Somewhere else, somewhere she didn't recognize, Rainbow Dash awoke in a daze and with a sharp pain in her neck. She tried rubbing it with her hoof, but that only made it sting more.
“Ow! What the, where the heck am I?!”
Slowly, the confusion started to fade, as did the pain. Rainbow Dash slowly stood and looked around. She was … nowhere. All around her was a fog so dense she couldn't see farther than a few yards. She seemed to be lying on a platform of some kind. It was circular, and made of stone. Glowing green markings were engraved along the edges of it like some kind of language she didn't recognize. The ground all around here seemed to be made from the same stone.
Dash's first instinct was to start flying and exploring, but she still hurt a bit and didn't want to move around. She resigned herself to tapping and scratching at the stone with her hoof to try and figure out what it was made of.
“Well, if it isn't Rainbow Crash.” A voice said.
The sudden noise scared Dash for a moment. “What? Who's there! Show yourself!” She jumped up on her hind legs and starting batting at the air with her front, but one more wave of pain knocked her on her stomach.
The voice simply chuckled. “I jest, of course, my dear. I hold you in nothing less than the highest of regards. That is why I am here to see to your care personally.”
The voice was smooth, yet deep; a little intimidating and yet completely calm. It was definitely a stallion's voice.
“Care? What care? Is this some kind of crazy hospital?” Dash asked, looking around.
“On the contrary, my dear Rainbow Dash, this is not a place of life, this is a place of death.”
That last remark really caused Dash to panic, and she ignored any lingering pain she had and tried to fly away. But no matter how hard she flapped her wings, she couldn't gain any momentum more than a foot off the ground and couldn't move away from where she was. It was as though physics itself was different there.
“Be still, Rainbow Dash. There is no need to be afraid. You have my word that no harm shall ever befall you again.”
As he spoke Dash could hear hoofsteps approaching from beyond the fog. At least two ponies worth of hoofsteps. A ringing in her ears made it a little difficult to keep track. Then, a pony Dash never witnessed before came into her view. He was tall and slender, like the princesses, but he had neither wings nor a horn. He did, however, have a second set of legs. His whole body was blue, with his mane being a darker shade than his coat. It was also somewhat elongated to account for his extra limbs. His mane also seemed to be real hair, unlike whatever ethereal matter the princesses had. His eyes were orange with a slight glow. He had a cutie mark. It seemed to be a streak of fire that started towards the back of his flanks, and as it traveled forward it changed into a dark streak that spiraled in on itself.
“W-what are you?”
“I am Sleipnir.” The stallion said simply, bowing his head. “It is my solemn duty to foresee the conveyance of the souls of the dead to the afterlife.”
“The what?!” Dash shouted and then renewed her attempts to escape, although she still only flew in place where she was. “I'm not dead, and I don't wanna be dead!”
Sleipnir made no attempt to restrain Dash any more than she already was, nor did he insist that she stop. He simply waited quietly and lied down on the soft carpeting to watch.
After a moment, Dash had tired herself out and collapsed in the same spot she was already in. “Come on, let me out of here! What did I ever do to you, huh?!”
“You have faulted me not, though I understand your anger. You have found yourself in this strange realm, trapped on a dais you do not understand, and talking to a horse you've never met. However, I am in no position to return you to your world. Even if I were to send you back, your physical form is in no condition to keep you.”
“My physical what?” Dash demanded.
The mysterious creature closed his eyes and chuckled a little. “It truly is a shame. In some of my more wishful moments I would have enjoyed challenging you to a race.”
That word perked up Dash little. “A race? You're a racer?”
“Not by profession the way you aspire to be.” Sleipnir said with a fair amount of pride. “But these legs of mine have their uses.” He then counted with his legs, clopping each of his hooves against the floor in turn, going all the way up to eight.
“That's … Okay, that's a little freaky.” Dash admitted. “But I'll tell you what, you get me outta here, and we'll have that race. If I win, you gotta get me back to Ponyville. Whattya say?”
“I cannot send you back, my dear.” Sleipnir replied sadly. “You are here because your body suffered a terrible injury, and could no longer sustain you. It was my duty, then, to rescue your soul before you simply faded into nothingness.”
