In the Nick of Time

by Slate Sadpony

Rating: teen
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Rainbow Dash, Adventure, Gilda, Lightning Dust, Gore
Length: 5513

When a race is cancelled due to inclement weather, Rainbow Dash must plunge into the heart of the storm to rescue a fallen contestant.

When a race is cancelled due to inclement weather, Rainbow Dash must plunge into the heart of the storm to rescue a fallen contestant.

Published 2016-04-28 20:30:01 UTC
Last updated 2016-04-28 20:30:01 UTC

In the Nick of Time

Rainbow Dash sped through the air, her wings burning with the effort of many hours of flight. She sucked in long draughts of ice-cold air through her face mask, each one sending fresh waves of chill through her body. Although clad in the latest all-weather flight suit, different parts of her were alternately boiling and freezing, with her wing roots burning like fire while her extremities shivered. She had heard rumors of the difficult flying conditions north of the Crystal Empire, but before entering the Great Northern Race, she had always thought them overblown. Now she was wondering if the friendly, pegasus-tended climate of Ponyville had softened her, leaving her vulnerable in this long distance race.

As she flew, mountains rippled beneath her like great waves of stone on a massive gray sea. They were all indistinguishable from one another, gray lumps capped with a thick mess of fresh snow, each one devoid of greenery or any sign of civilization. Small wonder that the yaks of Yakyakistan had so little dealings with the outside world — other than the Northern Pass where the race had started, even the hale and hearty yaks would have a hard time making their way through this. And with the steady southward winds constantly buffeting her left side, Rainbow Dash was certain that only the strongest of pegasi could ever hope to make the trip by air. And even then only in the best of weather.

It was these steady winds that had made her uneasy when she had first heard about the race. It was to be both a show of skill by the Equestrian pegasi and a demonstration that Celestia’s interest in Yakyakistan airspace was of a friendly and peaceful nature. The yaks were great lovers of competition and seemed awed at the thought that any creature could travel over the mountains from the Northern Pass to the Eastern Sea, even if they were flying over most of it. They had readily agreed to venture into the mountains and establish checkpoints at ancient watchtowers, built in anticipation of King Sombra’s invasion and long since abandoned in peacetime. Rainbow Dash had jumped at the chance to represent Ponyville in the race, and had even spent some time trying to get used to the fermentation-heavy yak diet. But that wind issue had been nagging in the back of her mind, and in what was now her second of three exhausting days of flying, she was increasingly worried that it would be her downfall.

Constantly being buffeted by the wind wasn’t just exhausting, it was dangerous, with the very real possibility that a pony relying on dead reckoning would be blown miles off course and never even see the next checkpoint. With magical instrumentation only practical for airships, most pegasi relied heavily on dead reckoning and landmarks. But such navigation was was somewhere between difficult and impossible in all this wind, above mountains that all looked alike. The yaks had promised to set up colored flags during the entire route, and had certainly done so, but it was hard to spot tiny bright red, blue and yellow dots on the tops of mountains from a thousand feet up. Especially when the cold wind was making your eyes water even through your goggles.

Still, no one had gotten lost yet, and other than the exhaustion Rainbow Dash had nothing to complain about. Her long-term focus on speed had come at the expense of her endurance, and she now regretted her training regimen emphasis on the sprint. She had spent so long trying to get into the Wonderbolts, trying to play to their demands for brief bursts of speed and agile acrobatics, that she had neglected the very different needs of long distance flight. Learning from Twilight’s success in the Running of the Leaves a few years ago, she had held back, pushing herself only as hard as was necessary to remain in the center of the pack, with ponies just barely visible in front of and behind her. She would leave the hardest push for tomorrow, on the final leg of the trip. She just hoped that Applejack would be there as promised, with a hot mug of warm Sweet Apple Reserve. Even when working on the winter weather patrols she had never been this cold.

As such, it was more than a relief as the Day 2 checkpoint cracked the horizon, the ancient stone spire standing proudly atop a particularly tall mountain. It was rather bizarre to see a thick-walled watchtower dotted with bright cloth, its turrets and murder-holes lit by bonfires and coated in brightly-colored paint. But all that Rainbow Dash cared about was that it promised shelter and hot food. Yak food was far from her favorite, but it was always served hot, and there was always so much of it. As she came in to land, she looked at the other pegasi who had either already done so or were slowly coming up behind her. Spitfire was there, of course, along with Soarin and two other wonderbolts, and a delegation from Griffonstone, the two groups comprising the lead “pack” that Rainbow Dash had been a part of. Others were slowly coming in, mostly wildcatters and independents from non-Pegasus cities, but there was a noticeable lack of stragglers. Even the Las Pegasus team was nowhere to be seen, letting Rainbow Dash know that she was in the forward portion of the pack, right where she wanted to be.

