"Uh, A.J.? What is that?"
Braeburn pointed a hoof nervously at the sky over the apple orchard. And Applejack pushed back her hat and peered up at the albatross-like shape soaring by overhead, its mane and tail fluttering in the airstream.
"Aw, don't worry 'bout that, cous'," she said. "It's just Twilight again."
"Who?"
"Twilight Sparkle? Oh that's right, you ain't met her yet, have ya? You need to come visit Ponyville more often. Twilight's family bought that farmstead up on the hill. New money and all. It's sort of a vacation home for 'em. Her parents are a little standoffish, probably 'cause they're new here. But Twilight, she's all right."
Braeburn's head tracked back and forth as he followed the winged pony shape. It circled this way and that, drifting down toward the ground with every pass. He scratched his mane.
"She does this often?"
"Only the past few days." Applejack sighed. "And really, it's my fault."
"How so?"
"Wayall, Twilight and I were jawin' about the Stars in the sky at night. Whether they's made, or only just happened, that kinda thing. An' Twi seemed to think that they might be entire other worlds, just like ours here." Applejack rapped the ground with a hoof, the solid, dependable ground that had always been there, and always would be. "I said I didn't believe a word of it. There's only the land, and the sky, and the Sun, Moon and Stars. And that's it. All us ponies are given, and all we've ever needed."
"Sounds sensible to me." Braeburn nodded.
"Yeah it do, don't it?" Applejack smirked. "But somehow, that didn't sit right with Twi. She got cross with me. Said I was being a parochial something-or-other. I forget what now. And also that one day she'd show me I was wrong. Make me see the error of my ways, and such. And I said..."
Applejack shut her eyes and shook her head, exasperated at herself.
"I said when ponies fly. And I really should know better by now. Soon's the words were outta my mouth, I saw her eyes light up. The way they do, whenever she's got an idea. She turned right around and high-tailed it up to that workshop she's got in the old red barn up there. After a bunch of tinkerin', one morning she comes trottin' out with home-made wings strapped to her barrel. I tell ya, she looked like somethin' out of a carny sideshow. And then she takes a flyin' leap, right off the side of the hill..."
Applejack couldn't quite suppress a chuckle.
"And goes rollin' flank over teakettle, all the way down, when the wings folded up on her. When she finally come to a halt at the bottom, she looked like a deck-chair and a compost heap were fightin' to see which of 'em could eat her up first."
Braeburn looked astonished. "She didn't give up after that?"
"Twilight? Heck no! She never gives up, once an idea gets ahold of her. She marched right on back up to the workshop and tinkered some more. Took a few more tries, but late that same day she hopped off the hill, and just went a-sailin' down here, neat as you please. Durnedest thing I ever saw."
Snorting, Braeburn eyed the descending pony. "Sounds like somepony with too much time on their hooves. Usual brainy type. One crazy idea after another, not one of 'em worth a plugged eight-bit piece."
"Now hold on, cous'!" Applejack warned. She pointed a forehoof at a plow standing nearby. "You see that plow, see the moldboard on it? Ya see the curve on that thing? Twi came up with that. She was just standin' here lookin' at it, and the ground it was dug into. Then she did some figgerin', drew a diagram and all. And when Big Mac tried it out, I'll be darned if the thing wasn't peelin' back soil without gummin' up a hair. Twi didn't even stay to watch. She was sure it would work, and it did."
"Seriously?"
"Dang straight." Applejack nodded proudly. "She may be a little excitable and hard to follow at times, but there ain't no sharper mind I know of in these parts." She smiled as Twilight completed the last turn and dropped down to a smooth, four-hoofed jogging touchdown. "Other ponies run off at the mouth. But Twilight? She runs off at the brain. Saves time, ya see."
Twilight had already spotted Applejack, and was running over to her. With her wind-blasted mane and tail, plus the huge wood-and-canvas wings jouncing to either side of her, and the wild look in her eyes produced by the home-made goggles strapped to her face, she looked every inch a madpony. Braeburn took a cautious step backwards.
