This is...

by WatchMeShadow

A Training Montage part 2

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Applebloom
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Screams of agony filled the second floor hallway of Ponyville’s hospital, originating from a room filled with ponies who had suffered some form of physical/chemical injury. Applebloom watched helplessly as the stallion before her wailed in what seemed like unbridled pain. She wondered why this was happening, “h-hey what’s wrong?” She shaked him with her hoof already present on his shoulder.

He didn’t seem to acknowledge her presence as he kept his hooves at the bandaged side of his face. Tears ran down his none bandaged eye as he tightly held it closed, screaming the whole time.

Applebloom didn’t know what was happening. She freaked out and turned her head, tears freely fell from her eyes, “HELP!” she screamed at doctor behind her. She blinked to clear her vision to see Twilight holding the panicked Doctor Dish back as she prevented him from helping. “Twilight?” she asked confused and alarmed that Twilight would stop a doctor from doing his work.

A sudden eerie silence filled the room. She feared the worse. To her relief, the stallion started coughing hard. She brought her attention back to him and watched as he coughed up black stuff along with a little blood. She froze, blood. The last time she saw blood instantly filled her thoughts. She zoned out as he coughed away.

Suddenly there was a deep inhale in front of her like somepony just came out of the water for some much needed air. She blinked away her tears to see a rather confused stallion looking at her. Black stuff and a some blood on the sheet he had been using for warmth earlier ignored as he blinked, again, and again. He smiled brightly as he brought his hoofs to the bandaged side of his face and began unwrapping it.

She watched intensly each time another layer of bandage was unwrapped. Instead of the ugly burned face she thought she’d see, she was surprised to see it looked perfectly healthy. Tears rolled down his eyes as he smiled like an idiot who was fantasizing about something stupid, then he glanced in her direction. Almost in slow motion he brought his hooves to her in a hug, “Thank you,” he said with much more clearer voice, than his earlier scraggly and shredded voice. Tears rained on her back, as he hugged her.

She pushed out of his grasp a little and he released her, “Umm, yeah… what just happened?” she asked, as she looked at him and then turned to a pleased Twilight whose horn was lit and Dish who seemed to have a manic grin. She felt something beside her move and saw the sheet be taken away by Twilight’s spell to be cleaned, she assumed.

“Applebloom,” she brought her attention back to Twilight, “you just healed that pony,” she said proudly.

Applebloom blinked. Did she? All she saw was a stallion who suffered some kind of extreme pain and coughed up horrible looking stuff. Sweetie hadn’t suffered like that when she healed her, but Sweetie was unconscious at the time. What if, “I feel great,” the stallion said, which brought her out of her thoughts, “you really did it, I didn’t think you could, but you did,” he grinned, “I can see. Thank you.”

Applebloom didn’t know what to make of it, “Ah, you’re welcome? But weren’t you in extreme pain just now?”

“Oh it burned. I felt like my face was dipped in lava and that I’d pass out from the pain, but something kept me conscious, like I had no choice in the matter,” he brought a hoof to his chin, “then it faded away, and I had a strong urge to cough, I couldn’t stop, that also felt like I had no choice in the matter, by then my face felt fine though, and now I feel great,” he breathed in and exhaled, then looked her in the eyes, “thank you.”

Applebloom grinned, as excitement and hope filled her, she can heal ponies. “That was horrifying and then amazing Applebloom,” Dish gushed like a school filly, “I can’t believe you actually did it. You even got rid of all that nasty stuff trapped in his lungs,” he closed in on the stallion then pulled out a tool from one of his coat’s pockets and shined a light in the stallion's previously bandaged eye, “Remarkable!” Dish said, then began to ask the stallion a bunch of questions while performing test.

Applebloom was lifted off the bed and onto the ground next to Twilight via levitation, “You knew didn’t you?” Applebloom asked. She could think of only one reason why Twilight would hold the doctor back from providing assistance.

“No, I didn’t know for sure,” Twilight said sadly, “it was a gut instint. I guess, I always had a suspicion something like that might happen. Sweetie said she remembered feeling pain when she first came to consciousness,” Applebloom felt odd with the fact, why had she not told her about it? “But it quickly faded. So I thought what if Sweetie wasn’t unconscious? When the healing started. I’m glad my hunch paid off, because that was hard to watch,” she said a matter of factly, “So, are you ready for that break?”

Applebloom snapped out of her conflicted thoughts, “Are you kidding me?” she jumped ontop of Miss Tornados bed, “Ah’m not leaving till Ah sav- Ah mean heal everypony here, an Ah mean everypony,” she gently brought her hoof to Miss Tornado and accepted the fact that she may well never fly again, let alone walk. She didn’t get the immediate response she hoped for. She thought about Scootaloo when the subject of not being able to fly popped up, as long as she knew her she’s never seen her fly.

Now that she thought about it Scootaloo seemed pretty defensive anytime they suggested she try flying to get something that was just out of their reach. She began to imagine what it would be like to live with the expectation of being able to fly, but to never accomplish it. She couldn’t even begin to think how that’d feel, then she thought what if it was her cutie mark? What if she never got her cutie mark after being told her whole life that it’d come eventually. That felt awful, then she thought about Sweetie and how that almost happened to her.

Tornado gave a loud yet short muffled gasp, which knocked Applebloom out of her dissenting thoughts. Tornados eyes watered and she hissed, and even though it was bandaged she could tell her face was scrunched up. Applebloom watched intensly as Tornado struggled against whatever pain befell her. She wished they didn’t have to feel pain, it was just another harsh pill of reality she’d have to swallow. Tornado seemed to relax. She no longer twitched or hissed in pain. She set her eyes on Applebloom, “mmmaaa oooouu,” she said in an extremely muffled voice. Her lightning blue eyes widened in shock, as she began to move her previously immobile forelegs to the unwrap the bandages that cover her head, rather unsuccessfully.

“A little help here, Twilight,” Applebloom asked, and watched as a purplish pink the aurora of Twilight's magic freed Tornados head from the shackling wraps. Revealing a light grey coat, a rough dark grey mane, and a kind smile.

Tornado brought her attention to Twilight, “could you please remove all the bandages, P-Princess?” she asked in a rough aged voice yet feminine voice, similar to Rainbows. Twilight visible glanced at Dish, who was distracted with the other patient, and hesitated, “I’m okay, honest,” she smiled gratefully at Applebloom.

“Well if you’re sure…” Twilight responded, and started to remove the rest of the bandages, “and just Twilight is fine.”

Soon the bandages were removed. Applebloom watched as Tornado stretched her freed legs and wings. Tornado froze and brought her attention Applebloom, and again in slow motion Applebloom watched as another pony reached out for a hug. She accepted her fate and let it happen. It felt nice, like she actually accomplished something. Tornado’s hug was gentler than the stallions, whose name now that she thinks about it she hasn’t gotten. The hug almost reminded her of Big Mac, accept she was older than Big Mac, but she clearly wasn’t near Granny Smith’s age. She closed her eyes and hugged back tightly, she continued even after Tornado stopped hugging, though she did pat her head, it felt nice.

