1 More Clouds
This year, the small town of Loch Azure was chosen to supply the factory in Cloudsdale with water, and Rainbow Dash was asked to supervise the operation. And if you can think of a better way for her to give the signal to start than performing a sonic rainboom above the team of pegasi and spelling BEGIN with a rainbow, then you must have a monumental imagination. When Rainbow Dash heard the sound of the large bell, she flew down and was surprised to find that the pegasi were flying in circles over a lake, not a reservoir. She walked over to Professor Lactic, the unicorn in charge of the anemometer.
“Haven’t you heard?” he asked, not taking his eyes off the slowly forming tornado. “There’s no fish in Loch Azure. It’s the only fresh water body in Equestria devoid of marine life. Accept for the Loch Azure Monster.”
“OK, I remember now,” groaned Rainbow Dash.
She recalled the legend of the monster lurking in Loch Azure that was so frightening, it scared all the fish away.
If it’s anything like the serpent in the Everfree Forrest, Rainbow Dash thought as the anemometer showed 630WP, there’s nothing to worry about.
Of course, even if there was a sea serpent in that lake, it would have taken a wing power number of 3200 to lift it up to the sky. Loch Azure’s pegasi managed to get 890WP. Rainbow Dash was secretly delighted that they hadn’t broken Fillydelphia’s record. A green and red pole had been stuck in the lake to tell them when they’d sent enough water to Cloudsdale. As soon as the level dropped to the red half, Prof Lactic rang the bell.
“Great work, everypony!” Rainbow Dash said to all the pegasi after they’d terminated their tornado. “So, who’s the leader here?”
Two sets of eyes nearly popped out when the answer was revealed.
“Hi, Rainbow Dash.”
“Oh. Hi, Lightning Dust.”
“So, are you still in the academy?” asked Lightning Dust.
“Yeah… the next semester’s coming in a month,” replied Rainbow Dash. “So, this is your home, is it?”
“Yep. Me and Azurey are neighbours,” Lightning Dust smiled half-heartedly.
Rainbow Dash wished she hadn’t rented a room in Loch Azure for the night. Hanging around her former lead pony was very awkward for both of them.
In Ponyville the next morning, Scootaloo was up bright and early waiting for Rainbow Dash to return. Rainbow Dash told her that she would take her up to the sky so she could step on her first cloud, and they’d decided to wait until Cloudsdale got a fresh supply of water. Scootaloo glowed broadly at the sight of the brand new clouds that were drifting across the orange morning sky. For two hours, Scootaloo wandered impatiently around town. Silver Spoon had seen her pacing in front of the spa and she told Diamond Tiara, whose mother had sent her rather than a butler to go to the market and pick up a frying pan rather.
“Wanna have some fun with her?” asked Diamond Tiara.
So the two of them went to find Scootaloo, who was now walking laps around the fountain.
“Hey, Scootaloo!” shouted Silver Spoon. “You better take it easy!”
“Yeah! You don’t want to look too tired when Rainbow Dash gets here!” jeered Diamond Tiara. “Or she’ll think you’re weak!”
Scootaloo started wetting her mane with water from the fountain. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon chuckled as she ran over to a shop window and started fixing her face.
Scootaloo spent so long looking at her reflection, that she didn’t see Diamond Tiara hang her newly acquired frying pan on a fishing rod and Silver Spoon blow up the paper bag she was carrying it in. They crept to Scootaloo’s left, Diamond Tiara suspended the flying pan over Scootaloo’s head, and Silver Spoon got ready to stomp on the bag. But right before she did, Scootaloo’s reflection in the window changed. There in front of her was Silver Spoon with her hoof over the inflated bag.
“Hey!” she yelled right before the bag was burst.
“Aw! What gave us away?” moaned Diamond Tiara.
Gilt Eyes sauntered into view grinning triumphantly. He’d flipped the reflection using his magic to show Scootaloo what Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were up to.
