How a Man and His Friends Helped Save Equestria

by FinInfinite

Unexpected Company

Chapter 2

Unexpected Company

“So... What are we gonna’ do next?” Rainbow Dash broke the silence after some amount of minutes. They had been walking along the (expectedly sparse) streets of the pegasus city Cloudsdale due to a catastrophic event of which, apparently, only she survived. Not only that, but she didn’t see the source of this thing that happened. The name of the city did not deceive; the foundation was entirely made of clouds, and of course, floating in the sky. The two had found Rainbow Dash buried under a pile of cloud rubble for who knows how long with no hope of survival, since literally nopony was around to help.

“Aren’t you, you know, injured and in shock?” Asked the red pegasus named Carson in confusion.

“Well, yeah, but when you’re just sitting here, it’s boring!”

Carson and Mitch simply stared, confused at the fact that the pegasus wasn’t quivering in fear, or anything of the likes, but then again, this was Rainbow Dash. When the two realised this, they just shook their heads in wonder.

Carson and Mitch, once humans but now two pegasi, were carrying the injured Rainbow Dash on a makeshift stretcher. As they were walking, Carson was thinking. He was thinking some basic survival, because living is always good.

“Okay, I’ll tell you what we’re going to do: We’re going to find some food, water, and shelter,” said Carson. He thought for a moment and finished, “If all else fails, we can just drink rainbows.”

“Umm, I don’t think that would be a very good idea... dude,” replied Rainbow. “Hey, I didn’t get your names!” she realised, requesting for the knowledge.

“Oh, okay. I’m Mitch and he’s Carson,” said that orange pegasus named Mitch.

“Cool,” resolved Dash.

The three traveled for a few more moments, Carson and Mitch walking and, as previously mentioned, carrying Rainbow Dash on a stretcher due to a broken leg and other small injuries, besides.

Carson had an idea, stopping and saying, “Hey, Rainbow Dash.”

“Yeah?”

“Do you know anywhere with shelter and food?”

“There’s bound to be plenty of places in a city like this,” replied the rainbow-maned pony.

“So just keep walking?” asked Mitch.

“Yeah, I guess,” resolved Rainbow.

“Keep your eyes out for a good spot,” finished Carson.

Once again, they walked in silence for a moment. Of course, the silence did not go unbroken for long. Soon they heard the calls of another pony. That’s right, another pony. Not just that, but two ponies. The three looked at each other in amazement, all wondering the same thing: Who might these two ponies be? They would soon find out.

And they did, for soon they came into view. Two pegasi: a stallion, nearly white with the contrast of a nearly black mane and tail, and the other a mare, orange with a similarly fiery-orange colored mane and tail. Both had lightning bolt cutie marks, the colt’s with wings, the mare’s with fire. In other words, two of the most famous and greatest fliers in Equestria - the Wonderbolts Soarin and Spitfire.

Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened a considerable amount. The other two looked at each other and said, “Whoa.”

Carson called back to them, “There’s ponies over here! We have an injury and need some help!”

From a distance, the trio could see that the two Wonderbolts looked at each other for a moment and then flew towards the three pegasi. They flew with the considerable speed and skill of which a Wonderbolt would be expected of. Needless to say, the two were with the newfound ponies quickly.

Rainbow Dash quickly regained her composure, and did her best to look cool, despite her being carried on a stretcher.

“You have no idea how relieved I am to find another pony in this city!” Spitfire said. “It’s like everypony disappeared after whatever happened.”

“I know, right?" agreed Carson.

“Wait, so you’re not... shaken at all at this?”

“Well, we actually just got here,” replied Mitch.

Soarin’ and Spitfire looked hopeful.

“So there’s other ponies left?” asked Soarin’.

“We don’t know. Like Mitch said, we just got here,” said Carson.

The two Wonderbolts looked confused at this.

One was about to ask a question when Mitch said simply, “Long story.”

They seemed satisfied by that at the moment. “So, I see your injured friend is our champion young-flier,” said Spitfire, changing the subject.