Her eyes were slightly moist when she stopped hugging the mare, whether it be in happiness that she just allowed Tornado to get her life back or sadness of the ponies she’s been deprived of she didn’t know, “you know the good doctor over there,” Tornado said and pointed to Dish, which brought Applebloom out of her unorganized thoughts, “was right. I would and will go out of my way to help you out. They told me that I could have recovered from the lightning bolt just fine, but when I got…” she looked at Applebloom briefly, then looked back into what seemed nothingness “I mean, when I crashed into the fence, it hit my spine just above my wings, stopping whatever natural healing process Pegasi have against lightning, from my wings down, it also halted the progress in my forelegs and head, I was basically a vegetable, with the slight hope of maybe regaining full use of my forelegs and head…” She brought her attention back to Applebloom, as her eyes watered, “I-I don’t know how I can even begin to repay you.”

Applebloom didn’t know how to respond to so much gratitude, “y-your welcome?” she questioned, “Ah’m glad to help,” she grinned confidently. She felt alive and ecstatic. That’s three times now she healed ponies, four if she included herself. She could actually do it, and she had a rough idea on how to. She began fantasizing about all the ponies she’d help, whose lives were unjustly altered or put at risk by cruel chance. The thought was thrilling and just made her feel giddy.

“Don’t I know you from somewhere?” Tornado asked which brought Applebloom out of her fantasies, “Applebloom right?” she brought a hoof to her chin, “now wher-” Tornado froze, eyes dilated. She frowned slightly and brought Applebloom into another gentle hug, not saying a word. Applebloom was confused by this, but hugged back anyways. It was odd, she felt safe and loved even though she hardly knew Miss Tornado. “...Applebloom you’re a great filly, and I’m sure your whole family is very proud of you,” she said, and Applebloom felt pride with that, not understanding the true meaning of her words. She stopped hugging again, “seriously though don’t be afraid to ask me for help. Now I think you’ve said you wanted to heal everypony here?”

“You’re right!” Applebloom said excitedly. She quickly got off the bed, “Thanks Miss Tornado,” and onto somepony else's who needed healed, She’s not going to let anypony suffer. If all the patients and guest in the hospital weren’t made aware of Appleblooms abilities then somepony could have rightfully thought they ended up in a nightmare hospital that tortures its patients, with all the screaming and hollering from the patients who suffered more painful injuries. She never felt more alive, she was sparing these ponies the kind of absolute hopelessness she felt when she understood Sweetie’s situation.

She didn’t like that they felt pain while she healed them, but she would personally inflict worse pain on them before she’d allow a pony to be defeated by this cruel world. Then she’d heal them whether they wanted it or not. Not that no pony didn’t want her help, in fact everypony in the hospital wanted her help. She had to ignore several attempts ponies made to draw her attention to them, she seeked out those who were clearly worse off. Doctor Dish got some nurses in the rather large room to help him test and question those who she healed, as she was going faster than he could rightfully check them out. That’s not to say that she healed them right away, just that Dish was being thorough in his tests. Twilight shadowed her silently with a large proud smile.

Applebloom eventually made it back to Bon Bon who had a look of pure amazement on her face, “Applebloom, you know what?” Applebloom looked at her questioningly as she rested a foreleg Bon Bons shoulder, “I think you just earned yourself and two friends some free candy.” Applebloom didn’t let that tantalizing offer sway her thoughts on the fact that Bon Bon is gonna have to live with a mobile impairing bruise that stings like tartarus for the next two weeks at least. Bon Bon gritted her teeth and they all watched the swelling and purple blotch around Bon Bons shoulder reseeded.

“Ah might just take you up on that offer…” Applebloom grinned, “cause you know, I could always use some more candy.”

Bon Bon was quick to catch on to her meaning and deviously grinned back, “Yeah, I suppose you could,” she said seriously.

Applebloom froze unsure what just happened, did Bon Bon just cancel the banter? Could she have done that all along? “Wha-” Applebloom said mouth hung open. Bon Bon has gone so far as to make a pretty sign with glitter stating her need for apples and hanging it up while Applebloom browsed her candy shop. It might not have ever hurt her feelings, but there were times when she was annoyed. Mostly when Bon Bon first started doing it, but every once in awhile she’d spare Applebloom and her friends some free candies. She didn’t know why Bon Bon would do that, but she appreciated the free candy. All she knew was that Bon Bons teasing was more playful than malicious.

Bon Bon chuckled, “It just doesn’t work that way,” she patted Appleblooms head, “Anyways thanks Applebloom, you’re a great filly,”

Regardless of how many times she’s heard that today alone, it still made her blush and feel shy, “thanks, Ah do my best,” she said as she looked down at the bed. Her thoughts on the matter were far different. She unleashed Discord unto to the world. She went on a suicide mission to delivery some pies, making her sister worry. She endangered her best friends lives. She had been so reckless in the past, so sure everything would always turn out right. Now that she can and has healed ponies, she still felt terrified of the future. She can’t be everywhere at once, what if somepony got critically injured and she wasn’t there to heal them, knowing how cruel the world can be she wouldn’t be surprised if that happened. She felt like she was merely putting a bandaid on a small cut of a pony who’s terminally ill from some horrible disease. That what she had just done solved nothing, and merely prevented things from getting worse than they already were. She couldn’t shake that feeling of dread, that she was one incident away from losing more loved ones, “Ah do my best,” she said looking down, as she frowned.

Twilight squealed in delight and embraced Applebloom in a tight hug, “Applebloom you have no idea how so so so proud of you I am right now!” She exclaimed in excitement, she released the hug, “I wish Applejack was here to see this, it’s too bad she has all that extra work to do so we can go on that vacation in Manehattan, but we got about two hours before the sun sets so I think we should call it a day,” Twilight suggested. Just as Twilight said that, a nurse wheeled in a unicorn filly with a mangled and disfigured back leg, eyes held shut as tears rained down. A grey pegasus mare with unfocused golden eyes was at her side stroking the filly’s mane, cooing at her to remain calm, she recognised the mare as Derpy Hooves, the mailmare, “What happened?” Twilight asked in concern.

Applebloom knew that pale purple filly, she was in the younger classes that Cherilee taught, the name escaped her, ‘Muffin’ came to mind but she knew that was a nickname Derpy gave her. She was alarmed to see her leg in such bad shape, even ponies so young weren’t safe. That creeping dread ever building. “Prin- I mean Twilight,” Derpy said with relief washing over her face, “can you help my muffin?” Applebloom was quick to jump on the gurney to help, Derpy eyed her curiously but otherwise ignored her, “We were at the park taking a walk when Dinky,” Applebloom smiled in recognition of the fillies name, “saw a huge boulder in the park that I've never seen before and she wanted to climb it, so I let her. Just before she reached the top some loose soil made her slip and she fell, I tried to catch her...” she said sadly, “I-I just, please help her,” she pleaded.

