“Aw, don’t feel too bad, Rares,” Rainbow Dash tried to console her friend, “the only reason me and Applejack knew that that was Spike was because we saw him in the process of turning into a 60 hoof monster when he was stealing the Apples' apple trees”

This, of course, only caused Rarity to pout and tear up even more.

“That just makes it worse!” she wailed, “I have a reputation for attention to detail! How can I keep that reputation if I can’t even recognize little Spikey?”

“Well ta be fair,” Applejack tried her hoof at a slightly more tactful attempt at comforting her friend, “ya were under a whole lotta stress back there, sugarcube, what with bein’ foalnapped and all.”

“Aren't we forgetting something?” Rainbow Dash interjected, “If even Rarity couldn’t recognize him, the mare who spends the most time with the little guy outside of Twilight, I don’t think anypony else in town would have much of a chance to work out it was him either.”

“Dash does have a point, sugar. That don’t mean we don’t have some serious cleaning up to do back in town. Ah know at least a couple of buildings will need some repairs and a couple more will need rebuilding.”

Rarity perked up slightly at this. “You’re right, of course. Come on then, we shall have to see where we can provide help in town.”

Looking ahead, they spotted Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy watching awkwardly as an irritated Twilight stomped into town, leaving a morose Spike sitting on the stone rail on the edge gazing at the destruction his own greed had wrought.

"Leave this to me, darlings." Rarity said, as she glanced sidelong at her friends, "I'll talk to Spikey and get him out of his funk."

With a flick of her admittedly slightly disheveled – the horror! – mane, Rarity approached the young dragon and started quietly talking to him while the other four mares looked on curiously.

CRUNCH!

The body of a pegasus crashed through the canopy at the edge of the Whitetail Woods and hit the ground in a tangle of limbs, her fur scorched almost completely from her body and her wings all but devoid of feathers.

Big Shot landed mere seconds afterwards, reflexively punching the button on his camera a couple of times as he covered the last few yards on hoof.

Placing his ear against her bloodied and cracked barrel, he listened in vain for a heartbeat or breathing.

It was upon this scene that Eff Stop, reporter and photographer for the Canterlot Times, landed alongside two other pegasus mares.

Shrugging his camera harness off of his neck, Eff Stop raced forward to check on the mare, wisps of smoke slowly rising from her body. With a short whispered exchange of words, Big Shot confirmed the worst.

“Go get rid of the fillies, yeah?” Big Shot, said quietly to his friend, “No need for them to see this. I’ll watch over her for now, you go find the crazy son of a llama who launched that bolt. I’ll trade you coverage on this side if you want.”

“Deal. Take care.”

With that, Eff Stop turned to the two mares behind him and shook his head sadly, causing one to gasp and throw her hooves in front of her face and the other to cock her head to the side, not quite understanding why he had made the gesture.

Eff Stop turned to the gasping, cream colored mare first. “Parasol, can you please go deeper into the woods and find a guard pony or two? Try not to be too loud about it, but the guards will be the best ponies to help right now.”

“I-If you say so…” With one last glance over her shoulder, Parasol took to the air and made for the center of the woods and one of the designated evacuation areas for disasters around ponyville.

With a sigh, Eff Stop turned to the lemon yellow mare left in the clearing with him. “What’s your name?” he asked, stepping carefully towards her so as to block her view of the body on the ground.

The mare craned her neck, trying to catch another glimpse of the pegasus she had come to help. “I’m Sunny Rays. Is she gonna be OK?”

Eff Stop almost groaned out loud and very much so DID groan internally. “I don’t know much about medicine,” Eff Stop said gently to her, “but Big Shot was able to determine she’s not going to get any worse. I need you to come with me to help find whoever it was that generated that lightning bolt. We’re probably going to need some help from them and soon.”

Sunny took one last glance back at the mystery mare and Big Shot before turning and cantering towards the edge of the woods and an easier space to navigate for taking off.

“Let’s go then!” she shouted over her shoulder. ”We don’t want to keep anypony waiting!”

Iroh and his purple dyed companion climbed over the rubble and into Ponyville’s town square, watchful for signs of injured ponies or returning dragons.

“Twiiilight! Twilight!” came a call from above and nearby the pair. “We need your help over in the woods! Woah. Is that the human?”

A certain lavender unicorn gave a snort before turning her head skywards. “Oh hey Flitter, what’s the problem? And I’m not Twilight! It’s me, L–!"

A look of intense concentration came over Lyra's face as she tried in vain to say her own name. "L– L– Llllll–!"

Iroh grinned ruefully before looking skywards himself and answering for the tongue tied mare.

"This is Lyra," he called up to her, "not this Twilight I keep hearing about."

Flitter slowed to a hover, eyeing Iroh carefully. “Somepony got hit by lightning over the Woods, I think it might have been Slipstream.”

“Oh no. I’m no good at medical magic, get Doctor Rhino, if you can find him. He’s a vet, but he should be closer than the hospital.”

“Wow, good thinking, Lyra!” exclaimed Flitter before she shot off in the direction of Rhino’s veterinary clinic.

“So, that’s a pegasus…” Iroh murmured as he watched Flitter speed off into the distance.

“Iroh! Over here!” his lavender friend shouted from nearby.

Ambling over, he soon came to the sight of a pink pony stuck under a pile of boards with a large and heavy looking beam sitting on top. An eye searingly pink mare with a green mane and a pale yellow mare were heaving with all their might to free their friend, while Lyra applied her levitation to the beam, but to no avail.

The stuck pony turned her head, her eyes tight with pain until they landed on the approaching Iroh. She sucked in a breath, preparing to let out a powerful shriek until she was cut off by a sharp hand movement from Iroh.

