Purity

by maxxxxxx

Signs of disaster

“Whew-y!” The orange pony said as she wiped her brow with her hoof, sweat clinging to her fur.

She had just finished bucking the last tree of the day, her chores finished up early despite the heat. Smiling with satisfaction at her hard work she wheeled the cart of freshly bucked apples back home so the could be made into a great variety of delicious apple based treats. The strong, country pony, effortlessly pulled the rather large haul of apple over the bumpy terrain. She looked up to the sky, her slime dissipating, as there were no clouds in the sky. The air, which had started out humid earlier in the morning was now just hot and unusually dry, the peril of the environment did not escape the experienced farmer. This weather could easily escalate into a fire, destroying generations of work in a single day, not to mention putting her family and friends in danger. All it would take was a spark, and she knew this well. However, fire was not the only threat posed by this unusual weather.

“Hey Applejack. Wait up!” An enthusiastic voice drawled from behind her.

“Oh, sorry Applebloom.”-She spoke in a much less enthused voice than the pale filly who was all but panting after catching up to her. Applejack tried to keep her voice in check so as to not worry her little sister but with out much success.-“I was lost in thought, that’s all.”

Applebloom, who was now walking side by side with her big sister, raised an eyebrow at her uncharacteristic reaction.

“Now Yer start'n to sound like Granny Smith! Are you sure yer all right?” The young pony inquired dubiously.

AJ forced a convincing smile before replying. “Aw, don’t you none sugar cube”-She managed to pull off her cheery affect. Not stopping to see if her little sister was convinced or not, she deftly switched the subject.-“Speaking of Granny Smith, how is she doing?”

“She's all right I guess. Just relaxing in her chair like usual.”

To Applejack, that was just as great a concern as a fire, this weather was no good for old pony folk. As far as she could tell it was somehow getting hotter almost by the minute. Even if a fire didn’t happen, she worried this could be the onset of a drought. A rare occurrence, but if the weather team messed up somehow or maybe this was some freak runway weather from the Everfree Forest, but if this kept up her farm's crops would be in danger. She pondered these things again forgetting her sister was walking right beside her watching her expression darken. 'Maybe I could ask Rainbow Dash if she could give us some cloud cover, at least till the heatwave dies down. I'm sure she'd understand if it was for Granny Smith.'

As she pondered asking her rainbow maned friend for help she became oblivious to her sister and just about everything else. if she didn’t know the lay out of her farm by heart she might have tripped on the couple gofer holes she casually walked around, but suddenly something shook her from her train of thought, literally. Her head shot up as she scanned around her. The ground was shaking. Only slightly, but still shaking. However, the usual cause of this was nowhere in sight.

“Applebloom, did you feel that?” Applejack turned to her sister, only to see she had a look of fear in her eyes. She was about to ask what was wrong but the filly cut her off.

“Ya, I felt it, and I see that!” Applebloom shot a hoof up, pointing slightly behind her sisters field of view.

AJ spun her head around to see what was getting her little sis so worked up. There in her west field, not more than two barns away, was a pack of three timber wolves!

“Applebloom you stay here!” Applejack ordered her sister as she unhooked herself from the cart she ran to the side opposite her sister and grabbed her lasso that was hanging off a metal peg jutting out the side of the cart. She prepared herself to sprint after them but by the time she turned around the had gained quite a distance. She stopped and watched them. They were running, almost like...

“Aren’t you gonna go after them?” Applebloom pressed anxiously looking quickly between the timber wolves and her sister.

“It almost looks like they're running from something.”- The timber wolves, despite their proximity showed no signs of interest in the two ponies.-“They aren’t running towards the house and they must have already passed our heard if they are coming from that way.”

'Wait!?' Applejack's face suddenly turned grim. Almost as if on cue, the ground began to shake again, but it was different this time, it was an all too familiar shaking. Accompanying the tremor the air roared and as the farmer turned towards the source of the noise she saw a fast approaching dust cloud.

“Stampede!”
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After an, as she predicted, all to long a flight, the pair were nearing their destination. Fluttershy's cottage was in sight.

