• Published 29th Oct 2018
  • 8,476 Views, 627 Comments

Mission to the Pony Planet - ersmiller



When Equestrian help is required in the world of Canterlot High, but Princess Twilight isn't responding to the journal, five girls cross over to find her. (All epilogues now complete!)

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Homes and Interrogations (Part 3)

Author's Note:

Nickname chart:

Real name	MLP		EqG       
Twilight	Twi		Twily
Rarity		Share		Renae
Applejack	Ponyjack	Jackie
Pinkie		Peachie		Shindy
Rainbow		Primo		Rad
Fluttershy	Posey		Butterfly
Spike		Claws		Paws

“So now that you know the elements of good wing control,” Primo wrapped up her flight lecture, “let’s see a Buccaneer Blitz!”

Rad gave her counterpart a midair salute with a forehoof and shot into the sky while performing a vertical scissor roll. Primo gained some altitude herself to watch as Rad reached her target.

Now above the clouds, Rad allowed her ascent to taper off, looping around with a backflip and locking the angle of her wings for a powerful flap to launch herself back down.

Keeping her wing angles in mind, Rad continued to flap, adjusting as necessary in her descent.

Her speed increased dramatically.

She pulled up, changing her straight dive into a curl.

The wind rushed through her feathers. Rad made a slight adjustment to a wing that felt off. She would need to ask Primo about that.

She could see the bright-green ground, Primo, and the train tracks growing closer.

Faster now, even as she continued to level out.

Ahead of her stood the tree they had picked as a marker, the wind beginning to sting her eyes.

Might have been best to hold on to that uniformed pony’s goggles.

Too late now; that tree took up much of her field of view.

A 630 degree1 barrel-roll to the left, ending with her wings straight out and perpendicular to the ground.

She pulled “up,” swerving around the right side of the tree.

Made a full, horizontal, loop only by angling her wings, kicking the tree as she passed.

Then completed the loop, facing the opposite direction.

Finishing with another 630 degree barrel-roll to her right, crisscrossing with her path of approach.

And kept her speed up the whole way.

“Whoooo!” she cheered.

“Yeah!” Primo congratulated her, giving a high-speed hoofbump as she passed.

Rad repeated the trick around Primo a few times, though without kicking her, as she allowed her speed to bleed off.

Finally, she pulled back and flapped hard, braking to a hover.

“Nice!” Primo gave her evaluation. “Your left wing was a little off though. I think you have a bent primary.”

“Yeah, I felt that.”

“I’ll show you how to preen once we get to my place.”

“Preen? Wait, your place?”

“Up there,” she pointed to the south, “over Ponyville, drifting between ‘Shy and AJ’s places.”

Rad peered into the distance following her twin’s hoof. “You live in the clouds?”

“Yeah, it’s the one with the rainbow waterfalls.”

“What? Rainbow waterfalls?”

“Yeah,” Primo repeated matter of factly. “Above the wisps. It’s a rainbow seed runoff cloud hollowed out and sculpted into a house.”

“Rainbow runoff seed, I, what? How does—?”

“Race you there!” Primo called out while starting off.

“Wait!” Rad shouted, getting her to stop. “Aren’t we going to do a rainboom next?”

“Rainboom?” Primo smirked. “Sorry, I’m not Pinkie. I don’t carry giant slingshots in my mane.”

Rad blushed. “How’d you find out about that?!”

“Scoot told me,” Primo chuckled. “Couldn’t get your speed up, huh?”

“Oh come on! I’ve had these wings for just a few hours, and I kept that rainboom going long enough to cover the whole town, several times!”

Primo put a hoof to her chin. “And you did just pull off a top quality Buccaneer Blitz.”

“First try!” Rad insisted.

Primo considered that.

“Come on!” Rad pressed. “You know how much I want this.”

“Hrmm, I guess I do, huh?” Primo nodded. “Alright. Let’s do it!”

YES!” Rad pumped her hoof.

“Here’s what we’ll do. Fly a bit behind me and stay in my slipstream so you’ll have less resistance. That’ll make it easier for your first try.”

“Hey! You don’t need to coddle me!”

“Hay! Rainbooms are hard—not for me anymore—but they used to be. Once you pull one off with help, you can try another without the assist. And the slingshot was kinda overkill for our wings!”

Rad blew some hair out of her face. “Fine,” she grumbled.

“Okay. Stay in my slipstream, we’ll start off with a down swoop like the Buccaneer Blitz, but we’ll start higher, with less of a decline, and instead of hitting the attack, keep flapping to keep your speed increasing. The rainboom isn’t technically complicated, the only things you really need are speed and stability, but you need so much of both that I’m the only one able to pull them off in all of Equestria.”

