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Wind Chaser, Chapter 1

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Wind Chaser, Chapter 1.

In which is started a fan-fic by a guy that prefers to write real fiction... but had to do this because he can't resist the Brony within. Yes this is a human-becomes-a-pony fiction, and yes I'm hoping to be one of the few to get it right, I just thank you for reading and giving me the chance.

Apologies again to my anon pre-readers, all two of you, and again thanks to Zo for even more brilliance (there's a reason I love her folks, and it's not just the stunning plot).

On with the show!


* * *

Hens eggs of rain impacted the dry, dusty ground, throwing up little fountains of debris as they hit. Soon enough though, the parched earth was nothing but churned mud and little rivulets coursing downhill to the nearest streams.

"You sure about this Dash?" the white pegasus yelled over the deluge rolling down on them, wings working to keep himself in place, his question was hurled in the direction of a smaller, cyan pegasus ahead of him.

"No!" she returned, "Got any better ideas?"

Flashes of lightning were arcing from the two figures that danced from one end of the clouds to another in front of them, "Ones that don't involve chances of horrific death? No."

"Then keep them off my flank while I fix this." And with that, they threw themselves into the tumultuous storm.

* * *

~ One Week Earlier ~

Twilight Sparkle, personal student to Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria, researcher of Friendship, unicorn magic prodigy, and now Librarian of Ponyville, cracked a bleary eye at light streaming through her bedroom window.

"-nd if you don't get up I'm going to eat it all myself!" the young voice behind her finished his ultimatum in frustration.

"Wha-? Spike?" She rolled over to peer monoptically at her assistant.

The baby dragon, only a few feet high, purple scales, cream fronted and topped with childishly rounded green spines, folded his arms at her. More of a toddler dragon than a baby if she was honest, but she knew it would be a long time before he ever reached physical maturity, no matter how grown up he acted.

"Break-fast." He enunciated as deliberately as possible, already walking towards the ladder, "Come on! Get up or I'll eat it all myself." With that he vanished from sight over the edge.

"Spi-iiike... I was up late last night..." But the door closed before she was even finished protesting. Her stomach told her it really was time for breakfast, so, sighing, Twilight dragged herself out of bed. She brushed out her bed-mane, visited the bathroom and headed downstairs to the smell of fresh pancakes.

As far as pony standards went, Twilight was an attractive filly. Straight dark blue mane with a pink streak through it, lavender coat with her star-and-sparkle cutie mark taking pride of place on her flank. Her eyes were her best feature, at least they were when she wasn't suffering from sleepy-sand attacks, deep purple, wide and emotive. Not that she'd ever really thought about it, when you didn't have time for making friends throughout your school life, then what need had you of a coltfriend?

Even though a splash of water from the sink had cured most of the tiredness, she was still rubbing at her eyes on the way down, but by the time she got to the table she at least felt like a pony again, ready to face whatever the day brought.

"Hurgk!" Spike greeted her eloquently, then he belched a wisp of flame and smoke that resolved itself into a familiar looking scroll. She caught it with her magic before it fell, brow creasing in consternation.

"I wonder what this could be so early... I only sent my report off to the Princess yesterday..."

"Whatever it is, I think I need a few more pancakes to settle it down." Spike rubbed his stomach and then tucked into the other half of his short-stack.

Twilight read as she ate, it was a pretty short message:

"Dear Twilight Sparkle," pause to chew and swallow, "I am writing to inform you that I will be unable to receive your reports for a few days" - pancake - " as I will be departing shortly on an ambassadorial visit to a northern race we have not had contact with for many years." Maybe a little more syrup, "You may consider the next week a holiday and do whatever you wish with your time until I return. Signed, Princess Celestia."

She swallowed the last of her breakfast, drained a glass of milk and turned to Spike with a smile, "Well, what do you think? Sounds like we can have some fun."

* * *

At the crack of... mid-morning, not very long after Twilight emerged from her room, Rainbow Dash rolled out of bed. She stretched, flapped her wings a few times, and then headed out.

Lazily working her way into the air from her cloudy home she kicked a passing cloud hard to have it spill some rain, which lasted long enough for her to douse down and wake up properly. She gave herself a shake to get her mane out of her eyes and, still dripping wet, she was off.

