Chapters Prologue:
Twilight Sparkle nervously paced back and forth inside her library, her eyes darting between multiple scrolls that were levitated in front of her. One scroll in particular was slightly larger and more weathered than the rest, with its paper turned a yellowed tan with centuries of age. It was this scroll that held the violet pony's attention the most as she tried to decipher its contents.
A young purple dragon watched from the sidelines of the rapid study, but grew more and more concerned as time went on. Spike eventually gathered up enough courage to interrupt the maelstrom of quills and scrolls to get to the pony in the center.
"Twilight, you haven't slept since you got that old scroll of yours..." Spike said as he ducked an incoming inkwell.
"Uhuh Spike, that's good. Just put the toast on the table, I'll be there in a minute." It was obvious that she didn't really hear what he said and that was just a reflex.
Spike moved closer and nabbed the floating scroll from the magic that encased it. Twilight was instantly aware of her surroundings, her eyes scanning for the missing scroll. She was a mess, her eyes where bloodshot and deep purple bags had appeared under each eye. Her hair was a mess as well and seemed to shoot out in several directions from lack of care. She eventually spied the scroll in Spikes claws and attempted to pry it from him, but the little drake held fast. Eventually Twilight stopped; if she tugged anymore the scroll might get damaged.
"Spike, I need that!" The mare almost screeched.
"And you need some sleep!" Spike yelled back, with enough force that it surprised the Unicorn. "Do you even know how long you've been working on this thing?"
Twilight shrugged, "Maybe a day or so?" she ventured sheepishly.
Spike gave her a disapproving look, "Three days, straight."
"Oh wow, was it really that long?" She noticed just then the extent of how exhausted she really was and started to keel over. Spike rushed over and managed to catch the falling mare, barely. A brown barn owl swooped in and saved several of the most important things from crashing to the floor. Spike struggled as he lifted the purple pony and made his way up the steps to the loft.
"Thanks Spike," Twilight said as she stiffed a yawn, "you're not my number one assistant for nothing"
Spike grunted as he made the last leg of the trip and lowered Twilight onto her bed. "Ah don't sweat it Twilight, that's what I'm for." He looked down at the scroll he had saved Twilight from, "I know that the Princesses had asked you to find out the mystery of that old thing, but I don't think that you should wreak yourself over it." He turned back to see that she had already fallen fast asleep, still dreaming of what the scroll might contain. She knew she was close.
Chapter One: Down the Rabbit Hole
Twilight's friends had gathered in the library after hearing that Twilight had made a break through. They were all anxious to hear about what it was that had kept their friend so busy the last week. If it were just a simple task, then she would have done it in a day, but it seemed that this wasn't at all simple, and that worried them a bit. The last time Twilight had made a discovery of this level it had been an accurate prediction of the return of Nightmare Moon. And the fact that Princess Celestia had given Twilight the task of decrypting the scroll instead of somepony from Canterlot made it look like something that needed the best of the best. But their trust in their friend had kept them from thinking the worst would happen, and so they didn't panic, yet.
The girls had formed a semi-circle around a well rested Twilight and prepared themselves for a long lecture that usually accompanied these kinds of events. Twilight cleared her throat as she readied herself. She levitated the scroll in question in front of her and placed it down onto a small wooden table. They all stared at her with their full attention, well, almost all of them. Rainbow Dash had since started nodding foreword, her eyes fluttering closed. Applejack nudged the teal blue Pegasus, several times until Rainbow Dash shot up and scowled at the orange Earth Pony. Everyone thought that a brawl might break out, but it was defused as Twilight cleared her throat again and glared at both of them. They stopped and paid attention from then on.
"Girls, as you know for the past week I've been trying to understand what this scroll contains. It was found after an excavation of some ancient pony ruins past the Everfree forest. This scroll contains ancient magic that dates back to the foundation of Equestira!" Twilight started to get excited as she began to reveal her discovery.
Rarity raised a hoof from where she lay on her red velvet sofa, "Yes Rarity?"
"I don't mean to sound rude darling. But isn't Equestira over several thousand years old? How could that little piece of tacky parchment have survived as long as it did buried in some old ruin?"
"Well, although the ruin was, well, a ruin. An encasing spell had held it and protected it all these years. Those ancients had held it in such awe that they protected it even as their civilization crumbled. But what's really interesting are these." Twilight held up the scroll and unraveled it fully in front of the group; they all let out a collective gasp. There at the bottom of the scroll under some ancient text that none of them could read; were all the symbols of the Elements of Harmony. Now they knew why Twilight was given the artifact and nopony else.
Applejack was the first to recover from the awe, "Then that there'll mean the Elements had somethi'n to do with this scroll."
"Exactly!" Twilight beamed as her friends caught on, "The Elements of Harmony are the oldest and most powerful sources of magic known to ponydom! These ancient Ponies seemed to have a connection with them, and that this scroll ties into them as well. Who knows, maybe these ponies where even responsible for their creation!"
"This is all very exciting Twilight, but why should it be this important? I mean, we already know how to use them, why should we care about the little details when there could be more important things?" The rainbow maned Pegasus said nonchalantly as she flew circles around the library.
"Because Rainbow, I found out a way to make the elements work at optimal capacity!" Twilight grinned.
"Optical whatnow?" asked a slightly puzzled Applejack.
"It means dear, that the Elements can become more powerful," Rarity said as she filed a hoof.
"So, that means that there can be twice the amount of fun we can do with them?!" Pinkie Pie said as a wide smile stretched her face.
"Yes Pinkie, it means that we can do more with them, even do things that we weren't able to do before." Twilight said as she rolled up the scroll and placed it back down.
"Um...if I might ask...doesn't that sound a bit...dangerous?" A cream yellow mare with a long pink mane that covered most of her faced asked from behind Rarity's sofa.
"She's right there Twi, I don't reckon that this here is the best thing ta do. What if we end up hurt'n somepony?" There were several nods as Applejack made her point.
"Well, that's why we'll use it out and away from anypony. I've already told the Princess of my plan, and she's approved of it. We can try it out in the badlands near Appaloosa." Twilight reassured her friends. They agreed that was the best plan and they all knew from the experience of the Royal Wedding awhile back, that there were even greater powers out there than The Elements. With the revelations passed, they all started imaging what feats they might accomplish with their new power.
"I bet that I can throw everpony in the entire world a party all at once!" Pinkie said as she pranced around the room.
"Oh don't be silly dear, with it I could create the most absolutely divine dress ever conceived of!" Rarity swooned at the prospect of the glorious dress and the fame with it.
"Ha, are you kidding me?" Rainbow scoffed, "with it I could reach unbelievable speeds! I could easily create the greatest Sonic Rainboom EVER!
"Yep, that there sure is unbelievable," Applejack said.
Dash looked down at the Stetson wearing Earth Pony, "Oh, and you might have a better idea then?" She challenged.
"Eeyyp, we could easily feed every pony in Equestria. No more starvati'n in Stalliongrad or Zebrica!" They all had to admit that it was a pretty good idea. They all soon left to prepare for their journey to the badlands.
Two days and a train ride later the girls were at Appaloosa Station. There they met Applejack's cousin Braeburn, as well as Chef Thunderhooves and Little Strongheart. They spent some time catching up and sharing a few stories of what happened since they last met. Braeburn lent Applejack the family cart, since when they tried to ask some of the carriages for a ride they just took one look at A.J. and promptly refused. They all had a laugh at the memory of the carriage chance they had before. Pinkie laughed the hardest, but Rarity still seemed to harbor some resentment from the whole affair. They stayed the night in town, and had a little feast to the reunion.
The next day the six mares left for the badlands after their farewells to everypony in town. By the time they had reached their destination it was well past high noon. And they reached the spot none too soon, as a few of them were about to strangle Pinkie for asking for the billionth time "Are we there yet" The area was flat and expanded in all directions until it met the dusty blue horizon, a few mesas dotted the expanse, and a tumble weed rolled past occasionally, but otherwise there was nothing but dirt and dust all around them.
"Perfect, with this nopony will be harmed if something were to go wrong," Twilight said to herself.
Rainbow Dash flew over to her Violet friend, "That's actually something that's been bothering me Twi, are you sure that nothing will go wrong? I mean it would be totally awesome to give the Elements a boost, but if we get hurt then it won't be so awesome." Dash said, being uncharacteristically somber.
Twilight looked back at her friends, and saw that they were also thinking the same things. Granted nopony wanted to get vaporized, so Twilight couldn't blame them.
"Nopony is going to get hurt," She reassured her friends, "the only reason why we're out here is because the princess just wants to be extra cautious. I've studied the scroll several times, and I know the enchantment by heart. The spell acts as an energizer for the elements, and this isn't the first time it's been done. The ponies of old managed it, so I think we can too. Besides, I trust you all. There's nothing that can stop us if we work together."
All the girls looked back at Twilight with renewed courage. "We're with ya Twilight, whenever you're ready." Applejack said as she donned her necklace, the others followed suit and all of them formed a circle
Twilight donned her Crown and proceeded to chant something that none of the others could make sense of. She closed her eyes, and took a breath as if she was about to go under water. Suddenly she opened her eye lids, but what were under them weren't her deep purple irises, but a blinding white light. A high pitched noise also came from her mouth; the sound was unlike anything they had heard before and was almost like a cross between a song bird's whistle and the screeching breaks of a runaway train. She started to levitate, and soon the others did the same. Pinkie giggled as a tingling feeling washed over them like a wave of static. Rarity, said something about how hard it would be to get her mane back to normal, but otherwise didn't mind. After the tingling had passed a heat started to emit from each of their necklaces, it wasn't a scorching burn like heat, but more of a warmth that started to spread though out their bodies. One by one they started to emit the same blinding light as Twilight though their eyes. They could feel the Elements searching their very being for the element that each of them possessed. The process wasn't painful, but it felt odd to the girls.
Eventually the sound and light grew louder and brighter, everything seemed to turn whitewashed with each of their floating bodies highlighted with charcoal black. The noise reached unbearable levels, and even if they tried to flatten their ears to block out the sound it still pierced their heads. Then when everyone thought that they couldn't take it anymore and that they might lose their sanity, everything turned to black as they all fell unconscious.
Twilight was the first to recover from among her friends. Her head throbbed with a headache that would probably stick with her for days, and she felt funny. Her stomach churned and she barely contained her contents of her last meal coming up. She tried opening her eyes from the darkness, only to be greeted by even more darkness. She looked up and saw stars above, "I must have been out for quite some time," she thought to herself. She attempted to right herself only to fall down again. "I must still be dizzy from the enchanting," she told herself. But something was really off, and worry started to grow inside her. Just then she noticed something odd about herself. She was colder than usual, and moving a hoof to her belly she noticed that her coat had disappeared. But with this came another startling realization, though being bald was startling enough, it was the way she felt her now bald belly. Shakily Twilight moved her hoof up to the stars and screamed. Instead of her round hoof, there was a hand with claws similar to Spike's. Though these claws weren't sharp, they where long and jointed. Twilight moved her other hoof to make sure it was like the other, and sure enough it was.
Shock still holding her, she contemplated just laying there on the ground. But with curiosity brewing and a concern for her friends growing, Twilight put her new hands on the ground and pushed herself up enough to get a look at her surroundings. Her prediction was right; she saw that eveypony wasn't a pony anymore. Even in the dark, she could tell that all six of them where now anything but a pony. Some of the others were also starting to regain consciousness. And just then she heard a rumbling, and turned to peer into two bright lights fast approaching them.
William Hartmann was a bit lost in thought as he drove his truck along Highway 50 just outside Reno Nevada. He had just finished his work in one of the many hangers at Reno Stead Airport, and was on his way back home. A quick glance at the radio told that it was 3:27am. The radio was of out of place in the old beat up 1978 Ford Ranger, it was only a year old but that put it at least three decades younger than the truck it was installed in. At the moment it was blasting queen's bohemian rhapsody. But even that didn't seem to change Will's mood.
"'Oh, you want a raise boy?'" Will said to himself, mimicking his boss's gruff voice, "'Well, you need to earn it though hard work over time my boy! You can't just expect the world to give you everything!' I already knew that you old fart! I've been working on planes since I was sixteen, I worked for you for four years, and I can easily do a better job than most of your other grease monkeys! But oh no, you can't get a simple raise simply because you don't have the seniority!" Will shouted at the road ahead as if it was his pudgy boss's face.
Eventually after his little brooding, and rant, William felt a little better. Deep down, he knew that his boss was right, and that he had been a little rash when he asked for a better salary. The others certainly weren't as skilled as him, but that didn't mean that they were bad at their jobs. And looking to jump ahead seemed a lot like arrogance to them. The tale of Icarus popped into his mind, a hollow chuckle escaped his lips.
"Well, at least the pay is decent enough I sup-" He was cut off as his head lights caught something on the road up ahead. It was pale and looked like a body lying on the road. "Shit!" Will yelled as he swerved the wheel trying to avoid the body and saw that there was still more up ahead along the road. It took some quick reflexes, but he made it thought the gauntlet of human obstacles without hitting one of them. And after stopping the truck a few meters ahead Will sat there in his truck, he took in several ragged breaths as he tried to get his heart back out of his stomach. The radio was playing The Show Must Go On and Will snapped it off. After a few more deep breaths, he turned the truck around and drove over to the bodies.
"This is some weird shit man; I hope there wasn't an accident or something." As the vehicle moved forward slowly the shapes of the bodies came under the headlights glare. There before him, lay and sat six completely naked girls. Some appeared to be unconscious, and the one sitting on her rump was shaking with fright, but otherwise they weren't hurt. A sigh of relief came, but this only made things more complicated. Maybe they where escaped illegal immigrants or sex slaves for one of the Cartels. Unbuckling himself, William grabbed his Smith and Wesson .357 revolver out from the glove box.
Carefully, Will opened his door after making sure that his brake and emergency lights where on, and the Ford was in park. The girl sitting on the asphalt recoiled a bit, but otherwise didn't move. Instead she just stared at him with a mixture of terror, curiosity, and awe. There was a silence that grew in the desert night air as the two just stared; only interrupted by the pops and creaks as the engine of the Ford started to cool. Will noticed that she was starting to shiver from the night air and not just the fear. Eventually he knew that he was the one that do something about the situation.
"Um...hello there, can you understand me?" Will eventually said from his truck's door, his gun was still in his hands behind it.
The girl at first just nodded, caught herself, and spoke, "Y-yes, I-I can understand y-you." Was all she said, obviously still in shock.
"Do you need any help? I can try and help you if you need it," Will offered, remembering the emergency fire blanket behind his seat.
"Yes, t-thank you." She said, slightly relieved that he was willing to help her, but then she looked around at the others. "I think we need as much help as we can get," the girl said quietly as she looked at the other bodies.
Will still looking back at the group in his headlights every so often as he ducked back inside his truck and retrieved the blanket. Even if they were in Nevada, it was still 15c° outside, and they needed something to cover themselves up with. Will stashed the gun on his seat, and headed toward the girl. With the rapid flow of events, he hadn't had time to process the fact that they were all stark naked. And so when he went closer, he turned his eyes to avoid looking at them, and Will could feel a bit of crimson reach his face in a blush. The girl, though curious of his behavior, accepted the offering with a thank you. She then started to skid on her hands and knees to the others who were starting to wake. William took a few steps back to the truck, and let the girl attend to her own.