If Applebloom had been watching she would’ve seen one of Twilights eyes twitch, before she laughed manically, “...A boulder in the park you say? One that you haven't seen before? Applebloom I trust you know what to do. Derpy, Applebloom here well help out Dinky. I’m sorry, but there’s something urgent that must be dealt with immediately,” with that there was a brief charge up of magic followed by loud pop and brief flash of light that could only be Twilight as she teleported for some reason. Applebloom went to work and soon after that Dinky gave restrained cries of pain as her leg began to unmangle, it wasn’t a pretty sight.

She brought her attention away from Dinkys leg to Derpy who hugged her daughter and continued stroking her mane lovingly. Applebloom felt a little jealous at the sight, she wished that was her. She also felt small sense of accomplishment and pride but that was overshadowed by thought of how many more ponies were suffering even worse fates and she wasn’t there to help them. She felt like she was fighting a just war, and she was on the losing side. She wondered what was to stop something from happening to Dinky again? It felt like no matter what she did the world would continue to be cruel and unforgiving. A never ending fear of what could go wrong.

Before Applebloom knew it Dinky was on her hooves and jumping excitedly on the gurney like it was her bed, previous pain forgotten. Again in slow motion, she watched as a pony this time an excited filly ambushed Applebloom in a hug. All this positivity was making her anxious, knowing ponies suffered elsewhere. She felt like the weight of the world was on her back and she couldn’t hold it all together as pieces fell, that it was in a constant state of decay yet never weighed less. She wouldn’t allow herself to accept defeat, she refused. Soon after the hug ended, Derpy gave her thanks then talked to the nurse briefly before they left since it was getting late for Dinky.

Applebloom could have sworn she heard Twilight yelling in the distance outside very agitated about something. Suddenly there was a pop and flash of light behind her on the floor, and she assumed it was Twilight returning, “Don’t hurt me, please,” was all the yellow earth pony mare sporting some blue joggers sweat bracelets and a blue sweat band could say. She also had some nasty scrapes on her forelegs, as she hid behind them, cowering, much to Appleblooms perplextion.

“Howdy,” Applebloom waved, gaining the mares attention and confusion, “Looks like you could use some help.” Applebloom was glad she appeared, she needed to stop thinking about things.

The mare looked at the scrapes on her forelegs, “where am I?” she asked.

“You’re at Ponyville Hospital,” Bon Bon answered, which brought the mares attention away from Applebloom while the mare made the ‘oh’ face of understanding.

“here let me help you out,” Applebloom said, as she jumped down from the gurney that the nurse apparently forgot to remove after she started her conversation with Derpy, “So what happened to you?”

“Well I was jogging outside when-” the mare began but hissed and Applebloom watched as the scrapes quickly disappeared from her forelegs, “What?” she asked looking at her now spotless forelegs, well besides some dirt, she looked at Applebloom questioningly.

Applebloom smiled, “you’re welcome.”

the mare blinked at her, “...um, I-” she was interrupted by a loud pop and flash of light right beside her, which caused her to jump like a scared cat.

Twilight appeared where light and sound was emitted, after briefly looking around Twilight brought her attention to the mare who was staring at her princess in fear, “I see you’re all better now, just try to be more careful in the future,” Twilight suggested and the mare nodded barely, with that Twilight charged up her horn and the mare was teleported out of the room with yet another flash of light and loud pop, “Well,” Twilight rubbed her forehead like she had a headache, “that took a lot out of me, but I’m glad that’s over with,” she looked around, “Where’s Derpy and Dinky?”

“Oh it was getting late so they went home after Ah healed Dinky,” Applebloom answered, “and what’s over with?” she asked.

“Nothing nothing, it’s over with and that’s all anypony needs to know about it,” Twilight said with finality.

“Okay then, Ah was just wondering is all,” Applebloom defended.

Twilight suggested they call it a day but Applebloom refused. When she said she wasn’t going until everypony was healed she meant it. So they moved to the untested sick ponies, who suffered everything from the magical disease known as the trotts which suddenly forces a pony to well trott at unexpected times, to more mundane yet deadly things like the flu. She was able to heal them to, some cases made her almost puke at how gross they were. She still didn’t understand how or why she could heal, but she wasn’t going to waste this ability. She intended to help as many ponies as she could. She never wanted to feel that again, and she’d go to Tartarus before she’d let somepony else feel it.

The sun was down and the moon was up by the time she got to everypony in hospital. Applebloom never felt a hint of fatigue, she found that kind of odd as when she grew plants she could feel energy leave her it was faint, but there. When she healed it was almost like she was doing nothing to help them, even though there was no denying it was her. Doctor Dish lead them downstairs, “Well Applebloom, I appreciate everything you’ve done here today, but I’m afraid you’ve effectively put me out of the job,” he said with displeasure, Applebloom looked at him questioningly, as he smiled back, and kneeled in close, “this is the best reason to be out of the job by the way,” and Applebloom giggled at his continued attempts at being funny.

Once they made it to the lobby Applebloom was happily shocked when most of the ponies she’d healed and the hospital staff yelled, ‘surprise,’ as they walked into the now decorated hospital lobby. Applebloom was quick to get a snack and meet some of the ponies she helped, she was so focused with healing them all, that she was surprised at how many of their names she didn’t even know. She got the name of the stallion who she first healed and talked a little more to Tornado. At one point she wondered if she got her cutiemark for healing ponies but was disappointed to find her flank bare. Twilight who had been happy throughout the celebration became noticeable nervous and worried after that, well at least to Applebloom she did. Overall it was a great experience. It just made her want to go to another hospital full of more ponies and do it all again. She almost felt guilty that she enjoyed the surprise party, what with ponies undoubtedly suffering elsewhere, but since it was full of reminders why it was happening in the first place she just felt a little guilty.

Twilight escorted her home, once the party was over. Applebloom found it hard to get to sleep that night. Her mind just wouldn’t rest, so many thoughts and concerns. So many worries.

The following week she learned more about alchemy, and for some reason Applejack hired somepony to help out around the farm, and reduced the amount of chores she had to do, though she did say she’d explain why she did that once on vacation in Manehattan. She spent most of her free time perfecting new alchemy creations Twilight and Zecora taught her, since she could literally make all the supplies she needed, well except the beakers, burners, and other tools. Zecora had her grow several different plants on several occasions for Zecora's own potions. Applebloom was learning so much more about alchemy than she ever had in the past. Though it didn’t hurt that Twilight and Zecora collaborated in teaching her, while supplies were not an issue at all. Twilight also tested her ‘strength’ in terms of how Puddinghead put it. It was informative, to say the least. Applebloom was excited and nervous to go on vacation. Excited to meet up with Babs Seed and the crusaders she recruited but nervous to tell her sister who’s the element of honesty, who helped save Equestria several times, that she lied to her, about something important to them no less.

