> 10 Days, 3 Adventures - Part 3 - "Cloudsdale Reunion"
>  by TP Night
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1 - The Journey Begins
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rainbow Dash awoke to the sound of her alarm clock beeping.
She grumpily moved her hoof out from under the covers and pressed the ‘off’
button, and crawled out of bed. She mumbled to herself, “I hate mornings...”.

But then, she remembered what day it was. Today, she was going to Cloudsdale
with Fluttershy for a school reunion event that would last several days,
and so they had decided to stay a whole week, and use the opportunity to go see
old friends, family, and places. Among other things, they had planned to go out and
eat at The Thunder Cloud, a small but very good pizzeria in the outskirts of Cloudsdale.

They used to go there when they still lived in Cloudsdale, before moving to Ponyville.
Nowadays, they took the chance to go there whenever they visited Cloudsdale,
if they had time for it. This time they’d have a week there, so they would have
lots of chances. Rainbow got her Tank-shaped slippers on, and walked down o her
kitchen, and started brewing coffee and putting some fruits in a mixer, added a
small glass of juice, and started the noisy machine. In just 10 seconds flat, the machine
had turned the fruits into a smoothie. perfect breakfast. Coffee, smoothie, and some
toast with a thick layer of Granny Smiths zap-apple jam. Which, she thought to herself,
it was only a month left until they’d appear again, so in about five weeks, it was time
to go buy her usual (literal) pile of jars. And some of the Zap Cider, of course.
and some regular apple too, while she was at it.

After breakfast, she took a final look at her packing, to make sure she had what she
needed for the week. She was going to live with Fluttershy and her parents, since
her own family had moved away from Cloudsdale and now lived in Las Pegasus,
because her father, Rainbow Blitz, had gotten a job there, as assistant manager
over the local weather teams. She didn’t need much packing, just some hygiene articles,
her special pillow (A personalized, custom-shaped ergonomic cloud-filled tension-relief
pillow she needed because she got a stiff neck otherwise), her Tank-slippers and bathrobe,
some candy for the train ride. Food she would get from Fluttershy’s family,
and any other stuff she might need she could borrow from them too,
or buy in Cloudsdale. No need to drag along any unnecessary packing. One set of
saddlebags would be enough. She finished her packing, and left her house. 
Tank had already been taken to a Pet Daycare center, run by a friend of Fluttershy’s,
who was also taking care of Flutters army of pets, and Pinkie’s and Rarity’s pets too,
since the two of them were going to Manehattan.

When she was satisfied with everything, she left the house, locked the door, made
sure twice it was really locked, and took off, flying down to the station where she
was meeting Fluttershy.


* * *


Fluttershy woke up early, and decided she might as well get up. She was leaving for
Cloudsdale today, so she didn’t want to risk being late, or forgetting anything important.
She had some oatmeal and a large cup of herbal tea for breakfast, and then checked
her packing twice, to make sure she had everything. Mane products, brushes, tooth brush,
money, a couple of books for the ride. Both she and Rainbow was staying at her parents
house, so she’d have everything she needed there. All of her pets had been sent to
Abigail, a friend and colleague in the animal care business, who had a pet center in town.
Abigail was a Griffin, who had moved to town just a few months ago, and quickly
became friends with Fluttershy due to their common love for, and interest in,
all sorts of animals. Her Pet center worked kinda like a hotel, where ponies
could leave their pets for a few days (anywhere from an hour up to 14 days)
if they were going on vacations, meetings, or whatever, where they could not bring
the pets with them. Fluttershy had helped Abigail set up the business, and sometimes
volunteered as extra help when needed. Abi also studied part-time, to finish up
her incomplete studies to become a licensed veterinary.

Fluttershy made sure to triple-check all windows and doors twice, to make
sure everything was closed and locked, before grabbing her saddlebags and
walking to the Trainstation, where she met Rainbow Dash, already waiting.


* * *


“Mornin’, Flutters!” Rainbow said happily when Fluttershy arrived at the station.

“Good morning.” Fluttershy replied, equally happy, with her gentle smile.

“Sleep well?” Rainbow asked.

“Well.. mostly.. I had a strange dream, where I was walking through a forest of
tiny trees.. or maybe I was a giant and the trees were normal... in any case,
as I walked, I heard a distant voice, almost like a whisper.. saying some strange
word I didn’t understand, but it sounded foreign. It wasn’t Equestrian.”
Fluttershy said, with a somewhat confused look, but it faded into a smile again
as she added, “But other than that, I slept very good even though I’m nervous
about today... I mean, it’s been years since I met everypony from school..”

“That’s really weird... I had the opposite dream! I was flying just above ground
through a forest, but everything was much bigger than normal. Grass blades
as tall as me, trees so tall I could barely see the tops, gravel looked like boulders...
And as I flew, I heard voices calling out strange words.” Rainbow said.
“How could we both have dreams with so similar stuff happening?”

“I... I don’t know... Maybe we can ask Twilight sometime if she knows anything
about phenomenon like this, or maybe Luna can help if we ask her...”

“Yeah, I guess.” Rainbow replied.

“Anyway, the train should be here soon. I was thinking, uhm.. would it be okay if..
I’m not very social during the ride? I, uhm, was really looking forward to get some
reading done, I have this book on exotic animals, and...” Flutters said, but was interrupted
by Rainbow.

“Shoot! I forgot books! I have nothing to read during the train ride! I’m gonna be sooo
bored!”

“Well, uhm.. I have a book about rain forests too, if you want to borrow it...”

“Thanks for the offer, but I have a better idea. That kind of book isn’t really my style,
I prefer Daring Do. How long before the train arrives?”

“Uhm...” Flutters began, and turned her head to check the large clock on the station wall.
“A few minutes, and then it’ll stay here for about 15 minutes before it departs...”

“...Which leaves me more than enough time to go to Twilight and grab a Daring Do
and be back here long before it leaves! I’ll be right back, keep an eye on my saddlebags!”
Rainbow said as she unhooked her bags, and took off to the sky, flying toward the castle
at high speed. She landed in front of the doors, and since she rarely knocked
anyway, she simply burst in. “Hey, Twilight! You in here?” She yelled,
since she didn’t see Twilight in the main room when she entered. 

“I’m in the kitchen, Rainbow.” She heard Twilights voice reply.
“Want some tea? The water just started boiling.”

“No time, I’m in a hurry.” Rainbow said. “I just came by to see if you had any of the
‘Daring Do’ books available. Me and Fluttershy are going on a trip to Cloudsdale,
and we decided to take the train most of the way and just fly the last bit,
so I need something to do on the train.”

“Oh right, the school reunion, right?” Twilight asked.

“Exactly, and the train’s leaving in 15, so I need a book, like, right now.”

“The Daring books are all placed in the shelf marked ‘800’, just check along the wall.”

“....800? What kind of label is that for a bookshelf?” Rainbow asked with a puzzled 
expression on her face.

“It’s standardized book sorting, of course! I use the ‘Dewey Decimal System’,
in which the number 800 corresponds to ‘Literature’, which in turn includes fictional works.
I WAS planning to have Daring sorted in shelf 900, for History and Geography
due to being real-life events, but since Yearling wants to keep it secret that she’s
actually Daring Do for real, I decided to sort them as fiction.”

“Dew-whatimal system? You’re going egghead on me again, Twi.
Anyway, I’ll just grab a Daring book and then I gotta leave.”

“Okay, most of them should be available.”

While talking, Twilight had prepared a cup of steaming hot liquorice tea.
She lifted the teacup with her magic and carried it over to the desk where 
the two black orbs lay resting next to a pile of parchments, a quill and a small ink bottle.

Rainbow Dash looked over at the table. “What you got there? New paper weights?”

“No, these are unknown objects. Spike found one, and the Crusaders found the other.
I’m spending my day examining them to see if I can find out what they are.”

“Okay... Have fun with that. I gotta go. I’m taking ‘Daring Do and The Iron Throne’.”

“Sure. Have fun on that reunion. See you in a few days.”

Twilight and Rainbow both waved goodbye at each other as Rainbow
trotted out the door, and took off into the air, flying toward the train station.

As she landed, the train was just coming to a full stop, doors slowly opening and 
ponies exiting, filling the station with talk, some laughter, and the sound of hundreds
of hoofs walking on the concrete platform. Once everypony from the train had left,
the few ponies who was getting on started moving, including Rainbow and Fluttershy.

“Told you I’d make it in time.” Rainbow smiled and grabbed her saddlebags.

“I know how fast you are, Rainbow.. Did you find a book?”

“Yeah, I got a Daring book, like I said. ‘Daring Do and the Iron Throne’.”

“I thought you already read that one? Isn’t that the one you and Twilight got
from that Daring convention several months ago?”

“I’m amazed you can remember that, but yeah, the convention was actually
a release event for it. Anyways, I’ve read all the Daring books multiple times,
this one is just the one I’ve read the least times so far. Most of them I’ve read
three of four times each, but ‘The Iron Throne’ I’ve only read twice, and also,
it just happens to be one of the longest books in the series, almost twice as
long as most others. So it’s kinda like two Daring books, which is good,
‘cause that means it’ll last longer, and then I can buy some new book in Cloudsdale
for the return trip. I’m sure I can find something similar to the Daring books if I ask
the bookstore owner.” Rainbow smiled.

“Oh, I’m sure you can. adventure stories are very popular among teens and young adults,
like us, so a lot of those are published these days.”

“Really? How do you know?”

“Newspaper. There was a small article on the subject...”

“Oh, I see.. I usually just skim through and focus on the big news and the comic strips
on the last page, and the weather reports.”

“Why would you need to see the weather reports? You make the weather...”

“Exactly. I check to make sure they get the weather schedules right.
There has been times when the papers have printed the wrong schedules,
and since I’m the local team leader, it’s my duty to make sure they’ve printed
the correct one.” Rainbow said with a hint of pride.

The train started moving, and the two pegasi both grabbed their books,
planning to spend most of the trip in silence, reading.
> Chapter 2 - Cloudsdale
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“NEXT STOP, CLOUDSDALE GROUND VILLAGE!!!”
The conductor shouted across the train, loud and clear.

“ARRIVAL IN TEN MINUTES - DEPARTING PASSANGERS, 
PREPARE YOURSELVES TO DEPART THE TRAIN!”
He added, even louder.

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy both got their bookmarks and packed their books
into their saddlebags. Rainbow stretched her hooves and wings a bit as she stood up.
“Finally. I was starting to get bored, even with Daring. I usually only read for one,
maybe two hours at a time. It’s been over three now...”

“Three hours and twenty minutes.” Fluttershy said as she looked at a small clock
on one of the train cart walls, above one of the emergency exits.

She too got up, and stretched her limbs with slight snapping sounds, especially from her
wings, which she instead of keeping folded as pegasi usually did when not flying,
had kept unfolded and moved up behind her head, to use as a sort-of “pillow” as she
had been sitting leaned into the corner of her seat and the wall during most of the trip.

“You sure you can fly with those wings? I mean, using them like that for almost three 
hours must’ve numbed them, right? You got that tingly numb feeling now, don’t you?”
Rainbow asked, half teasing, half serious.

“Well, uhm, actually, I often use my wings like that when I’m sitting at home too,
so I’ve gotten used to it...” Fluttershy replied with her usual shy smile.
As they spoke, both of their stomachs growled a bit. After all, it had been a few
hours since breakfast.

“Hm.. How about we find someplace to eat lunch first, before we fly up?”
Rainbow suggested. “Plus, we can both use some more stretching before we fly.
Wouldn’t want to get cramps half-way. After all, it’s quite a bit up.” She added.

“C-cramps? I..uhm..” Fluttershy started in a nervous tone, but Rainbow quickly
noticed Fluttershys growing unease, and calmed her down.

“Don’t worry, Flutters. You won’t cramp if we make sure to just rest a bit first,
and even if, by some immensely small chance you do feel anything, I’ll be 
there too. I won’t let you fall.” She said in a soft tone, but then added,
almost sounding sad, “...not this time.. not again...”

This time it was Fluttershys turn to calm Rainbow down. 

“Oh, that was many years ago, and you’ve always been there for me.
You’ve never let me down. Let’s not speak of this again, okay?
that time was a once-in-a-lifetime accident, and... without it, you wouldn’t have
made the sonic rainboom, and I wouldn’t have found the butterflies and all the
small critters, and... without that rainboom, our lives would’ve been completely
different now. We probably would’ve never met the others, or become the 
elements, or meet and even become friends with all the royals in Equestria...”

Rainbow smiled again. “Yeah, you’re right.. it all ended up good in the end.”
The two ponies shared a quick hug, before the conductor yelled again.

“NOW ARRIVING AT CLOUDSDALE GROUND STATION!!!
DEPARTING PASSANGERS, GET OFF!!! REMAINING PASSANGERS,
GET OUT OF THE WAY AND THE DEPARTING ONES PASS!!!”

Rainbow grinned. “Imagine that guys daily consumption of cough drops.
Must be several packs a day, with all that yelling. I saw him earlier, he’s
not a unicorn, so he can’t use magic to enhance the voice, that’s all
natural!”

“And imagine his lung capacity... I bet he could have been an opera singer
if he had musical talent.”

“Yeah.” Rainbow smiled. “Anyway, we better get off before he starts yelling again,
I’m not sure my ears can handle much more of his Royal Canterlot Voice.”

Fluttershy agreed with a gentle nod and a small laugh at the Canterlot voice joke.
The train stopped, and they both got off. Rainbow took a deep breath of the cool air,
a faint wind blowing, barely stronger than a breeze. “Aaah... fresh air.”

Fluttershy took a few deep breaths too, smiling. As she did, she started sniffing the air.
“Something smells good...” She said, sniffing some more.

Rainbow started sniffing the air too, quickly picking up the scent.
“Hmm, you’re right. Smells like garlic bread. And onion soup, right...?”

“It’s coming from over there, I think.” Fluttershy pointed at what looked like
a small diner on the other side of the train tracks.

“What do you think, should we check it out? Smells pretty good, so it’ll probably
taste as good as it smells.” Rainbow suggested. 

Fluttershy thought about it for a moment. “Well, some soup and garlic bread would
be nice, actually... Yes, let’s go there.” She smiled.

The two pegasi waited until the train departed, and then used their wings as boosters
to perform a “Long Jump” across the tracks, landing softly on the opposite side,
and walking over to the Diner. The sign on the door read “Grey-Feathers Diner”.

“Grey-Feather? Sounds like a Griffin name.” Rainbow noted.

“Yes, it does.. Maybe a griffin owns this place?” Fluttershy said.

“Probably. Anyway, let’s head inside and see if there are any empty seats. I’m hungry.”
Rainbow said, and opened the door, holding it open for Fluttershy. 

“Thanks.” She said with a smile as she entered, followed by Rainbow.


* * *


Inside the aroma from the food was even stronger.
Despite this, only a few tables were taken, and several were free.
Rainbow and Fluttershy looked around, and behind the counter, they saw
a female griffin, a bit above average weight, with a hairnet on her head
and a apron around her upper body.

“Welcome to Grey-Feather’s Diner. I’m Grey-Feather, owner and chef.
And today I’m also the cashier, because my regular is on vacation.
Pegasus. Goin’ to that reunion thing up in Cloudsdale.
Guessing that’s why you’re here too, eh?”

Her tone was friendly, and her voice was relatively deep for a female.

“Yeah, that’s right. We’re going to the reunion, but we wanted some lunch first,
and we caught the smell from this place.” Rainbow said, smiling. “I’ll have a 
menu please, I wanna see my options here.”

“Uhm.. I’d like soup, please.. and, uhm, some garlic bread on the side,
if you have any... It smelled like garlic bread, so I was hoping you had some...”
Fluttershy said in her usual, shy tone.

“Sure, but I got more than one soup you know, so what would you like?
Todays soups are, Tomato soup, potato soup, onion soup, or my family recipe
mixed-vegetables stew with carrots, potato, leek, sweetcorn, some secret herbs,
and shredded cabbage.”

“Uhm.. the tomato soup, please... if it’s not too spicy...”

“Don’t worry, it’s the non-spicy kind, just plain tomato and a pinch of sea salt.”
Grey-Feather said, and then turned to Rainbow who was looking at the menu.
“And you? Decided yet?”

“I’ll have a hayburger, medium size, with cheese.. and can I get a couple of slices
of tomato on it too?”

“Sure, I can add a slice or two, got really big tomatoes here. Local farm south of here.
Now, both of you, last question - What do you wanna drink?”

“Peach ice tea.” Rainbow said, giving the menu back to Grey-Feather.

“I’d like that too.” Fluttershy added.

“Okay then. One tomato soup, one medium cheeseburger plus tomato,
and two ice teas, peach flavor. Gonna be about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, 
have a cookie as an appetizer.” The griffin waved her talon at a large jar of
Chinese fortune cookies at the counter, next to the cash register.

“Ooh, fortune cookies.” Fluttershy smiled. 

“What are those?” Rainbow asked.

“Well, they’re usually served in Asian restaurants, after the meal...
You take one and break it open, and inside is a small scroll of paper
with some words of wisdom, or a quote from a philosopher, or a riddle,
or stuff like that.” Fluttershy smiled. “Me and Rarity sometimes visit a small
noodle shop in Ponyville, and they serve these after the meal.”

“Sounds egghead-y, but I’ll have one anyway. Want one?”

“Yes, please.” Fluttershy smiled.

The two ponies grabbed their cookies, and broke them open, revealing
the scrolls. Rainbow opened her first, and read it out loud.

“It says... You will face trouble in your near future, but you will overcome it.”
Rainbow smirked. “Yeah, that’s a good fortune... I always face trouble,
and I always overcome it! What did yours say?”

Fluttershy opened hers, and read it.

“Your meal is Half-price if you show this scroll to Grey-Feather.”

Rainbow looked at her. “No seriously, what did it say?”

Fluttershy held it up to Rainbows face. “That is what it said, look for yourself.”

A minute later, Grey-Feather returned with the food.

Fluttershy held the fortune scroll up to her. “Uhm.. I got this in the cookie...
does that mean my meal if half price, like it says?”

