Our Time to Fly

by Shokinaw

Chapter 13: Clearing the Skies Part: 1

"Oh!" Rarity gasped sharply as the train cart suddenly lurched after an exceptionally heavy gust of wind slammed into its side. With a look of disdain at the storm from her large seat by the window, Rarity glared out at the storm as if it would suddenly be able to understand her annoyance, and would refrain from being so rude in the future.

"Really now, what is that weather team doing up there?" A pale blue glow encased the handkerchief from her side pocket, and it moved to mop up the mess of tea that pooled on the floor.

Trains. Rarity had gotten so sick of trains over the last several years. At one time they had been a sign of new and greater things to come. They were great and majestic doorways, steps into a much larger world that beckoned out to her, calling for her to join the ranks of those who had gone on before. It had always been her fondest wish to board the one that would whisk her away to her dreams of Canterlot and all the city would offer. But the road to Canterlot's inner circles was a very long one with many stops. Manehatten, Vanhoover, and just about every other large city Equestria had to offer, Rarity had eventually found her way to visiting each one in hopes of making her dream come true. And then, after spending so many years to become part of the Canterlot elite, it was only to find herself rarely spending a weekend within the great city's borders.

Breakfast in Baltimare, a bit of lunch on the train, only to spend her evening dining with some colleagues in Cape Corral. It was all in the name of business, of course. That's just how it was. The world of fashion took you everywhere, whether you wanted to be there or not. You would have to go wherever your designs were modeled, and the more places they made the walk down the runway, the more business you'd drum up. It wasn't the world her grandmother had grown up in. The railroad had changed everything. The Industrial Revolution was rising in Equestria and if you wanted any part of it, travel would become your way of life.

All in all it was a glamorous life, and it would not do to complain about its downsides when there were so many less fortunate than her who would never see the world as she had. Her parents had to wait until they were retired for the same privileges, and as soon as they had retired, they were off! Sweetie Belle was often left on her shoulders so that they could run off for sightseeing in far off places. It had left her somewhat envious at the time. There Rarity was, trapped in her small boutique in Ponyville while her parents lived the life she wanted!

The fantasy of that charmed life had dissipated after it crossed with her reality. Now trains were just loud, obnoxious, smoke-spewing monstrosities that were necessary evils to help support her career. The few greetings of new friends as the train carts rumbled along, never seemed like they would ever compare to the all too many old ones left behind. This time was different though. This time the rails were leading her back to Ponyville.

Rarity's last trip home was quite the eventful one, filled with precious memories. Some she'd rather not remember, and others that were so wonderful she'd never be able to forget. But there was one thing left she had to do; one thing that should never have been neglected. A task so important that Princess Celestia herself had insisted Rarity go back and see to. There was a sign hung in the window of her Canterlot door that read Closed for royal business, in the unmistakable official script used for royal decrees. Were it for any other reason, Rarity would probably be quite upset with anyone interfering in her affairs. On this particular occasion, however, it was a blessing more than anything. Any late orders were now the concern of the kingdom.

Even so, it was less than appropriate to open your doors for business only to repeatedly close them. It was fortunate that the Qualifiers had taken place on a weekend, or else she wouldn't have been able to go at all. As it was there had been barely enough time to congratulate the flight team in their victory, let alone to find the privacy to tell Spike all she needed to say.

Liar. It was just stalling for time to figure out what to tell him. Who are you even trying to convince while sitting alone in a private cart? Her self-admonishment left her cheeks feeling just a tad hot. So used to keeping her thoughts and feelings hidden, was she even trying to hide them from herself now? Sometimes Rarity had to wonder just what was going to become of her in this cut-throat business.

"Serves me right," she said aloud to her tea. "If I had just confronted Spike after the Qualifiers, I wouldn't even have to be here. I never did figure out what to say, anyway."

Instead of looking for a way to put feelings into words, the moment she got back to her Canterlot boutique, Rarity had found herself distracted by her work again. Lost in a flourish of designs, she had tuned out the world around her. Days had flown by quickly and before she knew it, a week had already passed. No time at all was given to thoughts of romance, nor had she considered even a single word of how to tell the love of her life that he was the love of her life. By the time the weekend came around, she found herself up to her flank in orders. Did the city never take a break from cordial events?! At last some time for leisure had penetrated her career in the form of a royal invitation.

It was just a simple, little note; a request to dine with Princess Celestia. An invitation Rarity could hardly decline. In spite of the odd disagreement on how to handle personal lives, she found herself becoming fast friends with the ruler of Equestria. They could talk about anything together. Any complaints about her own business were followed up with gripes about Celestia's new Captain. The Princess was not one to show her frustrations, but after venting to Rarity about Captain Storm Front at the Qualifiers she had grown more open to the idea.

Who would have thought? The Princess and herself planning weekend get-togethers! And every time they'd meet it was like a breath of fresh air for Rarity. Celestia always saw through to the truth hidden behind her words, and it felt so refreshing to be free, even if only for an hour, from the constant prattling on and deceptive dealings with business tycoons. Both from them and herself.

One meal with her Highness was all it took to feel like she had gained back all the innocence the big city had been picking away at for weeks. It was like a form of recuperation, far more cleansing than even a spa day alongside Fluttershy.

Well, maybe not far more.

Rarity desperately missed those spa days with her quiet friend. Perhaps she could squeeze one in. She was going home after all. Even if it was technically for Spike, she was sure he wouldn't want to monopolize all her time. Then again with what she wished to speak with him about, monopolizing her time might very well be exactly what she would want.

Exactly what 'he' would want, she corrected mentally with a cough, blushing furiously at the slip in her train of thought. It was a similar mistake that left her on this midnight train to begin with. Princess Celestia's ability to catch even the most subtle signs was simply uncanny, and Rarity was under the firm belief that her new friend's ability to coax the truth from stubborn fashionistas was a skill that should have been sung about in legends. After the admission of her troubles in love and work, the Princess had put the castle staff at Rarity's disposal for her orders, and outright ordered her back to Ponyville.

And that was that. Rarity had already finished the paper designs of the custom orders, and the royal staff was more than up to the challenge. Actually they were all too happy to help, it was the first real project they'd had in years with most of the royal family abstaining from clothes outside some very traditional garb for age old events. After delivering her precious sketchbooks into their capable hooves, here she was; booked on a private train cart and homeward bound.

"Oof!" Another sudden jerk sent her cup and the small teapot sprawling across the floor, cracking into several pieces. Here she was, alright! On a train cart bouncing around in the thick of a dark evening storm!

And it was such a lovely design too. 

Rarity felt a pang of pity for the poor broken set of dishes as her magic dusted up the mess. Such a simple weave of blue flowers painted on white ceramic, but it must have taken hours of detail to create the pattern. She knew from experience. Her lament was interrupted by a knock.

"Yes?" she called out as she headed over to answer the door. Pulling it open revealed a train attendant that Rarity would describe as adorable in most circumstances, but the worry creasing the pony's green eyes offset the blue and purple hues of her fur and mane.

Purple with green eyes, Rarity thought with a smile, now who does that remind me of I wonder?

"Sorry to interrupt, m'am. I heard a crash, is everything alright?"

M'am? Rarity quickly reconsidered her opinion of the pony. She didn’t seem near as adorable as before.  Not quite yet, I think! "It's Rarity, please. And yes, but I'm afraid the tea set fell with the last shake of the train."

"Oh, would you look at that," the earth pony attendant clicked her tongue and quickly headed over to clean up the mess. "I'll get this cleared up for you in a jiffy M'a-uuh-Miss Rarity!” The train attendant was quick to correct herself, much to Rarity’s approval. “You didn't cut yourself or anything? Can I get you any more?"

"No, no I'm perfectly fine. I think any more would be wasted. This dreadful storm would ruin any enjoyment of it, and it would only risk another teapot." The colours may be similar to her Spikey-Wikey, but now it was Applejack the pony most reminded her of. This was obviously an earnest, hard-working pony she was dealing with, Rarity decided, and while there was no southern drawl like what Apple Family was famous for, there was still a hint of country accent left in her words.

"Yeah, I'm afraid they're saying it'll only get worse as we get closer to our destination. Apparently the weather's really out of control over there. The other passengers are starting to get real jumpy. They're not used to wild weather, not the way you folk from Ponyville are, I guess."

There was no small amount of admiration in the pony’s tone, and Rarity somehow doubted it was just because she was from Ponyville. "Wait, how did you know I was from Ponyville?"

"Are you kidding? Why, everypony knows the bearers of the elements of harmony! You guys have helped out all over Equestria! Who wouldn’t know you? I mean uh-" The train attendant paused herself, realizing she was gushing. "-uh it's an honour to serve you Miss Rarity. It really is."

A fan? And not of her fashion designs? She was rather unused to this particular form of attention. Most ponies Rarity met chose to ignore her affiliation with the elements. Whether it was because it was too much to really sink in or because it made dealing with her awkward she never really knew. Possibly a bit of both, but in the end all it meant was being a walking symbol of friendship was normally something left by the wayside for her and her friends. It was somewhat new and enjoyable to be known for participating in the heroics of the elements of harmony. She studied the younger pony before her. The darling is barely out of her teens, if that. Probably about Spike's age. "May I ask your name?"

"My name?" The pony asked with a surprised gasp. "No need to learn my name, Miss Rarity, I'm just a train attendant."

"And I'm sure you make a fine one, but currently you're in my private train cart and that makes you my guest. And it would be terribly rude of me to not know the name of my guest, wouldn't you think?"

"Uh yes, I mean no! I mean I- I'm Shining Time. My name's Shining Time."

"An absolutely lovely name it is. Shining Time, I don't suppose you would care to visit with me for a while when your duties give you the chance? I'm beginning to regret choosing a private cart." Another gust of wind took the train, and it swayed heavily. The storm was getting worse, and Rarity admitted inwardly to a twinge of fear. An excited fan might be just what she needed to take her mind off her troubles, both storms and love alike. "I think I could use some company tonight of all nights."

"Oh! Yes! Absolutely yes! I mean, of course! I'd love to! Just let me go finish this round so I can let the others know where I am! If you don't mind that is."

"Not at all," Rarity replied with a smile as she watched the younger pony nearly jump and kick with excitement at the prospect of spending the evening talking to one of her heroes. Her guest quickly departed, leaving her alone with thoughts once more. Walking over to the window, she took a closer inspection of the storm. Rain pounded against the glass, coming down in sheets, making it impossible to see more than a few feet outside. Lightning flashed, granting her a momentary glimpse of the fields they passed through. Thunder rolled across the sky, like a herd of pegasi trampling on clouds. But there would be no pegasi above those storm clouds. The train was steaming through wild winds that had been claimed by the Everfree, and were infused with a magic beyond mere unicorn understanding.

Another gust shook the cart. Cupboards flew open and sent Rarity's bags tumbling out. Her heart was caught in her throat, and it was all that stopped her from screaming in sudden fright. She shivered instead, took a long breath to steady herself, and her horn took on its blue glow. Magic wound around her luggage as she calmly returned her bags to their appropriate spot, fastening the cupboards tight this time, tying some of her stronger dress materials to their latches and handles in hope of preventing further accidents.

"We're still hours away from the Everfree Forest, and the train is still being hit this hard." Rarity looked back out the window a hint of worry in her eyes. She stared up at the clouds, wondering if that same dangerous and gloomy sky was hanging over her home as well.

"I hope you're all okay."

Leaves, branches, and debris rushed by on the force of a hurricane west wind. River waters rose high before smashing down against its banks. The waves broke and pounded against the rocks and dirt there as if just noticing they were trapped by the land around it. Aqua Shallows paid it no mind. Rather than any sense of fright, the river's attempts to intimidate him left him feeling homesick for the sea. Sea storms were a playground in his younger years. He remembered streaking down swells twenty meters in height into their trenches below, only to have the force of the ocean roll and twist him in its clutches. It was great fun! No rough river water could ever hope to compare to that of the sea. And though he made his home here, there could be no mistaking that Aqua Shallows was a sea serpent. He could and had stirred the waters of his home far worse than the storm ever hoped to be able to.

"By the depths, this is nostalgic," he smiled, letting the rise and swell of the river swish around his tail. "Oh! But I have no time for being lost to old memories now! Not when there's guests to see to! Two visits in a single season! Oh my, how busy it has been recently!"

With a few more glances around for the greenest grass and the odd crab apple, he picked up the dish shaped rock he had carved out years before as part of a set and made his way to the lovely, little riverbed he called his home. The waterfalls that surrounded him were overflowing with water, and carried with them hundreds of broken branches and leaves into his abode.

