Prolouge The Disappearance
As Dash flutters from up high and watches her friends fall toward the ground, she quickly surveys the surroundings and then spots a cloud that she could use to save her friends. “Hang on! I’m coming!” She says as she folds her wings to her sides and falls into a steep dive toward a cloud that was close and angled herself toward it. The cold wind sliding through her fur as she grew closer and closer, taking very quick glances up at her falling friends to make sure that she’d have enough time. Pulling herself up slightly from her breakneck dive, she spreads her wings and flies closely to the cloud that was beneath her friends when the tornado destroyed the hot air balloon that they were in. She presses herself close to the edge of the cloud shaping it with each pass around it and compressing it down, smaller and smaller as her friends fall on top of it.
The blue Pegasus then in a great huff of breath, flies up in a corkscrew launching her friends high into the air, using the cloud as an impromptu trampoline. Her eyes follow each of her friends closely as the other recruits from the Wonderbolt Academy catch them. Rarity hugging Thunderlane while Fluttershy flew out of the ponies forelegs who had caught her, blushing sheepishly since she herself was a Pegasus and could’ve flown herself out of the fall. Rainbow Dash sighs and wipes her forehead with a hoof and pulls her flight goggles off her eyes and onto her forehead and searches the skies for Lightning Dust who had the brilliant idea of creating a tornado to clear the skies, which didn’t take her very long seeing that she was hovering in place with minimal flaps of her wings, ridding a current of wind to say aloft with ease. Her face only held that of pride for getting the job done regardless how it went, a smug smile on her muzzle.
“That’s it Lightning Dust! I’m gonna give you a piece of my mind!” Rainbow exclaims as she flaps her wings hard and starts flying up to the smug mint green Pegasus who had nearly killed her friends and fellow recruits before a strong backward wind started pulling on her fur, flight suit and feathers. The Pegasus mare looked over her shoulder and kept flapping her wings hard when she saw that the tornado that they’d created; her only because Lightning Dust was her lead pony and she was only the wing pony. “No. You’re not going to… pull me in!” She exclaims with each hard flap of her wings, the tornado growing closer and pulling her closer despite her strong wing muscles. As she grew closer and closer an idea popped into her mind, one that she wasn’t sure it would work but it was worth a shot because her current method was only tiring herself out.
She took a deep breath and turned into the tornado, hoping to use the winds it was creating to be able to rocket herself out like she accidentally when her friend needed her to help with an issue that Ponyville had with the Parasprites. However as she neared the twister, something felt off about it as she started to spread her wings to try and fly free. She noticed that the suction managed to keep her from getting the boost in speed that she’d need and pulled her deep into the center as it moved further and further from the academy. “No! No! No! I have to get ou-out of here!” Rainbow Dash cries out, however the tornado's strength left her words a whisper ever to the mare trapped inside it as she was spun around inside it before it seemed to suddenly vanish from existence, taking the mare with it.
***Back at the Academy***
“Where is Rainbow Dash?” Twilight asks as she and the others look around for their friend, happy that her quick thinking had saved their lives.
“Didn’t any of you see her?” Rarity asks the Pegasi who had saved their lives, patting her mane back into style with a hoof and a little of her magic.
“No Ma’am,” Thunderlane says as he looks at her. “After she created that springboard out of the clouds and sent you all back up here our main focus was saving you.”
“Is it possible th-“ Twilight began before Lightning Dust flew down and hovered before the group of ponies.
“That! Was! Epic!” She exclaims and punches the air with pure excitement.
“Epic? Ya’ nearly turned us into pulp!” Applejack exclaims angrily at the mare who only seemed more concerned with what she’d accomplished. The farm pony brushed her chest and forelegs off and picked up her hat from the ground and with a flick of her head tossed it back into the air and it landed back squarely on her head.
