How Did You Get Here?!

by Soaring

Rating: teen
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Starlight Glimmer, Original Character, Comedy, Profanity, Random, Slice of Life, Twilight Sparkle, Diamond Dogs
Length: 5305

The newest student to the School of Friendship, a diamond dog named Ruff, gets teleported to Cloudsdale, and it's all Starlight's fault. Hopefully she can fix this mess before Twilight finds Ruff, right?

The newest student to the School of Friendship, a diamond dog named Ruff, gets teleported to Cloudsdale.

Starlight is panicking, Twilight is upset, and Ruff just wants to learn about friendship. Hopefully Starlight can fix all this before Twilight tracks her down, right?

Story inspired by Axolotl222's comment on another fic of mine.

Art by vensual99 on Twitter. No link because their page is NSFW. Source goes directly to the collab this is associated to, though.

Published 2024-02-26 06:30:00 UTC
Last updated 2024-03-09 10:11:20 UTC

Bad Decisions

Starlight was having a bad start to her morning.

Last night, she had partied with her friends. Rainbow, Pinkie, and Rarity were all there, celebrating another year of teaching at the School of Friendship. Twilight hadn't joined them this time around as she had other royal commitments to attend to the very next day, and Rainbow Dash apparently had spilled to her that they were going to be drinking at the party.

Starlight wished she had gotten that heads up. They drank heavily that night, and it wasn’t because Pinkie had spiked the punch. No, it was because Starlight chose to drink that night with them, so this was mostly her fault. But Pinkie also hadn’t disclosed how much alcohol was in each drink, saying it ‘wasn’t that much’.

Spoiler alert, it was waaayyyyy too much. As a result, Starlight was nursing a massive headache this morning, punctuated by her holding her head with a forehoof. The headache hadn’t helped her put on her more official attire before she arrived, it only made her dwell on what had gone wrong while she sat at her desk in her office. She was donning her violet-buttoned, collared white shirt, which was captured by her copper star-shaped brooch that clasped the top of her collar. Over the top of her shirt was her fresh off her ironing board (she was wanting to at least look the part of a headmare!) magenta suit that was designed by Rarity a few weeks ago. However, despite how fancy her attire was, she was definitely missing a button or two, and she was more than confident that she looked like she had seen some things. Not to mention, on top of all of this, she was struggling with her magic, her horn fizzling every time she even tried to move her cup of coffee on her desk.

Note to self: never drink heavily again.

The only thing going for Starlight was that she had not woken up late. Her alarm she had set had rung loudly in her ears. Unfortunately, she had no backup plan if she had slept past her alarm. She would have had Spike to wake her up just in case, but the poor dragon had been planning on sleeping in that day, so she didn’t want to burden him with being her impromptu failsafe. Hence her alarm, her ear-splitting headache, and her arrival to the school.

Starlight was glad she was there early. She was finishing up the final new enrollments she had gotten this year. These students were more… different than last year, which was a shocker as her mind drifted to each one. They were all different in their own right, and they all had something to offer.

This year, they were supposed to get even more random. And she was super excited to see the values of friendship being spread all across Equestria!

She smiled as she got herself out of her seat. She had dealt with all the paperwork required for most of the students, but only one remained and they were the most questionable. Why? Well, she had little information to go off of. She had seen the roster last night after the party: Hippogriffs, Griffons, Changelings, Yaks, and Ponies just like before… but there was one. One that was unlisted in species. Their name was Ruff, and they were a male. That was it.

Who in the whole wide world of Equestria would name their son Ruff?

She shook her head and adjusted her mane. Maybe those drinks she had last night made her see things and the actual name of the student was like ‘Apple Crust’ and they forgot to list them as a pony. Yeah, he was just a pony, right? Or maybe this was some alcoholic amnesia and she was forgetting something important. Very importante, as Pinkie would put it.

With a flick of her horn, Starlight teleported to the front door of the school. Well, she’ll have to bite her tongue and approach Mr. Ruff with as much gumption as a hungover headmare could! Hopefully his name wasn’t a bad omen and they would have a great time getting to know each other.

