When Twilight finds herself intertwined with a gang of adrenaline-loving renegades in another timeline, she is faced with possibly her most life-risking adventure yet: snowboarding.
In a cold, post-apocalyptic alternate timeline of Equestria live the Neon Skulls, a gang of renegade ponies who live for adrenaline and will stop at nothing to achieve it.
This time around they've found themselves a new recruit, an alicorn, and she's coming along for the ride - whether she likes it or not.
Cover art by atryl
This is the big one. This was the fic I was the most passionate about and tried, desperately at points, to get off the ground as much as possible though all of 2016. It's also the one the work I did on I'm proudest of in retrospect. Included is a full plot outline I wrote for a Reddit thread about abandones fanfics at some point. If there's anything I did in my pony years I consider to be "my child" in any sense, it's this one.
It was all she could feel. Her senses had almost completely blacked out, the only faint sliver of consciousness she could muster up completely occupied by the feeling of relentless, brutal cold.
Eventually, she awoke. She stumbled to sit up and survey her surroundings, but she was weak and it was dark, and she could only make out a few cursory details; some intimidating-looking mountains in the distance, scattered bits and pieces of industrial flair tinged with hints of glowing neon green, pine trees, and snow; lots and lots of snow.
A horrifying realization struck her; she had no idea where she was.
Before she had the opportunity to breathe in this strange new environment, the poor alicorn began to feel weary; frostbite was getting to her. As the wind began to pick up and ramp up the already unbearable cold, she once again began to lose consciousness, and fell back into the thick, white blanket of snow.
But just as she was about to breathe what may have been her last breath, a dark figure jumped in out of nowhere and shocked the freezing pony awake.
"GOTCHA!" the mystery pony exclaimed before swiping up the alicorn in her hooves and flying away out of the small forest clearance the pony had nearly frozen to death in.
"I found a loner. Color: purple. Species: alicorn. Cutie mark: appears to be a system of stars connected by a large purple six-sided one in the middle. Found her freezing her flank off in a clearance in the Metro area forest. Returning to base now. Over." Her voice sounded strikingly familiar. She tried to catch a glimpse of the pony’s face, but it was too dark to see anything outside of what appeared to be a bandana covering her mouth, bearing a glowing neon-green skull pattern.
The Pegasus landed the two of them just outside the forest. "Sure caught a lucky break there, huh, kid? For a second there I thought you were dead. Say, what's your name?"
She was too disoriented to properly make out the figure’s face, let alone answer the question. She struggled to speak.
"M... my name?"
"Uhh, yeah. You do have a name, right?", she responded in a cocky tone of voice.
"My... my name is Twilight Sparkle, and I-"
"Sparkle, huh? Cool. Name's Rainbow Dash, always nice to meet a potential new recruit”, the Pegasus responded, extending her hoof.
The name struck a chord. "Wait... R- Rainbow Dash?" Twilight questioned. She knew that voice was familiar... but why was she talking like this was the first time they had met? And for that matter, what did she mean by "new recruit"?
Before Twilight could even start to question Rainbow any further, the conversation was interrupted by a loud wailing sound.
"Welp, that's our cue." Rainbow said before pulling out a large snowboard from behind her back. She pressed a small red button on the board's edge that lit it up in a spectrum of fascinating neon colors. “You like it?”
In the newfound light, Twilight finally got a full glimpse of Rainbow; she was padded in thermal snow armor with a large black hoodie over it, the hood pulled over her head with a few locks of her prismatic mane sticking out, a thick pair of light blue snow goggles, and that skull bandana, obscuring her nose and mouth.
"Oh, hold up! One more thing." Rainbow unzipped her hoodie, pulled out a can of black spray paint that was strapped to the inside, walked over to a nearby metal structure, and marked a giant cloud symbol with a three-striped lightning bolt right in front of her, then writing out the initials “N.S.” with a small skull shape to the lower right of it.
She nodded to herself as she put the canister back into her jacket, zipped her hoodie back up, and walked back over to Twilight.
Rainbow took the board and set it on the edge of a nearby slope, jumped on in a standing position, strapped herself in and instructed Twilight to get on and hold on tight. Twilight was reluctant, but she figured there was nothing else to do out here, so she followed the pegasus’ instructions. Rainbow moved the board forward to set the board in motion down the hill, and just like that, they were off.
