Dashie: Twenty Percent Cooler

by Kieva Lynn

Five

Dashie: Twenty Percent Cooler

Standard Disclaimer: I do not own MLP, nor am I in any way affiliated with the author of the story this fic is based upon.

XXXXXXX

Chapter Five

Equestria: Day Twenty-One: Just after lunchtime the Elements of Harmony were gathered together in Twilight's library home, awaiting the arrival of their princess. Rainbow Dash was perhaps the most excited, barely able to contain herself at the prospect of being able to return to Earth, even if she knew nothing about the details of how such a thing was to be accomplished.

The remaining elements were less enthusiastic. While they were delighted to see their long-time friend so happy again, the explanation she had given them of what Celestia told her gave most of them pause. “But after everything we went through to recover you dear...” Rarity began, “To have you just go back there...”

“I know Rares.” Rainbow answered. “But, do you really think the Princess would just let me go back to stay? I bet it's some kind of thing for going back and forth at will!”

“Something like that.” Twilight said.

Everypony turned to stare at her. “Wait a minute... What do you know!?” Pinky exclaimed. She pulled a lighted electric lamp from... somewhere... and held it over Twilight's head. “Talk! Talk or it's curtains for ya' Mugsie!”

Applejack swatted the lamp away “Yeesh Pinky! Ah' think that's a' bit much!”

“She's right though.” Twilight said, “But I'm not telling you anything until the Princess gets here.”

“Aww...” Rainbow started to complain, but she was cut off by the arrival of Celestia and Luna.

The Element-bearers bowed, but Celestia motioned for them to rise as she and her sister took seats among them. “Let us begin...” Celestia said. “I presume that Rainbow Dash has told the rest of you what I told her of last night...?”

Twilight nodded. “Yes Princess.”

“Good. Now then, the first thing I would like to explain to you all is why I was, initially, so adamantly against contact with humans... Long ago, in the days shortly after our mother Queen Faust abdicated her throne, I was feeling overwhelmed by the pressures of leadership...”

“You!?” Twilight exclaimed, “But Princess you're a wonderful ruler!”

“Now, perhaps, I do well.” Celestia chuckled. “But this was five thousand years ago my student. I was young, inexperienced, and on my own as Luna was still too young to take up her own half of the royal duties.”

“Indeed.” Luna confirmed. “At that time mine own power was still no greater than that of an average unicorn. Tia was quite burdened.”

Celestia continued “Yes... So I sought some way to have an opportunity to rest and relax between my obligations. I found a spell which would allow me to journey to and from a world where the flow of time was different from our own. I could take days, even weeks, to recover myself and return to find only minutes had passed here.”

Rainbow gasped. “You'd been to Earth before!?”

Nodding, Celestia explained “Many hundreds of thousands of years ago, by Earth time. I met primitive cave-dwelling humans. Indeed, I even made a few friends among the few that would trust me. But most would not trust me. They were violent, savage, dangerous. They killed each other and tried to kill me... In time, I grew more confident in my duties and stopped traveling to Earth regularly. However, I did continue to, well, look in on them once every thousand years of their time. And while they grew in knowledge and power, they remained violent and warlike.”

Celestia looked straight at Rainbow Dash. “I feared for you, when I learned that was the world you were on. I fully expected to find you had been killed...”

“So that's why you didn't want us to have contact with humans?” Rainbow asked, “But, you saw how much he loved me, how much he had done for me...”

“Yes. As I said, I had a few friends among humans long ago. I know they are not all evil. But, in order to understand why I wanted no contact you must look at things from the tactical perspective.”

“The what?”

Luna took over here, “A day here. A year there. Humans often warlike and aggressive. What would happen if they learned to travel between worlds, and made war against Equestria? We would win at first, certainly. Magic alone would guarantee that. But each battle would weaken us a little, and even if they were weakened more they would have longer to recover. They could attack us each day, then return to Earth and recover for a year to attack again, the next day by our time, back to full strength while we were still weakened... In the end, they would wear us down.”

