//------------------------------//
// Chapter 12 
// Story: It's a Dangerous Business, Going Out Your Door 
// by Jetfire2012 
//------------------------------//

	Rainbow Dash's eyelids fluttered open, then closed, then open again.  Raising her head, she looked up through the golden grass at the growing light in the sky, the sun peeking over the horizon to the east.  She yawned, rubbing the sleep from her eyes with her front hooves.  This business of waking up at dawn was still strange to her.  Back in Ponyville, she would still be fast asleep, the dark cloud shades drawn tight over her windows, her fluffy cloud blankets wrapping her in their insulating embrace.  She traced a hoof through the dirt beneath her.  I know why I'm waking up early, she thought glumly, it's this hard ground!  She had suggested yesterday that the three of them make for whatever stronghold or fastness served Gildedale's Western Quarter, in the hopes of sleeping in a bed one more time, but Applejack had shot this down, insisting that they travel in the same straight line they were (mostly) making now.  
We need to make double time goin' to the Archback Mountains!, she had said.  We spent a lot o' time with the Daleponies and we gotta make up some ground!
The sky-blue pegasus had considered pointing out that Applejack had seemed to enjoy her time with the Daleponies immensely- particularly her time with a certain red colt.  She had decided against it, though, as she did not want to make Applejack even crankier.  The orange earth pony had been strangely silent for most of their travels yesterday, and when she did speak she had been snappy and sullen.  Dash hadn't understood at all until Rarity had taken her aside and explained it in very clear terms.  Sheesh, when I yelled at her I was kidding.
Rising to her hooves, Dash looked around the small clear space where they had made camp.  Rarity was curled up under a blanket, her head on her pillow and her sleeping mask firmly in place; she was breathing gently, a tress of her violet mane hanging over her face.  Applejack was propped up on her own saddlebags, her hat tipped over her head, her blanket covering her body, her new armor piled right next to her.  Neither one looked immediately ready to wake up.  This surprised Dash immensely. I'm the first one awake, she thought.  That had never happened before.  She had at least a few minutes before one of her friends would be joining her.  What to do?
The answer was instant and obvious.  Fly!  Flapping her wings, Rainbow Dash shot skyward, aiming for the fingertips of rose stretched across the heavens.  As the sun rolled blazing orange over the horizon, Dash twisted into a corkscrew, then angled her wings to send her spiraling through the air, the golden fields burning as they traded places with the rosy sky over and over and over again.  She loved it.  The rush of speed, the chaos of complex maneuvers, the somersaults her stomach did when she twisted upside-down- everything about flying, Rainbow Dash loved.  And what she loved perhaps most of all was the sensation of beating her fear.  She had meant what she had said to Rarity.  Her fears never  left her.  There was always the tiny tinge of terror before a steep dive, the racing chill of panic when she flew truly fast.  But the fear would appear and then it would be gone- she would overcome it, pass it by, then look over her shoulder and laugh at it.  The young pegasus had long thought, in the depths of her heart, that if she kept feeling fear, and kept overcoming it, some day she would feel all the fear it was possible for a pony to feel, and then there would be no more fear, just endless blue sky.
Now she soared straight up, wings pumping as she climbed.  Speaking of overcoming fear...  She rose higher and higher, glancing out as she did.  All of Gildedale spread before her like a sheet of gold burning in a smelting fire, caught in the orange light of dawn.  She climbed higher and higher, passing some low hanging clouds.  She slowed, came to a hover, bent at the waist- there was the fear, right where it always was.  It tempted her to slowly descend.  No.  She tucked in her wings and fell.  Plummeting freely, she did several barrel rolls, then a somersault.  Pointing her nose downward again, she opened her wings and began to flap, accelerating her descent.  The world blurred around her, the ground coming at her scarily fast.  She grinned, and wished she had her goggles- then she could go even faster.  Less than a hundred feet from the ground, she flapped hard backwards and pulled up, then angled her wings and did a flattened cartwheel through the air.  She pulled moisture from the air as she spun, fanned it through her wings, caught it in her tail, then stopped dead and flicked her tail with all her might.  An arc of rainbow shimmered off her striped tail, sailing through the sky some distance before it faded.
Slowing to a hover, Rainbow Dash righted herself.  That was new!, she thought.  I'm gonna have to come up with a name for that one.  She pondered for a moment, putting a hoof to her chin.  “The... Bow Bucker?” she tried it out loud.  “That's not bad.”  Giving her wings a hard flap, she flew over the fields, scanning the ground for the camp.  When she found it, she saw Rarity and Applejack standing about; soaring in low, she made a short landing, tucking her wings and taking a few large strides to slow herself and stop.
“I wondered where you'd got to,” Applejack said.
“Just stretching my wings a little,” the sky-blue pegasus remarked.
“Well you're just in time for breakfast,” the orange earth pony said, “and I thought we'd have some apples.  It's been a few days and I reckon we oughta eat 'em before they go bad.”
“Oh, how delightful!” Rarity exclaimed.  “Anything to avoid more of this coarse grass.”
Applejack reached into her saddlebags and pulled out three apples each.  “Rainbow, we could have some carrots as well, I reckon,” she said.
“Huh?  Oh, right!” Dash said, remembering her new saddlebags and the food stored inside.  She went to them and rummaged through them, pulling out a stalk of six carrots with her teeth and setting them with the apples.
