Dr Who / Lunaverse - Time after Time

by Talon and Thorn


4th Doctor - The Bohemian

Raindrops awoke to a world of pain. Her head was pounding like a herd of minotaur were playing basketball in it. Her mouth tasted like one of her brother’s pets has crawled into it and died, several weeks ago. The rest of her body ached from head to hooves; even her feathers and tail were throbbing. Her stomach cramped painfully and she tensed for a moment before the pain died down and she could relax. She vaguely remembered there having been something warm, comfortable and soft lying next to her – it had felt good, her poorly functioning brain reported – maybe it would make the pain go away, she reasoned. A questing hoof only found a rapidly cooling hollow; the soft thing had apparently left her to her misery. Growling in disappointment, she tried to retreat from this painful reality back to unconsciousness. Her nose was suddenly invaded by the scent of hay bacon, and her stomach reacted painfully again. She tried to recall what had happened. How she had ended up here? Wherever here was? All she could recall was a confused mix of images – a writhing tangle of pony bodies, bouncing around a dance floor with a smiling stallion, Rainbow Dash wrestling with another stallion on a bar, somepony who looked like Ditzy and a black mare leading her through the streets of Cloudsdale… what had happened last night?
 
With a superequine effort she forced her eyes open, and was immediately blinded by a flash of sunlight that melted her eyeballs into a bubbling goo. She slammed them shut again with a groan.
 
“Morning sweetheart!” bellowed a cheerful voice, reducing her eardrums to quivering protoplasm.
 
“Kill me!” mumbled Raindrops, wincing at the sound of her own voice. “Too much noise.” Taking a deep breath, she risked cracking open her eyelids again. Grimacing against the pain, the scene in front of her resolved itself into a multi-hued blur. “Too many colours,” she moaned.
 
“Nope, just the right number for true awesomeness,” said the voice, a little quieter this time.
 
“Dash?” asked Raindrops, trying to get her eyes to work again.
 
“The one and only!”
 
Blinking, Raindrops resolved the scene before her. The blue pegasus was leaning over her, a wide grin on her face. The room beyond was unfamiliar. “What happened? Why are you here?”
 
“I don’t remember much of last night, but I do recall challenging the bar that only somepony who could beat me could have me. Looks like you took up the offer because you sucker punched me.” She grimaced and gently prodded a large bump on her head. “Next thing I know I woke up in your bed. I didn’t think that was your style, Drops.”
 
Raindrops’ eyes widened, and she shot off of the bed as bile rose in her throat. A burning stream of pain ran between her ears as her brain complained at her treatment of it. She wanted to scream, but she didn’t dare open her mouth. Staggering from side to side and knocking over a small table, she tottered into the bathroom before vomiting noisily into the toilet.
 
“Hey,” cried Rainbow, sounding put out. “There’s a lot of ponies, and a few other species, who would give a lot to get a shot at these fine flanks.” She wiggled her hindquarters suggestively.
 
Raindrops vomited again before resting her burning head on the cool floor of the bathroom. “Oh Luna,” she sobbed, “What did I do? I’m sorry I took advantage of you, I’m so sorry,” she wailed.
 
“Uh, hey,” said Rainbow wringing her hooves. “You don’t have to take it that bad, you know.”
 
“But, I... I...” mumbled the yellow pegasus.
 
“Look, I’m fairly sure nothing happened. I guess we just made it back from the bar and collapsed in bed together. It didn’t get any further than that.”
 
“What!” Raindrops bellowed before screwing up her face at the self-inflicted pain. “They why did you say...” the ever burning flame of rage in her heart burst into increased life, and she tried to visualise a cloudburst dousing the flame as she struggled against her anger.  
 
“It was a joke. I thought it would be fun – you could do with lightening up a bit,” replied Rainbow looking slightly abashed.
 
“Fun! Fun! You made me think I’d...” She tried to ignore her pounding head for a moment and let out a calming breath. “That is not how I’d want my first time to be.” Then she realised her mistake and kicked herself.
 
“Your first?” Rainbow grinned. “You mean no one’s popped your cherry yet? You’ve not rained on anyone, Drops? No wonder you’re always so tense. You need to get laid, filly.”
 
Raindrops grimaced and splashed some water over her face. The pony in the mirror looked even worse than she felt. Her eyes were bloodshot, her muzzle was still specked with vomit and her feathers were disordered. “It’s not like I date often. I scare most ponies away. Anyway, I want my first time to be special – silk sheets, a roaring fire – with my very special somepony. Not just dragging some random pony into some club’s toilets.”
 
“Hey, don’t knock it until you’ve tried it,” Rainbow giggled.
 
“Why are you so happy? You drank more than me and I feel like slime.”
 
“I’m just that awesome!” boasted Dash. “Everything about me is fast, even my met-ab-oly-ism.” She spelt out the word as if she’d just learnt it from someone else, who also didn’t know how to pronounce it. “I wanted to die for about ten minutes after I got up, then I was fine. Oh, and I ordered us some breakfast.” She gestured to a plate of rapidly congealing hay bacon and eggs on a table.
 
“I hate you even more than normal,” Raindrops grumbled, cleaning her face. Despite her impressive strength, she had always been a lightweight when it came to alcohol; it only took a few drinks to put her under the table, which was why... “How did I end up like this anyway?” she asked. “I‘m normally careful to stay within my limits.”
 