Staring west at the setting sun she briefly considered waiting to see where her friends and rivals stood in the rankings, but the harsh winds convinced her otherwise. She didn’t know how the yaks did it, even with their heavy coats. Heading down the stairs, she moved over to the nearest open fire and began to warm her hooves, not even bothering with her face mask and goggles until her tootsies were nice and warm.

“Well well well, if it isn’t Rainbow Dash!” Gilda slapped Rainbow Dash on the shoulder, her grin visible even through her winter mask. “Are you just letting me win, or do you just enjoy seeing my tail feathers so much that you can’t pull ahead?”

Rainbow Dash chuckled, removing her flying gear and hanging it up by the fire, the fabric beginning to change color as the ice encrusted on it turned to water and then steam. “Maybe I just wanna give a slowpoke like you an even chance!”

Gilda removed her face mask and quaffed a large hot mug of something. “Slowpoke, hah! No pony can beat a griffin in an endurance race! You pegasi may have all the agility, but when it comes to going the distance, griffins can’t be beat!”

Rainbow Dash sniffed at Gilda’s mug and turned up her nose. “Phaw! Keep drinking that stuff and the only distance you’ll be covering is between here and the outhouse.”

“You ponies are such picky eaters. How you managed to not go to war over the yaks and their boortsog cakes is beyond me.” Gilda finished her drink and walked over to a large cauldron, dipping it in for a refill. “Seriously, suutei tsai isn’t bad, it’s just milk and tea.”

Rainbow Dash took a mug of something-or-other and sipped it. Other than the fact that it was warm and wet, it didn’t have much to recommend itself as far as she was concerned. “Ugh, give me a mug of warm cider any day. Seriously Gilda, you don’t know what you’re missing. It’s sweet and bitter and tangy and tart…”

“And it’s also thousands of miles away from here right now.” Gilda sipped at her mug and then helped herself to generous portions of the cakes and breads piled up on the long tables. “Besides, it’s free! How can you complain about food that’s free?”

“Clearly, you’ve never tried Applebloom’s cupcakes.” Rainbow Dash nibbled at the baked and fried goods, finding them a bit more palatable. She was longing for a good carrot or head of broccoli, though. As she nibbled, she looked around the room. “Where is everypony? Last I checked there were thirty-five racers left after the first day’s dropouts, but I only see fifteen ponies here.”

“Ponies and griffins,” Gilda corrected Rainbow Dash. “And why do you care? I thought you wanted to be at the lead with me, not in the back with the losers.”

Rainbow Dash looked around, now growing increasingly concerned. Sure, the slowest competitors tended to be way behind the leaders, sometimes as much as an hour or two. But in a dangerous endurance race like this, with amateurs being excluded for their own safety, there was usually nothing more than half an hour separating first place and last. Had Rainbow Dash really gotten that far ahead? Or had the stragglers really fallen that far behind?

Before Rainbow Dash could collect her thoughts, one of the shutters blew open, sending a draft of cold air and snow blasting across her face. It was harsh and sudden, the force of the wind shoving snow into her eyes. Even as the yaks rushed over to close the shutters and replace the broken wooden bar with a sturdy iron one, Rainbow Dash knew that this wasn’t the wind she’d just come in from. The weather had changed, and with dangerous speed, if that window gust had been any indication.

This was confirmed by the yaks as they went about battening down the windows and doors, locking them in place with heavy planks and poles. The race officials huddled closely for a moment, then flew up to the ceiling to announce what everyone had to know was true by now. “Attention ponies!”

“Ponies and griffinS!” Gilda corrected, chucking a half-eaten pastry at the official.

The official dodged the pastry easily and continued his announcement. “The Great Northern Race is hereby suspended due to inclement weather. All participants will retain their places until such time as it is safe to continue the race. Should the race not be safe to resume in a timely manner, i.e. tomorrow morning, no winner will be declared, with the prize money being split equitably among all participants.”