“Y'all two dig in- I'll just be a minute,” Applejack said.  Settling back on her haunches, she picked up one of her leather greaves and slid it up her front leg, then began to fasten its bindings with her teeth.
“Are you really gonna wear that stuff for the rest of the trip?” Dash asked.
“I can't very well stuff it in my saddlebags, can I?” the orange earth pony retorted.  “It ain't all that uncomfortable, really.”
“Isn't it heavy?” Rarity asked.
“Not really,” Applejack replied.  “It's a lot less than what I'm used to haulin' around on the farm.  Plus, it's a nice reminder o' how good things worked out in Gildedale.”
Rarity raised an eyebrow at the last comment.  Applejack paused, her one greave in place, looking absently at it.  “Applejack,” the white unicorn asked, “are you going to be all right?”
Applejack blinked hard a few times.  “Yeah,” she said.  “I'm gonna be fine.”  She picked up another greave and slid it on one of her back legs.
By the time Applejack was finished, Rarity and Rainbow Dash had eaten an apple and two carrots each, and both had decided to supplement their breakfast with some grass, though Rarity still grimaced at the chewy toughness of the golden blades.  Applejack quickly gobbled up her own apple and carrots, then joined them, munching away.  Dash was as usual wolfing down grass; her early morning flight had made her particularly hungry.  About ten minutes later, her belly was full, and she fluttered back to the others to help break camp.  The sky-blue pegasus wiggled her saddlebags up around her flanks with some annoyance: the extra weight at her haunches had thrown her off-balance in the air yesterday, and it had taken her some time to adjust.  Rarity rolled up her blanket with her magic and folded it gently into her saddlebags, then pulled out her linen scarf and wrapped it around her neck.  Applejack put her hat onto her head and gave her saddlebags a wriggle, trying to decide if they were fitting to her satisfaction.  With a nod of her head, the orange earth pony said, “All right, y'all ready?”
“How fast are we going today?” Rarity said, a glum note in her voice.
“As fast as we can manage for a long stretch,” Applejack responded.
“Oh, all right,” Rarity sighed.  She was actually getting used to brisk galloping by this point, but she did not enjoy it any more than at the start.
“Let's giddyup!” Applejack cried, and with her in the lead the three of them started through the golden grass, Rainbow Dash once more staying on the ground.  The sun was behind them, throwing long, dark shadows across the sunlit fields ahead of them.
As they galloped, Applejack looked slightly upward, her mind dwelling intently on what rose out of the distance in front of her.  They loomed dark and mighty beyond the horizon, an endless succession of sharp peaks growing clearer and more distinct with each hooffall.  The Archback Mountains- at last they were in sight, not just dim shapes but solid things of rock!  She trained her eyes dead ahead of her, but the haze of the distance revealed only grass and sky and far-off mountainside.  “Rainbow,” she called over her shoulder, “ride up alongside, up front here, and see if you can see that forest they were talkin' about.”
The sky-blue pegasus nodded, quickening her pace and moving to the front.  Training her vision forward, Dash's rose eyes cut through some of the haze.  There was still plenty of grassland in her vision, but at the furthest reaches of her sight, much lower than the mountains, she saw a dark band.  “I think I can see it!” Dash cried.  “It's... I dunno, maybe a day and a half from here if we keep going like we are now!”  It was mid-morning right now.
“Then let's pick up the pace!” Applejack called.  She turned her head, and the sunlight caught the emerald on her champron, making it gleam with a green inner fire.  It was enough to delight Rarity and make her briefly forget the aggravation of having to gallop even faster.
I wonder where the Daleponies got those jewels, the white unicorn thought.  Without unicorn magic, gemstones were difficult to find, and Gildedale's more uniform landscape would not have lent itself to plentiful deposits as Equestria's rockier regions did.  Indeed, she wondered whether the gems might not have come from Equestria, in a time of better relations between the two kingdoms.  It almost made her want to crack a history book, though she hadn't picked up such a thing since entering finishing school.  Perhaps Sweetie Belle has a history book I can borrow, she thought.  At least I hope she does- they should certainly teach history in grade school, shouldn't they?  Rarity smiled at the thought of her sister.  What was Sweetie doing right now, she wondered?  In school, probably, back from her weeklong break with their parents.  It meant that Fluttershy would have to look after her.  This did not trouble Rarity.  She trusted Fluttershy intimately, having known her for many years.  They saw each other more than they used to now that Twilight brought them together more frequently, but she and the butter-yellow pegasus had long been close; Rarity was the first pony Fluttershy had met upon moving to Ponyville.
When the sun was high in the sky, the three travelers slowed to a trot, finally stopping on top of a low-slung hill.  The rolling fields were warm, and the sky overhead was deep blue, not a cloud in it.  The sight of it made Rainbow Dash's wings itch, but her stomach growled more pressingly.  Her rainbow-striped mane was slick with sweat.  She lowered her head and began to chomp through grass around her.  “The forest is a lot closer now,” she said between bites.  “I think we're making good time.”
“Glad to hear,” Applejack said.  Taking off her hat, she ran a hoof through her yellow mane.  “Whew, is it just me or is it hotter today?”
“You are wearing dark-dyed leather, Applejack,” Rarity observed.  “Are you sure you don't want to take it off?”
“I'd just have to put it back on before we got goin',” the orange earth pony said.  “And it's like I said before- where would I put it?  It won't fit in my saddlebags, and I doubt it would fit in yours or Rainbow's.”
