It only took a few minutes to convince Speedy Hooves that she was needed to save Equestria. She was always the helpful type of pony, willing to go to the extremes to make sure somepony else was cared for. This was probably the most extreme of extremes she had experienced so far.

"So, where should we go next using this portal-time-travel-thingamajiggy?" The white expanse of the place between dimensions amazed Speedy. She could fly in any direction of her choice without any sort of limit.

Smarty's eyes followed Speedy as she wove intricate patterns in the endless white sky. "Weren't you paying attention to what I said earlier? Some of these choices could be painful or even dangerous!"

Derpy nodded her head in agreement as she reflected on the fiery dimension and the wet dimension with the giant wave that attacked her.

"Oh, yeah," Speedy said as she blazed by the other two ponies. "I forgot." After touching down and folding her wings, she walked to the machine and slowly circled it. "So this is the machine thing, right?"

Before Smarty could respond, Speedy quickly spotted a giant red button. "Oh! This one looks important!"

"No! Wait! That's the self-" Smart shouted out as a loud rumbling issued forth from the portal-time-travel-thingamajiggy as smoke poured out from cracks and crevices all along the sides of the contraption. The noise and smoke increased into a frenzy until... 

Silence.

This silence was broken by the sigh of a very relieved Smarty Hooves. "Oh. Well what do you know. The self-destruct is broken! I wonder if I should fix it-"

"You what?!" Speedy gave the orange maned pony an ice-cold glare.

"I, uh, put a self-destruct into the machine...?" Smarty realized what a stupid idea it had been.

"You put a self-destruct button on this? That seems like a pretty dumb thing to do for somepony as smart as yourself."

Smarty sheepishly responded, "Well, I thought it would be a good idea a the time. I don't know, I just kinds put it on there..."

Speedy realized she was being a bit harsh with her newfound friend and let her anger dissipate. It was her own fault, after all. She was the one who had pressed a button without knowing what would happen. "Well, at least it didn't work. Let's try something else."

"You go ahead, Speedy. Just don't press any more giant red buttons!" All three ponies got a laugh out of this and were happy they weren't blown to smithereens.

And so, a few more button presses later, a portal opened up to a surprisingly depressing scene. Everything looked as if it were being viewed through a gray rain-covered window.   It seemed safe enough, though, so the three ponies timidly ventured into this grey world.

And it was indeed grey. The sky was grey. The grass was grey. The water was grey. The mountains were gray. Even a rainbow arching across the sky was oddly grey. An ominous gray storm-front was just pushing itself between the peaks of two far-off mountains. Everything was silent. No birds were singing and a babbling brook didn't babble any babbles.

"This is... weird. And kind of creepy." Her voice had a hollow echo to it as if the deadness of this place was trying to absorb the lively melody in her wild voice. 

"Hm." Smarty put a hoof to her chin, contemplating on what to do next. "We could turn back if you want to. I have a bad feeling about this place and wouldn't mind finding another version of Equestria to search in."

Speedy spun around and faced the pony's response with bitterness. "No." There was one thing Speedy wasn't, and that was a coward. "We keep going. We're here so we'll stay here till we find the alternate of me and Derpy."

"What do you think, Derpy? You've been awfully quiet."

Derpy looked at one pony,  then the other. and nodded her head toward Speedy.

"Its settled then: we press on."