My Little Pony: The Portal

Chapter 29: Cloudsdale

Alex wandered around a long hallway, a strange combination of a school hallway and a factory setting. Lockers lined the walls, but the fixtures and pipe lines were exposed on the ceiling. He stepped into a room, and found himself in a changing room.

There were the girls he called friends: Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity, Twilight, Starlight, and Applejack. They were strangely wandering around in human form, not really paying him much mind. He sat down on a bench, silent as they wandered around him.

He heard a strange noise to his right. He looked, and saw a strange set of double doors glowing a deep blue. Alex eyed it strangely, standing up. The doors stood in the middle of the room, not connected to any wall. They were clearly out of place in the room.

Alex slowly began to approach the doors, unsure what to do. He slowly reached out for it, but then hesitated. He wasn't sure that he should. After some deliberation in his head, he made a fist, and held up his hand to knock on the doors...

Alex woke up to a sudden knocking on his door. He flinched in bed, his head immediately rising a little bit. He felt a numbness in the back of his neck as he sat up the rest of the way, and called out to let whoever was on the other side know that he was awake.

"Yeah?"

"Alex? Are you still sleeping?" Twilight called through the door.

"I was. Is it time to go?" He asked.

"Rainbow Dash is waiting on us." Twilight informed him.

"Ohh," Alex sighed, brushing his mane out of his eyes. "Tell her I'll be ready in a bit. Hey, can you grab me a brush?"

"About time you show up, dude. You're worse than me." Rainbow Dash teased him as Twilight and Alex came down to meet her on the ground floor.

"Heheh, sorry, I was out of it, I guess." Alex apologized.

"Nah, you're fine."

"Here's an orange. You should eat something before we start flying." Twilight said, handing Alex an orange to eat. He took it.

"Ooh, yummy." He said. Twilight went ahead and peeled it for him, and Alex began to dig in.

"Did you sleep okay?" Twilight asked.

"Mhmm." Alex nodded.

"Oh man, I'm so excited. This is gonna be great! Wait until you see the Wonderbolts!" Rainbow Dash said, immediately bringing up what she saw as being the highlight of the tour.

"Who are the Wonderbolts exactly?" Alex asked curiously.

"Oh, we're a group of elite flyers, the best of the best of the best!"

"I assume you're one of them?" Alex observed with a chuckle.

"Oh yeah! You bet!" Rainbow Dash answered proudly.

"Rainbow Dash's goal in life was always to be a Wonderbolt. It took a long time to get there, but she's really great for the team." Twilight went into more detail.

"Wow. That's pretty awesome, Rainbow Dash."

"Haha, thank you! It is pretty great. Normally, we just have family over for practices, but I mean, you just gotta see us fly! I can even introduce you to some of them." Rainbow Dash said. Her tone made it apparent to Alex that this was a big deal.

"Cool. Can't wait." Alex said with a grin, finishing his orange.

"C'mon, Twilight, let's go now! We're burning daylight here!" Rainbow Dash urged her, her anxiety and excitement beginning to build.