Off the Beaten Path

Chapters

Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 1

Chapter 2

The day was young. The sun had just managed to rise above the horizon a mere hour or so ago. The slight chill from the night before still lingered in the air, being aided by the wind whipping across the land.

On the outskirts of Ponyville, where the sights of the humble little town gave way to the surrounding countryside, a gathering of ponies met and lingered while waiting for their friends to arrive. Twilight Sparkle and three of her other fellow element bearers set their bags aside and rested for the day ahead of them.

Twilight didn’t bring much aside from her sleeping bag and a good book to read. A few bottles of water and a compass, maybe a multi tool or a fire starting kit. She did like being prepared after all.

Rarity had elected to bring a veritable mountain of a bag, the contents of which were most likely not limited to a sleeping bag and the essentials for a hike. It was astounding just how strong she could be when she needed to pack just one more creature comfort into her already bulging backpack.

Pinkie Pie brought a smaller bag that was just as bright and colorful as she was. Although the white and pink backpack was tiny when compared to the tote bag brought by her unicorn friend, the pink mare most likely brought things much more useful to camping out in nature… and probably a few bits of candy tucked away here and there.

Applejack had the most to carry out of the group. Most of the others were instructed to bring what they thought necessary and had small bags due to this fact, but the farm pony was tasked with carrying the group’s tent on her back. The rolled up tent was bulky looking when it was all folded up and neatly tucked into a bag, so it was doubtlessly large enough to fit everyone inside once they reached their destination.

Along with the four mares, there was a fifth member of the group. Their new guest of honor Blue Bolt was sitting casually and chatting with them. Everyone was eager to learn more about their potential new friend, and they did have some time before the others showed up.

“So… Blue Bolt, how long did you and Rainbow Dash know each other in school?” Rarity asked with a curious gleam in her eye. The cyan mare hadn’t answered many questions about the stallion when asked about him yesterday. She seemed to be ignoring the subject matter entirely in fact.

“Not long actually. I switched to public schooling like a year and a half before graduation,” Blue Bolt explained in a surprised manner. He seemed to be taken aback by realizing just how short his time with the cyan mare was.

“And what’s up with you and Rainbow Dash anyway? She didn’t even seem like she wanted to talk to you yesterday. If I didn’t know any better, I would say she was avoiding you,” Pinkie Pie asked in a bluntly oblivious manner.

The blue pegasus scratched his head and offered a brief chuckle before adopting a slightly miffed expression. He quickly returned a more casual look to his face before turning to face the still eagerly waiting group.

“That’s kind of a complicated matter. It wouldn’t feel right to just bring it up without Rainbow’s consent. What happened between us is in the past… at least I hope so,” Blue Bolt said hesitantly.

“Oh… I hope nothing bad happened between you two. Do you not like her, or does she not like you anymore or something?” Pinkie said with a more sympathetic manner.

“What…?” Blue Bolt asked while adopting a more surprised expression. “Gosh, no… we were good friends back in the day. We uh… umm…” He rubbed his foreleg uncomfortably while offering a brief glance down to his wing with the strange sleeve on it. “Let’s just say that we… had to part ways suddenly,” He finally cleared his throat and spoke with a somber tone.

“Hey, Blue Bolt,” Twilight piped up with a hesitant sense of curiosity.

“Yeah?” Blue Bolt replied, turning to face the purple unicorn.

“If you don’t mind me asking… what’s that thing on your wing? I’ve been meaning to ask you since yesterday,” Twilight asked, pointing at the small black sleeve with her hoof. The blue pegasus, along with everyone else present, drew their attention to his feathery appendage and the object on it.

“Oh… this?” Blue Bolt asked with an awkward and slightly sheepish chuckle. The pegasus hesitated for a moment before reaching over with his hoof and grabbing the sleeve. After looking down and pulling for a moment, he produced the thick looking cover and held it up for all to see. “It’s nothing really… I just wear it to remind me to stay out of trouble,” Blue explained while briefly turning the sleeve over in his hoof to show it off to the group.

Hearing the sound of wings flapping to their side, everyone turned to see a familiar set of pegasi approaching from the air. Blue Bolt turned and looked to see the yellow and cyan mares getting closer. With an abrupt end, he grabbed his backpack and tucked the black sleeve away inside one of the pouches.

“It’s a long story… Maybe we could talk about it later?” The blue stallion suggested briefly to finish the conversation the group was having prior to their friends showing up.

As the others nodded to their guest, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy landed and walked up to the circle of ponies. Each was carrying a relatively small bag on their back, and each looked eager and ready to enjoy the beauties of nature. However, one of them wasn’t as eager as the other.

“Hi everyone!” Fluttershy greeted warmly while walking up to her friends and looking around. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash lingered behind and kept a short distance between herself and the circle in front of her.

“Hey, Fluttershy… long time no see,” Blue Bolt spoke up with a slight smirk as the yellow pegasus greeted the rest of her friends.

Fluttershy gasped eagerly. “Oh my gosh, Blue Bolt!” She quickly walked over to her old friend and gave him a brief hug. She had heard the day before that the blue stallion had moved to town from the others, but she hadn’t managed to meet him again until now.

“How have you been?” Blue Bolt asked curiously while looking to the yellow mare with a genuine smile. Fluttershy seemed equally pleased to see him after so long.

“Great… Rainbow Dash and I have made a really good home for ourselves here in Ponyville. I hope you can do the same,” Fluttershy replied with a warm and friendly tone. The others were glad to see that the yellow pony managed to make more friends than just Rainbow Dash in school.

“So you three were all friends in high school?” Twilight asked with an intrigued inflection, briefly turning to see the cyan mare in the background. Rainbow Dash was smiling slightly, but she seemed a little quieter and distant than usual.

“Yeah, I would say so. Blue and Rainbow met after school on the flying course. He shared a lot of classes with us, so we got pretty close,” Fluttershy explained while motioning back toward the cyan pony.

“Yep… we were almost inseparable for a while there weren’t we?” Rainbow Dash finally managed to speak up while stepping forward and joining the conversation. Although she spoke in a somewhat friendly tone, she hid a twinge of sadness while looking to the blue stallion, who seemed to be doing the same thing.

Before anyone else could further the reminiscing between the trio, Twilight looked up and noticed a few clouds floating by. She also noted that the sun was gradually climbing higher and higher into the sky as the day went on around them while they talked.

“I hate to interrupt you guys, but we should probably get going. We’ve got a long way to go, and we need to keep a good pace. It’s supposed to storm in a few days, so we need to be back before then,” Twilight suggested in a more serious manner. Everyone nodded and shifted their attention to getting their bags ready for the hike.

With the wind at their backs and the fading silhouette of the town behind them, the group started walking toward the horizon. There were a few trees dotted around as they left the area around the town, but further ahead there were mostly just grassy plains and sky.

Although they had a partially set destination in mind, walking so far into the wilderness was very freeing and had a comforting and serene feel to it. The sound of the wind rustling the grass and the distant trees around them, and their own hooves crunching across the fields soon dominated the air and became the only sounds to be heard.

Minutes turned into hours as the ponies walked and walked. They all chatted to pass the time and each passed along stories and merry tales from their pasts as they bonded with each other. And all the while, instead of being her usually lively and adventurous self, Rainbow Dash was quietly walking on the outside edge of the group.

The cyan mare couldn’t stop staring at the stallion talking happily with her friends, almost as if he had never left her life and had been there all along. She tried to rationalize her feelings and talk about something, anything, to close the distance between herself and the blue pegasus. Despite all of her efforts to speak up or think about something else, she couldn’t get her mind off of the past.

Perhaps noticing the absence of the rainbow haired pony and her usual energetic personality, Pinkie Pie turned to see her friend walking by herself a short ways away from the main group. She wasn’t even really taking in the sights around her. She seemed to be troubled by something, and the pink mare wasn’t going to let one of her friends have a bad time on such a fun outing.

“Hey Rainbow Dash, what’s wrong?” Pinkie asked in a concerned tone.

“Huh?” Rainbow Dash turned and looked to her friends, who were all looking at her since the pink pony brought up her odd behavior.

She briefly shook her head to rid herself of all the thoughts racing around before quickly trying to find something to say that would convince the others that she was fine. After all, she was perfectly fine. Why couldn’t they see that?

“Nothing… nothing is wrong. Why do you ask?” Rainbow replied while smiling awkwardly and trying her best to sell her dodge.

“Well, you haven’t said a word since we started walking. I thought you were looking forward to this… especially since Blue Bolt is here,” Pinkie Pie said with a confused expression.

Rainbow Dash looked over to see that most of her friends were watching her now. They seemed to be concerned for why she was acting so strange. She hadn’t thought she was acting strange, but apparently, she had been so occupied with her thoughts that she hadn’t even spoken in a long time.

“I’m fine, Pinkie… I’m just… uh… taking in the scenery,” Rainbow stated while looking around and forcing an amazed expression.

Pinkie seemed unconvinced as she stared at the cyan pegasus. “Are you sure?” She asked suspiciously.

“Am I sure?” Rainbow Dash scoffed, wearing her usual smug expression and returning an air of confidence to herself. “Of course I’m sure… do I look unhappy to you?” She asked, shifting her attention back to the pink mare.

“Ok…. if you’re sure,” Pinkie shrugged, not wanting to pry any longer.

Deciding to leave their cyan companion alone for the moment, the group pressed onward through the countryside. They passed over streams, went through grassy clearings, and skirted a thick forest, all the while marveling at the sights and sounds of nature around them.

Eventually, the path they had decided on led them to a small incline beside the forest. The incline led up at a comfortable slope until eventually, they were past a rocky cliff that would have otherwise impeded their progress and forced them to cut through the forest. The cliff continued up a fair distance to their right, but the path they were on seemed to completely bypass it.

Twilight and the other non-flyers of the group stayed to the right. While there was a decent amount of room, the left side of the path terminated abruptly in a steep drop-off that led down into the trees of the forest below. The trees were thick and tall, and the group could barely see the forest floor below from how dark it was. Nobody wanted to even risk falling off.

After some time, the cliff to their right gave way to a wide open clearing. There were wild flowers growing in bunches dotted around the grassy meadow. Up ahead, there was a decently sized stream that flowed off the drop-off into the forest below, creating a waterfall that constantly filled the air with the soft sound of water falling against earth. The sights around them were breathtaking, and most of them hadn’t even come across this area before.

“Hmm…” Twilight brought a hoof up in front of her face and leveled it with the horizon. Using this as a gauge, she looked to the sun and tried to figure out how many hours of daylight they had left. Her eyes narrowed as she found her result. “It looks like we don’t have long before sunset… maybe a couple of hours at most,” She reported while turning to her companions.

Applejack looked around the vast clearing around her curiously. “Sounds like we should set up camp right quick,”

“Perhaps we should find a better place to actually camp for the night before our hastiness gets the better of us,” Rarity suggested. As pretty as her surroundings were, she wasn’t sure if this was the best location to spend the next few days in.

Twilight nodded silently while taking another look around. “Well… the cliff would provide shelter from the wind in that direction,” She thought out loud while turning to the right. The cliff went on and skirted the clearing for a good ways. Her optimism slowly faded as she noted the many rocks and boulders that seemed to be loosely sitting on the cliffside further up. “Then again, I wouldn’t want any rocks to fall down on top of us while we’re sleeping,”

“Maybe we should head further into the clearing?” Blue Bolt said, pointing ahead toward the stream and the area beyond. “It looks like there are some trees further down that way. I’m sure that would be a good spot to set up,”

Twilight and the others followed the stallion’s direction to the distant horizon. Sure enough, they could faintly see a couple of trees off by themselves in the clearing.

“You’re right… that does look like it could be a good spot,” Twilight let a slight smirk creep across her face. She then turned her attention to the stream, briefly looking for a way to cross it without getting drenched.

Spotting some rocks in the stream off to the right that looked like they could be walked on, she stepped to the right eagerly before pausing and turning to her friends. “Come on, guys. I think we can get over that stream over here,” She said while motioning for the others to follow.

The group followed their purple leader along the stream until they reached the apparent crossing. The rocks in front of them were in a rough line, and they were big enough that the tops of them were above the water. Although they weren’t perfectly aligned, they would allow the ponies to walk across without making any jumps or leaps.

Twilight crossed first, testing how solid the rocks were and how easy it would be to get to the other side. After the unicorn made it past a few rocks, the others slowly filed across as well. They could feel the cold water splashing against their hooves as it rushed along beneath them, giving them an incentive to move faster.

Applejack and Rarity had a bit of difficulty with getting across some of the wider spaced rocks due to the weight they were carrying, but otherwise, everyone made it to the other side with no issues. Once they were across, the group started walking toward the cluster of trees in the distance.

Twilight looked the trees over as they approached. Two of them were fairly large, with a few smaller ones dotted around them. The many luscious branches full of leaves offered shelter from the sun, while the hefty trunks offered a reprieve from any major winds. All in all, it looked like a good place to set up camp.

“Alright… I think here is as good a place as any. We should get the tent set up and get some firewood before night falls,” Twilight reasoned.

After finding a decent spot in the middle of the area between the trees, Applejack took the bag off of her back and let it flop to the ground. With help from Twilight, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity, she started unfurling the contents of the backpack and getting the tent ready.

Twilight looked up, noticing that three of their members were free of any tasks. “Hey… why don’t you guys go get some firewood while we’re doing this?” She suggested.

Rainbow Dash glanced between Blue Bolt and Fluttershy. While the thought of working in close proximity with the stallion made her a bit uncomfortable, she wasn’t going to let her feelings get in the way of helping out.

“Sure thing,” She stated, managing a slight smirk of confidence.

“Don’t wander off too far, darling. We wouldn’t want you getting lost on us,” Rarity cautioned.

“Relax… I think between the three of us, we can handle picking up some sticks,” Rainbow assured. With their task laid out before them, the three pegasi started walking off toward some more distant trees.

Rainbow Dash and her two companions kept walking until they started to hit pay dirt. There were many more trees in closer proximity than the few grouped up by the campsite. Although there were quite a few of them, there still weren’t enough to really call the area a forest. Perhaps these trees were part of an offshoot of the forest over the distant cliff side.

As they walked, Fluttershy paid close attention to her cyan friend. Rainbow Dash was acting much different than usual. She seemed far quieter than she had ever been, and she would occasionally steal glances at the blue stallion walking ahead of them before shaking her head and darting her gaze elsewhere.

While Blue Bolt went ahead to gather a grouping of fallen wood pieces, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash stayed near each other and gathered some smaller sticks.

“Hey,” Fluttershy spoke up slightly, briefly checking to see if Blue Bolt was around. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on, Rainbow Dash?” She asked with a hint of concern in her voice.

Rainbow looked over to the yellow pony in surprise. “I didn’t know something was going on…” She replied dismissively.

Fluttershy exhaled through her nose and frowned. “Rainbow… I’ve known you for long enough to know that something is wrong. You’ve been acting really strange ever since yesterday… when you learned that Blue moved into town,”

“What?” Rainbow Dash asked in a forced tone of disbelief. “Come on, Flutters… Blue was a good friend of ours. It’s… great to see him again,” She explained. One look from the yellow mare told her that she wasn’t buying it.

“Rainbow, you can tell me… what else are best friends for? If something is bothering you, you can confide in me… I won’t tell anybody,” Fluttershy said sincerely.

Rainbow Dash could feel a pit forming in her stomach and her heart melting as she saw the worry in her friend’s eyes. She hated making Fluttershy feel bad for her. Finally, she looked around and made sure that the stallion was still a fair distance away before pausing her collection of firewood and turning to her fellow pegasus.

“You really want to know?” Rainbow asked hesitantly.

Fluttershy nodded.

“Well…” Rainbow Dash paused and sighed. “You remember the last year of school when Blue moved out of Cloudsdale?”

Fluttershy struggled with her thoughts for a moment before replying. “Yeah… that was right after the big dance I think?” She asked, receiving a nod in return.

“Right,” Rainbow continued. “Well… the week before the dance, I was… kind of working up to ask Blue to go with me,” She admitted sheepishly while scratching the back of her head.

“You mean… you had feelings for him?” Fluttershy whispered cautiously. She smiled giddily as she saw her friend getting red in the face. “Rainbow, that’s amazing. I didn’t think you were into having a relationship like that,”

“It wasn’t really like that… for the most part.” Rainbow Dash sighed uncomfortably. “I wasn’t really sure whether or not I wanted to… you know… But, I kinda figured that I would see how things went,” She looked down abruptly as her embarrassment turned to gloom. “It’s not like it mattered anyway… he said no.”

“Oh… oh, my,” Fluttershy frowned sympathetically.

“I probably should have seen the signs… He was acting differently all week up until the dance whenever I would drop hints. I shouldn’t have waited until the last minute and just saved us both the trouble by asking sooner,” Rainbow explained, her voice sounding as small as she probably felt.

Fluttershy looked surprised to see the cyan mare being so open and vulnerable like this. It wasn’t like her. “Was he going to the dance with someone else?” Fluttershy asked softly.

Rainbow Dash shook her head sadly. “No… he wasn’t.” She groaned and shifted to a mildly frustrated expression. “He just… told me that it would be for the best if we didn’t see each other anymore. After that, he left… and the next day we learned that he got transferred out of school,”

“Wow… and after everything you two had been through?” Fluttershy shook her head sympathetically. She softened her expression as she glanced over to see the stallion somewhere up ahead, the same friendly expression she had remembered plastered on his face. “Rainbow, I’m sure Blue had his reasons for doing what he did… He moved out to Ponyville knowing that you were here, so he must have been willing to meet again. He’s still our friend,” She said reassuringly while resting a hoof on her cyan friend’s shoulder.

Rainbow Dash smiled softly before letting her expression fall as she glanced over to the stallion. “Maybe he is, but…” She hesitated and shook her head. “I already accepted him being gone… I’m just not sure if I’m ready to let him back into my life,”

Before Fluttershy could formulate a response, the pair heard hoofsteps approaching from the side. They turned to see Blue Bolt walking over to them, a healthy amount of firewood precariously balanced on his back.

Blue looked at the pair as they went back to gathering their sticks together, almost like they never stopped. “You guys think this will be enough for a fire?” He asked curiously.

“Uh… sure,” Rainbow Dash replied after clearing her throat uncomfortably. “We’ll probably have to get some more tomorrow, though,”

“Well, it looks like we might have to,” Blue Bolt added while looking around. The light from the sun was waning fast, and soon it would be too dark to navigate around the clearing. “We should get back to camp before it gets too dark to see,” He suggested.

“Sounds like a good idea,” Fluttershy nodded. While the stallion started walking back toward the direction they came from, she looked to her cyan friend and smiled reassuringly before joining Blue Bolt in leaving.

Rainbow Dash followed her two companions with her haul of kindling material securely under one foreleg. She was eager to get some warmth and light going back at camp so she could forget about the past and focus on the present. Maybe she could count on Pinkie Pie to have brought some fixings for s’mores.

After another short walk, the trio could see the darkened shapes of their friends toiling around a bulky tent in the middle of a cluster of trees. The four mares had mostly completed the tent and were just hammering the last few stakes into the ground to secure it.

Twilight and the others were pleased to see their friends return. Although the two unicorns of the group were happy to provide light in the meantime, they were eager to be able to finally relax by a crackling campfire.

Although Applejack insisted on starting the fire ‘the ol’ fashioned way’, Twilight eventually grew frustrated with the farm pony’s attempts at rubbing two sticks together and simply produced a spark from her horn. Some careful stirring of embers and some rearranging of sticks later, and the group had a roaring campfire to complete their first night out in the wilderness.

Time went by much faster than the ponies anticipated as the crackling flames accompanied their lighthearted antics. As many of them had already guessed, the resident party pony had indeed packed some smores, which were soon being roasted over the fire as everyone talked and shared stories with each other, whether they were tales from their own lives or spooky stories to get a laugh and maybe even a scare.

As the wind blew through the trees around them, and the crickets chirping mixed in with the owls and other signs of wildlife, the ponies were happy and relaxed. Even Rainbow Dash was managing to have a good time.

Still, the cyan mare occasionally took time while someone else was speaking to steal a glance at the stallion sitting across from her. Although she was still feeling a conflict of emotions, she was starting to get used to his presence.

Maybe I should clear the air with him? She thought to herself. While it was true that they hadn’t parted on good terms, they were still really close for the short time they knew each other. Rainbow felt that it would be a mockery of their former friendship if she didn’t at least give it a try.

Then again, the longer she stared at him, the more she remembered the last time she saw him. His happy-go-lucky attitude and the smile on his face weren’t present then, being replaced by a frown and a solemn expression. She had never actually figured out just why he acted the way he did; why he hurt her so much during a time when she had opened up to him.

…Maybe tomorrow… She reasoned. The idea of waiting was much more agreeable than doing it right now in front of everyone. She didn’t want to embarrass the stallion in front of the others, or herself for that matter.

After saying their goodnights, the group gradually retired to the tent one by one. And after some more quiet discussions, Rainbow Dash was one of the last ones awake.

Pinkie Pie was still up due to her manic energy. The cyan mare wouldn’t be surprised if she just stayed up all night and tried to make shapes out of stars.

Twilight was awake as well, being the designated member to tend to the fire. Nobody had actually designated her, but she figured that she might as well be the one to do it since she was already up.

Finally, Rainbow Dash yawned and stretched as her exhaustion caught up with her. She turned to her two companions before glancing to the doubtlessly warm and cozy tent where the others were already settled in.

“Well guys, I think I’m going to hit the hay,” She said quietly while getting up.

“Night, Rainbow Dash,” Twilight whispered.

“Nighty night,” Pinkie added. “Sleep tight… and don’t let the bed bugs bite!”

Rainbow Dash briefly waved to the pair before unzipping the entrance to the tent and stepping inside. She could feel the grass poking at her from underneath the thin lining of the tent floor. The area was mostly clean, but there was some dirt and debris here and there.

All around her, her friends were already tucked away in their own sleeping bags and mostly fast asleep. Although there was enough room for all seven of them, their unexpected guest had made things a little more crowded, so they had to sleep a little close together.

Rarity and Applejack were in the back left corner of the tent, spaced apart and facing away from each other. Blue Bolt was to Rainbow’s immediate left up against the front edge of the tent. And finally, Fluttershy was off by herself over by the back right corner.

Rainbow Dash looked around to find the spot where her sleeping bag had been placed. She had been absent during the process where her friends had decided where to sleep inside the tent, so she had no idea. She was currently standing on Twilight’s sleeping bag, with Pinkie’s bag to the side closer to Blue Bolt. The pegasus was incredibly thankful that she didn’t have to sleep near him.

Finally, she spotted her bag toward the back. Apparently, Fluttershy had opted to place their bags next to each other, with Rainbow’s tucked away near the edge of the tent. She couldn’t help but smile as she made her way around her other sleeping friends to get to her makeshift bed.

Carefully making sure that she didn’t step on the sleeping pegasus, Rainbow Dash stepped over and made it to the front of her bag. She quietly unzipped it and wriggled her way inside. There was a small buffer of space between her and Fluttershy, allowing both of them some room to maneuver if they felt like it.

Despite how careful she had been, Rainbow cringed slightly as she heard Fluttershy moving. The yellow mare lifted her head up slightly and drowsily opened an eye. As she saw her friend settling in next to her, she smiled before nestling her head back down on her pillow and going back to sleep.

Rainbow Dash smiled as well once she laid back and stared at the ceiling. Despite how apprehensive she was at first, today had been a good day. She was certain that she would have more good times in the days ahead as they continued their outing. Perhaps she could even talk to Blue Bolt some more, a few words at a time.

As she sank deeper into her pillow and relaxed, she thought back to some of the better memories from when she knew the blue stallion. She still fondly remembered the first time her circle of best friends had grown from one to two.

-A few years ago-

The ring of the bell sounded throughout the entirety of the building, signaling the end of the school day. Many pegasi of varying shapes, sizes, genders, and colors started filing out into the halls to gather their things and either head home or hang out for a little while.

Rainbow Dash moved with the crowd that had formed on her way to her locker. She was mentally exhausted from her classes, and she was more than ready to be free to do whatever she wanted.

As the many ponies ahead of her started thinning out, she could see the lockers coming into view up ahead. She could also see her dear friend Fluttershy already there, getting the stuff out of her own locker.

Before the cyan mare could walk up to the shy pegasus and greet her, a different pony walked up to her and slammed her locker shut abruptly, causing her to jump.

“Where do you think you’re going, Fluttercry?” An orange stallion with a brown mane asked with a smug expression and a superior tone of voice.

Another stallion with brown fur and a cream mane walked up next to the first, forcing Fluttershy to back into the lockers nervously. “Yeah… don’t you want to stick around?”

“Not these guys again,” Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes as she recognized the two ponies. Ever since she had known the pair from when she got her cutie mark, they had been nothing but trouble for Fluttershy and anyone else they thought they could pick on.

Fluttershy shifted her shaking eyes back and forth between the pair as they looked to her with devilish smirks. “Guys… I-I don’t want any trouble,”

“Trouble?” The orange stallion scoffed. “Do you really think so bad of us?”

The brown pony chuckled alongside his friend. “Maybe we should show you just how much trouble we can be,”

“Hey, featherbrains…” Rainbow Dash announced her presence while walking up to the three ponies. She casually strolled past the two stallions and stood between them and Fluttershy. “Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?” She asked while glaring at the pair.

“Rainbow Dash…” Fluttershy smiled in relief as she saw her friend standing up for her.

The orange stallion narrowed his eyes to meet Rainbow’s icy stare. “Well, well, if it isn’t little miss hotshot. Have you come to rescue your marefriend?”

“I can’t help but notice a lot of attitude coming from this direction. Do you want me to drop you down a peg or two, for old time’s sake?” Rainbow Dash smirked while nodding to her cutie mark. The two ponies’ smug expressions faded as she refused to back down.

“Don’t act like that stupid race meant anything. We all know you cheated, anyway,” The orange stallion scoffed dismissively.

Before Rainbow Dash and the stubborn stallion could get any closer to ripping each other apart verbally or otherwise, the group heard footsteps approaching as someone else walked up to them.

“Is there a problem over here?” A familiar voice asked from the side.

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy turned their heads and saw a blue stallion walking up and standing with them. While Fluttershy had no idea who the strange pony was, Rainbow Dash recognized him.

“Blue Bolt…? What are you doing here?” Rainbow asked while looking to the stallion with a confused expression.

“I saw that these hoofheads were giving you some trouble… figured I might as well step in,” Blue Bolt glanced to the cyan mare and smirked before looking back to the other two stallions with a serious expression.

“Really? You’re just going to let the new kid bail you out like this?” The orange stallion asked while looking to Rainbow Dash in a condescending manner. He lowered his expression before glaring at the bold newcomer. “You’re making one hay of a first impression newbie… we’ll have to remember this the next time we see you,”

“Yeah… what he said,” The other pony added, glaring at the trio along with his companion.

“How about you two run along? Isn’t there someone else you could be flaunting your insecurities to?” Blue Bolt smirked while nodding to the side, eliciting an angry growl from the orange pony.

“This isn’t over, Rainbow Crash.” The orange stallion glared at the cyan mare before walking away with his companion in tow. The trio watched the pair walking down the hallway until they were out of sight.

“Man… and they say puberty hits us hard,” Rainbow Dash shook her head at the two ponies. She then settled her attention on Fluttershy. “Are you alright, Flutters?”

Fluttershy took a moment to recompose herself before smiling slightly. “Yes… I’m fine now, thanks to you and…” She paused as she turned to the blue stallion.

“Oh, right… you two haven’t met yet,” Rainbow Dash kicked herself mentally. “Um… Fluttershy, this is Blue Bolt… the new student who may also be sort of stalking me,” She added with a hesitant chuckle.

Blue Bolt raised his eyebrows in surprise. “What? No… Running into you twice is hardly stalking you,” He stammered defensively.

Fluttershy giggled slightly before trailing off and smiling at the stallion. “Well, it’s nice to meet you Blue Bolt. Thanks for standing up to those guys for me,” She said while reaching out to shake the stallion’s hoof.

“My pleasure,” Blue Bolt replied, happily accepting the yellow mare’s gesture.

Rainbow Dash rubbed the back of her neck pensively while looking down at the floor. “You know, Blue Bolt… me and Fluttershy were going to go hang out over on the flying course for a while before heading home. Since you seem to be running into us a lot, why don’t you come along with us so we can get to know you a bit better?” She offered.

Blue Bolt was surprised to receive such an invitation so soon after meeting the two mares. Still, he seemed flattered to have the opportunity. “Sure… I’ve got nothing planned for today,”

With their potential new friend in tow, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy walked out of the school and flew over to the side of the building where the flying course was. They found a nice spot behind one of the bleachers meant for spectators and relaxed.

While they watched the clouds rolling by in the sky above, the three pegasi talked and got better acquainted with each other. They shared a few laughs, told a few relatable tales from their past, and otherwise talked the time away.

Blue Bolt looked over to see Rainbow Dash lying down with her head on top of her forelegs, and Fluttershy sitting next to her. He smiled slightly as a thought occurred to him. “So… what are you guys planning on doing once you get out of here?” He asked curiously.

“Heh…” Rainbow Dash smirked eagerly as she thought of her answer. “I know what I’m doing… I’m going to join the Wonderbolts and travel around… showing everyone how awesome I can be,”

“Not a bad choice,” Blue Bolt nodded with an impressed expression. “How about you, Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy thought about the question for a moment, seemingly struggling to come up with an answer. “Umm… I guess I would want to be a veterinarian. That way, I can help sick animals get better,”

Rainbow Dash nodded to herself. She figured the yellow mare would say something like that, given her personality and love of animals. “So, what are you going to be, Blue?” Rainbow asked, turning to the stallion curiously.

Blue Bolt looked down in embarrassment as his question was suddenly turned back on him. “I don’t know… it seems kind of stupid when compared to awesome careers like a Wonderbolt… or a vet,” He said reluctantly.

“Come on… tell us. We told you ours,” Rainbow Dash persisted with a slight smirk.

“It’s alright… we won’t judge you,” Fluttershy added softly.

Blue Bolt turned to see the two mares looking at him reassuringly. They seemed genuinely curious about what his dream was. He smiled softly before looking back away. “You know what…? Maybe some other time,” He said while getting up. “It was nice hanging out with you two, but I’ve got to get going. My parents will probably flip if I stay out any longer,”

“Aww… come on, Blue,” Rainbow Dash frowned in disappointment as the stallion spread his wings and took off.

The blue pony hovered in the air and turned to look down at the pair one last time. “I guess I’ll see you guys tomorrow in class,” He said, flying off before either of them could get out another word.

“Why do you always have to scare off our new friends?” Fluttershy asked with a sigh while looking at her cyan companion.

Rainbow Dash shrugged her shoulders. “I didn’t think guys could be shy like that… Maybe I need to work on my people skills?” She pondered briefly before shaking her head and lying back down. “Nah…”

Fluttershy couldn’t help but laugh and shake her head as she watched Rainbow Dash lazing around without a care in the world. “You really know how to attract the shy ones, don’t you?”

Rainbow joined her friend in laughing as she stared up at the sky. She briefly turned her head toward the side, smiling slightly as she thought back to the blue stallion. She looked forward to meeting him again.

Chapter 3

A distant boom ringing in her ears pulled Rainbow Dash from her sleep. She barely even opened her eyes, letting her drowsiness consume her as she laid her head back on her pillow and turned over.

Much to her initial confusion, more strange sounds could be heard around her. As the sleepy haze slowly cleared from her mind, she quickly deduced these sounds to be rain falling against the tent and the ground outside.

“Wh..what the hay?” She muttered in a confused and tired stupor while sitting up and looking around. Just as she got up, another boom sounded out, closer and louder than the previous one. All at once she realized, it was thundering.

The flap to the tent unzipped abruptly and a purple shape came rushing inside. “Oh, thank goodness you’re awake,” The shape exclaimed with a relieved tone. Rainbow quickly identified the voice to be her friend Twilight.

“What’s going on?” Rainbow Dash asked uneasily while trying to look past the unicorn to get a glimpse outside. What she could make out didn’t look good.

Twilight stepped further inside and pulled the tent flap away so the pegasus could see better. The sky outside wasn’t the beautiful sunrise or midday sky that Rainbow had expected when waking up. Instead, there were ominous looking gray and black clouds rolling across the horizon. It also appeared to be raining slightly; not enough to be considered an actual shower, but enough to warrant anyone to get to shelter to avoid the inevitable downpour that was most likely coming next.

“Woah… that doesn’t look good,” Rainbow Dash raised her eyebrows in surprise at how far along the gray clouds were.

Twilight looked at her with a worried expression. “The storm front must have gotten here ahead of schedule. It really snuck up on us… and it doesn’t look pretty.” She explained. “Get your sleeping bag rolled up and help us pack. We need to get out of here before it gets any worse.”

Rainbow Dash nodded, ignoring her drowsiness and rushing to complete her assigned task. Twilight used her horn and helped with rolling up some of the others’ sleeping bags as well.

As the two mares worked to get everything on the inside of the tent packed up, they could hear the distant sound of thunder getting closer. The wind and the rain outside didn’t seem to be getting noticeably worse, but they wouldn’t stay that way for long at this rate.

“Hey, are you two almost done?” An anxious voice chimed in from the front of the tent. The pair turned and noticed Rarity poking her head through the tent flap.

Twilight tugged on the strap holding the last sleeping bag together and let it fall into a neat bundle on the ground. “Just about,” She reported before turning to the white mare. “Go start on getting the tent broken down. We’ll have our things out before you get very far,”

Rarity turned and looked behind her as another crack of thunder reverberated across the land. She turned back to her fellow unicorn with an understandably concerned look on her face. “Please hurry, darling… it is not looking like a walk in the park out here,”

While their friend went back outside, seemingly to recruit the help of the others to get the tent broken down, Twilight and Rainbow Dash hurried to get the rest of their gear packed up and ready to move.

“How did this happen?” Rainbow Dash asked while making sure that her and Fluttershy’s backpacks were all ready to go. “Storms don’t just happen ahead of schedule... and they definitely can’t just sneak up on people,”

Twilight frowned uneasily at the troubling thought. “I’m not sure… all I know is that there are no pegasus teams monitoring or controlling this thing… at least as far as we could see,”

“What?!” Rainbow paused what she was doing and looked to the unicorn in shock. “What do you mean nobody is controlling this thing? This is the middle of Equestria, not the Everfree. Storms don’t just up and happen out here by themselves!”

“I don’t know!” Twilight replied with equal confusion and frustration to her pegasus friend. She took a moment to calm herself down and think rationally. “Look, I can ask questions about what is going on after we get back home. Right now, we need to be out of here before that storm is right on top of us,”

Rainbow Dash glanced back outside to see the ugly looking sky waiting for them. She could hear and see her other friends rushing around outside to get everything ready to leave. They were practically terrified, and she couldn’t blame them.

“Right…” She nodded before returning to her work, more motivated than ever.

After a few moments of packing, the pair finished with all of their gear and personal belongings. They each took a few backpacks with them and stepped outside, only to be met by an uncoordinated mess of ponies trying to hurry every chance they got to deconstruct the tent.

The rain had picked up slightly, still amounting to little more than a sprinkle. Off to the left, the skyline was dominated by flashes of lightning against the pitch black clouds fast approaching. It was hard to see very much of the ground in the distance due to the curtain of heavy rain that seemed to obscure their vision. The ponies definitely did not want to get caught out in that.

As Twilight and Rainbow Dash exited the tent, Pinkie Pie and Blue Bolt rushed up to them.

“Are you guys done in there?” Blue asked urgently.

Twilight glanced behind her, spotting the few bags and backpacks that had been left inside. “Yeah, all the stuff is packed up,” She reported. The pair nodded before heading inside of the tent to gather up the remaining gear.

Off to the side of the tent, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity could be seen struggling to get the tent under control. The wind had picked up slightly, making the many straps and smaller components of the tent wave about uncontrollably.

“Twilight, we could use a helpin’ hoof over here!” Applejack called while looking to the unicorn pleadingly.

“Coming!” Twilight exclaimed while setting the bags she was carrying down. She rushed off to assist the two mares with getting the tent under control.

Rainbow Dash turned to see how Pinkie and Blue Bolt were doing. Right on cue, the pair exited the tent carrying as much stuff as they could manage.

“Is that everything?” Rainbow asked curiously.

“Yeah,” Blue replied. “We’re all set once we get the tent packed up,”

“Then let’s get on it! That storm isn’t gonna slow down to wait for us!” Rainbow Dash suggested urgently. Her two companions nodded before joining her in helping the others with the tent.

With everypony working together, they managed to shrink the tent down to manageable size in a few minutes. While it might not have been exactly as it had been when it came out of its original bag, it fit into the backpack well enough to warrant the group to count it as finished.

The wind and rain kept intensifying as the distant thunder and lightning became much less distant. Before the group could get their bags together, the reprieve they were fortunate enough to receive ended almost instantaneously as the water started coming down in sheets.

Twilight had to use her horn to provide extra light as the clouds swallowed up the sun ahead of them. They were right on the edge of the nastier looking stuff, and they were losing the race. “Let’s get moving!” She called to her friends. Everyone was quick to follow their purple leader as she started back toward home.

Despite how cold and wet they were getting, and how much the thunder and lightning around them made them nervous, their pace could only go so fast due to the incredible wind blowing against them. The sheer amount of water being thrown into their faces made navigating difficult, even without the decrease in light from cloud cover.

Somewhere off to the left ahead of them, a bolt of lightning came down from the sky and struck the top of the cliff that skirted the clearing. The ponies barely had an instant to prepare before one of the loudest and most jarring noises they had ever experienced rocked through their bodies and kept going.

The sudden vibration and accompanying noise made everyone either jump or yelp in fright. Although it was hard to tell, they could see small rocks falling over the edge and down to the clearing below from where the bolt had struck.

Twilight looked ahead as she heard the rushing sound of water. The stream they had crossed to get to this side of the clearing was up ahead, and it was much more violently fast than they remembered. “Oh no… I forgot about the stream.”

“How are we going to get over that?” Applejack yelled over the sound of the wind and rain. “I don’t know about y’all, but I don’t feel like gettin’ electrocuted like a fly in a bug zapper!”

Twilight looked around at the others. They were nervous and terrified, and rightly so. With the constant threat of lightning overhead and the water from the stream being even more turbulent than before, the possibility of being struck dead by lightning was higher than any of them would have liked.

“I don’t think we have a choice!” Twilight exclaimed. “We need to get across and get off this cliff as soon as possible, or we’re going to be struck by lightning whether or not we’re touching water!”

While the unease and tension in the group was audible without words, they all seemed to agree with the unicorn. At the very least, they knew that she was right about one thing. They had to get to shelter as soon as possible.

Walking along the roaring waters of the stream, the ponies searched for the crossing they used yesterday. The rocks they had hopped across were their only hope of getting across without taking a running leap and swimming like there was no tomorrow. They were already above normal ground level, so nobody wanted to increase their chance of being electrocuted any further.

