Another sunrise brought another attack to Liberty Castle. But as nice as a chance to practice a wing-based combat style on real opponents was, the new and dangerous norm to Rainbow Dash’s life wasn’t the interesting thing that happened that day.
That began after her training session with the paladin was over.
“Miss Dash?” Cloud Sword said, as he was helping her back to her hooves.
“Yeah?”
Cloud brushed his hoof along the clouds the way ponies do when they don’t want to say what they are about to say. “As much as we appreciate your willingness to fight by our side, the elder asked me to find something productive for you to do during the day.” Then quickly motioning for Storm Gale to join them, he added, “You too.”
Gale nodded solemnly. And yet the idea of having something to distract herself sparked a small flash of life in her eyes.
Dash raised an eyebrow. What, agreeing to risk her life wasn’t good enough?
Apparently her thoughts showed as Cloud Sword added, “Sky knights do other work between dawn and dusk. And even the foals tend to do what they can to help, usually by helping at the gardens.”
“Fine, what did you want me to do?”
“I’m not sure. What are you good at?”
“Aside from being the most awesome flyer in all of Equestria? Let’s see… I’m a top notch athlete, and I make a pretty good coach.”
“We’re a little too busy trying to stay alive to have sports teams.”
“Right umm… Does being the lead weather pony in Ponyville count?”
“Weather pony?” Cloud said, as if amused by term.
With cheeks flushed, Dash lowered her ears and muttered, “Guess not.”
“Actually that is useful. After the events of Lightning Dash the pegasi who remained had been focused on survival for so long that the ancient art of weather control was basically lost. We’ve been struggling to relearn that lost art ever since.”
Reaching out and pulling Gale to her side, Rainbow Dash said, “Then this is your lucky day! Gale here is also on the weather team! So now you have two pegasi who can help teach you!”
Gale blushed slightly.
“I don’t know. I just do the job. I’ve never taught anypony how to be a weather pony before,” she whispered.
The captain of Ponyville’s weather team kept a clearly forced smile on her face as she whispered back, “Nether have I. But it can’t be all that different from coaching sports. So just follow my lead.”
With a thoughtful nod Cloud Sword said, “Good, then perhaps you can help our other crazy er-… new addition.”
With that Cloud led the two mares away from the training yard. Naturally, as they went through the keep Rainbow Dash had a question for the paladin.
“Why did you say crazy before you interrupted yourself?”
“Ah yes, long story short, ever now and then the opportunity presents itself for us to raid one of the Summoner’s prisons. Having suffered through constant drainings at the hooves of the Summoner’s minions, not all of the ponies we rescue are still sane by the time we get them out. Sadly, it’s relatively common for that insanity to take the form of claming to be from the world of legend, even by those that we know for a fact were born here, in our world.”
The paladin took a moment to pause and breathe a sigh.
“Yes, that makes since. Lately we’ve had a distinct increase in the numbers of rescued ponies who claim to be from Equestria. You’ll have to forgive me, but it only dawned on me as I was speaking that, given your appearance, perhaps that stallion might not be crazy after all.” With a shake of his head he added, “Regardless, he’s proven a great help showing us better ways of making storm clouds… Now if only we had somepony who knew how to use them better.”
A confident grin appeared on Dash’s face as the paladin led them down into the keep’s basement level. Being captain of the weather team and all, she was pretty good as weather work. And by that she meant the best in Ponyville, and given the sorry, unmanaged state of the weather she’d seen around here probably the best this world had ever seen too.
Soon the trio of ponies came to a simple wooden door that looked just like most of the other doors in the keep. However, unlike the other doors, the sound of machinery could be heard behind this one.
Not even bothering to knock, Cloud Sword pushed the door open. Inside was a room with several boilers, pressure valves, water tanks and the like. If not for the stone walls it might have reminded Rainbow Dash of the weather factory rain-cloud room back in Cloudsdale. Aside from the machines there were also four ponies in the room. Two mares and a stallion were lined up in the middle of the room, hanging their heads in shame.
The fourth pony was a stallion with a gray coat and snow-white mane. His cutie mark looked remarkably like a weather map. At the moment he was commenting on the quality of the three’s work rather harshly.
