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Maverick was alone.

He found himself walking, to where he didn't know, but he couldn't stop. His feet beat down on the black stones beneath him. He was in a black tunnel, a tunnel devoid of light, and yet he could see. He saw black stones lining the walls, the ceiling and the floor. He saw his arms as he waved them in front of his face. He could see as if there was sunlight, yet the tunnel was black.

He walked on, trying to figure out what was going on. He considered the possibility of the stones being luminescent, but the light did not shine from within them. Rather, it seemed to originate from Maverick himself, for although he could see his surroundings, the tunnel itself disappeared into a black fog.

Maverick began to worry. Where was he? Today was like, Tuesday, right? He should be waking up to go to school right about now. No, that sounded wrong. He hadn't been to school in a while. Was it summertime?

As he walked on, the path began to shift. The stones colour darkened. What used to be black became blacker. The stones were sucking the light out of the air! What was going on?

Maverick's mind was dragging up images long forgotten. He saw an old friend. Someone he hadn't spoken with in years. They'd had a fight, but over what? What was his name?

The image changed. He was sitting alone, in his bed, crying. Then he was back at his elementary school, outcast by the other students. After that he was surrounded by people, all of them smoking or drinking or doing drugs. Someone offered him one, and he turned it down, but inside he had wanted to take it.

Maverick had stopped moving forward now. He couldn't find the energy to lift his legs, and now that he was stopped, the light he was emitting began to fade. With the stones absorbing the light and the source diminishing, Maverick was losing the ability to see around him. He looked down to see that his feet had already vanished, and that his legs were following suit.

Panic flared. He tried to get his legs moving again, but it felt like they'd been sucked into a block of cement. He pulled desperately but to no avail. The darkness was at his knees now, and he knew that it wouldn't stop until it got to his head.

Maverick saw more images from his past. They always had a sad ring to them: The time he'd gotten lost in an amusement park for hours when he'd gone with his school; the time he was pushed down the side of a small hill and got bruises and scrapes on his hands; the date with Vicki. The imaged drained his will to fight, and eventually he just stood there, waiting.

As if it had sensed his distress, the darkness doubled its speed. It had reached his chest at this point, and Maverick began having trouble breathing. He felt himself suffocation as the darkness clamped around his neck and pulled its way up to his chin.

Maverick closed his eyes. He had no idea where he was or why he was there, but he knew it would be over in the next few seconds.

...

Maverick waited. Was it trying to give him false hope, that way he'd be sweeter, or something?

But somehow, he could breathe again. He opened his eyes and saw that the light, which had all but faded before, was now blindingly bright. It also revealed that the stones he had thought black were actually a very pale cyan blue.

Maverick looked down to his body to see that it wasn't him emitting the light; he was merely reflecting it, and it looked to originate from somewhere behind him. Surprised, he turned his head and immediately covered his eyes to save them from incineration.

He waited long enough to feel safe and then slowly cracked an eyelid open. What he saw amazed him.

It was Rainbow Dash, and yet it wasn't. Rainbow Dash didn't get dressed up, nor did she wear makeup, and she certainly didn't style her mane.

But that's what he saw. Rainbow Dash in the most beautiful silver dress. Rainbow Dash with eye shadow, eyeliner and a bunch of other stuff Maverick didn't know the name of. Rainbow Dash with her hair and tail braided. In a word, breathtaking.

She slowly trotted up to him, and he realised that the stones weren't blue either. They were reflecting the light she was emitting. The light that was shining through the whole tunnel. It burned away the darkness and the shadows like a sun and let Maverick see all the way to the end of the tunnel, where a door stood.

He felt her poke him gently in the back before she began circling him. Every time she ended up behind him, she poked him with her muzzle to get him moving. Eventually, Maverick felt strong enough to take a step. The moment his foot left the ground, he felt the weight of his body drop dramatically. His first step changed into two, then ten, and so on as he continued his march to the door.

Beside him walked Rainbow Dash. She gave him a cheeky grin each time he looked to her, almost as if she was mocking him, but in a playful way. He tried, more than once, to say something, but no sound left his mouth. Eventually he just returned her cocky grin, causing her to nuzzle him.

The pair walked their way to the door, which open at Mavericks touch. On the other side he found...