“What? Oh for Celestias sake... He really did include those discount scrolls...”

“Who?” Fluttershy asked.

“My brother, Grey-Tail. He makes these cookies, including writing the scrolls
he puts inside them. Last time he said he’d made scrolls with discounts on them.
I thought he was joking. Guess not... Don’t worry, I’ll give you the discount.
And then I’m gonna have him pay me the rest of it. And because of that,
I’m also giving you dessert on the house. and by “on the house” I mean his credit.”

Rainbow grinned at the offer. “Wow, thanks! By the way, this hayburger is awesome!”

Grey-Feather smiled. “Thanks, hun. Family recipe on that too. In fact, all my food is.
As for that dessert... you like chocolate cake?”

Both ponies nodded.

“Oh yes, I love chocolate.” Fluttershy replied while eating her soup and garlic bread.
“ooh.. very garlic-y, just like I like it.” She added with a growing smile.

“Glad you ladies like my food. You’re welcome back anytime.”

After they finished eating, the two ponies left the diner. 
Rainbow looked straight up. “Wanna wait a bit, or wanna fly up right away?”

“Oh, I think we should rest a bit first, let the food settle a bit. We could go sit down
in the park behind the station for a while.”

“Sure, let’s do that.” Rainbow replied, as they started walking, and once again
jumped across the rails to the station side. They went around the station to a small
park, one they had been to many times before. It had a small pond, some trees,
benches, and a lot of bushes and flowers. they sat down on a bench, with their 
bags placed beside it on the ground. As they sat there, Fluttershy dosed off a bit.
A little while later, she awoke from Rainbow gently poking her side, and whispering.

“Flutter. Look. I know how much you love birds, so I thought you wanted to see this.”
Rainbow said, pointing at her head - where a Swallow sat in her mane, with a focused
stare at the pond in front of them.

Fluttershy giggled lightly. “I think she’s using you as a look-out post.
She’s probably hunting bugs.”

“Great... So I’m a watchtower now...” Rainbow smirked.

Fluttershy smiled. “I can ask her to leave if you want...”

“Nah, it’s okay. We can stay a few more minutes before we head out.
It’s still the middle of the day, and we’re not in a hurry.
The reunion starts tomorrow, and your family knows we usually take it easy.
They won’t expect us yet for a while.”

“True, I never gave them any specific time, I just told them sometime during today.”

“Exactly my point.” Rainbow grinned. Suddenly, the swallow spread its wings
and flew off of he head, straight at the pond, where she caught something, 
and then flew off into one of the nearby trees.

“Well, guess I’m not a watchtower anymore. Wanna get going?”

“Oh well, yes, we’re done here anyway... We might as well get it over with.”

the two pegasi stretched their wings, grabbed their saddlebags, and took off into the 
air, flying almost straight upwards for several minutes. As they rose, the air got warmer.
They found a spot of thermal winds, and spread their wings wider, letting the rising
warm air do most of the work as the slowly glided around in circles, upwards.

the flight took them about five minutes, after which they broke off from the thermal
stream and made a last push with their wings to reach the landing platforms on the
outskirts of the flying city, Cloudsdale.

> Chapter 3 - A Home Away From Home
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rainbow looked around, and took deep breaths once again, exhaling slowly.
A smile started growing on her face as she drew in the familiar cold air,
and the sights. This was her “home away from home”, one of the two places
she felt truly home. The second was her cloud-house in Ponyville.
Or rather, not in Ponyville. Hovering just above it, chained to the ground to prevent
it from escaping anywhere. She looked over at Fluttershy, who was smiling too,
and looking very calm and pleased. This place, despite how she had been bullied
as a child, was still her home away from home too, and she felt a connection
similar to what Rainbow felt when she stood on the clouds.

“Feels good to be back up here...” Rainbow began.

“Mhm... It really does.” Fluttershy agreed. She looked down at her hoofs,
softly stomping the “ground”. “Hmm... These feel... different...”

“Now that you mention it, the clouds do feel different. Softer. more like cotton.”

A dark-orange pegasus mare in a hardhat and a white coat approached them.

“That would be because the clouds you are standing on is a new soft-cloud
we are currently field-testing, and if successful, it is intended to replace
all other landing spots as well, in order to give fliers a smoother landing
experience. Would you mind answering a couple questions? It’ll only take a minute.
Short survey about the new clouds.”

“You’re with the Cloud Factory then?” Rainbow asked.

“Indeed I am, Madame. My name is Windy Wings, Public Relations department.”

“I’m Rainbow Dash, and this is Fluttershy. Nice to meet you.”

“Likewise. Now, about those questions...”

“I can answer, I guess.” Rainbow started. “I mean, we’re not in a hurry, 
plus you said it would be quick, so... Go ahead.”

“I’ll answer them too, if it’s helpful...” Fluttershy added.

“Well then, how about I ask, and you both answer? It’s an anonymous poll,
so your names won’t be on the papers anyway. Now then, first question.
If you had to choose, would you rather keep the old rug-like landing pads,
or replace them with the new, cotton-like ones?”

“Cotton did feel a lot softer... So I’d say, replace.” Rainbow replied. 

“I Agree. Replace.” Fluttershy said.

“Okay, two votes for replace. Second question. Given the option, what color
would you prefer on the landing pads? Standard white to blend in,
or something colorful to stick out more?”

“Color.” Both ponies said in unison.

“Very well, and could you elaborate on why?”

Fluttershy cleared her throat and then spoke.
“Allow me. Colored landing pads are easier to see, especially during night landings
or in bad weather, and makes it much more likely for landing ponies and griffins
to ensure they land on the allowed landing spots rather than the off-limits areas,
or worse, some unstable spot. Therefore, safe landing zones should be brightly colored.”

“Seems you’re educated in the subject, Ma’am.” Windy said as she wrote down 
everything Fluttershy had said.

“Uhm.. yes.. I... I’m... I’m a nervous flier, so.. When I land here,
I want to be sure I land in a safe zone, and.. having the zones colored would help
a lot, like I said...” Fluttershy replied, becoming shy again.

“I see, I see. Good. And you agree on that, Miss... Dash, was it?”

“Yes, and yes.” Rainbow nodded.

“Okay then, last question. Are you current residents, or visitors?”

“We’re both visitors this time, but we both used to live here too,
for about 17 years each. we were born and raised here.” Rainbow replied.
“Nowadays, we visit a few times a year.”

“I see. I’ll put you as ‘Former residents, occasional visitors’ then.
Thank you for your time, and have a nice day.” Windy lifted her hat,
and then flew off to another group of ponies that had just landed.


* * *


“Well, that was... interesting.” Rainbow dash smirked. “Anyway, we should
get going.” She added, the smirk turning to a regular smile.

Fluttershy agreed. “Yes. Let’s get going.” She started walking, while Rainbow hovered
beside her just above ground, as she usually does. Fluttershys parents lived in another
district of the cloud city, so they’d have a long walk ahead, since Fluttershy preferred
staying on her hooves when she had the option. Rainbow didn’t mind it though,
she loved taking long walks through Cloudsdale, and especially with Fluttershy as
company, talking and looking around to see if anything had changed since last time.

After they had walked for a while, they arrived at Fluttershy’s parents home.

Inside, they could hear somepony moving around. Fluttershy knocked on the door,
and after a few seconds an old stallion with a pink mane and moustache opened.

“Oh! Fluttershy!” He smiled and gave her a hug. Then, he noticed Rainbow.
“And Rainbow Dash too! Come here, give me a hug will you?”

Rainbow landed and gave the stallion a hug. Fluttershy smiled. “Hi dad. We’re here...”

“Welcome home, sweetie. And you too of course, Rainbow.” The stallion smiled.

“Where’s mom?” Fluttershy asked curiously. “I’m guessing she’s not home
since you didn’t call out to her yet.”

“You’re right. She’s out shopping, but she should be back in twenty minutes or so.
Meanwhile, would you girls like something to eat, or drink?”

“Well, we had lunch like, an hour ago, so no food yet, but thanks for the offer.”
Rainbow replied. “Buuut, maybe something cold to drink?”
She added in a suggesting tone.

The stallion nodded. “Sure. I got some lemonade, if that’ll do.”

Rainbow and Fluttershy both smiled and nodded silently.

They both loved lemonade, and knowing Fluttershys dad, it was probably homemade,
which was even better. When they were kids, they always got homemade lemonade
during the summer, so it had a lot of nostalgic value for them.

They all sat down around the kitchen table, sipping the lemonade - which was indeed
homemade, and with only a small amount of sugar, to just barely remove the sourness,
but not quite make it sweet, giving the lemonade a very refreshing taste.

“This tastes just like how I remember it!” Rainbow smiled widely as she put her glass
down after emptying it in a few quick gulps.

Mr. Shy smiled. “Thank you. Same recipe as I’ve always used. would you like some
more, Rainbow? I have another pitcher already made in the fridge.”

“Yes please, but only half a glass this time, otherwise I’m just gonna keep drinking
until there’s none left at all...” Rainbow gave a sheepish smile.

“Oh, that’s alright, I can always make more.. it’s lemon season after all,
and the fruit market in town imports almost everything from the large farmlands
nearby, on the ground... obviously. Can’t plant stuff on clouds.” he smiled
and almost laughed at himself.

“Oh, I’m sure Twilight could. She’d just enchant the clouds somehow.” Rainbow
laughed.

“Twilight? Oh, that’s right.. You mean the new princess, don’t you? Fluttershy has told
us all about her and your other friends, and all your adventures and what-not.”

Fluttershy smiled. “Yes, I’m sure she could make plants grow on clouds..
Oh, by the way, Dad, did you know they might replace the landing pads at the borders
of Cloudsdale? They even had some new kind of cloud.. I thought, since you collect
samples, and you used to work in the factory, you probably already knew, but I just
wanted to make sure...”

“Oh, I know. My old colleagues told me about it, and they even let me have some
special samples from the experimental batches! Very unique, since the test samples
never reached mass production, so they’re extremely limited editions.”
Mr. Shy smiled widely. He was a cloud sample collector, and kept his collection
in a small cabin in the back yard, in glass containers. So far, he had collected nearly
a hundred different clouds, including many rare and foreign ones, and every cloud
type in Equestria - apparently even including the new landing-pad clouds.

They sat and talked for a while, and after some time passed, they heard the door open,
followed by a mares voice. “Honey, I’m home. I found all the vegetables you wanted,
so I can make that stew. Did Fluttershy and Rainbow arrive yet?”

Fluttershy replied with a happy, almost singing tone, “Yes mom, we’re here.
We got here a while ago, while you were out shopping.”

Mrs. Shy entered the kitchen, carrying to bags - one under each wing - full of groceries,
mainly vegetables and fruits, some bread, and some coffee beans. Rainbow smiled.

“Hi, Mrs. Shy. Long time, no see.”

“Hi, and welcome, Rainbow. How have you and Fluttershy been?
I hope you’ve had a nice summer. Oh, and how was the journey from Ponyville?
Everything went okay, I hope? No troubles?”

“Don’t worry, Mom, the journey was good. We took the train most of the way,
and only flew the last part from Ground Station below.”

“Oh, I figured you’d do that, flying all the way from Ponyville would’ve been a
very long, exhausting flight, even for trained long-distance fliers, and you two are
not trained for that kind of distances.”

“Yeah, we know. And we’ve had a great summer. What about you, Mrs. Shy?
How was the summer up here in Cloudsdale?” Rainbow asked.

“Warm.” Mrs. Shy replied shortly, as she started to unpack.

“Very warm.” Mr. Shy added, and then continued, “We had some trouble with the cover
clouds, so for a couple of whole weeks, Cloudsdale had constant sunlight all day long.
We tried using rain clouds as substitutes, but they became unstable and dispersed
since they were on a non-optimal altitude, and Weather Factory clouds are quite
sensitive to such conditions, as I’m sure you know, since you work with them
yourself, Rainbow. We spent many of the days going on trips to the ground,
to take baths in the lakes. The rest of the time, we tried to stay in the shadows,
when we found any that wasn’t already fully occupied.”

“It’s okay now though, the cover clouds has been repaired, and some even needed
replacing, which is why it took so long - Factory had to make some new ones,
the reserves had gone beyond expiration date.” Mrs. Shy added.

“By the way, where will I live? In the guest room?” Rainbow asked.

“Well, that’s what I thought would be simplest, yes. Unless you have some
other idea of course, we can always change it... Although, the room’s prepared
already, I’ve made the bed for you, and cleaned up the room a bit.” Mrs. Shy replied.

“Oh, that’s awesome! Thanks.” Rainbow smiled. “I thought I’d get my stuff in there,
and maybe take a short nap until dinner, if there’s enough time?”

“Well, I was planning to start making the dinner soon, so I’ll be done in maybe, an hour
at most... is that enough for you?” Mrs. Shy said.

“Hah, more than enough! I fall asleep in ten second flat!” Rainbow smirked.

“Sounds good. I’ll get my room in order too, and then I’ll read while Rainbow naps..
Unless you want help with dinner, Mom?” Fluttershy asked.

“Oh, I’d love that, if it’s not too much trouble, dear. I could make the main dish,
and you could make something for dessert, okay? Maybe a pie, or cake.”

“I can do that, yes.” Fluttershy smiled.

Meanwhile, Rainbow headed upstairs to the guestroom, threw her bags
at the foot of the bed, jumped up on it, lay down, and fell asleep in exactly ten seconds,
wrapping her wings around herself like blankets as she crawled into a ball-like form,
head resting on the pillow. Today had been a good day, and after her nap, she’d get
some delicious food. In her dreams, she once again heard the strange words,
“Hoc Est Somnium”...
> Chapter 4 - Back To School
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next day, Rainbow Dash awoke to the aroma of new-brewed coffee and the soft
Humming of Fluttershy and her mother. She slowly arose from the guest-bed,
Got her slippers and robe on, and made her way out to the kitchen, where all the
Others already waited. Fluttershy was making oatmeal, her mother poured coffee into
a few large cups, and Mr. Shy was reading the ‘Cloudsdale Tribute’, the local paper.

“Good morning, Rainbow.” Fluttershy smiled. “Would you like some oatmeal?
It’s almost done.”

“Mornin’... and yeah, sounds good. Oh, and that coffee.. it smells delicious...”

“Oh, this? It’s a dark African roast I bought at the market, I figured we could all
use some good stuff in the mornings this week. You two have all the reunion stuff,
I have my job...” Mrs. Shy said, and Mr. Shy added, “...and I have my cloud
collection, and I’m also helping an old friend remodel his entire house.
It’s going to take us at least a week, maybe more, starting today.
Complete re-construction. New walls, new roof, new floor, new floor-plan all over.
We’re basically building a whole new house.”

“Sounds like a lot of work. Can’t he just get actual construction crews to do it,
or buy a already-made house somewhere?” Rainbow asked.

“Well, he could, but... He used to be a construction worker as a profession,
and an architect as a hobby on the side, and one of his lifelong dreams has been
To build his own place, from scratch, with his friends instead of a hired team.
Which among others include me.”

“Oh, okay. That makes sense, I guess.” Rainbow yawned. 

“Did you sleep well?” Mrs. Shy asked as she hoofed over a cup of the coffee
to Rainbow, who took it and smiled as she sipped it.

“Kinda, but I had a weird dream. Flutters, you know, same as last night.
The one I told you about. Exactly the same one again.”

They all looked at Rainbow. Fluttershy with an expression that seemed to say
‘I remember’, and here parents with curious looks that seemed to say ‘tell us’.

So, Rainbow proceeded to tell them the dream, after which Fluttershy told them
about hers too, and also added, “...And this night, I too had my dream again,
just like Rainbow did.”

Both parents looked curious, if somewhat confused.

Mr. Shy spoke first.

“So you say you both had the dreams two nights in a row, the exact same ones,
and in both your dreams you heard foreign words. Strange indeed.”

He turned to his wife. “Honey, is there anypony here in Cloudsdale who knows
about such stuff? A Psychologist or fortune teller or something?”

Mrs. Shy smiled. “Oh, I don’t think we need to go that far. It’s just a recurring
dream, and those foreign words they probably heard somewhere,
and just include in the dream for some reason. It’s probably just something
from a movie or radio show.”

“Maybe, but it still feels weird. So as soon as we get home to Ponyville,
we’re gonna ask Twilight about it, and maybe even Princess Luna if we need to.”
Rainbow said as she finished her coffee. “...and can I have some more of this?”
She added, nodding to Mrs, Dash and pointing at the now empty cup.

“Of course, dear.” Mrs. Shy smiled and poured some more into Rainbows cup.
“Would you like some cream or sugar this time? It was rather bitter...”

“No thanks, I like my coffee dark and bitter, so this is perfect.” Rainbow smiled
and started sipping again.


* * *


A couple of hours later, Rainbow and Fluttershy packed a few necessities in a small
one-sided saddlebag, which Rainbow then strapped unto herself.
Their wallets, a pair of small umbrellas due to a scheduled rain later, keys to the
house, the stuff one usually takes when going out.

“So, where to first?” Rainbow asked. “Do we go directly to the school now,
or is there anywhere else we should go first?”

“Oh, we don’t have time for any detours. We’re almost late as it is.” Fluttershy
replied, checking the time. “If we walk at a decent pace, we’ll get there just in time.”

“Very well then, School first, sight-seeing later.” Rainbow said in a half-serious,
half-joking tone.

“Yes, that was my plan.” Fluttershy said with a smile. “Oh, but... I’m nervous.
I mean, we haven’t met most of our old classmates and teachers for several years,
even when we’ve visited here... It feels a bit weird...” she added with a nervous smile.

“Relax, Flutter. We’ll be okay. I’m sure everypony’s gonna be nice and friendly.
And if anypony is not, just remember, you’re not alone here. You’ve got me.”
Rainbow smiled confidently.

“True... The ones who used to tease me have probably grown up and matured
by now, just like we’ve changed too. Everypony does with enough time,
and it has been a few years after all...” Fluttershy said, her nervous smile
slowly changing into a slightly more confident one.

She added, “Thanks. I feel better already.”

