Shrouded In Darkness

Twilight Sparkle stood on the outskirts of Ponyville staring in awe at what seemed to be an endless sea of apple trees covering most of what she assumed to be Sweet Apple Acres. "Wow," Spike spoke, voicing Twilight's own thoughts, "This place is huge! I see why they're in charge of the catering."

"I know Spike," agreed Twilight, "I wasn't expecting this. Anyways let's find who's in charge here and check on the banquet preparations." Spike nodded in agreement, and they continued trotting down the worn dirt path that led them into the forest of apple trees. After a few more minutes of walking they reached an open area in which lay a house and a couple of large barns.

Spike and Twilight's attention was quickly grabbed as somepony let out a shout of "YEEHAW!" and the two turned to see an orange mare galloping towards an apple tree with a number of buckets around the base. When she reached the base of the tree she turned around and used her momentum to help buck the tree so hard that the apples fell off the branches and into the buckets.

"Ah, hello there," Twilight greeted her as she trotted closer, "My name is Twilight Sparkle and I'm here checking up on the banquet preparations for the Bright Night Celebration. Would you happen to know where I could find the pony in charge?"

"Well shucks, you're looking at her." the mare told her, taking her hoof and shaking it, "Ah'm Applejack, it's a pleasure ta make yer acquaintance and a real honor to be in charge o' food for the Bright Night Celebration. Care ta sample some?"

"Well that's why I'm here," Twilight said. Instantly Applejack was next to a large picnic table, ringing a triangle.

"Soup's on everypony!" came Applejack's loud cry. The ground suddenly started to shake violently as a large herd of ponies came galloping towards the two, surrounding them. Suddenly Twilight had a bad feeling about accepting her offer. "Uh, you know what, maybe I could-" she was abruptly cut off as an apple was forced into her mouth. Twilight quickly spit the apple out and turned back to face Applejack. "What are you-" she was cut off again as yet another apple was forced into her mouth. By the time she spit the second apple out Applejack had already started introducing her family. "Spike! Help me!"

Spike tore his eyes away from the large pie he was carrying and looked at Twilight before wincing. "Sorry Twi, I'm not getting in the middle of that."

"You traitor!" With that Spike shrugged and went back to his pie, ignoring the cries of help coming from his surrogate sister muttering, "That'll teach you to leave me to fight off a battalion of guards by myself."

--

"Are ya'll sure ya don't wanna stay longer?" Applejack questioned the two.

"Sorry, but I've got to go check on the rest of the preparations," Twilight told her, a forced smile etched into her features.

"Aw shucks, well if'n you're ever in town again and ya wanna bite to eat don't be 'fraid ta stop on by."

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind, thanks for the offer." With that Twilight took off as fast as she could to get away from the crazy farm mare and her even crazier family. Once she was sure that she was far enough away Twilight slowed down to a trot and glanced at her bulging stomach. "I think I ate enough food for three days," she said, letting out a sigh, "I'm gonna have to do extra exercises to make sure this doesn't turn into fat.

"Yeah, well maybe next time you'll think twice about leaving me alone with a whole battalion of guards."

"I'm sorry Spike, but like I already told you I forgot something important I had to do."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

"Anyways Spike, what's next on the checklist?"

"Hmm, it says that a pony named Rainbow Dash is supposed to be in charge of keeping the sky clear." Twilight looked up and saw several wandering clouds across the sky.

"Looks like she's not doing a very good job of it."

"Well she sounds pretty colorful so she shouldn't be that hard to find."

"You're right Spike, let's find her and give her a piece of my mind!" With that she once again took off at a gallop towards the town to see if she could find this 'Rainbow Dash'.

"Guess this counts as exercise." Spike muttered, holding on to Twilight for dear life. Eventually she slid to a halt inside of Ponyville and her eyes flitted about searching for any clues as to who this 'Rainbow Dash' could be. After a while of searching Twilight was ready to let out a scream of frustration when she was distracted by Spike's call of, "Look!"

Twilight's eyes followed in the direction that Spike's finger was pointing and she found a suspiciously prismatic tail sticking out from the edge of a cloud. "Hey!" Twilight called out, "Hey, you up there!" The rainbow tail twitched before disappearing, being replaced by a cyan head covered in a prismatic mane.

"You mean me?" she called out, her rose colored eyes meeting with Twilight's.

"Yeah, you're Rainbow Dash right?"

"Oh, so you've heard of me then. Can't say I'm surprised, I am pretty awesome."

"Yeah, I've heard of you. I heard that you're supposed to be keeping the skies clear for the Bright Night Celebration, but you don't seem to be doing a very good job of it."

"Pfft, I'll do it after I'm done training."

"Training? Training for what?"

"The Shadowbolts!"

Twilight opened her mouth to reply, but an idea popped into her head.

"Please, do you really think the Shadowbolts, Queen Nightmare's elite fliers, would take a measly pegasus that can't even keep the sky clear for a day?" Twilight taunted, glad that Queen Nightmare had seen it fit to give her lessons on deceit. Twilight's taunt had the intended effect, and Rainbow's slitted pupils narrowed at her.

"Hey, if I wanted to I could clear this sky in ten seconds flat!"

It was then that Twilight uttered the two words she knew would get somepony like Rainbow Dash into action, "Prove it." With that Dash crouched down, her bat wings spread out, before she launched herself into the sky with the intent of removing every cloud over Ponyville. Twilight's eyes followed Rainbow Dash, barely able to keep up with how fast she was moving.

Exactly ten seconds after she took off Dash gently landed herself in front of them, no longer any clouds in the sky. "See, what did I tell you." she said, a smug smirk planted on her face.

"Hmm," Twilight hmm'd making a few calculations in her head, "Spitefire could have done it in seven seconds, but that was still rather impressive."

"Hah, I like you," Dash told her, reaching out a hoof, "What's your name?"

"Twilight," she said, bumping Dash's hoof with her own, "Twilight Sparkle."

"Well, Twilight, we should hang out some time. Anyways I gotta get back to my practice if I wanna be a Shadowbolt. Nice meeting you!" With that she took off towards the outskirts of Ponyville.

"Right, now that that's taken care of, Spike what's the next thing on the list?"

"Huh?" Spike shook his head to snap himself out of his daze, "Oh, sorry, right let's see. Apparently a unicorn going by the name of Rarity is supposed to be decorating the town hall for the Queen's arrival."

"To the town hall it is!"