Ponywatching

by ThunderTempest

Prompt #494-Twenty and Twenty

Ponyville, situated as it was right next to the Everfree Forest, had always had additional issues when it came to the weather schedule, as compared to somewhere like Canterlot. The Everfree, as its name might imply, remained completely unaffected by the natural magics that stabilized the rest of Equestria. As such, the weather schedule was rarely made more than a week in advance, and most of the weather captains, past and future, would completely abandon any pretense of long-term planning when that forest got involved. The sole exception to this, the one weather captain of Ponyville who had somehow actually either learned to predict the chaotic weather patterns, or even more oddly, got the forest to do what she wanted to, when she wanted it to, was Rainbow Dash. When asked, the mare herself would likely proudly puff up her feathers, and state that she was ‘just that awesome’. Nopony actually knew the full story, and nopony ever would, especially if Rainbow had anything to say about it.

But the fact remained that Rainbow Dash had already secured her place in the history books twice. Once for her Sonic Rainboom, and again for being the only pony to master the Everfree’s notoriously chaotic weather.

*****

Rainbow Dash carefully flapped through the Everfree Forest. Even though the sun was high in the sky, the interior of the forest was dark, thanks to the copious canopy. A shiny new Weather Captain’s badge was pinned to her official Weather Team vest, as the town had just finished the first Winter Season Turning with Rainbow living in Ponyville, and more than once had Rainbow gotten sick of the cloud cover rolling in from the Everfree, which had eventually caused her to break out in a string of words that a pony her age should not rightfully know. After apologising to the mothers of the foals who had overheard her almost incoherent rant, Rainbow Dash had immediately headed to the forest, intending to give it a piece of her mind.

She logically knew that even as chaotic and random as the forest could be, it was not intelligent. It could not speak. It was just a stupid forest, and so her coming to yell at it would serve no other purpose than to let Rainbow blow off some steam. This fact did not stop her in the slightest, as she headed deeper and deeper into the heart of the forest, well past where she would eventually discover her role as the Element of Loyalty.

Not many ponies know this, but the Everfree Forest was the final result of one of Discord’s many re-imprisonments over the years. Such an outpouring of pure chaos magic is why the Everfree Forest continues to defy all known expectations of normal behaviours. It also had the effect of folding an area in space and time in on itself to a degree that measuring the forest externally yields one measurement, but actually entering the forest and measuring it there yields another, much, much larger number. Walking around the Everfree can be done in two or three days. Attempting to cross it directly will take you two weeks. As such, Dash easily passed the former Castle of the Two Sisters, and kept going deeper and deeper, well into the heart of the forest.

There, she found a tree, dead and twisted. The ground around it was burned black, and nothing grew there. It was here that Rainbow voiced her complaints at the Everfree. Loudly, and at great length. Then, when her voice ran out, she glared at the tree until she could no longer keep her eyes open. And when she woke up, she would repeat the whole process. Eventually, she could no longer speak at all, and settled for simply staring at the dead tree as if trying to set it on fire with her gaze alone. There she remained for twenty days and twenty hours, staring and cursing the dead piece of wood in front of her with every fibre of her being.

It is unknown if the Everfree was actually intimidated by Rainbow, or if it just appreciated a pony actually finding its heart and staying there for so long. Regardless, once Rainbow exited the forest, she never had any more trouble with the weather creeping over into Ponyville airspace, and every time it seemed like it was about to, all she had to do was glare at its nearest border, and the clouds would retract. This was why Rainbow never told the story to anypony-nobody wants to hear about the 500-hour long staring and cursing session with a piece of wood. It was not one of her better moments.

Author's Note:

Written for Prompt #494-“500 Times Too Long”
The Prompt: 500 hours worth of waiting.

Not terribly sure about this one.

Comments

[Themaskedferret]

a fancy this tbh. It feels lik a fully contained story rather than a sort of excerpt like some of the others. I also like that it's something so seemingly innocuous. No big huge magical event, jsut dash swearing at a tree.

[Malandy]

I also agree with the ferret above, reading this chapter is funny due to it's ... innocuous-ness... or perhaps it's random-ness, or both...

Huh.... well, the origin is typical, but how many times has he been imprisoned... and by who?

Also, two of 'yeilds' to 'yields' and 'peice' to 'piece'.