//------------------------------// // 106 The Stormcaller, Part Four // Story: Continuity Disrupted // by Doug Graves //------------------------------// “Doug!” Rainbow Dash nearly shouts as she flips from Doug’s arms, Soarin flying away behind her. “I can’t believe you did that!” “What? Stood up for you?” Doug snorts. “Sorry I did exactly like you asked.” Rainbow grits her teeth, a sharp exhale. “Seriously? That’s your defense?” Her eyes narrow as Doug’s mouth opens, “Actually, forget it. I need to focus on the race. No thanks to you, since at least one of the judges will hate me.” Rainbow flies off, in the same direction as Soarin but making no effort to catch up. Rarity coughs, her mane a little out of place from the helmet. “Well, um, I suppose I should be off as well. I’ll need time to prepare my ensemble, as it were.” She waves as she takes flight, “I’ll see you all there!” “Best of luck!” Doug turns to Fluttershy, sighing loudly as a bit of his anger fades. “So, do you think I handled that right?” Fluttershy stammers, “Well, um.” She holds her hooves about half an inch apart. “Maybe you could have been just a teensy,” her hooves now an inch apart, “eensy bit nicer.” Trixie mimics Fluttershy, holding her hooves an inch, then two, four, eight, until her forelegs are stretched as far as she possibly can, wiggling back and forth. “I’ll say!” Pinkie Pie shouts, finally able to bounce up and down to her heart’s content. Silly rules in the weather factory! “I didn’t even think the nickname was all that bad, either! I mean, she did crash into a bunch of stuff back when she was a filly. Actually, she crashes into a lot of stuff now, come to think of it.” Pinkie Pie looks over at Applejack. “How’re the windows on the farm?” She looks at Twilight. “And the library?” “Easily replaced,” both mares reply in unison. “Then why did Rainbow react so poorly?” Doug scratches his head. “Stage fright?” supplies Sweetie Belle. “Performance anxiety?” proposes Apple Bloom. A silence stretches for a few seconds. “Trixie has seen this before. She is merely worried about how she will perform in front of all of us, old bullies, her idols the Wonderbolts, a giant crowd, Princess Celestia.” Trixie shrugs. “You name it, it’s probably out there, waiting for her to mess up. If Trixie is wrong, and she is never wrong, then Rainbow is headed directly into a fiery swamp of her worst fears.” “Well, I guess we better head there to support her,” Doug says reluctantly. He looks at the tickets Rainbow gave them earlier. “Let’s see, section five, clouds fourteen A and B.” Doug looks up at the Cloudiseum looming in front of them. “So, where are our seats?” “There,” Twilight says, pointing almost directly up. The seats spread out as they get higher up, making them crane their necks to see all of them. “Halfway around the stadium, the highest seats.” “Huh.” The columns that form the boundary seem mostly decorative, the seating comprised of unconnected clouds stacked on top of each other. Doug looks over at Fluttershy, “So, how do we get up there?” “Oh, um,” Fluttershy sighs as she stares at the floor. “I guess I can go all the way up there, all by myself, and push that heavy cloud all the way down here, and then push half of you all the way back up, again, all by myself, and then push the other cloud all the way down here, and then push the other half of you all the way up there. By myself.” Everypony stands around exchanging slightly worried glances. Trixie breaks the silence, “Well, hop to it, then.” Fluttershy groans, stretching her wings, soon painful to watch as she performs a solitary wing up before laying on the ground, moaning. She motions up, many other pegasi also flying around and taking their seats. “We, and by we I mostly mean somepony else, could ask for help.” Twilight rolls her eyes, “Or, I can go get the balloon. We’ll probably need it soon anyway, to get to some of the other areas in Cloudsdale once the competition is done.” Not hearing any disagreement, she and Doug leave to get the balloon. “Yes!” Fluttershy exclaims, hopping up. “That sounds like exactly what we should do.” She glances to the fillies, “Who wants a ride up?” “I do! I do!” they all yell, bouncing up and down and raising their hooves in the air as Pinkie Pie pushes in front of them, holding her hooves above the rest. Eventually the balloon arrives, ferrying the two remaining fillies and all of the mares, much to Pinkie's disappointment, to the top row of seats. Twilight does have to park the balloon on the outside wall and then teleport back up to the cloud in order to keep it out of sight, everypony settling in. Pinkie Pie pulls out a giant hand with