The One Week Year

by HapHazred

Summer to Autumn: Days 6 and 7

Memories of her unwanted dream during the trip niggled at the back of Applejack's mind as she stretched her hind legs for a day's worth of applebucking. The distraction made every movement feel clumsy and stilted. It didn't help that everything had felt so real. Like the brushing of feathers on fur wasn't just a side-effect of fatigue.

Maybe it was something about Rainbow kicking her perception of 'impossible' on its rear that had her thinking. Logic wasn't a factor for Rainbow, so why'd it have to be a factor for Applejack? Why'd she have to care when more improbable things were happening all around her twenty-four-seven? Why couldn't she indulge in some frivolous dreams now and then?

Because she had work to do, and frivolous got in the way.

She adjusted her hat as she stepped in front of the crowd amassed before the farm. Many hadn't ever bucked a tree before. That didn't mean they couldn't help.

Applejack made herself a promise. If she pulled off the one-week year, she'd ask. Maybe it'd be a mistake, but she'd ask.

She leapt onto a crate, tapping her hoof on the top of the box loudly. All eyes were fixed on her.

Time to speak.

"Mornin', fellas'," she said. "Today, we're turnin' summer back to autumn. Today, we'll be doin' what we've done all this for in the first place: harvest food for Fillydelphia." A fair few of the ponies in front of her gave excited cheers. She could tell from the look in their eyes that they were looking forward to the end. Applejack couldn't blame them. Her own muscles felt over-used and she desperately wanted to spend more than a half-hour on a meal. "This is our last push! Just one more ounce of effort, and we're through. And y'know what? We'll be heroes."

She jumped off the crate with a broad, earnest smile on her face. From the front of the crowd, she found Rainbow's distinctive, unmistakable eyes.

Applejack bit down hard on her lower lip, and focus returned to her. She couldn't afford any distractions: not in front of so many ponies.

"We didn't blast some ancient monster with magic beams, and we didn't stand 'against some army from Tartarus 'neither. We farmed, and we did it well. All we've done is what we've always done, and we've done it better than anypony could have asked us to. We've been better farmers. We've been better weatherponies, organizers." She grinned. "Just one more season. Then drinks are on me! I couldn't have done it without you."

Especially you, she thought, eyeing Rainbow from the side.

"So let's get goin'!" she shouted. "It's smooth sailin' from here on out!"

Words, it was said, had more power over the world than ponies gave them credit for. It went beyond mere schoolyard taunts. If ponies knew the full extent of what a well placed word could do, the popular playground rhyme would go more like 'sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will create a great big black hole and swallow me whole, so I'll take the sticks please, and while you're at it here's my lunch money'.

It didn't have as good a tempo, but what it lacked in style it made up for in accuracy.

It's smooth sailin' from here on out!

The universe reared its ugly head, accepting Applejack's challenge. Winds kicked up by the pegasi's tireless efforts twisted and turned in just the wrong way. Heat that wasn't used to such violent disturbances pulled and tugged at the air, shifting clouds and causing electricity to bounce from one tree to another, gathering in intensity.

The Everfree stirred, preparing to spit out the worst of its weather.

It inhaled, like an opera singer readying to belt out a song of epic proportions.

The storm would come. Ponies who challenged the universe in such a blatant manner always got their comeuppance.

"The southern sector is almost clear!" Braeburn shouted as Big Mac loaded the apples into the carts. "We're makin' good time!"

Applejack delivered a hefty kick to one of the trees. Every single perfectly formed apple fell into the baskets arranged below. Rainbow had been kicking up a real storm up above the orchard, but down on the earth, among her trees... Applejack couldn't be beat. She let herself succumb to the raw energy of competition. Elsewhere, Rainbow flew around her tree at impossible speeds, the drag from her wings ripping apples and leaves alike from the branches.

Below her, Scootaloo picked the fallen apples up and tossed them into baskets.

