaline began to seep into her veins as the trio left for the throne room, leaving her ready to leap to the defence at a moment’s notice. As they did, Rainbow stopped to do a final cursory examination of the changeling. There was no way this was on the money, right? It was all some weird, elaborate and entirely desperate trick. Alternate universes? Please.

... But that had been her mother’s hoof writing.

And then Rainbow frowned during her examination, taking in one feature she had missed while focusing on the similarities and differences to her Twilight. The real Twilight. Because there couldn’t be two. There just couldn’t!

But putting that aside… What was with the scar that she was scratching?

Putting that question aside with plenty of others, Rainbow moved into the hall behind the changelings and Spike, particularly trying not to think about how convincing the latter was. As they went, at some point Rainbow realized that the dark equine had started to talk again.

“-aybe it was a mana explosion of significant strength, or a new spell in your world. In ours? But who could do that?” she questioned. “Discord? Another Changeling Queen? Some other factor we don’t yet know about? I should ask about the other Queens, the information in my collection has to have some issues with being up to date. She might know something?”

Spike shrugged. “Beats me. In Power Ponies it was a teleportation accident caused by Masked Matterhorn while fighting with the Mane-iac. I loved that issue.”

“So did Shiny,” Twilight recalled. “But I’m less interested in fictional applications than I am in the real ones. Starswirl mastered the art of peering into other worlds, could somepony be trying to replicate it? Maybe I should write to Sunset, she could do some tinkering on her end of the link. Or maybe I should run some tests in the Crystal Empire on our side…?”

Rainbow had zero idea about any of their random chatter’s meaning. This was all just too weird and messed up beyond any recognition.

“Or maybe something has gone wrong on the cosmic scale? Now that has implications I don’t even want to-”

Twilight yelped as the ground gave a small lurch, the others freezing in place at the brief rumbling sound around them. And it was brief, lasting but a couple of seconds.

Twilight groaned. “If nature will let me keep my train of thought for one moment!”

“I imagine fate doesn’t have much interest in granting that request,” another voice suddenly said from the hallway to their left, a voice that sent ice into Rainbow’s veins. “Considering how wearily often you seem to be at the core of every disaster that comes around, my child.”

Rainbow looked to the side, her eyes going wide at the sight of a terrifyingly familiar Changeling Queen approaching them regally from down the hall. The scar on her cheek was gone, as was the impressive collection of dents and burns she had accumulated last time Rainbow had seen her.

But it was her, no doubt about it. The arrogant posture, the self-assured smirk on her face, the spider silk mane. The demonic eyes that haunted Rainbow Dash’s nightmares when Luna wasn’t around to quell them.

Queen Chrysalis, the cause of so much of her pain, stood before her.

And she was free.

24 - The Weight of the Heart

Rainbow Dash shot bolt-upright from her position laid out on the chair at the same time as all the others in the room. A cold sweat was blanketing her body, her breaths were heavier than normal, and a hole had formed in her heart, filling rapidly with a deep sense of dread. Looking around the penthouse suite, she got the impression that she wasn’t the only one.

“Confound all the corners of the cosmos!” Luna swore, her wings flaring out as she stood up with regal fury. “This was unexpected, and I am uncertain as to what just occurred.”

“I’m not sure whether to be intrigued or horrified,” Twilight said, looking around frantically before her eyes settled entirely on the otherworldly Rainbow Dash, who was seemingly enthralled by panic as her native counterpart looked on helplessly. “Actually, never mind. Horrified it is.”

Rainbow’s eyes locked onto Twilight’s, then to Lunas. Her mind was going into a wild haze. It was hard to think straight through the shock of their sudden ejection from the Dream Realm. More than that, she could still see the raw fear in her Twilight’s eyes as her body had started distorting and flickering as orange flares of light filled the distance like a million supernovas.

Rainbow hopped down from her seat, her eyes locking onto Luna. “What happened?!” she asked frantically. Her whole body was shaking as she closed the distance, her ears folding back. “What the hay just happened?! What was that?! What happened to my friends?! What happened to Twilight?! Are they alright?!”

