//------------------------------// // Chapter 14: Returning the Amulet and A Surprise Between Counterparts // Story: Changes In A Rainbow // by My Rainbow Dash //------------------------------// It had been a few days after the Friendship Games, and one sunny afternoon, Rainbow Dash was in her room, sitting on her bed while staring at the necklace that was still trapped inside the orb of ice that sat in her hands. She sighed and closed her eyes. She remembered that Twilight had told her that the Rainbow Dash from her world had a connection with her and had a way to bring her to her world. "I hope this works," she muttered to herself. She held the orb of ice in one hand while the other held her magic geode. She closed her fist around the magical stone and took a breath. "Rainbow Dash. I could use your help right about now. I need you, Princess Twilight, and the rest of your friends to come here. Now." She opened her fist. ~/\~ Scene transitions to a portal going to Equestria ~/\~ The mane 6 were relaxing at Twilight's castle when Rainbow Dash felt a weird feeling tugging in her chest. She looked down to see a weird glow coming from it. She blinked in confusion. "Uh, hey Twi?" Twilight looked over at her friend. "Yes, Rainbow?" Rainbow bit her lip. "Do you have any idea what this is?" She pointed at the weird glow coming from her chest, unsure what to do. The alicorn and the remaining mares in the room all looked in confusion. They all shrugged their shoulders until Spike spoke up. "Hey, maybe it's your human counterpart trying to contact you. That could be a reason. After all, you two are one and the same. You are each other's counterparts." The six mares blinked in surprise and Twilight smiled widely. "That's it! I know how to get to her!" She dragged the prismatic mare out of her throne room by magic with the remaining four ponies and one dragon tailing her. They stopped in front of the mirror portal that led to the Canterlot High School statue. Rainbow rose a brow after the princess and set her down on the crystal floor. "Uhh, how are we going to reach her?" The alicorn removed the magical book that was sitting above the mirror and set it aside. Rainbow felt a lump form in her throat. "Uhh... Twi? What are you doing?" The lavender mare shot a short stream of magic from her horn at the nervous mare, then turned to the mirror and shot a stream of magic at it as well. For a few seconds, there was a strange magical connection between the mirror and the cerulean mare. Eventually, the portal's spiraling pattern began weaving and there was no more light coming from the mare's chest. The baby dragon and six mares all cheered. Pinkie bounced in place. "Can we see her now Twilight? Can we? Can we? Can we?" Twilight giggled. "Yes, we can see her now, Pinkie. As long as Rainbow's with us, we'll be able to return to Equestria. Ooo, I have an even better idea. Why not give her a magic book so she can contact us when she wants t? I can even make two copies of the one that I have so I can have one for myself, and one for her." The five mares and baby dragons all cheered. Twilight took the magic book that she kept keeping in contact with Sunset and made two copies of it. One copy showed her cutie mark on its cover while the other had Rainbow Dash's cutie mark on its cover. Spike put a claw to his chin. "You know, compared to the last time we visited, I'm pretty sure she'll be happy to see us." The mares laughed. "Twilight, darling," Rarity spoke. Twilight turned to her friend. "Yes, Rarity?" The albino unicorn cleared her throat. "Are we going to turn into humans like her, or will we stay in normal pony forms?" Twilight put a hoof to her chin. "Well, we're not going through the portal that connects to the statue at CHS, and this one is connected to the Rainbow Dash in that world and our Rainbow Dash herself. And both of them are in their true forms, which means that the seven of us will be staying in our true forms as ponies. Does that answer your question, Rarity?" The white unicorn nodded and the six mares and baby dragon all one by one entered the portal. ~/\~ Scene transitions to a portal going back to the human world ~/\~ Human Rainbow Dash sat on her bed with the fire spirit, Bruni, resting in her hand, and the frozen water spirit, Nokk, laying behind her and she laid back against him. She heard a small crackling sound in front of her bed and she sat up so her legs dangled over the edge. The crackling started