He still found all of this very fishy; the girl didn't speak in any kind of accent, so she wasn't foreign at least...right? But what raised some questions was that they were out in the middle of godforsaken nowhere, with no clothes on! And how did they get there? Where they simply dumped there? Then Will noticed something extremely odd about them that made all else seem like an every day normal event.
Sticking out of the girls head was a freaking purple horn! Looking at one of the others that she was attending he noticed a pair of yellow wings folded on her back! But to top it all off, they all had tails that matched their hair! Will was seriously freaking out now, and the urge to simply get back in the truck and drive the heck away was strong, oh so very strong. But something kept him there. Something prevented him from ditching them to drive as far away as possible. Was it curiosity? Maybe. Was it the sight of seeing multiple naked girls? Nah, he was too much of a gentleman for something as crude as that.
Then he had it; it was his fucking code of honour. He knew that he couldn't just leave someone in obvious distress, even if that thing wasn't human. And at that moment he cursed his family blood line all the way back to Medieval Europe to his ancestors in shining armour. Dang it! When he looked back at the girls, they where all awake now and huddled under the blanket, staring back at him with all sorts of emotions like terror and defensiveness. Kind of like looking at a stray dog with a broken leg, only multiply that by six.
Will let out a huge sigh; this would be one hell of a story to tell his Sis when he got back. He walked over to the group, and crouched at about four meters away from them to get at their eye level. Searching the group he quickly found the girl with the long dark purple hair and horn on her forehead and locked eyes with her.
"First of all, let me introduce myself, the names William Hartmann. Now, can I have all you're names?" Will said in what he hoped what a calm and soothing voice, though they did flinch a bit none replied but the horn girl.
"My name's Twilight Sparkle," she then began to point to the others with her hand, "This is Fluttershy, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity."
"Lovely, they even have names to match their weirdness level" Will thought to himself, but out loud he said, "Well, all of you seem to be in a bit of a mess...so I'm going to offer you all a place to stay at my home until we can sort all this out, since I'm such a nice guy," the last words where ground out of his mouth, but they sensed that the odd creature was sincere in his offer and meant no harm.
"Umm...thank you for your offer, but there's one problem..." Twilight said looking at her friends.
"And what may that be?" the creature named William said a bit tersely.
"We don't really know how to get up," Twilight said sheepishly.
Will's hand shot out in front of him with his hand out, "Then just grab my hand and I'll pull you up."
For a moment Twilight wasn't sure what she should do, she looked at her friends who looked back with a nod of encouragement. Twilight reached her hand up and Will grabbed it and pulled her to her feet. After a shaky start Twilight, ever the genius and prodigy that she was, got the hang of moving a foot in front of the other and made her way to the contraption with the bright lights.
"Next!" Will yelled, and the process continued until everyone was in the bed of the truck once again huddled under the itchy blanket. Looking at his work Will went back into the cab and started the engine. The girls where a bit spooked by the sudden shaking and rumbling, but otherwise they were taking everything pretty well. Will popped his head out the driver's window and told them to hang on. Soon they were off at a speedy 30km/h.
Soon after they left another car came by and stopped when the driver saw something sparkling on the ground. The driver pulled over, and a short portly man with a Stetson and matching cowboy boots stepped out onto the road. He walked over to the source of the sparkle. To his amazement, what he found was a golden crown and five gold necklaces, all with a shinny crystal in the center. The light from his car's headlights seemed to set the gold ablaze and the spectacle was mirrored in his eyes. "Oh boy, I don think I've struck gold here." The man said with a tinge of greed and awe in his voice.
Will inched the truck along at a snail's pace in order not to disturb the "cargo" in the 1978 Ford Ranger's bed. Looking back over his shoulder he saw that they were still there, and not fallen overboard. Though, the thought that they never were really there, and that this was all due to a brain tumor or a severe case of Schizophrenia did cross his mind several times. But when they reached the farm's dirt path and drove over a bump as they moved off of Highway 50, a loud scream pierced his thoughts. Turning over his shoulder, Will saw that they were trying to comfort the girl with the pink hair and yellow wings. "Nope, I guess this is real. That or I need to find a really good doctor."
The farm wasn't actually a farm, but rather, an old ranch stead that was converted over the years into mini airfield. The main building was a one story late 1930's homestead, with additions added here and there over the decades. Though many owners had come and gone, it had managed to keep its original shape. Behind it loomed the shadow of a rusty hanger that had once been long, long ago a barn to house the cattle, with the pre-dawn light it seemed like a large behemoth sleeping behind the house. There were no lights on inside, as Will was sure that Liza had already gone to sleep several hours ago.
Will tapped on the glass behind his head to get the girls attention, "Well, were here, home sweet home." The girls looked beyond the cab and saw the shadow up ahead.
Will pulled the truck up as quietly as he could, and cut the engine as soon as he thought they were close enough. He stepped out of the cab and walked around to the back where the girls were huddled under an old emergency fire blanket. Remembering why he had given them it in the first place made him blush slightly, "Alright, you girls just wait here. I'll be back in just a moment with something for you to put on." Will disappeared around the truck, but quickly popped back, "And before I forget, try not to make too much noise. My Sis is probably asleep by now, and I'd like to try and break it to her as nicely as possible that I have a few mutants in the back of my truck." And with that he was gone into the house.
Twilight looked at her friends; most of them were still in shock, but mostly alright. Though it did take some getting used to seeing them like this, they hadn't changed too much from the spell that sent them to this mysterious land. A pang of guilt sprang somewhere inside of her, "I did this, this is my entire fault," She thought to herself and hugged her knees closer to her chest.
Rainbow Dash seemed to notice what Twilight was thinking and shuffled a bit closer to her friend, "Ah, don't beat yourself up too much Twi. So ya made a bit of a hick up and landed us on some strange alien world. It could be a whole lot worse."
Twilight looked up at her rainbow haired friend, "And how can this get any worse?!" She exclaimed, a bit of panic in her voice and the beads of some tears forming in her eyes.
"Well, fo' starters. We could'a been hurt, or worse, one of us might'av bucked the can and bought the orchard," Applejack chimed in, trying her best to look at it from a positive angle as well.
"Thanks AJ, Rainbow, I needed that" Twilight said wiping away a tear with her new found hands.
A cough rang over them that nearly made them jump out of their skins. They turned around to see the creature named "William" awkwardly standing nearby with a pile of what looked like shirts and jeans.
"Now I know, they might not fit, or even be your favorite colour, but it's still better than walking around in your birthday suit," he said as he passed them the pile and ran around the truck and into the house again this time there were a few lights inside that went on, and some noises could be heard from one room in particular. Twilight smiled; at least there was something willing to help them out when they needed it.
"Well, though these rags may never be in style, that creature was such a gentlecolt to offer us this much," Rarity said as she tugged on the trousers. Twilight, AJ, and Rarity had the least amount trouble getting used the new clothes, but Fluttershy and RD had some problems with the shirts as their wings wouldn't fit in them. They eventually opted to trying the shirts around their chests in a band. And after flapping her wings to make sure that they weren't restricted, Dash made an approving nod. Pinkie on the other hand was having problems fitting into her shirt, for some reason her chest had the largest bumps on them out of the six. They all had some issues with their tails, but they eventually went with puffing them down one of the trouser legs.
Will retuned a moment later and saw that they were all dressed, and with that he blew a sigh of relief. Though looking at Pinkie he knew that there would be a problem later on. Well, it was a start, clothes could be bought later, but the temporary fix held.
"Alright, I made some hot chocolate inside. We can all sit down and figure out what the heck is going on from there." Pinkie instantly became alert at the mention of chocolate, and all of them agreed that a cup would help them out. Though when they slid off the back end of the truck's bed they nearly fell, but needed less help than the first time they stood, and soon all of them where walking inside the house. Inside it was bright, and it took them a moment to adjust to the light, but when they did, they stood there in awe of what they saw.
The room's walls were painted an eggshell blue and covered with photos and paintings, and the ceiling was painted a stark white. But what hung from its roof was amazing, there were hundreds of small toy like things that hung from an invisible string, some of them Twilight knew were planes, and a hot air balloon hung here and there, but most of them looked nothing like the ones in Equestira, more advanced and sleek. William made a gesture to the center of the room where a black leather couch flanked by several similar lazy chairs surrounded a low table with seven steaming mugs on it. They all sat down and made themselves as comfortable as they could get, pinkie began to bounce on the sofa and giggle while the other preoccupied themselves with trying to use their new hands to sip their mugs. Will sat on the chair opposite the couch.
Will took a look at each of them, bringing up his courage to ask the thing that had been bothering him since they first met, "Alright, now that we're all comfortable, I have to ask this: What in god's green globe are you?"
Again Twilight was the one to answer him, "Um, we are...were ponies."
Will stared at her as if she hadn't already answered his question, "Um, come again?"
"I said that we were originally ponies in the land of Equestria, I was a Unicorn," Twilight pointed to Fluttershy who tried to hide under a cushion, "Fluttershy was a Pegasus," Twilight nodded to Pinkie who had given up hope of trying to grab her mug without spilling and was bent over sipping from the edge, "And Pinkie was an Earth Pony."
There was a silence as Will laced his fingers in front of his face and continued to stare a hole into the coffee table. "That's it," He thought to himself, "I've gone mad!"
He suddenly looked up at Twilight, "Bullshit," he said and the word hung in the air.
Twilight was taken aback a bit, "I'm sorry?"
"Oh, well let me tell you my little secret, I'm actually a leprechaun disguised as a human my pot of gold is just over that hill under a rainbow," he said, a bit of the friendliness gone from his face, not that there was much to begin with.
"What's a leprechaun? I've never heard of something like that. But are you what you just said, a 'Human'?" Twilight asked innocently, though slightly puzzled.
"Yeah, I'm a Human. And I'd say the same for you, if not for that purple screw popping out of your face," Will pointed to Twilight's horn.
Twilight touched her horn, "Yeah this is my horn, and every Unicorn has one. We use them to cast magic." At the last word Will actually laughed. "What's so funny?" Twilight said a little offended.
"Oh no, it's just that everyone knows that 'magic' doesn't really exist." And a fit of laughter grabbed hold of him, he was soon accompanied by Pinkie as they laughed their hearts out. Twilight felt embarrassed that this stranger was laughing at her like this, and as the heat reached her face a wicked little thought popped into her head. "If magic doesn't exist then this won't happen." Twilight said as her horn started to glow as a purple aurora encased it and her mug and brought it into the air. Will stopped laughing long enough to see the flying mug as it went over to him and promptly upended itself onto his pants. The initial wonder quickly turned to stark pain as the burning liquid soaked his jeans. A pained yelp escaped him as he shot from his chair. Twilight looked over and saw both AJ and Rarity shaking their heads and looking disappointed at her. Twilight looked back and saw Will rolling on the ground holding his groin, swears spouting like a fountain. She instantly felt terrible for what she had done, and tried to apologized but was interrupted by small voice from behind her.
"What the heck Will, you know its 4:24am right? You can't bring any of your friends over." The owner of the light voice was a girl sitting in a wheel chair. She was wearing a set of pajamas with sheep bounding across it. Her blonde hair went down past her shoulders, and was held together with a scrunchie. She wheeled over to her brother who had stopped rolling and was starting to pick himself up again.
"Yeah, well sis, if I had known that we would be hosting magical creatures then I would have told you about it, you would have loved to have made a sleep over party out of it." Will jested as he made his way back to the chair, and let out a sigh, it was becoming his thing lately.
"Alright, everyone, this is my Little Sister Liza. Liza, meet the magical misfits." Liza turned her wheels to meet everyone.
"Hello," she smiled, and then they noticed the reason for the wheel chair; he legs were just stumps at the knees.
"Hi!" Pinkie said as she raised an arm in a wave, and it was at this unfortunate moment that the buttons on her shirt decided to commit suicide from the constant pressure that they were trying to contain.
Will sputtered after he had taken a drink of his mug, and Liza started to blush a bit, "Oopsies," Pinkie said as she tried to button the shirt back up.
Liza snapped her head to her brother with a forced smile, "Brother, these aren't by chance 'Working' women, and this is all a sick fetish of yours?" She said though ground teeth with obvious venom. A few of the girls blushed as they caught the meaning.
"Oh please sis, you know me. Though I may have some kinky tastes, there is point where I draw a line in the sand. And this is way beyond that line." She stared at him for a moment, then relaxed, "You're right, even you couldn't even pull off something of this level of perversion," as she noticed the horns, wings, and general lack of decent clothing.
"So, what's the story?" She asked as she folded her arms across her chest.
And so Will relayed the events of that night all the way up to the point where Pinkie's chest had exploded. All the while Liza remained silent until her brother had finished, and even after it she just smiled until she eventually burst out laughing. All the girls exchanged nervous glances at her sudden explosion of giggles as if it was something they did.
Liza noticed it, and explained when to laughs had died down, "This oaf, ever the knight in shining armour. Ever since he found out as a kid that we had some nobility far down the family line, he could never leave it alone and always tried to follow some sort of 'code'!" She then returned to giggling and Will started to clear his throat in slight embarrassment.
But instead of feeling better with the chuckles in the air, the mention of "Shining Armor" made Twilight fell homesick, even if it was unintended. Then, as if she was bucked in the chest she remembered the way that they had gotten here, (Where ever "here" was), The Elements of Harmony!
"William, when you found us, did you see any kind of necklaces or a crown nearby?" Twilight asked as she got up from the sofa. The question had taken Will a bit by surprise, and he tried to recollect.
"No, I'm sorry to say that you where the only things I found out there." He said raising an eyebrow, "Why, were they important?"
Twilight paled and slumped back down in between her friends, "Yes, they were VERY important. We can't get back home until we have them."
Will sat there looking at a now depressed Twilight, and saw that every one of her friends was also feeling the same. He looked at the clock on the wall and saw that it was almost five, and outside the window dawn was fast approaching. He knew what he had to do.
"Alright, so you need these five gold neck thingys and a magical crown to get home? Makes as much sense as the Wizard of Oz I guess." Standing up, Will dashed for the door.
"Wait, where are you going?" Liza asked after her brother.
"What's it look like, I'm goin' gold mining!" And with that he was gone, and the rumbling of the Ford told them that he was off on his search.
Liza looked at the six girls that were dumped into her living room, "He really is too good sometimes for his own good," she clucked and shook her head, "Anyways, who's up for breakfast?"
"So, what do you girls like to eat anyway? I can't cook anything too complicated, but I can manage the basic breakfast," Liza said as she turned her chair and started to move out of the room.
"Wait!" Twilight blurted, she still found the siblings behavior a little odd, I mean, and why would they accept their story almost instantly like this? "Why are you doing this?"She asked.
The chair had stopped in a doorway, and Liza remained quiet for a few seconds as she thought the question over in her head, "That's a good question," she said over her shoulder, "I don't really know ether."
Twilight was taken aback by this, there had to be a logical reason, "Six strange mares pop out of nowhere, your brother finds them and brings them here, and both of you believe our stories and are going out of your way to help us, why-" Twilight was cut short by a light whack to the back of her head, she turned and saw that Liza had made it over and was giving her an odd look, it was somewhere between a motherly scold, and a sad sympathy.
"You lot are the strangest people I've ever met," she said looking into each of their eyes, and shaking her head, "But just because you're strange, doesn't mean that you're bad people. My brother and I both have had our share of rough times, so we know what it feels like to be in a pickle like this, maybe that's why he's doing this. But I can't just lie about while others are in trouble and I have the ability to help."
