> Out of Equestria
>  by yoshiXII
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Warped
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	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?”
> Realization
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Rainbow tried to find a way back to Equestria, but no matter how far she went in either direction of the island, no other land besides their island was found. All she saw was the cold and unforgiving sea threatening to consume her in its uniformity. The waves passed by without a sign of anything that she thought she recognized. It was as if Twilight had somehow teleported them to another world outside Equestria. After flying as far as she could east and west of the island, Rainbow gave up and flew back, unable to comprehend what this meant. After working in the weather department for years, her vision became much like a hawk’s, but the water offered no clues as to where she might be.
Since Fluttershy wasn’t the best flier, she decided to fly around the island to check their surroundings. She guesstimated that the entire island was around 3 miles by 5 miles or 15 square miles. The island looked almost like a wide onion. The outer layer would be the beach, with its sand filling the way up to the second layer, which was the forest. The most inner layer would be the mountain jutting out of the forest, with some leftover trees still clinging on to its base. The mountain was immense and took up a lot of the island, reaching up to the sky as if trying to reach space. Through her sharp eyes, Fluttershy noticed that there were no signs of civilization. There were no huts, no roads, and no ponies to be found on the island. She did notice that there were many species of animals that lived in the forest however, though they were obviously living peacefully with simple and uncomplicated lives free of technology. She was somewhat disappointed by the small size of the island, though she lived in a small area next to the forest, this place felt somewhat claustrophobic. The island was small comfort compared to the peaceful and calm land of Equestria. ‘What am I going to do?’ Fluttershy thought, ‘I had a life back there, but I threw it all away just for Twilight’s shady experiment. I thought she said it was safe.’ She began thinking about how her poor animals may be faring at home, and how they would all be wondering where their caretaker was. Angel must be pondering why she hasn’t been back with the ingredients for Angel’s perfect salad. Her squirrels, her bees, her birds, and her bunnies must all be starving now. Thinking about it made tears well up in her eyes. A wave of emotion swept through her body and she dipped lower in the air.
Then she got a hold of herself. Flapping her wings back to the correct altitude, she wiped off the tears that enveloped the corner of her vision and put a hoof up to her chest. ‘No,’ Fluttershy chided to herself, ‘I have to be more like Rainbow and stop worrying so much.’ She wiped off the last drops of tears that had resided on her cheeks. Sniffling a little, she darted down back to the beach.
Rainbow touched down on the ground roughly with a weary look on her face. Her eyes darted around the island before looking back at Fluttershy “I just don’t get it,” she said, “Where could Twilight have possibly transported us? I didn’t know that that egghead could possibly have that much magic to transport us all the way out here. I mean who knows how many thousands of miles we are from the mainland. We have to find a way back. Anyway,” she said, breaking out of her reverie, “Should we try flying back? We could just rest on clouds every now and then.” Rainbow glanced at her friend, who was hiding behind her mane.
Fluttershy glanced to the foreboding sky and squeaked. “I-I don’t know,” Fluttershy said unhelpfully, “W-we could starve if we can’t find any food flying back. We should just stay on the island and wait. If Twilight or Celestia doesn’t appear in a few days, we leave. This just doesn’t seem like Twilight to not get her spells right. Something must have gone really wrong.”
“This sounds like a Daring Do novel,” the blue Pegasus analyzed, “Only, we have no idea where any other land may be and we also don’t know where we are. Urgh! We should have never trusted that egghead. Who knows if we will ever be able to get back? Does Twilight even know where we are? What kind of monsters live on this island?” Rainbow started hyperventilating, “What if we never manage to escape and we are stuck on this island, dying of hunger? Or what if this is somehow Pegasus hell and Twilight somehow kill—“
“Calm down Dashie,” the yellow Pegasus said thoughtfully, trying not to be panicked by Rainbow’s random thoughts, “There’s no good in making wild theories to help determine where we are. All we need to know now is how we can get rescued, and how we can survive.”
The panicked pony took a few breaths. The island appeared to be closing in on her, with the borders of the island receding. The immense space of the sea made splashing sounds that sounded like it was laughing at her, reminding her that there was no escape as the sea could easily swallow her. The trillion gallons of the sea were larger than expected and provided no comfort to Rainbow. Suddenly, the water became her enemy, seeing as it only brought more pain looking at it. She was always used to being in control of the situation and being the leader. Being stuck on an island with a shy pony was not her idea of a great time. Her eyes darted around the island: First at the trees, then at the ocean, and then at Fluttershy. Fluttershy’s eyes aqua-blue eyes gazed curiously back at her. Looking at Fluttershy’s eyes reminded her again of the overwhelming and unforgiving sea. The blue surrounding Fluttershy’s pupils grew larger and enveloped Fluttershy’s entire eye. The blueness turned into waves that splashed around in Fluttershy’s eyes, laughing at Rainbow. Rainbow took a few steps back in horror, until tears developed in the corners of her eyes, and she collapsed. The small tears grew into droplets that leaked out of her eyes.
Rainbow put her head down into her leg. “I can’t do this Fluttershy, I just can’t.” Rainbow cried, “I had a good life back there. I was the most awesome Pegasus in Ponyville and I was going to join the Wonderbolts. I-I just—“Rainbow’s words got lost in the high-pitched sobs.
Fluttershy, remembering her own breakdown a few minutes ago, lay down next to Rainbow. She wrapped her left foreleg around the sobbing pony’s neck and used her right one to lift up her face. As Rainbow stared into Fluttershy’s face, Fluttershy wiped off the onslaught of tears crawling down her face.
“There, there,” Fluttershy said soothingly, as she would to one of her animals, “We’re going to figure this out together. We’re going to get rescued. Everything is going to be okay.”
“How can you say that?” Rainbow sobbed, “We have no idea where we are, and we don’t know if anyone can rescue us.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Fluttershy said confidently, “All that matters is that we are still together and no matter what, we will always be with each other, struggling through this together. As long as we have each other, nothing can stop us. As long as our friendship holds, we will make it through this.”
Rainbow wiped her tears off her face with her hoof. Sniffling a little, she mentally steeled herself, closing her eyes, and taking deep breaths. Slowly, the panic raging inside died down, and rational thought claimed hold once again. She opened her eyes again and looked to Fluttershy, before looking down in shame.
“Thanks, Flutters,” Rainbow said sincerely, “I’m sorry you had to see me like that. Don’t know what I’d do without you. I just panicked.” She looked back to the other pony, trying to discern her expression before laughing. “I must look horrible, don’t I?”
“Umm…”
Her rainbow-mane was disheveled and out of place. The bloodshot eyes betrayed the number of emotions that ran through her body. Anypony who saw her would agree that she looked like an emotional wreck.
Fluttershy tried to muster up a somewhat nonchalant and casual look on her face. “You look fine,” she said unconvincingly.
At this, Rainbow laughed even harder and wrapped her hooves around Fluttershy in a warm and tight embrace. Fluttershy blushed and returned the hug with the same amount of warmth and sincerity. She still wasn’t entirely sure how she felt about Rainbow, but she could tell that she wanted their relationship to be a bit deeper. The warmth from the rainbow Pegasus spread through her body and filled her with a light giddiness. Her heart started pounding faster and she shivered a little, her body tingling in enthusiasm.
The hug lasted for a few seconds, though it could have been eons, before they separated and looked at each other dead in the eye. The panic and despair was gone now, and seriousness about their situation replaced them. There was a look of confidence in the rainbow-maned Pegasus that said, “Let’s do this.”

> Exploration
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The two Pegasi now set off into the forest, gazing cautiously at the mysterious trees enshrouding the land before them. Glancing up, they saw the sun was around noon at this point. They had no idea if this was Celestia controlling the sun, or if it was an entirely different sun. If this was Celestia’s sun, then Celestia knew more about the world than they had previously thought if the sun could pass through so many different places. What else could Celestia have hidden from them, knowing that she could have known about the beautiful lands beyond Equestria? Ignoring this burning question, they pressed onwards.
They crossed into the forest with a moment of hesitation. From the get go, they noticed that the ground was composed of mainly dirt, leaves, and other organic material, much like how the Everfree forest was oriented. This forest didn’t have the same threatening feel that Everfree had, but rather an inviting ecosystem. The trees had a mystic feel about them that made the entire forest feel even more alive. They guessed that this type of forest was probably a tropical rain forest, due to the diverse palm trees near the beach and lush greenery further inland. Many species of animals darted in their line of sight, giving the forest an aura of life that seemed to pulse in the ponies’ veins. Even Rainbow was transfixed at the beautiful scenery that surrounded her, with its unique mysticism about it. She seemed almost in a world of her own.
“U-um,” Fluttershy tried to begin.
Rainbow shook herself out of her stupor and stared at Fluttershy remembering their objective. After gazing at Fluttershy for a few seconds in confusion, Rainbow exclaimed, “Oh, yeah! I was thinking about how our first priority is to find fresh water.” For good measure, Rainbow shook her head.
Fluttershy looked at her a little suspiciously and tilted her head ever so slightly to the right. “Well,” she said, “I was thinking about how we needed a shelter and a fire.”
“We can worry about that later,” Rainbow acknowledged, “But, I’ve read enough Daring Do novels to know that our first priority is to find water.” She raised a hoof in the air, glad that she could profess her knowledge to somepony, “We can’t survive more than two days without water you know.”
“W-well, we passed by about three streams without you noticing them.”
Rainbow blinked. She stared around them. There were plenty of streams that most certainly seemed to carry fresh, clean water fit for ponies to drink. The running water rushed along with a calming whoosh, carrying about a clear sound.
“Ah, heh heh, I knew that.” Rainbow lied, crestfallen, “I was just waiting for the right one, you know… cooler…” Her ramblings turned into mumbles as Fluttershy rolled her eyes, though careful not to let Rainbow see.
Rainbow trotted over to the nearest stream to save herself from the embarrassment. She stooped down, and dropped her head until she was able to lap at the water, interrupting its flow. Fluttershy followed suit, making sure to keep a couple of yards between Rainbow and herself. She lapped at the water with a calm grace, while Rainbow thirstily gulped the water. Satisfied, Rainbow stood straight and wiped the excess water off her face with her hoof, and the water continued through once more.
