Chapter 4- Beyond Reality
At first Rainbow was a little disappointed. All she could see was darkness. Did the stone not work? Did the pony that burst in ruin something? Rainbow wondered who the mysterious pony was. She didn’t sound like any of her friends. Yet, her voice sounded vaguely familiar.
Nothing was happening. Rainbow then realized her eyes were still shut. She opened her eyes and gasped. She was no longer in her house. She was on a solitary cloud in the sunny sky. She stood up and peered over the edge of the cloud. Below her was Ponyville. It didn’t look any different. Did the stone simply teleport her someplace else? No, there was something different. There were new buildings here and there. And she couldn’t recognize some of the ponies walking along the street below.
“Rainbow Dash, there you are! I’ve been looking everywhere for you,” said somepony behind her. Rainbow turned around to see the speaker. She didn’t recognize the orange pegasus before her.
“Sorry do I know you?” Rainbow asked.
“Ha! Good one. As if you could forget me,” she replied.
“What do you mean? I’ve never met you before,” Rainbow said, genuinely confused.
“Is this some kind of joke? It’s not really funny. Cut it out,” the orange pegasus said.
“I think I would remember a friend.”
“Rainbow? Are you okay? It’s me: Scootaloo.”
Rainbow stifled a gasp. “Scootaloo? But, you’re an adult. How did …?” Then feeling extremely stupid she remembered that this was the future. Her future self probably saw Scootaloo like this every day. She had to think of a recovery.
“Got ya, didn’t I?” Rainbow said, feigning a giggle.
The concern left Scootaloo’s eyes and a smile spread across her face. “Yeah, but just for a second there.”
“So you said you were looking for me?” said Rainbow.
“Oh! That’s right. Shadow Flare needs you. He said he’d be near the Everfree forest,” Scootaloo said.
“Um, yeah okay,” she restrained herself from asking who in Equestria this pony was. She would just see when she got there.
She jumped off the cloud and flew in the direction of the Everfree. She passed a few new establishments but it looked generally the same. She wondered how far she was in the future. It couldn’t be too far off as Scootaloo still looked pretty young.
Before long, the Everfree Forest loomed ahead of her. There was a black unicorn with a jagged, red mane leaning against a tree.
“Shadow Flare?” she asked.
The black unicorn looked up at her with bright green eyes. “Ah! Finally! I was beginning to worry they’d never find you.”
Rainbow assumed he meant the former Cutie Mark Crusaders. “So, why did you need to see me?”
“Well, I know you’ve been busy with the Wonderbolts and all, but since you are the fastest flyer in Equestria I needed you to take an urgent message to Queen Twilight,” he said.
“Queen Twilight? Wasn’t she turned a princess only three months ago? What happened to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna? Why would I be too busy with the Wonderbolts? Why can’t you get Spike to send the message? Who are you?” Rainbow covered her mouth with her hooves to halt the barrage of questions. She slowly looked up at Shadow Flare.
His eyes were narrowed suspiciously. “The better question is who are you? The real Rainbow Dash would know all of that.”
“I am the real Rainbow Dash! But I… I’m from the past.”