The girls looked at the small girl again and gained a new respect for her and her brother; they didn't mean any harm and just wanted to help as much as they could.
Suddenly Rarity's stomach started to rumble, and the sound echoed around the room. She looked a bit embarrassed at her stomach's sudden outburst. "Hey, do you have anything to eat, I'm starving!" Rainbow jumped in saving Rarity from their attention, she wondered if they had any daisy sandwiches or hay fries.
"Well, I was just about to make some pancakes; they'll only take a few minutes. In the mean time, make yourselves at home; lord knows Father would have been furious if he saw that we didn't treat our guests right," and with that Liza rolled out of the room, the last thing they saw was her gold hair trailing behind her around the corner.
The girls all started to get up, preparing to explore the room and the many odds and ends inside it, but Twilight had to say something before they scattered. "Girls, I'm really sorry for all of this, it's all my fault," they all stopped and looked at their friend still sitting with her head down, she looked up and gave them all an encouraging smile, "But I will find a way to get us back," she said with determination. The girls returned the smile, "Um...we trust you Twilight," Fluttershy smiled.
"Thanks girls" Twilight said and they all split up to look around.
Applejack and Twilight started to look at the different paintings and photos around the room; some were of open landscapes, while others were photos of these "humans" all standing together and enjoying themselves. Twilight saw that a few of them where black and white, and the people in them wore different clothes, though they all seemed to have the same expression of adventure lust and wonder on their faces.
Pinkie had since disappeared; and just when they began to worry a bit, they heard her trademark laughter coming from the kitchen, along with Liza's own giggles. And their worries melted away, and their exploration continued.
Fluttershy and Rarity stood in front of a long slab of pure onyx. The thing was attached to the wall opposite the sofa, and looked almost like a window, except they could see a slight reflection of themselves looking back at them. "I wonder if this is some sort of mirror," Rarity said as she admired herself, though she looked nothing like her original form, she couldn't help admit that she had a regal and elegance to this new Human body. Fluttershy looked a little closer and saw that there were little bumps on the side, but one had caught her attention in particular. It was round with a glowing red circle and line in it. It pulsed rhythmically and hypnotized the shy mare, until she could take it no longer and pushed the small button. When she removed her finger the circle had turned a solid green, and what followed was chaos.
The dark slab suddenly flickered and scene of a man with long curly black hair and a caddy hat started to sing. Loud music started to flow out of several small black boxes around them, and the room was soon filled with AC/DC - Back in Black. The recorded rock concert shook the room and its inhabitants.
Fluttershy dove for the safety of the sofa, and started to pile cushions on top of her into a makeshift fort where she attempted to hide from the music. Rarity, who was unlucky enough to have been standing near a subwoofer, was on her knees clutching her ringing ears and her face was scrunched up in obvious discomfort. Everyone soon stopped what they were doing and watched the man with the loud voice as he sang his heart out.
Liza wheeled into the room and quickly grabbed the remote and promptly muted it. She looked around and saw that everyone was now watching the now silent Scotty continue his performance in awe. They were all drawn to the flat screen, and had the look of a caveman's first encounter with fire.
"Will prefers the classics, but I like electro myself, he must have left the concert DVD still in," Liza said as she rolled up to the crowd.
"That...was...so COOL!" Rainbow said, her wings fluttering and a smile slitting her face.
"Yes...how did you get that man in there? And how did you make him stop singing with that little box?" Twilight asked as she circled the TV, trying to find the workings behind the screen.
Liza thought of the work that lay ahead of them, it would be like trying to teach six Tarzans how the world works. "Well, that's Will's job, he found them, so he can do the blunt of the work" Liza thought to herself imagining the incoming culture shock. A clang from the kitchen reminded her that Pinkie was still in there.
Turning the TV's DVD player off and switching to the PVR, Liza selected a Planet Earth episode about jungles. "Alright, just relax and watch the show. Breakfast is nearly done." The girls watched the high definition shots of the Amazon Rainforest full of flowers and mysterious creatures as a British man narrated everything on screen. Satisfied that they would be glued to the box, Liza returned to the Kitchen. There she found Pinkie Pie frosting the pancakes with chocolate syrup and whip cream.
"Oh hay there Liza! I found out where you keep your chocolate syrup and whip cream! Though you seem to be a bit lacking on gumdrops and candy sprinkles! Oh, but you seem to be good on sugar and flour!" Pinkie said as she plopped a cherry on a pyramid of whip cream, a half empty jar of candied cherries sat nearby. Liza could only stare open mouthed at the sugar packed pile. Pinkie suddenly gasped, "Ahh! I just had the best greatest super idea ever! Why don't we bake a cake! It'll be great! It will be for helping us...Oh! What if we turn it into a party! Oooh, it will be my first "Happy that we made it safe, and met some new strange friends" party!" Pinkie said jumping up and down, and with each bounce her "mass" did its own jumps.
Liza couldn't help but smile, but she really needed to fix this before Will got back, in fact, they all needed something better than just a few of his old pairs of work clothes. "Alright Pinkie, we'll do the party later, but for now we need to get your melons contained."
"Oh don't be silly, I don't own any melons, though maybe a squash or two back home!" There was going to be a very awkward talk later on down the road Liza thought.
Will paced the spot where he found the girls for the tenth time that morning; it was hard to miss with the skid marks still fresh from when he nearly ran them over. Thinking back, he was extremely lucky to have missed them, he couldn't have imagined what would have happened had he actually plowed right through them.
The sun was up by now and it helped him look around without the use of a flash light, but he still found no trace of the girl's jewelry. It seemed to be their ticket back to their Land of Oz or where ever it was they came from, and without it they seemed to have little chance of getting back. He remembered the girl's bleak faces from earlier, and he honestly felt sympathy for them. But it was starting to look like their ticket home had blown with the breeze.
Though, a ticket could fly away, metal couldn't. There had to be a reason why they hadn't turned up yet...then he spotted it. It wasn't exactly what he was looking for, since it wasn't shining or made out of gold, but it was a clue.
There, off the tarmac on the dry and crusted soil, was a spot of black. Will walked closer and saw that there were also tire marks on either side of the puddle. The puddle was starting to disappear into the soil, but it was unmistakably an oil spill; but more importantly, it was fresh.
Someone had been here after them, and that culprit must have what they were all looking for. "Though, a puddle and oil slick doesn't point remotely to anyone," Will said to himself as he scratched his chin, a few bristles where popping out and he knew he should shave soon.
Will searched the area around the incriminating evidence, and eventually found something. It was a business card that got caught in a bush near the tracks. It looked new and freshly pressed, but as Will reached out for it, a gust of wind swiped it out of its snare and blew along the road.
"Oh no, you fucking don't!" Will said as he ran after the small piece of paper catching it as it took off again, "Ha!"
A semi-truck came up behind him and honked its industrial air horn as it passed, Will stood there realizing how close he had came to death's doorstep a moment ago and jumped to the side as if the road had turned to lava. But his eyes following the disgruntled freight truck and where it was heading sparked a realization. Flipping the card over in his hand his prediction was right on the mark. The business card was for "Big Al's Big Boy's Toys Workshop!" a picture of a cowboy holding a cog in a raised hand and a muffler in the other, next to the grinning stereotype in cheesy Ol' Western writing was the address, and better still it was in Reno. It must have come from the mysterious jewel snatcher when he left his vehicle since it was only a day old and felt crisp to the touch. It was a lead, and Will stuffed the clue in his pocket, and ran back to the truck to deliver the good news.
When Will returned, he was met with a sickeningly sweet aroma wave as it passed over him, as if someone had managed to combine syrup, caramel, and cotton candy. He stepped into the dining hall past the living room to see that all the girls were eating what looked like a plate of whip cream. Pinkie was digging in at inhuman speeds and judging by the number of staked plates she had eaten enough of the sugary meal to feed a small family. The others had managed to eat a plate, but they were all just a tad green from the overdose of sweets.
They all looked up at him as he entered the room and sat down in an open seat; Liza had dug into her wardrobe and had given them each some better clothes, though some of them didn't like the new set too much, like the girl with the purplish-blue curls and horn who was wearing a T-shirt that had the spider man logo on it.
The girls in particular eyed him with intense stares, hoping that he had what they desperately wanted. He waited for Pinkie to stop her eating, and after she gave a satisfied burp he told them the news.
"Now I'm going to say this right now, I couldn't recover your 'Elements of Symphony'" Will stated.
"Harmony, it's The Elements of Harmony," Twilight corrected, though she sounded disheartened at the news.
"Whatever; though I think I might know where to start looking for them," Will said as he reclined and stretched in his chair. All the girls beamed, and Pinkie got up and started to prance around the table.
"So, tell them bro, don't keep us hanging," Liza said from across the table.
Will pulled the card from out of his pocket, and held it up for everyone to see, "Someone did come by after us, and I think this person has the jewelry. He dropped this at the scene, so if nothing else I know where he gets his oil checked."
The girls were a little confused, but they got the gist that they now had a lead, Liza on the other hand didn't seem so convinced, "Alright, so you have the card, but what are you going to do? Ask around if anyone managed to pick up a set of magical gold accessories?" She pointed out.
"Yeah, I know it sounds silly. And if someone did pick them up, I doubt they would really be willing to give them up easily. But hey, it's better than nothing." Will reasoned, and politely turned down Pinkie's offer of a whip cream pancake.
Liza stared at him for a moment thinking things though a bit more, eventually she had to admit that it was the best they had. "Fine, just don't try and break into someone's home to get them back," Liza relented, and all the girls cheered.
"Alright, now that that's settled, I'm gonna go to bed and crash," Will said as he yawned and left the table.
"Wait, you're not going right now? The sooner we start looking, the better," It was Twilight Sparkler, or whatever her name was, Will was getting too tired to remember.
"No, and if you haven't noticed, I've been up dealing with your girl's mess, we can sort this out tomorrow," and with that he lumbered to another room where he closed the door after him.
Pinkie walked up behind Twilight holding another plate, "I don't know about you Twi, but I feel like having another round of those delicious pancakes! Do you think Will won't mind if I ate his share?"
Spike was freaking out by the fourth day of Twilight's absence. He paced back and forth around the library followed by Owlicious, the brown barn owl that lived with Twilight and him. They had said that their trip would only have taken four days, two on the way to the site of the Enchantment, a day at the site maximum, and then they would have taken a train back on the forth. Simple, right? And if anything where to keep them there longer, then Twilight would have sent word, but she didn't. It wasn't like her to be tardy in anything, so that must mean that she never sent a letter to begin with; and that worried the little dragon more than anything.
"What if she's abandoned me?"Spike fretted as he chewed his claws.
"Who?" Owlicious said behind him.
Spike snapped the flying creature a venomous look, "Oh you know; Twilight, the one who lives with us, Purple with a horn sticking out of her noggin! Probably the only pony I can call family! Just that pony."
"Who," the owl noted.
"Oh come on, you can't have forgotten her this soon!" Spike said, but then began to worry again, "Or maybe it's just soon enough!" And soon Spike was rolling around on the ground bawling his eyes out at the thought that Twilight would just be a distant memory.
After about an hour or so, Spike had stopped his little melt down long enough to think things through to come to a conclusion on what the best course of action was. So Spike picked himself off the floor and did the only thing he know what to do; he began to write a letter.
Spike picked up his quill and found a still wet ink well to write with, Owlicious swooped in and dropped a piece of parchment. Moments later Spike was perched over a desk writing his letter.
'Dear Princess Celestia, this is your humble subject Spike the dragon.' Spike started off, thinking how to go about actually writing the letter; so many times he had been just penning them for Twilight and never really for himself. The memory of all the friendship reports just fueled his determination to find out what happened to his friend.
'I am writing this letter because my dearest Friend Twilight Sparkle has gone missing. Normally I would never trouble you for something like this, but Twilight went missing on a task that you gave her. Please, if there is anything that I could do to help her, then please tell me. I miss her. Your loyal subject; Spike the Dragon."
Once Spike was satisfied with the note he set it aflame with his green dragons breath, and it disintegrated into a cloud of smoke. It was soon whisked away out an open window into the night air and towards Canterlot. The note would then appear in front of the Princess at the other end.
Spike waited for a reply, but none seemed to come. And by the time an hour had passed Spike had just about given up hope. "It must be some sort of super top secret that she can't tell a dragon like me," Spike said a bit dejected at the prospect. Spike was about to go back to reorganizing the books for the tenth time that day when a scroll popped into existence above him and fell knocking into him.
Excited that he received a reply Spike unrolled it instantly, though what was inside puzzled him a bit. It was just a simple sentence, and read "Will you do anything?" followed by a yes and a no under it. Spike didn't really like where this was going, but he circled the "yes" anyways and sent the letter back.
A minute later another note fizzled before him again, this time it said something even more confusing.
"'Keep calm, and whatever you do don't panic.' Well that's some good advice I guess, but that doesn't really hel-" Spike was cut short as he soon was caught on fire. It was the similar green fire as the letters and he started to disappear. The young dragon only managed to get a partial yell out before he was gone completely. A distraught Owlicious hooted and flew circles around a now empty room.
Applejack just didn't feel right. It might have been the new body that she was currently stuck in, but that wasn't it really. It was her hat, or to be precise, the absence of her hat. When she and her friends had been flung to this world, her hat hadn't come along for the ride. It wasn't vital really, but it still felt as if a part of her had been taken, as if somepony had taken her tail; which was currently stuffed down her pants and felt mighty uncomfortable.
Once they had cleaned up after the sickeningly sweet breakfast, Rarity had made it a point that they should wear more comfortable clothing, instead of the ones that were first lent to them. And though Applejack did think it was a bit push'n their luck, she had to admit that having her tail stuffed down a trouser leg didn't seem right to her. Looking at Fluttershy and RD made her qualms look miniscule compared to them and their wings. Heck, while everypony else got some new threads, they still had to use their shirts as a band; though she knew that there was something about these lumps on their chests, they didn't seem like something to cover up or be embarrassed too much about, maybe it was a Human thing.
And another thing was the "jeans" that Will had lent them. They itched worse than a bad case of ticks in all the wrong places. Liza had explained that Will kept quite a few pairs of work clothes since they usually got covered in engine grease and oil often and that was most likely the reason why they were so itchy. At this revelation Rarity had nearly fainted knowing that she was wearing something incredibly filthy, though AJ didn't mind too much ah'bout that since she lived on a farm an' all.
Liza had taken the girls into her bedroom and opened a closet, "Alright, I know I don't have too much that can fit you, but we'll try and make do," she looked over to Rarity, "Rarity, didn't you say that you used to own a boutique?"
Rarity looked at her as if she had said that she was a simple nopony, "Yes darling, I own a boutique, but that's not all. I've made countless dresses; I've made fashion statements rise and fall with my needle; and I have even had the pleasure of making clothing for the ponies in Canterlot for nearly every occasion." She said proudly.
"Great, then you won't mind helping me modify some of my old clothes and shirts to fit your "uniqueness," there's some scissors, a needle, and thread if you need it to make the adjustments on the counter over there," Liza said as she shuffled though some dowers of her closet. Eventually she picked out something that suited each of the girl's tastes; Dash had wanted something that she could easily move in, Applejack something durable, Pinkie Pie something pink, and the list went on until each and every one of them had a set that they liked.
"Just one thing before I dig any further," Liza said eyeing everyone up; "you aren't wearing anything under those are you?"