"'Nother batch ready!" Applejack shouted, and a couple of ponies trotted to pick up her baskets of apples.

"This cart is full! We'll need another!" Braeburn bellowed.

"I'm moving onto the next tree!" Rainbow said, adding to the chorus of voices. It went on like this for at least an hour, their progress putting hundreds of farmers across Equestria to shame.

It wasn't until Thunderlane arrived with a worried look on his face that they hit their first snag.

"Rainbow Dash!" Thunderlane shouted, gliding in from above. "Ponyville's in trouble!"

Rainbow dropped everything she was doing at once, and flew up to her subordinate. Scootaloo nearly fell on her rump she was so taken aback. "What?" Rainbow asked. "This about the weird weather again?"

Applejack paused mid-buck, paying attention to their exchange. Thunderlane's eyes were wide and his eyebrows were drawn back: something had him spooked.

"Yeah," he said. "It's getting worse. The meteorologists back in town think it's coming from the Everfree now, too. Some bad weather there might have mixed in with what we've been doing, and... well, it's not pretty."

"How 'not pretty' is it?" Rainbow asked.

"We don't know just yet, but Ponyville's suffering from a nasty gale. We think the worst might be yet to come."

"What do you mean, worse?"

Thunderlane's shoulders sagged. "They don't know yet. You know how the meteorologists are. They're always ranting about something or other. I just know that if nopony fixes the wind in town, there might be some damage," he said. "Broken windows and such."

Rainbow looked over at Applejack. "Can't have that," she said. "AJ! Can you survive without me and the weatherponies for a bit? There's something about side-effects from the one-week year happening in Ponyville."

Applejack nodded. "'Course. Make sure everything's fine on your end. We can handle the harvest here."

Rainbow nodded, her jaw set. "Okay, then. Thunderlane, get the others. They should be working around the orchard somewhere. Form up into three squads, then meet me at Town Hall. I'll go scout out the town for myself."

Thunderlane saluted. "You got it, boss-pony."

Maybe this is why nopony managed to cram a year into such a small period of time, Rainbow thought. They couldn't handle the weather backlash.

The winds certainly were extraordinary, she remarked. Ponies were hunkering down every time a strong gust of wind tried to sweep them off their feet, and shutters were already being closed despite the early hour to keep things from smashing window panes. Rainbow soared up into the air, controlling her position with careful and forceful wing-beats.

She evaluated the situation from above, her trained eye catching the small differences in wind direction from the orientation of the grass and what few clouds remained in the sky. It was clear even for a casual observer that the winds were coming from the Everfree forest. Perhaps, Rainbow thought whilst stroking her chin, the Everfree had absorbed a lot of the excess weather from their endeavours, and magnified them?

Rainbow stroked her mane. Perhaps part of the reason they got this far without noticing the backlash was because of the Everfree's unstable weather. It could have drowned out the disturbances Rainbow and her team had caused. If the Everfree hadn't been there... maybe they would have had a much harder time to actually succeed as much as they had.

It was a strange thought, one that warranted additional investigation... As soon as Ponyville's own weather was brought under control, that is.

Weather was a very cut-throat industry. If your sector was filling up with wind, you passed the buck onto some other poor pony's sector. The winds would die down somewhat on the way... Entropy, and all that... but you'd still end up making it somepony else's problem. It was something Rainbow never really liked about her job, but she dealt with it nonetheless. The weather went around, getting weaker every time, and eventually things would return to normal just in time for the next big weather disturbance. If it was really all that bad, it'd just get dumped into the ocean. Fish didn't mind so much when it rained.

Given that the Everfree was acting up enough at present, she wasn't about to dump the winds back in. Whatever was going on in there, she wasn't about to make it worse. No, she'd send it towards Canterlot instead. That big mountain would break the wind up pretty quickly, and it's not like somewhere that high up would notice a little extra wind.

Thunderlane and his crew assembled below her. Rainbow rubbed her hooves together, planning her next move.

