There was only one reason he hadn’t left Cloudsdale yet. The biggest storm he ever calculated was about to begin, and he wanted to see how his calculations will work in practice.
As soon as it ends, I’m going to Stalliongrad. Or to Sankt Ponysburg, I’ve heard that white nights are pretty nice things to watch at this time of year.
The whole operation was very complex, all pegasi from Cloudsdale, Ponyville and Canterlot weather teams had to cooperate to gather the storm clouds from the half of Equestria above this sparsely inhabited part of land and put them in precisely computed formation and trigger the storm that would last for exactly two hours, four minutes and thirty-eight seconds. There were two aims pegasi wanted to achieve: to water the fields on the area below the storm and disarm the storm clouds that could otherwise cause much damage if left without supervision.
He listened absent-mindedly as Spitfire gives the last orders to the Alpha team, whose objective was to check if the location of the clouds is 100% correct and start the storm by bucking the clouds at exactly 6:00 PM, Canterlot Mean Time. Cloud Counter stared at the other cloud, floating at about a mile from them, where Bravo team was listening to the briefing. Even from the distance he could recognize the white and blue mane of one of the ponies.
Well, maybe there were two reasons to stay here.
***
"And then he said “if you were an angle, you’d be acute one”!"
"Mathematicians!" a yellow mare giggled. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. How were they supposed to accomplish the task, when most of the Bravo team was either a gossip club or (she noticed how Thunderlane was staring at Cloudchaser) Rejected Stallion Support Group.
Maybe it’s good that Scootaloo can’t see me now. The orange filly would probably give everything to see her idol leading the weather team in such a big operation, but, unfortunately she was still grounded by her parents after she’d ran away from a “sappy family meeting” and was later brought home by Royal Guards. Dash shrugged. She did many stupid things when she was a teenager, but nopony ever caught her. Perhaps her speed had something to do with that.
"OK, ponies listen to me!" she shouted. It wasn’t as powerful as Spitfire’s yelling, not to mention the Royal Canterlot Voice, but it worked. Cloudchaser and Parasol stopped talking, Thunderlane, his expression still resembling a sad puppy, turned his eyes at her. Only one pony didn’t seem to care, sitting on a cloud apart from other ponies with headphones in her ears.
"The same applies to you, Lighting Dust," said Rainbow Dash coldly and flown to her, "What are you even doing here?"
"Well, maybe I am a bit too reckless to be a Wonderbolt," the aquamarine pegasus deadpanned, "but that doesn’t mean that the Canterlot weather team doesn’t need the best fliers."
Rainbow Dash somehow resisted the temptation to show her who the best flier really was. The mission was more important at the moment.
"Well, I’m glad you managed to fend for yourself, Dust," she replied. The mare in question gave her a disrespectful smirk, but said nothing. Dash came back to her previous position and took a swig of her energy drink.
"Alright, everypony, synchronise your watches. It’s 5:30 PM now. Exactly at 5:35 we will fly under the storm clouds to check if there’s no one there. We warned the inhabitants, but if you find anypony either on the ground or in the air, tell them to hide before all Tartarus breaks loose. We have to go back here before 5:58, two minutes later the storm will start. If you lose yourself and run out of time, don’t try to be a hero, just land on the ground, take cover somewhere and wait till the storm’s over. We’ll be in radio contact, but for safety reasons, always remember to have at least two other ponies in the eyesight. Good luck everypony."
She could swear that Lighting Dust blew a raspberry at “safety reasons” but she shrugged it off. Some ponies never change. Sixteen pegasi took off and dived under the heavy grey clouds.
***
"T-minus 5 minutes and counting!" Spitfire announced. Members of Alpha team positioned themselves on the clouds. Echo team, consisting solely of Wonderbolts, whose task was to provide backup and rescue injured ponies, was waiting on a cloud that was also Spitfire’s and Cloud Counter’s base. In the distance, Charlie and Delta teams could be seen coming back from the patrol. Everything seemed in place, but Cloud Counter had doubts.
"Are you sure she’s competent enough?" he asked Spitfire, pointing at the grey mare with blonde mane standing on the cloud below them. Something about her frightened him.
"Derpy? Don’t worry, she knows how to deal with the storm clouds. Have you seen the Ponyville city hall recently?"
