Chapter 4: Friendly Greetings
It was now in the early afternoon and at this point almost everything that was set up for the race was moved out, save for a few stalls here and there, but those were quickly being taken care of. Plus, somepony needed to take care of the leftover confetti littering the ground. It was quite the big shift from all the crowds cheering and yelling earlier today. It was much quieter now that everypony had left and the Wonderbolts took off back to Cloudsdale. Most likely Lightning Dust was with them as well.
Now that everything had settled down, most of the ponies in Ponyville have gone back to their everyday lives. Some could be seen taking their pets on walks or working at their stalls they had open in the town square. Some were watering their plants outside their homes and others were playing with their kids in the park. Almost everywhere though you'd hear somepony talking about the race in one way or another. Those who were close enough to Rainbow Dash had been wondering where she had been during the end of the race and they got a bit worried, but those thoughts were quickly pushed aside when she finally got back to town. Now however, there was just one more problem.
Rainbow had just gotten back to her cloud house outside of Ponyville. There had been plenty of ponies asking her all sorts of questions on her way there. Why weren't you at the finish? What did you think about Lightning Dust taking the gold? Can I have an autograph? Ok, that last one she didn't mind so much, but at the moment she didn't feel like acknowledging any of them. Right now she just felt too disappointed in herself, among other things.
As she kicked open her door she instant threw her Wonderbolt academy goggles on the floor before throwing herself on the couch and letting out on aggravated grunt as she stared at the ceiling. How could she have let herself lose like that. Not once has she ever not finished a race. That race for a pet didn't count. Even if she was going to lose, which wasn't likely, she was gonna finish strong anyway. She couldn't believe how much things got out of hoof. It was embarrassing is what it was.
Once she and her friends had left the Everfree she had explained to them everything that had gone down. Everything from Lightning cheating, to the strange lights, to her fight with that pincushion of a hedgehog. That hedgehog. What was his deal anyway? He was always spouting nonsense about testing her and all that baloney. Yeah right. If anything he was probably paid off by Lightning Dust in order to keep her from winning. Although, what kind of powers did he have anyway? She had explained that part to Twilight in detail. Twilight had said that anything that used magic had some place to channel it through. Usually it was some kind of horn, but he definitely didn't have a horn, unless you counted those excessively long quills on his forehead. However, whatever he was doing he looked to be doing through his hands. Twilight said that wasn't likely but she knew what she saw and she just left it at that. Afterwards she had left her friends and came back here. She just needed some time to think is all.
She turned onto her side and looked at the discarded pair of goggles on the floor. So much for being her lucky pair. She didn't feel very lucky right now. Just angry. At herself, Lightning Dust, and the hedgehog. If she ever found him again she would be sure to turn his entire world upside down. That's the least of what he deserved.
It was fairly dark in Twilight's bedroom as the curtains were still closed and all of the lights were off. The only light in the room was that of the sun barely shining through a crack in the curtains. The line of light went across the bed, onto the floor, and eventually went across a small basket with a blanket with lump in it. There was a very loud snoring noise radiating throughout the room as the lump grew and shrunk in sync. To the occupant of the tiny bed it was extremely relaxing. No worries, no chores, and most importantly no…
"Spike!" Twilight's voice echoed loudly.
The lump in the bed suddenly jumped out from under the covers with the blanket flying across the room and him clutching his chest tightly as he breathed heavily from the shock. He was wide eyed like he had just been scared out of his mind. Once the shock went down, however, he settled down before looking around the room and making agitated sigh as he grudgingly climbed out of his comfy bed.
He was a tiny purple dragon with green scales aligned on his head going all the way down to his tail. When you think of the word dragon you would think of a terrifying beast that was as big as the Canterlot castle and breathed pure tidal waves of fire. The dragon named Spike, however, was no more than a foot tall and while his fire breathe could be impressive, at times, it could never match up to that of a fully grown dragon. Also, whereas most dragons were rarely scared to death, at this moment he was not most dragons. He was actually still a baby in dragon years. In pony years he would most likely be a teenager by this point since his hatching. Unfortunately, Twilight doesn't work like that with him. He'd always be a child to her.
"Spike! You up yet?!" Yelled the voice of Twilight as she came through the large bedroom door and using her magic lit the chandelier on the ceiling, providing light to the once dim room.
Spike rubbed his eyes as he walked up to the unicorn. Could she not have let him sleep for a least another hour? Then again, this was Twilight standing in front of him. Sleep wasn't the highest thing on her priority list.
"Yeah yeah I'm up," Spike said groggily. "You don't have to yell ya know."
Twilight looked at her assistant with an almost disappointed look. "Spike how can you still be sleeping at this hour?" She walked over to the window and opened the blinds, letting the sunlight pour in. "It's almost noon. I even let you sleep in."
Spike looked at her more than a little annoyed at this point. "We stayed up all night last night researching the history of rock farms. Rock farms! I know Pinkie is wanting to take you to visit her family soon, but I swear after that session my brain is filled with nothing but rocks, literally!"
