Scootaloo could not contain her excitement. Buzzing around the house at speeds that would make Rainbow Dash proud, the wide eyed filly took in every detail she could. Cloud houses were SO COOL. Everything was soft and mobile. Need a blanket? Pull one up out of the excess material in the floor! Want a new window? Kick one into the wall! Need to rest? Every surface is super comfy! She wondered what sort of awesome weather stuff the bathroom made use of when she noticed the weird feeling in her stomach. It was almost like she was falling, but somehow backwards.
Was she… going UP? Galloping to the nearest window, the orange pegasus began scanning the outdoors and seeing only blue skies and white clouds. She jumped up into the window and looked down. The house was rising. It wasn’t very high up yet, and it wasn’t moving very fast, but it was definitely moving.
An inconceivably loud noise caused Scootaloo to jam her front hooves into her ears, begging the painful sound to stop invading her head. As the thunderous boom faded into a low rumble, the house shook. With only her hind hooves to support her, the shaking cloud structure tossed the poor filly out the window and into the open air.
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Princess Celestia raised an eyebrow. “That is quite a plan, my faithful student. While I do agree that it would be best to minimize the number of… temporal transgressions… involved, are you certain there isn’t a better way? As you have demonstrated, the chance is unfathomably low, but should the worst case come to pass it will not be possible to save Equestria. Even if everything unfolds exactly as you have planned, there is still a very important and poorly understood consequence to be considered.”
“I understand your concerns, Princess, but I have had an awful lot of time to think this over. We need to act as quickly as possible, before things get any worse. While I can’t say for sure what sort of effect we’ll see, I’m positive that at least the original will be stable.”
“Very well. Twilight Sparkle, in light of the grave situation Equestria finds itself in, I hereby grant you full command of the Wonderbolts.”
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The rain came down in thick sheets. Applejack stood inside the barn, grateful that it kept her dry even though it limited her field of vision. Anxiously scanning the patch of sky she could see through the door for any sign of a rainbow, the farmer shivered slightly.
This would be the day. She knew Rainbow Dash had somehow discovered the feelings she had tried so hard to hide. It was as clear as day the last time they had seen each other, and they both agreed that they needed to talk. There was no use trying to hide it anymore – the element of honesty was no good at lying. They arranged a time and a place, and went their separate ways.
So here she stood, shivering in the barn and worrying herself sick. How would the mare of her dreams respond to her feelings? Try as she might, Applejack could not envision a future where Rainbow Dash returned her feelings. She wasn’t even sure if the brash blue pegasus liked mares at all. There HAD been a variety of events lately to suggest Dash longed to be with her just as much, but everything was clouded in a haze of confusion. Dash had been acting too strange lately to take any of her bizarre actions or words to heart.
Applejack needed to have a clear and honest conversation with Rainbow Dash, and both mares would need to be completely serious. It was time. She had waited and suffered long enough. No outcome could possibly be worse than wallowing in the sorrow of unrequited love, forever keeping her feelings bottled up… she hoped.
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Rainbow Dash soared alongside Rainbow Dash, enjoying the company of the only pegasus as fast as she was… or at least ONE of the only ones, all of whom were the same one? They had both grown to hate thinking about time travel, even if they couldn’t deny some of the benefits it brought. They raced out a great distance away from Ponyville, trying to make certain this new stunt would be far enough away that nopony would get hurt. Neither of them knew just how big the shockwave would be, and so they continued to fly further and further until at last there was not a single visible landmark to indicate proximity to civilization. Simultaneously deciding that this was far enough, they both stopped and swallowed the last of their hesitation.
“You wanna take East or West?”
“Doesn’t matter. East I guess.”
“Alright then. You think five minutes will be far enough?”
“Yeah. So 4:18 then. Let’s do this.”
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With no time to think about anything but the eminent flattening of her home, all Twilight Sparkle could do was react. First instinct when about to be crushed by a falling object – GET OUT OF THE WAY! Mustering up more strength than she ever knew she had, Princess Celestia’s prized pupil teleported the whole of Ponyville out of the way of Ponyville and promptly passed out.
Twilight Sparkle got to her hooves and shook the dizziness of the impact out of her head. Whatever had just happened, it had been a doozy. Slowly trotting out of the library to get a look at what had happened, she was very surprised to see Ponyville off in the distance, not too far from the edge of Ponyville. She galloped through crowds of bewildered ponies, dodging the debris in the streets and reached the edge of the town. She could do nothing but stare in awe. That was definitely Ponyville. Right over there. It looked almost like it was in the wrong spot. The landscape seemed to indicate that HER Ponyville was in the correct location, and this one was just a bit off.
It didn’t take long for ponies to start flooding out of each town to see what was going on. Twilight noticed nothing but familiar faces coming from the other Ponyville, many of whom she had passed on her way here. She reasoned that some magical mishap, albeit a very large one, had taken place and the best course of action was to find herself. When she arrived at the library, she found herself unconscious on the floor and began to panic. Maybe Princess Celestia would know what to do…