Disturbance in the Skies

by Quillfeather

Chapter 4

The door slammed in Spike's face as he got up to follow Twilight who had just bursted from the room. There was nothing for it, if Twi felt like she had to rush she was going to. She was a bit stubborn even if she denied it. Sighing with a bit of a laugh, he opened the door back up and ran to catch up with the already fleeing unicorn.

Her hooves just couldn't go fast enough. Where she was headed was the place closest, and probably home to the best pony to get the whole gang together. She was headed to Sugarcube Corner to find Pinkie Pie. The beating of her heart sounded drums in her ears as she barreled through PonyVille. Several ponies had to dodge out of her way to avoid being thrown by the purple unicorn. Some even shouted out to Twilight to slow down or even ruder comments that weren't meant for young filly ears. None of it fazed her. When she had something on her mind it would keep nagging no matter what and everyone in Ponyville knew a tad about that since the event when she had gone crazy over having her assignment turned in late.

Finally, in what seemed like hours, she reached Sugarcube Corner. She slammed the door open with a bang. Everyone inside stopped their conversations and what they were doing instantly to look up at the insane spectacle in front of them. A very tired dragon entered behind Twilight, not having four legs made it harder for him, but he had caught up nonetheless.

A pink colored mare behind the counter was unfazed and wore a huge smile on her face at the sight of her friend. "Hey Twilight, what brings you to Sugarcube Corner?," she said and quickly grabbed a tray of chocolate chip cookies and cupcakes with rainbow frosting. "I bet you wanted some of these, right? I just made them and the smell can probably be smelled a mile from here. Who am I kidding? It's probably a billion gazillion miles! Or maybe ev-"

"Pinkie, I need to talk to you about something important."

"Oooh, so you didn't smell my goodies and come running to get some?," Pinkie Pie said with a solemn expression while she put the tray down.

"Pinkie, I need to talk to you," Twilight said with an apologetic smile. She had said everything with a hurried rush which apparently had made Pinkie take everything wrong. "And after, I'll have some of those."

With that Pinkie's face instantly changed to that of interest and full blown happiness like it usually was. "Okey-dokey-lokie! Let's sit down at that table in the corner."

Twilight nodded and walked over to the table. Pinkie Pie quickly joined her after bouncing towards the seating arrangements. They both sat down, while Spike nabbed one of the cupcakes with the rainbow frosting, and then followed suit.

"Okay, what's up? You look like a bunny on too much sugar," Pinkie giggled.

"Well, I noticed some weird clouds suddenly appear above Canterlot so I asked Rainbow to go take a look."

"They weren't in the Cloudsdale Press?"

"Exactly. So she went and I decided to go see if I could figure out what kind of formations they were. I found it in a history book and it was connected to Nightmare Moon. Apparently, that kind of cloud happened before she was completely changed."

"Wait, so that means you sent Rainbow in a cloud made by Nightmare Moon?! I saw Princess Luna though at Nightmare Night and she didn't seem to be crazy loco in the head." Pinkie Pie spun her hoof around a side of her head to exaggerate what she meant.

Twilight had to hold back rolling her eyes. Instead of doing so, she nodded. "I know, but there is no doubt that something is going on. The cloud can only happen when an Alicorn triggers it. It means that I just sent Rainbow into that storm without warning. We need to all go get her, that is if you want to."

"Are you serious?! Of course I'm coming! We need to round up everyone and rescue lil' Dashy, right now!" With that, Pinkie's expression became that of seriousness. She got out of the chair and grabbed a hold of Twilight and Spike's neck and wrenched them to follow her. What was left of Spikes cupcake promptly fell to the floor and he eyed it with loss and a poor attempt of reaching it as he was pulled along by a pink mare.

Twilight was soon having to run to keep up with Pinkie, who was headed towards the next closest friend of theirs, Rarity. Spike had finally gotten a hold of Twilight enough to now be able to sit on her back, after running with the pair frantically. Her magic had helped him along as well, but she hadn't stopped to see what she was doing.

The Carousel Boutique was in their view within a few minutes, as was the door being flung open by a crazy looking Pinkie Pie.

"Oh my," exclaimed a white unicorn with a rather beautiful purple mane. Red reading glasses adorned her face and various fabrics littered the floor. Rarity was the in the middle of laying out next season fashion line, the environment being enough proof.

Pinkie didn't waste one minute, promptly jumping towards her friend. "Dash is in super duper mega double trouble!"

"What's this?" She took in Pinkie's form as it leaned a tad too uncomfortably for the mare to handle. "Rainbow Dash is in trouble?"

Twilight and Spike walked in, the door closing with purple magic from the unicorn. "Yes, she is and we need to go get her. Pinkie and I are rounding up the group and then we are going to Canterlot to find her. I fear that she is in more danger than any of us realizes."

Rarity looked at her purple friend and then at Pinkie. "Well if our friend is in trouble we must help. If I may ask, what exactly is the problem?" As she said this, she took the opportunity to take a step away from the intense pink mare whom had not yet settled down. In fact she'd probably be foaming from the mouth if she were a Diamond Dog, which didn't happen to Pinkie that much. Intensity like this, other than that of happiness and joy, really didn't happen to the pony that much. Certainly, something terrible must be afoot if her friend was acting like this.

"Twilight thinks that the clouds above Canterlot are caused by an Alicorn, most likely Princess Luna, and Rainbow Dash is there right now," Spike explained as eloquently as he could muster. He always tried to act as gentlemanly as he could around his crush.