"Okay, guys! Three teams. One above the Town Hall, one above Carousel Boutique, and one near South Road. Get there and start spinning. We need to create some eddy currents to pull the winds towards Canterlot, around the town."

"How long will this take?" Cloudchaser asked.

"It'll be a day job, most likely. We won't be heading back to the orchard." Rainbow eyed the Everfree suspiciously. "If we set the winds up right, we can reorient the currents and not have to worry about this whole mess during the night. We can still get our beauty sleep, hopefully. If we can't, I'll stay up and handle it on my own." She folded her hooves. "I've had a nice nap during the week, and you guys haven't. It's only fair."

"No way! I'll stay too," Thunderlane replied. Cloudchaser nodded.

"Yeah! I'm not leaving my boss-pony on her own all night doing weather duty."

Rainbow felt like grumbling, but didn't. "Well, let's get going and hopefully I won't have to! Let's get to work."

Apples were piled on the carts, the line of wooden vehicles stretching as far as the eye could see. Apples were in barrels, apples were in crates, and sometimes, apples were just plain littered across the floor of the cart, covered with a thick linen sheet to preserve it just long enough for it to get to Fillydelphia. It was more apples than the average pony could count. It was more apples than you could eat in a lifetime.

And there was still a third of the orchard left to harvest. Applejack wiped her brow, sweat pouring off her coat. They'd still be working well into mid-afternoon tomorrow, she realized. They'd only be able to get the cargo to Fillydelphia by nightfall. Quite literally, it would have taken her a week exactly to get from Wheatland farms burning to getting her shipment to the warehouses in the nick of time.

What a trip.

The temperature had gone down since this morning. It was definitely autumn again: right back at square one. The leaves were golden-brown or orange, matching the setting sun perfectly. It was almost as if it hadn't changed from when she had begun her insane project six days ago. Like nothing had even happened.

Her body knew what had happened, though. It was groaning and creaking in protest at every turn. Her muscles were an orchestra of fatigue. If Applejack didn't know any better, she'd have thought she had aged ten years in that one week. Or at least, this is what she thought ten years should feel like.

The ponies were beginning to disperse, satisfied with their day's work. There still wasn't any sign of Rainbow.

Applejack didn't like the sound of whatever it was her and Thunderlane had been talking about earlier. She desperately wanted to help Fillydelphia, but not so much at the cost of Ponyville's welfare. It didn't seem fair, or honest.

Not to mention, something about Rainbow's absence was more uncomfortable than usual. After a week of working so closely with her, she felt less like a friend and more like... It was odd. Someplace in-between friend and family, perhaps? And then there were those thoughts. Thoughts of feathers and bright blue fur.

For now, Applejack decided she'd go with 'partner'. It was a versatile word, and as far as Applejack was concerned, it fit the bill perfectly.

After all, they were partners. Applejack had gone to Rainbow before anypony else. It was practically as much Rainbow's project as it was hers.

And now that Rainbow wasn't on the orchard any more, Applejack wanted her back.

She examined the wheels on her carts, double-checking them for any sign of weakness. Any hold-up on the road would make for an unacceptable delay, given their narrow time-frame. One day late, and their food would have run dry. And then, they were in trouble.

It was exhilarating, though. Perhaps this was what Rainbow felt every time she crossed the sound barrier. If so, it was no surprise Rainbow was addicted to flying.

Not just flying. Adventure.

"Hey there, AJ!"

Applejack's ears flickered behind her head as she pinpointed the source of Rainbow's voice: hovering overhead, just above one of the carts. Rainbow daintily balanced on the edge of a barrel. Applejack swallowed, all the awkward thoughts she'd been having all day flooding back to her in a tidal-wave of confusion.

"Um... hey," she replied. "Did'ya sort out that weather problem?" she asked, quick to make conversation.

"Not quite. I think something might be off in the Everfree. Let me tell you, it's a good thing we're stopping when we are: any longer and we might get into serious trouble."

