It had been a full five minutes. Five minutes of pure screaming. Five minutes of what he guessed was terror? Really Greg wasn’t fully sure what to think as he watched the pony in front of him. Obviously Rainbow Dash didn’t have anything like him in her world, least he didn’t think so. Her face was rather red and her voice was slowly going hoarse. Ha he made a joke. He gave a bit of a chuckle making her eyebrow raise slightly the screaming dieing off slowly. Finally she quieted down and sat there across from him. Staring quietly at the talking door with a face.
“So….erm…hello again?” Greg sheepishly replied to her as she shifted the door and frame uncomfortably.
“H-hi.” Rainbow finally replied calmly to him making the door beam.
“Oh thank goodness you can talk! For a moment I thought I would have to call Chesh on in. But no you can talk!” He was obviously happy though Rainbow was more confused.
“I- wait Chesh?” Her look told him she was thirsty and also confused as he shifted and wiggled his doorknob causing it to sparkle lightly. A cup of water appeared on the table as he chuckled.
“You look thirsty after all the screaming.” He mentioned as he glanced her over curious of their guest. Rainbow shifted lightly on her haunches and stared at the cup. Was it poison? Was it some kind of evil potion? Was it door magic?! Ah who cares its water. She dashed to the table and snatched up the cup in her mouth as she drank the water down in big gulps. Greg raised one of his rather silly looking eyebrows as he chuckled only to watch her nimbly put the cup down.
“Right who is Chesh, where am I, and how come you can talk?” Rainbow immediately spurted out as she trotted over and sat in front of Greg.
“Ah questions, haven’t heard those in a while.” He was very happy as he wiggled his frame and the door.
“I am Greg the Oak Wood. Used to be a tree but they needed a door to Wonderland. Not many trees spoke up seeing as we would become a door but I spoke up happily to be given the honor.” He gave a nod as she looked more perplexed.
“Wonderland is the center of the dream realm. We are where all good dreams come from, where they go when no one dreams of them. We are hope, we ar-” He noted her look as he shifted.
“Sorry. We are a world of imagination to put it bluntly.” He motioned his eyes to a nearby map that somehow appeared from nowhere. Rainbow inched over and began to examine it. Dominating the center was a castle surrounded by a hedge maze and around that was a whole city. Then further out were villages, and even more cities! Why Wonderland must have been bigger then Equestria!
“So, how did I get here er, Greg?” Rainbow asked looking to him.
“Well normally someone has to become fully aware they are in a dream. But that does not happen often. Another way is to catch Alex running around in his petty coat, but Chesh made him stop doing that a long time ago. A third way is to be aware of Wonderland and be thinking about something that would make you want to come here as you go to sleep.” Greg shifted himself to regard Rainbow.
“Do any of that?”
“Well yeah… I wanted to come to a world where me and my friends could get away from chores and stuff. I mean it was JUST so dull despite what a great day it wa-” She gasped.
“Ohmigosh! My friends! They are going to be worried about me! I’m not in the tree!” Greg just gave a whole hearted laugh.
“No no! You are in the tree! Your just asleep, miss Dash.” He shifted and raised the doorknob making the keyhole expand.
“See?” Rainbow carefully moved over to him and looked through his keyhole. Sure enough there she was! Asleep on the tree branch she had perched herself on, though she didn’t remember a blanket on her.
“Oh wow…this is-” She stepped back and looked around.
“This is pretty small for such a big world Greg.” She mentioned looking at the four walls. Greg just laughed again.
“This is the waiting room! Wonderland is just beyond me! And I also am the way home when someone wishes to go. But the problem is I am locked, and you need a key.”
“So give me the key.” Rainbow growled out making Greg stop smiling.
“Well I am sorry my dear but…we weren’t expecting you yet. I mean…we got word from a friend that we would be having a few more guest to Wonderland all at once. But it’s just you right now. So I do apologize but you can't go through.” He gave a firm nod only to find a hoof on either side of his face as he gasped.
“I want to get out of here! So let me out now before I clean your clock!” She all but snarled at him as he whimpered.
