It was late at night and the Bronze Claw was just about to close up. All the remaining customers had been sent on their way and the new owner, a male griffon with maroon feathers and brown eyes named Leo, was doing some last minute cleaning before heading upstairs where his living quarters were. Then he heard the doors swing open but since the place was so dimly lit he couldn't make out who had entered, just that they were quite a large size.

"We're closing up now. I'm going to have to ask you to leave." Leo explained. Then the figure stepped forward from the shadows revealing herself to be Storm.

"You!", Leo exclaimed, "Listen, I don't want any trouble. Just leave now-" the words got stuck in his throat as Storm effortlessly picked him up from the ground by his neck.

"You remember that pegasus from earlier? The one with the rainbow mane?" Storm asked as she eased her grip just enough so Leo could speak.

"Yeah?" Leo confirmed.

"You wouldn't happen to know where she's from would you?" Storm inquired.

"What if I do? I can't reveal information like that." Leo replied only to have Storm slam him against the unforgiving wooden wall.

"You're new so I'll be nice and explain how things work. If you value having working wings, you'll tell me exactly what I want to know." Storm informed.

"And what's going to stop me from calling the police as soon as you leave here?" Leo tried to threat though failing somewhat as the fear was evident in his voice.

Storm let out a small chuckle, amused at his attempts to be intimidating.

"They're already looking for me. Not the first time I had to break a few limbs and they're certainly no closer to finding me." Storm explained.

"I'm sorry but I can't tell you anything." Leo insisted. Storm simply sighed.

"If that's the way things have to be." she said.

"You mean you're letting me go?" Leo asked eagerly.

"I didn't say that." Storm said as she carried him outside the pub and threw him on the ground. She then quickly went back inside and came back out with a barrel of alcohol and tore a hole in the top with her claw as if it was paper. She poured the barrel's contents around the pub and pulled a box of matches that she was hiding underneath her wing. Leo finally caught on.

"Y-you can't! I inherited this pub after my uncle died! It's not just a pub, it's family!" Leo begged as Storm lit a match.

"You know what you gotta do then. I'm going to count to ten and you're going to tell me what I want to know.", Storm instructed, "One...two...three...nine.".

"Wait! I heard her friends talking about a Ponyville! That must be where she's from!" Leo explained with tears in his eyes. Storm simply smiled as she then blew out the match and threw it in some unknown direction.

"See? Was that so hard?" Storm remarked as she spread her mighty wings and took off leaving the male griffon in a petrified state and he simply sat there with his claws around his knees shaking slightly.

The next day, Applejack was bucking apple trees as she was prone to do. Twilight was now back the library and the two got back to their normal schedules. Suddenly, her ears picked up on the sound of wheels moving along the dirt path. Applejack tore her attention away from her work to see one of Applebloom's friends approaching her.

"Howdy, Scootaloo. Sorry, Applebloom can't play. She's too busy with her chores." the older mare explained.

"Actually, I was wondering where Rainbow was." the small filly replied. Applejack felt a small bead of sweat travel down her neck.

"Rainbow?" Applejack repeated.

"I haven't seen her in days. Not since Mare Do Well arrived to town." Scootaloo said with a tone of worry. Applejack knew she would have to tell the truth, she was the Element of Honesty after all, so after letting out a sigh Applejack began explaining.

"Sugarcube, Mare Do Well ain't real. It was just a schtick me and the others put on to teach Rainbow a lesson but we went the wrong way 'bout it. Rainbow didn't take to it too kindly and got upset with us as she had every right to be." Applejack finished with tears forming but she blinked them away, she couldn't let this impressionable foal see her break down. Then she looked down to see that Scootaloo wasn't too far off from tears herself.

"But I set up a Mare Do Well fanclub! Rainbow must hate me now!" Scootaloo cried as she covered her eyes with her hooves. Applejack did the only thing she could think to do and put her hoof around the crying filly in an attempt to comfort her.

"No, she don't hate you. She's just very emotional with us right now." Applejack echoed Twilight's words. Just as Scootaloo was calming down, Applejack heard someone else coming down the dirt path. It was Rarity but she seemed to be far more in a panic as she rushed towards the apple farmer.

"Applejack...griffon...town...vandalising...huge!" Rarity said in between breathes, clearly into too much of a panic to speak coherently.

"Calm down, Rarity. What's going on?" Applejack asked.

