//------------------------------// // Singlet // Story: A World Without Rainbows - Act II: The Twilight Hour // by uberPhoenix //------------------------------// Act II - Part 8: Singlet Moonlight carefully maneuvered down the steep gradient, being careful not to lose her balance. “Come on,” she urged the other ponies. “We need to put as much distance between us and Gilda as we can.” The underground tunnels had opened up on the unstable cliff-side. The steep plane stretched downward with no obstacles except for the occasional rocky protrusion that looked as if part of the mountain had been wrenched out of place. The terrain changed with every step, from flat stone to mud to gravel, all equally treacherous and all the same dull gray. Above Moonlight, the sky had somehow managed to become darker and more morose. She couldn't tell why. Thick clouds had grouped in the sky, but it wasn't as if they had a sun to mask. The moon, which before had shown brightly, was now no longer visible. Maybe the clouds were hiding the moon, or the Ponyville Light, whatever that strange sphere truly was, had settled in for its nightly nap. Moonlight was trying her best to balance a desire to hurry and an even stronger desire to not die. Pinkie Pie had bounded ahead and was in the lead of the pack, miraculously managing not to slip. The progress of the other ponies, however, was much slower. Applejack was trying not to put too much pressure on her broken leg. Fluttershy, her wings locked rigidly to her body, was taking a minute for each step, prodding the earth with her hoof multiple times to make sure it was solid. Moonlight was trying to coax her along. “Why can't you just fly?” she begged as Fluttershy took another step, and then quickly took it back. Applejack looked back and forced a smile. “Do ya always get all blue in the face the minute things don't go yer way?” she asked. “You're all happy and chipper-like when you're in charge, spouting commands like, 'Let's put distance,' but you get all flustered the moment you ain't the leader. It's like you can't stand to be ignored.” “Are you this cross around everypony?” called Moonlight, trying to ignore the outburst. “Not really. I'm usually pleasant. It's just you, I suppose.” Moonlight grunted audibly as she tiptoed across the rocks to meet Applejack. “What did I do to deserve this?” she muttered under her breath. “You really want me t' answer that?” Moonlight landed in front of Applejack and shoved her face up against the earth pony's. “Will you quit grumbling and just take one for the team?” she demanded. Applejack chuckled. “I was about to say the same to you,” “Does this really matter?” cried Pinkie Pie, who had had enough. “The last thing we need is more fighting! We're already down three of us.” Applejack's jaw froze mid-swing. Pinkie Pie's voice was entirely void of humor. If Pinkie wasn't laughing, then things were serious. She started to speak up to defend herself, but no words came out. She had no words to saw. She closed her mouth, thought for a moment, and then started again, but she still couldn't find the words. “I know you two aren't getting along,” said Pinkie, the strain in her voice clear, “but can you please set aside your differences until we're safe?” Applejack grumbled. “I'll be nice if she is,” she mumbled under her breath. “Same. I'll show respect if I receive it.” Applejack turned to face forward. “Good,” she announced. “Problem solved,” even though it wasn't. For emphasis, she stomped her front hoof on the ground as she began climbing again. The slick gravel slid beneath her feet as the mountain gave way. Applejack, carried forward by her momentum, lost her balance and toppled head over hooves down the mountainside. Moonlight panicked, and her breathing froze. She hadn't been expecting this. “Fluttershy!” she managed to cry. “Grab her!” “I can't!” Fluttershy stood, completely frozen, in a complete panic. “Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh,” she began to mutter to herself. She wanted to help. She knew she needed to, but she couldn't get her wings to respond. Her legs finally began to answer her, and she instinctively backpedaled, trying to distance herself from the accident. No longer carefully plotting her course, she felt her too begin to slip as one leg landed carelessly, and soon she was tumbling down after Applejack. Not stopping to think, Moonlight reached out with her telekinesis, growing tendrils of energy that chased after Fluttershy and reached around her waist. Moonlight gasped as the air was knocked out of her, and she nearly lost her footing herself. Even though Fluttershy wasn't physically connected to her, she could still feel the pegasus straining against her bonds, being pulled along by gravity. She could not arrest Fluttershy's momentum with inheriting it herself. Magic could do many things, but it couldn't stop physics without proper planning beforehand. Moonlight felt her own hooves