In the land of Equestria, there lay a village called Ponyville. In the village, a small cottage was nestled next to the omnipresent Everfree forest. The yellow pony that lived in this cottage was sleeping the morning away. The sun hit this innocent creature in such a way that she appeared to have a saintly aura about her. As the birds outside chirped, Fluttershy slowly stirred, murmuring about how she wanted 5 more minutes of sleep. With a sense of reluctance, she pried her blanket away and rubbed her sleepy eyes. After carefully placing her hind hooves on the ground, she lowered herself until all four hooves met the ground.
Throughout the morning, Fluttershy took care of her usual morning routine which included eating breakfast and feeding her animals. After fulfilling her morning duties, she headed towards town to buy some more food for the animals. Yawning, she opened her cottage door cautiously. An abrupt gust of wind blew straight into her face and swept aside her mane. Fluttershy squeaked a little as she closed her eyes to protect herself from the incoming debris brought from the wind. As it died down, she opened one eye, and then the other to stare at the beautiful image of Ponyville before her. The usual dirt road snaked out to Ponyville, promising encounters with her friends along the way. She began trotting along, thinking about her animals until,
“Fluttershy, watch out!”
Seconds later, a cyan Pegasus with a rainbow mane crashed into Fluttershy. Rainbow Dash was always a daredevil, performing tricks that usually ended with her getting injured in some way. This time she tried her newest dangerous trick that involved flying haphazardly as usual, with disastrous results mostly for Fluttershy.
They skidded on the ground for at least twenty yards, with Fluttershy taking the brunt of the damage. The dirt road suddenly turned into her enemy as every rock seemed to embed themselves into Fluttershy’s body. Fluttershy gasped in shock as blood oozed down from the spots scraped by the rocks. After they finally skidded to a halt, the uninjured Rainbow quickly got up and brushed the dirt off of her coat.
“You know I’m glad you were here to act as my cushion, Flutters,” Rainbow said nonchalantly as she extended a hoof to help Fluttershy up.
The battered Pegasus accepted the hoof and shook to rid the debris off of her body. She let a gasp of pain as she raised herself up and cringed at the sight of blood matting her coat down.
“You okay?” Rainbow asked casually.
“Y-Yeah, I’m fine,” Fluttershy stuttered in her usual quiet fashion, trying to hide the wince in her voice.
After staring at the spots of blood, Rainbow must have considered the injuries minor in comparison to her usual injuries. “You should have seen my trick though,” the speedster exclaimed. “It was awesome! First I did three corkscrews through a few clouds. Then I made a torpedo that went parallel to the ground. I used that torpedo to propel me faster than I thought I could go. It was cooler than all my other tricks combined! Well, until I collided to you,” she added sheepishly.
“Yay!” Fluttershy cheered softly.
“Heh, thanks Flutters. You know I have to be as awesome as possible in order to have a shot at being a Wonderbolt ’m cooler than everypony else,” Rainbow stated.
“Well, I need to go to town now,” Fluttershy said, trotting again on the dirt path.
Rainbow galloped over to Fluttershy. “You know, I might as well go with you,” she said with a casual flick of her hoof. “I have nothing else better to do.”
The animal-loving Pegasus gazed at Rainbow for a second before looking about her at nature’s variety of wonders. As she continued walking, her gaze followed the glistening water that was in the stream, the various birds that laid their nests in the lush trees, the flowers blossoming, and at the woodland creatures that went about their daily lives. Scenes like these made her just want to continue staring at all of the natural wonders the world had to offer. Even though she had already seen all of this, it never got old.
Rainbow, on the other hand, never got the point of living with nature. Sure it was pretty and all, but she would much rather have more dynamic elements. Her entire goal was to make things cooler and more awesome. The impatient Pegasus never got why Fluttershy would waste her time living with animals. Yawning a little, she gazed around, hardly aware of anything around her. After gazing around, her face lit up when she saw the giant tree in the middle of Ponyville.
“You know, let’s go meet that egghead Twilight. I wonder what she’s been up to.” Rainbow declared.
“O-okay, I guess,” Fluttershy agreed.
Fluttershy didn’t mind taking a detour from buying the groceries for her animals. She always enjoyed talking to her friends. Her animals could wait; they were too dependent on their caretaker anyways.
