BACK TO EQUESTRIA!by The PatioHeaterChaptersPART IPART IIPART IIIPART IVPART VPART IA storm was brewing. And it was a doozy. It was a natural storm, made of magic so Pegasi couldn’t control it like they could normal weather. Rainbow Dash and the other Weather Ponies were on high alert and were in charge of getting everypony to safety. “Right! Is that everypony?!” Rainbow screamed over the panic-stricken ponies taking shelter in the town hall of Ponyville. “I think so,” said Derpy Hooves floating next to her. “How would you know?! You’ve been following me all day, barely helping! You were just staring at the Celestia-damn clouds!” “I have a list,” Derpy said proudly, holding the list above her head like some kind of trophy. Rainbow grabbed it. She sighed. “This… says muffin… one hundred times…” Derpy stared gormlessly at Rainbow Dash for a second, before smiling broadly and letting out a squee. “Just… just go over there.” Rainbow pointed to the opposite end of the hall, Derpy went there happily. “Now, I’ll ask again. Is there anypony missing?” There was some general murmuring from the crowd before somepony who Rainbow Dash so desperately wanted to call Carrot Top shouted above the others, “I think Twilight Sparkle is still out there.” This was accompanied by the agreement of all those around her. “Oh no.” Rainbow Dash exploded out of the Town Hall in a cloud of rainbow, only having to come back a second later with Derpy slung over her shoulder. “Derpy! Stay here!” she said slowly and clearly. “Okay, Rainbow Dash.” Derpy saluted and then took up a guard position by the door. Rainbow Dash sighed, shook her head and then left again with the same amount of speed as before. “TWILIIIIIIIGHT!” Rainbow shouted continuously as she flew over Ponyville, keeping her eye out for the purple Unicorn. She checked every single building, form Twilight’s Library to Sugar Cube Corner. From Sweet Apple Acres to the house that belonged to the creepy old Earth Pony who liked to give sweets to young Ponies. But she wasn’t anywhere to be found. “Where could she be?” Rainbow asked herself, getting increasingly worried and scared that she wouldn’t find her. She heard a rumble of distant thunder and instantly knew where Twilight was. She turned around and looked at the steadily approaching vortex of air, sparking with lightning, wrecking all that’s in its way. Rainbow Dash flew at full speed towards it, despite the feelings of dread in her chest. This is one of the few moments when she wished she wasn’t so loyal. 10 seconds later and Rainbow Dash’s worst fears were being realised. There, on the ground, stood Twilight Sparkle, her horn glowing as she took various measurements and made a note of them on a nearby clipboard. “Damn you and your science-y mind, Twilight!” Rainbow flew down and landed angrily in front of her. “Oh. Hey Rainbow. What are you doing here?” “Saving your life! C’mon Twilight, we have to get out of here right NOW!” Rainbow roared. “Hold your horses Dash, I'm nearly done. Just a few more minutes and I should be able to dissipate this storm.” “No, Twilight. You can NOT control a storm like this, believe me, I’ve tried. Now COME ON MISSY!” “Oh fine!” Twilight said grudgingly. “Just a few more seconds.” Twilight preformed a little more magic with no apparent effect. “There. That should be enough to do some tests.” “Come on Twilight! We have to hurry!” Rainbow was becoming more and more scared, the eye of the storm was approaching, and that was where the magic was most concentrated. She started running out of the storm. “Don’t worry Dash. I can just teleport us out of here!” “NO TWILIGHT!” Rainbow shouted, but it was too late. Twilight lit up her horn, concentrating on the teleportation spell. Rainbow was about to tackle Twilight down but before she could, a bolt of lightning came down between them, throwing Rainbow aside with a mighty crack of the sound barrier and a blinding flash of light. Rainbow Dash came to moments later, a shooting pain going through her body and a leg bleeding badly. Her eyes recovered, she could see again. The storm had died down considerably, it was only raining now. “Ha! That lightning strike must have discharged the storm. You alright Twi?” Rainbow looked round to check that Twilight was okay. “Twi?” rainbow Dash stood up and limped over to her. “Twi?” her voice was laden with tears. Twilight was lying on the ground, not moving. Not breathing. “Twi?” Rainbow fell down beside her. “Oh Celestia no. Please! Don’t be dead Twi.” A tear fell from her eye, which she quickly wiped away. Rainbow knelt down beside her. She looked at the body of one of her closest friends, she didn’t know what to think. Her mind was a mess of confusion and disbelief. She sighed, and reached a hoof down to shut Twilight’s eyes. Or so she thought. Her hoof touched her soft face, and kept going, straight through to the ground. She hadn’t been expecting this so she fell over, her chest falling through Twilight’s side. She pushed herself back up and propped herself on her front hooves. “What the-?!” Rainbow looked down at Twilight’s body, there was now a segment missing in the place where Rainbow had just fallen. Rainbow moved her hoof through the remainder of Twilight, she seemed to get blown away like a cloud of purple dust. “What the hay is going on here?!” Rainbow stood up and started looking around in the vain hope that Twilight would be hiding somewhere nearby. She stopped suddenly when she heard a voice shout at her from behind. “Are you Dash? Rainbow Dash?” the voice was very authoritative. Rainbow turned around. Behind her, in the glow of the headlights of a car, stood a tan coloured colt wearing a long, black leather coat and a wide hat. He looked threatening. “Who wants to know?” Rainbow asked arrogantly. “I have something for you.” He walked towards her, reaching down in his coat to find something. Rainbow Dash watched him cautiously. He pulled out a small leather package. “A letter.” “A letter? But nopony knows I'm here!” “We were given this letter with specific instructions to deliver it to somepony matching your description, on this exact spot, at this exact date, at this exact time.” “Whose it from?” “We don’t know. In fact we were hoping you could shed some light on the situation.” Rainbow took the letter and walked over to a headlight of the car so she could read it. The colt popped open an umbrella to shield them from the rain. It read: Dear Rainbow Dash, If my calculations are correct, you will receive this letter immediately after you saw me get struck by lightning. First, let me assure you that I am alive and well. I've been living happily these past eight months in a different world known as Earth… Rainbow skipped to the end and saw who it was from. Twilight Sparkle Rainbow Dash couldn’t contain her excitement. She leapt onto the colt and gave him a tight hug. “Are you alright?” “She’s alive! She’s on Earth but she’s ALIVE!” “Is there anything I can do to help?” “There’s only one Pony who can me help now.” With this, Rainbow exploded off the ground, cracking it slightly and leaving the colt in a cloud of rainbow and confusion. 10 seconds later and Rainbow Dash was back at the Town Hall. “Rainbow Dash!” shouted Rarity. “Please tell me you found Twilight.” Rarity seemed like she was about to cry if Rainbow said no. Rainbow ignored her, she wasn’t the Unicorn she needed to see. She looked around blue and white mane of a green-ish mare. She found her. She swooped down stole her away from Bon-bon’s comforting grip, carrying her up into the air. “LYRA!” Rainbow shouted. “You have to help me!” She looked into her golden eyes and felt them to be strangely calming. She could see why Bon-bon had a crush on her. “Why? What’s wrong?” Lyra’s voice was quivering slightly with worry. “It’s Twilight!” “Oh my gosh! What’s wrong?!” she became scared “She’s on Earth!” Lyra stared at her with disbelief. “Do you mean where Humans live?” “Yes! You were right Lyra, they do exist!” Lyra snorted with annoyance, “Stop it Rainbow Dash. You’re just trying to make me go off on one of my Human rants so you can laugh at me again.” She looked away angrily. “I promise that’s not the case this time.” “Besides, how would you know she’s there?” “She sent me a letter.” Rainbow held up the letter. Lyra grabbed it and read furiously quickly. “My Celestia. She’s living… with the HUMANS!” she shouted at the top of her voice, bringing silence across the hall. “For Celestia’s sake Rainbow Dash,” Bon-bon said angrily. “You just had to get her started again, didn’t you?” Rainbow ignored her. “Lyra, I need your knowledge of Humans to help.” “If it’s for Twilight, I’ll do anything,” she said this a bit too romantically for Rainbow’s liking. “Also, if this is gonna prove that Humans exist, I'm your mare!” “C’mon Lyra, we have to get started right away!” Rainbow flew off, carrying Lyra by the… armpits? Legpits? That bit joining the forelegs and chest. Rainbow Dash had never been so eager to do something before in her entire life, and she wouldn’t stop until Twilight Sparkle was back, safe and sound, in her hooves. “Start what?” “We have to bring Twilight back.” “Back where?” “Back to Equestria!” PART IIDear Rainbow Dash, If my calculations are correct, you will receive this letter immediately after you saw me get struck by lightning. First, let me assure you that I am alive and well. I've been living happily these past eight months in a different world known as Earth. The lightning bolt that hit me caused a magical overload and when combined with my teleportation spell it gave me the power to move between dimensions and end up here on Earth. But Rainbow Dash, I'm afraid I will never be able to return. On this world, there is little to no magic, I spent my first few months here trying to channel enough magic to levitate a spoon, so I doubt I would ever be able to teleport between worlds, I had to use a bolt of lightning just to sent this letter! And I'm not prepared to try with myself. I have befriended a Human who has been willing to look after me. He is wonderful, he is so understanding and protective of me. He has made sure that I'm as comfortable as possible. I even have the suspicion that he may be falling for me, and if I'm honest, the way he’s been looking after me, I wouldn’t say no if he asked.. So don’t worry about me, whatever you do. Do not, I repeat, do not attempt to come here to get me. I am perfectly happy living in the fresh air and the wide-open spaces, and I fear that unnecessary inter-dimensional teleportation only risks disrupting the space-time continuum with potentially disastrous consequences. Besides, I came here on a lightning bolt, and there completely unpredictable, not to mention how dangerous they are. I'm amazed that I didn’t blow up! And please take care of Spike for me. I know that you will give him a good home. Remember to walk him twice a day, and that he only likes canned dragon food. These are my wishes; please respect them and follow them. And so Rainbow Dash, I now say farewell and wish you Celestia-speed. You've been a good, kind, and loyal friend to me. You've made a real difference in my life. I will always treasure our relationship and think on you with fond memories, warm feelings, and a special place in my heart. Your friend in time, Twilight Sparkle. September 1st, 2012. “Wow.” Lyra sniffed and wiped a tear from her eye. “I never knew Twilight could write anything so touching.” “I know. I still get a bit weepy every time I read it. Imagine that, ME! Weepy!” Rainbow Dash said egotistically. “Are you sure we should go rescue her? I mean, she did tell us not to risk it.” “We must. Who’s to know what those humans are like! It’s just a matter of time before something goes wrong and Twilight ends up…” Rainbow Dash couldn’t finish her sentence. “Okay Rainbow, okay. No need to talk like that. But how are we going to get to Earth?” “I have no idea.” “That may be a problem.” Lyra started rubbing her chin. “OOO!” she shouted as she bolted out the door of the Library. Rainbow stood looking at the spot where Lyra had been standing with great confusion. She then ran for the door as well to catch her up. She had barely gone out the door when she saw Lyra, standing not far away, panting heavily. “You okay, Lyra?” “Yeah… I’ll be fine…” she panted. “I should really exercise more”. She lifted her head to look at Rainbow Dash. “I know this guy. He should be able to help us.” “Who?” “You’ll see…” Lyra started trotting down the street, Rainbow followed her, amazed at how slowly Lyra walked. They walked to the other side of Ponyville, to the house that Rainbow Dash knew belongs to the creepy Earth Pony who gave sweets to little foals. “What are we doing here?! This guy’s a creep! He gives sweets to little foals, and not in a friendly way, in a creepy way.” “He does give sweets to us adults as well. All you have to do is ask.” Rainbow didn’t know what to say, she never thought of that. “And what’s so creepy about giving children sweets, ay? Typical, isn’t it, the society we live in instantly puts the label of creep on anyone willing to give away free sweets,” Lyra scoffed. She walked to the door and knocked. “Oh, and by the way, he can be a little… creepy.” “Huh?” Rainbow said. The door swung open. And there stood, in the doorway, was a tall colt, his coat was like the colour of milky tea, and his mane was grey in colour and wild and messy. His face was covered with a bit of soot and he was wearing a lab coat and a strange device on his head connected to a machine of sorts. He looked around outside nervously. “Quick! Come in!” he said with mild fear as he pulled Rainbow Dash through the door and slammed it behind them, leaving Lyra waiting outside. “What’s going on?” Rainbow asked angrily. “No, don’t talk. Not a word.” He took a suction cup which was connected to the device on his head and stuck it to Rainbow’s forehead. “I am going to read your thoughts.” “What?” Rainbow shouted with terror. “Not a word, not a word. Err…” His face contorted with concentration. “You… want me… to make a donation to the Equestrian Coastguard Society.” “What? No!” “Not a word, not a word. You… want me to sign a petition for gay rights in Equestria.” “HEY! What’s that supposed to mean?!” “Ssh! Not a word! Err…” Rainbow stopped him before he could insult her again and before she killed him. She pulled off the suction cup. “Listen, creep. I am here because I was told that you can help me get my friend back from another planet.” He put his hooves on Rainbow’s shoulders and a creepy smile slowly curled onto his lips. “Do you know what this means?” he asked, shaking Rainbow slightly with joy. “What?” His face twisted with rage. “It means this THING doesn’t work!” he shouted as he pulled the device from atop his head and threw it to the ground. Lyra heard the crashing noise and came in to investigate. “Is everything all right in here?” “Lyra! There you are!” Rainbow shouted angrily. “This bozo was just calling me a lesbian! How many times do I have to say that I'm not?!” “Rainbow, calm down. He didn’t mean it.” Lyra walked up to her. “He’s