The view span before her eyes: sky, cloud, sky, cloud.
She focused as best she could to avoid becoming completely disorientated, because once that happened, she knew she was lost.
Sky, cloud, sky, cloud.
The wind whistled past her, ruffling her fur and her feathers in directions she neither understood, nor liked.
Suddenly, she could see no more sky as she became enveloped by the cloud; falling, falling.
“Must … straighten … out …” she told herself, but somehow her wings wouldn’t do as she told them.
There were other colours in her sight now, the green and brown of the ground, interspersed with the white of the cloud.
She was running out of space to affect her recovery, or … well, the alternative didn’t bear closer inspection.
Falling, tumbling, spinning.
If she had allowed herself the opportunity, she would have felt sick, but right now she didn’t have that luxury. The race to recover was now becoming less academic, and more a case of life or … she wasn’t prepared to finish that thought.
Streaks of cyan feathers flashed through her peripheral vision as she fought with all her strength to get her wings to respond to her commands, but nothing seemed to be working.
Falling, tumbling, spinning.
There was less cloud in her vision now and that could only mean one thing; she was getting close to the ground. She had to recover.
She did not want a dent in the ground to be the lasting memorial to Rainbow Dash. She was the best flyer in Equestria, right?
She strained her wings with strength she had never used before. The adrenalin was really kicking in now. There was no point in her last thought being “I could have tried harder”, no, that would never do. It was now all or nothing.
Falling, tumbling, spinning.
When her eyes focused fleetingly around her, she could see the detail of the trees, the streams, the occasional hut. “Oh no!” she suddenly realised with a shock that paralysed her last few moments, “I’m not going to make it!”
Thump!
A pair of rose coloured eyes flashed open as the cyan blue mare sat bolt upright in her bed. She was bathed in sweat and hyperventilating; the dream had gone, but the fear remained. What had she done wrong? Why couldn’t she have flown out of trouble?
Tentatively she extended her wings and checked them, her breathing slowing as everything moved in and out as it should. Then she brushed the sweat off her forehead with a forehoof. She recovered her composure as best she could, having just died in a dream. There was no point in trying to go back to sleep now, so she showered and set off to check on one of her friends, maybe scrounge some breakfast because her shelves were all empty again.
Rainbow stepped out of her cloud house and felt the crisp early morning chill on her fur. Taking a deep invigorating breath she suddenly didn’t feel quite as tired and leapt into the air, heading for one of her oldest and dearest friends. The air felt good under her wings, especially following her dreadful nightmare, but not wanting to tempt fate, flew conservatively, by her standards anyway.
She followed a familiar path out of Ponyville and over a picturesque bridge towards a chocolate box cottage, dropping down with characteristic swagger in front of a split level stable door. She knocked and heard the sound of movement on the other side of the door. Next thing, both halves of the door opened and Rainbow found herself looking up at a large dark brown form that completely filled the doorway.
“Oh, Hi Harry” she said cheerfully, “Fluttershy home?”
The bear showed her in with as much grace that a large bear in a small cottage can muster, but as soon as she had stepped over the threshold she could hear the sound of gentle crying from within.
Curled up on the ground was a primrose and pink pony surrounded by animals big and small, all trying to show their love and support as best they could. At the sight of Rainbow, they quietly parted to allow a path through and the cyan mare stepped forward carefully so as not to accidentally squash or kick aside any of the woodland critters.
“Hey, ‘Shy” she asked gently as she knelt down next to her friend, “What’s the matter?”
“It was terrible!” bawled the distraught pegasus grabbing Rainbow’s neck between her forelegs and dragging her close.
Shocked by the overt outpouring of emotion, Rainbow pulled away instinctively just for a second as a reflex action, before snuggling down to give her friend the cuddle that she so clearly needed.
“Whoa … sorry there ‘Shy” she said, the dampness from her friend’s muzzle dripping onto her freshly showered fur.
She wanted to ask what was wrong or what she could do to help, but the urgency of her friend’s embrace surpassed any other priority that she could imagine. Rainbow found herself unwittingly rocking her friend gently and making gentle hushing noises waiting for the primrose pegasus to compose herself and speak.
“It was terrible” she whispered so that Rainbow could only just hear, ”All the animals … every one of them …”
“It’s OK ‘Shy, they’re all fine” comforted her friend, “Come on, let’s have a nice cup of tea, OK?”
Fluttershy nodded slowly and allowed Rainbow to help her to her hooves and assist her to the two-pony sofa in her front room. The cyan pegasus caught Harry’s concerned eye and mouthed the word “T E A” to him. He lifted a claw in acknowledgement and went to fill the kettle. Rainbow had no idea how he would complete the task, and although fascinated to watch, knew instead that her curiosity was of secondary importance to her friend’s wellbeing.
They sat down together and all that could be heard was a gentle sobbing from behind a curtain of delicate pink mane, Rainbow keeping a foreleg around her.
“It was a bad dream” she whispered, “But it was so real to me. All the animals were dying one at a time, and no matter what I did, I couldn’t save any of them.”
Rainbow knew how much her friend loved the critters that came to stay and understood how this would upset her so much, so held her tightly as the shock worked its way slowly out of her system.
