Rainbow Dash looked upon the mass of cloud and furniture that heaved up in front of her, resting haphazardly amongst a number of trees from the edge of the Everfree. Already the billowy walls were melting, leaking torrents of water that were soaking through everything within.
She collapsed to her haunches and sobbed, the movement seemingly enough to shift the mass. A massive pillar snapped and tumbled, the compacted condensation rolling to a stop right before the pegasus, settling, and vanishing into vapour.
Everything was destroyed.
She heard flapping but didn’t look up, her grief-stricken face unable to turn from the remains of her house. Hoofsteps followed, and a warm presence approached and sat down next to her, wrapping a wing around her and pulling her close.
“I saw it from the castle,” Twilight’s voice said, shaky and afraid. “Are you okay? Did you get hurt?”
Rainbow Dash didn’t respond save for a choked cry, a few tears starting to fall now that she had been jostled by another. She felt Twilight shift and move, likely checking her body over for any visible damage, and only when nothing apparent was found did she calm again. Never once did the wing over her back move, though.
“Do you know what happened?”
“...House,” Rainbow Dash finally managed to mutter, distantly as if noting only a memory passing by her mind, gone before it could be fully recalled. “House fell.”
More flapping noises and hoofsteps followed quickly, and the familiar scent of wild animals and fresh grass filled Rainbow Dash’s nostrils. She recognized this as Fluttershy, though couldn’t remember ever having been acutely aware that this was her scent.
Another wing fell over her back as the new presence settled on her right.
“Oh goodness! Are you okay?”
A pause while Dash did not answer.
“I don’t think she got hurt,” Twilight said, the words somehow vibrating through her wing and into Dash’s heart.
“That’s a relief.” Fluttershy also shifted, out of Rainbow Dash’s view, but her wing too remained steady upon her back. “Uhm. Do you know what happened?” The question wasn’t aimed at Dash. It wouldn’t have mattered had it been; Dash wasn’t there. Her mind was somewhere in the last ten minutes, reliving the shaking of the foundation beneath her and the tumbling of photographs and vases as the entire building lilted sharply.
“I don’t. I saw the house fall from the castle, but I don’t know why.”
Pounding hoofsteps came next, thick and intense thumps that signalled to Rainbow Dash they could only come from an earth pony. Applejack, based on the intensity, she figured before sliding back into the past.
“Luna have mercy, what a disaster! W-what happened?”
“Her house fell,” Twilight and Fluttershy said together.
“Is Rainbow Dash okay?”
Above the two wings, a strong hoof that matched the rumbling gallop’s imagined source rested on Dash’s shoulders. Twilight shuffled forward but did not move her wing.
“Hey buddy,” came a voice as smooth as silk and as sweet as taffy. “You alright?”
“She’s not talki—”
“House fell,” Dash said, turning her head. She saw Twilight looking at her, her expression one of shock, sorrow, concern. It felt like a magnet was clawing at her eyes to bring them back upon the devastation amongst the trees, but she continued her effort until magenta eyes fell upon the orange hoof. “I… didn’t. House did. House…”
Her words went away, gone to another world as her neck gave in to the pull, and again she was there, scrambling as chunks of cloud pillar tumbled around her and the ceiling seemed to suck down towards the ground as if it too had been pulled by magnets. A window appeared, but as Dash considered it now, there had never been a window there before.
Again, hoofsteps. It was Pinkie Pie. Unmistakably so; the thumps were as hooves, but there was a sproinging accompaniment as if the shoes had been made of springs. The comedic touch stopped the moment the sound rounded the corner of the path and blue eyes fell upon white chaos, and then there was only a soft scuffling.
“...Rainbow Dash? Are you okay? What happened?”
“Her house fell,” the rest of them said. “She didn’t,” Applejack added. Dash nodded slightly, though she wasn’t sure why she was agreeing or with what. She was too busy thinking about the trophy cabinet that had smashed to the ground when the wall had cleaved in two, every record of her past accomplishments obliterated in the maelstrom of cloud and crash in an instant.
Fluttershy shuffled and a hoof rested on Dash’s right shoulder. It smelled dusty, like flour.
“I heard a crash. I thought it might have been something fun, but…” The hoof patted the shoulder. “I’m sorry, Dash. I’m so, so sorry.”
“W-why?” She couldn’t think of why Pinkie Pie would be sorry. She was here with the rest of her friends, right? Why were her friends here, anyways? She blinked, and realized she had been away in imagination or memory, blind to the world before her, and regretted it immediately. The moment her eyes opened again, she saw what remained of her house; collapsed from too much weight, too many additions and extensions, too many trophies and toys, too much furniture and not enough fluffy clouds to support it all.
Again, hoofsteps. Rarity, probably, it had to have been Rarity. There wasn’t anypony left. Fragrant perfume touched Dash’s nose and the hint of a shaken, broken gasp told her more than even sight could, proving that she was right.
“Oh, darling, your house! It fell! She’s okay, right?”
Rainbow Dash nodded again, more sure of the answer. It must have been correct. Dash was here, her friends around her, two legs wrapped around her, over the wings and between the hooves, hugging her—hey, wait, that was new. Rarity probably. She glanced down, seeing the sleek white coat from the corner of her eye. Yeah, Rarity. So she was okay.
But her house had fallen.
And now so too were the tears, squeezed out of her by four hooves and two wings, as if fully embraced by a manifestation of all her friends in one.
And now so too was her head, buried in her chest, muffling the cries that ripped out of her lungs without regard.
Her house had fallen.
She wailed as the jagged truth slashed through her, though as the cries came out the pain already started to subside. Her house was gone, yet she was still sheltered, still enclosed; hooves and wings and warmth surrounded her and shielded her from the elements and the tragedy.
Her house had fallen, yes. But her home surrounded her still.
