The Party Hasn't Ended Part 12

The Party Hasn't Ended Concludes Part 2: Rainbow Dash starring Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and all the other colourful and magical little ponies of Ponyville

"Wake up, Pinkie Pie!" Dash sobbed. Her head lay on the little earth pony's unmoving chest, tears streaming from her eyes and soaking her pink coat. "I love you. I love you!"

Outside the black storm raged unabated, the shrieking winds whipping around the Library, the great tree creaking and groaning as if it would splinter apart at any moment, the rain pouring against the windows as if they were trapped in the course of a surging torrent. But none of the ponies inside could hear any of it: all they could hear was the soft sobbing of their friend, and her desperate, unanswered prayers. They all watched, heartbroken, in silence except for the soft weeping of Spike, whose face was still buried in Twilight's chest, unable to look at either Dash or Pinkie.

"Wake up, you stupid, stupid little pony!" Dash yelled suddenly. She lifted Pinkie's body up, and as the pink pony lay slack in her forelegs Dash shook her and shouted "Wake up! WAKE UP!"

Twilight, her eyes half-closing in pain, gently passed the softly sobbing Spike to Zecora, who nodded to her and took the little dragon in her own forelegs, holding him tightly to her. The unicorn pony took a deep breath and stepped forward to put a hoof on Dash's shoulder. "Dash, I... I think, maybe we should..."

Dash batted Twilight's hoof away and turned on the unicorn pony, her face a mask of rage. "Stay away! Nopony but me is going to touch Pinkie, OK Twilight? Nopony!" As Twilight backed away from her, Dash placed Pinkie back down on the floor and lay her face once more on her friend's chest. "Oh Pinkie..." she whispered. "Please... please just wake up!" She kissed her pink coat. "I... I love you OK? You know that now, right? So please....please just wake up!"

Rarity, frail and limp in Applejack's forelegs, looked up at her and whispered "Oh Applejack, it's... oh, it's just too TERRIBLE!"

The earth pony opened her mouth to reply, but before she could get a word out Gummy brushed past her legs and scuttled towards Pinkie, squeaking.

Dash looked up at the little alligator, and a look of terrible loss crossed her face. "Gummy," she whispered, "You loved her too, didn't you?" Tears dropped from her eyes as she watched Pinkie's pet start to nuzzle and lick his mistress's ear and cheek. "But... she's gone, Gummy. You can't bring her back... She's gone... away. Forever." Dash fell back onto her rump, staring at the wall across from her with unseeing eyes. "Oh Gummy, PINKIE'S GONE!" And she cried out in agony and buried her face in her hooves.

Suddenly there was a murmur from the floor. At first Dash didn't hear it, for all she could hear was her own deep sobbing. But when she heard Rarity gasp, she took her hooves from her face and looked.

Pinkie, yawning hugely, was sitting up on the floor, and was holding an excited Gummy in her lap. The little pink pony was staring at her pet with eyes still half-hooded in sleep. "Gummy?" muttered Pinkie, wiping the sleep from her eyes with a hoof. "Oh, I just had the strangest dream EVER!"

But then she was knocked onto her back by a hurtling blue and rainbow mass of hooves and fluttering wings as Dash threw herself at her, crying "Pinkie Pie! You're alive! YOU'RE ALIVE!" She squeezed her head against Pinkie's chest, rubbing her face against her pink coat, leaving it sopping wet with the tears that were spilling from her eyes.

"Well, of course I'm alive, Dashie!" replied Pinkie, wrapping the sobbing Pegasus pony in her forelegs. "I would never go away and leave you all on your lonesome!"

At the sight of Pinkie and Dash together again at last, everypony broke down. Twilight had fallen onto her knees, her violet eyes awash in tears, and Spike was beside her, chortling in joy, a brilliant smile threatening to break his little scaly purple face in two. Applejack had at last started to cry, while in her forelegs Rarity was staring blankly at the pair, her eyes red-raw, shaking her head. And even the corners of the usual stoic Zecora's eyes were glistening with tears, and she closed her eyes, nodding softly to herself.

Dash at last broke their embrace, and she pushed herself away to look at Pinkie, her eyes wide with disbelief. "But Pinkie... what happened to Nightmare?" she whispered. "I saw you... I saw Nightmare kill you!"

"Nightmare? That poor little ghostie?" Pinkie chuckled. "Why, he didn't kill me! He just got tricked by a sneaky little Pinkie Pie prank!"

