Circumstellar

by Trickilee

Chapter 1

Rainbow Dash woke up with a shock and found herself bathing in sweat. Complete darkness had engulfed her, wrapping around her tightly like the blanket she had twisted herself into. With the adrenaline still rushing thick through her blood, she panicked and instinctively attempted to fly backwards while holding up her arms against her face to protect herself from the bedroom wall thought she was about to collide into. Being stuck in her blankets however, that did not go quite as she thought. She fell backwards out of her bed instead and tumbled across the hardwood floor of her bedroom, knocking over her only book case and bumping her head against the sharp edge of the doorstep.

“Ow!” she yelled out stupefied. As if that wasn't enough, a framed picture of her old home in Cloudsdale promptly fell down from the wall to her right, the glass shattering into a dozen pieces on impact with the floor.

She carefully lifted her head, fully expecting her neck to be broken from the impact with the turbulent weather front earlier. Fortunately, things were not as they seemed.

Wait, I'm... sorta fine? she thought, touching the back of her neck. Rainbow Dash squinted and noticed the moon in front of her, pouring a bleak light through her bedroom window and gently lighting up her surroundings. The dark gradually made way for the contours of her bedroom.

Rainbow Dash realized she was still at their farm. She groaned and dropped her head back on the wooden floor with a thud. Just a nightmare after all. “I'm... getting... to... old... for... this... ju-u-unk,” she whined, still panting from the shock. Her voice was a terrible mess.

Just how much did I scream? she wondered and tried to swallow. Her throat was bone dry.

Before she had the chance to get up on her feet to reach for her glass on the nightstand, her bedroom door creaked open, revealing two curious purple eyes above her.

“Um Rainbow Dash,” the young mare said uncertainly, “what are you doing down there?”

Rainbow Dash blinked her eyes several times. “Scootaloo?”

“I heard, uh... noises. Are you all right?” Scootaloo asked worried.

Dash quickly got back up on her hooves and trotted to her nightstand for some water.

“I-it was nothing!” Rainbow Dash said nervously, “I'm totally flying! I mean fine!”

She took a guilty sip of her water to break the tension and smiled back at her sister. It helped. “Owlowiscious flew in and knocked over my bookshelf,” she lied calmly.

Scootaloo took a few careful steps through the door. “Really? The whole thing?” she asked, taking note of the perfectly closed window on the other side of the bedroom.

“Really, I'm fine,” Rainbow Dash replied, gesturing to the door. “Go back to bed now, squirt.”

“I'm not a squirt. I'm a mare,” she said slightly irritated, “but whatever.”

Deep down, she didn't actually care what her big sister called her. It was her inability to come clean straight away that got a bit tiresome to deal with when she was clearly deeply troubled.

Scootaloo sighed and walked back to the door, but didn't step through it. A little scheme came to her.

“Hey, Rainbow Dash?” Scootaloo asked, ever so slightly nervous. She looked behind herself. Her big sister was already busy tucking herself back into bed.

“Yeah?” she replied.

“I... didn't want to say anything,” Scootaloo said and shrugged, “but I sorta had a bad dream about... giant... chickens?”

Rainbow Dash looked up from her pillow, raising a single eyebrow.

“So, would you mind if I sleep next to you for a while?” Scootaloo continued.

Rainbow's expression turned around. “Sure Scoot,” she said with a smile and draped back the sheets a little to make some room for her.

“Yay!” Scootaloo said, running over to her bed and jumping straight in.

“And I'm sorry, Scootaloo. I guess I kinda had rough night myself,” admitted Rainbow Dash.

“It's all right,” she replied while drawing the sheets over her.

“But you really need to get over these night terrors of yours. You're not a little filly anymore.”

“I will, hehe!” Scootaloo said, smiling and suppressing a knowing grin.

Rainbow Dash embraced her and stretched out her free wing around Scootaloo's waistline. She gladly accepted it and snuggled into her warm coat. Within minutes Scootaloo felt her sister's tense muscles relax, as she once again drifted off into oblivion. And before Scootaloo knew it, she too was vast asleep.

Rainbow Dash woke up a few hours later in broad daylight. She rubbed her eyes and reached for Scootaloo, but found just an empty space in her stead.

