Ponyville was peacefully silent, as you would expect of any sleepy town at two in the morning. The only noise was the gentle thud from the rain clouds falling over them. Since the next day was the first of summer vacation, Rainbow Dash had decided not to spoil it with rain in the morning. There was only one other source of noise across Ponyville, but a casual observer wouldn't be able to separate the clip, clop of the young foal from the rain. And as the filly ran, she knew that was just how she wanted it.

Sweet Apple Acres was as peaceful as the rest of Ponyville. So when the doorbell rang through the house, it was a good few minutes before the door was answered. Much to the luck of the filly who rang it, Applejack came to the door. "Who in tarnation can be makin' that racket?" she muttered to herself, before pulling the door open "What do y'all…" She uttered sleepily, before noticing the tired looking foal who had rung it "…want?" she finished. Applejack looked the young pony over. She would clearly grow into a very pretty earth pony, and couldn't have been older than Apple Bloom at this point. Despite the tatty black cloak she was wearing, it was clear that she had been soaked to the bone. Her fire-red mane had become plastered to her sandy coloured coat, and she was shivering with the cold.

"P...Please I-I" The pony half-stuttered out "I... just want… please" Applejack motioned for the pony to come in, rolling her eyes as she closed the door behind her. "This pony's' harder to talk to than Fluttershy" she thought to herself. "I…I need somewhere to stay" The filly managed to choke out at last. "Please...I-I'll work hard to pay you back, I-I c-can do anything"

"Whoa, whoa now" Applejack looked over the wet filly with a sympathetic eye and asked, concernedly, "Y'all need a place to stay?" The filly nodded quickly. "Why?" The foal didn't look up from her hoofs. Applejack pressed a frustrated hoof to her forehead. "Okay, Ah'm too tired for this. Y'all can stay tonight and explain in the morning. No way Ah'm letting a filly your age back into weather like that". The filly didn't look up, but Applejack could sense she was relived. "Whadda they call you then?"

"F...Freebird, ma'am"

"Ma'am? Well, shucks, you don't need to call me ma'am. Here, let me get that cloak for you"

"N...No!" Freebird backed away, but before she could protest Applejack had ripped the cloak from her. Applejack gasped, audibly, as the foal backed away towards the wall. It wasn't the meshwork of deep, scarlet scars the ran along the young fillys' back that took Applejacks breathe away though. It wasn't even the still new cuts, some of which couldn't be more than a week old. It was that on her left flank, where her cutie mark should be, Freebird instead had a blistered, circular scar with an S running through it. It looked as though she'd been branded.

Mouth hanging open with the shock, Applejack looked at the young pony in front of her, who was now visibly trembling against the wall. "Please, I… please" The filly was whispering, over and over again. Applejack stepped towards the pony cautiously, but this only seemed to terrify the young pony more, who glanced anxiously at the door. Applejack had not noticed this, and was wishing she could be anywhere as good at dealing with frightened creatures as Fluttershy. It came as a complete surprise, therefore, when Freebird bolted out the front door.

Rainbow Dash was just about to finish clearing the last cloud from the sky, when she heard the noises echoing from Sweet Apple Acres. It had gone two in the morning, and in weather like this there was no cause for anyone to be up, besides herself and maybe a few other Pegasus ponies. As the noise grew louder, she realised that somepony must be in trouble, and rocketed towards the source of the noise. Barely seconds later, she reached Applejack, who was out in the storm, and running as fast as her hoofs could carry her.

"Applejack? What the Heck are you doing?"

"Rainbow... Gotta… Catch... Foal" She panted

Foal? What foal? Apple Bloom? She hadn't seen her on the way here, but began looking anxiously around. It was practically the biggest storm of the year tonight, and, as thunder began to roll through the sky, she knew that nobody should've been out on the ground during it, especially not a foal. She shouted over the storm "I'll go find her! I'm faster than you! Go back home, Applejack; Apple Bloom will be fine!" She shot off quickly in the other direction, barely noticing Applejack shaking her head as she left, and just about making out that she had tried to shout something to her. It sounded like "No!", but then it was only natural Applejack would want to keep looking, she thought, as she scoured the streets from above.

The storm was becoming increasingly more violent; bursts of light filling the sky from overhead lightning strikes every few seconds. The rain was falling harshly, and so heavily that Rainbow Dash could barely see her hoofs in front of her face when she spotted something moving below her. As she flew towards the ground, she saw a foal running quickly towards the Everfree Forest. It wasn't Apple Bloom, she realised, but it had to be the foal Applejack had been talking about. She quickly swooped down and ran by the foals' side.

"Hey!" she yelled "Stop running! It's dangerous!" The young filly gave her no response, but turned quickly to run from her. Rainbow Dash turned with her, and pursued her deeper into the forest. "I'm serious!" She cried"Can't you see the light-"

Her yells where cut off as, as if on cue, a huge bolt of lightning struck a tree on their path and it fell into their path. There was no time to move as the tree came crashing down on top of them, and Rainbow Dash felt a sickening crack in her rear legs as the trunk made contact. Her brain span and she felt herself losing consciousness, when suddenly a bright light grew around her. She knew it had to be the lightning, but it was yellow, and almost warm, quite unlike any lightning she'd ever seen before. The pressure on her back legs also seemed to vanish with the warm light, but before she could question what had happened she felt her world go black, and passed out.