Laments of the Dimension-Stranded ⁽ᴿᵉᵐᵃᵏᵉ⁾

In a haze, Rainbow gazed through the passenger's side window, observing smudges with the profiles of trees and other flora disappear from view in a blur as the Initiator zoomed past. Raindrops tapped against the metal roof and the windshield wipers squeaked repetitively. REO's Keep on Loving You droned indistinctly in the background.

Rainbow felt her form hug every hop, bump, and oscillation of the suspension. With every elevation or descension, her body responded in tune. It reminded her of the sensation of turbulence during flight. She hummed pleasurably and closed her eyes in appreciation as she cherished the soothing motions.

Her eyelids drooped, forewarning of an impending nap as she was lulled to sleep.

"Are we still going in the right direction?"

The unanticipated question startled her from her stupor. She blinked hard, clenching her eyes shut tightly and reopening them to clear her vision. She focused and consulted the sensation within her. It hummed softly, quietly enough she frequently forewent considering it and directed her attention elsewhere. When she concentrated, however, she could detect its vibration. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Feels... muffled, somehow. Like we're close, but there's a mountain between us and it."

A wide shadow briefly enveloped the pickup. Rainbow, naturally, paid it no mind, as trees, rocks and small cliffs had frequently casted shadows onto the moving vehicle since their adventure had begun.

Vincent cocked an eyebrow. "That doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. Are you sure you're feeling alright? Do you still have a headache?"

"I'm feeling fine, thanks. I got some good sleep. My head is clear. I'm just a little dizzy, that's all. The feeling comes and goes; it doesn't have anything to do with what happened yesterday."

Again, another shadow swept over the Initiator. Rainbow's curiosity had finally been piqued. She leaned against the passenger's side window and tilted her head to gaze upward to investigate.

"Whoa, Vince, it's—!" Upon first glance, she misinterpreted what she spotted as griffons and felt a twinge of hope surge through her heart, but, unfortunately, upon further inspection, she realized the truth: they were just large birds. The huge avians soared overhead, maintaining an organized formation and keeping pace with the vehicle. The feeling of hope draining away was painful. Sure, the feathered folk from Equestria wouldn't have been the most ideal of chance encounters, but it still would have been welcome.

"It's what?" Vincent glanced in her direction, then promptly returned his gaze to the windshield.

"Sorry, false alarm."

An avian in the rear of the formation gazed upon the pickup with suspicion and opened its beak to release a loud, high-pitched cry. The others in the formation followed suit, each contributing to the harsh dissonance.

Rainbow winced and her ears folded painfully. "They don't seem too happy to see us! What are they?"

Vincent leaned against the driver's side window and looked upwards in an attempt to spot what she was referencing, but to no avail. He returned his gaze to the windshield. "No idea. I haven't been this far south before. Probably nothing, don't worry about it. We'll be safe inside—" His voice was abruptly interrupted as the chassis of the vehicle, which had already been gently vibrating due to the aggression of its superior engine, proceeded to vibrate to a far greater degree than was standard.

She bounced in her seat uncontrollably. "Whoa, h-hey! Is t-this normal?!"

"No!" He tapped the brake lightly, but the deceleration did little to reduce the vehicle's vibration, as it wasn't the engine that was vibrating, but, rather, the ground below the wheels. Ahead, soil and solid rock were violently severed and divided apart. A crevasse snaked across the ground, rapidly enlarging as it approached. Vincent slammed the accelerator and attempted to steer the Initiator away from its path, but he reacted too slow. With a gaping maw of earth, the very planet seemed to open and swallow them like they were a mere tasty morsel.

"Holy shit!" His eyes bulged in panic and he grasped the wheel tightly, rotating it in a vain attempt to steer. However, with few wheels touching the ground, it was impossible to direct the vehicle. They weren't so much soaring down into a crevasse as they were plunging vertically. Down they fell, and further down still, into the shadow of a needle-thin fissure.

In a spine-tingling moment of terror, Rainbow observed her and her companion ascend as they were exposed involuntarily to the conditions of freefall, devoid of gravity. The vehicle was no longer a safe recluse, it was a steel-barred cage that they would ricochet off of like pinballs.

They hit the bottom with an enormous CRASH! The vehicle's remaining momentum caused it to career, bounce, and roll, dashing against sharp rocks. Rainbow cowered and cried out as the side windows fragmented and spilled a sea of shattered glass. The windshield announced the damage it had sustained with a rapid succession of crackles as a spiderweb of cracks dispersed across its surface. Somewhere in the backseat, several jars of fireflies smashed and their inhabitants twittered softly as they abandoned their previous prisons and ascended in search of freedom.

"Ougghh... Rainbow groaned and massaged her aching head. At some point in the chaos, she had whiplashed and struck her skull hard against the pickup's dense metal roof. "Vince, you okay? That was a heck of a fall..."

"I'm fine. Phew..." Vincent clasped a hand against his armored vest and, beneath, his throbbing heart. "I thought we were going to die for a second there. Holy shit. Good thing I wore my seatbelt. Maybe you should have, too." He rotated the key and deactivated the vehicle's engine. In the silence that followed, the pattering of raindrops striking the Initiator's upturned side was emphasized significantly.

Rainbow leaned her head back and gazed upwards through one of the shattered windows, examining the confines of the crevasse. Above, beyond the rocky rim of the crevasse, grey storm clouds swirled in the sky and boomed angrily. A raindrop hit its mark and landed directly into her eye, and she blinked rapidly to clear her vision. "Hey, this isn't so bad," she reassured. "We're not trapped. I can still see the sky. Maybe we can find a way out of here."

