PONYVERSE

by TopWanted

Homecoming

Homecoming

===E8DB

Rainbow paced back and forth in the grass of the dark side of the dayline. “Okay. This looks like home. But that’s impossible, right? I mean, you said there must be millions, billions of parallel worlds! The chance that that portal would throw us here of all places must be…” she tried to do the math in her head, but thought better of it, “really really slim!”

She turned to Pinkie but the mare didn’t even seem to be listening. She sat on a stump and kicked a nearby rock half heartedly. Rainbow let out a weary sigh. She’s in no shape to move. Hasn’t even suggested returning to the Veloci-Lair. Rainbow almost wanted to find this Masked Matterhorn and give her a punch to the gut for treating Pinkie like this.

She looked back at the other side of the dayline. Everything seemed so familiar. Sky Glaive right above and Hoofenbach right below. Clouds were swirling in the sky so she couldn’t tell what time of day it was but it was dark enough to be night and ponies seemed to be moving in the camp below.

She frowned and glanced back up at the sky, at the clouds. That was odd. The skies around Sky Glaive were supposed to be clear for better lookout. Why would the weather pegasi get sloppy like that?

She began to walk toward Hoofenbach but stopped as she remembered her companion. “Pinkie, please, we need to at least get to the camps.” Pinkie slumped on her stump and began to draw circles on the ground with her hoof, completely morose. Rainbow rolled her eyes and grabbed the mare to throw her on her back. Pinkie didn’t seem to respond in any way. “Hang on, Pinkie. I’ll find some way to cheer you up.” But first I’m going to see if this is really home or not.

Rainbow walked to the edge of the dayline. Again, so weird. There were no guards posted anywhere in sight. She stepped over the line where night became day and felt the slightly warmer grass beneath her hooves. A few hundred hooves away was Camp Hoofenbach. Logwood cabins and tents lining a good twenty acres of land along the line. Some structures jutted above the uniform dorms, these were pubs and other establishments ponies had set up to serve the tireless soldiers that worked here. Rainbow spotted her favorite bar. One she liked to go to with Lightning Dust whenever they were off duty.

“Lightning,” she muttered. She hadn’t thought about her friend in a while. Her mind had been on so many other things. Evil sorceress. Killer dragons. Maniacal Tyrants. Seeing her best friend dead. She knew it wasn’t her Fluttershy, but still. Not to mention they still needed to stop Mr. 4. How could she have time to think of Lightning. Yet she felt guilty.

She had started to walk toward Hoofenbach when a loud siren shattered her thoughts. She looked around to find the source of the emergency when a giant spotlight shined down on her from the camp. She raised a hoof to her eyes blocking the glare.

“Don’t move a muscle!” somepony shouted. She didn’t move as a group of four earth ponies and unicorns ran to flank her lowering their spears at her.

“Wait! I’m a friend!” she insisted. “I’m-”

“Oh, we know what you are, Wonderbolt,” somepony else shouted. It was hard for her to make out faces with the light in her eyes but she could swear she heard disdain with the mention of her squad.

“What are you doing down here, Pegasus?” another pony asked derisively. “Snooping for something?”

Rainbow stomped her hoof. “No! My friend and I just need to get somewhere safe. Look, call for Commander Spitfire, tell her Rainbow is back. She’ll vouch for-”

“Quiet!” a louder voice commanded and actually jabbed her with their spear. Rainbow jumped back in surprise glaring at her attacker. Maybe this was a different world. This couldn’t be home. “You don’t get to talk!”

“That’s enough!” A booming voice echoed from the spotlight and switched it off. The world became visible around her and Rainbow saw that some of the ponies surrounding her she recognized. They weren’t the type to act this hostile, even if we were at war like Spitfire suggested.

The pony that had commanded them stepped forward and glared at the soldiers. He was tall with big strong hooves and a white coat and horn. His mane was a deep blue but covered up by a golden captain’s helmet. He made eye contact with each of the soldiers. “Captain Armor, we need to interview this Pegasus that came from across the dayline.”

“That’s enough, private,” the unicorn replied. “I’ll handle that.”

The soldier looked a bit aggravated. “But captain…”

Armor stared him down. “I said, I’ll handle it.”

The soldier gave Rainbow a sneer and turned away trudging off to the camp. Rainbow looked up at the captain, expecting him to be just as hostile. Instead his hard eyes softened and he looked her over, giving a frown to the mare on her back. “Are you alright?”

Rainbow nodded. “Uh, yeah, fine. My friend and I just needed to get into camp.”

The captain smiled. “Looks like she had a rough go of it out there.” Pinkie seemed to have fallen asleep on her back at some point. She sniffled lightly as she slept, sounding like tears being held back.

“You have no idea.”

The captain held out his hoof. “Shining Armor, captain of the third unicorn battalion.”

Rainbow lifted her own hoof to shake. “Rainbow Dash, captain of the second Wonderbolts unit.”

Armor’s smile widened. “I thought I recognized you somewhere. I read about you at the academy. Youngest captain they ever had. Didn’t you go missing?”

Rainbow waved a hoof dismissively. “It’s a long story. Can we just get her someplace to sleep?” She nodded to Pinkie.

“Of course, follow me I know a place.” Armor led them back into camp and Rainbow glanced around to see her arrival greeted with glares ranging from suspicious to venomous.

“Any reason everypony here seems to hate my guts?” she asked him.

Armor sighed. “Honestly, I have no idea. My battalion arrived here nearly a week ago due to a request for more ground troops to guard the line from Shadowbolts. We get here with ten catapults that they asked for and the Shadowbolts are gone, nowhere in sight. We think they retreated after their leader disappeared.” Rainbow felt guilty again. So Fluttershy was still missing, just like Lightning. “But everypony is acting weird. They keep talking about the Wonderbolts above on Sky Glaive. Just the smallest thing goes wrong they blame it on them. There’s a rain storm, they go nuts. There’s a cloud blocking the sun, they have a fit. Wonderbolts haven’t been that helpful either. This cloud cover has been here for days and they haven’t done a thing to get rid of it. I’ve seen tensions rise between fellow soldiers when they’re in tight spaces but never when their separated by a thousand hooves of sky.”

Rainbow looked up at the floating fortress she had once called home. Just what was going on? They stopped at a larger structure with the words “HOTEL” written above the door. She thanked Armor for leading them there. “It’s the least I can do,” he replied with a smile. “Maybe one of their most esteemed captains can talk some sense into those ponies above.”

“I’ll try,” she assured him. They parted ways and Rainbow bought out a one bed room for Pinkie. She settled her down on the sheets and the mare immediately curled up into a fetal ball. “I’ve got a lot to do here, huh?”