Rainbow Dash drifted on the air currents, following the river downstream. It was badly swollen, it’s raging waters crashing over rocks and curves in the bank that it would have normally gently swirled around.
How much rain did I pack in that storm? she wondered as she banked around a copse of trees, pausing to scan the area again. Her wings ached, and fatigue from the last week was beginning to wear at her, but she refused to stop. It was too important.
“Ah’m starting to get worried, Twilight,” Applejack said. “She’s been gone more’n a week.”
The Alicorn nodded, her horn lighting as she stood before the table. One of her lavender feathers rested on the surface, a bit of silver thread binding a small tuft of rainbow hair to its shaft. In response to her magic, the feather suddenly leaped to the air, gently floating point down over the map, coming to rest on a point not too far west of the Celestial Sea.
“She’s still alive,” Twilight said, noting how the feather slowly twitched eastwardly. “What in Equestria is she doing?”
Applejack glanced down. “She’s after mah hat,” she whispered. “It blew off in that stupid storm she brewed up.”
She seemed to shrink as the Princess’ gaze turned to her.
“She’s gone all this way for a hat?” she asked, not understanding.
“Yeah,” the farmer said, scuffing a hoof on the ground, not looking up. “It’s all Ah got left of mah Dad, Twilight. And Ah might have overreacted when Rainbow took sport of stealn’ it a couple weeks ago.”
“Might have?” Twilight said. She sighed, walking over and resting a wing on her friend’s shoulders. “Why didn’t you just tell her?”
“Ah don’t know,” Applejack replied. “Ah was just worried about it at first, and then when she didn’t understand why Ah was so upset, Ah guess Ah forgot she don’t know about its significance until it blew off.”
“Well, she’s still ok,” the Alicorn said, glancing at the map, the feather still drifting lazily over it. “If she can find it, she will and be back as soon as she can.” She glanced out at the sunlight drifting in from the window. “You should go home and get some rest. There’s nothing we can do here except wait.”
The pony nodded, withdrawing from the room. Twilight sighed and dismissed the spell on the feather, it’s slow drift dying.
Starlight stepped out from around the doorway, her gaze narrowed. “You realize that the spell doesn’t actually indicate whether the scried pony is alive or not, right?”
Twilight nodded, her mask of nonchalance falling. “I know,” she confirmed. “But Applejack already feels enough guilt over this. I didn’t want to dump the possibility that Rainbow wasn’t coming back into her mind. She needs the hope.”
Starlight nodded. “You have a plan, then?”
“Not yet,” the Princess replied. “I had Spike send a letter to Baltimare’s contingent of guard and hospital to be on the lookout for her. I can’t believe she’d be this reckless.”
“She feels just as guilty as Applejack, probably,” the Unicorn said, turning to look at the point of the feather. “She did inadvertently cause the loss of a treasured keepsake. I can understand the feeling there.”
A week passed, and Rainbow still hadn’t returned. Applejack was starting to look frazzled from the restless sleep and worry to the point that her family had told her to take time off, which only served to make her worry more.
“Where is she?” she muttered as she walked into town to ask Twilight to do another scry of the Pegasus when she heard a sharp flutter of wings. She glanced over to see a group of Pegasi carrying a stretcher quickly towards the hospital, their pace rapid. As they increased their altitude slightly to avoid a group of school colts, a rainbow colored tail flopped into view.
“Rainbow,” she breathed, taking off after the group of flying ponies, arriving just as the stretcher was borne through the doors of the hospital. As she tried to keep up with it, Redheart stepped in her way.
“AJ, you can’t go back there,” she said softly but forcefully. “You have to let the doctors work.”
“But that’s…”
“I’m sorry, Applejack,” the nurse said gently. “But if you were to go in, you’d just get underhoof. You’re welcome to wait here, I promise you’ll be the first pony I call the second I know anything.”
Applejack watched as the nurse vanished through the doors, hearing orders and questions being called out before the doors swung shut, a symbolism that had Applejack frozen in place.