"And of course, it had to be when my place is an absolute mess that I end up with company over! Of all the luck! If it isn’t some horrible magic messing with my moustache, it’s the weather tearing apart my hard work." He looked down at the platter in his hands then at the mess before him. No, the mess could wait until later. Entertaining guests was too rare a pleasure to worry about anything else for the moment.

Still the state of Aqua’s home made him sigh heavily as he slid his hand across the curtain of water, blocking its flow to reveal the trio from the nearby pony village. Day after day for a whole week he watched the three of them perform their play in the skies above his home! Night after night they would take him up on his hospitality. Not long ago, if a serpent had told Aqua that he'd have house guests for a full week he would have laughed the idea off as insanity. But here they were! Swimming, flying, and coming to him for advice of all things! Laughter, jokes, and stories echoed against the walls of his guest room. It was enough to bring a tear to his eye. If only he had known about ponies sooner!

He swooped the platter down beside the three friends with a large smile, "I'm Baaa~aack! And supper has been served. You're sure I can't tempt you with some fish? I have some lovely trout that is just perfect for this time of year."

"No, this is great! Thanks!" the cyan pony with the gorgeously colourful mane answered for the others. The others gazed a little nervously at him before he remembered. Ponies weren’t fond of meat, of course. A frown formed as he quietly berated himself for the faux pas.

"After all,” the colourful one continued, thankfully changing the subject so he could save face, “an athlete has got to be careful of their diets. Especially with the big show coming up!"

"Oh, I know how that is. You wouldn't believe what I have to go through to keep this slender figure." He ran his hands down his scales, remembering all too well how often he had to watch hungrily by the way side when the salmon would run. Every spring and always right on time. Oh those delectable salmon! Why, if he ever allowed himself to eat his fill, his body would probably clog up the entire river.

"Wow, this all looks too good to wait." The dragon grinned while rubbing his hands together looking at the spread of food with greedy eyes. Now, what was his name? Really now, they’d been here a week already and he still didn’t have their names down. His manners had certainly declined. Oh yes, it was Spike. Rarity's little complication. Really, he was such a doll, and so full of heart and spunk! It was little wonder the dragon had caught her eye. Spike managed to tear his eyes from his supper long enough to ask: "Are you coming in, Mr. Shallows?"

"Oh, yes! Of course, look at me, swimming here and letting in the rain. Please forgive me; I am just the worst host. You must think my manners are utterly atrocious!" He slid comfortably into place letting the waterfall stream back in place behind him.

“fey feem fine foo me,” the smaller orange pegasus managed out around a mouthful of grass. Then her eyes went wide, and the grass fell out of her mouth as one of his large hands came down for her. She stood up and tried to make a run for it. "No! Wait!"

As usual her protests were too little, too late. Next thing Scootaloo knew she was quickly scooped up into yet another big, wet hug.

"You are just the most adorable thing! I can't help myself!"

"Yeah, I got that the first ten times." Her annoyed expression only made her seem that much more adorable to the large serpent. He had to hug her again before setting the soaking wet pegasus back between Spike and Rainbow Dash who openly snickered. She fixed her friends with a flat look that only made her teammates burst into full out laughter. Even purposefully shaking the water off right next to them didn’t dampen their amusement in the slightest. Getting back at her Captain was definitely off limits, but Spike, on the other hoof, was always fair game. He noticed her smirk too late and didn’t have time to dodge when Scootaloo leaped at him.

“Aaaauh! C-c-cold! No! No no no no no! Off! Off! Get off!” Spike’s words came out in a high-pitched squeal and his back went ramrod straight as Scootaloo’s soaked, cold fur was pressed into his scales.

“Nope! I like it riiiiiight here.” Scootaloo tightened her hold around one of the conveniently placed, easy-to-grip spines along his back, her soaked fur leaving freezing trails of cold water dripping down his sides. She spread out and stretched as far as she could, and wrapped herself around him. “You’re like a big, portable heater!”

“Gah! No! Not-a-heater! Not-a-heater!” Spike protested, hastily jumping to his feet and bucking around the cave doing everything in his power to remove the stubborn pegasus from his back.

Dash laughed uproariously as she watched her fledgling’s antics. Spike’s torso and legs were the size of Big Macintosh. The strange, lengthy, muscular forearms helped along with his big, bulky hips, hind legs, and a tail that was his length again all combined to give him enough leverage and strength to equal ten strong stallions. Yet all of that power came to nothing when matched up against Scootaloo's prowess. She knew all of his tricks, a thousand rehearsals of their air show had given her plenty of experience dodging and staying out of reach of his tail. Poor Spike had no chance of dislodging her.

“Rainbow Dash, I know this may sound a bit strange asking only after your team already stayed here a week, but I simply must ask why have you chosen to practice here? It seems like it would be very inconvenient for you.” Aqua used the distraction to finally put forth the question he’d been aching to ask since their arrival. It felt like it might have sent the wrong message before. That he didn’t appreciate their company, or wanted them gone, which of course was the furthest thing from the truth! With the other two preoccupied, however, it seemed like now would be the best time to ask.

“Admittedly, I think we were all a little iffy on the idea at first,” Dash answered, scarfing down a pile of grass. “But the more time we spend here, the better I think the idea was! We couldn’t train at our old spot anymore. Too many fans found out about it. We can’t even walk through the streets back home without drawing a crowd. We were forced to pick a new place. You got cliffs and water falls, and water, and plenty of open sky here. We also don’t have to worry about anyone stealing our airspace over the Everfree.”

“I see! Well, that does make some sense, but aren’t you worried it might be unsafe? Perish the thought of any of you being hurt, but this forest was abandoned by ponies centuries ago, and with good reason! I would hate to see one of you caught by the dreadful things that can lurk around here. Especially while staying under my roof!” He raised his hand to his forehead dramatically, genuinely aghast at the thought. “And just for an empty place to fly at that! If you’d like I could tell you of some better spots by the seashore that have the most fantastic views where no pony has ever set hoof.”

“Actually, there’s a bit more reason than this being a secluded sky,” Rainbow Dash admitted. “Our biggest focus is going to be working on tail strength and control. Spike seems to have it down pat, and I think your swimming lessons had something to do with that. You taught him how to use his wings and tail. Normally ponies just paddle along with our legs. I figured if we could find a way to copy your swimming techniques it could help us in the sky the same way it did for Spike. That’s why we’ve spent as much time in the water with you as we have up in the clouds.”

“Then you’re really here-” the serpent sniffled a little, “to see moi?”

“Uh, as long as that means you, yeah! You’ve been awesome about it too, Mr. Shallows. Setting out our meals for us, taking us in at night, helping us practice, I gotta say we really appreciate everything you’ve done.”

“Oh, you’re all so precious! It’s no trouble at all. Please, call me Aqua, and stay however long you need!” He leaned down, coiling his upper body to comfortably lie down on the rocks. “Just do be careful, and never tread too far from Spike when you’re on the ground. I worry so!”

Dash rolled her eyes and chuckled, “Dragon, smagon. Pegasi can handle anything this old forest can throw at us. I mean, Spike was helpful fighting off that manticore and all, but I could have taken it on and gotten away on my own, and I doubt it would ever get the chance to touch Scoot.”

“Fighting off? Taken it on?” Aqua gasped covering his mouth. “Y-you didn’t actually confront one did you?!”

“Well yeah, when we were going home after the last time we came by. It came out snarling and roaring, and we wrestled and fought. It was all pretty epic.” She flipped her hair back with a hoof, closing her eyes as if it was just another walk in the park for someone of her skill, sneaking a peek to measure his reaction at their awesomeness.

“Oh, how dreadful! Why didn’t Spike just scare it off?” Aqua couldn’t help but wonder if he had missed something. Surely a species that was so put off by even mentioning meat as a possible food substance wasn’t one to go picking fights.

“Scare it off? Aqua, Spike might be strong, but he isn’t exactly scary.” Dash gestured to him to prove her point. He had given up fighting Scootaloo and slumped over on his stomach as the victorious pegasus nestled herself between his spines. He fidgeted as she made herself comfortable, still gasping as the cold from the wet pony settled in. When finally comfy she gave the dragon a playful grin, and it was his turn to wear a flat look.

“Oh well, certainly Spike is no brute, but that isn’t at all to what I’m referring. I speak of the aura of fear all dragons give off naturally. Do you really not know?”

With a miserable sigh Spike puffed out a burst of flame, further fueling the little campfire Aqua had so graciously allowed in this little partition of his home that was behind the waterfall. It sounded like just one more aspect of being a dragon he wasn’t any good at. “Aura of awkwardness maybe, but that’s about it. The only time I can scare anypony is if greed takes control.”

“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash agreed, “being like eight stories high and going on a rampage is a quick way to scare anything.”

“Oh dear, you really don’t know?” Aqua paused studying each of their expressions carefully. Three pairs of curious eyes met his. “How frightful! Raising a little dragon must be a very harrowing task when knowing so little about them. Well, I can’t just let this be. Allow me to explain further. The fear I speak of isn’t the same kind of fear you get from being startled. I suppose it’s closer to an enchantment really. Dragons refer to it, rather appropriately I might add, as 'Dragon Fear'. They have a natural ability to emanate a feeling of overpowering fear all around them. It’s somewhat of a defense mechanism for both themselves and the creatures that live near their dens, as I understand it. It’s used most often to keep away unwanted and often unintentional visitors.”

“So they can make things afraid?” Scootaloo raised her head and folded her hooves over Spike’s back, “That doesn’t make any sense. There’s nothing scary about Spike.”

“Maybe I’m just not big enough yet. I know being a dragon made a lot of ponies nervous in Cloudsdale,” he tapped his chin as he thought out loud.

“Oh? But I was almost certain you were old enough. You seem like you’d be able to use it. Are you quite sure you can’t?” The large serpent leaned over Spike curiously inspecting him. “I don’t know how it works, I thought it was something dragons just did. Have you ever tried it?”

“I don’t think I can, Mr. Shallows. Nothing like that has ever happened around me. Besides, Twilight would have told me about that kind of ability for sure. She’s been studying my draconic abilities since I was just out of my egg. Outside of my fire breath, there isn’t any magical abilities in me. How would I even try to do something like that, anyway? Is there any documents or anything we could read up on?”

“Well, I’m not really sure to be hon-”

“No.” Aqua was cut off mid-sentence as Rainbow Dash stood up and made her way over to her fledgling.  “You can, Spike. It has happened before, you just don’t remember. Scootaloo, get behind me.”

Scootaloo and Spike glanced at each other then back to their Coach. Scootaloo spoke up, not wanting to give up her freshly won warmth. “Captain, I really don’t think tha-”

“Now!” she barked the order so suddenly, so loudly that both of her fledglings were startled to attention. Scootaloo lowered her head, afraid now but not of Spike. She gave him an apologetic look as she followed her Captain’s order, slumping off his back and making her way over.

Spike didn’t really acknowledge it. He was too preoccupied with the serious expression in Rainbow Dash’s eyes. “Dash, what’s gotten into you?

“It’s for her protection. The last time you did this, you were a little out of sorts. If we’re going to practice this, she needs to be out of reach. At least until you have gotten control over it.”

“D-Dash, uh, you’re kinda scaring me,” Spike gulped loudly backing off, unsure of what she was getting at. He couldn’t keep the tremble from his voice as he added: “I, uh, I think you g-got it backwards. Y-you’re not supposed to s-scare the d-d-dragon, you know?”

 “I’m scaring you because somewhere in there, you know what’s coming, and you’re not going to like it.” Dash gave him a grin, one that wasn’t comforting at all if you knew anything about Rainbow Dash. She took a step towards him and he took a step back. “I don’t know much about studies, or bookwork, or dragons, but I do know about instincts. They don’t come from any book. Something’s gotta trigger them first. Spike, do you remember the first time you used fire?”

“Of course not, I was way too young at the time.”

“How about the first time you used your fire to teleport something?” Dash tried, causing him to think back.

“Well no, not really. Why?”

“That’s what I thought. How about when you went through your greed growth? Or the first time you flew?” She ignored his question and offered another two of her own, all while taking careful steps towards him, but lost in thought he had forgotten to keep backing up.

“No, and no again. I mean I remember the first part when I just started growing, but things start to get blurry after that. Same with fighting the manticore, after you and Rarity left, things start getting hazy.” Spike furrowed his brow as he fought to remember any of the events Dash mentioned, but nothing was coming.

“That’s kind of strange, isn’t it, Spike?” She put a hoof on his shoulder. “Not remembering any of those events? If any one of them happened to me, I’m pretty sure I’d be bragging about most of them all the time.”

“Yeah, I guess I see the pattern now, but how did you know? I mean, that I wouldn’t remember about my flame?”

