Blue Angel

by V-Pony

Truth or Dare-Pt 11: Thunderstruck

Sorry for the long delay, but I bring you even more science and history!!!!
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October 8th, West Ponyville Park...

"Uh, bro...I got a question: what's up with you and getting set on fire?"
If anypony else besides the little orange filly that Volare had to admit couldn't be anything but adorable (even when his mane was in flames) had asked that question, he might have blown his top in frustration. Luckily, a deep breath and the obscenity-destroying presence of the Cutie Mark Crusaders limited his reaction to extinguishing his smoking strands in the Ponyville Stream (the deep breath more for the plunge under the water than for its calming effects), which also served to reduce said shouts of frustration to a massive blast of bubbles instead.

"Is Volare trying to get his Cutie Mark in underwater breathing?" Sweetie Belle asked after the pilot didn't come up for air for nearly a full half-minute.

"Or bubble-blowin'," Apple Bloom cocked her head as Scootaloo trotted forward to poke her brother with a concerned hoof.

"Uh, bro? You ok-ah!" she jumped back as Volare's head breached the water in whale-like fashion, complete with an obligatory blast of water and air from his lips.

"Yeah, never better Scoots," he sighed and ran a hoof through his spiky mane while looking at his reflection in the gently-flowing stream, noting that the second-most forward strand of mane was significantly shorter than its brothers, and the tip was burnt black. "Well, guess it could be worse," he muttered, knowing that the moment Rarity saw him she'd probably chastise him for sullying her good hoofwork to his mane...then again, she hadn't complained much about the dragon scorching his tail, so...

He glanced up at the grove of birch trees growing on the far side of the small park just south of the Ponyville Library, but more particularly at the small cloud hovering up next to them. Ah, the source of my pain...damn you, Mr. Fluffy! As hard as it might be to believe, that little pile of harmless-looking fluff had been a pain in his flank, wings, tail, and everywhere in between for the past twelve hours. He'd been attempting to move it about as he'd seen the Weather Team doing almost effortlessly, but as he'd found out, moving a near-weightless object was much harder than it sounded! To begin with, it was a freakin' cloud, and although he'd gotten used to walking on clouds in Dash's house, pushing them around was a different story altogether. Most of the time, his hoof simply poked into the fluff and did nothing.
After several hours of consulting the "Advanced Weather Control Techniques" books that Cloud Kicker had lent him, he'd gotten frustrated and slammed a hoof into the cloud, which caused a rather interesting reaction in the form of a lightning bolt that shot out and set his mane on fire, leading to him playing ostrich in the stream...multiple times. Needless to say, getting zapped by thousands of volts of electricity sucked...a lot. And having it happen right in front of the supportive CMC didn't help much in the 'setting a good example' department.
Dammit, this would have been so much easier if Cloud Kicker had just given him some hooves-on training herself! Why'd she have to fly off and leave him after only a cursory example of weather control?!

He caught a streak of color in the ripples of the stream and he looked up to behold one of the Weather Team ponies (probably Flitter or Cloudchaser if the color was any indication) flying high above him and pushing a sizable chunk of cloud fluff towards the growing wall of clouds at the northern end of the Ponyville Valley.
Oh, that was why...
Turns out when Rainbow Dash had arrived in Cloudsdale, the Weather Bosses there had surprised her with a B+ rating on her Weather Captaincy there.

"Better than last year's," her snarky letter reply had explained. She was honestly surprised they didn't at least mention Discord's chocolate rain and cotton candy clouds antics. However, there had been one last minor detail: because of the draining of the Highland Reservoir for Tornado Day, Ponyville ended up being short a significant amount of water this year, and so the Weather Bosses deemed it necessary to take semi-drastic action for the valley in the form of a cold front (which would also usher in winter a few weeks earlier than normal, but it was the only real way to fix things in an efficient manner).

Thus, while Rainbow Dash stayed in Cloudsdale and sat on the Equestrian Weather Captain's Board that week, "a stupidly boring meeting of mostly stuck-up Pegasus stallions obsessed with their status and convinced that their own road-apples didn't stink because of it," as Dash had so colorfully put it, she gave the orders to Cloud Kicker to head up the Weather Team in her stead and ready the valley for the cold front to arrive that Friday. This wasn't like any normal thunderstorm though: a cold front was miles long, and required everypony's cooperation to make sure the East end of it didn't get too long and lash Canterlot Crag with nasty weather, or more importantly prevent the West end from snaking out over the Everfree Forest, where the excess magical energy from the wild-growing Zap Apples could potentially spin that end of the cold front into a monster storm called a Supercell, a nasty, whirling thundercloud that often seemed to have a mind of its own and could easily devastate Ponyville if it got out of hoof.

This minor logistical nightmare meant that Cloud Kicker couldn't spare the hours needed to educate Volare on Weather Work; the best she was able to do was to lend him a few textbooks, all of advanced techniques that assumed the reader already knew the basics. And try to connect the dots as he might, Volare was making little headway. He couldn't ask any of his friends for help since every Pegasus with Weather Work experience was helping to prepare the Valley by piling up clouds, disposing of potentially dangerous flying debris, or making preparations to lash down any loose items once the cold front did get there. And the ones that were available to help either had zero weather experience (Fluttershy) or were rather off-limits for obvious reasons (Twilight Sparkle). Damn, he could have used her help like when he learned about Pegasus flight, but then she'd want to know why he wanted to learn Weather Work, he'd have to either tell the truth about the game he and Dash were involved in or lie and that'd just-GAH! He'd never be ready by Friday, and he just KNEW Dash probably had something planned for their game when she got back...and he was sure to lose at this rate...

In short, Volare was having a very bad day. Thank goodness for the support of his fellow Crusaders who'd done everything from cheer him on, to taking over berating the cloud for him (in hopes of getting some sort of 'cloud-cussin' Cutie Mark according to Apple Bloom), and even zapping it with (albeit weak) sparks in Sweetie Belle's case, which surprised the hell out of him the first time. She just explained that she was worried for him and got mad and just...boom it happened! Taking Twilight's history of magic into consideration, Volare knew that meant that she probably cared a lot for him, and that just made his heart swell at the adorableness of it all. Not to be outdone, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo soon offered to buck the cloud for him, but he stopped them before they got themselves hurt.

"Cutie Mark Crusaders huddle!" The younger fillies complied within moments and gathered around him in a way that suggested conspiracy to anypony outside their little organization. But this was how things were: whether he liked it or not, he had become their de-facto leader and they looked up to him in many ways now. And it was precisely that reason why he had to put their best interests ahead of his own. Not only had he become fond of them, but he knew that if they got hurt on his watch he'd have an angry fashionista to deal with on one hoof, and possibly risked being tarred and feathered by the entire Apple clan on the other.

More importantly, there was Scootaloo, his adoptive little sister, whom he made no mystery that he cared for more than anypony else in Equestria (nor would she let him with her constant announcements of her own sisterly love for him). If he got hurt, that was all well and good; he'd committed himself to military duty knowing full well that he risked injury and death in the stead of others every time he went on the job. But if she or her friends got hurt because of him...well...beration, tarring, and feathering would compare little to the lack of forgiveness he'd reserve for himself. He was determined to have the dragon incident be the last straw in that regard, and pledged from that day onwards to be more careful with them. Being zapped by a cloud may not seem like much hurt, but he had no intention of standing by and letting harm befall them if he could help it, either.

"What's the plan, bro?" Scootaloo, asked.

"Yeah, what're we gonna do about that dern cloud over there?" Apple Bloom squinted at the piece of fluff floating by the trees. "He's bein' all innocent like he ain't hurt nopony, but we know better, right?"

"Right!" Sweetie Belle squeaked. "Volare, what do we do?"

"Yeah, you took on a dragon, bro! You won't let a little cloud stop you, right?"

"Heh, it's not that simple, guys," Volare did his best to suppress a sigh, knowing he was likely in for more pain in the near future, not to mention he didn't know how to break it to them that he didn't have an answer without wounding their spirits (or worse, causing them to come up with their own crazy solution). But then an answer to both problems hit him: "But I just wanna make one thing clear: this is between me and Mr. Fluffy. Nopony else, got it? Whatever you guys see me do here in the next little bit, please, please, please don't imitate me, ok?" Your sisters would kill me otherwise.

"Ok...but what're ya'll gonna do?" Apple Bloom cocked her head in concern at the grim look on Volare's face as he turned to face "Mr. Fluffy."

"Oh, you know...something stupid," he muttered and steeled himself to charge and tackle that damn cloud into the trees if he had to. But just as he mentally signed his WILL, he heard soft chuckling coming from his left and he turned to find the source of it sitting in the shade of an oak tree.

"Hmm-hmm-hmm, I must say: you're quite the amusing pony, Lieutenant Volare," Ravenfire shook her head softly and flashed him a friendly smile.

"Yeah, how so?" the pilot asked, feeling a little embarrassed that the older mare had been sitting there and watching him act like a fool for god knew how long. "And how do you know my rank?" he asked as he approached, the CMC close behind.

"Ms. Rainbow Dash told me quite a lot about you when she gave me my little...review session a while ago," Ravenfire's violet eyes twinkled as she smiled. "You've got much in common with her, if I might be so bold to say so."

"Wh-whatcha mean by that?" Volare cocked his head and halted a few feet in front of the seated rust-red Pegasus.

"Oh, nothing like you're thinking I'm implying, I promise," she nickered and tossed her mane. "Please, you and your Crusaders sit," she patted the ground and shot a glance towards the north end of the valley. "Let's not waste what nice weather we have left, eh?" Ravenfire had been a bit of an enigma since Volare had met her, and he'd never really gotten a chance to simply sit down and get to know her better. Well at this point anything was better than being electrocuted again, and so Volare complied as did the CMC, who seated themselves on either side of him, with Scootaloo preferring to perch on his withers and fix Ravenfire with a strange look.

"Why aren't you up there helping the Weather Ponies, Raven?" the orange filly asked pointedly, drawing a raised brow of amusement from the older mare.

"Heh, straight to the point I see. Your big brother's influence is rubbing off on you, it seems," the older mare laughed again, a light tinkling sound that belied her apparent age and went on for several moments before she cut herself off with a quick snort and a sigh. "Forgive me, it's just been a long time since I've met such a sharp little filly. To answer your question, Cloud Kicker deemed that I wasn't quite up to snuff on team-based Weather Work, and I doubt anypony in town would want an older mare like me doddering about and getting in the way, so...here I am, enjoying the last bit of Autumn. Pity it has to go away so fast," she glanced up at the remaining orange and red leaves clinging to the branches above her. "Never was a huge fan of winter, you see."

"Me neither," Sweetie Belle spoke up and pawed at a stray piece of grass by her hoof. "Rarity always makes me bundle up too much."

"That's only because she cares about your health, child," Ravenfire replied with a sagely smile. "I've seen how she can be a little overbearing, and more than a bit picky when it comes to what to wear, but I can tell she means well. Element of Generosity indeed."

"Meh, she lets it go to her head too much, I think," Sweetie Belle grumbled, and received a chuckling wing-pat on the head by Volare.

"No argument there," the pilot said and turned his attention back to Ravenfire. "So...what else did Rainbow Dash tell you about me?"

"Oh, quite a good bit. I know you're military, your rank of course, that you're a pilot, and that you're not a natural Pegasus, and-"

"That's not his fault, you know," Scootaloo spoke up sharply in her brother's defense. True, nopony in town had really said many negative things in regards to Volare being different, but she wasn't about to pass up the chance to stamp out such talk if she could help it.

"Oh I know, I know, she explained it to me, Scootaloo, and I mean no offense by saying so," Ravenfire waved a dismissive hoof and looked at Volare. "In fact, I'm rather interested in Volare's side of how he's coping with his rather unique situation."

"Oh well there's not much to tell, really," Volare nuzzled the back of his head against Scootaloo's chin in thanks for her defense as he spoke. "I mean, I'm flying because Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy were really patient in helping me out, and living with Rainbow Dash has been...an adventure and a half so far, but for the most part, I think I'm coping ok."

"I see," Ravenfire replied with no small amount of skepticism as she glanced at the burns on his mane and the cloud he'd been about to go WWE on. "Care to explain why you were losing a fight to a cloud, then?"

"Uh yeah...that..." Volare felt mortification burn its way across his face before Ravenfire rose to her hooves, stretched her wings, and trotted over to the cloud.

"Whoa watch it Raven! Mr. Fluffy's nasty!" Apple Bloom cried, but the shortish mare either didn't hear her or didn't care for she simply faced the cloud, stuck her hoof into it, and dragged it over to them like a mother would her naughty child by the ear. The CMC's jaws fell open and Volare only felt his embarrassment grow as Ravenfire sat the cloud in front of him and looked him in the eye.

"You know how to fly, that much is true, but from what I've gathered from observation and from Ms. Dash, you don't know a thing about Weather Work, do you? Either that or you have a strange fascination with being burned."

"I know, right?" Scootaloo giggled before catching a look from Volare and she quickly grimmed up. "Yeah, so he can't control clouds. So what? My bro's still awesome!"

"Trust me, I wasn't calling that into question, Scootaloo. I've heard a great many things about him, and seen the evidence of a good deal more, like the opening of the Gilded Griffin and the ponies that brought together. Volare, I just saw Trixie and Octavia today and I don't think two ponies could possibly be happier in each others' presence," Ravenfire grinned proudly. "And of course, the whole town knows how Volare and Scootaloo saved each other during the Running of the Leaves." At that mention, Scootaloo wrapped her hooves around Volare's neck in a hug. "The list goes on and on, so for somepony to question that would mean they truly don't know him. But we're getting off-topic here. Volare, what do you know about Weather Work?"

"Well, not much obviously," he gestured to the blackened piece of his mane. "Cloud Kicker lent me some of her books, but they're all advanced stuff, and I don't know the basics besides cloud-walking."

"I see," Ravenfire scratched her nose for a moment before brightening. "Would you believe that's actually good news?"

"How in the hay is that good news?!" Apple Bloom threw her hooves in the air.

"Because, since he doesn't know anything to begin with, we can start with a blank slate free of bad habits, child," the grey-maned mare smiled sweetly before turning back to Volare and adopting more of a no-nonsense tone. "But since he's well-acquainted with cloud-walking, we don't have to start from the very bottom either. Now then, since you know how to fly and cloud-walk, I'd also assume you know how Pegasus magic works, correct?"

"Yep, they fly with their wings and maneuver by projecting their willpower into the air through their hooves and other parts of the body, allowing them to bounce themselves in almost any direction they wish and-hey, what's so funny?" Volare demanded as Ravenfire struggled to politely suppress a chuckle behind a hoof.

"Oh, nothing just...heh-heh, please pardon me-ahem!" she cleared her throat and straightened up. "Sorry, could you please repeat how Pegasus magic works?"

Volare sighed and rolled his eyes, feeling a bit like a new recruit being badgered by a drill sergeant all of a sudden.
"According to Typhoon VI's book, Pegasi maneuver by pushing off the air using their willpower projected through their hooves. Ninety percent of it's mental."

"Very true, and I know of old Typhoon's writings," Ravenfire replied, much to Volare's surprise. "And I also know that he had to be...rather careful with how he wrote his book so that certain little...exploitable details didn't become terribly available to the public eye, at least within the bounds of Equestria."

"What do you-"

"Tell me, Volare: what do you know about the weather in Equestria?" Ravenfire cut him off, that strange twinkle having returned to her eye yet again.

"Well um, I know the clouds come from Cloudsdale's Weather Factory, so the Pegasi use them to create weather for the country."

"I see...so what you mean is that Pegasi need the Weather Factory in order for weather to be created, correct?"

"That's what I've gathered, yeah. Why? And why do you keep chuckling like that?"

"Oh nothing, nothing...I've just been out of the country for so long, with different customs and such that it's a little strange to hear such...naive conversation in regards to the weather, that's all."

"Naive?" Volare cocked his head, nearly irritated but strangely curious as to what she meant. Ravenfire leaned in close, not unlike the way in which he and the CMC had huddled earlier, and her Chesire grin grew a fraction wider as she spoke in a tone just above a whisper.

"You make it sound as if Pegasi everywhere need the Weather Factory. Has it never occurred to you that since the Cloudsdale Weather Factory only serves Equestria that other countries would have to resort to...other options?" As she spoke, she reached a hoof into the "Mr. Fluffy" and pulled out a ball of fluff which she held out for him to observe as she sat down on the grass. "Rainbow Dash also told me you're a physics major. Tell me, do you know the physical properties of water?"

"Yeah, it boils at 100 degrees Celcius, freezes at 0, and exists as either a solid in ice, liquid, or gas. Or in the case of clouds here, I guess a combination of gas and solid ice crystals, right?" The CMC simply watched, a little gobsmacked at the sudden science lesson.

"Correct. But what else do you know about water?" Ravenfire grinned and lifted her other forehoof over the fluff ball as one would do in preparation of crushing an ant.

"Um...I dunno, it can also be sublimated?"

"Hmph true, but that's a little too technical for this situation," Ravenfire chuckled and brought her hoof down, squeezing the fluff into the hollow between her forehooves. "What happens with water when its compressed?"

"It can't be compressed, at least not in a liquid state," Volare replied, shaking the cobwebs from the lessons he'd learned years ago.

"Correct, but what about in a gas state, like a cloud?" Ravenfire raised an eyebrow and smiled sagely as she awaited the answer to her little test.

"If a gas is compressed, it condensates into liquid." But as the words left his mouth, Ravenfire moved her left hoof off her right to show him the little pool of water she'd formed in her hoof, and his jaw dropped. "Whoa, that's...that's nuts. What did you do?!"

