//------------------------------//
// Chapter 17 - The Equestrian Embassy Siege 
// Story: Adventures in the Weather Patrol 
// by Blade Star 
//------------------------------//

I was standing in the road, not too far from Twilight’s castle. Ponyville was bustling, with everypony in town out to celebrate the annual Sunset Festival. Call it a counterpart to the Summer Sun Celebration. All around town there were shops open, stalls selling their wares, and foals were all galloping around and enjoying the pleasant afternoon sun. It was hard to believe that a day ago, Equestria had almost been destroyed.

Trotting over to a park bench, I sat myself down to think. I decided to lie down in the usual pony way. I tried copying that fruitcake Lyra once or twice, and sitting like I would as a human, but it’s damn uncomfortable as a pony, particularly on your back. So I sat down in a more traditional way and stared up at the sky, watching the clouds I’d help form last week drift by.

I suppose I should have seen it coming really. Bones had always been going on and one about how every now and then we were due for a ‘finale’ as he called it. Apparently, he did his best to keep apprised of every friendship mission and notable incident that affected the lives of Twilight and her friends, tallying them all up. He’d started after Starlight tried to go a-wandering through time. His first incident was with little Flurry Heart, way back when that storm came south from the Frozen North. He counted that as two he told me. His count had risen over the course of a few months to twenty four, and he had become increasingly concerned ever since. He warned all of us to be on the alert.

I suppose then, I ought to have seen all this coming, or at least picked up on it sooner. It all started one evening when, while Fluttershy and I were sitting down to dinner, there was a knock at the door.





Somepony knocked on the front door with a fairly sturdy, and authoritative knock. Both Fluttershy and I were briefly startled out of our usual dinnertime conversation. The poor pegasus even dropped her cutlery.

“Who in Equestria would be coming by this late?” I asked a little crossly. After all, it was getting on for eight o’clock.

Setting down my own knife and fork, I got up and trotted over to the front door. I expected that this would be somepony with a wild animal they’d found. Pets went to Dr. Fauna, the local vet. Fluttershy tended to deal with wild animals, and ponies who found some poor beast injured would bring them here.

Unlocking the deadbolt on the front door, I opened it and was surprised to find myself looking at Spike. It wasn’t often the little dragon came all the way out here, certainly not at such a late hour. Still, as it was a friend, I put aside my brief annoyance.

“Oh, hey there, Spike,” I said with a smile. “What brings you out here?”

To my surprise though, Spike looked confused. For a moment, his mouth hung open, not sure what to say. A couple seconds later though, he recovered and spoke.

“Oh…er….hi there….er…I was looking for Fluttershy,” he said, a little uncertainly. I smiled, although I was a bit perplexed by the way he acted.

“We were just having dinner,” I replied. I then stood to one side. “You want to come in? I’m sure I could rustle up some decent gems for you.” At this though, the dragon recoiled.

“Er, no thanks,” he replied with a shake of his head. “Could you just tell her that she needs to come to the castle as soon as possible? It's a…er…friendship problem.”

Again I was surprised. Spike loved gems, and I could never recall a time he’d ever refused any. Still, there was obviously something up.

“Yeah sure, I can let Fluttershy know, Spike,” I said with a nod and a smile, neither of which I’d yet seen from the baby dragon.

And with that, he was gone, heading back toward Ponyville seemingly as fast as his legs could carry him.

I frowned for a moment. I should have realised that something was wrong then and there. But I had little experience in such things. So, I shook my head, chalked it up to the late hour and went back in to let Fluttershy know what was up.

Heading back into the kitchen, I found Fluttershy still at the table, imploring Angel to get away from my own dinner. A quick wave of a hoof startled him away and I sat back down.

“That was Spike,” I said as I sat back down and tucked in to my now slightly colder dinner. “He said Twilight wants you to come up to the castle right away, something to do with a friendship problem.”

Fluttershy paused and turned to examine her cutie mark, and I knew well why. Whenever the map summons them to send them off on a friendship problem, their cutie marks glow. Dad jokes that it’s like a sort of magical pager. But when Fluttershy examined her own mark then, it was the same as it always was. It wasn’t glowing or pulsing or anything. She frowned.

