Episode 1
And along came a Spider...Part 2
Waking up at the Wrong Side of the Bed...literally
If Rainbow Dash had to describe this particular Sunday morning in one word, it would be…‘weird’.
The first thing she noticed when she returned to the waking world was just how completely...wrong everything felt. For some reason, she could feel not just the things that physically touched her skin, but everything around her. She couldn't explain it, but she could sense every single furniture in the room, every single piece of clothing on the floor, every poster on the walls, and even the subtle breathing of her pet tortoise as he slept quietly.
Things only got stranger when she opened her eyes to see what was happening.
'Wait...is the bed...on the ceiling?' Well, that was her first thought as soon as she saw the state of her room. However, after readjusting her eyes a bit more, she noticed that it was not just the bed. The whole room appeared to have been turned upside down.
'Okay…I guess I'm still dreaming…' she briefly considered...until another thought crossed her mind, 'But wait, this isn't what I'm usually dreaming about, is it? There's usually a lot more flying or a lot more Fluttershy. Also, this really doesn't feel like a dream at all really...'
After releasing a yawn and letting that concept sink into her head for a moment, her eyes suddenly shot open and she began to look around frantically.
It was then she noticed something far more disturbing.
It wasn't the room that was upside down, it was herself who was.
Somehow, Rainbow Dash was clinging onto the surface of the ceiling with nothing but the tips of her fingers, a feat that should not have been physically possible. Even more unbelievable was the fact that she had been sleeping in this position. To top it all off, she had no memory of how she even got up there in the first place.
'Wait, what in the actual fu-'
Though when she tried to regain some control in her (apparently very sticky) hands, whatever holding her glued to the ceiling suddenly vanished...and like some clichéd cartoon gag, she fell face first into the bed below…probably damaging a few springs in the mattress when she landed.
After letting out a slightly pained groan, Rainbow slowly and steadily sat up straight and thought, 'Well, that was weird...'
Suddenly, she felt a sharp tingle buzz at the back of her head, and for some reason, she instantly knew that whatever that tingle was, it was warning her about something next to her bed.
Without even thinking about what she was doing, she sprang up into the air like a grasshopper and latched onto the nearest wall in less than a second. And just like how she woke up that morning, she was now supporting her entire weight onto the surface with just her feet and the tips of her fingers.
The next thing she knew, her alarm clock began to ring in the exact location the strange tingle had tried to warn her about. Only…the warning came a full five seconds before it began ringing.
Baffled by all of this, Rainbow Dash just stared at the alarm clock as if it was completely alien to her.
After all, humans usually couldn't stick to walls like they were made of flypaper, and neither could they react to things before they even happened using strange body sensations.
Well...Pinkie Pie could do something very similar, but everyone who knew her had agreed that that girl was immune to the laws of physics.
However, that gave Rainbow a very disturbing idea on what was going on with her.
'Am I…turning into Pinkie Pie?!'
That thought was quickly discarded though when she heard her father shout, “Dash, are you gonna turn that off anytime soon?!”
Realising that the alarm clock was still ringing, Rainbow jumped from the wall and landed on her feet in the middle of the room with little to no difficulty. She didn't even feel any vertigo from doing something like that.
She walked over to the small table next to her bed and tried to push the button on the alarm clock to turn it off, but instead of doing that, she somehow managed to accidentally smash it into pieces.
Staring in surprise at the broken remains of her ancient nemesis, the only thing she had to say was an understated, "Wow.”
Granted, she had no love for that clock, but destroying it was not exactly her intention. Now she probably had to pay for a new one, not to mention explain what happened to the old one.
'Okay, seriously, what the hell is happening to me?!' she silently asked herself, thoroughly confused about what on earth was going on.
Things did not turn out any better when she attempted to leave the room either. When she tried to pull the door open, she instead ripped the doorknob straight out of the door. Not only that, but the broken off doorknob was now stuck to her hand like superglue.
