Laments of the Dimension-Stranded

Rainbow Dash awoke with a headache throbbing above her eyebrows. She moaned in discomfort, shifting her body weight. Everywhere hurt. She was marred by scratches, cuts and bruises covered with plasters. Subtle shocks of pain throbbed in her legs and torso as her heart beat.

The dulcet tones of Cat Stevens' "Father and Son" were faintly emitting from the Inexorable's sound system.

Rainbow opened her eyes, blinking rapidly to clear her blurry vision. She squinted, attempting to focus. Vincent was hunched over at the waist, resting his arms and residual body weight on the steering wheel. His head was hung low. His long black hair dangled, partially obscuring his face. Suspended from one of his hands was a chain threading two rectangular sheets of metal displaying text. He rubbed one repeatedly with a thumb. Morning sunlight reflected off of the thin sheet of metal, illuminating the stamped text.

PATTERSON

JACOB M

5550859627

O POS

AGNOSTIC

Rainbow listened to the music silently for a moment in an attempt to relax the tension from her body. She breathed audibly.

Vincent tilted his head partially and gazed in her direction, inhaling sharply as he sniffled. "Go back to sleep." His voice was huskier than normal.

When Rainbow realized he was on the verge of tears, she frowned sympathetically. "Are you okay?"

Receiving no answer, she silently listened to the gentle guitar strumming and male vocalists, hearing and truly comprehending. It was a song about understanding, it was a song about reflection and, most importantly, it was a song about tragic loss.

"I'm never gonna get married." Vincent lied inert atop the steering wheel, crestfallen. He gazed remotely down at his own legs. "Hundreds of generations and thousands of years of human evolution and my family line persisting throughout it all, and it dies here... like this. What would my dad think...?"

She made an attempt to speak and distract him from his misery. "Loving somepony isn't all you can do in life. I've never thought about getting married."

The heart-rending song concluded abruptly. The lyrics were decisive.

"I know I have to go away," Vincent echoed, gripping the steering wheel tightly. His knuckles flexed. "I have to go."

Rainbow's ears laid back sadly. She stood up and sat onto her haunches, leaning against the back of the passenger's seat.

Vincent sniffled and brushed the sleeve of his blouse against his eyes. He tenderly clasped the two dog tags and stuffed them into one of the pockets in his combat pants.

He rotated the car key in the Inexorable's ignition and started the engine. He shifted into reverse, withdrew the truck from its position nestled beneath the pine tree and shifted into drive.

Vincent silently drove northwest for hours. The dual suns of Nowhere steadily rose through the sky, reflecting harsh sunlight off of the truck's polished lemon hood. Rainbow unraveled the scarf from around her neck and tossed it into the back seat.

Vincent engaged the truck's air conditioning system, rotating a knob.

"I could have given up years ago. I should have."

"You said you did," Rainbow pointed out.

"Really give up. Really surrender. But I didn't, I kept going." Vincent clasped the steering wheel tightly. "Maybe I was supposed to meet you.

"'You're still young. There's so much you have to go through,'" He quoted. "I don't got kids, but... maybe I can teach you. Transfer this knowledge I got, make sure it goes somewhere.

"I got memories I wanna share. My dad's stories need tellin'. I'm..." Vincent paused. He frowned, pursing his lips. "I'm not gonna hold back. Not anymore.

"If you do settle down, is it gonna be with a girl? Be honest."

Rainbow hesitated to speak, fully aware that her companion was in a precarious mental state prone to sudden, unanticipated outbursts. She shrugged. "Maybe. I've thought about it. I guess I'd wait for somepony else to make the first move."

"My relationship with Anna was anything but normal, but... first few dates we went on, I knew she was the one. She knew how to listen, and when to.

"Don't wait on someone else. You know what happens when you do?" Vincent raised his right arm into the air, flattened his hand and shot it directly forward in an unfamiliar gesture. He winced from the pain the movement triggered in his wounded shoulder. "They fly right past you," he clarified. "Life has a tendency to do that, too. One minute you're a wide-eyed book-protagonist-seemin' kid and the next you're a 30-somethin'-year-old washout."

Rainbow was silent as she pondered, sensing the Inexorable's powerful engine vibrating the car seat beneath her sensitive hocks and fetlocks. "Your time isn't over yet. You're not gonna die."

