Apocalypse

Rainbow Dash grunted and rolled over, trying to get comfy again. She and her Ponyville friends had had to sleep on the floor since there were no other beds in Breakneck Pace's home, but at least they were able to gather some sand and stuff a few of their own feathers as well as some dried grass in pillow cases.

This was not comfortable at all for Rainbow Dash, especially considering she's so used to sleeping on plushy clouds. Oh, what she wouldn't give to curl up on the plushy softness right now...

Growling softly, the rainbow-maned pegasus rose to her hooves and gently flapped her wings so she could fly over her friends and onto the floor. She then shook out the sand in her fur and hair and walked over to the barrel of water she had filled earlier. She knew that she was not going to be able to fall back asleep for a while.

She opened the lid and scooped some of the fresh water up with a mug and drank its contents. She then walked out of the house quietly as to not disturb her friends or new Sleipnir pony friend before taking to the sky.

It was very dark in Mytholand, much darker than in Ponyville, for the blanket of dark clouds blocked out the moon's light. Curious, Rainbow flew up to one of them and poked it. It was hollow and had barely any moisture in it. These definitely weren't rainclouds despite the dark color.

"These ponies need to see Luna's beautiful night sky," Rainbow said to herself. Smirking, thankful for a change to fly around more and exercise, the pegasus pony flew through the cloud she was previously inspecting, causing it to dissipate and evaporate. She did the same to all the other clouds: flying through them, bucking them with her hind legs, and whirling up a miniature twister with her wings. In ten seconds flat, all the clouds had been destroyed and the land shone with silver lighting from the moon and stars.

"You're welcome, citizens of Mytholand," Rainbow grinned to no one in particular. She readied to fly back down to earth when something caught her eye. She turned her head to see four silhouettes creeping in the shadows.

Rainbow quickly zoomed to a dead tree and hid in the thicker part of its branches, then peaked out. She saw the four silhouettes, who looked like earth ponies, trot closer. Finally, they all stepped out into the moonlight, and Rarity could see a dark gray and very thin pony; a bigger, red pony; a white pony; and a tall green pony. The pegasus shuddered when she noticed the green pony's eyes were completely white.

She kept watching, and she strained her ears so she could hear what they were saying.

"Okay, girls," the green pony said. "Time to get to work. War, do you have the picklocks?"

"You bet I do!" the red pony named War grinned evilly before pulling out four picklocks from her saddlebag and handing one to each pony, keeping the last for herself.

"Then let's go create some mayhem," the green pony smirked, and the four ponies all trotted off in different directions.

"Who were those ponies?" Rainbow asked herself quietly. "There were four of them, they came from the shadows, they have picklocks, and one of them was named War..." Her eyes widened with realization.

Of course! Those must have been the Apocalyptic Sisters!

The pegasus quickly flew towards the house her friends were sleeping in, but before she could reach it she was tackled to the ground by another pony. She writhed around and looked up to see who her attacker was. It was War.

"Going somewhere?" the pony sneered with a wicked grin.

"Get off me!" Rainbow shouted as she tried to lift the larger pony off. War pressed a forehoof down on her victim's head and buried her face into the dirt, causing her to let out muffled protests as she squirmed around. The shouts of protests soon turned into muffled pleas as she found she was unable to breathe, and her muzzle hurt badly as the larger pony just pressed further down, laughing menacingly.

"War!" a pony suddenly shouted. War looked up to see the green pony glaring at her. "I told you not to tamper with the Equestrian ponies!"

"But this one's a witness!" War retorted, not lifting Rainbow's head out of the dirt. "She must be dealt with!"

"If anything, just take her as a prisoner. Tie her up and place her in the cave, then come back."

"Well... So long as we get to interrogate her. I love interrogating ponies." War smirked as she lifted her hoof off of Rainbow's head, and the pegasus lifted it up immediately and began coughing and gasping for air. "You're coming with me back to the cave whether you like it or not."

"No!" Rainbow shouted as she squirmed again. She wasn't one to ask for help, but desperate times called for desperate measures, and this was definitely a moment of desperation. She inhaled and screamed out as loud as she could. "Help! Somepony, anypony, help m-" Her face was shoved into the dirt again by War, silencing her.

"Shut up, you!" the pony snarled. She lifted Rainbow's head up again, then smashed her forehead into the ground hard, knocking her out and causing her nose to break and bleed. She then picked the pegasus up on her back and galloped as fast as she could back to the cave, surprised that this foreign pony was so incredibly light.

Once she reached the cave, she threw the pegasus to the ground and grabbed some ropes, then tied her up in them, making sure to tie up her wings as well so she couldn't fly away. Nodding in satisfaction, War galloped back into town, and she and her sisters resumed their mission.

The sun rose and shone its morning light through the windows of the houses, waking everypony up. Twilight opened her eyes slowly and yawned as she stood up and stretched. She walked over to the barrel of water and scooped a half-mug full to drink, then she turned to her friends and softly woke them up.

