//------------------------------//
// The Cathedral 
// Story: Pony Trigger 
// by Pinklestia 
//------------------------------//

"My dream is to make a flying machine that will let anypony fly the skies and to build a robot able to think on its own. Oh! And to make a machine that makes the best ice cream ever and a cool looking battle dragon robot. And... Well, I guess I kinda have a lot of projects. I think that one day, machines will let us do anything without magic." Twilight Sparkle, when she was asked as a filly what her dream was.

JANUARY 10, 600 AD

Dash awoke first. She was lying on the ground in a clearing. Her biggest immediate concern, however, was the three strange creatures who were going through their packs. They sure were some of the most peculiar creatures she had ever seen. They stood two feet high and wore shredded clothing. They were covered with purple scales from head to toe and had sharp claws. Were those baby dragons? No, they were like... small scaled trolls or something. She remembered her mother telling her tales about those creatures; they were called Imps.

"HEY! Get away from that!" One of the Imps ran for cover, but the other two prepared to fight. Dash frowned. "The hard way, eh? Fine by me."

Less than a minute later, the two Imps had received such hard kicks from Rainbow Dash's hind legs that they where unconscious and would probably not have a pleasant awakening.  Dash took the wooden sword from her backpack with her mouth and growled to the hiding Imp; it ran away screaming.

Twilight Sparkle woke up yawning. "Uh, did I miss something?" She asked, noticing the mess and the two unconscious Imps.

"Nah, just some idiots that wanted easy bits." Rainbow Dash said proudly after placing the sword back in her backpack. "But now you owe me two. Sparkle, I can't believe you kept sleeping with all that noise!"

"Well, let's just say that when my dad sleeps, I can hear his snoring from the other side of the house, so I'm used to sleeping through a lot of noise."

"Whatever. Where the hay are we, the Everfree Forest?" Dash said and looked at her surroundings.

She found Fluttershy's pendant on the ground and picked it up; it was not shining or anything. The sun seemed to be halfway through the sky. Trees surrounded them on all sides. The woods were alive with noises. Birds, running water, and the rustling of leaves filled her ears. No, this place looked too nice for the Everfree Forest.

Twilight looked around and seemed to think for the moment, they were in a forest clearing, the trees too tall to let her see anything else. She adjusted her glasses with magic, a purple aura surrounding them for a moment, her vision blurred and she almost fell. What was that? She then remembered the pendant.

"Are you OK?" Rainbow Dash asked, looking worried.

"Yes, I think so, Rainbow... Can I have that pendant?" Dash gave it to her, and the unicorn lifted it with magic. For just a few seconds, it changed into a magenta tourmaline six-pointed star.

"Wow, I think I want to examine this thing." Twilight Sparkle said, sounding really excited. She picked her stuff up and started to do the usual science stuff Rainbow Dash always had a hard time understanding.

"OK, fine. I will go explore. Will you be fine on your own?" Dash asked, Twilight's horn glowed and Rainbow Dash suddenly found herself surrounded by several rocks flinging past. "Jeez, I was just asking!"

Rainbow Dash decided it was just best to leave her friend alone, and took a path out of the clearing. They seemed to be on a mountainside, but as far as she could remember, there weren't any forests in the Dragondorado Mountains. Looking off into the distance, though, she could see more majestic peaks like the one she was on, with beautiful foliage covering their sides, just beginning to turn the bright colors of autumn.

How strange, she could swear that the sun was not where it should be. Maybe it was part of her training as a weather mare, or maybe it was just the pegasus' natural connection with the sky. The sun... didn't have that odd feeling she remembered from that morning. It had not been forced out of the regular cycle by Celestia. Maybe their goddess had regretted her choice to make the longest day come way earlier than it was supposed to?  No, that wasn't like Celestia at all.

Rainbow Dash flapped her wings and flew down the mountainside. She could see more of those purple Imps and some strange eagle-like creatures that tried to attack her in the air. But Dash was much faster and just circled around them at high speed, making them dizzy. The dumb creatures crashed to the ground. She then looked around; despite the Imps and the weird eagles, they did seem like Dragondorado Mountains after all.

After that, it was only a few minutes before she came to the base of the mountain. She had seen a path down it for those that couldn't fly.  It had some Imps, but she guessed it was nothing her best friend couldn't handle.

Miles away from the Dragondorado Mountains, deep underground beneath a secret fortress, was a dark room. A lone white unicorn mare stood in the center of it. She had an indigo mane and wore a black cape and hood. A blue glow seemed to hover around her, illuminating a small portion of the room.