Finally, after nearly giving up hope, Fluttershy managed to spot a difference in color amid the rushing waters. “There!” She exclaimed while pointing her friends to her discovery. The others turned, only to see the rocks they were seeking out. The sight of the rocks, however, was less pleasing than they first thought.

The increase in the flow of the water meant that the rocks were nearly submerged. Only their tops managed to peek out from the constant flow, and even they looked slick and wet as the stream crashed around them.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me!” Twilight exclaimed in frustration.

Rarity recoiled in shock as she saw what she had to walk over. “There is no way I am going over that! If the lightning doesn’t get me, the stream will just wash me away!”

“I don’t think we have much of a choice,” Rainbow Dash said while spreading her wings to test them against the wind. Even trying to lift off of the ground resulted in her being blown back violently. “I would suggest we carry you guys over, but even I would have a hard time flying in this wind,”

Twilight looked around to see her friends silently dreading the idea of crossing. The storm rolling in showed no signs of stopping, and they had to move. Finally, she steeled her expression and faced the roaring waters ahead of her.

“There’s no time for hesitating, we need to move!” She exclaimed while rushing forward.

The others gasped in shock as the unicorn stepped onto the first of the rocks and started crossing. While she was having a hard time balancing, her determination seemed to outweigh her fear of falling in.

“You heard her, let’s get going!” Blue Bolt suggested while stepping up to the stream. The others took a moment to look at the pair like they were crazy before throwing caution to the abundance of wind and stepping up to cross.

If the wind pushing against them and the water pushing them to the side wasn’t enough, the weight on their backs from all of the gear they were carrying made the ponies about as balanced as a drunken mountain goat. Still, they all slowly pressed forward, being careful to keep their hooves planted as they crossed from rock to slippery rock.

“Woah!” Pinkie exclaimed as one of the crashing waves sent her slipping off balance.

She flailed to get back to stable ground, but she was clearly dipping sideways. Before she fell off of the rocks, however, she felt someone biting down on her tail and pulling her back to a seated position. She turned her head and saw Applejack behind her, reeling back from offering her assistance.

“Thanks… that was a close one.”

“Don’t mention it, just keep movin’.” Applejack replied. Pinkie nodded before carefully getting back to her feet and continuing along the crossing.

After some more tense minutes of stepping from rock to rock, the ponies gradually started making it to the other side. Twilight and the others waited by the edge of the stream, watching their friends crossing and waiting to help if the need arose.

By some stroke of luck, all of them managed to get across without major issue. Wasting no time on patting themselves on the back, the ponies quickly made for the trail around the cliff that would eventually take them back to Ponyville.

Twilight kept at the front of the group, providing light and making sure that the ground was traversable. Due to the heavy rainfall, the dirt beneath them had already turned to mud and was rapidly becoming oversaturated. Soon enough, they would be standing in water.

Thankfully, as they reached the cliffside and started along the path, the rock face to their left provided some shelter from the rain. Still, the sheer drop-off to their right was all the more intimidating with the wind and slick dirt factored in.

“Keep moving everyone!” Twilight called behind her, using a foreleg to shield her face from the rain. “Once we make it off this cliff, we can head back to town!”

“Shouldn’t we find shelter or something?” Fluttershy asked. The thought of making the long trek home in this weather seemed understandably troubling.

“That would be a great idea, Fluttershy,” Twilight replied. “Unfortunately, I don’t think we’re going to find much shelter out here. I didn’t see any caves when we came up the trail, and I really don’t think that forest would be a good place to stay until the storm passes over,”

Fluttershy and the others glanced to the side, looking to the small view of the treetops below they could get from their position against the cliff. The unicorn was probably right. Even without the risk of one of the trees near them being struck by lightning, who knows what kind of wild animals they would find down there.

Suddenly, Twilight paused as something fell and rolled by in front of her. She looked to the side, only to see a rock settling in place in the mud. As she turned her gaze ahead again, she could see more rocks rolling down from the cliff beside her.

“What’s that sound?” Pinkie asked from the back of the group, drawing attention to what sounded like a low rumbling.

Before anyone could speak up any further, Twilight yelped and jumped back as a large cluster of rocks and mud sailed past where she just was. She looked up, only to widen her eyes as she saw a multitude of rocks falling down the cliff side and taking the unstable sediment with them.

“Mudslide!”

Everyone broke out into as much of a sprint as they could manage as rocks and piles of dirt started coming down and bouncing across the ledge they were on. It was like the cliff was coming down on top of them and trying to knock them off into the forest below.

While most of the group managed to keep ahead of any rocks falling around them, some of them had to dip around or jump over some to prevent themselves from being hit. The smaller pebbles falling down felt like hail against their frail bodies, which was probably a fair comparison considering the horrid weather around them.

Rarity shrieked as she was forced to run to the side to dodge a pile of mud sliding past. Once she got clear of the first obstacle she was trying to avoid, another swiftly took its place. Soon enough she was running back and forth and jumping in place in a desperate struggle against Mother Nature.

“This is not the peaceful outing into the wilderness I was expecting!” She whined fearfully, making an attempt to toss some of the larger rocks out of her way with her magic. From appearances alone, she wasn’t faring too well.

As she was running for her life, Twilight looked ahead and saw a break in the falling rocks. Apparently, she had reached the slope that would carry them back to ground level and away from the cliff.

“Yes…” She smiled widely as she saw that she had made it. With how close the others were behind her, she had no doubt in her mind that everyone was going to make it out of the danger zone with no problem.

“AHH!”

A high pitched scream pierced the air from behind her. Twilight turned around and gasped as she was met with a sight that made her heart sink.

While most of the others were close by and near enough to the end of the mudslide that they were ok, Rarity was still way behind, and close to the edge of the cliff to boot. She was dodging back and forth, barely managing to keep herself from getting plowed over by the waves of mud and rock that were sailing past her.

“Rarity!” Twilight exclaimed while reaching for her trapped friend.

As they saw the white mare in danger, some of the others set their gear down and started fighting against the flow of rocks and mud and slowly made their way toward her. Rainbow Dash seemed to be leading the charge, with Applejack and Blue Bolt not far behind.

Rainbow Dash ducked under a large boulder before hopping over a flowing stream of mud in her way. Progress was slow in the making from having to find a safe path, but she was determined to reach her friend in time.

“Hang in there, Rarity! We’re coming to get you!”

Rarity darted her eyes around in a panic as she found her path forward blocked by a long and continuous stream of mud and other debris. It was like a river of dirt was keeping her from moving any closer to the others, and the way behind her was still a rocky minefield of doom waiting to happen.

“Help me!” She pleaded while struggling to find a way to duck around the many rocks coming her way.

Suddenly, Rarity froze as she saw a cluster of rocks and mud heading her way. There was seemingly no way for her to jump over it or move out of the way without hitting something else.

Rainbow Dash quickened her pace as she saw the same thing that the unicorn had. However, no matter how hard she tried, there were just too many rocks in her path for her to just rush forward and close the short gap to her friend.

“No!” Rainbow yelled as she expected to watch her friend getting blown off the mountain. Before she lost all hope, however, a blur of color came from the side and charged straight through an opening in the falling obstacles. Rainbow and the others looked and saw Blue Bolt throwing his own safety out of the window and making a break for the trapped unicorn.

Rarity turned her head away from her impending doom just in time to catch a glimpse of the stallion as he jumped into the rolling mass of mud that was keeping her trapped. He somehow managed to make a second leap, carrying him out of the flow and crashing into her.

“Get down!” Blue Bolt exclaimed while putting all of his weight into shoving the unicorn aside. The momentum he gave her was enough to send her out of the path of the rocks; and although she had a painfully rough landing, she wasn’t in any immediate danger. Blue Bolt, however, was another story entirely.

As she grunted in pain from her abrupt landing, Rarity looked up to see her heroic savior. What she wasn’t prepared to see, however, was the sight of the wall of rocks that was meant to hit her slamming into the stallion instead and sending him off the side of the cliff.

“Blue Bolt!” She gasped.

Another blur of color to her side made the unicorn turn her attention away. She looked ahead just in time to spot Rainbow Dash rushing past and making a leap to reach the falling stallion.

“Blue!” Rainbow exclaimed in a panic while desperately reaching for him. By some miracle, she managed to grab him by a foreleg before he fell completely out of reach. But as she spread her wings and tried to get back to solid ground, she swiftly learned that her luck had run out.

The fierce winds that were just slowing their pace down before were now blowing her toward the forest below. She could barely even hover in place, let alone gain the few inches of height she would need to reach the edge of the cliff again.

“What are you doing?!” Blue Bolt asked while looking up to the cyan mare in shock.

“Saving your tail!” Rainbow replied through gritted teeth. “Gah… and it would be really awesome if you could help a little bit!”

Blue glanced down to his wings before looking back to the other pegasus nervously. “I’m… not sure if I-”

“Rainbow Dash, look out!” Rarity and the others yelled from above.

The pair turned their heads, only to be met with the sight of another large cluster of rocks heading straight for them. Rainbow Dash yelped in surprise and beat her wings as hard as she could to overcome the wind, but it was far too late to do anything meaningful.

*Thwack*

Twilight and the others watched in abject horror as the two pegasi were smacked out of the air by the falling rocks and sent hurtling down toward the forest below. They both screamed, and Rainbow Dash tried to break her fall with her wings, but before she could halt her momentum, the top of a tree did it for her.

As the fearful screaming ceased and their bodies fell out of sight under the canopy of trees, only the sounds of the mudslide mixed in with the constant thunder and rain overhead. However, it seemed as though the mudslide was coming to an end.

The number and size of the falling rocks decreased vastly, along with the amount of mud coming off the cliff side. When the ponies deemed it safe enough, they all ran over to the white unicorn and joined her in staring wide eyed over the edge where their two friends had just vanished. There were no signs of either pegasus anywhere except for a few broken branches on the trees, and even these visual indications disappeared behind a maze of leaves and bark and darkness.

Fluttershy slowly walked closer to the edge of the cliff, staring down in shocked disbelief. She expected to see her cyan friend popping back up any minute with Blue Bolt either in her forelegs or over her back or something else heroic of that sort. Rainbow Dash always faced adversity and came out the other side with a smug expression on her face and a triumphant cheer, but the more time went by, the more Fluttershy started to doubt. As the forest below remained relatively motionless and the thunder crackled around her, the yellow mare felt tears streaming down her face and disappearing amid the rain hitting her.

“RAINBOW DASH!”

Chapter 4

The shrill ring of a school bell pierced through the air, dismissing classes for the day and snapping Rainbow Dash from her thoughts. She looked up, only to see the other students in the room getting up and leaving.

“Alright, everyone be sure to let me know if you have any questions,” The teacher said at the front of the room. “It’s important that you know this stuff. You can never be too early to study for finals,” He cautioned.

Aww man… how was I supposed to remember all of that junk? Rainbow thought while fighting the urge to groan. Oh well… I guess there’s always next time. She smirked to herself as she got out of her chair and exited the room.

The hall outside was already packed with mentally drained ponies on their way out of school. Rainbow waded her way through the crowd, barely even paying attention to anything or anyone. Her eyes searched the area ahead until they focused on a familiar yellow mare. Once she saw her friend, she smiled and picked up her pace.

“Hey, Fluttershy!” Rainbow called as she neared the shy pony.

Fluttershy looked over as she heard her name called. She smiled brightly as she saw the cyan mare trotting up to her. “Hi, Rainbow Dash,”

“So… are we still on for tomorrow?” Rainbow asked, hiding a bit of eagerness behind a patient facade.

“Yeah, of course,” Fluttershy nodded. “I wouldn’t miss spending some time with you,”

While the pair was chatting, they suddenly noticed another pony walking up to them. As they turned to look, they noticed the stallion they had met recently.

“Hey guys… what’s up?” Blue Bolt asked curiously, glancing between the two mares. They were glad to know that he was starting to see them as friends enough to just walk up to them.

Rainbow Dash shrugged her shoulders. “Eh… nothing much,” She thought for a moment before perking up. “Although, me and Flutters here were just making plans for the weekend. You could join us if you want,”

“Really?” Blue raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Are you sure you wouldn’t mind?”

Both of them shook their heads. “No, not at all. We would love for you to join us,” Fluttershy explained.

“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash added. “We can play some hoofball, see who can pop the most clouds… and if you’re lucky, I might give you another shot at beating me in a race,” She smirked at the stallion impishly.

Blue Bolt cringed slightly at the suggestion. “I don’t know about that one. As much as I would love the challenge, you kind of creamed me last time,”

“Well, you never know. Things might go differently if we both start at the same time and make it official,” Rainbow Dash suggested. The stallion looked back at her and cocked an eyebrow, causing her to smile nervously.

“Yyyeeah-”

“Probably not,” Rainbow nodded along with the blue pony as they both came to the same conclusion. She shared a chuckle with him and Fluttershy as they all started making their way through the hall together.

Unbeknownst to the cyan mare, something was waiting for her outside of the school building; something, or rather, someone.

High above the steps outside of the main entrance, two stallions were lying in wait atop a small cluster of clouds. One had orange fur and a brown mane, while the other had brown fur and a cream mane.

The brown stallion groaned from boredom while lying on his back and staring up at the sky. “Come on, man… we’ve been waiting here forever. We probably missed her when everyone else came out.”

The orange pony, who was lying on his stomach and diligently looking down at the ground below, shifted his attention to his companion and glared. “She’ll come out sooner or later; and when she does, she’s going to get the scare of her life,” He chuckled deviously before looking back down.

“Remind me again why we’re doing this?” The brown pony asked. “Couldn’t we just rough her up or somethin instead of this?”

The other stallion raised an eyebrow warily. “Dude… you’d beat up a girl? That’s a new low for you,” He shook his head. “We’re just going to teach her a lesson… then she’ll think twice before mouthing off again,”

“Well, we better be teaching this lesson soon. I’m falling asleep over here,” The brown pony said, holding in a yawn.

Suddenly, the orange pony caught a glimpse of movement down by the entrance to the school. He peered over the edge of the cloud, his eyes lighting up as he saw the cyan mare walking out of the building along with two others.

“Ha! There she is!” He exclaimed, being careful to keep his excitement from being too loud.

Down on the steps, Rainbow Dash and her two companions stepped outside while still chatting with each other. Rainbow stole a glance over the edge at the bottom of the steps, briefly admiring the sight of the other floating buildings further down and the beautiful landscape far below.

“So, do you guys want to hang out for a bit before heading home?” She asked, turning to her companions.

Fluttershy shook her head hesitantly. “Sorry, but I can’t today.”

“Yeah… I should be going too,” Blue Bolt added. “I’ll meet up with you guys tomorrow.”

Rainbow Dash shrugged in disappointment. Still, she was glad that she would be spending time with the pair all weekend. “Alright, I guess I’ll head home too. Bye guys.” She waved, starting to walk down the steps all the way so she could take off.

Unheard by any of the three pegasi, the two stallions above were urgently rushing to strike before their opportunity vanished.

The orange stallion hopped up and down on the cloud frantically, trying to elicit a small flash of lightning and some thunder. However, the cloud seemed to have other ideas.

Off to the side, the brown pony watched his companion struggling with the cloud before shifting his gaze down to the steps. “Uh… she’s leaving. You better hurry it up man,”

The other stallion grunted from exertion, still hopping as forcefully as he could to get a reaction out of the puffy ball. “Gah… what gives?! Dude, where the hay did you get this cloud?!” He growled to his friend in frustration.

“The sky… where did you think I got it?!”

Meanwhile, the muffled noise being made by the pair started to become noticeable further down. Blue Bolt raised an eyebrow and glanced upwards, only growing more confused as he saw a few clouds overhead and a hint of orange bouncing up and down.

“What the…”

“Grr…” The orange stallion was practically fuming with anger by this point. He pulled air between his teeth and glared down at the cloud like it was actively thwarting his efforts. Finally, he gave one last mighty jump. “Work you stupid little-” Before the pony could finish his statement, he felt the cloud beneath him giving a little more than usual as his hooves sank in.

As well as shifting from white to black alarmingly fast, the cloud started undulating and emitting sparks across its surface. Near the bottom of the cloud, a gathering of electricity could be seen and heard. The stallion on top of the cloud widened his eyes nervously and backpedalled off of the offending ball and onto a friendlier looking white cloud.

An unnerving buzzing sound filled the air, causing Rainbow Dash to pause mid-step. The sound seemed to be coming from above her.

“What the h-”

“Rainbow Dash, lookout!” Blue Bolt shouted from behind her.

The cyan mare turned and looked up, only to see the blackened cloud sitting directly above her. By the time she looked, a stabbing flash of light was already traveling down toward her.

Rainbow Dash started to tense up and scream, until she was interrupted by something slamming into her and pushing her backwards. The next thing she knew, a deafening bang cracked through the air, and she caught a glimpse of a blinding white light before clenching her eyes shut.

Her ears were ringing, and her eyes were stinging a little. It took her a solid second to realize she was falling. In a panic, she spread her wings and yelped while frantically trying to right herself in the air. As she opened her eyes, she managed to stop her descent so she could at least try to get her bearings.

The world around her slowly shifted back to normal as her hearing came back.

“Blue Bolt!”

A faint voice screamed from somewhere above. Rainbow Dash looked up, only to see Fluttershy staring down at her from the edge of the mass of clouds the school sat on. However, the yellow mare didn’t seem to be looking at her. Rather, Fluttershy was looking past her, and there was a palpable sense of terror in the yellow pony’s eyes.

All at once, the realization of what had happened hit her like a ton of bricks.“Blue Bolt!” Rainbow Dash darted her head downwards, feverishly searching for the stallion. She feared that the bolt of lightning he just pushed her away from hit him instead, causing him to fall. While she was dreadfully darting her eyes along the ground far below, frantically searching for a faint blue shape plummeting toward certain doom, the blue shape she was looking for came into view, only it was much closer than she first assumed.

The Blue stallion was lying in a crumpled heap on the rooftop of a building sitting on a cloud further down. It was a little hard to see his condition from how far away she was, but the cyan mare could tell that he was on his side, and that he wasn’t moving.

Rainbow Dash beat her wings and swooped down toward the stallion. She swiftly closed the distance and landed on the roof of the building, her face growing pale as she got a closer look.

There were a few small cracks in the roof of the building spiraling out from where the stallion had impacted. There was also a small amount of blood underneath his head that looked very concerning. However, perhaps the most disturbing looking thing was the stallion’s wing, which was completely snapped in the wrong direction, seemingly from him landing on top of it.

“Oh… oh my gosh, Blue Bolt.” Rainbow Dash nearly fell back onto her haunches in shock as she saw the blue pony lying still before her. “Blue! Can you hear me?!” She reached over and gently shook the unconscious stallion.

Hearing wing flaps approaching, Rainbow looked up and saw Fluttershy hovering in the air a few feet away. And behind the yellow mare, the two stallions were also present, staring ahead with pale expressions.

“Is he ok?!” Fluttershy asked urgently.

“Oh man! I’m so sorry… I didn’t plan on this happening!” The orange stallion shook his head, a shocked look on his face.

Rainbow Dash narrowed her expression instinctively as she saw the two ponies that caused this mess. However, her disdain for them was swiftly replaced with concern for her friend. “Don’t just sit there, go get help!” She yelled up at the pair.

While Fluttershy flew down to help the cyan mare, the two stallions shared a nervous glance with each other before scrambling to fly and bring back someone better equipped to handle the situation.

“Oh no…” Fluttershy cupped a hoof over her muzzle, her eyes shakily examining the stallion’s injuries. “Is he breathing?” She asked, silently praying that Blue Bolt was still alive.

Rainbow Dash had to forcibly stop herself from going into a panic even greater than the one she was already in. She reached a shaky hoof over and checked for a pulse. “I think so… Oh man, what do we do?” She briefly ran a hoof down her face before returning to her efforts of waking the stallion. “Come on, Blue Bolt… please wake up!”

The time it took for others to arrive and transport Blue Bolt to the hospital was roughly ten minutes. However, it might as well have been an eternity for Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. The two mares stood in the lobby of the hospital and watched as their friend was whisked away on a gurney. The many nurses and doctors tending to him shouted orders and bits of information back and forth as they went, and none of it sounded good.

Despite Rainbow Dash’s insistence that she be updated on the stallion’s status every few minutes, she and her yellow companion were forced to sit and wait.

“Oh my gosh… oh my gosh…” Rainbow paced back and forth, only taking a few steps at a time before going back in a new direction. She could hardly keep still, and it looked like she was having a panic attack. “This is all my fault! If he didn’t push me out of the way, none of this would have happened!”

Fluttershy frowned with concern as the cyan mare thumped back into a chair and covered her face with her hooves. “Dashie… you can’t say that,” She reached over and tried to put a hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder, only to have her friend pull away and sit forward.

“I can say that, because it’s the truth!” Rainbow Dash had to take a minute to calm her breathing, much to Fluttershy’s relief. She rested her face in her hooves, still anxiously rubbing them up and down.

Suddenly, the doors to the lobby burst open and another pony rushed in. It was an older looking stallion with light blue fur and white streaks in his black hair. He looked around the lobby before settling his eyes on the nurse behind the desk at the back of the room, a sense of urgency and concern about him. “Where’s my son?!” He asked, probably a bit louder than he intended, as he rushed over to the desk.

The nurse behind the desk seemed a bit concerned for how upset the stallion was, but she understood why. “Sir… your son was in an accident. We’re doing everything we can to help him,”

The stallion’s eyes widened as he heard such shocking news. He prepared to bark more questions at the nurse, but decided to take a minute to calm himself before startling the poor mare. “Can’t you let me see him?”

“I’m sorry, but that’s not possible right now,” The nurse explained. She pointed over to the rows of seats by the two pegasi. “Please, take a seat. We will let you know as soon as anything develops.”

Although that was probably the last thing he wanted to hear, the stallion sighed and nodded before walking off. He sulked over to the waiting room chairs and took a seat a few empty spots down from Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.

Rainbow Dash watched him, a somber look of sadness on her face. She felt smaller than a parasprite, but somehow she felt a gnawing desire to at least talk to him. She looked down uncomfortably before taking a deep breath and sighing. “Are you Blue Bolt’s father?” She asked an obvious question, hoping to bridge the gap somehow.

The stallion looked up, noticing the two mares for perhaps the first time since he arrived in the lobby. “Yes… I am,” He replied calmly, though he still sounded worried. “Do you know him?”

Rainbow Dash swallowed uncomfortably and nodded, a bit of a shameful expression on her face. “Y-yeah… a little bit,” She explained. “I met him a few days ago after school,”

Much to her surprise, the stallion nodded as if he realized something. “Ah… so you must be Rainbow Dash,” He said. His words weren’t harsh or accusatory at all, but somehow they created a nervous pit in the cyan mare’s gut.

“E-excuse me?” She tilted her head, trying to hide her nervous sweating.

“Blue Bolt told me about a mare that whooped his tail on the racetrack,” The stallion flashed a smirk before returning to his casual expression of gloom. “You must be pretty fast,”

Rainbow Dash flashed a smile as well. “Well… heh… I don’t like to toot my own horn,” She rubbed the back of her head nervously, unsure of how to feel. Hearing a slight chuckle, she looked back up in surprise.

“I can see why Blue likes you so much…” He stated. His eyes shifted down and grew distant as he withdrew into his thoughts briefly. Seeing the stallion so sullen only made Rainbow Dash feel worse.

The cyan mare opened her mouth to say something, but she was interrupted suddenly by the doors on the other side of the room opening. All three of them looked over, only to see a stallion clad in a white coat walking out with an expression of passive unease barely being concealed on his face.

Rainbow Dash looked back over as she noticed the older stallion getting up. He trotted over to the doctor by the back of the room urgently. Rainbow listened anxiously as the two started to talk.

The two stallions were talking quietly enough that she could barely hear them. She missed a few words here and there, but she could tell that they were referring to Blue Bolt.

“Is he ok?” The blue stallion asked, trying to coax the doctor into being as honest as possible. “Is my son ok or not?”

The doctor looked away for a moment before seemingly sighing and looking back somberly. “We’ve managed to stabilize him, but… his wing was damaged pretty badly,”

The pair continued their hushed conversation. Rainbow Dash tried not to listen in, but she couldn’t help but glue her eyes and strain her ears to hear every pertinent bit of information about Blue Bolt. Somehow, despite the difficulty she had in hearing some of their conversation, the words ‘never fly again’ graced her ears. Rainbow sat back in her seat, feeling like someone had just punched her in the gut. She just stared ahead blankly while the blue Stallion dealt with the doctor’s statement in his own way.

“Blue Bolt… I’m so sorry,” She muttered to herself sadly, fighting back a few tears.

.
…
…..
*Drip*

*Drip*

Rainbow Dash suddenly found herself awake amid a haze of blackness. Her senses had barely even started to come back to her, and her head felt like a cluttered mess. She slowly creaked open her eyes before losing the battle with her exhaustion and closing them again.

*Drip*

Something cold and wet abruptly fell onto her cheek, causing her to tense up. After a brief moment, another drop assaulted her still fragile senses, jerking her back to reality much sooner than she would have liked.

As she sluggishly lifted her head up, a myriad of aches and pains came to her attention. There was a dull throbbing coming from her head and the wing she was apparently lying on, and her whole body had shooting pains that would come and go.

Another cold drop landed on her face, making her look upward. The apparent culprit of the cold and wet interruption to her slumber was a leafy branch above her steadily dripping water down.

“Wh… w-what?” She muttered to herself while craning her head around and taking in her surroundings. From the look of it, she was in the midst of an expansive forest. The ground was wet and muddy, with various wild grasses and plants poking up from the ground and nearly covering it in places. The trees around her varied in thickness and shape, but all of them were tall. Along with a ton of muddy rocks and debris from the mudslide, broken branches and twigs littered her immediate area, seemingly having come from above.

As the haze slowly lifted from her mind, she thought back to what she was doing before ending up here. She remembered the hike and the following morning. She remembered racing against the approaching storm. And finally, she remembered the mudslide, and her short descent into the forest beneath the cliff. Most of all, however, one thing was racing around in her mind.

“Blue…?” She called weakly before shooting her eyes open and rushing to get to her feet. “Blue Bo- AGH!” She yelped suddenly and fell back to her side. When she tried to get up, the throbbing in her wing intensified until it was a mind numbing stabbing sensation.

Rainbow Dash grit her teeth and tensed up as she waited for the wave of pain to stop. Being extra careful to move slowly, she rolled off of the feathery appendage and craned her head to see what the problem was. Much to her initial shock, her left wing was bent out of shape, and any attempts to move it were met with intense pain.

“Oh man… gahh…” She cringed while slowly standing up. Her sore body wasn’t making things any easier, but somehow she managed to get on all fours and stagger forward.

“Blue Bolt?! Are you here?!” She called and looked around again. Nothing but trees, branches, and underbrush greeted her as far as she could see. However, turning around was met with the cliff face that she and the stallion had fallen off of. The rocky wall extended upwards, far past the thick canopy of trees and out of sight.

As she was still looking around, a soft groan came from the left. Rainbow Dash spun around and scanned her eyes around the area while listening for another sound. Much to her relief, she heard another groan and saw some of the grass and low branches shifting between the trees.

“Blue!” Rainbow cheered happily as she saw a glimpse of a blue shape standing up. She walked as fast as her injuries would allow toward the stallion.

He seemed to be just as beat up as she was, judging from the many cuts and bruises along his body. The many broken bits of tree branches around him indicated that this was where he had fallen after she let go of him in mid-air.

Blue Bolt clutched his head and looked around in confusion. As he heard the cyan mare calling him, he turned to see her limping over. “R…Rainbow Dash?” He muttered drowsily, apparently having just woken up.

“Oh, thank the princess you’re alive.” Rainbow Dash smiled in relief while walking up to hug the stallion. Before she reached him, she stopped and nearly fell as another fit of pain overtook her.

“Are you ok?” Blue Bolt frowned in concern as he watched his companion struggling to get back to her hooves.

Rainbow Dash accepted the stallion’s outstretched hoof and climbed back to a seated position. “Ugh… I think so… gah.” She cringed briefly before looking up. “I’m pretty sure my wing is broken though… it hurts like hay.”

Blue Bolt looked to the bent appendage and was taken aback by shock. He looked to his own wing and frowned slightly before trying to unfold it. Judging from the shaky movement, it seemed as though he was having trouble even articulating it. “Gah… I think mine is too… I can’t move it.”

“Oh man… isn’t that your bad wing?” Rainbow Dash asked uneasily. She covered her mouth and groaned anxiously as she thought about how catastrophic a second wing injury to the same wing could be.

“Uh… y-yeah… I guess it is, isn’t it?” Blue Bolt sighed sadly. “Well… it doesn’t look nearly as bad as last time… and it definitely looks better than yours. Are you sure you’re alright?”

“Yeah, yeah… I’m good… all things considered,” Rainbow said while looking up. “Man… it must have been a rough fall. How long have we been out?” She asked rhetorically, though she would have been open to a guess from her companion.

Although it was hard to see, the sky above seemed to be more gray than black. The water falling down on them also seemed to be left over rain dripping down from the trees rather than actual rainfall. The far off sound of thunder all but confirmed the ponies’ conjecture; they had been out long enough for the storm to pass over them.

“H…how are we going to get out of here if we can’t fly?” Blue Bolt asked hesitantly.

The question troubled Rainbow Dash into a brief silence. “Umm… I don’t know,” She shrugged. “Hey, maybe the others are still up there?” She suggested before turning to look up at the cliff.

“HELLO?! TWILIGHT… APPLEJACK?! ANYBODY UP THERE?!” She yelled. Only the cyan mare’s echoing voice came back to them, giving them a small idea of how far out the forest extended around them.

“I don’t think they’re up there anymore,” Blue Bolt reasoned.

Rainbow nodded slowly. “Yeah… they probably headed back to Ponyville to get out of the storm and get some help… hopefully,”

“Well, I don’t think we should stick around and wait for help to arrive,” Blue said, turning to the overwhelming forest they had been swallowed up by. “Especially since every predator within a mile radius probably just heard you shouting.”

“Hehe… yeah,” Rainbow Dash chuckled nervously while shifting her eyes to the darkened woods that were surrounding them. There were all manner of noises that indicated the presence of life, and she did not want to run into anything larger than a raccoon with how injured she and the stallion were.

“Maybe…” She muttered while deep in thought, struggling to come up with a plan of action. “Maybe we can… Oh! What if we follow the cliff to the edge of the forest? We weren’t that far away when we fell… I’ll bet we can make it to town before nightfall if we hurry,” She suggested eagerly.

Blue Bolt smiled as well. “That sounds like a good plan,”

Pushing through the aches and pains surging through her body, Rainbow Dash headed through the trees parallel to the cliff. Blue Bolt followed after her, making sure to stay close so neither of them would lose each other.

Making their way through the forest wasn’t as easy as they first thought. The ground was muddy, to the point that their hooves were sinking in slightly; it was also rough and uneven, with miniature dips and slopes and tree roots making their progress slow and uncomfortable. Due to the storm that had passed through while they were out, they were forced to slog through cold and damp vegetation on top of the mud. All in all, they were pretty miserable and eager to be back home.

Rainbow Dash hugged the side of the cliff as much as she could, using the small layer of angled rock that met the ground to partially avoid the mud. Still, the occasional tree that impeded her path forced her to move around.

Blue Bolt watched his companion’s sluggish and slow movements with a concerned expression. She seemed to be having trouble walking, but she was powering through whatever pain she felt to keep going. “Are you sure you’re ok? I can help you walk if you want,”

Rainbow glanced to the side, accidentally locking eyes with the stallion. He had a genuinely worried look on his face that she hadn’t seen in a long time. “N-no... it’s fine, I’m just a little sore,” She replied while shifting her eyes to the ground uncomfortably.

Oh man… of all the people I could have gotten stranded with, why did it have to be him?

“Y’know…” Blue spoke up, drawing Rainbow out of her thoughts. “I can’t believe you did that…”

Rainbow Dash tilted her head in confusion. She turned to face the stallion. “Did what…?”

“Back there, when you jumped over the edge like that to catch me,” Blue clarified.

“Well… what was I supposed to do, let you fall?”

“Heh… I guess you haven’t changed much. You’re always putting friends first… if we are still friends… that is,” Blue Bolt looked away hesitantly. He remained silent so long that Rainbow turned away and kept going, but eventually, he spoke again. “Rainbow Dash…”

She paused and turned toward the stallion again. The troubled expression on his face immediately made her uneasy. “What is it?” She asked, though she feared that she might already know what was coming up.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about the past recently,” Blue explained, struggling to articulate his thoughts into words. “Ever since you and the others came to see me when I first got to town, I just… kept thinking about what happened between us,”

Rainbow Dash offered a hollow chuckle and rubbed the back of her head. “Well, we did have some good times… minus your wing getting broken of course, hehe…” She trailed off as she saw that her companion wasn’t laughing.

“You know I’m not talking about that… I meant what happened between us at the big dance,” Blue Bolt said, his mouth set in a somber line. Rainbow Dash’s expression fell as he continued. “I’ve thought about at least a hundred ways that night could have gone, but the way it turned out… You have to understand, I…” He shook his head in frustration, seemingly struggling with something, before sighing and looking at her with soft eyes. “I’m sorry about what I did… Leaving you like that was the last thing you deserved after everything you did for me,”

Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to say something but stopped herself midway through. She shifted her eyes to the side and rubbed the back of her neck with an uncomfortable sigh. With the silence in the air, the soft sounds of the forest around them briefly grabbed their attention. “Blue… let’s just keep walking,” She suggested, offering him a pleading expression and nodding to the side.

Blue Bolt hesitated for a moment, looking straight ahead at the cyan pegasus before his eyes fell. “Ok…” He said simply with a nod. Although he was sad to hear his companion’s avoidance of the topic, he understood. If she wasn’t ready to talk about the past, then he wouldn’t force it on her, at least not just yet.

The pair continued making their way through the forest, more silent than ever, and each harboring a bit of a gloomy expression on their face that wouldn’t fade for some time.

As she was walking, Rainbow Dash’s ears perked up and she snapped her attention ahead as what sounded like a twig snapping was heard.

Blue Bolt paused abruptly as he noticed the mare ahead of him stopped in her tracks. “Hey, what’s wr-” He fell silent as she stuck a foreleg out and stopped him from continuing. She silently motioned for him to keep quiet before looking around in a paranoid fashion.

Up ahead seemed to be just more trees, much like everywhere else around them. Before the ponies could satisfy their search for danger, however, a rustling sound cut into the silence and a flash of green moved out from behind a tree.

At first, Blue Bolt thought that the green lights were simply floating by themselves, but as he looked closer, he reeled back as he noticed that the strange glowing was, in fact, the eyes of a creature. The animal was wolf shaped, and it was larger than they were by a frightening margin. Its body was seemingly made out of animated pieces of wood, making it blend into the trees around it.

“Sweet Celestia, what is th-” Blue felt a hoof being clasped over his mouth, cutting off his panicked exclamation.

“Ssshh…” Rainbow Dash whispered nervously before turning to see if the creature had heard them. Thankfully, the wooden wolf was still walking around slowly, sniffing the ground and most likely looking for prey.

Blue Bolt kept staring at the creature as both he and Rainbow Dash quietly hid behind a nearby tree. His mouth was agape in shock, yet he made sure to refrain from making noise. “What in Equestria is that?” He whispered while still watching the beast’s movements.

“It’s a timberwolf,” Rainbow Dash replied directly.

“Wait… that thing is a timberwolf?” Blue glanced at his companion in stunned astonishment before looking back to the predator stalking around.

Rainbow raised an eyebrow and looked down to the stallion huddled next to her. “You don’t know what a timberwolf is?” She asked in surprised confusion.

“I know what they are…” Blue Bolt rolled his eyes. “I’ve lived in Fillydelphia and Cloudsdale my whole life. I’ve heard of them, but I’ve never actually seen one,” He said, a mixture of fear and excitement in his voice.

“Well, today is your lucky day. Now how about we go around it and hope it doesn’t try to eat us?” Rainbow Dash suggested through gritted teeth. She kept darting her head between looking at Blue Bolt and staring at the timberwolf, half expecting it to have gotten much closer in between glances.

“But… we’re almost out of the forest. There’s just one of them, can’t we just run past it… or maybe fight it? It’s made out of wood, right? Let’s just smash it to bits,” Blue suggested with an uncertain shrug of the shoulders. The unimpressed look he was receiving made him reel back slightly.

“Are you being serious right now? It’s hard to tell,” Rainbow said, receiving a nervous smile in return. “Ugh… alright, I’m putting a kibosh on that right now. I’ve tussled with these things before. Even if you can manage to break them apart, they just form back together. We’re giving it a wide berth and going around it, alright?” She said with a stern leer.

“Alright, alright… we go around it, sheesh,” Blue Bolt replied dismissively as he followed the cyan mare away from the tree. “I mean, it’s not like it knows we’re here. Let’s just get past that ugly thing before it-”

*SNAP*

A stick breaking underneath the stallion’s hoof made the pair freeze up and cringe. Up ahead, the timberwolf stopped what it was doing and let out a confused growl while perking its ears up. It started sniffing the ground more intently, making a feeling of dread firmly cement itself in the ponies’ guts.

Rainbow Dash slowly turned to Blue Bolt with an icy glare of disbelief. She probably would have chewed him out, but she was interrupted by a more vicious sounding growl coming from behind her. She turned back, only to see the timberwolf looking their way, and it didn’t look happy to see them.

“RUN!” She yelled to her partner, though he needed no confirmation as both of them darted into a run in the opposite direction.

The pair beat hoof through the twisted mess of trees, roots, and mud as their feral friend gave chase. They could hear the timberwolf’s feet pounding against the ground, along with the barks and snarls that it was making as it anticipated ripping into them.

Rainbow Dash could feel her lungs burning and her wing starting to do the same. Her injuries weren’t helping her run, but her adrenaline was overriding any pain she felt. Still, she barely managed to keep from smacking into trees as she frantically raced to get away.

Looking to her side briefly, she could see Blue Bolt running beside her. Although he was forced to dip around any trees that came his way, he was trying to stay close to her. “This is totally your fault!” She yelled angrily.

“My fault?!” Blue yelled back, hesitating while he jumped over a particularly large tree root. “How is this my fault?!”

“Because if you didn’t… fall… off of that cliff, then I wouldn’t have had to save you, and we wouldn’t be in line to be that thing’s lunch!” She cried, lungs burning.

“I’m starting to think I should have stayed in Fillydelphia!” Blue exclaimed.

Despite their situation, Rainbow couldn’t help but smirk. “Welcome to nature, city boy! Now run like the wind!”

With the snapping jaws of the timberwolf hot on their tails, the two pegasi were fighting a losing battle. The forest around them was no place to be losing a vicious predator in an outright chase, and the wolf showed no signs of stopping. Soon, their stamina would collectively run out, and their lack of wings would literally come back to bite them.

Though they paid little attention at first, the ground started to slope up as they ran. Gradually the slope increased until they were practically running uphill. The trees around them started thinning in number, and soon a clearing could be made out up ahead, along with something else.

