Twilight Sparkle used a spark of magic to light a lamp next to her before returning to her book. The storm had come on fast. One second she'd been standing in a warm, bright room, and the next the sky had darkened and freezing rain began buffeting against the library's shutters. Back in Canterlot this might have worried her but Ponyville had stood on the edge of the Everfree Forest for years and she'd learnt from experience that freak storms were to be expected. The weather team would deal with it she reasoned as she finished reading about a spell for making cut gems glow. Rainbow Dash was probably already out there and if anypony could handle this storm it was her. As for her own safety, well the library was an old tree, it had seen worse and its roots went very deep so she wasn't too worried on that count. Just to be sure though Twilight had added a few magical defenses of her own to her home a few days back, they dulled the sound of the rain somewhat and made it easier for her to think.
She had just reached the bottom of another spell for purifying rock salts when a frantic knocking came at her door. Twilight sighed and magicked the door open with a burst on energy.
Two ponies were blown into the library along with a flurry of rain and deposited in a dripping pile infront of the table.
“Applejack,” The librarian slammed her book shut and pulled her friend to her feet with a spell, “What are you doing here?”
Applejack shook herself dry and motioned to the other pony who had entered, a pegasus who Twilight didn't recognise, “Rainbow Dash asked me t' get this filly t' somewhere safe.” She picked her hat off the ground and tipped the water off of it, “And Ah couldn't think of anywhere safer than here, Ah hope ya don't mind.”
Twilight smiled, “Of course not.” She closed her eyes and sparked the fireplace in the other room into life, “Come on then I'll get you both dried out. Would you like something to eat?”
Applejack shook her, “'Fraid not. Ah can't stay right now, Ah need t'check on Applebloom 'n' Granny. A squall like this can cause all sorts a trouble. Oh and Fluttershy was heading through the Forest when the storm hit and ya know her... So Ah'm gonna make sure she's okay.”
Applejack turned towards the door and took a step, but a gentle hoof on her shoulder stopped her.
“Not to be pessimistic but are you really sure that's a good idea? Storm's like this are dangerous even for somepony as strong as you. Just stay here for a while. Rainbow Dash is going to be dealing with this. She's not going to let anything happen to Fluttershy, she'll sort all of this out.”
Applejack nodded, “Ah'd feel better knowing Ah'm doing something t' help mahself.” She stepped out of the door and was swallowed by the rain immediately, “Don't ya worry Twilight Ah'll just make sure everypony's safe and be back before even Rainbow's done clearin' the sky.” And like that she was gone.
Twilight shut the door quickly before the rain could soak her totally. Turning to her other guest she took a good look at them for the first time. The goggles caught her attention first. Clearly made for sports pegasi, she recognised them from some of Dash's posters. Her brain flicked through a few other details and had supplied a name in seconds.
“Um, Misty right?”
The pegasus stared up at Twilight (at least that's where Twilight assumed she was looking) with confusion, “Fleetfoot actually. You were close though. I think I'm standing next to her on the poster.”
Twilight blushed before filing that embarrassing moment away in the same section of her mind where she stored the first time she'd tried to teleport and Celestia had had to repair the castle's entire east wing. “Sorry. Anyway you need to get dry, there's a fire in the other room. If you need anything else just call me okay.”
The mare bounced back onto her hooves with a fluid motion, “I'd like something to eat thanks. Anything would be great, I'm not picky- well not compared to Soarin anyway.” She zipped towards the next room, although the pause before for she did and the odd little shriek Fleetfoot gave didn't escape the unicorn's notice.
Twilight sighed, pushing that little mystery to the back of her mind and began the climb to the library's second level, calling for her assistant. “Spike! We have a visitor! Can you start on lunch.” On getting no response she switched to a mock annoyed tone, “You know if you don't cook something I'll have to do it myself.”
That threat got a response. From somewhere on the same floor she heard Spike drop whatever he'd been carrying and footsteps heading towards the kitchen. Twilight smiled, really she couldn't blame him. Although maybe bringing that little incident up was a bit harsh. Twilight stopped for a moment to check the books on the shelves next to her for anything interesting. As she did however an almighty boom sounded from above her followed by a series of crashes as something in the library collapsed.
