Plight of the Pegasiby RazgrizS57ChaptersFlashforwardChapter 01: Wandering StormChapter 02: SenselessChapter 03: OasisFlashforwardThe stormy rain pounded against the metal roofing of the shack. The building had no electricity, and the only form of illumination crawled its way from under the ragged wooden door. Rainbow Dash looked up from her slumber and down to her watch. It was supposedly midmorning. What light sunk in from underneath the doorframe was saying otherwise. She stilled her breathing. Where was she? Rainbow Dash looked around the cramped space she spent who knows how many nights in. There are no windows, no furnishings, nothing hanging from the shanty walls, nothing. There is nothing. The confines of the shack weren’t comforting her either. She looked down to the dirt floor, the light brown of dry soil amused her considering the storm that was raging outside. How is this building still standing, if you could even call it a building? Wind rattled the walls, swaying the shack from side to side. Rainbow Dash tried to spread her wings but couldn’t; they were tied down. A rope wrapped itself around her abdomen rendering her wings useless. The pegasus tried to stand but fell as something held her back. She looked beneath her and found a large metal stake driven straight into the ground, clamping down a metal chain into the earth. Her eyes steadily followed the chain as it entangled itself and up to her hooves; zip ties making the connection between the two. So that’s why I’m so cold… Rainbow Dash thought and rolled off the pile of metal and onto her side. The chains that held her to the ground were no more than a meter long. Mobility is drastically limited. Her mind wanted to race, adrenaline wanted to surge, but her body simply didn’t care. Rainbow Dash gave a tired pull on her restraints but they defiantly held. Her breathing increased slightly, and she pulled again. Nothing budged. “Fluttershy… Scootaloo…” Rainbow Dash trembled, biting her lip in a failing attempt to calm down. The three promised they’d never separate, a day at most. She promised them she'd be back in only a day. At least a week had gone by. They would get home. Somehow. A lone drop of water splattered on her muzzle. Her eyes narrowed and she watched the pool of liquid quickly dry, exposing the brighter cyan of her coat from underneath the layer of dust. Another drop landed on her nose, and her breathing slowed down. Rainbow Dash watched as the droplet scurried its way down her snout and out of sight. Sighing, she shuffled her way to the other side of the room to avoid being hit again. She was already cold and didn’t need to freeze to death. That’d be a stupid way to die. A low buzz began over the sound of storm. The sound became a familiar roar as a vehicle pulled its way up to her terrible excuse for a shelter. Rainbow Dash learned to fear that noise on countless occasions. It was how humans preferred to travel. Humans were the hunters. They hunted her, Fluttershy, Scootaloo, each other, everything. Most humans were, anyway... Fluttershy… The door opened, blinding gray light flooded in and consumed the shack. A dark, bipedal figure moved into the doorway blocking out the sky and allowing her eyes to slowly readjust to the new lighting. Her face got pelted with the uncomfortable sensation of water as wind blew the rain through every gap to get its way into the room. The door closed and the human walked into the room, bending down to get a closer look at her. “Freaking aliens,” was all it said. It stood back up and threw down an apple in front of her, half expecting her not to eat it. Rainbow Dash cautiously looked up to the enormous figure and slowly outstretched her neck, getting the stem of the precious apple caught in her teeth. Still looking up to her captor, she slowly dragged the precious apple closer to her body and began mercilessly devouring the gift. The first fruit she had in days stung her throat every time she swallowed. But she didn’t let up, gluttonously eating the whole thing, core and all. The human angrily looked down to her, a rope in his hands and a knife in the other. “Don’t make me use this.” He flashed the blade, reflecting a shimmer of nonexistent light. He bent down to a knee and wrapped one end in a knot around her neck. He then took the knife and cut the plastic zip ties around her hooves and gave a sharp tug, dragging Rainbow Dash across the dusty floor. The roped tightened and choked her, burning her skin as it slid up from the base of her neck. “Come on! Up! There’s got to be some sort of reward for you.” The human barked, pulling on the rope again. Rainbow Dash jumped to her feet and stood on all fours, her legs shaking under her weight combined with the cold. This human was tall, likely the tallest of all the ones she’d seen over the past few months. Her muzzle came up to as high as his stomach, so he’s probably six and a half feet tall. She had time to familiarize herself with the humans’ units of measurements, but this still was just her best guess. The human turned and opened the door, the storm outside all too eager to greet them. With another sharp pull of the leash, the human led her outside and through the mud to the rusty, idling pickup. He opened the back and picked her up, tossing her into the bed. A small metal cage, somehow smaller than her previous prison, propped itself up. A single, damp blanket rested across the top to prevent the inside from getting wet. The human made his first mistake and jabbed Rainbow Dash in the flank to get her to go into the cage. Rainbow Dash took the opportunity and kicked out, nailing the human with a bone-shattering kick to the jaw. Her captor staggered, releasing his grip on the rope he held in his hand. Rainbow Dash leapt from the bed of the truck and on to him, pinning the human to the ground under her hooves. She bit. She kicked. She stomped. She rammed her head into his. The nonsensical beating continued until Rainbow Dash was in control. The human lay on the ground bloodied and broken, but alive. Rainbow Dash triumphantly walked off him, breathing heavily. She had never done that before. It was the instinct to survive. This planet it was bad, its magic compelled her into the fury. Its magic compelled the humans to attack her. Her friends... Scootaloo... Rainbow Dash turned to the human who desperately tried to crawl into the cabin of his truck. Her breathing slowed, but adrenaline still pumped throughout her system. "The knife. Give me your knife." The human looked at her dumbfounded, his mouth agape and eyes wide. Had this creature just talked? "The knife. Give me your knife." Rainbow Dash repeated, taking a step towards him. He quickly snapped out his trance and fumbled in his pockets producing the short blade and tossed it to the ground. "Get out of here." And with that the human returned to his crawl to get into the the truck, but more frantic than ever. Rainbow Dash walked over to the blade and picked it up, holding it in a hoof. Her magic wasn't tainted. She could still hold objects without the need to completely grasp them. She carefully took the knife and cut the makeshift leash that choked her. Afterwards she started delicately removing the rope from her wings. The rope fell to muddy ground in a sickening pile. Rainbow Dash dropped the knife and sighed heavily, looking to the human. He wasn't on the ground anymore. The engine of the truck revved, its headlights flickering to life. The truck reversed slowly, and continued to back up before it came to a slow stop a hundred feet away. The headlights cut their way through the rain, covering the pegasus in a shower of light. Her cyan coat and rainbow mane drooped to the ground, soaked in water. The human devilishly grinned from behind the windscreen and planted his foot onto the accelerator. Rainbow Dash spread her wings and took to the air. The truck harmless passed underneath her and smashed through the shed behind, destroying it a brilliant shower of wood and twisted metal. Rainbow Dash took off through the Nevada desert to where she thought the cave would be. Hopefully her friends were still there, and doing better then she was. Hopefully they were still alive. Chapter 01: Wandering Storm“Hey Rainbow Dash, what’s up with this storm?” Twilight called out from below. Her friend above was busy wiping out a chunk of a large lightning cloud. Rainbow Dash confidently bucked one of the darkened bodies, exposing the sunlight that hid behind it. “I-I don’t know! It must have formed in the Everfree Forest! We got all weather ponies working on it!” Rainbow Dash called out as she eliminated another cloud. Twilight looked up ready to start barging the cyan pegasus with questions, but Rainbow Dash shot off in an instant to the other side of town. Twilight sighed, but Dash had a job to do. You don’t get to be Captain of the Ponyville Weather Patrol for nothing. “Come on Derpy! You need to buck it like this to get rid of it!” Rainbow Dash showed her fellow pegasus the proper technique, dispersing a small storm cloud into vapor. Derpy flew up to a cloud of her own to try to replicate the results, but instead shot out a bolt of lightning by mistake. The bolt arched its way to the ground below almost electrocuting a hapless earth pony. “S-sorry! I just don’t know what went wrong! I’m a mailmare. I’m not cut out for weather duty.” The gray mare apologized to her friend, barely being missed by a lightning strike herself from the darkened overcast. “Derpy, we need all hooves on deck! The Summer Sun Celebration is tomorrow and the skies need to be clear!” Rainbow Dash sternly floated over Derpy, who nervously backed away and went back to tending to the clouds. “Ugh! It’s supposed to be midafternoon but it looks like the sun is setting!” Rainbow Dash let out an outcry, getting nervous glances from the other weather ponies that darted between cloud formations. Frustrated, she bolted off into the nearest cloud bank, tackling the monstrosity all by herself. Raindrops, another pegasus on duty in this specific part of the sky, made an attempt to try to help out Rainbow Dash but got held back by somepony else. The two exchanged hesitant glances and watched as Dash destroyed the floating lump. They rushed off themselves to target their own clouds, before they could come under attack like Derpy did. Rainbow Dash had removed a lot of clouds in her attack, but by no means did it take a significant chunk out of the storm. Rather she simply scratched the paint. The storm hung ominously over Ponyville, covering the town in a shady darkness with the exception of the pockets of light that progressively formed throughout the sky. It did nothing more than blocking out the sun for the time being, but was now it was starting to emit lightning in faster intervals. Who knew what could happen next if the storm worsened; Gale-force winds? Tremendous downpours? Thunder the likes that Ponykind hasn’t seen before? ~~~~~~~~~ An hour passed and with every cloud lost the thunderstorm was getting smaller and smaller. Rainbow Dash emerged out of the large mass that still held true in the middle of the storm to catch her breath. “Hey Rainbow! How much longer do you think this is going to take?” Sunny Delight flew up to her, stopping beside Dash. “I… I don’t know…” Rainbow Dash refilled her lungs and sat down on a remnant of a cloud, “At this rate… a full twelve hours if we’re lucky. That cluster in the middle isn’t going anywhere soon.” “B-But night will be approaching soon! If we don’t get rid of it now we’ll have to work through the night and-“ Rainbow Dash raised a hoof to stop her, “I know that Sunny. Things are totally uncool right now.” “What if we move it?” April Showers interjected between the two mares. No one saw her coming, and in surprise Rainbow Dash fell off her perch and quickly recovered. Dash gave her an annoyed, puzzled stare and Sunny Delight looked just as confused. “Are you feather-brained, girl? If that would work, we would have done that hours ago!” Sunny broke the awkward silence. “I’m not saying we kick it completely out of Equestria,” April Showers defended. “If we keep going at it and get it small enough, we can get a bunch of ponies together and push it out of Ponyville!” “And let it grow back into a monster just to return during the Summer Sun Celebration? No way!” Rainbow Dash crossed her forelegs in protest. “Dash, that’s not what I’m saying!” April cried out, insulted at the criticisms she was getting. “Actually… that might work!” Sunny Delight smiled, getting an enthusiastic nod from April Showers and a dumb stare from Dash. “Why don’t we just take the storm and push it somewhere else? We could place it over the Everfree Forest and then continue to hit it from there. It’d be a lot better than doing the same above city hall.” “What? Are you crazy? The Everfree Forest is off limits to outside manipulation! And how do you expect to move it? It’s too big!” “No Dashie, we get it smaller, and then we move it,” April tried to explain to the cyan pegasus, somehow confusing her more. Sunny brought a hoof up to her face and pinched her snout. “I know it’d be breaking the law, but what choice do we have? This thunderstorm is too dangerous to let it be left unattended. We’re going to have to work through the night; that much is obvious. We’re not getting around that. We might have to work into the morning too, but we can take nightshifts. This storm is already interfering with our schedules as it is!” Rainbow Dash hovered between the two mares, contemplating the thought. She watched as several ponies tried to do something about the large mass only to come out dazed and confused. The few that were smart enough attacked smaller clouds on the outside edges, slowly advancing towards the center. A light breeze from the waning dark clouds ruffled her mane. The storm was getting stronger even as it was getting smaller. Dash looked back and forth between her friends and storm cloud. Thunder was beginning to start in low trembles. “Alright,” Rainbow Dash sighed. “I suppose it beats any other option. The second that storm gets small enough to move, we push it into the Everfree Forest and do not let it get any bigger, understand? April, go tell Twilight Sparkle to send Princess Celestia a letter explaining what we’re doing. Hopefully we won’t get in too much trouble.” ~~~~~~~~~ By sunset the rouge storm was more or less contained. The weather ponies were able to get it small enough to relocate, yet what remained was getting more and more violent by the minute. It was already spewing out rain like power washer, and reports are it that if things kept up as this rate it might to turn to hail within the hour. Rainbow Dash encircled the intimidating black puff trying to find the safest place to get a foothold in. A faint voice called out over a tremble of thunder, “Here should be good!” Rainbow Dash stopped her search and flew off in the direction of the voice. She found Raindrops hovering next to a lightly colored patch that stood out from the rest of the dark gray, already organizing other ponies to get into a formation. “Hey Rainbow Dash! Have you found any spot that could work?” Raindrops nervously asked the Captain who only responded with a slow shake of her head. “No I haven’t. This is probably the only place we can push from. Awesome work Dropsy!” Dash cheerfully beamed, patting Raindrops on the back. She awkwardly backed away after the compliment, a cautious smile slowly forming across her face. “I heard about that plan. In all honesty, I’m completely against it. It’s too dangerous.” Raindrops whispered over the low howls of the storm. “Yeah? Well I don’t like it either but it beats every other option we have. Come on, let’s do this.” Rainbow Dash deadpanned, worsening the already terrible mood of the other pegasus. A dozen or two ponies appeared next to them ready to start pushing. Dash followed them into formation, and reluctantly Raindrops joined in and the group of pegasi slowly began the long trek into the Everfree Forest. “For the love of Celestia, I hope this works.” Rainbow Dash mumbled under her breath. “So who gets the first round of night watch?” A stallion asked out from the squad. “Not it!” A couple ponies shouted in unison, and the entire formation broke into a nervous laughter. Their laugh was pushed down by a low rumble of thunder, getting the conversation to cease. A crack of lightning soon followed, arching out of the cloud and menacingly towards the ground below. Thankfully they were over the library so the bolt was directed towards the tree’s magical lightning rod. Otherwise it likely would have struck a building, probably setting it ablaze. And they were going to put this storm over the combustible trees of the Everfree Forest? Rainbow Dash had an immediate regret about this decision, but the forest was the closet uninhabited place in relation to where they are, so it’d have to do. “Hey Raindrops, I want a patrol or two with rainclouds flying around when we get to the Everfree Forest. We don’t need anything catching fire.” Dash tried to hide thoughts behind a grin, getting a skeptical look from Raindrops before she smiled and agreed to the order. It was probably for the best anyway. With the unpredictability of this thunderstorm they needed to take every precaution. Rainbow Dash looked up to a formation of pegasi that kept bombarding the storm with relentless bucking as they traveled. A group of birds followed them, watching carefully at to what was going on. “Hey, where’s Fluttershy?” Somepony asked aloud. Dash looked around at the group and didn’t see her either. A majority of the ponies shrugged off the question and kept directing the storm towards the Everfree Forest. Rainbow Dash was not one of these ponies. “What!? She’s not here!? She’s supposed to be with the 2nd Wing! We need every ounce of help we can!” Dash spat in a fit of anger and disappointment. “Want me to go find her?” Raindrops asked. “No, I got it. I know exactly where she is.” Dash replied and took off away from the convoy, heading for Fluttershy’s cottage. She took a second to look over her shoulder at the spectacle she left behind: almost eighty pegasi working together, buzzing around the storm cloud and aiding in any way they could. And yet still they were just barely able to keep it under control, if you could call the situation “under control.” ~~~~~~~~~ Fluttershy emerged out of her cottage with a canvas sack of bird seed hanging from her mouth. When the unscheduled storm started, the birds took off from Ponyville to take cover in the Whitetail Woods. Now that it was starting to clear and that the sun was setting, the birds would be returning soon. They’d probably be hungry and tired too. The winds were still strong, but she didn’t mind. As long as the weather ponies kept battling the storm that should die down as well. She looked up at what remained of the storm and saw its size still dwarfed any building in Ponyville. It was also steadily moving to the west. They were pushing it somewhere, but she couldn’t quite put a hoof to where. Fluttershy shuddered at the sound of thunder, but quickly pushed it aside and went off to refill the many birdfeeders. The first one on her list hangs high above her cottage on one of its many branches, swaying with the wind. Careful not to scare the nearby family of squirrels any more than they already were, she gently flew up and lifted the top of the feeder, slowly pouring in seed from the bag. “Fluttershy!” “Eep!” Fluttershy squealed, dropping the canvas sack and spilling the birdfeeder. The family of squirrels squeaked in fear and ran deeper into the treetop; Fluttershy joining them. “Fluttershy! We need your help!” The pegasus clung to a branch and trembled, hiding from no one behind her long pink mane. She tried to regain her composure but shuddered as a gust of wind rattled the tree, tightening her grip on the branch. “Fluttershy, please! We need you!” The plea was growing wary. Somepony needed her help, and she was abandoning them. The thought raced through her mind and kicked at her insides. It wasn’t like her to abandon any creature if they need help. Slowly, Fluttershy stood and balanced herself on the branch and walked out to edge, sticking her head out of the canopy. “Fluttershy!” Sweetie Belle squealed in delight. Apple Bloom looked to her friend and then up to the pegasus, her nervous expression quickly fading. Fluttershy looked down to the two fillies and let out a relaxed sigh. She hopped off her perch and glided to the ground below, careful to avoid landing on the spilled bag of birdseed. “Um… hello Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom.” Her kind, contagious smile spread to the two, relieving them of what pressure weighed them down. “W-what’s wrong?” “Scootaloo’s in trouble!” Sweetie Belle cried out. Fluttershy raised a hoof in fright at the sudden outburst. “Oh no! Where is she?” “That’s jus’ it…” Apple Bloom commented rubbing the back of her neck. “We don’ know. We got separated in ta’ Everfree Forest.” “T-the Everfree Forest!? Whatever were you fillies doing in there? You know that place is dangerous!” The pegasus asserted, getting Apple Bloom to cringe and back away. Sweetie Belle stood her ground though, and talked back to her. “Listen Fluttershy. Why we were there isn’t important, but what is important is that Scootaloo is lost in the forest. You go in there all the time! If anypony can find her, it’s you!” Fluttershy felt the weight of the burden fall upon her, crushing her under its intensity. So she had just been charged with a search and rescue mission? She once saved a baby duck before, even if it was just floating in a creek. But that was nothing compared to this. What if Scootaloo was injured? Fluttershy would need to bring her first aid kit to make sure any cuts don’t get infected… or worse. What if she broke a bone, or her back? Fluttershy wouldn’t even move her without risking any sort of damage. What if Scootaloo got turned to stone by a… “Uh, Fluttershy?” Apple Bloom asked. Fluttershy stood in front of them staring off into space, her legs buckling, her breathing erratic. Sweetie Belle let out a depressed sigh and tried shaking the young mare out of her trance, but it was no use. “Told ya we shoulda gott’n Rainbow Dash,” Apple Bloom aimed at Sweetie Belle. Right on cue, Rainbow Dash landed next to the small group staring daggers. “Fluttershy! Why aren’t you helping with the storm!?” Dash stomped the ground but Fluttershy didn’t give an answer. Sweetie Belle stepped down from her futile attempt to bring Fluttershy to and Dash immediately shot the two fillies a glare. “What’d you two do to her?” “W-we didn’t d-do anything!” Sweetie Belle defended, backing into Apple Bloom who promptly shoved her away. “Rainbow, Scootaloo’s lost in ta’ Everfree Forest! Ya need ta’ go save her!” Apple Bloom stood her ground, entering a staring match with the already agitated pegasus. Dash took a step back in surprised hesitation, but then let out a slight chuckle. “You really are Applejack’s sister,” Rainbow Dash snickered, patting Apple Bloom on the head. She turned her attention to Fluttershy who now sat on the ground, shivers running up and down her spine. Dash huffed and simply smacked the yellow pegasus in the back of the head. “Ow! Why-“ The colored drained from her face when she saw Rainbow Dash standing in front of her. “Oh, uh… R-Rainbow Dash! S-sorry I… I-I’m not with the other w-weather p-ponies. The b-birds…” Dash raised a hoof to silence her and spoke, “That’s not important right now Fluttershy. Scootaloo is lost in the Everfree Forest and we need to find her!” “We? B-but can’t you j-just…” Fluttershy stuttered, still afraid that her friend was mad at her. “Fluttershy, you know the Everfree Forest better than anypony! We need to get going before something bad happens to Scootaloo!” Rainbow Dash grabbed onto Fluttershy’s mane with her teeth, giving a tug off in the direction of the forest. Fluttershy let out a deep sigh of defeat, relieving her lungs of painfully built up air. “Oh, alight. Sweetie Belle? W-what part of the forest d-did you last see her in?” She asked, pulling back on her mane and out of Dash’s mouth. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom both pointed off to the west. Rainbow Dash saluted and took off like a bullet straight to where the fillies were pointing. A second later she returned annoyed, grabbed Fluttershy, and the two flew into the Everfree Forest. Shadows were all too eager to greet them; the sunlight was fading fast as the moon began to take control of the sky. ~~~~~~~~~ Scootaloo wandered between bushes trying her best to avoid any clearings. Her brief run in with a manticore earlier taught her it was best to keep to the shadows. Wind was starting to pick up and thunder could be faintly heard, so she didn’t have to be too cautious about the noise she was making. Manitcores are big and slow and their senses aren’t exactly that great, so hopefully she could avoid another encounter had she come across one. Cockatrices however are another story entirely. The way they could silently sneak up on somepony, how they could fly, see in the dark, and even turn somepony to stone by just looking at them made them the primary thing to be afraid of. Why did I ever follow Apple Bloom in here? Scootaloo asked herself for the nth time. After the encounter with that manticore the three of them split up, and somehow Scootaloo ended up in a field of wild blue flowers. Something about them seemed off to her though, so she carefully made sure to avoid contact with them. She watched her step to be sure not to… *CRACK* “Eek!” Scootaloo screamed, running to hide deep within a bush. The smell of burnt wood filled her senses and light started to trickle through the many leaves. It couldn’t be morning already… it was still night time. Wasn’t it? The filly stuck her head out of her hiding spot long enough to see a small fire off in the distance. Although, there is a chance it could be much closer. The dense foliage made depth perception rather difficult, but nonetheless Scootaloo understood exactly what to do when coming across a fire; run in the opposite direction. And so she did, sprinting at full speed away from light. …And face planted into the ground. “Darn hooves! Work!” Scootaloo yelled at herself as she tried to undo the vine wrapped around her leg. The glow of the fire was getting larger, and the orange filly could feel heat pressing against her coat. Struggling still, she tore at the vine with her mouth but to no avail. For a plant she’d normally eat it was being rather stubborn. Every time she yanked with her trapped leg it would tighten ever so slightly, and she could barely tear out the threads with her teeth. The crackle of the fire could be heard more clearly, and so could the sound of more lightning and thunder. A trapped animal, Scootaloo frantically thrashed around on the ground in the desperate hopes of loosening the vine, but everything she did only seemed to tighten the noose around her hoof. Scootaloo’s heart fell deep into the bowels of her chest as watched the bush she had just emerged from slowly begin to burn in a bright orange. And then it stopped. Shadows quickly returned to retake what they had lost. Rain poured down heavily from above dousing the flames, and almost drowning Scootaloo. She brought her hyperventilating self out of the now muddy ground and looked up to the sky which had just saved her. “Thanks,” she sarcastically mumbled. “That was a close one!” It replied. Wait, what? “I’ll say. That fire almost got too big for us to handle,” spoke another voice. Wait, ponies! There were ponies above her! Scootaloo took a deep sigh of relief and fell back into the muddy ground. She didn’t care now that she was saved. She didn’t care about the rain that continued to fall from the weather ponies’ raincloud. She looked up through the canopy expecting to see her saviors, but couldn’t. It was too dark, and regardless the ponies must have been above the canopy itself. And if she couldn’t see them, they couldn’t see… “Hey! Wait!” Scootaloo cried out, her voice raspy and weak. “Please! Help!” “Come on Cloud Kicker. We need to keep patrolling. There’s no telling where another lightning bolt could start a fire.” “No! Come back!” Scootaloo’s plea went unheard. Whoever it was above her left, taking their raincloud with them. Now she was wet and cold, lying on the muddy ground, tied to a bush. Secretly she hoped the fire could start again. No, she wanted the fire to start again. It’d bring back the pegasi and she could try to get a word out. A surprisingly loud roar of thunder shook the forest and brought Scootaloo to her hooves before another downpour began, this time it wasn’t caused by a pony. Reluctantly, Scootaloo crawled back into the partially burnt bush to take some sort of cover from the coming thunderstorm. “Hey wait a minute…” Scootaloo whispered to herself. Any sort of sound to break the drumming of the thunder was comforting her, whether it is her own voice or sound of herself breathing. “Why is somepony controlling the weather in the Everfree? Isn’t that against the law?” Scootaloo stuck her head out from the underbrush. The field of flowers that was previously in front of her was gone, completely consumed by the flames. An ominous blue haze lingered above the ashes of the wildflowers. Scootaloo walked out into the recently made clearing, which was now turning into a pile of soot from the rain. She looked down to her hoof, still entangled in the vine but now covered in the sticky soot. She had about three meters of distance with her new chain and her body was covered also covered in mud. “Eh… probably shouldn’t be breathing this in…” Scootaloo snorted into the cloud, dispersing the blue vapor around. She turned to go wait out the storm in the bush when a snapping sound made her freeze in her place. The sound wasn’t lightning; no it was too quiet to be lightning. Thunder couldn’t do that kind of noise, and neither could rain… Something was approaching her. “Scootaloo!” Rainbow Dash cheered, running into the clearing. “Fluttershy! I found her!” Scootaloo’s heart skipped a beat. Things couldn’t have gone better if she planned it. Rainbow Dash! Right in front of her! Here to rescue her! It was almost a dream come true! No, if it was a dream she’d be flying. That small thought brought with it a self-delivered kick to her spirits. The filly still hasn’t learned to fly yet. Even though she can use her wings for things like riding her scooter for extra air she still hadn’t figured out to get them to work properly. Fluttershy once tried to teach her but things took a turn for the worse. All those poor frogs… “Scoots, what the hay are you doing out here?” Dash intrigued, her tone of voice deep in disappointment if anything, maybe a hint of anger and pity too. Her face supplied the anger well enough; Dash’s glare piercing through the blue fog that slowly started to lift high into the air. Scootaloo swallowed a lump in her throat and wanted to back away, but didn’t move. She didn’t want to disappoint her idol any more than she already had. Rain water washed down her coat, slowly clearing the mud from her body and giving it a slight shine. Rainbow Dash’s coat and mane shone equally as bright, if not more from the water. Rainbow Dash still loomed over the filly, expecting some sort of reply. “Oh thank Celestia! Scootaloo! You’re all right!” Fluttershy emerged out of the woods and stood next to Rainbow Dash. Nervously smiling at her, Scootaloo awkwardly moved aside to put Fluttershy between herself and Dash, only to trip into the muddy ashes. “O-oh no! Are you okay?” Fluttershy bent down to comfort her but Rainbow Dash still stood, starting daggers at Scootaloo. The yellow pegasus comforting Scootaloo noticed the vine twisted around her leg and carefully began to try and take it off. “Um… Rainbow Dash? Could you… um… help, please?” Fluttershy innocently looked up. Her brilliant blue eyes could practically get any creature to listen to her, but sometimes she needed to use a little force. In order to avoid the stare, Dash sighed and went over to help untangle the mass of vine clinging to Scootaloo’s leg. It wasn’t easy. The two spent almost twenty minutes in the pouring rain, inhaling an oddly colored gas, and getting covered in soot. Scootaloo had thrashed around so much the vine somehow made itself into a knot FOUR times over. “We should get out of here,” Rainbow Dash mumbled, spitting the remains of the vine out of her mouth. “Something about this…” she twisted a hoof in the air for emphasis, distorting the cloud in the process, “…Doesn’t look right.” “Um… Scootaloo? Do you know what this s?” Fluttershy asked, but her question was surpassed by the crack of lightning high above. She let out a loud yelp before darting underneath Rainbow Dash, further covering herself in the mixture of ash and mud. “Fluttershy, it’s just lightning.” Dash tried to reassure her friend but Fluttershy clung to her legs like the vine did the Scootaloo. “Uh, yeah! There were flowers here, but then there was a fire that burned them into… this.” Scootaloo lifted a hoof, soot eagerly clinging to it. Fluttershy felt her heart sink again at those words. Dash took notice as the limbs clinging to hers started shaking erratically, kicking up more of the soot. Fluttershy stuck her head out from between Dash’s legs, making eye contact with Scootaloo. Scootaloo had seen Fluttershy scared before, but nothing like this. Her eyes were narrowed beyond what should be possible, her face drained of all color, and her teeth chattering in between fast paced breaths. “S-scootaloo… W-what kind of f-flowers?” She asked in a dying voice. “Hey Flutters, you okay?” Dash brought up a hoof only for Fluttershy to clamp on to it and bring it back down. “Um… they were about this tall, and they were blue. And there was a bunch of them! They looked weird though…” Scootaloo trailed off, doing her best not to further scare the pegasus who was probably dead by how little movement she made. Fluttershy slowly emerged out from underneath Dash. “We need to leave. Now. This was a field of Poison Joke,” her words echoing through the rain. Everypony’s hearts stopped beating at that point. Stone cold glares exchanging between the three of them. Scootaloo had heard stories about Poison Joke, but hadn’t seen any before earlier in the night. All it did was really play harmless pranks on its victims. Apparently Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and a couple of their friends once wandered into a field of the stuff, but they survived. How bad could it really be? Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy’s expression said otherwise. They both covered their mouths with their manes and stared blankly into space. They were in complete shock. Scootaloo tried to mimic them, but her mane wasn’t long enough to reach like the other two. Fluttershy broke the silence by running over to Scootaloo, grabbing her by the mane in her mouth. “Hey, watch it! That hurts!” Scootaloo cried out, fumbling free of Fluttershy’s grasp. “You don’t understand Scootaloo!” Rainbow Dash rushed over to them, warily panting. “We need to get out of here now! There’s no telling what could happen!” “Come on,” Scootaloo joked, obviously not understanding the severity the other two pushed. The blue haze moved uneven with their breathing. “What’s the worst that could happen?” ~~~~~~~~~ It was just after midnight now. High above the Everfree Forest, almost every pegasus in Ponyville was combatting the thunderstorm. With every buck to the single, giant cloud that remained it shot out a violent roar of thunder. It was probably about half the size of Sweet Apple Acres now, but most of it was easily capable of being erased. The main mass in the center however, was not. It was probably twice the size of Sugarcube Corner, maybe more. It looked like every meter of progress the weather ponies made on compressing the storm made it all the more violent. They needed to destroy the center now before things got any worse. Raindrops looked over the intense cloud formation. April Showers, the mastermind of this plan, was with her trying to figure out what to do. “Maybe if we all charged it at once, we could pop it like a balloon…” she pondered. “And have it blow up in our faces!? We could all be killed!” Raindrops looked to the pegasus in disbelief at the suggestion. April kept thinking though. This plan was falling apart. “Well by what we’ve seen so far, making it smaller makes it more dangerous. Why don’t we just concentrate on the center? Oh wait… then it would grow more on the outsides…” She answered her own question. Raindrops sighed and left April to contemplate what to do. The thunderstorm needed to be erased, preferably now. She charged right up to the main mass and bucked it on the outer edge. A lightning bolt shot out from underneath the thundercloud. Its curved arch dodged every obstacle on the way down, making contact on the ground below. Some sort of blue haze lingering on the ground reached out and touched the bolt of lightning. Electricity spread into the gas and in a matter of milliseconds engulfing the entire mist. The current that raced through charged the cloud to where it shined a brilliant, blinding blue light. In less than a second the gas burned itself up in the intense wave of electricity, vaporizing itself into the night. “What was that?” Cloud Kicker asked. “Another fire?” “I don’t know what it was,” Firefly answered. The two mares had only put out one other fire this night, and as long as the thunderstorm spat out lightning it probably wouldn’t be the last. The two flew their raincloud over the spot where the flash came from, and noticed there wasn’t any more light coming from the area. “Eh, it must have snuffed itself out.” Firefly huffed, dragging the raincloud away. “Funny it’d be in the same spot as the last one…” Cloud Kicker added, following her friend as the two returned to their patrol. Chapter 02: SenselessThe tingle of electricity… The sensation of burning… Blinding light. The stuffy air of dry atmosphere… The cold feeling of hard stone… Darkness. ~~~~~~~~~ Scootaloo saw nothing. Wherever she was she could only see darkness. She couldn’t feel anything save for her eyelids closing. She blinked again. It was the only thing that triggered any of her senses. She blinked again. She constantly batted her eyes for several minutes, even though it felt like hours. Slowly she felt her heart beating against her chest and could hear air moving in and out of her nostrils. Scootaloo twisted her body dizzily and pawed wildly until her hooves into contact with something. Okay… so this is down. Scootaloo went to say aloud but nothing came out. She tried to stand up but her legs wobbled and fell out from underneath sending her back to the hard ground. She learned that the ground was stone as her chin came crashing against the hard rock. But that shouldn’t right… she was in a field covered with the wet ashes of dead plants. And it was raining. The ground should be softer than this. She haphazardly stood up again, almost tripping over again but she was able to prop up against something. It felt hard, so it was likely more rock. Probably a wall. She still couldn’t see though. Scootaloo brought a hoof up to her face and accidently smacked her muzzle. Shrugging it off, she waved the hoof wildly in front of her eyes. She still couldn’t see. Was she blinded by something? Scootaloo rubbed her own face to see if anything was covering it but there wasn’t. Oh. I can see now. Kind of… Scootaloo thought to herself. She could vaguely make out the sketchy outline of her hoof that was only mere inches from her eyes. It wasn’t much at all. Hanging her head close to the ground, she could begin to make out small cracks and scratches in the uneven floor. She tried to concentrate and analyzed the stone, making out more and more tiny details. The ground was covered in a fine layer of dust, a small crack ran perpendicular to this large one over here, and this small pothole allowed from maybe a millimeter more dust to settle in it than the surrounding area. There’s a darker blob over here, and another here. Wait, that one wasn’t there before. Even in her barely seeable surroundings, Scootaloo could slightly make out different shades of gray. Another blob appeared next to the other two accompanied by a small splash. Water? Where was it coming from? Right… It was raining… Scootaloo just realized she was drenched in water. But wherever she was it was dry now so she had to be in somepony’s home or a cave of some sorts. It was probably still night time too. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy probably brought her somewhere for the night. Scootaloo looked up to the sky expecting to see stars but saw nothing, only more rock. “Hey! I can see!” She blinked. “And I can talk!” Scootaloo was beginning to regain control of her senses. Her field of view was now a couple meters, implying the ceiling was only two or so meters tall. Scootaloo looked around to get a better grasp on her surroundings and noticed two large mounds lying in the middle of the room. “That mane is unmistakable,” she told herself. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were both sleeping soundly on the ground, covered in just as much water and grime as she was. Wherever they were had to be close by, there’s no way they’d still be wet like that. Scootaloo probably passed out and the two brought them where they are now, and after they fell asleep she soon woke up. But where is “here?” Stone. Lots of stone. Probably a cave. Scootaloo looked around some more; the depth at which she could see was closely increasing. Continuing her search from her position she noticed a patch that was slightly lighter than the rest of the room. An exit? Scootaloo moved her body off the wall she had been leaning on and almost tripped again. The ground was so uneven it’s dangerous to even walk. Oh how she wished she could fly and not have to deal with it at all. But they were still juvenile and under developed. She couldn’t do more than take long strides if she jumped and glide back down. She continued her cautious journey through the entryway and down a dark tunnel. Her adventurous side took over as she saw light up ahead around a corner. A built up burden of pressure she didn’t even know she had relieved itself at that point. Immediately she picked up speed and ran towards the opening, her pacing more fluid and with fewer slipups. Scootaloo ran out of the cave into the blinding light of the Equestrian Sun. …Or not. This is Equestria, right? What happened to the Everfree Forest? Ponyville? Was this even Equestria? Scootaloo found herself on the edge of a mountain overlooking a flat, dry, and hot desert landscape. Behind her stood more brown mountains that rose high above the cave she emerged from. In every other direction was nothing but sand for as long as the eye can see. Scootaloo kicked a stone from her small perch and watched as it flew through the air, the echoes of it bouncing off rocks sounded like a deafening roar as the stone tumbled its way down the cliff until it eventually came to a rest. Wait, those blue fumes from the field were from the burnt Poison Joke. Heh, this was probably just a harmless prank the plant was playing on her. Scootaloo smiled in relief at the thought and returned deep within the cave. Now she could hear her hoofsteps clearly as the echoes bounced around with every step she took. She returned to the back of the cave to find the two other pegasus mare sleeping soundly on the stone floor. Scootaloo felt the stuffy atmosphere of the room along with the pressure from before return to her. Was this the way it always was in caves? She sighed at the thought a walked up to Rainbow Dash. Scootaloo smiled at the awkwardly adorable sight of her hero cuddled up in a fetal position. Slowly she bent down and lay alongside Dash, and rejoined her in a deep sleep. ~~~~~~~~~ Fluttershy brought her head up slowly and blinked. Her breathing was calm and smooth much like it’d be on any normal day. But this wasn’t a normal day. There was that terrible storm that the weather ponies fought into the Everfree Forest with, Scootaloo got lost, and there was the cloud of… “Scootaloo? Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy called but the words came out of her throat as nothing more than a weak whimper. She quickly snapped out of her weak state of mind and scanned the room. But she couldn’t see anything. Oh no. The Poison Joke made me blind. Fluttershy thought, pouting. Not being able to see wasn’t that big a loss however. Bats are practically blind and it always made her curious how they can maneuver through the air without crashing. Twilight once told her it was something called “echolocation” where the bat makes a bunch of clicking noises and then it can tell where it is. Plus, being blind meant her other senses could become more acute as well. If she could learn echolocation and have her other senses heighten, in comparison to being able to see it would be more beneficial on the end of the scale. Fluttershy smiled at the thought of learning something other animals could do and tried her best at echolocation. She tried and smacked her tongue against the roof of her mouth repeatedly, making wet clicking noise. She brought a hoof up to her muzzle and clicked violently at it in hopes it would somehow work itself out. Slowly but surely, and image started to form in her head. “Squee!” Fluttershy squeaked in delight and kept up her consistent clicking. The faster she did it, the more defined her hoof became. After about a minute, she could begin to see individual hairs and different shades of black. Being only able to see in black and white wasn’t a bad prospect either. Confusing colors can send the wrong image, and having your vision in grayscale might work well around that. But she was getting exhausted. At the rate she was clicking air was escaping her lungs rather fast so she stopped for a minute to catch her breath. Fluttershy stopped her clicking, but she still saw her hoof in front of her face. Confused, she moved it around and studied it closely trying to figure out how she could still see it without echolocation. Oh. Fluttershy blushed at her own gullibility. She could see with her own eyes! That must not have been echolocation then, She thought, slightly becoming depressed. But… I’m glad I can still see. If I couldn’t see, I couldn’t ever see my friends again… their faces, Pinkie’s parties, I wouldn’t be able to read… to see Angel… Fluttershy slipped into a more depressed state, an oddly warm and thankful smile across her face. She was happy she hadn’t lost her vision. Fluttershy looked around with her slowly adjusting eyes and noticed she was in a stony cave. Off to her left Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo were cuddling together in a deep sleep. “They looked so cute together,” she told herself. Hey, her voice returned. Fluttershy looked around the cave she was in and saw the ceiling wasn’t that high but it’s doing a fine job at keeping the storm out. The three of them must be really deep inside the cavern for her not to be able to hear it. The smell of wet fur slowly attracted itself to her nose, and Fluttershy realized she was soaking wet. So were Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash, so they must have gotten into the shelter recently. She probably passed out and Rainbow Dash brought her in here. A good thing too, none of them wanted to miss the Summer Sun Celebration. Fluttershy smiled, happy that she was lucky enough to have such great friends. The poor things must be exhausted. Fluttershy went back to examining the cave and realized just how low the pressure in the room was. It looked like there hadn’t been any sort of creature in this cave for years, or at least this far back anyway. The cave floor was covered in a thin sheet of dust and there was no evidence of any sort of activity with the exception of a couple fresh hoofprints. They were too small to be Dash’s, so she must have flown in with her on her back. There’d be no way Scootaloo could bring her in here. Fluttershy looked down at the spot where she lay and took notice at the damp floor beneath her. The dirt was sticking to her coat. She’d likely have to take a bath again; they all would. Even in dimly lit dark, Fluttershy could see that Dash’s cyan coat was too dark. Even Scootaloo seemed a bit dusty. Fluttershy looked around again at her surroundings, but the cavern didn’t look too special. No, it was special in its own way. It was their shelter and she was thankful for knowing that if she ever got lost in the Everfree Forest there was this place to take refuge in. “Where is this cave anyway?” Fluttershy slowly stood up, almost tripping on the uneven surface. The shakiness of her movements convinced her she should probably fly, but before that she had to do a quick checklist of herself: “No broken bones? Check. No irregular breathing? With the conditions of the current atmosphere, things are alright. Heartbeat at about eighty beats a minute? Check. No wounds? Check. No bruises? Check. No broken bones? Double check. All five senses are working?” Fluttershy blinked, tapped the stone floor with a hoof, smelt her mane, and licked her hoof. “Check, check, check, check, and check. No broken bones? Triple check. No bleeding? Hard to tell in the dark…” She’d have to get into the light to check that. But everything else seemed absolutely fine. Slowly she stretched her wings to get off the ground into a hover, but that plan was quickly thwarted. Her wings reached full wingspan (a little under eight feet wingtip to wingtip) and she was able to touch both of the opposite walls of the room. She hadn’t realized just how claustrophobic it is in here. Fluttershy sighed and folded in her wings, walking off to where she thought was the exit mindful of where she stepped. The loose rocks on the ground could easily slip out and have her fall. Who knows what kind of injury she could get? And not being able to stretch her wings, she’d likely have to just wait until Rainbow Dash or Scootaloo got up and then they could find help. But she didn’t want to be a burden to them. Fluttershy kept her pace through the narrow tunnel until she noticed some light reflecting around a corner up ahead. Oh no… she thought. Is it daytime already? What if we missed the Summer… what if there’s another fire? We’d be trapped in here! Fluttershy’s stopped her careful steps and burst into a full gallop. Rounding the corner, a blinding light shone down on her. She picked up her pace and up through the small opening in the earth where she collapsed onto the stone ground. She hadn’t run like that before in months. The good news, she soon found out, was that there was no fire and the storm had stopped. The bad news is that she’d likely miss the Summer Sun Celebration if she hadn’t already. Worse news was that she didn’t even think she was in Equestria anymore. This had to be the Poison Joke’s doing. For all she knew she was imagining things. Fluttershy slowly stood up, trying to calm herself down. She began hyperventilating in fear at the sight the presented itself before her; pure desert. All she could see was sand and it seemed to stretch on forever! She’d never been in a desert like this before, but she knew it was dangerous to be outside unprepared. If you didn’t have a lot of water or were properly clothed, you could die in less than two days. She, and as far as she knew about Dash and Scootaloo, didn’t have either. She’d been to Appleloosa in the Mild West before, and that was a town in a desert. But they had apple orchards and were thrived. By what she was seeing there wasn’t any sign of civilization out here, except maybe for a speck of green out in the distance. An oasis is what they were called; there’d be plenty of food and water in those. If she was lucky, it would be the Appleloosa orchards she was looking at. That cave must have gone really deep into the mountains for her to immerge on the western border like this. But… she only walked through the cave for maybe a minute. It’s not possible for Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo to have walked the hundred something miles underground to finally rest where they did now. And if she recalled correctly there was only one exit: the one she just emerged from. There also weren’t any mountains overlooking the Mild West either. Fluttershy turned around to examine the towering pile of rocks, tempted to see what was on the other side. But there’s no telling if the mountains or even this desert were real or not, and she just couldn’t leave Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo alone in the cave. Pulled between the two choices, Fluttershy slowly crawled back underground to regroup with her friends. ~~~~~~~~~ Fluttershy returned to the darkened cavern, her eyes slowly readjusting again to the nearly nonexistent light level. During her absence, Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo awoke. Scootaloo was busy trying to get Dash to calm down. “I’m telling you, Fluttershy is around here somewhere!” Scootaloo pleaded, trying to keep Rainbow Dash upright. “Fluttershy!? Where the hay are you!?” Dash knocked Scootaloo aside and ran into a wall. Stumbling back she fell onto her haunches and sneezed, sending particles of dust everywhere. “I-I’m right here everypony. I was just checking the… outdoors.” Fluttershy winced at the thought. Dash tried to expand her wings but couldn’t get enough room to open them properly and reluctantly pulled them back. Scootaloo looked through the darkness at Fluttershy, a bit of terror in her eyes. “You saw it too, then.” Fluttershy’s gaze met Scootaloo’s. The two nervously looked to each other in awkward silence while Dash kept fumbling around the room tripping over every possible crevice. “Hey! I can see now!” She cheered in a deep sigh of relief, her head dizzily darting around the cave they were in. Her groggy stare met Scootaloo’s weary eyes, and then expectantly she looked to Fluttershy. “Where are we?” Fluttershy felt her heart sink into her stomach again. Why didn’t it just rent a place down there and stop moving back and forth? She thought Rainbow Dash had carried her in here! That meant… no. Scootaloo couldn’t have brought both of them into the cave. Physically, that’d be impossible for the young filly. Scootaloo appeared to be thinking the same thing, or so it was implied by her cold sweat and trembling limbs. Dash cocked a brow in confusion and glanced between them. Slowly, she was able to register that neither of them had any clue. “So nopony knows where we are then?” She chocked the words out of her mouth. Fluttershy swallowed a large lump that formed in her throat and Scootaloo suddenly smiled. “I know where we are! We’re in a cave!” She raised a hoof in triumph. Fluttershy smiled at the innocent joke, and even though she protested Rainbow Dash let out a small grin as well. “We’re somewhere in a desert though. There’s lots of sand outside,” she added. Dash’s smile faded into a stern glare at the orange filly, and then she looked to Fluttershy in the hopes it was just a joke. “She’s right, Rainbow Dash. Somehow we’re in a desert,” Fluttershy deadpanned. Dash’s expression went from bad to worse with that. “I don’t know, but I don’t think it’s real,” Fluttershy continued, getting curious looks from the others. “We were breathing in lots of vaporous Poison Joke. This is probably just some harmless prank it’s playing on us. We could still be in the clearing for all I know.” “Some prank,” Dash scoffed, kicking a small rock across the tiny cavern. Fluttershy answered her with a lengthy explanation: “Well, Poison Joke’s affects are rather mild with brief contact. I sometimes ground the flower up into very helpful herbal remedies, but even I only put granular amounts into my recipes. Grinding up a single petal releases almost a thousand as much chemicals compared to when you simply touch the surface. If the entire plant was turned into a vapor then it probably released a billion times the compared to simply brushing up against it. And there was an entire field of Poison Joke! The number of plants we inhaled means that the multiplier would be unimaginable! And the fact that we breathed it in means it likely got into our systems easier and in more profound numbers…” Fluttershy stopped herself and shuddered. Poison Joke is… well, no joke. It is a very dangerous wildflower and there is no telling just how it could affect any given being. The idea of a single creature being affected by an incomprehendable dosage for an unknown amount of time… Fluttershy fainted onto the stone floor. Even though Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash couldn’t even begin to fathom the situation they were in, they at least understood they were exposed to an unhealthy amount of Poison Joke. Second to shooting the stuff into your blood, breathing it in was probably the worst way to absorb it too. “So, we’re drugged up on Poison Joke. That’s just great. I guess we’ll just have to let it run its course…” Dash trailed off, weaving a hoof in the air. Scootaloo looked up to her clueless and forlorn. The poor filly didn’t even understand the situation they were in. Not that Dash did either, and Fluttershy was unconscious so they wouldn’t be able to get a dumbed down version soon. Letting out a deep sigh, the cyan pegasus stood back up on the uneven ground only to almost fall over again. “Scootaloo, wait here with her. I’m going to go see exactly where we are,” she said. Scootaloo gave an obedient nod and walked over to Fluttershy, kneeling beside her. Not exactly sure what to do, she poked Fluttershy’s muzzle to try to get her to wake up. “Hey Dash?” Scootaloo asked out and looked around the empty cavern. Rainbow Dash had already left. ~~~~~~~~~ Rainbow Dash emerged on the outside of the dirty entrance; the blazing sun high above casting shadows over her. Dash took a minute to take in the scenery, or more accurately the lack thereof. Ignoring the mountains behind her all she saw was desert sand ahead. The rolling hills of rocks and sand dunes were the only prominent features of the landscape. The cave entrance was perched high up and embedded into the mountainside. There was probably a hundred foot drop straight down in front of her, but she had wings so that really wouldn’t matter. Looking up to the sky she saw snow white clouds rolling with the wind against the blue sky. “Definitely the Everfree Forest…” she muttered under her breath. Not a single pegasus was up there to move the clouds. Dash smiled though, at the vast blue canvas before her. She let her wings expand to their full length, not a single rock wall hindering them. A cool breeze swept its way around the mountain ruffling her coat and tossing her mane into her eyes. Lifting a hoof up to brush it out of the way, she saw just how filthy it was and her coat didn’t seem to fare any better. Both were covered in a mixture of wet dirt, dust, soot, and other unidentifiable foreign bodies. Dash spat into her hoof and rubbed it through a part of her mane, and the vibrant rainbow colors came back to life. “Rainbow Dash?” Dash turned around and saw Scootaloo standing behind her. Fluttershy too soon appeared out of the cave and the three of them took in the view together. “I’ve never been in a desert before,” Scootaloo said in a mixture of curiosity and fear. Fluttershy looked up to the sky at the self-propelled clouds and flinched. “Do you really think a ton of Poison Joke could do this?” Dash asked her. Fluttershy didn’t respond but hesitantly continued to look around. She slowly opened her wings and let the wind rustle between their feathers. “I… I don’t know,” she finally answered. “But it’s the only explanation I can think of that would make us hallucinate this.” “I don’t think it’s a hallucination…” Scootaloo spoke, her voice catching the other two by surprise. She walked up to the edge of the embankment beside Rainbow Dash and looked down. She lifted up a tiny stone in her hoof and threw it over the side. The three of them watched as the stone bounced its way down the mountain several times before it shattered into bits. She rolled a larger stone off the side and they watched that one tumble too, succumbing to a similar fate as its predecessor. Dash solemnly looked down and then back up to the sky. “Hallucination or not, I think we should take it for what it is.” She spoke and kicked a stone off the side and watched it follow the tracks of the two before it. Fluttershy silently sighed and nodded in agreement. Scootaloo was too busy pushing more stones off the side and watching them fall to their deaths to acknowledge, but still listened in to the conversation. “I’m going to do some scouting,” Dash added, flapping her wings in the breeze. “There might be an oasis over there,” Fluttershy pointed to the patch of green far off in the distance. “Scootaloo and I will stay here, but could you check it out? Maybe bring us back some food and if possible some water?” Rainbow Dash gave the two a loyal nod and her signature overconfident smile. She flapped her wings and took the air in a brilliant burst of acceleration off towards the oasis. Scootaloo and Fluttershy watched her fly away in disbelief; but not by her sudden speed or the fact that she became indistinguishable from the rest of the sky. No, they watched after her almost in confused horror as the cyan pegasi’s familiar rainbow contrail wasn’t trailing behind her. “Be careful…” Scootaloo and Fluttershy mumbled in unison. Chapter 03: Oasis“First order of business…” Rainbow Dash said to herself as she gained altitude. She steadily approached a freelancing cloud and looked at the wispy puff of water vapor. Something about it bothered her (aside from the whole moving-on-its-own thing) but she couldn’t put a hoof on it. Then she found out she literally could not put a hoof on it. Dash leaned in to stop its movement out of impulse and watched her hooves go straight through it. The cloud blissfully ignored her being, consuming and then spitting her out the other side as it moved with the wind. And now she was freshly dampened with water again. In bitter confusion and refusing to give up, she flew above it and tried to land on the cloud only to phase right through it. She tried to do something about it again for the process to only repeat itself. “What kind of freak joke is this?” She looked at the light reflecting off the droplets of water vapor that slowly evaporated from her hooves. Quizzically looking back to the cloud as it slowly drifted away, she deliberately flew inside it. The white fog made looking outside nearly impossible and she cautiously prodded every bit of the cloud’s surface area. The beating of her wings to keep herself aloft with the cloud began to disperse it, splitting it into several chunks. Dash looked up between splits in her wet mane at the light blaring down, shining her body in the midday sun. Hey, I could use a bath. Dash smiled, almost forgetting about the odd mechanics of the cloud altogether. She started flying in and out of the puffs drenching her body in more water all the while destroying the cloud in the process. By the time she was satisfied with the result, the cloud was fading into countless loose strands that zigzagged through the air. Dash shook her coat in a single uniform motion to dry herself off, and started flying with the remains of the cloud. Although upset that she couldn’t manipulate it like in Ponyville, she was intrigued by the idea she couldn’t. It was interesting the way a cloud moved like this, even it’s strange and alien state. Maybe she wasn’t in Equestria anymore. Or perhaps it was just the Poison Joke playing a prank on her by disabling that part of her magic. Maybe it was both. A low buzz soon drew her attention away from the cloud’s remains. It sounded oddly like a bumble bee, but as whatever it was got closer the sound got louder. Unless a bumble bee could fly at twelve thousand feet (which in all likelihood they don’t) and was currently inside her eardrum, she had no clue whatever the noise could have been, or even where it was coming from. But whatever in Celestia’s name it was, it was getting closer and the sound was becoming more of a drone than a buzz. Dash looked around and couldn’t find the source so she looked up to see a cloudbank hovering above. She flew up and emerged on top of the clouds to try to find where the noise was coming from. Torn between fear and fascination, Dash twisted around in every direction trying to get a bearing on the unidentified source. But by the time she noticed where it was coming from, its wings almost took her head off. Dash dogged out of the way just in time to avoid a midair collision with what was emitting the noise. White as the cloud she just popped up from, an oblong object flew at her like Pinkie Pie does when she gives someone a surprise party. And whatever it was, it was fast. In the few seconds Dash wasted in blistering confusion at her near death experience, she was already losing sight of the thing. But it couldn’t out pace her. She quickly caught up to it with ease. The entire object that bewildered her had no rough edges and enough curves to make the object one entire piece of metal. The best way it could be described was like a giant metal bird or some sort of flying machine, yet its wings didn’t flap up or down and there didn’t seem to be any sort of way to pilot it. The droning noise it produced seemed to be coming from the back where a spinning blade that propelled the craft forward. Dash carefully flew around the spinning deathtrap and over the object to get a view of the enormous wingspan; almost seven times that as her own. The object was also maybe eight meters long. She noticed two fins hanging off the rear end of the metal machine and flew down to inspect them. They must be stabilizers, much like how she uses her legs to help her in flight. On the stabilizers were the letters “USAF 157” and “MQ-1A.” So this is called a USAF? Rainbow Dash scoffed at the silly name. It’s probably short for something like Unknown Super Awkward Flying-thingy... She flew up and alongside it now to get a closer look at the USAF and saw an odd emblem on its midsection: A single white star layered over a blue circle. Two white stripes ran horizontally underneath the circle, and stretched a couple inches out on either side. The whole design was outlined in red. Dash hadn’t seen anything like it. A cutie mark for a mechanical being? Come think of it, this was probably the first metallic flying machine she’s encountered. That is, if chariots don’t count. And there was that flying thing Pinkie Pie had, but that could be piloted. Dash had no clue as to how a pony could even fit inside the thing. Was it even controlled by anything? As if the whole craft wasn’t freaky already, the weirdest part was that it had a giant ball hanging down from underneath the nose. It couldn’t be any bigger than that of a beach ball and it too was made of metal. Dash cautiously flew under the belly of the craft and went in to inspect it, the ball that hanging ominously in front of her. And then the ball rotated. Dash squeaked and covered her mouth only to suddenly burst into laughter. Whatever a USAF was it had to be the dumbest thing around. She had already flown with it for at least a full two minutes and it still hadn’t noticed her. Was it even sentient? Dash tapped a hoof against the underbelly and felt the hollowness of a cavity inside. She looked around from underneath and behind the metal ball that occasionally rotated, and noticed there were two out of shape canisters hanging on either wing. They were both brown and less than two meters long, but something about them disturbed her (as if the whole thing wasn’t doing that well enough). A dark black eye looked out from inside a glass bubble that made up the nose of the object stared back at her. Was this the thing’s eyes? Dash suddenly realized her close proximity to the spinning blades of probable death and dropped a safe distance beneath the craft, ready to leave it alone. But now something else was of the matter: the metal ball seemed to have fixated itself on her. A similar black eye hidden behind a sheet of glass looked down watching her every move. Dash did a small circle around the bottom of the USAF and the eye rotated, following wherever she went. She rolled onto her back and drifted away to the left, and the craft turned above to follow her. She drifted to the right and the craft yawed to the right in synch. “This is starting to get scary,” Dash rolled back over and banked hard to the left to leave the thing behind. She had to get to the oasis to get food and such for Fluttershy and Scootaloo after all. Dash looked over her shoulder to see the USAF change directions. It was now following, no, it was now pursing her. Adrenaline decided to finally kick in as fear over being hunted down rushed into her mind. Dash immediately put her wings into overdrive and tripled her speed, leaving the USAF behind in a figurative cloud of dust. She could practically go this speed forever but the USAF seemed to be going as fast as it could, it simply couldn’t keep up with her. Nothing could. Rainbow Dash is the fastest flier in Equestria after all. A glimmer of light in the corner of her eye diverted her attention down to the ground. Dash could see a small sandy, rural village built below her. It wasn’t that big, but it was close to the oasis. Somepony had to be living there, so the good news is she found somewhere to get help from. Her gaze returned