Circumstellar

Chapters

Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2

Prologue

Having finished another furrow, Rainbow Dash took the opportunity to lift her straw hat slightly. It was heavy labor, plowing a field manually, but she felt all right about it these days. The soil here was notably less arid at this hour than in Ponyville, and relatively easy to plow. It was a part of the morning that she had come to appreciate.

Just a little bit longer, she thought.

While there was noticeable, rich humidity present barely one hoof under the soil, the top layer had already begun to crackle and harden under the heat of the pervading sun. Plowing would become progressively harder. The thought of even higher temperatures in the months to come unnerved her.

These conditions can't possibly last much longer, can they? she thought as she looked up to the sky. It felt odd for any Pegasus to look at the weather these days, knowing there wasn't much to be done about it.

She pulled her thoughts back to her work and continued to plow the soil. A mixture of sweat and dust had begun trickling down her neck, but she ignored it. After a while the mare halted to inspect the land she worked.

“Hey, not bad Rainbow Dash,” she said to herself proudly. “I don’t see Applejack plow any better than this. Awesome.”

Her outer monologue broke off when she noticed Spike on the other side of the fields. Still at it with that garden spade, huh? Spike had been outside with her all day long, working on his own little patch of land that he had appropriated. Considering the tools the kid had to work with, he had done a remarkable job. It wasn't the first time either the little dragon had surprised her as of late.

A year or two ago, before she and Scootaloo had moved in together with Twilight Sparkle and Spike, Rainbow Dash had always thought of Spike as the servile type, if a smudge lazy. The past three months had shown her an entirely different side of him. The little dude had relished the opportunity for some physical work other than the usual housework, always willing to help either her or Applejack with some farm work. It had done him good.

Awesome, she thought satisfied. Keep pulling your weight champ. There will be plenty more where that came from.

Rainbow Dash scanned the horizon for her little sister. She spotted a small, furious little dust cloud moving up and down the tracks of a path that stretched across one of the foothills that surrounded the area. It would climb up the hill just a little bit, only to roll down again without really picking up any speed.

She shook her head. Rainbow Dash pitied her sister deeply. Not only was the ground here too rough for her scooter's small wheels, there simply just hadn't been any spare gasoline left as of late.

“First flying, now her scooter. I need to keep that filly busy more,” muttered Rainbow Dash to herself. She stared into the horizon for bit apparently lost in thoughts, when Spike caught her attention again.

He had noticed she was looking around and started to wave at her with his spade.

Rainbow Dash waved back at the young dragon and pointed at her wrist. “Break time soon!”

“Oh-kay!”

“Get Scootaloo too!”

“Sure thing!”

That little clown, she thought with a grin as he threw his spade into the air and ran off to fetch Scootaloo. She looked at the dust cloud again in the hills. It would still be a little while before either of them would be home.

Something occurred to her as she returned her attention to the plow. Had Spike grown taller recently? Remembering consequences of his previous unchecked growth spurt, she determined it would be wise to have a quiet talk about it with Twilight, sometime after supper. That made her think of the evening to come. It was without a doubt her favorite time of the day, eating supper together, listening to the radio, playing games and snoozing in the late evening with her love.

This may not be a great setup here, having to farm and all just to get by, but with those three around me, I think I could really-

A voice interrupted her train of thought, emerging from a walky-talky attached to her belt. “Rainbow Dash, come in, over.”

Rainbow Dash halted her plow and took it out. She flipped a large switch on the side of it and replied in a trucker voice. “What's goin' on Twi, over?”

“I could use some help over here,” Twilight responded. “I got the harvester's control unit working, but I can't see if it actually works without someone on the other side looking at the readouts. Over.”

“Right,” she said while dropping the yoke on the ground. “I'll be with you in... oh, five seconds? Over?”

“Heh. all right, Dash. Over and out.”

Rainbow Dash smiled as she put the small transmitter back into her pocket. She took off her straw hat and hung it on the plow. An early break wouldn't hurt her. Her eyes fixed on the barn at the other side of the field, she stretched her wings in the sunlight and assumed a starter position, leaning slightly forward.

In an instant she had pushed herself off into the air and with just a few, powerful slashes of her wings she had crossed the entire four hundred yards to the barn. One more slash brought her to the large the stables behind their barn, where she glided down smoothly and touched down, neatly sliding through the dirt and stopping right in front of the entrance.

The area around the stables had turned into a bit of a junk yard recently, what with the arrival of some new machinery for Twilight to work on. Categorized piles of cabling, tubes and other machine parts lay spread around the entrance.

She walked over to it and took a look inside. The stables themselves had been converted into a workshop shortly after they had moved into the barn. Little of the old interior remained, making place for a sizable workbench and a lot of room for the dozen or so engineering projects Twilight had poured herself over.

Rainbow Dash noticed welding flashes coming from underneath her main project, stored in the back of the stables. It was a large, funky looking combine harvester, welded together from multiple machine parts that they had appropriated since their move to the countryside. She walked over to the harvester and looked at the tall machine. It really seemed to be coming together now.

She scraped her throat. “Sup Twi?”

The flashes stopped. “Huh? That you already Dash? Wow, you weren't kidding.”

“Well of course I wasn't,” she replied. “Whaddya need help with?”

“Hang on a second, I’m coming out in a moment!” answered Twilight from underneath the machine, rushing to finish up her work. “Oh, can you pick up my charge detector? It's on the workbench somewhere.”

“No problem,” said Rainbow Dash. She walked over to the other side of the room and looked around. “Twi, what did that one look like again? Oh, never mind, I see it.”

She picked up a small portable gauge with two jumper cables sticking out and trotted back to the harvester.

“Still having problems with the control unit?”

“Yeah, but I think I might have a solution now,” Twilight replied as she rolled out from underneath the harvester on a maintenance creeper, holding a rusty welding torch. She stood up, brushed off a small cloud of dust from her dark purple overalls and traded the heavy torch for a small folding stool.

Rainbow Dash, raising a single eyebrow, stood by and watched her as she proceeded to climb to the top of the tall machine rather than fly. Dash smiled and shook her head, when a peculiar thought came to her. Why doesn't she just teleport herself on top of it? She realized she couldn't remember the last time she seen her do that.

“You know, this look honestly suits you,” said Rainbow Dash. “Who could have guessed you would be such an excellent mechanic?”

“Psh,” uttered Twilight, pretending Dash's comment didn't flatter her. “Anypony can read a manual.” She had reached the top of the machine and folded out her stool.

“Yeah, but come on,” continued Rainbow Dash in defense. “Not just anypony can make heads or tails of the manuals you've been reading lately.”

Twilight looked up from the control panel she had started to inspect, smiling. “Right,” she said and smirked, “Flatterer. Don't think that means I'm not going to make you read up on how this machine works. I'm not always going to be there to help you out on the field when something breaks down.”

Rainbow Dash sighed. “I know, I know. Anyway, where do you want me to connect the charge detector?”

“To the front of the engine block, please,” answered Twilight politely. “There should be some outlets there that we need to check the current of. Start with the top two.”

“Roger.”

Rainbow Dash walked over to the front of the harvester. From this angle it looked pretty imposing. Damn Twi, she thought, smiling. You’ve really outdone yourself on this one.

“Can you find it?” asked Twilight Sparkle. “It is right on top of the engine block. It sticks out like a sore thumb because the only part that is actually from a harvester. The rest is all royal military junk.”

Rainbow Dash found the yellow panel and connected the charge detector to the top of a series of outlets.

“Ready!” she said, beaming with enthusiasm.

“Okay, give me a sec... and... there.”

Twilight looked up from her console. “Okay, that should having been the ignition?”

The needle on the charge detector did not move a millimeter.

“Nada,” she answered.

“Right then,” proceeded Twilight. “Move down two outlets and try again. Anything now?”

The needle trembled, but did not move up.

“Next to nothing, Twi.”

“Argh, horse flowers!” yelled Twilight, kicking over the chair in frustration. “What could I have missed?” She started pacing up and down the machine, looking for something that might be out of place.

“Maybe the battery is... no, that's can't be it.”

Twilight's attention was drawn to the back of the control panel she had been using. “It couldn't be that simple, could it?”

Rainbow Dash kept her calm and simply waited to let the genius work it out.

“Oh, I'm not boring you with this stuff, am I?” asked Twilight, suddenly remembering she wasn't alone.

Rainbow Dash shook her head. “Are you kidding me? It's awesome watching you work. Plus, you're the one who will be putting bread on the table with these machines in the coming years. Not me with that measly plow I borrowed from Applejack.”

“all right then,” said Twilight, blushing slightly as she started rummaging through the cables sticking out the back of her control panel. She had already pulled out bundles of them before realizing a simpler solution was required.

“Dashie, could you hop back to the workbench and fetch me a pair of pliers?”

Rainbow Dash realized this was a good opportunity as any to ask her about her decreasing use of teleportation magic.

“Why don't you just teleport them over, Twi?” she asked. “They're right there.”

Twilight ignored it. “Little busy here,” she said a tad stern. “Just do it.”

