Speed of a Different Dash

by entiegon

Chapter 19

(WW)

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Sunset Shimmer was the first to recover from the sudden appearance of the rather jolly siren sister.

“ How long have you been standing there?” She asked.

“ For a little while.” Sonata Dusk replied.

“ And how did you get here?”

“ Well, I was in my room back at Siren Manor doing… something, when all of a sudden I got this tingly feeling inside of me and I just appeared here, leaning against your laundry room door. I think Rainbow Dash was about halfway through her song when I showed up. It was a nice song, too. I’m actually surprised I didn’t start singing along to it.”

“ So are we.” Rarity muttered.

“ Then why didn’t ya speak up when we were trying to get Rainbow Dash ta accept gettin’ help from you and yer sisters?” Applejack asked, completely ignoring the pointed look Rarity was giving her.

Sonata thought hard about that answer. To be honest, the smell of the cake and the song continuously playing in her head had pushed the memory of that point in time deep into the back of her mind. It took a little while (and a lot of face scrunching in the process), but as she watched Pinkie Pie serve up two more plates of cake, she finally remembered the reason to her silence. And the answer came as a shock to everyone in the room.

“ I couldn’t.” the blue haired girl replied honestly.

“ What do you mean ‘ you couldn’t’?” Sunset asked, once more the first to shake herself free from the clutches of shock.

“ I think I tried to call out, but something had taken my voice from me. When Rainbow Dash left the room, that’s when I was able to start talking again. It was like something had blocked me from talking… and I don’t know if it had something to do with that delicious rainbow cookie that Aria gave me earlier or not.”

That’s when Pinkie Pie stepped forward with the two plates of cake in hand. “ Well, I don’t think these cakes have any non-talking magical ingredients in them, just milk and flour and eggs and… yeah, so they should be free to eat. Have some and enjoy. I’m gonna go give this plate to your dad, Sunset, before his tummy starts turning into an evil, growly cake beast.”

Sonata Dusk could not help but lick her lips at the sight of the cakes beings handed to her. To be honest, she almost didn’t have enough time to grab said cakes before Pinkie Pie had left the kitchen once more to find Sunset Shimmer’s father. But once she had the plate in hand – with the glint that was in her eyes as she decided on which cake to devour first – the others knew that there would be no words coming from her mouth any time soon.

Unfortunately, Sonata’s words had gotten the girls thinking. If Rainbow Dash’s magic was powerful enough to not only drain her of energy, but also cause Sonata Dusk to practically freeze on the stop, silence her voice and possibly even speed up the numbing process in Dash’s legs, then things were getting worse by the minute. And as those thoughts ran though Twilight Sparkles’ head, she feared she and her friends may not be able to get this version of Rainbow Dash back to her rightful home… especially before any permanent harm could be done.

“ This is all my fault.” Twilight Sparkle found herself muttering.

“ Twilight?” Sunset called, turning to face her girlfriend with a concerned look in her eyes.

“ If I had just left that strange blue haze alone like Adagio had told me to do, none of this would have happened. Our wheelchair bound Rainbow Dash would still be here and this walking Rainbow Dash would still be back in her own world doing whatever she would usually be doing. What’s the bet Applejack hates me at the moment for losing her girlfriend on her. I have got to be the world’s worst friend.”

“ Now that’s not true.” Applejack said, also looking at the purple skinned scientist with concern in her eyes.

Twilight couldn’t help but look up at the farm girl with a look that clearly questioned what had just been said hidden beyond the tears that were forming.

“ Okay, so you should have listened to Adagio when she told ya to not go all science geek this week. But how were you supposed ta know that somethin’ like this was gonna happen? For all we know, that blue haze you captured could have done something worse if ya had left it alone. And Ah don’t hate ya for what’s happened. It wasn’t yer fault. Like mah Pa always used ta say ‘everything happens fer a reason’.”

“ But how are we going to help this Rainbow Dash get home if we don’t even know how she got here?” Fluttershy asked in an attempt to change the topic slightly.

“ Oh, that’s easy.” Sonata Dusk exclaimed happily, speaking up after finishing devouring her slices of cake. “ We just need to repli… repli… copy what it was that called the blue haze then find a way to use it to get Rainbow Dash back home. And, because you can’t really have two Rainbow Dashes in the same world, then the Rainbow Dash for this world will have to come back to this world.”

