//------------------------------// // Part Two: Still Riding Your Fences // Story: Rise of the Ultramare // by Dragomena //------------------------------// Rise of the Ultramare Part Two: Still Riding Your Fences By Dragon Rage "Thank ya kindleh, come again real soon!" Applejack smiled her best smile as the turquoise unicorn with the lyre cutie mark left her stall, carrying a sack full of apples. Two weeks had passed since the Mare Do Well incident, with the costumed hero having long since faded from memory. Every now and then somepony might recognize her as one of the five who'd taken on the cowl, but gone were the crowds of adoring fans, and they took their business with them. While she was a bit miffed that sales had dropped so much so quickly, if it meant nopony would be chasing her down the streets demanding autographs and pictures, she would just have to deal with it. As she sat at her cart, waiting patiently for her next customer, an orange-maned earth pony moseyed on over to her, with a look on her face that said 'help me, please'. She'd seen and fallen for that look more often than she could count, and with a belabored sigh she knew she wouldn't be able to turn it away this time, either. Golden Harvest—Carrot to her friends—was her next door neighbor, and she knew well enough that all the business Mare Do Well had drummed up for Sweet Apple Acres came at the expense of every other farmer in Ponyville. "Applejack", the orange-maned mare began, "I was wondering-" Applejack cut her off with a knowing smile. "Something important came up?" The mare nodded. "Real important? An' ya need somepony ta watch yer stall fer ya?" Again, she nodded. "Git goin', then. Ah'd be more'n happy ta help ya out, Carrot." As the young mare cantered off, Applejack pushed the carrot cart over side by side to her own apples. "Guess ah'm sellin' carrots today." She looked down at the little orange stalks and smiled. "Ah well. Fresh apples and carrots, only two bits apiece!" As the minutes turned to hours, the earth pony farmer found business to be slower than usual. "Maybe ah oughta give the sales pitch another go." She looked around the makeshift marketplace, looking for somepony looking to buy some produce. A little way's away sat a blond unicorn filly and a young mare, probably her mother or sister, staring up into the sky. "Good afternoon, ma'am!" The earth pony beamed an inviting grin. "May I interest you in some of Sweet Apple Acres' finest selection... ma'am?" The unicorns sat still, their eyes still locked on the sky. "What's so amazin' up there, anyhow?" She craned her neck back, looking up at the cloudy sky to see what was going on. Up in the sky the earth pony spied three pegasi—two of them the oddball mares who joined the weather team recently, the third a strange costumed pony with flowing white hair. The three were flying aggressively, the blond and teal-haired weathermares struggling to evade their pursuer. Something had to give, though, and before long the costumed pegasus collided with the other two, sending them hurtling towards the ground. Applejack shouted out loud, "somepony help them!", and soon afterwords pegasi began to fly from out of the streets, ready to catch the falling duo. As the falling pair came into view, she finally got a better look at them. The two weathermares, Ditzy Doo and Raindrops, had taken a serious beating from the encounter. The earth pony turned to glare at the costumed pegasus, then gasped in horror. The attacker was dive bombing straight to her apple cart! The blond earth pony rushed over to the two carts, pressing her hind-legs firmly against the wooden frame. She pushed with all her might, shoving the two carts away from the soon to be impact site. As she finished and fell to her gut, she turned her head skyward in triumph. With a bright magical aura now surrounding her, the villainous pegasus had veered off, changing her course. "What in the hay? Oh no." Applejack leaped up and spun around just in time to see a bright flash as the mysterious villain crashed into her apple cart, utterly demolishing it. The earth pony winced, her eyes nearly sealing themselves shut to protect her from the white hot explosion. Her ears still worked quite well, however, and from within the diminish light came a booming voice. "Hear me, citizens of Ponyville! Your days of frolicking without a care in the world are over, for today you and your kin shall face the wrath of the greatest pony to have ever lived!" As the light fully faded, Applejack opened her eyes to get a good look at her assailant. The only discernible natural features of the pegasus before the earth pony were her stark white mane and tail, along with her light blue ears and snout. Her body was obscured in a deep blue and gold uniform, with a large 'U' resting on her chest, the ends of it touching the