“I don’t think your mom would be too happy if she found out you’ve been playing around with her new frying pan,” he smirked.
Diamond Tiara went in a different direction with her teasing.
“Oh, well. It wouldn’t have worked anyway,” she said. “Scootaloo wouldn’t have hit it. She can’t even fly.”
Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “You’ve been playing that card forever. ‘Oh, Scootaloo’s as flightless as an ostrich.’ ‘Oh, Scootaloo’s hardly even a pegasus.’ Blah, blah, blah.”
“I’ve heard you grabbed a cloud once and fell right through it,” accused Diamond Tiara.
Scootaloo barely even remembered the time she’d jumped into the air in a state of fright and grabbed the end of a cloud, which snapped off. But before she could deny it, Rainbow Dash swooped down and carried her into the sky.
“Ready to step on your first cloud?!”
“Yeah!”
“That’s the spirit! Let’s go!”
Right above the store was a wide, flat cloud; perfect for a young pegasus to walk on.
“Here we are,” said Rainbow Dash, flying up to the side of the cloud.
Scootaloo didn’t waste a second. She jumped off of Rainbow Dash’s back and landed with a poof on the cloud.
“Oh, yeah. This is a nice and smooth one,” Rainbow Dash grinned, admiring their lucky find. “I once had a lap race with Gilda around a cloud like this. Naturally, I had done fifty by the time she’d done te- Scootaloo?”
Rainbow Dash looked around. Scootaloo was nowhere in sight.
Gilt Eyes had gotten into an argument of his own with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. They were suddenly interrupted by a loud scream. They looked up and there was Scootaloo falling out of the sky yelling for help and trying in vain to beat her wings to safety. Rainbow Dash was nowhere in sight, and neither was any other pegasus.
“I gotcha, Scootaloo!” called Gilt Eyes, and his horn lit up like a million fireflies.
Scootaloo slowed down. Gilt Eyes was straining himself to bring her to a soft landing. He’d never used his magic on anything bigger than a chocolate cake before. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon didn’t dare break his concentration. Soon, Scootaloo’s hooves lightly touched the ground.
“Thank for that,” sighed Scootaloo to the panting Gilt Eyes.
Rainbow Dash flew down looking horrified.
“Holy jumping jumbo jets!” she exclaimed. “What happened, Scoots? Did ya fall off?”
“No,” replied Scootaloo. “I fell through.”
“You mean you just passed through it like it was just air?” Rainbow Dash inquired. “That’s impossible. Only unicorns and earth ponies can’t touch clouds.”
“It’s a sign,” smirked Diamond Tiara, any concerns she had earlier gone.
Scootaloo had to fight the temptation to grab the frying pan and wallop Diamond Tiara with it.
“You’re sure you didn’t just fall over the side?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“I’m…”
Scootaloo hated to say it in front of Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, but her experience was too bizarre to keep secret.
“I’m sure I fell through. I didn’t feel a thing after I jumped off your back.”
“Let’s try it again,” said Rainbow Dash. “I’ll keep an eye on you this time, I swear.”
So Scootaloo got on Rainbow Dash’s back and they headed up to the cloud.
When they got to it, Rainbow Dash landed on it with no trouble at all.
“Feels pretty solid to me,” she said. “Go on.”
Scootaloo wasn’t nearly as excited as she was the first time. She took her time jumping off of Rainbow Dash.
“I told you, I’ll catch you if you fall again,” insisted Rainbow Dash.
Scootaloo gulped, jumped… and went right through the cloud like it was a floating haystack. The experience was made weirder by the fact that Rainbow Dash was right there underneath the cloud ready to catch her as if she’d been there before she jumped.
“See?” they both said at the same time.
“This cloud’s obviously busted,” said Rainbow Dash. “I’ll get rid of it and we’ll go to another one.”
So Scootaloo got back on Rainbow Dash’s back, and Rainbow Dash grabbed the defective cloud with her tail. They found Derpy placing a few clouds haphazardly over White Tail Woods.
