The Shimmer Effect

Wind rushed into Rainbow Dash’s face as she flew through the air. She was attempting a new trick she had been trying to pull off for a while now, and knew for sure that this was the time she’d get it right. In about five seconds, she had propelled herself into the sky as high as she could physically go until she needed fresh air. Once she had reached there, she stopped and just started to free fall like she had been a rock dropped from a tower, and was now plummeting to the ground at an incredible speed with her eyes closed. It was like the wind was performing her a song with it’s whistling, and she could have listened to it for hours, but she knew she needed to stop. With a jolt, she opened her eyes and started going even faster, but as soon as she was no more than ten feet above the ground, she darted in another direction. This caused the wind to blow for miles, though it was no more powerful than a strong breeze.  Rainbow Dash headed towards the town center, and immediately stopped in the square.

She felt amazing, like a champion, and the master of speed. Though this was not the fastest she had ever gone, this was the fastest she had could possibly go without causing damage to Ponyville. Her feeling of triumph was short lived though, as she looked up at the clock and realized that she was supposed to be at the castle thirty-minutes ago. A sense of dread soon came upon her, and just as fast as she came in the town square, she left. She had already been late to recent meetings, so being late again would not be met without consequence.

When she finally had gotten to the gates of the castle, she rushed by the guards, who were neither surprised nor confused as to why Rainbow Dash was just now getting to the castle. She was then greeted by the disappointed face of her friends minus one, Pinkie Pie’s chair laid empty.

“Heh,” she nervously replied, “Sorry I’m late guys.”

Rarity sighed as she replied, “Darling, please make an attempt to arrive on time. If not for us for yourself.”

“Yeah,” Applejack added, “I’m starting to get mighty tired of having to wait for you to show up to these meetings.”

“Hey Pinkie Pie isn't here either, so why am I getting blamed while she gets off scot free?” Rainbow retorted.

“Oh, she’s out helping make preparations for the next festival,” Fluttershy answered, then pulled back quickly as if she had just done something wrong.

“Ladies, well decide what to do about making sure that Rainbow gets here on time from now on later. In the meantime though, we need to talk about the upcoming festival,” Twilight said.

“Uh, another one, really? Why do we have so many festivals?” Rainbow asked. She had never really known what work went into planning each festival in ponyville, and it had started to take its toll on her.

“Rainbow Dash, these festivals are a way to help relieve the stress of everyday life, and they provide party-planners a way of making money. Without them many planners lose a viable source of income,” Twilight snapped at her.

“Now, as this is supposed to be the Time of Remembrance Festival, I'd like to incorporate a pre-Equestrian history presentation so that we can remember those who tried to keep harmony and establish it as virtue before the founding of Equestria. However, there’s a problem, there is no pre-Equestrian history.”

“What do you mean there is no history,” a surprised Rarity said.

“I mean that all the history books and references to the subject only point to the story of Hearths Warming. So, nothing is known about what happened before it.”

“Well, maybe Celestia and Luna know about pre-Equestrian history, after all they’ve been around for a while,” Applejack said.

“I’ve already spoke with them, and they don’t know anything either, they were born during Discord’s reign over Equestria. From Celestia's explanation though, the reason for this is more than likely that the ponies from Hearths Warming used the books as fire starters to stay warm. So almost all knowledge before this was lost forever.”

“So does that mean we can cancel the festival?” Rainbow asked hopefully.

“No, I’ve promised Princess Celestia that this will be a segment for the festival, and I plan on keeping that promise.”

“So what’s the plan then Twilight?” asked Rarity.

“Right now the only thing we can do is try to find any information at all on the time period. So this is what I need you to do, Applejack and Fluttershy, I want you to go gather every history book form libraries through Equestria. Rarity, you and I will head to the castle of the two sisters to look for books there. Rainbow Dash, I need you to stay here and make sure the festival preparations go accordingly.”

“Fine, as long as I don’t have do any reading myself, I’m ok with staying back,” replied Rainbow.

“Great, now everyone has their roles, let’s get started.”

The room cleared soon after that as the ponies left. Twilight and Rarity left for the Everfree Forest, Applejack boarded a train headed for the Crystal Empire, and Fluttershy did the same to Canterlot. Rainbow Dash stayed and was actually happy about it. She would have hated having to go out and look for books that were of very little interest to her. She walked over to Sugarcube Corner  to see how the festival was going along, and when she got there she found something shocking. Pinkie Pie was running from place to place, working hard on the bake goods and the decorations for the festival, but the room was a mess. Cake batter covered the walls, streamers and other party decorations were everywhere, and Pinkie had a look of anger and pain on her face.

“Pinkie Pie, are you al-,” Rainbow started, but was immediately interrupted by Pinkie.

“What do you do you want Swift Stream?” she screamed at Rainbow Dash, and turned around to see that she had mistaken who it was that was talking to her, “Oh, sorry Rainbow Dash, I thought you were somepony else.”

“It’s fine Pinkie, it looks like you’ve been kind of stressed out,” Rainbow said as she looked around the room .

“Yeah, I guess I have been. Swift Steam, the other planner they hired to help plan the festival, has been down my neck recently because I’m a bit behind on my work. I’ve told her that I have everything covered, and there’s no need to worry, but she just keeps checking up on me. To top it off I got get these cupcakes done today so that we have cupcakes for the festival,” she said as she was putting a batch of cupcakes into the oven and then started on another.

“But the festival is next week, why do you have to make cupcakes now?”

Pinkie Pie looked dumbfounded at that comment and then grab a list of the countertop behind her, “Oh no, I didn’t did I? No I did! I cooked the cupcakes four days too early. Oh, this is great, now I have all these cupcakes and I’m out of ingredients!”