The Element-bearers looked at each other uneasily. Even Dash was disturbed by the idea. Celestia said “Oh course, there is no guarantee that this would happen. Humans might be willing to make peaceful contact, especially now that they have grown more advanced. But it was a risk that we could not take.”

Applejack asked “Princess, yer sayin' that in th' past-tense. What's changed?”

“With the exception of Rainbow Dash who was still unconscious, you may all remember that when we returned to Equestria I was called away almost immediately?”

“Yeah I remember!” Pinkie exclaimed, “You thought it was weird because the astronomers usually call Princess Luna instead of you!”

Celestia smiled at Pinkie's exuberance. “Indeed. As it turns out they had called us both. Certain magical instruments had detected changes within the bleed.”

“The what?” Rainbow asked.

Twilight answered “In, erm, non-'egghead' terms the bleed is like the empty whitespace that lies in between alternate realities and keeps them separate from each other. It's called the bleed because, while empty in and of itself, waste energy often 'bleeds over' into it from the surrounding worlds. Our trips to and from Earth actually, speaking eleven-dimensionally, jumped 'over' the bleed rather than passing through it: It's not believed possible for living things to survive there.”

“Correct.” Luna answered. “We monitor the bleed for changes, since they often portend dangerous events in the near future. So when the Royal Astronomers detected a sudden alteration in the chronal radiations passing through the bleed they were concerned. Fortunately, this time it turned out to have a non-threatening cause.”

“And that was?” Fluttershy whispered out her question, “If you don't mind me asking...?”

“As Luna said it was chronal radiation... Time energy. The speed-of-time variance between Equestria and Earth is fading. A day here is no longer a year there. Not even close, in point of fact, and it now appears that the two worlds will soon be in sync with each other temporally.”

A wide smile spread across Rainbow Dash's face. “So, how long...?”

“It has still been longer there than here, seeing as the change has occurred slowly rather than all at once. I cannot be certain of an exact number, but... Three months there, perhaps four. No more.”

While Rainbow Dash was ecstatic, Twilight was worried. “Princess, did we cause this somehow? Should we be worried that it could have bad effects on Equstria?”

The Princess answered “I doubt that we caused it. If that were the case, it would have happened long ago, considering how many times I've visited Earth myself. As for dangers, if something bad was going to happen as a direct result of these events it would have by now.”

“Your student's question still has merit Tia.” Luna said. “Even if it is not our doing, the timing of this change cannot be coincidental. Though I admit I can see no clear causal connection.”

Everyone was quiet at that thought for some time before Rainbow said “So, let me see if I have this right: Same speed of time in both worlds, no reason to fear humans taking advantage of the faster time speed to attack us, I can at least go back to visit. That about right?”

“Twilight?” Celstia asked.

“On the Princess' orders, I've been working with mages and scientists in Canterlot on a way to build a portal machine that uses the power of the spell we used to come find you to open a gate between worlds. It's not quite finished yet, but it will be soon.”

“With the time difference removed, I am not averse to -very carefully- beginning to find lines of contact between our worlds. If it can be done peacefully it would be a great boon to both Earth and Equestria.” Celestia paused before adding “You already have a connection Rainbow Dash. Quite aside from your familial connection, it would be foolish to waste it.”

“Yes!” Dash exclaimed, “Thank you thank you thank you thank you!!!!”

Chuckling, Celestia said “You are quite welcome my little pony.”

“So when can I go?”

Twilight answered “The gate itself is in Canterlot. It'll be about a week before it's up and running. I'm actually leaving tomorrow to oversee the final stage of construction.”

“ A week? Can't we do this sooner? How about the regular spell?” Rainbow favored Twilight with sad eyes.

“Well... If it's okay with the Princesses I guess. Not until tomorrow though, I've got something else to prepare for you first.”

