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Chapter 1 - Falling In3,250 words
Chapter 2 - Falling Out5,469 words
Chapter 3 - A Cut Above3,468 words
Chapter 4 - Rail Danger3,640 words
Chapter 5 - A Bridge Not Far Enough3,459 words
Chapter 6 - Bobbing for Apples4,248 words
Chapter 7 - How Many Licks3,864 words
Chapter 8 - Head Rest6,001 words

Chapter 6 - Bobbing for Apples

CHAPTER 6

Bobbing for Apples

Terror gripped Dash's heart and lungs, squeezing the very life out of her battered body like no mere injury could ever accomplish. Its chill permeated her flesh, freezing her from within, rooting her to the spot, and turning her muscles to ice. Applejack's last, desperate look burned behind Dash's eyes.

From the huddled family, the youngest filly opened her mouth to scream—

Dash became aware of sluggish motion, already begun: her legs moving of their own accord, bending, lifting, reaching. They slowly started to move her forward without any command or involvement from her. She imagined she could feel every one of her muscles contracting and relaxing, each in its own turn but at a glacial pace. It was a slow-motion ballet of precise movement, without wasted energy or purpose, in which she was a mere spectator.

Terror's claw wrapped tighter around her struggling heart, distorting its shape and stifling its beat.

How can she be gone?

Her eyes still stared out the open door ahead of her, where only raindrops drifted slowly past in the howling gale.

Why was I asleep when they needed me?

The sound of her first hooffall boomed deeply through the thick air.

She can't die.

Tears blurred her vision, the claw's grasp faltered, and her heart gave a mighty, pounding beat.

I won't let her die!

The end of the passenger car exploded as a spinning, sparking streak of pure color erupted from within, plunging into the still-seething clouds below the sheared-off tracks.

—just as the filly's scream escaped her lips.

———

Rain-battered clouds streaked past Dash's plunging form, her goggleless eyes squinting to see through the rushing wet air—which was strangely still in the protective embrace of the gorge.

Has the train hit bottom yet? Would I hear it? How deep is this?

Doubt and confusion consumed her thoughts as she power-dived through the dark mist, wings tight against her sides.

She saw something sinister flit through the fog, a whipping tentacle that was bearing down upon her. Before Dash could dodge it, it was on top of her, wrapping around her torso and trapping her wings.

She struggled wildly—and she was immediately freed. It had no strength, it—

It's a rope!

Realization hit her as she and the rope continued to plunge into the gorge.

Applejack's!

She instantly seized the rope in her teeth and popped her wings wide. The jolt twisted her neck around and down, but she didn't let go. She could feel that there was weight at the other end of the line.

She could only hope it was—

As she painfully struggled to slow her fall, she wound one foreleg in the rope to take some of the weight from her teeth.

Dash had to stifle a mouth-opening gasp when a mighty, crashing explosion from below startled her. A cloud of choking dust billowed up to engulf her, darkening the fog still further.

Still, Dash held fast to her burden, jaws locked, gaining height once more. The rough rope cut into her gums and ripped loose the leg of her uniform. The thick dust clogged her panting nostrils with the smell of smoke and pine.

She slowly backed her way upwards, straining wings above and clenching teeth below. The taut rope vanished into the dark, sound-eating clouds below, hiding the far end from sight.

Dash couldn't judge the weight of what was at the other end through her teeth and leg, having never lifted anything this way before—for good reason.

It hurt.

It hurt her teeth and jaw. It hurt her leg, her neck, her back. Strain cramped her muscles, and each down-thrust of her wings threatened to rip the rope from her tenuous grasp.

If gritting her teeth were possible, Dash would have, because she would not let go.

She couldn't tell if she was making any headway at all until she thought she could feel the edges of the windstorm above the gorge playing with her tail. It was only then that a question came to her mind: What next?

To land Applejack—if it was her at the far end—safely on the ground, they would both have to clear the cliffs that lined the gorge. Dash had no idea how long the rope was or how high she would have to fly to get Applejack above ground level.