Dash tried desperately to use her free hand to pull it off, but it was not budging no matter how hard she tried.
Then, with no warning whatsoever, the titanium grip she had on the object loosened while she was still trying to pry it off, ultimately resulting in the severed doorknob flying like a projectile out of her hands and right out of her bedroom window, shattering it in the process.
At that exact moment, Vinyl Scratch, a girl with purple shades and spiky blue hair was passing through the street outside, loud electronic music blaring into her headphones while she bobbed her head obliviously to what was happening around her.
But when she felt something hit her shoulder at high speed, she winced in pain and began to look around for any signs of what it was. She then saw a strange metal object on the ground next to her, picked it up, shrugged, put it in the pocket of her white hoodie and continued on her path as if nothing happened.
Rainbow Dash’s parents on the other hand were not so nonchalant about what just happened.
When Firefly heard the unmistakable sound of glass shattering, she immediately decided to head upstairs and see what the heck was going on. Though when she opened the door, she was met with the sight of her daughter flashing her a nervous smile with a broken window and an even more broken alarm clock in the background.
Firefly was not amused...and she made that clear by crossing her arms and giving her daughter a stern glare.
After an awkward staring contest that lasted a few more seconds than Rainbow Dash was comfortable with, Firefly asked, “What happened?”
Truthfully, Rainbow was just as confused as her mother was, probably even more so. But…she really felt the need to come up with some kind of excuse, no matter how lame it was.
“Uhmm…I think some kid was playing...uh…baseball and…one of the balls…hit the window...and the alarm clock too.”
“Uh-huh…” Firefly answered, sounding very unconvinced.
“Yeah, that’s totally what happened. I think it might have been Scootaloo and her friends. You know how those three are.”
Firefly’s eyes narrowed while Rainbow’s forced smile grew, “...And there's nothing you’re trying to hide something from me, is there?”
“Nope, not hiding anything. Promise!”
“Funny, because that’s exactly what you said when you promised you weren't shoplifting last year.”
Well, there was no way out now, she had no choice but to explain exactly what happe…
“Hey, do you think there's any broccoli left in the fridge? I'm starving!”
…or not.
Rainbow’s completely out of nowhere question caught Firefly off-guard, “Huh, what?”
But Dash didn't explain herself at all, and instead walked past Firefly like she was in a hurry, leaving her mother with a truly puzzled and confused look on her face.
Downstairs, Rainbow Blaze was once again reading the latest issue of the Daily Bugle in the kitchen. This time though, the headline read, ‘NOTORIOUS CRIMINAL GRUFF TOMB (AKA THE VULTURE) ACCUSES CELESTIACORP OF PLAGIARISM’, with a prison photo of an old man with a scarred eye looking bitterly at the camera.
The old athlete put down his newspaper when he noticed Rainbow Dash head from her room upstairs and straight for the refrigerator, opening it and frantically starting to look for something inside.
"Good morning, Dash," he greeted. "You're up early, especially for a Sunday. Did you forget to turn off the alarm clock? And what was that ruckus just now?! It sounded like a window broke."
Rainbow Dash was so focused on whatever it was she was looking for though that she didn't catch a word of what her father just said. Instead, she took out a package of broccoli and one of Blaze's home-made blueberry pies.
Her choice of breakfast though did make Blaze raise a curious eyebrow. Now, in most cases, it would probably seem strange for a teenager like Rainbow Dash to take so much broccoli...but in truth, she had always liked broccoli, even as a child, so that wasn't strange at all. However...if there was one thing everybody and their mother knew about Dash's food preferences, it was that she couldn't stand pies, any kind of pies, under any circumstances. Giving her one was more like a punishment than anything else.
So when he saw his daughter place the blueberry pie he made last night on the kitchen table and start to devour it, along with as much broccoli as she could find, like she hadn't eaten in days...he cautiously asked, "Um, Dash...should I be worried?"
