Rainbow Dash flew as fast as she could towards Ponyville. Sparing a glance behind her, she saw Twilight turn around just in time to see her become a speck in the horizon.
Hah! Score one for Dash! Now... can I figure out how to use the dumb portal?
Dash remembered that the way Twilight had rigged it up looked really complicated... and really fragile.
Oh well. Just gotta go for it!
Dash dove towards the ground, digging a trench to slow herself to a stop in front of Twilight's castle.
Perfect landing! Well, actually, I guess I could have done a zig-zag high-speed strut to bleed off speed without damaging the ground... yeah... okay, so that was a 5/10 at best. Whatever, time to go!
Dash zipped inside of the castle, zipping around corridors until she found her way to the portal room. She rushed up to the portal, and tapped it with a hoof to see if it was active – and to her surprise, it was. He hoof didn't make contact with it, but instead made ripples in the surface. Dash flinched back.
Whoa. It's actually active? So I can just... walk right through?
It began to dawn on Rainbow Dash that she was about to cross through the portal for the first time – and that meant crossing into a world she had never seen before, with no idea where she was, or what she was doing. She wouldn't even have wings.
But I'll still be awesome.
"Yeah, that's right, other world! Brace yourself, you're about to have two Rainbow Dashes! You had better stop me now if you can't handle the awesome, so don't say I didn't warn you!"
Dash pretended to lean towards the portal and listen for a reply. When none came, she smirked, though she was actually feeling no small amount of anxiety.
"Well alright then!"
Dash ran towards the portal... and stopped right in front of it, entirely on reflex. She muttered under her breath at herself and lunged forward, losing her balance, and falling into the mirror. She remembered that Twilight had been yelling on the way through – so Dash bit her lips as she fell through what felt like a blender onboard a ship in a nasty storm on an unstable planet.
Suddenly, the world righted itself – but her body didn't, and she came spilling out of the portal back-first towards the ground. One semi-graceful roll later, she was sitting cross-legged in front of a giant brick-and-mortar building, and finally unclenched her teeth.
Yeah! Not a noise, and nailed that—well, that landing was okay, at least!
Rainbow slowly rose to her two feet, remembering what Twilight had said about the balance being tricky. Luckily, her martial-arts training as a pony had frequently involved standing on two legs – and this was way less awkward than doing it as a pony.
And Rainbow Dash trumps Twilight yet-again! Okay, now I need to find, uh... me.
Rainbow Dash started doing some stretches, trying to get the hang of this new body. After about a minute, she managed to do a cartwheel, and decided that was sufficient proof of her mastery. She beamed – but then realized no one was around to see it.
Oh. Right. Twilight said they stay in the school most of the time... in class. Dangit, I didn't think about that! If it's the middle of a class period, Twilight might catch up to me before I find myself!
Rainbow glanced around, and then got an idea, and made a bee-line for the corner of the building.
Twilight mentioned getting whooped at some kind of hoofball by the other me in a field somewhere around here...
Dash eventually discovered she had run along the wrong side of the school, after making a nearly full rotation of the campus, but finally found the practice field she had been looking for. Luckily for her, while she was running, a bell tolled, and students began to make their way around. Dash considered for a moment, and then ran up to the nearest person she saw – a tall woman with a deep blue mane.
"Oh, hello, Rainbow Dash. Did you need something?"
Whoa. That's weird.
"Hey! Uh, I'm not who you think I am – I'm one of Princess Twilight's friends."
The woman seemed taken aback for a moment, but then smiled warmly and extended her hand.
"Ah, I see. That explains the outfit. I am vice-principal Luna, welcome to our school. What brings you here?"
This is the human Luna? Hmm... no way, the pony Luna is way cooler.
Dash slowly, and very carefully, mimicked the gesture. Luna seemed to pick up on her confusion, and took hold of Rainbow's hand, giving it a small shake and letting go.
Huh. It's sort of like a hoofshake, but more... squishy.
"Well, I, uh... I need to speak to me. Er, the other me – your Rainbow Dash. Can I borrow her for a couple of minutes?"
Luna considered, but then nodded.
"I don't see why not. I believe she's practicing with her band right now – if you wish, I will fetch her for you."
"Ah... uh, yeah. Thanks!"
Luna nodded, and set off. Dash looked around for something to do, but finding nothing, settled for leaning against a wall and looking cool. Then she remembered Luna's comment about her outfit, and glanced at it, discovering that she was wearing some kind of aviator jacket over what looked like a Wonderbolt outfit.
Oh man. The portal is definitely making a statement, here. Even inanimate magical objects know how awesome I am!
Rainbow smugly waited for her counterpart to show up, observing what a beautiful day outside it was. After a few minutes, she walked out of one of the nearby side exits, and walked up to her, mouth agape. They stared at each other for a few minutes before pony Dash spoke up.
"Pretty awesome, right?"
"Totally! That's what you come through the portal with?!"
"Yep! But hey, that's not why I'm here – uh, obviously, I guess."
The Equestrian Dash scooted off the wall and walked up to her human counterpart, who nodded.
And then tried to smack her in the face while making some kind of whooping noise. Equestrian Dash blocked on instinct, more than a little confused.
"Hey! What giv—oh, right."
Dash suddenly remembered that the first thing she intended to do on meeting her duplicate was 'throw down'.
Man, I had totally forgotten.
And so the two of them began fighting. It started out with a series of strikes between them, but the Equestrian Dash quickly realized she wasn't as good at using her fists as her human counterpart.
But I bet she isn't as good at fighting close to the ground!
Dash got down on all fours, and started doing huge, sweeping kicks at her foe's ankles. This confused her foe, causing them to stagger backwards – and Dash took that chance to bolt forward and slide right through her ankles, sending her tumbling to the ground. She knew that the time it would take her to stand up and turn around would be long enough for the other Dash to do the same – so she didn't do either.
"GET DUNKED ON, PONY STYLE!"
And with that bizarre, hastily-conceived battlecry, Dash bucked her opponent in the stomach, rolling her over a complete cycle and back onto her stomach. Before the human Dash could recover, the Equestrian Dash was on top of her, locking her arm.
"Aww, yeah! Score one for Equestria, whoo!"
The human Dash kept struggling, but she had a pretty broad smirk.
"Jeez, I thought you would still be getting used to having a human body!"
Dash whooped a laugh from her position atop her fallen adversary, arm still held in a lock.
"Come on, you know we're too awesome for that. I'm no Twilight Sparkle, jeez!"
And both of them started snickering as Dash released her counterpart's arm. Both of them stood up and started dusting themselves off, until the Equestrian Dash realized her counterpart was getting ready for a rematch.
"Whoa, hey now. I didn't come all the way to... wait, what is this place even called? Is it still called Eque—nevermind. I didn't come all the way here just to kick your butt! We need to talk!"
The human Dash looked mildly surprised, and shrugged and thumbed over towards the bleachers. They began chatting as they walked.
"Okay, then. Start talking; what's up?"
"Well, I can't stick around long; Twilight'll be hot on my hooves, so I need to keep it quick. Look, she's a lot better at the whole 'dance around the issue and let them figure it out themselves' thing, but... I came here because, based on what she said, it sounds like you screwed up. And I figured it would be better for you to hear it from me – y'know, yourself, sorta, I guess? – and maybe get your butt kicked over it, than have her come here and make you feel... not-awesome."
Both of them took a seat on the bleachers; during Dash's speech, her human counterpart had started to noticeably pale, and now looked quite nervous. Dash nodded gravely.
"Yeah, I guess we're a lot alike. You know I wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't important to us."
Her human counterpart nodded, swallowing hard. "I left someone hanging, huh?"
"Yep. Bet you can even figure out who."
Dash's human analogue paused in silence, thinking for a minute. Then she sighed.
"Is it Sunset?"
"Yeah! Jeez, that was quick."
"I always kinda felt funny around her. Like... she tried to hurt everyone. I'm supposed to beat up people who do that – so how can she be one of the people I'm protecting? I like her, but it just makes me feel weird sometimes – and I guess that makes me prone to screwing up, huh?"
"Yeah. It's like the nightmare scenario for us. I mean, how do you protect a friend..."
"... who's fighting another friend, yeah."
Both Dashes sat there in solemn silence for a few seconds, pondering those words. The human Dash seemed a little discouraged – you know, just a little bit, definitely nothing serious – and her Equestrian analogue shuffled a bit uncomfortably, trying to think of what to say.
"But seriously, either she's your friend now, or she isn't. If she isn't, don't lead her on... and if she is, that means you believe she's changed. Now... go make her believe it, right? And make sure everyone else does, too!"
Dash gave her human counterpart an encouraging pat on the back. You know, like athletes do. It definitely wasn't a hug or anything, because that'd be mushy, and you'd do that, if, like, your friend was crying – which the other Dash was not, for sure. No way. Dash just kept 'patting' the other for a few seconds, before speaking further.
"Hey, you've got this, right? I mean—"
"I shouldn't need some other me to—I should have done something."
Dash frowned at the sudden response, her mind scrambling for what to say. It came up with nothing, so she went with blunt honesty.
"We're kinda bad at this stuff."
"Huh?"
"Friendship. Mushy stuff. We're bad at it. But hey – I came here to outdo Twilight. The Princess of Friendship. And check it out – I knew you would understand what was wrong just like that" – Dash snapped her finger for emphasis – "and I totally called it! So like, sure, maybe we're bad at this stuff on our own, but like – now there's two of us, right? No way Twilight can compete with that."
The other Dash sniffled – she must have had allergies or something, of course – and nodded. A thin, determined smile was forming.
"Yeah. We'll watch each others' backs."
"Yeah! I mean, if I have to kick some sense into me once in a while – I do that already anyway!"
The Equestrian Dash winked at her human counterpart, and the two exchanged another... 'pat on the back', before breaking apart and standing up to part ways.
"Alright. I should get back; Twilight can't break the sound barrier, but she'll still get here eventually..."
"Wait, break the – you can do that?! Wait, can I do that when I have wings?!"
"Sure, didn't you know?"
And with another wink, the Equestrian Dash rounded the corner from her counterpart... and let the shakes come on.
Oh man. I was totally not prepared for that. That was insane. Did I screw it all up? Oh man... I sure hope things go okay...
Dash paused for a moment, leaning against a wall, to catch her breath.
Man... I bet Twilight is going to be so peeved when I get back. Price I pay for being awesome, I guess. Good luck, other me!