Prologue: Violent Skys
35 Years Ago
9:15 pm
The skies began to darken over the plains to the north of Oklahomare City. It seemed like nothing at the time to any pony, most just passing it off as a bit of bad weather or a passing storm. They never knew that it was going to be anything more than that.
Flash Flood stood in front of the large window of his living room, watching the flashes of lightning breaking through the darkness of the night sky. He loved to watch the storms that the Factory sent out across Equestria, and this one was no different. He sipped on his coffee, dark, like he always had it. Behind him, his wife Firefly laid sprawled out across the entire couch, staring off at a television program that she had been watching for hours.
"Hey dear, could you flip it to the weather real quick? It looks like this one is getting nasty." Flood said as he walked over to the couch and squeezed his flank into the only area that his wife hadn't claimed for herself.
"It's just a storm, dear. Nothing more than just a little bitty rain shower and some lightning." Firefly sighed as she adjusted herself to give him a little bit more room.
"I know, but I just want to check ok?"
Firefly passed the remote to her husband, her wings stretching out as she stood and walked into the kitchen. "You have til the commercial is over."
Flood rolled his eyes and flicked through a few channels until he landed upon the The Weather Factory Channel. At first it looked like normal, until the screen flickered off and a high pitched tone started on a long drone. A red bar appeared across the bottom of the screen and an electronic and monotone voice started to speak.
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN CLOUDSDALE HAS ISSUED A ROUGE STORM WARNING FOR THE FOLLOWING CITIES: BALTIMARE, CANTERLOT, CLOUDSDALE, PONYVILLE, MANEHATTAN, OKLAHOMARE CITY..... UNTIL 10:00 PM......THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN CLOUDSDALE HAS ISSUED A TORNADO EMERGENCY FOR THE FOLLOWING CITIES; OKLAHOMARE CITY......AT 914 PM... WEATHER FACTORY DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A LARGE AND EXTREMELY DANGEROUS TORNADO ASSOCIATED WITH A ROUGE STORM 15 MILES SOUTHEAST OF OKLAHOMARE CITY AND MOVING NNW AT 45 TO 50 MPH....THIS IS A DANGEROUS STORM.....SEEK SHELTER IMMEDIATELY....DO NOT REMAIN OUTSIDE OR IN HIGH PROFILE STANDING STRUCTURES SUCH AS BARNS, MOBILE HOMES, AND RECREATIONAL VEHICLES......SEEK SHELTER IN THE CENTER LOWEST AREA OF THE BUILDING OR IN A STORM SHELTER NOW....OTHER HAZARDS INCLUDE SOFTBALL SIZE HAIL.....DAMAGING WINDS IN EXCESS OF 80 MPH....AND DEADLY LIGHTNING.....SEEK SHELTER IMMEDIATELY.....ONCE MORE....
Flood didn't even allow the message to repeat itself before he jumped up off the couch and ran over to the window. The winds outside had begun to pick up and shift, and the rain that had been falling in torrents just moments ago was now nothing more than a small sprinkle.
He looked over into the kitchen. Firefly was standing there, staring out the window over the sink. "Honey...."
"Get out to the shelter!" He ran up the stairs and down the hall towards a small room at the very end.
Rainbow Dash was fast asleep, her tiny wings pressed up close against her tiny form. She was curled up into a ball; the blankets that had covered her before she drifted to sleep were now strung across the length of the room. in her hooves, she held a small doll of her favorite Wonderbolt ever, her mother. She usually was able to sleep through the storms that often swept through the town of Oklahomare City, but a loud crash of thunder as a lightning bolt struck just outside her window caused her to wake and jump up several inches into the air.
She looked sleepily around the room as her bedroom door opened up and her father, Flash Flood, ran inside.
"Dashie, come on." He rushed over to her and picked her up in his hooves. She was still startled by the lightning that had just struck, but was even more worried about why her father was picking her up in a panic.
"What's wrong daddy?" She asked as he started down the stairs, her doll held tightly in her hooves.
"Nothing's wrong Dashie, it's all going to be ok...we're going to be ok." He said stroking her mane as he galloped at full speed out the door and towards a small underground shelter that had been put in nearly 15 years ago by the original owners of the house. As he ran, limbs from the old oak tree that stood beside the house began to snap and fall to the ground, a few of the smaller ones ripping away in the strong and steady winds of the storm. He reached the door to the shelter and held it open as best as he could with the winds working against his intentions. He descended the small stairs and into the shallow concrete pit that was the shelter.He quickly ducked down and slammed the door shut, sliding the bar lock into place. Firefly was already tucked away at the back of the room under a small futon mattress. He went over and sat Rainbow beside her mother and looked over to the door of the shelter. It rattled and shook faster and faster every second, the loose screws in the hinges and the lock started to fall from the door.
Flood stood up. "Hold onto Rainbow." He turned to look at his wife and bolted over to the door, pulling as hard as he could on the handle to keep it shut.
Across the room, Rainbow huddled in her mother's hooves, her tiny doll being crushed between their bodies. Her eyes were fixed upon her father as he struggled to keep the door closed. Occasionally, she would glance up at the small window that sat just above the surface of the ground. All she could see out of it was the bright flashes of lightning, that had become so frequent that they made the sky a constant electric blue, and the shadows of things flying around in the whirlwind above.
She looked back over to her father who was now putting all his weight down on the door.
"Nnnnnnnnnnnggaaa... I can't hold it anymore!" He screamed as the door began to shake more violently than it had. The screws where almost completely out of the hinges, the only thing that now kept the door closed was Flood's weight.
He continued to struggle as the door creaked and splintered from the abusive maelstrom that greedily want to take that door and the lives of his family. "NNNnnnnaagggghhhh... Hoof of Faust!" He screamed at the top of his lungs.
Rainbow was starting to worry, cause even for just being a young filly, she could tell that her father was in a battle that he might not win. She continued to watch as the door began to bounce up off of it's bindings.
"I CAN"T HOLD IT ANYMORE!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!" Flood screamed as the door lifted away from the shelter and dragged him spiraling into the air with it. Both Firefly and Rainbow began to scream and cry as the world inside the cellar changed. The pressure rose sharply and fell harshly. Their ears popped and the deafening roar of the twister above them continued for what seemed like hours.
Rainbow was trying to get out of her mother's arms and run toward the large opening where her father had been standing just a few moments earlier. "Daddy!"
Firefly held her tight, not giving her any chance of escape."Rainbow, stay with me sweetie!" she screamed until the violent winds above them settled and the rain began.
The next morning, Firefly pulled herself and Rainbow from under the futon mattress where they had stayed the rest of the night. The landscape around her had changed in a matter of minutes last night. The wide open fields that surrounded their small home on the outskirts of town was now littered with large chunks of buildings, carriages and large oak trees that had been uprooted and thrown hundreds of feet from where they had originally been. She searched for hours with a sleeping filly in her arms, looking for any sign that her husband was still alive....
She found nothing......