“Before we try to find some shelter, we should at least see what the lay of the land is. Let’s go up that mountain and see from there. Who knows, we might find something awesome along the way,” Rainbow said.
Fluttershy nodded, also raising her face. The impatient rainbow-maned Pegasus already started trotting, while Fluttershy quickly changed her pace to keep up with Rainbow. Together they traversed the forest to the mountain that lay imposingly in the middle of the island. While traveling along to the mountain, which they dubbed Mount Spike, in its similarity to the mountain Spike climbed while in his adult phase, they saw many natural formations that were different from the ones at home.
Many trees were different from the identified species that ponies have discovered. Like the Quercus, or oak tree. Fluttershy found that many of the oak trees had many of the same characteristics like the same leaves and the same height. But, the trunks seemed to have blue veins that bulged out. These blue veins tended to connect to green organ-like spots that were also visible underneath the bark. Many different substances were also transported along the veins. The trees also seemed to breathe, as it enlarged and then grew small. All of these things gave it an animal-like quality to it.
They also saw many new species of animals and plants, though this was to be expected, seeing as how they haven’t been to a place like this yet. Many new landscapes popped out at them. They saw a hole in the ground that presumably led to an underground area. The Pegasi also saw many waterfalls and ravines that had a different air to them compared to the ones at home. The air teemed with life and the ponies couldn’t believe how they were not informed of this before.
Trotting along, the occasional animals started appearing more and more frequently. Monkeys appeared swinging from vine to vine to land on a nearby tree. Exotic birds called from trees to other birds, hoping to entice a mate. Fluttershy tried a few times to try to befriend a few animals, but the animals would always shy away from her, looking incredulous before continuing on through their daily processes.
“Ow!” Rainbow exclaimed.
She glared at the monkey who threw the rock at her. The monkey just stared back impassively and made a few abnormal noises before moving on.
“I get the sense that we aren’t exactly welcome here,” Rainbow noted.
“Yeah,” Fluttershy said, still hurt that the ignorant animals rejected her friendship.
The “path” they trod on steadily grew steeper, indicating that they were now on the mountain. The trees thinned out, and the animals appeared less frequently. As they went on, the ground was mostly composed of dirt and other earth materials. There wasn’t a path that steadily went up the mountain or anything; it was just them trying to climb up the steep side of the mountain until there were no trees to impede their flight. Then, they spread their wings and kicked hard at the ground, before going aloft. They spiraled around the mountain several times until they finally reached the peak. Circling around the peak, they found a small plateau near the top of the mountain that seemed fit to touch down on.
Rainbow touched down hard on the plateau. Dirt and debris flew up from the ground, as she skidded a few feet. Grinding to a halt, she jumped out of the hole she made. “Whew, I’m sure glad that’s over,” she said as she wiped the sweat off of her forehead.
Fluttershy landed right next to her calmly and gracefully a few seconds after. She glanced at Rainbow before ruffling her wings and looking at the sight before her. It was awe-inspiring. Even her earlier flights didn’t surprise her as much, since she was only looking down at the island. Spread out before her was the immense tropical rainforest that brimmed with light. She could see the outer edges of the mountain touch the trees, while the trees were planted on top of the lower layers of the mountain. On the far edges, she could see the waves lapping at the sand and hear seagulls call out. She could almost feel the spray of the sea and taste the salt it contained. Above her lay the deep-blue sky that had a few clouds spread out here and there, yawning above her, as it spread on to other parts of the world. The sun was now setting and had red-orange hue with its dying rays reaching far across the sky, making the sunset and the sky appeared red, a perfect contrast to the yellow sand, and the lush, green forest. It was one of those picturesque scenes the nature-loving Pegasus just cherished in her heart. She could just close her eyes, breath slowly, and she could immerse herself in nature’s beauty. She sighed slowly, remembering where she was. It was a pity that such places outside of Equestria existed, yet they had no idea they were there.
Rainbow looked at Fluttershy in fascination. It was times like these where Fluttershy looked so adorable, and had a background that reflected it like a mirror. The normally fidgety Pegasus gazed contently at the butter pony. The beauty of her was only magnified by the scene of nature and the red rays of the sun. Rainbow lingered over every part of Fluttershy’s body, savoring every texture.
Rainbow blushed and turned away. What was she doing thinking about her best friend in such an unordinary fashion? She noticed that she had lightened up to the shy Pegasus over the course of their adventures.
“Ahem…” Rainbow said, a bit reluctant to interrupt Fluttershy’s trance.
Fluttershy looked up; she blushed a little as she hid her face behind her mane.
“I was thinking,” Rainbow began, “That we make our shelter outside of the forest. There are too many nasties that may want to eat us for dinner.” A shudder ran through her body. “It’s probably safer to just stay outside. That way, we can also tell if there might be any rescue coming.”
“O-okay,” Fluttershy agreed. She didn’t see how that would maximize their chances of getting rescued however, though she was so surprised that Rainbow admitted she was scared, that the yellow pony didn’t object.. The only chance of rescue they had at this point was if Twilight or Princess Celestia could teleport onto this island somehow and transport them back to Equestria.
The two Pegasi flew down, quietly, to the beach. Fluttershy resumed gazing at the beautiful scenery around them. The flight was quiet as neither of them said a word. For a moment, Fluttershy looked at Rainbow briefly and then turned, blushing, away. She couldn’t possibly tell her that this moment would have been a romantic scene for both of them.
Rainbow was surprised at the gaze. It looked almost wishful. She wondered about how she might have felt about Fluttershy. The Pegasus still didn’t know whether or not she liked her. It was unusual for the loyal pony not to be open about her feelings to her friends, and the conflicting feelings gnawed on her inside.
After the leisurely flight, they touched down on the wide expanse of sand. The sand kicked up and blew with the wind when it was knocked up by the Pegasi. They quickly looked around, seeing if any creature heard the sound. Satisfied, they began examining every part of the outer layer of the island. Upon coming across two trees that were close together, yet far enough apart to fit a pony widthwise, Rainbow said,
“You know, this seems like a perfect place to have a shelter. We could have a hammock here and we would be set.”
She grinned at Fluttershy, expecting her to say it was a brilliant idea. Fluttershy glanced at the two trees with an uncertain look, not sure if this would do.
“I-I don’t know, what if it rains, or w-what about me?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Rainbow debunked, “those clouds probably can’t rain without the help of a Pegasus. And besides, who’s afraid of the rain? Also, we can both share the same hammock; we just need to find the leaves for the two of us. It’s a foolproof plan.”
“Okay then,” Fluttershy said uncertainly. She wasn’t sure how if she would like to sleep next to Rainbow, but then giggled a little, chastising herself.
For the next few minutes, they split up and perused the island, searching for a tree with good leaves that were broad and could support their weight. Finally Rainbow found some leaves from a large palm tree on the edge of the forest that looked strong enough, at least according to her. She called Fluttershy over, who conveniently stayed near, and together they flew up and pulled the leaves down using their teeth. They tied it onto the two trees so that the hammock would have two leaves, one on the right and one on left, overlapping each other. There were two layers of this setup, with four leaves total. Using other leaves of the same tree, they tore off the leaves so that only the stems remained, which they used to tie the leaves to the trees.
After finishing their work, Rainbow promptly jumped onto the hammock. Thankfully, the hammock didn’t give, though it did sag to a precarious height.
“Come on, Flutters, there’s enough room,” she said, already relaxing.
Fluttershy gulped. Rainbow moved to the side of the hammock and patted the spot next to her. Slowly, Fluttershy put first her forelegs onto the hammock. She shifted her weight at a snail’s pace. Finally, she supported herself enough to lift her hind legs off the ground. She carefully put her hind legs onto the leaves, until her weight was evenly distributed and her stomach was facing downward. The timid Pegasus sighed in relief as she gauged the distance between herself and the ground, still apprehensive of heights.
“That wasn’t so bad now was i—“
Suddenly, the makeshift hammock collapsed. The stems supporting the leaves snapped and the leaves came crashing back down to the sand. The two of them fell to the ground, though it wasn’t too painful, as the leaves cushioned them. They lay there adrenaline-filled, slightly shocked by the rapid fall and dramatic change of scenery, panting a little.
“You okay?” Rainbow asked, as if this happened regularly.
“Y-yeah,” Fluttershy gasped.
The two of them turned their heads toward each other. After staring at each other for a few moments with an untold conversation travelling between the red and blue eyes, both of them started laughing.
After regaining their senses, they both got up and searched for sturdier stems to use as rope to bind the leaves, still giggling a little. This time, they had a complete lattice work of stems beneath the leaves to support it better with a few stems on top of the leaves to stabilize it better; though it took a considerable amount of work, considering how they only had their teeth and hooves to help them. After that they tested it again. This time it worked much better, with the hammock sagging just a few inches this time. The sun at this point was under the horizon. Both tired beyond belief, they remained on the hammock until the magic of sleep took them.
Quietly, when the Pegasi were sleeping, one of the trees that the hammock was tied to started moving. It appeared to shiver as the veins in the tree glowed bright blue and the “organs” glowed neon green. The tree vibrated violently and the immense leaves fell down. Coconuts plopped down on the sand with a muffled thud. Still, the two innocent ponies lay sleeping blissfully, their snores drowning out the noises of the tree. The trunk of the tree grew bigger and bigger, to a point where it was disproportional to the rest of the tree and there were now two sections. One was a regular palm tree that had subtle alterations compared to the ones at Equestria. The other section was the section that contained the blue veins and green organs. The section with the blue veins slowly grew more and more, while the regular section remained the same. Slowly, the blob with the veins separated from the tree. It seemed almost like Mitosis in the way that one part divided into two parts. The shapeless blob with the veins finally separated from the tree and fell to the ground.