*****

Maverick's eyes opened slowly. He still remembered the dream that had just finished, but he couldn't for the life of him recall what lay hidden behind the door. He tried for a good minute to bring it back, unsuccessfully. When that he failed, he groaned sleepily, looking around.

He was in Rainbow's bed, back at her house. Next to him, the energetic Pegasus lay on her back, head at his feet and butt facing the pillows. Somehow she'd managed to turn herself around in her sleep.

Maverick chuckled at her awkward position until he remembered what had happened before they went to sleep. When he did, he shifted over on the bed, moving away from her rear. His smile didn't leave though as he watched her sleeping, her breathing deep and regular.

He was about to lay back down when he noticed something off. It started out small: her face crinkled up, as if she smelt something bad, and her breathing sped up a bit. Then she kicked out with one of her hind legs, effectively destroying one of the cloud pillows. Maverick began to get worried as she raised her hooves, as if to ward off some sort of attack. He looked at her in concern as she began mumbling in her sleep, and was about to wake her up until, all of a sudden, it just stopped. He waited for a few seconds, but all she showed in response to his concern was the appearance of a big, goofy grin. Satisfied that the problem had subsided, he lay back down and closed his eyes.

He was just about to drift off again when he felt a bone-crushingly heavy weight pressing down on him. He opened his eyes and came face to, well, butt with Rainbow's rear. She had rolled over, and was lying spread eagled on top of him!

The first thing that popped into his mind was a burning desire to move away from the puffy lips that were right in his face. However, it only took him a second to realise that she was pinning his whole body to the bed; his legs, his chest, even his arms were stuck underneath her.

Then next thought was one of confusion. Why was she so heavy? In theory, she should weigh less than a single pound, and yet she felt as though she was full weight, maybe even heavier than normal.

He was trying to figure out just how magic worked in Equestria as the third and most important thought hit him; he couldn't breathe! Once he was aware, he tried to pull in some oxygen, only to realise that he had maybe a tenth of his usual lung capacity. He immediately tried to push Rainbow off, a vain attempt as it felt like she was a horse lying on top of him, which she was.

Struggling desperately not to panic, Maverick tried shouting out to wake her up, but due to his limited breathing, he only managed a faint wheezing. It was then that he began to panic. His body was immobilised, his voice was gone, and he appeared to be out of luck. Already the edges of his vision were blurring and he was feeling light headed.

He looked around desperately for something to help him, and his eyes came to rest on Rainbow's female nethers, from which a small drop of moisture was leaking. An idea came to him, and without taking a moment to consider the consequences, he reached his head forward, took one of the lips between his teeth and bit down hard.

The reaction was immediate. Rainbow let out a shrill wail of pain as she slammed her rear down, effectively getting Maverick to release his hold on her marehood. As soon as she felt the pain lessen, she jumped up and sprang away from the bed, landing in a pile on the floor. Maverick was pretty sure he heard a few more cries of pain as he tried to catch his breath.

As soon as she recovered, Rainbow spun around, bloodlust in her eyes, and stared Maverick down. Since he was still trying his best not to faint, Maverick offered very little resistance as she approached with a hoof drawn back, as if to punch him.

Luckily for Maverick, Rainbow noticed his wheezing at the last possible second and managed to hit the bed instead of his chest. The bloodlust in her eyes dimmed, replaced by fury as she struggled to say something. Seeing as her mind was still trying to process what had happened, she asked the simplest question.

"What?!"

On his end, Maverick was still desperately fighting for breath. He held up a finger, giving the human sign for 'gimme a second' and was rewarded with a moment of reprieve as Rainbow sat down at the foot of the bed, still glaring at him.

Once he'd finally managed to fill his lungs somewhat, he said: "You were *pant* squishing me. I needed to *pant* get you off or *pant* I would have suffocated."

Her look changed to one of concern. "Are you okay?"

"Fine, just winded."

She scooted up next to him; wrapping her hooves around his back and pulling him close as she curled around him. "I'm sorry."

"S'not your fault, it could've happened to anyone."

"But for Celestia knows why, it happened to you. Any other pony would've been fine had I rolled on top of them, but not you. Why does it always seems like wherever we are, bad things happen to you, and only you?"

Maverick shrugged in response. "Maybe I'm just unlucky."