“I guessed. I knew you couldn’t remember the greed growth and your first flight. Considering how you learned them both, I always figured it was just too traumatic and left it at that.” She gave him a couple pats on the shoulder, before continuing with a wry smile. “And while I hate to say this to a pal, the night you used this dragon fear of yours it wasn’t trau-matic, it was dra-matic. Overdramatic, if you know what I mean. I know you didn’t forget that night, because you showed up the next week for flight practice. You remember joining the team, you remember why you joined. So I want you to think back to that night and what you told me, of the feelings you had when the idea of Rarity moving away really sunk in.”

"Is not doing that a choice?" Spike asked, a note of pleading in his voice.

"Come off it, Spike. All of this stuff is as much apart of you as the wings on your back. Do you really want to pretend like it doesn't exist? Give up on it before you even try?"

"Fine." Spike muttered in answer again. "I'll give it a shot."

"Good." Rainbow Dash placed a comforting hoof on his snout. "Now, close your eyes, and try to remember."

He clenched his eyes shut, straining to recall the events of the day in question: the day that started it all. It was the day that had lead to every trial and triumph he’d been through over the last few months. He thought back until he could hear the train whistle again, and the noise of the crowd all around him as dozens of ponies said their goodbyes. The scent of the steam engine tickled at his lungs.
 
"It's a good thing I won't have to burden you with it much longer."

Rarity’s voice floated back to him, and he nearly choked on the undertow of feelings that welled up inside him at the sound. She was only speaking of him carrying her luggage, and it slipped out. He wasn’t supposed to know yet. He wasn’t supposed to know that she was leaving him.

“I don’t- I can’t Dash, I just-”

“You can!” His coach’s voice felt far away, but still managed to pierce the vivid memory and emotions he’d somehow fallen into. “You can do this, Spike. I’ll help. Remember when I tossed that “How-to-Fly’ book out the window?”

“Maybe I should go get that... Twilight's going to be miffed."

His answer came back to him as he saw the book sail out the window once more. He knew it wasn’t the answer Dash was looking for. She was offering him the chance of a lifetime, and he was still despondently looking at the book, idly wondering what trouble he might in for if Twilight Sparkle found out he was a possible accomplice to a book's defenestration in her library.

"Forget Twilight right now, I'm saying you need to be serious about this, and I want an answer!"

She wanted him to be excited about learning to fly, but the only thing running through his mind was a feeling of emptiness so vast that it left him near-quaking in its presence. Just when it seemed like he was closer to her than ever, Rarity was leaving. He was going to lose her. Flying would never play any part in his life as Twilight’s assistant. The only reason he was even researching it was because Twilight had come up with the idea.

He remembered saying as much, and remembered the response.

"I can't believe I just heard a creature with wings utter that sentence. Even at her worst Fluttershy still wanted to learn to fly!"

Flying! Flying! Flying! The world as he knew it was being torn out from under him, his heart was wrenching and twisting as if cut with a knife, and Rainbow Dash gets upset because he isn’t jumping for joy?! Over flying?!  Did she even understand? Flying didn’t matter! Nothing mattered! He didn't care about flying! In fact-

“I COULDN’T CARE LESS!” Spike shouted his answer at the ghost of memories echoing throughout the cave, his anger boiling over from the turmoil of deep emotions that were threatening to drown him. Suddenly he was up on his feet, his wings reached high up over him, making the young dragon seem much larger and more threatening than he was. He could hear the rush of blood pumping in his ears, his heart beating a mile a minute. A scent of smoke flooded the area, and everypony was left with a burning sensation crawling up and down their skin. His breath came in heaves, and flames licked alongside wicked looking fangs.

In front of him stood his teammates, terrified, frozen in fear. Their blood ran cold, and a feeling of dread ran down their spines. Even the large serpent stumbled back towards the entrance of the cave. Everything was deathly silent, and somehow even drowning out the raging storm outside. Everything was still, waiting for the slightest hint of movement.

Dash had gotten too close, and his surprising presence forced her to flinch. The sudden movement caught his eye, and his tail lashed out towards her. Instead it sailed wide and wedged itself in a rock a tail length from where Rainbow Dash stood. For a long drawn out moment the four friends were caught in this state before Spike finally came back to his senses. His eyes were wide with fright, and he pulled his tail back to his chest, wrapping his arms around it, and wrapping his wings around himself.

“I-I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it! It was an accident!” He tightly gripped his tail. The words were as much to reassure himself as they were his friends.

“No! Don’t be sorry! That’s what you were supposed to do!” Dash smiled, reaching up to tap him on the nose. “Did you see the look on our faces? We were terrified! That’s what you were supposed to be going for!”

“Indeed! Bravo dear Spike bravo! You performed magnificently! Why I was so scared I can still feel the chills in my tail.” Aqua gestured to the tip of his tail after applauding cheerfully. “No creature in the Everfree will ever bother you again as long as you can do that.”

“How can you guys be so happy about this! I nearly skewered Rainbow Dash on my tail!”

“Nearly?” Dash frowned and looked over at the broken rock where his tail strike had landed. She’d need to be three times her width again for it to have been a threat. “I don’t think you know what nearly means. I was dead center in front of you Spike, completely immobile. You didn’t just miss, you never even came close.”

“But I could have killed you!”

“Yeah, but you knew you shouldn’t, and you didn’t. So nothing to worry about, right?” The smile she offered wasn’t as contagious as she hoped it would be. It turned into a frown and she strained to reach up and stroke her hoof along his neck. “Spike, you are a dragon, and that’s not just okay, it’s pretty awesome.”

“I know. Of course I know I’m a dragon.” His reply came out in a muttered whisper as he lay down on his belly and rested his head on his hands. His wings folded up and his tail coiled around himself comfortingly. He tried to ignore how nice the hoof running along his shoulders felt. “Don’t you think I know that better than you?”

“Then why do you keep trying to forget it, Big Guy? Why is it that whenever you have some big landmark dragon moment in your life, you go and lock it away in that thick skull of yours?” She rapped on his head jokingly to emphasize her point.

“Because it isn’t all just eating gems and having sweet fire breath abilities. There are other things about being a dragon that are really dangerous. I have to keep control or something really bad could happen.”

“Then stop doing it wrong.” Dash rolled her eyes and swatted him in the back of the head. “Blocking your instincts isn’t the same as controlling them, Spike! You have to stop being scared of them. You won’t hurt anypony. You know that, right? Even when you went all dragon attack over Ponyville, not a single pony was hurt.”

“Yeah I only pillaged and destroyed the town. Yay me. Woooh.” His tone dripped with sarcasm as he rubbed his head where she smacked him.

“Yeah, you have that in common with a swarm of adorable houseflies, an ursa minor, and Discord. Even a pack of rabbits nearly destroyed Ponyville.” She took a seat at his Spike’s side and leaned her back against him with her forelegs behind her head as she relaxed. “I can’t tell you how many roofs I’ve caved in with experimental stunts. It just happens from time to time. Gotta just let that kind of thing slide.”

Spike couldn’t stop the grin as he thought of the many times Dash crashed through the library. He perked his head up and glanced towards her curiously. What if she frequented other houses as many times as she had his? “How many have you-”

“Leeeeet’s just leave it at a lot,” she interrupted his question with a dismissive wave of her hoof, and a sly smile. Her answer left him with a small chuckle in spite of himself. “The point is you specifically went around causing no real harm to anypony. Even when you let your instincts take the lead, you’re still you, Big Guy. You need to take a hold of the reins not bury them. Now, what were you thinking about? How did you get the fear to kick in?”

“I, uh, well-” He looked down and began to awkwardly fidget, pressing the tips of his claws together as a deep red glow began to flush against purple cheeks “I was just, you know, thinking about Rarity leaving.”

“Now there’s a big surprise,” Scootaloo butted in, laughing, earning a frown and a glare from the dragon. “But if Spike thinking about Rarity caused dragon fear, nopony in Ponyville would even be able to get out of their house.”

“Young love! Isn’t it just so darling!” Aqua squealed in delight, once again scooping up the unsuspecting pegasus and hugging her to his chest. Scootaloo’s ear twitched in irritation as she found her fur utterly soaked yet again. She glowered at Spike whose glare had quickly changed to a satisfied smile. Justice attained.

“I don’t know, the Squirt’s gotta point. You do have that particular pair of pretty eyes on the mind a lot,” Dash agreed with amusement as she lazily opened one eye to peek over at Scootaloo’s predicament. “There must have been something different about it that night. I don’t think it was just cause you were down in the dumps either. It’s not like you’ve never been sad before.”

“I was going through a lot that night. I don’t know how we’d tie it down to just one thing. It could have even been the whole mix of emotions that brought it out.” Spike furrowed his brow in thought before remembering he wasn’t even sure he wanted the answer. “Do we have to talk about this? Why would I ever want that stupid power anyway? Who would want to go around scaring things?”

“For the same reasons an assistant librarian would learn to fly?” Dash gave his ribs a nudging elbow. “And because you never know when it might be useful. Besides, what else would we talk about tonight? The storm that’s keeping us from practicing? The delay it’s going to cause in what little time we have left to train? Or maybe we should chat about all our apprehension from knowing that nopony anywhere else in Equestria has ever even heard of weather delays so our biggest competitors are getting an edge on us as we speak?”

“Uh, I was hoping something more upbeat than that, actually. Like-” he rifled through his brain for a topic, “-everypony’s favourite food?”

“Wheaties.” Dash answered shortly.

“Anything with daisies in it,” Scootaloo managed to answer as she squeezed her way out of Aqua’s grip to hover on her own.

“Oh, I absolutely adore the salmon here in the spring,” Aqua added as he brought his large hands up to shield himself from Scootaloo as she shook off the water beside him. It was such a disgusting habit! Wet hair everywhere. The things a host had to put up with!

“Good, great conversation,” Dash continued with a smirk. “Now about that dragon fear, you forgot using it the first time. Did it happen any other time that you just forgot?”

Spike snorted in exasperation. “If I forgot it, what would be the sense in asking me if I remember it?”

“Well excuuuse me for trying to figure this thing out for you,” she growled out, her impatience beginning to show.

“How about when you first came through the Everfree with Rarity?” Aqua piped up. “You said you came through the trails without incident, correct? It sounded so strange to hear this deep in the wood that I was certain you were already using dragon fear instinctively to protect yourselves.”

“Yeah, it was the most boring nature walk I’ve ever been on. We didn’t even see any birds or anything, but I didn’t know anything about dragon fear at the time.”

“You didn’t see or hear any birds? In a forest?” Aqua continued to pick at Spike’s words which annoyed him to no end, but when he thought back, he couldn’t deny it. There was no sound of anything around him. Like the whole place was uneasy at their passing.

“No. There were no birds, squirrels, or anything. It was just bland, really.”

“And that didn’t strike you as weird at all?” Scootaloo landed beside Spike and gave him a skeptical look.

“Hey, it’s a weird forest, okay? I don’t know what goes on around here normally.” He leaned away from her defensively.

“Okay, so what were you feeling then?” Dash turned over to stand up, her interest was piqued now.

Spike thought back to that time, but couldn’t remember anything really specific or noteworthy. Like he said, it was really boring. “I was mostly just focused on keeping an eye out for anything that would come after Rarity and me.”

“Well, that doesn’t really help. I mean you’re scared a lot, it’s never made me freeze up like that before.” Scootaloo shook her head.

“Hey! I wasn’t scared,” Spike scoffed kind of insulted at the insinuation. “In fact, I was practically hoping something would happen!”

“Oh yeah? Then why?”

“Why? Well, because, um,” He hesitated uncertain of how to answer that in any way that wouldn’t land him in hot water. “I just was, okay?”

“Yeah, right. Here comes Spike, the most fearful dragon in all the land! Roar!” Scootaloo stood up on her hind legs and imitated Spike’s stance from earlier. She was halfway into a second fake roar when she thought about what she said. “Uh, I meant fearful as in, you know, not actually fearful like giving off fear, but just, umm, actually being afraid of other fearful things. I mean, not fearful things as in other scared things, but-”

“Stop! I know what you meant!” Spike pinched her muzzle closed between his thumb and index finger. The scribe in him couldn’t let this slaughter of language continue. “J-ju-just stop. Stop pretending you know how to talk. Speech is obviously not a skill you are especially proficient in. Let’s both pretend you said the witty thing that you almost said, and forget what you actually said.”

Scootaloo answered only with a noncommittal grunt, unable to say anything more intelligible while her muzzle was still ensnared in his grip. When Spike released her a moment later, she twitched and wiggled her nose around, testing to see if it was still in working order.