"I'd throw myself under a bus for you, Dash. Er, well, the claws of a giant dragon in this case."

Rainbow was predictably flattered, yet confused. "Why...?"

"Because, I have to go." Vincent adjusted his grip on the steering wheel, clutching it at 12 o' clock. He sighed. "I'm tired of this. My dad got tired. Jake got tired. I gave all I had... for nothing. I'm done trying, now. I'm spent. My time for being spontaneous and having fun is over. It was over back then, I just didn't know it at the time back in Jamaica."

"Your dad, um..." Rainbow hesitated to use the macabre vocabulary. It felt wrong.

Vincent understood what she was referencing regardless. "No, he didn't kill himself. He died of age. But his old soul still left his body and flew up all the same."

Vincent steered left and navigated the Inexorable through a ravine. He had finally located a gap leading through the nigh on infinite southern rock wall. The truck's superior suspension effortlessly absorbed the shock as the vehicle bounced over the rocky terrain.

"Your heart's got a reason to keep beating. More than one, actually. I'll make sure it keeps going."

Rainbow considered replying, but was unsure how to. Instead of fabricating her reply around Vincent's statement, she instead began to describe who she was in reference to her destiny. Rainbow Dash, Element of Loyalty, bearer of an Element of Harmony and sworn guardian of Equestria from evil.

Trees and hills flew by as Vincent guided the Inexorable across Nowhere. Rainbow had the impression Nowhere was an infinite stretch of grassy plains and forests. Eventually, she stopped gazing out of the passenger-side window altogether.

"Loyalty," Vincent mused. "Blind loyalty's a trap."

"Loyalty to the right cause," Rainbow clarified. "Loyalty to my friends and Equestria. Got this awesome red lightning-bolt-shaped gem on a necklace. Looked like my Cutiemark. Couldn't wear it all the time 'cause, y'know, security and all that."

A ghost of a smile crossed Vincent's face. "You're tellin' me the self-appointed 'greatest Wonderbolt' and bearer of an Element of Harmony is an ADHD nightmare who can't be trusted with keeping the most powerful fucking object on the planet around her own neck at all times?"

"Shut up, Vinny."

Rainbow glanced absently out of the Inexorable's passenger window and gasped aloud when she spotted something in the distance. "Stop the car!"

Vincent tapped the brake pedal, decelerating the Inexorable until it drew to a standstill. "What happened? What's going on?"

"Back there...!" Rainbow opened the passenger side door and hopped out of the vehicle. She turned right and began to trot, nearing the cliff the Inexorable had sped by mere moments ago.

She approached the precipice and gazed over the edge. Far below was a purple-dyed sandy shore ringing a violet-colored ocean.

What had attracted Rainbow's attention was how the ocean interacted with the surrounding land. The ocean was a sphere of water approximately several miles wide that had undoubtedly appeared in Nowhere artificially. Where the outer boundaries of the circle of purple ocean connected with land to the west was a crescent moon-shaped slit of...

Rainbow rubbed her eyes with a hoof, confounded. She gazed at Vincent who had predictably parked the vehicle and followed her. "Are you... seeing that?"

"Seeing what? It's just—" Vincent's mouth dropped agape in shock. "Holy shit!"

Separating the violet sea from the land was a thin slit of obscuration. It resembled heat haze, but what Rainbow was witnessing wasn't a mirage. It was as if the very constituent materials of time and space were unraveling like frayed wire or yarn. The shimmering haze resembled shards of broken glass winking from reflected light. It simply couldn't be described with mere words.

"So, uh..." Vincent nervously rubbed the rear of his neck. "Guess we're heading down to Grape Soda beach?"

"'Grape Soda?' That's what the lake is called?

"Made it up on the spot. Ain't never been here. Also, I think that's an ocean. It has a beach. Ain't never seen a beach quite like it, though."

Rainbow flapped her wings and was delighted to discover they were capable of partially lifting her into the air. Some of her feathers had molted and regrown. She still wasn't capable of taking flight, however.

"Your feathers are starting to regrow already," Vincent observed. He knelt on one knee and plucked a loose clipped feather from one of her wings, much to Rainbow's incredulity.

"H - hey! Hands off the wings!" Rainbow flinched and jerked away, holding one of her rear legs aloft as she scowled and assumed a defensive stance.

