Rainbow Dash sighed happily as she soared over the Whitetail wood. Her prismatic mane gaining it's trademark windblown look from the short flight. The mare looked over at the forest beneath her, it's leaves seemingly glowing silver under Luna's moon.

"Alright! Time to get to work!" The pegasus slowed her impressive speed as she came upon a large cluster of tall trees, the smallest reaching ten feet in the air. The trees were grouped close to each other, causing the branches to come together in a variety of mesmerizing ways. The mare studied the pathways and tunnels that the trees created, marvelling at the natural obstacle course laid out before her. This was were the oldest trees in the Whitetail resided, and where Rainbow practiced her tricks.

Rainbow quickly dove towards the trees, looping over, under, and between the branches with the ease of a seasoned professional. Performing back flips and aileron rolls, the mare quickly finished off the natural obstacle course with astonishing speed.

Not even slightly winded, she wooped boisterously. "Yeah! That had to be a record time! Oh! If only AJ could see this!" Performing multiple flips through the air, she dove back into the thicket.

She flew through the wooden maze of sharp branches and tough trunks with ease. Narrowly avoiding each obstacle with a flap of her wings or a contortion of her body. She would fly head first towards a wall of branches, before weaving through in an impressive display of grace and agility. Everything passed by the athletic pegasus in a blur of brown and green motion. The forest's obstacles and challenges proved no match for the superior skills of Rainbow Dash.

Above the forest, an ancient being watched over the mare as she flew through the trees.
He cackled, as he observed the prismatic pegasus.

The being spoke into the open air around him, unafraid of being heard. "Well, convincing her to come out here was easier than I thought. Just goes to show you, all brawn and no brains." He broke down into giggles at his own comment. "Now to work my magic!"

The being snapped two claws on the eagle talon that worked as his hand, releasing a spell that seeped into the mare's body.

"There, that should tucker you out. Now if my calculations are correct, this Stone Flesh spell should take effect shortly." With another snap, he disappeared. "Now time for our Titan friend to make First Contact."

The mare flew for hours on end, speeding through the trees with a skill unmatched. As she completed her final round, Dash touched down below the trees, panting heavily and drenched in sweat. She adopted a large toothy smile.

"Whew, what a workout. I'm pooped." Dash then fell back onto the ground, letting the cold earth cool her body. "I really gotta come out here more, have more fun like this."

Rainbow attempted to stand, only to have her muscled strain in protest at the movement. With a giggle, the mare thought 'Jeez, worked myself too hard today. I just need to rest it off then, get back up when the sun rises.' Rainbow readied herself for a nap before a worrying thought entered her mind. 'How come my legs are sore, when I was only flying?'

The mare, now slightly panicked, tried again to stand, only to suffer the same results.
Rainbow grunted in exertion as she slowly began to push herself up. Her muscles rebelled in an agonizing cacophony of pain, causing the mare to gasp and fall face first into the ground. It felt as though all the muscles had flexed out, and refused to relax.

'Okay, wow. That hurt! I've never been this sore before. Maybe I just pulled something?
Yeah that's it. Just pulled a muscle... or two... or all of them. Okay, just stay calm and stand up. Can't be that hard.'

Breathing heavily, Rainbow picked her head up and looked around for something that would be able to help her. Spotting a good sized branch laying on the ground near her, she reached out and grasped it with a shaky hand. Pulling it towards her, the mare grit her teeth as she planted the branch in the ground and slowly used it to pull herself back up.

Slowly, she stood, heavily leaning on her makeshift cane as the unexplained fatigue continued to assail her. 'Come on Dash! You can do this! You just gotta walk the five miles back home and you can crash at somepony's house and rest.'

With a grunt, the mare began her slow trek through the peaceful forest. Rainbow whimpered with every step, each one shooting pure pain through her body. Her breathing grew shallow as the mare realized that each step was getting harder and harder to take. It was as if her legs were turning into solid rock, immoveable. Looking down only worsened the feeling as the mare saw that her legs were steadily turning grey.

"Come on! I can make it!" Rainbow yelled defiantly towards the heavens as she continued to persevere. A laugh escaped her as she noticed a break in the trees ahead of her. It was far off, but it could mean that she would be safe. Steeling her resolve, Rainbow pushed onwards. Calling upon a hidden reserve of energy, the mare trudged forward towards the end of the forest. With a final push, the mare exited the tree cover with a triumphant woop.

Her celebration was short lived as she realized that she did not actually exit the forest, she just walked into a small clearing. Dash's hopes fell as she realized how desperate her situation was. The mare leaned against the cane as it was now the only thing holding her up.

'Come on Dash, you'll be alright. Just gotta keep moving.' Her attempt to press onwards was prematurely halted as, to her horror, she could feel the effects of whatever was afflicting her moving up her body. Without looking she knew that the grey stone was advancing up her body. Oh sweet Celestia, this hurts! I'm going to die here!'