 Rainbow Dash ignored the two’s antics and instead rolled the scene through her mind’s eye. Spike and Rarity were walking through the woods with no sounds of bird calls, or the chittering of squirrels anywhere around. Spike was on high alert, waiting for anything to happen. Could that have been it? No, Spike had obviously been on high-alert plenty of times before. So what was different about the scene than normal?

They were in the Everfree, so something could come upon them at any second, but Spike had been beside the girls through thick and thin before and it never triggered this. He was alone with Rarity, but then they went out by themselves a lot, and Rarity never mentioned feeling scared around Spike.

Spike said he wasn’t scared. Why wouldn’t he be scared? Even if he wasn’t thinking of his own health he should have been afraid for Rarity’s, the pony of his dreams. She could have been attacked at any moment. So why wouldn’t he be worried about something show up? Unless he-

“I don’t believe it.” The pieces fell into place and set Dash rolling on to her side, laughing like a loon. Just the image, the thought of that ever happening, was beyond anything even remotely relating to him it almost brought her to tears. “I don’t believe it! I never would have guessed! But they do say it’s the quiet ones you gotta look out for.”

“I, uh, did I miss something?” Spike turned to Aqua and Scoot who both shrugged and shook their heads. He looked back to his friend, somewhat worried she had suddenly gone stir crazy from sitting in this cave too long. He bent down to help her up. “Dash? Are you alright?”

“Am I alright? That depends. Are you going to take another swing at me there, Spike?” She snorted through continued bouts of laughter. "Oh jeez, Spike. Our dearest little assistant librarian here, was creeping through the Everfree looking for a fight to show off for his marefriend!”

“Horsefeathers.” He let her drop and she howled in fits of laughter at his reaction, as if it was all the confirmation she’d ever need. He heard a snort of laughter behind him. He knew he shouldn’t look, he already knew what he’d see, but he turned anyway just in case he was wrong. Nope!

Scootaloo was choking as she tried to hold the laughter in. At least Mr. Shallows wasn’t laughing, he just looked confused. Spike had enough. “What is so funny about me fighting to protect a pony?!”

“I’m sorry, Spike.” Dash put a hoof on the ground in attempt to stand. Her legs were still a little shaky as her body trembled at the will of some powerful force of humour that he couldn’t see. “It’s just as far as dragons go you’re more of a book wyrm. You hardly ever leave the library without Twilight by your side or one of her checklists in your claw. You’ve never gotten in a real fight before the manticore showed up. Your first tactic is almost always a strategic retreat when a fight does come your way. Just the idea of watching you actually out on the prowl and looking to get in trouble, I didn’t even think you had it in you!”

“T-that’s not true!” he protested quickly. “I even fended off an entire pack of diamond dogs! For about a minute…”

“Sorry, yeah that’s true. You did.” Dash’s admission of her mistake did nothing to help his crumpled pride as she wiped a tear from her eye. “And I guess the fear thing didn’t kick in cause they took you by surprise like the manticore did, or because you knew we’d be doing most of the work if it came to that in the tunnels. I’m sorry, Spike, it just doesn’t seem like you. I’ve known you for years and have never ever seen you out looking for trouble! You can barely pull a decent prank let alone pick a fight!”

He folded his arms and scowled, studiously avoiding looking at anypony. “I still don’t see what’s so funny about it.”

“Anyway, Mr. Grumpy, you should thank me. I figured out how you do the magical fear thing.” She rubbed a hoof against her chest as if actually waiting for a ‘thank you’.

“Yeah? And how do I do that then? Look for trouble? In spite of what you seem to think about me I was in trouble all time back in Canterlot.”

“But you were too young then. You were probably still too young when you went up against the diamond dogs,” Dash pointed out. “Besides, it wasn’t that you went out looking for trouble it was how you looked for it. You wanted to be the big, bad dragon, ready to beat down anything that even as much as thought about taking you and Rarity. In short, you wanted to be scary.”

“I wanted to-” he paused as he thought about it, “-be scary?”

“That’s it,” she confirmed. “That’s all there is to it. Just do what you did back then.”

“But that’s just-”

“-too easy? Too simple? Think about it, Spike. When have you ever actually tried to scare somepony? You’re usually obsessed with trying not to scare ponies. Go ahead, give it a shot. I bet it’d work.”

He frowned thoughtfully, and turned to look over at his fellow fledgling who was just recovering from her hysterics. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

“Scoot,” he said softly.

“Wait! You’re trying it on me? I thought you we’re going to try it on the Captain! Come on, it was her idea!” She began to edge back slowly, not at all liking the thought of being trapped in that state of paralyzing fear again.

“The idea of Rarity and me? It isn’t that FUNNY!” With the last word he whipped around, his wings suddenly raised, and poised himself to strike.

Scootaloo took off like a flash, screaming as she circled around Aqua before taking cover back in his hands. She could barely be seen peeking out from between his fingers.

“Huh. It worked?” Spike paused as he turned back to Dash, a mischievous gleam in his eye.

“Hold on there, Big Guy. I’m glad you learned how to control it but that was different than last time. For one, only Scootaloo got scared, and for two she wasn’t frozen in fear.”

“She has a point,” Aqua agreed with a nod, absently petting Scootaloo who was still shivering a little in his hands, and not from the cold water for once. “It wasn’t near as powerful this time, but probably a bit more useful for traveling with friends. But I must ask you to refrain from practicing further in my home. I do hate to see my guests trembling in fear. It makes for terrible manners.”

“Oh, right. That makes sense. Sorry Scoot.” Spike laid back down on his belly and breathed a bit more flame into the campfire. He made a quick gesture with his tail to his back in peace offering, “need to dry off again?”

He was treated to a dirty look before she slowly crawled out from Aqua’s hands and hovered her way over to him, still kind of pouting as she did. “Look, can we not practice that on me? Like, ever again? It sounded cool at first, but turns out pretty awful.”

Spike frowned and nodded silently. ‘It sounded cool at first, but turned out awful.’ That same description seemed to work for most dragon powers and abilities so far. Seeing Scootaloo hesitate probably hurt more than her laughter had. He was reminded quickly just why he had never tried to scare anypony before. It was because Spike was always afraid it might work. Scootaloo gave out a little squeak as his tail coiled around her unexpectedly, and she found herself pressed up against his side protectively and wrapped tightly under a wing in its perfectly warm embrace. She snuggled against him for the warmth. Spike tried to ignore the cold and wet ball of fur wriggling against him. What was he even thinking? He should have known better. The last thing he ever wanted to do was scare away his friends.

Rainbow Dash sat across the campfire from her two flight students. Her little team had come a long way from their first lesson zip lining by Old Lake, and the finish line was in sight. She had learned so much about them both, and they had been through so much together. The expressions on their faces as they celebrated in the dressing room at the Qualifiers were forever frozen in her mind. They felt like a real team now, her fledgling fliers were all grown up and ready to strike off on their own and leave their nest behind.

“Oh! That’s right! I nearly forgot! Coach Feather Guide handed these to me before we left. Congratulations to you both.” She passed Spike a single envelope for the two of them.

He emptied the curious letter’s contents onto the moss in front of him and Scootaloo. The fire blocked Dash’s view of the items, but she already knew what they were. She just wanted to see their faces light up anyway, and light up they did as a folded piece of paper and two tough looking cards slid out. They both reached for the cards and Spike read the title out loud.

“Professional Flight Specialist. This licence qualifies the owner as a fully trained stunt dragon that is fully licenced for all manner of dangerous conditions and terrain!” His voice grew excited quickly as he gestured to the word ‘dragon’. “Look, they even changed it to dragon for me! They must be individually made!”

“Well of course!” Dash said wearing a big grin. “Not just anypony can get their hooves on one of those puppies. Only the best fliers get to carry one around.”

“I don’t even remember when they had a chance to take the picture. I’m still wearing my armour in it. They managed to get me without the helmet though. It must have been before the show.”

“Yeah, mine still has my board all wrapped up and strapped to my back.” Scootaloo announced proudly showing off the card.

“So I could go right now, if I wanted, right? Any kind of conditions, that’s what it says, right? Even in a storm as bad as this? I could just fly off and see her right now.” Spike traced his claws along the card’s surface. He had worked so hard for this small, tiny thing. He looked up at Dash who was sporting a smile as wide as her face. Then back at Scootaloo who frowned at him, and and tugged his wing tighter around her as if making sure he wasn’t actually going to go right then and there. Spike gave her a toothy grin and looked back down to the card. No, he didn’t work for this silly thing. Helping his team achieve their dreams, that was the real reason behind all his effort. This card? Well it was just a boon on top of that larger, nobler goal. A totally super awesome boon.

“You could,” Dash agreed, “and what’s more you’re good enough at flying to actually succeed at it. I wouldn’t advise you to try, a good flier knows when to challenge the sky and when not to, but you could.”

“What’s the letter say Spike?” Scootaloo urged him to read it, not wanting to move from her comfortable warmth even to reach over for it.

“Letter?”  Rainbow Dash perked up. There wasn’t any letter, at least not one that was supposed to be there. Oh no, did she forget to take it out?!

Spike read the top line and Dash held her breath. This wasn’t when she wanted to tell them.

“Oh, it’s not for us, Scoot. It’s addressed to our incredible Captain.” He puffed a green flame and the letter burned to ash before appearing in front of Dash.

“Show off.” She stuck out her tongue at him as she snatched it out of the air. There was no need to unfold the piece of paper. It had already been read at least five hundred times already. Rainbow Dash knew every single word by heart. She looked back up at the fledglings and was met by two large pairs of curious eyes waiting expectantly. No, they weren’t fledglings anymore. They had their cards now. That meant she was looking at fully trained stunt pony and stunt dragon. Their team was no longer made up of two fledglings and a Coach. It was now comprised of two full-fledged wingponies and a Captain. Maybe it was time they understood that. She cleared her throat, opened up the letter, and proceeded to read it with her eyes closed.

“To Captain Rainbow Dash of the Skyblazer Crusaders. We, the Wonderbolts, would like to formally extend an invitation for you to attend our next tryouts starting on the first week of this coming Spring. We recognize that you have not been afforded the usual prerequisite credentials normally required for an official membership with our team. In your case it has been deemed necessary to make an exception to our normally rigid selection process. Your exemplary flight skills had our members watching your progress closely since the Best Young Fliers Competition. Off the track your loyalty is known to all in Equestria. Now to further add to your impressive reputation, the air show you put together with the two fledglings that you personally trained has convinced us more than ever before that we want you as part of this team’s future. You have more than proven yourself time and again of your worth to wear a flight suit with our symbol on your flank.

Looking forward to flying with you,

Captain Spitfire of The Wonderbolts”

Dash opened her eyes to see her teammates silently staring at her, eyes wider than before and jaws gone slack as they searched for words. Scootaloo seemed to find them first.

“Oooooooohhh myyyyyyy gooooooosh! Omygoshomygoshomygosh!” The orange blur was on top of Rainbow Dash wrapping her up in a big, wet hug before her Captain knew what hit her.

“Youdidityoudidityoudidityoudidit! I knew it! Rainbow Dash! Best flier in Equestria! Right here! My Captain and personal trainer, and this just in, the newest member of The Wonderbolts!”

“That’s awesome! That’s totally amazing Dash! Wait until everypony hears about this back home! I could send a letter to Twilight right now! I bet Pinkie would have the whole town out waiting for you by the time we get back.”

“No! No Spike, do not send Twilight any letters!” Dash grunted out as she managed to wrestle her excited teammate down. “Scootaloo, stop! Would you just stop and listen? There’s more you two gotta know.”

“There’s more?” Scootaloo’s eyes probably couldn’t get any larger if you taped them open.

“Yes. Look, no letters back home. Nopony knows about this but us, and I plan to keep it that way. No more parties. No more celebrations. No more anything like that until we come back from the competition.”

“Oooh right.” Spike snapped his fingers as he understood. “I getcha. Keeping our eye on the prize.”

“Yeah, something like that. And you,” Dash said as she looked down at Scootaloo who smiled up at her excitedly, “you settle down and go back over to sit by Spike. I have an important question for both of you. Aaaand also because you’re still soaking wet.”

Scooatloo grinned sheepishly as her Captain tentatively released her. By the time Dash shook the water from her fur her protégé was nestled back in with the dragon wing around her once more. With an approving nod to them both, Dash continued. “Good. Now that you’re both sitting down, there’s a fair chance I’ll be declining their invitation.”

“What?!” they both cried out at once.

“Now hear me out! The reason is I think I just might have a better offer.”

“A better offer than joining the greatest flight team ever?” Scootaloo asked incredulous over the idea of rejecting The Wonderbolts. “What? Is Princess Celestia appointing you Sky Captain over all of Equestria?”

“No, Scootaloo, you don’t understand. No one’s made me a better offer, I mean I have an offer of my own that I’m going to make.”

