> Sins of Our Mothers
>  by Hextechnician
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> It Begins
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	


“I’m flyin’ here!” Rainbow Dash yelled at a passing hovercraft as it narrowly avoided running into her. Shaking her head, she continued to speed off towards her destination in Manehattan. Ever since the invention of the Mana Battery 15 years ago by the newly crowned Princess Twilight, technology had been advancing at a staggering rate. With a way to store energy in an extremely powerful and portable fashion, this gave ponies a new outlook towards invention and industry. Earth ponies and pegasi alike could use devices that allowed them to levitate certain objects or perform tasks that would otherwise be difficult with hooves. Entire towns could be built almost overnight due to advances in construction with machines that could be automated by spell work and run on their own power. The towns already in existence were rapidly expanding both upwards and outwards. The term “suburbs” quickly became a household word with the need to differentiate between the rural and the city life. 
Then there were the hovercraft, Rainbow didn’t harbor much love for those. The now outdated blimps weren’t so bad, they didn’t fly at the speeds she could. If ground bound ponies were meant to fly, they would have been born pegasi, right? Dismissing the irritating thought from her mind, she decided to fly to a higher altitude instead of playing chicken with oncoming traffic. She soared high above the skyscrapers and was able to see her destination in sight, the open-top Manehattan Blitzball Arena. She smirked and sped off towards the crowd of fans she knew was bound to meet her. 
Now, it was no secret to anybody that knew Rainbow Dash, she wanted to be a Wonderbolt for the longest time. Turns out she was able to accomplish her dream after only being in the academy for a year. She would be remembered as the youngest to qualify in Wonderbolt history. It was easily the happiest she had been in her life…until about 4 years later in the bittersweet event that had her take over for Soarin as Captain. Rainbow Dash was exactly where she wanted to be in her life. However, with the rise of new technology, there was also a rise in the entertainment industry. There was a new form of competition that was sweeping the globe that everypony was talking about, blitzball. The sport took away most advantages that any race of pony had over the other by pitting them against each other in a floating sphere of water. The object of the game was to get the ball into the goal of the opposing team, much like any other sport. Unlike other sports, there were very light limitations on what players were allowed to do to wrestle for control of the ball. Players all had to be outfitted with groundbreaking rune implants that allowed for underwater breathing. Many who tried to get into the game would also need to hone their strength, their agility, or both due to the water resistance.  The result was a strangely addicting high contact sport that had no equal.
At first Rainbow didn’t really have much interest in the game; the Wonderbolts were her life and there was room for little else, besides meeting with her friends when she could. Over the course of the next few years though, the game took off. She occasionally found herself watching the matches on television from time to time. She started to get an itch for the competition and she really didn’t have anything else she needed to do when the Wonderbolts were in their off-season. She decided to try out for the Manehattan Gulls.
If Rainbow Dash wasn’t a household name at that point, it surely was after her first major game in which she single-hoofedly scored 6 points. Turns out she was almost as good a swimmer as she was a flyer. Her agility and dexterity won in most situations where her strength was lacking. She would have been even better had it not been for the pegasi wing restrictions. Instead of being able to use her pride and joy, they had to be kept inside a special blitz uniform that was skin tight. Regardless, she still managed to become the team’s star player and a fan favorite, much to the delight of her friends and ego. As Rainbow came closer to landing at the stadium, she prepared the latter for inflation.
Upon landing outside the arena, she was instantly swarmed by fans young and old. Each was clamoring for an autograph, a hoofbump, or simply to get her attention. It feels good to be the king, she thought to herself. She then berated herself when she realized her head was getting to the size of a certain incident in Ponyville years back. Old habits die hard I guess. She tried to sign as many autographs as she could while catering to the crowd. Her eye spied the clock on the televisions posted around the stadium and she knew it was nearly time. 
“Come on now, everypony I gotta get into the stadium if you want a real reason to say my name!” She grinned as she tried to squeeze past the flood of ponies. After realizing she wasn’t going to make any progress quickly, she took to the air again to alleviate herself of most of the crowd, “Hey guys, I’m gonna be late!” After dodging a few airborne fans she entered the stadium to suit up for the game. Her was similar to her Wonderbolt outfit in that it was form-fitting, but it was much tighter around the wing area so as to not let them move. The suit covered her entire body and was cut at the neck and the ends of her legs, slightly before her hooves. She had to put it on hooves first and then her flank followed, the rest of the way up her chest to her neck was zipped up. The upper part of the suit around her back and sides was steel colored while the area around her belly and the insides of her legs was a blood red.