to the light as it progressively got bigger, and it seemed to be trailing smoke. Dash stopped in midflight and hovered in place, watching the light become more defined. The light actually was coming from behind something, trailing a large gray contrail of smoke behind it. The object looked pretty much like the canisters under the USAF’s wings, except it was much bigger. This canister was probably twelve feet long, painted a dark green, and had several stabilizing fins surrounding it. Rainbow Dash turned around to see the USAF was still following her, but maybe ten or so seconds behind. Then she watched as the canister flew up towards the USAF, all too eager to greet it. Rainbow Dash floated in horrific silence. There was a deafening explosion as the USAF and the canister collided. The canister’s suicide run was all too effective at obliterating itself, but not so at destroying the USAF. Stunned and speechless, Dash watched as one of the USAF’s wings ripped off and the whole thing plummet out of the sky towards the sandy ground below. It corkscrewed through the air desperately trying to regain control of flight but it was no use. Dash watched the USAF die, hitting the ground with a dull thud before erupting into an enormous ball of fire. Overcome with guilt, she couldn’t help but yell at herself. The poor thing was probably just as curious about her as she was towards it, and now the USAF lay in a smoldering heap of twisted metal. It was her fault it died! It followed her over… Dash went limp, all color draining from her face. She was over the same area where the USAF was! She looked down expecting to see another light trace its way out of the village up to meet her, and thankfully none came. But that didn’t mean another one wouldn’t. Dash shot off faster than she had ever before in her life. No, that was a lie. She would have done a Sonic Rainboom had she been going fast enough and she probably would have done so any second now. Rainbow Dash retreated towards the cave and flew at breakneck speed. No, she couldn’t return. Not yet. Dash stopped on the spot, halfway between the village and the mountains. She promised to get food and water from the oasis, and she intended to do so. Maybe the village that launched the canister was trying to protect her? Thinking back, the USAF had similar canisters too. Maybe it was the hostile and the village was friendly? The wave of guilt that subdued her lifted away. She’d really have to thank the ponies there for saving her life, but that would have to wait. Friends come first. That’s the bottom line. It probably wouldn’t hurt to fly low to the ground though. ~~~~~~~~~ Rainbow Dash touched down in the boggy marsh of the oasis. Surrounding her in every direction was green grass taller than she was. She couldn’t see anything except for the blades that stood in front of her. She had to get to the watering hole she saw from the air and find a way to take some of it back. The grass would be easy enough though; it was so long she could tie up bales of the stuff and carry it back to the cave. The grass… Dash slowly stuck her head out to the nearest towering blade of grass and nibbled at it. It wasn’t as sweet as the grass back in Ponyville, but it still rattled her taste buds. Glutinously she devoured the patch in front of her, eating to her heart’s content. A few minutes and two square meters of wild grass later, she was stuffed. Dash collapsed onto the ground in a heap, smiling the whole way down. The encounter with the USAF wore her down and she needed to rest. The memory of the incident made her winch, snapping her back to her feet. All she wanted to do was forget about the USAF but more than likely the memory would be scarred into the back of her head for the rest of her life. She had to find its family and tell them what happened to it. But, then again she didn’t know if it was trying to kill her or not. “Ugh…” Dash groaned, making randomly walking through the grass. The ponies in that village likely had answers, and hopefully they’d be able to help her figure out where she was. “I seriously doubt this is Equestria. Don’t care what Fluttershy says, not all the Poison Joke in the Everfree Forest could make this sort of hallucin… hallucy… thing,” Dash talked to herself in her search for water. “I mean, the USAF was real. It died. I watched it die. This grass is real. I’m digesting it. This ground is real. I’m walking on it. The clouds… okay, I don’t know if those are real. I’ve never seen any cloud act the way these ones are, and besides-“ *Splash* She looked down and saw she had absentmindedly walked into the watering hole. It wasn’t that big though, maybe a hundred feet across. But the water seemed fresh. Dash slowly bent to her knees and took a small sip of the water. Her sips quickly became glutinous gulps as she almost drowned herself. “Oh sweet Celestia…” she panted, bringing her head back up. “I have never been so thirsty in my life!” The grass behind her rustled in the slow breeze. Dash shrugged it off at being just that and returned to pool of water. She needed to find a way to get water back to the Fluttershy and Scootaloo. She had no way of carrying it, so hopefully she could find something like a sea shell. She’d need a lot of sea shells. Dash decided to begin her search for any sort of container by flying around the pond. The winds died down, the water was fresh and surprisingly clear, and the sun brightly illuminated the surface making it very easy to see underwater. However even with the natural elements on her side she still couldn’t find anything of use. Defeated, she returned to the shoreline to ponder what to do. Fluttershy could probably fly here, and she could easily carry Scootaloo. But the sun was starting to go down and she had to get back to the cave soon. The last thing she needed was to make them worried about her. They’d probably just have to make the trek back to the oasis in the morning. Dash’s ears perked up with the sound of more grass rustling, but it wasn’t the wind this time. The snapping of twigs and odd sounds confirmed that. The noises got closer and closer until they suddenly stopped. Scared stiff, she hesitated to turn around, but that sandy village was nearby. The ponies that lived there likely went to the oasis for water like she was, so she turned around to greet them. The two beings before her weren’t ponies. She didn’t know what they were. Where a full grown mare like Rainbow Dash would be just less than four feet tall, these two creatures were almost as tall as Princess Celestia herself! And the weird part about them was that they stood on two legs much like a Diamond Dog would, but they weren’t those either. Their paws were too small, their bodies too thin and completely devoid of hair except for small tuffs of black that rested atop their heads. The creatures’ faces had no snouts and instead scrunched up, almost completely flat except for their noses. Their eyes were nowhere near as large as a pony’s and their skin was a dark tan. She didn’t even know if they were female or not. That’s about as much detail as she could get from their structure. The rest of the creatures’ bodies were covered in thick layers of shrouded clothing, dusty and well-worn from repeated use. One of them wore a dark blue cloth tunic, with similarly matching pants. A red checkerboard scarf wrapped its way around its head and protected it from the unrelenting sun. The creature had its arms wrapped around a big stick that it rested across its broad shoulders. On either side of the stick hung two metallic buckets, assumingly to be held with water if they weren’t already. The other one wore a light green shirt and dark brown pants. A scarf similar to the other’s wrapped its way around its neck and the creature had opted for a small white hat on its head instead of the scarf like its friend did. Instead of carrying buckets this one instead held out a long black object. The main part of the object looked like it was made of metal, but there was also wood too. A large piece of wood stuck out one side of the object and was pressed into the creature’s shoulder. Another piece of metal stuck out from underneath between the points where the creature held it. It had wrapped a paw around a grip near the back of it and supported the object with the other, pointing its long front end at a scared cyan pegasus with a rainbow colored mane. The two stared at Rainbow Dash and she stared back. “Um, hello?” Dash cautioned, slowly backing away into the water. The two creatures’ eyes widened, facing each other and then back to her. Then the two started arguing in some unknown language. She couldn’t understand what they were saying, but the one carrying the buckets seemed to be winning. The other protested, but eventually complied with what it was being told. It lowered the object it held in its hand (she hadn’t noticed the object had a strap on it) and the creature slung the object over its shoulder. “Hello?” It spoke. The one with the buckets looked satisfied, much to the other’s frustration. “You speak English, yes?” Dash took a step further back into the water. Even though she was the first to start up the conversation, she hadn’t really been expecting a reply. “Y-You mean Equine? Of co-course I do!” “Yes! Good!” It said in a nervous laugh. “Do you have a name?” “T-The name’s Rainbow Dash! I’m the fastest flyer in Equestria!” She eased up, relieving tension by showing off her wings. The two creatures stood back in confusion; the one who could talk put a hand over his shoulder ready to grab the object but hesitated. Rainbow Dash smirked and lifted out of the water and into the air, boasting her capabilities with a small back flip before landing back down on the ground in front of them. Dumbfounded, the two creatures looked blankly at each other and back to her in disbelief. “Now what are your names?” Dash asked. “Ah, yes! Sorry,” the one who could speak Equine apologized after a pause. “My name is Abdul, and here is my brother, Muhammad. It is very nice to meet you Rainbow Rash.” “Rainbow Dash!” She said, brushing aside the possible insult as simple miscommunication. “Ah! S-Sorry Rainbow Dash,” Abdul corrected. “I am the only English speaker in my village, so forgive me if I do something wrong.” “Oh, that village has more of… your kind in it huh? No ponies? Say, what are you? I haven’t seen any creature like you before,” Dash pondered. Muhammad looked down to her smiling, and Dash couldn’t help to smile back. “I was going to ask you the same question Miss Dash. We are humans, you see.” He extended his arms and straightened his back in emphasis at the statement. Dash had never even heard of the word ‘human’ before. It sounded like ‘humane’ though. Maybe this species was really nice. “Okay, human. Well I’m a pegasus pony!” Abdul turned and spoke to Muhammad in their native tongue. The two brothers shared an awkward shrug and a few words, doing double takes to Dash and more specifically her wings. Muhammad whispered something into his brother’s ear, getting Abdul to snicker at whatever he had proposed. Abdul raised a paw and waved his brother’s idea away before turning back to Dash. He slowly bent down to where he was eye level with her and extended and arm, getting Dash to flinch backwards into the water again. “I’m not going to hurt you.” He reassured Dash, who twitched as Abdul reached out and put a paw on her cheek. His palm was rough and dry, yet warm and comforting at the same time. Smiling, he stood back up and patted her on the top of her head, running the digits of his paw through her mane. After a few seconds of absentminded blushing, Dash shook her head getting him to stop his antics. Muhammad said something and the two shared another laugh. Nervously, Rainbow Dash joined in. “Are there more of you?” Abdul asked her. “Uh yeah, but my friends are waiting for me in a cave. I need to bring them back food and water but I’m not entirely sure how.” Dash frowned and sat on her haunches, watching over the pond. The sun was starting to go down, and in only a few hours it would finally set. Her forlorn eyes passed over the surface, uselessly scanning for anything of use. She could here whispers coming from the two humans and turned to see them deep in conversation. Muhammad nodded and Abdul took down one of the buckets that hanged from the stick. Dash watched him curiously as he walked over and bent down and filled the bucket with water, setting it down on the shore between the two of them. He took out a sheet of plastic out of his pocket and wrapped it around the top of the bucket creating an airtight seal that should prevent it from spilling over. “Here, take this to your friends. Meet us back here soon and we can give you some food to take to them. Nobody survives out in the desert for long.” Abdul happily lifted up the bucket, motioning for her to take it. Dash lifted her head up to the human, his warm smile infecting her own. She did everything she could to choke back a small tear at his generosity. “T-thank you…” she sniffled, getting another pat on the head from Abdul as she slowly stood back up and grasped the bucket handle in her teeth. “Really, thank you! You’re very kind… I can be back here in less than an hour!” the pegasus added, slowly floating into the air. “As-salamu Alaykum,” Muhammad said, giving her a polite and formal bow. Dash returned a small wave to the humans and, with a smile bleeding through the cold metal of the bucket’s handle, sped off towards the mountains in the distance. ~~~~~~~~~ “When will Rainbow Dash get back?” “Oh Scootaloo, I told you before. I don’t know but I trust she will get back by nightfall,” Fluttershy spoke, lying down next to the orange filly. Scootaloo exhaled dully and buried her muzzle deep into her legs, wrapping up into a ball. Fluttershy smiled warmly and watched the small pegasi’s body move with every breath she made. “It’s so dark. Can we go outside where there’s light?” Scootaloo mumbled the question, bringing her head up to see Fluttershy’s shocked face. “Oh no no no no no,” Fluttershy shook her head. “There’s no telling what could be out there! And this illusion the Poison Joke is-“ “Miss Fluttershy, I really don’t think this is an illusion.” Scootaloo frowned, tapping her hooves on the stone floor and the echoes rang dully through the small room. “I mean, come on! This doesn’t make any friggin’ sense! I’m breathing this air, I’m touching this ground, I can see you and you can see me. How could any of this be fake?” “Very logical observation Scootaloo,” Fluttershy mused. “However magic reigns supreme over logic. In our world, magic exists in everything and everypony. Logically a pegasus shouldn’t be able to walk on a cloud, but they can. Logically a unicorn should not be able to cast spells, but they can. Logically a pony should not be able to pick up anything in a single hoof without-“ “Yeah yeah, I get it.” Scootaloo grumbled and curled back up into a ball. Fluttershy ignored the interruption, and demonstrated what she was saying by picking up a small rock with a single hoof. “-paws or something similar, but ponies can. Ponies are some of the most magically capable beings on Earth and we can use manipulate it to our discretion. That is why Celestia is able to raise the sun and a pegasus can move clouds; magic connects ponies to the world. Take any one of them out of the equation, and the two are no longer in synch so they can’t interact. Poison Joke is capable of interfering with these connections, and henceforth causes these harmless pranks. The more Poison Joke that gets into your system however, the more drastic the effect might be. And w-we came into contact with a lot of Po-Poison Joke…” Fluttershy trailed off, swallowing the last of the unfinished sentence. There’s no way to tell what is real. A chill ran up her spine, her eyes lazily drifting around the cave that passed off as a shelter. Trying to get her mind off the subject the yellow pegasus scratched her hoof along the ground, drawing random lines in the dust. “Scootaloo, what do you think defines what is real?” Fluttershy asked. The filly didn’t budge and tried to ignore the yellow mare all together. After a lengthy period of silence she sighed and set her head down on the cold stone floor. She’d start a fire if she could to keep them warm, but there wasn’t anything combustible outside that she had seen. Also there’d be no easy way to vent the smoke, so they could easily get starved of oxygen down here. Scootaloo suddenly shot up to onto all fours, freaking Fluttershy out in the process. “Did you hear that?” She mumbled in a low growl. The filly extended her young wings in an intimidating fashion and ran out of the cavern down the dark tunnel to the outside world. “Wait, Scootaloo! Come back! Oh dear…” Fluttershy’s wails fell on deaf ears. Trembling from what just happened; she hesitantly stood up and chased after her. Up ahead, Scootaloo rounded the corner and emerged outside. The blinding sunlight forced her to stop in her tracks and cover her eyes. After dully readjusting to the light, she noticed she was precariously close to the edge of the embankment. “That would have been ugly,” Scootaloo mumbled to herself, kicking a stone off the side of the cliff. The dusty rock exploded onto the ground below spreading its remains amongst the several others before it. She brought her head up and scanned the desert landscape. What was that noise she heard? It was something like a hard thud like the sound of pounding oneself on the chest with a hoof. To make her point, Scootaloo thumped her chest. Fluttershy appeared from behind, shutting her eyes in the glare of the afternoon sun. She turned to face the yellow pegasus but something diverted her attention. Fluttershy was frozen in place, a hoof raised to her mouth and her eyes narrowed. Scootaloo cocked a brow at her, but she didn’t move. She followed the mare’s gaze to the horizon, where a billowing column of black smoke snaked towards the atmosphere. “Uhm, th-that isn’t Rainbow Dash, right? Ponies don’t ca-catch fire, right Fluttersh-shy?” Scootaloo stuttered, staring out to the trail of smoke. Fluttershy was speechless, but did her best to comfort her. “Um… y-yes. Ponies d-don’t catch f-fire. Let’s go ba-back inside, Scootaloo.” Fluttershy motioned for her to follow into the cave, but Scootaloo didn’t budge. The filly gave her underdeveloped wings a useless flap, and fell back onto her haunches. “N-no. No. It’s warm out here. I’m go-going to wait until Rainbow Dash gets back.” Scootaloo fell onto the rocky ground with a whimper, watching out over the horizon. The ominous plume of smoke traced itself into the sky in a single strand, dissipating into the air a few miles above the surface. Fluttershy let out a heavy sigh, shaking her head in discontent. “B-but the smoke is so… scary,” she whined. “Yeah, well it’s going to leave us alone. Look, the wind is carrying it west away from us. I’m not budging until Rainbow Dash gets back!” Scootaloo protested, digging her muzzle into the ground. Fluttershy eyed her suspiciously, and trotted up to the embankment next to her. “You know I’m just trying to keep you safe Scootaloo,” Fluttershy calmly nudged the filly who didn’t respond to the comment. “Rainbow Dash is the element of Loyalty. She’d never fail anypony. We just need to find a way to snap out of this hallucination and get back home.” Scootaloo’s heart skipped and her breathing paused. “Home is where the heart is,” Scootaloo said weakly, curling back up into a ball. Fluttershy didn’t hear those words and tried to budge her again, but Scootaloo stood firm and didn’t move. Defeated, the yellow pegasus laid down beside the orange pegasus and watched the sun cast a shadow upon them from behind the pillar of smoke. ~~~~~~~~~ “Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo jumped up at the first sight of the cyan pegasus. Dash touched down in front of the cave entrance behind the two other pegasi, dropping a bucket on the ground. Scootaloo ran up to her, nuzzling her face into Dash’s side. Rainbow Dash pulled in her wings save one, which used to cover the little filly. “Hey kid.” Dash rubbed Scootaloo on the head with a hoof. “Oh thank Celestia you’re all right!” Fluttershy came up and wrapped her forelegs around Dash’s neck in an embracing hug. “We saw the cloud of smoke and thought something bad happened to you!” Fluttershy released her grip on Dash and Scootaloo looked at the bucket. “Hey! You found water!” Scootaloo cheered and immediately went to try and tear apart the plastic covering. “Hehehe, about all that…” Dash said while rubbing the back of her neck. “That smoke was from some sort of flying machine that got… knocked out of the sky and crashed. Some sort of canister hit it and made it crash.” “Oh no! Was anypony hurt?” Fluttershy asked. “Uh, no. No,” Dash reassured. “In fact, I think the USAF was trying to get me. There was a village below me and they flew the canister up to it and took it down. If it wasn’t for them, I might have been… hurt. By the USAF, the USAF probably would have hurt me.” “You sat on what?” Scootaloo looked up from the mangled plastic that still tightly bound the bucket from spilling its contents. Her feeble attempts weren’t working so she started pounding on the barrier with a rock. “No, a USAF. It had the letters U, S, A, and F written on the side of it.” “Well we’ll need to be sure to thank the ponies in that village for saving you Rainbow,” Fluttershy smiled warmly through the artificial shade the smoke cloud provided. “Yeah, about that…” Dash trailed off and cleared her throat. “They weren’t ponies. The village is inhabited by some things called humans. They’re really tall, walk on two legs, they have no tail, and they can talk!” Dash did all she could not to stumble through those words for she could hardly believe them herself. Fluttershy’s jaw slacked at the description of an unheard of species and Scootaloo had resorted to bouncing on top of the plastic to try to get it to break open. She was still failing. “Y-You mean, there’s an ENTIRE species that speaks Equine, and n-nopony knew about it before now?” Fluttershy gawked. “Actually only one of them speaks Equine, and his name is Abdul. I don’t know how many humans live in the village though. He said he had some food to give me, so I’m going to go back to oasis and pick it up and-“ Dash got interrupted by a rock bouncing off the back of her head. Turning, she could see Scootaloo throwing sizeable stones at the plastic covering, each one bouncing off in a random direction. “OW!” She cried after one of the stones ricocheted back and hit her on the nose. Dash casually walked over to the bucket, grabbed the plastic in her teeth, and tore it open. Scootaloo looked into the bucket dumbfounded, trying to hide back a blush. Fluttershy couldn’t help by snicker. “Anyway, I’m going to go back to the oasis. I’ll be back by dark!” Dash spread her wings again and made a bee-line for the oasis far off in the distance. “Be careful!” Fluttershy shouted after her. Scootaloo brought her water-soaked head out of the now half-filled bucket and looked to see Rainbow Dash flying away. She shrugged and returned to her previous business of practically drowning herself. "Save some for me Scootaloo. That is... um, if you don't mind."