A scared mare's voice broke the quiet. "Lady Rarity..."

The illumination disappeared. The mare did not need to turn around to face the intruder and identify her. "Yes, Trixie?" asked Rarity, the mare with the indigo mane.

The intruder was obscured by the sudden lack of light. A small light appeared from a blue horn, revealing the intruder as a blue unicorn mare.

"Did I say you could light the place up?" said Rarity, still not looking at Trixie.

"I am really sorry, my lady! Rumors are circulating that the queen has been found..." The blue mare said and turned off the light she had just made.

A light blue flame flashed towards the ceiling, enveloping Rarity for a few seconds, but it quickly disappeared, returning the room to darkness. "Impossible," said Rarity. "We have the queen in the basement of the Cathedral."

Trixie shuddered. "Um, yes of course, but the reports indicate that the queen is alive and well at the castle..."

The flame once again fired up. Trixie moved back a bit in fear.

"They are mere rumors, Trixie. They have been started to confuse us. Ignore them. But just to be safe, do redouble the security at the Cathedral."

"Y-yes my lady!" Trixie ran out of the room and up the steps.

Rarity revived her glow. She felt a bit of a chill. "The black wind begins to blow..."

Meanwhile, Dash flew down to the ground when she saw a town. Was that Ponyville? There was no Posey's Square, and the houses looked archaic to say the least. She frowned. Why did she have to pick up those strange words from Sparkle? Then she remembered all the signs of fall she had seen before, and smacked her hoof against her forehead. It wasn't only that the sun was not moving as it was supposed to; she clearly remembered that the tree leaves had not turned brown yet back at home.

Yet she had to be at home, only it was a different Ponyville. She recognized the royal palace off in the distance and the fountain, only the fountain looked new. Weird, since when was the Everfree Forest so huge, extending so close to the palace?  And she could not see any buildings around the palace, where was Canterlot?

She was wondering what to do when she noticed what looked like a tavern. It was just like an illustration she had seen in a book, a story about a legendary earth pony explorer called Tamara, but who liked to be called Toma. Once in the tavern, she found it was basically like a bar combined with a cheap hotel. So that was what a tavern was? As a filly she used to believe it was a club for cool ponies or something like that.

Rainbow Dash pretended to be tired after a long journey and asked about the monsters, apparently she was lucky, the monsters she had faced so far were wimps. There was also a war with some group called the Mistics; most of which were monsters from what she heard.

A red earth mare with a green mane and missing an eye moved close to Rainbow Dash. Her single black eye looked Dash over.

"Listen, girl. If I were you, I'd try to not go around asking so many questions and try to blend in a little more. Ponies acting weird can get dragged off to the castle for being under suspicion of Mysticism. None of them ever come out again."

Dash blinked. "Hey, thanks!"

The mare grunted. "Didn't cost me anything to say it." She paid her tab, then turned to Dash again. "And whatever you do, stay away from the Cathedral. There's something weird going on there."

Without another word, the mare walked out. Dash stared after her. "Strange mare..."

The bartender chuckled. "Yeah. You'd never guess by looking at her that she was Toma Levine, eh?" Dash froze. That pony was Toma Levine? The famous explorer who she adored as a filly?

"Oh my gosh! That was Toma Levine? And I am without my autograph book!" Rainbow Dash screamed excitedly, then decided to leave because she was attracting too much attention. Where to go? Wait, Toma was the stuff of legend, what the hay was going on?

Then she saw an iron-clad knight colt walking to the fountain. Dash walked towards it, curious. Several other villagers had gathered around the fountain to see the armored warrior.

Their quiet murmur disappeared as the knight raised his hoof high in the air.

"Loyal subjects of the Kingdom of Equestria," The iron-clad pony said. "your queen has been found!" The crowd cheered unanimously. Dash kept silent. She had no idea what the knight was talking about.

"Let it be known that on today, January 10th, 600 A.D., that Queen Posey of the Equestria dynasty has been found! We shall live in darkness no more!" The crowd cheered once again.

So she had been transported back in time by the portal? This was the year 600. Dash tried to remember what had been going on at the time. Something about a war with a powerful unicorn, a witch of some sort...

"I am also happy to report that we are rebuilding the bridge to the Southern Continent. That means we will be getting closer to Rarity very soon!"

Then Dash noticed some soldiers coming after her, maybe she didn't really blend in, but she was not going to fly away. She would be probably shot down with an arrow if she did so, after all some of those ponies where unicorn archers, their magic made their arrows rarely miss the target.