Rainbow nuzzled the back of his neck. "Now I can't even sleep next to you without killing you." A silent tear rolled down her cheek, landing on Maverick's skin.

Having finally caught his breath, Maverick wrapped his arms around the hooves in front of him. "Don't say that. Accidents happen. If I wanted to be protected from every single little possible accident, I'd live in a padded, sealed white room, completely separated from all contact with others." He turned around to look Rainbow in the eye. "But to do that, I'd have to leave you behind."

"But I almost k-"

"No, you rolled over in your sleep. Just forget about it."

"But..."

Maverick sighed. "Fine, I guess I'll have to do the same to you, that way we'll be even."

Rainbow stared at him with confusion. "What?"

In response, Maverick pushed her down and climbed onto her underside so he was lying on top of her. "Now we're even."

Rainbow rolled her eyes but didn't say anything, instead choosing to wrap her hooves around him again. "You've got a death wish. What happens when luck and quick thinking isn't enough to save you?"

"Then I guess I'll die." He returned before quickly changing the subject. "Here's a silly question; we both weigh almost the same amount right now, so why did it feel like I was being sat on by an elephant?"

Rainbow, quite to both their surprises, blushed. "Are you calling me fat?"

Maverick couldn't help but laugh at that, and after a few seconds of pouting, Rainbow joined in.

"Of course not, I'm just wondering."

"It's probably the magic of Equestria. Unlike what we've heard about "earth", Equestria has magic that flows through the very air around us. You humans have "science" and "the laws of physics" to explain how your world works. In Equestria, magic is the more prominent explanation for things we don't understand, although we do acknowledge things like gravity and electricity." Rainbow explained.

"Really? So I shouldn't just take for granted that I won't suddenly start seeing everything in blue?"

Rainbow chose not to answer this, instead giving Maverick a nuzzle. "Alight, I get it. Let's just go back to sleep." She said as she tried to shift him back to her side.

Maverick, however, protested, grabbing onto her and holding firm. "Can I stay here?"

Rainbow cocked her head, but stopped trying to move him. "Thanks" He said, quickly snuggling up to her chest and pulling the blankets back on.

Rainbow smiled and pulled him up a bit so his head was resting underneath hers. Once he settled back in, she started to drift off, happy once again.

*****

Maverick yawned.

He looked over to the doorway, seeing a bit of light slipping around the curtain/cloud/door thing, and assumed it was morning. He wasn't on top of Rainbow anymore, probably since he rolled off during the night, or maybe she rolled. Either way, he felt her powerful hooves still wrapped around his chest and her muscular body spooned to his back. He sighed contently, squirming around a bit to push himself further into her embrace when he felt a kiss on his neck.

"Morning sleepy head." She whispered, nuzzling him.

"Good morning." Maverick replied before trying to turn around and look at Rainbow. She allowed him to do this, but only because she was getting up. "Hey!"

She turned to smile at him. "Come on, I need to get back into a training schedule. That means waking up, eating and then training. I've only got a few days left before the games start, and I want to be better prepared than I am now."

Maverick sighed sadly, knowing that this meant a lot more time in the air holding back his desire to vomit, but complied, following her to the main room.

After they ate and Rainbow stretched, she made him get on.

"We'll start with a warm up; a couple dozen kilometers of steady flight. After that, we'll do the sprints again."

Maverick just nodded, and they were off. Rainbow flew at a quick, steady pace. After the first dozen kilometers, she was starting to feel the burn. By the time she was done, she had landed on a nearby cloud and was panting.

"Okay... I little *gasp* more than a warm up..."

She was really starting to get annoyed with herself. Even with Maverick on her back, this would have been the easiest thing in the world for her a year ago. She lay down on her legs, breathing heavily as Maverick leaned over her shoulder to look her in the eyes.

"Are you okay?"

Rainbow nodded. "Just a bit winded. It's been a while since I've done any training..."

Maverick looked at her in concern. "Do you, um, wanna talk about it?"

She blinked at him. "What's there to talk about?"

"Well, I don't know, you seemed... unhappy the day I first got here. You hated my race, you were kind of mopey, you were talking like Twilight, and now you're telling me you haven't trained for the Wonderbolts in "a while". It doesn't sound like you, or at least, who the show portrays "you" to be. So I'm opening the door if you want to talk." He explained to her.

