//------------------------------// // Interuptions and Disastrous Happenings // Story: The Lone Survivor // by AvidSeason //------------------------------// A Few Hours Earlier ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Rainbow Dash was a very cool mare. At least in her regard ,that is. Some chose to agree with her ,like her ever prominent shadow, Scootaloo, so it would be very unusual to find her here of all places, lounging around in the Ponyville Spa. She was currently being worked on by a mare name Aloe. She was recommended greatly for her massaging techniques by Rarity, so she thought that asking for her would be a good idea. Thankfully the high praise from Rarity wasn't just exaggeration, but Rainbow's mind was currently focused on other things being how she currently looked. Rainbow had to admit that even she didn't look as cool as she was supposed to be right then and there, but she had promised Rarity to actually go with her this time. She couldn't just keep running away from her promises. Unfortunately, she was actually enjoying this. She didn't really want to accept that Rarity may have been right about relaxing after all, so she just sat there and tried to be as uncomfortable as possible. Thankfully that was really easy since Rarity was just talking her ear off. She was going on about some nonsense with shampoos, conditioners, and some hooficures. "Honestly it's a wonder why Fluttershy just didn't die of boredom," Rainbow thought. Rarity just kept going on and on and on. In little time at all she was stuck in her own little world of being the Wonderbolts captain. Every once in a while she would either nod or shake her head absentmindedly when Rarity's voice had a questioning tone. Rarity never found out about it, so rainbow kept on doing it for a while. This was the façade that Rainbow had decided to stick to for the entire time she was over there in the Ponyville Spa. It would've been a very boring day for her had it not been for one little incident during the mud bathing. Specifically, it was Spike the prepubescent dragon. Now Spike was just there to see Rarity. He always knew where she was at any time of the day due to his secret Rarity calendar he hid underneath his basket. For the sake of Spike's privacy however we should stay away from those dark thoughts. Anyway Spike was not expecting Rainbow Dash to be there at all, so when he actually saw Rainbow in blissful unawareness, he decided he better do something to actually get her attention. It's perfectly understandable then, that his first action would be to poke her in the face. Rainbow was unfortunately woken up. "Spike.....what the hay are you doing?" All of this was spoken in a very straight tone of voice, so when Spike heard this he immediately stopped the poking to form a rebuttal. "Uuhhhhhh....poking you in your sleep?" This was said with a smile from the dragon. Rainbow sighed as she mentally hoof-slapped her face. "Spike...if you ever speak of what you've seen here, I will do many unspeakable horrors." Rainbow would never harm one of her friends, but with her scary tone of voice, Spike was starting to think otherwise. "Now darling...you can't do that to him. I know that you're embarrassed to be here, but you can't take that out on him." Rainbow hated to admit it, but Rarity had become the voice of reason in their little conversation. "I'm sorry Spike, but you have to see this from my point of view. If you would even talk about what was mentioned here then all of my street cred would be lost. I wouldn't even have a chance at the Wonderbolts if they thought that I was too mare-y to join them." Spike's head nodded. Even though he, or anyone else for that matter, didn't know what the hay rainbow Dash was talking about, he decided to do this for the simple reason of making Rainbow Dash happy. Anyone knew that if Rainbow ever mentioned anything having remote possibility being related to the Wonderbolts, then it was very important to her. Rainbow sighed and Rarity shook her head tittering all the while. "Really Rainbow....You don't think for once that he would just ramble on to his friends about what happened hear do you?" Rainbow grumbled a bit as Rarity pointed out yet another instance where she had messed up. Meanwhile Spike was grumbling to himself about how he didn't even have any other friends besides the mares since they demanded most of his attention. Unfortunately Rainbow had heard him muttering. "What was that Spike?" Spike then began to sweat profusely. He had to think of a very good excuse. If any of the girls were to find out about his abnormal social life, then Twilight would for sure cram many past friendship lessons down his throat. Spike was suddenly struck by inspiration. "I was just thinking about what had happened at the castle." Rainbow's eyebrows raised and Rarity's ears twitched for the potential gossip. "There was this.....creature that was growling and was around Twilight-" "IS IT STILL THERE SPIKE?!?" Spike's eardrums felt like they would've burst from Rainbow's outburst. "Ummmm.....yeah, I think so if Twilight still has-" It was pointless to go on however, since Rainbow had already flown out of the spa. Spike sighed and putting a claw to his face. "Don't you worry Spike. I'm sure that Rainbow will deal with that ruffian." Spike rolled his eyes as Rarity mishandled the situation. "That's the thing Rarity. It's not a monster. Twilight said that it was just an ambassador." Rarity's eyes widened as her brain finally processed the information. "Oh...oh dear." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Meanwhile up in the skies, Rainbow was flying towards the castle. Clouds flew by under her as she sped along. Thankfully none of the weather team had placed them any higher, otherwise Rainbow would've directly flew into one. rainbow wasn't paying attention to this however. She was thinking about the potential monsters that could have been attacking Twilight at this moment. She was currently thinking about the possible monsters that could've showed up at that crystal tree-castle of hers. 