//------------------------------// // Chapter Seven, Part Three. (Written by Talon and Thorn) // Story: Multiversal Harmony // by RK_Striker_JK_5 //------------------------------// “Hey, Dash! Front and centre!” came a call from the deck. Rainbow turned her head to see Cloud Kicker waving at her. Carefully tying off the rope she had been working with - she wasn’t going to make that mistake again - she swooped out to the cloud which made up the body of the craft. She’d never worked on such a vehicle in her world, but she liked to think she was picking it up quickly, after a few missteps. “What is it Cloud?” she asked.  “That’s Captain Kicker to you cloudsmare!” growled Lightning Dust. The first officer was standing next to the captain. Dash sighed. The two days or so she’d spent on the cloud ship had actually been quite fun. Most of the crew were actually a fairly decent lot, apart from Lightning, who was a serious pain in the flank.  “Cloud’s fine,” said Cloud Kicker, waving a dismissive hoof. “We’re all friends here, although if you’d like to follow me into my cabin maybe the three of us could be a little more than friends?” She wiggled her eyebrows, to both Rainbow and Lightning’s disgust. “I guess not, but I still want you both in my cabin. We’ve got the next raid to plan.” “Captain! I protest!” exclaimed Lightning, giving Dash the stink eye. “There’s no reason a mere cloudsmare should be involved in a discussion of strategy. All she should know is to follow instructions!” “Dash showed herself to be a pretty good fighter back in the last raid. And given she’s a virgin she could probably do with being shown the ropes.” Dash’s face flushed red and she was about to snap back at Cloud when she realised the mare meant this was her first time attacking a farm... well she probably meant that, it was hard to say with Cloud. The captain hurried the two of them into the cabin which, to Dash’s surprise wasn’t actually all that big. It was, of course, dominated by a silk-covered bed far larger than a single pony would need. Next to it was a surprisingly clean set of armour on a stand and a table with a cloud construct on it, apparently showing the nearby terrain. It reminded Dash a little of the table of models Shining Armour didn’t think she knew he kept in his quarters.   “Anyway,” said Cloud, gesturing at the map, “the scouts have spotted a target, a big one, a few leagues off. It's a large farmstead or maybe even a small town. They didn’t report any defences, and it looks like there was a recent harvest. So there should be a lot of goodies to snatch.”  Dash frowned, she was hardly an expert, but she’d spent enough time around Applejack to get an idea of farming. It didn’t look like harvest season down below, she would swear it was spring. Still who knew on this crazy world! “Very well, Captain,” said Lightning, “I’ll get the crew ready for an assault and prime the cannon. Those ground pounders won’t know what hit them!” “Hold your horses!” said Cloud with a grin. “Something about this seems just a little too good to be true. I want to get a full recon before we go in, mark out targets. We may not even need the cannon.” Lightning scowled, but after a moment nodded. “Fine,” she eventually agreed, “I’ll lead one of the teams and-” “Actually I’ll be leading on the ground,” said Cloud. “I’ll take Dash with me, Sky, Vapour and the Gust twins as well. That should be enough.” “Need I remind you that the last time you led a scouting party you ended up getting captured?” said Lightning, her teeth grinding.  “Yeah,” said Cloud with a grin, “but I remember what went wrong. I’ll avoid the stallion’s shower block this time.” “Be serious! And why take Dash with you? She’ll probably fly back to her ground pounding friends at the first opportunity!” “Hey!” exclaimed Dash, although if it wasn’t for Ditzy being held hostage she’d probably have been out of here by now.  “All the more reason for me to keep an eye on her,” said Cloud. “Now if you keep the ship back here,” she indicated a spot on the map. “We’ll fly down to here and approach on hoof at night, try to find where they keep the good stuff. Then we mark the place with clouds. The rest of the crew can be in and out before they even know we’re coming. Minimum fuss, maximum goodies!” Dash peered over at the map. “I bet they store most of the harvest in there.” She pointed at a large barn, it looked like the one on Sweet Apple Acres. “If it’s like the one I’ve seen there should be some pretty big doors there and there.” “See? I told you Dash would be good at this!” Dash grinned for a moment, then frowned. It was easy to forget that they were planning to steal the community’s food, food which they’d no doubt worked hard to grow despite all the vines covering the land. “Look, do we really need to do this?” she asked, “Couldn’t we just ask them for food? Or pay for it?” Lightning snorted. “Like that’s going to happen!” “Look, Dash. Back when the the vines first turned up we tried all that, but Cloudsdale’s a big place and we need a lot of food. Nopony’s just going to give us what we need. I know it’s not nice, but given a choice between Cloudsdale starving or some ground ponies going hungry, well it’s no contest. They can always just grow more food.” She shrugged. Dash bit back a response. She knew farming didn’t just work that way! It was hard to see Cloud like this. In some ways she was just like her old friend, in others... well she was so cold. “Yeah, I guess we better get on with things then.” The sooner she got off the ship the sooner she could try and track down her friends and try to sort out who the element bearer was.  “That’s the spirit,” said Cloud, slapping Dash on the back with a wing. “We should be in position in an hour or two.” “With your permission, Captain, I’ll go and prepare the rest of the crew,” said Lightning, giving a salute.  “Fine,” Cloud said, nodding.  Lightning quickly left the room, her body language changing as she did so. Her posture relaxed and a scowl graced her face. She looked around for a moment, then set off towards the closest crewmembers. “Score!” she cried, causing the stallion to stand to attention. “Look lively, I want the whole ship on alert. We’ve got a target in sight.” “Aye, aye,” said the stallion as he started off. “Actually,” said Lightning, causing him to pause. “Who’s manning the lightning cannon?” “Nopony. The captain ordered it locked down after the last raid.” Lightning seemed to consider it for a moment. “Right, I better check it just in case. After all,” she grinned, “you never know when we might need it.” Ditzy cautiously glanced around to see if anypony was watching her. It looked like she was alone for the moment. She put down the mop she was carrying and edged towards a nearby door. She’d spent several days working in the Kicker household, and so far as she had to admit her situation wasn’t as bad as it could be. But she was still being kept as a slave! The family wasn’t cruel, but they mostly seemed to consider her part of the furniture. The other servants and her fellow captives treated her decently, and at least she was fed and given somewhere warm to sleep. Although the portions were only just above starvation rations, and she shared a dormitory with a dozen other maids. Still, she was glad for what Dash had done to get her here. From what the other staff had told her there were far worse places to work in Cloudsdale, but that wasn’t going to stop her trying to escape. Somewhere out there were her friends. And she needed to find them, somehow.  