Rarity nodded, and privately doubted that she could even carry the extra weight; her saddlebags were full enough as it was.  Applejack's superior physical strength made her best suited for the load, and as long as she had to carry it, she might as well wear it.
A howl rippled through the air, coming from far off to their left.  “Komagas!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
“Oh my!” Rarity cried.  “I suppose we're not rid of them yet, are we?”
“Not 'til we're outta Gildedale, I suppose,” Applejack said.  “Rainbow, pop up and see if you can spot 'em.”
The sky-blue pegasus flew skyward in a rainbow blur, stopping in the air where she nearly vanished against the like-colored sky.  She spun around, scanning the horizon every which way; when facing south, she leaned closer forward.  She descended as rapidly as she had risen.  “There's three of them, headed right for us!” she cried.
“Do we have enough time to get clear?” Rarity asked worriedly.
“They're kind of spread out,” Dash said.
“All we gotta do is stay away,” Applejack said.  “They won't come after us if we don't mess with 'em.”
Dash had an idea.  “Hey, both of you!” she said, flapping her wings and hovering a few feet off the ground.  “Grab onto me!”  Rarity and Applejack gave her quizzical looks.  The air was split by another howl.  “Come on!” Dash said.  Rarity gave a little hop and wrapped her hooves around Dash's torso.  Applejack, with a moment's hesitation, did the same, and the two ponies were crowded around their friend in a strange group hug.  The sky-blue pegasus flapped her wings very hard, stretching them as wide as she could and giving them slow, powerful beats.  Slowly she ascended, rising foot after foot off the ground.  Sweat was streaking down her body; this was more work than she had thought.  I carried Rarity and all three of the Wonderbolts!, she thought.  I can do this!  It didn't occur to her that she had no Sonic Rainboom to help her this time.
She came to a stop more than twenty feet in the air; she could climb no higher.  There she hovered, breathing deep and even, working her wings rhythmically.  Her muscles were almost in a trance, going numb from the strain and the repetition.  The air shuddered beneath them.  The ground shook.  Another howl slashed through the air, and a huge gray komaga pounded across the space where they had been standing.  It seemed to take forever to pass, its head, its neck, its thick body, and finally its long, sweeping tail.  Another one was visible a few dozen feet away.  The three ponies watched them run, dipping into a shallow depression before climbing another gentle hill, then moving across a flat stretch.  When they were some distance off, Dash cycled her wings backwards and slowly descended.  The shaking of the earth was just beginning to subside when she stopped a foot above the grass.  Applejack and Rarity peeled themselves off of her, and the sky-blue pegasus immediately tucked in her wings, flopping to the ground and panting hard.
“Shucks, sugarcube,” Applejack said, looking gently down at her.  “You didn't have to do that.  We could have just moved.”
“I... I didn't think... we'd get clear... in time,” Rainbow Dash sputtered, her tongue lolling out.  Rarity reached into Dash's saddlebag and pulled out a waterskin, then passed it to the pegasus; she took it up and chugged from it greedily.
“Thank you very much, Dash,” Rarity said, stroking Dash's forehead with her hoof.
Dash grinned.  “No trouble- I am the Iron Pony, remember?”
“Huh,” Applejack huffed.  “I recall the rematch goin' to nopony.”  She looked back to the north, where the komagas were just visible cresting another short hill.  Not wantin' any trouble at all, she thought.  They just wanted to be left alone, and simple herding tactics could steer them away from vulnerable areas.  Now Ashtail and the other Daleponies knew- and she hoped they really would change.  If she could put an end to such a long history of violence, Applejack would feel very proud indeed- assuming they also saved Twilight, of course.
They had to wait a while longer for Dash to recuperate, and when she was finally on her hooves she consumed an apple and half a loaf of bread, in addition to more grass and more water.  About an hour passed before they were on their way again, galloping once more; Dash's wing muscles were badly in need of rest.  The sun fell into their field of vision, while the Archback Mountains grew darker and taller in the distance.  Soon the sky grew golden, and burned slowly to orange.  Dusk approached.  Applejack looked over her shoulder and saw the moon rising, full and yellow.  “Just a little farther!” she cried to Rarity and Rainbow Dash.
“Hooray!” Rarity cried back, her whole body drenched in sweat.
The sun sank behind the Archbacks, the sky turning red with purple close behind.  The fields darkened to a dull gray, silver moonlight already glinting off the grass.  Applejack caught a sudden scent.  “Do y'all smell that?” she asked, slowing to a trot.
Rarity raised her nose and sniffed.  “I... is that water?” she asked.
“Sure smells like it,” Applejack said.  Rainbow Dash sniffed, but smelled nothing.  Her sense of smell was not as good as an earth pony's or a unicorn's.  Each pony type had its strengths and weaknesses in the five senses: earth ponies excelled at smelling and hearing, pegasi had superior vision, unicorns were most sensitive to taste and touch.  The orange earth pony breathed in.  “It's about that way, I think,” she said, pointing off to her left.  She trotted, following her nose, Dash and Rarity in her wake.  At length, they came to a small river, winding its way from north to south.  It was shallow, but seemed in no danger of drying out.  “This is a great place to camp tonight,” Applejack said.  “We need to refill our water supply anyway, it's runnin' a mite low.”
“And we can bathe!” Rarity exclaimed brightly.  She used her magic to open one of her saddlebags and remove something wrapped in wax paper.  She unwrapped it, revealing a bar of white soap that smelled strongly of herbs.
Dash raised an eyebrow.  “You brought soap?”
