"OK, we're safely through the tunnel, now we'll have to get over the chasm bridges... Pinkie Pie, shut that window, you're not going to convince those clouds to come any closer!"
"Can you blame a pony for trying?"
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Twilight Sparkle rolled her eyes as Pinkie shut the train window as the express train travelling the Canterlot-Ponyville route began crossing the first of a series of bridges that twisted and turned their way up the side of the mountain Canterlot was built on. The Element Bearers were alone on the train, which was only doing the run after Twilight showed the operator the message from Celestia.
"I still don't know why ya couldn't just teleport us all over there, Twilight. Would be faster, right?" Applejack asks as she stands in the carriage aisle beside Twilight and Pinkie.
"Five other ponies over that distance? No, it's way too risky. Besides, it's hard to get Pinkie to stay still long enough for me to get a good lock on her location." Twilight replies with a shake of her head, the last comment producing an irritated "hmph" from Pinkie Pie beside her.
"Looks like there's a lot more of those strange clouds where the one we brought down came from..." Rarity comments from the opposite side of the aisle from where the other three mares were positioned, looking out her window as she speaks.
"Yeah, you got all kinds of stuff coming down in those chasms, not just chocolate milk..." Rainbow Dash adds from the seat behind Rarity, also looking out a window.
"I wonder where all those clouds are coming from anyway... maybe we can figure out what's generating them and adjust it to have it rain whatever we want!" Pinkie Pie exclaims enthusiastically.
"I dunno Pinkie, I think ponies could get carried away if we tried to do that..." Twilight cautions.
"Besides, if you're thinkin' I'm gonna stand here and let you TRY to make a cloud that rains apples or applesauce or anythin' with apples in it, THINK AGAIN!" Applejack snips out, it now being her turn to be irritated.
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"Hey, one of those strange clouds is coming our way. And it's raining something... yellowish..." Rarity comments, biting her lower lip as she does so.
"I hope that's not a waste disposal cloud. It's not very nice for it to be doing whatever it looks like its going to do..." Fluttershy finally squeaks up from a position several rows back from the other Element Bearers.
"There's very strict rules about where the waste disposal clouds can and cannot dump their loads." Twilight Sparkle adds. "It was one of the required conditions Princess Celestia set before she would allow any pegasi to live in Canterlot. But with the clouds acting crazy for whatever reason..."
By this point, Pinkie had carefully opened her window again, and a few seconds later the yellowish liquid began pitter-pattering on the train, the cloud roughly following the train as it continued crossing the trusses on its way to Canterlot. Pinkie cautiously stuck her snout out into the falling liquid and took a few sniffs.
"Doesn't smell like something that would come out of that cloud..." Pinkie comments, licking the liquid off her snout after finishing. "In fact, it tastes like... cider! Apple cider!"
"Cider!" Rainbow Dash eagerly exclaims, flinging open her own window and trying to catch the liquid drops in her mouth in much the same manner Pinkie had initially acted before the cider-raining cloud had moved over the train.
"Rainbow Dash, get back in here! Seriously, acting like Pinkie Pie isn't going to help anypony..." Rarity exclaims, working her way back to Rainbow Dash's seat and yanking her back completely inside the train. This produced a pouting attitude on Dash's part as Rarity shuts her window, Twilight doing the same for Pinkie's window.
"I wonder if those clouds can rain something more solid..." Fluttershy squeaks up again.
"I think they might, I saw solid things fall out of some of the clouds over in the chasms..." Rainbow Dash answers, still in her irritated crossed-forehooves pose.
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Shortly after Rainbow Dash finished her sentence, there was a pronounced change in the noise from the falling objects outside. Instead of the "pitter-patter" of a falling liquid, a variety of different sounds took their place. Some were "thunks" or "donks", others were a "splat" or a "plop" noise, and often the two different types of sounds followed each other in sequence.
"Now what's going on?" Rarity naturally asks, with she and most of the other Element Bearers now poised as if trying to listen carefully to the sounds from outside of the train.
"I don't know but I think the raining items have..." Twilight begins to respond, but never getting to finish due to being interrupted by the screeching of the train's brakes suddenly being employed. Instantly, most of the Element Bearers tumble to the floor, Fluttershy going head-over-hooves due to her positioning.
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The screeching brakes drowned out all other sounds for several seconds as the train ground its way to a halt, stopping in the middle of one of the chasm bridges. A few seconds after the train stopped, an earth pony stallion acting as the train's engineer opens the door leading into the train carriage the Element Bearers were currently in and hustles down the aisle toward where they were sprawled on the floor or upside down between the seats.
"What's going on?! Why'd we stop like that?" Rainbow Dash asks in a dazed, irritated tone of voice as the engineer helps the group of mares back up on their hooves.
"The driver's judged it too dangerous to continue on. When it was just liquid raining, we thought things would be alright, but when it changed to quesadillas..." the train engineer begins to explain.
"Quesa-whats now?" Applejack interrupts, not familiar with the food item just described.
"Quesadillas, Applejack. They're actually super-delicious, if not super-cheesy at the same time. I should make some for you some time..." Pinkie Pie helpfully answers.
"And all that cheese is going to gum up the train wheels and cause a derailment. Too dangerous to continue on until it blows over." Twilight Sparkle adds on, looking up warily as another "splat" is heard on the train carriage roof.
"But dahling, we can't just keep Princess Celestia waiting when she urgently needs our help! There must be something that can be done to get the cloud to go away!" Rarity exclaims.
Twilight Sparkle looks thoughtful for a minute, then starts over toward a window, pushing it open and cautiously peeking out through the opening. All around the young mare can see quesadillas falling from the cloud above, some rebounding away (the "thunk" or "donk" noises) on hitting a solid surface, others splitting open or falling apart upon impact (the "splat" or "plop" noises) with their cheesy innards oozing out. This was happening not just on the roof of the train, but on the track itself and the supports of the bridge. The force of the impacts wouldn't be enough to do structural damage, but the resulting mess would definitely cause problems for any train trying to pass over it. The cloud needed to be dissipated, and fast!
"Twilight, what are you doing?" Rainbow Dash asks, as the other Element Bearers crowd the still-closed windows next to Twilight's open one.
"I have an idea." Twilight answers, magenta-colored magic forming on her horn. She squints her eyes as the magical energy grows steadily in brightness, quickly forming a sphere centered on her horn.
As both the other Element Bearers and the train engineer watch, the sphere of magic energy blasts skyward, leaving a trail of sparks like a firework would behind it, before disappearing into the cloud. A low rumbling is heard, and a pinkish flash of light is seen from inside the cloud.
"Hmm, that should've be enough to blow apart the cloud from..." Twilight comments with a disappointed tone before being interrupted by a yipe coming from Fluttershy, who is currently two rows behind her.
"Um, Twilight, was that supposed to create a black, swirling vortex of DOOM?!" Fluttershy forces out, and the other ponies watch as indeed the cloud seems to start collapsing into a black, swirling mass, the quesadillas still falling down around the stopped train.
As soon as the mass encompasses the whole cloud, the quesadillas finally stop falling, but now the black mass twists and distorts in various directions. Shortly afterwards, the cloud seems to burst in several places and a buzzing like insect wings begins to fill the air as swarms of indistinguishable objects fly out through the burst open areas.
"Oh, this can't be good!" Applejack exclaims as the group watches in petrified fear...