But Applejack calmly stood her ground as Twilight bounded up to her, beaming like a filly.
"Applejack, did you see? That has to be the longest flight-time yet!"
"I surely did." A.J. grinned. "Ya looked mighty fine up there."
"It's the updrafts!" Twilight enthused. "Warm air rising from sun-heated stretches of meadow. I can catch them, ride them upwards to give myself more height to work with. A few more passes to work out how to find them, and I'll be flying all the way from here to Town Hall and back!"
"Farther than that, if I'm any judge," Applejack agreed. "Beats hoofin' it there, I guess. And then what ya gonna do, gal?"
"Work out some kind of flaps," Twilight mused. "So I have more banking control. And maybe strap on fans or something for drive power. Something hoof-powered. And also, I should reshape the wings for better lift..." The lavender pony went on at length, babbling ideas to herself as if making a mental checklist of projects.
And Braeburn shook his head in disbelief. "Land sakes alive..." he muttered. "Like a one-pony stampede. Somepony pointed ya at a cliff, you'd run right off it, wouldn't ya?"
He didn't say it very loudly, but Twilight heard him. She immediately came to a halt, blinking in astonishment.
"Yes!" she suddenly shouted. "That's perfect!"
She turned and dashed off, the wings jouncing at her sides, every now and then briefly lifting her into the air as she galloped away.
And Applejack face-hoofed, and rounded on her cousin. "Braeburn, ya idjit! Weren't you listening to me? You don't go round puttin' ideas in her head like that. Aw, c'mon," she added worriedly. "We better get after her 'fore she turns herself into a pony pancake."
Even encumbered as she was, Twilight's excited determination kept her several lengths ahead of them as she hurried up through the trees on Edge of the World Hill. It was so named because it fronted onto the Ghastly Gorge. The cliff edge at its height was a sheer drop of a hundred lengths or more into the shadowy dried-out riverbed below. Not even slowing down, Twilight headed straight for the edge. And leapt right off it.
"Twilight!" Applejack helplessly called after her, as she screeched to a stop at the cliff edge. "You be careful out there, ya hear!"
"Don't worry, A.J.!" Twilight called back to her. "I got this!"
Briefly, Twilight wondered whether she ought to have rechecked the cording holding the wings together before putting them to a serious test like this. Then she shrugged. Too late now, she decided. So far at least, the wings had been holding together perfectly.
Twilight leaned, banking around over the depths of the Gorge. Then she angled back over the hilltop, heading toward the town center. And all but shrieked with laughter at the sheer joy of it. Who needed to find updrafts, when you could just start so high that you had all the flight time you needed?
Twilight looked down from the heights, and she could see everything. All of Ponyville, laid out below her like a picture-book, nestling in the broad, rambling valley surrounding the Argentum River. From the farmsteads and orchards in the west, to the town center with its rotunda-like Town Hall, to the wealthier neighborhoods to the east, it was all there, like a picture-book. Around it were the taller hills and peaks that gave the region a comfortably snug feeling, making ponies who came here never want to leave.
Twilight wished she'd thought to bring pen and paper with her, to make a map. Then she shrugged again. The map is not the territory, she reminded herself. What mattered most was to see a place, and know it for what it really was.
She circled around above the town, wishing somepony down below would look up and spot her, so she could wave at them. For a moment she wished she had at least one friend down there, who would see her and want to talk about it afterwards. Aside from Applejack she didn't really know many ponies in town.
Then Twilight rolled her eyes. Who needs friends, she told herself. There's always so much to do, so many things to see and do and learn and think about, all on my own.
She gave up and drifted onwards, following the course of the river, up into the forested hilltops to the north. And kept a weather eye out for open areas, clearings and other spots she could land in if need be. But so far, there wasn't much need for that. She didn't seem to be losing height all that much. Belatedly, she wondered about that, worrying about whether she'd actually be able to get back down again, or be stuck drifting around until nightfall, when the air would be cooler and stiller.