“Hey Derpy, can you get rid of this for us?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“Sure,” Derpy replied.
But as she reached for it, she let go of the cloud she was moving and it fell right on top of Rainbow Dash.
“Ow! Watch it, will ya?!”
“Hey, I can’t see!” called a voice.
Derpy jumped. “What was that?!”
It was Scootaloo. She was completely concealed by the cloud that had struck Rainbow Dash. And no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t lift it off. Rainbow Dash shoved it away.
“How did she not get hit, too?” asked Derpy. “She’s a pegasus, isn’t she?”
Rainbow Dash went around the sky above the woods holding Scootaloo in her hooves and dipping her into the clouds like a chip in salsa.
“None of these clouds will support her,” she said after they’d been through six clouds.
“Something must’ve gone wrong,” suggested Derpy. “I’ll go to the cloud factory and let them know.”
“Remember to get badged in this time,” cautioned Rainbow Dash as Derpy flew away.
Scootaloo kept tugging at her wings after Rainbow Dash brought her back to Ponyville.
“They’re not fake or anything,” Rainbow Dash tried to assure her. “It’s just a bad product from the factory.”
“You and Derpy could touch those clouds,” frowned Scootaloo.
She looked around making sure no one else was listening.
“I have earth ponies in my family tree,” she whispered.
“So do I, but I can still walk on clouds,” snorted Rainbow Dash. “I’m telling you, somepony goofed up in Cloudsdale. I’d love it if it was Hoops who messed up the process. That’d be hilarious.”
But when Derpy returned, she told them that the cloud factory technicians inspected all the equipment and could find nothing wrong with it. And when they tested their freshly made clouds, none of their employees were unable to touch them.
“So it’s true,” fretted Scootaloo. “The only pegasus DNA in me is in my wings.”
And before Rainbow Dash could object, Scootaloo ran off so fast, you’d think she had her scooter with her.
“There’s no way Scootaloo’s some kind of half-breed. Only alicorns can have two kinds of pony DNA,” said Rainbow Dash resolutely. “Come on, Derpy. We gotta figure this out.”
Scootaloo did what she always did when she felt blue; went to Sugarcube Corner and picked up a chocolate cupcake with a vanilla cream center. As she snacked on it on her way to the Cutie Mark Crusaders’ clubhouse, she heard a squawking noise coming from her left. She turned her head and found herself face to face with a penguin, who was apparently trying to recite something from a phrasebook he was holding.
“Um, sorry,” said Scootaloo, “I don’t speak penguin.”
All of a sudden, Fluttershy came running up.
“Oh. Please excuse him, Scootaloo,” she said, looking rather abashed. “Um, this is Hydroplane. He’s touring Equestria. I’m supposed to be guiding him around Ponyville today, but I had to leave him for a minute. There was a baby squirrel stuck to some tree sap.”
“So, what’s he saying?” asked Scootaloo.
Hydroplane squawked something to Fluttershy.
“He wants to know where you got that cupcake,” she translated. “Oh. That’s your cheery-uppy cupcake. Is something wrong?”
Scootaloo told her about her inability to touch clouds.
“Oh, I would have given anything to not be able to walk on clouds when I was your age,” said Fluttershy. “But that’s just me. I wasn’t a very good flyer.”
“At least you could walk on clouds,” moaned Scootaloo. “But I go right through them and I’m as flightless as that penguin.”
Hydroplane started squawking some sort of sentence again.
“I didn’t offend him, did I?” asked Scootaloo.
“Oh, no. He just wants to make a suggestion,” answered Fluttershy. “He used to get teased a lot by other birds for not being able to fly. So whenever he felt upset, he went swimming.”
Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “What else could he do?”
“But swimming is just like flying, only in water,” explained Fluttershy. “His wings make perfect flippers. I’ll bet your wings would be just as good.”
