Flying (Apart At?) The Seams
“I cannot believe I’m doing this.”
“Dude, that’s all you’ve said for the last fifteen minutes.” Spike gave Cloud a pat on his back. “Relax. Twilight and I are professionals.”
“Professionals at what?” Cloud asked.
“Doing impossibly stupid, risky things and pulling them off in spectacular fashion! I mean, she hasn’t said what her idea is yet, but I’m not worried. It can’t be crazier than facing a dragon one on one.”
Cloud opened his mouth to say something, only to have it freeze for a moment. “You two aren’t just crazy. You’re certifiable.”
“That’s us!” Twilight put her ear up to the cloud wall, pushing her cheek into it. The chill ate its way through her coat, dampening her mane and chin. A gentle hum and howl bubbled up through the mist. Though it was soft, it sent a tingle up her spine and grabbed onto her heart. “I found it. Now we just need to break through the wall and the seam will carry us to the center of the core. Then all we have to do is sneak through that, ride another seam, and pop out the other end.”
“The seam?” Spike asked. “I don’t know what that is, but this sounds crazy dangerous already,” he said with a frown, before looking back at Cloud with a grin. “Should be fun!”
“Crazy dangerous doesn’t even begin to describe it.” Cloud shook his head. “Cloudsdale controls its weather, especially its wind. Up this high, it should be very, very windy. Instead, the weather factory has machines that use pegasus magic to redirect the wind to power our updraft. The seams are part of that system. They’re a series of tubes, paths in the core cloud area where the wind energy is channeled through – at nearly supersonic speeds.
“Twilight wants us to hitch a ride on them, and get every bone in our bodies crushed into dust in the process.”
“Eh, I doubt it’ll be dust.” Spike said, limbering up. “More likely goo. Our bodies are mostly water, after all. Especially you ponies.”
“We’ll be fine. Probably.” Twilight lit her horn, adding a few more layers to her shield. “Honestly I’m more worried about coming out in the right location than I am survival. I’ve run the numbers on the forces at work, and specialized my brother’s shield spell for blunt impacts, which should protect us until we reach the center core.”
“Look, Twilight, your brother is good. Very, very, good. But I doubt even he’d try something this crazy.”
“You don’t know my brother that well, then. Crazy runs in the family!” Twilight lined her hooves up on the wall and aimed for the sound of the seam. Time to try this out. “Stand back! Huah!” She bucked at the wall as hard as she could, getting a tingle at the mixing of earth pony and pegasus magic, followed by an impact like that of one of Applejack’s trees.
The clouds, however, behaved nothing like a tree. A chariot-sized hole puffed into existence in the side of the wall, like something had taken a big bite out of the tunnel. The seam went from a whisper to a banshee, howling with the fiercest winds in all of known Equus.
“Doesn’t look like I got through yet, which I expected.” Twilight stepped into the hole, feeling around the clouds for her second target. “Going to take a few tries, but we have to be ready when I break into the seam. It’ll suck us in for sure, and for my shield to protect you two, we need to be holding each other.”
“Uh, Twilight?” Cloud asked, pointing at the hole. “How did you do that?”
Oh, crap.
“I set records at Cloudsdale Academy for clearing clouds. I’m Cloud Burner, nopony clears more cloud with a single kick than me. And, you just came real close to my level on the first try. Normal pegasi would take at least ten minutes to clear that much out.”
“Spells integrated into my torc let me imitate earth pony and pegasus magic.” Twilight tapped the gem on her chest. “It’s bonded armor. She’s got a lot of tricks up her sleeve.”
“Imitate nothing. More like outperform.” Cloud leaned in to get, putting his face right in front of hers; so close she could count his nose hairs. “And I know you’re lying, Twily. Or at least not telling me the whole truth. I know that look.”
“Can’t say any more.” Twilight turned away from him, going back to the cloud wall and raising her voice over the din. “You don’t have the needed security clearance.”
“I have Indigo-level clearance, Twilight. I’m ex-Day Guard. And if I’m here, helping you, I can make an argument for need to know.”
“You need Indigo-Cosmic clearance,” Twilight said, lining up another buck. “Or higher. Huah!” Another kick, another pocket of cloud popped into the either.
“Wait, higher? As in, Indigo-Cosmic-Magick? That actually exists?!”
“Yup, and you should really keep quiet about it.” Twilight all but yelled as she approached the far back wall. “I think one more should do it. We’re really close.”
“I thought that was just a legend! A myth!”
Twilight grabbed him by both shoulders. “Cloud, I know you’re a bit awestruck right now, but I need you to snap out of it.”
“But… Indigo-Cosmic-Magick… That means you know the secrets of the Sisters! It means you—“
Twilight shook him like a paint can, side to side, then gave him a light slap in the face. “Focus, Cloud Burner! I need you to focus!”
“Uuuuuuuugh—What, oh, sorry, I was just… Yeah. What do I need to focus for again?”
Twilight backed herself up to the inside edge of the cloud, beckoning Cloud with a hoof while Spike grabbed on to her side. After he tenderly, cautiously stepped close enough, she grabbed onto him with a big hug and bucked her legs as hard as she could.
“Wwwwwwwwhhhhhhoooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaa!”
Twilight flattened her ears at the boys’ yell, not to mention the absolutely absurd wind noise more akin to a train than air. They were in the seam in a blink of an eye, taken by the world’s ultimate vacuum and sent into a dark tunnel only a few meters wide. Tumbling end over end they bounced off the walls at several hundred kilometers per hour. The edges of puffy clouds were just a vague, blue-grey blur. Only the glowing shield around them stood between them and becoming the next winners of the “Thanks for getting out of the gene pool, dumbass” award.
“Focus, Cloud Burner! Open your wings! Stabilize us!”
“I can’t! No pegasus could fight this!”
“Don’t fight it! Just make us stop tumbling! Fly with the current!”
They crashed head-first into a cloud on a rightward turn, punching a dimple into the vaporous structure the size of a couple ponies plus an adolescent dragon. The stop didn’t last, as the wind sucked them through the turn like a bubble going up a straw.
“We’re… We’re not dead.” Cloud Burner swallowed, tightening his grip on Twilight. “How are we not dead!?”
“My shield! It’s working! Just stabilize us so I know where to get us out!”
“Out? Oh, ancestors, we won’t be able to get out! We’ll get killed and—“
“Cloud Burner shut up and stabilize us!”
His wings flapped open, and the world stopped spinning, mostly. They were still moving at speeds anything not named ‘Rainbow Dash’ had no right to attempt, but they were facing forward. The tunnel twisted and turned almost randomly, the product of the cloud core growing haphazardly over the years.
“H-How? There’s no way I could do this on my own!”
“Just shut up and steer!” Twilight smirked. You’re doing it because I’m helping you. She kept watch through the turns, adding her own pegasus magic into the mix when needed. It helped, but the wind was more than anything she’d ever felt, even flying on Rainbow in Zebrica. It howled in her ears like a dozen wolves, screamed like the damned in Tartarus, and hit like a sledgehammer. But I’ve had worse. Just today, in fact.
“Watch for the spiral—Oh crap!” Twilight switched to her magic sight and charged her horn as they entered a consistent turn up and to the left. They were in the updraft wound around the central core, getting spun like a centrifuge. Little blips of pegasus wellsprings flew past them in streaks, a real-time image of a time lapse night sky photograph. What she was looking for, though, was the center, the gap.
“Now!” She fired the spell, teleporting but going no where. There, in that instant, was a void in the field of stars of wellsprings. She could see the center from where everything else wasn’t.
Her second spell fired, punching her upside the head as they moved through the impossible plane. Another hit uppercutted her in the jaw and gut, splaying her legs out to her sides and crushing her under the weight of a stallion and a small dragon.
“Ow.” Twilight knew there were more accurate, detailed words to describe what had just happened, but none were more appropriate. “Everypony okay? Still have all your parts?”
Cloud Burner rolled off of her, then let his limbs flop to the ground. “Unable to comply. Mind shutdown in progress.”