just the index finger extended, slipping her hoof inside and excitedly waving it around. The competition begins with Princess Celestia gliding down, flanked by two guards, waving and smiling as her rainbow mane spills behind her. Seconds later everypony watches in awe as six Wonderbolts zoom by, trailing black smoke in perfectly parallel lines that arc through the sky, heading directly towards the judge’s cloud. Three split off to seats above as the three Wonderbolt celebrity judges - Spitfire, Soarin, and Misty Fly - settle in to boisterous cheers. An amplified announcer introduces the Princess and judges before the first competitor enters the stadium. Her graceful performance spotlights slow flight, precise control, and an intricate dance to scattered applause, the clouds doing a good job of deadening the stomp of hooves. Pinkie Pie swaps her foam hand for a second, this one with two fingers extended. Doug trades a nervous glance with Fluttershy as one competitor after another showcases their talents, the rainbow maned pegasus in question taking a long time to appear. Pinkie Pie now has one hoof stuck in a hand with the index finger pointing up, the other hoof in a hand with four fingers extended, cheering just as loudly as when they started. Doug tentatively says, barely heard above the din of the crowd, “So, do you think we still need to worry about Rainbow being nervous?” “No,” Fluttershy says, shaking her head after the thirteenth performance, finally spotting Rainbow. She points a hoof at the still fuming pegasus, “I think she’s too busy being angry with you.” The cerulean pegasus stops in the entryway, hotly staring at the crowded, cheering audience. Her harsh glare slowly traces over each cloud, finally resting on the two clouds containing Herd Apple. Behind her, Rarity takes wing alongside a lilting, melodic dance, which only serves to fuel Rainbow’s rage. Whispers ring out through the audience. “What’s going on?” “Is this a duo?” ”Two separate competitors at the same time?” “Look! A unicorn!” “Wow, those wings!” The pegasus takes a step back, a deep gulp of breath before she takes off like a bullet. She weaves back and forth among a long line of cloud pylons on the lowest part of the Cloudiseum, the ground faintly visible far, far below. She gradually gets faster and faster until she is nothing but a rainbow blur zipping around, the fastest performance yet, and she’s still picking up speed. Rarity takes to the sky, her hooves artfully gliding from one position to another in a complicated dance. Her wings barely seem to flutter at times, often losing ten or thirty feet at a time as she lets herself fall, often to the swoons of the audience, only to lift herself back up to the next hold with a flurry of activity. All of a sudden Rainbow slams into one of the pylons, veering off course and directly at section five. A gasp comes from the crowd as her sprint turns into a rapid climb, her wake nearly blowing several ponies off the clouds. Doug can swear Rainbow is glaring directly at him, his hands coming to secure the fillies as a gust of wind slams into him, forcing him into the cloud. Rarity continues her gradual climb, every second or third delicate maneuver taking her higher and higher into the sky. Her wings pause for longer and longer, her dives and resulting climbs even more spectacular as she poses for full seconds at a time, then elegant hairpin turns that leave her soaring through the air. Her butterfly wings send brilliant shards of light in every direction, a dazzling display of emerald greens, sapphire blues, and ruby reds. Rainbow rises high above the Cloudiseum as Fluttershy remarks to Doug, “Now she’s entering phase two!” Rainbow zooms around several clouds, alternating which direction she is turning and making twisters blowing air away from the spectators. After three pairs of twisters she pauses on the far side, a deep breath into the heavy wind as she readies herself. Rarity pauses on the apex of her highest leap yet, her eyes closed as she kicks out a leg, the music coming to a wailing crescendo that abruptly cuts off. Rarity hangs in midair, her wings spreading a final wave of scintillating color before they disappear, the unicorn neatly pirouetting as she plummets down. “Wooow,” everypony gasps as music resumes, a fast, chaotic melody that rings through the stadium. Half of the eyes in the stadium are transfixed on the mesmerizing poise of the unicorn, the other half holding their breath and breathlessly waiting for the climax of the duo’s performance. “That was so cool!” Fluttershy exclaims, grinning from ear to ear. “Ready for phase three?” she glances over, a small hole in