The crowd was surprised when they saw a dozen soldiers surrounding the pegasus pony with the rainbow mane."Are you Rainbow Dash?" A white pegasus clad in golden armor asked. "Yes." Dash answered, and before she could protest, she was dragged off.

She could hear the crowd of ponies asking what was going on, but if the soldiers of Equestria were famous for anything, it was for not talking unless the situation required it. She grew pale when she saw where they were heading.

The Everfree forest was more dangerous than Dash remembered. Or at least that was what she thought, because she had hardly been there before. The soldiers fought monster shrooms, giant beetles, manticores, green imps and even a griffon named Gilda, who had an army of those eagle monsters Dash had seen before. She insisted lame ponies had to pay to go trough "HER" forest.   

The soldiers however, made their way through with an efficiency that suggested they had done this many times. Gilda ran away when her eagles where defeated, for some reason the soldiers had been ordered to let her live. Dash looked at her wooden sword in shame and reminded herself to get a better one sometime soon.

At the palace, they were greeted by a young mare in a flowing white dress. "Queen Posey!" All the soldiers bowed, Dash did the same. The Queen looked at Dash, who saw something... oddly familiar...  but it could not be, this mare had no wings!

The Queen turned to the guards. "The Sun Goddess would like to talk with her first. I shall be waiting in my room." She left through the large double doors behind her, and after a few minutes, the guards led Dash through as well.

Rainbow Dash barely stopped herself from gaping as she bowed before Princess Celestia; she looked exactly the same as the one from her time. Celestia looked down at her with a serious expression. "So, you would be the one who rescued Queen Posey from the Mistics. I thank you."

"WHAT?" Dash almost yelled then put her Hoof in her mouth. "I am really sorry princess." She bowed to her again in shame.

"Princess?" Celestia said, surprised. "I am over your Queen, I control the sun, and you call me princess? It's silly, I love it!"  Celestia grinned. "I may think on changing my title to that. Princess Celestia, sounds good doesn't it?"

"Yes it does, your majesty." Dash said looking nervous.

"Now. The queen seems to be acting very odd lately. I noticed she hasn't been wearing her royal pendant, I hope it's not in bad hands, as it's very important.  I believe the Queen would like to talk with you and... I hope I can see you again miss Rainbow Dash, I find you amusing!"

Dash felt nervous and hoped no guards caught Twilight with the pendant, as it would get her in trouble. Thankfully Celestia didn't seem to notice anything wrong.

"Oh don't worry, I don't eat ponies, not even for breakfast! And even if you get on my bad side, I never kill!" Celestia said. "After you are done talking to my lovely Posey, you may rest in the knights' quarters, to the left of the front door." Dash bowed again, but she noticed that to the left, the elderly Chancellor, an old gray colt, was glaring at both her and the guards with incredible hatred. 'What's with him, is he jealous?' She thought.

In the Queen's room, Dash found Queen Posey attended by two mare maids. As soon as the Queen saw her, she asked the maids to leave. Once they were gone, she almost whispered "Dash, come here..."

Rainbow Dash looked at her a bit confused. "All right, miss. If you don't mind, I'd like to know how you know my name, and why you said I rescued you."

The queen smiled. "What? Don't you recognize me? It's me Fluttershy!"

Rainbow Dash almost fell over. "Fluttershy? But... your wings!"

She smiled. "They are under the dress. When I woke up, I was in the clearing. I was attacked by Imps and flew away, but then I was attacked by eagles and fainted. When I recovered, I was here, wearing this dress, and everyone called me Queen Posey. They were concerned about my wings; some kind of prophesy they didn't care to explain."

"Wait wait wait. So they think you are the missing queen?"

"It was explained that I was found by two guards that thought I was the queen. They rarely go on patrol there, so I guess I was lucky. Oh and the fact they saw a strange rainbow before I arrived may have helped a bit. I decided to play along, I thought you would follow me, so I told everybody that you helped me escape from the enemy and asked them to find you."

She stopped for a moment before going on. "Dash... somehow, I knew you would come find me..." She stopped again, and Dash noticed the room was taking on an eerie green hue. Fluttershy fell over as if in severe pain. "AAH! Feels like... I'm being torn apart! Dash! HELP ME!" And with that, she vanished like a ghost, leaving nothing behind.

Rainbow Dash was in shock. What had happened to Fluttershy? She decided the best for now was to leave the castle before she was blamed for that. She exited the Queen's room. It was dark already; no one was in the throne room, so Dash found it easy to sneak by. Once she was out of the king's chamber, she snuck out the front door and left the castle.