bases of her shoulders. Her cowl was similarly colored, and her eyes glowed an eerie white through the slits provided. There was one other feature of her costume that Applejack couldn't help but fixate on—a gold-colored metal band around her forehead, with a spiral-engraved spike protruding from the point at the center. The pegasus turned her attention to Applejack and frowned. "You, peasant! kneel before Ultramare, or-." "Excuse me?" Applejack snorted. "Ya got some nerve, feather brain. What the hay were you thinkin', wreckin' mah stall like that? An' what's the big idea, beatin' on the weather team? We need-." "Silence!" The pegasus bellowed, lowering her head to point the tip of the horn at her. "I said kneel!" Before Applejack could even react, a blast of white hot light emerged from the horn, blowing right into her and sending her reeling. She cried out in pain as she collided with the wall behind her. She tried to move, but the costumed mare was on her near-instantly, pinning her to the ground. "Tell me, earth pony," Ultramare asked, "what is the weather supposed to be like tonight?" The earth pony looked at her assailant in the eye, though it pained her to do so. "... just a little rain, but since ya went an' hurt those two pegasi there's nopony ta handle it right now." Ultramare snickered, and Applejack couldn't help but notice that for the faintest of moments, she'd lost the booming power in her voice. She could swear she'd heard that voice before. "A little rain, hm? If the mayor wants it to rain today", the white-maned pegasus roared, "then I'd hate to disappoint her!" ~~~ "Oh, no." Whatever good mood Rainbow Dash had been in before arriving in Ponyville, it had all been soured when she realized how bad the storm hanging above it was. Rain seemed to pour endlessly from within the thick, massive black clouds hanging overhead. Lightning burst relentlessly from within, as if some unseen entity were forcing it out. The dirt roads of Ponyville had turned to mud, and it wouldn't be long before flooding would happen. The last thing anypony needed was for this situation to get any uglier. She scanned the town quickly, looking for signs of anypony—it seemed that the only ones still outdoors were the pegasi, all of whom were trying their hardest to calm the storm overhead. Not one of them could even pierce their way through the storm clouds—whatever magic had conjured them seemed to prevent the winged ponies from touching it without being repelled. Finally, the rainbow-maned mare spotted some ponies on the ground—an earth pony standing by the muddied wreckage of some kind of food stand, and not far from her were a group of field medics tending to and carrying off a pair of wounded pegasi. Even from this far away, she recognized those distinctive blond and blue-haired mares to be Ditzy Doo and Raindrops, the two ponies who'd taken her job two weeks ago. And the earth pony was none other than- "Applejack!" Dash shouted at the top of her lungs. Almost immediately afterwards she coughed—she probably wasn't feeling too well, she thought, and had gotten a sore throat. Still, she succeeded in grabbing her earth pony friend's attention. "Rainbow Dash?!" The blond mare called up from the ground, rushing to meet Dash as she landed a short distance away. "Hey Applejack, long time no ACK!" Dash cried out as her friend wrapped her front hooves around her, nearly tackling her to the ground. "Rainbow, yer okay! All of us were worried sick about ya an'... what happened ta yer mane? Looks like somepony took hedge clippers ta it!" The rainbow-maned pegasus chuckled. "It's good to see you too, AJ. It's just a new haircut, that's all." She paused, trying to find the right words to say. "Thanks for greeting me. After everything that went down two weeks ago..." The blond mare opened her mouth to speak, but before she could utter more than a word, a blue hoof pressed itself against her open mouth and shook her head. "Never mind, we'll talk about this later. Right now I need you to tell me what happened here." Applejack nodded, and as Dash pulled her hoof away, began to speak. "Not more'n an hour ago, this freaky costumed pegasus beat the daylights outta Ditzy and Raindrops over there." She motioned to the two mares and the field team, Nurse Redheart included, treating them. "Then she came down from the sky an' blew up mah apple cart, like she'd been aimin' fer it all along. She beat me inta that wall over yonder, then flew back inta the sky an' summoned that storm up." Dash looked up at the sky. "You said she's a pegasus, right? Pegasi can't do magic." "Well", her friend started, "we both know that fer sure, but that mare had some kinda... magic helmet or somethin'." The blue pegasus raised an eyebrow. "Magic... helmet?" Her friend nodded. "Yep. Well, more a' headband or somethin'. Had a horn right on