With a mouthful of pie and broccoli in her mouth, Dash casually answered, "What'ya mean?"
"First of all: blueberry pie and broccoli do not go well together...and secondly: when have you ever liked pies?"
She swallowed what she had in her mouth and paused while she considered that. "Ehh...since...this morning, I guess..." she replied, not knowing what her weird cravings were about either.
Blaze's eyes narrowed suspiciously.
She noticed the way he was staring at her almost immediately. "What?"
"Oh, I don't know, is it so wrong for a father to be concerned about his teenage daughter when she's suddenly waking up at peculiar times and having strange food cravings?"
It took her a while to figure out what he was getting at, but when she did, she immediately clarified, "What, no, it's not that!"
"You sure about that?"
"Look, I would know if I ever did...that," Dash clarified awkwardly. "I mean, the only person I've ever done 'it' with is Gilda...and last time I checked, she's a girl! She literally doesn't have the parts required."
"And...you're certain you haven't, ehmm, experimented with someone who does? Like...well, doesn't Fluttershy's brother have a crush on you? I mean, I could understand if you might take pity on him and..." he couldn't actually bring himself to finish that sentence, but he definitively didn't need to for his daughter to understand what he was suggesting.
"What, no, ewwww, dad! No way would I do that! That's just...ew!" she affirmed, sounding simultaneously disgusted and offended, and her face was beat red at this point.
Heck, the mental image alone was enough to instantly make lose her appetite and let out a visible gag that told Blaze everything he needed to know about that topic.
A bit embarrassed himself, he defensively held his hands up and said, "Sorry, sorry...just had to make sure."
"Seriously, dad...I'm not pregnant," she pointed out while taking the times to rub her temples. "I am one-hundred and twenty percent sure about that."
"Okay, okay, I believe you. But then...what is going on with you this morning?"
Dash slumped over the table and honestly replied, "I have no idea..."
Rainbow Blaze slowly raised his newspaper to hide his face in an attempt to break the awkward tension between them. It didn't work, and in fact, only made it worse.
The tension was making Dash just a bit uncomfortable, so she decided to try to break it by changing the subject entirely. "So...uh, anything interesting in the news lately?"
Blaze, very happy to switch topic, showed his daughter the picture of the old scarred man on the front page and informed, "Apparently, Gilda's grandpa tried to sue CelestiaCorp for stealing his tech."
"Wasn't that the loon who dressed up in that silly bird-costume and robbed a bunch of banks?"
"That's him. I remember back when I was just a young boy and kept hearing stories about the insane bank-robber dressed as a green vulture. Canterlot's very first super-villain...back in the sixties...the good old days. But...I guess that's all in the past since he hasn't been seen in that costume for more than twenty years now."
"Sure seems like that attitude of his is genetic though," Dash commented with a hint of bitterness.
Blaze put down the newspaper again and looked her in the eye, "Is this about Gilda again?"
"Yeah, it's about Gilda! She was a total bitch to all of my friends, especially Fluttershy, and then she goes around telling everyone that I'm a selfish jerk and blames me for breaking up with her!"
"Just...please let that go. You can't stay bitter about her forever."
"Well, until the day comes when she falls on her knees and begs Fluttershy for forgiveness, I'm still going to be angry with her."
"You know that's not healthy, Dash. I'm not telling you to forgive her, but-"
"But nothing! Can we just stop talking about this?"
"Not to sound childish, but you brought her up."
"Whatever, I'm going out for some fresh air."
Dash hastily got up and left her plate and what was left of her unorthodox breakfast on the table before she grabbed her blue jacket, put on her shoes and left through the front door. Rainbow Blaze sighed but decided against reminding his daughter to put away her plate.
After stepping out of her house, Rainbow Dash decided to put her thoughts of her botched relationship with Gilda and the awkward conversation with her father aside for now by exploring all these strange new powers that she had suddenly woken up with.
Already, her weird sensory ability made her able to feel just about everything in her surroundings, up to and including the wing beats of the tiny mosquito that was just about to land on her neck. Within the blink of an eye, she managed to squash it with her hand in mid-air behind her back without even looking.
She slowly opened her hand again to look at the remains of the dead insect. And her immediate reaction was to brush the remains off with her other hand while making a slight disgusted noise.
'I really should think before I react to that,' she noted for future reference.
Already, her ability to sense things in her surroundings intrigued her, but that was just one of her new abilities.
'Okay, let's see what else I can do...'
She rubbed her hands together, bent her legs slightly and focused on the roof of the house in front of her. With her destination in sight, she jumped five metres up into the air and landed on the house's roof without breaking a sweat. Her feet's new ability to stick to things made sure she didn't accidentally slip and hurt herself, and it seemed to work even though she was currently wearing shoes. (To be honest, I have no idea how that works)
With a goofy smile on her face for accomplishing such a feat, Rainbow declared, "Okay, now that was cool!"
Out of curiosity, she walked over to the edge of the roof, got down on her knees and lowered her head to take a peak through the window below. From there, she could get a perfect upside-down view of...Fluttershy's bedroom?
The moment she saw the girl she had a crush on brush her long pink hair while staring into her mirror...while only being dressed in a wrapped up towel, Rainbow Dash immediately turned her eyes away and stood back up.
She closed her eyes and clenched her teeth, 'I know it's tempting, Dash, but just...don't, just don't, just don't.'
However, her presence did not go unnoticed, as Fluttershy happened to hear a sudden noise by her window that struck her as a bit odd. Curious, she walked over to the window, opened it and asked, "Hello, is anybody there?"
'Oh crap!'
The moment Rainbow Dash heard Fluttershy's voice, she panicked and jumped over to another house as quickly as she could in order to avoid a potentially very awkward situation.
When she had stayed there for almost a full minute and was sure that Fluttershy hadn't seen her, Rainbow released a breath that she apparently had been holding for all that time. That could definitively have gone a lot worse.
Still, the fact remained that she had effortlessly jumped from one rooftop to another without even thinking, and that was an impressive feat in itself.
However, Rainbow Dash was an athlete and always prided herself in exceeding her own limits, and with these new super-powers, her limits were completely unknown to her.
'Time to change that.'
In the suburban district where she lived, the houses were lined up next to each other for quite a long distance, and as Rainbow took in the sight, a smirk formed itself on her face.
Ordinary athletes would use plain running paths or more realistically doable obstacle courses, but as of this morning, Rainbow Dash was not 'ordinary' any longer.
She started off with a short sprint in order to get enough momentum, and then she jumped off the roof she was on and landed on the next one without any difficulty. But she did not stop there, for as soon as she landed, she started to run and eventually jump to the next one...and the one after that...and the one after that, and then she decided to just keep doing it for a while.
Not only had her jumping distance improved, but also her stamina and especially her speed. And as she got more into the act of jumping from roof to roof, she got a little more daring and tried some things she hadn't even attempted before. Dash could barely believed it when she effortlessly performed a back-flip in mid-air and landed perfectly on her feet on the next roof. It was just too surreal.
After only 20 minutes of roof-jumping, she felt the need to up her game a bit. After all, she wouldn't be Rainbow Dash if she didn't test her absolute limits on a daily basis, and this time was no exception.
The ideal place for this came into view when she was beginning to approach the more city-like area of Canterlot where the buildings were starting to get just a little bit taller and were made of concrete.
She spotted a five story building at the very edge of the suburban district where she lived. The building was remote, with flat even walls, not too tall or too short, and there were not that many people around (not too surprising considering how early in the morning it was).
'Perfect.'
She ran over to an out-of-view wall at the side of the building and sized up the distance from the ground all the way to the top. While certainly not the most impressive building in the city, it would be more than enough for a test run.
Rainbow began by putting her right hand on the solid surface, then followed it up with left one, and then followed with both of her legs so that she didn't have to touch the ground anymore. That was the easy part. Now she had to do something a little more impressive than just hanging onto a wall.
She detached one hand from the surface and moved it a step further up, then she did the same with the other while her legs followed suit. Before long, she was actually climbing further and further up the wall. Good thing she wasn't that afraid of heights...anymore at least. Goodness knows she wouldn't have dared to do this as a kid.
What started out as a calm steady climb gradually turned more into a dash up the building as Rainbow increased her pace. Soon enough, she was practically running up the wall on all fours. The abundance of adrenaline in her blood was higher at that moment than it had probably been in her entire life...and she was already a self-admitted adrenaline junkie.
'Oh my gosh, of my gosh, oh my gosh, can't believe I'm actually doing this!' she thought while she climbed.
When she finally reached the top, she didn't just climb up, instead she jumped four metres into the air, performed a somersault and landed perfectly on the roof with her hands rather than her feet. And she was now holding her weight up from the ground with just the tips of her finger...but she'd done something like that already, hadn't she?
Feeling even more daring, Rainbow Dash took two of her fingers from both hands off the ground, then she pulled back the thumbs as well. But she had not quite reached her limit just yet, and she even went so far as to remove her right hand completely, thus proving that she could lift herself up with nothing more than the tips of the two fingers that were still touching the ground.
'Man, this is unreal...'
After experiencing the world upside-down for a moment, she flipped back to her feet, standing once again like a normal person.
Though as she stood on top of a building she had literally climbed up on, she felt more like she was on top of the world. From this vantage point, she could see almost the entire city, and with the rising sun in the background, it was truly a sight to behold.
Filled with a joy she hadn't felt in ages, Rainbow shouted "THIS. IS. AWESOME!" as loud as she possibly could.
In a small apartment in the very same building Rainbow Dash had just climbed, Octavia, a young woman wearing a black suit with a pink bow-tie and straight black hair was playing on her cello in perfect harmony. Her eyes were closed as she allowed the peaceful classical music to calm her senses.
That was until she heard someone shout "THIS. IS. AWESOME!" from what must have been her roof, prompting her to open her eyes and let out an annoyed groan.
If there was one thing Octavia couldn't tolerate, it was distractions. So she calmly put down her cello, walked over to the only open window in the room, closed it, got back to her original position and picked up her instrument once more.
But before her bow could touch the string of her cello, her peace and quiet was disturbed once again when her roommate and occasional friend with benefit Vinyl Scratch slammed open the front door loud enough to nearly give Octavia a heart attack.
She sharply turned around to face the blue-haired intruder and gave her a death glare for disturbing her peace and quiet for the millionth time. Vinyl responded to that with a slightly guilty smile.
Octavia really did love Vinyl, but at the same time, she kept asking herself how a mute girl could possibly be so...noisy?
Determined to know the answer to that, Octavia questioned, "Vinyl, why can't you ever open the door like an ordinary person?" in her overly posh English accent.
Using a series of elaborate hand gestures, Vinyl signed, 'It's more fun my way.'
"More fun for you maybe. I'm not entirely sure if I enjoy it as much."
'I have to be loud somehow' Vinyl signed in addition to pointing at her throat, hinting at her damaged vocal chords.
"I think the chaos that you consider to be music is loud enough."
Vinyl responded to that comment by mockingly sticking out her tongue at her.
Octavia rolled her eyes, "Oh do grow up. In any event, did anything interesting happen while you were out and about?"
To answer her question, Vinyl fished out Rainbow Dash's doorknob from the pocket of her hoodie and held it up for her to see.
With a raised eyebrow, Octavia asked, "Is that a...doorknob?"
Vinyl nodded.
"Why are you carrying around a doorknob?"
Vinyl shrugged.