//------------------------------// // The Next Day // Story: In The Shadow Of The Storm // by Summer Knight //------------------------------// An exhausted Starlight Glimmer unlocked and opened the front door of Twilight's castle. It was early the following morning and they were only just getting there. Of course, the only way she knew it was early morning was by checking the clock tower. The sun hadn't moved since the attack on Canterlot. Getting an engine around to the other side of the train had been even more of a problem than they'd let on, requiring the engine to go many miles around Canterlot and reconnect with the tracks on the other side so it could be backed up into position. Starlight, in a half-asleep daze, had wondered more than once whether it would have been worth it to just walk home to Ponyville after all. At least it had been a somewhat productive train ride. The "Council of Friendship," which she was apparently now a part of, had spent hours hashing out plans and details with the three royal guards. Unfortunately, those guards didn't have much more military experience than any of the others, but they had at least caught a couple of obvious problems. For instance, Starlight's brilliant plan to hide out at the Tree of Harmony hadn't taken into account that ponies needed food. They'd agreed that it was a good fallback position, however, and that they should stock it with supplies in case the worst happened. Starlight lit up the front hall and waved for the others to come in. The chorus of "ooh"s and "aah"s as they saw the inside of the magical castle sounded like talons on a chalkboard to her, but she kept a smile plastered to her muzzle. These ponies were from Canterlot, surely they'd seen more impressive buildings? Then again, a building that looked like a crystal tree, grown from the very embodiment of Harmony, did impart a certain awe that even the Canterlot Castle couldn't quite capture. Starlight looked around at the refugees. They didn't come close to filling the huge hall, but when she thought about actually having to care for so many ponies she started to feel a little bit ill. Trixie was there too; she'd had to leave her wagon behind when they fled Canterlot, meaning she was now effectively homeless. Starlight wasn't sure whether she was grateful for a friendly face or annoyed that she had yet another pony to take care of. Plus, there was the fact that Trixie could become... a lot, if you spent too long with her. "There are so many of them," she muttered under her breath. "They've got nowhere else to go, Starlight," Spike answered just as quietly. "Besides, there are plenty of bedrooms for everypony. I can do the cooking," he added, trying to placate her, "and they'll clean up after themselves. They'd better, anyway." "I know. I guess I can handle the shopping," Starlight offered reluctantly. "We're going to need a lot of food." Not just to feed them all now, but to stock up supplies in case the town came under siege, plus extras to ship out to the Everfree Forest. "Not just food," Aurora butted in. "These ponies will need toiletries, bedding, cold weather gear⁠—" "It's summer!" Starlight protested. "Better safe than sorry. Especially if we're up against someone called 'The Storm King.'" Starlight sighed. "Point taken." This was shaping up to be a massive headache and they hadn't even started yet. Hopefully it would all be a moot point. Hopefully the others would kick Tempest Shadow's flank out of Canterlot in a day or two, and everything would be back to normal. They had a pretty good track record with that kind of thing, especially when their friends were in trouble. Like Twilight... "Thanks again for letting them all stay here," Spike said. "Yeah," Starlight grunted. "It just feels good to be doing something, y'know?" Spike continued when he saw that Starlight was clearly still not thrilled with the idea. "I think it's what Twilight would have done." Starlight bit her tongue on a furious retort. How would he know what Twilight would have done?! Are you serious? she berated herself a moment later, when the flare of anger died down. Spike was basically Twilight's son. Or maybe more like a younger brother; their relationship was hard to pin down sometimes. Regardless, if there was anyone missing Twilight more than her, it was Spike. And yet the baby dragon is acting more mature than you are. Also, he's completely right, and you know it. Starlight took a deep breath, using the breathing technique that Twilight had taught her to center herself. "Okay." She stomped a hoof emphatically. "Speaking of what Twilight would do, we need to make a checklist of supplies that we'll need in case this drags on longer than a couple of days. We also need to look over the artifacts we've got here and make sure that anything dangerous is safely hidden." She wasn't sure