just a bit... you know… mad.” “Thanks for letting me. Now do you mind if you tell me who the hay he is?” “Oh… I didn’t do that already?” she rubbed her head, trying to remember. “Are you sure?” “Yes!” Rainbow was becoming more and more aggravated. “Oh, sorry. Rainbow Dash, meet Doctor Doctorate Brown. Or ‘Doc’, for short.” Doc cooled down and turned around. “Oh, hello Lyra. It’s good to see you again,” he smiled warmly. “Hi Doc. I’d like you to meet my friend Rainbow Dash.” Doc swung round, with a mad looked in his eyes. “Hello, err… Rainbow Dash? Was it?” He put his hoof out for Rainbow to shake who, after some hesitation and curious looks, shook it. “Yes it is, and don’t you forget it. Now can you help me get my friend back?” “It depends, how can I be sure you aren’t just making this up? You’re not the first to ask me to build some kind of special travelling device. Just the other week I had two Ponies come in, asking for a time machine.” “We’re not lying, I swear.” “Well alright then. What was it that you wanted help with exactly?” “We need to get to Earth.” Doc jumped backwards, stumbling over all his equipment that was strewn upon the floor. “Great Scott! Why would you ever want to go there? What ever made you even think you can go there?” He recoiled in horror. “My friend’s stuck there.” “And just how would you know,” his voice was very sceptical at this point. Rainbow took a small piece of paper from under her wing and waved it in his face. “She sent me a letter.” “Really?” Doc became intrigued. “Let me see that.” He yanked the letter from Rainbow’s mouth and smelt it. “Well that certainly isn’t Equestrian paper.” He bit down on the corner of the page to get a feel of it. Rainbow turned to Lyra. “What is he doing?” she whispered, Lyra just shook her head and shrugged her shoulders, she had no clue either. “This paper certainly isn’t of Equestrian origin, and neither is the ink.” He held the letter up in the light and read it. “This letter does seem to definitely not come from our world.” He suddenly dropped the letter and went pale. “No magic? NO MAGIC?! How is that possible?!” He started gesticulating wildly and pacing around quickly. “What’s the problem?” Lyra and Rainbow said together. Doc turned to them, with terror in his eyes. “You can’t teleport to somewhere where there’s no magic! You need it at both ends to jump successfully. The only way you can do is if you had something of ridiculous magical power, like a bolt of lightning.” “What did you just say?” Rainbow sounded rather hopeful. “A bolt of lightning. Unfortunately, you never know when or where it's ever going to strike.” Rainbow contemplated something for a second. “What if… we could?” “Weren’t you listening?” Doc fell back onto a sofa. “I just said they were unpredictable.” “I'm a weather pony, I can control weather.” “So?” Rainbow swirled her hoof in the air and around it, like candy floss, a small black storm cloud formed. Rainbow gave it a tap and a small spark of electricity came out of it. “Could we use this lightning to jump to Earth and back?” “No, that’s just normal lightning, not magical at all.” “Could you build us a machine that could convert lightning to magic?” Rainbow said hopefully. Doc brow furrowed as he thought hard about it. “I don’t see why not…” “Yes!” Rainbow jumped in the air, raising a hoof in celebration. “But we are going to need a lot more lightning than that. And I mean a lot. Basically we are going to have to drain the sky of lightning. Can you do that?” “Err…” Rainbow blushed with embarrassment, she knew she couldn’t. “Okay never mind now, never mind that now.” Doc rubbed his chin as he thought. “I could design a machine that would… yes, that would work.” Doc found some paper and scribbled a small calculation and aligned it with a map. “Hmph… We may have to blast.” PART IIIRainbow Dash and Lyra dived behind Doc’s truck as he pushed down on the plunger, causing the sealed entrance of old mines to blow up in an elaborate explosion. As they heard the final clatters of rock hit the ground Rainbow Dash stood up, helping Lyra to her hooves as she did so. She looked around for Doc, he was nowhere to be seen. She looked around worriedly for a few seconds before she heard a loud coughing coming from by the wheel of the truck. Doc stood up and dusted himself off, his face blackened by soot. He spat the dirt out of his mouth. “Whoa, maybe I should have used less dynamite.” “What was the point of that?!” Rainbow Dash shouted angrily. “I use this old abandoned mine shaft to store some of my more elaborate and dangerous contraptions.” “So why did you have to blow it up the entrance if you still use it?” “I can’t just leave it open for anypony to come and steal it now, could I?” “What?! That’s so stupid!” she shouted angrily. Lyra stumbled around to the other two. “What’s wrong Rainbow?” “This guy is crazy! He just blew up that mine entrance.” “Err, I also had some spare dynamite that needed using up,” Doc interjected. Lyra smiled. “Oh you,” she chuckled. “What are you like?” She rolled her happily and shook her head. “Wha-?” Rainbow said while looking confusedly between Doc and Lyra. “So what’s the plan here Doc?” Lyra asked to get the plot moving. “Now we go down the mines.” Doc went to the back of his truck and collected a few lanterns and hard hats. “Don’t worry, it’s completely safe, I assure you,” he said unreassuringly as her adorned a hard hat and lit a lantern. He started to trot down the mine shaft, barely waiting for Lyra and Rainbow to follow with their hard hats and lanterns. “So what is this place Doc?” Lyra asked, she was amazed at the deep tunnel they were walking down. “It’s the old abandoned coal mines. I used to come down here often as a kid. Ah… that’s takes me back,” he said in nostalgic voice. “I remember when I was a foal, I used to come down here and try to make my way to the centre of the planet, just like in my favourite book by Hooves Verne. Although I never did get very far.” “But why are we here now?” Rainbow Dash said, growing impatient. “This is where I used to work on my more secretive experiments, the ones which could have me banished and put me in dungeon in the place where I was banished.” “I… see… but what’s down here that so important?” “One of my greatest inventions.” “What is it?” Lyra said in awe. “A device that can store phenomenal amounts of magic and then release it all in one go. I had the idea many years ago when I was hanging a picture in my bathroom and slipped on the wet floor, knocking my head on the sink. And that’s when it came to me, in a sudden revelation.” “What?” Rainbow said with great intrigue. “A Flux Capacitor!” “A what?” “A Flux Capacitor.” “Hang on minute!” Lyra boomed, her voice echoing in the mine shaft. “Are you telling me you had the most useful magical device ever and kept it to yourself?!” For reasons unknown to Lyra she was incredibly angered by this. “Calm down Lyra. Besides, I would have shared it but I found no particular use for it. Until now.” Doc stopped as he arrived at a section of wall that seemed to be rebuilt badly and had “DB” scratched into it. “A-ha! Here it is!” he shouted triumphantly. “What?” Lyra said, still with some anger in her voice. “My store room.” Doc turned around and kicked the wooden wall with his hind legs. It shuddered and nothing more. He kicked it again and still nothing. Rainbow Dash coolly and calmly trotted over to the wall, turned her back to it, and kicked it with one leg, seemingly effortlessly. It shattered open. Doc walked past her and into the store room, trying to hide his embarrassment. “Thank you,” he stated flatly. Rainbow followed him closely, and as Doc switched on the lights, her mouth fell open in awe. There was so much amazing equipment in there she didn’t know where to look. Lyra shared her sentiment. “Wow Doc. This is awesome!” Lyra said in an airy voice. “Yes, yes, I know,” Doc said in an exhausted fashion, as if he didn’t want the praise. “Now where is it?” Doc scratched his head with thought and apparent itchiness. He walked around the rather large store, moving scraps of paper and bits of machinery aside to get to the safe. He walked up to it and unlocked it. As he saw the contents of the safe he paled and his eyes went wide with sheer fear and disbelief. “Great Scott!” “What is it?” the other Ponies said in unison. Doc raised a hoof and pointed to the empty safe. “It… it’s gone!” “What is?” Rainbow said with worry. “The Flux Capacitor! I left it right here!” “Are you sure?” “Yes, of course I am! In her I put all my schematics and diagrams and the device itself in here, just in case. And know… it’s GONE!” Lyra walked up to the safe. “Come on now, maybe it just fell down the back.” Lyra stuck her head inside and lit up her horn. “Hey, there’s something in here,” Lyra said with her voice echoed by the metal box. She withdrew her head with a small scroll in her mouth. She levitated it up and looked at it, I had the Royal Seal on it. She opened it and read it out loud. Dear Doctor Doctorate Brown, U mad? Signed Princess Celestia. “What in Equestria does that mean?” Lyra was greatly confused by this letter. “Give me that!” Doc ripped the note out Lyra’s magical grip to read it for himself. “Did Celestia still my Flux Capacitor?” “I think so,” Rainbow Dash said in a voice that should have been more considerate. Doc’s face contorted with rage, an inexorable wrath that made his eyes appear to glow. He ripped the letter in twain as he roared with anger. “What are we gonna do Doc?” “We are going to get back my device,” his voice was surprisingly calm. “How? We can’t just waltz in there and take it now can we?” Lyra laughed nervously. Doc perked up. “Of course! It’s so simple!” “What is?” “We can just waltz right in there. The Grand Galloping Gala is only one week away!” Rainbow brightened up as well. “That’s brilliant Doc, it will provide the perfect cover!” “Come on, we have to get back to the lab. This is going to take some serious planning.” Doc bolted out of the store room, barely giving Rainbow Dash and Lyra a chance to catch up before he left in his truck. “Alright Ponies, are you ready?” Doc said eagerly as the Lyra and Rainbow Dash walked into his lab the next morning. “Ready for what?” Lyra asked through a yawn. “My ingenious plan.” Doc whipped the cover off an impressive looking model of Canterlot Castle. “Sorry about the crudity of this model, I didn’t have time to build it to scale or paint it.” “Don’t worry, it’s good Doc,” Rainbow said as she patted Doc on the shoulder in a congratulatory way. “So what’s the plan?” “Well, you two will start over here.” Doc moved two little wooden Ponies representing Rainbow and Lyra to the entrance of the castle. “I can get you into the Gala as guests, no problem at all.” “What about you?” Rainbow asked. “Why, I will be here building your machine, of course!” he scoffed. “Oh, okay. Of course… continue,” Rainbow said embarrassedly. “Once inside, one of you will need to cause a distraction to let the other one sneak through the guards unnoticed and head deeper into the castle. After that, you must find the vault, break into it, steal the Flux Capacitor and get out again without anypony noticing.” “Doc, do you seriously expect us to be able to break into Canterlot Castle so easily?” doubt rose in Rainbow’s voice. “Yes.” “Whoa, Doc. This is heavy.” “Actually the Flux Capacitor is a very small device, not heavy at all.” Rainbow facehoofed. PART IVIt was the night of the Grand Galloping Gala, and Rainbow Dash and Lyra stood outside in their original Rarity dresses, dreading the monumental task ahead of them. “You ready, Lyra?” Lyra gulped. “I guess.” “Good. Let’s go! And remember, act natural.” Rainbow started walking toward the castle entrance, Guard Ponies carefully watching and checking invitations rigorously. The first test, to see if the tickets Doc got hold of were any good. Fortunately they were, as the two of them were allowed inside. “That wasn’t so bad. Now that hurdles over, let’s get what we came for.” The two Ponies headed into the Mane Hall, where there was a band playing and so many hundreds of Ponies dancing around to the painfully dull music. “Hey, Rainbow,” Lyra whispered. “How are we gonna distract all these Ponies?” “I don’t know…” Rainbow looked around for inspiration. Then a thought struck. “The band!” she whispered back excitedly. “The band will provide the perfect distraction.” “But they’re so… boring.” “Hm.” Rainbow looked at the band some more, they had all the right instruments: guitars, pianos, trumpets, saxophones and even a drum kit, but somehow they weren’t using these to their fullest. But Rainbow had a plan. “Lyra, you need to get up on stage and play.” “What?!” she shouted a little too loud and drew some unwanted attention. Rainbow quickly led them away to the buffet table. “Those Ponies up there don’t know what they’re doing, but if you were up there you could play some good distracting music, allowing me to slip away and get on with the mission.” “But… I can’t just go up there and play, that would be far too suspicious! Besides, I don’t even have my Lyre.” Rainbow looked up again at the band, from her new angle she could make out another Pony playing a Lyre. “Perfect,” she said with a malicious grin curling to her lips. Rainbow took a glass of punch and unfolded her wings. She flew up into the air as daintily as possible, no matter how much she hated doing that, and pretended to admire the architecture whilst sipping at her drink. After Ponies began to stop noticing her she slowly made her way over to the other side of the hall, hovering high above the band, but in particular the Lyre player. She dislodged a fragment of marble from a gargoyle, about the size of her hoof, and aimed carefully, she would only get one shot. She dropped the rock and flew away quickly and landed next to Lyra without a sound. There was a sudden yelp as the Lyre player fell unconscious with a cut on his head and the music stopped, grabbing the attention of the guests. Rainbow did a small celebration and raised her hoof to Lyra, who just left her hanging. “Oh my gosh!” shouted the pianist. “He’s knocked out cold!” This received a loud gasp from the guests. “What are we gonna do now?” asked the drummer. “I don’t know. We can’t keep playing without a Lyre player.” “I guess there ain’t gonna be no music for the Gala then,” said the guitarist in a very solemn voice. “Well… not unless you know anypony who can play Lyre.” “I don’t know anypony. Maybe somepony out in the crowd can,” the pianist thought out loud. He turned to the stupefied audience. “Do any of you Ponies know how to play a Lyre?” his voice boomed out across the hall. Rainbow jumped in the air and hovered above the heads of everypony. “My friend does!” she shouted excitedly. “Rainbow! Ssh!” Lyra grabbed Rainbow’s tail and pulled her down to the ground. “I can’t play in front of everypony!” “Why not? Are you… chicken?” Rainbow said slyly. “What did you just call me?” Lyra replied angrily. “Chicken.” Rainbow smiled. Lyra was up on stage, playing the Lyre effortlessly, it had become