"What are you talking about, Pinkie?" asked Twilight.  "How could you trick that... that terrible thing?"

"Oh, it was easy-peasy bottom-squeezy, Twilight!" Pinkie turned to Dash. "There was no way we could beat him while we were stuck in your heart, remember Dashie?" Pinkie mimicked the spirit's low, whispering voice, and it was such a good imitation that Dash involuntarily shivered. "'Laughter cannot exist where there is pain and emptiness!' – and so I tricked him into entering MY heart!"

"But what difference did that make?" protested Dash. "Couldn't he just trap you with those scary illusions of his just like he did to me?"

"Oh Dash, you can be such a silly pony sometimes!" Pinkie put her cheek against the rainbow-maned filly's. "Didn't I tell you my secret long ago?" She started to bounce around, giggling. "There's a party inside me, a party that's never, ever going to end! And there was no way that big meanie was going to be able to do anything to me as long as that party was going on!"

Applejack shook her head. "Nah jus' wait one cotton-pickin' minute, Pinkie!" she said. "Ah'm suppostah believe that there's an endless party happenin' inside o' you, and that that's what put paid to that Nightmare feller?"

"Uh huh!" nodded Pinkie, beaming. She bounced over to Dash and looked at her sideways with a sly smile. "And you know what keeps that party going forever and ever and ever, Dashie?"

The Pegasus pony shook her head.

"IT'S YOU!" cried Pinkie, hurling herself at Dash in total, ecstatic abandon. The Pegasus pony yelped and caught her in her forelegs, struggling to hold her up as the little pink pony peppered her face with kisses and giggled.

"Pinkie!!" Dash gasped. "I've been unconscious for days! I don't think I can hold you for too long..." And with that her forelegs went limp with exhaustion and she dropped Pinkie, who fell onto her bottom on the floor.

Spike was gently stroking Gummy's spines as he watched the craziness that was unfolding. "But Pinkie, what did you do to Nightmare? Did you..." He gulped. "...you know?" He drew his free claw across his neck and made a "skkkrrrt" noise in his throat.

Pinkie laughed. "Oh no! He's not dead. And his name wasn't Nightmare, either!"

"Don't tell me he really was called Black Snooty?" asked Dash with a frown.

Pinkie shook her head. "His real name was Loneliness," she explained. "Do you remember when he leapt at you while we were fighting him inside your heart?"

Dash shuddered. "How could I forget?"

"Well, when he leapt at you he said "Goodbye loneliness!" And that was his name – Loneliness."

"So Nightmare," began Twilight. "I mean Loneliness… is still alive? And he's inside you?"

"Oh Twilight!" sighed Pinkie. "You can't kill a thing like loneliness. And he's always going to be there, inside me, inside you, inside everypony! But the only way to make sure he never gets you is to always surround yourself with friends...!"


Spike looked quizzical for a moment, and then he said "So I guess friendship really is magic!"

Applejack looked at the little purple dragon with disgust. "And jus' what is that supposta mean?"

Pinkie chuckled. "Oh, Applejack – Spike is absolutively right!" She hopped over to the little dragon and patted him on the head. "Oh, I'm so glad you aren't sick anymore, Spikey! Don't you dare ever eat so many baked bads again, do you hear?"

"Huh?" muttered Spike. But then he shrugged with a smile. "It's good to have you back, Pinkie Pie, even if I still don't understand a single thing you say."

Twilight and the others all nodded and murmured in agreement.

Applejack had taken her hat off and was scratching her head with a hoof. "So this Nightmare... I mean, this Loneliness feller – you jus' up and zapped 'im with your Pinkie Pie powers?" She whistled. "Wooee! I woulda loved ta've seen that battle!"

"Oh, but I didn't do it on my own!" replied Pinkie. She looked at Dash, whose rose eyes hadn't moved from Pinkie for a single moment since they had been reunited. "Loneliness tried to trick me into thinking all these terrible things were real, but each time I heard Dashie's voice, calling to me... saying that she..."  Pinkie glanced hesitantly at the Pegasus filly, but Dash just smiled and nodded.

"It's no secret anymore, Pinkie," she said, lowering her shy eyes and blushing a deep red. "Everypony here heard what I was saying, that... that I love you."

Pinkie's mouth gaped open. "So... it's true, Dash?" she whispered. "It's really, truly true?"