Actually 'off' didn't cover it, Rainbow went from hover to hurtle in seconds. Throwing herself bodily into the sky and pumping her wings harder and harder to keep the upwards momentum as she streaked into the reaches of freedom.

The sun blasted her, banishing the chill of her shower and she was dry in moments between it and the wind against her face. A cyan pegasus mare against a perfect sky, she would have been easily missed at this height, except for her trademark mane. Defined and vibrant streaks of colour ran through it, all colours of the rainbow, like her namesake. Magenta eyes squinted into the wind until she topped out above the highest, thinnest clouds, revelling in the feeling of near weightlessness for a few precious seconds. As her morning exercise was done, she parked her plot on an outcrop of vapour as only a pegasus truly could.

Looking around, however, all her good mood began to evaporate as fast as the water in her mane. Contemplating the mess in front of her, she decided to get some answers. A moment later, all the sky contained was an echo of "The hay is going on around here?" and a rainbow-streaked trail angling down to Ponyville.

On the horizon, a band of clouds darker than smoke had settled in and wasn't moving.

* * *

Twilight was humming to herself, it wasn't often she got told to take a holiday, so she was going to enjoy it. Only one thing to do with time off; spend it with your friends! First stop Rarity's boutique, as Spike decided.

"Hey, Twilight!" Okay, first stop Pinkie Pie then, "I was on my way to lunch and saw you and I thought to myself 'Hey, it's strange to see Twilight out so early' because you usually have duties at the library or you're tired out from working late or you've got to write a report to the Princess which is really cool by the way I mean who else has a friend that's the personal student of Princess Celestia? But anyway I thought it was odd to see you out so I came over to say 'Hey, Twilight!' and here I am!" She paused for breath, "Hey Spike!"

"Hey Pinkie, good morning." Twilight chuckled as Pinkie bounced in place, "The Princess is going away for a while, so she said to take some time off until she gets back. I was coming to see you and the girls to ask if there was anything you wanted to do together."

"Oh IknowIknow-I-know! This calls for a - wait!" She interrupted herself dramatically, "I have an even better idea, we're going to need INFLATABLES!" A pink blur announced her departure.

Twilight chuckled, "She is sooo random."

"Tell me about it." Spike agreed from her back.

She headed for the boutique at a gentle trot, but oddly enough it was closed, "I wonder where Rarity could be? It's not like her to close for a weekday."

But before she could turn away, the door opened slightly and Rarity's eye peered at her through the crack. "Shhhh..." the eye moved from side to side as if checking they weren't observed. A moment later Twilight found herself dragged inside.

The room was dark, very dark. "Uh, Rarity? What's-" A spotlight flipped on in the middle of the space between her and Rarity.

"Pinkie Pie just told me everything darling, and I have to say I approve entirely. Which means it's time to reveal my newest designs, and trust me it wasn't easy."

"Pinkie?"

"Yes dear, now, come this way." Leading her to the centre of the shop, the spotlight following them somehow, Rarity gestured to the mini stage she used for measuring and dressing her customers. It was surrounded by a curtain for the moment, which rolled back as Rarity pulled on the rope magically while saying "I present to you... Pony Beach Wear!" Light flooded the room.

Six ponyquinnes rotated slowly, each themed to one of the six, and Twilight could only stare. Apart from the coloured sunglasses, tinted to match their prospective owners, there were sandals, light sun-dresses, hats on some, a gigantic parasol, deck loungers and a cold-box in the middle, and even... "Are those... swimsuits?"

Spike jumped from her back to the stage and started pacing around them in awe. There was even a little custom Spike-size dragonquinne with board shorts and sunglasses.

"Absolutely! Don't they look darling? Now, they are optional, as sea-water is so bad for the mane, but I couldn't resist trying to make them once I saw the idea."

She had to admit, now that she was over the surprise, the skin-hugging lines were quite nice, but how practical they would be compared to just swimming normally was yet to be seen. Then again, this was Rarity, and style was often more important to her than practicality. She doubted that Applejack would be wearing hers, but as for the rest...

"It looks amazing, Rarity, perfect for a beach trip, but since when were we going to the beach?"

"Since Pinkie Pie told me that you were planning a beach party with her, of course." Rarity answered absently, toying with the frills on one of the dresses.