“That’s strange,” she said. “Usually I’d know about a friendship problem already. I wonder why Twilight had to have Spike come and tell me about this one.” She got up from her own dinner, wiping her mouth with a napkin.

“I guess I better be going then,” she said. “Will you be alright to look after Angel and the others while I’m gone?” I nodded. These missions could keep Fluttershy away from Ponyville for a couple days at a time, so we’d set up a system where I could look after the animals for a little while. Luckily, the cottage was fairly quiet at the moment.

“Sure, I can hold down the fort for you,” I replied with a smile.

And so a few minutes later, Fluttershy had packed her saddlebags and set offfor Twilight’s, leaving me alone with her animals friends.

I slept poorly that night. I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was up.

Turns out I was right.





I shook my head in annoyance. There was no use beating myself up now, after the fact. I knew that Bones was doing the exact same thing. Sure, he was glad to have Applejack back, but he was presently alternating between depression and self-worthlessness for not spotting the threat to her and his adopted family, and a very quiet rage that was continuing to bubble away just beneath the surface of his personality. He was out at the festival now, doing his best to have a good time.

I suppose that it’s a step up from how he was when this whole situation went down. I’ve known for a while that my brother had a problem with changelings. But for a good long while though, he seemed to have put all that behind him. After all, he counted one of them among his best friends, and seemed genuinely interested in meeting Thorax. Now though, he seemed to have relapsed somewhat into his old ways.





The next morning, Fluttershy hadn’t come back. Like I said, it wasn’t unusual for her to have to spend a few days away from the cottage on a friendship problem. Dash was away for the better part of a week when she was summoned up to Griffonstone. Still, it felt weird being in a empty house. There were few animals in at the moment, so the place was unusually quiet.

I even found myself wishing for Discord to show up so I would have somepony to talk to. But no such draconequus was forthcoming.

So, feeling a little despondent, I headed out to work.

After a quiet flight, I met up with Flight, who was the first to arrive. That was a little unusual. As a rule, Dash was usually the first one here. Touching down on the cloud, I enquired after our captain.

“Hey, Flight. Where’s Dash today?” Flight held up a copy of the local weather schedule.

“I don’t know for sure,” he replied. “She said she had to head off on some friendship problem or something; left me the schedule and the work order.” He paused and frowned.

“Something up?” I asked. Thunderlane shook his head.

“No,” he replied. “It’s just that, if Dash usually had to head off somewhere on short notice, she’d annotate all this stuff with notes on what to do. This time she just showed up at my door, gave me these and took off.”

That was odd. As the Element of Loyalty, Dash was the last pony to leave somepony holding the baby. Whatever little quest they’ve been sent on, it must be pretty urgent. Normally, she has the time to let us all know what’s happening beforehand.

The rest of the guys arrived in short order and Flight brought them all up to speed. Luckily for us, today was supposed to be a fairly quiet, easy going day for us. With the Sunset festival coming up, the order of the day was to ensure clear skies for the morrow. It had been a quiet enough week, but there were a few spots here and there that needed clearing around town. We could leave stuff further afield alone, unless it threatened to drift into town. As long as the festival didn’t get rained on, everypony was happy.

Thunderlane divided us up into teams. He’d be the one working on his own today, given how we were five instead of six. The other two teams were obvious. Flitter and Cloudchaser would work together on one set of weather systems, while Dewdrop and I would look into the other. Flight meanwhile would have a scout around further afield.

The five of us headed out. Dewdrop and I made for Whitetail Wood. There was supposed to be a heavy looking bunch of rain clouds hanging around the place. Flight said it was up to us whether we started them up and emptied them in place, or piloted them further away from Ponyville. Since pushing them away would just make them another weather team’s problem, I decided that we ought to empty them. Then they were just harmless clouds that could be allowed to drift.

Dewdrop wasn’t particularly concerned at Dash’s absence. As we flew along towards the woods, he struck up a conversation.