“Of course, Dash, I wouldn't go on an adventure without it,” Rarity said.
“Let me fill up our water skins before you start soapin' up,” the orange earth pony said, sliding off her saddlebags.  “Go help Rainbow clear a space for us in the grass.”
Grimacing, the white unicorn did as she was told, helping Dash yank up some grass, enough to form a clear space along the riverbank.  Her magic made short work of the effort, and soon the grass they had removed was a flat carpet blanketing the ground, offering them some scant cushion.  Applejack reappeared by then with the waterskins, so Rarity took her soap and trotted merrily off, leaving the orange earth pony and the sky-blue pegasus to set up the rest of their camp.
“Should we make a fire?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“I don't see why not,” Applejack replied, fishing into her saddlebag for the firestarter log and its corresponding thin stick.  On an unspoken cue, Dash got up and began to pull up more grass, aiming for the thicker, tougher blades that rose around them where they lay.  Dash put the grass down around the log, and Applejack set to work, boring into the shallow depression in the log's center, creating friction and sending up smoke.  The grass was soon smoldering, and with a little more grass a fire was quickly crackling away, the smoke smelling wet and earthy.
“So,” Applejack said, lying down and beginning to remove her armor.
“So,” Dash said, lying down as well.  A silence descended between them, but it was not uncomfortable.  Rainbow Dash and Applejack had known each other since before Twilight Sparkle had made each of them her friends, and they were never pressed to fill silence with chatting.  Most of the time, any interaction between them took on the form of a competition, usually involving Dash making a challenge to Applejack and Applejack rising to it; they were both exceptionally proud ponies, and neither one enjoyed losing.  This was not always the case, however, and there were plenty of times throughout the years when Dash had come to Sweet Apple Acres just to enjoy the orange earth pony's company; she would say nothing, and Applejack, respecting her desire for tranquility, would say nothing in return.  Sometimes she would read a book, other times she would do small chores around the farm, but Dash would stick beside her, and Applejack had grown to enjoy the sky-blue pegasus' quiet presence.
“How long do you think it'll take to reach the Shimmerwood?” Dash said, finally breaking the silence.  Overhead, the stars were slowly appearing.
Applejack wriggled out of her peytral and set it with the other pieces of her armor.  “From what you were sayin', I'd reckon about another day, maybe a day and a half.  It depends on how fast we can get Rarity to go.”
Silence fell again between them for another few minutes.  “What do you think is in there?  Hammer Hoof mentioned magic and said Rarity would like it there.”
“I don't rightly know,” Applejack said.  She took off her hat and undid the straps on her leather champron.  Sliding it off, she shook her head to loosen her hair where the headpiece had forced it down.  Applejack's own mind went to unicorns- it could be community of them living on their own just as Gildedale was a kingdom purely of earth ponies.
Dash had similar thoughts.  “Could it be unicorns?”
“Could be,” Applejack said.
“Maybe they live on their own, and it makes them weird, like Gildedale,” Dash said.
“I wouldn't call Gildedale weird- just different,” the orange earth pony said.  “And I bet a bunch o' unicorns livin' in the forest would be different as well.  You know, thinkin' about it, it seems like one bunch o' ponies of a single type livin' together apart from other pony types makes for big differences.”
The sky-blue pegasus put her head down on her hooves.  “In Cloudsdale, everypony has to leave once they reach a certain age.  Once you hit another age, you can come back and live there, but nopony is allowed to spend their entire life there.  Maybe it's so pegasuses don't turn... different.”
Applejack said nothing to this.  The silence endured a while longer.  Finally, she said, “Thanks again for flyin' us clear o' those komagas.”
“Aw, don't mention it,” Dash said.  A flicker of concern passed over her face.  It vanished rapidly, but Applejack had known Rainbow Dash too long to dismiss it.
“Somethin' wrong?” she asked.
“Nope,” Dash said.
“Yes there is,” the orange earth pony said.  “Rainbow, what is it?”  Dash turned her head.  “Rainbow, tell me,” and Applejack put authority into her voice.
“I...” Dash blinked.  “It's no big deal.  It's just that those komagas... I was remembering when we fought them, is all.  With the daleponies.”
Applejack breathed out slowly.  “You only did what you had to do, Rainbow.”
“But that's not true, is it?” Dash's rose-colored eyes flashed.  “You proved the komagas weren't dangerous.  I... I never had to hurt any of them.  I never wanted to hurt any of them.”
“But we didn't know it then.”  Applejack leaned forward, closer to the fire.  “Rainbow, you were only doin' what you thought you had to do.”
Dash's brow furrowed.  “I...” she sighed heavily.  “You're right.  But I hate it.  I feel awful.  I don't feel as awful as I did before, but I still feel awful.”
“Well that's good, ain't it?” the orange earth pony asked.  “It's like Shield Maiden said.  We're not supposed to be fond o' killin'.  The fact that you don't like it is good.”
“I guess,” Dash said.  It still nagged at her.  She had killed and she knew it.  It made her feel childish to be ashamed, no matter what Applejack or Shield Maiden said.  She should move on.  She would make herself move on.
Rarity appeared at that point, smelling of herbs with a spring in her step, her mane and tail slightly damp.  Sitting between Applejack and Rainbow Dash around the fire, she took out her brush from her saddlebag and began to run it through her violet mane.  “I do wish I had brought some shampoo,” she admitted, “but I simply didn't have the room.”
“What did you pack in there, anyway?” Dash asked.
