• Published 9th Apr 2012
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Three Worlds - BlueEyedMelloon



Young fillies do their best to stay friends among a war torn Equestria.

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Literal Run In

Three Worlds - Chapter Five
"Literal Run In"
Author- Blue Eyed Melloon
MLP- Hasbro

Oh her parents were going to be very upset when she got home.

Rarity forced herself to ignore the small part of her brain that said ‘if I get home’, and instead concentrated on not getting ill. The crate she happened to be hiding in was bouncing uncomfortably, jarring the small unicorn filly and making her stomach threaten to ruin the clothes she was packed with. Which would be an absolute disaster! Not to mention making her escape/prison extremely smelly. She swallowed loudly, breathing in through her nose and out through her mouth, just like her mother taught her to do when she felt nervous or sick. Her mother…

Her mother would know that she had left by now. She probably walked into Rarity’s room, snuck quietly over to the bed where she believed her only daughter was fast asleep, and gently shook at the lump under the blankets, saying “Rarity dear, it’s time to wake up.” Upon no response, she would draw back to covers and see that there was no filly to be seen, only a lumpy pillow. Rarity flinched as the box bounced again. She could practically see her mother’s surprise when she realized that her daughter was gone. Well, there was nothing she or anypony else could do about it. Rarity had to find Twilight.

After Twilight’s disappearing act two weeks past, Rarity was constantly under fire from classmates, parents and police ponies alike. They all wanted to know how she disappeared, where Rarity thought Twilight had gone, how she was holding up under all of the pressure from everypony and her own emotions. A tear traced a wet line down her pale cheek. Twilight was her best friend in the whole wide world! She was one of the only ponies that didn’t think she was a stuck up snob. Her loneliness was shattered in magic kindergarten when a bookworm asked to join her table. And now that kind little filly was missing. It had torn her apart when her parents told her that she couldn’t go with the search parties. Her heart broke so audibly that she didn’t hear her father say “You’re much too young to follow them. You could get lost too!” Instead she ran to her room sobbing, throwing herself dramatically across her plush bedspread and kicking her back hooves in a very unladylike manner.

It was in that long night of crying that she decided that she was going to run away and find Twilight Sparkle. So she took a deep breath and closed her eyes, casting the teleportation spell. She ended up right outside of her own gate in a flash of purple and white. She galloped around Canterlot, hiding in bushes and trying to find a way out of town that wasn’t overseen by guards.

The densely packed houses of Rarity's street were not uncommon. Canterlot was a large city but because virtually the entire population lived behind the walls, expansive yards were long ago sacrificed for more living space. Most of the houses were pressed so close together that windows along the sides became bothersome. So the windows relocated to the front and back of the houses. Each house had a fence and a gate in front of it, and the nightly accumulation of dew made the small flower gardens sparkle in the street lamp light.

There were still ponies on the roads. Most were dressed in some sort of finery and chatting about things like opera, plays and whose party they were going to attend. Rarity gazed at some of the dresses in awe, slowing her trot to a complete stop. If only she had a place of her own to make such pretty dresses! She would make dresses that all the ladies of Canterlot would wear to all of the finest occasions. Blue with silver trim…red and white with stripes…She suddenly remembered her mission and shook herself from the cultured crowds. While these unicorns were all wonderful she had to find Twilight!

After three hours of practicing her hide and go seek skills, she noticed a large number of boxes being loaded onto a cart that was hooked to a quartet of unicorn stallions. They waited impatiently, kicking out a front hoof every now and again while boxes were being loaded by other ponies and complaining to one another. Magical auras covered the boxes and even the cart. Rarity made her way to the box pile, poking around until she found one with a lid that wasn’t securely fastened. She wiggled her way inside, catching her tail in the lid as it closed. She bit her lip, trying not to yell. Her tail was just barely inside the box when it was magically lifted and placed on the cart by one of the stallions, bumping her uncomfortably against the wooden sides. Eventually the stallions started to pull the cart and Rarity was alternately lulled into sleep and jarred awake for the rest of the night.

When the bouncing finally stopped, the stallions had picked their way down from their mountain home to the outskirts of Ponyville. Rarity blinked, imagining that she could see sunlight through the fine slits in between the wood boards. She pressed her tiny nose against the wood, narrowing her purple eyes to confirm that her brain wasn’t playing tricks on her. Her entire face hit the wood and she squeaked as the box she was in was lifted and placed roughly on the ground. She could hear voices, and none of them sounded happy.

