M.U.C.

Celestia was having a bit of a hard day. First, she had gone and died about twenty times. Then she had discovered that her reality was falling apart, being eaten away at sky-first by what appeared to be a black box. But what she was having the hardest time with was the pink and green mares that walked before her. Both wore silly grins, giggling and whispering to each other as they made their way through the forest.

“Now, could you try to explain to me again how we go about breaking this ‘wall’ of yours?” the princess of the sun asked. “But a little slower this time.”

“Well,” Lyra started. “In my experience you need lots of focus. You can’t have any distractions whatsoever.”

“And the best way to focus on something is to focus on nothing, which is easiest to do by focusing on everything!” Pinkie Pie finished. “And the easiest way to do that is…” the pink mare laughed. “Well, that’s our little secret,” she said, nodding towards Lyra.

“But you also need a source of high magical energy,” the unicorn added. “And something to channel the excess energy into. Like a funnel.”

“And what would that be?” Celestia asked.

“Well… we can’t tell you that just yet,” Lyra said hesitantly. “Just wait and see.” Celestia grumbled a bit, but otherwise decided not to push the matter further. Her sister had told her not to order these two about; they were the ‘professionals’ in this matter. How Luna even knew these ponies, let alone treated them as equals, was beyond the alicorn’s comprehension.

They continued on in relative silence until they reached a clearing with a pool of water in it. Pinkie Pie and Lyra set to work about the pool, the unicorn producing several apparatus from a bag she had brought. Celestia could only recognize a few of them; a beaker, a pipette, and what appeared to be a plastic sandwich bag full of some powder. The rest were seemingly miscellaneous items and yards of twisted glass tubing. The pink mare grabbed the beaker while Lyra drew a sample of water from the pool with the beaker. With the pipette she drew forth a drop of the liquid, and very carefully deposited it into the glass tubes. Pinkie shook a little of the powder into the tubing after it. Then they both sat down to watch it.

“What is that powder?” Celsetia asked.

“LSD,” Pinkie responded.

“What?”

“Exactly.”

At first nothing happened. Then some more nothing. Then a whole lotta nothing. Lyra added another drop of water, and Pinkie another shake of the unknown powder. This process repeated until Celestia grew bored of watching them. Thirsty, she moved to get a drink from the pool. Lyra jumped up to stop her, grabbing the princess’ shoulder.

“I wouldn’t do that princess. Not unless you don’t want to wake up for a very long time,” the unicorn said. Celestia was about to berate her, but caught the words trying to climb out of her mouth. Nodding, she moved over to the edge of the clearing and, rather louder than she needed to, sat down. The unicorn and the earth pony kept on alternating, water and powder, for several more minutes. A silvery glow began to emanate from the tubes. Nodding, the pair added one last round. The glow began changing colors, cycling from blue to pink to green.

“We’re ready Princess,” Pinkie Pie said. She handed the bag over to Lyra, who dumped the remaining powder and water back into the pool. The unicorn placed the tubes back into her bag, which she slung over her back.

“What do you need me to do?” Celestia asked, rising.

“Channel your magic into the waters of the pool. Try to keep up a steady flow of energy between you and it.” Celestia did as she was asked, her horn slowly being enveloped by a golden aura. From a mild distance, she could hear the flap of wings.

“Oh, and hide!” Pinkie said, diving into the cover of the trees. Lyra moved herself and the princess behind a bush as the unseen flyer landed.

“Keep your concentration,” the mare whispered. “Don’t break the connection.” Celestia gritted her teeth against the noise; she found the flow of energy being dammed. She pushed forward mentally, breaking through the barrier. A scream sounded from the clearing, followed by flash of light. Lyra tapped the princess on the shoulder, signaling that she could let go.

“What was that?” Celestia asked, dropping the link. “Who was screaming?”

“Oh, just Rainbow Dash,” Lyra said offhandedly. “Rainbow Dash being stretched down to the thickness of a piece of paper, and then launched across several dimensions. She’ll be fine.” Celestia’s mouth hung open for a few seconds. She snapped it shut.

“Don’t worry, Princess,” Pinkie Pie chirped. “You didn’t kill her or anything, we think.”

“You think?” the stunned alicorn nearly shouted. “I might have just killed one of my most loyal subjects!” As the echo of those words dispersed through the forest, their sound was replaced by that of a thousand scrolls being torn through with a blender that had a metal cat stuck in it. The pony who’s life had been in question came tumbling out of Lyra’s bags, trailing glass shards and a multi-colored mist.

“It worked!” Lyra said excitedly. “Not that its success was ever in question,” she added hurriedly. A groan from the pegasus on the ground spurred her and Pinkie into action. The unicorn produced a flask of amber liquid from her bags and handed it to Pinkie. The pink pony opened her friend’s mouth and dumped the contents of the flask into it.

Rainbow Dash sputtered and coughed into life. Her rainbow mane was slightly singed, but other than that she seemed fine. Celestia breathed an audible sigh of relief. Maybe Luna had been right about these two; their goal appeared to have been reached, and nopony had been injured.

“Rainbow. Hey Rainbow Dash,” Pinkie Pie said, waving a hoof in front of the pegasus’ eyes. “How you doing?”

“Fine,” she croaked.

“What did you see?” Pinkie asked. Her friend didn’t answer. “Rainbow…”

“I-I saw…,” Rainbow Dash trailed off. “Things.”

“Did they have limbs coming from their torsos?” Lyra asked. “And smooth skin?” The pegasus shook her head.

“Only one did,” she answered.

“How many were there?”

“Two.” Rainbow Dash said. Celestia was growing tired of this endless barrage of questions that she didn’t see the purpose of.

“She obviously needs some rest,” the princess said. “Let’s get her to the castle and into a bed. We can continue the… questioning when she has had some sleep.” Lyra looked about to protest, but decided against it and nodded her consent. Without a word shared between them, she and Pinkie picked up the dimension traveling pony. The pegasus didn’t complain. As they began heading back towards the castle, something that had been bothering the princess for awhile managed to find its way to the front of her brain.

“I have a question for you two though,” she said. “How did you seem to know that Rainbow Dash would be coming here?”

“Well we kinda sorta forged your signature and the royal seal and sent a letter to her saying to be here so that we would have a subject to run our test on,” Pinkie said quickly. Celestia just hung her head, forgoing the heavy sigh that would have been rather appropriate in that situation.

“Let’s just get to the castle,” she said. “I need something to drink.” Lyra handed her a flask similar to the one they had given to Rainbow Dash. She could see now that, scrawled on the side of it, was the word ‘tape’.

“Not that kind of drink,” she sighed, deciding to ignore the terrible pun just used. Could this day get much more exhausting?

And like that, it gave way to sudden pitch black night.