The blob slowly regained shape. The organs in the body pulsed harder and glowed, until it was as bright as the moon. The veins had substances flowing rapidly throughout the body. New veins were created where, for ponies, the four legs and head would be. Many other veins joined them and the veins pushed at the spots. The spots grew slowly until the neck and part of its legs were visible. The veins pulsed faster and pushed harder at the legs and neck, and they quickly formed the pony’s body. The veins were shaped in a way that created the exact curvature of a pony’s body. The head had many veins circulating through it until details started popping up on the body: the tail, eyes, mane, fur, and other features.
After a while, the entire pony body was completely visible and complete, though the entire process took only a minute. The mane was hot pink, as well as its tail. Its fur was a delicate shade of yellow. It also appeared to be an earth pony that was a mare. The most shocking thing about her was that there was no cutie mark on her flank, even though she wasn’t a filly. A burn mark on her forehead formed a triangle, as if she was burned on purpose. She shook herself and looked about her. Her gaze fell upon the two sleeping Pegasi and she hissed.
Across from her, the same process was happening to the other tree. This pony had lightning-blue mane and tail, and its fur was a stormy gray. This one was a Pegasus, and a stallion at that. He got used to his bearings and also looked at the sleeping Pegasi. Seeing the other mare, he trotted over to her.
“They’re the ones,” he said quietly, “Aren’t they?”
“Yes,” the mare said distastefully.
“What do we do?” The stallion asked with despair written across his face. His hoof pawed nervously at the dirt, glancing about him, wondering where everypony else was.
“Nothing for now,” the mare said, “We must wake the others,” she gestured at the forest, “and our chief.” She looked at the mountain.
The stallion followed her gaze. Sighing a little, they both looked at each other with a gaze of dead seriousness. Without another word, they trotted off into the tropical rainforest.
> Relaxation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Rainbow yawned. She was having the most fascinating dream. First, she had been accepted to be part of the Wonderbolts. She remembered being ecstatic about this, and Pinkie Pie decided to hold an “our-friend-is-now-a-Wonderbolt” party. Spitfire, Fleetfoot, and Soarin were there to congratulate their newest member. Everypony was there having a good time (or as good as they could have in one of Pinkie’s parties), while Rainbow was gushing over the fact that she was a Wonderbolt. She started a conversation with the Wonderbolts while emitting high-pitched squeals mixed in with shrieks of “Omigod, Omigod, Omigod”. This dream constantly invaded her sleep, making her feel ecstatic only to be let down when she woke. Then, Fluttershy came out of her conversation with Rarity and Twilight, to trot in front of Rainbow, which never happened before.
“This was not the way it was meant to be,” the normally timid pony said ominously, “Time to wake up. This is not the reality you are seeking.”
“Wait, what?” Rainbow asked, bewildered, “But this was my goal since I was young. This is … my dream.” Suddenly, she realized.
Fluttershy disappeared in a swirl of colors. The dream was swept away. She looked frantically at the Wonderbolts, only to find that they disappeared as well in a colorful cloud of smoke. The land before her broke off, and instead of looking at the interior of Sugarcube Corner she was left facing a dark void. In the void, Princess Luna gazed at Rainbow with a knowing and sad look on her face. Then, the entire place went crumbling, and she started falling. Her eyes darted around, finding nothing but a dark and purple void bulging out at her. Rainbow’s life flashed before her closed eyelids, memories bringing a nostalgic and wistful feeling deep in her.
It was a weird dream, to be sure. ‘What did that Fluttershy mean? Not the way it was meant to be? Not the reality I was seeking?’ Rainbow thought. She wondered if Luna had any idea what her dream was about. She wondered if even Fluttershy had the same dream. Usually, her dreams didn’t start collapsing and end up with her falling, they were usually a stable illusion. She wondered if this was a premonition of things to come.
Shaking her head, the confused Pegasus looked to her side. Seeing the sight made her smile. Fluttershy lay there breathing slowly as the sun rose. The sun was only half visible, which surprised Rainbow since she had never woken up early enough to actually see a dawn. The dawn was beautiful, as the sun was a sliver of yellow and orange that sat there on the horizon. The brilliant light seeped into the world slowly, and the rainforest was once again fresh with life. It illuminated the place and promised a new day to have as much adventure as possible.
Rainbow sighed as she looked around. She was still on the island, and it wasn’t part of her dream as well. Now that she had a fresh mind, she was ready to tackle the day with renewed fervor. She was still a little worried that they weren’t going to get off the island, but she shoved those thoughts aside to make way for more rational thoughts.
Before the cyan Pegasus, Fluttershy slowly stretched out. The bliss of her sleep was washed over her, and was displayed on her face. It was one of those rests that should have lasted forever. The ones that made ponies lie on their beds trying to find that perfect spot of comfort to go back to the serenity of sleep. Unfortunately, Fluttershy knew she had to get up and feed her animals, and buy some more food, and—
Suddenly, she remembered what happened yesterday. Bolting upright, Fluttershy looked around her. The image of Rainbow was ignored as she remembered that she was stuck on an island, Celestia knows where, and there was little chance of survival. She sighed, laying back down again. At least her sleep was fitful.
“Up and at ‘em, Flutters,” Rainbow said cheerfully.
“Few more minutes, Mom,” Fluttershy giggled.
The rainbow-maned pony rolled onto her stomach and propped herself up using her legs. She then jumped off of the hammock as nimbly as a cat. Fluttershy took more time stretching her legs out first, before slowly rolling onto her stomach as well. She carefully placed her forelegs onto the sand, and then her hind legs.
Rainbow gazed at Fluttershy with a more serious expression now. “Did you have any dreams last night?” Rainbow inquired.
Fluttershy arched an eyebrow. “No,” She said quietly. The Pegasus wondered what could have caused Rainbow to wonder what dreams she had.
Rainbow looked bewildered, wondering what this could have meant. “It’s nothing,” She said. She could have sworn that they might have had the same dreams that night, though Fluttershy probably wouldn’t act so bold, even in a dream.
The occasional clouds floated by in the sky. The desolate ocean lapped against the shore. Rainbow gazed at the empty space around the island. Kicking at the ground, she flew up until the entire island was in view. Fluttershy was soon to follow, noticing the panic trying to escape Rainbow’s face. Rainbow was still reluctant to accept the fact that they were probably going to live the rest of their days on an island, outside of Equestria. Her nature was to fight back and to be aggressive to find a solution, though that probably wouldn’t help that much. Scanning the island, she sighed, resigned to the fact that they were stuck.
Fluttershy thought about her own predicament. She hoped Twilight would have had a caretaker to take care of the animals. ‘The beavers and squirrels need three ounces of oats every six hours,’ she thought, ‘while the birds, oh…’ tears swelled up in her eyes again. The emotions flooded past the barriers that she had kept to impress Rainbow. Rainbow, who noticed this, flew to Fluttershy and extended a hoof around her shoulder. The tears continued streaming down her face as more nostalgic thoughts came flooding back. Sniffling, she raised a hoof to brush off the tears that dominated her face. Her eyes were bloodshot and a plethora of emotions was displayed on her face.
“I-I’m f-fine,” Fluttershy sniffled, pushing Rainbow’s leg gently off.
“You sure?” Rainbow asked as delicately as possible, concern in her eyes.
Fluttershy nodded. Containing herself, she squealed something about getting some water. She flew faster than Rainbow thought she could fly to the ground. She touched the ground, hard, and flew a few feet before collapsing on the ground. After the halt, she leapt up and started dashing into the forest. Rainbow stared worriedly at her, wondering what could possibly make her friend act so weirdly.
Fluttershy ran to the nearest stream she could find. The stream was situated in a clearing that was picture perfect. The grass was growing at about knee height and a great tree lay in the middle, as an overseer. The butterflies and other creatures were busying themselves with the colorful flowers. She stared in the stream and saw her own face looking back. ‘Calm down, Fluttershy,’ She thought, ‘Everything will be all right. Just have faith in your friends.’ These thoughts calmed her as she tried to discern herself from what she wanted to be to impress everyone around her. Ever since she was small, she was always a pushover or a doormat. The shy Pegasus would never form her own opinions due to other aggressive ponies intruding in her private bubble. She would take it on word whatever Anypony said. From this, Fluttershy developed no real personality that was discernible. Even her animals could easily push her around to do their bidding.
After her thoughts have settled, she thought about her worries. The worries about her friends being panicked about their disappearance. The worries about her animals missing her. Fluttershy took a deep breath. She had to think about her own situation rather than be worried about what was going on at home. For now, herself and herself only would be top priority. Every other worry could wait until she could get home. She had to find the balance between her needs and everypony else’s needs.
Settling this in her mind, she brought her hoof down into the calm, tranquil stream flowing slowly along the rainforest. Shocked for a minute by how cold it was, she dipped down even lower until her hoof was damp with the water. Reaching up sharply, she wiped the water onto her face with her hoof, clearing away the tears, gasping at the sudden effects it had. It was almost as if the water had wiped away all the weariness that she had, and she appeared younger and healthier.
Surprised by the water’s effects, Fluttershy moved tentatively into the flowing stream. She braced herself as the stream attempted to drag Fluttershy along with it. Then, as she burrowed into the damp, soft ground underneath; she slowly relaxed as the water soothed her. She lowered her body inch by inch until the water reached the middle part of her body. Her legs were laid on her side as she lay there in the water, relishing in its magic.
“Fluttershy, where are you? Fluttershy?”
Rainbow burst into the clearing and stopped short of the bathing pony.
“Fluttershy, thank Celestia. I was searching all over for you. Are you okay?” She asked.
“I-I think I’m fine,” Fluttershy said serenely.
Rainbow tentatively crept near where Fluttershy was. Satisfied that she wasn’t hurt in any way, Rainbow started pacing around the grass next to the stream, so that her path was parallel to it. After pacing around and muttering aimlessly, she finally stood still.
“What do you think we should do next?” Rainbow inquired, gazing at Fluttershy as if lying in a stream was a complete waste of time.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Fluttershy admitted, “I was thinking about just staying here for a while.”