And then, banking left, she came a little too close to one of the taller peaks. A huge updraft, like an invisible river of wind, caught her. It sent her spiraling up, up, far into the blue, as she struggled to keep herself from panicking, and keep herself level and in control.
She quickly found herself at the height of the clouds themselves. Before she could even think to dodge she smacked straight into one. It was like bathing in fog, she came away lightly drenched. Wiping the moisture from her goggles with her forehooves, she stared around in amazement at the light puffs of vapor passing by all around her. Then she realized she was leaving even them behind, heading far up into the sky.
Looking up, she saw the blue dome of the sky itself overhead, seemingly so close she could touch it. She wondered how far up she could safely go, whether the air would get thin up here, making it difficult to breathe.
Be silly if I ran out of air, Twilight told herself, way up here in the middle of the sky!
Then Twilight noticed something strange about the sky above her. It appeared to have a surface to it, a kind of glossy shimmering. Like the surface of a pool seen from beneath. And she was heading straight for it.
Amazed, Twilight abruptly realized the sky didn't just go on upwards, getting thinner and thinner. It actually had a boundary, an edge. And she realized this by smacking right into it... and through, into whatever lay beyond...
Twilight had shut her eyes. She cautiously opened one, then both. And stared. Around her, there was a small bubble of air, just big enough to enclose herself and her wings. Below her, drifting away, there was the immense blue curve of the sky, with the mountains and dwellings of Ponyville dimly visible through it, far, far beneath her.
And around her, and above her, there was only a kind of misty cyan vastness, speckled with what looked like stars. Yet somehow, Twilight guessed they weren't the Stars she saw at night, on the dome of the sky beneath her.
These were different. They were worlds.
Bubbles of air, enclosing entire landscapes, like Ponyville and its neighboring townships. Maybe even homes for different kinds of ponies -- or even creatures she'd never seen before, outside of mythology books.
Twilight was nervous, but more in excitement than fear. This was something totally new. And she was the first pony to discover it. That she knew of, at least. It occurred to her that there might be a reason for that. Ponies who got this far, who got outside, maybe they didn't come back...
She got a grip on herself. I am here, and it is now, she told herself sternly.
And this is so coooool!
The one frustration was, she had no control over where she was headed. The bubble she was in had no sensation of gravity, and no wind currents to push against with the wings. Trying to bank left and right did no good, and neither did trotting with her hooves. Behind her, the huge bubble of her home was drifting ever farther away.
She looked ahead, and saw that there was another huge bubble, some distance away. She was drifting in that direction, so she settled in to wait, hoping against hope. And soon, her air-bubble reached it, and smacked straight into it.
For a moment she was worried she would bounce right off, be sent tumbling away into the misty infinity. Or even straight back to her own home world, denied the chance to see what this other world was like. But happily, the bubble she was in smoothly merged with the new one, and she quickly found herself drifting through open sky again, amongst fluffy white clouds.
There was the sensation of gravity, too. Using that to orient herself, Twilight banked around until she seemed to be level, drifting amongst the cottony hilltops of the clouds.
Okay, she thought, I'm here. But where the hay is here?
"Alright," said a scratchy voice behind her, "I've seen a lot of weird things up here. But what the hay are you?"
Twilight looked round to either side of her, but there was nopony there. Then, right in front of her the cloud banks erupted, and a pony emerged. But not just a pony. The cyan creature had wings, with pinions in blazing colors ranging from red to gold. And a mane and tail in similarly vibrant rainbow colors. And sharply-gazing, red-irised eyes, with a dangerously mischievous look to them, like a parrot trying to decide whether or not to bite.
A pegasus, Twilight thought, stunned. Straight out of the mythology books -- except this one is real!
With a slap of wings and a twist, the pegasus was hovering directly in front of Twilight, practically snout-to-snout.
"I mean seriously," she said. "Get real! Are those supposed to be wings? They look like you made 'em yourself."
"Well... that's because I did. I'm Twilight Sparkle, by the way... and you are?"
"Where'd you come from?" the pegasus demanded, darting about and staring at Twilight from all angles, as if still not convinced that what she was seeing was real. "I thought I was the only one who came all the way up here -- to practice my awesome moves..."
