Can Twilight Sparkle literally rise to the occasion when trouble stirs above Ponyville?
When a strange, unexpected storm settles over Ponyville, Twillight Sparkle investigates. She discovers that not only is the storm the fault of the weather ponies, but only the weakest flyer in Ponyville can stop it.
Twilight Sparkle woke gently to the sound of rain buffeting off her bedroom window. She blinked groggily in the murky, grey light that streamed in from outside and felt a niggling concern gnawing at the corners of her mind. Her first worry was that she could not gauge the time of day based on the quality if the lighting, so she did not know if she had overslept, or awakened early. It was not that she had important plans that would be ruined if she overslept, but if there was one thing that Twilight Sparkle disliked, it was uncertainty. It was not her greatest dislike perhaps - in fact she kept an extensive, detailed list of things that she liked and disliked - but it rated in her top ten.
Her second cause for concern was that she had heard it from good authority that this was going to be a warm, sunny day.
"Nothing but sunshine again tomorrow," Rainbow Dash had said the previous afternoon, giving the alicorn a hearty slap across the shoulders with her wing. "We'll be able to put you through your paces again and have you doing some awesome aerial aerobatics in no time!"
"Great," Twilight Sparkle had said at the time, hoping that her lack of enthusiasm did not come through too clearly in her voice. She rolled over onto the floor and winced as her hooves took her full weight. Her back and shoulders screamed in protest, and her poor rump was thoroughly bruised from hard landings. The young mare yawned, and then unfurled her sore wings and stretched them until the joints popped alarmingly. That had been another instruction from her flight instructor.
"Every morning, before you take two steps from your bed, stretch those wings to get the blood flowing in them again. Trust me; you don't want morning wing cramps. Worst. Thing. Ever."
She shook out her mane and fluffed her wings again before carefully folding them back at her sides.
"My wings!"
Even weeks later, the thought still gave her chills. Twilight Sparkle trotted closer to the window and pressed her face to the pane, hooves resting on the sill. The ground was riddled with puddles, suggesting that it had been raining through the night. As she watched, a wave of approaching wind swept through the grass toward her home, ending with a staccato patter of rain striking the glass in front of her muzzle.
"So much for sunny and warm," she thought dryly, but the thought stirred her uneasiness some more. The pegasi were not infallible, but when they were wrong in their weather forecasts, it was usually a matter of a couple of degrees temperature, or a couple of millimetres of precipitation. It was not like the managers of the weather to call for sun, and deliver rain. Many ponies scheduled their activities around the long term weather plan.
Applejack had mentioned that she would be seeding the back field today, but that seemed unlikely now.
In spite of herself, Twilight Sparkle felt a grin teasing the corner of her mouth as she imagined the tirade the other mare would unleash when she awoke to find the weather doing this. Apple Bloom had once confided to her that though her sister had the patience of a saint around ponies and critters, she could turn the air blue when things outside of her control did not go her way. The filly had admitted that she kept notes in case there was ever "a cutie mark for cussin'."
She imagined that Rainbow Dash probably had a few choice things to say about the weather as well; Applejack was just inconvenienced, but Dash's reputation was at stake.
Twilight squinted up at the dense overcast through the rain-streaked window. The clouds were uniform and featureless, save for tiny flashes of colour as winged ponies darted in and out of them. She felt some of her worry melt away at the sight of the activity; the root of her worry had been that something might have happened to the pegasi. She was still slightly discomfited by the unexplainedness of the weather, but she could address that later by cornering Rainbow Dash for an answer.
"What's going on, Twilight?" asked a tired, gravelly voice from behind her. The pony glanced back over her shoulder as Spike toddled up behind her, yawning and rubbing sleep from his eyes. "I almost feel refreshed this morning. It's not like you to let me oversleep."
"It's raining, Spike," said Twilight Sparkle matter-of-factly, as if that somehow provided an adequate answer. "It was supposed to be sunny today, but the rain coming down in sheets."
Spike hooked his talons on the window sill and pulled himself up to his toes so that he could get a better look. "I guess this means you won't be flying today," he said, with enough moroseness in his voice to convey the unspoken, "and that means you're probably going to stay home and make me help you rearrange the books again."
"I won't be flying," said Twilight Sparkle. She extended her left wing around and spread the feathers at its tip so that she could enumerate her points by counting off feathers as she went. "Applejack won't be planting her back field," she said, giving the first feather a flick with her hoof. "Cheerilee won't be taking her students out for their field trip to the arboretum, the mayor won't be painting the flower boxes at city hall and Pinkie Pie will have to cancel her afternoon tea social in the park..." She tapered off when she saws Spike's expression of doubt. "Well, OK, maybe Pinkie Pie won't let a bit of rain stop her, but a lot of ponies make plans based on the weather report, and this is going to cause a lot of hardship."
The pony began to pace and twitch her wings in agitation. "I just wish I knew why the pegasi changed up the weather so much overnight."
"You should ask Rainbow Dash," said the little dragon helpfully. He yawned and scratched, turning his back on the window indifferently, apparently seeing the rain as more of an annoyance than a concern.
Twilight Sparkle rolled her eyes. "Thank you, mister obvious; I plan to ask her the next time I see her."
"You could see her right now," said Spike persistently. He held up his right hand and pointed toward the stairs with a couple quick bobs of his index claw. "She's sleeping down in the library – or she was when I went down there to get a glass of water in the middle of the night."
"You shouldn't be doing that, Spike" chided Twilight Sparkle in a motherly tone. "You know what those late-night drinks can do to..."
then her brain caught up with the conversation and she graced the little dragon with a double-take and demanded, "Wait! Who is sleeping where?"
"Rainbow Dash is sleeping..." said Spike, but the pony had already burst out of the room like a shell from a mortar, leaving nothing but a single, purple feather wafting in her wake. The baby dragon held out his hand and caught the feather gently in his outstretched palm. "...downstairs," He finished.
