Double Rainbow

by theworstwriter

Chapter 21

The dim moonlight that filtered in through the window was pretty. It was not the reason Scootaloo couldn’t sleep, but she still couldn’t stop herself from being annoyed at it. She was in a bad enough mood that everything around her seemed to be trying to bother her. Plenty of days had gone by, and her memories had still not returned. Nopony in town recognized her, and there had been no word of a missing foal matching her description… everypony had come to the unspoken agreement that she was a wandering orphan. A sad little homeless pony who happened to be unfortunate enough to have lost her memory. A kind young couple with no children of their own had taken her in, promising she could stay for “As long as she needed to.”

Food, shelter, and ponies who cared. Shouldn’t that have been enough? Scootaloo felt like a selfish jerk for thinking she needed more in her life. Something very important to her was missing, and although she couldn’t remember what, it didn’t seem right to be unhappy with what she had.

It happened a few days later, out by the market stalls. The shopping trip was boring, as usual, and the short distance back to the house didn’t hold much promise. There had been just a few fluffy white clouds lazily floating through the sky on the otherwise perfect day. No, that wasn’t true. There was a single gray cloud hovering above a nearby patch of grass. A cyan pegasus dashed in from nowhere and flew away with the cloud. Some sort of spark ignited deep inside, strange feelings she didn’t have names for making their way to the forefront of her mind. Her natural curiosity easily overpowering her adoptive parents’ orders to not wander away, she galloped off in the direction the mare had gone.

Less than a minute later, Scootaloo found herself staring at a strange sort of tornado that was somehow also a rainbow. When it stopped, she saw the pegasus from before. Had she done that? Could ponies DO that? This was definitely no ordinary mare, and she’d have to keep her eyes on this one. The strange feelings bubbled up into her head, and without knowing how, she knew this pony was what she needed. A friend? An idol? Maybe a mentor?

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Panting and sweating and utterly unable to move, Rainbow Dash lay cemented to the earth with a wide grin plastered on her face. She didn’t know or care about the technical details of how she had done it, but even if she did she wouldn’t have been able to explain it. And she would NOT be explaining it. Applejack had come to an immediate, almost supernatural understanding of what had just happened. Trying to explain anything to Twilight would result in a lot of yelling.

Dash had done what was never supposed to be done. What was never supposed to be ABLE to be done. History had changed. Originally, Dash had gone back to the farm to see Applejack and nothing had gotten in her way. Now, however… now things had gone differently. She could even feel her memories reshaping themselves as it happened. She didn’t go straight to the farm. A blinding flash of light in front of her had forced her to stop. A crater at least twenty feet across stretched out in front of her. The crater was filled with a swirling foggy mist that somehow held every color and yet none of them. She saw herself at the bottom, slowly making her way up toward the edge.

The other her was breathing heavily. “Don’t.”

“Didn’t Twilight say we were done with all this junk?”

“She isn’t involved this time. This is more important than that.”

She shook herself free of her memories. She had just had the other side of that conversation and there was no need to go through it again. Everything worked. Applejack was okay, Equestria wasn’t destroyed, and the crater even fixed itself. The impact had un-happened right in front of her eyes as her other self vanished. There was no need to involve Twilight because there was nothing to involve her in. The one single event was self-contained and complete, or so she thought.

Funny thing about paradoxes… you can’t possibly predict what’s going to happen. They don’t follow the rules. Hell, the rules say they can’t even BE. Once you’ve got one on your hands, the rules go right out the window. Do you remember the bit about how energy bleeds off of things that are in motion? A paradox doesn’t follow the rules. A paradox can’t even rightly be described as a thing.

Rainbow Dash hadn’t formed a wormhole during her latest endeavor. Too tricky. Too roundabout. The quickest path between two points is a straight line. Dash had just plowed straight through the fabric of reality to her destination, not caring what damage she did along the way. She then went back the way she came, but she wasn’t alone. The paradox had been pulled along behind her, repairing the damage she did along the way. Why and how did it repair the damage? It’s impossible to say. They say a paradox destroys space and time, but they have no evidence to base that on. You can’t actually predict what will happen.

When she stopped, it didn’t. It kept moving forward and it didn’t follow the rules…

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Twilight Sparkle had painted herself a clear picture of what had happened and the threat that needed to be dealt with. Her message to herself explained in full detail how Rainbow Dash had inadvertently caused a rupture that was spreading out across realities. That things should be coming through these tears and that in the infinite sea of possibility all things were bound to happen at least once.

Forces naturally follow the path of least resistance. The ordinary ‘resistance’ permeating the cosmos that held alternate timelines apart had been stressed most in the areas located (physically and temporally) near Twilight’s recent escapades. And yet for some reason, nothing had been detected. This was unlikely… many orders of magnitude more unlikely than things immediately tossed out as impossible. The only plausible explanation was that some figure was in control. The math worked out. If an appropriate crack appeared, it should be possible to slip in and explore the space between realities. The place behind the curtain.

Without any data to work with it was impossible to be sure exactly what could be done from back there, but it was the only idea to go on. No forces she had a proper understanding of could perform this kind of manipulation. Since Twilight Sparkle had been directly involved in the events that lead to the rupture, as well as the various effects reducing the chrono-linear displacement resistance around her, anypony smart enough to get backstage would be smart enough to keep an eye on her. Somepony was back there controlling things, and that pony would be watching her. That pony had purposefully refrained from contacting her or letting her deduce what had happened by allowing matter to phase across the lines.

Somepony was very good at this, and that pony didn’t trust her enough to let her in on what was happening. When the fate of all that is rests in your hooves, you can’t afford to take chances. Twilight Sparkle had no choice but to treat this unknown entity as anything but an enemy.

Comments

[Therouge10]

Dear Therouge10,

The fanfic you are tracking called 'Double Rainbow' has just updated!

(Click here to go and see it.)

Please do not respond to this email.

Me: FUCK YA!

[FanOfMostEverything]

Mother and daughter healing the space-time continuum, with only one aware of what she's actually doing. Neat.

[Cloud]

Wha-
I-
Uh-
...Alright. I left a comment on, like, chapter three about how time travel is totally confusing and melts my brain. And now? Now you're dealing with parallel universes. Parallel universes containing time travel creating time travel and effecting other universes at the same time... Can you even do that? I mean, is this even legal?
I am going to make it a point NOT to say it can not get any more complex - because I know it will.

[Trave]

It's probably not, but this entity has got to be the Doctor!

Yea, the Doctor! Screw you time line He's a Timelord!

Or it could be or OH GOD NO, PLEASE GOD DON'T LET IT BE OH F@@@@, It's her isn't it!!!

If it is ! I'm leaving the country! Like that would do anything! Oh God! She saw me!!!!

[erictheblue]

oh, i think the "enemy" is another Twilight, the one Scootaloo knocked down in an earlier chapter.