"Easy!" Realizing he had crossed the threshold beyond what was considered courteous and polite, Vincent frowned and apologized. "Er... sorry, Dash."

Rainbow set her hoof against the ground and relaxed her body, fluttering her wings anxiously. A solitary clipped feather detached from one of her wings and floated off of the precipice, caught by a gentle breeze. "No problem. Just don't go picking my feathers. How would you like it?"

"Probably not at all." Vincent shrugged. "Then again, have never flown.

"So, do you guys actually fly or is it more of a glide?"

Rainbow responded to the proposed question by backing up a few feet and galloping forward towards the cliff, launching herself off of the edge of the precipice. She unfurled her wings and spread them to their maximum length. Predictably, she was capable of gliding downwards safely from any height.

She could hear Vincent calling her name and yelling expletives from the apex of the cliff. She smiled, amused.

Rainbow landed onto Grape Soda beach heavily, cantering. She slowed to a trot and eventually a walk as she decelerated her momentum. It hadn't been a graceful glide nor descent, but it had felt gratifying to fly again nonetheless.

The rich purple sand crunched beneath her hooves and body weight, compacting and leaving hoof prints. Rainbow rotated 180 degrees to examine the trail she had created through the wet sand before it was eliminated by a wave crashing against the shore. The violet water crashed against Rainbow's legs, flowing between them as the violet waves withdrew to the comparatively-larger ocean.

The water was surprisingly warmer than she had anticipated. The dual suns of Nowhere were baking the ocean's surface. The water was only mildly chilly and would be refreshing to swim in if Rainbow weren't injured and required relaxation to heal.

She trotted to where the deep-violet sand was driest, distant from the crashing waves of the sea, and laid down beneath the shade generously provided by a palm tree. Rainbow laid on her side and crossed her rear legs, holding a foreleg aloft. She nibbled absentmindedly at a plaster attached to her fur with her teeth as she waited for Vincent to locate a path where he could navigate downwards to her level. Some of her scrapes and cuts where she had been impaled by shards of sharp ice were beginning to itch.

"Get up and shake yourself off. Got a towel here."

Rainbow observed as Vincent approached. He was carrying a crate and a towel efficiently furled into a thin roll.

Obediently, she stood and shook herself off, fluttering her wings to cleanse them of sand.

"You could have fallen and died, idiot." Vincent deposited the crate nearby and unslung his Kalashnikov rifle, carefully balancing it atop the crate to keep it away from the sand. He unrolled the towel, shaking it several times to smoothen most of the wrinkles. He positioned the long, rectangular towel over the sand and delicately sat down atop it with an unceremonious grunt of exertion, unlacing his boots and slipping them and the socks off before crossing his legs.

Rainbow once again laid down and assumed her previous position, crossing her rear legs. She faced Vincent, eying his right shoulder. She knew dressings and bandages were concealed beneath the sleeve of his scavenged Slavic military blouse.

She scoffed, rolling her eyes. "C'mon, Vince. I've been flying since I was a foal. I attended flight school in Cloudsdale when I was a filly. I know when my wings can and can't support my weight." Predicting she wouldn't receive a response, Rainbow changed the topic. "How's the shoulder?"

"Fine. Managed not to rip my stitches out prematurely when I was escaping that dragon with you last night, but it still hurts like a son-of-a-bitch." Vincent tenderly massaged his wounded shoulder with his fingers. "You?"

"Feels like I'm constantly being stabbed by needles... I'm not doin' too bad. I think we need time off."

"My thoughts exactly, Dash. Which is why I brought the MREs and other goodies. You and I are gonna have an actual beach vacation for a day." He stretched his uninjured shoulder and rotated his waist with a grunt, standing. Vincent withdrew his old boonie hat from the plastic crate and tossed it in Rainbow's direction, which she caught midair and gratefully planted atop her head to shield herself from the unyielding sunrays.

Vincent returned to the towel carrying a random assemblage of food products. Rainbow recognized them—she had packed the plastic pouches into the Volga GAZ-24 before they had departed. They were scavenged Slavic MREs.

Vincent opened one of the plastic MRE pouches with his bayonet, tossing various assorted cans and bags in her direction.

Rainbow sat up onto her haunches and juggled the food briefly, overwhelmed. She decided to begin with the rectangular bar. The label was written in an illegible Slavic language, but one side of the rectangle displayed a picture of fruit and nuts.