"Just what you said I did: I crushed the cloud into liquid water. It's one of the abilities a Pegasus is capable of. Surely you've seen Derpy Hooves making it rain by hopping upon rainclouds; how else did you think it worked?" she chuckled. But it made perfect sense: by condensing the cloud through jumping on it, they quite literally mashed the excess rain out of it. Ravenfire had done just that, but on a much smaller scale. "And this leads me to another point: remember when I said Pegasi in other countries have developed alternative methods in regards to weather? Well, what if I told you that those "alternate methods" were in fact the original methods and that the Weather Factory is the alternative?"

"Uh...I'd say I'd want some proof," Volare gave her skeptical look, but the confident expression on her face never wavered.

"That would be hard to come by in textual form, as many references to it have been lost or forgotten, unintentionally or otherwise, over the years for much of the same reasons why Typhoon had to be so careful in how he wrote his book." For some strange reason, Volare felt like he shouldn't be hearing this, but his sense of curiosity drove him past his sense of foreboding with all the grace of a runaway train.
"You see, while the Weather Factory is a much more efficient method of creating weather for Pegasi to manipulate to be sure, it didn't always exist," Ravenfire stood up and trotted a few steps away, still holding the puddle of water in one hoof. "Before the Factory, Pegasi had to make due with the means naturally granted to them. Problem was, those means were too slow, too antiquated, and too inefficient to keep up with the march and speed of Pegasus progress," she glanced grimly back over her shoulder. "But, since you've read Typhoon's book, you know well of how certain things can be forgotten in the hustle and bustle of development."

"Yeah, no kidding," Volare frowned and nodded, realizing just how lucky he was to have learned how to fly the way that he did. "But what other things were forgotten?"

"Or left behind?" Ravenfire cracked a half-smile. "Well, let's just say certain ponies still hold onto the old ways, as quaint and strange as others may view them," she looked down at the puddle in her hoof and sighed. "Too few do, but...just as other Pegasi value the relationships they build with the atmosphere, we too count ourselves lucky in our relationship with the weather, I think...despite what others may believe." And with a twinkle in her eye, she exhaled slowly, inhaled deeply, and then blew a gentle stream of air into her hoof. Volare and the CMC's eyes bugged as the puddle rippled, crested, and then evaporated into a little grey puff of cloud that she tossed into the air above her head with a grin. That grin dissolved into chuckles as she caught the shocked expressions on the Crusaders' faces and she shook her mane and nickered softly as Volare finally figured out a way to work his numb lips, but not before Scootaloo.

"H-how the...what the...that's impossible!" the little filly exclaimed, taking the words out of Volare's mouth. "That's just nuts! Nopony's supposed to be able to-"

"Impossible, or just obscure, Scootaloo?" Ravenfire regarded the incredulous little filly with a soft smile. "Why do ponies find what Rainbow Dash or The Wonderbolts or even Celestia herself to be unbelievable? Is it because it's impossible, or simply because it's a little amazing?" She snagged the puff out of the air and stuffed it back into "Mr. Fluffy" before settling herself back in the grass and smiling gently. "The same sort of amazement others feel when they see you fly your jet, Volare? It's not impossible...just a little out of the ordinary, and easily repeatable if one merely has the education for it." She leaned in closer and smiled sagely. "Would you like a little education, Volare?"

"Wh-why would you wanna do that?" the pilot winced at the skeptical words that instinctively left his mouth. But Ravenfire took it in stride and leaned in even closer to speak in that soft, just-above-a-whisper tone once more.

"Because you seem to be hell-bent on learning Weather Work, and I believe that I can at the very least help you avoid being electrocuted time and again, heh-heh-heh. By the way...why do you seem so intent on learning it that you'd skip the basics like that?" she cocked her head curiously.

"Well, I uh..."

"Because he said that he wanted ta learn it so he could have a job, ma'am," Apple Bloom spoke up, saving Volare's bacon for the moment and drawing a raised brow from the older mare. "Ya know, cuz now that tha restaurant is built, he said he wants ta start...what'd ya say Volare?"

"Earning his keep," Sweetie Belle smiled and hoofed Volare in the shoulder. "He's super responsible!"

"Yeah, he sure is!" Scootaloo hugged him around the neck while Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle continued to grin in admiration of their "leader", which of course only made him blush in mild embarrassment.

"Aww, I'm not sure who has who wrapped around their hoof more: you or these three little dears," Ravenfire shook her head and laughed gently before looking back at Volare. "So, if it's only you wanting to learn so you can earn a job, I believe I can help; and as I said, the good thing is since you have virtually no experience, you'll have few bad habits to break, so this may actually make things rather easy. But..." she poked at his hoof with hers. "If there're any other ulterior motives, you'd tell me, right? I just don't want to get in trouble with Ms. Dash or anypony else, you see," she winked knowingly, and Volare wondered if Dash had told her about their game. "No secrets, Volare?"

"No secrets, no," he nodded.

"Excellent," she grinned and stood up, dragging "Mr. Fluffy" behind her as she trotted away towards the trees.

"Hey, where're you going, Ms. Raven?" Scootaloo called out in surprise.

"Oh you know, these old bones need a little rest, and I believe three certain little fillies need to be home soon," she glanced towards the setting sun. "Wouldn't want anypony to believe that Volare isn't responsible now, would we?"

"Aww...darn," Sweetie Belle grumbled as Volare stood up. "I wanted to see something amazing."

"Oh you just may, little one...you just may," Ravenfire smiled once more as she jammed the cloud between two birch trees and hopped up onto it before settling down. "But you and your friends have class in the morning I'll warrant, so it'll just be Volare and I tomorrow. I hope that's alright."

"Yeah, Ah guess," Apple Bloom mumbled, just as crest-fallen.

"Don't be so downcast, young ones," the older mare said as she fluffed the cloud with a hoof. "With a little luck, by the time this cold front rolls through, you just may see your brave leader perform something rather...well, out of the ordinary. See you tomorrow at 10, Volare?"

"You betcha!" he replied with a salute before leading the CMC away to their respective homes. Meanwhile, as Ravenfire settled down and shut her eyes, a pair of curious violet eyes stared out an upper window of the Ponyville Library, their owner having watched the entire exchange with much interest. Twilight Sparkle couldn't hear what transpired between the CMC and Ravenfire, but it certainly set the gears turning in her head, and she turned to go search her Library for a reference on Weather Ponies, for she'd never seen nor heard of any Pegasus being able to create clouds from water like that in her life. She had a feeling it was going to be a long night...

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October 9th, Morning, West Ponyville Park...

"Ah good morning Volare! Right on time," Ravenfire beamed and hopped off her cloud as the blue stallion landed and approached her. "You ready to begin?"

"Yeah, but before we do, I've got a few questions for you, ma'am," Volare snorted slightly and halted a few feet from her. "For one, why do you really wanna help me? I mean, you said it yourself: what you know is obscure and that makes it amazing, but why are you so eager to share something that I can't even find a reference to in any of the Weather Books I was given? What's the catch? What do you know? I thought you were "rusty" and that's why you needed that little review session in the first place? And why do you wanna know if I have any secrets?" by the end of his little speech he felt the blood pounding in his ears and he reflexively pawed at the ground.

"You seem curiously suspicious of me, Volare," Ravenfire replied calmly, looking slightly hurt.

"Considering the ponies that have tried to deceive me and my situation since coming here, can ya really blame me for looking strange gift horses in their mouths?" he shrugged his wings and snorted again before regaining his composure and rubbing at his face with a hoof. "Sorry, I'm just-"

"Tired and stressed out, probably due to a bad night's sleep I take it? If so, I've got just the thing, come," she gestured towards a small cookpot under the trees. "I've put some tea on to boil that will help you relax and focus your energy on something a bit more productive." Despite his misgivings, Volare soon found himself partaking of tea and rolled oat cakes with the chipper mare. "Ah, chamomile tea. Just about nothing better for times like this," she smiled and sipped as she regarded the stallion from over the edge of her cup. "You know, unless my old mind is playing tricks on me, I don't believe we ever really got officially acquainted beyond our initial greetings after yours and Dash's little airshow. And if I remember right, the events at the party thereafter didn't really lend themselves to calm and collected conversation," she chuckled.

"Yeah, no kidding," Volare chuckled along with her. "That was pretty crazy. But Dash did tell me a bunch about you from your review session."

"Oh really? Do tell," Ravenfire took another sip and sat her cup down to listen.

"Well, um...she said you didn't always live in Equestria, but I kinda gathered that from what you said about customs here being different."

"Very intuitive. Please go on," she said and chewed on a small piece of oat cake.

"She said you made a lot of progress during your review session, though you could still use some work. Said something about you being out of practice."

"Yes, that's a good way of putting it. Out of practice Weather Team-wise in any case."

"So you lived on your own?"

"Did you determine that just now or did Ms. Dash tell you that?"

"Hmph, a little of both," Volare cocked a brow and smiled; there was something wonderfully quaint about this older mare, and he found her rather interesting to talk to, not to mention that they seemed to share a commonality in being newcomers to Equestria.

"Very sharp indeed, just as she said," Ravenfire nodded and bit off another piece of her cake. "She thinks highly of you, you know-despite what she might say otherwise. I can tell," she smiled knowingly.

"Well I think highly of her as well. She's saved my butt a bunch of times and...well, I'd be dead without her, plain and simple."

"Sounds like you feel as though you owe her."

"Well, not so much that as...ok, maybe," Volare crossed his hooves and frowned. "I mean, she busts her flank and...I guess she just makes me wanna give it my all too."

"Yes, she is quite inspiring, if more than a bit abrasive," Ravenfire chuckled.

"She definitely ignites the competitive fire in me, that's for sure," Volare grinned as he remembered admitting the exact same thing to Twilight before catching the little smile on the mare's face. "What?"

"So that's what this is all about, eh?"

"Uh, whatcha mean? And what's with that smile?"

"Because it all makes sense now, or at least some of it does," Ravenfire shook her mane incredulously. "I mean, I'd mentioned a little game in passing between you and her, but I never suspected an actual competition was ahoof. Ah don't try to hide it now, Volare; I can see it in your face. You're caught," she grinned victoriously.

"Damn," Volare growled and stared at the ground. "Guess you're gonna tell everypony, huh?"

"Now what makes you think I'd do that?" Volare's head snapped up in surprise at her reply. "This is clearly between you and Rainbow Dash, though I am curious as to the nature of it and the reasons for why you're playing it."

"Well...you know that Truth or Dare game we played at the party?"

"...are you serious?" Ravenfire's brows raised as Volare merely nodded. "You are serious...what in the world could have caused you to get wrangled into a game of Truth or Dare by her?"

"Eh-heh, let's say she got me between a rock and a hard place, and we'll leave it at that," he felt his face flush warmly.
Rock meaning cloud and hard meaning...well...yeah...eesh.

"Hmph, perhaps we all have our little secrets that don't need to be brought entirely to light," Ravenfire nodded in understanding. "And I take it that you learning Weather Work probably has something to do with it, huh? Well, seeing as how you seem pretty desperate to learn it, it'd be safe to say the stakes are quite high?"

"No kidding," Volare muttered before she patted his hoof.

"Now you know why I extended a hoof to help you, Volare."

"Wha-you knew all along?" his eyes widened.

"I suspected something was up between you two. And after speaking with her...let's just say I think you could use some help in dealing with this little conundrum. Because let's face it: knowing her pride, she's probably going to get carried away and cause either of you to do something you'll both probably regret. I merely want to help you be prepared in case a situation like that arises so you don't have to play the role of helpless little foal again, no offense."

"None taken," Volare grimaced at the sudden memory flood of crashes, the Cryhena attack, and the dragon. How much good could he have done if he'd only known what to do? If he'd only had the ability...
"So you'd teach me how to win against her?"

"Oho, let's not get carried away there, Volare," Ravenfire chuckled and poked him chidingly. "I can offer you insight but it's up to you on how to use it. Would you like me to show you a thing or two about Weather Work?"

"Hell yeah I would!" Volare grinned as his spirits brightened considerably. "Ahem, I mean yes ma'am, I would."

"Pfft, no need to be so polite Volare," she groaned slightly as she took to her hooves. "Oof, I'm just a grey old mare-not some cute little filly to be lauded over, unlike certain other young weathermares," she winked.

"What the-oh no, I so don't feel that way about her," Volare waved his hooves defensively.

"Her who?" Ravenfire cocked her head and chuckled, hoofing Volare before kicking dirt over the cook fire. "I certainly wasn't implying any mares that light the competitive fire within you," she teased with a smirk.

"Oh will you knock it off, Raven?" he swiped at her, but she nimbly dodged it. "I swear, it's not like that between me and her. It can't be." His ears drooped a bit and he frowned. "She's way out of my league and...there's too many complications besides."

"If you say so, Volare. Now then," Ravenfire's demeanor turned serious once more and she nudged him to regain his attention. "Let's both tempt our fates and get started."

"Ok, what's first?" Volare flared his wings excitedly.

"Hmm...hop on that cloud," she indicated "Mr. Fluffy" and the stallion approached it somewhat apprehensively. "Why're you afraid of it? It's a cloud, it doesn't have a mind of its own," Ravenfire chided him.

"Yeah, well it wasn't zapping the hell out of you all day yesterday," he grumbled and jumped up onto the cloud. "Now what?"

"Hmph, whether you know it or not, you and Ms. Dash both share a common interest in impatience. But that's going to have to be fixed, because although she has the sheer speed and power to get her out of a mistake, you don't. What's your wingpower?" she asked.

"Uh...I think it's stuck at like 10.2 right now."

"Yep, not enough power, so we're gonna have to focus even harder on technique," Ravenfire took to the air and hovered next to him. "What was it you said about water yesterday? That it's not compressible?"

"In liquid form yeah, and it takes a good amount of energy to compress vapor into liquid," the pilot replied as Ravenfire landed on the small cloud next to him. "That's kinda why I was so surprised you could do that."

"Heh, well the powers of the Pegasus race do grant us a certain amount of leeway from what you'd call traditional physics, but you already knew that, eh? How'd you say we maneuver our bodies in flight?" She flapped her wings, carrying the cloud and themselves to an altitude above the treeline.

"By vectoring off the air with our hooves and body, while using our wings for thrust."

"Wrong yesterday, wrong again today young one; we merely pull information from the air flow and pressure around our bodies, but that's all we do with the air," she tapped him on the nose with a hoof. "I thought you studied these things. Care to try again?"

"Um...we thrust off the air with our-"

"No, we do not," she tapped his nose again, this time a bit more roughly and it began to wear on his patience a bit. "Once more!"

"Our hooves bounce us off the air when we-"

"Wrong, wrong, wrong, you're altering the wrong part of the equation, Volare," Ravenfire tapped his nose hard enough for it to sting this time, and he growled slightly in irritation. "Hmph, getting angry?"

"Yeah, now that you mention it," he narrowed his eyes and snorted. "Quit screwing with me!"

"I'm not screwing with you, I'm simply not spoon-feeding you like a foal," she replied sharply. She'd gone from motherly and friendly to a drill sergeant within moments, and the transition shocked Volare who'd seen and heard nothing but kind words from her until now. "Now then, try again and think harder this time, or I'll really whop you."

"Look dammit, I dunno what you want me to say!" he threw up his hooves. "Changing the equation? What the hell...we bounce ourselves off the air with our hooves and our-shit!" he cried as she whacked him in the nose hard enough for his eyes to water. "Can't you just gimme a hint or something?"

"All you had to do was trust me enough to ask," Ravenfire smirked and Volare felt his anger simultaneously grow and dissipate. She patted his shoulder this time and smiled. "Just trust me, Volare. I'm here to help you learn, not to mess with you. That seems to be Dash's job, heheh. But you won't learn without a little trial and error."

"Right...sorry...um, what part of the equation am I getting wrong?"

"You've mentioned the solution yourself already...something about water resisting compression," she half-smirked and sat back as she watched the wheels in his head turn.

"Water resists compression...water is...it's in the air...but it's not air, it's the...wait a sec," Volare's eyes brightened and he looked up as he remembered the words from Typhoon's book. "We don't vector ourselves off the air, we vector ourselves off the atmosphere."

"Correct! And the atmosphere is made up of more than just thin air," Ravenfire smiled and thumped his shoulder. "What's the answer? What are we bouncing off of if it's not air?" She tapped her hoof on the cloud for emphasis, and she swore the grin of realization that grew across Volare's face might split the upper half of his head off.

"It's the water in the air!" he declared with a flap of his wings. "The answer is water! Water resists compression which is what makes the air-er sorry, the atmosphere tangible to Pegasi! It all makes sense now! That's why we can vector off of it!"

"And why compressing clouds like this creates rainwater," Ravenfire stomped a hoof and a little rain dribbled out of the cloud. "That's just one of the powers we possess beyond flight. Here, try it yourself."

"Wha-how?"

"You already know how, Volare," she stepped back a bit and nodded towards the fluff. "You already treat the clouds and atmosphere in the correct manner. Now take that a step further and focus on pushing the water out of the cloud."

"But won't my hoof just go right through it like yesterday?"

"Not if you focus on moving the water separately from the air and not get frustrated. If you rush it without knowing what to focus on, you'll create an electrical build up, which will then release itself as lightning, as you found out the hard way," she chuckled and set her hoof on the cloud. "Just press down slowly like me."

