//------------------------------// // The mission // Story: A lesson on love // by Darkwings //------------------------------// Chapter1. The mission It was about a week after the Grand Galloping Gala. All the six friends were not so happy with it of course, but Pinkie Pie forgot about it, after pulling out a grand party of her own. So did Fluttershy and Twilight. Hay even Applejack had forgotten about it. Rarity never spoke of her prince charming again, being really annoyed with his behavior. She even thought that the stallions there, in Ponyville,where much, much more delicate and thoughtful towards mares. They at least knew how to act in front of a lady! It took her a few days and of course a rather busy day in the boutique to get back to normal and forget about it. But that didn't stop her from kept brining up that prince in conversations, still being sore about the subject. Now, one would say Rainbow Dash would forget about it as well, with her attitude towards everything. but that was not the case. She was still bitter about it. After saving their lives in the Best Flier competition AND pulling off a Sonic Rainboom, they simply ignored her in the favor of their fans, taking photographs….and pie. She still remembered their promise to hang out with them a whole day after the competition. Yet they had a change of plans at the last minute. Dash didn’t think of it as anything at that time, after all they were busy with the shows and all. But the Gala…that was just a bit rude. One didn’t simply invite other ponies to hang out and then bluntly ignore them. They simply didn’t care. That was what she had concluded. Those thoughts still swirled in her mind like a chaos, especially when she trying to take a nap in the clouds. Her luck also wasn’t the best. And just because of that (she kept telling herself of course) she had to face them again, right at this moment, in the middle of the night. Buck, I ‘m going to be late, thought the cyan pegasus while literally dashing through the clouds. Maybe nature is pulling a prank on us? It's against ME for sure! She shook her head from the silly thoughts and tried to focus. There had been a few suspicious thunder clouds spotted from all directions, including Fillydelphia, Seaddle, Las Pegasus and the Everfree forest. Pegasi teams were dispatched from all directions to stop them. They didn’t seem normal and all of them were headed to Canterlot. The Wonderbolts would be supervising all the activity there. And Rainbowdash with a few others were chosen from Ponyville to be part of the ‘cloud stopping’ team. She seemed ecstatic at first, and even whooped when hearing of the Wonderbolts, but then she remembered their behavior towards her and sulked, having a small black cloud of doom literally over her head. However, it didn’t matter, she was going there to help Equestria, and not show off in front of them. She didn’t want that anymore. She knew she was the best flier there, and so did her friends. This was what mattered. She urged her wings to go faster and winced. Taking a hurried look at her back, she sighed. A few minutes earlier, she had been shaken awake by a panicked Ditzy, who was blabbering nonstop about what was happening and what was needed to do. Not understanding a thing, but getting the fact that this was an emergency, Rainbow Dash had flown as fast as she could towards where she knew the mayor lived. On the way, she had been distracted by the clouds coming from Everfree forest, and this had cost her to lose balance and crash on the ground. The fact that she had been helping Applejack the day before and had finished only a few hours ago didn’t help the situation. To her bad luck, she had landed right in front of the mayor’s door. To keep her dignity, she had hurriedly scrambled up to her hooves right before the elder pony had opened the door. After hearing of the emergency , she had immediately dashed towards the direction where all the pegasi were supposed to meet, completely forgetting about the wing. It was hurting a bit, but nothing she couldn’t handle herself, after all, Equestria depended on her. And it didn’t matter if she was the Element of loyalty or not. She wouldn’t leave it hanging! “Alright everypony!”, called the high, authoritive voice of Spitfire, just as Dash came to a halt in midair. She had arrived on time. Wincing a bit at her wing, she looked around. All the six Wonderbolts were there and around them were different pegasi scattered in the air. Rainbow flew towards the three pegasi she recognized and hovered in the air, waiting for instructions. “We will divide in groups and settle those storms fast. Regrouping here in an hour, let’s hope nothing happens. Good luck!” The cyan pegasi nodded. Most of the ponies wanted to be in groups with the heroes, and this made her a bit angry. Just why were they here? In a matter of minutes, the pegasi were divided into 6 groups, each group having about five ponies, including the Wonderbolt leaders. Rainbow Dash was left with a few others outside of the groups. This made her blood boil. She was ready to jump on Spitfire and hit her! Just because they were ordinary ponies with no class didn’t mean they had to look down on them! Before she could even open her mouth, Spitfire turned to her. “Rainbow…Dash, right? Can you lead your team? You should know the area around Everfree forest better then anyone” A smirk crawled like a lizard on her face. “You got it!” The fact that she was given the most dangerous area didn’t even bother crossing her mind. Nor, from what it seemed, Spitfire’s. The captain of the Wonderbolts nodded and took off with her team, the other following her lead shortly after that. Rainbow turned to look at the pegasi that were in her team. There was Silver Wings, a stallion with a silver coat and red mane, Feather Dodge, a mare completely white and Cloud Rifle, another stallion with a green mane and a darker green coat. All three of them were looking at her a bit worriedly, as if