“I do believe they are fine, likely ejected, much as we were,” Luna informed her comfortingly. “And I do not believe that the other version of myself would allow any harm to befall them, so worry not.”

“Yeah, toot your own horn later!” native Rainbow blurted out, much to Luna’s annoyance. “That was like… not awesome! Complete opposite filled with shattering and explosions!”

“On the subject of shattering and explosions…” Twilight muttered. “That didn’t sound good.”

Luna’s features darkened as she glanced out the window. “No, it did not.”

All eyes were diverted with a gentle knock on the door, coming from the room the others had piled into before Luna started her link to the Dream Realm. And then, with a shy little ‘click’, Fluttershy slowly poked her head through.

“Um, sorry but, is something-”

“What has happened!?” Chrysalis demanded to know as she burst in through the door like an avenging knight. “Whoever would harm my child, prepare for annihilation!”

Twilight blanked. “What?”

“Oh, you’re fine! Good!” Chrysalis said with no small amount of relief. “You… I… Damn it, what did you do!?”

“Yer Ma there kinda keeled over for a second, was all kinda… odd,” Applejack said with a frown as she stepped through the doorway.

“More completely and thoroughly terrifying and we thought she’d died or something,” Pinkie Pie said with somewhat less of her usual amount of enthusiasm.

“It was not a sign of my distress, but Twilight’s,” Chrysalis explained. “I felt her connection to the hive be disrupted, if only for a moment. The effect, I admit, left me briefly incapacitated.”

“Oh!” Twilight said with shock, her horn lighting up with a variety of medical spells. “I’m sorry! Did you get seriously hurt? What about the hive!? Did I end our civilization!?”

“Not really, it’s fine, and don’t make me laugh right now,” her mother replied in a deadpan. “But it was rather… uncomfortably familiar. Why was your connection interrupted in such a manner?”

Rainbow nodded. “Yeah, what did happen?!” she demanded, turning back to Luna. It was clear to everypony that she was struggling to keep herself under control. The sporadic twitches in her panicking face were evidence enough of that. “Everything was going fine! What went wrong?!”

“Our rejection from the Dream Realm is yet a mystery,” the Princess of the Night responded, her expression as cool as an evening wind. “As for Twilight’s condition…”

“Well, it was quite the mental assault, getting thrown from your realm like that…” the changeling noted. “It probably caused my connection to fritz for a moment. But I’m fine, really.”

“Well… That is pleasing to hear,” the Queen said, her predatory eyes then moving to glare at Luna. “But I would ‘ask’ that you find out the cause of this as quick as you please!”

“Do not presume I am to procrastinate!” Luna shot back at the Changeling Queen. “Your daughter is safe, as are both Rainbow Dashes. As for the cause… I must depart a moment. I shall be back with great haste, but the rift’s condition must be observed.”

“I can come with-”

“No!” Luna cut Twilight off. “Not until I know what we are dealing with. Remain here, I shan’t be long.”

And then, with a loud POP and a flash of blue light, the Princess was gone.

“Well, I do think that has been enough excitement for one day,” Rarity noted after a moment. “Shall we order room service while we wait?”

“Ah don’t think this is the time for that,” Applejack deadpanned.

As if to emphasize Applejack’s point, Rainbow crumpled to her haunches, her eyes staring down at the floor, wide and unfocused. Her wings twitched on her back while she took a series of deep breaths in a futile effort to calm herself down.

“It would do good for everypony’s nerves!” the white mare defended. “I think we could all use it, don’t you?”

“You have a point, but let’s wait a while, okay? Until we know what’s going on,” Twilight asked her, moving towards Rainbow Dash with Fluttershy.

“Um, Rainbow…?” Fluttershy called out gently. “Um… I… Do you want a hug?”

Rainbow didn’t reply. In truth, she barely even heard the request, much less processed it. Her mind was elsewhere. She couldn’t stop worrying about what had happened. It was probably unhealthy for her, she knew that, but she just couldn’t help it. The whole situation had been eating at her since she had realized where she was, and it seemed like every passing day brought more and more stress and tension to an already painful situation.

