Fluttershy usually wasn't out this late, and certainly not with the ominous bank of storm clouds that had gathered over Ponyville near her cottage, but they weren't there earlier that day, and she'd gotten sidetracked on her way home from a picnic when an adorable little family of chipmunks had lost one of their little ones, and she couldn't just abandon the poor things! But they had been taken care of and were all snug in their home, and it was time for her to do the same. If only it wasn't so...so dark...

A bright yellow flash broke the sky, and Fluttershy was under the cover of a nearby bush before it even died down, accompanied by a booming thunderclap and the sound of splintering wood. O-oh my...She peeked out from her cover, shaking with fear. That was n-n-nearby...oh, if only I was s-s-safe at h-home...But she wasn't, and to get there, she'd have to get out from under the foliage. It's okay, Fluttershy. You can...you c-can d-do this, she told herself, steeling herself to take a mad dash from her hiding spot, not noticing that the cloud cover was beginning to disperse.

She was maybe half a step from the bush when she heard another sound, like a long cry, and...and sounded like it was coming straight for her! She let out a yelp and ran back under the bush, shivering and whimpering, waiting for the thing to pass by. "...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAOOF!!" the sound came, as something fell out of the sky and landed nearby, scattering grass and dirt in all directions.

Fluttershy was too scared to look at whatever it was that fell until she heard a groan coming from it. Fearing it was some monster that had come to gobble her up, she took a look to decide if she should run, which most every part of her was screaming at her to do. Just one glance before obliging, though. One look. She saw a long furrow torn through the ground. Another look. She saw a dark shape in the end of the furrow. One more look. It looked like...a pony! Though she wanted so badly to just high-tail it out of there, her concern won out over her fear for just a bit.

She hesitated for a moment, then rushed over to the groaning figure's side, turning it over. It was awfully hard to see it, though the dispersion of the clouds did make a difference. "M-my goodness! Are you alright?" The pony's coat was a dark grey, nearly black. Its mane and tail cleared that gap entirely, so deep as to give the impression of a different space entirely. Also, there was a small flame on part of the mane. Fluttershy let out an "Eep!" and tried to start swatting at it to put it out, but the pony chose that moment to sit up and open its eyes. They were a striking yellow, and "striking" did seem to be the appropriate descriptor there. They stood out from the face with almost a glow of their own in the night, a peculiar energy seeming to radiate from them.

The pony shook his head and peered around, mumbling. "This isn't where I..." Whereas the voice while grumbling could have just belonged to a deep alto mare, the speaking voice is clearly much more that of a stallion. The figure fixes his eyes on Fluttershy and she flinches at the intensity of his gaze. "You there, fair mare. Where am I?" he asks, voice firm and commanding.

"W-well, um. You see-eek!" Fluttershy started to answer, but ducked and covered her head, hearing a low whistling noise and seeing something barreling through the air towards her.

"Hm?" she heard him grunt questioningly, then take a step sideways, followed by a satisfying clonk and the sound of something bouncing and rolling in the grass.  Then silence.  She opened her eyes and took her hooves off of them to look up at the stallion.  He was looking in the direction of what had been about to hit her, and there was a smoking wooden knob on the ground nearby.  It was hot to the touch when she tried to pick it up, so she didn't.

The stallion still hadn't moved. "Um...th-thank you for..." Fluttershy started, but was interrupted again, that time by the stallion tipping and falling over sideways. "Oh my!" She hopped to her hooves and ran to his side, taking his head in her hooves. His eyes were still open, but glazed over. There was a big ugly welt on his head, just behind his horn. And his mane was still on fire. "My goodness! Oh goodness!" She batted at the flame to try to put it out, and she almost did before the stallion shook his head awake again.

"Confound it, I'm trying to sleep...?" He said, starting in a loud voice that startled her away but sounding unsure by the time he finished his sentence. He sat up again, turning towards the knob on the ground still sounding unfocused. "That..."

"Oh goodness, are you alright? You've been knocked on the head pretty badly. I should get you-"

The stallion payed her no mind, reaching out and picking the knob up with his hooves, turning it and looking at it. "...bed...?"

"Yes, you should be in bed. You should get plenty of rest. I should be in be-eek!"

The stallion's eyes regained their previous intensity and he jumped up to his hooves, still holding the wooden knob. "This was part of my bed!" he said, practically shouting. "Are you telling me I got a bed that can't even take a single lightning strike?" The force of command is gone from his voice and he sounds more petulant than anything else.

"Um, I mean, well-"

The gears turned in the stallion's head and he stomped his hooves. "And I bet that means the roof is gone from over my head! What kind of shoddy construction was used in that place?" He was turned towards Fluttershy at that point, the flame in his mane giving his face an eerie glow.

"Yes, well, um. You know that your, uh, mane is, uh-"

"It's a good thing that place got destroyed, it was probably an engineering deathtrap! I probably saved my own life!" The stallion chucked the bed knob away and energy crackled around his horn, the same brilliant yellow as his eyes.  It jumped from there and coiled around one of his other hooves before he turned and hurled it at the knob, shattering it and causing Fluttershy to cower behind her hooves again, whimpering.

"Honestly, forget to discharge for one night..." She heard him pacing side to side. "Which way to city hall from here?" she heard him ask, then silence except the crackling of the fire in his mane. Fluttershy pointed a shaky hoof in a direction, still not looking. "I said-" She whimpered again, louder as she heard him turn towards her, then fall silent again. A long moment passed, then the stallion snorted and started walking away at a brisk trot.

Fluttershy waited a bit before peeking out behind her hooves, watching him go.  As soon as he turned a corner, she jumped to her hooves and bolted in the direction of her cottage. If another family of chipmunks gets separated that late in the evening, I'll just not...I'll just...I'll probably help them anyway... she admitted to herself. But then straight home. Straight home!

The rest of her trip home was largely uneventful...if you don't count the yell, followed by a distant splash and the sound of rising steam.