“Huh, when did she leave?”

She sat upright and took note of the collapsed bookshelf and broken picture frame. Before she had the chance give the scene a thought, someone knocked on her door and spoke to her.

“There's no reason for you to come out of bed today, you know. I'm sure Spike can fix that well all by himself.”

“Night Light?” Rainbow Dash asked. “I'm coming, but what do you mean about the well?”

“We lost water pressure again last night,” he replied from the other side of the door. “Anyway, I made breakfast and the kids are down already. Unless you want to eat breadcrumbs, I suggest you get down there quickly.”

Rainbow Dash threw her pillow at the door. “I'll manage!”, she yelled back.

She got out of her bed and walked over to the window to open it up. It was warm outside, but not yet hot. She stretched her back and yawned deeply, sucking in some fresh air.

What the heck did I dream about? Something about crashing and...

Rainbow Dash mulled it over for a minute or two while looking at the wheat fields outside, then gave up. She turned back and looked at the mess in her bedroom and considered if she should at least fix the book case before heading out. It was small and had only a few books on it, but she cared deeply about every single one of them. Each book had been a gift from Twilight Sparkle.

“Well, the day is wasting away,” she said to herself, heading out of the bedroom. “I'll just fix it tonight.”

She was the last one to use the small and cluttered bathroom that morning, leaving the water bucket nearly empty. Enough for a cat wash, she thought.

Rainbow Dash proceeded to wash herself and looked at herself in the mirror. A few dozen gray hairs glistened in her otherwise colourful mane.

“You're not getting any younger, are you,” she said, slightly dejected.

“Dash!” Spike yelled from the kitchen down below. “We need to get going!”

She sighed and yelled back. “All right, alright! Jeez.”

Rainbow Dash trotted out of the bathroom and hurried down the stairs. The three of them were still sitting at the large wooden dinner table. Spike, a pretty tall teenager these days, was busy eating a mix of cereal and small gems. Night Light, middle-aged, was busy reading a newspaper and Scootaloo had poured herself over a broken radio that was laying next to her plate.

The radio had broken a couple of nights ago, after Spike had knocked it on the ground by accident. To Scootaloo's credit, the device was already working a bit, playing a news bulletin accompanied with dramatic music. Something about continued famine in the post-war Changeling Empire.

“Morning guys,” Rainbow Dash said cheerfully.

“Morning,” Scootaloo said, the only one to look up at her with a smile. “I saved some toast for you.”

“Thanks squirt,” she jested, earning a mean look in return. “No time this morning to sit down to eat, I'm afraid.”

“If I had known you were going to sleep in half an hour, I would have stayed in bed too,” said Spike while shoving the last of his cereal mix into his mouth.

She laughed. “Hey, I'm not stopping you from going out there on your own. You run this place as much as I do these days.”

Spike didn't say anything in return, but left the table and headed outside.

Rainbow Dash grabbed a piece of toast and quickly wolfed it down, then headed over to the sink to wash it down with a gulp of water. Strangely enough, it didn't seem to work.

“The well, remember?” said Night Light without looking up from his newspaper. “There is some juice left in the fridge, if you want it. You're not having a great morning, are you?”

Rainbow Dash stuck her tongue out at Night Light, making Scootaloo giggle and walked over to the fridge. A look inside revealed lots of empty space. Responsibly, she decided it was still a little too early in the morning for her stomach to juice up anyway.

“I'm fine,” she finally replied to Night Light, “I just had a rough night, what with the heat and all.”

Night Light shook his head, not meaning get off on the wrong foot with his daughter in law so early in the day. “I know. We all know.”

“Well I better head after Spike then,” said Rainbow Dash.

Nightlight sighed in agreement, silently nodding in the direction of Scootaloo. He then put his newspaper down and got up to clear the table.

Rainbow Dash walked over to her sister and observed the mare's efforts to fix the radio. She had grown into a beautiful young mare, but all she saw was that same frail filly she had to disappoint so many times in her life.

“So ehm... Scoot, wanna join up with me and Spike today? We could use an extra hand...”

Scootaloo looked up for a moment, but quickly returned her attention to the radio. “Ah, no thanks. I have a test next week, I should study.”