She took a shuddering breath and pressed a hoof to her face, screwing her eyes shut. Like a mantra, the words “I just want to go home” began to echo in her mind over and over again. Deep inside of her, a small voice of anxiety asked if they had just lost their chance. Those rifts were orange, and all of those explosions had been orange. Was she trapped here, now? Was that it? The mere thought sent an arctic chill racing down her spine, causing her to shudder involuntarily.

“I… think she needs a hug,” Spike confirmed as he wandered up next to Fluttershy, his claws tapping together in fear. “Yeah. A big one.”

Fluttershy gave him a small nod and, together, they descended onto the pegasus and held her close. The two tried to let her know that it would be fine, that she still had them to support her. That she still had hope.

And Twilight watched on, her heart screaming to join them, but her legs not moving.

“So, Twilight…” the Princess’ native version of the cyan pony spoke out. “What’s up? You look…”

“It’s nothing, Rainbow Dash,” she dismissed quickly. “I’m just… thinking…”

The changeling grimaced. What was wrong with her? Why couldn’t she support her now of all times? Why couldn’t she get that dream of Rainbow’s from her mind, the sight of a version of herself that matched that old reflection…

And if Rainbow was now stuck here, what would happen then? Could she keep ignoring her changeling nature…? What if…?”

She spotted her mother giving her a knowing look, Twilight’s ears flattening as she slowly started to retreat back from the group. They all looked at her with concern, Fluttershy looking up from the hug with a look of shocked surprise.

“T-Twilight…?”

On hearing the surprised tone in Fluttershy’s voice, Rainbow Dash finally found the strength to open her eyes and look up at Twilight. She locked gazes with the changeling and frowned. For a moment, just a moment, she forced herself to shove down her own fears and sit up a little more. “Hey… are you okay?” she called out, though her own weakened voice made it clear she was not really in a good position to be asking such a question.

Twilight stopped dead, looking like a jackalope had been caught in the lights of an oncoming carriage. A guilty expression descended onto her face, the look of Rainbow Dash’s initial fear back at the hive running through her mind, the exact same looks from those ponies that infiltrator had led in Canterlot…

She looked away, trying to hide her oncoming tears. “I’m sorry…”

There was a flash of lavender magic, and then she was gone.

A heavy silence fell over the room. Rainbow stared at the spot where Twilight had been, a lump forming in her throat. “What… what just happened?” she asked quietly, leaning into Fluttershy’s embrace a little more.

“I am afraid that my daughter has not been entirely upfront with her feelings,” Chrysalis said sadly, sighing as her expression dropped away from the usually seen Queen to one merely that of a concerned mother. “I noticed, earlier when we first arrived in Baltimare. She was evasive, but I could see it.”

“See what?” Fluttershy asked.

“Her scars have never been just physical, Fluttershy,” Chrysalis replied, her eyes affixing themselves to Rainbow’s. “No more than yours are, Rainbow. I’m sure you know, but she hides far more than she lets on. The memory of that day, the betrayal of ponies and the devil who spurred them. The Magic of Friendship guides her, but she also hides behind it.”

Rainbow frowned. “I mean, yeah, that makes sense, but…” she looked down, her brow furrowing. “What does any of that have to do with me? She was only all too happy to try and help me at the start. She was basically bending over backwards for my sake… but now?”

Rainbow closed her eyes as a whole new wave of doubts and anxieties began to eat away at her heart. “Now she’s getting more distant and evasive. It’s like somepony flicked a switch. She went from wanting to help me to being… I dunno. Scared of me? I just… Did I do something wrong again? Is this my fault, too?”

“I would not know, but I do not believe so,” Chrysalis denied. “My daughter’s heart is a large one, but large hearts can often be crushed beneath their own weight. I do not believe she holds any misgivings of you, but perhaps believes you may of her.”

Rainbow’s eyes snapped wide open, a memory from the library bubbling back up to the surface. A small one, seemingly inconsequential compared to everything else going on.