“Oh come on! You have to admit that it was awesome,” The Pegasus who still wore a smug smile says to her as the five mares she’d endangered and her fellow recruits glare at her, making her smug smile fade slightly. “I’m sure Rainbow will agree with me! Right Rainbow?” She asks as she takes to the sky again and flies over to the edge of the Academy’s runway, not seeing a single hair of her wing pony. “You can stop playing games Rainbow!” She calls out, starting to feel the presence of worry build in her chest. “Rainbow Dash? Where are you?!” She asks, this time her worry and guilt starting to edge into her voice as she flies down the side of the cliff, her eyes searching all of for her rainbow mane and blue coat.
Meanwhile the others still on the cliff look between each other with nervous worry, Pinkie Pie who normally would’ve been bouncing off from the enormous amounts of energy inside her body, was stoic. Holding the care package that they’d prepared to take to Rainbow Dash as a surprise. “She’s gonna be ok Pinkie,” Applejack says as she puts a foreleg around Pinkie’s shoulders. “She’s probably doin’ her thing an’ makin’ sure that there tornado won’t hurt anypony,” Applejack says, though considering that their friend hadn’t shown up yet was making the Element of Honesty doubt her own words.
Pinkie wipes her nose with the back of her left hoof and then wipes her eyes with the same one and looks to her friend. “You think so?”
“I’m really sure of it,” Twilight says as she looks between her friends. “But, maybe one of you could talk to Spitfire about a search party or something?” She asks the Pegasi dressed in academy attire. “You know, to be safe and all.”
“Yes Ma’am!” Cloudchaser says as she lowers herself to the ground and quickly flaps her wings down and turns toward Spitfire’s office as fast as she could.
Shortly after leaving, Cloudchaser came back with Spitfire and a few other Wonderbolts in tow, all wearing their flight suits, except for Spitfire. “So Rainbow Dash is still missing?”
“Yes Spitfire. Um… well Rainbow Dash still hasn’t come back yet and we’re really starting to worry about her,” Fluttershy says, addressing their concern.
“Have you been told about what happened Ma’am?” One of the other recruits asks her asks she gives the Captain a salute as she asks the question.
“Cloudchaser told me what happened. Where is Lightning Dust anyway? She better not have tried to run away from this,” Spitfire says, beginning to get angry that she had kept feeding her ego.
“Actually she’s out there looking for Rainbow Dash now,” Rarity says as she looks toward where Lightning Dust had taken off to. “At least that’s what we’re thinking.”
“Duly noted. Form up!” Spitfire calls out loudly, causing the recruits and the other Wonderbolts behind her to stand at attention. “You all know who we’re looking for. I want one recruit with one Wonderbolt and you will act as a team while you sweep a ten mile radius for her while I coordinate with her friends about possibilities. When you see Lightning Dust tell her to come find me immediately! Now get going!” She calls out and then stomps her hoof hard on the ground. Quickly the Wonderbolts and the recruits jump into the air and as they pair up they fly in all directions while Spitfire turns back to Twilight and the others.
“When do you think you’ll find her?” Fluttershy asks, feeling scared about her friend being hurt or lost.
“Hard to say, but don’t worry. We’ll find her even if it takes us all month. You have my word,” Spitfire says giving the timid mare and small smile.
“How can we help? I know you said you wanted to work with us to find her so where do we begin?” Twilight asks as she takes a step toward Spitfire, anxious to get to work on finding their friend.
“Come with me, I have maps of every square inch of the academy that could help us narrow down the search and help it along quickly,” Spitfire says as she spreads her wings and then pauses. “Right… only one of you is a Pegasus. In that case, follow me,” She says as she folds her wings and starts trotting toward her office with the fire mares in tow behind her, each with their concerns growing in their mind.
***One week later***
“Anything Soarin’?” Spitfire asks as Soarin’ enters her office while Twilight looks over maps of the nearby area, even a whole map of Equestria to map the progress of the search. Over to course of the search, none of the five hardly slept, hardly ate and never gave up no matter how long they’d been staying at the Academy. Spitfire and the other Wonderbolt’s had been gracious enough to offer them a place to stay while they searched for their lost friend. Twilight and the others thanked them but mainly focused on their tasks, Fluttershy talking to a group of birds to help with the search. However any time anypony entered Spitfire’s office they stopped what they were doing and turned to face said pony hoping to hear the good news or to see their friend standing there with her smile. The stallion was exhausted, having been out on the search for Rainbow Dash when the other had started.
