Dashpoint

by blackhooves14

Dashpoint Ch7: Star Subject

Dash was lying back in her seat on a blimp ride to Canterlot, at suggestion of the Princess she was told to refrain from doing any physical activities until the mind spell was reinforced. With her was Fluttershy and Applejack, while the Princess was in her own special cabin. Looking out the window she saw the fluffy white clouds, the rolling green landscapes and the towering purple mountains of Equestria. It all looked the same, so similar, but unfamiliar. No matter how it looked this still wasn’t the Equestria she knew and the information she received about Twilight Sparkle was a painful reminder as to how different this place was.

Dash closed her eyes and thought about what happened just a few hours ago.

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“What?! That’s impossible! Twilight would never do something like that!” Twilight Sparkle killing 4000 ponies, what was this? Applejack and Fluttershy may have killed before, but they’re soldiers it’s part of their job. What in Equestria’s name happened to the Twilight in this world that made her kill 4,000 ponies?!

“Please let me explain.” began the Princess, “Twilight sparkle was a young filly who attempted to enroll into my academy for gifted unicorns, but a spell gone awry during her entrance exam resulted in an explosion that was responsible for the deaths of over 4,000 Canterlot citizens.” Dash was shocked, her story almost ran parallel to her Twilight’s experience. “But it didn’t stop there, her magic was out of control and incredibly powerful, she had to be contained, if we didn’t capture and imprison her she would have destroyed all of Canterlot!” Princess Luna felt ashamed to say such words. “We brushed off the explosion as a mishap with an mana energy test, nopony suspected a thing, but we had to rebuild and restore the lives of many other ponies as a result.”

Dash processed the information and looked up at the Princess, “Where is she now?”

“She currently inside a secret vault within Canterlot Castle.” said the Princess, “I can take you there now if you so wish.”
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And so here they were, in a blimp an hour from now closing in on Canterlot. AJ saw Dash moping by the window and she motioned Fluttershy to join her to try and cheer her up. “So,this uh...Twilight feller’...what’s she like?” asked Applejack trying to break the ice.

Dash thought long and hard about that question, she looked through her memories in a mind that slowly was deteriorating and found a familiar answer. “She’s one of my best friends and one of the most powerful unicorns I know. She’s also a bit of an egghead, but being one really comes in handy for her. She knows a bunch of stuff from reading lots of books,” Dash chuckled to herself, “Y’know this one time, during the Running of the Leaves, you and I were racing and we were so busy trying to out do each other it turned out that...that...um...”

“What happen’d sugarcube?” inquired AJ.

Dash was at a standstill, she completely forgot what happened during that event. What happened between the three of them? “Oh no, I’ve forgotten!” It must have been the memory synch. “We really need to get to Canterlot as soon as possible! Can this thing go any faster?!”

“Hold your horse’s Dash, we’re already here.” said Applejack as she motioned for Dash to come over to the window. Dash looked outside and the culture shock hit her again like a freight train.

This Canterlot was completely different from the Canterlot Dash knew, she expected some changes, but nothing so grand as this! While the Canterlot she knew was built into the side of the mountain, this Canterlot WAS the mountain, the same castle was at the very peak, but down the face of it was an enormous city of white and gold engulfing almost half of the mountain itself! In retrospect Dash realized that there could not have been a way for Twilight to kill 4,000 ponies, the Canterlot she knew had a population of roughly 1,500, less than half of the reported casualties, this city was enormous, there must have been tens of thousands of ponies living here! She noticed at the foot of the mountain was an area that wasn’t particularly as shiny and pristine as the upper half.

“What are those?” asked Dash as she pointed a hoof at the area.

“The refugee zone, most of them are from Ponyville.” said Applejack with a sullen look.

“Oh...” said Dash, she saw the small area became smaller and smaller as they got closer to the royal palace. On the way they passed an area that seemed to be under construction, cranes and half-finished buildings were all concentrated into a specific area. “Hmm, that must be the place Twilight misfired.” thought Dash, the area was rather large with a lot of construction equipment and building projects, one entire area was just a dirt pit centered in all the construction, that must have been the epicenter of everything. The sheer range of the explosion was shocking, blocks and blocks of streets being rebuilt, just how strong was this Equestria’s Twilight?

