“Alright Pinkie, you ready for this?” The multicolored mare, Rainbow Dash, called down to her pink friend. She had been showing Pinkie her stunts all afternoon, and now she was going for the Sonic Rainboom.
“WOOH! YEAH! LET'S GO DASHIE!!!!” The enthusiasm shown by Pinkie hit Rainbow like a brick wall. But this only served to pump her up even more. She climbed higher in the sky, until the air got thin and Pinkie was nothing but a small dot on the green expanse below.
“Okay, here goes nothing!” Rainbow said to herself, before pausing and thinking about what she had just said. She then decided to amend her statement. “Aw, who am I kidding? This isn't nothing. This is amazing!” And with that, she made double sure her flight goggles were firmly in place, and she broke into a steep dive.
With the pass of every second, and the flaps of two powerful wings, Rainbow accelerated. She could soon see a white cone of pressurized air forming around her as the wind attempted to rip her skin off of her body. As she came closer to the ground, ready to pull up in a sharp turn as soon as she broke through the barrier, she noticed Pinkie Pie trying to shout something to her. After a few moments she was close enough to hear her. “Dashie! My tail's a twitchin!!! Dashie!!!” Rainbow knew what that meant. Something was falling. Of course she was, but did that mean... was she about to hit the ground? She tried to stop her descent, but it was too late. She couldn't even slow down at this point. Ohh, this was going to hurt, wasn't it? Rainbow Dash closed her eyes and folded her wings in, waiting for the inevitable as she broke through the barrier finally.
She continued to wait, before realizing nothing had happened. Had Twilight come out of nowhere and caught her? Was she dead? No, neither of those could be right, as she could still feel herself falling. She snapped open her eyes and was surprised to find herself in the air again. Instinctively, she flared out her wings and ground to a halt, before looking around. Taking in her surroundings, she noticed something was off. “These aren't my skies. What's going on here? Pinkie, what did you do?” She looked over to her left in time to see a smoldering chunk of metal fall past her, followed by several smaller bits. “What the hoof was that?” she asked, cocking an eyebrow. Last she checked, Cloudsdale didn't have any metal contraptions. Now that she thought about it, she wasn't anywhere near Cloudsdale to begin with. “Oh well. Let's get back to Ponyville- WOAH!”
Looking down, Rainbow Dash saw something she couldn't even try to imagine before now. A thick, black, angry, unbreaking layer of clouds. These weren't your average storm clouds either, no way. Rainbow knew storm clouds like the back of her hoof. No, these were... “Wrong. It's all wrong!This isn't Ponyville's sky. I know! I just arranged it earlier for a warm, sunny day! I can't think of any place in Equestria like this. Not even Fillydelphia.” As she looked down at the enraged mass below her, she figured it would be in her best interest to avoid touching it. Then how would she get down? Just then, she the chunk of metal hit the clouds and push through, creating a hole big enough for her to fit through. Choosing not to waste any more time, she dove for the hole as fast as she could, and good thing too, as it started to close up almost immediately.
Flying her way as fast as she could through the darkness, she couldn't shake the feeling of falling helplessly through an impossibly deep hole, leading her to an unknown world. Similar to that old foals' book her dad read to her when she was younger. What was it called again? Never mind, not that it matters. She was nearing the light at the end of her dark tunnel. Okay, well when she thought about it that way, it sounded worse. But she couldn't turn back now, as the clouds were closing up behind her. She could feel their wrongness nipping at her mane and tail, beckoning her into their dark expanse. This only scared her into going faster. Scared? Who's scared? Certainly not Rainbow Dash! Maybe just a little concerned, but definitely not scared! In fact, this is kind of like that Daring Do book she read last week. Flying through a dark tunnel that was collapsing behind her, the exit her only saving grace, but with no clue of where it leads. With this thought, Rainbow put on an extra burst of speed, ready for adventure, and to be like her idol.