“That’s bird droppings and you know it! You just don’t wanna admit us griffins were in the lead when the storm hit!” Gilda stood on a stool and shook her fist up at the official, the vigorous motion causing her to lose her balance and fall into Rainbow Dash’s outstretched hooves.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Lemme guess, Gilda, that second mug you had wasn’t suutei tsai, it was...what do they call it, kumis?” She put Gilda down on the ground. “Jeez, you birds really can’t hold your liquor can you?”

“Yes I can, see? I’m holding it right now!” Gilda held up her mug, presenting it to Rainbow Dash with a grin.

“You’re holding it upside down, and it’s dripping on the rug.” Rainbow Dash snickered a little, remembering the alcohol-fueled hijinks she and her lightweight friend had gotten into back in flight school. “You just stay there, I need to ask something.” Walking over to the race officials, she tapped one on the shoulder. “Excuse me, but has Thunderlane checked in? I don’t see him.”

The officials consulted their chart, then conferred briefly with a unicorn, whose horn glowed and buzzed as he cast some sort of spell across the distance to the earlier checkpoint. The official then turned back to Rainbow Dash. “You’re the last entrant from the Ponyville delegation still in the race. The storm was going from West to East with an accompanying wind shift. Most of the stragglers turned back before it hit, so your friends Thunderlane, Stormy Weather and Derpy Hooves are all safe at the Day 1 checkpoint.”

Rainbow Dash nodded, rubbing her forehead with her hoof. But then she stopped. There were only twenty five racers in this guardhouse. With those three accounted for, there were still seven more to account for. “Who else turned back? Is anypony not accounted for?”

The official consulted his list, reading off the names. “A safety crew was sent out to turn back everypony who wasn’t ahead of the storm. Besides the three I mentioned, Cloudy Skies, Stiff Breeze, Windy Wings and Sunny Daze have turned back. That only leaves Lightning Dust unaccounted for. But surely, she must have seen the safety crew and turned around, there’s no pony foolish enough to fly into a storm like that, no matter how much they want to get ahead.

Rainbow Dash gulped. “There’s one pony I know who’ll take those kind of risks. And you just said her name: Lightning Dust.”

The official shook his head and stowed his clipboard in his saddlebag. “I know Lightning Dust has a bit of a reputation, but anypony could see that this is no weather to fly in. And even if she and the other racers didn’t have the good sense to turn around, the yaks have sent out search parties along the route to confirm that nopony can’t be accounted for. Once they make it to the first checkpoint, they’ll talk to the officials there and confirm everypony is safe, and if they find anyone, they’ll carry them back.”

A nearby yak shook his head, moving over to interject himself into the conversation. “No. No yak travel in this. Yak stay still, shelter in place. This weather very dangerous for traveling, yak could fall off cliff or be buried in avalanche. Yaks find safe place to shelter, then begin search again when storm stops.”

“So what you’re saying is that Lightning Dust could be anywhere between here and a checkpoint it took me eight hours of hard flying to get here from, with only a couple of yaks who may or may not be trudging through the snow looking her, having to walk every step of the way even if it takes them days?” Rainbow Dash scoffed. “Why not start writing the obituary now? I’ll even chip in for the empty coffin, we can fill it with snow since clearly that’s the way she wanted it.”

The official glowered. “Rainbow Dash, that is way out of line. We’ve got officials here and there waiting for her return, and if she is indeed caught up in this mess the yaks have got a better chance of finding her than any pegasus, not to mention they have the gear and knowhow to get through a thing like this.”

Rainbow Dash scowled, then turned to the side. She pointed a hoof at the pile of emergency rescue gear. More specifically, to a bright red cold-weather full-body survival jumpsuit. “What size is that thing? Because it looks like it’s exactly my size.”

The official frowned, his compatriots now turning around to see what Rainbow Dash was doing. “Dash, I know what you’re thinking, but we don’t even know if she’s lost yet. If it’s really important to you, you can join the search in the morning, if we even need to do one.”

“In the morning? Sweet Celestia, do you know how long it would take a pony to freeze to death in one of those race uniforms? I was freezing my hooves off even when I was beating my wings as hard as I could. The moment Lightning Dust gets too tired or too hurt to continue, she’s going to turn into a popsicle.” She grabbed the jumpsuit and began stuffing her hooves in it. Instantly they were warm to the point of being hot, the insulation working much too well in the heated indoors.

