It was a perfect day in the small locale of the rather unimaginatively named Ponyville. Not out of some freak of weather deciding to just relax, but because of the tireless (?) efforts of the Ponyville pegasi. And the diligent (?) leader of the weather force of Ponyville, Rainbow Dash, Element of Harmony, only living practitioner of the Sonic Rainboom and friend to fillies everywhere, was engaging in the boring, once a month nature of paperwork. It was not going well.

Rainbow Dash was a born athlete- incredible wing power, aerodynamic shape and a pressing desire to better herself were all factors in her legendary Sonic Rainboom. But she was also a prankster, and until recently had loathed reading, seeing it as something eggheads like her best friend Twilight did instead of getting into the fresh air more and exercising. But she still had to do paperwork.

Every head of the Weather force complained that there was too much paperwork, and Rainbow Dash was no exception.

“Ugggggh… Why do I have to do this piece of horseapple?”

Rainbow Dash picked up her pen. And then put it down again. Then straightened it up. Then looked at the first piece of paper in a three-piece stack of work on raincloud expenditure, the only paperwork she was required to do legally. It wasn’t much, but to Rainbow Dash, who was easily qualified for ADHD, it looked like Canterlot Mountain. Finally, she decided to look at what she had to do. All she really had to do was sign the papers in triplicate, and then get it delivered to Cloudsdale by tomorrow.

“I’m never going to finish this!” Rainbow Dash immediately hit herself. “C’mon, there’s NOTHING the great Rainbow Dash can’t do when I put my mind to it!”

Straining every centimetre of the way, Rainbow Dash signed each place with all the tedium of continental drift.

Rainbow Dash had heard of the word ‘irony’, but assumed it was something to do with metal. After the laborious ardour of signing the pages, she fell asleep from the effort.

“Where the heck am I?”

Normally, when Rainbow Dash dreamed, it was either dreams about her friends (not in the way some ponies would think), or they were dreams about being in the Wonderbolts, or flying, or sleeping. Normal dreams like that. This was different.

It was no recognizable sky she was in, that was for sure. The ground beneath her was a large field, with large craters imbedded within it. The sky above was a perfect sky blue, but covered in thunderclouds, from which occasional, rainbow coloured lightning bolts occasionally shot down to the ground. And, just when Rainbow Dash thought things COULDN’T get weirder, there was a tortoise floating in the air. It was rainbow coloured, and wind streaked around it as if it was at the centre of a tornado. It then started speaking.

“Greetings, Rainbow Dash. Since you can see me, this means that the agreement of the two worlds has finally ended.”

“Excuse me, but I seem to have the wrong tickets. Can’t I just get my regular dream where I save Equestria by doing a Sonic Rainboom?” The tortoise chuckled at that statement.

“Not very loyal at face value, is it? But I see deeper. You want to things all on your own, so that those you are close to don’t get hurt. You are truly a stalwart guardian. A noble, and truly loyal attitude.” Rainbow Dash mulled over his words, and couldn’t be sure how to answer to that.

“Well, yeah, I guess you’re right. I don’t want ponies getting hurt, especially those I’m close to. So then, who are you?” The tortoise looked sad when it heard this.

“There is no-pony who knows me better than you do, Rainbow Dash. But my name is ------------------“ Rainbow Dash hadn’t heard that last bit. The wind had picked up, making his already indistinct voice even worse. She hadn’t heard his name.

“So, you are still deaf. Your ego robs you of your hearing. Come back, when you are humbled.” With that, the tortoise started fading, even as Rainbow Dash tackled the air where he was.

“WAH!”

Rainbow Dash bolted upright in her chair. Sighing, she looked around. Same old home, same old desk, same old finished paperwork, same old Tank wearing a propeller hat. In short, normal, unlike her weird dream.

Paperwork.

“OH, HORSEAPPLES!”

Derpy Hooves, meanwhile, was facing similar problems of realisation. To be short, Derpy was late to work. The mailmare was a damn fine deliverer, for her unfortunate handicap. Her right eye was, on a good day, merely a lazy eye that drifted upwards slightly. On a bad day, or when she was flustered, tired or making muffins, both eyes pointed in opposite directions, and refused to budge. Many ponies had never seen her really not able to look forwards or really stressed, as the mailmare took her work cheerfully, taking Ponyville’s mail to the right locations- well, almost right. The crash landings were to be expected, and at least she wasn’t crashing into other ponies, was she? Having a lazy eye allowed her to see a lot more of the world than most ponies could. Depth perception was only the price you paid to see ponies both straight ahead and upwards at the same time. Flying hard towards Rainbow Dash’s house in the clouds, Derpy placed her hooves in front of her face, as crashing through walls hurt.

A lot.

Even when made out of clouds.

Pushing through the wall, she slid forwards in a tackle with the table. Tank hovered down to the prone Pegasus in curiosity, and then quickly retreated as she pushed herself up again.

“Oh Celestia, am I late?” Rainbow Dash just looked at Derpy strangely.

“No way, Derpy, you’re right on time!” Derpy and Rainbow Dash were on easy terms with one another- Rainbow Dash handed mail to Derpy, Derpy made muffins for ponies as payment for the walls, that sort of thing- and often swapped flying tips.

“Here’s the paperwork. I worked ALL night on that, so it gets there on time!” Derpy carefully undid her muffin-shaped clasp on her mailbag with her teeth, placed the paperwork in there gently, pulled out a muffin and tossed it to Rainbow Dash, who swallowed it in a bite. And then flew out of the hole she had punched in the wall. Rainbow Dash chuckled a bit around the muffin and started reconstruction work, such as it was.

Derpy just flew through the air, humming a small tune about muffins. The pony was obsessed with muffins. She made the most delicious, cheap, filling muffins in Ponyville, and often sampled her wares. Derpy had one little filly by an unknown father, a small cottage on the ground for her daughter, and held down four separate jobs- part-time works as an apple-bucker at Sweet Apple Acres, full-time mailmare, part-time job at Sugarcube corner, and a job on the weather force. It was a lot of work for only one mare to do, but she found the time to juggle her commitments and personal life together. Despite this, Derpy was always slightly out of focus because of her commitments.

That was how Derpy was killed.

If she’d only been more alert, was the general response from her friends.

If only she’d seen the dragon starting to breathe in, she could have escaped, rather than been turned into a pile of ashes.

And in the Seiretei, Head Captain Genryūsai Yamamoto received a unique message- no Hell Butterfly delivered the scroll of paper he had just received.

Idly reading through the paper, he then reread the scroll, and again to make sure of its authenticity. He then bowed his head in thought, and what thoughts went through his mind were as mysterious as the contents of the scroll in his hand. He then apparently reached a decision. Banging his sealed zanpacto on the ground, his lieutenant, Chōjirō Sasakibe.

“Head Captain. What are your orders?”

“Summon the other captains for an emergency meeting… regarding the dimension of Equestria and it’s reopening to the Seiretei.”

Next Chapter: Wake me up now. Estimated time remaining: 22 Minutes