As the bottom of the cloud tunnel neared, Rainbow chanced a look behind her, only to see that the clouds had made it a fifth of the way up her tail. She turned back around, gave an extra powerful flap of her wings, and shot out of the clouds like colorful confetti from Pinkie's party cannon. She came to a stop and turned back towards the clouds to stick her tongue out at them. “HA! And you thought you could get me. You only caught up to my tail. My tail!” Rainbow Dash had looked down at her tail to see where the clouds had gotten at it, only to find that the bottom part of it had been turned black, brittle and frayed. “So help me Celestia, I will get you back for that.” And she meant it. No matter how long it takes.
Looking down, she noticed something almost as strange as the clouds, but by now, she was done being surprised by anything. She hoped. Below her was an island surrounded on all sides by murky green water. Floating in it for just a second before finally submerging, was the chunk of metal that had allowed her to make it through the clouds. “Thank you strange metal, whatever you are. Or were.” She saluted the metal chunk before flying over the island.
Deciding to stay high enough to keep an eye on things, she started flying a grid like pattern she learned in flight school to survey small portions of land. The plan is to go north-to-south covering the entire piece of land, then switch to east-to-west. Starting with what she believed to be north, she covered the west side of the island, moving up and down.
The first thing she noticed was the beach. It was a sad remainder of what was probably once beautiful. The sand was coated in some strange black stuff, that kind of resembled the stuff used in Rarity's mud baths. It was all thick and gooey. The only difference was that Rarity's mud baths were supposed to be cleansing, while this muck looked poisonous. Rainbow probably could have figured that much out on her own, but the hundreds of dead fish and birds lying in it gave it away without too much effort. She winced at the sight; she had never seen so much death before, not even in the battle against the Changelings.
Looking at other things lying around the beach, she noticed what appeared to be boats. She had only ever seen a boat once before, but these definitely looked like they fit the bill. Or did at some point, as many of them were now riddled with holes. The metal around each of the holes on the larger ships was bent in, indicating it was hit with some sort of large, blunt object. She wasn't too sure though, as she didn't want to get too close. Some of the smaller boats, ones that looked capable of holding no more than five ponies, or two plus Big Mac, had entire portions missing. Rainbow shuddered to think what could have caused all of this.
After reaching the end of the island, she moved east some, then turned to fly south. She thought. She still wasn't sure. This time, instead of a polluted beach, she was met with fields of dirt and dead grass. She saw the occasional cluster of tents, and two or three patches of ash with what appeared to be burnt tents with. She saw a strange looking, metal object moving down a dirt road behind her. It sort of resembled one of the carriages the Royal Guard used, only this wasn't being pulled by anypony. She decided it would be best to avoid it for now.
By the time she had finished up this fly through, the sun was starting to go down, and Rainbow had seen all she could take. “This place is dying. What happened to it?” She asked herself, as she flew lower, this time to find a place to sleep. She sure wasn't going to lay on any of those clouds, so she had to settle for something closer to the ground. Then it struck her. There was something she hadn't seen in this place yet. Something that she loved to nap in almost as much as clouds. She hadn't seen a single tree since she got here. “Ugh, I hate sleeping on the ground.”
As she continued flying around, looking for a decent spot to lie down for the night, her thoughts wandered back to what had happened earlier. She was showing some of her tricks to Pinkie, then everything went wrong when she did the Sonic Rainboom. Sure, not much was known about the phenomenon, but this was unprecedented as far as she had known.
Flying further inland, she noticed a small mountain, maybe a quarter of the height of the Canterlot Mountain. As she got about halfway to the mountain, the faint glow from the sun that managed to penetrate the dark clouds above finally gave out, shrouding the land in complete and utter darkness. “Great. Now how am I supposed to see?” A bad experience she had as a filly taught her to never fly in the dark, and that was in place she knew. Flying here while blind would be a great way to get injured, or worse. Then it would be impossible to got on the Wonderbolts!