“Rainbow Dash, you are not going to do what I think you’re going to do.” Spike stated with no small amount of seriousness. She had that look in her eye she always got whenever she thought of some crazy, fool stunt to attempt. “You’re not, are you?”

“Spike, Scootaloo,” Dash began.

“She is.” Spike laid his chin on a mossy rock and covered his eyes with his hands. “She’s going to do it.”

“Ahem,” coughed Rainbow Dash after his interruption, “Scootaloo, Spike, after the competition I would like to upgrade the Skyblazer Crusaders from the fledgling flier title to form a flight team of our own on the official roster.”

“She did it! I told her not to do it, but she did it anyway,” Spike sputtered out, still hiding his eyes.

“Y-you don’t actually mean that, right Captain? It’s just a joke or a prank or something.”

“My pranks tend to have more of a punchline than that, Squirt.”

“But you can’t be serious! You’re going to reject the best flight club Equestria ever seen for us?” Scootaloo was dumbfounded. “But we’re just-we’re just-”

“The best wingponies a Captain could ever wish for,” Dash finished for her. “You two are just being short-sighted. I never told anypony this, but a long time ago, Nightmare Moon offered me the chance to join a team that could be better than The Wonderbolts. I almost jumped at it too. The Wonderbolts are heads and tails by far the best flight team we’ve ever seen, their closest competition are miles behind them. That’s how things are going to stay too until some team does something about it.  I think it’s time a flight team gave them a proper challenge; a real run for their bits. A couple months ago I asked you both if you could be the flight team that could do what no other flight team could do before. Well, no Flight Team has ever been worthy competition to The Wonderbolts. Now I’m asking you again, are you willing to be THAT team?”

Scootaloo stared dumbly at her Team Captain at an utter loss for words. Spike spread his fingers apart to peek out at her and muttered: “What you asked before wasn’t impossible, it just hadn’t been done before.”

“Which makes it absolutely no different from what I’m asking you now. Beating The Wonderbolts is not impossible. It just takes time, effort, talent, and endurance. They have a lot on us. New well-trained, and talented recruits annually refill their roster. Their flight coaches are the best in the world, and their training centers are always cutting edge. They’re the cream of the crop, but we have a lot more going for us.”

“Like what exactly?” asked Spike, “because from where I’m sitting, it seems like they have the upper hoof here by a very, very wide margin.”

“I’m glad you asked. Among their many recruits not a single one has ever been, or will likely ever be a dragon. We’ve got one. Among that huge roster of theirs, not a single pegasus has ever heard the sky call. Well, we’ve got two of those. Their cutting edge training facilities will never hold up to what Ponyville has given us naturally. If we want to try our talents against a hurricane? No problem. You want cloud formations? Ponyville’s got the roughest, wildest, toughest clouds hanging over the Everfree all year long. If you can shape those clouds, anything else will be a breeze. One forest flight will get you all the obstacle dodging training you’ll ever need. Cloudsdale barely knows what a tree looks like. Friends in high places? Both teams have that. But we also have friends in low places. From sea serpents to carpenters, and from librarians to fashion designers and everything in between, we know them all.”

“B-but what about Spike?” Scootaloo piped up after she found her voice. “He doesn’t want to be a flight team anything. He wants to be a hero!”

“That’s exactly why I’m making him this offer.” Spike raised his head at Rainbow Dash’s answer. “Go ahead, Spike. Why don’t you tell Scoot who Princess Celestia calls to for help all across Equestria.”

“The Wonderbolts!” Spike exclaimed, finally understanding. “She gets them whenever there’s trouble!”

“That’s right! And we could probably convince her to send us out on missions every now and then too. In fact a well-trained flight team has a better chance of deployment than even a royal soldier because of political nonsense. Flight Teams are not affiliated with any particular kingdom, so we could get the call from anywhere.”

“That-That could really work!” Spike hugged Scootaloo tightly to him as things began to add up in his mind. “I mean, as long as Scootaloo-“

“Yes! Do you even have to ask?! If you’re gonna do it, of course I’m gonna do it! Especially if she’s gonna do it.” Scootaloo glanced back to Rainbow Dash. “You will do it, right? You’re serious?”

“Oh, I’m only as serious as I’ve ever been! So what do you say fliers? Is this competition going to be the last call of the Skyblazer Crusaders? Or are we going to reach for the stars? Are we going to be that team?!”

“YEAH!” Two eager voices shouted back, echoing themselves with the same answer they once used months earlier. Then they watched as Rainbow Dash fed her old dream to the fire in the form of an envelope and a letter. How many years had she been chasing that dream, before she had opened her eyes to the new one sitting right in front of her?  How long had she stagnated as a weather pony while waiting for a chance she could have been making for herself right along? The flame quickly seized the letter, burning it to ash, this time permanently. She watched it, mesmerized by the green embers that twisted and floated up and away with the smoke as it left the cave.

Outside in the storm, Aqua Shallows stood still as the waves rolled over his body. He had snuck out to do some quick housecleaning while they were busy inside. It seemed like the discussion had turned to something very personal, and he felt it would have been rude to stay. Now that he was outside, though, something seemed amiss. He was listening as hard as he could, trying to hear the forest beyond the cascading gallons and gallons of water splashing all around him. The trees were whispering their dark secrets, but they were too quiet to fully hear in the rage of the storm. Only one thing could Aqua Shallows say for certain. For their own good, his guests would definitely have to stay the night. The dangerous howl of a timberwolf in the distance left him with a shiver.

Dark shadows trembled and shook with rage while a shackled wind shrieked and roared through the leaves.

How dare they?The angry trees seemed to say as they creaked and strained in the high wind that raced, wrestled, and howled in attempt to escape the clutches of the haunted woodland. In its struggles branches were torn from their places and sent hurtling towards the strong oaks, smashing against them and tumbling to pieces upon the forest floor.

Trespassers! Vandals! Wicked creatures!

Hundreds of fallen branches lay prone, waiting to feed an eerie, green flame that crawled and jumped, spreading from one branch to another like some horrible, greedy beast. Its hunger unending, unrelenting, and it consumed everything within reach. And as the flame fed its constant need, the fiery branches began to shake and then rise into the air. More branches gathered, more and more until a shape began to form that stood on four legs, and bore wooden fangs. It snarled, jumped, and bit at the flames that eagerly ate away at its body.

Destroy them! Rip Them! Make them PAY!

The timber wolf howled in rage and pain, then tore off into a sprint through the woods. As it ran, showers of green sparks and flame leaped from its body and onto trees and sticks that were flung around in the storm. As the flames caught, more bark and branches gathered, and more beasts arose to join the growing pack. Streaks of wood and flame ran through the shadows, protected from the raging storm by vengeful trees, their howls filling the night sky.

 
Candles were still burning high in the small town library built within a tree. The day was young for Twilight Sparkle and her newly appointed assistant-in-training-also-on-probation-period, Snails. She was worried that he might take the Princess’ concerns about his disabilities combined with his latent talents badly. After all, before she went to Cloudsdale, he was a fully fledged ‘assistant-in-training’, when she came back ‘on-probation’ was tacked on. He hadn’t even done anything all that wrong while she was away. The library was back into perfect operation within ten minutes of her return.

There was a shelf of books out of place, as he had found one of her checklists and made an attempt to follow them. Unfortunately the list he found was meant for the next day, and things had to be returned to their proper places. Outside of a few boxes that been moved downstairs ahead of schedule that she had to bring back up, and reorganizing the books, he had performed his library duties adequately enough. Of course, considering she was half expecting her return to the library would be met with every manner of insect she could think of crawling all over the place, her opinion might be a little biased. She shouldn’t be happy that her assistant only made small errors. If it were Spike she’d expect the place to be better than she left it, not worse.

Even so, it didn’t seem fair that he had to be demoted for something he hadn’t even done yet, and Twilight was feeling a little guilty about it. Snails didn’t seem to mind the change in his title too much. He just gave her that same slow nod, while wearing that same dull expression he always wore after she told him the news. She was kind of disappointed that he wasn’t disappointed. She was used to Spike’s ambitious attitude to prove he was worthy of his title. Instead Snails went right back to his duties without a care in the world, happily continuing to follow her directions. His smile only made the guilt eat away at her conscience all the more. To assuage the nagging feeling, she decided she’d be ambitious enough for both of them.

It was time to teach him something other than the basic spells every pony knew. It needed to be something a bit more advanced, but also more attuned with his natural affinity so he would learn it more easily and gain some confidence. She had the perfect spell in mind, and it would even have the added benefit of helping his concentration when outside of the library! A bug repelling spell!

Now she sat watching her new student with a silly look frozen on his face. What faces did she make when concentrating this hard? Was this why Spike always enjoyed watching her try new spells? She grimaced at the unpleasant thought. Twilight making a fool of herself was exactly the kind of thing that would grab Spike’s attention and keep him around, especially when he was younger. It’d be just the kind of thing he would never tell her either, preferring just to silently continue enjoying the show.

Snails’ teeth were all but crushing his tongue where it stuck out one side of his mouth. Any sensation of pain was lost in his concentration on the tiny black beetle caged in the jar in front of him. Except it wasn’t a beetle. There was a book in front of him filled with big words he barely understood that told him so. Everypony knew the bigger the word used, the more true something was. Turns out this whole time what he thought was a simple, black ground beetle was actually a pterostichus lama! That was a really long and complicated word. A pony probably couldn’t get more truer than that. Unfortunately it meant he was way off on what he thought a real lama looked like. He always thought they were supposed to look more like camels. It also meant that he actually got that right on the spelling test he had way back. Cheerilee was going to be really surprised when he showed her this book!

He squinted harder at the subject of his attention, trying to focus the power in his horn to reach out and touch his little friend. It just wouldn’t come to him though! That was weird. Normally he was really good with bug-related spells. The pterostichus lama just sat there and watched him the whole time, silently and curiously. They were already ten minutes into it before the curious bug spoke up.

Snails, what are you trying to do exactly? ~ Its mental voice interrupted his attempt to repel the tiny lama.

Shhh! Miss Twilight says I shouldn’t talk to bugs and use magic at the same time. ~ Snails responded quickly. Word of his new posting had traveled fast among the insect kingdoms throughout the town. He was a much respected pony in certain tiny circles now, and most bugs were quick to say a polite greeting everywhere he went. Every manner of assistance he might need to train in magic was being given, often in hopes of gaining his favour. That seemed a little silly to him. Bugs always had his favour before; he wasn’t sure why they’d think they needed to earn it now. He told them as much, and they’d always just laugh and either hang out awhile, or go back to their business.

 All any of that meant now was that the pterostichus lama interrupting his practice had come to be a fairly unusual experience. It continued to do so anyway. Maybe it hadn’t heard he was supposed to be respected now. Snails hoped it would learn quickly. Miss Twilight was grimacing at him now. She probably knew they were talking in secret. There wasn’t much that got past her watchful eyes.

Well, it doesn’t seem much like you’re using any magic. That means you’re free to talk about it, right? ~ The bug reasoned out. Snails thought about it and had to concede the point. ~ What’s the trouble? Maybe I can help.

Maybe it had heard he was a respected pony. It was a kind offer, and he wasn’t getting anywhere with the book. ~ I’m supposed to be using a magic that can repel bugs. It doesn’t seem to be working though. Miss Twilight Sparkle says it works, and she’s never wrong about magic. I must be doing something wrong, but I can’t figure out what.

Why would you want to do a thing like that? ~ It took a flight assisted jump to land on the side of the glass container closest to him. ~ I thought you really liked bugs.

I do! You guys are awesome! But she says it will help my magic concentration when I’m outside the library? It’s got something to do with me being distracted too easily. ~ That explanation was kind of lost on him to tell the truth. He was a little busy talking to the fruit fly that had got in at the time she was talking about it. The little thing had just put together a nest in the trash can. She had plans for fourteen little ones on the way in the Spring! Snails advised the little fly not to nest in the bag part of it though. It was constantly being replaced. It would be really hectic to move a family that large all the time.

What if you just asked us to stay away for a bit? ~ It offered, ~ I’m sure no bug would mind as long as they weren’t in the middle of something really important.

Well, Miss Twilight is my magic teacher, so I think she wants me to do it magically. I can ask her, though. ~ It sounded like a good idea to Snails, but more like a plan B if the whole magic version didn’t work out. He was about to voice the thought when the door to the library flew open, and a frantic Fluttershy dashed in. A few dozen small animals ran in at the same time, quickly nabbing the best hiding spots they could find.

The shy pegasus squeaked out in horror around the lantern she carried in her mouth at a pitch so high Twilight was sure only the dogs of the neighbourhood could understand it.