begin to slip. She desperately tried to regain traction, but in her distraction accidentally released her grip on Fluttershy. Freed from Fluttershy's weight, she fell backwards, losing the air in her lungs again and losing all balance. “Pinkie!” she called to the remaining pony still on her hooves. As Moonlight began to roll down the cliffside, she caught a glance of Pinkie Pie. To her dismay, the pink earth pony was rolling along with her, treating the disaster as some sort of game. Amidst Applejack's hollering, Fluttershy's unearthly wail, and Pinkie Pie's exuberant hoots of joy, the four ponies rapidly descended the mountain. Rocks and trees spun around the edges of Moonlight's vision, blurred and indistinct, coming into view and leaving within a second. She could feel each revolution as her back collided painfully with the rocky slope. She desperately tried to think of magic she could use, but she knew that rhythmic attack to her spine by the hard stone would have prevented her from focusing anyway. She let go of any remaining focus in her vision and she was carried downhill, off and over a sudden drop. Rainbow Dash scanned the ground below her as she flew, looking for a sign of her friends. All of the mountainous region looked the same, and none of it looked familiar. This had to be near the mountain, but nothing stood out. The cave entrance which had seemed so obvious from the ground was invisible now. How in Equestria did Gilda find it, Rainbow wondered. It didn't make any sense. She began circling around, increasing her radius slowly and searching for something, anything. The weight of the unconscious Twilight was beginning to wear her out. She needed medical attention. They both did. Finally, Rainbow swore she saw a splash of pink amongst the gray. Then it was gone, and she wondered if she had only imagined it. Really, it didn't matter. She couldn't afford to keep flying. She had to land, and if Pinkie was there to greet her, all the better. She touched down in the largest clearing she could find and began to make her way towards where she thought she'd spotted it. She rounded a corner and blinked, startled. For a moment she thought she'd stumbled across a mirror. The pony in front of her was also struggling under the weight of a purple unicorn, her head bowed low as she tried her best to provide support. Then Rainbow saw the pink mane. “Pinkie?” Fluttershy lifted her head, her eyes filled with desperation. “Help me,” she murmured before she saw that Rainbow was also carrying Twilight. “Oh, dear,” she added. It took a few tries for Fluttershy to get the fire started. Rainbow Dash was amazed. It never would have occurred to her to bring flint on their journey, but it was certainly proving to be useful. “What else do you have in that bag?” she asked, trying to make Fluttershy more comfortable before she brought out the more difficult questions. Like where Pinkie Pie and Applejack were. “Oh, not much,” said Fluttershy, her face flushing at the attention. “Food, mostly. Some medical supplies.” She eyed Rainbow's injured hoof. “Speaking of which, we should probably take a look at the hoof of yours.” “That's alright,” said Rainbow Dash as she quickly tried to hide the hoof behind her back, but the sudden movement made her wince. “It's fine,” she lied. The last thing she wanted was to spook Fluttershy with all the blood. A pony so scared of her own shadow would probably faint at the sight of such a gruesome injury. Fluttershy's eyes narrowed, a look of concentration and authority overcoming her. “Please, Rainbow Dash. I mean, I don't want to force you or anything, but please.” “Promise me you won't freak out,” Rainbow Dash murmured. “I'm an animal caretaker. That includes being a veterinarian. I didn't get the job by having a weak stomach.” Rainbow Dash reluctantly held out the injured appendage, but was surprised as Fluttershy delicately cradled it and examined the wound. “It's not too bad,” she concluded. “We'll need to disinfect it, of course. That won't be a problem, will it?” Rainbow laughed nervously. “Of course not!” she boasted. “Who do you think I am?” Her smile wavered as Fluttershy reached into her bag. Fluttershy rummaged about in the bag for a couple seconds and then frowned. Rainbow Dash began to panic. The anticipation was killing her. “Fluttershy?” she asked. When Fluttershy removed her hoof from the bag, she was holding a book. “I didn't put this in here,” she remarked, and she opened it. The contents were written in a neat hoofwritten scrawl. She flipped through the pages, trying to figure out what she was looking at. She recognized some of what was written. The Dragon on the mountain, Winter Wrap-Up, The Best Young Fliers competition. “The is Twilight's diary,” she realized. “How did this get in here?” “Can we hurry up?” asked Rainbow Dash, who wanted to get the unpleasentries out of the way as soon as possible. Fluttershy retrieved the bottle she was looking