“Yeah, you were nursing a single cider for most of the night, so I decided to give you something a little stronger to loosen you up so you’d have a good time.”
 
The flame in Raindrop’s heart suddenly burst into an inferno. “You spiked my drink!” she cried, turning towards Dash with murder in her eyes.
 
“Hey, I just gave you something a bit stronger than you were expecting. You had a good time, I think. It’s still a little hazy,” the multihued pegasus said, backing off.
 
“You don’t get it, do you?! When I let off steam, I smash rocks with my bare hooves. When I was younger, I crippled a colt because I got angry with him. If I lost control I could kill someone. Kill someone! I can’t just ‘loosen up’!”
 
“Look, I’m sorry. I might not have thought it through...”
 
“You! Never! Do!” Raindrops yelled, slamming a hoof into the bathroom wall and cracking several tiles. It made her feel a little better, so she did it again. “You just keep going on about how awesome you are, how cool you are, but you’re a bucking idiot, Dash! You never think about the consequences!” She slumped to the ground, still steaming. ”Just get out of here.” She gestured to the door.
 
“Okay, okay. I’m sorry. It was dumb of me and I won’t do it again, but we’ve got to get going. The last day of the conference starts,” she looked up at a clock, “half an hour ago.”
 
Trying to rein in her anger, Raindrops closed her eyes and counted to ten. She and Dash were here in Cloudsdale as part of the annual weather management conference; a chance to learn some new techniques for controlling the weather and to hobnob with teams from other parts of Equestria. Cloud Kicker was supposed to have gone with Dash but she’d caught the feather flu, so Raindrops had been roped into it instead. So far she’d found it quite interesting; she’d even gotten some praise for her part in a question and answer session on dealing with rogue weather. Dash had been bored stiff for most of the events – she’d even slept through several meetings. Raindrops couldn’t understand why her boss had even come; given her deputy was ill she could have easily claimed she didn’t have the time.
 
Opening her eyes again, Raindrops saw that Dash was still standing there, shuffling awkwardly from hoof to hoof. “Give me half an hour to get washed and preened. I can’t go to the conference looking like this.” She gestured at her wrecked form.
 
“Sure, I’ll see you down in the lobby,” Dash said, leaving the room and shutting the door behind her.
 
Watching her boss leave, Raindrops stretched and winced as her muscles complained. She looked around the hotel room; it had been nice to get out of her home for a few days. As much as she loved her family she did need some time to herself... when Dash wasn’t pranking her, anyway. It was nice to have a room large enough that she couldn’t touch the opposite walls with both her wings at the same time.
 
She walked back towards the bathroom, passing the table containing the breakfast Dash had left for her. Her nose filled with the scent of the cold hay bacon and her stomach heaved. She dashed for the toilet again.
 


 
The Doctor stuck his head out of the TARDIS and looked around. Rolling green hills stretched as far as the eye could see. “Oh, how dull,” he commented with an excited grin.
 
He turned around, trying to get a good look at himself. This incarnation’s equestrian form had a brown coat and a curly black mane. A quick hoof to the head indicated that he wasn’t a unicorn this time and a rather more difficult contortion allowed his to check that he didn’t have wings. That was a pity. Well, better luck next time, he thought. His dark brown jacket covered most of his form and a long multi-coloured scarf was wrapped around his neck several times, while a floppy hat covered his head. “It’s safe to come out, Leela,” he cried as he took the tracer from his belt and started to scan the area.
 
“This is Equestria?” his companion asked as she left the time machine. She carefully pronounced the unfamiliar word as if there would be some punishment for getting it wrong.
 
“Yes, land of the ponies. It’s been too long since I was last here.”
 
“Doctor, what are ponies?” Leela asked.
 
“Small equines, little horses, quadrupedal herbivores,” explained the Doctor. “Well, at the moment you and I are. I know it’s probably a bit confusing, but you should get used to it. Think of it as a learning experience.”
 
“I do not think I am one of these ponies.”
 
“Of course you are. It’s what the transmogrifier does, it makes you look like an Equestrian native.” The Doctor spun around, looking confused. The tracer seemed to be giving an equally weak signal in all directions.
 
“I do not think I am a pony,” Leela repeated with more certainly.
 
“Nonsense.” He turned and looked at his companion. Her body was that of a lion covered in yellow fur, but her head and front legs were that of an eagle covered in brown feathers. Large wings spread from her back, also covered in brown and black plumage. “Leela!” the Doctor hissed, looking backwards and forwards furtively.
 
“Yes, Doctor?” she said, moving her avian head closer.
 
“I don’t think you’re a pony,” he whispered.
 
She raised one claw and admired the long talons which protruded from it. “I am a hunter,” she said proudly. “I no longer need my knife or Janus thorns, my weapons are part of me now.”
 
“Interesting,” the Doctor noted, walking around Leela. “I think you're a Griffin. In Earth mythology they were predators of horses; they could kill a pony just by passing their shadow over it. He deliberately put Leela between himself and the sun. “Just as well this isn’t Earth, isn’t it?” He gave a toothy grin.
 
MAY I EMERGE, MASTER?” an electronic sounding voice said from the TARDIS.
 
“Of course K-9,” said the Doctor. “Let’s see what type of pony you’ve ended up as.”
 
