Chapter 3
Rain was coming from the large, dark clouds, and Rainbow Dash became even more worried as she saw occasional bolts of lightning as well. Immediately she flew down to Applejack.
When Applejack saw the look on her face, she realized that it must be something serious.
"What's wrong?" she asked, slightly worried.
"Storm clouds" said Rainbow Dash, still a bit shaken."But I don't understand! The storm wasn't supposed to come until the Wednesday the 24th!"
"The 24th? But that's a Tuesday! That's today!" Now Applejack was worried for real. A lightning storm wasn't to play with, and now she could hear the thunder in the distance.
"Oh" said Rainbow Dash as she realized her mistake."I think I managed to get the date wrong", she said, a bit embarrassed.
"You did what!"
"I'm sorry! But I can't undo it! We gotta find shelter, now!" They were both screaming now, because of the wind that had gotten so strong, that it was threatening to drown their voices.
The wind had gotten to full strength worryingly fast, the trees doing nothing to stop it as they were too much spread out, and the clouds were approaching faster than anypony could run. Walking close to each other, they slowly started making their way back towards the plateau where they left their things. The trees were creaking alarmingly, and it didn't take long time until the rain started as well. Applejack called out in surprise when her hat blew off, but her voice didn't reach far in the storm. Soon branches started falling from the trees, sometimes very close to them, and Rainbow Dash almost got blown away like a leaf when the wind got a hold under her right wing. It was only Applejack's quick reaction that saved her. Applejack had thrown herself on the wing that was completely out of control and wrestled it back against her body. And as if things weren't bad enough lightning started striking constantly around them, hitting trees that were sometimes only ten meters away.
After walking for what felt like forever, they could finally see the plateau and it looked like they would make it. Then, out of nowhere, a branch fell from a tree just above them, gaining speed with the wind before hitting Applejack's right flank. Applejack gave up a short scream and fell to the ground, unconscious from the pain, bleeding from her right flank and leg.
"Applejack!" Rainbow Dash was horrified and didn't know what to do. She poked Applejack's side with her hooves, hoping to wake her up. When it didn't work, she understood she had to carry Applejack to safety. Rainbow Dash managed to get up Applejack on her back, Applejack moaning quietly. Rainbow Dash then continued towards the plateau, Applejack drifting in and out of unconsciousness. She didn't knew why they had to go back there, but somehow it just felt right. When she reached the place were they had placed their bags she couldn't find them anywhere, realizing that they had probably blown away.
Not sure where to go next, Rainbow Dash stood there for a few seconds, the rain pouring down on her and Applejack while flashes of lightning constantly lit up the place. Then suddenly Applejack regained consciousness, looked around in confusion before pointing towards something in the cliff side. Rainbow Dash made her way over there, and upon getting closer she saw that it was a small cave entrance. She entered the cave and put Applejack down on the floor in the middle of it, before looking around.
The cave was bigger than it first had seemed like from the outside, about ten meters deep and five meters wide at the widest point, where they were standing. Rainbow Dash suddenly realized how exhausted she was after carrying Applejack a long way through the storm. She lied down next to her.
The wind was howling outside and the sound of thunder along with flashes of lightning entered the cave every few seconds. They were both wet and shaking because of the cold as Rainbow Dash looked at now fully conscious Applejack in the darkness and asked her:
"Are you alright?"
"No" she answered, her voice full of pain."I think my right hind leg is broken." She moaned in pain as she tried to change the position of the leg. Looking Rainbow Dash in the eyes, she asked:
"What are we gonna do?" Rainbow Dash looked back at her, a look of guilt and sorrow in her face, and answered slowly:
"I don't know Applejack. I just don't know. I'm so sorry I got you into this." A tear fell down her cheek.
"Don't be. It's alright." Applejack reached out her hoof towards Rainbow Dash's and they sat like that for a while, Rainbow Dash sobbing silently and Applejack holding her hoof, and eventually, Rainbow Dash stopped.
"I'm sorry" she said again."I didn't want this to happen."
"Course you didn't sugarcube" said Applejack softly, ignoring her pain."There's nothing we can do about it anyway. Let's try and make up a fire, okay? I think I see some old sticks lying around in here." Rainbow Dash nodded before letting go of Applejack, walking in the direction Applejack pointed her.
A lightning flash followed by deafening thunder revealed that there were quite many sticks lying around in the cave.
As Rainbow Dash started collecting sticks and bringing them to her, Applejack started to form a small campfire. Pain was pulsing from her damaged leg, and she bit her teeth together to not scream. The outside light was fading quickly, so Rainbow Dash had to trust the occasional lightning strikes to provide her with light, making this process take a more time than necessary.
When they had enough sticks and logs, Applejack started with the task of lighting the fire while Rainbow Dash sat down next to her. She grabbed a stick with her front legs and placed another larger piece of wood on the ground in front of her. She started using her hooves to spin the stick spin back and forth. She knew that if she could spin the stick fast enough against that other piece of wood, a fire would eventually spring from it. She had done this before several times before, but not being able to see and the pain that came every time she moved too fast made it a bit harder. After several failed attempts, and a whole lot of swearing, a spark appeared. She continued working with the stick and soon the piece of wood was on fire. She placed it in the fireplace under all the other sticks and felt satisfactory as the fire grew bigger and stronger.
During the whole process, which took probably well over thirty minutes, Rainbow Dash just sat next to her, leaned against the stone wall and watching silently. As the fire came to life and Applejack could finally relax, she leaned on Rainbow Dash's shoulder. As they sat there with nothing but a a small fire and each other to keep themselves warm with a ferocious lightning storm raging outside, no more words were needed. Exhaustion finally claimed it's price as they both fell into a light and uneasy sleep, not waking up until the next morning.
Thank y'all for reading
Originally posted here
~ Rainbow Breeze