Chapter 1
Twilight had just loaded her suitcase onto the carriage, filling up the last available spot. She checked to make sure that her luggage was well secure, and turned to her friends as they got on one by one. She looked at the six robust colts that would be pulling the cart.
“Everypony get on!” Twilight said as she turned to a certain yellow pegasus. She and her friends were to visit Princess Celestia in Canterlot that evening. “We’re supposed to leave at five o’ clock. It is a minute past!” Twilight was more nervous than usual. Spike, resting on her back, was far more calm than the frazzled unicorn. Twilight forced Fluttershy onto the carriage before getting on herself.
Fluttershy and Twilight walked side by side to the back of the carriage. Fluttershy was the first to break the silence as they approached their seats.
“Twilight. I...um. I would love to go to Canterlot with you. But..um. I think you should go without me.”
“What?” Twilight interrupted as they sat down in their seats. “Why would we do that?”
“It’s just that this carriage doesn’t look sturdy and it is at least three hours away. I would hate to have to leave Angel home alone for that long-”
“Fluttershy, Princess Celestia wants to see all of you again. The last time she saw you all was at the Grand Galloping Gala.” Twilight responded a little more sympathetically towards her friend. “Besides, The Princess has servants that check to make sure that these carts are safe.”
Fluttershy, still unsure of the whole trip stifled a terrified sound. Much like the one she made when she first met Twilight.
Twilight looked around the carriage. The lush lavender seats she were sitting on were probably the most comfortable thing she had ever sat on. The inside of the carriage was painted a clover green color. The floors were a dull golden. Rarity would have thought the colors would clash. But Twilight seemed to think they went lovely with one another. She took one more look out her window. She wouldn’t see Ponyville until tomorrow. She already started to miss the library she called home.
Sitting in the back seat of the carriage had its advantages. She was able to look around the carriage without having to making awkward eye contact to anypony.
Pinkie Pie was literally bouncing in her seat, unable to contain her excitement. She wouldn’t shut up. Across the isle sat Applejack, fast asleep. Rainbow Dash sat in front of her looking bored as ever. It was quite obvious she would much rather be outside practicing then going to Canterlot. For tomorrow was a big day for Rainbow Dash. She was finally going to try out for the Wonderbolts. She had passed the written exam a few days prior to the trip. All she had to do was prove to them she had the guts to be a Wonderbolt and she was in. As she was enthralled in her own fantasy world, Rarity sat in the front row taking great care as not to mess up her perfectly groomed mane.
Twilight looked out her window one more time. They were already on the move. She saw the Ponyville town limits. The once familiar scenery of houses and shops slowly changed into leafy tress and boulders.
Twilight, took her mind of the unknown surroundings and looked around the carriage once more; she noticeded other ponies from around Ponyville going to Canterlot as well. She didn’t recognize most of them. But she did see a pony that was referred to as Roseluck sitting behind Pinkie Pie, taking some pills to calm her nerves. As she did this, Twilight noticed that across from the nervous wreck of a pony sat a colt that she very faintly remember was referred to as Ace. He carried a tennis raquet, and had several tennis balls in a sports bag that lie on the floor below him. He looked like the type of colt that would take a mare out and never call her again.
As time dragged on Twilight could not help but get a little a sleepy. She lie her head down in her hoof and started to doze off. Just as she was about to fall asleep, the carriage jerked to a stop, sending Twilight’s head into the back of the chair in front of her.
Twilight let out a grunt.
“What’s the big idea?” Shouted Rainbow Dash to driver.
A tall, awkwardly proportioned brown colt walked out of the front of the carriage. “I’m terribly sorry for the hold up,” apologized the colt. “But we cant the cross the bridge into Canterlot.”
“And why not?” Demanded Rainbow Dash, more irritated than before.
“The bridge is having a little construction being done on it. It could be days if we wanted to cross it.” Replied the driver.
Everypony in the carriage looked out their windows. Sure enough there were at least a dozen ponies hard at work making concrete and setting up support beams on each side of the bridge.