With a clanking sound, a metal creature carefully made its way out of the door of the time machine. It was a robotic canine human hybrid creature, half again as tall as Leela. Its long front legs reached almost to the ground.
 
The Doctor’s face fell. “I don’t think you are a pony either, K-9.”
 
AFFIRMATIVE, MASTER. THIS UNIT IS NOT A PONY.”
 
“You look very fierce, K-9,” Leela said.
 
THANK YOU, MISTRESS,” K-9 replied, wagging his tail.
 
Leela extended her wings and admired the interplay of her feathers. “I feel like I could fly.”
 
PROBABILITY OF YOUR PHYSIOLOGY BEING CAPABLE OF POWERED FLIGHT LESS THAN 1% MISTRESS.
 
“You won’t know unless you try,” the Doctor encouraged.
 
Running forwards, Leela began to flap her wings in powerful arcs. To her surprise she almost immediately lifted into the air; her beak opened to release a great squawk of surprise and elation. Below her, the Doctor grasped his hat with a hoof to keep it on his head. “Brava,” he yelled in encouragement.
 
“Doctor!” Leela cried. “I can fly!” She swooped down towards her teacher. “It feels wonderful.”
 
HIGHLY IMPROBABLE!
 
“Try not to get too caught up in it. We still have to try and find the shard.” He swung the tracker, following Leela’s flight path, and the device gave a buzz. “That’s interesting,” he mused before pointing the wand straight up. It gave an angry screech. Shielding his eyes from the sun, he gazed up into the sky. Above, a wide swath of the sky was covered in grey cloud; at first glance it appeared natural, but after some scrutiny the shapes of buildings could be seen, and tiny figures were moving over and around it.
 
“Doctor,” Leela gasped, hovering near the earth pony, apparently unwilling to return to the ground. “It is a city. A city built on a cloud. This place has powerful magic.”
 
ALSO HIGHLY IMPROBABLE!” K-9 barked.
 
“Indeed. Normally I’d be telling you that magic isn’t real and make up some gobbledygook about antigravs or illusions, but in this case it really is powerful magic. Just one of the wonders of Equestria.” He gave a toothy grin. “I think the shard is up there somewhere. K-9, stay here and guard the TARDIS. Me and Leela will try and find the shard.”
 
AFFIRMATIVE, MASTER,” K-9’s tail and ears slumped.
 
“But how will you get up to the city?” asked Leela.
 
He looked Leela up and down. “I have an idea,” he announced.
 


 
The conference was just coming to an end, and Raindrops was finally starting to feel better. She and Dash had arrived over an hour late, but either nopony had noticed or cared, and they had managed to get into the conference centre without a problem. She managed to make it through the final morning’s lectures – although she was sure her normally yellow coat looked distinctly green to the other attendees – and she’d had to struggle to stay awake through some of the meetings. Seemingly to spite her, Dash had upped her game for the day. She had asked insightful questions at all the seminars, and even now was talking to a somewhat familiar-looking tall yellow pegasus wearing an expensive dress who Raindrops expected was somepony important, maybe a district commissioner or even a member of the Night Court.
 
After the main part of the conference had been completed, the attendees had all moved to a large open topped building with tables full of food placed around the walls – all enchanted so as not to fall through the clouds that made up the floor.
 
Raindrops had considered digging into the free food, but her stomach still didn’t feel up to it, so she only picked at a few of the plainer dishes on offer. Sighing, she looked at her program of the rest of the day’s events. There wasn’t much left now; lunch was supposed to carry on for another twenty minutes or so, then a closing ceremony, and finally some sort of team building exercise; there wasn’t much detail. Maybe she could skip it, go back to the hotel and get a few hours of sleep. She’d have to check out before the end of the day and would have a long flight home. She wasn’t sure if she felt up to that right now.
 
Dash was just returning from her glad-handing with a plate of snacks balanced on each wing when Raindrops caught sight of an orange stallion with a brown mane. He seemed familiar for a second, then her eyes widened and her pupils shrunk in shock. It couldn’t be him, he couldn’t be here, she couldn’t be here with him! She grabbed Dash, causing her to drop her meal, and dragged the blue mare behind a nearby table of food. Her boss cried out in shock but Raindrops muffled her mouth with a hoof. “Look over there!” she hissed.
 
Glaring at her for a moment, Dash poked her head over the table and followed Raindrops’ pointing hoof. Her eyes went wide. “What’s he doing there?” she asked.
 
“I don’t know! If he’s here I shouldn’t be! I could get in trouble!” Raindrops said.
 
“This is awkward,” Dash said at the same time.
 
They looked at each other. “Who are you talking about?” both mares chorused.
 
“Hoops, the stallion I crippled. He’s got a restraining order out on me!” Raindrops hissed.
 
“Dumb Bell, my ex-coltfriend,” Dash said at the same time.
 
“Who?!” they both said.
 
“The guy with the brown coat, white mane and those muscles,” Rainbow pointed out. “Seeing him brings back memories. He was my first, you know.”
 
“Your first what?”
 
“The first I did the thing you haven't done yet with,” said Dash with a grin.
 
Raindrops scowled, then her curiosity got the better of her. “So, err. What was it like?”
 
