"Next stop: Ponyville. ETA is fifteen minutes. Please prepare your tickets for departure," boomed a voice from above.
Rubbing my eyes, I found myself leaning on a window. I didn't recognize where I was, so I looked around and noticed that I was inside a room. As far as the eye could see, there were aisles of seats, filled with several ponies. There were two doors on either side of the room as well. I looked out the window and noticed the background, a massive field of grass with a few scattered trees in the background, zipping by which meant the room was moving. Far as I could tell, I was on a train. As I sat up, my head began to ache.
Ugh. Where am I? And how did I get here?
I tried to remember but all I could remember was a haze. I tried to shake away the fuzzy feeling but my headache only became worse. I checked my surroundings for clues on how I got here and discovered that I wearing clothes as well as a nearby saddlebag. Looking inside my pocket, I found nothing but a piece of paper. Turning the piece of paper over, I realized it was a train ticket. I looked closer at the train ticket; the train ticket's destination was marked "Canterlot," with a quick stop off at Ponyville. Sliding the ticket back into my pocket, I started ruffling through my saddlebags. Inside were some snacks, more clothes, and a wallet of some kind. I pulled out the wallet and—
"Thanks, Rainbow Dash. I took your advice," said a voice in front of me.
"Huh?" I looked at the pony in front of me, who was staring at me with curious eyes. She was a purple unicorn with a matching set of eyes and as far as I knew, I've never seen her before. I wasn't sure what to say, so I just kept my mouth closed. I looked at the wallet again—
"You look pale. Are you okay?"
"I... " I tried to think of something to say, but nothing came. I placed the wallet back into the saddlebags and leaned forward to question the stranger. "Look lady, I don't know who—"
The sound of an opening can distracted me, causing me to turn my head. Right as I did, somepony walked by while balancing a cup and spilled some coffee on my hoof.
"Rainbow? Rainbow? Hey," the stranger said, waving to try to catch my attention. Just to humor her, I looked back at her and tilted my head. Once she was satisfied, she continued. "Listen, I wanted to tell you... "
Who is this pony and why should I care?
She was talking to me like she knew me, but I had no idea who she was. She was an utter stranger to me. Whatever this stranger had to say, it wasn't important. After all, I still didn't know where I was. As she was talking, I looked around the cabin for more clues as to why I was here. There were various ponies doing mundane things, like reading a newspaper, checking their watches, or taking care of their children, but nopony looked out of place. One of them coughed as he headed into the bathroom.
"Rainbow, are you listening to me? I'm trying to talk to you," the stranger said, obviously concerned. I turned my gaze towards her once more, just to get her to stop nagging. "Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I did what you asked me to."
"Huh?"
"I broke it off with my coltfriend," she said.
“Great. Who care—” I began to say.
"May I see your ticket?" asked a voice from beside me. I was starting to get irritated by all of the interruptions, I just wanted to figure out how I got here and call it a day. Looking around, the source of the voice was from an elder stallion dressed in a uniform. He must have been the conductor.
"Huh? Well, I... " A ticket? Did I have something like that on me? The stallion glared at me, waiting. The purple mare leaned forward and reached a hoof towards me, but I pulled back, slapping her hoof away. "What do you think you're doing?" I asked.
"Rainbow... " she giggled. She leaned forward again, this time reaching inside my pocket and pulling out the ticket from earlier. She grinned at me and waved the ticket in my face for a few seconds before handing it to the conductor. He punched the ticket and gave it back to me, before moving down the aisle.
"Seriously Rainbow, you're acting so weird today," she said before gazing out the window.
I placed the ticket back into my pocket before peeking around the seat, watching the conductor move down the aisles until he arrived at the next passenger.
"Are we going to make up the ten minutes?" the passenger asked. "I'm running late."
"We're going to try sir," said the conductor.
"Hey grandpa!" called another pony from behind. "What's with the delay back there?"
"I don't know sir, I just punch the tickets." The conductor shrugged and walked away.
"Gonna punch your face," muttered the pony under his breath.
Leaning back, I looked at the stranger in front of me once more. She was staring back at me, intensely.
"Rainbow," the stranger said, raising an eyebrow. "Did I do something?" Apparently, she had been looking at me for awhile.
"Look Miss... " I realized that I didn't even know her name. "First off, what's your name?"
The purple unicorn tilted her head at me and stared. "Are you feeling okay, Rainbow? You already know my name."
"Humor me."
"Twilight Sparkle, remember? Did you hit your head while I wasn't looking?"
I put my hooves on my head and tried not to get angry. This mare was starting to get on my nerves. I shook my head and looked back up at her. "Why do you keep calling me Rainbow?" I leaned forward; looking her straight in the eye. "I don't know who this 'Rainbow' is, but that's not me. I'm sorry, but you have me mistaken for somepony else. I don't know who you are. My name is Captain Firefly, leader of Cloudsdale's elite weather team."
The stranger simply laughed. "Rainbow, is this some kind of joke?"