“Fluttershy?” Twilight exclaimed in surprise, while quickly running past her friend to push the door closed behind her, a task made quite difficult by the strong storm wind trying to force it open. She knew it would take something very troubling to scare Fluttershy all the way into the middle of town in a storm this bad! “What’s wrong? What happened?”

Fluttershy meeped out anouther squeak unhelpfully as Twilight lead her inside by the fireplace to help her dry off. A towel levitated itself towards the drenched guest guided by Twilight’s pinkish-hued magical aura, and began drying her off. She looked like she was soaked to the bone, and she was pale with fright. A pink aura of magic also surrounded the lantern and slowly wiggled it loose from the death grip Fluttershy’s teeth had on it, and set it off to the side.

“Okay, take a deep breath first, wait until you’ve calmed down and then try again.” Twilight smiled trying to keep the worry from her tone. “Snails? We need tea!”

“Uh, yeah! Sure thing, Boss!” He made a quick salute and ran into the kitchen to start the water boiling.

Fluttershy pulled the towel tighter around her, slightly embarrassed at her state as she forced herself to calm down with long, gasping breaths. After a minute, her breathing began to steady. Twilight fidgeted, attempting to wait it out patiently, but the anticipation of the problem was getting to her. As soon as there were signs of her friend settling down, she asked again.

“Is everything alright, Fluttershy? What happened?”

Fluttershy gave Twilight an annoyed look. Why didn’t anypony understand? This was no time to get comfortable! She tossed the towel aside grabbed Twilight by the shoulders and yelled as loud as she could into her ear, “The TIMBERWOLVES are coming!”

“Timberwolves?” Twilight asked while leaning away from Fluttershy’s surprisingly loud shout. “Here?”

“Yes! Hundreds and hundreds of Big. Fiery. Vicious. Terrifying. TIMBERWOLVES!” She cried out to the sky and threw her forelegs open wide to show how many she thought there were. “And they’re all headed this way Twilight! The Everfree is really, really mad!”

“Wait, fiery timberwolves? How can a timberwolf be fiery? Wouldn’t they just burn up? They’re just made of broken branches.”

“But there’s hundreds, Twilight! And the animals tell me that by the time one falls ten more rise up to take its place! What are we going to do?!” Fluttershy began to panic again.

“Why would they even be on fire though? And why do you think they’re coming to Ponyville? It just doesn’t make sense.” Twilight paced back and forth until she found herself staring out the nearby window, looking for any sign of them.

“B-b-because Mr. Squirrel says,” Fluttershy swallowed the lump building in her throat, “the flame is green.”

Twilight’s eyes widened as the realization of what that could mean struck her. The reason why the haunted wood was angry and why it would attack Ponyville were instantly clear. There was only one possible source for green flame.

“Spike! It’s going after him!”

“I ran straight here just as soon as I found out,” Fluttershy agreed, looking around for the only dragon alive that wouldn’t send her screaming in terror. “I had to warn him. He has to fly away quick!”

“He’s not here. Rainbow Dash took him and Scootaloo off to train.” Twilight immediately walked over to the middle of the library and took stock of her books. Several began floating their way over to her as she browsed through the titles absently. “Snails! I need our copy of ‘Haunted Woodland Entities and Other Spooks’ and the tome of ‘Magical Safety Zones, Cones, and Circles’.”

His head peeked around the doorway to the kitchen, confusion plain on his face. “But uh, I thought you said we needed tea.”

“Forget the tea! Get the books!”

“Forgetting the tea, getting the books!” He saluted again and headed for the basement. The checklist he read said they needed the books upstairs, and then Twilight said the books needed to go back down the stairs until tomorrow, when they’d need to be brought back up again. They also needed to learn magic spells, needed to make tea, and now he needed to go back down to retrieve two of the books that weren’t supposed to come back up until tomorrow. He decided what they actually needed was a pony that could make up her mind. Maybe she was just confused about what the word need meant. He’d ask her tomorrow just to be sure. At least she had made up her mind about whether or not he was able to carry a box of books or not.

A feeling of confidence quickly replaced any previous confusion as he grasped the large box of books with his magic and lifted it easily into the air. He liked it when things worked the way he wanted it to. Really, he just liked it when things worked the way he was told they were supposed to work. It always seemed to him like that was far less common than other ponies let on. That’s one of the many reasons he liked bugs so much. They always did exactly what they said they would do so every action turned out really easy to understand, even if some of their actions were comparatively primitive and utterly brutal to ponykind. He mostly tried to avoid that violent side of their lives, but sometimes he couldn’t help having a strange lingering interest.

“Hey Boss! I got your books,” Snails called out as he finished bringing the box upstairs. It didn’t take long for him to magically root out the two titles she was looking for.

“Good job, Snails!” Twilight Sparkle quickly grabbed the two and placed them on a podium she positioned in the middle of the library. The usual rugs and mats that covered the hardwood floor had already been moved, and several candles were placed carefully in five corners. Strange symbols he had no hope of understanding were traced in chalk across the wooden surface. The animated chalk continued to move, glowing with Twilight’s power, but she barely paid it any attention. Instead she was flipping rapidly from one page to the next, scanning the two books at the same time for the rituals she was looking for.

“Rainbow Dash took them where?!” Flurreshy's eyes went wide with fright at the thought.

“The Everfree Forest,” Twilight repeated quickly, knowing that the explanation would seem strange to anypony the first time it was given. “The team is training with that sea serpent. Or is he more of a lake serpent now? Anyway, you said the timberwolves were headed this way. If they’re coming to Ponyville when Spike’s in the middle of the forest then there’s more going on than just being angry at him over the fire.”

“But aren’t they all still in danger? Shouldn’t we send them a warning right away?” The note of panic in Fluttershy’s voice began to grow stronger as Twilight seemed to ignore their friends’ predicament. 

“Absolutely, but not just to warn them. Those three are some of the most able fliers Ponyville has to offer, and we could probably use their help.” Twilight continued to explain her efforts as she went around inspecting the chalk’s work, studying each symbol carefully. “But even the best and bravest ponies won’t be able to do anything if they don’t have a way of dealing with the threat. I’m putting together a way. Don’t worry about that, though, I’ll get that letter off to Spike as soon as I’m done here. Trust me; you’ll have enough to worry about as it is.”

“I-I will?” Fluttershy squeaked out, not liking the sound of that at all.

“Fluttershy, you’re the only other pony that really knows what’s coming. That means you have to spread the word all the way across town. Pound on as many doors as you can and tell everypony to evacuate to the town hall. Send any volunteers to make their way to Sweet Apple Acres- aaaand you can’t do that can you?” Twilight paused in the middle of her inspections to see her shy friend backing slowly away from the door, fear evident in her eyes. The idea of going door-to-door was probably as frightening a prospect for the pegasus as facing down the timberwolves themselves. In fact, knowing Fluttershy she might prefer the timberwolves to the other.

“Okay, okay. How about this instead, you get Pinkie Pie to direct traffic?” Fluttershy’s ears perked up. That sounded like a far better assignment in her taste. “Then you can help coordinate efforts at the town hall. You’ll need to get them supplies, and make sure they’re prepared accept any medical emergencies, just in case.”

“Oh yes, I can do that, Twilight,” she agreed with an enthusiastic nod.

“Great! Now hurry over to Sugarcube Corner. There’s no time to waste!” With a quick nod, Fluttershy was back out in the storm, with a small scurrying of critters on her heels. Turning her attention back to the task at hoof, Twilight positioned her podium carefully in the center of the arcane circle. She opened her books of long incantations, and began scanning through the complicated gestures and words carefully. “Snails, I’ll need absolute concentration while attempting this. It’ll be up to you to make sure I’m not interrupted, okay?”

“Sure thing, Boss!” He quickly went over to lock the door and stood at attention, eyeing it for any suspicious movement. Behind him he could hear Twilight begin to speak words he’d never heard of that she often referred to as ‘elder ponic’. Apparently it was some sort of ancient language that many of the musty, older tomes were written in that had never been translated for one reason or another. Outside the raging storm pounded away at the door. Above him he could hear the creaking of the thick tree branches as they strained against the violent winds. That didn’t sound good. Maybe he should ask Twilight about it. He turned to look back at her.

The air around her was stirring, playing with her long, dark purple mane and tail.  A soft, pink glow began to emanate from the writing all over the floor, and Twilight’s eyes were now radiating a stark, white glare. Ever so slowly she began to hover off the ground in a show of power beyond anything Snails had ever witnessed. Her horn was ablaze with magic, sending specks of brilliant sparks scattering throughout the impressive spell that left a twisting wind to gather around her. The library was roaring with the rush of strong magic.

In short, she seemed pretty busy.

CRACK

“Uh-oh.” Just above the clamour of the spell-casting, Snails heard the loud snapping of one of the larger branches outside. That definitely sounded exactly like the kind of trouble that would interrupt her. He bit his lip, wondering if he should go to check on it.

CRASH

The whole tree shook that time. Something slammed into the side of Golden Oak Library, and he assumed it was related to the heavy, broken branch from earlier. This wasn’t something that was going to wait until she was done. He hurried up the stairs towards the source of the loud noise.

CRASH

This time the tree was hit so hard the force of it sent Snails stumbling to keep his balance, and a horrible looking crack tore its way up the side of the residence. His awkward lankiness worked against him, and he landed hard, chin first on the floor. He barely had time to glance up to see one of the huge book shelves shaking free from its wall bracings. It began to collapse towards him. A scream was ripped from his lungs. Instinctively, he reached out to protect himself.

Terror forced him to look away from the hundreds of books that came tumbling down towards him. He pictured the solid wooden shelf just behind the books that was sure to spell his doom. He waited, silent, trembling, unable to get up in time to avoid what would be coming. An eternity seemed to pass while he huddled into a fetal position. This was wrong. It was taking too long. There was no pain, except for where his jaw stung from hitting the floor. He risked a look upward.

A pale blue light was wrapped around the shelf and all the books, freezing them in place in mid-fall. The scene felt surreal. Getting back to his feet, he treaded slowly and carefully beneath them. His horn was tingling like crazy, it felt almost like it was on fire. Trying to look up at it only made his eyes cross, and left him a little dizzy, so he ignored it. At the slightest touch, a book would begin to spin, ever so slowly. Now that he looked closer, he could see everything was still moving, just so slow it was almost undetectable. After that little observation, he hastily moved out of the way of the shelf.

Once on the other side he closed his eyes and took in a long breath of air before shakily exhaling. That was way too close. But then, it did work. Everything stopped falling! He saved himself! His breath came out in pants, as a smile crossed along his lips.

“A-a-awesome.” It was the first phrase that came to mind, something said more out of habit than anything else. But now, with his success staring him in the face like it was, it truly seemed to fit. Snails was stuck in an actual state of awe. It seemed so unbelievable! He, Snails, the most useless pony in Ponyville, actually managed to do something to be worthy of the word awesome. Even he couldn’t quite believe it, but there it was. The whole scene still left in front of him, stolen out of time.

“W-w-wow.” Holding his hooves out in front of him, he turned them over before placing them on his chest. A thought dawned on him that left him a little bit stunned. “I can be awesome?”

CRASH

The heavy branch struck against the hollow tree. The floor shook under his hooves, the sudden loss of stable footing sent him sideways into several books. More shelves fell around him. Books fell like rain from the even taller shelves that managed to remain against the walls. Pages and bindings were sent sprawling over him and the floor alike.

“I can be forgetful too,” Snails decided aloud after being violently reminded the reason he had made his way up here to begin with. He scrambled out of the pile of books panting and looked towards Twilight’s bedroom which had access to the upstairs balcony. Maybe he did manage to save himself, but there was more left to do. Something still had to be done about that branch! Asking to be awesome twice in one night when he’d never been awesome even once before was probably asking too much, but he had to try. Maybe being awesome was one of those things that you could just continue to be after you did it once. Like when you became a stallion, you couldn’t go back to being a colt. You’d always just remain a stallion no matter what, even if you didn’t actually do anything all that different from before.

Shaking his head clear of the distracting contemplation, he pushed open the door to Twilight’s room and surveyed the disaster scene. Dressers were knocked over, all kinds of clothes and accessories were scattered across her carpet, more bookshelves were smashed to pieces, their contents lying around them nearby. At least he wouldn’t have to clean this up. Her room meant her mess. The library was going to take long enough to fix up on its own. The air in the room was cold and moist. The blasting wind had easily conquered the latch that kept the balcony door shut. He stepped carefully over to the balcony on the far wall, trying to avoid the fragile jewelry and the broken glass from picture frames at his hooves.

