The one where Rainbow Dash is weird

by Brosif1357

Rating: everyone
Tags: Slice of Life, Twilight Sparkle, Main 6, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Rainbow Dash, Starlight Glimmer, Science Fiction, Adventure
Length: 24613

Rainbow Dash expected many things to happen when she perfected the Sonic Rainboom. Gaining the ability to control time was not one of them.

After trying to unravel the secrets of the Sonic Rainboom, Twilight begins to notice strange discrepancies in her readings. Desperate for answers she stalks her rainbow-maned friend, but only discovers more anomalies and more questions that could decide the fate of the world.

Does Twilight really know her friends as well as she thought? Does Rainbow Dash even know herself?

Published 2020-11-02 23:20:01 UTC
Last updated 2021-02-07 06:19:06 UTC

The Rainboom Experiment

"Can't we hurry this along?" Rainbow Dash complained as Twilight fastened the last straps of the measuring device. "You know, I'm regretting offering to help now."

It was a beautiful day, with not a cloud in the sky. Due to the nature of this experiment, Twilight had taken them to an isolated field of Sweet Apple Acres. After all, Sonic Rainbooms could be quite the hearing hazard.

"Done," Twilight stepped back to survey the dials and wires of the bulky harness. Rainbow Dash twisted around, trying to find a more comfortable way to carry the extra weight.

"So can I go now?"

"Not just yet. I have to calibrate the measuring devices," Twilight dragged Rainbow Dash over to a larger ground-based device. She meticulously checked each and every device, from the timekeeper to the thermometer. And each device's three redundant systems. With science, you could never be too certain.

Now came the time synchronisation. This was very important, since without it Twilight would could not accurately compare the ground and aerial results. With a soft click, both clocks displaced 1:06 PM. Perfect.

"Alright, you can-" No sooner had the words left her mouth had Rainbow Dash shot off into the sky. She ducked and flipped, getting a feel for the additional weight before climbing rapidly.

At the apex of her ascent, she paused briefly and took in sights. Truly there couldn't be much more beautiful than this. But Rainbow Dash had a job to complete. She shot back to the ground, rapidly increasing her speed. The wind tore at her mane, trying it's hardest to slow her down. Instead, Rainbow Dash pushed harder. All too soon she reached the point where the air could no longer hold her. With a tremendous bang, the pegasus gave one final push and the world was alight with colour.

Back on the ground, Twilight stared in awe at the explosion of colour. No matter how many times she saw it, the Sonic Rainboom was magnificent.

Rainbow Dash gracefully landed before Twilight. "So, can I go now?"

"Just let me get the data..." Twilight began, unstrapping the device from her friend's shoulders. "Alright you can go."

The pegasus was off before Twilight could even say thank you. She watched as Rainbow Dash soared back into the air, before landing on a nice cloud and promptly rolling onto her side. Twilight sighed. Typical. But thoughts of her friend's laziness did not occupy her thoughts for long. There was science to be done!

Twilight took a quick look at the ground-based device. 1:10 PM. So that gave her four minutes of data to sort through which-

She lost her train of thought as she read the time on the aerial device. 1:12 PM. But... they should be the same? Twilight had spent weeks checking over every miniscule detail of these measuring devices. They should be the same, not a whole two minutes off. Briefly, she considered finding Rainbow Dash and trying again, but her friend was already fast asleep. Besides, Twilight knew repeating a failure would only lead to another failure. She'd take these devices back to Golden Oaks and fix the error before trying again.

Nothing. Absolutely Celestia-damned nothing. Countless hours without a wink of sleep and still couldn't figure out the answer. Each and every one of the devices in the aerial measuring device was off by a full two minutes. Including all the redundancies. Twilight wouldn't have been surprised if some of the more sensitive equipment had started to show faults at that level of magical energy. But all of them? And by the same amount? Such a thing was a statistical improbability!

In her fatigue-addled mind, Twilight began to think of increasingly unlikely explanations. Had Rainbow Dash intentionally sabotaged the device in some malicious attempt at a prank? Because there was no way this equipment was faulty. She had checked it herself!

The sun began to stream in through the windows and Twilight realised she'd once again gone all night without sleep. Spike had warned her against that, claiming she tended to get a bit loopy without sleep. He also claimed she got obsessive when faced with a problem she couldn't figure out. She knew he was right and Twilight was convinced to not become that mare again. Which was why she was going to handle this like a reasonable adult.

So... when did Rainbow Dash wake up?

Twilight trailed Rainbow Dash as the pegasus made her morning rounds. In her mind, she reasoned that Rainbow Dash was busy and couldn't talk right now. Twilight was just... waiting for a moment to speak. Thirty metres away. Behind a house.

Spike was right, maybe she had a problem.

Rainbow Dash was currently speaking with Fluttershy, who was pulling a large cart full of what looked like animal feed. In a stroke of brilliance, she even cast a hearing enhancement spell on herself. Now Twilight could hear everything the two pegasi were saying.

"I'm sorry Rainbow Dash, I've still got a lot more birdseed to buy. All those little chicks are going to be born soon and I want to make sure they are all nice and fed," Fluttershy responded to something Rainbow Dash had said. The yellow pegasus examined each of the bags a street vendor was offering. "Do I need 20 or 30?" she muttered.

"You've got like, a hundred birds right?" Rainbow Dash asked. Seeing Fluttershy nod, she continued. "So for a month that should be like 27 bags. Or something like that."

Fluttershy smiled at her friend. "Thanks Rainbow."

"Don't mention it, always happy to help out a friend!" Rainbow Dash gave Fluttershy a hoofbump and flew off.

Meanwhile, Twilight stared at the spot the pegasi had just occupied with disbelieving eyes. Quickly she ran the numbers in her head. One hundred birds. Average of 0.5 chicks per bird. Factoring in the average consumption... 26.725 exactly. How had Rainbow Dash figured that out so quickly?

Twilight galloped over to the yellow pegasi. Seeing she was struggling with the bags, Twilight levitated them all into the cart then rounded on her friend. "Since when was Rainbow Dash good at maths?"

Fluttershy seemed a little put off by her sudden appearance. "I mean, she wouldn't call herself good-"

"Are you kidding? That's a complex maths problem with many variables. And she just did it in her head in less than ten seconds," Twilight spoke quickly, moving closer to Fluttershy with each word until she was almost pressed up against her face.

With a meek whimper, Fluttershy backed off. "Um, Twilight. When was the last time you slept?"

"I don't have time for sleep!"

"Oh... ok then," Fluttershy hooked herself to the cart and quickly galloped out of town. She seemed determined to get as far away from town as possible, but Twilight couldn't fathom why.

So... Rainbow Dash was good at maths. That was unexpected, but not the answer she was looking for. But if Rainbow Dash was a maths expert, then surely she'd be smart enough to tamper with the instruments? Now she had a new angle to attack the problem. All she had to do was find the pegasus!

Twilight found Rainbow Dash in Sweet Apple Acres. She and Applejack were in the middle of some horseshoe tossing game Twilight had forgotten the name to. The alicorn decided now would be as good a time as any to confront the rainbow-maned mare.

"Rainbow Dash, did you notice anything weird about the Sonic Rainboom yesterday?" Twilight began. Best to open up with as non-accusing of a question she could come up with.

"Besides it being way harder due to the 10 kilograms of stuff you had strapped on me?"

"Yes! All my data is off by two minutes! All of it!"

"Maybe you set the time wrong?"

"I made sure I didn't!" Twilight argued back. Applejack meanwhile was looking between the two of them with a confused expression.

"Sugarcube... what's going on? Have you slept recently?" Applejack asked. Twilight's eye twitched in irritation. Why was everyone asking about her sleeping schedule today?

"What's going on is that Rainbow Dash is keeping secrets! Did you know she was good at maths?"

Applejack opened her mouth to respond, but Rainbow Dash cut her off.

"Hey I'm not good at that egghead stuff!"

"You helped Fluttershy this morning with a maths problem!"

Rainbow Dash shrugged dismissively. "That wasn't maths! I just knew that she'd need 27 bags."

"That is exactly maths!"

"No it's not! It's like how you know how many quills you need a year. How do you figure that out?"

"With maths!" Twilight sighed in irritation. She was getting nowhere with this. "Look, my measurements are wrong. I just need to know if this is some sort of prank."

Rainbow Dash shook her head. "No, I have no idea what those things even do."

With a defeated sigh, Twilight nodded and turned to leave. Once again she'd let her paranoia get the best of her. This time, she promised to never let it happen again. Twilight would check the instruments one more time, then forget about this whole thing. She began the long walk back to Ponyville, leaving Applejack and Rainbow Dash to their game. Just as she was about to leave, Rainbow Dash called out to her.

"Oh and say hi to Starlight Glimmer for me!"

Who in Celestia's name was Starlight Glimmer!?

Twilight flipped through the notebook quickly. Pinkie Pie had been generous enough to lend Twilight her list of every resident of Ponyville. Plus their birthdays, interests and favourite cupcake flavour, but that wasn't the alicorn's concern. All she needed to do was prove Starlight Glimmer wasn't a real pony and she'd know Rainbow Dash was pranking her.

The pink mare herself was leaning on the counter, giving Twilight a concerned look. Twilight half expected Pinkie Pie to ask how much sleep she'd gotten, it seemed to be all her friends were asking today.

Twilight finished the notebook. "Nothing! Starlight Glimmer doesn't exist! I knew Rainbow Dash was pranking me!"

"She didn't tell me about any prank," Pinkie Pie reasoned, but Twilight was already out of the room.

The alicorn found Rainbow Dash talking to Rarity outside of her home. That was strange, the game she was playing with Applejack should still take another hour to complete. Twilight pushed the thought out of her head. Maybe Rainbow Dash was discussing the prank with Rarity!? Quickly, Twilight ducked behind a bush to eavesdrop on their conversation.

"So I found that rare fabric that you said got lost in last night's storm. Again, I'm really sorry" Rainbow Dash apologised and presented a shimmering golden fabric to the unicorn. Rarity took it with a confused look.

"This fabric is absolutely gorgeous. But darling... there was no storm last night," Rarity tried to explain. Nearby, Twilight suddenly listened closely. The unicorn was right, they hadn't had a storm for weeks. Was Rainbow Dash seriously trying to prank Rarity too?

"Thanks Rares, but you don't have to spare my feelings. I know I screwed up. I'll catch up with you later, I've got to go help with clearing out the last of the clouds."

Without another word, Rainbow Dash left the confused unicorn levitating the golden fabric in a soft blue aura. Twilight was about to go talk to Rarity, when hoof tapped her shoulder.

"Are you spying on Rarity?"

Twilight shrieked and came face to face with Rainbow Dash. But that was impossible! She just saw her fly off in the complete opposite direction!

"Twilight, are you OK? Did you get enough sleep last night?"

But the alicorn didn't respond. She was still trying to piece together what she'd just seen. Unless the Changelings had returned, there shouldn't be two Rainbow Dashes.

"Yes Rainbow Dash, I'm fine. Just a bit jumpy," Twilight replied after a long pause. She forced a grin on her face.

Rainbow Dash laughed and flew in lazy circles around the alicorn. "That's good to hear! Oh just to warn you, the weather team is planning to bring over some rain and it's going to get pretty heavy by 5:34 PM. I'm going to see if I can't use a vortex to-"

In the blink of an eye, Rainbow Dash was suddenly behind Twilight.

"-and if it works it's going to be so cool!" she continued, completely obvious to her friend's growing panic.

Too busy with an internal panic attack Twilight absentmindedly replied, "Yeah... that sounds good..."

"Damn right it does! Alright, see you around!"

Rainbow Dash shot off, leaving the alicorn alone to think. Despite her apprehensions, it was becoming clear to Twilight that there was only one possible explanation: she was hallucinating. Pulling another stressful all-nighter can't have been the best idea. With a resolute sigh, Twilight made her way back to Golden Oaks. It would much easier to think after a nap.

A crack of lightning joked Twilight from her sleep. With foggy eyes, she looked over at the clock on the wall. 5:34 PM exactly. Dread started to well up inside her, but in her half-asleep state Twilight couldn't remember why that time was so important. With an irritated groan, she cast a muffling spell around her bed and returned to the dreamland.

That morning, Twilight awoke slowly. She hadn't felt this rested in a long time. A peaceful smile on her face, she poured herself a cup of tea and stepped outside to enjoy the day.

Her smile faded. Ponyville was in shambles! Leaves had been blown off trees and every roof was covered in twigs and other debris. The roof on one house had even had the tiles blown clean off. What had happened last night?!

"Oh Twilight, it's good to see you up," Spike greeted the purple mare. He was helping some earth ponies rake up the streets. "I'm surprised to see you up, you slept right through the storm last night."

"The storm... last night?" An uncomfortable feeling overtook Twilight. Had Rainbow Dash... planned this? It was unbelievable. Her friend would never do that, but how else would Rainbow Dash know about a devastating storm the day before it happened?

Spike passed the rake to a stallion and walked over to Twilight. "Wow you really did sleep right through it. From what I hear Rainbow Dash and a few other pegasi tried a new trick and it didn't end well. She's taken responsibility, but I think she could use a friend. She's over by the Everfree getting chewed out by-"

But Twilight had already left Spike behind.

"You're little stunt has devastated the town. I should have your weather license revoked immediately!" A red pegasus mare screamed.

Rainbow Dash hung her head in shame "I know. I'm really sorry. I'll do whatever I can to help."

Twilight found her friend near the pathway to Fluttershy's cottage. Her eyes widened as she saw the damage. Even the Everfree Forest hadn't been spared the storm's wrath!

"If you don't fix your work real soon, you will be seeing from me," the red pegasus gave Rainbow Dash one final look and flew up into the air.

Just as Rainbow Dash began the long process of kicking tree debris back into the forest, Twilight ran up to her.

"Rainbow Dash, I've been looking for you."

"Yes Twilight, I know what I did was irresponsible. You're not the first one to tell me today."

"That's not what I'm here for! Look, this is important! I need you to tell me if-"

But Rainbow Dash had caught sight of a flicker of gold hanging in the branches of an old oak tree. She shot over to canopy and brought the object back down. Twilight's eyes widened. She recognised the fabric. It was the exact same piece of fabric Rainbow Dash had given Rarity yesterday!

"Hey, this is the fabric Rarity lost in the storm!" Rainbow Dash held the fabric up to her eyes. "She seemed so panicked this morning about losing it. Excuse me Twilight, I need to return this."

"No wait I need you to-" Twilight began, but it was too late. Rainbow Dash shot off into the air. Glumly, Twilight followed her path through the air. Suddenly, she disappeared! There was no flash of light. Nothing indicating teleportation. It's like she simply vanished. Twilight blinked. Still no Rainbow Dash. What was going on here!?

Twilight barricaded herself in her lab. Finally. No hallucinations. No Rainbow Dash being weird. Just Twilight alone doing what she did best: magical research. Her eyes caught sight of the two measuring devices. She was still no closer to unravelling the cause of the strange discrepancy in time recording, but even with that corrupt data at least some of it might still be useful.

She glanced over at the ground device. The timekeeper read 9:43 AM. Twilight silently cursed herself. What a silly mistake, to forget to press stop on the recording? Now she'd have to sift through over 18 hours of data! Well, maybe the aerial device had...

9:47 AM.

But hadn't the aerial device only been two minutes ahead? Twilight was certain of it! She'd even marked it down in her notes. So how could the gap be even larger?

Control yourself! Twilight took a few deep breaths. There was no use complaining about device accuracy now. That line of thinking had kept her all night and caused strange hallucinations during the day. And she refused to become the obsessive stalker that had nearly ruined her friendship with Pinkie Pie over a scientific result.

