Thanks to Music-girls-wings, BekasaurusRex, Jake-Everfree, BlackShock95, Guest, .568, MoneyMan538, Wing Zero 032, Alex Leep, LaserLens4, rederci939, Guest, Hubord68, Ms. Rookroll, Guest (lots of guests this chapter! LOL), juter4397, and Scarlet Rabbit for their reviews!
Thanks to y1fellas for his contribution to the scene with Marilyn! :D
This chapter is very italic-y. Sorry about that.
I don't own MLP.
…
"The thousandth Summer Sun Celebration? That's so far away... you… you will send her back to us, won't you?"
The voice echoed around Twilight's head. Her mind's eye still couldn't see past the darkness, and the root of the voice was difficult to pinpoint. It was familiar, but…
"You have my word. She will be safe." Princess Celestia. Twilight recognized this particular voice immediately.
"Is there some sort of significance to that date?"
"There is." The princess continued. "But I cannot discuss it in great detail. This must be something Twilight and the others find out on their own."
"She's so young! With all due respect, I don't think - "
"You'd be surprised what a young mind can absorb, Mr. Sparkle." At Princess Celestia's final words, it suddenly clicked; that was the voice of Twilight's father.
"Your highness," Her mother. It was her mother. "I know this sounds a bit far-fetched… but for her age she's, well, already showing magical talent. Will this…?"
"I can sense her power as well… but I'll have to drain it when I send her away. The world she'll be living in has no magic of the traditional sense."
"Oh, Twilight…" Twilight felt a warmth on the side of her face, as if somebody was gently touching her.
"Mommy?" Twilight realized with a surprised jolt that it was her own voice coming from somewhere else. Higher pitched and not so sure on articulation yet, but there it was echoing loudly around her.
"Twilight, I'm so sorry… We love you so much…" More warmth, this time on the opposite side of her face, and mixed with what felt like water.
"Daddy?"
...
Fluttershy had awoken from her sleep to several loud knocks and anxious calls for her to unlock the door. Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie had somehow managed to get Twilight back into her own bed, where she now lay unmoving. Spike sat worriedly by her head, where bursts of golden light occasionally overtook her.
"It's happening so fast…" Pinkie Pie commented as she knelt with the others around Twilight. "I mean, the rest of us were kind of out of it for a while before we were totally out of it, but Twilight skipped the "kind of" part!"
"D'ya think that means anythin'?" Applejack asked. She'd removed her hat, and was fiddling with it anxiously.
"I presume it means she has a lot of magic." Rarity commented, sounding as if she thought this was obvious information.
"I just hope she's okay…" Fluttershy mumbled, her eyes wide and frightened.
There was a couple of steady knocks at the door, and the group glanced over. All of them, including Spike, were expecting Rainbow Dash, so they were more than surprised when instead Marilyn walked calmly into their room.
There was a brief silence in which nothing happened, then Spike tried to hide himself underneath Twilight's covers.
"I-it's okay…" Marilyn said, her eyes darting from Spike, to Twilight, to the rest of the rather surprised girls. "I'm sorry to barge in like that, but I know about your, erm, talking lizard."
Spike popped his head back out from the covers, and glared at her. "Dragon." He corrected irritably.
"But… how?" Applejack asked, bewildered.
Pinkie gasped loudly in realization, causing the others to turn to her in surprise. "Wait! Wait! I've seen this before!" She said, pointing at Marilyn. "Have you ever dreamt of a world filled with super colourful ponies?" She asked accusingly.
"Pinkie…" Rarity groaned.
Marilyn looked confused. "Uh, no, can't say I've had a dream like that…?" She said, clearly wondering about the roots of the question.
"Oh, whoops." Pinkie said, giggling. "But then, how come you knew about Spike?"
Marilyn smiled and shook her head in amusement. "I know you were trying to be very secretive about all of this, but honestly, everything just kind of started adding up. I could hear an odd voice coming from this room, there's been reports of green flames coming out of this window, and seriously… the whole leaving the dufflebag in the bathroom thing was getting sort of suspicious on its own." She laughed. "Not to mention the rumours I keep hearing about all of you. But I never actually saw him," She looked at Spike with a fascinated expression. "Until today, when the fire alarm went off. RAs are required to check their entire floor to make sure everyone's evacuated. I don't think he even noticed me open the door."
"Well," Pinkie Pie said, smiling at her. "Might as well introduce you, then. This is Spike!" She pointed to the little purple dragon, who waved in greeting.
Marilyn waved back, looking amazed. "Nice to meet you, Spike."
"You... you won't tell anyone, will you?" Fluttershy asked nervously.
Marilyn shook her head. "No, I won't. But I do want to know what's going on." She looked pointedly at Twilight's still form. "Can you tell me that?"
After a moment's hesitation, the four girls collectively nodded.
…
Out of nowhere, a beautiful blue sky appeared. Amazingly, Twilight found herself looking at a giant floating cloud of a city. Houses and businesses filled the area like any other urban municipality, but what made it stand out to Twilight was the masses of colourful winged ponies that filled in the extra area.
Cloudsdale: Twilight recalled Spike mentioning it several times. Even Fluttershy had mentioned a city on top of a cloud. This had to be it.
"Rainbow Dash!"
Twilight's vision shifted rather rapidly, and almost seemed to focus in on the area below her, giving her the sensation that she was watching through a camera. A cobalt-blue stallion with a jet-black mane was desperately chasing after something that was tiny, cyan blue, and had a shock of rainbow flowing through both her mane and tail. Even in filly form, Twilight could recognize Rainbow Dash immediately.
"Rainbow Dash, I'm warning you, you'd better listen to your father and stop running this instant!" The blue stallion warned, though his tone was clearly not serious.
Rainbow seemed to sense that her dad was playing with her, and buzzed her tiny cyan wings daringly. Several pegasi had to move out of her way as she carelessly ran through the town.
"Dash, you're too small to fly!" The stallion repeated, though again his tone lacked any indication of seriousness. "Get back here right now young mare, or I'll have to tickle you into the next world!"
Rainbow Dash emitted a childlike squeal of glee mixed with terror, and jumped into the air. She strained her little wings to carry her a short distance upwards before it was clear that the effort was too much for her, and she plummeted back to the cloudy ground.
With a burst of air, the cobalt stallion propelled himself forward with his much more powerful wings, and managed to catch Rainbow before she hit the ground. "A-are you okay?" He asked, looking shocked. Rainbow giggled in delight as a response.
"Stormcloud!"
The cobalt pony whipped around to see a red stallion land beside him. "Oh, hey Thunderstrike." The blue pegasus grinned as he put Rainbow back on the ground. "Rainbow Dash here just lasted a couple of seconds in the air. Pretty impressive, if I do say so myself."
Thunderstrike rolled his eyes. "Seriously Stormcloud, you need to keep a firmer hold on her. It's dangerous for a foal that young to be running around a city that's situated several hundred feet into the air. How many times have we gone over this… you can't always be a friend, sometimes you gotta be a parent, and you're the only parent she's got!"
Stormcloud sighed and nuzzled Rainbow affectionately. "I know, but what can I say? The kid loves to run. I think letting her outside more will help stimulate her flying instincts, too… Soon she'll be flying just like all of the other foals her age!"
"Storm…" Thunderstrike sighed. "I'm your best pal, why don't you ever listen to me? I know you're frustrated that Rainbow's late on her milestones, but seriously, she was born four months premature. It's impressive that she's even here right now. She'll catch up."
Stormcloud sighed. "…Yeah…" He said, smirking as he playfully swatted Rainbow with his black tail. Rainbow laughed and rolled out of the way, and Thunderstrike was left shaking his head but smiling widely.
Suddenly, the clouded floor beneath Twilight turned into a field of green, rolling hills. The air became heavier, almost sweeter. Cloudsdale and its inhabitants were completely gone. Instead, Twilight was looking at an old farmhouse. The paint was cracked with age. Fields of apple trees overwhelmed the entire properly.
In the middle of it all, two young ponies were playing. The colt was clearly older, and had a red coat with an orange mane. He was kicking the apple trees, which caused the apples to fall into a bucket positioned underneath the tree. He was mostly ignoring the younger filly, who was orange with a yellow mane. She was trying to imitate the older pony, and though she seemed to have the right technique for kicking trees, she was clearly too small to make much of an impact. Both ponies shared the same bright green eyes.
"Granny Smith, oh, thank you for coming." Twilight's attention was averted to the conversation taking place near the house. A young mare with an identical red colouring to the colt, identical green eyes to both of the foals, and a mane mixed with orange and yellow was talking to a green-coloured elderly mare. Both the green mare's white mane and tail were tied up into buns. Suitcases were sitting beside her.
"No problem at all, Summerfree, sweetie! Now, where're mah grandkids at? …And where's mah son?" The elderly mare asked, looking around as if confused.
"The… the kids are over there in the fields, you can see them from here… Granny, Cameo's in the hospital again, remember?" Summerfree asked anxiously. "That's why I asked you to come over and help look after them. This farm's a huge job for one pony… And just look at my kids! Look at little Applejack!" She sighed sadly as she looked at the orange filly. "Not old enough to form complete sentences, but old enough to know how to buck an apple tree. They deserve more than this."
"Mmm…" Granny mused, watching the kids with interest. "They're takin' after their father, that's what they're doin'! Good fer them!" She nodded, then looked a bit confused. "Wait… what were we talkin' 'bout again? Erm, anyways, how's my Cameo doin'?"
Summerfree watched her children for a few moments before replying. "Not… not good. They think with medication he'll last a few years, but there's no cure." The wind blew by eerily, and there was a momentary silence as the two adults watched the children. "He won't see them grow up…"
The wind picked up, and dirt scattered around the scene. Though Twilight knew she wasn't physically there, she still winced and instinctively looked away. When she looked back, the scene had changed entirely. Gone was the green grass and blue sky, replaced with bleak rock-covered fields and a cloudy overcast.
In the middle of the field sat three very little fillies. Two of the three were very dully coloured, their coats consisting mainly of various shades of grey. The third, however, was entirely pink except for her blue eyes.
"Follow me!" The pink pony squeaked, and trotted unsteadily away. The other two foals looked much more cautious, and were hesitant in following the pink filly. "Inkie! Blinkie! Come with me!" The pink pony repeated. Twilight recognized that voice, but even if she hadn't, she could still have guessed that the pink pony must be Pinkie Pie. She didn't seem any older than Rainbow Dash or Applejack, though Twilight was hardly surprised that she was the only one of them able to talk.
The creaking of an old door grabbed Twilight's attention, and she turned to see a brown stallion and a grey mare walk out of a tiny old house. Twilight noted that the mare shared Pinkie's blue eyes. "Look at them, Clyde." The grey mare said, pointing a hoof at the three foals. "Look at Pinkamena… she's certainly talkative for one so young…"
The brown stallion nodded slowly. "Hmph. She's a bit odd, that's for sure, Sue."
"Did you hear what she's been calling her sisters?" Sue asked. Clyde shook his head. "Inkie and Blinkie. And she insists on being called Pinkie… how incredibly odd. She takes after your mother."
Clyde snorted and pawed at the ground. "…She'll grow out of it. Childish behaviours like this must be normal. A bit hard to tell when you get triplets."
"Come on!" Pinkie's voice called out again, though her sisters still didn't seem willing to respond. "Come play!"
"…I certainly hope she grows out of it…" Sue said with a sigh before going back inside. After a moment of hesitation, Clyde followed her.
…
Gah, this is a bad place to stop. It's my fault for not putting more effort into writing today. I knew it was supposed to be long, but… oh, whatever. I guess this leaves it open for opinions, and gives me more time to work on the other "flashbacks" (I didn't really get to explain that either… mehhh)
I actually started writing a fanfic detailing Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy's pasts, which is where I got the part for Rainbow from. Fluttershy's past is way too complicated there, though, so I had to make up a new background for her. (I don't know if this fic will ever be published. Only about a quarter of the stuff I start writing ever makes it onto the internet)
By the way, I noticed that my profile views spiked on the Tuesdays and Fridays that I didn't update. This is the right thing to check, because I usually post something there explaining a chapter's absence or lateness.
So, yeah! Read and review! Please. Thanks!