Clover's Song

by HiroJiyuNaka

Color

Disclaimer: I have no claim to My Little Pony: Friendship is magic. The morals and events expressed below should not be counted as canon, nor even official fanon, for that matter.

“Clover, sweetie, do you know where my car keys are?”

The girl, whose head could be seen poking over the top of the low wall separating the kitchen from the family room, turned to her mother, a deadpan expression telling of her feelings on the question. “And what, exactly, would make you think I would know? What could I do with them?”

Clover’s mother either didn’t hear the ire in her daughter’s voice, or pretended she didn’t. “I just meant ‘Have you seen them?’”

Clover’s head glided around the wall, the rest of her figure coming into view as she left the kitchen. It was a large frame, quite cumbersome. The wheelchair, that is. Clover herself was slim, an unfortunate effect of being paraplegic since birth. At least puberty had been kind, giving her something to break the otherwise mostly straight lines her body was made of. In her lap were a paper plate and a fresh-made sandwich waiting to be eaten. “No, Mom. Check the garage, maybe Brent has them, I don’t know. I’m going for a roll.”

“Alright, sweetie, just be careful. Take some water!” she added, as Clover maneuvered her wheelchair towards the door.

“Got it!” the red-head answered, tapping a bottle in its holder on her backpack, which was hung on the back of her mobile chair.

"Oh, and I'm making turkey for dinner, so be home by 6!"

Giving a wave of an arm for the universal sign of statement recognition, Clover left the house, shutting the door behind her. Wheeling down the ramp on her front porch, she propelled the manual chair down the sidewalk and toward the park. The one thing in this miserable town that was green, it was an eighth of an acre, and completely overgrown. There were animals everywhere, nothing was maintained; you even had a chance of encountering Poison Oak.

A small orange tabby cat meowed next to her, and she absently bent to pick him up. “Coming with me today, Numa?” Another meow answered Clover as her cat settled into her lap.

She loved her tabby. He always did as he was told; smartest cat in the world, she thought. She loved the outdoors, too; the freshness of Nature reminded her that not everything was black and white like the world she grew up in. She loved these small things, things most people take for granted because she hated everything else. Well, not really hated, per say. More like, indifferent. Everyone around her either ousted her, outright stared, or politely tried to ignore her. No matter how she was treated, she learned to just brush it off and live, content with appearing quiet and recluse, shying away from anyone that got too close. At least until somebody confronted her; made her angry. She was still human, after all, and a human can only take so much at a time.

"A pony really can only take so much at a time, Rainbow. Remember that! Even you will feel the immense strain trying to do this, so do it carefully, and remember your exit strategy!"

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes at her bookish friend. Really, it's not much more than an extended Sonic Rainboom, and she had been doing those on command for weeks! Still, Twilight Sparkle was a smart pony, no denying that. After all, it was the Unicorn that had worked out how to actually do this trick.

Dash remembered when she had entered (crashed into) the Library, venting about how everypony knew about the Sonic Rainboom by now, since she had been perfecting it over the last month, but there was no word from the Wonderbolts about her! So, obviously, the Rainboom wasn't good enough, and she needed a new trick, an even better, more amazing trick! Not just a legend that she brought to reality, but something nopony had ever heard of before! Looking back, it had all happened with a bit more hysterical ranting, and a slightly scared (not to mention confused) Twilight, but the point was the same.

Twilight happily agreed to help work out a flashy and awesome move for the racepony, and they got to work immediately, going over figures well into the night.

Well, Twilight went over figures well into the night. Rainbow fell asleep on the couch twenty-four minutes in. She recognized that that was 20% longer than how long she usually stayed up while around Twilight and books in non-exciting situations (a group which Daring Doo novels were indeed excluded from), but couldn't decide whether that was good, or meant she was becoming an egghead. It was for a new trick, though, so she went with the first one.

Shaking her head out of the memory, she smiled at her friend. "Don't worry, Twilight! If anypony can do this, it's me! Right Fluttershy?!"

The timid Pegasus started in surprise for but a second before giving an enthusiastic "Yeah!" that probably only a dog could hear.

Rainbow Dash chuckled at her 'cheering squad' briefly before looking up at the wide, clear sky with determination and saying, "Besides. You said that I could take my time getting the corkscrew, right?"