swirling around in a spiral and soon became a portal. The ice queen smiled. "The message worked then," she told herself as she watched a lavender alicorn step out of it. Twilight looked up at her friend, smiling. "It's good to see you again, Rainbow." Rainbow's smile grew. "It's good to see you too. This time I managed to call you. Was my call a bit much?" The alicorn giggled and sat a few feet away from the portal. "No. It was probably better than entering a house very unexpectedly." The two shared a laugh when out of the portal fell, Spike. The dragon looked up at the teen and smiled. He began running towards her. "Hey, Dash." He said excitedly. Rainbow set Bruni on her calf and picked up the dragon from the floor as he reached the edge of her bed. The teen gave the dragon a good squeeze before setting him back on the ground. "Well, it's good to see you too, Spike." She looked at the portal. "Are the others coming?" Right as she spoke, five bodies all fell out of the portal. The alicorn, dragon, and human all laughed. Pinke, who was on top of the pony pile, looked up at the ice queen and smiled. "Hi Rainbow!" She squealed, bouncing off the pile and towards the teen girl. Once in close range, the pink pony jumped into the girl's arms and hugged her. She was tempted to go for a bone-crushing hug, but the polychromatic girl squeezed her tightly before she could do anything. Pinkie Pie squeaked in surprise and the ice queen dropped her onto the ground. Laughter rang through the room and Fluttershy slid out of the pony pile with the three remaining ponies and sat next to Twilight. "It seems like you managed to get away from Pinkie's hug." The girl rolled her eyes. "I know how to deal with bone-crushing hugs especially knowing from Pinkie Pie and my Wonderbolt friend, Surprise." The dragon and mares all nodded in agreement. Apple Jack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash released themselves from the pony pile and sat next to their friends. "So why did you call us?" The polychromatic mare asked. Her human counterpart picked the fire spirit off her leg and onto her shoulder and stood up to get to her bedside table where the ice orb sat. She sat back on her bed and held it out to the princess. Twilight lit her horn and used her telekinesis to lift the orb. She looked at the object inside the ice and gasped. "This is the Alicorn Amulet!" She looked back up at the rainbow-haired girl. "Where did you get this from?!" Rainbow shrugged her shoulders. "According to my friend, said she heard something weird behind her and felt this necklace fall onto the back of her hand. That's all she told me which is all she knew before she got corrupted." Twilight hummed to herself before nodding her head. "Well, like before, there have been a few Equestrian artifacts that have been found in this world. For instance the Memory Stone." The teen groaned. "Ugh. Don't remind me. The girl who had it ended up removing the good memories we had with Sunset Shimmer. And before that sunset, the girl wielding the Memory Stone erased all of Sunset's memories of what happened in this world." She snorted. Twilight blinked in shock. "And from what Sunset told me the next day was that the memory stone was no more. I'm assuming you destroyed it?" Rainbow nodded and smirked. "Well, duh. And we used our geodes to destroy the stone and got some super awesome outfits to match the fighting. Anyway, yeah, we did destroy it which gave us all our memories back. Everything went happily that afternoon, except when our school yearbook showed the seven of us on one page being titled "Best Friends", and the page next to us was a picture of Bulk Biceps whose title was "Best Muscles". It was like we were kissing him. Legh." The mares all giggled. Twilight spoke up again. "Yes, and there was another Equestrian artifact called the Time Twirler which is known to go back in time with a touch of a button." Rainbow put a hand to her chin. "Oh, so that's why Sunset got so upset. It's because she was stuck in that time loop while no one else knew what was going on. Including myself. Then Pinkie and Sunset managed to stop one of our favorite music bands from making a whole month-long cycle of the same day over, and over, and over again. Man, I definitely wouldn't want to go through that." She looked down at the mares and dragon. "But I'm pretty sure you guys have lots of totally awesome adventures filled with crazy amounts of magic in