True to Spike's words, Twilight Sparkle found the pegasus sleeping soundly in the dimness of the library. The blue mare was sprawled supine in one of the reading chairs with her hooves hanging sloppily over the arms of seat, and her head draped to the side with a small trail of drool hanging from the corner of her mouth as she snored softly. To the librarian pony's horror, her only copy of Daring Do and The Mystery of The Speckled Mare laid spine-up on the floor beside the chair, with several of its pages curled underneath. She danced uncertainly in place as her priorities became torn between the sleeping pegasus and the book.
"Priorities, girl!" she scolded herself, and without giving it another thought, she gingerly picked up the book with a twist of her magic and carefully straightened the pages and closed the cover. Once she was satisfied that the book was salvageable, she smacked Rainbow Dash over the head with it. "Rainbow Dash, what are you doing sleeping in my library?" she demanded. She struck her again and added, "Why is it raining today?"
"Aw mom," muttered Rainbow Dash, rolling onto her side. "Flying lessons can wait ... just one more chapter ... never let me read ... snrk!" The last bit was barely coherent, and ended with a tremendous snort before the mare started snoring again. Twilight let out growl of annoyance and smote the pegasus repeatedly with the book.
"Agh! Wake up," she commanded with each strike. "Rainbow Dash, wake up!"
"Huh, what?" demanded the pegasus, finally waking fully. She rubbed her head and blinked at Twilight in confusion. "Dude, what are you doing in my bedroom?" she demanded, "and why are you hitting me with..." she squinted at the book that was hovering over her head. "Oh, hey, I was reading that one!"
"I'm not in your bedroom, I've stopped hitting you, and you're sleeping in my library," said Twilight Sparkle. She turned and trotted over to the bookshelf to delicately replace the book into its proper home. "I am not going to lend you any more books if you can't treat them with proper respect," she said primly.
Rainbow Dash looked around and giggled sheepishly as the truth settled in. "I guess must have fallen asleep during that chapter." She twirled a hoof around her ear. "That would explain the crazy dreams I was having," she added. Her eyes widened and she hastily pushed herself upright in the chair. "Omigosh, I was up to the most amazing part," she enthused. "You should totally read those books!"
"I've read them all," said Twilight Sparkle, turning back to the pegasus with a slight air of affront over the suggestion that there might be a book in the library that she had not read. "Dashie, there are more pressing issues!"
"But did you read the part where..."
"I've read the whole series twice," said Twilight Sparkle smugly. "To employ a trite colloquialism; you ain't seen nothing yet. In my opinion the author really doesn't hit her stride for two more books."
Rainbow Dash held up a warding hoof, "Hey, no spoilers!" she protested, "or coliqui-whatever you call them." She yawned and slid fluidly out of the chair onto her feet. True to her lessons, she stretched her wings until their joints gave a satisfying snap. "Come on, Twily, let's get out of here and I'll buy you some breakfast. We have a big day ahead of us," she said amiably as she shook her wings back into their rest position.
"It's raining," replied the Twilight Sparkle in a terse monotone. If she had expected the pegasus to take the news badly, she was not disappointed.
"What? No – it's supposed to be sunny today!" said Rainbow Dash in a tone which suggested that she believed the alicorn without entirely believing her. She cantered over to the window and let out whicker of disbelief. "No! What… no!" She stomped a hoof angrily on the window sill. "What are they doing up there?" she demanded. She turned and looked at Twilight Sparkle as if for confirmation. "It was supposed to be sunny today; AJ was going to plant her back field!"
"You're the expert," replied Twilight. "All I know is that there's lots of activity in the clouds."
Rainbow Dash lowered her head so that she could peer around the edge of the overhang outside the window. Her eyes narrowed as she spied the flurry of pegasi darting in and out of the overcast.
"It's total chaos," she said in disbelief. "Can't a girl sleep in one morning without things falling apart?" She squared her shoulders and trotted to the front door, calling back to Twilight as she left. "Breakfast will have to wait; it looks like I have some work cut out for me, and I don't think it will be pretty." As she stepped out into the rain, a gust of wind swirled into the library bringing a spray of rain and sending up a whirl of papers from the stand by the door.
"She sure looked mad," said Spike. "I'm glad I'm not one of the pegasi today." The little dragon was sitting on a step about a third of the way down the landing. Twilight had not heard him enter, but she assumed that he had been there long enough to witness the entire exchange. She noticed that he had donned his fedora – presumably for her benefit, since it sported a big, purple feather pretentiously in its band.
"Classy, Spike," she said without inflection. In spite of her tone, the pony was touched because she knew that Spike was trying to distract her from the pall of doom that hung over her head like the clouds over their tree. The little dragon was more sensitive to her moods than even she was at times.
"Classy and stylish," said Spike enthusiastically. He hopped to his feet and turned to address her in an oblique, three-quarter pose. He tilted his head back and squinted aloofly at the ceiling. "Why Spike, that hat is so striking on you, and that feather ties it all together. It really brings out your broad chest," he said in an exaggerated falsetto. He tilted his hat back to a jaunty angle with the tip of his claw. "Why thank you, ma'am," he replied in an equally forced baritone. "I think the purple nicely offsets my spines."
"You realize I'll be moulting these things quite a bit for the next while," said Twilight with an affectionate chuckle. She had to admit that the dragon's antics were helping to lighten her mood. "How many hats do you have?"
Spike removed the fedora and sat on the stairs again, holding it in his lap and gently brushing the feather to straighten its quills. "Only one," he said. "I'm saving up most of your feathers to stuff a pillow."
Twilight felt her chuckle catch in her throat as her brain tried to wrap itself around his last sentence. She could not decide if it was adorable or creepy, and she finally resolved the issue by changing the subject. "Get your rain coat," she said brusquely. "We need to talk to somepony about this weather. I don't think the pegasi are in control of it. Something weird is going on Spike, and when it comes to weird, I know just the pony to talk to."
