Overshadowing the Rainbow

by Eruantalon


Rainbow blaze grounded at twilight

"Dragon! Flood! Fire! Griffins! Horror!"

Rainbow Dash and Rarity both jumped up at the screams from outside. Dash threw the door open; a crowd of ponies was galloping toward the marketplace. "What's up?" she demanded.

"Flood! Fire!" Daisy neighed. "Fly -"

"Hey, if there's a flood, there can't be a fire!"

"The Princess -"

"Princess Celestia!?" Rarity gasped.

Daisy galloped off; Lily neighed "Princess Twilight!" before following.

Dash narrowed her eyes at the near-stampede in the street, and then glanced back at Rarity. The next moment, they were flying and galloping for Twilight. Trouble was brewing.

The marketplace, to Dash's relief, was much calmer than the streets. Twilight was standing on the back of Applejack's wagon, looking like she'd just touched down. She wasn't frazzled, and only mildly frantic. Dash sighed with relief; there was no disaster. Then she glanced over the crowd; they were far too frightened to have noticed.

"Everypony!" Twilight exclaimed, raising her wings. "Calm down!"

Lily shrieked; the crowd started shifting their hooves on the edge of stampede.

Twilight narrowed her eyes. "Nothing's happening! I mean, there's no disaster; a few things might go bad, but -"

"DRAGON!" Daisy yelled, turning to bolt. Applejack, standing next to the wagon, shook her head sadly.

Twilight suddenly lit up her horn. Her mane jumped up, flowing out in an aurora. Daisy was seized in purple magic and dragged back into place. "EVERYPONY!" Twilight exclaimed in something really close to the Royal Canterlot Voice. "There's no need to panic!"

Before she could even think about it, Dash instinctively gave a flying-bow. Below her, the rest of the crowd was kneeling. Dash hadn't even thought before her body was bowing; it was almost like... that time Princess Celestia had appeared in all her radiance to end the Smarty Pants Disaster. Maybe it was something about alicorns?

"Now," Twilight continued, her hair back in place and her voice normal, "As I was saying before you all interrupted me -"

Daisy cringed; no one else moved. Everyone was still on their knees.

"I was just on the other side of the Everfree, and I saw some latent magic that was triggered by something. I'm not sure what; it might have been Nightmare Moon, but there was a large ancient signature of chaos that makes me think it might have been the plunder vines -"

Applejack loudly cleared her throat.

"Anyway," Twilight continued, "we've got some rogue magic. Fortunately, it'll blow itself out in a day or two, but in the meantime, no matter how many tame clouds we've cleared, we will be getting a very strong wild thunderstorm."

Dash's heart sank. She flexed her wings, but something still held her in place.

It was Pinkie Pie who jumped up, producing two large cymbals from her mane. "Let's all get ready, then!" She clapped them together like thunder. Everypony around her flinched, and a few of them jumped up from kneeling.

"Uh, right, Pinkie. Sorry, everypony." Twilight shifted, looking a little embarrassed. "But, we still do need to storm-proof the whole town this evening! Now, Applejack and Carrot Top, can you tie down everything in the market; Fluttershy, can you make sure the animals' burrows are ready for rain; Silver Spanner, can you double-check the dam..."

Dash raced forward to Twilight. "Hey, Twi!"

"Uh -" Twilight sidestepped, but Dash brought herself to a quick stop right in front of her, wings outstretched. "Um, Rainbow Dash? Uh, could you -"

"Hey!" Dash paused a moment, not sure what to say, and seized the first words that came to mind. "Organizing the weather's my job!"

Twilight glanced from Dash to the crowd. (Dash didn't bother looking.) "Well, Rainbow, I only just noticed the wild storm -"

"Silver Spanner!" Dash snapped. She looked at the crowd, only then noticing they were looking at her and Twilight with worry. "Um... yes. You take the, um, check the drainage in the south meadow. Blue October, you take the dam." She paused, trying to collect her thoughts, which were scattered every which way like wild clouds. "Hey, what're you waiting for?"

"Um..." Silver Spanner crept forward, wings furled. "Princess Twi -"

Before Rainbow Dash could do anything, Twilight gestured dismissal.

Dash glared at her.

Silver Spanner galloped off.

Twilight gestured for Dash to continue.

Dash swallowed, suddenly feeling as if something had gone even worse. "Blossomforth, riverbanks downstream. And Bluebell," she quickly added, suddenly unsure just how much work the banks needed, even though she should know it like the feathers in her wings. "Candyfloss, upstream riverbanks..."

As Dash was looking through the crowd, she thought she saw Pinkie Pie shaking her head slowly. But when she looked back, Pinkie had vanished. Uncertainly, Dash continued listing off all the jobs she thought she remembered, and then (sure she'd forgotten something) finished, "All right, everypony, to work!"

Twilight might have given a nod then, but Dash only saw it out of the corner of her eye - with that final word, Dash rocketed homeward like a thunderbolt. She felt sure something there had gone very wrong. Should they have just hunkered down for the storm? No, they needed to prepare for it. And it really was her job.

But still... she wished she could have said something better to Twilight, wished it could have gone better. But she didn't know how.


The wild thunderstorm hit in the middle of the night. Rainbow Dash's cloud house lit up with lightening as it was tossed back and forth in the wind and rain. But in the middle of it all, the pegasus - as weather-proof as all her kind - rolled over with just a small grumble. All that cloud work yesterday, and nothing to show for it.

It wasn't the storm; she'd ridden out plenty of regularly-scheduled rainy nights in her cloud. But something kept her awake for several hours before the thunder finally soothed her back to sleep.