So saying, she pulled a quick loop-the-loop and a barrel-roll. Then, as if belatedly noticing she'd been asked, she swung back in front again and held out a hoof.
"Hi. Name's Rainbow Dash."
Twilight shook it. "Nice to meet you, Rainbow. And sorry if I'm intruding on your flight-space. I kind of fell in here from... up there." She gestured upwards with a hoof.
Rainbow looked up, at the dome of the sky overhead. And then turned a backwards somersault in the air, cackling uncontrollably.
"Oh, that is rich!" she finally said. "I mean, c'mon, Twilight! There's no there up there! This is as high as it gets."
"Well, it's true!" Twilight insisted, frowning in annoyance. "Tell me, Rainbow, have you seen another pony like me here?"
Rainbow paused, hovering and scratching her mane with a hoof. "Nah, you got me there. You're not a pegasus, that's for sure. But what are you? And where are you from?"
"Uh... this is going to sound really weird."
"Weirder than you?" Rainbow snickered, then waved a hoof. "Go on. I'm totally okay with weird."
"Well, outside what you think of as the sky, there's this other place, a kind of misty vastness. And there's all these worlds in it, like huge bubbles. Yours is one of them. And mine's another. It so happens to be right next door, so I ended up here. Mostly by accident, I guess."
Rainbow was silent, staring at her.
Twilight sighed. "You don't believe me, do you?"
"No, I totally do," Rainbow said quietly. "Because I found out myself, a while ago, that there was a roof to the sky up here. I've even poked my head through a couple times, had a look round. But I didn't realize there were whole other worlds. And in your world, all the ponies look like you?"
"Pretty much, yeah."
"But... where do you all live? With no wings, I mean?"
"Oh, you know, on the ground."
"Ah, right." Rainbow nodded sagely. Then she scratched her mane again. "Uh... what's ground?"
Twilight stared. "Big flat thing? Made of dirt and rock, with plants and trees growing on it? Down that way?" She gestured with a hoof.
"Hate to break this to ya, Twilight, but there's nothing like that here." Rainbow shrugged. "Just the sky and the clouds. And birds and stuff. And us pegasi."
Twilight stared. "Seriously? You spend your entire lives on the wing?"
"Nah. When we get tired, we just pull up a cloud." She reached out a hoof and snagged a nearby puff of vapor. And then flopped down on it, with every sign of ease and comfort, as if she was lying on a couch.
Twilight gaped. "How do you do that?"
"Do what? You mean you dirt-ponies can't move clouds around?"
"Not so much, no."
"Then how do you get water when you need it? And what do ya build your houses and stuff out of? Where do you sleep, for crying out loud?"
"Well... in strict order, we get water from rivers and lakes that form on the ground when it rains. And we build our houses from stone and wood. Wood, that comes from trees."
"Oh yeah, trees." Rainbow nodded. "We have those."
"And we sleep on beds, with mattresses and pillows. Usually stuffed with hay, which is a kind of grass. Or with down."
"Down?"
"Feathers..." Twilight said. And then her voice faltered as she remembered who she was talking to. "Uh... gathered from birds? Geese, mostly..."
Rainbow was giving her a very leery eyeball.
"O-kay," she finally said, "that is weird. But hey." She shrugged. "Like I said, I'm totally okay with weird."
"Well then," Twilight demanded, feeling like she was answering all the questions here, "what do you build your houses out of?"
"Duh! Cloud, obviously." Rainbow smirked. "You pack it down enough, it gets solid. You can make just about anything you want out of it." She demonstrated by scooping up some of the cloud she was lounging on, working it with her hooves into a thick, gelatinous blob like clay, which she then squared off into a thin grayish brick. Which she held out to Twilight.
Twilight took it, half expecting it to crumble and evaporate in her hooves. But it didn't. She gently turned it about. It felt like... the nearest thing she could think of was pumice, a very light airy rock. Some kind of aerogel, her technical mind quickly supplied. And nearly went into overdrive on the sheer possibilities such a building material offered.