“Both the shortest and longest two minutes of my life. I was just too awesome for him to last. Still, he improved with time. We fooled around on and off for a few years. I dumped him when I moved to Ponyville.” She smiled, thinking back. “Who were you talking about?”
 
“Hoops, the one with the leg brace.”
 
Rainbow popped her head up again. There was an orange stallion with a shaggy brown mane standing near Dumb Bell and chatting with another stallion she thought she recognised from somewhere. His rear right leg was covered by a complicated mechanism of metal bars. She turned back to her friend. “Ouch!” she said. “At least it wasn’t his wings.”
 
“I did that to him,” Raindrops mumbled, looking increasingly green. “I’m not supposed to get within a hundred meters of him.”
 
“You didn’t know he’d be here. They can’t hold you responsible for that can they?”
 
“I don’t think the law works like that.”
 
“Well, just keep out of his way. There are hundreds of ponies here, the odds of him noticing you must be like a zillion to one.”
 
Raindrops calmed a bit. It was really strange for Dash of all ponies to be the voice of reason; it was like Trixie keeping a low profile. She started to stand up only to drop to the ground again. “He’s coming this way!” she squeaked.
 
“I told you there’d be more cupcakes over here, dude,” came a voice Raindrops didn’t recognise. “There’s always more cupcakes.”
 
“Oh, are there any of the lemon ones?” asked another. “Dash?” he suddenly cried out.
 
Rainbow rose from her hiding place a wide fake grin on her face. “Oh, hi Dummy. I didn’t know you were here!” she lied. “How are things?” she continued in a tone that suggested she didn’t want to know how things were.
 
Dumb Bell looked a little shocked but didn’t take the hint. A blue stallion standing next to him scowled. “I haven't seen you in ages, Bow. It must be three, no, four years. You finally got your braces taken off, then?” A look of panic flashed over Rainbow’s face. “What are you doing nowadays?”
 
“Oh, I’m the weather manager over in Ponyville.”
 
“Manager already? I thought you barely passed at college,” the blue stallion noted.
 
“Well, all that book stuff is such a snooze but when it gets to the hooves-on stuff I’m awesome.”
 
“Oh yeah, I remember you being awesome with your hooves,” Dumb Bell said. Dash flushed slightly. “I’m working at the weather factory here in Cloudsdale. You remember Hoops and Score from flight camp?” he asked gesturing at the stallions around him.
 
“Well I remember Rainbow Crash,” said Score, a dark blue stallion with black hair. “You used to have all sorts of problems with landings. Hey, isn’t that...” he pointed to Raindrops who had been trying to use the distraction to sneak away.
 
Hoops looked up as Raindrops turned, his jaw dropped and the plate of food he was holding fell to the floor. “You?” he gasped. “You’re not supposed to be here.” He staggered back shaking, his leg brace making a clacking sound and his wings spread ready to flee, his eyes wide.
 
Raindrops backed away. She remembered Hoop’s face from all those years ago twisted in pain; she remembered the rage, how good it had felt at the time to punch again and again and again. Shame washed over her. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were here,” she said lamely.
 
Score and Dumb Bell stepped between Raindrops and their friend. “Get out of here, you psycho!” Score yelled. Quite a few ponies turned towards the commotion.
 
“Yeah, we’ll call the Flying Squad,” Dumb Bell threatened.
 
“I don’t want any trouble, I’ll go,” Raindrops said, raising a hoof in contrition.
 
“Wait,” Hoops said. He closed his eyes for a second and steadied himself before pushing his friends aside. “You really didn’t know I was here?”
 
“Of course not. I don’t want to get in any trouble. What I did to you was the worst thing in my life.” She briefly thought about Corona’s return. Nope, it was still worse.
 
“It wasn’t the best time for me either,” Hoops said, looking back at his maimed leg.
 
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to...”
 
“I don’t want any trouble either.” He took a deep breath. “Listen, just keep away from me for the rest of the day and I won’t call the police.” With that he turned and hobbled away, his friends following him. Dumb Bell paused for a moment to wave at Rainbow, who absentmindedly returned the gesture.
 
“That went well,” she said.
 
“Well?! I just met a reminder of the worst part of my life and I could have gotten arrested!”
 
“Yeah, but Dumb Bell wasn’t all clingy like he used to be.”
 
Raindrops’ jaw dropped at her companion’s self-centeredness, “Dash!”
 
“I was just joking. Look...”
 
“Dash?” came a call from nearby. “Ah, there you are.”
 
Raindrops turned to the new voice. It emanated from a strange looking pegasus mare approaching them. She had a dark blue coat and a mane made up of various shades of grey but the thing that stood out about her were her wings. They were huge, stretching out past her hind legs. Even tucked up, they almost reached the floor. Raindrops tried not to stare as she got closer. “No way are those real,” she hissed to Dash fluffing up her own average sized wings.
 
“She’s had them as long as I’ve known her,” whispered Dash back as she shrugged, “But yeah, implants. Got to be. Some mares just aren't happy with what nature gave them.” She put on a fake grin. “Hi, Downpour, nice to see you. How are things in Hoofington? You still running the weather over there?”
 
“I’ve been looking for you all day,” replied Downpour. “You ready for the competition?”
 
“Yeah, wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
 
“Are you sure? I know how much you hate losing.”
 
“I’m not going to lose this time,” Dash said, drawing herself up to her full height.
 
