Chapter 1:
A single cloud hovered in the air above Ponyville. Fluffy and white, it sat in brilliant contrast against the bright blue sky like a pouf of white cotton—until a pale blue shape suddenly exploded through its center, smashing the cloud into dozens of smaller pieces, which quickly dissipated and vanished into nothing.
The young pegasus mare paused in the air long enough to shake stray strands of cloud from her rainbow-colored mane, then spun a graceful loop-de-loop before landing on one of the dirt roads in the center of town. Flicking her equally colorful tail back and forth, she looked up to survey her work and smiled.
"Not a cloud and the sky and all before noon! Not a bad morning's work," she congratulated herself as she trotted down the street. "Now to dig up some breakfast."
Stomach growling hungrily, she steered towards the local bakery, following the delicious aroma of cookies, cupcakes, and brownies that wafted through the air. She was just passing the town's library tree when the door flew open and a lavender unicorn stepped outside.
"Rainbow Dash! Just the pony I was hoping to see!"
"Oh, hey, Twilight. How's it going?" Rainbow Dash stopped and waved to one of her best friends. "I was just heading over to Sugarcube Corner for a cinnamon bun. Wanna come?"
"Actually, I was sort of hoping you could help me with a little experiment I'm working on. I need another volunteer."
"An experiment? Oh, well…" Rainbow lifted a hoof uncertainly as her stomach rumbled again, this time loudly enough to make Twilight Sparkle raise her eyebrows. "Sorry about that. See, I totally would help, but I'm really hungry right now…I didn't get any breakfast and I've spent half the morning clearing away this huge patch of clouds."
Twilight's purple eyes brightened. "I can fix that! Pinkie Pie brought over a big box of muffins when she came—there's no way we can eat them all by ourselves."
Rainbow cocked her head to the side. "Pinkie's here?" That changed things. Only Pinkie Pie thought to put aside a cinnamon bun for her, knowing she craved something sugary after a long shift of weather management. If Pinkie wasn't at the bakery, then the buns were probably all gone by now.
"Yes, she's inside." Twilight answered, turning slightly and gesturing to the library door. "She's my other volunteer. Please, Rainbow! It won't take long, and you'd be absolutely perfect!"
The pegasus beamed at this compliment and promptly trotted into the library. "Well, since you put it that way. I guess a muffin is as good as a cinnamon bun."
Twilight followed her inside, capering at her heels. "Thank you, Rainbow! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She threw herself at the pegasus, hugging her exuberantly. "This is going to be fun, I promise."
"Uh, you're welcome." Rainbow chuckled nervously and gently wriggled free of the hug, running a hoof over her disheveled mane. "So, what do you want me to do? Will there be flying involved?" Her magenta eyes glowed at the mention of her favorite pastime. "Or do you need me to do some of my awesome aerial stunts?"
"Not exactly…here, come with me." Twilight Sparkle hung the We're Closed sign on the door and led Rainbow Dash into one of the back rooms. "You actually won't have to do much of anything—I'm working on a teleportation spell, so all you and Pinkie will need to do is stand where I tell you."
Rainbow paused. "That's it? Standing where you tell me? That's what I'd be perfect for?"
"Yes. Exactly." Twilight circled back and gave the pegasus a push with her head, but the winged pony playfully planted her hooves and held her ground. "Come on, Rainbow—this is going to be great. It's a totally new piece of magic for me and you get to be a part of it!" She shoved harder, actually lifting Rainbow's hindquarters in the air and forcing her to flap her wings to keep from toppling forward. Rainbow Dash finally relented with giggle and trotted into the room Twilight had prepared for her spell, looking around curiously.
The unicorn had pushed the reading tables against the walls, except for one that held a large and dusty book, a mortar and pestle, and a piece of chalk. A vividly pink earth pony with wildly curling hair was standing on her hind legs at the table and curiously sniffing a small pile of herbs beside the mortar.