“Fine, fine.”

Rainbow Dash walked back to the work bench. After a moment she found what she asked for, but rather than flying it over she nimbly jumped on top of the machine and handed it to Twilight. “There you go, princess.”

“Thanks,” she said happily. Twilight Sparkle started crudely cutting away at bundles of cable that were hanging out of the control panel. “A few more... there, that should take care of electricity bleeding away from the circuit. Can you have another look down there?”

Rainbow Dash quickly jumped back down and had another look. “Yeah, the needle is moving. Five amps, it looks like. Awesome!”

“All right then!” yelled Twilight cheerfully. “That means I can fix the rest up after a quick break!”

“Great! So what happened?” asked Rainbow Dash. “I thought the control unit was all bucked up?”

Twilight sparkle frowned. “That was what I thought at first. Army machines cannot be as easily re-purposed as we had initially hoped. But the problem was simpler than that. Too much signal decay, I think, between all the different electrical components we-”

Rainbow Dash looked at her sheepishly.

“The parts... um,” Twilight struggled for a moment or two, trying to come up with an analogy that would work for her. “The parts have trouble working together because each one has its own design. Imagine if Rarity would take parts of all our gala dresses and fashioned it into a single dress. It would be really uncomfortable to wear, wouldn't it?”

Rainbow Dash had to grin a bit, picturing Rarity panicking in that very situation. “Not to mention it would look about as uncool as uncool gets. But yeah, I see what you're getting at.”

“So the harvester won't be finished anytime soon, will it?” she continued.

“Probably not before our first harvest is ready, no. Applejack has been a great help with the engineering basics, but this still complicated subject matter. Even for me.”

Twilight looked a little dejected. She closed the control panel and carefully climbed down the machine.

“Don't worry though,” she continued, changing to a cheerful resolve as Rainbow Dash helped her down the last step. “We will be prepared for our first harvest, one way or another. I know a pony or two that owe me some favours. I'm sure we can borrow equipment from them when the harvest season arrives.”

Rainbow Dash looked unsure. “I don't know, Twilight. Equestria has fallen on pretty hard times lately.”

“Oh, don't you worry,” said Twilight, winking. “A little royalty still goes a pretty long way.”

“Heh. It would be great if we could finally show Applejack what kinda stuff we're made of. Just imagine the look on her face if we were ready with all the harvesting before she is.”

Twilight Sparkle laughed. “Oh Dashie,” she said as her marefriend helped her down the last steps, “Three months in and you are already this fired up to get our farm going. I'm telling you, before the year is over, you'll be competing with Apple Jack over the highest turn-ins!”

Rainbow Dash laughed. “You bet. Gonna give AJ a run for ‘er bits!” she said comically, poorly mimicking Applejack's accent.

Twilight smiled and put her arm around hers. “That's my dashing farmer.”

“Heh, you're welcome. C'mon, let's blow this joint!”

They exited the stables together and walked around the house. Once on the other side, Twilight Sparkle stopped and simply gaped at what lay in front of her. Somepony had moved an entire field while she had toiled inside.

“Wooow...” she uttered, completely gobsmacked. “You were able to plow that much since this morning? Rainbow Dash... that's incredible!”

“I know right?” she replied proudly. “Still, it's nothing compared to how much faster we could have plowed if we had another machine.”

Twilight nodded. “Work on the harvester has to come first, but I am sure we will have a decent mechanized plow ready by next year. The royal military is letting go of more and more usable hardware and I'm sure farming equipment manufacturing will pick up soon as well.”

The couple stepped into the shade of their porch. Aside from some small crates, there weren't any decent chairs outside yet, but there was a comfy hammock that had functioned as one since they moved in. Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle sat down in it together and it let it lazily swing for a while.

“Where's Spike?” asked Twilight. “I thought he'd be inside by now?“

Rainbow Dash pointed at his handiwork, further down the field. “He's been with me all day. You have no idea how capable that kid is with the little garden spade AJ gave him.”
“I have to admit, that doesn't look half bad. Heh, I swear he is taking more after you every day.”

Rainbow Dash grinned and shook her head. “The only one he is taking after is Apple Jack. Every day he drops by to visit. I swear I even heard him drop a 'tarnation' the other day.”

Twilight Sparkle nodded. “Just trying it on, if I know him right. But true, Spike has always had an amazing resilience in him. And now he is learning so much now about farming! I'm just so glad to see him relish this place.“

“Yeah,” replied Rainbow Dash. “He's got that knack for learning from you though.”

That made Twilight smile. “Heh, you’re not too bad yourself once you get the hang of it.”

Rainbow Dash looked down, her expression turned worried. “Scootaloo though... she seems to have... more trouble settling down here,” she said.

Twilight thought for a few moments. “How long has it been since she and Applebloom had to say their goodbyes to Sweetie Belle?”

“I think she was admitted to the hospital a few weeks after we settled Scootaloo's adoption papers. So about a year ago, give or take.”

“I don't know Scootaloo copes with it,” said Twilight Sparkle.

Rainbow Dash sighed deeply. “Maybe she hasn't.”

Both of them looked to the horizon for any sign of Spike or Scootaloo.

“It wasn't right to split the Cutie Mark Crusaders up like that,” said Rainbow Dash. “They were a team. They were great together.”

“What other choice did we have, Dash?” replied Twilight, putting her arm around her marefriend's shoulder.

“I don't know, I just...”

Rainbow Dash was at a loss for words. “Never mind.”

The conversation had stalled. In the distance, they could hear Spike and Scootaloo drawing closer. Pretty soon their alone time would come to an end. Neither of them wanted it to be.

Twilight leaned back into the hammock and thought for a few moments. “Maybe I should give her something to read from my library. It will keep her mind busy at least. Sometimes that's the only thing you can do.”

“That is a great idea,” said Rainbow Dash. “I bet she'd be all over Daring Do. It's perfect for her, at her age.”

They sat there for a while, looking at the landscape and dreaming of a better future for their family. The sun was at its zenith now. Clouds drifted low over the distant green hills, painting them in peculiar shadowy contrasts.

“This place isn't so bad, you know?” said Twilight, letting out a deep sigh.

“Yeah,” answered Rainbow Dash dreamily.

“The hills, the lakes, the mountains surrounding us... it can't be a whole lot higher here than in Ponyville, but it just feels like we live closer to the sky somehow.”

Rainbow Dash considered her words for a few moments and concluded she had a fair point. “Heh, yeah. Weird.” For all the friendship and comforts they had to leave behind in Ponyville, there was great beauty here.

“Most Pegasi must miss living in the sky these days,” Twilight continued, “but it must be nice for you to live in surroundings that are still seemingly connected to it.”

“Yeah, connected,” Rainbow Dash said, letting out a relaxing sigh. “I think you may have a point.”

Aww, Twilove, she thought, immensely satisfied. You always know how to cheer me up.

Twilight Sparkle lowered her head along the edge of the hammock and dreamily looked at the horizon behind them. Her marefriend, dreamily absorbing her imagine, noticed a ladybug in Twilight's mane, bravely climbing upward. She leaned over to remove it, but had a change of heart and leaned in even closer for a kiss.

Just before her lips reached the nape of her neck, Twilight looked back up and stared deep into her eyes. Tears started welling up as she started to speak.
“I'm... sorry, Rainbow,” she said quietly.

Understandably surprised, Rainbow Dash pulled back. “Hey, what's wrong, love?”

Twilight closed her eyes and bit her lower lip, trying hard not to break out in tears. She looked down at the hammock, trying to figure out what to say, then looked up again at her partner. This time the tears were running down her cheeks freely.

“I'm sorry but,” she continued, sobbing lightly, “I need you to eject now.”

Rainbow Dash blinked, bemused. “Eject? What do you mean?”

Twilight suddenly jolted upright and looked straight into her eyes. “You have to eject right now Dash!” she urged, now almost panicking. “You must! Eject now! Eje-”

The world around her lost focus as Rainbow Dash seemingly fell right through it in a daze.

Something powerful shook her awake.

“Wh-where am I?” stammered Rainbow Dash. She looked around. She seemed to be sitting in a strangely familiar craft. A cockpit of something she had flown before.

A voice spoke to her from a transmitter in her helmet. “It's not working, Rainbow Dash. Level her out.”

Outside she spotted the cloud deck, far below her. Her altitude was much higher than she would have dared to fly with her wings.

“Wha... what's happening?” she asked the voice.

The voice answered calmly. “Guidance signal is breaking up. Suggesting immediate manual intervention.”

The memory of seeing Twilight break out in tears had evaporated. The flight controls now demanded the entirety of her existence. In a fraction of a second, half a dozen instrument failure scenarios flashed through her head, none of which seemed to apply to what she was seeing.

“How can we even lose connection way up here? Did they cut it? ” she asked nervously.

“We can’t tell,” replied the voice.

Nearly all of the readouts on the dashboard were glowing red. Even the compass display spinning in all directions. Something had gone seriously wrong during the past ten seconds.

“Dash, your angle seems to be drifting,” continued the voice calmly.