Rainbow Dash looked ahead from checking on the timberwolf’s progress. As she did, her eyes lit up as she saw the last thing she expected to see.

The gentle slope they had been going on abruptly ceased at a rocky face that seemingly divided the forest. There were still trees dotted around in fewer number, though the opening created by their absence all but vanished up on top of the miniature cliff. The thick groupings of the tall wooden spires returned in full force past the cliff edge and seemingly continued endlessly.

“Blue, look there!” Rainbow exclaimed eagerly while nodding ahead. The stallion turned to look at what she was pointing out, and his eyes widened as he saw it. While most of the cliff was insurmountable without their wings, there was a thin fallen tree leaning up against it that looked near enough to the top that they could jump up if they ran up it.

“I’m not sure if that thing can hold our weight,” Blue Bolt reasoned uneasily.

Rainbow Dash lowered her eyebrows and let a small smirk creep across her face. “Only one way to find out,”

Racing to get ahead of her companion, Rainbow Dash made a beeline for the fallen tree. She leapt up past the exposed roots, landing near the base of the tree and finding her balance as it shifted downward slightly. The end of the tree was holding fast against the cliff for the moment, but it looked like it could slip at any time.

Blue Bolt shook his head and sighed before gritting his teeth and following the fearless pegasus. While she carefully rushed up the tree, he jumped onto the base and silently tensed up as he expected it to fall. Much to his surprise, the tree was still holding, though it was creaking and knocking rocks loose from the cliff.

“Holy cow… I can’t believe this is working!” Blue chuckled while steadying himself on the trunk. The sound of wood thumping along the ground behind him made him turn his head, only to pale as he saw that the timberwolf was catching up. “Oh man…”

“Blue, get the lead out!”

Turning his attention back ahead, he saw Rainbow Dash already near the top of the tree making a run for the cliff.

Without wasting any further time, the stallion made his way along the tree as fast as he safely could. The higher up he got, the thinner the tree trunk beneath him and the more intimidating the drop below him got.

Up ahead, Rainbow Dash finally reached the edge of the cliff. The top of the tree was close enough that she could jump up and grab the ledge to pull herself up. However, the leaves poking out of the tree and the few branches on this side of the trunk made things a bit difficult.

“Come on, Rainbow… you can do this,” She muttered to herself in the hopes of boosting her confidence. Looking down to her injured wing and noting how sore she was, her chances didn’t seem very high.

Somehow, Rainbow Dash managed to get around the branches and up to the cliff face. She could feel the end of the tree trying to give way underneath her, only to be stopped by the rocks it was wedged on. Without so much as a thought for safety, she jumped up and reached for the ledge, managing to just barely grab it with her hooves. She grunted as she pulled with all of her might to hoist herself up. Although she found a few footholds along the cliff, she was still using all of her limited strength to get herself higher.

“Gah…” She let out an exhausted sigh as she rolled onto the grass beyond the cliff. Her brief rest abruptly ended as she thought to her companion and turned her head toward the drop off to her side, only to gasp. “Blue, hurry it up! It’s right behind you!” She exclaimed as she saw the timberwolf climbing the tree after the blue stallion.

Blue Bolt looked up, spotting the pegasus above him at the top of the cliff. “I’m well aware of that, thanks for reminding me!”

Rainbow Dash watched anxiously as her friend raced to make it up the tree. The predator behind him seemed far less concerned with whether or not it fell as long as it caught up with the fleeing pony. Much to their alarm, the tree started creaking more violently and even shifting downwards slightly.

The combined weight of both Blue Bolt and the timberwolf so near the end of the tree was putting immense pressure on a precariously balanced system. The top of the tree that was wedged into the cliff looked like it was about to slip downwards, and as it started moving, the ponies’ fears were all but confirmed.

“You’ve got to jump for it!” Rainbow exclaimed, paling fearfully as she watched the tree shifting downwards.

Blue Bolt sprinted across the last few inches of ground he had to cover. He heard the timberwolf running behind him to get at him, causing the tree to lose its fragile balance with the cliff. All at once, the tree snapped downwards, and his view was jerked down as well.

“AHH!” He yelped while leaping into the air and scrambling to find something to grab on. Unfortunately for him, the edge of the cliff was far out of his reach, and gravity was only going to pull him further down.

Before the stallion accepted his fate, he felt another hoof reaching down and grabbing his outstretched foreleg. He looked up, only to see Rainbow Dash dangling off of the cliff and holding onto him.

The tree finished its fall to the ground, and the timberwolf let out an agitated howl as it fell along with it. The creature smacked into the ground hard. As it did, its wooden body broke apart in places, leaving it to scatter along the ground and settle into a crumpled heap. The green glow of its eyes vanished almost instantly, leaving the once proud beast no better than a pile of firewood.

The two ponies watched the dust settling below from their position at the top of the cliff. Finally, they faced each other and blinked a few times while processing what had just happened. They couldn’t help it as wide grins fell across their faces.

“You know…” Rainbow Dash said with a brief chuckle. “This is the second time today that I’ve saved your tail from falling off a cliff,”

Blue Bolt scoffed playfully. “Yeah, like the first time counted. Look where we ended up,”

“I don’t think you’re in a very good position to be judging what counts or not,” Rainbow added, nodding below.

“Well, what are you going to do? Just let me fall?” Blue replied.

Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but smirk. “Alright… hrk… let’s get you up here before splinter brain down there pulls himself together,” She grunted while slowly reeling the stallion upwards. It was a slow and awkward process of her moving backwards and him finding footholds to help out, but eventually, the pair managed to finish the climb. Soon enough, they were both lying on the ground and trying to catch their breath.

While they were down on the ground, they took a look around at their new surroundings.

As they suspected before, the forest continued all around them as if the cliff hadn’t even been there to interrupt it. The ground was still at a decent slope, leading even further up. The one plus side to being on top of the cliff, other than being away from the timberwolf at last, was that there was a break in the trees near the edge of the cliff that let them see the sky, gloomy and overcast as it was.

Blue Bolt could still feel his heart racing from the chase he had just survived. Still, he had a smile on his face, as the cyan mare beside him did as well. They both felt relatively good all things considered, perhaps as a side effect of going up against a fierce predator and winning. However, as he looked around the area around the cliff and the forest to the side, a thought occurred to the stallion; a very troubling thought.

“Rainbow Dash,” Blue said while sitting up, a hint of unease in his voice that went undetected.

“Yeah?” Rainbow glanced her eyes toward the stallion, refusing to move from her resting position.

“Where are we?”

With that simple question, Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes before suddenly widening them. She shot up from the ground, darting her head around and searching for the one landmark that they had in this seemingly endless forest. Her heart sank as she realized that the cliff they had been following was nowhere in sight.

“Oh man… Don’t tell me we’re lost,” She fretted anxiously.

Walking to the edge of the cliff and looking to her left, she hoped to see a sign of the distant cliff they had fallen from in the first place. Unfortunately, the trees on the ground below were so tall that they reached eye level even up on the cliff, effectively blocking the view past the small clearing. And with how many twists and turns they had made in the heat of the moment while running from the timberwolf, they couldn’t be sure if they ended up facing the same direction as when they started.

Blue Bolt ran a hoof down his face and groaned in frustration. He let out a breath and tried his best to not let the situation get to him. “Alright… what’s the game plan?” He asked curiously, turning to his partner for suggestions.

“Game plan?” Rainbow Dash chuckled sadly and shook her head. “Blue, there is no game plan. Following that cliff was pretty much our one ticket out short of picking a direction and walking until we run out of forest,” She sat down and let her ears fall as she stared at the ground with a defeated look in her eyes. “Ugh… I wish Fluttershy or Twilight was here. One of them would know how to get us out of this mess,”

The stallion looked at her with a surprised expression. He wasn’t used to seeing her give up so easily. Deciding that he would have to be the one to cheer his friend up, Blue sat down next to the sulking mare and looked at her sympathetically. He sat there for a moment or two, struggling to find something to say.

“Rainbow Dash… you can’t just quit and give up. Sitting here isn’t going to fix anything,” Blue Bolt said softly, hoping to reassure the gloomy pegasus.

Rainbow Dash perked her ears up suddenly, shifting her eyes to the side. “Blue… stop talking,”

Blue Bolt raised his eyebrows in surprise before frowning sadly. His companion must have been completely broken if she was so set on being left alone. “Hey, don’t be like that. I’m sure everything is going to be f-hmf!” He was interrupted as she abruptly shoved a hoof onto his mouth.

“No seriously, be quiet for a minute,” Rainbow Dash said, shifting her eyes around and seemingly concentrating on something. “Do you hear that?” She asked softly.

Despite his initial confusion, the stallion did as instructed and listened intently to the sounds of the forest around him. At first, he didn’t hear anything but the trees shifting in the wind, and the occasional insect or another animal, but then he noticed something.

It was faint, and he could barely tell what direction it was coming from, but the stallion distinctly heard the sound of rushing water.

“What is that?” Blue asked curiously.

“It might be our way out of here,” Rainbow Dash suggested eagerly. With newfound determination, she got up and walked along the cliff a short ways until she hit the edge of the thick trees that led further into the forest. She listened for a moment before smiling to herself. “Sounds like it’s coming from this way,”

Rainbow looked to the side, only to see Blue Bolt walking up beside her. He stared into the distant trees before shrugging and turning to her. “Well, what are we waiting for? I don’t want to be stuck in this place any longer than I have to.” He stated while walking into the trees toward the noise.

Rainbow Dash smirked slightly as she watched the stallion moving ahead and braving the unknown. “I guess you haven’t changed very much either,” She muttered to herself. Her smile briefly lowered as she thought about what else that could have implied.

“Rainbow Dash, are you coming or what?” Blue Bolt called from up ahead, snapping her from her thoughts.

“Yeah, yeah… don’t get your tail all bent out of shape. I can’t help it that I’m slower than you, seeing how I fell off a cliff trying to save your sorry butt,” She raised her voice, ensuring that the stallion heard her as she started following after him.

“Well maybe if you were better at saving people, then we wouldn’t be in this mess. Did you ever think about that?” Blue replied impishly. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and shook her head before continuing into the thicket of trees.

The pair kept walking for a solid minute or two, honing in on the distant sound until it became clear as day. There was running water somewhere up ahead, which indicated the presence of a river. Soon enough, the ponies paused as they saw another clearing in the trees ahead. As they got closer, they were stunned into silence at what was waiting for them.

There was another steep drop-off leading into a small chasm ahead of them, with a waterfall off to the right flowing into a river at the bottom. The river was moving fast, and it had many rocks that looked rather intimidating when combined with the violent current.

“Woah… I was not expecting this.” Rainbow Dash said while admiring the sight of the waterfall. The mist flying off of the rocks as water smacked into them made the air near the river cool and humid, even where they were standing.

“You think this connects to that stream we had to cross back at the campsite?” Blue Bolt asked curiously, trying to see how far back the river went in either direction. While the river went on as far as the eye could see to the left, it was impossible to see very far up river due to the waterfall being slightly higher up than they were and embedded into a cliff.

“Maybe… but it doesn’t really look like we can follow it from this side,” Rainbow Dash stated.

The cliff surrounding the waterfall wasn’t very high, and they could practically see a little bit over it. However, the cliff face was too steep to climb, and just out of their reach. They had seen the cliff to the right when they were approaching from the forest, and it seemed to have no way of going around it. And due to the river descending into the small ravine, they couldn’t follow it to the left.

Blue Bolt looked across the way curiously. Sure enough, the ground on the other side of the river sloped down further to the left until it eventually met with the riverbank and kept going. “So how do we get across?” He asked somewhat rhetorically while looking for an answer himself.

The obvious choice came in the form of another fallen tree in front of them that spanned the length of the divide. However, the pair wasn’t sure if they wanted to chance crossing over that way. While the height from the top of the chasm to the river wasn’t actually that high, and the trunk of the tree was so large that falling off would be difficult, the surface of the tree was soaking wet from the previous rainfall, and the many rocks down at the bottom and the violent current would make it a rough landing if they did fall.

Other than the tree, there weren’t many options without the use of their wings. The slope on the other side was the only thing in sight that led to the level the river was on, at least as far as they could see.

Rainbow Dash walked over to the tree and climbed on it to see if it would hold her weight. The ends of the large trunk seemed to be far enough away from the edges that it was as stable as it could be, given the circumstances. “Looks like the easiest way would be straight across,” Rainbow said while turning to her companion confidently.

“You sure about that, Rainbow?” Blue Bolt asked, looking over the edge warily.

“Oh come on… don’t get cold hooves on me now. You just outran a timberwolf, what’s a little more adventure going to hurt?” Rainbow Dash jested playfully. She was surprised to see her companion still wearing an uneasy expression. “Alright, how about we go one at a time? That way it will be nice and safe for you,” She suggested with a reassuring, if a little bit sarcastic, expression.

Blue Bolt sighed before walking over to the tree and climbing up. He moved past the cyan pony and stopped to look at her. “Fine… if this is really how you want to do it,” He turned his head back to the front and took a cautious step forward.

“You want me to go first?” Rainbow Dash asked, noting the hesitant expression on the stallion’s face.

“No…” Blue scoffed while turning back to her. “What do you think I am, some kind of big baby?” He chuckled before turning his attention ahead again and trailing off. He exhaled and stretched his legs before putting on a determined expression. “I got this,”

Rainbow Dash watched as the blue stallion carefully made his way across. He stayed as close to the middle of the trunk as possible, and he made sure to move slowly.

As he neared the halfway point, Blue Bolt paused and looked over the side. The sight of the roaring waters below was much less fascinating and beautiful to him now. In fact, the sight was quite unsettling. “Oh boy…” He muttered to himself, trying to prevent his knees from getting weak.

“You doing alright over there?” Rainbow Dash called from back on solid ground. Blue turned his head to see the pegasus watching him with a raised eyebrow.

“Y-yeah… I’m great, just… just admiring the view,” Blue replied, hiding the nervousness in his voice.

Rainbow Dash tilted her head in surprise. “Wow, you’re really freaked out aren’t you? I mean… I know you have a broken wing and all, but it’s no big deal. It’s not even that big of a fall,”

Blue Bolt stiffened himself up as he realized that he was being more transparent with his unease than he intended. “That may be true… but it isn’t the fall I’m worried about,” He replied.

“Are you kidding? There’s like nothing but water down there. You can swim can’t you?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously.

“I can swim just fine!” He snapped in frustration before taking a moment to calm himself. He didn’t like feeling so judged in such a vulnerable state. “Look, it’s just… that current is going so fast, and there are so many rocks down there, that it would be really hard to get back out if I fell in,”

“Good point,” Rainbow Dash nodded understandingly. She looked down pensively and bit her lip as she tried to find something comforting to say. “Well just don’t fall, then,”

Blue Bolt rolled his eyes and sighed. “Sage advice, Rainbow… Sage advice.” He shook his head and kept going.

The trunk beneath his hooves was practically so slippery that he could slide on it if he wanted to. Despite how anxious he was to get off of his precarious perch, Blue managed to get most of the way across.

As he was just about to hop off of the tree and onto solid ground, a noise from up ahead made him look up. A slight rustling could be heard, followed by the crunch of a twig.

“What the hay…?” Blue Bolt muttered quietly while scanning through the trees in an attempt to find the source of the noise. Before he could get too paranoid, a flash of movement caught his eye off to the right.

Back in the trees, something was walking slowly across and skirting the clearing; and as Blue saw a glint of green light and caught a whiff of a terrible odor, he immediately knew just what that something was.

On the other side of the river, Rainbow Dash sat with a mildly confused look on her face as the stallion started backing up and slowly going back over the tree. She started to call after him to ask him what was wrong until she saw movement off to the side. “What the…” She fell silent as she made out the outline of the last thing she wanted to see. She turned to her blue friend, a new feeling of concern welling up inside of her as she realized the danger he was in. “Oh no.”

Blue Bolt was moving backwards as slowly and quietly as he could, all the while keeping the timberwolf in his line of sight. The wooden beast seemingly hadn’t noticed either of the ponies and was simply stalking the forest in search of potential prey.

Please don’t see me… He repeated frantically in his mind. He might have been calm and collected on the outside, but he was having a miniature heart attack on the inside.

As he turned his head briefly to look at his cyan companion, he saw her looking back at him with a similarly pale expression to his own. Apparently, she had figured out what was going on and was silently waiting for him to get back across.

An abrupt creak coming from the tree beneath his hooves drew Blue’s attention downward. It sounded like the bark of the tree was shifting somewhere, but it still felt stable. As he looked up to get eyes back on the predator, he was shocked to see the wolf sniffing around intently as if it had heard something.

*CRACK*

All at once, his back leg sank down and he fell to the left as the once solid wood seemingly gave out on him. Blue Bolt yelped in surprise while trying to grab onto the rest of the trunk and hold on. However, his momentum and the already slick surface of the tree meant that he was unable to do anything meaningful before he slid off and his leg was painfully ripped out of the hole that had opened up in the tree.

Rainbow Dash gasped as she saw the stallion falling down into the river below. “Blue Bolt!” She reached a hoof out toward him, but nothing she could have done would stop what was happening. She was forced to watch as her friend splashed down into the harsh waters below.

Much to her relief, she saw him popping back up to the surface after his brief submersion. He tried to swim toward the shore, but the current of the river was pushing him downstream at an alarming rate. Finally, he smacked into a rock and put his forelegs around it to hold on for dear life.

Blue Bolt gasped for air, a task that was made more difficult by the constant splashes of water flying in his face, as he clung to his rocky bastion of hope. He lowered his head in an attempt at keeping water out of his eyes and sputtered.

“Blue, are you alright?!” Rainbow Dash’s voice carried from up on the cliff.

The stallion carefully looked up, only to see the cyan pegasus standing on the edge of the chasm staring down at him. “I’m fine! Just… just a little disoriented!” He yelled back.

As he shielded his face from yet another wave of water, he found himself looking at the shore on the right. If he could use the rocks dotted around to pull against the current, then he could probably get back to dry land.

“I’m going to try to get across!” He announced to his cyan companion before preparing himself for the arduous task before him.

Up on solid ground, Rainbow Dash watched anxiously as the blue pony tried to reach for the nearest rock to him. He seemed to be having a hard time with fighting against the current for long enough to even get to another rock.

As her thoughts turned to the wooden beast that had started this whole mess, Rainbow looked up to the forest across the way. Her eyes widened as she found the timberwolf and noticed that it was much more aggressive looking than before. The wolf was slowly stalking toward the slope that led down to the shoreline where Blue Bolt was, and it seemed to be looking right at him.

“Oh my gosh… ohmigosh ohmigosh ohmigosh!” Rainbow Dash muttered to herself frantically while racing to come up with a way to help her friend.

As she looked down to her wing and gently moved it, the stinging pain that resulted reminded her that she was still grounded. Finally, she realized that the only thing that she could do was to take the timberwolf out of the equation.

“HEY!”

Blue Bolt looked up again as a loud yell came from his companion. He saw Rainbow Dash rushing over the tree bridge and waving her forelegs wildly. As he turned to see what she was looking at, he nearly jumped when he saw the timberwolf much closer to him than he remembered it being.

Rainbow Dash trotted to the middle of the wooden bridge, being careful to avoid the hole that her friend had fallen into. She looked to the timberwolf, smirking slightly as she saw it turn toward her in confusion.

“Over here, bark breath! You want some nice and juicy pony steak? Well come and get it!” She taunted loudly, making herself as visible as she could.

“What are you doing?!” Blue Bolt exclaimed from down below.

Rainbow Dash turned briefly to see the shocked stallion staring up at her while he clung to his rock. “Don’t worry about me, just get out of the water!” She replied.

“Are you crazy or something?!”

“You know, I get that a lot for some reason,” Rainbow chuckled confidently. She fell silent as she heard growling coming from up ahead.

The timberwolf had definitely changed its course. Now, it was heading straight for the tree bridge that the cyan mare was on, and it looked hungry.

Rainbow Dash smiled as she saw that her plan was working. “Alright tough guy… come on.” She muttered while backing up slowly. She wanted to keep the beast’s attention, but she did not want it to get within pouncing range. She had it on good authority that timberwolves were less concerned with their well-being than she was with hers; and while the wooden beast could put itself back together easily, she could not.

Much to her initial surprise, a second growl came from behind her. Rainbow Dash turned her head back, only to widen her eyes as she saw something that made a tingle of fear shoot down her spine.

There was another timberwolf creeping toward the fallen tree from where she had just come from. Apparently, all of the noise being made had attracted another predator. Rainbow Dash wouldn’t even be surprised if it was the first wolf they had run into, having somehow found a way up the cliff so it could follow them.

Blue Bolt looked up to see how his friend was doing. His face went pale as he saw the second timberwolf approaching the wooden bridge the cyan pegasus was on. The beast jumped up onto the tree, trapping Rainbow Dash in the middle with the other wolf swiftly closing in on her as well.

“Rainbow Dash!”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got this handled!” Rainbow Dash called down to her companion. Her brave façade melted away as she looked up and saw the sharp teeth of a timberwolf waiting for her. “Y-yeah… I’ve totally got this handled,” She smiled nervously while backing up a step.

The noises behind her reminded her of the second predator and made her spin around to face it. She was trapped between two of the fiercest predators known to ponykind, and she was running out of escape plans.

Suddenly, the timberwolf behind the cyan mare barked as it made a running leapt at her. Its claws and teeth were bared, and it was ready to tear her to shreds.

“Woah!” Rainbow Dash yelped while stepping as far to the side as her precarious footing could allow. The large wolf landed beside her, mere inches away from her face. Before it could turn and bite at her, she swallowed any fear she felt and shoved into it hard with her shoulder.

The wooden wolf flailed wildly as it was sent hurtling over the side. It let out a shrill howl as it plummeted straight into the river, and straight onto a rock.

Blue Bolt watched in amazement as the first predator broke into bits from the impact of the fall. The many wooden sections of the wolf swiftly plonked into the water and zipped by him with the current. However, his amazement quickly turned to terror as he looked back up.

Rainbow Dash’s ears perked up as she heard movement behind her. She turned around just in time to see the other wolf in mid-air, coming right at her. Her surprised gasp swiftly turned into a painful grunt as the beast knocked into her and sent her to the ground.

The timberwolf snarled down at the pony, sending droplets of vile saliva down onto her face. Rainbow Dash tried to sit up, but her shoulders were being pinned by the wooden predator.

“Hnng… get… get off me!” Rainbow protested angrily while trying to push the wolf off of her body with her hooves. She wasn’t making very much progress.

Suddenly, the timberwolf lifted its right paw off of the pinned pegasus. Before she could react, it swiftly raked its claws across her body.

“AGHH!!” Rainbow Dash cried out in agony as her midsection burned. She shakily looked up, only to see the beast’s claws dripping with blood; her blood. She could already feel the crimson fluid flowing out of her and pooling around the doubtlessly grizzly wound she now had.

The timberwolf growled deeply, preparing to take another swing at its prey. Its glowing eyes held one very clear thought that was plain as day to see. It was going to kill her.

As she stared up at her own impending doom, an idea popped into Rainbow Dash’s head. Using all of her remaining strength, she yanked herself to the side and rolled left. She yelped in pain again as the wolf’s other set of claws raked across her shoulder as she moved. However, she didn’t care very much about her new injury.

With the wolf’s right leg still raised in the air in preparation to strike, the pegasus rolled right under it and off the side of the tree. As she went, the timberwolf tried to snatch her out of the air, resulting in it losing its balance and falling with her.

“AHHHH!” Rainbow Dash screamed as she plummeted down. The fall that she thought wasn’t so high before might as well have been a bottomless pit now. However, this pit did have a bottom, and it was fast approaching.

As she splashed down into the water, she flinched her eyes shut. Her momentum was slowed to a safe level before any real damage could be done, however, she did bump into the riverbed hard enough to cause some pain.

The roaring of the waterfall sounded like thunder constantly pounding in her ears. Rainbow Dash could already feel the current dragging her along. She bobbed back up to the surface, taking in a huge gulp of air as she breached the water.

A second or two after she got her bearings, a second splash came from right in front of her as the timberwolf completed its descent. The wolf clipped one of the rocks she had apparently missed, knocking its fragile body to pieces like a poorly built log cabin.

Rainbow Dash groaned in pain while clutching her midsection. The water around her was starting to take on a deep shade of red, indicating just how badly she was bleeding. However, her instinct to protect her injury was short lived as the current kept pulling her along.

“Rainbow Dash!” A voice from off to the side called out to her. She looked over, only to see a familiar stallion hanging out from one of the rocks and reaching out to her. “Grab my hoof!”

Rainbow Dash tried her best to swim forward, but the current and the many rocks made it nearly impossible. She reached out and cushioned herself from smacking into one of the rocks before turning and stretching her free foreleg out to her friend.

“Blue!”

Despite both ponies reaching out as far as they could, Rainbow Dash was swept right by the stallion and just barely missed his grasp.

“Rainbow Dash!”

The cyan mare watched her friend getting further away, a fearful expression frozen on his face. She kept reaching for him, vainly hoping that somehow she could get to him despite the current.

“Blue Bo-”

*CRACK*

Rainbow Dash’s cries were cut off abruptly as she felt something hard slamming into the back of her head. The world in front of her blurred and the feeling of the cold river faded away. Her foreleg dropped and limply sank into the water, and everything went black.

Chapter 5

As the storm overhead beat down on them with rain and wind, Twilight and her remaining friends neared the end of their journey back home. Amid the many flashes of lightning, they could just barely see the outline of Ponyville up ahead.

“We’re almost there, guys!” Twilight announced eagerly. Most of the others were pleased by the news that they were almost home, however, one of them wasn’t as happy as she should have been.

Fluttershy walked along at the back of the group, looking down gloomily as she had been for the majority of the trip home. While the others understood why she was upset, they were getting to be a little worried for her.

Pinkie Pie turned to the gloomy pegasus and frowned sympathetically. “How are you doing, Fluttershy?” She asked in a concerned tone.

Fluttershy shook her head sadly. “I can’t believe we just left them like that…” She muttered quietly, barely loud enough for the others to hear.

Rarity walked over to her friend and rested a hoof on her shoulder compassionately. “There was nothing else we could have done, darling,”

“I could have reached them… I should have just flown down there and gotten them!” Fluttershy stated.

“Fluttershy…” Rarity frowned sadly as she saw how distraught the pegasus was, not that she could blame her. She looked over to the others, hoping to find someone to help her with comforting the yellow mare, but she only received uneasy frowns in return. Finally, she turned back to Fluttershy and put on a brave face. “The wind was blowing so hard that even Rainbow Dash couldn’t fly in it. The only thing that going after them would have done is getting you lost too,”

Fluttershy suppressed the urge to cry and nodded silently. She knew that the others were right, she just didn’t want to admit it. “We’re going back… as soon as the storm clears, right?” She asked softly.

“Of course we are, darling,” Rarity said with a reassuring smile. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they were waiting for us when we get there. They will probably just fly up once the storm passes over,”

Fluttershy managed a small smile at the thought. She nodded before walking ahead to signal that she was ready to move again. The others gladly followed her lead and continued toward the town.

The group lingered for a bit as the diminished rain suddenly increased. The majority of the storm had seemingly passed over them as they walked, but now it was like they were walking into it all over again.

Looking to the sky above, Twilight noticed that the clouds weren’t moving anymore, and as she trailed her eyes downward, she could see why. “Look up there!” She said while pointing to the distance.

The others followed the unicorn’s direction and squinted their eyes to see what she was talking about. They could just barely make out several pony-shaped silhouettes up in the clouds, apparently pushing the clouds back and keeping the airspace above the town clear.

“That must be the weather team… it looks like they’re havin’ some trouble,” Applejack tilted her head curiously as she watched the many pegasi fighting to keep the storm under control. Normally it would have been no problem for so many of them to handle a storm.

As they got closer to the edge of town, the group could see the cutoff where the rain stopped falling. While a few buildings were caught in the drizzle, it seemed like the weather ponies were at least keeping the majority of the town dry.

On the ground, there were a few other ponies running to and fro, trying to help in any way they could. At the center of the chaotic group, Twilight spotted Mayor Mare, giving out instructions and otherwise making sure that everyone was relatively organized.

“Mayor!” Twilight called while rushing up to the light brown pony. She and her friends were relieved as they crossed the line of clouds and stepped out into the dry, rain-free air.

Mayor Mare stopped what she was doing and looked to the five mares curiously. “Twilight, I’m glad to see you unharmed. You weren’t at the library, and Spike informed us that you were out hiking in the wilderness. I started to think the worst when this storm popped up,” She said, motioning up at the efforts above to keep the storm clouds in check.

“Ms. Mayor, there’s an emergency, and we really need your help,” Twilight pleaded desperately.

The noble pony softened her expression as she saw how concerned the group was. “What’s wrong?”

Fluttershy stepped forward, eager to do something other than standing around. “This storm hit us while we were out camping. We tried to outrun it, but…” She had to pause a moment and tough through the mere memory of the event. “Rainbow Dash and another friend of ours got caught in a mudslide. They fell into the middle of a forest, and we’re not sure where they are, what’s happened to them, or if they’re hurt!”

“Oh my goodness,” Mayor Mare rested a hoof against her chest as she struggled to take in the troubling news. “Girls, I would love to help you, but there isn’t much I can do until this dreadful storm has dissipated,” She explained. Twilight and the others understood her hesitance to send ponies out in such terrible weather. It was a wonder they made it back to town in one piece.

The ponies looked up at the struggling group of pegasi. The weather team was doing their best to pop the clouds or push them back, but it seemed as though the storm clouds were resisting their efforts.

“That reminds me, what is up with this storm? It came out of nowhere! I thought it was supposed to happen a few days from now?” Twilight asked.

The mayor merely shook her head in response. “I haven’t the slightest idea, Twilight. From what the weather ponies are telling me, they haven’t seen anything like this in their lives. They’re doing all they can to clear the air, but it will probably take them a while at this rate,”

“Can I help?” Fluttershy volunteered anxiously. It was easy to see that she wanted to get back to help her two missing friends, and the others understood perfectly.

“If you think you can clear out some of these clouds, be my guest. Just be careful… two ponies have already gotten themselves shocked silly up there,” Mayor Mare said with a concerned sigh.

“Thank you,” Fluttershy smiled warmly and nodded. She turned her attention skyward, ready to kick off and join the efforts at ridding the town of the storm. Before she took off, she turned to her friends and flashed them a reassuring expression. “Don’t worry, girls. We’ll get this storm under control in no time,” She said confidently. The others smirked and nodded to her before she unfolded her wings and leaped into the air.

“Unghh…” Rainbow Dash groaned weakly as she creaked open her eyes, only to close them again. The world around her was distant, and her vision was so blurry that she couldn’t even tell which way she was facing. All she knew was that there was some pressure on her back, and she seemed to be moving.

“Rainbow Dash… stay with me,” A faint voice called out, though it might as well have been a mile away from her.

Rainbow Dash tried to move a foreleg, but her body was numb and heavy. Still, she kept moving, slowly and with many pauses. Was she floating, or being pulled? It was nearly impossible to tell, and she barely had the mental presence to acknowledge or care.

A faint stinging sensation was coming from her stomach. The pain was enough to make her uncomfortable, though it seemed as though she wasn’t able to feel the full extent of what was going on.

“Come on… stay with me,” The voice called again, even fainter than before.

Rainbow Dash let her eyelids droop closed as a wave of drowsiness overcame her. The few feelings she had started to fade and the calming blackness around her grew more intense. Soon, she couldn’t even feel her own body as she drifted away.
.
..
...

“Come on… stay with me here, Blue,” Rainbow Dash pleaded while looking to the stallion in mild disappointment.

She was out on the flying course, on one of the larger clouds off to the side. Standing a few feet away was a very gloomy Blue Bolt. A small black sleeve was over his wing, meant to be used as a cast to help him along the healing process.

Blue Bolt sighed before carefully taking the sleeve off of his wing and trying to unfold it. His healthy wing unfolded with no trouble, while the injured appendage made shaky movements and took much longer. Eventually, he was primed and ready to fly, or at least that was the idea.

Rainbow Dash frowned slightly as she watched the stallion trying to desperately flap his wings together. His injured wing barely moved, and it looked like he had to undergo a great deal of exertion just to move it a little bit.

Finally, Blue Bolt groaned and let his wings droop. He shook his head in a mixture of sadness and frustration before turning to the cyan mare.

“I don’t know, Rainbow Dash… this physical therapy just isn’t working out… here or at home,” He said in a dejected manner. He started to fold his wings back up again so he could put the sleeve on and give up until he was stopped by Rainbow Dash putting a hoof on his shoulder.

“It’s going to take some time before you’re back to a hundred percent,” Rainbow explained in what she hoped would be a comforting tone. Her words only seemed to frustrate him even more.

“Everybody keeps saying that, but what if it isn’t true?” Blue Bolt asked. “What if I’m… just stuck like this?” He looked to his paralyzed wing and frowned.

Rainbow Dash felt a knot in her stomach as she entertained the possibility that the stallion was right. She was the reason that he was in this mess to begin with. If he hadn’t pushed her out of the way, who was to say that she wouldn’t have ended up as the one with the paralyzed wing?

“Blue…” Rainbow said, managing to stiffen her gloomy expression. “You’re a strong pony, you can beat this. The doctors said that with time and effort, your wing would get back to normal. You’ve just got to put some effort into it,” She patted him on the shoulder in a playfully rough manner. “So why don’t you try again… for me?”

Blue Bolt looked at the cyan mare for a moment before flashing a smile and letting it fade. “Rainbow Dash… why are you here?” He asked curiously.

“Huh?” Rainbow Dash tilted her head in confusion.

“I’ve already said you don’t owe me anything… You barely even know me. Why are you trying so hard to help me like this?” Blue said, a genuine look of curiosity on his face.

Rainbow Dash had to take a moment to find the answer for herself before speaking. “Because… I think you really need a friend right now. And as long as it takes, me and Fluttershy will be right here with you,” She explained sincerely before returning her usual rowdy tone of voice. “Now let’s see some flaps. Go on, I won’t take no for an answer!”

Blue Bolt chuckled softly and smiled. He nodded before taking in a breath and trying again.

Much to both ponies’ surprise, as the stallion clenched his teeth and struggled to get his feathery appendage to obey his commands, he managed to complete a full motion with the injured wing. The movement was shaky and a little slow, but it was close enough to be an impressive accomplishment.

“Heh… well, what do ya know? I did it!” Blue Bolt exclaimed eagerly.

“Atta’ boy, Blue!” Rainbow Dash cheered happily.

Blue Bolt looked down pensively and let his enthusiasm fade. He seemed to still be happy, but it looked like he was contemplating something. Finally, he looked up with a somber expression. “You wanted to know what my dream job was, right?”

Rainbow Dash was taken aback by surprise. Still, she listened intently as the stallion continued.

“I… I wanted to be a member of the royal guard. I felt like… maybe I could do something good with my life… maybe help some people out?” Blue Bolt explained with a bittersweet chuckle. However, his eyes seemed to betray the smile he was putting on.

Rainbow Dash lowered her eyebrows sadly as she heard him refer to his dream in the past tense. It seemed like he didn’t believe he would ever achieve his goal. Rainbow put on a reassuring smile in the hopes of turning his attitude around.

“Well, we’ll have you ready to be the best guard the princess has ever seen before long. You wait and see,” She said confidently.

.
..
...
Once again, Rainbow Dash found herself waking up. Her senses slowly started coming back to her, making her aware of just how tired and sore she was.

A soft groan escaped her muzzle as her eyes fluttered open. The imagery she was taking in was still a bit blurry, but it was slowly coming into focus.

She was apparently lying on her back, with nothing but a rocky ceiling above her. The ground beneath her was cold and hard, which was not helping out in terms of comfort. Her fur also felt wet for some reason.

“Wh… where…?” She muttered while trailing her eyes around and trying to ascertain her location. It looked like she was in a cave of some sort.

“Oh, thank Celestia you’re awake,” A familiar voice announced from off to the side.

As she heard hooves clattering on the stone floor nearby, Rainbow Dash turned her head, only to be greeted with the sight of Blue Bolt walking up to her. He had some form of makeshift bandages made from plant fibers wrapped around his foreleg and his wing.

“Blue Bolt… what happ- Agh!” Rainbow Dash rocked her head back and clutched her stomach. The moment she tried to get up, her entire midsection erupted into pain.

As she held her stomach, she realized that she also had a makeshift bandage wrapped around her, similar to the ones around the stallion. Her broken wing was also folded up and wrapped to prevent it from moving around.

“Take it easy… you’re hurt pretty bad,” Blue Bolt said, sitting beside the injured mare and resting a hoof on her shoulder to keep her on the floor.

Rainbow Dash took a moment to calm her heavy breathing and thought back to what happened before she blacked out. “Oh yeah… the river,” She lowered her head gloomily.

Blue Bolt sighed and flashed a hollow smile. “That timberwolf got you pretty good… and I'm sure the blow to your head didn’t help,”

“What happened? The last I remember was falling into the water… then it’s all just a blur,” Rainbow Dash said, struggling to recall the details of the event.

“Well… you definitely fell into the water alright,” Blue Bolt explained. “After that, you hit a rock and passed out. I barely managed to catch up with you and pull you to shore. You’re lucky to be alive,”

“Oh…” Rainbow Dash frowned sadly as she pictured the struggle the stallion must have gone through to rescue her. She intended to save him, not the other way around.

Blue Bolt lowered his expression as he saw a hint of gloom in her face. “Hey, don’t sweat it. It all worked out,” He paused briefly turning to the surrounding area. “I even found us a nice little cave to hole up in, and I took care of our wounds… sort of,”

Rainbow Dash briefly examined the wrapping around her waist. It was stained red with her blood, and it was a bit loose, but otherwise, it seemed tight enough to keep her from bleeding to death. “Not bad… Did you find some plants outside or something?”

Blue nodded. “Yeah… they were all I could come up with at the time,”

Rainbow Dash smirked slightly. “Your first aid could use a bit of work though… these aren’t very tight,”

“Oh, I'm sorry. I was a little tired from dragging your sorry butt out of a river,” Blue Bolt said with a chuckle. “You’re heavier than you look by the way,”

“Hey… that is just uncalled for,” Rainbow glared at the blue pony. Still, she couldn’t keep up an angry face for long as she devolved into chuckling alongside her companion.

Eventually, their laughter trailed off and they adopted more somber expressions as they turned their attention back to their situation.

“Alright,” Rainbow Dash shrugged and prepared herself for the painful task ahead of her. “Help me get up so we can get going,” She stuck a foreleg out expectantly.

Blue Bolt lowered his eyebrows in confusion before shaking his head. “Sorry Dash, but no… you’re staying right there,” He insisted.

“What? No… we need to get moving so we can get out of this forest,” Rainbow Dash said stubbornly. She tried getting up on her own, only to fall back to the floor as another stabbing pain came from her stomach.