Twilight took the stairs three at a time. She was fairly sure that nothing could do really major damage to her home but she had some rather delicate experiments set up around her home and she didn't want any explosions.
Okay, okay any more explosions.
***
It took an hour but eventually the storm broke apart above them. Rainbow was exhausted but at least she was still flying, no less than ten of the weather retrieval team had been blown out of the air by the storm's ferocity. So far they'd found eight and none of the pegasi that had been on duty when the storm began.
Still, Dash told herself, it wasn't worth panicking yet. Thunderlane and the others had probably just been blown off course. Besides Ponyville pegasi were tough, they'd be okay.
So her biggest worry now was the town. With this in mind, after staying just long enough to arrange and send out search parties into the forest, she turned towards the library. She and Applejack had agreed that that was the safest place in the town and so the place where anypony who was hurt should be taken to (the hospital being rather further out of town) and on top of that Twilight was the smartest pony Rainbow knew. If anyone could explain the huge storm she'd just finished with it would her.
She found the library as a hive of activity. Ponies she vaguely recognized from crowds around town milled about reading books, others tried to crowd in around the fire for warmth.
Rainbow Dash chose to fly over the crowd until she found Twilight. The librarian was rifling through a box of books halfway around one of the library's upper levels. On seeing her friend Twilight broke off her search, plucking out three small scrolls and teleporting them away.
“Oh hi Dash, good work on the storm.”
Rainbow fluttered down and settled next to the unicorn, “Oh it was nothing really.”
“Rainbow,” Twilight gave her friend a sideways smile, “I know you well enough to know that any storm that took over an hour for you to clear was not nothing.”
“Well okay, yeah it was pretty awesome. You should've seen me when this huge storm cloud came rolling out of the forest shooting lighting off in all directions-” She stopped looking at Twilight's cunning grin, “Oh sorry, I know I said I wouldn't boast so much.” Twilight looked like she was barely holding in laughter, Rainbow fished around for something else to talk about, “So why are all these ponies in your house?”
Twilight shrugged, “I have no idea, at first Applejack was just bringing in any ponies she found that she thought were in danger. Then I guess word got out that the library was safe because ponies just started turning up left, right and center.” She shuffled through the last few books in the box and looked up at Rainbow, “So what do you think of Fleetfoot?”
“You mean Echo?” The sudden question caught Rainbow off guard, “She's awesome. I mean she's a Wonderbolt so she obviously was going to be but I didn't expect her to be so nice-”
Twilight held up a hoof stopping her, “Rainbow did she say anything to you?”
“Well we talked about Wonderbolt performances and flying tricks and we raced. Oh, and she called me a true fan for going all the way to Cloudsdale for a small show.”
Twilight nodded, “But just think about that, how would going to Cloudsdale make you a true fan? Cloudsdale is hardly far away,” She started heading back to the stairs, motioning for her friend to follow, “You could have gone there and back fairly easily. It's certainly nothing that
impressive for a athletic pegasus like you.”
Rainbow trotted along behind the unicorn, “What's that got to do with anything? It was just a compliment.”
“Yes but it doesn't make much sense. I've been talking to Echo since she arrived and not much of what she says does.” They reached the stairs and headed down, “She claims she crashed into Fluttershy's house after she and the Wonderbolts tackled an odd storm.”
“So there was a storm in the forest last night remember.”
“Yes there was, but it didn't break up like they do when pegasi end them. It drifted away like storms do in the Everfree Forest. Even then why bother sending Wonderbolts to deal with a storm in a place where storms just fade away anyway?”
Rainbow's head was beginning to get that spinning feeling that came with talking too much to Twilight, “The Wonderbolt's are awesome. Why wouldn't you want them dealing with a storm like that?”
Twilight turned to her with a frown, “And there's the other problem, if the Wonderbolts had been here to deal with a weather problem wouldn't you, the head of weather control and one of their biggest fans know about it?” Twilight turned and was down the stairs while Rainbow's mind still worked frantically to find a response to that.
They reached the library's main room, where the crowd had begun to break up and trickle home with the storm over, moving through it much more easily this time. “So all this got me thinking and it led to an interesting question.” Rainbow spotted Echo sitting by the fire with a drink in hoof but Twilight was already heading that way and called out to the Wonderbolt,
“Fleetfoot, where do you actually think we are?”