Dash nodded, and then a sudden sobbed escaped her throat. "It's really, truly, absotively, posilutely true, Pinkie!" she cried. She threw her forelegs around the little pink pony's neck and kissed her hard on the lips. "I love you!"

"You love me, Dashie?" Tears began to pour in a steady stream from both of Pinkie's big blue eyes. "Really?" She blinked and opened her mouth wide. "More than... vanilla lemon drops?"

"About a zillion times more than vanilla lemon drops!" replied Dash, wiping her friend's tears away with a hoof.

"More than... pranking?"

"Easily a million times more than pranking!" Dash smiled.

"More than your gorgeous, fluffy blue wings?" Pinkie asked, eyes wide.

"More than my wings, more than flying, more than the Wonderbolts... more than anything!" laughed Dash.

Pinkie's eyes grew even wider still. "More than...?" she began.

"Pinkie Pie!" Dash cried in frustration. "I said I loved you, OK!" Her mouth was frowning, but her eyes were glistening with emotion as she looked at the filly in her embrace. She saw the others watching and she blushed red, but then she looked back into Pinkie's blue eyes. "I love you more than anything else in the world, Pinkie Pie," she whispered.

Rarity looked up at Applejack and for the first time since Pinkie had stirred she spoke. "Did... did Rainbow just say that she loved Pinkie more than the Wonderbolts?" asked the unicorn pony in  disbelief.

Applejack looked down at her and nodded, and straight away Rarity exploded into tears. "So this IS just a beautiful dream after all!" she sobbed.

"But Zecora," Spike turned to the zebra had been watching the proceedings in silence the whole time, an enigmatic smile on her face.   "Didn't you say that Pinkie Pie was dead?" He was rubbing the drying tears from his eyes, looking slightly embarrassed.

Twilight smiled, and looked towards Zecora. "I think Pinkie really did die, Spike – but she just found her way back."

Zecora nodded. "Pinkie Pie died, that much is true – but to come back from the dead? That's something new!"

"But Twilight!" protested Spike. "Can you do that? Can you live twice?"

Applejack looked up from reassuring the still crying Rarity and snorted. "Of course not!"

Twilight sighed indulgently. "Then again, this is Pinkie Pie we're talking about. She can appear in mirrors, be in two places at once, predict the future with that twitchy tail of hers. In fact, I don't know if there's anything she can't do!"


"Oh, there're lots of things I can't do, Twilight!" Pinkie laughed.

"Like what, Pinkie Pie?" asked Spike.

"Well..." Pinkie cocked her head. "For one thing, I can't do long division. Ooh, and I can't ever seem to temper chocolate properly!"

"Tha' IS real difficult," agreed Applejack.

"And I can't ever eat just one hay fry!" added Pinkie.

"Nopony can do that, Pinkie Pie!" laughed Twilight.

Pinkie suddenly grabbed Dash around the waist. "But most of all, I can't ever, never, ever let this filly here go!"

"Aw, Pinkie!" Dash nudged the little pink pony in the ribs, blushing. "You're gonna start making me bawl in a minute!"

There was a sudden flash of lightning that lit up the storm-gloomy inside of the library as bright as day, and it was followed by an ear-splitting bellow of thunder which made the windows judder, and everypony was dragged back into the reality of the storm that was still raging outside.

"But... but why hasn't the storm disappeared?" asked Applejack. "With Loneliness gone, ain't everythin' supposed to just go back ta normal?"

"Ontological inertia, my dear Applejack!" replied Pinkie, tapping her forehead with a hoof.

"Say what?" Applejack shook her head. "With all that jabberin' about 'Loneliness' this an' ontowhagical' that, at least we know we got tha right Pinkie Pie back!"

Twilight was looking out of the window. With each flash of lightning, the devastation that had already occurred to Ponyville was briefly illuminated, and her heart sank. Trees had been uprooted, houses were bent and shaken, and the ground had been reduced to a muddy swamp. Then she turned back to the others. "Pinkie just means that magic doesn't necessarily disappear when the one who created it does, Applejack," she explained.

Dash nodded. "Which means we've got no other choice but to stop this storm ourselves..." She took a deep breath. "Somehow."

Pinkie's face fell. "Loneliness said that the storm would destroy Ponyville if he didn't stop it himself!" She gasped. "Oh, Dashie! I saw... I saw what he said would happen if the storm wasn't stopped!"