“Rainbow Dash… you can barely move, we’re both exhausted…” Blue Bolt frowned slightly as he turned toward the entrance to the cave a few feet away. “I hate to say it, but it looks like we’re spending the night out here,”

Rainbow Dash stared at the stallion blankly, her jaw agape in shock as the weight of the situation gradually sank in. She would be sleeping in a cave in the middle of a forest. She set out with her friends to get a taste of nature, but this was proving to be too much for her to handle.

Before either ponies could add anything further, a pitiful growl came from Rainbow Dash’s stomach. “Oh man…” She groaned while holding her empty gut. She could feel an intense pang of hunger hitting her that refused to go away. “I’m starving,” She whined sadly while lowering her head, realizing that there wasn’t any food to be found.

“Not surprising. We haven’t eaten anything all day,” Blue Bolt said, briefly taking note of his own stomach protesting against him. He glanced back to the cave entrance and the forest outside pensively for a moment before standing up. “I’ll tell you what… I need to head out anyway to try and fetch us some dry firewood. I’ll see if I can scrounge up something to eat,” He suggested optimistically.

Rainbow Dash frowned in concern as she watched the stallion walking away, ready to venture out into the wilderness without her. “Shouldn’t I come with you?” She asked.

Blue Bolt paused before the mouth of the cave and turned his head to the cyan mare. He softened his expression as he saw a hint of unease in her eyes. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. You just stay here and rest… I’ll be back before you know it,” He smiled reassuringly. Before Rainbow Dash could protest further, he walked out of the cave and out of sight.

As the thoughts of the stallion getting into trouble intensified in her head, Rainbow Dash contemplated getting up and going after him. She gently rolled over and used her forelegs to push herself to a sitting position. The injury across her waist reminded her of its presence yet again, causing her to cringe and glare down at the wound.

“Stupid timberwolves…” She muttered angrily. Despite the pain she was in, she pushed herself and slowly got to her hooves.

During the process of getting up, the thought of chasing after Blue Bolt all but left her mind. She could hardly move an inch without some kind of ache or pain crippling her progress. She was doing good to just move around the cave at a snail’s pace.

Despite all of the difficulty she had in doing it, Rainbow Dash managed to make her way to the front of the cave. She sat down just outside of the rocky opening and took a look around.

Judging from the faint sound of rushing water in the distance, she gathered that the river that had almost claimed her life wasn’t far away from the cave. It made sense that the stallion wouldn’t have traveled very far with her, considering that she was in critical condition at the time.

Other than the sound of water, the area looked like any other in the forest. A few feet away from the cave, the trees continued on for an unknowably vast distance. Through the open air in front of her, the pegasus could see up into the sky. The sun was starting to get low, and night couldn’t have been more than a couple of hours away. There were also some distant clouds on the horizon that looked less than pleasant. Given what caused their unexpected descent into the forest, Rainbow was more than a bit wary of the dark clouds.

She stared out into the trees, letting her thoughts shift back to her companion somewhere out in the forest.

“Please be careful out there, Blue.” She spoke to the air around her. She really hoped that the stallion wouldn’t wander too far away. He might have been the most able-bodied one between them, but he was still injured himself.

Time ticked by at a slow pace. Rainbow Dash didn’t move from her position near the front of the cave, waiting and watching for any sign of her friend’s return. The longer she spent staring out at the trees and thick vegetation, the more uneasy she grew.

Any number of things could happen to the stallion while he was away, and she wouldn’t even know it. She silently tried to shove the thought from her head that she would just be waiting for him all night, never knowing that he wasn’t coming back and that she would have to try to survive without him. By the time she even tried to hobble out into the forest to go look for him, it would probably be too late.

Rainbow Dash eventually gave in to her sore body and leaned back against the side of the cave. Despite how tired and weak she was, she refused to head back inside until she knew that he was safe.

Half an hour had passed, she was certain of it. It felt like an eternity without any way of telling the time and only her own thoughts to keep her company, but she was sure that it had been at least thirty minutes.

Where is he? She thought to herself, scanning the area outside of the cave feverishly. Despite the old adage of the watched pot, she kept turning back to check outside every minute or so.

He wouldn’t be gone for this long unless something went wrong… She reasoned, her face growing more anxious by the moment. Her wounds still made moving a painful and inefficient task, but she couldn’t sit idly by any longer.

Just before she started getting the strength to get up, a rustling sound immediately made her ears perk up and her head dart to the side. Rainbow Dash felt all of her anxious tension deflate as she saw a familiar blue pony walking toward the cave.

Blue Bolt had a bundle of sticks of varying shapes and sizes precariously balanced on his back. Strangely enough, he was also carrying what looked to be tufts of grass of all things. Despite how long he had been away, he didn’t look any worse off than when he left.

Rainbow Dash groaned in relief while slowly getting up and walking up to the stallion. “Where have you been? You were starting to worry me!” She chided him softly, an agitated pout on her face.

“Sorry…” Blue Bolt frowned hesitantly as he saw how upset she was. “It took longer than I thought to find some firewood that wasn’t soaked,” He explained, nodding toward the sticks on his back.

“You think that will be enough to start a fire?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously, mentally trying to ascertain what could be done with the decidedly small number of sticks the stallion was carrying.

“It’s going to have to be. Everything else I found out there was unusable,” Blue replied. He sat the pile of sticks down and separated the bits of grass into another pile. Looking up, he saw that the cyan mare had walked over to him despite her injuries. “What are you doing up? You’re supposed to be resting,”

Rainbow Dash scoffed lightheartedly. “Like I’m going to stay cooped up in one spot because of a little scrape,”

“Well, I wouldn’t exactly call that a scrape, but ok…” Blue Bolt said, glancing at the mare’s bandaged up wound. He shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. “It’s good to see that you can still walk, but how about you try to take it easy for now?” He asked pleadingly.

“You, asking me to take it easy?” Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow before chuckling slightly. “You didn’t listen to that advice back in school, so why should I listen to you?”

Blue frowned slightly as he saw her hide a painful cringe. “I think a bloody gash across your stomach is a bit different from a broken wing,”

“Well… you might have a point there,” Rainbow tilted her head as she pondered the difference between the two injuries. Meanwhile, she shifted her attention to the pile of fire kindling that her companion had collected. As her stomach reminded her of the lack of sustenance she had consumed recently, she frowned slightly. “I thought you were bringing back some food?”

“I did,” Blue replied dismissively while starting to arrange some rocks from around the cave into a fire pit.

Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes in disbelief. “What…? Where is it, then? All I see here are some sticks and some… grass…” She paused abruptly as she put the pieces together. Her face immediately scrunched up in disgust. “Ulgh… you don’t mean the grass, do you?”

“I don’t know what you were expecting, Rainbow, but there isn’t exactly a farmer’s market out there. That was all I could get,” Blue replied.

Rainbow Dash looked to the tufts of grass and stuck her tongue out as she envisioned actually eating them. “You can’t be serious… Can ponies even eat that stuff?” She asked semi seriously.

“If you would have paid attention in history class, you would know that ponies used to eat grass all the time back in the day. It might not taste very good, and it might not do much for you, but it will keep us from starving. Now, I’ve got to get this fire going, so you go ahead and start eating without me,” Blue said without turning away from his work.

“I think I would rather starve,” Rainbow Dash huffed while turning up her nose and folding her forelegs. However, her stomach seemed to be disinclined to agree with her as it let out another drawn out grumble. The pegasus lowered her expression as she slowly looked back to the pile of greens. The longer she stared, the more intense the hollow pit in her stomach became. Against her better judgment, she scooted closer to the bundle of grass and hesitantly picked up a tuft of it in her hoof.

“I swear I’m never eating a salad again after this,” She shook her head sadly before inching a single piece of grass up to her mouth and taking a bite.

Blue Bolt heard the sounds of his companion slowly chewing the bit of grass in her mouth like she was trying to determine if it was even edible. Judging from her expression, it didn’t seem like she thought it was.

Rainbow Dash nearly gagged as the earthen taste filled her mouth. She and other ponies were used to eating plants, but somehow this seemed far too organic for her liking. Still, she somehow managed to swallow the first bite.

“Oh man… I think I’m going to barf,” She paled slightly as she turned to the rest of the grass in her hoof and took another cautious bite.

The stallion nearby couldn’t help but chuckle to himself while tending to the would-be campfire. He wasn’t sure what was sadder, the fact that she thought the grass tasted so bad, or the fact that she was so hungry that she was eating it anyway, and he wasn’t sure which one he found funnier.

Over the next several minutes, Rainbow Dash reluctantly ate her share of the bountiful meal they had while Blue Bolt got to work on their source of warmth and light. The stallion managed to cobble together a decent looking ring of stones around his pile of sticks, and he had placed the sticks in such a manner that the fire would have enough fuel for the night. All he needed to do now was to actually get the fire started.

Rainbow Dash watched as her companion toiled with two sticks clutched in each hoof. He was rubbing them together so much that the bark on them was starting to rub off, yet no signs of a spark were to be seen for all his efforts.

As the level of light coming in from outside the cave dimmed by the minute, their need for the fire became more of a priority. The sun was setting, and soon it would be dark.

“Are you sure you’ve got that handled?” Rainbow Dash asked while cocking an eyebrow as she watched the disaster in progress in front of her.

Blue Bolt shrugged in a frustrated manner, still keeping up the act of playing the two sticks like they were a fiddle. “Of course I’ve got this handled… how hard could it be to get a tiny little spark going?”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. As she glanced down to the few remaining tufts of grass on the floor, an idea popped into her head. “Alright Mr. Survivalist, move over,” She said while getting up and walking over to the edge of the fire pit beside the stallion.

Blue Bolt was hesitant to let the mare take over for him, but she didn’t give him much of an option as she yanked the two sticks out of his hooves. “I could have gotten it,” He muttered defensively.

“I’m not saying you wouldn’t have… I just don’t want to cuddle up next to a timberwolf tonight when one wanders into this nice dark cave of ours,” Rainbow Dash stated. She wasted no time in putting her sharp wit to use in getting the fire started.

The cyan pony took some pieces of grass and loosely wrapped them around the bottom of one of the sticks, creating a makeshift bed of kindling and an enclosed space to produce a spark in. With similar vigor to her companion, she rapidly spun the stick around with both of her hooves, grinding it into the grass and hopefully creating a lot of friction.

Before long, faint trails of smoke started coming out of the bundle of grass. Rainbow Dash continued twirling the stick in place for a solid minute longer until the smoke had intensified a bit. Finally, she gently removed the stick and looked closer. A slight smile crept across her face as she saw a few glowing embers.

“Now we’re talking,”

Blue Bolt watched as Rainbow Dash carefully craned her head down and gently blew on the embers. Once the small sparks started to burn more of the grass, she gingerly picked up the edge of the tuft and nudged it into the pile of sticks and continued blowing. Soon enough, the embers spread through to the sticks, and the beginning flickers of a fire could be seen.

“Wow… that was pretty impressive,” Blue nodded as he heard the telltale crackling of a campfire.

“Eh, I’m sure your method would have worked just as well… eventually,” Rainbow Dash replied. Now that they had a warm fire to sit by, their lonely little cave seemed a bit better. As she was finally free to sit back and relax, her eyes shifted over to the remaining pile of grass and an impish smirk fell across her face.

“Alright, nature boy, how about you put your bits where your mouth is and eat something,” She suggested while nudging the grass over to her companion.

Blue Bolt eyed the pile of greens and smirked in return. “Alright… no problem,” He said while picking up a hoof-full and hovering them near his mouth. “It can’t be that bad,” He added with a shrug.

Rainbow Dash watched patiently as the stallion casually took a bite out of the grass and started chewing. The longer he chewed, the more he slowed down and started to get a disgusted look in his eye. Rainbow merely smirked smugly and silently allowed her stubborn companion to work up toward swallowing. After he got done with his first mouthful, Blue looked down at the remaining amount of his meal and cringed.

“Ok… maybe it’s an acquired taste,” He admitted, a hint of green in his face. The mare next to him couldn’t help but laugh as he continued eating.

As the sun rapidly disappeared over the horizon, the peaceful landscape of Equestria was slowly bathed in darkness. Somewhere outside of Ponyville, the crunching of hooves against the freshly soaked grass could be heard as a small troop of ponies trotted across the land at a hurried pace. At the head of this group were Twilight Sparkle and her four other friends.

After the storm above was finally removed from the sky by the diligent efforts of the weather team, the unicorn and her friends wasted no time in gathering up volunteers to return with them to the area where they had last seen Rainbow Dash and Blue Bolt.

Along with a few random townsfolk brought together by Mayor Mare for the search party, many of the five mares’ friends and family had stepped up to look for the missing pegasi. Big Macintosh and Applebloom were walking along next to Applejack. Along with the yellow filly, her two fellow cutie mark crusaders had eagerly come along to join the search. Even Mr. and Mrs. Cake came along to ensure that their missing friends came home safely.

By the time Twilight and the others had led their troop back to the sprawling forest, the light from the sun had officially vanished from the sky and the moon had already begun its journey into the stars. Although everyone without a horn had been supplied with a flashlight, the night was still a bit daunting as they stared into the dark trees ahead of them.

Mayor Mare stepped out of the crowd and up to the purple unicorn. She looked around at the sheer size of the woods and frowned. “They fell in there? Are you certain?” She asked curiously.

Twilight looked to the side, up at the cliff that skirted the forest off to the right, and nodded. “Yes… they fell from up there,” She explained while pointing out the rough area of where the pair had vanished into the trees.

The mayor nodded to herself somberly before breathing out a sigh and stiffening her expression. She turned to face the rest of the volunteers and spoke up to address them.

“Ok everypony, we’re here to find two fellow ponies in need. We’re going to spread out in a line and walk straight into the forest. Make sure to keep those to your sides in sight at all times, and don’t go wandering off. If we haven’t found them or reached the edge of the forest in ten minutes, we’ll regroup and rethink our plan,” She explained. “Anybody have any questions?”

The gathering of ponies all gave a collective answer of no. Everyone understood their place in the mission, and they were all eager to help in any way they could.

Ms. Mare smiled confidently and nodded. “Alrighty then, let’s get out there and find them!” She stated with a determined tone in her voice.

Before long, everyone had arranged themselves into a rough line. While they weren’t shoulder-to-shoulder, they were close enough together that everyone could keep track of their partners and still cover a fair amount of ground. With their horns glowing brightly and their flashlights blazing ahead, they started walking into the forest at a slow pace.

The forest was incredibly dark. Once the ponies breached the tree line, all of the light from the sky above was practically taken out of the equation. Now, all they had was each other and their own sources of light to shine into the sinister darkness all around them.

“Rainbow Dash!”

“Blue Bolt!”

Twilight and the others called out every few steps at short intervals. The sounds of their companions calling out from down the line they had formed filled their ears, ranging from a loud yell to a faint noise, depending on how far away they were from the owner of the voice.

Fluttershy was next to Twilight, with Pinkie Pie and Mayor Mare to their sides. The pink mare next to her was as close to the cliff side they were skirting as she could be without having to duck around trees every five seconds.

While she was feverishly scanning through the trees ahead with her flashlight, Fluttershy couldn’t stop thinking about her two lost friends. Any number of things could have happened to them after they fell. They could be scared, or cold, or injured, possibly even all three at once. Simply thinking about such terrible things happening to the pair made her want to cry.

Fluttershy had known Rainbow Dash for practically her whole life. The cyan mare was the reason she got her cutie mark, and the reason she even had friends in school. And while Blue Bolt had been in her life for only a short period of time, she had grown close to him while helping him recover from his wing injury. He had always been so nice to her and Rainbow Dash, and he always made sure to lift her spirits whenever she felt down, despite his own tragic circumstances.

Although she didn’t want to even imagine such a thing, a single thought popped into her mind that made her pause suddenly. What if she never saw either of the two ponies again?

“Fluttershy, are you ok?” A voice from off to the side brought the pegasus out of her thoughts. Fluttershy looked over and saw Twilight looking back at her with a concerned expression.

“Umm…” Fluttershy took a moment to feel her face. Apparently, she had a few tears rolling down her cheeks. She sniffled slightly before making an effort to appear happier than she felt. “I think so… I’ll be better once we find them, though,”

“We will find them,” Twilight assured, taking a moment to rest a comforting hoof on the yellow pony’s shoulder. “Don’t worry… I’m sure they’re fine, wherever they are,” She said confidently. A soft smile fell over her face as she saw Fluttershy managing a bright expression.

“AHHH!!”

An ear piercing scream echoed from somewhere to the left, followed by a series of feral growls. The ponies all stopped what they were doing and darted their heads to the side in alarm.

“Oh my gosh, was that Sweetie Belle?!” Fluttershy asked uneasily, recognizing the owner of the high pitched cry.

More growls could be heard, along with the sounds of several ponies shouting fearfully.

Twilight widened her eyes as she listened to the animalistic growls. “Wait… I know that sound!” She exclaimed before abruptly rushing into the fray. Fluttershy, along with Pinkie and Mayor Mare all rushed after the unicorn as she headed toward the commotion.

Twilight and the others passed by several of their fellow search party members on their way toward the source of the noises. All of them were looking off in the direction of the noises with concerned expressions.

As they finally got close enough to see what was going on, the four mares all paled and let out surprised gasps of fear.

Up ahead, Rarity, Applejack, Sweetie Belle, and the other two fillies were backing against a tree. Standing a few feet away from the terrified group of ponies was a pair of vicious looking timberwolves, snarling and creeping closer to their prey.

“My word… what are timberwolves doing out here?!” Mayor Mare recoiled slightly at the sight of the wooden beasts. Normally timberwolves kept in and around the Everfree forest, but apparently, these wolves didn’t get the memo.

Applejack and Rarity were doing their best to stay between the predators and the three fillies cowering behind them. The wolves were circling around, trying to catch them off guard.

Suddenly, Big Mac and some other ponies drawn by the screams came rushing over from the other side. As soon as they saw what was going on, they backed up a step as one of the wolves snapped at them.

“Applejack, Applebloom!” The red stallion widened his eyes fearfully as he saw his siblings in danger.

One of the wolves, tired of waiting for its meal, decided to quit wasting time and jumped at the trapped ponies. The other wolf followed suit, snapping its teeth and getting ready to rip into either the white unicorn or her orange companion.

“AH!” Rarity yelped while covering her face and turning away. Applejack would have tried to kick one of the wolves away, but she wouldn’t have been able to get both of them in time.

Before the worst happened, the two wolves were stopped in mid-air by a purple glow being wrapped around them. The beasts let out a confused whine as they looked around. Just as the two animals noticed what was keeping them captive, they were flung back into a tree at high speeds, breaking their fragile bodies apart.

While Rarity was still cowering and shielding her face, Applejack and the three fillies looked over to see Twilight with her horn glowing fiercely.

“Twilight!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed excitedly as she realized the unicorn had saved her and the others.

Rarity gradually peered out from under her foreleg. As she saw the broken pieces of the two wolves scattered along the ground up ahead, she uncovered her face and stared at them in confusion. “We’re not dead…?”

“Are you guys ok?” Twilight asked while walking up to the jilted group of ponies.

“We are now… Thanks fer that, Twi,” Applejack said in a relieved manner. “Those timberwolves just came outta’ nowhere,”

Twilight tilted her head curiously while looking to the two wolves. “With everything that’s been going on in the Everfree recently, they must have been driven out and found other places to live,”

“I had no idea that it was so dangerous out here,” Mayor Mare said, still eyeing the wooden remains of the predators warily just in case they decided to get back up. “Girls, I hate to suggest it, but we can’t just keep wandering around in the dark with timberwolves out and about. Perhaps we should consider heading back?” She asked hesitantly.

Twilight glanced over to Fluttershy. The yellow pegasus seemed to be shocked and saddened at the idea of turning back, but Twilight could also tell that she didn’t want anyone getting hurt. “As much as I want to keep looking, I think it would be best if we head back… for tonight at least. We can’t risk running into more timberwolves,”

Fluttershy frowned sadly before looking down and nodding. “I agree…”

“Right then,” Mayor Mare nodded. She turned to the ponies watching from either side and adopted a serious expression. “Pass the word along, we’re heading back out. It’s too dangerous to keep going in the dark,” She instructed, receiving nods in response.

While ponies started going down the line they had formed and passing the message along, Twilight and the others lingered for a moment.

Twilight looked over to see Fluttershy staring off into the woods with a gloomy expression on her face. She frowned sympathetically as she wondered how the pegasus must have been feeling. She wasn’t too keen on the idea of leaving Rainbow Dash and Blue Bolt out here any longer either, but it couldn’t be helped.

“Come on, Fluttershy. We need to get going before these two start pulling themselves back together,” She suggested while briefly looking over to the timberwolves.

Fluttershy broke away from her pensive state of staring into the distance and turned to her friends. They were all looking back to her with sympathetic expressions. “Yeah… ok.” She nodded slowly, though she still had a downcast look in her eyes.

Finally, the group started heading back out of the forest, empty hooved, and their goal of finding their lost friends further away now than ever. All they could do was occasionally glance behind them regretfully, wondering what the two pegasi were doing right now. Still, they all resolved to return to their efforts in the morning, where they could come up with a new plan of action.

Deeper into the woods, while the crickets chirped and the owls hooted from the darkened trees above, a lone source of light blazed defiantly against the otherwise black void that persisted all around the forest. Inside of a dingy looking cave, a small fire was crackling as Rainbow Dash and Blue Bolt sat around it. The two ponies had passed the time by talking and enjoying each other’s company as the night went on without them outside of their safe haven.

Rainbow Dash was surprised to be smiling and laughing with the stallion as they both shared fond memories from their past. Just yesterday, she was hesitant to even be around him, but now it was like they were back in school, minus the dark cave around them and the harsh forest outside.

Still, she couldn’t shake the faint feeling of unease she got whenever she caught herself looking at him for too long. Not all of the memories from her past were pleasant, and he was at the center of one that was among the worst. Despite how conflicted she felt, she did her best not to let her feelings affect how she acted toward him. After all, he had saved her life.

“So, wait… Fluttershy stared down a dragon?” Blue Bolt tilted his head curiously as the pegasus informed him of some of the wilder adventures she and the yellow mare had had since school.

“Yep…” Rainbow Dash nodded.

Blue Bolt narrowed his eyes in stunned disbelief. “Get out of here… are we talking about the same Fluttershy?” He asked with an impressed smirk.

Rainbow Dash chuckled as she savored the priceless look of shock on the stallion’s face. “Yeah, I wouldn’t have believed it if I wasn’t there. You should have seen what she did to save me from a pack of zombie wolves this one time,”

“Wait… what?” Blue Bolt shook his head in confusion.

“Nevermind… it’s a long story.” Rainbow Dash waved her hoof dismissively. She found herself smiling contentedly along with the stallion as they reflected on some of the amazing things to happen in their lives.

After a few moments of silence, Rainbow Dash stopped smiling. In fact, she seemed to have a slight frown on her face while she was thinking of something. “Blue Bolt…” She spoke up blankly.

Blue looked over in surprise as he noticed how somber his companion sounded. “Yeah?” He asked, though he had a feeling he knew what was about to be said.

Rainbow Dash seemingly contemplated something for a moment before shrugging and shaking her head. “Can I ask you something?”

“Of course,” Blue Bolt replied.

“What you said earlier… about you thinking about the past a lot… I want you to know that I’ve been thinking a lot about it too,” Rainbow explained softly. “Truth is… I’m still not sure how I feel about you being back in my life. And although I didn’t exactly plan on us being stuck together like this,” She offered a hollow chuckle while looking around her. “I was planning on trying to let you in again… eventually. But if we’re going to be starting over like this… I just want to say one thing,”

Blue Bolt frowned slightly as he saw a familiar look of sadness on the cyan mare’s face. “What is it?”

Rainbow Dash sighed before looking up and staring at the stallion with an earnest expression. “I think it would be good for both of us if we don’t bring up anything having to do with what happened at school. I know you probably had your reasons for what you did… but I… just can’t think about that stuff without getting all out of whack,”

While Rainbow looked to him and waited for an answer, Blue Bolt hesitated and looked down sadly. He opened his mouth to say something before closing it abruptly and nodding. “Ok… I can do that,”

Rainbow Dash let a small smile fall over her face. “Thank you,” She said in a sincere manner. All at once, the exhaustion she had been fighting all day caught up with her as a yawn escaped her mouth. Her body was sore, and she was mentally fatigued from everything that had happened. It was time for her to go to bed.

“I think I’m going to get some sleep… or at least try to. I guess it’ll depend on if I can find a decently comfortable rock to sleep on or not,” She shrugged while looking around the cave for a spot to lay down.

“Hey, I’ll fight you over a nice rock… we’ve got to take what we can get,” Blue Bolt said with a smirk.

Rainbow Dash scoffed lightheartedly. “Really? You’re going to fight a crippled girl? I did not know you sank so low after school, Blue,” She chuckled slightly while slowly getting up and walking away from the fire a short ways.

“Heh… I guess Fillydelphia can change a guy in unexpected ways,” Bolt Bolt added as he watched the injured mare hobbling around and trying to find a good spot to bed in. Eventually, she just gave up and laid down in a random spot that was close enough to the fire to be warm.

Rainbow Dash groaned while lowering herself to the floor and carefully lying on her back. With the way she felt, she might as well have fallen off of the cliff a few minutes ago rather than several hours. As she rested her head back against the cold stone floor of the cave, she was surprised by how comfortable she felt. Her exhaustion must have been more severe than she thought.

“Goodnight, Rainbow Dash,” Blue Bolt said, still sitting at his position by the fire.

“Goodnight, Blue…” Rainbow replied while closing her eyes, a contented smile plastered on her face. She couldn’t wait to get up tomorrow and finally get out of the forest so she could sleep on an actual bed in her nice and warm and safe cloud home.

Chapter 6

As the morning sun lifted ever higher into the sky, golden rays of light pierced through the gloomy haze of clouds that had been present since the day before.

While the sunlight gently streamed down onto the forest floor outside of their home away from home, Rainbow Dash and Blue Bolt were still slumbering peacefully and resting their weary bodies against the cold cave floor they had claimed as their own.

The sound of birds chirping outside slowly stirred Blue Bolt from his dreamless sleep. He lifted his head up, groaning softly as his head ached along with his body, though he felt marginally better than he did the previous day. As he let out a silent yawn and opened his eyes, he climbed up to a seated position and stretched while looking around.

Light was streaming into the cave from outside, barely allowing him a glimpse of the sky through the clearing in the trees just beyond the cave opening. A faint whiff of smoke was present in the otherwise fresh air, coming from the remains of the campfire that had been burning all night. As he looked at the dim embers in the pile of ash that was left, he wondered how long the meager supply of sticks had actually lasted after he fell asleep.

Thinking back to his cyan companion, Blue turned his head and found her still asleep a few feet away. Rainbow Dash was turned over on her side, facing him so she didn’t have to lie on her bad wing. Her legs were tucked close to her body, and she had a relatively peaceful expression on her face as she breathed silently. The stallion smiled softly at the sight of the sleeping pegasus before getting up and walking to the front of the cave.

“Ngh…” Blue Bolt winced while looking down to his many scrapes and bruises from the night before. Everything except for his tightly wrapped wing hurt to some degree, though it was more of a faint throbbing than anything else. After reaching the front of the cave, he sat down and took in the sights of the outside world.

The forest outside was just as big as ever. He wondered if it even had an end to it at times. Still, without the sense of impending doom that came from overthinking his situation, the area was pretty to look at. The faint sound of running water, the birds and other animals making noises, the wind and sunlight flowing through the trees, it was all such a beautiful experience to take in. However, the stallion couldn’t enjoy the sights and sounds of nature as much as he wanted to. The only important thing on his mind was ensuring that he got the cyan mare home safely.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash found herself waking up as well. As she slowly opened her eyes and came to her senses, she noticed something other than the aches and pains from her injuries plaguing her. Her body felt oddly hot and cold at the same time, her head was a hazy and unfocused mess, and she had a general feeling of sickness that would not go away.

“Ugh…” Rainbow rolled over onto her back and put a hoof up to her forehead. She felt feverish, which explained the whacked out temperature she was feeling. As she tried to move and get up, a fit of weakness and trembling overcame her and she was forced to lie back down.

“Blue Bolt… are you awake?” She called while turning her head and looking for the stallion.

Hearing the distress in the pegasus’s ill voice, Blue Bolt turned around in surprise. “I’m here… What’s wrong?” He asked while getting up and walking over to his companion. Once he got close enough to see her, he paused in concern as he noticed that she was shaking slightly.

“I don’t feel too good…” Rainbow Dash said in a strained voice. She cringed in pain as she tried to move again. “My stomach hurts too,”

Blue Bolt reached down and felt the sickly mare’s forehead. He frowned with concern as he felt that she was clammy and warm. “You’ve got a pretty bad fever… Do you feel like you’re going to throw up?” He asked curiously, noting how she was holding her stomach.

Rainbow Dash groaned while fighting through her weakness to get to a seated position. “No… not like that. My stomach actually hurts, like my wound feels sore,” She explained.

“Here, let me take a look at it,” Blue Bolt said while sitting down next to the mare.

He gently reached down to her midsection and pulled back the makeshift bandage a little ways so he could see the gash underneath. Aside from all of the dry blood, it didn’t look very good. And judging from the pained expression on Rainbow Dash’s face, it must have hurt quite a bit as well.

Blue shook his head and sighed while putting the bandage back. “It looks like it’s infected… I guess that explains the fever,”

Rainbow Dash’s expression fell as she heard the discomforting term being used in reference to her. “Is that bad? I mean… an infected cut can’t cause too much harm, right?” She asked, her voice holding a hint of anxious doubt.

“Well… normally it wouldn’t be much of a problem, but your cut is really big… and we’re in the middle of nowhere. You can’t exactly take an aspirin and wait until it gets better out here,” Blue Bolt said uneasily. He rested a hoof on his chin and struggled to think of a way to help his companion.

Rainbow Dash seemed to grow more uneasy the longer the stallion remained silent. The mixture of cold shakes and hot temperatures she was going through wasn’t helping her to stay calm either.

“So, what do we do?” She asked, taking a deep breath and trying to stay optimistic.

Blue Bolt glanced to the side while still deep in thought. Suddenly, he shifted his attention to the distant sound of water running. “We can’t do much for it right now… but let’s at least get it clean and re-wrap it.” He said while getting up and holding a hoof out to her. “Come on, let’s go.”

Rainbow Dash stared at his outstretched hoof for a moment in confusion before taking it and letting him help her to her feet. She still felt weak, and her limbs were still a bit shaky, but he helped her to stay on her own four legs.

“Where are we going, the stream?” She asked curiously as she started walking out of the cave with him slowly.

Blue nodded. “Yeah, I found a spot where the water isn’t as fast while I was looking for firewood yesterday,” He said with a pleased smile.

Slowly but surely, the two ponies made their way out of their cave sanctuary and into the forest once more. While she was teetering around like a newborn fawn, Rainbow Dash eventually managed to get by without assistance from the stallion beside her. Of course, she would occasionally falter, halting their progress and forcing Blue to help her stand for a while at a time before she felt good enough to make another attempt at walking by herself.

Eventually, the stream that they had been hearing from clear back at the cave came into view. Blue Bolt led the sickly mare along the rushing waters until they finally reached the area he was talking about.

There was a cluster of rocks in the stream to their left that was blocking much of the water from getting through, resulting in a more gentle flow that was just calm and shallow enough to stand in.

Rainbow Dash placed a foreleg into the water, briefly recoiling from how cold it was. She didn’t even really feel anything pushing on her to a significant degree. It was hardly the roaring stream that had carried her into a rock the day before, despite being part of the same body of water.

“Wow… this is pretty cool,” She let a pleased smile form across her face as she noted the sound of the rest of the water smacking into the rocks beside her and slowing down as it passed around.

“Alright, let’s get that bandage off you.” Blue Bolt suggested while moving behind her. Rainbow Dash held still while he started untying the wrappings around her waist. “So… how does your wing feel?” He asked curiously, briefly glancing down to the appendage in question.

Rainbow Dash looked down to her injured wing and gently tried moving it. Although it was wrapped pretty tightly to prevent her from hurting it any further, it did feel rather painful as she tried wiggling it around. “Still feels broken…” Rainbow reported with a dull sigh.

“You don’t sound too worried about it,” Blue Bolt noted curiously.

“Huh?” Rainbow Dash turned her head to glance back at him with a confused expression.

“It’s just… what if this has a lasting effect on your wing?” Blue ventured. He immediately kicked himself at how blunt he just sounded. “Umm… I mean, it probably won’t… but take it from a guy with experience, these things are more fragile than you think,” He nodded toward his own wing suggestively.

Rainbow Dash grew uneasy at the memory of the stallion’s wing getting broken. “Well, you did fall on it pretty hard. The doctors said you had some nerve damage too…” She paused uncomfortably. “It’s a good thing you recovered from it,”

“Yeah… it is,” Blue Bolt replied, still mindlessly unwrapping the mare. “But, we fell pretty far off of that cliff… you aren’t worried about yours?” He asked with a surprised tone. Despite the somber thought of her wing receiving permanent damage, she seemed unfazed.

“No, not really,” Rainbow Dash replied nonchalantly. “See… I’ve kind of got this friend that has healing powers. He likes to make sure me and the girls don’t end up permanently damaged,” She explained, trying to go easy on the information overload that she knew would come from such a discussion.

Blue Bolt paused what he was doing and looked at the cyan pony with a raised eyebrow. “Wait… do you mean that human that came to Equestria?” He asked with an intrigued tone. “What was his name again… Tom or something, right?”

“Yeah, how did you…” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and mentally slapped herself as she realized the obvious. “Oh yeah… I kind of forget how big of a deal the whole business with the hooded ponies and Tom coming to Equestria was,” She said.

“Well, they did try to overthrow the princess and take over the world… The hooded ponies, I mean… Not your friend,” Blue corrected himself awkwardly.

Rainbow Dash chuckled slightly. “But, yeah… Tom usually keeps us in good health whenever he drops by Ponyville. I’m sure he can fix up this wing no problem if it hasn’t healed by then… Gah!” She abruptly cringed as the stallion finished unwrapping her and started cleaning out her wound with water. “Watch it, that’s cold!”

“Sorry,” Blue Bolt cringed himself while pausing for a moment. He continued cleaning her wound, albeit slower than before, while thinking about his companion’s words. “So… your friend can actually heal a broken wing?” He asked with a surprised and mildly intrigued tone.

“Yeah, definitely,” Rainbow replied. “He has healed a lot worse… trust me. It would have been handy to have him around back in school. That way, you wouldn’t have had to have gone through all those months of physical therapy,”

Blue Bolt nodded to himself. “Yeah… the thought did occur to me,” He muttered while looking to the ground pensively. He shrugged and shook his head before returning to the task at hoof. Finally, he got done with cleaning the cyan mare’s wound. “There you go, that should be good enough to last you,”

Rainbow Dash looked down to her stomach curiously. Her wound looked much better now that it didn’t have a buildup of blood covering it; although, it was still a bit grizzly looking due to its size. “Thanks, Blue. I think it feels a little less tender now,” She turned to the stallion with a pleased smile.

“No problem,” Blue Bolt smiled back at her before looking off to the side as if he were searching for something. “Now, I need to find some more plant fibers to make a new bandage for you. Why don’t you stay here, maybe get a drink?” He suggested, nodding toward the river. “You don’t want to get dehydrated… especially not with you being sick right now,”

Rainbow turned back to the waters gently passing by. She didn’t drink anything the day before, and she knew that couldn’t have been good for her. “Alright, that sounds good,” She looked back to see the stallion walking away. “Don’t go wandering too far away. I want you within hobbling distance if I have to come save your tail again!” She called.

“Noted…” Blue Bolt chuckled lightheartedly while waving behind him as he walked.

With her companion working on collecting plants, Rainbow Dash was left to her own devices by the water. She groaned softly while feeling her forehead again, narrowing her eyes as she confirmed that her fever was still present.

“Ugh… I hope I feel better soon. We need to get out of this stupid forest or I’m going to lose it,”

As the babbling brook beside her drew her in with its clear and cool wiles, she took a few steps in and let herself cool off. Her limbs were still a little shaky, but she pushed through the weakness as best she could. The last thing she wanted was for the stallion to see her in such a state.

Rainbow Dash slowly lowered her head down to the level of the water. It looked clean enough, and she was definitely thirsty. Finally, she made contact and closed her eyes while sipping up the cold liquid.

The water was among the most refreshing she had ever had, whether or not this was from her desperate situation or the wonders of nature, she didn’t know or care. She drank for what must have been a solid minute before reeling back and letting out a relaxed breath.

The sound of a twig snapping somewhere up ahead suddenly made Rainbow Dash’s ears perk up. She snapped her attention to the trees in front of her, where the noise most likely came from. There was a lot of thick brush in the way, blocking her view of any potential dangers that could have been lurking. Before she chalked the sound up to her paranoid nerves being on overdrive, a soft rustling occurred in roughly the same direction as the previous snapping sound.

Rainbow Dash took a step back while keeping her eyes glued in front of her. If there was a timberwolf hiding in the trees, then it might very well have been too late by the time she could react for her to get away. She looked behind her briefly, desperate to find her companion and alert him to the possible threat. Thankfully, she saw him a short distance down the stream, picking leaves off of plants and stripping them of their fibers.

“Blue…” She spoke in a calm voice, unable to hide a bit of unease. She hoped that she was loud enough for the stallion to hear, while also being quiet enough to not alert anything that could have been watching.

Judging from the lack of a response from her companion, he must not have heard her. Rainbow Dash felt a pit developing in her stomach as she heard more rustling and saw some movement in the brush ahead of her.

“Blue Bolt!” She said again, more desperate and slightly louder.

Blue Bolt paused what he was doing and turned his head. He raised an eyebrow suspiciously as he saw the cyan mare in a defensive stance, staring ahead with a tense look on her face.

Suddenly, the rustling came again, louder and closer than ever. Rainbow Dash prepared herself for the worst possible outcome as she saw whatever unseen creature that was approaching as it moved through the brush.

Much to her surprise, the shape that casually stepped out of the trees was far less intimidating than she was expecting.

Instead of a bear, timberwolf, or some other form of terrifying predator, a white-tailed doe slowly walked out of the trees and over to the stream. The docile looking animal completely ignored Rainbow Dash, opting instead to take a drink from the water, much like she had.

“Something wrong?” A voice from behind her spoke up, nearly causing the pegasus to jump out of her coat.

Rainbow Dash looked over to see Blue Bolt looking back at her curiously before he turned his attention to the doe. She couldn’t help but to smile and laugh silently at her own paranoid delusions. “No… it’s nothing, apparently,”

Blue Bolt looked to his companion blankly, feeling like he missed out on something. He shrugged before taking the plant fibers he had amassed and setting them down beside him. “Ok then, how about we get you patched up again?” He suggested.

Rainbow Dash looked down to the unsightly wound still present across her waist and cringed. “Yes please,” She said, sitting down beside the stream and letting the stallion get to work.

After a few minutes of Blue Bolt carefully wrapping the new bandages around Rainbow Dash’s waist, the stallion finally finished his work. He tucked the ends into the folds before turning to his patient. “How’s that?”

