9th June 1922
Twlight fiddled with the latches on her cuffs as Fluttershy continued to carry her through the city streets. The city was getting less cracked and poor, though it wasn't exactly wealthy looking either. The streets were now lined with a mixture of stone and wooden edifices, and the overpowering smell of fish perfumed the air. The roofs here had a trapezoidal shape to them, and paper lanterns hung from every gutter pipe. Twilight peered through Fluttershy's hair, nuzzling against the other woman's neck.
Most of the paper lanterns were painted with symbols that looked a lot like cutie marks. Others were painted with ancient writing. On blue lanterns runes for the celestial bodies, joy, and love. On white for the elements of harmony or for mourning and death. On red lanterns symbols for good fortune or vengeance in jaunty gold ink. On green life, happiness, rebirth and betrayal. Other lanterns carried intricate patterns, or landscapes, or simple abstract spin art on their surface. Others still had modern equestrian letters spelling out the names of businesses and services. Twilight watched the lanterns go past, ears perked in fascination.
The streets were thick with horses and carts, that Fluttershy deftly stepped deftly around, through, and occasionally over.
"So" Twilight asked "About those people watching us with the blue diamond patches."
"Yes?" Fluttershy asked noncommittally. She casually grabbed ahold of a passing cart, lifting herself and Twilight up as it started to speed down the street.
"Are they Rarity's?" Twilight had decided to cut to the chase, a thoughtful frown upon her face.
"My, you are an observant one." Fluttershy responded with a slight teasing lilt to her voice. "What do your observations tell you?"
"Well, they're not following us, but somehow wherever we go, there's at least one watching us. They seem to be using young, small boys and girls as runners to communicate? And I thought I saw one intercept a guard that was heading for you and start trying to panhandle from the guard." Twilight mused.
"Oh, they've stopped more than just one guard," Fluttershy responded gently, reaching up with her free hand to pat Twilight on the head. Once again Twilight felt that annoying shiver down her spine. "Still, you did a good job noticing!"
Twilight mumbled something incoherent. Even she wasn't entirely sure what she was trying to say. Some impossible to decipher combination of 'stop being patronizing', 'thanks for the compliment', 'please stop patting me' and 'that feels nice'.
Spike, the little traitor currently ensconced in Fluttershy's hair, leaned forward to lick Twilight gently on the nose. He snickered in his draconic way.
"Don't you encourage her". Twilight muttered under her breath. She quickly began preforming breathing exercises to reduce her flush.
Fluttershy released her the cart as it made a turn, and grabbed for another. This time the owner of the cart noticed Fluttershy clinging to the back. He leaned a head out of the carriage, and turned to glare in Fluttershy and Twilight's direction. "HEY! Get off of my cart!" He shouted.
"Kay" Fluttershy said, letting go and stepping back to the sidewalk. "Rude." she whispered, once he was out of earshot. She scribbled something on a piece of paper and passed it to an urchin. The urchin nodded and ran off. "Rudeness is punished by being stopped at every intersection until he reaches his destination." Fluttershy said airily, waving her button of a nose about.
Angel bunny crept up into Fluttershy's hair, stepping on Spike on the way up. He danced on Fluttershy's head energetically, wiggling his ears luridly, throwing rude gestures in the direction of the departing cart. Spike hissed annoyance at the demonic imp, the wrapped a tail around Angel's ankle. He whipped Angel forcefully off of Fluttershy's head, and began prematurely crowing his victory.
Angel slammed into the cobbles, then bounced back up. He dug his claws into Twilight's back as he skittered up her spine, finally he came to a rest in Twilight's hair. He raised a first aggressively into the air like a hoofball player celebrating victory. Then he say down and started grumbling. Twilight felt a sharp tug on her hair, and heard the sounds of chewing.
"Um, Fluttershy I don't mean to be alarming, but I think Angel Bunny is eating my hair." Twilight's voice was taut with both worry, and a desperate effort to not giggle.
"Oh, don't worry, he does that." Fluttershy said maternally. She gently plucked the tiny imp from Twilight's had, and the dragon from her own, then placed Angel on her own head, and Spike on Twilight's.
