Act One:
"Pride Comes Before the Fall"
Chapter Four:
"I Call to You Across the Sky"
Daring Do pulled her coat tighter around her body. She was reminded of the various times she’d been up various nights across Equestria and she had to admit she’d yet to see a night this beautiful.
Firefly would have loved this weather.
Daring Do instinctively glanced at Scootaloo, as if afraid she might have heard her thoughts, but the orange filly was too consumed staring at the stars, lifting the camera hanging from her neck every now and then to snap a picture.
“What’s the name of that one, Comet Tail?” Scootaloo asked the greenish yellow unicorn with a powder blue mane sitting beside them.
The unicorn turned from his immense telescope and squinted where the filly was pointing.
“That’s Borr the All-Father. You see that large flashing one? That’s his eye and those five clustered around it are his ear, his forehead and his nose.”
Scootaloo frowned. “Who named these constellations? It looks more like rabbit to me.”
“Well, they had no TVs or radios and few books so our ancestors spent all their time looking at the sky. And whenever you look at something long enough you start seeing what you want to, not what’s really there.”
Daring Do stared at the unicorn. “That was deep, Comet Tail.”
Comet Tail gave a smug grin. “Well, I do have my moments.”
They fell silent for a few moments, with each of them looking back at the sky.
“Can we do this every night?” Scootaloo asked.
Daring Do glanced at her then quickly away. “Sure, if you like,” she said, keeping her voice as calm as she could.
“…Cause I won’t have to go to school this year, right?”
“Not if you don’t want to.”
“Cool.”
Daring Do resisted the urge to continue the conversation. Tonight was the first time in six months Scootaloo had spoken of the future. She had seemed to be living each day just waiting for the end of the world, simply lying in her room reading the same comic book and her listening to some old records she found in Daring Do’s attic.
When Daring Do had mentioned accompanying Comet Tail on his extra credit stargazing project she had merely shrugged and trudged along after her aunt. But nopony could stay miserable around Comet Tail—at least not for long.
Scootaloo abruptly tilted her head as if she noticed something. “Hey, Aunt Daring?”
“Yeah, Scootaloo?”
Scootaloo pointed at the sky. “What’s that?”
Daring looked to the point in the sky where Scootaloo was pointing and saw something strange. It looked similar to the Equestrian Lights but whereas the Lights were often white or bluish, this was a wild rainbow palate that shimmered and flickered against the night sky.
“Hey Comet Tail, what the hay is that?”
Comet Tail turned from his telescope and looked in the direction where Daring was pointing. His eyebrows shot up. “I’m not sure…it really doesn’t look like any aurora I’ve ever seen.”
“What’s it doing?” Scootaloo said. The aurora had suddenly compressed into a tornado shape and stretch towards the ground, whirling like a kaleidoscope.
“Um, okay, that’s definitely not normal,” Comet Tail said, lowering his telescope and standing up, squinting at the sky. “It seems to be almost solid!” His voice changed from confusion to excitement. “I’ve gotta get a better look!”
He bolted off into the desert babbling wildly, leaving a very confused Daring Do and Scootaloo in the dust.
“Wait your—! He forgot his camera, Aunt!” Scootaloo said and started after Comet Tail.
“Scootaloo wait!” Daring Do launched herself in the air and started flying after her friend and niece.
They didn’t know what that thing was—it was starting to remind her a little too much of a tornado—and if there was one thing Daring Do had learned after years of traveling Equestria: you never, EVER go towards a force of nature.
“Hold up you two!” Daring called down as she came in for a landing beside Comet Tail and Scootaloo, who had finally stopped a short distance from the funnel.
“Oh my gosh Daring, this extra credit thing was the best idea I’ve ever had! And Scoots brought the camera!”
Just as he reached for the camera hanging around Scootaloo’s neck the funnel shaped aurora made a noise like a snarl. The three ponies looked skyward.
“Okay, now that,” Comet Tail said, obviously spooked. “That is NOT normal at all.”
“It sounded like thunder…are you absolutely sure there was no storm scheduled?” Daring Do asked.
“Yeah, I asked about earlier, remember.”
Daring Do bit her lip. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this. I’m taking Scootaloo back—”
She was cut off by a roaring sound from the aurora. A white light came streaking down from the top of the funnel and upon reaching the ground it detonated in an explosion of light, sending a wave of dust toward the three ponies.
Daring leapt to cover Scootaloo and Comet Tail threw himself on the ground. The dust swallowed them up, raking over their coats and hissing in their ear.