"Yeah. I think they renovated it…"
"Exactly. She somehow bucked the cloud so hard it blew almost the half of the roof off in one go. Such talents don’t go unnoticed," Spitfire lowered her voice to a whisper, "We only had to make sure she didn’t put her watch upside-down."
"Oh… ok," he murmured. Somehow this hadn’t calmed him down. He looked at his watch – it was 5:57.
"Where is Bravo team?"
"No idea," Spitfire took her radio. "Dash, are you ok? Where are you?"
It took a while before they heard a faint voice through a heavy static.
"We’re ok! Safe above the clouds!" was everything Rainbow Dash managed to say before the transmission was cut.
"Safe, but, judging by the static, far away from us," concluded Cloud Counter. "One minute to go… thirty seconds… twenty… 10… 9… 8…"
When he reached “zero”, ponies from the Alpha team bucked their clouds simultaneously. Cloud Counter saw the lightning and heard the thunder almost exactly at the same time, for a moment it stunned him.
"Chocks away! Bloody hell, that was loud!" he shouted to Spitfire, who smiled, watching the spectacle.
"Is everything good so far?" she asked.
"All according to the plan!"
Suddenly, about a mile from them a rainbow appeared from between the clouds. It began approaching them, barely avoiding hitting the ponies from Alpha team. Derpy was caught in a turbulence it had produced and entered a spin, but at the same time Soarin took off and caught her before she fell to the now defusing storm clouds.
"Is that also a part of the plan?" Spitfire asked.
"Well, it might be some phenomenon I couldn’t predict, because chaos theory…" he started, but then the rainbow trail suddenly tackled him to the surface of the cloud. Rainbow trail dissipated and they saw Rainbow Dash, her mane in a mess and her fur slightly charred. A deep cut ran through the side of her face.
"What the fuck was that?" she screamed at Cloud Counter. "Why did you started the storm earlier without letting me know? My whole team is down there because of it, you son of-"
"Rainbow Dash!" Spitfire shouted, "What are you talking about? By the way, if you want him to answer, stop strangling him."
"Oh… sorry, ma’am," blue pegasus loosened her grip. Cloud Counter took few deep breaths and put his glasses back on.
"We started exactly at six o’clock," he said, still panting heavily, "Besides, it was you, who told us on the radio that your team is above the storm!"
"What? I haven’t said that! I don’t remember saying that! We went for a patrol, and suddenly there’s a bucking lighting exploding five hooves from my face!"
Cloud Counter noticed surprised look on Spitfire’s face. So, I’m not the only one who has no idea what the bloody hell is going on.
"Dash, we all heard you saying that, so…" the Wonderbolts’ leader started, but was rather aggressively interrupted.
"It doesn’t matter now! We have to go back there and help my team!" the cyan pegasus took off, ready to dive into the raging tempest.
"We can’t! It’s too dangerous!" Spitfire replied, "Besides, they probably landed on the ground, as we advised them."
"Exactly. Also, on 7:30 most clouds will run out of lightning, so it’ll be much safer to check on your team then. We’ll fly to retrieve them and Bob’s your uncle," Cloud Counter added. Rainbow Dash was confused.
"What? Who’s Bob?"
"Don’t worry, it’s one of those Trottingham sayings this guy uses when he talks to a lass whom he finds especially attractive," Spitfire explained. Dash muttered something that navy-blue stallion understood as “go and buck yourself, perverted egghead”. Spitfire probably heard that too but said nothing, noticing suddenly shocked expression of stallion in question.
"What happened, mate?" she asked.
"Cloudchaser… she’s there!" was his only answer.
"What?"
"Oh yeah…" Rainbow Dash waved her hoof. "Our trottinghamese playboy suddenly realized that he unleashed the biggest bucking storm of the century just above the head of his new special somepony… If I recall the gossips correctly," she pointed at Cloud Counter. "What now, hero? Will you sit here teaching Spitfire new words, or will you help me… What the hay are you doing?" she yelled when he suddenly caught her front leg.
"I need to see your watch. You told your team to synchronise them, didn’t you?"
"Yes, but what…"
"That!" he shown her his own watch, showing 6:24. She looked at hers – it was 6:19.
"You synchronised it with mine during the meeting of team leaders?"
Dash was shocked.