“Really? I remember you losing. Sorry, coming second last year. A rather distant second.”
 
“That was a fluke, no way it’s going to happen again this year.”
 
“Well you certainly seem confident,” the large winged mare said, leaning closer. “How about putting your money where your mouth is.”
 
Dash’s eyes narrowed, “What have you got in mind?”
 
Swinging an oversized wing about and almost knocking over a nearby stallion, Downpour produced some tickets. “I know a mare who knows a mare who got me these.”
 
“Oh, my gosh!” Dash’s eyes bulged as she examined the pieces of paper. “Wonderbolt season tickets! You’re on!”
 
“Dash, Dash,” the grey-maned mare tutted, “I haven't even told you want I want yet.”
 
“It doesn’t matter, I’m going to win!”
 
Downpour grinned. “You still got that cloud mansion, Dash?”
 
“Yeah, it’s a sweet pad, rainbow fountains and all, oh...” Realisation seemed to dawn.
 
“Yep, that’s what I want. You win, you get the tickets, not to mention the bragging rights. I win, I get your house.”
 
Dash shuffled her hooves for a moment. “I don’t know, it’s my place..”
 
“I didn’t see you as a chicken, Dash. Still, I guess that’s what living in Ponyville has done for you,” the mare teased.
 
“I’m not chicken! Fine, you're on!” said Dash holding out a hoof.
 
“Dash, you can’t seriously be betting your house away, can you?” Raindrops asked incredulously.
 
“It’s not really a bet. There’s no way Ms Wingy here can beat me.” Downpour winced at her description. “Anyway, she’s from Hoofington – you know the rivalry between them and us. Ponyville’s pride is on the line.”
 
“Dash, neither of us are natives of Ponyville. What do we care of the rivalry?”
 
“Well, obviously you don’t believe in town spirit. But I do. You’re on, Downpour.”
 
Downpour hoofbumped Dash. “Nice doing business with you. I hope you and the rest of your team the best of luck.” She turned with a grin. “You’ll need it.”
 
“Team?” Dash asked in surprise, but Downpour had already disappeared into the crowd.
 
“Rainbow, what was all that about?” asked Raindrops. “What competition?”
 
“Well every year at this conference they...”
 
“Ladies and Gentlestallions,” a magically amplified voice came from one side of the hall. The crowds all turned towards the noise.
 
Cloudtroller Barometer, the conference’s rather plump organiser, stood at a podium on a cloud hovering above rest of the room. “I’m sure you are all excited about the team building event due in a few minutes but first I would like to thank the various members of staff who have made this conference such a success.”
 
While the Cloudtroller continued to drone on, Raindrops turned to Dash. “What’s this about?” she hissed.
 
“After each conference they have an awesome all comers game of sky hunt. The pony who gets the most tags gets a trophy and some vouchers or something. Last year I came second.”
 
“Let me guess, Downpour won?”
 
“Yeah, but that was like a total fluke. I wasn’t ready for the reach those big flappers give her. I’ll be ready for her this time. No way I can lose.”
 
Raindrops wanted to face hoof. She could not believe how stupid her boss could be sometimes. Still, it would teach her a lesson if she lost her house over this.
 
“Now as you are aware,” continued the Cloudtroller, “we traditionally hold an athletic competition, a game of sky hunt, after the conference. However, it has been brought to my attention that many of our attendees take this competition rather seriously and not in the team building manner in which it is supposed to be taken. Thus we are changing the rules this year.”
 
The smile slowly started to drop off of Dash’s face as Downpour turned to her and grinned.
 
“Rather than scoring individually, each area’s attendees will be scored as a team.” Barometer continued, “In addition, each team member will be required to remain within a quarter of a mile of each other at all times or face disqualification. My assistant will fit each of you with a magical gem to ensure these rules are followed. Remember, the idea of the competition is to work together and have fun, win or lose.”
 
As Barometer flew down from the podium, Dash stomped over to Downpour where she stood with the rest of her team; a strikingly similar mare and stallion, the former with a white mane and yellow coat and the latter with a yellow mane and white coat. Each of the angry mare’s hoof falls dug trenches in the cloud floor. “You knew about this?” Dash cried.
 
“I may have heard a few things from a friend of a friend,” the dark blue mare admitted, looking smug.
 
“You’ve got a bigger team!”
 
“Well, you could have brought more ponies. Oh wait, you probably don’t have more than half a dozen workers in your little fly speck town, right?”
 
“And I’m stuck with the slowest pegasus in Equestria!” Dash continued, gesturing at Raindrops, who ground her teeth at the insult but could not bring herself to disagree.
 
“You lose some and you lose some, Dash. I guess you better start looking for a new place to live. I hear ground houses are very reasonable at the moment,” she sneered.
 
Dash was about to respond when there was a commotion from across the room. She turned to see a large griffin hen making an apparently wobbly landing in the centre of the room. An earth pony was sitting on her back, held in place by a large knitted scarf wrapped around both his form and the griffin’s neck. Many of the conference’s attendees were running from the strange sight, and even those who weren't were backing away. Griffins were rare in Equestria and the unexpected appearance of one was cause for alarm.
 
“Don’t worry,” the stallion riding on the griffin called cheerfully. “Nothing to be worried about, me and my friend are just passing by, looking for some lost property.” He unwound the scarf and stepped off of his mount, only to fall through the clouds that made up the floor. A second later, the griffin gave a squawk as the scarf around her neck drew tight and pulled her to the ground. She struggled to stand, pulling the earth pony back into the room.
 