When the dust cleared, the ponies tentatively opened their eyes and looked around. The sky was clear once more and the air crisp, as if nothing had happened.
“What just happened?” Scootaloo whispered.
“I have no idea…” Comet Tail and Daring Do said at the same time.
Scootaloo wriggled out from underneath Daring Do’s wing, beginning to shake her head to rid it of the sand but suddenly froze.
“Who’s that?!” she shouted.
The two other ponies turned to look in the direction Scootaloo was. In the exact spot where the explosion had been was now a ring etched in the desert floor filled with strange twisted shapes. And in the center of the ring lay what looked like an earth pony with a rainbow colored mane.
“Oh no…” Scootaloo said and before Daring Do or Comet Tail could stop her she ran over the unconscious rainbow-haired earth pony.
“Scootaloo wait!” Daring Do shouted and, followed by Comet Tail, they raced after the filly.
Scootaloo reached the pony and began shaking it.
“Hey! Hey, you okay!” she said.
“Scootaloo, get back!” Daring Do said, coming up to her niece and quickly pulling her away. She glanced down at the pony and gaped. She didn’t have a single scratch on her!
The pony was coming to, lifting her head tentatively and blinking slowly. “Ugh…” she rubbed her head. “What the…” She paused and suddenly spun around to face the three ponies, squinting. “Who…this isn’t Asgard…”
“Asgard? Where’s that?” Before Scootaloo could get an answer the rainbow-maned pony stood up and began to stumble around, looking up at the clear sky.
“Hey! HEY! Auntie Luna?! Auntie, you can open the Bifrost now! Tell Mother I’ve learned my lesson!” she shouted at the stars, her voice ringing with panic.
Daring Do glanced at Comet Tail who was looking at her with anxious bemusement.
The strange pony whipped around and started to stagger over to Comet Tail, nearly stepping on top of Scootaloo. “Mortal! Where am I? What realm is this?”
Comet Tail stepped back nervously. “What? Wadda mean ‘realm’? We’re outside Appleloosa; I don’t know anything about…” Before he could finish the pony made her way over to Daring Do, who shoved Scootaloo behind her, who keep trying to look around her aunt at the pony.
“Appleloosa? In which realm is that?”
Daring Do stared at her. “Um, Equestria…”
The strange pony facehoofed. “Oh, no, no no! Not here!” she said and looked back up at the sky. “Is this some kind of perverse jest Mother?! Are you—” She stopped short and started darting around the etched circle.
“Hammer!” she shouted and now her voice was completely hysterical. “Hammer! Hammer!”
“You’re hammered alright…” Comet Tail muttered.
The pony stopped and turned towards him, her face the portrait of anger. “What?!” She started to stomp over towards the unicorn. “How dare you, a mere mortal, suggest that I, Rainbow Dash Celestiamaden, First Princess of Storms and Thunder is intoxicated? I am going to…”
Before she could finish her threat, she was greeted by a blast of magic to the face, and dropped to the ground unconscious.
Comet Tail stood awkwardly over the unconscious earth pony. “What?” he said, looking at Daring Do and Scootaloo. “She’s crazy! You saw her, she was threatening me.”
“We didn’t say anything,” Scootaloo said.
“We’re going to have to take her to the hospital,” Daring Do said.
“It was just a stun spell,” Comet Tail said.
“That funnel tornado thing hit her!”
“She looked fine to me!”
While Daring Do and Comet Tail argued the definition of “fine” Scootaloo slipped away from her aunt and over to the pony. She didn’t look so crazy now, but she was unconscious now of course. She looked like she was sleeping, like Mom and Dad did when—
Scootaloo shook her head to rid it of the images that came flooding back. I’m not going to think about that, I’m not going to think about that…
She quickly walked away from the pony and started looking at the strange twisting symbols carved in the ground.
What are these?
They looked like someone had been trying to draw snakes and vines but kept getting distracted and just kept running them together.
They looked like some of the runes from one of Aunt Daring’s traveling books. She probably knows what they are.
“Hey! Aunt Daring! Come look at these!”
Daring Do stopped yelling at Comet Tail. “What?!”
“There’s these really weird doodles on the ground.” Scootaloo said, pointing at the ground.
Daring glided over followed by Comet Tail.
“Hmmm….” Daring Do knelt down and began to closely study the symbols. “Scootaloo hand me the camera. Comet Tail please light me up here.”
Comet Tail lit his horn up and Scootaloo handed over the camera. Daring Do snapped about a dozen photos from different points around the circle. When she was done she reached out to touch the symbols and frowned.