"Ok, here goes," Volare imitated her, focusing on the water he knew resided within the cloud. Slowly his hoof sunk into the cloud before halting a few inches deep, and he braced himself to be shocked. Instead, his ears were greeted with the sound of trickling water, and he glanced over the side of the cloud to see rainwater running out of the cloud onto the ground. "Ha, check that out!" he grinned and raised his hoof. The indentation rebounded like mattress foam and he noticed the cloud was a bit lighter-colored than before due to the reduction of water within it. "Wow, that's just...wow," he lifted his hoof to investigate it before grinning at Ravenfire, who was merely smiling that same soft smile once more.

"Haha, you remind me of myself when I first discovered how to do that," she chuckled and flicked him with a wing. "Care to try again?"

"Yeah!" The pilot brought both hooves up and smashed them down, but this time they halted a mere inch into the fluff and a loud crack of lightning flew out and zapped a twig from one of the nearby trees.

"Easy, easy!" the older mare chuckled. "As long as a cloud is heavy with water, that'll happen. That's why you never see a Weather Pony bucking rainclouds before they've lightened themselves. Only when they're light and puffy can you buck them to bits without worry."

"Eh-heh, oops," he blushed and stood there dumbly, waiting for her next instructions and trying not to make a bigger fool of himself than he already was before she hoofed him again.

"Don't act so glum, Volare. It's all part of the learning process! Now come on. Grab the cloud and pull it back down with you," she fluttered down to the ground and looked up expectantly. "What're you waiting for slowpoke, an invitation?"

"Um...just how the hell do you expect me to pull it down there?"

"Oh you're a bright guy, I'm sure you'll figure it out," she chuckled and trotted a short distance away before sitting back down to watch him. "Yet again, you already know the answer, Mr. Physics."

"Oh haha, very funny," Volare rolled his eyes and stared at the cloud, trying to figure out how he was supposed to drag it down there. He couldn't stomp it down there for he felt that Ravenfire would scold him for it, plus knowing his luck he'd probably zap himself. I already know the answer, he thought as his mind chewed on that statement for a moment. He stuck his hoof experimentally into the fluff and focused, feeling out the water vapor surrounding his hoof. At first it didn't feel any different than normal, but gradually he began to notice something: everywhere along his hoof he felt tiny little pinpricks of cold and heat, almost like one would feel when their foot had fallen asleep; it felt like thousands of little jolts of electricity running through his hoof, and he pulled it back reflexively before he was shocked. But when no lightning came, he re-inserted his hoof once more, and focused further on those little pinpricks. They seemed to flow and eddy around his hoof like a current of...
"Holy crap, I feel them!" he shouted excitedly and looked down at Ravenfire who was wearing a small smile. "I can feel the water drops all over my hoof!"

"Good, now pull that cloud down, but not too sharply. You know why it will work, so do it!" she coached and stamped the ground with a hoof.

"Pull it down..." he muttered. Pull it down...pull it down... Volare focused on the droplets once more and cupped his hoof around a good chunk of them. But why would they follow my hoof down? Why not separate in a chunk of fluff? What keeps it together...oh you've gotta be frickin' kidding me! With a sly smirk, Volare gave the cloud a gentle tug, and the whole thing moved a few inches! He tugged it more forcefully but backed off as he felt the pinpricks begin to pull apart, and he relaxed, allowing them to reform their bonds. Slowly and gingerly, the pilot pulled the cloud towards the ground behind him, unable to stop the huge grin of accomplishment that split his face once more. This was so cool!

"Very good, Volare; you're learning quickly, or rather," Ravenfire trotted forward and fixed him with a sagely smirk. "Perhaps you're merely applying what you already knew in the first place, eh? Tell me, what is it you just did? Why did it work?"

"Well, when I stuck my hoof in the cloud, I was able to feel something I hadn't noticed before."

"Because you were looking for it this time," she replied matter-of-factly. "Go on. What did you feel?"

"Ok, this is gonna sound crazy, but-"

"Crazy in an Earth sense or crazy in a Pegasus sense?" That same little smile and slightly cocked brow.

"...touche. Ok, correct me if I'm wrong, but water molecules bond to themselves via Cohesion, and to other objects via Adhesion due to polar electrical forces," Volare recited his chemistry knowledge, knowing full well that if he were to say what he was about to say on Earth they'd probably lock him in the loony bin. "I felt those electrical bonds on my hoof like tiny little ice needles poking at me, I focused on them, and they latched on tighter when I grabbed them. Then when I pulled the cloud, the cohesion of the water vapor caused the rest of the cloud to follow along with me."

"......."

"What? You're looking at me like I'm crazy!"

"You said to correct me if you were wrong, but I see nothing to correct, Volare," Ravenfire patted him on the shoulder. "That's just about spot-on one of the basic lessons Weather Ponies are taught."

"Whoa, seriously?"

"Mhm," she nodded slightly and smiled at his near-youthful exuberance of learning.

"So I'm not crazy?"

"Well, not in a weather sense, no; though I can't say for certain about other areas," she hoofed him and jumped back rather nimbly for somepony her age, and he detected a certain...familiarity in her actions.

Rainbow Dash? Nah, THAT'S crazy talk. He shook the feeling off and chuckled, swiping a hoof at her in return, and yet again she dodged it, grabbed the cloud, and stuffed it over his head.
Yeah, this seems WAY too familiar now, he thought as he staggered about, unable to pull the cloud off his head.
"Ok, this is something I've been wondering about," he said, his voice slightly muffled by the fluff.

"Oh, what've you been wondering, Mr. Volare?" Ravenfire's voice came from his left, and he charged blindly. But it was futile as she merely hopped up in the air and alighted on the cloud above him.

"How come when a Pegasus messes with a cloud, it retains its shape, especially when they're in contact with it?"

"So you're wondering why you can't pull that cloud off your head while I'm attached to it?" Ravenfire asked cheekily.

"Could be, ma'am, ragh!" he swiped a hoof upwards into the cloud, but to his surprise it stuck in the fluff, leading to him staggering about on three legs. "Oh come on, gimme a break!"

"And now I suppose you want to know how your other leg is stuck?" she chuckled lightly and gave the cloud a tap with her hoof, causing Volare's mane to stand on end with static.

"Oh no, please don't do what I think you're gonna do!" he cried, not relishing the thought of being zapped by lightning and deafened by thunder in the close confines of the cloud.

"Oh don't worry, I wouldn't want to permanently hurt you," she snickered and he suddenly felt a "loosening" of that feeling around his head and leg, and with a sudden jerk, he popped free and fell on his flank...and was followed closely by a small bolt of lightning that struck the ground between his hind legs. "Holy shit," he hissed and hopped away, glaring up at the hovering, giggling Ravenfire. "You're evil, you know that?" he cried, but she merely shook her head.

"Hmph, said the student to the teacher when he didn't do so well on a test," Ravenfire landed and pulled the cloud behind her with a hoof, finally taking a seat next to the trees and beckoning Volare to follow. "Come, let's eat some lunch while we discuss what you've learned." If it weren't for the fact that he was indeed learning exactly how Pegasi worked with weather, he would have declined, but yet again his curiosity drove him forward, and for the next hour or so, the two Pegasi spoke more in-depth about surface adhesion and Electrostatics, which turned out to be how Pegasi could mold clouds and force them to keep their shapes while they remained in contact with them by using their hooves to align the electrical charges between the molecules. They also touched on how the more water-saturated a cloud was, the greater the effects that could be wrought upon it due to its higher cohesion (which also explained why the lighter, "drier" clouds were more easy to buck to pieces by Weather Ponies as well as safer to do so due to their lack of tendency to discharge lightning).

This led right back to the discussion of how the more experienced and in-tune with weather a Pegasus was, the better at it they became, just like flight and anything else magic-related in their world. Experience begot confidence, which begot strength, and it was a formula that Volare was becoming more and more familiar with as the days went by. And just like other forms of magic, the electrostatic properties of Pegasus-manipulated weather could be undone or countered, either by physical forces such as very high winds or a countering force by another Pegasus.

....................

"So you see, if you concentrate you can overcome another Pegasus' magic," Ravenfire instructed a few hours later as she held a cloud in place around Volare's body, just as Dash had done weeks ago. He grunted and strained against it, and she tweaked his ear in reprimand. "Don't force it! Find the gaps in the charges. Split them apart just like you would while flying through the air. Find that path of least resistance and go for it!" Now, she was obviously going easy on him for instructional purposes, but eventually she had to put some decent effort into holding him before he broke free and scattered the cloud fluff in all direction with a shout of triumph.

"Yeah! What now, huh? Keep me down, ha! No way!" Volare allowed himself a little cantering strut of pride, grinning like a fool until he felt Ravenfire's wing hit him in the head.

"Heh-heh, that's enough for now," she chided him with a chuckle before trotting in front of and looking up at him. "You've learned well today, Volare, and I want you to practice what you've learned. But before you go, allow me to give you a few rules to abide by when it comes to weather work, and really life in general if you wish: sharpen your reflexes for those will always be useful when encountering weather in all its forms, as you need to be just as quick and unpredictable as it can be; quicker even. And when dealing with weather, don't be afraid to take the path of least resistance if it will lead to a speedier end to the problem; just don't cut corners and get sloppy. Concentrate but don't overthink things, for that will make you too stiff and slow you down when you least want to. And above all, stay balanced and don't become frustrated, for the slightest mistake up there can have terrible ramifications by the time it reaches the ground."

"Yeah...no kidding," Volare gulped, remembering the flat loops he'd pulled with no G-Suit...the slamming shut of the throttle...the fall and flames and the burns...but he shook those thoughts from his mind, vowing to use them as a lesson rather than allowing them to be a hindrance to his confidence. "Thank you."

"You're very welcome, young one," Ravenfire smiled politely and turned to trot back to her little campsite before she paused in mid-step. "Oh, by the way: I believe you had a few questions for me earlier this morning?"

"Oh eh-heh, yeah...sorry about that," he scratched his mane with a hoof, but she waved him off.

"No, no, it's perfectly natural to have questions when one is inexperienced. Although...I think I may have answered most of them through our actions this morning," she winked. "However, there is one big one you asked that I did not answer: why you couldn't find a reference to anything I displayed earlier, even in the most Advanced Weather Books?"

"Yeah, that was about right."

"When were those books printed?"

"I uh...I dunno, to be honest."

"Tell me tomorrow when they were printed, for that will go a long way to explaining why there was no mention in any of them," she bowed her head slightly and smiled. "And while you're at it, look up the term Wing Chun as well."

"Why's that?" Volare cocked his head as she trotted away.

"Don't be surprised if you don't find much on it, but believe me when I say that you've been learning the basics of it all day, Lieutenant," she threw a smile and a wink over her shoulder that only caused more questions to detonate in his mind. "Oh, by the way, I think you have three little fillies to pick up from class, eh?" she glanced at the sun.

"Oh crap, yeah I do!" Volare galloped off towards the schoolhouse. "See ya tomorrow, Raven!"

"I do hope so," the older mare hopped back up on her cloud to rest, a small smile on her lips. He's a quick learner, this one...this may yet go well after all...

.................

"Urgh, not a hoofing thing on whatever the hay she was doing yesterday!" Twilight Sparkle groaned and shoved On Tornadoes and Typhoons back into its recess on one of her shelves. Between helping Trixie refresh herself on post Magic Kindergarten techniques and lessons, continuing her work on a counter-spell for Volare's body, and searching for some sort of reference on what that older mare had done, she'd hardly had a spare moment to eat or rest all day. And now, with Trixie gone into town with her fillyfriend Octavia-boy did that sound weird to say-Twilight finally had a moment alone to get a little research done...but all she wanted to do was sleep.

"Grr...no, gotta stay focused," she coached herself, but her eyes kept drifting towards her bed...her cozy, warm, inviting little bed. "Oh buck it," she finally muttered through a yawn and slammed From the Top of the Troposphere shut and shuffled over to her bed. "No rush, Twilight...no rush," she tried to convince herself, but her words were engulfed by a sleepy little sigh that soon devolved into snores that rivaled even Spike's. The purple and green dragon glared across the room at his mother figure for a moment before heading downstairs to try to get some peace and quiet.

----------------------------

October 10th, Morning, West Ponyville Park...

"I'm going to assume by the strange look on your face that you found nothing on Wing Chun?" Ravenfire asked as Volare landed and approached after dropping off the CMC despite their protests that they felt too sick to go to class (but strangely well enough to watch Volare get electrified). The trio of sad puppy eyes they tried on him nearly worked though, and it was only by the grace of Cheerilee calling them into class that he was able to escape with his heart intact.

"Not a thing, at least not in the Weather Books," the pilot shook his mane and frowned. "Oh and those books were printed just two years ago."

"Well that would make a lot of sense," Ravenfire nodded and stood up, rolling her shoulders and cracking her neck. "Those books were obviously printed after the Weather Factory was built roughly 10 years ago, so of course they'd likely have no mention of such an archaic, inefficient technique that doesn't fit the current model of full-steam-ahead speed necessitated by The Factory," she sighed slightly, muttering something under her breath about how Pegasi were leaving their history behind. "Oh well, que sera sera, right?"

"I feel your pain there, Raven," Volare nodded, recalling how technology on Earth moved in much the same way, leaving behind classic cars, cool old technologies, and just generally neat stuff one didn't see anymore, all for the purpose of "keeping up with the Joneses." It really made him appreciate what Lyra was doing in her attempts to preserve human artifacts. If only she knew just how great a service she'd be doing on Earth...

"But we're not here to dwell on pain, eh?" Ravenfire hoofed him lightly and trotted towards the cloud once more. "Let's continue. Fly up there and bring back one of those clouds if you please," she nodded towards a number of loose clouds that had broken away from the towering grey wall of rumbling fluff piled at the north end of the valley in preparation of the cold front in a few days. He complied and grabbed one roughly the same size as himself and returned to the ground with it.
"Heh, no hesitation that time, I see."

"I practiced a good bit," Volare grinned, though he grimaced inwardly: Dash probably wouldn't like the holes he'd blown in her house. "What're we doing today?"

"Oh nothing nearly as strenuous as yesterday, to be sure," Ravenfire replied and beckoned him closer before nodding at her cloud. "Bond them."

"Um...ok," Volare tentatively pushed his cloud towards hers, but once they made contact her cloud simply bounced off of his. "Um, before I electrocute myself by pushing even harder, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say I'm doing it wrong," he grinned in mild embarrassment.

"Mhm, but it's all based on what you've learned already, so it's nothing terribly complicated," Ravenfire took his cloud in her hoof and stared at it. "Feel the charges just as before, and align them just like so." With a soft whump sound, the clouds bonded together. "And to pull them apart, simply do the opposite. Focus on where you want that charge being split, say right here," she pointed at a spot on the cloud. "Use the cloud as an extension of yourself, feel it as such, and..." Thwop! The cloud split just where she indicated and she hoofed him the cloud. "Now you try, but go slow and be patient cuz if you thought the shock from one little cloud was pretty bad, double that and see how you fare, hahaha!"

"Jeez, thanks for the encouraging imagery," Volare rolled his eyes and tried again, doing just as she said. He focused less on shoving the clouds together, and more on sliding their molecules past each other. With a little hemming and hawwing combined with copious amounts of his tongue poking out of his mouth, Volare managed to bond them with a grin. And just as Ravenfire had done, he focused on where to split the bonds, gave a gentle tug, and they popped apart.
"Ha, not so bad," he chuckled.

"Good. Do it again," Ravenfire smirked. "But this time, less tugging and grunting, more calm, collected control."

"Grr, fine," he nodded and for the rest of the morning until lunchtime, he repeated his actions, adding more fluff to the pile until he had a cloud roughly the size of a tennis court floating above him. Little peals of thunder grumbled within the grey mass, and the surface of it hummed with static and made Volare a little nervous. If this thing discharged....hooo boy...he'd be KFC indeed!

"Very nice, very nice indeed," Ravenfire stamped her hoof in approval and hovered around the cloud to examine it.

"Hey, I got another question, Raven," Volare spoke up as she poked a lumpy piece of fluff into place with her hoof and regarded him with a raised brow. "Dash had said you were rusty at weather work, so what gives? How do you know all this stuff?"

"Hrm, well I could answer that one of two ways: A, your friend Ms. Dash is an excellent coach, or B: well...you know the reason behind your little game with her?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"As I said, we all have the right to have our little secrets, eh?" she winked and half-smiled. "So if you won't sweat mine, I won't sweat yours. Deal?"

"Uh...deal," Volare nodded, though this only served to pique his curiosity even more. Who the heck was the mare, really? She came from Roam like Dash said, but what's up with those scars? Why the secrecy? Was she working for the guy that Ray and Jill talked about? But if she was, why hadn't she tried to kill me or something...hell, she could have easily done it any number of times by now, so that can't be it. Maybe she works for Celestia? Maybe it's all an act-"whoa!" Volare cried as a large bolt of lightning crackled out of the cloud, zipped past him, and struck a tree on the far side of the Ponyville Stream.

"Holy hay, sorry Volare! I didn't realize how unstable you made the thing and I just-damn! You ok?" Ravenfire asked with concern.

"Yeah, I'm good," Volare breathed a sigh of relief as the older mare chewed her bottom lip in worry. Hell, or maybe she's really rusty after all, he scolded himself and fluttered over to pat her shoulder. "Are you ok?"

"Yes I'm fine I just...wow, that was a big one," she chuckled nervously and looked up at him. "Thanks for the concern," she brushed her cheek on his hoof for a moment before turning back to the cloud and scratching her head as if undecided in her next actions; while a Pegasus remained in contact with a cloud, it remained stable, but once it left contact to grab more clouds, without an enchantment to hold the charges in line, it began to become unstable once more. And the more instability one piled up in a thundercloud... "Ok, well this is gonna be interesting."