Both diminutive critters stirred, and resettled themselves gently. Spike began cooing in Twilight's ear. Angel simply crossed his arms and posed like Kublai Khan.
A few carriages later and they were outside a short, squat shop. This shop, in the local style, was bedecked with brightly colored lanterns. One of them was pale blue with Rainbow Dash's cutie mark, another had what looked like a snake on a stick. The building had narrow windows that had a protective wire mesh over them, likely to keep interlopers out. Fluttershy opened the door, and stepped boldly in.
Twilight's first impression was of living rainbows dancing. The vestibule was covered with a mad painter's brush strokes of color. A quick glance up revealed that the stubbornly bright lamps were encased in slowly rotating prismatic domes. The walls were covered with enticingly fantastical, nonsensical scenes. One fresco was of waterfalls tumbling impossibly from mist-enshrouded towers, with such attention to detail that Twilight could count the feathers on the nestlings birds in the gargoyles' mouths.
Scattered throughout the room was a disorganized melange of seating implements whose only commonality was comfort. Leather bags full of corn husks sat adjacent, and in one case on top of, silken draped chairs carved from ebony. The tinny music that echoed through the chamber made the experience even more surreal, as deep resounding chelios played second fiddle to cicada cries, bird calls, and the sound of wind and rain.
Despite its apparent chaos the room had a single focal point, the presumably mistress of the mess. She sat against the far wall, legs propped on top of a plain, battered and chipped desk that was scattered with knickknacks. A small skeleton model, a wind up turtle, a collection of footprinted papers and folders. The shapely legs were encased in some sort of aggressively fuzzy rainbow-trimmed blue fleece tubes, and the narrow feet in thick soled brown hiking boots. The far-too-short woolen skirt was in a complex weave of rainbow plaid. Over her torso was draped one of the most magnificent doctor's coats in existence.
At first Twilight thought that maybe the coat was white, but as the woman casually shifted her position, Twilight realized that the impossibly tight weave was made with many different colors, carefully balanced so that they would appear white from a distance. She idly noticed that the collar and cuffs were folded down, then up, then back down again. Rarity had once told her that tri folded cuffs and collars were typically used as ostentatious displays of wealth.
Finally Twilight's inspections reached the other woman's face. She had, of course, instantly recognize Rainbow Dash's unmistakable rainbow hair, but unlike the unruly mane her friend normally wore, this sylphan woman's hair was elaborately and carefully braided, creating intricate patterns from the various colored strands. Her ears were long and thin, ending in small tufts of fur much like Twilight's own current, elfen, pair. Her wings were huge, far larger than Twilight's own. Twilight felt a quickly suppressed twinge of wing envy, consoling herself that her current form had larger mamaliaries than this other Rainbow Dash.
Imaginary Rarity found herself approving inspite of herself, seeing the eye of a design maestro.... "Not to my taste, darling, but... I am simply blown away, I simply must get the name of your designer," Imaginary Rarity murmured, her eyes bulging. She had forgotten that, since she was imaginary, this flesh and blood beauty could not hear her.
Rainbow Dash glanced up from the book in her hand. Twilight quickly scanned the title. It was Alice Unchained. Now what kind of book could that be?
Rainbow Dash flipped up energetically from the desk, bounding to her feet with a single flap of her wings. As she approached Fluttershy, she didn't walk. She glid. She reached out with both fragile looking arms, and wrapped them around the massive Fluttershy's legs. Rainbow Dash's wings soon followed the embrace.
Twilight belatedly realized that Rainbow Dash was far shorter than her own current self, barely coming up to Fluttershy's thighs. She only seemed huge because of her massive wingspan and her immense presence.
Imaginary Applejack noticed this too, and started to laugh distractingly "Now that just figures, don't it? How does it feel to be a wee little thing, Dashy?"
Imaginary Rainbow Dash scowled. "Yuk it up, don't you. She might be short, but at least she's AWESOME!" Imaginary Dash's scowl slowly faded away and her eyes lit up as she realized the pattern. "Plus I'll bet two bits against two mugs of your best cider that Applejack's gonna be shorter"
"Yer on." Imaginary Applejack hooted happily. "But instead of bits, 2 hours of you helping out on the farm."
