RQ2: Rising Storm

by Zetriax

VI - Discovery

Chapter VI- Discovery

Soarin and Minuette trotted up to the library just as the rain started coming down. Soarin knocked on the door three times and stood back. He could hear the clopping of hooves as Twilight came up to the door. It swung open to reveal a rather tired looking princess.

“Oh, is this a bad time?” Minuette asked.

Twilight yawned. “Not at all,” she said, giving them a droopy grin. “I've just been working really hard on these batches of Dragon's Tongue cure and haven't been to sleep in... I don't even know how long. You know the fever, right?”

“We've heard of it,” Soarin replied. “May we come in? We need to talk.”

“Be my guest,” said Twilight as she moved out of the doorway to let them in. Once they were inside out of the weather, the alicorn nodded to them. What's on your minds?

“Rainbow's gone,” Soarin cut immediately to the chase. Twilight's eyes widened in surprise the sleepiness vanishing from her features. “She was kidnapped from my house by a pony named Arcanum. And we have reason to believe that they went into another time.”

“Hold on! What are you saying? A time traveler kidnapped Rainbow Dash?” the purple pony asked.

Minuette nodded. “I know it's hard to believe, Twilight. But you have to understand, your friend's life could hang in the balance.”

“Could this have anything to do with that pegasus that broke into Rainbow's house a couple nights ago? He gave her the Dragon's Tongue cure.”

Soarin looked to Minuette. A shocked expression crossed her face.

“More than likely. But now I find that odd. My accomplice and I theorized that Arcanum had started spreading the disease. Why then would he simply give away the cure?”

“Never mind that,” Soarin interjected. “We need to find something to identify what time he is from, so that we can go after him.”

Twilight shook her head. “I cannot allow that. I know that she means a lot to you Soarin, but messing with time is risky business. One can cause serious problems by doing anything out of line.”

“Trust me, Twilight. I know that better than most,” Minuette nodded. “But right now, I fear that if we don't get Rainbow back and stop whatever Arcanum is doing, much worse things could start happening.”

Soarin nodded. “Would you help us, please?”

Twilight sighed. “I can't help. I don't have anything that can help.”

Soarin deflated a little at that.

“But, I can give a suggestion. Go to Rainbow's house. Maybe Arcanum left something behind from his break in.”

“You're letting us do this?” Soarin asked, brightening back up a little. He thought she was refusing them the right to go.

“If what Minuette says is true, then something has to be done. I trust her enough to let you two go.”

“Thank you!” exclaimed Minuette and gave Twilight a hearty embrace.

“Now,” the princess said, “If you'll excuse me I have a lot more curatives to mix.”

“Of course,” said Soarin. “Thank you.”

So, the two ponies left Twilight to her business and were on their way to Rainbow's house. The scene of the break in.

“You know,” Minuette said as they trotted through the light rain. “If we find something there, we could be on our way to another time by tomorrow.”

“You think we will find anything though?” Soarin asked.

“I have no clue. But it's possible. All we would need is a molted feather, a lost object, practically anything except glass.”

“Why not glass?” Soarin puzzled.

Minuette shrugged. “My spell could never detect the time glass is from. It's possible that the traces of time merely slip off of it or something, but I can't be entirely sure. It's just one of those things. Time is as time does.”

“How strange.” Soarin commented. It really didn't matter at this point. There had to be something they could find. Even if they found nothing at Rainbow's house, there was bound to be something at his own.

The walk from then on was made in relative silence, both going into their own thoughts. Soarin worried about what he would do. What if they went forth in time and then Arcanum switched times again? What if Rainbow was being held in someplace he would never find? What if Arcanum killed her...

It wouldn't help thinking like that. Soarin decided to block out the thoughts and focus only on the task at hand. Get to the house, look for clues. Get to the house, look for clues. Get to the house...

“Wait, how are you going to get up there?” Soarin asked Minuette.

“Oh. I thought you were going to go up alone. You know, since she is your girlfriend and all. I don't want to intrude.”

“I could use some help searching. What if I don't know what to look for?”

“Just look for anything out of the ordinary. You'll have more luck at that than I will.”

“Alright, I guess.” Soarin said as they approached the crest where the building floated overhead.

The pegasus spread his wings and soared upwards, alighting in front of the door. It wasn't all that long ago that he had come here with news of Spitfire’s illness. Now he was here with neither of them at his side. He thought about how Spitfire made him choose between the team and Rainbow. He began to feel a little mad. He had neglected the race in order to help Rainbow deliver the Dragon's Tongue cure. The one that Spitfire took to get better. If not for him and Rainbow, she very well may have died. And this was how she repaid him? By cutting him off and kicking him out of the Wonderbolts?

“What's taking so long?” Minuette called up.

Soarin shook his head to clear away the fiery thoughts and reached for the door handle... then hesitated. He knocked on the door and listened for a second. Nothing. He walked in.

Nothing seemed to be out of place as he entered. He looked did a quick sweep to be sure then decided it would be best to look upstairs. He cracked open the door to her bedroom and peered inside. It was a disaster. Rain was blowing in through a broken window, and shards of glass littered the wet floor.