"Um, no, not really. Are we supposed to?" Fluttershy asked from behind her ribbons of pink hair.
Liza face palmed, "Of course you don't, and I don't even have all of your sizes," she glared at Pinkie and a few others, taking a slight sting of jealousy. "We're going to have to hit the town aren't we?" she said to no one in particular.
From each of their sets, Rarity set about making them fit to the individual wearer, cutting holes and buttoned ports for wings and such, and hemming them so the fabric wouldn't tear. When all was said and done, they looked at themselves in the room's dressing mirror. Admiring their new look.
Dash was wearing a royal blue running t-shirt, light grey cargo shorts, and a sky blue hoodie. Fluttershy's choice was just a simple lemon yellow spring dress that Liza said that she only wore once. Rarity had browsed a human fashion magazine earlier on in the bedroom and had chosen something along the lines of one of the styles she saw. She wore a white cotton shirt with the sleeves cut off along with a black pencil skirt, and topped it off with a purple silk tie borrowed from a sleeping Will's bedroom. Twilight opted for a purple tinged polo with just a simple navy blue skirt and violet stockings. Pinkie Pie had asked for something in a bright pink, but Liza only had a white t-shirt that had the misfortune of sharing a wash with a pair of red socks once. It was the only pink thing she really had though and Pinkie instantly took it along with some frayed jeans. And when it came to AJ's turn she said that she was fine with the clothes she already had, to which Rarity refused out right and tried several different sets, but none seemed to work out for the farm girl. Finally Applejack relented and took a red plaid shirt to make her friend feel happy, but kept the working jeans.
Though everyone seemed content with their new threads, AJ was still bothered by the absence of something on her noggin, "Ah hate ta be a bother an' all, but do ya'll reckon that there might be a Stetson jus' layin' about? I had one of 'em back where ah came from," AJ asked Liza as she looked at her raided drawers and what she had left.
"No, at least I don't think so. You should check with Will when he wakes up from his nap, I'm sure there might be one poking around here somewhere though, this was a ranch at one point afterall," the others started to file out of the room to look around some more.
"Thank ya kindly, it's sort of a comfort thing n'all," AJ said following the rest out. The sun had come up and everyone wanted to get a look at the world outside, since the last time they were out there it had been pitch black night.
They all stood outside the front door and took in the vastness of the Nevada desert. It reminded Applejack of Appaloosa or the Badlands, but the mountains looked different. Liza pointed to a few of them, "That one there is Mt. Augusta, and that one in the far distance is New Pass Peak." Liza continued to tell the names of the local ridges and mountains, but the girls weren't totally interested. And with each foreign name it all sunk in a bit more that this wasn't Equestria and home.
"...and that one to the far South is Desatoya peak," Liza said proud that she had memorized each of their names. Then she saw the downcast looks on all of the girls and stopped once she realized what she was doing.
"You know you girls are extremely lucky," Liza said after a moment, they all turned to the blonde girl in the wheelchair, "if no one had found you I'd bet that you wouldn't be breathing; July in Nevada can kill anyone who isn't cautious and unprotected. You would have fried out in that sun."
The girls looked up, and they had to admit that it was starting to broil outside. "And there are a lot of people out there that would have done terrible things to you girls had they found you instead, like the Cartels, Creepy ass truckers, and you may have even found yourselves in a government lab being dissected as on account of you being inter-dimensional beings and such," each of these sounded like horrible things, and nopony wanted to have their innards plucked out of them.
"But you made a lucky break I guess, and I guess I should be lucky since I met all of you odd balls," Liza turned and gave them her biggest smile yet. They all returned the grin, happy to have made some new friends as well.
Liza then started to sniff the air, she looked around and found the source of the odor, "When was the last time you girls had a bath anyways?"
Will was having the same dream again. The same dream that had haunted him for four years. Normally, the dream would be considered a nightmare, but by now he didn't mind so much anymore, Will could at least see his Dad in it.
It was four years ago at one of the Reno Air Races, it was the day that the Unlimited Class was up for its turn of the spot light. The sun was bright overhead and the sky was clear without a trace of cloud in sight, not a wisp. It had been a happy occasion as crowds had lined the seats and filled along the fenced parameter, all cheering for the sight of the Air Racers going into the skies. The air was filled with the smell of oil, diesel, and roasted food coming from the stands. Crackling and sputtering engines worked out in the pits as their crews desperately tried to make deadlines for their craft to be air worthy. But above all these sensations, there was excitement in the air as this race would determine the champion of this year's Unlimited Class.
Will was eighteen at the time, but he had been working with his father for two years already, and knew the ins and outs of every aircraft on the show. He was in the pit helping make the final preparations for his Dad's own plane, a modified P-51 Mustang named the Yellow Hornet. The plane was a sight to behold, it had a shortened wingspan and a slightly enlarged engine block; but what made it stand out was the shimmering golden hornet paint job covering the craft so much that it made it look like a tiger. The Father and Son pair was proud of their creation; for not only had they managed to create a plane that could top 800 kph, but it also did it on a pure bio-fuel mixture.
Will stood back and wiped the sweat from his forehead, "All done," he said with relief. A tall figure approached next to him, he had short cropped platinum blonde hair and sported a trimmed goatee. He wore a racing flight suit with the name Eric Hartmann printed on above its left breast pocket. He looked from the plane to his son and placed a hand on Will shoulder, "Good work son," the man said with pride.
"Hey! I helped out too you know!" A sixteen year old Liza came charging from where she had been working, "I developed that bio-fuel, so without me you would never get off the ground!" She huffed at the lack of praise as she stood between them.
"Oh, how could I forget my second little prodigy?" Eric said as he swooped in and lifted his daughter up in the air. Liza giggled like a kid as her dad bristled her with his goatee.
An announcer said over several loudspeakers that it was nearly time to start, "Well then you two, wish me luck!" Their dad said for the last time to their faces as he jumped up into the cockpit and was towed out from under their work pit and onto the apron with the others.
The race had gone exactly like they hoped and their dad was in the lead and it looked like he was going to win the race; that was, until the final lap. From where Will stood he instantly knew that something was wrong as a cloud of smoke started to billow from the Yellow Hornet's engine and a dark grey contrail formed behind it.
A mayday came over the radio as Will's and Liza's dad reported that he had lost control of the plane and was losing altitude. The Hornet started a steep dive for the apron and something exploded behind the propeller as fire enveloped the fuselage. Will could only stand there in shock and terror as the burning craft sped towards him and his sister.
Then, over the headset he was wearing he heard his father's last words, "Goodbye son, take care of your sister for me will you?" The words were calm and rang with resignation that the speaker was going to meet his doom.
"Dad! No!" Will cried. And then the aircraft crashed right before him and his Sister sending him flying, the last thing in the nightmare was the sound of his sister wailing in pain as blackness took hold of him.
Will woke to find a curious face hovering over him. He yelped and fell out of bed along with a curse. Craning his neck Will saw that it was just one of the girls who had entered his room. From his memory he found her name, "Rainbow Dash, was it? Who gave you permission to go in here?"
The rainbow haired girl tilted her head and looked down at him, "Your Sister did, it's nearly night," she said and her wings fluttered behind her, will noticed that she was wearing some proper clothes and thanked Liza once again in his mind, "you've been out cold for ten hours, though I can relate to that since I enjoy a good nap once in a while to recharge myself."
"Yeah yeah, I'll be right up. I just need to have a shower first and shave," Will said as he waved her off.
Though Dash didn't leave quite yet, she looked at him with a touch of concern in her pink eyes, "You seemed like you were having more than just a nap."
Will rubbed his eye sockets with his palm and swept them back though his short blonde hair, "Yeah, it was just a bad dream. And let's leave it at that," Will wasn't about to tell them something like that yet.
"Well, Liza went and ordered pizza, and if you don't get ready soon I think I might just eat your share," Rainbow said with a mischievous grin on her face and left the room with Will still on the floor.
"No one eats my share of the pizza, and I mean no one!" Will hollered after her.
Twilight was looking over the pamphlet of the local pizzeria in her hands; see was shocked to find that they had meat on the menu! It meant that these Humans ate meat, and a fear started to grow in her that they might just get eaten too. But Liza had assured them that they wouldn't be eaten, she went on to explain that humans were omnivores and could eat lots of different things; but meat wasn't necessary, and no one at ponies.
"B-but how can you simply eat those poor little creatures!? How do you think that they feel about this?" Twilight asked angrily, Fluttershy had since returned to her pillow fort and was currently sobbing for the poor critters.
"Well, like I said before I don't. But I think there might be a little misunderstanding here, you said that you were originally ponies right?" Liza asked feeling slightly pressured from the sudden small crisis.
"Yes, we were ponies once," Twilight said feeling a bit disgusted at the menu she was holding.
"Well, since you obviously are intelligent creatures no one will eat you; but do other creatures share the same sentience?" Liza asked trying to picture how their world worked.
"Eyep, some of ma' friends are cows, sheep, an' hogs. They're all smart as a whip, an' they have hopes an' dreams too. Ah'm disgusted tha' anypony woul' even think about eat'n them," Applejack said as she tried to comfort Fluttershy.
"Well then, there's our problem; on this world only Humans have sentience, everything else just runs on instincts and are nothing more than pure animals," Liza stated.
"Well, just because something might not be as smart as you, doesn't mean that it belongs on the table," Twilight reasoned.
"That's a fair point; but when you eat your hay or carrots do you think about the life that you just ate?"
"Well...no, not really," Twilight shrugged, and knew where this was going.
"And how would you feel if a race of sentient celery sticks popped into your world?" Twilight saw the reasoning, and had to admit that it would be awkward, much like right now.
Liza rolled to the door as the pizza would be there any minute now, "Ah, don't beat yourselves up too much, that's a perfectly normal reaction I guess. And honestly, I can understand and respect that. Human's are also omnivores for the sake of survival, but in this day and age survival isn't really a huge concern anymore."
The doorbell rang and Liza opened it to find a lanky Latino teen sporting a funny triangular Pizza hat and red shirt with the name "Lucha Lary's Famous Pizza" in stenciled yellow across it. "Hey Liza, here's your order," the delivery boy said in a friendly tone.
"Thanks Daniel," Liza said handing him some money for the stack of boxes.
"Ah, de nada; also, the boss used his special extra hot sauce on Will's mild jalapeño, in payback for that time he buzzed the shop and nearly gave the boss a heart attack," Daniel exchanged a mischievous laugh with Liza and left for his car.
Liza shut the door and brought the red boxes over to the table. The girls followed, interested in seeing what horrors lay beneath the cardboard. Liza pried them open and let them bask in the cheesy golden goodness that lay before them. They looked in awe at the perfect pizzas and Liza swept an arm under her and bowed as if introducing royalty, "Ladies, let me introduce you to Lucha Lary's World Famous Pizza."
The Beginning of a Rescue
Spike was still screaming as his body reformed in a swirling ball of green fire in Canterlot's Royal throne room. In fact, it wasn't until Luna nudged him with a cobalt blue hoof that he actually opened his eyes to see what the afterlife looked like. Oddly enough, it seemed like normal life, and Spike was a tad bit disappointed that nothing was on fire like what he imagined Tartarus to be like, and nether were they up in the clouds eating mounds of gems like what dragon heaven was said to be like.
Then it hit him; he wasn't alone. Looking up Spike saw that both of the Royal Princesses where staring down at him. Celestia was standing in a regal pose with her colourful ethereal mane flowing in a non-existent breeze. Luna had returned to her sister's side and tried to imitate her elder sister's stance, but couldn't quite manage the poker-faced smile her sister always seemed to wear. Spike had a hard time deciding whether or not to be surprised or glad to see them as he bowed on reflex.
"Young Spike the Dragon," Luna said from beside her sister, "you wish to know what hath transpired with your friend Twilight and her friends do you not?" She asked raising navy blue eyebrow.
"Um yes, your majesties, that was why I sent my note," Spike said feeling a bit overwhelmed by the sudden turn of events.
"Then you might want to ask 'Him' to give you the details," Princess Celestia said as she pointed a golden shod hoof to the ceiling. Spike followed her hoof up and saw something that boggled every law of gravity.
Discord was sitting in a green velvet high backed chair with walking legs, he sat there sipping a cup of tea, (the cup, not the tea), while holding a book reading another smaller book in his other free hand. Looking quite relaxed as his chair took him from one corner of the roof to the other. He seemed to have finally noticed the new arrival and snapped his lion's fingers, and with that he reappeared in front of a startled Spike.
"Hmmm, so you want to know what happened to your dear little Twiright Sprinkler, eh dragon boy," Discord said looking amused.
"...Y-yes, that's r-right," Spike trembled in front of the god, he still had memories of when they had first met and Discord had unleashed Chaos onto Ponyville; but Spike put up his bravest scaly face as he confronted Discord.
"Well kudos to you kid for making it this far, but to be perfectly honest, even I don't know where she and her missfit friends are," Discord said as he created another chair, this time it was made out of pink jelly, and he promptly reclined into the jiggling mass.
"But...but they said that you could tell me," Spike said pointing to the two Royal Sisters, "You must have a way that I can help them, please, tell me something, anything!" Spike pleaded to the god of chaos getting on his hands and knees.
"You earn points for showing dedication, but it's the truth, I know what happened to them, but not where they may be," Discord pulled out a pipe and began to smoke bubbles filled with fish.
"What do you mean?" Spike asked looking up, curiosity and concern lacing his words.
The Draconequus let out a heavy sigh and looked at both Luna and Celestia, there was something in his eyes, as if he was looking through time itself to the past; the emotion of nostalgia was mirrored in the two mares. "I am responsible for these current events, though not immediately or directly. There was a time long ago that I did everything I could to stop the Elements of Harmony. In my attempts to do so I created many schemes and elaborate traps in order to foil my adversaries. One such trap was a scroll hidden away in some long forgotten ruin."
Spike could figure out the rest, "So that scroll was a trap all along? Then that means that the ritual to make the Elements powerful was created by you?!" Spike started to fell a rage boiling up in him like never before, "Discord! What have you done?!" Everyone in the throne room was surprised at the diminutive lizard's outburst.
"I know exactly what happened to your friends, and you can rest assured, they haven't met their end. Celery and Lulu over there tell me that they can still sense their life force, which means that they are still alive. What the scroll did was send them to another Universe parallel to ours, nothing more, and nothing less. Well, that, and it slightly changed them to fit in a bit I suppose, but that's for the better apparently. It would be a problem if talking ponies started popping up here and there," Discord said nonchalantly as he started to eat his chair.
"So that means you know how to get them back don't you?" Hope was still there, and Spike just had to find the way to rescue his friends from this crazy god.
"Well, yes I know how to get them back; but before you ask; no I can't do it," Discord took a bite out of the head rest of his half eaten chair, "By the way, do you girls have any whip cream? This chair could really use some right about now."
"To put it simply Spike, even Discord doesn't have the power to transport that many ponies from one Universe to another. He had to borrow the help of the Elements of Harmony in order to seal their own doom. And the same can be said in order to get them back home safely I'm afraid. The problem here is that we don't have the Element's power for a rescue mission," Celestia explained.
"And the only 'pony' with the knowledge to make a safe return trip is standing right in front of us," Luna said as she stared daggers into him.
"And that's the story so far. I need to get over there pronto, and reverse this mess before anything bad happens," The last of the jelly devoured, Discord licked his chops with a satisfied look.
There was one thing Spike had to ask though, "And why are you of all people willing to save the ponies that could easily stop you?"
