"Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high
There's a land that I've heard of once in a lullaby.
Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream,
Really do come true.
Someday I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me.
Where troubles melt like lemon drops,
High above the chimney tops,
That's where you'll find me.
Somewhere over the rainbow, blue birds fly
Birds fly over the rainbow
Why then, oh why can't I?
If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow
Why, oh why can't I?
Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high
There's a land that I've heard of once in a lullaby.
Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream,
Really do come true.
Someday I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me.
Where troubles melt like lemon drops,
High above the chimney tops,
That's where you'll find me.
Somewhere over the rainbow, blue birds fly
Birds fly over the rainbow
Why then, oh why can't I?
If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow
Why, oh why can't I?"
A yellow Pegasus with a soft pink mane and aqua blue eyes sang one morning as she cleaned her woodland cottage.
"Oh, that's where I want to go, Angel Bunny!" Fluttershy sang to her white rabbit. "Somewhere over the rainbow! Nothing could be scary in a place like that! I'm sure I'd never be shy again if I went over the rainbow!"
As she looked out the window of her leafy cottage, Fluttershy expected to see a bright, cherry day with a light blue sky and fluffy, white clouds. But what she did see was the complete opposite. Dark grey clouds were already looming in the distance, a sure sign of a coming storm.
"I didn't know there was going to be a storm today." Fluttershy thought. "It's a good thing Rainbow Dash didn't ask me to help gathering the clouds this time. Getting the water for all the rain in Equestria last time was scary enough!
But still, as Fluttershy looked up at the coming storm, she didn't see the usual group of Pegasi directing the tempest's passage.
"That's odd..." Fluttershy thought. "No Pegasi are out near those clouds...
And then a terrible thought struck her. "What if-? What if Rainbow Dash is hurt? What if all the Pegasi are caught up in that storm and that's leaving nopony to save Ponyville from the awful destruction?"
"I have to help Rainbow Dash!" Fluttershy declared to nopony in particular. But just as she was taking a few steps towards the door Fluttershy suddenly squealed and leaped back behind her sofa.
"But what if-" she whispered, again to nopony in particular, "I'M caught up in that storm too? Oh! That would be dreadful! I think I'll just stay right here..."
"Fluttershy!" there was a sudden knock at the door, and the yellow Pegasus whose name was being called squeaked again.
"Helloo?" called Fluttershy quietly. "Who's there?"
"Uhh... Rainbow Dash?" the confused voice came from the rainbow-maned cyan Pegasus. "Who else? Anyway, I doubt you'll do this, but we need some extra help with this storm we're bringing in now. And I just thought since you did so well with the gathering of the water last time, that this easy-peasy job would be small potatoes for you!"
"Oh no!" Fluttershy scrambled up to the door and opened it a crack, just enough to see her friend. "I couldn't possibly do that! Uh-uh! No way! No how!"
"Okay then." Rainbow said. She didn't seem put down at all. In fact, her lips spread into a sly smile. "That's fine, I guess. But then I guess you'll have to deal with that huge, scary tornado coming straight towards your house!"
"WHAT?" Fluttershy cried, though, not too loudly. "I mean, what? The storm's a tornado?! And it's coming straight to my house?"
"Weeellll...." Rainbow shuffled her hooves. "If you were to help us with this teensy-weensy little storm, then we may just might be able to re-direct the tornado away from your house. Come on. If you had the brains, then you'd know that this is the only thing you can do."
Fluttershy didn't look too sure. She looked more scared than sure, if anything. "Oh... alright. If that is what it's going to take." she took a deep breath. "I guess I'll help."
***
And then, it all went wrong.
Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy came to where all the other Pegasi were gathered to round up the storm, and they went into action.
Fluttershy stayed very close to the bottom of the funnel, flying as slowly as the storm let her, around and around in circles. The twister gradually grew and grew, until it was very, very tall.
"What are we using this tornado for, anyway?" Fluttershy whispered, once again, to nopony in particular. The wind was blowing hard, and she had to whisper louder than normal.
"What?" Rainbow yelled over the wind. "What was that?"
"I-I asked what we were using this tornado for!" Fluttershy raised her voice a bit.
"WHAT?" Rainbow called again.
"I asked what we were using this storm for!" Fluttershy raised her voice higher, in hoped her friend could hear her.
"WHAAAATTT?!" Rainbow had stopped flying in order to look down at Fluttershy from the top of the funnel. "WHAT DID YOU SAY?"
Fluttershy craned her neck to look back at Rainbow. "I asked what we were using the tornado for!"
"WELL WE'RE-" Rainbow started, but she didn't have the chance to finish.
Because she had stopped flying the tornado was beginning to go haywire. It twisted and turned all about. The rim of the funnel grew and grew, and the tail end shrank and shrank. The other Pegasi near Fluttershy quickly flew up towards Rainbow Dash, away from the shrinking tail end. But not Fluttershy. She was too scared.
"COME-" Rainbow yelled down, but the wind howled over her voice. Fluttershy couldn't hear her.
"What?" Fluttershy's even softer voice was carried away by the wind easily.
"COME ON!" Rainbow finally shouted.
"No!" Fluttershy shrieked. "It's too high! And too fast! And to windy!"
"YOU HAVE TO!" Rainbow screamed. "IT'S MORE DANGEROUS IN THE TAIL END THAN IN THE RIM END OF A TORNADO! SO GET UP HERE!"
Fluttershy started taking the rainbow-maned Pegasus' advice as debris started flying all around her. The tornado had hit land in Ponyville.
