"What happened to her?" Twilight shouted at the weather team. They all were huddling under the pavilions set up earlier to eat. With the loss of the weather manager, her two lieutenants, Blossomforth and Cloud Kicker, simply could not keep up with what the storm was doing. After another hour of fighting the storm, they had given up, and let it roll in and rage where it wished to. All of Twilight's friends, with the heart rending exception of Rainbow Dash, were under the largest pavilion, with those two lieutenants there with them.
"I…I…don't know," the de facto leader in Rainbow Dash's absence replied.
"I've never seen anything like that," Blossomforth chimed in, then immediately cowered down as the enraged alicorn turned her gaze on her.
Cloud Kicker moved in front of Blossomforth. "Twilight Sparkle, this is no pony's fault. We all felt the magic of this storm, that's why it was so ferocious. Every member of the team did their absolute best."
Her words were lost on Twilight as she looked at the storm. Her rage didn't stop, it was only compounding itself with every word. Tears fell unbidden from her eyes. She could feel the magic herself from this storm. It was mocking her with its strength. Well, she would show it. Her eyes glowed white and her wings spread. With a mighty flap she was off the ground and flying at the heart of the storm. She knew where it was because of the magic emanating from it, and from the lightning flashing around it. She didn't have any words for the storm as her horn lit and she pushed as hard as she could with her magic. It wasn't an organized spell, it was simply power, she was seeking to drain the storm of its magic. In moments she had established an unconscious link with the energy in the storm. She started to drain the power, dissipating it. The storm fought back, great bolts of lightning flashed at the enraged alicorn. She shrugged off each impact and jolt, instead using the energy the storm was trying to fight her with to drain it further. In seconds the storm imploded. The moon shone down on a quiet but very wet Ponyville.
She wasn't done, not by a long shot. Every bit of pent up rage, sorrow, grief, and yes… she had to admit to herself, guilt, was thundering through her. With her expanded abilities since her ascension she held on to the power she had absorbed. But she couldn't for long. It was too much. The storm had covered square miles, and all of that energy in her body was threatening to overwhelm her. She pointed her horn skyward and screamed. This was far more than a normal scream, it combined the strength of the Royal Canterlot Voice, and every bit of emotion and power she contained. As she screamed she shot a bolt of energy towards the uncaring heavens, the bright light ascended and lit the entire area as bright as day for a few seconds. As the energy left her, she lost consciousness, her wings folded and she fell. Only to be caught by Cloud Kicker and brought to her friends. She woke on the ground, cradled by Fluttershy with her friends around her.
"She's dead," she sobbed.
"No, she isn't Twilight!" Pinkie Pie piped up. "My Pinkie sense would have told me. I didn't get any nosebleed. Dashie's not dead."
Twilight couldn't control herself, even as exhausted as she was, she sprang up and pinned the pink pony to the ground.
"How can you be sure?"
Tears formed in Pinkie's eyes. "I've had a friend die before I met you. I know what that Pinkie Sense felt like, I got a bad nosebleed and felt like I was going to be sick, at the same time, my entire body vibrated. I know the signal for a friend dying, it's horrible, and I didn't get that with Rainbow Dash."
"What kind of signal did you get?" Twilight panted.
Pinkie squirmed underneath Twilight's hooves. "I really don't know how to explain it, it's more like I was super dizzy, and the fur on my back stood on end. I don't know what that means, but I do know that Dashie isn't dead."
Twilight let Pinkie up. The tears had continued unabated, but now she had hope.
"We need to get to Canterlot!"
***
"Ugh, what happened?" Rainbow Dash lifted herself up off the surface of the roof she landed on. She looked at it. It was shiny metal. Just next to her was a fan in a shroud. The electric motor starting up shook her from her impromptu nap. She jumped reflexively. Coming down her rear hooves slipped off the cooling condenser and she fell heavily to the asphalt surface of the roof.
"Where am I?" She looked around. A quick trot to the edge of the roof and she looked down. Her eyes grew huge, she had never seen anything like that in her life.
"What are those things?" she asked as she gazed down at the humans celebrating the new year. The sounds of singing and reveling assaulted her ears. They were still ringing after the long fight with the storm. She stopped for a moment and rubbed her eyes with her hooves. Her ears rotated back as she heard a new sound. A door opened behind her and two of those creatures stumbled onto the roof with her.
"Shhhhh, are you sure we won't get caught?" a feminine voice came from one of them, her voice slurred.