Rainbow Dash looked a little prideful at this. “Yup, that’s me, but wow, you still remember?”

“Well, you sort of saved our lives,” Soarin’ said, joining the conversation.

“Yeah, I guess I did,” said Rainbow, blushing slightly.

“So what happened this time?” asked Spitfire humorously.

“Oh, not much. A building just caved in, trapping and almost killing me,” said Rainbow, sarcastically nonchalant.

Spitfire’s and Sorin’s eyes widened at that. “And you aren’t in shock or anything?”

“Well, I am, but do you know how boring it is to not be able to do anything?” Rainbow said exasperatedly.

“Yes, actually, We do. Speed and the ground don’t exactly mix,” Soarin’ replied.

“Oh,” she said simply.

Spitfire once again changed the subject, “Okay, there’s Rainbow over here, but you are Mitch and...?” she asked, referring to Carson previously mentioning his friend’s name.

“Carson,” Carson said.

“Oh, okay,” replied Spitfire strangely questioningly. “Those are some strange names,” she added under her breath.

Mitch cut in - “Okay! Introductions over. Now... do you have someplace to bed down for the night?”

It was Sorin’s turn to reply. “Well, we do sort of have our own flying grounds, cafeteria, and dormitory, along with the rest of our five-million-plus cubic-foot building.”

“Oh,” Mitch said simply. “They didn’t show that on TV.”

Spitfire laughed until she realised something - “Huh?”

“Remember that ‘long story’ thing?” Carson asked.

Now Spitfire simply said, “Oh.”

Carson smiled, but suddenly became bewildered. “Wait, you measure in feet?”

Rainbow Dash was, again, getting bored. “Hey! let’s stop talkin’, and let’s start walkin’! You said you had a cafeteria? We’re all hungry!”

Eveypony had a laugh at that.

***

They had been walking, again for a while, (this might get old,) when Carson struck up a new conversation. “So, Mitch, I heard that our names are weird in Equestria!”

Spitfire apologised, “Oh, you heard that?”

“Well, yeah. Besides, a name like ‘Carson’ doesn’t quite sound right in this world.”

“You’re going to have to tell me this ‘long story’ at some point.”

“Yes, yes I will. Anyways Mitch, we need Equestrian names. You know, to fit in.”

“Good idea,” Mitch replied, “But what to call ourselves?”

Carson thought for a moment, confused. “I’ll have to get back to you on that.”

“I’m not even going to ask,” Soarin’ said, mostly to himself.

While they were walking, the duo could not help but notice the utter emptiness of the streets of Cloudsdale. Some buildings were floating by themselves, some were together, and others were arranged in a escalated floor system around the main cloud. Despite that, there was a main highway, just incase anypony had to walk. A good number of buildings, especially businesses, were stationed about this road. Some were decrepit and crumbling, or even completely demolished; presumably from the recent seemly cataclysmic event. All of it was completely and utterly devoid of life. Not even the rainbows had color - they were all grayscale. It was rather depressing, really.

The two former humans took in all of this, not really knowing what to think about it. It seemed like a cartoon version of the photograph Boulevard du Temple. The forlorn emptiness of it all was ominous.

Mitch had a question burning in his brain. “Hey Rainbow?”

“Yeah?”

“Where does the color from rainbows come from?”

Rainbow looked at him funny, as if it should be obvious as to what the answer should be.

“You know, at some point, I really have to tell you that ‘long story’.”

“Well, they basically grind up a bunch of magically imbued dyes,” said Rainbow, having expected this to be common knowledge.

“So the video was right!” Carson butted in.

Replied Mitch, “But in the video, they ground up crayons!”

“Dyes, crayons, big difference!”

Mitch simply facehooved.

As they passed what seemed to be the three-hundredth building, Mitch became exasperated, calling out, “Hey, Spitfire!”

“Yeah?”

“Where’s this enormous building Soarin’ was taking about?”

“Up.”

“Darn,” said Mitch while looking up. His eyes slowly widened.