"But I wasn't -"

"I'm back! How's the preparations going Rarity?" Pinkie burst in through the, formerly locked, door. Somehow. Considering she was weighed down by a half-dozen saddlebags and boxes tied onto her as randomly as her personality, how she got anywhere was a mystery, "Oo-oooh! So pretty!"

"Pinkie... when did you start planning a beach party?"

"Last week, silly, when else would I have time to get Rarity to make all these?"

"So when I said I had some time off earlier...?"

"Well of course! I knew you'd get some time off sooner or later, and it's summer now, so I thought 'Duuh, of course! Summer means the beach!' and so I told Rarity about it, and Applejack thought about making some apple-juice to take in the cooler, and Rainbow Dash is going to make sure the weather's perfect, and Fluttershy is the one that came up with the animals for my Super Inflatable Animal Beach Toys!" The capital letters were audible.

Twilight face-hoofed, "I should've known... So everypony knows the plan?"

"Absolutely-tootley!"

"We're all for it, Twilight dear." Rarity confirmed

With a wry chuckle, and a big smile, Twilight realised that she had to have some of the best friends in the world, "Thanks girls, a beach party it is."

* * *

Later that afternoon, Twilight looked up from her book on 'Fun at the Beach, a Safe Surf Manual' as Spike belched, she was in time to see the waft of green flame and smoke form into a rolled letter, and she caught it out of the air with her magic, a smile growing as she stood up.

"Thanks, Spike. Now, I wonder what the Princess could want this time?" She broke the seal and unrolled the paper, horn glowing. "Dear Twilight Sparkle, it has come to my attention that somepony has broken the barrier separating our realm from another. Do not be alarmed, this happens from time to time, and it is usually benign. Since the disturbance originated from somewhere near Ponyville I am requesting your aid in finding the source so that they can be sent back. If you do find anything suspicious, please report it to me right away and I shall endeavour to attend personally to inquire into the nature of this situation. Signed, Princess Luna. Well…" she paused, "Guess I had the wrong Princess… that was unexpected."

"Sounds fishy to me," Spike folded his arms, "Broken the barrier? What does that mean? And so soon after Princess Celestia gives you a holiday?"

"I guess it means that somepony or something has come here from another dimension. The Princess did say somepony though…" She narrowed her brow in thought for a second, hoof to her chin, "It is suspicious timing, but... The only thing I can do is go find out. What do you say, my number one assistant, want to do something important?"

"Yeah! Alright, another adventure!" Spike pumped a fist, "We can invite the girls, search, camp out, then hit the beach tomorrow, we'll have a great time!"

"Oh," Twilight looked guilty at having gotten his hopes up, "I didn't mean that, Spike, I was hoping you'd be up to running the library while I was gone, between you and Owlowiscious there's nothing you can't handle, and it's just for today while I look for this 'disturbance'. Do you think you're up to that?"

"What? But I…" He made the mistake of meeting Twilight's eyes, "Well…" Again with the face, "I guess… but…" She was pulling out the eyes now, and the down-turned ears. "Fine. I'll hold the fort." And with that he huffed towards the stairs. At the last step he turned around melodramatically.

"But mark my words… When you end up in need of a dragon, and I'm not there, you'll regret leaving me behind." And he vanished upstairs.

Twilight chuckled, "Oh Spike… Now, what should I take with me?"

* * *

Hurtling across the sky, clouds starting to spin lazily in the after-shock, Rainbow Dash made straight for the distant hill she'd picked for her target this afternoon. Timing herself there, the second she arrived she shot upwards, going from head-on streak to vertical climb in at a bone-bending angle and loving the feeling of pushing the limits of her wings.

She burst through a waiting cloud and leveled off, treating it as her finishing line for the moment. "Whoo!" She spun lazily, "Oh yeah! Who's the fastest? I'm the fastest."

The cloud she'd punched a hole through drifted apart into smaller pieces, and she picked a larger piece to sit her plot on while she caught her breath. With a loud sigh of contentment, she slid her forelegs out and lay down, dangling her hooves in space. This was the life, sleep late in the morning, weather duty for the day, then tricks and techniques in the afternoon. Nap when she needed it, sleep early or stay up late whenever she felt like… who could ask for more? Well… there was always the Wonderbolts, but there was still time before they started recruiting again; time enough to get her performance perfect. Her eyes unconsciously tracked a white dot on the horizon.