"Hey, Pinkie Pie," Rainbow Dash greeted.
The pink pony whirled around with a huge smile, her blue eyes shining. "Hi, Dashie! Are you gonna help Twilight with her experiment too? This is really exciting! Don't you think this is exciting? I think it's exciting! I've never been a part of an experiment before—well, except for that time when Twilight was trying to figure out how my Pinkie Sense works, but that one didn't work because nopony knows why my tail goes twitcha-twitch sometimes." As she spoke, she bounced energetically around the unicorn and pegasus, who watched her with mingled looks of affection and amusement. Both were well used to Pinkie Pie's random outbursts and perkiness.
"Yeah, it sounds like fun," Rainbow replied, homing in on the one part of the speech that she actually understood. She suddenly spotted a pink cardboard box resting on another table and flew over to it. The sweet scent of blueberry muffins made her mouth water.
"Help yourself, Rainbow," Twilight called. "I have a few things to set up first." A dark pink glow enveloped her horn, magically dropping the herbs into the mortar and lifting the pestle to grind them into a fine powder.
Rainbow Dash selected a large muffin and took a big bite before fluttering back to Twilight's table and watching the unicorn work.
"So what's so special about this spell, Twilight?" she asked, licking brown sugar crumble from her lips. "We've all seen you teleport before. Lots of unicorns can do it."
"Sure…I can teleport myself just fine, but nopony else," Twilight said, her nose now buried avidly in her book. "The one time I took Spike with me he ended up kind of…singed. And this one is different. This time, I won't be teleporting myself at all. See, I found this really old spell that allows a unicorn to remain stationary while teleporting other ponies and I'm pretty sure I can handle it."
"Oh!" Rainbow glanced at Pinkie Pie. "That sounds pretty cool. I've never been teleported before."
"Me neither!" Pinkie agreed. "I wonder what it feels like. Do you think it tickles?"
"Don't know," Rainbow replied, now intrigued by the prospect of helping with the experiment. Knowing that it hadn't been attempted for a very long time stirred her sense of adventure. "But Twilight's teleported herself tons of times, and she never said anything about it hurting, right, Twilight?"
"Hmm?" Twilight still had her nose stuck in the book and hadn't been paying attention to her friends. She glanced up to find them both looking at her expectantly. "Sorry, what was that?"
"What does teleporting feel like?" Pinkie asked while Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes.
"Oh, it's kind of hard to explain. It can make you a little loopy sometimes, but it doesn't hurt though."
"Unless you're Spike," Rainbow pointed out. She laughed when Twilight glared at her and shrugged. "I'm just saying…singed and all."
"Well, that one was unexpected. And it will not happen this time." Twilight turned the page in her book, scanning the print closely. "Okay, I've got it. Here we go!" Using her magic to levitate the piece of chalk, she carefully drew two circles on the wooden floor, one on each side of the room, and connected them with a series of small hash marks. When that was done, she sprinkled a small amount of the herbal powder along the lines, then pointed her horn at them. The herbs suddenly ignited in a sharp flash of greenish light, making the chalk lines glow faintly.
"You never do that when you teleport," Rainbow Dash observed, wrinkling her nose as the acrid smell of burnt herbs filled the room.
"This is a completely different process. Don't worry, these are just safeguards. They're to help guide the path until I get used to the spell. Rainbow…why don't you go first?"
"Me?" Rainbow coughed and flapped her wings to blow away the lingering fumes. "But I thought you were going to try both of us. Isn't that why you needed two volunteers?"
"I will…but this is not an easy spell, so I think it's best if I start off small. I'll teleport you one at a time first, then we'll move up to both once I've got the hang of it."
"Oh, okay. Makes sense, I guess. What do you want me to do then?"
Twilight pointed at the circle on the right side of the room. "Stand in that circle there." Obediently, Rainbow trotted to the center of the circle and stood, watching her friend expectantly. "Now I'm going to try moving you to the other circle. I'm not sure how the actual journey will affect a pony who isn't a unicorn so you might feel a little disoriented at first. You ready?"