"You want to go out in this?" demanded Spike sourly as he started to realize that there were worse things than staying indoors and rearranging the books. Twilight had already levitated their rain gear from the shelves, and was fitting hers around her shoulders. "Come on Twilight, it's just a little rain. Why do we need to go out and talk to that crazy ze… mph" Spike's rain slicker caught him across the muzzle before he could finish the sentence.
"She's not crazy," said Twilight sternly. "Her mannerisms are just a little different because that is the way of her people." While she spoke, the mare cinched down her rain jacket and pulled the hood over her head, hooking the hood's ringlet over the tip of her horn.
She eyed Spike's rain gear critically, then untied and retied its belt to make the bows symmetrical. All the while, she fought the urge to throw the rain gear off her back again. She had worn this rain coat many times through many storms, and had never found it to be so uncomfortable and constraining.
Then it hit her.
This was the first time she had worn it since she'd got her wings. The jacket around her wings was triggering the same reaction she would feel if her legs had been hogtied together. "They're changing me," she thought, with a little shudder of exhilaration and fear.
The rain swept over them like a wave as they stepped out into the storm, and it took the pony a few moments to get her bearings and turn toward the Everfree Forest. Spike padded along beside her, muttering unhappily under his breath, but making no move to abandon her for the dry and warmth of the library. Though she would not have stopped him if he turned back, Twilight Sparkle appreciated his loyalty. They slogged together through the soggy streets of Ponyville, crossing paths with only a few hearty souls. As they passed them, a few of the ponies greeted them with wry comments like, "So much for Pinkie's tea party," or "I guess this settles my laundry versus shopping debate."
Soon the town was astern, and only rolling fields stood between them and the dark band of the forest in the distance. They walked the muddy path without speaking; Spike had given up grumbling a few minutes back and had settled into a sulky silence. As they neared the forest, a familiar, dark figure slowly resolved through the veil of rain. A lone zebra stood motionless by the edge of the trees, wearing the same hooded garb as she had on her first visit to Ponyville. Twilight felt a clawed hand clamp onto her shoulder though the rain slick.
"Creepy," sang Spike in a low hiss. "Why am I not surprised she was expecting us?" They stopped a few yards short of the zebra and stood quietly for long moments in a silence broken only by the wind and rain hissing through the trees. The zebra's eyes glinted deep in the depths of her hood, making her expression impossible to read. While most ponies would shuffle a hoof, adjust their weight, or swish their tail while idle, only the puffs of breath in the chill air revealed the zebra to be anything but a statue. Twilight Sparkle was not sure how long she and Spike shared a mutual staring match with the other pony, but it was a rumble of thunder that jolted her back to the present matter.
"Zecora...?" called Twilight Sparkle hesitantly.
"Twilight Sparkle, and Spike, it's true. Indeed I was expecting you," called the Zebra in reply.
"How does she do that?" asked Spike in a stage whisper out of the corner of his mouth.
Zecora apparently heard the comment, because she nodded to the little dragon and then shook her head free of the deep hood. "It would take too long to explain. Our bigger worry is this rain."
"So you know something about this," said Twilight with a sigh of relief. "I knew that something didn't feel right about this rain; the pegasi seemed to be having trouble getting a handle on it." She turned and looked back over her shoulder toward the sky, but the flurry of pony activity in the clouds had stopped. She assumed that Rainbow Dash was rallying the troops.
As if reading her mind, Zecora spoke again. "Your friend is valiant, but to no avail. Her efforts are all doomed to fail. You're right to think this storm is wrong. We should not tarry here too long."
"Well, what's causing it? How can we fix it?" asked Twilight, but she could tell from the zebra's grim expression that she would not get a straight answer.
"This is the fault of pony kind, so only you may fix this bind," said the zebra with a mixture of sadness and mild rebuke in her voice. "Be careful ponies, what you take lest anger follow in its wake. You must act quick to fix this mess; today Majija seek redress." Zecora was not one for pointless ceremony, and she let Twilight Sparkle know that the conversation was over by shrugging her hood back over her head and melting back into the woods.
The alicorn felt herself shrink a bit, like a filly who had just been scolded by a slightly-disapproving adult. The feeling was quickly overwhelmed by a renewed fear as the name that Zecora had mentioned triggered vague memories in the back of her mind. She hoped that she had misheard the zebra, but in her heart she knew that she had not. Though Twilight had not expected that Zecora would make things worse, at least now she had a place to start.
"Ma-what-a?" said Spike, scrunching up his muzzle.
"Majija," said Twilight sparkle hoarsely. The little dragon was used to Twilight Sparkle's overreaction to things at times, but he was mildly alarmed to see her prancing nervously. "Oh Spike, this is bad." She spoke frantically, words tumbling over themselves. "This isn't just bad, it's worse than I expected." Suddenly the mare turned and galloped back toward town, calling after her. "Books! I need books! Back to the library, Spike. Now!"
"Why is it always worse than we thought?" he grumped, but he glanced nervously at the grey sky again. A gust of wind drove a sheet of rain into the little dragon, rustling his rain gear noisily and causing the rain to hiss across the growing puddles. Another, stronger gust jostled him on his feet and for a moment – just a moment – Spike almost imagined he could hear a faint howl of outrage riding on the rumble of the wind through the forest. He broke into a run after the receding figure of Twilight Sparkle. The library was starting to sound like a very good idea.
The rain did little do cool Rainbow Dash’s temper as she pumped her wings, willing her way through the onslaught of wind and fat, heavy droplets. The nearer she got to the clouds, the worse the situation looked. It had been clear from the ground that the pegasi were in a state of chaos, but now she was close enough to make out the sordid details. She watched Flitter bounce ineffectively off a cloud, while another pegasus plunged through a second one without leaving a trace. Moments later, two more of them emerged from the overcast at different angles and ran headlong into each other.
Dash gave a snort of annoyance when she saw the two hovering in place, rubbing their foreheads and apparently arguing over who was at fault. The discussion included much gesturing and hoof-pointing. She watched the scene before her with a growing sense of disbelief; it was as if the sky ponies had forgotten everything they knew about controlling weather during the night. She witnessed more collisions and arguments before she spied a familiar figure loitering aimlessly nearby.
