//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Stormy Complications // Story: Dark Horizons // by shadow hunter //------------------------------// Applejack awoke with a start, hearing a rumbling boom as another low peal of thunder expressed its anger. She groaned and sat up to look at the clock. It was two-thirty in the morning. She sank back into her bed and rolled over to try to sleep again, but it was no use. The constant flashes of lightning, followed shortly by loud claps of thunder, prevented her from escaping into sleep once more. She wondered why Rainbow Dash hadn’t done anything about the storm yet, considering it had hit Ponyville mid-afternoon yesterday. She decided that she would have to find Rainbow and see if she and the other weather ponies could fight off the storm so Ponyville could get some sleep. She slowly crawled out of bed, donned her hat and a heavy rain-repellant cloak, and headed out of her room. She wondered if it was a good idea to try to find Rainbow now but when another loud clap of thunder rang through the air, she decided that it would probably be worth it. As soon as she had stepped outside her front door, she almost lost her hat to the wind. She slowly but surely made her way down the road towards Ponyville. It took her quite some time due to the incredibly strong winds, but she had finally made it. She headed for Rainbow Dash’s house, located on the outskirts of Ponyville. She finally arrived, only to realize that she had no way of getting up to the door! In this storm there would be no way Rainbow would hear her from way down here, so she decided to return home. Later she would find Fluttershy and see if she could convince her to fly up and talk to Rainbow. She was just heading back through Ponyville, when a huge gust of wind picked her up and tossed her against a house. She was dazed for a moment, but quickly regained her senses. She realized that it would be insanity to continue trying to get home in the winds. She saw that she was only across the street from Twilight’s library, so she headed over and knocked on the door, holding onto the handle so as not to be blown away. A very sleepy and confused-looking Twilight opened the door as Applejack tumbled into the room. “Quick, close the door before another gust comes!” she said, as Twilight complied and shut the door. Applejack breathed a sigh of relief, glad to be safe from the storm. “Hello Applejack. Um, what are you doing here?” Twilight asked. “Oh, sorry Twilight, ah guess ah have some explainin’ to do” Applejack said as she proceeded to tell Twilight her plans to go see Rainbow Dash about the storm they were having. “But it’s three in the morning!” Twilight replied, “What made you believe Rainbow Dash would even help now?” “Well ah figured if ah can’t sleep then it was likely nopony else could either, so ah decided ah would see if she would help out all a’ Ponyville and let us all get some sleep” Applejack explained while she maneuvered herself into a sitting position. “Well you were right about that, at least for me anyways, because I haven’t had a single moment of sleep all night with this horrendous storm” Twilight agreed “Say Applejack, how would you like to stay here for the night rather than having to travel all the way back to your farm?” “That’s mighty kind of ya Twilight, but ah couldn’t impose…” She was cut off by her friends quick response, “Oh it wouldn’t be imposing at all, especially considering the severe danger trying to make it back to your farm tonight would entail” Twilight pointed out, “You’re welcome to stay, and I still have that spare bed you and Rarity used back at my slumber party!” “Well gee Twilight, ya make it sound so temptin’ ah suppose ah’m just gonna have to accept that kind offer a’ yours” Applejack said, smiling in agreement, and the two quickly set up the spare bed. The storm raged on throughout the night, both ponies trying to sleep but neither succeeding. All they could do was rest and try to save their strength for the next day. ~*~*~*~ That morning, they both got up and had a brief breakfast. Then they headed out to find Fluttershy to talk with Rainbow Dash. When they reached Fluttershy’s house, they knocked on the door but it wasn’t answered. “Fluttershy? Are you in there?” Twilight had to yell to even hear herself over the storm, so she doubted Fluttershy was able to hear their knocking. She opened the door and went inside, shutting the door behind her, glad to be leaving the storm behind. “Sugarcube, are ya in here?” Applejack asked, glancing around the room. She noticed a distinct lack of furry critters moving about the house; usually Fluttershy’s house was alive with small animals, but not today. “Let’s check