Twilight just rolled her eyes as she lifted him up onto her back and left the room as he continued to rant about his now infamous talking rock dream. She loved this tiny dragon with all of her heart. Heck, he's technically already her adopted kid, but there were times when she just didn't know what to do with him. He was very loyal and had always helped her at the library when it was still standing and now he was helping to take care of what was essentially a castle. But there were other times when he just didn't take something seriously. It was important to have knowledge of a great many things in Equestria. Spike however, always seemed to loath learning around her. She wondered why?
"And don't even get me started on the pebbles," he said as he gave an uncomfortable shiver. "Those guys just gave me the creeps."
"Spike," said Twilight, "as much as I want to listen to the end of this story we have something more important to take care of."
"Really? Like what?" asked Spike as a thought popped into his head. "Oh that's right! So how did Rainbow Dash do!? Did she really kick flank in the race!?"
Twilight winced a bit as she was brought back to how Rainbow Dash looked after hearing the news of her loss. It always hurt to see her friends like that. To her that's always how you could tell when somepony had a close friend, if you hurt when they do. She brought her thoughts back to the present and sighed.
"No Spike she didn't, "she said simply as they neared a large ornate door.
Spikes eyes widened at the news. Rainbow lose? That was almost unheard of. "Wait, what do you mean she didn't!? What happened!?"
Twilight used her magic to pushed the large doors open to reveal a massive library with a plethora of shelves, all lined with rows upon rows of books. It even had a second-floor balcony going all the way around the room with even more up there. Ever since the old library was destroyed they did what they could to recover what little books were left. This was that explosions weren't very kind to books then. Thankfully princess Celestia herself gave Twilight a large portion of the books from the Canterlot library to which Twilight was very, VERY grateful. Whenever it came to books you could be sure that Twilight would be ecstatic to get her hooves on them.
"I'll explain in a second," answered Twilight has she used her magic to lift Spike off her back. "Right now I need you to get the Equestrian Bestiaries Volumes 1-3 and the Mythic Compendium."
Spike instantly got into his 'assistant mode' as he saluted and rushed off to a tall ladder that was attached to one of the long bookshelves by wheels. He climbed up about half way before looking to his right and blowing a steady stream of green flame from his mouth, the force pushing the ladder down to another part of the shelf. He kept his eyes open for a very specific section of the shelf. Once he saw his destination he pulled down on a small lever on the side of the ladder, causing it to slowly break until it came to complete stop where he wanted it to. Using his claw he scanned the shelf for the books. One by one he grabbed them and threw them over to Twilight who was taking her seat at a large reading table. As they sailed toward her she grabbed them with her magic and gently placed them on the table.
The moment the first one hit the table she opened it up and quickly began to scan through it. While to most it would look like she was skipping over words every second, she was actually able to read everything as a very rapid pace. This really helped her during very stressful study sessions where there was little time to do anything. Constantly she was quickly looking through one section of the book and moved on to the next page. As Spike approached her he could tell something was up. She only got like this when something was up. She was one of those ponies who wanted to take her time reading every little detail. She could do that even now, but just in case she always took it slow.
Spike pulled up a chair and sat next to her, having to lean up in order to see the book she was currently looking through. "So what happened to Rainbow? Why'd she lose?"
"It was…a few things that caused it," Twilight answered while not taking her eyes away from the book.
"Like?" Spike asked.
"Well you remember Lightning Dust?" she asked.
Spike raised his brow. "You mean that stuck up pegasus Rainbow competed against at the Wonderbolts academy? Yeah what about her?"
"Well it turns out she was competing in the race today too," explained Twilight as she closed the book and moved on to the next one. "And she had some kind of vendetta against Rainbow. I guess because she think the reason she got kicked out was because of her."
"Don't tell me she won!" Spike said with a hint of aggravation in his voice.
"Worse," said Twilight. "Turns out she turned an Everfree cloud on Rainbow and caused her to crash land."
"You mean she cheated!?" Spike yelled. He hated it when somepony had to cheat to get their way. It took all the fun and competition out of everything. Plus it was with one of his friends which was even more unforgivable. Then another thought crossed his mind.
"Wait a minute," he said. "Wat does that have to with these books?
"That's the other thing I was going to tell you about," said Twilight.
"What?" asked Spike worriedly. "Did she get attacked by a Timberwolf and you're trying to find a treatment for the bite!?"
"No," Twilight deadpanned.
"Was she stung by a manticore and you're looking for an antidote!?" he asked again.
"No," Twilight said trying to bury her thoughts into the current book.
"Was she bitten by a vampire bat and she's going to turn into a batpony!? he asked remembering the whole incident with Fluttershy.
"No!" Twilight said in an aggravated tone.
"…"
"…"
"Was she…?" Spike began.
"NO! She was attacked by a hedgehog!" Twilight yelled taking her thoughts away from her studies.
Spike blinked a couple of times as his look of worry turned into a look of confusion. Did he just hear her right? Maybe he didn't clean out his ears good enough last night.
"Come again?" Spike asked as he took a talon and quickly tried to clean out his ear.
Twilight in her aggravation failed to realize how silly that sounded. She mentally slapped herself for saying it like that. Oh Rainbow will never let her out of this one if she ever found out.