“It doesn’t look like a lot of construction.” Roseluck spoke up. “It’s only being done on the sides of the bridge.”
“It doesn’t matter!” Said the irritated driver. “The forepony wouldn’t let us cross even if we did ask. Now how about we go around the bridge? It will take another two hours but it’d be worth it.” Said the bus driver as everypony groaned at the thought of having to spend another two hours in there.
“I’ll go out and speak to them,” said Rarity standing up. “If anypony can get them to let us cross, it will be me.”
The driver reluctanctly opened the door for Rarity. She stepped outside and walked over to a reddish brown colt wearing a hard hat. Everypony rushed to the left side of the bus in an attempt to look out the window to try to get a look at this. Despite not being able to hear them, Twilight believed she got the gist of what was going. The construction colt’s face became a brighter red than the rest of his body. Rarity strutted back into the carriage with a very satisfied smile.
“The forepony says we can cross the bridge as long as we don’t get in the way. As long as we don’t stick to the sides of it, we should be fine”
Everypony cheered as the driver instructed the six colts pulling the carriage to move forward.
Pinkie Pie blew up a balloon as it popped in her face. She let out a high pitched cheer of sheer amusement. She instantly pulled out another balloon from behind her and started to blow this up. She had been doing this the entire trip.
A large bump shook the entire carriage, Spike bounced off of Twilight and hit his head on the luggage rack above him. Applejack shot up awake.
“What in the hay was that?” She demanded.
Everypony looked out the window and saw that the carriage had hit a rather large concrete mixer. The red pony from before galloped over to the carriage and started pounding on the driver’s window. The driver got out of the carriage and started having a heated discussion with him. This quickly escalated into a physical fight as the red pony punched the driver right below the eye. The driver quickly retaliated. Everypony on the bridge witnessing the beatings chanted: “Fight, fight, fight” over and over again.
Twilight quickly rose and exited. Spike followed shortly behind. “Now stop it! Sir, I’m sure it was just an accident-”
“What in tarnation is all the ruckus about?” Applejack shouted as she got off the bus. Rainbow Dash followed behind her.
“Oh my...maybe we should get back on the bus.” The timid pegasus said as she attempted to move back onto the bus. She was blocked off by Ace.
“What in Equestria is going on?” The bearded Earth pony demanded.
Pinkie bounced out followed by Roseluck. “Are they seriously going to start a fight in the middle of a bridge?” Roseluck asked. “I truly hope not.” The white unicorn said as she walked out shortly behind her.
Twilight tried frantically to break up the fight. Her attempt was unsuccessful as the red pony pushed the driver into the side of the cement mixer. There was a small amount of blood splattered on it as the driver feebly attempted to stand up. He collapsed in a heap, he wasn’t about to give up yet however. The force on the concrete mixer caused it to come loose on its hinges dumping its contents to the ground. The driver got back up and picked up a near-by toolbox and tossed it at the red colt. Nails and screws flew out and scattered everywhere.
Still trying to calm the crowd. Twilight stomped her hooves against the ground. Still, nopony was listening to a word she said. Nopony had really noticed that the concrete from the mixer was puddling up around them.
Twilight used her magic to pull the two away from each other. She was interrupted by the screams of construction workers. She spun around to see steel beams from the edges of the bridge slam down hard onto the concrete, as the large cables supporting them swung back and forth across the middle of the bridge like a pendulum. One of the largest beams broke off and busted through the bridge. This got everypony’s attention. Twilight gave a terrified gasp and covered Spike’s eyes. The beam struck right down into the bridge; creating a giant hole that was spreading quickly. The bridge was collapsing. Everypony screamed trying reach the ends of the bridge.
Rarity trying to get away slipped in the concrete mix. She fell face first into the mixture with a sickening crack getting a mixture of concrete and small amounts of blood all over her coat. She let out an unintelligible shriek.
“Rarity run!” Screamed Applejack back at the unicorn.
It was too late for that. The bridge crumbled taking Rarity down with it.
