Laments of the Dimension-Stranded ⁽ᴿᵉᵐᵃᵏᵉ⁾

Plink. Plink. Plink.

Bioluminescent insects fluttered inside of a jar, tapping their bodies against the glass intermittently. The orange hue of their illumination bathed the room in a soft glow.

Rainbow Dash groaned softly, massaging her throbbing forehead with a hoof in a futile attempt to soothe the pain. The last memory she recalled was flying peacefully through the cheerful blue skies of Equestria, rehearsing a new stunt. While performing her acrobatic technique, she had lost control and spiraled toward the hard, unforgiving ground. But, instead of a collision, she had been met with suffocating darkness.

Then, she woke up.

At first, she was hopeful. She thought she’d been rescued by somepony and they’d transported her to a safe location where she could recover from her injuries. It wouldn't have been the first time she’d woken up in Ponyville General Hospital, aching bodily, blurry-headed, and bereft of memories. The sensation of hope, however, was short-lived.

The wooden table she lied atop was hard and uncomfortable, and the room was tiny and lacked windows. The oppressive concrete walls evoked a sensation of claustrophobia within her. She yearned to breathe fresh air, to clear her mind and focus.

Rainbow planted her hooves against the tabletop and shoved, attempting to lift herself, but, ultimately, she failed to rise to a standing position. She slipped and landed hard on the edge of the table, then toppled over the edge and slammed onto the floor with a pained grunt.

"Oof!"

She spread her wings to investigate the disturbance, and a newfound pain in her right wing elicited a groan from her throat. The joints were stiff and contorted slightly, and the large primary feathers of her right wing which she used to manipulate objects and fly were contorted and twisted.

"Ow..."

Her futile whimpers were promptly absorbed by the dense concrete walls. Overwhelming silence was again restored to the room. It was only then she realized how bizarre her situation was. Being escorted or carried to a safe place by a friend was comforting, but it couldn't have been one of her friends. Her friends didn't live in concrete boxes... Her friends didn't lay her out over hard tables...

That was when the first pang of fear struck her—painful fear which emanated from her gut and coursed through her, sending a chilling wave across her entire body.

She approached a flimsy metal door and shoved it open, wincing as its rusty hinges squealed. She peered around the corner, vigilant of possible danger. Beyond the threshold stretched a black hallway shrouded in gloom. Cold radiated from the concrete.

There were no signs of life in either end of the desolate corridor. Though, distantly, faint pings and clinks sounded, metal bits rubbing against each other and clattering against a hard surface.

Rainbow wasn’t unfamiliar with loneliness. She embraced it, even, as a necessary break from stardom. But there were few moments in her life where she was truly alone, entirely unable to contact anypony. It was deeply unsettling.

She entered the room she had previously been locked within and clamped her teeth around the jar of fireflies on the empty shelf. She wielded the light bugs to illuminate her way.

The grimy hallway was cluttered with scraps of metal and other junk. Flickering shadows crept across the walls, creating the stalking silhouettes of fictive monsters. Rainbow’s hooves crunched on some broken glass, and she whimpered fearfully, glancing over her shoulder. Despite her suspicions of the contrary, nothing prowled in the darkness behind her, though the moment she turned her back, chills resumed creeping up her spine, refusing to abate.

Her ears swiveled as she pinpointed the source of the unidentified sounds. She rounded the corner and peeked through the doorway. Her nostrils flared as she inhaled and smelled the metallic tinge of corrosion and the nauseating stench of lubrication oil.

One wall was composed entirely of windows and reinforced with wooden boards and nails. Dying twilight light feebly leaked through cracks in the boards. Dim light spilled into the room from her jar of fireflies, but, due to the inadequate lighting available and the immense size of the room, she couldn't see if anything lurked in the shadows near the corners.

Her eyes flicked as she tracked and locked onto movement. An unknown creature stood beneath a large machine suspended in midair, using a jar of fireflies to illuminate what it was working on. It was lanky, tall with elongated arms thick with corded muscle that ended with surprisingly small and delicate hands, a distinguishing feature which made it resemble a diamond dog or minotaur. Long, tangled black hair draped from its scalp. The tanned skin of its muscly back, splotched with smudges of oil, flexed as it reached upwards and tinkered with the machine using some tool. A small rod of metal fell and clattered against the floor.

The hair along Rainbow’s spine raised with alarm. She unfurled her healthy left wing in a precautionary defensive gesture and backpedaled rapidly, attempting to escape, but she accidentally tripped over and kicked a fallen wrench. The metal tool skidded across the hard floor and her jar of glowing insects clattered to the ground, rolling away noisily. The creature abandoned whatever it had been working on and turned to investigate the noise, gazing at her with tiny, beady eyes that glinted in the darkness.

