Chapter 3
Branches, leaves, pieces of furniture, and even a few small animals struggling to move lay on the ground in a wide, grassy area atop a small hill. What was once a cottage door was now a pile of scattered wooden shards in front of where an entranceway used to be. Fluttershy looked in a speechless, mangled expression that relayed horror, terror, and awe at the damage that had befell her once beautiful home. She was frozen in place, her body just as unsure as her mind of what to do. For a moment, she had even forgotten to breathe. Still not moving, her eyes began to water and tears began dripping down, slowly at first, onto the ground. Some tears even found themselves in her mouth, which was still agape at the terrible scene before her. She finally made a sound. The first sob stemmed to more. Fluttershy was now on the ground, face in hooves, crying violently. What would she do? Her home, nay, her animal friends’ home had been destroyed. She would never have the bits to rebuild after so much damage.
"Spike! Wake up, now!" Twilight practically screamed as she frantically ran around, trying to salvage every book she could while charging in aimless directions. "Something disastrous must have occurred during that storm yesterday!"
"Ughhh," moaned Spike. Without even opening his eyes, he rolled over in his bed and gave Twilight an almost rehearsed response. "You're overreacting. So what if a few books got shaken off of the shelves, I'll just put them back later." This halted Twilight's panic at least, as she stopped, turned to Spike, walked over to his bed, and dropped the abnormally large pile of books she was levitating on top of the baby purple dragon.
"Spike, this is an emergency!" She spoke harshly.
"Ow!" Spike jolted to the side as a book landed on his tail, somehow dodging all but that first one. Reflexes that could only have been brought upon by years of having books thrown at you. "What the- What was that for?!" He demanded. Twilight simply gave him a raised eyebrow, and shortly returned to panicking around the library, instead of using her moment of sanity to organize and expedite the cleaning process. Spike slowly looked around the library, noticing that almost no books were on their shelves, other than the ones Twilight had just put away. Something else was missing too, but he couldn't quite place his claw on it. "Hey Twilight. Does the library seem, different somehow to you?" Twilight gazed at the little dragon with a bewildered visage before continuing her work, completely ignoring Spike's lack of observation. Then it hit him.
"The wall! Hey Twilight, what happened to our wall?!" Spike asked alertly.
"The storm must have gotten out of control,” spoke Twilight, her thoughts catching up to her. “I’m going to head around town and see if anyone else got hit too bad, stay here and try to make a dent in all of this mess.”
“Will do,” replied Spike with a salute, and he started diligently cleaning. Twilight ventured out into the town, immediately noticing dozens of frantic ponies galloping around, cleaning debris and fixing broken parts of buildings. It seems this side of the town took most of the damage from whatever happened during that storm, but there is no way just that storm did all of this, Twilight thought to herself. She trotted through town, aiding anypony she could, and asking if anyone knew what happened. Nopony seemed to know anything, and everypony had suspected the storm had just gotten out of control again. Everypony but Pinkie Pie that is.
“Twilight! Twilight!Can you believe it!?” The pink pony was jumping up and down, and had a big smile on her face despite the calamity all around. “She did it! She did it!”
“Whoa, Pinkie, calm down. Believe what? Who did it? Did what?” Twilight had to repeat herself a couple of times until Pinkie Pie finally explained.
“Well, my tail started shaking, my neck twitched, my nose itched, and my front hooves clapped together last night during the storm! And when I came outside this morning half of Ponyville had been destroyed! You know what that means!”
“No Pinkie, I don’t,” spoke Twilight in a somewhat annoyed tone. She still wasn’t one-hundred percent sure she should be trusting “Pinkie Sense” at all, much less in a situation like this.
“You don’t? Oh! Well, at the best young flier competition Rainbow Dash won last year Rarity’s magic wings that you gave her disappeared and the Wonderbolts went after her, but she knocked them all out before they could save her so Rainbow flew down really, really fast. Right then, my tail started shaking, my neck twitched, my nose itched, and my front hooves clapped together and I was really worried because that had never happened to me before! I mean, there were times my tail shook and nose itched, or times that my neck twitched and my front hooves clapped together, but never all four at once! Right after that, Rainbow Dash did an amazing sonic rainboom and saved Rarity and the Wonderbolts! So last night when my tail started shaking, and my neck twitched, and my nose itched, and my front hooves clapped together, I was like ‘Hm. When has my tail started shaking, my neck started twitching, my nose started itching, and my front hooves clap together before?’ And then it hit me! My whole house shook and I [i[knew Rainbow Dash had to have just done a sonic rainboom! Silly Twilight, you should really pay more attention!” Pinkie smiled at Twilight for a moment after her speedy explanation before trotting away to Celestia knows where. Twilight stood there and stared forward for a few moments with a bewildered expression. Could Rainbow Dash had really caused all of this damage with a single sonic rainboom? She refused to believe such a ridiculous thing and proceeded in her search for answers.
