Twilight noted that rain falling on her crystal castle sounded different than rain hitting her old home in the library tree.
In the tree, the rain hit the leaves in the crown of the tree first and then dripped down on the rough wood. It created a deep and hollow sound because the wood absorbed the sharper notes. Pockets in the tree would fill with water and falling drops created plopping splashes. The water would build up on the leafy crown and continue dripping long after the rain had stopped.
At the castle, falling water hit the flat smooth crystal. It made a higher pitched crackling sound, the hard crystal amplifying the staccato impacts. Water would build up and splash on the balcony. But over the rest of the castle, the water would sheet off of the inclined surfaces and run to the ground. As soon as the rain ended, the sounds of dripping stopped.
The wind sounded different as well. In the tree, the wind caused rustling leaves, snapping branches, and a groaning trunk. In the castle, the howl of the wind came straight through the hard crystal walls. It was accompanied by the flapping of the great banner with Twilight’s star mark. When the wind was steady it whistled as it blew through the star spire at the top of the castle.
Today’s storm was unusual. It was not a standard thunderstorm, created and molded to order by the Weather Team. This was the edge of a rogue storm blowing in from the Everfree Forest. The Weather Team was working overtime to shield Ponyville and the surrounding farms from the storm’s devastating impact by keeping the core of the chaotic gale over the forest.
“This would be a good day to curl up in front of the hearth with a good book and a cup of hot cocoa,” Twilight thought. She sighed and examined the boxes of reports Raven had sent her. “Later,” she thought. She was alone for the afternoon. Starlight was on her way home from the Badlands, and Spike was helping Rarity. But Twilight’s mood was not melancholy; she found the noise of the rain soothing.
Twilight heard a loud rapping at her front door. “Who would be out in this storm beside the Weather Team?” She teleported to the entry hall and pulled the front door open with her magic.
Applejack stood outside on the steps, a hoof raised to knock again. She was soaked to the skin and breathing hard. “A flash flood in the Everfree toppled Zecora’s tree hut. She’s trapped underneath and the water is rising around her.”
The zebra alchemist was the only local that lived in the Everfree forest. The Weather Team must not have taken the storm’s impact on her home into account. “We need to get help there as fast as we can,” Twilight said.
“I raised the alarm while running through town. But the mud is slowing down everypony on the ground and the storm is playing havoc with the fliers,” Applejack replied.
Twilight grimaced. She didn’t like where this was heading. “We’re going to have to do this the hard way.” She looked up at the solid deck of clouds and the rain pelting the town.
Teleporting into the Everfree was difficult at the best of times. Chaos magic permeated the forest. The rampaging energies of the rogue storm only multiplied the difficulty. Plus, teleportation mistakes could be… messy.
“I’ve got a plan,” Twilight announced. “But I’m going to have to pick you up. Okay?”
“Do what you gotta do, sugarcube,” Applejack replied.
Twilight flapped her wings once to get up half a pony height. She wrapped all four legs around Applejack’s barrel and then flapped hard to gain altitude. If the driving rain and wind made flying alone hard, it made carrying somepony a nightmare. Under good conditions, Twilight could fly all the way to Canterlot carrying a pony and a baby dragon. But today, the gusting wind seemed to steal the lift from her wings. Applejack was all muscle. Soaked, she felt heavier than any pony her size had a right to.
Working her wings for all they were worth, Twilight climbed until she was above the tops of the trees in the Everfree Forest, but still below the bottom of the storm’s cloud deck. “I’ve got to eliminate every variable I can,” she thought. “Applejack says the area around Zecora’s hut is under water, so I can’t teleport to the ground. And with all the chaos from the forest and the storm, there’s too much chance I’ll miss my target to try a precision ‘port. But if I teleport us into the air above the forest, I can miss by a hundred hoofs and still not have to worry about ending up half in and half out of a tree.”
“Ready?” Twilight called to Applejack.
“Go, go, go!” Applejack called back.
