//------------------------------// // Restricted Air-Space // Story: The Price of Harmony // by Maverickthepony //------------------------------// Chapter 2: Restricted Air Space Twilight and the others slowly made their way back to Ponyville. They were each trying to comprehend everything that they had just heard. Fluttershy seemed to be taking it the worst. Every time Twilight looked back at her she was crying and had a completely blank look on her face. Rainbow Dash, however, seemed to be doing just fine as she was doing aerial maneuvers the whole way back. Nopony told her to stop. They figured that was her way of thinking. They finally reached the edge of the everfree forest, where Rainbow Dash finally broke the silence. "Well, I've got to get home and get ready for tomorrow. I've got some big plans. I'm going to the Wonderbolts rally in Fillydelphia." "How could you think about that after everything we just saw!" Applejack responded to her friend's lack of care. "Easily, I just didn't believe any of that bologna! You expect me to believe that I have another pony's soul inside of me? And that Equestria is at war? There is no way in Celestia that any of that was true!" "But what about that terrifying scene that Luna showed us!" piped up Twilight. "You saw how she was during Nightmare Night! She was just trying to scare us into believing her story! Besides, as powerful as she is I wouldn't put having some kind of conjuring magic against her, and what we really saw was just a fake image that she made appear." "But what if you're wrong Rainbow? What if everything she showed us was true?" Twilight asked her friend. "Well I won't believe it until I see it first hoof. And there isn't anything that any of you can say to change my mind!" and with that Rainbow flew off to her cloud castle. "Just let 'er go, we just can't get her to believe what she doesn't want to." said Applejack When Rainbow Dash got home she immediately got onto her bed, but she didn't close her eyes just yet. "What if everything was true? Maybe I'm just scared of what would happen if my life were to change that drastically from an athlete and performer to a soldier. Wait a second, I'm forgetting that I'm Rainbow Dash! I'm not afraid of anything!" And with that she closed her eyes to sleep, but every time she tried that horrible scene played out in her head. Every time she saw it, the scene seemed to become more gruesome. Finally unable to get any sleep, she decided that she would just get an early start towards tomorrow. With that she got out her saddlebags and packed some bits and a snack for the flight there. She also went up to the national weather team headquarters in Cloudsdale to check on the weather for tomorrow in Fillydelphia. She smiled when she saw that there was not a planned rain within the next three days, which meant that they would be able to keep stadium's roof open. The particular stadium, which had a retractable roof, could hold 60,000 ponies and Rainbow Dash was one of the 300 that was going to be in the sky seats. She had won the ticket in a raffle for all of the weather team leaders. Seeing that everything was perfect for tomorrow she looked at the clock on a wall in the headquarters. It was 3:00 in the morning, Rainbow decided that if she left now she might be able to watch the Wonderbolts preshow warm-ups for the noon show that she was attending. She had originally planned on getting in Fillydelphia at 9:00 then eating breakfast before heading to the stadium. But, if she left now she might be able to eat breakfast at 8:00 and get to the stadium an hour earlier than she had planned. Deciding that this would provide her with a chance to maybe talk to the Wonderbolts she began flying towards Fillydelphia. While she flew she thought about the previous night's events. How she had left her friends after lying, no no she hadn't lied. She didn't believe anything from last night. She decided to just press onward when she found that a jet stream was heading straight for Fillydelphia. "Huh" she thought to herself, "today must be my lucky day. I just may get to talk to the Wonderbolts before the show." And with that on her mind she sped off towards Fillydelphia. She arrived at 6:00 a lot sooner than she thought she would have originally. "That jet stream was stronger than I thought." she said to herself as she flew into Fillydelphia. She began wondering where a good place to eat would be. "Well" she thought to herself, "there should be a few ponies that have to work early so they might know good places to eat breakfast. She located such a local and questioned them about breakfast resturaunts. She learned there was a diner on 6th street named Big Al's Barn that supposedly had amazing omelets and haycakes. Deciding that was where she would go she made her way there. When she got there she ordered the Haycakes and the straw and cheese omelet. As she sat there eating she carefully thought out her day. Deciding that she was planning too much to remember on her own she took out a sheet of paper and began writing out her schedule. As she finished she looked up at the clock, it was 9:00, she had some time to kill so she figured she would visit the Weather team station here to double-check the weather for that day to make sure that there wasn't a mix up. When she got there she found the same information she had gained in Cloudsdale, there was no rain for a few days. Happy with her results she checked the time again, it was 10:00. She decided that now would be a perfect time to head over to the stadium. She knew that the day ahead of her would