Locked in

by Bunnybooze79

Chapter 1

The park in Ponyville was the best location for any kind of picnicking planned by ponies.

As it was slightly elevated it gave any ponies there a nice view over their town and the fields surrounding it. Sweet Apple Acres especially was a sight to behold, with rows and rows of apple trees. Even the Everfree Forest looked peaceful from this location.

It was the perfect place for the bi-weekly picnic that Twilight and her friends had arranged. As it was Saturday afternoon the park was relatively empty. Most ponies were either shopping or had to work. Applejack had left all market activities to her brother and was happy to have a free afternoon for once. Pinkie Pie had also been given the time off by the Cakes, despite the rush that Saturdays usually had. Rarity had somewhat reluctantly closed her boutique for the time being. She had nopony to take over her shop, but most certainly was entitled to take her lunch break whenever she wanted. Twilight had left the library with Spike in charge. It was highly unlikely that anypony would want to borrow a book on the weekend anyway or any day for that matter.

Finally there were the two pegasi, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy had both more and much less time than her friends. As Ponyville’s animal caretaker her job didn’t have fixed times and she would sometimes be called in the middle of the night because of an animal in need. She didn’t mind and loved doing something so helpful for Ponyville’s non-pony citizens.

As Ponyville’s weather manager, Rainbow Dash had more options to take a day off. She could simply task one of the other pegasi on her team to take over or switch shifts like she had done for today. Blossomforth had been not overly thrilled to switch shifts, but the prospect of having a long weekend next week more than made up for it. Although technically Rainbow Dash was off-duty she kept flying up into the sky and slowly circled above the group of ponies on the lookout for any kind of trouble.

Her friends didn’t really pay much attention to her behavior, as the rainbow maned pony rarely could sit down for long and just had to fly a bit to stretch her wings. Their attention was somewhat divided anyway, as for once the Cutie Mark Crusaders had joined in on the picnic. Their respective sisters kept a close eye on them, just in case their current attempt at finding their cutie marks turned out to be too boring. Ball-bouncing was ok, but if they decided to set the ball on fire they would need to intervene. Something that unfortunately was within the realm of possibilities, as the scorch marks near the clubhouse proved when they had tried their hoof at being firefighters.

One member of the CMC was not on her best game today.

“Oh, come on Scootaloo!” Applebloom stomped her small hoof on the ground in frustration as the ball she had bounced over to Scootaloo was ignored by the small pegasus.

“Sorry, sorry!” Scootaloo shook her head clear and quickly retrieved the ball. With one swing she threw it over to Sweetie Belle, but the throw wasn’t nearly strong enough to reach the unicorn filly.

“What’s wrong, Scootaloo?” Sweetie Belle ignored the ball and walked up to her friend. “You keep missing all the time.”

“Yeah, usually ya always get the ball.” Applebloom joined her friends, a look of concern on her face.

“I don’t know what’s wrong.” Scootaloo fidgeted about. She seemed nervous about something.

A while ago they would have assumed that Scootaloo was nervous about Rainbow Dash being there with them. But even in that case she would have doubled her efforts with whatever task they were doing to impress her idol. As they had bonded some more, her drive to impress Rainbow Dash had lessened somewhat, but that still wasn’t a good enough explanation why she constantly messed up during their game.

“Do you feel alright?” Sweetie Belle asked and held a foreleg to Scootaloo’s head. Perhaps she could get her cutie mark in being a nurse that way. Scootaloo brushed her leg away.

“I’m fine.” The little filly’s answer wasn’t very convincing. Scootaloo seemed to be very nervous her friends noticed as they watched her for a couple of seconds closely. Every couple of seconds Scootaloo would buzz her wings, her ears would twitch and she would look around as if expecting something.

“May….maybe you are sick?” Sweetie Belle looked over to Applebloom, who nodded in agreement after having come up with the same idea.

“I feel fine.” Scootaloo had to admit that it was a lie. “No, actually I don’t feel fine.”

“What’s tha matter?” Applebloom also tried to attain her cutie mark for being a nurse, by holding up her foreleg. Before she could even reach her friend, her efforts were halted as Scootaloo took a step back.

“I don’t know. I just feel funny.” Scootaloo saw the confusion on her friend’s faces and tried to explain better. “You know that feeling if you think something is going to happen, but don’t know what?”

“Like a pop-quiz on Monday’s at school?” Sweetie Belle’s guess was met with a shudder by her friends. Monday’s pop-quizzes were pure evil.

“Yeah, kinda like that.” Scootaloo answered after shoving the memory of the last pop-quiz out of her mind. “Don’t you feel like that right now?”

Her friends exchanged a look and then shrugged, both shaking their heads to answer Scootaloo’s question.

“Maybe ya really are sick?” Applebloom shrugged once more.

“I think we should tell somepony.” Sweetie Belle looked over to her sister, who was sitting on the blanket she had brought along for the picnic.

“Nah, I don’t think that…..” Scootaloo’s answer was cut short as she felt a shiver run up and down her spine. Nervously she glanced about expecting something to happen. As it was clear that nothing would actually happen she sighed and let her head hang low. “Yeah, I guess you are right.”