Starlight sighed and summoned what little magic she had this morning in her reserves. She winced as she did so, struggling to fling the double doors open. She closed her eyes and sighed. She really wished she was someplace else right now. Maybe she should plan to go back to Cloudsdale or something? Rainbow Dash could hook her up with the works.

The doors to the School of Friendship swung open.

“Hello! My name is Ruff. And you are… uh, Miss Starlight Glimmer, right?”

Starlight opened her eyes.

“Yes, my name is—HOLY SHIT!”

She panicked upon seeing what was in front of her. A bright white light flashbanged her view of the creature, disorienting her surroundings through a blur. She could only see a silhouette of one that was tall, had large claws, and had its pearly, white, razor sharp teeth out for her to see.

That’s all she saw before she gave them a one-way ticket to Cloudsdale.

Princess Twilight Sparkle was having a bad start to her morning.

She had woken up past her early morning alarm. This was the first time she had ever slept past it, and this was surely one of those times she wanted to hope it was all a dream. It was, startling, to see that she had missed her train by about thirty minutes. It was earth-shattering that her mind was prattling on and on of the thoughts that everypony who had expected her to be there would say. Her long-standing streak of being punctual was suddenly dashed by a hazardous body clock.

So, she decided to be irrational, like the old days. She skipped breakfast and just teleported herself there.

That was her second mistake, as she forgot to bring the missive she needed to present to the Mayor of Cloudsdale, so she had to teleport her non-punctual goofy self back to Ponyville to then teleport once again back to Cloudsdale, as if she had never even teleported there in the first place. Somepony probably saw her, right?

By the time she got back her missive, and then triple checked—no, quadruple checked her list of items to bring, which were her saddlebags (to put the missive in, of course), the missive itself, some quill and ink, some paper, and a secondary list of action items to do AFTER the meeting with the Mayor of Cloudsdale (she was not fond of this list, it was boring), she realized that her magic was already on the fritz. The unplanned oversleeping, and the subsequent anxiety and forgetfulness were not the greatest ingredients for a tasty cocktail of friendship, and they certainly weren’t good for an early morning excursion to Cloudsdale.

She sighed, clip-clopping her way through downtown. Since she was now extremely early, she might as well recover her magic reserves by spending her time sight-seeing. Some ponies were bowing down to her as she passed, but she didn’t want to waste her energy telling them not to, as she was really not in the mood to correct every single one she ran into.

So, she opted to just pretend they weren’t bowing down to her and continued her journey.

MUNCH!

Oh, and she also stopped by one of the bakeries in Cloudsdale, which was why she was currently munching on a chocolate covered double cake doughnut. Carefully, she swallowed the bit she nommed from, smiling and licking her lips as she carried the pastry in her magic.

What else could she see? Not that Cloudsdale was like Ponyville: a place that acted quaint but was really a chaotic mess of friendship, or at least, that’s what Discord told her was the thesis of his twelve page review of it. He gave it an A+ because Fluttershy was there. She admired that he adored Fluttershy to the point of reform, but really? Fluttershy is the only redeeming feature that he liked? According to his notes, Ponyville would’ve been granted a B- if Fluttershy weren’t there!

Groaning inwardly, Twilight took the final bite of her doughnut and closed her eyes. She was happy she was here, but she really missed the spontaneousness of Ponyville. She also missed her friends, who had attended their ‘Another Year of Teaching and Learning’ party last night. And of course, she missed it because of her affairs that she had to attend to this morning. She wondered how they fared, since Pinkie had totally spiked their drinks with vodka she got from somepony who stopped by Sugarcube Corner recently. She had told her that the vodka was from some place out east, but she couldn’t remember the place. Ponies are now all over the globe these days.