"A hedgehog attacked her yes," Twilight said.
She waited for an answer from her assistant, but all she got was the sound of intense laughter. She looked to the tiny dragon to see him on the floor rolling around on his back and gripping his stomach, all while drowning in his own laughter.
"Rainbow Dash…was attacked…by a tiny…little hedgehog!" Spike got out through the laughter.
Twilight slammed her head against the book. She knew this would happen. Somehow she just knew it. She needed to rectify this quickly.
"Spike," she said, but his laughter drowned her out.
"Spike!" she yelled.
That got his attention, but he still felt the laughter trying to escape as he wiped a tear from his face. He picked himself up as he got back in the chair.
"Twilight you got to be pulling my leg or something!" Spike said with little laughs in between.
"I'm not Spike," she said getting aggravated with her assistant.
She heard him start to let his laughs escape his mouth again. "SPIKE! Take this seriously."
"How am I supposed to do that!?" he asked. "You just told me the fastest flyer in Equestria got attacked by a rodent."
"There's more to it than that Spike!" Twilight yelled.
"What was this a magic hedgehog or something?" Spike asked amusingly.
"Well…I don't really know…" she said closing the book and bringing out the next one.
Spike looked at her with a raised brow. "That was a joke Twi."
"Yes well I'm not joking right now," she said. "This wasn't some tiny, cute hedgehog that I'm talking about either."
"Well what other kinds of hedgehogs are there?" Spike asked.
"That's what I'm trying to find out," she said. "I've never seen anything like it and I can't seem to find anything in here either."
"Well what did it look like?" asked Spike.
"Well it was bipedal for starters," explained Twilight. "It also had light grey fur and a few very large quills on its head. It was also wearing gloves and boots of all things. It even talked!"
At this point Spike was looking at his friend like she was some insane pony. What she was describing almost seemed like something a filly or a colt could come up with. He deciding to press things a little further.
"Umm anything else?" he asked.
Twilight put her hoof to her chin in thought. "Well, Rainbow was the one who saw it for the majority of the time. She did say it was using some kind of magic to fly and pick up objects, kind of like a unicorn can. But that can't be true. There shouldn't have been any way for him channel it."
Twilight ruffled her mane in frustration. It was still hard to wrap her head around this. Nothing like she saw for the brief time she was there should exist. Was this just some brand new species that she hadn't heard of or was part of some ancient civilization that only just now decided to show itself to the rest of the world? She had no idea. She did recall Rainbow saying it appeared after a blinding flash of light and she remembered the scorch marks on the ground which apparently were from just that. Did it come here with some sort of advanced teleportation spell? Maybe that's what she should look into.
She was about to ask Spike to bring her another book until she looked at him and saw that he was giving her a very perplexed look. He blinked like he was trying to process what she was saying. Yep, she should've known he would act like this.
"Twilight," he said, "maybe it would be a good idea for you to get some rest. I mean, you were up all night and got up early to go to the race. I can go fix up the bed if you…"
"I'm not crazy!" Twilight interrupted him. "I'm not making this up, or hallucinating or whatever you think is going on! Even the others saw it!"
"Twi you got to admit that what you said actually sounds…crazy right?" asked Spike.
"Crazier than little insects that eat everything, poison joke, or Discord?" she retorted.
Spike was about to reply but he stopped himself. "Ok, you got me there, but still this really, really crazy sounding."
Before he spoke any further, and before Twilight decided she could use another assistant, an idea popped into his head. He was right. This whole thing did sound crazy. But maybe for good reason.
"So crazy that it really could be Discord!" he exclaimed with a smile.
Twilight raised an eyebrow at that. "Huh?"
"Think about it Twi!" said Spike. "Even though Discord is reformed doesn't mean he can't use his powers remember. Maybe this whole thing is just another chaotic prance for him."
Twilight was just about to tell Spike how crazy he sounded just now, but then again…it's Discord. You look crazy up in the dictionary you might as well see a picture of him holding a cup made of chocolate milk with the glass in the cup. Sure, it was true he was reformed, for real this time…she thinks, but every once in a while, her and the other princesses may find themselves cleaning up the mess after he 'accidentally' has some fun. Usually that means not so much fun for anypony that just so happened to be a bit too close to the king of chaos.
"You know what Spike," she said as she slammed the book closed, "you're right. Maybe this is just another fluke of his. Even if it isn't him, maybe I should've went to see the princesses about this in the first place."
"Maybe?" he deadpanned as he was once again lifted onto her back with her magic.
Twilight ignored that comment as she left the library and walked down a large flight of stairs leading to a massive grand hall. Don't get it wrong, she loved the idea of living in a castle, but there were times she realized just how empty the place seemed. The way her hooves echoed throughout the halls, how the ceiling was so far away from her that at times she actually felt a little dizzy when looking straight up. Thankfully her friends made sure to keep her company. Plus, with the old library destroyed, ponies were looking forward to a new one, so every so often she'd give free rein to anypony wanting to take a look at the new expanse of books she had to offer. Then there was Spike of course. While yes, he could be difficult at times he was still a valued friend and practically family to her. He helped keep the place clean and helped her to organize. For some reason though he always had on this worried look whenever she mentioned that.