“And me.”

“We’ll see,” Primo smirked.

“Yeah,” Rad flew her muzzle closer to Primo’s and challenged her with her eyes, “we will!”

“Sure, sure. Just remember stability is hardest right before the rainboom breaks, and once that happens you’ll suddenly be going a lot faster.”

“I remember!”

“Also, if you come up short and fail, you’ll get flung the opposite direction, so be sure you’re not trying to rainboom up until you know what you’re doing!”

“What? Flung the opposite direction? By what?”

“Wind resistance. It’s like a rubber band at those speeds or something. Ask Twilight.”

“Uh.”

"She gave a lecture on it once at Wonderbolt Academy. Not sure the specifics though, I fell asleep. But don't tell her that! I completely got away without her knowing that time. Ready?”

Rad instantly snapped out of her confusion over the workings of the world for the more important competition, “You bet I am!”

Primo gave her twin one last “heh,” of a laugh and shot straight up. Rad followed her just as the southbound train for Ponyville rounded a corner catching up with them.

Neither of them saw the orange and purple face in one of the windows turn ecstatic upon seeing them, only to fade as they left her behind.

***


***

Now it makes sense why you were having so much trouble with your magic!” Sweetie giggled at her new older sister from another world.

“But not anymore!” Renae cheered, pulling four bits from her saddlebags and holding them aloft. She pointed to each one in turn and counted, “One, two, three, four!” With each count, the bit Renae was pointing to lost its blue glow and fell to the floor of the train. Renae’s horn even properly lost its glow upon dropping the fourth bit.

“Splendid, darling,” Share cheered, pulling Renae into a hug, which Sweetie joined in on with a squeaky squeal.

Toward the middle of the car, a lone pegasus filly watched a pair of rainbow-colored tails swoop down from a high altitude and zoom off into the distance. “Two Rainbow Dashes! Two Rainbow Dashes!” she continued chanting.

Across from her, two Fluttershys with stern faces nodded, resolutely to each other, and walked stoically to the next bench where two Pinkies excitedly compared pastries they had stored in their manes, passing them back and forth and taking sample licks and bites.

““Ahem,”” the Fluttershies announced themselves and politely waited.

Once it was clear no one heard them, they shot each other a glance and rolled their eyes. ““Ahem,”” they didn’t wait to be ignored again. ““Ahem!””

“Oh hay, Fluttershies!” Peachie greeted them with Shindy waving back while finishing a triple frosted ice-cream bagel with whipped-cream and a cherry on top.

“Hey, Fluttershies!” Shindy caught up after chomping off half the treat and passing the rest to her twin to finish. “Mmm, that’s good!”

The Fluttershies looked at each other, keeping their faces stern and nodding toward the other a few times before speaking together. ““Um. D-did you want me to—? Oh! You did? Oh my. I thought you were going to, but I will if you want. Oh you will? Are you sure? Did you want to do it together? It would be rude to talk at the same time, right? Oh, wait! The"“—

Butterfly said “coin” while Posey said “bit.”

The Fluttershies nodded with a smile and Posey trotted up to the Rarities to borrow back one bit to flip. Butterfly remained waiting for her with a smile, while the Pinkies compared a random pair of muffins. Butterfly pointedly declined a third muffin they offered her.

Once Posey returned with a bit in her mouth, she flipped it in the air and it landed tails up. “Oh! That’s me.” Posey cleared her throat and the Fluttershies set their faces stern again, before facing Peachie.

“Peachie Pie,” she addressed her in a mother’s serious tone, “You brought Butterfly to the castle, right?”

“Yep!” Peachie popped forward gleefully. “Gave the new pony a pony ride!”

“And you also told her that you’d been through the portal before, right?”

Peachie opened her mouth and froze. A moment later she blinked a few times as a cringe began to form. “Umm … well ….”

It was then that an explosion of sound and rainbow light flashed in the southern distance, quickly spreading out and over the train.

“SONIC RAINBOOM!” Scootaloo shouted in glee, jumping almost high enough to bop her head against the ceiling.

The moment she returned to her window, she pressed her face flush against it and watched intently. “I think they’re both gonna do them together! Come on, come on, come on, come on!” she followed up with a chant, focusing the tiny blue object behind the rainbow trail.

The other ponies in the train car also took up windows.

“You can do it, Rad!” Spike was the first to join Scootaloo’s chant, the other ponies following after.

Seconds passed. They all watched the rainbow trail speed ahead of the blue object and curl in a slow, slightly downward spiral.

The initial ring of light had nearly faded.

And they continued to watch.

The very air seemed to hang.

And then it snapped.