Twilight nodded, replying, "Yes, initially. The prismatic light will stay separate until you achieve an even twist, but once you do, you need to maintain it, or else-"

Rainbow cut her off with a hoof, "Exactly! And that'll really be the hardest part: getting the ribbons to line up! So, after that, it'll be smooth sailing!" All she really heard was 'yes' and 'even twist,' but that was all she asked for, anyway.

Looking down at Tank situated comfortably in front of Fluttershy, Dash grinned like a madmare. “Now watch this, Tank! Momma’s gonna light up the sky!” And took off, moisture in the air being sliced and aligned by her speed, the signature rainbow trail forming behind her. At least, that’s what Twilight said happened.

Midway through her ascent, she doubled her speed, flipping her goggles in place to keep her focus on flying instead of seeing. At this point, she had found it actually took effort to NOT do a Sonic Rainboom when flying downwards, but doing one against gravity was entirely different. Ignoring the flapping sound her cheeks were making, she settled her wings into the now-familiar half-relaxed state she had found that allowed them more power per beat.

Faster and faster she went, some of the colors were visible to her, and she could feel the air fighting her for every inch she gained, her muscles were screaming at her to just give it up. The sparks were forming in every hue, now, and Rainbow felt the whole world suddenly shut up. The wind was gone, she couldn’t hear her heart beat, and no sounds came to her ears from the ground. One millisecond later an enormous ‘BANG!’ exploded behind her as she broke the sound barrier. A millisecond after that and the world went pure white as she broke the light barrier as well. Once she was through, all of her senses returned, and her speed increased by a factor of ten!

A Sonic Rainboom, no matter how easily she could perform one now, was still nothing to scoff at. And this one was UPWARDS!

Twilight looked up at the giant color wheel, enthralled. No matter how many times she saw it, it was still one of the most amazing things she had ever seen. And to think, earlier testing had proved that it harnessed and used the same nearly all-powerful Rainbow Magic as the Elements of Harmony! That realization, of course, came with a very violent lecture to Dash about doing the Rainboom with other ponies nearby, as the Rainbow Magic in question was not being channeled like the Elements did. Anything could happen with that much raw magic exploding at once. And she most certainly was not to be carrying anypony while she did, either! Stay away from buildings, as well. Also, don’t let anypony touch the magic stream she trailed in the form of a solid rainbow. Pretty much, do it alone, and do it in open air. Oh, and don’t do it while wearing her Element of Loyalty necklace. Twilight had forbid Rainbow from leaving the Library until she had agreed.

‘Stage One: The Sonic Rainboom completed. As if there was any doubt.’ Nonetheless, she recorded the success on the notepad she had brought.

Spike finally came running up the hill, camera in hand. “Aw, I missed Stage One!”

Twilight replied without looking, watching for any complications that may occur. “Never mind that, we have plenty of pictures of the Sonic Rainboom. Just focus on getting the other Stages!”

Spike nodded and snapped a few images into the camera to show in-between stages.

Dash continued upwards for about fifty feet before banking left, hard, and immediately looping around her turn, making a ring of rainbow around the vertical stream. She tightened her turn, filling the ring into a disk of solid, prismatic colors. Reaching the point where she turned, Dash started curling back toward the ground, continuing her spiral around the original upward rainbow. When she reached the beginning of her Rainboom stream, she halted her downward speed, making another ring around that end, too.

Stage Two: The Barbell was complete, and Spike snapped a few more pictures. But this is where Dash and Twilight knew it would get tricky.

Rainbow started twisting as she looped, creating a corkscrew effect with the rainbow. Every time she touched part of her previous loop, it erased itself, allowing her to get the spiral just right. It took a few go-arounds, as well as some deliberate set-backs to ensure the ribbons didn’t catch too early. Finally, she achieved the needed four full rolls per rotation, and locked her wings into the pattern. The colors of the rainbow threaded infinitely in a perfect loop about 20 feet wide, twisting four times along the way.

Stage Three: The Frame had gone off well enough, and Spike dutifully did his part.

It was difficult, but Rainbow watched out of the corners of her eyes when the center stream came into view. The first, center stream’s colors were melding together, dissolving. Normally, this wouldn’t happen during a Sonic Rainboom, but Twilight had been working for weeks, learning exactly how the light from Celestia’s Sun worked, as well as all available material on the elusive Rainbow Magic. She had discovered, rather accidentally, a phenomenon during her scale models and experiments.