“Oh, okay,” said Rainbow Dash, not particularly trying to hide her disappointment. “Suit yourself.”

Rainbow Dash headed out. She found Spike waiting for her at the edge of the courtyard. The teen dragon wore his dark purple overalls and cap with some pride.

“Aren't you forgetting something?” he asked.

“What?”

“Toolbox.”

Rainbow Dash raised her shoulders. “I doubt that will be of any use now. Come on, let's go.”

Back inside, Scootaloo was still sitting at the dinner table, tinkering with the radio. She had removed the front paneling of the device and was busy cleaning out dust from the interior with the tip of her napkin.

Night Light looked up from his radio and observed her for a moment. “They've left, you know,” he said neutrally. “You can stop doing whatever it is you're doing to that radio.”

Scootaloo sighed and placed the front back on the radio itself. It clicked back on with a pop and instantly started playing a lighthearted country tune. She pushed the radio aside and stared down at the table. “Open book, huh?”

Night Light got up from his chair, walked to the other side of the table and sat down next to her. “We both know your cutie mark would never have been a little radio that needed fixing,” he said with a gentle smile.

“Heh, I suppose not,” replied Scootaloo, grinning a bit.

“So tell me,” Night Light continued, “did you come looking last night when Rainbow Dash... screamed?”

“You heard?” Scootaloo wasn't entirely surprised. She had been vast asleep when she heard Rainbow Dash cry.

“Scootaloo, when you're my age there are few things capable of waking you up in the middle of the night, aside from responding to nature's call,” he said, laughing. “No, Spike told me. He said the scream reached all the way down into the basement.”

“It was loud, yeah. But the basement? That's... kind of impressive,” admitted Scootaloo. “No, I just woke up right after she screamed, I think. Then I heard a loud crashing sound.”

“Did you go see her?” asked Night Light.

Scootaloo dropped her head a bit and stared at the kitchen table for a bit. The memory of seeing her idol so disheveled, so broken had upset her greatly.

“Yeah,” she finally answered. “She was on the other side of her room actually. I think she had tried to... fly out of bed.”

Night Light shook his head and sighed. “That must have been some nightmare.”

“Yeah. I catch myself twitch my wings sometimes when I'm almost asleep, but...”

Scootaloo stopped talking and froze, a realization dawning on her face.

“What is it Scootaloo?” asked Night Light.

“You don't suppose she still has nightmares about the crash?”

Night Light's expression turned worried for a second, but was quickly replaced with a wise, knowing smile. “That's many years ago,” he replied. “I doubt she would still be upset by that.”

“Oh. I hope you're right,” said Scootaloo. She looked down at the table, obviously still worried about her sister.

“You know,” said Night Light, “I think she toppled the large harvester a week or two ago, right next to the stables in the stables.”

“She did?”

“Yeah. I think she was test driving it. I'm not sure what went wrong, but the whole machine took a nasty tumble. Didn't she tell you?”

“Ha - no,” said Scootaloo, still surprised her sister managed to do that. “She'd be a more than a little embarrassed. I guess that must have been it then.”

“Of course that was it,” said Night Light with conviction. “But more to the point, why didn't you go with her just now?”

“I have to study,” lied Scootaloo.

“Scoot, you and I have worked through all your homework for the weekend last Friday. You don't have any tests coming up.”

“Ehehe. I guess not. I just...”

She wasn't quite sure how to put to words. ”Am I... bothering her?”

Night Light looked surprised. Of all the reasons, this was the last one he was expecting. He knew very well how much the two sisters adored each other.“ Why would you say that?”

Scootaloo sighed. “It's kinda hard to explain. For as long as I can remember, I have been catching glimpses of her looking... bothered around me. About refusing to gas up my scooter, about my wings still not being strong enough to fly, about breaking up the Cutie Mark Crusaders, about none of us ever receiving our cutie marks, about-”

Night Light shushed with his hoof. “My dear Scootaloo, no filly has received a cutie mark for many years,” he said. “And much more importantly, all that happened to you... it isn't anyponies fault. Rainbow Dash knows that better than anyone. You're not bothering her, she's just a worried old mare like your grandpa.”

“But can't she see I am just fine the way I am? I read books, get good grades at school, I help out, do my part at the farm.”