Discord's mood shifted dramatically and suddenly as the magical being locked eyes with the drake in a brutal stare, "Unlike what most of you seem to think, I've changed from my old self. And although, you may mistrust me for good reason, there is still one pony amongst them that I can call a friend. And if anything were to happen to her, I could never forgive myself until the end of time, that's why I'm doing this," Discord's words didn't falter, and Spike was surprised that he was being completely honest and sincere.
Celestia stepped in between them and addressed Spike, "Spike, Discord has volunteered to go on a rescue expedition. He has the power to enter that world, but I still don't trust him well enough to send him alone," Celestia turned her head to see that Discord had turned himself into wide eyed puppy trying to look as innocent as possible, "So that is where you come in Spike. I need you to watch over him and make sure that he is true to his word. Originally my sister and I had discussed whether to send one of us along, but we still have our duties to attend to here in this world, and you seemed fit and willing to help in any way you could," Celestia's horn glowed as she levitated Spike's note over to him.
Spike looked over to Discord before he answered, "But Princess, I'm not sure if I can handle it," he said and lowered his head in resignation. His chin was soon lifted up with a gold and white hoof as Celestia gave him a warm smile. "I believe you can; and your ability to send and receive messages apparently still works from where ever you may be, even if it's a universe apart."
Discord snorted, "Oh please, it's not all that far really, especially compared to the other universes that there are out there. Those one's make this look like it's just a trip next door to barrow a cup of hay."
Spike gave it a moment of thought, but he knew that it was his time to prove himself as a hero that he always dreamed to be. There could be no second guessing, and no turning back. And with that, he made up his mind, "I'll do it," a fierce determination embedded in his reptilian green eyes.
"Great! Now that that's out of the way, let's get this show on the road!" Discord said in a jovial tone, as if this was all just a large game to him.
"Not so fast Discord," Luna spoke from across the room. And before Discord could do anything, Luna charged up her magic and zapped him and Spike both with her midnight blue magic. There wasn't even time for a protest as the magic quickly wound around them and then seemed to vanish into their skins and scales. Both of the boys were a little shocked, but otherwise they didn't feel any different.
"Luna, what the heck was that for?" Discord said a little miffed that he was just shot with magic.
Luna chuckled, "Oh don't you worry about it, it's just an extra safety measure, for the time being you two are now literally connected. You two are now connected with a magical tether with a leniency of a hundred hoof lengths or so. Just in case you think of doing anything like running away; and to make it interesting, I added it so that you now share each other's physical pain as well. Just in case you get any ideas," Luna smiled at her little countermeasure; Discord on the other hoof wasn't smiling. And when he tried stomping off to the other side of the grand hall he only made it about halfway there before he was yanked back to where Spike stood and crashed into the floor, "Lovely," he snorted, as the other inhabitants of the throne room shared a giggle behind their hoofs and claws.
Will Yawned as he entered the dining room; the aroma of cheese and baked bread turning his hunger into overdrive. The girls had already taken a slice of the pizzas and seemed to be enjoying the meal. Pinkie waved and tried to say something that sounded like "Good morning" around a mouthful of pizza; though the sun had already set, it didn't really seem to matter too much to the hyper pink girl.
"Evening Ladies, mind if I take a slice?" Will said as he pried open a cardboard box. "Mild with Extra Cheese," was written in a speech bubble above a chef wearing a luchador mask.
"Sure, you must be famished after missing a few meals," Liza said with a sly grin. Will saw it, and although he did want to know why his sister was grinning like a fox, he knew from experience that it was sometimes better to never ask why and simply let things happen. And so with the table's residents eyeing him, Will picked up a slice from his share, and bit into it.
The first thing that happened was a burning inside Will's mouth that made his taste buds catch fire as the extra hot sauce washed over them. Will's eyes started to water, and his face flushed brighter than a tomato. The girls then exploded into laughter as a crying, red faced Will started running back out of the room and into the kitchen to douse the rigged pizza with the sink tap. It wasn't until a full five minutes later that Will retuned with a scowl on his face.
"Lary?" Will gingerly asked; his tongue still sore.
"Lary," Liza stated matter-of-factly, sipping on her can of beer, as if the answer was self explanatory.
"Well then, maybe it's time I do another fly by over his crusty old joint. I'm sure he'll just love it," Will began plotting his revenge for the sabotage of his food; it may as well have been a declaration of war! But Liza stopped his devious plans in their tracks as she offered the other half of her Vegetarian Hawaiian, as an offering of peace, and so Will decided to let it slide this day.
Moments later, the cheese feast was devoured completely; Rainbow Dash had tried a piece of the extra hot pizza and found that she actually liked the spice. Dash made it a point to rub it into Will's face that she had tamed the beast, while he had run away like a foal. Things escalated from there, and it turned quickly into a contest on who could chug the most Tabasco sauce; Rainbow ended up winning that duel too, up to the point where they had a race to the bathroom to evacuate their bowels. When they came back to the table though, the two were laughing like old friends over the little contest; apparently they bonded from the duel. The others had to admit that it was all pretty silly and joined into the merry laughter.
Things wound down eventually, and they all sat there listening to Will's album of Pink Floyd as the calm tunes of Time washed from several speakers. Twilight wondered to herself what could have made most of the sounds, half of them sounded like nothing she had heard before back in Equestira. The beginning had confused her with all the bells and chimes, but after a moment it started to level out and it played like any other song Twilight had heard; the man's voice was calm and melancholic as he sung his lines.
She looked around and saw that both the brother and sister had their eyes closed as they listened. Liza looked slightly sad and Will had an unreadable expression played across his features. Twilight had gotten the hang of reading a few Human expressions since most were similar to Pony expressions; like smiling and frowning, laughing and brooding, but there was only so much she could tell without the help of ears and the subtle body expressions that ponies had.
"So, there's something that I've wanted to ask; if this isn't what you normally look like, and you say that you're some kind of sentient magical pony like thing, then what do you normally look like?" Will asked curiously.
"I guess I could try and draw you a picture," Rarity said as she levitated a piece of paper and pen from across the room. The whole magic thing still surprised Will and Liza, but they were getting used to it. Rarity set to work sketching what their true forms looked like with her horn, and when she was done she showed it to the group. "While this may never be worthy of Canterlot's art gallery, it should give you an idea of what we look like." In reality Rarity was being highly modest as she had crafted a highly detailed sketch of what the girls had looked like in roughly ten seconds flat.
Liza and Will both studied the piece of paper, "Heh, they look like Saturday morning cartoons," Liza barely suppressed a giggle. "Well I guess they weren't lying about the whole pony thing. Hey look at this sis, you girls even had tattoos on your asses! What would your parents think of that?!" Will succumbed to his laughter and rolled on the ground in a riot of snorts and snickers; If Liza didn't know better she would have guessed that she was related to a hyena.
"They're call'd Cutie Marks sugarcube, they represent our ow'n special talent an' such," but the name "Cutie Marks" only helped increase the level of cackling from below the table.
"Ahem," Twilight coughed, slightly embarrassed that they were being mocked, "Each pony gets one when they find out their special talent; Pinkie Pie's is balloons since she loves to throw parties, Fluttershy's are butterflies because she loves animals, and Applejack's is apples," again it was like throwing oil in a fire as a new tide of giggles came from Will.
"She's called Applejack for a reason then! So what can you do? Summon the dark lord of Apples or something funky like that?!" Will mocked.
"Wha-? No, 'O course not! Mah family is a strong believer in Celetia an' the Elements of Harmony! We would nev'er do a thin' like dark ponycraft!" AJ said with conviction, but at the mention of "Dark Ponycraft" Will's merry mockery reached its peak and he started to cough.
"Stop it, please, you're killing me! This is just too rich! And what next, you're ruled by a princess in a magical pony kingdom, full of talking animals and dragons I bet! I think Disney might just sue you're florescent asses to the moon if they found out about this!" But Liza ignored her brother; she seemed interested in what the girls were saying.
"I noticed them earlier when we were taking a bath, but I just thought that it was something that you chose to have done. But it sounds really interesting actually; most Humans spend most of their lives trying to find out what makes them special. You're lucky that you can have something like that to help you know what makes you different, and unique. But tell me something; doesn't it hurt when you get them? And who dictates what they are?" Liza asked fascinated.
"Well um, no, they appear all of a sudden when you know what it is that you love to do, and it doesn't hurt in the least," Fluttershy reassured.
"Interesting...But there's something else here in the picture. Two of you have wings, two with horns, and the last two have nothing and appear to be the most normal, why is that?" Liza's eyes shined with curiosity, the inner scientist taking over.
Twilight decided that she should carry the conversation from there on, being the living library that she was. "Well, our traits seemed to have stuck with us when we traveled here and took on these new forms. Rarity and I can still use our magic, and I believe that Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy might still be able to fly with their wings, though it's hard to say unless they try," Dash and Fluttershy hadn't bothered trying to fly just yet since they were still getting used to the change, so they decided to wait a day or two before they stretched their wings and took to the sky.
"Yes, I can see that, but what about Applejack and Pinkie Pie?" Liza questioned, "Do they have something special about them, a certain power or trait perhaps?"
"Well, with Pinkie it's hard to tell; but Earth Ponies don't have any magic, and they can't fly ether. What makes them special is that they have more strength and durability, so they usually tend to do the hard working and labor orientated jobs. For example; Applejack helps run her family apple orchard, and is the strongest out of all of us," Twilight peered back at Liza and found that she was taking notes on a small thin slab much like the TV, though Twilight didn't mind, it meant that someone was also keen to learn like she was.
"Alright, I think I have only one more question for now, what I'd like to know is how did you even get here? And why?" Liza leaned forward as much as she could in her wheelchair, keen inquisitiveness shown on her face.
Twilight had to ponder this for a second; even the other girls had started to intently listen to what she had to say, "To be completely honest, I don't exactly know for sure, we never intended to come here. It was all just an accident, and it happened so quickly..." Twilight still felt that shame of dragging her friends into this mess, and even if they did forgive her, it was another thing to forgive oneself, "But what did lead up to us coming to your world was our efforts to enhance the Elements of Harmony in an Ancient Ritual, we followed everything to the letter, and yet here we are."
Liza put down her data pad, and massaged her forehead with her index finger and thumb. "So this means that if we don't get your fancy magical ornaments back, you can't get home. That correct?"
"Yes, if we don't have the Elements, then there is no way we can return. But don't worry, they can only work with us since we all have a deep connection to the element that we represent, to anypony else they might as well be an expensive paperweight."
"Well, that clears a few things up; but what has me wondering, is that mysterious scroll that you mentioned. You said that you followed everything to the letter, and that it was supposed to go all according to plan. Yet it didn't. Instead, you and your friends are cast away into another land," Will spoke up, apparently sobering up enough to keep a straight face.
"...what are you getting at Will?" Twilight had to ask since he seemed to be onto something.
"And you say that you were capable of doing this weird voodoo ritual...what I think, is that there was something wrong with the scroll to begin with, and that is the cause of all this," the words hung in the air as each contemplated the implications.
"But that can't be, I've studied that piece of parchment a hundred times, there's no way it would do this," Twilight defended, she was sure that everything had been analyzed and properly translated.
"Hey, this is just a shot in the dark. All it sounds like to me is that this scroll is the root of this clusterfuck. But I think this should be a bit of a warning still, if that scroll was the culprit, then how can you be so sure that repeating the same thing as before will be any better. Heck, it might even send you out into space for all we know," And although Twilight didn't like to admit that somepony, or something, with no real experience with magic could try and tell her what she should and shouldn't do with magic, she knew that he was right, and that they needed a solid plan before doing anything with the Elements.
"Alright, I'll think about what you said and try and find out the cause of the glitch in the spell was before we use them again," Twilight reassured.
"Sounds like a plan," Will then went back to sipping his nearly empty beer bottle.
Then a thought flashed into Twilight's head, and since the siblings had been asking them questions, she thought that it was only right to ask them some too. "Hey Will, don't you have anyone else living with you?" The house seemed a bit too big for just them, and when Twilight had walked along a hallway she had seen a few extra bedrooms than the two really needed.
Will took a sip from his beer and fixed Twilight with a soft smile, "No, not anymore. We used to live with our father when he moved us down stateside a few years back, but he isn't around anymore."
"Well, when is he going to be back? I think we should invite him back and have a super large party just for him!" Pinkie said with a cheery smile, she hadn't noticed the pained sadness in his words, but the others had.
"Um, I'm sorry if we made you feel uncomfortable. Pinkie didn't know..." Fluttershy spoke in an empathetic apology, tears brewing in the corners of her eyes.
"Know about what?" Pinkie asked innocently, still oblivious to what was happening.
"Oh don't worry too much about it; we've healed those wounds over the years. And besides, you just asked an innocent question, there's nothing to apologize for really," Liza said as she waved their concern away.
"Our dad passed away four years back in an accident. It's also why stumpy over there has that set of wheels," Will gestured to Liza, "it comes with being a pilot I guess. Every time you go up in the air there's always a possibility that something can go wrong," will said with another swig from his bottle.
"Wait, what do you mean 'every time you go UP in the Air'?" Dash asked raising an eyebrow, "You don't have any wings."
Will pointed a finger up to his father's collection of model aircraft hanging from the ceiling, "We go up in those."
RD laughed, "up in those?! I don't think you could fit in it Mr.I-can-fly!" she scoffed.
"Well obviously not those exact things, those are just models of the real deal. The originals are easily a hundred times larger. In fact, I think that tomorrow I'll even give you a little show to prove how awesome they really are!" Will declared; his beer now empty and cast with several others nearby.
Big Al, proprietor of Big Al's Big Toys for Big Boy's garage and car vendor slumped into his brown leather office chair sometime after seven at night and let his large belly hang loose; he was exhausted from earlier jaunts around Reno. Al looked up at the ceiling fan twirl about lazily and started to become hypnotized by the fan's pitiful efforts to keep his office cool, but it wasn't enough so he used his Grey Stetson as a fan. He just sat there in his sweat stained steel grey suit, pondering why lady luck could be a real pain in the ass sometimes.
He eventually broke from the stupor and drifted his eyes down onto his desk; it was littered with an assortment of documents, folders for each of his clients, and several part order forms that he needed to completed sooner rather than later, but Al hadn't gotten around to them yet. But amongst the debris, was something that was way above anything of value in the entire garage filled with every kind of luxury car under the sun; there sat a set of golden jewelry, five necklaces and a crown. They sparkled like wildfire even though there wasn't anything really that shined at it; the gold was finely polished to a near mirrored reflection. Each jeweled crystal embedded in them reflected a bit of coloured light onto the office walls, forming together to create a small rainbow in the dingy office. The room looked like it was holding a leprechaun disco.
They looked a little childish, like some sort of kid's toy; but Big Al knew better, earlier he had taken his Bowie knife to the gold and cut a sliver off to see if it was the real deal. He wasn't disappointed, it was real. Though when Al had tried to find the part where the sliver was taken, it had mysteriously disappeared along with the shaving.
Al had spent all day traveling from pawn shops to auction house to see if he could sell it for a fortune, but was met with little success. Ever since he had found the retched little things on the side of a road, Al's luck had plummeted. When he first went to one of his buddies in a jewelry store to get an estimation of their value, the jeweler had confirmed his thoughts that they were real; but when Al tired to sell it to him, the jeweler had tried to undercut him by more than half of what Big Al knew they were worth. Al may never be considered bright, but he knew enough to catch a rip when he saw it.