them." Twilight shrugged. "Not all of them are filled with crazy magic, but yes, magic is involved." The ice queen chuckled. Apple Jack cleared her throat. "Ah have a quick question for ya. May I ask?" The ice queen nodded. "You may." "How did ya get that amulet into that orb of ice without touchin' it? It would take magic like Twilight's to get it in there. So how did ya do it?" The teen smiled a sly smile. "Oh, it was simple really." AJ rose a brow. "Really, how?" The teen nodded her head. "Yes, it was. As a matter of fact, I didn't even touch the necklace. Just the orb of ice." "But how did you get the necklace into the orb of ice, darling?" Rarity asked. The teen girl's smile grew. She held both fists to her chest before opening her hands and arms, creating a small flurry of snowflakes. The mares and Spike stared in awe. "This was how I was able to pick it up." Rarity looked down for a moment before her head popped back up and she spoke. "Can you make outfits with that kind of magic?" Both the country mare and polychromatic pegasus sitting on either side of her groaned and rolled their eyes. "Really, Rarity?" The pegasus complained. "Is that all you think about?" The farm pony added on. while the earth pony, unicorn, and pegasus kept bickering, the lavender alicorn, the pink earth pony, the butterscotch pegasus, and the baby dragon all kept their eyes on the ice queen as she stood up and whisked her arms around her body and particles of crystals and ice surrounded her and a dress formed over her body in place of the sweat pants and crop top she'd been wearing. She sat back down on her bed. The baby dragon and three mares stared in awe. "That's beautiful. Should we call you the ice queen now? Maybe even "Your Highness"?" Fluttershy joked. The Ice Queen, baby dragon, and three mares all laughed as the mares and dragon all bowed to the teen girl. Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Apple Jack stopped their bickering. Once Rarity laid eyes on the dress she gasped loudly. "Th-that is-is..." The rainbow-haired teen giggled. "Awesome?" The two Rainbow Dashs in the room giggled. The polychromatic pegasus then turned to her alicorn friend. "Hey, Twi?" The alicorn looked over at the pegasus. "Aren't you going to give her something?" Twilight gave her a confused look at first before her eyes widened, remembering what she was going to give the rainbow-haired teen. "Oh, hehe, right. I forgot that I was going to give you this." She pulled a book out from under her wing and hoofed it over to the Ice Queen. Said girl took the book in her hands but gave the alicorn an unsure look. "What is it?" She asked. "You know how Sunset Shimmer sometimes sends me messages through her magical book?" The rainbow-haired teen nodded. "Well, this is a copy made just for you so you can contact us any time you need to." Rainbow's eyes widened and she looked back down at the book. She smiled. "Heh, thanks. That means a lot coming from a princess." Twilight giggled. "And that's coming from a queen." The teen snorted. "You do know that I'm not an actual queen, right?" Everyone in the room laughed. A thought then popped into Spike's head. "But, wait," he spoke up and the laughter stopped. "If we ever wanted to talk to her one-on-one, wouldn't it be best to maybe make a portal that connects here to Equestria? I mean, the other exit portal to this world is the statue in front of Canterlot High School. So what can we do?" The prismatic girl put a hand to her chin and looked down at the book. She felt something brush against her side to see the Nokk nuzzling his muzzle against her side. She stroked his head as she looked back down at the book in her other hand. She could practically feel the magic radiating off of it. Her eyes shot open. "Magic!" She thought to herself. "That's it!" She got off her bed and walked to the empty wall in her room that faced the backside of the house. The water spirit got off the girl’s bed it was sitting on and stood next to the Ice Queen. Rainbow placed her free hand against the wall and pressed it. There was a sound of a breaking wall and she pushed harder. She felt the wall loosen and she watched as she pushed the wall away, the flooring, walls, and ceiling of the new space were ice. She felt her powers become stronger as she pushed the wall with them and kept her hand out. After she felt the new room big enough, she hesitantly started walking inside it. Her slow steps continued as she looked