“Cloudchaser! Yo, Cloudchaser!” she called, swooping over to the other pony. As she drew closer, the other mare turned to look at her and Rainbow Dash gasped at the state of her. Cloudchaser was soaked to the bone. Though her mane was normally perky, it now hung down straight, dripping in the rain, and obscuring half of her face as if she was too tired to notice or bother pushing it back. She was panting for breath, and her eyes brimmed with tears as if she had been been crying recently.
“Rainbow Dash, oh thank goodness you’re here,” she said, almost sobbing with relief. “These clouds. There’s something… they’re… they’re not right!” she stammered between gasps for breath.
“Well, I’ll say they’re not right,” said Rainbow Dash. She made a sweeping gesture with her hoof in the general direction of the overcast. “Not right as in they’re not supposed to be here! Am I the only pony here who remembers our team meeting from yesterday?” The other mare shook her head violently. “That’s what I thought,” continued Dash. “There was that whole sunny tomorrow with one or two puffy clouds for decoration thing that everypony seems to have forgotten.” She crossed her forelegs across her chest and glowered disapprovingly.
“No!” said the other mare with enough uncharacteristic vigour to set Rainbow dash aback. “The clouds themselves aren't right. They don’t act like clouds should. One moment they’re solid, and then they’re like air. They move on their own, and they fight back.”
Dash looked pensive for a moment, and then she sighed and flew up to within a few inches of the cloud bank. She uncrossed her forelegs and gave it an experimental poke with her hoof, and it deformed in the usual way. She frowned and shrugged. “It’s just a cloud,” she said. She put her hooves together in front of her chest and cracked her joints menacingly. “It looks to me like you just need somepony to remind us that we’re pegasi. Time to inspire the troops.”
She launched herself around into a large, backward arc and sailed gracefully on outstretched wings until she was flying straight up toward the clouds. As she had planned, the manoeuvre caught the attention of the ponies around her. Sometimes there were advantages to having a mane and tail in bright, eye-catching colours - other than the sheer awesomeness of it,that is. She heard scattered calls of, “It’s Dash,” and “It’s Dashie!” and in spite of her irritation, it brought her a touch of warmth. "Darned right, it's Dashie," she thought, breaking into a self-satisfied grin. It was nice to be acknowledged, and she definitely worked best with an audience. She stretched her hooves before her, pressed together like a diver leaping into a pond, and she plunged upward into the clouds.
A few moments later she broke through into bright, cheery sunshine, but as Rainbow Dash glanced back she nearly skipped a beat with her wings. If the clouds had looked ominous from below, from above they looked downright menacing. She flipped around upright and hovered over the clouds, watching them roil and shift like the freaky smoke in one of Zecora’s cauldrons. Cloudchaser’s admonishment of, “they’re not right!” echoed in her ears. No – they were just clouds; a little menacing perhaps, but just clouds. Another pegasus emerged through the cloud deck, followed by a third. Dash bided her time, buffing a hoof on her chest aloofly until the entire weather crew had emerged from below.
“OK, now let’s show them how this is done,” she muttered. "Time to do it the Rainbow way." She acknowledged her audience with a sweep of her hoof, then gave her wings a few extra pumps and began a leisurely, vertical rise. She kept it slow to increase the drama, and also to give the other ponies a chance to catch their breath. It was clear to her that the others were tired and frustrated. They were better than the comedic display she had seen when she first arrived. She knew that all they needed was for somepony to get things started for them, and they could take care of the rest. As she rose, she gauged her height by the relative size of the other pegasi.
“High enough,” she thought. Though Rainbow Dash would have preferred a proper fanfare, or at least a drum roll, she opted to create her own soundtrack for the next move. “Yeeeeeah!” she yelled, partly out of the sheer joy of flying, but also to grab any attentions that had waned. She pulled up hard and stalled, allowing herself to keel left into a spinning dive. The move drew a gasp from the spectators below, since a stall was considered to be a cocky manoeuvre, even for skilled fliers.
Rather than attempt to pull out of the spin, Rainbow Dash tucked in her wings and legs so that she would spin faster. As her dive picked up speed, so did her RPMs. Around the midway point, she became grateful that she had skipped breakfast. At the moment of her top speed and rotation, she spread her wings wide and plunged into the clouds. The vortex she created around herself shredded and dispersed them as if they were mere vapour, and by the time she cleared them again on land side, she had opened a hole at least thirty ponies across.
“Yes!” she shouted, pumping her hoof with glee. “That’s how it’s…” She froze, mouth agape and eyes wide in disbelief as the clouds closed the opening again as quickly as it had formed. She’d have achieved about as much success if she had plunged her foreleg into a pond. “… done,” she finished softly to nopony in particular. She flew back up through the ceiling of cloud to rejoin the other ponies above. They all started talking at once as she came into view. “Like we said … happening all morning … keep closing up … moving back in …”
“They’re just clouds!” thundered Rainbow Dash, silencing them before they could get too worked up. She had felt her confidence waver slightly when the hole had closed up behind her, but her annoyance brought it rushing back. “If they’re clouds, we can move them. Seriously guys, that’s what we do.”
“But…” began Flitter, but Rainbow Dash cut her off quickly with a brusque wave of her hoof and a shake of her head.
“No buts,” she said. “You saw that my vortex worked, right?” There was a bit of muttering, but most of them nodded in agreement after a moment. “Well, we just need to make a bigger one,” continued Rainbow Dash. “If we work together, we can have those pesky clouds out of here before noon. Are you with me?” she yelled.
“Yes,” came a halfhearted reply from the pegasi around her.
“Are we pegasi?” she yelled.
“Yes!” came a louder reply.
“Are we weather ponies?”
“Yes!” The reply was louder again.
“Are we the best weather ponies in all of Equestria?” she cried. It was a silly question; of course they were.
“Yes!” bellowed the other ponies, pumping hooves in the air and clapping each other on the backs.