“Dash, all you’re doing is creating two ponies for us to rescue, before we even know if there’s one out there that we need to go after.” The race official put his hoof over the jumpsuit’s zipper, preventing Dash from closing it. “And you’re putting more ponies at risk, because now we’ll have to come looking for you. You’ve been flying at top speed for eight hours. A few minutes in this storm and you’ll get exhausted, land, become buried in the snow, and we’ll never find you!”

Rainbow Dash smacked away the official’s hoof. “Then don’t come looking! Either I come back with Lightning Dust or I don’t come back at all!” She zipped up the suit, her goggles fogging white as grabbed at two saddlebags of supplies and strapped them to her flanks. She shoved her way past the others, forcing her way to the roof and to the outside. It was miserable, with white snow blasting past a pitch-black sky. Rainbow Dash had never seen a sky so dark, even during the most horrendous rainstorms. She tapped the top of her survival suit, activating a headlamp that shone out into the darkness, lighting up the now extinguished brazier and little else. She took to the skies and instantly found herself surrounded by an intense white, with a constant barrage pelting the right side of her suit. She was still hot, and the energy from her beating wings didn’t help, but she knew that intense heat would soon give way to a slow cold in this snowstorm. Best to “enjoy” the warmth while it lasted.

She descended into the mountains, doing her best to navigate the turbulent air and terrain with only a single headlamp to light her way. It wasn’t easy — mountains seemed to leap up at her, hiding their crags behind curtains of flying snow until almost the last minute, threatening to smash into Rainbow Dash as she haphazardly swung between them. The peaks alternately blocked the wind and intensified it, as though the rocks were capricious and malicious beings intent on both driving her forward and ensuring her failure. She raged at them, kicking the mountains she got too close to, and frantically looking this way and that as she beat against and rode with the prevailing winds.

It took only a few minutes for her to get lost. With near white-out conditions and no familiarity with the terrain, she had no hope of navigation. If there was a compass or a map in her saddlebags she could hardly use them in this weather, and anyway, she’d never learned to use such things, because she’d never needed to. Once she realized how impossibly lost she was, she briefly regretted not waiting until morning like the officials had suggested, but she’d already cashed her chips and there was no turning back now. She didn’t even know where turning back was.

Perching in a small alcove behind a rock, she undid her suit enough to tuck her wings inside of it, taking a moment of down-time to warm them up. She didn’t know where she was, or which direction was North, or where Lightning Dust was, or even if she was in danger. But she knew how rash Lighting Dust was, how the green and gold pegasus was determined to show up Rainbow Dash after being humiliated in flight school. She tried to remember back, remember what her former flight leader had been like, and how she’d acted.

Lightning Dust had always been the “act first, think never” sort, never even bothering to consider that things could turn out less ideal than planned. That meant that, what with her lagging behind the lead pack, she was certain to press forward, especially if she thought it might give her an “edge” over those ponies who were turning back or giving up. Heck, she might even violate the race rules and fly up above the clouds, eschewing the long and winding race route for a straight one while nopony was looking. Rainbow Dash clapped her hooves. Above the clouds! Even if there was no sun, she could figure out roughly where she was using the stars, not to mention the assorted guidepost flags left on high-altitude clouds for the benefit of airships. She could then just dip down below the clouds, take a look, and ascend again to safety, limiting her time in the confusing maze of snow and stone.

Unfurling her wings and re-zipping her suit, she took to the air, beating against the buffeting wind as she ascended, hitting and climbing through the cloud layer for what felt like an eternity, until she broke through to a glistening night sky, lit brightly by the moon and innumerable stars. She turned to her back, flying upside down at a lazy pace while she oriented herself, spotting and memorizing the constellations she saw. A few in the north were unfamiliar to her, a reminder of exactly how unusually far from Ponyville she was, but the rest were like old friends, her eyes keenly picking out where they were and what they meant. She oriented herself until she was flying west, following a line for a few miles and then plunging downward, fast at first, but checking her speed once she hit the cloud layer. A few of those mountains had been poking well up into the storm. She wasn’t about to go plunging face-first into a giant rock. Not when Lightning Dust was out there, somewhere.

She broke through the cloud layer into a world of gray stone, white snow and black clouds, with vanishingly little to see. With her keen eyes she could just barely see the bright red, yellow and blue flags that had marked off the route far to her right, letting her know that she was south of the race route, and that she needed to adjust her position accordingly. Flying back above the clouds again, she used the position of the stars to orient herself and then plunged back down, now confident that she was above the wide and winding race corridor.