“Yeah, but.. keep in mind, somepony might still be stuck in their old ways.
I mean, most of them must’ve matured by now, but considering the sheer
number of complete flank-holes we had in our school, I doubt all of them are
nice guys now, so don’t drop your guard completely, okay?” Rainbow said in 
a thoughtful tone.

“I.. guess you’re right, We did have a lot of bad ponies in our class. Oh, 
and not just our class, the whole school was full of them. Then again,
the few ponies who were nice were really nice, so I’m looking forward to seeing some
of them again, and.. I also really liked most of the teachers, and Principle Aurora.”
Fluttershy said, trying to keep her confident smile.

“Oh yeah, I remember Aurora. Is she still alive though? I mean, she was at least
60 already when we had her, so she’s gotta be like, 70 or 80 now.”

“Oh, she’s alive. I read in the information papers that she’ll make an appearance
at the reunion. She’s retired now, and her daughter took over her job as principal
a few years ago. So we’ll get to meet her again. And most of our teachers will be here
too. I’m really curious to see if they all look the same, or if anypony has changed.”

“Hmm.. I’m guessing a few are the same, and a few have changed.” Rainbow said.

Fluttershy just nodded in agreement as they kept walking.

After a while, they arrived at the old school house, a massive complex of buildings,
and a large open yard in between, like a campus ground. One of the buildings was
a student dormitory, one was a dining hall and kitchen, there was a library,
a building for all the classrooms, and a main office where the principals office
and teacher offices were located. Above the school was also a sports arena,
designed like a coliseum, where the sports teams had their training and matches,
and where most regular P.E. classes were held. As they walked through the old gates
and into the yard, they looked around. Memories washed over them, both good and
bad, of their countless hours spent in the buildings and the yard, and the coliseum above their heads.
For a few moments, they both stood speechless, just looking around and remembering. 

Soon, they were called upon by a voice from the office building.

“You two. You’re here for the reunion, right? Come on, it’s over in the
Lecture Hall behind the offices.”

“Lecture Hall?” Fluttershy asked.

“Must’ve been added after our time. I do recall rumors of new buildings
during the last year here before we took the exam... Guess they were true.”
Rainbow replied.

“Guess so.” Fluttershy smiled.

They walked up to the office building and stepped inside, and was met by
a janitor, a late-teen-looking stallion.

“Welcome. Name’s Sweep Brush. Soon-to-graduate student, and part-time janitor.
And today, I’m also making sure you reunion visitors find your way to the new
Lecture Hall, since it wasn’t here when you guys graduated years ago.
It was actually finished just last year. Basically just a large hall with
seats and a small stage up-front. The Principal will hold a speech there
soon, so you guys better get there. It’s gonna include stuff like the schedule
for the reunion, and such. Y’know, all that important stuff.

“Thanks for the help, Mr. Brush.” Fluttershy smiled.

“I’m no ‘Mr.’, just call me Sweep, Ladies. Now, the lecture hall is that way,
just go through the new big red door down this hall. Can’t miss it.

“Well, thanks again. Oh, and I’m Rainbow Dash. This is Fluttershy.
Nice to meet you, Sweep.”

“Likewise. If you need any more help remembering where stuff is, just ask.
I know this place like the back of my wing.”

“We will. But we gotta get going.” Rainbow said, and turned toward the hall,
and started walking. Fluttershy waved goodbye to Sweep, and followed her.

They reached the large red doors, and entered into a hall, filled with ponies
and griffins, looking at the stage, waiting for somepony to walk up and start talking.

Rainbow and Fluttershy sat down in a couple of empty seats, and joined the waiting.

After a few minutes, the lights in the room dimmed slightly, and a spotlight
lit up the stage, where an old mare walked up to the small podium and adjusted the
microphone, and then started talking. She was dark blue, almost the same shade
as Princess Luna, and with a pale multicolored shimmering mane, with a few strands
of silver mixed in with the colors. The mane was tied up in a tight knot,
while the tail was let loose, long and wavy. She wore a pair of thin-framed gold glasses
and a white pearl necklace. She smiled as she looked out across the room.

“Welcome back to school, Everypony - and every griffin.
I’m sure most of you remember me... My name is Aurora Borealis,
and I was your Principal.”
> Chapter 5 - Gilda
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I told you she’d be here.” Fluttershy whispered to Rainbow as they listened to,
and watched, as Aurora began her speech.

“Cloudsdale Academy has always been a proud place, and almost every student
has been proud to study here. The teachers has always been proud to teach here.
And as long as I remained in office, I was proud to be the Principal of this school.
Until I was basically forced to retire, because there are laws about that, and laws
must be followed. However, my legacy lived on, as my own daughter took my place
when I left. So you won’t get rid of us that easily.”

At that, most ponies in the large room giggled, some even laughed.

Another pony entered the stage from the side. She looked almost exactly like
Aurora, but younger, and therefore with more vibrant colors in her mane.
She had hers cut shorter though, and in a Bob style cut. She also had no
glasses on. But other than the hair and lack of glasses, it was like looking
backwards in time.

Aurora stepped aside, and the younger version of her stepped up to the microphone.

“Most of you in here probably don’t know me, or you’ve only heard of me.
My name, just like my mother, is also Aurora. However, She is Aurora Borealis. I...”
She paused for a moment for effect.

“...am Aurora Australis. The current principal of Cloudsdale Academy.”

The room clapped their hooves and talons, some ponies cheered.

“Now, during this reunion, me and my mother will both be working here,
so you’ll all get a chance to meet her, and me, if you want to.
As for the reunion itself, we have lots planned. Sport events, Quiz contests, seminars
held by the various professors and teachers, movie nights,
a Cloudsdale Academy Gala, and some surprise events. Oh, and a guided tour
around the facilities, so you can all see what has changed, and what has not.
For example, this very building we’re in right now.”

The speech went on for almost an hour, both Auroras taking turns discussing 
the old and new, the traditions and changes, and over-all, the pride of the Academy.

On their way out, everypony (and griffin) was given a schedule of all the activities,
categorized under “Mandatory” and “Optional”, and then under various
sub-categories such as “Quiz”, “Sport”, and so on.

Rainbow and Fluttershy looked at the schedules.

“Lots of stuff here.” Rainbow said.

“Yes. I’m guessing you’re going to all the sports stuff?” Fluttershy asked.

“Hm.. most of it. I’m actually going to a couple of the seminars too...”

“You are? I thought that was too egg-heady for you.” Fluttershy teased.

“Shut up. No, but seriously, look at the seminar list. There’s some weather stuff
there, and I am a weather pony after all, and I do take my job more seriously
than it seems sometimes. So I’ll be going to those. But other than that, I’ll stick to
the sports, and maybe a Quiz contest or two just for fun. and that Gala is mandatory,
so we’ll have to go. Not that I’m complaining, it still might be nice...”

“Oh, you don’t need to keep your facade up with me, I know you better than anypony.
I know you secretly enjoy some girly stuff ones in a while, as long as it’s not
too much or too often.” Fluttershy smiled.

“Yeah, but keep quiet about that, okay?” Rainbow hushed her and quickly scanned
the area to make sure nopony heard them.

“Relax, I won’t tell anypony, I pinkie promise.”

Rainbow calmed down. “Oh well... Anyway, I’m getting hungry, and it’s around
lunch time. The school cafeteria won’t be open until tomorrows events, so we can’t go
there today. and your parents aren’t home until later. So how about we go out
somewhere? How about.... Thunder Clouds?”

Suddenly, a familiar voice, somewhat raspy but clearly female, spoke up from behind
Rainbow. “I checked it out, they’re closed today too, something about repairs.
They’ll open in a couple of days.”

Rainbow turned around quickly, and her eyes widened.

“Gilda!”

“Dweeb!” Gilda replied with a smirk.

“Loser!” Rainbow retorted, with an even bigger smirk.
“How’s life, featherbrain? What’ve you been up to since we saw each other
last, when you wrecked our party in Ponyville?”

“I already said sorry for that, so shut up about it, okay?
Anyway, It’s been fine, mostly. Been traveling around a bit, and also spent some
time home in Griffin Stone... And now, I’m here for the reunion. What about you?”

“Same here, actually! minus the Griffin Stone part.” Rainbow laughed.

“Uhm...” Fluttershy started, but trailed off.

Gilda turned her head, only now noticing Fluttershy.

“Oh. Hi, Flutters. Nice seeing you again. Everything going okay with you and
your life? Still working as a... what was it, animal caretaker or something?”

“Hi Gilda... And yes, that’s.. uhm, correct...I take care of the ‘wild’ animals in
Ponyville... Anyway, I was.. wondering... Rainbow?”

Rainbow replied, “Yeah, Flutter?”

“If Thunder Cloud is closed today... maybe we could go to, uhm...
that small cafe near the library? That quiet little place, I’m sure you remember...”

“Oh yeah.. that place. I remember you really liked that place. Hm.. Sure.
We can go there if you want. I’m open for anything as long as I get something to eat
before I die. Which means, as soon as possible. Wanna join us, Gilda? If that’s
okay with Fluttershy of course.”

“Y-yes, that’s okay with me... I don’t mind...” Fluttershy smiled shyly.

“Quiet little cafe? Not really my style. No offense, but I think I’ll pass this time.
I’m more in the mood for some fish, so I’m gonna head to one of the Griffin places 
instead. Buuut, if you’re heading to Thunder Cloud some other day, I’ll tag along.
For now, I’ll see you guys some other time. We have the whole reunion week
to hang out. more than enough time.” Gilda smiled.

“Yeah. We’ll see you later!” Rainbow returned the smile.

Gilda took off, and flew away.

“Awesome to see her again! This week just got even better.” Rainbow grinned.

“I’m glad you’re happy, but we better get going before you starve...” Fluttershy 
said and smiled in a teasing way.

“Hah, yeah.. Woe is me, Who has not eaten for hours...” Rainbow replied
in a overly dramatic tone, putting a hoof on her head as if she was fainting.

they both laughed, and started walking toward the small cafe.

* * *

A while later, as the two mares left the cafe, Rainbow took a leap and spread her
wings, hovering just above Fluttershy.

“So what now?” she asked, turning upside down in the air, looking down at 
Fluttershy, who turned her head upwards to meet Rainbows eyes.
“Well, I was thinking of just relaxing for the day, maybe take a walk somewhere,
just look around.. maybe take a trip to the store and get some supplies for dinner...
Me and mom decided I’d make dinner today, since she made it yesterday,
and I was thinking of a carrot-lasagna...”

“Sounds good, But the walk and all that sounds boring.. no offense.
I’m just not in the mood for that right now. I feel like actually doing something.
Maybe go to the arcade and play some games, or go to the Arena and see if
anypony is doing anything sporty. Maybe they’ll let me join.”

“What if we split up, then? I can take a walk by myself, and get the shopping done,
while you can go play or something, and then we’ll meet back home later.”
Fluttershy suggested.

“Yeah, sounds like a perfect plan!” Rainbow agreed with an excited smile.
“See ya later then!” She said as she flew off towards the inner areas of the city.

“Bye..” Fluttershy smiled as Rainbow disappeared.

* * *

Rainbow flew above the cloud houses, watching the ground below her
move past in a blur. She slowed down as she neared the center of town,
where a large mall was located - a mall which had the Cloudsdale Arcade.

She landed and went inside, making her way through crowds of ponies and
a few griffins, trying her best not to bump into anypony - a task she found
harder than expected. 

“Must be Pay-day or something”... She thought to herself as she tried to avoid
bumping into a large griffin, and just barely managed to do so.

She (somehow) made it all the way into the Arcade, just to find it overfilled
with ponies of all ages, occupying every single machine they had, most of them
even having lines of ponies waiting for their turn at the various games.

Rainbow grunted and mumbled, “Damn it... guess I’m not playing any
Pac-Mare today. Plan B then. I’ll get out of here, and if I survive that,
I’ll see if there’s anypony at the arena I can challenge for a race or something.”

And so, she set off on her quest to get back out through the crowds of probably
hundreds of ponies and griffins. And for the record, flying above them was not an
option, since most public buildings have a ‘no flying inside without special
permission’ policy. Rainbow did not have such permission.

* * *

Meanwhile, Fluttershy made her way across town via small roads and back alleys.
She wasn’t too eager about it, but on the other hoof, the other option was the
very crowded main streets, or above-roof-height flying. both of which she was
even less eager about than the back alleys. It wasn’t optimal, but it was the lesser evil,
so to speak. And she did know these small streets quite well, as she had chosen them
over the bigger ones many times before. And after all, it was the middle of the day,
the sun standing tall in the middle of the almost-clear sky, with just a few small
clouds hanging around. She made her way to a small store, where she bought 
everything she needed for the dinner later, and then decided to go to the park
for a while. 

She arrived at the park, and sat down.

But as she sat there, a griffin approached her, one she did not recognize. 
This one was male, a relatively big brown one with an owl head.

“Hey, fuzzball. I ain’t seen you here before, so I’ma guess you’re new.
See, there’re some rules here in this park.”

“Huh? I don’t understand... Did I do something wrong?”
Fluttershy asked in a worried tone.

“Yeah, you did. See, you’re sitting at the bench. That bench ain’t yours to sit on.
That bench is for griffins. And you ain’t no griffin, so you can’t sit there, see?”
The griffin said, looking at Fluttershy with a smirk on his face.

Fluttershy could sense his intents, and thought she’d better leave,
so she got up from the bench, but the griffin continued talking.

“Woah, hey now... You can’t just expect to leave. You broke the park rules.
You’re gonna have to pay the Rule-breaking-fee. A hundred bits. Pay up,
or you’re gonna get in trouble.”

“B-but I don’t... I don’t have that kind of money... and.. I don’t think
that’s a real rule...” Fluttershy replied, trying not to show how scared she
actually was.

“Not real? Hah. You think that matters at this point? No.
What does matter is, you either pay up or I kick your flank. Got it?”
The griffin said, now sounding threatening.

“I-if you come any closer, I’ll... I’ll...”

“You’ll what? Scream? As if that’ll help. I doubt you can scream loud enough.
Look around you. It’s only us here. Nopony even close.”

Suddenly, another griffin approached from behind some bushes. Gilda.
She walked up to the griffin and Fluttershy, placing herself in between.

“What’s going on here?” She asked the griffin, acting as if she didn’t know
Fluttershy.

“Just informing this little pony about the park rules. She’s refusing to pay
the fee for breaking the rules, so now I’m gonna beat her up a bit.
Wanna join in?”

“What did she do wrong?” Gilda asked, still pretending to not know Fluttershy,
who nervously just stood there, not sure how to react.

“She sat on our bench, and then she refused the hundred bit fee.”
The griffin replied. “So naturally, she needs a beating. Come on, we could
easily take her. It’s us against her, and we’re both stronger than her. She’s just a
pony, we’re griffins.”

“I think you’ve made a mistake in your calculations there...” Gilda said,
stretching her talons and extending her claws.

“Oh yeah? What?”

“Who said I’m on your side?”

“What do you mean? She’s a pony. Of course you’re on my side!
Us griffins hate ponies!”

“I admit I don’t really care for ponies... most of them. this pony,
however, happens to be a friend of mine...” Gilda said in a slow, threatening voice.
Then she added, in a slightly louder, angrier voice,
“And if you ever go near her again, I’ll rip your wings off! Is that clear?!”

The griffin suddenly lost his attitude and looked scared. He didn’t say anything else,
instead he turned around and flew off, almost as fast as Rainbow Dash.

Fluttershy was still shivering and stunned from the events, when Gilda turned
toward her. “You okay? That guy won’t bother you again.”

Fluttershy tried to calm down. “T-t-t...Thanks.... I was so scared...”

“You’re lucky I was passing by the area, otherwise he really would’ve beaten you up.
He’s an idiot though. Only a few griffins actually hate ponies. most of us just don’t
care much. But we barely care for each other either, so it’s not that big of a deal.”

“Uhm... Would you mind.. Not telling Rainbow about this?
She would just get worried and angry, and try to find that griffin, and...
I don’t want to cause any trouble...”

“Sure, we’ll just pretend it never happened. I won’t mention it unless
you do first.”

“Thank you.. Uhm, I better get home now...”

“Want some company? I got nothing else to do anyway, and you still look a bit
shaken up. Plus, It’ll give us a chance to get to know each other a bit. Dashie
really wants the three of us to all be friends, so...”

“Well.... yes, that would be nice.. and, I really do want to be your friend...
I mean.. You can never have too many friends, right?”

“Not sure about that, but... the few friends I do have, I’d at least like to be good
friends with. Come on, let’s get going. You lead the way, I’ll follow.”

And so, Fluttershy and Gilda started walking toward Fluttershys home.



> Chapter 6 - Game On
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Later that evening, as they all sat down to eat, Mrs. Shy started serving everypony
Generous portions of the carrot-and-cabbage lasagna Fluttershy had made.
And, on Rainbows request, it had lots of molten cheese.

“So how was your day, girls?” Mrs. Shy asked as she gave Rainbow her plate.

“Mine was awesome!” Rainbow smiled. “Reunion was okay, kinda dull start.
Just meetings and stuff today, all the fun events starts tomorrow. But after that we
Met Gilda! After that it kinda sucked for a bit, I was going to play some Pac-mare
at the arcade, but it was beyond full. So many ponies… But then it got awesome
again, I found some guys in the sports area and challenged them to some races!
Which, of course, I won.” Rainbow had a smug smile. 

“Gilda? Wasn’t that the name of the griffin who came home with you earlier, Dear?”
Mr. Shy asked, turning toward Fluttershy.

Fluttershy nodded. “Mhm, yes. That was her.”

Rainbow looked at Fluttershy, slightly surprised.. “Gilda followed you home? Why?”

“Well, I… Met her again after we’d split up, when you went to the mall and I went shopping.
After shopping, I went to a park, and I met her there. Then, since you want
Us all to be friends, well… we decided to have a walk-and-talk, to get to know each other a little bit more…
So, she followed me home since that’s where I was going.”

Rainbow smiled and nodded. “Oh, that makes sense. Good that you’re bonding.”
She kept eating. With her mouth full, she mumbled something that sounded like
“This tastes awesome!”