“What is it?” Comet Tail and Scootaloo asked at once.
“These runes…they look like dust but you can’t wipe them away…but they aren’t etched into the ground either. It’s like they’re a stain or something…”
“Runes? From where?” Scootaloo asked.
Daring Do shook her head. “I feel like I recognize them but I can’t remember where…we’ll have to go back home and check my library.” She stood up and looked at the strange pony, biting her lip. “But right now we need to get this pony to a hospital. Scootaloo, help me get her on Comet’s back.”
Comet Tail groaned. “Why my back?”
“Because you’re a stallion and it’s your fault she’s unconscious anyways,” Daring Do said.
“Ugh….fine….” Comet Tail grumbled and stood silently as the aunt and niece hefted the pony onto his back.
“Wow she’s heavier than she looks…” he said.
“Scootaloo take the camera, I’m going to help Comet Tail here…”
Daring Do and Comet Tail started shufflng toward the cart with the strange pony draped across their backs with Scootaloo following carefully behind.
Unbeknownst of any of the ponies, a small meteorite made its way across the sky and disappeared behind a mountain, hitting the ground.
/////////////////////////////
Scootaloo and Comet Tail sat in the plastic chairs in the admissions office of Appleloosa General Hospital. It was a rather humble place with only one computer, where a lemon yellow unicorn in scrubs covered with cartoon kittens typed away, as Daring Do gave him the necessary information.
“And the pony’s name?” the unicorn looked up from the computer screen over his reading glasses.
“She said her name was Rainbow Dash,” Daring Do said.
“Celestiamaden, First Princess of Storms and Thunder,” Scootaloo added from her seat.
The unicorn raised his eyebrows. “First name…Rainbow Dash?”
“Uh, yes,” Daring Do said.
“One word or two?”
“I-I don’t know.”
“Celestiamaden is the surname?”
Daring Do glanced at Scootaloo who just shrugged. “I assume,” Daring Do said.
The unicorn typed the name in. “Okay then. And 'First Princess of Storms and Thunder' is…what exactly? A title?”
Daring sighed. “I don’t know I’m just telling you what she told me. What she could tell me before my assistant shot her with a magic blast.”
The unicorn sighed. “What kind of magic blast?”
Comet Tail piped up. “A stun spell. She tried to attack me.”
“O-kay then. Is that everything?” the unicorn asked.
Daring sighed. “Yes, that’s all we know.”
The unicorn nodded. “Okay then. Thanks for bringing her in and have a good evening.”
“Too late,” Comet Tail muttered.
“Thanks.” Daring said and picked up her pith helmet from where she had laid in the desk. She motioned to the two sitting ponies. “Come on guys, let’s go home. I’m exhausted.”
“So we’re just going to leave her here?” Scootaloo asked as she hopped off her chair.
“Yeah, they’ll make sure she’s taken care of. They’ll do a better job of it than us.” Daring said.
Scootaloo looked reluctant but followed her aunt and Comet Tail followed out the door.
“Sorry about stunning her,” Comet Tail said.
Daring simply rolled her eyes. “That’s fine. She’s probably crazy anyways, what with that crazy mane color and all.”
/////////////////////////////
Rainbow Dash tried opening her eyes. Her eyelids felt as if they were made of solid lead. She had a headache that felt like an army of diamond dogs were hammering at her skull with pickaxes.
The last thing she remembered was being reprimanded by her mother about her mission to Hekkerhiem and being blasted into the Bifrost. Then nothing else. She hoped that maybe, just maybe, the events of the night before were nothing more than a horrible nightmare and she’d wake up in her bedchambers, nice and warm under her goose down covers.
Mother would never do such a thing, she never gets so angry. Faust, Trixie has done worse things and gets off with just a grounding. I’m going to wake up in bed and everything is going to be as it was.
She finally to managed to pry her eyes open and her heart froze. This was most definitely NOT her bedchambers. The room was blindingly white and devoid of furniture except for a small night table to her left with a small lamp and a small sofa against the right wall.
She could feel something stuck into her foreleg. She looked down and her eyes were greeted by the sight of at least five tubes of various shapes and sizes that ran from her leg to a nearby box like object that hummed. A steady beep also came from the machine. She tried to lift her other foreleg and even though it felt like liquid she was able to drag to her other side and fumble with the tubes.
An oddly condescending voice greeted her ears.
“Oh no ya don’t sugar, ya’ll not supposed to be doin’ that now.” Rainbow Dash turned in the direction of the voice. A pastel blue earth pony in a white outfit sat next to her bed.