The inside of the stadium was full to bursting with spectators, eager to see some action. Rainbow laid herself back on the bench and closed her eyes to drown out the world around her. After a short while, her eyes opened to the sound of the stadiums engines flaring to life and the thunderous roar of the crowd. Rainbow stood on a horizontal ring that circled the stadium as a secondary ring gyrated while producing mana-induced sparks. She and the crowd flinched backwards as a shockwave rippled through the arena signaling the completion of the Blitzball Sphere creation. The game was on.
As the events of the game unfolded in the stadium, an old, light blue pegasus with a white streaked, navy blue mane could be seen standing upon a parapet looking out into the distance. He donned a red, buttoned cloak with a chin-high collar and sported a set of black armor. He lifted a large bottle out in front of himself in the direction of the ocean, where an extremely large mass was rising out of the water. After making his way down to the streets, he began to walk in the direction of the blitzball stadium. Ignoring the fleeing ponies around him, he continued forward as parts of the city started to come apart upon contact with the large entity. 
Back in the stadium, Rainbow jetted through the water to breach the top of the sphere as her teammate launched her the ball. As the ball headed towards her, she arched her back in reverse to set up for a sphere shot technique. After she turned completely upside-down, she saw past the stadium and into the city. Her eyes bulged and her mouth dropped open to let in a sharp intake of air. The entire world seemed to slow down as she witnessed events unfold. She saw the unnatural shape in the distance as it started to propel some sort of water-covered projectiles towards various buildings. One of such buildings being the stadium beneath her. With a resounding crash, the technology keeping the sphere in the air faltered and started to break down. Time seemed to speed up again and Rainbow saw the sphere coming apart beneath her. She attempted to right herself with her wings and was quickly reminded of their restricted status underneath her uniform. As she started plummeting towards the ground she tried to use her hoof to grab the edge of the horizontal ring that was still intact. She was able to get a hold of it and struggle for a few seconds, before being shaken off by the constant tremors travelling throughout the city. 
“AAAAAAHH!” she cried as she fell the rest of the way to the floor of the stadium. 



Rainbow awoke to find herself on the floor surrounded by the debris of the stadium. She started to get up off the ground only to be greeted by a jolt of pain on her left side. Is it…? Yeah…yep that’s broken. She thought to herself as she attempted to wiggle her left wing inside her suit. Or at least really badly sprained. The sound of chaos and confusion around her reminded her of where she was. Oh man, what the hay is going on here?! She quickly ran outside the stadium to try to get to safety, when she saw a familiar cloaked figure standing among the rubble. 
“Wha-? Soarin!” Rainbow shouted above the noise as she galloped over to him. “What are you doing here?”
“I was waiting for you,” Soarin calmly stated before travelling towards the source of destruction.
“What are you talking about?” She started after him, “And what’s with the clothes?” Before she could get an answer, the world froze around her. A little colt with a blue hood that covered his facial features approached the dumbstruck Rainbow Dash. She didn’t know who the colt was, but she somehow felt a connection to him. It was almost as if she had known him her whole life.
“It begins,” The colt said to her. Rainbow gave a noise of confusion to which he responded, “don’t cry.”
Before she could say anything, the world continued playing around her. “What the hay…?” She wondered aloud. And Rainbow Dash DOESN’T cry, she added mentally. She spotted Soarin far ahead of her and called out to him, “HEY! Wait up!” Upon reaching him she added, “I don’t know if you noticed, but that’s the exact opposite direction we should be running!” She panted to catch her breath.
Soarin looks from her to the source of destruction while saying, “Look.” Whatever the origin was, it had now fully risen out of the ocean and was floating in midair, surrounded by a sphere of water. Rainbow stared in awe at what appeared to be some sort of giant, brown whale with multiple sets of fins/flippers and a large tail. The entire being was coated in brown scales and all of its appendages were edged with a purple color. “We called it Sin.” 