“You call that rain? That’s the sorriest rain I’ve seen in my life! No wonder you’ve got a drought out there!” he shouted, pointing a hoof to a line of three dark rain clouds, one of which could be said to be drizzling while the other two weren’t shedding a drop.
“Mister Weatherright?”
Responding to the name the stallion looked to the rainbow mare who’d spoken it.
“You look familiar, missy. I know you, don’t I?”
“It’s me, Rainbow Dash! The Ponyville weather captain!”
“Well if it isn’t my little rainbow renegade,” he said with a smile. “Actually this is perfect! I’ve been trying to teach these ponies how to set up a respectable weather operation here. They’re catching on to how to make weather clouds okay enough.” With another glance to the storm clouds in the middle of the room he added, “Deploying them, not so much. Perhaps a field weather pony like yourself will have better luck teaching them basic weather manipulation.”
“Sure thing chief! But what are you doing here! How long have you been here?” Dash asked of the current owner and chief of the Cloudsdale weather factory.
At first he placed a hoof on his chin. “I’m not sure, about a month I think, the first few weeks were kind of blurry,” he answered, a shiver running down his spine at that last part.
Dash’s jaw dropped.
“A month! But I didn’t even know you were missing! How does the head of the biggest weather factory in the world go missing for a month, and no pony mention it!”
Weatherright chuckled.
“I’ll let you in on a rather commonly known secret. The key to owning a successful company is to set it up to work with as little input from you as necessary. They really only need me if some major disaster comes up… Well that and payroll. But if there hasn’t been a revolt at the weather factory, that probably means my secretary is forging my signature on the pay checks so everypony can get paid on time despite my absence.”
He shrugged the latter thought off, before finishing, “Well good for her. Anyway if you’re here to whip these sorry excuses for weather ponies into shape, have at it. Trust me, they could use every bit of help you can give them.”
With a nod and a confident smile the mare with the rainbow mane turned to her new recruits.
With her Coach Dash voice, she said, “Listen up! If we’re going to be practicing our rain set ups, then the first thing we’re going to do is take these bad boys outside to the gardens.”
* * * * * * *
“This is terrible!” the yellow pegasus with a pink mane whispered.
“She’s not home is she, Fluttershy?” Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Not only is Rainbow Dash not home, but Tank said she didn’t come home the night before last either!”
“Did Rainbow tell Tank where she was going?”
“No!” Fluttershy practically wept. “She didn’t even leave him an extra large bowl of food! The poor guy had to fend for himself for a whole day!” After taking a moment to wipe the tears from her eyes, the yellow pegasus added, “I’m going to take Tank back to my place for now… If that’s okay with everypony.”
“I’m sure Rainbow would appreciate that.”
With that Fluttershy flew back into the cloud house floating over head and soon emerged with the only pet tortoise in town that had a helicopter-pack strapped to its shell. Doing her best to comfort the reptile as she guided him toward her place. Although in truth she was probably more worried about the pet’s owner than the tortoise was.
Back on the ground Twilight Sparkle and the town mayor shared a concerned look.
“This isn’t right,” Twilight said. “In the very first conversation I had with Rainbow Dash, she said she’d never leave Ponyville hanging. She proved herself to be the spirit of loyalty, there’s no way she’d leave her job, Ponyville, and her pet hanging like this.”
The mayor nodded.
“Agreed. She might not be the most punctual pony in the world, but Rainbow Dash always got the job done before. It’s certainly not like her to skip town without arranging for somepony to cover for her. So what exactly are you going to do, Miss Twilight?”
“First I’m going to check with my other friends, and search the town. If I haven’t found her in an hour, I’ll organize search parties to look for her with a broader search area.”
* * * * * * *
Lunchtime found Rainbow Dash sitting with Storm Gale at a small table off to the side of the mess hall. The clatter of cups, plates and bowls constantly being shifted by the ponies eating off of them kept their conversation between the two of them despite the crowed setting.
“…I still can’t believe I’m the second most skilled weather pony in this place,” Gale said. “They really have been running their weather on nothing but raw instinct for a long time haven’t they?”
“Really looks that way.”