"So we headed to Canterlot?" asked Spike.
"Not yet," said Twilight. "First I was going to get Rainbow Dash. She saw this guy the most so I'm sure she could be of help."
"If you can get her to move," said Spike.
It was true. She hated losing anything, so it was likely that she was going to stay firmly planted at home until she got over it, which usually wasn't quick.
"I'm sure we can persuade her somehow," said Twilight.
"W-we!?" Spike stuttered.
"Yep! You're going to help me," Twilight said with a smile.
"I-I don't know Twilight," said Spike, "You know how scary she can be when she's angry."
"I'm sure you can think of something," she said.
"Wait let's talk about this!" Spike tried to negotiate.
Twilight was giggling to herself as she opened the front doors to the outside, and suddenly stopped in her tracks.
"Hey what's up?" Spike asked as he looked around her head and went wide eyed, swearing he felt his jaw hit the cold tile floor.
Twilight herself was speechless. Standing in front of them was the grey hedgehog from the Everfree that had attacked Rainbow. This time though, instead of an intimidating look like she was expecting from somepony that attacked one of her friends, he had the look a colt who just got caught stealing from the cookie jar by his mother. Standing in front of him, however, and staring directly at Twilight was what looked like a purple, bipedal cat with a long ponytail sort of a hairstyle and very royal looking clothing with her arms crossed and a very intimidating look in her eyes, like a roaring fire held back by her own will. Her very presence almost felt like it demanded respect.
"Is this the castle of princess Twilight Sparkle?" she asked with a very calm and collective voice.
For quite a while, all Rainbow had been feeling was disappointment, frustration, and anger. Of course those feelings were still lingering there, but all she really felt now was an extreme sense of boredom. She had planned her entire day based around the competition and even once that was over she was planning on celebrating with the Wonderbolts back in Cloudsdale. With that outcome gone, she had now resorted to playing a game of cards on her coffee table. Now she usually hated these kinds of games. They were too slow and always seemed like a waste of time. Although, she did enjoy her and Applejack's chess matches at times. Those were some of the few times she'd want to play in front of her friends. Mainly because it was always fun to show up Applejack. Although she find them as ways to pass some time when there was nothing really to do. Not that it made them any less boring.
Right now she was having trouble finding a red queen to go on a black king. Thing is she had one from the three cards she just drew, but it was right under another card that she couldn't use. She let out a frustrated sigh as she contemplated what to do. Her hoof was slowly dragging over the hidden queen, her thinking about just taking it and finishing the game. Slowly she began to pull the card out, but about half way through when she grunted to herself and pushed it back in. She wasn't about to resort to cheating to win a game, even against herself.
Her head perked up as she came out of the game. "Oh come on!" she yelled to no pony as she slammed her head on the table, cards flying in in every direction from the impact.
The whole point of her playing was to take her mind off what had happened, but everything she did just kept reminding her. She wanted to forget it, but for her this wasn't something you could just move on from instantly. The amount of effort she had put in for today was for nothing. Rainbow flared her wings and slowly hovered out of the chair towards the front door, looking to calm herself.
She opened the door and steadily flew out in the sky letting the cool breeze through her mane counter the warm sunlight. It was a nice feeling to her and she couldn't help but smile. She always wondered how unicorns and earth ponies could go without wings of their own. She could only think of a life like that being restrictive when compared to being able to having the whole sky to mess around in. In her eyes it was liberating.
She let herself drift slowly through the soft, thin clouds as she acted like she was lying on her back, like she was swimming using her back hooves to push herself. The gentle mist of the clouds parted as they passed by her wings. Ok. This was the perfect life. Maybe it was for the best to forget about the race. It's not like it mattered too much anymore. Sure, the stab at what all happened would still be there, but that only meant that she needed to try harder the next time. Whenever she met Lightning again she could show her right there and then how much she improved. And the hedgehog…well, that's something she'll have to think about. She wasn't sure what his problem was, but as of right now. He's just like everything else: in the past. Although if she had to wager she'd say that if she ever did meet up with some guy like that again it would be too soon.
Rainbow broke out of her thoughts as she looked up at the afternoon sun. She may like the cool breeze, but she might as well enjoy the warmth while it lasted. By next week they were scheduled to bring in a load of storm clouds and by that time the sun will be completely blocked out and be replaced with a grey sky, not for a short time either. Not that she thought that was necessarily a bad thing, but heavy rain never was her favorite thing in the world. Made her winds too heavy to be able to take an evening flight. Well, might as well get a little sun bathing in while possible. She closed her eyes and let her wings do all the work from there.
"Hey Rainbow Dash! Whatcha doing?!" said a very hyper voice.
Rainbow shot up and looked in the direction of the voice to see what looked like a pink flying machine that was being powered by pedal power. And Pinkie Pie seemed to be at the one at the 'helm'. She could've asked where Pinkie got the dang thing, but Whenever you wanted Pinkie to answer your questions you usually end up with even more afterwards. Most ponies just tend to roll with it as it was the only way not to get caught up in her enigma of logic.
