Time Travel Insanity

by Wr1tingN3rd

Chapter 4: Secret's Out

Inside the cabin of the royal carriage, Rainbow could feel the wind hitting her face as they flew towards the giant city that was Canterlot. She sat in the back of the carriage, crammed from some boxes stored in the back. Two guards sat in the front, and every once in a while they would glance back at her to make sure she wasn't trying anything. Every time the guards looked back, they were met with the same what-are-you-looking-at glare from Rainbow. The ride was surprisingly short, taking up only a few hours of time even though the city was extremely far away.

Eventually, the carriage touched down by the entrance of the castle that sat, perched on the mountain side. Surprisingly, it wasn't much different back then to what she was used to now. The only difference was that there were more colors of the sun, as Luna wasn't exactly there. She kind of missed the midnight blue colors decorating the walls. It gave it a nice contrast. Reminded of the reason of why she was there, Rainbow gave out a heavy sigh.

They approached the door, where guards watched over the entrance. The escorting guards gave a nod to the ones guarding the gate, and they opened up the door, letting them in. Rainbow managed to catch a glance from one of the guards, who carefully eyed her as she walked through the gates. The halls they walked down were the same as she remembered. They were colored a subtle white color. Not too overpowering. Just right. It managed to create a feeling of calm as Rainbow walked through. The floor was also made of marble, with a red carpet stretching out through the middle. Small tables and cabinets sat on the sides of the halls, with mirrors on top of some of them, and flower pots sitting on others. There were doors on the side that went to other parts of the castle, but they went straight down the carpet path, towards a huge door, leading to the throne room, which was guarded by another set of guards.

After they passed through, they saw the carpet stretch out across a large room towards the throne, which sat Princess Celestia, who had a composed expression on her face. The walls lined with large windows, where rays of light glared through, which shined off of Celestia's flowing mane.

"We have the suspect you wanted, your highness," the guard on Rainbow's left stated.

"Excellent work, guards. Now I will take it from here," Celestia dismissed the group of guards with a wave of her hoof. They nodded and quickly left the room, leaving just the two of them in the room.

Rainbow gulped.

"You are here because you have committed false impersonation of a filly by the name of Rainbow Dash. How do you plead?" Celestia started.

Rainbow struggled to find words to explain her situation. "I-um, well, you see *cough*- I plead, uh, not guilty?" Rainbow said with an uncertain tone, the pitch of her voice going up at the end. Sweat started to pour from her forehead.

"Well then, explain yourself!" Celestia said. "Impersonation is a serious offense that will not be tolerated. What is your reasoning?" she asked.

"Well, uh, crazy story actually. You won't believe what happened! I actually am not from around here and, uh, I guess I just naturally look like her and stuff, so, if I'll be on my way-" Celestia did not let her finish.

"Would you explain why, when the nurse went to confirm your identity, you agreed with what she said?" Celestia gave her a stern look.

Rainbow gave a sigh of frustration. "I guess there's no easy way to put this," she frowned. "Okay, this is going to sound crazy, but just hear me out," Rainbow began.

"I'm listening," Celestia said.

"So, I actually am Rainbow Dash, it's just that I'm not this Rainbow Dash, I'm a different Rainbow Dash, from a different time period, and uh, I sorta crash landed here and stuff and I really need to get back to my time, but my machine broke, so I'm stranded here for now and I really need to get this thing called a quantum crystal, and if I don't get that I can't get home, and if I don't get home then the whole universe might end because of complicated things with time travel and such and I don't want to create any time paradoxes or anything. I can't really even look at myself otherwise the universe ends and-"

"Sorry, what?" Celestia said, baffled. "Could you repeat that?"

"Well, basically, I'm Rainbow Dash, just from the future," Rainbow gave Celestia a sheepish smile.

"And what, you expect me to just believe you?" Celestia groaned. "What you're talking about is complete madness. Stuff only Star Swirl the bearded used to talk about. You must be completely insane if you expect me to go along with your little act," Celestia said, frustrated.