“No time for hysterics,” he snapped, drawing the startled attention of the other two earth ponies. “Lyra, try to levitate the wood just above her, take some of the weight off if you can. You,” he pointed at the yellow mare, “get over there and be ready to push the beam off once I cut it.”

He turned to the bright pink mare who was staring at him in either terror or awe, he was not sure which, yet. “You stand next to me and when I tell you, push the same part as your friend.”

As the bright pink mare moved across the front of the collapsed building, towards where she thought Iroh was going to stand, he beckoned her away. “Not there, over here.”

“But why are you standing so far EEP!” Three of the four mares jumped in surprise as the human’s hands were suddenly cupping small, but intense balls of fire.

“Just stay clear. I don’t want to burn you or your friend,” was all Iroh said before he started hurling ball after ball of fire at a single spot on the beam, watching for it to start smoldering.

It took over a minute of constant fiery assault before the dense hardwood used in the beam started to smolder on its own. All the while a small but steadily increasing audience, primarily pegasi had gathered to watch the spectacle.

“Won’t be long now. Get ready.” Iroh came in much closer, standing mere inches away from the head of the trapped pony, whose name he had learned was Lily Valley.

With sharp circular movements he began working the embers, increasing their intensity, while at the same time keeping them contained to a small area.

The flames burned supernaturally hot, eating their way through the wood as if it were mere paper. Seconds later the beam had been burned all the way through and the flames extinguished.

“Now, PUSH!” With a heave, Iroh put his back into the section of the beam that was not over the trapped pony, joined at first four hooves, then rapidly by almost a dozen more as some of the spectators rushed to lend their aid.

With many hooves, the beam was slowly dragged off of the pile, allowing for others to come in and start moving other boards.

The beam having been cut, Iroh stepped back to allow the ponies to work to free their neighbor.

"Hoi! Can you do that burning thing again on another beam?" Said a stallion from behind Iroh.

Iroh grimaced as he stretched a kink out of his back before turning to the pony behind him. "Of course, show me where it is, then while I cut the beam, you can get some friends to help remove it. I get the feeling this is going to be a long day for us all."

"Miss Mayor!" a pegasus shouted as she landed before racing to the cluster of ponies at one end of a clearing in the Whitetail Woods.

"Miss Mayor, the dragon's left town!"

Mayor Mare turned from the small cluster of ponies she had been calming to smile gratefully. "Thank you, Rosewing. Do you know which direction he was heading in?"

Rosewing grinned excitedly as she hopped from hoof to hoof. "He's chasing the Wonderbolts into the mountains! It was so exciting! First the dragon was like RAAR! SMASH! and then the weather ponies were like ZOOM! BUCK! but they were just annoying him then somepony was like ZAP! and tried to hit him with a weird lightning bolt but he dodged and then the WONDERBOLTS came and they were all like heroic and ZOOM! BUCK! WHACK! and the dragon was like RAARG! and then they flew away and the dragon was like RAAAA! and chased them out of town! – GASP! – then I came here."

The Mayor and the small crowd of ponies nearby gave the excitable mare that special, wondering look reserved for those ponies with a seemingly endless supply of air, the stir crazy and Pinkie Pie (even though she often fit into the first two categories as well).

It took a couple of moments, but Mayor Mare eventually shook herself out of her daze and cleared her throat as she pulled a bullhorn out of her specially prepared emergency saddlebag.

"Attention everypony," she called through the bullhorn. "The danger appears to have passed. Can we have all landponies please start making their way to the edge of the woods so we can start assigning teams for repair and recovery of any damaged buildings in town. Pegasi, please assist in locating anypony who seems lost and point them in the right direction. Also could Sightseer and Milkyway please come to me immediately."

While many ponies started walking back towards the edge of the the wood, two pegasus stallions swooped in and landed before the mayor, both with almost identical telescope cutie marks, though with very different coloring.

"Gentlecolts," she began as she removed a large scroll from her saddlebags, "I would like you two to fly ahead and mark on this map all of the damaged buildings you see, then report back to me at the edge of the woods so we can organize repair teams."

"Sure thing, ma'am," said the lighter of the two, a stallion with an off white coat and a charcoal grey mane as he took the map and immediately took to the air again.

With that, the Mayor turned to the last small group of stragglers hanging around, 'flank-kissing lackeys...' she thought to herself, before schooling her professional mayor face.

"You mares and gentlecolts go on ahead, I will catch up with you."

"Miss?" one of the stallions in the group asked, not recognizing a dismissal when he heard one.

She frowned disapprovingly at the young stallion, "You would prefer to help me answer a call of nature?"

The four ponies flinched and blushed appropriately as they turned tail and hurried after their friends and neighbors.

"About time..." the mare grumbled as she headed into a nearby patch of thick bushes, checking overhead in case of overhead birdbrains.

A flash of green later, the changeling was hurriedly spitting out more than half a dozen crystals of varying colors.

'Phew!', she thought as she stashed the crystals in the bottom of her saddlebag, 'That was almost a little too much...'

The changeling formerly known as Mayor Mare took a moment to think a short report back to the first cogitator she could get a link to before once again becoming the Mayor Mare normally unknown to be a changeling.

Mayor Mare crawled out of the bush and primly adjusted her spectacles as she took her bearings before she set off for the edge of the woods at a brisk trot. After all, it wouldn't do to keep the citizens waiting too long.

Author's Notes:

Well... that was an unexpectedly long time to get a chapter out. Between losing my mojo over the plagiarist on fanfiction .net and moving home and country - I now reside in insanely sunny Melbourne, Australia!

On a related note to anyone who might live in this city: HOW THE HECK DO YOU SURVIVE THE HEAT?!

Also, plugs to An Alternate Path by Rhino