As the dirt path slowly became a concrete one, the buildings of Ponyville emerged on either side of them. Here, they saw a village with ponies going about their lives. Mr. and Mrs. Cake were visible in Sugarcube Corner, selling more of their delicious treats; Lyra and Bon Bon were sitting on a bench, as always; and the Cutie Mark Crusaders were busy destroying the town trying to gain their cutie marks.
The two ponies took their usual route they always took to Twilight’s magical tree house. As they strode over to the door, Rainbow raised her hoof to knock . Suddenly, the door swung inward. Rainbow and Fluttershy gazed at the purple unicorn who rushed out and nearly bumped into them, before looking up and stopping abruptly.
“Fluttershy, Rainbow, glad to see you guys. I have an experiment to run,” Twilight said urgently.
“So important that you had to leave your books for two seconds?” Rainbow smirked.
Twilight looked at Rainbow with a strong glare until Fluttershy mumbled, “Uh, you were saying.”
“Oh yes,” Twilight said, looking at Fluttershy before clearing her throat, “I was just looking at this spell that was meant for professionally trained unicorns. It allows you to transform somepony into something else. It’s called transfiguration. You already saw that I tried it on the mice at the gala.” Fluttershy winced at the memory. “I found this could also be performed on ponies as well. I’m going to see if I can turn you guys into rabbits. If I can perform this feat, then Princess Celestia will be impressed by how far I’m taking my studies. This can also go into my friendship report for the week. Just imagine how delighted Princess Celestia would be!” Twilight grinned as she rubbed her hooves together in giddy excitement.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa! You’re saying you want us to be your guinea pigs just so Princess Celestia will be proud of you?” Rainbow asked, flabbergasted.
“Why yes, it will be like killing two birds with one stone –“
At this Fluttershy emitted a whimper.
“– Princess Celestia gets impressed and I can find out something to write in my friendship report.” Twilight explained.
“Yeah, except I’m not willing to do this,” Rainbow complained.
The whole situation seemed a little familiar to Rainbow. Twilight wants to get ahead somehow and is willing to do risky things in order to achieve it. It reminded her of how Twilight acted when she was frantically trying to find some new lesson she could write about to Princess Celestia: insane and very un-Twilight like.
“Come on, please? I’ll be so happy if you do so.” Twilight beseeched.
“Fine,” the cyan Pegasus complied. She was, after all, the element of loyalty.
“Um, I actually don’t want to do this … that is, you can do it if you really want to,” Fluttershy tried to explain, “though I m-might not like it,” she added in a voice nopony could hear.
Unlike the daring Pegasus, she wasn’t so sure if risking her life just for Twilight’s experiment was worth it. While she did trust Twilight, something about this seemed a little off.
“Come on Fluttershy, nothing can go wrong. It’ll be over before you know it.” The overconfident unicorn stated, winking.
Fluttershy looked to Rainbow for encouragement. The loyal Pegasus shrugged first with a hopeless glance to Twilight, while nodding her head. “O-okay, I guess.” Fluttershy reluctantly agreed.
Twilight herded the two Pegasi to a spot outside of her tree house. After words of instruction, the two Pegasi trotted to a spot perfect for magic experiments. The two waited nervously, side by side, observing the crumbling bark of the side of the tree, as Twilight went back into the house. The concentrated unicorn paced around the room, scanning across the rows of books. After perusing a few rows, her gaze finally focused on an old dusty book that was covered in cobwebs and dust. She took it out using her magic and blew away the dust. The book’s cover displayed a circle of strange symbols that had an ominous aura about them. Inscribed in the center of the circle was the title displayed in runes unknown to most ponies in Equestria. Forgetting to mention that pony transfiguration malpractice was illegal in Equestria for numerous accidental permanent transformations, Twilight used her magic to flip to a certain page. Satisfied that she found it, she trotted back outside.
The two Pegasi looked nervously at the book that Twilight levitated. They continued memorizing the pattern of the tree as Twilight muttered to herself as she examined the book closely. They could tell that this might be one of those books that was kept locked away in some restricted area of the library. Then, Twilight looked up at Fluttershy and Rainbow.
“Is everypony ready?” Twilight inquired.
“Wait, you mean that you’re going to try out that spell on both of us? At the same time?” Rainbow asked, her voice cracking.
