Raising a Storm

by WonderboltWing


06

06

Dusk frowned at Umbra. "What was that all about? 'Royal Business'?"

She glanced at him, then huffed. "What it is says on the tin."

He frowned. "So, it's important enough to warrant barging in on the Princess's day court?"

"Absolutely," she said in a firm voice, slowing down upon turning the corner into the waiting hall.

"That's a lot of ponies," Dusk murmured, looking down the length of the line.

"Sure is. Now keep up," she said, then resumed walking up the side of the line, much to the annoyance of the ponies in said line.

Dusk nodded once, and quickly caught back up to her, just in time to have to stop again.

"Ma'am, I'm going to need you to return to th-" the guard on the left began.

"Major Iron Shadow, I'm going to ask you to step aside," Umbra interrupted, pulling a small card out of her mane and passing it to him.

He blinked once, then took the card from her to inspect a moment later.

His eyes widened. "D-deepest apologies Specialist," he said, passing the card back. "But day court is currently in session and the Princess has asked for minimal interruptions today."

Umbra cocked her head in confusion for a few moments, before 'ah'ing in understanding. "Because of yesterday, right. Well, I'm sorry to say, but we've got to go in."

Dusk's gaze changed between the two guards, then to his sister.

The Major sighed, then nodded, and cracked open the enough for the two to slip through, the latter receiving a warning look.

Dusk repressed a shiver, and stepped into the room.

The door shut behind him without a single sound.

The throne room was quite impressive looking, but it barely scaled up to the pony sitting on the throne itself.

There she was.

The Princess of the Sun, leader of Equestria.

The was an aura of benevolence that surrounded her, washing over Dusk and filling him with a sense of calm.

"Woah," Dusk murmured softly, following slowly after Umbra.

She was walking straight forward, towards her.

"Hey Sunny! There's a problem we need to discuss," Her harsh voice cut in over the noble pony's monotone whining, causing her, and the Princess to turn to her.

"How dare you address the Princess like that!" The noble glared daggers at the source of the rude interruption.

Dusk just stared at his sister with a look of disbelief and amusement, before shaking his head.

"What is the meaning of this interruption, Specialist Cobalt?" Celestia's voice was calm, but she had a slight smile of her face and a thankful look in her eyes.

"I have news of,” she glanced to the noble for a moment, ”the Doctor, Ma'am."

The look in her eyes disappeared, as with her smile. "Everypony out."

The guards did so after a few seconds, as with the noblepony.

Dusk bit his lip. "...including me, oorr...?" He asked uncertainly, glancing around nervously.

"Stay," Umbra said flatly. "And quit whimpering."

"I am not!" He glared at her, before seeing a grin on her face. "Oh ha ha."

"Ehem," said the Alicorn in the room. "What news, Miss Cobalt?"

She levitated the pocket watch out of her mane, and passed it to Celestia. "This was given to a foal, Cloudburst a few days ago."

"...th-the stallion who gave it to him said it was his," Dusk added after a moment. "And he knew Cloud's name. Which shouldn't be possible, considering Hail and I were going to get him named."

He scuffed the ground lightly out of nervousness, glancing between the two.

"‘His’ as in the Doctor's or Cloudburst's?" Umbra asked, looking at him critically.

"The second one."

"Oh dear," the Princess of the Sun said. "This might get complicated quickly."


The a few times aforementioned park was quite a nice place, kept rubbish free, and tended to by the occasional pony ever so often.

However, due to the season, and the lack of regular maintenance, there were also a lot of leaves covering the ground.

As such, when Hail Storm and Cloudburst landed in the middle of a particularly leaf ridden spot, it sent a wave of varying browns up into the air, effectively creating a curtain for a few good seconds.

Hail stood in the epicenter, her wings flared and her legs spread, looking to Cloudburst with a grin on her face.

“I...Won...” he panted out, a grin on his face, too.

“Nuh uh,” she shook her head, carefully folding her wings and laying down on the ground.

“uh huh,” he said, doing the same and parking himself against his adoptive mother's barrel.

“Nuh uh,” she repeated, leaning down and nuzzling him.

“Uh huh,” his ears flicked in response to her touch.

“...okay, maybe you won,” Hail said begrudgingly.

“‘Maybe’? More like ‘Certainly’, slowpoke,” he said, blowing a raspberry at her.

She looked stunned for a second, before falling into a fit of giggles.

“A-alright, fine, you won,” she admitted.

She simply rolled her eyes and let out a happy sigh, leaning down to rest her head on her hooves.

“I guess we'll just have to wait and find out,” she said, wiggling a bit more down into the leaves.

“On the way back?” He asked, looking up at her.

She smiled. “Sure,” she nodded.

“Yay~,” he said not unlike a certain butter colored shy pegasus.

Hail let out a sigh, her wings going limp and one half hanging over Cloudburst.

She simply just laid there, watching the world go by, the occasional gust of breeze stirring the leaves up around her.

It brought her solace, and she shut her eyes, resting her head on her hooves.

“She is coming.”

She flinched and looked up.

In front of her was the brown stallion from a few days ago.

“P-pardon?” She asked, tensing her wing over Cloud out of instinct.

“Vague, isn't it? ‘She is coming’. Bah. Doesn't matter anyway,” the stallion rambled like a madpony. “Make sure to stay near him when everything goes to Tartarus, okay?”

His voice had a steely tone at the end, causing Hail to gulp, then nod once. “O-okay?”

“Doctor! Stop running off without me!” A female’s voice echoed from the far side of the park, where the grey pegasus that was with this doctor before was.

He half turned around to face her, before stopping and giving Hail a final look. “Trust me, when it happens, stay with him. And trust the broken one.”

With that, he turned the rest of the way around and trotted away back to the other mare.

Cloudburst poked his head out from beneath Hail’s wing. “...he seems… Off,” the foal commented.

“...yeah,” she agreed, her gaze trailing after him.