After dinner, they all went to bed early, since they all had lots to do the next day.
Rainbow and Fluttershy had all the reunion activities, Mr. Shy had his friends house-
building project, and Mrs. shy usually went to bed early most days anyway.


* * *


The next day, they all gathered for breakfast again, Rainbow eating even more
than usual, and drinking an extra cup of coffee.

“What’s all this for?” Mr. Shy asked with a hint of curiosity in his voice,
as he sipped his lemon tea.

Rainbow smiled eagerly and spoke between bites of her sandwich.
“There’s a Hoofball match today at the reunion. So I need extra energy.
It’s a classic class versus class, just like we used to do it back in our school days.
So it’s us - Class A - versus our old arch rivals, class D! It’s gonna be just like
in the old days, except we’re all older and even better at the game now!”

Mrs. Shy smiled. “Sounds like fun. But what about you, dear?” She said,
turning to Fluttershy.

“Oh, don’t worry mom, I’m not playing. I’m watching and cheering from the
side benches. Rainbow and Gilda are playing, together with the rest of the class.
Well, most of the class. Some more are like me, and will just watch. And later,
I’ll be going to a seminar about agriculture.”

“The kind of thing she likes and I find boring.” Rainbow laughed teasingly.

Mr. and Mrs. Shy just smiled. 

After breakfast, Rainbow flew out of the house, with Fluttershy trying to keep up. 

“Slow down, Rainbow. No need to hurry, we’ll get there ahead of time even at my
pace. No need to rush it so much.”

Rainbow slowed down. “Sorry, just so exited.. I mean, I’ve played a lot of hoofball
since we graduated, but I haven’t played with the old class teams since then.
I hope everypony remembers our moves and tactics. If they do, we’ll win easily!”


* * *


In the old locker room an hour later, Rainbow and Gilda sat down on the benches.

“These look new.” Rainbow remarked.

“Yeah, hold on a sec…” Gilda replied, bending down to look on the underside
of the bench she was sitting on. “My name is gone. I carved it into the bench
once, and it never got fixed since it was on the never-seen underside. But it’s gone
now, so yeah, these are new.”

“Anyway, about the game. Tactics?”

“Well, first of all, let’s wait for the whole team, Dash. They’ll need to hear it too,
you know.” Gilda laughed. “It’s not just the two of us.”

“I bet you and I could beat Class D alone though!” Rainbow smirked with
exaggerated confidence.

“Yeah!”

“But ya won’t need to! Class A, Assemble!” A voice said behind them, loud and
clear. After that, the whole class marched in, all with their ‘warfaces’ on.
Everypony was ready, and everypony was just as excited as Rainbow.
This game was going down in history. Ponies would talk about it for years to come!
At least, that’s what Rainbow thought to herself as they all made their preparations.

When everypony and griffin (there was one more other than Gilda in Class A,
another female named Sophitia, or Tia for short), They marched out into the
take-off zone at the side of the arena.

Author’s Note - Regarding Hoofball
In this story, It’s basically American football (rugby), but flying is
allowed, to a certain height from the “ground” clouds.
There is also a version of the rules with no height limit on the flying
and taller goal posts. The goalposts and yard lines are all made
from sturdy clouds. The versions are known as ‘regular’ and ‘Limitless’ Rule set.
One goal equals One point. Amount of points needed to win varies.
In official games, the score-to-win is 5 for a short game, 10 for a medium,	
and 20 for a long game.
In unofficial games the score-to-win is decided by the teams before the game starts,
depending on how long you want to play.
To score, the ball must be thrown between the goalposts.
The ball is an American football, enchanted by unicorns so that it does
not fall through the clouds, by use of a spell similar to the one Twilight used
on herself and her friends in the episode where they all visited Cloudsdale.
Each team has five active players on the field - Two defenders and Three attackers.
The defenders defend their goal, while the attackers try to get the ball past the defense and throw
it through the goal posts. Defenders can only move within the goal zone, while attackers can move freely
across the whole field EXCEPT the goal zones. They have to throw the ball from OUTSIDE the zone,
past the defenders, and in between the goal posts.


Gilda looked around, and took a deep breath. “Aah.. Feels good to be on a field again.
Haven’t had much time for games lately.”

Rainbow took an even deeper breath, and nodded. “I hear that. I’ve had the same
experience. Lots of work back in Ponyville, and when I’m not working I’m usually
on some adventures with the gang, or too tired for games due to all the work
and adventures.” She said, and laughed.

“Yeah, how many times have you guys saved Equestria now?” Gilda asked.

“Hmm.. Good question. Haven’t really kept count, actually.
Let’s see… Nightmare Moon… Discord, twice… King Sombra…
Plus a bunch of local stuff, like Flim and Flam, Trixie, Twice each… Monsters from Everfree…
That dragon who was napping in a cave and almost covered Ponyville in smoke…
Plus I probably forgot a thing or two.”

“So, Equestria, like, four times, Ponyville and surrounding areas at least 10 times,
and in both cases probably more to come.”

“Sounds about right, yeah.” Rainbow grinned. “Being a hero is exhausting work.”

“I bet it is. Now though, we’ve got the game to worry about.
Referee’s waving us over, we better go over there.”

The team walked unto the middle of the arena.
Rainbow, Gilda, Tia, and two stallions.
Thunderlane, a dark grey pony with pale mintgreen mane,
and Crescent Moon, a beige pony with brown mane,
(who looked suspiciously lot like Time Turner in Ponyville, but with wings…
Almost identical, actually. They must be twins, Rainbow thought to herself).

The enemy team approached from the opposite side.
The three bullies, Hoops, Dumb-Bell and Score, in company with two 
mares Rainbow didn’t remember the names of, mainly because she never
really cared for anypony in Class D. 
One was a lavender pony with a dark yellow mane, the other was a
purple mare, same colour as Twilight, with a silver-grey mane.
(Authors note - their names are "Drizzle" and "Grape Soda")

The two teams stared at each other, all with serious ‘game faces’.


* * *


The judge held the ball in his hooves as he spoke to the teams.

“Okay guys, We’re playing with official rules.
No height limit, first team to 10 points to win, and I will not award
any bonus points for long-shots or style. Standard teams of 5 active players per team.
Kick-off every time you score. Does every pony and griffin agree to these rules?”

Everyone nodded, while the two teams kept staring at each other with eager 
expressions, everyone ready for a serious game.

The judge asked one last question. “I need one player from each team for the kick-off.
Who’ll it be?”

Dumb-Bell from Team D stepped up. “I’ll kick off for my team.”

Team A huddled together. 

Crescent Moon spoke first.
“Rainbow, you wanna handle this? You should be able to steal it from D.B. quite 
easily, I’d say. Remember the old days. You used to be his worst nightmare in the
arena, and outside it too.”

Rainbow nodded. “I’ll take the first kick, get the ball, and throw it sideways to my
left. Crescent, I want you to fly over there and grab it. And then…”
Rainbow continued telling the team her idea, when the judge interrupted.

“Can we get going, please? You can continue your Tac-talk at the next kick-off.”

“Right. We’re ready. I’ll take the kick-off.” Rainbow said, sending a glare
at Dumb-Bell, who instantly regretted taking the kick-off for his team.
Dash was the only pony who could avoid his usual tricks and moves.
His only true nemesis in the Arena.

The rest of the teams lined up behind them, with the defensive players moving
further back, into the goal zones. The judge threw the ball straight upwards,
as high as he could. As the ball started falling, he blew his whistle to signal the
start of the match, and quickly flew to the side lines. 
Dumb-Bell and Rainbow both made their move, trying to get the ball.
But while Dumb-Bell relied on his brute strength, Rainbow relied on speed
and agility. Instead of grabbing the ball directly like Dumb-bell tried to,
She made a quick roll in the air, kicking the ball sideways to her right,
then made a quick turn and dove sideways to grab it while Dumb-Bell
was still confused by the sudden move. Then, she spun back upwards again,
tossing the ball in a wide arc over Dumb-Bell, where Crescent flew in from
his end and grabbed it. Meanwhile, Gilda had made a quick straight flight
beneath the kick-off, and was now in the D-side zone.
Crescent looked to be sure, and when he saw her, they made eye-contact, winked,
and then h threw the ball toward her, across the field.
She caught it, made a small loop, and tossed it full-force toward the goal posts…
Where it zoomed past the defenders, Drizzle and Grape Soda, before they could react.
The ball went straight between the posts.

The judge called out, “TEAM A, SCOOOORE!”

Rainbow and her whole team cheered loudly, as well as the rest of the Team A
supporters on the benches. Even Fluttershy, although she cheered quietly,
to noponys surprise. Team D on the other hoof, all booed and grumbled.

The judge called out, “Score is now 1-0 to Team A. Take a minute to discuss
tactics, and then we’ll have the second kick-off.”

The two teams huddled together on their sides of the field, discussing.
A minute later, Gilda approached the mid-field for the kick-off.
From the other side, Hoops flew into position opposite to Gilda.
The judge threw the ball again, even higher this time.

Hoops was faster than Gilda, but Gilda managed to grab Hoops’ tail and stop
his ascension, pulling herself ahead of him and grabbing the ball.
But just as she was about to throw it backwards, she felt a strong impact
from Dumb-Bell, who had performed a quick tackle, hitting Gilda straight
in the chest. It wasn’t enough for her to lose her breath, but it was enough
to make her drop the ball, which Dumb-Bell then grabbed, and quickly passed down
to Hoops, who was still beneath them. After that, Dumb-Bell passed around Gilda,
who was just regaining focus. Hoops tossed the ball toward where Dumb-Bell was
supposed to be, but he was interrupted by Gilda, returning the tackle with an even
stronger one, throwing Dumb-Bell off balance and crashing down to the ground.
Meanwhile, Thunderlane and Rainbow had made a quick move. Rainbow managed
to grab the ball just before it fell to the ground, and threw it back up to Thunderlane
who was flying just above her. He grabbed it, and made a quick U-turn
to avoid Grape Soda, who was approaching fast. He made a half-loop
downwards after the U-turn, and flew under Grape Soda, and made a run for 
the goal posts. Suddenly he stopped dead, but let go of the ball, which continued
to fly in a downwards arc, to Gilda and Hoops, who both grabbed it and fought for it.
A full 30 seconds passed before Gilda finally managed to get it from him, and throw it
straight up, where Thunderlane grabbed it and…

“SCOOORE, TEAM A - 2-0”, the judges loud voice echoed over the field,
as the Team A support cheered loudly again.

The match went on like this for a while, both teams scoring several points each.
In the end, after about 35 minutes, the match ended

The Judge declared loudly, “The winner iiiis…”

> Chapter 7 - Seminar
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

An hour later, at the ice cream shop just outside the mall,
Rainbow and the rest of the team sat down, all with their ice creams and coffee cups.
They were celebrating the victory over Class D earlier.

Fluttershy had joined them too, as she had nothing better to do,
and she had been one of their main supporters.

"That was awesome!" Rainbow said as they sat down.

"Yeah!" Thunderlane agreed, and raised his hoof for a hoofbump,
which Rainbow replied to by raising her own and bumping his.

Even Gilda looked happier than usual, as she and Tia argued about who had
the best ice cream.

"Obviously strawberry is the best." Tia said.

"Pff, classic vanilla beats every other flavor!" Gilda exclaimed in faked anger.
Everypony laughed.

Crescent had a thoughtful look on his face, and Fluttershy was the first to notice.
"What's on your mind?" she asked.

"Huh?" he said, snapping out of it. "Oh, I was just wondering if Dumb-Bells face still
hurts. I mean, that tackle I gave him near the end was a pretty rough one."

"Well, I walked past him on my way out from the stadium, his lip looked swollen..."

"Yeah, I'm not sure about the details, the tackle happened so fast, but...
I'm pretty sure I might have elbowed his face. I mean, it was a full-body mid-air
tackle, hard to keep track of what hits what." Crescent grinned.

Rainbow turned to Fluttershy. "Hey Flutters, you know the schedules better than me.
That history seminar, the Wonderbolt thing. That's tomorrow, right?
I'm sure that was."

"Yes, that seminar starts just after lunch, so we'll go there when we're done eating."

"Awesome. Speaking of that though, " Rainbow said, turning to the whole table,
"Who else here is going to that? Anypony?"

Gilda raised her talon. "I am. Don't know much 'bout the 'Bolts, but I'm curious.
Figured this would be a good chance to learn more."

Tia shook her head. "Not me. I'm not interested in history, I prefer current Bolts
over past ones. Not much interest in any other history stuff either actually.
I'm more of a futurist, I guess you could call it.. I prefer sci-fi over history.
You know, those space movies, robots, cyborgs, that stuff."

Crescent and Thunderlane nodded. "I'm going." they both said at the same time.
Crescent continued, "Unlike Tia, I'm a bit of a history buff, and I've heard that
the guy talking at the seminar is really good, he's supposed to know a lot of details most ponies
tend to forget or not know about. He's some kind of expert, I heard."

"Sounds good." Rainbow smiled.

"Who's doing the talking at the seminar?" Gilda asked.

"Never heard of him before, but it's a pegasus named Mist." Crescent replied.

"You said he was good, and now you say you never heard of him.
Make up your mind." Gilda teased.

"I said I heard he was, I never said I knew for sure. I heard ponies mention
him earlier, and they said he was an expert, so I just assumed he's good."

"Guess we'll find out once we get there tomorrow." Gilda said,
and returned her focus to the bowl of vanilla ice cream in front of her.


* * *


The next day came quickly. After the ice cream the previous day, everypony
had split up and gone home, or to their hotel rooms, since they were all tired
after the game. Now, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Gilda met up outside
the seminar hall, and Crescent showed up just a few seconds after them.

They all went inside and found seats near the front row, since they were
among the first to get there. As they sat down, a grey pegasus walked up to them.
He looked to be around the same age as them, despite having a white mane and tail.
His eyes were an icy blue.

"Excuse me." he said, turning to the girls, "Is this where the Wonderbolt seminar
is supposed to be? I have not learned my way around these buildings quite yet."

Rainbow nodded. "Yeah, this is it."

"Thanks. Oh, My name is Mist by the way, I am the one who will be speaking today.
Anyway, thanks again, I really got to go prepare my notes and all that."

The pegasus walked away backstage in a hurry.

"Well, that was... unique." Rainbow said. "Looked a bit young to be an expert though,
Don't you think? I mean, he looked like he was our age. Maybe just a year or two
more. How'd he have time to learn so much?"

Fluttershy raised a hoof. "Twilight Sparkle."

Rainbow raised an eyebrow. "Huh? What's Twi got to do with it?"

"No, I mean, maybe he's like her. You know, reading all the time,
memorizing everything."

"Good point."

As they talked, the room filled with ponies and a few griffins, and soon
it was nearly full. Mist walked out on the small stage, and began talking.

"Welcome to the Wonderbolt History seminar, in which I will talk a bit about the
'Bolts. I will include some less-known facts and trivia, and maybe a couple of my own
personal thoughts and theories too, if anypony is interested in that. And since most of
you do not know me, my name is Mist. I used to live here many years ago, but since
then, I have travelled all over Equestria, and while doing so, I spent a lot of my time
studying the Wonderbolts and their rich history. I have spoken to current bolts,
I have spoken to retired former bolts, I have spoken their friends and families,
I have been to the Academy many times, and other bolt-related locations too,
such as training areas, both new and old, and I have seen lots of their shows,
whenever I got a chance to do so. Over the years, I have become a self-taught
expert on the subject, and therefore, I was invited here today to tell you some
things you may or may not know about the bolts."

Everypony was silent as Mist spoke, listening to every word.
Fluttershy looked at Rainbow Dash, and even she was quiet, focused...
She was even taking notes. Fluttershy smiled to herself, thinking Rainbow
reminded her more of Twilight than herself at the moment.

Meanwhile, Mist kept talking. 

"...so as most of you probably know, the Wonderbolts were formed just over a year
after Nightmare Moon was banished. It was during the one-year celebration of peace,
that a flight troupe held a aerial stunt show, and it became so popular that the
troupe was officially recognized. They then took the name "The Wonderbolts".
A less-known fact is that before that name, they had other ideas too, but Wonderbolts
was the one voted as the best choice. Other names included "Thunderbolts",
"Blue Thunders", and "Thunder-Wonders". Note how most suggestions were
thunder-themed, probably due to the thunder-trails they create when they fly.
And yes, that has been a thing they do since the start, it is not, like some ponies
believe, something new and modern the recent bolts invented.
The bolt-pattern on the suits is."

Mist made a short pause. "Excuse me, just need to wet my pipes, getting a dry throat
from all the talking..." He said as he opened a bottle of water and took a few sips.

"Now, where was I... Right. The suits. Older Bolt uniforms were... lets just say,
less practical and more intended for parades and such, not for the actual flying.
One of the earliest uniforms looked a bit like the stuff worn by marching bands.
Tall, big hats, flashy heavy jackets, polished boots... I actually had a chance to try
one on once. Or rather, a replica of course, but made with the same materials,
design, everything. The material was quite...anypony wanna guess?"

Rainbow raised her hoof. 

"Yes, you, with the rainbow mane."

"Itchy." Rainbow replied, proud of herself for remembering.

Mist nodded. "Yes, that... is actually correct. How did you know?"

"Fashion designer friend back home in Ponyville. She once made some authentic
bolt outfits to help me study for a test to join the Reserves. She mentioned it was
really warm and itchy."

Mist nodded again. "I see. Well, the material choices was not the best.
Fabric did not breathe at all. Later uniforms were made in cotton fabrics,
to address that problem. And the current suits used by todays bolts is
made of spandex, making them one-size-fits-all, instead of having to custom make
suits for every single pony. Everypony still has their own private suit of course,
but now they can be factory-made in a single size instead of custom-fitted.
Plus it no longer matters if you lose or lay on a pound or two, suit still fits."

Rainbow whispered to Fluttershy, "Yeah, Soarin knows about that.
Him and his constant pie-eating." She grinned.

