dO hai! I've decided to try something new with this and the next chapter, aptly named Dimension X Part 1 and Dimension X Part 2. This will mostly alternate first person point of views between Cobalt and Rainbow Dash, really the only characters actually at play in this one.

I'll be updating pretty frequently until next Tuesday so watch for more chapters in the next week.

Cobalt's POV

My name is Cobalt Spikes.

Apparently.

See, the problem is that I don't really know who I am. I sort of lost my memory and am stuck in a world where the dominant race is ponies.

I know, weird right?

Let me shoot straight with this. I don't belong. Or I feel like I don't belong. Sure, I seem normal enough on the outside, a sixteen year old male pegasus pony with dark blue fur, a darker mane, and emerald eyes, lives at the library and works as a weather pony. Normal. Totally freaking normal. But I don't feel right in Equestria. I-I just can't get at ease. I don't feel right in my own hooves and on top of that I have some sort of connection with these chaos emerald things that keep randomly popping up and have been diagnosed with half balance amnesia, and it's just so bucking weird!

The only things that keep me from getting any more insane are my friends. Especially Rainbow Dash.

She makes me happy. She's a nice young pegasus filly, and well, I'm pretty much still a colt. I like her as more than a friend, but have yet to say anything. She accepts my amnesia and embraces it, unlike others who would push me away. She's made a solemn vow to help me recover my memory and acquire the chaos emeralds in any way, no matter the danger.

Pretty awesome girl, right?

So about, oh, two minutes ago we opened a dimensional portal to go and find a blue spasmodic robot that appeared only a few months ago and get back the chaos emerald he stole.

That pretty much describes a day in my life.

"Does this warp tunnel have any end!?" Rainbow yelled. The seven of us who had entered the portal had been immediately whisked into a roughly pipe shaped world where everything was creepily psychedelic. The 'walls' of the pipe were constantly shifting rainbow patterns that if you stared at them long enough were kinda hypnotic. On top of that there was an unbearable din that seemed to come from all around. I guess those were unformed dimensions.

Or demons. There's also the definite probability of demons.

Eventually we reached the 'end' of the pipe, another portal, and as soon as I passed through it I passed out. Unconscious, I mean.

UNKNOWN AMOUNT OF TIME LATER

A few minutes… or hours… later, I gradually began to see harsh, seemingly fake lights flicker at the edge of my vision. My senses slowly returned to me, registering mostly 'ow!' and a little 'what the what?'

"What are they?" an unfamiliar voice asked nervously over the incoherent chorus of the rest of the voices.

"Demons have life among us!" another raised into a high screech. "Fire and brimstone shall rain!"

I rose to my hooves and gazed around. "Again, this is new." I muttered, mostly to myself. I was standing on hard, black ground, surrounded what I guess were shops, and a herd of what mostly could be described as mutants. They had no fur, except for a small tuft that rested on the tops of their heads. Most were tan of skin, though others came in varying shades. They wore clothing; much like us ponies do on formal occasions. I think it may be to cover themselves with a sort of fur, sort of like an artificial pelt. But the oddest thing about these… creatures… was that they stood on only two legs, and that just isn't normal for ponies unless for hugging and biz that requires you to stand upright, but for these creatures it seemed perfectly natural.

Somepony stirred next to me. "Wow, dimension tunnels hurt." A familiar voice complained. I whipped my head around and saw Rainbow Dash lying on her back with wings outstretched and the element of loyalty still clasped around her neck. She looked really scared as she sat up surrounded by an unfamiliar environment.

"Dashie!" I hugged her, then faced the things circled around us. "Get ready, 'cause I have a feeling these things don't take kindly to strangers."

Rainbow Dash's POV

Honestly, Cobalt can be so dense sometimes. Where do you think Metal Sonic would have gone, the land of puffy bunnies? Duh the peoples here would be hostile. I was more worried about how we were going to fight these things if we weren't able to fly at the moment from post dimension travel weakness.

My name's Rainbow Dash, otherwise known as Rainbow, Dash, Dashie (to Cobalt and Pinkie Pie only!), or the second fastest thing in Equestria. I'm a fifteen year old female pegasus pony with a cyan coat, a rainbow colored mane and tail, and magenta eyes. I think Cobalt finds my eyes pretty.

Well, I hope he does. See, I sort of have a crush on him and can get kind of jealous when anyone else expresses feelings for him, but I've learned not to let that dictate what I do. I will never be able to forget that one time when I did.

Anyway, you've probably gotten an explanation of where we were and all that junk from Cobalt, so I'll just continue where he left off.

"Are you kidding me?" I whispered to him. "These things look like overgrown marshmallows!" I hesitated, seeing three of these said marshmallows dressed sharply in black with matching black caps run forward holding sticks of black wood. "Well, except for those ones."

"Ya sure ya can catch em, Ed?" one of the more overweight looking marshmallows asked another, thinner marshmallow who was creeping closer with a butterfly net.

"Relax Murphy!" the thin one reassured his comrade. "I have a cat at home, how different can these be?"

"A cat!?" I yelled in indignation. "What exactly do you think I a–"

Cobalt slapped a hoof over my mouth to silence me. I guess I understood his motive. It was probably better not to make enemies until we were sure that these things were a threat. Even so, I crossed my forelegs unhappily and glared at the marshmallows.

"On my mark." Cobalt muttered under his breath as the marshmallow named Ed crept forward with his butterfly net. "Three… two… one…" Ed leaped forward and swung the net with a triumphant 'ha!' "Now!" we flapped hard and scattered in both directions, in case these marshmallows were actually fast enough to catch us.

We met up atop a four-wheeled carriage type thing that didn't seem to have anything to pull it. Official Police Car, I read off its side. This… 'police car'… seemed like it was self propelled, and made me wonder if it was a living thing that we'd landed on.

"Where the hay are we?" I asked.

"Um, would 'I don't know' be sufficient?" Cobalt shrugged.

"No!"

"I got 'em!" I heard Ed call as his butterfly net landed around me and Cobalt. Normally this would've been extremely embarrassing as we were right next to each other, but I was too pissed with these marshmallows at the moment to feel anything but anger.

Cobalt glanced at me and at the same time we shot off away from Ed, still trapped in the net, but dragging him along with us. Eventually he had the common sense enough to let go, and we flew into a park, letting him fly into a tree trunk. I'm pretty sure if we were going full speed, Ed would be dead, but at the moment he was only unconscious.

"Up top!" I exclaimed, and we high hooved.

"Wanna explore?" Cobalt offered.

"Dude, the sooner we can find this Metal Sonic poser the sooner we're out of here. Let's go!"

UNNAMED LOCATION

Third Person POV

"Commander!" a techie ran up with a page report. "There are two things running around Station Square that the police department can't handle on their own! They say these things are so fast that they had to come to you!"

"What are they?" The said commander seemed eager for a race.

"According to eyewitness reports, sir, they resemble pegasi."

"That old Greek myth?"

"Exactly, sir."

"Ready the team."

BACK WITH OUR HEROES

Cobalt's POV

"Your element!" I exclaimed, for the first time noticing that the gem of power Rainbow had been wearing around her neck had vanished since we had begun to go fast. "It's gone!"

"Wait, that's impossible!" Rainbow sounded baffled. "Only the bearer can remove it, and only on their own free will!" she went pinprick pupil as if she'd realized something terrible. "Wait, do you have the emerald?"

I hadn't thought to look for that yet. "Um, last time it phased into my mane for storage after I used it. Let me check." I reached behind my head and ran a foreleg through my spiky mane. "Well crap. Nothing."

"Do you think they might've…?"

"It's a definite possibility." Somehow we knew exactly what the other was talking about. I'd read stories about fictional sets of powerful gemstones scattering after use and shared them with Rainbow, who had given me a dull look and proclaimed reading was for eggheads.

"Should we wait for after we deal with Metal to find them?" she asked what I was thinking.

"It shouldn't take too long. Yeah."

We explored a little more until we came on top of a long strip of road elevated by concrete stilt-like things. A loud rumbling sound emitted from one end of the road. A few of those car things appeared over the horizon at speeds that might actually present a challenge.

The cars came to a dead stop in front of us and a marshmallow stepped out of the fanciest looking one. "Hello, pegasi." It greeted us.

"Thank you!" Rainbow responded, presumably glad that somepony finally recognized our species. "Now if you could find us a map that would be great."

"I've heard you're pretty fast." The marshmallow went on as if she hadn't spoken. "But nobody beats me, because I'm Sam Speed, the Leader of the S Team!"

Nobody? I wondered. I guess terms are different here.

"If you want to run, I'd be fine with that. I'll even give you a head start." The marshmallow added.

I grinned. "Sounds good to me, mister Speed!"

The marshmallow named Sam seemed dumbfounded that we could talk, and I sort of found that gratifying, since now we could surprise him.

"Yeah, I'm talking." I extended my wings and strutted back and forth on the road. "Do you have a problem with that?"

"So you're going to run." Sam Speed clarified dubiously.

"Well, more like fly, but we'll stick to being close to the ground to give you a chance." Rainbow taunted. "C'mon, let's go!" we flapped into the air, but didn't move yet, giving Sam a chance to get back into his car.

I sped off just over the surface of the road, kicking up a dust trail, leaving Rainbow to follow.

Pretty soon we heard the rumble of the cars tearing after us.

It cycled along like this. We kept trying out progressively faster speeds, and if this so-called S Team could keep up with those, we would accelerate. Eventually I wanted a rest, so I casually slowed a tiny bit and hitched a ride on the windshield of one of the cars.

"H-hey!" the marshmallow inside the car complained. "Stop that, you'll give the kids reading this story a dangerous influence!"

I cocked my head to the side just a little bit. "Kids, never recline on a moving car." Sweet Celestia, that sounds like something Pinkie Pie would say!

I launched myself from the car and rejoined my companion.

After a few more seconds of this, Rainbow flipped over and started flying upside down with an unimpressed look. "Say Sam, does the S in S Team stand for speed or slowpokes?"

Sam Speed had had all the insults and taunts he could handle, and he sped up his car to the point where in a few seconds it would overtake us. "Hah! The only way you can beat me now is if you go faster than the speed of sound!" I heard him jeer.

Challenge accepted.

I could see the mach cone beginning to form around me and felt my cheeks being pulled back by the speed, and grabbed Rainbow's hoof. "Hold on 'cause we are out of here!" I busted through the sound barrier for the second time I could remember and created another Sonic Boom, letting the expanding blue ring I left behind and the aftershocks confuse the S Team. Rainbow hugged my midsection tight and closed her eyes against the onrush of wind as I jetted into the sky, my speed doubled.

Rainbow's POV

I couldn't help feeling a little jealous at Cobalt being able to do two Sonic Booms in such a short stretch of time while I'd only been able to do one as a filly, but I was glad that he held onto me tightly and didn't let me go.

My face burned though, as I hugged onto him for pure survival. I know it was only because I had to, but holding him in my forelegs made me feel bashful.

As the boost from the Sonic Boom faded, we let each other go and I kept up with him.

"You know, being stuck here until we find our friends and Metal Sonic and the gems of power might not be so bad." Cobalt commented, surprising me. "We've already made some new friends."

I wasn't sure I would've called them friends, but I nodded in agreement. "It could be fun." A sudden feeling of passion suddenly overtook me, and I felt the powerful desire to confess my feelings to him. "Cobalt, I–"

My sentence cut off into a pained screech as a thunderclap shook the stormy night sky above us, and my body was wracked with pain.

Cobalt's POV

I was horrified as a lightning bolt that hadn't been triggered by anypony zapped down from the storm clouds and struck Rainbow, leaving her pelt and mane scorched with electricity in a few places and unconscious. This was something we just didn't have to worry about in Equestria, and I was completely unprepared for. She let out one pained scream and then spiraled down to earth.

I dived after her, afraid I might not be able to catch her since we were so close to the ground, and I was right, as I only managed to brush her tail with my right forehoof before she crashed into a rectangular ditch filled with water behind a fancy looking house and sank.

I had about two seconds to think two thoughts before I too hit the water, and I got that done.

#1: Wait, water?

#2: Oh crap I can't swim!

I sank into the black depths and lost consciousness.

IN CANTERLOT

Third Person POV Again

Princess Luna sat on the balcony of her room staring up at the moon she had raised and the stars surrounding it with a despondent feeling aching in her heart.

Her sister knocked politely on her bedroom door, having sensed an unusual amount of sadness emanating from the Princess of the Night's chamber.

"You may come in." Luna called, turning and preparing for a talk.

"Hello sister. Are you sad about anything?" Celestia asked concernedly.

Luna gave a curtly shook her head no.

"Worried?"

Luna growled. "Are you simply going to run through thy list of negative emotions, sister?"

"Is this about Cobalt Spikes?" Princess Celestia's voice was soft, remembering with what feeling Luna had told her about the dream she and Cobalt had shared. "Are you upset with him?"

"N-not upset."

"You can tell me what you feel, sister. Your secret will be safe with me."

"I like him!" Luna burst out. "I'm worried that he may not return!" she turned away dejectedly, her face burning in shame. "There, I have said it. Laugh all you want."

"I-I'm sorry." Celestia murmured, unsure of what to say, what with her own misgivings about the amnesiac pegasus who had odd connections with chaos, the most dangerous force in Equestria. "I don't know that I can help you. This is one issue that you must resolve on your own."

Wow, I do like to do cliffhangers, don't I? This concludes part one of the two-part Dimension X thing. I decided it might be fun to put in a one sided Luna x Cobalt thing just to create extra tension between the characters.

So, review, follow, favorite, and all that. I'm out.