Floating herself down very slowly, she did her best to not approach the invisible land too fast. But that did little in preventing her from landing at an awkward angle and rolling down off a short drop off. “Holy flying feather that hurt! What was that?” Picking herself up from off of her back, she turned to face the culprit. As she did so, she stepped on her right foreleg, finding out rather quickly that it was likely sprained. Letting out a small yelp, she quickly looked around to make sure nopony had heard it. She had a reputation to maintain darn it! This time as she turned to face what ever it was she had hit, she made sure to only use her three other legs and her wings for balance.
As her eyes adjusted to the darkness some, she noticed a lump in the ground, roughly eight feet high and seven feet wide. It was a small hill with a drop off. Of course it was! With all of the land around she could have landed on, she had to find this one little hill! The only discernible thing about it was that it had a small hollow in it, only slightly larger than her. This could make a decent enough place for her to rest if her eyes don't adjust soon. As if this place didn’t feel like waiting, it made a decision for her. It was that moment that a crack of lightning filled the darkness, momentarily blinding her. It was soon followed by thunder that rumbled so loud that she felt the ground beneath her hooves rattle. “Ugh, can this get any worse?” she asked before slamming a hoof into her mouth. “Why? Why do I ask these things? Am I just trying to tempt fate?” Sure enough, as soon as she crawled into the little hollow, an immediate downpour of rain ensued. She pushed some dirt from inside the hollow to form a small mound at the entrance to keep as much water out as she could, then curled into a ball and let sleep take her. But where it took her was a complete surprise.
She was back in Ponyville. Sort of. It looked like Ponyville from two years ago. Everyone seemed younger and Town Hall hadn't been destroyed by Derpy and rebuilt yet. But something was off. She could feel it. Familiar, but off. It was then that she noticed. Dark clouds were filling the sky over Ponyville, coming from a mountain off in the distance. She knew this had all happened before, but she couldn't remember what had happened next. Maybe her dream was blocking it out. Whatever the case, she decided to go with it. Just then Twilight appeared. “Listen up! Smoke is spreading all over Equestria. But don't worry, it's not coming from a fire.”
Out of nowhere, she hears Fluttershy, “Oh, thank goodness.”
Twilight continued addressing everypony, “It's coming from a dragon.” A dragon? That didn't sound good. Wait! She remembered what was going on now! This was when they all went up the mountain, basically dragging Fluttershy along behind them. Rainbow Dash was rather regretful of that day. She wasn't acting very loyal towards her long-time best friend, complaining about how she was holding them back and how they should have left her behind in Ponyville. To make matters worse, after watching all of her friends get hurt, including Rainbow, Fluttershy went face-to-face with the fully grown dragon and gave him a piece of her mind. Rainbow felt particularly sheepish when the dragon said to Fluttershy, “But that rainbow one kicked me.”
Focusing back on the 'now' of her dream, she realized that the setting had changed. She was now up on the mountain listening to Pinkie sing “A hop, skip, and jump!” Rainbow groaned and facehoofed. “What's the matter Rainbow? I thought you liked my singing!” Well that's not how she remembered things going last time. Leave it to Pinkie to change your memories in the middle of a dream. Looking up, she noticed Pinkie's large, blue eyes mere inches away from her own, startling her into taking a few steps back.
“What? No! I love your singing Pinkie. It always makes me smile. Well, almost always.” Rainbow said, snickering slightly as she pointed back to what Pinkie was singing about. “THAT song is just plain annoying though. Sorry.”
“No need to apologize Dashie, this was just to motivate Fluttershy so she would get across the gap. And good thing to. I mean, who else would have stopped that dragon?” Huh, Rainbow didn't expect Pinkie to be talking about what hadn't happened in the dream just yet. Oh well, leave it up to her to act out of character in a dream, right?
“I guess that makes sense. Pinkie, you know I'm dreaming right now, don't you?” Rainbow couldn't help a slight chuckle as she imagined the dream-Pinkie's reaction, figuring she had thrown her for a loop. Instead, her reaction only confused Rainbow even further.