A few a hundred feet up stood an absolutely enormous building built similar in style to the Greeks. Surprisingly, it seemed untouched by whatever happened. The main entrance was a grand ten feet tall, but seemed twice that due to the height of the ponies. Unfortunately, little past that could be seen due to the fact that it was sitting on top of a cloud which was, as previously stated, several hundred feet up.

“Darn is right,” agreed Carson. “How the heck are we going to get up there?”

It was Soarin’ who replied. “We fly!” and then he realised that there was some incapacitated ponies in his presence - one by pretty much everything being injured and two more carrying her. Now it was Sorin’s turn to say it. “Darn. Well, I guess we should help ‘em up,” he concluded, looking skyward toward the Wonderbolt’s campus.

“Uh, yeah,” replied Spitfire.

“Then let’s get to this!” said Soarin’ energetically.

Carson took charge. “Okay, Spitfire and Soarin’, you two get under the stretcher, but make sure you have room to flap your wings.”

At Carson’s directive, the two did what he said, seeing as it was a plausible course of action.

“Me and Mitch will spread out a bit to give you room, but we’ll only be able to flap one wing each.”

Once everypony was in place, Carson started. “Okay, we need to flap in unison if we’re going to get this rainbow-manéd pegasus off this cloud,” he gestured, “ and into that cloud,” he said, slipping into a funny accent. (Unfortunately, I cannot figure out how to describe, it. Just know that it’s funny.) “Now... Flap! Flap! Flap!”

They began flapping and chanting slowly - at about 100 beats per minute - but they gradually got faster and more efficient, peaking at about 150 beats per minute.

“Flap, flap, flap, flap, flap!”

They fell into a rhythm which quickly became engraved into their immediate memories. They soon had no need chant, as they were all in perfect unision.

Mitch cheered. “Woohoo! It’s working!”

As they fell into a routine, Carson’s mind started getting sidetracked, thinking about random things. As they were nearing the top, he suddenly knew what his name would be.

“I’ve got it!” he exclaimed, stopping flapping and breaking the routine. All too late, he realised this, plummeting to the ground. Soarin’, Spitfire, and Mitch were fortunate enough to get out before they lost momentum, but Rainbow Dash was unable to fly.

“Watch out!” she yelled as she, on her stretcher, crashed midair into Carson, bringing him down below her.

“Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap!” could be heard from below Rainbow and her stretcher as they plummeted towards the cloud highway they had just so recently left.

“Okay, flap, Carson!” he yelled to himself. He flapped, but was unable to do anything because of the pony-on-stretcher on top of him. He sighed saying, “This is going to hurt.” he said, defeated for the moment.

Carson closed his eyes tightly as, unbeknownst to him, Rainbow did the same. A definite *WHUMP- CRASH!* could be heard as Carson hit the ground hard and then broke the cyan pegasus’s fall.

Despite the seeming tragicness of the event, it was actually rather humorous. The rainbow-maned pegasus was no more injured than before, due to her fall being broken by a certain red pony. Said pony was sprawled underneath Rainbow and her stretcher with only his legs showing. “Ow,” said Carson monotonically.

His legs could be seen to be propping his body up. After he was standing, he carefully slid out from under Rainbow Dash. Once again, he had a flat face and derped eyes. He had an annoyed expression when he said, “This is gonna’ get old.” He then gained a thoughtful look on his visage and said optimistically, “On the bright side, that could have gone a whole lot worse. Hey Rainbow Dash, you okay?”

“Yeah, no worse than before, thanks to you.”

“Well, it was nothing,” he joked, still dizzy and in pain.

Apparently, the other three had finally decided to fly down and try to help.

Mitch was the first to respond. “Oh my gosh, Carson! Are you okay?”

Carson didn’t appear completely there. “No more for me thanks, I’m drivin’,” he said, his voice slurred. After proclaiming this, he promptly fell unconscious and unceremoniously faceplanted into the cloud layer he was standing on.

***

It was still raining outside. Thunder struck as Spry Canyon woke with a start. “They’re here!” he whispered hopefully.