Twilight’s thoughts drifted to a friend of hers that she missed the most: Starlight. Wasn’t she supposed to be greeting the first diamond dog student at this time? She had seen the enrollment papers with Spike prior to the party; it was exciting to finally see the diamond dogs unearth themselves from their caves to experience life outside, even if it did hurt their eyes a bit. Thankfully, a very nice diamond dog just so happened to be interested in the values of friendship and wanted to pursue them further after meeting herself and Starlight in the caves. It warmed her heart and her soul, knowing that it was because of their efforts that this was even a possibility. Their dedication and hard work in nurturing a partnership with the dogs finally surmounted to something.

So… how was Starlight doing?

Twilight smiled at the thought as she passed over a golden bridge, which, surprisingly, wasn't made of clouds. It was anchored magically between two larger and stronger sets of clouds, which were made of some rare metal that she read about—her doughnut was distracting her from remembering all the details. No matter what metal it was made of, this bridge represented a symbol of unity of Equestria’s founding, from what Twilight could recall. It also served as a safe spot in case somepony who didn’t have wings suddenly had their cloudwalking spell fade and they didn’t want to fall through Cloudsdale. In fact, several new spots formed across the town, as they were called ‘safe spots’. Twilight wasn’t sure why they hadn’t added more of these sooner.

Regardless of the speed of the creation of the other safe spots, it was great to see that the bridge still held up, but the small shrine that it led to was what Twilight really wanted to see. It was supposed to also commemorate the unification of Equestria, but unlike the bridge, it also served as a mini museum, with some artifacts that didn’t need to be held under surveillance twenty-four seven. Twilight could be wrong, though, as this was entirely based on her sleep-deprived memory.

In reality, she was certain it was just another shrine to Commander Hurricane—

Mmmmmmrrrriiiinnnngggggg!

Twilight yelped as her train of thought was derailed by a sudden pink-ish glow that formed right in front of her. The loud noise it emitted made her falter back, her wings now fully extended. She hoped that whatever was appearing in front of her wasn’t going to ruin her day.

Then, the glow dissipated and so too did the noise…

…and a Diamond Dog stood in front of her, blinking, its paw raised.

A few ponies that had also witnessed the sudden glow had run or flown away from the bridge, leaving just her to inspect the diamond dog. It was tall, brown, and had blue-ish eyes. Its paws were large, and its head was... normal, for a diamond dog.

“Hello…?”

The dog shook his head, before looking around, its ears flopping around. “Hello—Princess Twilight!?”

The dog bowed its head, much to Twilight’s chagrin.

She waved her forehooves. “You don’t need to bow to me!”

“But I must, that’s what I was told—”

Twilight sighed. “Well you have bowed long enough, sir…?”

“Ruff, ma’am. I… I was told to meet Miss Starlight Glimmer—”

She could feel her brow twitch at this one, while her ears were standing up proudly. “Come again?”

“I was told to meet—”

“That was a rhetorical question, Ruff. I apologize.”

“None taken,” Ruff replied, his paw returning to his side. He smiled rather sheepishly.

Twilight’s eyes bugged out. She knew who this was. Why was the student that Starlight was supposed to meet up here in Cloudsdale?

“Sorry, uh… where am I, princess?”

“You’re in Cloudsdale, Ruff,” she said, trotting up to him. She eyed him down a bit—he didn’t seem to be hurt at all during that sudden teleport. “Stay on this bridge, this is the only thing that’s solid for you to stand on.”

The diamond dog stood still and looked down at the sites below. “Wow, is that Ponyville down there?”

“Yes,” Twilight said, as she too looked down from where they were at. She could still see the Castle of Friendship from up here—wait, focus! “While I'd love to point out the landmarks of Ponyville from up here, it’s… not good that you’re up here. How did you…?”

Ruff held his front paws together as he continued to peer down at Ponyville. “Miss Starlight Glimmer teleported me up here, princess.”

Twilight’s eyes bugged out for a second time in a row. “P-Pardon?”

“Miss Starlight Glimmer—”

“No, I heard you, Ruff. I’m just… confused. Did she say why?”