expecting a boom. The cyan pegasi just rolled her eyes. “Alright guy, we can do this!”, yelled Dash, already liking her position of a leader. The other three nodded. Rainbow had instructed the others to take care of the small black clouds that were already near Ponyville. She herself was going after the huge cloud near Everfree forest, the one they were instructed to take care of. She did this because she was worried for the three, they weren’t much of fliers and she didn’t want to danger their life. She could pull off with a stupid cloud. How hard could it be? Besides, the other small ones needed to be taken care of as well. If only she knew... Cloud Rifle had finished first and while thinking what to do, was joined by the other two. “What do we do now? I don’t want to go back to the meeting point…” whined Silver, fluttering his silver wings, which were slowly dropping from laziness. Dodge thought for a few minutes. “Well, I’m sure Rainbow Dash will go there, we aren’t needed! I mean, it’ll be like checking if everything went ok, like a meeting!” “It IS a meeting...” deadpanned Cloud. “But I guess you are right, lets go back to sleep, especially when we are so close to home!” She felt a shiver run down her spine, but ignored it for the favor of staring at the humongous thundercloud. It really didn’t look normal, with all the bluish sparks here and there, and the fact that it was growing like a monster right in front of her eyes! And from the looks of it, it was headed towards her…like a predator. Rainbow gulped and racked her brain for a plan, but nothing came. The thing was advancing on her faster and faster. She flew up, away from it, heading towards the mountains. Not the best of ideas, though, because the source of whatever it was seemed to be coming from there. She cursed herself, wishing she had Twlilight's egg-heady mind for once. “Of course it’d be Everfree forest, everything ALWAYS happens here!!”, she screamed and tried to concentrate. Her wing was giving painful jabs time after time.The wind from the cloud, which was slowly turning to a hurricane, was making it very hard to fly. She had to back away, or it would simply blow her away. Her eyes widened. That’s it! If she flew faster and broke the wind barrier, then the hurricane inside would suck her in and then, she would deal with it there!!! The question of ‘how’ didn’t struck her at that time. She positioned herself and flew towards the cloud as fast as she could. However, the first wind barrier was too strong. She kept flapping her wings, but it was futile as she was kept in place by the sheer power of nature..or maybe it was magic? Just who in hay cared now! “COME…..ON!!!!”, she screamed, gritting her teeth and she pushed harder. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she broke it, appearing inside the dome. But before she could whoop in joy, she was sucked in. “AAAAAAAgh!!” She couldnt move her wings. The wind cut into her like blades. She knew she must be bleeding from at least a dozen places now, or else why would she feel like she was on fire, or no..wait, she decided it felt like a thousand of needles on fire were stabbing her. Yes, that was it. Opening her eyes was a bad idea as well and she clasped them shut right after the first wind blade nearly cost her eyesight. What to do, what to do!!! Think Dash think!! If this thing is magical…..then magic can defeat it! Yes!! A wail escaped her as she remembered that she didn’t HAVE magic. It was Twilight who was good at such stuff!! Hay even Rarity could pull it off...right? But..wait a second, I AM a pegasi, we have our magic too… Deciding that facehooving could wait for later, she took a deep breath and urged her wings to fly along with the flow, increasing the speed. Something cracked making her yelp out in pain, but she dismissed it with a small yelp. She ignored the burning, ignored everything, trying to block it all out, all thoughts focused on one single goal. If this cloud got close to Ponyville, her friends…. Their faces burst in front of her closed eyes like an illusion, each smiling at her, saying reassuring things, laughing. This warmed her heart. Her friends, she would do anything to keep them safe! The visions blurred, and to her utter confusion, were replaced by another, yet so familiar face. She didn’t even have time to think ‘why him?’ before a cone started enveloping her front hooves. Yes, she was breaking the barrier! Just a little more! Come on!! Second later, an earsplitting BOOM was heard. The rainbow coming up to the sky in swirling motions could be seen even from Canterlot. As for Rainbow Dash, she was rewarded with a sight she was never going to forget. Her rainbow and the speed of which she was flying hade the hurricane die down, and the cloud first paled, truning into the clearest color of snow, and then...it just broke into small pieces and dispersed as well. Before she could even think about it more, she crashed heavily on the rocks. “Ow…”, she mewed and tried to get up. It hardly worked, causing her another wave of pain. She was sprawled on her stomach facing the rocky ground. And it hurt, it hurt so much! She wanted to scream out loud. Her vision blurred as she tried to look back at the state of her wings. Why is red there…its supposed to be blue.. A distant howl was heard, making her freeze in fear. Yes, Rainbow Dash, the one who wasn’t afraid of anything, the one who had 'Danger' as her middle name.... was terrified. She didn’t dare look, she simply closed her eyes and welcomed the darkness. She didnt know what will happen, but maybe death was cool too? Like another adventure.... She knew she wouldnt make it to the meeting after an hour. But who the hay cared? The Wonderbolts most likely wouldn't even notice she was missing. She heard the howl again athis time accompanied with another voice. Why was it so familiar… “Dash!!! Answer, Rainbow Dash please!!” She didn’t understand, nor did she want to.. The darkness was just too inviting.