That, at least, distracted Applejack from wanting to get as close to Rainbow as possible. "How serious?"

"Storm serious. I think we'd have needed a team of weatherponies four times as big to control the messed up winds all week. As it is, it sort of... built up, and now it's spilling over all across the region. Like if you splash in a bathtub too much, it eventually spills over?" She tilted her head. "But, y'know, I have this theory, right? Like, here, this orchard, is the only place in Equestria where we could have done this." She bounced down to stand next to Applejack, intoxicating her with her proximity. "Your orchard might well be unique. The only place where you could cram this much weather into one spot in such a short space of time."

Applejack raised her eyebrow, ignoring the prickling feeling across her spine. "That's... how'd you figure that?"

"It's the forest, right? It might act as a kind of sponge for weather. All the little side-effects that should have blown up in our face way earlier were just getting sucked up by the big black hole of weird weather that goes on there."

"That's..." Applejack began, at a loss for words.

"...Really cool," Rainbow finished. "I didn't think something as boring as a few trees next to a field could be cool, but yours might be the only one in all of Equestria that can throw out a harvest in a week. It's the worlds first true high performance farm. That's awesome."

"You think so?"

Rainbow nodded, her mane kicking back and forth. "Yeah, totally. In fact, there's a lot of stuff that's cool about you that I didn't think of before," she went on. "Like how you and your family stick together. That's pretty sweet. And how weirdly ambitious you are for a farmer."

Applejack pounced on her opportunity. "Well, there's a lot 'bout yourself I didn't think was all that special, 'neither," she said, tripping over her compliments. "Like how you never back down from a challenge, and how ya'll think nothin' is impossible 'til you go ahead and do it... and then, it ain't impossible no more, 'cause you've gone and done it."

Rainbow scratched the back of her neck with a goofy smile plastered across her face. "I am pretty cool like that, yeah."

Applejack's hoof extended out towards Rainbow. It went first towards her shoulder, where it intended to pull the other pony into a hug. It hesitated, and instead invited Rainbow to bump hooves. "That you are... partner."

Rainbow knocked her hoof against Applejack's own.

"Tomorrow, this all ends!" she said with an excited look in her eye, a sparkle Applejack had only ever seen when she was flying.

"That it will," she said. "You're the best partner I could've asked for."

"Likewise," Rainbow replied.

Thunderlane flew around Ponyville the next morning, eyeing the ground for any signs of wind.

The grass was pretty erect, and the leaves on the trees were immobile. What few ponies were out this early seemed completely unperturbed. Thunderlane himself couldn't feel any wind, and even though he was at a different altitude and position to most of them, he still knew that was a good sign.

Rainbow's plan seemed to have worked.

The boss-pony would probably be at the orchard for the final push. Thunderlane kind of wanted to be there himself, but what with all the strangeness around the Everfree, Ponyville was where he belonged. The ponies on the orchard would be able to handle themselves without him and the weatherponies, after all.

His eyes flickered over to the horizon.

His eyes narrowed.

What was the Everfree up to now? A cloud of dust seemed to be kicking up around the orchard. Traces of rogue winds had spread between the orchard and the empty space between Ponyville and Canterlot, where Rainbow had redirected the earlier winds.

Odd.

If Thunderlane were a more observant pony, he would have noticed that the winds on the orchard and the winds moving away from Ponyville were going in opposite directions. If he knew what to look for, he'd have noticed that Ponyville wasn't so much out of the winds path, but rather was in the eye of a storm. He'd have noticed the humidity from the Acre's recent Winter and Spring had to go somewhere.

Not just any storm.

A hurricane.

The next day, the winds had gone from buffeting Ponyville to raging across the borders of Sweet Apple Acres, blurring the line between the recent microclimate and the rest of the world. In some small regard, it helped. Many apples were torn from their trees by the wind, meaning there was less to pick.