"What's that?" Volare asked as he joined her in staring at the irritated-looking cloud that was now spitting sparks of static and grumbling fairly audibly.

"We'd best move this thing over the river before trying to break it apart so we don't hurt anypony else. Problem is, it's so unstable now that touching it could cause a rather nasty reaction." She looked up at him with an expression he pinned somewhere between worry and hopefulness. "Any suggestions?"

"Is this a test, or-"

"No, I'm dead serious, Volare," Ravenfire replied grimly. "If you have any ideas, I'm all ears."

"Shit..." he muttered and wracked his brain. He was sure this was some sort of test, but the frown of worry on the older mare's face indicated otherwise. He could go and get some Weather Ponies to help, but they were occupied north of town. There was always Twilight, but how ashamed of him doing something so dangerous and foolish would she be? Besides, he wasn't even sure if she could help. C'mon man, think! What would Rainbow Dash do? He scrunched his face up and squeezed his eyes shut, thinking back through the show. Had she ever moved clouds without touching them? He could have sworn he remembered her doing something like- "Aha, got it!" he declared and flew around the opposite side of the cloud.

"Got what?" Ravenfire called out and cocked her head.

"A little inspiration!" he flexed his wings and swallowed his nervousness, hoping he was right. "Raven, start circling the cloud with me!" He flew around the cloud as he spoke, stirring up the wind with his wings.

"What're you planning, Volare?" she cocked a skeptical brow, but the pilot waved his hoof.

"Just trust me-c'mon!" He grabbed her hoof and pulled her along, and soon the duo were circling the cloud faster and faster, the wind from their wings causing the cloud to rotate, pulling tighter into itself as it did so. "Ok, just a little more! A little faster!" he gritted his teeth and squinted against the wind; he really needed to start wearing his flight goggles more often!

"What's this supposed to do?!" Ravenfire called out over the rather loud howl of the zephyr they'd spun up.

"Compact and stabilize it so we can move it!" He replied and grinned. "Now when I say go, we give it a good kick over the river!"

"Haha, I get it now!" The older mare returned the grin and flexed her hooves, ready to act. "On your mark, Lieutenant!"

"Ready!" The cloud continued to shrink into itself, growing darker and darker by the moment. "Set!" A peal of thunder growled from the cloud like an angry animal. Holy shit, I hope I'm right! "And..." he timed their next rotation in his head. "NOW!" With a mighty kick, the two Pegasi launched the spinning cloud off of their hooves and out over the western fields towards the Everfree. The black cloud expanded as its spinning slowed, groaned in protest, and exploded in a loud rumble of thunder that drew looks of confusion of many ponies on the West side of Ponyville; the cold front wasn't until Friday, right? Meanwhile, the blood pounded through Volare's ears as Ravenfire looked wideyed from the floating puffs of mist where the cloud had been and back to the pilot before a grin split her features and she shook her head and gave a whinnying laugh.

"Hahahaha, you're one hay of an improviser, Volare!" she clapped him on the back and led him back to the decidedly less-dangerous ground. "Whew, let's just sit and talk for a bit; I'm rather winded-no pun intended!"

"Same here," Volare snorted, and he sprawled out on the grass, heaving in air and closing his eyes against the glare of the late afternoon sun. "That-*huff*-was-*puff*-nuts!" He felt a presence flop down next to him and he cracked an eye to see Ravenfire sitting next to him, her mane more windblown than usual and a little of her cool-headed attitude replaced with an excited twinkle in her eyes.

"Indeed it was," she laughed and fell backwards to lie next to him, simply breathing in the air for a moment. "Oof, haven't had to exert myself like that in some time, so pardon me if you will."

"Nah, you're good...heh, not bad for an old mare," he nudged her playfully and received a thump to his chest in return.

"Not bad for a rookie. Where in the wide, wide world of Equestria did you come up with that hair-brained idea?" she tittered.

"Um..." The Sonic Rainboom Episode, duh! "I er...kinda made it up?"

"Hmph, hardly," Ravenfire rolled over on her belly and fixed him with a suspicious look. "You said you were inspired, and it certainly wasn't by me. So who was it?"

"I, uh...ok fine, I kinda got inspired by Rainbow Dash," he admitted.

"Aha, that so? I don't recall her pulling off a stunt quite like that while I've been here. Care to tell me when it happened?"

"She uh...said something about doing something like that for The Best Young Flyers Competition I think." Why the heck is she prying like this?

"Ah, interesting. Did she win?"

"Huh?"

"With a move like that, she must have won some sort of grand prize, right?"

"Er, actually...that move didn't win her the competition."

"What the hay did she do to top that, I wonder?" Ravenfire scratched her nose with a hoof and listened as Volare retold the tale of how she'd saved Rarity from falling from Cloudsdale and had pulled off the move in the process. "Wow...you know, I gotta be honest, when she told me she'd brought you here via the Sonic Rainboom I was a little skeptical, but hearing that she can do it from a third party, an off-worlder to boot...wow." Volare noticed her eyes grew a bit distant and seemed to grow almost misty, but before he could ask, she wiped her nose once more and grinned. "Well, that's certainly some strong competition for you to face in this little game!"

"Well, we kinda agreed to not dare each other to do anything the other wasn't capable of to keep things fair."

"Sounds reasonable enough," she nodded before rolling to her hooves. "Well, I've really only got one more thing to teach you today, but you've kinda already demonstrated it yourself a few times, and today's not the first time."

"What's that?" he asked and rose to face her.

"Remember how I said that we pull flight information from the air using our bodies, including the air pressure around us?"

"Yeah...?" From the return of that near-conspiratorial undertone in Ravenfire's voice, he had a feeling he was about to have his mind blown once more. "What about it?"

"That technique you had us use to compact and spin away that cloud," Ravenfire waved a wing in the general direction of the thunderous demise of Mr. Fluffy. "It made use of the air pressure wave that forms around our bodies when we take flight. That pressure bubble dragged the cloud's edges after us, and cohesion of the water vapor did the rest." She leaned up to look into his face. "Did you feel it?"

"Huh, feel what?"

"The air pressure around your body? Surely you've felt it before otherwise you wouldn't have tried something like that."

"I...um..." Shit, what do I say? That I seriously just imitated Dash and pulled it out of my ass?!

"Ugh, think about it!" she tapped his nose with a hoof. "When you flew through those trees when Rainbow Dash dared you to do so, how'd you avoid them? You had to have been going too fast to see every little twig, right? So how did you know to avoid them?"

"I...whoa, you're right!" his eyes widened as he recalled feeling the branches coming close to but not quite touching his body as he flew. It was almost like close range radar or something; an early warning system for a Pegasus. That combined with that feeling of things slowing down and becoming more focused...whoa, he was like a living fighter jet or something!

"And I heard tell you faced a dragon in a dark cave and managed to avoid the stalactites as you fled from it, right?"

"Well, I kinda ran into one of them, but-"

"Out of how many that you dodged? Dozens? Volare, you've got to stop trying to find excuses for your abilities," she thumped him in the chest. "Accept them! Use them! Hone them for what they are: gifts!" Her tone had become almost strained, and a strange light danced in her eyes above her smile. "Do you now see your potential? And now you're learning Weather Work! I'd be quite excited if I were you."

"Heh, far from un-excited that's for sure," he replied with a grin of his own. "Hate to sound like a broken record, but this is freakin' nuts!"

"Nuts to humans, but to Pegasi, it comes as naturally as breathing," Ravenfire inhaled and exhaled for emphasis. "Remember to hone and practice that ability whenever you can, for the time may come when you have to utilize it in places you can't see well in, if at all."

"Like a cave?"

"Or the darkest thunderstorm," she nodded grimly and trotted over to the birch trees. "You know about all you need to know to try out for the Weather Team on Friday. I wish you luck, and Hoof's Speed."

"Wait a sec, Raven! There's nothing else you can teach me?"

"Heh, you're still on the basics, kiddo-oof," she settled down and tucked in her wings for a nap. "One step at a time. Keep practicing, don't do anything too stupid, and I'll see you on Friday."

"But I-"

"I have faith in you, Lieutenant," she yawned and closed her eyes. "But there's plenty more to go around for yourself; I suggest you take advantage of it. Good day!" Within moments, her head nodded into her chest and she fell asleep, leaving Volare alone with his thoughts. Thoughts that soon turned to Rainbow Dash's return tomorrow evening.

"Heh, I'll be ready for whatever crazy crap you're gonna throw at me, Dashie," he smirked as he headed towards the schoolhouse to pick up the CMC. "I just hope you're ready!"

------------------------------------------------

October 11th, Vinyl and Octavia's Duplex, Late Afternoon...

Dear Volare...

Sup, dude? Hey, sorry I had to bail on short notice like this, but I'll be back Sunday. Got one last little rave in Manehattan to DJ at before winter hits. You know how it is. But hey, just wanted to letcha know that I got the sound-box all revamped and everything with one of those new red crystals. I have't really tested it just yet, but knowing you, you'll probably have a blast! Oh check it out: I modified it so there's no volume dial on this one. Just put those earbuds in, think it and the volume'll move up and down. That way, if you're playing it while flying, you can do it hooves-free. Pretty sweet, huh? Just one more thing before ya try it out though, be really careful thatcha don't-h--gotta-----have------this---being a------whew, it'll make a mess! So yeah, just----on't do anything I-----do! See ya Sunday dude!

"You gotta be shittin' me," Volare sat the letter down with a groan, rolling his eyes at the spatters of ink and what looked like coffee on the bottom half of the letter, smearing the words into an unreadable mess. Knowing his luck, he really could have used that warning, whatever it was. "Meh, probably talking about some crazy 11 button she stuck on there she doesn't want me touching...oh yeah, there it is," he eyed the white numeral'd button warily as he hefted the orange-sized red ovoid with a hoof, remembering the DJ's claims and wondering just how the heck this little thing could amplify sound so much. He peeked through the mesh grill of the speaker to see a roughly 2-inch long ruby-colored crystal suspended within the chamber inside. And when I say suspended, I mean literally nothing holding it up; it was just floating there and turning slowly of its own accord.

"Oookay, that's different," Volare muttered as he sat the speakerbox down. Once he broke contact with it though, the crystal stopped turning and fell against the side of the chamber with a tiny clink. "Yeah, that's really different." Volare touched the speakerbox, and the crystal hovered again, and for the next few minutes he amused himself by tapping the ovoid and making the crystal do a little jig before realizing just how stupid he probably looked. Luckily neither Octavia or Trixie were in at the moment and so before he could make a bigger fool of himself, he grabbed up the speakerbox with its accompanying earbuds, scribbled a quick thank-you note on the bottom of Vinyl's letter (hard to do with one's mouth, ya know?), and headed out the door, glancing at the sun and smiling; Dash oughta be home any minute. He'd already dropped off the CMC at their appropriate homes and so before he headed south for Dash's house, he swung past a crepe cart and snagged a few of the cinnamon flat cakes.

Burdened down with pastries, sound equipment, and saddle-bags, he hurried home, landing on the front porch of the cloud tower and giving the newly-repaired holes in the lower floor's walls a cursory glance before reaching for the door. Heh, with luck she'll hardly notice. Huh, that's weird, the door's unlocked-"AGH!"

"Surprise, flyboy!" a cyan and rainbow blur knocked him off his hooves with a thud and he found himself staring up into the magenta eyes of Rainbow Dash. The zippy mare grinned hugely as she relished the position she had him pinned in: on his back on her front porch. "Ya miss me?"

"Gonna let me in the door before we start fooling around, Dashie?" Volare gasped as the air returned to his lungs. I think now is a safe time to say that since their little come-to-Jesus meeting at the Griffin, boundaries had loosened up considerably between the two; some might say a little too much for two Pegasi simply rooming together. But neither would give in and use the safe word, so...

"Heh-heh, sorry," she chuckled and pulled him to his hooves. "Just so glad to get outta that lame Board Meeting!" she shivered and her face contorted into an expression indicating something between constipation and nausea. "I mean, what the hay, they wouldn't even let us leave that stinkin' room for more than 5 minutes at a time to stretch our wings, and only then for stuff like wizz breaks!"

"Hmph, well as terribly boring as it sounds, I take it you took a lot of wizz breaks, then?" Volare cocked a brow and smirked.

"Naturally," she hip-checked him and eyed the bags. "Ooh, what'd ya get me?"

"Pfft, get you? You're the one that was outta town!"

"Hey I brought me, didn't I? I'd say that's more than good enough," she buffed a hoof on her chest and grinned toothily. "Hope what you got makes up for whatever the hay you did to the walls," she glanced at the patched-over gaps in the walls and looked back at him. "What happened there anyway?"

"Oh, nothing much," Volare shook his mane and picked up the fallen bags, intent on playing it cool and keeping the element of surprise this time. Besides, if he feigned weakness she might go easy on him and he'd be good for another week. True it was kinda deceptive, but all warfare was deception, right? Then again, not all warfare was conducted against a fiery blue Pegasus who could run you down in 10 seconds flat and beat the stuffing out of you for hustling her...
"Just renovating."

"...ookay," she gave him a skeptical look before returning her attention to the bags. "So what didya get me-oh my gosh, yes!!!" she crowed as she snagged a packet of crepes out of the bag and shot him a thankful grin before stuffing one in her mouth. "-ou amember- I li- -thinamom!" she said around a mouthful of pastry and it was all Volare could do to not bust out laughing.

"Been living with you long enough, I kinda figured it out," he quipped and shut the door, hanging his saddlebag gently on a wall hook before turning to find her standing there with an impish grin on her face. "Uh, what's up?"

"Oh, nothin' much..." she sashayed around him with all the innocence of a starving shark and looked up at him expectantly, batting her eyes ever so slightly. "Just, hmm-hmm, glad to be home," she blew a quick breath of air on his nose and snickered as she snatched the remaining packet of crepes from his bag while he wrestled with his wings. "C'mon flyboy, I gotta vent," she beckoned him to the table and together, they discussed her irritating trip and the terribly mundane events happening here in Ponyville. Nope, nothing special happening with him at all...

"Whelp, I'm gonna turn in, flyboy," Dash yawned and stretched her hooves over her head. "Got a big day ahead of us tomorrow; hope you're ready."

"Er, ready for what?" Volare tried to play dumb, but Dash wasn't fooled.

"You've obviously been practicing...well something," she waved a hoof at the patched holes in the walls. "So tomorrow we're gonna see whatcha got."

"Damn," he groaned, and she hoofed him in the shoulder.

"Pfft, it's easy."

"Yeah, for you Ms. Weather Captain," he shot back as she trotted up the stairs.

"And don't you forget that; cuz I'm Rainbow Dash," she winked and headed for her room.

"Better duck so your fat head doesn't get caught in the doorway-hey!" Volare cried as she stomped on the floor above him and knocked a piece of ice down on his head. He rubbed the smarting bump and groaned, no less nervous than he'd been the day she'd left. Well, so much for hustling. He glanced over at his saddlebag and managed a smile though as something resembling a plan formed in his mind...a crazy plan involving a slight edge he'd gained on her before, but it was better than nothing. Then again, we'll see who surprises who tomorrow...

-----------------------------------------------

October 12th, Noon, North Ponyville Valley...

"You look nervous, Volare!" Ravenfire greeted the pilot with a smile and a nod, calling over the rising wind that whistled out of the towering grey wall of the cold front poised to roll through the Ponyville Valley. Heavy bluish Arcus Clouds hung from and extended past the leading edge of the front, crackling with energy and heavy with rain ready to be dropped.

"Only a lot!" he laughed and nervously adjusted his scarf and flight goggles for the umpteenth time. He stared out through the glass portals at the myriad of Weather Ponies flitting this way and that along the cold front, some stretching their limbs, some doing small acrobatic loops and twists to warm up, and others hovering silently and keeping the grey wall in line. All he could think was how a rather explosive smallish thundercloud that he and Ravenfire had built was nothing compared to the grey growling mountain range that loomed above them. If that thing blew...Canterlot might not be safe!

"Ha, don't be-and stop fiddling with those things," Ravenfire chided him and tapped the black and gold goggles strapped over her forehead. "Just set them up here and chill. We'll be starting soon; as soon as the sun passes its zenith." Volare glanced up at the golden sphere as it crept across the sky and smiled its warmth down upon the valley, soon about to be extinguished in a massive grey carpet of storm clouds that stretched north halfway to the Drackenridge Mountains and completely dominated the northern skyline. In the town, ponies had battened down the hatches, so to speak, and anypony not involved in the Weather Work looked north from their homes, awaiting the signal from the loudspeaker mounted upon the top of Town Hall. The CMC, Spike, and Trixie peeked out of the windows of the Ponyville Library which Twilight had thrown up a protective bubble around, not quite trusting her single lightning rod enough to keep them safe from a squall line like this.

"Volare's gonna be awesome up there," Scootaloo grinned, catching Twilight's ear.

"What was that, Scootaloo?"

"I said my bro's gonna do awesome with the Weather Team; he's trying out today." At her words, Twilight's eyes widened in worry and she galloped upstairs to stare northward at the looming cloud wall through her telescope. Within moments, sure enough she spotted Volare alongside that strange mare Ravenfire. Even from this distance, she could tell by his body language that he was nervous.

"Oh Celestia give me strength," Twilight muttered under her breath as she swung the telescope, searching for Rainbow Dash and finding her giving her Weather Officers last-second instructions. "Great, I'll bet this is Dash's idea. Who's giving him the tryout, Scootaloo?"