Suddenly that blue object reversed direction as it was flung back by an invisible force.

“…yyaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaa…!” screamed Rad as she whizzed past the train windows in an uncontrollable aerial tumble.

Scootaloo gasped, pressing her face into the window to watch the visiting twin of her mentor tumble out of sight.

A scant moment later, there was a distinct thud loud enough for all of Rad’s audience to cringe.

““Ooh, that’s gotta sting,”” commented the Applejacks.

“Especially in the pride,” agreed Spike.

““I hope she hit something soft,”” the Fluttershies added.

“Nothing's soft at that speed,” Apple Bloom pointed out.

“It’s okay!” Scootaloo insisted. “She’ll get there! She’s a Rainbow Dash! She has to!”

A rumbling sensation preceded a flash as Primo’s rainbow trail also passed by the train, presumably to Rad’s aid.

Twilight smiled. “There. Primo will make sure Rad’s okay.”

***


***

“Bwahahahahaha!” Primo clutched her stomach, barely remaining aloft. Not far from her, Rad lay wedged in a tangle of bushes, her tail and the rump attached to it were all that were visible.

“Arugh!” Rad tried to follow that statement with one that contained words but all that came up were stray leaves.

“Warned you,” Primo guffawed.

“I was doing fine till I couldn’t see anything but your rainbow butt light in my face.”

Primo stopped still, even forgetting to flap for a moment after that statement. She collapsed on the ground and let out a reply. “Phfffffff! Hahaha! ‘Rainbow butt light’! I’ll have to remember that one!”

There was rustling as Rad tried to free herself from the shrubbery, managing only to lodge herself deeper till it was only her tail showing.

“Oh, hay, let me help you there,” Primo called before grabbing Rad’s tail in her mouth.

“Whoa! W-what are you doing?!”

“Wifding uu out of dere,” Primo replied through her teeth, flying higher to pull her double out of the green prison.

Once free, a disheveled Rad flapped her own wings, pulling away, turning, and snapping her tail free of Primo’s dental grasp before addressing her twin, “We’re doing it again!”

Primo gained a bit more altitude and looked back to the train. “You should rest up a bit before another attempt, and I don’t think we have time. I don’t want you getting hurt.”

“It’s now or never! You heard Twi. Once we’re back to town, we’re going through the portal and can’t come back until college or ever.”

“Yeah, that bites, but you did already manage a rainboom today, even if it was—”

“With help!” Rad finished for her. “I need to do one from scratch.”

“But we need to be at the station when the train arrives in Ponyville, and there’s other cool stuff we can do instead.”

“But the Rainboom is your signature stunt!”

“The Sonic Rainboom is one of my signature stunts. I have more. Being a Wonderbolt isn’t just for the title you know.”

Rad didn’t grace that with a reply and simply shot upward, gaining altitude for another attempt.

Primo watched with a groan. “So this is why Twilight gives me that look all the time.” Sighing, she took off after Rad, calling out to her, “We still need to fix those feathers!”

***


***

Twilight quickly lit her horn, grabbing Scootaloo’s hind legs whose front dangled out the now opened train window to get a better look at the Rainbow Dashes climbing into the sky.

“They're gonna try again! They're gonna try again!”

As she and Spike struggled to keep the fanfilly from going splat, elsewhere in the train, the other occupants had returned to their conversations.

The three members of the Apple families across dimensional barriers were locked into tear-filled revelations of family members lost on only one side of the portal. Apple Bloom was in the middle of their three pony hug.

Several benches over, the Fluttershies decided to try confronting Peachie Pie again.

Though it was necessary to unmask her disguise first.

Sitting on the bench the Pinkies had been on before now only contained Shindy reading a recipe notebook book made of old style parchment, rather than machine processed paper.

The next bench over contained a pink pony with a full beard beard and mustache. This facial hair was pink and very curly.

On closer inspection, it was really just a mane pulled forward to cover the pony’s face.

Such a trick wouldn’t work on a Fluttershy.

They were quite familiar with it.

“Peachie,” Posey addressed the obvious Pinkie Pie in disguise.

“Peachie?” she replied in a deep voice. “I don’t know of any ‘Peachie’. My name is … uh, Kumquat. Kumquat Soufflé.”

“Kumquats are orange,” Posey deadpanned.

Kumquat gasped, “How dare you, good madam? I’ll have you know I’ve been dyed this color against my will! There I was in the trenches, fighting off an army of parasprites dipped in paint! I fought bravely but my trombone was bent beyond recognition!”

Posey slapped a hoof to her face.

“Pinkie!” asserted Butterfly.

“What?!” Shindy called out.

“”The other one!”” the Fluttershies called back.

“Oh! Okay, never mind.”