In so many other regards, it was a real pain. The sheets used to cover the apples on the carts were being tugged at, requiring additional fastenings to keep them in place. Ponies all walked at a slower pace, their eyes half-closed to ward against the wind and flying leaves, and barrels were often toppled onto their sides.

"Ain't there anything ya'll can do 'bout this?" Applejack asked as she loaded the last of the apple harvest onto her cart. "This'll make the trip a mite more risky."

Rainbow shook her head.

"Not without sending it through Ponyville," she said, grabbing a hold of her own cart to ground herself. "Sorry! We're just going to have to be extra awesome to compensate."

Applejack groaned, and climbed onto the drivers seat.

The column of carts was gargantuan. And each held hundreds, if not thousands of apples.

She had done it. The delivery was all that remained.

"Okay, then! Let's get goin', and hope we outrun the weather," she said, glancing at the winds tugging at the trees. She bit her lip. Perhaps their efforts had been a bit too disruptive.

Rainbow was on the cart behind hers, blinking each time her unruly mane whipped against her eyes. She whipped the reins, and the carts moved forwards.

Slowly at first, wobbling with each gust of wind, but surely, they began to crawl towards the entrance to Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack had a firm grip on her hat as she passed under the sign. Her heart leaped in her chest as she realized she was on the last leg of her adventure.

If only this wind didn't give her such an uneasy feeling, squirming in her gut like a venomous snake.

Thunderlane noticed too late.

"Sweet unicorn horns!" he exclaimed, clutching his head as realization struck him. "They'll be heading straight for it!"

Applejack craned her neck as she turned back towards Rainbow, eyeing her surroundings with increasing suspicion. Applejack had already taken off her hat and stored it under a heavy sack of apples to avoid losing it. Her hoof had began to ache after holding onto it for so long.

"RD?" she shouted over the din. "Is it just me, or are the winds gettin' worse?"

Rainbow looked over at Applejack, her expression uncharacteristically sombre.

"I noticed it too," she said.

"That normal?"

"Either it's very unusual," Rainbow replied, leaning in as much as she could so Applejack could hear, "Or we might be in the middle of a very, very big storm."

Thunderlane arrived at the acres, panting. The winds here were stronger than ever.

Oh, what have we done? We turned Ponyville into the staging ground for a hurricane!

"Boss-pony?!" he screamed, his lungs buckling under the strain. "Applejack? Anypony? You can't go out there!"

A single, small, yellow head topped with a bright red ribbon stuck itself out of the farmhouse doorway.

"They already left," Applebloom said. "What's the matter?"

Rainbow grit her teeth as panic began to overtake her. The carts were slowed to a crawl, and tremendous forks of lightning crackled across the turbulent sky. "Shoot! It is a hurricane!" she exclaimed, and in an instant, the rain hit them, big droplets of water belting across their fur and manes. Applejack's blood went ice cold. In a flash, Rainbow was next to her, grabbing her by the shoulders, her eyes wide and filled with panic. "AJ! You need to stop the carts right now! Everypony's in danger!"

Despair flooded Applejack's nerves, water soaking her to the bone. Had the instruction come from Rarity, she'd have dismissed her for not knowing what she was talking about. If it had been Twilight, she'd have stubbornly retorted that they could still pull through.

But Rainbow was supposed to be the pony who did the impossible. She couldn't give up. She wasn't supposed to.

"I can't!" Applejack shouted back, her voice shaking. "We've got the cargo! We need to send it to Fillydelphia!"

Rainbow threw her hoof out towards the countryside, beckoning Applejack to look.

The scene was horrifying. In the minutes since the storm had begun, it had spiralled completely out of control. Small bits of debris clattered across the ground and everywhere, the only sound to be heard was the howling, roaring, screaming of the wind. The carts creaked and groaned as the wind threatened to tear them off the ground.