“Ugh, I’m here.” Spike shoved the top of his halberd into the cloud and pushed himself up. “I’m pretty sure that I have all of me. Might’ve left a few atoms behind. I—Holy crap. Where are we?”
Twilight got her footing under her, popping and cracking her spine as she stood. “We should be in the central core. With luck, most ponies should be in their homes.” She walked to where Spike was looking out at the scene, shaking the soreness out of her fetlocks as she went. “It is something, I’ll admit that.”
The central core was an spherical emptiness in the dead center of the cloud they had been travelling in. Canterlot could easily fit inside it with room to spare. The walls were ringed with walkways, each serving as a landing for innumerable shops, offices, and apartments. Tufts of cloud charged with lightning served as lighting, and each level was filled with the yellow star-like points of light. The few shops still open in the chaos, then, were globular clusters. The galaxies, however, were in the top center.
An enormous, yet incomplete funnel cloud dipped down from the “ceiling,” if one could call it that. Its brightness was enough to make it daytime all day, every day, and it even sparkled and gently rumbled with lightning strikes. Small ribbons of electrified vapor shot off from the main cloud, only to return a moment later as the slow moving funnel sucked it back in.
Tunnels and paths leading out dotted various areas of the sphere, though Twilight knew that some ultimately led to halls with even more businesses and homes. At least one of them, however, led to an outward seam, and their ultimate destination.
Twilight rubbed her hooves on the cloud, easily the densest she had ever felt. Any normal object would be able to rest here, enchantment or not. It was part of one of the outside landing rings, and towards the middle vertically. There were pegasi around, but none seemed to pay her any attention, as they were so far away they were little more than dots. To them, she was just another pony in the distance, and they likely didn’t even notice her teleportation with the flashes from the funnel cloud.
“I was right. You are here!”
Except for one.
Twilight turned behind her and searched for the voice. “Rainbow! You found me!”
“Well, duh.” Rainbow Dash did a loop in the air and came down for a landing, but only on three legs. “I just thought, if I was a unicorn, what would the most absurdly dangerous place for me to go to in a city filled with pegasi that hate me right now? Answer, the city center!” She gave Twilight a little jab with her left hoof. “And just what are you doing here?”
“Well, as you can see, there aren't many ponies around right now, as I expected. So, I disagree with your danger assessment. Thus, I'm sneaking through on hoof while Bloodmoon stonewalls Esteem and the MPs keep his thugs out. I’m hoping to get to Cloudsdale Armories without getting spotted in a chariot by police.”
“And you made it all the way here that fast? Not bad, Twilight. I didn’t think that was possible without wings.”
Spike held out a fist for Rainbow to bump. “Well, we had some help.”
Cloud Burner groaned and finally stood up, clutching his stomach. “Yeah. Rode a Celestia-damned seam here. A thousand klicks an hour. I’m a pegasus and even I’m dizzy.”
Rainbow raised an eyebrow. ”Who’s this guy?”
“Dash, you remember Cloud Burner.” Twilight held back a smile at the Day Guard being wobbly on his legs. “He’s the charioteer we had in Zebrica, and a caretaker I had when I was a filly at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns.”
“Oh, right, now I know you.” Rainbow looked him over, tilting her head to different angles. “Didn’t recognize you without the glamour spell. Well, I doubt I would’ve with it, either. You’re all just statues most of the time. Must be boring—Wait, did you just say you rode a seam here? As in, a Cloudsdale seam?!”
“Ugh. Yeah.” Cloud held both sides of his head with his hooves. “And I do not want to do that again.”
“That… Is… So… Cool! Was it cool?! Awesome?! As awesome as I am at a show? Well, nothing is as awesome as me, but that is still immensely awesome! How’d you get in? Can I try it next? How did you get out?”
“Whoa, slow down!” Spike shoved his hand up to her mouth. “Yes, it was nuts, no, you can’t do it without Twilight’s horn to teleport out, the opening is somewhere on the outside of the city, and you don’t need to talk as fast as the winds in a seam. Besides, we still need a way to sneak through the core and find another.”
"Yeah, about that,” Cloud said. “I’m not sure how you’re planning to pull that off. We’re okay for now; most ponies are taking cover in their homes, so it’s mostly empty in here. But there are still a lot of pegasi around, and this place is huge. We’re going to run into somepony eventually.”
Twilight laid down and crossed her forelegs. “Well, yes, but not everypony that sees us is an issue. Just ones that would report to Esteem. The problem is, we don’t know who those are, so we have to avoid all contact if possible.
“Dash, you’re a native like Cloud. Do you have any ideas?”
“Well, we could ask—“ The hair in Rainbow’s mane stood up on end. “Wait, no, forget I said anything.”
Twilight shared a look with Spike. “Rainbow, if you know something, put it on the table. I need all my options in front of me. I think either Artfeather or Esteem or both are behind the unrest, and it may only be a matter of time before he stokes the fires enough to destroy the headquarters and cover his tracks. If I don’t personally get in there, I’m afraid we might wind up never getting the evidence we need.”
Spike snapped his fingers. “Ah, that’s why all the sneaky. If he doesn’t think you’re going to the HQ he won’t trigger a larger riot. If he sees us in there, we won’t have much time before the mob arrives!”
“Bingo. So, options, put them—Wait, do you hear that?” Twilight craned her head over the side of the walkway, watching the scene below. Pegasi, hundreds of them, were marching by on the lower levels. They were knocking on doors, ponies were coming out, crowds gathering. Many had signs, some had improvised weapons. Too many were telling out in anger.
"I'm reassessing the danger level of this location. Rainbow," Twilight said with iron in her voice. "Spill. Now."
Rainbow sighed the longest, most exaggerated sigh since Rarity had left for Canterlot. "Fine. This way. I know a pony that can help us."
They turned back in the vague direction they had come, albeit through a well-lit hall rather than a tunnel of ludicrously fast wind. Most of the rabble rousing was coming from the lower levels, but each step they made, it seemed like the roar of the crowd was two steps closer.
The path curved to the right and widened, entering a residential area. Warm colors and tiny potted plants adorned the sides of the doorways, and some had even more decorations. Small figurines and pictures seemed to be the most popular, with enchanted wind chimes and birdhouses making an occasional appearance. The door they headed towards managed to have a small rainbow fountain.
Rainbow took in another breath, then lifted her hoof to knock while bracing herself like the door was about to explode. She knocked twice, then yelled out, "Guys, it's me! Are you two okay?"
"Who do you know?" Spike asked. "Must be pretty knowledgeable about the city."
"Yeah, you could say that." Rainbow put her ears down. "But I'm going to get an earful, I just know it."
The door clicked, and inched open. "Rainbow? Rainbow, honey, is that you?"
"Honey?" The other three asked simultaneously.
"Yeah, mom, it's me."
"Mom?!" The chorus was still on the same page.
The door opened the rest of the way, with a lone pegasus behind it. She was a dull pink with a mane somewhere between blue and lavender, and was older, but with a healthy look to back it up. "Rainbow, what are you doing here? You don't visit for two years and you choose now to come by?!"
"Yeah, sorry about that. But, look, this is really important. Is dad home? We need to talk to him about the city core."
"And just who are your friends? Are they– Goodness! Is that a dragon?"
"Yes, mom, that's Spike, Twilight, and Cloud Burner, a friend of Twilight's. Can we come in? There's a mob coming this way."
"Yes, of course! Hurry!" Rainbow's mom stepped to the side, waving the group in. Inside was a landing room with a small kitchen to the right and a living room to the left.
Rainbow herself went to the kitchen, so Twilight, and by extension the others, followed. It was cozy, but a bit cramped. A table was on the left side, and a counter and refrigerator to the right. The door closed and locked behind them as Rainbow sat at the table.
"Dear! Could you come here? Our daughter has deigned to visit us!"
"Ugh." Rainbow buried her face in her forelegs. "Here we go."
Heh. Serves you right, Rainbow. Even I visit my mom more than that. Still, she's earned a little help here, I think. Twilight put on her best Canterlot manners and gave her friend's mom a small bow. "It's very nice to meet you! I'm terribly sorry for the imposition today, but it really is a big help. I'm sure I'll find a way to make it up to you, ma'am."