Vincent unbuckled his seatbelt and swung his legs over the center console. He hauled himself through the only unobstructed exit, which was the smashed driver's side window. Outside, he rested his hand onto the Initiator's magnificent steel hood. His head drooped. It wasn't a living creature, but, regardless, he had dedicated years of hard labor to restore it, and now, after witnessing the extent of the damage it had sustained...

He sat on one of the pickup's tires and planted his elbows in his lap, cupping his face with his palms in despair.

The desire to abandon hope and concede was tempting, but... there was something else welling within her. Though the sensation was indescribable, it was true. A vague sensation was welling within Rainbow, like the tantalizing tingling of a memory on the tip of her metaphorical tongue. Clarity. It felt like the gentle, cool embrace of levitation magic, except It was internal, within her body. Dizziness, as if she had just recovered from a wild midair barrel roll and her brain was topsy-turvy. She shook her head forcefully, attempting to focus, but, frustratingly, whatever had been tempting her had abruptly silenced, and only the dizziness persisted.

Rainbow climbed onto the Initiator's upturned side and gazed upwards. Overhead stretched several gargantuan crystals which spanned the length of the crevasse, twisting through the rock like veins and snaking their way to the ground. Hopping to the ground, she selected a specimen to investigate and knocked a hoof against its hard surface. It replied with a low resonant ringing noise. It was softly humming, pulsating with magical energy, though, lacking a horn and the wherewithal to communicate with it, she couldn't identify it.

She tried whistling, which evoked a look of confusion from her companion, but she received no audible reply from the crystal. There was only one option left to attempt. She tapped a hoof against her enchanted amulet and attempted to encourage it to fire a magical blast. It was a maneuver which she had witnessed countless times, though had, obviously, never attempted before. Unfortunately, due either to the pendant's lack of sufficient magical capability or her own ignorance, it denied her order.

Rainbow's ears perked up as she detected noise originating from somewhere nearby. Only after she turned to investigate did she notice Vincent had reentered the Initiator's interior and started the engine. The pickup's speakers produced Chicago's If You Leave Me Now. She neared and sat on her haunches, listening. It was a rich and melancholy piece, featuring a predominant guitar melody and a significant string and brass accompaniment. The lyrics were basic yet elegant in their simplicity, with the lead singer expressing a powerful desire to recuperate a broken relationship.

As the song concluded, he rotated the key and deactivated the engine. With a pathetic sputtering sound, the Initiator released its final breaths. The audible gyrating of its crankshaft and pistons halted as they decelerated, and overwhelming silence was once again restored to the desolate chasm. With the ambiance of the hot machinery ticking as it cooled in the background, they locked eyes through the cracked windshield. It was clear Vincent had surrendered all hope.

Seated on the center console, he swung his leg and firmly kicked the glove compartment, releasing a bitter grunt. "Goddamn it! I can't believe this is how I die, trapped at the bottom of a fucking hole!"

"Hey! It's okay! Relax!" She waved her forelegs in an attempt to quell his swelling anger. "I think I have an idea. Just take a breath, okay? Let me think. Please."

Vincent inhaled and exhaled deeply. He slipped through the shattered window, careful to avoid the hazardous broken glass, and descended to the ground below. "Fine, I'm hearing you out. What do you got?"

"I think those crystals shifted and dropped us down here. Before they did, though, I noticed those birds were circling us and calling. Maybe their voices, you know... caused the crystals to move?"

"Can you prove it? Nowhere has a tendency to do shit on its own."

She shrugged. "Well, no. But we have to try something. Their calls were high-pitched, right? I remember hearing a blast from one of those..." She paused as she recalled the unfamiliar terminology. "...rifles bounce off of the ground near me with a loud sound. Maybe if the rock is hard enough here and if you could get the angle right, then..."

His interest suddenly restored, Vincent's eyebrows raised. "That's a hell of a theory, but I guess you're right, anything is worth a shot right now." He climbed onto the Initiator and retrieved his rifle from the rear seat, then hopped to the ground. He scrutinized the fissure's walls in search of a flat section ideal for a proper ricochet. "Plug your ears! This is gonna be loud down here." He shooed her away with a few waves of his hand.

Rainbow nodded, expressing her gratitude, and scurried away. She hunched behind the pickup's overturned engine compartment and preemptively shielded her ears. When properly prepared, she signaled with a whistle.

BANG!

Despite the preventative measures, the violent explosion of sound penetrated her defenses and overwhelmed her ears. It reverberated in the narrow confines of the crevasse. echoing repeatedly. Initially, all her ears detected was an intense ringing sound, but after a brief pause, the walls began to tremble. The crystals awoke from their slumber and vibrated and glowed. Before her very eyes, some rapidly expanded and others contracted. Dust and loose pebbles cascaded from above. A cluster of crystals embedded in the wall withdrew, contracting to reveal a hidden passage.

"A door...?"

"My thoughts exactly." Rainbow approached and peered into the tunnel, but it was too dark to see. The dim gleam of the crystals did little to penetrate the gloom.

Vincent stepped alongside her and activated the flashlight attachment on his rifle. He glanced down quizzically at her. "Do you think your friend is in there?"

"Maybe. It—" Lightning traveled through her spine and the hair along her back raised. "Whoa! Holy haystacks, there's something in there alright!"

"That's settled, then. We're going in." He raised his rifle and marched forward.