around seeing a few columns and large crystallized snowflakes implanted into the walls, ceiling, and floor. She sighed at its beauty but suddenly stopped as she reached the end of the room. In one of the far back corners sat a giant pool of water, perfect for the water spirit to stay in. What surprised them was that standing in front of the back wall stood a giant mirror. The dragon and six mares stared in shock. "That looks like the mirror back at my castle," Twilight quietly spoke. The ice queen looked over at the alicorn. "Really?" The princess nodded her head. "If that's so, then maybe it acts somewhat the same way. Here, place the book on that stand on the top. Let's see what happens." The teen did as she was told and something magical happened. The book and crystallized ice both began to glow and the book shot down a blast of magic that created a swirling pattern inside of it. Everyone gasped. "It worked," Twilight exclaimed excitedly. The rainbow-haired girl put a hand to her chin. "Do you think that if you were to visit me one on one, you'd have to put your new book on top of the mirror so you could visit me here and not at Canterlot High School?" She growled the last three words and looked away. She felt Nokk brush his muzzle against her cheek and she gently brought his muzzle closer to her as she nuzzled him back, smiling. Twilight put a hoof to her chin. "You know, now that I think about it, I think that to reach you, I'd have to use my new book, to reach Sunset I'd have to use the one Princess Celestia gave me! Thanks for the thought! Plus, when we want to see you, we can get to stay ponies! Or dragons, in Spike's case." The teen nodded her head. "Yup! Though, I think it's best to take the portal you came from and then twitch books to visit me otherwise who knows where you'd end up." Everyone laughed. Twilight walked closer to the polychromatic girl. "Thanks for holding onto the alicorn amulet for us. It was probably the best thing to do than keeping it here." The ice queen sighed. "It's not a problem at all. Now I just need to figure out how to -" "Rainbow Dash?" A male voice interrupted her. Everyone in the room turned to see the pegasi from the Equestrian aerial flying team walk into the room. The ice queen leaned over to the lavender alicorn. "So those are the Wonderbolts from your world?" The princess nodded her head. "Yup." Rainbow sighed. "Well, I'm going to put Nokk into the water and you guys can handle this." Twilight nodded and kept her eyes on the Wonderbolts. While the rainbow-haired girl walked away with the water spirit, the rainbow-maned pegasus walked toward her teammates. "Hey, guys," she spoke hesitantly, "what are you all doing here?" Spitfire walked up to her. "We were looking for you. The 'Bolts were planning a big meeting together but with you went we had to cancel it." Rainbow put a hoof to her chin, suddenly remembering that meeting. "But, how did you find us? How did you get here?" Fleetfoot cleared her throat. "We were looking around Ponyville until we crothed one of your friendth who I believe wath named Thtarlight Glimmer. Thee told uth that you had created a portal and we found that it wath thtill open tho we entered it and found you here." Once she finished, the six mares blinked in shock. "The portal was still open?" Pinkie asked no one in particular. "I guess so," Twilight answered the question. While the ponies all stood quietly, Spike walked over to the human in the room who'd turned to the large pool in the far back corner, the water spirit following her. She stood in front of it and when the Nokk stood on top of the water's surface, the ice queen whisked her hand in a small semicircle, and the ice she'd covered him with disappeared. He gave a whinny of excitement and dove into the water. Spike walked next to Rainbow and placed a claw on her leg. She looked down at him before she reached down and scooped him into her arms. The dragon gave a small chuckle before Rainbow Dash turned around. All of the ponies in the room were still silent. She frowned and set Spike on the ground before she shot two blasts of ice into the ceiling, creating two large chandeliers. One above her, and the other above the large group of ponies. "Are we done giving each other the silent treatment here?" She asked as she walked to the center of the room. The polychromatic pegasus sighed and walked over to her counterpart. She rested her forehead on the girl's side and sighed. She