Wishing she had a carryall or something to put the brick in, Twilight reached out and gently set it on Rainbow's cloud. Where it sat, resting on nothing more than fog, as if it was perfectly normal for it to do so.
"That is neat," Twilight said, feelingly. "And it's one more thing us dirt... uh, earth-ponies can't do. But wait a second, Rainbow. You mentioned you have trees here? Without soil, where do they grow?"
Rainbow's eyes lit up. "You wanna see some?"
"Love to."
"C'mon then!" Rolling off her cloud, Rainbow dove into the depths below, punching a pegasus-shaped hole through several clouds in her way.
And then she swooped back up, staring at Twilight in bewilderment. "You comin', or what?"
"Well..." Twilight shrugged. "With these wings, basically all I can do is glide."
"Yeah, that does kinda suck," Rainbow agreed. Darting about again, she checked out the wings herself from all sides. "Oh, hey! There's some kinda grips here, on the tops of them."
"Yeah, I use those when I'm putting them on, or hanging them up."
"Okay. So if I just grab 'em, then..." She paused. "Uh, you trust me doin' this, Twi?"
"Sure, Rainbow. What choice do I have?"
"Okay. It's just... well, you don't touch another pony's wings without their permission. But if it's okay with you... then hang onto your lunch!"
Hooking her forehooves round the grips, Rainbow revved up her wings. And Twilight found herself wishing she had something to grab hold of. She shrieked as Rainbow took them into a screaming power dive, a roller-coaster plunge straight down into the depths. Cloud banks swept past on all sides, at seemingly ever-increasing speed.
Finally, they broke through into a larger expanse of open air. And Twilight was stunned.
Below her was a city, stretching seemingly for miles through the sky. It was built entirely on clouds, and had houses and ionic columns apparently made out of the same cloud-brick material Rainbow had showed her. And there were loops and arcs of cloud too, seemingly just for decorative purposes. And waterfalls. And rainbows, arching from cloud to cloud, then draining off into the depths below.
Twilight stared at it all in wonder, wishing she had a sketchbook, pen and paper, some way to capture all this.
"Welcome to Cloudsdale," Rainbow said. "Pretty neat, huh?"
"Definitely," Twilight agreed. "If there are words for this, Rainbow, I don't have 'em. Where are the trees?"
"Over this way. On the farms."
"Farms?" Twilight perked up, feeling that perhaps here was something she would find familiar. But when Rainbow swung them round and powered her way across the city, to a patch of cloudbanks off to the side, Twilight raised an eyebrow, confused.
"I didn't know trees could grow... sideways. Or you could build farms... vertically like that." She stared at the walls of cloudbank, stretching up into the sky and down into the depths. From which, at regular intervals, trees, shrubs, and other varieties of plant life sprouted. Horizontally, and apparently completely comfortable with it.
"Yeah," Rainbow said. "There's some fancy-schmancy word for it. Hydro-pony... something. Has to do with plants."
"Hydroponics," Twilight said, nodding. "I've read about that, about experiments with growing plants like this, without soil."
"What are you, some kinda egghead?" Rainbow sneered.
"I'm an inventor. Well, sort of. It's kind of a hobby. But of course, where I come from dirt is as common as... well, dirt. So there hasn't been much need for hydroponics, when you can just grow things the old-fashioned way."
"Heh, if you say so. Ya hungry? I don't think they'll mind if we grab a sample." Rainbow obligingly swung over toward one of the bushier trees, from which red fruit was hanging. And Twilight reached out and picked one. She tried biting it, and found it was indeed an apple, or near enough, though she couldn't place the variety.
"If only A.J. could see this..." she whispered, staring around.
"Who's A.J.?"
"Applejack. She's a friend of mine, back home." Twilight gestured upwards. "She farms apples for a living." Thinking about that, Twilight suddenly felt a little homesick. She wondered whether she'd be able to get back to her own world, see A.J. again, to tell her about all this.
She looked up at Rainbow. "Do you have friends here?"