Dash's face grew steely. "No way the Dash is going to let something like that happen on her watch! I'm the one who started all this – but I think I know how to end it."

The front door of the library was already juddering at its hinges from the wind, and when Dash turned the latch the wind tore it forward out of her hooves and the inside of the library became one with the maelstrom of rain and wind outside.

"Dash!" Pinkie shouted over the noise of the storm, grabbing her before she could leave. "I'm coming with you!"

Dash shook her head. "No way Pinkie Pie! It's too dangerous!"

"That's why I'm coming!" replied Pinkie, unshakeable resolve on her round, pink face. "If something happens, I want to be with you when it does. When I said I'm never going to leave your side, it was a Pinkie promise, remember!" She drew a hoof across her chest. "Cross my heart and hope to fly..."

"Yeah, stick a muffin in your eye. I know, I know!"

"Cupcake!"

"Whatever!"

The two fillies looked towards their friends, who were shielding their eyes from the onslaught of the wind and rain pouring into the Library. Dash looked up at the ceiling, and then she said: "Pinkie and I are just going out for a bit, guys. If we don't make it back..."

"What kinda crazy talk are yer saying, Rainbow?" Applejack yelled over the screaming of the wind. "We ain't gonna let you two go alone... we already lost both of you! Ah... ah just couldn't bear to have it happen again. My ticker just couldn't take it!"

"You have to, AJ," cried Dash. She was patting herself all over with her hooves, looking for something, but then Twilight handed her her flight goggles. "We've got to fly, and Pinkie's going to be heavy enough!"

"Hey!"

"I'm just sayin, Pinkie Pie!" laughed Dash. "All those cupcakes don't just vanish into thin air when you eat them, you know! They have to go somewhere!"

Pinkie nodded. "And I know where that place is!" she sighed, glancing back at her round bottom.

"Do take care, darlings!" cried Rarity from the doorway. She was still dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief. "Oh, I must look simply DREADFUL!"

Beside her, Applejack smiled "Ya look as be-youtiful as always, Rarity," and then she waved to Pinkie and Dash. "Good luck, y'all!" said Applejack. "You give those nightmare-clouds a good kickin' from me!"

"Be careful!" shouted Twilight. "Remember, we're in the Northern Hemisphere, so the storm will be spinning in an anti-clockwise direction!"

Dash frowned. "Clockwise. Got it!"

"I said ANTI-clockwise!" Twilight shouted back.

Spike popped his little purple head out from behind Twilight's legs. "What are you going to do, Dash? What's the plan?"

Dash shrugged. "I'll come up with something!" She looked at Pinkie. "I hope."

Gummy was there beside the little dragon, squeaking and leaping up at Pinkie.

The little pony dabbed a tear from her eye. "Now Gummy, if mommy doesn't come back, she wants you to be kind to your big brother, OK?"

Gummy squeaked again, and stopped jumping. But it was hard to tell with his blank pink eyes still swivelling madly whether he had understood what Pinkie had just said.

Spike looked down at the little alligator, and sighed. "'Big brother'? Oh brother!" But an affection smile had slipped onto his face.

Zecora was the last to say goodbye. "Good luck to you, oh pony folk, a zebra's blessing I do invoke." Then she came forward and whispered to Dash: "There's only one way to avert this doom, and that is..."

Dash chuckled. "I'm WAY aheada ya, Zecora!" She grinned at the zebra. "But thanks anyway."

Pinkie came up to Dash. "What is it, what is it Dashie?" she asked. "Ooh, ooh! I know! It rhymes with 'doom', right? Is it... is it perfume?"

Dash shook her head. She turned and waved to their friends, who had now retreated into the Library and were sheltering together from the onslaught of the wind and rain.

"Ooh! Ooh! Is it a nom de plume?" cried Pinkie. Her voice was so boisterous that it could be heard without a problem against the howling winds of the dark storm.

Dash shook her head. "Oh Pinkie. Even at a time like this?" But she smiled indulgently as they both vanished into the maelstrom of wind, rain and darkness – it was as if all the elements had merged together into one destructive state and had taken over every part of the universe. The storm was far, far worse than either of them expected.

"Pinkie," Dash grabbed the little pink pony and shouted at her, a serious look on her face. "You do know this is probably a one way trip, right?"

"Of course I know Dashie!" Pinkie shouted back. "I could see it in those super-beautiful rose eyes of yours! That's why I'm here with you."