“I am sorry! But you can’t! Trust me you won’t like what is on the other side right now!” He all but pleaded as she turned and reared herself up aiming for him. Greg immediately unlocked and swung open outward as she bucked. She suddenly noted something. She was falling away from Greg.
“I warned you!” Greg shouted as he shut and watched her, now very upset as he bit his wooden lip. She was early. Luckily she was falling to HIS location so hopefully this could be resolved with little problem. Quickly he floated away through the sky to get back to the actual wall he was supposed to be on. Rainbow Dash had a bigger problem as she screamed falling from the sky. She remembered about a second later she had wings and quickly twisted pointing down as she thrust them open. She learned quickly Wonderland wind was just a bit different from normal wind doing little more than slowing her decent enough to only crash through the canopy of trees below her. She felt every branch she struck and tucked herself until she landed hard on a tree branch on her back. She lay there quietly groaning in a bit of pain as she shifted up and rubbed her head with a hoof.
“Owww…that hurt.” She muttered softly rolling lightly to her side on the branch. She grunted lightly and flicked her wings checking herself over. Nothing broken, sprained or otherwise in worse shape than her pride.
“I bet it did.” Came a soft voice from in front of her. Rainbow let her eyes open slowly and turned to look to who she shared the branch with. What she found was something…different. Laying on his back facing her was…well she didn’t know! He had four limbs, long silver hair, a pair of worn blue jeans with a belt, wore a blue and black robe that had rather large sleeves and was split in the middle; and even had a staff behind him floating languidly. His fur was stripped pink and purple, had a pair of cat ears on his head; the left with three small gold bands, and to top it all off wore an oddly shaped necklace and rings on his fingers. Finally though she watched him open an eye lazily. It was like…stained glass. Like someone had broken a stained glass rainbow and crammed it into his cat eye. It was so beautiful…
“You know your early right?” He asked in a gentle tone as he yawned and stretched lightly. Rainbow was just quiet as she nodded her head, attempting her best not to scream.
“So. Why are you here?” He asked again as he scratched behind his head and leaned forward.
“I…I…” She was at a loss for words as both of his eyes fell on her. He gave a slight look shifting lightly as he scratched his chest.
“Yeah, alright we can do it this way.” He gave a nod then reached forward as he lightly pressed two fingers to her head. A soft glow came from where he touched, and she felt warm as she shivered and closed her eyes. Opening them again he was on the verge of laughing.
“You…tried to buck…Greg?” He burst into a fit of loud laughter as he fell from the tree, but floated through the air rolling around. “You tried to buck Greg!!” He repeated as a few other tree’s chuckled below them. Rainbow didn’t know what was so funny as she watched the odd creature.
“Hey! He wouldn’t open up for me! I told him to open or else!” She gave a snort and righted herself standing tall and proud. He just gave a grin, like a crescent moon.
“Oh pardon me Rainbow Dash. It’s just no one has ever in all the time he has been the door, actually try to hurt him just to get by. I mean he DID warn you that you didn’t want to go through…” He was chuckling again as she blushed.
“Shut up! I didn’t know the air here was different or else I would’ve just flown.” She was as red as her one stripe on her flank.
“Ah yes, I am sorry about that. Like you were told. You’re early. In fact you’re so early you don’t even have your friends, and we aren’t even ready.” He waved a hand.
“Wait do you mean me and all my friends?” She asked quizzically.
“Well yes. You see a friend of mine mentioned that we would be having at least six guest to Wonderland soon. Course I didn’t think anything of it. But then Greg immediately let me know when you arrived in our waiting room. Of course I had no idea it was a pony from Equestria! Oh Jericho would be on his side if he knew about this.” He gave a happy laugh to the idea.
“Jericho? Who the hay is he?”
“Oh he is of no concern right now. What is a much large concern is that you need to go home! Wonderland would blow your mind if you saw it right now!” He gave a wave to her to get off the tree as he floated down and landed on the dirt road below. She quietly would follow jumping down gently as she looked at him.
“What? But I am the definition of awesome! There is nothing as awesome as me!” She declared as Cheshire smiled.