"What clouds? I-," Rarity began to say as she took a look out of a window with rather expensive looking curtains hanging down the sides. "Oh my, those are rather strange."

"There amazingly evilious clouds and Dashy is in them! We need to go help her," Pinkie Pie urged.

"I agree. Just let me organize a few things first." With a few waves of her horn, all her measuring tools and sketch books were put back in order, but her fabrics continued to litter the floor. There was no way she was going to mess up her brainstorming so quickly. "Alright, I'm ready."

With that, the three ponies and one dragon took off to continue gathering the elements of harmony.

As they ventured out into the sunlight again, a loud boom erupted from the mountains. It shook everything in Ponyville and even made several ponies fall to the ground. Twilight looked up after steadying herself, hoping it hadn't come from Canterlot. Her hopes fell instantly as a dust cloud could be seen in the sky from the middle of the land where the royal city was located.

"Oh dear, we simply must hurry. Something is definitely happening in Canterlot," Rarity chimed, causing Pinkie and Twilight to look at her and finally closing their mouths in turn after that awe filled scene.

Twilight's assistant instantly wished he could use his teleportation fire to poof them all where they needed to go, but he knew that was something that wouldn't happen today and probably for years to come. Instead he tugged at Twilight's mane. "C'mon already, we need to hurry up and get Fluttershy and Applejack." With that, Twilight nodded and they took off again, but this time at a full gallop. Fluttershy's hut was the next on the checklist, but some whistling off to their right after passing the town square, caused them to stop. A bark soon followed and the four friends looked over to see Applejack waving a stick. Her dog was wagging its tail madly, awaiting its owner to throw it again.

As if she could feel somepony staring at her, Applejack looked up while her dog quickly took the stick with a smile. "Hey guys. What're ya'll doin'?" Her green eyes looked at them all with a bit of a confused expression. Their hooves were stained like the grit of the road; even Rarity had a splotch or two on her hooves. Even their manes were in a bit of disorder, especially Twilight's. Pinkie was the first one to approach one of the friends they needed to find. "Were looking for you silly willy, and Fluttershy! At least we don't have to go all the way to Sweet Apple Acres to come get you," she said in a sing song voice. Rarity looked at her friend with a bit of confusion. She had been approached by the mare in a whole different tone, but when it came to Applejack, suddenly it changed. Instead of asking, she merely shook her head and looked at the orange mare and her dog.

"Wait, ya'll are lookin' for me? Well 'all be. I'm here now, so what's so importan' that you're all roundin' us all up?"

Before anyone could say anything, especially Twilight Sparkle, Rarity cut in. "I'm sorry, but you must simply come with us to Fluttershy's house and on they way everything will be explained. That explosion from earlier is the reason why we must hurry," she said and then began to canter down the road. With nothing left to say, the troupe began to follow her. The orange farm pony told Winona to head back home, and then raced off with her friends.

As they all went towards Fluttershy's hut, Applejack was informed and finding out that Rainbow was in potential trouble made her hooves go that much faster.

When the group arrived at the yellow and pink maned Pegasus' place, a familiar looking bunny was being chased around. The thing after it was a flying Fluttershy who had a carrot in her mouth, most likely determined to force the fluff ball to eat it. Seeing such an aggressive moment from her was a rare site, but it was still somewhat disturbing. Twilight had actually witnessed Fluttershy using karate on a huge bear once and thankfully nothing as weird as that was occurring.

The bunch watched the happenings for a bit until eventually Angle, the bunny, hid in a rabbit hole. His owner stopped by the den and was about to do something about this when Rarity coughed to get their friend's attention.

Fluttershy looked up at the group with a start. "Oh my, I'm sorry if you have been standing there long," she said softly. With a flap of her wings, she was next to them and Angle quickly made a break for it into the house before she could see.

"What's going on?"

"My dear, it seems Rainbow is in trouble-"

Applejack quickly cut in at this. "And we gotta go save her rump before something happens. Twi here told us all about it because of her research."

"R-r-really?," Fluttershy stammered with a quizzical look at Twilight.

Spike put his hand on his chest as he began, "Yeah, the cloud formations look a lot like when Luna first became Nightmare Moon. There are supposedly bad things in them and stuff."

"B-b-bad things?!" She seemed to shrink a bit at that and her voice dropped several notches in volume.

"Yeah and-"

Twilight sent a look of anger towards Spike, instantly shutting him up. With a sigh she took a step towards Fluttershy. "We don't know if it's going to be that bad, but I do know that we need to go get Rainbow out of there before something happens to her. Even if it's a regular storm, the conditions for flying aren't that great, especially with lightening and pelting rain pouring down."

With this the yellow pony lifted her head up and a determined look came upon her features. Rainbow was one of her closest friends. Without her, she would've never discovered her talent for caring for animals or have gotten her cutie mark, not to mention the courage to even fly. "I guess we better get her then."

"Certainly we should. Everypony ready? It's quite a long way to Equestria without wings, I'm afraid. How about we go take the train?," Rarity chimed in as she saddled up near Fluttershy. She was quite happy with her friend for not trying to back out like how she had done with dragons. Thank goodness Spike hadn't ventured into what the monsters could be. That seemed to be the only exception really for Fluttershy, dragons. Those beasts were terrifying in her eyes, except Spike who was a baby. She still had the courage to face one months before though and Rarity, along with everypony else, still couldn't get over that fact. Their timid friend had stood up o her worst fear just to protect them. She really was a true friend.

Everyone agreed to Rarity's thought and so they began to trot and then jog towards the train station.