The next morning, after grousing his way through his apple-bucking – he was working a single tree alone this time, as he'd feared – Ashen Blaze planted himself on the observation deck of the library, hoping that the increased height would help PC pick up the energy signatures of the remaining four Gems or clues to Tau'rin's new hide-out. As lunchtime neared without so much as a blip, he lay down with a groan and considered taking a quick nap before lunch. He put PC on standby and stowed it away and started to close his eyes.
"Hey," a voice said from slightly above him.
"Geez!" Ash said, startled. He looked up to see a blue Pegasus with rainbow-striped mane hovering in front of him. "Rainbow Dash," he said, "Can I help you?"
"Nah," Dash said, "I just thought I should tell you we're going to start a little rain shower in a moment, so you might not want to take a nap here." Ash looked past the pegasus and saw that the sky was almost filled with grey, heavy-looking clouds.
"Thanks," he said, standing up, "That's quite considerate of you."
"No problem,' Dash said as Ash walked toward the stairs. "Say," she said, following the unicorn inside, "Is it true you guys beat up that bad guy you were talking about?"
"I wouldn't say beat up," Ash said, "We did send him packing though, without the Gem he had when he showed up."
"Dang," Dash said, "I was kind of hoping he'd show up somewhere around here so I could a few hits in him myself."
Ash gave the pegasus an amused glance. "Don't you have rain to… whatever it is you do to make it rain?"
"Ah, I've done my part already," Dash said, nonchalant, "Now, tell me, what was this Tau guy like? Gimme all the details so I can help you out when he shows his ugly face again." Ash chuckled as he headed for the stairs to the second floor, only to end up with a magazine in his face as Rarity came running up the stairs and stopped an inch short of colliding with him.
"So sorry Ash," Rarity said, "but you have to see this!"
Ash backed up a couple steps so he could read the magazine's cover. "Haute Couture Weekly. Why are you pushing a fashion magazine into my face, Rarity?"
"Look," Rarity insisted, "See what the Pegasus in the corner is holding?" Ash's eyes scanned the cover until he found the photo. It depicted a deep lavender pegasus mare with burnt-orange hair holding up a large yellow gemstone that complemented her daisy-yellow outfit.
"You're kidding me," Ash said, taking a closer look, "If I didn't know any better, I'd swear that was the Topaz, the Gem of Air and Wind."
"It might just be," Rarity said, pulling the magazine back and opening it, "Listen to this: 'Star fashion designer Lavender Sunset has just announced that she has come into possession of an amazing yellow topaz that she intends to use as the inspiration for her next year's line of spring fashion.' It says later that she found the topaz just a couple days ago as she was flying through a wildflower field, the same day you showed up."
"Interesting," Ash said thoughtfully, "It could be a coincidence, but I should probably investigate. That'll be better than sitting around here all day at least."
"You're going to try and get a fancy gem away from Lavender Sunset?" Rainbow Dash asked, "Good luck with that!"
"You know her?" Rarity asked, incredulous.
"Of course," Rainbow said, "She's one of the biggest names in Cloudsdale outside of the Wonderbolts. And she happens to be married to one of the best weather ponies in Equestria, after yours truly of course."
"Have you actually met her?" Rarity asked critically.
"No," Dash said, rubbing her neck, "But I grew up in Cloudsdale you know, and even back then you couldn't go a day without hearing about Lavender Sunset at least once. Apparently she's one of the best designers for pegasi."
"That she is," Rarity said as a dreamy look came into her eyes, "To have chance to meet and exchange notes with her… Idea!" She flung the magazine away and grabbed Ash by the shoulders. "This will be the perfect opportunity for both of us," she said, "Hopefully my reputation precedes me, and together we can talk her into giving us, er, you the Gem!"
"Uh, you know she lives in Cloudsdale, right?" Rainbow asked.
"Oh,' Rarity said, deflating, "That's right… Well, if I can go into the depths of the Diamond Dogs's territory, I can certainly manage a few hours up in the clouds. I'll just make sure Twilight uses the walking-on-clouds spell on me this time…"
"Dumb question," Ash said, looking from Rarity to Rainbow, "but, this Cloudsdale place, it's in the sky, isn't it?"
"Duh," Rainbow said, "It's only the biggest pegasus city in Equestria, and the place where all the weather is made."
"Super," Ash said dryly, "the other Order-naries would kill me if I didn't at least ask them to come along. Can I assume you'll be joining us Rainbow Dash? We could use a pony who knows her way around."