“Oh I know. But, oh I don’t have time to explain. BLUE!” He turned and shouted into the forest canopy as one of the trees gasped.
“Hey! Watch that Chesh! Some of us are trying to nap!” A nearby tree grumbled as others joined the grumbling at being woken.
“Sorry guy’s, where is Blue? I need to get Greg and have someone give an explanation to our guest.” He gave a wave to Rainbow who was too busy staring at all the talking tree’s.
“Oh sweet Celestia…” She said aloud as a few trees gave smirks and shrugged. They haven’t seen a guest in a while so the attention was nice.
“Chesh I told you a thousand times if you need me just touch the ring I got…oh…” From the forest came another fellow much like the first. At least in how he looked sorta. He was about as tall as him at about 5 feet, but other than that he wore his own pair of black jeans with chains, with a matching pair of studded wrist bands. His hair was dark blue and tied by a purple ribbon while he had dark blue fur with black stripes. Like a tiger. He also sported cat ears, one with a bite and the other with a hoop earring. He also wore a ring in the shape of a cat and flicked a rather elegant tail behind him.
“I see, so I get to be around for a guest this time?” The new figure asked as the first nodded.
“Rainbow Dash, I wish you to meet my lover Bluemoon Cat.” Blue just rolled his eyes and strode over as he sat next to the pony.
“Er…Hi…” Now she knew how Fluttershy felt around new people. But oh my gosh he looked awesome up close! He even had fangs!
“Yes. Hello miss Dash. Chesh why am I here?” Immediately Dash finally noted the name and looked to him.
“Wait a minute, your Chesh? The guy Greg was talking about?” Sheepishly the pink and purple figure shrugged then turned and threw open his robes with staff in hand.
“I am the great and powerful master of space! Chesh D. Cat! Bow and tremble before m-”
“Otherwise known as that flirtatious bastard, who has more wind in him then the Queen.” Blue muttered as Rainbow gave a chuckle watching Chesh deflate and lean on his staff.
“Hey that was uncalled for, I only flirted that one time with a naga.”
“And then the demon bat, and then the water sprite, and THEN with the mailman.” Blue glared at Chesh as the cat man shrugged.
“I can't help it if I am gorgeous.” He said striking a pose.
“You remind me a lot of Rarity. But with cat ears.” Rainbow mentioned as Chesh gave a playful look at her.
“Blue I need to get Greg back here. She isn’t supposed to be here yet, and needs to go home so we can get ready. But she wants to know why she can’t stay right now. So explain it to her.” He said waving a hand at his lover who gave a moan.
“Oh you suck.” He hissed out as Chesh purred.
“Oh yeah I do don’t I?” He quickly ducked as a rock just about clocked him. Rainbow was laughing madly as she pointed at Chesh.
“Hey! I thought we talked about throwing rocks!” Chesh mewed out as Blue pulled another and chucked it at him making Chesh duck again. The tiger was growling as he reached to pull a tree from the ground.
“No no no! Blue we can talk about this later over angry sex just please explain why she can’t stay right now.” He gave his sweetest smile as Rainbow blushed once more. Blue just sighed and relented as he sat by the pony and watched as Chesh set to work to summon Greg.
“Right…Rainbow Dash correct? What do you want to know specifically?” Blue asked rather upset while Rainbow shifted uncomfortably.
“Well. If this place would blow my mind why can I not stay and look around?”
“Simple I guess. Think of it like this, we want our world to be made JUST for our guest when they come to visit. But just as silly as usual. Really this just means we turn ourselves into the majority of what our guest is and make them comfy. This also requires changing air currents, the feeling of the air. Well a lot really. We never thought our next guest would be pony. We only have a few and it’s sorta hard to change the whole world in about five minutes.” Blue was laying on his side as he drew in the dirt. Rainbow could feel her brain about to explode as she held her head.
“Wait, so I can’t just because you want to turn everyone here into mares and colts and what not?” She looked at the tiger.