for, labeled on the side with a peppermint leaf. “Alright. Give me your hoof.” Pinkie Pie was bouncing along a rocky trail, the Columbus device grasped firmly in her mouth, when she heard the scream. Her gait changed to a quick gallop as she took off in direction of the cry. “Hold on Rainbow Dash!” she cried. “I'm coming!” Rainbow Dash clamped her mouth shut so that she wouldn't scream again. Her eyes were beginning to water. There were so many words she wanted to say, but few of them had more than four letters. “Rainbow Dash!” hushed Fluttershy. “You don't want to wake up the Twilights!” She froze up, trying to come to terms with the inanity of the statement. “Maybe one of the others will have heard that,” said Rainbow Dash through clenched teeth. “Yeah, or Gilda.” Rainbow Dash shut up. To Fluttershy, she looked like she'd been kicked. “What happened out there?” Fluttershy asked. “Where's Rarity?” “We lost her.” Fluttershy didn't know what to say. “Oh.” “No, not that!” cried Rainbow Dash, her voice cracking as she frantically tried to correct her mistake. “She's not dead. I hope. We just lost track of her.” “Same here, with Applejack and Pinkie Pie. What about Gilda?” Rainbow paused, trying to figure out the right words. “Honestly? I don't have the first clue what to think. She's the same griffin I used to know, but at the same time, she's completely different. And I think she feels the same way. She's just as confused, just as lost. I think that's why she let me go. It's so hard for both of us. Can you imagine what it's like to have someone you know, someone you're close to, someone you've shared so much of your life with, so many experiences, and then you run into another version of her where that's all washed away, like it never happened?” Fluttershy cast a sideways glance at the two Twilights, huddled together. Neither of them had woken up yet. “Oh.” The ponies sat in silence, trying to work out their thoughts so that they could have something to say. “What do you think of her?” Rainbow Dash finally asked. “Gilda?” “No. The other Twilight.” “Moonlight? I think she's, um, really intimidating.” Rainbow Dash balked. “You're kidding, right? You're the one who calmed her down back in the library. You showed her kindness when the rest of us were afraid to.” “That's different!” cried Fluttershy defensively. “It's like treating a wounded animal. You don't have time to think, because every second counts. You forget you're supposed to be afraid. She was helpless, so I did what I had to do. What anypony would have done, really. But Applejack was right. Now that Moonlight's back in control, I can't be like I was before. She scares me too much. And it gets worse.” “Oh?” Rainbow Dash, for the first time in conversation, had her curiosity piqued. “We rescued Twilight, but I can't help but look at them the same way, like they're the same pony. Which I guess they are. I look at her and I feel exactly the same.” “You're scared of Twilight?” asked Rainbow Dash, confused. “No! Of course not.” Fluttershy paused, quivering, as if she was afraid to admit what she was saying. “I don't know! I don't understand it myself. It just so hard to think about!” As Fluttershy sat with her head in her hooves, attempting to regain her composure, she was startled by the sound of laughter. It started as a light chuckle, but soon Rainbow Dash had to stuff a hoof in her mouth to keep herself from waking the whole camp. Still, for half a minute afterward, Fluttershy could still hear the muffled giggles. “What's funny?” Fluttershy tried to demand, but it came out as more of a desperate plea. “I don't get it.” “It makes so much sense” said Rainbow Dash with bewilderment after she had recovered. “It's so perfect, and I hadn't thought about it.” “Thought about what?” “The recluse and the bookworm. Why would it ever be anything else?” She began laughing again. She smiled at Fluttershy, and then her eyes moved past Fluttershy, staring at something out of view. “Don't panic,” she said quietly. “But there's somepony watching us.” Fluttershy's attempt to avoid panicked failed. She dove to the ground, covering her head in her hooves. Rainbow Dash maneuvered in front of her, protecting her from the intruder. “Who are you?” she called. “Show yourself.” The stranger wasn't Gilda; it was definitely pony-shaped. But it was too far away, and in the dark. Slowly, the figure approached the fire. It was a unicorn mare, older than Fluttershy. Her dark mane flowed down her back, extremely unkempt. She locked eyes with Rainbow, and her face, at first tense and wrought with apprehension, flooded with relief. “Rainbow Dash,” she breathed, a wide and almost euphoric grin rapidly forming. “It's you. Good. Took me long enough; I'm terrible at following maps. Reading them, sure, piece of cake. Using them is something else though. Not really the explorer type.” Realizing that she had started rambling, she shut up. She reminded herself that this