//------------------------------//
// Home is where you hang your hat 
// Story: To a Time Long Gone 
// by Ironskull 
//------------------------------//

"I've got her!" shouted Starswirl as his horn lit with magic.  Twilight watched as Berry Blast's form some distance above was enveloped in his magic aura and was drawn closer.  When Berry had been lowered into the magical bubble that was now the only reason there was breathable air on Twilight's tiny island, Twilight saw that Berry had her own magenta bubble, but she wasn't releasing the spell yet.  Starswirl allowed her to fall unceremoniously to the ground.

Nopony spoke for a moment.  Berry shuddered.

"Well, Miss Berry Blast-off," said Starswirl.  "What do you have to say for yourself?"

Berry dropped her magic.  "I...  I need a drink."

"You won't be having anything to drink for a long time, you fool of a mare," said Starswirl harshly, but Twilight could tell that he was holding back greater rage.

"But what did I do?" whined Berry.

"What did you do?  You threw yourself into space with no consideration for the consequences!" shouted Starswirl.

"But-"

"But?" demanded Starswirl.

"Every other time I was about to do something stupid, you always stop me before anything bad happens."

"Well, MABYE", screamed Starswirl, unleashing his rage,  I finally decided that you need to learn that your actions have CONSEQUENCES.  Maybe I've grown tired of watching you day and night!"

"...  Are you sure we don't have anything to drink?"

"ARGH! screamed Starswirl.  He lit up his horn and pulled his large pointy hat down over his eyes.

Something very unusual occurred.  Starswirl's hat completely enveloped his head and continued to swallow up his entire torso and legs until Starswirl had vanished altogether, with only his hat sitting on the ground left.

"... Starswirl?" asked Twilight, concerned.

"Not in the mood!" cried the muffled voice of Starswirl from within the hat.

"So, uh," began Berry, now speaking to Twilight.  "Can we go home now?"

Twilight sighed.  As much as she wanted to shout at the mare herself, she knew that Starswirl would give her enough of that.  "No.  It's not that simple.  We have accelerated well past the point of return.  I could magically enhance the effect of gravity on ourselves and it would still not be enough to bring us to a stop at this distance.  See for yourself."  Twilight motioned toward the edge.

Reluctantly, Berry peered over the edge of the tiny island.  She gulped and quickly backed away from the edge.

"But can't we just use telekinesis to get back?" she asked, suddenly much more worried.

"No," answered Twilight.  "Every action, and every force, has an equal and opposite reaction.  Also, the momentum of a closed system can not change.  Because my platform is now completely isolated from the outside world by a vacuum,  it is considered to be a closed system as far as motion is concerned.  While we can use magic to lift objects in relation to ourselves, the net momentum of everything on this island will remain the same.  The only way to alter our trajectory is to expel mass away from the platform.  If I were to expel the entire earth platform along with all of our air in the opposite direction of the planet, it wouldn't be enough to stop us."

"Although," interjected the muffled voice of Starswirl, "if we also tossed Berry overboard, we might be able to make it back..."

"He's not serious," Twilight said quickly.  "First of all, it wouldn't work.  And second of all, the whole reason we followed you up here was to save you.  We aren't going to abandon you."

"But how are we going to get home?" moaned Berry in despair.  "Are we going to die out here?"

Twilight shook her head and pointed a hoof directly upward.

Berry followed Twilight's hoof.  "Ohhhhh..."

Twilight was pointing straight at the moon.

"Luna has been positioning the moon directly overhead her own location," said Twilight.  "However, since we were a relatively short distance away, we are not on a perfectly straight course.  We will hit the moon at an angle.  Which means that, after we make our unscheduled landing, we can not take off immediately, or we will float off into endless space.  We will have to travel for at least a whole day before we can repeat the launch process with a suitable trajectory back toward the planet."

"A whole day?" cried Berry in shock.  "But we'll starve!"

"Berry," said Twilight, "A pony can last for far longer than one day without food and water."

"But I've never gone for twenty-eight hours without having food and something to drink before!"