second nature to her so she didn’t even have to read the music to be able to join in with the musicians. She was playing one her favourite songs, “Earth Pony”, and all the music Ponies were doing it every bit of justice it deserves, the singer had the perfect voice for it. Lyra looked out over the Gala, most of the Ponies were paired off, dancing slowly, leaning on each others shoulders. It was very romantic, Lyra even saw a cute young couple exchange their first kiss, and she knew they would be together forever. Her gaze continued to pan across the scene, stopping at Rainbow Dash, who gave her a small wave, she seemed very proud of Lyra. Lyra returned the wave, and Rainbow left to go the toilets where she would get changed out of her dress to steal the Flux Capacitor. The song came to an end and the band was rewarded by the enthusiastic cheering of their audience. Lyra could have cried, she hadn’t preformed to such a large audience before, and they all loved her. “Well done… Lyra? Is it?” spoke the singer “Yes. And thanks. You lot did excellent as well.” The singer looked out over the audience again, they were eager for more. “Well, Lyra, it looks like they’re wantin’ some more. Got anythin’ else up ya sleeves?” Lyra thought for a second, then she had the best idea she has had in a long time, the perfect song to get everypony good and distracted. Lyra put the Lyre down and instead picked up a guitar, she was less practiced in these but had been told she was just as good. She stepped right up to the microphone. “Alright everypony, this is an oldie… well, it’s an oldie where I come from.” She turned to talk to the band for a quick second. “Alright guys listen, it’s some blues riff in B, watch me for the changes and try to keep up, okay?” Lyra turned back around to the microphone and broke out into the opening guitar intro of her chosen song, “Johnny B. Hoofed”. The Ponies starting to feel the beat started to dance wildly, it was an impressive sight to see at the Grand Galloping Gala. Even Princess Luna grabbed her unwilling sister and started to dance enthusiastically with her. Rainbow was in the grand toilets of the castle when she heard Lyra start shredding the guitar, she never knew she could play that as well. Rainbow checked the other stalls for signs of other Ponies, but there were none. She then proceeded to lock herself in a stall and got changed out of her cumbersome dress and into her ninja-burglar suit, pulling the hood up and hiding any sign of rainbow on her. She sneaked out of the bathroom, cautiously checking everywhere for a guard or some other Pony of importance. Fortunately, their plan worked flawlessly up to this point, everypony, including the Guards, was completely preoccupied by Lyra and her amazing guitar skills. Rainbow flew up and walked along the ceiling, it being the safer and far more awesome method of sneaking into the bowels of the castle. She risked a look in on Lyra, wanting to see with her own eyes that it was in fact Lyra up on stage. Lyra was getting really into it, playing with much more vigour than she ever did with her Lyre. Mid-solo, the unconscious Lyrist woke up, clutching his throbbing head, but when he saw Lyra playing like she did he didn’t seem to notice it. He stood up and found a phone. “Yo Buck. This is your cousin Music… Music Berry? Well, you know that new sound you were looking for? Well listen to this!” Music held the phone up to Lyra. Lyra was getting far too into the groove, her solos were going on far too long and were getting increasingly rock-and-roll-y. And only after she had kicked over an amplifier and power slid across the floor did she realise that everypony had stopped dancing and were shooting her evil and confused stares, while Celestia, on the other hoof, looked at her with a satisfied and humoured smile. “Err… I guess you guys aren’t ready for that yet. But I bet you will be after a few more drinks.” Lyra smiled weakly at the crowd before taking the guitar off from around her neck and placing it neatly down, waiting for her fate in tonight’s band to be sealed. But fortunately for her and the plan, she was allowed to keep playing, as long as she didn’t do anything like that again. Rainbow sped off before the guards returned to their posts, fortunately Lyra had given her plenty of time to access the restricted part of the castle, which was unnervingly easy to break into. This section of the castle was blocked by a huge enchanted wooden door, impervious to all forms of attack, but Rainbow just walked up to it and pushed it open with ease. “That’s not right,” Rainbow whispered to herself as the door opened before her. She stepped over the threshold, it was pitch black, she couldn’t make out her own hoof in front of her face. A few cautious steps forward and she fell, managing to catch the shriek of terror before it left her mouth. She deployed her wings instantly and hovered for a second, trying to squint through the darkness and see something, but nothing was visible. The door silently shut behind her, now there was absolutely no light whatsoever. Rainbow decided that the best thing to do was to fly down, nice and slowly, until she came across something that resembled a floor. Five minutes of flying brought her to the bottom, and as her hooves struck the hard metal floor the chasm buzzed into life, the magic torches on the walls burst into mesmerising blue flame and looked like fluorescent lights. The floor, too, lit up with the same colour. Rainbow looked down at her hooves, they felt tingly. When she looked back up, a mouth fell open as a sharp gasp escaped her. There, towering before her, was the infamous Canterlot Vault, known to be not only the most impenetrable structure ever built but also housed the most dangerous criminals and the most powerful and intriguing of contraband. Rainbow had absolutely no idea how to get in. She walked up to the door, it seemed to be locked with a special kind of tumbler, obviously magical as appeared as a hologram. She put her hoof on the dial, which brought about a large 3D projection of Princess Celestia’s head that floated behind Rainbow silently. “And just what do you think you’re doing?!” Celestia’s hologram’s voice boomed, nearly killing Rainbow Dash in the process. “AAARGH!” Rainbow screamed quickly before clutching at her heart in the hopes to slow it down. “Password accepted,” The hologram said, but in a much calmer and more computerised voice. “Huh?” Rainbow managed to say between her heavy panting. The vault door span aside into the wall, creating a blast of chilling air to fill the chasm. Rainbow shivered, and then walked in. This vault was huge, to say the least, Rainbow Dash thought she would have a hard time finding anything in there. It was also terrifying, she walked passed hundreds of cages, each containing no more than one Pony, each of which were shackled with glowing chains by hoof and neck to the floor of their respective cells. Rainbow didn’t dawdle in this section, she rapidly headed for the back of the vault where there were no more prisoners, but there were mountains of items, piled up with no discernable filing system. “This would be Twilight’s worst nightmare,” Rainbow jested as she began to make her way through them. She knew what she was looking for, Doc had given her a rough sketch of the device, depicting a small rectangle with three lines going into the centre of it. “Right, where are you then?” Rainbow asked out loud while scratching her head. She turned around, and there it was, connected to the wall and glowing brightly. “There it is!” she shouted happily as she blasted towards it. She stopped just in front of it, every single book and film with a scene like this always showed it to be booby trapped and/or alarmed. She eyed it suspiciously, checking the cables, trying to determine what they were linked to, but with no success. In the end, she just ripped it from the wall. The lights went red and flashed. The alarms went off, the volume nearly ripping her ears off. But most worrying of all, the vault door locked tight. She didn’t know what to do. “INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT!” screamed Celestia in her holographic Royal Canterlot Voice. “This is not good,” rainbow stated. There were some faint noises of Ponies outside trying to get in. Rainbow knew this was her only chance to get out. She placed the Flux Capacitor on her back, tying it down with a belt, and lined herself up with the door and prepared herself for some fast flying. “ACCESS GRANTED!” shouted Celestia again. A malicious grin spread over Rainbow’s face. “Perfect.” She launched herself with phenomenal speed, like some kind of jet fighter, breaking the wall she used to push off against. She was halfway across the vault, and still gaining speed, by the time the door opened and revealed a single file line of ten or so guards. Rainbow repositioned herself in the air to have one of her hind legs raised and pointing towards the guards. “RAINBOW KICK!” she roared as her hoof collided with the first guard, creating a miniature Sonic Rainboom, and as the guard fell into the others in a sort of domino effect it created progressively smaller Sonic Rainbooms. The final guard was fired into the wall behind him, getting completely embedded in the wall so only his head stuck out. “That was AWESOME!” Rainbow smiled at her handiwork and sped back out of the still open door and into the non-restricted section of the castle. There were many guards already waiting with her, all with spears pointing menacingly at her. She looked around nervously for a split second before exploding away and into the Mane Hall to get Lyra. “LYRA!” Rainbow shouted repeatedly as she tried to find her, luckily she was still on the stage with the band. “Rainbow Dash?” Lyra looked around, trying to find the source of her name being shouted, but when she spotted the familiar Pegasus clad in her black ninja-burglar suit being chased by a horde of angry guards she froze with fear. “LYRA! BREAK THE WINDOWS!” Rainbow shouted whilst avoiding some arrows. Lyra went into auto-pilot and grabbed the guitar of the stupefied guitarist, she turned the amplifier all the way up to and beyond eleven and strummed the highest note possible for a guitar. All the stain glass windows around them shattered into a million pieces. Lyra dropped the guitar and jumped up onto Rainbow Dash who was flying over her at that moment and grabbed her around the waist. They flew out of the window and into the night. Before the guards could follow them Lyra lit up her horn and preformed a com to life spell on Rainbow Dash, giving a sudden burst of acceleration, increasing their speed to ridiculous levels for a short while, just enough to get out of Canterlot and a significant distance towards Ponyville. As Rainbow Dash slowed down, Lyra came back to the planet and screamed, clambering up on top of Rainbow and holding on tightly. She wasn’t a fan of heights, or high speed, and definitely not the combination of the two. “Careful Lyra, you don’t want to break the Flux Capacitor!” Rainbow shouted above the sound of the wind. Lyra opened her eyes in shock, she didn’t actually realise Rainbow had succeeded in their mission. She pushed herself up a little bit to catch a glimpse of the device strapped to Rainbow’s back. “Oh my gosh, we did it! WE GOT THE FLUX CAPACITOR!” She raised a hoof on celebration before quickly realising where she was and wrapping it back round Rainbow for safety. “HAY YEAH WE DID!” Rainbow cheered. The two of them celebrated their victory all the way back to Ponyville. Rainbow Dash landed outside Doc’s lab, certain he would still be there. Lyra was physically stuck to Rainbow’s back with fear and refused to let go, so Rainbow just had to walk in with her there, she was too excited to bother with her now that she was one step closer to her Twilight returning to her. “DOC! WE GOT IT!” Rainbow shouted as she wrestled the Flux Capacitor from the secure sandwich that was her and Lyra. Once free she held it up triumphantly, but Doc ignored her. Despite the noise of their entry, Doc was fast asleep, resting his head against a fantastic looking machine that was missing just one part… PART V“Doc. What the HAY is this?!” Rainbow Dash shouted with both amazement and disbelief. “It’s an inter-dimensional teleportation device,” he said proudly with a smug smirk. “It’s… awesome…” “Why thank you!” The machine in question was a silver box on four wheels, not very tall and quite long. On the back was sat the majority of the components, precariously leaning over the edge, but the suspension was managing to take the weight. “This looks familiar,” Lyra said in a very thoughtful voice. She eyed the machine suspiciously, going over every detail to try and work out what it was based around. She came to the back and saw a word that instantly told her what it was. “You built an inter-dimensional teleportation device… out of a DeLorean?!” “Yes. The way I see it is: if you’re going to make an inter-dimensional teleportation device out of a car, you might as well do it with some style!” Lyra mulled this over for a brief second. “I see your point. But this machine is… wow.” “Alright now gather round Ponies and I’ll show how it works.” Doc pulled the handle and the door rose into the air, Rainbow didn’t think it could get any more awesome until that moment and had to let out an excited squeal. Doc took a seat in the driver seat and pulled a lever, the DeLorean started to make noises. “Teleportation circuits are now on. Okay, this display shows you three things. This one shows you where you’re going. This one shows you where you are and this one shows you where you were,” said Doc as he pointed to each display when appropriate. “That’s great Doc, really great. Now, when can we go?” Rainbow asked impatiently. “Tomorrow night.” “Tomorrow night?!” “Yes. If my calculations are correct, the Flux Capacitor should be fully charged and there will be optimum conditions for trans-dimension teleporting.” “Cant we do it any sooner?” “No, I'm afraid not. It has to be tomorrow night. At precisely 10:04pm.” Rainbow sighed. “Fine.” It was the next night. Doc, Rainbow Dash and Lyra were stood outside the town hall, the DeLorean was in position far off down the street. “Alright, Rainbow Dash, are you ready?” Doc asked the eagerly hopping Pony. “Hay yeah!” “And what about you Lyra?” “Sure,” Lyra said sleepily, she was usually in bed by now, despite it being barely quarter to ten. “Good. Now I have placed the DeLorean down the street. And if my calculations are correct, you should reach 88mph at precisely here.” Doc pointed to the road where he was standing. “Err… Doc?” Rainbow asked inquisitively. “Yes?” “How do you drive a car?” Doc’s brow furrowed. “You mean… you can’t drive?” “No.” Doc became flustered. “L-Lyra? Can you drive?” he asked with doubt. Lyra yawned and shook her head. Doc jumped back. “Great Scott! Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” “Wel-.” “Never mind that now. Quick, follow me!” Doc started running at full speed towards the DeLorean. Rainbow Dash grabbed the almost sleeping Unicorn beside her and flew after him. Doc opened the door and threw Rainbow inside. “Right. Now, listen carefully. This pedal is the accelerator.” Doc forced her leg onto one of the pedals. “That other one is the brake, but you won’t need that one.” “So, this one is go and this one is stop?” Rainbow asked while demonstrating each one in turn. “Precisely.” “That seems simple enough.” Rainbow looked down at her hooves while she familiarised herself with them. Lyra hopped into the passenger seat and put the seatbelt on. She had suddenly perked up a bit. It must have been the excitement about seeing a human getting through to her. She was bouncing in her seat giddily. Doc looked at his watch. “Okay Dash, just another couple minutes until you need to floor it. That alarm on the dashboard will tell you when. Good luck!” Doc said quickly as he ran back to his position by his proposed jump point. “Oh Celestia, Rainbow Dash. Humans!” she couldn’t contain her excitement anymore and started squeaking excitedly. After a few minutes of silence, apart from the random sounds of excitement from Lyra, the alarm went off. “I'm comin’ Twilight!” With that, Rainbow pushed her hoof hard on the accelerator. The DeLorean blasted off with an acceleration Rainbow Dash hadn’t felt before while sitting down. They reached the speed Doc said was necessary and the DeLorean started sparking with electricity, being cocooned it a shell of energy. The two passengers could feel magic vibrating through the machine. Suddenly, with a huge burst of acceleration, they jumped. The DeLorean left trails of fire from its back wheels as it sped through the dimensional barrier with a mighty crack. Doc looked on in awe. He couldn’t believe it. He was the first Pony to ever successfully teleport two Ponies to another dimension in a machine that HE had built. He started dancing around in celebration. Rainbow Dash and Lyra exploded through the barrier and came out the other side. Luckily Doc told her how to stop, so they only crashed into a shed a little bit. “That. Was. AWESOME!” Rainbow cheered as the car vented some kind of gas. “I know! Now where are the humans?” Lyra asked herself as she reached behind the seat and pulled out a camera. “You brought a camera?” Rainbow asked in a mocking tone. “Of course I did! I want to document EVERYTHING!” “Okay, that’s fine. But remember why we’re here, to save Twilight.” “Of course. But that doesn’t mean we can’t explore this place a bit, does it?” she asked hopefully. “I don’t know Lyra, this display here says 27 minutes. I think that’s how much longer we have until this baby runs outta juice.” “Oh,” Lyra said mournfully, like she was about to cry. “But don’t fret. In Twilight’s letter she said she was staying with a human.” Lyra gasped. “Oh yeah! I forgot about that!” “Let’s get searching then!” Rainbow said eagerly as she moved a hoof to open the door. But before her hoof made it, the door lifted open for her with an action she just couldn’t help but watch. Upwards opening doors are just the coolest thing, she thought to herself, only rivalled by flippy-uppy headlights. “Rainbow Dash?!” said a confused voice. “I know that voice!” Rainbow shouted as she lunged from the car and hugged Twilight with such joy and power that they fell to floor of grass in a human’s garden. “What are you doing here?” Twilight asked, but she didn’t honestly care for the reason, she was just happy to see her friend again. “I missed you so much Twilight!” Rainbow started welling up. “I can see that. And I missed you too!” Twilight hugged back with as much passion as Rainbow. “WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO MY SHED?!” shouted an angry male voice, one which nopony but Twilight recognised. They heard a gasp before a blur of light green exploded from the DeLorean. Lyra had seen Twilight’s human friend and tackled him to the ground. “HA! I told you humans existed, Bon-bon!” Lyra shouted into the human’s face, hoping that her Earth Pony friend would hear her (she didn’t). “Lyra?” asked the human. Lyra gasped again. “He knows my name!” she squealed. “Oh yes, where are my manners,” said Twilight. “Rainbow, Lyra, this… is Darryl.” Rainbow looked up from Twilight to get a look at the human whose been looking after one of her best friends for the past while. He looked like a nice guy. Rainbow approved. “Hello,” Darryl said awkwardly. Rainbow stood up from her hug with Twilight and walked over to Darryl. “So, Darryl, Is it? In case you don’t know, I'm Rainbow Dash, and I would just like to say, if you have done anything to harm my Twilight you’re gonna be in a hay load of trouble.” Twilight giggled. “Oh Dashie, you haven’t changed.” “Of course I haven’t! It’s only been a week or something like that since you disappeared.” Twilight was taken aback. “A week?! But I’ve here for… like… a year!” “Well, what can I tell ya? There’s probably some science-y thing about it.” Everybody was blinded temporarily by a flash of light. Lyra had taken a picture of all of them and then giggled to herself slightly; she still couldn’t believe she was on Earth with the humans. “Darryl?” “Yeah Lyra?” he asked nervously. “What’s it like to have hands?” Darryl opened his mouth to answer, but no words came out. Instead he shut it again and went into deep thought mode as he looked at his hands, flexing his fingers in front of his eyes. He hadn’t thought about it before but hands are brilliant things, so useful for so many different tasks. The more he thought about it, the more he thought he was taken advantage of them and that he should give them the recognition they deserve. “They’re… awesome.” This was as far as his recognition would go. Meanwhile, Twilight was asking about the machine. “What is this… thing?” “It’s an inter-dimensional teleportation device built into a DeLorean.” “Riiiight. But how does it work?” “How should I know? All I do know is that it has a Flux Capacitor.” “Really? Where?” Twilight dived into the machine and began looking around. “Don’t break anything! That’s our only ticket home.” “Don’t worry, I won’t,” Twilight said as she buried her head in a pile of wires. Rainbow caught a look at the display, it was already saying they only had 12 minutes left. It was discharging magic at an alarming rate. “Twilight, we haven’t got long.” “Don’t worry, I'm almost done here.” Rainbow watched as her friend’s legs swung in the air. It made her smile. “Rainbow. Come here!” Lyra shouted excitedly. Rainbow obeyed and walked up to her. “What?” “Take a picture of me and Darryl.” Lyra shoved the camera in Rainbow’s hoof and pulled Darryl down to her height, he happily obliged. Darryl sat down on the grass and put his arm around Lyra. She looked at the hand on her shoulder in disbelief. She swooned and fell into Darryl’s lap. “She’s so pathetic,” Rainbow laughed. “Nah. She’s cute!” Rainbow gave him a suspicious look, but she quickly shook off the sense that Darryl might like Ponies in that way and took a picture or two of the unconscious Unicorn and the human. Moments later, Lyra woke up. “What just happened?” she asked confusedly. “You fainted,” Darryl said in a sweet voice. Lyra looked up at Darryl’s smiling face and had an enormous urge to hug him incredibly tightly. She knew it would have been pointless to resist it so she grabbed onto his neck and pulled him down to hug him. Rainbow was quick on the camera and caught an image of a puzzled human and an incredibly happy Unicorn hugging him. Darryl collected his thoughts and hugged her back tightly. His time with Twilight living with him made him love Ponies of all sorts much more, but nopony could ever hope to replace Twilight as best Pony in his mind now, when once before it would have been reserved solely for Rainbow Dash. Almost instantly Darryl felt the Pony’s grip around him loosen and her head lolled back. “She’s fainted again, hasn’t she?” he asked Rainbow, who just took several more pictures and then nodded in reply. Darryl sighed happily, Lyra was better than he had imagined. A loud fumbling came from the DeLorean. Rainbow spun round and saw the Twilight’s legs flailing frantically as she wriggled herself out of the machine. “Careful Twi. You better not have broken anything!” Twilight ignored this warning. She turned and grabbed Rainbow by her shoulders. “1.21 gigawatts?!” She let go and started pacing around. “1.21 gigawatts!” Twilight kept muttering to herself. Rainbow watched her, her face contorting with alarm and confusion. “What-what the hay is a gigawatt?!” “That display said 1.21 gigawatts. Who in EQUESTRIA would build such a magically powerful device?! If this thing blew up I dare say it would take the planet with it!” “Hey cool your jets Twilight, I didn’t build it. And I doubt Lyra could even build a puzzle!” “She’s not that stupid Rainbow.” Rainbow gave her a contemptuous look and cleared her throat loudly while pointing over at the green Unicorn. Twilight looked. Lyra was lying back in Darryl’s lap and beaming idiotically at him. He was trying to act friendly and engage her in conversation, but he never was the best socialiser. Twilight smirked contently. She had grown quite fond of Darryl. The DeLorean beeped. Rainbow went to investigate. “Whoa, this is heavy.” “What?” Twilight asked with concern. “We have three minutes left.” “Three minutes until what?” “Until the machine loses the ability to teleport us back.” “Oh…” “Come on. We better get going.” Rainbow went to take Lyra away from Darryl, who reluctantly allowed her to. Rainbow sat her in the car. “C’mon Twi! We better get back!” Rainbow waved a hoof to follow her into the DeLorean. “I'm sure Pinkie Pie will have a party waiting for us!” Twilight didn’t move, instead she looked at Darryl. “Can he come with us?” she asked without taking her eyes off him. Darryl was surprised to hear this, he thought Twilight would go with very little fuss, not ask if he could go with them. “Err…” Rainbow droned out, she was thinking hard about this. “I don’t see why not!” Twilight’s face lit up and she bolted towards the machine. Darryl followed closely behind her. But as Twilight placed her front hooves on the threshold of the door, the DeLorean announced something in its emotionless computerised voice. “Flux energy at minimum. Maximum capacity three Ponies.” Twilight froze instantly. Her mind was a mess of emotions. She wanted to go home and she her friends. But on the other hoof, she couldn’t leave Darryl. “What are you waiting for Twilight? Get in!” Rainbow said persuasively. “I don’t know Rainbow.” “What do you mean Twilight? How could you not know?!” Rainbow looked up and saw Darryl. “It’s because of him isn’t it?” Twilight’s silence spoke volumes. “Wha-? HIM?! You want to stay here because of him?!” Rainbow was growing angry. “I'm sorry Dashie,” she whispered as she removed her hooves from doorway. “So, after all the effort we put in to come and save you, you’re just gonna throw it back into our faces?” “I'm sorry. I can’t leave him. But I told you in that letter not to come after me, that I was happy here.” “As happy as you were in Equestria? With your own kind? Where YOU belong?” Twilight nodded. “Yes. Yes I am.” Rainbow sighed. “Fine. Bye Twilight.” “Bye Twilight! Bye Darryl!” Lyra shouted happily, blissfully unaware of what was happening. Rainbow shut the door, for once unaware of its awesomeness. She drove the DeLorean out of Darryl’s garden. Twilight and Darryl followed it to the road and watched it break the fourth wall back to Equestria. They watched the spot where it disappeared for a while before Darryl broke to silence. “Did you… really stay behind… for me?” he voice quivered with emotion. Twilight nodded and smiled. “Really?” he asked again, hoping he heard her right. “Yes!” she shouted with a laugh. Darryl beamed at her. “Come here you!” he said as he scooped her up in his arms, causing her to start laughing in the most adorable of ways. He looked into her smiling, purple eyes and got lost. “Love you Twilight,” he said as he pulled her into a hug. Twilight giggled. “Love you too!” she said as she hugged back. A brief moment later, they were distracted by three loud cracks, much like lightning, and the third of which blew them back with a great force. As they stood up again they saw the DeLorean had reappeared before them, covered in a thin film of ice. The door swung upwards and out of it came a tall colt, tan in colour and a mane grey and crazy, wearing a lab coat. He stumbled about a bit before gathering his bearings. He spun round and saw the incredibly confused purple Unicorn. “Twilight! Thank Celestia I found you!” he shouted with great relief. “Who are you?” Twilight asked. “I'm Doc. I built this machine. And come on, there’s no time to lose. You have to come back with me!” he spoke with such great urgency. “Back where?” “Back to Equestria!” Twilight went red with mild annoyance. “No no no no no no. I already… what are you doing?” Twilight asked as she saw the strange colt rummaging around in a bin. He pulled his head out with a can and a banana peel in his mouth. “I need fuel,” he said as if what he was doing was completely normal. He went to the back of the DeLorean and pushed back a small white chimney with a hoof and dropped the rubbish inside. “Right…” Twilight watched him with confusion for a second before shaking it off. “What was I saying? Oh yeah! I'm not going with you. I already told Rainbow Dash I wouldn’t go without Darryl.” “Bring him it concerns him too!” Doc said urgently. “What?!” Twilight was worried now. “Why what’s happening in Equestria? Is something wrong with Fluttershy?” “Fluttershy’s fine.” “Then what is it?” “It’s Celestia, Twilight. Something’s got to be done about Celestia!” “Why? What’s wrong with Celestia?” “There’s no time to explain. Get in the inter-dimensional teleportation device.” Twilight did as ordered and Darryl followed. He was so excited to finally go see the Equestria which Twilight had told him about so passionately. “God. It’s a bit cramped in here!” Darryl said as he struggled to get one of his legs in. Doc went round to help. “Of course it is!” he grunted as he tried to push him in further. “It was designed for Ponies.” Darryl eventually got his leg in a position that allowed Doc to close the door, but you wouldn’t call it comfortable or dignified. Doc got in the driver’s seat, shutting the door behind him. “Prepare yourself. When this baby hits 88mph, you’re going to see some serious shit.” Doc flicked a switch and the DeLorean started humming as the magic coursed through it. Darryl looked up out of the windscreen and saw a river not far ahead. “Err… Doc, you better back up. We don’t have enough road to reach 88mph.” Doc placed some silver sunglasses over his eyes. “Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need road.” After he said these words, the DeLorean rose into the air. A small burst of magic propelled the machine forward. It began to glow along the seams and spark with magic and seconds later, it erupted from this reality, leaving twin trails of fire in the sky as it was teleported through the planes of existence and… Back To Equestria!
