//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 // Story: The Trip of a Lifetime // by Royale With Cheese //------------------------------// Of course, like the past few days, the four ponies wake up not knowing what will happen in the universe they are in now. Spitfire sighs, "Universe number 639." "Don't you worry Miss Spitfire, I'll try to fix the universe generator soon, so we can at least choose the alternate universe instead of having it randomized, which personally I think is the stupidest thing in this police box." Doctor takes a breath, then continues, "It was one of the few things that came with the machine." "Please do," Spitfire said. "So what'll happen in this universe?" Derpy asked. "A universe where muffins don't exist?" Derpy fakes a scared look and giggles. "A universe where I'm faster and a better flyer than Spitfire?" Rainbow giggles, "I'm just joking." Spitfire walks up to her, "I take jokes like that pretty seriously, consider it a challenge!" "Spit, I said I was kidding," Dash conveyed. "Sounds like somepony is too scared to live upon her name, Rainbow Crash!" Spitfire mocked. "Challenge accepted!" Dash said while looking around. "How about right now, the first one to finish three laps around this town, wins. This police box will be our starting and finish line. Derpy and Doctor will be the lap counters." Derpy stands in between the two pegasi who are in a race stance. "Three!" "Two!" "One!" "Go!" The two pegasi take off in an instant. Derpy joins Doctor, who is on top of the police pox watching the race going on. The race was close, every time Dash inched towards the front of Spitfire, Spitfire would catch up, and the same thing happened to Spitfire, she would inch towards the front and Dash would catch up. The first lap came to a close after whipped by Doctor and Derpy. "Dash won!" Derpy said. "Nah, I think Spitfire won that round," Doctor replied. On to the second lap, the two pegasi are going way faster than they were on the first lap. Spitfire is focusing on the race then is interrupted by an orange flash slowly appearing in front of her. "D-Dash, w-what's going on?!" "Oh no, same thing is gonna happen to me too. We're about to do Sonic Rainbooms! It's going to be alright, just don't stop!" Dash explained. "But, it's gonna be twice as large since we're beside each other!" Spitfire said. Before Rainbow can respond, both ponies' rainbooms exploded at the same time, which looked like a rainbow that had set on fire in the sky. 'CRUNCH' Spitfires wings go and she starts plummeting towards the ground. "Daaaaaaaaash!" Spitfire screams. "Spitfire!" Dash then starts to fly down to try to catch Spitfire. Derpy and Doctor Hooves look on, unable to do anything. Rainbow is going the same speed as Spitfire, so it was going to be hard to catch her. Dash grunts, forcing herself to fly faster down to the ground as she gets closer to Spitfire, but is also going down to the ground itself. Dash then gets ahold of Spitfire, grabbing onto her abdomen with her forehooves, tries to pull up but then, they both crash into a huge pile of crates of fruit. They both blackout from their injuries. Dash slowly opens her eyes and realizes that she was in the hospital. She groans as she rubs her head with a big cast over it. She looks over to the bed beside her and in it was Spitfire who was sleeping and had the same injury. Derpy and Doctor then walk into the room. "Dash! You're awake!" Derpy says walking up to the side of the bed. "Y-yea, how long was I out for?" Dash asks. "For about a couple hours," Doctor explains, "No need to worry, it's still early in the day. All we need to do is wait for Spitfire to wake up." Just then, Nurse Redheart comes into the room. "Oh good, you're awake." "So, how are we?" Rainbow asks. "Well you, you'll be out of here in a few hours, but..." she looks up at the X-ray of Spitfire’s brain and sighs, "for your friend here..." "What? What about her?" Dash asks her. "She... she took the accident far worse than you did, we don't know how," Redheart continues in a serious tone, "But, she might've suffered some brain loss from the accident... it'll take her awhile for to do her everyday things. Talk, walk, fly, remembering things, and so forth. She's going to be in here for awhile. I'm very sorry," She slowly backs out. Rainbow starts to sob, then Doctor and Derpy hug her. "We'll do the best for her, all we have to do is teach her the things that she forgot," Doctor says. Dash wipes away the tears "Okay." "Doc and I are going out for lunch, are you hungry? We can bring you something," Derpy offers. "No," Dash answers. "We'll be back in awhile, and then we'll figure something out," Doctor says as he and Derpy walk out. Rainbow was reading some old Daring Do books and