whether she was more worried about Tempest Shadow's monsters or a hapless refugee finding those artifacts, so hiding them away from both seemed prudent. "Luckily, Twilight kept very careful records of what's in the castle, so that second part shouldn't be too hard. Then we'll nee—" she interrupted herself with a jaw-cracking yawn. "We'll need to meet back up with the others and finalize plans for defending Equestria." Defending Equestria, she thought dryly. I say it like it's so simple. Still, she did have leadership experience of a sort, and she knew that confidence counted for a lot. "With your permission, I can get started on the supply list," Ivory Wind offered. Starlight nodded. "Yeah, please." Ivory saluted sharply and went to find a space to work. He moved stiffly, as if marching in a parade. "Someone needs to take the poker out of his plot," Starlight muttered to herself. "Huh?" Spike asked, looking up with naive eyes. Starlight's face flushed until it was nearly the color of Pinkie Pie's. "Uh, nothing! Nothing." She smiled too widely and fanned her face nervously with a hoof. "Say, Spike, could you go get Ivory some parchment and a quill?" "Sure thing." He hurried off to fetch them. "I'll put on coffee for everypony too." "That's the best idea I have ever heard." She watched as Spike hustled away on his errands. A hollow pit of dread was opening in her stomach at the enormity of all of this, but freaking out wouldn't help anypony. There was nothing to do except take things step by step. "Item one: make a checklist." Starlight imitated Twilight's voice, then sighed and shook her head sadly. "Only about a million more items to go." Rainbow Dash was jolted awake by a sharp pounding noise. Adrenaline flooded her almost instantly. Were they being attacked? Where was she, anyway? This definitely wasn't her cloud house, and the bed underneath her was made of something solid. She held perfectly still, but her eyes darted around frantically. She saw wooden floors, white walls, and plain blue-checkered curtains that she wouldn't have picked up if she'd had a knife to her throat. Definitely not her room in Twilight's castle, either. Had she been captured in her sleep? It took a few seconds for her mind to catch up to her fight-or-flight instincts and remember that she'd spent the night at the inn in Riverbend. "Ms. Dash," a too-cheerful stallion called from the other side of the door, "this is the wake up call you requested!" Rainbow Dash groaned and reluctantly pulled her aching body into a sitting position. She was feeling every one of those trips up and down the mountain. Her wings felt like they were coated in lead, and burned fiercely when she tried to move them. She winced and focused on extending them slowly, hoping to coax the muscles into loosening up. She winced as the innkeeper pummeled the door again. "Up and at 'em, Ms. Dash!" "Yeah, yeah, I'm up," Rainbow groused. She yawned and rubbed her bleary eyes. "Thank you." As much as she wanted to sleep until noon and recover from yesterday, she had a long flight ahead of her. What she wouldn't have given for an hour at the Ponyville Spa, though; the twins worked wonders on knotted muscles. Suck it up, Dash. There were a lot of ponies counting on her to make this trip, sore wings or not. Hoping that a good dose of sunlight would help her wake up, she rolled out of bed and pulled the curtains aside, then had to throw a foreleg up to shield her eyes as she was nearly blinded by the light streaming in. Why is the sun so high? She had a moment of panic, thinking that somehow she had overslept in spite of her wake up call, but a quick glance at the clock said otherwise. What is Celestia—oh. Now that was something she hadn't considered. The sun was going to stay right where it was until they either saved the princesses or found another pony powerful enough to move it. That's... not good. Which made it all the more important that she get a move on. She straightened out her wings again, wincing and then sighing in relief as several joints popped. She gave an experimental flap and nodded in satisfaction. She shouldn't be trying any sonic rainbooms today, but she'd make it to the Crystal Empire if she paced herself. She opened the bedroom door and was immediately greeted with the delicious scents of fresh bread, hay bacon, and coffee. Her stomach growled in anticipation of what she'd find in the common area. Okay, breakfast first, then I get a move on. Tempest Shadow stalked through the courtyard of Canterlot Palace⁠—she refused to call that gaudy building a castle. The worst part of being in the vanguard was waiting for the rest of the army to catch up. She cast a critical eye at the decorations around her, ruthlessly calculating their value to the military or the infrastructure. Statues. We could break them into rubble, use