Post by Deleted on Oct 18, 2015 13:44:18 GMT -6
Trapped Between MeasuresChapter One
Rainbow Dash lowered the bright yellow goggles onto her face, the rims bordered by the purple and black fabric of the Shadowbolts uniform zipped up and clinging to her body. She then looked out of the window of her floating home and watched the rain streak past and soak into the cloudstone that gave the building a solid appearance, yet always the same color as the clouds. This afternoon, her house was a most uncool, depressing gray. That didn't take the blue from her feathers though, and she made sure to think that to herself. So what if somepony up the chain ordered a downpour for Ponyville county? She wasn't going to let that damper her spirits! She had been waiting for that night way, way too long and wasn't about to let rain of all things ruin it. This pony, she stated in her thoughts. This pony is going to beat this and she has an awesome plan!
The Pegasus strode out onto the cloudy deck of her house and immediately cringed under the shiver as sheets of Autumn rain fell into the costume uniform and the fur coat underneath down to her skin, but she shook off the shock and took off at a trot, head forward in a charge, and leaped out into the air filled with cold water and fog, only extending her wings when gravity started to pull her down. She rode out the dive and shot upwards in a glide before finally leveling off and flapping her wings, her smile wide, lips drawn lightly back over her teeth. Oh, she was going to be soaked! This was great! As long as a few things were just right at her destination, that night'd be the night! All around, there were no markers to see her way by, but she had memorized this route and there was no need to fly low. All for the best! She liked to be a reliable surprise in cloudy skies!
At last, she made it to that point in the fog where it was just right to dive for just about 12 seconds, pull up, and brake her wings just in time to land right in front of the place. As she started her dive, she heard something pretty weird, something swimming with the wind blowing past her ears ... piano music?! She must've been way closer to the ground than she realized! She tilted her body and wings back and flapped to brake herself, then hovered there. All around in the stormcloud, sneaking between the notes of thunder and rain was piano music! She turned her head, rotated her hover, and pivoted her rain-filling ears as she flopped the water out, and the music didn't seem to be coming from any particular direction. It just danced at points near her, the melody rolling, vague, and strange. Then Rainbow figured it out in her fast way. It was obviously a prank!
Well, whatever. It was Nightmare Night, and nopony was going to get the jump on her this time, not even Princess Luna. It was also a special Nightmare Night. That night, she'd be the coolest ... no, irresistibly coolest pony in Ponyville! So she wasn't going to be be bothered with this. If somepony was pulling this weird prank, she was close to the ground ... probably. She hovered downwards for about a minute and by the end, she stopped. She really should've been out of the clouds by now, but all around she only felt the water and saw nothing but the seas of dark grey wisps. Her memory and sense of elevation weren't lining up, and she grimaced. For the first time in years and years of flight, her stomach tensed. "Rarity! Pinkie! Are you out there? Is this some kind of weird magic trick or something?!"
Nopony answered her. Somewhere out there, the piano playing lowered its rolling notes, but sped up a little too. It was all over the place ... that was it! It was circling her, whatever it was! With a turn to a smirk, Rainbow Dash charged directly forward, thinking that any instant, she'd tackle whoever pulled the joke on her, when the direction of the music got away from her. Somepony was fleeing! She gave chase, forehooves forwards, circling a spot in the clouds over and over, looking as though she was taking a strange time to practice for a cyclone, and if that situation showed her something relevant, it was that nopony in Ponyville had more wingpower. She'd catch up! But she didn't! Again, her expression turned sour and she pushed even harder to pursue the notes. "What the ... hay is --" And with a blinding flash and crash, two thick intercloud thunderbolts snapped past!
In an instant, she was deafened by her ears ringing, her ears blinded by the lightning! In disorientation, she tumbled downwards, everything out of sync! How high was she? What was up or down or anything at all?! Her wings flapped in panic, trying to fight something instead of keep her flying. She wasn't even sure what she was yelling out and her heart pounded pressure so surely all the way to her ears! Her body started to fall into a shock as for all she knew, the ground and her were about to meet, and in her head, she could finally hear what she was shouting: FLY! FLY! FLY! In the tumbling, finally, she caught sight of the cloud clearing, and the dim, thick needle roof of Ponyville's Town Hall rushing towards her. But with being able to see at last, Rainbow Dash's entire body righted, her wings spread strong, and she pulled away just shy of the roof grazing her belly.
Despite that every muscle in her flawlessly athletic body was steeping in adrenaline, a part of her mind still was not committed to the situation, still discarded the events as another twist of fate untwisted by the belief that she could navigate any harm, and yet ... and yet that pocket of thought turned on her, made her seek a figure to thank for her life: Celestia, Luna, the Great Cloud in the Sky? She grimaced at the blundering of her thoughts under her confidence and flapped, making a point to defy this feeling that totally was not fear, and she soared under the rain as though the wind was at her back, flight of grace and power towards the one-tree-canopy of the Golden Oaks Library, a dark spot in the dim among the outer homes of Ponyville. She angled her wings to a slow at the sight of the little window carved in the tree, tilted her body upwards, and planted her hooves in solid ground.