The pegasus took a deep breath and gave her wings a quick flutter, then nodded firmly. "Ready!"
Twilight Sparkle pointed her horn at her friend and closed her eyes to concentrate. In her mind's eye, she pictured a sphere of light surrounding Rainbow Dash and moving her from one circle to the other instantaneously. As she focused on the image, the air around her friend began to shimmer, then waver as though it had become a heat mirage.
"Ooh! Look at that! Can you see it, Dashie! The air is going all wobbly! Can you feel it? Do you feel different? Why does the spell do that, Twilight? Does that mean it's working? Are we going to see her disappear soon?"
Pinkie Pie's loud, perky voice broke through Twilight's concentration, snapping her hold on the spell. She yelped, startled, and the sphere of energy that had begun to form around Rainbow Dash fizzled out with a tiny pop. Not sure what to expect, the pegasus gasped and ducked, covering her head with her hooves.
"Hey, what happened?" Pinkie Pie asked, oblivious to what she had just done. "It didn't work! Did you see that, Twilight? The spell didn't work!"
Twilight blew her bangs from her face impatiently. "That's because you distracted me!" she said sternly. "I need to concentrate in order to do this right, Pinkie, and I can't concentrate with you asking me a hundred questions."
"Oh." The earth pony's face fell slightly. "Sorry."
Rainbow Dash got to her feet and dusted herself off. "Hey, Pinkie Pie?" she called.
"Yeah?"
"Maybe you should save the questions for a time when Twilight isn't about to try a brand new spell out on me, okay? I don't want her turning me into some kind of frog or gopher or something."
"A gopher! I would never do that," Twilight protested. "That's a completely different kind of spell!" She glared at Rainbow Dash who stared back, deadpan, until the unicorn laughed weakly. "Oh, you were joking, weren't you?"
The pegasus snickered. "Ya think?"
"Very funny…okay, let's try this again."
Pinkie Pie put her hooves on the table and nodded eagerly. "Yeah! And I promise I won't make a peep! You won't even know I'm here. I'll be quiet as an itty bitty, fuzzy wuzzy, little grey mousie who's all sleepy and tired and ready for a nice, long—"
"Pinkie Pie!" Rainbow shouted.
"Oops!" Giggling, Pinkie plopped onto her haunches and mimed zipping her muzzle shut.
"Ready?" Twilight asked Rainbow again.
"As I'll ever be. Fire away!"
Twilight centered herself and focused on the spell. The air began to waver around Rainbow Dash again, like ripples on the surface of a pond. The winged pony stared through the shimmer to her two friends, her eyes wide. Suddenly, her light blue form flickered, vanishing for a brief instant before reappearing. Pinkie Pie gasped, immediately clasping her hooves to her mouth to mute the sound. Rainbow Dash flickered in and out of sight three times in quick succession, then disappeared completely from the circle.
"She's gone!" Pinkie exclaimed, unable to contain herself any longer. "It worked! It did work, right? Where'd she go?"
"Over here, guys!"
Twilight and Pinkie turned in unison to see Rainbow Dash grinning and waving at them from the second circle.
"Whoo hoo! It worked!" Pinkie Pie sang. She leapt to her hooves and bounced over to Rainbow, a very relieved Twilight Sparkle close on her heels.
"Thank Celestia it worked!" Twilight exclaimed. "Are you okay? How do you feel? Tell me everything!"
Rainbow Dash laughed and jumped into a nimble back flip. "Great! It was a little weird, but it didn't hurt or anything. It kinda felt like something pulled me through a cold wind and then tossed me into this…I don't know…blankness. I couldn't see or hear anything, but I felt like I was spinning really fast, like when I do barrel rolls." She pranced out of the circle and turned about with her wings raised triumphantly. "See? Awesome as ever. Not a hair or feather out of place."