That cloud bank was still there, which annoyed her, it was well out of Ponyville limits, miles and miles away, but just sitting there. The weather patrol on duty when it arrived said they'd received a message that it was nothing to worry about, a front brought in by some visiting group or other, and they weren't to touch it. After hearing that, she'd just had to distract herself with practice, clouds like that weren't normal. "Stupid foreign weather, why'd they have to bring their own rain? What? Ours ain't good enough?" The white dot again drew her eyes, moving back and forth like a slalom.

Her thoughts were interrupted with a start when she realised what she'd been looking at. A white streak had been zig-zagging and twirling across the lower sky for a while now. Looking closer, a white pegasus was hurtling around and having fun down there. Heh, he wasn't bad either, it's not often somepony could pull off a triple spin air stall without needing free-fall time afterwards. Usually they got dizzy and had to right themselves but not this pony.

She smiled as they burst from a trick into a headlong dash, not too far from where she'd been speeding along earlier. They were streaking straight ahead across the sky, heading for a point below her cloud, probably the same hill she'd been aiming for too. One, two, three… she started ticking off seconds in her head until he vanished from her point of view underneath the cloud she lay on. Wow, that was fast, she thought to herself, almost downright me-like… Rainbow craned her head forward, tracing the white streak the pegasus was leaving. Before her eyes caught up with the pony there was a thunder of air behind her, making her sit bolt upright in shock.

"YEAAAH!!" Shouted a distinctly male voice, "That was AWESOME! Kiri, we've GOT to do that again." And he laughed with total abandonment.

Rainbow nearly flipped herself onto her back as her eyes shot up to find the pegasus above her. With a flick of her wings, she spun the cloud around like a swivel chair to get a proper look. He, the white pegasus, was… floating about in the sunlight, hooves waggling in the air as he laughed. Weirder than anything so far from this pony, his wings were hardly moving at all, it was like he was lying back on a cloud, but there wasn't anything to hold him up.

"What? Local? Where?" He asked out of nowhere, flipping himself over and looking around, then he seemed to spot Rainbow Dash for the first time. He stared. His eyes roved from hers, to her mane, to her wings that were spread wide in surprise still, and then back to her eyes again.

Dash could only stare back, this guy was nuts, and then she goggled; a large, green parasprite emerged from his brown, windblown mane and… peered at her. It buzzed loudly, and bonked itself into the white pegasus' head. "Wha-? OH! Right! Sorry Kiri."

With that, he hovered lower until he was on eye-level with Rainbow, who instantly drew back and eyed him suspiciously. His wings still weren't flapping very much, more like… fanning, almost like a fishes fins did. He wasn't what she'd been expecting at all, this guy didn't look like much of a flier, he was more like a smaller Big Macintosh, strong framed and heavier than a normal pony, but his wings were longer than most too, heavier, and... sharper too, like the birds of prey she'd seen when visiting Fluttershy before. She had to admit, though, if those moves before were anything to go by, then there was more to this pony than just being bigger than average.

"Sorry, I'm not used to this place yet. Nice to meet you." He extended a hoof, seemed normal enough, maybe he was one of these 'visitors' the weather patrol told her about.

Rainbow grinned her best tomboy grin, knocking her hoof into his, "Heh, nice to meet you too, those were some pretty sweet moves back there." There was an expression of relief in his eyes, like he'd been worried about something, they were nice, golden yellow.

"Thanks, I kinda needed to work the kinks out, y'know?"

"Totally. Of course, you're not up to my standard, but you're not bad. Where are you from?"

A moment of thought crossed his face, "Heh, you wouldn't have hea-… Oh scorch me! I've done it again!" His eyes flew wide in shock, "Sorry, gotta fly!" He hoofed the odd green parasprite back into his mane, turned tail and split like she was rabid!

"What? WAIT UP!" Nobody, but nobody, ran out on Rainbow Dash, especially like that! The miniature cloud burst into vapour as she launched herself into the sky.

* * *

A tome of 'Viewing the Edges of Beyond' slammed shut and deposited itself in Twilight's saddlebag under direction from her magic. She sighed and turned to look at Fluttershy, the only one of her friends that was able to join her on her search this afternoon.