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Scootaloo
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Scene One

The sun was shining, and the air was warming up from the unusually crisp night as the day took hold. Ponyville Park was not well populated during the mornings, only a few trotters and once in awhile walkers. Scootaloo knew this all too well after two years of watching her idol, now sister, practise and work out to become a Wonderbolt. Rainbow Dash wasn’t why she was here now. Rainbow was still recovering from magic depletion in Sugarcube Corner. No, Scootaloo was here because she recently learned she had the supernatural ability to control the air around her, and being the kind of pony to find superpowers awesome; she naturally wanted to learn how to control them and master them. If controlling the air around herself wasn’t a superpower then she was crazy. She found a nice clear spot in the park, free of debris, that would allow her to see if anypony was approaching. She wasn’t stupid, if she choose just anyplace, she could put herself or somepony else in danger. After what she accidently did to Twilight, she wouldn’t take any chances with putting somepony else at risk.

She took a quick glance all around and above her and saw no pony in sight, or if they were, they were too far away, or at least she hoped they were. A wicked smile crossed her lips, she was about to have some fun, but she froze when a thought came to her. Twilight had mentioned that she should be able to dig like a diamond dog, and she’s heard stories of them from Rainbow. If she could do half of what Rainbow described she’d be pretty excited about that. So she dug, and dug, and dug.

It was pitch black, before she knew it. The sun seemed to have disappeared, and she felt surrounded. She was disorientated. It was cold, and she was looking down at darkness. Regardless of this sudden change in scenery or lack thereof rather, she knew she had just somehow dug through the ground as easily as one would swim, in fact she’s sure this was easier than that. She felt thrilled by this discovery, but a little scared, she had no intention on going deep enough to reach lava, though she was sure she was far from that. She decided to keep digging around, see if there was any caves under the park for some reason, but first she resurfaced to get her bearings. turns out she didn’t stray too far from her original spot, and she quickly went back down. Air came to mind after a little searching, she realized she wasn’t running out of it even though she didn’t seem to leave a tunnel behind her when she traveled. She was slightly freaked out by this, and decided to resurface just in case, not that she had any real idea where she was in the park, a rough estimate at best.

When she popped out of the ground she was assaulted with the blinding sun, and the air was much warmer. She didn’t pay much attention to the park trail and light littering of trees that now surrounded her. She used her forelegs to easily pull herself out of the ground, but the ground itself seemed to raise herself out of it. She looked back to find a whole in the grass full of loose soil and a oddly solid surface. It was weird, it looked like a dirty elevator floor got stuck just below the grass. Now she was conflicted; she wasn’t sure if she wanted to learn more about her ability to control the air around her, or her ability to manipulate the earth around her. Both options sounded very appealing to her, but with her fear of her wings, it was no contest that she decided to learn about the latter.

She dived back into the earth and swiftly returned with a armful of rocks. She began fiddling with the rocks. She would crush them into dust, like they were a loose ball of sand. She watched in amazement as they seemed to bend to her will, almost like they were liquid, but they retained their unique grey look. She wondered how she had never done this before now.

This was amazing, it was like she was watching a lava lamp, except she had control over it, and it was stuck on the ground. Any attempt to remove it from the ground without her directly touching it would lead to it stretching upwards before leaving the ground and promptly falling back to the ground like a non-existent magnet was turned off, before she could move it again. She didn’t register that the grass got burned when she lost control of it. It was almost hypnotizing to her the grey rocks as they moved on the ground to her will, this was a sight she didn’t think she could ever get tired of. She suddenly got the idea to try and mold them into animal figurines. They all jutted out in what looked like attempts to follow her directions, she was making no progress. She smiled, as a better idea struck her about what to make the figurine into. So she focused on one of the larger rocks and found she was making some rough progress in the figurine she was going for, but it was still very unstable. She thought maybe combining them would make it easier, and she was right but it was extremely hard getting the shapes she wanted. It was almost like she had no control over them yet she could see it was something she’d have to work on, like writing or drawing.

Scootaloo was so lost in her experimentation that she was completely shocked when Rainbow ‘Ahem’ed’ behind her. She jumped and shrieked into the air like a scared cat, wings involuntarily spread out, and turned to face her sister. She was a little surprised to see Twilight there as well, “Oh,” she breathed in, “Hey sis,” she got goosebumps as she said that and smiled which Rainbow returned, “hey Twilight. What brings you here?” She asked trying to preemptively change the subject about what she was just doing.

“Oh you know,” Rainbow said nonchalantly and threw out her a hoof, followed by a slight cringe, “I decided to take a walk and Twilight here decided to join me,” she smiled sheepishly, “it’s not at all because we thought maybe you were gonna try and make a tornado and hurt yourself or somepony else,” she chuckled, “that’s just silly.”

“Ahh,” Twilight said as she looked and gestured below Scootaloo.

Scootaloo didn’t know what Twilight meant so she asked, “Yeah Twilight?”

Rainbow didn’t seem to notice what Twilight was looking at either, Scootaloo began to look where Twilight was, “So what were you doing all this time?” Rainbow asked bringing Scootaloo’s attention away from whatever Twilight was looking at.

“Wha- Nothing, nothing, I mean just you know umm-” Scootaloo stopped, “Do you smell something burning or is it just me?” she asked looking around.

“Scootaloo!” Rainbow screamed as she quickly plucked her from the ground, “are you okay? Did you get burned anywhere?” Rainbow asked while looking for signs of burns, much to her confusion.

“I’m fine Rainbow,” Scootaloo answered, but was put down, after Rainbow did a quick last inspection, facing burnt grass and a small fire along with a large glowing red rock at the center. The same rock she had just been molding, she didn’t recall it being hot or red. She was a little freaked out by this, but that was outshone by excitement of the possibilities.

A translucent light purple-ish pink shield suddenly appeared over the rock and smoke quickly smogged the view, “Well Scootaloo it seems I’ve been underestimating the capabilities of our ancestors, yet again. Care to explain what that is?” she gestured to the dome filled with smoke, and the cooling rock.

Scootaloo had planned to make a figurine of herself and her sister as a gift, to show how much she loved and appreciated Rainbow, but wanted that to be a surprise, “Well I planned on learning more about how to control air, but then I remembered you mentioning something about digging so I figured I’d give it a try,” Scootaloo jumped head first into the ground before either Rainbow or Twilight could stop her. Everything was pitch black for her so she blindly dug to the dome Twilight had made and outstretched her forelegs and cautiously searched for the still hot rock, not even sure if she was in the right spot, she bumped against something warm and pulled it down to her then she awkwardly dug back a little and resurfaced outside the bubble, with rock in tow.

“Wow you really can dig like a diamond dog,” Rainbow said excitedly.

“I’m not so sure that was digging it was more like swimming. She didn’t leave behind piles of dirt,” Twilight observed.

