What in Celestia's Name does Cliche' Mean?

What in Celestia’s Name does Cliché Mean?

Prologue.

Remote Island in the Pacific Ocean

July 16, 2 AD (After Disaster)

11:37 am local time

Maximum Ride…

Max was having a good day, at least by her standards. Gazzy and Iggy weren’t making homemade bombs, Angel was playing with Total and his pups, Dylan had a crab in his hair, Nudge wasn’t being hit on, and she and Fang were relaxing. Wait…Dylan had a?

….Never mind.

Max stretched out on her blanket on the sand. She yawned a ferocious yawn. Fang laughed.

“That’s attractive.” he said, teasing her. Max rolled onto her side.

“You’re just jealous that I can fit all of Mexico in my mouth.” she replied.

“Oh, yeah. I’m jealous. I am wallowing in my pit of jealousy of how you can stuff a country famous for burritos in your mouth.” Fang said. He rolled his eyes.

Max laughed and rolled onto her stomach. She folded her arms beneath her head and settled in to nap. The sun bore down on her back, bare besides her wings and the straps of her bikini. She didn’t even like it. She felt like…like a girl in it.

Because her mood swings, feminine nature, and body parts hadn’t made her feel like a girl at all until then.

All of a sudden, Fang began rubbing the spot between her wings.

“You’ll get a sunburn if you just lay around all naked like that.” he said, rubbing sunscreen across her back.

Max pushed herself up onto her elbows.

“I am not naked! I have on a top.” she exclaimed.

“That’s not a top.” he said, raising an eyebrow.

Max suddenly realized where this was going. And she wasn’t going to fall for it. “Very funny, Fang.” she said, returning to her original position.

“Then why aren’t you laughing?” he asked.

“Oh, sorry. It was just so funny that I forgot to laugh.” Max replied. She turned her head away from him, to get more comfortable.

“Are you irritated?” Fang asked, climbing on top of her.

“Wh-what are you doing?” she asked, trying to get up.  Fang leaned into her hair and then began nibbling her ear. Max blushed furiously, turning tomato red. Her heart sped up and her breath caught in her throat. She still wasn’t used to this…………………………..yeah.

“I was going to whisper sweet nothings into your ears…” He rolled off her and she turned onto her side. Fang nuzzled into her neck, softly kissing her collar bone. Max closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around him.

“You never answered my question.” he said.

“Mmm?” Max mumbled.

“How can this be a top when,” his fingers wandered to her back, where he began to unhook her bikini, “it comes off so easily?”

Max’s eyes shot open and she screamed. Like a girl. Not like a winged-mutant girl who could kick more butt than Jackie Chan. Like a normal girl.

If her face was tomato red earlier, then her face was….more than tomato red now. Her immediate reflex was to knee Fang in the stomach. He let go of her straps with an oomph. She got to her feet, fumbling with the hooks. But when she felt them, she found they were still attached. Fang hadn’t done anything.

Except get kneed in his stomach.

Max stood stiffly, as she watched Fang laugh. She couldn’t tell which pain made him clutch his stomach, her kneeing him or him laughing so hard. She let out a humph, and spun on her heel. She was more embarrassed at the way she reacted then upset at him trying to undress her.

I bet my face looks like a stoplight, she thought. Max the Stoplight. Right now, all traffic has stopped until I get sick somewhere along the line and turn green.

Max stomped through the sand. It wasn’t really stomping though. Stomping is when you can hear the person’s footsteps, because they STOMP on the ground. But this…this was like a wannabe stomping. Max’s “stomps” just forced her feet deeper into the sand. She sunk with each step. It was a pathetic get-away.

She kept “stomping” until she reached the water. The waves splashed in every direction and rushed across the sand. She ran into the ocean, splashing water as she waded deeper. The sun was blazing above her and the water was icy cold. The waves swept across her, along with sand and seashells.

She kept swimming out farther until she couldn’t feel the sand beneath her anymore. She unfolded her wings, letting them glide through the water. She spun in slow circles, her wings trailing behind her gracefully. All her embarrassment melted away when she reached the water.

Max dived below the waves, the rush of cold and salt stinging her face and eyes. She peered through the eerie darkness, kicking her legs behind her. It’s kind of mysterious and creepy down here, she thought to herself. Ha, like Fang.

It feels like I can swim for hours, she thought as she swam deeper. I mean, with gills n’ all. She touched her neck where the little, rubbery flaps had grown since entering the water. She could feel the water going in and coming out, but she paid little attention to it.

The farther down she went, the colder and darker it got. She had expected to be able to see where she was going, but it was all dim. That’s odd, she thought. It was still bright out.

