Chapter 8: The Chips Go Down

Nails was hard at work getting his furnace lit when Applejack slowly made her way to his shop. It had finally been the last straw with this rusty old plow that they had tried to keep using and she was done with having to work harder than was needed. She had decided that Nails could fix it and get it plowing through the earth like knife through butter. She walked up to his shop just as the furnace began to blaze so hot that she could feel its heat outside.

"Now that is one humdinger of a fire." Applejack said as she walked into the shop. Sweat had begun forming on her body. She looked at Nails to see him almost unaffected. "How are you not sweatin from that fire?"

"Because my body is more accustomed to heat than yours." said Nails as he pumped air into the furnace. "I believe that this is no friendly visit?"

"That's right." Applejack said as she unhitched from the cart she had used to carry the plow here. "I've had it with this here plow. I want you to fix it up nice so that I don't have to break my back every time we need to plow."

"Ok, this seems like a simple enough fix. How long has it been this rusty?"

"Well the rust started forming around four years ago."

"Four years? This just got a little harder. At that amount of time the blade will have become dulled. I'm going to have to reshape it."

"How long do you think that'll take?" Applejack asked him.

"Maybe an hour or two. Not long at all, you can stay and watch if you want to."

"Well I just might do that." Applejack said as she eyed the shop, "Do you know where I can get some water though?"

"The lake water is pretty dirty, but I made a sand filter for it. Lower a bucket down on that pulley out there," Nails said indicating a pulley that jutted out from the cliff, "then pour it into the box of sand beside the shop."

"So lemme get this straight. If I want clean water I have to pour the water into even more dirt?"

"You would be surprised how well that works." Nails said smiling a little.

"Alright then, I guess that it's better than nothin." said Applejack as she started walking towards the bucket. As she was lowering it down a voice caught her attention.

"Hey AJ, what are you doing here?" asked Rainbow Dash as she came to a hover right in front of Applejack.

"Hey Rainbow, I've had it with that old rusted plow, so I brought it to Nails here to get fixed. What are you doin here?"

"Now that this area is a part of Ponyville I have to do the weather management around here. We have to move in a few shower clouds over the lake today."

"Well I guess you're busy then," said Applejack as she brought the bucket, which was now filled to the brim, back up to the pulley. "I'll just go and wait for Nails to get finished." she said as she turned back towards the shop. "Guess I'll see you around?"

"See ya AJ!" said Rainbow Dash as she made her way back to the clouds that she had to place.

Applejack found the filter and saw a large bowl underneath it. "Well, here goes nothin." she said as she poured the water into the sand. She waited as water began to flow out the other side and noticed that it was a lot clearer than the slightly browned water she had poured in. "Well, I'll be!" she said as she finished drinking the water. "Nails was right!" she said as she made her way back into the shop. As soon as she walked inside her jaw dropped.

Nails was walking with ease towards the furnace with the plow on his back.

"How the hay are you doin that!" said Applejack as she saw him place the tip in the furnace. "That thing must weigh around 500 Lbs.!" she said getting closer.

"Military training is tough and takes a lot of strength." Nails said as he held the plow in place with his claw and pumped the billow with his free hoof, "I believe that back during training I held the record by carrying 1500 lbs. for three hundred yards." he said as he flipped the plow's tip onto the anvil and began hammering.

"Still that's incredible!" Applejack exclaimed still amazed at the strength he had shown.

"Well, when you spend most of your time doing strenuous work, you'll get a lot of strength." he said as he placed the plow into the furnace for another round of heating.

"Well that is mighty impressive." said Applejack as she took a seat behind one of the benches.

"By the way, I couldn't help but hear you talking to someone out there. Who was it?"

"How did you hear that?" Applejack exclaimed.

"Trained ears." was his response.

"Anyway, it was Rainbow Dash."

When Nails heard Rainbow Dash's name he stopped working and set down his hammer. "Rainbow Dash? What was she doing here?" he said nervously.

"She said something about now that this was part of Ponyville she had to manage the weather around here."

"Applejack, this is important. Where is she doing work?"

"Over the lake. Why?"

"Dammit!" exclaimed Nails as he dropped his hammer.

"What was that for Nails? Weather management is normal around here. What has gotten you so worked up?"

Nails didn't answer; instead he jumped over his workbench and ran to the edge of the cliff. Sure enough Rainbow Dash was out there directing the cloud flow. She was too far away for her to hear anything and the wind was blowing towards him.

"The wind." he said as Applejack finally reached him.

"What is your problem Nails?" Applejack asked.

"There's no time Applejack! I need you to follow me right now!"

Nails bolted into a sprint along the cliff he didn't pay any attention to how close he was getting. He looked out across the lake and noticed that the tops of a few of the trees were parallel to the ground.

"Come on, come on!" he said to himself as he broke into a sprint. Applejack was having little trouble keeping up with him but didn't understand why she was running in the first place. Nails looked out at the lake and saw a ripple caused by the wind swiftly moving towards them.

Rainbow Dash looked at the clouds she still had left to place. Her conversation with Applejack, as small as it was, had put her behind schedule. However, something down on the ground close to the cliff caught her eye. She knew that she had to get to work and normally she would have ignored it until she was done working, but this time ,for some strange reason, curiosity got the better of her and she made her way over to see what it was. As she closed in on the white object she noticed a few pillars of rock sticking out of the ground. She couldn't remember what these were called but she saw that whatever had caught her attention was caught on one of them. She quickened her pace eager to see what it was. When she got close she had to keep herself from vomiting as she saw bones of a pegasus impaled by the sharp rocks. She couldn't understand what these were doing here and hovered there thinking through several scenarios.