Fluttershy smiled and giggled silently. She had met Soarin' a couple
of times with Rainbow, so she knew what Rainbow meant. Soarin loved pie
almost as much as the Apple family, or Pinkie. Almost.

Time went by, with Mist talking about all sorts of historical things,
such as a few more notes on costumes, a few minutes on old training techniques,
and some details about some old maneuvers no longer used, mainly because
one of them had a 50 percent fail-rate even among the best bolts, and the other
caused one in three flyers to hurl if they repeated it more than twice,
which did not make a good impression on the audience. 

"There was in fact one time before it was discontinued, the "Hyper-Roll" maneuver
was performed during some minor political event, some guests from neighbouring
lands where here to visit for some small discussions. Nothing major, luckily, because,
well... Historical documents are a bit vague on exactly what happened, but as far as I
understood from what I read, one of the flyers performed the spins, spun a few times
too many, got dizzy, nearly flew into a stone pillar, and then threw up on a foreign
delegates servant, and very closely almost on the delegate himself too.
We are seriously just talking less than an inch away."

Fluttershy raised her hoof. 

"Yes, miss?" Mist said, pointing at her.

"I was, uhm.. just wondering.. How could you know so much?
I mean, intricate details nopony else knows, such as what you just said...
I'm sorry if I'm asking too much, I'm just curious..."

Mist scratched his neck with his hoof and gave an awkward smile.

"Well, actually, most of it, like I said, I pieced together from vague notes,
and the rest I just filled in with my personal theories and conclusions..
It is nothing confirmed, just plausible ideas of mine."

"Oh, I see.. That explains it.. It almost sounded as if you were actually there,
but that's not possible since it was over 500 years ago..." Fluttershy smiled.

"Yes. Exactly." Mist replied. "Anyway, back to the lecture. Does anypony here
remember the name of the first official choreographer for the bolts?"

Roughly half the room raised their hoofs (and talons).

Mist chose a pony at random, in the back.

"Yes, you, the green-maned one."

The stallion replied, with slight hesitation, "uhm.. Captain Easyglider?"

Mist smiled. "almost correct. It was Easyglider, yes. But she became the 
choreographer before she became captain. She was commander Easyglider
at that time, and later promoted to captain, but remained the primary choreographer
for a few years as well. After that though, when she was promoted again and became
Commodore Admiral Easyglider, she had too much to do with that,
and resigned her post as choreographer to her daughter." 

Even more time passed, and after the lecture had gone on for nearly two hours,
Mist had gotten to Colonel Purpledart, one of the Wonderbolt leaders during the
4th Celestial Era.

"...and a fun fact about Purpledart is that he was actually mostly known for his..."

But at that point, Mist was interrupted by a large pegasus bursting in through the door,
wearing a yellow hard-hat with a Weather Factory emblem on it.

"Everypony evacuate the building right now. Calm and orderly, please!
Relax, and walk out in a straight line, and report to my colleague outside the building.
We're having some trouble at the factory, and we're taking pre-emptive security 
measures to ensure nopony gets hurt if something gets out of hoof."

Everypony in the room did as asked, and lined up and left the room, including
Rainbow, Fluttershy, Gilda and Crescent.

Outside, they were met by the weather factory pony they had met when they
first arrived, the one from the Public Relations Department.

Fluttershy gave her a curious, worried look. "Windy Wings, right? Uhm.. What's
going on? That other pony said you had trouble at the factory..."

Windy nodded. "Yeah. Cloud machine is malfunctioning, and well...
Best case scenario, we'll contain the problem. Worst case, Cloudsdale is gonna have
a real storm-of-the-century. We're talking class 8 storm clouds."

Rainbows ears suddenly perked. "Did you say class 8? That's monsoon clouds!"

"Yeah, that's why we're doing this pre-emptive evacuation. We're making sure
everypony in the whole city gets inside the various safe buildings.
This academy has not been cleared as class 8 safe, so we have to relocate
everypony from here to the nearest safe place. Which happens to be the town hall
down the street."

Windy raised her voice, making sure everypony in the area heard her clearly.

"Okay, listen up! I need everypony to follow me, we're going to the town hall.
We have a situation at the factory, and if things get out of control,
we'll have dangerously bad weather. Heavy rain, strong winds, louder-than-usual
thunder and huge lightning bolts. However, if anypony here is a ranking officer
in a weather squad, or a wonderbolt, I'll need you to report to headquarters.
We need every qualified hoof we can get to contain this before it gets too bad.
Everypony else, Town hall."

Rainbow looked at Fluttershy. "Looks like we're splitting up. I mean, I'm a weather
captain, and a reserve Wonderbolt. Plus, I'm one of the fastest flyers in Equestria.
I'll be needed for this."

Fluttershy smiled and nodded. "I know. I'll be safe, I have Gilda and Crescent.
They'll make sure I'm okay, I know it."

"Yeah, we will." Gilda nodded. "Dash, Make sure to fix this, 'K?"

"Don't worry. I'll handle whatever this is. I've been through worse." Rainbow smirked.

And with that, Rainbow flew off at top speed toward the Weather HQ, while the rest
followed Windy to the town hall to get to safety. 

> Chapter 8 - Briefing
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just three minutes later, Rainbow landed in front of the Wonderbolt HQ building,
and to her surprise, Mist was already standing there.

"How'd you get here before me?!" She asked in surprise.

"Oh, I... Know a couple of short-cuts, and I am pretty fast myself, so..."

"But I took short-cuts too, and I'm the fastest pony in this city!"

"Well, I guess my short-cuts were shorter.. And keep in mind, I left the
school area before you did, I saw you still talking to that weather pony when
I left the ground. So I would say I had maybe a half-minute or so head start.
In any case, we do not have time to discuss that now, we have more pressing matters.
Shall we enter the Headquarters? Do we... Do we need to knock or something, or
can we just barge in unannounced due to the current events?"

"Just go inside, I'm a reserve member, so I'm practically part of the 'Bolts."

"Right, the Reserve Squad. I was planning to ask you all for an interview,
like I already did with all actual Wonderbolts, I just have not had time yet, and..."

"Enough about that. You said yourself we have more pressing matters! Come on!"

Rainbow pushed open the large door and entered, walking up to a desk in the main
hall as they entered. "Rainbow Dash, Reserve Bolts and Weather pony,
reporting for duty. Where do you need me? Oh, and this guy is Mist, he's with me."

The young stallion behind the desk pressed a button on a intercom system.
"Ms. Spitfire, there's a Ms. Dash out here. Shall I send her in?"

Spitfires voice replied over the intercom, "Dash? As in, Rainbow Dash?"

"Yes, ma'am. Says she's a Reserve, and a weather pony."

"Send her in." Spitfires voice replied shortly, and then went silent.

The pony waved at an elevator next to the desk.

"Third floor, first door to your left. Has a name tag with Captain Spitfire on the door,
impossible to miss it. Go on up."

Rainbow smiled. "Thanks." And then, she turned to Mist. "Come on, you're going
up with me to meet Spitfire. She'll tell us what to do, and where."

"Very well, sounds like the best plan for now, yes." Mist agreed, and pressed
the button to call the elevator down.

A few minutes later (the elevator was slow), they entered Spitfires office,
a relative large room with a huge desk, a couple of bookshelves, a file cabinet,
and nothing more, unless you also count the small but bright lamps in the ceiling.
At the desk, they found Spitfire standing, and looking at various maps and
blueprints of Cloudsdale, the factory, and zoomed-in areas.

"Dash. Good. I'm glad you're here. We'll need you and your speed today if we're
going to pull this off effectively."

"Sounds like you already have a plan, Ma'am?" Rainbow asked.

"Don't you ma'am me, Dash. Call me Spitfire or shut up." She retorted,
half-serious, half-jokingly. Luckily, Rainbow had learned to pick up on Spitfires
sarcastic sense of humor, but Mist had not, and was slightly stunned by the way
the two mares talked to each other. Instead of trying to make sense of it,
he decided to simply stay quiet until they addressed him.

"So, What's the plan?" Rainbow asked.

"Partly still in development." Spitfire replied. "We don't have all the facts yet.
What we do know is that the factory had some trouble, so of course I sent ponies
to investigate. Soarin' and Misty Fly is there now, talking to the factory ponies.
Once they get back, we can start discussing solutions.
For now, we also need to do damage containment. Several high-grade storm clouds
got out and lost control, including a couple of Eights, as I'm sure you've been told."

Rainbow nodded. "Yeah, I heard. Just tell me what to do!"

Mist nodded too. "Same here, just tell me where you need me, and I will do what I
can to assist. If there is anything I can do, of course."

At that moment, Spitfires intercom buzzed, and the receptionists voice
was heard over the system. "Captain, Misty Fly just came back. Shall I send her up?"

Spitfire pressed the 'talk' button on the machine, and replied shortly,
"Yes, send her up right away."

A minute later, Misty Fly entered the room.

Spitfire greeted her, and then asked, "So what's the situation? Did you find out
what's going on over there?"

Misty nodded and started talking.

"Yeah, well.. They're not sure how it started, but there was a small fire in the factory,
near the machines. Some cables and a control panel was damaged in the fire,
resulting in the machines going nuts, and producing stronger clouds than they're
supposed to do. Basically, the machines power gauge got stuck on 'High'.
Also, they obviously tried shutting the machines off, but the killswitch must've
been damaged in the fire too, because it didn't work."

"You mean the machines are still producing clouds?" Spitfire asked,
almost sounding slightly worried but hiding it well under a tone of professionalism.

"As far as I know, yes. The machine was active when I left ten minutes ago a least,
and I really doubt their 'Plan B' is done already." Misty replied.

Mist, with a clear tone of curiosity, asked, "Plan B?"

Misty Fly coughed slightly. "Excuse me. accidentally got some smoke from the
fire at the factory. small fire, lots of smoke. Anyway, yes, Plan B was to cut the main
power lines to the entire machine floor in the factory, or Plan C, the entire factory.
But that involves locating and disabling several power lines, directly connected
from the energy harvesters at the edge of town. Problem is, those power lines are old,
and hard to work with. First, they need to be found, and even that's a problem,
because some of them are built in to the Cloudsdale main ground-cloud itself.
We're talking the old half-forgotten access tunnels and stuff here. We're gonna need
to talk to elders, former workers and such, to find where those tunnels are and how to
get inside them. That is, if the entrances are still available at all, otherwise we'll
have to locate them above ground, and literally break in to them."

Spitfire scratched her chin with her eyes almost closed behind her dark glasses.
She was deep in thought. Mist raised his hoof. "Uhm.. I know where one of those
access tunnels are.. or at least, where it should be if it is still there."

Spitfire rasied an eyebrow, turning toward the stallion. "You do? How?"

Mist hesitated for a split second, not even long enough for anypony t notice,
before he replied, "Well, you see.. When I was researching Wonderbolt history,
I came across some other stuff too in the old books I was reading.
Historical records and such, Cloudsdale history. As you surely know,
Wonderbolts historically had many functions other than being aerial acrobats
and city mascots. They also often helped with all sorts of other work.
Surveillance, search-and-rescue operations, construction, teaching at the
Flight Academy, community service, police work. Even politics and military
operations. Well, one example I came across was the tunnels you talk about.
Wonderbolts were used for aerial recon during the construction, to keep the sites safe
during work. As such, some of the tunnels were included in the history books I read.
And, my memory is quite good. I remember reading about an entrance into one
of those tunnels, and I recall exactly where it should be, if it has not been removed."

Spitfire nodded slowly and started scratching her chin again. "I See... That's perfect.
Could you show a group of technicians and Wonderbolts where the entrance is?"

Mist nodded. "I can, yes. Just tell me when, and who to bring."

Rainbow now raised her hoof. "What about me? Want me to go there?"

Spitfire shook her head. "No, I have another need for you, Dash. Since you're one of
our fastest fliers, I'll need you to function as a messenger, and progress-inspector.
Basically, fly between the various shelters, make sure everything's okay, help them
if they need something, and also check on the rescue teams, the factory, and so on,
and report back to me once every hour or so. That way I can get somewhat regular
updates, and decide what to do. Can you do that?"

Rainbow gave a quick salute. "Yes, Ma'am!"

"...and stop calling me Ma'am, or I'll have you demoted to floor mop."

"Don't you mean janitor, or floor washer?" Rainbow asked.

"No. I mean the actual mop. I'll have you wash the floors with your mane."

"You're kidding, right?"

"Are you willing to take the risk?"

The two mares gave each other a half-serious, half-joking smile, and a quick laugh.
Mist looked at them, even more confused than before. Misty Fly leaned toward him,
whispering, "Don't worry.. Nopony understands those two."

Mist replied, also whispering, "I am glad I am not the only one then."

Spitfire suddenly turned serious again.

"Now then, ponies! We have work to do! Rainbow, look at this map. All green-circled
buildings are the safe shelters. Memorize them, and then go to each one and check
their status, make sure they're all doing okay, and report back here."

Rainbow nodded, took a look at the map for a minute, and then left the office through
the window, since that was faster than exiting the building the normal way.
(although for Rainbow, going through windows is the normal way.)

Meanwhile, Spitfire kept giving orders.

"Misty Fly, you return to the factory, get a couple of technicians capable of
detaching the power lines once we find them. And Mist, you go make sure
that entrance is still there, and then return here. If it's still there, we'll use it.
If not, we'll have to find another way in to the tunnels."

Mist and Misty nodded, and both left the office - they too took the liberty of
using the already open window instead of the slow elevator.
> Chapter 9 - Tunnel
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Misty Fly and Mist departed from the Headquarters, and split up almost
immediately after exiting the building via Spitfires office window.

Mist flew south, toward where ever the entrance was to those tunnels.
Meanwhile, Misty Fly flew north-west, back to the factory, to find technicians.
As she landed at the factory area, the manager approached her.

"So what, can ya help us?" The relatively large stallion asked in a deep voice.

"Yeah, the plan is to find the old access tunnels and cut the main power source
for the factory area completely. We've got a guy who says he knows where
one of the old entrances are, and he's off checking it now. Plan B is to enter by force.
We know where the tunnels are, Spitfire has the old Cloudsdale blueprints from
when the city-cloud itself was constructed centuries ago, and newer maps to show
the current city. Anyway, to do this we'll need to borrow a couple of skilled
technicians to do the actual work once we find the power source. Somepony who can
detach the outgoing cables from the source."

"Oh, I got just th' guys you're needin'." The stallion replied.

And then he proceeded to shout into the factory. 
"RUSTY, GET YOURSELF AND YOUR BROTHER OUT HERE,
I'VE GOT A JOB FOR YA. A REALLY DAMN IMPORTANT ONE!"

Two stallions, twins by the looks of it, emerged from the factory,
both covered in oil and dirt. They we're both brown, short-maned,
and with cogs for cutiemarks. One of them had a cog and a small fire,
the other had a cog and two crossed screwdrivers underneath, like a Jolly Roger
pirate flag. The one with the fire-mark wore a pair of welding goggles,
still over his eyes. Both replied simultaneously, "Yes, boss?"

The boss waved at Misty. "This here's Misty Flight, she's with them Wonderbolts."

"Misty FLY..." Misty corrected, but the stallion ignored her and kept talking.

"She's here to take you two to some tunnels or whatever, and yer gonna
detach the main power source for the entire factory, so those cloudmachines
can finally stop making unwanted thunderclouds and hail and what-not.
She'll be yer boss temporarily, so yer gonna listen to her like ye listen to me,
understood?"

Again, the two twins replied as one, "Yes, Boss."

The two brothers then turned to Misty Fly, with expectant looks on their faces.
The one without goggles spoke up.

"So.. My name's Rusty, and my brother's name is Torch."

The brother with goggles nodded slightly at the mention of his name.

Rusty kept talking.

"And you're Misty... Fly, was it? Misty Fly?"

"That's correct, yes. Nice to meet you both." Misty Fly replied with a smile.

"So, what you need us for?" Torch asked. "Boss said we're unplugging the main
power lines, That true?"

"Yes. The cloud machines keep making clouds, many of which are pretty strong storm
clouds, as I'm sure you already know since you work here. The problem is,
since we can't shut the machines off the normal way, we need to cut the power supply.
And that in turn can only be done if we - and by we and mean you two - unplug
the main cables at the Cloudsdale main generator, inside the cloud itself,
accessed via some old tunnels, like your boss said."

"So let's get going." Rusty said, sounding eager.

"We can't yet. First we need to go back to the Wonderbolt HQ. There, we'll
wait for another pony who is currently making sure we can get into those tunnels.
Once we have him with us, we'll go."

"So, let's get going to the HQ place then." Rusty said, spreading his wings,
readying himself to take off. His brother did the same.

Misty Fly decided she had nothing more to say at the moment anyway,
and they were in a hurry, so they probably should do as the twins said and
get going. She spread her wings and took off, the twins taking off right behind her.

"Follow me. I know the short-cuts. We'll be at HQ in a few minutes, tops." She said,
as she increased her speed, but made sure the brothers were able to keep up.


* * *


Meanwhile, Mist reached the edge of Cloudsdale, while thinking to himself,
"Okay... If I remember correctly, the tunnel entrance should be here,
on the underside of the city cloud, near the edge...ah, yes, there!"

He had found what he was looking for, an old metallic-looking red hatch-door
on the underside of the cloud, almost hidden. It was big enough to fit an
average-sized pony, but just barely. "I surely hope nopony on the engineering
team is of a heavier body type..." Mist thought to himself as he looked closer at the
hatch, to find out if it was still possible to open it.

He noticed that it had been locked with an old but sturdy padlock,
like the ones used for school lockers. It also looked a bit old and had started to rust.

"This might be a problem. A minor one, but a problem nonetheless."
Mist thought to himself as he inspected the lock.

He decided to get back to the HQ and report his findings, and wait for the 
others to arrive, so he could give them all the update on the situation.

A little while later, he landed outside HQ, where he met Spitfire standing outside.

"I assume I am the first to return, since the others are not here." he said as he landed
just in front of her. She nodded. "Yeah. They'll arrive anytime though, just wait.
Meanwhile, did you find the door? Still accessible?" She said.