Max swam around, squinting through the salt. She couldn’t see anything, not even any fish. In fact, she hadn’t felt anything but the currents since she had entered the water. Where were the fish? She drifted along, her arms outstretched in front of her, trying to feel something.

The currents played with her hair, sweeping it across her face. She began to swim back to the surface. She had a terrible feeling that something was wrong. Her instincts were telling her to get out of the water. She didn’t know why, though. There wasn’t anything in the water, as far as she could tell. It was quiet.

Too quiet.

Max hadn’t minded the cold, until then. The icy temperature felt like needles puncturing her skin. The currents seemed to become stronger, whipping and clashing around her.

Max began to panic. She flailed her arms in an effort to free herself from the currents that were growing stronger by the minute. Although she knew in the back of her mind that she couldn’t possibly drown, not while having gills and all, she panicked nonetheless. Her instincts were still screaming at her to get out of the water. Her heart pounded so fast that she couldn’t hear any pauses between her heartbeats. Her fear rose the longer she stayed in the water.

She felt as though she had been in the water for hours. She kicked her legs furiously and flapped her wings, trying to push through the water. Her arms grew tired, and soon, so did her legs. Slowly, she began to sink. The currents were so strong by then that she was being thrashed around like a doll. Max could feel the waves above her growing larger and more powerful.

Where was Fang? Why hasn’t he come? He should’ve noticed something was wrong. But then, where was he?

Max spun through the waves, helplessly. She couldn’t see anything through the darkness, nor could she feel anything. After all this being thrashed around in the water, you’d think she would’ve slammed up against some coral or rocks. But that wasn’t the case at all. She just kept spinning through the water.

Max had been under the water for so long now that she had gone numb. The cold had dulled her senses, and exhausted her. Her vision began blurring. When she noticed this, she gasped, letting air bubbles out and sea water in. She choked on the water, coughing. Instead, she let more water in. She couldn’t help but cough-her body reacted without a second thought.

She sunk lower and lower, clutching at her chest. She tried kicking her legs again, to try and reach the surface. She tried holding in her coughs, but the longer she held them in, the worse they threatened to escape.

No, she thought, I am not going to let this stop me. Swim Max, swim dammit!

It was then that she realized that she had no idea which direction she was going. After being spun around for so long, she didn’t know where the surface was anymore. But then, where was she headed? She wasn’t swimming deeper was she?

Max pushed those thoughts away, and tried to reassure herself that she was going the right way. If she was swimming deeper, it would’ve become colder and darker. I’ll make it, she thought.

She couldn’t hold her coughs in anymore. She stopped, coughing and swallowing in more water. She closed her eyes, when all of a sudden, a giant wave came crashing through the water. It pushed her back down.

The sea had become a raging monster in such a short time.

Her mind flashed to years before, when the Disaster occurred. She remembered how helpless she and Fang felt, clinging to each other as the tsunami came closer. She remembered thinking that she was going to die, just as Angel had predicted only moments before. She remembered feeling…defeated.

The memories swarmed her. Once again, she felt defeated.

She closed her eyes, letting the waves carry her farther out into the sea. She felt the water entering and leaving her gills as she spiraled through the water. She concentrated on only breathing, and nothing else. She fought off the memories and ignored the cold.

When all of a sudden, she felt a stronger force pulling on her. She began  flowing through the water faster and faster. She spun in circles, being dragged down to the ocean floor. Max was caught in a whirlpool. A very large whirlpool.

Ponyville, Equestria

December 26, 1003 CA (Celestian Age)

12:56 pm Central Equestrian Time (CET)

Rainbow Dash…

   If there is one thing that Rainbow Dash hates it would be being woken up too early. Unfortunately for her that is exactly what happened to her. It being the day after going to a dinner party with Discord didn’t help either, but Twilight wanted her help with a new teleportation spell the crazy old coot. Why Twilight needed to know about anything that goat dragon thing said was what Rainbow thought was stupid, but she was always willing to help a friend out, especially if it meant she got the new Daring Do early.

“Rainbow, I need you to stand completely still. Are you alright with that?” Twilight asked the speedster.

“Sure thing egghead just-YAWN!-do fast. I’ve got a nap with my name on it,” Rainbow replied as she was still adjusting to the waking world, "Why do you want to try this spell out? What if Discord is trying to get rid of us or something?"

“I know that he could be up to something, but I just really want to impress the Princess with something since there really hasn't been that many friendship reports lately.” The lavender unicorn said, “ Anyway just get ready. Now on the count of three. One two thr-”

  Just as Twilight was about to cast the spell Spike burst in with a letter.

“Hey Twi-” Was as far as the young dragon got before Twilight screamed and cast the spell prematurely.

BOOM!!!

And then Rainbow Dash was sent into another universe.

And Yes I know….cliché.