Rainbow Dash felt the energy building. “You’re on a roll, Dashie.” She thought, giving herself a mental pat on her own back. “Are we going to let these dumb clouds get the better of us?” she yelled.
“Yes … NO!” replied the other pegasi, catching themselves quickly.
“Now, are you with me?” she yelled again.
"YES!" came the thunderous reply.
Suddenly Rainbow Dash felt hooves on her, and a moment later she was on her back, supported from beneath by at least three sets of hooves. "Dash! Dash! Dash!" chanted the pegasi as they hoisted her aloft. After her initial shock faded, she allowed herself a moment of smug satisfaction.
The rainbow pegasus buffed her chest and thought, "Now this is more like it." Even though her vortex had failed, it had planted the seeds of an idea that she was sure would work. It would take a bit of work and coordination, but she was confident in her prediction of having the sky clear by noon.
If there was one thing pegasus ponies were good at, it was creating wind, and their training from the Cloudsdale tornado quickly kicked in. Dash had sketched out the plain in great detail, so with very little prompting or guidance, they broke out into their teams and were hovering in their start positions in short order. “Ponies, on my mark,” called Rainbow Dash when she was satisfied with their positioning. “Three, two, one … GO!”
Dozens of pairs of wings picked up their intensity, and the ponies began to move. They circled slowly at first, jockeying to find their preferred spots, but with each rotation, the column of ponies picked up speed. At first nothing seemed to happen, but as the column rotated faster and faster, a dimple formed in the clouds below them. The dimple quickly became a stalagmite of cloud, and soon it became a column, spinning and twisting as the vortex tugged it relentlessly. The column swelled upward as more cloud rushed in to fill the gap that had been sucked clear.
“Using your own trick against you,” said Rainbow Dash with a self-satisfied smirk. By design, the column slowly arced away as it cleared the top of the vortex. The idea was to put the clouds “Anywhere but here” as Dash had explained it rather eloquently in her pre-mission briefing. She glanced up at the swirling tube of cloud and allowed herself to feel a bit smug again. “Easy-peasy,” she thought. “Just a couple more minutes of this and…”
From somewhere lower down in the column a pony gave a shriek of fear, followed by another. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Now what?” She glanced down and saw that the other ponies were looking up, wide-eyed at something above her. The mare glanced over her shoulder to follow their gaze, and felt her pounding heart threatening to rise up her own throat.
The arc of cloud above them had continued to bend until it was curved back around on itself, and it was bunching up at the end, looking for all Equestria like a giant hoof that was poised to stomp.
“Fluttershy!” Twilight Sparkle pounded the door with her hoof and shouted again, louder. “FLUTTERSHY!”
The door opened a reluctant crack to release a stream of warm light, partly obscured by a timid, yellow face. “I’m not here…” squeaked the pony inside the house, but she quickly opened it further when she recognized her caller. “Oh, it’s you,” she said with a sigh of relief. She pulled completely ajar and stepped out of the way. “Whatever are you doing outside in such awful weather? You should come inside where it’s warm before you catch your death of cold.”
“Thank you,” said Twilight, stepping in from the rain while the other pony shouldered the windblown door shut behind her. “But you don’t catch a cold from getting wet, that’s just an old mare’s tale,” she added. If Fluttershy was annoyed at being corrected, she showed no sign. Angel, on the other hoof, made no effort to hide his irritation. The little rabbit chittered angrily and disappeared into the kitchen, emerging a moment later with a diminutive mop and bucket. He made a show of dabbing at the growing puddle around the wet pony, glaring at her the whole time. Twilight Sparkle took the hint and deftly hoisted her rain slicker to hang on the hook by the door.
“Let me make you something yummy and hot to drink, you must be chilled to the bone in this weather,” said Fluttershy a little too quickly. Twilight Sparkle assumed that the pegasus must have noticed her tense stance, and guessed rightly that she was there on business.
“Sorry Fluttershy, no time,” said the alicorn before the other pony could escape to the kitchen. “Fluttershy, I … I need your help.” Fluttershy paused, stopped as much by the request for help as by the tone of embarrassment in the alicorn’s voice. This both piqued the yellow mare’s curiosity and stirred her apprehension. If it was dire enough for Twilight to need help, it must be something truly bad and scary. Also, if the alicorn was coming to her for help, it must mean that something had happened to every other pony in Ponyville.
“I’m sure you must have mistaken me for somepony else,” said Fluttershy cagily, avoiding Twilight’s gaze and backing slowly toward the kitchen again. “Unless the help you need is a nice, hot cup of alfalfa tea.”
“I need to get a message to Rainbow Dash,” said Twilight bluntly, “and you are the only reliable pegasus I know who is still in town.” She could see that the other mare’s eyes had settled on the perfectly serviceable pair of wings attached to her own shoulders, and she hung her head in shame. “I don’t think I can make it all the way up to Cloudsdale, Fluttershy. I've never been higher than the top of my tree.” Her muzzle broke out into a sad, self-depreciating grin. “I’m not very good with heights when there isn't something solid under my feet.” When she looked up again, she found Fluttershy’s expression warm and sympathetic.
“It’s not so bad once the terrible fear of falling stops,” said Fluttershy with an encouraging smile.
“When does that happen?” asked Twilight hopefully.
Fluttershy shrugged, and her smile faltered. “I don’t know,” she said earnestly. “It hasn't stopped yet.” She brightened again. “It’s OK though, because you have a hot air balloon. I’ll make you some hot drinks and clover sandwiches for the trip, and we can go downtown…”
A strong gust shook the house.
“…just as soon as the wind dies down a bit. Why, I bet that will happen in no time!” Although Fluttershy's tone was enthusiastic, Twilight could tell that her heart wasn't in it.
“It’s too urgent to wait, Fluttershy. I need somepony who’s strong enough to fly up to Cloudsdale to deliver an important message to Rainbow Dash before she accidentally makes things worse than they already are. If I can’t get her this information, she will be operating blind.”