"Oh, such polite manners! And that accent! It's light, but you are definitely from Canterlot. Rainbow's told me all about you, Twilight, and you don't need to call me 'ma'am.' Firefly will do just fine."
"Okay then, Firefly! As I said, it's a pleasure to meet you! I'm afraid Rainbow never mentioned much about you. Are you a Wonderbolt like your daughter?"
"Ahahaha! Oh, my, no!" Firefly broke out into more laughter behind her hoof. "I know my daughter wishes I was some legendary flyer–"
Rainbow groaned again.
"–But, no, I'm not. I was an elementary school physical education and flight instructor here in Cloudsdale. I just retired last year. My husband and I wanted to be able to move in case… Well, in case this happened. The mess outside, I mean."
"Sorry about that," a gruffer, masculine voice said as it's owner rounded the corner from the hall. "I was in the bathroom, and—Oh! Dear, you didn't say she brought friends!" The stallion was a medium, dull blue with decently large wings and a rainbow mane and tail. He also sported a brown handle bar moustache. "That torc… Are you Grand Mage Sparkle?"
"Yes, I am!" Twilight gave him a bow as well. "But, you can call me Twilight, or, if you absolutely must use a title, Lady Sparkle. With me is my seneschal and little brother Spike, and Cloud Burner, an old friend of mine."
"Yo!" Spike held up a hand and waved, while Cloud mimicked Twilight's bow.
"Excellent! Splendiferous! I'm Rainbow Blaze, Dashie's father."
"Somepony shoot me." Rainbow moaned from under her forelegs.
"Dear," Firefly said, voice sweet as can be. "Twilight is the third highest ranking noble in all of Equestria. She's basically a princess." Her voice and face turned into something roughly two-thirds as scary as Cadence on a bad day, which actually put her in the top percentile for 'terrifying matron face.' "Drop the silly accent. Now."
"Ah. Right. Sorry about that. Practising for my comedy troupe, actually. So," Rainbow Blaze's face turned about half as grim as his wife's had been a moment ago. "Cloud Burner, was it? You're not here because you have bad news regarding you, my Dashie, and unintended consequences, are you?"
"Mounted cored cannon." Rainbow pointed between her eyes. "Right here. Please, somepony!"
"I can assure you, Sir, that I am unfamiliar with your daughter." Cloud said with a 'Guard Voice.' "I've only met her a couple times, all in a professional capacity. I have no intentions towards her."
"Well, why the heck not?" Blaze asked. "She too short for ya?"
Twilight and Spike couldn't help but start to snicker.
"Ummmm…" Cloud looked around for a way out from between this rock and hard place which was somehow found in a home made out of condensed water vapor.
"Dear…" The scary face was back, but her voice was still a sweet as a cherry fritter. "Do not make the Grand Mage's guards uncomfortable."
"That's it. I going to my old room." Rainbow got up and walked off down the hall Blaze had come from. "Maybe I'll be able to find some cyanide."
Twilight and Spike broke out into laughter, supporting each other while they slid to the floor.
"So, kidding aside," Blaze said, smile returning. "You said 'professional capacity.' Are you one of Twilight's guards, then?"
"Oh, no, just a friend. I'm a retired Day Guard Charioteer. Actually, in a way I did used to be her Guard. Long time back, I was assigned to watch and protect Twilight here when she was Celestia's student at the castle."
Twilight, her giggles settling down, added, "Rainbow was injured, so I asked Cloud to help us out with our mission."
"My baby was injured?!" Firefly pointed her scary face at Twilight. "Who? How?!"
"A fight with a gryphon. She dislocated her shoulder. She's already been treated at Fort Hurricane. She should be just fine, and when we get home I'm going to put her on medical leave with a shiny new purple heart medal. No need to panic, this isn't anything dire."
Firefly winced, pacing around in just a couple steps of space. "My poor baby. My only baby! I knew she'd get hurt in the military. Who was it? I'm going to tear that gryphon apart!"
"Twilight basically already did," Spike said. "Cut her down with a pair of telekinetic blades. Way I hear it, she got it way worse than Rainbow did. She's probably still alive, though. Maybe."
"Ah. Well, saves me a trip then."
"Poor Dashie…" Blaze stood up and looked down the hall to where his daughter was. "You sure she'll be okay? I don't want her to go through what I did."
"Why?" Twilight asked. "What happened?"
"I used to be a racer with a rising star in the semi-pro circuit. Then I got hurt. I can still fly, but not like a racer needs to. Ended my career when I was still in college."
"My gosh!" Twilight covered a gasp. "I didn't know. I'm so sorry."
"Just say my Dashie will be okay. That's all I ask."
"I promise. This won't slow her down for long. I'll make sure she takes care of herself. In fact, Spike, go after her and make sure she's at least physically comfortable."
"Sure thing!" Spike snapped off a salute and ran out of the room.
"Thank you, Lady Sparkle." Firefly sat down next her husband, leaning into him. "Honestly, I worry more about what she has to do now. We couldn't leave in time to evacuate. What's going to happen if she's caught in a riot? Or if..." The sound of the mob grew outside, as thousands of hooves poured through the halls. “Or if we are…”
Twilight lit her horn and put a barrier spell over the door, careful to make sure it wouldn’t be visible from the other sie. "Actually, I had a couple of favors to ask in regards to that."
"Favors? Us?" Firefly and Blaze shared a confused look with each other before Firefly continued, "If we can help, sure, but what can we do? We aren't exactly soldiers."
"Well, for starters, I'm trying to get to Cloudsdale Armories HQ, without getting spotted by police or anypony that might be working for those I'm after. I managed to get this far without getting hassled too bad. There was one group, but I'm not entirely convinced they're connected in a way that will give me trouble. But, to even get in here I had to ride a seam. I'd like to get to the other end of the core without having to do that again."
"Amen, ancestors answer that prayer…" Cloud Burner shuddered.
"Rode a seam?!" Blaze's jaw dropped. "How did you do that?! No, never mind that, how are you not dead?!"
"My big brother is arguably the greatest barrier wizard in history. He showed me a few tricks to protect myself."
"He must be, if you're not a pile of crushed bone!"
"Honey." Firefly gave him a poke. "She asked a favor. Did you even hear it?"
"Hmmm? Oh, right! Getting to CA HQ. Yes, I think that's possible." Blaze twirled his moustache around. "Most of the maintenance crew aren't going to work because of the riots. There are some, but if we hide you in a beat up cart, they won't look twice if I fly you through the access tunnels."
"And you know your way through them?"
"Know them? Please. I helped design them! I'm one of the cloud architects that worked on the progressive design of the core. I could get you through blindfolded and upside down. I might even be able to do it if I wore the blindfold!"
"Puh-huh-huh." Cloud chuckled. "I really shouldn't laugh at that, but you need to laugh when things are tense."
"So you'll help?" Twilight asked.
"Of course!" Blaze gave Firefly a nudge. "Dashie would never let me live it down if I didn't."
"Excellent! Which, brings me to my second favor to ask." Twilight cleared her throat, and stood up as regal as she could. "Do you mind if I raid your fridge until the mob passes? Spike and I haven't eaten since our early breakfast."
"Oh! Of course, help yourself!" Firefly trotted up to Twilight with a sly grin. "But, I do have a little favor to ask in return." She leaned over and whispered something in her ear. It was a simple request, something she had learned how to do long, long ago.
"I think I can help you with that." Twilight charged her horn and fired the spell, blasting Blaze directly in his muzzle.
His moustache promptly disappeared.
"Awww. I liked my moustache."
"Yes! Finally! Finally, it's gone!" Firefly cackled out loud like a mad mare.
Twilight knocked on the door to Rainbow's room. "Spike, your turn with the fridge! I left you some orange juice!"
The door opened and the dragon made a beeline to the kitchen. "Fooooood! Whoooooooo!"
"Heh. Same as always." Twilight craned her head around the door, peeking inside the room. "Hey, Rainbow."
