Today was the day.
This would be it.
This was going to be, awesome!
These were the thoughts that ran through her mind as she took off from her cold house. She flapped her wings easily as she sped off for the field where she always practised her moves.
She thought about how the instructors at the academy would love the routine she was putting together today; she could almost hear their praise now! She pictured her routine as she flew:
First, a speedy flight across the sky knocking any clouds in the area to vapour, then an Immelman turn to Aileron Turn followed by the trail of vapour, then, air-break into a circular Loop into three part Helical Barrel roll upward into the sky before a spin into the final descent, a headlong high speed dive straight toward the ground fore hooves forwards with a slight twist until a Sonic Rainboom where she would twist off at the end land with a flourish the vapour droplets from the clouds creating a sparkling shining effect from the Rainboom to make her look truly awesome!
It would be her Shining Swoop and it was going to rock! If she could get the timing right. This would be her days work, she had already cleared the sky for the sunny day on the weather forecast today and this was her plan until the evening, when she would meet up with Twilight for another flying lesson.
The newly made Alicorn was not the best flyer and, while she had learned the theory quickly, she was not yet able to put it all into practise. She got too easily disoriented and would end up crashing to the ground in the end and it was frustrating her to no end.
Still, she thought, as she approached the boarder of the Everfree Forest and banked a hard right towards her training spot, Twi was at least willing to keep on trying and that was what counted, though Rainbow wasn’t sure whether this was because Twilight wanted to be a good flyer or if it was just for Dash that she was persisting.
What rainbow failed to notice at first were the two dark lumps on the edge of the forest.
Later on, Dash was really pleased with herself. She had perfected the Shining Swoop easily and was heading back early to catch a few Z’s on a good cloud before meeting Twilight. It was on the return pass of the forest edge, in the lower angle of light that she thought she caught something odd in the corner of her eye. “What the...” she exclaimed doing a double take and turning back for another look, “What is that thing, it looks like a pony.”
Rainbow alighted near the edge of the forest and took a closer look, “Oh my gosh, they are ponies! They look hurt, but I can’t move them. What to do, what to do... Ah, I know, I’ll get the others out here to help, be back in ten seconds flat!” With that she was off to find her friends to illicit their help.
...
Twilight sighed. It was going to be a long night. She had had her schedule interrupted early by Rainbow Dash smashing through her door exclaiming something about two ponies on the edge of the forest and that she had to come quick. Dash had then shot off someplace leaving the purple pony in a state of advanced confusion.
She shook her head quickly, “Spike! Watch the library for me, I think something’s up with Dash, I’m going to check it out ok?”
“Sure Twilight, your number one assistant is on task”, came the reply and, satisfied, Twilight rushed off. Just out of her door she found her friend Rarity galloping toward her.
“Twilight, dear, have you any idea what has Rainbow so riled up? She just rushed through the Boutique shouting about somepony needing our help at the edge of the Everfree Forest. She didn’t even stop flying toward the Acres and Fluttershy’s cottage.”
“I’m no more informed than you Rarity. She gave me no explanation, let’s get out there and see for ourselves.”
They met up with their other friends shortly after, all galloping after Rainbow Dash as she led them towards the forest. “Hey Rainbow, slow down, we can’t help y’all if ya don’t tell us what's up!” shouted Applejack. The farm pony looked exasperated as she looked to the others and said quietly, “I hope that this ain’t one of her pranks, I was in the middle of bucking the west orchard and ah was almost done too. Gotta haul ‘em in before the enda today if’n I wanna send off that delivery to the Corner before tomorrow!”
“Oh... my... look, there are some ponies out here” came a timid voice from behind, “Rainbow Dash, how long have they been here?” The butter yellow Pegasus asked rushing up to one of the two figures laying on the ground looking decidedly roughed up.
Twilight instantly started to coordinate the others into putting together some stretchers as Dash shook her head saying, simply, “I don’t know! They were just there as I flew by, if they were there before then I didn’t notice ‘em. Not easy to see mind you what with their colours.”
She was right about that thought Twilight as she oversaw the others, the two ponies were darkly coloured and wouldn’t have been easy to spot from the air. Dash had very good eyesight, even for a pegasus. “Come on girls we need to get these two to the hospital, this one looks badly hurt!”, she urged indicating the black coated one whose foreleg was bent at a funny angle and who was bleeding profusely from a gash on his side, looked like a few bruised ribs as well though she was no expert on medical matters.
“Yes, of course! He looked like he was attacked by something, though the other looks fine. I hate to imagine what might have done this that may still be nearby, looks like a Timberwolf attack!” Rarity had a keen eye for detail and Twilight wasn’t about to argue with the unicorn over it.
“We’d better get them there quickly to fix up so that I can throw them a ‘Welcome to Ponyville and Good to See You Better’ party!” exclaimed the pinkest member of the party as she bounced up and down looking slightly concerned at the two injured ponies.
“Here, this should just about do it! Let get goin’ girls” said the farm pony as she finished loading the second of the two onto the stretchers. They took up the stretchers and headed straight for the hospital as quick as they could.
...
Later that evening Twilight and her friends could be found walking towards a room in the hospital having been assured that the two were stable.
“The older of the two has a cracked Femur and some bruised ribs as well as the lingering effects of what appears to be Manticore venom while the other is simply unconscious. They should recover and you can watch over them if you wish ma’am.” The doctor had said a few minutes earlier, and so the six ponies were making their way to the room to check on the two.
As they approached the designated room, however, they heard what sounded like movement on the other side of the door. They halted at this, wondering who might be in there until they distinctly heard a low voice start to... sing?
The voice was calm, deep and beautiful to hear and the six could only stand there and listen as the voice weaved the unfamiliar song before them. He sounded like he spoke with a Trottingham accent and it seemed as though he was singing for his own benefit as well as they could detect a trace of fear in his voice that seemed not to be entirely for the other pony.
The song ended at that point as the voice seemed to break, and the six outside the room, even the unbreakable Rainbow Dash, felt compassion for the two, as they heard quiet drops of tears fall in the silence.
“Oh, what will we do now, little brother, and why won’t you wake up?”
Twilight decided she couldn’t take it anymore. She knocked quietly upon the door, and stepped inside.