"This is harder than I thought…" She admitted, with a hint of hopelessness in her voice. She had followed the book's relatively easy steps to trace dimensional ruptures, breaks in reality, easy if you already knew a thing or two about teleporting that is. It had led her out of Ponyville and along an energy line, like a leyline, that was pulsing like a plucked harp string. This line marked a seam in the fabric of reality, the book said it was where their reality had been 'folded' some time in the past so that travellers could pass through it on their way from one dimension to another, there were millions of them all over, but this was the one to follow. Breaks in reality happened where it was weakest; along these folds. And now they were at the point where it was vibrating hardest, and what she'd found there made her more confused than ever about this whole thing. She kicked the ground half-heartedly.

"Oh, but, um, we shouldn't just, um, give up. After all, this came from the Princess and she wouldn't, um, ask if she… if she didn't think you could do it." Fluttershy offered, hesitantly.

"It's all there in the book, how to look for places where the fabric of reality is thinner, or where it's been broken, and I followed the instructions to the letter… It's just, the book never mentioned this!"

This, as she gestured to the empty grass area on top of the small hill, was actually very complicated if you were a unicorn able to magically tune her vision into the right visual spectrum. Imagine it like ink appearing under a black-light.

"The book says that a break in reality should resemble a sphere of disturbance, like a bubble, suspended around the centre of the break, and it's size and how even the sphere was would show how large the break was or how much mass the subject that passed through possessed. It should also centre right on the pony or object that passed through." She noted, as if reading the inside of her eyelids, "But this is nothing like that."

What her magic-tinted eyes could see was akin to what would happen if you sucked all the air out of the bubble again, the 'skin' of the disturbance was wrinkled and warped, and bunched tightly around the central point with no space for anything to have passed through it. Compared to a bubble, this was a chewed piece of bubblegum. Weirder still were the energy trails that snaked away from it, like the smoke after a firework. If she had to guess, the disturbance bubble had actually popped, sending energy in all directions, while the skin of the bubble had collapsed on itself, leaving virtually no imprint on this world at all.

"I should write to the Princess about this…"

"Of course you should… that is… she did say you should…" Fluttershy agreed, sort of.

Twilight sighed again, "This isn't what I was expecting at all." And she turned her head to get her quill and paper out of her saddlebag, ready to make notes, "Well, the only thing I can guess is that whoever it was that crossed over has gone now. If they were still here the disturbance would move with them, so they can't be here. Which is probably all for the good. I just…"

"Just what?" Fluttershy asked

"I just wanted to see what it was, or even who it was. Somepony from another dimension, I wonder what they would look like?"

* * *

She was after him like nopony else could be, taking off so fast that the cloud she'd rested on poofed into vapour again. He was pretty easy to see, white coat clear against the ground below, but not that easy to follow; she'd been right to call him fast.

Diving, down... down... and even further down! When was he going to pull up? The grass was nearing, details were getting clearer, Rainbow wondered whether this guy even wanted to pull up, but she wasn't going to back down from a challenge that easy.

Closer... closer... she began to wince as he hurtled towards what would have to become a pony-shaped crater in the next few seconds... and then bam! It actually sounded like a bang, his wings flicked and thrust and suddenly he wasn't there anymore! He'd pulled up, feet to spare and was now travelling just as fast in a beeline away from her. She pumped her wings hard to level back off and follow, the distance between them shortening, a little, because she could cut the corner.

Still, what a move! He'd gone from head-on-collision to parallel with the ground with practically nothing to spare! Working hard now, she closed the gap between them, drawing closer and closer. Heh, he's good, she thought, but I'm the fastest flyer in Equestria! Trees were coming up, the outskirts of Sweet Apple Acres orchards.

She wondered if he'd try and lose her in the trees, and, sure enough, with a quick roll to avoid an outlying tree he'd hurled himself into the orchard.

And now this was beginning to tick her off! He wasn't faster than her, that's for sure, but she'd never been good with close quarters. Even with her speed, she wasn't gaining. He seemed to be dodging the trees far quicker than she could, keeping his momentum where she had to slow and speed back up again when things got too close. It was just lucky for her that the orchard was so well kept, otherwise she'd really live up to her old nickname of Rainbow Crash...

There! The end of the trees! She knew he'd seen it, and as much as he tried he still wasn't getting away from her; just a matter of time until she caught him then.