The pegasus was lying on her back in a twin size cloud bed, staring up at the ceiling. "Hey. Sorry about all this. They're just really good at embarrassing me."
"I'd say that's normal for parents." Twilight bowed her head as she stepped inside the room, which was plastered in vintage Wonderbolt posters and paraphernalia. At one corner was a display case that had been stuffed with so many trophies it was glittering. There was also a small, but empty, desk. The whole place was only half a meter wider than Rainbow's wingspan, though its length was twice that. "This is a nice room. Cozy!"
"Tiny, more like. You'd think with dad being an architect we'd have our own independent building, but architects don't make that much unless they're famous." Rainbow sucked in a deep breath and blew away from of the mane in her face. "And they're definitely not famous."
"So?" Twilight picked up one of the trophies and muffled a burp. "Neither are my folks. A lot of ponies I meet seem to think I'm from a rich noble family or something. Maybe have a long line of super amazing mages in it. But that's just not how it is. For Canterlot, we were strictly middle class. Only reason I even tried out for the gifted school was because it's all tuition paid for anypony that goes there. Had it been as costly as a lot of the other private schools around Canterlot, I'd have been in an ordinary public school."
"Yeah, but your brother married a princess. That's nobility, Twilight."
"Married her only after I moved to Ponyville. And the only reason they knew each other is because Cadence demanded to go to public school so she could have more friends. It's not bad to be normal, Rainbow, nor is it bad to come from normal families. None of the Elements are from nobility."
"Yeah, I suppose that says something, there." Rainbow sighed. "But I kind of have the same problem as you. Do you realize that three quarters of the Wonderbolts are nobles?"
Twilight shook her head. "Nope. No idea."
"It's true. Given my abilities, when ponies find out I'm not a noble, they look at me like I'm a mini manticore made out of manure. Like, 'who's this impostor?' I hate it.
"Don't get me wrong. I love my parents to bits. They're caring, they've always supported me and my dreams, and they taught me a lot about flying. But… Argh, I was gonna say something but it'd just make me sound like a jerk." She flopped over, belly-down on her bed. "I love them to death, but they still like to embarrass me."
"And that's still par for course." Twilight turned her attention to the posters all over the walls. Any that weren't of her were mostly of a dark pegasus stallion or of Spitfire. "Who's the guy?"
"Stormrider. Huge star when I was a filly." Rainbow clutched her pillow and turned over again. "Celestia, I had such a crush on him when I was little. I actually told my mom once that I wanted him under my tree for Hearth's Warming."
"Pfft! That's adorable!" Twilight hid her laugh behind a hoof.
"I know, right? I used to daydream about being a Wonderbolt for hours before finally getting to sleep." Rainbow looked around her room, ears folded back. "I spent basically my entire foalhood here. It wasn't all sunshine and roses, but it was good."
"I know the feeling. My room in Canterlot was about the same, only more books! At least until I moved into my tower. I guess we really do have a lot in common."
"Heh, yeah. Who would've thought, the egghead and the jock."
"Well, just think about it." Twilight sat down next to the bed, leaning on the fluffy softness. "We both won tons of awards, albeit in different areas. We were both gifted in our own way, we both come from similar families…"
Rainbow picked up the thread. "We both have the same like of Daring Do, we're both crazy powerful for our tribe, we're both snarky as all heck, we're both really short…"
Twilight laughed. "Shortest adult mares in Ponyville, pretty much. Not that I mind. I like being able to hide behind a stack of books to unwind."
"I hear that. I didn't mind 'cause it means I'm more aerodynamic and have a better power-to-weight ratio. In fact, check this out." Rainbow hopped off the bed and stood up next to the doorway, pointing at a wood moulding. In fact, only that side was made out of something other than cloud. "See the notches here?"
Twilight nodded. "Yeah, and… There's numbers next to them? Looks like dates."
"Yup. Guess your family didn't do this, but every so often my folks would measure my height and mark it down on the wood here, along with the date. Each time they did it, I prayed to my ancestors that I hadn't grown, so I'd be as fast as possible when I was an adult. Well, I managed to be pretty short, but most families want their foals to be 'big and strong.' Drove my mom nuts each time I cheered for not growing."
Twilight chuckled. "Oh, my mom should've done this with Shiny. She'd've loved it. And hated it with me. I'm even shorter than you!" She stood up straight and lined herself up with the moulding. "See?"
"Yup! I… Wait…" Rainbow pushed Twilight's ears out of the way, eyeing the marks near the top of her head. "Actually, you aren't. Well, not anymore, I think."
Twilight blinked. "Really?"
"Yeah. Here, keep standing." Rainbow stood up next to Twilight, squared off in a military stance. "There's a mirror in the upper left drawer in my desk. Can you get it without moving?"
"I wouldn't be much of a Grand Mage if I couldn't open a drawer. One second." Twilight lit her horn, probing the room and finding the object. She floated it over to them, holding it directly in front so they could see each other in it. "Wow. You're right! I've grown! Not much, mind you, but I have. I'm maybe, what, a quarter inch taller than you now?"
"You grew?" Firefly stepped in from across the hall. "How? I thought you were older than that."
"Eavesdropping again, mom?" Rainbow deadpanned. "Gosh, I'm so shocked."
Firefly loaded and fired another glare, though this one was only a warning shot. "Don't be like that, dear. It's a small house, and the office is across the hall. And don't change the subject. You say your friend grew?"
Twilight nodded. "Apparently. I used to be a hair shorter than Rainbow. It's not unheard of for powerful unicorns to resume growing in adulthood, though. Actually, it's kind of expected, although I am doing it rather early. One of my old professors grew twenty centimeters over the course of about five years just before he retired."
"Huh." Firefly tilted her head and folded her forelegs. "I never heard of that. But I don't know too many unicorns. Blaze knows more of them than I do."
Twilight continued, "Powerful unicorns can actually have a lot of weird stuff happen to them. Fast growing manes, horn growth, hooves can get larger, and our metabolisms can go haywire, among other things. Also sometimes means lots of arthritis. Again, I'm a bit young for all that, but it's not totally unheard of."
Rainbow mirrored her mother. "I didn't know any of that, either. That really true?"
"Of course! It's something both my brother and I have to keep in mind. He's not as powerful as I am, but in our family, arthritis is definitely a concern. My grandmother is wheelchair bound her condition is so bad, and she's not that powerful. Luckily her horn still works fine."
"Oh my, I'm sorry to hear that!" Firefly dropped the sceptical look like a potato that was on fire. "Good thing they have better medicines for that these days. Rainbow's grandfather actually died in a flight accident thanks to arthritis."
Twilight winced. "Ouch. Yeah, high speed arthritis is not one of the safer forms. I read about it in—"
"BUUUUUUUURP!"
"Whoops, sounds like Spike's done." Twilight bowed to Firefly. "Thank you again for your hospitality. It really was a huge help!"
"Not at all, dear." Firefly waved off the concern. "It's an honor to have you in our little home!"
"Buuuuuuuuurp! Aw, dang, not near as loud." Rainbow Blaze audibly sulked. "You win, Spike."
Rainbow laughed while Twilight and Firefly rolled their eyes.
"Sounds like my husband found a new friend."
Twilight sighed with a smile, then listened for the sound of marching hooves. It had been there a few minutes ago, but now, all was quiet. "Come on, Rainbow. It sounds like the mob has passed, so we should get going before those two get the police after us for disturbing, or perhaps disgusting, the peace."
Twilight watched as Blaze opened up the storage locker while making a trumpet fanfare noise.
It was a completely normal storage locker with an entirely basic four wheel cart inside it, covered with the world's most nondescript tarp. There was even some impossibly standard wooden, cube-shaped crates scattered about.
"Yeah, I know it's not much," Blaze said. "But that's exactly what we want. A completely normal mode of transit. Nopony will look twice at a pair of stallions hauling this around. A million of them fly around this city every single day, and even in this mess I bet there are thousands of them around."