"Actually," said the voice of Starswirl, apparently calmed down, "there's no need to worry about that.  I've got loads of food in my pantry here."

"Do you have any wine in there?" asked Berry, not noticing Twilight's shocked expression.

"NO!  I don't keep any of that SWILL in here!  Only good, clean, pure water!"

"Starswirl has a pantry in his hat?" asked Twilight weakly.

"He's got a whole house in there," said Berry, apparently trying to keep her voice down, but failing.  "I wanted him to show me how to cast the spell, but he wont show me.  And the hat is already enchanted, so I can't just look at the spell myself."

"And a good thing, too!" shouted Starswirl.

"But I've never seen magic like that!" protested Twilight.

"It is not unsurprising that at least some of my research was lost over the course of two thousand years," remarked Starswirl.

Twilight looked at Berry worriedly.  She didn't want to let the mare know where she was from just yet.  But Berry didn't seem to react to Starswirl's statement at all.

"I suppose we'll want a place to get some sleep soon too.  There's my bed, but that's mine.  Although, this couch here unfolds."

There was a creaking noise from within the hat.

"Yeah, this will work.  Twilight can sleep on this.  And Berry...  You can sleep on the floor."

"Awwww..."

Twilight sighed.

"Hey," said Berry.  "You're lucky.  You get a nice comfy couch to sleep on.

"It's not that," said Twilight.  "It's just... all this."

" 'All this'?"

"I'm flying on a tiny little island," said Twilight.  "Through space.  With Starswirl the Bearded."

Two thousand years in the past, Twilight added mentally.





"Everypony ruuuuuuuun!"

Rainbow Dash froze.  "Huh?"

"We're under attack!" cried the pegasus mare.  "Ruuuuun!"

Rainbow Dash's entire class suddenly started screaming and flying away in all directions.

Rainbow Dash flew up to the mare who had caused the excitement and grabbed her tail in her mouth before she too could fly away in panic.  As soon as Dash had the mare's attention, she spit the mare's tail out of her mouth.

"What do you mean we're under attack?" she demanded urgently.  "By who?"

"Them!" shouted the mare, pointing.  "They've come to pillage our town!"

Rainbow Dash followed the mare's hoof and saw three griffins zooming through the streets, terrorizing ponies.

"Griffins?!" cried Rainbow in shock.

"Griffins!" repeated the mare, her fears apparently reaffirmed.  "Run!"  She flew away.

"What do Griffins want with stealing from ponies?" shouted Rainbow Dash to nobody.  "And in the middle of the night too!  Why, of all the barbaric-"

Rainbow Dash felt her tail get tugged, stopping her from launching into the air after the griffins.  She turned around to see why.

"What are you doing?" asked the mare from before.

"What does it look like?" cried Rainbow, turning back to the griffins.  "I'm going to show them a piece of my mind!"

"But it's way too dangerous!" protested the mare.  "There are dozens more where they came from!"

"Danger is my middle name!" shouted Rainbow Dash.  

She rocketed out of the mare's grip and shot into the sky.

"Let's see how you like this!" she shouted, better judgment clouded by rage.  She flew to a suitable height and then fell into a dive-bomb.  As she came near the ground, she arced upward to level her flight, traveling at a fraction of sonic speed.

Something suddenly began interfering with her flight.  Somehow, the wind was picking up, throwing her off.  She attempted to compensate for the change.  She shot past the trio of griffins.

"What was that?" asked a griffin.

"I don't know," answered one of his accomplices.  "Some blue pony?"

Rainbow Dash watched as clouds spontaneously inflated into existence in around of her.  "What!"

She slowed down to get a better look.  There were clouds filling the city as far as her eyes could see, but they were holding stationary despite the rapidly increasing wind.  As the clouds continued to grow larger, they began converging and growing darker.

"What's going on?  Cried Rainbow Dash as she resisted the wind.

She decided to ignore the three griffins and began to fly through Cloudsdale in an attempt to discover the cause of the clouds.  She quickly discovered that streets were indeed filled with griffins.  Most of them had stopped their evil deeds to stare at the sky in confusion.

It began to rain.