"I told you, Mike lives here, there's no problem with us coming to the roof," a masculine voice responded, slurring his words as badly as the woman. The door gaped open as they moved away from the roof access toward where Rainbow Dash was cowering by the edge of the roof. They embrace, oblivious to the cyan pegasus trying to keep as still as possible. In moments the wet sounds of their kissing float to Rainbow.
Ugh, do they have to do that here? Rainbow thinks to herself, I need to get out of here now. She flares her wings, and discovers that her right wing has cramped up. She's able to stifle a moan as she clamps her wings to her sides. She looks over at the two humans. They are now completely occupied with each other. Perhaps she can sneak past them. She starts to move, and her hoof crunches down on the roof.
"Wha, what was that?" the woman asks.
"Shhh, it was nothing." The man responds, and distracts her with a kiss. She quickly forgets the sounds Rainbow makes as the pegasus slowly slinks to the open door. Once in the clear, Rainbow trots down the stairs, alert for any more of those huge creatures as she finds more stairs.
"How big is this building?" she asks to herself as she descends her twentieth staircase. She freezes in shock as a door opens in front of her. A tiny head sticks out of the door. Red curly locks on the pale face of a little girl sway as she looks back and forth. She stops as her gaze falls on Rainbow. Rainbow, for her part, stops breathing. The little girl gasps and pulls her head back through the door. Rainbow decided to put on a burst of speed to the next staircase, inside the apartment as she runs by she hears the little girl screaming happily about a little horse outside. Luckily she made it halfway down the next set of stairs before the door opens again. As she gets to the bottom of the stairs, her hoof steps ring out loudly. She looks back, she was on carpet, and it's given way to white marble. Her thin pegasi style horseshoes ring loudly on the marble. She freezes once again.
"Is there any one there?" A deep masculine voice rings out from the front of the building. She turns away and scrambles towards the back of the building. She comes upon a door. It doesn’t open when she pushes on it. She looks at it, heavy, metal, no knob.
"Hey, listen, no pets in this building, it sounds like you've got a horse there," the voice says. Rainbow rears up, pushing on the door. She didn't notice the crash bar in the middle of the door, she slams her hooves on the door. Nothing. In desperation, she whirls around and bucks the door, once. Twice. Again for a third time, she turned to look at it. It shows three sets of deep impressions of her horseshoes, but the door hasn't moved.
"Hey, whoever you are, you are making a lot of noise." Rainbow really starts to panic. The voice is moving closer. She whirls around again and places her front hooves on the door.
"There has to be some trick to this door." She murmurs to herself as she presses all over the door.
"Whoever you are, you are going to be in big trouble…" the voice peters out as the owner of the voice comes into view. Pegasus and man are frozen as they look at each other. And it's hard to tell which is more surprised. Cerise eyes gaze into blue. Her hooves are still moving around the door and the door opens suddenly as she finally finds the crash bar. With a shout Rainbow Dash tumbles out of the door, rolling and ending up on her head against the alley wall. In moments she's on her hooves and galloping as fast as she can. Ignoring the shouting behind her.
"C'mon wings, I need to fly!" She shouts as she's running down the alley. Her right wing is responding better now, but it still hurts, and she can't get full extension. She tries to flap as she's running, and is only rewarded with more pain shooting down her wing. The alley ends and she's in the middle of Times square. Tens of thousands of people have converged for the annual celebration of the death of an old year and beginning of a new. The hard concrete doesn't allow for the best traction as Rainbow slips and slides as she tries to scramble among all the humans. She darts into another alley, only knocking down a few people in her rush. She hides behind a dumpster for a minute to get her breath.
"Where in Tartarus am I?" She looks around at all the people visible at the end of the alley. The adrenaline is still running through her veins as she's looking. She has graduated from terrified to something way beyond reason. Not moving has done nothing to calm her. She keeps working on her wings, and finally they decide to listen to her.
"Finally!" she sings to herself as she flared her wings and takes off straight up. In moments she's hundreds of feet above the crowds. She looks around as she continues to climb.
"This place is bigger than Manehattan!" She picks a direction and decides to head northwest. She keeps it under the speed of sound, though her panic could probably allow her to perform a sonic rainboom, she simply wanted to get away.
After a surprisingly long time, the signs of civilization start to fade, she finds a forest and lands in a tree. She's exhausted. Looking around, there isn't even an errant cloud to take a nap in. She finally finds the crook of a couple of branches of the tree to get comfortable in. She finally is able to drift off to sleep.