“Oh, come on,” Rainbow said, throwing a hoof, “We don’t have time to relax now.”
“W-well, we aren’t going to do anything today anyways,” Fluttershy said nervously, smoothing her mane, “We might as well relax now that we have the chance.”
Rainbow looked suspiciously at Fluttershy. “All right,” she said reluctantly, rolling her eyes, “But, we can’t stay here that long. Bathing should be the last thing in our minds.”
Fluttershy sighed as she watched Rainbow walk to the stream. As soon as the four hooves were in the stream, Fluttershy immediately noticed the change in her friend. Rainbow’s face appeared to have reached nirvana as she appeared to be in total bliss. All of the stress that was etched in her face dissolved. The stream almost seemed to wash away all of the worries the ponies might have had. Rainbow appeared younger as a strong, energetic glow surrounded her. As she breathed out, her mane grew and became free and wild. The tension was released from her body as she let loose.
For Rainbow, the feeling was sensational. The worries disappeared as the water washed them away. All of the muscles in her body that were tense relaxed. A slow calm enveloped her as everything else in the world was muffled. The chirps of the birds and the breeze of the wind were barely audible now that she was lost in a world of her own. It was a huge relief and felt enlightening. Everything around her now appeared hushed and soothing as the world was transformed.
Rainbow sighed as she slowly lay down on the water. She closed her eyes and she found her imagination was rekindled. Many different thoughts were passed through her mind with vivid intensity and made her think a lot deeply then she used to, seeing as how she never had time to actually think, being that she was in the sky most the time. Philosophical questions that she never thought about were now flashing by and being unconsciously answered. Time and space passed before her and she thought more and more about the world around her. About how Equestria was ruled by Princess Celestia. About how Equestria was everyponies only world. About how there was much more land beyond Equestria. About how diverse the entire world beyond Equestria could be.
Fluttershy lay there looking at Rainbow. She wondered what kind of water this must be to transfix even Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy was thinking more about peaceful thoughts. Most of the thoughts were about nature and animals. Imagining new possibilities of new kinds of trees and new kinds of animals. How they would blend in together and coexist. It was fascinating to imagine all of the new possibilities of life beyond Equestria. Things like this she only thought about in dreams.
Rainbow snapped her eyes open. In Equestria ponies were the lead species. What if other lands had other lead species? What kind of new animals could they possibly see? What if this island had another dominating species? What if they think we are prey? She began to panic, but the soothing effect of the water calmed her down until the thought was at the back of her mind. ‘After all’ Rainbow thought, ‘There’s nothing to worry about in here. All we need to do is live by ourselves until Twilight or Celestia comes here. Nothing here could possibly harm us that much.’ And with that she continued imagining.
Though Rainbow and Fluttershy weren’t aware of it, quite a bit of time passed while they were lying in the stream. The sun shined directly overhead now rather than appear like butter on the horizon. The noon was brilliant, and few shadows dared venture for fear of being vanquished by the sun. Now, the sun radiated with brilliance in contrast to its tentative nature in the morning. Rainbow, who noticed this sudden change, was shocked by this. Lifting herself out of the water, she was suddenly sad that she had to leave this sanctuary. She trotted on over to Fluttershy, who was still bathed in her meditation.
“Come on, Flutters,” Rainbow said urgently, looking about her, “We’ve been here long enough. We gotta do something.”
“Okay, fine,” the pony said reluctantly, screwing open her eyes, “What’s next?”
“I … don’t know,” Rainbow realized. She gazed up scratching her chin thoughtfully before drawling, “We should probably go build a fire to scare away any nasties. Anything that will keep us sane will be good.”
“Sounds good to me.”
Before they left, they took a moment to graze on the bountiful grass in the clearing. Seeing as though the grass was literally everywhere, they knew that getting food would be their least priority. Trotting on over to the edge, they took a long glance back, as if trying to remember this place for future explorations, and then they disappeared back into the forest.
Looking back into the forest, it was like they were wearing rose-colored glasses. Every detail in the forest popped out at them. Every rock, every animal, every tree, and everything. The ecosystem was thriving, though they couldn’t see it as well as before. This time, it was as if they were communing with nature. They were now aware of everything that they might have missed before. It was astounding how they could have chosen to ignore the wonders of life.
After spending a bit of time trotting back to their hammock, they spent a lot of time wondering about their surroundings. It was like a dream. They almost felt like being rescued would be unbearable as they could learn more about life beyond Equestria. After they reached their makeshift shelter, they looked around the sand to find a good fire site. Fluttershy decided to explore further from the hammock to find it. Rainbow, on the other hand, just lurked about the hammock until she finally decided to make their fire next to the hammock. Fluttershy rolled her eyes as Rainbow called her over.
“This is the perfect spot,” Rainbow proclaimed, “Just need to get some stones and sticks.”
Fluttershy sighed. The spot was unremarkable in any way, and was as nondescript as any other patch of sand. Rainbow hurriedly kicked at the spot until a small circle emerged with small peaks along the outer edges. Though she could have done that any place else, she decided to make it close to wear they slept. For convenience. Brilliant.
Rainbow grinned at Fluttershy as she ran back into the forest. She gathered stones that lay about and with remarkable carelessness, scattered them inside the small peaks of sand in a smaller circle. The quick Pegasus galloped back to the forest and seized many dead tree branches and stacked them inside the circle of stones.
“Um, R-rainbow? Do you even know how to start a fire?” Fluttershy asked.
“Of course I do,” the pony said confidently, “All I need to do is rub two sticks together. Duh, everypony knows that.” She proceeded to do just that. Grabbing the two longest sticks, she rubbed them together with ferocious intensity.
After rubbing them together for several minutes, it was clear that starting a fire was going to be much harder than it looked. No matter how quickly the speedy Pegasus rubbed them, the fire just wouldn’t start. It took a long time just to get a few sparks to fly out, and even those didn’t set the branches alight. During this time, Fluttershy retrieved a few dead leaves and set them on the sticks. After that, she satisfied herself by watching the concentrated pony try to start the fire. Finally, after about an hour, one of the sparks landed directly on the leaves and caught fire.
Rainbow, exclaiming a prideful sound, quickly blew softly on the ember. The small ember grew in size, until finally it was a hungry fire. She galloped to get some more branches from the forest. Soon, the fire was roaring and reached up into the sky. The sky at this point was a crimson red, while the sun shimmered a hue of orange as it lay on the horizon of the sea. The sunset was as beautiful as it was yesterday and Fluttershy was amazed by how much time had passed while they were busy with their task. Rainbow still hadn’t noticed how late it was already.
Suddenly, looking back at the two trees cradling their hammock, Fluttershy realized something. Those trees no longer had the veins or organs that they used to have. She could have sworn that every tree had those mysterious veins throbbing inside of them, even the trees they used to hold their hammock. What could have possibly caused them to disappear? Now the trees looked like normal ones you could probably find somewhere in Ponyville, though a bit different.
Shaking her head, Fluttershy just told herself that she was imagining things again. Taking a deep breath, she noticed how alive she really felt. This was her dream since she went to the ground, to immerse herself in the wild. Now, she really was here and it felt wonderful to learn more about the wilderness.
Rainbow looked up from her work. Looking toward the sky, she noticed the sudden change in the day. “Wow,” she said, “What an unproductive day we had. It’s already sunset and what have we got? I mean we didn’t get anything done.” Groaning, she stretched. “Oh well.” She yawned a skull-splitting yawn as she trotted toward the hammock and jumped on it, instantly asleep.
Fluttershy giggled a little. Her friend still had a child-like quality about her that was amazing. About to follow Rainbow to bed, the cautious pony stole a quick glance back into the forest. She was about to look back, until she saw a face in the shadows of the trees. She stared back at the pony. The pony looked unflinchingly back with an ominous look. The expression seemed to say, ‘You’re not welcome. Go back to where you came from.’ With a few moments of eye contact, the pony disappeared back into the shadows of the forest.
Fluttershy looked at the spot for a good, long minute. Her eyes darted back and forth, searching for any sign of a pony. Her heart started pumping faster, and beads of sweat materialized on her forehead even though it was cold. Something was not right here. What would ponies be doing on an island outside of Equestria? Millions of questions coursed through her mind that she had no answer to. She couldn’t grasp the reason of what could be happening. ‘What do the ponies of Equestria not know? What are these ponies doing on this island? Why are they here? What will they think of us?’ Fluttershy thought, ‘If only Twilight was here. She could help us figure this out.’
After standing there for what seemed like hours, Fluttershy decided that they could just figure this out in the morning. The ponies were probably friendly, as all the ponies are good friends of each other. Anyway, murder was unethical if worst came to worst. Everything should be fine in the morning, and they could try to make friends with them.
Fluttershy gave in and trotted back to the hammock. As she climbed on, the hammock emitted a soft groan at the excess weight being piled on. The scared pony lay there tossing and turning for hours. The thoughts overwhelmed her despite her reassurance. Every twig snapping, howl of the wind, or leaf crackling startled the terrified Pegasus. Throughout this, Rainbow slept fitfully, even to a point where she was snoring as loud as the noises. Fluttershy lay awake for the rest of the night, starting at any hint of sound.


“She saw me,” the jade pony said, trotting into the clearing.
“So that’s it then,” a brown pony responded, “They know we’re here.”
On the base of the mountain, a huge number of ponies were gathered them. If one were to count both the numbers of ponies and the number of trees, that person would find that they are equal. That person would also notice that all of the trees were now unremarkable and normal. Every type of pony was gathered here: Earth ponies, Pegasi, and unicorns. They all shared the same characteristics however: a natural feel about them, organic colors for their fur, and they all had a triangle on their forehead, though that was burned on. They huddled together in a giant mass, discussing their options.
“What will they do?” A filly asked.
“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” A stallion replied. He rubbed his forehead with his hoof, “The message given to us leaves no room for doubt.”
“What will we do then?” A mare asked.
A grim pony trotted forward. “We’ll strike first.”
“But when?”
“Tomorrow,” the grim pony replied. “We lead the assault at dawn.”
“All of us?”