Levitating both devices, Twilight plugged them in a printer which spat out a long chart of results. She hung both charts side by side, to compare their readings. It would be a good idea to measure relative to the ground device. The massive spike of thaumetic energy a few minutes into the experiment was obviously the Sonic Rainboom. On the aerial device, the same spike occurred at the same time, but it lasted two minutes instead of a few seconds. It was almost like they were measuring the exact same readings, just drawn out over a longer period of time...

Twilight's eyes widened. A horrible theory had just occurred to her. Dear Celestia...

Quickly, she flipped through the readings. The ground measuring device displayed the same uniform measurement of everything. Pressure, temperature, even background thaumetic energy levels. But the aerial device had... gaps. There was no other way to describe it. Small period of time, only a few seconds long, where the readings were wrong. Every measuring device flatlined, like there was nothing to measure. After these periods, the aerial device went back to measuring the same readings as the ground device, just a few additional seconds out of sync.

If her theory was correct then there should be another gap right about... here! A three second period of time where the aerial device had fallen out of sync with the ground device. Exactly when Rainbow Dash had done her little teleporting trick.

Twilight didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She just stared at that three second gap. There was no pressure reading. No temperature reading. Not even any thaumetic energy! And yet, in those three seconds, time had passed. At least relative to this measuring device.

For just the briefest moment, time had stopped.

Two Rainbow Dashes?

"So... are we just going to pretend this ain't happenin'?" Applejack asked.

The farmpony stood awkwardly beside Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie around a coffee table, eyeing Twilight as she poorly hid behind a bush. A pair of binoculars poked out of the shrubbery, fixated on the blue pegasus. Rainbow Dash sneezed and Applejack heard the sound pencil rapidly scribbling on paper.

"Don't look at me! I can't help it if Twilight wants to act weird for a week straight" Rainbow Dash protested, seeing the others eye her. "You should have seen what she did yesterday. Came up to me asking if I'd been to Starbeard's wing or something, then just stopped talking for a few seconds. When I asked her about it she panicked and ran away!"

Rainbow Dash would never tell anypony, but Twilight's fixation with her was starting to become scary. Of course she trusted her friend, but that didn't stop her from fearing that one day she'd wake up on a dissection table. Everybody had their irrational fears, even a mare as awesome as herself. And this was starting to become hers.

Though that might just be the odd feelings she'd been getting recently. A week ago, Rainbow Dash found herself telling Twilight to say hi to somepony named Starlight Glimmer. That name was unfamiliar to her, but in that moment Rainbow Dash felt like she'd been friends with this pony for a long time. Though she'd never even met anypony by that name.

"I admit that is strange, but Twilight can be a bit... intense with these kind of things," Rarity reminded them. "You all remember the Pinkie Sense incident? Or when she couldn't find something to write for Princess Celestia?"

The four other mares exchanged looks and shivered.

"Um, maybe we should talk to her?" Fluttershy suggested.

"Fluttershy's right. I figure it's about time we got to the bottom of this," Applejack agreed.

Pinkie Pie nodded and hopped over the hedge, landing right next to the alicorn. "Hi-ya Twilight!"

"Ah!" Twilight shrieked in surprise, jumping back defensively. The spell holding up her notebook faded, sending it falling to the ground. Pinkie sniffed it a bit and picked it up, carrying it back to the four other waiting at the table in her mouth.

"Hey girls, look what I found!" Pinkie showed them the notebook.

Twilight scrambled after the pink pony. "Wait, don't touch that!"

But it was too late. Rarity was flipping through the pages while the Rainbow Dash and Applejack fixed Twilight with hard looks.

"Look sugarcube, this business with Rainbow Dash needs to stop," Applejack insisted. Fluttershy nodded, silently pleading with Twilight to see reason.

"'Subject shows knowledge of events that occurred in the past?" Rarity read aloud from the most recent entry in the notebook. "Honestly Twilight. We know Rainbow Dash has a memory. Remember we helped her pass that history exam?"

Twilight's face flushed. She couldn't meet their eyes. "Ok... admittedly I may have been caught up in the moment. But the fate of Equestria may rest on this!"

"On you following Rainbow Dash around?" Applejack sighed. "Look, why don't ya just tell us what's ailing you and we'll see if we can help."

"I can be a great help!" Pinkie Pie shouted. "Look at all the things I can help with!"

She reached inside her mane and pulled out a scroll. With a flick, it unrolled down the street. Seeing the unamused looks on her five friends, Pinkie Pie somehow made the scroll roll back up stuffed it back in her mane.

"I'm sorry Pinkie Pie, this may not be something any of you can help with," Twilight admitted. She surveyed the five identical looks of concern and sighed. "But I'll tell you what's going on, for all the good it will do. Meet me at Golden Oaks later this afternoon."

"So you all came?" Twilight asked, mentally counting off each of the five mares entering the library.

"Yes, we came. Now what's all this about?" Rainbow Dash tapped a hoof on the ground impatiently.

"I'll get to that. Spike, can you bring out the projector screen?"

Spike nodded and pushed out a white fabric frame into the middle of the room. Rainbow Dash wasn't the most perceptive pony, but she could tell something was bothering the normally cheerful dragon. Usually, she'd dismiss it. But the cause of this investigation was her. Why? It wasn't like Rainbow Dash was broke the laws of physics on a whim like Pinkie Pie.

Fluttershy sat next to Rainbow Dash, offering a supporting look. Rainbow Dash nodded silently. The yellow pegasus was her oldest friend and Rainbow Dash was lucky to have her. The other three kept close eyes on the blue pegasus as Twilight fiddled with the projector.

In a flash of light, an image was displayed on the screen. It showed a line, slowly increasing against two axes labelled 'Subjective Time' and 'Desynchronization'. Neither of those words meant anything to Rainbow Dash and looking at the faces of her friends she could tell she wasn't the only one confused. Though looking closer, Rainbow Dash noticed that the line graphed looked like a irregular stairs, increasing suddenly then returning to a flat plateau.

Twilight gestured to the graph, like it was supposed to mean something to them.

"Ok, what is this?" Applejack said after a long moment.

"It's the problem I've been investigating!"

"Twilight, I think you need to explain more," Spike reminded her. He was holding a small timer that Rainbow Dash found strangely familiar.

"Oh alright. Basically what you need to know is that the timer Spike is holding is gaining additional time randomly throughout the day," Twilight tapped the vertical axis marked 'Desyncronisation'.

"Clocks do that sometimes silly!" Pinkie Pie reminded her. "That's why you need to reset them every now and then!"

"This is a magic-resonant timer. They loose an average of a second a century, but this one has 'lost' 20 minutes in only a week. I have another one just like it and I've been running them both since the Sonic Rainboom experiment. And the measurents are different."

The Sonic Rainboom experiment? Rainbow Dash barely remembered that test, it was all overshadowed by the strangeness that followed. Like that storm she'd accidentally created. What about the Sonic Rainboom experiment made the alicorn so frazzled?

Twilight levitated a stick and pointed at the tiny 'jumps' along the graph.

"At random intervals, the measuring equipment will sense what I'm calling a 'stutter'. Everything flatlines for a few seconds, never more than five. But relative to the equipment I attached to Rainbow Dash time will pass."

Rarity politely raised a hoof. "I don't think I quite understand, darling. So you're saying time stops? Wouldn't we know if it did?"

"That's the thing. We wouldn't," Twilight explained. "Relative to the 'stutter-proof' measuring device, everything would suddenly freeze in place. But to objects or ponies compliant to the flow of time? They wouldn't perceive anything until time resumed."

"Ah think I get it," Applejack spoke up. She turned to Rarity. "It's like one of those new-fangled motion pictures. You can pause 'em and do something else, but when you press play the film will keep playing like nothin' happened."

This was starting to sound familiar to Rainbow Dash. Uncomfortably familiar.

"That's a very good way to explain it, Applejack. Which brings me to the main point of thisssssssssssssss-"

Twilight froze. She stared unblinking up at the projector screen, mouth still open. The last sound she made hung in the air, like a song played in slow motion. Had she just lost her train of thought? Rainbow Dash had seen a lot of ponies do that recently. And yet, something about Twilight's lecture stuck with her. Moments where everything froze, like somebody had hit pause on a film? That was sounding awfully familiar right about now.

Rainbow Dash turned to her other friends, only to see they were in similar states. Fluttershy, Rarity and Applejack stared into nothing. Pinkie Pie's eyes were closed, caught in a blink while Spike was caught in mid stride. What the Tartarus was going on here!?

Only a few seconds had passed, but Rainbow Dash was already feeling unnerved. She leapt up and approached the frozen alicorn. Just as she was about to lay a hoof on her friend, Twilight moved.

"-presentation, which is to highlight the- SWEET CELESTIA!" Twilight leapt backwards from Rainbow Dash, flairing her wings instinctively. The sudden movement knocked over the projector screen, sending it tumbling to the floor.

"Land sakes, how did ya get over there so quickly!?" Applejack stared at Rainbow Dash with wide eyes.

"I... I don't know," Rainbow Dash admitted. How had they not seen her get up? Everybody but Pinkie Pie had their eyes open, they should've seen her move!

Twilight took a few breaths to compose herself. "And that's why I'm investigating Rainbow Dash. I believe she has the ability to move through stutters."

Excuse me, what? Rainbow Dash could hardly believe it. "You mean I can-"

"That is so cool!" Pinkie Pie leapt in Rainbow Dash's face. "You've got this super awesome superpower. I have my Pinkie Sense and Fluttershy has her stare, we can be super buddies!"

"It is kinda cool," Fluttershy admitted.

"I'll say! Rainbow Dash, think of the possibilities!" Rarity insisted.

Applejack, ever the voice of reason, interrupted the fanfare. "Now Twilight, you're telling me time pauses randomly? Is that what's got ya so worked up?"

"Of course that's what I'm worried about! Time just stops without us ever noticing!"

"But, if we don't notice it, what's there to be worried about?" Applejack reasoned.

Twilight opened her mouth to reply, then paused. "I... suppose you're right. Wow. I think I got so caught up in discovering time was stuttering that I never considered what that would actually mean. For all I know this could be a natural occurrence. But what if they're not? I've noticed a lot of time anomalies since the Sonic Rainboom experiment, these stutters could be one of them. Of course it's possible that's only because I've never had the equipment to detect these anomalies..."

"Well you could always ask Rainbow Dash," Rarity suggested. "She can tell when they happen, remember."

All eyes turned to her and the pegasus suddenly felt very self-conscious. It was all getting too much to handle. Subjective time. Desyncronisation. Time anomalies. That was egghead stuff! Everything she knew about time weirdness came from a Daring Do book, one that ended with Dr Caballeron nearly destroying reality.

"Look, I don't know!" Rainbow Dash replied, more to herself than anyone else.

"Surely you can remember moments when everything seemed to pause around you?" Rarity probed.

"Or maybe other people have noticed you seem to teleport?" Twilight added. She quickly summoned her notebook and looked at the pegasus expectantly.

Rainbow Dash wanted to say no. She really wanted to. But Twilight's words got her thinking to a moment back in Flight School. Rainbow Dash had been struggling with weaving through the hoops of an obstacle course. In the practice runs, she'd collided with the hoops and came last. That had really frustrated her. Getting the worst mark in her class was unthinkable to Rainbow Dash. But after weeks of training, she was ready for another attempt. And she aced the hoops part, just as she expected. Only to be accused of having a unicorn teleport her through the course.

"I think I remember something. It was a few days after I got my Cutie Mark. I was going through an obstacle course, but when I finished first everybody claimed I cheated by teleporting."

"Oh I remember that," Fluttershy spoke up. "You were so angry."

"So, there you go!" Applejack said. "The stutters have been occurring at least since Dashie was a filly."

Twilight looked down in embarrassment. "I suppose you're right. I'm really sorry about acting so weird recently. I promise to not be so obsessive in the future."

"That's alright Twi," Rainbow Dash laid a hoof on the alicorn's shoulder. "Look, if you want my help with some experiments I'll consider it. This stuff may not be Equestria-destroying, but... I think I'd like to know more. Figure out what I'm supposed to do with this ability."

"Well thank you for forgiving me. And I'll take you up on your offer some time later."

"See, didn't it feel good to be honest with each other?" Applejack asked.

"I'm glad that's behind us. Now, why don't we get something to eat?" Rarity suggested. "I never got anything at the cafe."

Spike got up, but Rainbow Dash beat him to it.

"I'll get something from the kitchen!"

Now, which way was Twilight's kitchen? Left door or right door? Rainbow Dash couldn't decide. Eventually, she decided to just try one door and see what was inside.

Suddenly, her body was set alight in blinding agony. A distorted scream echoed though the library. Two figures stepped out of the space in which there was only one, walking to both doors. They painfully glitched forward and back randomly in flashes of rainbow light. And poor Rainbow Dash was forced to experience the sensations of both bodies. It was a maddening feeling, to control two bodies at once. She felt incomplete, like her very essence had been ripped in half.

Just as quickly as it started, it ended with both glitching figures snapping back into one. Twilight caught Rainbow Dash in her magic before she could collapse to the ground.

"What in the unholy depths of Tartarus was that?!" Applejack shouted, pointing a trembling hoof at Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie had tears in their eyes while Rarity seemed too stunned to even blink. Twilight herself was caught between confusion and horror.

Rainbow Dash was floated over to a soft sofa and laid gently upon it. Fluttershy raced over to tend to her friend, though there was little she could do. The pain had gone, but the aftermath remained. It was hard to even produce a coherent thought with two conflicting sets of memories waging a war inside her mind, but the part of Rainbow Dash still lucid shared Applejack's confusion. What in Tartarus had just happened to her?

And luckily Twilight already had a hypothesis.

"I think somehow, Rainbow Dash just accidentally attempted to move in two different possible timelines at the same time, then was suddenly forced back into existing in only one timeline. Rainbow Dash, were you uncertain about what you wanted to do?"

Rainbow Dash didn't want to answer. She didn't want to think. She didn't want to recall anything that had led up to that horrid moment. But she nodded anyway.

"Well... maybe try to be absolutely certain you want to do something before you do it? That's all the advice I can give."

"All the advice you can give?!" Applejack repeated with venom. "Our friend just tore herself in half! How can you make sure that never happens again?"

Twilight glared back at the cowpony. "How should I know? This is new to me as well! Two versions of Rainbow Dash must have been created for two different timelines stemming from the two potential choices she could make. So as long as she is certain about wanting to do something before doing it she theoretically shouldn't have this problem."

"Well 'theoretically' ain't good enough, but that's not your fault," Applejack relented.

Fluttershy tried to coax life back into Rainbow Dash, but it was hopeless. She looked over Twilight, seeking some kind of explanation for her friend's condition. "I thought you said that Rainbow Dash could only avoid time pauses?"

"No. That's just the tip of the iceberg. After the Sonic Rainboom, I noticed Rainbow Dash do strange things. Most notably, I think she accidentally time travelled to give Rarity a piece of golden fabric."

"I remember that!" Rarity said. "It was so weird. She apologised for a storm that didn't happen and gave me a gorgeous piece of fabric and that very night a storm happens and blows the fabric right off my clothesline! I thought I was going crazy!"

"That's the only time I've seen Rainbow Dash time travel. And besides... whatever this was-," Twilight gestured to the still unmoving form of Rainbow Dash. "she hasn't done something anomalous since. The only theory I can provide is that the Sonic Rainboom somehow 'supercharges' inherent time-altering abilities."