Trying the door, she was relieved to find it unlocked. It was one of several parts of the house which were restricted to the staff, but despite that, she’d spotted a small group of visitors frequently entering and exiting it. Ditzy hoped that she could find some way out of the estate, maybe even a way down to the ground. Her wings itched inside their binders. Apparently they were removed once a week to give the slaves a chance to exercise under guard, but she’d seen how wasted the older staff’s flight muscles were. If she didn’t get away soon she wouldn’t be able to. Trying to put that worrying thought aside she slipped into the room beyond the door. It was depressingly normal, paintings and furniture lining the walls, mostly covered in dust sheets. Was this just part of the house that wasn’t currently in use? Frowning, Ditzy carefully made her way around the room. Why would the ponies come here if it was just a storeroom? Could there have been something in here they wanted? Oddly, one of the tables seemed to be standing at an angle. Was there something wrong with the cloud that made up the floor? She started to kneel down to get a better look at it... “What are you doing here!?” came a voice from behind her, which caused Ditzy to jump. Her wings painfully slapped against her binders as they tried to spread. She was shocked to see a figure in armour standing in the doorway.  “Oh, um, err, I was cleaning!” she exclaimed.  “This area is off limits to servants!” snapped the figure as she entered the room. To Ditzy’s surprise the ‘guard’ was a filly, maybe only a few years older than Dinky. It was a thought that send a wave of homesickness through her. “I’m sorry, um, Miss Alula.” The younger pony examined Ditzy with suspicion. To Ditzy this seemed to be the worst part of the world they had found themselves in, that even foals were being armed and armoured to fight, trained to raid the ground bound tribes. Where youths should be playing they were instead trained for war. For once she was glad that Dinky wasn’t here with her. “Get out!” ordered the filly, nodding towards the door, “and don’t let me catch you in here again, this is off limits to staff!” “Sorry,” cried Ditzy as she headed towards the door, “I must be lost!” “Wait,” commanded Alula. “Didn’t I see you around the estate a few days ago? You were a new recruit, but you knew my name.” “I, um, one of the other servants told me.” “Maybe you should stop being quite so inquisitive,” warned Alula. “It can be dangerous to wander around the house and poke your snout into things that don’t involve you! Anything could happen,” she snapped as she shut the door in Ditzy’s face.  “Right. Sky Stinger, Vapour Trail you guys circle around to the right, check out the buildings over there. If there’s anything useful launch a cloud.” A blue stallion and white mare acknowledged Cloud’s orders with a salute. “And don’t think you can sneak off somewhere to make out! Save it for the victory celebration,” she warned with a wink. “Northeastern, Southwestern, you two head left. Keep down. It looks like they’re having some sort of meeting over there. Get back here if it looks like they’re about to finish.” Two near identical stallions nodded and set off, hopping carefully from cover to cover. “And that leaves you and me to check out the barn, Dash.” Dash nodded. The mission had gone to plan so far. They had dropped down from the ship about two miles away from the farmstead. It was big, but still a bit smaller than the one she’d found herself in a few days ago, and didn’t seem as well guarded. Their squad had made their way to the outskirts and was now spreading out to get a good look at what it might hold.  Carefully, Dash and Cloud made their way towards the large barn near to the centre of the settlement. The double doors were ajar, and Dash was about to make her way in when Cloud held up a hoof to stop her. “Look!” she hissed, pointing into the barn. There, in the shadows, two earth ponies were quietly unloading baskets of vegetables from the back of a cart and tipping the contents into larger crates. “Looks like we arrived at just the right time. They’re packing away the goodies. It’ll make them easier for us to take. It would be a shame to let all their hard work go to waste,” said Cloud with a grin. “Is this all some sort of joke to you?” snarled Dash, trying to keep her voice down. “They’ve worked so hard to get all this food and you think it’s right that we just steal it all!” She’d had just about enough of Cloud’s attitude. How could she think things like this were alright? “You think I like the way things are?” asked Cloud, genuinely sounding hurt. “If I thought things could work differently I’d go for it, but my orders are to take the food from this place. Without it Cloudsdale would starve!” “Have you tried anything different? Maybe asking for help? Maybe actually helping them in return?” She pointed at the ponies toiling away in the barn. “You think their job might be a bit easier if you guys actually helped with the weather rather than just stealing their stuff?” “Yeah, maybe.” Cloud turned away for a moment. “Look that sort of policy change, it’s above my pay grade. I’ve just got to believe that the brass know what they’re doing, that they’ve thought everything out and we’re doing the best we can.” “Above your pay grade?” hissed Rainbow. “Can’t you even think of anyone but yourself? Where’s your loyalty to ponykind?” “Hey, I am loyal! I’m loyal to Cloudsdale! I’m loyal to the chain of command. If I just went off and do what I want to all the time I could mess up some plan or something! I did my own thing before and... well things ended up this way! It’s better if I leave the thinking to the higher-ups.” “Yeah, I’m sure you’re just following orders! That makes everything alright.” Dash turned back to the barn. She couldn’t believe that Cloud could be this way. The Cloud Kicker from her world, well she was a goof off, a bit of an underachiever maybe, but she was a good pony at heart. How could this universe’s version do all this knowing it was wrong? “Look Dash,” began Cloud, reaching out a hoof towards Dash, “I know things don’t look that good, but I’ve heard some rumours that Wind Rider’s got some sort of plan. And that we might not need to raid so much-” “I don’t want to hear it,” said Dash shrugging, off Cloud’s grasp. Inside the barn the farmers seemed to have finished and were making their way back out via a side entrance. “I’ll head in and see how much they have, maybe we won’t need it all. Why don’t you stay out here and get the marker cloud ready?” “Dash I don’t think-” said Cloud. “I just need some time away from you!” After a moment, Cloud nodded. “Fine,” she said, “but don’t get any ideas about running or warning the farmers. I like you... but not that much.” Growling to herself, Dash quietly trotted into the barn. Despite Cloud’s warning she wondered if she could find some way to escape, maybe try to find her friends. Then they could head back to Cloudsdale and free Ditzy.  