//------------------------------//
// Log 4154: Cloudsdale 
// Story: Equestrian Human 
// by TheMajorTechie 
//------------------------------//

Finally. Almost a full day of just sitting in the back reading random textbooks while Delmar and Stanley worked, and it's finally time to close up shop for the day. Stan already agreed to take the brunt of the work so that we could go off and continue our mission, so with a good portion of Delmar's wage for the day, we went off to catch ourselves a Sky Taxi... thing.

And sheesh, it'd probably be near-impossible to earn a decent living if you had to take one of these to and from a restaurant job like Delmar's every day.

But then again, based on the fact that every destination except Cloudsdale has a fixed rate, I'm guessing that Cloudsdale just happens to be floating somewhere far away from Canterlot today.





It's pretty interesting to watch how this thing runs from the inside. It's not at all like a normal taxi, given how as I've said before, it's practically a miniature blimp of sorts.

As for the Earth Pony driving the whole thing, he didn't question anything about a human girl and a middle-aged scientist guy turned horse-pony-thing entering the vehicle.





Hrm. Cloudsdale isn't quite all that cloudy, if you ask me. From what I can tell, it's seems more like some sort of aerogel. Meh, that's not the point of coming here at the moment. What we came here for was to find Celestia.

And how do we do it if we only know that Celestia was here at all? Easy. We talk to strangers! Question the populace! And that's exactly what we did.

"Excuse me, sir," Delmar began, turning towards a random stallion passing by, have you by any chance seen Celestia anywhere?"

The stallion nodded silently, and pointed a hoof towards what I can only assume to be Rainbow Dash's house, based off of its structural similarity to the one depicted in the show.

So apparently, we'll be seeing Celestia and Rainbow Dash!





I knocked lightly on the door.

"Hello?" I shouted, knocking a little harder, "Anybody home?"

From deep inside the house, I heard hoofsteps approaching the door.

"Coming!" a mare called in return to my knocking, pausing at the door. Opening it, she froze up entirely.

Quickly, she recovered from the mild shock of seeing a human and a non-pegasus pony on her doorstep, quickly muttering under her breath, "Oh... oh my... First the queen herself visits us, and--..."

"It's alright," I cut in, "you just barely said something about Celestia stopping by, right?"

"Gadget!" Delmar whispered as he nudged me in the arm, "Manners!"

I made a face at him.

"Um... right. Now, as I was saying," I continued, "did you see Celestia anytime recently?"

Deep down, I'm just gonna hope that she says that Celestia's right inside or something. Now that I think of it, who is this mare, anyways? I recall seeing a pony like her in the show somewhere, but I don't completely remember who she is... something to do with Rainbow Da-- oh. She said something.

And just as fate would have it, my thoughts were confirmed as I heard what's clearly Rainbow Dash's voice echoing through the house as she ran towards the door.

"Mooom!" she shouted, "Who is it? Is it Fluttershy?"

Oh yeah. The mare I've been talking to is Rainbow Dash's mom. Also, Rainbow Da--HOLY MOTHER OF CRAPNUGGETS RAINBOW DASH HAS A MISSING WING! Okay, stop staring, stop staring, calm. Down. Okay.

"Um." I mumbled as I turned back towards Rainbow Dash's mom, "Could you repeat that again?"

Letting out what I assumed was either a light sigh or a very light snort of annoyance, the mare repeated herself. Or at least, reiterated what she said earlier in a much more agitated voice.

"Celestia visited us earlier," she began with a huff, "but I'm not gonna tell you any more until I know what you're doing on my doorstep."

If she wants to know, I guess it wouldn't hurt to spread the word a bit.

"Well," I began, "For starters, we've been trying to find her for the past few days in hopes of maybe opening some sort of trade agreement with our home."

There. Sounded good enough in my head, and I'm pretty sure that came out fine. Except for maybe a tiny voice crack that only I probably noticed. Geez, I'm gonna be hitting those teen years soon, aren't I?

A gust of wind blew through my hair as Rainbow Dash's mom... wait a minute. Wind. Windy. Urgh, this entire time, and I forget a name as simple as Windy Whistles.

Now then, back to my rambling self-narration that is this logfile.

Windy Whistles raised a brow after hearing what I had to say. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised by that reaction. Heck, if I was contacted by a random pair of strangers saying that they were seeking my leader for suspicious reasons, I'd probably be doing some eyebrow acrobatics too.

...

...

I really need to stop myself from being sidetracked so easily by my own thoughts. ANYWAYS...

I turned towards Rainbow Dash. "You're Rainbow Dash, right?" I asked, "Element of Loyalty? Wonderbolt? Savior of Equestria alongside your friends?"

Hopefully all of the abo-- wait. Oh yeah. This isn't the same Equestria from the show. This is the place I come from, and that means that the simple act of havin--no. No more mental distractions.