The Fluttershies turned to each other. ““We do know it’s this one, right?””

They looked back at the pink pony with “facial hair” then at each other and spoke at the same time.

“You should go check with the other one.”
“I’ll should go check with the other one.”

They nodded and Butterfly trotted up to Shindy, leaving Posey behind who sat beside the other pink one and spoke in her usual calm, gentle tone.

“We know it’s you, Peachie. Or at least we know you’re one of our two Pinkie Pies. So please talk to me. We’re worried about what Twilight said earlier. Have you been through the portal?”

Peachie sighed and let go of her mane. The mustache and beard returned to their normal mass of head curls. “How’d you know it was me?”

Posey rolled her eyes and was about to answer when, again, a ring of sound and rainbow light exploded out from outside the train.

“SONIC RAINBOOM!” Scootaloo again shouted in glee, nearly falling out the open window before Spike and Twilight pulled her back in with a thump as the younger two flopped onto the bench.

Scootaloo immediately returned to her window, which Twilight’s magic had already closed, and zeroed in on the blue blur without the rainbow trail behind it. “Come on, come on, come on, come on!”

The other ponies turned to watch, cheering on their friend.

Seconds passed. Some noticed that this time it seemed the two blue specs had been flying side-by-side rather than one in front of the other.

The initial ring of light had nearly faded.

And they continued to watch.

The very air seemed to hang.

Till a second ring of sound and rainbow light exploded out from behind their other distant blue friend.

“DOUBLE RAINBOOM!” Scootaloo screamed. “IT’S A DOUBLE RAINBOOM! A DOUBLE RAINBOOM! WHOOO-HOOO!”

Cheers and whistles erupted in the train car. The native ponies stomping their hooves on the floor or benches, while the visitors either pronked in place or sat and clapped.

Outside, the pair of rainbow trails spun and twirled together, turning this way and that, chasing each other and making designs. At one point, they turned north and zoomed just above the train tracks, flying by the train, rocketing up into the sky, and making a full arch back toward the south.

Scootaloo’s eyes misted up as a look of profound contentment washed over her face. “Double Rainboom all the way across the sky.”

***


***

“YYEAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

“YOU DID IT!”

“WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

“AWESOME!”

“HA-HAAA!”

“HOO-AH”

The two Rainbows shouted back and forth between bouts of laughter and pulling tricks, writing rainbows in the sky.

They had buzzed the train where their friends were slowly making their way toward Ponyville. They had made two magic rainbows in the sky more vibrant than any optical or liquid rainbow could match. They set off south to the town, showing just how much faster than a train they both were. They raced each other till they hit the town limits and pulled up to avoid property damage.

Each would later claim she won.

They drew their rainbow trails all the way up past the clouds, wrapped around them, and back down, tying the clouds into a rainbow net. They wrote their names and nicknames in the sky.

Rad won, but Primo called cheating so Rad added two exclamation points to make the number of characters even.

Both would later claim to be the winner of that competition as well.

Dropping below the clouds, they found themselves above Ponyville and happily drew a twin spiral all around, centered above Twilight’s palace.

Ponies all over town stopped what they were doing to look up and watch.

They played tag.

Rainbow laser tag in the sky.

Ponies watched as the two flew around like ping-pong balls if ping-pong balls played tag.

Finally, the rainboom became too difficult to keep up, the strain on their wings becoming more and more strenuous, and Primo took the lead—after some difficulty getting it back from Rad that she would never admit—and shot up to her cloud house over southern Ponyville where they both collapsed on her front stratus.

“… That—”
“…… was—”
““……… awesome!””

***


***

Scootaloo’s buzzing wings nearly turned the train car into a wind tunnel as she watched the Rainbows rainbow the sky like colorful toilet parchment in trees on Nightmare Night.

The other ponies and dragon watched the display with smiles on their faces ranging from simple congratulations for their friend, to the depths of spectacular inspiration.

““Idea!”” the Rarities singsonged. Renae took out the sketchbook she had borrowed from Share’s Ponyville boutique as well as a pair of pencils and they began furiously sketching designs.

The Applejacks watched in awe until they came to a horrible realization. ““Y’all know they’re gonna be insufferable after this, right?””

Twilight, working with Spike to keep Scootaloo from merging or phasing through the train window from sheer determination, answered back, “We’ll be hearing about it for months on both sides of the portal.”

“You think Rad’ll have much energy left to help look for Sunset after all that?” asked Spike.

“Absolutely not,” Twilight shook her head. “Unless her geode helps even when she’s tired.”

“Oooh! I’ll bake her a super energy-filled box of scones to keep her stay running fast before you all go through the portal,” Peachie offered, pronking in excitement.