“I wish I knew I could do this stuff earlier, this is AWESOME!” Scootaloo yelled, almost buzzing her wings in her excitement, but fear keeping them firmly at her sides. “Look,” she exclaimed, as she brought her attention back to the dirty black rock, probable from the burnt grass and smoke, and its very vague beginnings of a shape that could be a figurine. She placed it on the ground and began shaping it again. Soon it was grey again and she moved it around on the ground with her forelegs and will; eventually, letting it rest on her forehoof as it wobbled continuously, like it could explode or leak at any moment. Rainbow and Twilight watched silently, the former with trepidation, fear, and awe, the latter with wonder, and concern, “So yeah, that’s what I’ve been doing,” she smiled up at them, before shoving the unstable liquid stone deep in the ground, where it couldn’t burn the grass.

“That’s interesting, you and the grass it was on wasn’t burned when you were in control… I can think of a few possibilities,” Twilight said, as her forehoof rubbed her chin.

“Egghead stuff later Twilight,” Rainbow responded, as she roughed up Scootaloo's already rough mane, “I want to see what else my sister can do.”

“Okay but what?” Scootaloo questioned, as she looked around, “Oh I know,” she exclaimed excitedly. It was something she had done once before but didn’t really remember doing it. She asked them to step back behind her she didn’t want to accidently gorge somepony least of all her sister and Twilight. Both who she owed a lot to. When they were clear, or at least she hoped they were, she did what came to mind for something like this to be possible. She reared up on her hind legs and struck down hard on the ground with her forelegs, which gave her a completely different but more awesome idea for later. As she struck the ground she imagined a spike shooting out of the ground a good distance away from herself and anypony else, and actually tried to make it happen like she did when she controlled the air. A large boulder suddenly and loudly popped out of the ground vaguely shaped like a partially submerged rough egg with the narrowest part up top, loose soil and grass tumbled down.

Rainbow was quick to return to Scootaloo and give her an excited hug, “that’s so cool.” Scootaloo leaned into the hug best she could. That wasn’t at all what she was going for. She was going for a sharp spike, like the one Applebloom described, that impaled the manticores paw. She felt no need to tell Rainbow this, but she’d work on it just to be control. She shuddered to think of the damage she could accidentally do, given everything she now knows.

“Scootaloo, that’s umm nice,” Twilight said hesitantly, as Rainbow got out of the hug, “and I know you’re excited to continue but maybe we should call it a day for now, I got to meet Applebloom, so we can test her healing abilities and I need to go over what Puddenhead said about pegasi ground magic again, because you were toying with what had to be molten rock or some pegasi ground magic version of it, and just shot a boulder up from the ground both of which are very dangerous and could be even deadly,” Twilight pointed out.

Scootaloo sighed, “You’re right Twilight, but I’ve tried to be careful. That’s why I picked a clear spot that didn’t have much stuff on the ground,” she said as she gestured around her. Then she actually looked around her. She saw some trees and she was closer to a trail that ran through the park, “I-I mean not here, I was originally gonna practise,” she looked around, “over there,” she pointed, “but then I kinda got lost when I was digging, and ended up here, and then I decided to see what I could do to rocks an-and,” she blushed looking down ashamed. She was so sure was being as safe as she could be.

“It’s alright Scootaloo,” Twilight said calmly, “I completely understand getting lost in something new and exciting, but for now could you please not do anything like that,” she pointed the large boulder towering ahead of them, “at least until tomorrow?”

“I promise, I won’t do anything like that until tomorrow,” Scootaloo said, as she clearly pointed to the boulder but she didn’t promise she would stop trying to mold a figurine of rocks turned lava.

“And also if you make anymore molten rocks you better be away from anything flammable and get away from it if you feel it might get you burned, I feel it’s safe for you to do since even the grass wasn’t burned when you were in control of it, so just please be careful,” Twilight requested, to which Scootaloo simply nodded, “Alright well I got some things to do before Applebloom shows up, you’re welcome to join us if you want.”

Scootaloo would love to go and support Applebloom, but she just couldn’t stand the hospital. she’s heard one too many horrible stories that happened in them, not too mention she almost lived one. She was about to answer with a definite ‘no’ but Rainbow covered for her, “sorry Twilight but it’s about time me and my little sister got something to eat, but we’ll see yeah tomorrow.”

“Alright then, you gonna be okay with the walk back?” Twilight asked Rainbow who nodded, “I’ll cya later then,” Twilight’s horn began to glow as Rainbow began walking towards town.

Scootaloo looked behind her at the boulder, “Wait!” which halted Rainbow and stopped Twilight, “shouldn’t I put that boulder back?” she gestured to said giant rock.

“Well there’s no laws against having it there, and it is kind of in the open, I don’t see the harm in letting it stay there, in fact it kind makes it more interesting,” Twilight said, “It’s something to look at as you walk through the path as it kind of makes a turn there,” Twilight said, as she pointed, “and it’s just far enough away from the trail that I don’t see how it could cause any problems.”

Scootaloo was skeptical, “well if you’re sure Twilight, I’ll leave it there.”

They said their goodbyes and Twilight teleported out. Scootaloo went and had lunch with her sister. She spent the rest of her day trying to mold the figurine of herself and her sister, or more accurately she spent it trying to control whatever magical force allowed her liquify and shape rocks. She tried to get it to look like them standing up and looking ahead. It wasn’t going so well, like it was her first time trying to carry a glass of water and her hooves couldn’t seem to get it steady, and it just keep spilling. She did this practise in secret and free from anything that could catch fire as Twilight requested. She had so much to learn, it was daunting and exciting at the same time, and that’s not even factoring in the flight lessons. She’s nervous about those but they won’t happen until after her sister is fully recovered. She might not have succeeded in making a figurine for her sister today, but she promised herself that she’d have one to give to her by the time they go on vacation.

Scene Two

Dead silence filled the room of the mayor's office as Mayor Mare walked back and forth impatiently behind her desk. Scootaloo, Rainbow, and Twilight all looked down in shame, as they sat on chairs at the opposite side. Scootaloo was glad it wasn’t too bad, but it certainly would have been worse if they were at the park like they were yesterday. The mayor sternly looked at them, “Don’t go anywhere,” she demanded, “I’m going to see what the holdup is,” she said, agitation clear in her voice as she firmly shut the door behind her.

“I’ve never seen her so mad,” Rainbow said, with giddy mirth.

“Rainbow this is serious, that could have really done a lot of damage. I’m just glad I decided to move to the rock quarry in whitetail woods, though I’m not so sure the diamond dogs are. You know I don’t like being called Princess and being treated better than anypony, but this is the kind of situation I should be handling,” Twilight raised her hooves in complaint.

“Twilight take it easy, nopony got hurt and the property damage was minimal, Mayor Mare will deal with the diamond dogs, she has before, kind of,” Rainbow frowned, “well I’m sure they can work something out this time, I mean now we’re kind of even right?”

“The last time she negotiated with the diamond dogs nothing was accomplished. If you consider the destruction of most their tunnel network a good trade for ponynapping and forced labor,” Twilight snapped back, “well when I put it that way, given that nopony was hurt…” Twilight trailed off, “but I highly doubt they’d see it that way.” No pony responded, outside of nods of agreement.

