//------------------------------//
// The First Encounter 
// Story: Rainbow Dash's Hidden Power 
// by Mudkipman98 
//------------------------------//

	As Rainbow Dash opened her eyes, she squinted, trying to block out the harsh sunlight that was coming through a nearby window.  After resting for two more days, she had been feeling alright other than a few extra sore muscles that hadn't fully recovered.  As she was getting ready to go to check with the nurses on her condition, she began to hear a whirring sound followed by the light outside being blocked out for a second.  Moving to the window to see what had passed, she noticed her element on the table.  Its color had been fully restored and she grabbed it, getting the feeling that something bad was about to happen.  After arriving at the window, she looked out on Ponyville in its sunny state and began to wonder how anything could possibly go wrong on a day like this.  Then she got her answer.  It started with an explosion near the park, followed by screams and a crowd of ponies leaving the city.  Fearing the worst, Rainbow Dash threw off her hospital gown (wincing in pain as she did so) and charged off running through the halls of the hospital.  A few nurses who had taken care of her tried to stop her, but she pushed them aside and left the building. 
Outside and out of breath, she turned her attention towards the smoke rising from the buildings of Ponyville near the park.  She tried to launch off to help, only to fall back to the ground in pain.  As the terrible realization flooded her mind that her wings were still useless, she began to run as fast as her aching legs would carry her toward the library.  If Twilight was still there, she would have something to recover Rainbow's wings faster.  She had to!
As she made her way towards the library, she ran past several fleeing civilians.  Before she knew it, she was staring down the street at one of the attackers.  He was wearing an odd kind of clothing.  Rainbow could only assume it was battle armor because of its staggered horizontal plating.  This armor consisted of two shoulder pads, each one slightly triangular, and a thick chest plate which protected the wearer's front and back.  It seemed sturdy, but Rainbow doubted that one of Applejack's kicks couldn't bust it wide open.
As if on command, the orange pony jumped from the roof of a nearby building, landing right in front of the armor clad pony.  With a swift kick to the chest, the armor shattered and sent the pony flying, landing him in a cart of hay and exposing his chest.  A zap of magic from another roof turned the pony to stone.  Looking up, Rainbow Dash saw Twilight, her horn sizzling with magic energy.
Twilight descended, landing in front of the stunned cyan pegasis.  "Rainbow?! What are you doing out of the hospital?  You should be inside recovering!"  yelled the purple alicorn. 
"I couldn't stand it!  Hearing all of those screams and seeing the smoke from the other end of town.  Did you really expect me to just sit back and watch my home get destroyed?  I may have been born in Cloudsdale, but Ponyville is where my friends are and where my heart is!"
Applejack interjected before Twilight could respond.  "I understand sugar cube.  But ya can't just go runnin' around after usin' all that energy.  After what Twilight told us about your real condition, we knew we had to keep you safe.  We came over here to this side of town for that exact reason.  To keep you safe.  Trust us; if there's one thing we're good at, it's kickin' space pony behind!  Now, go back to the hospital and rest up.  We can hold 'em back long enough for you to recover."
"No!  I don't want that!" shouted Rainbow.  "I know you're worried about me.  But for Celestia's sake,  I can take care of myself.  You saw what I did in that hospital.  You all did.  And now that I'm almost fully recovered,  I can actually be worth some good!"  Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy showed up then, watching as Rainbow Dash yelled at Twilight and Applejack.
"And I don't want to be treated as if I'm a filly just out of second grade!  These space ponies are threatening Equestria, and I'll be damned if I'm just gonna sit here and take it!"  She was now breathing heavily after not taking a breath for about 30 seconds.
Everypony just sat there as destruction rained around them.  As Rainbow Dash's words began to sink in to the rest of the group, a new air of confidence was about them.  "You're right Rainbow," said Twilight.  "You can take care of yourself, but we'll still support you till the very end."  At the end of her sentence, a screaming sound could be heard coming from Applejack as she was thrown, smoking, into one of the now vacant houses.  Everypony was speechless as the wall she had broken through collapsed on top of her.  