Rainbow Dash tightened her grasp on the stick and attempted to correct her descent. The craft did still respond, grudgingly.

“Dash to mission control. Experiencing massive instrumental failure, please advise. Mission control, come in. What's going on?”

Rainbow Dash waited. What's happening down there?

There was always a deductible cause to any technical problem encountered mid flight, but no amount of training could have prepared her for such a massive, cascading system failure. It was hopeless. Outside, the cloud deck had again drawn considerably closer.

The voice spoke again. “Target area undershot, calculating new trajectory.”

“Oh, come on! I got this! ” yelled Rainbow Dash back at the transmitter.

“And overriding systems... now!” replied the voice, ignoring her pleadings. All the red lights on her display blinked twice in chorus, then turned off permanently.

“Are you nuts!? That's-”

Crushing g-forces cut her sentence short as the autopilot kicked in, nosing the aircraft down and banking it hard to the left. She had completely lost control over craft's descend into the atmosphere.

Rainbow Dash desperately tried to disable the autopilot, but there just wasn’t enough time to react. Heavy lightning basked the aircraft in light as punctured the cloud deck and hit the very apotheosis of turbulence, pushing the aircraft down in one, monstrous swoop that blasted her backward into her seat. She felt her helmet as well as something in her neck crack and ice cold air rushing into her face. She screamed, then she felt nothing.

Chapter 1

Rainbow Dash woke up with a shock and found herself bathing in sweat. Complete darkness had engulfed her, wrapping around her tightly like the blanket she had twisted herself into. With the adrenaline still rushing thick through her blood, she panicked and instinctively attempted to fly backwards while holding up her arms against her face to protect herself from the bedroom wall thought she was about to collide into. Being stuck in her blankets however, that did not go quite as she thought. She fell backwards out of her bed instead and tumbled across the hardwood floor of her bedroom, knocking over her only book case and bumping her head against the sharp edge of the doorstep.

“Ow!” she yelled out stupefied. As if that wasn't enough, a framed picture of her old home in Cloudsdale promptly fell down from the wall to her right, the glass shattering into a dozen pieces on impact with the floor.

She carefully lifted her head, fully expecting her neck to be broken from the impact with the turbulent weather front earlier. Fortunately, things were not as they seemed.

Wait, I'm... sorta fine? she thought, touching the back of her neck. Rainbow Dash squinted and noticed the moon in front of her, pouring a bleak light through her bedroom window and gently lighting up her surroundings. The dark gradually made way for the contours of her bedroom.

Rainbow Dash realized she was still at their farm. She groaned and dropped her head back on the wooden floor with a thud. Just a nightmare after all. “I'm... getting... to... old... for... this... ju-u-unk,” she whined, still panting from the shock. Her voice was a terrible mess.

Just how much did I scream? she wondered and tried to swallow. Her throat was bone dry.

Before she had the chance to get up on her feet to reach for her glass on the nightstand, her bedroom door creaked open, revealing two curious purple eyes above her.

“Um Rainbow Dash,” the young mare said uncertainly, “what are you doing down there?”

Rainbow Dash blinked her eyes several times. “Scootaloo?”

“I heard, uh... noises. Are you all right?” Scootaloo asked worried.

Dash quickly got back up on her hooves and trotted to her nightstand for some water.

“I-it was nothing!” Rainbow Dash said nervously, “I'm totally flying! I mean fine!”

She took a guilty sip of her water to break the tension and smiled back at her sister. It helped. “Owlowiscious flew in and knocked over my bookshelf,” she lied calmly.

Scootaloo took a few careful steps through the door. “Really? The whole thing?” she asked, taking note of the perfectly closed window on the other side of the bedroom.

“Really, I'm fine,” Rainbow Dash replied, gesturing to the door. “Go back to bed now, squirt.”

“I'm not a squirt. I'm a mare,” she said slightly irritated, “but whatever.”

Deep down, she didn't actually care what her big sister called her. It was her inability to come clean straight away that got a bit tiresome to deal with when she was clearly deeply troubled.

Scootaloo sighed and walked back to the door, but didn't step through it. A little scheme came to her.

“Hey, Rainbow Dash?” Scootaloo asked, ever so slightly nervous. She looked behind herself. Her big sister was already busy tucking herself back into bed.

“Yeah?” she replied.

“I... didn't want to say anything,” Scootaloo said and shrugged, “but I sorta had a bad dream about... giant... chickens?”

Rainbow Dash looked up from her pillow, raising a single eyebrow.

“So, would you mind if I sleep next to you for a while?” Scootaloo continued.

Rainbow's expression turned around. “Sure Scoot,” she said with a smile and draped back the sheets a little to make some room for her.

“Yay!” Scootaloo said, running over to her bed and jumping straight in.

“And I'm sorry, Scootaloo. I guess I kinda had rough night myself,” admitted Rainbow Dash.

“It's all right,” she replied while drawing the sheets over her.

“But you really need to get over these night terrors of yours. You're not a little filly anymore.”

“I will, hehe!” Scootaloo said, smiling and suppressing a knowing grin.

Rainbow Dash embraced her and stretched out her free wing around Scootaloo's waistline. She gladly accepted it and snuggled into her warm coat. Within minutes Scootaloo felt her sister's tense muscles relax, as she once again drifted off into oblivion. And before Scootaloo knew it, she too was vast asleep.

Rainbow Dash woke up a few hours later in broad daylight. She rubbed her eyes and reached for Scootaloo, but found just an empty space in her stead.

“Huh, when did she leave?”

She sat upright and took note of the collapsed bookshelf and broken picture frame. Before she had the chance give the scene a thought, someone knocked on her door and spoke to her.

“There's no reason for you to come out of bed today, you know. I'm sure Spike can fix that well all by himself.”

“Night Light?” Rainbow Dash asked. “I'm coming, but what do you mean about the well?”

“We lost water pressure again last night,” he replied from the other side of the door. “Anyway, I made breakfast and the kids are down already. Unless you want to eat breadcrumbs, I suggest you get down there quickly.”

Rainbow Dash threw her pillow at the door. “I'll manage!”, she yelled back.

She got out of her bed and walked over to the window to open it up. It was warm outside, but not yet hot. She stretched her back and yawned deeply, sucking in some fresh air.

What the heck did I dream about? Something about crashing and...

Rainbow Dash mulled it over for a minute or two while looking at the wheat fields outside, then gave up. She turned back and looked at the mess in her bedroom and considered if she should at least fix the book case before heading out. It was small and had only a few books on it, but she cared deeply about every single one of them. Each book had been a gift from Twilight Sparkle.

“Well, the day is wasting away,” she said to herself, heading out of the bedroom. “I'll just fix it tonight.”

She was the last one to use the small and cluttered bathroom that morning, leaving the water bucket nearly empty. Enough for a cat wash, she thought.

Rainbow Dash proceeded to wash herself and looked at herself in the mirror. A few dozen gray hairs glistened in her otherwise colourful mane.

“You're not getting any younger, are you,” she said, slightly dejected.

“Dash!” Spike yelled from the kitchen down below. “We need to get going!”

She sighed and yelled back. “All right, alright! Jeez.”

Rainbow Dash trotted out of the bathroom and hurried down the stairs. The three of them were still sitting at the large wooden dinner table. Spike, a pretty tall teenager these days, was busy eating a mix of cereal and small gems. Night Light, middle-aged, was busy reading a newspaper and Scootaloo had poured herself over a broken radio that was laying next to her plate.

The radio had broken a couple of nights ago, after Spike had knocked it on the ground by accident. To Scootaloo's credit, the device was already working a bit, playing a news bulletin accompanied with dramatic music. Something about continued famine in the post-war Changeling Empire.

“Morning guys,” Rainbow Dash said cheerfully.

“Morning,” Scootaloo said, the only one to look up at her with a smile. “I saved some toast for you.”

“Thanks squirt,” she jested, earning a mean look in return. “No time this morning to sit down to eat, I'm afraid.”

“If I had known you were going to sleep in half an hour, I would have stayed in bed too,” said Spike while shoving the last of his cereal mix into his mouth.

She laughed. “Hey, I'm not stopping you from going out there on your own. You run this place as much as I do these days.”

Spike didn't say anything in return, but left the table and headed outside.

Rainbow Dash grabbed a piece of toast and quickly wolfed it down, then headed over to the sink to wash it down with a gulp of water. Strangely enough, it didn't seem to work.

“The well, remember?” said Night Light without looking up from his newspaper. “There is some juice left in the fridge, if you want it. You're not having a great morning, are you?”

Rainbow Dash stuck her tongue out at Night Light, making Scootaloo giggle and walked over to the fridge. A look inside revealed lots of empty space. Responsibly, she decided it was still a little too early in the morning for her stomach to juice up anyway.

“I'm fine,” she finally replied to Night Light, “I just had a rough night, what with the heat and all.”

Night Light shook his head, not meaning get off on the wrong foot with his daughter in law so early in the day. “I know. We all know.”

“Well I better head after Spike then,” said Rainbow Dash.