Ruff turned to her and shook his head. “Nope! She just said her name was HOLY SHIT and then teleported me here.”

A third time for good measure, her wings now flared while her horn sparked. “She said WHAT?”

“Exactly! I’m just as confused as you are, princess. Is that how ponies greet each other? I don’t know, it’s my first time being out of the caves and I was worried—”

Twilight folded her wings to her sides and sat on her flanks. “I’m shocked that she said that to you. That is not how ponies greet anyone, let alone each other. I apologize on her behalf. Could you… did you get a good look at her before she teleported you?”

Ruff shrugged. “Not sure what you mean by a good look. I’m not one to judge a pony. All I know is that her mane was a bit frazzled and she had definitely jumped when she saw me.”

“Exactly how I expected her to look,” Twilight began, her disappointment immeasurable. She rubbed her temples with her forehooves. “Anything else you saw?”

“Other than a bright light and then turning up here?”

Twilight nodded. “Yes. Other than that.”

Ruff shook his head. “Nope. I am as in the dark on this as you are, ma’am.”

“Well, if that’s the case. Maybe you and I need to go head back so we can get you fully enrolled.”

“Yes—wait how did you know it was—”

“Your first day?” Twilight finished. Ruff nodded, so she continued, “I saw that you were on the list of new students. Congratulations on being the first diamond dog to attend the school!”

Ruff nodded. “Thank you, princess. Although, I hope I don’t get teleported again by her. With what you said, you think I did something wrong?”

Twilight shook her head. “No, you didn’t do anything wrong, Ruff. I think Starlight may have woken up on the wrong side of her bed.”

“Truly?”

“Oh, trust me. I am ninety-nine point nine, nine, nine percent positive she is a victim of sleep deprivation and not-so-good antics.” She got off her flanks and offered Ruff a smirk. “You want to go back to see her?”

“Are you coming with me?”

“Of course I am! I have to talk to her about this, since now I’m curious why she teleported you here, of all places.”

Ruff laughed. “Don’t worry, princess. She probably didn’t mean it.”

“Oh she didn’t mean to, but she’s certainly going to explain why she did it.” Twilight unfurled one of her wings and guided Ruff to her side. “Are you ready?”

Ruff nodded. A purple glow surrounded them before Twilight flicked her horn.

And then they were gone.

Starlight Glimmer's heart was beating out of her chest. There was no way she just teleported what was most likely a new student of the School of Friendship. And based on what little she heard or saw, she teleported Ruff, the one that was listed as an unknown species.

Why did she do that? What was wrong with her?

Starlight winced as she held her head. That magic exertion just strengthened that headache of hers tenfold, her brain now pulsing images of the drinks she had drank last night, and the subsequent punishment that she was going to be served if she couldn’t find Ruff!

She paused as she scampered back to her office.

So, she was screwed. She was SCREWED. She needed to fix this now, but how? Never once in her entire time of being at this school had she done something as drastic as forcibly teleporting a prospective student to another place entirely on their first day.

And on top of that… she believed it was Ruff. Ruff… the name was so familiar.

She gasped as an image of a brown diamond dog with floppy ears and blue eyes greeted her vision. Ruff was a diamond dog. The diamond dog. The ‘one that they had to push for over the past few months just to get him to enroll’ diamond dog. And she just screwed the pooch on that one—er, phrasing, Starlight!

She groaned. Her headache was beating her right now, and her horn was just sparking all over her desk. Little specks of magical unicorn dust flickered by the list, with Ruff’s name circled in red. Her coffee cup was still hanging by the edge. She thought about bumping it off her desk to cool herself off, but all that would do would stain the floor and shatter the cup into splinters of glass. She wasn’t a fan of the clean up. Instead, she moved the cup away from her desk, choosing to leave it on a nearby cabinet that had nothing on it.

Starlight put her face in her forehooves and screamed out in frustration. She needed to calm down and think of a method of recourse for this blunder. To start, she needed to know where the poor diamond dog was. Where had she teleported him again? What was she thinking right before Ruff introduced himself?