Rainbow snapped the thin plastic barrier apart using her teeth and peered within. The shell of plastic was protecting a rectangular energy bar composed of cereal, dates, nuts and other bits of fruit.

"Whatcha got there?" Vincent wondered aloud.

Rainbow grinned, delighted. "A fruity snack!"

Vincent chuckled, amused by her excitement. "Imagine most of these are meat products. You see any, give 'em to me. I'll save the vegetarian stuff for you."

Rainbow happily munched a big bite of the healthy energy bar before replying, proposing a question. "Can ya read any of this text?"

"Nope. Only other language I can speak is German for my girlfriend. I have no idea what all this crap is." Vincent was occupied with opening a metal tin. When he succeeded and broke the seal, he dipped a plastic spoon inside and lifted a spoonful of the beef stew contained within.

After Rainbow devoured the small energy bar, her stomach released an impatient growl. She hadn't realized how hungry she had felt prior to their picnic. Rainbow examined the remaining cans and plastic bags she had been given, determining most weren't vegetarian and therefore edible. There was, however, a plastic package of salty crackers, which she opened using her teeth to access the crackers within. "Got anything else over there?"

"Maybe." Vincent clutched a small, unassuming cardboard pack in a hand, examining it from all angles. "Some kinda drink here. Could be shelf-stable milk."

Balancing the open tin of beef stew in his lap, Vincent used both hands to rip open the pack's seal. He cautiously sniffed the pack's contents before taking a tiny, experimental sip. His eyes bulged wide and he took a long gulp, lowering the pack. "This is... juice!"

"Really? Gimmie!" Rainbow grabbed the offered pack of juice in a hoof and drank from the spout. The taste was overwhelmingly sweet and tangy. It was unmistakable—she was holding a rectangular cardboard box of reconstituted pineapple juice.

Rainbow gulped the remaining juice from the cardboard pack greedily, releasing a sigh of satisfaction. "Wow!"

"Yeah," Vincent scratched at his chin absently. "Got a feeling this was the rich boy's MRE. Juice isn't standard. Real juice wasn't standard years ago for me, anyway."

Vincent released a small noise of shocked realization as he withdrew an elongated thin rectangle wrapped lovingly in a layer of foil. The label depicted the puffy-cheeked, blue-eyed face of a female human infant assuming a neutral expression. The young girl had thin eyebrows and wore a colorful bonnet tied beneath the neck.

"I - is that...?" Rainbow stuttered, her mouth dropping agape.

"Chocolate," Vincent breathed the forbidden word, grinning. He tore and peeled the foil, unwrapping the chocolate rectangle hidden within. He bit into the chocolate bar and munched happily, offering the snack to Rainbow.

She transferred the chocolate bar to one of her hooves, caressing the little bundle of love delicately as if it were her own foal. Rainbow didn't so much eat the semi-melted chocolate as she did absorb it. She tossed aside the foil when she was finished and licked her chops in satisfaction. "Oh my gosh. Not as good as Pinkie Pie's baking, but it's chocolate."

"Who's Pinkie Pie, again?" Vincent ate the last spoonful of his beef stew and tossed the empty metal tin away.

Rainbow smiled distantly. "Picture this: bright pink coat. Big wild, curly pink mane. Cutiemark of three balloons. She's a big, bouncing lovable goofball. She's one of my friends, and another Element of Harmony. She's a heck of a baker."

"Right. So, she's sporting, like, an 80s perm? Can't really visualize that." Despite his attempt at a joke, Vincent sighed. He clasped his hands together, interlocking his fingers. He frowned as he pondered, considering something. "Dash, I..." He released a sigh. "I think I'm jealous of you."

"Really?" Rainbow pursed her lips. "Why?"

"Because you have a purpose. You have a purpose to exist. You're a hero. Not in the same way as my dad used to be, but you still are." Vincent adjusted his fingers, interlocking them in an alternative way in an unconscious nervous gesture. "You choose to be a hero and serve your country and people in a meaningful way I never had the opportunity to do. You're... magical. You're above me. In more ways than one." Vincent twisted his thumb. He grunted, gently stretching his injured right shoulder as he adjusted his weight so he was directly facing her. "I'm like a war criminal awaiting death delivered by a firing squad. I'm biding my time. Tomorrow could be my last day alive, and... ergh. I don't care.