"This'll only get worse the further away from Ponyville we go!" Rainbow said, squeezing Applejack's shoulders between her hooves, her grip clutching at the farmpony's fur as if she might fly away at any moment. "There's no point in losing all the food we've got!"

Applejack eyed the convoy.

"But... if we're too late, they'll buy. And then..."

Rainbow hesitated. "But... I don't know what to do about a hurricane."

Applejack leaned in, her forehead knocking against Rainbow's own. The wind whistled between them, but it sounded faraway and distant.

"I don't know what to do about Fillydelphia."

Silence fell upon the two ponies. Nothing but the roar of the hurricane around them bellowed in their ears. There weren't any words left.

Somewhere in the pit of apathy, words came.

"Well... isn't this the textbook example of being stuck between a rock and a hard place," Rainbow commented.

Behind them, one of the carts began to tip. Braeburn gave a shout of terror as he was thrown to the ground, unharmed, but dazed. The apples spilled out, lost to the storm like blood from an open wound. The cart was emptied like a shell tipped on its side.

"We're in a bit of a tight spot, yeah," Applejack said. She sighed. "But I don't want to give up," she said. "I've always admired you for not givin' up and I don't want to let what we've both done go to waste."

Rainbow swallowed. She looked up at the storm ahead. Then down at the ground.

"Look... I really want you to succeed. I really do," she said. "I've not got what you have. I've not got a family that'd move the world for me, and frankly, I don't think I'd do the same for them." She shrugged, an apologetic smile dancing across her lips. "I'm all alone. And I hate that. That's why I really do want you to make it, and help everypony, all at once."

Applejack couldn't see anything but the soft, vulnerable eyes of the pegasus before her. What might have been stoic pride was gone, replaced with nothing more than infantile loneliness.

It was painful to look at. So Applejack made it go away.

Her lips brushed against Rainbow's own, the merest sliver of hesitant contact enough to take the fright and confusion away from Rainbow Dash. As far as kisses went, it was a poor example. The wind kept blowing her mane in the way and both had sore throats from shouting over the din. Their eyes were both half closed and could barely see the other.

It was still enough to take the look away from Rainbow.

"If it means anythin', I think I'd like to consider you family," Applejack said. "And I'd move the world for you if I could."

Rainbow sat in silence for a second, as shell-shocked as could be. Somewhere in her brain, she knew she couldn't fight a storm alone. She wasn't blessed with a whole lot of reason, but she had enough to understand the concept of overwhelming odds. But her heart was different. The kiss had sent her blood pumping everywhere, through her veins and into her brain. The frantic adrenaline sparked one last atom of defiance, one iota of creativity. The rush of emotion drowned out the overwhelming odds until all that was left was the slightest glimmer of an idea.

For Applejack, it might even be a worthwhile one.

"'Kay," she said, and got to her hooves once more. "I've got an idea, but you have to be fast." She pointed towards the edge of the storm. "The further away we get from the eye of the storm, the stronger the winds will be. Now, I've done this for wind currents before. I'm going to ferry you through the storm by making a wind tunnel." She looked into Applejack's eyes, plunging into her gaze. "You won't have long. It's a difficult trick, and I can't keep it up. Usually you need at least two ponies. I can do it on my own... barely."

"Will you be all right?"

"Probably."

"You better be," Applejack replied, her combative attitude returning. "I ain't leavin' this road without you."

"You might have to," Rainbow admitted. When she was confronted with Applejack's stony gaze, she back-pedalled. "I'll meet you in Filly," she assured her friend. "I promise. You can get your food to your family, and then you can meet me there." She smiled. "It's the best option. I hate to sound all 'Twilight', but it's just logic."

Applejack pulled her friend in for one last hug. On one hoof, she didn't want, no, couldn't bear to let Rainbow go do the impossible one last time. Then again, she couldn't bear to go back, either.

In fact, given where they were, going back might no longer be an option. It was move forward, or never get to Filly, ever.