Twilight wondered once more if she had already gone insane. She thought she hadn't, but wouldn't a crazy person think they were sane? She certainly thought she was sane during her own craziest episodes. She decided to focus on the world outside her head instead of inside.
Fluttershy kneeled carefully down, jostling Twilight against her back, and causing Angel Bunny to loose his footing on Fluttershy's head. He grabbed at her curls, clinging to them as he scrambled to pull himself back up. This set the tiny dragon curled warmly around Twilight's neck off, and Spike began snorting in smoky draconic laughter. Fluttershy didn't seem to notice the drama occurring upon her head as she placed a hand gently against Rainbow Dash's left cheek, then brushed her lips against Rainbow Dash's right one.
"I missed you too" Fluttershy whispered softly.
Rainbow Dash's head whipped back. "Who said anything about missing anyone?" She asked, coldly. Then her voice started to crack. "I just got something in my eye, that's all." She nuzzled her cheek back against Fluttershy's.
Twilight felt an odd tugging sensation in her stomach. She couldn't quite recognize it. Strange.
"So, how is the most amazing doctor in all the land doing?" Fluttershy asked, an unvoiced titter coloring her smile.
"Not badly" Rainbow Dash said, more formally now. She straightened up and adjusted her collar and cuffs. "But I miss being a sawbones on the ship. You're here to poach one of my assistants? Perhaps Gilda, she's not quite as clever as I, but she makes up for it in raw, brute talent."
"No, I didn't come for one of your assistants." Fluttershy said softly.
Rainbow Dash's eyes widened, then narrowed, her body going straight as a dagger. "You're hurt."
Fluttershy opened her mouth to respond, but Rainbow Dash was already on top of her, unbuckling straps and removing sections of the shiny black and white material that composed Fluttershy’s habit with such rapid ease that Twilight wondered if it was a design feature.
"No, I'm not hurt! Relax, please Dashie, I'm really not hurt. You don't have to... eep!"
Suddenly the buckles around her wrists came free, as did most of the rest of Fluttershy's outfit. The incredibly tall woman quickly wrapped her own wings around herself to maintain her dignity, but Twilight fell backwards on the floor with a far less dignified squeak. She landed awkwardly, wings pinwheeling instinctively and uncontrollably. She felt more than heard a crunch inside of one of her wings
"Was the... ah... girl attached to your back... hurt?" Rainbow Dash guessed, eying the crying, squirming pile of Twilight and clothing. There was an embarrassed flush in Rainbow Dash's cheeks.
"If she wasn't before, she certainly is now." Fluttershy said, sternly "You'd better fix this Dash"
"But wait, if she wasn't hurt before why did you come here? To hang out?" Rainbow Dash asked incredulously, as she kneeled on the ground, her gentle thin hands tracing the places where Twilight's wings hurt.
"That and to offer YOU the position on our next voyage, you silly little gosling." Fluttershy sighed and knelt down, patting Rainbow Dash sadly on the head, then she knelt further to plant a kiss on Twilight's cheek. "Relax, it's going to be O.K."
Imaginary Rainbow Dash was beside herself. "That insensitive little zapapple! I'm going to string her up by her tail! She hurt Twilight! You all saw that! She threw Twilight off of Fluttershy's back! She. Hurt. TWILIGHT!"
"Fluttershy, go fetch Gilda, and get the sprain kit." Dash ordered, as the small but strong doctor lifted Twilight onto the desk and rolled her onto her belly so her wings were up in the air.
Imaginary Applejack put a hoof firmly against Imaginary Rainbow Dash's shoulder. "Three things you hafta keep in mind. One, there's nothing you can actually do about it. Two, it was an accident, and three I recall hearing that somepony, blue colored, rather fast, might have been a Pegasus, knocked Twilight into a rather large mud-puddle when they first met. You did your best to make things right afterwards, now let this Rainbow Dash do her best to do the same."
"But I messed up making things right!" Imaginary Rainbow Dash protested.
"Then let's hope that this here one's a bit better at it than you are" Imaginary Applejack responded calmly.
"Yeah, you're ri-HEY!" Imaginary Rainbow Dash turned to glare at Imaginary Applejack.