PART IA storm was brewing. And it was a doozy. It was a natural storm, made of magic so Pegasi couldn’t control it like they could normal weather. Rainbow Dash and the other Weather Ponies were on high alert and were in charge of getting everypony to safety. “Right! Is that everypony?!” Rainbow screamed over the panic-stricken ponies taking shelter in the town hall of Ponyville. “I think so,” said Derpy Hooves floating next to her. “How would you know?! You’ve been following me all day, barely helping! You were just staring at the Celestia-damn clouds!” “I have a list,” Derpy said proudly, holding the list above her head like some kind of trophy. Rainbow grabbed it. She sighed. “This… says muffin… one hundred times…” Derpy stared gormlessly at Rainbow Dash for a second, before smiling broadly and letting out a squee. “Just… just go over there.” Rainbow pointed to the opposite end of the hall, Derpy went there happily. “Now, I’ll ask again. Is there anypony missing?” There was some general murmuring from the crowd before somepony who Rainbow Dash so desperately wanted to call Carrot Top shouted above the others, “I think Twilight Sparkle is still out there.” This was accompanied by the agreement of all those around her. “Oh no.” Rainbow Dash exploded out of the Town Hall in a cloud of rainbow, only having to come back a second later with Derpy slung over her shoulder. “Derpy! Stay here!” she said slowly and clearly. “Okay, Rainbow Dash.” Derpy saluted and then took up a guard position by the door. Rainbow Dash sighed, shook her head and then left again with the same amount of speed as before. “TWILIIIIIIIGHT!” Rainbow shouted continuously as she flew over Ponyville, keeping her eye out for the purple Unicorn. She checked every single building, form Twilight’s Library to Sugar Cube Corner. From Sweet Apple Acres to the house that belonged to the creepy old Earth Pony who liked to give sweets to young Ponies. But she wasn’t anywhere to be found. “Where could she be?” Rainbow asked herself, getting increasingly worried and scared that she wouldn’t find her. She heard a rumble of distant thunder and instantly knew where Twilight was. She turned around and looked at the steadily approaching vortex of air, sparking with lightning, wrecking all that’s in its way. Rainbow Dash flew at full speed towards it, despite the feelings of dread in her chest. This is one of the few moments when she wished she wasn’t so loyal. 10 seconds later and Rainbow Dash’s worst fears were being realised. There, on the ground, stood Twilight Sparkle, her horn glowing as she took various measurements and made a note of them on a nearby clipboard. “Damn you and your science-y mind, Twilight!” Rainbow flew down and landed angrily in front of her. “Oh. Hey Rainbow. What are you doing here?” “Saving your life! C’mon Twilight, we have to get out of here right NOW!” Rainbow roared. “Hold your horses Dash, I'm nearly done. Just a few more minutes and I should be able to dissipate this storm.” “No, Twilight. You can NOT control a storm like this, believe me, I’ve tried. Now COME ON MISSY!” “Oh fine!” Twilight said grudgingly. “Just a few more seconds.” Twilight preformed a little more magic with no apparent effect. “There. That should be enough to do some tests.” “Come on Twilight! We have to hurry!” Rainbow was becoming more and more scared, the eye of the storm was approaching, and that was where the magic was most concentrated. She started running out of the storm. “Don’t worry Dash. I can just teleport us out of here!” “NO TWILIGHT!” Rainbow shouted, but it was too late. Twilight lit up her horn, concentrating on the teleportation spell. Rainbow was about to tackle Twilight down but before she could, a bolt of lightning came down between them, throwing Rainbow aside with a mighty crack of the sound barrier and a blinding flash of light. Rainbow Dash came to moments later, a shooting pain going through her body and a leg bleeding badly. Her eyes recovered, she could see again. The storm had died down considerably, it was only raining now. “Ha! That lightning strike must have discharged the storm. You alright Twi?” Rainbow looked round to check that Twilight was okay. “Twi?” rainbow Dash stood up and limped over to her. “Twi?” her voice was laden with tears. Twilight was lying on the ground, not moving. Not breathing. “Twi?” Rainbow fell down beside her. “Oh Celestia no. Please! Don’t be dead Twi.” A tear fell from her eye, which she quickly wiped away. Rainbow knelt down beside her. She looked at the body of one of her closest friends, she didn’t know what to think. Her mind was a mess of confusion and disbelief. She sighed, and reached a hoof down to shut Twilight’s eyes. Or so she thought. Her hoof touched her soft face, and kept going, straight through to the ground. She hadn’t been expecting this so she fell over, her chest falling through Twilight’s side. She pushed herself back up and propped herself on her front hooves. “What the-?!” Rainbow looked down at Twilight’s body, there was now a segment missing in the place where Rainbow had just fallen. Rainbow moved her hoof through the remainder of Twilight, she seemed to get blown away like a cloud of purple dust. “What the hay is going on here?!” Rainbow stood up and started looking around in the vain hope that Twilight would be hiding somewhere nearby. She stopped suddenly when she heard a voice shout at her from behind. “Are you Dash? Rainbow Dash?” the voice was very authoritative. Rainbow turned around. Behind her, in the glow of the headlights of a car, stood a tan coloured colt wearing a long, black leather coat and a wide hat. He looked threatening. “Who wants to know?” Rainbow asked arrogantly. “I have something for you.” He walked towards her, reaching down in his coat to find something. Rainbow Dash watched him cautiously. He pulled out a small leather package. “A letter.” “A letter? But nopony knows I'm here!” “We were given this letter with specific instructions to deliver it to somepony matching your description, on this exact spot, at this exact date, at this exact time.” “Whose it from?” “We don’t know. In fact we were hoping you could shed some light on the situation.” Rainbow took the letter and walked over to a headlight of the car so she could read it. The colt popped open an umbrella to shield them from the rain. It read: Dear Rainbow Dash, If my calculations are correct, you will receive this letter immediately after you saw me get struck by lightning. First, let me assure you that I am alive and well. I've been living happily these past eight months in a different world known as Earth… Rainbow skipped to the end and saw who it was from. Twilight Sparkle Rainbow Dash couldn’t contain her excitement. She leapt onto the colt and gave him a tight hug. “Are you alright?” “She’s alive! She’s on Earth but she’s ALIVE!” “Is there anything I can do to help?” “There’s only one Pony who can me help now.” With this, Rainbow exploded off the ground, cracking it slightly and leaving the colt in a cloud of rainbow and confusion. 10 seconds later and Rainbow Dash was back at the Town Hall. “Rainbow Dash!” shouted Rarity. “Please tell me you found Twilight.” Rarity seemed like she was about to cry if Rainbow said no. Rainbow ignored her, she wasn’t the Unicorn she needed to see. She looked around blue and white mane of a green-ish mare. She found her. She swooped down stole her away from Bon-bon’s comforting grip, carrying her up into the air. “LYRA!” Rainbow shouted. “You have to help me!” She looked into her golden eyes and felt them to be strangely calming. She could see why Bon-bon had a crush on her. “Why? What’s wrong?” Lyra’s voice was quivering slightly with worry. “It’s Twilight!” “Oh my gosh! What’s wrong?!” she became scared “She’s on Earth!” Lyra stared at her with disbelief. “Do you mean where Humans live?” “Yes! You were right Lyra, they do exist!” Lyra snorted with annoyance, “Stop it Rainbow Dash. You’re just trying to make me go off on one of my Human rants so you can laugh at me again.” She looked away angrily. “I promise that’s not the case this time.” “Besides, how would you know she’s there?” “She sent me a letter.” Rainbow held up the letter. Lyra grabbed it and read furiously quickly. “My Celestia. She’s living… with the HUMANS!” she shouted at the top of her voice, bringing silence across the hall. “For Celestia’s sake Rainbow Dash,” Bon-bon said angrily. “You just had to get her started again, didn’t you?” Rainbow ignored her. “Lyra, I need your knowledge of Humans to help.” “If it’s for Twilight, I’ll do anything,” she said this a bit too romantically for Rainbow’s liking. “Also, if this is gonna prove that Humans exist, I'm your mare!” “C’mon Lyra, we have to get started right away!” Rainbow flew off, carrying Lyra by the… armpits? Legpits? That bit joining the forelegs and chest. Rainbow Dash had never been so eager to do something before in her entire life, and she wouldn’t stop until Twilight Sparkle was back, safe and sound, in her hooves. “Start what?” “We have to bring Twilight back.” “Back where?” “Back to Equestria!”
PART IIDear Rainbow Dash, If my calculations are correct, you will receive this letter immediately after you saw me get struck by lightning. First, let me assure you that I am alive and well. I've been living happily these past eight months in a different world known as Earth. The lightning bolt that hit me caused a magical overload and when combined with my teleportation spell it gave me the power to move between dimensions and end up here on Earth. But Rainbow Dash, I'm afraid I will never be able to return. On this world, there is little to no magic, I spent my first few months here trying to channel enough magic to levitate a spoon, so I doubt I would ever be able to teleport between worlds, I had to use a bolt of lightning just to sent this letter! And I'm not prepared to try with myself. I have befriended a Human who has been willing to look after me. He is wonderful, he is so understanding and protective of me. He has made sure that I'm as comfortable as possible. I even have the suspicion that he may be falling for me, and if I'm honest, the way he’s been looking after me, I wouldn’t say no if he asked.. So don’t worry about me, whatever you do. Do not, I repeat, do not attempt to come here to get me. I am perfectly happy living in the fresh air and the wide-open spaces, and I fear that unnecessary inter-dimensional teleportation only risks disrupting the space-time continuum with potentially disastrous consequences. Besides, I came here on a lightning bolt, and there completely unpredictable, not to mention how dangerous they are. I'm amazed that I didn’t blow up! And please take care of Spike for me. I know that you will give him a good home. Remember to walk him twice a day, and that he only likes canned dragon food. These are my wishes; please respect them and follow them. And so Rainbow Dash, I now say farewell and wish you Celestia-speed. You've been a good, kind, and loyal friend to me. You've made a real difference in my life. I will always treasure our relationship and think on you with fond memories, warm feelings, and a special place in my heart. Your friend in time, Twilight Sparkle. September 1st, 2012. “Wow.” Lyra sniffed and wiped a tear from her eye. “I never knew Twilight could write anything so touching.” “I know. I still get a bit weepy every time I read it. Imagine that, ME! Weepy!” Rainbow Dash said egotistically. “Are you sure we should go rescue her? I mean, she did tell us not to risk it.” “We must. Who’s to know what those humans are like! It’s just a matter of time before something goes wrong and Twilight ends up…” Rainbow Dash couldn’t finish her sentence. “Okay Rainbow, okay. No need to talk like that. But how are we going to get to Earth?” “I have no idea.” “That may be a problem.” Lyra started rubbing her chin. “OOO!” she shouted as she bolted out the door of the Library. Rainbow stood looking at the spot where Lyra had been standing with great confusion. She then ran for the door as well to catch her up. She had barely gone out the door when she saw Lyra, standing not far away, panting heavily. “You okay, Lyra?” “Yeah… I’ll be fine…” she panted. “I should really exercise more”. She lifted her head to look at Rainbow Dash. “I know this guy. He should be able to help us.” “Who?” “You’ll see…” Lyra started trotting down the street, Rainbow followed her, amazed at how slowly Lyra walked. They walked to the other side of Ponyville, to the house that Rainbow Dash knew belongs to the creepy Earth Pony who gave sweets to little foals. “What are we doing here?! This guy’s a creep! He gives sweets to little foals, and not in a friendly way, in a creepy way.” “He does give sweets to us adults as well. All you have to do is ask.” Rainbow didn’t know what to say, she never thought of that. “And what’s so creepy about giving children sweets, ay? Typical, isn’t it, the society we live in instantly puts the label of creep on anyone willing to give away free sweets,” Lyra scoffed. She walked to the door and knocked. “Oh, and by the way, he can be a little… creepy.” “Huh?” Rainbow said. The door swung open. And there stood, in the doorway, was a tall colt, his coat was like the colour of milky tea, and his mane was grey in colour and wild and messy. His face was covered with a bit of soot and he was wearing a lab coat and a strange device on his head connected to a machine of sorts. He looked around outside nervously. “Quick! Come in!” he said with mild fear as he pulled Rainbow Dash through the door and slammed it behind them, leaving Lyra waiting outside. “What’s going on?” Rainbow asked angrily. “No, don’t talk. Not a word.” He took a suction cup which was connected to the device on his head and stuck it to Rainbow’s forehead. “I am going to read your thoughts.” “What?” Rainbow shouted with terror. “Not a word, not a word. Err…” His face contorted with concentration. “You… want me… to make a donation to the Equestrian Coastguard Society.” “What? No!” “Not a word, not a word. You… want me to sign a petition for gay rights in Equestria.” “HEY! What’s that supposed to mean?!” “Ssh! Not a word! Err…” Rainbow stopped him before he could insult her again and before she killed him. She pulled off the suction cup. “Listen, creep. I am here because I was told that you can help me get my friend back from another planet.” He put his hooves on Rainbow’s shoulders and a creepy smile slowly curled onto his lips. “Do you know what this means?” he asked, shaking Rainbow slightly with joy. “What?” His face twisted with rage. “It means this THING doesn’t work!” he shouted as he pulled the device from atop his head and threw it to the ground. Lyra heard the crashing noise and came in to investigate. “Is everything all right in here?” “Lyra! There you are!” Rainbow shouted angrily. “This bozo was just calling me a lesbian! How many times do I have to say that I'm not?!” “Rainbow, calm down. He didn’t mean it.” Lyra walked up to her. “He’s just a bit... you know… mad.” “Thanks