that to repair walls or pave roads. Cut down the hedge maze and use the space as a practice field. Is it even worth reinforcing the palace, or would it be cheaper in the long run to raze it and build a proper castle? Those were issues for the bean counters, not the military leaders, but she had little else to occupy her mind just then. "Tempest, look!" Grubber pointed to the west. Tempest turned her head, but didn't see anything except a distant rainbow. Then she squinted and looked more closely. Whatever it was, it was heading north at high speed. Rainbows don't move. "Guard!" she barked at the nearest storm creature. "What is that?" She pointed toward the unnatural rainbow. The guard grunted and scratched his head. He dug into a pouch and pulled out a small spyglass⁠—small for him, anyway, it was still as large as one of Tempest's legs. The creature held the glass up to one eye and trained it northwest, then turned back to his commander. "Pony," he grunted. "Flying pony." That's a pegasus?! No pegasus she'd ever seen could fly at such speeds. Plus, why would it pass so close to an occupied city? Bait for an ambush? No, there was nowhere an attacking force could be hiding. Was the pegasus just taking the shortest route? If so, the shortest route to what destination? "I want eyes on that pony!" Tempest roared. "Find out where it's going and why. Launch an airship immediately!" The storm creature grunted and galumphed away, using that odd knuckle-walk that the storm creatures relied on when they were in a hurry. Tempest turned back to glare at the fading rainbow. She considered maps that she'd studied and tried to figure out the pony's destination. North by northwest. What was out that way? Cloudsdale was the obvious answer. Beyond that, there wasn't much of anything until you got to Yakyakistan, if that little speck of a kingdom even counted as "something." However, a slight adjustment would put the pegasus right on track for the Crystal Empire. It was only a matter of time until the Crystal Prince found out that his wife had been taken, but it would be disastrous if he mobilized before the rest of the Storm King's army arrived. "Grubber!" Tempest barked. "Send a message that all airships near the Crystal Mountains are to be on high alert. An extremely fast pegasus may be attempting to get a message through to the Crystal Empire." "Yes, ma'am!" He scampered off to carry out the order. The pegasus's rainbow contrail was nearly out of sight already. Hopefully the pony was just going to Cloudsdale, where the greatest threat was what passed for Equestria's air force: the so-called Wonderbolts. While technically a military unit, they were primarily stunt flyers and showponies, so they shouldn't pose much of a threat. The Crystal Empire, on the other hoof... Tempest ran some hasty calculations. If that pegasus got a message to the Crystal Prince today, he could lead his standing army on a forced march to Canterlot. The unmoving sun would actually be a boon for them, since they wouldn't need to wait for daylight to start traveling each day. Could they reach Canterlot within two days, before the Storm King arrived with the rest of his forces? How long could Tempest's advance force hold the city if they did? However, she reminded herself, these ponies didn't know that there was a much larger army on the way. They'd have no reason to rush things. Even if they did get to Canterlot before the Storm King, Tempest was holding four of the most valuable prisoners in the world. In the worst-case scenario, she could stall the prince with "negotiations" until her reinforcements arrived. Tempest nodded to herself and headed back toward the palace, toward her makeshift war room. She had plans to make and orders to give. It was unlikely, bordering on impossible, that the Crystal Army would get here before the Storm King did. But, if that pegasus was delivering a message, and if it slipped past the Storm King's patrols, and if the prince mobilized and rushed to Canterlot, she would be prepared. She had too much riding on this campaign to leave anything to chance. One of the airships turned slowly away from Canterlot, its nose swinging around to point northwest. Straight toward Rainbow Dash. "Oh, please," she scoffed. She might not be at the top of her game right now, but she'd still fly circles around that clunky thing. Any of the Wonderbolts would, and if the airship tried to follow her to Cloudsdale then it was going to fly straight into all of them. The ship was hardly a threat. She poured on a little more speed anyway. Her wings burned in protest, but she gritted her teeth and kept flying. She looked back and saw with some alarm that, far from being left behind, the airship was slowly closing the gap between them. Dark clouds poured out of its aft like some gross parody of the Wonderbolts. Looking