"Of course," Rainbow said, "I'll go see if I can convince Fluttershy to come too." She zoomed away before anypony could react, faltering for a second as she exited the building and flew into the rain that she'd completely forgotten about. Ash moved past Rarity and began descending the stairs.
"Twilight has to come of course," he said, continuing his list.
"Where am I coming?" Twilight asked from downstairs, having heard Ash.
"Cloudsdale," Ash told her, reaching the ground floor, "There might be a Gem up there."
"I see," Twilight said. She walked over to a bookshelf with a thoughtful look and looked through it, eventually pulling out a book and opening it. "We'll need the cloud-walking spell then," she said, "Pegasi are the only ponies who can stand on clouds naturally. Who else is coming?"
"My team of course," Ash said, "assuming I can find them in this weather."
"Try Sugar Cube Corner," Twilight said, "they were headed that way a little while ago. Anypony else?"
"Rarity here," Ash said, pointing behind him at the white unicorn, "along with Rainbow Dash and maybe Fluttershy, but they won't need your spell. Nor will Gold Heart now that I think about it…" Twilight gave Rarity a surprised look, but didn't say anything to her.
"Right," she said, turning back to her reading, "After the rain clears I'll go see if the mayor will loan us the hot air balloon for the day. Meet me at the town square by the pavilion when you're ready."
"Right," Ash said, "better go get my crew then."
"Would you like some company?" Rarity asked as Ash headed for the door.
"I'll be fine," Ash said, a trace of annoyance creeping into his voice, "If I get lost, I'll just listen for the sounds of Pinkie Pie." He opened the door to reveal the pink earth pony herself standing just outside with an umbrella hat on. "Speak her name and she shall appear," Ash muttered in amazement.
"Hi Ashen Blaze," Pinkie said, her normal cheerfulness surprisingly subdued, "I've got a teensy-tiny favor to ask you."
"What?"
Pinkie took a big breath and launched into story at a rapid-fire pace to rival Apple Bloom's best, "You see, I was giving your friends a tour of Sugar Cube Corner and Gale looked at the taffy-pulling machine and went 'Ohmigosh can I try it?' and I said 'sure, have fun!' so she put some taffy in and turned it on and watched for a second before saying 'this is inefficient;' inefficient's a big word isn't it? Anyway! She found Mr. Cake's tools for fixing stuff and started taking the taffy-puller apart, although she was a bit clumsy with the screwdriver for a minute. She looked like she was having fun so I didn't want to stop her, but it's been a while and she hasn't put it back together right yet and we reeeally need to make more taffy soon because we're almost sold out!" She took several breaths and then asked, "Can you help?" at a more normal speed.
Ash blinked several times as he processed the story and then sighed and shook his head. "Sounds like Gale's entered her mechanic zone," he said, "I'll see what I can do Pinkie, but I can't promise much."
"Great!" Pinkie said, "Let's go!" She spun around, paused, and then spun around again and produced another umbrella hat from somewhere and placed it on Ash's head. "There we go!" she said, "You gotta stay dry!" With that, she spun around again and bounced off toward the bakery.
"Ok…" Ash said, looking askance at the hat as he followed Pinkie.
After the library door closed, Twilight turned to Rarity and asked the question that was burning in her mind, "Are you feeling ok Rarity?"
"Perfectly fine darling," Rarity said, surprised, "why do you ask?"
"Well," Twilight said, "ever since Ash and his friends showed up, you've been acting a little out of character. First you willingly went back down to the Diamond Dogs, then you followed us into the Forest without any reason beyond keeping us company, and then you took part in that fight with Tau'rin."
"You did as well," Rarity pointed out, "Unlike Fluttershy, I couldn't just fly away from there, so it was either help defeat that beast or just stand there in everypony's way."
"Ok," Twilight said slowly, "but, now you're going back to Cloudsdale, and eagerly. After what happened there last time, you said you'd keep your hooves on solid ground from then on. Why are you suddenly so casual about going to places that hold such bad experiences for you?"
"I've just moved on," Rarity said, "Sometimes you just have to get over yourself and give things another chance. Now, if you'll excuse me, I must prepare for our trip." She walked back upstairs as Twilight watched her with growing concern. There was something else making Rarity do these things, but Twilight couldn't quite put her hoof on it…
The storefront room of Sugar Cube Corner betrayed no signs of the chaos in the kitchen except for the strained expression on Mr. Cake's face, which relaxed only slightly when Pinkie Pie and Ashen Blaze entered the store. "We're back," Pinkie declared, "don't you worry Mr. Cake, we'll have that taffy machine back together in no time!"