"Yes!" Twilight leapt in the air and started bouncing as erratically as Pinkie Pie. "I did it! I did it! Yes, yes, yes, yes!"
"Now me! It's my turn!" Pinkie Pie hopped into the left circle and danced about. "Teleport me!"
"Yeah, I gotta see this!" Rainbow Dash flew to the table where she had left the remainder of her muffin and sat down to watch the spell.
"Okay. Just a second—I have to take a few notes first. First thing in a proper experiment is well organized notes." Twilight used her magic to enchant a quill into writing several paragraphs on a piece of parchment. "Let's see…cold breeze, no sensory stimuli, general feeling of spinning or tumbling…there. Alright, one pegasus down, one earth pony to go!" Twilight dropped the quill and faced Pinkie Pie. Pointing her horn at the circle, she began to concentrate, picturing the earth pony switching from one circle to the other. The wavering, ripple-like air appeared again, faster this time now that the young unicorn was familiar with the spell. Pinkie's eyes went wider than Rainbow's as she felt the magic start to take affect and her mouth opened in an O of surprise before she winked out of sight.
Twilight and Rainbow immediately looked to their right, turning in time to see the air briefly flicker before Pinkie Pie appeared. Unlike Rainbow Dash, the earth pony had landed on her back and neck, her legs kicking in the air, her blue eyes spinning rapidly in her head.
"Oh no!" Twilight breathed. She and Rainbow rushed to their friend, turning her over and helping her sit up. She wobbled unsteadily back and forth. "Pinkie, talk to me…are you alright?"
"D-d-dizzy!" Her eyes continued to roll about, even when Rainbow Dash held her head steady between her front hooves. For a few seconds, she looked like she was going to be sick and the others hastily backed away. Instead, she clamped her eyes shut and took a few deep breaths. When she opened them again, her gaze was clear once more. She giggled and beamed ecstatically. "That was so much fun! Let's do it again!"
"Y-you're okay?" Twilight sounded uncertain.
"Sure!" Pinkie burbled. "It was neat. One minute I was watching you both watch me watching you and then the next I was spinning around and around like this! Whoo, whoo, whoo!" She tucked her legs in and rolled across the floor, bumping up against the table. Standing, she pointed towards the ceiling. "Only I was going through this really super big, huge, enormous dark space."
"Yeah, that's just what I felt," Rainbow announced. "It was pretty cool."
"It's more than just cool!" Twilight said, grinning from ear to ear. "Do you girls know what this means?"
Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie exchanged glances, both raising their eyebrows simultaneously.
"Uh…entertainment?" Rainbow hazarded to guess.
"Yeah! Now lots of ponies can go loop-de-loopy through the air and get all dizzy!"
"No! Think about how useful it could be? What if I'd known this spell when that napping dragon had threatened Ponyville with all its smoke? Instead of all of us hiking up the mountain, I could have just teleported us all there and saved so much time. Or when Pinkie, Fluttershy, Applejack, and I got chased by that hydra…we almost didn't get away, but if I had known how to teleport the four of us at once…"
"True," Rainbow admitted. "Not to mention the cost of train tickets will really go down once ponies realize they can just get teleported somewhere." She tapped her chin thoughtfully with a hoof. "But all that will only work if you can move more than one of us at a time. Maybe we should see if you can blip two ponies at once before we really start to celebrate."
"Blip! Haha, that's a funny word…but it's so true. It kinda felt like we blipped, didn't we? Hey! You should use that as the name of the spell! We can call it the Twilight Blip."
Twilight laughed and jotted down her notes on Pinkie's experience on her parchment. "That would certainly make it stand out in the magic manuals…but Rainbow's right. We should see if I really can do it before I name anything after myself. This next part is slightly harder, but I'm pretty sure I can handle it. Are you two ready or do you need more time, Pinkie?"
"I'm good! Let's try that again!" Pinkie Pie cantered to the right circle and jumped over the chalk and herb line. "It was fun!"
"Rainbow?"