Rainbow just sighed and said, "Pinkie, what are doing?"
"I'm talking to you silly! Duh." Pinkie said like she wasn't in the sky as an earth pony. "Now why you up here when all of your friends are all down there?"
Rainbow look down past the thin layer of clouds and saw three other ponies on the ground. Fluttershy, Rarity and Applejack were all looking up at them, although Rainbow couldn't see there expressions from here.
"Look Pinkie, I get that you all want to help me, but this is something that I need to get over on my own," Rainbow said to her friend.
"There's no time for moping around here Dashie!" Pinkie exclaimed with a smile on her face the entire time. "We have something very important that needs to be taken care of!"
That got Rainbow's attention. Like what? With Pinkie it could be anything. Although, if it is actually important then she can't really ignore it, especially coming from one of her friends.
"What's so impor…" Rainbow started before noticing that Pinkie wasn't even here anymore.
She looked all around her but could see a single pink strand of hair from the bubbly mare. That it until she looked back down to the others to see her already standing next to them, and the flying machine nowhere to be seen. Rainbow had the most confused expression on her face before she took a deep breath and flew down to meet them.
'It's Pinkie Pie Rainbow Dash. Only explanation needed,' she thought.
After landing she finally saw the worried looks they all had. That seems like what this entire day has been filled with, just worry. Well, not that it's surprising. It's not every day you go through what she had went through today. Not wanting to let this linger for too long she decided to cut to the chase.
"Ok, so what's so important?" she asked.
She couldn't help but notice the small smiles starting to grow on her friends' faces. What was going on?
"Weeeelllllll," Pinkie dragged on, "me and the girls had a talk and we thought of something that might cheer you up. Ya know, just something to do as best friends!"
Pinkie pulled out a small slip of paper from her mane, but the others couldn't help but notice the tiny alligator that was holding onto it it's toothless maw.
"Gummy!" Pinkie said with a giggle as she pulled him off the paper. "When did you get in there!? You're supposed to be back at the bakery watching the cake! We don't want it to burn now do we!"
She set Gummy on the ground and said, "Run on now little Gummy! You have a cake to watch! The business depends on you!"
The alligator simply blinked, but only one eye at a time, before slowly walking away. Rainbow swore that that little thing was slower than Tank. And that's saying something.
"Anyway, this is for you!" Pinkie said handing her the paper.
Rainbow took it, but immediately noticed the slimy saliva that coated one side. She grimaced a little, but took it anyway and began reading through it.
"You are hereby invited to attend Pinkie and Friends' New Record Party Extravaganza. The location will be at Sugarcube Corner at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday. Be sure to bring your plus 20," Rainbow read it off.
"Pinkie…what?" Rainbow said already confused.
"It was actually Fluttershy's idea," said Applejack. "We all thought ya needed something to take yer mind off a things, so she came up with throwin' ya a party."
"I just thought you could use it is all…" Fluttershy said meekly.
"Plus that if she didn't think of it Pinkie would've," Rarity said with a giggle.
"It's true!" Pinkie said immediately.
"But what for?" asked Rainbow. "I know it's to cheer me up, but what do you mean 'New Record'?"
"Well…" said Fluttershy, "…while you may not have won the race today" she paused for a second seeing the slight wince Rainbow made, "umm…you still did better at them all than any other pegasus from Ponyville has done before…"
"Yep!" Applejack said proudly. "Before you entered there hadn't been a pony alive who had done as good as ya did. I bet even those yeller bellies in Canterlot were goin' wide eyed at what ya pulled off."
"I sure don't feel like," Rainbow said lowly.
"Darling you can't keep kicking yourself while you're down like that," said Rarity. "Look at it this way. Do you think that mare Lightning Dust ever pulled off a feat like that?"
"No," she said.
"Do you think that in a completely fair race you'd win?"
Rainbow lifted her head a little bit. "Yes."
Time to try and finish it off. "And do you think you'll let some hedgehog…thing get in your way next time?"
Rainbow was about to answer, but was doing a bit of a double take. Would that happen again? What're the odds of something like that happening again?
"Umm…I don't think so," Rainbow said a bit unsure of her answer.
"Hey don't fret," Applejack said. "Whatever that thing was, Twilight said she'd find out whatever she could about the little varmint. Ya know her. She ain't gonna stop until she's found somethin'."
"Yeah!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie. "And then you'll be able to really kick his flank if it ever did happen again! Now come on! We gotta get to Twilight's so she'll know about the party!"
Before anyone could respond Pinkie zoomed off towards Twilight's castle, leaving only a trail of pink behind her. The other only watched as the hyperactive mare went to break Twilight out of whatever study session she was in.
"You kind of have to go now," said Rarity. "After all this I doubt you'll get off easy."
Rainbow thought about it and honestly, she had been avoiding her friends a bit too much today. Who knows. Maybe this would do some good for her.
She put on a genuine smile and said, "You know I think I will. It wouldn't be a very good party if I wasn't there!"
"It's always good to have all your friends there," Fluttershy said with a smile as they all started their slower pace to the castle.
