1Author's Note: A while back, my friends got me into My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I considered myself a brony for a while, but those days are thankfully behind me. However, I did take that time to start working on a Fanfiction that I never finished and never published. Therefore I present to you, my MLP fanfic. Enjoy!
All Equestria geography is based off a map I found on Google Images and it's set after Season 2.
Chapter 1: Rainbow Dash
She was flying through a hurricane.
Rainbow Dash beat her wings furiously against the howling wind as the ice-cold rain pelted her face like nails, but for all the good it did, she might have been standing still. The gale tore at her wings and she strained to fight against it. How could this be happening? Equestria's weather is supposed to be controlled by the pegasus ponies, right? What was going on?
She closed her eyes and thought desperately, This must be a dream! It can't be happening! But she tried every lucid dreaming test she could think of and she knew that this was real.
The storm grew heavier and Rainbow gave in. She was thrown this way and that, battered by the force of the winds and just when she was afraid she wouldn't last longer, she found herself regaining control of her wings. She opened her eyes and realized she was in the eye of the storm. The wind and rain lashed all around her, but she was given a respite in the very center.
Below her, all of Equestria was flooded with the rainwater. She watched helplessly as a massive rain swept through the streets of Ponyville, washing away the buildings and drowning the poor ponies in them. She tried to dive and save them, but no matter how hard she beat her wings she couldn't move. How could it-
She awoke with a start and gave a yell. She sat on her cloud, gasping for breath, trying to regain her cool. "A dream?" she asked herself. It'd felt so real? She'd even done the mental tests to see if she'd been dreaming. How could it be?
"Dash?"
Rainbow looked up in surprise. Hovering above her was a regal-looking creature with the head of an eagle and the body of a lion. Her old griffin friend, Gilda.
"What are you doing here?" It'd come out harsher than she intended.
"I came to warn you," said the griffin. "You need to leave Equestria as soon as possible."
"Why?" asked Rainbow Dash, suspiciously.
"I don't know how well you keep up with current events," said Gilda, touching down on the cloud, "but tensions are pretty high between Equestria and Leogens."
"Leogens?" asked Rainbow Dash.
"My home country," Gilda said, losing patience. "To the south of here- a country for griffins, sphinxes, and lions. My father's on the War Council there, and he says Celestia's retribution is coming. I promised not to say a word, but in the spirit of the friendship we once had, I want you to save yourself. There's a storm coming."
Gilda's words sent a shiver up Rainbow Dash's spine. She thought of her dream. Suppressing the fear, Rainbow Dash stood tall and knocked Gilda off the cloud with her wing.
"Get out of here!" the pegasus yelled as Gilda caught herself. "I don't want to see you ever again!"
Gilda only looked at her lost friend with something like sorrow in her eyes. She turned around without a word and flew away.
Rainbow Dash sat on the cloud breathlessly for a while. Gilda said a storm was coming. What did that mean? An attack? War?
With the slightest hesitation, Rainbow Dash took off and started flying for Ponyville's library. If anyone knew whether or not this country "Leogens" was really a threat, it was Twilight.
Rainbow Dash touched down on the balcony and trotted inside. "Twilight!" she called, looking around.
"I'm here," Twilight said from the next room over. Rainbow entered to see Twilight lounging on a sofa, reading. "Hi, Rainbow," Twilight said, cheerfully. "What's up?"
"I'm not sure," said Rainbow Dash. "Do you remember my friend, Gilda?"
"The rude griffin?" Twilight said. "What about her?"
"She just visited me," said Rainbow Dash. "She said her father's on the War Council of a country called Leogens and she came to tell me to leave Equestria."
Twilight looked at her blankly. Rainbow couldn't read her expression. "Her exact words were 'A storm is coming,'" said Rainbow.
Twilight stood up, and walked over, leaving her book behind. "I do know that relations between Equestria and Leogens have always been tense," she said. "But it's always been a difference of opinion on how to govern. There's never been open hostility. I find it hard to believe either country would take up military action against the other."
Rainbow wondered if she ought to mention her dream. "Twilight," she said cautiously. "What do you know about the magical properties of dreams? Can they... I don't know, predict the future or something?"
Twilight didn't appear to hear her. She was still puzzling over Gilda's cryptic visit. "I'm sure Princess Celestia would know if there were ever anything to worry about." Twilight paused. "Is it evening already?"
"Huh?" asked Rainbow, turning her head to look out the window. She hadn't noticed darkness falling. "It's barely morning," she said nervously.
"There's not a rain scheduled, is there?" asked Twilight galloping to the balcony. Once there, she gasped. Rainbow Dash joined her outside.