The colors began to melt together at the top of the light-made structure, forming a solid, thin beam of white light. The light continued to form along the center, getting progressively brighter the closer to the bottom it got. Finally, it reached Rainbow, still spinning in her corkscrew, and stopped. The light filled the hollow center of the corkscrew's ring, a disk of light rimmed by the spiral rainbow hanging at the bottom of the structure.

Stage Four: The Prism came out perfect, and Spike nearly forgot to take pictures. Nearly.

Clover wheeled up next to a rickety park bench in a more secluded part of the park. Gently nudging Numa, he hopped out of her lap and onto the bench, watching her with an excitedly swishing tail. Clover flipped her backpack off the chair and put it in her lap, slipping a laptop out of it and placing the bag on the ground.

Turning the device on, she looked at her pet as it loaded. “So, what shall it be? Fireflies?” Numa cocked his head and twitched his tail. “No? Hm… How about something new, then?”

The orange cat meowed and stepped a little closer before sitting down, expectantly. Yep, definitely the smartest cat, ever.

“Okay. Something… soft, I think. Start slow.” Clover pulled up a music program and set some settings. Assigning a few custom hotkeys in case the mood strikes her, she pulled up the virtual keyboard synthesizer and cracked her fingers.

Beginning slowly, jerkily, she eventually got into a gentle rhythm. It was a light tune that came from the speakers, soft and airy. A simple beat developed and Clover activated a couple hotkeys, setting the beat on background repeat and changed her own playing. She added some new sounds to the repetition, just going where the music took her. A glance at Numa showed that he enjoyed the opening, his loud purring audible even over the music. Setting those repeated sounds on a separate background loop, she bumped up the song with lower, harder notes.

The song progressed gently, the music seeming to know where it wanted to go; her fingers were simply the instrument.

Finally, a soft fade out accompanied by the deactivation of the background tracks she had accumulated ended the song. A wide smile was on her face as the program asked if she would like to save the piece. She clicked ‘Yes’ and entered a numeric name and today’s date until she could refine it.

Looking at the time, she shouted nonsense at how long she had been playing. “6:20?! CrapcrapcrapcrapCRAP! Come on, Numa, dinner time!” Clover packed away her laptop and swung her backpack in place on her chair, allowing Numa to settle in her lap before she began the distance home.

Navigating through the park, she hit the brakes as a siren reached her ears. It shut off almost immediately, but she heard it long enough to tell the direction. “No… Nonononono!!”

Tears filling her eyes, Clover threw her powerful arms into overdrive, the chair screaming up the gently inclined hill her street sat on. She saw the smoke well before she crested it, though.

Twilight gasped in awe as the first glimmers of the trick’s final stage began to take hold. The seven colors of light began to shift through the air, flickering in and out of existence. ‘Come on,’ she thought, ‘The Prism Stage is finished, where’s the Lightshow Stage?”

“NO! That’s my MOM!”

Clover beat at the arms of the policeman holding her in place as they carried a charred, lifeless body into a black bag, alongside two others. Not a gurney, no life supporting IV, just a black bag in the back of the ambulance.

Her tears didn’t even bother pooling in her eyes, now. They fell freely, staining her pretty face and wetting Numa’s coat. Not that the tabby minded, much. He was busy doing that sad, jerky cat cry, head buried in Clover’s lap. Smartest cat in the world.

Most of the flames were gone now. Her home was just ash and scorched metal, now.

Her eyes flicked to one of the police cars, where three guys in standard gangster attire were in handcuffs, being questioned. Anger filled those eyes, replacing the anguish that once sat there.

In a burst of force, she broke free from the officer holding her and accelerated towards the gang members. “YOU! YOU DID THIS! YOU- YOU SPAWN!”

The three looked at her, severely shocked. Some part of Clover’s mind recognized that they each looked at her tear-stained face, then the home they had burnt down, and last on her disabled state, finally having the decency to at least look like they suddenly felt terrible. But she had too many emotions running through her to care, all of them negative, and calling for vengeance.

She settled for spitting in their faces and rolling away, ignoring the cops’ attempts to stop her. Her arms were strong, and she was going downhill. They had no chance to catch her.

Dash watched as the air below her started lighting up in different colors, like at a rave. Finally, there was a loud Sonic Rainboom of its own, right in the same place as the first one. The light burst through the Prism, a cone of color bathing the ground below in a rotating spotlight of awesome!