"I'm not lying! I swear! Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!" Rainbow said, doing the motions to complete the promise.

"Excuse me?" Celestia asked.

Rainbow face-hoofed. "Ah, right. Still in the past," she muttered to herself. "It was just some thing that we do in my time. You'll see it eventually."

"Oh really? Tell me more about this future of yours, then!" Celestia doubted.

"Sure! Me and my friends are like, the bearers of the elements of harmony and stuff. I'm actually the element of Loyalty," Rainbow puffed out her chest in pride as she pointed to herself, giving a smug smile.

"The elements?" Celestia raised an eyebrow. "How do you know about the elements? Tell me more of these bearers," Celestia asked, now intrigued.

"Well, first there's Applejack, who's a great friend of mine. She's really passionate about what she does, but she's also really honest, making her the element of honesty. Then there's Fluttershy, a friend I've had since flight school and even though she is really shy, she is extremely kind and caring, which is why she's the element of kindness. Then, there's Rarity, and believe me when I tell you, she is obsessed with fashion," Rainbow chuckled.

"But with her fashion, she can be extremely generous, which makes her the element of generosity. Then there's Pinkie. She's a doozie. She'll throw a party for just about anything and make it the most fun you've ever had in your life. She's the element of laughter. And then there's Twilight," Rainbow face lit up with a warm smile. "She's such an egghead. She always has a book that she's reading. She actually owns a library, funnily enough. She's the element of magic, which brings us all together."

Celestia looked at Rainbow, puzzled. "You know of Twilight Sparkle?"

"Yeah, why?" Rainbow asked.

Celestia studied Rainbow carefully, looking for any hints of lies, but alas, she found none. Celestia sighed. "I suppose I have doubted you for too long. I believe you, Rainbow Dash," Celestia declared. "She actually is one of my students in my school. I believe she has an exam not too long from now."

"Oh yeah, wasn't that when she hatched Spike, or somethin' like that?" Rainbow asked.

Celestia chuckled. "Well, now I know you aren't lying." Her stern expression was replace with that of a calm one. "What is it that you say you've done to travel here?"

"Where do I begin?" Rainbow said. "So basically, what happened was..."

---

In Rainbow Dash's cloud house, there sat Twilight Sparkle, still working away as the hours went by.

And did the hours go by.

It was now what, 3 AM? She had been at this for hours. Reviewing pieces of parchment over and over showed to be of no support, but Twilight couldn't help but gawk at the marvelous work done by Rainbow. Had she had known earlier that one of her best friends could help her on her work, she would've spent way more time with Rainbow. Not that she wasn't already.

Twilight sighed as she thought of the things they did before this incident happened. She enjoyed the times they spent on the weekends, late at night, reading the newest book in the cyan pegasus's favorite series, Daring Do. Of course, it would always end with her friend falling asleep besides her, book in hoof. She would then neatly stack the book back where it belonged and heading upstairs to get some sleep herself.

Just thinking about it made glints of water droplets form in her eyes. She was still determined, though.

Another hour went by and she stifled a yawn. She wasn't going to get anything done at this rate. I'll probably feel better after I get some rest. Then I can continue working on this. She thought to herself. And with that, she put down the notebook she was holding and laid down on the soft, clouded floor.

***

There was an explosion. Everyone looked up and saw that it came from Rainbow's house, where there was a strange box flying through the sky at lightning speeds. Then, a painfully bright light engulfed the box and disappeared without a trace.

"What in tarnation?!" Applejack shouted. Twilight didn't pay much attention, though.

"RAINBOW?!" she cried out and quickly teleported to the scene.

She had landed on Rainbow's front doorstep where she furiously knocked on the door. "Rainbow?! Are you in there? Are you okay?" Twilight yelled out in worry. Still no response.

"Fine! I'll just let myself in!" Twilight clenched her teeth and kicked down the door. She needed to find Rainbow. With much haste, she ran through the darkened hallway, the mess of broken furniture laying on the already trashed floor. That's when she saw the open passage way from Rainbow's bookcase.