"It'll work." Twilight tore the tarp off and hopped inside the cramped, hay-covered floor. "Spike, Rainbow, get in. Blaze, Cloud, you're pulling. No offence, but we three are famous enough to get noticed too easily."
The two joined her, with Rainbow stopping to tap a crate strapped in on the driver's seat. "Hey dad. What's in the box?"
"Old kitchen utensils. Helps with this ancient cart's balance. Hurry up and get in!"
"Okay, okay, sheesh." She laid down next to Twilight and Spike, both curled up to keep their heads down as Twilight used her magic to seal the tarp over them.
"You two comfortable in there?" Cloud asked.
"As much as we're going to be." Twilight tried to stretch out, but to no avail. I can't even imagine how much Rainbow hates this. She tapped her hoof on the side twice to give them an all clear.
The cart jostled and rocked on the dense, yet not at all smooth cloud layer. The suspensionless wheels didn't help matters, and each hit threatened to either impale her eye with a piece of old hay or shove a few splinters in her cheek.
"Yeeck." Spike ran his claws over the bottom of the cart, scratching up something Twilight really hoped was dirt instead of mold. "When was the last time this was cleaned?"
"Cargo doesn't talk!" Cloud barked. "You're blind in there, so you don't know who's in earshot!"
Twilight rolled her eyes despite the fact that it was the truth. Actually, she thought, I have an even higher truth.
She shifted to her magic sight just as they lifted off. There was the barest outline of the outside walls thanks to the ancient magic packed into the cloud walls when they were formed, as well as the wellspring signatures of their little group. Although it stood to reason she should see many more, as they were undoubtedly there and within a single story, the same magic that allowed her to see the walls was also stopping her from seeing through them beyond one or two layers. Thus, she turned it off to relax for the trip.
The airborne ride was much smoother than the one on cloud, though that was to be expected with a Day Guard Charioteer on the team. Even so, with such a rickety cart, it was impressive. What could have been a bit of a rollercoaster was buttery smooth. Turns and drops felt like soaring through the sky, even though they were actually flying through a tight, winding series of corridors. It was enough that it was lulling Twilight to sleep when they came to a stop.
"What's in the cart?" an unknown stallion said.
"Guys," Twilight whispered while her adrenaline spiked. "Get ready for a fight. They uncover the tarp, take them down."
Her two guards nodded, with Spike giving a thumbs up as well.
"I said, what's in the cart?"
"None of your damn business. Get out of our way. Now." Cloud was still a guard, retired or not.
"Nothin' gets through here without inspection for horn heads and dirt lovers tryin' to escape the city."
Twilight's ears caught fire, and her breath steamed in the chilled air. Open the tarp, flank wipe. I dare you.
"That's illegal as all Tartarus. Let us through, or I'll pull off your wings so you can live the rest of your life as an earth pony. Your choice."
"Fellas, fellas, no need to fight!" Blaze chuckled nervously. "Really, we're all pegasi here, can't we trust each other?"
"I appreciate the de-escalation, but really, I'm in the mood to bust some heads." Cloud must have unleashed himself from the cart, as it slipped backwards on his side a little bit. "I'm sick and tired of this tribalist garbage. So's a lot of this city. If these two don't beat it, I'm going to tear out their tongues and shove them so far up their backsides they'll get to taste their dinners all over again."
"Oh, a tough guy, huh?"
"Punks like you make up sixty percent of my breakfast cereal. You're even softer than the marshmallows. Bring it!"
There was a beat, followed by a great many beats. One might even say it was a "beat down." Twilight wasn't entirely sure who was winning, but given that Cloud was among Equestria's most highly trained soldiers, she was only giving herself one guess. At first, it was just the sound of hooves hitting flesh, but then the cart jumped like something heavy had hit it. A few more times it pounded, and then came the sound of a box of metal implements crashing.
"Spike, take a peek out there." Twilight whispered.
Spike nodded and undid a tiny portion of the tarp, peering out the hole before cringing and sealing it back up. "That is not a socially accepted way to use an egg beater."
Rainbow and Twilight covered their mouths and giggles while the chaos went on outside. In a minute or two, it was over, and they all stuck their heads out of their cover. Two pegasus stallions lay beaten, bloody, and bruised. Blaze was standing still, wide eyed with shock and possibly post-traumatic stress disorder. Cloud Burner, meanwhile, was wiping his hooves off and getting back into the harness.
"We here at Cloud Burner Air apologize for the interruption. We will now continue with our scheduled flight."
One of the unconscious stallions slumped over as his body shifted under its own weight, and a glimmer of gold poked its way out of his shirt pocket and sent an arrow of light into Twilight's eyes.
"Wait a minute, guys." Twilight lifted it out of the shirt with her magic, then wiped off what she assumed was the pony's own blood. "This is a Cloudsdale Police Department badge. Number nine-one-nine-three-nine."
Spike picked it out if the air and pressed it with a fang. "It's real. Guess this confirms your theory, Twilight. Esteem is either behind a lot of this, or he's got no control whatsoever."
Twilight pocketed the badge as evidence. "It also means that the Cloudsdale PD is corrupted to the point where we can't trust them. The only reason we'll have a chance at all with our investigation is because the military took over so quickly, and rightfully so.
"Let's get moving again. I want to get to Cloudsdale Armories HQ as soon as possible. The longer we wait, the less advantageous our element of surprise will be." She ducked back down into the chariot and covered it, settling for the upcoming ride.
It wasn't long before the wind kicked up, signalling they had left the core and were now in open sky. Moment by moment, the cart turned more often. Instead of travelling in a straight line, they were weaving through some unknown obstacles. After Twilight took a quick peek through her magic sight, they weren't unknown anymore. They were pegasi, lots of them.
"This is going to prove problematic…" Twilight muttered to herself as a roar of wind grew louder and louder.
Eventually, the cart rumbled and slowed, coming to a halt on a bumpy cloud. As Twilight looked out with her Sight, she knew that they were close, but they couldn’t leave the cart. Not yet, at any rate. Not when tens, if not hundreds of thousands of pegasi surrounded the Cloudsdale Armories complex.
"Stay hidden a moment, guys," Cloud said. "We're going to dig out the cloud so you have cover when getting out."
A sound not quite like that of snow getting dug and stepped on managed to fight the din of the crowd, and the cart dropped a few inches every so often. When the tarp came off, they were covered in an almost bunker-like cloud. The entire thing was hollow and enclosed, save for a small slot they could see the HQ out of.
It had seemed like at least one in ten of the protesters had a torch, lighting up the clouds around them with an ominous orange. The sun was now firmly over the horizon, and the cold was stinging Twilight even through her pegasus coat. Even in Cloudsdale, the weather control could only hold off so much of Winter's might.
The HQ itself was a tower high enough Twilight had to clear out a little of the cloud bunker to actually see the top. It was a near perfect rectangular prism, and a monument to hierarchy. There was also a wide, long path arcing passed the front, in which most of the protesters were standing. Some were in the air, but pegasi couldn't fly forever, and this was a siege.
"They aren't storming in and wrecking the place, which means the military police are holding them back." Twilight held out her hoof at Spike. "Do you still have those binoculars?"
"Right here."
"Thanks." Twilight took them and zoomed in on the crowd. There weren't many regular police left. Nearly all that was left to defend the HQ was the military ponies, each standing sternly against the crowd. Even they wouldn't last forever, though. "Wait, the center of the crowd… It's moving, like a parade or something. And what is that noise?"
Twilight, Cloud, and Rainbow put their ears to the slot, facing the crowd, but Twilight still couldn't quite make it out. It was muddled, a solute in a solution that just wouldn't become a precipitate. All she could hear was the steady beat of the chant.
"Blaze, Cloud, can you two push the cloud closer? You can sit on top afterwards, pretend you just wanted a close seat. That'll keep ponies from wondering about why you went inside."
The two nodded and burrowed out of the cloud and closed it up, then started moving it forward like a giant piece of furniture on wheels. A few minutes later, they were within a football field of the main crowd. Twilight closed up the viewing slot to its narrowest as she heard what the protesters were chanting.
"Heroes! Heroes! Heroes! Heroes live forever! Heroes! Heroes! Heroes! Heroes live forever!"