And so Al had set off on a quest to find a better deal for the set in Reno; but the other stores were no different, ether they tried to rip him off, or they thought that he must have stolen them and declared that they couldn't possibly take something with so much heat on them. And so, by the end of the day Al was stuck with the crummy little things. They sat there on his desk like the world's most expensive paper weights.
Suddenly there came a knocking on his office door, "Boss, Mister Antonio Villanueva is here to pick up his Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG," It was one of Al's mechanics. Antonio was one of Big Al's most important and respected clients; you could even go as far to say the same for most of Reno.
Antonio Villanueva was one of the biggest contributors to the Reno Air Races, the man had spent half a billion US dollars to keep the whole event as lively as possible, without him Reno wouldn't be as large as it was today. Also there was the fact that had he not intervened into a federal debate to shut the whole event down after a catastrophic crash a few years back, then the entire city might have just shriveled up and died. The Spanish oil baron was the savior of the city, and Al took pride that he serviced his rides.
"Alright, I'll be there in a moment to greet him. Make sure that his little joy ride is fueled and ready, I have the feeling that he may want to ride it home," Al said to the mechanic as he left his office.
The garage wasn't small by any means as it was more like a large were house for the rich, and it took Al a minute or two of weaving in between different sports cars, vintages models, and a Hummer or two to get to the lobby where Mr. Villanueva waited.
"Ah, Mr. Alphonse, how are you this fine evening?" A Latin man wearing a black Calvin Klein suit with an oxblood red tie asked as he rose from his red comfy chair, a smile adorned across his face revealed rows of pearl white teeth. The man was somewhere in his late fifties, with stripes of steel grey penetrating his swept back jet black hair and neatly trimmed beard; though to call him old looking was out of the question, as he looked even healthier than most young people and not a wrinkle could be seen on his features. Antonio's grey eyes sparkled with intelligence and experience as he met Al's. His face was angular, and his chin jutted out giving him a sharp presence of a professor or a wise man. His English was perfect from an Oxford tuition; though hints of his Madrid upbringing showed from time to time. The man radiated charisma and power, and he knew how to use it; it was no surprise that he had made eight figure numbers a year.
"Not bad sir," Al said as he shook Antonio's hand, the man's grip was enough to bend iron and Al thought he heard several pops coming from his wrist, "we have your ride ready to roll. But there are some documents that need signing before I can hand over the keys, just a routine legal process, plus there's payment," Al said trying hard not to look like the casual shake had caused him any pain.
"But of course, will you lead the way?" Antonio let go of his steel grip, and Al thanked god that nothing had been broken.
The two men walked back to the main office, but before Big Al entered though the doorway he remembered the Jewelry still on top of his desk. It would look highly suspicious, and Al doubted that it would set the right impression for Mr. Villanueva if Al left priceless valuables lying about. "Ah, I just remembered that my office is a complete mess. Would you kindly wait out here while I tidy up?"
"Nonsense, so long as we can find a pen and the papers, I'm sure it will be just fine," Mr. Villanueva said as he brushed past Al into his office. Al hurried in after him, but there was nothing he could do now.
Antonio stood there staring at the gleaming treasures on the desk, captivated by their beauty. Al wasn't sure what he should say as an excuse, and eventually came up with one just in time.
"Mr. Alphonse, what are those?" Antonio said with wonder in his voice.
"Ah, a good question. I was putting them aside for a bit of polishing. They were my Ol' Gran's, and she left them to me after she passed on," Al lied smoothly.
"How much?" Antonio said abruptly, his eyes never leaving the desk.
"I'm sorry?" Al was taken aback but the sudden offer.
"How much do you want for them? A million? Two perhaps?" Mr. Villanueva said plucking a check book from his breast pocket. At first Big Al didn't know how to respond; then it hit him that this man was willing to pay three times what he was offered earlier that day as if it was spare change.
"How does 2.5 Million sound?" Maybe Lady Luck hadn't forsaken Al after all.
Will led the girls out the back of the house and into the cool night air. The stars shown intensely from the clear Nevada night sky, a partial full moon lit the area with its light and cast silver linings over the landscape. Twilight had to admit that the night seemed more beautiful than she last remembered it, last time she was in partial shock and had too many other things on her mind; but now she took the time appreciate her surroundings.
The group had finished up their dinner and was waiting for Will's grand reveal of his flying machine. Rainbow Dash still claimed that whatever Will had, it could never compete against her wings in "Sheer Awesomeness." Though from what Twilight had seen from the models, it would be a good guess that Dash might just have a competitor, since the replica craft looked impressive and seemed designed for extremely high speeds.
They stopped in front of a pair of massive rusted iron doors for the hanger. From the light cast from the house and the moon, Twilight could see that it was easily larger than her Tree Library, and from glimpses earlier on in the day she knew that it stretched on further into the darkness. Will stood with them fishing around in one of his pant's pockets for something, eventually satisfied that he had what he wanted, he withdrew his hand to reveal a small remote. He turned to face the girls, a foolish grin plastered on his lips, he was like a colt with his latest toy, "Alright ladies, prepare yourselves for eye melting levels of awesomeness!"
The doors behind him creaked and moaned as they separated. Pinkie was bobbing up and down with excitement and enjoying every minute of it. The girls felt the same way, though Fluttershy had taken refuge behind Applejack and her new hat that Will had fished out of an old box. Applejack said that it wasn't anything like her old hat, but it would do for now.
To add to the mood, Will was playing the opening orchestra to 2001 a Space Odyssey over some speakers hidden somewhere inside the metal construct. Liza thought that was just pushing it, though she let her brother have his fun and time in the spot light. The gap grew wider and wider until a dark cavern lay before them. Another click of a button released a flash of blinding light as pairs of industrial lights flicked on with an echoing "thunk" as each row of lights started to illuminate the hanger.
Inside, several large machines were placed all around the edges of the hanger; some Twilight could guess what they did from their shape, but pretty much everything was beyond her. To the far end a lab was set up with pipes winding around between machines, and a low hum emitted from a few of them. But what was really eye catching stood in the centre under several bright halogen lights, its bright aqua blue paint shimmered as it reflected the beams off of a polished finish.
"Girls meet my pride and joy, 'The Sparrow'!" Will announced as he flung his arms wide open in a showmanship style.
"W-what is that?" Fluttershy asked as the group went in after Will; he had already run over to The Sparrow and was stroking its paintjob lovingly as if it were his marefriend.
"This right here is a Vickers-Supermarine Spitfire F.Mk.24! Homebuilt over the years from an ordered kit, and modified to race! The engine is a modified Rolls-Royce Griffon 85, and scratch built to run at speeds up to 850km/h; designed by yours truly. And to top it off, Liz helped me make it run off of her high potency aviation biofuel!" Will went on spouting details of his craft; but none of the girls understood a word that he had said.
Liza coughed loudly, and Will turned from his beloved plane to see that the girls had lost him, "Yeah, I guess you wouldn't get all the details, you being magical horses and all." Will sighed, no one really appreciated his work, "Suffice to so say; It flies really fast."
Rainbow dash walked over next to him, she inspected the blue metal of the fuselage and the wings. She took a step back and snorted in bemusement, "This will never fly; the wings won't even flap. But I'll admit that at least it looks cool, so I guess it's not complete trash," RD looked down her nose at Will with contempt at the ridiculous thought that this machine could do the same as her wings.
"Say what?! Wings flapping? Of course they don't flap! We have the engine to generate trust and aerodynamics to do that! This is a highly sophisticated piece of work, it doesn't need to "flap" its wings to fly like those useless feathers of yours," Will was insulted that this multicoloured girl, who would have fit right in at Xavier's School for mutants, had just dissed his baby girl.
Though now that he remembered the teal blue wings hanging off her back, it did make sense that they wouldn't have a need to go through all the troubles to create flight, like what the Wright Brothers and their predecessors did. Well, that wasn't fair really. All she had to do was flap her wings like a bird's and off she was, while Earth bound beings such as himself had to go through a ton of trouble to get into the skies.
Will turned and met Rainbow in a challenging stare, "Fine, you won't believe me right now; but tomorrow when the sun comes up you will eat those words," Will declared.
"Alright, it is on! And I hope you have some more hot sauce, cause you are going to eat those words of yours right with it! My wings aren't useless, and I'm sure that I can out fly that hunk of scrap!" There was enough static in the air that Liza thought that a gas fire might start and kill them all.
"Alright you too, I think that's enough. You can have your little duel later; right now we need to get some beds for you girls, since it's already eleven o'clock. Even if it's a weekend, you all need some rest," Liz said motherly and started to herd the girls back to the house with a few protests and moans, mainly from Pinkie Pie who wanted to see more.
Rainbow and Will stared for a minute longer in their little staring contest until some prodding from Liza broke them up. "You go ahead sis, I'm going to stay here and make some preparations for tomorrow," Will picked up a clipboard from a table and started to look it over.
Eventually all the girls had left except for Liza and Will. She rolled up to her brother and patted him on the back, "Thanks Will."
"What for? All I'm doing is getting ready to make that girl lose that little challenge," Will said as he walked over to The Sparrow to test some of the instruments.
"I meant thanks for bringing those girls out of their funk with all these theatrics, they've been taking it really hard that they're now trapped here in our world. And by distracting them and livening up the mood a little seems to be helping. So thanks," Liza said as she turned to go after her charges.
"Think nothing of it. Besides, how can I leave them like that? It would go against my code of honour as a gentleman," Liza looked back at her brother work on his task for a moment longer, eventually she let out a soft laugh. A crash and some yelling came from the house followed by Pinkie's trademark giggling, and Liza realized that she had to fit six new guests into three beds. Also, that crash sounded like something that needed immediate attention, so she pushed her wheelchair out and into the darkness.
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I Guess Rainbow Really Is Her True Hair Colour
"Remind me why we're out here in the middle of nowhere, and not going after my friends?" Spike said irritably, a scowl plastered across his scaly face. He raised a clawed forearm to block the high-noon sun and swept his green reptilian eyes all around him. "Middle of nowhere" was indeed the best words to describe the badlands; aside from rocks, some reddish dirt, some rocks, sand, and some more rocks, there was nothing as far as his eyes could see; absolutely nothing, aside from the rocks.
"Well duh, because it's a cinch if we have the scroll to actually get to the other world, and without it we might just land in a pile of cosmic acid or something," Discord calmly replied from atop his cotton candy cloud as he drifted around in a lazy search pattern. He was wearing a pair of shades and one of those silly florescent umbrella hats to give him some shade; it even seemed familiar to Spike, as if it was from Pinkie's collection.
The pair had traveled to the spot where the Enchantment had taken place, and both were in the process of searching for the cause of all their woes; The Scroll. Seriously, why doesn't it have a cool sounding name, like the Forbidden Scroll of Zucronian, or even The Elder Scroll? Instead we just call it "the scroll" how anti-dramatic , Spike thought to himself. When they had reached their destination all that remained of the six ponies was Breaburn's abandoned wagon, and Applejacks hat, which had found itself blown into a nearby cactus. The Scroll and the girls were nowhere to been seen.
Spike reached up on his toes to grab Applejack's hat from its prickly perch, "I still can't believe that we started to trust you, only to end up in the mess," Spike said coldly as he plucked a few spikes out of the Stetson.
"Well excuse em moi for not keeping tabs of every little plot I've devised over several centuries. Besides, if I had known what was going on I could have told you what it was, but oh no 'Discord might try and stop us or worse since he's such a villain. This scroll is a threat to him since we're supposedly going to make the Elements stronger, so we can't let him know about this precious scroll~ '" Discord mimicked Twilight's voice perfectly, and if Spike hadn't known it was really Discord he could have sworn it was his friend. Discord spat on the ground as if to get some horrible taste out of his mouth, the spot where the phlegm had landed erupted in a small bonfire.
Spike's impatience grew inside of him; he nearly had enough of Discord's antics, they where here to rescue his friends! Spike blew out some green fire and steam though his nostrils in a feeble attempt to calm himself; it didn't help. He inhaled a large breath to prepare for a long winded rant; but just before he could say a word, a gust of desert wind blew something brown and papery into his gaping jaws. The purple dragon gagged and spat out the object, and then proceeded to hack for another minute.
"Well look at what we have here," Discord swooped in and retrieved the parchment from the sand before it blew away again, "Will you look at that, it's my scroll! Hey Spike, are you sure you're not distantly related to a Chineighese dragon? Because this is just the spot of luck we needed, honestly I thought for a moment there this thing might have been blown off to Timbucktu!" Discord shook the document to get the dragon spit off it and quickly unrolled it.
Spike resisted the urge to punch the demi-god, but with the scroll found there was hope. Internally Spike yelled out in glee and did a little dance, but outwardly he simply huffed. It wouldn't do any good to wreck his tough guy look and show some weakness around the former enemy. Discord started to 'hum' and 'ha' as he looked over the parchment; a look of concentration and seriousness adorned his face which felt odd. If Discord was confused, then that was a bad sign right there.
"Discord?" Spike asked, a tinge of worry ebbing in his voice. The chaos god looked over the top of the paper to look down on the small reptile, "Yes, what is it? I'm kind of busy here," Discord said tersely.
"I-is everything alright? The scroll i-isn't damaged is it?" Spike had to fight his crackling voice, damn puberty, why do you always have to kick in at the wrong times.
Discord looked at Spike for a moment, his face a blank mask as he regarded Spike. Suddenly it sprang into a bit too large smile, "Oh, of course everything is just peachy. Now we can head on out."
Discord snapped his lion paw and instantly a swirling black vortex ripped through into existence right behind him. The void was only tinged by a slight swirl of purple as it twisted grotesquely in and out of the center. A howl like a hundred Timber wolves all yelling out in pain escaped the portal along with a chilly wind. The smell that went along with the wind was unlike anything Spike had smelled before, if you could imaging the smell of a sewer pumped full of orange air freshener, then you had something close to the off smelly smell. As Spike looked further into it, he could see distant lightening flashing, though red lightning was something that did not look like anything he wanted to be near. It was both horrifying and mesmerizing in a twisted sort of way; as if the universe was screaming out that this "Thing" could or should never exist and that is was an abomination to everything that ever was. Yet there is was, created nonchalantly by a god whose sole purpose was to make things like this possible.
Spike instinctively backed up a step as his sub-conscious yelled at him to leave and get as far away from this horror as fast as possible. Yet Spike only moved back that one single step, maybe it was fear that rooted him in place, maybe it was a stubbornness that he had learned from Twilight, or even some sort of curiosity at the impossibility. But no, it was because he knew that he had to help his friends come back home from whatever hell hole they may be in, and it was his courage that bound him there.
Discord whistled at Spike and he turned to where Discord was, the mad man had already sunk his lower torso into the void and was looking at a watch. He turned to Spike with a wry grin, eyes full of excitement, "Time waits for no Dragon." And with that Spike tapped into that well of courage he had and ran head first into the void.
The morning sun filtered though the half closed blinds and into a quite, semi-dark room. The light slowly grew in intensity until the beams cascaded across the floor and then onto the bed in the center of the room, with its occupant moaning in protest at the offending light. It was too early for the sleeper to handle a barrage like this, and she counter attacked the offensive with a tactical pillow strike at the window. Unfortunately this only caused the blinds to release a spring and in a sudden clatter the window blinds retracted to unleash their might, it was too much for the sleeper and she knew that she was beat.