Rainbow Dash took the opportunity to charge screaming toward another group of griffins, ignoring her drenched coat.

Suddenly a bolt of lightning shot out from a mega-cloud with a tremendous 'CRACK'.

"Look out!" cried a griffin.

More lighting bolts began striking in rapid succession.  It did not escape Rainbow's notice that each bolt appeared to be directly at a griffin, although none actually hit.

"WHAT is going on?" cried Rainbow Dash.  She flew off in a random direction, hoping to stumble upon the cause of the freak thunderstorm.

Suddenly the rumbling of the thunderstorm began to sound different.  Rainbow looked up at it again and decelerated to stare in shock.

The largest cloud had risen higher and taken the form of a monstrous face, which was laughing in deep, low rumbles.

Rainbow looked out into the city again.

There were claw-shaped storm clouds chasing off terrified griffins, lightning shooting out of their tips.

Suddenly, everything made sense to Rainbow Dash.

Her own terrified expression melted away and she shot upward into the sky and flew straight into the monster-cloud's mouth.  The cloud did not seem to react.  She continued flying through the core of the cloud until she noticed an area where the wind was inexplicably absent.

"Aha," she said, landing on a portion of cloud below her.  "I thought I might find you in here."

"Was it that obvious?" asked Discord, not looking toward Rainbow.  He was looking down through the cloud and down at Cloudsdale with a nasty grin.

"Well, sorta, yeah.  Hey, can you do me a favor and get this rain out of my coat?"

"Well, since you asked politely."  Discord clapped his paws together and Rainbow suddenly felt much drier and warmer.

"So, you're still walking around as a rabbit?"

"As a jackalope, yes," answered Discord.  "Even though I'm pretty sure that nopony besides you is going to see me up here, there is no reason to risk being in my usual form while we are here."

"Makes sense.  Hey, Discord."

"Yes, Rainbow Dash?"

"I owe you one."

"Oh, I would still have come even if you weren't here," said Discord dismissively.  "It's not every day I can utilize my talent for terror and chaos for a good cause."

"Well thank you anyway," said Rainbow sincerely.  "I don't think we could have actually stopped them if you weren't around.  It was kinda dumb for me to just fly at them like that."

"Hey, you said it, not me," responded Discord.

"It's a shame that you had to scare everypony else too, though.  And we can't rely on you forever," continued Rainbow Dash.  "The griffins will come back eventually.  It might be soon, and it might be years into the future, but until the griffins unite under the empire, they will keep on raiding ponies."

"I agree," said Discord.  "As fun as this is, I can't be expected to stick around twenty-four hours a day.  There's fun to be had all over Equestria."

"Cloudsdale needs to be able to defend itself," said Rainbow Dash.  "Do you have any ideas?"

"Most of my ideas involve taking care of problems as they happen.  Sorry."

"Oh well.  At least I think I have something."

"Really?  I'm so proud!"

"How many more griffins are left in Cloudsdale?"

"Oh, none," said Discord.  "I just thought I would keep the show going for a little while longer."

"Stop the storm, Discord."





Rainbow Dash flew down from the now clear sky and landed on the streets of Cloudsdale.  Already, there were ponies coming out of their homes now that the danger had apparently passed.

"There she is!" cried a mare.  It was the same mare that had told Rainbow Dash and her class to run from the griffins.  "It's Rainbow Dash!  She's the one who made that giant storm and chased the griffins away!"

"Huh?" said Rainbow Dash.

"She told me that she would give those griffins a piece of her mind, and she did!  I saw her take off into the sky and stir up that storm!"

This is ridiculous! thought Rainbow Dash.  But what am I supposed to do?  I can't tell them that DISCORD was responsible for that!

"Well, yeah..." said Rainbow reluctantly.  "I am kinda... awesome."

There was no cheering.  Instead, everypony around her was regarding her with something resembling reverence.

Reverence that she knew that she didn't deserve.

They're terrified of me, Rainbow realized.  They're afraid that I'll call a thunderstorm on them if they step one hoof out of line!

Well, I suppose at least that will put an end to the stallions who think that they know better than me during class.