Rainbow Dash frowned slightly as she felt the restricting bindings squeezing against her form. “It can’t be any looser?” She whined pleadingly.

“So now you want it to be loose?” Blue asked, thinking back to when he wrapped up the pegasus yesterday. “You didn’t seem to mind back in the cave,”

“That was when I was too unconscious to care whether or not you squeezed my insides till I pop,” Rainbow Dash groaned, trying her best to adjust to the tight wrappings. “But other than that,” She shrugged before adopting a slight smile. “It’s pretty good… for a patch job,” She turned to see the stallion cracking a smile as well. Now that her wound was tended to, she shifted her attention to her surroundings. “So what do we do now?” She asked curiously.

Blue Bolt lowered his expression as he noted the sickly appearance his friend still had. “I think maybe we should head back to the cave… rest up a bit before we make our next move,” He suggested.

“Blue,” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes in disbelief. “My health is the least of our concerns at the moment,”

“Is it?” Blue replied with a raised eyebrow. “Because from where I’m standing, it looks like you can barely walk on your own,” He pointed out the mare’s shaking limbs.

Rainbow Dash looked down to her legs and saw what the stallion was talking about. As much as she wanted to tough through her bout of illness, her body seemed to have other ideas. “Since when do you care about me so much?” She huffed in an upset manner.

Blue Bolt frowned sadly. He hesitated, seemingly thinking about something for a moment, before looking back to his friend. “Rainbow Dash… I thought we-”

“Yeah, yeah… fresh start,” Rainbow interrupted. “Well, sorry if I’m harboring a bit of bad blood after what you did,” She turned back to the stallion, pausing uncomfortably as she saw him with such a gloomy look on his face. “Anyway… We need to get out of this forest as soon as possible. I’m fine… fine enough to walk, anyway,” She said while starting to walk down the river.

Blue Bolt watched the cyan pony walking away at a slow pace, and sighed. Despite the difficulty she was having, she did not look like she was accepting the idea of resting until she was better. “Wait for me!” He called after her while trotting to catch up, which took less time than he first thought.

Back in Ponyville, Twilight Sparkle sat in the main room of the library pouring over various books on weather. After the strange storm forced their retreat to town, she had been burning with questions on what had caused it. More importantly, she wanted to find a way to prevent it from happening again so nobody else fell to the same fate as her two missing friends.

Twilight sighed, resting her head on a hoof while trailing over yet another useless page of information. As much as she liked reading, she was getting nowhere fast. It seemed like the weather team’s reactions were fairly accurate. A powerful storm appearing out of nowhere outside of the Everfree hadn’t happened before anywhere in Equestria.

*Tap* *Tap* *Tap*

A soft knocking abruptly pulled the unicorn from her thoughts. Twilight peered behind her toward the front door before glancing to the early morning sunlight streaming in from the windows. “Who could that be?” She wondered out loud while getting up. Not many people came to the library this early in the morning.

As she reached the door and opened it, Twilight was met with the sight of Fluttershy waiting outside. The pegasus had a certain anxious air about her that told the purple mare just how worried she still was about Rainbow Dash and Blue Bolt.

“Fluttershy…?” Twilight softened her expression as she saw how stressed her friend was.

“Morning, Twilight,” Fluttershy greeted awkwardly. She fidgeted her hooves together for a moment, seemingly trying to think of something to say. “I… I couldn’t just stay home and do nothing; not while Blue and Dashie are still out there. I was wondering if you wanted to help me look for them now that it’s day out,” She said, hopeful that the unicorn would agree to assist her.

Twilight frowned slightly, noticing some bags under the yellow pony’s eyes. “Fluttershy, you should relax for a minute,”

“No…” Fluttershy shook her head. “I can’t… I can’t just sit here and do nothing! Rainbow Dash would do anything she could if it were me that got lost,” She stated, growing more anxious by the minute. “There must be something we can do to help them. Maybe we should contact the princess… or maybe we should go back to the forest, or-”

“Fluttershy… I need you to just breathe for a minute, ok?” Twilight interrupted, concerned by how exhausted the pegasus seemed. “Besides… I already contacted the princess,”

Fluttershy tilted her head curiously. “You did?”

“Of course,” Twilight nodded. “I did as soon as we got home. She’s working on figuring out what was up with the weather, but in the meantime, she sent Sunspot and Glitterball to help look for Rainbow Dash and Blue Bolt,” She explained cheerfully.

“So… they’re coming to Ponyville?” Fluttershy smiled slightly at the thought of meeting the two mares again.

“Yeah, they should be here on the next train,” Twilight explained. She gently took the pegasus by the shoulder and led her into the library. “So how about you come inside and rest for a while until they get here and then we can all go out and look for Rainbow and Blue?”

“Umm…” Fluttershy tried to protest by maneuvering away from her unicorn friend, but it didn’t look like Twilight was giving her an option to say no. “O-ok… I guess I can maybe take a minute,” She reasoned.

Somehow, Twilight managed to get the bundle of nerves that was her pegasus friend to sleep for a while. However, Fluttershy insisted that she be woken up when it was time to go meet Sunspot and Glitterball. And after two hours had gone by, the time had arrived.

The two mares waited patiently on the platform of the train station. They mostly had the area to themselves, so they were spread out a little bit as they watched the distant tracks eagerly. Finally, a faint rumble accompanied the train as it came into view and cruised into the station.

Twilight and Fluttershy gathered by one of the middle cars as all of the doors opened. Soon enough, a few passengers started getting off and disembarking to Ponyville. Just as the last few ponies were getting off and the pair was starting to lose hope that their friends had made this train, two mares walked off of the train near the back car. One was a white unicorn with her rainbow polka dotted hair tied up in a ponytail, and the other was a yellowish orange pegasus with similarly colored hair that had a solid yellow stripe in it. Both ponies were carrying a suitcase behind them, and both were devoid of their monster hunting uniforms.

Looking around the station, the pair quickly noticed Twilight and Fluttershy waiting for them and smiled.

“Hi guys!” Glitterball called and waved as she saw the pair turning toward her and her orange companion. Both parties started walking toward each other and met in the middle.

Twilight happily received a quick hug from the pair before they did the same to Fluttershy. “Glitterball, Sunspot, it’s really good to see you again,” The unicorn said cheerfully.

“Yeah, it’s good to see you too,” Sunspot replied. Her expression lowered slightly as her thoughts shifted elsewhere. “I only wish we could meet up under better circumstances,”

Glitterball frowned as well and offered the pair a sympathetic expression. “We’re sorry to hear about Rainbow Dash and that other friend of yours,” She briefly turned to her partner. “We came as soon as the princess contacted us,”

“Glimmer and Sparkplug would have come too, but they were busy working a case with Tom,” Sunspot explained.

“It’s ok… we appreciate you taking the time to come out here and help us,” Fluttershy said with a heart-warmed smile.

“Of course,” Glitter nodded. “Well, now that we’re here, why don’t you come with us to find a hotel? You can tell us what happened on the way,” She suggested while looking back to her luggage, which needed to be put somewhere before anything could be done.

“Right, ok,” Twilight replied. “But, how about you two just stay at the library for the time being?” She offered.

“Works for me,” Sunspot said. “Whatever gets us out there looking for the others the fastest,”

Twilight and Fluttershy were glad to see that the two mares were just as eager to find the missing pegasi as they were. They started walking back through town toward the library, explaining everything that had happened leading up to the accident out in the wilderness. They were hopeful that their friends were still alright, and that they would find them before something bad happened.

Meanwhile, back in the forest, Rainbow Dash and Blue Bolt were still following the stream, hopeful to find a way out of their nightmarish situation.

Rainbow was at the front, leading the way despite her weakness slowing her down a fair amount. While the cut along her waist seemed to have calmed its constant burning since being cleaned, the infection was still present, and it was still wreaking havoc on her body.

Blue Bolt trailed along behind the cyan mare in silence. He couldn’t stop staring at her and wondering if they would ever have a functional friendship again. She had made attempts to close the distance between them, but she was clearly still hurting over the events of the past, not that he could blame her.

Perhaps noticing the uncomfortable silence, Rainbow Dash glanced back to her companion and lowered her expression as she saw how glum he was. Thinking back to how she stormed off and completely disregarded his opinion, she understood why he was a little upset. She sighed, “… Blue, I didn’t-” She paused awkwardly, struggling to get over her bruised pride long enough to form an apology.

“You didn’t what…?” Blue tilted his head curiously as the pegasus stopped in front of him.

Rainbow Dash turned around and softened her eyes as she looked at the stallion. “Back there… I didn’t mean to just rail on you like that. I know you were just concerned about me… and I just ripped off a band-aid that I put there to begin with,” She explained regretfully.

“It’s not like I didn’t have it coming,” Blue Bolt replied somberly.

“No,” Rainbow shook her head and sighed in exasperation. “This is exactly what I wanted to avoid. I don’t want us to die out here because we can’t get over what happened years ago,”

Blue Bolt rested a hoof on the frustrated mare’s shoulder as she sat on the ground and looked down sadly. “We’re not going to die out here… I won’t let something like that happen,” He stated adamantly.

“Well, if we’re going to survive, we need to work together,” Rainbow Dash suggested. “I’ll try my best to not bring up anything that will just make us both upset,” She looked up, only to see the stallion offering her a helping hoof to get off the ground, which she accepted.

“And I’ll try my best to not leave your slow tail behind,” Blue jested with a smirk, eliciting an unimpressed expression from his companion.

“If that’s your way of getting a fresh start, then we’re going to get off on the wrong hoof,” Rainbow Dash smiled and shook her head before starting to walk again.

The pair continued downstream for several minutes, all the while enjoying the reprieve they were getting from the constricting forest around them. There were still trees aplenty, but for the most part the shoreline was just wet dirt or sand.

The calm sound of the water was almost hypnotic, especially when compared to the rushing rapids that they had witnessed before. Still, the two would have gladly traded the beautiful sights and sounds around them for the mundane streets of Ponyville.

Up ahead, the seemingly endless stream actually came to an end. The pair stopped walking as they laid eyes on a small watering hole surrounded by grass and trees. There were rocks sitting between the miniature pond and the stream, catching the flow of water and regulating it. A group of deer were drinking from the pond, along with a bird that was bathing itself.

Rainbow Dash sighed while looking at the trees beyond the watering hole. “Well, that’s just great,” She muttered in a frustrated manner. While the watering hole was serene and beautiful, it didn’t exactly help them with getting out of the forest.

“So much for our ticket out of here,” Blue Bolt droned while shaking his head. “Man… I was really banking on that working,”

“Ugh… I freaking hate nature,” Rainbow Dash huffed and sat down for a moment. “I am swearing off of hikes if we ever make it out of this stupid forest,” She vented angrily.

Blue Bolt tilted his head slightly as he noticed the cyan mare breathing a bit heavier than usual. She also looked a bit sickly underneath her agitated scowl. “Hey, are you feeling ok?” He asked in a concerned tone.

Rainbow Dash turned to see the stallion eyeing her closely. “I’m fine, Blue… no need to get worried,” She insisted. Much to her chagrin, Blue Bolt walked over to her and sat down before putting a hoof against her forehead.

“You still have a fever,” Blue reported with a frown. “Let’s take a minute and rest up while we think of another plan,”

“Come on, we’ve wasted enough time as is, Blue” Rainbow Dash sighed and got up from the ground. “We have to find a way out of here, and we’re not going to do that if we keep stopping every five seconds because I’m a little hot,” She insisted adamantly. She wasn’t about to let a little bug impede their progress.

A soft rumble passed through the forest, causing the pair to pause their conversation abruptly. They both turned their heads back to where they came and looked up at the sky, narrowing their eyes uneasily as they spotted what looked to be storm clouds rolling in from the distance.

“Great… That’s just what we needed, another freak storm,” Rainbow Dash groaned as she thought back to the first experience she had with the unpredictable weather that was rolling across the countryside willy-nilly.

“I’m still a bit confused as to how the first one snuck up on us like that,” Blue Bolt added curiously.

Rainbow Dash briefly thought on the matter before shaking her head and shrugging. “Well, curiosity isn’t going to help us very much when it starts coming down. Whatever we’re going to do, we better do it before that gets any closer,” She said, turning to her companion to get his input on the situation.

Before Blue Bolt could speak up, another noise came from over by the watering hole that distinctly sounded like bushes rustling.

The two ponies looked over just in time to see the animals down by the watering hole fleeing in a panic. The group of deer let out shrill noises of fear as they ran into the forest, and the bird that was playing in the water frantically beat its wings and darted off into the air. A few moments after the animals had fled the area, the rustling sound came again, and again, seemingly getting closer to the edge of the clearing.

Soon enough, the source of the noises became abundantly clear as two shapes exited the trees and walked up to the watering hole.

“Timberwolves…” Rainbow Dash muttered in a quiet voice while inching backwards uneasily. Her partner seemed to be in the same defensive stance she was, ready to run or hide at a moment’s notice.

Strangely enough, the two wolves looked different than the average timberwolf. Their bodies had cracks and frayed pieces of wood all over. One of them was missing an ear, and the other seemed to be walking with a limp. For all intents and purposes, they looked injured.

“What’s up with them?” Blue Bolt asked quietly. “Why do they look all broken up?”

Rainbow Dash narrowed her expression as a thought occurred to her. “Maybe those are the same ones I sent over the edge into the river,”

Blue Bolt looked back to the two predators with an astonished expression. “I guess that would explain it… They must not be able to heal damage done to their bodies that doesn’t just break them apart,” He ventured. His expression shifted from astonishment to concern as another thought occurred to him.

“You think they’re mad at us?”

Rainbow Dash simply glanced to the stallion. “Wouldn’t you be?”

The two predators approached the watering hole, pausing every once in a while to look around. They started sniffing the ground feverishly, and while they seemed to be unaware of the ponies’ presence, that could have changed at any moment.

“Come on, let’s get moving. Anywhere is better than here,” Blue Bolt suggested while slowly making his way across the stream.

Rainbow Dash nodded and quietly followed the stallion, glancing over to the two wolves every few seconds to see if they had been spotted.

Due to the calmness of the water this far down river, the ponies were able to slowly and stealthily walk across with little issue. The thick canopy of trees on the other side was just ahead, and with it, safety. If they could make it through the trees, the chances of the wolves finding them dropped immensely.

Just before Blue Bolt stepped on dry land, a deep growl from off to the side made him freeze in place. He and his cyan companion looked over, only to see both timberwolves staring right at them.

“Well, so much for the quiet approach. Run!” He exclaimed while darting into the trees.

Rainbow Dash raced to follow her friend as the two wolves raced to catch up. She could hear them barking and snarling, though they were further behind than she was used to.

Much to her concern, the cyan mare started to feel the effects of her sickly state. She was getting exhausted much faster than normal, and she could now feel the hotness that most likely came from her fever.

“Blue… I’m not… exactly… in the best shape for running right now.” She called ahead to her partner in a concerned and out of breath manner.

Blue Bolt looked behind him at his fellow pegasus, frowning as he saw how she was faring. She had a general appearance of unwellness about her, and she was pale in the face. “Don’t worry, it looks like they aren’t in good shape either,” He noted, glancing past her and seeing nothing but trees. The wolves were still following them judging from the barks and growls, but the predators seemed to be much slower than usual. “Just keep going, we’ll lose them soon enough,” He said in a reassuring tone.

Rainbow Dash tried her best to soldier on and keep moving, but her limbs were getting weaker by the minute. She felt like her heart might explode out of her chest, or like she was going to pass out, and she wasn’t sure which one was going to happen first.

“Blue… I-” Rainbow started to speak, until she groaned painfully as her forelegs caught a tree root and collapsed underneath her.

The blue stallion skidded to a stop as he heard his friend collapsing. He turned around, only to see Rainbow Dash sprawled out along the ground, breathing heavily and struggling to get back up. The sounds of the timberwolves were getting closer, indicating that they were almost upon them.

“Oh no…”

After a few moments, the two wooden beasts came bolting through the trees as fast as their injured bodies could allow, barking and snapping the whole way. The two wolves gradually skidded to a halt and looked around. They hadn’t seen their prey in a while, but they were certain that the ponies couldn’t have gotten far.

Spreading out and growling fiercely, the timberwolves started sniffing the ground to get the scent of their prey back. Much to their initial frustration, their keen noses were unable to make out the ponies’ scent from the many smells around them. Either their noses were somehow broken from their fall into the river, or they still had water trapped in their many parts.

The distant rumble of thunder happened again, sounding much less distant as time went on. The wolves looked to the side and perked their remaining ears up, growling slightly at the approaching storm. With how injured they were, getting their wooden bodies soaked any further could prove troublesome for a number of reasons.

With no signs of the two ponies anywhere, the predators hesitantly made the call to run off to find shelter. They would have to find a meal after the storm passed over.

As the timberwolves bounded off into the expanse of the forest, Blue Bolt silently watched them leaving from his position on a low hanging tree branch. He glanced to his side to check on his sickly companion, only to see her still clinging weakly to the branch while struggling to catch her breath.

“I think they’re gone,” He reported quietly, making sure to check the surrounding area one more time before starting to climb down.

Rainbow Dash smiled slightly under her exhausted exterior. “Good… good thinking finding this… tree to climb up,”

Blue Bolt hung off of the branch as far as he could before letting go. He grunted softly as he hit the ground, doing his best to cushion the blow by bending his legs. Finally, he brushed himself off before looking up at his companion.

“Alright, jump down. I’ll catch you,”

Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes briefly while looking down and noting how high up she was. “If you miss me, I’m kicking your tail so hard that you’ll miss the timberwolves,” She stated bluntly.

“Then I guess I’ll try extra hard not to miss,” Blue Bolt chuckled slightly while readying himself to catch the falling mare.

Rainbow Dash shrugged and swallowed her anxious thoughts before inching her way over the side of the branch. She cringed briefly and mentally counted to three before letting go and falling back to earth. Much to her relief, she landed in the stallion’s forelegs, softer than she first imagined.

“See?” Blue Bolt smirked down at the pegasus in his grasp. “I would never let a damsel in distress down,”

Rainbow Dash lowered her expression as she saw how smug the stallion looked. “Alright prince charming, put me down,” She rolled sideways, speeding up the process a bit before landing on her own four legs and sitting down. She nearly slid to the ground again as her forelegs shook under her weight.

Blue Bolt frowned with concern as he saw how much his companion was struggling to appear healthier than she was. “How do you feel? And don’t sugar coat it for me, this is important,” He insisted.

Rainbow Dash tried to put on a calm expression, but her labored breathing and pale appearance betrayed her. “Well… if you must know, not very good,” She adopted a concerned expression herself as she noted how much she was shaking. “It’s… getting worse actually,”

Blue Bolt softened his expression as he saw genuine worry in the mare’s eyes. “You’ll be fine.” He assured. Another thunderous outburst made him look up toward the hidden sky before looking back to his companion.

“Come on; let’s get you somewhere safe before it starts raining. We can rest as much as you need then,” He suggested while helping the sickly pegasus to her feet.

As much as Rainbow Dash wanted to walk on her own, she had to accept Blue’s help with walking due to her weakness and general feeling of illness.

*A few hours later*

As thunder and lightning permeated the sky up ahead, Twilight, Fluttershy, and their two friends paused uneasily in front of the forest where the pair of pegasi went missing.

The sky over the forest was completely covered in gray or black clouds. The air was dead still, with practically no wind. Somehow the stillness around them made the storm clouds even more intimidating, even though it was only sprinkling at the moment.

“Oh no...” Twilight’s expression deflated as she saw the storm flaring up. While it didn’t look as severe as the one from yesterday, the storm was producing enough lightning to make it dangerous to be out and about.

“Not this again!” Fluttershy groaned in frustration before reeling back slightly as a loud crack of thunder startled her.

Sunspot and Glitterball glanced at the storm for a moment before settling their eyes on the expansive forest. “Great… needle, meet haystack,” Sunspot muttered while trying to imagine how hard it was going to be to find the two missing ponies.

Glitterball stepped forward with a determined expression and fished a vial from the tote bag she had across her back. She twisted the cap of the vial, causing the sand inside to flash red a few times before dimming back to normal. The others watched with hopeful expressions as the unicorn pointed the vial around, only to frown as they saw the sand lighting up in multiple directions.

“Grr… I was afraid of this. There are too many heat signatures from all of the animals in there to pinpoint where Rainbow Dash and Blue Bolt are with the locators.” She reported with a defeated frown while putting the useless vial back into her bag.

“Well… there has to be something we can do, right?” Fluttershy asked, looking around at her three friends with a hopeful expression.

Twilight frowned as she saw the utter desperation in the yellow mare’s eyes. “I’m sorry, Fluttershy, but it looks like there isn’t much we can do with that storm rolling in. It’s just too dangerous to go in there,” The unicorn explained reassuringly.

Fluttershy shook her head in refusal. “No! We can’t just give up and call this another wasted trip! Who knows what kind of danger they could be in right now while we’re sitting here doing nothing!” She said, her voice cracking slightly.

Fluttershy looked around, only seeing uneasy frowns from her companions. Finally, she turned to the forest and steeled her expression. “I’m going to fly up and look for them from the air, that way the timberwolves won’t even matter,” She suggested while taking a few steps forward.

“Don’t go up there, Fluttershy. You’ll get yourself electrocuted!” Glitterball fretted with concern, reaching a hoof out to the determined pegasus.

Fluttershy briefly looked up at the many displays of lightning in the sky as it started to rain a bit more. The clouds still weren’t above them, but they were close enough to affect them, especially if they went flying up to them. The yellow mare cringed hesitantly and considered turning around and leaving with her friends, until she thought about what Rainbow Dash would do if their roles were reversed. “I’m not going to leave here without finding them!” She exclaimed before spreading her wings and taking off.

“Fluttershy!” Twilight reached after the reckless pegasus before coming to a stop as her friend exceeded her reach. She sighed and watched with a concerned expression as the yellow pony flew up and over the forest.

Sunspot sighed and shook her head. She understood where Fluttershy was coming from, but this was just plain grasping at straws. “I’ll go get her,” Sunspot said while stepping forward and taking off as well.

Up in the air, Fluttershy braved the ever intensifying blanket of rain and the ever present threat of lightning striking her down as she soared over the forest. Once she was at a comfortable height, she started scanning her eyes around the forest below, hopeful against all odds that she would see a flash of blue or cyan against the greens and browns.

“Oh, Dashie… Blue… where are you guys?” She thought out loud, feeling a wave of despair hitting her as she took in the sheer scope of the forest. If she and the others were having such a hard time finding the pair from the air, then what must it have been like down in the forest trying to get out?

As she was feverishly searching the ground, a flash of a different sort filled her vision, followed by an uncomfortably close rumble of thunder. Fluttershy whined nervously while darting her head up to the clouds against her better judgement. Just seeing the flashes of lightning so close to her made her body scream at her to flee. However, she couldn’t just flee, not while her friends needed her.

“Rainbow Dash! Blue Bolt! Can you hear me?!” She shouted while flying around to a few other spots.

“Fluttershy! Come back down before you get hurt!” A voice behind her called out. Fluttershy spun around, only to see Sunspot flying to catch up with her.

“I’m sorry Sunspot, but I can’t-” Fluttershy started to speak, until she felt a slight tingling in her side. Much to her shock, a bright light engulfed her vision from the side, forcing her to shut her eyes. Accompanying the light, possibly the loudest noise she had ever heard rocked through her so intensely that she could feel the vibrations. She screamed, but her voice was lost amidst the noise.

After a few seconds had passed, Fluttershy shakily opened her eyes and looked over. She gasped as she saw that a tree down in the forest was on fire, seemingly having been struck by lightning. Thankfully, the flames were small enough to be quickly put out by the rain, but the spot where the lightning had struck was nearly on top of the pegasus.

“Are you ok?” Sunspot asked in a sympathetic voice, much closer than Fluttershy remembered.

The yellow mare looked up as a hoof was placed on her shoulder. She saw Sunspot hovering in front of her, wearing a concerned frown. “Y-yeah… I think so,” Fluttershy nodded, though she was still shaken up quite a bit.

Sunspot looked to the forest below, perhaps giving a cursory search of the area before sighing and looking back to Fluttershy. “We can’t do anything for them right now… especially if we get burnt to a crisp. How about we head back home for now and rethink our plan?” She suggested softly.

Fluttershy took one last look at the forest below before another rumble of thunder drew her attention away. She felt tears welling up as she thought about her friends being stuck in such a terrible place, possibly injured and starving.

“Ok…” She closed her eyes and nodded, letting out a sniffle and letting her tears fall freely.

Sunspot frowned as she escorted the gloomy mare back toward the ground. She could tell that the weight of everything was crushing Fluttershy and tearing her up on the inside.

And so, with another rescue attempt thwarted, the ponies started the trek back home. Some of them felt defeated, like they would never see their two friends again. However, some of them were all the more determined to find a way to save the two pegasi stuck in the wilderness.

Chapter 7

As the sky darkened, and the late stages of the day were dominated by the storm above, the rain soaked forest became even darker. The many trees were now bathed in pitch blackness, with only the occasional flash of lightning to partially illuminate the twisting branches and the shapes they were casting in shadow.

Amid the constant water dripping down to the forest floor through the canopy of trees, Rainbow Dash and Blue Bolt had somehow found shelter for themselves. The pair had quite literally holed up inside of the hollowed out trunk of a tree. Although the hole they entered through was cramped, the space on the inside was surprisingly big enough to fit both of them with some room to move around, which wasn’t as surprising when the massive size of the tree itself was considered.

Blue Bolt stared out of the hole in the tree at the rain falling outside. The storm overhead was much tamer than the last storm they had encountered, but even if it weren’t, their wooden haven was safe from the rain and wind.

“Ugh… I feel like I’m melting in here,” Rainbow Dash groaned from behind him, causing the stallion to turn around.

Rainbow was currently lying on her back, with her head resting on the back of the tree. She looked like she was immensely uncomfortable from her fever, and her injury couldn’t have been helping matters any.

“I wouldn’t worry about that. Once night rolls around, I’m sure it will be plenty cold,” Blue Bolt said, already feeling the heat from the day vanishing amid the rain.

“Yeah… I wish we could somehow have a fire going,” Rainbow Dash sighed. She never imagined that she would miss the dingy cave they had slept in previously, but here she was, crammed into a hole in a tree and hiding from wolf and wilderness alike.

“You and me both,” Blue Bolt offered a hollow chuckle at the notion of making a fire. “Unfortunately, even if we weren’t in such a tiny space made entirely out of wood, I doubt that we could find any dry firewood now,”

The pair remained silent for a while, letting their exhausted bodies rest while listening to the pouring rain and booming thunder. They had a long night ahead of them, but they hoped they would at least be safe where they were.

After a while, Rainbow Dash was starting to get even more miserable. Her stomach twinged with pain at the slightest touch or rub against the bandage around it, her legs were still weak from her sickness, and to top it all off, she felt like she was burning up inside.

“Ooof… this seriously sucks,” Rainbow whined in a pitiful tone. She let her head thump against the wood of the tree, not caring whether or not her mane would have splinters in it.

Glancing back to the sickly mare, Blue Bolt frowned sadly, feeling helpless and unable to do anything to make his companion feel better. He looked out of the hole in the tree and out into the forest. Everything was soaking wet out there, even the plants. Suddenly, an idea popped into his head.

Rainbow Dash looked up as she heard the stallion moving. She was surprised to see that he was actually climbing out of the tree and onto the forest floor.

“Blue, what are you doing?” She asked in a mildly concerned tone.

Blue Bolt grunted as he struggled to get free of the small opening.

“Hold on a second,” He replied without halting his progress. Finally, he made it out and landed on the ground with a wet and doubtlessly cold splash into the mud below.

Rainbow listened as the sound of the stallion’s hooves splashing in the already flooded ground traveled off to the side. She tilted her head curiously as the noises stopped, followed by some plants rustling. After another moment, the splashing returned and started approaching the tree again. Soon enough, Blue Bolt huffed as he jumped back up to the opening and started climbing back into the tree.

“Are you out of your mind or something?” Rainbow Dash asked as she watched the stallion climbing back in. “It’s soaking wet out there! You’re going to catch your death from cold.” She frowned as she saw that his fur and hair were now dripping with water. Strangely enough, he had a large leaf from a plant rolled up and clutched in his mouth.

Blue Bolt ignored the cyan pony’s chiding and the soaked state he was in as he walked up to her and sat down. He took the rolled up leaf out of his mouth and placed it on her forehead while gently pushing her back to a resting position.

“Here, keep that on your forehead. It should help you keep cool,” He explained softly.

Rainbow Dash was surprised to feel how cold the leaf was. It was still sopping wet from outside, so it was probably the best way to help keep her temperature down given their situation.

“Blue… you didn’t have to do that,” She said, lowering her expression sadly.

Blue Bolt smiled in accomplishment while brushing his soaked hair out of his face. “Well, there’s nothing else to do. I might as well make myself useful… heh...” He chuckled nervously as Rainbow stared at him with an unimpressed expression of concern. “A… a… Achoo!” He turned away as a sneeze abruptly escaped him.

“I told you… Now you’re going to be the sick one,” Rainbow Dash frowned while her companion sniffled and rubbed his shoulders.

“I’ll be fine; it’s just a little water,” Blue insisted, making an effort to stop shivering. “Besides, the only reason you’re so out of it right now is because you tried to keep that timberwolf away from me. I owe you this much at least,” He explained somberly.

“Blue…” Rainbow Dash looked at the stallion sympathetically. She sighed and shook her head as he moved off to the side to dry off away from her. While her companion was settling in and waiting for his fur to dry off, Rainbow watched him while resting herself.

She couldn’t believe that he was still sticking his neck out for her after all this time, much like he had done when his wing got paralyzed. She always admired his courage. The way he stood up for others was actually part of the reason that Rainbow started to have feelings for him. In the end, she was never sure what she expected the big dance to turn out to be, or what sort of relationship she was planning on having with the stallion, but she could still fondly remember how close she had gotten with him.

*A few years ago*

As the school day was ending, Rainbow Dash waited out by the flying course for her friends to meet her. Ever since she and Fluttershy had started helping Blue Bolt with his recovery, the flying course had become their unofficial meeting spot.

Soon enough, she heard the flapping of wings off to the side. She turned her head, only to see Blue Bolt hovering down to her near the set of clouds that attached to the school itself. His form was a bit shaky, and he wasn’t going very fast, but seeing him airborne at all was a vast improvement from when they started.

“You’re late,” Rainbow Dash said playfully while walking over to meet with the stallion as he landed.

Blue Bolt scoffed and shook his head with a smirk. “Hey, be thankful I got here at all. I’m still getting used to flying again,"

“So is it true that you made it to school by yourself today?” Rainbow Dash asked with an eager expression.

“Yeah, I did,” Blue replied happily. “My dad still came with me to make sure I didn’t drop out of the sky… but I made it here with no help,” He looked to his wing and smiled slightly.

Rainbow Dash softly punched the stallion on the shoulder. “See? I always said you would bounce back, now didn’t I?”

“Yeah, yeah…” Blue Bolt rolled his eyes lightheartedly. “I suppose I owe you some thanks for helping me along… you and Fluttershy,” He said in a more sincere tone.

“Where is she anyway?” Rainbow Dash asked, looking around for any sign of the yellow pegasus.

“Uh… I think she stayed behind to help clean up a little mishap in the weather lab. Some kid got a little bit out of control with the raincloud demonstration,” Blue Bolt explained with a slight chuckle.

Rainbow raised an eyebrow before chuckling as well at the mental image forming of the event. “Wow… it’s too bad I missed the show,” She let her shoulders sink before sitting down to get comfortable while she talked with the stallion.

After a few minutes of conversation, Blue Bolt turned to her with a curious expression. “So, has anyone asked you to the big dance yet?”

The sudden question made Rainbow Dash look up in surprise. She paused uncomfortably, trying her best to not appear awkward in front of the stallion.

“Umm… no, actually I was thinking of asking someone to go instead of waiting around,”

“Really?” Blue raised an intrigued eyebrow. “So, who are you asking?”

Rainbow Dash felt a twinge of embarrassment welling up inside of her as she locked eyes with the stallion. She swallowed uncomfortably and shrugged her shoulders, returning a casual expression to her face.

“I’m… not sure yet. I don’t even know if anyone is salvageable at this school,”

“Heh… well, you be sure and let me know if you find anyone worthy enough,” Blue Bolt smirked.

Rainbow Dash looked down and fiddled her hooves together awkwardly, struggling to get the words she intended to say out. “Umm… actually, Blue I was wondering if-”

“Hey, guys!”

A familiar voice called from off to the side, cutting the cyan mare short. The pair looked over and spotted Fluttershy hovering in the air over by the front of the school building.

Rainbow Dash smiled as she saw her yellow friend. “Look who finally caught up,” She got up and walked forward before taking off into the air. She flew over as Fluttershy came closer to her as well, until they finally met in the middle.

“Sorry I couldn’t get here sooner,” Fluttershy said, a slight expression of regret on her face. “And, I’m sorry to say it, but I need to head home,”

“Don’t sweat it,” Rainbow Dash replied, hiding a bit of a disappointed frown. As her thoughts shifted elsewhere, she perked up slightly. “Oh! Before I forget, did you grab that thing I asked for?” She asked curiously

Fluttershy glanced behind her while deep in thought. “Umm… I think so,” She reached into her backpack and pulled out a small bag. “I didn’t look inside, but if you don’t mind me asking, what’s in it?” She said, already handing the package off to her friend.

Rainbow Dash smirked while taking the bag. She glanced behind her briefly, spotting the stallion still standing where she left him. Finally, she turned back to Fluttershy and held open the bag for her to see into.

As she saw the contents of the bag, a surprised expression fell over the yellow mare. “Oh my gosh… is that what I think it is?” She asked eagerly.

“You bet it is,” Rainbow nodded. “I was planning on giving it to Blue… just as a reminder for him to look before he leaps,”

Fluttershy chuckled slightly before lowering her expression. “Well, I would love to be there when you give it to him, but unfortunately I really need to go. Sorry,” She frowned in disappointment.

“That’s alright,” Rainbow Dash assured. “I’ll just tell Blue that this is from both of us,” She glanced behind her, already anticipating the stallion’s reaction.

After saying goodbye to the yellow mare, Rainbow Dash flew back over to find the stallion near the side of the school building. He seemed to be deep in thought, and his expression was a bit sour.

“Hey Blue, what’s up?” She asked curiously, noting the troubled look on his face.

“Oh…” Blue Bolt took a moment to shift his expression to something a bit less somber. “Uh… nothing, I was just going over my grades in my head,” He explained.

Rainbow Dash cringed to herself. “I can sympathize…”

Blue Bolt looked down uncomfortably before looking back to his friend. “So, where did Fluttershy run off to?”

“She had to go home,” Rainbow Dash explained. She couldn’t stop a smirk from building on her face as she held up the bag the yellow mare had given her and reached inside. “But… not before she gave me this to give to you. Surprise!” She exclaimed cheerfully while holding out the object inside for the stallion to see.

Blue Bolt raised his eyebrows in genuine surprise as he saw what the cyan pony was holding. It was a small and sleek black sleeve about the size of a folded up pegasus wing.

“Oh wow, is that… my first cast?” He asked with a slight smile building on his face.

“It sure is,” Rainbow Dash said, shoving the object into the stallion’s hooves. “I know one of the nurses down at the hospital, and I managed to call in a favor to get this back for you. I know you probably won’t need it anymore, but me and Flutters thought it might be nice for you to have… so you can look at it and think back to how stupid you used to be in school,” She punched him on the shoulder playfully as he was still staring at the cast in his hooves.

Much to Rainbow’s surprise, Blue Bolt flashed a brief frown as he looked down at the sleeve. He quickly adopted a better expression, only managing to keep a neutral face at best as he looked up at his friend.

“Rainbow Dash… I… I don’t know what to say. Thank you… both of you,” He said in a genuine tone.

“Aww, don’t get all sappy on me now,” Rainbow Dash jested. She glanced behind her pensively before looking back to him with a more excited expression. “So, now that you’re airborne again, why don’t we see if you can make it through the course?” She asked curiously. “I’ll take it easy on you, don’t worry.”

The color nearly drained from Blue Bolt’s face as he heard the mare’s suggestion. He took a few steps back and darted his head to the side, struggling to think of something to say.

“Uh… no, no… Sorry, but I can’t today. My… I umm… I promised my dad I would help him with something back home,”

Rainbow Dash tilted her head in confusion. “Blue… come on, I’m sure your dad wouldn’t mind. It is to help with your recovery after all,” She said in a softer tone.

The stallion kept backing to the side despite Rainbow’s attempts at persuasion. “No, I really can’t. I’m sorry… I’ve uh… I’ve got to go!” He exclaimed suddenly while trotting away toward the front of the school.

Rainbow Dash watched the stallion leaving with a confused and mildly concerned expression. “Was it something I said?” She wondered out loud while looking down sadly.

Despite how many happy memories she might have had of the stallion, not all of her memories of him were pleasant.

In the weeks leading up to the school dance, Rainbow Dash noticed her friend growing more and more distant towards her. Whenever she tried talking to him, he would simply frown and look for the easiest way to leave her. Even Fluttershy found the stallion’s smile vanishing whenever she tried approaching him.

Finally, the big day arrived. School went by at a slow crawl, even slower than usual for Rainbow Dash. She spent every period thinking about the stallion. Was he avoiding her because he could tell that she was trying to ask him out? Maybe he was freaked out by the thought of having a deeper relationship with her than a simple friendship, not that she could blame him. The thought was certainly troubling her to no end. She wasn’t even sure why she wanted to ask him out, but she knew that she couldn’t just let the opportunity pass her by. After all, it wasn’t like her to not take action.

Rainbow Dash walked through the hallways of the school, having spent some time outside clearing her head. The dance was only just getting started, so many ponies were still scattered around the school. Still, she could hear music playing softly from the gymnasium.

Come on, Rainbow… you can do this… She thought to herself, more nervous than she thought she would feel.

He’s just a stallion… he’s your friend for pony’s sake. Just ask him out… I mean, what’s the worst he can say? No? She laughed slightly as she realized how worked up she was getting.

Suddenly, she stopped walking as she saw something up ahead. Sure enough, it was Blue Bolt. He was standing outside of one of the entrances to the gymnasium, leaning up against the wall and looking down with a downcast expression. Rainbow Dash was almost relieved to see him. Finding the stallion was made a fairly difficult task after he started avoiding her and Fluttershy. But now, he was just standing in front of her, ripe for the taking. All she had to do was say a few words and everything would be fine.

Rainbow Dash hesitantly walked over to the stallion. She shook herself awake and took in a deep breath to calm herself before putting on the best confident expression she could muster and strolling the rest of the way over.

Blue Bolt looked up as he heard hoofsteps approaching. He lowered his already glum expression as he saw the cyan mare walking up to him.