The guards said nothing; they had no orders about stopping ponies from leaving the castle after all.  After walking a bit, the path continued to the Everfree forest. She could try to fly over, but while she was sure to beat those eagles, that Gilda seemed tough.

She shivered, the night air was cold and she looked up, many stars lined the sky, no black spaces that indicated clouds could be seen.  The moon was full, so the mare in the moon was easy to see. The pegasus heard a galloping sound. She looked to the Everfree forest, and saw a mare coming out of it.

"Rainbow!" called a very familiar voice, it was Twilight!

"Hey, where's the princess?"

Rainbow Dash mumbled "What princess?" She could not be asking about Celestia after all.

Twilight snorted. "You dummy! Fluttershy! She's princess Megan!" And for the second time in five minutes, Rainbow Dash was in shock.

"Oh my gosh! This is crazy!" Dash screamed and they covered her mouth with her hooves, she really needed to start controlling herself.

"What's wrong?" Twilight Sparkle asked, confused.

"She disappeared, like a ghost! Nothing was left behind!"

Now it was Twilight's turn to be in shock. "She... disappeared... like a ghost?"

"Yeah..."

"Rainbow?"

"Yeah?"

Twilight screamed, "WADDAYA MEAN SHE DISAPPEARED?"

Rainbow Dash jumped and covered Twilight mouth. "Hey Sparkle, scream a bit louder, I think some ponies back at the castle may not have heard you! I was the only one there, and I do NOT wanna catch the blame for this, OK?"

Twilight nodded, and Dash removed her hoof. "Okay. So, any idea WHY she vanished?"

Twilight frowned. "Easy. Queen Posey gets kidnapped. They look for her. They find Fluttershy and call off the search. Queen Posey dies, cutting off the royal line. Fluttershy is faded out of existence, and within a few hours, paradox destroys the universe."

Rainbow Dash was gaping at the end of this. "Damn... that is NOT good..."

Twilight jumped up. "Wait! If we find the real Queen and save her before she dies, we can change things back!"

And then Rainbow Dash's eyes lit up. "Hey! I think I know where they might have her!"

"You?" Twilight Sparkle asked surprised. "How can you know where she is?"

"First things first, we need weapons, real weapons. Just a wood sword and rocks won't cut it this time."

"Well..." Twilight put down her backpack; it looked heavy and full of stuff. "Good thing I came prepared."

Twilight gave Dash an iron sword. Then took out more stuff, there were small jars that looked like medicines, potions, and other magic stuff. There was also a strange clock like device and a heavy hammer.

"Where the hay did you get all this?" Dash asked, surprised.

"Well, I managed to get a stable portal from our time to this era, so I went back home, got my trusty hammer and even bought some stuff with my savings. There I found our princess Megan had gone missing and..."

"Fine! I get it, there is no time to lose!" Dash said, and then noticed something that didn't make sense. "But... if you did all this, how did you get here so fast?"

"Well, you see..." Then a voice could be heard screaming from the Everfree forest, a voice Dash had heard once already today. "Hey Twi, aren't you done yet? I want to get the reward for saving the Queen soon!"

"No way, you are with Gilda? That griffon wanted to kill me!"

"Well, she needs the money, OK? Besides once you beat her into submission with a huge rock, then heal her with some potions, she is not that bad!"

"If you say so, just get her out of my way. I think we should head to the Cathedral, somepony told me strange things were going on there, so if the Queen is not there, at least it's a good place to start looking."

"Wow, sometimes you can think!"  Twilight Sparkle Chuckled.

"Don't spread the word, I have a reputation to protect." Dash said ironically. "Besides, I don't know where that thing is!"

"That's more like the Dash I know, let's go to town and ask."

The pegasus helped the less strong unicorn pony carrying half of the jars while Gilda gave Dash some odd looks. Once they had walked a bit and they reached a clearing, Gilda got in front of them.

"Listen you two, Queen Posey used to be my friend, even if she is a lame pony. We used to play when we both where young, but as we got older we grew apart from each other. Despite that, she has done all she can to avoid killing me. I am not helping you because Twi beat me or because of the money, but because I owe her my life. I will lead you to the Cathedral, but that's it."

Twilight hugged Gilda. "Ah, you are not evil after all, just misguided!"

Gilda blushed and pushed Twilight away. "Stop that!"

Special thanks to rhiiazami and H-land from from #mylittlepony at irc.irchighway.net  for editing this story