Landing her on the train was out of the question. It would be impossible to control the swing of so long a pendulum in those outrageous winds and land it on such a tiny target.

Altitude was her only answer.

Dash hoped that she could hold on. She hoped that Applejack could hold on.

She became aware of a darker patch in the fog next to her. Shifting herself closer, she found a ragged structure of broken-off timbers. The bridge!

Dash realized she must be directly below the remaining end of the train. Without the same winds as above, she'd gone straight down and straight back up. Her sudden desire to reach the train gave her new strength. She accelerated, and the wooden crossbeams flashed past her through the dark fog.

Suddenly, she burst out of the mist, blinded by the train's lights. She threw her free foreleg over her eyes to shield them as she jolted upwards in surprise. She was once more in the storm, and it had grown even stronger—

The wind slammed Dash hard against the side of the train, knocking the breath from her, but not knocking the rope from her grip. The momentum of her rapid ascent slid her up and over the train, rolling her across the roof and tangling her wings in the line. She scrambled for purchase with her free hooves, but the metal canopy was slick and wet. A moment later she was blown off the other side, her wings trapped and immobilized by the rope, falling upside down and out of control.

Eyes wide with panic, Dash twisted and turned, trying to shake herself free from the binding rope so that she could open her wings and stop her fall, but now the rope was too tight, and she couldn't escape its bonds.

She plummeted down past the side of the train, the line of wet rope sliding over the roof of the carriage with a hiss.

Dash was almost in free fall, slowed only by the rope she now dangled upside down from, completely trussed up and helpless to stop her plunge into the gorge. She clenched her eyes shut in terror, blocking out the sight of bridge struts flashing past.

A moment later, Dash felt her descent slowing. With a jolt, the rope went taut, and the back of her head banged against the wood of the bridge. She had come to a stop.

Trapped. Dangling.

Without the speed of her passage to dry her anymore, the dense fog of the gorge began to bead on her mane and lashes, mixing there with her hot tears of grief.

I'm sorry, Applejack. I tried...

"Hey there, sugarcube," said a quiet, tired voice.

"I'm sorry."

"For what?" said the voice.

"Not saving you."

The laughter was just as quiet, and rather shaky. "Well, it wasn't the most perfect of rescues, but... a rescue it was," said the voice, seemingly right next to her.

Dash had been rotating as she hung there, and now, opening her eyes, she saw an orange blur through the crisscrossed wooden beams of the bridge. "Applejack?"

Applejack gave an exhausted chuckle, "Eeyup. Let me guess... You tied yerself up?"

Dash giggled in relief. It is Applejack! As she was still trying to absorb the fact that her friend was alive and talking to her, Dash was beaten to the next question.

Applejack asked, "How're we gonna git back up to the train from here? You're too tangled up to move and I can only fly in one direction—down."

Collecting her wits, Dash tried to see the full state of their condition. She had flown up and over the top of the train car, thanks to the wind, and then down the other side, pulling Applejack up as she fell. They had stopped when their weight was equal on both sides, coming to a halt opposite each other.

Dash hadn't been in the best condition when all this began, and now, dangling upside down and immobile made it very hard to think straight. She couldn't see any way out of this.

After a few moments of silence—the eerie, muffled silence deep in the heart of a dense fog—Applejack asked, "Could you carry me up if we were free?"

Dash's old bravado powered her response. "Of course I can," she boasted. Then recent experience led her to second-guess herself. "As... long as we stay below the winds."

"But you could lift me up to the train?"

"I got us here, didn't I?" said the trussed up and dangling Dash.

After the briefest of pauses, laughter flowed from them both—over-loud, nervous laughter, but real nonetheless.

After they got themselves back under control, Applejack said, "Okay then. I'm gonna step onto the supports here and attach the rope to them... and then free myself. Then I can climb through to your side and untie you."

"Sure. Take your time. I'm just... hanging around." They both giggled and snickered once more, their laughter still driven by nerves. Dash was quite sure all of her blood had pooled in her head by now.