Sadly, her idea was met with looks of scepticism. If the girls were still trying to figure out how the two Rainbow Dashes had switched worlds in the first place, they weren’t about to try and understand what had just come out of the blue haired girl’s mouth. But, unfortunately, they weren’t able to get an explanation either because, just a few seconds after putting the now empty plate down on the table, Sonata Dusk had disappeared again. And to top it all off, Pinkie Pie walked back into the room and almost instantly noticed the missing girl.

“ Where did Sonata go?” the pink haired girl asked. “ I was just about to ask her what she thought of the cakes. Also, she didn’t say goodbye.”

“ I guess she went back home?” Fluttershy replied in an almost question like state as she managed to calm herself once more.

Instantly, Pinkie Pie got a suspicious look on her face as she thought about the ingredients used and the way the cakes were made in the case that someone or something had changed the make of the cakes.

“ So there was something in that cake.” She muttered to herself, albeit loud enough for the others to hear.

“ I don’t think so, Pinkie.” Sunset quickly said before her hyperactive friend could do anything drastic or strange. “ We haven’t disappeared, have we?”

“ Oh, right.” Unfortunately, the suspicious look remained as another thought occurred to the pink skinned girl. “ So it must have been the cookie! When I see Aria Blaze on Monday, I am so taking her into the kitchens and teaching her how to make a proper cookie with chocolate and sprinkles and chocolate sprinkles… And no magic disappearing powder!”

It was then that Rarity decided she needed to calm the situation down before it really got out of hand. With Rainbow Dash in a mood and Sonata Dusk appearing and disappearing from nowhere and back into nowhere, the last thing she believed they needed was Pinkie Pie running about challenging people to an all-party cannons blazing mega cook off with magic ingredients.

“ I highly doubt that, Pinkie Pie, darling. As good a chef as Aria Blaze seems to be at school – which I doubt changes significantly upon getting home – her giving her sister an enchanted cookie seems rather preposterous.”

“ You would think that, wouldn’t you Rarity.” The dark pink haired girl said, scrutinising her friend with a magnifying glass that she had somehow pulled from the confines of her hair.

“ Pinkie Pie!”

“ Okay, okay! So there probably wasn’t anything in the cookie or the cakes. But that doesn’t mean it can’t happen. Mad scientists need to eat too, you know.”

The looks Pinkie Pie received from that last statement clearly questioned what went on in that girl’s head. Even as they watched their friend return her magnifying glass back to her hair, no one could figure out how Aria Blaze and her cookies were somehow related to a mad scientist… or how food could make Sonata Dusk appear and disappear in random places. In fact, they couldn’t figure out how any of it seemed to fit in with their current predicament.

Eventually, the other girls decided it was best to ignore their friend’s randomness and opted to work out what they were going to do now that Sonata – at the very least – knew about the magic this Rainbow Dash contained within her. Sunset Shimmer even went to grab a pen and some paper from her father’s office; returning with what she had sought out as well as her father’s dirty dishes and his compliments to the chefs. After handing the pen and paper to her girlfriend, she went to clean up the kitchen once more.

“ Ah just have one problem with Sonata Dusk knowing about Rainbow Dash.” Applejack admitted once Twilight had the pen and paper.

“ What’s that, Applejack?” Fluttershy asked softly.

“ It’s the fact that Sonata Dusk and Pinkie Pie are that similar, it’s scary. No offence, Pinkie.”

“ Don’t worry, Jackie. Sometimes I even scare myself.” Came the rather bubbly reply.

Rarity, on the other hand, gained a worried look on her face following Pinkie’s confession. “ If that’s the case, then I really think Rainbow Dash should know about what’s happened. Who knows what kind of trouble Sonata could get into with that kind of information?”

“ Ah hear ya. If Sonata doesn’t keep her big mouth shut about this, then we could have some serious trouble showin’ up here. Folks might start believin’ Dash is some kind of alien or science experiment an’ take her away before we could do anything ta stop ‘em or to get her back ta where she belongs.” Applejack agreed.

“ On the other hand,” Fluttershy spoke up, “ Sonata could keep quiet about it and we wouldn’t have any problems to deal with.”