“Hey, Blue Bolt…” Rainbow Dash greeted. “I uh… I know it’s a little late to ask, but…” She chuckled awkwardly as she struggled to find the right way to say what she was meaning to. “I was wondering if… Well, I wanted to say…” She sighed and shook her head before adopting a somber expression. “Blue… will you go to the dance with me?” She asked, smiling slightly and waiting for a response.

Blue Bolt looked the mare in the eyes, his own holding a palpable sense of discomfort. He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Finally, he took in a breath and looked down.

“No…”

The stallion’s response hung in the air for a moment before truly smacking Rainbow Dash in the face. “W...what?” She muttered in a dumbfounded and slightly saddened tone. “Umm… ok… Did someone else already ask you?” She said, trying her best to not look as disappointed as she felt.

Blue Bolt shook his head. “No, it’s nothing like that. I just…” He sighed sadly and turned away from her. “Rainbow Dash… I don’t think we should be friends anymore. Matter of fact… I think we shouldn’t see each other… anymore,” He rubbed his foreleg uncomfortably.

“What…?” Rainbow Dash shook her head in utter confusion. “Blue… what are you saying? Why can’t we be friends anymore?” She searched his eyes for any sign that he was just joking with her, but he just kept avoiding her gaze with a shameful and sad look on his face.

“I… I had a talk with my family, and we are moving out of Cloudsdale in a few days,” Blue explained hesitantly. “It’s… probably for the best anyway,”

Rainbow Dash stared at him, her jaw practically on the floor. She could feel a buildup of emotions working their way to the surface, despite her attempts at keeping them at bay.

“W-wh… what?” She looked down for a moment before darting her trembling eyes back to the stallion. “Blue, I… I don’t understand. Did I do something wrong? Just tell me what I did so we can work this out!” She stepped toward him and tried to put a hoof on his shoulder, only to have him back away from her.

Blue Bolt remained silent for a moment as he looked at the cyan mare. He could see that her eyes were on the verge of watering, though she was trying her best to keep a calm exterior.

“I’m sorry, but… I think this is goodbye.” He said softly.

Rainbow Dash’s mouth hung open, her jaw quivering as she raced to find something, anything to say to change the stallion’s mind. Before she could think of something, he turned and started walking away.

“B-Blue, wait!” She called and reached after him, only to have him keep his course without so much as turning to look at her. He made it all the way to the end of the hallway as she stayed standing there, staring ahead with wide eyes. Finally, he turned the corner, looked back to her one last time, and walked out of sight. Rainbow felt a few stray tears building in her eyes, and soon enough they were falling to the floor.

“Please… don’t go…” She muttered to nothing but thin air, letting her outstretched foreleg droop to the floor.

The music in the next room got louder, and the sounds of other ponies’ laughing and cheering could be heard, indicating that the dance had started. Somehow, however, the cyan mare didn’t want to attend anymore.

Rainbow Dash felt a twinge of the familiar sadness she experienced when she watched the stallion walk out of her life. The soft sound of rain and thunder drew her out of her mind, leaving her sitting in a darkened hole in the middle of a forest, just as she remembered. Somehow, she wished that this whole mess was just part of a dream, and that she would wake up safe and sound in her bed.

Hearing movement off to the side, the cyan mare looked over, spotting her blue companion leaning up against the opposite side of the tree. He seemed just as gloomy as her, although he looked like he was holding onto some form of hope. He had tried to lighten the mood and keep her spirits high ever since they had gotten trapped in the forest. For some reason, he was still being friendly with her despite what had happened back at school. He even kept the cast she had given him as a keepsake, though she paid little attention to it when she first saw him back in Ponyville. Nothing about the stallion’s behavior made sense to her. Why was he trying so hard to make amends? Was it purely because of the friendship they once had?

“Blue… can I ask you something?” Rainbow spoke up softly, breaking the silence in the air.

Blue Bolt looked over, seeing the cyan pony looking back with a saddened expression on her face. “Of course… what is it?” He got up and moved closer to her.

Rainbow Dash trailed her eyes downward before settling her gaze onto her friend. “I know that I said we shouldn’t talk about the past… I just…” She sighed and ran a hoof down her face uncomfortably. Blue Bolt remained silent as she continued. “I just want to know one thing… Why did you leave?”

“Rainbow…” Blue Bolt lowered his expression briefly before setting his mouth in a grim line. “Please don’t ask me that,” He pleaded.

“Why?” Rainbow sat up slightly, ignoring her discomfort. “Blue, I deserve to know… I don’t want to make light of our friendship, but after everything I’ve done for you, you can tell me at least that much,”

Blue sighed and shook his head. “You’re right… you do deserve to know, but I’m not telling you. You can ask as many times as you want... but the answer will still be no,” He explained adamantly.

Rainbow Dash stared at the stallion in disbelief for a moment. She could tell that he was being serious, but she couldn’t fathom why. “What are you trying so hard to hide?” She asked, though it looked like she wasn’t going to get a response.

Blue Bolt remained silent as he got up. He looked at Rainbow Dash with a torn expression, seemingly contemplating something, before he walked back over to his original spot on the other side of the tree.

Rainbow Dash frowned as she saw how her friend’s attitude seemed to change so drastically. She looked down in thought, her eyes softening as a question popped into her mind.

“Was it because of me?” She looked up, waiting for an answer.

Blue Bolt hesitated for a moment before turning around again. “Stop talking, Rainbow Dash…” He said quietly.

Rainbow Dash narrowed her expression. “Blue Bolt… did you leave, because of me?” She asked again, more deliberately. At this point, she wasn’t angry, she just wanted answers.

The stallion’s eyes searched around his companion’s face, softening as he saw so many painful memories bubbling up to the surface. He knew that she would just keep asking, and that she would probably make things worse for herself if he didn’t speak. Finally, he lowered his eyes and sighed.

“Yes…” He spoke softly.

Hearing the word she was dreading actually leaving the stallion’s mouth made Rainbow Dash recoil back in shock. She desperately looked at him, hoping to see some sign that he was lying, only to find nothing but gloom and regret on his face. Much to her own surprise, she felt a few tears welling up in her eyes.

“O-ok…” Rainbow Dash nodded. She sniffled quietly, doing her best to wipe her eyes without letting him see. “So, that’s it then…? That’s why you came to Ponyville... You wanted to apologize and try to make things better after all these years. Am I wrong?” She asked.

Blue Bolt simply remained silent, looking back to her with a somber expression.

She looked to the side, clenching her eyes and shaking her head to rid herself of her troubling thoughts. “No… that’s ok. I don’t know what else I was expecting,”

“Rainbow Dash…” Blue Bolt walked over and reached a foreleg out to her, only to have it swatted away.

“I’m fine… I’m f-fine.” Rainbow insisted. “I… I think I’m going to sleep now. Please... just stay over there,” She laid back down and turned to face the wooden wall before curling up.

Blue Bolt watched the cyan pegasus as she tried to get to sleep. Although she probably didn’t mean for him to hear, he could tell that she was crying a little bit. He looked down sadly and closed his eyes.

“I’m sorry,” He whispered to himself.

With his companion wanting nothing to do with him, the stallion slowly walked to the opposite wall and laid down as well. He wanted to say so much, but she had made it clear that she didn’t want his apologies. Besides, she needed to rest anyway due to her illness.

Maybe I shouldn’t have come here after all… He thought to himself while staring at the ceiling.

After a few more minutes of stealing glances over to his sullen friend, Blue decided to at least try and get some sleep. Somehow, however, he knew that it was going to be a long night.

Fluttershy slowly drifted awake, finding herself staring at the ceiling of her cottage bedroom. The light in the room was still dim, but it seemed to indicate that the sun was rising.

As she slowly sat up and rested her head on her hooves, her thoughts immediately drifted to her missing friends. All she could think about for the past two days was where they were, and what had happened to them.

With her thoughts still lingering on the gloomy subject, she sighed and got out of bed. If anything, she couldn’t just stay in bed and mope around all day, even if she couldn’t do anything to help find the missing pegasi.

Fluttershy groggily made her way downstairs and did her morning chores before deflating onto her couch. After failing yet again to make a successful search of the forest out in the countryside, the yellow mare was feeling much more defeated and pessimistic than usual.

Suddenly, a series of knocks at her front door snapped the pegasus out of her gloomy self reflection. As she looked over toward the door, she could see that the sky outside was barely even turning orange from the freshly risen sun.

“It’s still so early… who could that be?” She thought out loud. Realizing that her question wasn’t going to answer itself, she got up from the couch and walked over to answer the door.

Fluttershy slowly opened the door a crack and poked her head through the seam to see who her mystery visitor was. Much to her surprise, she saw a familiar orange pegasus standing outside.

“Sunspot?”

The orange pony smiled slightly as she saw the drowsy mare. “Morning, Fluttershy,” She greeted in a friendly manner.

“Good morning…” Fluttershy replied, though she still had a confused expression on her face. “Umm… Sunspot, not that I’m not glad to see you or anything, but what are you doing here?” She asked curiously.

“Isn’t it obvious…? I’m here to get you so we can go search for Rainbow Dash and Blue Bolt,” Sunspot adopted a more determined expression. She waited for Fluttershy to join her outside so they could head off for the forest, but, strangely enough, the yellow mare frowned slightly upon mention of her intentions.

“Sunspot… I just don’t know what we could do at this point,” Fluttershy shrugged gloomily.

“Huh…?” Sunspot raised her eyes in surprise and confusion. “What are you saying, Fluttershy?” She asked, softening her expression as she saw how defeated the pegasus looked.

“Everything we try just gets shot down. If we go back out there, who’s to say another freak storm won’t show up? There’s been one every day since Rainbow Dash and Blue Bolt got lost. And even if we decided to ignore the storm and search on foot, the forest is apparently full of timberwolves and Celestia knows what else,” Fluttershy shook her head sadly before looking down and drooping her ears. “I just… I just don’t know how we’re going to find them… if we even can,”

Sunspot frowned slightly as she watched Fluttershy wallowing in her own despairing thoughts. She rested a hoof on the gloomy pony’s shoulder and flashed a reassuring smile.

“Cheer up, Fluttershy… I happen to know for a fact that we won’t need to worry about any freak storms anymore,”

Fluttershy looked up in surprise. “Huh…?”

“Glitterball and I spent the night over at the library; And while I wasn’t much help, I hear Glitter and Twilight stayed up practically all night looking for an explanation about the weather acting so weird,” Sunspot explained.

“Did they find anything?” Fluttershy asked, a hint of intrigue and excitement welling up within her.

Sunspot nodded. “They sure did. After a while of hitting dead ends, they got in contact with Princess Luna and got her to get in contact with Tom. According to him, weather in the human world acted a lot like the storms you encountered did; Powerful at times, and unpredictable as hay,”

Fluttershy tilted her head with a confused expression as she listened to the explanation given. “But… that still doesn’t make sense. Weather hasn’t acted like that since pegasi started controlling it,”

“Twilight thought that too,” Sunspot added. “Apparently, Tom said that the shockwave of energy that happened back when Raven Feather tried taking over Canterlot might be the reason the weather stopped acting predictably. It’s also the reason why there are timberwolves outside of the Everfree. With so many new paranormal creatures roaming around the darker portions of the world, you can bet that there are some nasty things out in the Everfree… and you can bet that they are nasty enough to scare away a timberwolf or two,”

Fluttershy cringed slightly and glanced off to the side toward the aforementioned forest. Still, the thought of some kind of terrifying monster living so close to her home was overshadowed by another, much less terrifying, thought.

“So, did you guys come up with a way to stop the weather from acting up?” She asked, managing a bit of an excited smile.

“Well, I didn’t… but they did,” Sunspot explained. “Twilight and Princess Luna did some back and forth research with what they learned from Tom. They found a spell that can be used to regulate unruly weather patterns, and they’re hoping that it will neutralize any energies that might be messing with the weather. They should be done with it by the time you come with us to go look for the others,”

“Us…?” Fluttershy parroted in a confused tone.

In response, Sunspot backed up a step, revealing the area behind her. Waiting a few feet away from the cottage was a group of three or four pegasi from town, who all waved at the yellow mare as she noticed them.

“Did you really think I would come alone?” Sunspot asked with a smirk. “So how about it, Fluttershy, are you ready to go find Rainbow Dash and Blue Bolt?”

Fluttershy let a warm smile build as she looked around at all of the ponies willing to help with rescuing her friends. Any feelings of despair or gloom seemed to melt away and be replaced with hope and determination.

“Ok… let’s go bring them home.” She nodded, adopting a serious expression.

Rainbow Dash awoke to the chirping of birds and the sound of the trees softly swaying in the breeze outside. She immediately noticed that she was shivering. It was cold, much colder than she remembered it being last night.

As she struggled to keep her teeth from chattering, she looked up and saw sunlight painting the area outside in pleasant colors. Apparently it was still early enough that the warmth from the sun hadn’t overcome the cold from the night and the rainfall.

Much to her surprise, she didn’t feel feverish at all. In fact, her body moved around much easier than it had since she got sick. Whatever infection had been plaguing her seemed to be on its way out of her system.

Hearing noise off to the side, Rainbow looked over and saw her companion stirring as well. The stallion groaned as he moved from his cramped sleeping position. He took a moment to stretch before looking around and settling his eyes on the cyan pony.

“Morning…” Rainbow Dash greeted, though she wasn’t as cheerful as she could have been.

“Morning,” Blue replied with equal energy while getting up. “Are you feeling any better?” He asked curiously, turning his attention to her health.

Rainbow smiled slightly. “Yeah actually… I’m feeling pretty good all things considered,” She reported with a pleased tone.

Blue Bolt walked over and gently felt her forehead, smiling slightly at the result. “Your fever is definitely gone… I guess all you needed was some rest,” He chuckled. The smile on his face faded as his thoughts turned to their discussion last night.

Perhaps noticing the gloom coming off of her companion, Rainbow Dash adopted a somber expression as well. Still, she turned her attention to the world outside and slowly got up.

“Thank Celestia that storm passed over. Now maybe we can get out of this place,” She said.

“I hear you there,” Blue nodded in agreement while joining the pegasus by the mouth of their makeshift shelter.

Rainbow Dash turned to the stallion, taking a moment to frown as she thought back to last night. “Blue… I think we can both agree that getting out of this forest is the most important thing we could be doing right now. But once we make it back home, I think maybe we should go our separate ways… at least for a little while,” She suggested uncomfortably.

Blue Bolt hesitated for a moment, but eventually he nodded slowly. “Ok,”

Now that their team was at least relatively back on track, the pair climbed out of their temporary tree home and planted their hooves onto solid, if a little moist, ground. Once they were out, they could immediately feel a bit of wind chill despite the thick covering of trees. After taking a moment to adjust to the temperature, they picked a direction and started walking.

“So, what’s the plan?” Blue Bolt asked curiously as he walked alongside his survival buddy.

Rainbow Dash gave the question some thought before sighing. “Well… basically everything we’ve tried has been derailed in one way or another. We have no clue where we are in relation to anything, and without our wings, we have a snowball’s chance in Tartarus at figuring out the best direction to go,”

Blue narrowed his eyes slightly. “So… basically you’re saying we’re bucked?”

“Ye of little faith,” Rainbow Dash smirked confidently. “Lucky for us, I’ve got a surefire plan that will get us out of here in no time,”

“Mind sharing your plan with the class?” Blue Bolt asked curiously.

Rainbow stopped walking for a moment and faced her companion. “Blue, if I know the others half as well as I think I do, I know that they would stop at nothing to find us. They have probably been looking for us since we crashed in this place. All we have to do is find a way to let them know where we are,” She explained, sure that her reasoning was sound.

Blue Bolt nodded in revelation. “Right… that’s brilliant!” His enthusiasm faded slightly as he thought about the logistics of such a plan. “But how are we going to give them a signal in this place? All we have is a bunch of sticks and plants,”

While her companion was thinking hard about what to do, Rainbow Dash simply let him come to his own conclusion. She looked at him suggestively, motioning with her hoof for him to keep going with his train of thought. Finally, he caught on to what she was insinuating.

“Oh! Right, we can make a fire to show them where we are!”

“Bingo,” Rainbow smirked before turning and starting to walk again. “But if we’re even going to have a shot at making a fire, we need to find a clearing so they can actually see the smoke,” She said.

“What about the river?” Blue asked, turning his head toward what he hoped was the direction they came from.

Rainbow Dash shook her head. “Nah… that wouldn’t work. Even if we could make it back there, finding dry wood would be impossible. Not to mention the fact that those two timberwolves will probably still be looking for us around that area,”

Blue Bolt cringed as he pictured another run in with the wooden beasts. “I didn’t know that timberwolves held grudges,”

“Knowing our luck, we probably ran into the only two in all of Equestria that do,” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and shook her head at their misfortune.

Blue Bolt sighed and shook his head as well. He quickly adopted a more serious expression and turned his attention ahead. “Well if we’re going to find a clearing, we should get moving. I do not want to spend another night out here,” He stated.

With me, you mean… Rainbow Dash frowned slightly as gloomier thoughts found their way into her mind. She shook her head to rid herself of such troubling things before steeling herself for the journey ahead.

“I’m right there with you on that,” She nodded.

The pair spent the better part of an hour walking through the thicket of trees in search of a clearing. As the minutes ticked by, and the endless forest went on and on, their spirits were starting to dwindle.

Although they had mostly recovered from their injuries and bouts of weakness, walking for so long in the cold was starting to get to the ponies. They couldn’t wait for things to warm up in the afternoon so they could stop shivering. Although, they hoped that they would be out of the forest by the time noon rolled around, even if it would be a pipedream at this point.

Suddenly, Rainbow Dash noticed something off to the right. Flitting her eyes eagerly through the distant trees, her face lit up as she saw more sunlight than usual shining down onto the forest floor.

“Look over there!” She pointed out with an excited smile. The stallion followed her outstretched foreleg until he was looking at what must have been the answer to their prayers.

Up ahead, there seemed to be a clearing in the trees in a roughly circular shape. They couldn’t tell how big the clearing was from where they were, but it was a sight for sore eyes nevertheless.

“Yes...!” Blue Bolt chuckled triumphantly alongside his companion. With their energy renewed, the pair sprinted toward the clearing in a silent race to get there as fast as possible.

Somehow, Rainbow Dash made it to the clearing first. She burst out from the trees and onto a grassy floor. The intense glare of the sun overhead forced her to shield her eyes for a moment. Still, she was smiling as she looked up into the sky.

Hearing her companion slowing to a stop behind her, she turned and saw the stallion looking around with a similarly stunned expression. Neither of them thought they would be so happy to just see a clear blue sky above their heads.

“This looks perfect!” Blue stated, still taking in the sights around him.

Rainbow Dash managed to contain her giddy smile for a moment. “Yeah… now we just need to make a fire big enough to be visible from the air,” She said while looking around for any loose pieces of wood. Her excitement quickly diminished as she realized that the storm from last night had pretty much ruined most of the wood from the trees. “Something tells me this might take a while.”

“Aww, don’t be so negative,” Blue Bolt chimed in. “I found wood after the last storm passed through. I’m sure there are tons of nooks and crannies where the water didn’t reach. All we need to do is look around for a bit,” He said confidently.

“I’m not being negative, I’m being realistic,” Rainbow clarified. “Still, I hope you’re right. Come on, we should split up and search around. Don’t wander too far away from the clearing, and meet me back here in ten minutes. We’ll go from there,” She explained.

Blue Bolt nodded in agreement. “Alright… just be sure to yell if you get in trouble,”

“And since when have I gotten into trouble?” Rainbow Dash scoffed while walking toward one edge of the clearing.

She could hear the stallion chuckling behind her as he went another direction. She only hoped that they would be able to find enough firewood to make a fire that would last long enough to be discovered by her friends, and she really hoped that her assumption that they would be searching for her was correct.

Meanwhile, while the two ponies were searching for firewood, another group was busy searching for them.

Out in the countryside outside of Ponyville, Fluttershy, Sunspot, and their fellow search party members were walking at a brisk pace toward the distant forest.

Fluttershy looked around, smiling slightly as she saw that they were making good progress. Without slowing their pace down to take in the surroundings, and without taking any detours, making it to the forest would take much less time than it did when she was hiking with her friends.

“We should be there in about half an hour…” Sunspot said while looking behind her to update the others on their location. “If I’m remembering the path correctly that is,” She muttered to herself, though Fluttershy was close enough to her to overhear.

“We’re going the right way,” Fluttershy assured. She turned her attention ahead, lowering her expression as she noticed many clouds on the horizon. “I just hope Twilight and the others get done with that spell before we get there,” She shrugged before shifting her eyes back to the distant horizon and moving forward.

The group marched onwards, hurrying every chance they got to reach their destination faster. Soon enough, they could start to make out the sight of the cliff in the distance, and the tops of the forest trees just barely poking their leafy heads up above the hilly terrain.

Fluttershy smiled as she laid eyes on the forest. Somehow, she was confident that their efforts would finally be successful today.

Before anyone could draw attention to their progress, a flash of movement in the sky made them dart their heads upward. Much to their surprise, they saw a wave of magical energy silently passing over them and sailing through the clouds. Almost the instant the wave passed, any clouds that were darker or more sinister looking either lightened up or dissipated completely, leaving a much clearer and pleasant looking skyline.

“That must be the spell Twilight and Glitter were working on,” Sunspot pointed out, admiring the sight of the wave as it kept zooming out into the wild blue yonder. “Look at that thing go,” She whistled.

Fluttershy briefly admired the sight as well before turning back to the distant forest. “Come on, guys… I think they’ve been waiting long enough for us to find them,” She said with a determined tone of voice. Sunspot and the others followed the yellow mare as she marched on toward their destination.

After several repeated searches for usable firewood, an hour or so must have come and gone. Rainbow Dash walked back to the clearing for her scheduled meet up with Blue Bolt, a small bundle of sticks under her foreleg. Much to her relief, she saw him carrying some sticks as well.

“Do you think this will be enough?” Blue Bolt asked curiously while dropping his bundle of wood along with the cyan mare’s.

Rainbow Dash sighed while looking at the meager pile. “It’s not going to let us roast many marshmallows, but I think it might work for a while,”

“It had better, because I didn’t see much more wood out there that isn’t soaked,” Blue stated with an uneasy expression.

The two ponies sat in the middle of the clearing and got to work. Rainbow Dash started arranging the sticks into a pile, and Blue Bolt started stripping plant fibers for use as kindling once they got their blaze started.

While they were working, Blue Bolt couldn’t help but to look at his companion with a regretful frown. He could still remember her crying last night after he undoubtedly opened up old wounds. She looked just like she did when he shot her down at the big dance back at school.

“You know, Rainbow… I meant it when I said I was sorry,” He said, looking at her with a somber expression.

Rainbow Dash briefly paused what she was doing and looked over at the stallion. “Blue, I thought we finished going over this last night,” She shook her head dismissively before returning to her work.

“I know we did,” Blue softened his voice slightly. “I know what I did was wrong… and I know that I hurt you, but-”

“Hurt me?” Rainbow interrupted, causing him to fall silent. She set the stick she was holding down and turned to him, a somber expression on her face as well. “Blue… you didn’t just hurt me, you made me feel like trash… like I was the one who did something wrong,”

Blue Bolt lowered his expression and shook his head. “Of course you didn’t do something wrong,”

“How was I supposed to know that?” Rainbow Dash shrugged her shoulders sadly. “You started avoiding me in class, you looked unhappy whenever I walked in the room, and then you up and leave right when I got the courage to ask you to the dance. That’s not how friends treat each other. Friends don’t just…” She looked down for a moment, struggling to find the words. “Friends don’t just leave like that.”

“Rainbow…” Blue frowned as he saw her trying her best to not let her emotions bubble to the surface.

Rainbow Dash sighed before adopting a more serious expression. “Fluttershy and I lost a friend that day… She wouldn’t stop looking sad for weeks. If you want to come back into our lives this far down the line, that’s fine… I can’t stop you from trying, but… please don’t expect me to act like everything is fine.”

She stared at him, waiting to see if he had a response. Blue Bolt opened his mouth to say something, anything to make her feel better, but he couldn’t find anything to say. Finally, he looked to the plants he was working on and sulked in his thoughts while letting the cyan mare continue working on the fire.

After they finished their respective jobs and placed all of the kindling on the newly completed pile, they got to work on starting the fire itself; Or rather, Rainbow Dash worked on the fire, while Blue Bolt simply stood back and watched her.

The cyan mare used her previous trick of spinning one stick into a bed of kindling, however, this time it seemed to be more slow going.

“Come on… work you stupid little…” She grumbled silently as nothing but faint smoke arose from the end of the stick.

“Is there a problem?” Blue Bolt asked, watching his companion work with a raised eyebrow.

“Grr…” Rainbow Dash finally sighed and stopped what she was doing for a moment. “This stick must be a little moist or something,”

“Well, keep at it. You’ll get it eventually,” Blue Bolt assured confidently. Despite her frustration, Rainbow shrugged and got back to work.

Time ticked by at a slow crawl while the cyan mare spun away at her stick. Regardless, she kept going with eager enthusiasm. The only thing keeping them from being rescued was starting this fire, so Rainbow was determined to keep working until her hooves were raw.

As Blue Bolt was looking around at the trees outside of the clearing, a noise caught his attention from off to the side. What sounded like a twig snapping came from the woods.

“What was that?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously.

The stallion looked over, only to see that his companion had heard the noise as well. “It was probably just a deer or something,” He turned his attention toward the direction the noise came from and adopted a wary expression. “I’ll check it out just to be safe,” He said, starting to walk off toward the treeline.

Rainbow Dash looked to her blue companion uneasily. “Shouldn’t I go with you?”

“No… you stay here and get the fire going. I’ll be fine,” Blue instructed after pausing to give the pegasus a reassuring smirk.

“Stay close to the clearing… and don’t get into any trouble!” Rainbow Dash called after the stallion as he left toward the trees. He waved to her to show that he heard her before disappearing into the thicket.

Rainbow sighed and stared in the direction the stallion went in for a while longer before hesitantly returning to her work. At any rate, they both needed the fire to be started if they were going to have any chance of escaping the forest.

After spinning the stick at a frustratingly fast speed, Rainbow Dash paused as she saw smoke drifting upwards. As she removed the stick and looked down, she smiled as she saw some embers inside of the bundle of kindling.

“Yes…” She cheered silently and set the stick aside. With careful diligence, she slowly kneeled down and blew onto the embers, causing them to spread. Soon enough, the beginnings of a fire were starting to burn through the pile of wood.

Some rearranging of sticks and some patient positioning of kindling later, and the cyan mare had a respectable blaze going. With how much smoke was billowing into the sky, anyone outside of the forest would be able to see where they were now.

Suddenly, the rustling of a bush nearby made Rainbow Dash’s ears perk up. She darted her head to the side, scanning her eyes around the edge of the forest to find the source of the noise. She quickly discovered a patch of thick brush that was moving slightly.

“Blue Bolt? Is that you?” She asked, a twinge of unease building inside of her as she slowly got to her feet.

The bush continued rustling, with no other noise coming from it. Rainbow Dash inched backwards in a paranoid manner, keeping her eyes fixed ahead as she did.

“You better speak up if you’re there,” She stated nervously.

Finally, a sound came to answer her, but it wasn’t the sound the cyan mare was hoping for. Instead of her companion’s voice, a deep and spine-chilling growl came from the bush as two sets of glowing green lights peered out at her.

Rainbow Dash’s eyes shifted between the two shadowed beasts as they stepped out into the light. Her heart sank in her chest, and a cold feeling of fear came over her.

“Not you two again…” She muttered nervously while slowly stepping backwards. “Why can’t I catch a break out here?”

The timberwolves stalked toward the seemingly helpless pony. They looked more angry than hungry, though she was confident that after they were done with her that they would dine on pegasus steak. Glancing behind her, Rainbow quickly realized that she was at a serious disadvantage. With how weak she still felt, she doubted that she could beat the two predators at an outright sprint.

Seeing an opportunity to strike, one of the wolves leapt forward while the mare was distracted. In a blur, it sailed through the air with its front claws reaching for her.

Hearing the wooden beast moving, Rainbow Dash turned her head just in time to see it careening towards her. She barely had time to let out a gasp and jerk her body backwards before she was tackled to the ground. Grunting in pain, she quickly shot her forelegs up and caught the massive wolf on its shoulders.

The timberwolf snapped at the pegasus beneath it with its jaws, covering her liberally with its saliva and forcing her to move her head away desperately. Unlike their previous encounter, this time there was no sheer drop-off to assist the pony.

Rainbow Dash shifted her eyes downwards and paled as she saw another pair of wooden legs moving closer. The other wolf was moving around, making its way toward her head. She was barely keeping one of the beasts at bay, and her luck had just run out.

Desperate, she groaned and used all of her strength in an attempt at pushing the first wolf off of her. Unfortunately, the beast was too massive and she was too weak. Spotting the other wolf above her, leering down and snarling at its prey, Rainbow felt a knot in her stomach as she realized that this was it. She was going to die here.

“HEY!”

Suddenly, a loud yell sounded out, followed by a hollow ‘thwack’. Rainbow Dash saw a rock bouncing off of the second timberwolf’s face and landing near her. Looking past the legs of the first wolf on top of her, she saw a familiar blue stallion standing at the edge of the clearing.

“Blue!”

Blue Bolt met eyes with the cyan mare and flashed a reassuring expression. “Don’t worry, I’m gonna help you!” He assured before turning his attention back to the two predators.

The timberwolves darted their heads to look at the newly arrived pegasus. While the first wolf kept its claws firmly planted on the pinned mare’s shoulders, the second wolf was free to move around and snarl at the newcomer.

Rainbow Dash felt a wave of panic wash over her as she saw the deadly beast moving toward her friend. “Blue, what are you doing?! Get out of here!” She yelled frantically while still struggling to keep the wolf on top of her from digging its claws into her skin.

Much to her alarm, the wolf shifted its attempts at clawing at her to using a more straightforward approach. With a brief snarl, the beast shot its open jaw forward, aiming for her neck. Rainbow Dash yelped and shot her hooves up, barely catching the timberwolf’s neck and pushing back on it.

“Dash!” Blue shouted.

Seeing his companion in danger, he rushed forward to her aid, until he was abruptly stopped by the other wolf snapping toward him and moving to the side. Before he could even try to move around the new obstacle in his path, the wolf reared up and pounced toward him, forcing him to turn tail and run.

“Hang on, I’ll be right back!” He yelled behind him as he fled into the forest, the timberwolf in hot pursuit not far behind.

Rainbow Dash stared at the shapes of her friend and the vicious predator disappearing into the trees. She didn’t have very long to dwell on her concerned thoughts as she returned her attention to her own problems.

The timberwolf was digging its claws into her shoulders for leverage, and while it was plenty painful, it didn’t seem to be drawing very much blood. The maw full of sharp teeth, however, looked like they would do more damage. Much more.

The cyan pony felt her forelegs shaking from stress. She was just barely keeping the wolf’s head away from her vital areas, but it could have been over in an instant if she let go.

“Hrk… guh… get… get off!” She barked, kicking with her back legs to no avail. The wolf was only focused on one thing, and that was sinking its teeth into her neck.

She was fighting a losing battle, and she knew it. At this point, it was a war of attrition with the odds stacked in the wolf’s favor. Desperate for an escape route, Rainbow darted her eyes around, settling them on the fire still crackling away beside her. Suddenly, as she looked up at the wooden beast, an idea popped into her head that might have been crazy enough to work.

Using all of her strength, she used one foreleg to keep pushing the wolf back while she slowly reached out with her free leg. A decently sized branch was sitting at the edge of the fire, taunting her with how close it was while still remaining just out of reach.

Ignoring the pain from the claws keeping her pinned down, she jerked ever so slightly to the side and stretched, until finally she felt her hoof fall on a small wooden object. With a mighty yell, Rainbow Dash swung her new weapon upwards, freeing the stick from the pile and shoving its burning tip into the beast’s wooden body.

The branch collided with the timberwolf, causing it to let out a shriek of pain as it jerked to try and get away. However, the damage had already been done. Rainbow Dash smirked triumphantly as she saw flickering embers sparking to life along the beast’s wooden body.

The wolf yipped and yelped painfully as it looked down at the offending areas on its body. With the smoke and fire intensifying, it jumped off the pegasus and bolted as fast as it could toward the forest, hoping to find some way to put itself out.

With one of the predators down, Rainbow Dash’s victorious smile vanished as her thoughts shifted elsewhere.

“Blue Bolt!” She gasped in a panic before getting up and rushing toward her friend, her new weapon clutched firmly in her mouth.

Her lungs were burning and her body was still a little sore from everything she had been through, but she didn’t care. All that mattered right now was reaching the stallion in time, and she would run as fast as her legs would carry her to save him.

Much to her horror, a scream of pain erupted from up ahead. The screams quickly intensified, sending a shiver down her spine and making her heart plummet. Rainbow Dash practically leapt out of the trees and into what appeared to be a smaller clearing. What she saw in front of her made her freeze in place.

The timberwolf that was chasing Blue Bolt had somehow managed to knock him on his back. Worse still, it had knocked his forelegs away and used the newly created opening to dig its teeth into the stallion’s midsection. Blood was already pouring from Blue’s stomach and down his side, but the wolf kept biting frantically at his chest and lower neck despite his screams and attempts at stopping the torturous onslaught.

“NO!” Rainbow Dash yelled as all of the color drained from her face. With rage building up inside of her, she bolted forward and charged straight at the wooden beast.

Hearing something running toward it, the timberwolf looked up, only to recoil slightly as it saw a seriously agitated pegasus sprinting at it with a burning branch in her mouth. Rainbow Dash stopped in front of the pair struggling on the ground and swiped her head across, smacking the end of the branch into the wolf.

The timberwolf shrieked in pain and raced to backpedal off of the stallion. Much like the first wolf, it ran away with its tail tucked between its legs as it realized that it was burning.

Rainbow Dash dropped the branch to the floor, barely taking time to stamp out the flames before turning her attention to her companion. As she got a good look at his newfound injuries, her eyes widened in shock.

Blue Bolt had many gashes up and down his chest and stomach, some of which looked even deeper than Rainbow’s wound from before. He was spilling blood onto the ground, staining the grass and his fur crimson red. And judging from his jittery movements, it was safe to say he was already getting weaker.

“Blue Bolt!” Rainbow Dash raced to his side and sat down. She gently picked up his head and cradled it in her lap before using her free hooves to apply pressure to one of the nastier looking gashes. “Talk to me, Blue… Say something!” She pleaded desperately.

Blue Bolt looked up at her with a pained look in his eyes. He coughed slightly and took in a shaky breath before speaking. “I-is… is my f-face ok?” He asked, managing a slight smile and a quiet chuckle.

“Oh… Blue…” Rainbow frowned as she looked up and down the stallion’s injuries. Even if he were to help her, they still wouldn’t have enough hooves between them to press down on all of the wounds. “You’re going to be fine… I’ll take care of you,” She said, half to comfort him, and half to reassure herself.

“Rainbow Dash… I… think I should t… tell you something,” Blue Bolt said, pausing a moment to catch his breath. “You were right to be upset at me back then… and even now,” He frowned slightly as he thought back to the night before.

“Upset… Me?” Rainbow Dash forced a smile. “Come on, Blue… I-I was just venting a little pent up frustration… I’m not mad at you,” She explained, though it was easy to tell that she was just trying to make him feel better. “You don’t need to tell me anything, ok? We’re cool.”

“No… you need to know,” Blue Bolt said, lowering his expression to a more somber one. “If I’m not around to tell you… you deserve to know what happened.”

Rainbow Dash shook her head sadly. “Dangit Blue, stop talking like you’re dying! I am not letting you die out in some Princess forsaken forest!” She insisted.

“Just… shut up would ya? It’s... hard enough for me to talk right now anyway,” Blue Bolt said, fighting off another fit of coughing. “Look… I didn’t exactly… Well, I didn’t break my wing when we first fell off that cliff,” He explained hesitantly.

Rainbow Dash tilted her head in confusion. “Huh…?” She looked down to his wrapped-up wing while deep in thought. The more she thought about what he was saying, the more she furrowed her brow. “I don’t understand… what are you talking about?”

“Rainbow… I don’t have a broken wing. I haven’t been able to fly since school,” Blue Bolt said somberly, much to the confusion of the cyan mare.

“What…?” Rainbow Dash pulled back slightly as she realized what he was insinuating. “But… b-but you recovered! You were flying just fine the last time I saw you. You even made it to school and back without any help!”

Blue Bolt sighed sadly and shook his head. “Do you remember the week before the dance, when you gave me the first cast I used?”

Rainbow Dash hesitated for a moment before nodding. “Yeah… I do,”

“Well…” He coughed, “w-when you went over to talk to Fluttershy, I tried flying over as well. Something must have happened, because the next thing I know, my wing locked up and got all numb again, just like it did when I first injured it. No matter what I did, I couldn’t move it,” Blue explained, glancing down at the appendage regretfully.

“Is… is that why you ran off so fast?” Rainbow Dash softened her expression as she thought back to when the stallion made a very abrupt exit away from her that day.

“Y-yeah… I didn’t want you to know my wing was acting up… so I got out of there as fast as I could,” Blue Bolt said. “Thankfully, my dad still decided to show up to escort me home just in case. He took me to the hospital, and they did another scan on my wing,” He paused for a moment, a twinge of pain in his eyes that didn’t seem to be from his injuries as he continued. “As it turns out… the doctors missed a hairline fracture in my wing. According to them, the fracture most likely would have healed on its own eventually… but the news came a little late. A nerve near the base of my wing got pinched pretty badly from moving it so much… They said I would never fly again,”

While the stallion struggled through another fit of coughing, Rainbow Dash was reeling from shock at what he was telling her. “Blue… I had no idea. Why… why didn’t you tell us?” She asked, her eyes shaking sadly.

“Like I said… I didn’t want you to know. That’s why I tried to distance myself from you and Fluttershy… I even had my dad drop me off at school early and pick me up late so nobody saw that I couldn’t fly,” Blue explained.

Rainbow Dash looked down in thought, focusing on recalling the last time she saw the blue pony at school. “So… the school dance… You blowing me off like that was just because you didn’t want me finding out?” She asked with a bittersweet look of revelation on her face as she looked back to him.

Blue Bolt nodded as much as his weakened state would allow. “Every pegasus worth their feathers knows that most big events that involve dancing, also involve flying. I couldn’t just weasel my way out of explaining why I couldn’t fly at the dance… and I couldn’t bear actually explaining it. Not in front of everyone… especially not in front of you. I thought that making you think I didn’t like you anymore would have been the lesser evil… but I always regretted it,” He said in a sincere tone. Blue braced himself for another painful cough, only this one seemed to be worse than the others, a fact that was further cemented by a trickle of blood being expelled from his mouth.

Rainbow Dash felt the tears she had been fighting building up at the corners of her eyes. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She had always wanted to know why the stallion left that day, but now she almost wished that her fantasies that she thought up to explain the pain away were true.

“Blue… why didn’t you tell me? I could have helped you… me and Fluttershy both could have helped you!” She shook her head and clenched her eyes shut, facing away from him for a moment so he didn’t have to see her venting her emotions.