for letting me. Now do you mind if you tell me who the hay he is?” “Oh… I didn’t do that already?” she rubbed her head, trying to remember. “Are you sure?” “Yes!” Rainbow was becoming more and more aggravated. “Oh, sorry. Rainbow Dash, meet Doctor Doctorate Brown. Or ‘Doc’, for short.” Doc cooled down and turned around. “Oh, hello Lyra. It’s good to see you again,” he smiled warmly. “Hi Doc. I’d like you to meet my friend Rainbow Dash.” Doc swung round, with a mad looked in his eyes. “Hello, err… Rainbow Dash? Was it?” He put his hoof out for Rainbow to shake who, after some hesitation and curious looks, shook it. “Yes it is, and don’t you forget it. Now can you help me get my friend back?” “It depends, how can I be sure you aren’t just making this up? You’re not the first to ask me to build some kind of special travelling device. Just the other week I had two Ponies come in, asking for a time machine.” “We’re not lying, I swear.” “Well alright then. What was it that you wanted help with exactly?” “We need to get to Earth.” Doc jumped backwards, stumbling over all his equipment that was strewn upon the floor. “Great Scott! Why would you ever want to go there? What ever made you even think you can go there?” He recoiled in horror. “My friend’s stuck there.” “And just how would you know,” his voice was very sceptical at this point. Rainbow took a small piece of paper from under her wing and waved it in his face. “She sent me a letter.” “Really?” Doc became intrigued. “Let me see that.” He yanked the letter from Rainbow’s mouth and smelt it. “Well that certainly isn’t Equestrian paper.” He bit down on the corner of the page to get a feel of it. Rainbow turned to Lyra. “What is he doing?” she whispered, Lyra just shook her head and shrugged her shoulders, she had no clue either. “This paper certainly isn’t of Equestrian origin, and neither is the ink.” He held the letter up in the light and read it. “This letter does seem to definitely not come from our world.” He suddenly dropped the letter and went pale. “No magic? NO MAGIC?! How is that possible?!” He started gesticulating wildly and pacing around quickly. “What’s the problem?” Lyra and Rainbow said together. Doc turned to them, with terror in his eyes. “You can’t teleport to somewhere where there’s no magic! You need it at both ends to jump successfully. The only way you can do is if you had something of ridiculous magical power, like a bolt of lightning.” “What did you just say?” Rainbow sounded rather hopeful. “A bolt of lightning. Unfortunately, you never know when or where it's ever going to strike.” Rainbow contemplated something for a second. “What if… we could?” “Weren’t you listening?” Doc fell back onto a sofa. “I just said they were unpredictable.” “I'm a weather pony, I can control weather.” “So?” Rainbow swirled her hoof in the air and around it, like candy floss, a small black storm cloud formed. Rainbow gave it a tap and a small spark of electricity came out of it. “Could we use this lightning to jump to Earth and back?” “No, that’s just normal lightning, not magical at all.” “Could you build us a machine that could convert lightning to magic?” Rainbow said hopefully. Doc brow furrowed as he thought hard about it. “I don’t see why not…” “Yes!” Rainbow jumped in the air, raising a hoof in celebration. “But we are going to need a lot more lightning than that. And I mean a lot. Basically we are going to have to drain the sky of lightning. Can you do that?” “Err…” Rainbow blushed with embarrassment, she knew she couldn’t. “Okay never mind now, never mind that now.” Doc rubbed his chin as he thought. “I could design a machine that would… yes, that would work.” Doc found some paper and scribbled a small calculation and aligned it with a map. “Hmph… We may have to blast.”
PART IIIRainbow Dash and Lyra dived behind Doc’s truck as he pushed down on the plunger, causing the sealed entrance of old mines to blow up in an elaborate explosion. As they heard the final clatters of rock hit the ground Rainbow Dash stood up, helping Lyra to her hooves as she did so. She looked around for Doc, he was nowhere to be seen. She looked around worriedly for a few seconds before she heard a loud coughing coming from by the wheel of the truck. Doc stood up and dusted himself off, his face blackened by soot. He spat the dirt out of his mouth. “Whoa, maybe I should have used less dynamite.” “What was the point of that?!” Rainbow Dash shouted angrily. “I use this old abandoned mine shaft to store some of my more elaborate and dangerous contraptions.” “So why did you have to blow it up the entrance if you still use it?” “I can’t just leave it open for anypony to come and steal it now, could I?” “What?! That’s so stupid!” she shouted angrily. Lyra stumbled around to the other two. “What’s wrong Rainbow?” “This guy is crazy! He just blew up that mine entrance.” “Err, I also had some spare dynamite that needed using up,” Doc interjected. Lyra smiled. “Oh you,” she chuckled. “What are you like?” She rolled her happily and shook her head. “Wha-?” Rainbow said while looking confusedly between Doc and Lyra. “So what’s the plan here Doc?” Lyra asked to get the plot moving. “Now we go down the mines.” Doc went to the back of his truck and collected a few lanterns and hard hats. “Don’t worry, it’s completely safe, I assure you,” he said unreassuringly as her adorned a hard hat and lit a lantern. He started to trot down the mine shaft, barely waiting for Lyra and Rainbow to follow with their hard hats and lanterns. “So what is this place Doc?” Lyra asked, she was amazed at the deep tunnel they were walking down. “It’s the old abandoned coal mines. I used to come down here often as a kid. Ah… that’s takes me back,” he said in nostalgic voice. “I remember when I was a foal, I used to come down here and try to make my way to the centre of the planet, just like in my favourite book by Hooves Verne. Although I never did get very far.” “But why are we here now?” Rainbow Dash said, growing impatient. “This is where I used to work on my more secretive experiments, the ones which could have me banished and put me in dungeon in the place where I was banished.” “I… see… but what’s down here that so important?” “One of my greatest inventions.” “What is it?” Lyra said in awe. “A device that can store phenomenal amounts of magic and then release it all in one go. I had the idea many years ago when I was hanging a picture in my bathroom and slipped on the wet floor, knocking my head on the sink. And that’s when it came to me, in a sudden revelation.” “What?” Rainbow said with great intrigue. “A Flux Capacitor!” “A what?” “A Flux Capacitor.” “Hang on minute!” Lyra boomed, her voice echoing in the mine shaft. “Are you telling me you had the most useful magical device ever and kept it to yourself?!” For reasons unknown to Lyra she was incredibly angered by this. “Calm down Lyra. Besides, I would have shared it but I found no particular use for it. Until now.” Doc stopped as he arrived at a section of wall that seemed to be rebuilt badly and had “DB” scratched into it. “A-ha! Here it is!” he shouted triumphantly. “What?” Lyra said, still with some anger in her voice. “My store room.” Doc turned around and kicked the wooden wall with his hind legs. It shuddered and nothing more. He kicked it again and still nothing. Rainbow Dash coolly and calmly trotted over to the wall, turned her back to it, and kicked it with one leg, seemingly effortlessly. It shattered open. Doc walked past her and into the store room, trying to hide his embarrassment. “Thank you,” he stated flatly. Rainbow followed him closely, and as Doc switched on the lights, her mouth fell open in awe. There was so much amazing equipment in there she didn’t know where to look. Lyra shared her sentiment. “Wow Doc. This is awesome!” Lyra said in an airy voice. “Yes, yes, I know,” Doc said in an exhausted fashion, as if he didn’t want the praise. “Now where is it?” Doc scratched his head with thought and apparent itchiness. He walked around the rather large store, moving scraps of paper and bits of machinery aside to get to the safe. He walked up to it and unlocked it. As he saw the contents of the safe he paled and his eyes went wide with sheer fear and disbelief. “Great Scott!” “What is it?” the other Ponies said in unison. Doc raised a hoof and pointed to the empty safe. “It… it’s gone!” “What is?” Rainbow said with worry. “The Flux Capacitor! I left it right here!” “Are you sure?” “Yes, of course I am! In her I put all my schematics and diagrams and the device itself in here, just in case. And know… it’s GONE!” Lyra walked up to the safe. “Come on now, maybe it just fell down the back.” Lyra stuck her head inside and lit up her horn. “Hey, there’s something in here,” Lyra said with her voice echoed by the metal box. She withdrew her head with a small scroll in her mouth. She levitated it up and looked at it, I had the Royal Seal on it. She opened it and read it out loud. Dear Doctor Doctorate Brown, U mad? Signed Princess Celestia. “What in Equestria does that mean?” Lyra was greatly confused by this letter. “Give me that!” Doc ripped the note out Lyra’s magical grip to read it for himself. “Did Celestia still my Flux Capacitor?” “I think so,” Rainbow Dash said in a voice that should have been more considerate. Doc’s face contorted with rage, an inexorable wrath that made his eyes appear to glow. He ripped the letter in twain as he roared with anger. “What are we gonna do Doc?” “We are going to get back my device,” his voice was surprisingly calm. “How? We can’t just waltz in there and take it now can we?” Lyra laughed nervously. Doc perked up. “Of course! It’s so simple!” “What is?” “We can just waltz right in there. The Grand Galloping Gala is only one week away!” Rainbow brightened up as well. “That’s brilliant Doc, it will provide the perfect cover!” “Come on, we have to get back to the lab. This is going to take some serious planning.” Doc bolted out of the store room, barely giving Rainbow Dash and Lyra a chance to catch up before he left in his truck. “Alright Ponies, are you ready?” Doc said eagerly as the Lyra and Rainbow Dash walked into his lab the next morning. “Ready for what?” Lyra asked through a yawn. “My ingenious plan.” Doc whipped the cover off an impressive looking model of Canterlot Castle. “Sorry about the crudity of this model, I didn’t have time to build it to scale or paint it.” “Don’t worry, it’s good Doc,” Rainbow said as she patted Doc on the shoulder in a congratulatory way. “So what’s the plan?” “Well, you two will start over here.” Doc moved two little wooden Ponies representing Rainbow and Lyra to the entrance of the castle. “I can get you into the Gala as guests, no problem at all.” “What about you?” Rainbow asked. “Why, I will be here building your machine, of course!” he scoffed. “Oh, okay. Of course… continue,” Rainbow said embarrassedly. “Once inside, one of you will need to cause a distraction to let the other one sneak through the guards unnoticed and head deeper into the castle. After that, you must find the vault, break into it, steal the Flux Capacitor and get out again without anypony noticing.” “Doc, do you seriously expect us to be able to break into Canterlot Castle so easily?” doubt rose in Rainbow’s voice. “Yes.” “Whoa, Doc. This is heavy.” “Actually the Flux Capacitor is a very small device, not heavy at all.” Rainbow facehoofed.
PART IVIt was the night of the Grand Galloping Gala, and Rainbow Dash and Lyra stood outside in their original Rarity dresses, dreading the monumental task ahead of them. “You ready, Lyra?” Lyra gulped. “I guess.” “Good. Let’s go! And remember, act natural.” Rainbow started walking toward the castle entrance, Guard Ponies carefully watching and checking invitations rigorously. The first test, to see if the tickets Doc got hold of were any good. Fortunately they were, as the two of them were allowed inside. “That wasn’t so bad. Now that hurdles over, let’s get what we came for.” The two Ponies headed into the Mane Hall, where there was a band playing and so many hundreds of Ponies dancing around to the painfully dull music. “Hey, Rainbow,” Lyra whispered. “How are we gonna distract all these Ponies?” “I don’t know…” Rainbow looked around for inspiration. Then a thought struck. “The band!” she whispered back excitedly. “The band will provide the perfect distraction.” “But they’re so… boring.” “Hm.” Rainbow looked at the band some more, they had all the right instruments: guitars, pianos, trumpets, saxophones and even a drum kit, but somehow they weren’t using these to their fullest. But Rainbow had a plan. “Lyra, you need to get up on stage and play.” “What?!” she shouted a little too loud and drew some unwanted attention. Rainbow quickly led them away to the buffet table. “Those Ponies up there don’t know what they’re doing, but if you were up there you could play some good distracting music, allowing me to slip away and get on with the mission.” “But… I can’t just go up there and play, that would be far too suspicious! Besides, I don’t even have my Lyre.” Rainbow looked up again at the band, from her new angle she could make out another Pony playing a Lyre. “Perfect,” she said with a malicious grin curling to her lips. Rainbow took a glass of punch and unfolded her wings. She flew up into the air as daintily as possible, no matter how much she hated doing that, and pretended to admire the architecture whilst sipping at her drink. After Ponies began to stop noticing her she slowly made her way over to the other side of the hall, hovering high above the band, but in particular the Lyre player. She dislodged a fragment of marble from a gargoyle, about the size of her hoof, and aimed carefully, she would only get one shot. She dropped the rock and flew away quickly and landed next to Lyra without a sound. There was a sudden yelp as the Lyre player fell unconscious with a cut on his head and the music stopped, grabbing the attention of the guests. Rainbow did a small celebration and raised her hoof to Lyra, who just left her hanging. “Oh my gosh!” shouted the pianist. “He’s knocked out cold!” This received a loud gasp from the guests. “What are we gonna do now?” asked the drummer. “I don’t know. We can’t keep playing without a Lyre player.” “I guess there ain’t gonna be no music for the Gala then,” said the guitarist in a very solemn voice. “Well… not unless you know anypony who can play Lyre.” “I don’t know anypony. Maybe somepony out in the crowd can,” the pianist thought out loud. He turned to the stupefied audience. “Do any of you Ponies know how to play a Lyre?” his voice boomed out across the hall. Rainbow jumped in the air and hovered above the heads of everypony. “My friend does!” she shouted excitedly. “Rainbow! Ssh!” Lyra grabbed Rainbow’s tail and pulled her down to the ground. “I can’t play in front of everypony!” “Why not? Are you… chicken?” Rainbow said slyly. “What did you just call me?” Lyra replied angrily. “Chicken.” Rainbow smiled. Lyra was up on stage, playing the Lyre effortlessly, it had become second nature to her so she didn’t even