“Hmmm...” Rarity thought for a moment.  “Two sweaters, one coat, two scarves- one for cold weather, one for warm- one set of galoshes, one pair of sunglasses, one smart-casual saddle, one semi-formal saddle that can double as cocktail wear if need-be, two bars of soap, one bottle of eyedrops, one sleeping mask, one pillow, one blanket, four energy bars, and a month's supply of multivitamins and dietary supplements.”  She smiled brightly at them.
Applejack and Rainbow Dash exchanged glances.  “Think that's all?” Dash asked her with a deadpan.
“Hmmm... yes, I believe so.  Just the essentials, of course; there's only so much you can fit in a pair of saddlebags.”
“Sure, sure,” Dash said, a grin spreading over her face.
“Well, my saddlebags still have some apples, and y'all are free to have one each,” Applejack said, digging her nose into her brown burlap bags.  “Rainbow, see how much bread you've got in yours.”
Dash nosed through her leather saddlebags.  “I've got two more loaves, plus half of the loaf I didn't eat today.”
“We can split the half-loaf between us, if you don't mind,” Applejack said, plucking three apples out of her bag.  She passed two of them to Dash and Rarity, while Dash tore a chunk off the half-loaf of bread and passed it around in turn.
“Rainbow, I'm gonna need you to fly up and look around through the night tonight, okay?” Applejack asked.  “I don't want any komagas surprisin' us while we're sleepin'.”
Dash bit into her apple and chewed loudly.  “If I can wake up, sure,” she said.
“I'll wake you if need be,” the orange earth pony said.
Dash grimaced at the thought, not looking forward to having her sleep disrupted.  She ate her bread in glum silence the rest of the evening, as Rarity and Applejack made small talk.  The moon rose higher in the sky, bathing the fields in brilliant silver light.  At length, dinner was finished, and Applejack said, “Rainbow, go up real quick and check for komagas.”
“Do I have to?” Dash asked.
“Please?” Applejack said with a smile.
Rainbow Dash huffed.  “You're just lucky I'm so nice,” she said, flapping her wings and rising slowly into the air.  She stopped about a hundred feet off the ground, spinning slowly in a circle and looking out across the fields.  The river glistened in the moonlight, and the grass was shimmering gray.  There were no disturbances for miles in any direction.  Dash slowly descended.  “Nothing,” she said, setting her hooves on the ground.
“Well, in that case, I'm goin' to bed,” Applejack said, pulling her blanket from one of her saddlebags.  She bunched the bags up to form a pillow and laid her head down on them.  “Rainbow, I'll try and wake up a little later tonight so you can check again.”  Pulling the blanket over her body, she tipped her hat over her head.
“Yeah, yeah,” Dash whined, curling up into a ball.
“Good night, everypony,” Rarity said, settling head back on her pillow and pulling her sleeping mask over her eyes.  “See you all in the morning.”
“G'night, y'all,” Applejack said.
“Good night,” Dash muttered.  A part of her missed the closeness of the last few days, when they had all slept in the same bed and she had used her wings to pull her friends to her side.  But she was tired, and soon she was asleep.  Her dreams were swirls of color, a circle of rainbows dancing through the darkness.  Thunder rumbled.  Lightning flashed.
“-inbow.  Rainbow, wake up,” a voice buzzed in her ear.
Rainbow Dash blinked her eyes open, almost hearing them creak.  She yawned.  “What time is it?”  The air was silver with moonlight; the fire had long since burned out.
“I dunno,” Applejack said, standing over her.  “I guess it's time for you to check for komagas again.”
“Do I have to?” Dash mumbled, lowering her head to the ground.
“Yes,” Applejack said sternly.  “I won't have a posse of 'em tramplin' us in the night.  Just go up real quick and take a look around.”
“All right, all right,” the sky-blue pegasus muttered, rising to her hooves and stretching.  She could feel a slight chill in the air- but it didn't bother her, of course.
“I'm goin' back to sleep,” Applejack remarked, trotting back over to her spot and pulling back her blanket.  “If you see anythin', be sure and wake me up.”
“You're not even going to wait up?” Dash said.
“I figure it ain't vital,” the orange earth pony said.  She rested her head on her saddlebags and lowered her hat over her eyes.  Within moments, she was snoring gently.
“I figure it ain't vital,” Dash repeated, mocking her friend's country twang.  “Who does she think she is?  Just because I have wings, it automatically makes me some kind of errand pony?”  She scowled.  She had just been getting some really good sleep, too, she could feel it.  But since she was awake, she might as well play lookout.
Flapping her wings, Rainbow Dash took off, aiming straight up.  It was more work to fight gravity in a vertical climb, but she was annoyed, and took out the frustration on her body.  The sudden pumping of blood through her muscles brought her more fully awake.  Stopping high above the campsite, she slowly circled around, her keen eyes sweeping the moonlit fields.  They were as gray and as empty as they had been earlier in the night.  No movement disturbed the tall grass, save for the ripples caused by the wind.  So she had been woken up for nothing.  It figures, she thought.  I'm so nice.  The others were so lucky that she was so nice.  She cycled her wings backwards and began to descend.
Then came the flash.  She caught it and saw it in the blink of an eye, just as she had seen it four nights ago: a wrinkled line of blinding light burned onto the plains in the distance.  It seemed to come from the Archback Mountains, but instantly it was across her line of vision- then it stopped.  The line of light extinguished itself, there was a faint pulse of white light, and then nothing but moonlight prevailed.