“Yes, all of us.”
“But what if they are stronger than we thought?”
“We have our strength in numbers. There’s no way they can pose a threat.”
“But what if they are really innocent?”
“No, the message was crystal clear.” The pony sighed. “These are the ones. We can’t let them do such a horrendous deed. Our only hope is to get rid of them.”
The group as a whole nodded in assent. Sadness ran amongst the ponies. Many young ponies and old ponies didn’t want to fight. They had their lives to live. What if the Pegasi were gods? What if these gods could kill their entire tribe in one fell swoop? They had their doubts, but the message was clear. They had to stop it.
All of them started preparing. The unicorns practiced their battle spells, the earth ponies readied their spears, and the Pegasi readied their armor. The tension was impalpable, though it could be sensed.
“What will we do when we capture them?” A pony asked.
“We take them to the chief,” another pony responded, nodding toward the mountain as she said so.
After about half an hour of preparation, most everypony was ready. With a bark of command from a temporary leader, the ponies got in rank. The earth ponies in their armor and with their spears made up the front lines. The unicorns made up the back lines and the Pegasi flew into the air, arranging themselves to block off any chance of escape of the two pegasi. Together, they marched or flew to the spot where they slept. The earth ponies and unicorns, when they reached there, concealed themselves amongst the outer layer of trees. The Pegasi flew up to the drifting clouds and pushed them to a close, but not suspicious distance away from the sleepers.
“What do we do now?” A filly with wide eyes asked.
The temporary leader looked at the filly solemnly. “Now we wait.”
> Capture
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Fluttershy awoke with a start to the soft pitter-patter of rain against her face. Apparently, despite her insomnia, she managed to squeeze a few hours of sleep. Looking up into the gloomy, gray clouds of abyss, she groaned, thinking about how making a hammock might have not been a great idea. Now, they had no protection against the warm, moist droplets of water. The water shot down, first invisible, then visible, flitting into her peripheral vision. The yellow pony blinked as a few stray droplets found its way to her eyes. She thought about the dream she was having. Forgetting all about her fears of the past night, she wanted to dive right back into the dream.
Fluttershy’s dream started off similar to all of her dreams. She was standing outside of her cottage, all of her animals properly fed and circling and nuzzling her legs, and she was gazing out at Ponyville, Canterlot, and Cloudsdale. It was a nice, sunny, peaceful day. The Everfree forest didn’t even look as ominous as it usually was. The caretaker sighed contently as she gazed out over most of Equestria. She could see Sweet Apple Acres, Twilight’s library, Rarity’s boutique, and Pinkie’s Sugarcube Corner. This was the life she desired, living her days in her cottage outside Ponyville. It was a nice break from the island, though it was just a dream.
Bam! The dirt path in front of her exploded in a wave of dirt and gravel. Fluttershy flinched back as a load of dirt flew directly into her face. Miraculously, she was unscathed since the dirt seemed to disappear a few feet from her face. Looking up into the smoke and dust that had arisen, she saw a familiar rainbow-maned pony laying there. Rainbow Dash stood straight up and brushed the dirt off of her fur.
“Hey, Flutters,” she said casually.
“H-hi, Rainbow,” Fluttershy responded, “What are you doing here?”
Rainbow looked around herself. “I don’t know,” she admitted, finally setting her sights on Ponyville, “Don’t you feel that something is wrong? Something isn’t right here in Ponyville? Or Equestria?”
Fluttershy glanced at Ponyville. She saw the same ponies she knew by name working there to support their growing village. They all looked the same and behaved in their usual cheerful manner. Applejack and Big Mac were busy working on the farm. Twilight was shut away in her library. Fluttershy turned back to Rainbow. “I-I can’t tell,” she tried, “Ponyville looks the same.”
Rainbow sighed and facehoofed. “Look again.”
Fluttershy looked back at Ponyville. Suddenly, everything changed. The ponies were suddenly in collars linked to one another. All of them had the same dreary look that was devoid of hope. A few stallions stood in full armor, whipping at the ponies to walk faster. The ponies were in groups of 10s that were all walking to farms all across Equestria. Then, they were let off the links to other ponies, only to be on a leash to the stallions. The poor ponies toiled over the farms with no breaks.
Fluttershy squinted into Ponyville. All over there were new laws and notices posted about with Celestia’s face on them. Statues could be found frequently displaying Celestia. All other forms of art and literature were nowhere to be found and the library was demolished. The grass was burned and it was as if the color had been sucked out of Ponyville. The huts the ponies used to live in were now grey boxes that lacked creativity. The trees were gone. Absolutely everything about the ponies’ lives was now dominated by Celestia.
“Now look behind you,” Rainbow said.
Fluttershy drew a sharp intake of breath. Behind her, were the burned remains of her cottage. Many royal guards took all of her animals into small cages. She gasped and tried to run and save them, but hit a magical force field instead. The terrified pony took a few steps back. Looking at the Everfree forest was a nightmare. There were ponies chopping down the trees faster than wildfire. Suddenly, Zecora emerged being dragged out of the forest by more royal guards. Zecora struggled against them to no avail, while the royal guards viciously tore off all of her accessories. She was slowly dragged to some sort of a hovercraft with a single rotary wheel at the top that propelled it to fly. The hovercraft slowly took off and flew off to Canterlot.  
Tears now welling in her eyes, Fluttershy turned back to the wreckage of Ponyville. She saw Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity as royal guards as well, though they looked hesitant to do their tasks. They looked about themselves nervously, as if trying to help the poor ponies without being caught.
Fluttershy gazed up into the sky. The sky was entirely red with crests of darkness cleaving through it. Even more shocking, Celestia’s face appeared looking down on all the mayhem, as if reminding them that they can’t escape.
“Now look at Canterlot,” Rainbow said as she stomped the ground.
Suddenly, the world swirled before rematerializing until the sight before them was Canterlot. The situation there was much better, though still not the best. There were royal guards at every corner watching everypony. The hovercraft that carried Zecora reappeared and landed in front of Celestia’s tower. The royal guards tossed Zecora onto the ground. She tried to get up and run, but was instantly subdued back to the ground. She was brought up until she was standing. Princess Celestia trotted down the stairs and gazed unmercifully at the zebra.
“Now everypony will know how we deal with abnormalities or ponies that decide to break our fair laws.” Celestia said in her royal Canterlot voice.
Princess Luna galloped down the steps desperately. Luna fell down before Celestia grasped her hoof. “Sis, wait! Don’t do this,” Luna pleaded, tears streaking down her cheeks, “She’s innocent.”
Celestia kicked Luna in the chest. Luna let out a grunt in pain as she was knocked back a few feet. “Was the moon not enough for you?” Celestia asked coldly.
Luna struggled to get back up. Celestia grabbed a spear from a royal guard with her magic. She levitated it until it was about an inch away from the zebra’s chest. Zecora tried in vain to get away. After murmuring what seemed to be a prayer, she stopped struggling and accepted her fate. The spear drew back a few feet away. And then –
Fluttershy squealed. She collapsed on the ground, unable to take it anymore. The Canterlot ponies avoided looking at Zecora’s dead body, and unease was spread about them. They too had to live under horrible circumstances that nopony should ever suffer through. Celestia looked at the land before her that lived in agony and laughed a cruel laughter. The laughter split through Equestria and all of the ponies cringed, looking in horror at the speaker.
Speaking in a voice that could be heard all across Equestria, Celestia said, “Now, we live in a much better time than before. Ponies who don’t obey me shall be eliminated. Learn to love me and accept me as a god. For I am higher than all you mortals. We shall have a much better society, now that we have progressed so much. Yes,” she cackled.
Rainbow sighed, looking at Celestia plaintively. “Fluttershy, what do you think? Is this a fantasy? Or is this a reality that we don’t realize?” She stared directly into Fluttershy’s eyes with a soft, wistful look.
Fluttershy looked back into the amethyst eyes. The air behind Rainbow crackled with red and dark lightning. All of the ponies in the background disappeared as the lightning ravished the land and destroyed everything. An awful booming and cracking sound was heard as the lightning devastated Equestria, ripping off pieces of the land off into space and the dark void. Rainbow turned away and trotted a few feet before getting struck as well and she disintegrated into darkness, which swirled into the dark void. Fluttershy gasped and ran after the spot where Rainbow was, until there was no land to be found and she took a leap of faith. Before she leapt, she saw Princess Luna again, this time in the void and looking at the moon. Then, she fell, her stomach in her throat. Memories flashed and tears streamed.
The dream was curious enough that the butter pony would take her chance to leap back in and find out what was happening. Though dreams rarely do that if you go back to sleep, she still tried to do so. Unfortunately, the rain thwarted her plans of sleep and she was forced to stay awake. Stretching out a little, she glanced to her side at the smoldering, damp, burnt pieces of wood and ash that lay at their fire site. She groaned, thinking about how the site was not a smart location, before looking at the sleeping pony.
Rainbow slowly groaned as she yawned. Her eyes attempted to flutter open, until finally she was successful. Tasting her horrible breath, Rainbow stretched out, making her muscles moan in protest. Finally, the grumpy pony sat up and looked about her. Looking at Fluttershy staring at her, made Rainbow smile. Though, she quickly remembered where she was and sighed. It was a pity; her rest was deep and undisturbed.
Rainbow glanced at the rainforest. Peering closer, she saw that there was one pony, then two ponies, and suddenly the entire forest was filled with ponies. Her pupils dilating, the terrified Pegasus slowly turned her head to Fluttershy while keeping her eyes on the ponies standing in the forest.
“Are we being watched?” She asked as quietly as possible.
Fluttershy followed her gaze. Immediately, she saw the ponies that looked remarkably similar to the one the night before. Before she had a good long look at them, however, they struck.
The earth ponies and unicorns charged with their spears brandished.  Like ants, they quickly spread themselves out in an orderly fashion so that they formed a circle around the two Pegasi between the trees. The circle had a relatively small radius, and the front earth ponies held their spear directly at the two ponies to remind them that there was no chance of escape.