Echo looked up in Twilight's direction, “In the library?” She answered confusedly.
Twilight shook her head, “No specifically, where is this library?”
Echo shrugged, “I don't know, somewhere near the mountain, I guess.”
Twilight nodded, “Which mountain?”
“Ferrum Mountain.”
Twilight frowned, “I thought so.” She crossed to a table in the room's center, on which Rainbow saw the scrolls Twilight had been collecting earlier, “Come and look at this Rainbow Dash.” She flicked one scroll open revealing an old map, “Ferrum mountain is here on Equestria's border, right next to the Badlands and...” Twilight trailed her hoof across the length of the map, mumbling to herself, then flipped another map open which showed a smaller scale map, “Ponyville is right... There!” She rolled both scrolls closed and turned to the two pegasi, “See the problem?”
Rainbow Dash let her brain catch up with Twilight then remembered why she'd come here in first place, “Wait, wait, wait, that's great and all but what about the storm just now? I mean even with the Everfree Forest next door we've never had a storm that big.”
Twilight blinked, “Really? That one right after I came to town was-”
“Scheduled.” Rainbow cut her off, “We've built bigger weather systems sure, but the ones that come out of the forest never grow fast enough to get that big on their own. I don't think I've seen one this bad, well, ever.”
Twilight grimaced, flipping through a few more scrolls on her table to find something, “I thought something like this might happen some day. Here.” She hoofed a pile of scrolls to Rainbow who sorted through them, recognising them almost immediately.
“These are weather schedules. Where did you get these?”
“Not important.” Twilight teleported away, returning a second later with an entire box of scrolls which she dumped on the table infront of them, “But when you live in a town by a magic forest, above the gate to Tartarus of all places, I like to at least know what the weather's going to be doing.” She checked through another scroll, “Besides it meant I could change the schedule to a clear night so we could all see that meteor shower last year.”
Rainbow Dash made a mental note to check next time that her instructions were still in her mouthwriting before reading through the papers. Most were (thankfully) her own timetables and team lists with the occasional note scrawled in margin by Twilight along the lines of 'buy quills' or 'stargazing'. A few however seemed to be from all over Equestia, from Canterlot all the way out to Fillydelphia. “Um, Twilight, what's this got to do with anything?”
“Look at the one I gave you first Rainbow.”
Rainbow Dash looked, this one was a smaller scroll than the others and looked no where near as dogeared as the older scrolls. She glanced down the list with little comprehension until she reached halfway down, “Wait Ponyville! This is about the storm.”
“Almost, it's about last night's storm. A list of seventeen abnormal storms spread around Equestria in the last two days. It's what originally got me thinking about Fleetfoot and last night's storm and, well, as you can see,” She motioned to the mass of scrolls and books on the table, “I'm still working on figuring it all out. But don't worry about that though I already skipped the bit where I try to handle it all myself and just sent a letter explaining the problem to the Princess so...” She trailed off as she noticed Rainbow Dash examining the scroll, “Oh.”
Rainbow reached the end of the letter, “Twilight this is addressed to me.”
Twilight suddenly remembered several very important jobs she needed to be doing at that precise second and disappeared with a flash, leaving Rainbow Dash checking through the pile of papers for more stuff 'borrowed' from her mailbox and Echo sitting with her drink wishing she had some popcorn. Not even Spitfire and Surprise were this fun to listen to.
***
As the wind died down she finally let herself open her eyes and uncovered her ears. The wreck of a tree Fluttershy had sheltered under looked like it had stood for decades before the lightening had struck it. Now all that remained was a burnt out hulk of charcoal and wood, but it had kept her mostly dry. Fluttershy paused a second to decide how to come to terms with that, some poor tree had given its life just to keep her safe from that terrible hurricane, the very thought made her feel slightly ill. After thanking the once majestic tree and making sure she hadn't done too much damage to the plant Fluttershy set off. Carefully picking her way over fallen tree limbs and roots she tried to work her way home.
Finding her way was hard, the forest always seemed dark but right now it seemed lonelier and bigger than ever, no animals skittered through the undergrowth, no birds sung in the trees. It was like the forest was wounded and was hiding somewhere now, waiting to lash out in response, the air was moist and heavy and the emptiness made the sound of the pegasus' breathing come rattling back ten times louder.