Silence continued after their exchange. Scootaloo felt horrible, she was really glad the diamond dogs were as good at digging as Rainbow had boasted and were able to dig themselves out of the collapsed tunnels. She didn’t think something like this would happen. It seemed like such an innocent and awesome idea at the time. She was surprised at the power she had, how has this slipped everypony's notice for so long? She thought that she’d noticed things like this. She searched her memories since she woke up from that cave. A fantastic view and elation of being high in sky, seeing everything around for miles, came to mind. She shuddered as she recalled waking up while speeding to the ground. Her wings tightly gripped her sides at the memory, she leaned against Rainbow who in turn place a wing around her.

The door opened and Mayor Mare walked in, “Well it seems everything is settled,” she said slightly giddy much to their confusion, “you are free to go, the damages have been paid for.”

“Paid for? By who?” Rainbow demanded.

Mayor Mare grinned, and directed her attention to Rainbow who still had her wing wrapped around Scootaloo, “The diamond dogs, th-”

“What!? Why would they ever do that after their tunnel systems were destroyed?” Rainbow interrupted.

“AHEM, As I was saying,” Mayor Mare rolled her eyes, “they found a couple huge stashes of rare gems because of umm what happened.”

“But most of their tunnel system collapsed, I don’t see why they would pay for any damages when they were the ones who incurred the most,” Twilight sighed, “property damage, huge stashes of gems or not. It would be in their right to sue. Also did you get that information I requested?” Twilight asked.

“Yes I did, but the reason they haven't even considered pursuing a lawsuit is because they wanted to thank you for resetting their tunnel network, something about getting lost often, and they ended up digging new tunnels to reach their destination, or so that sounds like what the case may be, anyways,” Mayor Mare directed her attention to Twilight, “the seismogram recorded a five point four on the Richter scale, now if you would ever so kindly get out of my office, I got a lot of paperwork to do,” she gestured to the door.

They got up and left and were soon in a hallway, “Well that went far better than expected. Though I don’t think that seismogram reading was right, I think all the diamond dog tunnels negated most of the power,” Twilight said as they walked.

Scootaloo felt a little better since everything seemed okay, “Well I’m glad I didn’t get my cutie mark for that.”

“Ahaha, yeah…,” Twilight said, “Your cutie mark,” she sounded very sad. Scootaloo glanced at Twilight to see her slumped down and looking down as she walked, before noticing her and plastering on a fake smile, “Well everything turned out fine at least, right? So what if there’s a gorge in Whitetail Woods now?” Scootaloo decided to remain silent and not ask about whatever’s bothering her.

Once they made it outside they were approached by three diamond dogs. They offered Scootaloo a variety of gems as repayment for fixing their tunnel situation. As she looked at the selection a brilliant idea came to her she got a large light blue gem, smaller light orange gem, and some other colored gems, most of them pink. This was going to be perfect if it worked out the way she wanted it to. Again Scootaloo retreated to the place she practised yesterday, after dropping off her gems at the Cakes guest room. She managed to get the grey liquid stone to be less shaky while holding it, but it still shimmered and rippled. When she tried to shape it, it shaked but it seemed a little more in line with her attempts.

Scene Three

It has been a week since Scootaloo received her ‘payment’ from the diamond dogs and in that time her sister recovered, with help from Applebloom, and started flight practise with Twilight and herself. It was rough going at the start, there were more than a few scary moments for her. Still with Rainbow by her side she felt safe, and broke herself free of her fear of flying, for the most part. She was uncomfortable flying alone, but shrugged it off best she could. She began practising her control on the air around her, and may have accidently created a giant tornado in the process, but luckily they weren’t near Ponyville at the time. She’s been so occupied with learning to control her new abilities and learning to fly that she hasn’t seen much of her friends, even during ‘Twilight Time’ they all had separate things to do. She was excited about showing them all the things she could do like Applebloom once had to them. She could tell they were excited about it to. They digged for details any chance they got, but she wouldn’t budge.

She still had a bit to go in learning to control her new abilities, but if she focused hard enough and spent enough time she could get the liquid stone, at least, to sit perfectly still. When she moved it, it was much more stable than it previously had been, but clearly showed room for improvement. She finally got the figurine looking good. It was smooth since it was molded from a liquid state, she didn’t chisel it even though she certainly easily could have done that. She made some final adjustments and even strayed from her original design idea in favor of a better one. Now all she had to do was make it again, wrap it up, and gift it to her sister sometime during the vacation, she hoped her sister would at least appreciate it, knowing full well that figurines aren't her kind of thing, having lived in her cloud home since she recovered.

-------------------
Twilight
-------------------

The last week or so leading up to the vacation have been nerve wracking, stressful, amazing, prideful, guilt filled, and busy for Twilight. She needed a vacation after all the hard work and effort she put into helping her unofficial students grow and learn more. She was so proud of Sweeties progress, and the spells she can safely cast while in a calm state of mind. She was blown away by what Applebloom accomplished in the hospital, and intrigued by Scootaloo's impressive abilities. Needless to say she was proud of them. Of all the things that happened there’s only one that annoyed her to no end, and it only annoyed her because thankfully Applebloom was there to fix it. She’d feel pretty horrible otherwise. Just the unlikeliness of what happened urked her, and she couldn’t help but go over her memories of it one last time before forcing herself to try and forget it ever happened, because it never should have happened, it was just so ugh.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Some days ago

Scootaloo had just shot a boulder out of the ground, it was very reminiscent of what Applebloom and Zecora described happening to the Manticore. Twilight didn’t like this one bit, she knew this as a attack pegasi had used during war, and seeing Scootaloo do it didn’t sit right with her. She called off practise of that kind for the day so she could learn more about such things and train Scootaloo more appropriately. She also had something to do with Applebloom later that day. Before she could leave Scootaloo asked if she should get rid of the boulder she had made, and she said no, mainly because she didn’t want Scootaloo doing anything like that right now, though she did think it was a nice addition to the park. She teleported back to her room and resumed translating the last bit of the journal that she needed to, unfortunately it seemed like her fears on the subject could very well be true, and it almost broke her heart. She searched the library for books on war training and safety procedures so she had a better idea on how to go about safely training Scootaloo. She located them and began reading them.

Soon enough it was time for her and Applebloom to go to the hospital where she learned of the first incident. Bon Bon had ran into a boulder in the park that, as Bon Bon had put it, ‘hasn’t been there in the past.’ She instantly knew which boulder Bon Bon was referring to. She figured it was some stupid mistake, she thought well it’s a huge boulder if they run into it it’s their own fault. She doubted anything to bad could happen again. After being completely blown away by Appleblooms healing capabilities, incident two happened with that boulder, but this time it involved a filly and a horribly bent leg. It was unbearable to see the state of Dinkys leg. She was impressed by how well Dinky was taking it. Seeing the love and concern in Derpy's eyes was tough. She felt so angry, and ashamed at herself. Scootaloo was right to ask about the boulder, but she just couldn’t see something this horrible happening. She laughed at the situation, not that she found it funny, in fact she was quite distressed about it. She just couldn’t help herself.