I couldn't take being around this mare for much longer. I felt like I was being suffocated. I needed to get out of there, to fly. I needed to make up an excuse, any excuse.
Luckily, a nearby intercom sprung to life as a deep voice buzzed, "Attention, we have arrived at Ponyville. We will depart for our final destination after a brief five minute interval. Please secure all of your carry-on and have a nice day."
Glad to have an excuse, I said, "I feel sick, I need to get some air." She tried to grab my foreleg, but I brushed her away. I got up and made my way down the aisles, heading for the door on the other side of the room.
"Hey Mister!" shouted a young colt from behind. I admit that I may look tomboyish at times but I'm not a 'Mister.' I turned around to correct the colt but he brushed past me, apparently talking to someone else. "You dropped this."
Oh. Nevermind then.
"Thanks." The pony that the colt was talking to, grabbed something from the colt and left the train. I followed him outside and noticed that I was in the middle of a town. Various ponies of all types trotted through, apparently ignoring the train. I'm not sure why, but the train tracks ran right through the middle of the town. It must be normal since the other people didn't react as well. "Well, that's kind of weird, isn't it?" I said, commenting to nopony in particular. This kind of thing would never happen in Cloudsdale; we focused more on logic up there.
Having a bit of spare time before the train departed, I opened my wings and flew up into the air. I hated being in the same place for too long, so it felt good to stretch my wings. As I flew through the air, wind flowed across my wings, filling me up with adrenaline. For some reason, it felt like I haven't flown in forever. As I flew, I looked down. From above, all of the ponies looked like ants. Refreshed by the brief moment of flight, I zoomed back downwards. I wasn't sure why I was on that train, but I was sure it held more clues somewhere. I landed on the ground gracefully, just as the intercom started broadcasting again.
"All aboard," the intercom said. Feeling better, I trotted back onto the train and returned to my seat.
"You okay there, Captain?" the stranger asked, sarcastically.
"Yea... " I said, trailing off. To be honest, I was kinda sad that I had to stay grounded; it was pretty boring. I plopped back into my seat and looked out the window again. As the train started moving again, I couldn't help but feel like this place seemed familiar. The train gradually picked up speed and I saw Ponyville shrinking off into the distance, but I noticed something else. Something that was off.
I squinted to get a better look, trying to figure out what was wrong. I couldn't quite put my hoof on it. There was a image of a pony that kept flashing in the window. Looking closer, I saw a strange, rainbow-maned face plastered on the window.
"Did you see that?" I asked the stranger as I pointed at the window.
"See what?" she asked. She cocked her head at me, "To be honest, you're kinda freaking me out."
Ugh. Maybe I just need to splash some water on my face.
"Be right back, I need to use the little filly's room." Not wanting to stay around Twilight, I jumped out of my seat and headed towards the bathroom. She tried to say something before I left, but I didn't hear her. I threw open the bathroom door and trotted inside. I'm not sure what was going on, but I figured I'd think about it later. Twisting the faucet knob, I quickly splashed some water on my face and stared into the mirror.
What... who... is that?
In the mirror was a pony that wasn't me. I couldn't explain it, but for some reason, I was looking at a completely different pony. In the reflection, there was a blue pony with a rainbow mane and tail, along with a cloud shooting rainbow-colored lightning bolts as her cutie mark.
Nononononono, who is that? That's not me. What the hay is going on?
Remembering the wallet that I found in the saddlebags, I rushed out of the bathroom and grabbed it with my mom. Twilight tried to talk to me again but I shook my head. "Nof nao." Running back into the bathroom, I spit the saddlebag onto the counter. I reached inside the bag and pulled out the wallet, opening it. Inside, there was an ID, but something was wrong. The ID read: Rainbow Dash, member of the Ponyville weather team. This... this isn't right.
I gazed into the mirror again and waved my hoof. As I did so, my reflection waved back at me. I pulled back my face to see if the reflection would do the same, and it did. Was this real? I thought, as I smacked myself in the face.
"Ouch." Apparently it was. This is really freaky. What's happening?
A knock came from behind me. "Occupied, come back later," I said, trying not to freak out.
"It's me."
Opening the door, I bumped into Twilight. In a flash, she pulled me out into the hallway and cornered me against the wall.
"Rainbow, what's wrong?" the purple mare looked at me with puppy dog eyes as she continued, "I'm worried about you, and I don't know what's going on. Please talk to me."
"Look, I already told you. I don't know who Rainbow is and I don't know who you are," I said. I tried to move around her and move back into the bathroom, but she pinned me down. "Just leave me alone okay?"
"But Rainbow... "
The sound of a nearby train passing next to us reverberated through the cabin, causing the room to shake violently. I lost my balance and almost toppled over, but I managed to right myself before continuing.
"This doesn't belong to me," I said, holding up the wallet.
She only seemed to stare into me even harder. "That's enough. I want to know what's going on." She pushed the wallet away and gazed deeply into my eyes. "I want the truth."
Right after she finished speaking, the train shook violently again, throwing both of us across the floor. I looked at her for a brief moment until an ear-splitting wail pierced my ears. I tried to cry out, but the train around me burst into flames, plunging the world into a blinding whiteness.