Rainbow Dash marked the spot where the pulse of light had been in her mind and she flew.  She pumped her wings as fast as they would flap, tucking in her back legs and pointing with one front hoof right at the spot where she had seen the light.  Her eyes narrowed as she accelerated, the stars blurring in the night sky as she flew faster and faster, the wind whipping through her ears.  When she drew close she began to descend, angled shallow towards the ground, gradually lower and lower until her hooves brushed the top of the tall grass, she was almost there, so she bent sharply down, now flying right through the grass, tall blades parting around her, some of it flying into the air in her wake.  Then she was there, and she tucked her wings, springing out all four legs to start a rapid gallop, not losing her pace, tearing through the grass, and she burst suddenly into a clear space with shorter grass carpeting the ground.  “AHA!”
“Buwah!” a voice cried out.  A strange shape leapt into the air, then landed and took about a dozen steps backwards in a jumbled gait.  For a moment Dash couldn't make it out, the darkness obscuring it, then her eyes adjusted to the moonlight, and she saw it.  “Would you mind not doing that?” It said.  “You nearly gave me a heart attack, you did!  My nerves are a jumble as it is and the last I need is for some creature to play pop-a-boo on me in the dead of night.”
Dash's eyes widened, more moonlight flooding them and allowing her to see more of the thing that had spoken.  It wasn't a pony at all.  It stood about a head taller than she.  Its body was lithe and chest-heavy, supported by four long legs with long, slender muscles, four hooves planting it to the ground.  It had a short, thick neck, on which a long, narrow head rested, ending in a narrow snout.  At the other end, it had a short, fluffy tail.  Two narrow ears were set far back on its head, raised up and now swiveling toward her.  Its slightly beady eyes were round and dark.  Even in the moonlight, she could tell its fur was light brown, but it had a white belly, and a white patch on its chest.  A black band of fur ringed round its neck under its chin.  On its head were two black horns that stood up, but at their summits, they split, twin tines forking toward the front while the main points rose up and curved slightly inward.
The creature took a few steps forward.  “Say,” it said, its voice crisply accented, “you're a pegasus pony, aren't you?”  The dark eyes widened.  “Not every day I see your type in Gildedale!”
Dash's mouth was hanging open.  She forced herself to speak.  “Who... who are you?” she asked.  “What are you?”
The creature raised its furry white eyebrows.  “Me?” it said.  “Oh, well, I'm a pronghorn.”  It lowered toward the ground in a bow.  “Niles Nigellus, at your service.”  He rose to his hooves again and tilted his head.  “And what is your name, dear miss?”
“I'm... I'm Rainbow Dash,” she stammered.  She was still very much in shock.  “I've never seen anything like you before.  Are you... an antelope?”  She had never seen an antelope either, not in flesh; she had seen pictures of them in one of Twilight Sparkle's books.
“Nope!” Niles said, sounding extremely chipper.  “But I look like one, don't I?  Funny how that works out.  Anyway, you gave me quite a fright.  What are you doing out here?”
“I was looking for komagas,” she said, honesty the only thing coming to her mind.
“You'll hear a komaga before you see one, no point looking for them,” said Niles.  He stepped forward, and he was smiling gently now.  He didn't look scary- just strange.
“Well, my friends are sleeping nearby,” Dash continued.  “They wanted to make sure no komagas trampled them in the night.”
“Not a bad idea, I suppose.  So are you traveling?”
“Yes, I- wait, hold on, I want answers to my questions!” Now that she wasn't startled, curiosity consumed her.  “What are you doing here?  How did you get here?”
“Oh, I bolted here,” the pronghorn said matter-of-factly.  “Were you flying?  You might have seen me if you flew.  As for what, I just got done with a run, and thought I'd stop out here for a bite to eat.  Also- must confess- I needed to settle my nerves a bit.  Traveling across the Broken Lands is not a fun time.”  He shivered.  “Brrr, the place gives me the willies, no matter how fast the trip is.  Which is why I most certainly did not appreciate your little scare.”
“Oh, sorry,” Dash said.  “What do you mean by 'run'?  Were you running a race?”
“A race?  No, well not as such,” Niles said.  “A message run.  There was a dispatch that had to go out tonight, and I was the one on-call.  Just a short hop, but the Lady was insistent, and she asks you so nicely you feel that refusing is to murder her dog.”
“Message?  You were delivering a message?”
“Well of course!  For the Network, you know.”  He smiled at her.  Rainbow Dash stared at him.  “You know, the Network?”  She continued to stare.  He appeared crestfallen.  “You haven't the faintest idea what I'm talking about, have you?”
“Uh-uh,” Dash said with a shake of her head.
Niles let out a breath.  “Right, then,” he said primly.  “Are you in any great hurry?”
Dash thought for a moment.  If there were no komagas around, her friends didn't immediately need her- and they were asleep.  “No.”
“Well, sit down, if you will,” Niles said, settling back on his thin haunches.  Dash sat down as well, and noticed for the first time that he was wearing a set of saddlebags at his flanks, painted with blue swirls.  “This really won't take long,” he said.  “Are you comfortable?”
“Um, yeah,” the sky-blue pegasus admitted.
“Right,” he said.  He set his front hooves down on the ground in front of him.  His dark eyes caught the moonlight and glistened.  He took another deep breath.  “Beginning.  Right.  War is a terrible thing, isn't it?”