Rainbow Dash opened one of her eyes and squinted around the room with her magenta eyes. Gathering her bearings she knew instantly that this wasn't her cloud home, or anywhere that she knew of for that matter. It was strange, and something was off, she knew what it was but couldn't place it. Rainbow Dash made the mistake of looking right at the open window and was suddenly blinded once again; with a yelp she covered her eyes with her hoofs...only they weren't her hooves. For a moment she was confused, they looked like Spike's claws, only they weren't pointed or scaled. They looked dainty and pinkish, yet they had a few calluses here and there, and when she closed her grip she felt that they were strong and nowhere near brittle. And for some reason she couldn't explain, she wasn't all that worried at the new limbs, as if she had already known that they were there.
She propped herself up on the bed and took a look around the room. The room was painted in a Robin's egg blue with only a few things here and there placed on the wall; a photo and an old poster of some sort hung from across the room above a dark wooden dresser. There as a side table next to the bed, but other than that there were no other furnishings. It all seemed really sparse, as if the owner of the room never really used it much. And it was all starting to come back to Rainbow Dash now; she was in Will's room where she, Fluttershy, and Applejack had commandeered his bedroom. Speaking of which; none of them where to be found in sight. Oh well, she could search for them later.
Dash stretched out her new arms above her and heard a satisfactory click as she popped a kink out of her back that had been bothering her. She looked behind her and saw that her wings were a mess; Dash shook them until she was satisfied and started to brush them back into place. Dang, even if she was an alien creature now, she still had to go through the hassle of wing maintenance. Some things never change , she sighed to herself.
Rainbow shifted around and hopped off of the bed, she still found it odd walking on only two legs, but at least she had them. A memory of Liza popped into her mind and she felt a twinge of pity and sorrow; she couldn't imagine what her life would be like is she didn't have anything to get around on, even if she lost only her wings she would find it hard to go on. But the memory of how Liza still went about life like nothing had happened to her created respect in Dash's magenta eyes; Liza was a brave girl.
While in her thoughts Dash hadn't noticed the knocking on the bedroom door and voice asking for permission to enter, when the person on the other side didn't hear a reply they decided that there wasn't anyone inside and entered anyways. Rainbow shook herself from her little thought bubble to look at the intruder. Will walked through the doorway, and apparently he was in the process of taking off his shirt. When he looked back up without his top on he froze and turned a bright crimson, it almost made him look like Big Macintosh with his short yellow hair contrasting the flush on his face.
"Hey, what's gotten into you? You look like you've turned into a tomato," Dash laughed, she put her hands on her hips and faced him; this seemed to turn Will another shade of deep red.
"...I-I...I'm s-so sorry to u-uhm I think I s-should leave!" Will turned shades of red that Rainbow Dash had never seen before, and that was impressive since she had seen every spectrum of light.
Dash blew a strand of her multicoloured hair that had fallen across her face and started to get annoyed. "Alright, what's the big deal?" She asked as she stepped towards the blushing young man.
Will said nothing and only pointed at Rainbow Dash as he turned his head up and away from her. Dash raised an eyebrow, but followed the trail that Will's shaking hand had created. She looked at herself and saw instantly what it was that made Will so flustered. She was stark naked! She had gone to bed the night before commando style because Rarity hadn't bothered make them any pajamas to fit their tails and wings; that, and it was freaking broiling that night.
Rainbow tuned a similar shade of red that Will was concocting as her tail bristled at the embarrassment. She didn't understand why these Humans wore clothes when it was hot enough to fry an egg; but now she understood, and the embarrassing fact that she didn't have anything protecting her became obvious. She glared back up at Will who was trying to make a break for the door and became slightly flustered herself as she saw his toned upper body; but not enough to prevent her from acting out her vengeance.
"Y-you, you bastard!" She yelled as she delivered a punch that would have made Rocky Balboa proud. Will's face connected with Rainbow Dash's fist right as he turned to face the outcry; big mistake. Dash's punch slammed into Will with enough force to actually send him flying into the hall's wall; if someone were to measure the distance that he flew, they would have found that Will flew for an amazing six meters. Dash slammed the door as she retreated back into the bedroom, leaving a dazed and nearly unconscious Will slumped along the hallway.
Liza wheeled around the corner and up her brother. She peered down at him from her wheelchair and tisked as she shook her head. "Bro, you deserved that," she then wheeled off down the hall. Will looked off into space and asked one question before he fell unconscious, "Why me?"
That morning a chill had descended upon the Hartmann table, even though outside the temperature as easily above 30°C it did nothing to defrost the air at breakfast. Everyone huddled around their plates as they tried to find some shelter. Rainbow Dash munched loudly on her buttered toast while Will quietly eat his cereal, his right eye was turning a dark purple as it swelled into a black eye. Both of them refused to look at each other across the table, but the tension was so thick in the morning air that Liza could have swished her butter knife and cut right through it.
Liza had found out later on that it was a simple misunderstanding; Will had returned to his room to get another clean pair of clothes, and Rainbow had forgotten that she was, well, in her birthday suit. Liza had even tried to negotiate a truce, but it had fallen right on her head as each of the sides wouldn't apologize for their actions. And so there they where, caught in an awkward silence as each party decimated their respective meal. At one point Pinkie had tried to "Make everpony's frown upside-down" with a few of her antics, but nether really responded to the confetti being thrown in their faces. Oh boy, this is gonna be a long day. Liza thought, and then after a fashion, Where the hell did Pinkie get that confetti from?
Will suddenly plonked his empty bowl on the table and made nearly everyone jump out of their seats. He excused himself from the table and when Liza asked her brother where he was going he simply replied, "Airplane." Yeah, love you too bro. Rainbow Dash didn't even flinch as Will stormed out of the dining room; she just took another bite out of her toast and pretended to be interested in the quality of her meal.
Finally when Will was out of earshot Twilight faced her friend, "You know, that 'thing' that happened this morning was all just an accident right? He didn't mean to see you like 'that'" Twilight gave Dash a disapproving look.
Rainbow gulped down some orange juice and looked back at Twilight, "Yeah, but still doesn't mean that I can forgive him for walking in on me like that. And besides, if he isn't going to apologize then why should I have to?" And with that Dash left the table and went outside. Everybody else had finished their meal already and decided that clean up could wait, so they followed the rainbow haired girl outside.
They all found her out in front of the house looking at the sky; Rainbow Dash had a thoughtful expression as she scanned the baby blue sky above, it was a nice Sunday morning with no cloud in sight. They were all going to ask her what she was doing when she suddenly spread her teal wings out as wide as she could; which came out to an astonishing two meters from tip to tip. Dash regarded them both with a look of approval; soon she was crouched on the gravel driveway.
"RD, don't do anythin' rash ya hear!" Applejack shouted and tried to get closer to Rainbow Dash. RD looked back at the crowd and an impish smile broke out. Her tail swished a bit as she gave a toothy grin; and then she was gone. A cloud of dust remained where the pony-turned human once was.
The dust didn't kick up too much but Liza had a hard time seeing where Rainbow Dash had gone. Surely she hadn't taken to the sky; that was impossible, undoable with those wings even if they looked like they were built for it. It was too unbelievable for Liza to accept, she had to be around here somewhere. But a holler and whoop of joy above her disproved her beliefs about her aerodynamics; well, it really wasn't all that much harder to believe than sentient Pony creatures from a parallel universe being stranded in her front yard, so she let it slide this day and looked up in amazement.
Rainbow Dash felt the rush of air sweep past her face, she felt the air currents beneath her, and most importantly she felt the freedom that flight brought. Even though the first bit of her flight was a bit wonky with this new body at first, it eventually evened out as she got the hang of the new wings. Sure it felt weird, but nothing like walking around on two legs, now that was weird. The wings themselves where actually a bit boarder and wider than her original ones, but they had to be in order to keep her in the air. Altogether they weren't a bad pair of wings she had on her back.
Looking down from her aerial view she saw the farmhouse and the hanger out back, she saw that there wasn't all that much around besides a shed or two. Her friends and Liza were all waving at her as they cheered and yelled. Man it felt awesome to be so awesome.
RD closed her eyes and left the air currents to take her a bit higher. In the air she was in her element; well, not her Element of Loyalty, but you get the picture. Here in the sky she was free, nothing to worry her and certainly nothing that can catch her with her speed...nothing that can catch her sped eh? She remembered last night's little duel between Will's machine and her wings. A laugh escaped her mouth, how could he even get that thing up in the air anyways? Pinkie's little gyro and balloon were certainly at least more air worthy than that blue hunk of metal; and even though Pinkie was behind their construction, at least they made enough sense for their flight. But she remembered that look of pride and trust he had for the "Sparrow ", and it made her uneasy to not know for sure if what he said was false or not.
As she soared in another pass of the house she remembered the earlier events in the morning and blushed slightly in embarrassment, now that little duel was personal on another level. She would beat him and his little machine and laugh as Will's pride shattered; after all a black eye was the bare minimum for such a humiliation.
Well, even if he can get into the air I'm sure my wings won't let me down . Rainbow Dash made a mental note of her current altitude and speed; she also felt inside herself and asked "Can I go faster than this ?" And the answer was always a complete "YES! "
William Hartmann stepped back from his work of art. It was a marvelous sight, and he was proud of his work. The Sparrow had all of the tarp coverings removed and it now the modified Supermarine Spitfire stood in the centre of the rusty hanger. After Will had finished with the vital systems he had gone the extra mile and applied an extra coat of polish to her and now she gleamed in the morning light that fell in from the open hanger doors. No matter what anyone said, she was his baby and he loved her.
A pain shot though his right eye that reminded him of his bruise there, Will regretted Liza's offer to hand him an icepack when he had the chance. Will could even see his black eye even in the fuselage's polish; it almost looked like an eye patch on him. Well, at least he looked a bit cooler, but he still hadn't though up of a story to along with it when the guys would ask him about it the next day.
"Oh I just happened to walking in on an alien pony-turned-girl butt nude and she decked me so hard I was knocked out," Will had to laugh at that, when he said it out loud it really did sound ridiculous. Maybe he could say he got in a bar fight? That was likely enough, but the other mechanics ether spent every night in most of the bars in Reno or they knew someone that was there, they would know about that lie and it didn't help to gain a reputation as a liar.
Still, there was the more pressing issue on the home front; how was he going to make up with Rainbow Dash? He couldn't function at home if they still had that ill will between them. Maybe he should just apologize? Yeah, but what for? It's not like he intentionally did that, seeing her naked and all, at least he now knew she really didn't dye her hair like that and that it was all natural....moving along! When Will reviewed the events in his mind he really did act as gentlemanly as possible, there really wasn't anything more that he could have done, and besides it was his room after all! She should have been more aware before she decides to go commando!
Eventually Will's little brooding session was halted by whoop of joy and the sounds of cheering coming from the house. Looking outside the hanger doors he saw a flash of colours zoom over head and decided that it was worth checking out; it wasn't every day you got to see a person with wings fly, even if that person was currently in a cold war with you. There was no way he could pass that up. Will took one last look at the Sparrow before he left the hanger towards the merry cheering.
The Happiest Place on Earth
As Spike the dragon began to regain his consciousness he became aware of a searing headache ravaging his brain; to put the pain into context, it was somewhere between being rammed by an out of control train and being struck by lighting. Each pulse forced Spike's bones to shudder, each throb was a nail in his forehead. It was the worst the little dragon had felt in his entire life, but for some reason Spike was having a hard time figuring out why he felt like this.
Did I fall down the stairs in the library? No, that wasn't it. Did AJ accidentally buck me to the moon? Nope, Applejack would have made sure where her hooves would have landed, and the farm pony would never hurt anypony, so that couldn't be it. Did Rainbow Dash or Pinkie pull another prank on me? That was probably it, but somehow Spike felt that wasn't it ether. Then what in Celestia's mane happened to me?
Then it all came back in a flash, Twilight and the others had been trapped in another world because of a trap that Discord had made. He had been summoned by the royal sisters and forced to pair up with the culprit to rescue his friends. He had been out in the badlands with the trickster god when they both had entered a freaky portal that was supposed to have brought them both to his friends. It all made sense now, and the harsh headache was joined by a feeling that Spike didn't feel all too often; anger.
"Discord! " Spike screamed at the top of his lungs.
"Sheesh, no need to yell. I'm right here," a smooth voice said from the shadows nearby.
Spike opened his eyes to find himself in a dark and humid room. There wasn't any real source of light, yet there was enough so make out the silhouettes of some rocks; the light came from several dozen tiny crystals embedded in the walls. As Spike's eyes wondered around the semi-large room he found that he wasn't alone. In a corner of the room a tall figure was leaning against one of the walls, staring at where Spike was lying on the floor with his bright yellow eyes.
Spike's blood began to race as the rage he had began to pump into his body. What happened next was unexpected, as Spike pulled himself off of the ground so that he could face the one responsible for putting him and his friends in this mess, his legs buckled and Spike lost control of his balance. With a startled yelp Spike fell face first into the solid ground.
"Ouch! I felt that from all the way over here," Discord snickered from where he stood above Spike's body.
Spike rolled his body over so that he was looking back up at his enemy, "Discord, what have you done to me?"
"Oh, nothing special, I just changed our bodies a tiny bit so we can blend with the locals!" Discord said cheerily, "And I must say, I'm quite proud of myself for my handy work. Here, see for yourself," the dark figure reached out his hand into the air and conjured up a small orb of light with a snap of his claws...or what had been claws.
"Wait, what!?" Spike's eyes went wide with shock as the darkness vanished from Discord, revealing that what he said was true. He was no longer the patchwork of animal limbs and wings, but something that Spike had never seen before. His body was tall as usual, but this time he stood more upright and straight. His body was covered in brown and yellow suit that covered everything from his neck down to the black suede shoes he wore. The light also revealed that the horse head that the mad spirit once owned was replaced with something else, a roundish pale fleshy thing was in its place. On top of the head there was a white mane with dark grey streaks running along the sides, and on the chin the same goatee was there, but shortened. Oddly enough Discord didn't look like a five thousand year old man, but somehow had managed to appear young and youthful...despite being an alien creature.
"W-what are you?" Spike heard himself ask.
Discord looked down at himself and shrugged, "Oh, I guess you don't know what a Human is. Well, I made us into them for now."
"Wait, you just said 'us ', right?" Slowly Spike turned his eyes back down to himself and he let out a gasp of horror. His scaled dragon's body was no more, and instead was this "Human" thing that Discord had said he had turned them into. The first thing to hit Spike, was that his beloved tail was gone, along with his carefully maintained spikes on his head. His body was covered with clothing, except that he was wearing a purple and green hoodie instead of the suit that Discord was sporting. Spike's legs had grown extensively longer than the pair he had before, and they had been covered by a rough black material. Finally, Spike lifted his trembling arms into the light and saw that his talons had been replaced with a pair of pinkish hands; they reminded him of a Minotaur's, except that he had an extra finger on them.
"W-why d-did you do this to me?" Spike whimpered, the loss of his body had shaken him more than anything; there had been much pride in that small body of his.
"Like I said, it's so that we can blend in. Honestly, this form is so bland and tacky. If it wasn't for the fact that the Humans would be scared out of their minds if they saw us I wouldn't have done this."
"But why would these Humans be afraid of us?" Spike asked, his mind still reeling from the shift in appearance.