"Yes, and probably. It is still there, but it is locked, and the lock in question
is a old, rusty padlock. No chance to find the key, and little chance it would
work even if we had it. Based on how the lock looks, I think we can break it, though.
That is, if you have access to bolt cutters, or some other similar tool."

A voice from behind Mist spoke up. "We got cutters, an' a portable welding torch.
I'll melt that lock right off, jus' show me where it's at."

Mist turned around to see Misty Fly and the twins landing behind him.

"I take it you two are the technicians from the factory?" he asked.

"Yeah. I'm Rusty, and he's Torch." Rusty replied, pointing first at himself,
and then at his brother. "We've been told what to do. And you must be Mist,
the guy who's showing us the way, right?"

"That is correct, yes." Mist confirmed.

Misty Fly flapped her wings, getting back above ground.

"If you guys are done introducing yourselves, I suggest we get going right away.
This needs to get done as soon as possible."

The team left ground, flying toward where Mist had found the hatch.


* * *


As they arrived, Torch flew up to the hatch. 
"Oh, one of these old things! Piece of cake." He grinned.

"Now, I'll burn the lock off with this..." he said, holding up a small torch
attached to a tank on his back. It looked like a diver tank, but was filled
with some flammable gas.

"...An' when I do, the hatch is gonna open up nicely. Once that happens,
a ladder will drop down, so we can all grab on to that an' climb up inside."

"You seem to know about these hatches?" Mist asked.

"Yeah, well, this kind of hatch is used in many other places too.
Just didn't know we had some under the main cloud. Suspected we might, though."

Misty Fly flew closer to the lock, looking at it. 
"So, Torch, Think you can get this off? Should be easy, right?"

Torch grinned and ignited his portable welding torch, adjusting the flame
to a small, blue burn. 
"If you would kindly move aside, Miss Fly, I'll get right on that. Shouldn't take too long, a few minutes tops."

And just like he said, a few minutes later the now partially molten lock fell off, 
and Rusty, who had moved in underneath the hatch, caught it in the air in his hoof.

"Wouldn't want it to fall down and hit somepony on ground level.
Very small risk, but a risk nonetheless." He said when he noticed the questioning
look on Misty Fly's face.

Mist glanced at the still glowing lock in Rusty's hoof.

"Does it not hurt? I mean, it is still glowing hot."

"Nah," Rusty replied, "It's okay. See, a few years ago I had this accident, and
damaged some nerves in my leg and hoof. Much higher pain tolerance now.
Plus, it cools down quickly up here in the windy air, so it won't stay hot for long."

Torch, meanwhile, opened up the hatch, and just like they had said, a ladder dropped
from the opening, hanging down like a fire escape ladder or an attic entrance.

He waved at the ladder, facing Misty Fly. "Ladies first, or should I?"

"Oh, a gentlecolt? How nice. But anyway, yes, I'll go first."

And with that, Misty Fly entered the tunnel, bringing up a small flashlight and shining
the light around her. "Okay, so... It's empty, dark, and dirty. Lots of dust.
Luckily though, no spider webs..."

"Afraid of spiders, Miss?" Torch asked, as they all entered the tunnels.
They looked and felt similar to ventilation systems, like you see in movies,
but tall and wide enough to stand upright, even if just barely.

"Not quite afraid, I just find them slightly creepy and disgusting... Too many eyes."

"Ah, I see.. Well, we ain't got no spiders up here in the clouds. No wild ones at least,
only in captivity. You know, pets, science lab, and so on."

"I'm well aware of that, thank you, but I was merely thinking loudly.
I mean, if these tunnels had been on ground level, they most certainly would
have had spider webs, and lots of them by now."

"True," Mist said, "Tunnels like these almost always do. It is enough to leave
them unattained for a couple of weeks, and you will start getting webs.
The longer you leave them, the more webs. And dust."

"Explains the literal carpeting of dust in here." Torch said, lifting his leg,
noting his print on the floor and dust stuck on his hoof. 
"Looks like when the first layers of snow falls on the ground when we start winter..."

Misty Fly shone her light down the tunnel. "Well boys, this is the only way from the
hatch, so I guess that's where we're going now."

And so, the mare and the three stallions started walking through the old
tunnel, carefully but relatively quickly, on their way to the power stations.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash arrived at the last of the safe houses on her route...

> Chapter 10 - All Hail Breaks Loose
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rainbow sped through Cloudsdale, checking off each location one by one.
For the most-part, they were all good. No injuries, just mild chocks and a
few ponies were scared, but kept calm by the others in the room.

However, in one of the last safe buildings, Rainbow met a few ponies
she did not want to meet right now. Or ever.

The spoiled, rich snobs and their bratty, equally spoiled kids.
The self-proclaimed Elite of the city, High-class business-ponies
with egos bigger than the Canterlot Mountain.

One of them, an elderly mare dressed in what looked like a very expensive dress,
approached Rainbow as she landed. 

"Young lady! I demand to be moved away from this dreadful place!
It is dirty, and full of lower-class citizens. I simply can not be seen socializing with
these... workers!" She waved a hoof at a group of ponies as she finished her rant.

Rainbow sighed. "Miss, I can't do anything about that. It's a crisis situation!
You can either take refuge here in the safe area, or you can go out and get injured
by the storm, and I promise you that dress of yours will not survive outside today.
You don't have a choice. It's this place or nothing. I'm sorry, but you're gonna have
to spend time with the common folks for a while. I know it must be hard for you
and your giant wallet to be treated like a lowly normal pony for once, but trust me,
you'll survive."

The old lady frowned and sneered loudly. 

"How dare you talk to me like that? Do you have any idea who I am?!"

"Do I look like I hang around in your social circles? I don't know who you are,
and honestly, right now I don't have time to care! My job is to make sure
everyone here is alive and unhurt. So if you'll excuse me..." Rainbow said, and then
turned around toward the rest of the room, raising her voice.

"Is anypony hurt or sick in any way? Do you need any help with anything?"

There was some mumbling and murmurs, after which a stallion replied,
"I speak for everyone here... Nopony's hurt or sick, and we don't require any
assistance. We would like to know how things are going out there though.
Any progress in stopping the storms?"

"Good, that means I can go to the next location.
And yes, some progress, we have a plan and is currently executing it as we speak.
Long story short, we're shutting down the power grid under the factory
to stop the machines from making any more clouds, and then me and the other
weather ponies will take care of the ones already out."

After thanking Rainbow, the ponies let her leave for the next safe house,
while the rich lady kept complaining about everything, including the fact
the plan was too slow, and that Rainbow had been rude to her.
Nopony in the room said anything, but most of them silently agreed that Rainbow 
had been a bit rude, but also that the old lady deserved it, so it was all good. 

Meanwhile, the weather was getting worse, and colder.
Snow and hail started falling in some areas, and the winds got stronger.

In one of the other safe houses, the one where Fluttershy, Gilda, and the others
were currently held up, they could hear the wind whistling outside.

Fluttershy was curled up in a corner, covered in a blanket with her wings over her
face, and Gilda sitting next to her. "Just stay calm, Flutters. We'll be alright."

"I know." Fluttershy said, slightly shaky in her voice. "It's just... you know me,
I'm always worried..."

"Yeah, I know. Just stay under that blanket, I'll sit right here as long as we're
cooped up in this place."

"...Thanks, Gilda."

"Don't mention it."

They sat like that for a little while, when suddenly they heard a crash of broken glass.
Crescent Moon came flying to them over the heads of everybody else in the room.

"What was that?" Gilda asked, looking toward where the noise had come from.

"Window by the door." Crescent replied. "Large hails crashed straight through
the glass pane. We're talking golf ball sized ice pearls here. We need to barricade
the window with something, like... a table maybe? Point is, we need it barricaded."

"Fluttershy, I'm gonna leave you for a moment and go help with that, okay?"
Gilda asked, and Fluttershy nodded.

Gilda and Crescent flew over to the other end of the room, and found a large table.

"This should do it!" Gilda said, and started to push the table toward the broken
window, as large hails kept flying in through the now glass-less hole in the wall
where the window used to be. They tilted the table and pushed it toward the window.

"Damn it, it's not stable enough. I'm gonna need to keep holding it, or those huge hails
and the winds are just gonna push it off balance, and it'll fall down again." Gilda said,
and placed herself standing on her back legs, and pushed her back to the table
with her wings spread out slightly. "Go keep Fluttershy company, will you?"
She asked Crescent, who agreed and hovered across the room over the crowd of
ponies until he reached her. 

"Where's Gilda?" She asked. 

"Don't worry. The table was unstable, so she's holding it in place,
kinda like a shield."

"She won't get hurt, will she?" Fluttershy asked in a worried tone.

"Oh, not at all, there's no danger. Maybe a bit tired after a while, but nothing worse."

"That's good... I'd go there, but..."

"I understand. I'll go check on her once in a while if you want me to."

"That would be very kind of you..." Fluttershy managed a small smile despite
her worry. Crescent replied with a smile of his own.


* * *


Meanwhile, beneath the city in the under-"ground" tunnel, Misty and her crew
was walking toward the machine rooms, supposedly located somewhere down there.

"Anypony else getting hungry?" Mist asked. "I brought some sandwiches."

"You brought food? For this mission? Are you serious?" Misty Fly asked
with a deadpan look. 

"Well, I figured we would be here a while, and it was already getting late when
we flew down under to get here, and if we get too hungry that will also mean
we would get weak and tired, and we need to be focused and energized for this.
Plus, sandwiches can be eaten with one hoof while we continue walking,
which is what I intended. That way, we can eat AND keep going, There is no need
for us to actually stop and take a break, because THAT, we do not have time for."

"Dude's got a point." Rusty said. "And I am in fact getting hungry,
so I'll gladly have a sandwich."

"Good. Now then, I have cucumber-and-cheese, and I have tomato--and-cheese
with a hint of garlic."

"Garlic? Serious? I thought only vampires ate that stuff." Torch said.

"No, you buffoon," Rusty replied, "Vamps are the ones who DON'T eat garlic.
It kills them or something."

"Well, Actually, there are different versions of that,
depending on what lore you read." Mist said.

"In some books, it says vampires die from garlic, in others it says it does not kill
them, but it makes them very weak and sick. but since there are no actual vampires,
nopony knows for sure which version would be correct."

"You sure know a lot about vampires. You sure you aren't one yourself, Mr. Mist?"
Torch asked in a joking tone. 

"Oh, of course not, I am eating a garlic sandwich after all. At the very least I should
be sick, or even dead, should I not? No, vampires are merely stories in horror movies
and scary books, nothing to be afraid of in real life."

"But what about Princess Lunas guards? Those guys have batwings
and stuff..." Torch said.

"Those are bat ponies, not vampires. In fact, I think it was from them the myths
about vampires started. Someone made up some rumor about them drinking blood,
or absorbing magic, and the rumors spread and ponies started believing it,
just like any other rumor or story. It starts with something real, but evolves
over time, and ponies believe the stories." Mist said, finishing his sandwich.

Misty Fly interrupted the discussion. "Okay guys, we've got a problem.
The tunnel forks off in two up ahead, and I don't know which one leads
to the generators. Any of you guys have any idea?"

"Well," Mist scratched his chin as he spoke, "The generators should be directly
beneath the storage area next to the factory itself, with thick cables connecting
to the factory... and based on where we are now, I would say the left tunnel
leads to where we need to go."

"And how can you be sure?" Misty Fly asked.

"Because it says so on the small sign on the wall here." Mist replied with a smirk,
pointing at a small sign. 


------------------------------------------------------------
LEFT
Main Generator Room

RIGHT
Storage Room
(Tools, replacement parts)
------------------------------------------------------------


"Ha ha, very funny, smartass. Let's get going." Misty Fly gave Mist another deadpan
stare, and started walking toward the generator room. As they got closer, they heard
the humming noise from the generators, getting louder as they got closer.

"Pretty noisy machines." Rusty said.

"Old Class C generators, no noise volume regulations back then." Torch replied.

"You two know about this stuff?" Misty Fly asked.

"Of course we do, That's why the boss sent us instead of anypony else from the 
factory. We're experts in older machinery like this."

"Oh, small heads-up. If these really are C-class, you'll all want to stay a few
hoof-lengths away from the spinning turbines. Might throw arc lightning if you get
too close. Pretty low safety regulations a hundred years ago, when these were built."

"Thanks for the warning, I will be sure to keep my distance." Mist said.

"Me too. But what about you two?" Misty Fly asked.

"Oh, no problem." Rusty replied. "The cables we're unplugging is on the opposite
side of the generator, so we're gonna be beyond safe distance from the turbines."

"What kind of turbines are they, by the way?" Misty Fly asked.

Torch smiled. "Basically, a kind of wind turbines, drawing power from the fact
that Cloudsdale is positioned above an updraft. Wind goes upward to keep the city
floating, and the same wind goes into turbine openings on the underside,
making the turbines in here spin. Then, magically charged crystals enhance and
multiply the power output, kinda like focus lenses. After that, power goes into storage
batteries, like transformers, and from there, out to the city grid and the factory grid.
So basically, the turbines themselves don't generate enough to run the city,
but the crystals increase the power roughly a hundred times over."

Rusty added, "Let's say for example, you can generate a hundred watts of power
with a small home turbine. Add a focus crystal, and it'll become a thousand watts.
One watt goes in on one side, ten watts come out the other side.
But of course, on a much larger scale. hundreds of thousands of watts."

"I see... That's actually pretty smart..." Misty Fly said thoughtfully.
"Honestly, I never really knew Cloudsdale was powered like that... 
I mean, I knew we have electricity of course, but I never thought about how 
we get it... Until now, and now I know."

The tunnel widened a bit, revealing a door, still open, leading to a room
with a large (and loud) turbine engine setup, spinning rapidly and casting 
lightning, caught by rows of antennas set up beside the spinning part.

"Lady and gentlecolts..." Torch said, "Welcome to the Generator Room." 

> Chapter 11 - Technical Difficulties
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rusty, Torch, Misty and Mist looked at the large machine room,
eyes wide. 

Rusty was the first to speak. "Okay folks, we... have a lot to do.
That, lady and gentlecolts, is a Class C Generator, Model T-800,
and heavily customized. Which means, we're gonna have a lot of work
if we're shutting this down manually."

Mist looked at the brothers with a questioning expression on his face.
"How much, exactly? And is there anything myself or miss Misty can do to help?
If so, you need only ask."

"Well no offense, but I think it's best if you leave the tinkering to us.
Then again, you can assist is by getting tools and such for us."

"Very well, so be it." Mist replied, and sat down in wait for orders.

Misty Fly sat down next to him, while the brothers went up to the machine.

"Let's see what we got here..." Torch said, as he opened up a maintenance hatch
on the side of the large generator.

"Okay... This will take some time, as we've said. First off, we can't just pull the
cables out, because that would blow the fuses and possibly damage the machine too,
and if this breaks the factory won't get power back for weeks, or even months.
Which means, no clouds in all of Equestria."

Mist got a slightly worried look, and asked, "So, what can you do? I assume you need
to manually turn off the various sections, and then remove the cable couplings
once the machine is completely shut off?"

"Something like that, yeah. Didn't know you knew anything about generators."
Torch replied smiling.

"Oh, just some theoretical knowledge and concepts, I have no actual experience
with machines. I read a bit about them in books, and I have good memory,
that is all." Mist quickly replied.

"Anyway," Torch said, "First step is to locate each section, and see how this thing is 
hooked up."

Misty tilted her head. "I thought you boys said you knew these machines?"

Rusty nodded. "Yeah, we know the default build, the original condition.
This one however, has been custom repaired, jerry-rigged, had parts switched,
stuff added, other stuff removed.. it's barely a T-800 anymore, it's more like a 
T-800-inspired custom build at this point, so we'll have to figure it all out before
we touch anything."

Misty Fly facehoofed. "Just perfect... All we needed now was more complications..."

"No worries, we'll figure this one out. We've jerried tons of machines before,
we know what to look for. We're the experts, remember?" Rusty smirked and winked.

"I know, I know, It's just frustrating. It's been a rough day, and I just wanna get it all
done and over with...I'm sorry if I sound a bit antsy, I'm just worried about all the
ponies and griffins up there, in the storms... I hope everypony made it into the
safe-houses.."

Mist gave her a gentle smile. "Do not worry, I am sure everypony up there is fine.
Granted, some house damage and such probably, but I am sure nopony suffered
any serious injuries. And we will get this fixed soon enough."

"...Yeah, thanks."

Torch opened a hatch on the other side of the large machine.
"Okay... Found the control console. buttons and switches look original,
but the wiring around it looks a bit home-made, so I'll have to check each
wire to see what's connected to which button. Rusty, any luck on your side?"

Rusty was currently looking around in the hatch Torch had opened a few minutes ago.
"Looks like the cooling hose passes here, and I think I see the coolant pump
in the corner here. Hooked up to the generator itself, so it powers its own insides."

"So, liquid cooling in a T-800. Never thought I'd see that."

"I know, right? Wonder what else those guys did to this thing."

Mist overheard, and asked, "liquid cooling? I did not realize these generators became
hot enough to need any cooling at all, much less a liquid system."

"Well yeah, they do, but like we said, this one's so customized and rebuilt,
it's far from an ordinary generator now. Some of the modifications makes it
get hot sometimes, and my guess is a liquid system was the most effective."
Normally something like a couple of fans is enough, or a cooling spell crystal.

Misty Fly was now walking around the room, looking. She found some canisters.
"That explains these then. Looks like these held some liquid. maybe the
cooling solution?"

Torch nodded. "Probably. Any markings on the canisters? Chemical formulas?"

"Well, one just says 'H2O'. That's just water." Misty replied.

"Yeah, cooling systems usually use water, or a mix of water and anti-freeze,
if the machine is in a cold area. Like the power plants in the Crystal Empire."

"The other one is smaller. But it says 'C2H6O2'."

Rusty scratched his chin for a moment. "Yeah, that's anti-freeze. Ethylene Glycol,
to be exact.Pretty common, one of the most used.
Guess it gets cold down here during winter, so it needs some in the mix."