Imaginary Spike shook his head, with a snort. "You two." He said warmly "Thanks for helping to keep Twilight's mind off of the pain."
Fluttershy returned with a medium height, burly woman in a set of un-ornamented green scrubs. Her face had a hawkish look, and feathers were braided into her hair.
At the same time Imaginary Pinkie Pie energetically shouldered her way through the wall while shouting "OH YEAH!".
"Who wants imaginary cupcakes?" Imaginary Pinkie Pie announced, bouncing into the room, cupcake in mouth and more on her back. "I brought cranberry, apple, and blueberry-chocolate-apricot-marshmallow-plum!" She glanced around at medical drama unfolding, the half eaten cupcake falling out of her mouth. "What... what did I miss!?"
Twilight started laughing out loud.
"Iiii think she might be going into shock" Rainbow Dash said. "Or maybe she's just cracked. It's not normal to be laughing right after getting a sprain this bad. Gilda, Fluttershy, hold the wings where I tell you." An electric razor began to buzz.
Twilight prefered not to think about the period of time after that, Gilda, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy had worked together to hold Twilight's wings in place, apply ice and anti-inflammatory drugs, made her swallow a number of pills, and splinted her wings. Not necessarily in that order.
Rainbow Dash looked her over, poking at the wings, voice muffled by the surgical tape she was holding in her mouth. "Does it hurt when I do this?"
"No" Twilight said shaking her head. trying to crane her neck to see what Rainbow was doing back there.
"And this?" Rainbow Dash pressured, one hand going into her doctor's bag while another continued to feel up Twilight's wings uncomfortably.
Some of the places Dr. Dash was touching were making Twilight feel very uncomfortable, but she wasn't going to give Dr. Dash the rise she was clearly looking for. "No" Twilight responded boredly.
"And this?" Rainbow Dash asked once more. There was a twisting sensation and a soft popping sound.
"N-YES OW OW OW" Twilight's wings shook in shock, then settled.
"Oh good, I was worried for a moment there" Rainbow Dash's mysterious grin looked quite mischievous. She stepped back with a needle full of blood. "You know, I have to thank you for getting injured here. It's not often I get to work on a hybrid like yourself. Did you know that your inherent magic field is quite abnormally shaped?" She leaned forwards to poke at the air around Twilight.
"I did not." Twilight responded carefully. Imaginary Pinkie Pie was standing next to her, bopping Dash's hoofs whenever she poked at the air. Twilight tried very hard not to look at it.
"Twilight! Watch this!" Imaginary Pinkie Pie shouted, then lept into Rainbow Dah, and began speaking out of the doctor's mouth.
"I'm Dr Rainbow Dash and I am saving lives! Laughter's the best medicine so go see Pinkie Pie's!" She sang out of Rainbow Dash's mouth, causing Twilight to out up in gales of laughter once more.
"Oh! A fellow science enthusiast!" Dr Dash said, grabbing Twilight around the shoulders. Her grin looked like it was going to cut her head in two. "Fluttershy, I will be glad to accompany the crew once more on our new voyage! I shall perform such wonderful experiments on our little victim!" Twilight shied cautiously as Dr. Dash's enthusiastic spit hit her cheek.
Gilda glared at Dash, then coughed to draw her attention. She put her hands on her hips "Victim? Really Doctor?"
Spike had grabbed a tissue and was rubbing Dash's spit off of Twilight's cheek.
"I mean volunteer, of course" Dash said, confidently. Gilda rolled her eyes. "I don't want to get mixed up in this." She stated matter of factly. "Unlike Mrs Rainboots here, I am not yet well known enough to get away with working for known pirates without getting arrested."
Angel Bunny spat on Spike's head, causing the tiny faery dragon to turn and try to bite the little demon.
Fluttershy nodded "That's your choice of course, Gilda. Please take good care of this place while Dashie is gone. I know she thinks of you as her closest friend who's not on the crew."
"So." Dash asked Twilight, with a raised eyebrow. "How did you get mixed up with this crazy bunch?"
A clockwork turtle trundled out from under the desk and across the hard tile floor to break up the fight between the dragon and the demon.