Going above and then back down helped her realize how wide and winding the racecourse was, the flags making giant southeast/northeast zig zags as they proceeded through the mountain range, turning a potentially afternoon-long flight into a three day race. Good news, then, while her search area would necessarily be wide, it wouldn’t need to be long, since all she had to search was the middle third of this mess, between the first and second daily checkpoints. Perfectly doable, at least if you were Rainbow Dash. She continued flying along and dipping down over and over, mentally checking off parts of the race course as she went through each of them. Twilight would be so proud of her if she knew about this, meticulously going through the race like a grid and checking off each part of the course like a checklist. Maybe a little of the egghead was rubbing off on her. Something to think about later.

Right now her more immediate concern was exhaustion. She knew now that she was about a third of the way between the second and first checkpoints, and already her wings ached with exhaustion, her breath ragged against her face mask as she climbed and descended over and over. Each ascent grew harder and harder as she burned energy climbing above the clouds before letting herself fall below them. Her strategy of holding back until day three meant that she still had some energy to spare, but not as much as she would if she was fresh. She didn’t know how long she’d been looking, but it must have been hours, and those soft, fluffy above-storm clouds were looking damn inviting for a nap. But she had to push on. Lightning Dust was out there, somewhere, and Rainbow Dash wasn’t about to leave a pony behind, no matter the danger.

Crashing through the gray sea of clouds, she burst out on a mountaintop, almost crashing into it as she broke through the cloud cover. She pitched up, struggling with her remaining strength to arrest her descent, but her exhausted wings could only slow her down to a safe landing. She panted, struggling to catch her breath in the thin air, the wind threatening to push her off her unsteady perch. She took the moment to look around, panning her headlamp across the side of the mountain. At first she saw nothing more than the rocks and snow that had taunted her all night, but as she panned across a small alcove near the peak, she saw two things that stood out — two bright green hooves, sticking out of a snowbank.

Rainbow Dash hurried over as best she could, her hooves sagging and sticking in the powdery, blowing snow. She dug hurriedly with her hooves, kicking and pulling and punching the snow out of her way until it revealed the trapped pony beneath. “Lightning Dust! Speak to me!”

Lightning Dust was shivering in her torn and tattered uniform, her lips and face much more blue than green. “Rainbow...Dash?” Her eyes were rolled back and mostly closed, her mouth barely able to form words between chattering teeth. “My wing...Broken…” She tried to unfurl it, the feathers sticking out at an unnatural angle, bits of rock and dirt still wedged between the pinions.

“Don’t worry about that now, we’ve got to get you warm!” Rainbow Dash dropped her saddlebags and began working through them. She pulled out the emergency blanket and began wrapping Lightning Dust in it as best she could, although she seemed to swaddle in as much snow as she did pony between the folds. She looked through the rest of the bag, discarding the now-cold beverages and various other things she couldn’t identify. Finding a few magical warming pads, she activated them and shoved them into the blanket, then began to rub Lightning Dust furiously with her hooves.

“I’m so cold, Rainbow Dash...So cold…” Lighting Dust began to close her eyes, her head lolling to the side as her shivering became fierce, threatening to undo and kick off the blanket. Lightning Dust began to mumble incoherently, her body rolling in its shivers in a bizarre, uncoordinated fashion. “Where is now?”

Rainbow Dash didn’t know what more to do. She wasn’t a doctor. The blanket and pads clearly weren’t enough to keep Lightning Dust warm, and in her current state, she couldn’t just be left where she was until rescue came. Rainbow Dash tightened the blanket as best she could and then tried to heft Lightning Dust in her front hooves. She had never held something so heavy. Dust wasn’t so bad herself, but the combined weight of her, the blanket, the pads, and most especially the thick gobs of wet, melting snow felt more like a boulder than a pony. But still, she had to lift the load. She had to lift it, and carry it above the clouds, carry it all the way back to safety.

She wasn’t sure how, but somehow she found the strength to pull herself up, her exhausted wings making slow and unsteady progress against the wind and snow, their steady beats slowly lifting Rainbow Dash and her wet, shivering, delirious load into and above the clouds. Above the turmoil, the sun was slowly rising, casting its long fingers of light across the gray roiling sea. Rainbow Dash turned towards it, rising and falling as her tired wings struggled to maintain altitude. As she reached the end of her strength and began a long, slow glide, she saw her destination between a break in the clouds — the tower stood, its brazier once again brightly lit, its flags waving invitingly as she began her approach.