Sweet Celestia, her head still felt like it was going to split. And Rainbow Dash, for the first time in many years, was terrified by something. Strange things were happening to her and she knew nothing about it. Why couldn't it have been Twilight to be infected with time weirdness? At least the alicorn would know how what was going on.

"And that's not all. Twice I saw Rainbow Dash react like she was experiencing future events," Twilight continued. "First when she predicted how much birdseed Fluttershy needed and next when she mentioned a pony called Starlight Glimmer who I can only assume is somepony we've yet to meet. It's possible the memories of her future selves are bleeding over to present Rainbow Dash."

"Feelings," the blue pegasus stated. It had taken a while, but Rainbow Dash had sorted through the two sets of memories and finally felt lucid enough to talk.

"What was that?"

"They weren't memories. They were feelings. I felt like a friend was going through a tough time, so I just said the first thing that came to mind. And that was to tell you to say high to Starlight Glimmer."

Twilight's eyes widened. She scratched out entire pages of her notebook and wrote new things over the top. "Of course! Feelings! Linear interpretations of events like a memory could never have survived travelling through non-linear time!

Now Rainbow's head hurt, but for a completely different reason. Twilight's logic was impossible to decipher by anybody but Twilight. Or possibly a team of researchers in Canterlot. But at least it made the alicorn happy.

"So, what do we do now?" Applejack asked.

"Whatever means I don't have to experience that horrible splitting feeling again," Rainbow Dash replied for Twilight, head still buried in the sofa.

"I agree," Twilight nodded. "A friends comfort should come first. I'll need to test whether uncertain decisions triggggggggg-"

A bleary magenta eye opened. Twilight was standing still, caught in the middle of an unfinished sentence. Rainbow Dash was surprised how quickly she got used to seeing her friends like this. With a sigh, she rolled over to snuggle deeper into the sofa. Perhaps a nap would banish the remaining pains in her body?

Dimly, Rainbow Dash wondered why her friends hadn't started moving yet. Hadn't Twilight said these stutters only last a few seconds? Well, ten seconds had passed and nothing had moved. But her mind wasn't in the state to ponder such things. Maybe she just misheard the alicorn?

After all, why would the stutters be getting longer?

Author's Note

Well, I wrote another chapter. What can I say, I was bored.

A Final Moment Averted

Rainbow Dash pushed in vain against the bars of the cage. Damn that abomination of nature to the depths of Tartarus! She was a fool to ever think Discord could be trusted! The mere sight of Fluttershy's tear-stained face was enough to ignite an inferno of hatred in the mare.

The ground trembled. Tirek had arrived.

"You gathered up all of them?" came the rough voice of the centaur.

"And her little dragon too!" Discord held his finger to Spike's face mockingly. The dragon snapped his jaws, but Discord pulled away too quickly. What Rainbow Dash wouldn't give to see that finger bitten off...

"Why are you doing this?" cried Fluttershy. Applejack held the pegasus as sobs wracked her body. "I thought we were friends!"

Discord just scoffed. "Oh we were. But Tirek offered me so much more than just teaparties! Surely you saw this coming?"

"I didn't," she buried herself in Applejack's shoulder. "I really didn't!"

I did, Rainbow Dash thought.

The cage was suddenly surrounded in a golden aura. It trembled and was lifted off the ground. Rainbow Dash gulped as she came face to face with Tirek himself. His jaws opened wide and Rainbow Dash cried out in pain as her very essence was torn from her. For the first time in decades, her wings failed her. This feeling... it was awful. Some intangible thing she had lived with her whole life was missing. Rainbow Dash felt like a fish suddenly pulled from the ocean. She was choking.

She barely felt it as the cage was dropped carelessly to the floor. Through half-closed eyes, Rainbow Dash could see her friends all in similar states of silent agony.

Tirek grew taller, now towering over even the tallest buildings of Ponyville. He clenched his fists, testing the limits of his new strength. Turning to address Discord, Tirek began to speak.

"You really think she'd do anything for-," Tirek began, only to collapse as a scream of pain and terror was ripped from him.

The noise only worsened when a distorted rainbow image of the centaur fell forward. Another image reeled backwards, falling to the ground with a thud. Flashes of rainbow light arced out around the multiple forms, each of them tortured by the impossibility of their own existence. One cried molten tears and the other spun around wildly, only causing more probabilities to be violently split apart then merged together only seconds later.

The imprisoned mares watched in horror at the visceral display. Applejack and Spike were struck by a sick fascination while Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie had all closed their eyes in a desperate attempt to block it all out. Even Discord seemed disturbed. Rainbow Dash paled with each light. That was her magic doing this to Tirek. It was a harrowing thought to know that she might suffer the same fate one day.

"What's happening to me?!" One Tirek managed to cry. He watched as his hands shimmered and glitched back and forth. But somepony must have heard the centaur's pleas, because the screams were mercifully cut short. Seeing the frozen expressions of her friends, it wasn't hard to tell what happened.

But she wasn't the only thing still moving through the stutter. A rainbow glow leaked out of the many Tireks. In his frozen state, he no longer had the ability to force his will over an energy that obeyed it's own law of time. As the stutter collapsed and as her friends began to move again, Rainbow Dash found herself no longer feeling that lethargic choking sensation. She gave her wings a few quick flaps and felt the familiar pull to the sky.

Now we're talking! She could bust out of this cage and save her friends while Tirek was still incapacitated! But to her surprise, Tirek stood before them like nothing had changed.

"You really think she'd do anything for them?" Tirek said to Discord. The draconequus looked at Tirek like he'd grown a second head. And this was coming from the Chaos God himself, who regularly did grow a second head.

"Are... are you alright?" Discord asked after a long pause.

The imprisoned mares exchanged confused looks. Tirek was scrambling around in pain only a few seconds ago, so what changed?

"Any ideas Dashie?" Rarity whispered, eyeing the centaur cautiously.

Rainbow Dash shook her head. "Don't look at me, I'm just as confused as you are."

They turned back to watch the two villains exchange words.

"What are you talking about? I'm fine!" Tirek growled. "Now answer my question!"

Discord looked unsure, but he complied. "If Twilight has magic to give, it will be yours."

"Then it would seem I no longer have a use for you."

"Excuse me?" Discord said in a small voice. He was plucked off the ground and held in place before Tirek's waiting jaws.

"You helped me grow strong! You provided the means by which I can obtain Princess Twilight's magic!" Tirek's voice lowered to a menacing whisper. "And now you are no longer of any use to me."

His jaws opened and a surge of unnatural energy was drawn from Discord. The draconequus wriggled desperately as his magic was forcefully drained from him. When he was finished, Tirek let the limp form of his once-ally drop to the ground unceremoniously.

Sweet Celestia... Rainbow Dash though she'd find more gratification in seeing the traitor brought low. But that was real pain on Discord's face. Betrayal cut deep. Rainbow Dash knew that in a way only the Element of Loyalty could.

Discord held out his medallion weakly. "But you said this was a sign of your gratitude and loyalty! A gift, from someone close to you."

Poor Discord. Creatures like Tirek had no loyalty. Rainbow Dash looked that centaur in the eyes and all she saw was a single-minded desire to devour everything. Such a creature was incapable of seeing the worth in others beyond what others could provide for them. And Discord was no longer capable of providing.

"My brother who betrayed me," Tirek turned to give Discord one last hateful stare. "It is as worthless as he is."

Tirek left Discord to wallow in the dirt, not even sparing a backwards glance.

"Surely you saw this coming?" Applejack asked.

Discord looked back with woeful eyes. "I didn't. I really didn't."

Applejack stepped back from the cage wall. "On three! One... Two... Three!"

The five ponies and dragon all charged forward, only to bounce back off the iron bars. Rainbow Dash growled in frustration. This was getting them nowhere! Twilight was out fighting that magic-devouring monster and they were stuck in here helpless!

"Alright, let's try one more time!" Applejack encouraged. "One... Two... Three!"

They charged once more, to no avail. Applejack was sent sprawling into Rarity who fell down onto Pinkie Pie. Spike and Fluttershy were exhausted and Rainbow Dash herself had a nasty bruise on her snout. Even with her magic this was impossible.

Suddenly, Rainbow Dash was hovering up in the air. She leapt back instinctively, only to find herself pressing back into the soft surface of a bubble. Far beneath her, Twilight stood defiantly before Tirek with devastated land surrounding them. Cold fear clutched at the heart of the pegasus. Up here, Tirek made her alicorn friend look like an ant.

"How about a trade, Princess Twilight? Their release, for all the alicorn magic in Equestria!"

Twilight gasped. Her eyes met each of them in turn. Ignoring their protests, Twilight gulped and approached Tirek.

"No, don't do it Twilight!" Rainbow Dash ordered.

"We aren't worth it!" Fluttershy said, silently pleading for Twilight to stop.

The sounds of her friends faded around Rainbow Dash. All that mattered right now was that she convey to Twilight how bad of an idea this was. If Tirek had that magic, he'd be unstoppable. Equestria would fall. Please Twilight, don't choose us over Equestria.

"Enough!" Tirek shouted, silencing them all. "I want an answer and I want it now!"

Twilight paused, then glared up at the centaur. "I will give you my magic, in exchange for my friends!"

Damn it! Why Twilight? Equestria needs you more than it needs us!

"As you wish," Tirek sneered. He clicked his fingers, releasing the five mares and baby dragon. They fell to the ground with a thump.

Seeing Discord still floating in the air, Twilight's eyes narrowed. "All my friends!"

"After the way he has betrayed you, you still call him a friend?"

"Release him!" she ordered.

Tirek shrugged. "As you wish."

Discord landed roughly on the ground. He looked up at Twilight, not believing his eyes.

"Thank you, Twilight," And with a remorseful look, he turned to Fluttershy. "I'm sorry."

"I know," Fluttershy whispered.

Those words were touching, but Rainbow Dash could only look on in mounting dread as Tirek looked down at Twilight with a hungry glint in his eye.

"Your turn!"

They could only watch as Twilight's magic was forcefully siphoned away. The poor mare struggled instinctively, but soon there was nothing more she could give. Twilight fell to the ground, no longer having the strength to even stay upright. Tirek screamed his triumph to the heavens as his body swelled with magic. Even the mountains were dwarfed by the centaur now.

Rainbow Dash galloped over, feeling completely useless. She couldn't do a damn thing to stop Tirek now.

"Twilight, what were you thinking!" Spike cried, helping the alicorn back to her feet.

Hope seemed to have abandoned the seven friends. They shared a silent mourning, now that Tirek's victory seemed all but guaranteed. But they were interrupted by the arrival of another.

"Tirek tricked me into believing he could offer me something more valuable than friendship," Discord hung his head low. "But there is nothing worth more. I see that now. He lied when he said this medallion was given as a sign of gratitude and loyalty," He looked up, and Rainbow Dash could see the depths of remorse in his eyes. "But when I say that it is a sign of our true friendship, I'm telling the truth."

He hung the necklace over Twilight. She looked down at it, her eyes widening in realisation.

"You think that might be the last one we need?" Applejack gestured to the necklace with an uncertain look.

"We have to get to the chest!" Was Twilight's only reply.

But just as the group began to gallop off, they were interrupted by a booming voice.

"I really hate to spoil this precious moment," Tirek spoke from high above them.

Looking up at the way the centaur now seemed to dominate the sky itself, Rainbow Dash could only feel terror. Her pupils dilated in fear as arcs of orange energy raced up Tirek's horns. A ball of energy brighter than the sun appeared , glowing brightly against the red sky. With a snarl, Tirek fired a blinding beam of energy straight towards Twilight.

"DIE!"

Time seemed to slow as the beam approached. Perhaps it did, at least for Rainbow Dash. There would be no dodging this attack. She didn't have enough time to even save herself, let alone anyone else. As far as Rainbow Dash was concerned, this would be the end of her and the friends she loved like a family.

And yet she instinctively knew she could do something. There was a strange energy simmering just beneath her flesh. It had always been there, but only after having it taken away did Rainbow Dash realise it existed. There wasn't enough time to save her friends... but perhaps that could be changed? She reached deep inside to coax this energy to the surface and in a burst of colour her wings began to shimmer with strange rainbow light. Though they glitched and shifted through time, it brought no pain to Rainbow Dash.

The deathly beam of energy was now close enough to feel it's heat. Rainbow Dash gathered the energy to the tips of her wings. In her mind, all she wanted was to save her friends. The rest was instinct. She leapt into the sky and flexed her wings against the weight of time, sending a pulse of rainbow light out across the battlefield.

Time resumed. The eight friends clutched each other tightly, wanting to spend their final moment together before they were all vaporised into nothing. But when the fiery inferno never arrived, they cautiously opened their eyes. Only to leap back in fright. The great beam of energy was mere metres from them, surrounded in a rainbow bubble of frozen time.

"Wow..." Twilight breathed out, staring up at the halted fireball in awe.

"What happened?" Applejack asked, looking between her friends. But even Discord looked confused.

Far above them, Tirek's face was petrified in an expression of triumphant glee. He was completely and utterly frozen. But Rainbow Dash had little energy left to enjoy victory. Exhaustion set in, causing her legs to fail beneath her. She teetered, only to be caught by Fluttershy. Meanwhile, the rest of the Mane 6 looked at the blue pegasus with varying looks of disbelief.

"I... I think Rainbow Dash froze Tirek," Twilight said after a long pause.

Pinkie Pie raised a hoof to the bubble, but Rarity pulled her away.

"Well I suggest we get out from underneath the deadly beam of energy," Rarity suggested. "I don't think this bubble will last."

As if to prove her point, the fireball twitched a few centimetres closer. Staring it down, Applejack gulped. "Good idea. Let's head to the castle before Tirek starts trying to kill us again."

Rainbow Dash was carried between Applejack and Fluttershy as they galloped off. Only a few metres into the safety of the Everfree Forest, they all had to duck when a tremendous shockwave exploded out across the land. Twilight gave a cautious look backwards, only to see a mushroom cloud hovering over the spot they'd been mere minutes ago.

This key better work.

The Town of Sameness

Author's Note

Just a quick notice before we get to the chapter. I wanted to avoid boring everybody by typing out the entirety of the dialogue from The Cutie Map, so some parts are paraphrased or skipped. I try to include summary paragraphs of what happens. Tell me if this is confusing, it'll be important for future adaptations of canonical episodes.

The Town of Sameness

"Let's go through this one more time."

Rainbow Dash groaned. "We've been over it like a million times, Twilight! We found all six keys, defeated Tirek, and got this sweet castle! End of story!"

The alicorn had been going on about this castle for hours already. Come on! Why couldn't a stutter happen now? It would at least give her the chance to escape another lecture by flying out the window.

Well if there was one good thing about this place, it was the comfy-looking thrones arranged in a circle around the room. And with her eyelids drooping like they were, one of them was calling her name. Or at least her cutie mark, which was literally carved into the headrest. Rainbow Dash tuned out the voices of the other mares and glided down onto the soft cushion. As she sat down on the throne, a flash of rainbow light shot out from the cutie mark carving.

For a brief moment, there were vague and misty images of... ponies? All kinds of ponies, some familiar and some unknown, were scattered around the room, seemingly oblivious to her presence. An image of Fluttershy talked to Pinkie, leaning on a large table in the centre of the room that wasn't there. Another image of Rarity was hanging tapestries around the chamber. Image-Rarity walked right up to the real Applejack and passed through the farmpony like she wasn't even there.

There was even an image of herself, staring up at a massive orb of blinding rainbow light that hovered in the centre of the chamber. As image-Rainbow approached it, the orb exploded in a brilliant flash. When it cleared, every one of the ghost-like images had vanished.