Dash nodded. "Then let's go put an end to all of this." She put on her flying goggles, and when she looked back she saw Pinkie was wearing a pair as well.

"Where in Equestria did you get those, Pinkie Pie?"

"Oh Dash," Pinkie laughed gaily. "Don't you know yet that I'm always Pinkie-prepared for anything!?"

They stood with their backs against the onslaught of the wind, digging their hooves into the mixture of mud and water that the path had turned into. It was all they could to stop themselves from being swept up and carried away to destruction.

"Are we really going to try and fly... in this?" asked Pinkie. "Won't we be smashed flatter than a pancake or mashed into a waffle or turned into cookie batter...?"

Dash's ears went back. "Thanks for the mental image, Pinkie!"

"I wish I hadn't given me that mental image either," Pinkie shouted apologetically. "The thought of all those snacks is making me hungry!"

Dash laughed. "Well, you always said you crossed your heart and hoped to fly, Pinkie!" She brought her back up to Pinkie and looked over her shoulder at her. "And that's exactly what we're gonna do right now!"

Without any more prompting, Pinkie leapt up onto Dash's back. She brought her mouth close to the Pegasus pony's ear and asked "But aren't I too heavy for you, Dashie?"

Dash shook her head. "Truth is, Pinkie, when you left Ponyville I couldn't even unfurl my wings!" She closed her eyes at the painful memory, but then she suddenly smiled. "But now you're back I just can't seem to keep them furled for some reason. They're always popping up on me! I guess you're the one who keeps me flying. Now hold on!"

And with that Dash galloped with the wind, and as it pushed them along the swampy street Pinkie pumped a hoof into the air and shouted in excitement as the Pegasus pony unfurled her wings to their full length. The screaming winds lifted them up almost straight away, even with Pinkie's weight, and within a heartbeat they were flying straight at Sugarcube Corner.

"Dashie, we're going to crash!" screamed Pinkie. But Dash just chuckled, and with a quick lift of the leading edge of her wings they cleared the bakery easily, and were soon flying straight up into the sky.

There was a sudden crashing from behind them as all the windows of Sugarcube Corner smashed out at once, and a string of muffins and cupcakes came flying out.

"Oh no! The baked goods!" cried Pinkie in alarm.

"They're gone now, Pinkie!" Dash shouted back at her. "Let them go!"

And then Dash lifted her head, and they streaked up into broiling pitch blackness.

*******

Fluttershy's voice was almost impossible to hear against the keening winds, and Cloudkicker felt it rather than heard it in her ear. They were flying right next to each other, and the blonde-maned Pegasus pony had one foreleg around Fluttershy's shoulders, helping her to stay aloft as they struggled to keep the steadily rising power of the hurricane in check. Over the past few hours they had a lost a few of their number, who had succumbed to exhaustion and gone spinning off into the roiling darkness behind them. Cloudkicker prayed to Celestia that they were OK.

"I'm ... I'm so sorry, Cloudkicker, I... I just can't go on!" wailed Fluttershy. "My wings, they're... they're..."

Cloudkicker nodded. "Me too, Fluttershy." She closed her eyes – she could barely feel them in the chilling cold of the rain that swirled at them like frozen needles. "But I just want to thank you... for being here with me. We .. we did our best....  I just want to tell you that... that I lov..."

But suddenly a flash of colour appeared before them in the grey and black limbo of the storm... a sudden shining point of brilliant colour that streaked up before them from below, leaving an after image of all the colours of the rainbow against their eyes.

"Is that...?" gasped Fluttershy, gaping in disbelief.

"It can't be!" cried Cloudkicker.

"It is! It is!" screamed Fluttershy. She cried out over the shrieking winds. "Rainbow Dash!! Rainbow Dash!!"

"And... is that... Pinkie Pie?!?!" Cloudkicker eyes grew impossibly wide.

Even over the shrieking winds, Pinkie's voice could be heard.

"Wooooooooohhhhhhhhhhoooooooooooooooo!" she screamed.

"I've never seen her go that fast!" laughed Fluttershy. "Never!"

Cloudkicker shook her head. "Surely Dash's not going to try and..." A sudden realisation gripped her. She turned and screamed over the squalling storm at the rest of the Pegasus ponies flying in V formation behind her. "Just a few more minutes, everypony!! Let's give it all we've got!! We've got to give Dash and Pinkie just a little longer!!"

