All right, unto the breach into Chapter 1.
We start off with a piece of Twilight's Harmony Theory study, noting that you have to really delve into the meanings of Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Honesty, Loyalty, and Magic "understand exactly what it is that makes the Magic of Harmony so very potent. And so disastrous." Yipe. Also she notes that any reader even slightly familiar with "the events of the past three decades" will be familiar with the Elements- guess this study took a while and things weren't exactly peaceful....
And Rainbow Dash wakes up, to darkness, stiffness and a dead stallion in close quarters, before crashing her way up and out into some sort of construction site in the middle of an unfamiliar forest, with distant, untended clouds reminding her of Everfree weather. Surely those other two pegasi approaching can help her out, though....
Too bad they literally aren't speaking the same language. Dash, bless her, for once tries being somewhat calm and explaining herself ("What Would Applejack Do?"), but when she happens to name drop Celestia she sets off their berserk buttons and starts a dogfight. Imagine that, what with their armor reflecting Luna's color scheme. Eventually, though, she's shot with a tranquilizer but still manages to power up to Mach 3 (how surreal is that right after reading Higher Flier), getting well away from the mooks before dropping out of the sky.
Cue a new perspective, that of one Star Fall, foraging after working up an appetite crossing the "Everstorm", from her home in the "sunlands" to the "nightlands". Apparently the food all tastes different here- she chalks it up to a fundamental difference in magic between the two areas. She gets more to think about, though, hearing Dash's sonic (rain?)boom and remembering the Republicans are testing explosives again (snrk). Finally she sees Dash tumbling out of the sky in the distance, triggering rescue instinct for her and another Higher Flier flashback for me, but she misses after freezing up (being on some sort of spy mission and not wanting to draw attention to herself). Fortunately Dash is a lot more resilient than she expects (though she won't be going anywhere for a while)- and also has a stunning grasp of "Old Equestrian".
Star Fall frantically calls for the aid of her griffin "guard", Astrid, and though the latter grumbles at the interruption the two make to get Dash to safer ground. End chapter. Still in the middle of setup, but whatcha gonna do?
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