Twilight’s jaw was somewhere on the ground, now. She’d find it later. Even with all of her tests and calculations, and all of the faith she had in the Pegasus’s abilities, there was still something quite amazing that Rainbow Dash had pulled off the brand-new, never-before-seen trick! Fluttershy was off to the left, screeching in uncharacteristic glee for her friend’s success at another one-of-a-kind stunt.

Now, if only she could remember her exit strategy, everything would go off swimmingly.

Spike had already replaced the roll of film for the camera with all of the pictures he was taking.

Dash whooped for joy as she let Stage Five: The Lightshow continue for a while longer before considering how she would finish. Twilight and she had been quite concerned with this bit, and with good reason. It was Flight 101 to always have a plan for getting out of a high-speed maneuver, lest you crash and burn when you stop.

Rainbow looked down at the ground on a vertical orientation, and caught sight of Fluttershy, screaming her lungs out about how amazing the trick was. It was true. The Lightstream, as she and Twilight had dubbed it after the first successful magically-created simulation, had gone off without a hitch, and she allowed herself to relax a little.

Clover’s tears were gone, now. She had entered that point where she’s no longer sad, or upset. Just numb. Numb to the world, numb to herself. She absently petted Numa, but he was trying to comfort her, more.

They were next to that park bench, again. Her backpack was on the ground at her feet, her computer on her lap, off and serving no purpose.

Numa pawed at the keyboard, and looked at her pleadingly. He wanted her to feel better, and she always felt best when she made music or games or little programs. Giving a small smile at her cat which did not reach her eyes, Clover pressed to power button.

Clover sat there for a moment before she clicked anything. Surprisingly, her fingers did not take her to her Music Deck 4.2. Instead, it went to a drawing/animating program. It wasn't as though she never drew; she did quite a lot. It just wasn't her main attraction. She watched, detached as her hands did the work, color streams and light effects being saved and stored as she made the seemingly random shapes. Finally, it seemed she was done, but Clover surprised herself, once again, by opening Music Deck 4.2 and cracking her knuckles.

As she played, Numa swayed softly, despite the tone of the music. It changed, quite a bit, as she went, but still there that one underlying sound, that hidden feeling, that told you it was soft.

When Clover was done, she looked at what had been created. It was a simple piece. Not very many effects added, and no hard tracks had been used. Realizing now what she really wanted to do, she let the thought of being alone leave her. Working on the final stage of her self-imposed project, she noted with no small amount of happiness that Numa was still awake with her, even though he clearly wanted to sleep.

It was an hour before she finished. Pressing play, she realized this was a first for three things, tonight.

She had never spent a night out of the house, before.

She had never given one of her songs an animation, before.

And she had never listened to one of her songs without looking for any flaws, before.

Suddenly, everything went wrong at once. When she unclenched her withers, her wings lost their perfect angle, and her corkscrew veered off course.

A single bolt of lightning shot through the center stream, the rainbow disk at the high end warped and writhed, and Rainbow could swear she tasted the color blue. A telltale sign of High Magic.

Twilight gasped at what she was seeing. The Lightstream was breaking down! While it was active! WITH RAINBOW DASH INSIDE IT!! “RAINBOW DASH! RAINBOW, GET OUT OF THERE, IT’S COLLAPSING! THAT MUCH RAINBOW MAGIC COULD RIP A HOLE IN THE FABRIC OF REALITY!!”

Rainbow heard her friend’s pleas, even over the wind and thunder now rolling through the cloudless sky. If it was that dangerous, then she HAD to try and fix it. Setting her face in a determined scowl, she started trying to get the corkscrew back in line. The wind was making it hard, though, not to mention the fact that the center stream of light, now wobbling in distress, seemed to be pulling on her like a vacuum!

Eventually, the pull was too much, and the tip of her left wing made contact with the wild beam. Electric shocks ran through her body, and the ends of her feathers practically vaporized. Deciding that it was prudent to bail while she still had ANY feathers, she banked hard out of her turn, slowing down the farther she got, her Rainboom ending.

Landing haphazardly on the ground next to Fluttershy, the medicinal mare immediately began checking her for injuries, specifically worried about how many feathers were missing from the singed wing. Tank was in distress, nudging his owner in worry.

But Dash and Twilight paid them no mind. They were enraptured by the scene playing out above them. The top of the Barbell was collapsing inwards, the center Lightstream turning slightly multi-colored for a moment as the rainbow disk seemed to travel along it, ending up at the Frame below, thickening it. Then the spiral along the outside was sucked into the Light, as well, which seemed to exist simply as a ball of light where the top once was, a single, violently waving stream flowing out of it into the Frame. The Prism was getting smaller, the Lightshow was narrowing into a pinpoint line of every color, pointing at a spot some 30 feet in front of them. Finally, the ball of light at the top was sucked down, too, as was the main stream.