The wind whipped violently through Rainbow's hair as she sped through the ice-coated landscape. The freezing cold air on her face, the adrenaline rushing through her veins, the feeling of her heart thumping violently in her chest... this was the kind of rush that Rainbow lived for. She blazed her way through the wasteland, taking every opportunity she could to fly off the nearest slope or outcropping and pull off some utterly insane flips and tricks, weaved her way meticulously between walls and pillars of stone; she flew off the edge of a cliffside and pulled off a triple spin, before landing on a stray steel rail and balancing on it perfectly, accelerating forward before leaping off in a spectacular backflip onto another descending slice of frozen land, moving forward at an extreme momentum, all in the freezing cold with limited sight. It was dangerous, sure, but she didn't care. She loved it.
In that moment, Rainbow felt truly alive.
Twilight, on the other hand, wasn't quite so enthused; she was so heavily disoriented from her rude awakening, freezing cold, and had no clue where she was or what was going on or who this strange version of Rainbow Dash was that was carrying her rather recklessly through this winter wasteland. Her mind was a hazy blur of questions, looming sleepiness, and now nauseousness as she held on for dear life.
The two sped into a dark tunnel; the only bit of sight they had was from the circle of spectral light emitted by the board, and even that was limited. Rocks came falling down from the ceiling all around them, Twilight feared the tunnel may be caving in.
Twilight mustered up the energy to speak once again. "Uuh… was this really a good idea?", she asked in a very panicked tone. She had to speak up to the best of her ability; the sound of crumbling rocks and wind in the two mares' ears made communication a difficult task.
"What, this ol' place? I ride here all the time, it's awesome!" she responded with a laugh. Rainbow seemed quite sure of herself, keeping up her momentum as she spoke.
Rainbow suddenly caught sight of the end of the tunnel; her eyes glinted and her mouth cracked a smile. It was almost time.
"All right, kid, ready for the drop?"
"The drop!?"
"Oh yeah, at the end of this tunnel is a massive downwards slope. Steepest in the region. It feels just like falling down a cliff!"
That last detail took Twilight aback.
"Isn't this extremely dangerous!?"
Rainbow snorted at Twilight and looked ahead; "we don’t fear danger", she responded in a very serious tone.
They came upon the end of the tunnel, and then came the drop.
As they sped down the steep strip of snow, both ponies' stomachs were in their throats. Rainbow had done this a hundred times, but the thrill of plummeting at such a massive speed with only her physical skills and her board to keep her alive never ceased to send a shiver of pure adrenaline down Rainbow's spine. It was truly incredible.
Of course, she probably would have been enjoying it a lot more if Twilight wasn't clutching onto her back crying and repeating "I'm gonna die" ad nauseam.
When they finally reached the bottom, the board built off the momentum off the drop and sped straight forward until they reached their destination.
They finally stopped in front of a giant, graffiti-coated steel garage door, built into the side of a large, seemingly abandoned warehouse. The building was coated in graffiti, a variety of colors and shapes, but mostly abstract or unintelligible with the exception of a giant neon green skull and crossbones bearing the letters "N.S." right in the center.
Rainbow stepped off her board and got back on all fours, and said with a hefty exhale, "we're here".
Twilight wasn't well. Whatever there was left, that drop had taken it all out of her; she collapsed off of the board, fell into the snow, and once again faded out of consciousness.
“Dash, listen to me. Look, I’m glad you’re enthusiastic about this, but to me she sounds completely inexperienced! For all we know she’s never even boarded in her life. How do you expect somepony who couldn’t make it through the drop without completely passing out to even fathom taking on the harder stuff, let alone Tirek’s Peak?”
“Please, Scratch, can’t we give her a chance?”
“Oh, by all means give her a chance. Just don’t be so cocky as to think she’s going to be able to become one of us right away, OK?”
There was a brief moment of silence, followed by a door opening.
Twilight's eyes opened to see Rainbow sitting on the edge of the bed.
"Mornin’, newbie."
Twilight observed her surroundings. She was in a bedroom-sized, garage-like room, walls coated with graffiti of seemingly random scribbles, initials, profanities, and symbols of cutie marks. She turned around to see Rainbow, the same one she had been rescued by the previous night, sitting there. With the snowsuit removed, Twilight could now see that, along with the bandana which was still obscuring her mouth, her whole body, save for her face, had been tattooed with a glow-in-the-dark neon-green skeleton motif.
