Dream-Mix: Predawn

by ScarfStar

7: Crash and Dash

A red comet flew through the large clouds of a once clear sky. It weaved between several enormous modernized buildings and landed in the empty streets with a resounding boom.

The force of the crash caused a shockwave to spread out throughout the city. The clouds were blown away and faded, except for one which stuttered unnaturally.

After some time the red glow of the comet vanished, revealing a sleepy Rainbow Dash who slowly opened her eyes before letting out a yawn.

What happened?

Had it all been a dream?

The last thing she remembered was being sucked into that portal in the sky. She had raced back to the castle once she’d spotted a suspicious dark cloud floating ominously over ponyville.

“What the hay was that?” She rubbed in a hoof to her mane and then blinked rapidly. “-and where the heck am I? Where is everypony?”

The city streets were made of light gray metal and glass. On closer inspection she was high up on an upper level. Lower parts of the city were visible beneath the roads and platforms.

As she peered down at the lower structures, she finally noticed a pair of neon blue and black gloves on her forelegs. There was a blue symbol of loyalty on one glove like a badge.

Rainbow Dash stared at her hooves for a while wondering when she put them on. Though they looked pretty awesome, she’d probably keep them for now.

She smirked and threw a few punches to the air in front of her as if feeling out her new accessories. Nothing about them seemed out of the ordinary is what Rainbow thought. So she’d worry about that later, for now she had other problems.

Rainbow soon took off from her landing site, which was now a small crater on the grassy sidewalk, she peered down for any signs of her friends in the lower levels of the city. She’d hoped they’d all ended up in the same place. If not, how far could they be? Scouting around wouldn’t be a problem for her since she could just zip around this place with her speed.

Her ears suddenly flickered at the sounds of sirens and she glanced around for the source. She eventually looked skyward as what appeared to be several red and blue lights emerging from a lone cloud in the sky.

“Pfft, some kind of parade?”
Rainbow couldn’t help but snicker at the thought of Manehatten cop ponies being able to fly around a city. Her snickering ceased however as the lights grew closer and she could clearly see what they were.

They were ponies riding motorcycles, flying motorcycles even!

No makeshift wings, propellers or anything.

They were just flying!

“Floating bikes!? Where the heck am I? The Future?” She gasped as the ponies approached her, each one now brandishing an electric baton. They each were dressed in matching police uniforms and wore helmets as well as visors obscuring their faces.

Rainbow quickly dodged to the side as one took a swing at her. She could feel the heat as it whisked past her and gulped. She hovered backwards to put some distance away from them as the next rider came rushing towards her.

“Hey!?” She cried out and dodged again. “What’s the big idea!? I haven’t done anything!”

Her adversaries silently continued their assault while ignoring her words. As more riders appeared, Rainbow finally decided to make a hasty exit. She tried flying higher into the sky preparing to jet off as far as possible from here but she was suddenly met with something solid.

There was a solid wall above her. It was black but with a large orange stripe on its surface. It also had a single large piercing eye watching her every move creepily.

“When did that-- That’s it I’m outta here!”

She tried to fly out from under it, but the wall would fade out of existence and appear above her again, constantly blocking her.

She huffed, usually she’d stick around and knock some heads but the growing number of attackers and weapons surrounding her was starting to get annoying. There must have been a whole army lying in wait.

She dived down into the city structures below with the chasers in hot pursuit.
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Meanwhile on the tallest building overlooking the city’s edge was a unicorn figure wearing a hooded cloak. She sat on a crystalline chair and table casually sipping tea with a crystal ball beside her.

Behind her was the metal city of towering skyscrapers and a clear sky. While to her front was a town with an eternally dark and starry sky.

“You can’t rush perfection… it’s why I’m still here.”

She spoke softly as if someone was right next to her.

“I’m not impressed at all, quality over quantity is what you should be pushing for.”

There was a pause.

“Yes, yes but why work up a sweat when I can just be patient and have things fall into place?”

“...”

“I’ll be ready, as long as I get my prizes. I’ll be content.”

“...”

“Ah that should be good. Now where have you been hiding my darlings?”

The tea was ice cold.

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Rainbow was still being pursued by the hoverbike riders, one moment she’d be dodging nets, chains and even lasers.

Her speed and the cover through the various structures were her best defense. However there was no escaping these guys, she could never gain enough distance and they would always show up when she’d thought she’d lost them.

The air was noticeably different as well, like she was flying underwater and struggling against a strong current. She doubted she could even perform a sonic rainboom under these conditions.

Unfortunately for her the bikers’ aim was improving, she’d had several narrow escapes when she’d tried to speed off into the distance. She briefly landed on a nearby highway as a missile sailed past her, blowing up a nearby structure.

“These guys are serious…” She gasped to herself.

Currently Rainbow was surrounded by a group of them as she tried to catch her breath. There were more sirens and explosions in the distance and she braced herself expecting another group to appear.

However instead she noticed a gust of wind that blew past her. The source was another pegasus, a stallion speeding down the roads heading in her direction, he was also being pursued by several riders.

He had a dark blue coat and a dark green mane, a small bandana wrapped around his right foreleg as he zig zagged through the buildings and roads dodging incoming fire before finally turning around and smiling at his chasers.

“This battle’s about to hit the fast lane!” He yelled excitedly and held up a card.

“Battle Field Open, Activating Speed World!”