ahead, she could just barely make out the colors of the rainbows around Cloudsdale. She was nearly there, but wasn't sure that she'd reach safety before the airship caught her. She briefly considered veering off course and outmaneuvering the slow-turning ship, but her wings already felt like they had lead weights on them. Adding more distance to her flight would be dangerous, and if the ship didn't take the bait then it could easily fly ahead and cut off her route to Cloudsdale. She was better off just taking the remaining distance at a sprint. Rainbow Dash clenched her teeth and increased her speed again. Now the distance between her and the airship was holding steady, but there was no way she could keep up this pace for long. She groaned in frustration. If I were at 100% I could hit that thing with a sonic rainboom and be gone before they knew what happened! But she wasn't, and she couldn't. All she could do was ignore the searing pain in her wings, keep flying, and hope that she didn't tear a muscle. Now she was close enough to see the larger buildings of Cloudsdale. The weather factory came into view, and so did her destination: the Wonderbolts' headquarters. She nearly called out for help, but she was still too far away to be heard, and she needed all her breath for flying. Her lungs were burning in her chest, but she didn't dare slow down yet. She risked a glance behind and saw with dismay that the airship was catching up again. Her stamina was flagging, and she must have slowed down without realizing it. Come on, Dash. Almost there! She tried to fly faster, but she was at her limit. She looked back again, and her keen eyes spotted harpoon guns being pointed her way. Adrenaline gave her a momentary burst of speed, but in only a few seconds the ship was catching up again. She wasn't sure what the range was on those guns, but she had a sinking feeling that she was about to find out. She braced herself to take evasive action. Three blue streaks shot by overhead, trailed by black clouds. Two more came roaring in and took up flanking positions on Rainbow Dash. Her eyes were stinging from the wind, but after a few blinks, the blue blurs resolved into her teammates Thunderlane and High Winds. Rainbow Dash heaved a sigh of relief that she felt all the way down to her hooves. "Man, am I glad to see you guys!" "What did you get yourself into this time, Crash?" Thunderlane asked teasingly. "Long story," Rainbow Dash panted. "Gotta talk to Spitfire." "Don't worry," High Winds said. "We'll get you there." Rainbow Dash looked back once more to see three more Wonderbolts harassing the airship. They would fly past, hitting anyone or anything they could reach, and be gone before the slow-moving monsters onboard could react. The three of them buzzed and circled around it like angry hornets around a scared foal, and it wasn't long before the airship broke off the chase and swung back toward Canterlot. "Whoa!" Rainbow yelped as she suddenly lost a few feet of altitude. Thunderlane and High Winds were there in a heartbeat, supporting her with their bodies and guiding her back toward Cloudsdale. "Hang in there," Thunderlane urged. "Not much farther." "I'm... not going... anywhere," Rainbow Dash promised between her gasps for breath. With the threat of the airship gone for now, they were able to slow their pace. The other three 'Bolts, who turned out to be Fleetfoot, Soarin, and Surprise, quickly caught up and took up positions around them. With the exhausted Rainbow Dash supported and protected at the center of their formation, they limped the rest of the way back to the base. As they drew near, Rainbow Dash could see a stormy-faced Spitfire standing outside waiting for them, and she mentally rehearsed what she would say. "Report!" Spitfire snapped as the six of them touched down. "Ma'am." Soarin saluted sharply. "Rainbow Dash is safe, and the unidentified airship has retreated. There were no casualties." "Good. Now I need to know who and what we're up against out there. I expect a full report on my desk by noon," Spitfire ordered. "Yes, ma'am." Soarin's wings drooped at the thought of paperwork. Spitfire dropped her hardass demeanor long enough to give a nod of approval. "That was some fine flying, 'Bolts." As the others beamed, Rainbow Dash took a half step forward. "Ma'am, permission to speak?" she croaked weakly. Spitfire gave her an appraising look, and she was suddenly all too aware that she was caked in dried sweat, her mane had been blown into a rat's nest, and her eyes were dry and bloodshot from the wind. Her exhausted wings trembled involuntarily at her sides, her throat was parched, and her lungs were on fire. "Crash, you look like you used a hurricane for a hair dryer!" Spitfire barked. "Get yourself cleaned up and report to my office. You've got fifteen minutes. Dismissed!"