"Rainbow Dash is!" Sweetie Belle piped up excitedly. "Hope he doesn't set himself on fire like he did on Monday though."

"Yeah, that was purdy funny, but Ah don't think he had much fun doin' it. Hey, Twilight, why ya'll lookin' green all of a sudden?" Apple Bloom cocked her head at the Librarian.

"Urp...oh you know, the usual..." Twilight's eye twitched as she stared northward again. "Please be careful Volare...I don't wanna lose you again..."

.............................

"Rrrawr, heya there Raven," Cloud Kicker growled playfully as she hovered up to the older mare. "You too, Volare. Whoa, what's up with the saddlebag?" she nodded at the bag strapped to Volare's side.

"Oh, it's nothing special. Just a little extra insurance I packed for emergencies," he replied with a smirk.

"Heh, oh really? Got a parachute with a good rate in there or something?" she hoofed Volare and chortled. "Haha, get it: parachute rate, cuz insurance and...oh forget it," dropped it and re-focused with a sly smile. "So you guys ready to do this? And ahem, perhaps do something else a little later cuz ya know," she lowered her voice to a husky tone and waggled her eyebrows. "I've read somewhere that storms can be quite electrifying for certain Pegasi, if ya know what I mean?"

"Hahaha, perhaps," Ravenfire threw her head back and laughed, while Volare merely blushed heavily.

"So how about it? Party at my place afterwards? Been almost a week since my last little "group therapy session," she air quoted with a smirk.

"Hmph, don't get too stiff there, darling. That's if we agree to it," Ravenfire stood her ground, so to speak and continued to wear that confident little smile.

"Well you know what they say: all possibilities start with if!" The Weather Lieutenant looked up at the sound of a wailing siren emanating from Ponyville, telling all ponies on the ground to get to cover. "Oops, that's the signal! C'mon guys, to the back! We're gonna push this sucker down the valley!" Ravenfire and Volare followed her to the rear flank of the cold front as the ponies in front readied themselves to haul the clouds southward.

"YEAH!!!" Snowflake the massive white Pegasus roared and whirled an anchor-like device around his head before launching it into the towering cloud bank. He gave the chain a tug that dislodged a small bit of static before nodding to himself and slipping the harness on his end over his head and broad shoulders. "LET'S DO THIS!!!" He bellowed and was answered all the way down the line by every Weather Pony present.

"C'mon winter!"

"We're gonna rock this valley!"

"Kick-flank, man!"

"Woooo, yeah, here we go!!!"

"Alright ponies!" a slightly raspy voice shouted out above the hustle and bustle, and everypony snapped to attention towards the prismatic mare flying parallel to the cloud line, like a queen addressing her knights before a charge. Dash had their uncontested respect and admiration, and Volare couldn't help but grin proudly at the way she took charge; she certainly wasn't the type of pony to sit on her hooves, that was for sure! "I don't wanna see any jostling, bucking, checking, or arguing! This is not a race and we will not get a second chance at this! I do wanna see good teamwork, cooperation, and above all: a great winning attitude! Are we gonna bring in winter like nopony's business?!"

"YEAH!!!" Came the shouting response.

"Hay yeah we are!"

"Whew, The Boss sure takes her Weather Work seriously," Cloud Kicker chuckled and nudged Volare with an elbow.

"Volare! Come out here!"

"Oh no," the pilot's eyes widened and his ears drooped. She was gonna show him up in front of everypony. She was gonna do something crazy! She was gonna-!

"There you are!" Dash chuckled and hauled him out of the back of the pack by his hoof towards the front.

"Wh-what's the big idea, Dashie?"

"Gonna have you help me a bit up here, plus," she half-turned to regard him as subtly was possible. "I don't want Cloud Kicker being any more distracted than necessary, heh-heh. Know what I mean, flyboy?" she nudged him with an elbow. Plus you deserve better and stuff, so yeah...

"Ahaha yeah, gotcha. Thanks for the save, Dashie."

"Save? Pfft, what makes ya think I was saving you?" She giggled and brought him to the front of the Weather Team. "Guys, this is Volare, and I'll bet a few of you know him already-"

"Volare, you're hawt-OW Raven, if you're gonna grab my mouth, use your lips or something next time!" a voice that sounded like Cloud Kicker's rang out from the rear of the cold front, and Volare would have simply fallen and died of embarrassment right then and there if Dash wasn't holding onto his hoof. The smattering of chuckles among the team died out at a quick glare from their Captain, who was struggling to maintain some semblance of cool-headedness.

"Ahem, anyway! Volare's trying out today for the Team, so I want you to give him the respect I give all of you. Volare," she turned to him. "Would you do the honors and give the start signal?"

"Uh sure...Dashie, what's the start signal?" he hissed.

"Just say 'Weather Ponies, let's roll it out."

Optimus Prime would have been proud...or supremely pissed.
"Weather Ponies! Let's roll it out!!!" Volare shouted and was greeted with a wave of "hay yeahs" and "yes sirs" as Snowflake hauled forward on his harness.

"YEAH!!!!" He bellowed once more, and the Weather Ponies along the line tugged, pushed, and shoved, and soon the whole grey wall began to morph and move, rolling over itself as it flowed slowly down the valley towards Ponyville.

"C'mon flyboy, we gotta take the West Flank!" Dash waved a hoof, and he followed her along the grumbling, roiling mass till they reached the unoccupied end a mere hundred or so meters from the borders of the Everfree Forest. "Let's keep it tight on this side, Volare!" she grinned, and together, they pushed the edge of the cold front along, making sure it didn't billow out while at the same time doing their best not to compact it too tightly and set off a chain reaction of lightning. Some Pegasi pulled from the front, others kept the sides tucked in, and a few mopped up the straggling cloud tufts behind the front, but the real action took place just above and behind the Arcus Clouds, where multiple Weather Ponies were stomping and hopping on the fluff to squeeze the moisture from the storm. Lightning crackled, thunder boomed, gusts howled, and rain poured from the underside of the cold front as it chugged along, bringing with it the chilly, humid air of winter.
"Ha, you've been holding out on me, flyboy," Dash flicked him with her tail.

"Hmph, I thought you liked surprises, Dashie!"

"Who coached you, or did you just use your egghead powers and play it by ear?"

"Er...something like that," he fibbed, having a feeling that this was far from the place and time to tell her about Ravenfire's strange little weather quirks.

"Hmph, well we'll see just how much you learned in a little bit. For now, let's keep this train rolling! Aww yeah, keep it up, Weather Team!!!" she called out, receiving a chorus of responses that rippled down the line and back again.

"You're pretty good at that, Dashie," he chuckled, and she gave him a sideways glance and a smirk.

"Well you know me: I love a little control," she snickered and skillfully flicked her tail along the leading edge of his wing, drawing a gasp of surprise from the pilot. "Oopsie," she smiled innocently.

"Haha, yeah right," Volare flicked a wing towards hers, but the moment he made contact, she jumped a bit, glared at him, and he caught a buffet of her wing in the face.

"Not on the job, frisky," Dash shook her head and nodded towards the cold front. "We'll mess around later, but let's get this done first."

"Aww come on, that's no fair! Rainbow Dash!"

"What's that you told Twilight? Life's not all sunshine and rainbows?" She stuck her tongue out at him, flicked her tail across his nose, and all he could do was growl and set his mind to the job which took care of any growing thoughts of...well, anything non-work-related! Within an hour, the shriveled and spent cold front moved out of the valley, leaving the air behind it chilly and breezy. Ponies in town popped their heads out of their homes to survey what little damage there had been, but for the most part the preparation and coordination of the Weather Team prevented any mishaps. Heck, even Derpy managed herself fairly well, only zapping one or two trees with lightning this season. But just as Dash was considering possibly moving her up in rank, the clumsy Pegasus crash-landed into the top branches of the Ponyville Library.

"I'm ok!" she called out after a long pause, causing Dash to breath a sigh of relief and facehoof. Oh well, maybe next year...good thing I brought a more controlled prospect, she looked up and found Volare bumping hooves with Ravenfire and Cloud Kicker, though he seemed to be fending off the lavender mare's playfully exploratory hooves more than anything. I swear, that mare is the horniest creature in Equestria, Dash muttered as she snapped her flight goggles out of the way and jetted over to congratulate the two Pegasi.

"Nice job you two; loads of improvement there, Ravenfire," Dash's praise puffed out in a cloud of fog in the colder air as she bumped her hoof while the older mare dipped her head lightly.

"Thank you, Captain, but it's Volare here that deserves the true praise. He handled himself like a Weather Veteran up there thanks to your supervision," Ravenfire nodded towards the dark blue pilot.

"Hay yeah he did; didn't even singe himself or me," Dash held out her hoof, and Volare flashed back to that first day he'd done that with her, how excited and fresh-faced and half-scared out of his wits he'd been at the time. He looked up at her and matched her grin for grin as he bumped her hoof.

Yep, times had certainly changed a bit...oh no, why's she still grinning at me like that?
"So, uh...did I pass?"

"You mean the initiation test? Hmm, I'd say you did pretty decent at following directions and shoving some clouds around," she said noncommittally as she hovered about him in a slow circle with her front hooves behind her back, as if inspecting him for errors. Reflexively he straightened up and stared straight ahead, awaiting her word. But after a few moments of this, he felt a hoof clap him in the back and he turned in surprise to see Dash on the verge of laughter. "Pfft, you're hilarious sometimes, flyboy. Loosen up!"

"Eheh, right."

"You ready for a real test though?" she leaned in and her eyes glimmered devilishly.

"Don't suppose I have a choice in the matter, huh?"

"At this point, not really," she shook her mane and turned to her Weather Team. "Alright guys, split the west flank off the cold front and push the rest out of the valley."

"What sort of test are you gonna have him do, Rainbow Dash?" Flitter's slightly slurred voice spoke up as she and her sister Cloudchaser approached.

"Yeah, whatcha got in mind?"

"Heh, you'll see. It's not too terribly unreasonable," she shot Volare a sideways glance in emphasis and he gulped visibly; he had a bad feeling he knew where this was going. The pilot looked on as the Weather Team split off the west end of the cold front and tugged it towards them, leaving the charcoal-colored, building-sized chunk of cloud floating just southwest of the Cow Barn near Sweet Apple Acres. With an approving nod, Dash took Volare's hoof and raised it in her own. "Alright Weather Team! You ready to see something awesome?"

"YEAH!!"
"Bring it!"
"Hay yeah!!"
"Woooo!"

"Dash, what exactly is the test?" Volare mumbled before she turned her head and winked.

"It's time to see how you handle yourself in some bad weather, so we're gonna spin that piece of cloud into a little storm. Easy, simple, and straight-forward. Think you can handle it, flyboy?"

Already kinda did that...yeah, why not?
"Guess we're gonna find out, eh?"

"Damn right we are!" Dash turned to fly towards the cloud, but she felt a hoof on her shoulder before she could move. "What's up, Volare?"

"I'll do it...on one condition," he surprised her by grinning a little himself as he reached into his saddlebag with a hoof.

"Condition? What condition?"

"That we play a little...hmm, mood music," it was his turn to lean in and whisper. "Unless you don't want it to be too awesome."

"Pfft, there's no such thing as Rainbow Dash being too awesome," she pumped a hoof and tossed her mane. "Whatcha mean by mood music though-oh, I get it," she nodded as she caught a glimpse of the red speakerbox in the bag.

"So what's it gonna be, Dashie?" Volare asked as he fitted the earbuds into place and cocked his head expectantly. "Wanna be cool...or a mule?"

That did it. Any sort of misgiving or shreds of doubts Dash might have possessed went sailing out the window, and she puffed her chest up and stared Volare in the eye. "You're on!" she growled playfully and clicked her teeth inches from his nose before strapping her goggles back in place. "But this better be good!"

"Oh don't you worry...I'm pretty sure you'll like it," Volare smirked slyly and clicked the speakerbox on as he followed her towards the cloud, feeling a slight pulsating whir from the spinning crystal within the box that soon grew into an audible hum that he could sense throughout his body, from his ears to his legs. "Whoa...that's also different," he muttered as he set his mind on the song he'd pulled up in his mind. Ok, Vinyl said to just think it, and it'll download and copy it-"yow!" the pilot cried slightly at a sting between his eyes. He felt something warm drip down his lip and he reached his hoof up and pulled it away stained red with a few drops of blood that had leaked from his nose. Yeah, that's really different he quickly wiped the blood away before anypony saw, thinking back to the letter Vinyl had left him. A big mess...great, wonder what THAT meant...

"You ready to do this or what, flyboy?" Dash looked back impatiently to see him fiddling with his goggles.

"Y-yeah, just a sec!" Volare strapped down his goggles and gave his nose one last wipe before placing a hoof back over the speakerbox. It felt warm, and the pulsating had somehow increased even further; a quick glance backwards revealed a dull red glow coming from the inside of the bag. Holy shit, Vinyl, what kinda Frankenstein did you make here?! But one look forward at Dash's face, and the cloud looming before them jammed any doubts into the far corner of his mind. Now was the time, this was the spotlight, and they'd just taken center stage. "Alrighty Dashie, I'll be right behind you!" And with that, he inhaled, thought the volume to what he hoped was a decent level, and exhaled as the fitting music flowed out of the speakerbox.

Dash paused in mid-air and glanced back at him with a strange look at the sound of the funky-sounding intro of the song, but after a few moments, the head-banging guitar riff and heavy bassline came in with a crash of cymbals that filled the chilly sky around them with the sounds of air-shaking classic Deep Purple...and when the lyrics rolled in, Volare swore her rose-colored eyes might bug out of her head in amazement.

Coming out of nowhere, drivin' like rain
Stormbringer dance on the thunder again!

"Whoa, you've got music like that in your head?!" Dash exclaimed, her eyes and grin wider and more excited than Volare had ever seen them. "Dude, you've really been holding out on me!" She closed her eyes, trying to take in the sound of the music, but it just...begged...her...to...fly!!!
"Flyboy, you and me. Right now! Let's go!" And with that, she took off, Volare hot on her hooves as they began to circle the grey cold front cloud, the Weather Team looking on in awe at the spectacle before them.

Ride the rainbow
Crack the sky
Stormbringer coming
Time to die!!!

Silver and gold static sparks flew as the blue duo circled the cloud in ever tightening circles, the air pressure from their flight forcing the cloud to rotate and grow like a grey monolith into the bright blue sky. All the while, Dash couldn't help but glance back and shoot a grin every few moments at Volare, her heart hammering along with the beat, feeling a rhythm she'd never experienced before. This was different from the Flamenco guitar air show weeks ago. That was form and grace. This was raw, unadulterated power, speed, wind, and sound. It was like Summer Flight Camp all over again to the power of ten! No, a hundred!! She liked it...a lot!
"Awww yeah, this is buckin' awesome, flyboy!"

"Heh, just wait Dashie...here it comes!" he called back over the wailing wind, feeling an almost burning heat on his shoulder though the saddlebag. He was surprised the damn speakerbox hadn't burst into flames by now; Vinyl must have really made this one tough as hell!

"Here what comes?"

"The second verse!" He shot her his own grin and kicked the side of the cloud to the time of a cymbal crash, drawing a flash of electricity from within the rotating leaden leviathan as the riff shredded its way into the next verse.

Rainbow shaker
On a stallion twister
Bareback rider
On the eye of the sky

"What the hay, are you serious?!" Dash called back through a peal of thunder that grumbled out of the cloud, and they looked up to see that it had stopped growing and was now precariously balanced between thundercloud and full-on supercell. Common sense would have told Dash that this was already dangerous enough, but the music just...it wasn't letting her think clearly! It made her start thinking other things...things even she'd normally think twice about before even considering! She glanced back at Volare, pushing himself to keep up, kicking his legs out every so often to keep the storm pulled in tight and flashing his teeth at her in a confident grin. He wasn't afraid, so why should she be?! Buck it! "Flyboy, we gotta make it bigger!"

"What the-bigger?!" the stallion called back as a loud crackle of lightning shot out of the far side of the cloud and dissipated in the atmosphere.

"Yeah, bigger! Gnarlier! Nastier! Crazier! Faster and louder!!" her ears pricked forwards to punctuate her words.

"Um, Dashie, are you ok-"

"I'm fine! I swear to Celestia I've never been better!" She set her jaw and fought the urge to close her eyes and bang her head to the grinding rock guitar that spurred her onwards and upwards. Although it would be wrong to call Rainbow Dash dumb, it wouldn't be entirely inaccurate to say she didn't possess a huge wealth of common sense to begin with, and when it finally began to slip, there was too little left in the heat of the moment to salvage; she was too focused on pushing the edge as she'd always done to notice the rising danger. The Weather Team was gonna see something totally awesome, like nothing they'd ever seen before! But...it just wouldn't get any bigger! They needed more energy, but how?! As the slithery solo rolled in, she looked left and right, trying to figure out a way to give them an extra boost when her eyes fell upon the sprawling dark carpet of the Everfree Forest. The very forest they were trying to keep the front away from earlier lest it explode into a monster of a storm...she grinned devilishly. Perfect... "C'mon flyboy, push this sucker over the Everfree!"

"But that'll make it grow out of control!"