have to read the music to be able to join in with the musicians. She was playing one her favourite songs, “Earth Pony”, and all the music Ponies were doing it every bit of justice it deserves, the singer had the perfect voice for it. Lyra looked out over the Gala, most of the Ponies were paired off, dancing slowly, leaning on each others shoulders. It was very romantic, Lyra even saw a cute young couple exchange their first kiss, and she knew they would be together forever. Her gaze continued to pan across the scene, stopping at Rainbow Dash, who gave her a small wave, she seemed very proud of Lyra. Lyra returned the wave, and Rainbow left to go the toilets where she would get changed out of her dress to steal the Flux Capacitor. The song came to an end and the band was rewarded by the enthusiastic cheering of their audience. Lyra could have cried, she hadn’t preformed to such a large audience before, and they all loved her. “Well done… Lyra? Is it?” spoke the singer “Yes. And thanks. You lot did excellent as well.” The singer looked out over the audience again, they were eager for more. “Well, Lyra, it looks like they’re wantin’ some more. Got anythin’ else up ya sleeves?” Lyra thought for a second, then she had the best idea she has had in a long time, the perfect song to get everypony good and distracted. Lyra put the Lyre down and instead picked up a guitar, she was less practiced in these but had been told she was just as good. She stepped right up to the microphone. “Alright everypony, this is an oldie… well, it’s an oldie where I come from.” She turned to talk to the band for a quick second. “Alright guys listen, it’s some blues riff in B, watch me for the changes and try to keep up, okay?” Lyra turned back around to the microphone and broke out into the opening guitar intro of her chosen song, “Johnny B. Hoofed”. The Ponies starting to feel the beat started to dance wildly, it was an impressive sight to see at the Grand Galloping Gala. Even Princess Luna grabbed her unwilling sister and started to dance enthusiastically with her. Rainbow was in the grand toilets of the castle when she heard Lyra start shredding the guitar, she never knew she could play that as well. Rainbow checked the other stalls for signs of other Ponies, but there were none. She then proceeded to lock herself in a stall and got changed out of her cumbersome dress and into her ninja-burglar suit, pulling the hood up and hiding any sign of rainbow on her. She sneaked out of the bathroom, cautiously checking everywhere for a guard or some other Pony of importance. Fortunately, their plan worked flawlessly up to this point, everypony, including the Guards, was completely preoccupied by Lyra and her amazing guitar skills. Rainbow flew up and walked along the ceiling, it being the safer and far more awesome method of sneaking into the bowels of the castle. She risked a look in on Lyra, wanting to see with her own eyes that it was in fact Lyra up on stage. Lyra was getting really into it, playing with much more vigour than she ever did with her Lyre. Mid-solo, the unconscious Lyrist woke up, clutching his throbbing head, but when he saw Lyra playing like she did he didn’t seem to notice it. He stood up and found a phone. “Yo Buck. This is your cousin Music… Music Berry? Well, you know that new sound you were looking for? Well listen to this!” Music held the phone up to Lyra. Lyra was getting far too into the groove, her solos were going on far too long and were getting increasingly rock-and-roll-y. And only after she had kicked over an amplifier and power slid across the floor did she realise that everypony had stopped dancing and were shooting her evil and confused stares, while Celestia, on the other hoof, looked at her with a satisfied and humoured smile. “Err… I guess you guys aren’t ready for that yet. But I bet you will be after a few more drinks.” Lyra smiled weakly at the crowd before taking the guitar off from around her neck and placing it neatly down, waiting for her fate in tonight’s band to be sealed. But fortunately for her and the plan, she was allowed to keep playing, as long as she didn’t do anything like that again. Rainbow sped off before the guards returned to their posts, fortunately Lyra had given her plenty of time to access the restricted part of the castle, which was unnervingly easy to break into. This section of the castle was blocked by a huge enchanted wooden door, impervious to all forms of attack, but Rainbow just walked up to it and pushed it open with ease. “That’s not right,” Rainbow whispered to herself as the door opened before her. She stepped over the threshold, it was pitch black, she couldn’t make out her own hoof in front of her face. A few cautious steps forward and she fell, managing to catch the shriek of terror before it left her mouth. She deployed her wings instantly and hovered for a second, trying to squint through the darkness and see something, but nothing was visible. The door silently shut behind her, now there was absolutely no light whatsoever. Rainbow decided that the best thing to do was to fly down, nice and slowly, until she came across something that resembled a floor. Five minutes of flying brought her to the bottom, and as her hooves struck the hard metal floor the chasm buzzed into life, the magic torches on the walls burst into mesmerising blue flame and looked like fluorescent lights. The floor, too, lit up with the same colour. Rainbow looked down at her hooves, they felt tingly. When she looked back up, a mouth fell open as a sharp gasp escaped her. There, towering before her, was the infamous Canterlot Vault, known to be not only the most impenetrable structure ever built but also housed the most dangerous criminals and the most powerful and intriguing of contraband. Rainbow had absolutely no idea how to get in. She walked up to the door, it seemed to be locked with a special kind of tumbler, obviously magical as appeared as a hologram. She put her hoof on the dial, which brought about a large 3D projection of Princess Celestia’s head that floated behind Rainbow silently. “And just what do you think you’re doing?!” Celestia’s hologram’s voice boomed, nearly killing Rainbow Dash in the process. “AAARGH!” Rainbow screamed quickly before clutching at her heart in the hopes to slow it down. “Password accepted,” The hologram said, but in a much calmer and more computerised voice. “Huh?” Rainbow managed to say between her heavy panting. The vault door span aside into the wall, creating a blast of chilling air to fill the chasm. Rainbow shivered, and then walked in. This vault was huge, to say the least, Rainbow Dash thought she would have a hard time finding anything in there. It was also terrifying, she walked passed hundreds of cages, each containing no more than one Pony, each of which were shackled with glowing chains by hoof and neck to the floor of their respective cells. Rainbow didn’t dawdle in this section, she rapidly headed for the back of the vault where there were no more prisoners, but there were mountains of items, piled up with no discernable filing system. “This would be Twilight’s worst nightmare,” Rainbow jested as she began to make her way through them. She knew what she was looking for, Doc had given her a rough sketch of the device, depicting a small rectangle with three lines going into the centre of it. “Right, where are you then?” Rainbow asked out loud while scratching her head. She turned around, and there it was, connected to the wall and glowing brightly. “There it is!” she shouted happily as she blasted towards it. She stopped just in front of it, every single book and film with a scene like this always showed it to be booby trapped and/or alarmed. She eyed it suspiciously, checking the cables, trying to determine what they were linked to, but with no success. In the end, she just ripped it from the wall. The lights went red and flashed. The alarms went off, the volume nearly ripping her ears off. But most worrying of all, the vault door locked tight. She didn’t know what to do. “INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT!” screamed Celestia in her holographic Royal Canterlot Voice. “This is not good,” rainbow stated. There were some faint noises of Ponies outside trying to get in. Rainbow knew this was her only chance to get out. She placed the Flux Capacitor on her back, tying it down with a belt, and lined herself up with the door and prepared herself for some fast flying. “ACCESS GRANTED!” shouted Celestia again. A malicious grin spread over Rainbow’s face. “Perfect.” She launched herself with phenomenal speed, like some kind of jet fighter, breaking the wall she used to push off against. She was halfway across the vault, and still gaining speed, by the time the door opened and revealed a single file line of ten or so guards. Rainbow repositioned herself in the air to have one of her hind legs raised and pointing towards the guards. “RAINBOW KICK!” she roared as her hoof collided with the first guard, creating a miniature Sonic Rainboom, and as the guard fell into the others in a sort of domino effect it created progressively smaller Sonic Rainbooms. The final guard was fired into the wall behind him, getting completely embedded in the wall so only his head stuck out. “That was AWESOME!” Rainbow smiled at her handiwork and sped back out of the still open door and into the non-restricted section of the castle. There were many guards already waiting with her, all with spears pointing menacingly at her. She looked around nervously for a split second before exploding away and into the Mane Hall to get Lyra. “LYRA!” Rainbow shouted repeatedly as she tried to find her, luckily she was still on the stage with the band. “Rainbow Dash?” Lyra looked around, trying to find the source of her name being shouted, but when she spotted the familiar Pegasus clad in her black ninja-burglar suit being chased by a horde of angry guards she froze with fear. “LYRA! BREAK THE WINDOWS!” Rainbow shouted whilst avoiding some arrows. Lyra went into auto-pilot and grabbed the guitar of the stupefied guitarist, she turned the amplifier all the way up to and beyond eleven and strummed the highest note possible for a guitar. All the stain glass windows around them shattered into a million pieces. Lyra dropped the guitar and jumped up onto Rainbow Dash who was flying over her at that moment and grabbed her around the waist. They flew out of the window and into the night. Before the guards could follow them Lyra lit up her horn and preformed a com to life spell on Rainbow Dash, giving a sudden burst of acceleration, increasing their speed to ridiculous levels for a short while, just enough to get out of Canterlot and a significant distance towards Ponyville. As Rainbow Dash slowed down, Lyra came back to the planet and screamed, clambering up on top of Rainbow and holding on tightly. She wasn’t a fan of heights, or high speed, and definitely not the combination of the two. “Careful Lyra, you don’t want to break the Flux Capacitor!” Rainbow shouted above the sound of the wind. Lyra opened her eyes in shock, she didn’t actually realise Rainbow had succeeded in their mission. She pushed herself up a little bit to catch a glimpse of the device strapped to Rainbow’s back. “Oh my gosh, we did it! WE GOT THE FLUX CAPACITOR!” She raised a hoof on celebration before quickly realising where she was and wrapping it back round Rainbow for safety. “HAY YEAH WE DID!” Rainbow cheered. The two of them celebrated their victory all the way back to Ponyville. Rainbow Dash landed outside Doc’s lab, certain he would still be there. Lyra was physically stuck to Rainbow’s back with fear and refused to let go, so Rainbow just had to walk in with her there, she was too excited to bother with her now that she was one step closer to her Twilight returning to her. “DOC! WE GOT IT!” Rainbow shouted as she wrestled the Flux Capacitor from the secure sandwich that was her and Lyra. Once free she held it up triumphantly, but Doc ignored her. Despite the noise of their entry, Doc was fast asleep, resting his head against a fantastic looking machine that was missing just one part…
PART V“Doc. What the HAY is this?!” Rainbow Dash shouted with both amazement and disbelief. “It’s an inter-dimensional teleportation device,” he said proudly with a smug smirk. “It’s… awesome…” “Why thank you!” The machine in question was a silver box on four wheels, not very tall and quite long. On the back was sat the majority of the components, precariously leaning over the edge, but the suspension was managing to take the weight. “This looks familiar,” Lyra said in a very thoughtful voice. She eyed the machine suspiciously, going over every detail to try and work out what it was based around. She came to the back and saw a word that instantly told her what it was. “You built an inter-dimensional teleportation device… out of a DeLorean?!” “Yes. The way I see it is: if you’re going to make an inter-dimensional teleportation device out of a car, you might as well do it with some style!” Lyra mulled this over for a brief second. “I see your point. But this machine is… wow.” “Alright now gather round Ponies and I’ll show how it works.” Doc pulled the handle and the door rose into the air, Rainbow didn’t think it could get any more awesome until that moment and had to let out an excited squeal. Doc took a seat in the driver seat and pulled a lever, the DeLorean started to make noises. “Teleportation circuits are now on. Okay, this display shows you three things. This one shows you where you’re going. This one shows you where you are and this one shows you where you were,” said Doc as he pointed to each display when appropriate. “That’s great Doc, really great. Now, when can we go?” Rainbow asked impatiently. “Tomorrow night.” “Tomorrow night?!” “Yes. If my calculations are correct, the Flux Capacitor should be fully charged and there will be optimum conditions for trans-dimension teleporting.” “Cant we do it any sooner?” “No, I'm afraid not. It has to be tomorrow night. At precisely 10:04pm.” Rainbow sighed. “Fine.” It was the next night. Doc, Rainbow Dash and Lyra were stood outside the town hall, the DeLorean was in position far off down the street. “Alright, Rainbow Dash, are you ready?” Doc asked the eagerly hopping Pony. “Hay yeah!” “And what about you Lyra?” “Sure,” Lyra said sleepily, she was usually in bed by now, despite it being barely quarter to ten. “Good. Now I have placed the DeLorean down the street. And if my calculations are correct, you should reach 88mph at precisely here.” Doc pointed to the road where he was standing. “Err… Doc?” Rainbow asked inquisitively. “Yes?” “How do you drive a car?” Doc’s brow furrowed. “You mean… you can’t drive?” “No.” Doc became flustered. “L-Lyra? Can you drive?” he asked with doubt. Lyra yawned and shook her head. Doc jumped back. “Great Scott! Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” “Wel-.” “Never mind that now. Quick, follow me!” Doc started running at full speed towards the DeLorean. Rainbow Dash grabbed the almost sleeping Unicorn beside her and flew after him. Doc opened the door and threw Rainbow inside. “Right. Now, listen carefully. This pedal is the accelerator.” Doc forced her leg onto one of the pedals. “That other one is the brake, but you won’t need that one.” “So, this one is go and this one is stop?” Rainbow asked while demonstrating each one in turn. “Precisely.” “That seems simple enough.” Rainbow looked down at her hooves while she familiarised herself with them. Lyra hopped into the passenger seat and put the seatbelt on. She had suddenly perked up a bit. It must have been the excitement about seeing a human getting through to her. She was bouncing in her seat giddily. Doc looked at his watch. “Okay Dash, just another couple minutes until you need to floor it. That alarm on the dashboard will tell you when. Good luck!” Doc said quickly as he ran back to his position by his proposed jump point. “Oh Celestia, Rainbow Dash. Humans!” she couldn’t contain her excitement anymore and started squeaking excitedly. After a few minutes of silence, apart from the random sounds of excitement from Lyra, the alarm went off. “I'm comin’ Twilight!” With that, Rainbow pushed her hoof hard on the accelerator. The DeLorean blasted off with an acceleration Rainbow Dash hadn’t felt before while sitting down. They reached the speed Doc said was necessary and the DeLorean started sparking with electricity, being cocooned it a shell of energy. The two passengers could feel magic vibrating through the machine. Suddenly, with a huge burst of acceleration, they jumped. The DeLorean left trails of fire from its back wheels as it sped through the dimensional barrier with a mighty crack. Doc looked on in awe. He couldn’t believe it. He was the first Pony to ever successfully teleport two Ponies to another dimension in a machine that HE had built. He started dancing around in celebration. Rainbow Dash and Lyra exploded through the barrier and came out the other side. Luckily Doc told her how to stop, so they only crashed into a shed a little bit. “That. Was. AWESOME!” Rainbow cheered as the car vented some kind of gas. “I know! Now where are the humans?” Lyra asked herself as she reached behind the seat and pulled out a camera. “You brought a camera?” Rainbow asked in a mocking tone. “Of course I did! I want to document EVERYTHING!” “Okay, that’s fine. But remember why we’re here, to save Twilight.” “Of course. But that doesn’t mean we can’t explore this place a bit, does it?” she asked hopefully. “I don’t know Lyra, this display here says 27 minutes. I think that’s how much longer we have until this baby runs outta juice.” “Oh,” Lyra said mournfully, like she was about to cry. “But don’t fret. In Twilight’s letter she said she was staying with a human.” Lyra gasped. “Oh yeah! I forgot about that!” “Let’s get searching then!” Rainbow said eagerly as she moved a hoof to open the door. But before her hoof made it, the door lifted open for her with an action she just couldn’t help but watch. Upwards opening doors are just the coolest thing, she thought to herself, only rivalled by flippy-uppy headlights. “Rainbow Dash?!” said a confused voice. “I know that voice!” Rainbow shouted as she lunged from the car and hugged Twilight with such joy and power that they fell to floor of grass in a human’s garden. “What are you doing here?” Twilight asked, but she didn’t honestly care for the reason, she was just happy to see her friend again. “I missed you so much Twilight!” Rainbow started welling up. “I can see that. And I missed you too!” Twilight hugged back with as much passion as Rainbow. “WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO MY SHED?!” shouted an angry male voice, one which nopony but Twilight recognised. They heard a gasp before a blur of light green exploded from the DeLorean. Lyra had seen Twilight’s human friend and tackled him to the ground. “HA! I told you humans existed, Bon-bon!” Lyra shouted into the human’s face, hoping that her Earth Pony friend would hear her (she didn’t). “Lyra?” asked the human. Lyra gasped again. “He knows my name!” she squealed. “Oh yes, where are my manners,” said Twilight. “Rainbow, Lyra, this… is Darryl.” Rainbow looked up from Twilight to get a look at the human whose been looking after one of her best friends for the past while. He looked like a nice guy. Rainbow approved. “Hello,” Darryl said awkwardly. Rainbow stood up from her hug with Twilight and walked over to Darryl. “So, Darryl, Is it? In case you don’t know, I'm Rainbow Dash, and I would just like to say, if you have done anything to harm my Twilight you’re gonna be in a hay load of trouble.” Twilight giggled. “Oh Dashie, you haven’t changed.” “Of course I haven’t! It’s only been a week or something like that since you disappeared.” Twilight was taken aback. “A week?! But I’ve here for… like… a year!” “Well, what can I tell ya? There’s probably some science-y thing about it.” Everybody was blinded temporarily by a flash of light. Lyra had taken a picture of all of them and then giggled to herself slightly; she still couldn’t believe she was on Earth with the humans. “Darryl?” “Yeah Lyra?” he asked nervously. “What’s it like to have hands?” Darryl opened his mouth to answer, but no words came out. Instead he shut it again and went into deep thought mode as he looked at his hands, flexing his fingers in front of his eyes. He hadn’t thought about it before but hands are brilliant things, so useful for so many different tasks. The more he thought about it, the more he thought he was taken advantage of them and that he should give them the recognition they deserve. “They’re… awesome.” This was as far as his recognition would go. Meanwhile, Twilight was asking about the machine. “What is this… thing?” “It’s an inter-dimensional teleportation device built into a DeLorean.” “Riiiight. But how does it work?” “How should I know? All I do know is that it has a Flux Capacitor.” “Really? Where?” Twilight dived into the machine and began looking around. “Don’t break anything! That’s our only ticket home.” “Don’t worry, I won’t,” Twilight said as she buried her head in a pile of wires. Rainbow caught a look at the display, it was already saying they only had 12 minutes left. It was discharging magic at an alarming rate. “Twilight, we haven’t got long.” “Don’t worry, I'm almost done here.” Rainbow watched as her friend’s legs swung in the air. It made her smile. “Rainbow. Come here!” Lyra shouted excitedly. Rainbow obeyed and walked up to her. “What?” “Take a picture of me and Darryl.” Lyra shoved the camera in Rainbow’s hoof and pulled Darryl down to her height, he happily obliged. Darryl sat down on the grass and put his arm around Lyra. She looked at the hand on her shoulder in disbelief. She swooned and fell into Darryl’s lap. “She’s so pathetic,” Rainbow laughed. “Nah. She’s cute!” Rainbow gave him a suspicious look, but she quickly shook off the sense that Darryl might like Ponies in that way and took a picture or two of the unconscious Unicorn and the human. Moments later, Lyra woke up. “What just happened?” she asked confusedly. “You fainted,” Darryl said in a sweet voice. Lyra looked up at Darryl’s smiling face and had an enormous urge to hug him incredibly tightly. She knew it would have been pointless to resist it so she grabbed onto his neck and pulled him down to hug him. Rainbow was quick on the camera and caught an image of a puzzled human and an incredibly happy Unicorn hugging him. Darryl collected his thoughts and hugged her back tightly. His time with Twilight living with him made him love Ponies of all sorts much more, but nopony could ever hope to replace Twilight as best Pony in his mind now, when once before it would have been reserved solely for Rainbow Dash. Almost instantly Darryl felt the Pony’s grip around him loosen and her head lolled back. “She’s fainted again, hasn’t she?” he asked Rainbow, who just took several more pictures and then nodded in reply. Darryl sighed happily, Lyra was better than he had imagined. A loud fumbling came from the DeLorean. Rainbow spun round and saw the Twilight’s legs flailing frantically as she wriggled herself out of the machine. “Careful Twi. You better not have broken anything!” Twilight ignored this warning. She turned and grabbed Rainbow by her shoulders. “1.21 gigawatts?!” She let go and started pacing around. “1.21 gigawatts!” Twilight kept muttering to herself. Rainbow watched her, her face contorting with alarm and confusion. “What-what the hay is a gigawatt?!” “That display said 1.21 gigawatts. Who in EQUESTRIA would build such a magically powerful device?! If this thing blew up I dare say it would take the planet with it!” “Hey cool your jets Twilight, I didn’t build it. And I doubt Lyra could even build a puzzle!” “She’s not that stupid Rainbow.” Rainbow gave her a contemptuous look and cleared her throat loudly while pointing over at the green Unicorn. Twilight looked. Lyra was lying back in Darryl’s lap and beaming idiotically at him. He was trying to act friendly and engage her in conversation, but he never was the best socialiser. Twilight smirked contently. She had grown quite fond of Darryl. The DeLorean beeped. Rainbow went to investigate. “Whoa, this is heavy.” “What?” Twilight asked with concern. “We have three minutes left.” “Three minutes until what?” “Until the machine loses the ability to teleport us back.” “Oh…” “Come on. We better get going.” Rainbow went to take Lyra away from Darryl, who reluctantly allowed her to. Rainbow sat her in the car. “C’mon Twi! We better get back!” Rainbow waved a hoof to follow her into the DeLorean. “I'm sure Pinkie Pie will have a party waiting for us!” Twilight didn’t move, instead she looked at Darryl. “Can he come with us?” she asked without taking her eyes off him. Darryl was surprised to hear this, he thought Twilight would go with very little fuss, not ask if he could go with them. “Err…” Rainbow droned out, she was thinking hard about this. “I don’t see why not!” Twilight’s face lit up and she bolted towards the machine. Darryl followed closely behind her. But as Twilight placed her front hooves on the threshold of the door, the DeLorean announced something in its emotionless computerised voice. “Flux energy at minimum. Maximum capacity three Ponies.” Twilight froze instantly. Her mind was a mess of emotions. She wanted to go home and she her friends. But on the other hoof, she couldn’t leave Darryl. “What are you waiting for Twilight? Get in!” Rainbow said persuasively. “I don’t know Rainbow.” “What do you mean Twilight? How could you not know?!” Rainbow looked up and saw Darryl. “It’s because of him isn’t it?” Twilight’s silence spoke volumes. “Wha-? HIM?! You want to stay here because of him?!” Rainbow was growing angry. “I'm sorry Dashie,” she whispered as she removed her hooves from doorway. “So, after all the effort we put in to come and save you, you’re just gonna throw it back into our faces?” “I'm sorry. I can’t leave him. But I told you in that letter not to come after me, that I was happy here.” “As happy as you were in Equestria? With your own kind? Where YOU belong?” Twilight nodded. “Yes. Yes I am.” Rainbow sighed. “Fine. Bye Twilight.” “Bye Twilight! Bye Darryl!” Lyra shouted happily, blissfully unaware of what was happening. Rainbow shut the door, for once unaware of its awesomeness. She drove the DeLorean out of Darryl’s garden. Twilight and Darryl followed it to the road and watched it break the fourth wall back to Equestria. They watched the spot where it disappeared for a while before Darryl broke to silence. “Did you… really stay behind… for me?” he voice quivered with emotion. Twilight nodded and smiled. “Really?” he asked again, hoping he heard her right. “Yes!” she shouted with a laugh. Darryl beamed at her. “Come here you!” he said as he scooped her up in his arms, causing her to start laughing in the most adorable of ways. He looked into her smiling, purple eyes and got lost. “Love you Twilight,” he said as he pulled her into a hug. Twilight giggled. “Love you too!” she said as she hugged back. A brief moment later, they were distracted by three loud cracks, much like lightning, and the third of which blew them back with a great force. As they stood up again they saw the DeLorean had reappeared before them, covered in a thin film of ice. The door swung upwards and out of it came a tall colt, tan in colour and a mane grey and crazy, wearing a lab coat. He stumbled about a bit before gathering his bearings. He spun round and saw the incredibly confused purple Unicorn. “Twilight! Thank Celestia I found you!” he shouted with great relief. “Who are you?” Twilight asked. “I'm Doc. I built this machine. And come on, there’s no time to lose. You have to come back with me!” he spoke with such great urgency. “Back where?” “Back to Equestria!” Twilight went red with mild annoyance. “No no no no no no. I already… what are you doing?” Twilight asked as she saw the strange colt rummaging around in a bin. He pulled his head out with a can and a banana peel in his mouth. “I need fuel,” he said as if what he was doing was completely normal. He went to the back of the DeLorean and pushed back a small white chimney with a hoof and dropped the rubbish inside. “Right…” Twilight watched him with confusion for a second before shaking it off. “What was I saying? Oh yeah! I'm not going with you. I already told Rainbow Dash I wouldn’t go without Darryl.” “Bring him it concerns him too!” Doc said urgently. “What?!” Twilight was worried now. “Why what’s happening in Equestria? Is something wrong with Fluttershy?” “Fluttershy’s fine.” “Then what is it?” “It’s Celestia, Twilight. Something’s got to be done about Celestia!” “Why? What’s wrong with Celestia?” “There’s no time to explain. Get in the inter-dimensional teleportation device.” Twilight did as ordered and Darryl followed. He was so excited to finally go see the Equestria which Twilight had told him about so passionately. “God. It’s a bit cramped in here!” Darryl said as he struggled to get one of his legs in. Doc went round to help. “Of course it is!” he grunted as he tried to push him in further. “It was designed for Ponies.” Darryl eventually got his leg in a position that allowed Doc to close the door, but you wouldn’t call it comfortable or dignified. Doc got in the driver’s seat, shutting the door behind him. “Prepare yourself. When this baby hits 88mph, you’re going to see some serious shit.” Doc flicked a switch and the DeLorean started humming as the magic coursed through it. Darryl looked up out of the windscreen and saw a river not far ahead. “Err… Doc, you better back up. We don’t have enough road to reach 88mph.” Doc placed some silver sunglasses over his eyes. “Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need road.” After he said these words, the DeLorean rose into the air. A small burst of magic propelled the machine forward. It began to glow along the seams and spark with magic and seconds later, it erupted from this reality, leaving twin trails of fire in the sky as it was teleported through the planes of existence and… Back To Equestria!