Twilight shuddered as the taste of blue, of High Magic, permeated the air. Something amazing was about to happen, and she had no way of knowing what it would be. ‘We may have just doomed all of Equestria…’ was her final thought before the boom.

Clover closed the laptop, its shut-down screen blinking away, and slid it back into the padded pocket in her bag. The song was only a couple minutes long, but the animation made it seem longer. She should do that more often, she thought. It fit, perfectly. Maybe there was something to that old saying, “Sadness is an artist’s greatest and most dangerous tool.”

Wiping a fresh tear from her eye, Clover held Numa in her arms, the orange cat perfectly content to see her feeling better. It wasn’t as though she was okay with everything, obviously. But it had happened, and with any luck, those thugs would get justice.

It was what would happen, next, that made her nervous. Would she get set up for adoption? She was 17, so whoever was technically in charge of her, now, would probably make her more self-reliant than anything. But Clover knew she could never be self-reliant in such a short time. Being crippled, she had always been sheltered, cared for. Would the police or Social Services send her to a relative? Did she have relatives? There was no way to know.

Clover looked back down at the computer sitting in her backpack. There were so many colors in that music video she made, Clover wasn’t sure where she had come up with some of them! One thing was for certain: She would not be staying in this town if she could help it. There weren’t enough colors. If she could, she would live somewhere with Nature everywhere, where the buildings flowed with the land, existed with it, instead of against it. Maybe Maine or Michigan. Heck, even the country states like Kansas would be better than this place!

Color. That’s what’s important, now, she thought. If she could keep color and life around and inside her, she would be okay.

Color. She could almost imagine it. A perfect Utopia, guarded from the outside by an impenetrable barrier, a dome of every color at once. Nature everywhere, animals roaming free, at peace with one another. Buildings that let the land do its own thing, while not appearing overgrown. A society of harmony. That’s where she would live. Somewhere tolerant; kind.

Color. She really could see it, now, all around her. The dome of light, swirling with every color of the rainbow, and it was shrinking! Coming in at her, speeding inward and downward, flowing over the trees and ground. All sides of the hemispheric wall impacted her at once, and she vanished, chair, cat, backpack, and computer coming with her, a blast of sound signaling her departure from this world.

The Frame and Prism were still there, somehow, white light beaming out of it at the ground now, instead of the rainbow stream from earlier. Below, there seemed to be a kind of full-circle explosion, a dome of every color of the rainbow had burst from the ground under the beam, expanding to just in front of them. The Frame up above let out a third sonic boom, larger than any that Rainbow Dash had ever accomplished. Once it dissipated, the rainbow wall shrank down, the white light beam fading away with the white filling of the Prism, and finally the rainbow Frame also disappeared. The dome shrunk to the impact point 30 feet away vanished in a flash of light, blinding the ponies, Tank, and Spike.

When their vision returned, they gasped loudly at what they saw. Fluttershy in fear, Twilight in concern, and Rainbow in standard surprise. Spike seemed to faint on the spot.

None of them particularly wanted to be the one to investigate, but Twilight seemed to suddenly find herself very much alone, as the others scooted backwards.

Cautiously moving forward, she inspected the new arrival at a fair distance.

It had a neon green coat and a red, wavy mane and tail; that was good. At least it was ponyoid. It had hooves and a horn, too, so they had to be related to Unicorns. But that was about where the similarities ended. The creature’s face was too flat and angular; it didn’t look squished, but it wasn’t pony, either. Then there were the long bits at the end of the forelegs, which, she noted, seemed to be bent in slightly the wrong way. Oh, yes, and then there were the two lumps on the creature’s chest area that reminded her of a female ape just before and well after childbirth. Though these looked more… was ‘shaped’ the word? They didn’t look as deflated as primate mammary glands, and they definitely weren’t pony mammary glands. Those were lower, about over the stomach.

Something moving tore her tunnel-vision from the, presumably female, being. A cat twitched in its sleep, held in the creature’s forelegs. It was an orange tabby, and seemed perfectly content where it was, so she vaguely noted it seemed unhurt and moved on. There was a strange-looking saddlebag on the ground nearby, looking unharmed as well. The last object, however, caused a bit of distress.