A look of determination steeled Fluttershy's face, and she turned and nodded once at Cloudkicker, who turned away from the fierce gaze of her cyan eyes and blushed.

On the other side of Cloudkicker, Derpy Hooves had redoubled her efforts. Her wings beat powerfully against the onslaught of wind and rain, and her wall-eyed gaze was focused on the endless banks of clouds that loomed before them, crackling with electricity.

Cloudkicker shook her head. "Who knew a mailmare had such stamina! I wonder what it is that keeps her flying?"

"Muffins!" shouted Derpy as she strove to push back into the endless waves of buffeting winds.

"Oh Derpy, is that all you ever think of?" chuckled Cloudkicker, and then she turned and with a brief glance at Fluttershy she readjusted her flying goggles and beat her wings harder and harder until her muscles creaked and ached.

And so Cloudkicker didn't see that Derpy's eyes had gone straight for a moment, and that tears had trickled out at the edge of the mailmare's goggles. For before her eyes had appeared the image of a tiny blue, blonde-maned unicorn foal prancing about, a letter in her mouth, giggling "Lookit me momma! Lookit me, momma! I'm delivering the mail!"

Derpy closed her eyes and pumped her wings even harder still. "My muffin," she whispered.


*******

"That awful storm is never going to go away is it?" shivered Lyra. She was lying on the couch in the living room of her little house, her head on Bon-Bon's lap. They'd retreated there when the storm had first arrived and now they were trapped there together, the tray of cookies Lyra had baked long since finished and now containing only a scattering of crumbs and left over chocolate chips.

Bon-Bon looked out the window. The town had been plunged into utter darkness, and even when it was illuminated by a flash of angry lightning, the swirling wind and rain made it impossible to make out the little houses that were nearby.

"Don't worry Lyra," said Bon-Bon, still staring out the window. She lay a hoof gently on the trembling unicorn pony's head. "You're safe here with me." She began to stroke her mane, and Lyra, sighing, looked up at Bon-Bon with glistening eyes.

Bon-Bon sighed as well, but it was a sigh of resignation. The storm was only going to get stronger – nothing could stop it now.

So this is it, she thought. The end of Ponyville.

She looked down at Lyra's face, now calm and blissful, lying on her lap and a tiny, secret smile appeared on her own face.

I guess it could be worse, she thought.

*******

"Make sure all the casualties are kept dry!" Mercy ordered the squad of nurses and assistants helping her tend to the growing number of ponies injured by the storm.

She went to the flap of the tent which had been tied shut to keep out the wind and parted it just enough to glance out. Everything was so dark! The ground and the sky were indistinct, and  Mercy couldn't easily tell where one started and the other finished. It truly did look like the end of the world.

Please, Princess Celestia, she prayed in desperation. Please let us see the sun just one more time!

Big McIntosh was still at Caramel's side. He had regained consciousness a short while earlier and was looking up at the red-coated stallion.

"Thank you for staying with me, McIntosh," said Caramel. "But... are Applejack and the others really ok?"

Big McIntosh nodded. "Now don' you worry 'bout them none, Caramel. AJ'll take good care o' them," He smiled at the thought of his bossy little sister. "She is the loyalest of friends and the most dependable of ponies, after all." He looked down at Caramel. "Just keep yer strength up an' get yerself better, y'hear?"

Caramel looked at the faces of the nurses' and their assistants as they bustled back and forth inside the tent, tending to the wounded. They were trying to be strong, but beneath their professional expressions lurked a growing desperation and panic. Outside, the wind shrieked even louder, and the flap to the tent tore open and started to whip around, rain spilling into the tent as ponies struggled to tie it up again.

Caramel looked up at McIntosh, his blue eyes despairing. "Is there any point though, Mac?" he whispered.  "I mean, things look really, really bad."

McIntosh shrugged. "We're always in th' middle of one crisis or other," he chuckled. "But we seem ta stumble outa it one way or another." He brushed the smaller stallion's bedraggled fringe away from his eyes with a hoof. "So don' sweat it none."

Caramel nodded. "I...I guess you're right, Mac."

McIntosh looked at the walls of the tent billowing in and out at as each new squall of wind and sheet of rain fell upon it.

Though Ah wonder if we can get outa this one, he thought. Then he looked back down at Caramel. Ah sure hope we can.