Discord let out a heavy sigh, "Good question, I'd have to say it's because this world doesn't have any creatures like us. In fact, this one time I was here the Humans sent an army of these funny metal men to attack me."
By now Spike had shifted and had sat up off of the cold ground to face his company, "That sounds really bad, but why would they do that?"
Discord sat down with Spike to keep the conversation at eye level, "I don't know why they did that, even after I tried to help them. Back then their land had gone through a drought, so I decided to be nice to them, so I gave them a gift."
"A gift? Discord, what did you do?" Spike frowned.
"Eh, If I remember it right I made it rain cheese for a week or so. With that those people wouldn't starve, but what do I get in return? Torches and pitchforks, I mean, how rude."
There was a brief silence as Spike stared disapprovingly at Discord, who in return, put on a face of pure innocence with his new face. The silence was broken by a heavy rumbling that was soon fallowed by the sounds of heavy machinery running overhead. "What's going on!?" Spike yelled over the racket, but Discord didn't reply in words, instead he just put a finger to his lips and motioned for his companion to be silent. A second later the rumbling had intensified and a train came barreling through the room only a mere meter away from where the pair was sitting. As fast as it had come, the train had left the room.
Once the noise of the train had passed, and the dark room settled back down again Discord rose to his feet once more. Spike on the other hand could only sit there and stare straight ahead, slack jawed and shaken up way too much to do anything. Discord saw this and huffed an annoyed sigh that his traveling partner was paralyzed by such a simple thing.
"Broke your mind already? What a shame, and here I thought that you'd last a bit longer," Discord shifted back up to his feet and looked down at his chaperone.
With a snap of his fingers, the two were teleported a short distance outside the dark room to a nearby park bench. All around them the hustle and bustle of an amusement park continued as if a man wearing a suit and a young boy hadn't just popped into existence right in front of them. Families and groups of friends strolled past the bench, food stalls released mouth watering smells, and amusement rides chimed their little jingles in the night air. All of this was a treasure trove of fun for the god from another universe, but Spike was being such a party-pooper, with his mind getting frozen and all.
Eventually, Spike decided to come back to reality and saw everything that was going on around him. He nearly had another brain break, except that a wad of cotton candy was shoved into his gaping mouth. The once-dragon-and-now-a-real-boy sputtered as he removed the wad from his face. "What the heck Discord?! And where are we?" He demanded.
"Oh you and your questions!" Discord said brightly, a huge grin on his face, "Why not just go with the flow of things, and let bygones be bygones."
Spike snapped a glare back at Discord's carefree smile, "No, tell me where we are NOW."
The smile faded a bit from the spirit's features, but he didn't let Spike's sour attitude bring him down completely. Discord lifted himself from the bench and walked a bit in front of where Spike was sitting. He faced a white castle not too far away and spined on a dime to face Spike with outstretched arms. From behind the castle's blue tiled spires several comets shot into the sky, a moment later they exploded into bright flashes of lights, lighting the starry sky up with a rainbow of colours. The smile on Discord's face spanned his whole head, "Welcome to the most magical place on Earth!"
With a rush of her feathers Rainbow Dash managed a final loop before she decided that the crowds had had enough of her sheer awesomeness. From up above the seven bi-pedal creatures that huddled around in a group looked like the size of ants, among them Dash could still spot the different coloured manes of each of her friends. She couldn't hear them from her height, but she could imagine that they were all cheering for her, which brought a warm feeling of happiness in her.
Deciding to head back, the former Pegasus swooped down in a spiraling dive at the crowd; the wind tugged at the clothes that she wore as she gained even more velocity. The cheers and shouts of encouragement met Dash's small pink ears; with that little boost from her best friends in the whole wide world Rainbow tucked her wings in and shot even faster towards the ground. At the very last second she unfurled her azure wings and pulled up just in time to escape crashing into the ground.
An elated whoop escaped Dash's lungs as she flared her wings and came to a full stop on the dirt driveway of the Hartmann's residence. Dust was kicked up in the air, and for a moment no one said a word as a half dozen or so jaws hung slack to the ground. For just a bit longer Rainbow bathed in the shock and awe that her awesome flying skills had generated.
Then out of the blue somepony decided to break the silence, "Whoo hoo! That was great Rainbow Dash!" Everyone's eyes darted around until they all found the source of the praise; each of them had a mild surprise to see that Fluttershy was the one who had let out the loud cheer. The warm feeling of friendship, and a good dosage of adrenalin, made Dash beam with pride.
After the silence had been broken everyone, except for William, surged towards the blue winged girl. "Please guys, that wasn't even my best flying out there! You should save the worshiping until later when I'm at one hundred and ten percent!" Dash had to admit though, she always loved it when ponies, and in this case Humans as well, acknowledged her radical levels of pure epicness.
Will on the other hand hadn't joined in on the circle that had formed around the Pegasus girl, instead he chose to hang back and watch the show from a distance. Rainbow noticed the lack of his presence amongst her adoring fans and looked across the multicoloured heads of her friends to lock eyes with the young human male.
"What? Didn't you like my show?" Rainbow called out to Will, "Or are you just ashamed that you can't even reach my levels of flying?" The laughter and cheering from the girls quieted down as the challenging words flew over their heads.
The corners of Will's mouth turned upwards into a peevish smirk, "Oh, I'm sorry, was my mind supposed to have been blown by that? Honestly, I've seen a pigeon fly better than that, " the pilot scoffed.
The crowd was stunned by the retort, and they turned their attention back to the rainbow coloured girl, waiting to see how she would respond. Twilight knew that the crimson that began to emerge on Rainbow's cheeks wasn't a good sign, and she slowly motioned for the rest of the girls to back away with her. "What did you just call my flying? Eh, monkey boy?" The words were outwardly calm, though it was plain as day that Rainbow was holding herself back from tearing out William's throat.
"Well, lets start with that you botched an Immelmann turn by forgetting that you needed enough speed to complete the half loop, so you had to shorten the maneuver to a point where you just barely recovered," Will stated as he approached the smaller figure, "Then you got even more sloppy with the way you set up your flashy stunts, and as a result you bled too much speed in between them. Instead of wasting your energy, you should have planed each maneuver so that they could improve the next one." Rainbow was now quivering with rage as Will continued berating her skills, but at the same time she was also shocked that he had managed to pick up on the mishaps that she had made, and only skilled flyers like the Wonderbolts could have noticed the errors; this only added oil to the fire and her face heated up even more.
"Finally, you did something completely stupid and reckless; you risked the safety of the crowd when you swooped in on them at the end. It may be fun and all, but the well being of the people you're trying to impress is a number one concern," and with that Will finished criticizing the girl. He took a step back and folded his arms as he waited for RD's reaction to what he had said.
Much to Twilight's surprise and relief her friend managed to control her boiling anger. Instead of a blood bath the girl leveled her eyes at her challenger, "Well then, if you think you're so much better then why not show us what you've got?"
Ten or so minutes later Rainbow Dash found herself holding a water hose and spraying a jet of water across a dusty field. She looked down at the green tube in her new human hands, the water pouring out almost instantly evaporated as the sun's rays cooked the land. A short distance away in both directions Fluttershy and Applejack were doing the same thing as RD, holding hoses of their own. She realized as she stared up at the eggshell blue sky above that she had no idea what watering some dead patch of earth had to do with flying.
"What the hay am I even doing!" She cried as the hose was thrown to the ground.
"Like I told you, we need to water the runway in order to keep the dust from being kicked into the air," a soft voice came from behind Dash; the surprise sending the prism haired girl rocketing into the sky with a yelp.
"Oh, sorry about that!" Liza yelled from her wheel chair, "I didn't mean to scare you!"
How in Luna's mane did she sneak up on me like that? With a wheel chair no less! Rainbow Dash pondered as her Human feet landed on the dirt once more.
"When the propeller on the Sparrow moves at full speed it's going to knock a lot of dust into the air, if that happens chunks of dust or rocks can get blown into the engine, or worse, blown into someone unlucky enough to be nearby. We need to dampen the ground enough that that doesn't happen, but too much and we'll create enough mud that we'll have a huge mess on our hands," the blonde Human explained as she picked the hose back up and offered it back to Dash.
"This seems a bit much for just a simple take off," Dash noted as she resumed watering the runway, "It never takes this much effort and caution when I fly."
The long lavender and magenta coloured hair that could only belong to Twilight came bobbing over to the duo. "Liza, I have some questions about the fundamentals of what's going to happen; can you help explain them to me?"
"Sure, I don't see why not."
Twilight took a moment to pull out a pen and note pad from a pocket hidden in the folds of her skirt. She licked the nib and readied herself to take in as much data as possible. Liza let out a short laugh as she saw Twilight's determined and eager expression, "Alright, what do you want to know?"
"First thing on this list is: how in the hay does that thing fly? It doesn't work like anything I've ever seen back in Equestria, and though I've flown in a hot air balloon and airship before I've never in my life seen anything like that." Twilight pointed towards the hanger; the gesture was unfamiliar to the former equine, what with all those spindly little digits where her hoof used to reside, so the end result was Twilight just aiming her whole arm to point . Liza turned her head towards the rusting hanger and observed her brother toiling over ever inch of his precious little creation.
"Well, we Human's don't have wings or magic spells like your kind does, so if we want to fly we need machines to help us along. About a hundred years ago us Human's finally managed to make a machine that can bring us into the skies; the Sparrow is just that first flying machine's descendant." Twilight nodded along as she listened to the mini-lecture, scribbling along in her notes with a look of pure joy.
All that eggheadedness didn't interest Rainbow Dash as much as her friend so she decided to resume her work, but she still found herself still lurking around close by as she watered the dust in front of her. "An airplane keeps itself in the air with it's set of wings. The way that each wing is shaped allows it to alter the air around it; the bottom is flat while the top is curved in a tear drop shape. This shape creates a low pressure zone above each wing, and since the air pressure below is relatively higher it pushes the wing into the air."
Twilight lowered her notepad and scratched her dark purple hair in confusion, "If what you say is true, then you'd need to be going really fast in order to maintain altitude; but I can't see how something can go so fast without the use of magic. How can this be?"
A wolfish grin passed Liza's features as she glanced over at where Rainbow was standing nearby, "Trust me, it can go that fast." Somehow the way that the girl in the wheelchair had said that made the hairs on the back of Dash's neck stand up on end. It wasn't because she was unnerved or anything, no it couldn't have been that, it must have just been a chilly breeze that drifted by...in the middle of a desert...yeah...
"Really? Then how can it?" Twilight said as she resumed her note taking.
Liza lifted a finger and pointed at the four blade like objects that were sticking out of the Sparrow's nose. "You see those? That's what's called a propeller, and as the name implies, it propels the aircraft. As it spins around, it creates a torrent of air that's blasted back along the body of the air plane; kinda like a fan, but it pulls instead of pushes. The blades of the propeller are angled so that they cut into the wind, generating thrust."
"Oh how fascinating! I can't wait to see it fly even more now!" Twilight squealed with glee as she stashed the pad for later documentation."Maybe I can use this information back in Equestria when we finally return home."
"Heh, well I don't think you have to wait too long, it seems as if my brother's almost ready on his end." Sure enough, some commotion and movement over at the hanger drew everyone's attention to the rusted hollow building a few meters away.
Pinkie Pie watched over Will's shoulder as he worked on his little thingy ma-bobber, her eyes sparkling as she saw all the shiny metal pieces housed in the front of the contraption. It was so pretty in there, despite all the icky black and grey gunk of course. There were bright red tubes, colourful neat little bundles of wire, and most of the surfaces were polished so much that Pinkie could even see her wibbly wobbly reflection in them!
In a corner of the workshop a small radio played an odd song that the pink inter-dimensional pony hadn't heard of before, In it a stallion with a high voice sang in accompany with the tune. Pinkie liked the music that passed by her ears, and Will did too it seemed, his lips moved silently as he mouthed out the lyrics as he worked on his machine.
"Hey," Pinkie said as she tapped the Human on the shoulder, causing Will do jump in the air and do a funny little dance as he dropped on of his many tools.
"Holy! What the heck, you nearly shocked me to death there!" The young man panted as he clutched his chest with his right arm.
"Oh don't be silly, how can a tap shock you to death?" Pinkie giggled, and she put a finger to her chin, "But now that you mention it, I wonder if I ran across like a gazillion rugs and then tapped somepony, would that shock them enough to kill them? But I don't want to hurt anypony, so I don't think I'll do that. But what happens if I accidentally ran across a rug shop and tapped someone my mistake? That'd be horrible! I should never tap somepony ever again!" Pinkie's smile had gradually wilted until it was replaced with tears that streamed down a crying Pinkie.
Will had absolutely no idea as to what was happening in front of him, one minute he was busy prepping his plane for takeoff, and then the next he had inadvertently caused Pinkie to suffer through the guilt of killing an imaginary innocent person with static electricity. Somehow, though he didn't know how exactly, he was responsible for the crying pink mess in front of him. A pang of guilt crossed his heart as he saw Pinkie wail into her hands.
"Ummm...if you really want to, I guess it's okay if you want to poke me. I'm pretty sure I won't get hur-" Will was cut off as Pinkie sprang up and gave the grease stained Human a humongous hug. She giggled as she began poking a confused Will all over. It took several seconds before it clicked in Will's mind as to what had really happened.
"You set me up didn't you," he deadpanned.
"Yeppers!" Pinkie grinned back, continuing with her barrage of pokes.
A soft chuckling came from the other end of the hanger, apparently Rarity had been watching the whole episode and was highly amused by Pinkie's antics. "Oh, don't look so sour dear, Pinkie's just being Pinkie. She only wants you to have a bit of fun and smile."
"Yeah, well, I don't think my spleen is having much fun at the moment," Will glared down at the pink mess of curls and Pinkie decided that her blitz could be resumed another day and retreated with a sheepish grin.
"I found out that if Pinkie Pie truly is sad, her hair seems to uncurl for some reason. Otherwise, the darling is just fine if she looks as jovial as she is right now," the refined posh accent seemed to be totally out of place in amongst the grease and oil of the Hartmann Hanger.
Will gave a nod of appreciation and resumed his work. The preparation for the show was nearly complete; the fuel was loaded, the engine was in perfect running order, and all the control surfaces responded like the well oil machine that it was. Taking a step back, Will couldn't stop the pride that swelled in him at the sight of the Sparrow , even if he had tried. The MK.24 Spitfire had been his pet project since several years ago when he had first ordered the kit; every strut and every bolt had been put together by his hands, and nothing could beat that feeling of accomplishment.
"It sure is a beautiful...what ever it is...do you think you'll be really be able to out fly Rainbow in it?" Rarity asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I sure hope so. Even though I said those things back there, that little show she did was pretty impressive. I may not have a pair of wings stapled to my back like she does, but I think I can do something just as amazing with my baby girl."
Rarity gasped and looked slightly shocked at Will, "I never knew you were a father?" She said, a hint of mischief lacing her words.
"Oh har har," The twenty year old rolled his eyes as he walked over to the Sparrow and closed the cowling that protected the custum Rolls-Royce Griffon engine. Releasing the chocks holding it in place Will began to push the aircraft along and out into the open. The sun shined down on the waxed blue airframe and caused the Sparrow to shimmer and sparkle.
A small gathering had formed as the rest of the temporary residents of the Hartmann household were drawn the the glimmering spectacle of Human engineering. Rainbow was among them and Will locked in on her as they both began a stare off. "We've all seen what you can do feather girl, but now it's my turn."