“Unfortunately nothing yet. It seems that she disappeared along with that tornado,” He says, looking out Spitfire’s window, remembering when that mare had saved his life, Spitfire’s and Fleetfoot’s during the Best Young Fliers Competition a year ago.
“What?!” The five other mares in the room exclaim as they all stand on their hooves looking over at the stallion.
“How can you have not found her by now!? Finding her couldn’t be this hard!” Twilight exclaims as she stomps over to the stallion and pokes his chest with a hoof.
“I’m really sorry, but we’re doing what we can. It’s not helping that she seems to have just poofed off the face of Equestria,” He says gently, knowing how hard this had to be on Twilight and the others as it was hard on him as well, seeing one he admired for her resolve seeming to just vanish without a trace.
“What about Lightning Dust? What are you going to do about her?” Fluttershy asks as her birds flew out of the open window to aid in their search.
“Right now she’s being held till Dash is found safely. Despite wanting to get back into the search she’ll be jailed till we find Rainbow Dash,” Spitfire says addressing Fluttershy’s questions with a sigh. “It’s my fault, I kept feeding that mare’s ego and look what happened.”
“Don’t do that to yourself Spitfire,” Soarin’ says as he steps up to her and places a hoof on her shoulder. “Ponies put us on such a high pedestal that they think they have to things over the top for us to recognize their abilities. Lightning Dust is just another example of such a pony.”
“Yeah but that doesn’t excuse my actions,” Spitfire says as she lifts her head and meets Soarin’s exhausted gaze.
“True, but you have to keep focus. Rainbow Dash depends on you and you know she would be giving us her 110% if you had gone missing like she has.”
Spitfire smiles and then hugs her friend close. “Thanks Soarin’. I know you’ve been working hard so go and get some rest. I’ll go out in your place.”
“Got it Spitfire,” He says as he hugs her back and gives a wide yawn. “We’ll find your friend,” He says to the five friends once he and Spitfire had released each other from their hug. “But I do think we have something that we have to address first. Considering that she’s been missing for a week…”
“Yeah… I know,” Spitfire says and stretches her wings. “For now we have to mark her as MIA.”
“MIA?” Rarity asks as she looks between her friends after seeing Soarin’s and Spitfire’s expressions.
“MIA means missing in action,” Soarin’ says, answering Rarity’s question solemnly.
Pinkie huddles back down, still holding the care package that she had organized with the others, her normally fluffy mane had ‘deflated’ over the course of the search and it was Fluttershy who had taken to making sure Pinkie was ok. “What if we never find her?”
“Don’t worry Pinkie… I’m sure we’ll find her,” The timid mare says as she walks over to her friend and lies beside her, draping a wing over her back to comfort her.
“But what about Scootaloo? She’s gonna be askin’ us where Rainbow’s gone,” Applejack asks, remembering her little sister’s best friend. The group of ponies look around at each other, unsure how or even if they should answer the question.
“Let’s keep that to ourselves for now. Till some more time has passed we can make that choice,” Twilight says, speaking up for all of them, coming up with the best solution for the moment.
“Good idea. I’ve seen that filly with Rainbow Dash before, seems like they’re really close,” Soarin’ says gently.
“Like sisters… so continuing this search isn’t just for us, it’s for her to,” Rarity says gently, wiping her eyes with a tissue.
“Got you, Spitfire get going. I’ll come get you when I’ve had a little sleep,” Soarin’ says and pats her shoulder with a hoof as he walks back toward the door to go to his bunk. He pauses at the door and looks back at the five mares who had been doing all they could for their friend. “We’ll do our best to find her, promise,” He says then walks out of the room, his own words feeling weak considering the lack of evidence that Rainbow Dash was anywhere to be found.