Twilight could barely see the edge of the forest through the sheets of rain. She had to estimate were Zecora’s hut was. This was going to take all her experience; Twilight had been teleporting since she was a foal. It would take all her control; Twilight’s special talent was magic after all. She hated to admit it, especially where magic was concerned, but this spell was going to take a pot full of luck to get right.
She charged her horn. A magenta bubble formed around Twilight and Applejack in the rainy sky over Ponyville. With a “shring” sound, they disappeared.
The two traversed the extra-dimensional tunnel Twilight created between Ponyville and the Everfree. During the infinitesimal travel time the chaos magic pulled her and Applejack in all directions. She concentrated on keeping the two of them together. It was better to miss the exit than get separated and have Applejack fall from a great height. Riding the magical rapids, Twilight exerted all her control to keep her legs tightly around Applejack’s barrel.
As the two ponies appeared out of the teleportation, Twilight felt a tingling all over her body. Her teleportation had created a tunnel between the magically overcharged Everfree storm and the normal rainclouds over Ponyville. Nature abhors an energy imbalance and storms have one primary way of restoring equilibrium…
Lightning.
Twilight snapped a magenta bubble shield around her and Applejack, as every cloud in the vicinity unloaded sheets of lighting in their direction. Thank goodness for how hard Starlight had pushed her in improving her shield. A year ago it would have collapsed instantly under the onslaught. Now, it held through every bolt but the last.
Most of the last bolt went through the teleportation tunnel into the skies over Ponyville. Only a fraction of the energy of the bolt pierced the shield. That fraction hit Twilight and grazed Applejack. Pegasi and alicorns are naturally resistant to lightning, but they’re not immune. Both ponies spasmed. Applejack bit down so hard she chipped a tooth. Twilight’s legs squeezed Applejack’s barrel, forcing all the air from her lungs. And Twilight’s wings snapped all the way open and stopped flapping.
Twilight and Applejack plummeted toward the ground. Twilight shook her head to try to regain control of her body. “Wings,” she thought. “Wings first.” But her back muscles refused to respond and remained spasmed. The wind buffeted the pair and threatened to tumble them.
Unable to get her extended wings to flap, Twilight cried to Applejack, “lean against the wind!” Applejack stretched her neck as far as she could, and leaned into the wind to keep the pair from flipping over.
“If I can’t fly, maybe I can glide,” Twilight thought. Applejack kept the pair from rolling. Twilight concentrated on getting control of their rate of descent. Feeling started to return to the muscles controlling her primary feathers. She flexed them to generate a modicum of lift. Twilight’s wings caught the wind and their mad plummet turned into a semi-controlled dive.
The Everfree Forest was still rushing toward them at an alarming rate. The flooding had covered the ground and the pelting rain dimpled the rushing water.
“Better to hit the water than the trees,” Applejack called. She leaned right to steer the pair between two mighty trunks. Just before they hit the water Twilight threw her magenta shield bubble around the pair again. They bounced off the surface of the floodwaters and dissipated a lot of their forward momentum. The impact popped the shield and made Twilight lose her hold on Applejack. The two ponies tumbled and fell into the rushing water.
Moments later, Twilight and Applejack thrust their heads out of the water. They took great gulping breaths. “We made it!” Applejack sputtered. “You okay, Twilight?”
Twilight spat out a mouthful of muddy water. “Blech! I’m all right.” The rushing floodwaters shocked her body awake. She scanned around for Zecora or any other pony. “Over here!” she heard. Atop a small hill, Applejack’s sister Apple Bloom waved a hoof to get their attention. Twilight and Applejack pushed their way through the flood and onto the high ground. “That was an awesome light show!” Apple Bloom said.
“Take us to Zecora,” Twilight ordered. The three ponies charged over the hill and down the slope on the other side. Zecora’s tree hut was toppled on its side and half covered by water. Applejack’s brother, Big Macintosh, was barrel deep in the floodwaters. He snorted and pushed on the giant trunk, but made no progress. Apple Bloom joined several other foals half way down the hill behind a fallen tree. Zecora’s head just barely peeked above the surface.