The look of despair on her face was incredible. She hardly looked like the Pinkie Pie anyone knew anymore.

“Hey,” Rainbow told her, “If there is anything I can do for you, just ask.”

Pinkie looked up with a soft face after hearing that, “Well if you could pick up these things for me that would be wonderful,” she grabbed a piece of paper from a near by cabinet drawer and wrote down a few things she need to make the cupcake batter again then handed it to Rainbow Dash who then looked at the list then gave a reassuring nod and said, “No problem Pinkie, I’ll have it done in a giffy.”

With that, the pony then took off out of the door after saying goodbye to her friend, then started her way towards the market center.

Rainbow looked at the list one more time to make sure she had gotten everything that was on it. “Milk, eggs, cocoa, sugar, sprinkles. Did they run out all of this at Sugarcube Corner? ‘Cause this all seems like stuff she could… WHOA!”

Rainbow had not been paying attention to what was in front of her, and ran into somepony. When she looked up, she saw a Stallion in front of her with a fire red coat that was neatly groomed, and was wearing a guards uniform.

“My apologies Miss Rainbow Dash, I wasn’t looking where I was going,” the pony said to her in the most sincerely fearful voice anyone had spoken to her with.

“It’s ok, I wasn’t either. Say, are you one of the new guards we’re getting in today?” Rainbow asked out of curiosity since none of the guards she’s met before have ever acted like this.

“Yes ma'am. Private Post Flare of the Royal Unicorn Guard,” the unicorn said with a new sense of pride and confidence in his voice. After further inspection, Rainbow saw that the stallion had a fire formed into the shape of a shield as his cutie mark. He also had black-colored mane and tail, but his tail’s end was a smokey gray color.

“Here, let me help you with that ma'am,” he said very softly as he bent down to start picking up the knocked down items.

“Thanks, but don’t call me Miss or ma’am please. It makes me feel weird, and we’re about the same age it looks like, so there’s no need . Just call me Rainbow,” Rainbow said as she too bent over to start picking up the dropped groceries.

“Well, ok then, Rainbow. So what brings you out here, doing some shopping?”

Rainbow was about to answer, when a large explosion went off in the distance and instead shouted, “What in Equestria?”

“That sounded like it came from the Everfree Forest.”

Rainbow Dash flew up to see how far away it was. “Looks like it’s pretty far away. Don’t think anypony will get there in less than thirty minutes… except me,” she said cocking a smile.

“Hey can you take these over to Sugarcube Corner? Pinkie Pie needs them for the festival,” Rainbow asked, hovering down to hand the stallion her saddlebags.

“Sure, just be careful,” Post Flare said as he takes the bags.

“Okay, thanks,” and with that she was off.

It took Rainbow Dash longer than she thought it would to get there, and when she did she could barely believe her eyes. In what used to be a section of the forest’s edge, was a small crater with broken trees and plants surrounding the area. A pulsing energy could still be felt in the air, almost as if the blast was still going on. “What happened here?” she muttered to herself as she started to descend. She looked around trying to find something that could possibly explain this. When she heard moaning coming from a nearby bush that had survived the blast relatively well, she almost jumped out of her skin and gave a small, weak yelp. After regaining her composure, she started toward the bush, and saw an earth pony with a light gray coat sitting there with his hoof to his head.

Groaning again he looked up to see Rainbow Dash, “Could you lend a hoof this way mate? My head is killing me.”

“Who are you?” Rainbow asked as she helped him up.

“Well that’s kind of rude considering I’m a-,” a sudden look of remembrance came on his face as his eyes opened revealing their dark brown coloring, and then they darted toward his side. Looking back again he replied with a sigh, “Oh that’s right. My name is Malshine, Malshine Shimmer. And yours?”

“Rainbow Dash, wait, you don’t know me?” she asked confused. Ever since they defeated Triek and the castle was formed, they had been known throughout most of Equestria. Their pictures had been taken for the national newspapers and magazines, so most people knew her by name and look. She had to admit though, there was something refreshing about meeting someone who didn’t know her.

“Sorry, but no. You could say that I just got here though so- wait!” he sternly said. He grabbed her by the head and then shouted, “Is the tree of harmony still up?”

“What, how do you know about that?” she asked back. Not too many ponies knew about the tree, so she was again surprised by the Stallion.

“Just tell me already!” he demanded.

“Yes it’s fine. The elements are even there to,” she didn’t know why she told him, it’s just that she seemed almost obligated to, compelled even.

“Oh thank Harmonicus. I think I’m going to pass out now. Yeah, I am,” finishing his sentence he collapsed onto the ground. Panicked, Rainbow picked him up and began yelling at him to wake up.

When he didn’t, she looked back to see that the guards were on their way to see what was happening. She called out to get their attention, “Hey, over here! We got a survivor who needs to be taken to an infirmary now!” They quickly got a stretcher out and lifted him on it, “Take him to the one in the castle, I want to talk with him when he wakes up. Make sure he gets the best care too.”

“Yes miss. Rainbow Dash,” One of the guards said as they took the Malshine away to the castle.

‘What had just happened here,’ she thought as she walked back following the guards on the way to the castle. ‘Who is that that, where did he come from, did he set off that explosion, and who the hey is Harmonicus?’ These and many more thoughts went through Rainbow’s head as they walked back. She saw one of the guards look back quickly, like he saw something.

“Something wrong?” Rainbow said looking back as well.

“Just had this feeling is all. It’s probably just an animal coming to see the source of the sound,” he said as he turned back.