“Then … how do I get back?” Dash said, her hopes weakened.
“There is no going back from here.” Sleipnir said simply. “I can do only this.”
The mysterious stallion walked up to the platform Dash was trapped on. He stepped onto it with one hoof and the markings stopped glowing. Then he turned to the side. “You may stay in this realm, lost and afraid. Or, you may climb onto my back and I shall carry you to the afterlife. You will fall to no harm there, and in time, all of your friends will return to you.”
There was a sincerity in his voice. Dash wasn't sure what was going on, but she felt like she could trust him. She took a few cautious steps forward, and found that she was no longer held in place by that mysterious force. Then, once she carefully reached out a hoof to him, something stranger still occurred.
Sleipnir's calm face suddenly turned to surprise, and then quickly to anger. “What? What's happening?! Who's doing this?!”
When Twilight had written the instructions on reviving a pony, she had imagined it being done by a team of unicorns. She never anticipated doing it all herself. Holding on to the last spark of Dash's life force was difficult enough without trying to heal her neck at the same time. She wasn't a doctor, but Dash's body was in perfect shape as far as she could tell. Then it was time for the theoretical part. Magic power surged forth even stronger and Twilight pulled her head back as she tugged on Dash's life force. She was tiring out from using so much power and wasn't sure how much longer she could hold on to her friend's life. She reared up on her hind legs and pulled with her whole body.
Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash hadn't the slightest idea what was happening. She only knew that it felt like her body was collapsing into itself, and Sleipnir was becoming extremely agitated. It wasn't a painful experience, at least not compared to when she arrived in this strange place, but she was becoming very frightened.
“How dare they interfere with my work!” Sleipnir shouted as he paced anxiously around the dais Dash was standing on. “Don't they know the consequences of this?! Don't they know who I am?!”
As Dash's body shrunk, she had a harder time seeing and hearing Sleipnir. The next thing she knew, she was somewhere else again. She slowly opened her eyes and looked up, fearing what bizarre world she had entered now.
“ … What happened? … Where am I? … Oh, and why does my neck hurt?”
“Don't touch it, Dash! You need to rest, just relax.” A shaky voiced pony said.
“ … Twilight? … Have you been crying?”
“It's okay now.” Twilight said with a great sigh of relief as she wiped her eye with a hoof. “You're okay. How do you feel?”
“My head is killing me.”
“That's perfectly normal. At least, I think it is. You hit your head really hard back there. I had to use a rev- I had to heal you.”
“Heal?” Dash asked, lifting her head up before immediately laying it back down again. “Ow! Since when can you heal?”
“I just learned it!” Twilight said sheepishly. “I know a lot of spells you've never seen me do before. Please, just stay still for a bit.” She collapsed on her own side across from Dash. “Ugh, I think I need to stay down for a while too. That spell took a lot out of me.”
“Wait, how big of a spell was that? How bad was I hurt?”
Twilight replied only with a soft snoring sound, having immediately passed out on the grass. The soil was even more pleasant than the leather binding of a good book.
“Oh man.” Dash lamented to herself. “That really must have been some epic wipe out. That was the craziest hallucination.
Rainbow Dash lied down her own head, adjusting her neck carefully into the most comfortable position she could and took a brief rest as well. She slept deeply but not without an unpleasant dream. It was about flying in a storm and falling into a forest and something about an eight legged pony. But by the time she would awaken both that dream and her experience in the other realm would have faded into a vague memory.
A short while later, Twilight was the first of the two to awaken to a sound in the distance.
“The first thing to do after falling asleep during a study session is to determine where you were before you passed out.” She muttered to herself in a groggy daze as she sat up.
Twilight looked around in a bit of confusion. “Wait, why was I studying in … what appears to be the forest … And without books?”
When her eyes fell on Dash, Twilight's mind snapped back into focus. She noticed that her friend didn't seem to be moving. “Dash? Dash! Wake up!” She cried, nudging her.
“Ah! What?! Where are they?! Ow! my neck!” Dash shouted as she was startled awake.
Rainbow Dash immediately jumped up and started to fly towards the threat she had imagined was shaking her, only to fly in a seemingly random direction. The pain in her neck brought her back to the ground almost as soon as she got up.