 Rain had soaked the floorboards thoroughly, and a puddle had gathered over by the door. Snails had to struggle against the strength of the wind as he made his way outside. Lightning flashed from the storm clouds above. In the flash of light he saw that the streets below were packed with panicked ponies who raced this way and that, gathering necessities and family before making their way towards the town hall, with Pinkie Pie in the lead trying to keep their morale up.

None of this held any interest for him. Instead, he leaned over the side of the balcony and stared towards the dark shapes and shadows of the tree branches, looking for the offending branch that threatened to destroy the hollowed out tree. However, no matter how much he squinted, his vision failed to pierce the dark. Then movement caught his eye as the huge branch was lifted high into the wind, hanging on by several small but stubborn ribbons of wood. The storm held it aloft for a long moment before gravity took hold and it swung back against the tree trunk with all the force of an Ursa Major trying to knock the library down with an over-sized club.

CRASH

The side of the tree split wide and splinters were thrown in every direction. The balcony shuddered, cracked, and fell sideways. Its left support hung low, crippled, and wrecked. As the balcony shifted onto its side, Snails was sent rolling over the railing to fall flat against the heavy offending branch on its upward swing. The air was ripped from his lungs, and he hung on for dear life as the log swayed in the winds. He desperately sucked in large gulping breaths. His legs clutched tightly around the wood as he wheezed painfully. He risked a peek at the world as it rocked around him.

The only thing visible in the dark was the light leaking from the newly created, giant crack in the side of the library. The last swing had torn a large chunk out of the tree trunk. Miss Twilight’s spell was probably interrupted for sure due to that. Time was running out if he wanted to fix this. Snails eyed the distance between the edge of the broken branch from the new gaping exit to the Golden Oaks Library. It wasn’t that far, in fact the branch swung way too close for comfort. The drop to the ground wasn’t that far either. The crack was larger than he was, if he timed it right, he could probably jump the distance and attempt to cling to the branch, unless, of course, he tripped. His balance wasn’t that great even in the best of times, let alone while trying to jump across to a swinging branch.

In the dark.

With heavy winds.

During a rainstorm.

If he was able to take his time he was sure he could make it. Snails found he could do most things if he took his time about it. The trouble was being able to take one’s time about anything was actually a fairly rare perk. Life always wanted things to move way too fast. Subjects that took ponies lifetimes to discover had been pushed at him over an hour in class each day. Then you were expected to know a part of it by the end of the year. But there wasn’t much in the world that worked one piece at a time. You had to know everything about something to know how it really worked. Learning a small portion of larger things just didn’t make any sense to him if you never intended to learn the rest. But nopony had time for that, least of all a pony that caught on to things as slow as he did. You had to be able to learn fast in order to learn anything that well. You had to be fast to do anything well. Like safely jumping over to a swinging, wet log in a windstorm.

If only life would slow down long enough for him to catch up like it had in the library earlier. That would solve so many of his problems.

Wait a minute. Something about that thought seemed really important. He thought back to that scene; remembered the books, the shelves, and his escape from his imminent demise. Everything had glowed blue and sat frozen in the air. Well, not frozen, things were moving, just very slowly as if the world was caught in sticky syrup; everything other than him. If that happened again, he might be able to fix all this. If he could make that happen again.

But magic wasn’t so simple a thing. In his panicked state from before, he managed to conjure up a spell that could save him in the last minute. Miss Twilight said that sometimes a unicorn’s magic would spring up instinctively to save themselves, but if you wanted to use a spell on purpose it worked very differently than that. There were steps you had to follow. Miss Twilight was very keen on following steps. First, a pony had to take a deep breath and calm down.

Snails was far from a good situation for any sort of calming down, but the breathing part was easy. That was his favourite step in casting magic. He breathed all the time. In fact, he was quite proud of his ability to breathe. Often he could do it without even thinking about it. He closed his eyes, took a long, deep breath, and let it out. Just to make sure it was done right, he repeated the step several times. Once satisfied he had taken the appropriate breath, he moved on to the next step.

Step two was visualizing what you wanted to do. It took a lot of concentration, and wasn’t as easy as it sounded. A unicorn couldn’t just think of the item they wanted to effect and the spell they were trying to use on it. They had to picture everything around the spell as well. From the table the item sat upon, to the floor the table sat on, to the walls, to the furniture, to the picture frames. Some things needed more focus than others though. Specifically anything that might affect the spell. Wind, rain, obstacles between the unicorn and the item, all of it needed to be taken into account.

Snails didn’t like concentrating on the rain and the wind. The rain left cold streaks down his fur, and the wind reminded him of the swaying branch he was holding on to for dear life. At least it made visualizing both easy. He remembered the state of the library earlier, and tried to paint the image over the broken branch, the candlelit room inside the library, the rain, the wind, the tree, and the deep darkness surrounding it all. Then he smeared blue magic over top of this image, and pictured everything slowing to an easy stop.

Step three was replacing reality with the image you conjured up. He wasn’t fond of this step in this particular situation either. It involved opening your eyes and forcing your will over everything your eyes saw, reshaping reality to fit your conjured image. It was possible to cast magic with your eyes closed, of course, but only if a unicorn was especially imaginative or well-practiced. For beginners like him, he had to open his eyes.

Opening his eyes meant seeing his situation. Imagining his situation wasn’t as bad. He could pretend none of this was really happening, but there was no way to deny what was going on when his eyes were open. Slowly Snails allowed his eyelids to rise, taking in his precarious predicament once more. His horn began to burn, glowing brightly. Its pale blue aura came out in a rush as it reached out over the world as he strained to hold that image.

Searing heat ran up and down the length of his horn like it never had before. This was the worst and last step of magic control, bending reality to suit your vision. The key was to push that heat away; use it to force the unicorn’s will over the world, painting it with magical energy. It took the utmost concentration to complete even the smallest of changes. Even the tiniest distraction could unravel the magic, and depending on the level of magic you were trying, that unraveling could cause any number of side effects. Not the least of which was a massive explosion of uncontrolled energy.

The magic flowing through his horn was stronger than anything he had ever attempted under Twilight Sparkle before. It was so powerful that it felt like the magic was controlling him, not the other way around. All sense of reason threatened to fall into the wild energy surrounding him. Snails fought to rein it in, to shape it into the spell he still needed to complete. His eyes crossed with the strain of keeping them open, making him see double. Twilight never mentioned anything about this! The idea of losing himself to a spell was a completely foreign thought. A feeling of deep fear took root leaving his fur on end and pushed him to focus more and more.

All at once there was a large flash of white light, striking him temporarily blind. It took a long moment for his vision to come back, but as it did relief flooded his body. His magic had once again frozen everything, just as he had pictured. If he thought catching the bookshelves and their falling contents was awesome, stopping the rain looked almost miraculous! All around him tiny shimmering drops reflected the light of his magic. Some were even caught slowly impacting against the branch beneath his hooves. Snails reached out to touch one of the falling specks of light. It began to gather ever so slowly against the edge of his hoof to form into a dripping stream.

With wide-eyed wonder he passed through them to make the tiny hop from the edge of the branch into the Library’s main floor. The branch had conveniently swung far enough into place that there was almost no distance between it and the hole when his spell had brought everything to a halt. Still, he didn’t know how long it would last, or how long he could hold the magic in his horn. It was time for some fast thinking. The only way to save the library was to stop the heavy, swinging branch from continuing its siege against it. It barely hung on by some strong strands of wood. All he’d need to do was cut it!

It was too bad Snips wasn’t around. He would have been able to handle the branch from the balcony! Snips could handle a lot of things better than he could though. Snails was insanely proud of his friend. He’d managed to get a job so easily, and he began to fit the role of a tailor very well. Miss Rarity let Snips handle the whole shop on his own even!  The idea of being in charge was the kind of thing Snails never thought he could do himself. There was a lot to supervising, and he was never very good at explaining his own ideas. Comparatively, Snips was quick-witted, strong, well-practiced with his magic, talented, and very social. When Snips said something, it almost always made sense to him. That’s why Snails was so happy when the great Twilight Sparkle had asked for his help.

At first he wondered why she’d come to him at all, but then he realized it didn’t matter. If he managed to actually help Twilight Sparkle, even just once, it would be something Snips could hold his head up high about; something he could be proud of. When ponies teased Snips about his choice of friends, he’d finally have a retort!

Snails paused in his thoughts and shook his head. That wasn’t fast thinking, that was getting off track. Why was he thinking of Snips again? Oh! Right! Cutting! He needed something to cut with. With that in mind he scanned the library. It was a mess. Books lay strewn about where they fell. Bookshelves were collapsed against each other or leaning on their sides. Twilight’s chalk circle looked undisturbed, however. A dome of pink light shielded what was inside the it from the outside. Above the mess and glowing power, Twilight Sparkle floated eerily in place. Her eyes were still glaring white with powerful magic, her mane and tail splayed out and frozen in time. She made a haunting figure, hanging in the air as she was, her mouth left still slowly widening and closing, like some form of ghost or banshee caught in a silent, mournful wail. Those eyes were trained on Snails and the disturbing gaze quickened his step towards the kitchen.

The kettle screamed its shrill whistle, still burning from the purposefully forgotten command for tea earlier. It was difficult to purposefully forget things, he found. Especially loud, sputtering tea kettles. Yanking open several kitchen drawers revealed a long, sharp breadknife that looked like it would suit his purpose. Snails grabbed the hilt in his teeth but his vision began swimming, and his horn began pulsing with that same searing heat again. The sudden pain brought him to his knees and sent him skidding into the wall by the kitchen door. He fought against the overpowering sensation, slowly pushing back to his hooves. He had to shut his eyes to stop the world from spinning as he attempted regain control. For several minutes he continued to picture the frozen world, pushing the energy away, and back into the spell where it belonged.

Sweat was trickling down his forehead, and he had to taste the knife handle between his teeth to make sure he still had it in his grip. Every step Snails took felt achingly slow, and he had to lean against the wall just to remain on all fours. Even with his eyes closed the world felt like it was spinning around him, and he felt sick with dizziness with every step he took forward. He couldn’t risk opening them again, he was sure he’d lose both his spell and his lunch if he did.

Using the wall as his guide Snails managed to drag himself along it to find the gaping hole where the branch was still caught in its mid-air swing. His muscles ached and complained as he pulled himself up on it, and shimmied towards the end. With his eyes closed he unintentionally concentrated on his other senses. The wood and splinters scraping along his belly, his fur providing little in the way of protection, the biting cold of the strong wind, and the salty taste of sweat as it trailed its way past the knife in his jaw. The only sound he could hear was his own rustling and slow progression along the branch.

At last Snails came to the end of the branch where it clung to the tree. His muscles screamed as he strained to hold himself in place.

“Just a little longer,” he pleaded out loud as if to relieve his magic and limbs. “Almost there!”

Apparently neither limb nor magic paid his plea any heed as one more time his horn erupted in that scorching heat. His head snapped back so hard at the sudden surge of force, he was surprised to find it was still attached to his neck! The world whipped back into its usual speed, sending the branch crashing against the tree once again! The wind picked up and Snails held on with all the strength that was left in him. He was sawing for his life, tearing at the twisted wood with his bread knife with one eye closed to protect it from the chips of wood that came with every slice.

Snails!

The wind was calling his name. He ignored it, unable to afford the time it would take to answer. There wasn’t much strength left in his legs to keep him hanging on. Another rush of slices, and the branch jerked downwards. It was starting to give.

Snails, wait!

His hooves gave way slightly, and he had to pause; resting his head against the branch as he redoubled his efforts to keep his grip. Again he heard his name floating upon the wind. It had told him to wait, but waiting was the one thing he couldn’t do! Swallowing back his fear he pushed himself back into position and renewed his attempts to sever the branch. Another jerk downwards; he was almost through.

You’ll fall!

Of course he was going to fall! He was in the middle of cutting the very branch he was clinging to! What a silly thing for the wind to point out, especially since it was the whole reason why he was stuck in this situation. It had to be some kind of trick. While Snails readily admitted to being fairly gullible, even he wasn’t going to fall for that one. Or, maybe he was going to fall for it, just, more in the literal sense than usual. Again he ran the blade against the stubborn tree limb, tearing away at the last of its strength. A blast of howling wind picked the hanging branch up, and swung it back towards the tree. It was the final straw; it tore free with an audible snap sending both Snails and branch flying into the library.

More books and bookshelves came raining down as pony and tree branch smashed into them. Snails stumbled to his feet, exhausted and shaking. Darkness was growing around his vision, and he thought he was going to fall unconscious any second now.

Wait a minute.