upstairs” she suggested to Twilight, and began to head over to the stairs. “I’ll stay down here and finish searching the ground floor” Twilight replied, as she headed off into the kitchen. “Sounds good Sugarcube” Applejack replied, as she disappeared up the stairs. It sure is dark up here she thought as she stumbled around, I wonder where the lights are? She felt her way around the wall beside the doorframe until her hoof hit a switch, causing the lights to burst into life. She heard a squeal from across the room and looked to see two very large eyes regarding her from under the bed. “Is it over?” the eyes inquired cautiously, “I’m scared, it was so loud” “Yes Sugarcube the thunder and lightnin’ is over, at least for now it is” Applejack replied, “Although ah believe we need your help in order to get this storm to pass completely” “But isn’t that the weather pony’s job?” the eyes asked in surprise. “That’s just it Sugarcube, we need ya to fly up to Rainbow Dash’s house and get that darned weather pony to come down and talk to us about why she ain’t doin’ her job” Applejack explained. Slowly and carefully a terrified-looking Fluttershy emerged from under the bed, glancing back and forth between the windows in the room. She cautiously stood up and followed Applejack out of the room. They headed back downstairs to find Twilight just returning from the kitchen. “Hello Fluttershy” Twilight greeted her friend brightly, “Sorry to intrude, but we need somepony to…” She was cut off by Applejack saying “Ah already told her we need her to get Rainbow Dash” “Oh, I see” Twilight replied, slightly irritated by Applejack’s abrupt and unnecessary interruption, but she continued “So Fluttershy, would you be able to help us then?” “Oh, well I suppose so, but that would mean we would have to… have to… go…” she stumbled to find the courage to continue but only managed “out THERE!” “Yes,” Twilight replied carefully, “We would have to go out into the storm, but don’t worry Fluttershy, we’ll be with you the whole time” “Yes… Um, ok… but can I stay between you two?” Fluttershy inquired timidly. “Absolutely,” Twilight said, glancing at Applejack and seeing her nod of approval, “Now let’s get going!” They headed outside, into the wind and rain of the storm, hoping to finally be on the way to clearing up the awful storm. ~*~*~*~ As they headed to Rainbow Dash’s house, they were constantly fighting the tremendously forceful winds. Several times they had to help each other stay standing, but they made it safely and without any major incidents. Fluttershy flew up to Rainbow Dash’s door and knocked quietly. Twilight sighed and yelled up to her “Just go in, there’s no way she can hear you in this storm!” She hoped that Fluttershy could hear her, but couldn’t be sure as she was unable to see her anymore. A few moments later Fluttershy flew back down from the house and landed in front of Twilight and Applejack. “She says that she won’t come out. She wants to stay in her home where she is safe from something, but she won’t say what. Sorry, I know this isn’t the answer you wanted but that’s what she said…” Fluttershy explained to them. “That’s quite alright Fluttershy I was kind of expecting this actually. See if you can convince her to come down here just to talk to us.” Twilight said, while she wondered what Rainbow could possibly have seen in her dream to make her this fearful of even leaving her house. Fluttershy took off again to give it another go. She returned shortly, this time smiling. Behind her was Rainbow Dash, looking very uncharacteristically scared. She was glancing all around quickly, and she was quite worried looking about the nearby wooded areas. “Hey guys, what’s up?” Rainbow Dash asked in an odd, slightly shaky voice as she landed in front of them. “Hey Rainbow, we haven’t seen you in a long time, and with this storm we thought it was about time we found you. Ponyville needs you to organize the weather ponies to clear up this storm. It’s been going for almost a whole day now.” Twilight explained, hoping her friend would see their point of view. “Well… Ummm…” Rainbow stumbled for words to express her thoughts, trying her best to find something that wouldn’t make her look like a coward in front of Applejack. “Well Twi, you remember that dream I told you about?” she asked carefully. “Yes, I remember giving you the book I had on dreams, but you never did tell me what your dream was about.” Twilight replied gently, seeing that Rainbow Dash was very uneasy talking at the moment. “Yeah, that dream was definitely interesting… and the book you gave me helped me understand a lot about it… I think…” she talked slowly, carefully trying to avoid embarrassing herself. “Cause, well