Fluttershy gulped as a howl came from somewhere else in the forest. It was a lone wolf somewhere she reasoned, and no danger to her. She still sped up though, after all what if it were a timber wolf? Those things could tear a pony apart and there was nothing you could do about it unless you had fire and Fluttershy really didn't like fire. It wasn't so much the danger, she knew enough to avoid burning down her house, it was just the way it glimmered and flickered like a pair of cruel, laughing eyes and the way the smoke stung her eyes and-
Fluttershy shook her head to calm herself and forced herself to slow back down to a reasonable place. She wouldn't get anywhere other than lost any faster if she panicked. She inspected the trees and peered through the forest canopy for some clue of where she was. Perhaps it was night now and she might be able to navigate by the stars. She just needed to stay calm and not panic. She could do it, she was used to the forest, she was clever, she was braver now.
The wind howled behind her and something brushed against her flank. In a second her calm evaporated like a summer storm and she reared and bolted.
The trees screamed passed her in a sickening whirl, cavorting and twisting around her. Cruel, twisted limbs reached out to grab her and she ducked away, changed direction once, then again and again. She turned and twisted and span until she was dizzy, she ran with her heart in her throat, holding in her screams until she thought she might be sick. Still she didn't stop running, she'd never stop running, if she did the forest would catch her and swallow her up and she'd never find her way home and she'd die alone and scared and hungry.
Suddenly her hoof struck a rock and Fluttershy flipped head over heels and landed in a heap on hard stone.
Biting her lip to hold in tears Fluttershy looked up at where she'd fallen. Ahead of her stretched a half buried floor of black and white tiles overgrown with weeds. The floor was bordered on two sides by collapsing walls and above by half a roof. Beyond that Fluttershy recognised the two ruined towers of the Castle of the Two Sisters.
Fluttershy felt tears leak from her eyes as she released not only where she was but also that she had no idea how to get from the castle to her home without help. She could hardly go back the way she'd come with Twilight on her own and since she never went this deep into the Everfree alone she was now completely lost. Losing hope she did what she always did in situations like this, buried her head in her hooves and cried out her frustration.
Fluttershy's emotional breakdown was interrupted however by a voice from behind her and a gentle hoof on her shoulder.
“Little pony do not cry. You are quite safe here dear Fluttershy.” The yellow pegasus peeked over her hooves to see her only neighbour in the Everfree sitting on a low stone plinth just beside her. “These walls are old, this place still strong. The danger you fear has long since gone.”
Fluttershy gulped back the last of her tears and swallowed her terror. “Zecora, it's good to see you.” She climbed shakily to her hooves, keeping her weight of the hoof she'd struck,
“I'm really sorry the storm was just so terrible and I worried that,um, that I was going to die actually.”
Zecora looked up from inspecting Fluttershy's injured hoof, “If you were dead you would not be worrying. I would think to your animals you should be hurrying.”
Fluttershy's ears perked up as she remembered all the creatures she'd left in her house while she'd been rushing around panicking “Oh. of course, those poor dears. I'm so sorry, I don't know how I could of forgotten. I'd better check on them before they get hungry.” She dashed passed Zecora and out of the ruins, before slowing slightly and turning back to the zebra.
“Er, would you mind helping me find my way back, I mean if your not too busy after the storm.”
Zecora smiled and nodded, stopping to pick a few herbs from between two tiles. Placing the herbs in her saddlebag, she went ahead of Fluttershy into the dense, dark undergrowth.
The long walk back through the forest did nothing to comfort Fluttershy's already frayed nerves. Whereas normally the forest was filled with the faint scrabbling of small animals or even the growls of monsters, Fluttershy heard only silence now, no matter how hard she strained her ears. Zecora seemed to sense her discomfort and eventually filled the quiet with talk. Apparently she had been out gathering herbs for potion brewing when the storm had forced her towards the ruin. She assured Fluttershy that it was perfectly natural to feel scared, especially when such a huge storm caught one unawares.
The time melted away as the two talked and before Fluttershy knew it they were back at her house, she didn't feel much better than she had when they'd began but was sure she'd have felt worse traveling through the forest alone. She thanked Zecora and the two parted at her door, the zebra disappearing back into the dense forest just outside Fluttershy's door.