"You're awesome," she muttered in Rainbow's ear. The corners of Applejack's eyes were wet, though she couldn't tell if it was just from the rain, or whether it was from something else as well.

"Likewise, partner," Rainbow replied, and pulled away.

Applejack felt her absence. It felt like pressing a sack of ice against her chest where once there was a beloved friend. More than a friend, even. More than a partner, probably.

She ignored it. It was time to be stubborn.

"Get moving!" she screamed to the ponies behind her, her voice cutting through the wind. "We've got five minutes! Make it count!"

Rainbow took a deep breath.

"This'll be just like redirecting that warm wind from the Everfree to the orchard," she said to herself. "No big deal. It's not like this version is actually a convoy of live ponies moving at a fraction of the speed."

All she needed to do was construct a funnel, of sorts. As she flew, the wind would follow her, sucked in behind her. Imagine a herd of dogs following a fox, a fox cunning enough to string them along a predetermined path. The wind was the dogs. Rainbow was the cunning fox stringing them along. Never mind that the fox usually got eaten.

The wind hardened the faster it went. It dragged the rest along with it.

Rainbow flew faster. She dragged the wind along further. She rolled, swinging from left to right, dancing close to the ground. The wind went with her, the eddies and currents clinging to her feathers like honey. The wind merged with her rainbow trail, and all of a sudden, she had turned the gale into a small, straight tunnel of still air.

Rainbow could already feel the blood drop from her head into her hooves every time she made a sharp turn. Instinct twisted her leg, compelling her to slow down. Stubbornness wrenched her leg out of the vice-like grip.

Rainbow closed her eyes. She remembered bringing a snowstorm to Applejack's door. Why? Rainbow liked to think it was because of the challenge.

She remembered dashing to Canterlot to get Celestia for Applejack. Why? Because Applejack needed it for her family, and Rainbow wanted to be a part of that.

And now she was doing this. Why?

I think it's because I love her, she thought. Who'd have thought?

Just like that, everything became easier. It wasn't a struggle any more: getting the convoy out of the hurricane was just one more thing she needed to do for Applejack.

Braeburn hopped onto Applejack's cart, holding his hat tightly between his hooves. The carts were lurching forwards, the wind dying down around them. Every now and then, a flash of colour could be seen passing them by, shielding them from the storm outside.

"What in the hay is she doin'?" he asked.

"Pegasus stuff," Applejack replied. "It'll probably work."

Braeburn widened his eyes, his muscles tensing. "Probably?"

"I'd give us a fifty-fifty chance. Let's just move as fast as we can."

Applejack saw another rainbow flash before her eyes, and she drove the cart even harder. The longer it takes, the longer she has to keep that up. As if to provide additional motivation, another flash of lightning, followed by an almost immediate roar of thunder, snapped across the clouds above.

Lights began to dance across Rainbow's vision, taking her sight away from her. It didn't matter. Rainbow knew where to fly by feeling and touch alone. Each feather was a precision sensor, and every strand of fur was a nerve. She could feel the wind and feel where the ground was. If she paid attention, she could feel the difference in air pressure brought about by the ponies breathing, by Applejack's frenzied shouts.

On one side was the calm, still air of the inside of her makeshift wind tunnel. On the other, a maelstrom of wind gone mad.

Rainbow grit her teeth. She couldn't hear the wind any more. Her hearing had probably been drowned out by the sound of blood pumping through her ears.

Hurry up, AJ.

The first cart passed through the outside of the hurricane, where the winds were quieter, and the road was safer. Applejack was the first to exit.

"We're gettin' out!" she shouted, leaping off her cart to help pull the others. "Braeburn! Whatever happens, get these carts to Fillydelphia! Big Mac, help the others pull!"

Fear began to take over Rainbow's body.

I'm losing feeling in my wings, she realized. She'd have to fly by memory alone, now, and her memory wasn't as sharp as the nerves at the base of her feathers.

If the carts weren't out by the time she passed out, that'd be it.