Dash was about to find out as she felt the blimp slow down and come to a stop on the docking bay of the castle. Princess Luna came into the girls cabin, “Alright everypony, come with me.” she said as they got off the blimp. As she followed Luna and the other’s she saw her reflection in a large window of the docking bay lobby. When she saw herself back in the janitors office she looked much less like herself, no cutie mark, no wings, a faded mane and tail, now that she got another good look at herself she saw the old Rainbow Dash, awesome cutie mark, a colorful flowing mane, and powerful wings that she proudly stretched and admired in her reflection. “Rainbow Dash, don’t dawdle!” said Luna farther ahead. Dash quickened her pace to the group and found herself passing through thick white walls and as she was she was frisked and checked by guards, much to her displeasure, but everypony else, including the princess was as well. Dash was expecting this Canterlot Castle to be different as well, but looking at it now, it didn’t seem too different from the one in her Equestria, there were more guards and they were clad in sapphire armor, but the castle still had it’s ivory and alabaster towers crowned with golden spires, it’s lush green garden and grand ballrooms, it was somewhat comforting to see such a sight.

“Alright everypony, follow me.” the Princess led them down a few corridors leading deeper into the castle, a few left turns, a few right turns, and soon they found themselves in front of a large steel door that was being guarded by two soldiers. They saluted their Princess and moved out of the way. Princess Luna approached the door, engraved on it was a large six pointed star, the symbol seemed somewhat familiar to Dash, Luna then inserted her horn into the keyhole found in the center and the symbol glowed, turned clockwise and the doors split apart revealing another hallway.

The Princess and the others entered this hallway, it was a very peculiar looking hallway, the ceilings and walls were adorned with crystals. “Where are we?” asked Dash.

“The Crystal Cavern’s within the mountain, they were once home to greedy ponies who wanted the gems housed, but they shut down a long time ago when all they could find were these worthless crystals. Now they house your friend Twilight Sparkle, the reflective properties of these crystals refrain her from using her magic, lest she hurt herself.”

Dash continued to follow the Princess and the others until they came to a much larger cavern that housed many ponies, mostly soldiers and a few scientist. At the end of the large cavern was an even larger steel door that had the same symbol found on the door that entered into the caverns, but it was colored pink and had other several white stars surrounding it. Dash realized that this was Twilight’s cutie mark! She must have been behind that door.

One of the soldiers a familiar white unicorn stallion with a blonde mane approached Princess Luna and saluted her. “Your Majesty, this is a rather impromptu visit.”

“It is Sgt. Blueblood,”

“Blueblood?! Oh you’ve got to be kidding me...” thought Dash.

The Princess continued “But it is rather urgent, where is Commander Armor?”

Wait, Commander Armor?

“When the top brass heard about the Trixie incident at Everfree Forest they sent the Commander there to provide reinforcements and aid to the 35th and 26th battalion.”

“Why wasn’t I notified about this? I specifically assigned the Commander to this post for a reason!”

Dash just had to interrupt, “Hold on, hold on! Are you saying that Shining Armor is in charge of this whole operation? He’s in charge of keeping his own sister imprisoned?!”

Blueblood was taken aback, but Luna finally seemed to have gotten used to Dash’s surprising knowledge.

“Yo-your majesty who is?” stuttered Blueblood in surprise.

“It’s a long story Sergeant, but right now we need this door open, that Pegasi needs to see Star Subject.”

“Um, o-of course your Majesty...” Blueblood bowed deeply then turned his attention to the soldiers. “Alright Gentlecolt’s open the vault!” Him and five other unicorns got onto separate lifts that brought them each to a white star. One by one they inserted their horns into each star in a specific order, the stars glowed and that glow flowed into a line that entered the large pink star’s outline making it glow as well and the incredibly large door then rose into the ceiling. Once the procedure was done Blueblood approached Dash, “You have one hour to get whatever business you have with Star Subject done and leave.” he then left her to enter, hmph still a jerk even in this Equestria Dash entered the large room inside and the large door closed behind her, in the distance she could see something that resembled a white glowing orb. Dash approached it with caution and as she got closer she saw that the orb was more of a glass dome embedded into the stone floor. It was lit up from the inside and all Dash could see was books. Books that stacked up so high that they almost touched the top of the domb, so many books that they made a wall inside the dome keeping anypony from looking in.

Dash began to circle the large dome trying to find an opening of some kind and finally she found one, it seemed to be the dome’s door and it’s pathway was the only thing books didn’t clutter looking down the door’s path Dash could see a purple pony with a dark purple mane, she was wearing a black suit, red glasses and she was sitting on a couch reading a book. Dash put her face up to the glass door, “Twilight?” she asked through the holes in the thick glass, the pony looked up from her book, it was Twilight alright, but something was missing.

“Um, hello?” said Twilight curiously she got up from her seat and began to approach the door, Dash was glad, this Twilight was probably the most familiar counterpart she had met, that is until she got closer to the door and Dash could see that this Twilight had no horn!

Dash continued to stare at Twilight’s bare forehead with her jaw agape, while the purple pony tilted her head quizzically and asked,

“Do I know you?”

Comments

[st6nbones]

WAIT, WHY ARE DID YOU PUT TWI IN SUPEYS PRISON.
[GOES DEMON]
SHE NEEDS THAT HORN