Dash could only watch, slightly disoriented by the topsy-turvy scene, as Applejack clambered into the structure of the bridge, wrapping the rope around an intersection of several beams. Then, without letting up on the tension, Applejack worked at the tight knot that had held her in the rope throughout her long fall and longer ascent. Once free, she quickly tied the rope to the bridge.

Then came the dangerous traversal through the bridge's structure to get to Dash's side—without the protection of the rope. Applejack tested each piece of timber before trusting any of her weight to it. Several times she had to change direction as she stepped onto a board or beam that had been shaken loose by the collapse.

It took longer than Dash had expected, but Applejack made it through. Soon she was leaning out of the structure, holding Dash's upside-down head in her hooves and stopping her slow rotation.

"Thanks, sugarcube," she said softly. "I thought I was a goner there for sure."

Dash could only smile shakily in response. She'd grown quite light-headed while watching Applejack work her way through the bridge.

As her friend gently held her head, Dash could only think, Applejack looks really funny standing upside down like that.

Then Dash felt hooves exploring the lay of the rope around her body, the knots and twists that bound her. "Okay. I think I see the way of it," said Applejack. "You'll be all right if I just—free you all in one go? You'll be able to fly?"

"Only one way to find out. Either that or I just... hang around." It was every bit as funny the second time to Dash, in her state of mind. Applejack, on the other hoof, wasn't as amused. Concern for her friend was plain on her face. Even Dash knew that if she couldn't fly when she was released, she would fall to her death.

Dash realized that if that happened, Applejack would likely take the blame onto herself. Dash tried to clear her head and focus—because there wasn't any other choice.

Applejack slowly worked the loose end of the rope free while leaning on one of the angled cross-supports of the bridge—a foreleg reaching around each side, hind legs braced securely in the structure. Dash craned her neck to watch, but she couldn't see much from her angle.

Eventually, Applejack had a length of the rope looped around a free hoof, and she took up the slack. "Git ready..." she warned, and, after a nod from Dash, she heaved backwards on the line. In a body-twirling yank, Dash was spun around and released, immediately plummeting out of sight into the dark fog.

"Dash!" yelled Applejack.

Just a few seconds later, however, the silhouette of Rainbow Dash was back, hovering in front of her in the torn and ripped Wonderbolt's uniform, goggles once more over her eyes.

"Somepony call for a lift?"

Applejack grinned and stretched a hoof out from her perch amid the timbers. Dash swooped in close and scooped her up about the torso, and the two friends flew up out of the dank and shadowy abyss together.

———

First one orange hoof, then another, and Applejack pulled herself up onto the rear porch at the end of what was left of the train. Her loose mane and tail streamed wildly behind her in a blonde river of wet, tangled hair. She slipped inside the carriage and dropped to the floor in exhaustion just as Dash slid in, off-balance from her landing, wings closed at the last moment to fit through the door.

The two exhausted ponies lay there, catching their breath in the relative safety of the swaying, dark, and empty car. The sheared-off bridge had seemed fairly stable down below, but up here with the storm shoving at the broad side of the passenger carriages, the structure swung wildly from side to side in time with the howls of the wind. It groaned back as if in heated, escalating argument with the storm.

Applejack, recovering her breath first, said, "Everypony's out of this car, too. We should cut it loose and get it off the bridge."

"What? Again?" panted the still-breathless Dash. "Didn't you just do that?"

"Well, ah... Ah'll be more careful this time. And I think—I hope—there'll be a lot less collapsin' bridge involved." Applejack, wincing, got slowly to her hooves.

Dash nodded in fervent agreement, clambering back up onto her own unsteady hooves. "Good plan. I like the not-falling-to-our-death bit."

Applejack grinned and tousled Dash's mane as she passed, headed for the front of the carriage and the next coupling. Dash shook her dripping hair back out of her face and got one last deep breath before following Applejack towards the door.

———

Applejack's bucking did the job on the first try this time, and the carriage was disconnected quickly and easily. Dash suddenly recalled a saying from the Wonderbolt Academy: With experience comes speed.

