Rainbow in the Dark
Chapter One: Late

Thunk, thunk sounded against the door. Rainbow Dash groaned, lifting her head from a soft red, silken pillowcase.

“Go away, it’s too early for this,” she mumbled. Thunk thunk again at the door. Following her own advice, she closed her eyes and plopped her head back on the pillow. A pause, as if the disturber got the message; then a puff of cloud as a green tortoise burst through the wall to the right of the door. A yellow glow above the shell revealed a rotor blade strapped to it, a pair of aviator goggles on his face, and a small reptilian tongue flailing about.

With surprising speed and haste, the tortoise (named Tank of all things) crossed the room to the blackout shades that clung to the cloud wall thanks to inexplicable pegasi magic. Grabbing one of the curtains in his mouth, the tortoise yanked it back.

Light flooded across Rainbow’s namesake mane. Hissing, the light-blue mare buried her head in her pillow and threw a great purple blanket over her eyes, desperate to return to that alluring, fleeting realm of timeless sleep.

Tank never woke her up like this, not unless he needed food or she was late for something important. His food bowl had been filled last night, she’d remembered that because today were training exercises for the Wonderbolt squadron.

A flick of her wing, and the blankets shot off the bed, crumpling on the floor. With a kick, Rainbow launched herself into the air.

“Oh no, oh no, oh no! I’m late!” she exclaimed, spinning about in the air in panic. She moved to her dresser, stopped, and twisted again. She made her way to the desk, a strong and sturdy oak, more mysterious magics at work to keep it from plummeting through the cloud floor. Scattered across the top of the desk were military papers.

A report on the local dragon migration, another on a downed “weather balloon”, a professional letter from Captain Spitfire chiding her on overly reckless flying. Buried beneath that was the map of Equestria, an emerald gem surrounded by oceans, deserts, and tundras.

A medallion of gold with a bold Number One sat beneath a lamp in the upper right corner. The wastebasket, neglected to the point it overflowed with discarded food containers and papers. Sweeping her tail across its surface, Rainbow scattered them about the room, snatching one of the few remaining papers off the desk. An order from Spitfire to report to the Academy for a Drill session at thirteen hundred hours. Stupid military time, I’ll never get used to it, she grumbled to herself. Thirteen minus twelve equaled one; so the training was at one o’clock.

She cast a nervous glance at the digital clock on her dresser; it read, thankfully in standard civilian time, eleven forty-three. No time to waste, back across the room, stopping before a wide vanity on her dresser that was besieged by pictures of herself and her friends.

Twilight, oblivious to the camera, muzzle-deep in a copy of ‘That’, a horror novel about a particularly mean clown. Pinkie Pie, all-but-eating the camera in excitement. A picture of herself crossing a finish line in first place.

Dozens of more good and fond memories were present, but she had no time to admire them all. A duffle bag on top of the dresser was dropped to the floor without ceremony. Logic says that things can’t sit on top of a cloud. Ponies laugh at logic. It landed with a soft thwump. Yanking drawers open, she tossed in whatever clothes and uniforms were on top.

Two training uniforms, a set of casual civilian wear, and her dress blues. A third training uniform was struggled into without so much as touching the dresser for support. A pirouette in the air, a flick of her wing, and the curtains closed back. She was just that awesome.

“Thanks for the wake-up, Tank. Love you, little buddy,” Rainbow said, giving the tortoise a nuzzle before launching herself from the room. Out the door and an immediate left in the hallway, a burst of speed, then a sharp right following the stairs down. Pictures of family, a trophy case built into the cloud wall, and newspapers showing off her many accomplishments.

Out the front door, with a hearty crack of wood against wood as it slammed out. A toss of her hoof, and the duffle bag arched into the sky and landed square on her back. Orienting northeast, the pegasus darted forward with speed just shy of her Sonic Rainbooms.

To the south was Ponyville, the residents therein moving about their day-to-day tasks with much less energy than herself. To her right was the Everfree forest, and on the edge of the foreboding place was Fluttershy’s cottage. The neat animal sanctuary was almost deserted at this time as animals went about the day, scavenging or helping with Fluttershy’s needs.

Rainbow Dash froze in mid-air as a thought occurred to her. The Academy was just on the other side of the forest. It being early autumn, the leaves in the canopy were showing just the earliest hints of orange. A really good shortcut for somepony who needed all the extra time she could get.

Ah screw it, she thought, snorting as she decided on this new course. Rushing along the course, she passed above the cottage. The yellow pegasus was out in her garden, tending to sprouting onion stalks with muddy hooves, pink mane braided back. A small white dot was beside her, Angel Bunny, who was anything but an angel at times, looked up to see the blue pegasus. Tapping his larger friend’s foreleg, and gestured high above. Fluttershy looked up, but the other pegasus had disappeared from sight. A single cloud with a vague shape of a carrot was all there was to be seen.

“Oh, are you hungry Angel?” she asked, voice as soft as silk and sweet as honeyed milk, reaching into a saddlebag and procuring an actual carrot. Sighing, the bunny shook his head and accepted his snack.

Somewhere to the southeast was Zecora’s hut. From this distance it was impossible to see, though it was committed to easy memory. A shame there was no time for a visit; the Zebra often had interesting tidbits of knowledge and lore to tell.

‘A dime for a rhyme would be sublime,’ Zecora had said once with an easy laugh. She had also followed it along with, ‘But to be so rich, would probably make me quite the—’ cutting herself off at realization of the next word to her statement.