Misty looked confused. "I don't get it. You say the machine gets hot enough to
need cooling systems, but you also say the cooling systems need anti-freeze
chemicals so they don't get frozen?"

"Yeah, a bit confusing when you don't know the machines. Basically they need
to be kept within certain temperatures for optimal efficiency.
Too cold, machine gets less effective. Too hot, machine can overheat and break.
These systems regulate temperature by removing excess heat and transferring it
elsewhere, but at the same time the cooling liquid can get too cold, and freeze."

"My head hurts..." Misty whined. "Let's forget the tech talk for a moment,
and focus on te important part - can you fix the machine? Can you turn it off?"

"Yeah. Given enough time, we can."

"I'll let you keep working then. Sorry for interrupting."

"No worries, Ma'am." Rusty smiled, and turned to Torch. "Now then...
Found something interesting?"

"Yeah. Manual. Hoof-written, all the custom stuff. Not the printed original."

"Perfect."

"Nah. classic 'too-good-to-be-real moment."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning, half of it is unreadable. Some of those old technicians could barely write 
at all, and it really shows here... Half of it barely looks Equestrian."

"Fantastic. Any parts you CAN read?"

"Bits and pieces here and there, so it'll still be helpful. Just not all the time."

"Better than nothing, then. Find something useful. I'll dig deeper here.
I think I found the heat sink. It's... big. Basically, it looks like they built
the entire damn machine inside a heat sink frame lowered a few centimeters
into the floor."

"Are you serious? They sank the whole thing?"

"Basically, yeah. Come look for yourself. If you peer inside the machine here,
and look down, you'll see the bottom. It's all lower than the ground we're standing on,
and the whole platform inside looks like it's made of pipes. And if you look to the
left, you'll see the coolant pump, connected to those pipes via the hose I mentioned
earlier. Which means, they basically turned the whole floor to a water-cooled
heat sink system to keep this machine at efficient temperatures."

"Amazing. Anyway, I think I found something useful. There's a way we
can switch off the turbine separately, and then the generator itself.
That way, we don't need to force everything into shut-down at once."

The two brothers walked over to the turbine, but stayed just out of range from 
the still shooting lightning sparks. Although they all hit the rods, they figured
it was better to stay a few steps away just in case, because you could never
be too safe, especially not when dealing with high voltage machines.

"Okay, so... How do we do it?" Rusty asked.

Torch pointed at a switch-board behind the turbine. "That's how.
Disengage the main coupling between the turbine and the generator,
and then switch the turbine off with the off-switch once they're disconnected.
And then we can find the off-switch for the generator itself.
After that, we can start unplugging those cables. But to get them,
we'll have to remove the plating, and probably some of the innards of the machine.
The cables aren't just externally connected, they're built-in..."

Rusty facehoofed. "Oh for Lunas sake... of course they are... Why make it easy?"

Some time passed as the brothers did all the work, slowly but safely shutting down
the turbine and disconnecting it, and then shutting down the generator.

They then started on the work removing plates, and other parts from inside
the machine, slowly making their way toward the cable connections.

Almost an hour passed before Torch exclaimed, "FINALLY!"

Misty Fly immediately reacted, jumping up from her half-sleeping
posture on a bench, standing at full height. "Are you done? Did you fix it?"

Rusty's voice replied from inside the machine. "Almost. Just need to pull this last
cable, and we're..." he paused for a moment, and then continued ten seconds later,
"...Done! Last cable pulled. Do me a favor, look behind you on the wall. 
Should be a panel with small lights and markings there, a kind of control lights
board."

Misty looked behind her, finding a board with LED lamps and small name tags under
each, with names such as 'Main Grid', 'Office', 'Factory', and other such places.

"Yeah, I see it..."

"Is any lamp still lit, or is the whole board dark?"

"The whole board is dark. Is that good or bad?"

"That's what we want. Those lamps show which rooms has power or not.
Dark lamps means no power. Dark board means full shut-down. We are
officially done here, for now. So once the surface teams have taken
care of all the clouds and winds and whatever else they got up there,
we're going to re-assemble and restart this thing. But for now,
this stage of the mission is complete."

Mist had fallen into a almost sleeping state, and woke up from Misty
poking him in his side. "Wakey wakey, Dude. Mission accomplished."

"So we are done down here?" Mist asked. 

"Yeah, and by now, it should be dark outside... We need to get back out there."

"Good idea. You go on ahead, I will come later. I... Well, I think I
got my wing in a bad position when I fell asleep, and now it is a bit numb,
so I do not think I am capable of flying for a little while."

"You sure? Torch, Rusty, What do you think? Can we leave him here,
or should one of us stay too maybe?"

"Well, as long as he promises not to touch anything, I don' see why not.
No harm in leaving him if his wing's numb. He won't fly anyway if
that's the case, and the rest of us will all be needed top-side ASAP,
so we can tell the weather guys to start kicking clouds, and the factory guys
to find the problem in the factory."

"So it's settled then." Misty said. "We three leave, Mist stays behind
for a while, and comes back to the surface when his wing is back in 
flyable condition."

"Actually... I have some errands to take care of, things I should have done
earlier, but since I got caught up in all of this... Well, my point is,
Once I can fly, I will go immediately to the ground village, and leave for
Manehattan. I should have been on an earlier train, but I think I might still
make the midnight one, with some luck. I do not believe we shall meet again,
at least not this time. Maybe if I return to Cloudsdale some other time."

"Well... In that case, Mist... It was a pleasure meeting you, and thank
you for all your help. Without you, we might not have found this room,
and we'd had to have done it some other, probably more dangerous way."

"The pleasure was all mine, Miss. Now, if you excuse me, I believe
you all are in quite a hurry to go topside. Just one last thing... Torch?"

"Yeah?"

"Do I need to lock something when I go, or should I just leave the
hatch open? I mean, you will return here relatively soon,
and I do not think there is any extra pad locks anyway, since we had
to break the one that was there."

"Nah, just close the hatch, but don't worry about locking.
We'll bring a new pad lock when we come back.
Just don't touch anything. In fact, if you don't mind, I'd prefer if you didn't stay
in this room at all. Follow us to the hatch, and wait there until your wing is
okay again, sound good?"

"Well, I would not want to cause any concern, so I shall agree to those terms.
I will accompany you to the hatch, and we shall depart there."

They all walked out from the machine room, and followed the tunnels back
to the hatch. Mist stopped shortly before reaching it, and sat down on the floor.

"I shall wait here, I think. This spot seems to be the - relatively speaking - cleanest
part of the floor, and it is close to the hatch."

"Very well. Again, thanks for everything." Misty said, 
and gave Mist a quick, friendly goodbye-hug, which Mist responded
to by awkwardly returning it with a somewhat surprised smile.

"Oh. I... was not prepared for that. Not much of a hugger, really."

Misty just smiled and jumped out the hatch while saying goodbye.

Torch and Rusty each gave Mist a quick hoofbump, and followed Misty.

Mist, meanwhile, stretched his wings, and prepared himself for his flight.
His wing was numb, but not quite as numb as he had said it was.
But, he had his reasons not to leave with the others...


* * *


...Reasons that you, dear reader, can find in another story,
which I have linked to in the descriptions of each of these chapters
ever since I introduced Mist - but now, his part of this story is over,
and if you want to know more about him, you'll have to find him
in the other story, which tells you more about him...

> Chapter 12 - Prelude to "Operation Storm Breaker"
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

On the upside, the factory suddenly went black. All machinery stopped,
and all lights went dark. Factory workers were prepared, and immediately
started flashlights, head-lamps, lighted candles, shook life into some glow-crystals.



Author's Note:
Glow-Crystals were invented and are now provided by a group of unicorns in Canterlot,
who came up with a spell to bind glow-enchantments in gemstones, to be used as lamps.
Simply shake to 'activate', and shake again to 'deactivate'. No external magic required,
thus they can be used by anyone, not just unicorns. All required magic is already embedded
into the gem itself when produced, meaning only unicorns can make them,
but any non-unicorns can use them once they're made.
Now available for sale in most cities, for a (relatively) cheap price.




Spitfire, who was currently in the main machine room at the time, 
grabbed and shook a crystal, and then called out to the workers.

"Okay ponies, Looks like the generator-shut-off part of the plan was successful.
Next step for you in here, is to start locating the trouble, and see what needs to
be done, and then do it! Meanwhile, I'll be going outside to gather my Wonderbolts,
and the Weather Ponies, and a few others who I consider qualified."

She flew out, and landed in the center of the city, just outside Wonderbolt HQ.
There, she was met by the Wonderbolts and Weatherponies, already prepared
and ready for action. The 'bolts were all wearing their uniforms and goggles already
down over their eyes, while the weatherponies were wearing similar goggles,
and those with longer manes had them tied up in tight knots or ponytails,
to get it out of their faces. As Spitfire landed, Rainbow Dash walked up to her,
with her mane tied back. "Commander Spitfire. Rainbow Dash reporting for duty.
The Bolts and Weather crews are all gathered and prepared. If the factory is down,
we can get started within seconds, on your order, Ma'am."

"...Don't call me Ma'am. And, good job getting the troops gathered, Dash.
Now then..." Spitfire hovered up just above the crowd of ponies, 
and cleared her throat. 

"Hrm... NOW, Ponies! Wonderbolts, Weather Crews! You know what to do!
Look around you! We have several weeks worth of bad weather to take care of!
I promise you, this will not be fun. By the end, you'll all be exhausted.
This is more work than we've ever done in one go, but we need to take care
of this right away. It's a huge mess, and we're the clean-up crew!"

Ponies were cheering and woo-ing, somepony whistled, and some clapped their
hooves. Everyone had determined looks on their faces. They all knew what was to
come, but nopony wanted to be anywhere else right now. This was their purpose,
their time to shine, and they all knew it.

Spitfire continued her speech.

"...Now, You all know the plan. Divide into groups of three or four,
take one section per group, and if you get done faster than expected,
help the nearest group that isn't done yet, and continue like that until
the skies are clear. The sky is covered tonight, So we can't see Lunas moon above us...
But by the time the sun rises, I want to see that sunrise! Do I make myself clear?!
We're going to buck those clouds to oblivion!"

"YES, MA'AM!" The crowd replied in unison.

Spitifre mumbled to herself, "I hate when they call me Ma'am...
makes me sound old..."

But then she yelled, "I can't hear you!"

The crowd repeated, even louder, "YES, MA'AM!!!"

And then she ended the speech.

"Ponies! Initiate Operation Storm Breaker!"


* * *


"Dash." Spitfire said, stopping Rainbow Dash just before she was about to take off.

"Yeah?"

"One more thing. Before you set out to kick clouds, I need you to do another
check-up round on the safe houses. Make sure everypony's still okay,
and update them on the situation. Tell them the factory is offline,
but the weather is still unsafe, so they'll need to stay inside a while longer,
until you or someone else from the 'Bolts or weather crews tells them otherwise."

"And when I'm done with that, I report back to you, and then I join the
cloud-kicking?"

"Exactly. You're the fastest flier I have here, so it makes the most sense to have you 
do the check-ups. Plus, you did the previous, so all the safe houses knows you."

"Good point. Alright, I'm off. Better get it done as soon as possible!"

Rainbow gave Spitfire a quick salute and sped away at near-top-speed,
almost fast enough to leave a rainbow trail after her.

Unfortunately for Rainbow, the closest safe house was the one she was least
excited to go back to. The one with the rich snobs. 

"This will be fun..." she mumbled to herself as she flew.
"Those wallet-heads will be sooo happy to hear they'll have to stay locked up
another few hours..."

She landed, and approached the door, knocking on it hard enough to be heard
over the rain and whistling winds.

The door opened, and one of the nicer ponies in the house stood in the door.

"Oh, it's you. The weather pony. Here for another check-up, I guess?"
he asked, in a relatively calm tone.

"Yeah, and a update. First off, is everypony still unharmed in here?"

"Well, the nobles are getting a bit tiresome, but other than them causing
headaches with all their whining... No, nopony is hurt. Just tired and restless."

"Good. As for the update... As you can see, the weather is still bad, but the factory
has been shut down now, so we'll be able to start clearing the skies soon,
we're making the final preparations and sending out teams now.
However, due to the raw amount of clouds, and the varying types and sizes
and strengths of them, even with several full teams, it's still gonna take
us most of the night to get the skies clear enough for civilian safety,
so our current aim is to have it done around sunrise...
So I suggest you all try to get some sleep, but maybe take turns and sleeping,
always keeping one or two of you awake just in case."

"Yeah, I understand. I'll inform the ret in here, you go on to the next house."

"Just you wait, Young mare!" A voice yelled out from inside the house.
An elderly-sounding, very upset voice.

"Oh Celestia no..." Dash mumbled, and facehoofed.

The very rich elitist noble mare came literally marching toward the door,
eyes bloodshot with anger.

"You can not keep us locked up like hens in a hen-house! I demand you let us out
right this instant! I heard you, the factory is off! And you're supposed to be a weather
pony! You should easily be able to kick a few clouds, shouldn't you?!"

"Yes... A few. But lady, look outside. We have LITERALLY A THOUSAND
STORM CLOUDS out here, of all sizes and types! Look over there. 
That's a MONSOON CLOUD! And over there, to the left, you have a tropical
thunder storm! and next to THAT, you have a level 4 snowfall and a tornado
moving toward it, which will become a blizzard once they collide!
And that's just the ones you can SEE FROM HERE! If you take one step
off that porch, lady, you will quite literally blow away, get soaked, get frozen,
and los in the dark, all at once, and by tomorrow you'll be found dead. 
IF you're found at all. I know this sounds really harsh, but it's the truth,
and I think you need to hear it, lady. You are NOT trained, you're a civilian.
Your wallet can NOT fix this problem. If you leave the house, you WILL
almost certainly die, or at the very least end up in a hospital with severe injuries.
If you stay inside, you'll survive unharmed, and you'll have a great story to tell
your grandkids if you have any."

The old mare was still fuming with anger, but at a complete loss for words.
She had expected some arguing from the colorful mare, but not this much.
So instead of arguing back, she simply snorted as loud as she could,
raised her muzzle high in the air, and reluctantly walked back into the house.

"Okay, I really, REALLY, need to leave now. Several more houses.
And sooo may clouds to kick..." She pointed behind her.

The stallion just nodded. "Go. I'll handle the angry lady. Don't tell anyone,
but I have some... not-completely-legal plants, and I could brew some
very relaxing tea from the leaves of the plant, and give it to her...
Obviously NOT telling her what it's made from..."

"Do it. I won't tell anyone." Dash winked, and flew off to the next house,
to repeat the same process, minus the angry lady, and then repeat 
it a few more times, house by house. Eventually, she reached the house
where Fluttershy, Gilda and Crescent were held up, and she knocked on the door.


* * *


A middle-aged stallion opened the door slightly, and peeked out through the 
opening. 

"Is it safe to come out yet?" he asked in a somewhat nervous tone.

"Not yet, but it IS safe to open the door." Rainbow replied assuringly.

The stallion hesitated for a second, and then slowly let the door open fully.

Dash walked in, and closed it behind her. She looked around, and noticed
Gilda still holding the table over the window.

"Gilda! What's going on? Is everyone okay in here?"

Gilda panted for a moment.

"Y-yeah, we're all fine. I*m just a bit... tired... I've been holding this table
to stop the hail storm. The window broke, and we needed to shield the hole
somehow... this was the least bad of our options."

"What about other ponies? Couldn't you take shifts or something?"

"Nopony in here is as strong as me, and the table is heavy. Smaller tables wouldn't be
enough to cover the whole hole. Entire window's busted. Glass shards everywhere,
but that's cleaned up now."

Rainbow looked around some more. 

"Flutters, Crescent?" She called out. From across the room, Crescent waved his
hoof above the other ponies, and called back, "Over here, Dash. Far end of the room."

Rainbow made her way through the crowd.

"You two okay?" She asked as she got to her friends.

"Yeah, Fluttershy hid under a bunch of sheets and a couple of pillows,
and I've been sitting beside her so she wouldn't be alone while Gilda
held the table over the broken window. She fell asleep though. I guess
she got tired from everything that's happened. How are things outside?"

"Well, the factory is shut down now, and we're currently starting the clean-up,
but even with the 20 or so ponies we have on duty, it's still gonna take several hours,
probably all night... our target is to have Cloudsdale safe for civilians by sunrise.
Gonna be a tough job, but we're tough ponies."

"Well, like the saying goes... 'When the going gets tough, The tough gets going'."
Crescent said with a confident smile. He added, "I'm sure you and the other can
handle this. You're weather ponies and Wonderbolts. The two toughest pegasus
groups in Cloudsdale. The only ones who're as tough as you guys would be the pegasi
unit of the Royal Guard in Canterlot."

"That's mainly because most of those guys are former weather ponies or 'Bolts."
Rainbow replied with a smirk. "Anyway, is everyone in here okay?
No serious injuries, no sickness, no other trouble?"

"Apart from the broken window and some ponies getting a few minor cuts from
the glass... No, nothing serious. The cuts are patched up, no wound was serious
enough for stitches, just band-aids and bandages. Gilda's getting tired though,
but she's ridiculously stubborn and determined, and she's the only one strong enough
to hold that table..."

"Yeah, she told me. And I've knows her since grade school, so I know how stubborn
she is once she sets her mind on something. Her body is gonna feel like Tartarus
when this is over, but she can handle it. Also, I'm gonna see if I can get those
hail clouds fixed as soon as possible, so she can rest..."

"Yeah, that would be good."

"Well, I gotta go. Keep the door closed, and keep the table up until I or someone
else from the clean-up crew tells you the hail cloud is gone. I'll try to do it myself,
but I have to go where I'm needed, you know. Group operation and all that."

"Yeah, I understand."

"But I'll tell Spitfire about the situation here, and ask her if we can prioritize
the hail cloud here."

"Thanks."

"No Problem".

With that, Rainbow dashed out from the house, and made her way back
to Spitfire to report the status of the safe houses. 
On her way, she had to make a few quicker-than-usual turns to avoid winds
and hail, and a small tornado that swooped past her, almost close enough to
pull her in, but she just barely managed to make a quick upwards-left turn and
avoid it with just a few inches to spare between herself and the tornados danger zone.   