Twilight eyed Zecora's water soaked tree and estimated its weight. It would be heavy, very heavy, but Twilight thought she might be able to move it. She grit her teeth, surrounded the tree in magenta magic and started to lift.
“Stop!” Zecora cried. “You can’t use a horn to carry this load. Your magic will cause the potions in my tree to explode!”
“I didn’t know.” Twilight banished her magic, and the great tree settled back into the floodwaters. Zecora sputtered and strained to keep her muzzle above the surface.
“Let’s lift together,” Applejack called. She waded into the water next to her brother, put her shoulder to the trunk and pushed. The stubborn tree refused to move.
“Maybe I can get more leverage higher up,” Twilight replied. Between being dunked and the cold rain she’d regained control of her wings. She flew up, grabbed the top of the trunk with her legs, and pulled up with her wings. Her heart was beating a mile a minute in her chest. Twilight tried to reach out to the sun for any help it could provide. But the chaos around her seemed to block the connection. Even though all three of them lifted with all their might the tree didn’t move.
In the distance, the roar of the floodwaters deepened. A wave of water, half a pony tall, rolled into the clearing. “Hold on,” Applejack called. She and Big Mac grabbed the tree trunk to keep from being swept away. Zecora held her breath as the water rolled over her. Twilight flapped her wings and lifted as hard as she could. But the tree didn’t budge, the water kept rising, and Zecora disappeared from view.
“No!” Twilight cried. Tears streamed down her face but were invisible under the pelting rain.
Between beats, Twilight’s perception of her heart changed. From a fluttering trip hammer, the beats suddenly felt slow and powerful, moving many times their former quantity of blood. The flying muscles along her back appeared to harden like steel, and her wings seemed to reach over twice their normal span. “Like Celestia?” she thought.
With the first flap of Twilight’s mighty wings, the top of the tree lifted out of the water. Applejack and Big Mac let go of the rising trunk and dove to rescue Zecora.
With the second flap of her wings, Twilight lifted the treetop until the trunk was vertical again. Applejack, Big Mac, and Zecora breached the raging water. Zecora was coughing and sputtering.
With the third flap, Twilight lifted the huge tree and all its roots clear of the floodwaters. A herd of ponies arrived from town atop the small hill. They rushed to protect the foals and see what they could do to help.
A dead tree, previously perched atop the hill, had fallen in the storm and rolled halfway down the slope. There was a hole where its roots had been. It was just what Twilight needed. Zecora's home would be safe above the level of the floodwaters.
“Clear the hilltop!” Twilight called. All could hear her command over the pelting rain. Ponies scrambled to clear the area. Several galloped to help Applejack, Big Mac, and Zecora.
With three more mighty flaps, Twilight carried the tree to the top of the hill and over the hole left by the fallen tree. When she was sure everypony was clear, she lowered the taproot of Zecora’s tree into the hole and settled it on the hilltop.
Lightning crashed and the sky flashed. Thunder rumbled. Ponies rushed to secure the tree in its new location. They raised the fallen tree as a brace. Pegasi tied ropes high in the tree and unicorns secured them to nearby rocks and roots to keep Zecora’s tree upright. Earth ponies exerted their magic to help the tree’s roots find purchase. When Zecora’s tree was secure in its new location, the crowd cheered.
Twilight released the tree and landed next to a drenched Zecora. She was wrapped in a rain slicker but breathing normally. “You have my gratitude, wherever you roam,” Zecora said. “Thank you for saving my life and my home.”
Hearing the news, Twilight smiled. But before she could speak, the steel inside her turned to mush. Her eyes rolled up into her head. Big Mac called out something Twilight couldn’t understand. Applejack rushed to Twilight's side and caught her as she lost consciousness.