“Hey, Lizzie,” he called over, catching my attention. “When we’re done here, do you want to go grab something to eat at the Hayburger? My treat.” I smiled and nodded.

“Sure, Dewdrop,” I replied. “I’ll just need to head on over to the cottage to check on a few of the animals first. Fluttershy got called away last night, along with Dash I’m guessing. I promised to look after things while she’s away.”

“Wow, that friendship problem must be something serious,” Dewdrop said.

“Why d’you say that?”

“I was passing over town on my way back home yesterday evening, and I saw Applejack heading to the castle as well.” I was surprised to hear that. As a rule, the map only ever sent one or two ponies to solve a problem. Whatever was up had to be serious. My brother’s odd theories about a ‘finale’ being due came to the forefront of my mind. I decided that once I was done here, I’d go and check with Twilight to find out what was going on.





The pair of us made light work of the rainclouds. It’s actually quite fun to start up a storm, as long as you’re careful. Think of a cloud like a soda can. Standing still, it holds the water inside. But shake it up and it will burst, sort of, and start releasing it all as rain. So we got to spend an hour or so jumping on what felt like bouncy castles from when I was a kid.

Of course, you had to be careful, otherwise you could accidentally charge the cloud up into a thunder cloud. And if you kept at it, you might find yourself getting zapped, as a certain grey pegasus once found out, much to her and Town Hall’s cost.

We soon had all the clouds dumping their water onto the ground below. At this time of year, none of them were too full. We certainly didn’t need to worry about turning the ground below into a mud bath. Once all of the clouds had stopped releasing rain, they turned from their previous light grey, to almost white, showing that they had no more rain left in them.

That was our job done there. All in all it only took us a couple hours, and most of that was spent just watching the rain fall. It’s quite a strange sight being on top of a cloud that’s raining. You can see the rain below you, but you’re dry as a bone. It kind of messes with your head a bit.

It also gave me and Dewdrop a chance to talk. I needed someone to talk to really, having spent last night on my own. I’ve never liked being alone in a house. I know there were a bunch of animals there too, but I still felt a little uneasy.

With our work done, we wound our way back towards Ponyville. We both made for Twilight’s castle. Needless to say, we never got that far.

Just as we crossed into town a pair of guards swooped in on us and, in no uncertain terms, ordered us to land immediately. I tried to explain that we were both with the Weather Patrol, but the guards warned me that if we didn’t land, we’d be forced down.

We touched down not too far from our intended destination. The town was abuzz. Looking up, guards were criss crossing the sky and a crowd seemed to be gathered around the castle. Curious, Dewdrop and I headed that way. Something was clearly wrong.

Reaching the crowd, we pushed our way through to the front. Yet more guards had set up a perimeter around the castle and warned us that if we tried to enter, we’d be arrested. It was then however, a friendly face appeared.

“Lizzie!” my dad called out. He was standing with Shining Armor a few feet away. Smiling I made towards him, with Dewdrop following.

“Dad!” I called back, waving a hoof. He motioned for the nearest guard to let me by and quickly pulled me into a hug.

“Oh thank God you’re alright!” he exclaimed, still holding me tight. “I was worried that you might have been hurt when they lifted Fluttershy.” I was flabbergasted.

“What?!” I exclaimed. Setting me down, he explained.

Queen Chrysalis and her changeling hive had again attacked Equestria. The night before, they had orchestrated the near simultaneous ponynapping of Twilight and her friends, both princesses in Canterlot, and the royal family in the Crystal Empire. It seems that the queen planned to use the love meant for them as a means to feed her hive and conquer Equestria. Fortunately, Starlight had been away from the castle when everything went down, and with the help of her friend Trixie, Thorax, who was sent by Sunburst, and Discord, who was beyond angry that Fluttershy had been taken, they had defeated the queen and freed the captured ponies. Even weirder though, something had happened with the other changelings. Thorax had showed them how to share their love and it had resulted in some sort of metamorphosis. Thorax was now seemingly in charge and Chrysalis had fled into exile, leaving us at peace with the changelings.