took another breath before turning back to her teammates. "Look, I'm sorry for not showing up to the meeting, but I got sidetracked with something else, and that caused me to miss it." She looked away from them. Spitfire pursed her lips and looked away before looking back at her teammate. "It's okay, Dash. But first, could you introduce us to your friend here?" She pointed to the teen with her hoof and said the girl's face became pale. She then turned around to cover her mouth with one hand and the other clutched her stomach. Her eyes were wide. She leaned against the wall as she felt sick to her stomach. She held up one finger before sprinting out of the room. She ran to her bathroom and emptied the contents from her stomach. After she finished, she coughed a few times before flushing the toilet, rinsing her mouth, washing her hands, and walking out of the room towards the one with her new guests. She took a few deep breaths before entering the room. Everyone was still in the same place where they were when she left the room. She walked to the middle of the room and conjured and couch made of firm yet soft snow and flopped on top of it. She sighed before looking at the captain of the Wonderbolts. "Do I really not remind you of someone? Or somepony in your case?" It took some time for Spitfire to understand what she was saying before her eyes widened. She looked at the polychromatic pegasus before looking back at the human. She looked them back and forth a few times before receiving a slap on the face from Soarin with his wing. "I'm surprised it takes you ten minutes or so just to realize that they're one and the same. Seriously?" The ice queen sighed in relief. "Thank you for that, Soarin." The stallion blinked in shock, not understanding how she knew his name. "How do you know my name?" He asked. The high schooler smiled. "It's just like how I'm your Rainbow Dash's counterpart. There's a counterpart for you and the rest of your team in this world too. Even them." She gestured to the other members of the mane 6 and Spike. "Twilight was the first to meet me and her friends' counterparts. Or in other words, my former friends." Her smile turned into a frown. 'Can't say that I'm still friends with them after what they did to me.' It came out almost as a whisper. She cleared her throat. "Ahem, anyways. Speaking of your guys' counterparts, they should be arriving soon. I nearly forgot I had invited them for dinner." Everypony, and dragon, blinked. "YOU CAN COOK?" They asked at the same time. Rainbow shook her head. "No. Well, I kind of can…but it’s not the greatest. Anyway, since my parents are out of town for the night, we're getting take-out food and having it delivered here." Fluttershy quietly spoke up. "What are you having for dinner?" The teen bit her lip and closed her eyes, knowing what was going to happen when she'd tell the pegasus what she and her friends would be having for dinner. "Well, we're still deciding, but we're thinking between burgers," the shy pegasus let out her first gasp, "sushi," a second, "crab," a third, "or-" Fluttershy screamed and tackled the teen to the ground. "How could you do such a thing!?" The ice queen blinked. "Do what?" she asked. Fluttershy screamed again. "Eat animals!!" Rainbow sighed. "Look, 'Shy, I'm an omnivore. It's my nature. I eat plants and animals. In better words, I eat greens and meats. I apologize that the first one came out a bit too intense. It's just the way it is. Some people are vegetarians and only eat greens. I'm not one of those people." The butterscotch pegasus took a few breaths before getting off of the teen. She looked around to see a whole bunch of eyes on her. She whimpered and her ears went flat against her head in embarrassment. Rainbow stroked her mane and the mare relaxed. Rainbow walked out of the ice room and the ponies and dragon followed her out. After she exited the room and entered the one that held her bed, she turned around to face the room of ice. She opened her hands which were glowing white and pulled them towards her. Two doors of ice burst from the edges of the walls and gently closed, obscuring the room of ice from view. She turned around to see all the ponies in her room. Seventeen of them to be exact. And of course, one baby dragon. She bit her lip, but before she could say anything, a ringing sound filled the room. Rainbow turned to her bedside table to see her tablet vibrating. She jumped onto her bed, grabbed her