"Listen!" said Rainbow, dispite the fact that the crowd around her was already silent.  "I need to talk to somepony around here who can make stuff.  An engineer, or something."

"There's my husband," offered the mare who had accredited the storm to Rainbow Dash.  "His job is to help build the cloud machines."

Rainbow Dash looked at the mare.  She realized that it was the same mare who had failed so spectacularly to dissipate that cloud.

"Sounds perfect."





"Darling!" cried the mare.

"Huh?" asked a stallion, confused.  He stepped away from his coworkers and toward Rainbow and the mare.  "What are you doing here at the cloud factory, sweetie?"

"This is Rainbow Dash," said the mare.  "She says that she has an important job that she needs done.  You should do what she says."

"What?" asked the stallion in confusion.  "The mare that's been training your weather team?"

"Yes!  She just saved the city!"

"She saved the city?!"

"It's a long story," said Rainbow Dash.  "You guys might not have noticed, but a few minutes ago, Cloudsdale was being overrun by griffins."

"We noticed," said the stallion.  "We just figured that it would be safest to stay right here."

"Right," said Rainbow Dash.  "Well, I don't want that to happen again.  I need you guys to help me make something to make sure it won't happen again."

"You should really do what she says," whispered the mare conspiratorially.

"Um, sure?" said the stallion.  "What do you need?"

"We're going to build a device to keep the griffins away," said Rainbow Dash.  "And we're going to build lots of them."

"And do you have a blueprint for this device?" asked the stallion.  Rainbow Dash gave him a blank look.  "No dimensions?  No measurements?  Not even an illustration?"

"No."

"Well, I guess we'll have to make one then."

He indicated for Rainbow to follow him.

"I'm suppose I need to go now," said the mare.  

The stallion stopped and walked back to his wife.

"Remember, do whatever she says," the mare said.

"But what-"

"Trust me.  You really want to do whatever she says."

"... Okay."

"I'll see you tonight, darling!"

Rainbow Dash turned away from them and started humming awkwardly, as she was not keen to watch two ponies kiss.

"Are you coming?" asked the stallion, walking past Rainbow.

"Yeah!" said Rainbow Dash, moving behind the stallion.  "Yeah."

He walked her over to a table.  There was a quill sitting in ink on it.  "Hold on for just a second."

He moved over to a wide box and opened it up, pulling out a giant sheet of paper.  He set it down on the table.  He then pulled the quill out in his mouth."

"Awwite," said the Stallion.  "Sho what's vis 'device' we're makin'?"

"How do you ponies survive without pencils?" wondered Rainbow Dash aloud.  The stallion gave her a confused look.

"Never mind.  So, we're going to make... an air cannon, I would call it.  They shoot out a burst of wind so strong that they can knock a pony out of the air, or a griffin, presumably.  Where I come from, they're used to stop pegasus troublemakers, but in our case, we should be able to use them to stun griffins."

"Alright," said the Stallion.  "So I suppose we need a long tube to start off with?"

"Yep."

"About how wide vould you shay the tube should be?"

"Um, I suppose... a meter?"

"A meter?" asked the stallion in surprise.

"Yeah, bigger if you can manage it.  The bigger, the better.  Also, at the base of the cannon, there is this diaphragm thing.  It's made out of... stretchy stuff.  And then we have a handle attached to the diaphragm, but also spring loaded onto the front of the tube.  So when a pony pulls back on that handle, the tube sucks in air.  And then when they let go, it lets all that air back out with the force of a catapult."

The stallion sketched onto the sheet.  After he was done, he looked at Rainbow, clearly expecting her to voice an opinion.

"Yeah, that looks about right.  Also, this thing is two pony job, since it's so big.  One pony needs to aim it and hold it steady while the other pulls the handle.  You want to have the cannon be able to spin around as well as aim up and down.  And put wheels on it too."

"Awite, said the stallion.  Tha' should be quite doable still.  We can work out optimal tube length and such ourselves."

"Yeah, it's not actually terribly complicated," said Rainbow.  "It just needs to be big."