“That was… quite the dream, wasn’t it…?” Twilight scuffed the ground awkwardly. “Do you want to talk about it? It wasn’t about… us, was it?”

With that, Rainbow departed, leaving the door open behind her.

Just like that, it made sense to her.

‘I am such a freaking moron,’ Rainbow thought for what must have been the trillionth time at this point. She gently brushed Fluttershy and Spike off of her before rising to her hooves. She shook her head to clear away the smog of dread that had been suffocating her and focused on Chrysalis. “I think I know what’s going on… and, yeah, it’s kinda my fault. And that means it’s my responsibility to make it right,” she said slowly, doing her best to keep her voice level and calm.

Chrysalis raised an eyebrow. “Is that so?”

Rainbow nodded regretfully. “Yeah… Look, she’s my friend, and I need to go fix my latest mistake, but… she’s your daughter,” she said before drawing herself up to stand tall. One of her hooves wandered up to her ponytail as she continued. “So I’m asking you to let me go after her. I need to make this right, but… I won’t feel right about it without the go-ahead from you.”

Chrysalis hummed for a moment, studying Rainbow Dash in full. She then smirked. “Oh, for me to trust a pony with my daughter’s safety… Your world must have a strange effect on those of my own, for my trust in you must be a sign of insanity.”

“Hey, you mean you wouldn’t trust me?” native Rainbow objected.

“Hah.”

“Hey!”

“My point being…” Chrysalis trailed off. “I respect all you have been through, all your pain has made you. I think my child could learn a thing or two from your own experiences. So if you are willing to share, do so with my consent.”

Rainbow visibly relaxed on hearing that, a grateful smile spreading on her lips. “Thank you. Any idea where she is? Can’t exactly go looking for her if I dunno where she went.”

“A library? You know, a book place? She likes those when she’s sad,” Pinkie suggested.

“Dear, she always likes those,” Rarity pointed out.

“While it is possible, I doubt she would wish to interact with anyone at this moment,” Chrysalis said in doubt. “The source of her insecurity may be that day, but you are its focus, Rainbow Dash. If she wishes to think upon what she believes is the truth, she would go somewhere representing you.”

“A cloud?” native Rainbow suggested.

“No,” Rainbow shut that idea down with a grim frown. Her grip on her ponytail tightened, her hoof coiling around the band that kept her hair bound. After a few seconds, she pulled the band away with a grimace, allowing her mane to fall loose and free over her shoulder. She trotted up to Chrysalis and held it out. “Hang onto this for me, would ya?”

Chrysalis raised an eyebrow, taking hold of the band in her magic. “Hmph, very well. But I’m afraid you look far less respectable without it.”

Rainbow shrugged. “That’s why I wear it… It’s how I remind myself of my responsibilities. I’m a Princess back home, and I can’t let myself forget that. But right now, I need to just be myself. Just Rainbow Dash. Not some broken royal from a different world.”

There was a moment of silence among the group, all eyes on the pegasus as she stood before them, for the first time since they’d met her, truly as she claimed. Just Rainbow Dash, no royal title, no otherworldly nature, just a friend wanting to help another through her own rough times.

One who remembered that she’s not alone in the world of pain.

Rainbow turned away and approached the nearest window. She glanced back at her other self for a moment before looking outside. It was dark out, no doubt deep in the middle of the night. “...Let Luna know where we are if she gets back first,” she stated before pushing open the window and flaring out her wings. “I’ll be back soon.”

With that, she leapt from the window. She caught the wind on her wings and descended into a steady glide over the streets of Baltimare, her eyes set on where she now knew Twilight to be hiding away.

The place where her life had been irrevocably altered.

‘I’m sorry I didn’t say anything,’ Rainbow thought, pumping her wings for a burst of speed. The wind rushed in her ears and flowed past her face, chasing away her earlier panic and fear in its entirety. ‘But I’m gonna make it right. I promise.’

With that thought, Rainbow gave her wings one last, mighty flap, and vanished into the darkness of the night.