Suddenly, she felt a hoof brushing up against her cheek. As she looked down, she saw Blue Bolt frowning up at her.

“Rainbow Dash… I heard about how distraught you were at the hospital when I first pushed you out of the way of that lightning strike. You always helped me to get better… to push myself so that I would recover. I know you did all of that because you were my friend… but I also know that you needed me to be ok. You blamed yourself for me getting hurt… and I knew that if you found out that I lost my wing to that accident, that it would destroy you. I just want you to know that I never once blamed you or resented you for me not being able to fly… I only wish I could have found a way to hide the truth from you without hurting you at all,” He said regretfully, a somber expression on his pale face.

Rainbow Dash grabbed the stallion’s hoof as he weakly lowered it away from her. She squeezed it tightly in her own, struggling to keep herself from breaking down into a bout of crying. “Blue Bolt…” Rainbow sniffled loudly, taking a moment to collect herself before returning her attention to her injured companion. She placed her hooves over some of his wounds again and applied pressure. “You’re not d-dying out here…” She hiccuped, “y-you hear me? I’m not going to l-let you die!” She stated with a determined, if a little shaky, tone in her voice.

Little did the two pegasi know, while they were holding onto each other and struggling to stay together, a different group of pegasi was up in the air above the forest, struggling to find any signs of their missing friends.

Fluttershy hovered in the air, looking around feverishly and trying to spot her friends below through the thick canopy of trees. Everywhere she turned, other pony-folk from town were also searching different areas of the forest.

Through the sounds of people calling out for Rainbow Dash and Blue Bolt, Fluttershy heard wings hovering closer to her. She turned and saw Sunspot coming to check up on her.

“Find anything?” The orange mare asked with a vague sense of optimism.

Fluttershy shook her head sadly. “No… nothing,”

Sunspot frowned slightly as she saw the hope practically draining from the yellow mare’s face by the passing second. “We’ll find them… If they’re still out here, we’ll find them. I can promise you that.” She rested a hoof on her friend’s shoulder reassuringly, patting it before taking off in another direction to continue searching.

Fluttershy nodded to herself slowly, though she was starting to doubt that anyone could find the missing pair. Still, she went back to looking around the ground below, desperate to keep going despite her lack of hope.

“Hey everyone! I think you should see this!” Another pegasus’s voice shouted from off to the side.

Fluttershy and most of the others on the search turned their heads, only to see a pink pegasus mare pointing into the distance.

Fluttershy followed the mare’s direction, until she widened her eyes at what she was seeing. Over a distant portion of the forest that hadn’t even been searched yet, a pillar of smoke was softly drifting into the sky from a clearing in the trees.

“That must be them!” Fluttershy cheered eagerly and shot off toward the smoke.

By the time she arrived in the airspace over the clearing, several of the other search party members had also flown over, including Sunspot. Fluttershy was the first among them to fly down into the clearing toward the source of the smoke. Any gloom had since left her, and she was filled with eager determination once more.

The source of the smoke was apparently a fire burning in the middle of the clearing. Fluttershy and the others gathered by the fire and examined it.

“This looks pretty new… like it was just made.” Sunspot commented as she noted how much of the wood was yet to burn.

“It must be them!” Fluttershy grinned happily. “I just knew that they weren’t gone.”

Suddenly, Sunspot perked her ears up and turned toward her rear. “Sssh… everyone be quiet for a sec.” She instructed, straining to focus on her hearing.

Much to everyone’s surprise, they started to hear the same thing the orange mare had. What sounded like a distant voice was coming from through the trees.

Fluttershy gasped as she heard the voice. “That sounds like Rainbow Dash!” She exclaimed eagerly. Without even waiting to consult her fellow search party members, she bolted off toward the trees.

“Fluttershy, wait for us!” Sunspot called after the yellow mare. She shrugged before running after the eager pony and motioning for the others to follow.

At the head of the pack, Fluttershy ran as fast as she could toward the sound of her lost friend. She weaved around trees and bushes, determined to not let anything get in her way. The sound of Rainbow Dash’s voice got closer the further she went. The cyan pony sounded distraught, which made a thick feeling of dread well up in Fluttershy’s gut.

Finally, Fluttershy burst out of the trees and into a smaller clearing. Her face lit up as she looked ahead and saw Rainbow Dash sitting in front of Blue Bolt, obscuring most of him from view.

“Blue! Dashie!” She practically squealed with joy as she finally laid eyes on the pair.

Rainbow Dash darted her head behind her with a stunned expression. She widened her eyes as she noticed the yellow mare standing there. “F-Fluttershy…?!” She stammered as the shock of the situation sank in. Finally, she smiled widely and set the stallion down before running at her friend at full steam.

Fluttershy caught the cyan pony with open forelegs and buried her face into her shoulder. She squeezed her friend tightly, as if she would just slip away again if she ever let go, but Rainbow Dash didn’t seem to mind. Finally, Fluttershy reeled her head back and looked at her friend, tears already welling up in her eyes.

“I thought I would never see you again…” She said softly, barely able to keep her emotions in check.

“You and me both…” Rainbow Dash replied with a warm smile plastered on her face.

As she looked down, Fluttershy’s smile faded as she noticed that the cyan mare’s hooves were stained red. “Is… is that blood?” She looked up with a more concerned expression. The crimson fluid looked fresh.

All at once, Rainbow Dash’s happy smile vanished as well as she thought back to the stallion behind her. “Oh my gosh… Fluttershy, Blue Bolt is hurt bad! We need to help him!” She exclaimed desperately while turning and rushing back to the stallion’s side.

Fluttershy followed her friend, her face paling as she finally got a glimpse of Blue Bolt and the shape he was in. “Oh my gosh…” She covered her mouth with a hoof to catch a gasp as she looked at the many bloody gashes on his body. “W-what happened to him?” She asked while looking to Rainbow Dash with a shocked expression.

“A timberwolf attacked him,” Rainbow Dash explained sadly before turning to the stallion. She gently picked up Blue Bolt in her forelegs again. He had a dazed look on his face, and his eyes were sluggish and unfocused.

“Blue Bolt… Fluttershy is here to rescue us! You hear that? We’re going to be ok… You’re going to be ok,” Rainbow leveled with him, hoping to keep his attention fixed on something so he didn’t just drift off to sleep and die.

Blue Bolt groaned in a mixture of pain and exhaustion. Still, he looked up and showed a bit of eagerness through his weak exterior. “F...Fluttershy…?” He looked at the cyan mare, seemingly to confirm what he thought he heard.

Fluttershy walked up and kneeled down beside Rainbow Dash. “I’m right here, Blue. We’re going to get you some help, ok?” She explained while taking ahold of one of his hooves, uncaring that it was also soaked in blood.

Suddenly, the sound of more ponies coming out of the bushes came from behind them. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash turned, only to see a group of pegasi led by Sunspot looking back at them.

“Sunspot! We need help over here! Blue Bolt is hurt bad!” Fluttershy shouted and waved to the orange mare.

Sunspot looked past the two ponies, widening her eyes as she saw the stallion on the ground. “Oh sweet Celestia... “ She quickly started trotting over to the pair with her companions following close behind.

Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash hesitantly backed away and let the group of ponies reach their fallen friend. They all gathered around while Sunspot and at least one other pony looked over Blue Bolt’s wounds.

“Blue Bolt? I need you to stay awake for us, ok?” Sunspot spoke in as calm and reassuring voice as she could manage. She turned to the others around her and adopted a more urgent expression. “Hey, I need some help here! Pick him up and let's go!” She exclaimed desperately.

At the heed of the orange mare, two of the other ponies gently took ahold of Blue Bolt anywhere they could and carefully started flying up.

As Sunspot and the others carried the stallion away, the rest of the search party followed them closely while still giving them some room.

Fluttershy started to take off to instinctively follow her injured friend, until she was stopped by a tug on the shoulder.

“Woah, hold on, Fluttershy! I can't fly!” Rainbow Dash explained.

Fluttershy turned to the cyan mare and raised an eyebrow before frowning. “What…? Oh my gosh, what happened to your wing?” She asked with a concerned tone of voice as she noticed the wrapping on her friend’s wing.

Rainbow Dash looked down sadly at the memory of her sailing off a cliff. “I broke it when we first fell in here,”

“What about Blue Bolt?” Fluttershy asked curiously, briefly glancing up to the distance. “Did he break his too?”

Rainbow Dash hesitated for a moment before answering. “Umm… Y-yeah, he did,” She nodded. Even if she was still reeling from the stallion’s story, she figured that he should be the one to tell the yellow mare what happened.

Fluttershy lowered her expression as she pictured everything her friends must have endured out in the forest. “Ok… Don’t worry, I'll carry you,” She suggested, unfolding her wings and hovering above the cyan mare.

“You’re a real lifesaver, Flutters…” Rainbow smiled as Fluttershy wrapped both forelegs around her waist. “Ngh…” She grunted slightly as the wound on her stomach throbbed with pain.

Fluttershy quickly shifted her grip further up as she noticed her friend in pain. “Sorry… I didn’t see that you were hurt there,”

“Don’t worry about it. We have to hurry and catch up to them!” Rainbow Dash insisted. As Fluttershy nodded and pulled up, both of them lifted into the air and started ascending out of the clearing.

The cyan mare looked out at the horizon, an awestruck expression falling over her as she finally saw nothing but open countryside. With how confined and lost she had been, she never imagined that she would see such a sight again, and certainly not so soon.

Taking a brief look down at the forest below, Rainbow Dash thought back to all of the horrid experiences she had had. Still, not all of her experiences were horrible, thanks to her companion staying with her and ensuring that she didn’t let despair set in.

“Blue Bolt… you better not die,” She muttered anxiously while looking forward to the group of pegasi carrying the stallion further ahead. She couldn’t see much from how far back she was, but she could tell that the stallion was in bad straits.

Fluttershy looked down, only to see her companion staring ahead with a distraught expression. “Don’t worry… we’re going to get both of you to a hospital. You’ll be fine… and so will he,” She said in what she hoped would be a comforting tone. Still, despite her own words, Fluttershy couldn’t help but stare ahead along with Rainbow Dash, wondering if her blue friend would even make it back to Ponyville alive.

Chapter 8

Once again, Rainbow Dash found herself in a hospital’s emergency room. However, this time she had injuries of her own that needed tending to.

As she was getting her broken wing wrapped and the wound on her stomach properly cleaned and bandaged, she never stopped worrying about the stallion that arrived near the same time as her.

Soon, she was uncomfortably sitting around on her bed and waiting for someone to come in and give her news about her friend.

“Blue Bolt…” She muttered anxiously. “You better pull through,” She rested her head in her hooves and groaned into them.

The cyan mare could hardly keep herself still for two seconds. The whole experience made her think back to a few years ago, when she was waiting to see if the stallion would recover from the accident that very nearly happened to her instead.

The sound of the door opening drew Rainbow out of her troubling thoughts. As she looked up, her face lit up with excitement as she saw Nurse Redheart entering the room, followed by five mares that she immediately recognized.

“Guys!”

“Rainbow Dash!”

Fluttershy, along with Twilight and the others, rushed over to the cyan mare’s bed and wrapped her up in a group hug. For most of them, this was the first time they were seeing the pegasus since she fell off that cliff.

After what seemed like hours of holding each other, the ponies finally managed to break their embrace and stepped back from their cyan friend.

“Boy howdy if you ain’t a sight for sore eyes,” Applejack said, beaming happily as she stared at the pegasus.

“We thought we lost you,” Rarity added. It seemed like she was on the verge of crying tears of joy.

Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but smile warmly as she looked around at the five people she never thought she would see again. “You almost did.” Her happiness faded as she thought back to the last encounter she had with the timberwolves, along with what happened to her stallion companion. She turned to the nurse in the room with a more urgent look on her face. “Where is Blue Bolt? Is he alive?”

Upon mention of the blue stallion, the others frowned slightly, and even Nurse Redheart adopted a somber expression.

“Your friend had many serious and life-threatening injuries. It’s a wonder he made it here alive… and it’s even more of a wonder that he is still alive,”

Rainbow Dash felt the pit in her stomach bottoming out as she heard the white mare explain her friend’s condition. “So… is he going to make it or not?” She asked, hoping to get a more direct answer despite her feelings of dread.

“Well…” Redheart paused uneasily for a moment before sighing and setting her mouth in a grim line. “I won’t lie… his chances of survival are lower than I would like to admit,” She tried to adopt a more comforting tone of voice. “But there is still hope… You should hope for the best… but just be prepared for the worst.”

Hearing such dismal news, Rainbow Dash looked down sadly, her thoughts swimming around in a messy haze. Still, she could practically hear the stallion’s last words to her.

I heard about how distraught you were at the hospital when I first pushed you out of the way of that lightning strike…

You blamed yourself for me getting hurt, and I knew that if you found out that I lost my wing to that accident that it would destroy you…

I just want you to know that... I never once blamed you or resented you for me not being able to fly… I only wish I could have found a way to hide the truth from you without hurting you at all.

Feeling her eyes beginning to water again, Rainbow Dash clenched them shut and shook her head. Blue Bolt… why didn’t you just tell me? She thought to herself while staring blankly toward the door. Seeing her friends looking back at her with concerned expressions, she stiffened her own expression and turned to Nurse Redheart.

“I want to see him,”

Redheart frowned softly and shook her head. “I’m afraid that’s not possible,”

“What do you mean it’s not-OW!” Rainbow yelped suddenly and clutched her wing while sitting back down on her bed. Fluttershy and Twilight gently rested their hooves on her shoulders, partially to comfort her, and partially to keep her sitting still.

“I’m sorry, but you can’t see him right now,” The nurse explained adamantly. “He’s in intensive care, and you aren’t exactly healthy as a horse yourself. The best thing for both of you is to rest while we work on fixing you up,”

Rainbow Dash huffed angrily. “How am I supposed to rest knowing that Blue could be dying?!”

Redheart frowned slightly, understanding where the cyan mare was coming from. “I’m sorry… but you will have to try.” She said while making her way back out of the room. As the nurse opened the door and stepped out, the six mares were left by themselves.

After Redheart left, Rainbow Dash deflated back onto her bed with a frustrated huff. She rubbed her hooves down her face and struggled to at least make an attempt at calming down.

“I can’t believe this is happening…” She groaned, her voice muffled through her hooves. Suddenly, the cyan mare felt a hoof being rested on her shoulder. As she looked up, she saw Twilight at the front of the group, a saddened expression on her face.

“Rainbow Dash… I’m sorry. I wish there was something I could do to help,” Twilight said with a regretful tone, doubtlessly already mentally pouring over everything she could have done differently to reach her friend sooner so this wouldn’t have happened.

Rainbow Dash softened her expression as she saw a familiar look on her friend’s face. Twilight was probably beating herself up more than the fall from the cliff had beaten Rainbow and Blue Bolt up.

“Hey, don’t feel bad. Me and Blue are safe now… and we have you in part to thank for that judging from what Fluttershy told me on the way here,” She said with a grateful smile. Suddenly, her thoughts shifted elsewhere. “Although, do you think that… maybe there’s a way for Tom to get here and help Blue?” She suggested, full of hopeful optimism and more than a hint of desperation.

Twilight shook her head sadly. “Sorry, but I don’t think that would be possible. Tom is out on a job really far away. Even if he dropped everything and came running, which I’m sure he would if he knew, it would take him at least a day to get here,” She looked down briefly before rubbing her shoulder. “Time… that Blue Bolt wouldn’t have,”

“So… you’re telling me that there really is nothing we can do except for waiting and seeing if he survives or not?” Rainbow Dash asked in a stunned and surprisingly quiet voice, perhaps due to the shock of the situation setting in.

“I’m afraid so…” Twilight said, looking down and away from her friend.

Suddenly, the door to the room opened again, offering a brief distraction to the gloom that was felt by the six ponies. As they looked over, they were greeted with the sight of a white unicorn and an orange pegasus stepping into the already crowded room.

“Rainbow Dash!” Glitterball smiled excitedly as she saw the cyan mare on the bed. She and her companion walked forward and met the others in gathering near their mutual friend. “I’m so glad that they found you. You were really starting to worry us,”

Rainbow Dash managed a smile, pushing her gnawing tension aside as she focused on the two mares. “Guys… I almost can’t believe you’re here,”

Sunspot smirked playfully. “Well, you better believe it. You might still be stuck in that forest if we didn’t show up,”

While Sunspot merely stood and smiled at the pegasus, Glitterball opted to move a bit closer to initiate a hug. And after embracing the unicorn, Rainbow Dash roped in the orange mare as well before letting them both go.

“Thank you… both of you, for dropping everything and coming down here so fast,” Rainbow said, looking between the two ponies with a warm expression.

Glitterball nodded. “Of course… anytime,”

“Tom, Sparkplug and Glimmer Shine wanted to come too… but someone had to stay behind and take care of the job,” Sunspot explained.

Rainbow Dash lowered her expression slightly at the mention of the human and the stallion. “Will they be ok by themselves?”

“Are you kidding?” Sunspot tilted her head. “Tom is probably going to obliterate whatever gets in the way of coming down here to see you as soon as possible. Personally, I feel bad for the monster,” She jested, though it seemed like the cyan mare didn’t feel like laughing.

Rainbow Dash sighed and decided to at least get somewhat comfortable. She moved to lie down on her pillow, moving slowly and cringing as her wing brushed against the bed. Finally, she managed to make it the rest of the way.

Seeing how uncomfortable and exhausted the pegasus was, Twilight frowned slightly. “Maybe we should let you rest for a while,” She suggested, hopeful that Rainbow Dash would agree.

“Umm…” Rainbow looked down for a moment uncomfortably. As much as she wanted to keep the others with her until she could go see Blue Bolt, she couldn’t exactly ask that of them. “Yeah… that’s probably a good idea,”

Rarity offered a small smile and rested a hoof on her friend’s bedside. “Get well soon, darling. We’ll come see you later,” She said, to which the others nodded in agreement.

While the group was starting to leave, Rainbow Dash looked to Fluttershy and frowned as she thought about how Blue Bolt was doing. Her expression only worsened as she thought about what he had said to her out in the forest.

“Fluttershy, hold on…”

Hearing her friend calling for her, Fluttershy paused at the door and turned around. “Hmm?” She tilted her head curiously, only to be met with the sight of a very gloomy and pensive pegasus.

“Could… could you stay for a while longer? There’s some stuff I want to talk with you about,” Rainbow Dash explained hesitantly.

Hearing the unease in her friend’s voice, Fluttershy’s expression lowered slightly. Still, she nodded and said her goodbyes to the others before they left out the door and closed it behind them.

Fluttershy looked over to her cyan friend, only to see the pegasus sitting up and looking back at her with a sense of quiet hesitation. “So… what did you want to talk about?” She asked, hoping to reassure the uneasy mare.

Rainbow Dash shrugged before reaching over and patting a spot near the foot of the bed. “You might want to sit down for this… There’s a lot of stuff I need to tell you,” She suggested.

The expression being given to her didn’t exactly give Fluttershy the gist that they were about to have a fun and happy conversation, but she needed to hear what her friend had to say. After walking over to the bed, she hopped up and sat down near the edge so she could turn and look at the cyan pegasus.

“I’m all ears.” She nodded.

After a bit of a pause to think of how or even where to start, Rainbow Dash started explaining in detail everything that had happened to her and Blue Bolt after they fell into the forest.

Fluttershy was shocked to hear that the cyan mare and her stallion companion had gone through so many horrible things; From being chased by timberwolves, to falling into a river and getting an infected gash, to even sleeping in a tree. Still, somehow the yellow mare could tell that her friend was merely passing time and building up to talking about something even more troubling. And finally, her thoughts were confirmed.

Rainbow Dash trailed her eyes over to a clock on the nearby wall pensively, partially to wonder how Blue Bolt was doing, and partially to think about how to say what needed to be said. “Umm… Flutters, I…”

“What is it?” Fluttershy asked hesitantly, noting how her friend was looking down sadly.

“There’s…” Rainbow sighed, “there’s something I need to tell you, but it’s pretty heavy,” She explained, finally managing to look the yellow mare in the eyes.

Fluttershy smiled reassuringly. “It’s ok… you can tell me,”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course,” Fluttershy nodded confidently. “I’m already sitting down after all. Whatever you have to say, go ahead and say it,” She adopted a serious expression and prepared for whatever Rainbow Dash was about to tell her.

Seeing the reassuring expression on her friend’s face only made Rainbow even more hesitant. She shrugged uncomfortably and ran a hoof through her hair before directing her attention back to the yellow mare. “Blue Bolt… hasn’t been able to fly since he left school,” She said plainly before falling silent and waiting to see how the normally timid pony would react to such shocking news.

“Wh… what?” Fluttershy muttered in a confused and mildly stunned tone. It took a solid second or two for the words to sink in, and by then she had reeled back slightly. “What are you talking about?”

Rainbow Dash frowned as she continued. “I thought nothing weird of it when he told me he broke his wing during the fall like I did, but I guess that was what he wanted. As it turns out… he pinched a nerve about a week before the big dance. The doctors said he would never fly again, and apparently, he hasn’t flown since,”

Fluttershy’s eyes widened slightly as she thought back to the week before the dance. “Oh my gosh… is… is that why he was acting so strange all of a sudden?” She asked hesitantly. Rainbow Dash merely nodded, causing her to cover her mouth in shock. “No… that can’t be true. Why didn’t he tell us?” She held back a sniffle and some tears. “No… it doesn’t matter. I… I-I should have seen that something was wrong. I should have-”

“Fluttershy… please don’t do that,” Rainbow Dash interrupted softly, leaning forward and putting a hoof on her friend’s shoulder.

Fluttershy turned away, most likely to hide the fact that she was crying, and shook her head. “But… but… I was his friend just as much as you were. If something was wrong with him, I should have done something!”

“He made sure that nobody at school knew about it. Even I didn’t know something was up… even though it seems so obvious now,” Rainbow explained in what she hoped would be a reassuring manner. “I probably should have known something was off when I first saw him in Ponyville. He was wearing the cast we gave him. I was so out of it from seeing him again that I didn’t even really notice it.” She paused and adopted a saddened expression as her thoughts drifted elsewhere. “I’ve kept pushing him away ever since we started the hike, and it only got worse in the forest. He went so far to keep me from knowing, that he made me think he left because he didn’t like me… If only I knew.”

Fluttershy frowned sympathetically as she saw the beginnings of tears welling up in the cyan mare’s eyes. “Rainbow Dash…” She reached forward, only to have the pegasus gently pull away.

“I can’t even make it up to him…” Rainbow said, her voice growing shakier by the minute. “There’s so much I want to say to him… that I should have said to him all along, but I can’t do it! He’s in there dying, and the last memories he will have of me is me treating him like a piece of trash.”

Fluttershy left the cyan mare in silence for a moment, unsure of what she could say to make her friend feel better. Still, it pained her to see the normally boisterous pony in such a sad state. Finally, she reached forward and wrapped her forelegs around Rainbow’s shoulders to pull the stubborn mare into a hug.

“Dashie… Cheer up,” She cringed to herself as she realized she still didn’t have anything to say that would actually help.

“How am I supposed to cheer up at a time like this?” Rainbow Dash asked, trying her best to stiffen up despite the warm embrace she was held in.

After a moment of thought, Fluttershy pulled back and looked the cyan mare in the eye, despite how reluctant she might have been. “You have to cheer up… Do you really think that Blue would want to see you like this when he gets better?” She suggested, hopeful that her words would have some kind of effect.

Rainbow Dash simply stared back at her friend in silence for a moment as the words sank in. She thought back to how hard the stallion had tried to lift her spirits back in the forest, almost as if it made him uncomfortable just to see her sad or afraid. She wondered what his response would be if he could see her now.

Finally, Rainbow looked down and sniffled loudly. She wiped her eyes and did her best to recompose herself before looking back up at Fluttershy. “You’re… you’re right. I have to act like I’m going to see him again… because I am. He didn’t give up on me, so I’m not going to give up on him,” She said, managing to put on a determined expression, to the point where she actually cracked a small smile.

“There’s the Rainbow Dash I know,” Fluttershy smiled warmly. As her eyes drifted away from her friend and around the room, she suddenly noticed the clock on the wall and raised her eyes in surprise. “Oh my… look how late it is,”

Rainbow Dash was just as surprised to see how much time had passed since they started talking. “Wow… I think we talked all the way through visiting hours,” She looked to the yellow mare and shrugged. “Well, I guess I should say goodbye.”

Fluttershy frowned slightly as she got up from the bed. “Are you sure? I don’t think Nurse Redheart would mind if I stay with you a while longer,”

“No… Thanks, but no,” Rainbow said with a contented smile. “I think I’m alright now… And besides, my wing is killing me. I should probably actually get some rest,” She explained, struggling to stretch her back without causing a painful outburst from her wing.

After a moment of thought, Fluttershy nodded and smiled softly. “Alright… I’ll see you first thing tomorrow,” She said while walking over to the door and opening it. Stepping outside and preparing to leave, she lingered for a moment and looked back to her friend. “Get well soon.”

Rainbow Dash nodded and waved as the yellow mare closed the door and walked off. She was once again left with nothing to keep her company except for her thoughts. “I’ll try…” She muttered, briefly looking at her wing and bandaged up stomach with a frown.

After struggling for a moment to find a comfortable position, she shrugged and laid back against the pillow. Although she couldn’t see exactly how dark it was through the closed window blinds, she was fairly certain it was night already. Still, with all the troubling thoughts running through her mind, she somehow knew that it was going to be a while before she actually got any rest.

Time ticked by for what seemed like an eternity in the darkened hospital room. Although the nurses had deemed it late enough to sleep, it wasn't until much later that the cyan pegasus managed to nod off.

Before she knew it, Rainbow Dash slowly opened her eyes, only to find daylight streaming softly through the window. She felt drowsy, though she wasn’t sure if this was due to her exhaustion or the pain meds she was doubtlessly on.

“Ugh…” Rainbow groaned as she moved a little in an attempt to stretch her aching body. She was already starting to heal, but she was still sore enough to discourage any sudden movements.

Feeling the way she did, she decided to go back to sleep for a while. Her mind was still hazy, and the only thing she was thinking about was how comfortable the bed and blankets were.

Either a few minutes or even a few hours passed when an abrupt click stirred the pegasus from her sleep.

Rainbow Dash turned over, barely even cognitive, and looked toward the door to see Nurse Redheart entering the room.

The nurse looked over at the freshly-awoken pegasus and smiled slightly. “Good morning,” She walked over to the bed and paused. “I’m sorry to wake you, but there is something important I thought you should know about,” She explained, her earlier smile fading into a bit of a somber look.

Rainbow stared at the white mare for a moment while processing her words. Finally, she perked up and turned over all the way. “Is it about Blue Bolt?” She asked eagerly.

“Yes,” Redheart nodded. She started to speak again, only to be cut off by Rainbow Dash speeding off into a mess of questions.

“Really? Did you fix up his wounds yet? Did he ever wake up?” Rainbow’s face paled slightly and she gasped as she came to the next logical thought in her head. “Oh my gosh… is he… is he-”

“Slow down!” Redheart interrupted the frantic pony. “Easy… He isn’t dead. He has actually improved quite a bit since last night,” She assured.

Once she heard how the stallion was doing, all of the tension practically vanished from Rainbow Dash’s body. She let out a sigh of relief while resting her head back against the pillow behind her. “Thank Celestia…”

“You should be thanking somebody. We had a few close calls during his operations, but he did not want to quit. We managed to stabilize him… for the moment at least,” Redheart said with a pleased expression. “That’s also why I’m here,”

“Huh?” Rainbow Dash tilted her head with a confused expression. “What do you mean?”

“Well… because his condition isn’t nearly as critical as it was, we moved him to a room so we could keep an eye on him. And since you aren’t bedridden or anything… I figured you might want to see him,” Redheart explained.

The nurse smiled as she watched the excitement building on Rainbow Dash’s face. “Heck yeah, I want to see him!” The pegasus exclaimed while ripping her covers off and sitting up.

“Easy does it, Rainbow Dash. You’re going to rip your stitches,” Redheart cautioned, chuckling as she saw how energetic the formerly lethargic pony had gotten. Despite the risk to her sore body, Rainbow didn’t seem to care as long as she got to see her friend. “Now, bear in mind that he is still unconscious. You’ll need to let him rest, but you can stay with him for a while as long as you stay out of our way when needed.”

Rainbow Dash nodded understandingly, managing to rope in her enthusiasm for a moment. “Ok, got it.”

Redheart nodded as well. “Alright… follow me and I’ll take you to him.”

Without skipping a beat, Rainbow Dash hopped out of bed and followed the nurse out of her room and into the halls of the hospital. Their progress was a bit slow going due to Rainbow’s soreness, but she didn’t mind one bit.

Eventually, the pegasus stopped as her guide paused in front of a room. Nurse Redheart opened the door a crack and peeked inside before hesitating and turning to her companion. “He is stable for now, but… he does look a little rough around the edges. It might come as a bit of a shock,”

However confident she was that she would be fine, Rainbow Dash took a moment to prepare herself before nodding. “It’s ok.”

The nurse gave a passing thought as to whether or not the cyan mare’s calm resolve would last. She then turned back toward the room and shrugged internally as she opened the door and ushered her companion inside.

As Redheart stepped further into the room, Rainbow Dash had to take a moment as she finally saw how the stallion was doing.

Blue Bolt was lying in bed, much like she had been since her stay at the hospital, although his condition looked much more severe than hers ever did. The stallion was wrapped up in numerous bandages from the neck down, many of which held dark stains on them that were undoubtedly blood.
There was an oxygen mask placed over his face, connected to one of the various machines to the side of the bed that was assisting with keeping him alive. A shrill beep pierced the air every few seconds, indicating that the stallion was hooked up to a heart monitor as well.

Seeing her friend in such poor shape came as a shock to Rainbow Dash, despite how prepared she might have been. Still, she managed to contain her reaction to a mere gasp and internalized her other feelings.

Turning to see Nurse Redheart checking in on the stallion’s health, she couldn’t help but wonder how bad he must have been if this was an improvement worthy of note. “Is he… going to wake up?” She asked, more than a hint of concern in her voice.

“Assuming all goes well, he should be fine. He just needs some time to rest and heal,”
Redheart turned to see the cyan mare watching the stallion from a fair distance away, almost like she was afraid to get closer. “You can get a bit closer than that if you want,” She explained with a slight smirk.

With approval from the medical professional in the room, Rainbow Dash cautiously inched forward. She walked until she was at the head of the bed, right next to the stallion. After glancing back to Redheart, she moved in a little closer and gently grabbed the stallion’s hoof and gave it a squeeze. “Hey... “

Redheart quickly finished her check-up and walked toward the door. She turned to see the cyan mare settling in next to the stallion and smiled. “I’ll leave you alone with him for now… Be sure and be gentle with him,” She explained, receiving a nod in response.

As the sound of the door closing signaled the nurse’s exit, Rainbow had the room to herself, aside from the stallion next to her, although she had a feeling he wasn’t going to be very talkative at the moment.

“Blue… I told you to be careful,” Rainbow Dash frowned as she thought back to the last few minutes she had in the forest. “Why do you always have to go out of your way to protect me?” She looked over, only to see her companion’s unmoving expression. After shaking her sad thoughts from her mind, she reaffirmed her grip on his hoof and shifted her expression to a more somber one.

“Well… it doesn’t matter now. I’m going to take care of you for once,” She resolved. Seeing how the stallion wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon, she got as comfortable as possible and watched over him.

The day went on without the cyan mare as she stayed at her position by her friend’s side. She never left him for longer than a few moments. Nurses came and went, and even a few of her other friends came by and stayed with her for a while. Fluttershy stayed the longest out of the group, but even she had to leave once visiting hours were over.

As the sun reached the end of its long trip through the sky, Nurse Redheart walked into the room to check in on the two pegasi.

Redheart opened the door, looking down at a chart she was carrying. As she trailed her eyes upwards, she noticed the cyan pony right where she left her, only this time something was different. Rainbow Dash was barely awake, struggling to not fall asleep as she leaned up against the nearby wall.

“You know… he will be here tomorrow. You can go get some sleep,” Redheart stated in passing as she walked over to check on the stallion’s health.

Rainbow Dash barely paid notice to her visitor. She yawned and stretched before shaking herself a bit to maintain what little energy she had left. “That’s fine… I can sleep right here if I need to,”

Redheart cocked an eyebrow as she looked at the cyan mare. However needlessly difficult she was making things for herself, the nurse couldn’t help but admire her sheer stubbornness. “I suppose you could, but it probably wouldn’t do you any favors… or him for that matter,” She said flatly.

“Sleep is overrated anyway,” Rainbow added, her drowsy voice betraying her words. She leaned forward and grabbed the stallion’s hoof reassuringly. “Don’t worry Blue… I’m-” She yawned, “not going anywhere.”

The white mare shook her head and smiled softly at the exhausted pegasus before deciding to finish up her inspection. Seeing that everything was in order with the stallion, she turned and started toward the door. “Goodnight, Dash.”

Rainbow Dash let her head flop down onto the side of the bed. Just feeling the soft mattress almost made her conk out instantly, but she somehow managed to keep her eyes open.

Much to her surprise, she started to feel something else. Her hoof was still loosely holding onto Blue Bolt’s, but she could feel him squeezing back. The sudden sensation made her head shoot up. As she visually confirmed what she was feeling, her face lit up with excitement.

“Redheart! He’s moving!” She exclaimed eagerly.

Redheart, having barely even stepped out of the room, paused and quickly spun around. As she walked back in, she saw the cyan mare revitalized and sitting right by the stallion. And much to her stunned surprise, she started to see the unconscious pony stirring.

As the white mare rushed back over and stood on the opposite side of the bed, Rainbow Dash watched the stallion’s movements getting more and more pronounced over time.

Finally, Blue Bolt slowly opened his eyes.

Blue groaned softly, a sound which was muffled even further by the oxygen mask over his face. He seemed to be uneasy and confused as he trailed his eyes around and found himself in such a state.Eventually, he looked over and saw the cyan pony sitting next to the bed. “R...Rainbow?” He mumbled, either from weakness or the mask.

Rainbow Dash beamed a cheerful grin back at the stallion. “You… you…” She suddenly shifted her expression to a more upset one. “You feather-brained idiot!”

Blue Bolt tried to recoil further into the bed. He shifted his eyes over to the nurse present, though she could only shrug her shoulders at him. “Wh… what?”

“I thought you were going to die!” Rainbow gently hit the side of his leg. She let out a sigh of pent up emotions before managing to smile again. “Don’t ever do anything that stupid again.”

“Umm… ok…?” Blue muttered, confused by the mixed signals he was receiving. He narrowed his expression as he looked down at the oxygen mask that was muffling his every word. “Can I take this thing off?” He asked, looking over to Redheart.

The nurse briefly thought about the matter before nodding. “I suppose so,” She reached forward and started taking the device off. After some difficulties, the white mare finally removed the obnoxious mask from the stallion’s face. “There… is that better?”

“Much…” Blue Bolt stated, enjoying the feeling of taking in some air unassisted. He looked back over to Rainbow Dash with a more curious expression. “So, I guess this means we made it back to town?”

Rainbow nodded. “Yeah… Fluttershy and the others found us after you tried to fight that timberwolf,”

“Oh yeah…” Blue winced slightly as he noted his many injuries. “How could I forget about that?”

“It’s going to be at least a few days before you can get out of here, but don’t worry,” Rainbow Dash said. “I’ll be right here with you.” She rested her hoof on his side reassuringly.

Seeing the cyan mare expressing so much compassion for him made Blue Bolt frown slightly. Still, he decided to adopt a brighter expression so as to not worry his friend.

Nurse Redheart cleared her throat awkwardly and stepped back toward the door. “Well, I suppose I’ll leave you two alone. I’ll bring you up something to eat in a little bit… you must be starving.”

Upon hearing mention of food, both of the ponies felt their stomachs rumbling. Rainbow Dash, in particular, seemed to be the most affected by her hunger, despite the fact that she had eaten a little last night and earlier in the day. “Ugh… yes please,”

The nurse nodded and left the room, leaving the pair alone.

After a few moments of silently looking up at his cyan companion, Blue Bolt grew uneasy as he thought back to the events that transpired in the forest. “Rainbow, I uh…” He shifted under the covers, struggling to come up with words to say. “I think I owe you an apology or two.” He explained somberly, looking back to her with soft eyes.

Rainbow Dash lowered her expression as she saw how gloomy her friend was being. “No… you don’t owe me anything, Blue. Matter of fact, I should be the one apologizing,” She looked down and sighed. “I know I treated you the way I did because I thought you deserved it… but that’s no excuse.”

“Dash…” Blue Bolt frowned slightly. “I was trying to avoid making you feel bad… Ugh, I suck at situations like this,” He mentally slapped himself, mostly because he had a hard time moving his body.

“I think we both do a little bit,” Rainbow said in a calmer voice, trying to get things back on track. “Look, I’m sure there will be plenty of time for both of us to say sorry, but right now… I’m just glad you’re ok,” Hearing this, the stallion smiled softly, which she reciprocated.

“Me too.”

After some time spent talking with each other and enjoying each other’s company, the pair managed to get some food in them, courtesy of Nurse Redheart, and eventually started winding down for the night.

Blue Bolt looked over as he noticed a soft snoring sound. He was met with the sight of Rainbow Dash dozing off, her head resting against the nearby wall, an empty tray of food still present by her side. Seeing the mare sleeping with a relaxed expression made him smile a bit. If the stallion knew her the way he thought he did, he had a feeling that she didn’t get a very restful night’s sleep yesterday.

Feeling a bit tired himself, Blue decided to get some sleep himself. He would be stuck in bed for a while still, but for right now he just wanted to focus on resting. Either way, he was confident that his stay at the hospital wouldn’t be so bad as long as the cyan mare was with him.

Over the next few days, Blue Bolt and Rainbow Dash mended wounds in more ways than one. They both were very hesitant to hear the other trying to apologize or feel bad for what they had done, but they were at least talking like friends again.

Rainbow Dash’s wounds healed first, and slowly but surely, Blue Bolt followed suit. Finally, the day arrived that the hospital deemed him healthy enough to be discharged.

The stallion slowly walked into the lobby of the hospital, being assisted by Rainbow Dash. He might have been better than he was before, but he was still a fair bit sore. As the pair exited out into the otherwise empty lobby, they were greeted with the sight of five mares that were exceedingly eager to see them.

Fluttershy and the others cheered as they watched Blue Bolt walking over to them on his own merit. They gently wrapped him up into their huddle, along with Rainbow Dash, and shared their excitement with them both.

“Thank you, guys… for everything,” Blue Bolt said with a warm smile. The group had made sure to visit him and send him get-well-soon gifts just as much as they had with the cyan mare.

“Anytime,” Applejack said with a friendly smirk.

“Of course,” Rarity nodded graciously and smiled. “We couldn’t just let a new neighbor feel unwelcome on his first week in Ponyville, and we certainly couldn’t let a new friend feel that way either.”