tablet, and clicked the answer button on the screen. Twelve heads popped up on the screen. Rainbow smiled. "Hey, guys!" "Hey, Dash!" They all replied at once. "Where're you guys? You seem to be on a tight screen." She joked. Her boyfriend rolled his eyes. "We're all speaking from my phone. That's why." Rainbow nodded. "We're at the mall now. Making final decisions on what we want for dinner. We found it easier just to come here instead. Anyway, a few of us are going to have burgers, some are having sushi, Fleetfoot, and Surprise are even going for crab which surprises me." Rainbow chuckled as she looked up and saw the flabbergasted looks on the 'Bolt's faces. She looked back to the screen. "Was that a pun that he just said?" Rainbow asked herself. "What are you having, Soar?" There was the sound of someone either gasping or choking. She couldn't tell which one. "Aww, how sweet. My girlfriend's asking what I'm having for dinner. Are you an option?" Dash snorted and covered her face with one hand because of how red it was. She looked up to see every pony in the room staring at her in shock. She shook her head to calm herself down. She looked back at the screen to see her boyfriend laughing. "Dash, you should know that I'm messing with you. Anyway, I'm having sushi with Misty Fly, Fire Streak, Spitfire, Wave Chill, and Lightning Dust. Like I said before, Fleetfoot and Surprise are having crab. Lightning Streak, Rapidfire, Blaze, and High Winds are having burgers. What do you want?" Rainbow put a hand to her chin. "You know what, give me a burger with a side of french fries and a coke." Her boyfriend nodded. "Anything else?" He asked. Rainbow shook her head. "No, and if the others think about dessert, tell them I have plenty of ice cream here." Soarin smiled and saluted her. "Yes ma'am." Rainbow giggled at his actions. "Love you, Soar." He smiled at her. "Love you too, Dash." She smiled back at him. She ended the call and set down her tablet. She looked up at everypony and smiled at their reactions. They all stared at her with slacked jaws. The pegasus version of her boyfriend walked up to her. "I'm sorry, am I hearing things, or did he say "I love you" to you?" The ice queen giggled and covered her mouth with a hand. "Hehe, yup, I told him "I love you" and he responded with "I love you too". So to answer your question, I have a boyfriend and I love him. That's why he said that to me." The stallion puffed his cheeks out and looked away. "What's it like to be in love?" He asked. Everyone in the room stared at him in shock. Rainbow looked away, trying to think of an answer while her counterpart's face had turned red and her friends were giggling at her. Noticing what was happening, the polychromatic pegasus covered her face with her wings. The ice queen looked back at the stallion. "Honestly, love is an amazing thing. I never wanted to tell myself that, until I found out I was in love with one of my childhood friends." She giggled and looked away when she had to shut him up when he was trying to confess his love for her. "I remember when he was trying to confess his love for me. Heh, it was pretty funny really. He was pretty shy about it until I had to shut him up with a kiss. Ahh, besides seeing my old friends from Cloudsdale, that was probably one of my favorite moments." As she spoke, the teen's cheeks tinted pink as she continued to think about the boy she loved. She looked at her phone to check the time and saw that it was already 6:30 pm. She blinked in surprise. "Oh wow," she said aloud, "it's already 6:30. I guess time flies when you're having fun talking to your counterpart." A ripple of laughter rolled through the room. The ice queen looked over at the pony princess sitting a few feet away from her. "You could always stay for dinner. You'd just have to bring what's best for you to eat since you're not humans." Twilight nodded. "You're right. And it may be a good idea to test out that new book and portal." Rainbow Dash nodded and the dragon and all the ponies all walked into the first portal they created. Pinkie went in last, but not before turning back to the teen. "See you soon!" Rainbow chuckled. "See you soon, Pinkie." The pink party pony nodded her head and she disappeared into the portal. Once the room was empty, she opened the ice door to the new ice room." I think this will be a fun dinner for us all." With that, she turned back to her bed and flopped onto her bed before falling asleep.