Rainbow Dash blinked a few times. What in the bowls of Tartarus had that been?

She suddenly remembered that Twilight was still talking.

"...magic of friendship across Equestria. So why would the Tree of Harmony want us to sit in a castle in Ponyville? It doesn't make any sense."

No sooner had the words escaped the alicorn's mouth did a brillaint light shine out from the headrests of the thrones. As the centre of the chamber was illuminated by ethereal light, a tremble rocked the foundation of the crystal castle. Rainbow Dash leapt into the air. Sweet Celestia, the place was collapsing! She had to get her friends out now! But instead of crystals falling from the ceiling, they moved upwards to create the same table Rainbow Dash had seen briefly in those visions.

How odd.

The trembling woke Spike from his nap.

"Is that new? I like it." He walked across the table. "This is incredible! It's got all of Equestria!"

Rainbow Dash had to agree with the dragon. This map was certainly incredible! A tiny projection of Cloudsdale hovered high above the land. Rivers were barely more then trickles at this scale, cutting through valleys and towns. Even Ponyville could be seen, right down to every individual tree and household. Pinkie Pie quickly spotted a tiny image of her hometown, only to whimper as Spike accidentally stepped on it.

A pulsing flash of light caught her peripheral vision. Rainbow Dash looked around to see her cutie mark glowing. A projection of it shot off into the air to join the five others floating above the table. All six landed above a barren mountain range somewhere deep in the Northeast.

"But if this is Ponyville, why are our cutie marks over there?" Fluttershy asked.

Twilight peered down at the mountain range closely. "I don't know. But it seems like the map wants us to find out. The Tree, the chest, this castle, and now the map. How can we not follow it?"

Rainbow Dash glided over the map, mentally mapping out the route. It took them through the wilderness of Equestria, to places that only ponies like Daring Do ever visited. She grinned widely. This trip was going to be awesome.

"Y'know what? There's a ton of room for dangerous adventure along that route. I can totally find some big monster to try out that time pause thing on!" Rainbow Dash whooped, her wings shimmering with rainbow sparks behind her. "Count me in!"

"Aw, shoot, I reckon you're right," Applejack agreed.

As the others voiced their agreement, Rainbow Dash salivated at the thought of finally getting out and doing something awesome.

Adventure, here we come!

This. Was. So. Boring.

Apparently her fillyhood cartography class was a decade out of date. Instead of an awesome journey through Equestria's untamed wastelands, Rainbow Dash now had to take a nice... calm... and completely safe train ride. As Rarity would put it, how utterly pedestrian!

Twilight seemed rather happy about the situation. She was talking their ears off about some research facility nearby she wanted to visit on the way back.

"It would be so cool to be able to visit the facility! Aion Industries are at the forefront of magitech research, you know? I've read so much about their discoveries! Magical communication equipment, teleporters, devices that allow Unicorns and Earth Ponies to walk on clouds. All very exciting stuff!"

The alicorn grinned like a giddy filly.

"Well that sounds marvellous, darling. I'm sure we can spare the time to visit on the way back," Rarity smiled, then sent a glare at the four other mares silently commanding them to agree. Applejack and Fluttershy voiced their agreement. Pinkie Pie was busy drawing something with a permanent marker, but looked up when Applejack nudged her in the shoulder and nodded.

Reluctantly, Rainbow Dash nodded too. It all sounded like boring egghead stuff, but she'd suck it up for a few hours if it made Twilight happy.

Twilight beamed. "I'm glad you all are so interested. If we're lucky, we might even get to meet their founder Starbeam Remedy! I guarantee she'll go down in history as the Starswirl of our generation. Think about it girls, this is history in the making!"

The only thing Rainbow Dash was thinking about is how much she wished the next Daring Do book would come out already. Then she'd have something to entertain herself with on this long and boring train ride, instead of resorting to bouncing a ball off the opposite wall. But alas, the next book wasn't supposed to be released for months. Rainbow Dash was already dreading another long wait, but it wasn't like she could do anything about it...

...Or could she? According to Twilight, she'd accidentally time travelled once before. Why not again? Rainbow Dash filed that idea away for later.

"I ain't never heard of a pony named Starbeam Remedy," Applejack commented.

Twilight gasped. "How? Have you been living under a rock?! Her company is on the cover of every scientific magazine in Equestria!"

"I don't think Applejack keeps up to date with advancements in science quite like you do, Twilight," Rainbow Dash responded. Applejack rolled her eyes but nodded.

"Oh. Right," Twilight flushed red in embarrassment. "Well trust me, she's a brilliant mare. I'm hoping I can get Starbeam to look at some of my ideas if I see her."

Rainbow Dash felt a slight lurching sensation and looked around to see her five friends petrified in place. Great, another one of these. It was odd how quickly she got used to time freezing in place around her. Rainbow Dash threw the ball against the wall a few more times, up until it froze in place on the return. Damn it.

She flew up to the ball and tapped it lightly with her hoof. It shot off back to her seat, bouncing once before freezing again. Rainbow Dash was still figuring out the rules of this timeless state. It was slow progress. About the only thing she had identified was that small objects could move when she touched them, then stopped moving soon after she let go. Exactly how soon after letting go did the objects freeze again seemed completely random.

It would have been so much easier if her friends could move through the stutter too, instead of being frozen in place. Twilight could probably have figured this all out in only one go.

An idea just occured to Rainbow Dash. If objects could move in a stutter when she touched them, why not ponies? Slowly, she extended a hoof towards Twilight's petrified form. The skin felt normal and Rainbow Dash could move the alicorn's forelegs, but Twilight herself wouldn't react. Not even laying her hoof on the Twilight's head did the trick.

Sighing, Rainbow Dash decided to at least make the most out of the moment. She swiped Pinkie Pie's permanent marker and slowly approached the frozen Twilight, laughing quietly to herself. As her father always said, 'Never pass out when there are markers about'. That could easily be amended to 'Never get frozen in time when there are markers about'. But it just didn't roll of the tongue as easily. Or rhyme.

Now, just what should she draw?

Suddenly, Twilight's eyes locked onto Rainbow Dash. She shrieked and stumbled backwards, tripping over her own wings and landing on her back.

"Sweet Celestia, Rainbow Dash!" Twilight shouted, trying to calm her breathing. "Don't ever do that again!"

But Rainbow Dash only laughed. That was almost as funny as what she'd been trying to do. Soon, the others joined her. Twilight gave them a few stern looks but eventually joined in the laughing as Applejack and Rainbow Dash helped her back up.

"Hey, where's my marker?" Pinkie Pie asked.

Rainbow Dash whistled inconspicuously, quietly hiding the offending item under her wing.

In her comparatively short life, Rainbow Dash had never before seen a village this creepy. Unnatural smiles and identical cutie marks. Everything about this place put her on edge. The ponies seemed friendly enough, welcoming them gladly into their village. Their incredibly boring and dull village. Even the ponies sounded dull.

Creepy and boring. Those are two words Rainbow Dash never thought she'd use to describe the same thing.

"Thanks a lot cutie map," she muttered darkly. Why couldn't it have been a monster?

A unicorn stallion walked up to Twilight. "Welcome! Pardon my forwardness, but are you an Alicorn?"

Great, they're boring and blind.

"That there's the Princess of Friendship!" Applejack introduced, gesturing to Twilight.

"Well, you've certainly come to the right place for friendship!"

Rainbow Dash tuned out the conversation. She couldn't take much more of those monotonous voices. At least the other villains had sounded interesting as she kicked their flanks. Come on, they couldn't even give an overly dramatic speech like Chrysalis or look totally badass like Sombra?

Twilight nudged her out of her internal monologue. "Rainbow, pay attention!"

"What?"

"That unicorn Double Diamond just said the leader of this place is Starlight Glimmer!"

"No way!" Rainbow Dash's eyes widened. That name had come to her instinctively through time weirdness, she'd never actually expected to meet anypony by that name.

"And ya sure that this pony is our future friend?" Applejack asked.

Rainbow Dash shrugged. "I don't know. Like I said, it was a feeling. I think I was concerned about her. That's all I know."

"Maybe the map sent us here to meet her?" Twilight suggested. It made sense. A map in a castle of friendship leading us to a future friend made sense. But this village was still creepy. If Starlight was anything like the company she kept, Rainbow Dash would be unable to stand her.

"I don't know. I'm keeping my guard up just in case."

The white unicorn stallion Rainbow Dash was 80% certain was named Double-something knocked on the door.

"Starlight, we have some new visitors," He said.

Rainbow Dash leaned over to Applejack. "Be ready to fight. We don't know what's gonna come through that door."

Applejack nodded and prepared to charge while Rainbow Dash subtly gathered some of that sparkly rainbow energy to her wing. This creature tries anything and they'll be frozen before they can even blink.

But instead of some monster, a pink unicorn mare appeared in the doorframe.

"Welcome! I'm so pleased to have you here," she said.

Rainbow Dash groaned in disappointment and let the rainbow energy dispel. It would seem she was out of luck, there wouldn't be any monster to fight and drive away her boredom. Starlight and Twilight exchanged a few words. The unicorn seemed very interested in Twilight's princess status, though it wasn't like Rainbow Dash could blame her. In a place like this, Twilight was probably the most interesting thing these ponies had ever seen.

"We're happy to have anypony who wants to experience true friendship for the first time," Starlight said.

Applejack raised an eyebrow. "Say what?"

"Oh, indeed. That's what's so unique about our village, you see. Around here, we don't flaunt our special talents because we don't have any special talents to flaunt."

If this was 'true friendship', Rainbow Dash would aid whatever evil creature that came along next in destroying it. And gladly. No thank you, Starlight. I'm happy with what I've got now. Five close friends here and a dozen more in Ponyville, an awesome special talent and above all else a place to live that isn't soul-crushingly boring.

The sooner they got out of this place, the better. All this talk of giving up her cutie mark was beginning to annoy her. What's worse, Fluttershy even seemed to respect them! How insane was that! At least Pinkie Pie was picking up on the same creepy vibes Rainbow Dash was.

But at least Twilight wasn't buying into their lunacy. Starlight Glimmer had tried to convince Twilight they were somehow sent here to be helped by her and that if Twilight gave up her cutie mark the rest of Equestria would as well. Like that would ever happen.

"A cutie mark is a representation of a pony's unique talents and skills. How is it possible to-"

"What in the name of Equestria is that?!" Rarity interrupted, pointing to a store that sold what appeared to be sacks of potatoes.

The salespony gestured to the identical selection. "Welcome! Care to sample some local fashion? We've got cloaks this month!"

Sweet Celestia... this was there idea of clothing. Rainbow Dash and Applejack's eyes met and they both shuddered. Even with the two of them having absolutely no tolerance for the kind of prissy fashion Rarity loved, neither would be caught dead in that kind of get up.

Rarity gagged. "Er, perhaps another time, good sir, thank you," She quickly pushed them over to a seat by a bakery and whispered to Applejack. "No wonder nopony's wearing anything!"

"Really, girls! They may do things a bit differently than we're used to, but that's no reason to be rude." Fluttershy scolded them.

"I thought that guy was selling potatoes, Fluttershy!" Rainbow Dash replied. Her mane stood on end and she turned to find the white unicorn stallion spying on them. "And they keep staring at us!"

As if to prove their point, Double Diamond shouted over to them. "Need something?"

"Uh, no! We're good!" Twilight waved awkwardly at the stallion then turned back to them. "Fluttershy's right. If we're going to get to the bottom of why the map sent us here, we'll need the help of these ponies."

"I think we ran off to the end of Equestria before we even knew what that map was!" Applejack retorted.

"If we were at the end of Equestria, we'd be sitting on a big 'A'!" Pinkie Pie giggled. "Get it?"

Not the right time, Pinkie. Rainbow Dash felt a headache coming on. They bickered for a while, until they suddenly noticed a serving lady trying to get their attention.

"Is your friendship ending?" She asked.

Pinkie Pie leapt up onto the table, laughing at the very thought of it. "Are you crazy? We'd never let a disagreement get in the way of food!"

"Okay..." The unicorn mare seemed confused, but didn't mention it. "Well, my name is Sugar Belle. What can I bring you? We have muffins..."

At first, Rainbow Dash thought another stutter had occurred. But her friends were still glancing between each other with disbelieving looks. Time hadn't stopped, the waitress had just finished her list. She really had to stop being surprised by the level of boring this town revelled in.

"Then I guess we'll take six muffins," Twilight replied, trying to keep a straight face.

Pinkie Pie leapt up out of her seat. "Make that twelve!" Seeing the looks her friends were sending her, Pinkie Pie shrugged. "What, I'm hungry!"

Big mistake. Rainbow Dash didn't need to see the future to know whatever that mare brought out was going to be borderline inedible.

Seeing the shared looks of irritation on everypony's face, Twilight spoke up. "Come on, girls. We've got to stick together. It doesn't matter what happened before, we're here now."

"I guess you're right," Applejack agreed. "And the sooner we figure out why, the sooner we can go home."

"And that sooner couldn't come any sooner," Rainbow Dash joked. Because just as expected, Sugar Belle returned with a plate of burnt and disgusting-looking items that scarcely deserved to be called food.

She set them down before Applejack, who couldn't even bare to look at them. Sugar Belle still seemed confused by how they could all be friends despite their differences and disagreements, while Rainbow Dash was confused by how anypony could make her wish for a meal cooked by Rarity's sister. Though in a way, Sugar Belle's confusion was rather sad. Had she really gone that long without a cutie mark she couldn't remember what it was like to have one, or had she just been unable to make friends with one?

Pinkie braved one of the muffins, and nearly choked for her efforts. She forced a smile on her face and rubbed her belly. "Mmmm... good!"

"It's all right. I know I'm not a very good baker. At least, I know I'm not any better than anypony else in the village."

"Equality? More like equally awful," Rainbow Dash muttered, ignoring the glare from Fluttershy. What she did notice was that Double Diamond had suddenly fixed Sugar Belle with a critical glare.

The baker ducked her head down. "Well, I... hope you enjoy our little village!" Her smile looked even more forced. The six mares were alarmed to see that there was genuine fear in her eyes. Before she could leave, Sugar Belle quickly whispered to Twilight. "Meet me downstairs before you go!"

She hurried back inside, closing the door as she went. Pinkie Pie was right, there was something weird about this town. Those smiles had never looked more sinister.

Twilight glanced at Double Diamond out of the corner of her eyes. "Let's all sit here and eat these muffins and act normal. I think somepony here doesn't want us talking to Sugar Belle."

As the unicorn's eyes switched back to them, Rainbow Dash looked away. "I can see that."

That stallion was bad news if she ever saw it. But there were too many people around for her to try her old strategy of punching him. Or her new strategy of petrifying and then punching.

Applejack spoke up. "I got an idea. But you gotta eat all of them muffins, Pinkie."

"Me?! Why me?!"

"You got a stronger stomach than any of us, and that filly in there might be our best chance at findin' out what the hay is goin' on round here."

Pinkie Pie swallowed nervously. She slowly picked up one of the muffins and forced herself to swallow a bite. The other five mares winced. That looked torturous. Rainbow Dash would've helped, if the mere smell hadn't made her feel like she was going to throw up. And if one of them spewed all over the table they could say goodbye to sneaking into the bakery without suspicion.

Two muffins in and Pinkie Pie suddenly stopped mid bite. In fact, everything had stopped. Ponies were caught midstride, staring into nothing with unblinking eyes. The pegasus shivered. When they weren't moving, they somehow looked even more lifeless.

