It was another beautiful summer day in Ponyville. Rainbow Dash napped on a cloud floating lazily in the sky. She could rest easy knowing the weather didn't need any adjustments - not that she would've let a little work get in the way of a good nap. A stiff breeze ruffled her feathers slightly and she began to stir, but before she could protest against the disturbance the breeze intensified a thousand fold as a sound like mountains colliding ripped through the air. She was sent flying.

She tumbled off the edge of the cloud and spun wildly for a moment before she snapped to attention, flapped her wings twice, and leveled off - glancing rapidly in all directions trying to understand what had just happened. "What the hay was THA..."

Dash stopped as she caught a glimpse of something up above. She was absolutely entranced by the unbelievably massive rings of color spreading over the skies of Equestria. The resemblance to a Sonic Rainboom was uncanny, but there was no way anypony - or anything even close to the size of a pony - could make an effect as massive as... whatever it was she was staring at. No matter HOW fast it flew.

Fluttering in place for a few seconds, not realizing how far her jaw had dropped, Dash didn't even notice the rainbow trail blazing its way through the rings and speeding toward Sweet Apple Acres. She noticed when it hit the ground.

Another sound loud enough to wake the dead tore through the air as dirt, rocks, and apple trees were scattered several hundred feet in all directions. Rainbow Dash again stared and hovered, waiting for her brain to finish trying to process what had just happened.

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Applejack spoke with a great enthusiasm about the finer technical details of the apple farm while the pencil levitating in front of Twilight scribbled furiously. Applejack had been hesitant to agree at first, but Twilight had eventually convinced her that the plan would work and this year's crop would be nearly double what was expected. She just needed to get some data to fine tune the numbers, and Twilight was certain everything would work perfectly.

Everything probably wouldn't have worked perfectly, what with the way something always seemed to go wrong and everypony learning a valuable lesson while fixing the problem, but the chance didn't present itself. No, this year there would be a significantly SMALLER crop of apples what with the number of trees that were uprooted or destroyed entirely.

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Applejack picked herself up off the ground and stumbled over to where her lavender friend lay. "You okay Twi'?"

"I think so...", Twilight said through a fit of coughing. Somewhat miraculously, both ponies were unharmed. Neither had been sent very far or hit by any debris. They both just took an unexpected trip through the air a short distance and hit the ground once. Painful, but perfectly survivable.

"Well ah think we prob'ly ain't gonna git ta finish our little conversation right now. Got more important stuff to see to, tryin' ta fix as much o' this damage as possible. It looks like an awful lot of mah poor trees have... been..." Applejack trailed off before galloping off at full speed.

It didn't take Twilight long to see what had gotten her friend's attention. Over at the center of the... whatever just happened... lay a glowing Rainbow Dash. Laying with her eyes open wide, but unscuffed, unharmed, and glowing at the center of what had been a very devastating wave of force. Something wasn't right here. Applejack stopped just in front of her and began yelling.

"WHAT IN TARNATION DO YOU THINK YER' DOIN' DASH? YOU COULDA BEEN HURT. ANYPONY ON THE FARM COULDA BEEN HURT. THE APPLE TREES ARE DEFINITELY HURT. And fer what? Some ridiculous stunt of yers? I know you got tha Wonderbolts to train for and yer pride to uphold and whatever other ridicalous nonsense yer always goin' on about but do you never stop to think about the DAMAGE YOU CAUSE? I mean accidents happen, windows break even if it doesn't take a pony flyin' through 'em to do it. But THIS? I would say you're lucky you didn't get hurt but that's not entirely true because if you HAD been hurt I'd probably have a much harder time being this ANGRY at you! Are you even LISTENIN' TA ME?"

Dash's glow began to fade as her pupils shrunk down to tiny little dots. After a moment, they grew back to their normal size. She jerked her head around, clearly confused, before something in her head seemed to click. She stared at Applejack. She stared deeply at her face for several very long seconds. Just as Twilight had trotted over to the two ponies and Applejack was about to begin yelling again Dash bolted upright, turned toward Twilight, and opened her mouth.

"IT WORKED! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT WORKED! I mean I know I'm the fastest flier in Equestria and all, and you're the biggest Egghead I know Twilight, but I still can't believe we ACTUALLY DID IT!" Rainbow Dash was clearly excited about something. Twilight was confused. Applejack wavered between angry and confused.

"What are you talking about? Did what?" Twilight asked.

"Well, not WE we. ME, yes. And you. But not YOU you. Oh man, I totally wasn't paying attention when you told me how I was supposed to explain it to you..."

"Sugarcube, you're goin' to need to start explainin' yerself. NOW."

Dash shrunk back down a bit as she turned toward the orange earth pony. "I'm sorry AJ. I really really am. But I have orders. I need to talk to Twilight, and only Twilight. And I need to do it now, before... before...." she trailed off, struggling to find the right words and looked around at the damage done to the farm. Her voice lost a lot of its usual confidence. "I really can't tell you anything right now but I promise I'll make it up to you... eventually. I'm REALLY sorry about the farm and I hope this doesn't screw up anything between us. Just... I dunno, force me to help you clean up and replant later. Don't listen to me when I start being an idiot."

Snapping her head in the lavender mare's direction, her voice regained its usual qualities. "C'mon Twilight. I need you to teleport us back to the library. As fast as you can."

"What? Why? What exactly is going on here, Dash? And don't you owe Applejack at least a LITTLE explanation for... whatever this was that just happened?"

"Yes, I do, and I swear I feel really really bad about all this but I don't think we have a lot of time. I'm a pretty impatient pony and I really don't like having my naps interrupted and I'm positive I would be pretty buckin' curious if I saw any of what just happened."

"But what exactly DID just happen? What do you mean you WOULD be curious if you saw it? You were THERE!"

"AAARGH... I really REALLY wish I'd paid attention to you before I left... you told me exactly how I was supposed to explain all this and now I'm screwing it all up and everypony is going to be talking about this. Look Twilight, I can explain everythin... ALMOST everything to you, and ONLY you, if you just take us back to your library. I promised I'd do my best not to ruin everything and explaining everything to everypony is pretty much exactly how to ruin everything. So I need you to hold onto your questions for ten seconds while you take us back to the library. Now. I'd fly us both there myself but I'm actually pretty exhausted."

"I'm sorry Applejack, but do you think I could do what she says and just go back? I can explain whatever she tells me to you later. I'd just really like to get started on understanding what is going on here and it looks like Dash isn't going to let us do that unless I listen to her."

Applejack looked around at the apple trees, or what was left of them, and sighed. "Rainbow, you are going to work yer flank off to pay fer all this damage as soon as you're done with whatever you needed ta tell Twilight. Do I make mahself clear?"

"Yes ma'am. C'mon egghead let's GO! It's like, an emergency. We need to get the hay out of here RIGHT NOW before I ruin everything!"

A soft purple light enveloped two of the three ponies, and then they were gone.