“You’re late.” An annoyed mare said somewhere to the filly’s left.

“Have you tried to climb the mountain since you earth ponies attacked us? It’s hard to do in the day, let alone in the middle of the night. If you weren’t so eager to get this stuff up in your shop, we could have made the trip on a normal schedule.” The stallion’s voice was equally as venomous. “Here’s your boxes, now where’s the payment?”

There was a clinking of bits and she could hear a bag being tossed from one side of her head to another.

“Here. If you unicorns didn’t monopolize the fabric production, we wouldn’t have to buy from you. What you charge is outrageous!”

Someone snorted. “Maybe you should learn for yourselves how to make decent fabric.”

No more angry words were exchanged. Instead the boxes were once again roughly picked up and Rarity gagged as she was jostled and rocked into nausea. She wasn’t sure how long she was tortured with being bounced around. When she finally reached solid earth again, her legs were splayed out, touching both walls of the box while her head was lowered, a cold sweat breaking out along her brow. She didn’t notice that the boxes were being forced open, and when her box’s lid was lifted she surged out of it, taking a grateful breath of fresh air.

A scream interrupted her joy of being free of the tiny space. The mare she had heard speaking earlier was a few feet away, staring at her as if Rarity had three heads. Rarity stared back, suddenly fearful of the scared mare. The mare screamed again, drawing a few looks from nearby stores. Rarity leapt from the box, twisting on the spot for an escape route. She was in front of a store in the middle of a small town. Ponies were everywhere, eating at restaurants, placing goods in their saddle bags and generally enjoying the sunshine. All in all the town gave her a first impression of being nice, but that particular idea was being drowned out by the thought of the screaming mare behind her. She wasn’t some cockroach to be shouted at!

There were more screams and shouting as Rarity took off in a random direction. Ponies moved out of her way as if she had a contagious disease. Others followed her, anger flaring in their eyes. Shouts of “A spy! They sent another spy!” rang out across the town square, and bounced off the walls to echo endlessly in Rarity’s ears. She ended up running between two houses, losing part of the mob and tripping over a carelessly thrown broken basket. She cried out as she tumbled over and over. Rarity wanted to just lay there, but the jeers from a crowd looking for her roused her from studying the spots in her eyes. She kicked the basket away, and ran again, her back leg aching from being tripped. Soon the group of angry earth ponies found her, and renewed their chase.
They chased her for a long time, until Ponyville was just a collection of rooftops behind her. She wasn’t sure when they finally turned back, but she kept running, tongue lolling out in a very unladylike manner as she struggled to keep her hooves moving quickly. It felt as if they were hot on her heels, when in fact they left her where the road turned to dirt, convinced that she had been sufficiently chased out of town. But Rarity did not realize this. She ran as if her life depended on it and in her mind, it did.

Eventually her breath started to fail her, and her head lowered as she ran. The purple haired filly didn’t see a cyan colored filly sitting in the road and summarily crashed into them, rolling over the top of the foal in a strange somersault and landing on the ground in a belly slide. She groaned, pulling herself upward and placing one hoof to her head and the other to her stomach. Her lovely white coat was dirty and tangled, and she mentally wept for her terrible appearance. The other foal was already on her feet, and looked positively livid under the new layer of dirt that had accumulated.

“Watch where you’re going!” she said, stomping a hoof and opening her wings threateningly.

Rarity turned and eyed the cyan filly with a critical eye. Her mane was an eye blinding rainbow of colors that matched the lightning bolt on her flank. While pretty, Rarity couldn't imagine having such a shocking mane style. The filly's berry eyes were narrowed, and slightly scary. Rarity opened her mouth to say something, but her voice wouldn't come. The filly had wings!

"Well?"

“I’m....terribly sorry. I was running and I couldn’t see in front of me..”

“Well that’s why you run with your head up.” She said, raising her chin condescendingly. She spied the horn among the tangled purple mane and back away, suspicion evident.

“What are you doing here unicorn? Why aren’t you out having a tea party with your Canterlot buddies? I'm sure they are missing a fabulous pony like yourself.” If she had fingers to make air quotes, she would have. But the mocking tone was enough to annoy her target into responding.

Rarity took the use of her species as an insult and scoffed, lifting her own nose to the sky.

“Well Pegasus, if you must know I’m looking for my friend." She said, using the same regal tone she had used on the colt back in the classroom. "Not that it’s any of your business what I do. As a matter of fact, I take offense to what you said. I am a lady and can go wherever I want whenever I please. And my name is Rarity, not unicorn.”