This was as out of the ordinary as it gets. He looked for any sign of the intruder, but all he saw was the broken glass. He went to the side of the bed and saw a book on the nightstand he had never seen before. He opened the cover and, seeing Rainbow Dash written in loopy handwriting signed inside, immediately closed it. Soarin was above snooping through her stuff.

Then he saw what he was looking for. A dark purple feather was caught just below the nightstand, pinned against one of the table's legs. Soarin reached down to grab it in his teeth, when a gust of wind blew the feather beneath the bed. Soarin grunted in discomfort as he got down on the wet floor and squeezed under the bed to chase after it.

Soarin located the feather almost immediately as the underside of her bed was spotless aside from the dust and the little bit of rain that had managed to get this far into her room. Well, he thought that was the case, but there was something else under here, against the wall there was something circular. And though it was very faint, he heard ticking. Squirming up to it, he managed to grasp it in his teeth by a chain that was attached to it, as well as grabbing the feather.

Once he was out from under the bed he looked at the circular object. It was obviously a silver pocketwatch. He opened it and saw an engraved dragon above a cracked, dusty watch face that counted to thirteen in roman numerals and had three hands. Though he heard the ticking, the hands were stationary, all meeting at the number thirteen.

“Ugh! I'm tired of being stuck in here! I'm tired of this gross food, I'm tired of this tiny cell, I'm tired of not being able to sleep!” Rainbow stormed back and forth across her cell as she fumed loudly.

“Could you keep it down?” Summer Blaze asked in an annoyed tone. “Some of us are tired of hearing you complain!”

“What about you?” said Rainbow. “Can't you use your magic to get us out or something?”

Blaze glared at her from where she was lying in her cot. “No. Iridis is surrounded by a spell that prevents any unicorns from using magic unless you are part of the Emperor's Court or the IOE.”

“But there has to be something we can do! Isn't there anything we can do?” Rainbow pressed her face against the bars and gazed agitatedly at the yellow and orange lump across from her.

“No,” Blaze said. “And don't talk so loudly about such things. You'll have the guards on us in no time! So just shut up!”

“Fine, fine! I won't talk about that.”

“Thank you!” Summer Blaze threw a hoof up in a sign of relief.

“But I feel so trapped! I can hardly breathe in here! It's been so long since I've been out in the fresh air!” Rainbow began pacing again.

“You've only been in here for two days!”

“But I'm a pegasus! I can't expect an earthbound pony like you to understand. You haven't had the opportunity to experience the wonders of flight like us.”

“I know what it feels like to fly. Kind of. I rode on an airship from Silverstone to Dawnforge. It was one of the best days of my life here in Altero.”

“Really? Do you remember any of your past life? Before Altero?” Rainbow asked, setting aside her own discomfort for a second.

Blaze sat up, looking at Rainbow through the bars, an expression of utter annoyance on her face. “No, I can't. No one can. I told you this on day one, remember?”

“Not even a little bit? I figure if you didn't remember anything, then surely you would've had to reinvent a spoken language.”

Blaze opened her mouth to speak, but she didn't make a sound. Instead, she shrugged. “Maybe we remember a little. But nopony I've met has any personal memories. So anything tying us to wherever we came from is pretty much lost. Most just ignore it and go on living as they should. Well, unless they live in Iridis.”

“That's sad. This world seems like a downer,” said Rainbow.

“Actually, the only real downer is Iridis and the Emperor. The rest of Altero is actually a really wonderful place. Take Dawnforge for example. It was the second city established after Iridis. It was originally simply a massive forge created to produce the massive amounts of metal needed for the city without going too far from the mines. It eventually became its own city because so many ponies would have to travel all the way across the plains just to work there, so they made their own homes near the forge. Now the forge itself is beautiful, especially at night. The orange light glows through it and lights up so much of the city that it seems like night never actually falls. It's like an eternal sunset. Dawnforge doesn't even have street lamps. It's rather pointless.”

“Wow. A whole city made in just a few years?” Rainbow asked appalled.

“Yeah. Does it take longer where you come from?” Blaze asked.

“Well, we can accomplish a lot but what you just described sounds like generations worth of work in my world.”

“Really... So what is your home like? It seems like a completely different planet.”

“You're not far off. I come from the land of Equestria. I haven't actually seen too much of it yet. So I don't actually know all the different cities. But I know the origin of Equestria. Long ago there was another land, but back then the three pony tribes were at odds with each other. This caused Windigos to attack creating-”

“An eternal winter!” Blaze interjected. “I know this story! Lady Arcus tells this story every winter! She called it Hearth's Warming Eve.”

Rainbow was shocked. “What? How could she know that story? Unless...”

The two mares locked eyes as a realization dawned on them simultaneously.

“This Lady Arcus...” said Rainbow, “She's from Equestria, isn't she?”

Comments

[SageBrony07]

Wow. Great chapter. I wonder who is this lady? Also will Soarin get to Dash or not? I guess we will see soon.

[Color Spark]

UPDATE FASTER, PLEASE.
SORRY ABOUT THE CAPS, MY CAPS BUTTON BROKE. AGAIN.

[Zetriax]

6673486 I will soon. I have finals coming up at college, but the next chapter's nearly done.