Nightlight sighed in agreement, silently nodding in the direction of Scootaloo. He then put his newspaper down and got up to clear the table.

Rainbow Dash walked over to her sister and observed the mare's efforts to fix the radio. She had grown into a beautiful young mare, but all she saw was that same frail filly she had to disappoint so many times in her life.

“So ehm... Scoot, wanna join up with me and Spike today? We could use an extra hand...”

Scootaloo looked up for a moment, but quickly returned her attention to the radio. “Ah, no thanks. I have a test next week, I should study.”

“Oh, okay,” said Rainbow Dash, not particularly trying to hide her disappointment. “Suit yourself.”

Rainbow Dash headed out. She found Spike waiting for her at the edge of the courtyard. The teen dragon wore his dark purple overalls and cap with some pride.

“Aren't you forgetting something?” he asked.

“What?”

“Toolbox.”

Rainbow Dash raised her shoulders. “I doubt that will be of any use now. Come on, let's go.”

Back inside, Scootaloo was still sitting at the dinner table, tinkering with the radio. She had removed the front paneling of the device and was busy cleaning out dust from the interior with the tip of her napkin.

Night Light looked up from his radio and observed her for a moment. “They've left, you know,” he said neutrally. “You can stop doing whatever it is you're doing to that radio.”

Scootaloo sighed and placed the front back on the radio itself. It clicked back on with a pop and instantly started playing a lighthearted country tune. She pushed the radio aside and stared down at the table. “Open book, huh?”

Night Light got up from his chair, walked to the other side of the table and sat down next to her. “We both know your cutie mark would never have been a little radio that needed fixing,” he said with a gentle smile.

“Heh, I suppose not,” replied Scootaloo, grinning a bit.

“So tell me,” Night Light continued, “did you come looking last night when Rainbow Dash... screamed?”

“You heard?” Scootaloo wasn't entirely surprised. She had been vast asleep when she heard Rainbow Dash cry.

“Scootaloo, when you're my age there are few things capable of waking you up in the middle of the night, aside from responding to nature's call,” he said, laughing. “No, Spike told me. He said the scream reached all the way down into the basement.”

“It was loud, yeah. But the basement? That's... kind of impressive,” admitted Scootaloo. “No, I just woke up right after she screamed, I think. Then I heard a loud crashing sound.”

“Did you go see her?” asked Night Light.

Scootaloo dropped her head a bit and stared at the kitchen table for a bit. The memory of seeing her idol so disheveled, so broken had upset her greatly.

“Yeah,” she finally answered. “She was on the other side of her room actually. I think she had tried to... fly out of bed.”

Night Light shook his head and sighed. “That must have been some nightmare.”

“Yeah. I catch myself twitch my wings sometimes when I'm almost asleep, but...”

Scootaloo stopped talking and froze, a realization dawning on her face.

“What is it Scootaloo?” asked Night Light.

“You don't suppose she still has nightmares about the crash?”

Night Light's expression turned worried for a second, but was quickly replaced with a wise, knowing smile. “That's many years ago,” he replied. “I doubt she would still be upset by that.”

“Oh. I hope you're right,” said Scootaloo. She looked down at the table, obviously still worried about her sister.

“You know,” said Night Light, “I think she toppled the large harvester a week or two ago, right next to the stables in the stables.”

“She did?”

“Yeah. I think she was test driving it. I'm not sure what went wrong, but the whole machine took a nasty tumble. Didn't she tell you?”

“Ha - no,” said Scootaloo, still surprised her sister managed to do that. “She'd be a more than a little embarrassed. I guess that must have been it then.”

“Of course that was it,” said Night Light with conviction. “But more to the point, why didn't you go with her just now?”

“I have to study,” lied Scootaloo.

“Scoot, you and I have worked through all your homework for the weekend last Friday. You don't have any tests coming up.”

“Ehehe. I guess not. I just...”

She wasn't quite sure how to put to words. ”Am I... bothering her?”

Night Light looked surprised. Of all the reasons, this was the last one he was expecting. He knew very well how much the two sisters adored each other.“ Why would you say that?”

Scootaloo sighed. “It's kinda hard to explain. For as long as I can remember, I have been catching glimpses of her looking... bothered around me. About refusing to gas up my scooter, about my wings still not being strong enough to fly, about breaking up the Cutie Mark Crusaders, about none of us ever receiving our cutie marks, about-”

Night Light shushed with his hoof. “My dear Scootaloo, no filly has received a cutie mark for many years,” he said. “And much more importantly, all that happened to you... it isn't anyponies fault. Rainbow Dash knows that better than anyone. You're not bothering her, she's just a worried old mare like your grandpa.”

“But can't she see I am just fine the way I am? I read books, get good grades at school, I help out, do my part at the farm.”

“Scootaloo, she's not just your sister. Rainbow Dash is your legal guardian, your parent. Take it from me, it's perfectly ordinary for any parent to worry about their child's future without reasonable cause.”

Night Light paused for a second. “Especially if, at some point, they have to face that responsibility alone.”

That last sentence sounded sounded heavier than he had intended.

“You're here though,” replied Scootaloo. “You coming here and helping us out has made such a big difference for all of us.”

Night Light smiled and patted the young mare on the head. “Scootaloo, you're the closest thing I have to a grandchild. I do love you dearly, but I can never be a replacement for my daughter.”

Scootaloo felt tears welling up in her eyes. “No, but you are,” she stammered.

Night Light got up from his chair and put his hoof on Scootaloo shoulder. “If you really want to help Rainbow Dash, show her that you are doing all right. She can't see what you're doing if you just stay inside all day long, listening to that radio and reading my daughter's books.”

Scootaloo rubbed her eyes a bit and smiled wistfully.

“Rainbow Dash adores you,” Night Light continued. “Go out there and be awesome with her!”

“I guess I can do that much,” she replied.

Rainbow Dash and Spike hadn't gotten very far yet on their way to the northern well. It was a forty minute walk from their house up into the foothills, half of it through relatively flat terrain. The first half of it was good, fertile soil, easily irrigated from the well and a nearby stream. The other half was steeper terrain that had up until recently been deemed unsuitable for farming. Rainbow Dash and Spike had worked hard during the past year to turn that land into something usuable.

But fertile as it was, generally all land was not doing well. Unending summer had ravaged for it for years on end now, leaving harvest turnouts across Equestria and beyond at an all time low. Farmers were keen on obtaining any patch of land they could irrigate, high or low.

“So what do you think happened, Dash?” asked Spike hopefully. “Do you think someone broke the generator?”

“I dunno,” replied Rainbow Dash. “It's weird we lost all of the pressure at once instead of just a bit. The windmills backing up the generator should've kept the pipeline to our house going at the very least.”

“Both going out at the same time does sounds like bad news,” said Spike, “but my money is still on sabotage.”

“Spike, nobody is going out of their way to hurt a couple of farmers like us,” said Rainbow Dash. “Not when everypony is... wait, do you hear that?”

Rainbow Dash stopped walking. Spike turned around to see what was going and noticed a little orange dot approach them on the road behind them. “Is that... Scootaloo?” she asked Spike.

Sure enough, Scootaloo was closing in, in full gallop.

“All right. I guess Night Light was able to coax her out of the house,” said Rainbow Dash, grinning. “Let's wait for her.”

In a minute Scootaloo had caught up with them. She was overjoyed, but completely out of breath. “Heheh,” she said, gasping for air and wiping sweat from her forehead. “Sorry. Don't know what came over me, but I had a change of heart. Mind if I join up today anyhow?”

“Sure, that'd be awesome!” said Rainbow Dash, patting her sister on the head. “Glad to have you on board!”

“Great!” replied Scootaloo, giving them both a big smile in return. “Well, what are we waiting for?”

The trio continued to walk uphill.

“So... the northern well?” asked Scootaloo.

“The northern well,” answered Spike dryly.

“What do you think we'll find out there, Rainbow Dash?” continued Scootaloo.

“A big adventure,” her sister replied mysteriously, winking and exciting Scootaloo immensely.

The three crossed the northern foothills together. It wasn't a particularly steep climb, but the temperatures were already high enough to make them all break out some sweat. They passed the time talking about nothing particularly exciting, but all were anticipating the first signs of the mystery that loomed beyond the next hill. And the next.

Finally they passed the last hill and clearing at the end of the path became visible. In front of them lay the well, surrounded by the remains of three wind mills, a generator and one large orange pumping machine, its tubes and valves smashed into pieces and scattered across the area.

Rainbow Dash flew up a bit to analyze the situation. The windmills, or what was left of them, functioned as a backup system to drive the pumps incase they broke down, but they were no longer connected to the pump itself.

“A tornado?” asked Scootaloo unsurely.

Rainbow Dash shook her head. “Not exactly. Take a closer look.”

A large flywheel that was normally attached to the pump had apparently broken off and spun into the machinery around it, damaging the pump in and pretty much knocking part of one of the windmills over into the well.

“Wow. Can one flywheel... really do that?” said Scootaloo in disbelief.