"Is that it?" asked another voice.  Rainbow turned around and saw that the rest of the engineers had snuck up behind them while Rainbow had been talking."

"Yeah, I guess that's it," said Rainbow.  "So you guys need to get started making these things right away.  Got it?"

The engineers looked at each other.

"Yes," said the first engineer definitively.  "We will get started immediately.  Right, everyone?"

The others muttered in agreement.





"You know, I thought this would be more exciting," said Berry.

"Berry, excitement is the last thing that we need right now," said Starswirl, who was now standing on the platform again.  He was looking down over the edge alongside Berry, watching the lunar ground approach.

"I thought we were going to crash land," said Berry.

"It's easy enough to make a gradual approach with a varying strength partial reverse gravity spell," said Twilight.  "But I need to concentrate, or I might slip up."

The platform approached the ground silently.  Twilight approached the edge of the platform and stood alongside Starswirl.

"Here's something you don't see every day," she declared.

"Indeed," agreed Starswirl.  He looked up.  "And that too is a sight not seen every day.  It makes one see Equestria's beauty in a rather different light."

Twilight didn't follow his gaze.  She had to concentrate, as they were moments away from landing.  She could look in a moment.

The platform tremored as its underside touched the moon.

Twilight looked at Starswirl, feeling overwhelmed.  He returned the expression.

Berry rushed off of the platform and set foot in the dust.

"First!"

Twilight looked at her incredulously.

" 'First' ?" asked Starswirl.  "What do you mean?"

"First to get off!"

"Who cares?" said Starswirl.  He stepped off of the platform.

Twilight followed after him.

"Twilight..." said Starswirl.

"Yes?"

"It would appear as though my air bubble is... unnecessary.

"Unnecessary?" asked Twilight.

"It would appear as though there is a thin layer of breathable air on the moon," declared Starswirl.  The blue bubble disappeared.

Twilight felt her heart skip a beat, but Starswirl was telling the truth.  The air failed to rush outward into a vacuum.

"But how could that be?"

"I don't see why it shouldn't be," said Starswirl.  "After all, it doesn't have anywhere to go."

"Maybe..."

"So, should we try to walk a few miles now, or should we save the walking for tomorrow?" asked Starswirl.

Twilight realized that she was exhausted.  Unfortunately, she was far to anxious to expect a good night's sleep.

"I think we should get a rest before we go anywhere," said Twilight.

"Alright then," said Starswirl as he took off his hat.

"Don't I get to voice my opinion?" asked Berry.

Starswirl groaned.  "Berry, what do you want to do?"

"I'd like to get some sleep."

"Thank you.  Alright, you first Twilight?"

"I'm just... supposed to climb inside... your hat?" asked Twilight uncertainly.

"It's not as awkward as it looks," said Starswirl.  "Go on."

Twilight shook her head and stuck her face into the hat, feeling silly.  She gasped as she saw the inside of the hat.

Her head parted a blue fabric and emerged in a corner of a large room.  The floor, ceiling, and walls all appeared to be made out of the same blue fabric as the hat's exterior.  Curiosity pressing her forward more than anything else, Twilight pulled a hoof inside the hat and put it onto the floor.  It was soft, yet rigid, despite it's appearance.

Twilight examined the room as she pulled the rest of her limbs through.  There were at least as many bookshelves in this room as there had been inside Starswirl's study in his tower.  There was a table, but it was shoved to the side to make room for the sofa that had been unfolded into a sort of bed.  There were a couple of books on the floor.  Twilight began to feel an itch to immediately pick them up and find them a propper place, but she resisted the urge to mess with Starswirl's property.

There were several magic lamps floating here, similar to Starswirl's study.  Twilight also spotted a hatch in the ceiling.  She wondered what Starswirl might keep in an attic.  Old experiments and lab equipment, perhaps?  Perhaps not.  The famed unicorn had not been what she was expecting, and she suspected that she had her expectations of Starswirl were tinged with her own ideals.