While this was happening, the native Pegasi swooped down from their perch on the clouds. Moving swiftly, they dived down until they hovered around the two ponies and trees in a semi-sphere. They covered every part so that the Pegasi couldn’t possibly fly away, and they too held their spears menacingly at the sitting ponies.
Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy watched frozen in horror as all of this took place. Suddenly, the aggressive, blue Pegasi pushed off of the hammock. Taking flight, she randomly flew directly to the top of the sphere of ponies. Preparing themselves, the Pegasi held their spears in her direction. Speeding directly at a random Pegasi with green and white marks, Rainbow resembled a blur that was soon to be impaled by the spear that was held. The Pegasi holding the spear tensed, and positioned his spear so that it was directly in the rainbow-maned pony’s path. Rainbow looked up, suddenly aware of the fact that she was about to be stabbed. Considering this, she decided to form a different path around him. She continued until she was only a few feet away.
Abruptly, Rainbow stopped. She was still flapping her wings madly, but it appeared as though she had frozen. Opening her eyes, she looked back and saw Fluttershy had a mouthful of her tail, flapping her wings in the opposite direction. Growling, Rainbow said,
“Come on, Flutters, we have to escape. What do you think these guys are going to do?” She gesticulated wildly at them. “Befriend us? No, they’re going to eat us!”
Fluttershy stared back calmly. “What’s the point in trying to escape?” She asked, “It’s not like we can. And if we try, they’ll just get angrier.”
Rainbow sighed, “Fine, just hope we don’t get killed.”
Rainbow and Fluttershy slowly flew to the ground. The ponies, seeing this, relaxed a little. Once they touched the ground, the native ponies started to move. They retained their formation as they moved slowly to the mountain. The two Pegasi remained stock still in the center until a navy blue pony trotted on over to them. “Come with us,” she said.
Reluctantly, Rainbow and Fluttershy fell into step with the others. As the trek continued into the forest, they noticed that these ponies knew a certain path that was simpler to follow. This path took them through areas with fewer trees to avoid, and less obstacles to go over. This path was not visible, however, and the ponies seemed to remember where it was without any visual markers. It was amazing how the mass of ponies traveling through here seemed to not leave a mark on the ground, and how they seemed to not get wet by the rain pouring down the trees.
After what seemed like hours, they finally arrived in a clearing at the base of the mountain. The ponies rearranged themselves so that Rainbow and Fluttershy were now at the front with the other ponies guarding behind them and to their side. A lead pony came up beside them and said in a loud clear voice,
“We have brought them back, Chief Kulnife. Awaken now.”
Rainbow and Fluttershy looked in confusion at the lead pony and glanced at the mountain ahead of them. After staring for a while, the mountain started growing veins and organs similar to how the ones the trees had. They watched in horror as the same process that produced all the other ponies took place, only this time with a mountain. The pony that emerged was enormous and was as big as the mountain. His coat shone a silver hue and his mane was a multi-colored green-blue mixture along with his tail. He stood up straight and peered closely into the group before him. Finding the two Pegasi standing in the front, he sighed. Grumbling, he trotted around his mountain.
“I hoped it wouldn’t end like this,” Chief Kulnife said with distaste.
Rainbow strode on over with a confident gait, the rain matting down her mane. “What do you mean?” She asked, “What’s going to happen? Tell us now!”
The chief looked down at the talking pony, in wonder. “You’re wondering why you two were brought here under such hostile conditions, right?” A pause as he scratched his head, “Well before we go directly to that, I have a story to tell you: A story that deals with Equestria, your homeland, and Princess Celestia.”
All the other native ponies hissed and booed at the mention of Equestria and Celestia. Catcalls and jeers were passed, as Fluttershy and Rainbow looked around nervously. Apparently, these ponies had a grudge with Celestia, which didn’t bode well for them. The chief stamped his tremendous hoof once on the ground, and it created a miniature earthquake wave that rocked the earth. Rainbow and Fluttershy were rocked off their feet, and they almost fell to the ground. Stunned by this, the other ponies quieted after retaining their balance.
The chief cleared his throat, though it sounded like gravel being scratched along a volcano. “As I was saying,” he continued, “Equestria and Celestia. We were actually living in Equestria along with several other groups of ponies at the time which was several centuries ago, though it went by the name of Athelin at the time. We lived in peace, and I remember working alongside them frequently. I would work in our giant berry fields, gathering the biggest, juiciest berries you could ever find.” The chief’s eyes glistened with tears as he remembered those days, “Together we helped each other and provided a helpful hand to anyone in need. In fact, the reason I am such a giant is because there was a species of pony that was immense. It was called the colossal ponies. Though now we are mostly extinct, which is why you two probably never heard of ponies like me. Anyway, our civilization thrived with the absence of Celestia.
“Then,” he continued, “A random group of Earth ponies, Pegasi, and unicorns randomly showed up in our lands and denounced it as Equestria. At first, we ignored them, and allowed them to live in a faraway parcel of our land. They grew in size as well, and soon we were competing for more land and resources. Fights and battles ravaged our lands and many cruel weapons were developed to kill innocent ponies. These times were awful. Everypony would stay inside their little huts, fearing to peer outside at the dirty streets, filled with soldier ponies dying of hunger. Disease ran amok among the poverty of the ponies, and lack of water and food killed off many. The war lasted a few years until Discord happened.”
Rainbow and Fluttershy gasped. The chief looked at them curiously. “I see you know him as well. No one knows for sure how he came about, but an old legend says that he was formed from the chaos. Many body parts were thrown into the air and created him with the chaos supplied by the ponies. But, once he was here, he was here. Discord used his unknown magic to throw all of Equestria into darkness. Suddenly, there was no fighting, no poverty, no worries, just chaos. Discord would sit at his throne and snap, and then somewhere there would be more chaos. It was almost as bad as the war, though it didn’t involve everypony dying. Still, ponies lived in discomfort, but in unity, as Discord created his own empire for everypony to live in.
“Out of nowhere, there were two unicorns with wings; I think alicorn is the correct term. One of them was a dark blue with moons imprinted on her, and the other was white with the sun on her as well. Assessing the situation of chaos before them, they decided to end Discord’s tyranny. They vanquished Discord and set everything peaceful and everypony was glad. This is the history you all learned about. However, Princess Celestia decided to leave out a certain section that displayed her dark side. The group of earth ponies, unicorns, and Pegasi that appeared in our lands made a close bond with the two princesses. Celestia wanted the land of Equestria all for herself, but luckily the outside group was allowed to stay. Celestia decided to banish all of us other groups outside of Equestria forever. Princess Luna first tried to persuade Celestia to not do this, but Celestia was too far gone beyond her help. Then, Luna tried a last ditch attempt to warn everypony by enveloping them in eternal darkness, but Celestia knew her plan and banished Luna to the moon. So, we’ve been transported to this small island. We’ve grown so tired of wandering it, that we decided to rest in the trees by learning to adapt to the tree’s environment. And that is where we have lied till now. ”
At this, Fluttershy squeaked. Rainbow looked up aggressively at the chief. “How can you prove this?” Rainbow asked stubbornly, raising an eyebrow, “I’m pretty sure that if this actually happened, there would be some ponies back in Equestria who would remember this sort of thing.”
The chief sighed. “Well, have you had some weird dreams of late?”
Both Fluttershy and Rainbow cringed. The chief smirked. “Princess Luna is trying to tell you two that everything is not as it seems. Besides, history gets lost along the way to current generations. Which leads me to the reason you’re here: A few years ago, I had a dream. In it, a calm voice told me of what is to come. Dreams like these always seem to foretell the future, no matter what and they have helped me guide my group. The voice told me that a rainbow-maned, cyan Pegasus and a pink-maned, yellow Pegasus were going to bring about the destruction of this island and its inhabitants. I arose and quickly alerted everypony on the island about this. And now you two have come, though I’m not quite sure how you are going to destroy this place.”
Rainbow and Fluttershy stood with their jaws dropped. “Us,” Rainbow said incredulously, “Destroy this island?” She tried to laugh, “That’s a bunch of hooey. Tell that voice that it’s crazy. There’s no way we could do that. It’s not like we have a grudge on you or anything.”
The chief looked at them sadly. “If only. We can’t ignore this omen because it might be true. So, before you have the chance, we’ll eliminate you two. It’s not like we have any attachment: You two are Equestrian traitors who turned your backs on us. My men are mad, and justifiably so. You’ve forced us out of our homeland, and now you are going to destroy our other home. This will not happen. You will be killed. I’m sorry it had to end this way.”
Fluttershy and Rainbow’s eyes widened. Their pupils danced around the chief’s face, searching for some sign that he was lying. After finding none, Rainbow panicked again and flew directly under his legs. After flying for a few moments through the cavernous place, Rainbow’s escape was blocked by a giant hoof. The hoof curled around Rainbow and brought her up to the chief’s face. Rainbow struggled violently against him, but to no avail. She glanced up and grinned sheepishly at the unimpressed chief.
“W-we were just thinking of leaving,” Rainbow said, trying discreetly to worm her way out of the hoof, “No plans to destroy you guys. And there's no way we could harm you if we were in Equestria, jillions of miles from this island. So it’s a win-win situation. We go home and you guys don’t get destroyed.”
“No chance,” the chief said, unblinking, “You could tell Celestia about this island, which would bring our demise.”
“Well,” Rainbow tried, “You could keep us alive. No reason to try to stop the inevitable fate.”
The chief rolled his massive eyes. “We must try anyways. What else have we to lose?”
Rainbow gulped. She turned to Fluttershy, who gave no help other than looking like a deer in headlights. Fluttershy started tearing up after a while, as the implications of her death struck her. No wonderful life to enjoy. No fabulous animals. No wonderful friends. No vibrant neighbors of Ponyville. Nothing. Rainbow turned back to the chief, who slowly lowered her down next to the bawling Pegasus.
The native earth ponies and the Pegasi readied their spears. They inched closer to the two Pegasi.
“Let them have a few words before parting,” the chief said sympathetically.