was their first impression of her. She was a stranger to them. “How do you know my name?” asked Rainbow through bared teeth. By the time Rainbow Dash had finished her question, the mare had managed to recompose herself. Professionalism had won out, and she stood tall. When she spoke, she did so more slowly, more controlled. “I know a lot of things about you, Rainbow Dash. You embody the element of loyalty. You'll always protect your friends in their time of need. You're one of the few ponies to ever pull off a Sonic Rainboom, and you've done it four times.” “Three,” corrected Rainbow. “Details. The pegasus behind you is Fluttershy, your closest friend. You both earned your cutie marks the same day, when you defended her honor in a race. That was the first Rainboom. That Rainboom, due to a series of interesting events and contrived coincidences, resulted in you, eight years later, saving the world from eternal darkness.” She rolled her eyes upward toward the sunless sky. “I suppose I don't have to tell you that I also know you're from another universe.” Rainbow Dash was silent as she thought this over. It sort of made sense, in a way. Had she never performed the Rainboom in this version of reality? It would certainly explain why Madam Orange still lived in Manehattan. Everypony everywhere has a special magical connection with her friends, maybe even before she's met them. Rainbow Dash had always considered this to be a blessing. Her Rainboom had made a positive difference in the lives of so many ponies. But what if this connection was a curse as well? Because she failed to make the Rainboom, Applejack's life had been completely thrown off course, possibly for the worse. But Applejack wasn't the only one who had been affected by the Rainboom. Twilight never would have become Celestia's apprentice. Rainbow Dash never would have met her. They never would have stopped Nightmare Moon. “Is that what this is?” she asked weakly. “This is what would have happened if I didn't do the Sonic Rainboom?” The stranger pondered the question. “Technically. The split in time goes back a bit further than that, but you're more or less correct. In this world, you did not win your race against that braggart colt.” “Why not?” Rainbow Dash felt insulted to think she would lose a race to those brutes, in any version of reality. “You were distracted.” “Distracted? By what?” “By me.” Silence hung suspended in the air. Rainbow Dash's frustration quelled instantly and left her speechless. “I think we should sit down for this talk,” suggested the mare. “I brought us some food.” A meal of campfire roasted carrots and potatoes later, Dash began to find herself strangely acclimated to the newcomer. By all reason, she should have been scared of this newcomer. Instead, perhaps due to some sense of familiarity she didn't quite understand, she had made the decision to trust her. “What's your name, anyway?” she asked as she chewed. “It's not really fair that you knew mine.” “You can call me Stargazer,” the unicorn replied, having already finished. It was much easier to eat with telekinesis. The fact that Stargazer had avoided answering the question hadn't escaped Fluttershy, who had been listening in on the few spoken words, but hadn't been contributing. “Is that your real name?” she asked. “No.” “Then what is?” asked Rainbow Dash. “That's hardly the most important question you should be asking right now.” “Right then,” said Rainbow, cutting to the chase. “You said this world is like it is because you kept me from performing the Sonic Rainboom. Why?” “It wasn't intentional, I assure you. But I was there, and that was enough. You see, I'm not like you. Or Fluttershy. I don't belong in either world.” “What do you mean?” “I'm a singlet. There's two of all of you, but there's only one of me. And that makes me dangerous. This is all my fault. I did my best to not touch anything, to let things go on as they should, but some things were unavoidable. Somewhere, somehow, I stepped on a butterfly. I altered a key point in history, a point that so many future events hinged upon. Your Rainboom was a defining point in time, and I broke it.” As Stargazer neared the end of her speech, her pacing grew less controlled and more sporadic, and the words seemed to be becoming more difficult. “I make the universe asymmetrical. I'm what's wrong with everything.” Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were at a loss. They wanted to comfort her, but neither of them really were in any position to do so. Stargazer knew so much more about this predicament than any of the others did. Telling her this wasn't her fault would hardly be convincing. Stargazer looked longingly at the rest of Fluttershy's food; the pegasus has barely touched her meal. “Are you going to finish that?” she asked. Fluttershy fidgeted. “I'm saving it for Twilight. I didn't think it was fair that we got to eat and they didn't.” Stargazer shook her head. “Sorry. You can't give it to them. I can't leave any traces behind. They can't know I was ever here.” “What?” Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash cried simultaneously. “Twilight is important.” Stargazer explained. “Kind of like your Rainboom, she has a big impact on the world. There are things she's supposed to do, mistakes she has to make, and I can't get in the way of them. I've interfered enough, just to balance out the damage I've already caused, to get her on the right track, but this isn't one of those moments. If she knows I've been here, it might throw everything off. I can't afford that.” “How can you know that?” asked Rainbow Dash suspiciously. “Who decides what's supposed to happen?” “It's my special talent,” answered Stargazer, earning herself two pairs of raised eyebrows. “In my dreams, I can see these important things, these critical moments. Things that have already happened. Things that need to happen. Different possible futures. But I don't know everything, Rainbow Dash. That's why I chose this moment to approach you. I could have waited a day or two, until you were in these mountains alone, but I wouldn't be able to find you. I wouldn't have the first clue where to look.” Rainbow Dash furrowed her brow, trying to synthesize all the information she was receiving. “But why did you come in the first place? Because right now, it sounds like you want to tell us what to do to clean up your messes.” Stargazer shook her head. “Nothing like that. This is just a social call. I'm tired of communicating through riddles and dreams. It's too impersonal and unreal. I just wanted to talk to a familiar face. You don't know how long I've been waiting to see you again, for real, Rainbow Dash. I miss you. I miss you all.” She stood and walked over to the two Twilights, both still asleep. “Hello, girls,” she whispered as to not wake them up. “Do you still remember the good luck charm I gave you all those years ago? Don't be afraid of it, Twilight. You've been groomed for a great destiny.” She returned to the campfire. “I should go, before they wake up. Thank you, Rainbow Dash, for letting me talk to you. And for not telling Twilight about me.” “What makes you think I won't tell her?” Stargazer's response was curt. “Because you won't.” She flashed a smile at Rainbow Dash, gave Fluttershy a quick nod, and closed her eyes, recalling the components of the teleportation spell. She felt herself lifted off of the ground as the magic flowed through her. “One more question,” interrupted Rainbow Dash. Stargazer lowered herself back to the ground and opened one eye. “Yes?” “Why are you doing this? What's your motive?” “I already told you. I'm not a spy or anything. I am merely attempting to fix the mistakes I've made. Call this an atonement, if you will.” “That's it, then? Set right what once went wrong?” “More or less.” “Fine, then. Goodbye, Stargazer.” The light began to glow again, and it increased in intensity until Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had to close their eyes. When they opened them again, she was gone. “Atonement my flank,” said Rainbow Dash after Stargazer had left. “She's up to something. What do you think?” she asked Fluttershy. “Um, I'm not sure. She seems nice. But, but...” Rainbow Dash smiled. “You noticed it too, huh?” Fluttershy nodded. “I've only seen one other pony with that cutie mark.” A couple of minutes later Pinkie Pie mounted a nearby crest and began racing toward them. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, overjoyed, rushed to meet her. After the longest hug any of them could remember, Fluttershy asked the question. “Is Applejack with you?” Pinkie, stung, looked at the floor dejectedly. She spat out the Columbus to speak. “I was hoping she was with you. What about Rarity?” “We'll find her,” asserted Rainbow Dash. “I'll scour every square inch of this mountain until I spot her. I promise.” The images were unfocused this time, jagged, reaching out of the darkness to grab hold of her but splintering into fragments before they could reach her. As she drifted in and out of consciousness, sounds and sights flickered through her mind, forming an incomplete image. Moonlight felt as if she couldn't move, as if a large weight was pressing down against her, forcing her back. The room was dark, except for a small sliver of light that was steadily shrinking. In a few seconds she would be alone in the cold and the dark. Again. She swore she saw a pony's face in the light. Angry. Hurt. It spoke a couple words, but she couldn't make them all out. One of them sounded like “Punishment.” Moonlight awoke, or at least it felt that way. Her sight was still blurred, crags bursting out at her from the edges of her vision, but their edges seemed rounded, blended seamlessly with the sky. Unable to learn anything from her eyes, Moonlight's first real observation was the heat of the campfire warming her side. She turned to get a closer look