The trio trudged up towards where their sisters and friends were sitting. They were just listening to Pinkie Pie informing them of a party being planned for the upcoming anniversary of Ponyville’s spa. Rarity was all ears for any possible special offers during that time. Applejack couldn’t really care less about the spa, but the prospect of another Pinkie Pie party made her pay attention also. None of them noticed the fillies until they were right beside them.

“Applejack?” Applebloom was the first to speak. Applejack tore her attention away from the pink party pony.

“Hey there.” She smiled at the fillies and offered them a slice of apple pie. The fillies shook their heads at the offered treat. “Did ya have any luck with yer cutie marks?”

Applejack knew that their efforts were pretty much futile, but humored them anyway.

“No….” Applebloom let her head hang for a moment at another fruitless effort in that regard.

“We think Scootaloo is sick.” Sweetie Belle’s statement halted Pinkie’s description about special edible mudmasks and every mare’s attention was suddenly focused on the fillies.

“Why? What’s the matter?” Twilight asked concerned and went through possible first aid spells she knew.

“I feel funny. Like really nervous as if something is going to happen, but don’t know what.” Scootaloo explained.

Twilight was going to ask about any further symptoms, but everyponies attention shifted towards Fluttershy who had chuckled. The timid pegasus shrunk back slightly at the sudden attention.

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to laugh out loud.” Fluttershy’s chuckle could have hardly been described as loud.

“Do you know something?” Scootaloo asked her.

“Yes, I… maybe Rainbow can explain better.” Fluttershy nodded towards Rainbow Dash slowly gliding to the ground after another circle in the sky.

With one final flap of her wings she joined her friends on the ground. The fact that all eyes were now glued on her only slightly fazed her. She hadn’t really done any stunt that deserved such attention, but maybe it was just her natural awesomeness that drew their looks.

“What’s up?” Rainbow Dash asked and quickly claimed a slice of pie.

“Scootaloo is feeling it.” Fluttershy simply stated with a small smile.

“Are you now….” Rainbow smiled at the little now very confused filly.

“Feeling what?” Twilight asked. It seemed to her that was something interesting to be learned here and she wished she had parchment and some quills and ink to take notes.

“A feeling of something building up.” Rainbow Dash explained. “It’s the weather, Squirt. When you get older you can feel changes in the weather long before anything actually happens. So close to the Everfree that feeling can be uncomfortable sometimes.”

“So…that’s normal that I feel so….weird?” Scootaloo looked up to her idol sitting beside her.

“It’s all part of growing up, Scoot.” Rainbow Dash ruffled the filly’s mane. “You’ll get used to it eventually.”

“But even we feel something is going to happen.” Fluttershy added to the conversation. “Oh….uh…sorry if I disturbed anypony by shuffling my wings every once in a while.”

Nopony had even noticed her do so and were unsure on how to act. Rainbow Dash wolfed down the slice of pie and purely to spite Rarity, did not swallow everything before talking.

“I’ve been checking the Everfree all morning.” Rainbow Dash swallowed the food, as Rarity was just about to complain about her awful table manners. “Couldn’t see anything brewing up, but with the Everfree you never know what’s going to happen next.”

“Do ya think a storm is comin’? If so then Ah need to make sure the farm is prepared.” Applejack already began planning out the task that would have to be taken care of in the eventuality of a storm.

“I dunno.” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “The skies are all clear, but it still feels as if something big is coming.”

“You can take care of it right?” Scootaloo asked as her nerves slightly calmed down.

“Of course I can, Squirt!” Rainbow Dash puffed out her chest. “Ain’t nothing that can get past me.”

While it was a rather boastful statement, Rainbow Dash’s record was in her favor. Ever since she had taken up the mantle of weather manager in Ponyville not a single bad weather related accident had occurred. That was the reason nopony challenged her on it and rather continued enjoying the picnic.

_____________________________________________________________________

About half an hour later the little get together had a surprise visitor. Blossomforth nearly crashed into the assembled ponies sitting on their blankets. One quick bank to the right sent her tumbling to a stop next to them instead.

“Ow!” The pegasus mare untangled her limbs with a grunt.

“You ok?” Rainbow Dash helped her get back up.

“Here! This arrived by courier just now!” Blossomforth quickly shoved a letter from her saddlebag into Rainbow’s chest.

Startled she sat on her haunches and studied her co-worker. Blossomforth never had a need for speed and would very casually fly about the skies. Her primary task on the weather team was to design and shape clouds into nice forms that were pleasing to the eye. That she had seemingly raced here as fast as she could sent alarm bells going off in Rainbow’s mind.

Rainbow read the letter while Blossomforth caught her breath. Her eyes went wide with every new piece of information she read. Her surprise turned into a frown as she swore under her breath.

The other ponies just watched in confusion as Rainbow’s demeanor darkened by the second. Suddenly she looked up from the letter and turned to her friends.

“Fluttershy, get all your animal friends away from Ponyville. AJ, go and get Big Mac and Granny Smith from the farm along with any important documents you might need. The rest of you get back to Ponyville as fast as possible!” Rainbow barked out her orders fast and prepared to take off. In the last moment she turned her attention to Twilight. “Twilight, go to the mayor immediately! You will be needed there.”

“What’s going on?” Twilight asked with growing worry. None of them had seen their friend so serious. Rainbow Dash took off and yelled back to them of what was about to come.

“There’s a tornado approaching Ponyville!”

Comments

[Matt11]

I love it