"Yeah, but everypony knows I'm the life of the party, even if it is one of Pinkie's parties," said Rainbow.
"Something like that," Applejack mumbled underneath her breath.
"What was that?" Rainbow Dash asked as if daring her to say it.
Applejack just looked away like nothing was wrong. "I don't know what you're talkin' about."
"Oh I think you know," said Rainbow.
Rarity leaned over to Fluttershy as the two ponies started to bicker. "Well at least she seems back to normal," she whispered.
"I know," Fluttershy whispered back. "I just hope the party goes well for her."
"You have to stop worrying darling," Rarity whispered. "Pinkie never lets us down with her parties. Things will work out."
As the ponies continued their little banter they were nearing the large doors to Twilight's crystal castle. Since they were her friends of course they had free reign to enter as they pleased. Rainbow and Applejack, being the strongest physically, pushed open the large doors before closing them back again behind them. The four ponies had to assume Pinkie was already here bothering Twilight again about going another party like she always did. Of course they hoped Twilight agreed to it, but at times they knew the princess needed some time to her own.
They approached the door to the lounge which was where they usually went to first to find Twilight in the massive structure. The library was always the other place. Before they could open the door though, they opened slightly themselves as Pinkie peered her head through.
"Hey guys!" she said gleefully.
"I guess you've already spoke to Twi huh Pinkie?" Rainbow gave a little laugh.'
"Uh huh," she nodded, "but she has some guest right now so we're just having a little tea party!"
The other looked at each other a little confused. Who would Twilight have over for tea? Princes Celestia or Luna maybe? Zecora? Well no use guessing. They could just find out themselves. They made their way in, Pinkie opening the door for them, and they all stopped at what they saw. Sitting around a fairly large coffee table was Twilight holding a teacup with her magic, Spike in an apron serving the tea, but that was not out of the ordinary. What they really noticed were the two guests. One was purple cat holding her own teacup and had her legs crossed in a lady-like fashion. She was eyeing the group with hint of curiosity in her eyes. The other was…
"Hey," the grey hedgehog said nervously to the ponies while beginning to stand up, although still holding his tea. "I'm sure you might have some questions, and I'll be sure to...OUUGGGHH!"
He didn't even finish his sentence before Rainbow straight up tackled him over the back of the couch, him eventually forcefully getting pushed into a wall with a very angry pegasus holding him there and the tea all over the floor.
"Rainbow!" yelled Twilight, but she stopped after seeing a gentle hand wave by the cat.
"Don't worry about him," she said calmly still sitting as she was before. "Maybe he'll learn from it." She simply took another sip of her coffee.
"Wait! Blaze!?" the hedgehog said nervously.
"You and I need to have a little talk buddy," Rainbow said dangerously.
"Ooooohhhhhhh…I thought you looked familiar!" Pinkie said with a smile.
It had taken some time, but after coxing from Twilight and Fluttershy, plus a little force from Applejack, they managed to remove Rainbow from the roughed up hedgehog long enough for everyone to calm down, somewhat. In that time Spike had already cleaned up the spilled tea from the floor, much to his distress. Does anypony have any idea how hard it is to clean up hot tea from a rug? Not easy. Afterwards, the group of ponies and the two visitors sat down at the table, Twilight being kind enough to pour the hedgehog another cup of tea. Although Rainbow made an effort to sit completely on the opposite end of the table from him, giving him a narrow eyed glare the entire time. The hedgehog could feel her gaze on him and he couldn't really bring himself to look her in the eye. Yes, he fought her earlier today, but he had to admit that this pony was scary.
Nopony really knew what to say at this point. It was awkwardly silent since their little scuffle, and nopony wanted to accidentally start something else. The only one of them that seemed to be completely normal was the cat who was still calmly taking periodic sips from her tea. Even then, however, she never said a word.
"Well," Twilight spoke up wanting to break the ice, "now that that's all taken care of I think it's time we all introduce ourselves."
She began gesturing to her and her friends. "As I said before, I'm Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship, and these are my friends: Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy. I'm uh…sure you've already met Rainbow Dash," she said with nervous laughter.
The cat, after showing little to no emotion, let out a tiny chuckle, but mostly to herself, before setting down her tea and standing up. "It's a pleasure to meet you all," she said with a little bow. "I'm Blaze the Cat, and the Princess of Sol."
It was the hedgehog's turn to set down his new cup of tea and stand, although a bit reluctant considering what happened last time. "And my name is Silver the Hedgehog," he said with confidence, but still keeping an eye on the blue pegasus. He gave his own bow, being in the presence of another princess after all.
Despite the way he was acting now, Rainbow still held her glare. Just because he was being polite doesn't mean she trusted him. She thought she wouldn't have to worry about this again, or at least for a while. But now he was here in her friend's castle/home. As they both sat back down she cast a look to his friend in the regal clothes. She wasn't too sure of her yet. She seemed ok, but only time would tell.
"Well it's a pleasure to meet you both," Rarity said with a smile trying to warm up to the pair. "And if you don't mind me mentioning, I love your apparel darling," she said addressing Blaze.
