• Published 14th Mar 2016
  • 10,848 Views, 237 Comments

Seven Girls, Nine Hundred Forty Three Miles, and One Minivan. - Tumbleweed



Sunset and the gang must go on a road trip in order to save the world! There are worse ways to spend your spring break.

  • ...
14
 237
 10,848

Chapter 1

Once the final bell rung, the students (and faculty) of Canterlot High cleared out in record time. A full week of Spring Break freedom put extra spring in everyone's step, and so within a matter of minutes, the hallways and classrooms were apocalyptically empty.

Except for one.

“I have good news, and I have bad news.” Twilight Sparkle fidgeted with her glasses as she looked over her six best friends. “Or, uh. More accurately, I have news that could be good or bad. I'm not sure yet. But then that might make the bad news part good news. Ambivalent news? Is that a thing?”

“Welp.” Applejack pushed the brim of her hat upwards. “Might as well get the bad news out of the way first.”

“Actually,” Twilight looked up. “To really understand the bad news, you should hear the good news first. Or, uh, the news that could be good. Or bad. I don't have enough data yet.”

“Go on, Twilight.” Sunset Shimmer smiled, and leaned forward in her chair. “You said it was important.”

“Right!” Twilight said. “So, uh. I've been doing some calculations, trying to figure out this whole 'magic' thing.”

“You're not gonna suck up all the magic and go nuts again, are you?” said Rainbow Dash.

“What? No!” Twilight sputtered.

Applejack frowned, and elbowed Rainbow in the side.

“Hey! Just checking!”

“Y'all should know better.”

“At least she looked pretty cool when she did. All glowy and wing-y and stuff. Totally metal.” Rainbow Dash threw up the horns.

Applejack elbowed her again. Harder.

“Ow!”

“Cut it out, guys.” Sunset Shimmer said. “This is important.” Reluctantly, Applejack and Rainbow Dash settled into an unspoken truce, though Applejack still stayed on guard if (or, more accurately, when) Rainbow said something else elbow-worthy.

“You were saying, Twilight?” Sunset said with a smile.

“I brought over my equipment from Crystal Prep, and, combined with some of the stuff I, uh, 'borrowed' from Canterlot High's science lab.” Twilight's words built up speed as nervousness gave way to geeky enthusiasm. “I've been able to monitor ambient levels of dimensional flux. I've even modified an old radio into Z-wave spectrometer. Which isn't much to write home about on its own, but then I realized you could pull in the tachyon echoes bouncing off of satellites in orbit!" Carried away by the explanation, Twilight picked up a piece of chalk and began to sketch out arcane blueprints and formulas on the blackboard. "All you need to do is take the aetheric static into account. After that, all I had to do is write a simple algorithm to filter out the results, which, when combined with certain seasonal data, highlight probable areas where further cross-planar incursions are likely to occur.”

“In the vernacular, dear?” Rarity said.

“Okay, now two of you are speaking nerd.” Rainbow Dash said.

Applejack elbowed her again. She was ready.

“Ow!”

“In English, she means,” Sunset Shimmer said.

“I found a way to predict magic stuff.” Twilight said, and suddenly found something very interesting on the toe of her shoe.

Twilight Sparkle's six friends leaned forward with varying expressions of shock and wonder.

“Why didn't you say that earlier? That's awesome!” said Rainbow Dash.

“That. Is. So. Cool!” Pinkie Pie squeaked.

“Sounds useful,” said Applejack.

“Why, it's positively astounding!” Rarity clasped her hands together.

“Um. Yay?” Fluttershy offered, mostly out of solidarity.

“We're all impressed, Twilight,” Sunset Shimmer's leather jacket creaked faintly as she leaned forward. “But what's the bad news?”

Twilight winced. “Right. So. According to my data, um … there's another dimensional inc-” she paused, then corrected herself, “-something magical is going to happen in two days.”

“How's that bad news?” Pinkie Pie said. “I mean, every time something magic happens it's … magical! Okay, so, sometimes it gets a little crazy and somebody flips out and goes mad with power and tries to destroy the fabric of space-time, but it always works out in the end! I mean, nobody's destroyed the universe yet! And then once it all settles down we can just hug it out and make new friends!” Pinkie Pie draped one arm around Twilight's shoulders, and the other around Sunset's and drew them into a warm, vaguely sugary embrace. “Like this! Yay supervillain buddies!”