"Heehee, I know; it'd be a hay of a test," Dash laughed wildly and tossed her mane in the wind. "So let's do it!" Before he could argue, she gave the spinning cloud a nudge with her shoulder in the direction of the Forest, and slowly but surely it began to roll towards it, growling, sputtering, and howling all the while and working in concert with the guitar solo to devour Volare's cries to slow down! But no force short of Celestia herself could extinguish the spark he'd ignited within Rainbow Dash's hammering heart. She'd gotten a taste, and she wanted every bit she could stand, and more!!! The storm cloud rolled over the boundary of the Everfree, seemed to contract for a moment, as if deciding what to do, and then without warning and a great bark of thunder, it began sucking up the energy of the Forest and shot up into the sky like darkest, most evil skyscraper known to ponydom...and still Dash wanted more!

....................

"Oh no..." Twilight looked up from the telescope pointing south and past the crash-landed Derpy's bubble-mark'd flank, her heart dropping into the pit of her stomach once she saw what Dash was up to. "Nonononononononono!!" She cried as she galloped down the stairs towards the door, past a worried Trixie, the thoroughly confused CMC and Spike whom she shouted at to keep them inside, and out into the windy, rain-slick streets of Ponyville, just barely able to hear the sounds of steel guitar floating in on the chill air from the far distance. But what concerned her the most was the striated, grey and black, rotating supercell hovering over the south end of the Everfree Forest, towering above even the heights of the spires of Canterlot!

"Twilight, what's happening!?" Trixie cried as she galloped out the door, nearly slipping and falling flat on her flank in a puddle of rain water, but the Librarian's vision was riveted to the South. "Twilight?!" That did it, and the lavender Unicorn's eyes flicked sideways to regard her pseudo-pupil as she halted beside her.

"S-sorry. Dash and Volare have...well, just look!" She waved a hoof and Trixie finally spotted the nasty-looking cloud.

"Holy Luna, what in Equestria is that thing?!

"A supercell thunderstorm...and Dash and Volare blew the thing up-why I don't know, but..." she trailed off, angry and scared for both their safeties. She had to stop that crazy mare before she got Volare or herself killed! It was a good thing she'd been cramming on weather lately, but could she get there in time to do anything?!
"I've gotta stop them!" A white light began to form at the tip of her horn, signalling a teleportation spell, but Trixie's voice stopped her.

"I'm coming too!"

Twilight sighed and shook her mane.
"Trixie, you haven't been reading up on weather like me, so please just stay here-"

"No Twilight!" Trixie's violet eyes locked with Twilight's own in an expression of sternness the Element Holder had never seen before. "Volare's my best friend and he ran into a burning building to save me! Now it's my turn to help. Take me there with you, and I'm not about to take no for an answer." Twilight could tell she was serious; there was no arguing with the intensity in those eyes. Twilight nodded her grim consent and beckoned her pupil closer. Damning the consequences of not having a counter spell for Volare ready yet, Twilight closed her eyes, concentrated, and with a flash of white light and a loud crack, she and Trixie teleported out of town.

................

"Mother of God..." Volare breathed, resisting the nervous urge to fiddle with his flight goggles once more as he stared upwards at the rotating, night-black mass of violent storm cloud soaring above him and Rainbow Dash. Imagine if a whirling skyscraper and an electrical plant spawned some fluffy bastard child of pure evil, and you'll get the idea. Lightning spat out at random intervals, a frigid wind rattled the trees of the Everfree and buffeted them like the breath of an ice giant, and if the storm's energy had sounded like a nest of buzzing, irritated hornets a few minutes ago, it now sounded something akin to every pissed-off lion, tiger, and bear ever conceived roaring all at once..."Oh...my...-"

"Heh-heh, so," he felt an elbow in his ribs and he turned to face its owner with more than a hint of shock on his face. But what had been a desire to berate Dash died as a gasp caught in his throat when he beheld her wildly-grinning face. Her prismatic mane was whipped into fantastic shapes by the gusting breeze as was her tail, and her eyes shined with the light of the lightning strikes mere meters away from them. "You think it's big enough?"

"Huh-wha-" he tried to come back to reality, but all he could see was her fierce rose-colored eyes and that grin that made his vision swim and his head feel light. She shot him a sideways look and hoofed him in the shoulder before turning to observe the storm with a sigh of satisfaction.

"Beautiful, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it..." he gulped back his words as she batted an eye in his direction, the hint of an impish smirk curling on her lip. "S-sure is, Dashie. And dangerous."

"Heehee, terrifying?"

"Awe-inspiring."

"Radical?"

"You have no idea," he said in a whisper swallowed up by the growl of the supercell. But Dash read his lips and saw the semi-glassy look in his eyes and the flush in his cheeks as he turned to meet her gaze. Her smile grew as she hovered closer to him and threw a hoof sideways around his shoulders, grasping his scarf and pulling him in closer until their chests were pressed together. The growl of the storm seemed to fade a bit till she could feel his heart hammering out a tune that very nearly matched her own, as well as the heat that radiated from deep inside his saddlebag, and it was at that moment of sweet perfection and accomplishment that she nearly did something she'd sworn she'd never do again. It was only the sting of the reason why she'd made that promise that shocked her back out of the thoughts that had begun to swim in from the edges of her mind...exciting though they might have been, she still had her pride and priorities...not to mention everypony there had their eye on the Weather Captain.

"Well then," she gave him a gentle shake, and he blinked twice, the growl of the storm returned along with a sideways blast of rain that extinguished the heat in his cheeks and left him sputtering. "I'd say you're in, flyboy. Welcome to the Weather Team."

"Just like that?"

"Yep, just like that. I figure if you can handle something like this you can handle pretty much anything," he then noticed the smile on her face never left; in fact, he'd say it became even more devilish by the moment. "Wouldn't you say so, Volare ol' pal?"

"Ok, what the hell's in your head now, Rainbow Dash?" he recoiled slightly-or tried to, but she still had his scarf in her hoof. Shit! And that grin just got bigger and toothier every time her eyes flicked between him and the supercell. Shit!! "Oh no...now what?!"

"Oh yeah," she snickered and pulled him in closer. "It's Friday Volare, and you know what that means. You gonna tell me what I wanna know?"

"Right here, Rainbow Dash?!"

"Right here," she nodded firmly. "So what's it gonna be? Or is that one of those dumb questions you talked about?"

"You know the answer to that," he sighed in defeat, though his pulse continued to elevate the more his mind raced through what the hell she was about to do.

"Hmph, I figured as much...oh well, since you owe me like three weeks worth of dares, and since we've kinda established that I think you can handle just about any weather," she tugged him towards the storm, that fierce predatory smirk still glued to her face. "I triple dare ya to follow me in there and catch me."

Oh son of a bitch...
"Y-you can't be serious, Dashie! That's crazy!"

"Nah...I think I know almost exactly what I'm doing," she winked.

What a time for Dash to become a mistress of irony.
"You're freakin' serious, aren't you?!"

"Did I stutter?" she cocked her head, still tugging him towards the screeching supercell. "Or are you...chicken?"

This seemed WAY too familiar...
"What the-no, I'm not chicken, just not stupid!" He tensed as she pulled him so close that they were nearly nose to nose.

"Hmph, trust me flyboy: I wouldn't dare you to do something unreasonable. I got faith in ya; just follow my lead and we'll be fine," she smiled in what he hoped was a sincere fashion before yanking him closer to the storm. "Now come on! No cabbages!"

"Shit, f-fine! Fine! But we do it my way," he patted the saddlebag and his little source of courage within; he had no idea of the effect it had on Dash. If he had, he'd have thrown it to the ground.

"Ha, I was hoping you'd say that, but you better play something awesome," Dash gave him one final tug that brought their muzzles a fraction of an inch apart. She giggled huskily and batted her eyes before booping his nose against his, the contact of which sent a charge through him and was mirrored by a massive crack of lightning that flashed behind her, illuminating her in such a way that he felt his breath stolen right out his throat once more. She was like the storm: deadly, frightening, and heart-poundingly thrilling and yes...even beautiful. With that thought, he knew what to play to convey feelings he couldn't bring himself to speak. He felt a pinch between his eyes, and the music tore a hole in the sky...

"Oo-oo-oooh yeah," Dash closed her eyes and shuddered as the opening riff burned through her blood like wildfire while the roiling, snarling black supercell thunderstorm behind her beckoned her to rise to the challenge. The music tore through her spirit like lightning, a rumbling thunder in her soul. Volare saw her pupils had dilated when her eyes snapped open and she gave a growl in her throat in answer to the storm's throwing down of the gauntlet. Like an adrenaline shot to the brain, she began to lose control. She locked eyes with Volare one more time and when she bumped her muzzle up against his, she felt a buzzing coming from his body; but like a tiny, last-ditch alarm being swept away by a tornado, she shook it off and snorted softly, her breath intermingling with his. He smelled like fire and cinders, and she smelled like ozone and storm-rain. The perfect combo... "Come and get me, flyboy!"

THUNDER!!!

And with that, she gave a final tug on his scarf, released it, and dove into the storm, leaving Volare frozen in momentary shock.

THUNDER!!!

But he knew the stakes, he knew the rules-he'd had his chance to decline, and now...

THUNDER!!!

...the warm feeling of blood dripping from his nose brought him back to reality to realize...

THUNDER!!!

...holy shit, she'd just lost her mind and dove into a frickin' supercell thunderstorm!!!!

THUNDER!!!

"Right behind you, Dashie!!" he shouted and followed the wake left by her body, intent on catching her and shaking her till she had some sense in her head again, the music all but forgotten.

THUNDER!!!

...........................

A crackling pop of light signaled Twilight Sparkle and Trixie's arrival near the edge of the cold front, and while the stunned ex-magician shook her head, the Librarian craned her head back in alarm at just how huge the whirling storm was up close! She'd never seen anything like it, but this wasn't the time for taking notes and reveling in the wonders of nature! She galloped under the hovering Weather Team and shouted at the top of her lungs over the sound of the rushing wind. "What the hay's going on here?!" A number of the Weather Ponies noticed her and dropped down to the ground, among them Ravenfire and Cloud Kicker, who approached her with worry in her eyes, not something one wanted to see in the expression of a Weather Pony, especially an experienced Lieutenant like her.

"Rainbow Dash just-I dunno, she's gone fruit-bats!" Cloud Kicker bit her lip and glanced back at the howling column of clouds. "I mean, one minute she and Volare were doing an initiation test with a piece of the cold front, and then Volare started playing music from his saddlebag and then Rainbow Dash, she...yeah." The music she spoke of could be dimly heard over the roar of the storm.

"She lost herself to the thrill of it." Ravenfire offered grimly. "She and Volare pushed the storm over the Everfree to make it bigger, and then they both dove into it." At her words, Twilight's heart crashed into the pit of her stomach and a tiny whimper of fear and incredulous anger snuck past her throat. She'd been reading what all went on inside a supercell, especially one fueled by something like the Everfree Forest. It was insane to even fly near one, much less fly into. The winds wrapped around the core of the storm in unpredictable columns of updrafts, downdrafts, and wind shear, and she only knew this from eyewitness accounts that contributed to the books she'd been reading; and most of those eyewitnesses died during their accounts from injuries sustained while flying through the damn things!

"Dash, Volare, what have you done?" she cried, praying and hoping against hope that they'd somehow make it out alive. Even so, whether they made it out or not the storm wouldn't stop until somepony made it stop, and her horn began to glow a brilliant violet as Trixie approached.

"What're you going to do, Twilight?"

"I'm gonna stop that storm if I have to," she replied sternly. Trixie wasn't exactly sure what her teacher was going to do, but the pained look in her eyes told her she was fighting to keep her emotions in check.

"But Volare and Rainbow Dash are still in there!"

"I know Trixie...I know..." Twilight repressed the ache in her heart, but she knew what she had to do to keep Ponyville safe...didn't mean she wanted to, though...please you guys, get outta there!

................................

YOU'VE BEEN...THUNDERSTRUCK!!!

Lightning crackled and whistled all around Volare as he crashed through the hole Dash left in the clouds, and he beat his wings furiously once he noticed the wake closing up behind her. If he lost that, he might lose her! He kicked off the walls of the narrow tunnel of the wake, causing sparks and thunder to crash behind him as he raced to keep up through the dark corridor that turned the light around them a creepy greenish-black color. From somewhere up ahead he could hear Dash whooping along with the music and having a grand old time. He only prayed he could catch her before something really bad happened. But if he caught her, what then?! He hadn't thought about that part. "Shit!" he cried and yelped as blue plasma sparks of St. Elmo's Fire danced along the leading edges of his wings, and he knew from his flight training that meant a lightning strike was eminent.

He flat-rolled and dragged his wings through the cloud walls, but to no avail. He felt it coming, he saw it at the last moment, and somehow, someway, the lightning diverted around his body and slashed a hole through the clouds instead, and the boom of thunder that followed made him glad he was wearing those earbuds. Even so, the shockwave knocked him sideways through the clouds and despite his flight goggles he squeezed his eyes shut as he felt himself being slammed from the top and bottom by the shrieking wind before things suddenly calmed down a notch.

"Hey flyboy, glad ya made it!" At the sound of Rainbow Dash's voice he opened his eyes to behold something totally mind-blowing. She was waving a hoof at him from across a somewhat-calm, amphitheatre-like space within the storm. The cloud ceiling was vaulted high above them and tinged green with what he knew to be hail, and in the very center of the storm was a towering pillar of whirling updraft air that screeched and shrieked like a caged banshee just trying to get free and tear apart the two Pegasi that had invaded its living space. But like the eye of a hurricane on a much smaller scale, the whirling of the storm kept it in check, and if it weren't for the lightning that crackled and spat all over the place and the downpour of rain that soaked him to the bone, Volare would have thought it almost serene.

"This is nuts, Rainbow Dash!" he shouted over the roar of the wind, but she merely tossed her mane and kicked her hooves, striking sparks from the cloud wall, rolling, looping, and grinning like a mad-mare as Angus Young shredded his way through his solo.

"Yeah, but it's beyond rad!" She zipped over to him, dodging random hail stones and sparks as she flew before nearly colliding with him as she whirled a loop around him. "Can you just see the headlines, dude: "Rainbow Dash and Volare-Fearless Fliers of Ponyville!" Haha, it's gonna be so awesome!!"

"Yeah if we-holy fuck!" he cried and dodged a lightning bolt coming right at him. "Jesus Christ, we need to get outta here, Dashie!"

"Catch me and we will!" she snickered and grabbed up a buzzing ball of cloud and hurled it at him. It struck him with a crackle of sparks that left his mane standing on end, and he narrowed his eyes at her and gave chase, kicking cloud puffs and ice particles at her at every wingbeat, losing himself to the excitement of it all as well. He could tell she wasn't flying at full speed on purpose, teasing him and letting him get just so close before zipping away again, or bouncing sideways to evade his swipes. But he soon noticed a pattern to her movement, and the next time she jinked left, he anticipated it, and he very nearly caught the end of her tail in his teeth.
"Whoa, nice try flyboy!" Dash laughed and gathered up a hoof-full of clouds. "But not fast enough!" She looped back around and stuffed them over his head with a giggle, but to her surprise, he shoved both hooves up into the fluff, gave a grunt and a shove, and neatly popped it off of his head with a sly little smirk.

"You're getting predictable, Dashie!" he chuckled and lunged at her before she took off again with a surprised little yeep! that he found adorably out of character for her. Neither of them noticed the dark shape circling just above and beyond the walls of the amphitheatre. It waited its chance, biding its time until a stray lightning bolt flashed right in front of Rainbow Dash, blinding her for a moment. With a croaking cry of die, the black bird crashed through the walls of the storm and slammed into Rainbow Dash's right wing, bending a good number of the primaries, knocking the flight goggles from her face and smashing her sideways into the screaming updraft column.

Volare had just enough time to utter "what the fuck?!" and lock eyes with the large, white-necked raven before it folded its wings and fell out of the bottom of the storm. The pilot considered pursuit, but a yelp of fright drew his attention upwards to see Dash shooting upwards towards the top of the storm, helplessly caught in the updraft. "Son of a bitch!" This had gone from semi-fun and dangerous, to downright terrifying. He growled and without a second thought, plunged into the column. He felt his wings nearly ripped from his body and his ears pop multiple times as the plummeting air pressure carried him skywards at a speed he couldn't even hope to match. But he gritted his teeth and held his course, doing his best to angle his body upwards as he rocketed into the frigid upper atmosphere.

"Dashie, where are you?!" He cried as his eyes flashed left and right and all over the place, searching for that tell-tale patch of rainbow in the middle of the storm, but to no avail. No sunlight made it into the center of the storm; he was flying blind! Only the flickering the lightning gave off illuminated the upper core, barely giving him time to adjust from the bright flashes that half-blinded him, and the relentless thunder that crashed upon his head again and again. Just when he was beginning to lose hope, he heard a scream of pain to his left over the wind, he looked up, and in the bright flash of a lightning bolt, he saw her!

"Volare-AGH!" she cried and clopped her hooves over her head as hailstones the size of marbles pummeled her relentlessly. Her right wing feathers were bent every which way, and she flapped it weakly but it did nothing more than spin her about in the buffeting air. "Where are you?!"

"I see you Dash! I'm coming!" Volare shouted and struggled against the upward current of wind to reach her. He felt his wings growing cold and he gasped when he saw why: they were icing up! They'd gone too high in the storm! Frost crawled across his goggles, obscuring his vision more and more every moment he stayed up there. Soon he'd be just as blind as she was! "Grrah, dammit!!" He roared and stroked towards her, but he was stopped cold when he hit the edge of the column of air and cloud between them; he was stuck in it!