It was a metal chair-like structure, with wheels instead of legs. Or it seemed to have been what she recognized as a wheelchair, anyway. The metal was rapidly melting, now, and the cloth and padding of the seat and back had already incinerated. There was a glowing pool of molten metal spreading out on the lawn, burning the grass so fast it couldn’t even catch fire. Summoning a simple cooling spell, she stopped its dangerous progression and mentally inserted the resulting mess into her “Things to take care of later” list.

Turning back to the creature, she saw the cat twitch again, and sighed. At least it was alive.

…

ALIVE?!!

Twilight looked to the creature with renewed concern. She could see no movement from the odd angle, and considered casting a Diagnosis Spell.

…

THERE WAS NO TIME TO CONSIDER! Flashing her horn, she quickly drove her mental prowess into the creature before her. There were electric signals; a nervous system. They were weak, but that was okay. Living tissue; no obvious disfigurations as far as she could determine in an alien species. There was movement in what were, hopefully, her lungs, but that could just be them collapsing. No, there it was! The pulse! It was slow, slower than Twilight thought should happen when somepony was sleeping. Then again, this wasn’t exactly a pony. At least not all pony.

The pulse was just barely enough to keep the slow breaths of oxygen she was taking in flowing through her blood, but it did the job. Twilight returned from her analysis to see that Rainbow had trotted up next to her, Tank on her back and Fluttershy peeking out from behind her. “So… What is it? Did I do that?”

Twilight looked up at the sky, the colors of the Lightstream were long gone, though. “I think you did. Accidentally, of course. I knew that Rainbow Magic was extremely powerful, but I figured that if it was being focused then nothing bad could happen. It looks like I was wrong. The Lightstream lost stability at Stage Five. I’m sorry, Rainbow.” The mare hung her head in shame.

Rainbow rounded on her friend in anger. “Don’t apologize! It was my fault! I got too relaxed up there and veered off course! If I had stayed focused, the trick would have worked perfectly!”

Twilight flinched back at her friend. She hadn’t even seen Rainbow falter! Were the specifications for the Lightstream so absolute that even a few miniscule inches could throw off the entire harmony? She shook her head, clearing it. “Well, regardless, to answer your first question, she’s obviously ponyoid. Horn, fur, tail, hooves- er… rear hooves, anyway. I think she came thr-“

“She?”

Twilight nodded and pointed at the lumps on the being’s chest with a hoof. “Those are mammary glands, so it’s probably female. I, ah, haven’t checked in-depth, yet. Wasn’t really sure what I would find. This is an entirely undocumented species; it’s possible their genders work differently than ours. I think she came through the Lightstream, though. I did say that the instability could rip a hole in the fabric of reality, but I think this is something a bit less drastic than that. If we truly had set off a chain reaction to destroy the universe, we would probably not have survived that explosion!”

Rainbow cocked her head to the side, oblivious to Fluttershy gingerly stepping up to the dosing newcomer. “Hey, yeah, what was that? It was like the whole thing got sucked into the light and exploded!”

Twilight shook her head, looking up into the blank, non-telling sky once more. “I don’t know. I suppose that could be the Rainbow Magic trying to find an outlet. It isn’t inherently destructive, and is best used for creating rather than destroying. It might have created something, a connection maybe, to wherever she’s from.”

Rainbow sat on her haunches and crossed her forelegs in irritation. “I wish Pinkie were here. She knows more about other dimensions than anypony!”

Twilight looked a bit miffed at her friend’s statement. “While I admit that Pinkie somehow breaks the Law of Causality with her Pinkie Sense, can somehow be in two places at once, can defy gravity at will, and seems to be able to appear in mirrors, I highly doubt she would be able to tell us anything about inter-dimensional physics.”

She turned to look at the Pegasus, and jerked her head back in surprise at the deadpan look on Rainbow’s face. Dash rolled her eyes and pointed a hoof at her, saying, “Did you even hear ANYTHING you just said?”

Twilight thought for a moment and blushed. “Well, now that you mention it, it does seem like she might know… Based entirely on past observations, Pinkie’s just crazy enough to possibly know about these things.”

“’You’d be surprised what you need to know as a baker’ she once told me.”

Twilight laughed gently. “I’ll bet I would. Too bad she’s visiting her family, right now.”

Fluttershy scooted up unassumingly into the conversation with a soft, “Uhm,” followed shortly with, “Is she g-going to be okay?”