“I wouldn't know,” Dash said.  “I've never been in a war.”
“Well, pray that doesn't change,” Niles said.  “Some time ago- but not too long ago- two lands very far away from here had a war.  It was a terrible thing- terrible- with armies and machines and ugly magic.  Many creatures on both sides were killed.”  He looked to the side.  “Many of my kind were living in one of the lands.  Many of them were killed as well.”
“I'm sorry,” Dash said.
“Eventually, the war was ended, and a peace treaty was signed.  But the worst thing of all came after that: it was discovered that the war had been fought for completely unnecessary reasons.  It could have been avoided if both sides had talked to each other properly,” Niles said, falling into the steady cadence of a storyteller.  “After we had buried and mourned our dead, we pronghorns got together and decided that, as much as it was in our power to do so, we would try to stop war from ever happening again- not just between those two lands, but between any land, any nation, any species all around the world.  Now,” he asked, “what is one of the primary causes of war?”
Dash thought for a moment.  “Um... greed?”
“No, that's- well, actually, that's not bad,” Niles admitted.  “But try again- think of another one.”
“Um... uh...” Dash wracked her brain.
“Miscommunication,” the pronghorn said gently.  “When one or more parties doesn't have a clear idea of what the other parties want, or what their true goals are, conflict is practically inevitable.  If every creature knows what its fellows are thinking, fighting is much less likely.  After coming to this conclusion, we bent all our efforts on solving the problem of global miscommunication, and it was with that goal in mind that we formed the Pronghorn Network.”
“So this is a thing all pronghorns do?” Dash asked.
“Nearly all of them, yes,” Niles answered.  “We pronghorns have scattered across the world, and we have offered ourselves freely as a global messenger service to every race and species that will have us.  Every kingdom, every republic, every empire, every city-state, every tribe and wandering herd can, at any time, contact us, and we shall deliver any messages they may have to any recipient they wish.  They can either write it down,” he patted his saddlebag, “or they can cast it as a magic spell, and we shall take it to its destination.”
“Even if it's really far away?” Dash asked, her mind dizzy at the thought.  “Even if it's halfway around the world?”
“Yes,” Niles said.  “What's more, we offer one of the key factors in avoiding miscommunication: speed.  Not only can we deliver any message from any sender to any recipient at any destination, we guarantee delivery within one day.”
“No matter where it is?” Dash asked.  “You can deliver a message in one day... on the other side of the world?”
“Oh, absolutely!” said the pronghorn.  “I swear to thee my solemn decree, as the zebras might put it.”
“Do you hand them off?  Is it like a relay?”
“No, no, that would risk the message getting lost,” Niles said.  “One pronghorn carries the message from sender to recipient.”
“So then...” Dash's eyes widened.  “You... you can go from here to the other side of the world in  one day.”
Niles winked at her.  “My dear pegasus, I can circle the world in a day.”
Dash's mouth fell open.  That wasn't possible.  “That's not possible.  There's no way.  No creature is that fast.  Even dragons aren't that fast.  I'm not that fast!  Not even close!”
“Well, if you're simply talking about muscle power, then of course you're right,” Niles said.  “Though,” he grinned, “we pronghorns are no slouch in that department.  We are the fastest runners in all the wide world.  But you're right- no creature by wing or leg is that fast.  Besides, running won't get you across the oceans.  So for our messenger runs, we travel with the aid of our magic.”
“You can do magic?” Dash asked.
“Of course!  We have horns, don't we?”
Dash had never thought of that.  Could any creature with a horn do magic?  She would have to ask Twilight.  “So how do you use your magic to travel around the world?”
Niles smiled again.  “We ride lightning.”
Rainbow Dash's eyes bulged so large they threatened to pop out of her skull.  “Say that again.”
“We create and ride lightning bolts,” Niles said.  “See, back in our homeland, we sometimes dabbled in weather control- storms and stuff.  It's our magical speciality, actually.  So when we were laying out the plan for the Pronghorn Network, and realizing how fast we would need to travel, we were able to come up with a lightning bolt that feeds off our magic, and the magic of the surrounding world.  We generate it, we grab hold of it, and we ride it.  It's very fast- fast enough, as I've intimated, to take us around the world in a single day.”
“You...” Dash's mind felt like it was in a tunnel.  A chill raced up her spine.  “You... make... lightning?!”
“Well, yes,” Niles said.  “It's not all that different from what you pegasi do, really, at least in Equestria.  You lot make the weather in Equestria, right?  It's similar magic from what I've seen.”
“You make lightning bolts.” Dash was still staring bulge-eyed at him.
“Ummmm.... yeeeeeessssss....” Niles said slowly.  “As I've said twice now.  No, three times now.  Well, four, counting that last-”
“TEACH ME!” Rainbow Dash screamed, leaping at him. She knocked him to the ground and grabbed him around the withers, shaking him back and forth with all her might. “TeachmeteachmeteachmeteachmeteachmeteachmeteachmeteachmeTEACHME!!!”
“Ho-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-ld o-o-o-o-o-o-o-on!” the pronghorn tumbled out, his head bobbing back and forth.  His long legs shot out and pushed him away from the sky-blue pegasus.  “Hold on, now!  What's all this?”
“Teach me!” Dash cried again.  “You know how to make lightning!  You know how to control lightning!  Teach me how, please!  Please!”
“Hold on,” Niles said again.  “I can't just teach you to make lightning out of the blue.  I don't even know if you're capable of learning it.”