Twilight saw her chance for revenge as Dash lifted a cup of coffee from the table. She put on a quick poker face. "Oh. Fluttershy's kidnapping me." Twilight said, nonchalantly.
Lukewarm coffee sprayed everywhere, as Dr. Rainbow Dash choked on it. Nurse Gilda stepped gracelessly out of the flow.
"Fluuuuters?" Dr. Dash asked, rolling up her sleeves and ignoring Gilda's unhappiness to advance on Fluttershy.
"Yes?" Fluttershy responded with a gentle smile. She placed a hand gently on Dash's head, stopping the shorter woman's aggressive advance.
"Why are we kidnapping her, and why is she so calm about it?!" Dash demanded, hands on her hips now, forhead enveloped comically in Fluttershy's hand "Because I'm more and more certain that my test subject is a CRAZY PERSON!". She waggled her arms to demonstrate.
"You're one to talk" Gilda muttered as she knelt to clean the puddle of coffee on the floor.
"I heard that!" Dash countered over her shoulder at his assistant.
"I meant for you to!" Gilda shot back, before throwing the coffee soaked rag into Dr. Dash's face. She stomped out.
"Well, you see, the Captains want her for some reason. They need a hybrid to unlock The Gate to Arcadia so we can steal the source of magic, and she's the only one we deemed poorly protected enough to make a snatch attempt. Oh and, and, and," Fluttershy swung her hips with each and, and finished by clapping her hands together "She's ADORABLE!"
"Should I be jealous?" Dash began with a click of the tongue, an exaggerated wink and nudge directed towards Fluttershy.
"WHAT?" Twilight interrupted. She tried to mantle her wings, but the splints got into the way, causing her to double over in pain. "But there are dangerous things behind the gate! I read about the last expedition through! 500 people! 12 survivors, only 4 of which were whole in body and spirit! That's crazy!" Still, a thought occurred to her. The Gate to Arcadia was in Avalon, and that was also her local self's destination. So at least she would be headed in the right direction.
"Sign me up!" Dash said, somehow the excited beats from her wings were pushing the rainbows around the room.
There was an extended period of silence as the three pets fought in the background.
Dr. Dash sat on the desk, then sidled up to Twilight, who was in a caricature of the thinking pose. "If you think it's crazy, why did you go along with it, neh?"
"Because I didn't know!" Twilight exclaimed.
"You let people kidnap you when you didn't know what they planned to do with you?" Dash probed, her face inches from Twilight's.
Twilight leaned back uncomfortably, remembering the spit shower earlier. "...yes?" Maybe, she realized, she was a little bit immature too, though still better than the Twilight who was native to this universe.
"Well, I think you'll fit right in!" Fluttershy said gently, clapping Twilight on the shoulder and interrupting whatever Dr. Dash was about to say.
Twilight wasn't sure if she found that comforting or not, but she leaned gently into Fluttershy's soft hands anyway. "I guess."
Shining Armour had run, not walked, home gathering guardsmen as he did. He was going to confront this imposter replacing his sister and ask her to explain herself. When he reached the building he quickly set orders to secure the perimeter, then walked in, five guards in tow.
Twilight didn't seem to be in her rooms. He rushed to his Father's study, worried about what the imposter might have been doing to his parents. "Mother! Father! I have terrible news about Twilight!" He yelled as he burst in.
His parents had been hugging one another on the love seat. They turned to look at him. "... A bit late son" His father said after a moment "We already found out. She's been kidnapped."
Shining armor paused, uncertain if they were referring to Twilight's replacement with a doppleganger, or if the doppelganger had vanished. He made a snap decision to not tell his parents about the doppelganger to not worry them. He would chase after this missing Twilight, and find out which one it was, and only then let his parents know.
"Don't worry. As captain of the anti-pirate task force I swear to you, Lord Mayor and father, that I will get your daughter, my sister, back". He slammed his fist to his chest in a formal salute.
His father nodded. "You are authorised to bring all reasonable resources to bare. I trust you to exercise your discretion. Go forth and rescue my daughter, son"
"Yes SIR!" Shining said, his five guardsmen escort echoing it. He turned heels and marched out, planning the manhunt across the island, and giving orders to have a long range ship stocked... just in case.