"I'm on it." Rainbow finished the rest of her muffin in two quick bites and flew to the circle, landing beside Pinkie Pie and folding her wings at her sides. "This is gonna be so cool…" She raised her eyebrows and grinned cheekily at the unicorn. "If you can pull it off, that is."
"Prepare to be amazed!" Twilight took a second to check her book again, flipping back and forth between the two pages of the spell and frowning slightly before pushing the tome aside. "Two ponies at once. This is so exciting!" Her eyes closed as the pink aura of her magic suffused her horn. The complexity of this spell made her brow furrow deeply and, as the seconds passed, she gritted her teeth to stay in control of the strong magics she was channeling. A tiny groan escaped her, but at that moment the air finally began to waver and ripple around Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie.
Once again, Rainbow experienced the odd sensation of being lifted by something other than her wings and tossed through a cold breeze before entering that plain of nothingness. Her balance and equilibrium, so good in assisting her on her aerial maneuvers, were completely thrown off as the library vanished around her and she spun through a void of black as helplessly as a butterfly caught in a tornado. Though she couldn't hear or feel or even see anything, she was vaguely aware of something else tumbling along with her, a rosy pink presence against the darkness…and then she was smacking hard against the unyielding wooden floor of the library in a tangled flurry of eight legs, two tails, two wings, and a high-pitched giggle.
"Ow!" Rainbow Dash blew a bright pink tail out of her face and wriggled out from beneath Pinkie, whose eyes were spinning wildly again. Levering herself into a sitting position, the pegasus rubbed the side of her head where it smarted from hitting the floor. "That was a rough landing." At a joyful squeal, she looked up to see Twilight jumping up and down ecstatically, and realized she was now on the other side of the room.
Pinkie Pie sat up beside her, wobbling unsteadily, and ruefully massaged her rump. "Ooh, that hurt! What did I land on?"
"Me." Rainbow Dash stood and stretched her back, wincing a little as it popped.
"Are you girls alright?" Twilight approached, somehow managing to look concerned despite the huge smile on her face.
"I think so—though I've hit mountains with less force than we hit the floor." Rainbow dusted herself off, spread her wings to inspect the feathers, and gave her tail a flick, then looked from the circle beneath her hooves to the one on the other side of the room. "Aww, yeah!" She held up a hoof to Twilight. "You did it! Two ponies at once!"
Giggling giddily, Twilight slapped hooves with her, then let out a startled eep when Pinkie Pie wrapped one leg around her neck and the other around Rainbow's, dragging them into a crushing group hug that clacked their heads together.
"Hooray!" she cheered. "I knew you could do it, Twilight! I just knew it!" Her eyes went enormously wide as she drew in a huge gasp and hugged her friends even tighter, oblivious to their flailing limbs and gasping protests as they both tried to escape her choking embrace. "We really need to celebrate now!" Twilight wobbled off balance when she abruptly released them both and leapt away. Rainbow Dash snapped her wings open, catching herself and the unicorn as Pinkie continued, "We should have a party!"
"You know, that's not a bad idea." Rainbow pushed Twilight upright again and titled her head thoughtfully. "And we haven't had a good Pinkie party in awhile…it's been what, four, five days?"
"Try six!" Pinkie said in exasperation. "And I have been trying to come up with a reason for one but it's been so boring lately. I was even thinking of throwing a Break the Boredom party, but this will be so much better! Ooh! I'd better go get everything ready!" She turned to bounce from the room, but was stopped by Twilight's hesitant voice.
"Actually…before you do that, there was one more thing I was hoping to try."
The perky pink pony paused to peer at her pal in puzzlement. "What's that?"
"Well…" Twilight dragged a hoof nervously across the floor. "Now that I know I can do this, I think I can take it a step further."
"How?" Rainbow wanted to know.
