No more than a quarter hour later the sky became filled with a dozen or more pegasi, one of whom dropped down to land close by to the fillies.
“Hey squirt” greeted Rainbow Dash, giving Scootaloo a playful noogie, “Heard you did your first flight without me. You couldn’t have chosen a more important time to do it too – well done!”
The starstruck filly was so overwhelmed, she was barely able to say anything, but reached out and gave her idol a big hug.
“Hey, easy now, I’m on duty” said Rainbow Dash, before adding, “You may like to meet Spitfire and Soarin. They happened to be in the area and offered their help along with all the weather ponies. They’d like to meet you, but don’t believe all the stories they tell you about me!”
Introductions made, Rainbow Dash took stock of the casualty situation and marshalled the pegasi into teams, each one lifting up one fallen tree at a time, like in a game of pick-up-sticks, where one has to be taken away before the next can be moved safely.
As the trees were being manoeuvred carefully off their trapped colleague, another pegasus flew in carrying a yellow coated nurse from Ponyville Hospital and put her down with her bag safely away from where the heavy lifting was taking place.
With each tree moved, Clear Skies let out a groan or a cry as the load on her changed, until finally she was uncovered, and her broken wing could be plainly seen lying at a grossly unnatural angle. Nurse Snowheart clambered carefully over the obstacles to get to her patient and set about running through the checks necessary to deliver her diagnosis.
Ponies looking on saw her pulling a wide variety of tools from her seemingly limitless black bag, followed by occasional nods and shakes of her head as she progressed through as full a range of tests as she could perform in the field. Finally, she leaned over and emptied a hypodermic into Clear Skies’ foreleg and climbed back down to talk to Rainbow Dash.
“I’ve done what I can, and she’s stable, but we’ll have to get her medevacked as soon as possible.”
“Sure” replied Rainbow, “What d’ya need?”
“Somepony has got to fly back to Ponyville Hospital and pick up a stretcher along with a pegasus harness.”
“I’m on it” she replied, immediately kicking off the ground and launching into the sky, leaving nothing behind but her trademark polychromatic trail.
Nurse Snowheart allowed Open Skies to go and hold Clear Skies’ hoof whilst they waited, but discouraged any other ponies from visiting as it could crowd her.
Time hung heavily on the group as they discussed the storm and how lucky it had been that the fillies had found their colleague, the off-duty Wonderbolts singling out Scootaloo especially for having raised the alarm, especially as it had been only her first flight.
Apple Bloom watched as her friend became centre of attention, and was pleased for her to have finally overcome her physical and mental barriers that had held her back for so long. She knew things probably wouldn’t be the same moving forward; she remembered how Rainbow Dash had become obsessed with her own self-image after having rescued an earth pony filly from a well, and hoped Scootaloo didn’t react in the same way.
Rainbow Dash returned wearing a harness that attached to a stretcher by four straps, providing a stable platform underneath any pegasus who was a strong enough flyer to carry the extra weight. As soon as she had landed, Nurse Snowheart unclipped the stretcher and went to pick up Clear Skies with other members of the weather team in support.
With the focus now on picking up the casualty, Scootaloo ran over to her hero so she could relive the magical moment when she first realised she had been flying. Rainbow Dash was clearly delighted with her achievement, but still kept a look out for the return of the stretcher, as she knew at that point, the casualty would be her primary responsibility.
Even from where they were, Scootaloo’s gushing exuberance was dampened by hearing the occasional screams and loud groans with every move made to get the injured pegasus onto the stretcher, as her injuries all let her know their displeasure.
Soon, the rescue party of ponies was bringing the patient back to Rainbow Dash, who gently nudged Scootaloo away so nothing would interfere with getting their casualty to hospital.
The stretcher bearers placed Clear Skies down as carefully as possible, and Rainbow Dash moved closer so the straps on her harness could be reattached.
“OK, stand back” she warned, pulling goggles down over her eyes and then lifting slowly into a hover, before repositioning herself directly over the stretcher. Next, she rose a little higher to take up the slack on the straps, then lifted her precious cargo off the ground and continued going upwards to clear the trees before heading off accompanied by the weather ponies.
“Hey kids” said Spitfire, “How’d you two like to tag along?”
“Oh, yes please!” Scootaloo cheered, although her earthbound friend was a little more reserved.
Apple Bloom slipped her saddle bags on before looking towards the stunt flyers and asking, “Er … can you carry me and my bags?”
“Sure” replied Soarin, crouching down to let Apple Bloom climb up, “No problem. Just be sure to hold on tight, OK?”
“Um … I haven’t flown before …” she offered apologetically.
“Don’t worry, I’ll be extra careful” Soarin reassured her with an easy smile.
“Come on kid” said Spitfire, looking at Scootaloo and crouching down too, “Your lift awaits.”
They lifted off, leaving the devastation behind them, Scootaloo ecstatic to be given a lift by the leader of the Wonderbolts herself, while Apple Bloom was a little more reticent, being an earth pony and significantly out of her comfort zone. They quickly caught up to the rest of the party, but kept a respectful distance so as not to get in the way of their important mission.
Spitfire turned her head back to ask Scootaloo whether she wanted to try some aerobatics, and upon hearing a squeal of excitement began a series of gentle weaves and turns. Apple Bloom blanched at Spitfire’s antics and leaned forward to speak rather hesitantly into Soarin’s ear, “Errm, we er … don’t have to do that, do we?”
“Course not” he replied reassuringly, “I’ll just keep us straight and level, if that’s OK?”
“Yes please” confirmed his passenger, daring not to say that she thought she would be sick if they tried anything more adventurous.