“That is about the gist of it. We really don’t want to scare our guest too much. We want them to enjoy their stay for at least a few days.” Rainbow looked shocked as he rolled his eyes.
“Time moves rather differently here too. So don’t think if your gone for like four days you’ll be gone for years. If you care to believe it I happen to be three thousand years old.” He said with a smirk.
“Three thousand?!” Rainbow jumped onto her hooves. Was that older then the princesses?!
“Well yes…And Chesh is…well I don’t really know how old he is. He refuses to tell me.” Blue pouted as he gave a shift and flicked his tail in annoyance.
“Still won’t tell ya Blue hun.” Chesh mused out as he continued drawing in the dirt.
“Anyway. Miss Dash. We do want you to come back and visit. But we would like it more if you would come back when we are ready.” He said as Rainbow just nodded slowly. I suppose that would be alright she thought. I mean after all, she did want to feel a bit more comfortable than being scared of things like, well. Chesh.
“And with your friends!” Chesh beamed as he tapped the ground with his staff. The ground shook lightly where he drew, as Greg seemed to rise from it spitting dirt.
“Confound it Chesh! I told you to use another tree! Not the freaking road!” Greg spat out more dirt as Rainbow ran over and glared down at the door who immediately bit his tongue. “Oh sweet Queen of Hearts in a teacup doing a jig! Don’t let her hurt me!”
“I’m gonna clean your clocks so bad they are gonna use you as toothpicks!” Rainbow shouted as she reared up to smack him with her hooves only to be stopped by a staff under her front legs.
“Now now. He was only doing his job. Plus you did try to buck him in the face first.” Carefully he moved Rainbow away from Greg and set her down as he set his staff standing next to him.
“Now for your amulet!” His hands came together disappearing into his sleeves as he began to rummage around.
“Amulet?” Rainbow inquired as she looked to Blue.
“The Amulet of Wonderland. He mentioned we normally don’t give it out except in special cases. Mostly in being that you came in when we weren’t ready. The amulet is like a ticket I guess. It allows you to come back in and even leave.” Blue was now standing again as he walked over next to Rainbow. She just stared at him then watched Chesh pull out all manner of items from his sleeves. A rubber chicken, a rubber cake, an axe, a shield, a cow; how did he even get that in there? She titled her head to the cow who only raised a hoof in hello and sauntered off as Rainbow waved back.
“Aha! Here we are!” Chesh was beaming as he held out an amulet. It was circular with a map on it, and on the back was a grinning crescent moon with eyes above it.
“So, what do I do with it? I mean, I don’t think I can take it outs-”
“Of course you can!” Chesh interrupted as he slipped the amulet onto Rainbow. She admired it for a moment then looked to Chesh for an explanation as he sighed, turning to unlock Greg.
“All you have to do is say the incantation on the back when we are ready in a day or two. It is also good as a guest pass for about ten others but I think you will only need five.” He said with a chuckle as Greg felt the skeleton key turn and opened up to become a hole with lanterns along the walls.
“Right. Gotcha.” She suddenly couldn’t wait for that long. She wanted to explore now! Her head turned as she looked around. The sky was light blue, with white clouds but they were moving on their own. The grass nearby looked so comfy, and the trees were all sleeping again though a few watched the proceedings.
“That is still creepy.” She mentioned pointing to the trees as one gasped and shrugged himself to the left.
“Yes well. Remember. In a day or two, we should be able to meet up with you when you come back and give you a tour of Wonderland.” He shifted and motioned her to the open door. She gave one last look then nodded as she walked over and peered down the hole.
“So, do I just jump and wake up o-” She felt the ground give way slightly and tried to jump back but instead fell right on in. The other three watched her quietly as she fell before Greg shut and called out.
“Best watch that step dear! It’s always that first step!” He was giving a happy chortle as Rainbow screamed all the way till she fell from the apple branch and smacked into Ponyville earth. She didn’t feel like moving just yet. She wanted to make sure she wasn’t going crazy as she slowly lifted her head. There dangling around her neck was an amulet, with a map on it. She slumped back to the earth and sighed. How was she supposed to get her friends to believe her?