The yellow pegasus retreated into her house after that, her roof had leaked a little in the storm and her dining room was flooded up to her fetlocks. Fluttershy sighed and began calming the animals that had been in the room. Birds of all shapes and sizes were fluttering up near the ceiling, squawking and screeching in panic. Fluttershy decided to calm them down first, she wouldn't stand a chance of calming the other animals she'd taken in with all the noise the birds were making.
With this in mind Fluttershy went to her kitchen and found a mop and some packets of birdseed. While moving aside boxes of hayflakes to find more birdseed she idly began to wonder whether she should have invited Zecora in as thanks for her help.
No, she decided as she cleared the water off her floors and coaxed the birds down from the ceiling. Zecora probably had her own problems to deal with, after all her house hadn't appeared as sturdy as Fluttershy's the last time she'd seen it. Fluttershy decided, half way through helping a large group of squirrels down from the rafters, that once she had sorted out all her animals she would visit the medicine-mare and offer to help with whatever she
could.
After about an hour's work Fluttershy had calmed all of the animals on the lower floor of her house, but there were still more hiding up stairs. Small glowing eyes stared out apprehensively at her from every dark corner as she ascended and she could hear smaller things scuttling and scurrying around in the rafters. These animals were more used to life indoors than the birds had been so she suspected it would be easier to lure them out.
Sure enough most of the animals came out of hiding at her call. At first Fluttershy was surprised by just how many of them there were. She found rabbits hiding in her wardrobe, mice crowding under her bed and even a few moles taking shelter in a large box she used for storage in her attic. In half the time it had taken her downstairs she rounded up adorable critter after adorable critter, soothed their panic and found them food.
Finally sitting back down at her table with something for herself to eat, she wished that soothing her own growing unease was so simple. Angel Bunny had made her a salad but she had a suspicion that was more so he could avoid the other animals. She'd noticed that poor little Angel always seemed to get more worked up when she had other animals in the house (especially other rabbits) but at the moment she was glad for that. She'd need quite a bit of help getting her house back in order after the tempest that had just passed through. Fluttershy swallowed another mouthful of carrots and settled back to think. Two storms in a day wasn't unheard of in the Everfree but she'd never been caught out in anything like that before. She'd have to be more careful the next time she went through the forest. With her gone how would all her cuddly little guest cope? After all what happened if the next time she went out in the rain she-
A sound from outside pulled her away from that particular train of thought. Fluttershy shook herself and went back to eating. Then the sound came again and she almost jumped out of her skin. It couldn't be what she thought it was, it just couldn't be. For a second Fluttershy was almost ready to run and hide in her box in the attic with the moles just to feel safer. Calm down, a more sane part of her told her- with a voice that sounded a lot like Twilight- it was probably just your imagination, or else maybe you didn't hear what you thought you heard. You're tired, the voice insisted, and you've made mistakes before after all.
A bit of Fluttershy's mind that was more Fluttershy-y however continued to panic, calmed only slightly by the other's encouragement.
Well go and check outside then, the Twilight-y part of Fluttershy suggested, and instead of sitting in here panicking you can be sure about whether your fear is real or not.
Fluttershy, weighing the argument as best she could, saw the sense in that. After all what was the point in hiding under her table before she was sure what she was hiding from. It was probably nothing anyway, she would go, look out her door, see nothing worth worrying about and feel silly for being so on edge.
By the time Fluttershy reached her door she was feeling almost brave. She pushed her door open and gazed out at the forest beyond.
Fluttershy's face dropped at the sight of the towering black clouds above her. Lightening flashed as peels of thunder rippled through the sky.
Fluttershy shook like a leaf then, the sensible, brave Fluttershy all but inaudible in the back of her head while the scared, pathetic Fluttershy took control. Fluttershy found herself rooted to the spot, unable to move except for quivering. Her senses only returned when the clouds opened and a harsh rain began. A drenched Fluttershy bolted back into her house, curled into the smallest ball she could manage and prayed to every single thing she could think of that the storm would just go away.
The rain hammered on her roof as the huge clouds knitted together and a strong gust of wind carried wisps of them away. The storm grew bigger with every second, like a huge claw reaching out for Ponyville and no matter how hard Fluttershy prayed, there was nothing she could do to stop it.