Sweet freedom of open airways! She flexed her neck, loosening herself up after how tense she'd been on that high-speed slalom course of an orchard, before kicking back into full gear. The first houses of Ponyville were coming up, and they whipped over the thatched roofs fast enough to drag bits of straw up after them.

What a chase! She hadn't had this much fun in a race in... heck knows! She was close enough now to see the big copper eyes on his pet parasprite, clinging by its teeth to his mane and staring right back at her.

That's when it happened. That's when this guy finally did something utterly, completely insane. Running from her? Sure, that was weird. Pet parasprite? Not so bad, the things were cute, so long as they didn't breed. Insane quick reactions? So what, how else could a guy that size be fast. This? Now this was totally impossible.

He tucked his wings in, fell onto a collision course with a house, a single wing popped out and spun him around one-eighty degrees, and then... No. Lag. Time. That's what was wrong with this. He should have gone splat against that wall. People should have been reading about him in the paper tomorrow 'Pegasus wrecking ball fails to destroy house!' But no. A single thrust of both wings, and he was instantly heading the exact opposite direction.

She blinked, thinking she'd gone mad, but she'd seen it! That grin on his face, laughing just like he'd been back when he'd first appeared by her cloud. That stupid grin!

Banking upwards, bleeding momentum with gravity to ease her muscles, she screamed into a vertical u-turn. He wasn't going to lose her, not this easily. Again and again, as she turned, she saw that scene. That single, impossible move.

But sure enough, in the seconds it had taken her to make her turn... he was gone.

She swept back and forth over the houses, the one he'd been about to crash into in particular, but there were only three or four houses around. Passing over the last one, she did see a white earth pony with a brown mane walking along the road, which gave her a start, but no pegasus. A fat lot of plain nothing.

* * *

"Dear Princess Luna, I discovered the source of the disturbance you felt earlier today, however from my findings at the site I can only conclude that the incident is over, and whoever or whatever breached our reality has since departed. If you would like to view the site yourself, I have included a map detailing the exact position or I can take you there myself once you arrive. My notes on the disturbance itself are also attached. Signed, Twilight Sparkle."

She sighed and rolled it up, sealing it with a spell, and hoofing it to Spike. Now that she was home again she was torn between the disappointment at her findings and the surprise at actually finding anything at all. However, because of this it was hard to be excited for the trip tomorrow.

"The beach, huh?" She watched listlessly as Spike carefully burned the letter to send it on its way, "I've never been before, I wonder what it's really like to be there?"

"But you've seen lots of pictures, and read those books, right?" Spike said optimistically, "That should let you know what to expect. So you've got a heads-up over everypony else who hasn't been there already."

"I guess you're right. But... this one didn't have anything on the phenomenon I discovered today, what information might the other books have missed out?"

"Now you're just being silly, Twilight. Let's just go and have fun, okay?"

"You're right." Twilight cheered up at her assistant's prompting, "We're going to have fun, whether the book knows everything or not."

"Hurghk..." Spike agreed, going cross-eyed, and belched flame and smoke, a scroll forming from the particles.

"Humh, I guess Princess Luna wanted to be quick with her reply." Twilight mused, taking the scroll from Spike and unrolling it.

"Dear Twilight Sparkle," Reading letters out loud was a habit that came from wanting Spike to stay in the loop, "I fear that the results of your survey, as sure as you are of them, cannot be correct." Twilight frowned, "I would never question your thorough methods, but your notes describe the opposite of what you believe they do, whoever crossed realms actually entered ours fully instead of being forced back out. The disturbance is still present, a living being from another dimension is moving freely around Equestria in the vicinity of Ponyville. I sense it even now. Please, you must make haste and discover the source on my behalf as I am unable to travel myself due to my sister's absence. I sense that the incursion is not malevolent, but if left unchecked this new being could potentially cause distress to the citizens of Ponyville. Your townspony's safety is in your hooves."

Spike stared at her, "It's still here?"

"Princess Luna seems sure of it. I'll have to go out and search again then." She lifted her saddlebags onto her back, checking that the copy of 'Viewing the Edges of Beyond' was still inside, and started towards the door.

"I'll try to be back soon, Spike, it's going to be sunset in an hour or two, and there looks like a storm on the horizon, so I may be back earlier than that. Even so, keep some supper warm for me if I'm not here in time."