"There's a griffon in town who is vandalising everything. She keeps asking to see somepony who we think might be Rainbow." Rarity explained after finally calming down.

"Gilda?" Applejack assumed.

"No. Not Gilda. This griffon is bigger. Much, much bigger." Rarity said as though she still hadn't gotten over the shock of it. After sending Scootaloo home, Applejack and Rarity went back to town to find trash cans knocked over, benches on their sides, the top of the fountain ripped off letting the water flow uncontrollably, even trees and building had endured great damage.

"Applejack! Rarity!" Twilight called out as she ran towards the two.

"Twilight, what's going on? Where is everypony?" Applejack questioned.

"Everypony's inside and you need two need to be as well before that griffon sees you." Twilight instructed.

"No way, Twi. Not while some snake is tearing up my town." Applejack stated.

"Applejack, please. We should listen to Twilight and get inside." Rarity insisted.

"She's right, y'know." a voice from behind added. The three turned around to see Storm prowling around them.

"If you know what's good for you, you'll leave town now." Applejack ordered to which Storm replied with an amused chuckle.

"And who's going to make me? You? Yeah, good luck trying to tackle someone three times your size." Storm pointed out.

"I've fought bigger than you." Applejack responded.

"Then I shouldn't be a problem." Storm challenged, motioning her claw to tell Applejack to "bring it on". Applejack removed her stetson and threw it to Rarity, not wanting it to get damaged. She then proceeded to charge towards Storm only to be knocked right back down with one swipe of her claw. Before Applejack could regain steadiness, Storm planted her claw firmly on her throat to keep her down.

"Well, that didn't last too long." Storm commented

"Applejack!" Twilight cried out. Feeling an anger within her and the need to do something, Twilight's horn began to illuminate as she attempted to cast a levitation spell on Storm.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. Not if you want your friend's neck in one piece." Storm said as she pressed down on Applejack's throat forcing a grunt of pain to emerge from the pony.

"What do you want from us?" Rarity pleaded.

"Just keep out of my way until I can find that rainbow-maned pegasus. Unless you would happen to know anything about her." Storm told.

"No, we don't know anypony like that. Why would we? Besides, even if we did why would we tell about Rainbow?" Twilight attempted to lie with "attempted" being the key word as she covered her mouth with her hooves while Rarity's own hoof was planted firmly to her forehead. Even Applejack rolled her eyes.

"So you do know her. Well, in that case, I can spare your town if you just tell me where she is." Storm said.

"Don't you tell her nothin'!" Applejack instructed.

"You'd better tell me, otherwise you can just say goodbye to your friend right now." Storm retorted.

Meanwhile, up above in Cloudsdale, Rainbow and Gilda were casually wandering through the town centre. Soon, they were walking around the edge of the city where some of the smaller shops were and they thought they'd see what was there. Gilda was talking away but Rainbow wasn't taking any of it in. She was thinking about that dream she had a couple of nights back.

"Dash...Dash...Dash!"

This broke Rainbow out of her trance for her to realise that Gilda was talking to her.

"Oh, sorry, Gilda. I just zoned out." Rainbow apologised.

"You've been zoning out a lot lately. Something up?" Gilda asked.

"Just been having some messed-up dreams is all." Rainbow confessed.

"Wanna talk about 'em?" Gilda offered.

"Well, they usually start with tons of ponies all wanting to be my friend but then my old friends are standing there. I ignore them and they disappear but then so does everypony else and I'm left alone." Rainbow told.

"You sure don't miss 'em?" Gilda enquired.

"What? No! Not after what they did to me." Rainbow insisted with a slight hint of uncertainty in her voice.

"C'mon, Dash. You can't to stay mad at someone forever. What if you hadn't forgiven me?" Gilda pressed.

"That's different." Rainbow retorted.

"Is it really?" Gilda replied. Rainbow simply let out a sigh of defeat and hung her down.

"Look, what they did wasn't cool but they weren't trying to be mean. They were just trying to help but went the wrong way about it. At least talk to them." Gilda continued.

"I guess.", Rainbow surrendered, "Will you go down with me?".