“Well of course,” Twilight answered confidently, “I’ve already tested this on rats. The experiment worked perfectly, and I managed to transform five rats into five horses at the same time. Remember? Trust me, ponies aren’t that different. Everything will be fine.” Twilight gave a wide grin at the two, like one that a mad scientist gives to its assistant.
Fluttershy and Rainbow gave a quick, worried glance at each other. They’ve heard those words many times, and they didn’t always result in a happy ending. Nevertheless, they still had faith that Twilight wouldn’t screw something up.
“Is everypony ready?” Twilight repeated.
“Ready as I’ll never be,” Rainbow spoke solemnly.
Fluttershy gave a sharp glance to Rainbow before mumbling her affirmative.
Twilight glanced back at her book. Then, she strode over until she was directly in front of both Pegasi. Standing with a firm posture, she started concentrating heavily on the spell. Her horn glowed with a purple aura as sparks started emitting from it. Screwing her eyes shut, the trained unicorn tensed as the magic coursed through her body. As more and more magic flowed through, the horn glowed with a stronger purple aura and more sparks darted off. Twilight concentrated all her magic into her horn. Seconds went by that felt like years, as Fluttershy and Rainbow closed their eyes, as anxiety ran through their body and beads of sweat formulated on their foreheads. Finally, Twilight’s horn shot forth a magnificent purple beam that headed directly toward Fluttershy and Rainbow. The beam reached a few inches before the two before spreading out into a purple aura, enveloping them.
Rainbow and Fluttershy braced themselves. As the purple sheen enveloped them, they started wondering how transforming into a rabbit would feel like. After a few seconds though, their molecules started rearranging. During this time, it was like they weren’t alive, as they couldn’t feel a thing as their molecules were reassembling. There wasn’t even darkness, just nothing could be felt while the process took place.
Finally, the whole process was over. Rainbow swiftly opened her shut eyelids. When looking at the scene before her, she stumbled before regaining her composure. She didn’t see the familiar sight of Twilight looking at them and the tree house right next to them. She didn’t see the familiar concrete road and the thatch roofed houses that dotted Ponyville. She couldn’t see Cloudsdale, Canterlot, Sweet Apple Acres, or anything that reminded her of home. Instead, what greeted the rainbow-maned Pegasus was sand and, further away, trees. She was standing on a beach. Next to the beach was a huge expansive sea, the likes of which she had never seen. This was an overwhelming volume of water that made booming sounds as the waves pounded on the sand before receding it back into the intense dark-blue water. The sea glistened white at the peak of its waves. It lapped at her feet, trying to suck her in with the tide. It seemed wild, like the most nefarious creature she ever saw, compared to the calm waters that graced Equestria. Past the barbaric waves lay a calm, serene body of water. It a sharp contrast between the two areas. The waves seemed to roll out of the undisturbed water as an attack on the beach. Taking her mind off the sea, Rainbow focused on her other surroundings. Directly in front of her lay trees. Not unfriendly trees like the Everfree forest contained, but a variety of trees that looked inviting to her. Among the trees lay an imposing mountain that was white-peaked. It stood in the center of the island. What confused her even more where the few clouds that seemed to be put there without the help of the weather ponies. Taking all of this in, her mind went into overdrive, taking in every bit of information, though not quite understanding what it all meant. She had a million questions that invaded her mind at the same time.
Rainbow glanced down at her lifted hoof. She saw her normal cyan hoof she always had. ‘So Twilight actually did mess up!’ Rainbow thought, ‘That’s the last time I’m trusting her.’ Using the amount of logic she had developed from Twilight’s blunderings, she deduced that Twilight had teleported them somewhere, instead of turning them into bunnies. But, Rainbow has never seen the sight that lay before her eyes. She was always told to stay in Equestria, for there were creatures that could eat ponies in one gulp that lay out of their safe haven. There was never any discussion about what was outside, for no one was foolish enough to set foot off of their land. She couldn’t imagine that this would be the world outside of Equestria.
Processing this information, Rainbow turned her head to look next to her at her companion. The petite, yellow pony lifted her head and opened her eyes. Rainbow saw that a similar bewildered look was prominent on her face. The confused Pegasus looked around herself in confusion that showed that she was thinking the same thoughts Rainbow had had when she first saw the sight. After spending about a minute looking about her, Fluttershy asked the obvious question.
“Where are we?”