After taking another swig of her carrot and potato stew, Dash noticed the look Cloud Sword was giving her from across the room and she quickly added, “Don’t suppose you’re ready to take over the weather lessons?”
“Already?” Gale blinked. “You think I’m ready for that?”
“Of course! Like you said, you’re practically an expert weather pony compared to them.”
With a glance at the scorched tip of her tail, Dash added, “Just promise me you’ll make them practice their aim an hour a day until they can hit the broadside of a barn with their lightning kicks.”
To that Gale laughed, and beamed the first true smile to grace her face since she’d arrived in this castle.
“Sure thing! I won’t let you down!”
Dash gulped down the last of her stew.
“Great! Now if you’ll excuse me, I think sword-guy wants to talk to me.”
Despite her choice of words, Rainbow Dash didn’t actually wait to be excused before getting up and walking away from the table.
With little more than a nod of his head as the mare approached, Cloud Sword led the way out and once the noise of the dinning hall was behind them he spoke.
“You’re a dangerously perceptive one, aren’t you?”
“I kinda got the impression that you meant for me to be doing Sky Knight stuff. And judging from how bad those recruits were at it, I’m guessing Sky Knights don’t fly weather patrol.”
A grim smirk flashed on Cloud’s face for a moment.
“I doubt anypony from around here has truly ‘flown weather patrol’ in over three hundred years. That said, you are correct. I intend you to accompany me on my tasks for the time being.”
“Alright, what are we doing?”
“Have you heard the stories of the waters of night and day?”
“That glowy water in the fountain? Yeah, I’ve heard one story.”
“Well for our purposes, the important part is the bit about the places where the tears of the sun and moon mingled became springs of the waters of night and day.”
Opening a door in the hall Cloud showed his student a storeroom from which he pulled two sets of small barrels connected by saddlebag straps.
“Our fountain is not such a spring. And as you can imagine, having ponies splashing about in it during our twilight battles, we lose a fair amount every day. So it’s up to the Sky Knights to leave the relative safety of the castle and bring back more from the springs.”
With that, Cloud Sword tossed one set to Rainbow Dash, while fastening another set onto himself.
* * * * * * *
Fetching water. The grand and glorious mission of the Sky Knights was fetching water. Magic water that could glow brighter than any floodlight, true, but still it was fetching water. Whatever dreams of adventure and true glory she’d had faded from Rainbow Dash’s mind as they flew northeast, away from Liberty Castle.
Between the wing guards that only copied the major joints of the wing and the gallon-sized barrels right behind her wings to say her flying was uncomfortable and encumbered was an understatement.
“So where are we headed?” she asked, trying to get her mind focused on something else.
Cloud pointed to a mountain range ahead of them, if this had been Equestria they would have been the Foal Mountains, but when he spoke his answer was, “Foal Peaks.”
“Is that really the closest spring?”
“Oh no, it’s far from the closest, but there’s always an ambush waiting at the ones closer to Liberty Castle. The springs out at Foal Peaks only seem to be patrolled by the shadow pegasi from time to time. With any luck we won’t even get noticed while we’re out here.”
They neared the mountains flying low. Truthfully their whole flight had been well below what Rainbow Dash would have considered normal cruising altitude. Regardless, this meant they now had to fly a measured assent as they flew up the sides of the mountains. Cloud clearly wanted to stay more or less fifty feet above the ground.
Soon they came over a ridge and Dash spotted a plateau that had a small lake on it. Sure enough Cloud Sword descended toward the seemingly normal pond. It really wasn’t until they’d landed right next to it that she could see the odd sheen that set this spring apart form a normal pond.
The paladin wasted no time pulling the corks out of his barrels, wading into the waters and then using his wings to push the small kegs down enough to start filling. It didn’t take much longer for Rainbow Dash to follow his example. And soon after the tiny whirlpools faded, signaling that the barrels were full. They quickly returned the corks to their kegs and after a quick shake to get the water off of their wings and coats they left.
Although they’d barely left the spring when they heard a faint, high-pitched noise.
“What that a scream?” Dash asked.
Scanning the ground below, she’d already found a mountain pass not far away. And a little over a thousand feet down that pass she spotted a yellow unicorn and three shadow pegasi.