Pinkie Pie then bounced over, flinging her arms around both Applejack’s and Rarity’s necks. “ Did she make a Pinkie Promise? Because it would be a good thing if she did and I will be able to know if she breaks that Pinkie Promise. I mean, no one has ever broken a Pinkie Promise yet, but I’m telling you now, you do not want to break a Pinkie Promise.”

It was true. No one wanted to break one of Pinkie Pie’s Pinkie Promises for fear of her doing something really bad to them. There was even that one time where one of the girl’s ex-boyfriends almost did break a promise he had made to her and the resulting chase through the schoolyard scared everyone just from the looks and words that were being thrown around by the usually happy-go-lucky girl. How he managed to convince her that he hadn’t broken said promise was a mystery as they had been outside at the time, but after re-entering the school building, Pinkie was seen skipping to her next class like nothing had happened. Needless to say, he ended up breaking up with her shortly afterwards.

Pushing the memory out of mind, Sunset Shimmer dried her hands and walked back towards the group. “ I don’t think she did make a Pinkie Promise.”

“ Ooohhh. That’s not good then.” Pinkie Pie said, pulling back her arms. “ That is definitely not good.”

“ How worried should we be?” Rarity asked.

“ Worried. Because without a Pinkie Promise, no one knows what Sonata could do. And not even my Pinkie Sense can tell what a Siren Sister is planning. Trust me, I tried it. It didn’t work.”

“ So what do we do?” Twilight Sparkle asked.

No one knew the answer to that question. All anyone could do, however, was watch as Twilight Sparkle crossed out two options from her list of ‘possible ways to stop Sonata from telling’. Why that title, no one could say. It was more of a list to tell Rainbow Dash what had happened rather than one to stop Sonata Dusk from letting everyone in the world know about the magical switcher-roo.

But there was one thing on the top of the list that seemed to call to each one of the girls present. And, to be honest, it had also been playing on their minds. The only thing that stopped anyone from actually voicing it was the terrorizing thought of how Rainbow Dash would handle the news… especially when she was so vehement about not wanting to go to the Siren Sisters for help unless it was practically too late.

As usual, it came down to Applejack to speak up and break the silence.

“ Guess we ‘ave no choice but to tell Rainbow Dash what’s happened.” The farm girl said with a sigh.

With nods of agreement all around, and a couple of worried looks courtesy of Twilight and Fluttershy, the six friends went down the hallway towards Sunset’s room. Upon reaching the now open door, however, something didn’t feel right. And it seemed to get worse once the girls entered the bedroom. From the television speakers, the losing tune for the race car game played as the game’s timer showed to have run out. The console controller lay in front of Rainbow Dash like it had been dropped onto its side. Beside the rainbow haired girl lay an almost empty plate; the last remains of cake clearly displaying a lack of hunger of some description. But the main concern was the girl sleeping in front of the game.

It was true that Rainbow Dash was one to fall asleep anytime, anywhere. And it was highly possible that, due to the day’s events, Rainbow Dash was just exhausted. But with the way the girl was squirming in her sleep and the fact that she wasn’t moving her legs at all proved that everything was not alright. Not to mention, when Applejack went to try and break the girl from her obvious nightmare, Rainbow Dash almost punched the farmer in the face and continued sleeping.

“ Ah don’t think we’re gonna get through to her anytime soon.” Applejack whispered, returning to her other friends’ sides.

“ She seems like she’s in so much pain, though.” Fluttershy whispered in worry.

“ Ah know, Fluttershy. But there ain’t much we can do. We’re gonna have ta wait ‘til she wakes herself up to tell her what’s happened.”

“ But I can’t wait until she wakes up!” Pinkie Pie complained as she made her way over to the sleeping form of Rainbow Dash.

“ Pinkie Pie! Get back here!” Rarity hissed quietly.

The pink girl deflated a little at being caught before pouting up at her fashionista friend.

“ Then what do we do?” she asked.

“ The only thing we can do, Pinkie.” Twilight whispered. “ Figure out how we’re going to help Rainbow Dash.”

Author's Note:

Here you go, folks. another chapter for you to - hopefully - enjoy. Let me know what you all think while i try to sort out the piles of stuff in my life that i need to sort out.

Comments

[B0T_Sie]

I read a description of which I can judge that the main character of this story is bound to a wheelchair... (ala sad story) but! Why does she is bound to a wheelchair?, how could this happen? The description of the story does not tell me about it... As i understand I will find the answer to my question when I read the story itself?