"Sure. Ponyville's just below here." Gilda said and with that they were on their way down. One thing Rainbow noticed was that as Ponyville came into view it seemed incredibly empty. The next thing she saw was Storm standing on top of Applejack with Twilight and Rarity standing there helpless. Despite everything Rainbow had said, she felt a burning anger alight when she saw Storm picking on her friends. Rainbow acted on instinct and despite Gilda's plea of "Don't! She'll kill you!", Rainbow rushed towards the ground and rammed into Storm's side knocking her off Applejack and into a brick wall. This only did so much though as soon Storm was standing back up.

"You're here. Good. Saved me the trouble of finding you." Storm remarked.

"You'll leave now if you know what's good for you." Rainbow threatened.

"Y'know, your friend said something very similar and now she's lying on the ground." Storm pointed out.

"Why are you even doing this? 'Cause I spilled your drink?" Rainbow asked angrily.

"I can't have people thinking I'm willing to let a pony walk over me." Storm explained. Rainbow looked behind her to see Applejack lying in pain.

"Twilight, Rarity. Get Applejack and get out of here." Rainbow ordered.

"But Rainbow-" Twilight tried to argue before Rainbow shot her a glare that suggested that wouldn't be such a good idea and instead she levitated Applejack onto her back and got out of there with Rarity.

"Y'know, it's probably a good thing you sent your friends off 'cause this is gonna get gruesome." Storm said as she got ready to pounce, Rainbow mimicking her pose.

"Not all of her friends." a voice from above commented. Before Storm could register where it had come from Gilda had swooped down and tackled the larger griffon to the ground. Storm simply kicked Gilda back off her where she landed next to Rainbow.

"Two against one. Hardly seems fair. For you that is." Storm humoured. Gilda tried to rush at her again but Storm knocked her into what remained of the fountain and rendered her unconscious. Rainbow tried to tackle her from the side but was met with similar results. Before the pegasus could get back up, Storm pinned her down by the throat like she done with Applejack.

"Now you're gonna see why ponies don't mess with me." Storm said before she heard a squeaking sound. Both her and Rainbow turned their heads to see a pink pony approaching with a rather colourful canon.

"Pinkie! Get out of here!" Rainbow cried as loudly as she could considering she was being throttled. Pinkie ignored her warning with an uncharacteristically serious look on her face.

"Now listen here.", Pinkie began to threaten Storm, "You're going to get off my friend and leave."

"How many ponies have said that to me today? What are you going to do about it?" Storm prompted.

"This." Pinkie simply stated as she fired off the cannon, knocking Storm off Rainbow and half way across town. When Storm regained steadiness, she felt a weight on her chest and pushed it off before finally being able to identify what had just been fired at her.

"Is this a giant jawbreaker? Who has giant jawbreakers?" Storm questioned out loud. Before she could question it further she felt something pecking away at the back of her head. She looked around to see a canary attacking her.

"Shoo!" Storm swatted but instead several more canaries were pecking away. Out of the corner of her eye she saw yellow pegasus with a pink mane and three butterflies for a cutie mark.

"What are you looking at?" Storm demanded but the pony was unphased. Instead, she let out a whistle and Storm could her a thousand foot steps rushing towards her. She turned around to be greeted by the sight of a stampede of goats, cows, dogs, cats and several other animals sweeping her off the ground and to parts unknown.

Back in the town centre, Rainbow was tending to Gilda, urging her to get up. Then she turned her head to the sound of a stampede to see Storm struggling to get free but when Storm saw her target standing there, it motivated her to get free and she spread her wings to fly upwards and land in front of Rainbow.

"That's it! I'm done playing games!" Storm roared before she swatted Rainbow into the side of a building. As Rainbow hit the stone cold brick, she felt unconsciousness begin to overcome as she saw Storm approach her. Next she saw five sets of legs standing in front of her. She looked up to see her friends defending her. Before she could say anything, she passed out.

Storm stood there as the five ponies glared angrily at her.

"I have no problem with taking care of you five first. Just gonna make it more satisfying when I get to her." Storm said as she raised her claw ready to swipe but then she let out a yelp of pain and then suddenly passed out. The five looked for an explanation and found a tranquiliser dart had been fired at. They looked up to see two other griffons who, judging by their uniforms, were police officers and one was hold a blow gun.

Soon, a reinforced police carriage to carry Storm's sleeping body somewhere where can no longer cause anyone any harm. One of them stayed behind to help get Rainbow and Gilda over to a hospital. Once at the hospital, the five sat at Rainbow's side with Gilda's bed behind them, waiting for their friend to wake up. It was proving a long wait indeed.