Twilight woke to the sound of a world being built.
Her eyes opened to witness a spectacle like none described in the books she’d read or the stories she’d been told. A world of pure white stretching infinitely in all directions, save for in front of her. Ahead, the sound of life sprang forth, and birds of all species she could name flied about, cawing and chirping. The white ground sunk down to form great canyons, valleys and gorges; the ground shot up to form a volcano, rolling hills and jungle trees. It all sounded like a fast wind blowing past Twilight’s ears, mixed with the muted sounds of the animals which had been loud before, but were now hidden by the jungle before her. And soon, the white ground she stood upon changed to grey, cutting into even bricks; the ground surrounding her morphed into a hallway, torches springing out from the corridor and crackling to life. The white sky, quickly changing to a pure blue, was covered by the white, then grey substance.
Twilight’s eyes shifted to the ground under her hooves as it turned to stone. Moss grew over the cobble, and more small details came into focus- spiders on cobwebs in the corners and a scuttling insect across the floor. The experience left the unicorn slack-jawed, wondering if that was how Equestria was made…
Rainbow, of course, was having none of that, passed out on the floor; even that was still changing minutely under her. The stones beneath her gained a few cracks and specks of dirt as she walked to the sleeping speedster. She shook the mare’s shoulder, hoping to wake her before the changes stopped.
She couldn’t help but look at the expansive hallway around them- it seemed to stretch out infinitely in one direction, while the other side had an intersection. That side, coincidentally, had been where she could view the valleys and jungle. That would probably be the smarter choice, if Rainbow would go to the trouble of waking up already.
“Rainbow!” she finally called out, her silent attempts having failed.
How heavy a sleeper is she?
“Huh? What? Twilight? Where are we?” she mumbled, rubbing her eyes with a cyan hoof. “Are we underground?”
“I don’t know, Rainbow, but I don’t think we’re in Ponyville anymore,” she said, indicating the stone walls with an impatient hoof. “You know, this place almost seems like something out of a-“
“-Daring-Do novel! I knew this reminded me of something!” Rainbow exclaimed, sitting up. Funny, now she was awake and alert; at the mention of Daring-Do, she would always snap-to. Twilight joked that she had a crush on the pony in the book, but honestly Twilight thought she might’ve been on to something.
“Well, why would Discord make a world like Daring-Do’s? That’s practically your biggest dream, besides the Wonderbolts!” reminded Twilight, looking up as if talking to Discord. What was he planning?
“Well, the books are always filled with danger, right? So, maybe he wants us to get smooshed by that gigantic boulder coming at us!”
“That makes sense- wait what?!”
Rainbow was telling the truth- a boulder was careening towards the pair, bouncing back and forth from each side of the hallway, though never stopping on its way to the two vulnerable ponies. Twilight grabbed Rainbow with a hoof, pulling her to a standing position. Rainbow revved up her wings with a confident smirk, motioning for Twilight to grab on. Of course, she wasn’t sure exactly where she would grab onto Rainbow, but the boulder rolling towards them gave her less time to think than she’d like. So, she reached her hoofs around Rainbow’s barrel, hoping it would be enough to not be thrown around by her speed. Rainbow looked forwards, determination in her eyes.
And they were off.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
How did these things always happen to them?
Here she was, in some sort of fantasy world, a giant boulder chasing after them, her friend clinging to her back, and she hadn’t been awake for more than two minutes!
And she loved it.
She would bet a hundred bits no other pony got to feel this rush out of the blue, got to feel somepony depending on you just to stay alive- she wouldn’t live her life any other way. It was her element, after all. And, well, maybe she liked the rush too. Her whole life she had spent going faster and faster, reaching the next high- and realizing, when it was gone, she would have to do something even more extreme to get her hit.
But when she met these new friends, their practically daily adventures culled the need for her more insane stunts. You couldn’t get more adrenaline than running from a bunch of teenaged dragons, kicking a full grown one in the head, or saving a pony from falling off a cliff- no trick could match that, or none she would try.
Of course, the mare clinging to her shoulders wasn’t the only one depending on somepony else. The dependence was mutual.
“Twilight, left or right?”
She was fast approaching the intersection, and she still didn’t know which way to turn. She looked at the pony grasping her, making it more difficult to fly straight. She wasn’t exactly pulling her weight, was she? The slight irritation lessened the grin she had sported from the surge of energy, and the mare’s response wasn’t exactly speedy.
“Umm… right! Go right!”
Ah, there it was. A guiding hoof and then- all of her speed could be focused on whatever target the unicorn chose. She sped past the corner, breezing past the obstacle with ease. She was feeling good, there- she closed her eyes to let it all sink in.