"And I can bake another in the school kitchen after we go through!" Shindy added.

As the other ponies all continued the rapid conversations, Posey and Butterfly again came up alongside Peachie Pie.

““Ahem,”” they attempted to interrogate her for a third time.

“Meep,” Peachie squeaked, freezing in mid-pronk.

Butterfly did a double-take at Peachie’s lack of contact with the floor—given her lack of wings—but Posey simply got behind Peachie, bit the end of her tail—only to find a squeaky toy for Gummy and had to try again—then dragged her away from the rest of the group.

Now with privacy, and Peachie falling back to the floor in a pile, the Fluttershies each lay down beside Peachie and laid a gentle forehoof over hers.

““Please, Peachie. Tell us. Have you been through the portal or not?””

Peachie slumped further. “Yeah,” she relented.

““It’s okay, Peachie.””

“But—“

““You didn’t know.””

“I just wanted to deliver the cake.”

““What cake?””

“To celebrate the one year anniversary of Sunset Shimmer not being evil anymore.”

Posey turned a questioning eye to Butterfly who tilted her head and looked at the window Shindy had been watching the Rainbows through.

She had just enough time to realize that Shindy was no longer there when—

“Hiya!”

—she was surprised by Shindy appearing between her and Posey. “”Eep!””

“I wondered where that cake came from,” Shindy commented while stroking her chin fur.

“Pin—Shindy,” Butterfly addressed her, “I thought you made that cake for Sunset.”

“Nah, I was about to make one just like it, but then I just found this mysterious cake on the sidewalk outside the school one day and I was like, ‘yay! Free cake’! And it was decorated for the party and everything; and sooo good too!”

“I was hoping you’d like it!” Peachie cheered. “I make them for all our reformed villains. I even send them to Tirek in Taurtarus. His say something different though. With our reformed villains like Sunset and Starlight and Discord and Fizzlepop and Luna, the cakes say stuff like, ‘Happy X years of being our friend instead of a horrible evil villain bent on world domination or whatever it was you were trying to do while you were not nice,’ while Tirek’s say, ‘Happy another year in jail for still being a mean-ol’ evilpants instead of a nice guy! Let us know if you ever want to be friends and we can hang out everyday and do all sorts of fun things all the time!’ “

“That’s so nice of you,” cheered Shindy. “I do the same for ours!”

The Fluttershies blinked. “There’s so much about that statement that I’m not sure where to begin,” Posey sorted through her thoughts.

“Tartarus?” asked Butterfly.

“Um, yeah. How did you get into Tartarus?”

“How do we do anything we do?” Shindy replied, giving Peachie a knowing smirk with a side of giggles, both of which were returned.

Posey opened her mouth to reply but was cut off by Peachie, “You should probably leave it at that."

“Shindy,” Butterfly took over, “so, you found that cake just sitting outside and you took it for our party?”

“Yeah, why not?”Shindy shrugged.

“You weren’t worried about it?”

“Why would I be worried about cake? It’s not like it was on the ground, it was on a cart! And it was even Sunset’s favorite. Strawberry angel food with royal icing and topped with oats. The lettering was made with drizzled hot fudge! I mean, come on! What’s that saying Applejack uses? Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth?”

Butterfly’s eyes widened and a worried cringe grew on her face.

“What does ‘gift horse’ mean?” asked Posey.

“I bet they mean Santa Hooves!” Peachie suggested.

“Um,” Butterfly smiled nervously, eyes flicking between the two native equines in their group of four.

“He works for Aurora, Bori, and Alice, the secret Gift Givers of the Grove.”

“Uh, sure. That’s it,” Butterfly chuckled.

“Why would we look him in the mouth? Does he need a dentist? I could refer him to Minuette, she’s great!”

“Uh, well …,” Butterfly cleared her throat, “so you’ve only been through the portal twice. We’ll just tell Twilight to add two to the total uses and I’m sure that won’t make a big deal.”

“Well … twice for that cake.”

The fluttershies’s ears drooped. “”How many cakes?””

“Just that one!”

The Fluttershies let out a relieved sigh.

“But I also sent three cupcakes for those sirens and one pie for their Twily!”

“”Oh dear. So, you used the portal six times?””

“… Eight.”

“What were the other two for?” asked Shindy. “I don’t remember any other surprise sidewalk pastries.”

“Oh! I tripped.”

““You tripped?”” asked the Fluttershies.

“Yeah. I was about to go through with Sunset’s cake but I tripped and fell into the portal without it, then decided to walk around and explore for a while, came back through to get the cake, then a third time to deliver it, then a fourth to come home. Is eight times too many?”