“They are pretty dangerous,” answered Rainbow Dash. “Once they get going they kinda tend to store up a lot energy.”

“That's insane,” whispered Scootaloo.

Spike looked bewildered. “How did it happen to begin with, Dash? Should it have been spinning that fast to begin with?”

“Back when we build the rig for the first well, something similar happened,” explained Rainbow Dash. “How did Apple Jack explain it again...”

She looked around for stick, found none and started drawing a vague illustration in the dirt with her hoof instead. “The pump had trouble lifting the water. It had to lift up it higher and higher as the water level lowered. Eventually the torque became so great that it snapped a welding point somewhere in the pump. Wham, just like that. The weakest point in our case seems to be-”

“The welding from the main axle, connecting the flywheel. I get it,” finished Spike. “It must have been spinning really fast when it broke.”

“Of course it did,” said Rainbow Dash. “Take a look down the well.”

Spike picked up a pebble from the ground and headed over to the well. He looked over the edge and dropped the pebble into it. A second or two later than he expected, the pebble hit the bottom of the well with a goopy splash.

Spike gasped. “Sweet Celestia! Nine meters of water gone in what, a month?”

“Three weeks,” said Rainbow Dash. “I've sorta been keeping track of it ever since Apple Jack gave me a heads up. The groundwater here draining too quickly.”

Spike lifted his gaze up from the well and looked at the broken machinery behind him. “Well, so much for repairing it then. What do we do?”

Rainbow Dash thought about it for a moment. “Short term, we go down to the southern well and rig up an extra generator to the pump there. Then we use the extra pressure to push the water up as far as we can to the northern fields.”

Spike counted on his fingers, trying to work out the math behind it. “Dash, even with another generator down there, there is no way we can cover all our fields with only one well,” said Spike worried. “We're talking about a twenty meter altitude difference.”

“Twenty five. Which is why we need to make some tough choices.” Rainbow Dash looked at the sky, thinking for a few moments. Come on Twi, what would you have done!

A sparrow circled around the broken well and landed on the edge of the brickwork. Normally there might have a puddle or two to drink out of, formed by small leaks from the pump, but now there was nothing. It fluttered around aimlessly for a few seconds, then proceed to give itself a dust bath instead.

Twilight? Did I dream about...

Rainbow Dash shook her head and directed her attention to Spike. “Spike. I want you to go down the hill and inspect all the wheat below this point where we are now. It's going to take all day, but I will join you as soon as I can. Try to section the land in large grid of at least two hectares each and grade the sections by crop quality. Look for signs of fungus, drought, disease. Anything that stands out. Write down all your findings in a list.”

“Why?” asked Spike.

“I need to let AJ know what is going on here, so I'll be going there with Scootaloo in a minute. When we get back from her, we'll remove the irrigation lines from all of the northern fields above this well, including the lines in every patch of land on your list that's not doing great.

Rainbow Dash shrugged, feeling awful for what she had to say next.

“Tomorrow, we burn all of it.”

Spike and Scootaloo froze in shock at the terrible news.

“Burn?” said Spike slowly, his eyes widening. “But we'll lose at least a third of our wheat again. That's just not right! All that work, gone...”

“There is no other way,” Rainbow Dash replied. “It's too early for harvest and when the young wheat starts to die off, it just adds the risk of introducing new diseases to the healthier wheat around it.”

Scootaloo sat down on some of the rubble. She was starting to wish she had stayed behind to study after all.

“I'm sorry,” said Spike, fighting back his disappointment, “but we put so much work into these new fields. I can't give up on them just because you ask me to.”

Spike walked over to the flywheel and sat down on it. “Can't we just dig a new well further north?”

The idea itself wasn't so strange. A lot of new farms had sprung up in the area in the past few years. Relocatiing everything would be certainly be an option.

But Rainbow Dash shook her head. “Long term, maybe. That's one of the things I need to ask AJ about. My personal guess though is that it's no use short-term,” she said. “The higher up the hills you go, the deeper you have to pump. And the strongest pump we have lies in pieces. Even if we could somehow repair it and get it to pull up more water elsewhere,” she hesitated for a second, “the wheat will be dead long before we can dig up a new well elsewhere. We need to save what we can, now.”

Still, Spike did not accept defeat so easily. “Then how about we trade in some of our hardware and get a few premade pumps, to cut down a little on the construction time?” asked Spike hopefully.

“You'd still need a way to deal with the excess torque," answered Rainbow Dash. "Clearly we need to pump even deeper than we do now.”

She paused for a second and sighed “Really though Spike, there just isn't enough time. Two days in this heat and all we have is a bunch of dust instead of wheat.”

“Hoof it!” cursed Spike, kicking the flywheel in frustration. “It's not fair! If only Twilight was-”

“Twilight isn't here!” yelled Rainbow Dash while flying up a couple feet into the air. “And nothing in life is ever easy unless you learn how to deal with losses!”

“You don't even... argh!” yelled Spike back.

Rainbow Dash dropped her face into her hoof. “Just... get out there and just inspect those fields, Spike. We really can't afford to waste any more time.”

Spike angrily threw his cap on the ground and stomped off into the wheat fields. Rainbow Dash watched him disappear, already feeling sorry for her outburst. It had been such a long time since he had brought up Twilight Sparkle in conversation.

Scootaloo raised a small, sorrowful voice behind her. “Rainbow...”

Rainbow Dash realized her sister was sobbing behind her. She quickly turned around, flew over and sat down next to her on the rubble. “Hey now, calm down Scootaloo. I'm really sorry I got mad at Spike. I promise I'll make up with him once we get back.”

Scootaloo shook her head. “Buh... but, the wheat,” Scootaloo stammered through her sobs.

“We still have plenty of wheat, kiddo,” she said, trying to lift up her sister's spirits. “We may not hit our quota this year, but we're not going to starve.”

A tear rolled down Scootaloo's cheek. “But everypony in Ponyville... Equestria... ”

Rainbow Dash gently stroked her sister's mane, trying to calm her down. “Don't you worry about them,” she said. “There are many other farmers all around Equestria that are working hard to feed everyone. Heck, I hear some of them even have Changelings working on them these days. Pretty weird, huh?”

Scootaloo rubbed her eyes and looked down at the dirt. “Yeah, I know,” she said listlessly.

Rainbow Dash put her hoof under the young mare's chin and guided her to look up. “Sweetie Belle will be alright, you hear? They are releasing more unicorns from the resting houses every month.”

Scootaloo, sadly shook her head. “But...”

“Really, I promise,” said Rainbow Dash, rubbed her teenage sister's mane. “The Cutiemark Crusaders will rise again!”

Hearing her sister praise her friends made her happy. Scootaloo did not know what to reply with, answering with a faint smile instead.

Chapter 2

It was approaching noon by the time Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash crossed the eastern border of their farmland. Their grassy looking wheat made place for Applejack's more funky looking, bulbous oat.

Scootaloo appreciated the change of scenery. “Why aren't we growing any of these, Rainbow Dash?” she asked.

“Crop rotation,” stated Rainbow Dash, somewhat absentmindedly. She bit off the tip of a single oat husk and chewed on it, taking careful note of the texture and flavour. “Weird, it's still kinda young.”

Scootaloo followed her example, but the taste was too bitter for her. “Ew, yuck!” she blurted after spitting it out. “Wait a minute, didn't you guys start planting around the same time?”

Rainbow Dash nodded. “Oat actually grows faster than wheat, so AJ should have been almost ready to harvest by now.”

Scootaloo looked around a little nervously. “So she has fallen behind? That's not like Applejack at all. Do you think something has happened to her crops?”

“Dunno,” replied Rainbow Dash. “I don't like it.”

She looked anxiously across the fields for any sign of activity. While she had a good view of the fields to the south of Applejack's barn, most of her fields including the barn itself were obscured by a steep, uncultivated hill.

Rainbow Dash pointed at the top. “Let's head up. We can spot her or Pinkie Pie from up there in no time.”

The sun was almost right above the hill. “It's getting pretty hot out here already,” Scootaloo whined. “Can't we just go straight to her farm, like normal? I'd much prefer that over climbing in this heat and I'm sure Applebloom will know where to find her.”

Rainbow Dash sighed. She did not like to worry her sister unnecessarily, but she decided to be straight with her. “Look, it's just a feeling I have. Something feels off and I wanna return home to help Spike soon. Can we just quickly hop to the top and have a peek?”

Scootaloo nervously looked up at the hill again. “Uh, well it's okay I guess.”

She was admittedly curious about this new mystery, but something made her hesitate. So far this morning didn't have the greatest track record in regard to mysteries.

“Come on, Scootaloo,” Rainbow Dash said cheerfully as she patted her on the shoulder. “It's a tough climb, but it shouldn't take too long.”

Scootaloo let out a brief sigh and semi-optimistically swung her hoof in the air. “Well, what are we waiting for?”

A minute later, Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash reached the base of the hill. Scootaloo, still worried looked up at the steep path ahead and felt her stomach cringe.

“Um... it's all right if you want to fly to the top, Rainbow Dash,” she said, fairly embarrassed of herself. “I'm just going to slow you down anyway.”