The sun was eclipsed by a massive hot air balloon the size of a zeppelin. Rainbow Dash heard Pinkie Pie's carrying voice from the streets below. "Ooh, a balloon! Is someone throwing a party?"
"What is that?" asked Rainbow. The balloon was blood-red and stitched on the side was a white lion paw.
"That's a Leogens war balloon!" said Twilight.
"But Gilda just left a few minutes ago!" said Rainbow. "She can't seriously consider that a warning!"
"Rainbow Dash," said Twilight, authoritatively. "They're going to start dropping bombs on us." The color drained out of Rainbow's face at Twilight's words. "I need you and the other pegasus ponies to get as much clouds together to slow them down. We'll have to evacuate Ponyville."
"I'm on it!" said Rainbow, trying to sound like her usual confident self.
"I'll shoot up a purple firework with my horn once everyone's clear," Twilight said. "It'll take time, though."
"Just hurry," said Rainbow Dash, taking to the air.
She grabbed a puff of cloud and smacked it, sending a bolt of lightning and a clap of thunder over Ponyville. "Calling all Pegasus ponies!" she yelled, flying higher and higher. "This is an emergency! We need thick cloud cover double time!"
Rainbow began gathering up as much cloud as she could and pushing it beneath the war balloon. More and more pegasus ponies aided her, getting enough dense cloud directly beneath the war balloon.
"Great work, everypony," said Rainbow Dash. "Let's keep it up! I want these clouds covering from the Everfree Forest to Sweet Apple Acres!"
The war balloon remained stationary over the town. They hadn't acted yet. Maybe they would have time. "Keep it up!" yelled Rainbow as the cloud was expanded enough to cover most of the town. Something was off, though. There were definitely not enough pegasi in the skies.
"Where is everyone else?" Rainbow called to a few passing pegasi. "Where's Fluttershy?"
"Most everyone's skipped town the minute that thing showed up," one of them yelled back as she pushed a puff of clouds to join the masses. "Especially the families with little ones."
Rainbow Dash understood that, but it made her uncomfortable being so short-hooved during an emergency like this.
"Rainbow Dash!" a young stallion yelled. "We've used up all of this week's allotted cloud!"
"Then start on next week's!" yelled Rainbow. "I want the whole place covered, you understand?"
"Look!" someone yelled.
A single object was falling from the war balloon. Rainbow Dash was too far away to make it out. The minute it hit the cloud, it went off with a fiery BANG! Rainbow felt the tremor and heat from a hundred yards away. "Get that cloud patched up, now!" she yelled, pulling a puff of cloud toward her and zooming toward where the bomb hit. More bombs were falling now and Rainbow zipped this way and that around them. Most of the pegasi were flying away from the war balloon, abandoning the cloud cover. "Come on, everypony!" Rainbow Dash shouted, but she didn't think she could be heard over the bangs coming from below. "Ponyville's depending on us!"
Derpy had added some cloud to the weakened cover. "Keep it up, Derpy," said Rainbow, feeling that the pony deserved some praise at the very least for not running away. "Get some more cloud, hurry."
She stuffed her bit of cloud into the hole and turned around. Something inside her froze. She saw a bomb being dropped from the balloon and she saw Derpy zipping over the cloud cover, oblivious.
She beat her wings furiously trying to catch up and screamed, "DERPY!"
The pony didn't hear her and Rainbow Dash was only twenty feet away when the bomb hit the clouds and burst. Derpy was engulfed in the flaming explosion and Rainbow was winded and knocked onto the clouds. She skidded across the surface and came to a broken patch.
The world was silent but for the ringing in her ears. The cloud cover was failing as more and more bombs were dropping and falling completely through. Rainbow watched through her blurred vision as entire buildings were blown apart. The shopping district of downtown Ponyville was burning with ten-foot tall flames. It reminded Rainbow of her dream that she'd woken up from only half an hour ago- or had it been a lifetime?
A figure flew into her line of vision. It was a pegasus pony that Rainbow recognized by sight, but didn't recall the name of. The pony reached out to her to help her but suddenly pulled back as another figured plowed into her, knocking her out of the sky. The griffin turned around to face Rainbow Dash and the pegasus recognized her friend.
"Gilda," she tried to say, but her voice wasn't working properly. The griffin said nothing and flew backwards. Rainbow thought she could see more griffins latching onto pegasi with their talons and hurtling them this way and that.
The clouds beneath her faded and she started to feel the vertigo of dropping. Her world went black as her hearing returned briefly, long enough to hear the ponies screaming.