hears groans from the bed beside her. Spitfire was waking up. "S-spit?" Spitfire looks at her with a mix of emotionless and confusion. "P-please remember me..." "D-d-d-d.." "What is it Spit?" "D-d-a..." "Say it, Spit." -After a few minutes- "D-da-dash... Dash. Dash" "Th-that's right!" Dash said. "Dash. Dash." "Did you teach her that?" Nurse Redheart said as she just entered the room. "No, she stumbled on my name for a while and got it right by herself," Dash explains. "She probably remembered a small part of her memory that survived the accident," Redheart continues, "I just wanted to come here to let you go, but, if you want, you can stay here with your friend, and here's a few cups of Jello if you get hungry." "I would like to, and thanks," Dash said. "Dash. Dash. Dash!" "And the last part of my name is all she remembers so far" Dash explained to Doctor and Derpy. "That's a good thing to hear" Derpy said. "It is." Doctor leaned in, "We have to escape from here in a couple hours, we're gonna take Spitfire with us. We'll try our best to heal her brain." He looks around "When it's time to leave, I'll get the police box in front of the window there. We pick up Spitfire, and we escape from this universe, okay?" The two ponies nodded in unison. "Dash!" "Yes? Oh, yeah..." -A couple hours later- Derpy and Rainbow waited around Spitfires bed, the window was open. There's a nice and cool night breeze so the doctors let them leave it open. The police box appears in in front of the window but makes it appear so the doctors don't see it. Doctor Hooves walks into the hospital room. "Okay, the box is outside. Rainbow and Derpy, you pick Spitfire up, go out the window and into the police box, we need to do it as fast as we can," Doctor explains. "Actually, since you're an earth pony, you're stronger than the both of us, and plus, I'm a little injured here," Dash retorted. "Noted. Derpy, lift her off of the bed and put her into my back," Doctor said. Derpy did what Doctor told her what to do. With Spitfire on his back, Dash was already outside looking for any ponies who might spot them. "All clear, Doc!" Dash said. Doctor carried Spitfire to the window. "Dash. Dash?" Spitfire repeatedly said. "Security!" Nurse Redheart was at the entrance of the hospital room. "Thieves are stealing a patient!" Doctor carefully and quickly carried Spitfire out of the window. "Hey! Stop right there!" shouts one of the security guards. The four ponies quickly get in the police box, and Doctor quickly presses the green button. The machine does its whirring. Doctor lays Spitfire on the bed. "So, how are we going to get her back to her normal self?" Derpy asked. "Teach her how to walk, talk, start with the basics," Doctor sighs "We're not going to go on any adventures from now on, after what just happened." Derpy looked at Rainbow "We understand, Doc, we'll do our best to get Spitfire walking and talking," Derpy said and Rainbow nodded. Day by day, the three ponies taught Spitfire how to walk. Spitfire fell down after a few steps, but perfected it after a couple days. But, talking was a challenge. They got Spitfire saying a few other words, but she had decided to keep saying 'Dash' To make it quicker, every three hours, Doctor will press the green button, but every number wasn't even close to universe number one. Everyday was just a different universe. '904' '1961' '717' '86' And so on. Doctor sighs mournfully, "we'll never make it back." "Don't say that Doc, you know, you said you were going to try to fix it right?" Derpy asked "Couldn't see or find out on how to fix it, we're stuck in other universes," Doctor exclaimed. Derpy didn't say anything. Doctor went to the green button, and pressed it. "Wait, Doc. It's only been half an hour! Remember the 'don't press the button when under three hours' rule?" Dash asked "I just don't care anymore..." Doctor then started to repeatedly tap the green button, which made the whirring noise a little louder every time. "Stop!" Dash the tackles Doctor. The police box shakes and whirs. "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry," Doctor sobs. "It's okay, we'll get through this together. We don't want a broken time travel machine now, do we?" Dash exclaimed "No..." Doctor simply said. After a few minutes, the shaking and whirring noise stopped. Doctor walks up to see which universe they're in, he gasps. "What is it, Doc?" Derpy asked. There was no answer. "Which universe are we in?" Dash also asks. "Don't tell me we're in that universe where I'm a cold-blooded murderer." "It's not. This universe is my favorite, I've been here before, it's the best one you can ask for." Doctor smiles. Derpy and Dash walk up to see which universe they are in. The number panel just read a simple '1'.