"No! NO!!" Volare cried as he saw Dash tumble into a downdraft and get sucked towards the bottom of the storm. If she fell out the bottom with her wing like that, she'd-"NO!! FUCK YOU MURPHY, YOU EVIL BASTARD!!!" He bellowed and slammed his forehooves against the cloud wall, focused on the charges rippling along his hooves and with a mighty ripping sound, he tore a hole through them! A shout of surprise and amazement later, and he spied the flash of Dash's mane below him, folded his wings, and dove with all the speed he could muster. "Dashie, hold on!!! I'm coming for ya!"

At his cry, the Weather Captain looked up and gasped at the sight of him streaking towards her, and she wondered as she fell: is this what it felt like from his perspective? When I dove for him in his jet? But I...I didn't get there in time...he's not gonna get to me! I know I deserve this, but I don't wanna die!
"Please Volare, help me!" she heard herself cry in terror, and the tone of it tore at Volare's soul. Rainbow Dash, pillar of strength, his friend, about to die because of him...

"NO NO I WON'T LET YOU FALL, DASHIE!!!" He kicked off the air behind him, grit his teeth, and damned every higher power in Equestria that wouldn't help him reach her in time...time that seemed to slow as he neared her. Closer! A little closer! Come on!!!
"Dashie, reach!" he shouted and held out his hoof as he approached, lightning flashing all around, hail pummeling his back and wings, and wind-driven ice stinging his face like a thousand needles, but he didn't care; he was only focused on the Element of Loyalty falling wings-first and staring up at him with fear on her face. He could see the drops dripping off her face, not sure all of it was water but of course it had to be. Dash was strong, and he had to be strong for her now! Volare looked past Dash to see the bottom of the storm coming up fast.
"Reeeeeeeaaccccchhh!!!!" his raw throat screamed hoarsely as stretched his hoof as far as he could, feeling the joints in his shoulder strain and crack with the effort. Just as they slammed through the bottom of the storm and into the blinding lair of black clouds, he felt a trembling something grasp his hoof and pull itself towards him. Despite the shriek of the wind and the torrent of rain, he thought he could still make out a few tear-strained words before they shot out of the bottom of the supercell:

"Th-thanks, flyboy...I'm sorry..."

.................................................

"Holy hay, there they are!" Trixie leaped and jabbed a hoof in the air at the bottom of the storm. Twilight strained her eyes and, sure enough, she saw two blue shapes plummet from the supercell...wait a sec, PLUMMET?!

"Oh nonono!" The Librarian moaned as the two Pegasi fell, Dash for some reason wrapped halfway around Volare's chest as he strained to control their fall. To her joyful surprise though, she saw their fall angle out into more of a steep glide just before they disappeared beneath the surface of the Everfree Forest canopy. She very nearly took off in that direction, but a tap on her shoulder halted her. She turned to see Ravenfire nodding up at the storm.

"Twilight if you're going to stop the storm, do so; it's too violent for any Pegasus to get near."

"But I-"

"Stop it, and then we'll go get Volare, but for now everypony's in trouble as long as that storm remains."

"She's right, Twilight," Trixie agreed despite the fact that she looked like she wanted to run in there and find those two just as much as anypony else. "Stop the storm, then we'll find them."

"R-right!" Twilight steeled her will with a nod and narrowed her eyes at the supercell, the source of her friends' pain and looming danger to everypony in the Ponyville Valley. Without her friends in the way, there was nothing to hold back her wrath against this freak of nature. "Trixie, gimme Trick Number 29!"

"Number 29...oh, right!" Trixie nodded, remembering it from the brief studies she and Twilight had covered so far, and formed a light blue ball of energy at the tip of her horn.

"Combine it with Trick 33!"

"Er...got it," Trixie concentrated and added silver sparks to the ball, causing it to crackle with energy.

"Now pass it over, and gently!" The ex-magician complied, and Twilight took the ball with her magic gratefully. It wasn't that she couldn't pull this off on her own, but having Trixie's help meant that she likely wouldn't totally exhaust herself in the process. Damn you... she muttered inwardly as her horn glowed with a crackling, dark violet energy that began to wrap around the energy ball. Damn you! The energy coalesced and contracted around the ball, causing it to spit huge sparks of silver light. "Damn you..." she actually growled it this time, and the ball suddenly flattened itself out into a disk the size of the Library Tree. It hummed and crackled as it began to spin, faster and faster, until it was nothing but a disk of silver and violet light. "DAMN YOU!!!" she shouted, reared up, and with a flick of her horn and a stamp down of her forehooves, she hurled the spinning disk of energy straight at the storm.

With a great scream akin to rending metal, it slashed into the outer layer of the storm, sliced its way towards the anvil-shaped clouds at the top of the supercell, and exited in an explosion of brilliant lavender that could be seen all the way from Canterlot. The storm groaned like an eviscerated beast, its side torn asunder and leaking energy, lightning, and heat like great gouts of blood. The spinning motion of the storm caught the shredded edge of clouds and like an orange peeling itself, quickly tore its outer shell of clouds off. With nothing left to contain its energy against the force of its rotation, the storm gave one final death wheeze, contracted, and exploded in a loud whoosh of air, rain, and electricity that snapped tree branches and uprooted vegetation for a half-mile in either direction beneath the storm as the water it launched into the air came trickling down out of the atmosphere in a soft shower that bore no resemblance to the monster it had once been.

The entire Weather Team gaped at Twilight and Trixie, the former of whom blushed slightly and muttered something about reading up on old typhoon wranglers before she galloped off into the woods to find Volare and Dash, with Trixie and Cloud Kicker hot on her hooves.

..............................

"You...*huff*-gotta be...*puff*-kidding me," Volare muttered as he flopped Dash and himself up out of the water and onto the muddy shore of the lake. He silently thanked Fluttershy's wing-strength exercises that likely saved his own wings from being snapped off as he'd pulled Dash and himself out of the storm's downdraft, clipped a few trees, and then splashed down in the little lake in the Everfree. He'd curled up under her body as they'd hit, skipping across the surface a few times before they sank and he pulled her to shore; all the while she'd been strangely quiet, but he was so focused on getting to a safe place to rest that he didn't notice until they'd gotten there. He didn't even care that the speakerbox was probably trashed, though a quick pat of his saddlebag revealed that somehow, it was still warm and glowing. Oh well, he could use some good news. At that moment, the storm above them unwrapped itself and exploded, causing it to rain gently upon them. More good news...awesome.

"Holy shit, we're lucky, Dashie...Dashie?" he looked down at the lack of reply-or anything for that matter-from her to see that she was just lying there in the mud. No...
"D-Dashie?" he nudged her shoulder, but there was no response. Her eyes were closed and her chest wasn't moving. Oh my god, she's not breathing!!!
Volare tossed his goggles aside and looked up and around, but no help was coming! He looked back down and patted her cheeks with a hoof, but he didn't even get a groan of response. He placed an ear on her chest, but instead of a heartbeat, all he heard was the swill of water in her lungs and stomach. No pulse!

"Oh gimme a fucking break, c'mon Rainbow Dash!" he cried, but she didn't move. In desperation he placed his hooves on the soft cyan fur of her breast and started chest compressions, forcing the water out of her lungs and trying to generate some sort of pulse. The water spat out in spurts until nothing remained in her stomach or lungs, but still she didn't respond. He swore she was turning bluer as he watched. There was only one other thing he could think of to try, and his stomach and heart did little flutters of their own at the thought of it. Volare looked down at Dash, growing cold and getting rained on, and knew he was letting her slip away if he didn't act.

"Please forgive me, Dashie," he muttered, nervously licked his lips, and leaned down over her face. Even in near-death he had to admit she was fiercely beautiful, but he forced that thought from his mind. She'd be dead if he didn't...just...do it! With a final little prayer, he brought his mouth towards hers. Parting his lips and taking a deep breath, he pressed them tightly against hers and exhaled into her lungs. As he did so, the little red crystal in the speakerbox sparked, and the little burst of energy struck Rainbow Dash in the hoof. Volare leaned back and listened to her chest, but still nothing! He tried to ignore the taste of her lips-like fresh spring water, crisp, wild, and clean-before compressing her chest a few times more.

"C'mon Dashie, please!" he cried as he pressed down, feeling the tears run down his muzzle as he did so and splash on her neck and face. "Please breathe!" But when he leaned in to force another desperate jet of air into her lungs, just as his lips touched hers, a cyan blur whipped out of the corner of his eye and collided with his muzzle in a flash of pain that forced him to squeeze his eyes shut and sit back on his flank with an "oof!" He felt blood once more drip down his front lip, but as he forced his eyes open, he saw something that could make him care less about the pain: Dash's eyes were open and glaring daggers at him.
"Oh my god, Dash you're alive-"

"What the hay's wrong with you, Volare?!" Her sharp words cut him off as she heaved herself to her hooves, coughing and spitting away the last of the lake water and the taste of his lips-his lips!-on hers. She knew that the Weather Team must have seen them fall, and she knew she'd probably never hear the end of it. It pissed her off that she'd been so weak, and embarrassed, and to top it all off that sweet music Volare had been playing was gone. Argh, and my wing feathers are all bent up! And so, her pride eroded and her heart still hammering in fear from the memories of being assaulted by the storm coupled with Volare basically kissing her while she was unconscious...she lashed out at the only creature with ears to hear her anger.

"I couldn't let you-"

"Shut up! Why'd you interefere?!" she staggered to her hooves and stomped towards him, her wings flaring painfully and her eyes blazing with all the rage of an injured tiger as she pawed at the moist earth in agitation. "You got any idea how pissed I am here?! You are such a useless pain in my plot, you know that? I dunno why I even put up with you living with me, I swear to- Hey, what the-don't you turn your back on me!" she stomped a hoof as Volare snorted and turned around, picking up his goggles and trotting away through the trees without a backwards glance through the pouring rain. "Volare!" But when he didn't stop or even slow down, she growled in frustration and galloped forward, halting in front of him and blocking his path as she glared up at him. "Hey, I'm talking to you! You deaf now?!"

"No," he replied firmly in a tone that she'd never heard from him to her before. Normally he seemed to concede dominance to her to avoid bringing down the thunder so to speak, but now he...he flicked his eyes down at her and she very nearly backed up a step. They were the brightest, blazing steel blue she'd ever seen before, and the expression surrounding them was pure disappointment and annoyance. "But I don't think I deserve to be treated that way by you, whether you're now my boss or not, Captain," he practically spat the last word and flicked the rain water off his wings with a dismissive shrug before starting to trot around her.

"What the hay's your problem, Volare?" Dash tried a different, though no less grating angle, trying to step in front of him, but he simply lowered his shoulder and pushed past her with a snort.

"What's your problem, more like, Rainbow Dash," he shook the rain from his mane and trotted on into the underbrush in the rough direction of the Weather Team, forcing her to canter to keep up. "That's not the first time you've treated me like trash, but I think that's gonna be the last time."

"What do you-"

"I think if I'm such a pain in your ass, I'll just pack my bags and go build me a house somewhere else. Lord knows it'd mean I'm not a burden on you anymore," he kicked a fallen stick out of the way and continued on as Dash paused for a moment before catching up with him.

"Hey look dude, I-" she began, but the apology caught in her throat, her anger and pride still in the way. "Y-you pissed me off, ok?"

"That's fine."

"Say what?" she grabbed him by the scarf and turned him around. "You know how bad of an idea it is to piss me off, flyboy?" Her wings flared for an instant before the sting in her right wing hit her, and her ears fell at just how harsh that sounded. "I-I mean-"

"I know what you mean, and it's ok, Dash. You wanna know why that's ok with me?" he sighed and looked down at her, his eyes significantly softer than before.

"Wh-why's it ok, flyboy?" she asked, confusion and guilt leaking into her tone as her grip tightened on his scarf. And he wasn't entirely sure that wasn't just rain running down her face anymore. "You know I'll just get like this when I get pissed, so why's it ok?" Why's it ok for me to hurt you?

"Because," he lifted a hoof to her cheek and smiled softly. "I'd rather face your wrath a hundred times a day than face your gravestone just once in my life. That's why it's ok."

That did it. With those last whispered words, her pride crumbled to dust and she let her head hang in shame, barely suppressing a tiny whimper as she did so. Then again it might have slipped out, she didn't know; she was too focused on blinking away the hot tears from her eyelashes to really notice. It wasn't until she felt the scarf slipping from her hoof that realized he was trotting away again. She looked up sadly, knowing she could let him go and never have to feel this anymore; hell he was wanting to leave now. But...she knew it would be wrong to part this way too...not without resolving some things that still gnawed her soul no matter how mad or how happy she got.

She even had to admit that when she was in Cloudsdale, the main reason why she was so restless wasn't because of how boring the Board Meeting was (ok, anypony with a pulse would admit that was part of the reason), but it was because she missed his company. She missed hanging out with him, chatting it up, playing around, or just simply sitting quietly and reading a book with him. Maybe it was selfishness, or maybe it was something deeper than she cared to admit, but in either case the farther away each of his steps took him into the woods, the greater the ache in her heart grew. And there was only one way to fix that.

"Glad you could make it, Dashie," Volare said without turning his head, echoing her earlier words as he heard hoofsteps gallop up and fall into step with his. On impulse he lifted his wing to block the rain from falling on her, but she pushed it away with a snort. He snorted in return, suit yourself, and kept trotting.

"Yeah well, can't let you trot through the Everfree alone," she countered weakly. "You could just fly outta here, ya know."

"True," he ducked a low-hanging branch and held it out of the way for her. "But can you?"

"Er..." she flexed her right wing and grimaced at the bent-up primaries. It wasn't anything permanent, but taking a preening break in the middle of the Everfree Forest wasn't exactly her idea of a good time either. "Probably could, but I'd rather walk it off. You?"

"Oh I'm good, but I doubt I could forgive myself if I left you behind and some wild animal got a hold of you," he gave her a sideways glance but nothing more.

She couldn't tell if he was still irritated or was simply giving her the cold shoulder until she apologized...if so, damn, he was getting good at this!
"Look, I uh...had it all under control up there, ok?" she said lamely instead.

"Hmph, you probably did until that bird hit you."

"Bird? What bird?"

"I dunno why it did that, or if that's even what that was, but something with black feathers slammed into you when that lightning bolt flashed in front of you."

"Damn...guess I didn't see it," she pursed her lips and sucked on her teeth for a moment. "Even so, you didn't have to help, ya know. No offense, but I've been doing things on my own for years and that's kinda what's expected of me so...yeah."

"Well no offense, but I was trained to serve and protect those that need it, regardless of how prideful she may be," he sighed and recalled a piece of the old-school Navy Flyer's Creed emblazoned on a wall at NAS Pensacola. "I am a United States Navy flyer. I have dedicated myself to my country, with its many millions of all races, colors, and creeds. They and their way of life are worthy of my greatest protective effort."

"Whoa," Dash's eyes widened a bit as the old words trailed through her mind.

"Yeah, I know. And I think that still holds true here," he stopped and looked at her fully, his eyes a little misty and not because of the rain as he replayed the fall, the dive, the terror and anger he felt at the storm for trying to take Dash's life...how he vowed to keep her safe, and he had. He sighed and brushed a hoof against her cheek. "Fact is, if I'd just stood by and watched you hit the ground and die and not done everything I possibly could to stop it...I'd never forgive myself."

For the second time in the last three minutes, Dash was stunned beyond words. This is either a bad day or some sorta record...but...that's how I... The words he'd just spoke...they were nearly a mirror-image of the thoughts that had flashed through her head the day she'd decided to risk herself to rescue him from his jet. She felt the same as he...maybe he...
She covered her growing conflict with a growl, first kicking a loose piece of rock, and then looking up into his eyes before wrapping her hooves around his neck and hugging him tightly. "Hey," she said after a short moment of silence filled with nothing but the falling rain. "Just...do me a favor and don't risk yourself for me again, ok? If you got hurt, I...I'd never forgive myself," she leaned back to look at him, but he simply smiled and gently shook his head.

"Nice try but no promises, Dashie."

Her gaze dropped as his chest pressed against hers, and once more she could feel his heart thudding right along with her own. It was slower and more composed this time, but heavier and louder than before...then again there wasn't a snarling storm drowning it out so maybe it had always been this loud. "Why?" she lifted her eyes and asked after a moment.

"That's kinda one of those dumb questions Dash," he chuckled and she narrowed her eyes. "But I'll humor you this time: it's cuz you're worth it."

They were only five little words, but they had a greater effect on Dash at that time than he could possibly imagine. She felt her heart squinch almost painfully and her throat tighten as she fought back a fresh surge of tears. She'd never had anypony tell her that, much less a stallion...not in a way that she believed one anyway. But now...how could she not believe him? She noticed the tiny bruises from the hail-stones, the battered feathers, and the blood drying on his muzzle from where she'd punched him in anger when he turned his head to glance towards the edge of the forest...he'd dive into a storm for me...wow.

"Heh, come on Dashie, we gotta get moving and let the others know we're-" he froze in mid-sentence as he felt a soft pair of lips lightly graze the side of his head just under his left ear. They stayed there for the shortest of moments, but it was long enough for him to hear the gentle snort of her breath and feel the heat from her touch before she pulled away and he looked down at her, eyes wide and face flushing so hotly he was sure the rain had to be steaming off of him.

"Hmph, better put that silver tongue away before I start believing you, flyboy," Dash said through a blush of her own that she hid under her forelock. Even so, she managed to peek up through her mane, Fluttershy-style and speak her mind. "Thanks flyboy...and I'm sorry I punched you. But if it's all the same...could you please stay at my place still, like...yeah...you know...if that's cool and all..."

"Y-yeah, that's...that's cool," Volare said once he finally got his mouth working. At his words, Dash's confidence surged back and she tossed her mane and smiled.