The growing darkness wasn’t around his vision, it was just a shadow on the floor. But that meant- he looked up and froze in horror. One of the largest shelves in the library had been smashed in half from the impact. It fell towards the horrified young stallion. Snails tried to run; to get out of the way in time. It was no use. The last of his strength was spent. Instead of fleeing, he tripped over his own legs. This was it, he was done. His eyes turned back to morbidly helplessly observe the coming end.

Then she was there. Surrounded by a blazing, pink energy that shone as blindingly bright as the sun, Twilight Sparkle was standing over him protectively. It was the last thing he saw as the shelf came down.

Acres and acres of orchards swayed in the night. Their silhouettes moved like waves on a strange and dark tide. The old farmhouse was showing its age, creaking and complaining as the wind rattled its rafters and walls. Shingles flew off the rooftop as they were caught in the wind. The window shutters were slamming open and close. The weathervane spun and whistled in the wind.

All of this was superficial damage at its worst. In spite of its long whining moans, the house continued to stand as it always had. It had weathered generations of violent storms, and was built during a time when all of these lands were still considered wild. Its foundation was strong. Its supports were built with steel bracings and carefully chosen, solid hardwood. The old farmhouse was like a fortress of civilization standing tall against dangerous woodland that often threatened its inhabitants. It would take another century of storms to truly affect this sturdy homestead. When the dawn came tomorrow the farmhouse would still be standing strong.

The house was built tough and strong, like those who built it, and now shared it. It’s indomitable endurance was a hard-earned pride of the Apple Family, and they took many measures to see that it would keep its reputation. Loose hanging branches were trimmed off, and anything that wasn’t nailed down was stored into a variety of large barns to prevent debris from being blown around by the winds. Fences were constantly mended and inspected to make sure they could withstand whatever the winds could bring. The animals too would find themselves safely stowed away in barns, kept from the prevailing winds, with plenty of food and water to last them should some disaster prevent the farmers from getting to them for awhile. Storm warnings were always treated as a very serious threat among the farm ponies, and rarely could a storm take them by surprise.

The uproarious gusts outside were no different. Wild and strong though they were, Granny Smith had predicted it for a month straight, and in spite of their doubts the Apple Family had been continuing to keep the farm ready for anything just in case. The old mare was a little early this time, but as accurate as ever about the force of nature headed their way. They had so much warning that Applejack doubted the house had ever been so safe from the fury of the storm. There wasn’t much left to do around the old place once Big Macintosh spotted the storm headed their way. Just a few odds and ends like nailing down the window shutters, which she was just finishing up now..

Applejack took a step back and admired her handiwork. That was the last of the upstairs windows, and all the downstairs had received similar treatment. The house was now officially storm worthy. Satisfied with her job well done, she spat the hammer into her nearby toolbox and turned to leave Apple Bloom’s bedroom. Lightning flashed in the distance, lighting up the furniture, and for a moment giving her pause. She could have sworn her sister was right there on the bed, huddling in the blankets as she used to do back when she was just filly during rough storms like these. A sudden longing for the scared legs of a young filly wrapping her in a hug, while seeking shelter from the noise hit Applejack right where it hurt the most.

Nothing came from the mess of blankets. Nothing could. Apple Bloom had moved on to other pastures far out west. And even if she hadn’t, those days of comforting a little filly had long since passed. Applejack was proud of her sister, proud she was no longer a filly, proud she had grown up to be a good mare, strong and true. She was even proud that Apple Bloom had gotten angry with them for how they treated her, and had the courage to do something about it. Courage was never something her little sister was short on.

But in spite of how proud she was of Apple Bloom growing into her own mare, Applejack missed her something fierce.

The first couple days were the hardest. Her brother almost always made a silent figure, and her grandmother mostly muttered quietly about the oncoming weather. No longer was there excited hooves rushing down the halls in the mornings. Gone were the happy conversations on the day ahead and the adventures it would hold over the breakfast table. Eager plans to go into town to meet friends, the latest trouble Ponyville’s youth was up to, those wide eyes brimming with admiration over even the most mundane aspects of farm life, it all disappeared overnight. The ruckus, mayhem, and excitement of their home had transformed to a still, subdued calm. It was not a feeling Applejack much cared for. The last time she could remember the lively farm being this quiet was during her parent’s funerals. Memories of those hard times plagued her dreams lately, dredged up by the similar mood the house had settled into, she guessed.

Fortunately, farm life was always able to provide plenty of chores where a pony could work away their worries, especially with a missing family member in the mix. Apple Bloom had taken to doing all the repairs on the farm and without her around there was plenty of maintenance Applejack could use to distract herself before they could bunker down and wait out the storm. But after putting in a hard day’s work a pony needed sleep. Sleep was when the dreams would come and there was no escape from the haunting images after her head hit the pillow.

Fuzzy visions of tall looming ponies were gathered around a pair of dark-coloured tombstones. Their sympathetic expressions all directed at her and Big Macintosh. Shadows of her foreign relations spoke of uncomforting apologies, well wishes, and neighbourly offers of help should the farm need. Their voices echoed in her mind in deep tones of mourning. Then the voices were faded and left Applejack, alone in the silent and dark, empty room of her sister.

“Applejack! Applejack! Hurry up an’ finish fastenin’ down dem shutters up there, girl! Yer brother ain’t come back yet, and ya gotta go check up on what’s keepin’ the boy!” Granny Smith’s voice could be heard easily over the storm from downstairs.

The call thankfully tore her from the dark train of thought. With one last glance at the room Applejack followed her grandmother’s order and headed quickly down the hall. She could pine for her missing family members later. There were more immediate worries to consider. Hurrying down the stairs towards the front door, she called out, “Alright Granny, Ah’m on mah way!””

Her hoof had barely nudged the door before it flew open, slamming against the side of the house with a loud, startling bang! In the wide open farmland the winds were rolling far stronger than they were in town, and even for a mare with her strength, Applejack had to struggle to push the door closed again. Her mane whipped back and forth, and strands were slipping loose from her hairband to sting her eyes. With her hoof over her hat to keep it weighed down, she made her way over to the barns.

They were all sealed up, and she could hear the animals calling out in fear of the storm from inside. “Big Macintosh must have seen to ‘em already,” she said to herself as she looked around for the large, red stallion. It was too dark to see much in the rolling landscape so Applejack tried shouting over the wind, but the only reply was excited barking from Winona.

“Wait a darn minute! Winona? What in blazes is she doin’ out in this? Winona! Winona, where are yah, girl?” Applejack ran towards the sound of the dog barking, over towards the tallest hill of the farmlands. She was met halfway by the little border collie, jumping and barking and just running in circles around her.

“Winona, what’s gotten intah yah? What is it, Girl?” Applejack knelt down to hold the hyperactive mutt down for a moment so she could try to calm her. The Apple family dog only got like this when there was something unnatural going around the farm, but it wasn’t like Winona to be out alone. “Wait, do yah know where Big Mac is?”

With several happy yips, Winona squirmed out of Applejack’s grip to run towards the hill, ran back to Applejack, and then back again towards the ill, jumping and barking the whole time. She wanted her to follow.

“Alright, little doggy, lead the way!” Setting her jaw, Applejack ran after the dog, following her up the hill while thunder clouds rang out their namesake all around. It occurred to her that the tallest hill around probably wasn’t the best place to be with lightning spitting out of the sky, but it was only more reason to hurry if Big Macintosh was hanging around up there.

Sure enough, Applejack saw the silhouette of her brother as she climbed to the top of the narrow hill. The wind was even stronger up here, and it took effort just to stand up proper. “Darn it Big Macintosh! What are yah doin’ out here? Yah got Granny worried sick!”

He didn’t look back, and only made a subtle gesture of pointing his chin towards the orchards. “Trouble’s a brewin’.”

“Well of course there’s trouble. It’s a crazy windstorm from the Everfree. The orchards should be alright though, the hills shelter ‘em from the stronger winds and-” Applejack’s words were interrupted as she turned to look in that direction. Specks of eerie, green light could be seen in the distance winking in and out among some of the orchards. “-oh. What the hay is that?”

“Listen.”

“Over the storm? What are we gonna hear?” Applejack strained her ears to hear over the howling winds for several moments. A sudden unearthly howl that could not be mistaken for wind echoed in her ears. She heard that sound plenty of times before. Normally it was the first sign of zap apple harvest, and now that she thought about it, the lights were staying among the zap apple trees.

“Timberwolves,” she announced, understanding her brother’s concern.

“Eeyup.”

“But what’re them lights?”

“Don’t rightly know, but too dangerous to go see.” It was a warning. He must have been using that mind reading trick again that her brother seemed to have when it came to her thoughts.

“But they might be doing something to the apples! Ah gotta go check it out.” Before she finished her first step she felt Big Macintosh’s hoof on her shoulder, holding her back.

“Apple’s ain’t worth a life. Not even zap apples.”

Applejack shrugged out of his grip and took a step back out of his reach to prevent him from holding her back again. “They were worth Ma’s and they were worth Pa’s! This farm was their gift to us and it’ll be our gift to our foals. We don’t know what they’re doin’ out there, but we just managed to get this place back on track, and Ah ain’t about to let it all go to waste because of some nasty critters decided to take up residence in it.”

Big Macintosh regarded his sister carefully. She almost never brought up their parents. It was a hard subject to broach among their family. They had given everything they could working the fields, until they couldn’t give anything more. Now they were buried in the same land they tilled for decades. It didn’t take much to see where this all sprang from. He lived in the same house; noticed the same silence; dealt with those same horrible memories. On any given day Applejack could be hard-headed and stubborn to her own breaking point. Given recent events and reminders, he understood there’d be no talking her down. That meant there was only one thing to do. Facing the orchards, he stood up to follow her.

“Yer comin’ then?”

“Eeyup, but under one condition.” He had no chance of stopping her, but his sister was one of the most honourable ponies around. She’d follow conditions. Often even if she didn’t agree to them, she’d still try to follow them to some degree. “We’re just goin’ to check on the crop. If it’s just some critters makin’ a den, we’ll chase ‘em out when the storm’s over.”

“Fine! Let’s go!” Without waiting for a reply, Applejack took off down the hill towards the orchards with Winona on her heels. With a heavy sigh Big Macintosh followed after, hoping against hope he wouldn’t regret this decision.

Into the familiar trails between trees the siblings galloped, making little effort to hide the sound of their hooves. The storm would hide them well enough. Even if the dark between the trees wasn’t making seeing difficult, the swaying of the branches made discerning movement in the night storm impossible. The siblings were familiar enough with the orchards that they could navigate them blindfolded though, and their quarry was wreathed in a green light that was impossible to miss. Only when they were almost right on top of the trespassers did the two rapidly slow their pace, before diving behind a bush from where they could stare worriedly out at the lights.

There in the clearing ahead a couple dozen timberwolves jumped at the sturdy apple trees, tearing at their branches, and leaving heavy claw marks gouged down the sides. Almost a third of them were burning in an immediately recognizable dragon flame.

“Spike?” It was barely a whisper off her lips, and she quickly looked around for the dragon but caught no hint of him. Something strange was going on here.

The timberwolves never noticed the farmers in the bush. She assumed they were too angry to notice much of anything. Every new branch they tore from the trees came with a shrieking wail from the wind.

Trespassers! Thieves! They steal our brothers! Burn them! Tear them down! Find the trespassers!

Snarling with rage they attacked the precious magical trees Granny Smith had helped plant in her youth. Tearing, biting, clawing large chunks out of the trademark crop Sweet Apple Acres had become renown for, the timberwolves fell into a frenzy of destruction. As they frenzied, more twigs and branches began to take form. One timberwolf that was particularly ablaze jumped continuously at a low hanging branch. The flames that burned down its back reached out for the tree trunk, and scorched the tree bark as it began to catch, but it never had the chance as a pair of hind hooves smashed hard against its body sending it rolling away in so many pieces of kindling.

This won the attention of the large pack of monsters surrounding her. At Applejack's side Winona growled viciously back at the wild beasts as they closed in around the pony. They smacked their jaws and gnashed their teeth as they circled her, looking for just the one moment that she might drop her guard. She did not offer it to them.

“Keep yer filthy paws off! Mah! Trees!” She snorted and began to paw the ground, ready to charge right through the middle of them if necessary.

These were the orchards she had been bucking since her filly days. They were the fields that her brother plowed, and the seeds her Grandmother planted. This was the farm her parents worked themselves into the ground for. These were the lands her sister played in. This was the Apple Family home, and even if Apple Bloom had decided to leave it behind for a bit, she would be back. It wasn't a question of 'if', just a question of when. It was just the way of the farm to call back those that would stray, even after years of being away. Some day these lands would be hers as much as any pony's. Applejack met their green glowing eyes, staring each of the snarling, wooden figures in turn without any sign of wavering.

She’d make darn sure Apple Bloom still had a home to come back to.