Rainbow looked at him as if he had just explained Pinkie Pie. She didn't know what to say, what to think.

"If you don't want to, that's okay..."

"No, it's um, I mean sure, I guess. It's nothing serious; I was just feeling kind of down before you got here. I mean, think about it; with all the hate I get from ponies, and the threat of enslavement or death, well, that would get to anypony, you know? I guess I was just feeling a bit out of it." She said. Obviously, this was a huge understatement, but Rainbow didn't want to trouble Maverick with her troubles.

Maverick looked like he wasn't convinced by her story, but he wasn't going to press for more. Before either could say anything, they heard a voice shout "Oh, well if it isn't the big superstar."

Both of them looked up to see Scorched, or his twin brother anyway. The Pegasus looked exactly like Scorched, but his cutie mark was a set of crossed wings with a checkerboard background. His voice was also a little bit higher pitched.

Rainbow glowered. "What do you want Hot Rod?"

"I just wanted to check up on my favorite second place medal holder. I heard you're racing in the 2k Dash and I was hoping you would tell me how it feels to never get first place when it matters." Hot Rod taunted.

"I don't know, probably the same thing you feel when you realised you're last place WHERE it matters."

If Hot Rod weren't red, Maverick was sure he would be after that.

"Please; don't talk about things you don't know."

"Oh, I know pretty well if what Lightning Dust told me is true."

Now Hot Rod balked, and the pair thought they could see his already red fur turn even redder. "You little bitch! How dare you criticize me when you can't even get one measly human to stay in Equestria! You're completely useless."

Rainbow wilted at this. Maverick, on the contrary, felt a fury unlike any he'd had before.

"Back off you ass. Rainbow's done her best since day one; it's not her fault humans are selfish, evil jerks. And she HAS found a human who'll stay forever."

"Ha! The day I believe that is the day Princess Celestia gives up her throne to Death and goes for a trip to hell. Humans will never stay, and that bitch is the reason!"

"Stop calling her that! She's amazing! She's the most amazing pony, and worth a hundred times more then you will ever be!"

"Ha! She's worse than the humans."

Maverick saw red. He stomped down on the cloud, trying to disperse his rage.

Instead, from the position he was standing, a giant shockwave rippled outwards. The moment it touched Rainbow, she felt a gigantic surge of strength which made her light headed. It continued, passing through the cloud and Hot Rod and exploding outwards across Equestria. Everypony it touched felt a sudden change in their bodies: some felt a wave of lethargy; others felt ecstatic. Some were blinded by rage while others felt a sudden explosion of knowledge. All foals who hadn't finished growing or had been frozen in time experienced a random, instantaneous growth spurt.

In her tree house, Twilight, who had been practicing a new spell for hours with little success, found herself suddenly able to understand where her mistake was. Applejack, who had just finished bucking her first section of apple trees, felt her hind legs tingle with newfound energy and strength. Rarity, who had been designing a new dress for a noble pony in Canterlot, felt her mind brim with ideas. Fluttershy, who had been calmly reading to her animals, felt a wave of lethargy, mirrored by said animals. As for Pinkie, well, the wave set her Pinkie sense off the hook, which actually knocked her out due to the millions of different signals it received in a split second.

Everypony in Equestria looked around themselves, confused at the sudden spike of energy that had affected every living thing on Equestria. Flowers bloomed, grass had grown, weeds had overrun gardens. Many of the ponies panicked for a few moments, others just continued on as if nothing had happened. Some few geniuses, Twilight included, tried to come up with an explanation of what just happened. It would only take a few minutes for most ponies thinking about it to figure it out.

Back on the cloud, Rainbow and Hot Rod were staring at Maverick, who was staring back at Rainbow with confusion plastered all over his face.

"What was that?" He asked.

"How should I know? You just sorta.... exploded. Did you not mean to do it?" Rainbow asked.

"N-no."

The three looked around. Rainbow examined her body with a critical eye, the explosion of strength having faded, and gasped.

Her whole body had buffed up! She was back to how she had been before her depression: her legs muscles were toned and taught; she has powerful abdominal muscles, and her chest rippled as she flexed her legs; her wing muscles clenched and unclenched as she gave a few powerful, experimental flaps.