FlashforwardThe stormy rain pounded against the metal roofing of the shack. The building had no electricity, and the only form of illumination crawled its way from under the ragged wooden door. Rainbow Dash looked up from her slumber and down to her watch. It was supposedly midmorning. What light sunk in from underneath the doorframe was saying otherwise. She stilled her breathing. Where was she? Rainbow Dash looked around the cramped space she spent who knows how many nights in. There are no windows, no furnishings, nothing hanging from the shanty walls, nothing. There is nothing. The confines of the shack weren’t comforting her either. She looked down to the dirt floor, the light brown of dry soil amused her considering the storm that was raging outside. How is this building still standing, if you could even call it a building? Wind rattled the walls, swaying the shack from side to side. Rainbow Dash tried to spread her wings but couldn’t; they were tied down. A rope wrapped itself around her abdomen rendering her wings useless. The pegasus tried to stand but fell as something held her back. She looked beneath her and found a large metal stake driven straight into the ground, clamping down a metal chain into the earth. Her eyes steadily followed the chain as it entangled itself and up to her hooves; zip ties making the connection between the two. So that’s why I’m so cold… Rainbow Dash thought and rolled off the pile of metal and onto her side. The chains that held her to the ground were no more than a meter long. Mobility is drastically limited. Her mind wanted to race, adrenaline wanted to surge, but her body simply didn’t care. Rainbow Dash gave a tired pull on her restraints but they defiantly held. Her breathing increased slightly, and she pulled again. Nothing budged. “Fluttershy… Scootaloo…” Rainbow Dash trembled, biting her lip in a failing attempt to calm down. The three promised they’d never separate, a day at most. She promised them she'd be back in only a day. At least a week had gone by. They would get home. Somehow. A lone drop of water splattered on her muzzle. Her eyes narrowed and she watched the pool of liquid quickly dry, exposing the brighter cyan of her coat from underneath the layer of dust. Another drop landed on her nose, and her breathing slowed down. Rainbow Dash watched as the droplet scurried its way down her snout and out of sight. Sighing, she shuffled her way to the other side of the room to avoid being hit again. She was already cold and didn’t need to freeze to death. That’d be a stupid way to die. A low buzz began over the sound of storm. The sound became a familiar roar as a vehicle pulled its way up to her terrible excuse for a shelter. Rainbow Dash learned to fear that noise on countless occasions. It was how humans preferred to travel. Humans were the hunters. They hunted her, Fluttershy, Scootaloo, each other, everything. Most humans were, anyway... Fluttershy… The door opened, blinding gray light flooded in and consumed the shack. A dark, bipedal figure moved into the doorway blocking out the sky and allowing her eyes to slowly readjust to the new lighting. Her face got pelted with the uncomfortable sensation of water as wind blew the rain through every gap to get its way into the room. The door closed and the human walked into the room, bending down to get a closer look at her. “Freaking aliens,” was all it said. It stood back up and threw down an apple in front of her, half expecting her not to eat it. Rainbow Dash cautiously looked up to the enormous figure and slowly outstretched her neck, getting the stem of the precious apple caught in her teeth. Still looking up to her captor, she slowly dragged the precious apple closer to her body and began mercilessly devouring the gift. The first fruit she had in days stung her throat every time she swallowed. But she didn’t let up, gluttonously eating the whole thing, core and all. The human angrily looked down to her, a rope in his hands and a knife in the other. “Don’t make me use this.” He flashed the blade, reflecting a shimmer of nonexistent light. He bent down to a knee and wrapped one end in a knot around her neck. He then took the knife and cut the plastic zip ties around her hooves and gave a sharp tug, dragging Rainbow Dash across the dusty floor. The roped tightened and choked her, burning her skin as it slid up from the base of her neck. “Come on! Up! There’s got to be some sort of reward for you.” The human barked, pulling on the rope again. Rainbow Dash jumped to her feet and stood on all fours, her legs shaking under her weight combined with the cold. This human was tall, likely the tallest of all the ones she’d seen over the past few months. Her muzzle came up to as high as his stomach, so he’s probably six and a half feet tall. She had time to familiarize herself with the humans’ units of measurements, but this still was just her best guess. The human turned and opened the door, the storm outside all too eager to greet them. With another sharp pull of the leash, the human led her outside and through the mud to the rusty, idling pickup. He opened the back and picked her up, tossing her into the bed. A small metal cage, somehow smaller than her previous prison, propped itself up. A single, damp blanket rested across the top to prevent the inside from getting wet. The human made his first mistake and jabbed Rainbow Dash in the flank to get her to go into the cage. Rainbow Dash took the opportunity and kicked out, nailing the human with a bone-shattering kick to the jaw. Her captor staggered, releasing his grip on the rope he held in his hand. Rainbow Dash leapt from the bed of the truck and on to him, pinning the human to the ground under her hooves. She bit. She kicked. She stomped. She rammed her head into his. The nonsensical beating continued until Rainbow Dash was in control. The human lay on the ground bloodied and broken, but alive. Rainbow Dash triumphantly walked off him, breathing heavily. She had never done that before. It was the instinct to survive. This planet it was bad, its magic compelled her into the fury. Its magic compelled the humans to attack her. Her friends... Scootaloo... Rainbow Dash turned to the human who desperately tried to crawl into the cabin of his truck. Her breathing slowed, but adrenaline still pumped throughout her system. "The knife. Give me your knife." The human looked at her dumbfounded, his mouth agape and eyes wide. Had this creature just talked? "The knife. Give me your knife." Rainbow Dash repeated, taking a step towards him. He quickly snapped out his trance and fumbled in his pockets producing the short blade and tossed it to the ground. "Get out of here." And with that the human returned to his crawl to get into the the truck, but more frantic than ever. Rainbow Dash walked over to the blade and picked it up, holding it in a hoof. Her magic wasn't tainted. She could still hold objects without the need to completely grasp them. She carefully took the knife and cut the makeshift leash that choked her. Afterwards she started delicately removing the rope from her wings. The rope fell to muddy ground in a sickening pile. Rainbow Dash dropped the knife and sighed heavily, looking to the human. He wasn't on the ground anymore. The engine of the truck revved, its headlights flickering to life. The truck reversed slowly, and continued to back up before it came to a slow stop a hundred feet away. The headlights cut their way through the rain, covering the pegasus in a shower of light. Her cyan coat and rainbow mane drooped to the ground, soaked in water. The human devilishly grinned from behind the windscreen and planted his foot onto the accelerator. Rainbow Dash spread her wings and took to the air. The truck harmless passed underneath her and smashed through the shed behind, destroying it a brilliant shower of wood and twisted metal. Rainbow Dash took off through the Nevada desert to where she thought the cave would be. Hopefully her friends were still there, and doing better then she was. Hopefully they were still alive.
Chapter 01: Wandering Storm“Hey Rainbow Dash, what’s up with this storm?” Twilight called out from below. Her friend above was busy wiping out a chunk of a large lightning cloud. Rainbow Dash confidently bucked one of the darkened bodies, exposing the sunlight that hid behind it. “I-I don’t know! It must have formed in the Everfree Forest! We got all weather ponies working on it!” Rainbow Dash called out as she eliminated another cloud. Twilight looked up ready to start barging the cyan pegasus with questions, but Rainbow Dash shot off in an instant to the other side of town. Twilight sighed, but Dash had a job to do. You don’t get to be Captain of the Ponyville Weather Patrol for nothing. “Come on Derpy! You need to buck it like this to get rid of it!” Rainbow Dash showed her fellow pegasus the proper technique, dispersing a small storm cloud into vapor. Derpy flew up to a cloud of her own to try to replicate the results, but instead shot out a bolt of lightning by mistake. The bolt arched its way to the ground below almost electrocuting a hapless earth pony. “S-sorry! I just don’t know what went wrong! I’m a mailmare. I’m not cut out for weather duty.” The gray mare apologized to her friend, barely being missed by a lightning strike herself from the darkened overcast. “Derpy, we need all hooves on deck! The Summer Sun Celebration is tomorrow and the skies need to be clear!” Rainbow Dash sternly floated over Derpy, who nervously backed away and went back to tending to the clouds. “Ugh! It’s supposed to be midafternoon but it looks like the sun is setting!” Rainbow Dash let out an outcry, getting nervous glances from the other weather ponies that darted between cloud formations. Frustrated, she bolted off into the nearest cloud bank, tackling the monstrosity all by herself. Raindrops, another pegasus on duty in this specific part of the sky, made an attempt to try to help out Rainbow Dash but got held back by somepony else. The two exchanged hesitant glances and watched as Dash destroyed the floating lump. They rushed off themselves to target their own clouds, before they could come under attack like Derpy did. Rainbow Dash had removed a lot of clouds in her attack, but by no means did it take a significant chunk out of the storm. Rather she simply scratched the paint. The storm hung ominously over Ponyville, covering the town in a shady darkness with the exception of the pockets of light that progressively formed throughout the sky. It did nothing more than blocking out the sun for the time being, but was now it was starting to emit lightning in faster intervals. Who knew what could happen next if the storm worsened; Gale-force winds? Tremendous downpours? Thunder the likes that Ponykind hasn’t seen before? ~~~~~~~~~ An hour passed and with every cloud lost the thunderstorm was getting smaller and smaller. Rainbow Dash emerged out of the large mass that still held true in the middle of the storm to catch her breath. “Hey Rainbow! How much longer do you think this is going to take?” Sunny Delight flew up to her, stopping beside Dash. “I… I don’t know…” Rainbow Dash refilled her lungs and sat down on a remnant of a cloud, “At this rate… a full twelve hours if we’re lucky. That cluster in the middle isn’t going anywhere soon.” “B-But night will be approaching soon! If we don’t get rid of it now we’ll have to work through the night and-“ Rainbow Dash raised a hoof to stop her, “I know that Sunny. Things are totally uncool right now.” “What if we move it?” April Showers interjected between the two mares. No one saw her coming, and in surprise Rainbow Dash fell off her perch and quickly recovered. Dash gave her an annoyed, puzzled stare and Sunny Delight looked just as confused. “Are you feather-brained, girl? If that would work, we would have done that hours ago!” Sunny broke the awkward silence. “I’m not saying we kick it completely out of Equestria,” April Showers defended. “If we keep going at it and get it small enough, we can get a bunch of ponies together and push it out of Ponyville!” “And let it grow back into a monster just to return during the Summer Sun Celebration? No way!” Rainbow Dash crossed her forelegs in protest. “Dash, that’s not what I’m saying!” April cried out, insulted at the criticisms she was getting. “Actually… that might work!” Sunny Delight smiled, getting an enthusiastic nod from April Showers and a dumb stare from Dash. “Why don’t we just take the storm and push it somewhere else? We could place it over the Everfree Forest and then continue to hit it from there. It’d be a lot better than doing the same above city hall.” “What? Are you crazy? The Everfree Forest is off limits to outside manipulation! And how do you expect to move it? It’s too big!” “No Dashie, we get it smaller, and then we move it,” April tried to explain to the cyan pegasus, somehow confusing her more. Sunny brought a hoof up to her face and pinched her snout. “I know it’d be breaking the law, but what choice do we have? This thunderstorm is too dangerous to let it be left unattended. We’re going to have to work through the night; that much is obvious. We’re not getting around that. We might have to work into the morning too, but we can take nightshifts. This storm is already interfering with our schedules as it is!” Rainbow Dash hovered between the two mares, contemplating the thought. She watched as several ponies tried to do something about the large mass only to come out dazed and confused. The few that were smart enough attacked smaller clouds on the outside edges, slowly advancing towards the center. A light breeze from the waning dark clouds ruffled her mane. The storm was getting stronger even as it was getting smaller. Dash looked back and forth between her friends and storm cloud. Thunder was beginning to start in low trembles. “Alright,” Rainbow Dash sighed. “I suppose it beats any other option. The second that storm gets small enough to move, we push it into the Everfree Forest and do not let it get any bigger, understand? April, go tell Twilight Sparkle to send Princess Celestia a letter explaining what we’re doing. Hopefully we won’t get in too much trouble.” ~~~~~~~~~ By sunset the rouge storm was more or less contained. The weather ponies were able to get it small enough to relocate, yet what remained was getting more and more violent by the minute. It was already spewing out rain like power washer, and reports are it that if things kept up as this rate it might to turn to hail within the hour. Rainbow Dash encircled the intimidating black puff trying to find the safest place to get a foothold in. A faint voice called out over a tremble of thunder, “Here should be good!” Rainbow Dash stopped her search and flew off in the direction of the voice. She found Raindrops hovering next to a lightly colored patch that stood out from the rest of the dark gray, already organizing other ponies to get into a formation. “Hey Rainbow Dash! Have you found any spot that could work?” Raindrops nervously asked the Captain who only responded with a slow shake of her head. “No I haven’t. This is probably the only place we can push from. Awesome work Dropsy!” Dash cheerfully beamed, patting Raindrops on the back. She awkwardly backed away after the compliment, a cautious smile slowly forming across her face. “I heard about that plan. In all honesty, I’m completely against it. It’s too dangerous.” Raindrops whispered over the low howls of the storm. “Yeah? Well I don’t like it either but it beats every other option we have. Come on, let’s do this.” Rainbow Dash deadpanned, worsening the already terrible mood of the other pegasus. A dozen or two ponies appeared next to them ready to start pushing. Dash followed them into formation, and reluctantly Raindrops joined in and the group of pegasi slowly began the long trek into the Everfree Forest. “For the love of Celestia, I hope this works.” Rainbow Dash mumbled under her breath. “So who gets the first round of night watch?” A stallion asked out from the squad. “Not it!” A couple ponies shouted in unison, and the entire formation broke into a nervous laughter. Their laugh was pushed down by a low rumble of thunder, getting the conversation to cease. A crack of lightning soon followed, arching out of the cloud and menacingly towards the ground below. Thankfully they were over the library so the bolt was directed towards the tree’s magical lightning rod. Otherwise it likely would have struck a building, probably setting it ablaze. And they were going to put this storm over the combustible trees of the Everfree Forest? Rainbow Dash had an immediate regret about this decision, but the forest was the closet uninhabited place in relation to where they are, so it’d have to do. “Hey Raindrops, I want a patrol or two with rainclouds flying around when we get to the Everfree Forest. We don’t need anything catching fire.” Dash tried to hide thoughts behind a grin, getting a skeptical look from Raindrops before she smiled and agreed to the order. It was probably for the best anyway. With the unpredictability of this thunderstorm they needed to take every precaution. Rainbow Dash looked up to a formation of pegasi that kept bombarding the storm with relentless bucking as they traveled. A group of birds followed them, watching carefully at to what was going on. “Hey, where’s Fluttershy?” Somepony asked aloud. Dash looked around at the group and didn’t see her either. A majority of the ponies shrugged off the question and kept directing the storm towards the Everfree Forest. Rainbow Dash was not one of these ponies. “What!? She’s not here!? She’s supposed to be with the 2nd Wing! We need every ounce of help we can!” Dash spat in a fit of anger and disappointment. “Want me to go find her?” Raindrops asked. “No, I got it. I know exactly where she is.” Dash replied and took off away from the convoy, heading for Fluttershy’s cottage. She took a second to look over her shoulder at the spectacle she left behind: almost eighty pegasi working together, buzzing around the storm cloud and aiding in any way they could. And yet still they were just barely able to keep it under control, if you could call the situation “under control.” ~~~~~~~~~ Fluttershy emerged out of her cottage with a canvas sack of bird seed hanging from her mouth. When the unscheduled storm started, the birds took off from Ponyville to take cover in the Whitetail Woods. Now that it was starting to clear and that the sun was setting, the birds would be returning soon. They’d probably be hungry and tired too. The winds were still strong, but she didn’t mind. As long as the weather ponies kept battling the storm that should die down as well. She looked up at what remained of the storm and saw its size still dwarfed any building in Ponyville. It was also steadily moving to the west. They were pushing it somewhere, but she couldn’t quite put a hoof to where. Fluttershy shuddered at the sound of thunder, but quickly pushed it aside and went off to refill the many birdfeeders. The first one on her list hangs high above her cottage on one of its many branches, swaying with the wind. Careful not to scare the nearby family of squirrels any more than they already were, she gently flew up and lifted the top of the feeder, slowly pouring in seed from the bag. “Fluttershy!” “Eep!” Fluttershy squealed, dropping the canvas sack and spilling the birdfeeder. The family of squirrels squeaked in fear and ran deeper into the treetop; Fluttershy joining them. “Fluttershy! We need your help!” The pegasus clung to a branch and trembled, hiding from no one behind her long pink mane. She tried to regain her composure but shuddered as a gust of wind rattled the tree, tightening her grip on the branch. “Fluttershy, please! We need you!” The plea was growing wary. Somepony needed her help, and she was abandoning them. The thought raced through her mind and kicked at her insides. It wasn’t like her to abandon any creature if they need help. Slowly, Fluttershy stood and balanced herself on the branch and walked out to edge, sticking her head out of the canopy. “Fluttershy!” Sweetie Belle squealed in delight. Apple Bloom looked to her friend and then up to the pegasus, her nervous expression quickly fading. Fluttershy looked down to the two fillies and let out a relaxed sigh. She hopped off her perch and glided to the ground below, careful to avoid landing on the spilled bag of birdseed. “Um… hello Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom.” Her kind, contagious smile spread to the two, relieving them of what pressure weighed them down. “W-what’s wrong?” “Scootaloo’s in trouble!” Sweetie Belle cried out. Fluttershy raised a hoof in fright at the sudden outburst. “Oh no! Where is she?” “That’s jus’ it…” Apple Bloom commented rubbing the back of her neck. “We don’ know. We got separated in ta’ Everfree Forest.” “T-the Everfree Forest!? Whatever were you fillies doing in there? You know that place is dangerous!” The pegasus asserted, getting Apple Bloom to cringe and back away. Sweetie Belle stood her ground though, and talked back to her. “Listen Fluttershy. Why we were there isn’t important, but what is important is that Scootaloo is lost in the forest. You go in there all the time! If anypony can find her, it’s you!” Fluttershy felt the weight of the burden fall upon her, crushing her under its intensity. So she had just been charged with a search and rescue mission? She once saved a baby duck before, even if it was just floating in a creek. But that was nothing compared to this. What if Scootaloo was injured? Fluttershy would need to bring her first aid kit to make sure any cuts don’t get infected… or worse. What if she broke a bone, or her back? Fluttershy wouldn’t even move her without risking any sort of damage. What if Scootaloo got turned to stone by a… “Uh, Fluttershy?” Apple Bloom asked. Fluttershy stood in front of them staring off into space, her legs buckling, her breathing erratic. Sweetie Belle let out a depressed sigh and tried shaking the young mare out of her trance, but it was no use. “Told ya we shoulda gott’n Rainbow Dash,” Apple Bloom aimed at Sweetie Belle. Right on cue, Rainbow Dash landed next to the small group staring daggers. “Fluttershy! Why aren’t you helping with the storm!?” Dash stomped the ground but Fluttershy didn’t give an answer. Sweetie Belle stepped down from her futile attempt to bring Fluttershy to and Dash immediately shot the two fillies a glare. “What’d you two do to her?” “W-we didn’t d-do anything!” Sweetie Belle defended, backing into Apple Bloom who promptly shoved her away. “Rainbow, Scootaloo’s lost in ta’ Everfree Forest! Ya need ta’ go save her!” Apple Bloom stood her ground, entering a staring match with the already agitated pegasus. Dash took a step back in surprised hesitation, but then let out a slight chuckle. “You really are Applejack’s sister,” Rainbow Dash snickered, patting Apple Bloom on the head. She turned her attention to Fluttershy who now sat on the ground, shivers running up and down her spine. Dash huffed and simply smacked the yellow pegasus in the back of the head. “Ow! Why-“ The colored drained from her face when she saw Rainbow Dash standing in front of her. “Oh, uh… R-Rainbow Dash! S-sorry I… I-I’m not with the other w-weather p-ponies. The b-birds…” Dash raised a hoof to silence her and spoke, “That’s not important right now Fluttershy. Scootaloo is lost in the Everfree Forest and we need to find her!” “We? B-but can’t you j-just…” Fluttershy stuttered, still afraid that her friend was mad at her. “Fluttershy, you know the Everfree Forest better than anypony! We need to get going before something bad happens to Scootaloo!” Rainbow Dash grabbed onto Fluttershy’s mane with her teeth, giving a tug off in the direction of the forest. Fluttershy let out a deep sigh of defeat, relieving her lungs of painfully built up air. “Oh, alight. Sweetie Belle? W-what part of the forest d-did you last see her in?” She asked, pulling back on her mane and out of Dash’s mouth. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom both pointed off to the west. Rainbow Dash saluted and took off like a bullet straight to where the fillies were pointing. A second later she returned annoyed, grabbed Fluttershy, and the two flew into the Everfree Forest. Shadows were all too eager to greet them; the sunlight was fading fast as the moon began to take control of the sky. ~~~~~~~~~ Scootaloo wandered between bushes trying her best to avoid any clearings. Her brief run in with a manticore earlier taught her it was best to keep to the shadows. Wind was starting to pick up and thunder could be faintly heard, so she didn’t have to be too cautious about the noise she was making. Manitcores are big and slow and their senses aren’t exactly that great, so hopefully she could avoid another encounter had she come across one. Cockatrices however are another story entirely. The way they could silently sneak up on somepony, how they could fly, see in the dark, and even turn somepony to stone by just looking at them made them the primary thing to be afraid of. Why did I ever follow Apple Bloom in here? Scootaloo asked herself for the nth time. After the encounter with that manticore the three of them split up, and somehow Scootaloo ended up in a field of wild blue flowers. Something about them seemed off to her though, so she carefully made sure to avoid contact with them. She watched her step to be sure not to… *CRACK* “Eek!” Scootaloo screamed, running to hide deep within a bush. The smell of burnt wood filled her senses and light started to trickle through the many leaves. It couldn’t be morning already… it was still night time. Wasn’t it? The filly stuck her head out of her hiding spot long enough to see a small fire off in the distance. Although, there is a chance it could be much closer. The dense foliage made depth perception rather difficult, but nonetheless Scootaloo understood exactly what to do when coming across a fire; run in the opposite direction. And so she did, sprinting at full speed away from light. …And face planted into the ground. “Darn hooves! Work!” Scootaloo yelled at herself as she tried to undo the vine wrapped around her leg. The glow of the fire was getting larger, and the orange filly could feel heat pressing against her coat. Struggling still, she tore at the vine with her mouth but to no avail. For a plant she’d normally eat it was being rather stubborn. Every time she yanked with her trapped leg it would tighten ever so slightly, and she could barely tear out the threads with her teeth. The crackle of the fire could be heard more clearly, and so could the sound of more lightning and thunder. A trapped animal, Scootaloo frantically thrashed around on the ground in the desperate hopes of loosening the vine, but everything she did only seemed to tighten the noose around her hoof. Scootaloo’s heart fell deep into the bowels of her chest as watched the bush she had just emerged from slowly begin to burn in a bright orange. And then it stopped. Shadows quickly returned to retake what they had lost. Rain poured down heavily from above dousing the flames, and almost drowning Scootaloo. She brought her hyperventilating self out of the now muddy ground and looked up to the sky which had just saved her. “Thanks,” she sarcastically mumbled. “That was a close one!” It replied. Wait, what? “I’ll say. That fire almost got too big for us to handle,” spoke another voice. Wait, ponies! There were ponies above her! Scootaloo took a deep sigh of relief and fell back into the muddy ground. She didn’t care now that she was saved. She didn’t care about the rain that continued to fall from the weather ponies’ raincloud. She looked up through the canopy expecting to see her saviors, but couldn’t. It was too dark, and regardless the ponies must have been above the canopy itself. And if she couldn’t see them, they couldn’t see… “Hey! Wait!” Scootaloo cried out, her voice raspy and weak. “Please! Help!” “Come on Cloud Kicker. We need to keep patrolling. There’s no telling where another lightning bolt could start a fire.” “No! Come back!” Scootaloo’s plea went unheard. Whoever it was above her left, taking their raincloud with them. Now she was wet and cold, lying on the muddy ground, tied to a bush. Secretly she hoped the fire could start again. No, she wanted the fire to start again. It’d bring back the pegasi and she could try to get a word out. A surprisingly loud roar of thunder shook the forest and brought Scootaloo to her hooves before another downpour began, this time it wasn’t caused by a pony. Reluctantly, Scootaloo crawled back into the partially burnt bush to take some sort of cover from the coming thunderstorm. “Hey wait a minute…” Scootaloo whispered to herself. Any sort of sound to break the drumming of the thunder was comforting her, whether it is her own voice or sound of herself breathing. “Why is somepony controlling the weather in the Everfree? Isn’t that against the law?” Scootaloo stuck her head out from the underbrush. The field of flowers that was previously in front of her was gone, completely consumed by the flames. An ominous blue haze lingered above the ashes of the wildflowers. Scootaloo walked out into the recently made clearing, which was now turning into a pile of soot from the rain. She looked down to her hoof, still entangled in the vine but now covered in the sticky soot. She had about three meters of distance with her new chain and her body was covered also covered in mud. “Eh… probably shouldn’t be breathing this in…” Scootaloo snorted into the cloud, dispersing the blue vapor around. She turned to go wait out the storm in the bush when a snapping sound made her freeze in her place. The sound wasn’t lightning; no it was too quiet to be lightning. Thunder couldn’t do that kind of noise, and neither could rain… Something was approaching her. “Scootaloo!” Rainbow Dash cheered, running into the clearing. “Fluttershy! I found her!” Scootaloo’s heart skipped a beat. Things couldn’t have gone better if she planned it. Rainbow Dash! Right in front of her! Here to rescue her! It was almost a dream come true! No, if it was a dream she’d be flying. That small thought brought with it a self-delivered kick to her spirits. The filly still hasn’t learned to fly yet. Even though she can use her wings for things like riding her scooter for extra air she still hadn’t figured out to get them to work properly. Fluttershy once tried to teach her but things took a turn for the worse. All those poor frogs… “Scoots, what the hay are you doing out here?” Dash intrigued, her tone of voice deep in disappointment if anything, maybe a hint of anger and pity too. Her face supplied the anger well enough; Dash’s glare piercing through the blue fog that slowly started to lift high into the air. Scootaloo swallowed a lump in her throat and wanted to back away, but didn’t move. She didn’t want to disappoint her idol any more than she already had. Rain water washed down her coat, slowly clearing the mud from her body and giving it a slight shine. Rainbow Dash’s coat and mane shone equally as bright, if not more from the water. Rainbow Dash still loomed over the filly, expecting some sort of reply. “Oh thank Celestia! Scootaloo! You’re all right!” Fluttershy emerged out of the woods and stood next to Rainbow Dash. Nervously smiling at her, Scootaloo awkwardly moved aside to put Fluttershy between herself and Dash, only to trip into the muddy ashes. “O-oh no! Are you okay?” Fluttershy bent down to comfort her but Rainbow Dash still stood, starting daggers at Scootaloo. The yellow pegasus comforting Scootaloo noticed the vine twisted around her leg and carefully began to try and take it off. “Um… Rainbow Dash? Could you… um… help, please?” Fluttershy innocently looked up. Her brilliant blue eyes could practically get any creature to listen to her, but sometimes she needed to use a little force. In order to avoid the stare, Dash sighed and went over to help untangle the mass of vine clinging to Scootaloo’s leg. It wasn’t easy. The two spent almost twenty minutes in the pouring rain, inhaling an oddly colored gas, and getting covered in soot. Scootaloo had thrashed around so much the vine somehow made itself into a knot FOUR times over. “We should get out of here,” Rainbow Dash mumbled, spitting the remains of the vine out of her mouth. “Something about this…” she twisted a hoof in the air for emphasis, distorting the cloud in the process, “…Doesn’t look right.” “Um… Scootaloo? Do you know what this s?” Fluttershy asked, but her question was surpassed by the crack of lightning high above. She let out a loud yelp before darting underneath Rainbow Dash, further covering herself in the mixture of ash and mud. “Fluttershy, it’s just lightning.” Dash tried to reassure her friend but Fluttershy clung to her legs like the vine did the Scootaloo. “Uh, yeah! There were flowers here, but then there was a fire that burned them into… this.” Scootaloo lifted a hoof, soot eagerly clinging to it. Fluttershy felt her heart sink again at those words. Dash took notice as the limbs clinging to hers started shaking erratically, kicking up more of the soot. Fluttershy stuck her head out from between Dash’s legs, making eye contact with Scootaloo. Scootaloo had seen Fluttershy scared before, but nothing like this. Her eyes were narrowed beyond what should be possible, her face drained of all color, and her teeth chattering in between fast paced breaths. “S-scootaloo… W-what kind of f-flowers?” She asked in a dying voice. “Hey Flutters, you okay?” Dash brought up a hoof only for Fluttershy to clamp on to it and bring it back down. “Um… they were about this tall, and they were blue. And there was a bunch of them! They looked weird though…” Scootaloo trailed off, doing her best not to further scare the pegasus who was probably dead by how little movement she made. Fluttershy slowly emerged out from underneath Dash. “We need to leave. Now. This was a field of Poison Joke,” her words echoing through the rain. Everypony’s hearts stopped beating at that point. Stone cold glares exchanging between the three of them. Scootaloo had heard stories about Poison Joke, but hadn’t seen any before earlier in the night. All it did was really play harmless pranks on its victims. Apparently Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and a couple of their friends once wandered into a field of the stuff, but they survived. How bad could it really be? Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy’s expression said otherwise. They both covered their mouths with their manes and stared blankly into space. They were in complete shock. Scootaloo tried to mimic them, but her mane wasn’t long enough to reach like the other two. Fluttershy broke the silence by running over to Scootaloo, grabbing her by the mane in her mouth. “Hey, watch it! That hurts!” Scootaloo cried out, fumbling free of Fluttershy’s grasp. “You don’t understand Scootaloo!” Rainbow Dash rushed over to them, warily panting. “We need to get out of here now! There’s no telling what could happen!” “Come on,” Scootaloo joked, obviously not understanding the severity the other two pushed. The blue haze moved uneven with their breathing. “What’s the worst that could happen?” ~~~~~~~~~ It was just after midnight now. High above the Everfree Forest, almost every pegasus in Ponyville was combatting the thunderstorm. With every buck to the single, giant cloud that remained it shot out a violent roar of thunder. It was probably about half the size of Sweet Apple Acres now, but most of it was easily capable of being erased. The main mass in the center however, was not. It was probably twice the size of Sugarcube Corner, maybe more. It looked like every meter of progress the weather ponies made on compressing the storm made it all the more violent. They needed to destroy the center now before things got any worse. Raindrops looked over the intense cloud formation. April Showers, the mastermind of this plan, was with her trying to figure out what to do. “Maybe if we all charged it at once, we could pop it like a balloon…” she pondered. “And have it blow up in our faces!? We could all be killed!” Raindrops looked to the pegasus in disbelief at the suggestion. April kept thinking though. This plan was falling apart. “Well by what we’ve seen so far, making it smaller makes it more dangerous. Why don’t we just concentrate on the center? Oh wait… then it would grow more on the outsides…” She answered her own question. Raindrops sighed and left April to contemplate what to do. The thunderstorm needed to be erased, preferably now. She charged right up to the main mass and bucked it on the outer edge. A lightning bolt shot out from underneath the thundercloud. Its curved arch dodged every obstacle on the way down, making contact on the ground below. Some sort of blue haze lingering on the ground reached out and touched the bolt of lightning. Electricity spread into the gas and in a matter of milliseconds engulfing the entire mist. The current that raced through charged the cloud to where it shined a brilliant, blinding blue light. In less than a second the gas burned itself up in the intense wave of electricity, vaporizing itself into the night. “What was that?” Cloud Kicker asked. “Another fire?” “I don’t know what it was,” Firefly answered. The two mares had only put out one other fire this night, and as long as the thunderstorm spat out lightning it probably wouldn’t be the last. The two flew their raincloud over the spot where the flash came from, and noticed there wasn’t any more light coming from the area. “Eh, it must have snuffed itself out.” Firefly huffed, dragging the raincloud away. “Funny it’d be in the same spot as the last one…” Cloud Kicker added, following her friend as the two returned to their patrol.
Chapter 02: SenselessThe tingle of electricity… The sensation of burning… Blinding light. The stuffy air of dry atmosphere… The cold feeling of hard stone… Darkness. ~~~~~~~~~ Scootaloo saw nothing. Wherever she was she could only see darkness. She couldn’t feel anything save for her eyelids closing. She blinked again. It was the only thing that triggered any of her senses. She blinked again. She constantly batted her eyes for several minutes, even though it felt like hours. Slowly she felt her heart beating against her chest and could hear air moving in and out of her nostrils. Scootaloo twisted her body dizzily and pawed wildly until her hooves into contact with something. Okay… so this is down. Scootaloo went to say aloud but nothing came out. She tried to stand up but her legs wobbled and fell out from underneath sending her back to the hard ground. She learned that the ground was stone as her chin came crashing against the hard rock. But that shouldn’t right… she was in a field covered with the wet ashes of dead plants. And it was raining. The ground should be softer than this. She haphazardly stood up again, almost tripping over again but she was able to prop up against something. It felt hard, so it was likely more rock. Probably a wall. She still couldn’t see though. Scootaloo brought a hoof up to her face and accidently smacked her muzzle. Shrugging it off, she waved the hoof wildly in front of her eyes. She still couldn’t see. Was she blinded by something? Scootaloo rubbed her own face to see if anything was covering it but there wasn’t. Oh. I can see now. Kind of… Scootaloo thought to herself. She could vaguely make out the sketchy outline of her hoof that was only mere inches from her eyes. It wasn’t much at all. Hanging her head close to the ground, she could begin to make out small cracks and scratches in the uneven floor. She tried to concentrate and analyzed the stone, making out more and more tiny details. The ground was covered in a fine layer of dust, a small crack ran perpendicular to this large one over here, and this small pothole allowed from maybe a millimeter more dust to settle in it than the surrounding area. There’s a darker blob over here, and another here. Wait, that one wasn’t there before. Even in her barely seeable surroundings, Scootaloo could slightly make out different shades of gray. Another blob appeared next to the other two accompanied by a small splash. Water? Where was it coming from? Right… It was raining… Scootaloo just realized she was drenched in water. But wherever she was it was dry now so she had to be in somepony’s home or a cave of some sorts. It was probably still night time too. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy probably brought her somewhere for the night. Scootaloo looked up to the sky expecting to see stars but saw nothing, only more rock. “Hey! I can see!” She blinked. “And I can talk!” Scootaloo was beginning to regain control of her senses. Her field of view was now a couple meters, implying the ceiling was only two or so meters tall. Scootaloo looked around to get a better grasp on her surroundings and noticed two large mounds lying in the middle of the room. “That mane is unmistakable,” she told herself. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were both sleeping soundly on the ground, covered in just as much water and grime as she was. Wherever they were had to be close by, there’s no way they’d still be wet like that. Scootaloo probably passed out and the two brought them where they are now, and after they fell asleep she soon woke up. But where is “here?” Stone. Lots of stone. Probably a cave. Scootaloo looked around some more; the depth at which she could see was closely increasing. Continuing her search from her position she noticed a patch that was slightly lighter than the rest of the room. An exit? Scootaloo moved her body off the wall she had been leaning on and almost tripped again. The ground was so uneven it’s dangerous to even walk. Oh how she wished she could fly and not have to deal with it at all. But they were still juvenile and under developed. She couldn’t do more than take long strides if she jumped and glide back down. She continued her cautious journey through the entryway and down a dark tunnel. Her adventurous side took over as she saw light up ahead around a corner. A built up burden of pressure she didn’t even know she had relieved itself at that point. Immediately she picked up speed and ran towards the opening, her pacing more fluid and with fewer slipups. Scootaloo ran out of the cave into the blinding light of the Equestrian Sun. …Or not. This is Equestria, right? What happened to the Everfree Forest? Ponyville? Was this even Equestria? Scootaloo found herself on the edge of a mountain overlooking a flat, dry, and hot desert landscape. Behind her stood more brown mountains that rose high above the cave she emerged from. In every other direction was nothing but sand for as long as the eye can see. Scootaloo kicked a stone from her small perch and watched as it flew through the air, the echoes of it bouncing off rocks sounded like a deafening roar as the stone tumbled its way down the cliff until it eventually came to a rest. Wait, those blue fumes from the field were from the burnt Poison Joke. Heh, this was probably just a harmless prank the plant was playing on her. Scootaloo smiled in relief at the thought and returned deep within the cave. Now she could hear her hoofsteps clearly as the echoes bounced around with every step she took. She returned to the back of the cave to find the two other pegasus mare sleeping soundly on the stone floor. Scootaloo felt the stuffy atmosphere of the room along with the pressure from before return to her. Was this the way it always was in caves? She sighed at the thought a walked up to Rainbow Dash. Scootaloo smiled at the awkwardly adorable sight of her hero cuddled up in a fetal position. Slowly she bent down and lay alongside Dash, and rejoined her in a deep sleep. ~~~~~~~~~ Fluttershy brought her head up slowly and blinked. Her breathing was calm and smooth much like it’d be on any normal day. But this wasn’t a normal day. There was that terrible storm that the weather ponies fought into the Everfree Forest with, Scootaloo got lost, and there was the cloud of… “Scootaloo? Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy called but the words came out of her throat as nothing more than a weak whimper. She quickly snapped out of her weak state of mind and scanned the room. But she couldn’t see anything. Oh no. The Poison Joke made me blind. Fluttershy thought, pouting. Not being able to see wasn’t that big a loss however. Bats are practically blind and it always made her curious how they can maneuver through the air without crashing. Twilight once told her it was something called “echolocation” where the bat makes a bunch of clicking noises and then it can tell where it is. Plus, being blind meant her other senses could become more acute as well. If she could learn echolocation and have her other senses heighten, in comparison to being able to see it would be more beneficial on the end of the scale. Fluttershy smiled at the thought of learning something other animals could do and tried her best at echolocation. She tried and smacked her tongue against the roof of her mouth repeatedly, making wet clicking noise. She brought a hoof up to her muzzle and clicked violently at it in hopes it would somehow work itself out. Slowly but surely, and image started to form in her head. “Squee!” Fluttershy squeaked in delight and kept up her consistent clicking. The faster she did it, the more defined her hoof became. After about a minute, she could begin to see individual hairs and different shades of black. Being only able to see in black and white wasn’t a bad prospect either. Confusing colors can send the wrong image, and having your vision in grayscale might work well around that. But she was getting exhausted. At the rate she was clicking air was escaping her lungs rather fast so she stopped for a minute to catch her breath. Fluttershy stopped her clicking, but she still saw her hoof in front of her face. Confused, she moved it around and studied it closely trying to figure out how she could still see it without echolocation. Oh. Fluttershy blushed at her own gullibility. She could see with her own eyes! That must not have been echolocation then, She thought, slightly becoming depressed. But… I’m glad I can still see. If I couldn’t see, I couldn’t ever see my friends again… their faces, Pinkie’s parties, I wouldn’t be able to read… to see Angel… Fluttershy slipped into a more depressed state, an oddly warm and thankful smile across her face. She was happy she hadn’t lost her vision. Fluttershy looked around with her slowly adjusting eyes and noticed she was in a stony cave. Off to her left Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo were cuddling together in a deep sleep. “They looked so cute together,” she told herself. Hey, her voice returned. Fluttershy looked around the cave she was in and saw the ceiling wasn’t that high but it’s doing a fine job at keeping the storm out. The three of them must be really deep inside the cavern for her not to be able to hear it. The smell of wet fur slowly attracted itself to her nose, and Fluttershy realized she was soaking wet. So were Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash, so they must have gotten into the shelter recently. She probably passed out and Rainbow Dash brought her in here. A good thing too, none of them wanted to miss the Summer Sun Celebration. Fluttershy smiled, happy that she was lucky enough to have such great friends. The poor things must be exhausted. Fluttershy went back to examining the cave and realized just how low the pressure in the room was. It looked like there hadn’t been any sort of creature in this cave for years, or at least this far back anyway. The cave floor was covered in a thin sheet of dust and there was no evidence of any sort of activity with the exception of a couple fresh hoofprints. They were too small to be Dash’s, so she must have flown in with her on her back. There’d be no way Scootaloo could bring her in here. Fluttershy looked down at the spot where she lay and took notice at the damp floor beneath her. The dirt was sticking to her coat. She’d likely have to take a bath again; they all would. Even in dimly lit dark, Fluttershy could see that Dash’s cyan coat was too dark. Even Scootaloo seemed a bit dusty. Fluttershy looked around again at her surroundings, but the cavern didn’t look too special. No, it was special in its own way. It was their shelter and she was thankful for knowing that if she ever got lost in the Everfree Forest there was this place to take refuge in. “Where is this cave anyway?” Fluttershy slowly stood up, almost tripping on the uneven surface. The shakiness of her movements convinced her she should probably fly, but before that she had to do a quick checklist of herself: “No broken bones? Check. No irregular breathing? With the conditions of the current atmosphere, things are alright. Heartbeat at about eighty beats a minute? Check. No wounds? Check. No bruises? Check. No broken bones? Double check. All five senses are working?” Fluttershy blinked, tapped the stone floor with a hoof, smelt her mane, and licked her hoof. “Check, check, check, check, and check. No broken bones? Triple check. No bleeding? Hard to tell in the dark…” She’d have to get into the light to check that. But everything else seemed absolutely fine. Slowly she stretched her wings to get off the ground into a hover, but that plan was quickly thwarted. Her wings reached full wingspan (a little under eight feet wingtip to wingtip) and she was able to touch both of the opposite walls of the room. She hadn’t realized just how claustrophobic it is in here. Fluttershy sighed and folded in her wings, walking off to where she thought was the exit mindful of where she stepped. The loose rocks on the ground could easily slip out and have her fall. Who knows what kind of injury she could get? And not being able to stretch her wings, she’d likely have to just wait until Rainbow Dash or Scootaloo got up and then they could find help. But she didn’t want to be a burden to them. Fluttershy kept her pace through the narrow tunnel until she noticed some light reflecting around a corner up ahead. Oh no… she thought. Is it daytime already? What if we missed the Summer… what if there’s another fire? We’d be trapped in here! Fluttershy’s stopped her careful steps and burst into a full gallop. Rounding the corner, a blinding light shone down on her. She picked up her pace and up through the small opening in the earth where she collapsed onto the stone ground. She hadn’t run like that before in months. The good news, she soon found out, was that there was no fire and the storm had stopped. The bad news is that she’d likely miss the Summer Sun Celebration if she hadn’t already. Worse news was that she didn’t even think she was in Equestria anymore. This had to be the Poison Joke’s doing. For all she knew she was imagining things. Fluttershy slowly stood up, trying to calm herself down. She began hyperventilating in fear at the sight the presented itself before her; pure desert. All she could see was sand and it seemed to stretch on forever! She’d never been in a desert like this before, but she knew it was dangerous to be outside unprepared. If you didn’t have a lot of water or were properly clothed, you could die in less than two days. She, and as far as she knew about Dash and Scootaloo, didn’t have either. She’d been to Appleloosa in the Mild West before, and that was a town in a desert. But they had apple orchards and were thrived. By what she was seeing there wasn’t any sign of civilization out here, except maybe for a speck of green out in the distance. An oasis is what they were called; there’d be plenty of food and water in those. If she was lucky, it would be the Appleloosa orchards she was looking at. That cave must have gone really deep into the mountains for her to immerge on the western border like this. But… she only walked through the cave for maybe a minute. It’s not possible for Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo to have walked the hundred something miles underground to finally rest where they did now. And if she recalled correctly there was only one exit: the one she just emerged from. There also weren’t any mountains overlooking the Mild West either. Fluttershy turned around to examine the towering pile of rocks, tempted to see what was on the other side. But there’s no telling if the mountains or even this desert were real or not, and she just couldn’t leave Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo alone in the cave. Pulled between the two choices, Fluttershy slowly crawled back underground to regroup with her friends. ~~~~~~~~~ Fluttershy returned to the darkened cavern, her eyes slowly readjusting again to the nearly nonexistent light level. During her absence, Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo awoke. Scootaloo was busy trying to get Dash to calm down. “I’m telling you, Fluttershy is around here somewhere!” Scootaloo pleaded, trying to keep Rainbow Dash upright. “Fluttershy!? Where the hay are you!?” Dash knocked Scootaloo aside and ran into a wall. Stumbling back she fell onto her haunches and sneezed, sending particles of dust everywhere. “I-I’m right here everypony. I was just checking the… outdoors.” Fluttershy winced at the thought. Dash tried to expand her wings but couldn’t get enough room to open them properly and reluctantly pulled them back. Scootaloo looked through the darkness at Fluttershy, a bit of terror in her eyes. “You saw it too, then.” Fluttershy’s gaze met Scootaloo’s. The two nervously looked to each other in awkward silence while Dash kept fumbling around the room tripping over every possible crevice. “Hey! I can see now!” She cheered in a deep sigh of relief, her head dizzily darting around the cave they were in. Her groggy stare met Scootaloo’s weary eyes, and then expectantly she looked to Fluttershy. “Where are we?” Fluttershy felt her heart sink into her stomach again. Why didn’t it just rent a place down there and stop moving back and forth? She thought Rainbow Dash had carried her in here! That meant… no. Scootaloo couldn’t have brought both of them into the cave. Physically, that’d be impossible for the young filly. Scootaloo appeared to be thinking the same thing, or so it was implied by her cold sweat and trembling limbs. Dash cocked a brow in confusion and glanced between them. Slowly, she was able to register that neither of them had any clue. “So nopony knows where we are then?” She chocked the words out of her mouth. Fluttershy swallowed a large lump that formed in her throat and Scootaloo suddenly smiled. “I know where we are! We’re in a cave!” She raised a hoof in triumph. Fluttershy smiled at the innocent joke, and even though she protested Rainbow Dash let out a small grin as well. “We’re somewhere in a desert though. There’s lots of sand outside,” she added. Dash’s smile faded into a stern glare at the orange filly, and then she looked to Fluttershy in the hopes it was just a joke. “She’s right, Rainbow Dash. Somehow we’re in a desert,” Fluttershy deadpanned. Dash’s expression went from bad to worse with that. “I don’t know, but I don’t think it’s real,” Fluttershy continued, getting curious looks from the others. “We were breathing in lots of vaporous Poison Joke. This is probably just some harmless prank it’s playing on us. We could still be in the clearing for all I know.” “Some prank,” Dash scoffed, kicking a small rock across the tiny cavern. Fluttershy answered her with a lengthy explanation: “Well, Poison Joke’s affects are rather mild with brief contact. I sometimes ground the flower up into very helpful herbal remedies, but even I only put granular amounts into my recipes. Grinding up a single petal releases almost a thousand as much chemicals compared to when you simply touch the surface. If the entire plant was turned into a vapor then it probably released a billion times the compared to simply brushing up against it. And there was an entire field of Poison Joke! The number of plants we inhaled means that the multiplier would be unimaginable! And the fact that we breathed it in means it likely got into our systems easier and in more profound numbers…” Fluttershy stopped herself and shuddered. Poison Joke is… well, no joke. It is a very dangerous wildflower and there is no telling just how it could affect any given being. The idea of a single creature being affected by an incomprehendable dosage for an unknown amount of time… Fluttershy fainted onto the stone floor. Even though Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash couldn’t even begin to fathom the situation they were in, they at least understood they were exposed to an unhealthy amount of Poison Joke. Second to shooting the stuff into your blood, breathing it in was probably the worst way to absorb it too. “So, we’re drugged up on Poison Joke. That’s just great. I guess we’ll just have to let it run its course…” Dash trailed off, weaving a hoof in the air. Scootaloo looked up to her clueless and forlorn. The poor filly didn’t even understand the situation they were in. Not that Dash did either, and Fluttershy was unconscious so they wouldn’t be able to get a dumbed down version soon. Letting out a deep sigh, the cyan pegasus stood back up on the uneven ground only to almost fall over again. “Scootaloo, wait here with her. I’m going to go see exactly where we are,” she said. Scootaloo gave an obedient nod and walked over to Fluttershy, kneeling beside her. Not exactly sure what to do, she poked Fluttershy’s muzzle to try to get her to wake up. “Hey Dash?” Scootaloo asked out and looked around the empty cavern. Rainbow Dash had already left. ~~~~~~~~~ Rainbow Dash emerged on the outside of the dirty entrance; the blazing sun high above casting shadows over her. Dash took a minute to take in the scenery, or more accurately the lack thereof. Ignoring the mountains behind her all she saw was desert sand ahead. The rolling hills of rocks and sand dunes were the only prominent features of the landscape. The cave entrance was perched high up and embedded into the mountainside. There was probably a hundred foot drop straight down in front of her, but she had wings so that really wouldn’t matter. Looking up to the sky she saw snow white clouds rolling with the wind against the blue sky. “Definitely the Everfree Forest…” she muttered under her breath. Not a single pegasus was up there to move the clouds. Dash smiled though, at the vast blue canvas before her. She let her wings expand to their full length, not a single rock wall hindering them. A cool breeze swept its way around the mountain ruffling her coat and tossing her mane into her eyes. Lifting a hoof up to brush it out of the way, she saw just how filthy it was and her coat didn’t seem to fare any better. Both were covered in a mixture of wet dirt, dust, soot, and other unidentifiable foreign bodies. Dash spat into her hoof and rubbed it through a part of her mane, and the vibrant rainbow colors came back to life. “Rainbow Dash?” Dash turned around and saw Scootaloo standing behind her. Fluttershy too soon appeared out of the cave and the three of them took in the view together. “I’ve never been in a desert before,” Scootaloo said in a mixture of curiosity and fear. Fluttershy looked up to the sky at the self-propelled clouds and flinched. “Do you really think a ton of Poison Joke could do this?” Dash asked her. Fluttershy didn’t respond but hesitantly continued to look around. She slowly opened her wings and let the wind rustle between their feathers. “I… I don’t know,” she finally answered. “But it’s the only explanation I can think of that would make us hallucinate this.” “I don’t think it’s a hallucination…” Scootaloo spoke, her voice catching the other two by surprise. She walked up to the edge of the embankment beside Rainbow Dash and looked down. She lifted up a tiny stone in her hoof and threw it over the side. The three of them watched as the stone bounced its way down the mountain several times before it shattered into bits. She rolled a larger stone off the side and they watched that one tumble too, succumbing to a similar fate as its predecessor. Dash solemnly looked down and then back up to the sky. “Hallucination or not, I think we should take it for what it is.” She spoke and kicked a stone off the side and watched it follow the tracks of the two before it. Fluttershy silently sighed and nodded in agreement. Scootaloo was too busy pushing more stones off the side and watching them fall to their deaths to acknowledge, but still listened in to the conversation. “I’m going to do some scouting,” Dash added, flapping her wings in the breeze. “There might be an oasis over there,” Fluttershy pointed to the patch of green far off in the distance. “Scootaloo and I will stay here, but could you check it out? Maybe bring us back some food and if possible some water?” Rainbow Dash gave the two a loyal nod and her signature overconfident smile. She flapped her wings and took the air in a brilliant burst of acceleration off towards the oasis. Scootaloo and Fluttershy watched her fly away in disbelief; but not by her sudden speed or the fact that she became indistinguishable from the rest of the sky. No, they watched after her almost in confused horror as the cyan pegasi’s familiar rainbow contrail wasn’t trailing behind her. “Be careful…” Scootaloo and Fluttershy mumbled in unison.
Chapter 03: Oasis“First order of business…” Rainbow Dash said to herself as she gained altitude. She steadily approached a freelancing cloud and looked at the wispy puff of water vapor. Something about it bothered her (aside from the whole moving-on-its-own thing) but she couldn’t put a hoof on it. Then she found out she literally could not put a hoof on it. Dash leaned in to stop its movement out of impulse and watched her hooves go straight through it. The cloud blissfully ignored her being, consuming and then spitting her out the other side as it moved with the wind. And now she was freshly dampened with water again. In bitter confusion and refusing to give up, she flew above it and tried to land on the cloud only to phase right through it. She tried to do something about it again for the process to only repeat itself. “What kind of freak joke is this?” She looked at the light reflecting off the droplets of water vapor that slowly evaporated from her hooves. Quizzically looking back to the cloud as it slowly drifted away, she deliberately flew inside it. The white fog made looking outside nearly impossible and she cautiously prodded every bit of the cloud’s surface area. The beating of her wings to keep herself aloft with the cloud began to disperse it, splitting it into several chunks. Dash looked up between splits in her wet mane at the light blaring down, shining her body in the midday sun. Hey, I could use a bath. Dash smiled, almost forgetting about the odd mechanics of the cloud altogether. She started flying in and out of the puffs drenching her body in more water all the while destroying the cloud in the process. By the time she was satisfied with the result, the cloud was fading into countless loose strands that zigzagged through the air. Dash shook her coat in a single uniform motion to dry herself off, and started flying with the remains of the cloud. Although upset that she couldn’t manipulate it like in Ponyville, she was intrigued by the idea she couldn’t. It was interesting the way a cloud moved like this, even it’s strange and alien state. Maybe she wasn’t in Equestria anymore. Or perhaps it was just the Poison Joke playing a prank on her by disabling that part of her magic. Maybe it was both. A low buzz soon drew her attention away from the cloud’s remains. It sounded oddly like a bumble bee, but as whatever it was got closer the sound got louder. Unless a bumble bee could fly at twelve thousand feet (which in all likelihood they don’t) and was currently inside her eardrum, she had no clue whatever the noise could have been, or even where it was coming from. But whatever in Celestia’s name it was, it was getting closer and the sound was becoming more of a drone than a buzz. Dash looked around and couldn’t find the source so she looked up to see a cloudbank hovering above. She flew up and emerged on top of the clouds to try to find where the noise was coming from. Torn between fear and fascination, Dash twisted around in every direction trying to get a bearing on the unidentified source. But by the time she noticed where it was coming from, its wings almost took her head off. Dash dogged out of the way just in time to avoid a midair collision with what was emitting the noise. White as the cloud she just popped up from, an oblong object flew at her like Pinkie Pie does when she gives someone a surprise party. And whatever it was, it was fast. In the few seconds Dash wasted in blistering confusion at her near death experience, she was already losing sight of the thing. But it couldn’t out pace her. She quickly caught up to it with ease. The entire object that bewildered her had no rough edges and enough curves to make the object one entire piece of metal. The best way it could be described was like a giant metal bird or some sort of flying machine, yet its wings didn’t flap up or down and there didn’t seem to be any sort of way to pilot it. The droning noise it produced seemed to be coming from the back where a spinning blade that propelled the craft forward. Dash carefully flew around the spinning deathtrap and over the object to get a view of the enormous wingspan; almost seven times that as her own. The object was also maybe eight meters long. She noticed two fins hanging off the rear end of the metal machine and flew down to inspect them. They must be stabilizers, much like how she uses her legs to help her in flight. On the stabilizers were the letters “USAF 157” and “MQ-1A.” So this is called a USAF? Rainbow Dash scoffed at the silly name. It’s probably short for something like Unknown Super Awkward Flying-thingy... She flew up and alongside it now to get a closer look at the USAF and saw an odd emblem on its midsection: A single white star layered over a blue circle. Two white stripes ran horizontally underneath the circle, and stretched a couple inches out on either side. The whole design was outlined in red. Dash hadn’t seen anything like it. A cutie mark for a mechanical being? Come think of it, this was probably the first metallic flying machine she’s encountered. That is, if chariots don’t count. And there was that flying thing Pinkie Pie had, but that could be piloted. Dash had no clue as to how a pony could even fit inside the thing. Was it even controlled by anything? As if the whole craft wasn’t freaky already, the weirdest part was that it had a giant ball hanging down from underneath the nose. It couldn’t be any bigger than that of a beach ball and it too was made of metal. Dash cautiously flew under the belly of the craft and went in to inspect it, the ball that hanging ominously in front of her. And then the ball rotated. Dash squeaked and covered her mouth only to suddenly burst into laughter. Whatever a USAF was it had to be the dumbest thing around. She had already flown with it for at least a full two minutes and it still hadn’t noticed her. Was it even sentient? Dash tapped a hoof against the underbelly and felt the hollowness of a cavity inside. She looked around from underneath and behind the metal ball that occasionally rotated, and noticed there were two out of shape canisters hanging on either wing. They were both brown and less than two meters long, but something about them disturbed her (as if the whole thing wasn’t doing that well enough). A dark black eye looked out from inside a glass bubble that made up the nose of the object stared back at her. Was this the thing’s eyes? Dash suddenly realized her close proximity to the spinning blades of probable death and dropped a safe distance beneath the craft, ready to leave it alone. But now something else was of the matter: the metal ball seemed to have fixated itself on her. A similar black eye hidden behind a sheet of glass looked down watching her every move. Dash did a small circle around the bottom of the USAF and the eye rotated, following wherever she went. She rolled onto her back and drifted away to the left, and the craft turned above to follow her. She drifted to the right and the craft yawed to the right in synch. “This is starting to get scary,” Dash rolled back over and banked hard to the left to leave the thing behind. She had to get to the oasis to get food and such for Fluttershy and Scootaloo after all. Dash looked over her shoulder to see the USAF change directions. It was now following, no, it was now pursing her. Adrenaline decided to finally kick in as fear over being hunted down rushed into her mind. Dash immediately put her wings into overdrive and tripled her speed, leaving the USAF behind in a figurative cloud of dust. She could practically go this speed forever but the USAF seemed to be going as fast as it could, it simply couldn’t keep up with her. Nothing could. Rainbow Dash is the fastest flier in Equestria after all. A glimmer of light in the corner of her eye diverted her attention down to the ground. Dash could see a small sandy, rural village built below her. It wasn’t that big, but it was close to the oasis. Somepony had to be living there, so the good news is she found somewhere to get help from. Her gaze returned to the light as it progressively got bigger, and it seemed