Seeing as the unicorn was doing her best to scamper away from the dark figures, Rainbow Dash didn’t even think twice about saying, “We have to help her!” and rushing forward to do just that.
“Of course, but… Wait!” Cloud Sword called out. “The trap is for us,” he added grumbling, knowing that at her speed she could only hear the rush of the wind now. “She’s going to be the death of me yet,” he added to the wind before rushing forward himself.
“Why are you doing this…” the yellow unicorn with the faded pink mane whimpered as the dark lasso around her hind legs dragged her back toward the shadow pegasi.
Her words fell on deaf ears. Or rather mute lips, as even she knew that the creatures created by the shadow pegasus spell couldn’t speak. No, they were nothing more than puppets of the Summoner, agents of the Summoner’s will with little or maybe even no ability to think for themselves, let alone engage in something as cognitively challenging as a conversation.
Rainbow Dash’s hoof gave one of the shadow pegasi a new cognitive challenge as it was sent sailing by the flying kick she’d used to announce her presence on the mountain pass.
With the other end of the rope released the unicorn used the slack to free herself from the dark lasso.
At just about that same moment, Cloud Sword caught up, making his presence known by thrusting the wing blades into the back of one of the shadows as he came down hard on it. With the first one dissolving into specks of light, he charged at the one Dash had clobbered.
Rainbow Dash had just ducked under a swing from the remaining shadow and swung back with one of her armor-clad wings.
And that was the moment the other thirty or so shadows stepped out from their hiding places, leaving the three flesh and blood ponies suddenly surrounded.
“Oh wow! That’s a lot!” Dash couldn’t help but say.
Rolling his eyes, Cloud responded, “That’s usually how these traps go.”
Jumping into action, Rainbow Dash charged one way, while Cloud Sword struck out in the other. Both doing what they could to keep the fighting away from the unicorn in the middle of the ring of hostile shadows.
The two pegasus ponies fought valiantly. The paladin cutting down the shadows with the sacred wing blades as quickly as he could. Dash quickly realizing that no matter how hard she kicked and punched the shadow magic given form didn’t have bones to break, so the best she could do was knock them down and leave them dazed for a few seconds.
Although both did what they could to dodge the energy draining snares of the shadow pegasi’s lassos, still outnumbered at least ten-to-one, it was only a matter of time before one snagged Dash’s back left leg.
Even as she gave out a gasp, she tried to fight the sudden feeling of weariness as the energy was ripped out of her body. Despite that effort, the physical yank of the dark rope was able to topple her.
Yet, even as the blue pegasus hit the ground, a rock slammed into the face of the shadowy one on the other end of the rope, causing it to drop said rope.
The instant she felt the slack on her leg, Rainbow Dash curled up so she could bite the infernal rope and pulled it off as quickly as she could. And with the dark rope’s removal she felt some of her energy return to her, leaving her feeling only slightly more tired then she had been before it had touched her in the first place.
Naturally, her first reaction to see why the shadow pegasus had dropped its end of the rope. That led her to follow the gaze of several of the shadows back to the unicorn and the three hoof-sized rocks floating beside her, wrapped in an orange aura.
With little more than an angry glare, the yellow unicorn joined the fight and sent the stones flying at several of her attackers.
It didn’t take more then a second or two of being pelted by rocks before the shadows acted with a strange uniformity, all jumping backwards at once and then the purple glow that passed for their eyes flared all at the same time. With that pules of magic the area was suddenly wrapped in a fog.
To a pegasus moving in a fog was like being underwater, only you didn’t need to worry about breathing. Of course to an athletic pegasus like Rainbow Dash, pushing her way through the ground-level cloud that her natural pegasus magic wanted to treat like a solid object was an easy feat. She even gave a few quick jabs as she attuned her mind to help her body treat the fog as a liquid rather than the solid it usually treated clouds as.
“My magic!”
The cry had come from the unicorn. The once strong glow of her magic now flickered erratically, and the rocks she’d held aloft a second ago had fallen back to the ground.
“The fog is blocking my magic!”
“I guess they didn’t like you throwing rocks,” Cloud Sword said.
