//------------------------------// // Mind Snail // Story: Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot // by Equimorto //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash had been flying a little higher than anypony else had dared to. She could largely take it, partly thanks to her armour, but in part it was also a matter of nervousness. She much would have liked to stay behind and help Twilight fight against Nightmare Moon, even after her rage had quelled a chunk after Celestia had healed Luna. But, of course, it was best if she didn't. Her contribution to the fight, while not null, would have been far smaller than what she could do instead defending the rest. Still, it nagged on her mind, and so did worry about the situation Twilight might be in as she watched the lights flashing in the distance. When the winds picked up, there was little she could do to fight against them. She tried at first, but they grew too intense too quickly and swept her along, away from the group. She realised shortly that her efforts would be better spent making sure she wasn't hurt too much than trying to get back to earth, something she knew she'd fail at and only get hurt in the process of. She partly let herself be carried, steering her direction but never opposing the wind in ways that would hurt her, all senses alert for a chance to settle down and land. She was perfectly aware her wings could snap if she wasn't careful, and carried so far from Celestia she did not want to risk that happening even remotely. She cursed inwards as the winds pushed her around, spinning her body through the air in ways that would have likely knocked out a less extensively trained pegasus. Then, not any less or more subtly and suddenly than how they'd begun, the winds ceased, or at least died back down to a far lower intensity. Rainbow found herself falling through the air for a brief moment before her wings snapped open and she caught herself. She glided in circles her way back down to the ground, and had a brief look around. No one in sight, nothing but rubble in her vision, every crumbled building indistinguishable from the next one. She could have flown up. She wasn't rash and dumb enough to do that, she knew it would end with her landing far too fast and far too little alive. The winds only got stronger up above, that much she could tell even from down there. She felt it in her feathers. Besides, altitude wouldn't give her much of an advantage. The visibility that usually came from it would be too limited by the winds' thickness and unnatural purple hue, the same things limiting it on the ground. It was almost like walking inside a sandstorm or a blizzard, but with magic carried by the air instead, thinner than any particles yet far more dangerous. So she began to walk. She picked a direction she felt good about, nothing more than her guts guiding the way, and started going that way. She did begin to hover once the darkness came over the ground, but that aside she didn't change anything about her approach. It had come from the direction she was going towards, after all, and that probably meant she was going the right way. Or at least, towards something.