Dash braced herself between the storm-ravaged porches and started to push the disconnected car away, but Applejack stopped her, shaking her head. Unable to communicate in the storm—in fact, quite likely to drown if facing the wrong direction with an open mouth, Dash thought—they clambered in through the door to the next carriage.

The space was packed with ponies, all oddly quiet once the pair had shut the door behind them. Their terror had turned into resigned despair, all hope gone with only useless, oppressive time remaining in its wake. Even the appearance of the sodden strangers had little effect beyond slow, disinterested glances.

The dark despondency clamped down on even Dash and Applejack's spirits as they moved slowly down the aisle, stepping over and around slumped and lethargic forms. The biggest reactions they saw from the huddled masses were fearful glances at windows and roof as thunder rolled over them and gusts shoved particularly hard at the protesting remains of the bridge.

Affected by the mood, Applejack spoke in low, quiet tones to Dash as they made their way forward. "I don't think we could have pushed it off. It would'a just got stuck on the end, or worse, taken some of the bridge with it. But at least it won't drag the train backwards if it falls, now."

Having reached the front of the car without any sign of their friends, Applejack pushed through into the storm once more. Dash looked back at the faces of the ponies she'd tried to save and saw how they didn't bother to protect themselves from the sudden influx of rain and wind. It chilled her to the bone to see them so despondent.

The next carriage was much like the first, but even more crowded. They moved slowly, picking their way through the huddled masses and searching for their friends—or the slightest glimmer of hope in the faces they passed.

They found neither.

They encountered the conductor, however, as he entered the carriage from the front end in a blast of horizontal rain, just as they were reaching for the door themselves.

"Oh! I was told..." His eyes went wide as he recognized them, but then he shook his head, his momentary burst of optimism fading. "Doesn't matter."

"What's been happenin'? How's the rescue going?" asked Applejack.

"What? Rescue?" He looked strangely at them. "Haven't you been listening at all?"

The two shared a glance just as a blinding flash and a roaring, booming clap of thunder shook the carriage. Dash could feel the sound deep in her chest, and several ponies around them screamed in shock and fear. The blast was quickly followed by another, and the sound of the rain battering the roof intensified. The passengers' low voices were thick with fright. It was a panic with no outlet that ate away at them from within.

"No," said Dash forcefully. "No, we haven't been listening. Tell us what's happening!"

"Nothing is happening! There's been another mudslide. The ground crew has had to pull back. There's nothing anypony can do to save us! And it's just a matter of time before what's left of this bridge collapses completely!" His voice increased in volume and caused some nearby passengers to look up with fright and others to bury their heads in their companions' manes.

"Where's Twilight?" demanded Dash.

"Who?" His eyes lost focus and turned upwards towards the pounding sound of rain on metal. What energy he'd briefly possessed had simply drained away now that he had spouted his dire synopsis.

Applejack joined in. "Our unicorn friend. The one that's been helpin' by teleportin' ponies off the train? Where is she?"

"First car. But even that hope is gone now," he said as he collapsed onto a bench next to a turquoise mare with tear-filled eyes. She was twisting a handkerchief in her hooves, head bowed, and didn't even look at him.

The two friends shared a worried glance before hurrying out towards the first car.

———

The storm was truly deadly now, Dash realized, as they stepped out into something beyond any nightmare she'd ever had. More lightning split the sky, irradiating the nearby clifftops in blue-white fire.

She'd been roughed up by this storm so much over the past day, but only now was the storm truly upon her. This wasn't just a bad storm. This was a hurricane, and Dash finally understood what that word implied.

Dash stood for a moment in the full fury of the storm, holding fast as Applejack escaped into the front carriage. She could feel the force of the raindrops hitting her body like little fists, feel the gripping, yanking pull of the wind on her mane and tail, feel the feathers of her wings, so attuned to the winds of speed, agitated like never before by the rushing air.

She realized that she was as scared as she'd ever been.

She staggered after Applejack.