On the other side of town, Sweet Apple Acres and Rarity’s boutique were undamaged, but both Applejack and Rarity had heard the storm had gotten out of control and were doing their best to help out in any way they could around town.
Rainbow Dash had returned to town. Surprisingly the town was not in disrepair. Many ponies gathered around her as soon as they caught sight of her, giving her praise, asking how she pulled it off, and some even just cheering her name. She proudly strutted forward and was about to begin a speech about how amazing her thunderstorm-intensified sonic rainboom was, but she abruptly woke up.
Still in a daze, Rainbow shakily tried to stand, and ended up leaning against the large oak tree she had crashed into before. Her wings were still too painful to even extend fully, much less fly anywhere. Stranded in an unfamiliar place, she took in her surroundings. Flat land, mostly covered in tall, thin trees. Birds, and small rodents running about. A snake here or there. She could hear the rushing of a cool stream somewhere nearby, but was unable to discern in which direction. She noticed a lack of plants along the ground, which was mostly dirt and brownish-green grass. She observed the dent in the tree she had made. It seemed as though a large boulder would have had to have hit the tree to make that size crater in the bark. With a sigh, she began to walk back in the direction of Ponyville, assuming it was the direction the indentation in the tree was facing.
Rainbow’s head hung so low to the ground, it was a wonder it wasn’t dragging through the dirt. She had a terrible feeling about what she might have crashed through during that sonic rainboom, and her headache didn’t help. Every now and again, she would attempt to stretch her wings, always being met with the same pain that told her to not even try.
Crack!
Rainbow Dash stopped abruptly, and her head darted from side to side, searching for the source of the sound. “Hello? Anypony there?” she called. She heard a slight rustling of leaves which confirmed that she was being followed, but by what she couldn’t tell. Pretending not to care, she continued forward, now at a light trot, rather than walking speed.
Crack!
This time she didn’t look back, but rather increased the pace at which she was moving. She was almost to steady running speed when she heard the footsteps behind her moving faster than hers. She began to gallop and yell back, “Leave me alone, whatever you are!” She refused to look behind her. She felt a tug on her tail as something grabbed it and she fell forwards, her hooves picking up but her body not able to move forward. She quickly kicked back with her hind hooves at whatever was grabbing her tail, and rolled to the side, only catching a glimpse of some large beast before she extended her wings and launched herself forward into a gallop with a powerful flap that was so painful it could have made her pass out right then, had it not been for her adrenaline rush.
The moon hung high in the sky. A waning crescent. Rainbow Dash had long outrun whatever was chasing her earlier today, and made steady progress throughout the forest, which seemed to be getting thicker. Rainbow began to worry if she’d gone the right way. The pain in her wings, and the hunger in her stomach was telling her she’d better get home soon if she wanted to get there alive. She had found a small clearing to rest in for the night. Her head darted to face any and every forest sound. She was extremely uneasy in her vulnerable state, and was getting barely any sleep throughout the night.
Rainbow Dash hadn’t expected morning to come so early. She admired how the sun’s radiant light reflected off of the apples in the trees. Apples! Finally some food! Without thinking she extended her wings as if to float up and merrily begin picking her newfound means of survival, and float up she did. She didn’t feel a thing, and didn’t realize this until she was almost finished with her third apple, still floating in the air. She closed her eyes for a few seconds, and re-opened them to find herself lying in the ground in a still dark forest, with a familiar pain coursing throughout her body. She looked up into the trees. No apples. She sighed and moaned as her stomach grumbled. Lethargically, she stood, and began walking again, now scanning the area for something, anything, to eat.
It was a little after noon before she found some apple trees. Much to her rejoice, she wasn’t dreaming this time either. Critters had become more of a frequent sight, and some even seemed friendly to Rainbow. She threw rocks and sticks, and apple cores from previous successes, at apples in the trees to get them down, as her wings wouldn’t even extend anymore. She needed a doctor, and soon.
Newly rejuvenated by the food, Rainbow Dash trotted forward at a decent pace. Soon, the forest began to thin out, and she ended up walking right into a large meadow of apple trees. She immediately recognized Sweet Apple Acres, and bolted forward, practically screaming with happiness. She ran over to the Apple family’s home, only for nopony to answer the door, as they were all in town helping clean up the mess. Perplexed, Rainbow decided to move on, heading to town, and hoping things weren’t as bad as she thought.