“Am I dead?” Lightning Dust shivered as she struggled to look at Rainbow Dash. “Are you an angel?” She tried to reach out with her hoof, but it was still bound tightly in the blankets. She tilted her head slightly, squinting as she stared blankly into the blinding headlamp.

“I’m no angel, and I swear to Celestia, if you die on me now I’ll follow you into Tartarus and kick your flank into next week!” Rainbow Dash struggled to keep herself level, lances of pain shooting through every fiber of her wings and shoulders. The adrenaline gone, she felt waves of exhaustion pound against her, sapping what little strength she had left and threatening to pull her from the sky. The weight in her hooves pulled down on her like some great malicious hand, gravity grabbing at her hooves as though it meant to pull her into the ground and swallow her and Lightning Dust alike. But she wasn’t going to give up now. Not when she was so close. Not when she had almost done it. Almost.

Her landing could only be described as a crash. Rainbow Dash felt her hooves touch the wood landing platform seconds before her face. The lamp went out, smashed by the collision as she rolled and tumbled to a halt, upside down with her backside pressed firmly against one of the stone ramparts. She groaned, unsure if the pain she felt was just from exhaustion or because she’d broken something on the way down. Everything hurt, and everything was either too hot, too cold, or too wet.

There was a flurry of noise and fast moving figures. “Quickly! Someone get her inside! Get the doctors immediately, she’s delirious!” When no hoof touched her, Rainbow Dash realized the voices were talking about Lightning Dust. She wasn’t entirely sure if that was good or bad. She tried to get to her hooves, but succeeded only in laying on her side. She couldn’t remember the last time she was so tired. Thirsty, too. And hungry. And cold.

A pony walked into her view that she didn’t recognize. He was clad in the same sort of winter weather gear that Rainbow Dash had been wearing, and carrying saddlebags similar to the ones she’d ditched. Was this the rescue party? Hadn’t she told them not to come looking? “Rainbow Dash? Is that really you?” The pony came over, brushing her goggles aside and removing her face mask. “Sweet Celestia, it is! Send word to the other search party to stop gearing up, they’re both back!” He helped Rainbow Dash onto her feet, pulling her close and letting her lean on him for support. “We’ve all been worried sick about the both of you!”

“I told you not to come after me. I told you I could handle it.” Rainbow Dash leaned heavily on her rescuer, whoever he was. He was nice and warm on the side. She liked warm, especially right now. Maybe he could take her to wherever there was more warm. “What are you guys all so worried about?”

“It’s dawn, we were just gearing up to come looking for you. By my feathers, I’ve been in the winter rescue service for almost a decade and I’ve never seen anything like it. A single mare heading out into the worst blizzard in five years to look for one other solitary mare in a piece of land twice the size of Manehattan, and not only does she find what she’s looking for, she brings the victim back in the nick of time!” The stallion chuckled. “Rainbow Dash, you are somethin’ else, you know that? You are just somethin’ else.”

Rainbow Dash let out a single barking laugh. “Yeah, I know, right?” She picked her way down the stairs slowly, leaning on the stallion heavily. “So Lightning Dust is going to be okay?”

“Other than the fact that she’s probably going to have a much more healthy respect for blizzards, she should be fine. It’s incredible. She would have been dead by the time we found her, if we found her. And when you took off, we thought were just going to have to spend the day looking for two corpses instead of one. But thanks to you, all we have to do is make sure there’s enough suutei tsai for everypony.”

Rainbow Dash made a disgusted face. “Yuck, can’t a conquering hero come home to a couple of hot mugs of cider and some fresh grilled broccoli? All topped with fresh dairy butter and just a pinch of pepper and salt…” she collapsed on the first quilt she saw, wrapping up in it and closing her eyes. The warmth felt so good. Nice and dry too. She kicked off her wet clothes and cuddled up in it, hugging the sheets to her and wrapping them in her hooves.

“I’ll see what I can do. I know your friends are on the way here via airship. Heck, when word gets out of what you did, I bet half of Equestria will come to congratulate you on all this.” The rescuer went over to a nearby table to retrieve some steaming hot mugs. “The first of them are supposed to be here in a few hours. They’ll have quite the surprise when they find out we won’t need any search parties!”

“Good, then I’ve got just enough time to catch a nice nap.” Rainbow Dash closed her eyes, yawning as images of warm cider and nice hot veggies carrying her off to sleep.

Author's Note

Written with the help of the "Four Hooves and a Pen" writing group.