"I..." Rainbow began in a wavering voice, "I'm none of those..." she continued, "I honestly don't know what I am anymore..."

...Ouch, I might've hit a bit of her soul there, for all I know.

"Rainbow!" her mom suddenly snapped, "Don't put yourself down like that! You're a wonderful young mare, crippled wings or not!"

Yeah. About that. One question: HOW?! But once again, no sidetracking unless I want to get kicked back to Earth and replaced or whatever.

"Helloooo?" I called, waving a hand as Rainbow hugged her mom, "Like I said, do you have any idea where Celestia might've gone? Or is she still here?"

Quietly clearing her throat, Windy Whistles turned back towards me. "No," she said calmly, "Celestia was here a few hours ago to visit Dashie here, but she left within minutes of entering."

Surprisingly, Rainbow Dash, who was already back to the old attitude I recognize from the show, piped up after her mom.

"And she gave me a present, too!" she squealed, unfurling her wings to show me the prosthetic that sat in place of one of her aforementioned wings. Though, I kinda already spotted it earlier.

Either way, I raised a made a face at Rainbow Dash's antics. Turning towards Delmar, I quietly told him to introduce himself. That is, after I got his attention by elbowing him lightly. After all, it'd probably be a bit more natural for a pony to speak to another pony, even if one of them is actually a disgraced scientist from another universe.

Delmar nodded after I hearing my instructions, and took a step forward. "Allow me to introduce myself," he began in his manly manager guy voice, "I am Professor Delmar, Macrophysicist, Theoretical Physicist, and Astronomer."

AHEM. You're missing a couple things, old guy.

I lightly punched him on the back to hint him onto what he was missing.

Delmar winced a bit from the unexpected blow. "And as of late, Unprofessional Chemist and Restaurant Dishwasher."

Meh. I was going for drunkard who jeopardized my own well being entirely on accident, but close enough. I guess.

"So," I began, "back to the topic. Celestia isn't here anymore, right?"

Rainbow Dash and her mom nodded at the same time, though Rainbow Dash seemed to be watching me silently as she did so. From what I'm assuming, she probably wants to hear more about the Rainbow Dash from the show. I guess all Rainbow Dashes are kinda egostatistical... maybe? Either way, let's just let her have it if that's what she wants.

"As for Rainbow Dash," I continued making eye contact with the mare, "in this universe, from what I've taken after hearing your breakdown earlier, you are not the Element of Loyalty, nor have you ever performed a sonic rainboom..." I paused for a moment to collect my thoughts. "...and I take that you haven't ever met any of the ponies that I will now list, right?"

Okay, memory, don't drop names again like you did with her mom. "Let's see..." I began, "there's Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie..." I turned entirely towards 'Dash. "And of course, there's you as well, but-- GAH!"

I was suddenly knocked back as a teary-eyed Rainbow Dash tackled me.

"HOW DID YOU KNOW?!" she screamed in my face, "IT WAS A DREAM, WASN'T IT?! A DREAM!"

Golly-geez, girl, calm. The crap. Down.

I grunted as I tried to free myself from being pinned by Rainbow Dash, which, honestly, was probably the last thing that past-me would've expected from going through the portal.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry!" Rainbow's mom cried out as she ran over to help pull me out, "Rainbow's been a bit... compulsive at times."

I smirked. Of course she's compulsive.

"I know." I smoothly... er... not-so-smoothly? 

"Now then," I continued, "could you maybe at least point in the direction you last saw Celestia heading?"

Windy Whistles shook her head. "She wouldn't say... None of us know."

"Welp." I exclaimed, turning to Delmar, "I guess we failed."

"Actually," the mare continued, "If you really insist on knowing where she's heading... when she left, I saw her heading back down to the ground." 

She pointed a hoof towards the not-so-distant outline of a small town. "And as of now, Cloudsdale is floating quite close to Ponyville."

"Thanks!" I shouted happily. Delmar and I turned to leave, but I paused for a moment.

This world's Rainbow Dash never flew.

At least, I'm pretty sure she didn't, judging by the prosthetic wing that she mentioned that she was gifted, but... meh, I'd might as well give her something as well.

And what better than a copy of the show's entire episodic lineup?!

I turned back towards Rainbow Dash, walking slowly with the disc.

"Keep it," I said calmly, smiling as I placed it in 'Dash's hoof, "If you really think your dream was real."

And with that, Delmar and I turned to leave... or at least, catch another Sky Taxi whenever one of those come around. As for the disc, it's got it's own protective coating on it, so I'm not too worried about it getting scratched or shattered. Especially considering how the bare disc has been sitting sandwiched between piles of camping gear in my backpack that I should probably dump at home or something...

Either way, enough with the rambling. We've got a new destination.