"Why...?" Rainbow frowned. "Why are you thinking these thoughts?"

"Because it's true. C'mon, kid. You're young. You have so much time left. And you have how many good friends? Five?" Vincent chuckled dryly, breaking eye contact and looking away with a sigh. He stood and walked a few feet away, pacing. Rainbow observed for a few moments before hopping up onto her hooves and trotting forward to physically block and interrupt his repetitive movements.

"We're cut from different cloth, Dash." Vincent gazed down at her. "My world just isn't... it's Limbo. I live in Limbo. Humans are the most morally-grey creatures in the universe. Some are the most evil sons-of-bitches and some live just to help others. But most of us... most of 'em are like me, just coasting through life without a care." He pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers in frustration.

Rainbow considered carefully how to respond to her emotionally-volatile friend. "Have I told you who Princess Luna is?"

"Barely. Not enough."

"She's the younger of the Royal Sisters. Luna controls the moon and stars. I don't know her very well personally, but I've heard she's intimately familiar with each star in Equestria's night sky. Maybe..." Rainbow dared to smile. "Maybe I could convince her to name one after you. A big, bright one."

A smile of awe and wonder briefly graced Vincent's lips. "Really...? You told me a little before, but I guess that never came to mind. Is that legal?"

Rainbow chuckled, rolling her eyes. "She's a princess, Vince. She leads the country. Everypony reports to her and her sister.

"What would you have it named? A star?"

Vincent hesitated, considering carefully. "My old DoD ID? Would a 10-digit number sequence work?"

"It'd be unique," Rainbow relented, "but who gives a flying feather about your country? What about you? What about the real Vince?"

Vincent smiled distantly. "This old man's no fun, Dash. Just have it be my name or somethin'."

"Nothing exciting? The soldiers you worked with never gave you a nickname?"

Vincent shook his head dismissively. "Naw. I got an idea, anyway. How about my and my girlfriend's initials and my DoD ID? 'VJM-APW-5557386361'."

Rainbow nodded firmly. "Got it. Now I just gotta commit that to memory. I promise if I ever make it home I'll let Luna know personally."

When she extended a hoof and gesticulated invitingly, Vincent frowned, eying her in a perplexed fashion. "What are you doing?"

"Offering to hug you, grump. C'mon." Rainbow smiled encouragingly.

"I, er..." Vincent gazed aside as if visually searching for a nearby excuse. Either finding nothing or simply surrendering, Vincent knelt in the sand and rested his weight onto both shinbones simultaneously.

Rainbow approached and reared up onto her rear legs, wrapping her forelegs around his neck and resting her comparatively-light body weight against him.

Vincent reciprocated without hesitation, resting his arms over her back. He splayed his fingers apart and dug them slightly into her fur.

Rainbow was gentle when she drew away from the hug. She gazed into her companion's small squinting eyes, witnessing the compassionate side of him continue to bloom like the vivid petals of a gorgeous flower. She smiled.

Vincent smiled a tiny smile. "Has anyone ever told you your eyes are gorgeous? I've never seen anyone with red-pink eyes."

"I have my mom's eyes. She told me the color's called 'cerise'." Flattered, Rainbow's ears perked up happily. "Thanks."

"When you get home and you tell everyone about me, Dash, promise me you won't cut anything out. I'm a lotta things, but I'm not a liar. Your friends deserve to know the truth about me, my dad, and everything else I've told you. I have a feeling you'd sugarcoat it."

Rainbow would have sugarcoated the story significantly. He was correct. Modifying Vincent's story so humans appeared more empathetic and having less unorthodox morals would make the story more digestible.

"Okay, I promise. You're right. I and everypony else deserve to know the truth."

Vincent stood with a groan, brushing violet sand from his clothes. "Speaking of truth, I gotta story for you right now."

"What's it about?"

Vincent began by briefly explaining the geography of Earth. Rainbow was stunned to hear how absolutely massive his home planet was compared to Equestria. She laid down on her side on the towel and assumed a comfortable position as she listened.

"Few years ago when I was still in the army, had leave for a few weeks. Went on a vacation to the Caribbean Islands. Jamaica specifically. I and a few other buddies stayed in a hotel in Montego Bay. Jacob and I shared a room near the floor where the hotel staff cooked breakfast every morning. I was lying in bed and could sense the smell of food from the buffet wafting through the halls and my room."