"Hopefully," Ash added. Pinkie led him into the kitchen, which was a proper mess of machine parts with a brown earth pony in the middle of it all, hopping about on three legs with a pair of pliers in her mouth and a look of manic frustration in her eyes. Gale was hopping about because she'd taped a Philips-head screwdriver to one hoof in such a way as to prevent her from putting weight on it without putting holes in the floor. Soul Mage and Gold Heart were standing at the periphery of the mess with looks of defeat and embarrassment. They looked over as Pinkie bounced in with Ash following slowly in her wake.
"Hi Ash," Heart said.
"Hello," Ash replied, "What's the situation, beyond the obvious?"
"Gale's gone crazy," Soul said, "She keeps muttering about friction and mechanical inefficiencies and other stuff I can't understand thanks to that tool in her mouth. She won't respond to anything we say."
"Hmm," Ash said, watching Gale hop about, "Didn't her teacher have some sort of code-word or pet name he used to break her out of these states?"
"Kara Mello," Heart said with a nod, "we tried that, but it seems it was as much his voice as the words that did it. Neither of us can fake it well enough."
"Nor can I," Ash said, "I don't even remember what the old man's voice sounded like…" He sighed and approached the manic earth pony. "Gale," he said calmly, "What are you doing?"
"It's so inefficient,' Gale said, dropping the pliers, "I could hear it, all the rubbing metal and scraping… so much energy lost to heat…"
"Gale," Ash said, firmly but quietly, "It's a taffy-puller." Gale didn't respond as she continued hopping about, picking up a piece of metal only to drop it somewhere else. A thought occurred to Ash and he spoke again, "It's a taffy puller Gale, you don't need to overclock it."
"Overclock?" Gale said, stopping, "Overclo-" She stared at Ash like he'd just said the dumbest thing ever uttered by man or pony. "You don't… You can't overclock a taffy-puller!" she exclaimed.
"Then what do you do with it?" Ash responded hotly, narrowing one eye at Gale.
"I…" Gale said, stunned. Her jaw worked for several seconds, but no sound came out. Her eyes began wandering around, taking in the scene she was in the middle of as the mania drained out of them. "Oh… dear, what have I- ow!" She'd tried to bury her face in her hooves, only to jab herself with the screwdriver. Grimacing, she tore the tape off with her teeth and let the screwdriver drop to the ground. "Oh man," she groaned, "I've really done it now. This is what happens when I don't have my own gear to toy with." She spotted Pinkie and fell into a begging posture. "I'm so sorry Pinkie Pie," she said, "I can fix it, make it just the way it was. I promise!"
"Are you sure?" Pinkie asked solemnly.
"If she goes nuts again, just say the word 'overclock,'" Ash said with a grin. Gale shot him a sideways glance.
"You did that on purpose," she said, "You knew how stupid that statement was. Overclocking a taffy pulling machine? Really? Was I that out of it?"
"Eeyup," Soul said in a fair impression of Big Macintosh.
"I'm so pathetic," Gale moaned.
"Aw, it's ok," Pinkie said, "Everypony has bad days. I had a really bad one once, when I thought all my friends weren't my friends anymore, so I made new friends out of rocks, turnips, lint, and a bag of flour. And Gummy, but he's always my friend." A smile crept onto Gale's lips as she cast an odd look at the pink pony. She stood up and began taking stock of the damage she'd done.
"Well," she said, "At least I'll be used to working with hooves by the time I'm done with this."
"Any idea how long it'll take?" Ash asked, "Because I think we've got a lead on the Topaz."
"Where?" Soul asked as he and the girls looked attentively at Ash.
"Cloudsdale," Ash said.
"Oh, I love that city!" Pinkie said, and then her voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper, "Don't taste the rainbows- they're reeeeealy spicy."
"I'll… keep that in mind," Ash said, "Anyway, we're leaving once the rain clears and Twilight gets a hot-air balloon prepped."
"I'd like to come," Gale said, "but don't bet on me being finished with this before then. I'll just be another body up there anyway; here I'm actually doing what I'm good at."
"All right, if you're sure," Ash said, and then turned toward Heart and Soul. "We'll meet at the town square. Shouldn't be too hard to find- just look for the big balloon."
"Ok," Soul said, "what are your plans in the meantime?"
"Uh…"
Soul walked over and threw a front leg around Ash's shoulder. "You're hanging with us then," he said, "And since I'd rather not go out in the rain, we're going to enjoy ourselves here."
"Woo hoo!" Pinkie shouted, rushing to the pantry, "Let's make muffins!"