*****
Images of the ponies that had been on the train flashed through my mind as I tried to make sense of what happened. Were they important in some way? My mind searched for an answer but found nothing. I was on the train when it had suddenly exploded, sending my mind reeling. The sound of metallic scraping buzzed in my ears as I opened my eyes. Everything was blurry, and way too blindingly white.
I squinted and rubbed my eyes, before trying to shake the dizziness from my head, but that just made my headache worse. Looking up, I saw the ceiling of some sort of metallic chamber. My eyes finally adjusted to the light and I realized that I was upside down. I tried to get up, but my body was held down by something. My arms were free, but the rest of my body wasn't.
"Hello? Is anypony there?" I asked the darkness. There was no answer, just like I expected.
"... Captain. Can... hear... ? This... Celestia... "
"What?" I heard a voice coming from behind me, but it was too garbled by static to make much sense of it. Looking down at my body, I noticed that the buckles holding my body down had a button in the middle. Reaching over, I pressed them, just to see what would happen. They made a small clicking sound and popped off, retreating back into the metal plate, and causing my legs to dangle uselessly in mid-air.
The voice continued to drone on in the background, but I couldn't make much sense of it still. I grunted and pushed the buttons on the remaining buckles. Plunk! Forgetting about the power of gravity, once the buckles came out, I slipped out and fell on my head.
"Ow." Sprawled out on my back, I held my head with my hooves. Like I needed to make my headache any worse. I sat up and did my best to ignore my headache, before following the droning voice. Several feet behind me was some kind of metal box, flashing an image of something. I stretched my wings for a bit before moving closer to the box and noticed a white pegasus with a yellow mane on its screen. She was sitting in a chair in an odd position, just like that random teal unicorn loved to do.
"Hello Captain. Can you hear me? This is Celestia Squad," the pegasus inside the box said.
"What?"
"Silly-willy, I said 'can you hear me?'"
"Of course, I can see you," I said, tapping the box.
"That's awesome-possum news!" replied the cheery pegasus.
"Uh... who is this?"
"That's not important right now, silly. Quick question first, what did you see?" said the pegasus.
"Huh? I don't understand what you mean."
"Where were you before you were talking to me?"
"I'm... not sure." What happened to me? Where was I before? "I don't remember." I tried to shake my head, but I still felt dizzy.
"Aww, that's normal. Everypony gets confused at first."
"What do you mean?"
"Never mind that for now. Just tell me what you do remember." She beamed a wide smile at me.
I remember waking up and being surrounded by flames. Had there been a fire? "I... I think there was an explosion."
"Do ya know where it came from?"
"I think it... came from behind me."
"That's not very helpful, silly. Could you be more specific?" the pegasus asked.
"Where am I, anyway?"
The pegasus stopped smiling and glared at me, momentarily darkening. "That isn't important right now. Focus. Just tell me what you saw."
"No, I want to know where I am first," I demanded.
The pegasus brightened back up, beaming another wide smile. "Sorry, can't tell you. It's a secret. Classified."
"What the buck does that mean?"
"Aww, come on Firefly. Focus, please, for me?"
"Can you at least tell me your name first?" I asked.
" Oh, is that all you wanted? My name is Surprise," she said, as she crossed her forelegs and started nodding. "Yup. That's me!"
"Well, Surprise, as far as I could tell, I was on some sort of train." I tapped my forehead, struggling to remember. "There had been another train passing by, when everything exploded."
"Yup, yup. That wasn't a coincidence. Someone planned for a bomb to go off while the other train was passing."
"Bomb?" I asked, confused.
"Yup, someone planted a bomb on the train you were on. It was probably set to go off when that other train passes by."
"I don't understand. How do you know all of this?" I asked, gripping both sides of the screen.
Surprise paused for a moment before shaking her head. "Listen, we're running out of time, so let's focus on what's important, which is you finding out where the bomb is. Once you do that, you can figure out who the bomber is and stop them."
"What? The train already exploded, didn't it?"
"Technically yes, but we have our own cheat codes so we can go back and try again."
"Wha?" What the hay is going on? I'm so confused.
Surprise shrugged and continued, "It's pretty complicated to explain. Let's just say that we have a chance to prevent the bombing. But you have to be quick. Like I said, find that bomber!"
"How do I do that?"
"I don't know. You'll just have to figure it out yourself." Surprise reached over and pressed something in front of her, before looking away. "Get ready to start it up again. We'll get it right it this time," she whispered to somepony else, off-screen. She turned to look back at me and said, "Alrighty then, back inside you go. Find the bomb so we can all go home and eat some cake. Then we'll all be happy ponies."
This pony was certainly stranger than anyone I have ever met before. "So... find the bomb and stop the bomber. If you say so." I paused for a few seconds before realizing something. "Wait, how do—"
Before I could react, the chamber shook and I felt like I got punched in the gut. I tried to move, but I was frozen in place. Suddenly, everything went black.