A glance south brought Rainbow to a halt. Somewhere near her friend’s home and several miles above it was a wall of dark and impenetrable clouds, moving due north as if to deliberately cut off her path. On the edges of the storm were dozens of dark dots—weather pegasi pushing the monstrous storm forward.

Being the best flyer in all of Equestria, Rainbow Dash could take on any other pegasi in a race and win hooves down. However, there had to be forty or fifty pegasi just on the edges of the storm to move it with such haste. She couldn’t take on that many solo. In the few seconds it had taken her to notice and observe the situation, the storm had quartered the distance.

Distance, and therefore time, was the key. Her due-east course shifted to northeast as she attempted to buy herself time. A diagonal flight away from the cloudfront would hopefully be enough to see her to the other side before it was too late.

The distance was now halved, and the far side of the storm was now beyond her line of sight. As it moved ever closer, Rainbow flared her wings, looped back, and hovered just beyond and below its foremost edge.

“Fancy flyin’, ma’am,” an orange pegasus called. His cutie mark was a flashlight. What could that possibly mean?

“What the hoof is going on here?” she barked in reply. Pulling up short a dozen wings away from her, the pegasus raised his forehooves in defense.

“Easy, ma’am, We were sent to collect the clouds for Cloudsdale I know this is without notice, but the Hoofington region has been getting doused with storms.” he replied. To his credit, he was far calmer—and he was being glared down by a Wonderbolt. Still, he probably wasn’t late, was he?

The answer mellowed her to an extent; Hoofington was surrounded by mountains and almost always had an excess of clouds that needed shipping out. A storm this size could easily prepare winter for Ponyville, Canterlot, and maybe even Manehattan. That would save the towns and cities from draining their own reservoirs, equating to saved pony-hours of work, which in turn saved a ton of bits.

A huge win for all parties involved. Except Rainbow Dash, because now she’d be late.

“I don’t have time for this!” Rainbow shouted and dived down, wings a blur of blue as she shot below the pegasi and the storm. The chorus of voices shouted behind for her to stop, to turn about and to slow down. Wind screamed in her ears, turbulence buffeted her about as it seemed to try to knock her off course.

A minute had yet to pass by in this mad charge when an explosion of color and sound raked across the sky. A Rainboom, something she hadn’t done in years, blew apart the behemoth above her. Teams of pegasi were sent spiraling away with the shockwave.

Chaos erupted. The few pegasi not tossed about did all they could to corral the splintered storm, but it was for naught. The winds caught Rainbow, her forward speed allowing no time to fix the course. Downdrafts slammed her into the forest canopy.

Pain lanced up her left wing; branches cut through her flight suit and scratched her underbelly and jaw. The duffel bag on her back caught her for a moment in a branch before it was torn away.

That pause in her fall was the only thing that saved her life as she hit the ground hard. Many ponies say they’ve had the air knocked from their lungs. Few actually have, and Rainbow joined their limited ranks. The air was pushed from her lungs; the pain was all-encompassing.

She pressed a hoof to her chest and took quick, ragged breaths. The edges of her vision were darkening; her body shook, and the dark depths of her conscious took hold.

Time passed without note, and when she awoke, it was cold, and the entirety of her being cried out in protest as she attempted to stand. The sky above was clear but oh-so dark, and from the hole her flailing body had produced in the canopy a single star sparkled in the twilight.

With ginger turns of her head, a brief scan of the surroundings confirmed the duffle bag was gone. Lost somewhere in the fall, caught in a tree branch to be some canopy dwelling rodent nest. Dark oaks, a few birch trees, and a plethora of dense and thorny bushes and brambles surrounded her. Had she gone another twenty paces before crashing, she could’ve been seriously hurt. Or worse. Beyond this, the fading light of Celestia’s good sun was indistinguishable.

Reality struck; a hammer blow to the mind almost as bad as the physical impact of the crash. She was alone, injured, had no supplies, and the odds of help were virtually nonexistent at best. Had the other pegasi seen her fall? Would they have left her down here if they had? No, no-no-no—This stopped here, she was Rainbowhoofin’ Dash, best of the freakin’ (pronounced as friggin’) best.

If rescue wouldn’t come, she would get out of here herself in no time. As she brought herself to her hooves, an unwelcome vertigo struck. Aside from a busted wing, a concussion was probably amongst her injuries. Compared to her normal trot, her speed was much reduced. On top of injuries, it was getting too dark to see. Navigating on a proper heading was impossible, so Rainbow moved in the general direction of ‘that way’.

A bad action was better than no action, right? This thought process was immediately tested as branches and bushes caught her mane and tail, tearing at what remained of the flight suit and adding fresh cuts to her blue coat.

This was going to be a long and miserable night. She wasn’t prepared, not even remotely ready, but this could be done. It had to be done; there were no other options.

Author's Note

Author's Notes, best time of the day. Okay, first thing- Fimfic I royally, royally hate you. The seething hatred that has been sparked in the pit of my soul by the way you set this place up makes me wish I never came to this site!

However, I'm a terribly shy individual so my hatred for you will be a passive aggressive Author's Note. Second thing, this is my first MLP related story ever, and the longest continuous story I've ever written. As of today I have some thirteen or so chapters equating to roughly one hundred and thirty odd pages. So this story is mostly finished and will be uploaded as soon as I type it up for my two awesome editors to overlook.

Third, it is my sincerest hope you enjoy this and stick around for chapter two!