“Leela,” the Doctor muttered, “I think there’s something wrong with this floor.”
 
“Choking me!” Leela gasped, tugging at the scarf around her neck.
 
“Sorry,” the Doctor said, swinging himself onto her back again and loosening the noose.
 
“Who are you?” Barometer demanded, flying over to the new arrivals. “What are you doing here?”
 
“Well I’m the Doctor and this is Leela,” the Doctor said, holding out a hoof and grinning. “And well, we’re looking for a shard of the universe – interesting thing, could look like anything. Have you seen it?”
 
“What are you talking about? I will have to ask you to leave this instant.” He fumed, reaching for the Doctor.
 
Suddenly he found Leela standing over him one foot placed on his chest and the other at his throat. He gulped, looking down at the razor sharp talons next to his neck. “You will show the Doctor respect or I will gut you, fat one,” she said.
 
“Now, Leela, no need to be rough with him,” the Doctor said. “I’m sure we can explain. You see, we are...”
 
“The other members of the Ponyville team,” Raindrops announced, trying to prise Leela’s talons off of the stunned Cloudtroller. The griffin struggled, but to her surprise felt herself being pushed back irresistibly by the yellow pegasus’ strength.
 
“Er, yeah. They’re the rest of my team,” Dash said. She turned to Raindrops and hissed, “What are you talking about? Who are they?”
 
“You want to win your bet, don’t you?” Raindrops whispered back. “Well, sky hunt was originally a griffin game; they used captured prisoners rather than Tags, but I’m sure she’d know how to play. Plus, she isn’t the slowest pegasus in Equestria.”
 
Dash considered for a moment before a light bulb seemed to light above her head, “Yeah, these are the rest of my team,” she agreed.
 
“A griffin? You have a griffin on your weather team? Can they even control the weather?” Downpour asked.
 
“She... protects us from creatures coming from the Everfree,” Raindrops said, suddenly hit by inspiration.
 
“And the earth pony?”
 
“Oh, you know, quotas,” the Doctor said with a grin. “It’s political correctness gone mad!”
 
Barometer looked astounded at this. “What is going on? Are you seriously telling me that these... these creatures are part of your weather team?”
 
“I don’t think that Ms Dash would lie about something like this, do you, Cloudtroller?” asked the yellow mare with the pink mane that Rainbow had been talking to earlier.
 
Barometer’s eyes flashed back and forth between Dash, the new arrival and the Doctor for a moment before with an effort he steadied himself. “Of course not, your grace.”
 
“Good. And I’m sure Ms Dash can explain this all to me later.” She glared at Dash, who swallowed painfully, before striding away. Barometer gathered himself and flew back up to his podium.
 
“Thank you for your help...” said the Doctor.
 
“Raindrops,” said Raindrops. “I’m a friend of Cheerilee; she told us about you.”
 
“Ah, Cheerilee. I remember her well. How is she?”
 
“All right. You’re not how she described you, though.”
 
“Well, I’ve had a facelift. Several, actually.”
 
“So where is the shard you are looking for this time? We’re not going to get attacked by giant flying timberwolves, are we?”
 
“No,” the Doctor said, activating the tracker. “It appears to be quite near. Over there!” he pointed towards Barometer’s podium. “It shouldn’t be difficult to find it.”
 
The Cloudtroller pulled the lid off of a large packing case, and suddenly the air was full of hundreds of rapidly moving balls. They whirled around the room for a moment before forming into a great cloud and flying up, out of the room and away from the city. The Doctor tracked them with the tracer, noting that the signal getting fainter as they disappeared from sight. “Or maybe not,” he added.
 


 
“What is this Sky Hunt?” Leela asked. “What are we hunting? Some type of bird?” She flexed her talons and wings in preparation of the chase.
 
The four of them, as well as most of the other conference goers, had been led a short distance to the very edge of Cloudsdale where the game was to be played. Each had been given a small satchel and a necklace bearing the symbol of the weather service. The Doctor had managed to avoid them both, claiming to only be an observer; his excuse was easily accepted as nopony thought an earth pony would play much of a role in the game.
 
“I thought you said that Griffins invented Sky Hunt?” Dash grumbled, adjusting her satchel again to make sure her wings were left free.
 
“They did, but that doesn’t mean that they all play it nowadays,” Raindrops replied. She turned back to Leela and the Doctor. “We try to catch Tags, the ball things you saw earlier.”
 
“Are they good to eat?” Leela asked.
 
Raindrops blinked. “No. They're made of enchanted rubber.”
 
“Then why hunt them?”
 
“It’s a game! It’s fun! You get to show how awesome you are!” Dash cried.
 
Leela cocked her head and thought for a moment. “Oh, it is practice for a real hunt, where the young may learn their skills in safety.”
 
“That’s what most games are, Leela,” the Doctor noted.
 
“But I am no child, I am a warrior of the Sevateem. I have no need of such games. I can hunt live prey.”
 
“Everyone likes to play games, Leela, even me. You should see me on the football pitch. Alf Ramsey once asked me to play for England. I’m not sure why, it’s not like I’m English.”
 