But there was more: her coat was overgrown and overdue for a brushing; the feathers that she had plucked had grown back considerably, almost halfway to their full size. Her hair felt longer, almost half an inch. However, the most noticeable thing was the sudden disappearance of her horniness. She felt as if her heat had ended.

Rainbow shifted her look to Hot Rod. He seemed to be experiencing the same coat and hair problems, but he didn't look to have put on a few pounds of muscle. She then looked to Maverick, who was completely unchanged by the wave of force.

Maverick was looking back at her, totally confused and shell shocked.

"I think you just... altered time." Hot Rod said as he landed on the cloud, his hateful tone totally gone.

Maverick looked to him, still dumbfounded. "I what?"

"Altered time. I think you just pushed our bodies through time. By the looks of it, probably by about two weeks..." He continues, his voice slowly edging towards awe.

Maverick looked to Rainbow, unable to help himself from noticing the sudden increase in muscle mass. "Rainbow! You got stronger."

She couldn't help but laugh at this. "Whatever you did, that does seems to be a side effect. It's almost as if..." She found her own awe starting to build. "As if you gave me a body that went through two weeks of training..."

The three stood there a few seconds, stunned into silence, before Hot Rod asked the obvious follow up question.

"What does this mean?"

He looked to Maverick first, who shrugged and looked to Rainbow. She shrugged as well and added "How would I know?"

A few moments later, Hot Rod took off, shouting back "You'd better be ready for the games loser, because I'm going to be taking first again!"

That jib seemed to breathe life back into the other two. Rainbow rolled her eyes and crouched down. "Get on, I want to get home and brush this crud out of my coat."

Maverick complied, although it wasn't overly pleasant to be sitting on a pony with two week old hair in her un-brushed coat. As he put his hands on her neck, hundreds of hairs fell out, leaving her coat underneath fresh and glistening.

One quick flight later, during which millions of hairs were lost, Rainbow and Maverick returned home. Along the way, they saw hundreds of Pegasi, all of whom were shedding layers of fur.

Rainbow immediately went to the bathroom and pulled out her brush. She began running it through her coat, sighing blissfully as she felt the old, dead hair fall away. She finished her first front leg and had done half her second before Maverick came in behind her.

"Need some help?" He asked slyly.

In response, Rainbow passed him the brush. He climbed back onto her back and started at her neck, pulling the brush through the cyan coat gently but insistently. Although his grip and position allowed him to work faster than Rainbow could, it still took almost 10 minutes just to do her neck.

"This is ridiculous..." Maverick said as he slowly made his way to her back. "No creature in existence should grow this much hair in two weeks!"

Rainbow, who was lying on her belly and enjoying the brushing, calmly said "Well, there's nothing to it but to do it. You're doing great, by the way." He resumed her relaxing treatment, and she started murring in pleasure.

Almost an hour later, when Maverick had finished her back, sides and back legs, Rainbow flipped playfully onto said back, exposing her soft underside and grinning expectantly.

"The things I do for you..." Maverick whined, although he was also smiling.

The moment he started, Rainbow's murring escalated. Every time he pulled the brush through her fur, she would let out a satisfied sigh, and Maverick was tempted to slow down a bit and let her enjoy herself.

Eventually he finished his task. Rainbow sighed happily, pulling him down on top of her belly for a quick peck on the cheek before she got back up.

"Well, now I need to take a shower. My hair has gone two theoretical weeks without one, so..."

"Don't worry, I get the hint." Maverick responded, turning to leave. "Tell me when you're d-gurk" He was interrupted by Rainbow pulling him back.

"Who said anything about you leaving? I was going to ask for your help." She said as she began to run the water.

Maverick's face was tinted with the first hints of a blush as he said "Um, maybe it's different here in Equestria, but humans don't typically shower together."

"Why not? It's like going to the beach or to a swimming pool."

"Except that humans wear clothing Rainbow. We take it off for our showers, and when we do, we have nothing to hide our..."

Maverick saw the back of Rainbow's neck begin to turn red. "Right... okay then, you can just wait for me outside..."

Maverick didn't need to be told twice and politely exited the bathroom, closing the cloud door behind him as Rainbow stepped into the scolding stream of water.

