//------------------------------// // A Broken Rainbow // Story: Timeless Harmony // by Barrier Pavise //------------------------------// Timeless Harmony Chapter 6: A Broken Rainbow (Mane 6 P.O.V.) The time traveling ponies followed their rainbow colored guide out of the apple cellar, through sweet apple acres, past Ponyville, and to a point directly beneath the starting line in Cloudsdale. “...And Lily was all like, 'Pinkie, oatmeal is amazing!' and I was all like, 'Oatmeal, are you crazy!?'” The wild pink earth pony continued to babble on aimlessly throughout the entire walk. “Pinkie-” started Applejack, trying to cut her friend off for just a moment of silence. “...Then Daisy came in on Lily and were like-” The rambling party pony simply couldn't be stopped. “PINKIE!” shouted the rest of the group, instantly halting the mare's endless speech. “What?” asked Pinkie in the most innocent way. “Guys, it's right up there!” shouted Rainbow, ignoring the shouting behind her and pointing a hoof up at a cloud in the distance. The remaining ponies followed Rainbow's gaze up into the cloud where a young and wild Filly Rainbow Dash was preparing to take off into the most important race of her life. “Whoa...” started Rainbow in shock as she looked over her filly self. “I look good!” Rainbow Dash began to slowly fly up toward the starting line to get a better look before feeling some unknown tug on her left wing. “Rainbow, you need to stay back” ordered Twilight as she pulled gently on the mare's wing. “We don't want to create a paradox just because you want to get a better look at yourself.” “C'mon Twi, I wont even be near it!” protested the now overly excited pegasus. “I just wanna get a sky seat on a cloud in the distance, just to for a higher view!” Rainbow said, trying to tug away from the magical aura that held her wing. Twilight knew there was no convincing the sky loving pony to stay on the ground. “Ugh, fine” surrendered the unicorn as she released the spell. “Just promise that you will stay out of sight and not touch a thing!” Just as Rainbow was about to quickly agree to the promise, Pinkie broke her way into the conversation and shouted, “PINKIE PROMISE!” Rainbow Dash gave a slight smile at the notion, but crossed her chest with her hoof and then placed it on her eye. “I Pinkie Promise.” With that, Twilight gave her an affirmative nod and the pegasus was off, sure to be getting a better seat than any of the grounded ponies. --- Rainbow Dash worked her way to a distant cloud high above the heads of her fellow time travelers. As badly as she wanted to get a front row seat to one of the best moments of her life, she knew Twilight was watching her every move and could even feel her stare from below. So she decided to play it safe and plopped down on a nice soft cloud. “Oh boy, I can't believe it's really happening!” squealed the pegasus to herself. She looked up into the thicker clouds that held the starting point of the race, but Filly Rainbow wasn't there! Rainbow Dash scattered her eyes everywhere, looking for any sign of the small filly. Then she caught her. Filly Rainbow was just knocked out of the racing area and picking up speed with a vengeance. “Here she goes!” cried Applejack from below, eyes wide with excitement. The blue filly began her dive-bomb, aiming for the small ring shaped cloud that marked the racing field. Her speed was unimaginable. Her mane was being pushed back, losing its physical form and becoming that of a long rainbow trail. She could feel the sound barrier tightening around her as her speed was pushed to near her max. Adrenaline filled her little body and she felt unstoppable. Rainbow Dash felt so awestruck as her younger self zoomed by her, only a few hundred yards from where she would pull up and allow the beauty of the sonic rainboom to mystify the skies of Equestria. Filly Rainbow took one ego-full and confident glance behind her, wanting to see the look of the competitors that she had left to eat her dust. But something caught her eye. Something...familiar. A single rainbow maned pegasus stood on a cloud, giving the filly an amazing one-pony audience. The distracted pony gasped at the sight of this mare, shocked at how dangerously similar she looked to herself. But that needed to wait, the ground was near. The small pegasus then returned her attention to the race...but a moment too late. The ground was far too close to her and her speed was far to great for her to stop or pull up. The sound barrier continued to tighten, but not fast enough. It wouldn't break fast enough to save her from the forbidding ground below. Filly Rainbow tried with all of her might to pull up, giving everything she had into the task of saving her life. But it didn't work as intended. Her small body barely managed to lift a few degrees before she went crashing into the ground of Whitetail Woods. Instead of the magnificent rainbow colored explosion, only dirt and debris filled the sky as Filly Rainbow's body continued to skid across the earth, destroying everything in her path. Trees bent and snapped to her might. Dirt, wood and grass flew in every direction as a trail of destruction and blood followed the skidding body. “What the -!?” cried out Rainbow Dash, unable to leave her perch due to pure shock. “That wasn't supposed to happen!” screamed Twilight as she and the rest of the group charged toward the crash sight. Filly Rainbow's painful slide was coming to an end, the friction of the ground finally taking effect. Eventually, she came to a stop. The world around her seemed to fade and she felt as though her body didn't even exist any more. She used all of her filly might to turn her head. She faced massive destruction. Her gaze continued to move until she saw her wing, broken and destroyed. She blacked out... Through the shield of unconsciousness, Filly Rainbow heard the faint conversation of a group of young mares. “Rainbow Dash, what did you do!?” Filly Rainbow couldn't see the mares, or recognize voices. “Easy Twi, I didn't do anything! She just didn't pull up like she was supposed to!” “Twilight, I can see right through you!” came a high pitched voice. “The rainboom...it never happened. We were all connected to it and it never happened!” said the same voice that came first. Filly Rainbow managed to just barely lift one eyelid to see the ponies above her. There were six of them, all female. And one of them... one of them seemed familiar. The mortally wounded filly focused her attention on the cyan pegasus who's body slowly seemed to be fading away as tears rolled down her cheeks. She blacked out again. The last thing the fatally wounded pegasus heard was a single sentence spoken by all six ponies; “We went back in time, and now we're paying the consequences.” --- The dying filly slowly blinked open her eyes, but that's all she managed. The world around her was still almost nothing more than a massive blur, but she could tell she was still in the same place in the same destroyed state. But there was one difference, she wasn't alone. Although she could not locate the source of the voices from earlier, she could feel heavy breathing coming from behind her. Filly Rainbow tried to turn her head to see what was causing this, but failed and felt as though trying that again would result in the breaking of her neck. But she caught the slightest glimpse of something, something furry. Her eyes met one furry clawed leg, definitely not that of a pony's. Filly Rainbow let out a slight moan as she tried again to turn her entire body over but, failed yet again. This movement agitated the beast as it let out a low growl, giving away its species as a wolf. Filly Rainbow's heart began to race at the realization, but that led to her downfall. Her body couldn't handle the heart speed as she blacked out again, leaving herself available to the small pack of wolves that surrounded her...