at the heat source, regretting her decision as soon as she exposed her previously heated back to the cold winds behind her. It was always cold up this high in the mountains, although her lab was magically heated. In front of her, three figured were huddled around the flames, a blob of yellow, a mass of pink, and a blue one that were quickly becoming more defined. Rainbow Dash noticed Moonlight first, and she nudged Fluttershy to get her attention. Her vision beginning to clear, Moonlight watched the yellow pegasus burst into tears. Then, silently and without coordination, the three ponies trotted over to her and embraced her in a hug that enveloped both her and her counterpart. Eventually the other ponies left to clean up the campsite, leaving the two Twilights alone. The other Twilight had woken up too now, and was staring at Moonlight with a analytical glare that made her feel like she was being dissected. “You're me,” said Twilight slowly. She had considered that this confrontation might eventually happen, but suddenly thrust into the event, her wellspring of knowledge had dried up on her and left her babbling obvious statements. Moonlight tried to crack a smile. She had no idea what reaction she was about to receive. Anger, fear, and bewilderment were all likely candidates. “Yes.” “I'm really in another universe.” “Again, yes. I don't want to startle you. Please don't freak out.” “Oh, I'm not startled. For once, things are starting to make sense. I've finally got a firm grasp of what happened. And you're not a stranger. I know you. Not only because you're me, but because I've been seeing you in my dreams.” She paused. “Why is that?” Moonlight balked. She didn't want to admit what she had done to Twilight, but she figured refusing to talk would be worse. “We swapped minds, initially. Our memories, however briefly, occupied the same space.” “Okay...” began Twilight as she mulled it over. “I'll take your word for it. I'm not an expert on this sort of thing, but you are. Which means I am, I guess. But that doesn't explain my dream about your cave.” “Excuse me?” “Your encounter with Gilda. I had a dream about it before it happened. Just having your memories wouldn't do that, would it?” Moonlight laughed, but knew it sounded fake. “You must be mistaken,” she said. “You can't dream about something that hasn't happened yet.” “But I saw it.” “I've been in my cave before. Maybe you saw something else that happened there.” “But I saw Gilda. And I heard Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy talking, but I didn't recognize them because you wouldn't have. At least, you wouldn't have known them like I do.” “Listen, me,” said Moonlight beginning to become irritated with her other self's incompetence. “You still study magic, right?” “Of course.” “Then you know that magic doesn't work that way. Magic is about making a specific thing that you want to happen, happen. It's not clairvoyance. You can't see the future because the future hasn't happened yet.” This time it was Twilight who smiled, sympathetically and genuinely. “Wow,” she said, managing to capture all of her astonishment and fit it into the word. “You really are me, aren't you? A me who never learned about friendship.” “What does friendship have to do with any of this?” “A lot. Because it was a friend,” and Twilight paused, interrupted by a sudden gust of wind. After it passed, she continued. “It was a friend who taught me that just because you don't know how something works doesn't mean it's not real. That a real scientist studies the seemingly impossible to learn from it, not to dismiss it. She taught me to be open to other things, other kinds of magic. You could learn a lot from her.” “That still doesn't change the fact that what you're describing is completely impossible.” Moonlight, exasperated, laid her head down in her hooves when she remembered something said to her just the other night, in a dream of her own. When the dog barks, run. And don't be afraid to follow your dreams. The first part was still complete and utter nonsense. Was she talking about a Diamond Dog? But the second part stirred up a bit of curiosity is Moonlight, and she decided to ask. “Hey, me. Have you ever been imprisoned?” “Imprisoned?” “Yes. You know, like as a punishment for committing a crime.” Twilight didn't have to think long. “No. I can't say I have. Does this have anything to do with my dream?” Moonlight decided to table the discussion and file it under her list of things to deal with later. Predicting the future was impossible, because the future hadn’t happened yet. There was no other way about it. Besides, it was becoming too difficult to focus with the sporadic bursts of wind that had begun roaring through, each one louder than the previous one. Pinkie Pie leaped a couple yards up into the air in surprise as the Columbus device began to flash and vibrate, and she slowly fell back down to the ground, shaking with the machine. Refusing to spit it out, she pranced over to the Twilights, her hooves vibrating to quickly for her to maintain full contact with the earth for more than an instant. “W-w-w-what's happening?” Pinkie Pie managed to cry, although her voice was incomprehensible beneath both the Columbus and the constant shaking. Moonlight groaned and pulled the machine from her grasp, causing her to fall forward. “Is this an earthquake?” asked Fluttershy, who was trying to back away from whatever was causing the wind, oblivious to the fact that it was all around her. “She's here,” said Moonlight, once quietly and to herself, and then she repeated herself more clearly. “She's here!” “She?” asked Twilight, confused. “Who's she?” Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash, looking in all directions for the source of the currents, had finally decided to look up. “Uh, guys?” she interrupted. “What's that?” Twilight and Moonlight followed Rainbow's gaze. Twilight was frowning in concentration, while Moonlight smiled widely with anticipation, bubbling with mirth. Fluttershy lowered her head between her front hooves and hid. “I don't see anything,” said Twilight. She spoke slowly, out of fear of sounding like an idiot for missing something obvious. “Exactly. Where are the stars?” The stars were not completely gone. Rather, it appeared to Twilight that a single oblong swathe of stars had been cut out, leaving an oval of blackness. An oval that was slowly getting larger. Whatever was blocking out the stars was getting closer. Unable to tell how large it was, Twilight felt as if it would crush them at any moment. Yet it remained aloft, giving the unicorn an ever-increasing impression of its size. “She's finished it,” breathed Moonlight. “Last I heard, it was just theoretical, but she's done it.” “Again,” said Twilight, slightly more irritated. “Who's she?” “Somepony marvelous. A wonderful and inspiring genius. A visionary in her own right. A leader among mares and stallions, and the most dependable of ponies.” As the shape got closer, Twilight was able to make out the rotors. Four disks, one at each corner of the object, were shimmering, letting the stars shine through dimly. It took a moment for Twilight to realize they were rotating blades. These rotors were keeping the machine aloft, and they were also the source of the erratic winds. The shape stopped growing. It was directly above them, nearly blocking out the entire sky. Rainbow Dash launched, deciding to investigate up close, but the force of the winds from the rotors quickly knocked her back into the ground. A light appeared on the underside of the ship, for that was now what Twilight suspected it was. Like her hot air balloon, but many times larger. The underside, now clearly lit, appeared to be almost entirely a dark canvas stretched over a metal framework. A cabin was suspended beneath the sphere, itself bigger than Twilight's balloon. A rope fell, landing next to Moonlight, who neatly sidestepped out of the way. A shadowed figure appeared above, quickly descending the length of the rope, coming to a stop just a few feet above the ground. The first thing Twilight noticed was the pony's smile. She was adventurous, cunning, devious, and her smile reflected that. It was a smile that demanded full attention, and it prevented Twilight from looking at anything else for a good while. “Twilight! You're looking sharp! Amazingly composed, all things considered.” The mare's voice was pristine, punctuated, perfect. Only the lingering trace of an accent remained to betray her roots. She wrapped Twilight in a suffocating hug. “I'm so glad you're all right. Every Columbus we've built, I never thought I'd see the day when yours would activate. I knew I'd have to come myself. Why, if anything had happened to you...” She paused, noticing the other ponies for the first time. “And you brought friends! What delight.” She turned to greet Rainbow Dash, and Twilight noticed her body. The mare's yellow mane was tied up in a beehive, which kept it out of her eyes. he was missing a lot of the muscle Twilight was used to seeing, and she had become a bit pudgier. The bright orange coat sunk beneath her belly, and Twilight followed it down to the cutie mark on her flank, a red beverage in a margarita glass, complete with a olive and toothpick. “Your ship,” murmured Twilight, still awestruck at what was going on around her. “Yes ma'am. The S. S. Mooncatcher. I told you we'd get it off the ground. The perfect combination of rotary thrust and hydrogen cells allows it to change altitudes without having to vent or drop ballast. Truly one of the most remarkable of inventions. But then, you should know. You helped me create it.” Rainbow Dash was frozen. “Applejack?” she whispered. The mare scowled, as if the name tasted bitter on her tongue. “The name's Madam Orange,” she said, extending a hoof. “A pleasure to make your acquaintance. It sounds like you've got quite a story.”