Granny Smith was sorting out her belongings one day in the Apple Family Attic when she came across an old horseshoe given to her by her mother. “Now Smith, this is a lucky horseshoe so I don’t want you losing it. Your father was chasing this horseshoe when he met me, and now I’m giving this to you in hopes that someday it will bring you luck.” The iron had since dulled and rusted over, too worn and beaten to be used, but Granny Smith stayed true to her mother’s wishes and had kept it safe since her childhood.
“Don’t suppose it’s doing any good in there,” she remarked, tucking the horseshoe into her saddlebag. “As it is right now, the farm could use a little more luck.” Indeed, there was a bit of a dry spell, and the apple trees were in need of rain. Granny Smith walked outside and held the horseshoe up by her teeth, waving it around in the air. Nothing much happened. “Darn thing must need a bit of a kick-start!” She mumbled, going to the top of a nearby hill and throwing into the air a good distance. As it so happened, as the horseshoe hit the ground, a drop of rain landed on granny’s head, followed by another, and within minutes, there was a pretty heavy downpour.
“Knew there was a bit of luck left in that old thing,” she remarked. But the horseshoe, by now, had started rolling down the hill, towards the Everfree Forest. “Wait! Come back!” she shouted, of course, to no avail. Grumbling under her breath, she went back into the house and picked up her raincoat to go look for her mother’s old horseshoe.
Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was out flying over the Everfree Forest when an unexpected downpour struck. “What? But there wasn’t any rain scheduled for this afternoon!” She grumbled, kicking the clouds in an attempt to clear them. The clouds were too thick and a freak gust of wind blew her into a tree. She slid to the ground and landed painfully. “Guess I’m grounded for now. I wonder if I could crash at Zecora’s place.” She headed off into a random direction.
Granny Smith pushed through the thicket, but the rain was heavy and despite her rain parka, she was covered in dark black mud. “That horseshoe couldn’t have gotten far,” She said to herself. Luckily it had left a small trail of flattened grass where it had rolled. Unluckily, this trail was quickly being flooded by the rain.
Thunder struck. Rainbow Dash wasn’t any closer to finding Zecora’s house. She took shelter in a cave after making sure there were no other occupants to wait out the rain. Peering out of the cave, through the rain, she could barely make out a hooded figure. “Zecora?” She called.
The figure turned its head and started moving closer. “Where is my rusty horseshoe?” It asked. It was most definitely not Zecora. Lightning struck, lighting the figure up for an instant. It was an old mare in a dark hood with streaks of black running down her fur and an angry look in her eyes. Rainbow Dash yelped, left the cave, and flew through the woods at breakneck speed, dodging trees left and right, until she finally saw some light. Ponyville, oddly enough, wasn't affected by the storm.
Twilight Sparkle was finishing up a letter to Celestia when she heard a thud on her doorstep. “Rainbow Dash? What happened? You look terrible. And you’re dripping on my books. Let’s get you cleaned up.” Rainbow Dash could only barely flap her wings on the way to a warm bath, promptly falling asleep on Twilight’s easy reading chair.
An hour later, Granny Smith dropped by Twilight’s house. “Just wanted to check on Rainbow Dash and see if she was alright. I followed her mud trail out of the Everfree Forest, it seems like I gave her quite a scare.”
“What were you two doing in the Everfree Forest?” Twilight asked. Granny Smith held out a rusty, muddy iron horseshoe. “It’s a long story, but here. Keep this safe, and it may bring you good luck. Just be warned, the good luck may be more trouble than it’s worth.”
Rarity was finishing her latest creation, a dress with extremely large frills created from the brightest, softest silk she could find. “And… complete! The first of many dresses in… the Flower Collection!” Indeed, the frills combined with the colors of the dress resembled petals, such as of a rose. “Exquisite, if I do say so myself.” Rarity admired her latest creation. “I can’t wait to show the others.” She hitched the model to a wagon and pushed it forward gently with her magic.
Upon exiting her shop, she noticed it was late at night. “Had I really been working the day away? Well, of course, one musn’t rush genius. But perhaps my friends would appreciate it more if I visited them at more appropriate hours.” She began to nudge the wagon back into her shop, but the wheel was jammed. “Well! This simply will not do!” Deciding she only needed the dress, she removed the dress from the model and left the entire assembly in front of her shop, heading in for the night.
Snips and Snails were out late, looking for a replacement ball for the one they had accidentally lost into the Everfree Forest, when they saw the odd assembly in front of Rarity’s dress shop.
“Hey Snips, don’tcha suppose we could use that for a ball?” Snails gestured towads the cloth dummy. “It don’t seem to have one of those fancy dresses on it, so it’s probably not wanted.”
Snips poked at it with his hoof. “Hmmm. Well just to be safe, ANYPONY NEED THIS HERE DUMMY?” Snips hollered towards the dress shop. There was no response, as Rarity had fallen asleep minutes ago with her premium custom fit earplugs and face mask. “Guess it’s ours now.” He kicked the head off and walked away.
“Hey, I wanna play too!” Snails trotted alongside Snips, who was kicking around the very ball-shaped cloth objext they had found. Meanwhile, the act of vandalism had dislodged the wheeled wagon, and it began rolling towards Fluttershy’s cottage.
Fluttershy was sleeping soundly when she heard a rap on her fence. “Oh, my, it’s rather late, does somepony need something?” She called out. When there was no response, she peered outside. In the moonlight, she could barely make out the figure of a pony staring at her cottage. She opened her window.
“Excuse me, but it’s not very polite to stare, and it’s very late. If you need a warm bed, I could let you-“ She cut off with a squeak when she realized that the pony had no head, zooming back into her cottage and shivering. “Angel! There’s some… thing! Outside!” She whispered.
Angel, annoyed at being rudely woken up, stomped outside, saw the dummy for what it was, and kicked the wagon into the Everfree Forest. Fluttershy was barely watching with one eye open, fearing for Angel’s safety. Angel returned and went back to his bed, after giving Fluttershy an extreme look of disapproval.
The next day, when Rainbow Dash came over with Tank to play with the rest of the animals, Fluttershy described what had happened the other night. “But luckily, Angel sent it running for the woods,” she said. “Yeah, there are some really strange things in there.” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “At least this will make a good campfire story.”