-----------------------------------------------------------G2-------------------------------------------------------------
>Up and down lost all meaning.
>It was simply falling.
>Thankfully, it ended almost instantly.
>Gabby hit the ground with a painful thud.
>The hard concrete was still warm from the afternoon sun.
>Certainly far wetter than she remembered.
>She blinked the dizziness from her eyes.
>The cityscape was alien to the hybrid.
>What skyline she could see was unfamiliar.
>She turned her attention to the ground.
>That distinctive cross pattern was absent from the road's surface.
>She shifted her gaze up slightly.
>People could be seen sprinting and driving away from her.
>If they didn't share a city with her, they'd at least know about her, and her reputation for being gentle.
>This reaction proved the opposite case.
>Focusing on what she could hear, the sounds of the weather, panicked screams and sirens began to fill her large ears.
>She staggered to her hooves, wincing in pain a little from the impact.
>Looking down after standing, some of her fears about the roads were confirmed.
>She was standing in a huge crater of her own creation, and it was already rapidly filling with rainwater.
>She lifted her forehooves out and onto the roadway.
>The gentle steps were accompanied by a sound she hadn't heard in a long time.
>She glanced down at her hooves and winced again.
>Large cracks spread from where they met the pavement.
>She could only imagine what the ground directly beneath them looked like now.
>Gingerly she stepped forward, pulling her back hooves out of the crater.
>The nearby buildings shook noticeably as they made two new potholes.
>She took a better look around.
>Looking forward, the street ended two blocks away in a T-bone junction.
>Looking back, the street seemed to extend farther, curving away out of sight after roughly three blocks.
>Tall buildings flanked her on either side, with only one or two of them short enough for her to peer over without standing on her back hooves.
>She looked back in time to see a squad of police cruisers struggling to navigate through the car-clogged junction at the end of the street.
>She half-expected a number of them to turn down the street towards her, but they all pushed through the mechanical crowd down the road to her left.
>Something was higher on their agenda than her sudden arrival.
>She set her sights on the T-bone junction and started trotting carefully, determined to figure out just what that something was.
>Ahead of her, the cars caught in the traffic jam started blaring their horns wildly.
>Some drivers swerved their vehicles onto the sidewalks to escape.
>Some took to abandoning their cars in the hope that they could outrun the behemoth.
>Others could only look in a mix of awe and fear as the giant creature began moving towards them.
>The ground began shaking in a rhythmic fashion as she approached.
>Some car alarms were set off by her movements, only adding another instrument to the orchestra of panic.
>The hybrid pony gave a slight frown as she realized her predicament.
>There were too many cars and people ahead for her to step over.
>She stopped her advance, her forelegs mere car lengths from the gridlock.
>She cleared her throat.
''I don't want to hurt any of you; I just want to get by is all.''
>Although she kept her voice down, it still rang clear over the fleeing crowd and was easily heard over the raging storm.
>It did little to calm anyone's nerves but she could see some of the runners staggering a little.
>It never occurred to her that these people might not speak the same language.
>Somehow, most of the cars in the street managed to all get turned around and out of the way, allowing her to access the intersection.
>With a couple ginger steps she eased towards the intersection and looked left.
>Her eyes widened at the sight.
>The six-lane thoroughfare looked as if both a riot and a tornado went down it simultaneously.
>Damp papers, office furniture and what she thought for sure were chunks of building interiors littered parts of the street.
>Traffic was reduced to one lane either way in some stretches.
>The road was also littered with large piles of mud.
>She used one of her horns to scratch her head in confusion as her gaze drifted to the nearby buildings.
>Sides, corners, and complete sections of them were just, gone, exposing the interiors to the elements.
>It looked like someone had taken a knife to them and just cut out chunks.
>The traffic was so confined by all the debris that she could, in theory, trot down the road after the cop cars she saw earlier.
>She looked ahead and saw the parade of flashing lights amidst the congestion.
