Chapter 2
The Search
"Rainbow?!" Twilight asked desperately, the lavender unicorn mare had been searching for their friend for almost two days.
"Twilight," Pinkie Pie asked "did you find her yet?" The pink pony of party was so worried that her usual puffy pink mane and tail had straightened out, a true sign of her worried state.
"No, I haven't, I'm sorry Pinkie, but Celestia received my letter, and she said that she would send help as soon as possible,"
All of Ponyville was searching for Rainbow Dash, who had disappeared the day before. They first found out that she was missing when the Scootaloo went out to watch her practice and couldn't find Rainbow in any of her usual napping spots. Ponyville was on high alert, pegasi searched the clouds and mountains, while earth ponies searched the ground. Fluttershy was getting help from her animal friends, and even the Wonderbolt Soarin, who had arrived early that morning with a response to Dash's fan letter, was out searching the border of Diamond Dog territory.
Soarin had arrived a few hours ago, with a response to the letter from Rainbow Dash, The Wonderbolt's biggest fan. But Rainbow was more than just a fan, she was a lead pony in the Wonderbolt's Military Academy, as well as the winner of the Cloudsdale Best Young Flyers competition 1000, and was even a VIP with the Wonderbolts at the Grand Galloping Gala.
(Although,) Soarin thought (I don't know if that even counts, since the Gala was a disaster and a half that year.) Soarin is still scared of kangaroos to this very day.
There was one more thing special about that brilliant blue mare. Although, Soarin had a hard time admitting it to anypony, even to himself. He had always, kinda-
"Hey, Soarin!"
The pale blue Wonderbolt's thoughts were interrupted by a White unicorn mare with a cobalt and cyan striped mane and tail styled like something out of a neigh-nga graphic novel, on her flank were a pair of bridged eighth-notes, her large, purple sunglasses almost blinded Soarin with the glare from the sun they caused as he turned to look at her.
"Vinyl! What is it, did you find her?"
Soarin asked anxiously, hoping that it was good news.
"No, but the princess has sent a squad of Canterlot guards to help, look up!"
Soarin did, and was almost blinded a second time by what he saw, a Celestail Army battle chariot.
It should be noted that the battle chariots are known to cause momentary blindness in the light of the day. That is what makes them so deadly in battle, as soon as they arrive on the battlefield, they have a momentary advantage.
Once Soarin's eyes cleared, he could see the chariot clearly. It was almost twice as big as Princess Celestia's own chariot, and was heavily armored, in fact, it was completely enclosed. Small windows in the gold and white Behemoth allowed arrows and magic to be fired out during battle, but the vehicle was mostly used for troop transport. On the side was emblazoned the symbol of the Celestial army, an orange and yellow sun. The chariot was pulled by four heavily armored pegasi, in addition to having the standard armor, they had armored horseshoes, knee plates, light armor on their wings, and a plate on the front of their helmet designed to provide more head protection. (Plus), Soarin guessed, (they also prevented the pegasi from accidentally swallowing bugs mid-flight).
"Come on Soarin!" Vinyl said, "We should go meet up with them when they land!"
Soarin didn't need to be told twice, he and Vinyl started going in the direction of the chariot, back to Ponyville. (Maybe somepony else found Rainbow.) Soarin thought hopefully.
Turns out that Vinyl and Soarin weren't the only ones who had had the idea to meet up with the chariot. When they got back to Ponyville, almost everypony was meeting up with the soldiers from the battle chariot. The only one who wasn't there was Pinkie. She claimed that she already knows what happens because she "read the chapter beforehand", whatever that means. As the troops filed out of the chariot, Soarin felt a surge of hope, if anypony could find Rainbow Dash, it had to be the Supreme Canterlot Paladins (SCP for short, wait, AUGH! MEME ALERT! MEME ALERT!). "Alright troops!" The squad leader-a green and brown earth pony mare with a light green, buzz cut mane-said "We are going to go out there, just like we practiced, and we are going to find that missing pony, wherever she is! And Private Thundercloud,".
"Ma'am?" Said a dark grey pegasus with a black, spiky mane.
"Hatchet brand cologne does NOT attract mares, so don't bother trying to hit on anypony here! Now wash it off!"
It was at this point, that a large bucket of water was dumped on the afore-mentioned pegasus, and he stood there, dripping wet and embarrassed, but still at attention.
(Wow) Thought Soarin, (he's got skill, I wonder if I could stay at attentio-).
RRR-rrr-RRR-rrr
Soarin's thoughts were interrupted yet again, not by Vynill, but by a strange noise, like a weird saw, he turned around and say a blue box fading into view. Once it had stopped fading and was now completely solid, a light brown earth pony colt - with a spiky brown mane and tail, and an hourglass cutie mark - wearing a suit stepped out, coughing as smoke drifted out from inside the box.
"Everypony," said the brown colt, whom everyone knew - more or less - as either "The Doctor" or "Clockwork"
"I think I just found Rainbow Dash."