"I have this idea for tweaking the spell a bit. It would be a really amazing piece of magic if I can get it to work, and it one would be my spell, something I came up with all by myself. I could get my name into all the big spell books, and maybe even get to teach a class, and unicorn ponies all around Equestria would be able to use a spell that I have invented and—"
"Yeah," Dash interrupted, her voice taking on a hint of sarcasm. "We get it. It would be awesome! But what will it do?"
Twilight pressed her hooves against her snout as she looked at them, her body trembling slightly in her excitement. "I want to…" she said quietly, then finished in a frantic rush, "try teleporting two ponies at the same time."
Her two test subjects looked at one another in confusion and stepped closer to their friend.
"Uh, you didn't get oxygen deprived when Pinkie hugged you, did you, Twilight? Cuz…you kinda just did that."
"Uh huh! That's why we're gonna throw you a super duper, amazing, spectacular, fabulous spell congratulations party!" Pinkie Pie flung her forelegs wide, somehow creating a loud bang and a shower of colorful confetti out of nowhere. Rainbow Dash jumped, her mane standing straight up in fright, and gave the earth pony a withering look.
"No, you see, um…I want to try teleporting two ponies at the same time…but to and from different places." Shaking paper streamers from her navy blue mane, the scholarly young unicorn trotted to one of the circles and pointed to it. "I want to try sending you from here, Rainbow," she said, now pointing to the circle on the far side of the room, "to there, while at the same time I send Pinkie Pie from there to here. As far as I know, it's never been done before. But with just a few minor adjustments to the spell, I really think I can make it happen." She turned to beam at her friends, but the smile slowly fell from her face when she realized that, instead of looking intrigued by the prospect, they both seemed uncertain. "What? Doesn't that sound amazing?"
"Yeeaah," Rainbow Dash said hesitantly. "It sounds…uh, awesome…but are you sure you're up for something so…new? Maybe you should take a break."
"Break? I don't need a break."
"Really? Cuz that last spell seemed to take a lot out of you before it finally worked and, to tell you the truth…it took a lot out of us too." She rubbed a hoof through her mane and sighed. "I don't know, Twilight, a known spell is one thing, but a made up one…"
Twilight frowned and looked to Pinkie Pie. "But, you want to help me out, don't you, Pinkie?"
"Um…" The pink pony's eyes darted from Twilight to Rainbow Dash and back again, her mane and tail drooping a little.
"Come on, Pinkie…it's fun, isn't it? You said yourself that you liked the spinning and flying around and that you'd do whatever you could to help me."
"You're right, I did say that!" Pinkie Pie's mane and tail poofed out again and she smiled, nodding brightly. "Okay!"
Rainbow Dash groaned and draped a hoof over her eyes as Twilight turned back to her with a smile.
"See? Pinkie's willing to try it, and I really need two ponies to work this spell."
Rainbow bit her lip, thinking about the strange void and the rough, unpredictable journey through it. It hadn't been so terrible the first time, but the second had definitely been harsher and even a little scary. She was certainly no stranger to taking crazy risks and getting herself into all manner of even crazier situations, but the teleportation spell had taken away all of her control in the few seconds it had taken to work and the young pegasus had not enjoyed that sense of helplessness. And she didn't like the idea of trying out a spell that had only just been invented.
"You know, maybe we can do it later, Twilight," she finally replied, turning to leave. "I promised Applejack that I would help her with something at Sweet Apple Acres today and—"
Twilight raced across the room, darting in front of the pegasus and blocking her from the exit. "Oh, well, that's okay," she said. "You help me with this and then I'll come out to the farm with you. I'm sure Applejack would be happy to have extra help. Pinkie, you'll come too, right?"
Pinkie Pie bobbed her head. "Mm hmm!"
"Okay…we'll all go out to help Applejack after we try the spell. It'll only take a few minutes."
"I don't know, Twilight. Have you even tried this tweaked spell of yours before? You know, on something simple like a book or a muffin?"
"Well, that would be silly. It's a pony teleportation spell, not a muffin teleportation spell. It's only meant for moving ponies."
"So you haven't practiced it at all?"
"We just did, sort of. This is basically the same spell I just cast with only a few small changes." She pulled in a deep breath and put a pathetically pleading look on her face, lower lip trembling, ears drooping, eyes almost filling with tears. "Please!"
Rainbow Dash tossed her mane in exasperation. "Why's this so important to you? It's just a spell."
"No…it's my first spell. All this time I've been learning spells invented by some other pony. This is the first time I've tried making one up myself. It's a completely new step in my magical training. Didn't you feel the same way when you went from just flying to doing aerial stunts and acrobatics?"
"Well, uh, I guess so, but…"
Desperate to convince her, Twilight switched angles and smirked at the pegasus. "Wait a minute…you're not scared are you?"
"Huh!" Rainbow Dash snorted and took a step back, her eyes narrowing. "No!" she protested. "It's just that…"
"What? You do stuff like this every day? All of your wild and crazy routines. You never know how they will turn out, but you still try them anyway."
"Yeah, but I practice them first. Over and over. And that's flying. This is magic! It's different. All kinds of screwy things can happen with magic. Remember your spell with that doll?"
Twilight blushed darkly, her ears flattening against her head. "That was an accident. And, if you recall, I wasn't exactly thinking clearly that day."
"That's for sure!" Pinkie Pie, who had been watching the interchange silently until now, suddenly blurted. "You were going crazy! Your hair was all frizzy and you had that really creepy smile and—"
"I remember, Pinkie." Twilight quickly cut her off before the entire humilating incident could be acted out, then groaned in frustration, for Rainbow Dash had taken advantage of the distraction to fly over her head and was now trotting quickly for the door. "Oh, for the love of…" Steeling herself for possible repercussions, Twilight took a deep breath and called out, "But that's not the point. The point is…I never imagined that the great, brave Rainbow Dash, who fought a manticore and kicked a dragon, would be scared of a little magic."
Pinkie Pie gasped and just as she had hoped, Rainbow came to a screeching halt, whirling around and flaring her wings indignantly. "I told you…I'm not scared! I just don't want to do it. And shouldn't you be grateful that I even came here to help you in the first place!"
"I am!" Twilight said, trotting up to the pegasus and giving her a quick nuzzle. "You've both been a great help so far."
"Well…" Rainbow Dash sniffed. "You sure have a strange way of showing it!"
"I…you're right." Twilight lowered her head. "I'm sorry, Rainbow," she said, looking at her friend from beneath her bangs. "I shouldn't have said that. It's just that I figured you'd want to help, since you're one of my best, most loyal friends ever."
"Hey! No fair bringing the Elements into this!"
"And just think of the bragging rights!" Twilight insisted, putting her hooves on Rainbow's shoulders and giving her a little shake. "Being one of the first ponies to ever try out this spell…one of only two ponies brave enough to attempt it—why, the story would sweep all of Equestria…I'll bet even the Wonderbolts would hear about it and be amazed."
Rainbow Dash jerked away, sitting petulantly on her haunches and crossing her legs over her chest. "I know what you're doing, Twilight," she said sulkily. A moment passed and then she dropped her head into her hooves with a sigh before getting to her feet. "And it worked. I'm in."
Twilight and Pinkie Pie both burst into cheers and hugged her tightly.
"You won't be sorry, Rainbow! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I knew I could count on you!"
"Yeah, well…you owe me one."
"Of course! I promise! Ooh, yay!" The unicorn squealed and pranced in a quick circle before settling down once again and becoming all business. "Okay, let's get started. Pinkie Pie, you're going to start in the left circle. Rainbow, you go and stand in the right."
"Oki doki loki!" Pinkie Pie paused long enough to pat Rainbow Dash on the mane. "Don't worry, Dashie. It's Twilight! We can trust her."
Rainbow Dash nodded, resigned. "Okay." She flew over to her designated circle, and stood inside the chalk line. Across the room, Pinkie Pie waved to her happily, her infectious glee making the pegasus smile. She relaxed her stance a bit and folded her wings lightly against her sides. Pinkie Pie was right. This was Twilight they were working with. The Element of Magic. A unicorn so skilled that even Princess Celestia had taken her on as a special student. What was there to worry about?
"Ready when you are, Twilight!" she called out.
Twilight took just enough time to turn to a blank page in her notebook and write the header Duel Teleportation/Different Locations, underlining the words dramatically before turning back to her test subjects.
With a deep, readying breath to calm herself, she concentrated on her modified spell, her horn glowing with the deep pink aura of her magic. As she focused and drew more power, the aura began to grow bigger and brighter, the light becoming painfully strong to the two ponies watching.
Rainbow Dash covered her eyes with a hoof to block the glare just as the air around her began the strange rippling effect that preceded the force that propelled her from the library and into the void. This time, however, it felt like she wasn't pulled so much as ripped off her hooves and flung forward into the emptiness. She tried to control her forward motion this time, but whatever power had her would not allow it. She could only tumble helplessly through the blackness, unable to feel or see or hear…until, up ahead, she caught sight of a delicate pink glow, shining like the sun through a thick layer of mist. The glow grew larger and larger, and Rainbow Dash realized it was moving towards her as quickly as she was moving towards it.
There was no sound in the void, so she couldn't tell if she screamed, but the blinding flash as she collided with the pink sphere of light certainly made her feel like screaming. The strange forward pull that she had felt before suddenly vanished, and she found herself spinning even more erratically before landing with an abrupt and jarring crash on the hard, but thankfully solid, floor of the library.
"Oh!" she moaned, rolling over onto her belly. "That's it! I'm done! That was the worst one yet." She sat up slowly, shaking her head to get rid of an annoying buzzing in her ears, and looked around. To her delight and relief, she was viewing the library room from the left side. It had worked!
"Whoo hoo!" she cheered, jumping to her hooves. A wave of dizziness rushed over her and she swayed woozily for a second, feeling oddly unbalanced. Laughing it off, she turned to Twilight Sparkle, only to find the unicorn staring at her with an expression both perplexed and forlorn.
"I don't get it," Twilight said quietly. "Why didn't it work?"
"What do you mean?" Rainbow asked her. "Of course it worked. Granted, you really need to work on those landings a bit, but you did it! This is so cool…we're gonna be famous!" She jabbed a hoof ecstatically into the air, but was answered with silence and a look of utter horror from Twilight Sparkle.
"Oh no…" the unicorn breathed, starting to prance rapidly in place. "Oh no! Oh no! What did I do!"
"Huh, what're you talking abo—" Rainbow Dash slowly lowered her hoof, catching sight of it for the first time. She blinked, then let her gaze drift up her leg and over her shoulder to her back and flank. Her eyes bulged and she let out a terrified squeal.
"What in the hay! I'm…I'm…pink!" She gaped at her pink pelt, her wingless back, her wildly curly tail, and her triple balloon cutie mark. "N-no!" she stammered. "I'm Pinkie!" Rainbow Dash's legs suddenly felt very weak and wobbly. Trembling, she dropped to her haunches and began to breathe in short, rapid breaths, rocking back and forth. "No! No! No! No! No!" she chanted. "This can't be happening."
Shaking off her own shock, Twilight hurried to her friend's side. "Rainbow…it'll…uh, it'll be okay," she said, her own voice shaking. "You have to calm down. This is no time to panic!"
"Hahaha! Wheee! Hey, guys!" A sky blue blur landed in front of them, rearing and pawing at the air. Iridescent blue wings flared out as what was unmistakably Pinkie Pie's voice spoke from Rainbow Dash's mouth. "Look at me! I've got wings! I can't wait to go outside and try them out!"
Rainbow Dash gaped at herself, then turned to stare at Twilight. The unicorn grinned and shrugged sheepishly.
"Okay…now you can panic."