“Sin? What’s that supposed to be?” Rainbow repeated as she and Soarin looked at each other. Again, before she could even hope for an answer, one of the many scales being launched from Sin hit a nearby building. That’s really starting to get old, she thought with an irritated look on her face. The scale that embedded itself seemed to have long, wiggling appendages of its own, similar to a jellyfish or an octopus. It also shot out countless smaller scales from its longest tentacle that landed all over the surrounding areas. 
Rainbow and Soarin started running in the direction of Sin, which led them straight towards a thick patch of the miniscales. When they closed the distance between them, the scales unfolded to reveal multiple short, quadruped creatures with two, tall wings extending upwards. In place of a face, they possessed three eyes and two fin-shaped pincers with spikes on the ends of them. 
“What the-? You mean that Sin-thing spawns bad guys that spawn even more bad guys?!” Rainbow was freaking out.
“Now you know why we called them Sinspawn.” replied Soarin. The creatures started to surround Rainbow and she responded by wildly bucking at them. Her attention was grabbed by a strange long sword that appeared out of the corner of her eye. The sharp edge of the blade was a standard silver color, while the area towards the center was slightly crimson. Soarin was holding it out to her with his arm outstretched, “Take it,” he told Rainbow. She did so, and noticed that the tip of the sword made a sharp angle that bent backwards to form a sort of hook shape. “A gift from Firefly.” Soarin explained. 
“My old mare?” She asked with disbelief evident in her voice. She swung it haphazardly at the Sinspawn in front of her, barely managing to keep her balance. 
“I hope you know how to use it…” Soarin said as he eyed her display.
“Sorry if I haven’t exactly been practicing,” She sounded irritated as she rolled her eyes at him, “but I think I can get the hang of it.” She smirked as she glanced back at the Sinspawn in front of her. As she did so, Soarin pulled out his own weapon, a long curved sword with a noticeable thickness to it. “Holy cow, Soarin! How can you even hold that thing? It’s almost as big as me!” Rainbow exclaimed. 
“You get used to it,” Soarin shrugged, “it also helps if you rest it on your shoulder like so when you aren’t swinging it.”
“If you say so…” Rainbow said with a hint of uncertainty. She and Soarin charged towards the first wave of Sinspawn blocking their path. Rainbow wasn’t used to fighting without her wings, much less with a sword, but she managed to use her dexterity to dodge the monsters incoming strikes and slash at it from the side. Hardly a perfect cut, but it managed to do the job as the creature let out a cry and lit up brightly before dispersing into multiple colored wisps that floated away. Soarin met his first foe head on with a heavy slash from directly above the Sinspawn’s head. It split in half and vanished in a manner similar to the one Rainbow had felled. 
“What’s with the strobe lights?” Rainbow asked as she cut into another enemy.
“They’re called pyreflies,” Soarin said, raising his sword for another strike. “All living beings have them, they’re kind of like your soul.” 
“How come I’ve never heard of them?” Rainbow asked him.
Soarin ignored the question, “We need to get through, cut the ones that matter and run.” They both continued through the swarms of enemies and made their way to the middle of a bridge. They found themselves surrounded on both sides by what seemed to be an endless amount of the foul beings. “This could be bad…” Soarin’s eyes shifted from left to right. He spotted a large mana tanker hanging off the edge of the bridge. “That! Knock it down!” He ordered Rainbow.
“WHAT?!” She looked at him like he was crazy.
“Trust me, you’ll see.” He merely stated, “I’ll hold them off.”
Rainbow started to heave against the giant explosive canister. She soon realized it wasn’t going to budge, when suddenly she spied the cables coupling the tanker to the craft that had pulled it. She gave a couple overhead strikes to them until they completely snapped. The tanker fell the long distance to the ground below and released a violent explosion to the base of an adjacent building. The structural integrity collapsed in response to the damage and the building started to fall forward until it came crashing down onto the bridge. All of the Sinspawn blocking their way were instantly crushed and the bridge started to shake rapidly. 
“GO!” Soarin shouted to Rainbow and they both rushed ahead over the remains of the collapsed building to reach the other side. Rainbow tried to catch up to Soarin as that section bridge started to fall apart. She ran to the edge of the building as it fell and made a desperate leap to reach the part of the bridge that was still standing. She managed to catch the edge of it with her forehooves and struggled to claw her way onto the bridge. She noticed Soarin slowly walk towards the edge she was hanging onto.