"Sweet! You know, just till we work on your cloud-building skills cuz if the patches on my walls say anything, it's that you've got a long way to go," she bumped him with her hip and smirked.

"Sounds like a plan," he nodded, still feeling the heat of her touch on his face. That was...whoa...

"Volare! Rainbow Dash!" a voice cried out and he had just enough time to brace himself before a lavender Unicorn bowled them over in a flying tackle-hug, knocking them into a bush as she leaned back to investigate them. "Oh my gosh, you guys are ok! You're ok, right? I saw you fall out of the storm and I just..."

"Uh, Twi we're ok, but um..." Dash's eyes flicked from her to Volare, noticing she was practically laying on top of him. Uh-oh...

"Crap," Volare's eyes went wide as he too realized what had just happened, and Twilight froze in a mild panic...waiting...waiting...but soon...

"That's...weird," the next words out of the Librarian's mouth weren't ones of worry, but more curious confusion.

"What's weird?" Volare cracked an eye, surprised Twilight hadn't gone bonkers yet.

"Why aren't you all shaky and jittery like last time?" Dash asked, but Twilight shrugged her shoulders.

"I dunno, it's like...I can't feel the signal anymore. I mean, I can it's just...like it's being suppressed somehow." It was then that Twilight felt the heat radiating out of Volare's saddlebag that had become entangled near his back hooves when she'd tackled them. Her eyes went wide as she used her magic to open the flap on the bag and saw the speakerbox glowing inside. "What in the wide world of Equestria is this..." she mumbled as she reached a hoof towards it.

"Oho, showing her the ropes there, you two?" A chortling voice sounded from the path, and Volare and Dash looked past Twilight's shoulders to see Cloud Kicker wearing a cocked-brow, Cheshire Cat grin of amusement at the scene before her, especially the general area in which Twilight's hoof was fumbling around. "I've heard of a roll in the hay, but a roll in a bush? Heh, I could dig it."

"I think that's poison sumac," Trixie offered, barely containing a giggle of her own at the awkward position her friends were lying in. Had this happened after the Ursa Minor incident, she might have longed for a camera.

"Cloud Kicker, you pervert!!" Rainbow Dash roared and grabbed a branch off the bush and chased her Lieutenant out of the woods, damning how stupid she probably looked in the process. She was gonna get her back for that! Meanwhile, Trixie helped her friends out of the bush, talking about how she'd encountered it before when she was wandering the Everfree, and if they washed it off soon enough they should be ok. Twilight awkwardly grinned her thanks as they trotted out of the woods, wondering just how in Tartarus she'd explain this to Celestia as well as impatiently curious to see what was causing that speakerbox to glow like that, and if it somehow was the reason behind why the signal from Volare's body was being blocked. But she put those thoughts away for later and threw a brief little one-hoofed embrace around Volare's neck, grateful to be able to at least hug him again...for now, other problems could wait a little bit...

--------------------------------------

That Evening, South Everfree...

"Just what the Ponyhell do you think you were doing, you buzzard?!" Agent F hissed into the beaked face of the white-necked raven Corax. But the bird merely croaked and clacked his beak before speaking.

"Because you wait too long...strike while iron is hot and weak. Flying around with your mouth hanging open. Useless!"

"Look you," the Agent poked the raven in the chest with a hoof. "I've got this well in hoof, ya got that? You're here to watch, not interfere, so you'd better back the buck off before I find something in this forest hungry for irritating raven meat!"

"Creekaw, watch your tongue, nag. Don't forget who's in charge, keraawk!"

"Yeah, well I don't see you holding my freedom papers, now do I?" she poked him once more in the chest before settling back into the dark willow tree for a fitful sleep. "Just stay out of the way...we need Volare's buck alive, not dead."

"Oh? You've found it?"

"There's a possibility, yeah...can't imagine what else would inspire that guy to dive into a storm like that."

"Heereekaw, looking for rainbow tail, that's all."

"I don't think so...but we'll just see, so stay the hell out of it from now on."

"Fine, but one slip-up, one mistake, and you'll wish Corvus hadn't freed you," Corax snapped his beak once more before taking wing, leaving the Agent alone with her thoughts under Luna's Moon and stars...she was onto something here, she just knew it.

-----------------------------------------------

*passes out due to sheer chapter length*
Volare: I think the Author's down for the count you guys.
Author: If you try CPR, I swear I'll break your nose!

Author's Note:

Hope you guys liked the new concepts introduced in this one! From here on out, there won't be many more science lessons, more an application of what we've already learned. Congratulations for making it this far, for now the real fun begins!

Comments

[Anonymous Assassin]

Awww yeah, it pony time!

[MadHatter7898]

FUCK YEA!! NEW UPDATE!!!!!!!!
and now to read it.

[HypnotiZZeD]

Oh shitballs. Looks like I have 600,000 words to read today. Alright. Lets do this.

[Gyvon]

Man, what the hell happened to "no more monster chapters"?

Not really complaining, just curious.

[munomana]

encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQkQF_YCBmsmlPwzCwbSXsNVkT47UtW6AolinaU_fpgisx788Xz

[Dancing Dead]

2045939

sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/10982_474009882663507_447851929_n.png

also, tl;dr

[JellyMyst]

28,879 words

Okay, this is getting re-goddamn-diculous. Please, for the love piss, give these chapters a max word-count. It's 3 AM, for Luna's sake! Have some mercy!

[Grey Rebl]

28k words? I haven't read this much since Background Pony! No complaints though. More means more time to kill.

[Tyrannosaurus_Tux]

I WAS JUST THINKING OF THE THUNDERSTRUCK SONG

YOU MUST BE A BLOODY WIZARD HARRY

[Octarain85]

*sees Blue Angel update* *sees how long it is*

Glad to see you back V-Pony

[myhe01]

BREAK HIS NOSE! BREAK HIS NOSE!

[Starscape]

for super-long chapter!

EDIT: Badass Twilight, and insane Rainbow Dash.

I hate Corax.

"Loyalty" would be very apt for describing this situation between them. Let's see Volare play it sometime!

It would be nice if Agent F (I'm pretty sure it's Ravenfire at this point) would stop working for that bastard.

[AggroViking]

whoa, fucking HUGE chapter update man, awesome

however at 2:45 in the morning It's pretty stupid to be up this late... or early

[Biker_Dash]

WOW!!! UBER-CHAPTER!

V, you are one of the few who can write a novel length chapter, and have it be the perfect length.

Time to sit down with a bottle of Merlot, some snacks, and have an enjoyable read!

[Matdat]

Whoa! Logging into FimFiction after returning from a friend, after some minutes a fav'd story gets an update.
Realize that it's Blue Angel. Click to check the chapter length.. 28k words, 2AM? Yeah, worth it!
Writing this comment pretty much 2 hours later, 4AM

Anyways. Great chapter. I do not mind the long chapters at all, all updates are appreciated and great updates, heh. I do smile a bit though when I see the exponential growth of the wordcount in the last chapters, heh, when you kept insisting on that you won't write so long ones.

Oh well. The chapter itself was interesting and fun. Good dialogue with Ravenfire, which added a whole lot of science into the fields of Pegasi and weather control.
Then more antics with Rainbow. You keep writing her and Volare's interactions in a great way.
And, finishing it off was a role-reversal from early chapters.
Just .. awesome.

(A thought that struck me , might not be the brightest or something, it's 4AM afterall, soon 24h without sleep. Anyhow, I'll leave it as a spoiler for speculations sake etc)
Wait a sec... Ravenfire, 'Raven'. It was a raven that attacked RD in the storm. RAVEN, WHAT ARE YOU UP TO?

So, thanks for writing another amazing chapter :)
M
----------------------
Found some minor typos/missing words:

But I just wanna make one thing clear: this is between and Mr. Fluffy.

this is between me(?) and Mr. Fluffy.

Why do ponies find what Rainbow Dash or The Wonderbolts or even Celestia herself to be unbelievable? Is it because it's impossible, or simply because it's a little amazing?"

No starting quotationmark (It's in the middle of a segment if I recall right)

This led right back to the discussion of how the more experienced and in-tune with weather a pagasus was,

pegasus*

but knowing you, you'l probably have a blast!

you'll*

"What the hay's your problem, Volare?" Dash a different, though no less grating angle, trying to step in front of him, but he simply lowered his shoulder and pushed past her with a snort.

Dash a different - I'm not sure, but isn't some word missing here?

Oh well
Again, excuses if this comment failed to make sense, I'm getting kind of tired
Good night, heh

[djthomp]

28k words? Let's do this!

Ooooo, pegasi weather magic details, I love it. The Weather Factory being a modern development is very much my headcanon, so that definitely works for me.

Interesting ideas about how pegasi flight really works. (I have to wonder how noticeably different that would make flying at various humidity levels. Harder to fly in a desert, easier to fly at the coast or in a tropical jungle?) Extends nicely to how the weather manipulation works as well, that's pretty awesome.

Captain, we're detecting high levels of flirting!

Sweet, so we're getting a little hooves on action with that front the weather team has been building, very cool. And then Dash and Volare build a supercell thunderstorm.

Woah, the right music really gets Dash going.

Good god, Twilight is terrifying! Co-casting that spell with Trixie was pretty sweet, that's the sort of thing I was hoping to see when she signed on as Twilight’s student.

Oh, that mouth to mouth is going to end badly... And it did. Dash you silly pegasus, but at least they made up quickly.

"But I'll humor you this time: it's cuz you're worth it."

So much wonderful Dash X Volare in this chapter!

[Blaz3r747]

.... I am damn impressed and i enjoied the hell out of that, to hell with the main plot problems not getting solved that was good

[Nopony of note]

*Looks at chapter length* ...wut. Another super-chapter! One more Friday night of my life is yours, good sir.

Reaction towards the first 10,000 words: AAGH! It's the weekend, dammit! No more chemistry classes till Monday, please
Reaction towards the rest of it: Volare and Dash tangle with a supercell thunderstorm, while playing AC/DC? The awesomeness has been Doubled!
Dat ending tho... a storm's a'brewing... (Pun very much intended)

BTW, when's the next QnA session? Because of your new-found love for super-chapters, It feels like ages since we had one. Time-wise maybe not, but when speaking in terms of plot/story-timeline, or just or raw word count since the last one, it's been a while, ya know? Regardless, this is yet another awesome piece of an awesome story. I shall keep on coming back for more.

[DrakeRenar1]

I just finished the last chapter yesterday!

Oh well, I'll get around to reading this chapter at some point!

[V-Pony]

2128034 The pegasus is Volare

[DeltaOsprey]

I thought that first song was familiar. Then I realized that while I have heard it before it was by a different band.

This is the version I have. Not gonna lie It was weird hearing the original version after listening to this one so many times.

[Plotbuster]

Man, I love these super-chapters

I'm glad I read fast, but at the same time I want to savor every little detail of this awesome story

[CadeStirling]

Finally made an account! \o/

Awesome chapter as always, can't wait for the next :D

[Eve_brea]

Someone murder that damn bird!

[kooarbiter]

damn this was a crazy, but i think dashie ought to get some life insurance, twi misunderstandig and thinking dash accidently got him injured during the race was one thing, but creating an abomanation of nature and challenging him to a game of tag in it? this does not bode well for a certain rainbow tailed pegasus

good job of course

[That Pegasus Over There]

HOORAY! Another super chapter!
Unless Agent F is somepony we haven't met yet, I'd say its Ravenfire.

[142 with an 8]

YESSSSSSSSS!!!!!!! New Chapter!!!!
And Now!

I......

Read.......

Squee!

[Cold Spike]

Damn fine chapter, I can almost feel the, well feels. MOAR!

[GuyFace]

2128054 I know that feel, bro.

[GuyFace]

I'm honestly surprised that finally, after everything, the only conflict between Dash and V lasted a total of 30 in-story seconds. Really? I would've appreciated more, "I'm getting real sick of your shit, Rainbow Dash." and maybe save the "You're worth it" stuff for later. Also, I think he could've reiterated the whole, I dunno, "I brought you back from not having a pulse you ungrateful bitch." point. Rather than dance around the concept of her being dead, he could've just said she was and let her mull that over right next to the inner thoughts of punching the guy who saved her life... -or, rather, returned it- in the face.

Nevertheless, this chapter gets JonTron's:
25.media.tumblr.com/08abdec968875729976779ec6e88ffa7/tumblr_mg4o593Xqr1qf2fu4o1_500.gif

Not really, but it gets mine.

[shirotora]

Good god! 28k! I have whole STORIES shorter then that! I'm exhausted. Goodnight

[slayerdemons]

I really hope that bird falls into a frier...

[142 with an 8]

Love the chap here!
Tho is it just me or were the video links acting a little off?
And great music by the way! I kind of missed that while reading the other chapter...

[Biker_Dash]

WOW!!! Somehow, I sensed that something would end up happening to Dash, and that it would be Volare saving her flank.

[LtCWest]

A Blue Angel update!!!
fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/304/b/5/inifnity_flies_on_a_bump_by_kalimdor89-d5jk42l.gif
OUT OF MY WAY, COVIES!!!
gif formed from parts of a trailer, couldnt find a better version, full video here fun starts at 4:47

*reads chapter*
*gets parts of his mind blown*
*seeks around in the room for spare fuses*
*founds and inserts them*
*is still speechless*

Oke, just wow! Once more you leave me with an adrenalin rush in my head and the feeling of taking on entire armys all by myself (carrying a power armor helps in that regard).
So much information to process, I dont even know where to start.

One thing thou, a message to that bird:
HOW DARE YOU DAMN S.O.B.
YOU PULL ANOTHER ONE LIKE THIS, THEN IM GRABING MY OWN CORAX, CYNO TO EQUESTRIA AND THEN I WILL PULL YOUR FEATHERS ONE BY ONE BEFORE GOING FULL GLaDOS AND MAKE A DAINTY DISH OUT OF YOU!!! AND EVEN YOUR MASTER WILL STOP ME!!!

For references:
EVE Online, Corax class destroyer
images1.pcgamesn.com/New%20Destroyer%20Corax.png
Cyno jump (warning, loud)

I guess "going GLaDOS" with "Dainty Dish" does not need explanation (not to be confused with the Pegasus OC however).

Sry, for the info dump guy, I was just too hyped.

PS: I was wondering when you would put in AC/DC - Thunderstruck. Perfect position. Also, congrats fo the longest chapter so far!

[ru771an]

And I was really hoping they would kiss....

[clonezero]

Sooo Volare's gonna be done in by a speakerbox this time?

And holy shit Twi! You just made better use of the Disk Cutter in one shot than Krillin ever did!

[Assasin_Asha]

2129923
I just died laughing!

Ey, V-pony! Don't listen to those whining scoundrels! Those are quite moderate sized chapters you give us! I wouldn't have them any other way!
Though it's your call.
Loved the physics in it. Not so different worlds, are they? Just some magic here and not there.
Holy, that speakerbox... just what the hay was IN that crystal? or what WAS that crystal? Freaking drugwave generator... I know certain sounds can influence brain and all but this is over the top. Keep it up!
I do wonder what is acting like a barrier there... OH! I know! The box is shielding its user, so they don't get high! To a degree of course. Simple. Then why do I feel like Volare after explaining how water bonds?

And, yeah... seriously? He saved her hide and she's like that? I know, drug deprivation or whatever it's called and all... but look at him not even trying to get the point that he freaking saved her life across... honorable to a fault.

On another topic:
Raven soup, anypony?

[Aviator506]

This song pretty much sums up all the flight sequences this story

[Thunder-Fly]

Length of the chapters, are great so quit bitchin about it :D V-Pony You're amazing. I think that your vison of magic, physics and etc. should be used as standard knowledge in this fandom :D

[Triv_]

Never....never again shall I fall behind on this story, just read like 5 chapters in one go. good chapters good story now I'mma go tap a nap *thud* zzzzzzzzzz

[MadHatter7898]

2131832 5 chapters? Try spending 6 hour so read 24 parts! THAT was hardcore.

[Hadjii]

I have a raging beast inside of me. It cries for more Blue Angel. It screams for more Blue Angel.
It tries to make me say stuff like "I will never eat chocolate again in my life if I get to read the rest of Blue Angel".
It would happily prove P?=NP if it would mean moar Blue Angel right NOW.

Although, I am slightly disappointed in one thing.
There isn't very much theoretical physics in it...

However, all is forgiven. For now

[Triv_]

2132371
I shudder at the thought

[Cades]

I thought you said no more fuckhueg chapters! LIAR!

[leafz pegasus]

RAVENFIRE IS RD'S MOTHER

[ethansight]

I want you to know... I will completely support you splitting from show cannon from now on if you so choose.

[Man Of War]

Heh-heh, alright, this chapter is pure gold. Definitely one of your best yet, and I must say, the way you described the storm... absolute perfection. You know, there is nothing quite as awe-inspiring and beautiful on God's green Earth as a full blown supercell spinning thousands of feet up into the air. And on a side note, I was actually thinking he was going to play Thunderhorse somewhere in there.

I know metal isn't exactly Volare's style, but that would have been epic. But the music choice was still awesome. Anyway, awesome job, and definitely looking forward to more!

[Lazer Burns 2 Eyes]

Having read this entire chapter in one sitting felt like a battle royal against a giant, radioactive kaiju monster.

V, you have my undying admiration in having created (yet another) such a breathtakingly epic beast of a chapter.

tlc-systems.com/pq004553_lzn.jpg
"Для вас и для многих других будущих глав!"

[stardust flare]

UBER CHAPTER TAKE ALL OF MY YES!