the end." Dash cocked her head to the side, then smiled. "Well, whatever. I'll have those skies clear before you even know it." Applejack gave her that look—that look she always used when she'd done something wrong. "Sugarcube, nearly everypony who can fly in Ponyville is up there, tryin' their hardest ta clear the sky. Heck, the only ones ah ain't seen flyin' away up there were the weathermares an' Fluttershy. Ah know yer good an' all, but-" Again Dash's hoof found itself covering her friend's mouth. "Applejack, remind me who the weather team captain for Winter Wrap Up is every year, and who held the position of weather patrol leader for... how long have I lived in Ponyville, again?" "Dash..." The blond mare muffled from beneath the hoof, obviously annoyed by what her friend had just said. "Would you put some flower arranging earth pony in charge of bucking all the trees down at Sweet Apple Acres? Trust me, they didn't put me in charge because I talked myself up like an idiot or anything." The blond mare still seemed skeptical, but at this point Dash felt it wasn't worth wasting anymore time to reassure her. "When I get back, you're going to need to tell me what's going on with my friends, okay?" With that she took to the skies, leaving Applejack behind her. ~~~ "Oh great", a lavender pony with long blond hair groaned as Dash came up beside her, "It's Rainbow Dash. Have a nice vacation, Dash?" She brushed the greeting off, focusing on the swirling black mass above them and the torrent of water pouring from within. "Cloudkicker", Dash said, assuming an authoritative tone, "I need Thunder Cracker and Dizzy Twister to cover me. I'm going in, and if things get too rough I'll need them to catch me on the way out." The lavender pegasus's eyes widened. "Dash, you can't be serious! These clouds are practically impenetrable!" The rainbow-maned pegasus grinned. "You're not trying hard enough! Watch me." She jammed her front hooves into the clouds. Sure enough, she could feel it—some unseen force within the storm was trying to shove her right back out. But judging from the gasps of the nearby pegasi, she suspected this was already further than any of them had gotten. "You think this is impressive? Just watch!" Dash rapidly began to flap her wings, pushing deeper and deeper into the storm. The resistance and tension continued to grow, and the rainbow-maned pegasus knew that something was going to give very soon. All around her the pegasi stared in awe and shock. Dash had not only gotten further into the storm than any of them, but by the look of things she was about to break right through the surface. The rain ceased to flow from the area surrounding her, replaced by white streaks of electrical current. Dash heard Cloudkicker shout something behind her, but couldn't make it out over the sparks licking at her ears. The power keeping the storm alive was familiar to her—she'd dealt with lightning hundreds of times in the past, though never to this extent. Whoever was responsible for this must have brought the lightning to life, she mused. And if it's the lightning keeping the storm going, then there's only one thing she could do to stop it. "CLOUDKICKER!" Dash shouted, though she could barely even hear herself. "I NEED YOU TO TAKE SOME PEGASI UP AROUND THE STORM AND GIVE IT A GOOD KICK TOWARDS ME!" She heard the lavender pegasus shout something back. "JUST-" Dash sighed in disgust. She mustered up the strength in her gut, took a deep breath, and shouted at the height of her voice. "Just do it already!" The lavender pegasus cocked her head to the side, then flew away with half a dozen other pegasi. All Dash needed to do now was push a little further in, then hold her position. But the magic binding the storm pushed back harder than ever, and for a moment she found herself losing ground. "No. No no no, I am not... no!" With a surge of adrenaline, the mare's wings doubled their pace. Even as her body burned from the work and sparks from the storm nicked and burned her hooves and face, Rainbow Dash forced her way deeper into the black fluffy mass. She grinned, pleased with herself. Any second now, the other pegasi would give the storm a kick. Lightning would burst from within, funneled down the spot Dash cleared out. She looked down at the town below, confident that nopony would be harm when the storm finally discharged. An odd sensation flowed through her. Her mane and tail, cut short during her time spent in Canterlot, stood on end. At that moment, a dreadful thought occurred to her. Dash flew from within the hole she'd pushed just in time to avoid a massive white bolt of lightning. It sheared its way through the sky, striking the center of Ponyville and leveling the fountain marking it as such, leaving nothing more than a smoldering crater. Two pegasi, one icy with a blue mane and the other