Tears emerged in Rainbow’s eyes as well. Sniffling, she turned to her companion. The poor pony had her head lowered in her hair, with a hoof raised to block of the rush of tears. ‘Why?’ Rainbow thought, shaking, ‘Why did it have to end here?’ Gathering herself together, Rainbow found the strength to deliver her last words.
“Well, Fluttershy,” Rainbow began, “It had to e-end here.” A sniff. “It had to end on an island we don’t know.” She raised a hoof to brush away the tears. “All because of an accident Twilight made. Now we are about to face our d-death by s-sp-pears” She put her hoof on her chest. “Remember our friends, Flutters? And Ponyville?” She glanced to Fluttershy.
Fluttershy brought up her head to reveal her bloodshot eyes and her disheveled mane. “Remember Applejack?” Rainbow continued, though her sobs shook her body, she kept her voice steady, “She was the most honest pony anypony could ask for. Though stubborn, she was always faithful to us, her friends.” Rainbow lifted her eyes to the sky, as if she could almost see her friends. “Remember Rarity? Though snobby at times, she would always help us. Remember Pinkie Pie? Even though she was annoying, she always knew when to cheer up her friends. Remember Twilight? It’s her fault that she got us on this island, though it doesn’t matter anymore. She always acted like an egghead, but was the smartest in our group.” Rainbow turned her head toward Fluttershy. Fluttershy stared straight back, quivering but trying to stay brave for Rainbow. “And you Fluttershy. You were always the kindest, though shy at times. I’m glad you’re with me to the very end.” Rainbow brushed off more tears. A surge of emotion she never felt to the yellow pony coursed through her body. Suddenly, she deduced what they meant. Looking down at the ground, Rainbow said, “And Flutters, I wanted to say before we leave. Fluttershy, I-I…” Rainbow gulped, trying to summon up the courage.
“I love you!”
Fluttershy gasped, her eyes widening as the native ponies took a second to aww. Rainbow glanced at Fluttershy before looking back down at the ground. ‘Now I’ve done it,’ she thought, ‘I just ruined our friendship, not that it matters.’ Rainbow nervously braced herself for the inevitable rejection. Fluttershy gazed at the crestfallen pony with her jaws dropped. Emotions swirled around in her chest, making her heart beat faster. Her skin tingling, she knew what she must do as well. The timid pony cleared her throat.
“R-rainbow, I-I t-think,” Fluttershy paused, gathering herself, “I-I l-love you too.”
She glanced up, not sure how her normally courageous friend would react. For a split second, she saw the dilated, amber eyes of the blue Pegasus; then Fluttershy felt her lips press tenderly against hers. At first, Fluttershy kept her eyes wrenched open in shock. Then, slowly, her eyes closed to savor the bliss of their love. All their fears of dying faded away at their newborn love. The rain was ignored, for it couldn’t douse the burning of their hearts, infatuated with love.
At the kiss, the native ponies went wild: Clapping and cheering the two lovers. However, the chief was not impressed. “Time’s up,” he said coldly, not willing to let this act of love sidetrack him.
The native ponies reluctantly got into position again pointing their spears at the still kissing Pegasi. Rainbow sensed the tension, and broke the kiss. Fluttershy opened her eyes, feeling a little unsatisfied, but soon remembering their dreadful situation. Rainbow gazed around, looking wistfully at the gathered native ponies readying their spears for impalement. She looked back at her short-lived lover, doomed to die with her. Bracing herself, her voice shook as she said,
“Well, here we are now, about to die,” Rainbow put a hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulder, rain drenching both of the lovers, “But I just want to let you know—“
The ponies put their spears in a circle with about a foot radius from their bodies.
“—that even though we’re going to leave—“
They brought the spears closer until the spears were only an inch from their bodies.
“—that we’ll leave together,”
The ponies drew back their spears, ready to thrust it forward now that they pinpointed the spot that was going to be pierced.
Tears came gushing down Fluttershy’s face like a waterfall, combining with the rain water as she leapt forward and hugged Rainbow tightly. “Together,”
Rainbow hugged her back, closing her eyes, unable to stare at her death straight in the eyes with tears streaming with the rain. Fluttershy too closed her eyes, and they stood there waiting. They stood holding each other, shielding each other from the rain and the native ponies.
The native ponies tensed now, waiting for the signal from the chief. The chief looked sadly at the two lovers and closed his eyes as well as he said, “N—“
Before he could finish his word, a huge portal ripped the fabric between space and time on the outskirts of the clearing. A huge booming noise resounded throughout the entire island, as the native ponies and their chief stared in awe at the sight, waiting. The rain stopped. The clouds dispersed.
> Intrusion
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rainbow and Fluttershy opened their eyes. After seeing all the other ponies staring in awe at the edge of the clearing, the two also peered there. What they saw confused them more than anything they have been put through. Princess Celestia and Twilight were standing in the clearing ahead of a giant portal that looked as though a giant used a sword to cut through a piece of paper. It was about 10 feet in height and 40 feet in length. The portal seemed to lead to the middle of the square in Canterlot which appeared to be filled with plenty of royal guards in full armor, carrying spears. Celestia was looking at the native ponies with an enraged glare.
“I thought that being banished here would be enough.” She roared, “Now you’re planning to kill my own faithful subjects? Should have killed you all when I had the chance.”
Celestia turned back to the portal. She nodded sharply. At once, the royal guards emitted a fearsome war cry as they charged to the native ponies. The native ponies now turned around to brace themselves against the onslaught, though they could tell that the royal guards outnumbered them. The royal guards were much more advanced in terms of armor, as the native ponies had thin armor made from leaves. The tension was impalpable while everypony was waiting for the royal guards to collide with the native ponies. Celestia moved out of the way and appeared to be trying to stare the chief down. Rainbow and Fluttershy glanced anxiously at Twilight who looked like she was dying to reunite with them. The royal guards were merely feet away now…
The two armies struck head on. The royal guards slaughtered the front line with ease. Many royal Pegasi flew up to meet the native Pegasi in an aerial battle. The native unicorns tried in vain to cast a spell to counter them, but the royal unicorns had years of experience practicing offensive magic that tore through the native unicorns petty spells. As the battle neared where Rainbow and Fluttershy were, the royal guards took care to go around them, as to not hurt them. Rainbow and Fluttershy took their chance and ran against the charging army.
Running against the torrent of royal guards and bumping into more than one, they were free from the battle, and they ran close to the edge of the clearing. Panting, they were soon hugged fiercely by Twilight. The three took a moment for a group hug, while the battle raged on around them. Separating, Twilight said with her eyes glistening with tears of joy,
“I’m so glad you guys are okay. I’m sorry for what went wrong. You’ll forgive me right?”
Twilight made puppy eyes and flattened her ears in shame while the two Pegasi assured her that it was just an accident. They quickly brought Twilight up to speed about what happened on the island. How they managed to build a shelter while waiting and how the native ponies capture them. They told their endeavors on the island. They also told her about why the chief and the ponies decided to kill them, though they left out the story of Equestria he had told them.
“Wow,” Twilight said when they finished, “Sounds brutal. When I looked up after casting my spell, I saw you guys weren’t there. I ran back to the library to find out what went wrong. The stupid book didn’t even mention any repercussions. So I searched through all my books to find out. Turns out that Pegasi are different from rats. When you transfigure something, all of the molecules in its body reorganize at a quick rate. In fact, the molecules travel at 6.022 x 1023 miles per hour. During this time, all your ionic and covalent bonds break in your body and all of the molecules are turned into atoms. Since an atom is mostly empty space, it can be easily compacted, so that the organism is as small as a dot. Then, the atoms expand to whatever organism the caster wills it to go to. The genetic material in its body either duplicates, or disappears to fit the new organism’s genetic material. Any atoms lost to fit the new organism will be gained again when the organism transforms back. Unfortunately, the effects of the transformation occurs for only the square root of 4230.897439087089 minutes until the bonds become too unstable and the organism reverts back to what it was. That’s how it should have worked. Instead, Pegasi apparently possess dark matter in a huge quantity. The ratio between normal matter and dark matter is 2 to 1, respectively. The dark matter cannot be compacted as easily as matter can, and so according to the Newton’s third law, there was an opposite reaction that occurred. After trying to compact the molecules, the dark matter couldn’t handle the tension, so it expanded quickly. The reaction that occurred was the same as a teleportation reaction, and all your molecules were scrambled to a faraway place where it was reassembled to form you. The dark matter contained so much potential energy, that when converted to kinetic energy, it unleashed it in an endergonic reaction where the energy being supplied by the compacting helped overcome the activation energy. The equation in simple terms was pressure plus dark energy equals scrambling of molecules. Though each of the factors had about 10 phases and a hundred equations in them as well, I’ll spare the details. Thus, you guys ended up on this island.
“Anyways, after figuring this out, I sent a letter to Princess Celestia and told this to all of our friends, who are presently waiting in the Canterlot square. After only two minutes, she teleported to my library, grabbed my hoof and teleported back to Canterlot. She didn’t give me any explanation at all as she gathered up her army of royal guards in the Canterlot square. Then, she ripped a portal in the middle of the square. I’ve never seen any book that talked about this portal. It looked like it would have required a lot of magic, but Celestia wasn’t even phased. We stepped in the portal and arrived in the frozen tundra in the middle of nowhere. I saw a bunch of ponies dressed up in weird fur coats, shivering by a fire. Celestia seemed to be looking for you guys, because she left after a few seconds. We went out and Celestia made another portal in the same place. This time it led to a desert. She repeated that for a long time until we finally came here and found you. And now—“
Twilight looked at the battle. Fluttershy and Rainbow had long since lost interest in her story and were following the battle as well. All three of them cringed at the sight. It wasn’t even a battle, it was a massacre. The poor native ponies were lying on the blood-covered ground, crying in pain. A head was cleaved off and rolled straight to their feet without them noticing. It was gruesome. The three had never seen as many pony organs, or wounds, or blood, or even suffering.