Panicking the mare fell back, landing against a tree. Her wings scraping against the wood as she slid down the trunk. Hissing in pain, she quickly reached up to grasp at her wings, inadvertently throwing her makeshift cane across the clearing.

Rainbow watched in horror as her only mode of transport flew out of her reach, into the dark clearing. She could feel her hopes shatter as she heard the branch impact the ground.

Horror gave way to confusion as a shadow jumped up from the floor. A masculine voice cried out as the shadow jumped back from the sudden noise. Rainbow could feel her consciousness slipping as she sat against the tree.

In a desperate attempt, Dash let out a weak "Help me" to try and gain the other pony's attention. Rainbow couldn't tell if her ploy worked, as at that moment, the mare passed out from the pain.

Ryan's eyes shot open as his ears picked up the sound of something landing near him. Jumping up, the man hopped back away from the assailant. He grew perplexed as he only witnessed a branch sitting in the grass in front of him. The man groaned as he facepalmed at his own stupidity.

'Jeez, man. It was only a stick.
No need to freak the hell out. I've faced much worse than a stick.' The man looked around the darkened clearing. 'What threw it all the way over here, though?'

His unspoken question was quickly answered as he heard someone speaking behind him. Looking back, his mind had completely stopped upon gazing at the sight before him.

The man's eyes widened as only one word came to his mind. "Samantha?"

His confusion doubled as he realized that it wasn't a human that stood in front, but a species of creature he had never seen before. Stepping towards the creature, the man examined it further.

The first thing he noticed was the pair of gray wings splayed out behind the creature, stuck in an erect position. Next was the being's hair. It was wild an unkempt and looked extremely wind blown. What was most odd was that it's hair encompassed all the colors of the rainbow, starting with a fiery red at the top and ending in a bright purple near it's shoulders. It was wearing a white t-shirt that clung to it's body from sweat, allowing the man to see outlines of breasts. 'So it's a she.' She was also wearing a pair of black biker shorts along with a pair of worn out sneakers.

A tail protruded out from behind her, it matching the woman's hair in color and style. The parts of the skin that he could see was a dark grey, like stone. Her eyes were closed, not allowing the man to see them.

All of this Ryan processed in a split second. He quickly became worried as he noticed that her face, which was pushed out at the mouth and nose making it look as though she had a snout, was twisted into a grimace of pain.

The man reached out and shook the woman's arm lightly. "Hey, are you alright?" He marveled as he could feel a multitude of short hair follicles on her arm. 'So, it's fur, not skin. This is freaky as Hell.'

His musings was abruptly stopped as he felt a jolt run down his arm. He grunted and jumped back as the woman's eyes shot open, revealing two large cerise orbs. She gasped as the gray on her fur quickly began bleeding out of her, leaving behind a bright cyan coat. Her wings sagged and gained the same color as her light blue coat. Each feather on her wings spread outwards, drinking in the cool night air.

The gray liquid pooled underneath her, before quickly hardening again around the grass. The plants stopped there swaying as they were quickly rendered immobile, trapped in there positions for the foreseeable future.

The woman at first looked extremely relieved to be out of her stone prison. That look quickly turned sour as she looked down and noticed the ground underneath her. She than stiffened and looked back up, finally noticing the human in front of her.

Through the entire display, Ryan could only watch in silent astonishment. Finally, after what felt like forever, he said one simply phrase.

Rainbow's eyes shot open as a feeling of pure euphoria washed over her. The intensity of this bliss pulling her from her slumber. She gasped out loud as she felt all of her muscles finally relaxing, releasing her from her torment.

Looking down, her paled as she observed the fate that befell the grass underneath her. They were all gray and stiff for a wide arc around her. They felt hard as a rock, completely immobile.

'Is that what was happening to me?' She could feel her heart rate increase as the morbid thought flashed through her mind. Her inner turmoil was, thankfully, cut short as she noticed somepony standing in front of her.

To say the pony in front of her looked weird was an under statement. He was wearing all black, except for a weirdly shaped gray hat on his head and what looked like bright green scribbles painted on his shirt. His body had no fur, only sporting short black stubble on his chin. His skin was a light brown that matched his small eyes. There was no tail on the pony, and most of it's black mane was hidden underneath it's hat.

It's chiseled square chin told Rainbow that she was looking at a stallion. His muzzle was missing, making his face look crushed in.

'What is this? I've never seen a pony that looks this weird.'

Rainbow stiffened as the stallion in front of her spoke for the first time. In a deep masculine voice, he said.

"What. The. Fuck."

Author's Note

Well! Finally finished chapter two. I originally planned to have Ryan meet Fluttershy due to a loose pet, but I just couldn't make it work. I ended up scrapping that idea in favor of this one, which I personally believe is better.

ANYWAY! I feel like it's not as as good as it could be. Please, if you can, give me some ideas on how to better the story and inform me of grammatical errors. Feedback is always welcome!

Thank you,

Epic