Chapter 2
PONYVILLE
It was a sunny, warm afternoon in Ponyville. Rainbow Dash was practicing her flying skills and was getting rather fatigued from the intense workouts. She landed in Ponyville's town square, in front of the mayor's house. She walked to the market and went to a stall that sold drinks then ordered herself some water for 3 bits. She chugged it and gave a satisfying sigh after it was all gone. I wonder if Fluttershy is doing anything fun… Dash thought to herself as she walked through Ponyville. A crack of thunder sounded off and Rainbow Dash looked up. I didn't think there was a thunderstorm scheduled for today. There wasn't supposed to be one until next week. Something must have changed. It was then that she saw no weather ponies pushing the clouds. The ponies in around her started to notice too. The menacing, thunderclouds were coming from the Everfree Forest.
"Uh-oh, this doesn't look good" Dash realized that Fluttershy was probably still at home, so she hastily flew towards her cottage. The storm clouds had covered the whole sky at this point, and pellets of rain had started falling. She reached the cottage where Fluttershy lived and landed in front of the door. She knocked on the door, waited, and Fluttershy opened the door.
"Hi, Rainbow Dash"
"Hey, Fluttershy, have you seen the clouds outside?"
"Yes, I thought the weather ponies had put them up, didn't we have a thunderstorm a little while ago though?"
"Yeah, we did, but we didn't put those clouds up there. It looks like they are moving on their own" The rain was now coming down in sheets.
"Oh, why don't you come inside? The rain is getting heavy"
"Sure, Thanks Fluttershy" Rainbow Dash went through all of the possible ponies who might have stirred up the storm that was now engulfing Ponyville. Not a single one came to mind, however a certain Draconequs was a prime suspect. "Do you think Discord would do something like that?"
"I don't think Discord would do something like that… At least I thought so…"
"Well, I think that we should talk to Twilight or somepony else who would know." Then Fluttershy froze, looking behind Dash. She looked fearful of something, Dash didn't know what. "Uh, Fluttershy? What's wrong, scared of Twilight or something?"
"N-No, something outside…." Rainbow Dash looked out the window that she was looking at but nothing was there.
"What do you mean? There is nothing there" She looked back at Fluttershy.
"T-There it is again!" Dash quickly looked back outside the window to see a pair of glowing blue eyes, singled out against the dark created by the cloud cover. Then, just as swiftly as they appeared, they disappeared back into the darkness.
"What was that?" Rainbow Dash was afraid that whatever it was, the blue-eyed thing was dangerous. "I'm getting out of here! You should come to Fluttershy!" They started heading for the door just to see two blue lights flash for a split-second in the door's window. They paused, looked at each other, and then ran out the door to the main part of Ponville. There they were safe from whatever it was that appeared near Fluttershy's cottage. They reached the town square then skidded to a halt, panting and rapidly looking around for the thing that scared them. Night had fallen and Rainbow Dash was alone with Fluttershy, both afraid of what was waiting for them in the dark. They decided it would be best to go to the Golden Oak Library and ask Twilight if she knew anything about the events that were occurring.
When they reached Twilight's house they explained the situation to Twilight, looked through all of the books in the library, and still had close to nothing on what was causing the weather. The one thing they could come up with was a very powerful magical creature was moving the clouds to Ponyville. The only creature they could think of was Discord. They decided to contact Princess Celestia in the morning, and sleep at Twilight's house until morning.
Twilight Sparkle woke up in the middle of the night not knowing what woke her. The rain was still pattering heavily on the window. She looked downstairs and saw that the door was open. Thinking it strange, she walked down the steps and closed the door. She turned back around to go up the stairs. That was when she saw the blue eyes upstairs, in the house, by Rainbow Dash. A sudden fear overcame Twilight. How had it gotten inside? More importantly, just what was it? A lightning bolt outside lit up the sky and outlined the silhouette of a male pony. He appeared to have a horn and wings, but that was irrational. There simply were no known male alicorns, or were there? Was Princess Celestia keeping something from Equestria? A possible brother or another enemy that was better kept in the shadows? These questions and more reeled in Twilight's head. Another lightning bolt illuminated the night and this time the pony was gone. She lit a candle and it brightened the library just enough to reveal that there was nothing out of place in the room. I must have been hallucinating, nothing more. She then went back to bed. The rain kept on through the rest of the night.
The next morning Twilight, Dash, and Fluttershy woke up to a knock on the door. It was Applejack. She was complaining that the constant downpour was going to drown her crops.
"Do ya think y'all weather ponies could stop this rain for us?"
"Sorry, Applejack. We didn't do this, we can't control it. We don't even know who is doing this" said Rainbow Dash. Twilight reminded them that we still have to write a letter to Celestia to ask what is causing this. They wrote the letter and had spike send it off to Celestia. After a few moments the reply letter came in. Twilight read it to the group.
"The problem you are having is quite interesting, considering the recent events that have played out in the Everfree Forest. There was a large explosion in the forest and I have assigned our best ponies to try and determine the cause of it. What we have discovered so far is far beyond our understanding. Nothing like it has ever been seen before. There was apparently a large facility, created without our consent or even us knowing, that was used for scientific research. We don't know what field of research it was concerning but Princess Luna and I fear that what was done here was far more evil than anything we have ever encountered. I would like for you, and your friends, to travel to Canterlot as soon as possible.
~Princess Celestia"
"We have to go. Maybe we can help figure out whatever happened in the Everfree Forest. We might also find out what is causing all this." The group agreed. They gathered Rarity and Pinkie Pie then got on the train for Canterlot.