———

Inside the first carriage, they finally found their friends huddled together at the far end. They rushed towards the group, stopping short as they saw Twilight Sparkle, prone and unmoving on the floor.

"Twilight!" yelled Dash, a ragged surge of panic welling up inside her.

"Twi!" Applejack turned to the kneeling Fluttershy. "What happened?"

"She saved so many. She..." Fluttershy faltered, her breath coming in ragged little gasps, tears flowing down her already-streaked face to fall onto Twilight's mane.

Dash felt the claw of fear grip her heart once more.

"She was transporting another family to safety," whispered Rarity. "The three foals first. It was—It was just too much for her. Too many trips. When she came back after taking the mother across, she—She collapsed!"

"She just kept... teleporting again... and again," whimpered Fluttershy between tight little sobs. Spike was kneeling silently next to Twilight's head, tears flowing down his scales.

Dash's eyes were wide with shock. "She's not—"

Rarity looked up through watery eyes. "No. But she's just barely breathing. And we don't know what to do for her." There was such anguish in her voice.

Even Pinkie Pie was quietly crying.

Applejack sat down softly next to the still form of Twilight and rested a hoof gently on her mane, whispering sadly, "Hang in there, sugarcube."

As the full fury of the hurricane battered and rattled their unstable prison, Dash saw all the hope and light drain away from her friends—and all the ponies trapped on the train. She felt the claw of fear and self-recrimination strangle her from the inside, and something within Dash finally broke.

She felt it go. A heat drained away inside her. Her vision narrowed.

Recent memories exploded in her mind: the air show cancellation, the dark flight along the rail lines, the tunnel, the mudslide, her plummet into the gorge, Applejack's fall and rescue—her friends' defeated acceptance of seemingly unavoidable death.

At every step of the way she'd had an enemy at her back, a foe throwing heartache and pain relentlessly against her—an adversary that first tried to crush her and now tried to crush her friends.

"The hurricane."

The rage in her low utterance made her friends turn to look at her with some alarm, but Dash just stared out a rain-streaked window, motionless and tense.

She remembered how High Winds had described a hurricane: organized chaos. Maybe there was a weakness there, maybe not—but to sit here and cower in fear wasn't in her.

It's not the Wonderbolt way. It's not the Rainbow Dash way.

She couldn't leave the train to save herself, but she could leave it to save everypony else—or at least try. As she stared out the window, Dash felt the fear inside her, but she felt hope as well. And that's important, she decided. Hope is most important when there's nothing else left.

Dash turned to look at Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, and Spike—and the still form of Twilight Sparkle who had given everything she could to save everypony.

An inner fire reignited. Even if I fail, I can still give them hope.

Dash turned and walked slowly towards the door. And I know I'm doomed to fail.

Applejack saw Dash starting to leave and asked, "Where do you think you're goin'?"

Dash paused with one hoof on the door, the ragged sleeve of her torn uniform dangling. Without looking back, she said, almost too quietly for them to hear over the storm, "I'm going to try and kill a hurricane." Even as she said those words, she trembled inside.

"But," gasped a startled Rarity, "that's... impossible! Isn't it?"

Dash just lowered her head slightly, eyes closed, still frozen at the door, holding back the tremors of fear that threatened to overwhelm her. "Is it? Can you tell me there really isn't any hope left?" A passionate cry burst from her. "Are you sure?"

"I..." Rarity's mouth opened, then closed. She looked at the others for help.

Applejack was watching Dash calmly, however, her gaze clear. "There's always a chance, sugarcube," she said quietly.

Applejack stood up, glancing around at all the anxious, frightened ponies huddled within the rocking carriage, raising her voice over the storm for their ears. "And Ah think, if there's anypony who could stop this, who could save us, it's the newest member of the Wonderbolts." She turned back to Dash. "And my friend."

All the passengers were now intent upon the scene before them. Their quiet, expectant eyes were hungry for any shred of hope—and beneath their needy gazes, a terrified Rainbow Dash was determined to do what she must to give it to them.

A pounding heartbeat later, she was gone.

———

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