“Scootaloo, she's not just your sister. Rainbow Dash is your legal guardian, your parent. Take it from me, it's perfectly ordinary for any parent to worry about their child's future without reasonable cause.”

Night Light paused for a second. “Especially if, at some point, they have to face that responsibility alone.”

That last sentence sounded sounded heavier than he had intended.

“You're here though,” replied Scootaloo. “You coming here and helping us out has made such a big difference for all of us.”

Night Light smiled and patted the young mare on the head. “Scootaloo, you're the closest thing I have to a grandchild. I do love you dearly, but I can never be a replacement for my daughter.”

Scootaloo felt tears welling up in her eyes. “No, but you are,” she stammered.

Night Light got up from his chair and put his hoof on Scootaloo shoulder. “If you really want to help Rainbow Dash, show her that you are doing all right. She can't see what you're doing if you just stay inside all day long, listening to that radio and reading my daughter's books.”

Scootaloo rubbed her eyes a bit and smiled wistfully.

“Rainbow Dash adores you,” Night Light continued. “Go out there and be awesome with her!”

“I guess I can do that much,” she replied.

Rainbow Dash and Spike hadn't gotten very far yet on their way to the northern well. It was a forty minute walk from their house up into the foothills, half of it through relatively flat terrain. The first half of it was good, fertile soil, easily irrigated from the well and a nearby stream. The other half was steeper terrain that had up until recently been deemed unsuitable for farming. Rainbow Dash and Spike had worked hard during the past year to turn that land into something usuable.

But fertile as it was, generally all land was not doing well. Unending summer had ravaged for it for years on end now, leaving harvest turnouts across Equestria and beyond at an all time low. Farmers were keen on obtaining any patch of land they could irrigate, high or low.

“So what do you think happened, Dash?” asked Spike hopefully. “Do you think someone broke the generator?”

“I dunno,” replied Rainbow Dash. “It's weird we lost all of the pressure at once instead of just a bit. The windmills backing up the generator should've kept the pipeline to our house going at the very least.”

“Both going out at the same time does sounds like bad news,” said Spike, “but my money is still on sabotage.”

“Spike, nobody is going out of their way to hurt a couple of farmers like us,” said Rainbow Dash. “Not when everypony is... wait, do you hear that?”

Rainbow Dash stopped walking. Spike turned around to see what was going and noticed a little orange dot approach them on the road behind them. “Is that... Scootaloo?” she asked Spike.

Sure enough, Scootaloo was closing in, in full gallop.

“All right. I guess Night Light was able to coax her out of the house,” said Rainbow Dash, grinning. “Let's wait for her.”

In a minute Scootaloo had caught up with them. She was overjoyed, but completely out of breath. “Heheh,” she said, gasping for air and wiping sweat from her forehead. “Sorry. Don't know what came over me, but I had a change of heart. Mind if I join up today anyhow?”

“Sure, that'd be awesome!” said Rainbow Dash, patting her sister on the head. “Glad to have you on board!”

“Great!” replied Scootaloo, giving them both a big smile in return. “Well, what are we waiting for?”

The trio continued to walk uphill.

“So... the northern well?” asked Scootaloo.

“The northern well,” answered Spike dryly.

“What do you think we'll find out there, Rainbow Dash?” continued Scootaloo.

“A big adventure,” her sister replied mysteriously, winking and exciting Scootaloo immensely.

The three crossed the northern foothills together. It wasn't a particularly steep climb, but the temperatures were already high enough to make them all break out some sweat. They passed the time talking about nothing particularly exciting, but all were anticipating the first signs of the mystery that loomed beyond the next hill. And the next.

Finally they passed the last hill and clearing at the end of the path became visible. In front of them lay the well, surrounded by the remains of three wind mills, a generator and one large orange pumping machine, its tubes and valves smashed into pieces and scattered across the area.

Rainbow Dash flew up a bit to analyze the situation. The windmills, or what was left of them, functioned as a backup system to drive the pumps incase they broke down, but they were no longer connected to the pump itself.

“A tornado?” asked Scootaloo unsurely.

Rainbow Dash shook her head. “Not exactly. Take a closer look.”