There was however, one small problem. While the infiltrators in Canterlot and the Crystal Empire had been captured without trouble, the changelings inside Twilight’s castle had heard what had happened. Unwilling to surrender or recognise the new changeling government, they’d barricaded themselves in the castle. The Royal Guard had been sent to flush them out.

Dad quickly led me over to Fluttershy, who was sitting with Discord a little way away. The two of us hugged each other, glad that we were both safe. I did the same with Dash, who was now spoiling for a fight. The princesses were also here. Cadence, to be with her husband, Twilight, as this was her home, and Celestia and Luna to both command the guards and put up a front for the watching public, to show their princesses were alive and well.

Applejack was with them all too of course, with Bones on one side of her, and Big Mac on the other. Both, like Discord, looked to be in a fearsome mood, Bones in particular. I watched as he briefly left Applejack with her older brother and went over to speak to Luna. I overheard what was said.

“Ah can’t believe ya let her just slink away like that, Luna!” he said in a sharp tone. Luna smiled as she looked down at him.

“Chrysalis is beaten, young Blade Star,” she replied. “And I am not in the business of shooting a fleeing foe in the back.”

“Still, who knows what she’ll do now? It’s irresponsible of you to put your citizens at risk like that.” Now, Luna’s expression hardened. She didn’t shout, she just sounded a touch disappointed.

“I may call you friend,” she said coldly. “But forget not who you address when you speak to me, child.”

It was understandable in a way. Bones has always had a problem with Changelings, and Chrysalis in particular made him see red. He was mad at himself for not spotting the changeling threat to his marefriend, and also to Luna, given the way he idolises her, and he certainly didn’t ascribe to the idea of redeeming Chrysalis. Still, he quickly realised that he’d stepped over the line. Straightening himself up, he bowed deeply.

“Forgive me, princess,” he said softly. Luna smiled and placed a comforting wing on his back.

“I understand your anger, Blade Star,” she went on. “But you must not hold onto such things. Your study into dark magic should tell you the risks of such actions.” Bones nodded silently. Applejack now trotted over to join them.

“I’m just glad y’all are safe,” he said. “And Ah wish Ah’d been able to do somethin’ to help.” At this, my dad broke in on the conversation.

“Perhaps you can, lad,” he called out. We all looked over to him. “The Royal Guard says they don’t have any way of storming this castle without doing some serious damage. You studied military strategy, I was wondering if you had any ideas.” Bones brightened up at this and trotted over.

With Fluttershy, Dash and Dewdrop with me, we followed my brother to see if he had any plans. It seemed clear that we couldn’t talk these changelings into coming out. He looked up at the building for a few moments before speaking.

“Well, Ah can see one way,” he said, with a dark smile. “We get a tent large enough, cover the place, seal it airtight, then fill it with methyl bromide. That ought to get ‘em out. Then we can hang the varmints from a sour apple tree.” Evidently, his anger towards the changelings had not fully cooled.

“Not funny, boy,” Dad said with a scowl. “The princesses want to get these changelings out alive; hard arrests at worst. And like it or not, they're entitled to due process.” Bones snorted, muttering something about there being only one punishment for spies, but nodded and took another look at the castle.

A moment later, an idea struck him. It was almost as if a lightbulb came on above his head. He was paying particular attention to the windows, and the balcony at the front of the castle.

“Ah’ve got it!” he declared. “We’ll do an Iranian Embassy Siege!”





I found myself almost laughing at the memory. Mum and Dad both remembered that particular incident in London. It was the first time the public were introduced to the modern day SAS. The problem was the same as it was in Equestria; a group of bad guys holed up in a secured building.

Looking over toward the now liberated castle, I could see where a few of the windows and doors had had to be replaced. It had certainly been an interesting sight at the time.

We were all moved back from the castle for the rest of the day as Dad, Bones, and Shining all worked to coordinate the plan of attack. The night was luckily quiet, although the changelings were spotted from time to time looking out of a window here and there, watching what was going on.