“Soarin!” She shouted, “A little help here?” Soarin turned his head up to the sky that was now filled with a strange, fluctuating vortex. What the…she thought as she just noticed it, that things color looks a lot like...Sin’s? 
“You are sure?” Soarin nodded his head towards it as if it could hear him. 
“What the hay’s wrong with you?” Rainbow was interrupted as he bent down to grip her by her uniform. 
He brought her up close to his face as he said, “This is it. This is your story.” Rainbow struggled against his hold as she wondered what he was talking about. She noticed the debris around them was floating up towards the vortex and felt herself floating in his grip as well. “It all begins here.” This was the last thing Rainbow heard him say before his body began to warp into the vortex’s eye.
“AAAAAAGH!” She screamed as the vortex consumed her along with him.

> Al Bhed
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------




        Rainbow Dash awoke in the night to find her body leaning against some sort of brown rock with her rear hooves floating in water. She shook her head trying to clear it and started to roll on her back, only to be reminded of the intense pain in her left wing, “Ah!” She let inhaled quickly. Well, the suit should keep it in place, so I can probably get away without taking a look at it for now. Instead, she decided to stand up completely and start looking around. She noticed her sword was still with her and she slung it across herself so as not to touch her left wing. She took in the surrounding area and realized it was the ruins of a large temple-like structure, including the rock she had been cast upon. The ruins themselves were actually halfway submerged in water, with only its tallest structures and spires protruding.
        “Soarin!” Rainbow called out, hoping for a reply, “Anypony!?” She felt her stomach sinking as she frantically looked around, “HEEEEEEY!” She shouted even though she knew no answer would come. Rainbow was more than a little upset as her situation sank in, Well this is just great. Whole city goes to Tartarus, Soarin doesn’t explain what’s going on, and I’m stranded alone. Rrgh, when I find him, he better have a good explanation. She gave a deep sigh as her rage subsided and saw a large domed part of the temple in the distance. I guess I better head up there if I want somewhere to sleep. It’s not like I’ve never been in trouble before, I’m sure the guards are already working on a rescue effort. I just have to wait around for a little while and one of the pegasi is bound to notice me. She started swimming towards a walkway that appeared to lead straight to the dome. Strange though, I don’t remember seeing anywhere like this in Manehattan…or Equestria for that matter. She shrugged it off as she climbed onto the narrow path. Whatever, it’s not like I knew the city like the back of my hoof anyway. 
        She made it halfway across the stone walkway before she felt a rumble. Oh come on! She thought to herself just as the rocks beneath her started to give. She quickly started to run as far as she could before making a jump to the part of the bridge that wasn’t falling. She landed with all four hooves on the other side and looked back to give a triumphant smirk. Hah, piece of cake. She started to walk forward and didn’t notice that there was a wet spot on the ground in front of her. Her hooves made contact and her heart skipped a beat as she immediately lost her balance and fell into the water with a splash.
        Rainbow surfaced and spat out some water that she accidently took in. Not fair, she thought as she moved her mane out of her face. She looked up at the now broken platform and narrowed her eyebrows. Now what? She decided to follow it the rest of the way by water to see if it would lead her to another way up. She swam for a few minutes before she heard a bubbling in the water. Seconds later, a strange looking, green fish that was about her size breached the water over her head. What?! She thought this as two more followed suit. They had two elongated dorsal fins and multiple tail fins, similar to other fish. The strange part was the fact that not only did they have teeth, which was rare, but the fins on their sides were longer and had sharp claw-like edges to them.
        Rainbow took a dive into the water and starting swimming as fast as she could. When it didn’t look like the creatures were going to give up, she drew her sword and turned to face them. Okay you know what, fine. I needed an outlet for my anger anyway, she thought with her temper flaring. The closest creature lunged at her and she swiveled her body to avoid it; she countered with a slash across the side of its body as it rushed by her. She noticed it disperse in the same manner that the Sinspawn had, Huh, I guess Soarin was right. I still don’t understand why I am just now seeing this, this isn’t the first time I’ve seen a wild animal die. I know I’ve never seen a pony do that. As her mind wandered on a tangent, she felt the wind knocked out of her as a second fish tackled her from behind. She shrugged off the hit and righted herself in time to counter the third attacker by shooting over it as it charged and cutting it from above.