Blaze looked down at her attire and chuckled. "Well it is the traditional wear of my family. Everyone in my family wore clothing of similar style."
"You must come by the boutique sometime," Rarity suggested. "If I could learn how to make something similar I'm sure it would really catch the eye of anypony with a taste for fashion."
"You…umm…also said you were a princess?" asked Fluttershy. She still wasn't completely sure of herself when talking to new comers, especially ones like this, but with how everyone was at the moment she could try. "If you don't mind me asking…uhh…where is Sol?"
The two visitors gave each other a look. They knew they would have to tell them. They just didn't know how to explain it without them freaking out.
"Well…"started Silver.
"We'll get to that," Blaze interrupted him. "We just need to know something first."
"And that would be?" questioned Applejack.
"We need to talk to her," Silver said gesturing to Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow narrowed her eyes even more. "About what?"
Silver heard the venom in her voice and he wasn't sure how he should go on honestly, but he did anyway. "We need your help. In fact, a lot of people could use your help."
Twilight noticed the slight difference in dialogue for these two when compared to them. They used the word someone instead of somepony and there were a few more that she caught. That was really strange to her. Even in the farther countries they still used very similar wording.
Rainbow raised an eyebrow at what he said. "If you just wanted help then why did you attack me!?" she asked accusingly.
"That was more of a test than anything," he said.
"That was a test?" asked Applejack. "Shoot, it looked like half the forest was rooted up."
"That's why I said subtle Silver," Blaze scolded him.
"I didn't have time to go around asking people, or ponies, if they were good fighters!" he defended himself. "And what if they couldn't handle it?"
"Attacking someone we want as an ally doesn't give off good first impressions," she said.
"I know but…" he said.
"We don't," she said in a 'that's final' tone.
Silver just gave up and just looked down at his cup of tea. No worming his way out of this one. Rainbow on the other hoof was smiling a little. She was already taking a liking to this princess.
Meanwhile, Rarity was taking another sip of her tea, but she always had this slight look of disappointment on her face. Twilight noticed this and she was wondering what was bothering her.
"Something wrong Rarity," asked Twilight.
"Oh, it's nothing Twilight," she said. "Although, I have to say that this tea isn't really the right temperature for me. It's no biggy. Just something to get used to is all."
Spike winced at that. He had always hoped Rarity would like the way his tea was made. This was just the way he had always made it for Twilight and she approved of it. He'd have to make a note of that whenever he made some for her again.
"May I see it?" asked Blaze.
Rarity looked at the cat with curiosity. "Pardon?"
"Your tea. May I see it real quick?" she asked again extending her hand out.
Seeing no reason not to, Rarity hovered the cup over to her with her magic. It landed in her palm and Blaze just…sat there…looking at the cup the entire time. She was about to ask her what she was doing, but Blaze looked back at her with a friendly smile.
"All down," she said extending the cup back to Rarity.
Rarity gripped the cup in her magic again and brought it back to her. Once she had it closer to her face again she noticed that there was actually some steam coming off the surface of the tea. Intrigued, she took a sip and noticed as the cup touched her lips that it was warmer. Not hot enough that it burned her, but just warm enough to feel comfortable. She also noticed that the tea itself was much warmer, and to her a much better drink.
"My word!" she said after pulling the cup away from her mouth. "It's perfect! But…how did you do that!?"
Blaze kept her composure as a tiny grin grew on her face. "One of my many secrets."
"Ok," Rainbow interrupted, "this is just getting weird! You're looking for somepony who can fight, we've never seen anything like you guys, and now you both have strange powers!?"
"You know what would be really, really weird is if they were from another planet!" said Pinkie. "Like aaalllllliiieeennnnsss…"
Twilight was about to completely dismiss her claim, but she noticed how both Silver and Blaze made strange looks to each other. Almost like they were guilty of something. It couldn't be, could it? She then said something she never thought she'd ever say to another living being.
"Umm…are you both…aliens?" she asked sheepishly.
Everypony else in the room gave her strange looks. Was this really Twilight they were sitting here with?
"Well, yes and no actually," said Silver immediately catching everypony's attention.
"Oh, come on!" Rainbow let out.
"You mean you are aliens!?" Fluttershy said worryingly.
"No! No! Not necessarily aliens," Silver recovered. "Like not from space I mean. You see, me and Blaze come from a completely different dimension entirely."
"The dimension of Sol to be exact," finished Blaze.
Immediately, the two friends noticed all the dropped jaws of the ponies and the little dragon. Yeah, this was going to be interesting to say the least.
Twilight was the first to speak up. "But-I-That shouldn't even be possible! To simply travel to one world to the next would take an immense amount of magical power! Even the princesses here in our world, shouldn't have that kind of power!"
Blaze nodded to Silver, like telling him to do something. Silver nodded back and pulled out a sparkling blue gem. In fact, the same one they saw him with before in the Everfree. He placed it on the table and everypony sat up and looked at it closely, especially one white unicorn with sparkles in her eyes.
"It's…it's so beautiful!" said Rarity with glee. "It's so perfectly cut. And the glow. Oh! Can you imagine this on a dress at the Gala!?"