"Yes, but… I don’t understand…"
"So, when we started the storm at six, you and your team thought it was 5:55…"
"There’s one thing I still don’t get," Spitfire interrupted, "The radio message – you said that you don’t remember saying it."
"Yeah. In fact I barely remember anything except the briefing."
"Now, that’s proper weird," Cloud Counter said.
"Who cares? We need to go there and save them!"
Cloud Counter was torn apart. He knew it was too dangerous to fly through the mayhem they created, but image of the certain mare, fighting alone against the lightning and strong wind was causing pain his heart.
"We must wait… for an hour," he said powerlessly.
***
At half past seven there was still raining, but about half of the clouds dissipated, and other half turned much lighter, making flying in such weather much safer. The Echo team took off and began searching the ground.
Rainbow Dash noted with some sort of satisfaction that Cloud Counter is rather mediocre flier. Although his weight was helping him resist the crosswind, his speed wasn’t impressive, and when he tried to pull a sharp turn, he hit the cloud, leaving a pony-shaped hole in it. Yet, he recovered quickly, doing his best to follow her and Spitfire.
First ponies they found were Thunderlane and Snowflake. When they lost the sight of the rest of the team they landed in the field, and hid themselves in the maize.
"Have you seen anypony else?" Spitfire asked. Snowflake responded with his trademark “YEAH!”, and, to Dash’s surprise, continued:
"Blossomforth landed in the neighbouring field. I’ve seen ‘Chaser and her sister somewhere in the north, but I’ve lost them when we landed."
Not a talkative guy, huh? Well, maybe such accidents change ponies, Cloud Counter thought. Together, they went to meet Blossomforth, who injured her wing, but had no other wounds. Soarin and Fleetfoot picked her up on a stretcher and took her to the field hospital. The rest of the team was about to resume the searching, but suddenly they saw some pegasus flying to them at the full speed.
"Flitter! Thank Celestia you’re ok!" shouted Cloud Counter. Grayish blue mare landed in front of them, or rather tried to land, ending up falling on her plot. She quickly stood up; she’d lost her bow somewhere and was covered in mud. Cloud Counter almost fainted when he saw that she was crying.
"Is something wrong with your sister?" he asked weakly.
"No… she’s ok… but Parasol is… is…" she fell on the ground again, sobbing loudly. Rainbow Dash also felt tears on her face. She barely knew the yellow mare, but she realised that her error might have caused her death.
"How it happened?" asked Spitfire.
"She got struck… we caught her, but it was too late…"
"Am I interrupting something?"
Everypony looked around. When they were listening to Flitter, they were approached by several Royal Guards. Their commander, a tall, white unicorn said:
"Good afternoon everypony. My name is Surveillance. We were called by some farmer, claiming that there’s a dead pegasus on his tree. It seems to me that you might know something about this… phenomenon."
Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth. Great. One of those plotholes Twilight told me about. If he starts telling dead foal jokes to cheer us up, I’m gonna beat the tar out of him.
Spitfire tried to remain calm.
"We indeed had a… casualty, but the circumstances were different. Unless there’s another one…" her voice cracked when she realised that.
"Oh great… we’ll have to split the team," Surveillance said carelessly. "Can somepony come with us to that farm, maybe we’ll identify…" he was interrupted by a magenta flash. Twilight Sparkle appeared and, slightly confused after a long-distance teleportation, looked at everypony.
"Rainbow Dash! You’re alive!" she exclaimed.
"Sure I am, don’t get sappy about that…" pegasus muttered, cuddled by a purple unicorn.
"What happened here?"
"We were about to find out," said Surveillance coldly. Rainbow Dash gave Twilight a quick “we-need-to-talk-about-it-later” look and they followed the Royal Guards officer on his way to the farm.
***
It was worse than Rainbow Dash expected. A charred, pony-sized lump hanged from the tree lifelessly, all six limbs spread at weird angles. The pegasus was probably hit by lighting in mid-air, and fell, impaling themselves on the bough. Twilight could feel her stomach turn when she saw a large piece of the branch protruding from the body’s chest. Surveillance, on the other hoof, was unflappable.
"Do any of you know this poor bastard?" he asked.
"I think I do," said Rainbow Dash shakingly, staring at the remains of the striking yellow mane, still visible on the pony’s head.