After Scootaloo finished her cupcake, she went to the pond. But she stood for a long time by the water. Swimming through it would be a lot like falling through the clouds, and she didn’t like that feeling. Plus, there was the possibility that she might be spotted by Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. But she’d been waiting to do something other than flutter a few inches above the ground for a long time and pretending to fly by swimming had to be the next best thing. So she hunched down, jumped… and found herself rocketing into the sky in Rainbow Dash’s hooves.
“Guess what, Scootaloo! You’re not the only one!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash.
“What?!”
“You’re not the only pegasus who can’t walk on clouds!”
“I’m not?!” cried Scootaloo.
“Me and Thunderlane brought Rumble and Featherweight up to the sky and they can’t touch the clouds either,” Rainbow Dash told her. “The clouds won’t hold pegasus foals!”
Scootaloo’s face brightened up at once.
“I’m not an earth pony with wings!” she shouted in delight.
“Of course not,” smiled Rainbow Dash. “Like I said, you’re either a pegasus or one of the other kinds.”
“So what now?” asked Scootaloo.
“Well, Derpy’s gone to the flight camp grounds to warn them that their campers won’t be able to walk on their clouds,” said Rainbow Dash. “She says they just got their new ones this morning and there’s no way those foals can practice flying on those.”
“And what are we doing?”
“We’re gonna meet Thunderlane and Rumble at the cloud factory. We gotta show the staff what’s up.”
“You’re back again?” asked Hoops when he saw Rainbow Dash arrive for the second time that day. “We already showed you that there’s nothing wrong with our clouds.”
Rainbow Dash and Thunderlane touched down in the plant with Scootaloo and Rumble on their backs. Rainbow Dash didn’t need to be badged in now that he was a member of Ponyville’s Royal Taskforce.
“Then we’ll just show you that there is,” she said to Hoops.
Thunderlane positioned himself under a freshly made cloud, and Rainbow Dash hovered over it and dropped Scootaloo. Hoops and some of the other factory workers gasped when they saw Scootaloo go right through it.
“See that?” asked Thunderlane after he caught Scootaloo.
He then flew above another fresh cloud. Rumble jumped off his brother’s back and passed through the cloud as if it wasn’t there.
“There you go,” said Rainbow Dash once she grabbed Rumble. “Your clouds won’t hold foals.”
“I gotta get my boss,” said Hoops as the other employees stopped working.
“Can I go now?” asked Thunderlane as he and Rainbow Dash swapped foals.
“Man, are you lazy or what?” groaned Rainbow Dash. “Yeah, you can go. You can go and help Derpy spread the word about the bad clouds.”
Thunderlane hated being accused of being lazy, so he wasted no time in taking off with Rumble to alert the weather teams.
“You know I can fly perfectly fine on my own, right?” asked Rumble as Thunderlane carried him away from Cloudsdale.
The technicians ran several tests on their equipment, and everything should have gone normally. But each time they produced a cloud, Scootaloo was completely unable to touch it. The sun was beginning to set and the factory was getting nowhere.
“Hey, what if it’s the water?” Hoops piped up. “I’ve heard that Professor Lactic dude’s a worrywart. What if he did something to the lake before Loch Azure’s mayor got the memo?”
Rainbow Dash remembered how Prof Lactic looked horrified to be anywhere near the lake, and how he had countless stretchers on standby in case any of the pegasi on the team got hurt.
“You might be right, Hoops,” said Rainbow Dash. “I’ll bet you want to write to your mom and tell her.”
Hoops rolled his eyes… although it was hard to tell.
“OK. And while I’m doing that, you can head over to Loch Azure and talk to Lactic,” he retorted.
Rainbow Dash was intending to do that anyway, so she didn’t tell Hoops off for talking to a royal taskforce member in an insulting way.
“You wanna come, Scootaloo?” she asked.
“Sure,” said Scootaloo. “I’d like to meet that Lightning Dust pony you told me about.”
Rainbow froze. She’d forgotten that Lightning Dust lived in Loch Azure.
“Oh, this is gonna be fun,” she muttered as Scootaloo mounted her.