“I know. So am I! I remember this day perfectly! You almost broke the ball-bouncing record! Then I scared, uh, I mean I broke your concentration.” At the memory, Pinkie giggled, punctuating the laughter with a few snorts. Rainbow only glared at her.
“That wasn't funny and you know it! Anyway, what do you mean 'so am I'? You are just a figment of my imagination.”
Once the pink mare had finally calmed down enough to speak coherently, she replied with a sing-song “Wrong!” When Rainbow cocked her head in curiosity, Pinkie continued. “I am actually asleep and in your dream! Earlier, when you disappeared and I almost got crushed, I told Twilight about what happened. She sent a letter to Princess Celestia telling her, among other things, that you were gone. Of course, with you being an Element of Harmony and a personal friend of the princesses, she and Princess Luna came to Ponyville immediately. Once night had rolled around, and the others were off investigating the area, it was just me and Luna alone in the library. She said she had an idea that could help find you. She said that if I fell asleep, she could cast a spell on me to project me into your dreams once you were asleep. So I agreed. I figured the least I could do was bring a smile to your face, no matter where you are, so that you didn't feel sad and lonely. I owe it too you since I didn't warn you fast enough that something was happening. So-”
“Enough,” Rainbow cut her off. “First things first, it is not your fault in any way that I am here. Okay?” She used a tone that left no room for debate, getting only a nod and tear-brimmed eyes out of Pinkie. The sight pulled at her heart, so she embraced Pinkie in a tight hug. She wouldn't admit it to anyone, ever, but she needed a hug too after the day she had. Not letting go just yet she continued, “It's not your fault. The fact that you even tried to warn me is proof. And even if it was, you went this far to make it up to me, and that means more than anything in the world to me right now. Okay?'”
“O-okay.” Pinkie half-choked out as she tried to hold back the impending flood. Rainbow finally let go of her and took a step back to look her in the eyes, then frowned.
“And what do you mean you almost got crushed? I thought I was the thing your senses were saying was going to fall.”
Pinkie shook her head and explained. “Nope, I did too, but then you disappeared. I couldn't see much because of a bright flash of light, but a giant STOP landed right next to me.” Pinkie finished, grinning in satisfaction at being able to fill her friend in on what had happened. But Rainbow's frown only deepened.
“What was that Pinkie?”
“Silly Rainbow Dash, you gotta listen! I said PICKING UP A HEAT SIGNATURE ON THE SENSORS!”
“This isn't funny Pinkie, cut it out.” Rainbow was starting to get angry at her friend. This isn't the time to mess around, and if this was one of her attempts at cheering her up, it wasn't working.
“Cut what out? What am I doing Dashie? I'm just telling you what SIR! OVER HERE! I THINK IT'S COMING FROM BEHIND THIS HILL! CAREFUL! IT COULD BE ANOTHER RABID DOG! THOSE CASES HAVE BEEN RUNNING RAMPANT LATELY!” This time, Rainbow couldn't take it. Her anger melted into worry and she took a step back from her friend.
“Pinkie, what's going on?” Pinkie could see the worry in Rainbow's eyes and watched helplessly as Rainbow collapsed to the ground, shivering and crying like a lost little filly. She felt tears threaten to burst forth from her own eyes again, scared at seeing her strongest friend reduced to such a state. Worse, she still didn't understand what she wanted her to stop.
So she did the one thing she could do. She knelt down next to Rainbow and gave her the most comforting hug she could muster and told her, “I don't know what is going on Dashie, but I promise, I will do whatever it takes to get you back home. And I am sorry if WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?” Rainbow stared up at her friend in shock, not expecting her gentle words to turn so loud and harsh. The last thing she remembered was the look on Pinkie's face. The look of concern, of worry, of sadness. But mostly, the look of a friend that would do anything to help another friend. No matter the cost. Then she jolted awake.