The attack happened at dawn, to catch the tired changelings off guard. First, a group of pegasi flew up to the roof of the building. Abseiling down to windows on one of the higher levels, they blasted their way in with a fearsome noise. I remember poor Twilight wincing at the damage being done, although Shining assured her that it would be fairly minor by the end.

After a few explosions, we saw a group of unicorn guards teleport away, courtesy of Princess Celestia. They apparently appeared in the basement area, and while the first group worked their way downward having entered from near the roof, this second group moved upwards, trapping the changelings between two fires.

A few stun spells later, and a thorough sweep of the building to ensure that all the vases were vases,  all those knickknacks were just knickknacks, and all the books were just books, and the threat was finally over. Six changelings, in hoof cuffs were paraded out of the building by the guards, most none the worse for their experience. The sudden attack, coupled with the surprise and confusion it created, allowed the guards to capture them all with no casualties, save for one pegasus who got singed when one of the charges went off a bit too close.

A few hours later, and arrangements had been made to take the changelings back to Canterlot for repatriation back to their homeland. All told, from the initial kidnap to the final changeling surrendering, the crisis was over and done with in less than twenty four hours.





And so, with victory and peace at hand, everypony was celebrating. Getting to my hooves, I left my comfortable seat on the bench and headed towards the tavern a little ways down the street. Looking up, i caught sight of Dewdrop moving a couple clouds around near Town Hall. The town's only watering hole was fairly well packed with revelers, even at this early point in the afternoon.

Pushing the door open, I found Berry desperately trying to keep all the customers happy. I decided to skip the drinks for now. I looked around to pick out anypony I knew. Fluttershy wasn’t here, nor was Dash. They’d all been celebrating with Starlight in her old village. Bones in particular had been a little hesitant about letting Applejack out of his sight again, but had eventually come around to the idea. Dad pointed out that, if the behaviour of a few rogue changelings affected the way he lived his life, then they might as well have won.

I managed to pick out both Dad and Bones, not that it was too hard. Both were at the far end of the room, gathered around a piano where Dad was hammering on the keys. The pair of them, with a few ponies joining in, were belting out an old song from Ireland.





It certainly seemed to be working like a charm on the room. Despite all that had happened, and how close we had come to utter defeat without even a shot being fired, everypony was now celebrating. As a wise man once said; ‘it could have, but it didn’t’. And let’s be honest, even with the scare, the changelings were now allies, or at the very least neutral and fairly friendly towards us. I’m no politician, but I’d wager that this represented a major shift in the balance of power. Heck, aside from maybe the griffons or the yaks, the changelings were the most formidable military force on the planet. Even Bones was willing to give credit where it was due for their synchronised ponynapping.

Leaving the two to keep on crooning, I kept looking around, I picked out Mum in a booth not too far away with Milano and Cheerilee; her two best friends. Trotting over, I decided to join them.

“Hey you three,” I said as I came over. Mum smiled at me and briefly hugged me as I sat down next to her.

“Hey there, sweetie,” she replied. “How are you feeling?” I shrugged my shoulders.

“Eh, like everypony else I guess,” I replied. “Starting to relax again and stop worrying.” Mum nodded.

“I know what you mean,” she agreed. The two mares nodded as well. “I’m still in two minds about letting your father go back to work. But from what I understand, there’s a whole different bunch of changelings in charge now, and that Chrysalis has taken off running.”

“That’s what I heard too,” Milano added. “This celebration is really helping everypony cope with what’s happened.” I nodded.

“I’ll just be glad when Fluttershy and Dash get back from Starlight’s old village,” I replied. “Then things can get back to normal.”

“How about Dewdrop?” Mum asked with a faint smile. I smiled too.

Dewdrop had been great these past couple days. He was with me the entire time the Royal Guard was in town, and only left me when he had to go back to work. For obvious reasons, weather ops had kind of fallen by the wayside. But, as ever, Dewdrop had been the one to help pick up the slack. He was so dependable like that; one of the many things I like about him. Heck, at this rate, he’ll be vying with Dash for the Element of Loyalty.

“I saw him on my way over here,” I said. I briefly explained how he was currently being an almost one pony weather team. I shook my head.