Something suddenly smashed into Dash’s flank, flipping her over. Her head snapped to one side, trying to find what had hit her, but her view exploded into a mass of pink hair threatening to smother her. “Dashie!” came an excited cry.  “Wha...!” exclaimed Dash as the air was driven from her lungs by the vice of Pinkie’s hug. “Pinkie, what?” she gasped.  “Everything alright in there?” came Cloud’s worried voice from the door.  “Yeah, um, there’s a scarecrow in here. I thought it was a farmer for a moment,” said Dash, thinking quickly as she tried to pry her over-enthusiastic friend off of her and get back on her hooves. “I should be done in a few minutes.” “Well, hurry up. I think the town meeting’s almost over. This place could be swarming with ground pounders in a minute.” “Pinkie, what are you doing here?” hissed Dash in astonishment.  “We followed you silly!” exclaimed her friend, giving her a further hug before hopping back.  “How? We?” asked Dash looking around.  “All of us,” came Octavia’s cultured voice as she stepped out of the shadows her grey coat had let her blend into. “Spike here managed to cast a tracking spell on you before you got away.” She nodded towards the ceiling.  Dash followed her gaze to see the unicorn, as well as Auntie Orange, lying partially obscured in the hay loft. She smiled. “I thought I might never see you guys again.” “Us too,” said Spike as he hopped down to the ground. “We’ve been trying to catch up with you for days now, but you kept moving around. Where have you been?” “Cloudsdale, the place is under martial law or something. I guess I’m a pirate now, or something.” She considered for a moment. “Which should be awesome, except it isn’t.” Being a pirate sounded great, until you realised it meant attacking ponies and taking their stuff. It was all far from the freelance treasure hunters she’d heard tales of.  “Where’s Ditzy?” asked Auntie as Pinkie helped her down from her perch. “Is she with you?” “Still in Cloudsdale. She’s working as, well, she’s a slave back at Cloud Kicker’s place.” There was a stunned silence for a moment.  “A slave!” exclaimed Pinkie. “That sounds like no fun at all!” “Yeah, well apparently Cloud’s family are one of the better ones up there. I’ve seen her and I think she’ll be ok for the moment. So what happened to you guys?” “Once they saw we were helping them fight the pirates the locals were a lot more friendly,” explained Spike. “All the nearby farms have some sort of defence pact going on. We were sent to warn them about the attack. We were helping fortify this farm when I realised your trace was getting stronger. So,” he said looking around, “what do we do now?” Dash looked at the faces of her companions. “We get Ditzy back.” “I agree, but I don’t see how the rest of us can do that,” said Octavia. “Unfortunately we aren't well equipped to get up to Cloudsdale.” Dash thought for a moment. “In my world there’s a spell which allows non-pegasus to walk on clouds.” She looked expectantly at Spike, who nodded after a moment.  “It exists in my world as well. I’ve used it once or twice, but how do we get there in the first place?” “Cloud’s ponies are here for the food,” Dash looked around at the crates stacked here and there. “Do you think you can fit into these?” she asked. The others looked over at them rather unhappily. “There’s not much spare room,” said Spike, “but I guess it might work.” “I’ll make sure that Cloud’s crew take them up to the ship during the raid and we’ll fly you straight to Cloudsdale. Once we’re there I’ll let you out and we can get our hooves on Ditzy.” “How do we get back again?” asked Octavia.  “We’ll sort something out,” said Dash airily. She wasn’t much for long term planning. She was sure Celestia would have a plan and a dozen contingencies in place, but she preferred to  improvise on the fly. Often literally. “How long do you think we’ll have to be in there,” asked Auntie, peering into the nearest crate.  “We should be back in Cloudsdale in less than a day, as the pegasus flies,” said Dash.  “Well I guess we don’t have an option. Unless somepony else has a better idea?” asked Auntie, a bit of pleading in her voice. “Sorry,” said Spike. “I’m not all that keen, but I think it’s the only option we have.” “Don’t worry, Auntie,” said Pinkie, throwing a leg over the older pony. “Just think of it as a super fun box party!” One by one, the group all slowly nodded their agreement. “Ok,” said Dash, “hurry up. I don’t know how long we’ve got until Cloud kicks off the raid.” Quickly the other ponies crawled into the containers, and Dash carefully closed the lids after checking that they were loose fitting enough to let air in.  “I don’t suppose you found any potential element bearers while you were about?” asked Octavia as her crate was closed.  “Sorry,” said Dash, glancing over towards the door. “I haven’t seen any loyalty here.”     “So what kept you?” asked Cloud Kicker as Dash joined her on the roof.  “Just checking out what they had stored in here.” “Yeah? Anything good?” “Um, an Orange, I mean a crate of oranges, and a bunch of nuts!” exclaimed Dash quickly.  “Really? Pretty exotic. Just as well. I was getting bored with apples. Once I set this thing off the rest of the crew should get here in a few minutes then we can grab the goodies.” Dash glanced across the farm at where the locals were still gathered in a group. “If we hurry they won’t even have a chance to stop us.” “Yep, nopony need get hurt. Look, I get your point about us stealing their stuff, but it is the only way. I don’t have anything against the ground pounders, I’d be happy if we could be in and out before they even notice.” Dash nodded as Cloud tapped a hoof against the small mass of cloud she’d set up on the barn’s roof. It quickly shot into the air, growing as it went, until it made up a black smudge against the sky. Hopefully anypony looking up from the ground would just see an unusual cloud. Any pegasus, though, would see it as totally out of place. After a moment it looked like the flare had done its job as the prow of the cloud ship broke through cloudbank in perfect silence. Grinning, Cloud leap into the air waving her legs to indicate the barn below them.  