        She looked around for the soon to be sushi that had hit her and saw it was rapidly swimming away. Rainbow gave a cocky grin as she watched it leave. Hah, that’s right, run like a guppy! Nopony messes with Rainbow Dash. She turned around to continue following her route just in time to see the scariest looking monster she’d ever seen zooming towards her. All sense of victory gone, she dived down as quickly as possible to avoid its gaping maw. Having narrowly dodged it, she looked over her shoulder to get a more complete view. It was very round looking, almost like a giant ball, except this ball was spikey, scaly, and had tentacles on its undercarriage. Instead of fins, it had arms in the shape of fins with pincers on the ends of them. The strangest part about it was its chest area, Rainbow could see inside of it! It looked like a more complex, but hollow rib cage. Its head had other protrusions that glowed at the tips and it didn’t look like it had any eyes. The mouth that she had just avoided, peeled back six flaps to roar at her, making the water in the area bubble and froth. Yeah I think I’m done here, Rainbow thought as she beat a hasty retreat. She was tough, but she wasn’t stupid.
        Rainbow spotted a small opening in a wall of the submerged ruin, That’ll do it. She started to pick up speed so the monster wouldn’t be able to keep up. She felt her rear hoof brush up against something living. Oh boy, she used the last of her adrenalin to push herself even faster.  She managed to breach the entrance that opened up into a tunnel. The moment she did she felt the threat that was following her crash into the side of the wall outside. A rush of water soon followed and made Rainbow lose control as it propelled her through the rest of the tunnel. She was soon launched out of the tunnel and made contact with a solid enough force to stop her face first. The exit she came out of was quickly crushed beneath new layers of debris. 
Rainbow gave a slight groan as she got back to her hooves and lightly shook her head. She observed her new surroundings to find that it was only a small room that had chunks of rocks littering it, no doubt from the various holes in the ceiling. She also noticed there was a stairway ahead of her that lead straight upwards. Guess I’ve only got one option, she thought after looking towards the cave-in. She made her way up the stairs and went into the next area.
She came out of an archway into a colossal, circular room. There were multiple statues and pillars of ornate design that she had never seen anything similar to. She could see other floors from where she was standing that seemed to go all the way up. A broken waterfall was cascading down one side from a couple holes in the ceiling. Rainbow noticed for the first time that her breath was visible, but she didn’t really give it much thought, pegasi traditionally lived at such a high altitude that they were naturally resistant to the cold. She did however, notice that all of the recent activity had left her exhausted. Satisfied that the area was safe enough, she set her sword to her side as she curled up for a much needed rest.



Rainbow’s slumber was disturbed when a rock came loose from above and hit the ground near her. “Mm, I’ll fix the clouds in a minute…” she said groggily. A skittering noise followed by a couple more rocks falling caught her attention and she remembered where she was. Sitting up with a jolt, Rainbow’s head darted from left to right. She looked up for the source of the commotion and her eyes met with those of a being not completely dissimilar to an oversized scorpion. There were a few key differences though: it was thinner, black, and the tail curved the opposite direction. It also only had four legs that had a sort of armor that continued past the point where it was jointed, making it look like it could impale something by kneeing it. Its head also shared this armor that extended back like a helmet. 
The creature took a lap around the walls of the room and jumped down at Rainbow with an arm poised for a strike. She rolled out of the way as the creature came smashing down onto the ground. She tried to strike at it but her sword skidded off of its armored parts. She and the beast traded attacks back and forth without either making much headway. Rainbow was starting to get tired, she still hadn’t fully recovered. Before she could come up with an idea, a violent explosion was heard and a pair of double doors were blown open at one side of the chamber. 
Rainbow glanced over to see a group of earth ponies pour into the room. They all wore what seemed to be jumpsuits or some sort of clothes she would expect from mechanical field workers. They all had either goggles or full face masks and were wielding some strange looking sticks with metal on them. There was one shapelier figure with an interesting mane that stuck up through their red headgear. They too were sporting a pair of goggles but didn’t seem to have a weapon. The pony walked up to Rainbow cracking her neck as they did so. Rainbow eyed them warily and came to the conclusion they were female from the way her face looked. When the mysterious mare came closer to Rainbow, she turned to face the monster. 