It wasn't some random dream or anything like she had thought; something very strange was going on.
"Who was that you were talking to?" she asked.
"Ah, Vinyl Scratch. Don’t worry ‘bout her. She can be a little hostile towards newcomers, but trust me, she's a good pony once you get to know her."
The name instantly rung a bell. "Let me guess: white unicorn, lightning blue hair, music note cutie mark?"
Rainbow was taken aback. "Y... yeah, that's Scratch all right. How did you..."
“Because I know her! And… and I know you too! I mean I don’t know you, personally, but I know… you… like… I...” Twilight stumbled over her words. Even she had no clue what she was saying anymore.
“You’re not making any sense here… Sparkle, you said?”
“Twilight Sparkle. And...” she sighed. “Forget about it. I’ll try to explain later, I’m… I’m still a little messed up is all. I just hope Spike is…”
She stopped mid-sentence. Her eyes widened.
“SPIKE! Oh no, Spike! Where is he? Is he OK?” she frantically questioned Rainbow, clinging onto her.
Rainbow gave a confused glare, pushing Twilight a glare. “Uhh, who’s ‘Spike’?”
“Small dragon, purple and green, raspy voice? Did you see him?”
Rainbow shook her head. “Sorry, Sparkle. I’d scouted pretty much the whole sector before I ran into you. No dragon in sight.”
Twilight lowered her head into her crossed forehooves. “Well, that’s just great. Now I’m stuck in this stupid wasteland with no idea what’s going on, and I’m all by myself.”
Rainbow sighed, patting Twilight on the back. “Come on, you’re not all alone here. You’ve got us.”
“Who is ‘us’?”
“You know what? I’m gonna give you some more time to rest and think stuff over. Looks like you need it. I’m willing to introduce you to the gang whenever you’re ready.”
And with that, Rainbow was off.
Twilight laid back down, sighing as she buried her face into a pillow. Even though it wasn’t as bad as it was outside in the brutal tundra, the room was still measurably cold. She desperately tried to recall any recent memories of her home that she could, but anything recent that could lead to a clue as to what had happened was a big haze. Maybe with time her memories would clear up. She rolled over and stumbled out of bed, and trotted out of the door.
She found herself in a large warehouse-like setting, standing on a steel balcony that ran along all four walls of the room. She leaned up against the rail and observed the setting.
The walls of concrete and steel coated with even more graffiti and lined with snowboarding gear and more posters. A busted-up gray couch and vending machine full of energy drinks also parced her line of vision, and a couple more garage doors like the one she saw the previous night, albeit smaller.
“See you’re awake.”
Twilight let out a small scream and flinched. The voice caught her completely off guard.
“Whoa there, chill out. It’s just me,” Rainbow assured her.
Twilight caught her breath. “Oh. Hey, Rainbow. Umm… cool place you got here.”
“Thanks, and there’s a lot more where this came from. I’ll give you the full tour later. For now, ready to meet some of the crew?”
“Sure.”
“Awesome. Hey guys, in here!” she called out.
One of the doors in the lower story was lifted open by hoof and a few ponies flooded into the room, all bearing the same bandanas and body paint as Rainbow, all ponies Twilight recognized, Vinyl Scratch being one of them.
Rainbow and Twilight descended to the lower floor, Rainbow hoofbumping and making small interactions with the group.
The pony resembling Vinyl Scratch walked towards Twilight. Alongside the bandana and tattoos, she bore a pair of magenta pink snow goggles strapped over her forehead just above her horn in place of the signature glasses Twilight was familiar with, black bracelets and piercings lining her front hooves and ears respectively, and a gray beanie adorned with black buttons, each adorned with a different glow-in-the-dark graphic design. A white snowflake, a hot pink bleeding “X”, a light blue music note, and as Twilight noticed was becoming a common theme, a green skull and crossbones, among others. “So, Twilight Sparkle, huh?” she asked with a somewhat menacing glare, putting a hoof to Twilight’s chest.
“Ease off on her, Scratch,” Rainbow said.
Vinyl backed away. She lined up with the rest of the ponies as Rainbow began her little introductory speech.
“Sparkle, you’re new around here, so I’d like to introduce you to the crew and show you how we do things.”