Magic… That word lingered in Dash’s mind. Her eyes slowly widened as a wicked and terrifying thought entered her mind. Maybe it was the vicious nature of this world, maybe it was the battles she’d already fought here, and maybe it was getting to her. Whatever the reason, the revelation came in all it simplistic glory.
She was a weather pegasus standing in a cloud.
The implications of that thought struck her to her core, and though her body couldn’t move, her heart trembled at her sudden understanding of what she was. Of what all pegasus ponies could be.
The snare of a shadow pegasus’ rope came flying at her from the side.
Rainbow Dash’s response was to jab a hoof in that direction.
Thunder boomed.
Lightning flashed.
The dark rope and the shadow who’d thrown it evaporated as the lightning bolt tore the both of them in half.
The clatter of hooves and flapping of wings of the battle came to a sudden halt. All eyes turned to the lightning-struck shadow pegasus. Its remnants were evaporating like ribbons of steam above a boiling pot of water.
The fog was thick enough, that Rainbow Dash could only see ten feet tops. But that was enough for her eyes to find a dozen shadow pegasi in the arc of space before her.
While everypony else stood motionless, still trying to figured out where the freak lighting bolt had come from, Dash reared up and began jabbing her front hooves in the air before her.
Thunder roared like a passing freight train, Lightning flashed like the cameras in a packed stadium, and in the span of a second the blue weather pegasus struck down all of the shadows in a thirty degree arc in front of her.
In the next second the revelation spread and the paladin also reared up. Although he only managed to get three shots off before the eyes of the shadow pegasi flared once more and the fog dissipated. Clearly one unicorn throwing rocks was preferable to two pegasi throwing lightning.
But it was too little too late. The damage had been done, in those two fateful seconds the lightning had torn through the majority of the shadows. The few that remained abandon their primary weapon and charged blindly at the paladin. Cloud Sword was more then willing to cut them down with the sacred wing blades.
The dust settled, and only two pegasi and a unicorn remained on the mountain pass. Thanks was given, pleasantries were exchanged and the groups went their separate ways.
On the way back, Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but retell the tale of what had just happened in a heroic light, although in truth she was more trying to clam her own mind and justify to herself the first time she’d ever kicked lightning with hostile intent.
So far her smile hide her heart’s inner turmoil. But the stallion, who she figured had a real reason to be happy, only frowned and stared blankly ahead.
“Come on, cheer up! The good guys won, and the bad guys got their flanks kicked! Am I right?”
“That’s just it. I’ve lost seven good knights is battles like that, and not once did it occur to any of us to try to kick lightning in the fog.” Slowly he shook his head. “I let seven good ponies die, because I was too stupid to think I could use something other than the sacred wing blades to fight the shadows. Too stupid to realized that a pegasus among the clouds is a living weapon!”
That was not the response she’d been hoping for. She’d hoped for a pat on the back, a justification that the thought to use lightning aggressively for the first time in her life had made her the hero of the hour. And yet, the paladin’s lament gave her pause and lightened the guilt in her heart with irony. Yes, how ironic was it that she felt guilty because she’d actually thought to use a pegasus’ natural abilities to fight and he was feeling guilty because he hadn’t? Here she was, a pony who’d lived in a peaceful world all her life and she was the one to have such a violent idea spawn in her mind. And there he was, a pony who’d grown up in a world that forced him to fight for survival every day of his life, and he was miserable because he didn’t do the same. Honestly, she wasn’t sure who was the worse pony.
Dash’s eyes fell to scan the ground far below. Brown and gray dominated the rolling foothills below. Maybe a hundred yards or so on either side of a small river was still green in the otherwise drought-stricken land. This was a land of suffering and pain, and it needed hope. Only problem was there weren’t many hopeful things she could think to say. But finally she looked back up and answered.
“It wasn’t all your fault you know. They didn’t think of the way to save themselves either.”
Somewhere in the back of her mind she couldn’t help but think. ‘No wonder the pegasus tribe was a tribe of warriors, among the clouds we ARE living weapons.’
Cloud Sword only nodded. Maybe he even faked a smile for a fraction of a second too.
And with that the two flew on in silence.