“You know, I should go and give him a hoof,” I said, half to myself. “Dash and Fluttershy will be back this evening. I might as well stick around and help him until then.”

So, leaving the tavern, and my family to enjoy the remaining celebrations, I took off into the sky.





It didn’t take too long to find Dewdrop. I ran into Thunderlane, who was also catching up on some work, keeping the skies clear.

“Hey, Flight!” I called out as I climbed up to meet him. Thunderlane waved a greeting back as I drew level with him. He was steadily buzzing from cloud to cloud, bucking them into vapour.

“Hey there, Lizzie,” he called back with a smile. “You’re not joining in at the festival?” I shook my head.

“I checked in with my folks and my brother,” I replied. “But I figured Dewdrop could use some help. Although I see he’s managed to rope you in as well.” Thunderlane barked out a laugh.

“Actually, I kind of volunteered myself,” he said, gesturing me to follow him.

We climbed up a little higher before coming across a single large cloud, which was hanging motionless in the sky. Atop the fluffy mass, there was a splash of light blue and blonde. Dewdrop was curled up like a cat, snoring softly.

“I found him pretty much exhausted,” Thunderlane explained, keeping his voice only just above a whisper, and doing his best to keep his wing beats soft. “Rumble’s alright back at the house for now. So I figured that the least I could do was help him out. The poor guy’s been on his hooves for twenty four hours.”

I couldn’t help but smile at the sleeping pony before me. The silly idiot had completely exhausted himself, staying up looking after me yesterday, and now pulling an entire weather team’s duty today, just so the rest of us could be with our families and friends.

“Why don’t you go keep an eye on Rumble, Flight,” I suggested. “I’ll finish up here and keep an eye on him.”

Thunderlane jumped at the chance and, after quickly telling me what little needed to be done to finish for the day, left me alone with Dewdrop, who continued to be undisturbed by the riotous celebration below.

As Thunderlane disappeared through the few remaining clouds, I gently nosed Dewdrop until he woke up. His right ear twitched and his eyes opened blearily. Lifting his head up off his forelegs, he let out a yawn before standing up. He quickly noticed my presence.

“Lizzie? What are you doing up here. I was just…” he quickly realised that I’d caught him napping. “Oh sweet Celestia! I’m sorry, Lizzie. I just closed my eyes for a moment.” I smiled kindly at him.

“Relax, Dewdrop. It’s alright. Flight took over for you. You earned the rest in any case.” He looked around at the now setting sun. It was getting into the early evening.

“How come you’re up here then?” Dewdrop asked. I shrugged my shoulders.

“Eh, everypony’s having a fun time in town. I figured my coltfriend could use some company.” I leaned in and nuzzled him softly. Dewdrop let out a slightly nervous laugh at the contact.

“It sure has been a crazy couple of days, hasn’t it,” he commented, now blushing slightly as I withdrew and lay down next to him.

“It sure has,” I replied. “At least Dash should be home tonight, along with Fluttershy and the others. Then I think things can get back to normal.”

“I hear that,” Dewdrop said, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. “Don’t get me wrong, I like a little adventure every now and then. Otherwise, we’d just be buzzing around moving clouds all day. But these past two days have been enough to last me for quite a while.”

“Yeah,” I replied. “I know everypony’s celebrating and enjoying the festival down there, but I just want to relax, and get some peace and quiet.” An idea struck me.

“Tell you what,” I said. “How about we go for a flight. Just you and me.” Dewdrop smiled back at me and leaned in a little closer.

“Oh,” he said. “Where to?” I closed the distance.

“How about we finally go and see The Crystal Empire together?”

Before he could respond, I gave him a quick peck on the lips. The silly colt was stunned into silence. Giggling to myself, I flashed him a smile and, motioning for him to follow me, I leapt off the cloud and into the sweet embrace of the sky.

He was quickly on my heels, and the pair of us tail chased each other, twisting and rolling in sync with each other, each matching the others move, laughing at the silliness of it all.

I’ve had a few adventures in my time in the Weather Patrol. But I think my biggest one is just beginning.