Bruised Apples, Lightning Storms

Enthrallment

Though it had only been an hour, Rainbow's wings were stinging, the wounds reopening. It had been a while since her last real flight, but she was soaring nonetheless, a hundred feet above the new floor and it's rough, unshaven terrain. The green beneath her was still fascinating, and it gave her strength knowing how close she was to touching it, to be living such random beauty.

Was it warm there? Maybe. It's as if she had already been there in her mind, but her body couldn't move fast enough. What if on lazy days, she could just lie about, basking in the sun from dawn to dusk, feeling the rays and daydreaming of...stuff. Things she didn't have. Happiness?

No, she wasn't sad, her childhood had been fairly satiated in that regard. What was she missing, then?

She skidded in midair, wings burning with the effort required to fly without momentum. While her coat had always been a pure sky blue, she could feel a sudden redness coaxing itself into her face with the mere thought of it.

What the actual hell? You have never found that with anypony before, what makes you think you can find it now? No one will ever think about you in that way.

Ever.

She cursed internally for overruling the fantasy. Historically, it always told the truth; that was it's purpose. Even so, a small piece of her hoped she, for once, was wrong. About any of it.

The first pang of hunger brought her back to the sky; she needed food. Her stomach lurched again, with anticipation:

This would be her first encounter of the real world.

She began to properly observe her current location, wings beating faster with newfound enthusiasm, a small smile making it's way onto her face.

Currently surrounding her was a higher, more ragged-looking field of dark green, a different substance than the normal flat-ish green floor. It was higher, connected to the actual floor with thick wooden poles. Hovering closer, Rainbow spotted several specks of red, yellow, and lighter green among the shaded sea. A mere twenty feet from the layer, she gasped at the revelation.

They were apples.

Not being able to contain herself any longer, she dove through the layer of greeny-black...

...and immediately ran into a wooden plank.

Massaging her aching ribs, she gazed drearily around, completely forgetting the adrenaline. Flat on her stomach, her legs dangled off every side of the platform she landed on. The light had been extinguished as she passed the surface, and she could barely see where she was now sprawled over the wooden board.

She could tell it wasn't really a board: it had uneven patches, and the sanding job was terrible. Running a hoof along the surface, tough, dark brown skin and knots were scattered chaotically along it. The brittle layers scuffed away at the touch.

As her eyes adjusted, Rainbow sighed in awe. More boards and poles could be seen, other than her own, sticking out from the bigger, supporting poles which connected to the vast green. The mass of black green was actually just bunches of small, darkly colored pieces of paper, sticking out from the planks. Everything in here had a connection to the wood, which continued down to the floor.

Though she wasn't certain, she believed these were called, 'trees'.

It was a new, private world, blocking out everything else. Tiny beams of light shone in through the ceiling. These makeshift mini spotlights were randomly placed, and when she stared long enough, she thought she could see them move. They drifted lazily, highlighting aspects of the darkened haven. Every so often, a ray would hit the skin of an apple, enhancing the contrast between dark atmosphere and fruit it stored in itself.