start with the best part, the Wonderbolts. She smiled as she flew towards the stadium in anticipation of what would be one of the best days of her life. Back in Ponyville, Twilight had called together her friends that were still there to talk about the events of the previous night. They all met inside of her library and seeing that she had been the one to call the meeting she decided to speak first. "Well, as you've probably guessed, I called you here to talk about what happened to us last night. I've thought about it all night and as much as I want to dismiss it from all thought. We can't really tell how much of it was even truth. I for one think that we try and see if there are any references of these things in that fortress in the everfree forest. Since that seems to have changed the least over all of the years and since Luna said that it used to be a city, there should be a library there with records of a war." "Ummm, if I could just say something." said Fluttershy almost at a whisper, but it was loud enough for Twilight to hear. "Go ahead Fluttershy." "Well, I was just thinking that since Rainbow Dash seemed the least believing out of all of us, that we should wait for her to get back and then go to Canterlot and verify the story with Princess Celestia." Twilight thought this over, and then decided that since Luna seemed to mention that Celestia had a large part in the story that she would be a credible source. "Ok, we will wait for Rainbow Dash to get back, and then we will go and see Celestia. If we are still confused or don't get enough information we can always go to the fortress to see if we can bridge together any of the gaps or missing links." They all agreed on this idea since this way Rainbow Dash would be able to be there and they figured that if she wasn't there she wouldn't believe them if what they heard last night was the truth. Back in Fillydelphia, Rainbow Dash was arriving at the stadium. While she was walking in to get to her seat a familiar voice called her name. "Hey, you're that pony named Rainbow Dash aren't you? Rainbow Dash turned to see that Spitfire was the one talking to her. "Yeah, that's right." "Well, I never would have expected to see you here." "Yeah, I won a ticket in a raffle for the weather team captains of Equestria." "Well it's always nice to see a familiar face at one of our shows. By the way you've never exactly told me where you live and I've been curious to see your home. Maybe after the show we could-" Spitfire was cut off as a maintenance pony came over and began whispering in her ear. "What's that? Really? Well we should still be able to go through our primary routine, but if it gets cramped we will change. Go tell the rest of the team that." the maintenance pony nodded and headed off in the direction of the locker rooms. "What was that all about?" asked Rainbow Dash "It seems that the national weather headquarters in Cloudsdale forgot to tell the Fillydelphia team about a rain that was scheduled for today and so there just going to have to close the roof." "Huh, that's odd." thought Rainbow as Spitfire flew off to the performing area. "I remember checking and there was nothing scheduled at the headquarters. Something is going on and I don't like the way it feels." with that she took off, she decided that she had seen the show enough that she could miss the first segment. So she took off to talk to the weather team that was hurriedly arranging the clouds for some rain. "Hey do you ponies mind telling me what's going on? I checked the schedule in Cloudsdale to see if today would have good weather for the Wonderbolts show and it said that today was supposed to be clear." "We thought so too." spoke up a single weather pony that Dash immediately recognized as the captain. "But, lo and behold we got a message from Cloudsdale about the weather being rain for today. It was signed by the head pegasus." "Do you mind if I see this message?" asked Rainbow Dash "Not at all!" spoke up the captain as he took it out of his coat pocket. Rainbow Dash skimmed through the letter. It did say that there was a scheduled rain for that day and that they were sorry for the mix up she was just about to hand it back when she glanced the signature. "Wait a second! This isn't his signature! This is a-" before Dash could finish her sentence a huge explosion rocked the entire city. Dash turned around just in time to see another explosion make its way through one of the walls causing the stadium she was just in to collapse. She watched in absolute horror. The roof had been closed so nopony could have flown out, and to add to that, she didn't see any ponies leaving. She wondered if something was blocking the exit and began an all-out rush to try and reach the stadium and save whatever ponies she could before stopping in mid-air. She had spotted a pony at the entrance. This pony was a stallion, he looked extremely muscular, and he was carrying something. Dash flew in to get a closer look; she stopped about 100 ft. behind him before she realized that he was holding a double-bladed sword. Her stomach dropped as the truth in everything hit her. She immediately flew faster than she had ever flown before towards home. If she broke the sound barrier, she didn't notice, and even if she had, she was too traumatized to care. She had to tell Twilight that she now realized the truth. She said she would believe it if she witnessed it first hoof. She could not stop the tears that began forming in her eyes. She had been wrong. Equestria was under attack. She fought back at the tears. She could not wait to get home.