And so it was Twilight that had to point out the dead end in front of her.
“Rainbow, stop!”
And she stopped. Why wouldn’t she?
She opened her eyes and saw the dead end, taunting her with its… deadness? She wasn’t one for poetry, even if she was reading more. She turned in the air, prepping to go through the left passage. But then that boulder, that stupid boulder, rolled right into their little passage. Just like in the book.
Well, if the boulder followed them like in the book, then why shouldn’t the rest of the world be like the book then?
Rainbow dropped to the cold floor, shaking off Twilight. She looked up at Rainbow, confused and angry.
“Rainbow, what are you doing?”
“I got this Twilight! Trust me!”
"The boulder!”
“Got it!”
“Ahhhhhh!”
A moment of silence. Both mares opened their eyes to see a large hole in the floor and no boulder in sight. Inwardly, Rainbow cheered- she hadn’t known whether she’d be right or not, but it had all paid off. On the outside, of course, she just looked cool, crossing her forehooves, keeping her balance with outstretched wings.
“What did you do, Rainbow? How’d you make that hole in the floor?”
“Easy! I just pushed the right brick in the wall.”
"How did you possibly know which one to push? There must be hundreds of bricks on these walls!”
“Well, Twilight, I’m kinda surprised you didn’t figure it out before I did: we’re in a book!”
And then Twilight gave her the weirdest look, a cross between confusion and disbelief. It was like her face didn’t know what to do with itself, so it just scrunched itself up and squinted its eyes.
“You do realize what you just said, right?”
“Yep!”
“Do you have any proof?”
“Well, if I’m right we’re in the second Daring-Do book! And in that one, Daring-Do is chased by a boulder to a dead end hallway, but she hits a brick and the floor opens up! Doesn’t that sound familiar, Twilight?”
Twilight looked at the hole, the pushed-in brick, and Rainbow; there was still apprehension, but with the application of some evidence, she was more easily swayed.
“Well, if that was true, it’s a good thing you remembered so much about the book!”
“Yep!” she agreed, leaning back against the mossy wall. There was an ominous click of a brick being pushed into space.
Suddenly, the floor beneath the two mares fell out.
Their screams echoed up the cold tunnels, stopping with the sound of the floor clicking back into place.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Why did it have to be snakes?
That was the only thought that coursed through Twilight’s mind as she opened her eyes. All around her, covering the steps she lay on, were wriggling, writhing snakes, and they were going to eat her!
She didn’t move- maybe they only saw you if you moved? It seemed to be working anyways, as no snakes were on her. Maybe if she used some sort of blasting spell to knock away the snakes, she could get out, no harm done!
Of course, that just had to be when Rainbow woke up.
“Twili-augh! What the heck?!” she screamed, scrambling up the steps, slipping on the various vermin lounging on the platforms. Her eyes were wide with fright for a second, the second she forgot she could fly- then she was soaring above the serpents, taunting them with a raspberry.
“Dumb snakes! Ha!”
“Rainbow!” hissed Twilight, from her position in the sea of writhing reptiles. Rainbow turned and seemed surprised, like she had forgotten Twilight was there in the wake of her victory over the snakes. She got back fast, though, diving for the bit of purple in a sea of scaly green. Rainbow grabbed her extended hoof, using all her might to pull the mare out from under the seething things. Twilight was finally lifted from the floor, shaking off a snake still clinging to her hoof.
“Thanks, Rainbow,” she said, looking the pegasus in the face.
The pegasus turned away, surveying the surroundings.
“Don’t thank me yet, Twilight. The only light is around this pyramid-thingie, and it’s basically just snakes. I mean, where do we go?” she grunted, probably straining from holding her again after such a short time.
“Well, I may not be able to hold myself up, but I can do light!” she proclaimed, charging up her horn. It glowed brightly and shot out a pulsating purple orb that radiated violet light. The snakes recoiled from the beacon and slid off the pyramid.
“Alright Rainbow, set us down!” she commanded.
Rainbow obliged, lowering her to the top of the stone edifice. Twilight summoned her orb, bringing its shine to the top of the structure. Her eyes bulged as she figured out what the structure was made of:
Gold.
“Rainbow, are you seeing this? This whole pyramid is made of gold!” she cheered, clapping her hooves together in child-like excitement. Rainbow flew in to investigate as Twilight did a little happy dance. Twilight saw Rainbow’s eyes bulge, as hers had, and laughed when Rainbow’s jaw flopped open. “Can you believe this? I mean, think of how much this could be worth! Just the top slab alone could buy half the Wonderbolts, and-“
Her rant was stopped by a hoof in her mouth. Rainbow’s eyes were wide, shimmering with untold dreams of the Wonderbolts. Twilight could guess at what they entailed- having them perform privately for her, call her ‘coach’, hang out with her during work hours… the possibilities for such a fan were countless. Of course, Twilight’s dreams for the gold were different, more to the tune of fixing up the library, adding a new wing and buying every book ever printed… she was practically drooling.