Twilight moved forward and looked down at the being. Her breathing was getting noticeable, now. “I think so. She’s breathing a lot better, now, and she doesn’t appear hurt. Neither does the cat or the bag, but the wheelchair is toast. I had to cast a cooling spell to keep it from burning everything as it melted. Any longer and it might have reached her."

Rainbow circled around and looked at the- Mare? Filly?- girl's flank. "Hey, Twilight, check out this cutie mark!"

The Unicorn joined her friend and examined the mark. It was a piano keyboard, four primary keys and three secondary keys. Thing was, the keys weren't black and white, but instead each color of the rainbow sat on its own key, going in order from left to right: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and finally violet. Twilight idly wondered why Rainbow Dash had every color of the rainbow in her hair except the last one, but brushed it off as she always had. "It looks like she's a musical pony- err… ponyoid. Gosh, it really is hard not to see her as a pony, isn't it?"

Clover felt her consciousness return. It was a weird feeling. You know when you wake up from a falling dream and your whole body jerks as though your soul just jumped off a high building back into your body? It was like that, only in slow motion.

First, she felt sensation return to her chest, and she immediately started breathing faster. Then she could feel her arms. Did she have a wool shirt on? It felt like it. Numa was in her arms, she knew that much. A small pressure built at the base of her spine, but she ignored it.

Finally, her senses returned, and she could hear some girl's voice, high and scratchy. "Well, what should we do about her? This whole thing is technically our fault, accident or not, Twilight!"

Another girl, older, maybe, with a thoughtful tone replied, "Well, we should definitely get her out of here. I think this place will get really crowded, soon, once they all realize that the commotion has calmed down."

The first girl spoke again, "Right. Your place it is, then. You can figure out what's going on at the Library, right?"

"Right. Dash, can you carry her? It looks like Fluttershy has Spike, so we just need to get home without being noticed."

Fluttershy? Okay, those other names might have been real, part of a gang, maybe, but real. That one, though? Oh, this was definitely a dream.

Dream. Her dream. Utopia. The dome. That energy. The color. Red is a color. Fire is red. Her home is gone. Her family is dead. She ran. That song. That video. The color. That energy. The dome. Wool shirt. There is a pressure in her legs.

It is important to note that the mental process is a complex and fast-paced one. One could hear the word "dog", spoken aloud, and suddenly have peaches on the brain through a series of connections that make, usually, little sense afterward. It is also important to note that the final thought may in fact be reached and passed several times before the brain slows down enough to loop around and come back to it. This sort of thing happens all the time, and is not something to worry over.

Clover shot her eyes open, and was immediately assaulted by waves of information. Her backpack was a bit to her left, Numa was, indeed, in her arms, and seemed just fine that way. Her wheelchair- … She figured it was her wheelchair, anyway, was half-melted off to her right. She was on her side, on top of a grassy hill. There were trees a bit away from her on all sides she could see. Wool shirt. Clover looked down at the animal in her arms. Her green arms. Her bright green arms. Her bright green, furred arms.

She easily kept the scream down. It was a simple enough thing to do. She had been keeping screams of anger inside to be released later, in private her whole life. A scream of fear was no different. Numa was unharmed, and so was she, though she did seem to be naked. Her breasts had no visible nipples, so that helped her discomfort a bit.

Though not by much.

Pressure in her legs.

Clover looked further down, excited. The green fur covered her entire body in a thick coat, hiding her modesty. Looking at her legs, she followed the contours down to the knees. They looked a bit different, and as she watched, her brain made some raw, primal connection, and the leg bent at the knee. And then at another knee.

…

What? Her eyes went farther down the leg, meeting another knee, bent in the entirely opposite direction than the first! Farther down and she reached her foo- HOOF?!

Privacy be damned, thought Clover, I'm yelling! "GNAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The two voices from before were back, now. They had apparently been watching her wake up. But now they were screaming, too. "AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

Clover looked around at the voices behind her. They were animals. Two colorful, miniature horses. One of them had wings. The other had a single horn in the middle of her head. There was a third creature, hiding behind the winged one. That one also had wings, and a small purple and green creature on its back. She creamed again.

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!"

She didn't know if they had responded this time, as she promptly fainted.

Let me know what you thought, please! This is the first chapter I’ve completed for anything in a long time, and I want to know if I’m still good at this!

Beta'd and Proofread by Eliphx, the Phoenix.