Starlight gasped and planted her face on her desk.

She had teleported him to Cloudsdale.

And Twilight was there! Right. Now.

Starlight popped herself upright and jumped off her seat. “I need to hightail it to Cloudsdale now!”

She shook her head and focused enough to cast one more minor spell: a cloud-walking spell. She’ll need it in case she needs to go around Cloudsdale to find him. But it shouldn’t be hard to find him. After all, there was only one place in Cloudsdale that would’ve made sense. The one place where a Diamond Dog wouldn’t just fall through the clouds.

The Bridge of Unification.

Without a moment to spare, Starlight teleported, leaving the door to her office wide open for anypony to see.

Author's Note

The start of something extremely goofy.

More to come soon.

All chapters are titled by Bad Omens tracks, just fyi. Bad Decisions is linked here.

Just Pretend

Twilight and Ruff walked into the atrium at the School of Friendship.

“Wow, this place is huge!”

Twilight gave Ruff a weak smile. “Welcome to the School of Friendship, Ruff. This is the atrium, the main area where students can mingle in-between classes or when classes have stopped for the day. It’s…” Twilight paused and stretched her wings. “It’s meant for a place of rest, mostly. I’ll let Starlight show you this in your main tour. We just need to find her, that's all.”

She turned to her left and beckoned Ruff with her wing. “Come on, Ruff. I’ll show you her office.”

Ruff smiled and stood right beside her, beaming. “Yes, Princess Twilight!”

Twilight felt her heart do a somersault at that. A diamond dog that is this enthusiastic about learning friendship? It warmed her heart. Not that diamond dogs were bad company; no, no, no, she knew better to not assume now. This was just… new. And if she could find Starlight, maybe this whole mistake could be corrected and everything would turn back to normal.

So, she walked down the hall of offices and beelined straight for Starlight’s room. It was the largest one in the school, with enough room to put a state-of-the-art typewriter in. It was imported from Canterlot for this year’s semester, and she was curious if it really did speed up production of documentation. After all, it was fairly large, and very pony friendly even for Earth ponies.

She put that thought in her back pocket of her mind as she walked into the roo—

Twilight stood ramrod. Her eyes blinked. Her mouth felt dry. Her brain misfired. Her nerves were on end. A chilling rush of adrenaline raced down her spine.

Starlight’s office was a mess. Papers were cluttered; a cup of coffee without the cup (just the plate) was sitting on a filing cabinet that was bow-echoed at the top; the bulletin board behind Starilight’s desk was tilted at a seventy-three point two hundred and thirty-nine degree angle, a number so odd that not even Twilight wished it upon anypony; and most of all, in the center of her friend’s desk was a copy of Ruff’s enrollment papers, with his name circled in red. Nothing on the forms were filled out. Just a circle in red. And an unidentified species listing glaring at her, menacingly.

She walked into the office further, inspecting the damages. The cup of coffee? The contents were unsalvageable, staining the floor with its remains, while the porcelain cup had shattered, its shards displaced near Starlight’s crude wooden chair. On top of it all, accompanying the remains of the good morning treat, a few pages and an empty inkwell were on the floor too, finding purchase with nothing but the carpet singularity, a shade of indigo that distracted Twilight immensely, not because of irritation, but because it reminded her of something.

Starlight was gone.

Where was she? Were there any clues in Starlight’s office? Twilight felt her wings attempt to unfurl as she stood there, eyes scanning over Starlight’s desk. She sifted through the contents of the paperwork with her forehooves, rearing up on her hindlegs. It was fairly standard for every enrollment: standard information of the student, where the student would fill out their personal information before providing some form of payment. For Ruff, they chose a monthly payment plan paid by a mutual benefactor, which turned out to be Ruff’s ‘guardians’. These guardians were actually friends of Ruff, almost as if they were littermates rather than parents. Parents, from what Twilight gleaned, weren’t always around for Diamond Dogs. Only their littermates were a constant, a definite cultural shift that made Twilight wonder how Starlight would have to accommodate him and—