So the story goes like this: Twilight wakes up in a dark, snowy patch of forest she does not recognize and nearly freezes to death, before being rescued by a mysterious hooded dark figure with a glowing, green skull mask. Said figure later turns out to be Rainbow Dash, but while Twilight recognizes Rainbow, the same is not true the other way around. She bring Twilight to their "base" (an old metal warehouse coated with graffiti) where she is introduced to the other Skulls; most notably including alt-universe versions of Scootaloo, Vinyl Scratch, Double Diamond, and I was also planning to include Night Glider, Cloudchaser, and that Pony with the helicopter from Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3 as their transporter, using her helicopter to access the tops of mountains like in the SSX games. (except it would have been, like, a real metal helicopter like in the games and not the tiny pink one she had in the show). The Skulls want to train Twilight in the ways of the snowboard and make her a part of the team, while Twilight just wants to figure out how she got here and how to get back. The ultimate goal of the Skulls at the moment Twilight finds them is to conquer the biggest, most dangerous mountain in the reigon; Tirek's Peak.
Vinyl starts out not liking Twilight at all and severely doubting her position in the crew at first but would eventually warm up to her as Twilight became more and more used to being with the team and her boarding skills grow better and better.
One night, after a major fight with Vinyl where her abilities are questioned, Twilight feels a sudden rush of pride and decides to prove her wrong. While all the Skulls are asleep, Twilight take some of their gear and flies up to to top of a mountain, determined to conquer it. Scootaloo notices Twilight storming out with stolen gear, however, and alerts Rainbow Dash, who laments that it might be too late.
However, through a combination of skills she'd picked up in her brief time with the Skulls, magic, incorporating flight abilities she's learned from "real" Dash, and sheer luck, Twilight indeed makes it down the mountain mostly unharmed. With this, Skull-verse Rainbow decides Twilight has proven herself, makes her a Skull bandana of her own, and inducts her as an official member of the gang. Afterwards, Twi and Vinyl have an extended heart-to-heart that leads to them putting their rivalry behind them.
In the mean time, Twilight begins to notice some... strange magical occurrences. Whenever they fly or ride near the forest Twilight woke up in at the start of the fic, Twilight feels... a disturbance in the force, let's say. Something deeply, cosmically off that she can't quite identify. As the story goes on, strange events begin to occur, such as Rainbow seemingly transporting while the gang is on a ride and ends up in a dark ice cave and the other Skulls have to go in and rescue her. Or things showing up where they shouldn't be, wormholes, and random flashes of magical energy tripping Ponies up, only getting worse and worse. Twilight eventually deducts that this must be a cause of her presence in the wrong timeline messing things up, and explains how Multiverse Theory works and how her moving from one timeline to another caused a tear in the space-time continuum that is only growing, explaining the oddities and disturbances, using [the hologram spell she used in Bats!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1WE8zKiz3U).
From here until the ending is where things get a bit murky in terms of how much I had planned out. The basics are a rival gang to the Skulls makes themselves known, led by another member of the Mane 6 (never quite decided on who it should be), there's violence between them, Twilight concludes how to make a portal back to her own timeline and simultaneously shut the tear in the continuum, while at the same time she grows more and more attached to the Skulls both spending more time boarding and hanging out with them and in their mutual hatred of that rival gang, and after they manage to open the portal the leader of that gang blocks it of, challenging Twilight to a one-on-one race down Tirek's Peak itself, magical disturbances and all, and she can only go back if she wins.
They race, she wins, and the story ends in an extended goodbye scene between Twi and the Skulls in front of the portal. They go on about how much they're going to miss each other, Scootaloo sadly asks "will we ever see you again?" and Twilight answers "I don't think so". Twilight offers her skull mask back to Rainbow, but Rainbow insists she keep it. No matter what the dimension, Twilight's a part of the team, it's hers. And so, with one last goodbye, Twilight steps back through the portal and back to her home.
And there was going to be an epilogue scene where Twilight wakes up in her warm bed in her castle - a parallel of her waking up in the cold snow at the very start of the fic - the day after Hearth's Warming. It's snowing outside, and sure enough, Rainbow, Vinyl, Scootaloo, and Double Diamond show up outside the castle inviting Twilight to go snowboarding with them, down the very same mountain Skulls-verse Rainbow dragged Twilight down in Chapter 1. Twilight agrees, and decides to don her skull bandana on the ride. When she gets outside, Rainbow comments something like "Whoa! Neat mask, where'd you get it?" and Twi comments something like "oh, from a friend". They all go out snowboarding and the fic ends.