Before Dash could even ask, Celestia said “Well, if the Elements are needed I could always retrieve you at any time... Very well Rainbow Dash. I will agree to this. Twilight may cast the spell and return you to Earth for a time tomorrow...”

XXXXXXX

Equestria: Day Twenty-Two: Rainbow Dash arrived in Ponyville to find all of her friends waiting. “Are you sure you want to do this now?” Twilight asked, “Instead of waiting for the gate to be finished?”

“Yeah, Ahm not to proud 'ta say this worries me a mite... You bein' all alone over there.”

“Come on A.J.! I was there for fifteen years! This is gonna send me back to Dad's house right?”

Twilight nodded. “Maybe not inside the house, but on the property for certain.”

“See? I'll be fine!”

Hopping around Pinkie added “And you heard the Princess! If we need her she can be bought right back!”

Putting a forehoof on Applejack's shoulder, Dash said “It's only a week A.J. Then we'll be able to come and go as we please.”

“Ah guess so.” Applejack managed a small smile.

Twilight walked over to where Rainbow was standing, and levitated an odd necklace out of her saddlebags and around Rainbow's neck. “Don't lose this.” She said.

Dash eyed the necklace, which was a mix of metal and crystal with a large red button on it. “What is it?”

“An instant-recall.” Twilight answered. “Push and hold the button for three seconds and it will automatically bring itself, you, and anything and anyone directly touching you back to Equestria.”

“Sweet! Like an emergency exit!”

“Exactly. But listen carefully: It's attuned to the gate we're building, NOT the spell I'm about to use, so it won't work at all until the gate is online.”

Rainbow Dash nodded. “Got it.”

“Good, so... If you're ready...”

“Yeah. Let's do this.”

Five ponies quickly piled in around Rainbow Dash, hugging her tightly until she could barely breathe before letting go and stepping back. Twilight focused her mind; This spell was effortless for an alicorn, for her it was exhausting. The reason for the gate machine, really. She focused, formed the spell matrix, and released it towards the waiting Rainbow Dash, who vanished in a swirl of magical energies...

XXXXXXX

The Bleed. A endless white emptiness of fifth-dimensional something that lies in the in-between. As Twilight Sparkle had explained to her friends, this was a place where, according to all Equestrian knowledge, nothing could live. In spite of that certainty, two very much alive entities watched the events on Equestria and Earth with great interest.

“Ha!” One of them said to the other, “You owe me!”

“What are you talking about?”

“Our bet of course.”

“Ahh my dear, surely even you can see the technicality.”

“Oh, what? Because Brian Dashel isn't at his home anymore? You're actually going to argue that because Rainbow Dash hasn't actually contacted her adoptive father yet, that this invalidates our bet? That's pathetic even for you, she will find him, it's just a matter of time now.”

“Oh, almost certainly.” The second entity agreed. “Honestly, if I did decide to argue that point I would be in the right for now, though I don't intend to. I actually agree with you that, now that she's back on Earth, it's only a matter of time.”

“Then what...?”

A sigh echoed through the void. “Look at the precise wording of our bet. I argued that, and I quote, 'Rainbow Dash will not be able to overcome Celestia's resistance to her reuniting with her father.' But the thing of it is, dear Celly surprised us both by not resisting it! That means that the conditions of the bet, and by extension the bet itself, are invalidated! I owe you nothing.”

“You and your loopholes... Though I can't deny the validity of the logic. Very well.”

The entities resumed their observations. After a time one asked “You are still worried, aren't you?”

“You are not? You understand the stakes for both of these worlds.”

“What concerns me is that it had to come to this at all. This connection should have been made long ages ago.”

“Celestia's concerns were understandable, even if they led her to make a great error.”

“I suppose so... Oh, look! Something funny's about to happen!” The entities focused their attention on the Dashel home...

Comments

[cam51801]

I was confused at the end.

[Stridershy]

4224495

Well, I guess some cosmic entities have a stake in this, apparently.