A large flywheel that was normally attached to the pump had apparently broken off and spun into the machinery around it, damaging the pump in and pretty much knocking part of one of the windmills over into the well.

“Wow. Can one flywheel... really do that?” said Scootaloo in disbelief.

“They are pretty dangerous,” answered Rainbow Dash. “Once they get going they kinda tend to store up a lot energy.”

“That's insane,” whispered Scootaloo.

Spike looked bewildered. “How did it happen to begin with, Dash? Should it have been spinning that fast to begin with?”

“Back when we build the rig for the first well, something similar happened,” explained Rainbow Dash. “How did Apple Jack explain it again...”

She looked around for stick, found none and started drawing a vague illustration in the dirt with her hoof instead. “The pump had trouble lifting the water. It had to lift up it higher and higher as the water level lowered. Eventually the torque became so great that it snapped a welding point somewhere in the pump. Wham, just like that. The weakest point in our case seems to be-”

“The welding from the main axle, connecting the flywheel. I get it,” finished Spike. “It must have been spinning really fast when it broke.”

“Of course it did,” said Rainbow Dash. “Take a look down the well.”

Spike picked up a pebble from the ground and headed over to the well. He looked over the edge and dropped the pebble into it. A second or two later than he expected, the pebble hit the bottom of the well with a goopy splash.

Spike gasped. “Sweet Celestia! Nine meters of water gone in what, a month?”

“Three weeks,” said Rainbow Dash. “I've sorta been keeping track of it ever since Apple Jack gave me a heads up. The groundwater here draining too quickly.”

Spike lifted his gaze up from the well and looked at the broken machinery behind him. “Well, so much for repairing it then. What do we do?”

Rainbow Dash thought about it for a moment. “Short term, we go down to the southern well and rig up an extra generator to the pump there. Then we use the extra pressure to push the water up as far as we can to the northern fields.”

Spike counted on his fingers, trying to work out the math behind it. “Dash, even with another generator down there, there is no way we can cover all our fields with only one well,” said Spike worried. “We're talking about a twenty meter altitude difference.”

“Twenty five. Which is why we need to make some tough choices.” Rainbow Dash looked at the sky, thinking for a few moments. Come on Twi, what would you have done!

A sparrow circled around the broken well and landed on the edge of the brickwork. Normally there might have a puddle or two to drink out of, formed by small leaks from the pump, but now there was nothing. It fluttered around aimlessly for a few seconds, then proceed to give itself a dust bath instead.

Twilight? Did I dream about...

Rainbow Dash shook her head and directed her attention to Spike. “Spike. I want you to go down the hill and inspect all the wheat below this point where we are now. It's going to take all day, but I will join you as soon as I can. Try to section the land in large grid of at least two hectares each and grade the sections by crop quality. Look for signs of fungus, drought, disease. Anything that stands out. Write down all your findings in a list.”

“Why?” asked Spike.

“I need to let AJ know what is going on here, so I'll be going there with Scootaloo in a minute. When we get back from her, we'll remove the irrigation lines from all of the northern fields above this well, including the lines in every patch of land on your list that's not doing great.

Rainbow Dash shrugged, feeling awful for what she had to say next.

“Tomorrow, we burn all of it.”

Spike and Scootaloo froze in shock at the terrible news.

“Burn?” said Spike slowly, his eyes widening. “But we'll lose at least a third of our wheat again. That's just not right! All that work, gone...”

“There is no other way,” Rainbow Dash replied. “It's too early for harvest and when the young wheat starts to die off, it just adds the risk of introducing new diseases to the healthier wheat around it.”

Scootaloo sat down on some of the rubble. She was starting to wish she had stayed behind to study after all.

“I'm sorry,” said Spike, fighting back his disappointment, “but we put so much work into these new fields. I can't give up on them just because you ask me to.”

Spike walked over to the flywheel and sat down on it. “Can't we just dig a new well further north?”

The idea itself wasn't so strange. A lot of new farms had sprung up in the area in the past few years. Relocatiing everything would be certainly be an option.

But Rainbow Dash shook her head. “Long term, maybe. That's one of the things I need to ask AJ about. My personal guess though is that it's no use short-term,” she said. “The higher up the hills you go, the deeper you have to pump. And the strongest pump we have lies in pieces. Even if we could somehow repair it and get it to pull up more water elsewhere,” she hesitated for a second, “the wheat will be dead long before we can dig up a new well elsewhere. We need to save what we can, now.”