Fluttershy was halfway up the funnel. But she was going too slow. Ponyville was quickly approaching in the distance. The Pegasi had to keep the dangerous storm away from the town. As long as the other Pegasi kept flying around in the rim of the storm, then the dangerous winds would stay on the outskirts of the village. But the outskirts is just where Rainbow had said the storm would keep away from. Fluttershy's cottage.
Animals of all shapes and sizes were scattering around wildly inside Fluttershy's small woodland cottage. The winds were crazy, even inside the home. Hanging birdhouses and plants danced a wild dance before finally crashing to the ground just as the birds and other creatures escaped from them. Trying to act as a sort of leader, Angel Bunny tried in vain to calm the animals down. It wasn't working. And the tornado was moving closer and closer.
The wind screamed like a train engine outside Fluttershy's cottage. All the animals inside froze in fear. The storm was coming right on top of them.
Inside the tornado, which was, by now, completely disorganized, Fluttershy frantically tried to fly faster towards Rainbow Dash. The wind swirled around the yellow Pegasus' house. The shutters flapped rapidly before finally breaking loose. Everything that had been hanging from the roof before the storm was now in pieces on the ground. All the animals tried desperately to find a place of shelter, but they had no luck. The house broke from its foundation and started flying wildly into the tornado.
In the storm, Fluttershy screamed. She saw her house, twirling madly around and around, rising up in the storm.
Suddenly, Fluttershy zoomed towards her house with speed that would make even Rainbow Dash proud.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Rainbow, who was still above her yelled down.
"I need to protect my animal friends!" Fluttershy declared as she flew through the door, which was swinging on one hinge.
Inside the house, while it was still twirling madly in the storm, Fluttershy raced around, picking up the smallest animals in her hooves and gently putting the bigger ones in places of safety. Angel Bunny was curled up in her mane.
And still, with all this, she still wasn't fast enough. The roof began to pitch. The floor swerved up and down. Terrified, Fluttershy leaped into her bed and scrambled under the sheets. The smallest animals that had been in her hooves crowded around her in the darkness.
And then, the wind blew harder into the house. Everything shook. The mantelpieces above Fluttershy's bed clinked together, and a vase finally fell. It hit Fluttershy straight on the head, and she blacked out.
***
When Fluttershy woke up, her house seemed to be on the ground.
"Ohhh..." Fluttershy rubbed her head where the vase had hit her. "That hurt." Angel Bunny poked his head out of her mane. He seemed unhurt by the falling vase.
"I wonder where we are now, Angel." Fluttershy wondered aloud.
Fluttershy got up from her bed and walked towards her door, which had been blown completely off its hinges. Usually, when Fluttershy looked out her door, she saw the usual sights outside her forest cottage. She saw the dirt path, the leafy trees in the forest surrounding her, and the little creek and the stone bridge above it. But what Fluttershy saw when she looked out her door was what led her to believe that she really wasn't in Equestria anymore.
"Angel..." Fluttershy gasped to her bunny, "I don't think we're in Equestria anymore."
Now, there are some strange sights to see in Equestria, be it multi-colored ponies to rainbow fruits. But what Fluttershy saw outside her door was unlike anything she had ever seen in Equestria before. Everything was bright. The sky was the brightest shade of sky blue that could ever be imagined. Exotic birds or every color and shape fluttered around. Each flower Fluttershy saw was a different color. Daises that were usually white back home were now pink. Red roses were blue and dandelions that were yellow at home were the brightest purple Fluttershy has ever seen. What's more, as Fluttershy began to look around, everything that she could see here was very small. The straw-roofed houses along a bubbling stream were only slightly taller than Fluttershy herself. As Fluttershy looked down, she could see that she was standing on the brightest colored brick road she had ever seen. It was bright yellow.
"If we're not in Equestria, then were are we?" Fluttershy asked aloud to nopony in particular.
"Why, you're in Oz!" a high-pitched voice suddenly spoke up.
"EEK!" Fluttershy suddenly found herself face-to-face (Well, actually, she was looking down) with the smallest pony she had ever seen.
This pony's size surely wasn't the only thing strange about him. His fur was the brightest neon green that could ever be imagined, and his mane was different shades of the brightest blues. This small pony was no bigger than a young filly, though he looked fully grown, judging by a small, bright blue beard that extended from his small chin. Fluttershy couldn't even see if he had a Cutie Mark because it was covered by some very bright-colored pants. This small pony's clothes were a horse of a different color indeed. He wore a small, sky-blue hat and matching, curly horseshoes. He also had bright blue coveralls covered in bright blue baubles. This certainly was the strangest pony Fluttershy had ever seen.
"I-I'm-I'm where?" Fluttershy finally worked up the courage to ask a question to the strange pony.
"In Oz!" the pony said in the same high-pitched voice as before. "You're in Munchkinponyland, to be exact!"
"But I just want to get back home to Equestria!" Fluttershy cried.
The Munchkin pony opened his mouth to say something, but was stopped by looking at something in the sky. Fluttershy hadn't noticed, but more and more Munchkin ponies, possibly hundreds, had come out and gathered around her. They were all turned to something behind Fluttershy, so the Pegasus finally turned around to see what they were seeing.
A bright pink bubble was floating gracefully down from the sky. It lazily descended down and down, until finally coming to rest right in front of Fluttershy.
The bubble popped to reveal a pony inside. She looked very familiar to Fluttershy. The white Unicorn emerging from the bubble had curled, indigo-purple hair and baby-blue eyes. She also wore a silver tiara. Fluttershy could not see a Cutie Mark because it had been covered by a very frilly, pink dress.
"Are you a good witch, or a bad witch?" the Unicorn asked.
Fluttershy was very taken aback by this strange greeting, and could only reply "I-I I don't think I'm a witch at all."