“Where am I?” Rainbow Dash asked, feeling her energy slowly return with the natural authority in her voice.
“Why yer in Appleloosa, sugar,” The pony replied, in a voice that sounded like it was made of liquid sugar.
“Appleloosa?” The name was strangely familiar, as if Rainbow Dash had heard it somewhere before. “In which realm is that?”
The pony’s saccharine smile faded slightly. She thought for a moment, as if confused by Rainbow Dash’s question. “Um, well, hon, I don’t know nothin’ ‘bout no realms, but I know that this here wonderful town is in Equestria.”
Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened. Suddenly the events of the past 24 hours came flooding back to her. The desert, the three ponies, getting zapped by that stupid unicorn.
Everything.
She suddenly exploded off the bed, and made a flying leap towards the blue pony. Instead, she fell like a stone, the tubes connected to her foreleg suddenly going taut, and she went sprawling on the floor, dragging the metal box down with her.
The blue mare bolted over to the opposite wall and flipped a small lever.
Suddenly Rainbow Dash’s ears were greeted by a deafening blaring noise. Suddenly, what seemed like a veritable army of ponies came bursting into the room, all dressed in identical white coats.
Rainbow Dash yanked the tubes out of her leg, causing several sharp pains to go shooting through her arm. She shook it off however, and made a break for the door, leaping into the air, ready to spread her wings and-
*CRUNCH*
Instead of making a glorious escape, she crashed into the floor, blasting her face across the icy floor. Rainbow Dash’s head spun and she looked at her back.
It was completely bare. No wings, no feathers, absolutely no sign that she’d ever had wings in the first place. She simply stared at her back for a few seconds, her stomach twisting, completely stunned.
The sound of a stallion in a white coat galloping up to tackle her snapped Rainbow Dash back into reality, and she sent him flying with a well placed buck. Within seconds however, the other ponies came and dog piled her.
“RELEASE ME! DON’T YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!?!” Rainbow Dash roared, still struggling towards the door. If she could just reach the door she had a chance at escape.
“Hold her down boys!” The familiar sugary-sweet voice of the blue mare shouted over the sounds of struggling.
“IS THIS HOW YOU TREAT A PRINCESS OF ASGARD?! HOW DARE YOU TREAT ME IN SUCH A MANNER!!” Rainbow Dash shrieked. “NONE OF YOU CAN HOLD YOURSELVES IN COMBAT WITH RAINBOW DASH CELESTIAMADEN FIRST PRINCESS OF STORMS AND THUN-”
A sudden sharp pain shot through Rainbow Dash’s flank. Everything suddenly shifted into slow motion and looked almost as if everything was melting, along with her herself.
The blue mare stepped into Rainbow Dash’s line of vision.
“Now, now, sugar, we’ll have none of that in this here hospital,” her voice was now strange and warped, like she was speaking through water. “Sleep tight, sugar.”
The mare smiled and everything once again went black.
/////////////////////////////
Meadow Song quietly hiked along the hill side, his guitar slung over his back and whistling a new song to himself.
He eventually made his way over the small hill and sat down. Taking off his saddle bags, he pulled out his guitar and began to strum a random tune, his eyes lazily scanning the terrain below.
He trailed off as something strange caught his eye and he outright dropped his guitar.
At the bottom of the hill, in the center of a small valley was a large crater. In the center of that crater was a small object Meadow Song couldn’t quite make out.
“What in Equestria?” He muttered as he made his way down the hill and into the crater.
He trotted into the center of the crater, he found an abnormally large, rather old and beat up looking hammer, its handle pointing skyward.
“Well fancy that…a hammer…” Meadow Song said to nopony in particular. He looked around. There was nopony else but him and there wasn’t even a sign that had been anypony here in the first place, except the hammer of course.
An idea started to form in his mind. Yeah… He thought. Just like that nifty sword from the stories.
A smile appeared on his face. “Well, Meadow Song, it seems Lady Fate has decided ta smile on ya.” With that he grabbed the hammer’s handle and pulled.
Nothing. No angelic choir, no bright light and no wizard popping up out of nowhere telling him “You’re a king, Meadow Song!”
Meadow Song let go of the hammer and sat on his haunches. “Maybe I just pulled it wrong.”
He got back up and tried again. Once again, there was no response. The hammer didn’t budge. It seemed almost as if it were super glued to the rock.
“Well that’s just plain weird if ya ask me.” He said as he turned back and hiked up the hill. “Maybe the Sheriff will know what ta do…”