"Sure! Loads of em. I'm pretty popular." Rainbow gestured around. And Twilight finally realized that what she'd thought were large birds flapping around amongst the cloud-houses and through the sky... were other pegasi. Winged ponies, darting about on errands and the like, as if it was perfectly normal.
Which I suppose it is for them, Twilight reminded herself.
"Yeah," Rainbow went on, "I'm kinda famous for my flying ability. Everypony thinks I'm awesome. Just watch out for..."
"Hey, Rainbow Dash!"
Rainbow face-hoofed, while still keeping a grip on Twilight.
"Hey, Pinkie Pie..." she muttered long-sufferingly.
Twilight looked up and saw, perched on a doughy lump of cloud nearby, a radioactively pink pony with a cotton-candy mane and tail. She was a pegasus too, though her wings were smaller and fluffier than Rainbow's. And she had a deliriously broad smile on her face, like she'd just told a joke and was waiting excitedly for the laughter to break out.
"Who's that with ya?" she asked brightly. And then carried on speaking in a non-stop, high-pitched, sugar-rush torrent of words. "And why are you holding onto her wings like that? Huh, huh? And what kind of wings are those anyways? Geez, looks like something she made herself. Which don't get me wrong, that's really cool actually. But why make wings for yourself unless..."
She gasped in horror. "Oh no! Did you lose your wings? Are you looking for them? Can I help ya find 'em?" She produced a magnifying glass from nowhere, and busily looked everywhere with it.
Twilight blinked, a little fazed by the sudden pause in the flood of questions. "Thanks, but there's no need. Where I'm from, ponies don't have wings."
Pinkie blinked. "Wow," she said, flatly. "That is officially the third-strangest thing I've heard today."
"Twilight here," Rainbow said, "she's what they call an earth pony." The pegasus looked smugly confident, as if she hadn't just learned it herself ten minutes ago. "She's from another world. Where ponies look like her. And have ground to walk on. And uh, trees. Yeah, there are trees too."
Twilight grinned. "Hi, Pinkie! I'm Twilight Sparkle." She held up a hoof for a shake. "And it's really nice to --"
Pinkie's eyes suddenly went wide. She jumped up from the cloud she was sitting on, shrieking in astonishment. Then, wings buzzing madly, she blasted away like a pink guided missile, disappearing rapidly into the distance over the city.
"-- meet you." Twilight finished lamely. And frowned. "Okay... that was unusual."
"Ahh, don't mind Pinkie," Rainbow said. "She's probably just flown off to plan you a surprise welcome party or somethin'. She does one for every new pony she meets."
"Really? For no reason?"
Rainbow shrugged. "It's what she does. She calls herself a party pony. Just pretend to act surprised when you get the invitation."
"Wait. How can you have an invitation to a surprise party?"
"Duh! Because she's afraid you'll miss it." Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Just roll with it. It's Pinkie being Pinkie. We're used to it. Mostly."
"O... kay." Twilight took another bite from the apple. And suddenly felt even more homesick.
"Look, Rainbow," she said, "don't take this the wrong way, but I'm kind of thinking I should try to get back home."
"Huh?" Rainbow looked puzzled and a little hurt. "But ya only just got here! Don't ya like it here?"
"Without a doubt," Twilight agreed readily. "And there's like, a million questions I want to ask. But I really should see if I can get home again. Just to be certain that I can, you know?"
"Uh, yeah." Rainbow nodded. "That makes sense, I guess."
Sounding disappointed, Rainbow nevertheless willingly flapped her wings and swung them upwards, taking them back through the cloud layers, and finally to the boundary of the sky overhead.
Twilight glanced around at the clouds nearby. And spotted the one Rainbow had used as a couch, with the chip of cloud-brick still sitting on it. The cloud seemed to be evaporating, though, and the chip of brick was close to the edge, looking likely to fall off soon.
"This is the place," Twilight said. "Now, assuming my world hasn't moved much, I should be able to just launch straight upwards from here. And I'll drift back there again." She peered upwards, at the shimmering surface of the world. As with at home, from the inside it wasn't possible to see through the sky to the misty space beyond.