“Now what kinda sister do you take me for?” said Rainbow Dash surprised. “I'm not going to leave you alone. Besides, flying isn't quite as easy as it used to be anyway.”

“Because of the Great Fall?” asked Scootaloo curiously.

“Pretty much,” answered Rainbow Dash. “We can't fly as high as we once did and flying itself has become... well, harder.”

Scootaloo looked up at the hill and shrugged. “I know. I'd still prefer being able to fly over climbing that thing in this heat though.”

“Enough stalling,” said Rainbow Dash resolutely. “Let’s climb.”

“Right,” replied Scootaloo hesitantly.

The climb began easy enough. The dirt path they had been following steadily narrowed and started zigzagging as the terrain steepened. It hadn't seen frequent use however and some eroded parts of it had crumbled away.

“Did we actually ever talk about Great Fall before?” asked Rainbow Dash, to pass the time.

“Not really,” answered Scootaloo. “I mean, I've heard the stories on the radio and such, but I never really felt the need to ask, seeing as how you weren't there to begin with.”

“True,” admitted Rainbow Dash. “It all went down in the weeks after I crashed that prototype Wonderbolt aircraft. Twilight took me in while I was recovering and we... heh, hooked up.”

Rainbow Dash blushed. She hadn't thought about those early days in a while.

“On the night of the Great Fall, I actually ended up hearing the news from Rarity,” she continued. “She stormed over from the Carousel Boutique to the Crystal Palace to let the rest of us know. The days that followed were... chaotic, at the best of times. Tens of thousands of homeless pegasi scouring the ground, trying to find a new place to live. Surely you still remember that?”

“I sorta do, but I was only a little filly,” admitted Scootaloo. “Also, I'm pretty sure you and Twilight intentionally kept me busy a lot.”

“Ha, I forgot about that. Yeah, we figured you had enough on your mind, what the official adoption and all,” said Rainbow Dash. “Oh, watch your step. Big gap coming up.”

Rainbow Dash pointed at particularly damaged part of the path that had almost entirely crumbled and fallen down the steep side of the hill. Rainbow Dash jumped over it and reached for Scootaloo.

“It's fine,” she said, denying her hand. “I can jump it!”

Scootaloo braced herself to impress her sister, then galloped forward and jumped across the gap. She landed a little bit too close to the edge and lost her balance.

“Watch it!” said Rainbow Dash, quickly extending her hoof to pull her back.

Scootaloo grabbed it and pulled herself close to her sister. “Tha-that was c-close!” said Scootaloo, panting heavily.

“Just be careful Scootaloo. I'm not always going to be there to help you.”

Rainbow Dash immediately felt a strange sense of familiarity to what she had just said, but she didn't have time to think about it.

“So um, what was flying like before the Great Fall?”

“Easier,” answered Rainbow Dash. “Fluttershy, heck even Derpy could do it. Now it's more,” Rainbow Dash struggled to find the right words, “more about experience and technique. It used to take almost no effort to just sort of hang in the air. Upside down, if you wanted to. Now though, flying is hard work.”

Scootaloo wiped some sweat from her brow. She wasn't sure if it came from the heat or nearly falling.

“So, someone at school said us Pegasi don't dare to fly that high anymore. Is that true?” asked Scootaloo. “You made it sound like it's simply not possible anymore.”

“Oh, it's possible,” answered Rainbow Dash. “It's just really stupid.”

Rainbow Dash took wide step around another damaged part of the path. “Since we can no longer rest on clouds to catch our breath, we need to limit how much we fly. Wing cramp at high altitudes is pretty much fatal.”

“Oh. Heh, well I guess I'm not missing out on anything then.”

After five minutes of idle chatter, they reached the summit of the hill. From the top they had a good view of most of Applejacks land. It was wheat mostly, with some smaller stretches of rye closer to her barn.

“That's odd,” said Scootaloo. “Shouldn't AJ be out working by now?”

“Yeah. It's unlike her. What's weirder still is that Pinkie doesn't seem to have taken over for her either. Something must be up.”

“Any ideas?” asked Scootaloo.

Rainbow Dash thought for a moment. “She could be in town I guess, but we were there not too long ago.”

“Maybe something around her house needed her attention?” asked Scootaloo.

“Possibly. Let's just make our way to her barn for now. It's not a long walk.”

The sisters walked down the hill and reached the first fields. There was something different about the crop here. “Rainbow Dash?”

“Yeah squirt?”

“Is it just me, or did the crops on the other side of that hill seem a lot less.. dry than this stuff?”

Rainbow Dash stopped to inspect some of the wheat. She pulled out a small bundle of plants and tore apart the stem. “Super dry. And they look even younger?”

Rainbow Dash took a closer look to the leaves and noticed something suspicious.

“Is that.. hoofrot?” asked Scootaloo.

“Absolutely. Early stage infection, but still. It's all over the plants,” answered Rainbow Dash.

“Looks like all of these got it too,” said Scootaloo from the other side of the path. “What is going on?”

“Scootaloo, let's hurry,” said Rainbow Dash worried “We'll go with your plan and meet up with Applebloom down at the farm.”

“Right.”

It was a short walk to Applejack's barn, a tall lumber home painted black with tar. Nopony knew exactly how old the building was, but it was generally considered to be one of the oldest farms of the area. Applejack had done a great job maintaining it through the endless summer.

The familiar smell of dry wood and tar that clung to the place brought back good memories to Rainbow Dash. She and Twilight had lived there together with Applejack for a year before they moved into the neighboring barn. Twilight had studied engineering on her own, while Rainbow Dash had learned all about farming directly from Applejack.

Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash walked around to the other side of the barn and entered the antique kitchen. Both Applejack and Applebloom were in the kitchen, having a late breakfast.

“Oh, look who decided to drop by today,” said Applejack. “What brought y'all here on this fine mornin'?”

Rainbow Dash hesitated for a second, smelling the faintest whiff of alcohol on Applejack's breath. “Uhm, that thing with the pumping machines you were worrying about has happened at the north well, but we can talk about that in a minute.”

“Oh, it's no problem,” said Applejack. “We were just finishing up here.”

“What happened to your crop? And where the heck is Pinkie Pie?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Applebloom,” said Applejack, directing her attention to her sister, “why don't you take Scootaloo upstairs with you and show her what you've been working on?”

“Oh! Oh!” exclaimed Applebloom, eyes sparkling, “Wait, but it ain't finished yet!”

“It's all right, sugar cube. I reckon it might be a while before you get another chance to show off your lil' project. Just go on up now and let me and Rainbow palaver for a bit.”

“What's this about?” asked Scootaloo curiously.

Applebloom smiled. “Well, I've been workin' on something real special-like. Come on, I'll show you!”

“Sure!” replied Scootaloo, excited.

The two comrades raced upstairs.

“Get her somethin' to drink too!” yelled Applejack after Applebloom. Applejack looked back at Rainbow Dash. “You know what, I just ran dry too. Can you hang on a minute?”

“Sure thing AJ,” said Rainbow Dash.

Applejack stood up, walked to the other end of the kitchen and opened the door to the basement. “Be right back with ya.”

Rainbow Dash looked around the old fashioned kitchen for a bit. It might as well have been a museum piece. A minute later Applejack reappeared from with a little surprise under her arm.

“Is... that what I think it is?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Eeyup! Our very last bottle of distilled apple cider,” said Applejack proudly. “We don't really grow apples anymore, so I've been savin' this baby for a while now. Heck, I haven't opened up a bottle of this stuff since the day Twilight... uh, I-I mean,”

Applejack started stuttering as she assumed she had hit a nerve with Rainbow Dash, but for once the pegasus didn't seem care much. She was too preoccupied, being utterly dumbstruck. “AJ,” she said, “I simply can't accept this!”

“It ain't for you silly, I am havin' some. But since you're here, you're welcome to a glass or two?”

“Oh am I now!” said Rainbow Dash greedily. The mere sight of the bottle had turned her into a little filly.

Applejack popped the cork and handed the bottle to Rainbow Dash, who greedily sniffed up its fresh alcoholic aroma. Applejack walked over to a cabinet on the other side of the kitchen, took out two small glasses and put them on the table.

Rainbow Dash filled both with the precious liquor and watched Applejack immediately down one glass in a single gulp. She gestured to Rainbow Dash to fill it up again.

Rainbow Dash however cringed, watching Apple Jack waste the precious liqour like that. “Really now, AJ. You're disrespecting a great drink by drinking it that fast.”

“Sorry,” said Apple Jack, immediately following up with a burp. “I needed that one out of my system first.”

Rainbow Dash shook her head in disapproval and took a careful sip of her own glass. Sad memories of the last time she had a taste of this heavenly liquor rushed at her, almost as bittersweet as the drink itself.

“Let's talk about this well of yours,” continued Applejack.

Upstairs in her bedroom, Applebloom was busy letting Scootaloo in on her little secret. She was absolutely besides herself. “I'm so happy to show you! I haven't had the chance to show it to anyone yet, but I brought a little something back home with me from Ponyville!”