Blue seemed surprised to be receiving such friendly statements. “Really…? You guys really want to be friends so soon?” He asked curiously. Although he already knew Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, the other four mares were mostly strangers to him.

Pinkie Pie shoved her way to the forefront of the group so she could address the stallion. “Of course we do, silly!” She wrapped a foreleg around both Blue Bolt and Rainbow Dash. “Any friend of Rainbow Dash is a friend of mine. And besides, we’re going to be at a party! I’m sure there will be plenty of time to get to know each other!” She stated eagerly, much to the confusion of the blue pony.

“Umm… e-excuse me?” Blue Bolt looked at the energetic mare with a confused expression as she hugged him and his cyan companion closer to her. “Did you say something about… a party?”

Rainbow Dash chuckled as she saw the uncertainty in her friend’s face. “Welcome to the world of Pinkie Pie. Fun is mandatory, and so are parties.”

“Come on, slowpokes! We’re going to be late,” Pinkie said, ushering the group along toward the exit. “You don’t want to be late to your own party do you?” She asked, looking back to Blue Bolt expectantly.

Blue could only chuckle and shake his head. “I suppose not.”

The group laughed warmly as they walked out into the sun. They were glad to have a new friend in the making, and, more importantly, they were glad that the two pegasi had returned to them in one piece.

After making their way across town, the group arrived at Sugarcube Corner, where Pinkie and the others had apparently prepared a welcome home party for the pair. Spike, the cutie mark crusaders, and several others from around town were waiting for them inside, and they were ecstatic to see the two pegasi in good health.

Throughout the rest of the day, Blue Bolt was introduced to the level of fun and happiness that normally came with a Pinkie Pie party. He was also properly introduced to many of the townsfolk, some of whom that had even been part of the attempted search parties that went looking for him and Rainbow Dash. The stallion felt honored to be part of such a caring community that looked out for their own.

Still, after many hours of getting to know everyone better, the day was at its end, and everyone had to leave. Blue Bolt said his goodbyes and thank you’s to Pinkie and the others, paying particular attention to Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, before heading home.

As he arrived at his humble abode, he somehow felt eager to get inside and settle in. This was the first time in nearly a week that he had been to his new house in Ponyville, and he felt like he had been living there for years.

Stepping inside, he looked down to his bandaged-up body and sighed. Deciding to head off to bed, he fished his wing-cast out of his backpack, which the others had kindly left here for him after they got back from the hike, and prepared to put it on for the night. For the sake of thought, he tried to move his paralyzed wing a little, only to nod to himself somberly as he confirmed what he already knew.

With his wing secured for the night, Blue Bolt crashed into bed and barely even rolled over before burying his head into his pillow and drifting off to sleep. He was confident that tomorrow would be a fresh start to his new life in Ponyville, and he was looking forward to it.
.
..
…
*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*

A sudden tapping at his front door stirred the stallion from his sleep. He looked up, only to see that it was still night out. “Who the hay…” He mumbled in a mildly irritated manner before shuffling out of bed.

As he slowly made his way through his house, he struggled to make himself alert enough to be presentable to anyone he might find waiting for him. Still, the knocking came again, confirming that whoever was out there, they didn’t mind waking him up for whatever it was they wanted.

“I’m coming, I’m coming!” Blue Bolt assured in a drowsy tone as he reached the door and unlocked it. As he opened the door a crack and peered through it, he was surprised to see who was waiting for him.

It was Rainbow Dash.

Not only was it Rainbow Dash, but something was noticeably different about her. The cyan mare wasn’t wearing the cast on her broken wing anymore. Matter of fact, she didn’t have the smaller bandages on her stomach wounds anymore either from the look of it.

“Rainbow Dash…?” Blue Bolt raised his eyebrows in surprise.

“Hey, Blue…” Rainbow said with a slight smile and wave.

As he looked closer at the cyan mare, Blue Bolt narrowed his eyes in stunned confusion. It wasn’t just that she wasn’t wearing her bandages anymore; the wound on her stomach was completely gone. “Rainbow, you’re… healthy?”

Rainbow Dash looked down to her side and smiled slightly. Where she once had a mostly-healed gash leading clear over to her side, she now just had skin and fur. “You noticed, eh?” She chuckled and spread her wings for show. Blue Bolt’s confusion and shock merely increased the longer he stared at her.

Noticing the look of absolute confusion on her friend’s face, and trying not to enjoy it too much, Rainbow Dash looked beside her. Curious as to what she was looking at, Blue Bolt opened the door the rest of the way. He stepped back in surprise as he saw someone else standing there. Not only was it someone else, but it wasn’t even a pony.

A blue-suited human boy was standing beside the cyan mare. He had lightish blonde hair and a casually friendly expression on his face.

The boy stuck out his hand to the still awestruck stallion. “Hey… I’m Thomas Greene, but you can call me Tom if you want,” He said, eliciting a slight smirk from the mare beside him.

Blue Bolt blankly reached forward and grabbed the human’s hand, letting the boy do most of the work while he was still staring ahead in shock. “Umm… h-hello, Tom,” He said, unsure of how he should be acting in the face of such a famous figure. “I’m Blue Bolt.”

Tom glanced over at Rainbow Dash, who nodded to him in response before nudging toward the stallion. “Rainbow Dash tells me that you’ve got a bit of a problem with your wing,” He stated simply, looking down at the cast that the stallion was wearing.

Blue Bolt looked down and realized that he was still wearing his cast. He swallowed uncomfortably, looking to Rainbow Dash with an overwhelmed expression before shifting his attention back to the human. “Y-Yes… I suppose I do,” He stepped out of the way and motioned inside. “Please, come in… make yourself at home,” He offered.

Tom nodded and walked past the stallion, who was still staring, before disappearing into the house.

Rainbow Dash started to walk in as well until she was stopped by Blue Bolt stepping in front of her. He seemed to have a nervous expression on his face. “Something wrong, Blue?”

“Rainbow Dash… what are you doing?” Blue Bolt asked in a mildly embarrassed manner.

“What do you mean?” Rainbow asked with a raised eyebrow. “I told you my friend could have helped your wing back in school. He just got back to town tonight. And since you’re still paralyzed and everything, I asked him if he wouldn’t mind coming over and healing you,” She explained lightheartedly.

“Heal me?” Blue repeated, almost like he was still coming to terms with what was happening. “Can he even do that… like, for real?”

Rainbow Dash chuckled, enjoying the stallion’s uncomfortable behavior a bit more than she should have. “Of course he can! We wouldn’t be here if he couldn’t,” She assured. Still seeing her friend looking back at her in stunned shock, she sighed and grabbed ahold of him. “Come on, Blue. Let’s go get you airborne,” She insisted while shutting the door and dragging him inside his own home.

As Blue Bolt loosely followed behind the cyan mare, they walked into his living room only to find the human waiting for them.

Rainbow Dash patted the stallion on the shoulder before turning to her human friend. “Alright, Tom… he’s a little bit shy, so go easy on him,” She explained. Blue Bolt glared at her from the side, only serving to make her smirk even more.

Tom got up and walked over to the pair. He knelt down and glanced over to the stallion’s casted wing. “I assume this is the one?” He asked semi seriously while pointing to the bound appendage.

“Y-Yeah…” Blue Bolt nodded. He quickly removed the cast before sitting down and letting the human go to work, despite how anxious and uneasy he felt. Tom started by gently unfolding his wing and examining it, only serving to further his discomfort.

While Tom was using his fingers to examine the wing’s bone structure, being careful not to cause any undue pain of course, he turned to the stallion curiously. “If you don’t mind me asking, it would help if I knew exactly what is wrong with it,”

Blue Bolt still seemed a bit hesitant about this whole situation, but he decided to comply. After all, he didn’t want to waste the human’s time. “I fell on it a few years ago and broke it pretty badly. It was starting to heal, but apparently, I had a hairline fracture that went undetected… I got a pinched nerve and haven’t been able to feel very much in it ever since.”

Tom nodded to himself while he kept working. Meanwhile, even Rainbow Dash was starting to feel a bit anxious.

“So…? How does it look, Tom?”

“It shouldn’t be too hard to fix,” Tom reported with a smirk.

Hearing such positive words in relation to his nearly useless wing, Blue Bolt was more than a little astonished and shocked. “Get out of here… are you serious?” He asked, still convinced he was sleeping in his bed and this was some messed up sugar-overdose induced dream he was getting from eating one too many cupcakes at the party.

“Yep… I’m serious as a heart attack… Although to be fair, I could probably take care of that too,” Tom chuckled. He then adopted a blank expression and stopped examining the wing. “Are you ready?” He asked, looking to the stallion and waiting patiently.

Blue Bolt glanced up at Rainbow Dash, who nodded to him in response, before settling his eyes on the human and swallowing uncomfortably. “Ok… h-how does this work? Will it hurt or something?”

“Wouldn’t that be a good thing?” Tom jested. “You haven’t felt anything in your wing for years… I think a little pain would be a step in the right direction,” He glanced up, pausing as he noticed a bit more of a pale expression on the stallion’s face. Rainbow Dash silently glared at the human, causing him to sigh. “In all seriousness though, you won’t feel anything negative… I promise.”

Blue Bolt shrugged. He tensed up a bit before forcing himself to relax to make it easier on the human. Despite how unsure he was of what was going to happen, he nodded and remained silent while Tom got to work.

The human positioned his hand over the base to Blue Bolt’s wing. After focusing for a moment, a mesmerizing blue glow radiated out of his palm along with a low hum.

The sight of the breathtaking phenomenon was enough to leave the stallion speechless. As the light shone onto his wing, he felt a pleasant warmth all over his side, along with a mild tingling sensation.

Much to his own surprise, the tingling sensation started traveling up into his broken wing. Blue Bolt widened his eyes slightly as the feeling slowly returned in the feathery appendage. Seeing the stallion so amazed made Rainbow Dash smile. She could tell that the process was working, not that she doubted the human’s abilities.

After a few moments had passed, the light dimmed from Tom’s hand and vanished, leaving the areas it touched to cool down in the comparatively chilly house. The human stood up and brushed himself off dismissively. “There you go. It should be good as new now,” He stated simply.

Blue Bolt’s jaw was still agape from witnessing the spectacle taking place. He looked down to his wing, feeling a wave of tingly excitement welling up inside of him. Slowly, he tried moving the once paralyzed wing.

It took a moment due to the appendage being numb for so long, but sure enough, the stallion managed to move the wing up and down in a flapping motion. As soon as he did, a huge smile spread across his face.

“Heh… heheh… I’m doing it… I’m actually doing it!”

Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but share in the stallion’s excitement. “See? I told you it would work!”

“Tom… I don’t even know what to say,” Blue Bolt stated, unable to stop smiling to some degree. “Thank you so much.”

The human chuckled as he watched the eager pony. He wasn’t sure if Blue was going to shake his hand or hug him if he got any closer, so he simply nodded. “Don’t mention it.”

“So,” Rainbow chimed in, a slight smirk building on her face. “Don’t you want to go try out your new wings?” She nodded toward the window. As she expected, Blue Bolt paused for a moment before smiling and rushing off. “Look at him… he’s like a colt in a candy shop,” She shared a chuckle with her human friend before they both started walking after the eager stallion.

As they stepped outside, the pair saw Blue Bolt waiting for them anxiously. Either he waited for them because he didn’t want them to miss such a big moment for him, or he felt nervous about trying to fly on his own. Either way, he was ecstatic to see them catching up with him.

Rainbow Dash looked around at the clear night sky. It was perfect flying weather, despite how late it was. No matter how high the stallion wanted to go, he would have free reign. “Well, go on! We’re waiting!”

Blue Bolt looked down to his wing and adopted a hesitant expression. “I’m… not sure if I even remember how. It’s been so long,” He explained quietly.

Rainbow softened her expression and walked over to her friend. She rested a hoof on his shoulder reassuringly as she gave him a confident look. “I’ll catch you if you fall… Come on, it’ll be just like back in school. Let’s see some flaps, eh?”

With that, the cyan mare backed up a few steps and watched. Not wanting to disappoint, Blue Bolt figured that he should at least try.

After a moment of preparation, Blue started flapping both of his wings in unison. Slow at first, but then gradually building speed, he was surprised by just how fluent his movements were. He was even more surprised as he felt himself lifting up into the air slightly.

Rainbow Dash and Tom watched with impressed expressions as the stallion kept lifting higher. He was a bit wobbly, but he was definitely airborne. The human clapped his hands, while Rainbow Dash cheered excitedly.

“See, what did I tell ya? You’re like a natural!” Rainbow exclaimed.

“Haha!” Blue Bolt chuckled, partially out of nervousness, but mostly out of excitement, as he saw how high up he was getting. He hadn’t seen a view like this since he fell off of a cliff last week.

“I’m flying! I’m really f...Woah!” He yelped, most likely higher in pitch than he intended as he started losing altitude rapidly. He was still beating his wings desperately, but his wing power wasn’t enough to overcome his shaky form. Before he dropped too far, he suddenly felt something grabbing onto him from the front.

“Easy there, tiger,” Rainbow Dash said reassuringly. “I got you.”

Blue Bolt suddenly found himself looking eye to eye with the cyan mare. She was hovering in the air with him, clutching her forelegs around him and helping him to stay airborne with some added wing power. “Hehheh… nice catch,” He chuckled nervously, offering her an appreciative expression. She smiled back at him, enjoying the moment.

After a moment of silence, an uncomfortable cough drew the ponies’ attention toward the ground. They noticed Tom standing there, looking up at them. “Uh… I’m going to head back to the library now and leave you two alone,” The human explained awkwardly.

The pair looked back up at each other, realizing just how they looked. Their faces were barely an inch away, they had been staring into each other’s eyes, and Blue Bolt had instinctively grabbed onto the cyan mare during the fall, much like she had grabbed onto him. They were basically hugging in the air.

Rainbow Dash reeled back slightly, still keeping a grip on the stallion as he reoriented himself to fly better. Once she was certain that he was ok, she let go entirely and cleared her throat. “Right… umm, thanks for the help, Tom,” She called down to the human as he walked away.

Blue Bolt nodded. “Yeah, thanks again!”

The human waved behind him, deciding to keep moving on his way home. After a few moments, the two pegasi were alone again.

Blue Bolt glanced over at the cyan mare and scratched the back of his head uncomfortably. “Does… does he think we’re…?” He paused, letting his companion fill in the blanks.

“What… you mean, like… together?” Rainbow Dash trailed her eyes away, getting a little red in the face. She forced a chuckle and rubbed her shoulder. “No… no way. He knows we’re just friends,” She suggested, a bit of nervousness hidden behind her voice. She hoped that she wouldn’t wake up in the morning with Pinkie Pie or someone else asking her about some rumors floating around town.

“Heh… we would make kind of a cute couple though, wouldn’t we?” Blue Bolt asked, smirking slightly as he watched the blush on his companion’s face spreading, followed by her glaring at him.

“You wish…” Rainbow narrowed her expression slightly. Still, she softened her gaze and smiled as she thought of something. “Although… You do sort of owe me a dance.”

Blue Bolt’s smirk vanished, being replaced by a surprised and slightly hesitant look. “W-what?”

“Come on, Blue… you totally owe me a dance. I don’t care if you broke both your wings back in school… When I ask you to a dance, you say yes,” Rainbow explained with an impish expression.

“Rainbow, take it easy on me… I just got my wings back,” Blue stammered nervously as the cyan mare hovered over to him and took him by the foreleg. With how weak his flying capabilities were, and with how fast and insistent she was, it didn’t look like he had a choice in the matter.

True to her word, Rainbow Dash got the dance she was looking for. It was more or less just the two of them twirling around in the air, but it was close enough for her liking.

Despite how late it was, the pair stayed together for the better part of a few hours. After all, they were finally right where they left off, and they had a lot of catching up to do.

Chapter 1

Another peaceful morning began in the kingdom of Equestria. For most ponies, the day began early and lasted until the sun left the sky. But then again, Rainbow Dash was not like most ponies.

About two or three hours after anyone else would have normally gotten up, the cyan pegasus finally started to stir. A mare needed her beauty sleep after all. She yawned and stretched before finally deciding that it was time to get out of bed and be somewhat productive.

A short and groggy trip around her house to perform her morning routine, which could more accurately described as an afternoon routine, and she was ready to start the day properly. After all, her charming personality and remarkable talent didn’t just happen by itself. She required copious amounts of rest and relaxation to recharge after fitting so much awesomeness into each day.

And there would be a lot of awesomeness to cram into her schedule this time. Today wasn’t anything too special, but tomorrow was a different story. Tomorrow Rainbow Dash and her five best friends were going to go on a hike out into the wilderness outside of Ponyville. Taking nature walks and hikes wasn’t a common pastime for her, but it was certainly worth all of the walking. She could roast marshmallows over a campfire and tell scary stories until she died of old age and she probably wouldn’t get tired of it. Maybe if she was lucky there would be a mountain to climb.

Rainbow Dash quickly exited her home and took in the mid-day sights around her. The air was warm and the wind was light, offering a cool reprieve from the sun and keeping it from being overwhelming. After a brief moment of taking in the scenery, she spread her wings and leapt into the air in the general direction of town.

Finding her friends at this hour usually wasn’t hard. Most of the five mares went to town on an errand of some sort or for a walk at around the same time, and they usually grouped up if they ran into each other. On this day, in particular, the cyan mare found Rarity, Applejack, and Twilight Sparkle walking together on a side street.

“Hey, guys, what’s up?” Rainbow Dash asked in a curious manner, landing near the group and walking up to them. The three mares paused their idle chatter and smiled as they noticed their friend approaching them.

“Hi Rainbow Dash. It’s good to see you’re up,” Twilight said in a cheery tone.

“What are you talking about? I’ve been up,” Rainbow Dash replied with an awkward chuckle. Her friends knew all too well that she had only been up for a few minutes at most, judging from her groggy expression.

“Whatever you say, Rainbow… Just be sure to be up early tomorrow so you can meet with us. We don’t want to wait very long for you,” Twilight cautioned playfully while smirking at the pegasus and her attempts to appear more active than she actually was.

“Oh, don’t you worry about that. I wouldn’t miss a chance to go hiking for anything,” Rainbow Dash replied in a confident tone, smiling eagerly.

Hearing someone walking up to them, the group turned to the side and noticed Pinkie Pie rushing over to them with an excited expression on her face. Seeing the pink mare smiling wide enough to cause jaw pains by proxy wasn’t exactly uncommon, but today she seemed to be extra chipper about something.

“Guys! I’m so glad I found you!” Pinkie exclaimed upon skidding to a halt in front of the four ponies.

“Hello, Pinkie… you’re looking rather excited. Looking forward to tomorrow?” Rarity asked curiously in an attempt at figuring out just what her pink friend was so hyped up for.

“Well, now that you mention it, I am. I can’t wait to go hiking together!” Pinkie Pie replied while flashing a bright smile.

The others looked around with confused expressions. If the hike wasn’t the reason the pink mare had rushed over to them so urgently, then they had no idea what could have been the reason.

“Uh… Pinkie, is there something you wanted to tell us?” Twilight asked with an awkward smile, waiting for the pink mare to regain her train of thought.

“Oh… right! I almost forgot. Somebody new just moved to town!” Pinkie announced eagerly. The sudden statement wasn’t as big of a revelation as the others expected, but it still made them intrigued.

“Really?” Applejack asked with a surprised expression.

“Yeah! Some pegasus from Fillydelphia. They just got off the train this morning from what I hear,” Pinkie clarified without letting her excitement fade in the slightest. While the pink mare was anticipating all of the things she could do to welcome the newcomer to Ponyville, the others were still pondering the fact that there was one in the first place.

It wasn’t very common for ponies to settle down in such an out of the way place like Ponyville, especially from Fillydelphia of all places. The group figured that most pony folk from the city wouldn’t be comfortable with moving somewhere like Ponyville.

“A pegasus from Fillydelphia, eh?” Rainbow Dash said in an intrigued tone.

“They moved in around the edge of town. I was going to go welcome them to Ponyville if you guys want to come with me,” Pinkie offered in a hopeful tone. As much confidence as she had in her own ability to welcome their new citizen, more ponies meant more cheer and enthusiasm.

Rainbow Dash, Twilight, Applejack, and Rarity looked at each other for a moment to confer their opinions amongst themselves. They figured that it would be nice to go and see the new arrival. After all, they wanted them to feel as comfortable and welcome as they did in the town.

“That sounds wonderful, darling. We should introduce ourselves and let this pegasus know that Ponyville is one of the most friendly places in Equestria,” Rarity suggested with a warm smile. The others nodded and voiced their acceptance. With the group giving unanimous agreement on the matter, they followed their pink leader and set off for the edge of town.

A solid distance separated them and their apparent destination. The ponies knew that the furthest house they could have possibly been going to wouldn’t take very long to reach, but only Pinkie knew the exact details of the address.

While they were walking, most of the group turned their thoughts to what they would say and do once they met the new pegasus in town. Being from Fillydelphia could have meant that the pegasus had a rough exterior when it came to interacting with others, but this was merely stereotypical estimation at best. If they were being truthful, the group wasn’t sure what to expect from meeting the pegasus. They would be a complete stranger, and that was somewhat exciting in some regard.

“So Pinkie, did you hear anything about this pegasus? Like their name or anything like that?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously.

“No, not really… I just heard ponies talking about someone arriving by train and moving into a house that had been for sale. I think they said he was a stallion though…” Pinkie said while recalling the minute details that she had heard about the pegasus.

“I’m sure they will be friendly enough… at least I hope so.” Twilight shrugged hesitantly as she thought about the possibility of the pegasus being mean spirited, or something negative along those lines. She tried to be compatible, to make friends with anybody, but some ponies just did not have friendship in their life plans.

After a few more minutes of walking, the buildings to either side of them became spaced further apart as they exited the denser parts of the town. Now, all they could see were houses, fenced in properties and the occasional shed.

“Hmm…” Pinkie muttered to herself while squinting to see the addresses of the houses she was passing. She looked ahead and tried to figure out how close they were when she suddenly found what she had been looking for. “There it is…” She gasped, “and look, he’s even outside!” She exclaimed while pointing ahead. Before anyone could even look to where she was pointing, the pink mare zipped off toward the house she had singled out.

“Pinkie, wait up! You don’t want to freak him out on his first day here!” Twilight called ahead to the pink pony, but she showed no signs of slowing down. Finally, the unicorn sighed before picking up her pace and running toward the house. Rarity and Applejack hurried at their own paces to keep up with the purple unicorn and the pink ball of energy.

Pinkie rushed over to the house and walked up to the stallion as he was standing outside and moving boxes of stuff out to the street. She smiled once she garnered his attention and waved to him.

“Hi, I’m Pinkie Pie! Me and my friends wanted to welcome you to Ponyville.” Pinkie stated in a friendly tone as Twilight finally caught up to her.

Rainbow Dash struggled to keep up with her friends as they all gathered around the stallion. She hadn’t even been able to catch a glimpse of him once the others rushed off toward him and blocked her vision. She wondered what the pegasus would be like, and if his cutie mark would show whether his talent was something interesting or mundane. As the cyan mare stepped around her friends and smiled as she laid eyes on the stallion, her smile slowly faded and shifted to a surprised expression as she finally saw the pegasus.

The pegasus had dark blue fur and black hair that he kept short. His eyes were a similar shade of blue to his fur, appearing a little brighter in comparison. His cutie mark was a simple blue arrow against a circular black background. The arrow was twisted in the middle and bent, resembling a bolt of lightning heading skyward. Oddly enough, there was something around his right wing. It was a sort of black cloth sleeve that appeared very thick and restricting. What was most surprising about the stallion, however, was that Rainbow Dash recognized him.

“B… B-Blue Bolt?” Rainbow Dash stammered slightly in utter bewilderment as she looked the stallion up and down.

“Rainbow Dash?” The pegasus said in an equally surprised tone. He smiled briefly before looking back at her with an expression of pleasant disbelief.

“Wait… you know him?” Pinkie Pie cocked her head to the side while turning to her cyan friend. Everyone else turned to hear a response from the stunned pegasus.

Rainbow Dash felt all of her friends’ eyes on her, but she was still transfixed by the blue stallion. She never thought that she would see him again, and yet here he was standing in front of her. A myriad of memories and emotions started welling up inside her, but she couldn’t stay silent forever as her friends kept their attention squarely on her.

“Um… y..yeah. We met back in high school. What are you doing here, Blue?” She asked curiously. It felt so strange speaking with the stallion again. She felt like she was still back at home sleeping. This couldn’t have been anything but a dream.

“Uh… well uh… I figured Ponyville would be a good place to settle down and clear my head,” Blue Bolt explained. “I heard you moved here a while ago… but I didn’t think I would run into you this soon… and with your friends no less. You guys came all the way out here just to welcome me to town?” He chuckled awkwardly before letting a smile build on his face.

“Of course we did! We want to make sure everyone feels welcome here… especially old friends!” Pinkie Pie stated cheerfully while turning back to see what Rainbow Dash was doing. The cyan pegasus was still staring ahead blankly, trying to figure out how she should be feeling right now.

“Pinkie… I umm… I’m not sure if…” Rainbow Dash paused uncomfortably while glancing back to the blue stallion. He seemed to be just as confused and uncomfortable as she was.

“Well? You are friends, aren’t you? You said you went to school together after all,” Pinkie asked in her usual manner of innocent ignorance.

All eyes were on the cyan mare again, and she could already feel herself getting more and more uneasy. She was trying to think and sort out her emotions, but she couldn’t exactly think straight with the others staring at her expectantly.

“Uh… y-yeah, we were friends,” Rainbow Dash admitted with a nervous chuckle. She was being honest after all. She looked to the blue stallion, who looked back to her with an understanding expression of unease and hesitance. Still, he seemed to be at least somewhat happy to see her. Maybe things wouldn’t be as bad this time around.

“Hey… umm… I appreciate you guys coming down here to see me, but could you give me and Rainbow Dash a minute to talk?” Blue Bolt asked while motioning off to the side.

Oh my gosh… he wants to talk? To me…? Rainbow Dash sweated nervously as she listened to the blue stallion.

“Of course. You two go on ahead.” Twilight suggested helpfully. The others nodded and motioned for the two pegasi to go off to the side.

Blue Bolt started walking over toward the house while the other mares stayed by the street. Without even realizing it, Rainbow Dash started walking over with him. She was sweating bullets at this point.

What would she say? What would he say? A million different scenarios flew through her head as she finally stood in front of the last stallion she ever thought she would see again. No, everything would be fine. She didn't have anything to worry about. After all, he was the one that should have been nervous about seeing her again.

“Umm… Rainbow Dash… I uh…” Blue Bolt sighed and flashed a brief smile before returning to an uncomfortable expression. “This is really weird… isn't it?” He asked in an uneasy tone.

“Yeah… a little bit,” Rainbow Dash admitted with an awkward smile.

“I uh… I'm not sure what to say… It's good to see you again,” Blue Bolt said with a sincere smile. The cyan mare felt herself cracking a brief smile as well.

“Heh… y-yeah… you too,” Rainbow Dash added sheepishly. She couldn't believe what she was saying, but a part of her just felt happy being in the stallion’s presence.

“Is there anything you want to say? Anything you want to… talk about?” Blue Bolt asked after a brief uneasy pause.

Rainbow Dash froze up as she heard the last thing she wanted to. There were at least a hundred things she could say, but none of them were things she wanted to bring up. She didn't want to open up old wounds for herself or the stallion, but at the same time she wanted some sort of closure.

“N… no. I don't think there's anything that needs to be said.” Rainbow stated after regaining her composure.

Blue Bolt frowned slightly and looked down. He seemed to be thinking about something, and she had a good idea what it was. He must have felt sorry for everything that had happened. She frowned as well before looking away uncomfortably and starting to walk away.

While the two pegasi were walking back over to the others, they could see that they were already talking about something amongst themselves.

“Oh, are you two back already?” Rarity asked curiously while noticing the pair walking over.

“Yeah, we uh… had a good talk, but now I think it's time I got going,” Rainbow Dash said while forcing a disappointed expression and walking away.

“Aww… but we just got here!” Pinkie Pie protested in an upset tone as she watched the cyan mare leaving. “We were just about to ask Blue Bolt if he wanted to go with us on the hike tomorrow,” She added with a slightly disappointed tone.

What…? Rainbow Dash paused mid-step as the pink pony finished her statement.

“What?” Blue Bolt asked with a surprised expression.

“Yeah, we're going hiking tomorrow and camping out for a few nights. Since you and Rainbow Dash were friends back in school, we thought it might be nice if you came along. You two can catch up on lost time! It'll be great!” Pinkie bounced eagerly at the mere thought of two old friends getting reacquainted with each other.

“Well… umm…” Blue Bolt paused for a moment while thinking. “I would love to… but… but I don't want to impose. I mean… as long as Rainbow Dash is ok with it,” He said, turning to the cyan pony.

Rainbow Dash felt her heart plummeting as all of the weight in the universe was shifted to her shoulders. Still, her decision was firm in her mind. There was no way in Tartarus that she was going to agree to this.

“Yeah… sure,” Rainbow said with an awkward smile and a forced chuckle.

What am I saying?! The cyan pegasus couldn't believe what she just blurted out. With everything that had happened between her and the blue stallion, the last thing she wanted to do was spend a lengthy amount of time out in the woods with him.

“That’s great!” Pinkie cheered while turning to the blue pegasus. “We’ll come pick you up tomorrow morning. I can’t wait to get to know you better!” She added in an excited tone.

“Any friends of Rainbow Dash are ok in my books… I’ll see you all tomorrow then.” Blue Bolt replied while flashing a genuine smile. Everyone else smiled warmly at the stallion’s friendly disposition.

The rest of the day flew by in a flash. Soon enough Rainbow Dash found herself back in her home. Despite having spent all week looking forward to the nature hike, now she was dreading it as she thought about the blue stallion coming along.

“Oh my gosh… I can’t believe this. Of all the towns in Equestria he could have moved to, why did he have to pick Ponyville?” Rainbow Dash groaned while jumping into bed and rolling over. She stared up at her ceiling while mulling over the events of the day.

She had agreed to the stallion coming with her almost instinctively. Why did she do that? It felt so right and natural, as if he were a longtime friend of hers. Right now she wasn’t sure what to think of the blue pony. Despite everything that happened, she could vividly and fondly remember the first time she had met Blue Bolt, and how he had impacted her life during her last couple of years of high school.

-A few years ago-

The sun shined down on the clear skies of Cloudsdale. The arid summer heat was only relieved by the cool wind whipping through the many clouds and buildings throughout the floating city. Many fine and proud pegasi called the city home, from the humble weather worker, to the high-flying Wonderbolt.

Over at the Cloudsdale school building, young pegasi of many colors and walks of life were growing and learning how to be standup citizens and productive members of society.

As the last bell of the day released all of the students from their classes, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy walked through the halls out toward the exit. The yellow mare was content and cheerful as she usually was, but her cyan friend didn’t seem to be holding up as well after a long day of school.

“Ugh… I swear if I hear anything else about rain models or the slopes of a cloud I’m going to lose my mind,” Rainbow Dash groaned in frustration while taking every effort possible to expunge what she just half-learned from her brain. Every time she closed her eyes she shuddered as fractions and all manner of bizarre symbols and numbers flashed through her mind.

“I didn’t think it was that bad. Well… maybe the rain models were a bit hard,” Fluttershy said in a vain attempt at cheering her friend up. The pair walked out of the front doors to the building and down the steps. While everyone else brushed past them and took flight eagerly to return to their homes, the two mares lingered on the stairs and took a moment to enjoy the fresh air.

Rainbow sighed. “I need to blow off some steam. I’m going to head over to the flying course, you want to come?” She asked curiously, turning to her yellow companion.

Fluttershy contemplated the offer for a moment before politely shaking her head.

“No thanks, I think I’m going to head on home. I’ll see you next week,” She said while walking away. After taking a few steps she took off into the air and hovered away. With a brief turn and a wave, the yellow mare flew away into the distance, leaving Rainbow Dash on her own.

The cyan pegasus flew around the school building until she reached the flying course. The area appeared empty, leaving her to her own thoughts as she rounded the course to reach the starting cloud. The many obstacles and course markers immediately made her feel at ease as nostalgic memories came flooding back to her.

Although it was a lot smaller and less specialized, much of the track and many of the obstacles were similar to the layout used at flight camp. The course was technically meant for the resident athletes to practice flying, but the school was ok with anyone using it in their off time, and the cyan mare loved coming here and unwinding. After all, this was as close as she could get to reliving the day she earned her cutie mark without flying all the way out to flight camp.

Kneeling at the starting line and peering around the course, she took a moment to let the wind blow her mane around and breathed in a few times. If she were to look down, she might catch a glimpse of the faint green ground far, far below. Many places in Cloudsdale offered harrowing views of just how high up the city was. The view would terrify any other pony, but most pegasi were used to heights.

With a brief mental countdown and the imagined blare of a starting horn to send her on her way, Rainbow Dash leapt downward and spread her wings as she picked up speed. The world around her blurred into a mess of white and interspaced colors as she flapped her wings and rapidly gained momentum. The only thing stopping her total freedom now was the planned out track for the flying course and her desire to follow it.

The familiar obstacles, twists, and turns of the course whipped by much faster than she always remembered. Then again, it was hard sometimes to remember that this wasn’t actually the course from her memories. Still, as fast as she was as a filly, she had of course gotten better with age. There was scarcely a pony in the school that could keep up with her at top speed.

Around the time that she was soaring up and passing the halfway point of the track, she suddenly noticed that she wasn’t alone anymore. She had no idea where they came from, but there was another pegasus flying along the track behind her, and they were actually catching up.

This wasn’t a big deal. She didn’t own the track after all, and it wasn’t unusual for there to be other ponies trying to use it at the same time as her. The cyan mare had no problem with sharing with another flyer.

Returning her attention forward, Rainbow continued her usual routine whenever she flew along this track. She did a few spirals and loops as she was rising higher into the air. Around this time was when she would have been building speed for a sonic rainboom, but she didn’t feel like breaking the sound barrier today.

Suddenly, she heard something beside her. As she turned her head to look, she was greeted with the sight of the pegasus from before flying alongside her. Judging from appearances, it was a blue stallion with a black mane. The stallion looked at her and smirked before motioning ahead with his head.

Does he want to race? Rainbow Dash wondered to herself while looking down to see how much of the course was left. There was just the final descent to the finish line after they peaked in the air. Surely the blue pegasus didn’t want to race her. Nobody in the whole school would challenge her to a race anymore. Then again, she didn’t recognize the stallion from the school, so perhaps he was new.

Suddenly, the stallion pulled ahead and started widening the gap between himself and the cyan mare. Even though she wasn’t going full speed, and the stallion looked like he wasn’t either, Rainbow Dash was surprised and a little impressed by how fast he was going.

“Alright… you asked for it.” Rainbow Dash smirked and started flapping her wings extra hard. If she wanted to build speed enough on the downward slope to the finish line, then she would have to work at going faster before she dived down.

The pegasus above her finally reached the top of the course and bolted downward. He was going at a fairly decent speed, and he would doubtlessly reach the finish line in roughly a minute. Any other pegasus might be worried that they would lose at this point, but then again most pegasi weren’t Rainbow Dash.

As she reached the peak of the track, the cyan mare arched downward and let her momentum carry her into her final trajectory. Once she was on her way, she started picking up speed at an alarming rate. She could feel the air funneling past her as she stuck out both hooves to streamline herself to go even faster. Although she wasn’t trying for a sonic rainboom, she was going to give the stallion a humbling defeat he wouldn’t soon forget.

Just as the stallion was halfway to the finish line, he was nearly blown off to the side as he felt something whipping past him. Looking ahead, he saw a blur of colors in the rough shape of a pony darting across the finish line and slowing down.

“Haha! Woo!” Rainbow Dash cheered excitedly as she landed on a nearby cloud and let her adrenaline gradually settle back to normal levels.

Around this time, she would normally look over to see her would-be competitor scowling at her as they moped in defeat, but instead, she heard equally cheerful laughter as she noticed the pegasus from before landing next to her.

“Heheh… That was some pretty good flying there. I didn’t stand a chance,” The stallion stated while also coming down from the energy of the brief race. He seemed genuinely unaffected by the fact that he lost. Most ponies would call this humility or being a good sport, but the cyan mare wasn’t used to such a thing.

“Well, uh… you did pretty good yourself,” Rainbow Dash said in a friendly tone, still examining the stallion. He definitely didn’t look like someone from the school. Perhaps he was a new student or someone who had gone to the school in the past and felt like reliving some memories on the flying track like the cyan mare had.

“Thanks for the compliment, but you don’t need to flatter me. You are clearly way out of my league,” The stallion said while offering a playful bow to his opponent. “I’m Blue Bolt… it’s nice to see some ponies with real talent here.” He added while sticking out his hoof to shake with the cyan pony.

“Thanks… I’m Rainbow Dash,” Rainbow said in a giddy tone. As much confidence as she had in her own abilities, she still felt good hearing other ponies praise her on her performance. “I haven’t seen you around here before… are you new?” The cyan mare asked curiously.

“Yeah, I guess you could say that. I’ve been homeschooled ever since I was a kid, but my parents wanted me to try something new this year. I don’t suppose I could persuade such a popular pony to show me the ropes a little bit?” Blue Bolt said with a slight smirk.

Rainbow Dash had to forcibly contain her giddy outburst so the stallion wouldn’t think she was weird. She had never been deemed popular outside of the race track, and although she had gotten over the other students not thinking she was cool, it practically melted her into a gooey ball of mush to hear it from a new arrival. It was like she was the most popular pony in the school for this brief moment.

“Well… I guess I could find the time to take you under my wing. After all, you did come a little bit close to beating me,” Rainbow Dash said in a more confident tone. The stallion raised an eyebrow and smirked in disbelief at the cyan mare’s insinuation.

“Really…? A little bit close?” Blue Bolt asked suspiciously. After a brief pause of silence, both ponies started chuckling warmly.

“Wow… look at the time. I need to get going. I’ll see you in class next week?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously.

“Oh, definitely.” Blue Bolt said with a confident nod. “And hey… don’t forget to get up early tomorrow. You don’t want to miss the hike, do you?” He added casually.

“Wait, what…?” Rainbow Dash tilted her head in confusion. She didn’t remember this part of the conversation happening.

*Beep* *Beep* Beep*

The sudden blaring of her alarm clock sent Rainbow Dash into a brief panic. She shot upwards, only to catch herself and rest on her bed. It was at this point that she looked around and noticed she was in her room. Not only was she in her room, but there was daylight streaming in from a nearby window.

She must have slept through the entire night without even realizing it. One minute she had been thinking about her past, and the next she was apparently dreaming about it. She thought that the feeling of racing down the track was a little bit too vivid. Still, there was one thing that she couldn’t ignore now. It was the day of the hike with her friends, and she would be forced to see Blue Bolt again.

“Aww… horse feathers,” Rainbow Dash groaned while thumping her head back against the pillow behind her. Something told her that the next few days were going to be some of the longest in her life.