Dreams again, bad dreams.
Harry meanwhile, probably with a little help, had made the tea and placed the tray on the table in front of the two pegasi, retiring to give the two friends some room. Rainbow leaned forward to reach a cup, but Fluttershy held on more tightly at the feeling that her friend may have been trying to leave her.
Eventually, Fluttershy felt secure enough to let go and Rainbow parted the curtain of pink mane to show her a friendly face. Even though her eyes were bloodshot, she still managed a smile and gave a quiet “Thank you”, reaching out for a now decidedly cooling cup of tea.
“Hey ‘Shy, you want some help feeding the critters?” asked Rainbow.
“I remember the last time you tried” said Fluttershy, cracking a faint smile “They tied you up and put you in the cooking pot.”
“Er, yeah” replied Rainbow rubbing the back of her neck with her forehoof, “But I’ve got a pet of my own since then and Tank’s never tried that little stunt, so I guess I’ve got it nailed now!”
They both giggled and Rainbow helped her friend off the sofa as they went to prepare an overdue breakfast for all the critters in the cottage.
Rainbow left her friend in a much happier condition than when she had arrived, but the coincidence of both of them having bad dreams was too much for her to believe, so she headed off towards Sweet Apple Acres to another friend she knew would be up early. Surely this phenomenon couldn’t have affected the Apple family too – could it?
The sun was clear of the horizon now, but it was still too soon to expect to see any except the earliest risers in the town, and of course the farmers with their never ending lists of chores to be done.
Although she knew she would crash a lot earlier than usual in the evening and need to get to bed early to make up for the lost sleep, that was for later; but for now, she was buzzing. She flew a slalom through the apple trees of the western orchard leaving a transient rainbow coloured trail weaving through the patchwork of shadows around the tree trunks, cheering happily with the thrill.
Suddenly up ahead she saw the familiar muscular red form of Big Mac bucking apples from the trees. She immediately backwinged and came to a halt at a respectful distance from the lone stallion. A tree behind him shook with mighty reverberations from his kick and bucketloads of apples fell off into baskets waiting below. Being descended from a proud warrior race, Rainbow appreciated physical strength as well as just speed and respected this powerful if shy stallion.
“Hey Big Mac” called the blue speedster “You haven’t seen AJ have you?”
He turned his head, his blond mane catching in the near horizontal rays of the early morning light, framing his head in a way that made Rainbow stare, just for a moment.
“Eeyup!” he said pointing with his head, “She’s over yonder.”
“How ...” get a grip Rainbow told herself, “How did she seem this morning?”
“Funny you should ask. Had a bad dream last night.”
An awful feeling hit Rainbow in the stomach so she had to ask, “How about the rest of you?”
“Is this another of your pranks, Rainbow Dash?” he asked suspiciously.
“No, no, not at all, not this time” she shook her head. He could be stubborn, and if he believed she was pranking, then nothing would convince him to the contrary, even the truth, thought Rainbow, “It’s just … I’ll see you later.”
With this less than polished farewell, she was gone. Something was wrong and getting weirder by the minute.
Sure enough right where Big Mac said she would be, there was Applejack, bucking trees just like her brother. Her orange coat stood out against the orchard, her build undeniably muscular like her brother, thought Rainbow appreciatively, just a little more feminine. It was no secret that whilst the two of them engaged in good natured rivalry, they also shared a very close bond of companionship and either would move heaven and earth to help the other.
“Hey AJ” she greeted, “Got an apple to spare, I kinda haven’t had breakfast?”
“Sure Sugarcube, go right ahead” replied the farm pony obligingly, “Not expectin’ to see the likes of you up so early.”
“Yeah” said Rainbow, giving her friend a hug before picking up a highly polished red apple, “About that.”
Applejack wore a lightly bemused look as she watched her friend. A story was coming, but she would wait for Rainbow to finish demolishing the apple; she had time.
“Big Mac says you had a bad night.”
“Yup, why d’you ask?”
“I don’t think you’re alone” explained Rainbow, “I’ve just come from Fluttershy; she had a pretty bad dream and I had one where I died.”
“Funny you should say that” said Applejack with a faraway look in her eyes, “My Mom and Dad was in my dream. Life was all peachy and we was all one big happy family. Then they told me they’d gotten this big contract from some city type for every last apple on the farm and that if he didn’t get them apples in double quick time, then my folks would be shipped away to work for this guy and we would never see them again. Well, I bucked as hard as I could but just when I finished, there was another orchard, and another, and try as I might, I couldn’t finish. I … I let them down.”
“Hey, I’m sorry AJ” said the pegasus moving closer and placing a protective wing round her friend. Rainbow knew this must have hurt her as much as dying in her own dream as she hadn’t seen her parents since she was a small filly.
“Hey, you still got me” said Rainbow.
“Thanks Sugarcube. You goin’ to have a word with Twilight – get to the bottom of all this?”
“Sure thing, AJ.”
Rainbow snaffled a few more apples as Applejack looked on smiling and shaking her head slowly.
“Sure hope you can sort this one out, Sugarcube” she said as her friend turned into a rainbow blur and shot off through the trees and up into the sky leaving a gradually fading trail as the only memento of her visit; that and three apple cores.