"A–Alright, you... w–whatever you are!" Rainbow reared onto her rear legs to make herself appear larger and waved her forelegs in a display of aggression. "You think I'm afraid of you? No way!"

A beard growing along the southern region of the creature’s face partially obscured its mouth, which was agape in shock. It raised its jar of fireflies in an attempt to illuminate her further. “You can talk...?" The voice sounded rusty with disuse.

"What did you do to my wing?” She cautiously neared, ready to dart away if he lunged at her, and gingerly closed the distance between the two until they were mere feet apart. He was... tall. He was one of the tallest intelligent creatures she had ever interacted with, excluding dragons. Even Princess Celestia, she thought, was shorter. Even diamond dogs. She gulped, feeling a twinge of fear that was difficult to suppress.

She fluttered her wings instinctively in an attempt to fly and hover in front of him at eye level, before remembering she couldn't fly. She resorted to tilting her head back to gaze up at him, which felt incredibly awkward and demeaning.

“Relax! I didn’t do anything to you.” The creature thrusted his hands forward to protest his innocence. "I found you outside the other day. You crashed, didn’t you? You were passed out. I think you twisted your wing when you landed. You don't look so good." He waited to see if she would reply, then, when she remained silent, he deposited his wrench and firefly jar onto a wheeled metal cart and wandered away. He wiped his hands on a rag, cleaning them of oil and perspiration, then grabbed a shirt bundled in a little pile and dabbed at his eyes.

She was no longer afraid of him. After scrutinizing his form, she determined him to be harmless. His movements were slow and uncoordinated, and his gait implied he had a high center of gravity and was prone to toppling over. Sure, his thick muscles implied he was strong—far stronger than her, likely—but she knew she was faster and more nimble, even without the use of her wings.

He glanced over his shoulder quickly as if to confirm she hadn’t escaped when he wasn’t looking. He scratched at one of his lumpy, seashell-shaped ears and frowned, then grabbed an unlit jar of fireflies from a shelf on the cart and shook it gently to awaken the insects within. He neared her and squatted, the joints in his knees popping audibly, and looked her directly in the eyes.

They remained still, their eyes locked, for several seconds, both likely too confused to devise an appropriate remark. As more green fireflies awoke and shined their harsh verdant light, the glow intensified and forced Rainbow to squint. "Can you get that light out of my face?” When he didn't relent immediately, she tilted her head to the side to avoid the brightness. She saw spots, afterimages. Some strings of her rainbow-colored mane fell into her eyes, which she brushed aside.

He stood and returned the jar of green fireflies where he had retrieved it from. No longer being actively stimulated, the hyperactive little insects calmed and proceeded to extinguish their glow.

He looked her up and down once more, considering her short stature, hooves, and wings. "What... are you?" he wondered aloud, scratching his chin thoughtfully.

Rainbow rolled her eyes and scowled, stifling a harsh insult by biting her tongue. "You're not so pretty yourself."

“Sorry, I just haven't had company in... a long time." A small smile adorned his face. "You came from somewhere else, right? I'm not from here, either. You were wandering around looking for something, and I guess that's when you crashed? Is that how it happened?"

"Stop with all of the questions! Please. I don't know anything, okay? I have a heck of a headache right now, and you're not helping." Rainbow clenched her eyes and massaged her aching temples with her hooves. She paused, breathed, and raised her head.

In the following period of silence, he seemed to read her facial expression and reasonably discern she was upset. “So, I'm Vincent Mills, from Arizona," he rattled off like a tired mantra. "Human, Homo Sapien, from Earth,” he clarified quickly. "And yourself?"

"Rainbow Dash. Wonderbolt. Element of Harmony." Rainbow nodded in greeting politely.

"So, is Wonderbolt a rank? Or a family title? Sounds like you're pretty important if you have two titles."

“I guess you could say that. I know my friends and my family and the Wonderbolts are going to miss me..." Her head drooped sadly. "Look, I know we just met and all, but right now, I want to be alone."

"You can go outside if you really want to. But,” he raised a finger, "don’t leave the parking lot, okay? Don't go wandering around, especially with that messed up wing." He squinted his eyes in a manner that indicated he was serious.

Rainbow desperately wanted to leave the claustrophobic building, breathe fresh air, and orient herself. He was correct, though. Her right wing had been crippled, and the damage was irreversible for a time—at least without unicorn magic. She had no option but to wait for her wing to naturally heal.

"Fine.” She tried not to appear disappointed.

He nodded. "Good. We’ll talk more in the morning, then?” He excused himself and slipped away. He approached one of the machines in the corner of the workshop, opened a door on the side, and slipped in, shutting the door behind himself. She almost neglected to notice. The human was surprisingly light on his toes despite his significant size and weight.