The Fluttershies sighed and looked to each other, then to Twilight. Since the rainboom show had ended, Scootaloo was no longer at risk of passing through the window and Twilight had been free to return to her bench and stare worriedly at Sunset’s silent journal. “”We’ll have to ask..””

Seeing the expression on Peachie's face drop, the Fluttershies stepped up to her for a hug. Peachie smiled brightly, and added a giggle when Shindy joined in.

Ending the hug, the Fluttershies smiled to the Pinkies and nodded at each other before walking up to Twilight.

Peachie wiped a pastern across her forehead and relaxed, thinking to herself, "At least they didn't ask what happened on that walk I took."

Shindy gave her an inquisitive look but Peachie fed her another Nana pill before she could say anything.

Crossing the distance to Twilight, the Fluttershies let their own relieved sighs, ""It could have been worse.""

As if noticing the eyes on her, or perhaps hearing a set of well used famous last words, Twilight looked up. “Oh! Fluttershies, I just remembered something Primo told me when she scouted Ponyville earlier.” Twilight stood up and addressed all the visitors. “Butterfly, Shindy, Jackie, Renae …”

Twilight waited a moment for her friends to listen up. Butterfly and Shindy were already alert, Jackie broke from another interdenominational family hug and tapped Renae to get her attention away from an intricate drawing.

“Thank you. When Primo investigated Rad’s rainboom—“

“WHOOO!”

“Thank you, Scootaloo—she noticed that Flutt—Posey’s animals seemed to be patrolling her land with torches? Do any of you know what that’s about?”

“What?!” Posey shrieked in horror.

“Oh my goodness!” Butterfly squeaked in equal horror. “I forgot about that.”

***


***

“So, what do you think?”

“This is awesome, and so totally crazy!” Rad answered while pronking on the slightly bouncy floor of Primo’s cloud foyer. “This is all made from clouds? But this floor isn’t as bouncy as your, er, lawn. How does that work?”

“Different types of clouds and different bonding magic. You’d have to ask ‘Shy’s dad, he worked in the factory. Or ask Twi. I bet she’d know.”

“Huh. In our world ‘Shy’s dad worked in a cotton mill not as a … carpenter? Cloudenter?"

“Hang on a sec, I’m gonna go see Tank while I’m here.”

“Tank? You have a tank? Wait! You mean ‘Tank’? Tortoise Tank?”

“Yeah, you too? That’s awesome! Come on!”

“What’s he like in your world? Is he like a fire-breathing rock monster or golem? Can he fly? He’s gotta fly in a cloud house!”

Primo chucked, opening a door with a pet flap cut into it, “He can fly.”

Rad followed her into the room, preparing herself to see something out of those old, black and white, Neighpanese giant turtle movies, and saw before her a pet bed and … a tortoise shell with a propeller on top.

“That’s the same as he looks in my world!”

“Really? Cool!” Primo called back.

“Well, except the propeller. I don’t get it, Spike the dog is a dragon here. Why’s Tank still a tortoise?”

“Would you want him to be anything else?”

“Heh,” Rad laughed with a small smile, “guess not. Tank’s already cool.”

“You hear that, Tank?” Primo called out, giving Tank’s shell a pair of taps.

Tank’s head slowly emerged from his shell and looked from Rainbow Dash to Rainbow Dash.

Slowly.

He peered closely at Primo and smiled.

Slowly.

He peered closely at Rad.

Slowly.

He closed his eyes.

He opened his eyes.

That might have been a blink.

The Rainbows stood there, forcing themselves to remain patient, a learned and calming skill for the tortoise owners. Primo stroked his shell.

Eventually Tank licked the side of Primo’s face and got a giggle out of her.

That giggle was quickly squashed and replaced with a cough and a more low key chuckle.

Rad smirked at her twin, holding the expression until she was sure Primo saw it, then joined the two of them. “Hey there, pony-world Tank. Nice to meet you.”

Tank closed his eyes.

Tank opened his eyes.

That was definitely a blink.

Then he hid back inside his shell.

“Aw,” Rad complained. “Guess we confused him, or I smell different or something. ‘Shy—er—Butterfly mentioned the same thing with Posey’s animals.”

“That or he’s still getting adjusted to Spring. He was hibernating not too long ago. Still takes a lotta naps during the day if nothing’s going on. Come on, I’ll show you my Daring Do collection!”

“Yeah!”

In the next room over, Rad gawked. “Whoa. It’s so clean.”

The bedroom, while far from spotless, was clear of laundry—clean or dirty—on the floor and other surfaces, nor were there trophies, books, toys, or dirty dishes spread around. There were some bed stands, a bookcase, and posters on the wall, but everything was filed, more or less, into what seemed like their proper places.