Sunset Shimmer gently pushed herself away from her friends. “We're not--” she sighed, and shook her head. “Nevermind. Twilight, what else do you know about the magical incursion?”

“Not a lot. It could be someone … or something coming through. It could be just a passing 'poof' of magic. Or it could be the start of a dimensional tear that'll blow up the entire planet. The only way to be sure is to see it firsthand. And, uh, hopefully stop it, in that last case.”

“That's easy enough.” Rarity said, “especially since we've got some warning this time around. We can plan ahead.” She tapped at the corner of her mouth, thoughtfully.

“Yeah!” Rainbow Dash chimed in. “We'll be ready for whatever it is! Do you think it'll be a dragon? It'd be totally cool if I got to punch out a dragon.”

Applejack elbowed Rainbow Dash again, hard enough to bruise this time.

“So, um, does that mean we need to camp out in front of the statue?” Fluttershy said.

“I'm afraid not. This the bad news part. As according to my calculations, the dimensional incursion is going to pop up--” Twilight pulled a map of the country down from its roller, and pointed to a point in the southwest several states away. “Here.”

“Wow! That's like a jillion miles away!”

“Nine hundred and forty three miles, actually.” Twilight said.

“No problem!” Rainbow Dash said, and flexed, “I can fly, remember! All I gotta do is bust a rad guitar solo 'til I pony up, and then it's just WHOOOOOSH and then I can go punch a dragon and then someone can take a picture of it and airbrush it on to the side of their van.”

Sunset Shimmer smiled, wanly, “I'm not sure if that's going to work, Rainbow. You've only manifested wings a few times, and only for a short period of time. Do you think you can keep it up for hours?”

“That one TV commercial says you should see a doctor if that happens.” Pinkie Pie added with a saucy wink.

Sunset winced a little at the inadvertent innuendo, and returned her attention to Rainbow Dash. “Besides, not all of us have wings. And you wouldn't be able to carry anyone and play guitar at the same time.”

“Oh.” Rainbow Dash mused. “Shoot.”

“Perhaps we might travel by air in a different manner?” Rarity took her phone out of her purse and opened up her internet browser. Her thumbs flew over the touchscreen's keyboard with practiced ease. “Why, all we'd need is seven plane tickets-- first class, of course, as we deserve absolutely nothing less, leaving tomorrow … “ Rarity's face went pale (paler for her, even) as the price of the tickets popped up onscreen. “Or … perhaps not.” She looked up from her phone. “I … may pride myself on my generosity, but there are some things just beyond my means.”

“Alright, so we drive!” Rainbow Dash said.

“Road trip, woooo!” Pinkie Pie threw her hands up in the air in celebration.

Applejack frowned. “Drive what, exactly? I might be able to talk my brother into borrowin' his truck--”

“Can we borrow Big Mac, too?” Rainbow Dash said with a naughty grin. “Or, can I borrow Big Mac? I'd love to-- OOF!”

Applejack's elbow didn't break any ribs, but it was a close thing.

“As I was sayin', the bunch of us ain't gonna fit into the cab, n' I bet all y'all wouldn't ride in the bed.”

Rainbow Dash smiled through the pain, and wheezed, “I'd totally go for a ride in your brother's--”

“Rainbow, this is serious.” Sunset Shimmer laid a hand on Applejack's arm before she could dispense more elbow-based retribution. “But Applejack's right. If there's something magical happening, I'd want-- I'd need all of my friends there to help out.”

“I, um. I might be able to help.” Fluttershy murmured.

Six sets of eyes turned to the quiet, pink-haired girl.

“Since when do you have wheels?” Rainbow Dash said.

“Sometimes, um, my mom lets me drive on my own.” Fluttershy said. “Especially when I need to pick up supplies for the animal shelter.”

“Do you think you can borrow the car for a few days?” Sunset Shimmer said.

“Um. Maybe? But only if it's really important.” Fluttershy said.

“It' … might be potential 'end of the world' kind of stuff.” Twilight pushed her glasses further up her nose as she spoke. “Does that count?”

“Oh. Um. Okay.” Fluttershy murmured. “I'll see what I can do.”

“Great!” Sunset Shimmer smiled, and stood up. “Everyone pack a bag, tell your family we're going on a trip, and we'll meet up here at seven o'clock tomorrow morning. Sound good?”

The other girls nodded in eager agreement.

“Alright then. Let's go save the world.”