to be trailing smoke. Dash stopped in midflight and hovered in place, watching the light become more defined. The light actually was coming from behind something, trailing a large gray contrail of smoke behind it. The object looked pretty much like the canisters under the USAF’s wings, except it was much bigger. This canister was probably twelve feet long, painted a dark green, and had several stabilizing fins surrounding it. Rainbow Dash turned around to see the USAF was still following her, but maybe ten or so seconds behind. Then she watched as the canister flew up towards the USAF, all too eager to greet it. Rainbow Dash floated in horrific silence. There was a deafening explosion as the USAF and the canister collided. The canister’s suicide run was all too effective at obliterating itself, but not so at destroying the USAF. Stunned and speechless, Dash watched as one of the USAF’s wings ripped off and the whole thing plummet out of the sky towards the sandy ground below. It corkscrewed through the air desperately trying to regain control of flight but it was no use. Dash watched the USAF die, hitting the ground with a dull thud before erupting into an enormous ball of fire. Overcome with guilt, she couldn’t help but yell at herself. The poor thing was probably just as curious about her as she was towards it, and now the USAF lay in a smoldering heap of twisted metal. It was her fault it died! It followed her over… Dash went limp, all color draining from her face. She was over the same area where the USAF was! She looked down expecting to see another light trace its way out of the village up to meet her, and thankfully none came. But that didn’t mean another one wouldn’t. Dash shot off faster than she had ever before in her life. No, that was a lie. She would have done a Sonic Rainboom had she been going fast enough and she probably would have done so any second now. Rainbow Dash retreated towards the cave and flew at breakneck speed. No, she couldn’t return. Not yet. Dash stopped on the spot, halfway between the village and the mountains. She promised to get food and water from the oasis, and she intended to do so. Maybe the village that launched the canister was trying to protect her? Thinking back, the USAF had similar canisters too. Maybe it was the hostile and the village was friendly? The wave of guilt that subdued her lifted away. She’d really have to thank the ponies there for saving her life, but that would have to wait. Friends come first. That’s the bottom line. It probably wouldn’t hurt to fly low to the ground though. ~~~~~~~~~ Rainbow Dash touched down in the boggy marsh of the oasis. Surrounding her in every direction was green grass taller than she was. She couldn’t see anything except for the blades that stood in front of her. She had to get to the watering hole she saw from the air and find a way to take some of it back. The grass would be easy enough though; it was so long she could tie up bales of the stuff and carry it back to the cave. The grass… Dash slowly stuck her head out to the nearest towering blade of grass and nibbled at it. It wasn’t as sweet as the grass back in Ponyville, but it still rattled her taste buds. Glutinously she devoured the patch in front of her, eating to her heart’s content. A few minutes and two square meters of wild grass later, she was stuffed. Dash collapsed onto the ground in a heap, smiling the whole way down. The encounter with the USAF wore her down and she needed to rest. The memory of the incident made her winch, snapping her back to her feet. All she wanted to do was forget about the USAF but more than likely the memory would be scarred into the back of her head for the rest of her life. She had to find its family and tell them what happened to it. But, then again she didn’t know if it was trying to kill her or not. “Ugh…” Dash groaned, making randomly walking through the grass. The ponies in that village likely had answers, and hopefully they’d be able to help her figure out where she was. “I seriously doubt this is Equestria. Don’t care what Fluttershy says, not all the Poison Joke in the Everfree Forest could make this sort of hallucin… hallucy… thing,” Dash talked to herself in her search for water. “I mean, the USAF was real. It died. I watched it die. This grass is real. I’m digesting it. This ground is real. I’m walking on it. The clouds… okay, I don’t know if those are real. I’ve never seen any cloud act the way these ones are, and besides-“ *Splash* She looked down and saw she had absentmindedly walked into the watering hole. It wasn’t that big though, maybe a hundred feet across. But the water seemed fresh. Dash slowly bent to her knees and took a small sip of the water. Her sips quickly became glutinous gulps as she almost drowned herself. “Oh sweet Celestia…” she panted, bringing her head back up. “I have never been so thirsty in my life!” The grass behind her rustled in the slow breeze. Dash shrugged it off at being just that and returned to pool of water. She needed to find a way to get water back to the Fluttershy and Scootaloo. She had no way of carrying it, so hopefully she could find something like a sea shell. She’d need a lot of sea shells. Dash decided to begin her search for any sort of container by flying around the pond. The winds died down, the water was fresh and surprisingly clear, and the sun brightly illuminated the surface making it very easy to see underwater. However even with the natural elements on her side she still couldn’t find anything of use. Defeated, she returned to the shoreline to ponder what to do. Fluttershy could probably fly here, and she could easily carry Scootaloo. But the sun was starting to go down and she had to get back to the cave soon. The last thing she needed was to make them worried about her. They’d probably just have to make the trek back to the oasis in the morning. Dash’s ears perked up with the sound of more grass rustling, but it wasn’t the wind this time. The snapping of twigs and odd sounds confirmed that. The noises got closer and closer until they suddenly stopped. Scared stiff, she hesitated to turn around, but that sandy village was nearby. The ponies that lived there likely went to the oasis for water like she was, so she turned around to greet them. The two beings before her weren’t ponies. She didn’t know what they were. Where a full grown mare like Rainbow Dash would be just less than four feet tall, these two creatures were almost as tall as Princess Celestia herself! And the weird part about them was that they stood on two legs much like a Diamond Dog would, but they weren’t those either. Their paws were too small, their bodies too thin and completely devoid of hair except for small tuffs of black that rested atop their heads. The creatures’ faces had no snouts and instead scrunched up, almost completely flat except for their noses. Their eyes were nowhere near as large as a pony’s and their skin was a dark tan. She didn’t even know if they were female or not. That’s about as much detail as she could get from their structure. The rest of the creatures’ bodies were covered in thick layers of shrouded clothing, dusty and well-worn from repeated use. One of them wore a dark blue cloth tunic, with similarly matching pants. A red checkerboard scarf wrapped its way around its head and protected it from the unrelenting sun. The creature had its arms wrapped around a big stick that it rested across its broad shoulders. On either side of the stick hung two metallic buckets, assumingly to be held with water if they weren’t already. The other one wore a light green shirt and dark brown pants. A scarf similar to the other’s wrapped its way around its neck and the creature had opted for a small white hat on its head instead of the scarf like its friend did. Instead of carrying buckets this one instead held out a long black object. The main part of the object looked like it was made of metal, but there was also wood too. A large piece of wood stuck out one side of the object and was pressed into the creature’s shoulder. Another piece of metal stuck out from underneath between the points where the creature held it. It had wrapped a paw around a grip near the back of it and supported the object with the other, pointing its long front end at a scared cyan pegasus with a rainbow colored mane. The two stared at Rainbow Dash and she stared back. “Um, hello?” Dash cautioned, slowly backing away into the water. The two creatures’ eyes widened, facing each other and then back to her. Then the two started arguing in some unknown language. She couldn’t understand what they were saying, but the one carrying the buckets seemed to be winning. The other protested, but eventually complied with what it was being told. It lowered the object it held in its hand (she hadn’t noticed the object had a strap on it) and the creature slung the object over its shoulder. “Hello?” It spoke. The one with the buckets looked satisfied, much to the other’s frustration. “You speak English, yes?” Dash took a step further back into the water. Even though she was the first to start up the conversation, she hadn’t really been expecting a reply. “Y-You mean Equine? Of co-course I do!” “Yes! Good!” It said in a nervous laugh. “Do you have a name?” “T-The name’s Rainbow Dash! I’m the fastest flyer in Equestria!” She eased up, relieving tension by showing off her wings. The two creatures stood back in confusion; the one who could talk put a hand over his shoulder ready to grab the object but hesitated. Rainbow Dash smirked and lifted out of the water and into the air, boasting her capabilities with a small back flip before landing back down on the ground in front of them. Dumbfounded, the two creatures looked blankly at each other and back to her in disbelief. “Now what are your names?” Dash asked. “Ah, yes! Sorry,” the one who could speak Equine apologized after a pause. “My name is Abdul, and here is my brother, Muhammad. It is very nice to meet you Rainbow Rash.” “Rainbow Dash!” She said, brushing aside the possible insult as simple miscommunication. “Ah! S-Sorry Rainbow Dash,” Abdul corrected. “I am the only English speaker in my village, so forgive me if I do something wrong.” “Oh, that village has more of… your kind in it huh? No ponies? Say, what are you? I haven’t seen any creature like you before,” Dash pondered. Muhammad looked down to her smiling, and Dash couldn’t help to smile back. “I was going to ask you the same question Miss Dash. We are humans, you see.” He extended his arms and straightened his back in emphasis at the statement. Dash had never even heard of the word ‘human’ before. It sounded like ‘humane’ though. Maybe this species was really nice. “Okay, human. Well I’m a pegasus pony!” Abdul turned and spoke to Muhammad in their native tongue. The two brothers shared an awkward shrug and a few words, doing double takes to Dash and more specifically her wings. Muhammad whispered something into his brother’s ear, getting Abdul to snicker at whatever he had proposed. Abdul raised a paw and waved his brother’s idea away before turning back to Dash. He slowly bent down to where he was eye level with her and extended and arm, getting Dash to flinch backwards into the water again. “I’m not going to hurt you.” He reassured Dash, who twitched as Abdul reached out and put a paw on her cheek. His palm was rough and dry, yet warm and comforting at the same time. Smiling, he stood back up and patted her on the top of her head, running the digits of his paw through her mane. After a few seconds of absentminded blushing, Dash shook her head getting him to stop his antics. Muhammad said something and the two shared another laugh. Nervously, Rainbow Dash joined in. “Are there more of you?” Abdul asked her. “Uh yeah, but my friends are waiting for me in a cave. I need to bring them back food and water but I’m not entirely sure how.” Dash frowned and sat on her haunches, watching over the pond. The sun was starting to go down, and in only a few hours it would finally set. Her forlorn eyes passed over the surface, uselessly scanning for anything of use. She could here whispers coming from the two humans and turned to see them deep in conversation. Muhammad nodded and Abdul took down one of the buckets that hanged from the stick. Dash watched him curiously as he walked over and bent down and filled the bucket with water, setting it down on the shore between the two of them. He took out a sheet of plastic out of his pocket and wrapped it around the top of the bucket creating an airtight seal that should prevent it from spilling over. “Here, take this to your friends. Meet us back here soon and we can give you some food to take to them. Nobody survives out in the desert for long.” Abdul happily lifted up the bucket, motioning for her to take it. Dash lifted her head up to the human, his warm smile infecting her own. She did everything she could to choke back a small tear at his generosity. “T-thank you…” she sniffled, getting another pat on the head from Abdul as she slowly stood back up and grasped the bucket handle in her teeth. “Really, thank you! You’re very kind… I can be back here in less than an hour!” the pegasus added, slowly floating into the air. “As-salamu Alaykum,” Muhammad said, giving her a polite and formal bow. Dash returned a small wave to the humans and, with a smile bleeding through the cold metal of the bucket’s handle, sped off towards the mountains in the distance. ~~~~~~~~~ “When will Rainbow Dash get back?” “Oh Scootaloo, I told you before. I don’t know but I trust she will get back by nightfall,” Fluttershy spoke, lying down next to the orange filly. Scootaloo exhaled dully and buried her muzzle deep into her legs, wrapping up into a ball. Fluttershy smiled warmly and watched the small pegasi’s body move with every breath she made. “It’s so dark. Can we go outside where there’s light?” Scootaloo mumbled the question, bringing her head up to see Fluttershy’s shocked face. “Oh no no no no no,” Fluttershy shook her head. “There’s no telling what could be out there! And this illusion the Poison Joke is-“ “Miss Fluttershy, I really don’t think this is an illusion.” Scootaloo frowned, tapping her hooves on the stone floor and the echoes rang dully through the small room. “I mean, come on! This doesn’t make any friggin’ sense! I’m breathing this air, I’m touching this ground, I can see you and you can see me. How could any of this be fake?” “Very logical observation Scootaloo,” Fluttershy mused. “However magic reigns supreme over logic. In our world, magic exists in everything and everypony. Logically a pegasus shouldn’t be able to walk on a cloud, but they can. Logically a unicorn should not be able to cast spells, but they can. Logically a pony should not be able to pick up anything in a single hoof without-“ “Yeah yeah, I get it.” Scootaloo grumbled and curled back up into a ball. Fluttershy ignored the interruption, and demonstrated what she was saying by picking up a small rock with a single hoof. “-paws or something similar, but ponies can. Ponies are some of the most magically capable beings on Earth and we can use manipulate it to our discretion. That is why Celestia is able to raise the sun and a pegasus can move clouds; magic connects ponies to the world. Take any one of them out of the equation, and the two are no longer in synch so they can’t interact. Poison Joke is capable of interfering with these connections, and henceforth causes these harmless pranks. The more Poison Joke that gets into your system however, the more drastic the effect might be. And w-we came into contact with a lot of Po-Poison Joke…” Fluttershy trailed off, swallowing the last of the unfinished sentence. There’s no way to tell what is real. A chill ran up her spine, her eyes lazily drifting around the cave that passed off as a shelter. Trying to get her mind off the subject the yellow pegasus scratched her hoof along the ground, drawing random lines in the dust. “Scootaloo, what do you think defines what is real?” Fluttershy asked. The filly didn’t budge and tried to ignore the yellow mare all together. After a lengthy period of silence she sighed and set her head down on the cold stone floor. She’d start a fire if she could to keep them warm, but there wasn’t anything combustible outside that she had seen. Also there’d be no easy way to vent the smoke, so they could easily get starved of oxygen down here. Scootaloo suddenly shot up to onto all fours, freaking Fluttershy out in the process. “Did you hear that?” She mumbled in a low growl. The filly extended her young wings in an intimidating fashion and ran out of the cavern down the dark tunnel to the outside world. “Wait, Scootaloo! Come back! Oh dear…” Fluttershy’s wails fell on deaf ears. Trembling from what just happened; she hesitantly stood up and chased after her. Up ahead, Scootaloo rounded the corner and emerged outside. The blinding sunlight forced her to stop in her tracks and cover her eyes. After dully readjusting to the light, she noticed she was precariously close to the edge of the embankment. “That would have been ugly,” Scootaloo mumbled to herself, kicking a stone off the side of the cliff. The dusty rock exploded onto the ground below spreading its remains amongst the several others before it. She brought her head up and scanned the desert landscape. What was that noise she heard? It was something like a hard thud like the sound of pounding oneself on the chest with a hoof. To make her point, Scootaloo thumped her chest. Fluttershy appeared from behind, shutting her eyes in the glare of the afternoon sun. She turned to face the yellow pegasus but something diverted her attention. Fluttershy was frozen in place, a hoof raised to her mouth and her eyes narrowed. Scootaloo cocked a brow at her, but she didn’t move. She followed the mare’s gaze to the horizon, where a billowing column of black smoke snaked towards the atmosphere. “Uhm, th-that isn’t Rainbow Dash, right? Ponies don’t ca-catch fire, right Fluttersh-shy?” Scootaloo stuttered, staring out to the trail of smoke. Fluttershy was speechless, but did her best to comfort her. “Um… y-yes. Ponies d-don’t catch f-fire. Let’s go ba-back inside, Scootaloo.” Fluttershy motioned for her to follow into the cave, but Scootaloo didn’t budge. The filly gave her underdeveloped wings a useless flap, and fell back onto her haunches. “N-no. No. It’s warm out here. I’m go-going to wait until Rainbow Dash gets back.” Scootaloo fell onto the rocky ground with a whimper, watching out over the horizon. The ominous plume of smoke traced itself into the sky in a single strand, dissipating into the air a few miles above the surface. Fluttershy let out a heavy sigh, shaking her head in discontent. “B-but the smoke is so… scary,” she whined. “Yeah, well it’s going to leave us alone. Look, the wind is carrying it west away from us. I’m not budging until Rainbow Dash gets back!” Scootaloo protested, digging her muzzle into the ground. Fluttershy eyed her suspiciously, and trotted up to the embankment next to her. “You know I’m just trying to keep you safe Scootaloo,” Fluttershy calmly nudged the filly who didn’t respond to the comment. “Rainbow Dash is the element of Loyalty. She’d never fail anypony. We just need to find a way to snap out of this hallucination and get back home.” Scootaloo’s heart skipped and her breathing paused. “Home is where the heart is,” Scootaloo said weakly, curling back up into a ball. Fluttershy didn’t hear those words and tried to budge her again, but Scootaloo stood firm and didn’t move. Defeated, the yellow pegasus laid down beside the orange pegasus and watched the sun cast a shadow upon them from behind the pillar of smoke. ~~~~~~~~~ “Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo jumped up at the first sight of the cyan pegasus. Dash touched down in front of the cave entrance behind the two other pegasi, dropping a bucket on the ground. Scootaloo ran up to her, nuzzling her face into Dash’s side. Rainbow Dash pulled in her wings save one, which used to cover the little filly. “Hey kid.” Dash rubbed Scootaloo on the head with a hoof. “Oh thank Celestia you’re all right!” Fluttershy came up and wrapped her forelegs around Dash’s neck in an embracing hug. “We saw the cloud of smoke and thought something bad happened to you!” Fluttershy released her grip on Dash and Scootaloo looked at the bucket. “Hey! You found water!” Scootaloo cheered and immediately went to try and tear apart the plastic covering. “Hehehe, about all that…” Dash said while rubbing the back of her neck. “That smoke was from some sort of flying machine that got… knocked out of the sky and crashed. Some sort of canister hit it and made it crash.” “Oh no! Was anypony hurt?” Fluttershy asked. “Uh, no. No,” Dash reassured. “In fact, I think the USAF was trying to get me. There was a village below me and they flew the canister up to it and took it down. If it wasn’t for them, I might have been… hurt. By the USAF, the USAF probably would have hurt me.” “You sat on what?” Scootaloo looked up from the mangled plastic that still tightly bound the bucket from spilling its contents. Her feeble attempts weren’t working so she started pounding on the barrier with a rock. “No, a USAF. It had the letters U, S, A, and F written on the side of it.” “Well we’ll need to be sure to thank the ponies in that village for saving you Rainbow,” Fluttershy smiled warmly through the artificial shade the smoke cloud provided. “Yeah, about that…” Dash trailed off and cleared her throat. “They weren’t ponies. The village is inhabited by some things called humans. They’re really tall, walk on two legs, they have no tail, and they can talk!” Dash did all she could not to stumble through those words for she could hardly believe them herself. Fluttershy’s jaw slacked at the description of an unheard of species and Scootaloo had resorted to bouncing on top of the plastic to try to get it to break open. She was still failing. “Y-You mean, there’s an ENTIRE species that speaks Equine, and n-nopony knew about it before now?” Fluttershy gawked. “Actually only one of them speaks Equine, and his name is Abdul. I don’t know how many humans live in the village though. He said he had some food to give me, so I’m going to go back to oasis and pick it up and-“ Dash got interrupted by a rock bouncing off the back of her head. Turning, she could see Scootaloo throwing sizeable stones at the plastic covering, each one bouncing off in a random direction. “OW!” She cried after one of the stones ricocheted back and hit her on the nose. Dash casually walked over to the bucket, grabbed the plastic in her teeth, and tore it open. Scootaloo looked into the bucket dumbfounded, trying to hide back a blush. Fluttershy couldn’t help by snicker. “Anyway, I’m going to go back to the oasis. I’ll be back by dark!” Dash spread her wings again and made a bee-line for the oasis far off in the distance. “Be careful!” Fluttershy shouted after her. Scootaloo brought her water-soaked head out of the now half-filled bucket and looked to see Rainbow Dash flying away. She shrugged and returned to her previous business of practically drowning herself. "Save some for me Scootaloo. That is... um, if you don't mind."