“You here to help? Awesome!” Rainbow said as she focused her attention once more on the creature before them. Before she could reinitiate the fight, the unnamed mare retrieved an item from a satchel and threw it at their enemy. “Hey uh, I don’t think a rock is gonna-,” Rainbow started before the object exploded on contact with the ground around the monster. “Whoa!” Rainbow exclaimed as the monster started to dissipate into pyreflies, “That was so cool! I’ve never seen anything like that. You guys like Special Forces or something? And what’s with the sticks?” She continued to talk as the mare with the explosives took off her goggles. Suddenly Rainbow’s mane was grabbed from behind, “HEY, what gives!” She shouted. The other ponies surrounded her and were pointing their sticks at her, the sticks also had spears on the ends of them so Rainbow felt less prone to struggling.
“Fryd ec drec?” One of them asked the others.
“Y fiend! Eh buho tekieca!” Another one cried out. She recognized the word fiend, but not much else.
“Are you guys crazy? Is that it?” Rainbow said with her eyes darting from one pony to another.
“Fa gemm ed?” They ignored Rainbow and brought a knife to her throat. She immediately tensed up.
“Fyed!” The mare from before walked over to them, “Fryd ev ec y buho?”
The one with the knife to her neck twirled it around and pointed it to the mare while saying, “Drao yna dra cysa eh taydr.” Rainbow didn’t know why, but whatever he said sounded menacing.
“E vunpet ed!” The mare stomped her hoof down, “Fa pnehk ed fedr ic.” She walked closer to Rainbow and put her head beside hers, “Cunno.” She whispered as Rainbow felt a hoof drive up into her gut, knocking the wind out of her and sending her to the ground. Rainbow took one last look at the mare before slipping into unconsciousness. 



        When Rainbow woke up she found herself under the stars lying on a hard metal surface. She sat up quickly and saw she was on the deck of some kind of ship. It didn’t have any sails like most ships she saw and the deck she was on was in the back of the ship. The front was taken up almost entirely by what looked like a large water wheel. That’s one way to make a ship move, she thought. The wheel was covered by a long metal awning with searchlights that were currently moving across the water. Rainbow saw that there were two of the ponies from before standing in front of her. She started to get up when they quickly turned around to face her. One of them smacked her back down to the ground.
        “Ced, lybdeja!” He raised his voice at her.
        “Hey pal, you better watch it, you’re really starting to make me angry.” She noticed she still had her weapon and was going to reach for it until the other one pointed the stick-thing right in her face. She didn’t know what it was, but she wasn’t sure she was ready to find out yet. “Alright, fine.” She snorted, finally relenting. They were interrupted by a mechanical sound and Rainbow saw a piece of the ship open upwards to reveal the mare that hit her as well as a stallion she hadn’t seen before. He had a Mohawk and wore goggles much like the others she had seen. He also wore suspenders without a shirt so she was able to see a large tattoo that covered most of his body. 
        “Caynlr ran.” He pointed at Rainbow.
The other mare came behind Rainbow and held her with one hoof to stand her up and started patting her down. Rainbow tried to retain her angry look, but winced as her left wing was grazed. They seemed either to not care or take notice. The stallion started to make some funny noises and gestures that looked like swimming.
“Uh…?” Rainbows ire was being replaced by confusion at this point.
“Tu oui hud cbayg?” He gave her a quizzical look. He then continued to make gestures and grunts and pointed to her, a pair of goggles, and then the water.
“So uh, you guys just let me know when you want to start making sense.” Rainbow rolled her eyes.
“Ehcumahla!” One of the original ponies shouted as he stuck his stick back into her face.
“Fyed!” The mare exclaimed from behind Rainbow. She then whispered, “They said you can stay if you make yourself useful.”
“What!? You could understand me? Why didn’t you say anything before!?” Rainbow growled at her. She then received a smack to the back of her head. “OW, fine! I got it! Don’t know how much help I’ll be half-starved and lame though.” She huffed.
“Lame?” The mare gave her a look, “You’re walking just fine.”
“I meant my wing…” Rainbow’s eyes narrowed as she looked pointedly to her back.
“You’re a pegasus!?” It was the mare’s turn to be surprised, Rainbow wasn’t sure why. The mare started to stare intensely as she said, “Prove it.”