"Cloud!" Twilight knocked on the roof of the bunker. "Find out what's going on!"
He flew off, returning a few minutes later to peel back a piece of the bunker roof.
"It's bad, Twilight," He said. "Very bad."
"Why? What happened?" Spike asked.
"They're parading a few bodies through the crowd on stretchers. They say a group of police officer unicorns busted into a home and murdered a pegasus family for not having a cloud landing. The bodies are the victims, who’re being called, well, you heard the chant."
"Bringing the crowd to a fever pitch." Twilight turned back to the crowd with her binoculars, scanning through the crowd until she found them. The bodies were being carried above the crowd, held high for all to see. They didn't stay still from the movement, but she could see the wounds on the head and body.
"Looks a bit like blunt force trauma, but pegasi are resistant to that. It would take a lot of force, which is exactly what that impact suggests. The head is partially caved in, like it was hit with something pointy, but very wide and thick. Odd choice for a weapon. This wasn't the same crew as Artfeather's assassination. Her killers were professionals, this is just sloppy."
"Can I see?" Rainbow asked, taking the binoculars as they were given. "Wow, yeah, looks nasty."
"I wonder what could cause an injury like that. A unicorn would have an easier time of it, but it's certainly not something only we could do." Twilight turned to her seneschal. "Any thoughts, Spike?"
"No clue. Can't see it from here."
"Hey, Twilight." Rainbow poked her while still looking through the binoculars. "What about a pickaxe? Could that do it?"
Twilight's eyes lit up. "Actually, yes! Rainbow, that's brilliant!"
"Oh, no, I had a hint." Rainbow gave her the binoculars back. "About six meters back from the lead corpse. Look at the pony marching alongside, the one dressed in black for no apparent reason."
Twilight panned across the crowd back and forth until she found him. He was in an all black outfit, like it was Nightmare Night and he was dressing as a burglar. On his side was a small bag with a handle sticking out of it, and the outline of a pickaxe stretching the fabric. Most important, though, was who the tan and brown pony was. "Seapony Dustmane."
"That guy from the Bellerophon?" Spike asked, trying to see out of the bunker.
"The same." Twilight sneered. "Seapony, you are bucked. You are so bucked, I need to invent a new word for just how bucked you are. You are superhorrifibucked."
"But what do we do?" Spike pulled out a pair of null-all shackles. "We can't just walk up there and toss these on him. The crowd would eat us alive."
"Who says we can't?" Twilight opened her saddlebags and dumped their entire contents into Spike's backpack, then tossed the shackles in her pack and tossed them up to Cloud Burner. "Fly at him, scare him out of the crowd, run him down, and haul his flank to Fort Hurricane. Then get back here as fast as possible so we can plan out how to infiltrate the HQ."
Cloud tossed on the bag and saluted. "One superhorrifibucked, tribalist douche bag, coming up!"
"What about me?" Blaze asked. "I'm not a soldier, but I'd like to help, if I can."
Twilight shook her head."You've been more than enough help already. Thank you. It's getting rather dangerous, so you should head home, wait this out."
"I can't just do nothing… Tell you what, I'll talk to some of my friends. I'm not a noble, but I know ponies in this city. I'll see if I can dig anything up, maybe see if there's a safe way in that building."
Rainbow nodded. "It's true, dad's connected in this city as well as a mid-level noble. He might be able to find things out we can't."
Twilight's ear twitched at the cry of the pegasi outside. "Okay, but don't get in too deep. If I'm right, there are ponies out there who won't hesitate to kill you if they think you're too close."
"Be careful. Gotcha. I'll head back here if I find anything." Blaze flew off back in the direction of the core, zig-zagging his way through the throngs.
"Okay, now we try to find a way past a half million or so particularly perturbed and pissed off pegasi." Twilight pulled out her notebook and pen. "Any ideas, guys?"
Cloud flapped his wings harder as he climbed, flying up in circles over his target. He'd heard about this pony after he had called Twilight a slur. He had gotten off easy that time, in his opinion, which meant it was time for karma to catch up with him.
He turned his feathers and tipped into a dive, going from a standstill to a blur in just a few seconds. Much as it would have been satisfying to just plow into his target, it was plain that Twilight wanted him alive. Still, he needed a good buildup of speed. That hard part would come just before he tackled him. He had to get through the crowd.
Pegasus after pegasus blew passed him, most of whom were hovering at a fixed point or flying very slowly. Each beat of his wings had him turning ever so slightly to avoid breaking the bones of either himself or some unfortunate soul that wasn't looking up. Worse, the sheer number of ponies was going up, and it wasn't long before the number he was flying past could be measured in the dozens per second. Then, he found it; a clear line down. He surged forward, leaving his restraint behind.
No! He pulled back, flapping as hard as he could to avoid the mother and colt that had drifted into his path. "Look out!" He could make out their colors, cutie marks, even the hue of their eyes if they had been facing him. The air around him pushed down, bleeding off his speed and kicking up the manes of the ponies under him.
The parent pulled her foal out of the way at the last second, barely acting in time. "Watch where you're going!" She screamed at him. Tartarus had no fury like that of a mother, but even so, it wasn't enough to reach Cloud while his target was still free.
He didn't even look at the mother he had nearly hurt, but instead kept his focus on Dustmane. The two locked eyes as the Seapony turned to see what had happened, and that was when Cloud realized his actual mistake.
There was a certain look they taught you when you trained to be in the Royal Guard. A stern confidence that made you as much a statue of a myth as a soldier. It was drilled into you until it was a part of your very soul. Once lodged so permanently into your being, it never, ever left your eyes.
That was what Dustmane must have seen, because he took off like a shot.
Damn it all. He tore after him, moving up, over and around pony after pony that got in his way. It was chasing after somepony in a maze, only the maze was moving and innocents got hurt if you ran into a wall. However, if giving himself away was Cloud's mistake, Dustmane made a different one: he left the protesters behind.
The chase turned from maze to open sky, which was exactly was Cloud wanted. Nopony short of a Wonderbolt could match a Day Guard Charioteer on pure, unbridled speed. He opened up his magic, taking in the air in front of him and sending it over his pinions and out behind him with almost explosive ferocity. Each flap of his wings was another little burst of power that had him gobbling up the inches between him and his prey.
Thunder rumbled in the distance as the tops of clouds lit their way with arcs of lightning. They weaved back and forth through the miniature storms, the puffy balls at the tops ready to electrify any pegasus stupid enough to try to land on them.
Another maze came up to them, this one not of ponies, but of their homes. Little clusters of clouds making up fancy, high maintenance, mansions for the wealthy of Cloudsdale filled that section of the sky. Though they were at least a hundred meters apart by regulation, at his speed that was barely a blink of an eye. Unlike ponies, though, these were predictable.
Time to do this smart. Cloud pulled into a climb, letting the little douche gain some ground. His new path was clearer, and he could go faster, all while keeping his prey in sight. Yet, he didn't close the distance; not all the way.
Dustmane looked around to his left and right, his rear and underneath him, even above. There was one angle, though, that not even pegasi usually checked, as it was difficult, if not impossible, for their heads to move that way. It was this spot that Cloud hid in, and Dustmane never looked up and behind him.
Cloud slowed with his target, letting the quarry feel either a measure of safety or a bowlful of paranoia and fear. Either one worked for Cloud. It was only a matter of time, now. They moved through the city, the chasee leading the chaser through a manufacturing district with one of the weather factories facilities—which was strangely devoid of protesters—and into a dense residential area. Though not the core itself, the structure was still the size of a small storm, and likely filled to the brim with apartments and condos and all manner of tunnels. Thus, it had to be now.
He barrelled towards Dustmane as he approached one of the orbiting structures, a smaller cloud just outside the larger one that had a few expensive condos and a large landing area with a tunnel going through it. His quarry was going for said tunnel, so that's where he'd have to get him.
Cloud lined up behind Dustmane and burned up the distance between them like a wildfire, catching up to his tail as they passed through the tunnel.
That was when the pain came.