When alone, finally, she decided to rebel against his cautions and explore. It was simply too tempting.

Rainbow retrieved her jar of orange fireflies and circled the perimeter of the room in search of passages that lead outside. All windows she found were secured tightly with wooden boards or blocked behind improvised barricades. There were no obvious exits.

She retreated to the hallway and followed it. There were many locked doors. She respected her new acquaintance's privacy and didn't attempt to force his doors open, though she continued to remain skeptical of his innocence. Sure, he seemed kind and helpful, but he had, in fact, isolated her in a small, cramped room. No one who inherently distrusts others is entirely innocent themselves.

At the end of the corridor was a red neon sign labeled "exit". Below towered a reinforced metal door, fortified with two thick metal bars extending horizontally across the center and stacked atop one another. She tried shoving the door, but it resisted, not budging an inch. She changed her approach, setting her jar of fireflies down and rearing onto her rear legs, placing both forelegs onto the metal bars. She leaned all of her weight into her push and shoved them hard. There was a loud click. The mechanical door swung outwards slowly, struggling against its speed-regulating automatic door closer. Satisfied she had managed to solve the little puzzle, Rainbow gratefully trotted outside.

Unbeknownst to her, once she passed the threshold and exited, the door slowly withdrew inwards by its automatic door closer, then clicked shut behind her and locked tightly.

Outside, trash bins were aligned in an organized fashion adjacent to the wall. One had been toppled over, spilling its contents onto the ground. Ahead was an elongated flat strip of black material which dropped away abruptly at the edge. She saw the tops of trees beyond the precipice.

Cautiously, she approached the edge and peered over. She gasped. She was high in the air, standing on an artificial plateau. The natural ground where the grass and trees grew was dozens of feet below. Lacking the ability to fly, she retreated from the edge fearfully. She wasn't afraid of heights, but it had suddenly occurred to her that if she fell, she would have no method of slowing herself down during the descent.

The black platform encompassing the building sported multiple painted, white parallel lines near the front entrance. They were spaced at regular intervals and crossed occasionally. A few machines like those inside the building were situated between the lines. Four wheels, two on each side, giving the object the vague silhouette of a carriage. Metal body. One large window at the front and another at the rear, with smaller windows on the sides.

The large red glass letters of a neon sign were arranged above the front entrance to the building, no longer glowing. Some were partially shattered, obfuscating the original sentence.

_ _ _ ' S A _ T O R _ _ A I R

"Something... 'auto repair'?" She estimated.

There were no stairs or ladders leading to the roof. She was forced to improvise. Painstakingly, she dragged two of the waste bins to the front of the auto repair shop where the roof sloped downward at its lowest point. Using the smaller waste bin, she climbed onto the larger bin and launched herself onto the metal roof, quickly scrambling onto her hooves before she slid off. She ascended, trotting to the center of the roof, which was the highest point. Her hooves made unsubtle clanking noises with each step on the corrugated tin. She winced, hoping Vincent wouldn't hear her making excessive noise and come investigate.

After finally reaching the peak of the roof, she spun in a circle and examined her surroundings. She discovered the plateau wasn't suspended from the side of a hill or mountain like she had suspected, it was seemingly, inexplicably, illogically floating. She had witnessed floating objects before, it wasn't an impossibility, but the only instances she could recall which involved objects inexplicably floating were all associated with Discord…

She scowled and stamped a hoof against the tin roof. "Discord!" She raised her voice, bellowing into the purple sky of twilight. The last vestiges of the evening sun were slipping beneath the distant horizon. The sky gradually descended through the color spectrum, glowing blue, then eventually indigo as night arrived.

A tiny moon rose. It was perhaps half of the size of Equestria's moon, and it emitted far less moonlight. It wasn't Princess Luna's moon, and the stars weren't Luna's stars. She had been studying the night sky of home for many years; she could effortlessly recognize its elements. Yet, suddenly, she found herself supremely doubting her own knowledge.

Frustrated, she pawed at the roof with a hoof. She felt slighted, a feeling she hated with a passion. Discord enjoyed a good prank from time to time, same as her, but teleporting her somewhere far and distant would be cruel and unprecedented. He didn't even linger nearby to observe her reaction! And that was the best part of pranking!

Some wispy clouds drifted between her and the little moon. Translucent as they were, they didn't obscure her view. The evening was quiet and still. She considered flying into the evening sky, bucking a few clouds to vent her frustrations, and creating a cloud nest to sleep. Without her flight feathers, though, it was impossible.

She felt like the hapless victim of a cruel joke.