She quickly excused herself from them and teleported to the boulder. She was beside the trail as it moved up towards the boulder and turned. She calmed her nerves, “Alright you,” she hissed, at the boulder, “I’ve had enough of your nonsense,” she said deadly serious, the scene of Dinkys broken disfigured leg still fresh in her memory, “You were suppose to be a nice scenic addition to the park not some abomination that injures mares and fillies as they pass by,” Twilight groaned as she realised she was talking to a boulder like Pinkie’s sister, not that there’s anything wrong with that, “what has my life become?” She charged up her horn and unceremoniously blasted it with a spell that made it into a bunch of small rocks that would be easy for her to levitate to a more appropriate area. Like a rock garden, or Ghastly Gorge. Just before she could start a mare trotted by and noticed her Princess, she gave a smile and wave to her with a fore hoof as she continued. Twilight waved and smiled back, then watched as she kept going outside the trail and into the many rocks that now littered the ground. She tripped and fell, at the speed she was going it earned some nasty scrapes.

The scene of a mother cooing at her brave daughter with a mangled leg as they did their best to remain calm, came back to her with vengeance, “WHAT!?... WHY!? OH, WHEN I’M DONE WITH YOU, YOU’ll WISH YOU NEVER POPPED OUT OF THE EARTH!” Twilight screamed in rage. Three times ponies got hurt because of it, ghastly gorge it was. Then she noticed the mare still there but now cowering and shaking in fear like she was about to hit her or something, wordlessly she teleported the mare to the hospital and went to work on making sure those rocks were gone for good. When she teleported back to the hospital she asked the mare to be more careful and teleported her back to the park.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Looking back Twilight realised she could have handled the mare a little better. She should have let Scootaloo just get rid of the boulder in the first place. She’s glad no pony pressed her on why she left when Dinky and Derpy were still in need of assistance.

That was in the past, and she’ll do her best to learn from it, but for now she wanted to think about the future. She planned on making this vacation special for the Cutiemark Crusaders, she was going to ask them if they wanted to become her official students, she hoped they’d say yes. They already kind of are her students, just not officially, and she wanted it to be official, if only for their sakes. She’s had some good memories with Celestia and she wanted to share those kind of memories with them.

Now they were packed and ready to go to Manehatten. Scootaloo had been carrying a light orange present box, wrapped with a light purple bowtie, the colors of her coat and mane respectively. She holded it closely. Sweetie asked about it, “It’s a present,” Scootaloo answered proudly.

“Aw shoot, Ah should have thought to get Babs something to,” Applebloom said sadly, “so what did you get her?”

Scootaloo’s eyes went wide, “Um, this actually isn’t for Babs and before you ask who it’s for, it’s a secret, but I think I’ll make her one to. No, I got a better idea,” Scootaloo smiled broadly.

“One what?” Applebloom asked.

Scootaloo groaned, “I’m not saying,” she smirked, “but it is pretty neat at least if I do say so myself, I hope.”

Twilight continued to listen to their conversation, she just didn’t like what she’ll have to tell them after she asked them to be her official students. They were such good fillies, that they shouldn’t have to live with what Puddingheads journal suggested could happen or rather not happen. Applejack and Rainbow were having their own conversation. They boarded the train and off they went to Manehatten.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It had been around a week since Mirror left the dank gloomy cave she called home, out into the hot, dry, and unforgiving badlands. The forest of Hoodoos she had first sleep safely in during her first day was occupied during the night time, by what she didn’t know, nor did she want to. The strange sounds freaked her out and she was glad to be out of there. She traveled during the nighttime to preserve water, otherwise she’d be dead by now, since changelings needed it to survive. Food wasn’t a problem for now at least, since changeling food was compact. She brought enough to last about three weeks, if she was smart about it.

At the end of second night traveling as the sun began to peak she saw a couple buttes slightly off her course. They reached for the sky each like its own private island surrounded by a sea of sweltering hot air during the day or frigid cold air during the night. They displayed layers of pastel colors like some pastries she’s seen in ‘cook’ books. As she neared them, in hopes of getting some shade so she could sleep or at least rest during the day, she noticed something wrong about the closest one, but couldn’t tell what, the one she approached seemed to bulge out at the bottom. The closer she got the more it seemed off. It almost seemed to shine when everything else was dull. The bulge was large too, almost the size of a tunnel that could fit three full grown changelings. A little closer still and she noticed some small indentations that suspiciously looked like scales. She slowed down her approach and eventually stopped. She knew something about that bulge seemed really off.

Terror struck her the second she realized what it was. She had been approaching a battle snake. Every changeling learns about them, since battle snakes have on occasion attacked their cave system in a desperate attempt to acquire water. They’ve never fended off one without losing some lives. She’s glad it didn’t notice her as she quickly retreated.

She had to make her own shade that day in the middle of nowhere. Luckily she was prepared for that, it wasn’t quite as nice as the hoodoo forest but it was far better than being anywhere near a battle snake. Over the course of the next few days she learned to stay away from other landmarks in a similar fashion. She’d just have to go on with what she brought to provide shade. Luckily for her, the monsters of the badlands didn’t seem to venture too far from their own shady spots, and she was left to rest peacefully.

She was running dangerously low on water and she had no way to refill it. She was considering flying to her destination at this point. Flying ultimately would have been the safest and fastest way to her destination, but she’d have to eat much more food than she would walking or even running which took its own good deal of energy, leaving her with little energy to transform and accomplish her goal. She quite clearly remembers this lesson her father had given her. Her father was the second in command below Chrysalis herself in the changeling army, so he would often, when he had a chance, teach her many things about survival and combat. She stopped herself from thinking about him, the memories too painful still, but it renewed her vigor in what she wanted to accomplish.

The sun began to rise again but this time she could see the beginnings of a forest in the far distance, but far closer still she could see what she assumed was an abandoned town. Both sights she’s only seen in and read about in books. She galloped to the town before the sun made the idea unbearable. As she approached she noticed a bunch of small holes littering ground the closer she got, she was wary of them and stayed as far from them as she could.

By the time she made it the sun had risen quite high and the temperature was quickly following. The town was a true ghost town, like she’d read in books. The buildings were old and dilapidated. She couldn’t smell any residual emotions meaning that it has been abandoned for at least two years, but she could tell just by looking at it that it’s been far longer than two years. School for changelings is much more hooves on, which allowed her access to several materials that would otherwise be unavailable where she lived. The state of various woods and their rate of decay among them. They even had miniature structures in the cave system so they could prepare for what they’ll encounter in the future. Needless to say she was a little daunted at how much bigger the buildings were than the miniatures ones she grew use to. She figured if she was an adult it would be about the same. As she passed by buildings she would take a quick glance inside there doorless doorframes. They were generally empty and the floor was often disjointed, any stairs going up were mostly collapsed. As she walked she noticed a rather large building in the center of town, it had a sign hanging on the side of it, somehow surviving the passage of time and ravages of the yearly rain cycle. It was too faded to read what it once said, but it intrigued her so she went to investigate. The doors were gone like all the others.