Roseluck was still running. Faster than she ever had. She was not looking where she was going and felt a sharp stinging sensation at the base of her hoof. She looked down to see a large nail jammed deep down into her flesh. Only the head of the nail stuck up. As she tried frantically to ignore it and continue running as she left a trail of thick red blood behind her. She couldn’t keep running like this for long. Each step seemed to jam it in deeper. Her face contorted in agony, she knew it was already too late for her. She stopped for a beat to relieve herself of the pain and fell through an opening in the bridge and quickly disappeared into the water below her.
Rainbow Dash was flying high above the rest of the ponies. She dodged beams and large support wires as they came crashing down as she shouted out warnings to her friends down below. Unfortunately that was not enough as a support beam fell on top of Ace. His body was crushed underneath the beam. Rainbow Dash cringed in disgust at the tennis player below. As she turned her head in shock just in time to see a large metal wire holding up the beam swoop down and cut her across the torso, bifurcating her.
As the two halves of the former “Fastest Flier in Equestria” fell to the ground, Twilight looked behind her to see Spike about to vomit. Tears started to swell up in her eyes; panicked, she kept running.
Pinkie tried helplessly to lift Applejack off the edge. Pinkie’s grip was slipping, but she held on tight. Applejack was heavier than Pinkie however. As Pinkie lost her balance they both plunged down into the icy waters.
“Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, oh my goodness” repeated Fluttershy as she ran a few paces behind Twilight.
Twilight heard Fluttershy scream then a splash down below. She knew that she had fallen through. Spike and Twilight screamed at the top of her lungs as she felt the bridge vanish beneath her hooves. She fell through. Everything felt slow motion, even her screaming slowed down. Twilight closed her eyes. Not ready to face death. She held them tight until the last minute.
Her heart skipped a beat. She opened her eyes again and she and all her friends were back on the bus like nothing had happened.
“What happened?” Twilight shouted throughout the carriage. Fluttershy turned to her and said: “We hit something, Rarity went out and is talking to the construction workers right now.”
Rarity boarded the bus again and said, “the forepony says we can cross the bridge as long as we don’t get in the way. As long as we don’t stick to the sides of it, we should be fine”
Everypony on the bus cheered. Twilight however did not. She felt an uneasy feeling in her stomach. She heard a balloon pop. Just like what had happened before.
This happened before. She just saw it all happen. Her friends dying. The bridge collapsing. It didn’t feel right. It was real. Wasn’t it? Maybe it was a warning she thought to herself as the carriage slowly started to move again. Well she wasn’t going to take that risk.
“Stop the carriage!” Twilight screamed at the driver, nearly in tears. “Stop it! I want to get off!”
“Twilight, what’s got into you?” Asked the concerned baby dragon.
“The bridge! It’s going to collapse!” Twilight screamed once again. Everypony on the bus discussed it with one another to make sure they heard it correctly.
The driver reluctantly commanded that the colts driving it stop as he opened the door for Twilight. She ran out crying.
“Twilight! Wait up!” Called Pinkie as she skipped out the door to follow her friend. The rest of her friends followed her out the door. Roseluck, feeling uneasy about this, also ran out kicking one of Ace’s tennis balls with her.
“Wait!” Called out Ace. He followed the tennis ball out the doors as they slammed shut behind him. “Great,” he said sternly to Twilight. “My bag was in there.”
“Twilight, what in the hay has gotten into you?” Asked Applejack.
“I saw it! In my head” Responded Twilight through tears.
“Saw what?” Asked Spike.
“The bridge collapsed. We were all killed in it!” Twilight slumped on the ground and cried.
“Are you kidding me?” shouted an enraged Rainbow Dash. “I gave up an entire day of training so Twilight could have a bad dream?”
“Rainbow, hush your mouth. Twi is obviously upset about this,” quipped Applejack.
Just as soon as she had said this she heard screaming and metal hitting rock. Everypony turned around just in time to see the bridge collapse. The steel beams come crashing down. The cords swaying in the wind. They watched the carriage go down. They were all in shock. They realized that they could have been on that bridge. They could have died. Twilight had saved their lives.