Scootaloo's jaw dropped. “Ponyville? When did you drop by there?”

“A few months ago when we went to see Granny Smith. Didn't I tell you?” Applebloom looked under the bed and pulled a blue box out from underneath.

“And I brought back this book. Do you remember it?”

Applebloom took off the lid and took out a green book, which looked vaguely familiar to Scootaloo. It was dark purple and had a little flag on it.

Scootaloo's eyes widened when she recognized the symbol. “Is... is that our clubhouse yearbook?”

“Yep!” answered Applebloom, as she opened the first page. “At first I just wanted to bring some pictures of our farm to Ponyville some day, to show to Sweetie Belle at the hospital. Then I found the old Cutiemark Crusaders yearbook and Applejack came with the idea to fix it up with some new pictures and stories of the you and me.”

“That's a great idea, Sweetie Belle will be so happy! Oh my gosh, is that from the day when we first met?” said Scootaloo, looking at the first picture, showing the three of them eating a whole tray of cookies.

“Yeah. Diamond Tiara's cute-ceañera. I remember it pretty well because I was scared witless that day.”

“I... don't really remember much of it. It feels like a lifetime ago,” said Scootaloo sadly.

“Don't feel bad, Scootaloo,” said Apple Bloom. “Just read this book with me, it will all come back.”

“Oh, oh!” squealed Scootaloo. “Do you remember that time when Rainbow Dash dove into the water, and then Twilight came with-”

Downstairs, Applejack and Rainbow Dash heard their sisters laughing.

“You know,” said Applejack, feeling a bit more confident “I think they might be approaching the age we were when we all met Twilight.”

“Ha, ha!” chortled Rainbow Dash. “We were never that young!”

“Oh really now. I remember clearly the saddest pegasus, bawlin' her eyes out over her pet turtle havin' to hibernate through winter,” said Applejack smugly, “for five years in a row. Five.”

“Okay, okay. Point taken,” admitted Rainbow Dash.

She leaned further back into her chair and took another sip of the apple liquor. “So why did Pinkie leave?” she asked.

Applejack sighed. “I told her to. I'm not sure what they used to farm over at the Pie family, but Pinkie Pie has been itchin' for months to get back there to show them how it's really done.”

“Yeah, they're an odd bunch," admitted Rainbow Dash. “Pretty awesome in their own way though. Do you remember when Maud and Marble Pie made that huge rock sculpture for Limestone Pie's wedding? In like thirty seconds flat?”

Applejack took a long sip from her drink. “Ahh, yeah. I sure do. It was an amazin' feat. Gosh, is that really almost a decade ago?”

“Yeah. It seems like such a short time ago now,” agreed Rainbow Dash.

“Oh!” exclaimed Applejack suddenly. “Before I forget, Pinkie Pie left you a letter before she took off.”

Applejack got up from her chair, reached for an envelope on top of the fridge and gave it to her friend. “She said she was awfully sorry for not bein' able to say goodbye in person', but she really wanted to catch that train.”

“Yeah, I know how that is,” said Rainbow Dash. “Why did she wait so long anyway? I'm sure she learned enough about farming ages ago?”

“Well, you know the deal with the ground water,” said Applejack while sitting down again. “The oat was drying up and we didn't have enough time to dig another well to the north. Pinkie Pie got the idea to slow down the growth of the plants by rationing the water supply.”

“That's... surprisingly sharp of her,” admitted Rainbow Dash. “Did it work?”

“It started out pretty good, so she wanted to stay here and oversee the construction of the new well. But things started goin' wrong a couple weeks ago.”

“The hoofrot?”

“Yep. With the water rationin', the saplings turned out to be a lot weaker than usual. Darned hoofrot got everywhere before most of 'em even sprouted.”

Rainbow Dash shrugged and asked the hard one. “How much do you think you'll lose?”

Applejack took a sip from her drink, remaining quiet for a few seconds. “All of it,” she finally divulged.

Rainbow Dash recoiled. “What? Are you... are you serious? More fungicide won't do the trick?”

“It's pointless,” replied Apple Jack. “The plants are too fragile.”

“Sweet Celestia. That's... tough. Incredibly tough. What are you going to do?”

Applejack raised her shoulders and sighed. “Nothin'. Burn it all. Build more wells, try again. And again until the water runs out completely.”

Silence. Rainbow Dash was taken aback by her defeat. “That's... gosh, AJ. I don't know what to say.”

To her surprise, Applejack started smiling. “Heh, it's all right. The hardest part was actually breakin' it to Pinkie Pie and tellin' her she might as well head home now.”

“Yeah, I can well imagine,” agreed Rainbow Dash.

“Say,” began Applejack, “can I ask you a personal question?”

“Sure?”

Applejack took off her cowboy hat and looked up at the ceiling. “What do you think of all this stuff?”

“You mean the drought?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Well no,” replied Applejack. “Kinda. I mean yes. In part. How do I explain it, it isn't just the famine or the drought. Sometimes it feels like the world itself has run outta gas. And everypony is too busy focusin' on survivin' or too afraid to look at the bigger picture.”

“And what is the big picture?” asked Rainbow Dash cautiously.

Apple Jack sighed. “That none of us can hold out here much longer. That somethin' or someone that has looked out for us ages has left us to the timberwolves.”

Rainbow Dash leaned forward in her chair. “Someone... you mean Princess Celestia?”

“Heck, Dash. I don't know,” said Applejack, raising her shoulders again.

“Twilight would have learned something,” assured Rainbow Dash. “She would never have held back any info on her.”

Applejack raised an eyebrow. “You sure about that?”

“What do you mean?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Did you ever ask Spike? I mean, really asked him about Twilight?”

“What does Spike have to do with... anything? He and I haven't talked about Twilight in ages,” lied Rainbow Dash.

“And was that your suggestion or his?” remarked Applejack.

“I don't even... oh come on, this is Spike we're talking about!” yelled Rainbow Dash. She felt dizzy and stroked her temple. “Hold on a minute, this cider is getting to my head. Wait, did you give me liquor on purpose to question me?”

“Questioning? Of course not,” blurted Applejack disinterestedly.

“It sure sounded like it,” said Rainbow Dash and took another sip of her drink. “Whatever. This distilled stuff is wasted on you, AJ.”

Applejack sighed and stood up from her chair. “Rainbow, I apologize for draggin' Spike and Twilight into this. I've just been gettin' kinda frustrated about the whole situation and I shouldn't have taken it out on you. It's just that something stopped making sense a while ago and the more I think about it, the more I feel that we as friends haven't done enough about it.”

“Are you kidding me?” said Rainbow Dash. “Twilight herself spearheaded our search for Celestia. We were out there for weeks. We did everything we could.”

Applejack sat back down in her chair and sighed. “Shoot, Rainbow Dash. I'm sorry. I'm just out of ideas.”

Rainbow Dash put her glass back on the table. “Listen, I gotta go AJ. Spike needs my help. And you really need to think about getting some R&R. You've been farming non-stop for years now. Take a season off or something. Go visit your brother.”

Applejack sighed again and took another sip from her drink. “I'll think about it. Hey you know what, take the darned bottle with you. I've had enough of this stuff.”

Rainbow Dash gasped. “Well, thanks,” she said, feeling very conflicted. Part of her couldn't accept the precious last bottle of distilled cider, part of her wanted it more than anything in the world and part of her just wanted AJ to stop drinking today. “I'll see you later this week, AJ.”

“Yep, see you 'round,” replied Applejack.

Rainbow Dash stood up and directed her attention to the stairwell. “Scootaloo,” she yelled upstairs, “it's time to head back!”

Scootaloo came running down a moments later, with a big purple book under her arm. “So soon?” she asked disappointedly.

“AJ has other things on her mind right now and I really need to go back home to help Spike,” explained Rainbow Dash.

Applebloom stuck her head through the stairwell. “Remember to choose some nice pictures for the book, okay? Sweetie Belle will be so happy!”

Scootaloo smiled. “Sure thing! Bye Applebloom!”

“Bye-bye, Scootaloo!”

The trip back home was thankfully a lot shorter. By the time they crossed the border into their own land, Scootaloo noticed that her older sister seemed to be bothered by something.

“You okay, Rainbow Dash?” she asked. “You haven't talked since we left.”

“What? Oh, I'm fine,” said Rainbow Dash.

“What did Applejack have to say about the wells?” asked Scootaloo.

“Not much. She... thinks the water level might rise again if we take it easier on the wells,” lied Rainbow Dash.

“Oh. That simple huh?” replied Scootaloo.

After a few minutes, the silence again became uncomfortable for her. “So, about Great Fall again,” began Scootaloo, “your friends back in Cloudsdale, they were all fine?” Scootaloo asked on the way back home.

“They all managed to fly away in time,” confirmed Rainbow Dash. “I think some elderlies and sick ponies couldn't react fast enough and nearly hit the ground, but they were all saved by other ponies and.. well, presumably Celestia, acting in the nick of time.”