“Uhh, Twilight? You’re drooling.”
Twilight smacked herself with a hoof, wiping the saliva off her snout. She blushed, embarrassed- but what could she say? That many books, all ready and calling to her, the crisp pages coming to life in her hooves-
“Twilight!”
“Augh!”
More spittle speckled the golden steps they stood on. She had to stop doing that.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Rainbow hit her forehead as Twilight magicked away the spit, leaving a polished golden mirror for her to look in. She did so, winking; Rainbow winked back. Smiling, she turned away to see what was going on in the world of the unicorn. Twilight was observing the gold, tapping it with a hoof.
Her horn flared as she sent a little purple orb, smaller and darker than the first, into the gold. When it came back, her eyebrows shot up.
“What is it Twi? Something wrong?”
“Well… yes and no. That spell was one I learned in Canterlot- it lets me find the element of whatever I hit with the orb. But this… it came up blank. No element.”
“And?”
“Well, that means this slab of gold isn’t gold. In fact, it shouldn’t exist- it’s not made up of atoms of any element. It doesn’t make any sense,” she mumbled to herself, peering in at the faux-gold monument.
Rainbow churned that little bit of info in her head. So, the gold wasn’t gold- simple enough. But it wasn’t anything? That was a bit harder to swallow. There wasn’t anything about that in the Daring-Do books… in fact, all she could remember about this part was Daring Do leaving the pyramid room and escaping the temple. The writing was a bit skimpy there.
“Well, it’s not like we coulda carried it anyways. I say, we go the way Daring Do went- out of this room and out of this temple,” Rainbow suggested. She thought her argument was pretty convincing, but Twilight wasn’t exactly leaping off to the ground and out to the jungle, was she?
When she looked back at the stationary pony, she saw the mare open her eyes wide. She could practically see the gears turning in her head. Twilight slowly tilted her head up and turned her horn on Rainbow, whose eyebrows shot up in surprise. Her horn ignited a radiant magenta as her brow furrowed.
Rainbow dived out of the way as the purple orb flew to where she had just been. She hovered in place above the pyramid, panting.
“Twilight, what the heck!” she shouted, bewildered.
“I need to see if you’re made up of the right elements, Rainbow! I don’t know if you’re you!” she confessed, her voice cracking.
Rainbow wavered, wings fluttering in short bursts. Twilight was so… worried.
“Why did you just shoot it at me without warning me, then?” she persisted, pointing a hoof at the sphere gently bobbing where she had rested a short while ago. Twilight looked down sheepishly at the golden steps.
“Well, if you weren’t you, then you would’ve said no, but I would’ve had to check, and if you were really you and you said no it would be wrong to ignore your choice, but then I would never know if you actually were you or just-“
Rainbow’s hoof silenced Twilight’s rant. If she let her go on like this, she’d never stop- almost like another one of her friends, one she wouldn’t otherwise compare to if not for the never ending stream of words they both seemed to have behind a thin screen of public decency.
“Go, ahead Twilight; if you really care that much, I’ll let you check. I know I’m me, but if you wanna make extra sure… well, hit me with your orb or whatever. I’m ready,” she affirmed, putting a hoof to her chest as she floated next to her lavender friend.
Twilight looked at Rainbow with something akin to pride. Her orb flew back to her horn, shrinking and dissipating into the thin air.
The magenta light from Twilight’s first orb illuminated the face of Rainbow, at a loss again of what to think of this pony.
“Why didn’t you-“
“I know you’re who you say you are,” she interrupted. “If you were just some phantom Rainbow, you would’ve never let me hit you with the orb. That’s all the proof I need,” she expressed, grabbing in Rainbow for a hug. The pegasus struggled against it- it was totally not cool to get all mushy like this. But then she realized none of her friends were here to see her embracing her friend, no Wonderbolts scout seeing if she was made of tougher stuff, none of the stuff mares who hugged had.
So, she decided- for a few moments, anyhow- that she would stop trying to wriggle out of the clasp of Twilight’s forehooves, and just appreciate what her actions had given her.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
*A/N I had originally planned for a chapter a book, around 4000 words, but there's too much to write to force it like that. So, I think there will be three Parts for each of the the three books, and an epilogue(probably). A/N*