“Anyway,” Raindrops said, gritting her teeth. “The balls are enchanted to fly by themselves and try to avoid being captured. They’re also programmed to make sure they stay in a set area, in this case about fifty miles square up to a height of about two miles. Each team has to capture as many Tags as they can and return here in two hours. We have to stay within a quarter of a mile of each other at all times; if we start to separate, this,” she indicated the necklace, “will start to buzz. Get too far apart, it will flash and we’ll be disqualified.”
 
“So you better keep up with me,” Dash said.
 
Raindrops looked out past the city. “Looks like they set up quite a few clouds for cover. I think I can even see some rocks in the distance. Cloudsdale must be moving over a mountain range. Speed won't be everything.”
 
“You’re just saying that because you’re slow as Snails.”
 
Suddenly Raindrops was up in Dash’s face; it seemed that the yellow pegasus could put on a burst of speed when she needed to. “Was that a joke about my brother?” she asked in an icy tone.
 
Dash backed off. “Whoa, calm down, I didn’t mean anything by it.”
 
“You better not,” Raindrops responded, turning from the weather manager. “It looks like the game is about to start. We better get in position.”
 
The rest of the convention had lined up in groups at the very edge of the city; most were talking and joking amongst themselves but a few were taking the event more seriously and were preparing themselves for action. Raindrops noticed Downpour and her team shoving their way through the crowd to the centre. The grey maned pegasus fully spread her wings, making them looking even larger; her body seemed ridiculously small in comparison. She noticed that Score, Hoops and Dumb Bell had positioned themselves on a raised section of cloud a bit back from the front and were pointing at the other contestants, talking amongst themselves. Score caught Raindrops’ eye and scowled.
 
Dash led her team to the back of the crowd and gestured for them to huddle together. “Ok, we need to get away from the start area as quickly as possible and get in front of the crowd. Now the sky’s going to be full of Sunday fliers so Leela, you clear a path – none of these scaredy ponies will want to get in the way of a griffin. Raindrops, follow Leela and try to keep up. I’ll orbit around you and grab any Tags I see.”
 
“How about heading straight down?” the Doctor asked.
 
“Why would we want to do that?”
 
“Well if you want to get in front of the crowd, gravity might be of use. Plus, there are less clouds for the Tags to hide in.”
 
Dash looked thoughtful. “A power dive would get us away from the others, and even Raindrops can fall quickly.” The yellow mare glared. “Good plan.”
 
“Well gravity is my second favourite force,” the Doctor said solemnly. “Plus you can drop me off. I’ll only slow you down.”
 
“I will not leave you, Doctor,” Leela announced, craning her head around to look at her passenger.
 
“Oh don’t worry about me, I’m sure I’ll find some way to keep up.” He pulled out the tracker. “Try to head in that direction,“ he pointed to the south west, “and catch all the Tags you can. If you’re lucky you’ll find the one I need.”
 
“Is everypony ready?” Barometer bellowed from above. The crowd quickly sorted itself out and positioned ready for take-off. Over a hundred pegasus stood poised and ready. Dash stretched and cracked her neck. “On your marks... get set.... GO!” he yelled. Several fireworks burst around the crowd to signal the start, and as one they leapt into the air.
 


 
Dash galloped forwards as fast as her hooves could carry her and leapt off the edge of the city. Her wings gave three mighty flaps, propelling her straight down before she folded them in tight. The wind howled past her as she flashed down through the thick cloud like a multi-coloured dart, shattering the intangible substance as she went.
 
As much as she might not like her boss, Raindrops had to admit that Dash was a fantastic flyer. She was into the air and dropping before Raindrops even got off the mark. Spurring herself forwards, the yellow mare cantered forwards and jumped into the open sky. Off to one side, she heard Leela let out a bloodcurdling cry that scattered ponies away from her. The Griffin leapt into the air, wings flapping rapidly; she dipped forwards and swooped towards the ground, with the Doctor’s added weight helping her descent.
 
Raindrops kept her wings tucked in and fell through the sky. Low cloud still obscured the ground and she fought against the urge to pull out of the dive. A voice in the back of her head screamed that she was too close to the ground. Suddenly something painfully crashed into the side of her head. She spun aside and lashed out with a wing as she started to tumble. Something was caught in her feathers; a Tag! She transferred the ball to her front legs and clutched it to her chest. She burst through the cloud layer, still twisting through the air; the ground was coming up to meet her very, very fast. Her wings desperately struggled to catch the air and straighten herself out. With a frantic twitch of her tail, she righted herself and started to pull up, but it was going to be too late. One of her back legs caught against the ground and she flipped onto her back, bouncing once, twice, three times through a field of long grass. She skidded a short distance across the ground before coming to a stop.
 
Raindrops laid there for a minute trying to get her bearings. Once again she ached all over, her recently dispelled hangover returning with a vengeance.
 
“Come on Drops,” Dash yelled from somewhere above her. “No time to lay about, we’ve got to go.”
 
Snarling, the yellow pegasus rolled onto her front and stood up. She winced; most of her back felt like a single giant bruise, but otherwise she seemed uninjured. “I got a Tag,” she announced, holding up the ball with pride; that would show Dash.
 
“Good for you. I got two,” Dash boasted, holding out her prizes. She suddenly zipped to one side and snapped out with her mouth. “‘ow I ‘ot ‘ree,” she announced.
 