“I’m not a strong flyer,” said Fluttershy in a voice so soft that Twilight almost missed it over the wind outside. She glanced meaningfully toward the window and the storm that raged outside.
"I know," said Twilight, almost as softly. "I feel like a jerk for asking anypony to fly on a day like this, but it's urgent and I am a little short on nearby winged friends I can turn to." She sighed. "You're not a strong flyer, and I can’t fly at all – or at least, barely. As strange as it sounds, we're the A-team of fliers in Ponyville just now." She pumped her hoof and donned what she hoped was a cheesy, disarming grin. "Go team!"
The pegasus was actively avoiding her gaze now, but Twilight Sparkle knew her well enough to recognize that as a good sign. However shallow it might be, Fluttershy had a well of courage that she could tap into when she really needed it. She had to find her way to it on her own though, and Twilight knew if she pressed the other mare any more at this point, she risked losing her. When she saw the pegasus wilt slightly, she knew that she had won.
“OK, I… I'll do it,” said Fluttershy, but her flat ears clearly telegraphed her distress with the decision. She forced a grin of her own and gave her hoof a half-hearted pump. "Go team," she said weakly. "We're in this together. What do you need me to tell Rainbow Dash?”
“You need to warn her that this is not ordinary weather she's dealing with; the Majija have come to Ponyville,” said the alicorn. She drew a deep breath to launch into a scholarly discourse on everything she had learned about the spirits in her thirty-minutes of cram research at the library, but Fluttershy cut her off with a tremendous gasp.
“The Majija?” she squealed, rearing up on her hind legs and clamping her front hooves over her muzzle. She succeeded where few others did in rendering the Twilight Sparkle speechless.
“You've heard of the Majija?” she asked in hoarse disbelief.
“The weather spirits from Everfree Forest!” gushed Fluttershy. She flapped her wings excitedly and gave a squee of delight. “The Majija are adorable, with their little puffy clouds and rainbows and the way they sparkle in the sunshine when they're happy.”
The house shook again and there was an ominous groan outside, followed by tremendous snap. Twilight leapt to the window and pushed her muzzle through the curtains. “Those adorable little spirits just tore a branch off your front tree,” she said.
“But why would they do that?” asked a trembling Fluttershy, her voice slightly muffled by the sofa cushion she had buried her head under. “Every one that I have met has been so cute and friendly.”
That question had been bothering Twilight as well. She decided not to tell Fluttershy about some of the stories she had read in her research, where enraged Majija had been known to level entirely villages with wind and floods. The spirits over Ponyville were angry, but not to the point of destruction – yet. If only there was somepony who could communicate with them; somepony who might find a way to talk through their anger and find out what they wanted.
There was a concussive thud of thunder, almost like a giant hoof stomping on the sky. It shook the windows in their sashes, and rattled the dishes on the shelves. Fluttershy whimpered and clamped her hooves over the sofa cushion, pressing it more protectively down over her head. Angel had put away his mop and was patting the pegasus reassuringly on the flank. Twilight Sparkle watched the scene for a moment, and then had something close to an epiphany.
Nopony can stay mad at Fluttershy.
“We don't need to talk to Rainbow Dash,” she thought, “it’s the spirits we need to talk to.” She clamped her teeth onto the pegasus’s tail and dragged her unceremoniously out from under her cushion. “There has been a change in plans,” she said.
“You want me to talk to the spirits.”
“I want you to – wait, how did you know that?”
Fluttershy grinned; it was so wan as to be almost undetectable, but it was a grin no less. “Sometimes you think out loud when you're excited,” she said.
Twilight Sparkle donned her rain gear and waited for Fluttershy to put on her own. She noticed that the winged pony’s raincoat had slits for her wings so that she could fly with it on. “I will have to see Rarity about getting mine modified when this is all over,” she thought. Making plans for after gave her an odd boost in confidence. She waited until Fluttershy had tugged the last strap into place with her teeth before she asked, “Are you sure that you're okay doing this?”
Fluttershy said nothing for several beats. “No,” she answered softly, before turning and trotting to the front door. Twilight followed her out into the torrent of rain. “I don't know what I am doing, and I don't know what I will say to the spirits,” continued Fluttershy, “but I have friends up there who need my help, and my friends are important to me.” She closed her eyes, took a shuddering breath, and flapped furiously. She kicked off the ground and rose a foot.. two feet.. three feet. “So high,” she croaked hoarsely. “I hope Twilight appreciates how scary this is.”
“I do,” said the alicorn.
“Eep!” Fluttershy’s eyes snapped open again, and the pegasus blushed. “I guess I need to flap a little harder,” she said sheepishly. The mare redoubled her efforts and began to rise more quickly.
“It’s not so bad once the terrible fear of falling stops”
“When does that happen?”
“I don't know; it hasn't stopped yet.”
“Fluttershy, wait!” The pegasus did not need further inducement to stop her ascent, but when she looked down, she gasped in surprise. Twilight Sparkle's yellow raincoat was flapping free in the wind, tumbling end over end before snagging in a bush. The alicorn had spread her wings, and had her head lowered, hoarsely whispering, “I can do this. I can do this,” like a mantra.
Twilight Sparkle raised her head, and held it high, eyes closed while the wind furiously whipped her mane and tail, and sent ripples through the feathers of her spread wings. For a moment she looked like the regal princess she had been named, and then she began awkwardly flapping her wings like a filly straight out of flight kindergarten. She flailed about, posing a clear danger to herself and everything in a sizable radius about her before she generated enough lift to clear the ground. She pumped her wings and struggled until she was parallel with the other pony.
“Oh Twilight, you're doing so well!” said Fluttershy, clapping her hooves enthusiastically. Her demeanor quickly turned serious. “But you don't have to do this.”
Twilight shook her head furiously. “No, you were right Fluttershy, you're my friend, and we're in this together.” She cupped her head in her hooves and moaned. “This is as high as I have ever been.” Swallowing hard, she added, “Is it normal to want to throw up?”