I read in the book that some dreams are premonitions… and my dream checked out on all the categories except one, which was that it hadn’t happened yet and well… In my dream I… I died…” she concluded. Applejack had done an excellent job listening so far, but this was just too much! Rainbow Dash got scared by a dream?! Was it even possible?! She managed “So you’re afraid you’re gonna die, because a book says so? AHAHAHAHAHA!” Applejack burst into a laughing fit, falling onto the ground. Rainbow Dash turned her head away to hide the blood that was quickly rushing to her cheeks. “This was another reason I didn’t want to come down…” she mumbled. “Applejack!” Twilight scolded her friend and tried to talk some sense into her “Rainbow Dash’s fears are very real! I didn’t think you actually believed that anypony could be entirely fearless!” Applejack was too enthralled in rolling with laughter to reply. Twilight decided that if she couldn’t get Applejack to quit embarrassing Rainbow, then she would just have to find a reason for Rainbow to leave. “So Rainbow, do you think you could get the weather ponies together and fight off this storm?” She asked, hoping she would get the response she needed. Rainbow Dash saw her opportunity and leaped on it “Yeah sure Twilight, I’ll get to it right away!” she said as she quickly flew off, fighting the storm’s forceful winds as she did so. Thankfully, the storm’s winds helped to drown out the haunting sound of Applejack’s laughter from the back of her mind. ~*~*~*~ It hadn’t taken very long to get the weather ponies organized and in the skies to fight the storm, Rainbow Dash mused as she and the other weather ponies fought the clouds back from Ponyville. She took stock of how they were doing, which was very well, and noticed that the storm was quickly being defeated. It roiled in rage as it put up a good fight against the weather ponies driving it back, but it was outmatched in this battle. She smiled and resumed pushing the storm back. She noticed that they had just pushed the storm past Fluttershy’s cottage and were almost entirely clear of Ponyville. Soon she would be able to return, victorious after vanquishing the storm. Then she remembered Applejack, her mocking laughter invading Rainbow Dash’s mind and clouding her thoughts. She had to focus hard on the storm and the task at hand just to stay in the air. This was when the storm ceased its teasing and unleashed all its pent-up force. Rainbow Dash was taken completely by surprise, as were the other weather ponies, as the storm rushed over them. Rainbow Dash found herself engulfed in clouds and gale-force winds as she was buffeted around. She knew that she had to get down lower, but she couldn’t see anything below her. She slowly and carefully descended, watching for any sign of the ground through the thick clouds, but she couldn’t make out anything but white. The storm seemed to have taken on a mind of its own, tossing her around like a leaf as she tried to guide herself down. The last thing she needed to happen was to crash into the ground. At that moment, she hit a powerful downburst which sent her plummeting towards the ground with ever-increasing speed. She flared her wings to try to slow her descent but then she saw the ground, or rather the tree-tops. She crashed through the trees before hitting the ground with a dull thud. She moaned as she sat up slowly, her whole body aching slightly, and took a quick look around. She was in the Everfree forest. The storm must have blown her towards its center when it had engulfed her, she thought as she quickly looked around for any kind of landmark. She saw nothing that she recognized and had no idea where Ponyville, or anything for that matter, was in relation to her. She stood up, only to quickly sit back down with a cry when her leg screamed out in pain and protest. She tried again, slower this time, and managed to stand. She took it easy and began heading through the Everfree forest down what might have been a path many years ago, but it was horribly overgrown so the going was slow. The wind was still blowing like crazy, even on the forest floor it managed to gust around unpredictably. That meant flying was not an option at all. An image of herself impaled on a tree branch crossed her mind momentarily, but she quickly brushed it off. She had come to a slightly more used-looking section of the ‘path’ that she was on, and found the walking to be a bit easier. She glanced around again to see, yet again, nothing familiar. CRASH! She jumped back as a tree came crashing down in front of her. She heard a crunch of something moving behind her and began to turn, but she felt a sharp blow to her head and her world faded into black…