*****

Twilight was pacing back and forth across her library floor. She had the day off from setting up for the games, seeing as with her help, they were almost a full day ahead of schedule. As such, she had been trying to make some headway in her study of magic by developing a new spell; that is, until the shockwave hit. Now she's furiously trying to think of an explanation behind said phenomenon.

A scroll which contained a full summary of the changes she'd noticed was lying on her desk, patiently waiting to be sent to the princess, while a second, more detailed scroll contained her stipulations on possible causes and side effects.

Twilight approached the desk with the intent of sending the first scroll to her mentor only to stop as she heard a faint pop from behind her. She didn't need to turn to know who it was, and she took the scroll in her magic, levitating it over to Celestia.

"There's no need for that Twilight, I already know what it contains." Celestia began, only to be interrupted before she could continue.

"Princess, this is catastrophic! The time stream was altered, but not fully, nor properly. It's almost as if a rift froze everything for an undisclosed amount of time, allowing it to continue growing without permitting it to do anything else!"

"Twilight, I'm wel-"

"Not only that, but the source of this magic is unknown to me! I've done scans and reverse tracking, but it's almost as if the very magic in the air suddenly came to life and decided to act of its own accord!"

"I know, Twilight." Celestia said a bit more forcefully, obtaining the attention of her student. "I've been waiting for this to happen."

Now Twilight looked even more confused. "You've been waiting? You knew the time continuum was going to disrupted?"

"Yes, it gets disturbed every time a new human comes in, with only one exception to date.

"You see, my dear student, every human who's ever come to our world and left again has affected the time flow. The reason you haven't noticed it until today was because most of the humans have only pushed it forward by a few seconds each. The human who moved it the furthest was the one you do not speak of. When his time shift triggered, all ponies and life on Equestria aged by just over an hour."

Twilight gaped at her teacher. "But this was much, much worse! You said most of the humans' shifted it around by small, unsubstantial amounts. Why did this one suddenly throw us all two weeks into the future?"

"That is what I came to warn you about, Twilight. You see, I've researched the time skips immensely, for they seem to be the only consistency between all the humans who have come here, and I found that although the amount of time skipped varies depending on many factors, though there are two that stand out dramatically over the others.

"The first is the emotional influence. The more a human made the ponies around him or her feel powerful, negative emotions, the more time they typically pushed us forward. That's why Trevor ended up shooting us forward; his treatment of you, coupled with the crippling demands and hatred he sowed, caused him to have an enormous impact on the time continuum.

"The second factor is the duration of their stay. Humans who stayed longer pushed us a bit more as well, although it's not as important of a factor as the first."

Twilight stared at her as if she had just announced that doomsday was tomorrow. "But, but princess! If that's true, and Trevor pushed us all forward by only an hour..."

"Then this new human will do something much, much worse than Trevor, in theory." Celestia finished for her.

Twilight felt dizzy. She fell back on her haunches and stared at her monarch. "What about Jayce? How far did he push the time stream?" She asked.

"He didn't change it at all, and he's the only human who didn't. I think it's because he never took his reverse pill, seeing as he died here on Equestria."

Twilight's head was still spinning, but she forced herself to think straight. "What should we do Princess?"

Celestia smiled sadly, taking her student with her wing pulling Twilight into a sidelong hug. "There's nothing we CAN do, my dear. Whatever must happen will, and it is not our place to interfere."

Twilight hugged Celestia back, letting a few tears flow into her coat. "We're going to die, aren't we Princess?"

"We all die eventually, Twilight. Perhaps the reason he altered the flow so much is due to a different factor. We can only assume one thing by this development." Twilight looked up to Celestia, who had a grim expression on. "It means we know that at some point, he uses his reverse pill."

Twilight gulped, and then gasped. "It's Rainbow! He must push her over her limit; she's going to commit suicide! I need to do something!" She said as she tried to push her way out of the embrace.

Celestia held her firm. "Do not assume, Twilight. It is very dangerous to assume things like that. For now, all we can do is watch. If we must act, then we shall when the time is right."

With that, Celestia let her student go. "I must return to Canterlot; many nobles are flooding the courts as we speak, all asking the same question. I trust in you to make the right choices that will help us in this time of darkness, Twilight Sparkle."

With a flash, Celestia was gone, leaving a confused and panicky Twilight in her wake.