“Fine, just let me get out of this thing.” Rainbow replied. The mare let go of her and Rainbow started to unzip the front of her uniform. She slid the top part down to her flank to reveal her wings, one of which was swollen, before the others. Most of them either let out a gasp or their eyes widened. “What’s the big deal?” She looked at them bewildered. 
“What do mean, ‘what’s the big deal’ you’re a pegasus!” The mare said to her excitedly.
“Yeah so?” Rainbow still didn’t get it, but she started to feel uneasy.
“Pegasus are the rarest pony type on the planet! How could you not know this?” The mare continued gawking at her as Rainbow let what she had said sink in. “Oh wow, I never thought I would meet one after the last one disappeared ten years ago!” She kept talking.
“Whoa, whoa ju-just hang on a minute.” Rainbow’s brain kick started again, “What are you talking about? Have you never even heard of Cloudsdale? There’s tons of us there, I should know, being born there and all.” Rainbow looked at her like she was crazy, “That doesn’t even include the rest of Equestria!” 
“Uh, did you hit your head or something?” She cocked her head at Rainbow.
“Uh, you guys hit me.” Rainbow corrected her.
“Oh yeah, sorry.” She rubbed the back of her head, “We thought oui were a fiend.”
“We?” Rainbow asked.
“Oh! Oui means you.” The mare explained and looked again at Rainbow’s swollen wing, “Ouch…that looks like it hurts.” The mare walked in front of her said something in the strange language to the others. Rainbow thought they looked a little miffed at first but then seemed to lighten up a bit. While she was talking, Rainbow started to take off the rest of her suit. The mare slowly stopped talking when she noticed the others were staring behind her instead of listening. She turned her head and blushed profusely as she saw Rainbow removing her garments. “H-Hey! What are you doing!?” She rushed over to block Rainbow from the other ponies.
“Taking my suit off?” Rainbow’s statement sounded more like a question.
“In public!?” The mare sounded embarrassed. 
“What’s wrong with that?” Rainbow asked her.
“I don’t know where you’re from, but ponies should keep their pants on, literally!” The mare explained as she tried to pull Rainbow’s clothes back up her body. 
“Why? We don’t normally wear clothes.” Rainbow smirked at a memory of a similar exchange.
“Well in Spira, we do.” The mare pouted at her and Rainbow had to stifle a giggle because she looked kind of cute. 
“If you say so, but I would still kind of like a cast or a splint rather than a Blitzball outfit.” Rainbow decided to play along.
“Oh yeah, they said you didn’t have to dive until it got better. Let’s go get you fixed up, for now at least, they still want you to help on the ship.” She started pushing Rainbow into the opening from earlier and led her down inside the ship. Rainbow was taken through a few corridors until they came to a door that had an electric sign that glowed with the word ‘Rikku’. The door slid upwards and the mare lead Rainbow inside.
“So does Rikku mean hospital?” Rainbow questioned her as they entered the room.
“What? Oh, sorry. That’s my name!” She happily told her. She directed her towards her bed and motioned for Rainbow to sit.
“That’s an interesting name.” Rainbow complied and took a break from standing.
“Well, what’s yours?” Rikku asked as she started to retrieve some bandages from a first aid kit.
“Rainbow Dash,” She was all too happy to tell Rikku as she waited for the look of recognition.
“You mean the Rainbow Dash?” Rikku asked her with excitement.
There it is, Rainbow thought, “The one and only!” 
“Never heard of you” Rikku smiled at her.
Rainbow’s mouth dropped and her mood sank. “What do you mean you’ve never heard of me?” Rainbow snapped her head towards Rikku, “You know, Element of Loyalty, Captain of the Canterlot Wonderbolts, and star Blitzball player for the Manehattan Gulls?” Rainbow elaborated. 
Rikku’s smile turned into a look of worry. She made her way to Rainbow and started peeling back the top of her suit to get to her wing. “Are you sure you’re okay?” She asked as she started to wrap Rainbow’s wing. 
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Rainbow arched an eyebrow, “Aside from the obvious.” She motioned towards her current predicament. 
“It’s just that…well, what do you remember from before?” Rikku sounded uncertain. Rainbow proceeded to tell her everything, about her best friends, their adventures, accomplishing their dreams, and everything that had led up to Sin’s attack on Manehattan. Rikku was silent for a while and Rainbow started to get a nagging feeling in the back of her head. “You were close to Sin…” Rikku sounded sure of herself now, “Don’t worry, you’ll get better in no time!” She had long since finished patching up Rainbow and now jumped up off the bed. “Maybe you just had a weird dream or something?”