“You just said pegasuses do something similar!”
“Pegasi,” Niles corrected her.  “And I said similar, not identical.  We're still two different species, and we work different ways.  My magic is channeled through my horns, yours is inherent- it comes out of every pore.  I don't know if you'd be able to master the nuances of the magic.  And even if you could learn, I'm not sure you will.”
“But if I can learn, what would stop me?” Dash said.  “All I can think of is you refusing to teach me!”
Niles shook his head.  “My dear Rainbow Dash, if you're physically capable of it- and you may well be- the lightning out here,” he swept his hoof around, “is the easy part.  What's tricky is the lightning in here.”  He tapped his hoof against the side of his head.
Dash was getting annoyed.  This was destiny- she could feel it, feel the rush of purpose and fate through her veins like fresh blood.  She who had so long been unable to control lightning would learn to master it more fully than any pegasus before her!  She was going to fulfill her promise!  And this pronghorn was going to deny her!  “Maybe you're just lying to me,” the sky-blue pegasus snarled.  “Maybe you really can't.”
Niles narrowed his dark eyes.  There was a crackle, and a line of blinding white lightning snarled between his horns, rising from the bases to the pronged tips, where it split apart into shining veins before vanishing into darkness.  The brilliance of it burned behind Dash's eyelids as she blinked.  “I am a Messenger of the Pronghorn Network.  I never lie.”
Dash stepped hesitantly forward.  “Then teach me,” she said softly.  “Please, at least let me try.  All my life, I've never been able to control lightning.  It's always been too much for me.  It's always been out of my reach.  I... I need to learn.  It's something I have to do.”  She drew herself up to her full height.  “I can beat my fear.”
Niles set his thin mouth in a wavering line.  He looked off to the side.  “Not here, at least,” he finally said.  “It's not something I can just explain to you over dinner.  I would need to take you into the Dreaming.”
“What's that?” Dash asked.
“As I said,” the pronghorn told her, “it's what's in here.”  He tapped his head again.  He looked gently at her, tilting his head from one side to the other for a few minutes in silence.  Dash's heart was in her throat.  “But... maybe...” he whispered.  He continued to look, and Dash's spine tingled.  He was looking at something she could not see.  “Perhaps.  You certainly have the belly for it.”
“Please,” Dash said.  “I'll do whatever you tell me.  But this... it's not a coincidence.  I can feel it.  I'm here and you're here because this is what's supposed to happen.  It has to be.”
Niles looked hard at her again.  “You said you were traveling,” he said.  “Which way are you going?”
“Uh- west,” Dash said.  “We're going to the Archback Mountains.  Our friend is sick and we're going to get a flower there called-”
“The Beneviolet,” the pronghorn finished her sentence.  “And your friends- the ones with you- are they pegasi as well?”
“No,” the sky-blue pegasus answered.  “One's an earth pony and one's a unicorn.”
“And you have to keep pace with them, which means you can't go faster than a fast gallop,” Niles said.  He began to pace back and forth.  “Hmmm... that might work out.”  He turned his head back toward Rainbow Dash.  “A day's ride west at the average pony's pace will put you very close to one of our Waystations.  I'm going there after this- a few more of my kind will be there as well.  I'll talk to them.”  His face was serious now.  “When you and your friends stop for the night, as the sun is setting, hover up off the ground where you're easily visible- where I can see you.  I'll come to you, and... well, I'll tell you what we've decided.”
“Thank you,” Dash said softly.  “That's all I ask.  Please say yes.”
“It won't just be up to me,” Niles told her, “since what you're asking is not a one-pronger job.  But tomorrow night at dusk you'll have your answer.”  He looked up into the sky, at the moon which had moved slowly through the starfields.  “If you're traveling tomorrow you should go get some sleep.”
“Right, right,” Dash said with a nod.  “And you'll come find me tomorrow, right?”
“If you make yourself findable,” the pronghorn said.  “Remember, high enough off the ground to where I can see you.”
“Got it!” Dash said.
Niles smiled at her.  “Yes, maybe you can do it.  It would be a grand experiment, if nothing else.”  He stuck out a front hoof.  “I'd best be going- my fellows are going to want to hear this, probably a few times over.  Until tomorrow, Rainbow Dash.”
Dash put her hoof against his, and they shook.  “Sure thing.  See you tomorrow.”
Niles Nigellus nodded, and suddenly he moved.  The wind whipped around him, and he smeared into a brown blur that parted the grass to Rainbow Dash's right.  Flapping her wings, she shot up off the ground and watched him go, a dot leaving a trail across the rolling plains.  He really was extremely fast.  When he finally ran out of her sight, she shuddered all over, her body wracked by shaking.  She turned around and flew, headed roughly back in the direction she had come.  The moon had moved across the sky, and when she had blasted toward Niles it had been right in front of her.  Now it was on the other side of the sky, and she flew toward it, scanning the ground.  She saw the silver gleam of the river, and followed its progress south.  Finally, her sharp eyes spotted the clear spot on the riverbank, and the bright pink of Rarity's blanket stood out like a signal flag.
Dash descended in slow spirals, landing gently in the clearing and trotting a few steps before coming to a stop.  She dropped to the ground and curled up, but her body was shaking again, every nerve alive with fire.  She tried to close her eyes, but they sprang open again an instant later.  Her heart was racing.  She lay like that for nearly an hour.  Sleep finally stole over her.  In her dreams the lightning lit the world, striking her over and over, setting her body aflame.