"Hehe yeah," said Silver. "A lot of people are usually amazed when they see things like this. It's called a Sol Emerald. Back in our world they're used as conduits of unimaginable power. If you gather them all then it's possible to control even forces of nature."
"Of course, we never let anyone outside the royal family or trusted friends gather all of them," said Blaze. "If someone with evil intent ever got their hands on them then it could spell destruction for a lot of worlds."
"So ya mean ta tell us that ya used this little thing to get 'ere," asked Applejack eyeing it curiously.
"There's a little more to it than that, but put simply, yes," said Blaze.
"If you have things like this then what do you need me for?" asked Rainbow. "If they're so powerful then it sounds like you have things covered."
"Not exactly," said Silver, "and it's not necessarily what's wrong with our world, at least not yet."
"A world that is parallel to ours is having problems that we can't fix by ourselves we need someone else to help," explained Blaze. "Whenever something goes wrong in one dimension, it's opposite usually suffers for it as well."
"But what made you choose us?" asked Twilight. "If anything about alternate dimensions is true then there should be an infinite amount of worlds to choose from."
"That's true," said Blaze, "but back in Sol, we can see things that others could only speculate about. Yes, each dimension has a parallel version of itself, but there are also worlds known simply as sister dimensions. Usually this refers to two worlds that were born in such close tandem that they are forever linked. While we could've chosen any world to go to, this world was the simplest to get to since it was almost directly linked to Sol's parallel world."
"We could've had an easier time getting here if we decided to go to your world's parallel dimension since it was closely linked to ours, but…it wasn't what we expected," said Silver with a hint of hesitation in his voice. "This world seemed like the better option."
On that note, it just popped in Twilight's head that she needed to write to Sunset Shimmer soon. It's been a while since she had done that.
"And we need you because, well, you remind us a lot of a friend of ours," explained Silver gesturing to Rainbow Dash. "In fact, he's one of those people that we needed you to help."
"Look, I don't know you guys, and I still don't know about you buddy," Rainbow said pointing to Silver.
"I know we got off on the wrong foot," he said.
"Ya think," Rainbow said crossing her hooves.
"but we really need your help," he pleaded. "Fact is, Blaze and I can't do this on our own. I get it. I acted without thinking earlier, but I couldn't wait. This could affect so much more than just our world. I don't even know when this'll stop. Please."
Rainbow wasn't even looking at them at this point. Why did they need her for this? If those emeralds were as powerful as they claimed then what could they possibly run into that could stop them? She didn't know what to think of this. Honest, all of it was a bit overwhelming with the fact that these two weren't even from Equestria, but another world entirely!
"Rainbow?" Twilight said seeing the look of her friend.
"If I were ya I'd go with it Sugarcube," said Applejack. "Sure ya may have gott'n off on the wrong hoof, but ya can at least give 'em a chance can't ya?"
"It would be the right thing to do darling," said Rarity.
"I…I think so too," added Fluttershy.
"And just think of all the new friends you'd make!" said Pinkie Pie. "It's literally a whole new world full of possibilities!"
Rainbow lifted her head a little, still in thought about the whole thing. "I don't know…"
"Please…"
The group looked up at the voice and what they saw they didn't expect. Blaze, who the entire time kept a neutral expression, aside from the occasional chuckle, now had on the face of somepony who was deeply pleading for something. It was the first look of actual worry they've seen from her.
"Please," she said again. "The friend we mentioned…what do you all treasure the most in this world? What keeps you all going?"
That question surprised them. The all gave each other a look. They knew what the answer to that question was. It's what kept their whole group together through thick and thin. They all looked at the cat and answered, "Friendship."
Blaze gave a little smile at that. She kind of figured that, but it was nice to hear it from them. "Well, before I met him I never let myself grow close to anyone. I never made friends and I never let anyone into my life. I figured that it was easier to get things done if you did it yourself. But when my world was in danger he was always there. He always put others before himself. To him, his friends were always more important than life itself. It's because of him that I've allowed myself to try and open up to others. It's been a slow process, but I've made some very good friends in both his world and mine. He always help those in need, and now I feel like I need to help him. So if you won't do it for us, at least do it for him."
Everyone in the room was silent, especially Silver. He had never heard her open up like that to anyone outside of her little circle of friends like him and the others. If it's been a slow process she's quickly picking it up. The ponies, especially Rainbow, however, were a bit in awe of her little story. It seemed like friendship was a big part of their world too, at least to them. Rainbow let out a sigh that she felt like she had been holding in for an eternity and looked at Silver dead in the eye.
"I'll do it," she said.
Silver's face lit up, but immediately went back to worry when Rainbow got out of her seat and flew straight up to his face, pushing her hoof into his nose as if trying to make a point.
"You owe me for today though, you got it?" she said.
He only nodded and that seemed to be good enough for her as she backed away. Everyone was finally at ease now that the whole thing has blown over and they could focus on what came next. They could tell this would get interesting very soon.
"Oh yeah," Rainbow addressed Blaze, "what was the name of that guy you were talking about?"
Blaze let another smile slip at the question before saying," Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog."
To be continued…