//------------------------------// // Nightmare of Time // Story: Origins of a Rainbow - A Dashie Tale // by Shorty Sparkle //------------------------------// Nightmare of Time Princess Celestia stood on the very top of the tallest mountain. It was the perfect place, no doubt Luna would agree. A small caravan of ponies moved below in the valley transporting their goods to the nearest village. The ponies had set up Equestria only a decade before and had called upon Celestia and Luna to help them keep peace between the ponies that now littered the landscape. You see, after the story of Hearths Warming day, the ponies entered yet another power struggle. The earth ponies believed that they should be allowed to tell the unicorns how to control the sun and moon. While the Pegasi demanded that they receive more food since they protect the country. However the unicorns requested for the Earth ponies to build them large structures. After nearly a decade of bickering, a unicorn, by the name of Starswirl the Bearded intervened. After reminding them of the story of the two Alicorn sisters that had saved Equestria from Discord, they all agreed to call upon those sisters to rule over the land as to keep balance between the factions. Of course, when they heard this they came right away. Celestia smiled as she remembered the looks on the ponies as she had raised the sun for the first time. It was like nothing they had ever seen. A task that took large groups of unicorns to do was done by her without issue. Of course, the task was hard on her and at the night she asked her sister to raise the moon. Since then that had been their main tasks. Between those times however they dealt with the ponies issues and help them in any way possible. Now, the ponies had decided to build a capital city and asked Celestia to find the right spot for it, and that she did. From the mountain they would build the city on you could see the entirety of Equestria. Celestia smiled at the sight below. However, suddenly a loud scratching noise rose above the winds. It sounded like the whole mountain was creaking. She pinpointed the sound to right behind her and watched in amazement as a little blue box materialized in front of her. Baffled by this strange device she began sniffing it, touching it, and she even licked it one time. “I assure you, it just tastes like wood. Trust me; I did that when I first saw it do that too!” Celestia jumped at the voice of the mare that boomed out from what seemed like nowhere. Suddenly a stallion’s voice replaced it. “Ditzy! What have I told you about pressing buttons? Get away from that! Ahem, I am so sorry about that princess, sometimes that mare is more trouble than she is worth. Just hold on a second we are all coming out! DITZY N-“ The princess looked on the box with a whole new level of amazement. It actually talked to her! She put her hoof on it and applied some pressure just to make sure again that it was real. “How fascinating! I wonder how this machine ac-“ She was cut off when the door opened, causing her to slam flat on her face. She scrambled back up to regain her composure and looked upon five ponies that stared up at her. “Oh, hello there My Little Ponies, how in the name of… well me, did you all fit in that tiny… little… box?” She drifted off as she looked inside the small box which had appeared so much smaller on the outside. The princess found herself speechless. Short bursts of mumbling came out of her mouth. How did they fit all that in the little, tiny, box thing that stood erect before her? “Yes yes, it is bigger on the inside.” Oh, that too. “Well, let me introduce myself. I’m the doctor! This is Ditzy, Rainbow Dash, Gilda, and Spitfire. How do you do?” “I have been better, much better. Why exactly are you here?” “We don’t know yet! That is the best part,” Ditzy exclaimed. “You see, that box thingy is a Tardis which has some long name that I don’t care about; basically, it travels through time.” “Don’t feel bad princess, you aren’t the only one of us completely baffled by this,” Rainbow Dash said as she looked around in amazement at view. Suddenly her face exploded in surprise. “Are we where I think we are?” “Yes Miss Dash, we are on the mountain of Canterlot before Canterlot.” ‘Hmm, Canterlot, I like that!’ Celestia thought to herself. Gilda shivered which reminded Celestia just where they were. “How about we all go down and come to my current residence. I am sure Luna would love to meet you. If she is still there that is,” she said with a hint of annoyance in her voice. “That sounds fantastic! I think I should take the Tardis down first, no reason to make myself hike up and down the mountain. I can’t exactly fly like some other ponies.” Ditzy started laughing and took off following Celestia and Gilda who had started a conversation about Griffin Relations. The Doctor smiled to himself and let Dash into the Tardis with him. “Come on now, let’s get a drink on the way there. ----- Of course, Celestia and the others didn’t beat them there. Celestia didn’t quite understand how they also had time to get a fruity drink until the others reminded her he had a time machine. They probably got here five minutes before they had left the mountain. After that they had sat around just looking at each other, none of them knew quite what to say. The other ponies didn’t want to alter time but saying something Celestia shouldn’t know while Celestia was too busy trying to wrap her mind around everything that was going on. ‘This is weirder than Discord’s idea of a cloud.’ “So princess,” “Please, call me Celestia.” “Err, Celestia, Where is Luna at?” Spitfire asked. “I wish I knew, she keeps running off to who knows where. Sometimes the only sign of her I would see for a week would be the moon rising every night. Some nights she even forgets to do that. I still have no idea what is going on.” Rainbow Dash frowned. That story sounded quite familiar. ‘Where have I heard that story before?’ she thought. “Last time I saw her actually we had a big fight about how much time her moon had above Equestria.” Celestia sighed, “she believes she deserves some sort of recognition and the ponies don’t appreciate her beautiful nights.” ‘Oh, OH! ‘ Dash bolted upright. “Doctor, can we talk really quick?” she asked without even turning her head. He nodded and they both walked outside. “I came to you to hear a story about my father. NOT to get involved in past stuff especially not with THIS specific time!” “Listen, the Tardis brought us here. I don’t quite know why but it did. Now we have to find out what we need to do here. It wouldn’t bring us to this exact location if there wasn’t something we had to do.” “Alright fine! But if the timeline changes then I am blaming you for it.” Dash huffed back into the house. Suddenly they heard a scream pierce the air. Dash scrambled into the house. She blasted her wings back breaking a probably priceless vase. She didn’t even bother opening the door. She just crashed right through it. She prepared to tackle someone when she saw just what was going on. Celestia stood over Ditzy who was laughing uncontrollably. Celestia’s horn glowed as she used her magic on… a feather, which she was using to tickle Ditzy. Gilda of course had joined in and Spitfire was too busy laughing at the scene to notice Dash’s face turn a bright red. “I thought one of you got hurt!” She screamed at the ponies making them all stop what it was they were doing. Celestia stopped her torture of the mare below her and looked up, the guiltiest look spread over her face. “I- it was just- you see Gilda had- and then I just thought-“ Celestia stuttered. The Alicorn princess lowered her head in apology. “Sorry.” Rainbow Dash realized just what happened and sighed. She started walking towards the princess. “You are the goddess of the sun. An Alicorn that is at least thrice as powerful as her. You should know better!” Celestia dropped her head even lower. “I mean, you should know better than to start an unfair fight!” With that Dash jumped up and spread her wings; and the tickle war began. This time Spitfire and Gilda joined in against Celestia. The princess who raises the sun and rules over the entirety of Equestria stood no chance. It took only thirty seconds before she cried for mercy. Tears of laughter filled all the ponies eyes as they finished. “That was amazing! No pony has ever dared actually attempt to win! They always let me win the fights and what is the fun in all of that? Ahh, thank you ponies; you have made my week. You all are welcome to stay as long as you wish. However, I demand you spend the night.” Rainbow Dash began to think of an excuse to leave when The Doctor interrupted her. “We would love to! Thank you very much!” “PERFECT, the night will be glorious!” ----- Dash looked across the plains that rolled out in front of her. It was beautiful. Like nothing she had ever seen before. It was a farm, a wheat farm to be exact. She began galloping in the field, the sun beating down on her fur. Suddenly, she saw another pony. It was large, far larger than her and probably even larger than Big Mac. She cantered up to the pony and noticed something odd. There was no Cutie Mark on him and he looked strange. He was a dark brown with a very long face. Suddenly she saw it. She screamed as another creature walked towards her. She knew the creature, she had heard the stories and knew better than to just stand and watch. However, that is just what she did. She just sat and watched as it walked on two legs straight at her. She called for the other pony to help her but it just sat there chewing grass. The other creature walked towards her and reached out its hands to grab her. ----- Dash woke to a scream; at first she thought it was her. However, a second scream broke that thought. Spitfire sat up surprisingly well rested. The moon was still high in the sky yet it felt so much later. It took Rainbow a few seconds to put two and two together. Even then she didn’t have time to say anything. The Doctor blasted through the door. “It’s time, It’s happened. Luna snapped.” Dash and Spitfire were the first to the door. Gilda was in no mood to get out of bed but managed to drag herself out. The griffin mumbled something to herself but got into the line forming anyway. “Alright girls, we knew this would happen sometime but if it isn’t clear yet, it’s morning now and there is still no sun so only one explanation is possible.” The Doctor paused for a second. “Nightmare Moon has arrived.” Right then Celestia burst into the hallway. The others turned to see the disheveled princess’s pleading eyes. “I need your help, something has happened and I have a feeling you know exactly what.” The four ponies nodded and Celestia motioned for them to follow. “My sister has gone crazy. She won’t lower the moon and I don’t know why. I think she became too jealous. We have to do something to stop her. Any ideas?” The ponies all looked at each other. Gilda was in no mood to wait though. “The Elements of Harmony, duh.” All the others snapped their heads towards Gilda. “What?” “Hello? Perhaps preserving the timeline? Did you forget that?” “So what if we speed this up a bit? I want to go home now; you dweebs are starting to