Twilight pulled her last leg through and began to walk around the room.  There was a chess set on the far side, with the pieces positioned as though Starswirl had left it in mid-game.  Next to it was what looked like a map of Equestria.  It was covered by a grid, but it didn't look quite accurate to Twilight.  There was also a large chalk board.  Twilight wondered why Starswirl's study in his tower didn't have one like this.  How much time does he spend in here, anyway? Twilight thought.

There was also another table with three seats around it on the far end of the room.  Much of the wall behind it was occupied by a set of double doors that was slightly off the floor.  Considering how that section of the room appeared to be a dining area, these doors presumably led to the pantry.

There were also two archways into other rooms, allowing Twilight to see what was behind.

The first led to a simple bathroom.

Why doesn't it have a door?! thought Twilight.  But then she realized the answer.

It doesn't have a door because doors used to lead to everywhere in Equestria and having one would have led to problems.  Or possibly because Starswirl doesn't expect to have company in here.  Actually, that isn't likely.  The table has seating for three.

She decided to not ask about the technicalities of how the bathroom functioned.

The other archway led to a small, unlit room, but Twilight was able to see what was inside from the light that bled through from the main room.  It had a cushy looking blue bed with an end table next to it.  There was a thick tome lying face down on the bed.  This was clearly Starswirl's bedroom.

Twilight could see a strange light on the ceiling of the room.  She approached the door until she was close enough to see what it was.

Twilight gasped in surprise.  The ceiling directly over the bed was enchanted to show the sky outside.  If it wasn't an illusion spell, then Twilight wasn't sure how Starswirl had achieved this.  It was, however, a clever way to ensure that Starswirl got up the moment it became morning.  He would get a face-full of sunlight every morning.  It wouldn't work in the present location, unfortunately.  The sun would be visible in the sky constantly until they were back in Equestria.

"So," said Starswirl.  Twilight turned around to face him.  "What do you think?"

"This is probably currently one of the most lucrative places in Equestria," said Twilight.  "But couldn't you put a door into the bathroom?..."

Starswirl froze and blushed.  "We can fix that!" he spat out.  "I can hang a sheet over the door!"

"I guess that will have to do."





Twilight felt herself fly awake.  Judging by how tired she felt, she couldn't have been asleep for very long.  Great she thought.  It look long enough to get to sleep the FIRST time.

She was about to try to go back to sleep when she heard a jingling sound.

Twilight cracked her eyes open and looked toward the sound.  Berry was standing in front of the pantry.

Twilight turned her body around under the sheets that Starswirl had given to her so that she was facing Berry, but kept her eyes open by only a crack.  She didn't want Berry to realize that she had woken her up.

Twilight saw what was making the jingling sound.  Berry was magically fiddling with an oversized lock on the pantry door.  It hadn't been there when she had went to sleep.

Twilight watched Berry for a moment and listened to hear groans of frustration.  Then, she saw motion in the corner of her eye.

Apparently Twilight wasn't the only one who had been awoken by the commotion.  Starswirl was standing silently in the archway into his room.  He was wearing a nightgown that made the old stallion look so goofy that Twilight had to suppress an urge to laugh.

He approached Berry.  She didn't hear him.

"Looking for this?" he asked her, causing her to jump.  She turned around to face him as he held up a thick iron key.

Berry didn't say a word.

"The last time I let you in this place, a huge portion of my stock mysteriously went missing."

"I just want a midnight snack!" protested Berry.  "Is that so wrong?"

"Lower your voice," said Starswirl.  "You might wake Twilight as well!  Also, you just had something before we went to bed!"

"I know!  But I'm still hungry!  I gotta have something!"

"I told you, Berry.  I don't have any wine in here."

"I know," insisted Berry.  "But, I have to cope somehow!"

Berry sighed.  "Look at me, I can't even unlock this thing.  My magic is pathetic right now.  I'm a freak of nature!"

Starswirl didn't answer at first.  Eventually, he said "I'll open it up for you, and you can take what you want.  But just once.  We need to get some sleep!"

"Alright.  Deal."

Neither pony spoke any further.  Eventually both returned to their beds.

At least the floor isn't actually uncomfortable, thought Twilight as she watched Berry climb under her sheets.