'It could only be a thing crystal related. I mean, the guards outside would surely stop any and all threats coming towards the castle, so the only possible solution is that it was inside the castle to begin with. It was either that or another one of Twilight's experiments. So if I am going to attack this thing, I'm going to need speed, power, and a secret weapon' Contrary to popular belief, Rainbow doesn't always just dash blindly into danger. Sure she may on occasion forget to actually put her brain to use before combat, but she was still a hell of a good strategist. It was a skill that she only relied on for the most dire of situations. She didn't think that the fight would be fun if she just planned the whole battle out. Thankfully for Twilight as well as "the monster" there was just one thing stopping her from finding the two of them. "I'm sorry mam, but are you insulting me?" "No Mr. Guard it's just that I do believe that there's a monster in-" "No there isn't. Ii would've seen it come here. Now would you please back away mam." Rainbow was pissed. She couldn't talk any kind of sense with the guard. If only Twilight had not posted a guard detail ,then perhaps she would've gotten in there faster. "Oh well" she thought, " I did warn him or her about the monster." She never knew what gender they ever were. They were usually all just enchanted to look the same and "be" the same for "unity" reasons that she usually never understood. Backing away from those thoughts, she began to trot away from the guard towards a lone tree over the hill. She flew into it and pretended to be asleep. Eventually the guard did turn his(her?) attention away from her and resumed his(her?) patrol around the door. She waited for a few moments before she made her move. She dashed towards the tree-castle and hid on one of its balconies. Thankfully no guards were detailing it, so she was currently safe. Now all she had to do was stick to her plan. She crouched down really low and began to peer of the edge of the balcony over its hoof rail. None of the guards were looking up. It was the perfect chance. She silently flapped her wings to get some altitude and went to check on all of the windows. Her plan was relatively simple. She was to scout the perimeter and see if anything abnormal was amiss. If she couldn't spot anything she would see if any of the windows or balcony doors were unlocked and sneak inside. She started going around the entire trunk and worked her way upwards until she saw the top most window. Standing right behind it was the bulkiest and most shadowy beast that Rainbow had ever seen. (Not counting Sombra) Then she finally noticed what was the object of its desire, Twilight Sparkle. She knew that if she was to take down this thing before Twilight was severely hurt, she would need a lot of speed. She zoomed away from the castle to a short distance away. Then she flew straight towards the window. Unfortunately the guard from earlier was looking up when she did this, so the guard then began to yell at her at the top of his(her?) lungs. "STOP BEFORE YOU HURT YOURSELF!!!!!" Rainbow was too far up as well as fast to even hear her though, so she took no heed to the guard's advice. Light was beginning to bend around her as she recognized what was about to happen. "Finally," she realized, "I have enough speed to take this thing down." As she sped further and further towards the window, she thought she heard Twilight cheer her on. "Come on! Get in here quickly!" That was the last thing she heard before she flew through the window and did a Sonic Rainboom. She thought she heard the thing growl in surprise before she slammed into his back. Then everything went dark. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In another part of Equestria, specifically Canterlot, Celestia was listening to another noble go on a rant about how that she should get something from someone for some such reason. She wasn't really paying attention. Thankfully her guards were. "...and THAT in conclusion is why I should get control over the trade routes to and from Las Pegasus!" Celestia was woken up violently by the sound of the noble. Thankfully she had trained for years to actually look awake while she was sleeping. It was mostly a body numbing spell that kept Celestia in her current position on her regal chair, but some of it was also an illusion spell to keep the visiting nobles from seeing Celestia sleep with her eyes closed and snoring. She whispered to her guard, Silver Light, "What situation is it?" "Princess I do believe it is a Tango-Red-Bravo-Alpha-Tortilla Chip." Celestia's face brightened up as she finally "Thank you." Silver smiled slightly. "Alright Miss Coin, I have carefully considered your petition to control the trade routes, and I am glad to say that you have provided many good reasons to do so as well as some extensive credentials in past endeavors. I'm happy to say that you're petition has been accepted. Your work begins in a week. Be prepared." The noble's faced stared confusingly at the princess. "Princess....My name isn't Coin. It's Raakel." Celestia's eyes opened widely as she stared at Silver. Silver looked confused as well before she gained a look of comprehension. "Sorry Princess,", she whispered, " I meant Tango-Red-Bravo-Alpha-Enchilada." The Princess nodded sagely. Now, however she was going to have to shoot down Raakel's proposal. She was vastly different from Coin's way of money management. Raakel just let everypony take advantage of her when it came to corporate investment and real estate. She could only imagine what unspeakable horrors the economy might be put through if Raakel ever held such a major trade route to the Saddle Arabian Empire. "Aahhh, sorry about that my little pony. Now where were we?" "I think that you were about to"---Suddenly there was a flash of light coming from the windows. Secretly, Celestia was glad to have a diversion at that particular moment, since explaining why she thought she was Wealthy Coin would be a very difficult and intricate process. Everypony looked outside towards the light. I bright column of rainbow light was erupting from a nearby town reaching towards the inky blackness of the starry night. No one here knew about this town except the most elite of guards as well as the princess' themselves. They were well versed in the disasters that effected the town daily. Nothing could prepare them for the window shattering boom that took place. Windows shuddered and warped inwards. All of them shattered. That one action would cost a lot of bits for Celestia for the colored glass restoration. She was not worrying about that right now however. All she could think about now was, "Twilight...what trouble have you gotten in to now??"