Acting quickly, Rainbow Dash scooped up six of the muffins and chucked them up onto the roof of the bakery. She took her seat, just in time for things to start moving again. Pinkie glanced back down at her plate despairingly, only for her eyes to widen when she noticed the missing muffins.

"How did..." She began, only to look up and see Rainbow Dash sporting a smug grin. The pegasus gave her a wink.

"That was mighty fine of ya," Applejack whispered.

Rainbow Dash shrugged. "Eh, I wouldn't want to eat those muffins either."

The sun beamed down on the group as they made their way up the mountain. Rainbow Dash could hardly believe what they were about to see could be real. A vault of cutie marks? She'd read more realistic things in Spike's comic books. But those three ponies had been very insistent it was real.

Starlight was talking, but Rainbow Dash didn't bother to listen. It was probably something along the lines of 'blah blah cutie marks bad blah blah I'm not a cult leader'. Honestly, she was just as boring as the rest of this town.

"This must be the reason we're here," Twilight said in a hushed voice.

"Pilgrimaging?" Pinkie asked.

"No, helping those ponies get their cutie marks back."

Fluttershy didn't seem to like that idea. "Oh, are you sure, Twilight? Maybe they miss them a little, but even they didn't seem all that unhappy."

"Then why did they want to meet us in secret? And why did they ask us not to tell Starlight who told us about the vault?" Twilight glanced pointedly at the pony who was keeping pace behind them. It felt like they were being marched to their deaths. "They're scared of her. I know we expected Starlight to be our friend, but I don't think we can trust her. Applejack, you're good at telling if ponies are lying. See what you can get out of her."

Applejack nodded and cantered up to Starlight. "So... this is a mighty fine town ya have here."

"Why thank you!" Starlight gave the farmpony a beaming smile.

"I've been wonderin', what possessed ya to set it up here?"

Starlight looked away. "Oh... it's just such a lovely environment! We have everything we need here!"

Really? There was nothing but dry soil and rocks as far as the eye can see. Rainbow Dash knew the mare was lying. And from the way Applejack tensed up, she knew it too.

Applejack tried another question. "But wouldn't ya'll be able ta spread your message more if you were closer to other ponyfolk?"

"There are some people who choose to remain ignorant of the truth," Starlight waved off into the distance, where the lights of Manehattan could just be made out on the horizon. "They spread lies and slander, tricking good and honest ponies into rejecting true friendship. Why, just recently we've had some corporation try and drive us out!"

"A corporation?" Twilight spoke up.

"Oh yes. Aion Industries, I believe they called themselves. Tried to buy out the land from beneath us and shut down our little utopia. Just one of the many attempts others have made to stop me from spreading true friendship. Why one even claimed to be-" Starlight clamped her mouth shut. She glanced nervously between the six ponies. "Anyway, here we are! Our Cutie Mark Vault!"

Starlight guided them around a corner, bringing them face to face with a towering construct of glass and metal. Rows upon rows of cutie marks, stacked up to the ceiling of the cave. All locked behind a protective layer of enchanted glass. The vault cast an unnerving blue glow across the room. It was as impressive as it was terrifying. A cutie mark was like a soul of a pony. Seeing so many stacked up like books in Twilight's library.. it was weird.

"I've never seen anything like it!" Twilight gasped, drinking in the intricate runes caved into the metal.

"And here is the Staff of Sameness," Starlight gestured to a wooden staff set into a pedestal. "It was one of the great Mage Meadowbrook's nine enchanted items. We are incredibly fortunate to have it here. This is the tool that allows us to free ourselves from our marks!" She glanced at Twilight out of the corner of her eye. "I'm curious how did the subject of the vault come up?"

Pinkie Pie spoke up before anypony could stop her. "Oh, some ponies were telling us how much they missed their cutie marks, and-"

"Pinkie!" Twilight hissed.

But the damage was done. Starlight levitated the staff in a cyan glow and turned to them, her eyes narrowed. "Were they? Well, it seems you inspire all sorts of free thinking, don't you?"

As carefully as she could, Rainbow Dash summoned energy to the tips of her wings.

Rarity chucked nervously. "Well, we certainly didn't intend to cause any disruptions to your charming little-"

"Good," Starlight cut her off. "Let's just make sure of that, shall we?"

Rarity backed away nervously, only to collide with Double Diamond who blocked the exit. Dozens of other ponies stepped out of the shadows, surrounding the six mares in a tight circle.

Twilight's eyes widened. "It's a trap!"

As Starlight levelled the staff at the alicorn, Rainbow Dash leapt into action. She cast a pulse of energy at the unicorn, who looked up just in time to teleport out of the way. Where she had been moments before was now frozen in a rainbow bubble. The townsponies charged at them, but they too were halted in place by another rainbow burst of energy.

Starlight looked between her frozen comrades and the glowing wings of the pegasus.

"Time magic?! But you're not a unicorn! That's-" She was forced to teleport away again to avoid another magical burst. Starlight reappeared behind Rainbow Dash and quickly shot her down before she could react.

Trapped in a cyan bubble, Rainbow Dash writhed in agony as her cutie mark was forcefully ripped from her. A small image of a lightning bolt flew off into the vault to be sealed behind enchanted glass. The cyan magic disappeared and Rainbow Dash fell limply to the ground. Starlight had little time to gloat, as Twilight sent a blast of magic at the unicorn who ducked just in time and tore of the alicorn's cutie mark too. One by one, the other ponies fell until all six of their cutie marks were locked within walls of the vault.

"Pegasi using magic? How is that possible?" Starlight muttered. She beckoned forward one of the other ponies. "Bring those six marks to my house, I have some things to investigate."

Twilight managed to push herself back to her hooves. "Give them back!"

"I think not, Twilight. You've spent your whole lives thinking those marks are a good thing. Well, now you can spend the rest of your lives here with us! And we'll teach you just how much better life can be without your cutie marks!"

"In sameness, there is peace. Exceptionalism is a lie."

Rainbow Dash pounded on the door. Nasty bruises appeared on her forelegs, but she wouldn't relent.

"Free yourself from your cutie mark. Choose equality as your special talent."

She charged forward only to bounce off the reinforced wood and land in a heap on the ground. The pegasus groaned and rolled back onto her legs.

"Difference is frustration. To excel is to fail."

"Hey, this is pretty good!" Pinkie Pie pointed down at one of the books, that contained nothing but that same damned equal symbol over and over.

Twilight paced across the ground. "Ugh, we've gotta find a way out of here! I can't take much more of that voice!"

"Be your best by never-"

Rainbow Dash didn't let it finished. With an angry snarl she snatched the book out of Pinkie's hooves and threw it up at the loud speaker. It was silenced in a burst of static.

"Hey, I was reading that!"

"Well read something else!"

This was torture. Everything they had relied on for so long was gone. Fluttershy couldn't speak to animals anymore, Rarity's sense of style had vanished. Even Applejack couldn't make her 'countryisms' anymore! Rainbow Dash didn't even think that was a special talent, just something inherent to Applejack! And there was no doubt that whenever Starlight released them, Rainbow Dash would never even come close to flying like she used to.

If she thought she was bored before, it didn't even come close what she was experiencing now. Hours blurred together, with Rainbow Dash lying on her back looking up to the ceiling where the speakers still sparked valiantly. Not even time weirdness was saving them now. There hadn't been a single stutter since she lost her cutie mark. Or at least one where she wasn't frozen like everyone else.

Eventually, she decided to just sleep the hours away. It wasn't like they were going anywhere anytime soon.

"I've got it!" Twilight exclaimed, startling them all awake. "I know how we can get out!"

Rainbow Dash sighed. "Forget it, Twilight. This door's not opening."

"And I'm afraid the windows are much too small for escape," Rarity gestured a hoof to the tiny barred windows.

"But there is a third way."

Pinkie Pie leapt to her feet. "Of course! Eventually the wind and the weather will wear down the walls until they start to crumble! Then all we have to do is wait for a big enough hole to form and we can just walk out! It's the perfect plan!"

"I've been trying to accelerate time on the walls for hours. 'fraid we're out of luck there," Rainbow Dash replied.

"We don't actually have to escape. They'll just let us out when they think we've accepted their philosophy!" Twilight explained.

She gathered them close, outlying her plan of making them think Fluttershy had embraced their belief system. Rainbow Dash didn't want to get too excited, but this plan might actually work! Fluttershy had been the most accepting of these weirdos and they knew it. Of course Rainbow Dash still trusted her, but they didn't know that! It wouldn't be too hard to convince them Fluttershy had turned traitor. And then they could get their cutie marks back and Rainbow Dash could finally give Starlight the flank kicking she deserved.

Their plan had worked like a charm. Starlight had fallen for the deception hook, line and sinker. And were it not for the slightly irritating presence of Party Favour, Rainbow Dash would be happy with the world. He seemed even more stalwart in his support for this cult than he had been when he told them about the cutie mark vault.

When they were marched out next morning, Rainbow Dash sighed in relief. Fluttershy was ok. She'd feared that one of the ponies would discover Fluttershy wasn't really as loyal as she claimed and do something horrible to the yellow mare. But for now, her friend was safe.

"I've got a good feeling about today! So, do any of you have anything you'd like to say?" Starlight looked between the five mares expectantly, frowning at the identical looks of defiance. "Aw, pity. Well, let's try this again tomorrow, shall we?" She gestured from them to be sent back to the cell then, turned around to the waiting crowd. "No new friends today, I'm afraid!"

Starlight had the same smug holier-than-thou look on her face, but Rainbow Dash noticed her eyes seemed a bit red-rimmed. It was the same look Twilight got when got so obsessed over some research it kept her awake through the night. It was unnerving. Twilight could be a bit... volatile in this state. And Twilight wasn't a megalomaniacal villain. So just what would Starlight do?

"Wait!" Fluttershy interrupted. "I'd like to lock them in."

Rainbow Dash waited with bated breath, horrible visions playing out in her mind. Any moment, Starlight would realise her mistake and send Fluttershy back into the cell. Or incinerate Fluttershy for her disrespect. Or turn Fluttershy into some horrible monster.

But that moment never came. Instead, Starlight gave Fluttershy a wide smile.

"Marvelous, Fluttershy! That's the spirit! Party Favor, will you join us, please?"

As the unicorn literally grovelled at Starlight's feet, Fluttershy led them back inside. She quickly shut the door behind them.

"Starlight has a cutie mark," Fluttershy said to the gathered mares.

"You're kiddin', right?," Applejack said. "Miss 'I hate cutie marks'... has a cutie mark?"

Fluttershy nodded head. "Yes, I saw it! She spilt water on herself and the makeup she uses to cover her own cutie mark washed off!"

"So if we can reveal her as a liar, maybe the rest of the town will turn on her?" Twilight mused.

"And what about our cutie marks?" Rainbow Dash interrupted. "Where are they?"

"They're in her house, that's all I know," Fluttershy replied. "I think she might have hidden them in a secret basement, I saw her moving her bed to cover a trapdoor."

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. A secret basement? Could you get any more villainy? Then again, didn't Twilight have a secret basement in her treehouse home? Or at least, she had a secret basement.

"We can get our cutie marks later," Twilight laid a hoof on her shoulder. "For now, let's try to reveal her deception. I'll pretend to have converted and Fluttershy can get a tub of water to dump on her."

"Sounds like a plan," Applejack agreed.

Fluttershy nodded and led Twilight back out into the courtyard. "Starlight? I think we might have one more friend joining us today."

The crowd gasped as Twilight emerged from the cell. Starlight pushed Party Favour aside and gave Twilight a suspicious look. "Is this true?"

"I... I think so," Twilight faked uncertainty. "But I just want to be sure. If I agree to leave my cutie mark in the vault, I'll really be happier?"

"Just look around!" Starlight waved a hoof around the village, a broad grin on her face that didn't quite reach her eyes. "Equality has given us more happiness than you've ever known!"

"And you wouldn't let me just live here in the village with my old cutie mark?"

Starlight shook her head. "Out of the question. A pony with a different cutie mark in our midst would destroy our entire philosophy. We are all-!"

Before she could even finish her sentence, Fluttershy threw the bucket of water at the unicorn. Starlight spluttered, brushing wet hairs from her face then sending the yellow pegasus a withering glare.

"Then how do you explain that!" Fluttershy pointed to Starlight's flank. The mare's eyes widened and she looked behind her to see a black streak of makeup running down her leg. The crowd gasped as her true cutie mark was revealed.

Desperately, she tried to cover it with her tail. "Wha... What are you looking at?! They're the problem, not me!"

But the crowd wasn't in the mood to listen.

"Liar!"

"How could you?"

"You said cutie marks were evil! You said special talents led to pain and heartache!"

Starlight backed away warily. "No, don't you understand?! It's my magic that makes all this possible! You'd all still be living your miserable lives thinking you're better than everypony else if it weren't for my magical abilities! I brought you friendship! I brought you equality! I created harmony!"

"All you've done is lied to us," Double Diamond spat. The crowd roared it's agreement.

"You can't have a cutie mark, Starlight! Either we're all equal, or none of us are!"

The former cult leader found herself trapped between the frenzied and vengeful mob and the element bearers. At once, the mob charged, only to collide with each other as Starlight teleported back down the street. She raced to her house, locking the door behind her.

"Come on!" Rainbow Dash leapt into the air, pointing up at the mountain. "You're cutie marks are waiting for you!"

Starlight Glimmer forgotten for the moment, the mob raced up the mountain intent on reclaiming what was stolen from them. But Rainbow Dash had other plans. She flew off after Starlight, disappointed at the sluggish speed of her own flying, and slammed into the door. It didn't budge. Applejack couldn't make a dent in it even with her powerful bucking. Not even Twilight's magic could help.

"Back away!" A pegasus shouted. She charged into the door, knocking it clean off it's hinges. The element bearers surged into the room after her, looking for their adversary.

"There, down the trapdoor!" Applejack pointed to the gaping hole in the floor. Rainbow Dash didn't wait for the others to catch up. She soared down, coming face to face with an intricate laboratory.

Strange devices and diagrams were strewn across the room. There was enough potions, books and research here to make Twilight jealous. A large device in particular caught her attention. It roughly the size of a small cupboard with a head-sized opening in the middle. What drew her attention in particular was the diagrams pined up next to the machine. A diagram of her cutie mark.

Writing Rainbow Dash couldn't even begin to decipher was written across it. Twilight would know what it meant, but she was busy looking at a diagram of her own cutie mark. There were four other diagrams here, but none of them had any writing. Starlight must not have gotten the chance to poke around the cutie marks of anyone else.

"Are ya'll coming?" Applejack shouted to them, pointing down at the tunnel carved into the wall. Right, they had to get their cutie marks back! The diagram forgotten, Rainbow Dash soared after the farmpony.

As Twilight left, she briefly glanced at the piece of paper fluttering in the wind. Three words stood out to the unicorn, written in small flowy letters at the very bottom of the diagram. If it hadn't blown past her eyes in the wake of the rainbow pegasus' flight, she'd have missed it entirely.

Time is Power

Just what was that supposed to mean?

The jars containing the cutie marks smashed to the ground, releasing their precious contents. Far away, the six mares watched in awe as the multicoloured jets of energy soured towards them. One by one, each was reunited with the missing part of their soul.

Rainbow Dash felt her strength return. Finally, she could fly properly again! Wasting no time, Rainbow Dash shot off in pursuit, sparks trailing behind each feather. Her flight was not the only thing to return. And she planned to give Starlight Glimmer a demonstration the second she caught up with the lying unicorn.