After another moment of confusion, shouting, and erratic flying, the two mares calmed down. The commotion had gotten the attention of the search party that was looking for them. Spike forced his way through some brush and came across the two ponies.
“There you mares are!” Spike said, jumping up to hug Twilight around the neck. “Do you have any idea how long I've been looking for you two?”
Twilight wrapped a leg around her assistant and hugged him back. “Sorry Spike, but we're fine. Right Dash?”
“Um … Almost.” Dash replied.
The blue pegasus sat up from where she had crashed last. Dash rubbed the side of her mane with one hoof while her head was leaning slightly to the other side.
Both Spike and Twilight raised an eyebrow and similarly leaned their heads to the side as they watched Dash's odd stance. “Is something wrong?” Twilight asked.
“Yeah, I think I just napped funny. It feels like I pulled a muscle in my neck, or something.”
Although she was certain she made no mistakes when reassembling her best friend's spine earlier, Twilight panicked on the inside when Dash mentioned the problem with her neck.
“Oh! Well, we have to get you to a doctor right away!” Twilight urged.
“Nah, it's cool. This isn't the first time I hurt myself.” Dash said, getting up. “I may fly crooked for a few days before this heals up, but I'll manage. Ow! An ice pack would be nice, though.”
Spike laughed. “Wouldn't that be fun to watch? Can you imagine her flying around in spirals from a busted neck?”
“No excuses!” Twilight said.
Rejuvenated from her nap, Twilight brought the power of her magic to bear one again. She levitated Spike onto her back, and then lifted Rainbow Dash into the air and held her there like she would a book.
“Woah, this is new.” Dash said simply as she hung in the air wide-eyed and sideways.
“I'm taking you to a physician and that's that.” Twilight said and turned back towards the edge of the forest.
The 180 degree turn also caused Dash's levitated form to swing around as well. “Wah!” She cried involuntarily, and in a flash of teleportation they were gone.
Twilight's teleportation spell was sufficient to get them all out of the forest, but she couldn't return them all the way to Ponyville. So, she intended to carry Dash the entire way there by telekinesis. Engrossed by the sensation, she didn't resist. At first. Although Twilight did have the capacity to carry her the entire distance, she decided to let her down after a few minutes of intense complaining, but only after making her Pinkie Swear to stay close and not fly.
A simple doctor's visit later, Dash checked out with a clean bill of health – save for the pulled muscle in her neck. As she said, it was going to heal itself after a few days. None of them were as relieved to hear that as Twilight. She didn't mention to anyone that Dash had technically been dead for several minutes, and Dash as a result didn't think it important to bring up the dream about the blue stallion with eight legs.
Again, Twilight's life slipped back into a sense of normalcy for a few more days, but her puzzle, once solved, had triggered a machine that could not be reversed.
Celestia had apparently concluded that it was proper to make that particular day particularly hot. Not even Twilight, her prized pupil, actually knew the reasoning behind why some days should be warmer and some cooler – beyond the inclinations of a given season. However, the sun was only one part of the complex weather system around Equestria, and the pegasi weather team had simply stacked some extra clouds in the sky to compensate with some shade. The resulting conditions were actually extremely pleasant, if a little dark for the daytime. There weren't any rains scheduled, but it wasn't unheard of for a pegasus to shout “Surprise!” at the top of her lungs and turn an otherwise cloudy day into a rainy one.
Regardless, Twilight took the opportunity to read a new book outside. As much as she loved living in a library, her new appreciation for life in the past few months dictated that she study elsewhere more often than before. She was laying on a bench in the middle of the park reading her new Ancient Conflict: A History of Wars around Equestria. Not even the occasional gust of wind would disturb her, as she could telekinetically hold the page down whenever she felt one coming.
“Twilight, there is danger in the forest! Your friends must gather, faster, fastest!” Somepony called out, although Twilight was quick to identify her.
“Zecora? What's wrong?”
“I was out this morning gathering herbs, when a found a sight that greatly disturbs! Pegasus ponies in barding of silver, flying through the jungle and over the river!They carried bricks from a stone quarry, what they intended caused me to worry! I followed them low and sought to scout, what they were doing I planned to find out! They are gathering at a spot with mortar and clay, and are building a structure without delay!” Zecora said in a panic as she approached.
Twilight absorbed all of that for a moment as Zecora's unique speech pattern can sometimes be difficult to understand. “Armored pegasi … building something in Everfree? I guess that's unusual, but it's no reason to panic.”
“You do not understand, student of Celestia; these pegasi warriors are not of Equestria!”
“Not of Equestria? You mean, you think we're being invaded?”
“I know not for what they came, but we must stop them all the same!”
“I don't know if violence is the right thing to do. But we do need to figure out what they're up to.” Twilight said, and thought for a moment. “Okay, here's the plan: You know where Fluttershy lives, right? Go find her there, and she can find Rainbow Dash. The three of you know the layout of the forest best, and can plot a way to wherever the pegasi are. I'll go through town to Sweet Apple Acres and pick up the others along the way.”
“The flying ponies I shall find. Hurry, so you do not fall behind.”
“I'll be there as fast as I can, Zecora. I won't stop to … uh … sniff the flora?”
Twilight had surprised herself. She wasn't sure how that sentence had managed to rhyme, and she was even less sure why she had tried to make it so. Zecora laughed at the attempt. “You spoke that phrase well, wise and young Twilight. Although your rhyming skill is still that of a neophyte.” She said with a wink, before turning to gallop away.
Twilight's first stop was Carousel Boutique. After explaining the situation to her, Rarity agreed to come along but only after being given ample time to pack.
“There are things to consider like whether or not it will rain and how much it will rain if it does. Oh, and venturing into Everfree is always so dreadful. Do you even know the required preparation for the dirt and brush we'll be dealing with? And the mud! Goodness gracious, the mud! Can you imagine what kind of shape I'll be in between the rain and the mud?”
As Rarity continued to ramble on in this manner Twilight concluded that the best course of action was to pick her up last on the way back. She told her to just do what she had to do and that she'd come back for her later.
Pinkie Pie was easier to get a hold of. She literally tackled Twilight as she was coming through the front door to Sugarcube Corner.
“Twilight! Oh, I'm so glad you came! I was so bored! It's all dark and gloomy-woomy out there and no one was coming in to buy treats, but who wouldn't want to buy treats on a gloom-woomy day? It's the perfect thing to brighten up a day like this! In fact, I wrote a song about it I was so bored!”
Pinkie took in a deep breath of air as she was about to jump into another one of her patented songs, but Twilight stuck a hoof in it before she could begin. After explaining about Everfree to her too, she seemed practically overjoyed about a potentially dangerous mission if it meant getting outside instead of waiting for customers that probably weren't coming. She just had to stuff some balloons into her saddle bags and leave Mr. and Mrs. Cake a note, since they were out shopping for ingredients at the time.
Had Twilight stopped and read said note before they left, she would have found that it said only: “No sales so far, went to save the world! -Pinkie”
Applejack was next. Twilight and Pinkie caught up to her just as she was about to make the rounds through her fields to make sure all her trees were in good condition.
“Well, I'll be. Ah was a wonderin' when you'd mosey up my farm and tell me some monstrosity was gonna destroy all Equestria or some such threat of impendin' doom. It's been what, three months now? That must be some kind of record. Ah've seen blue ribbons given away at a county fair for less. Hold on, sugar cube, let me just go git my bags and lasso.”
Twilight finally just needed to stop by her own home for supplies and to inform Spike what was happening. Along the way they picked up Rarity, who had settled on a light blue rain slicker that matched her mane immaculately. Her own saddle bags probably didn't have anything of value to the mission, but at least she was prepared to go. Arriving at her home, Twilight wasn't sure how long the journey would take, and she was worried about the time they had already spent gathering everyone together. She dictated a letter to Celestia for Spike on the matter as she gathered her things and departed immediately. Had she waited around a little longer, she would have seen the quick reply stating that it was imperative that they were not to enter Everfree until she arrived there personally to handle the matter. Spike tried to chase after them to relay this message, but they were too far gone and a baby dragon couldn't hope to catch up to a group of fully grown ponies.
Dark Phenom