“Finally!” The rainbow pegasus said in exasperation. She looked around her friend's home and to her dismay saw none of the animals she was working fervently to ease before Dash marenapped her. She did a mid-air about-face turning towards Twilight who was still behind her. After the lavender alicorn shot her a, less than amused, look for her overly dramatic statement she quickly digressed and instead gave her a nicer alternative.

“Well I guess you have been really busy, probably didn’t have much time for flying practice.” Dash sad nervously rubbing the back of her head. Twilight was now caught up with her friend, her look changing from one of sarcastic anger to a bit regretful as sad, her eyes looking down following her mood.

“As a matter of fact your right, I haven’t had any time to practice between my studies, my duties as a princess, and trying to spend time with all of you, or trying to, that I haven’t had the chance to practice properly.” Twilight's sad expression only grew stronger as she spoke, as did her friends expression of guilt. The last time that Twilight Sparkle had visited Ponyville, Dash had been busy with special flight training for the Wonderbolts. She felt a little guilty for not being there but she didn’t think the element of magic, the princess of friendship would hold that against her. Now She was really feeling the guilt of disappointing her closest friend.

“Look, I'm sorry Twi.”- In a comforting gesture, the pegasus put her hoof over her friends shoulders, being careful not to bump her wings.-“After we get this whole thing sorted out how about I personally give you a lesson?” The ever confident speedster puffed out her chest as she spoke. The gesture seemed to have had the desired effect as Twilight's face light up a bit.

“I'll hold you to it.” Twilight's smile returned. Dash relaxed as her friends disposition returned to normal.

“So where is Fluttershy?”

Dash froze at the question, never quite thinking how she would word her traumatizing the shy pegasus. Though Twilight continued without noticing as she looked around for signs of her animal loving friend.

“I mean, if there is trouble in the forest shouldn’t we tell her so she can stay in town and... Dash are you listening?” She waved a hoof in front of the spaced out pony.

“Oh, um... I-I took care of it?” Dash said as though she were asking Twilight.

“Oh, okay?” Twilight furrowed an eyebrow in confusion.

“Anyway lets go, we're close” Rainbow Dash flew towards the sky. Coming to a sudden halt she looked down to her friend who was hovering where she was just left. “Come on.” She smiled in her characteristic confident mischievous smile. Twilight smiled and followed her friend over the Everfree Forest.
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The two flew for only a few minutes before they could see first signs something was amiss. The air was stiflingly hot and so dry it was hard to breath, the wind was disturbingly still, or at lest the experienced weather pony could tell it was. Worst of all though the air carried a frightening smell, the smell of smoke! A short while later they were there. Then, they saw it! It was much worse than when Dash had been there just an hour earlier.
The two ponies hovered there, mouths agape at the sight before them. The two circles of dead trees had grown fast in a short time, where only shortly before they were tens of kilometers apart they were now only a few away from touching. The ground in and around the circles were bulging dramatically and the tremors were now visibly shaking the trees. Smoke percolated through what was left of the trees. The forest was dead silent, devoid, apparently, of all animals. Twilight flew forward, towards the dead circles, in disbelief.

“Twilight, be careful the winds could kick up any...”-But her warning came too late. A powerful updraft had knocked twilight into a falling tumble. She screamed and flapped her wings frantically trying to fight the now highly turbulent winds. Dash sprung into action, diving for her plummeting friend, but the updrafts were strong, even she could barely keep herself straight, meanwhile her friend kept falling further. Dash beat her wings with all her might, but the hot winds seemed bent on holding her back. Dash's heart was racing. No! I cant make it in time, She's falling. I Have to do something! Her thoughts raced, then, an idea.

Dash flew up, following an updraft. A second later it subsided, then, she dived. She flew as quickly as she could, once she had picked up enough speed she opened her wings and with a mighty heave thrust herself into a spiral. An Explosion of rainbow and sound was left in her wake, a drill like spiral of rainbow flowed behind her. At these speeds and with her spin the updrafts didn’t matter at all! She almost felt like there was no air as she effortlessly bored though the powerful updrafts! The earth beneath her was a dizzying blur of green black and an ever growing splash of purple. Her vision blurred, her head became light and fuzzy and her lips were going numb. She was blacking out.

No! Not now! Not until she's safe! The now ballistic Pegasus willed her body to stay conscious as she was now only a few meters from her target. Only have one chance! Got to get this right. Using her tail she managed to flatten herself against the wind by a couple degrees putting her on a perfect course to catch her friend.