"Let me double-check," Rainbow said. "Just to be sure. Don't want you heading off in the wrong direction, right?"
"If you wouldn't mind?" Twilight smiled.
"Sure! No problem. I'll just cut ya loose for a minute or two, if that's okay?"
"Sure thing. I can just drift around up here."
"'Kay. Be right back!" Rainbow released her grip on Twilight's wings, and then swooped upwards, to cautiously poke her head through the shimmering surface and look around.
Twilight banked left and then right, experimentally. And then feeling somewhat reassured the wings were still stable, she swung over towards Rainbow's cloud, hoping to grab the chip of cloud to bring back with her.
Assuming it even holds together once I get back home, she reminded herself, Maybe cloud-water just works differently here.
Drifting by it, she reached out and swiped with a hoof. And missed. But the breeze from her swipe caused the chip of cloud to teeter, then topple over the still-evaporating edge of the cloud. It plummeted away, into the depths below.
"Aw, horseapples," Twilight groused, staring down after it. "Well, maybe I can ask Rainbow to make another -- yaaah!"
She'd felt something snap, in the framework of her right wing. And then it came loose entirely, the wing folding up and collapsing uselessly. Already tumbling that way, she felt the other wing, overstressed, fold up as well. In an instant she was falling like a rock, helplessly, the tatters of both wings flapping in the rush of wind all around her as she accelerated downwards.
She shot through one layer of cloud, then another, then a third. If not for her goggles, she'd have been blinded, though she still wound up drenched to the skin.
Looking down, she could see the vast city of Cloudsdale below, rapidly coming closer. It looked like she was going to crash straight into some kind of stadium, right in the middle of the city.
Assuming that doesn't kill me, she fretted, what if I just punch right through it and go on falling? What if I fall right down to the bottom of this world, and straight out of it?
Already shivering, she felt even more chilled by the idea. On the bright side, she'd still be alive. But she'd likely just go on drifting, out into the void, until the air in her bubble ran out. She'd never get back to Ponyville. And nopony would ever know what had happened to her.
Twilight flung her hooves out, reaching helplessly, desperately, for anything to grab hold of, anything at all to stop herself. But there was nothing. Nothing at all...
I'm all alone...
Then, in a rush of wind and a mad flapping of wings, she felt hooves grab round her barrel, under her forelegs, arresting her fall. "Woah!" Rainbow shouted. "You okay, Twi? I'm so sorry! I only looked around up there for a few moments. And when I pulled my head back in, you were gone. It took me a minute to figure out what happened to you. Geez! I'm usually way swifter than that!"
The pegasus sounded utterly panicked and guilty. Relieved, Twilight smiled up at her.
"It's okay, Rainbow. And thanks! I'm really glad you're such a fast flyer."
"Huh!" Rainbow regained a little of her earlier confidence. "Not quite enough of a power-dive for a sonic rainboom, but it was close."
"A sonic what?"
"Oh yeah! You've never seen it. It's really cool -- I dive so fast I break the sound-barrier. And then it's like there's this huge rainbow explosion in the sky. Awesome sauce! I've only done it like, once before."
Twilight frowned. "That's not scientifically possible," she said. Then she grinned. "You are not scientifically possible, Rainbow! And you know what? I'm totally okay with that."
"Heh! I'd never leave a friend hangin'," Rainbow said. Then she peered upwards. "Speaking of which, there's just one problem, far as I can see. I can always carry you back up there, and give you enough momentum to toss you through into the great beyond. That should get ya home. But even assuming you get back to your own world-bubble thingy..."
Twilight nodded. "Without wings, how am I going to get back down to the ground safely?"
Rainbow considered it. And then, even though Twilight couldn't see the look on her face, she could just feel the pegasus grinning dangerously.
"Well," she said. "I can think of one way..."
Back in the apple orchard, Applejack was pacing back and forth frantically, staring up at the sky every now and then.