Still, Spike did not accept defeat so easily. “Then how about we trade in some of our hardware and get a few premade pumps, to cut down a little on the construction time?” asked Spike hopefully.

“You'd still need a way to deal with the excess torque," answered Rainbow Dash. "Clearly we need to pump even deeper than we do now.”

She paused for a second and sighed “Really though Spike, there just isn't enough time. Two days in this heat and all we have is a bunch of dust instead of wheat.”

“Hoof it!” cursed Spike, kicking the flywheel in frustration. “It's not fair! If only Twilight was-”

“Twilight isn't here!” yelled Rainbow Dash while flying up a couple feet into the air. “And nothing in life is ever easy unless you learn how to deal with losses!”

“You don't even... argh!” yelled Spike back.

Rainbow Dash dropped her face into her hoof. “Just... get out there and just inspect those fields, Spike. We really can't afford to waste any more time.”

Spike angrily threw his cap on the ground and stomped off into the wheat fields. Rainbow Dash watched him disappear, already feeling sorry for her outburst. It had been such a long time since he had brought up Twilight Sparkle in conversation.

Scootaloo raised a small, sorrowful voice behind her. “Rainbow...”

Rainbow Dash realized her sister was sobbing behind her. She quickly turned around, flew over and sat down next to her on the rubble. “Hey now, calm down Scootaloo. I'm really sorry I got mad at Spike. I promise I'll make up with him once we get back.”

Scootaloo shook her head. “Buh... but, the wheat,” Scootaloo stammered through her sobs.

“We still have plenty of wheat, kiddo,” she said, trying to lift up her sister's spirits. “We may not hit our quota this year, but we're not going to starve.”

A tear rolled down Scootaloo's cheek. “But everypony in Ponyville... Equestria... ”

Rainbow Dash gently stroked her sister's mane, trying to calm her down. “Don't you worry about them,” she said. “There are many other farmers all around Equestria that are working hard to feed everyone. Heck, I hear some of them even have Changelings working on them these days. Pretty weird, huh?”

Scootaloo rubbed her eyes and looked down at the dirt. “Yeah, I know,” she said listlessly.

Rainbow Dash put her hoof under the young mare's chin and guided her to look up. “Sweetie Belle will be alright, you hear? They are releasing more unicorns from the resting houses every month.”

Scootaloo, sadly shook her head. “But...”

“Really, I promise,” said Rainbow Dash, rubbed her teenage sister's mane. “The Cutiemark Crusaders will rise again!”

Hearing her sister praise her friends made her happy. Scootaloo did not know what to reply with, answering with a faint smile instead.

Comments

[PonyJosiah13]

Aside from a couple of grammatical errors, this is proving to be intriguing and a good read.

Also, it strikes me that you really seem to know what you're talking about when it comes to engineering and farming. Is that part of your job?

[Trickilee]

5981439
Thanks. I actually published the 1st chapter by mistake today, so I didn't have the chance to pour over it as much as I might otherwise have. I suspect I will be fixing up the grammar more in the days to come.

The technical stuff is a combination of guess work and looking up some stuff. What happened at the well will become pretty important to the plot later on, so it was important to me to make the physics of it seemingly functional.

[Trickilee]

5983587
Thanks! I'm not sure if 'reference' will fly, but there are certainly similarities. Propably not enough for real fans of the movie, but I prefer it that way. The story needs to stand on its own a little bit at least. I was mostly just interested to write a story about different kinds of separation, not wheat field or space. But as it stands, making those two things 'work' while not being similar to the movie was a fun thing to figure out also.

[Trickilee]

5983657
I'll get to it. I try to read something of everyone I follow.

[Protopony350]

WHAT? NO! WHAT DID YOU DO TO TWILIGHT?

Ugh I have so many questions! You are a master of making me simultaneously angry, sad, intrigued, confused, and completely enthralled all at the same time. I NEED more!

[nx9100]

keep 'em coming! :)

[Trickilee]

5990983
5986485

Thanks guys. Next chapter is speeding along.