sandy with pink waves, flanked Dash. Their hooves pressed tightly against her as they descended, keeping the exhausted mare from plummeting to the ground. "Thanks", she said, smiling at her two rescuers. The icy white pegasus smiled back. "Dizzy Twister and I couldn't just float around and let you get hit by that thing, right?" The pink-maned pegasus nodded vigorously in agreement. "Right! We can't let the weather captain get hurt by a big nasty lightning bolt!" Dash lowered her head and closed her eyes. "You guys know I lost that job two weeks ago, right?" The mares nodded. "Just 'cause Cloudkicker got promoted," the wavy-maned pegasus said cheerily as she beamed a big smile, "doesn't mean you're not-." Dash rolled her eyes as she cut Dizzy off. "That's exactly what it means." She looked up at the clouds. Lightning still popped out from the bottom surface every few seconds, but, with the living lightning dealt with, there was nothing stopping them from beating the storm down until it died out. Still, she was beside herself. "So Cloudkicker's got the job now? I thought Ditzy Doo and Raindrops had been hired to take my place." The icy white pegasus scoffed. "Dash, they're just new recruits! The two of them together could barely do your job of keeping the skies clear during the day. Heck, on some of the days us three had to step in and help when things got out of hand." Somewhere deep down, Dash knew her friend meant well. But now she was annoyed. "Well, whatever. It's not like they'll have the job much longer either." The mares gasped, dropping Dash in shock. She flew back up to them, cocking her head to the side in confusion. "Dash," Dizzy began, concern clearly showing through on her face, "don't say things like that! Those poor girls are seriously hurt!" "I'm sorry! It's just-" Dash stopped, looking here and there for anypony to back her up. Not one of the few still remaining nearby would come to her defense. "I didn't mean-I mean... never mind. Sorry girls, I've gotta go." "Dash", Thunder Cracker called out as the rainbow-maned mare flew off towards the ground below, "come back!" ~~~ Fluttershy rolled to her side in bed, staring at the cup of once hot chocolate, long since cooled, sitting on her book stand. She hadn't felt like drinking it when she made it this afternoon and had just let it sit there while she tended to her animal friends. None of them would leave her, since caring for them was what she did—she'd never be able to harm a single hair or feather on them, even by accident. Just as she was about to fall back asleep, her previous dream having been interrupted when she awoke to the sound of monstrous thunder outside, the door to her bedroom swung open. Into the room hopped her little bunny companion. "What is it, Angel?" She asked, lowering herself out of bed and meeting the little furry animal face to face. It tapped at the floor with its front paw, then motioned as if it were opening a door. "Yes, I know you woke me up, but-." The bunny shook its head, then repeated the motion. "Oh, is somepony here to see me?" Her little friend nodded. "Please send them away, I am not taking visitors tonight" She would have left it at that and have gone back to sleep, but just as she turned around, a familiar voice shouted from below, "IS SHE AWAKE YET?!" Her eyes widened and her heart nearly skipped a beat. Without a moment's hesitation Fluttershy spun around and galloped out of the room, nearly bowling over Angel as she did so. "RAINBOW DASH!" She cried, tumbling into the blue pegasus as she came hurtling down the stairs. She buried her face in her friend's chest, her tears staining the soggy blue hair beneath them as she sobbed and sniffled. "I'm so-sorry! I-I'm s-s-so s-s-sorry!" A cold, wet hoof patted her on the head. "It's fine." She said, though her tone seemed more than a little somber to the pink-maned mare. "I just needed some time alone. I'm back now. You don't have to worry about me." She shook her head, trying her best to pull herself back together. "B-but D-d-dash..." Dash gently rolled her off, then stood up and brushed herself off. "We don't have time for this, Fluttershy. Twilight needs you down by the library, and she sent me to come pick you up." The yellow pegasus stood up, trying to stifle her tears. "O-okay. I..." She paused to take a deep breath, then continued, "I h-haven't been out away from my co-cottage since the day after you l-left, and..." As she raised her head, she saw her friend already leaving out the front door. "Dash, wait!" She shouted, her waterworks now in full motion again, "I never meant to hurt you! None of us did!" The rainbow-maned pegasus stopped in her tracks, slowly turning to face her. Fluttershy couldn't remember the last time she saw her cry like that. "I know," Dash mumbled, practically choking on the words, "that's why it hurt."