“Try not to do it over the town,” said Fluttershy. Twilight was not sure if the other mare was serious or joking, but the chuckle it brought settled her nerves.
A bit.
She wondered later if either of them would have made it to the clouds without each of them along to shout encouragement at the other, but a subjective eternity later, they emerged above the clouds into a scene that neither of them could have anticipated.
There were pegasi spread everywhere on the cloud bank below them, all of them pinned firmly to the clouds by bands of mist. A few of them struggled against their bindings when they saw the two winged ponies emerge from below, but though the bands stretched, they did not give enough to allow escape.
“Hi guys,” called Rainbow Dash. She was pinned ignominiously on her back, with her wings spread and her legs sticking in the air. “I'm starting to think the others here are right; there’s something odd about these clouds.”
“Th… they're not clouds,” stammered Twilight Sparkle, puffing hard. “They're the Majija, the spirits who control the weather of Everfree Forest.” She gasped and huffed until she felt her breath returning; hovering took much less effort than flying upward. “I don't know why they are here, but we've done something to anger them.”
“No kidding,” said Rainbow Dash, tugging at her binding. “ I've never seen clouds with such a temper. So what did we do to make them mad?”
“They’re not really clouds,” said Twilight, who could not restrain her inner scholar. “They’re spirits, so they can look like whatever they want, Dashie. They just look like clouds to us.”
“Are you here with a spell to make them go away?” asked Dash hopefully, “because kicking them didn't seem to work.”
Twilight pointed at Fluttershy. “We're here to communicate with them, if we can.”
"We're going to talk to clouds - uh, spirits?" asked Rainbow Dash, quickly correcting herself when she caught the alcorn's look of disapproval. "What are we going to say to them? How about if we start with, HEY SPIRITS, RELEASE OUR PEGASI!"
"I don't know what we are going to say to them," said Twilight Sparkle. "That's why Fluttershy is here."
The yellow pegasus was hovering nearby, looking around nervously at the tableau spread out below them.
"Psst, Fluttershy, that's your cue," said the alicorn in a sidelong whisper. Fluttershy jumped, then sighed and flew a bit lower toward the clouds. She did not look the least bit convinced of her chances for success.
Fluttershy cleared her throat. “Um,” she said weakly. “Hello mister weather spirits.” She gasped. “Oh, and missus weather spirits, miss weather spirits, ms weather spirits, and all the little weather spiritlings too.”
Twilight Sparkle planted a hoof to her face, but refrained from interrupting. She had to let the pegasus handle this in her own way. Once she had blurted out her long salutation, Fluttershy’s voice seemed to gain confidence.
“We can see that you are very upset about something,” said Fluttershy, “and we are very sorry if it is something that we did that made you mad. We are very nice ponies once you get to know us, and we would like to make things right again if you would let us.” She flew lower and hovered directly above one of the clouds, lowering her muzzle until she was inches from it.
“Please,” she said gently, “you're very nice spirits, and we didn't mean to make you mad. If there is a way, somehow, that you could tell us what we did wrong, we will work together to fix it.” When she had finished speaking, flickers and ripples began to run through the clouds. The display continued for a minute before it stopped, and several small clouds separated themselves from the mass below them.
They formed a wide ring around Fluttershy, and circled her, dancing and weaving as they went.
“I... think they're saying they are ready to show us something,” said Twilight Sparkle. She knew she was right when all but three of the spirits sped away from Fluttershy the moment she spoke. They clumped together into a ball of vapour, and then slowly expanded and spread outward to form a rough sphere composed of little clouds. The sphere looked odd to Twilight until she realized that there was a gap big enough for three of them on Fluttershy’s side of it.
One of the remaining clouds brushed up against the pegasus. “Why hello there little… eep!” The cloud gave her a sharp push toward the sphere. “I'm sorry, am I in your way? Just let me head over… eep!” As she tried to move, one of the other three intercepted her and gave her a sharp push toward the sphere again. As the pony made a couple more aborted attempts to escape, the clouds relentlessly intercepted her and nudged her toward the sphere. It became clear that they were purposely herding her toward it.
“Go along with it, Fluttershy,” suggested Twilight. “I don't think they are trying to hurt you.” The pegasus looked unconvinced, but she allowed the spheres to push her into the sphere. The moment she was inside, her three herders took up their position to close up the gap.
“Thank you for making this little cloud house for me,” said Fluttershy, “but I would like to leave now if that’s ok.” As she flew toward the side of the sphere, the clouds on that side pinched in together enough to block her escape. She tried to leave twice more, but each time the clouds pinched in to block her escape. Finally she sighed and gave Twilight a helpless glance.
“And now they've taken Fluttershy,” said Rainbow Dash angrily. “These things can’t be trusted.”
“Be careful ponies, what you take…” said Twilight Sparkle pensively, “lest anger follow in its wake.
“Uh, what?” said Rainbow Dash blankly.
“It’s something that Zecora said to me earlier this morning.” The alicorn had scrunched up her muzzle and was rubbing her chin in thought. “The Majija think that we took something from them, and they want it back. Zecora said this was our fault.”
“That’s dumb,” said Rainbow Dash, waving her hooves in frustration. “They're just clouds. What could we have possibly taken…” She stopped in mid-sentence, and her eyes went wide. “Oh, you've gotta be kidding me.” The proud pegasus hung her head, abashed. “She was right, Twilight, it is our fault.” When Rainbow Dash spoke again, she was addressing the clouds. “I’m sorry, I didn't know. Please let me go and I'll get him for you.”
The bands holding her in place immediately released and disappeared back into the bank below her. The pegasus let loose with a cry of glee and launched herself upright again. “That’s better,” she said. “Come on, let’s go.”
“I think they want you to do it,” said Twilight , as a small cluster of clouds separated from the base and positioned themselves between her and the pegasus.
Rainbow Dash nodded her understanding. “I'll be back in a flash,” she said, rearing up and winging towards the factory in Cloudsdale.