His hind leg cried out as it was pulled, yanking the muscle hard and tipping him upside down. Wet cloud soaked his head and back as he skidded along the cloud landing, hooves in the air like a foal playing in grass. His rump rammed into a series of trash cans, only barely stopping him in time to save him from a dive into a trash cloud filled with things he really didn't want to contemplate.
"Okay, I don't know who, but somepony is about to get the beating of their lives." He fringed the obligatory banana peel off his head and back into the trash, then stood up and flared out his wings.
"Going a little fast there, aren't you, citizen?" One of four pegasi said as they stepped out of the alleys. "And chasing that boy? What's he done to you?"
"Go to Tartarus. I don't have to tell you anything, and you need to get out of my way."
"I don't quite think you understand your situation, Sir." Another voice said, this one of a unicorn appearing from behind the trash cloud and brandishing a badge. "You're coming with us. Whether it's alive or in a body bag is up to you."
Cloud strode up to the short stallion and let his wings do some of the talking, firing up his magic and building up some static. Even without a single arc of electricity, they still sounded like thunder. "Day Guard Charioteer. Lethal force authorized by the Sun herself. Last chance. Leave or die."
The unicorn answered by lighting his horn.
Burner retorted with a buck to clouds underneath him. The vaporous platform vanished, leaving a house-sized gap right where the unicorn was standing. Cloud walking spells didn't help when you had no cloud to walk on.
He kicked up into the air, flapping his wings to push himself into a backflip, then flew upside down as three of the other pegasi dove for where he was instead of where he was going. The fourth raced after the falling unicorn, taking him out of the picture for now. One of the remaining hostiles plowed into the very same trash cans Cloud had, while the other two were faster.
Cloud pulled back and to his side to dodge the first punch, then returned with a dozen of his own. The second pegasus came in from his side to try his luck with a blow, and Cloud grabbed the first's head and used it to block, then punched the stunned enemy in the nose so hard that the back of his head punched the other one in the nose, too.
The trash pegasus pulled himself out of the garbage and lunged, wings charged with sloppy, unfocused electricity. His forehoof was pulled back in a telegraph so large you'd have to hang it on a billboard.
Cloud Burner flapped once, sending him into the air with a spin and over the attacker. He put all his magic into his outer pinions, a trick only high ranking soldiers knew. The vibration had the feathers singing with a metallic hum, and sharpened their edges to a razor tip. The biological blades cut into his enemy's plumage, cutting through each of the primaries on one wing, then another.
The pegasus tumbled and crashed into a wall, his clipped wings flailing about fruitlessly until their owner decided to run for it. The other two pegasi weren't dissuaded yet, however, as they came back, bloody noses and all.
"This is getting old." Cloud Burner jumped forward, driving a hoof into the stomach of one of his attackers. As that one staggered, he turned away from the other and jumped to the side, allowing him to both dodge a punch and slam his fetlock into the already battered nose of the second pegasus. He then grabbed hold of his enemy's outstretched foreleg, throwing him over his head and into the floor. With his grip still firm, he kicked a hind hoof into the captive's shoulder and twisted the leg. The sickening crack of bone vibrated through their bodies, and Cloud left the pegasus to sleep, knocked out from the pain of the break, which was typical for ponies that received such a great wound to their legs.
The last enemy was stumbling around, trying to line up a hit.
Cloud held out a leg, tripping the stallion to the ground. One stomp to the neck carefully delivered to a specific spot sent a knockout shock to his system, and that was that. When the final pegasus arrived with the unicorn in tow, Cloud greeted them with a bolt of lightning that ripped passed their ears. The look on their faces, though priceless, wasn't near as funny as the drops of yellow moisture that some poor soul far below might interpret as rain. Both fled for their lives after seeing what happened to their friends.
"That slowed me down too much. I've probably lost Dustmane…" Cloud took off into the sky, searching high and low for any kind of clue as to where his target went. He reached the large structure ahead of them, and criss-crossed through many of the tunnels, but found only random, unrelated pegasi and darkness.
"And you're sure you haven't seen him?" Cloud asked.
"Nope. Sorry." The orange mare shrugged, putting her safety vest back on. "Wish I could help ya, but almost nopony showed up to work. Fraidy cats, the lot of them. Somepony has to do the maintenance." She tipped his helmet, flying off at a meandering pace.
"Damn," Cloud said, sighing. "This is taking too long. He's gone. Gotta get back to Twilight, give her an update." He took off down the tunnel, heading for the light, when a bag strap sticking out of a garbage can caught his eye. Wait… He tossed the lid, finding a large bag inside, holding a pickaxe.
He opened it up, pulling out the implement. Blood was covering the tip, and there were teeth marks on the wooden handle. "Guess you didn't have time to clean or ditch the weapon before joining the march, huh? Dustmane, you are bucked - superhorrifibucked."
----
"Gee, some help you two are," Twilight said as she slumped down against the cloud. "How long have we been here without a single idea?"
"I don't see you contributing." Rainbow stuck out her tongue and blew a raspberry. "And you're supposed to be the genius!"
"I know, I know. But what are we supposed to do? The place is surrounded!"
"Hey, you three still in there?" A smattering of knocks came from up above as Cloud Burner opened up the cloud. "Figure out a way in yet?"
"Nada." Twilight shook her head. "You capture Dustmane?"
"Some crooked cops ran interference for him and he got away. I looked high and low, couldn't find him." Cloud dangled a bag over the opening. "But I did find this!"
"Is that… The murder weapon?!" Twilight reached out and grabbed it with her hooves, taking a quick peek in the pack. "Bingo, evidence. Get this to Fort Hurricane ASAP. Deliver it to RGIS. I can't be seen with it."
She tossed it back up into Cloud's hooves. "Right on. I'll be back in a jiff." He closed the cloud up, and he was gone. At least, he was gone for fifteen seconds before he opened the hole right back up again. "Hey, guys! You'll want to see this. Take a look down there, to the south!"
Twilight, Spike, and Rainbow all crowded their small viewing slot, trying to get an angle.
Spike pushing Rainbow's head away to see better, though she was fighting back. "I don't see anything!"
"You will!" Cloud resealed the makeshift bunker and flew off again, this time not turning back.
"You guys see anything?" Spike asked.
"I would if you'd quit shoving!"
"Ssh! Quiet!" Twilight pushed them both down into the bunker. "Just listen. You two hear that?"
They all stood silent for a moment, ears peeled for anything. A faint, but growing cadence was coming, heading for the main protest.
"It's a chant." Rainbow peeked back through the slot. "What's the big deal? They've been chanting all night… Wait…"
"Yeah." Twilight blinked, finally seeing something come into view from the long cloud path going into the distance. "It's a separate chant; not what the ponies here have been saying."
Slowly, inexorably, the chant grew closer, as did the army of protesters singing it. They weren't just pegasi, either, though they were there in force. Earth ponies and unicorns were all in the crowd, too, along with some gryphons and even some donkeys. They held signs that said "Love over hate," "My husband is an earth pony," "All Equestria For All Ponies," and "Pegasi For Harmony." The chant even overpowered the other protest.
"No more windegoes! No more windegoes! No more windegoes!"
"Hey, Twilight!" Rainbow pointed a hoof at the crowd. "Check out their bandanas!"
The original, tribalist crowd had blue bandanas, or at least pieces of cloth, wrapped around their forelegs. This one, however, had pastel green and violet, the same as the colors in Celestia's mane.
The oceans of ponies in the sky and on the clouds came to meet, pushing against each other with bodies and words and sound. The unity supporters were outnumbered, but wouldn't take a backseat to anypony in spirit. Step by step, they pushed the hate fuelled crowd back.
"Okay, now I have something I can work with." Twilight licked her lips at the opportunity and possibilities. "It'll still take some doing, though."
"Hey-o, I'm back-o!" said a voice from above, eliciting a groan from Rainbow.
"Really, dad? Really?" Rainbow pulled open a hole in the roof. "You can't talk normal instead of embarrass me?"
"Embarrass you? That what you think?" Blaze grinned while hopping inside the bunker. "After I went to all this trouble to mount a counter protest?"