She sighed. Focus. She needed to find out what happened here. She used her magic to levitate the forms, stacking them neatly on the desk. She flipped through a few before stumbling upon something that stood out: a sticky note attached to the whole copy. It was glaring at her with a schedule of events that were listed to four numbered steps. They read as follows:

𝒞𝓁𝑒𝒶𝓃 𝓊𝓅 𝓂𝓎 𝑜𝒻𝒻𝒾𝒸𝑒 𝓈𝓅𝒶𝒸𝑒.

𝒞𝑜𝓂𝓅𝓁𝑒𝓉𝑒 𝑒𝓃𝓇𝑜𝓁𝓁𝓂𝑒𝓃𝓉 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝑅𝓊𝒻𝒻.

𝒢𝒾𝓋𝑒 𝓉𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓉𝑜 𝑅𝓊𝒻𝒻.

𝒜𝓈𝓀 𝒜𝓅𝓅𝓁𝑒𝒿𝒶𝒸𝓀 𝒶𝒷𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝓁𝑒𝓈𝓈𝑜𝓃 𝓅𝓁𝒶𝓃𝓈.

She really wanted to crumble up that stupid note attached to this, but part of Twilight was… happy. Happy that she at least had her day somewhat scheduled. Well, not that the schedule mattered anymore, it was already muddled on step one, and shredded to bits by step two.

Twilight gritted her teeth before letting out a slight groan. The only thing that helped was that Applejack, of all ponies, was in today. She needed to go find her, and fast. Maybe she’d have some answers to the problems at hoof.

Turning, Twilight walked out of the office. Ruff, who she had almost forgotten about, was standing there, looking at her with a solemn expression, his eyes tracking her but they were not looking all too thrilled to see Starlight not in the room.

“Princess?”

“Yes, Ruff?”

“Is… is Miss Starlight Glimmer missing?”

Twilight didn’t know how to answer that question without giving off a sense of disparity. So, she opted to just be honest.

“I don’t know, Ruff. I don’t know.” Twilight walked by Ruff, only to stop and turn to address him. “Follow me. We’re going to find somepony who I believe may know where Headmare Starlight is.”

Ruff nodded curtly, twiddling with his paws as he followed her. The two exited the hall and into the atrium, hoping to find the pony that caused all of this as soon as they could.

Starlight was having a massive panic attack.

She was overlooking Ponyville, staring from above on the Bridge of Unification. She felt her gaze falter, shaking as she narrowed her gaze on the School of Friendship. It was a blur from where she saw it. The clouds shrouded it like a mask of fog that disoriented her view. Her forehooves shook as she realized the magnitude of her decision.

Focus, Starlight. Focus. Breathe.

She filled her lungs with that joyous O2 before shivering, and exhaling the feelings that she could only imagine to see as a mask that concealed her anxiety. She kept her forehooves on the ledge of the bridge, settling there while her hind legs anchored her. Then, she let her forehooves find purchase with the bridge again. She turned and noticed that some ponies were looking at her, but they did not choose to stare for long, choosing to look elsewhere or return to their previous conversations.

She looked insane to them, didn’t she?

Her mind flickered between each. She needed to ask somepony, but none of them seemed to be knowledgeable—if their glares were anything to go with. It would be best to start fresh.

And she did. She had done so. Several ponies passed, and some she asked:

“Have you seen a diamond dog up here?”

“Have you come across a diamond dog traversing the Clouds of Dale today?”

“Diamond dog. About yee high. Looks like he means business—I-I mean, he looks like he could own a business, if he studied enough! Have you seen him?”

All these different ways of asking. All these different ponies. All these different measurements for yee high—

She frowned.

Did ponies up here in Cloudsdale have terrible memory or something? Or were her measurements off?

Starlight sighed. She wasn’t going to find him by just standing here on the bridge. She should try to walk around Cloudsdale. Maybe that’d help her get closer to finding him instead of pacing this stupid bridge!

