Close Call

(Reference: https://mlp-fim-oc-rp.rpg-board.net/t1143-ashen-cloud )

"Oi.." he says to himself.

Ashen plops himself onto the ground, lying back against the grass as the day starts to finish. The day's been a long one, even if it's been a profitable one from odd jobs, it's taken a bit of a toll. The suns already starting to lower down over the horizon, a light orange color emitting from just over the hills and the crickets already starting to chirp. He can feel a cricket hop on his forehead, he'd try to shake it off, but he's a bit too tired to really care. It just hops off his forehead into the tall grass anyway.

He can hear faint voices above, he turns his eyes toward the voices and see pegasi, pushing clouds into a large clump. They look rather rushed, and in a second it's clear why when he's met with a familiar voice, "Come on, lets go, let's go!" She calls out to the rushed pegasi again, "The weather should have been cloudy an hour ago! We can't fall behind again!"

He smirks a bit, glad that today's not his day for cloud duty, and..that he knows that this happens often. It takes a minute to figure out he should head for cover, as the pegasi are leaving and a single kick will get the rain going. He tries to remember the pegasi weather schedule for today, then immediately figures out which as thunder starts to sound. "Heavy rain." he says to himself, disappointed as he silently groans.

He's forced to look for cover, he'd prefer getting home dry and not awake by cold rain. He can feel the chilled air coming along with little drizzles of rain meeting the ground and along his head. Ashen sees it's going to pick up very soon, so he starts looking around from the ground, getting up as he feels heavier rain drops, flapping his wings to get any grass out. Ashen rolls himself onto his stomach, picking himself up and starts on walking down the nearby road towards home. He's just outside of the town so he starts looking for a tree to get under, even if this area is scarce of them. The rain very quickly starts to pick up, he tries to rush himself, but starts to feel the soreness from earlier. He has a quick remembrance of some work, but he gets distracted by a mare's voice nearby, which is pretty out of place where he is.

He turns his head toward the sound, seeing a figure beneath the shade of a tree, probably taking cover from the rain as well. He peers a bit, trying to get a better view, but it's too dark to see who's there. He takes a few steps closer, still a bit away.

"Uhh, hello." He says out loud asking, "Did you say something?"

Ashen starts to step towards the tree again upon not receiving an answer, and met with a sudden bad feeling.

A loud sound cracks through the sky, a bolt of blue lightning kits the tree, Ashen flinches as the sudden flash meets his eyes. His vision gets a bit blurry as he slowly starts to open his eyes to check on her, it clears just enough for him to see the tree and her silhouette. The bark has been scorched and splintered and he hears it start to crack.

He yells out, "Move!" as the tree starts to lean and crack. He flares up his wings and darts towards her, adrenaline fueling his reaction time as he lifts off his hooves. Things seem to get much slower as he gets closer, the tree's mass starting to draw down on them both. His hoof goes around her back and over her torso, knocking her off her feet and along with him in his arms as the tree brushes right behind them, crashing into the ground still as if in slow motion. The quick moment of adrenaline dies off instantly, time goes by normally to him and they hit the ground on their sides.

"Ugh.." He shakes his head as he starts to sit up, looking towards the tree's impact spot, seeing it completely flattened by the trunk. He sighs in relief, not wanting to know what would have happened. His mind is still racing, his heart is still racing, he feels his chest to feel it. Then he remembers her..he thought a little too much about the outcome that he forgot about the mare. He turns to her, still lying on the ground, asking,

"Are..you alright?

As Sunset Wishes admired the beautiful twilight before her, she decided that this little road trip was officially the perfect way to spend her vacation. Each place she visited had its own unique twilight, and she loved all of them. She gave a contented sigh and turned to the forest, shrugging her wings a bit to readjust her saddlebags. She was about to get a running start, to fly into the trees when a sound caught her attention.

After a few moments of looking she saw a team of weather ponies fluttering about, seemingly working on some last minute rain. With a snort and a grin, Sunset turned and took off anyway. Besides, how bad could a last minute She wasn't the fastest flyer but she was fairy certain she could beat the rain. She soared just over the treetops, occasionally letting her hooves brush the leaves. Before too long though, the trees start to became more scarce, and the rain started to fall. It started as a drizzle but was getting heavier fast.

Sunset was confident in her ability to fly, but as her father always said, better safe than sorry. She angled down, towards a tree, but a sudden gust of wind sent her crashing into the ground. She yelped on impact, but it wasn't too bad. Nothing broken anyway. She stood up shaking her head and thought she heard a voice. She looked around and was about to call out when a blinding flash and massive noise disoriented her. Her head was spinning but she looked up just in time to see the tree start to fall, right in her direction. She locked up, eyes wide, head still spinning slightly from the crash and lightning strike, when the world became a blur of motion and noise. She blinked a few times when things calmed and looked back to see the tree on the ground near by, and a stallion pushing himself up beside her.

The stallion stared at the trunk for a moment before turning to her. "Are… you alright?" he asked.

Sunset blinked a few more times before sitting up as well. "Yeah, I'm…" She started to dust herself off with a wing, but realized that the rain made the effort fruitless. "I'll live." she said with a small grin. She tried hard to stop her forelegs from shaking, but her life had almost ended. She was still shell shocked. "I uh, I really owe you one, thank you." her voice cracked, in the smallest way.