She was greeted with a long counter directly on the other side of the large room, with half fallen racks behind that. Dilapidated Tables and chairs littered the space between herself and the counter, light shone in from cracks and missing panels from the roof, giving her a eerie and peaceful feeling. Relief from the sun, was all the encouragement she needed to enter and explore more of the building, even as the floorboards creaked and groaned as she walked around. She glanced around and she noticed a particularly large hole in the floor, large enough for a table. She didn’t approach it too close wary of the floor beneath her giving way. She noticed something in the hole a set of stairs going down, they seemed to originate behind the long counter. She cautiously went to investigate further, so far this place has been quiet and lifeless, outside of her own movements, but she knew better than to be reckless by this point. The stairs going down looked mostly intact, so she decided to go down the cooler air enticing her. Each step was intense, she feared there could be a monster down there sleeping and the last thing she wanted to do was wake it. Half way down, a stair failed on her and she almost screamed as she fell to the bottom, unable to stop herself.

Glad that her carapace saved her from any blisters, but it didn’t save her from any bruising caused by blunt force trauma, which was minimal and almost non-existent as the stairs naturally cushioned her fall as they caved in, barely staying intact. She rubbed her head, as she reoriented herself, opening her eyes to the darkness of the cellar, or basement. Her eyes were quick to adjust. Living in a dimly lit cave her whole life had some perks. The air was stale but much cooler than even the hoodoo forest but definitely still warm, glancing around she noticed two wooden barrels at the other side in a corner, but nothing much else was down here, well besides the broken remains of what she assumed was once a table and couple of chairs littered all over, that probable fell from the hole in the ceiling. No direct sunlight found its way down here, even threw that large hole. The lack of direct sunlight made it a pleasant place to be for her. With nothing else to do she decided to investigate the barrels.

One was half broken unevenly on top, but still tightly packed together with rusted iron bands, on the bottom and middle. The other one was far more intact but she could just tell it was missing the top lid to seal it off. Two thick iron link chains bolted to them to the ground, one for each barrel, lazily chaining the barrels, like prisoners that gave up their aspirations. The reason for this escaped her, but she suspected that’s why they were one of the few things in this town that hasn’t completely gone with age. She hit the half broken one to get it out of its misery, and was surprised that her hoof didn’t break right through it, but even more so that she heard reverberating of liquid. She tried but couldn’t quite reach the top of it, even though it was half broken and she got on her hindlegs. She needed water badly so she flew, unsteadily, to get a better view. Chrysalis had put a ban on flying soon after the failed invasion to conserve food, needless to say she was rusty on this skill. She had plenty of food for now, and she could tell she was nearing her target, so a little flying was no problem, infact she felt she could probably fly the rest of the way if she really needed to, though she knew that wouldn’t be the best thing to do. Steadying herself she lowered herself slowly to half broken barrel careful to avoid the jagged staves. With one of her canteens in hoof, she filled it and got a quick swig, or rather gulped the whole thing down. It tasted just like the air stale, warm, and dead. Still it was refreshing nonetheless. She quickly refilled it and her other canteens, she almost considered outright letting herself fall into the barrel but the bottom didn’t look pleasant with settled dirt and grime on the bottom.

She got a quick snack to eat and decided to get some sleep under the stairs. Before she could doze off, she heard something as it scampered above her, going every which way like it was looking for something and didn’t care what heard it. Her heart raced, and any sleepiness was dispelled. The sound stopped and she saw something rather small as it peaked over the hole. Its ragged light brown hair, sharp teeth, and crazed eyes were daunting even though it was small enough to be a squirrel, which she’s only seen thanks to changelings natural ability to change into various things, and their practical school system. It looked in her direction and she froze, it didn’t seem to notice her though and keep looking, but then it lifted up its nose and sniffed the air, it immediately brought it eyes to where she resided and growled, baring its razor teeth at her. It did a little hop revealing huge claws on its paws and brought itself to an attack dog position in the air. The floor broke as it landed and it ungracefully fell and crashed into the cellar with her. Taking the opportunity she bolted around and then up the stairs before it could recover from its fall. She almost falled back down as the stairs gave way behind her. She had to use her wings ultimately once she reached where she fell down them earlier.

She glanced behind herself and noted that unless the creature was really good at jumping that it couldn’t hope to reach her. A good portion of the stairs were now missing or caved in. She took a moment to rest, only for the creature to run up the side of the stairs, like a chipmunk up a tree, as it dug its large claws into it with ease. She bolted around the counter and out into screlchoring heat as fast as she could, blinding her for a good while, a downside with living a dimly lit cave her whole life. She kept running until her eyes finally adjusted.

She froze at what she saw, hundreds of them surrounded her, she knew them as diamond prairie dogs. Ravenous beast that'll swarm any living thing like ants. She turned around. The one that chased her out here leaped towards her, its eyes crazed showing intent to feast. She was paralyzed with fear, until another one tackled it in midair, and brutally bashed its head against the ground several times when they landed. The one that intervened turned its own crazed eyes at her and she knew its intent wasn’t to save her, it just wanted to eat her for itself. Thinking fast she took to the air, unknowingly barely avoiding several others that had lounged themselves at her. She flew as high as she could, and decided that maybe flying the rest of the way, at least to the forest was a good idea.

Author's Note:

Sorry this took forever guys, and it’s a little underwhelming on the montage part, but there definitely is still the montage feel to it, I hope. The CMC are not getting ready for combat, so I couldn’t really do it the whole way. Don't worry though there will be combat.

Aurthor's notes:

1. "She unleashed Discord unto to the world. She went on a suicide mission to delivery some pies, making her sister worry." This is a reference to S2 E1 "The Return of Harmony," and S4 E17 "Some Pony to Watch Over Me" respectively.
2. Derpy eyed her curiously but otherwise ignored her, “We were at the park taking a walk when Dinky,” Applebloom smiled in recognition of the fillies name, “saw a huge boulder in the park that’s never been there before and she wanted to climb it, so I let her. Just before she reached the top some loose soil made her slip and she fell, I tried to catch her...” she said sadly, “I-I just,” don’t know what went wrong.
3. “Scene Two” If this made little sense to you. Then think about the Noodle incident that often gets mentioned in CMC stories, it’s kind of like that except I leave plenty of clues that you can piece together what might have happened, I will have characters mention it and bring up more details on it later though.
4. “Two thick iron link chains bolted to them to the ground, one for each barrel, lazily chaining the barrels, like prisoners that gave up their aspirations. The reason for this escaped her, but she suspected that’s why they were one of the few things in this town that hasn’t gone with age.” The chains held the barrels down when it rains once a year preventing them from floating around when it floods. The tables and chairs survived only because of the cellar, soaking up water and preventing them from being whisked away.