"Sure thing Twilight, I wish I could help." Spike looked a little crestfallen.

"Silly, you help me all the time. I shouldn't have to ask you for help with everything I do, after all, you do so much already." She smiled at him, and Spike couldn't help but feel better about things, he knew that Twilight needed him. With that, she stepped out into the afternoon sunshine.

* * *

"Why that no-good, slippery... If I ever get my hooves on him, he's gonna regret pullin' a fast one on me!" Rainbow Dash was still steamed. She couldn't figure out how anypony could pull a move like that, all her flying experience told her it was impossible!

A one-eighty degree direction change with no momentum lag just didn't... wasn't... how the hay did he do it?!

She sat on a roof-peak, liking the warm, solid feeling at this time of afternoon a little more than the cooler touch of clouds. She slouched sideways, a hoof to her cheek as she thought, over and over again, about that bizarre encounter. Seeing again in her mind that goofy, moronic, stupid half-grin on his face as he passed right underneath her hooftips, like he'd won some prize for pulling the dumbest stunt ever.

Just who was he? "Well if I don't know, then I know a pony who does." She grinned aggressively and took off for Sugarcube Corner.

On the horizon the cloud-bank of thunderous looking darkness mounted higher and higher.

* * *

There were so many places 'in the vicinity of Ponyville' she could think of that searching all of them would be impossible on her own. Not to mention one of those places was the Everfree Forest... She wouldn't be going there on her own again after the cockatrice incident.

As it was the afternoon now, Twilight thought, her friends should be able to help her out. "I just wish the Princess could be more specific about what I'm looking for..." She sighed, a little frustrated with the whole thing.

"Ooh, the Princess? Is it something I can help with?" Pinkie Pie bounced into step next to her. Why was she always there when you weren't expecting her?

"Actually, yes, if you've got time, Pinkie." Twilight stopped to talk, "Princess Luna asked me to find the source of a breach in our reality, somepony from another dimension is somewhere around Ponyville and I need help looking for them."

"Are they hiding? I bet they're hiding, we can play Hide and Seek! And then when we find them we can throw a party! Because they'll be new, and we won't have met them before, which means they won't have any friends here yet, and everybody needs friends, and the best way to make friends is a party! I'll get started right awa-hngk"

Twilight snagged the bouncy filly before she could make a dash for it, "How about we find them first, and then we start on the party preparations? We don't even know where they are yet."

"Sure we do, he's over at Applejack's right now!"

"He... what?"

"Pinkie!" With a tumbling crash, Rainbow Dash tackled Pinkie Pie to the ground, "There's a weird pegasus around here, white coat, brown mane, flying shield cutie mark, where is he?!"

"Pegasus?" Pinkie snorted, getting up "You're so silly Dashie, he's not a pegasus! He's an earth pony, and he's at Applejack's." She booped Dash's nose.

"What? No, he's a pegasus! Pulled a crazy stunt and I lost him! Nobody bucks out on me, I'm the fastest flyer in Equestria! That colt owes me big!" She realised she'd been shaking Pinkie, hard, and let go immediately, "Oops, sorry."

Pinkie Pie wobbled in place, letting out a low 'ooooo-oooohhhh' before conking herself on the head to straighten back up again.

"Uh... Pinkie? How do you know-" Twilight tried to get back on track.

"I saw him talking to Big Macintosh, that's why. He was hiding from Dashie in the apple orchard, and Big Macintosh snuck up on him, which was really cool by the way, I didn't think Big Mac could sneak like that! So now they're at the farm waiting for Applejack to get back."

"I'm on it!" Dash made to zoom off, top speed, but Twilight grabbed her tail with a little magic, much the same way that Applejack would latch onto it with her teeth.

"Wait!" Twilight strained, "Hold on a second!" Dash grounded herself, her tail leaving Twilight's grip with an audible snap. "Now, tell me what happened."

"Okay, okay, fine. There I was, enjoying a fantastic day for flying," Dash began.

* * *

Twilight and Pinkie Pie walked, or bounced, down the track to Sweet Apple Acres, Rainbow Dash zipped impatiently back and forth muttering to herself about retribution. Pinkie was filling the air with her thoughts on what would be good for the welcome party for this new pony, listing off hundreds of little considerations as if they were the most important things in the world. To Pinkie, they probably were.