Three. Two. One! Exactly as she had finished her count she made contact with Twilight pulling her into her stabilizing spin they both shot straight towards the ground now even faster. The ground was fast approaching. Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth against not only the friction of the air but also for the pain she was about to be in. She waited, then another updraft hit her, thanks to the fact she was holding Twilight in essentially a bear-hug she was a bit less aerodynamic and could easily feel the changes in the wind. As soon as the gust hit her face she threw open her wings quickly decelerating the plummeting ponies, however the wind and shock painfully ripped at Dash's wings, shearing feathers, and flesh off her wings, she could feel several bones fracture under the stress, despite her bracing for the pain the intensity of it made her yelp in agony. It was enough to both stop their fall and pull them both out of the spiral. Twilight was still reeling from first the fall and then the spinning, so despite the damage she endured she kept flapping her wings, wincing at ever muscle contraction.
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Everything was still spinning, She felt sick and the experience left her shaking. All she could recall through the ordeal was seeing a sonic rainboom then being hint with something that felt like a boulder then a lot of spinning. So where am I now? Twilight thought still in a daze. She felt somepony's hooves around her, Dash's. She looked up to see Rainbow Dash suspending her in the air with her forelegs wrapped around her waist. She was crying, her face contorted from pain.

“Twi”-She grunted painfully-“Can you fly yet?”

Twilight began flapping her wings just before Dash's gave out, she began falling but Twilight caught her by the hoof. Dash hung there, really hoping another updraft wouldn’t hit. Twilight looked at the cyan pegasus's now disfigured and bloodied wigs, a piece of bone even protruding out from one of them.

“Oh Celestia, Dash your wings!” Twilight said shakily as she held back tears and her horn began to glow.

“Heh, is it better or worse than the time you got me hooked on Daring Do?” Dash laughed through the pain trying ease Twilight's worry. Though even the act of laughing intensified her pain. Out of nowhere a white fluffy cloud formed under Dash surrounded by a purple magic glow.

“This isn’t funny Dash, you seriously hurt!” Tears started pooling in Twilight's eyes.

Dash let her weight rest on the magically formed cloud. Her hoof sliding out from Twilight's grasp.

“Don’t worry egghead, this is just a scratch, you should see some of the wipe-outs the Wonderbolts have walked away from”

A rope appeared magically in front of twilight, it to wrapped in her purple glow. She unwound it then tied it off so it made a loop.

“Hold on to that end okay. I'm going to fly us out of here”

“Wait what if there is another updraft?” Dash said looking around as if to see if any we hiding.

“I have that covered.” Twilight retorted as she cast another spell that cast a large pink, transparent sphere around them that quickly disappeared.

“It's a spell to protect against the wind.” She began levitating the rope towards her mouth before dash interrupted.

“Wait! Why didn’t you use that before we fell?!” Dash blurted before she recoiled from the pain of her outburst.

“You didn’t tell me about the winds and I need focus to cast so it wasn’t something I could do while falling.” Dash wanted to shrug at that answer but she was afraid it would hurt too much so she compliantly took the rope into her mouth. With that twilight towed the pegasus to safety both, relieved to be leaving the Forrest. Despite the pain Dash took a look back, and it looked as though the circles had gotten even bigger and closer!

Comments

[Cerulean Voice]

Damn, this is getting hectic. I'm enjoying the story, even though it is difficult to see beyond most of the grammar issues.
Onward!

[Need More Gore]

I love it! Reading that applejack actual pulled off a white lie is different. Normally she can't lie or deceive if her life depends on it ;)

I noticed a few errors. Fix em if you feel like it.

She looked up to the sky, her (slime) dissipating, as there were no clouds in the sky. (Think you wanted smile there)

Dash (sad) nervously rubbing the back of her head. (Peaty sure you were going or said)

The gesture seemed to have had the desired effect as Twilight's face (light) up a bit. (I think lit reads better here but that might just be my redneck upbringing showing.)

Dash said looking around as if to see if any (we) hiding. (Totally going whith where hear) might be wrong that one but I know we ain't right

Just trying to help out spelling used to be a huge problem with me.

[Devola and Popola]

She looked up to the sky, her slime dissipating,