rub off on me.” “Alright, well where could Luna be right now anyway? The legend didn’t tell much,” stated Spitfire. “Well, I do know her favorite places. If we all split up we might be able to find her.” Celestia thought for a second. “Here, take these.” Her horn glowed brightly as she materialized four stones. “Just break this into the ground and we will come.” Celestia then stepped closer to the four ponies and activated her teleportation spell, taking them with her. They all popped out dazed and slightly charred. When they regained their composure they saw the room they were in was a battle room of sorts; probably deep under the ground. “Alright, here is how it is. Luna is trying to take all the power of the world and will hurt many ponies in the process. So I need all of your help. I will be going here,” she pointed at a mountain overlooking a large lake. “She likes to go there sometimes. You ponies will be going to these four locations.” She pointed at the first three of the locations respectfully giving each of the ponies any details she could. “Dash, you will be going here. This is a recently discovered mountain on the outskirts of Equestria. It is very dangerous but I think you can handle it. Good luck everypony.” She hadn’t wasted any time so far and she didn’t waste any then; the five of them all teleported to different spots in Equestria, looking for the princess that had snapped and refused to lower her moon. ----- Rainbow Dash shook her head. She had no idea how Unicorns could stand teleportation. She did her best to regain her composure, when she did she gasped at the mountain towering above her. The sheer steepness of the mountain astounded her. It was absolutely massive! Nothing she has ever seen before could possibly compare to this. Dash highly doubted she could ever fly as high as the mountain went even if her wings were not damaged. It made her wonder, just what force had allowed for such a massive structure to be built naturally? She took a trot a few feet forward to make sure she could walk again before setting off towards the mountain. It was simply awe inspiring to see something so large before you and still be so far away from it! It took a good five minutes for her to gallop towards the base of the mountain. Here she found something quite peculiar. It was a perfectly square object on the side of the mountain. Obviously, it was out of place compared to the rock and dirt that made up the mountainside. Dash walked up closer to it and scrutinized it closely. It was a metal of some sort, the kind of thing you only see used to build trains simply because it was strong but still light. You never saw it wasted in such large quantities on something as simple as a… Door? She guessed it was a door because of the shape; and yet something told her that wasn’t entirely accurate. It had features normal doors tended to not have, and not to mention lacked features normal doors would. It lacked a doorknob as well as hinges and the door part of it was actually sunk farther in than the frame by quite a large margin. It also had a strange panel on the side of it. It looked alien to her without all the features it normally had. Therefore, naturally, Rainbow stepped right up to it and knocked. The door responded with a metallic clang and the panel to the side swung open with a whoosh, startling Dash and making her take a few steps back. Then the blue mare stepped forward again, inspecting the newly revealed panel. It had a pad with twelve keys one through nine on the first three rows and the last row consisting of a star of some sort, a zero, and a hash tag. “What in Equestria is THIS thing?” Dash found herself saying out loud. It looked to be a sort of keypad but the keys were far too small for her hooves. So, she outstretched her good wing and clicked one of the buttons. A small beep sounded as it was pressed in. She moved and pressed another one which produced the same result. She pressed a few more buttons but nothing seemed to happen except the beep. That is, until she pressed to star; this caused all sorts of not so great stuff to happen. First, the panel whooshed shut, almost taking a feather with it. Then, a blast of loud noise exploded into Dash’s ears. A screeching which was so loud it would be impossible to ascertain the location of. It hurt, far too much for her to handle. The mare collapsed on the ground and felt the tears begin to well up from the pain in her ears. Suddenly, when she thought she couldn’t take any more, it just stopped. Dash continued to lay on the ground, whimpering as the sound continued to ring in her own ears like an unwanted echo. When she finally brought herself to raise her head again she was surprised to see the door open and set of hooves standing in its place. “Are you going to get up or am I just going to have to stand here?” the owner of the hooves asked. Dash looked up again to be greeted with face she knew only because of Twilight’s constant history lessons. “Wait a second? Are you who I think you are?” The stallion cocked his head. “That all depends on who you think I am. Might I say though, you are a rather strange filly,” he chuckled. “Not many ponies would have come this far away from the nearest settlement and not to mention doing so in the dead of night.” “Well, I didn’t exactly come this way. It was more of a sent this way honestly. Also, it is really supposed to be night right now,” Dash gestured at the sky. “You see, Nightmare moo- I mean, Princess Luna is refusing to lower the moon for the sun and Celestia sent me to find her. For some reason she suspected she would be here. “ “Well, Luna is here alright but I assure you she hasn’t gone crazy. I just saw her a few minutes ago! Or was it a few hours? I really do need to find a way to tell time.” “How about you let me inside and we can start looking for her,” Dash said as she got up on her hooves and began to step through the door. However, she was grabbed by a burst of magic which came from the stallion. “Hey! What’s the big idea?” “I have never met you before in my life, yet you act like you know who I am,” the stallion stepped around to the front of Rainbow Dash. “Then, you tell me you are on some mission from Celestia herself and want instant access into this mountain!” His magic then flared and she was pulled back to the outside of the door. “So, how about we take a step back and you explain yourself!” Dash staggered back as she was let go and fell flat on her flank. She just sat there shocked for a minute, thinking of how she would explain what was going on without sounding completely insane. “I’m from the future.” She instantly facehoofed. ‘So much for not insane,’ she thought. Except, the stallion didn’t start laughing, nor did he have any reaction at all. He just stood there, expressionless for what had to be an hour. “Then tell me, what is my name, and how do you know it?” Dash breathed a sigh of relief and sat up. She let herself think for a moment on what the Doctor would say before starting. “Well, your name is Starswirl the Bearded. I can’t tell you exactly why I know you ‘cause that would be a spoiler, and we can’t have that.” Starswirl guffawed almost instantly. “In the words of a true time traveler! Please, do come in and let us start this search for the princess.” His smile brought instant warmth to Rainbow Dash. The two then stepped into the door and Dash was surprised at the sight she saw. The room was filled with strange devices. Things she had only seen before in the basement of the library. Lights flickered on and off on the devices that were one. However, most of the more advanced ones seemed to be off. They didn’t show and light at all. A look at the ceiling brought a similar view. The more advanced lights were off while the room was instead lit with candles, lanterns, and torches. “What is this place?” She asked the philosopher. “Well, no pony knows for sure. We have done multiple experiments but nothing seems to bring any sort of hard results to the table. It isn’t like we can get most of these darned machines on anyway!” He emphasized his frustration by kicking one of the devices. Dash stepped forward and looked at the machines herself. Some of them were made with a few pieces of the metal that seemed to fully build this entire room while being mostly made of glass. A few of the devices had keys on them. She laid her hand on one of the keys on one of the devices. The reaction from the device was, unexpected to say the least. Instantly the console activated and the whole thing lit up with brilliant light. It startled Dash and she staggered back, rear ending another device which activated it as well. This one emitted a loud pitched whine for a second and scared her again. This time she took off running and something amazing started happening. The lights started to turn on too. Starswirl looked dumbfounded as everything began to turn on. He almost didn’t react soon enough to grab her with his magic before she actually broke something. “How in the name of Celestia are you doing this!?” He quickly ran up to some of the devices which had started showing information on them. He tried to get as much of the information down as possible but it was all in another language. “This looks like a derivation of Equestrian by the structure of the letters. However, judging by the age of this stuff I would say Equestrian is actually a derivation of it. Oh who the hay cares! We are getting results for the first time!” In his haste, Starswirl didn’t think of his reactions. So he didn’t quite think thoroughly what he was doing when he kissed Rainbow. At first, it was strange. She didn’t know what to think about all of that mumbo jumbo he was talking about and that surprised her yet again. Although, she didn’t quite mind any of it at all. She let herself sink into the embrace. It didn’t last extremely long as Starswirl immediately backed off. A look of shock completely filled his face as he realized what he had just done. “Oh my, oh dear I am so sorry there Miss,” he looked for the name and then realized, he never even heard it yet! “I don’t even know your name yet! I just did, THAT and I don’t even know your name. I am so horribly sorry; I didn’t mean to do that I- I let myself get too excited. Please just forgi-“ He was cut off by Rainbow’s lips locking with his again. She pulled away after a few seconds. “Rainbow, my name is Rainbow Dash.” ----- Notes Then there was shipping. Well, I didn’t really know how to end this chapter off with a bigger bang than that. I actually I thought about it for about five days and couldn’t think of anything better. Also, this is the rewrite of the chapter for the third time as I couldn’t quite get it during a planned writing. Literally, this came to me while riding in a car. Anywho, I am quite confident with the Rainbow/Starswirl interaction part but the beginning is a bit off kilter I think. Also, I know there will be plenty of spelling/grammar issues as my beloved editor has vanished! *Gasp* So for that reason I am looking for another editor so if you have decent English skills and are at least through college please then shoot me a message so I don’t have to post mediocre chapters! Thanks for reading this chapter