Dash moved to follow her, but felt a prickly sensation run up and down her wings. Turning her head, she noticed her plumage starting to stand up, and there was a sudden taste of ozone in her mouth. A sharp blue glow began to emanate from the ship, but Dash was already moving without thinking. Fast enough to leave a rainbow contrail, she plowed forwards into Cloud, catching the other mare in the back and throwing both of them towards the ground.  KRAK-A-BOOM! Blind and deaf, Dash felt herself crash to the ground and bounce once, twice before finally coming to rest. She felt the impact of something large land nearby and reached out a wing. Feeling another body nearby she instinctively crawled over and spread herself over it to protect if from whatever was falling all around them. Something struck her on the back and she cried out, then there was another impact nearby, and another. Eyes screwed up tight, she tensed her body, ready for the inevitable terminal impact. Something tapped her on the shoulder and she almost screamed, this was it....  “Hey! Look!” the voice seemed miles away, “It’s the Captain! And Dash!” Dash carefully managed to pry open one eye, but the other seemed to be swollen shut for the moment. She blinked against the sudden light. “Wha...” she finally managed to croak.  Several hooves grasped her and surprisingly gently lifted her off the ground. “Captain!” came the voice again. “Are you alright?” There was a groan followed by a mumble.  “I’ll never drink again, Mom! I swear!” came Cloud’s voice.  Dash painfully shook her head in an attempt to return to her senses. The area around her was covered by burning pieces of barn. Eye widening, she turned towards the building that she had left her friends in. The ceiling was entirely gone, ripped away by the force of the lightning but the walls seemed to be intact, as she watched a large crate was hefted towards the sky by a team of pegasus. “Are they alright?” she gasped. “The supplies?” asked the stallion, holding her in surprise. “Yeah, the gang’s taking them on board right now. The lightning cannon only took out the roof.” “The lightning cannon!” exclaimed Cloud, struggling to her hooves helped by the pegasus around her. “I’ll have Hoops’ head for that!” “It wasn’t me, Captain!” protested the stallion in question.  “Who was on duty then?” The crew looked around and shrugged. Only Score looked a little unsure.  “Maybe it was a misfire?” suggested Hoops.  “Maybe,” mused Cloud before turning to Rainbow. “Look, thanks for that, you just saved my life. If there’s anything I can do for you-” “Don’t think about it,” said Dash, stretching out her wings and wincing at the bruises covering her back. “Just call this raid thing off, you’ve got what you wanted.” She looked over at a group of earth ponies apparently recovering from the surprise of the attack and galloping towards them, hurling rocks and spears as they went. “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” said Cloud, looking at the approaching group. “Everypony! Back to the ship!” she bellowed. “You sure you can fly?” she asked Dash.  Dash gritted her teeth as she flapped her wings, but she slowly lifted off into the air. “The day I can’t fly is the day they can bury me in a cloud.” Cloud nodded. “Not that I wouldn’t mind you being buried in me,” she grinned at Dash’s annoyance, “but I want to find out what happened with that cannon first.” With somewhat less effort than Dash, she rose into the air towards the ship above.  The ship’s medic seemed to be surprisingly competent, and Dash quickly found herself checked out and bandaged. She was apparently very lucky to have avoided permanent damage, although thanks to her collection of bruises, she didn’t feel all that lucky. She spent most of the trip back napping in Cloud’s cabin, the Captain having offered her the bed with only the minimal of flirting. Cloud had spent much of the trip examining the lightning cannon without much luck. Dash considered it somewhat suspicious that Lightning Dust seemed to be keeping a low profile, but didn’t really have any evidence to back it up. Still,she certainly wasn’t going to spend any time alone with the second officer if she could help it.   Dash was surprised how quickly Cloudsdale once again came into view in front of them. The ship smoothly swept into the docks and the crew started to unload their recently looted cargo. Dash painfully levered herself up from her sick bed and made her way past the lines of industrious ponies into the hold. She had to make sure that her friends got free before they were discovered.  By the time she got there, the majority of the hold had already been cleared and the cargo was laid out on the dock. Armour-clad pegasus were taking stock of what was delivered and teams of enslaved workers were already carrying the goods away for storage. Dash quietly cursed to herself. She’d hoped that she could somehow get to the crates before they were offloaded. She should have tried to do something before they docked.  She looked around for somepony in charge. There was a shockingly young mare in a guard uniform standing nearby holding a clipboard. “Hey, um those are the wrong crates,” said Dash hurrying over. “The wrong crates?” asked the official, cocking her head and causing the ringlets of her blue two tone mane to bob cutely.  “Yeah, um, we checked them out and they’ve got, um, manure in them. Real stinky stuff!” Dash winced a little. It might have been her imagination but it looked like one of the crates might have shaken angily.  “Manure!” exclaimed the official, stepping away from them, her face screwing up in disgust. “Well that’s not nice at all.” She exclaimed in a singsong voice “I guess we’ll have to dispose of them then. You,” she pointed at a small group of slaves, her voice suddenly becoming harsh, “throw them off the city!” “No! Wait,” exclaimed Dash, putting herself between the work gang and the crates containing her friends. “We’re going to use them on the next raid, um, drop them on the ground pounders.” The foremare gave a cruel grin. “Yeah, return that stuff to them. It might even make their crops grow faster.” She turned away and started to order another group around as Dash let out a sigh of relief. Now all she needed to do was get her friends out of their cases.  “Hey Dash,” came Cloud’s voice from above. She looked up to see the captain swooping down from the side of the ship. “I’ve got to report in with the brass. You want to come with me? You’re the hero of the hour, and I might be able to get you a medal or something.” “No thanks, I’ll just help get these tidied away,” she gestured at the crates.  “No need to overdo things, they’re not going anywhere,” said Cloud, landing nearby. “Aren’t these the crates from that barn? Nuts, you said. It’s been a while since I’ve nibbled on any, I’m sure they won’t miss a few.” She started to have at the lid. “Maybe we should go to command together,” said Dash, trying to turn Cloud away from the boxes. “I’d like to tell them what happened, maybe we could find out what caused the lightning cannon to misfire?” “I guess so,” said Cloud, looking a little distracted. “Hey guys,” she shouted to her crew. “Why don’t you all head off to Jenny’s. Put the first pint on my tab, I’ll see you in a bit.” There was a cheer from her fellow pirates.  “Jenny’s is a great place to meet a few ponies who know how to meet the needs a mare has after sailing the sky for so long,” said Cloud with a wink.  “We were gone for less than a week,” said Dash, letting Cloud lead her into the city.  “So? I’ve got lots of needs.”   Spike held an ear to the side of his crate, it had been quiet for quite some time now. Exactly how long he didn’t know. It was hot and stuffy in the crate. He just wanted to get out, but he knew that if he acted too quickly then they might just end up captured like Ditzy. However, his patience was eventually exhausted, and he carefully used his magic to lever up one corner of the lip. For a moment it resisted, and a shiver passed through him as he feared Dash might have sealed it too tight, but then it gave with a loud screech. Wincing at the sound, he carefully peered out. As far as he could see it didn’t look like any pony was around. His horn glowed as he struggled to fully open the side of the crate. It finally gave way and revealed the mass of cloud that made up the Cloudsdale docks. Taking a deep breath of the thin air, he shivered against the cold. Cloud cities weren't the warmest of places, pegasus were resistant to the cold, but as a unicorn he wasn’t as lucky. Trying to keep quiet. he stepped forwards out of the crate and gave a cry as his hoof passed straight through the ground. Cursing his stupidity, he quickly cast the cloud walking spell before gingerly testing the surface again. It seemed to have some give in it, like walking on rubber, but it held under his weight. Hoping nopony had heard his cry he stepped out of the crate and glanced around. All the boxes containing his friends seemed to be present.  He turned to the nearest, faded letters on it’s side proclaiming it contained mixed fruit. Carefully he peeled the top off to reveal the rather bedraggled form of Auntie Orange. “Are you alright?” he hissed. “I think so,” she replied, stretching her limbs as Spike cast his spell on her. “That really was a most unpleasant experience.” A box nearby labeled as nuts practically exploded into glitter as Pinkie lept from it. Spike dashed forward and only just managed to cast the cloud walking spell on her before she hit the ground. “Wooo!” exclaimed the pink pony as she glanced around. “Cloudy!” Grinning at her antics while simultaneously worried that someone would hear, Spike helped Octavia out from a box labeled high class limes. “Is this Cloudsdale?” she asked. “I think so. I’ve not actually been here before, I’ve only seen pictures,” said Spike. “It’s a bit less militaristic in my world.” “Indeed,” said Octavia looking up at a nearby banner. “Wind Rider? I don’t think I’ve heard of him before. Does he exist in any of your worlds?” “He was a member of the Wonderbolts back in the day in my world,” said Auntie Orange. “I think I might have had a poster or two of him in my bedroom when I was a filly.” She coughed a little nervously. “He, um, filled out the uniform rather well from what I remember.” “Has anyone seen Dashie?” asked Pinkie, zipping back and forth examining the nearby boxes as if they might contain her friend.  “I believe I heard her distracting the crew,” said Octavia, twitching her ears. “I think she and Cloud headed off to report to the city’s leadership.” “Right,” said Spike, nodding. For a moment he considered laying low and waiting for Dash to return, but he dismissed the idea. They had no idea how long she’d be away or how quickly they might be found. “I guess we’ll have to find Ditzy on our own, then. We can try to meet up with Dash later.” “Do you have any idea how we can find our friend,” asked Octavia. “The city seems quite large and no doubt three earth ponies and a unicorn will stand out quite a bit.” “I don’t suppose you managed to get a tracker on Ditzy as well, did you?” asked Auntie.  “No,” admitted Spike, “but I do have an idea. As we’re each from a different dimension our magic has a slightly different frequency to that in this world.” His horn lit up, and as he turned towards Pinky, the faint sound of some sort of electronic tone could be heard. He turned to Octavia and the tone became more harmonic, like several voices singing together. “Ditzy should stand out from the rest of the city.” He hoped. He’d never tried anything like this before, and he hadn’t even realised it could be possible until he’d been brought to this world. Closing his eyes, he slowly scanned his horn from left to right, searching for the sound of a pony out of place. There! It was faint, but he was sure Ditzy was in that direction, unless it was just wishful thinking. “I think I’ve got her,” he said, “now we just need to figure out how to get there.” “If I could find some cardboard,” said Pinkie, “I’m sure I could make us all fake wings. No one would notice.” “Maybe we could call that plan B dear,” said Auntie as she put the lid back on the crate she had emerged from. “How thick do you think this cloud is?” she asked, rubbing a hoof against the floor.  “I don’t know,” said Spike, “quite thick I guess. Why?” “Well I remember back on the farm we had a problem with moles. They used to get everywhere and we couldn’t catch them because they burrowed through the ground. Maybe if you could ‘turn down’ your cloud walking spell a little we could get around the city under everyponies hooves?” Spike frowned. It seemed possible, but it would be dangerous, if he messed up they would end up in a terminal fall. “Maybe,” he admitted after a moment.  “Oooh! Me first! Me!” cried Pinkie. “Mole Pinkie Pie reporting for duty!” she saluted.  “Actually I should probably go first,” said Spike. “That way if I mess up the spell I can find a way to stop it.” “I’m sure there won’t be a problem,” said Octavia. “You seem very skilled in magic.” Spike put up a grin, wishing he felt as confident as the cellist sounded. “Okay. Everypony stand back.” He closed his eyes and concentrated on the spell on his hooves. Carefully he started to draw off the power little by little. He almost panicked as he felt his hooves starting to sink into the ground, but he gritted his teeth and waited a few more moments. Opening his eyes again he saw that his belly was level with the ground. He found he could move his legs with a little effort, it was sort of like swimming. Taking another breath he concentrated a little more and continued to sink until even his head was entirely encased in cloud. He struggled against a wave of claustrophobia, maybe it wasn’t quite as bad as the crate - it was more like walking in very thick fog - but it still wasn’t a sensation he wanted to feel for long if he could help it. “Are you alright,” came Auntie’s muffled voice from above him.  “I’m fine,” he replied, hoping his voice was level. “I think I’ve got it.” “Good, now you can cast the same spell on the rest of us. I shudder to think what might be happening to poor Ditzy!” Ditzy carefully crept through the darkened corridors of the mansion. Although this world didn’t really have a day / night cycle any more thick curtains of cloud were used to cover the windows for several hours a day to simulate the night. Most of her fellow slaves were currently sharing an exhausted sleep, but she’d forced herself to stay awake. She crept out into the house, carefully avoiding the few guards. She was sure there was something in that room that Alula had warned her away from a few days ago. She’d tried to get into it again a few times, but it had either been locked or she hadn’t managed to get away from her duties. However, at this time of ‘night’ there shouldn’t be anyone around to stop her. She’d even managed to get a length of wire from the stores to try and pick the lock, Trixie always seemed to make that look so easy. Of course if she got caught she’d get into so much trouble... Trying to push that thought to the back of her mind, she approached the door, her ears twitching for the slightest sound. She gently pushed at it, and to her surprise it swung open. She was actually a little disappointed she didn’t have to try and pick the lock. The room beyond was lit, but as before didn’t seem to contain anything of note. She gazed around for a moment and concentrated, trying to think if anything was out of place. Yes!  The lopsided table she’d noticed last time had been moved. He quietly trotted over and ran a hoof over the floor where it had been standing. The cloud felt flimsier there than the rest of the floor, as if it was hollow! She carefully dug a hoof into the ground and rolled back a layer of cloud to reveal a set of stairs leading down into the house’s foundations. Ditzy felt both elated and scared. She’d found where the strange visitors were going, but she still had no idea what they were doing down there. She wished a braver pony was with her, like Dash or Cheerilee, but she was alone and she had to do something. Gritting her teeth, she started down the stairs.  Rather than leading to a single cellar room, the cloud underneath the Kicker estate turned out to consist of a twisting maze of rooms and corridors. Stopping in one room, Ditzy examined racks of weapons and armour, enough to equip a small army. What could it be doing down here? She knew the estate itself had an armoury. She had to clean just outside it once or twice, so why would they need another, far larger one down here? Why was it being kept so secret? And if this was to equip an army who were they going to fight?  Ditzy wished that her friends were here. She knew she wasn’t the smartest or bravest of ponies. She needed someone to explain this all to her. She stamped a hoof, no she wasn’t just going to stay here feeling sorry for herself, Dash had sacrificed herself so Ditzy could come here, and she was going to find some way to pay her back, to find their friends again. Her ears pricked up as she entered another chamber full of Ponyquins with wing blades mounted on them. She could just about make out the sound of voices from ahead. She crept closer and rested her head against the door.  “We should strike now!” cried one voice, Ditzy thought it was a mare. “We’ve got the loyalty of at least a third of a captains.” “Calm down,” said a second deeper and more jocular voice. “You know if we go off half-cocked we’ll all be facing the guillotine. He’s got a good third as well. We need more time to sway the undecided ones.” “But every day we wait gives him more time to cement his position, we wait too long and it’ll be impossible to win. You’ve seen the changes he’s pushed through with the cadet corps. He wants a little brainwashed army!” “No pony wants rid of him more than I do, but we just don’t have the numbers yet!” “I still say all we need to do is remove him personally, one quick knife cut and all of our problems will be over,” came a third female voice. Ditzy’s eyes widened. They were talking about killing somepony! “What? You’ve all thought about it,” continued the voice. “Even if we did take things that far, which I won’t support,” said the first voice, “you know how paranoid he is. He’s rarely without his bodyguard and he certainly doesn’t trust any of us enough to get close.” “Fine!” admitted the other female, “but I’m with you for striking now. You haven't seen the plans for project Vella!” “Vella? I’d heard about it, something about improving our food supplies. But I couldn’t get any details,” said the stallion. “Yeah, well one of his favourites got a bit careless after a few beers. I managed to get my hooves on a copy of the plans- Wait did you hear something?” Ditzy froze. Had she made a noise? There was the sound of movement from within the room, meaning she didn’t have long. Ditzy took to her hooves and galloped as quickly as she could away, trying to remember the route she had taken from the stairs.  Skidding as she turned a corner she caught a glance of an armoured pony coming the other way towards her. She tried to leap to the side but her poor coordination got the better of her and she crashed directly into the smaller pony. To her surprise one of her opponent’s legs struck out and somehow twisted her so that Ditzy found herself flying face first into the wall. She collapsed to the ground, blinking rapidly to try and get her spinning eyes back under control. She cried out as one of her hooves was dragged behind her back as she looked up at her captor.  “Now, what do we have here?” asked Alula.  “How can you put up with all this?” growled Dash. She and Cloud had spent several hours at Cloudsdale Command so far, and it didn’t look like they were going anywhere any time soon. But it wasn’t the boredom which was getting to her. Everywhere she looked she saw more and more ponies in uniform. Sure, back in Canterlot she was used to guards, but she knew they were there to protect the city. These were sent out to rob any settlement which got in their way. Even worse were the groups of slaves being driven here and there with their wings bound. Just the thought of being deprived of flight was enough to make Dash want to flee as fast as she could.  “Well the paperworks a pain, but it needs to be done,” said Cloud looking down at the file in her hooves detailing their attack, “or so my dad says. He loves this sort of thing,”  “Not that, all of this.” She gestured around the building. “Slaves! Oppression!” “Keep your voice down!” hissed Cloud, “or somepony’s going to think you’re a rebel and get us both in trouble!” “So at least somepony’s think all this is wrong!” There being rebels was a good start, maybe she could find some and join up.  “There are some troublemakers out there,” Cloud cautiously said. “Look, all of this is temporary. Once we sort out how to get a stable food supply we won’t need to raid any more, or to make sure every pegasus is working for the greater good.” “You mean enslave anypony?” snarled Dash.  “Look,” growled Cloud, her normally sunny demeanor lost. “You don’t know what this city has been through! You flew off to wherever you went to!” “Yeah and you joined up to be on the winning side! None of the soldiers here seem to be suffering much!” “Don’t you think I know how bad things are here!” exclaimed Cloud, her eyes flashing. “I left as well, I thought I couldn’t hack it as a guard so I just ran off to have fun! Then the vines came.” Her eyes dropped. “By the time I got back things, things had already gone to hell. If there had been just a few more good soldiers, maybe just even one, maybe if I’d just... maybe...” she muttered, the anger draining out of her.  “Hey, look-” began Dash, she actually felt a little bad for Cloud seeing how much she seemed to blame herself.  “No, I should have been here with my family, not out having a good time. Since then I’ve done what I can, helped who I can but I can’t do everything. There are better ponies for that, ponies with real brains, like Wind Rider, like my parents. I’ve just got to do what they tell me until things get sorted out.” “Even if you think it’s wrong?” “It doesn’t matter what I think. I’m just a single pony. As part of the guard I can be something bigger.” She stamped a hoof.  “Look Cloud, I, I think you’re a pretty big pony by yourself,” said Dash awkwardly. “You did your best not to hurt any pony on those farms. You treated me alright...” “Aww! Give me a kiss,” said Cloud with a grin which didn’t quite fit on her face.  Dash pushed her back. “You don’t have to make everything some joke you know!” “Yeah well better laugh than cry right?” said Cloud with a sigh. She glanced down at the paperwork in front of her again before tossing it onto the floor. “Forget it. Look I’ve had enough of this, it can wait for tomorrow. Come on let's find the rest of the crew.” She trotted over towards the door. “Hey, didn’t you say this was important,” asked Dash as she followed.  “It can wait. It’s not like anything important is going to happen tonight.” Spike tried to stop his cheeks from glowing as he slowly made his way through the clouds around him. The only benefit of the situation was that nopony could see him. They had discovered the problem almost right away, although they could move easily through the cloud they couldn’t see less than a hoof’s width in any direction. Pinkie had come up with a solution quickly enough by latching onto his tail with her mouth. He didn’t know about her world, but that really wasn’t something you did quite so casually in his. Usually several dates and chocolates were required before something like this happened... However the earth pony mares seemed to take the events in their stride and he quickly found Octavia’s silky tail in his face. He tried to put all of his efforts into concentrating on locating Ditzy, but he couldn’t help pondering what type of shampoo she used. His train of thought was thankfully derailed as the mare in front of him gently tugged him to the left. She was leading the party, despite his spell giving him the general direction of their friend it was her superior hearing that prevented them getting too close to any of the city’s inhabitants who might detect their passage.  Suddenly Octavia gave a gasp, and Spike worried that they might have been discovered. “There’s an open passage here!” she exclaimed after a moment. “Some sort of basement maybe?” The world suddenly seemed so much brighter as Spike’s head emerged from the cloud, quickly followed by the rest of him. He seemed to be in some sort of tunnel or passage apparently running through the cloud. Did buildings in Cloudsdale have cellars? he wondered. One by one, the remainder of the group entered the passage through the ‘wall’.  “I looks rather, well, grand,” said Orange Sherbert, looking around. Spike had to agree. The furnishing was sparse, but the paintings covering the walls looked antique.  “Dash said that Ditzy was working in Cloud’s home. Maybe this is it?” The spell he was using to locate her was rather imprecise but she couldn’t be all that far away.  “Hey, look at all the fun things in here!” came Pinkie’s voice from just down the corridor. Spike flinched at how loud she sounded. If this was Cloud’s house they probably shouldn’t be discovered here. He and the other mares rushed into the room Pinkie was calling from only to find her trying to limbo under a bar stretched between two ponyquins.  “See guys, fun!” she exclaimed, picking up a helmet from a pile and jamming it over her frizzy mane.  “What is all this stuff?” asked Spike. He picked up the bar Pinkie had been squeezing herself under. It was a spear. “This would appear to be some sort of armoury,” said Octavia, examining a rack of weapons. “But why would anypony need so many?” asked Auntie, running a hoof over a set of wing blades. “There must be enough for an army here!” “Well, hopefully,” came a voice from the opposite side of the room, “we do have an army after all.” Spike looked up to see a large stallion with a light blue coat and messy dark blue mane leaning casually on a spear in the doorway. “Who are you? How did you get here?” demanded another voice from the door they had entered. A yellow-coated mare with a flaming orange mane was standing there, clad in leather armour with a crossbow strapped to her foreleg.  “You know for a secret hideout this place gets a lot of visitors,” said a shorter blue-coated mare, her wings flicking out to reveal blades. “Maybe we should charge an entrance fee?” “Look, we don’t want any trouble,” said Spike as he friends started to gather in a circle at the centre of the room. The strangers didn’t look all that friendly, and were armed.  “That’s good, neither do we,” said the yellow mare, “so maybe you can tell us how you ended up here, and if anyone else knows about this.” “And you better hope we like what you tell us,” said the other mare, brandishing her weapons again.  Spike lit up his horn ready for a fight when suddenly a familiar voice called out. “Stop! These are the ones I told you about, my friends!” To his relief Ditzy pushed past the stallion in the doorway. She seemed a little ruffled but otherwise unhurt. She was followed by young mare in armour, her purple mane sticking out from below her helmet.  “Ditzy!” he cried out just in time to see her vanish under a tackle hug from Pinkie. “It’s so good to see you!” squealed the pink mare. “Indeed,” said Octavia, gently helping Ditzy extricate herself from under the excited mare.  “I was worried something might have happened to you,” said Sherbert, giving their friend a hug. “How did you all get here?” asked Ditzy, looking around the group. “It’s a long story,” said Spike, “but we ran into Dash and she managed to smuggle us onto the city and told us about you. We’ve been looking for you since we got here. She told us you were a slave or something.” “Yes, I was,” she fluffed up her wings, “but they freed me.” “Least we could do,” said the stallion, “this whole thing’s partially our fault after all.” Spike’s brow furrowed. The three of them seemed familiar, then it struck him. “You’re the Wonderbolts!” He’d spent some time with the sports team back at the paper. It seemed like a million years ago now.  The blue mare gave an over the top bow. “It’s been a while since they called us that, eh Spitfire?” Her orange friend nodded grimly. “We’re mostly known as the Cloudsdale Council now.” “The council?” asked Octavia. “If you’re in charge, why can’t you just change things?” “It’s complicated. Wind Rider’s got most of the power. For the moment,” said the stallion. Spike thought he was called Soarin, at least in his world. “How did that happen?” asked Spike. He sort of wished he had a notepad with him, or Twilight. This sounded like quite the story.  “Back when the sun stopped and the vines turned up Cloudsdale was better off than most,” explained the orange mare. “We’re too high up for the vines to get to us so we were safe. Pegasi from all over Equestria flocked here.” “So many we couldn’t feed them all,” said Soarin. “Things were bad, starvation bad, the government couldn’t hold things together. There were riots. The military, including us, stepped in.” “We found that some of the politicians had been hoarding food,” said Fleetfoot angrily, ”so we rationed it out. We were considered the heroes of the revolution. It wasn’t too hard for us to end up in charge.” “And Wind Rider, as our leader proclaimed himself Cesar,” continued the other mare. “We laughed about that at the time. The food we found wouldn’t last forever, so we had to find another way.” “You started to raid the farms below,” said Orange Sherbert, gritting her teeth.  “Yes,” said the mare, hanging her head. “We wanted to buy what we needed, but we didn’t have enough to trade. So, well, we took it. It was supposed to be a temporary measure until we sorted out something more permanent.” “Same with the serv... with the slaves,” said Soarin. “We were still getting refugees pouring in, so we had to make sure they’d work in exchange for food. We didn’t realise what we were doing until it was too late.” “We’ve tried to turn things around, but Wind Rider’s managed to grab more and more power,” said Fleetfoot, “We’ve been sidelined, and he’s made sure many of the captains are personally loyal to him. One of our colleagues, Nightingale, tried to talk him out of it all, and he had her imprisoned.” “We should have stood up to him then!” exclaimed the other mare. “There’s nothing we could have done Spitfire, we’d have just joined her.” Fleetfoot reached out a hoof to comfort the other mare, but didn’t seem to quite be able to bring herself to touch her.  “Anyway,” said Soarin, changing the topic, “we’ve been working to marshal our forces in secret to overthrow him. We should be ready to go any day now!” “We’re under Cloud Kicker’s house, right?” asked Spike. “Does that mean she’s part of your group?” “No, that would be this little lady here.” Soarin gestured towards Alula, who stepped forward.  “I saw what Wind Rider was trying to do to the other Cadets so I contacted Spitfire to see if she could help.” “Turns out she could help us more than we could help her,” said Spitfire. Alula shrugged. “Given how loyal Mum and Dad are to Wind Rider, no one would expect rebels to hide here. And hardly anypony knows about this basement. I only found it when I was exploring the house one day.” “Wait, your parents are loyal to Wind Rider?” asked Spike incredulously. How could somepony hardly older than a filly keep something like this secret from her parents.  “Well, Dad’s wavering as Wind Rider gets more and more extreme. I’ve tried to talk him over to our side, but no luck so far. As for Mum,” Alula sighed, “I don’t know, she’s Wind Rider’s body guard but he treats her like dirt. He even hits on her!” She stuck out her tongue in disgust. “As for Cloud, well I don’t get to see her all that much but she seems to have bought into his lies as well. She’s not been the same since she joined up for the second time.” Her eyes widened. “I remember why I came down here now! Dad seemed really bummed about something at work today, he hardly talked at dinner. I managed to swipe these from his briefcase.” She took out a wad of papers from her saddlebags and handed them to Spitfire.  “These are... these are arrest warrants for us and the rest of the council! He’s finally going ahead with it!” she exclaimed in astonishment. “Something about project Vella meaning he should get all the support he needs.” Spitfire glanced over at Fleetfoot. “Right, Vella. Apparently he’d got the idea of not just raiding farms on the ground any more, he wants to capture as many ground pounders as he can and put them to work on ‘plantations’ to provide food for us. As you can guess they won’t get a say in the matter.” “I guess we can’t wait any longer,” said Soarin with a sigh.  “No,” said Spitfire. “We’re going to have to move things up. Spread the word, we’re go for tomorrow. Get our supporters armed and work on any still on the fence, we have to get overwhelming force before Wind Rider knows what’s going on.” Soarin, Alula and Fleetfoot saluted and started to rush from the room. They all seemed to have forgotten about the others until Ditzy gave a cough. “Oh, well you’ll probably all be safe here until things are over, one way or another.” “Actually,” said Ditzy looking around at her friends. “How can we help?”