"Wait, this was your doing?" Twilight spun around to look at the crowd and run a few numbers. "There has to be two hundred thousand ponies out there!"
"Yeah, turns out Cloud Burner was right. There are a lot of ponies sick and tired of the tribalist garbage going around, but they were disorganized and scared. I knocked on some doors, distributed some, shall we say, motivational speeches, and those ponies knocked on doors, and so on, and so forth… I bet this crowd is only going to grow."
"Wow." Rainbow blinked, staring at her father. "That's… That's actually really cool."
"Hey, whadya know! My daughter finally thinks I did something cool!"
"Aaaand, you ruined it. Way to go, dad."
"Quiet you two!" Spike yelled, pointing out into the distant sky. "Something is coming!"
The ponies gathered around Spike at the viewing slot, and stared up into the orange sky in the middle of the night.
It was being led at a single point, which was flying at speeds just shy of a rainboom. Behind it and to both sides, the sky was burning. A giant 'V' was boiling away the clouds and painting fire into the air, setting the canvas of night ablaze in a roiling inferno of smoke and flame.
"What is that?" Twilight swallowed as she watched, her throat running dry. "I've never seen anything like it before."
"I have. Once or twice." Rainbow Blaze put a wing over her daughter. "I imagine Dashie has, too."
"Yeah." Dash nodded.
"Well, what is it?" Spike snapped his fingers in front of the pegasi. "Don't keep us waiting!"
"That," Dash said, pointing, "Is what happens when General Running Blaze is pissed."
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Oh yay. More excitement to come!
Excellent! As always.
You done fucked up!
Awesome chapter.
I like Rainbow's parents. As always, everything is fantastic.
7576389 back to the original comment why dosnt she do it over the glass desert again there is nothing there but glass
OOOHHH you just HAD to leave it there!
"but going no where"
"nowhere"?
"was an spherical"
"a"?
"She laid down next to Twilight"
"lay"?
"long path arcing passed the front"
"past"?
"pegasus blew passed him, most"
"past"?
"he found it; a clear line"
"it: a"?
"exactly was Cloud wanted"
"what"?
"high maintenance, mansions for"
"maintenance, mansions"?
"One of four pegasi"
"one"?
"your situation, Sir." Another"
"Sir," another"?
"She tipped his helmet"
"her"?
Great chapter. I bet based on his reaction to Twi's clearance level Cloud is really going to be broken when or if he finds out the truth. That bit about her clearance level being a myth/legend in the guard was a great touch by the way.
Aw man, this chapter had me grinning like an idiot. MOAR!
7577025
This is so classified that the required clearance level is classified.
frankly twilights self contorl is amazing, a single centeralized gravity spell could ruin most of the pegasai's ability to do anything.
Absolutely amazing, as with every other chapter you've written.
Have we heard about Rank Proper Name yet? By which I mean General Running Blaze?
Really hyped for the continuation of this epic story! Please keep going!
Honestly, if it wasn't for the non-tribalists coming out in force there, I'd be half inclined to just vaporize the whole city from orbit.
Interesting to get a bit more OC POV time.
So cool. Then again, when it comes to this story, it's not too hard to get to the point of being cool.
One question though. I'm sure I've heard of this pony in a previous chapter or two, but who is General Running Blaze? The name sounds familiar, but I can't place where I've heard the name. Anyway, another awesome chapter and I look forward to the next one.
~ Super-Brony12
Im'a be honest that counter protest had me legit tearing up, it was that awesome/beautiful.
I love this story. No other one gets me quite as pumped to see an update.
I'm in love with this story, I do hope you keep doing updates, Everytime I see an update from this story I squeek in delight. Your writing style and the detail you put into everything blows me away every time I read one of your chapters!
7576389 What would a 5kT nuclear device do to the planet? Not a damn thing beyond possibly turning a town into smoldering rubble. As was already explained to you, a five QUADRILLION ton nuclear weapon (10,000 50MT devices) would have no negligible effect on earth.
Now, there is one aspect about Equus that is quite different from Earth, and that is size. Equus is considerably larger, though the gravity, atmosphere and other details would be relitively the same. Whereas Equus ih greatly larger, the effects would be much smaller.
Lastly, if you remember correctly, there recently was a detonation significantly larger than a 50kT bomb. Zebrica... Twilight attempting to stop that spell. Yeah. That was a sizable detonation. I ran the numbers a while back, and came up with a figure between 25-50MT. At the low end, thats 66% larger than the biggest device the US has detonated. On the high end, it would be equal to the Soviet Union's Tzar Bomba.
7579182
He's mentioned early on in The Living Ghost Town as well as in a comment by the author.
Why do I get the feeling that this will end in tears later on?
awesome chapter exultant righting.
and that last part (That," Dash said, pointing, "Is what happens when General Running Blaze is pissed) this should be good.
7577330
Great one xP
Also, Great chapter ':D Rainbow' parents Are epic
Missing vocative comma.
a spherical emptiness
Lowercase T in "the"
"past", not "passed". You've made this error a few times over this chapter; please keep an eye out for that in the future.
Lowercase H in "he".
her helmet
Spike pushed Rainbow's head away
That unicorn makes the corrupt police mob highly suspicious. The chase leading to them might be intentional as well. And with Twilight growing again, Dustmane is in really big trouble!
That stuff about unicorns starting to grow again was complete bogus, wasn't it?
7581118 Read the fic, then. I am completely certain that you will fully enjoy the story. It is that damn good.
7579757
Just went back and took a look at the chapter that you linked, and it now makes sense as to why that name sounded so familiar. Thanks for the help!
~ Super-Brony12
P.S. Nice avatar pic.
7579920
Or maybe laughs. I can imagine Twilight literally putting Stormrider under Rainbow's Hearth's Warming tree as a prank sometime. I'm sure the Grand Mage could convince him to play along.
7580226
Might not be, considering Unicorns are the longest lived of the three races in this fic.
I really got angry by how short pegasus lives are on this fic by the way.
I wonder if Twilight will use her magic to make Rainbow Dash live longer, since she can probably do age changing spells now. And no one could really complain since she is literally the third highest menber of nobility after the princess.
Still considering I am writing a fic with G1 Twilight in it, as in warps reality in a way that even scares Discord Twilight, who I am to complain about power levels?
7587710 nah it was never about what I did personally just discussing sex as a topic.
Oh my god I love this story and hate it too!
Love it, because it's amazing!
Hate it because I have to wait for an update!
...But the wait is so worth it! To read chapters like this... I'll be set until the next chapter... for now... maybe...
7576389
This is a world that has been massively expanded by Discord though. So it's probably more massive than its gravity would imply, meaning it has more momentum and more atmosphere to be completely unaffected.
And you're missing a very important point. Celestia has done this before. She has unleashed the power of the sun on Equus before.
Besides- there does come a point at which a show of strength becomes kind of important. For example, when people not believing in your strength is causing hundreds or thousands or tens of thousands of deaths. You know. Just for one option, completely hypothetical.
I feel like Celestia is so used to wielding a scalpel she's forgotten that sometimes a hammer really is the tool for the job.
7595299 Leaving this forum
I was not expecting Rainbow's parents. I really enjoyed this chapter.
Well, I just burned through reading everything but the prologue in about a day and a half.
Loving this!
Hope to read more soon
Oh, come on! Not this guy again!
You're ruining my reputation
The only thing about what those cops did that was crooked was running away. They saw someone being chased down during a period of time when violence is rampant in the streets, the police had every right to intervene when they did. Cloud Burner also didn't have the armor or credentials that comes with being a member of the Royal Guard, so the police had no reason to believe him when Burner said he was with the Royal Guard. Also, Burner retired, he lied when he told those cops he was Royal Guard.
I'm surprised by the lack of triggered Trump supporters in this comment section.
Yay, Firefly! I don't care what the show did, Firefly is Rainbow Dash's mom in my headcanon!
Rainbow Dad is appropriately dadly.
My dad is both embarrassing and cooler than me.
9116238
Nice