Steeling herself, Starlight puffed out her chest, took a deep breath, and turned around to—

“Hey, are you Starlight?”

“Yes, I am,” Starlight began, this time prepping herself to not teleport this creature to another random location of her mind’s choosing. Thankfully, upon seeing it wasn’t something that was going to attack her like one of those cheesy slashers, she realized it was just a mare. A yellow furred mare. With a teal mane. Starlight smiled at her, or at least attempted to, her lip was twitching out of control. “And you are?”

“Oh, sorry. Name’s Raindrops. I’m actually from Ponyville but I stopped by Cloudsdale today since Rainbow Dash told me to go to this All Things Weather convention to help the weather team out. Not that she’s really in charge of it anymore, but getting advice from her wouldn’t hurt, would it?”

The name sounded familiar… Had she ran into this pony in Ponyville before? “No, it wouldn’t—well, unless you were asking her about flying advice, then it may hurt.” She giggled-snorted before clearing her throat. “So, why did she tell you to go to a weather convention?”

“Ponyville hasn’t been getting enough cloud coverage lately, and it’s probably due to us not meeting regulations from the factory,” Raindrops droned, before letting out a burst of giggles. “Regulations? Pfft… we’ve winged it down there for so long, I’m surprised she actually recommended me to go to one of these things!” She let out one final laugh before calming herself down. “Hah, good to see you, Starlight! I heard from some ponies you were asking them about something that was on the bridge recently—”

“Wait, you know about that?” Starlight asked, her voice raising slightly as she squeaked in excitement.

Raindrops took a step back and cleared her throat. “Kinda. Ponies were shouting about some light suddenly appearing on the bridge and it apparently sounded like ‘somepony created a wormhole and it was going to suck them into it!’. Pegasi and their imaginations can go places not even wings were meant to take them. Me, on the other hoof, knew two things: one, that it was most likely magic dissipating and it wasn’t going to eat them, and two, that the thing on the bridge was most likely something they haven’t seen before.”

Starlight’s eyes widened. “Was that thing a diamond dog by chance?”

Raindrops raised a brow before tapping her chin. “I think it was. Either that or it was one of Discord’s ‘Create A Species’ attempts. Heard rumors that he’s been doing those and—why are you looking at me like that?”

Starlight felt her heart race, and her legs suddenly turned into stone as she kept her gaze glued on Raindrops. “Are you sure it wasn’t something else?”

Raindrops rolled her eyes. “”Pretty certain it was a diamond dog. Most of the ponies were too terrified to go check, but living in Ponyville made me realize that I couldn’t be afraid, because I’ve already seen pretty much every single scary thing in existence!” She giggled before continuing, “Thankfully, I checked. I actually was able to catch a glimpse before it and a certain somepony you might know blinked out of existence.”

“And… and who was that?”

“Princess Twilight Sparkle. She had teleported the diamond dog and herself somewhere. Probably back to Ponyville and—Starlight, are you okay?”

Starlight blinked. She blinked hard. Harder than any pony else before. When she opened her eyes again, she was seeing stars of all colors flickering and dancing around Raindrops’ head and to make things worse, her heart was hammering in her ears. It was like she couldn’t feel, only hear the racket that pulsed through her brain, making her face numb.

Was she about to pass out?

She took one more look at Raindrops.

“Do… Do you mind if I pass out here?”

“Uh… yes. I don’t think I or anyone else would be a fan of that.”

Starlight blinked. “That’s too bad.”

The two stared at each other.

…

…

…

And then Starlight saw her world go upside down.

Author's Note

Can you guys believe that I was roadblocked by two words?

...

No?

Well it happened.

Song for this chapter wasn't actually the Bad Omen's track this is named after. Catch Your Breath's Shame On Me carried me to the finish line. Nice.

Anyway, onto the next one! I may add another chapter in here so we might be seeing three more instead of two. I hope that's okay. :twilightsmile: