On a Wing and a Spellcard (Con't. from Everfree)

[ShadesofGrey18]

Soarin' was jostled back awake by wingless Rainbow asking his condition. He mumbled, "Whuzzat? You know why, Rainbow; it's 'cause of that potion's side effects... 'sides, shouldn't you be outside working on that stuff?" He fell back asleep. ...While Soarin' was many things, perceptive while tired was not one of them.

Michael started making the crust for the pie; he had gotten several sweet apples for the filling. After he finished with the crust, he chopped up the apples and sauce... mixing a little caramel into it for sweetness. He set the pie to bake and sat down in the kitchen after he set the bottle of medicine down on the table by Soarin'.

Meanwhile, Sanae said, "Well, these people are pretty strong; Michael is no exception. Look! There's the house..." They had come to the back door, but finding it locked, they walked around the side, to where the rest of the crew was practicing.

[Felix Falora]

Wingless Rainbow blinked when Soarin' said she ought to know. Then there was the other thing he said. She should be outside working on stuff? Working on what? He was acting like they had already been acquainted. She sighed. Maybe she ought to go outside, then, to the side. Maybe some more fresh air would help clear up her thoughts.

Outside, however, Pinkie Pie was bouncing ahead of the more cautious humans, who were walking behind her. When she saw Rainbow and Fluttershy, however, she gasped. "Fluttershy! Rainbow! You guys are here!"

Rainbow landed after hearing that voice and beamed. "Hey, Pinkie Pie! You finally made it!"

"Yeah, I did! Oh, and this is for before!" Pinkie bonked Rainbow hard on the head with her front hoof, causing the pegasus to temporarily see stars before she shook it off.

"Before?! Pinkie, what are you talking about?"

"You know! When you kicked me in the face back in the city!" Even though she said this, she didn't really sound angry. "And where's your cool new Wonderbolts outfit?!"

"Wonder... Pinkie, are you feeling ok?" Rainbow asked, now sounding concerned. "I mean... I'm not a..."

And then Wingless Rainbow opened the door and stepped out into plain sight.

[DM: Dersite Merchant]

As Spike was headed back towards the house, who else would show up but the party pony? "All right! Pinkie Pie's here now!" he grinned

And then Pinkie bonked Rainbow on the head for something earlier... What?And apparently, Rainbow had been wearing a cool Wonderbolts outfit. Um, OK... Pinkie was acting weirder than usual.

"O... Kay then..." smiling awkwardly, Spike pointed to the door and said "I'll just go make the popcorn like I said."

But just as he was a few feet from the back door, it opened and out stepped...another Rainbow Dash. Wearing a cool Wonderbolts outfit.

He dragon did a double take then stared between the Rainbow he'd been watching trail and the one standing at the door. "What the hay...?!" he asked incredulously.

[shiftyPotentate]

Fluttershy heard the familiar voice. "Pinkie Pie! I'm so glad to see you, I was worried you might be lost in the forest or gone for..." Her voice petered out when Pinkie bopped Rainbow on the head. Fluttershy wondered what could possibly have triggered that, and especially the bit about the Wonderbolts outfit.

The sound of the door opening drew Fluttershy's attention... and she saw... Rainbow Dash?!? Another one? She too did a double take. Sure enough, her eyes weren't fooling her.

"Is... everyone else seeing a second Rainbow Dash? Or... i-is it just me?" She approached the new Rainbow, poking her to make sure she was real. ".... Twilight? Did you learn shapeshifting magic?" That was the only other possible explanation, especially considering something she'd just noticed: this Rainbow Dash didn't have wings. Obviously a fake.

[ShadesofGrey18]

Michael then walked outside behind Wingless Rainbow and said, "...There's a lot that needs to be explained here... come on in, everyone."

Sanae then smacked Michael on the head with her gohei, saying, "Do you have any idea what your jump to conclusions did?! It's just a good thing that I happened to be nearby so I could cheer her back up!"

Michael winced at the strike. Still not as strong as Reimu's. "Ow! Well, what the hell did you think I would think?!"

Michael then walked inside, Soarin' looking at him head cocked in confusion. Michael opened the oven and got the pie out. When the smell hit Soarin's nose, he started drooling a little. Michael quickly Synced with Mamizou and used her borrowed power to make the pie considerably larger; enough so so that there'd be plenty for everyone.

Soarin's eyes widened and he swallowed saliva; it smelled so good...

Michael sat down at the table and chuckled. "Well, c'mon, Flyboy, if you're feeling well enough..." Within the span of maybe two seconds, Soarin' was sitting right next to him, smiling widely. Michael chuckled; it was nice to have some lightheartedness amidst the mindscrew that was sure to follow...

[Felix Falora]

Rainbow stared at her Wonderbolts counterpart with blinking eyes. Wingless Rainbow looked around and then noticed Pinkie. She immediately retreated back into the house. Rainbow blinked, then looked at Pinkie. "Was that... me? Is that what you were talking about?"

"Yup! I didn't know Twilight managed to clone you though Dashie!" Pinkie replied.

"If that's a clone, it's sure a bad one. It didn't have any wings... and it was afraid of you." Rainbow wracked her brains for a reason why she'd ever be afraid of Pinkie Pie. It just didn't seem natural. She had put a certain story behind her, so it didn't immediately come to light.

"I'll explain later," Trevor said. "Ugh... this is a lose-lose situation all around, isn't it? Somebody's bound to get hurt."

"Welcome to the world me and Felix lived in," Masahiro dryly replied before they were all finally invited in.

While everybody sat at the table and enjoyed, Rainbow managed to sneak away and retreated to where Wingless Rainbow was hiding.

[DM: Dersite Merchant]

As Spike sat down at the table, he had more than half a mind to ask how the heck there was a second, wingless Rainbow Dash at their house.

...right after he finished his pie, he decided. And he dug into his serving.

[shiftyPotentate]

All Fluttershy could do was stare. She was certain that she'd seen two Rainbow Dashes! One without any wings! But Pinkie Pie seemed certain that the wingless one was the real deal!

The whole situation was very confusing, but she decided to stay out of it. So she wandered around, casually searching for any cute critters that might be around. She'd gotten lost in her search, but glanced up in time to see Rainbow Dash sneaking away.

Fluttershy decided to follow her, but in a way so that Rainbow wouldn't know she was. She kept quiet and silently followed.

[ShadesofGrey18]

Michael sighed. 'I really don't like having to tell this story...' "...I suppose a little background information is in order..." He looked at Trevor and Masahiro. "Feel free to fill in any information I miss, okay? This place is one where dimensions meet... Marisa, Alice, Sanae, and I are all from an alternate offshoot universe of Gensokyo... well, they are, anyway. I was grabbed from my world, one called Earth, into their world. Anyway... these worlds include Equestria as one of them. To us, you guys are a television program... one that's extremely popular."

Soarin' licked some pie crumbs off of his mouth, then quirked his head a little in confusion. "A what now?"

Michael chuckled. "That's not really important; basically, we in my world could see things that happened in your world sometime. Pinkie, I'm assuming you were already aware of us? ...Also, you can quit holding the Pinkie Pie Swear over Twilight's head; we already know about that thing." Michael then stopped for a minute. "...Sorry for earlier, by the way... I wasn't thinking very clearly..."

Michael then sighed again. 'Here we go...' "This thing was caused by another alternate universe... Pinkie, I'm sure you remember the incident that occurred on your birthday, when you thought everyone had stopped liking you? Well... that lead about something incredibly grim being created in my world. I refuse to go into details, but I will say that it involved that offshoot universe's you doing horrible things to Rainbow... ultimately killing her. The other Rainbow here, without wings? She's from yet another offshoot universe from that. She survived that incident, thanks to Applejack coming in and saving her... but her wings did not."

Sanae had heard this before, but Marisa and Alice had not. They both gasped in horror.

Soarin' heaved slightly, his face gaining a tinge of green. "T-that's awful!"

[Felix Falora]

Trevor and Masahiro resigned themselves to listening to Michael's story, and so did Pinkie, who loved a good story. At Soarin' question, however, her full spastic fourth wall disregarding nature came into play. "Aw Soarin'! Didn't you ever feel like people were watching you?! Television is what they watched us on!"

"She really creeps me out with her awareness," Masahiro muttered to Trevor.

"Deal with it," Trevor responded.

Pinkie Pie shook her head. "I already knew people were watching and already knew, but Twilight has to learn to keep promises! Otherwise she'll hurt a lot of people when she accidentally spills a secret!" At Michael's words, Trevor perked up.

"I'm the one who took the brunt of that blast really," he said. "I knew it was familiar. I just didn't think to identify with Touhou... I mean, Gensokyo."

And then finally... the big reveal. Trevor gritted his teeth, but Masahiro just looked on curious. When everything was finally said, however, his mouth dropped. What in the world do some of these fucking fans create? he thought. That's barbaric. They looked to Pinkie to see her reaction... and she started laughing. "Oh man! That's a good joke there! Really, now, I'd never hurt Dashie, she's like my bestest friend ever!"

"I... was more afraid you'd see it as a joke to be honest," Trevor replied with a sigh. "I really don't want to show you the story, but I might not have a choice."

Meanwhile, Rainbow, despite being stalked by Fluttershy, didn't notice her as she slowly opened the door into the room Wingless Rainbow was hiding in. "Hey... who are you exactly?" she asked.

Wingless Rainbow looked at her and blinked. "I'm... you... I'm Rainbow Dash too."

Rainbow blinked, then gave a sort of frown. "But that can't be right. You're an earth pony."

Wingless Rainbow looked at where her wings ought to be. Then she looked the other Rainbow before her. She was perfect. She was what the victim used to be. Shaking her head, she took her hoodie off. She heard the other pegasus gasp. No doubt it was quite stunning. The stumps jutting from her back were small, but still enough to give a presence that wings were technically supposed to jut out from there. Looking up, she could see the horror in the other Dash's eyes. "Yeah. I am an earth pony nowadays."

"Wh... What happened?"

"She happened. Down there, sitting at the table, probably laughing it up... I thought she was the one who hurt me, but now I see you... what's going on? If you're me, you should know."

"We're in a place called Dimensional Island. Twilight would know better how to put it scientifically, but it's basically where all worlds become one... even alternate universes from the same world."

"So... you're me from a universe where Pinkie Pie must be good."

It then clicked into Rainbow's head and the terror returned full force. Oh Celestia... I remember... missing wings... terror of Pinkie Pie...

"You... survived the Cupcakes incident."

Wingless Rainbow blinked. "You know about that?!"

"It's a fanfiction to the people in this world... Someone dropped it, I read it, and I... I nearly lost it. But the me in that book died... which means you come from an alternate timeline, one I don't know of. How did you survive?"

"... Applejack saved me."

"Applejack?"

"I promised I'd go have dinner with her, but I got held up due to Pinkie, so she came looking for me and... she caught Pinkie trying to harvest me." The mental image sent shudders down Rainbow's body. "Pinkie tried to attack her, but she... she killed Pinkie and got me to the hospital. The doctors were able to fix everything there except..."

"... your wings." This was quickly becoming a depressing nightmare to Rainbow. And, what's worse... that even more sensitive pegasus was also listening in to every little detail out of their sight.

[DM: Dersite Merchant]

Now that he thought of it, Spike did occasionally get a bizarre passing feeling of someone they couldn't see watching them. Is that what being in a... a 'television program' meant?

Spike suddenly felt nauseated and pushed what little remained of his pie away when they got to the subject of what Pinkie of another universe did to Rainbow. "Dude... That's disgusting..." He stared at Michael incredulously, hoping it all was just a sick joke as the Pinkie here seemed to think.

[shiftyPotentate]

Sure enough, Fluttershy heard every last word. Now, she hadn't read that fiction, but just hearing about it. Her head filled in the gaps.

Almost as if possessed to by a spirit, she began to imagine the horror that would have transpired, making it infinitely more terrifying. What would she have done if she were in Applejack's place? ... What would she have felt if she were in Rainbow Dash's place?

She started to cry. Her tears were accompanied by sobs of sadness that would give her presence away. She stepped into the room, with wet streaks running down her face. Her wings were clamped hard to her side, both as a defensive gesture, and to not remind the wingless Rainbow what she had lost.

"Rainbow... Dash..." she said, staring at the wingless one. "I..." She shook her head. "That's terrible... I..." Words failed her. Her only recourse was to reach forward and give Wingless Rainbow a hug. Her forelegs wrapped around the cyan pony's torso, and she pressed her face into her friend (albeit from another universe)'s shoulder. She was crying enough for all three, it seemed. Because if no one else was, she certainly would.

She continued to hug Rainbow, sobbing quietly into her shoulder.

[ShadesofGrey18]

Michael inhaled, then exhaled deeply. He seemed... defeated, almost. "...Believe me, I would like nothing more than to be merely telling a sick joke... but I'm not. I really really wish I were... but I'm not..."

Sanae muttered a quick prayer under her breath, praying that there would be a happy conclusion. Even though she would never say so, seeing as the two of them didn't particularly care for each other, she and Michael were more similar than they thought. Both of them hated sad endings... they liked happy ones.

[Felix Falora]

Pinkie Pie blinked. All the solemn faces brought her wide grin down. "This... isn't a joke...?" Her hair unpoofed and went full straight again as her eyes began to tear up. "So... you mean... The other Dashie sees me as a...?"

"It's not your fault," Trevor said with a sigh. "It's this damn alternate universe clause and the timing was fucked beyond all reasoning." Yeah, he shouldn't have been swearing with Spike and Soarin' in the room, but he didn't care. Pinkie, being the fourth wall break extraordinaire, had picked up quite a bit on "human language" herself. "The question now is how to make her see that you're not the same Pinkie Pie that did that...if we can make her see that. Here's one idea though... avoid the thought of cupcakes altogether. That word, right there, will be the password for unbridled terror within this other Dash. As of right now, cupcakes are officially the devil."

With the Rainbows, both of them heard the sobbing. They turned to face the door, but both looked defeated and seemed to be working on the same wavelength. "Oh Fluttershy," they both said, sounding regretful that the most sensitive of their group had to hear the horrifying tale. And sure enough the yellow pegasus ended up going straight for Wingless Dash, pulling her into a hug. The winged one just remained silent, letting Fluttershy bring her comfort. The dramatics of the moment conveniently made Rainbow forget the Deus Ex Machina that could fix all of Wingless Dash's problems. Why not just teach her flight right there? Because let the others suggest it if they weren't too busy trying to redeem Pinkie to think about that.

[DM: Dersite Merchant]

Spike wasn't exactly sure what some of the words Trevor used meant exactly, but something about them prompted him to ask indignantly, "And you kiss your mother with those lips?"