"Girls, get up, it's time to start planning on how to defeat the sisters," she said, nudging the Equestrian ponies with her hooves. They all moaned and woke up slowly, yawning and stretching, and after having a drink and splitting what remained of the apples and cupcakes - saving some for Breakneck Pace and her other friends of course - they gathered around to talk.

"Has anypony seen Rainbow Dash?" Twilight asked, looking to see that there was no multicolored pegasus in the group of friends.

"Maybe she got up early for her sunrise exercises," Applejack yawned, rubbing her eyes to try and shake off her tiredness.

"Well, we can't start planning without her. Let's wake up Breakneck Pace and start scouring the town for her. Fluttershy, you and I will check the skies. Applejack and Pinkie Pie, you'll search the houses. And Rarity, see if you can find her walking along the streets."

The four mares nodded in understanding and began to file out of the house, and Twilight walked up to the sleeping Sleipnir pony in her bed. She gently nudged her. "Breakneck Pace, wake up."

Breakneck moaned and swatted her hoof away with a foreleg before rolling over. "Five more minutes..."

"Breakneck, this is urgent. We need your help finding Rainbow Dash. Without her, we can't start planning on how to take on the sisters."

"Okay, okay, fine," the Sleipnir pony grunted. She sat up and yawned, then crawled out of bed and helped herself to some water and apples. "I'll go get Strike, Future Sight, and Flash Fire. They'll be able to help us, too."

"Thanks," Twilight smiled. She and Breakneck both walked out of the house, but stopped to find Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy standing in place, shocked expressions on their faces. "Girls? What's wrong?"

Nopony said anything, but Rarity used her magic to turn Twilight's and Breakneck's heads to look in front of them. They both gasped at what they saw.

The place looked even worse than it had the previous day. Small fires were scattered around the town and ponies of all races tried to put them out with their contaminated drinking water. The few semi-rotten apples placed up for sale on the streets had all turned into complete mush, and many ponies were in coughing fits, some of them even vomiting right on the spot. There were even a few who were dragging other ponies out of their homes, but the ponies were unmoving. The six realized with a pang of fear that those ponies died overnight.

"The Apocalyptic Sisters..." Breakneck whispered, startling the other five. "They must have known you six came to help us and attacked the town last night. They must be trying to scare you all off."

"Well, I wouldn't be lying if I said they were doing a very good job at it..." Fluttershy whimpered.

"We... We have to keep our hopes of beating them," Twilight stammered. "We can't let anymore ponies suffer. Quick, let's find Rainbow Dash quickly and get on with our plan."

"If Rainbow Dash can't be found," Breakneck suddenly spoke, "chances are very large that she was captured by the sisters and brought back to their cave."

"Not Dashie!" Pinkie wailed. "We have to find her, girls! Now! I just hope she wasn't captured!"

"We all do," Applejack spoke softly. She and the others split up to look for their missing friend.

Unfortunately, none of them were able to find Rainbow Dash. They looked high and low, in and behind houses, and everywhere in between, but the pegasus pony was nowhere to be seen. They only clue they had were a few cyan feathers scattered next to a small ditch in the dirt a few feet away from Breakneck's house.

"Rainbow Dash's feathers!" Rarity cried out. At the sound of this, everypony gathered around the scene.

"This calls for Detective Pinkie Pie!" Pinkie declared before pulling out a detective cap, bubble pipe, and magnifying glass out of nowhere. She looked at the feathers and ditch closely, and next to the feathers she found a long strand of curved dark red hair. "Clue! I found a clue!"

Twilight levitated the strand and borrowed Pinkie's magnifying glass to analyze it. "What color hair does each sister have?"

"Death has dark green hair, Pestilence has light gray hair, Famine has black hair, and War has dark red hair," Breakneck answered as she trotted over to them with her three friends following behind.

"In that case, it looks like Rainbow was attacked by War," Twilight concluded. She looked at the tracks leading from the feathers and ditch and saw that they lead to Apocalypse Mountain. "And it seems that she was taken in captive to the mountain."

"Oh, no!" Rarity cried. "Rainbow's been captured by the sisters!"

"What do we do, what do we do?" Pinkie wailed, beginning to tear up.

"We go after her, that's what we do!" Applejack answered powerfully.

"But not without a plan," Twilight jumped in. "But first thing's first. Breakneck, are you and your friends coming along?"

"You six came to help us get rid of the sisters, and you're aiming to save our town," the Sleipnir pony said with a warm smile. "It's only fair that we do our best to help our friends."

"That's right!" Strike agreed.

"Yay, adventure!" Flash Fire grinned.

"You can count on us," Future Sight spoke softly.

"Thanks, everypony," Twilight smiled. She gestured for everypony to come closer. "Okay, here's what we'll do..."