“Wha-?” Rainbow scrunched her eyebrows together. Rikku left the room and Rainbow quickly zipped up her uniform and followed after. Rikku was already on her way above deck when Rainbow caught up. “What did you mean by that?”
“It’s probably Sin’s toxin.” Rikku elaborated as they walked outside. “Ponies usually act all funny if they get to close to Sin.”
“Hey you can’t just-,” Rainbow started but was cut off by Rikku continuing her sentence.
“I mean, Equestria’s been destroyed for a thousand years!” Rikku looked off the side of the boat and into the distance, “Sooo no pony plays Blitzball there. The Princesses have been gone since then too!” 
Rainbow was stunned. What…I…she couldn’t even form a complete thought. “Wh-You can’t be serious.” She said in disbelief. “I was just there, I saw Sin attack Manehattan! You’re saying that happened a thousand years ago? That’s insane!” Rainbow shook her head. This mare’s definitely crazy, the whole ship probably is, she thought. 
Rikku didn’t answer immediately but when she did it wasn’t what Rainbow was expecting, “Hey…you said you play Blitzball?” Rainbow nodded in affirmation. “You know, you should go to Luca. You might find somepony you know or maybe somepony who knows you.”
“Luca? What’s that?” Rainbow tilted her head.
“Ugh,” Rikku’s hoof met her face and she started to pace around in a circle as if deciding what to say next. She stopped pacing and came up close to Rainbow’s face, “Okay, I’ll get you to Luca, promise!” Rainbow just looked at her with a blank expression. “You’d rather stay here?” Rikku teased.
“Uh, no way!” Rainbow shook her head rapidly.
“Okay then, I’ll go tell ajanobuho!” She smiled.
“Ahjahnobootoh?” Rainbow tried to repeat.
“Sorry, it means everypony!” Rikku told her.
“So what language is that?” Rainbow wanted to know before she was left alone to think.
“It’s Al Bhed, can’t you tell?” Rikku started to walk back towards the door that lead below deck. She paused for a second, “Wait…you’re not an Al Bhed hater are you?” Rikku sounded crestfallen and her eyes started to resemble those of a puppy.
“I can’t really hate something I know nothing about, can I?” Rainbow responded with another question.
“Hah I guess not.” Rikku grinned and turned back around, only to do a complete 360 as she added, “Oh, and don’t tell anypony you’re from Manehattan, Ponyville, or any other city like that. Yevon says it’s a holy place, even if the only city still above water is Canterlot.” 
Rainbow still thought she was crazy, but just had to ask, “So what happened to Cloudsdale then? It can’t exactly drown.” Rainbow snorted.
“Remember what I said? Pegasi are rare, the gene is almost nonexistent now. Any time one is born, it’s a momentous occasion!” Rikku’s expression turned darker, “Without the ability to manipulate the weather, the city just sort of fell apart over time…nopony could live there even if they wanted to.” She turned to go below decks and Rainbow just stared off the side of the boat. 
Ponyville, a holy place? Rainbow stood there thinking like she had been for a while. Since when? I thought Sin just took me somewhere off the coast, but a thousand years into the future? Rainbow started to get angry at the very thought. No way. She turned and slammed her hoof into the side of a shipping container. NO WAY! She made contact with it and the ship suddenly started shaking. What the? The ship continued to the point where it rocked back and forth violently. Rainbow lost her balance and rolled backwards into the guardrail with a thud. The ships doors opened and a few Al Bhed plus Rikku came running out only to lose their balance as well. The ones that got back up made it over to the guardrail and looked out to sea. Rainbow turned her head and followed suit only to see a familiar sight. 
“SIN!” One of them shouted, Rainbow didn’t need to be told what that meant.
“Sin ec lusa!” Another one yelled. “Ihtan ic! Ihtan ic!”
The ship continued to rock, but Rainbow managed to get back to her hooves. No sooner had she gotten up when the ship shook even harder and a large wave washed onto the decks. Rainbow didn’t see it coming and was swept up into the ocean. She looked back up at the ship to see Rikku looking back in horror before being sucked into a whirlpool and blacking out.