"Was it a tropical island?"

"Yep. Jamaican weather was usually above 80 degrees at all times and extremely humid when I was there."

"So..." Rainbow dreaded how Vincent would respond to her question. "Was it mostly seafood at the buffet?"

"They served everything, Dash." Vincent released a sigh of nostalgic delight. "Waffles. Bagels. Bacon. Maple syrup. Cream cheese. Salmon spread. Omelets. Jamaican coffee. Bowls of fresh fruit, booze—and that's just for breakfast! Stuffed shells. Manicotti. Parmesan. Shish kebabs. Shrimp. Lobster. Blue-claw crabs, snow-leg crabs. Flounder. Bluefish. Salmon. Cod. Clams. Oysters. Snails. Cocktail dip. Ranch. Catalina. All of the seafood was fresh. Salads. Cheesecake. Cherry pie. Blueberry pie. Peach pie. Coconut cream pie. Ice cream in big vats. Peanut butter cookies, sugar cookies..." Vincent smiled distantly. "Had a view of the beach from the hotel. Could sit and watch the tourists in the ocean and on the sand from a window while eating. At night, armed police would patrol the beach to ward off vagabonds and troublemakers."

"So no nighttime swimming in the ocean?"

Vincent chuckled. "Naw. No nighttime skinny-dipping."

"I wasn't joking."

"Well, that's just the way things are, Dash. Vandals are everywhere. Mostly teenagers and adrenaline junkies like you. Cops kept the beaches clean and unpolluted."

"Hey!" Rainbow immediately protested. "I'm not a trouble-maker! ...Mostly!"

"First opportunity I got, I decided to get my feet wet. The Caribbean ocean is stunning. Golden sand and crystal-clear water. Waded a few miles from the coastline and the water was still only up to my waist. No waves, smooth as glass. Could still see the sand beneath me from the surface. There were tropical fish and rays everywhere sporting every color of the rainbow. Kinda like your hair.

"Beach I went to was a topless beach, and, y'know, had a lotta girls." Vincent smirked and extended one of his hands and twisted the wrist so the palm was facing upwards in an unknown gesture.

Rainbow hesitated for a few moments before understanding struck her. She grimaced. "That's really gross. Why did ya have to make it sexual?"

"I was a 20-something-year-old on vacation in a foreign country on an island in the middle of a tropical archipelago. You wouldn't take the opportunity to have a little fun, too? C'mon."

Imagining herself in the same idealistic situation and how she might realistically react, Rainbow subtly blushed and looked away, avoiding eye contact due to sudden embarrassment. "Keep tellin' the story, Vince."

"Jacob rented a catamaran so we could go swimming past the coral reefs. I had a close encounter with a reef shark."

"Did it bite you?" Rainbow's eyes widened slightly in mild alarm.

"Nope. Just bumped against me. Thing to do when you're in that situation is to stay completely still until it grows bored and leaves. Like a bully, y'know? They want attention, and they'll leave you alone if they don't get that attention.

"Visited a bar down near the beach. Got sloshed on Bahama mamas. Rum, pineapple juice and orange juice. 'Bout yea big." Vincent paused and extended both hands, flattening them. He held one above the other to indicate the height of the glasses of booze. Rainbow's eyes widened.

"Went horseback riding. Rode a black-and-white Appaloosan. Aside from its beaches, Jamaica is pretty hilly inland and has a lot of dense, tropical forests. It's a damn fine country, at least based on what I've seen."

Rainbow internally questioned the morality of riding horses for entertainment, but didn't voice her concerns.

"When I got back to the hotel room, I drank some rosé and watched Jacob practice playing guitar." Realizing he had neglected to communicate the story correctly, Vincent blinked. "Forget to mention Montego Bay is a port city brimming with tourist attractions and resorts. Jacob bought an acoustic guitar from a music shop. His favorite song was 'Father and Son'. He... never learned to play the whole song, as far as I know."

"I would have liked to hear him play." Rainbow frowned.

Vincent nodded. "Yeah. Me too." He pursed his lips as he pondered longingly. "'Take your time, think a lot,' Dash, because 'you'll still be here tomorrow, but your dreams may not.'"