Rainbow Dash knew precisely where she needed to go, and it did not take her long to reach the cloud corral. When the weather ponies cleared away the clouds for a sunny day, they took them in for servicing and refilling. The corral was attached to the Rainbow Factory, and served as a storage pen for miscellaneous clouds.
The clouds were stored in rows, bearing labels like “Thundery”, “Rainy”, “Snowy”, and “Ominous.” The row that interested Rainbow Dash was the one that bore the tag “Little Fluffy Clouds”. She succinctly remembered rounding up a little, fluffy cloud of the kind they reserved for picnics and weddings. She remembered it because it had been in with a group of rainy ones that needed to be refilled, and while she had thought it odd at the time, she had not given it a lot of thought since clouds were notorious for getting misfiled.
Even if it had been a pain to corral because it kept wandering off, almost like it had a mind of its own. As much as she wanted to go back in time a couple of days and kick herself, she couldn't be too hard on herself, because nopony else had noticed anything amiss about the cloud either.
Rainbow Dash found the cloud corral staffed by a lone, bored stallion with a smock and clipboard.
“How’s it going?” she asked, as she swooped in for landing.
“Not bad,” said the orange stallion, glancing up from his clipboard. He turned his head and growled threateningly at the corral, and a little cloud that had been edging up behind him scurried back into the rows of stored clouds. “Not bad except for that pesky little cloud that keeps trying to escape.”
“Yea, about that,” said Rainbow Dash. “I’m here to take that one away if you don’t mind.”
“Mind?” said the stallion with a harsh guffaw. “Please take it. That little thing has been nothing but trouble since it arrived. Full of lightning and vinegar, that one is.”
Rainbow Dash approached the entrance of the corral, hunkered back on her haunches and held out her forelegs invitingly. “It’s okay little guy,” she said gently. “I know what you are, and I'm here to take you home.”
The little cloud moved hesitantly toward her, then stopped. It edged a bit away from the stallion, but he just snorted indifferently and turned his nose back to his clipboard. With a final burst, the cloud launched itself forward into the waiting pony’s arms.
Rainbow Dash wasted no time in kicking off from the corral and heading back toward her friends. She felt the little cloud begin to fidget in her arms as she neared her destination. As she made her final approach, the prison surrounding Fluttershy burst apart, and the clouds swept toward the approaching pegasus, buzzing around her excitedly. The moment she spread her forelegs to release the cloud, it flew into the midst of the other clouds, moving from cloud to cloud, rubbing them greeting. Seen in juxtaposition, it was clearly much smaller than the other clouds.
“It’s no wonder they were angry,” said Fluttershy, rejoining her friends. “It’s just a baby. We’d have been angry too if somebody took one of our foals.”
“He must have been exploring and wandered into the regular clouds when we were clearing up after the last rain,” said Rainbow Dash. "Reminds me a bit of when I" was a filly. I was a real wanderer too."
As the clouds continued to dance and mingle, Rainbow Dash noticed that none of the other pegasi had been freed yet. “So are we good?” she asked loudly. “We brought him back to you, and we promise to be more careful in the future. So what do you say?”
The little cloud broke free of the pack and moved over to hover a couple of feet in front of her muzzle. It remained there for several seconds as if pondering its next move.
"So whadda ya say little bro-cloud?" asked Dash.
It released a lightning bolt into the pony’s face with a tremendous “crack!” of electrical discharge. As the vision of those around her cleared, they saw a stunned-looking pony with her rainbow mane looking remarkably like a lightly-singed afro. She blew twin smoke rings out of her nostrils.
“So, I guess we'll call it even then,” Rainbow Dash said. The clouds seemed to concur, because without further ado they began to shrink and recede toward back toward the Everfree Forest, releasing their captives as they went. As she watched them depart, Rainbow Dash saw something that, real or not, stuck with her for a very long time.
Perhaps it was a trick of the sunlight, or an after vision from the flash of lightning that had hit her muzzle, but for a very brief moment her little cloud did not look like a cloud at all. Where it had been a moment before was a white, fiercely beautiful filly with blazing eyes, a mane and tail of flowing mists, and wings that glowed with an electrical charge. Rainbow Dash would almost swear that the filly looked her in the eye and winked before swooping off to join its peers. Then she blinked, and saw that it was just a cloud.
“… they can look like whatever they want, Dashie.”
She shut her eyes tight and shook her head, partly to clear it, and partly to shake out her mane. There were more important issues at hand than strange visions involving spirit fillies.
“Look at you,” Rainbow Dash cried, swooping over to Twilight Sparkle and clamping her hooves firmly on the mare’s shoulders. “You’re flying. For real!”
“I am?” said the alicorn. In all of the excitement, that little detail had slipped her mind. Suddenly it occurred to her that she had been hovering on automatic. It was the first time she had ever flown when she was not concentrating on each movement of her wings. “I am!” she squealed excitedly. “I'm really flying!”
“That’s awesome!” said Rainbow Dash. “And you know what this means,” she continued in a singsong voice. She poked Twilight in the chest with a hoof. “Advanced training.” She rubbed her hooves together with glee. “Now we can start getting into the fun lessons. No more filly gloves; your real learning starts today.”
“Uh, how about tomorrow?” said Twilight Sparkle, backing away slowly. “I’m cold, wet, tired, and would like nothing more right now than a long, hot bubble bath.”
“Yeah, yeah, tomorrow is fine,” said Dash, dismissing her with a wave of her hoof. “That will give me enough time to build a lesson plan.”
Later that afternoon, the purple mare slid down into the hot suds of her bath with a contented sigh, flapping her wings gently in the water to let help it soak through the feathers to her screaming muscles. She fetched a roll of parchment and quill from a nearby shelf and hovered them over the tub while she mulled on what she planned to say. Normally she would have summoned Spike for dictation, but she was a little old-fashioned when it came to bathing in private. She unrolled the parchment and held the quill poised, then pressed down its tip and began to write.
“Dear Princess Celestia,
I know that I am no longer your student, but as a friend, I thought you might like to hear about the interesting events that transpired today…”