Starlight flung herself out of a snowpile just as Rainbow Dash arrived. The former equalists fanned around around their former leader. In a flash of purple light, Twilight appeared with the other element bearers. Starlight gulped as Rainbow Dash gathered energy around her wing, enough to warp the light around it.

A bolt of cyan energy was shot at the pegasus, only to be deflected by a purple shield. Starlight turned to the alicorn with wide eyes. "I studied that spell for years! How can you-"

"I studied magic for years too! But what I didn't know then was that studying could only take me so far. Each of my friends has taught me something different about myself! It was their unique gifts and passions and personalities that helped bring out the magic inside of me! I never would have learned that I represent the element of magic without these five! And I certainly wouldn't be here to stop you now!"

"Then I'll make sure you never get another chance!" Starlight snarled. Magic gathered at the tip of her horn, but Rainbow Dash was ready. Light gathered on her own wings, ready to be unleashed upon the unicorn.

But Starlight didn't shoot the bolt of magical energy at Twilight like Rainbow Dash expected. Or even towards the rainbow pegasus herself, who Twilight could've easily cast a shield over. No, the deadly cyan bolt arced towards a different target. A far more vulnerable target.

"Fluttershy!" Rainbow Dash cried as the bolt sailed towards her. There was no time to react. No time to make a second shot. She twisted her body, redirecting the gathered energy at her yellow friend instead of Starlight. In a burst of rainbow, Fluttershy was frozen in time with the deadly beam mere inches from her heart.

Starlight took this moment to escape, teleporting back into the caves. None of them paid her any mind. Rainbow Dash shot off to her petrified friend whose face was still caught in an expression of petrified terror. Grabbing her torso, Rainbow Dash pulled Fluttershy out of the path of the deadly beam. She released her hold on the bubble, letting the magic fly off into the distance.

The yellow pegasus clung onto Rainbow Dash tightly, still quivering in terror.

"It's alright, you're safe," Rainbow Dash ran a hoof across her back.

"Thank you," She managed to say.

"Hey, no way am I going to let my friends get hurt!"

Fluttershy managed a weak smile and slowly got back onto her feet. She still looked utterly terrified, but a near death experience would do that to a pony.

Twilight looked at the display with a smile. Rainbow Dash could be unbearable sometimes, but she'd always come through for them. Her eyes then found their way to the entrance of the cave system. The others might have missed it, but Starlight hadn't left the village empty-hoofed. There was a book in her bag. And if Twilight was a betting mare, she'd guess it had something to do with the research she'd done on their cutie marks.

She could only hope that data would let Starlight discover the true meaning of friendship, but she wasn't going to hold her breathe.

Echoes

"Twilight, there's something I have to tell you," Rainbow Dash began, waving to get the alicorn's attention. But she wasn't listening.

Just as they promised, they visited the Aion Industries facility after departing Starlight's village. They didn't offer any tours, but being a princess could get you very far in this country. Right now, they were waiting in a spacious lobby. Sunlight shone through the wall to ceiling windows, illuminating the crisp marble interior. Rarity had already fallen in love with the décor. But Rainbow? She shared the same mood as the bored-looking receptionist at the front desk. Thankfully this lobby came with comfy blue couches.

They hadn't even entered the facility and already Twilight couldn't get enough of it.

"Girls, did you know this design was the winner of the 997 Scientific Equestrian award?!" She pointed at some helmet-looking device behind a glass barrier.

Clearly she wasn't going to get anywhere with the alicorn right now. With a bitter sigh, Rainbow Dash decided to wait until after the trip to tell Twilight about the stutters getting longer.

"That's great sugarcube," Applejack gave the helmet an uncertain look. "But... what is it?"

"Only the first ever portable magical communication device in Equestrian history!"

"I have to say darling, I understand why you admire this place so much. This tilework, absolute magnifique!" Rarity smiled at her reflection in the floor. She ran a hoof through her styled mane. "They have style!"

Rainbow Dash didn't see what the big deal was. Yeah the place looked nice, if you were a fan of Canterlot. And she most certainly was not. So this Canterlot architecture irritated her. Seeing there was nothing to do here, Rainbow got back on her hoofs and wandered around. Surely there was something interesting around here. Like a cool flight suit! Or a rocket!

As she passed by large wooden door, she heard hushed voices on the other side.

"And you're sure it's them?"

"Yes madam. Two pegasi, two earth, one unicorn and one alicorn."

"Excellent. You know what to do. Dismissed."

The door opened suddenly and Rainbow Dash was forced to back away as a dark blue pegasi stallion walked through the door. He gave Rainbow Dash a scrutinising glare as he passed then turned to Twilight.

"A pleasure to have you here, your highness," He bowed low. "I am Radiant Diode, administrator of this facility."

"Oh this place is simply wonderful!" Twilight gushed, smiling wildly. She composed herself. "I mean... thank you for having us."

"Follow me, I'll be showing you around the facility."

Radiant Diode led them the door into a wide polished stone foyer. There was no sign of the other pony Rainbow had heard behind the door. At the end of the foyer were a few pony-sized gateways manned by a bored-looking unicorn guard.

"These are security gateways, they'll scan you for hidden weapons or illusion magic," Radiant Diode explained. "I'll ask that you each pass through them."

"Oh I understand completely," Twilight replied. "After the Changeling invasion, you can never be too careful."

"Exactly. It is nice to meet someone who appreciates our concern with security."

Twilight smiled and walked up into the gateway. There was a bright green flash and a beep. Twilight sighed in relief. The unicorn guard waved her through and beckoned for Pinkie Pie to approach. One by one they passed through until it was Rainbow's turn.

"One moment, madam," Diode halted her. "Company policy says we need to do a more thorough search of every fifth pony at random. Please follow me," He turned to Twilight. "I trust the princess can find our hall of past technological achievements on her own?"

"Thank you, Mr Diode," Twilight smiled. She gave Rainbow a sympathetic look and beckoned the other four mares down the foyer.

Rainbow Dash followed pegasus closely, the hairs of her coat sticking on end. For some reason, she felt suspicious of Radiant Diode. But also... didn't? The suspicion was there, but it shared space with the boredom that came from being surrounded by egghead stuff. Both emotions were definitely hers, but the suspicion didn't feel as 'real'. It was both foreign and familiar at the same time. Like it didn't belong right now.

"Just in here, madam," Radiant Diode led her into a circular room dominated by a single gigantic machine.

The machine was easily the size of a small neighbourhood, built like a massive ring with pillars of metal and crystal reaching in towards the centre. A monstrosity of wires, glowing gemstones and arcane runes, it dominated the entire hanger. Even Rainbow couldn't help but be impressed. Gemstones set along the surface and buried deep within cages of metal glowed with all the colours of the rainbow. A faint oily smell was in the air, making her nose twitch. It was unnerving. This was going to be... scanning her? Quite a lot of machinery for a simple scan.

She followed a catwalk over the top of the machine into it's centre and fought back against the butterflies in her stomach. Standing in the middle of all these coils and glowing auras of magic... it was intimidating. This was something that had no right being pointed at a pony. Radiant Diode stood behind a glass protective shield and began to power up the machine. It hummed, glowing with a light blue energy. Tiny puffs of cool vapour spat out into the coils.

The blue lights began to flicker and Rainbow steeled her nerves. Suddenly, the blue was gone. In fact, every light was gone save few glowing crystals of the machine. But the darkness didn't linger. Rainbow Dash herself began to glow with a familiar rainbow light. Tiny particles of every colour were drawn off her body into the machine surrounding her. It felt like there was an itch deep inside her chest that she just couldn't scratch.

As one, the lights flashed back on and the itching feeling disappeared.

"Thank you for your cooperation. That will be all, Miss Rainbow Dash," Radiant Diode gestured back to the entrance. An almost maniacal grin was on his face. This time, the feelings of suspicion were her own.

Stepping out into the bright midday sun, Rainbow Dash found Twilight rushing up to greet her.

"Oh you must see the wind tunnel! It's cutting edge, designed for perfecting pegasi flight strategy. I think you'll like it!"

"That does sound pretty cool," Rainbow admitted. She pushed all thoughts of Radiant Diode out of her mind and followed Twilight to an open-air tube of metal blasting air at a single hovering pegasus.

He flew against the wind, gliding up and down as ponies took notes around him. Despite herself, Rainbow couldn't help but watch in awe. This place wasn't as boring as she'd expected.

"Oo, what's that big building over there?" Pinkie Pie pointed to a large warehouse complexes in the distance towering over the featureless desert far off on the horizon. It was encircled by a large metal fence lined with coiled wire and staffed by rows of guards.

"I'm afraid that spot is strictly off-limits, even for friends of a princess," Radiant Diode apologised. "We do some of our more... dangerous research in that area and we wouldn't want to risk the public's safety."

Twilight stepped out in front of Diode and stared into him with wide eyes. "Is Starbeam Remedy in there?"

"Miss Remedy is currently preoccupied with securing space for a second facility elsewhere in Equestria."

Then who was he talking to earlier? Rainbow Dash was sure that voice was female. Who else could be ordering the facility director around?

"Oh, you are opening another facility?" Twilight squealed. "Where!?"

Radiant Diode stepped back a bit, unnerved by her eagerness. "Well... we haven't decided yet but we've outlined a few options. There's Manehattan. Then the edge of the Badlands. And your own town of Ponyville."

"Ponyville?!" Twilight flared her wings in excitement.

"Yes, you should expect a visit from either Miss Remedy or one of her representatives to further discuss the construction of the second facility. Then Miss Remedy will decide which location is the best for our... interests."

Seeing the awe-struck look on Twilight's face, Rainbow rolled her eyes. Only an egghead would get this excited about other eggheads moving in. Though to be fair, Rainbow would feel about the same way if Spitfire and the Wonderbolts decided to move to Ponyville.

The rest of the tour was fairly boring for Rainbow and frustrating for Twilight. There were many parts of the facility they weren't allowed in, places Twilight had hoped to visit to get a glimpse of the new inventions Aion Industries was working on. But she was happy to settle for seeing real life examples of all the various technologies already designed and patented by their company, most of them things only Twilight could understand the purpose behind.

Rainbow Dash had to admit, some of this stuff was pretty cool. Devices that let unicorns hover in mid-air, portable teleporters, enchanted armour even Griffons would be impressed by. But in her opinion the coolest invention by far was a foreleg-sized stick thing with a crystal fastened to the end. According to Twilight it was some kind of weapon, a device that could store magic and release it in concentrated beams. She'd gone into a lecture about the storing and releasing enchantments on the crystal, but Rainbow was busy imagining herself soaring through the air blasting monsters out of the sky.

But eventually, it all came to an end. Twilight thanked Radiant Diode for the time he'd spent showing them around and the six mares made their way back to the train station, ready for another long ride back home.

It felt wrong to disturb Twilight now. She was carefully levitating whatever she could find from the ruins of Golden Oaks into the new castle. And from the tear stains on her fur, she wasn't taking the sight of her former home being reduced to ash very well. But Rainbow couldn't put this off any longer.

"Twilight, there's something I have to tell you."

The alicorn placed a half-burned book down on a table and turned to her. The morose expression on her face almost made Rainbow cave.

"What is it Rainbow Dash?"

"So, you know those stutters..."

"Yes, I'm aware of the stutters. All the data I had on them is now burnt to smithereens, but I am aware of them," Twilight levitated a small clock over to her, the same one that Rainbow had been wearing during the first Rainboom Experiment. "But at least this survived."

"And you said they only lasted for a few seconds..."

"Yeah, I did say that..." Twilight's eyes widened. "Has something happened?!"

"I think they're getting longer," Rainbow confirmed. A few minutes a day didn't seem like much, but Twilight had been pretty worried about this at first. And as they got longer, it even began to worry Rainbow. What if one day... they just didn't end?

"WHAT!?"

Twilight all but dragged Rainbow Dash to Sweet Apple Acres. "I need to verify this right now. So get up there and give me a Sonic Rainboom."

"Er... do I have to? I'm pretty sure I remember them getting longer."

"Come on, it's just one Sonic Rainboom. What are you worried about?"

"Getting violently split apart," Rainbow mumbled. It didn't feel very awesome, but the truth was she hadn't even tried to perform her signature move since it caused that awful feeling of being split apart.

Twilight's eyes widened. "Oh. I'm sorry, I didn't think of that. I promise to be more considerate of your emotions in the future. But please Rainbow, this is really important."

"'s alright," Rainbow sighed. "I'll do it."

But their discussion was interrupted by the arrival of another pony.

"Hey y'all, what are ya doing?" Applejack cantered over to the duo.

"Research," Twilight replied curtly.

Applejack looked between Twilight and Rainbow Dash. It had not escaped her notice that the alicorn had been practically pulling Rainbow onto the farm.

"I take it the two o' ya are lookin' into Rainbow's time weirdness?"

That was an apt way of describing it.

Twilight nodded. "Rainbow Dash claims the stutters are getting longer, but my own time-altered clock from the first Rainboom Experiment hasn't picked up on this. So this is either Rainbow Dash exhibiting more unique time powers or my own clock being wrong somehow."

"I'm telling you, they're getting longer!" Rainbow argued. Damn it Twilight, can't you just believe me?

"We'll let the experiment decide. I'm sorry Rainbow. I know you don't want to do another Rainboom, but we need to confirm this. If we don't... I can't even imagine what the consequences could be."

Applejack watched as Twilight fastened a different harness to the Rainbow pegasus. "Can I watch? Ah can take care o' her if she does one of them splittin' things again."

"Please don't mention the splitting," Rainbow moaned, her face taking on a slight green tinge.

"Alright, that should do it," Twilight announced as she fastened the last strap. "Fly up and give us one of those Rainbooms!"

With one last look of apprehension, Rainbow Dash shot off into the air. Applejack watched and she did a few loops as a warmup. It hadn't just been her imagination, her pegasus friend was afraid to pull off a Rainboom. Already she'd taken more time than usual gliding around the air. She was putting it off.

But Rainbow Dash wasn't loyalty for nothing. She swallowed her fear and pushed forward, setting the sky alight in a burst of radiant colours. Rainbow landed gracefully, her wings trailing sparks of colour behind her. As Twilight unstrapped the harness Rainbow looked down at her hooves, expecting them to split apart at any moment.

"It's alright, Rainbow," Applejack laid her foreleg over her friend. "Ya ain't going ta fizzle out."

"You don't know that!" Rainbow shouted. Applejack didn't know anything about what she was going through!

Applejack took a few steps back. "Alright sugarcube. I'm just sayin' that I reckon you're good enough ta control it."

The pegasus seemed to visibly deflate. She rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly and hastily apologised. Of course Applejack was only trying to be a good friend. The farmpony didn't have a malicious bone in her body. But stupid Rainbow Dash just had to yell at her for trying to be encouraging.

"Well, I've gotten a second time-altered clock," Twilight announced, picking an identical clock out of Rainbow's harness. "If Rainbow Dash is right, the first clock and second clock should record different stutter durations. Then it will be up to me to figure out why," She placed both clocks into her saddlebag then looked at the pegasus expectantly. "But more importantly, how are you feeling?"

Rainbow paused to think. "I feel... good? Energetic? Like I just woke up from a particularly good nap."

Twilight quickly flipped open a notebook and jotted some things down. "Interesting..."

An odd feeling overtook her. It was like their was an itch just under the surface of her skull. Like a headache but... different. Something wanted release. She focused her mind on the itch and found a 'gateway'. At least, that was how she had chosen to perceive it. Words could not describe this abstract concept. Cautiously, she began to probe this mysterious blockage.

It gave way.