>All the people opting to flee by foot had apparently taken shelter in the nearby buildings, as the road ahead was clear of them.
>She carefully stepped out into the intersection, over the traffic, and into the unused two rightmost lanes.
>The drivers finding herself under her form were torn between looking at the moving monstrosity and keeping their eyes on the road as she aligned her hooves with their destinations.
>Traffic kept moving, but no one was sure of what this latest threat to their safety planned to do, until...
''I'm going to follow you all down the road to see what's going on. I don't wanna step on any of you, so no sudden movements, okay?''
>There were no discernible reactions to her decree, but at least there wasn't any panicked swerving.
>Taking in a breath, she started to trot down the road, being careful to stay in her two lanes.
>Every person nearby could feel the tremors caused by her steps, gentle as they might be.
>Some of the evacuating drivers had their nerves rattled as her left hooves landed nearby.
>Aside from the crash course in driving during an earthquake, everyone remained as calm as the present situation would allow.
>People gawked at her from the windows of the buildings as she trotted past.
>Flashes of red, yellow and white caught her eye as she traversed another intersection.
>Her curiosity getting the better of her, she took a detour down the street to her right.
>This road was almost as narrow as the one she crashed into, but thankfully mostly devoid of cars.
>She moved towards the source of the flashing lights: a chest-high building.
>Reaching, turning, and facing the structure, she gasped with a mixture of surprise and horror as it became painfully clear what this was.
>She lowered her head closer to the building's roof.
''How did a fire engine get here?''
>Her gentle voice rattled the bones of the engine's crew for a number of different reasons.
>As the massive creature stared them down, the fire chief re-opened the car door and slowly motioned at the nearest fireman.
>''Psst, Chuck, get back inside the car. They can't see movement. Get back inside really slowly and-''
>His comrade bolts for the door, leaping in with a yell.
>''Bitch, does that look like a dinosaur to you?!''
>Gabby sighed lightly as the crew scrambled back into the vehicle.
''I'll get you all down from there. Just hold on to something.''
>''Hey uh, Chief, it's talking to us.''
>''Not a dinosaur,'' the other nodded.
>Most of the crew buckled up.
>Those that couldn't, held on for dear life.
>She extended both of her horns towards the vehicle, making sure she had a careful yet firm grip on it, which was harder than normal thanks to the rain.
>With a grunt of effort, she carefully lifted it from its perch on the rooftop.
>She had to resist the urge to have her horns coil around the truck as she maneuvered it to terra firma; after all, she didn't want to damage it.
>As soon as she set it down, she raised one of her appendages and saluted the truck with it.
>The fire truck stuck around for mere seconds before it turned around and took off down the damaged roadway.
>She smiled and performed a u-turn of her own, heading back for the thoroughfare.
''Hopefully they can get where they were going...''
>She turned back onto the main street, eying the conga line of cop cars ahead of her.
>The law enforcement vehicles had only managed to travel one more block while she was rescuing the truck.
>She kept trotting, minding her steps and flattening any debris her hooves came into contact with.
>As she briefly paused to look at all the chaos, a single thought lingered in her mind.
>If she didn't cause this, what did?
>The answer came with a splash.
>The hybrid pony lifted a forehoof, shifting her weight to the side to lean ever so slightly.
>She stared at the rapidly growing puddle inside the newly formed pothole.
>There it was again.
>A shock wave coursed across the surface, splashing at the center.
>Gabby narrowed her eyes, watch the puddle repeat the action again and again with growing energy.
>She turned her head down one side of the intersection.
>Judging by what she could hear, the shaking was coming from that direction.
>She looked back towards the main road she was on currently.
>The police vehicles were nearly out of sight for her as the street wound around a corner.
>Looking down the side street again, she could make out the fence of a city park a few blocks down.
>Her curiosity getting the better of her, Gabby broke off her pursuit and wandered down the side street.
>As she carefully navigated the street, she could feel the vibrations getting stronger.
>She hoped the source of the shaking would yield the answer to her question.