“Wow,” said Scootaloo. “She was involved? Nopony ever told me that. Hehe, no wonder no one died!”

“Well, nopony knows for sure as she did disappear shortly after,” explained Rainbow Dash. She stopped walking and looked up at the sky. “It was a pretty confusing time. She gave the royal guard and five of us some orders that seemed pretty strange at the time, without explaining herself. Like how we suddenly had to ration our food and focus on farming. Some listened, but Twi and I assumed it had something to do with the cold war. Things were very uneasy between Equestria and the Changeling Empire.”

“They sound like pretty chaotic times,” said Scootaloo.

“They were, but at least back then there was still plenty of food for everyone. When the lack of weather control made farming really difficult, it became a different matter. Ponies panicked. The Royal Military was able to step in and calm the situation, but not every pony appreciated that. By the time everything calmed down, we started realizing what Celestia had actually tried to warn us about.”

“Endless summer,” added Scootaloo. “Wasn't the military meant to fight the Changelings though?” asked Scootaloo.

Rainbow Dash sighed deeply. It still wasn't easy, talking about those troublesome years. “It was a different time,” she elaborated. “The cold war never became hot and with all royalty either missing or stepping away from the spotlight, they took control of the supply lines and regulated any available food to the ponies.”

“Why didn't Twilight Sparkle step in? Or the Crystal Ministry?” asked Scootaloo.

“The Crystal Ministry wasn't formed yet and Twilight really wanted to stick to the last thing Celestia told her to do,” said Rainbow Dash.

“Which was?” asked Scootaloo curiously.

Rainbow Dash smiled and ruffled Scootaloo's hair with her hoof. “To start an awesome farm with me and take care of you guys!”

When Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash returned home, Spike welcomed them with a brief apology, which Rainbow Dash accepted and returned. The rest of the day Rainbow Dash and Spike worked hard to remove the irrigation equipment from fields Spike had deemed unsuitable for further farming.

Supper came late that evening, but all felt content about having worked to the best of their abilities. Not much happened, afterward. Deeply tired, Scootaloo and Spike forwent their usual evening of listening to the radio and went straight to bed.

Close to midnight, Rainbow Dash joined Night Light outside. The heat of the day having finally dissipated, they both took some time to enjoy the coolness before heading to bed as well.

The aging stallion was sitting in his armchair on the porch, reading a book underneath an outdoor lamp. Rainbow Dash put a bottle of beer next to Night Light and sat down on a bench opposite of him. She popped the cap of her beer with the edge of her hoof and took a long swill from it, then looked back at Night Light who didn't appeared to have noticed the beer next to him at all.

“Ah, that tastes great after a long day like that,” said Rainbow Dash.

No reaction. The outdoor lamp above them flickered. Night Light's grey-blue mane looked almost silver underneath its failing light.

“So how are you holding up this evening, Night?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Alright enough, Dash,” muttered Night Light without looking up from his book. “I've been reviewing the kids' homework of the past week today. Both Spike and Scootaloo are doing well. I think they have a shot at getting into college.”

Rainbow Dash smirked. “Spike's not going to any college, he loves farming way too much.”

“Indeed,” agreed Night Light, turning a page of his book. “So much that I have hardly seen him at all today. I think he said something about souping up the southern well? I take it we'll be using the water bucket again for the time being.”

“Just for a couple of days,” confirmed Rainbow Dash. “I'm letting him work on the southern pump all by himself.”

“Alone?” inquired Night Light, still not looking up from his book.

“He's ready for it,” assured Rainbow Dash. “We had a bit of a fight earlier today, but it showed me he's itching to take on some real responsibilities.”

“I see,” said Night Light. “Well, Spike doing some of the decision-making around here can't hurt this place. So how were Applejack and Pinkie Pie doing?”

Rainbow Dash took another swill from her beer and sighed deeply. “The water problem is much worse on her land. On top of that, hoofrot has infected her entire crop. Applejack isn't even trying to rescue any of it at this point, she even send Pinkie Pie back home.”

Nightlight looked up from his book for the first time, looking very worried. “That's... troubling. Together with our losses this season, this setback will definitely be noticed further down the line.”

“Yeah, you're telling me,” said Rainbow Dash. “Crop production across Equestria hasn't really gone up in over five years. It won't put us into any nightmarish situation yet, but there will be... consequences.”

Night Light frowned and picked up the bottle of beer next to him. He removed the cap with an engraved bottle opener that was laying next to him on top the porch railing. “Speaking of nightmares,” he said and took a sip of beer, “I heard you had trouble sleeping last night?”

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, yeah. Just some bad dreams, nothing to worry about. I can't even remember them.”

“The crash?” inquired Night Light.

Rainbow Dash moved around uncomfortably on the bench. Knowing Night Light, there would be little use in lying. “Yeah, more or less,” she admitted.

Night Light let out a deep sigh and put his book down. “You know, Scootaloo asked about you this morning,” he said. “She notices more about you than you realize.”

“Scootaloo knows? Oh great,” said Rainbow Dash.

Night Light gave Rainbow Dash a stern look. “She knows, Dash. She's worried about you. Be honest about it next time it comes up in conversation, it will save her a lot of stress.”

“Alright, alright,” admitted Rainbow Dash. “I'll talk to her.”

“Good. By the way Dash, just before you left this morning, I had meant to tell you about this colleague of mine back in Canterlot. She's a psychiatrist, specializes in traumatic experiences.”

“You want me to go to a shrink? Me?” said Rainbow Dash surprised.

“She's single too,” remarked Night Light.

Rainbow Dash couldn't believe her ears. “Wha-”

“And pretty,” added Night Light.

She hit her forehead with her hoof. “You're kidding, right? Tell me you're just pulling my hoof.”

“Not at all,” remarked Night Light. “Hey, you know what? You should take a trip to Canterlot. Even if you don't want to see my friend, it could do the farm some good if we could cash in on a couple of favours. I'm sure there are still some royalists out there that are willing to help out Princess Twilight's very special somepony.”

“You mean the royal army remnant forces? They were helpful when we started out this farm, sure. But don't count on those numbskulls having anypony's interest in mind but their own these days.”

“What's the worst that can happen?” asked Night Light. “Perhaps you'll even run into Cadence.”

“Look Night Light,” said Rainbow Dash, “yes, you're right. I probably need to see a head doctor or whatever to sort out my dreams. And we do need help with the farm soon, we can't go on like this for much longer. But no amount of royalty hasn't gotten us anywhere this past decade.”

Awkward silence. Night Light shrugged and drank a little from his beer. “What are we even doing here, Dash?” he finally asked.

“We... provide,” said Rainbow Dash hesitantly.

“It stopped being about providing a while ago,” said Night Light. “It feels more like we're running away. All the time, faster and faster.”

Rainbow didn't like this sudden pessimistic change in Night Light. “Running from what?” she asked. “The truth? Come on.”

“I don't know. All I know is that somepony needs act before it is too late. Get all the smart heads together. Fix things.”

To his surprise, Rainbow Dash came with a suggestion. “You know, I do know of somepony who could help.”

“Who?” asked Night Light.

“It's kind of a long shot, but we could try of making an appeal to the Crystal Ministry in Ponyville,” explained Rainbow Dash. “They need to know what's happening way out here.”

Night Light scoffed bitterly. “The government? Please.”

Rainbow Dash sighed. “They may not be royalists, but that doesn't automatically make them bad.”

Clarity dawned on Night Light's face. “Oh, wait. You're thinking of Fluttershy! You think she will stick out one hoof to help you? After what you said to her?”

“That was a long time ago,” said Rainbow Dash. “I was upset about what happened to Twilight and she just-”

“Gave up on her,” interjected Night light.

“Yes. Maybe. But hoof it, that's not the point I'm trying to make here.” replied Rainbow Dash, getting increasingly irritated. “She simply is my best shot at getting heard by the Crystal Ministry.”

“All right,” said Night Light, admitting defeat. “Go to that ghost town if you must. I'll take care of things here, don't worry. Just promise me one thing when you reach Ponyville.”

“What?” asked Rainbow Dash.

Night Light sighed and looked down at the porch deck. “I know I can be too much of a royalist at times, but...”

“Just spit it out, Night Light.”

“Promise me you won't trust any of these politicians?” asked Night Light.

Rainbow Dash took a long sip from her bottle and let it rest for a moment in her mouth before swallowing. “All right, I promise,” she continued. “But one way or another, I'm going to continue this where I left off.”

“With Fluttershy,” added Night Light bitterly. “You know, it's almost funny?”

“What?” asked Rainbow Dash.

Night Light stood up, poured the remainder of his bottle over the edge of the railing and headed toward the door. Just before he went inside, he stopped and crossed eyes with Rainbow Dash. “So much time has passed, but... perhaps the search for my daughter never ended.”

Night Light closed the door behind him and left her alone with her beer.

A cold evening wind swept across the porch. Rainbow Dash shivered and thought of Twilight Sparkle. Something stirred on the edge of her memory, something important. She leaned back into the bench and gazed into the stars above, biting at the edge of her hoof in a vain attempt to remember.