“Yeah,” Primo called back, “kinda have to be in a cloud house. Put the wrong thing on the floor and it’ll end up in the basement if you’re lucky, or smashed on the ground waaay below if you’re not. And they drift too.”

“There’s a basement?”

“It’s an under-hang for storage.”

“But, wait,” Rad closed her eyes and scratched her head a moment, “you have a bed. How’s that not falling through the floor?”

“It’s made of clouds.”

“And the rugs?”

“Clouds.”

“The bedstand?”

“Clouds.”

“The posters?”

“Parchment, but hung with cloud tacks.”

“Are the books and lamp made out of clouds?!”

“No, but the bookcase and bedstands have solid cloud tops.”

Solid clouds?”

“Yep! Even Big MacIntosh could stand on them. They’re expensive though. And probably wouldn’t last long with him on there. The water would get squeezed out and they’d snap.”

“This is crazy.”

Primo looked around her bedroom. “Why? Are clouds really thin in your world?”

“Clouds are just water vapor in my world!”

“Your world really needs to improve their cloud factories.”

“ ‘Cloud factories’,” Rad repeated, jaw not quite wanting to stay closed. "Where you turn clouds into houses?"

“No. Where clouds are made and sculpted.”

Rad blinked a few times. “Huh. You make your own clouds. Cool. Wait. What about a bathroom?”

“Oh, it’s down the hall.”

“No, I mean, how does it work?”

“How does what work? It’s a bathroom. You use it and flush.”

“But where do you flush it to?”

“The storage tank in the basement.”

“Okay, but what about when it’s full?”

“The sewage service dumps it into a cloud cart to bring it to a treatment plant every week.”

“Sewage service, fine, but what about the sinks and shower? Where do you get the clean water?”

Primo blinked at her blankly. “I live in a cloud. There’s water. If the place starts to shrink, I just rain a regular cloud on the attic.

“But—“

“Condensers run all the way from the attic to pipes in the bathroom and kitchen.”

“You have a cloud kitchen. Wait. Is there a stove and stuff?”

“I have a solar hearth.”

“Fridge and freezer?”

“You mean an icebox? Yeah.”

“What about a microwave?”

“A what?”

“Ha!” Rad shouted her victory.

“What’s a microwave?”

“It’s what lets you take a frozen pizza out of the freezer and cook it in two minutes!”

“No way! That’s awesome!”

“It’s not just awesome, it’s a way of life!”

“No kidding! That would change everything! Or it would if I wasn’t so close to Pinkie and Applejack, and have a ton of meals at the Academy and Twi’s palace all the time.” Primo thought for a moment. “Actually, I can’t remember the last time I even used my kitchen." She cringed. “I think I might need to clean out the icebox.”

Rad stood there, still a bit amazed by the revelations of cloud-based living, but snapped out of it, remembering why they had come into Primo’s bedroom to begin with. “You said Daring Do collection?”

“Oh, right. And show you how to preen.”

Rad looked to her wings. “You know, I don’t think it matters. I’ll lose these when I go through the portal, and they grow back when I pony-up on the other side. I think I get all new feathers each time. So I say we spend our time doing more important things.”

“In that case, I have an idea.”

“Another competition?!” Rad cheered, getting into an action-ready stance.

“Sort of,” Primo smiled devilishly. “It’s something I know we’ve both been thinking about since we first saw each other.”

“Yes! You’re on.”

Primo copied Rad’s stance.

Rushed forward.

And kissed her full on the lips.

***


***

“I’m so sorry, Posey. You need to talk to your animals right away,” said Butterfly.

“Oh, no, what’s wrong?” Posey cried.

“I think I gave them the wrong idea. They realized I wasn’t you and maybe they thought I was dangerous. They ran me out of your cottage.”

Posey gasped. “What happened then?”

“I got chased into this really scary forest—“

““You went in the Everfree?!”” multiple voices yelled out.

Butterfly meeped and ducked behind her mane. “Was that bad?”

“That’s a dangerous place if you don’t know the right paths!” Posey walked up to Butterfly and patted her mane to soothe her. “It’s a good thing it was during the day. Most of the more dangerous animals there are nocturnal. How did you get out?”

Butterfly smiled at Posey’s touch and took a steadying breath. “Well, I got chased by a lot of these giant wolves that were made of trees.”

“Timberwolves?!” cried Ponyjack.

“Oh is that what they’re called? That seems fitting. Well, I ran and flew as fast as I could, then Rad did that rainboom. That startled them, and me really, but I turned toward it and made it back to town. They were right behind me but Rad scared them off and I saw these ponies in spacesuits—“

““Spacesuits?!”” came another yell from many voices.