The world exploded into an unsightly mass of colours and information right before her eyes. Rainbow Dash leapt back in surprise, flipping back onto the rough ground. Every shifting atom and collapsing waveform assaulted her conscious. Patterns shifted and probabilities were charted right before her eyes. Trees grew and withered in countless different ways as the soil shifted under her hooves as tectonic forces ripped it apart over and over in an endless cycle. The pegasus cried out and shut her senses, trying to stop the endless tidal wave of information her mind refused to comprehend.

MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP

"Ya ok sugercube?" a voice reached her ears, spoken in a million different words with a billion different intonations. It was less a series of words and more the concept concern made physical. She could see the sounds and hear the letters.

Rainbow dragged her perception to the source and immediately wished she hadn't. If she thought the information her feeble senses had already been exposed to was incomprehensible, it was nothing compared to looking at the two figures before her. The shone against the comparatively dim background like the sun against the void, radiating a near-infinite number of probabilities, so many of them utterly alien to Rainbow's perceptions.

"I think she's splitting again! Remember to focus, Rainbow! Focus on the here and now!" The second being spoke.

"Just follow the sound of mah voice!" the first added.

Desperately she pulled her senses inward, focusing on herself and nothing but herself. Nothing but Rainbow Dash. She knew who she was. She knew where she was. She knew when she was. The tsunami of information slowed to a trickle and then stopped. Slowly she opened her eyes and almost cried out in relief. Who knew simple rows of apple trees could look so good?

"What in the depths of Tartarus was that?" Rainbow whispered to herself.

Applejack shrugged. "You tell me. Your' the one tha' just collapsed like a spooked gopher. Seriously, are ya alright?"

The pegasus nodded slowly. She let the two mares help her back up.

Twilight pushed in front of Applejack. "What did you see?"

"I don't know." That was the only answer she could give. Already that feeling was fading from her memory. Trying to recall anything she'd witnessed in that strange state was like trying to cup water in her hooves. "But I think I know how I can find out."

Fear still gripped constricted her lungs, but she pushed past it. There was something that needed to be checked. Rainbow focused her mind again, finding that same gateway. Instead of busting it open, she only opened it a crack. Immediately the world was plunged into a monotone grey. It was depressingly dull, but at least it could be processed by her mind. Rainbow shifted her senses to her two friends. Unlike the radiant creatures of tangled probabilities and endless possible timelines, they only glowed with the probability of a few timelines. Linear and comprehensible.

"I think I'm seeing probability," Rainbow answered, for lack of a better word.

Twilight approached. The pegasus flinched upon seeing the strange shifting probabilities that came with Twilight's movement, but forced herself to focus on the present Twilight. The real Twilight.

"How fascinating. The boost of energy from the Rainboom must have let you temporarily see multiple possible futures," Twilight theorised. She turned to Applejack who just shrugged in response. '

"Hey, don't be lookin' at me. Ah'm still tryin' to figure out what 'seeing probability' means."

"Trust me Applejack, I don't either," Rainbow admitted.

Looking closely, Rainbow Dash realised it wasn't just possible futures she could see. There were faint echoes across the field of things that had already happened. With some effort, she could even see these things happening. She saw a shorter Applejack relentlessly bucking countless trees season after season. The trees were stripped of leaves as winter came. Looking closer to now, Rainbow could see herself walking with Twilight only a few minutes ago followed by a tremendous explosion that sent ripples through the timeline. That could only have been the Rainboom.

And focusing nearby, Rainbow could see three presences walking across the field only a few hours ago. Curiosity got the better of her and she allowed the echo to play out.

"We'll totally get out cutie marks in Go-Karting for sure!" a voice cheered.

"Totally!" came a second voice. "I can't wait to see Diamond Tiara's face when she sees me with an awesome cutie mark like that!"

The third figure hushed the other two. "Keep it down, mah sister is probably nearby and ya know how she feels 'bout us doin' these dangerous stunts."

There was something about that scene that left Rainbow Dash with a feeling of distress. Why? This wasn't the first time those fillies had done something potentially dangerous. Usually she found them awesome. The answer was obvious, but the reasoning was not. What about the Cutie Mark Crusader's latest stunt could make her future self feel so distraught...

Oh no

Applejack considered herself a down-to-earth gal. She didn't get none of this fancy-schmancy time nonsense. But what she did get was ponies. How to help them. How to nurture them. How to support them. She prided herself on being the unshakable rock everypony could rely on both physically and emotionally. In her opinion, this timey nonsense was givin' her friend a lot to be worried about. That's why Applejack took it upon herself to be standing by whenever it seemed like Rainbow might need a rock.

And with Rainbow Dash looking from place to place so quickly she expected her neck to snap, Applejack decided that time was now.

"Now sugarcube, why don't you sit down an' tell me what's botherin' you?"

"Got to find them. Got to find them," Rainbow mumbled in a half-panicked state, completely ignoring Applejack. Twilight looked on curiously, carefully jotting down notes while trying to signal to the pegasus.

Rainbow's eyes fix themselves on a random patch of grass in the distance. In a shimmer of rainbow light she blurred forward faster than anything Applejack had ever seen. Before she could even blink, Rainbow was on the other side of the field, looking around wildly for... something.

You ain't gettin' away from me that easy, Applejack thought as she galloped after her.

"Did Rainbow just teleport?" Twilight pondered, eyes wide in disbelief. The sound of hooves thundering on ground broke the alicorn out of her reprieve. She flew after the farmpony, carefully soaring next to her.

"Applejack, what did Rainbow say to you?"

"She said somethin' about 'finding them'! No idea what that means!" Applejack shouted back, keeping her eyes fixated on her pegasus friend and picking up the pace.

In another blur of light, Rainbow was on the road to Ponyville. She paused for only a moment before flashing away towards the town.

"Ah think she's headin' into town!" Applejack shouted to the alicorn. "Try an' teleport us there!"

Twilight nodded. She swooped down wrapped her forelegs around Applejack, flashing them away in an explosion of purple. They reappeared in the town, just in time to see a rainbow blur shoot past them.

"Ah don't think I've ever seen Rainbow go that fast," Applejack commented. Just as she was about to follow the blur, another one shot right past her nose in the opposite direction.

"She must be accelerating time for herself!" Twilight theorised. "She's not actually faster, but relative to us-"

Applejack nudged her hard. "You can explain your theory later, she's heading for the cliff!"

The two galloped off again, following the second blur. There they found Rainbow Dash standing at the edge of the cliff. Completely still. An awful thought hit Applejack. Was her friend really plannin' to... no. That's impossible.

"Hey Rainbow... are ya alright?" Applejack asked, slowly approaching the mare.

But the pegasus didn't reply. As Applejack and Twilight took spots to either side of her, Rainbow Dash turned to face the road.

"The trail ends here," She said with a cocky grin.

Twilight cautiously put a hoof on the pegasus' shoulder. "Would you like to come inside? I think you've had a tough day and maybe some rest would do you good. Just please come off the cliff."

"I can't do that Twi," Rainbow replied. She held a hoof up dramatically. "Any second now..."

The sound of screams reached her ears. Applejack looked up to see a Go-Kart accelerating down the hill, plummeting straight towards the edge of the cliff. Three fillies were crammed inside, each screaming their heads off. With mounting horror, Applejack realised she recognised them.

"APPLEBLOOM!"

The Cutie Mark Crusaders each tried to halt the cart. Scootaloo was leaning back, flapping her tiny wings against the drop while Applebloom and Sweetie Bell each pulled on a lever to engage the breaks. Their efforts were in vain, the cart sped even faster towards the edge. Applajack leapt in it's path, holding her hooves out to catch it while Twilight prepared to grab the fillies in a telekinetic grip. But before either of them could stop the cart it froze in place.

"Hey Twi, can you use some of your princess status to get them to build a barrier on this cliff face?" Rainbow Dash stepped forward, casually trotting to the frozen Go-Kart. "I swear, Equestria's greatest villains are the Ponyville engineers."

Applejack looked on in disbelief, heart still beating so fast it might burst out of her chest. She glanced between the frozen Cutie Mark Crusaders and the lake far below them. If Rainbow Dash hadn't led them here...

"Hey Rainbow... I don't know how to thank you. You saved my sister," She finished lamely. How was it possible to express the sincere depths of her gratitude in words?

Twilight simply nodded in agreement. Even she was too stunned to speak.

But the pegasus just snorted humerously. "Hey, what kind of awesome friend would I be if I didn't? Besides, my kind-of sister is in there too. One free cider and I'll call it even."

"You can have a whole damn keg."

The three mares burst into laughter. Rainbow entered the bubble of frozen time and casually plucked each of the fillies out of the cart then kicked it aside. She left them to hover in the air then exited the bubble.

"Now be ready to catch them."

Time resumed and Applejack caught Applebloom in her forelegs. Before her little sister could even say a word, Applejack nuzzled her softly.

Maybe timey weirdness wasn't all bad...

Author's Note

Sorry for the wait. I have real life stuff going on that's making it difficult to find time to write. But I have this chapter. As you can guess, I have a subplot for Rainbow's time abilities planned out. Aion Industries will return along with their illusive founder who is not an OC pony.

Anyway, stay tuned for the next chapter. I think I'll do something a bit light-hearted. Maybe a chapter of vaguely-comedic oneshots briefly covering the events of each episode up to the finale of Season 5 which I think you've all guessed is going to be extremely relevant.

Of Castles and Paradoxes

"Alright this is gettin' weird. This is weird, right?" Applejack asked.

Big Mac paused a while before replying. "Eeyup."

In the distance, Twilight paced in a circle around the apple grove, her face buried in a book hovering up to her eyes. She flicked through the pages rapidly before switching it with another book from a stack built up under the shade of an apple tree. Before she got even five pages in, a large notebook zipped to her face and the alicorn quickly jotted something down then sent it back to the others. Applejack had found Twilight like this earlier that morning while doing chores. How long she'd been there, the mare didn't know. But Twilight had already worn a trail into the earth.

Throughout the day, the farmpony considered talking to her but refrained. Whatever it was Twilight was doing, it was probably important. But this was getting out of hand.

"Should ah just talk to her?" Applejack asked.

The red stallion beside her just shrugged. With a sigh, Applejack paced up to her alicorn friend.

"Howdy Twilight, what are you up to?"

Twilight looked up from her book. The farmpony winced at the state her friend was in. There were bags under her eyes and her mane was frazzled and covered in mud for some reason.

"Oh, Applejack! I'm just doing a bit of research into the theories on time magic!" Twilight gave her a strained smile. "If the stutters are getting longer, the fate of the world could rest on this!"

"That's great sugarcube. But why are ya doing it here? Don't you have a castle for that now?"

Twilight's eyes widened and the book fell from her telekinetic grasp. "Oh! That! Well, this is the place Rainbow Dash did a Sonic Rainboom a few weeks ago and it's very important that I do my research on the site it happened!"

Applejack raised an eyebrow as Twilight picked up the book and resumed her pacing. This part of the field didn't seem any different from the rest of it. And she might not be good at all this fancy science whatchamacallits, but it looked to her that all Twilight was doing was reading. Couldn't you do that anywhere?

"Well maybe ya should head home and take a break?" She suggested. "A shower, perhaps? Ya got a little mud on your... well everywhere."

"Oh the mud? I was helping Fluttershy clean her animals yesterday. And I can't go back to the castle! This research is too important!" Twilight flashed her a strained grin. There was a desperate look in her eye.

Forcing a smile on her face, Applejack backed away slowly. "Well... I'll leave you to it!"

"Is it just me or has Twilight been actin' a bit strange recently?" Applejack asked the next morning. The six mares had come together for a morning breakfast of delicious pancakes in Twilight's new castle. It would have been perfectly normal, had Twilight not been sleeping on a stack of pancakes.

"I'll say!" Rainbow shouted. "She made me fly laps around the town for hours yesterday. No Rainbooms, just normal flying. Apparently it was 'important' or something but I'm so exhausted I can barely move my wings. Then she started giving me a physical examination. Pretty sure the health of my feathers isn't related to time anomalies."

Rarity nodded. "She spent an entire afternoon rearranging a single gem drawer at the boutique. An entire afternoon!"

"I thought she was busy with the time research?" Rainbow raised an eyebrow. "Pinkie, you were with Twilight last night. Did you notice anything weird?"

"Nopsies! Twilight was too busy spending the night picking out the right flavour for these pancakes to be weird! I kept thinking I got it right but she just kept saying we needed to make more," Pinkie stacked another pancake on her place. "And more and more and more! It was like she didn't want to-"

"Leave?" Fluttershy supplied.

"Exactly!" Pinkie took a deep bite out of her pancake stack. "Eventually we ran out of time so we just went with every-berry-any-chip-surprise!" The mare leaned over to Rarity and whispered in her ear. "The surprise is I lost a measuring spoon in the batter. Somepony's gonna get a very special pancake!"

How do you hide an entire measuring spoon inside a panca- nope! Don't try to explain Pinkie Pie!

Applejack tapped her hooves on the table. "I saw her at Sweet Apple Acres. She was just reading and pacing in a circle, but you could do that anywhere."

"Well it's obvious then," Rarity told them. "The poor dear must be avoiding something. We should inquire about it when she wakes up."

Pinkie Pie shovelled the last of her pancakes into that unfillable void she calls a stomach. She coughed loudly and spat out a measuring spoon. It spiralled off and landed in Fluttershy's pancakes. The pink mare took one look at it and leap up into the air.

"I win!"

Twilight woke up with a start, lurching up with a pancake impaled on her horn. "Huh?! I'm pancake! I mean, awake..."

"Uh, Twilight? Is there somethin' you wanna tell us?" Applejack asked.

Rarity trotted over to the alicorn, levitating the pancake off her horn. "You know how much we appreciate all you do for us, and we simply adore having you around but you have been acting rather abnormally the past few days. We're worried you may be avoiding something?"

Twilight sighed. "Has it been that obvious?"

Is she for real?

"No offense or anything," Rainbow began. "But yeah. It's been super obvious."

"I ain't ever known you to prefer researchin' outdoors," Applejack added.

"Look I know it's silly, but I've kinda-sorta been avoiding this place," She waved a hoof around, gesturing to the castle walls.

Applejack had to admit, this place did seem a bit... empty. The cold crystal and grandiose hallways were rather lonely. Certainly wasn't the farmpony's shindig. She was quite happy with the Apple family homestead, thank you very much. But that tree had put the castle here to be Twilight's new home. And as she listened to Twilight explaining her feelings about this place, Applejack became increasingly incensed. A home was supposed to feel like a home! Anything else was dang-near unthinkable!

So if Twilight didn't feel at home in this place, it was up to her to do something about it!

Rarity seemed just as affronted by this fact as Applejack. She immediately suggested that all that Twilight needed to do was decorate the castle.

"But it's just so daunting! Look how big it is! I-I don't even know where to start!" Twilight lamented.

The unicorn mare put a hoof on Twilight's shoulder. "You can start by letting us do it for you. We will make this the castle of your dreams while you go to the Ponyville spa for some much needed rest and relaxation."

"But all my research! The time-altered clocks say that the stutters are getting longer and if I don't find out soon it could mean-" Twilight began, but Rarity stopped her.

"I'm saying this with love, but... have you looked in a mirror lately? I've never seen you look this... mmmm..."

Applejack cringed. Rarity was right. That was certainly a... unique look.

"Frazzled?" Fluttershy offered.

"That was exactly the word I was going to use!"

