Prologue - Blast to the past
The voice of a defiant little filly echoed throughout the skies of Equestria.
"Fwutteshy! Fwutteshy, whewe awe you?" The small pegasus let out a sigh as she landed in the Ponyville forest. She slowly followed the winding pathway while mumbling to herself. "Shewioushly, winning ish pointlesh if she's not thewe to shee it."
The filly looked up at the sky. There were a few pegasi flying around above her, racing against each other to prove their superior flying skills to each other. The little filly had also joined the race, but she hadn't joined because she wanted to prove her own skill, she had joined in order to fend for her friend's integrity. The way she saw it, Fluttershy was too much of a pushover for her own good, and she had hoped that seeing somepony else giving it their all on her behalf would encourage her to stand up for herself a bit more. The filly once again sighed and stared at the other racers.
"But that doeshn't matter anymore, thewe'sh no way I'll catch up to them now."
As she spoke the words, a soft voice of another filly sounded from a nearby set of bushes. Emerging from them and carefully pacing towards the disgruntled flier was a little pastel yellow pegasus. It was the pony who's name was shouted throughout the forest before, Fluttershy. She bashfully approached her friend.
"I- I'm so sorry Rainbow Dash. Because of me you're going to lose the race..."
The way she softly spoke, afraid to be yelled at in return, the way she had her head slumped down in order to avoid eye-contact with her dissatisfied friend, and the way pastel coloured butterflies and other little forest critters fluttered around her like little guardian angels, it all made the timid pony look even more fragile than she did earlier that day, when Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash had just met.
"I'm sorr-..." Before Fluttershy could get out another apology Dashie had rested a hoof on her muzzle."Don't shweat it!" The blue filly smiled kindly. Truth be told, she was feeling fairly agitated by the whole turn of events, but seeing Fluttershy standing before her like this, she couldn't bring herself to lash out at the breakable little filly.
"I don't mind," Dashie lied. "I washn't weally at the top of-..." She was cut off by an overwhelming thundering noise. She (and probably everpony else in Ponyville, Cloudsdale and Canterlot alongside her,) turned her attention towards the direction from which the noise had come. Her eyes widened as she saw what exactly had caused that loud sound. What she saw before her was a massive, colourless, dome-like combination of dust, debris, and fire that was rapidly growing in size.
Dashie turned to Fluttershy. The other filly just stood there, frozen in fear, eyes locked onto the impending doom before her. All the little animals that surrounded her started to flee, all of them except for a white bunny and three pink butterflies. The butterflies pulled her mane and the bunny yanked her tail, attempting to grab her attention.
The explosion was now only a few meters away from the two young ponies. Rainbow Dash flared her wings. "Fwutteshy, shnap out of it! We have to get out of hewe, now!" Fluttershy blinked a few times. She barely registered what her friend just said, but it was enough to snap her back to her senses. Dashie saw her nod meekly in confirmation... or... was she shivering that badly? Dashie couldn't tell for sure. Regardless, when she took off, Fluttershy followed, with the bunny and the butterflies hiking a ride on her back.
Flying away from the growing explosion at top speed it became painfully obvious how lacking fluttershy's 'top speed' actually was. Considering that Dashie, who was by all accounts the fastest pegasus in her class, was already having lots of trouble outflying the explosion, it became obvious that Fluttershy, who was the worst flier in hers, never even stood a chance to begin with. Dashie looked back. She could see Flutterhy and the critters disappear into the grayscale dome. The blue pegasus choked up. She tried to call out to her friend but she couldn't tell whether or not she was making any sound. For a split second the young filly hesitated if she should go back to help her friend, for a split second she slowed down, and that split second was all it took for the explosion to catch up and overtake her as well.