During this battle, Celestia took off and flew straight toward the chief. The chief roared a roar louder than ten volcanoes combined. The island shook and the battle was momentarily halted, while the ponies tried to regain their footing. Celestia remained unfazed by this and shot a beam of light, with her horn glowing yellow, directly at him. It hit his shoulder and caused a giant gash with a lake of blood. The blood that dripped down impacted the poor ponies below like a giant stone thrown down from the heavens. The ponies hit with this would grunt in pain before lying on the ground with the chief’s blood surrounding the body.
The chief roared in pain and swung a giant hoof at Celestia at a frightening velocity. Celestia concentrated a little, her horn sparkling with a pink aura, and she created a pink force field several layers thick that hovered around her in midair. When the hoof collided with the force field, a few layers were crushed before a loud resounding sound was heard and the hoof was thrown back as if it had hit a wall, knocking the chief off balance. Celestia made the force field disappear with a brief spell and continued flying around the chief.
Celestia shot more beams of light from her horn. As more and more of them reached their marks, the chief gradually grew weaker. Soon, his attacks using his hooves were much slower as more groans of pain were emitted. The chief backed up after more waves of light struck him, crushing a few ponies in the process, until he was against the mountain. Lying there, he cowered with his hoof over his eyes, unable to take more pain.
Celestia hovered confidently in front of him, and concentrated on her next spell. Her horn glowed a bright yellow and continued glowing brighter until it was blinding. Everypony shielded their eyes as Celestia grew close to beginning the spell. Finally, a huge beam of light was shot out of Celestia’s horn. It blew a hole directly in the chest of the chief. The chief watched in horror at the hole, while the edges of the hole caught fire. Panicked, he tried to get up, but was in too much pain to do so, and the flames licked his insides. The flames grew larger as his howls of pain were deafening. Soon, the flames covered his entire body and the last howl had disappeared. Native ponies close to him at the time caught fire as well and yelled as they burned the rest of their ponies.
The fire lasted for a while, until all that was left of the native ponies and the chief was a huge pile of burnt bodies and dead bodies. The royal guards looked unmercifully at the remains. Celestia flew down. She glanced at the still open portal and nodded to her guards. The guards went back in their ranks. Celestia walked with them.
“Celestia, what happened?” Twilight inquired, gagging a little, “What did they do to earn such a horrible fate? Where are we anyways?”
Celestia sighed. “These ponies were criminals and scourges of Equestria. A thousand years ago, I banished them to various places around the world. These places are horrible inhospitable prisons for them to suffer for acting so cruelly. Unfortunately, your spell seemed to have brought your friends to one of said places.” Celestia gazed at Twilight.
“I-I’m sorry,” Twilight said dejectedly, pawing the ground with her hoof.
“It’s all right,” Celestia assured. She closed her eyes as she continued to the portal saying, “Accidents happen.”
Rainbow stepped forward. “Then why did they have to die?” She said angrily.
Celestia turned to her, “Because they were about to kill you. Ponies who have committed crimes twice should be put to death to avoid further inconveniences and discomfort, don’t you think so?”
Rainbow gulped. “Uh, yeah I guess,” she said halfheartedly.
As the last of the royal guards trotted back through to Canterlot, the four headed back there as well. With their minds in a million places, Fluttershy and Rainbow kept their stride with Twilight and Celestia. Once the two went through the portal, Fluttershy took a moment to gaze back. She noticed Celestia was still on the island and hadn’t crossed into the portal.
Celestia rose up until she was higher than the treetops. Her horn glowed a sickly greenish-black as her eyes screwed up in concentration. The burnt body of the chief lay with other burned bodies, smoke rising from it. The native ponies below that were still alive cried out in pain and asked for her mercy. They were surrounded by dead ponies with a lake of blood soaked into the ground. “Please,” they said, “Help us.” Groans of pain were heard as they reached a hoof out to Celestia. As Fluttershy watched in horror, the glow around Celestia’s horn grew until it was as big as a lamp. After a few sparks flew out, all the magic energy was released with a black beam. The black beam shot toward the island. When the beam struck it, it surrounded the island, making it disappear with all that was left were the waves of the sea. Celestia turned toward the portal meeting Fluttershy’s gaze. Fluttershy squealed and turned around.

> Wish
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Rainbow and Fluttershy made their way into the square where the soldiers were gathered. Twilight was already there, waiting for them. As they made their way to her, Celestia came up behind them. “Dismissed,” she said simply to the soldiers, and they all dispersed.
Celestia trotted up next to the three and fixed them with a royal Canterlot glare. “You three are not allowed to talk about what happened on the island outside your circle of friends. Stay silent, remain in Equestria, and don’t dream about what lies beyond our boundaries. Only barbaric lands will await you and other ponies that are foolish enough to venture off.” She fixed a hard stare at Rainbow in particular.
When all of the soldiers had vanished, Fluttershy and Rainbow peered at the other side of the square to see the rest of their friends: Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie. Their friends charged at them and tackled them into a fierce hug. They all fell to the ground, laughing to a point where tears were in their eyes. Pulling apart, Applejack asked,
“What happened? Ah was worried as ter where y’all were.”
Together, Twilight, Rainbow, and Fluttershy relayed their entire journey starting from when Twilight performed the experiment on them. First, Rainbow and Fluttershy told them where they ended up and their adventures from there and stopped at where the portal had appeared which was where Twilight told her side of the story. Their three friends would nod, gasp, or (in Rarity’s case) faint from the sheer magnitude of possibilities they drew from their story. When they were finally finished, there was an awkward silence while Rarity, Pinkie, and Applejack stared in wonder at all of the adventures that they had gone through. The sun at this point was now setting and its red glares darted across Equestria.
“You know what this calls for?” Pinkie broke in, oblivious to the silence, “A party! This will be an ‘our-friends-have-returned-from-an-evil-island’ party. It’ll be great! I’ll go get everypony to come,” Pinkie giggled.
The other five friends nervously exchanged glances, as if they knew something important that Pinkie didn’t. “Actually,” Rainbow admitted, “I think we should relax a little first. After all, it was quite the journey and I think we could all have a break to check if we are still alive.”
The other four sighed in relief, exclaiming how they thought that would be a great idea. Pinkie looked a little disappointed for a split second, before reverting back to her energetic state. Rarity and Applejack kept staring at Rainbow and Fluttershy, wondering if they had changed in any way. They noticed Rainbow and Fluttershy looked frazzled after their adventures. Exchanging glances, Applejack nodded at Rarity.
“Well,” Rarity began, faking a yawn, “It was quite a tale. I’m sure you two are tired beyond belief now. I personally have to go back to the boutique and make sure Sweetie Belle hasn’t destroyed anything. I’m sure we can talk about this in more depth when you two are more awake.”
“Yeah,” Rainbow said, actually yawning, “I miss my bed. See you guys tomorrow.”
The six said their goodbyes and parted. Twilight headed off towards her library to write up a letter to Princess Celestia about friendship. Applejack to Sweet Apple Acres, Rarity to her boutique, and Pinkie to Sugarcube Corner.
Fluttershy returned to her cottage. All of her animals surrounded her, clinging onto her legs while making delightful noises. She noticed with relief that Twilight had actually fed all of them according to their regular diet. Ignoring her pets for now, Fluttershy yawned as she crept sleepily up the stairs. Slinking in her room, she collapsed onto her bed and fell asleep before she even hit her blankets.
Creak.
Fluttershy bolted upright as she heard the door being opened. Images of native ponies, the chief, and Celestia flooded her groggy mind as she stayed petrified sitting there, wanting to go investigate the source of the noise.
“W-w-who’s t-there?” Fluttershy tried to say assertively.
“Shhh,” the pony whispered as she rested a hoof on Fluttershy’s mouth.
“R-rainbow? You startled me.” Fluttershy exclaimed in relief.
Rainbow smiled smugly as she lifted up the layers of the blankets to expose Fluttershy’s yellow body. Fluttershy emitted a small meep as Rainbow jumped in with her, squeezing into her body. Fluttershy turned toward her, gazing mystically into Rainbow’s eyes before she was met with a pair of lips.
The kiss was tender, yet passionate. After experiencing it just once, it was enough to fill Fluttershy with lust for more. It let her escape into a state of complete bliss with all her worries and troubles vanishing. She loosened up for once after the tense state she was put through when on the island. Fluttershy reached up with a hoof and stroked her rainbow-mane with all its thin and scruffy fibers of hair. With Fluttershy’s other hoof, she held Rainbow’s face, caressing it.
For Rainbow, the kiss was magical, even for a speedster like her who didn’t like mushy romantic situations. She brought her forelegs and hind legs around the creamy, yellow pony’s body and drew them closer together until they were so close that fibers of hair, yellow and blue, were squeezed together.  A deep moan gurgled out of the depths of her mouth, only to be blocked by the tightly locked lips.
After what seemed like an eternity, they broke the kiss and pulled apart, though still remaining close enough to gaze upon each other’s eyes in serenity. Both their eyes glimmered and a smile brightened up their face. Fluttershy nuzzled Rainbow gently at her neck, until Fluttershy laid her head there. Rainbow gazed down at her and rested her chin on top of Fluttershy’s forehead. Together, they lay in peace for a while.
Fluttershy glanced up. “Do you think we should tell our friends about this?”
Rainbow smirked. “Nah, they would just make fun of us.”
Fluttershy sighed as she closed her eyes. “Should we have told them about the story of Equestria the chief told us?”
Thinking thoughtfully for a minute, Rainbow brought a hoof up to her chin. “They wouldn’t believe us.” She gazed at the walls of the bedroom, as though she could see through them. “Anyways, we still have to find more about lands outside Equestria. Think of the adventures, close calls, exciting lands, and new ponies we can find.”
Fluttershy shook a little in horror. Then, looking up, she was reassured by her overconfident marefriend. “As long as you’re with me.”
Rainbow kept staring at the wall, imagining the adventures and lands that they would find. ‘If Equestria is already this big,’ she thought, ‘Then, I wonder what we’ll find. More stories and more revelation.’ She sighed. After all, they could always go out of Equestria.