"I'm coming, Rainbow!" she cried out and ran into the room. It was completely empty. The air seemed to stop around her where she called out again. "Rainbow?"

"You're too late..." a voice called out from the shadows. She snapped her neck around to see where the sound came from. She screamed.

There lay her precious Rainbow, bleeding out on the floor. Deep cuts and bruises covered her from head to toe where she sat in a pool of her own blood. "Why didn't you save me?" Rainbow said weakly. She lifted up a broken, battered hoof. "You knew something was wrong, but you did nothing!" she spat out. Then, her hoof went limp, and her eyes turned lifeless, where her body further slouched onto the wall, sliding down slowly until she lay on her side, staring into the distance, blood coming out of her mouth.

"RAINBOW?! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! Don't go! Please don't go!" she begged to the lifeless corpse, holding its hoof. "I'm sorry..." she sobbed into her mane, getting blood all over her face, but she didn't care.

Then, Rainbow's body started to dissolve into dust. "Rainbow?!" Twilight reached out to her friend, but she disintegrated upon touch. "Rainbow?! What's happening?!" Twilight quickly stood up, eyes darting around the room as she watched it also slowly start to fade away into a pane of midnight blue.

"That is enough," a familiar voice called out. She turned to see none other than Princess Luna herself, gliding down from the night sky, before landing besides Twilight.

Twilight ran quickly ran her hooves through her mane and tried to be more presentable, before wiping the tears from her eyes. "Princess Luna! What are you doing here? Where's Rainbow? What happened?" Twilight asked.

"Tis just a dream," Luna told her. "That was quite the intense nightmare. I'm sorry you had to go through that." She gave Twilight a comforting smile. Then, as if she remembered something important, her face went serious once again.

"Twilight, I have come with some serious news," she began. "Regarding your friend Rainbow Dash, me and my sister have been working hard to find a viable solution to finding her. Alas, all of our efforts have been to no avail. Our guards haven't spotted anything even remotely showing a sign that she's there, and I haven't been able to find Rainbow Dash in the dream realm."

Luna sighed. "That is why we want you to come to Canterlot tomorrow, where we will further discuss what to do next. Make sure to bring your friends," she finished.

"Uh, why didn't you just send us a letter?" Twilight asked, to which she got a worried look from Luna.

"I'm afraid my sister is not feeling too well, and we have been a bit preoccupied with helping with her condition. For some reason, she's been getting extreme headaches and has been unable to use her magic for quite some time now," Luna said. "I would've sent a message, but I was caught up in the mess and forgot," she smiled sheepishly.

"Oh," Twilight looked down at the floor.

"What is wrong, Twilight?" Luna asked. "Is this dream not to your liking? I can change it to something more relaxing if you want," she said as she changed the land around her to a nice area by a pond, the sound of wildlife being very faint.

"It's nothing. I'm just worried for Rainbow." Tears started to form in her eyes and she looked up at Luna. "Do you think she's okay?"

"Well, the worst case scenario would be that your friend is dead, but I don't think that is very likely," Luna stated simply. Twilight broke down and started crying. Luna slapped herself in the face. "What I meant to say was that your friend is completely fine. She can handle herself, yes?" Luna corrected, scolding herself in the process.

Twilight sniffed and looked back at the midnight blue alicorn looking down upon her. She nodded.

"Well then, she should be perfectly fine. Now is there anything else?" Luna asked.

Twilight shook her head.

"Good! Then I shall go tend to the other dreams of the night," Luna said and started to walk away and stepped through an invisible barrier.

Twilight was left alone. Alone by the pond, where she saw frogs jumping around the lily pads, and the sound of crickets in the bushes. She laid down and stared into the sky, where thoughts of Rainbow Dash flooded her mind.

Author's Note:

I think I did slightly better with this chapter. I'm not too happy with the Celestia encounter, but maybe I'll go back and improve it some day. Hope you all enjoyed!