> Chapter 13 - ''Operation Storm Breaker'' (Part 1)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rainbow landed next to Spitfire, who was monitoring the progress of a nearby
Weather pony group, currently bucking a row of rain clouds.

"All safe houses are intact, minus a broken window on one, but they patched it up,
sort of. At least as much as they could, using an old table." She said as her hooves
set down on the ground. "How are things here?"

"So far it's going relatively good. This group is, as you can see, taking care of
those rainers. All other groups are spread out around Cloudsdale to work the
clean-up from as many points as possible. Now, I have a new job for you.
I sent some ponies down to the ground, to fix a few things in the village.
They'll be back any minute now, and once they return, I want you to go with them
around Cloudsdale and give each group leader a little... gift."

"Sure, but what's the gift?"

"Radio headsets. So we can keep in contact."

"Awesome, but... I'm no tech expert, but doesn't electrical storms interfere
with radios and stuff? Will they work up here in this weather?" Rainbow asked,
with a thoughtful expression.

"Normally, the storms would interfere, yes. That's why I sent them down to the
village first. There are unicorns down there. They can put a anti-interference spell
on the headsets, making them 'immune' to the weather, so to speak.
Which in turn means, we can use them even in the storms."

"Awesome!" Rainbow smiled. "But while we wait, should I help kick a few clouds?
I mean, I can literally just fly straight up and start kicking."
Rainbow pointed a hoof upwards, to the literal ceiling of grey and black clouds.

"Sure, you might as well do that. I'll stay on the ground and keep watch from here.
Once you see ponies with boxes land here, you land too, Understood?"

"Understood!" Rainbow replied shortly, gave a quick salute,
and launched herself straight up with a jumping motion,
as she quickly unfolded and flapped her wings, gaining height
very fast. Within seconds, she reached roughly 30 meters above the ground cloud,
and looked around. Rain clouds in all directions. Dark grey, but no lightning.
Only rain, in large cold drops. Autumn rain clouds. Rainbow thought to herself
as she observed them. Most of these will take two kicks each to break...
Maybe even three kicks for the biggest ones.

She aimed, and started kicking the weak spots on the clouds, and just as she had 
thought, they did take a couple of kicks before starting to dissolve and break apart.
She kicked a few more, but they seemed never-ending. For each clouds she kicked,
a new one moved closer instead.

At least I barely need to move... The clouds come to me! She thought, as she started
flying around in a small circle and kicking outwards around her.

She figured her circular motion would cause some inwards drag,
which would pull the nearby clouds closer, Kinda like a tornado.
Once every few seconds or so, she looked down to see
if anypony had arrived at Spitfires location with the headsets yet.
So far, she only saw Spitfire, so she kept circling and kicking.

Another minute passed, after which she looked down again, this time seeing
a group of pegasi approach and land near Spitfire. Assuming it was the 
headset delivery, Rainbow made one last spin-kick to take out a couple more
clouds, and then made a small loop-and-dive, followed by a landing next to the 
others.

"Headsets?" She asked as she set down her hooves.

"Yeah." One of the pegasi nodded, a dark grey stallion with pale blue short-cut mane.

Spitfire grabbed one of the sets from the box, and put it on her head.

"Dash, you grab one too." She said, and then turned to the grey stallion.
"I assume these are pre-set to the same frequency?"

"Should be, as far as I know." he replied with a small shrug. 

"...Okay, we're gonna have t do this the hard way then... Dash.
I'm going to keep this one on, and you're gonna grab the rest. Try each one on,
and see if you can hear me, and I can hear you. Basic sound check. Once they're all
tested, you keep one on your own head, and deliver the rest where I tell you to."

"Roger that!" Rainbow replied, and grabbed a headset. She flew away a bit,
out of earshot but not out of sight from Spitfire. That way, they could test each set and
still remain in vision to use hoof-signals if any of the sets failed.

"Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3..." Rainbow started.

"I hear you loud and clear." Spitfire replied. "Now repeat the same process, 
every single set."

The testing took a few minutes, but all sets checked out. Perfect sound quality on
every single one.

"All sets checked. Where do you want them?" She asked.

"First one on you, like I said. Second one, get to the 'Bolts over at the East side of
town. You'll find Fleetfoot and Thunderlane there. Give them one set each.
After that, head on to the North, and find the Cloudsdale Weather Unit,
give a set to whoever is in charge over there. And while you're in the area,
give a set to the boss at the factory too, just in case."

Rainbow saluted and took off, speeding through the storms,
narrowly avoiding lightning and wind bursts. Mostly. A couple of burst
knocked her off balance, but she quickly regained it both times,
and she managed to avoid all the lightning strikes.

By the time she reached the east side, she scanned the area. 

"Lots of snow clouds here..." she mumbled. 
She clicked the 'on'-button on the headset. 

"Spitfire? Can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear. Progress report?" Spitfires voice replied in her ear-piece.

"Just arrived at East Side, lots of snow clouds here. Going to look for Fleetfoot
and Thunderlane now, I'll find them in no time!"

"Good. As soon as they have headsets, have them report to me immediately."

"Understood, Will do. Dash out."

Rainbow scanned the area again, more carefully, for any signs of movement.
She could hear voices. Her ears perked as she focused on the voices.

"Let's see... From... above, I think..." She said to herself, and tilted her head upwards.
"Probably above the clouds, kicking them from the top-side to avoid all the
snowfall... Good thinking."

She flapped her wings and broke through the clouds, and just as she suspected,
she found a group of ponies kicking them from above.
She got the attention of a random pony.

"Hey. I'm looking for Fleetfoot and Thunderlane. Are they here somewhere?"

The mare nodded and pointed toward a huge cloud a little bit away.

"On the other side of that big cloud, trying to find its weak spots. It's been
causing blizzards down below, and almost buried a house in snow already.
We've managed to push it away from the houses, but now it's burying a park
in literal meters of snow."

"Impressive... in a bad way. Gotta go find them, no time for small talk, sorry."
Rainbow gave the mare an awkward smile and sped off toward the cloud,
and made her way around it. Just like the mare had said, she found Fleetfoot and
Thunderlane there, scanning for weaknesses. They were both wearing their Bolt
uniforms, complete with the goggles over their eyes. 

"Hey Dash. Come to help us with this Blizzard-cloud?" Fleetfoot asked when she
noticed Rainbow approaching. 

"Sorry, no. I'm here to deliver headsets, so you can keep in contact with Spitfire,
me, and the other groups once I deliver sets to them too. You're the first delivery."

"Oh, that sounds good too." 

Thunderlane kept staring at the cloud. "You know what, Fleet?"

"...You're gonna do something reeeeally stupid, aren't ya?" Fleetfoot replied
with a deadpan look.

"Yup. See, I think I figured out a weak spot. I'm gonna kick it."

"And the stupid part is...?" Rainbow asked, not even trying to hide her curiosity.
After all, she loved stupid ideas. She's known for having them herself sometimes.

Thunderlane pointed at the cloud. "The weak spot on this thing is the core."

"You mean you're going inside it?" Fleetfoot asked.

"Yes." Thunderlane replied shortly.

"That's both awesome and crazy at the same time." Rainbow said.
"I mean, you do have a point, clouds of this size often have a sensitive core,
so a good kick or two there would probably work. The problem is,
you'd have to get there first, and this thing is pretty solid. You'd need a really
high entry speed to break through..." Rainbow said, but stopped talking before
she had finished her sentence.

"I have an even dumber idea..." She said. "Hold these." She added, giving Fleetfoot
the box of headsets.

"What in Celestias mane are you going to..." Fleetfoot started, but then realized what
Rainbow was planning. "Ooooh, I see... You're gonna do that, right?"

"I am." Rainbow said in a serious tone. "Straight through the center, like a bullet."

Rainbow tapped the 'on'-switch on her headset again. 

"Come in, Spitfire. Dash here. I located Fleetfoot and Thunderlane,
but they need my help with a blizzard-cloud before I can proceed to next location.
And in order to help them with that cloud, I'm gonna need to do something stupid."

"On record, This conversation never happened, Understood?
Off record... Go ahead. Do whatever you need to get that cloud evaporated.
I'll probably be able to see the boom from here."

"Probably, yeah. Dash out." Rainbow said, with a grin forming on her face.
"This is gonna be awesome..."
> Chapter 14 - 'Operation Storm Breaker' (Part  2)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A few moments later, Rainbow flew up to a suitable distance to gain enough

speed for her plan. A Sonic Rainboom, straight through the snow clouds core.

As she reached far enough away, she made a turn, took aim... and started flying,

while speeding up, more and more with every moment. She could feel the

wind cone building around her, narrowing, as she neared Sonic speed.

Almost there... She thought to herself, as she kept going.

And then, at the moment she entered the cloud, she burst the sound barrier.

The rainbow-colored sonic boom "exploded" outwards, tearing the cloud into

nothing, while Rainbow herself made a minor turn in order to not smash into the

ground, as she had attacked the cloud from a downward-tilted angle, instead of

straight horizontal or vertical. She swooped around and turned upward,

and as she flew, she started to slow down, rapidly decreasing speed.



Once she reached regular flight-speed, she turned around again,

to see if her Sonic rainboom had worked. She smiled as she saw that the cloud

was gone, and nopony was hurt. She flew back to Thunderlane and Fleetfoot,

who were discussing what to do next.



"Well, the main problem in this area is done, so we could leave the rest of the

clean-up here to the regular squad, and go help the other nearby squads."

Fleetfoot suggested.



"Yeah, but in the other hoof, they all seem to be doing quite well,

as far as I could see when I scouted the areas around us." Thunderlane replied.



"True. So the question is, where would we do most good right now?

Stay here, or move on?" Fleetfoot asked.



Rainbow decided to join the conversation.

"Just contact Spitfire and see what she thinks, if you're unsure of what to do.

I mean, you do have the headsets now. As for me, I need to get the rest of the sets

to the other squads."



Thunderlane nodded, and then added, "Hey... Maybe we could help with that?

I mean, it'll be much faster if we take a few sets each and go in different directions."



Rainbow nodded. "Sounds good to me, but check with Spitfire first.

After all, she's the boss."



Thunderlane switched on his headset. "Spitfire? Come in, Spitfire. This is

Thunderlane speaking, do you read me? Over."



"Spitfire here, I read you loud and clear, Thunderlane." Spitfires voice replied

in his earpiece. "What do you want? Over."

 

"Requesting permission to split duty with Rainbow and help her get the

headsets delivered, Boss. I figured it'll be faster that way, and the squad here

can handle the rest without me and Fleetfoot present. The rainboom took care

of the main problem in this area, only regular clouds remain here now. Over"



"Hmm... Agreed. You, Fleetfoot and Dash take a third each of the sets, and deliver

them to the remaining teams, and then report back to me for new orders once that's

done. Understood? Over."

 

"Exactly what I had in mind, Boss. We'll report back as soon as we're done,

as requested. Thunderlane Out."



Thunderlane then switched his set off again and turned to Fleetfoot and Rainbow.



"So?" Fleetfoot asked. "What did she say?"



"We're cleared to help Dash. we'll each take a few sets, deliver, and then report back

to Spitfire for new orders."



Rainbow gave them each a few sets. "Okay, So... I'll head north.

Fleetfoot, you head south-east. Thunderlane, Go west. Agreed?"



Fleetfoot and Thunderlane both just nodded, took off from the ground,

and sped away in their assigned directions.



Rainbow did the same.




* * *



 


After the deliveries were all taken care of, Rainbow returned to Spitfire.



"Hey, Spitfire?"



"Yes, Dash?"



"Request permission to go kick some specific clouds. I need to help Gilda."



"Gilda?"



"A Griffon friend of mine, who's keeping a safe house, well, safe.

She's holding a board to a broken window, to prevent hail from crashing in.

Those giant hails. I wanna go take care of that cloud."



"Permission granted, but once you're done I want you back here.

You and a couple of others are going on another mission. How fast can you fix the

hail cloud?"



"Including flight there, actual cloud-buck, informing Gilda it's done, and flight back

here... I'd say ten minutes. Maybe fifteen, tops."



"Good enough. Go."



"Thanks!"



Rainbow flew off at top speed once again, and after a few minutes she found

herself back at the safe house where Fluttershy and Gilda was.

She looked around, and spotted the cloud form which the hail was coming.

By now, the ice balls had grown, and some were almost the size of apples.

Rainbow flew in seemingly irregular patterns, dodging the hail as she moved around

the area, assessing her situation, and looking for the clouds weak spots.



Looks like I need to take this one from below, pounding a few spots to break apart

the structure and have it disperse itself into smaller clouds, and then wipe them out

one by one... She thought to herself as she inspected the cloud.



Then, she thought she should check up on Gilda and Fluttershy first,

and made a small loop to turn around quickly, landed, and knocked on the safe

house door. An elderly stallion opened it. "Yes?"



"My name is Rainbow Dash, I'm from the weather crew. I'm here to check on my

friends." Rainbow said.



From inside, she heard hoofsteps, and Crescent appeared behind the old stallion.



"Hey Dash. Everything okay out there?" He asked.



"Yeah, work is progressing smoothly. Just came to check on you guys.

Is Gilda okay? and Fluttershy? I'm about to take care of that hail cloud,

so Gilda won't need to hold up that table much longer now. Just a few more

minutes, and then I'll be done."



From inside the house, she heard Gildas voice. "I heard that, dweeb! You better

not be lying, because I really want to put the table down and rest now!

Nothing hurts yet, but I'm getting really tired and worn out here!

Pretty sure I'm gonna feel this in the morning..."



Crescent smiled. "Don't worry. As you can hear, Gilda is okay,

and Fluttershy is too. She's nervous, but she and some of the elders in here

keep each other company and keep each other calm by playing some old

board games they found, to pass the time. Nopony here can sleep for long,

too much tension, and the noise from the weather outside."



Rainbow smirked. "Very well, if everypony here is alright, I'll have the hail

taken care of!"



She sped up once again, and went back to the hail cloud above,

slaloming between the falling hails, and striking the weak spots she had located

before she landed. As she had predicted, the cloud broke apart into smaller

pieces after she got a few direct hits on the weak spots.

Then, once the cloud was turned from one huge into five smaller ones,

she began the second attack, going to each cloud one by one and giving them a few

strong kicks from different directions, breaking them apart into even smaller pieces.

Pieces too small to remain intact on their own, so they started dispersing,

just as she had planned. As the clouds broke and dispersed, the hails got smaller,

and eventually, ended completely. Rainbow looked around to make sure she'd gotten

all of them, and wiped some sweat off her face.



Then, she landed at the safe house again. "All done, hail cloud's taken care of."

She shouted through the once-again-closed door.



She saw and heard the table get dropped from the window it had been blocking,

and saw Gildas face look out through the hole where the glass used to be before

the hail had destroyed it. "Good job, dweeb! Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna

go pass out somewhere on a couch..."



"Just make sure everypony stays inside. Weather's still bad, even if the worst is

fixed now. Still too risky for civilians."



"Yeah yeah, we know. We'll stay here until you or somepony else from the

weather crew says we can come out." Gilda replied, and then walked away from

the window.



Rainbow, her work being done, flew back to Spitfire, as she'd agreed.




* * *



 


"Okay, so what's the new mission and who am I going with?"

Rainbow asked.



"Those two." Spitfire replied, waving at two stallion. One very large white one,

and one average-sized blue one with a black, badly combed mane.



"Hey Bulk." Rainbow smiled at the big white stallion, who smiled back.



"Hey Dash!"



Spitfire kept talking. "Right, you two know each other. Forgot that part.

Anyway, the other guy is Clever Blue, A technician from the weather factory."



The blue pony smiled and nodded when his name was mentioned. "Nice to meet you,

Miss Dash. Or, do you prefer if I call you Rainbow Dash?"



"Just Dash is fine, no need for the 'Miss'. And okay, so what's the plan?"

Rainbow said, turning back to Spitfire again.



"Wind." Spitfire replied.



"Care to elaborate a bit on that?" Rainbow said with a deadpan look.



"Look around. Most of the big clouds are taken care of now, and we mostly have

a bunch of smaller ones to fix now. So instead of going around kicking all of them,

Clever and I came up with an alternative. We can simply, literally, blow them away

from Cloudsdale. And then, just let them evaporate on their own, since they're

all built with self-evaporation. But since that takes a few days, it wasn't an option

to just wait for the whole storm to die, hence operation Storm Breaker.

Point is, all these smaller ones, we can just move them away and let wait for them

to self-evaporate in a couple of days."



"And we're doing that... how?" Rainbow asked.



"Like Spitfire said, we plan on using wind. More specifically, the wind machines

from the Wonderbolt training area. Those huge fans you have there." Clever said.



"U-huh. Yeah, makes sense... Those fans are pretty powerful." Rainbow nodded.



"So the idea is, Bulk here is able to carry and set them up. So he'll be the raw muscle.

I know how they work, so I'll be the operator - and also, I'll be jerry-rigging them

to boost the fans a bit beyond what they're normally intended for. Basically I'm going

to unplug the safety system." Clever said, with a somewhat devious smile.

He seemed to enjoy that 'unplug safety' part, perhaps a bit too much...



"So what do you need me for?" Rainbow asked.



"Your combined experience as a weather mare and wonderbolt." Clever replied.



"Okay?"



"As a weather mare, you know about clouds, basic aerodynamics, and such.

as a Wonderbolt, you know advanced aerodynamics, and you know the winds

those machines produce, due to having trained with them a lot.

So you'll be able to easily determine the best locations and angles for the machines

to make them as effective as possible for this mission." He explained.



Meanwhile, Spitfire just nodded. "What he said. As for Clever himself...

Like I said, he's a technician, so he'll be able to handle all the technical aspects

of the plan. Which, by the way, is codenamed 'Operation Hurricane'."



"Okay then, we better get going right away. You boys ready for some work?"

Rainbow said, looking at Clever and Bulk.



"I'm ready." Clever replied with a eager smile.



"YEAAAH!!!"