Rainbow swooped down and landed on the table. "Besides, you can always finish your research later. You don't need to stress, these stutters can be pretty awesome once you get used to them. Just yesterday, I snuck around town placing whoopy cushions underneath all the-"

"That's great Rainbow," Applejack interrupted her. "But let's focus on redecoratin' Twilight's castle."

Rarity nodded. "So, as you can see, we're willing to redecorate this place for you. Take a day off and relax. You can come back to your research later more rested."

"Well... alright then," Twilight relented. "I guess I do need a little help. And so does my castle. And I just know you'll do a great job, because nopony knows me better than you five."

Darn tootin'! This decorating was going to be a piece of cake!

Applejack really needed to start lowering her expectations.

After a disastrous first attempt at decorating, the five mares had decided to remove everything. It was almost sunset and they had nothing to show for it. Applejack drove the shovel back into the soil with a grunt. Luckily they had a plan. All they needed to do was dig up a massive tree, weave some enchanted gemstones into the roots and mount it onto the roof. And they had to do it before sunset.

Which was why Applejack was with Rainbow Dash digging around the ruins of Golden Oak Library. As the most athletic mares in group, they volunteered for this while Fluttershy helped Rarity with enchanting the gemstones to display memories. Luckily for them, Pinkie Pie had a photographic memory. It was hard work, but Applejack pushed herself to finish.

Suddenly, Rainbow dropped her shovel and raised her foreleg into the air. "I've got an idea!"

"No, I ain't lettin' ya freeze Twilight to give us more time," Applejack deadpanned.

The pegasus let her foreleg go limp. "Never mind."

A few minutes passed in silence, each of the mares focused on slowly unearthing the tree. Then Rainbow Dash spoke up again.

"I've got another idea!"

Applejack raised an eyebrow. "Does it involve you breakin' the laws of physics?"

She scoffed. "You want to chew somebody out for breaking physics, talk to Pinkie Pie."

Touche

"Then what's your idea?"

The pegasus leapt into the air. "Okay so you don't like the idea of me freezing other ponies in time right? So what if instead of slowing time for Twilight, I speed it up for us! Like I did when I was looking for the Cutie Mark Crusaders."

"Do ya actually know how to do that?" Applejack replied sceptically. Rainbow's skillset seemed to operate on pure instinct.

"Well... no," Rainbow admitted. "But I can figure it out!"

Her instinct was to reject Rainbow's plan. But they were running out of time and there was no guarantee Spike could delay Twilight long enough. At this rate, she was going to come home to an empty castle and feel all awful again. So right now, Applejack was seriously considering her friend's idea.

"Fine. I don't like it, but we're running out of time."

"Alright then, prepare to be amazed!" Rainbow Dash brought iridescent light to her wings, flashing a cocky grin down at the orange earth pony who was already regretting her decision. The energy grew brighter until it was almost painful to look at then exploded outwards.

Applejack blinked her eyes rapidly, trying to clear the dark spots out of her vision. She looked around to see the entire library was trapped in a faintly glowing bubble. Curiously, she looked out at the town beyond the bubble. It was an odd sight. Ponies moved like they were walking through molasses. If she wasn't looking closely, it would be hard to tell they were moving at all.

She glanced over and saw Rainbow with small drips of sweat clinging to her fur. Faint particles of light still swirled around her wings as she steadied herself.

"Piece-," Rainbow took a few deep breaths. "of cake!"

"Why don't you take a sit-down for a few minutes?" Applejack offered. The pegasus looked like she needed a rest. "I'll do some work without you."

"If... you say so," Rainbow said between laboured breaths. She collapsed down, rolling over on the soft grass. "But only for a few minutes!"

Taking a quick glance at the town, it suddenly occurred to the farmpony just how relative a term like 'a few minutes' could be.

Rarity considered herself very lucky they had finished in time. At the time, the unicorn fashionista was doubtful even athletic ponies like Applejack and Rainbow Dash could've dug up those tree roots in time. But somehow they had finished long before Rarity had even completed connecting Pinkie's memories to the gemstones. Based on the stories the townsponies had told her about Applejack and Rainbow shovelling dirt so quickly they looked like a blur, Rarity suspected a certain pegasus may have found another application for those odd abilities of hers.

Regardless of how they did it, the results spoke for themselves. Twilight had been simply delighted by the tree root chandelier. Not to mention the stunning kitchen décor. Some of the other rooms may need some work, but Rarity was proud of what she achieved today. And if this place felt just a bit like a home to Twilight, it was all worth it.

That being said, it had been rather worrying that the second Twilight finished admiring the new decorations she retreated to the library to read more of those dull books of hers. Days passed with not much change, the alicorn only emerged for essentials. Perhaps Twilight's unwillingness to stay in the castle had been a blessing in disguise. At least then they got the chance to see her on a semi-frequent basis.

The five mares had decided that they should at least check up on their alicorn friend. Perhaps the reminder that she had friends would help shake this latest obsession? Applejack stepped up to the library door to knock, but as she pressed her hoof to the door it slowly creaked open. Shrugging, the five mares stepped into the room to find Twilight rapidly jotting things down on three different blackboards. Strewn around her were small piles of books, paper and quills. Thankfully, there were a few plates with crumbs still on them. At least she was eating.

Surrounding her were empty bookshelves, things the alicorn hadn’t quite managed to fill yet. Rarity found the library rather elegant.

Twilight didn't seem to notice them. Rarity politely coughed, causing the alicorn to jump up in shock. "Oh, it you girls! You startled me."

"Terribly sorry about that, darling," Rarity apologised, refraining from rolling her eyes. They didn't exactly 'sneak up' on the alicorn, she was just distracted. With the way Applejack walked you'd be lucky to sneak up on a deaf pony.

"Actually, I've been meaning to talk to you five," Twilight levitated a few large rolls of paper from a side desk. "I've been researching everything I could find on theories of time and I think I have some explanations."

"Yeah that's great but can you- OW!"

Rainbow Dash winced as a feather was plucked from her wing by a light blue aura. She threw an accusing glare at Rarity who simply mouthed 'play along'. Letting Twilight obsess over things wasn't healthy, but they had to at least show an interest. Honestly, Rarity found it quite annoying that Rainbow couldn't appreciate the work Twilight was doing to understand her strange powers.

"We would be delighted for you to enlighten us," Rarity smiled at the alicorn. "Would you like to discuss it over lunch? I hear the hayburgers are delicious today."

Excellent work, Rarity. Encourage Twilight to engage with her research topics in a healthier manor.

"I can't! All my blackboards are here!"

Damn.

"That's quite all right. We can listen here. Right girls?"

The other four mares voiced their agreement. Rainbow still rubbed her wing absentmindedly but ultimately agreed. Twilight beamed and unfurled the wrapped paper on an empty stand. It depicted a hastily drawn series of jagged lines. One displayed in red showed an upwards trend while one in blue showed a downwards trend ending suddenly with a flatline.

"I'm glad to hear it! But what I've discovered isn't good," Twilight levitated a pointer to the red line. "This shows the stutter length as measured by the second time-altered clock. Earlier, Rainbow Dash told me the stutters are getting longer. And this confirms it."

Rarity thought it best to avoid telling the alicorn that she'd completely forgotten these stutters were occurring. If she recalled, weren't they random pauses? Twilight had described it like pausing a show on one of those new television devices. Fluttershy and Applejack were similarly confused. Pinkie Pie... was still Pinkie Pie. Only Rainbow had any reaction to the news.

"See, I told you!" Rainbow exclaimed triumphantly. "You didn't need to make me do another Rainboom!"

"I needed to make sure. And I'm glad I did. Because what I discovered is of equal if not greater importance," Twilight then pointed to the blue line. "This shows the stutters as measured by the first time-altered clock. It measured progressively shorter stutters over a period of a few days then suddenly flatlined and hasn't measured a single one since," She tapped the spot near the end of the graph. "However, they clearly occurred. As Rainbow Dash can confirm."

The pegasus nodded. "Yeah. I used one to get rid of that tacky painting while Rarity was frozen."

Rarity gasped. "TACKY!?"

"Settle down," Applejack commanded. "Let Twilight finish her explanation."

"Thank you, Applejack," Twilight nodded at the farmpony. She turned back to the diagram. "Evidentially, my first time-altered clock has lost the ability to continue operating during stutters. This implies that this stutter-proof property can only last for a set amount of time. Like a battery."

"I could've told you that," Rainbow commented. "When I touch things during a stutter, they can move. And when I let go, they stop moving soon after."

Twilight smiled. "I expected as much. What I wouldn't give to remain conscious during a stutter. Sadly, stutter-proofing a pony is beyond my capabilities."

"I'm sure if you keep trying, you'll get there," Fluttershy encouraged.

"Thanks. Anyway, this gets into my research on the various theories ponies have created for time. The most research into it was done by Starswirl the Bearded. He hypothesised that time was the byproduct of the magical field that permeates the world. However he lacked any direct proof. More modern research done by a pony who writes under the pseudonym 'Dr. Whooves' proposes a mathematical model in which time is a field tied with Neighton's theory of a gravity. Admittedly the maths is a bit beyond me, but what I do know is that this theory can't explain the ability of unicorns to harness time to travel short distances. Both theories have applications in the study of gravitational field and practical applications of chrono-thaumetic enchantments."

Rarity blinked. Twilight really had to learn that other ponies were not as well-read as she was. Particularly in the topic of historical theories of time.

"So... what does this mean?" Applejack asked.

"Well with what limited data I have, I've been trying to create a new theory combining the previous two. It's only a theory so far, but it both has a mathematical justification and works with existing theories of magic. More importantly, it can explain at least some of the odd abilities Rainbow Dash demonstrates. Essentially, think of time as a unit of energy. The time-altered clocks can continue operating because they have somehow stored this energy."

Applejack tapped her chin. "I think ah get it. So it's like a pony with a basket of apples. If you can’t visit the market, ya can still eat the apples an' not go hungry?"

"Exactly," Twilight nodded.

Rustic comparisons were never Rarity's cup of tea. But Applejack did explain it well.

Pinkie Pie began jumping up an down. "Oh and if you get a lot of really sugary apples like a really really lot and feed them to a pony they can get super active and start bouncing everywhere!"

"Hang on a second," Rainbow paused her lazy gliding around the room. "When I tried accelerating me and Applejack yesterday-"

"Applejack and I," Twilight corrected.

"Whatever. Anyway, when I tried doing that I felt like I was pushing something out into the air. Is that this... time particle thingy?" Rainbow asked, feeling unsure of herself.

"Yes and no. I don't have the mathematics to prove if there are actual particles of time," Twilight admitted, her cheeks flushing red slightly. The other mares exchanged annoyed looks. Twilight really had no right to complain about a lack of mathematical talent, Rarity couldn't even begin to decipher the equations on that blackboard.

"But it is the time particle thingy, right?"

"Pinkie's explanation was pretty spot on. I hypothesise that when you manipulate time, you're saturating the local environment with time energy. Somehow transferring your own surely well above average energy reserves to local space. Of course I have no way of measuring this as of yet. But I'm working on it."

Applejack put a hoof on Twilight's shoulder. "Well, it seems ya made good progress. Ah think that deserves a break, wouldn't y'all agree?"

The other four of them nodded.

"I would like if you took a break," Fluttershy admitted in her soft voice. "I haven't seen you in a while."

"But I can't!" Twilight turned back to a stack of books and flipped through them. "There is still so much my theory doesn't explain! The most important part is figuring out why the stutters are getting longer and I can't even explain what they are in the first place! They are up to a minute long now! A whole minute! Nothing allows for them to exist. And none of my theories allow for Rainbow Dash to exist either!"

Twilight pulled the rainbow-maned pegasus to the ground with her magic. She trotted around Rainbow, who looked at the alicorn with a nervous expression.

"You okay, Twilight?"

But the alicorn ignored her. "The only hypothesis I have for why the clocks could continue operating was their magical batteries. But no pony has that kind of inherent ability to store magic. Yet to pull off her various feats, Rainbow Dash must have the capability to store the time energy of a magical battery at least her size and quickly replenish it. And her abilities seem to grow with the length of stutters for no discernible reason."

Twilight paused her pacing to look deep into Rainbow's eyes. Rarity could see how unsettled the pegasus was. She trotted over to Twilight's side.

"Darling, perhaps you should just come with us and get some lunch. You've spent too long with books."

"Do you know how to read a pony's pulse, Rarity?" Twilight asked, never looking away from the pegasus.

The unicorn blinked. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Do you know how to read a pony's pulse?" Twilight repeated. She grabbed one of Rarity's forelegs and laid the hoof against Rainbow's neck. The pegasus gave her a look that said 'get me out of here'!

But Rarity decided to humour Twilight. She focused on feeling the pulse on her friend's neck.

Ba-thump. Ba-thump. Ba-thump.

"Seems perfectly normal to me. A bit on the slow side, perhaps. But Rainbow Dash is a fit mare."

"Now check the pulse at back legs," Twilight ordered.

Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy all observed Rarity as she trotted over and laid a hoof on the pegasus' flank.

BABABABABABABABABABABA

She gasped in surprise. Was that a heartbeat or did Rainbow have a hummingbird in her leg? Looking up, Rarity saw Twilight with a knowing look on her face.

"Now check both at the same time."

Rarity nodded and, ignoring the increasingly disturbed look on Rainbow's face, put both her forelegs on the mare. Her heartrates were different.

"Can somebody please tell me what's going on?" Rainbow asked.

"You have different heartrates depending on which part of your body I measure," Twilight told her like it was the simplest thing in the world and not a biological impossibility. "Each fluctuates rapidly. I did a few magical scans and I swear sometimes your blood flows backwards. Don't ask me how this works, I have no idea."

"Oh my..." Fluttershy gasped.

Applejack stepped forward. "No hold on there. That ain't possible."

"You're telling me," Twilight replied. "But here we are."

"She's right, Applejack. I'm feeling two different heartrates," Rarity confessed, her coat looking paler than usual. Medicine wasn't her speciality. Fluttershy was the only one aside from Twilight who knew much about that topic. But Rarity didn’t need to be an expert to recognise an impossibility when she saw it.

Rainbow's eyes widened. "Am I going to die!?"

"By all known understandings of medicine, you should already be dead," Twilight replied. "Any other pony would immediately die from severe internal bleeding as their brain literally liquified. But you are somehow still alive. That has no explanation. So no, you won't die. You will go on living your ordinary life utterly oblivious to the fact that the different flows of time in your body should literally rip you apart."

Silence reigned. Rainbow examined her forelegs in stunned silence, trying to wrap her head around the impossibility of her own existence.

“Well, that ain’t too weird,” Applejack began. “Compared to Pinkie’s biology, it’s downright ordinary.”

As if too prove her point, Pinkie stretched her arms to wrap Rainbow in a tight hug. “I’m glad you haven’t exploded!”

“See darling? I respect your efforts, but Rainbow Dash is perfectly fine,” Rarity reasoned. She nudged the pegasus. “Right?”

Rainbow nodded. “That discovery is kind of... unsettling. But I’m fine. Really.”

“Look Twi, ya need to take a break once in a while,” Applejack insisted. “Remember how ah got when ah tried to harvest an entire field alone?”

“Come on, have lunch with us. You can tell us more there,” Rarity attempted to convince her.

Twilight seemed uncertain. She glanced between the unfinished equations and hopeful looks on the faces of her friends. Finally she sighed and nodded.

“Alright then. I’ll finish this later.”

As the six friend left the library, none of them noticed a pony emerge from a flash of rainbow light behind the bookshelves.

Author's Note

Surprise, I finished a chapter quickly this time. What can I say? I had a free day. Hope you enjoy it.

Trials and Tribulations of a Time Traveller Part 1

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.