Up on the cliff, Nails had finally stopped by a tree. Applejack noticed that there was something around the tree and was about to ask before she heard Nails yell.

"Rainbow Dash! Get away now!"

"Get away from what?" Applejack asked.

Rainbow Dash hovered above the impaled bones trying to figure out what had happened when she heard a voice call out to her.

"Rainbow Dash! Get away now!" it was Nails's voice, but she had no idea what he was talking about. She was about to yell back to ask him why when she felt a strong updraft began pushing her upwards. It caught her so off guard that she lost all control and began rocketing upwards towards the rock overhang without any abilities to stop. She managed to finally get upright before she slammed into the hard rock.

Nails heard a sickening crunch as Rainbow Dash hit the rocks. He was certain that based on that sound something had broken. He knew it had been the wings.

"Applejack, I'm going to have to go get her. You stay up here and as soon as I yell back up, you're going to pull us up ok?"

"What are you talking about?"

"There's no time to explain! Just do it ok!" he yelled at her. She knew that something was extremely wrong now.

"Ok."

Nails walked to the tree Applejack had seen earlier and quickly harnessed himself into the rope. He made sure that it was tight and started to back up. His blue eyes focused onto the tree line. He saw the trees return to their upright positions and started watching the ripple die down. Once it reached a certain point he took a deep breath.

"Here we go." he started to run as hard as he could. Once he reached the cliff wall, he jumped. Applejack watched in horror as Nails got further and further from the cliff before he disappeared from view.

As soon as Nails was airborne he felt his griffon instincts take over. The world seemed to slow down as adrenaline kicked in. He waited for the rope to tighten and swing him in an arc before looking for Rainbow Dash. He saw her cyan body falling while she flailed her legs out of fear. He angled his body so that the wind flow around his body would move him directly to her. He noticed that she was getting extremely close to the spiked ground.

Rainbow Dash was 50ft away from the ground. Nails angled his body to pick up speed.

25ft. Nails reached out his arms.

10ft. Nails was getting close.

5ft. Nails was inches away.

Right before Rainbow Dash's body hit the stalagmite Nails wrapped his arms around her and took her with him in his swing towards the cliff wall. Nails rotated his body so that he was facing backwards and when they collided with the wall he absorbed most of the blow. The rope began to sway back and forth before coming to a halt leaving him dangling below the cliff, holding on to Rainbow Dash.

"Applejack! Pull us up!" he called to above. He instantly felt Applejack begin to pull them up. Slowly but surely they were moving.

"You saved my life." Rainbow Dash said to Nails as they were carried upwards. "I-I don't know how to thank you."

Nails was afraid of this.

The two finally made it to the top where Nails set Rainbow Dash down and started to inspect her wings. The right wing was fine but when he put his attention to the left wing he found it to be worse. The bone within the wing had broken near the joint taking away any possible mobility with it. He suspected that it wasn't a complete break but a fracture. He didn't know what to expect until he got her to a hospital. He felt her left shoulder to see if there was any more damage. He felt the bone out of socket meaning it had been dislocated. He put pressure on just the bones.

"Does this hurt Rainbow?"

"Only a little at the joint." she responded to him.

This was good news. Because the she didn't hurt in the bones meant that it was only a dislocation and not fractured. He could fix this easily. He went over to the tree and pulled off a branch. He placed it in his mouth and bit down. The wood was flexible and almost soft. Just what he needed. He walked back over to Rainbow Dash.

"Hold this." he said as he placed the branch in her mouth.

"Why?" was the muffled response he got. It didn't take long for Rainbow Dash to know why.

Nails placed his hoof on the shoulder and grabbed her leg with his claw. He quickly jerked the leg and popped it back into the socket. Rainbow Dash bit down hard on the wood as the pain hit her. After he was finished doing that, Nails took the wood out of Rainbow Dash's mouth. It had several deep bite marks in it but there were no holes all the way through.

"Open up." he said. When she did he examined her teeth and once he decided that nothing was missing he picked her back up and placed her on his back.

"Applejack, go tell everyone I've taken Rainbow Dash to the hospital."

"Ok." was Applejack response as she started to run back towards town.

Applejack stopped at the library first because it was the closest to Nails's shop. She was glad to find that Rarity was also in the library with her.

"What's wrong Applejack?" asked Twilight as she saw Applejack run into the library.

"I need you two to go get Pinkie Pie while I head to Fluttershy's. It's Rainbow Dash; she's been hurt real bad. Nails is taking her to the hospital right now." Twilight and Rarity jumped up and started to head for sugarcube corner while Applejack made her way to Fluttershy's.

Both groups made it to the hospital at about the same time. They burst in to see Nurse Redheart coming out of a pair of swinging doors.

"Nurse Redheart!" yelled Twilight, "Where's Rainbow Dash!"

"She's in here." was the reply they got, "You can come in if you want."

The five ponies bolted to the door and burst in to find Rainbow Dash in a hospital bed. Her left wing had been immobilized and she looked like she was in pain.

"Rainbow Dash! Are you okay?" asked Twilight.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for coming you guys." was the reply they got.

"What happened?" asked Fluttershy.

"I was working over the lake when an updraft caught me and slammed me into the cliff and broke my wing. I would be dead right now if Nails hadn't saved me."

"Speaking of which, where is Nails?" asked Rarity noticing the stallion's absence from the room.

"Nails?" came the voice of Nurse Redheart from behind the friends, "He left right after he dropped off Rainbow Dash. He did not have very nice words to say either."