“I’ve always wanted to go to space,” commented Peachie.

“Me too!” added Shindy. “I even called NASA with some ideas, but they said a super massive giant honkingly big party canon wasn’t a safe option and turned down my blueprints. I bet it didn’t help that they were actually pinkprints and drawn with glitter pens. Colored markers would have been more professional.”

Butterfly put a foreleg around Shindy’s withers. “Or hazmat suits maybe? They were by the stream, so maybe they were diving suits? But I flew around them fast, so I didn’t get a good look, and made it to Twi’s palace where Jackie and Renae were, and then we helped Rad escape the hospital.”

“Escape the hospital?” Twilight queried.

“She crashed into it and we were worried they might dissect her if your government realized she wasn’t a pony.”

“W-what, why—?“

“Sunset,” Renae joined in, “poor dear, got hurt in our world not long after the Fall Formal and we decided it might be prudent to—“

“Get her out of the hospital so the scientists wouldn’t dissect her like they do with aliens in all the movies!” Shindy rushed.

Butterfly nodded. “So, um, when Rad got in the hospital here, well, by then things had gotten a bit crazy, so maybe we weren’t thinking with clear heads.”

“Thankfully, we had figured out you were all in the big city on the mountain and got on the train,” Jackie finished.

The native ponies looked around with varying degrees of shock and confusion while the visitors were more on the side of embarrassment.

“Well,” said Twilight, “I’m pretty sure things have calmed down since then, and we’ll smooth out any wrinkles left over once we get you all back to your world.” She turned to the three fillies. “Do any of you know about the spacesuits?”

Sweetie shook her head, “I was working at the boutique.”

“Ah was on the farm,” added Apple Bloom.

“I helped Rainbow, uh, Rad—such an awesome name!—pull off her first of now TWO rainbooms, and then I went to brag about it to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle and brought them to the train station!” Scootaloo gushed.

“Ah thought they looked more like hazmat suits,” Jackie offered.

“Next stop, Ponyville,” came an announcement. “Home of Princess Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship.”

Twilight blushed. “They don’t say that when I’m not actually on the train, right?”

Posey hummed from behind her mane. Share giggled quietly. Ponyjack nodded. “Every time!” cheered Peachie.

“Mayor Mare said it would increase tourism,” explained Ponyjack.

“Great,” Twilight deadpanned right before a thump hit the side of the train.

They all turned to see a Rainbow Dash splat flat against one of the train windows.

“RAINBOW DASH!” cried Scootaloo, rushing up to open the window.

Rainbow poured in, falling on the floor, and eventually rolling over to reveal her name tag, still stuck to her even after the successful rainboom, the failed rainboom, and getting tossed into an unsuspecting bush at near rainboom speeds.

The Canterlot Royal Treasury buys only the best furclips after all.

“RAD!” Scootaloo shouted down at the panting pegasus. “You did another rainboom and without the slingshot!”

“H-hey, squirt,” Rad breathed. “I did. How’d you get here?”

“You okay, Rad?” asked Twilight.

““Wow,”” giggled the Pinkies, “”you look like you’ve been working hard! What you been doing after that rainboom?””

Rad blushed and there was another thump as Primo grabbed the open window and quickly pulled herself inside. “Uh, nothing?” Rad squeaked.

Primo gave Rad a glance, scoffed, and trotted off to a bench.

Twilight tilted her head. “Everything okay, Rainbows?”

“Yeah! Everything’s fine!” insisted Rad.

“Yep,” Primo grumped from her bench. Following that up with a mutter too quiet for the others to hear, “ ‘You’re a horse’. Yeah, well, you look in a mirror lately?”

“O…kay?” Twilight responded as the train began to slow down. “Well, now that we’re all together and back in Ponyville, it’s just a short trot to the palace and we can get on to helping Sunset.”

“And we’ll walk with you to send you off, darlings,” Share added.

The other native ponies, besides Primo, joined in with their own affirmations and hugs.

“Ah’m sure things will be right as rain from here on out,” Ponyjack told her counterpart in a tight hug.

The train doors opened up and the group stepped onto the platform.

Aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” a mare screamed, running past them onto the train, stopping only briefly, while still running in place, to show her ticket to the conductor. “Run for your lives!”

Several more ponies arrived in her wake.

Dumbfounded, the group stepped off to the side to let them pass, then turned in the direction of the center of town.

Ponies were running in every direction.

Homes and businesses were slamming closed their doors and shutters.

They’re everywhere!” came another shout as a stallion dived into a bush.

They all slowly looked to Twilight who sighed.

“Figures.”


  1. 630 degrees is 90 degrees short of 2 full rotations
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