"Where is she? What's happened to her? Aw, shoot, Braeburn! What am I gonna tell her folks? We better organize search parties to look for her. She might have come down goodness knows where. Alive and in one piece, hopefully. Where on earth could she have got to?"
Braeburn pointed a hoof. "Maybe you should ask her yourself?"
Applejack turned and gasped in relief, seeing Twilight charging across the meadow beside the orchard. She was minus the wings, but she still wore her goggles, pushed up on her forehead.
"A.J.! Am I glad to see you!"
"Twilight, where the hay have ya been? I been feelin' sicker than a dog in a chocolate factory worrying 'bout you!" Applejack belatedly realized she was letting her anxiety do the talking. She forced herself to calm down. "After ya dove off the cliff, hon, we didn't see which way ya headed. Where'd you get to?"
"To another world, Applejack!" Twilight crowed. "I was totally right! There are other worlds, see? Up there." She pointed with a hoof at the blue, cloud-scudded dome of the sky. "Okay, maybe you can't actually see them from here, and they're not the Stars we see at night. But they do exist. I know, because I flew up there and visited one. Where there are pegasi, and they live on clouds. And the farms run vertically, and the trees grow sideways..."
Braeburn shook his head sadly. "Completely mental. Loco weed's got nothin' on this."
"Hush, Brae," Applejack hissed. Then she stared at Twilight.
"Twi, you're just pullin' my legs. All four of 'em! There's no such thing as other worlds, or slantways farms. Or pegasi. Winged ponies, land sakes! They're just myths, right?"
Twilight scowled. "They do so exist, A.J.! And I met one. And she saved my life, too, thanks so much for asking. You know, Applejack, you are the most stubborn, hide-bound, provincial hayseed I have ever met!"
Applejack winced. From experience, she knew Twilight was just overwrought and didn't really mean it. But it stung nevertheless. "Come on, Twi," Applejack insisted. "Be reasonable. It's gonna take one heck of a bushel of proof afore I believe a word of that."
"Oh? Ya want proof, huh?" sneered a scratchy voice from overhead.
There was a sound like a hoof kicking a water sack. And a sudden downpour completely drenched Applejack, and Braeburn. And Twilight Sparkle, as well.
Wiping her eyes with a forehoof, Applejack looked up. And she saw a cyan, rainbow-maned pegasus sitting atop a small cloud, fluttering her colorful wings and grinning like a cat. "Hey, whaddaya know? Clouds work the same way here as at home!" Then the pegasus looked at Twilight, dripping and shivering like the rest of them. And fell over backwards on the cloud, chortling madly.
"Oops! Sorry, Twi. I guess I overdid it."
"Rainbow!" Twilight yelped, still shaking rainwater out of her mane.
"Ha! You should see the look on your face! You're a laugh, Twilight Sparkle. I can't wait to hang out some more. Now that I know we can cross back and forth between my world and yours, let's stay in touch, huh? See ya!"
Leaping up from the cloud, and giving it a sharp kick that vaporized it, Rainbow Dash aimed herself at the sky and blasted away, so fast that she left a shimmering rainbow contrail behind her.
And Twilight looked at Applejack, damp but smug.
"Believe me now, A.J.?"
"I guess I do, sugarcube. And I'm powerful sorry for doubtin' ya. So there really are other worlds up there? With pegasi?"
"The one I visited had pegasi. But there were others," Twilight said. "I bet each of them is different, with different kinds of ponies living in it."
"Aw, c'mon Twi!" Applejack said. "Shoot, next you'll be tellin' me there's a world up there with ponies living in it that can, I dunno, work magic or somethin' like that."
"Woah..." Twilight breathed, that excited look in her eyes again. "What if there were! That would be so cool!"
And then she was off again, heading back up the hill to her barn workshop.
Applejack face-hoofed, then looked ruefully at her cousin.
"Braeburn, tell me somethin' truthful."
"Sure, cous'," he replied. "What?"
"Will I ever learn?"
The End
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and My Little Pony: A New Generation,
their characters and indicia are the property of Hasbro.
No infringement is intended. This story is a work of fan fiction, written by fans for fans of the series.