"NOOOOO!" screamed Rainbow Dash as she watched her friend be crushed by the wall.  Whirling around to look toward the direction of Applejack's attacker,  she saw a pony hovering in mid air who she assumed to be the commander of the space ponies due to his spiked up black mane and possibly thicker armor.
"Oh, I'm sorry.  Was she important to you?" said the commander with a mocking tone.
Full of uncontrollable rage at what she had just witnessed,  Rainbow Dash flew toward the hovering pony surrounded by energy which seemed to appear out of no where.  Now normally, this wouldn't have aroused suspicion in Rainbow's shocked friends.  Pegasis ponies flew all the time.  However, this time, Rainbow had flown without moving her wings.  Her body had been covered in energy and Rainbow launched into the air with seemingly no effort.  She planted a hoof firmly between the commander's eyes, sending him a few feet back in the air, but otherwise not phasing him.  Bringing his head up from it's currently hanging back position, he said, "Was I supposed to feel that?  Because honestly, I'm really didn't."  
Hearing this, Rainbow Dash felt dread course through her body as the commanding pony charged his energy into his hoof and blasted her with enough force to kill an ordinary pony.  But lucky for Dashie, she wasn't any ordinary pony. Fueled by rage and with a desire to kill, she returned the shot with even greater energy, nearly breaking the commander's thick chest plate.  Feeling his armor crack on the inside, the commander became troubled and did another scan of this pony's aura.  To his great surprise, it was blazing!  Somehow, out of no where, this pony had generated an aura as powerful as his own, if not greater.  Knowing that he could not fight this crazy mare with his current armor and level of remaining energy, he cursed and flew off toward his ship.  
As Rainbow Dash was beginning to follow this horrid excuse for a living being, she was suddenly stopped in her tracks.  As she turned her head around, she saw each of the other four ponies, their elements blazing, holding her in place.  She struggled to break free, tears flowing freely from her eyes as she mourned the loss of her dear friend.  
"After we lower her, keep her in place!  We can't risk her running off," said Twilight.  They did as she said, lowering Rainbow, then holding her in place with their elements.  While this was going on, Twilight walked over to the destroyed building which no doubt held Applejack's corpse.  As Twilight focused her magic, the rocks and debris began to move aside.  
Underneath the dust, a faint coughing could be heard.  "Will ya'll tell me why they hey ma element didn't block most of the recoil?"  Rainbow Dash was in shock.  Seeing and hearing her friend speaking and breathing was probably the most wonderful thing she had heard in the past year.  When the ponies finally let her go, she sprinted over to the broken down wall and helped Applejack up.  Embracing her friend, she cried into her shoulder. 
"I thought you had died!  What happened?!" sobbed Rainbow Dash.
Applejack gave her friend a gentle push to tell her to stop hugging her.  Then, she explained.  "Twilight enchanted all of our elements, including yers when you were asleep, with a shield spell.  Feeding off of our element's energy, it protects us in case we get hurt in battle.  Thanks to Twilight, I'm still standin' here."
"For now, we can't fight that stallion.  He's too strong for any of us; even you Rainbow," threw in Twilight.  "But I have an idea.  When we were exploring the gorge, I found something.  I didn't want to tell you until we had searched the whole area.  It just so happened that when we finished, your element was reacting the most, distracting me from telling you.  In one of the walls of the gorge, there was a carving.  It depicted pegasi standing around a massive set of water falls.  The falls were colored though.  Rainbow colored.  I think that if we can get there, we may be able to unlock your true power."
Sniffling after recovering from her friends return, Rainbow dash nodded her head in understanding.  She knew where their next goal would be, but she couldn't help but think of the burning city they'd be leaving defenseless for their own selfish reasons.
Seeing Rainbow's reaction, Twilight reassured her that there were plenty of capable stallions in the town who were already fighting back.  After hearing this, Rainbow was ready to go and insisted that they leave immediately, blasting any one of those stinking alien ponies that got in their way.