She walked past the cyan filly, flicking her tail into the other’s nose. This did not go well, and Rarity was tackled to the ground by the Pegasus a moment later. She screamed a very girlish scream, rolling onto her back and swinging her hooves wildly around the face of her attacker. She soon found herself pinned, and berry eyes inches from her own. She could practically feel the fury of the pegasus beating down on her.

“Don’t. Ever. Touch me. Again.” The threat was frightening, and Rarity locked eyes for a moment before looking away, frowning deeply. “And my name is Rainbow Dash, not Pegasus.” She added, mimicking Rarity’s snooty tone. She got off or Rarity, letting the unicorn back to a sitting position. Rainbow Dash placed herself a few feet away, eyeing the other filly in case she tried to use magic on her.

Rarity picked herself up and brushed herself off, hiding the tears that threatened at the corners of her eyes by checking to make sure her cutie mark was spotless. “You touched me just now. I don’t want you to beat me up because you can’t follow your own rules.”After she was sure the tears wouldn’t fall, she turned to Rainbow Dash and said “So if I’m not supposed to be here, then what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be out gathering lightning bolts to shoot at Canterlot when we don’t pay you? Or mustering up a thunderstorm to ruin our Grand Garden Party like last year?”

She could almost see Rainbow’s hackles rise. “I’ve never ever shot a lightning bolt at anyone! And neither has anyone else I know! The Weather Foreman warned you there was supposed to be a thunderstorm that day, but you ponies didn't listen!" Her voice again took on the mocking tone. "Oh no, those barbarians simply won't ruin our party with a little rain!" There was a dangerous tone to her voice when she returned to it from mocking Rarity. "What about you? Are you out here getting ingredients for some magic brew that you're gonna poison us with?”

Rarity was insulted. She put a hoof to her heart, saying “Well I never! I’ve never hurt someone with magic! How dare you assume things about me!” She turned her face away dramatically. This Rainbow Dash was so callous!

“Well I have always been told that unicorns can’t be trusted. They are the reason that the earth ponies don’t like us and that has to be true because as soon as anypony in town saw me, they were throwing things at me to try and knock me out of the sky!”

“That’s nothing! I didn’t even set one hoof into town before they chased me out like I was a criminal!” Rarity’s voice took on a high pitched whine that she instituted whenever things weren’t going her way.

Rainbow Dash stamped a hoof, frustrated. “All I wanted to do was find Fluttershy.” Her voice trailed off into worry, and Rarity stared at the blue filly with a faint sense of pity. Quite suddenly she and Rainbow Dash had a common thread explaining their existence in Ponyville. A common thread that was laced with sadness and longing.

“You’re looking for someone? I’m looking for someone!”

Rainbow Dash locked eyes with the white filly, saying “Seriously? Who did you lose?”

“My friend. Another unicorn. Her name is Twilight Sparkle. We were playing and…she did her magic wrong and disappeared.” Rarity’s eyes watered again, and she looked down. "I hope that she didn't come here though. No wonder we are taught that earth ponies are ruffians. If that is how they treat guests, I would almost rather be their enemy."

Rainbow Dash looked away, uncomfortable with the other foal’s sadness. It reminded her of her loss as well. “Well, I have to find my friend Fluttershy. She fell from Cloudsdale, and I was sure she would have landed somewhere around here.” She sighed, and gave Rarity a smile. “Why don’t we look together? Four eyes are better than two.”

Rarity sniffed, and smiled back at the Pegasus filly. “Are you sure you trust me? I might turn you into a flying potion or something.”

Rainbow Dash chuckled, and said “Only as long as you trust me not to attack you with a tornado or something.” The foals shared a laugh, and then assessed their location. They were still in the middle of the road, a dangerous place for a unicorn and a Pegasus on the ground.

“Why don’t we get out of here? Find something to eat. I’m starving.” Rainbow’s stomach growled in agreement, eliciting another round of giggles from the twosome.

“That sounds like a wonderful plan.” Rarity said, hopping past a bush alongside the road. The field before them didn’t look promising for food, but the haystacks would provide hiding places in case the angry mob came back for them. The two foals walked into the stubby remains of the hay field, both feeling a little apprehensive of their present company, but comforted to have another body nearby that, for the moment, wasn’t hostile.

"Rainbow Dash?"

"Yeah?"

"How does one simply fall from Cloudsdale?"