To pass the walk a little quicker, and to practice her new skill, Twilight tuned her magical sight in to the required state to see the fabric of reality, as the book had taught her. Now that she saw it, there really were hundreds of these 'folds' in the air. They weren't long, more like pinches in a cloth than folds along the length of a piece of paper, and the book had said they were where other beings or other worlds had momentarily passed through Equestria and beyond again.

Like sheets of cloth, if you wanted to get from one place to the other the quickest way was to fold the cloth and bring those two points together. But if there were lots of sheets of cloth on top, you'd have to tunnel through them to get there. It would still be faster than the direct route, but it ran the risk of you not using enough energy and stopping somewhere in between those two points, in another reality.

That's where these disturbances crept in, if you only got part-way from point to point, you stopped, and the energy you'd used kept you suspended there until you went back.

It was strange though, now that she'd had time to re-read the information, the book said that when you left again, the disturbance bubble would collapse and the 'seam' would be left pretty much intact.

The bubble of disturbance from before, however, had looked... burst. And there was nothing in the book that described it.

She was missing something. What had Princess Luna said? That it was the opposite? That the disturbance hadn't actually forced the traveller out, but they'd actually fully transferred into-

"-light?" She looked around in time to see Dash drawing a deep breath before "TWIIILIIIIIGHT!!"

The lavender mare fell backwards, legs twitching at the volume. Pinkie giggled, "Hey! Your hair looks like mine!"

After the fourth, or fifth, time Rainbow Dash had caused her to have this kind of mane-frizz, Twilight had remembered to keep a brush in her saddlebags. She didn't always remember her saddlebags, of course, but as she had them this time, it was the work of a rather pouty moment to ignore Dash and brush her hair straight again.

She cleared her throat, composed herself, then glared at the rainbow terror, "What was that for?"

"You were freaking me out!" Dash protested, "I tried being polite, but no, you didn't answer. Your eyes were glowing, and you were smiling weird, I just wanted to know what the hay was going on!"

"Oh... I'm sorry Dash, I didn't realise." She grinned a little sheepishly and kicked the ground with a forehoof.

"So what were you doing?" Pinkie bounced in, "You were like-" her eyes went wide and she stared so hard that Twilight thought they'd pop out, "- and then you were like -" She whipped her head around like a bird, picking random spots to look at, "- and then you were like this!" Finally she fell over, twitching her legs in the air with a shocked expression.

Twilight levitated the book out of her bag, "I was practicing the instructions in this, if you're a unicorn you can use magic to see the places where reality is weaker."

"Rrriiight," Dash thought about it, "why?"

Twilight blinked, "I really didn't tell you?" Pinkie and Dash shook their heads, which made Twilight frown; she'd definitely told Pinkie.

"Okay, Princess Luna sent me a message, she said that somepony has breached the barrier between our reality and somewhere else, and they're now here in Ponyville, or nearby. We're looking for anypony that's strange or different to check whether it's them or whether it's something else that's done it."

"Oh this guy was strange alright, that move he pulled isn't possible!"

"So that's why we need to go find him." Twilight summed up, pointedly.

"Find who?" Applejack asked

"The guy that's crossed dimensions to get here." Twilight answered her, keeping her cool,

"Find me?" a white earth pony asked

"Yes, find you. Now if we're done asking questions, we need to find this guy."

She stopped. Hold on a second...
Well, let's get this thing over with started!

This little thing is being submitted over at FIMFiction too, [link] go there and give me hugs! Also, track the story there to get updates as and when, rather than wait for them here, it's faster :floating:

Chapter 1: Here, silly!
Chapter 2: [link]
Chapter 3: [link]
Chapter 4: [link]
Chapter 5: [link]
Chapter 6: [link]
Chapter 7: [link]
Chapter 8: [link]
Chapter 9: [link]
Chapter 10: [link]
Chapter 11: [link]
Chapter 12: [link]
Chapter 13: Coming soon...

MLP FIM is property of Hasbro, Nick/Wind Chaser is an OC insert by me, touch not my pony!
© 2012 - 2024 Thaylien
Comments16
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Wolfking164's avatar
Read this once more since I had nothing else to do during 3rd period since I had completed my project. Anyways, I seriously need to write much longer chapters.


Then again, short chapters combined with long ones can work well. Or not. :icondashshrugplz: