//------------------------------// // 3: A First Attempt // Story: The Journeymare Project: Turbo Pegasus // by MadHighlander //------------------------------// Descending from the time spell, Rainbow barely had time to note that she was in a laboratory of some sort – complicated diagrams pinned to the walls and obtuse experiments bubbling away on desks – before she felt an impact to the left side of her jaw that knocked her spinning into the nearby table. Dizzily, she looked up at her assailant, to see a mass of stone and crystal in the vague size and shape of a large pony. The chunks of enchanted material fit together tightly, like twigs on a timberwolf, save for a pair of eye-like cavities that glowed green. Its face didn’t move as it spoke, saying in a deep, distorted voice, “I’ve been expecting somepony like you.” Its voice had a grinding undercurrent, as if it was speaking with a mouthful of gravel. Which, thought Rainbow absently, it probably was. Its outline shimmered like water for a moment before it assumed a precisely pony-like shape – that of a grayish stallion with an equal-sign cutie mark and the same hairstyle that had been borne by every stallion in Starlight’s Town. “You just stay there for a while. I’m sure somepony will be by to pick you up.” Its voice in this state was unchanged, and its mouth didn't move when it spoke. Rainbow tried to stand up, her mind still slightly disoriented by the punch. The disguised construct left the laboratory, closing the door behind itself with a click just before Rainbow slammed into it. Damn. Okay, Rainbow, think: What would Daring do? She looked around the laboratory. Wait, first things first. I have access to one thing Daring Do wouldn’t. She tapped the scanning auto-spell stone. She felt the strange sensation of information filtering through her brain of its own accord, accompanied by the knowledge of a trapdoor in the lab’s ceiling that led to – if she remembered what she knew of the Town’s layout from her brief time there – Starlight’s study. Bingo. Flapping her wings, she hovered up to the trapdoor, only to be interrupted by the disembodied voice of the Map mechanism, apparently as a function of the scanner. “Warning! Lifeform detected overhead. Proceed no further!” What? For crying out loud- Rainbow looked at the scanner data again. Sure enough, the information outlined Starlight herself sitting at a desk immediately atop the trapdoor. Of course. Of course now of all times. Rainbow looked around, filtering through the scanner’s information. There was a window on the north wall, and she flitted over to it. Of course it was too small to fit through. She looked out the window anyway. It faced straight down the main road of the Town, hidden just underneath Starlight’s front steps. She could see everything going on outside in the entire town, but she figured nopony would be able to see this window, much less inside it, unless they knew it was there. Just like Starlight to install something like that, huh. A crowd of equalised townsponies were milling about, apparently just leaving some sort of town meeting and slowly trickling back to their homes under the darkening sky. After a moment of searching, she recognised the disguised construct that had locked her in. It was the only one without an exaggerated, toothy smile on its face. Hang on, it gets to move around unchallenged? That’s not fair! I have to take steps not to be seen! The construct looked around surreptitiously at the other ponies, who, sure enough, paid it no mind, and then unhooked a lit oil lantern from a nearby doorpost. Then it trotted off towards the far end of town, towards a smaller shack that Rainbow recognised. Damn, I’m running out of time. I need to get out of here. She went to the tables, rummaging through the notes, looking for a key or anything she could use to break the door down. She found nothing of the sort, but a bubbling beaker of some noxious-smelling liquid caught her attention. This looks like acid, maybe I can melt the lock or something. She picked up the beaker and threw it at the door, where it shattered. The fluid inside exploded with a loud bang and a bright flash, but caused no damage to the door. She heard a muffled exclamation from the room above. “What in Celestia’s name…?” A series of hoofbeats sounded as the pony sitting over the trapdoor got to their feet. Bad to worse, Rainbow, bad to worse. She flitted over to the window, hiding behind a heavy stone object on the desk. Out the window, ponies were turning towards Starlight’s house and whispering to each other. In the distance (the scanner spell allowed her to see it with perfect clarity) the construct looked back at the commotion, then pitched the lamp at the locked shack. A time-spell sphere appeared behind the construct as the flames caught, and it vanished into it. No, no, no… Another time spell engulfed Rainbow, returning her to her own time just as the trapdoor unlocked with a click and swung open. Returning to the present, Rainbow was once again confronted with the trio of royal guards, something she had failed to consider because of course she had. They were momentarily surprised by the time spell activating, but recovered quickly and levelled their spears at her. Any conversation – or confrontation - that might occur was forestalled by the activation of a large, glowing bubble shield between Rainbow and the guards. “Altered timeline presence detected. Activating shield countermeasures,” announced the map’s voice. The lead guard angrily curled his lip and turned to the side, revealing a familiar cutie mark; a shield with a six-pointed star. “Hammer, Shield, commence breaching procedure,” he said, gesturing to the other two. The other two guards moved to opposite ends of the shield and focussed spell beams at it. The shield glowed more brightly at both impact points and deformed slightly into an ovoid shape. “We’ll soon break this shield, and then we’ll figure out what you’re doing in my sister’s home, changeling.” Right, thought Rainbow. Point one: that’s Shining Armor, I didn’t notice that. Point two, the more important point: They think I’m a changeling. I have no way of disproving that, especially given that I’m supposed to be dead in this timeline. I’m just going to go. She called up the jump menu and once again selected the third date. The time spell activated and the map room vanished, once again replaced with Starlight’s laboratory. This time, Rainbow was ready for the punch. Ducking underneath the construct’s outstretched hoof, she swung to the side and slammed her hoof into the construct’s face. It had all the effect of punching a granite statue. Including – she felt certain – breaking something in her hoof. Why does he get all the advantages? He can be seen, he can’t be knocked out… Rainbow nursed her throbbing hoof as the construct turned around and made for the door. She flapped her wings and lifted into the air, flying after it at breakneck speed. So fast, that she failed to react when it brought its rear hooves back and struck her in the face with what she felt certain was its full strength. It was at this point that her vision went black. Groggily, she thought to herself, Right, don’t let it hit you. Noted. Ugh, one of these days that’s going to cause brain damage or something. She groaned and opened her eyes, sitting up from the hard surface she was lying on. “Oh, good, you’re awake.” Surprised, Rainbow spun around. She was back in the map room (What? How long was I out?) and Shining Armor was sitting on the ground in front of the doors. “Maybe you can answer some of my numerous questions.” The other two guards were nowhere to be seen. “What happened to the other two?” asked Rainbow. “They weren’t expecting the shield to vanish when you did, and they blasted each other. Neither seems to be seriously injured, but I sent them to the hospital anyway.” He stood up, removing his helmet and setting it on one of the crates. “I got kicked out of the radius when the shield came back on and you dropped onto the table like a sack of apples. I tried to breach the shield by myself for a while, but when that didn’t work, I scanned it. It’s a double layered magical bubble shield designed to strengthen in compliance with non-Newponian mechanics. Nothing exceptionally unusual, except for one specific modification that allows the second layer to shift outside the first when the shield is taking damage from multiple directions. That’s why the standard breaching technique didn’t work.” He approached the shield and tapped it with a hoof, making an echoey bonk noise. “That’s a modification my sister was working on before she died. She never finished it, and as far as I know, all her notes are kept in the Canterlot Archives. So let’s start with you explaining where you got that shield.” “Well, first off,” said Rainbow firmly, “I’m not a changeling.” “Yeah, I figured that out.” “Wait, really?” Shining nodded. “Changelings bleed blue, even when disguised.” Rainbow touched her hoof to her nose, which still stung a bit. Sure enough, it came back red. Wiping away the nosebleed, she mumbled, “Well, that would have been good to know my first time back.” “So I know you’re not a changeling,” continued Shining. “I don’t know who you are, given that Rainbow Dash died twelve years ago, but you’re not a changeling. And that’s going to be my second question, so you can just segue right on into that once you’ve finished explaining about the shield.” Rainbow considered for a moment. I could just jump away again with the time spell. On the other hand, if he believes me… I mean, there’s a slim chance at best that he’ll believe the truth, but if he does, he could be really helpful. I mean, he can’t come into the past with me - if I knew enough about the time spell to explain it to him, maybe he could follow, but I don’t, and I still know more than any other living pony in this timeline. So that’s out, but I could at least use some advice on how to get out of that lab. He’s a guard, maybe he knows some escape-y tricks I could use. I’m going to try telling him. “I’m about 90% sure you’re not going to believe this,” she said out loud, “but here goes. I’m Rainbow Dash from an alternate timeline, and I travelled back in time to stop somepony – I don’t know who yet – from changing history. I’ve been using an auto-spell stone with a time-travelling spell that was programmed by Twilight. The shield is hers too, although I didn’t know about that until just now.” Shining’s eyebrows rose, surprised. “Then Twilight is alive, in the present that you come from?” Rainbow nodded. “You seem to be accepting this easier than I expected.” “It fits the facts better than any other explanation I’ve thought of. That spell you’ve been using can’t be a teleport because you can’t teleport in this building. My first thought was an invisibility spell and a bunch of illusory bells and whistles, but Hammer, Shield and I did some pretty intensive scanning after the first time you disappeared, and we detected nothing. Time magic – and I can’t believe I’m saying this either – makes the most sense.” His gaze dropped to the floor for a moment. “And maybe I’m just really hopeful that Twily might still be alive somewhere, somehow.” He looked at Rainbow again. “So this time traveller, what did they change? Do you know?” “Yeah. They turned the founders of Equestria against each other before they could sign the unification treaty, they assassinated Princess Celestia and Princess Luna and blamed it on aliens, and they set the fire that killed this timeline’s versions of Twilight, me, and our friends.” She touched her hoof, which still stung a little. “But it looks like they’re not doing it themselves, they’ve sent back some kind of golem. I’ve only been to one of the times so far – two trips to Starlight Glimmer’s town – but I haven’t been able to do anything. I arrive in some kind of laboratory underneath her house and it knocks me out or locks me in, and I can’t get out.” “I’ve never heard of the Unification Treaty, but I have heard of the attack on the Castle of the Two Sisters. That’s in the royal guard training manual – The scientists have been working on anti-alien countermeasures ever since, but all we have basically amounts to ‘run and pray’. Practically scared the armor off of us when they showed up ten years ago… So you’re saying those aliens had nothing to do with the attack?” Rainbow nodded in confirmation. “I’m not sure yet, but I think the time traveller’s goal was to turn us against the aliens.” Shining considered this. “That makes sense, I suppose. Anyway, I can’t help you with either of those, but I think I know exactly the lab you’re talking about in Starlight’s village. The main door is solid oak with an enchanted lock. You’d need a heavy siege spell to get that open if it was locked on you, and even if I could get an auto-spell stone to you through this barrier, that spell’s not the sort of thing you can store on one. Can't you just, I don't know, change where you arrive?" Rainbow shook her head. "What I've told you already about the time spell is pretty much everything I know. Starlight invented it, I have no idea how it works." Shining frowned. "All right... There’s a trap door in the ceiling that’s only locked with a basic latch. It locks from the outside, but if you could find, I don’t know, a knife or something, you could probably jimmy that open and get out.” “I spotted that using a scanning spell stone, but the problem is Starlight herself is sitting right on top of the thing.” “Oh, yeah. That is a problem. If it were anypony else I’d say to Tartarus with it, but Starlight is a powerful mage, enough to incapacitate Twily. We barely managed to apprehend her in this timeline - Empress Cadance and Arch-Mage Sunset both working together were only just enough. Even if you were able to explain to her everything you explained to me, get her to believe it, and get her to go along with it, she’d still probably delay you way longer than you can afford.” “Plus the danger of making things even more complicated by being seen in the past.” “That too. How about this: You’re a time traveller, so you get infinite attempts. Take a run, and just rummage through the lab, see if you can find anything useful. I’ll wait here and see if I can come up with anything better.” “Good idea.” Rainbow called up the map stone, and selecting the third date, drifted back into the time-spell.