the cloud. Her eyes spread wide, her pupils narrowing to pinpricks. “Doug?” Rainbow bursts forward, accelerating as fast as she can, the Cloudiseum obscured by the rotating twisters. Her teeth slam shut, her lips whipping back and forth from the extreme speed. Her wings burn as a bubble of white forms in front of her outstretched hooves, warding away the worst of the wind, her aerodynamic dart piercing through her wall of air. The trick bumps her relative airspeed up but not enough to break the sound barrier, the strained effort starting to get to her. It isn’t until Rarity disappears out the bottom of the Cloudiseum that anypony realizes that her panicked flailing isn’t a part of the act, her screams drowned by the swinging beat. Rainbow’s concentration is nearly broken as she instantly takes in the scene below. Half of the audience are eagerly cheering her on, raising their hooves into the air. The other half has hooves covering their mouths, looking down. In the center of the Cloudiseum plummets her herdmate. The pegasi supposed to be watching for overboard ponies are, to a feather, watching her dive. The judge’s seats are vacant, six blue forms leaping forward. In the second it takes her to go from high above the stadium to level with the top of the Cloudiseum she has come to several startling realizations, though she would never recall having made them. The audience is uniformly useless, rigid in their seats as they watch the scene unfold. Except for the clouds Herd Apple are using, one of which has a hole quickly sealing itself suit. Doug is not among the audience, instead free falling nearly a thousand feet below the Cloudiseum. His backpack looks intact, his arms and legs outstretched to slow himself as much as possible, his head twisted around and staring directly at Rarity as he guides himself towards her. Rarity is only a few yards laterally but dozens above Doug, the distance quickly closing. Her wings are completely gone, ash in the wind that Rainbow already blazed past. The unicorn is flailing around randomly, focusing her attention upwards on her descending pursuers, her horn shining blue as she desperately grasps at anything within range. Three of the six Wonderbolts, the fastest sprinters in Equestria, are closing with the unicorn, no smoke contrails on their rapid descent. Their muzzles are grimly set, hooves outstretched as they race to get to the unicorn before the far-too-quickly approaching ground puts an abrupt end to their fall. And the three lightweights would need everypony working simultaneously to pull Rarity out of her dive. The other three Wonderbolts are straining as hard as they can, but not fast enough. They, along with the two responding overboard pegasi, have just about given up, though they are still pouring on speed in case the rescuers need help climbing, or if somepony is injured by the fall, or by some miracle they manage to catch up in time. Rainbow blows through the Cloudiseum, the ponies fixated on her suddenly realizing what is going on below. Princess Celestia and Twilight Sparkle’s eyes glow white, watching as the Wonderbolts surround Rarity, moving into position to rescue the panicking unicorn. All of a sudden Spitfire, the closest pegasi, is surrounded by a blue aura and wrenched towards Rarity. The startled pegasus barely has time to lift her hooves before Rarity’s flailing foreleg slams into her, knocking the goggles off the stunned mare. The other two Wonderbolts draw too close to Rarity as their eyes follow their leader, Rarity’s hind legs knocking into their jaws as she tries to get closer to her would-be rescuers. If Rainbow was a more calculating pony, she might have looked at the situation with a different eye. With her speed and angle she can only choose one. A single human who could save himself, his parachute possibly interfering with her dive if he deploys it at the wrong time. A solitary unconscious pony, fiery mane streaming upwards, her idol and Wonderbolt she most looked up to, slowly drifting towards the human. One disoriented pegasus, cobalt mane covering his face, who she desperately wants to apologize to, and couldn’t let fall to his death hating her, or even just disappointed. Another Wonderbolt, teal and white mane bundled up, listlessly drifting away from the group, groggily looking at nothing in particular. A flailing unicorn, her herdmate; who, by trying to save, would certainly get them both killed. At this speed, this close to the ground, grabbing two ponies is past the limit of anypony to lift, especially somepony of her build. But Rainbow doesn’t believe in limits. She would never have performed a Sonic Rainboom if she did.