Rainbows day had been nice, she had done some new tricks, played some hoof-ball, read a Daring-Do comic while laying on a cloud, and then she fell asleep in said cloud. Her mind drifted off thinking about nothing in particular.
She lay there with a feeling of peace spreading through her body. It was an unshakable feeling of calmness that had enveloped her, spreading from head to hoof. She wished she could just lay there forever...
Smoke
Rainbows eyes snapped open revealing a dark, dreary, and familiar cave. She wondered how a cloud that was floating over Ponyville moments ago had dropped her off here.
But while she was sitting in the cave contemplating what had happened, a gust of black wind shoved her face right into a rock. It surprisingly didn't hurt. So she rubbed her head and got into a standing position just as another gust of the putrid black wind threatened to topple her once more. She regained her balance and turned to face the source.
"D...D...Dra..." she mumbled, as a enormous clawed hand reached at the trembling pegasus. "DRAGON!" Rainbow squealed as the claws surrounded her petrified frame
The dragon picked her up and looked at her with his big yellow eyes. He wore an evil grin as he walked to the exit of the cave. A gust of air hit her as her eyes adjusted to the surprisingly low light outside of the cave.
What she saw terrified her.
As far as she could see, the sky was covered with a thick black cloud-cover. Ponyville was in flames and the cries could be heard from the peak of the mountain. The sun could not be seen, and all the trees in sight were bare and dry. Every cloud on the horizon looked dark and dangerous.
She was in pony-hell
The dragon let out a evil laugh, "You let them all down!" he told her through chuckles "They thought you could save them!"
"No..." Rainbow whimpered "I don't understand..."
"You won't need to understand soon..." The dragon said with a twisted smile "I'm almost ready for dinner!"
"NO!" Rainbow screamed in terror.
Rainbow Dash started hitting the hand and thrashing around. The dragon saw her struggling and started to laugh. But the dragons guffaw was cut off by a large explosion. It rippled through the air sending the dragon off balance. Rainbow careened her neck to locate the source of the noise, only to see a large canary and light pink circle flying through the sky. The blast blew away all of the smoke and fire, and gave a clear view of a something speeding straight towards them.
Less than a second later, the dragon was on its back. Knocked over by the unidentified flying object. He got up fast, still clutching Rainbows entire body. His head swung to and fro searching for his assailant. He growled and tightened his grip on Rainbow.
"What are you? Show yourself!" the dragon hollered
His demand was met when the blur landed on the dragons snout with great force.
Rainbow Dash instantly recognized the small figure. She had many cuts and scrapes covering her yellow coat. Her usually long lengthy mane was cut much shorter than normal and there was soot tainting the light pink hair. And although Rainbow couldn't see them from this angle she knew right under that dirty pink mane was a pair of searing blue eyes that could make a manticore turn tail and run.
"Fluttershy!" Rainbow yelled
The stone faced pegasus walked up the dragons snout and stared him in the eyes.
"You will let her go." Fluttershy said in a calm yet commanding tone "You are already in a lot of trouble for covering Equestria in smoke, but if you have harmed a single hair on that mares body..." she continued
"I. Will. End. You."
The dragon was quick to respond. He dropped Rainbow, who flew to hide behind Fluttershy. The dragon backed away from them and high-tailed it out of sight.
"Fluttershy thank y-" Rainbow started, but Fluttershy hushed her.
Fluttershy grabbed Rainbow by her mane and slowly pulled their heads together until...
Rainbow Dash woke up.
She felt herself breathing heavily and sweating a little. With the heat of Fluttershys hooves still lingering on her mane she jerked up.
"What was that?" she asked the wall.
Thankfully, the wall did not respond.
"Did I just dream about..." she couldn't finish her second question for the wall
She took a moment to recap the dream.
One: It was more of a nightmare
Two: It was about the dragon incident
Three: Fluttershy saved ME in the dream
Four: Fluttershy was going to...
Rainbow sat there for about ten minutes in complete silence. Her head was looking down at the sweat covered blankets. She either didn't know how to finish number four, or she was too scared. She decided to think about it later.
Rainbow Dash, still in a bit of a trance, Got out of bed to start the day. She trotted down the stairs of her cloud house into the kitchen. She wanted to know just what that dream was trying to tell her. But at the moment, she had to go to work. She grabbed some dandelions and headed out the window.
"Why would I dream about that?" she said between chews "The dragon I get..."
Rainbow Dash had long since realized she was a little scared of dragons.
"But what Fluttershy did..."
Fluttershy didn't do anything... a voice in her mind told her You are the one who had the dream...
This was true, but there had to be a reasonable explanation for what happened.
"Well I am really really grateful Fluttershy saved us from that dragon." she told herself
Maybe...
"Yeah... Yeah that's totally it! 'Cuz that was just more scary than when it happened it real life," she exclaimed "I was just dreaming about Fluttershy saving me again but it was 20% cooler!"
That still doesn't explain some things...
She shoved the voice away, she had it all figured out. Besides, she was at town center now, it was time to get to work.