Rainbow couldn't even move her hoof to wipe tears from her eyes. When she passed out, she could fly anywhere. Into a tree. Onto a rock. Down to the bottom of a river. Under one of the carts, even.

I don't think I'll make it to Fillydelphia, she thought to herself. Sorry, AJ.

"That's the last of 'em!" Applejack roared as Big Mac dragged the last cart out of the impromptu wind-tunnel. Just like that, the winds collapsed behind them, a cloud of dust obscuring everything behind. The carts kept going, just out of reach of the deadliest winds.

Free.

"We're out!" Braeburn hollered from the front of the convoy. "To Fillydelphia!"

Applejack looked back into the hurricane, shielding her eyes from the dust. There wasn't any sign of Rainbow. No rainbow trail. No flash of blue. No clear, confident voice.

Gone.

"Big Mac!" she shouted, grabbing a hold of her brother. "Whatever you do, do not stop going to Fillydelphia," she instructed. "Find Wheatland. He'll know what to do."

Big Mac's eyes stretched wide as he realized what Applejack was about to do. "Nope!"

"Do it, or else I'll make your life a livin' hell. I swear on my life, I will," she warned, shoving her brother away. "Don't even think of disobeyin' me this time."

Big Mac didn't.

Applejack launched herself into the hurricane once more, gripping the ground as tightly as she could with her hooves.

I'm coming, Rainbow...

Night fell.

Time dragged out, stretching to accommodate the longest evening in existence.

Fillydelphia waited.

It waited, its eyes fixed on its dwindling food supplies. It waited, watching the horizon for the harvest everypony had been talking about for the past week.

The sun dipped over the horizon. At the exact same time, the convoy appeared on the horizon as well.

The more observant ponies dropped their jaws in amazement. It hadn't just been rumours. It hadn't just been exaggeration in the press. It was real, and it was coming. Sweet Apple Acres was on its way.

Even if it was arriving without the two ponies who set it in motion.

Author's Note:

And that's the One-Week Year over: seven days to run through all four seasons. Only in Equestria would that be okay.

The final chapter is already out! Be sure to check it out. As always, have a good one.

Comments

[The Yaoi Mistress]

That's not a hurricane!!!! you need water, lots and lots of water, that's why the form at the ocean level. It's the main power for a hurricane, once it touch land it start to dissipate. and once is complete out of the water it takes from minutes to hours to disappear at all.

It's the same as a typhoon, only it's at the Atlantic ocean and the typhoon is at the India Ocean. A hurricane is strong winds, a lot of rain, some thunders and lightings, and big waves!!! I know because I live in a place which has hurricane alert from september to may each year. So what you have is a big tornado, not a hurricane.

Great fic, by the way!

[Walabio]

6718794

The way they bucked up the weather for the 1 Week Year, all bets are off. Any sort of extreme weather would not surprise me.

The generic term for this kind of storm is tropical cyclone. The West Indian word is hurricane. The word for these storms in the Indian Ocean is Typhoon. ¿What is a tropical cyclone in the Pacific Ocean? Meteorologists decided that if a tropical cyclone forms in the Western Hemisphere, it is an Hurricane; but if however, it forms in the Eastern Hemisphere, it is a typhoon. Hawaii could get hit by a typhoon 1 week and then an hurricane the next.

Meteorologists have already decided to use the generic term tropical cyclone on other planets. This causes problems of figuring out when a storm on a very different world warrants the name tropical cyclone:

Jupiter has enormous cyclonic storms, some larger than Earth. How many, if any, qualify as tropical cyclones. Saturn has a cyclonic storm with an eyewall, but it is at the south pole, so it is as far away from the tropics as possible. If we would have another rocky world with oceans, we could say that cyclonic storms forming over its tropical oceans are tropical cyclones, but we do not.

The nature of this storm is like the cyclonic storms of Jupiter; it is hard to classify it, but it is powerful and dangerous.