Off to one side, the Doctor was dismounting from Leela and untangling his scarf. “Off you go,” he said. “Good hunting! I’m sure I’ll see you about.”
 
Driving her wings through the air, Leela leaped into the sky with more grace now that she was not weighed down. Wincing, Raindrops also took off following Dash who was by now rushing off into the distance. The Doctor waved as they went, then looked around to get a bearing on his position. He appeared to be in some sort of farmed field covered with long grass, although there was no sign of anypony working the field. However, he could make out a tent set up a few fields away. As good a place as any to start, he thought, before starting to gallop off towards it.
 


 
The tent was surrounded by several irregular shapes covered in large waterproof cloths. The orange furred hindquarters of a pony could be seen protruding from under one of them.
 
“Excuse me,” the Doctor said, approaching the camp.
 
“‘at? ‘ho?” came a startled reply. The partially covered pony spun around and looked up at the Doctor, clutching a screwdriver in his mouth. He was an earth pony with a messy white mane. He carefully stowed the screwdriver in a bandoleer of tools around his chest. “Ah, you’d be the Doctor then?” he asked.
 
“You were expecting me?” the Doctor asked, rather surprised.
 
“Well, your brother told me to bring all this stuff out here, paid me well to, not that I’m in this for the money you understand but I’ve got costs. My names Gimmick by the way.” He held out a hoof.
 
The Doctor shook the offered limb, “My brother? Irvine?”
 
“No, some little chap, said he was called the Doctor too. A sort of family tradition? It must get confusing at Hearth’s Warming.”
 
“Like you wouldn’t believe,” the Doctor said with a grin. “Little chap? Played a flute, did he?”
 
“No, had an umbrella though.”
 
“Ah, must be one of my older brothers then. Did he leave any messages?”
 
“No, he just turned up last night and paid me to bring this stuff here, then ran off. He said he had to contact the police about something.”
 
“I guess I’ll have to remember that or it could cause all sorts of problems in the future,” the Doctor mused. “Anyway, what do we have here?” He strode towards the nearest of the three shapes.
 
“You don’t know?” Gimmick asked, rushing to stay apace.
 
“Well, if I did I wouldn’t be asking, would I? Do keep up.”
 
“Well, your brother said you needed some way of getting up to Cloudsdale, and he came to the right pony if I do say so myself. It’s my talent, you see.” He turned to show the symbol on his flanks; a winged cog. “When I was young I dreamed of a world where everypony could fly – not just pegasi and unicorns who learned the right spells, but everypony. So I worked and I studied and finally I built my first prototype. I was overjoyed when I first left Equestria’s embrace.” He looked thoughtful. “Of course, then I discovered I have a crippling fear of heights. Once I was safely back on the ground I decided to dream of a world where everypony else could fly.”
 
“That’s what these are?” the Doctor asked, poking the tarpaulin covered shape.
 
“Yep, some of my best test vehicles. Your brother was very clear that you’d need all three.”
 
“Well, I’m sure he knows best. So what are my options?”
 
“These two aren’t quite ready yet.” He gestured at two of the shapes. “So you might have to wait a while.”
 
“Ah, I’m afraid I’m in a bit of a hurry. Tell you what...” he pulled out a whistle and blew into it. It emitted a high pitched wailing sound that caused the Doctor and Gimmick to wince. “So that’s what it sounds like,” he noted. “You should be getting some help soon, unless the ground’s too uneven for him. Now what do you have for me right now?”
 
“This one’s more or less ready to go,” Gimmick said, pulling the covering from one of his inventions.
 
A wide grin started to cover the Doctor’s face. “I think that will do nicely. And it’s even in my colour.”
 


 
Dash rocketed through a herd of Tags; the enchanted balls followed their programming and scattered in all directions. Laughing with exhilaration, the chromatic mare rolled to one side, following the nearest target and easily matching speed with it. She carefully positioned herself so that the ball fell straight into her already partially full satchel. With a flick of her wing, she flipped in the air, soaring over a thermal, and kicked off in the opposite direction. She smacked a further Tag with one wing, then the other, finally knocking it into her bag. This was easy – she was going to win for sure. Ahead, she saw another group of Tags – at least half a dozen, easy prey. She shot forwards, closing in on her targets when suddenly her concentration was broken by a humming sound and a vibration around her neck; it was her necklace.
 
Quickly killing her speed, she turned in the air to look back at her fellow team mates. Leela was a short distance behind, her bird-like head swinging from side to side looking for prey; she had found that her sharp talons were ideal for plucking the Tags from the air – although once punctured they proved difficult to dislodge, resulting in several of her claws now being covered by the remains of the balls. Rainbow was sure they still counted to their score, though. Raindrops however remained far behind, struggling to keep up with her swifter teammates. She occasionally struck out to one side or the other, but the Tags easily avoided her. So far, the yellow pegasus had only captured two of them.
 
“Come on! Keep up!” Dash growled. “I almost got a bunch. Could you go any slower?”
 
Raindrops let out a snarl and tried desperately to hold on to her last nerve. The three of them had been heading away from Cloudsdale for over half an hour now, and had outdistanced most of the other competitors. It seemed like Rainbow had spent the whole time continuously complaining about her speed. It wasn’t like she wasn’t trying; she was going as fast as she could. Her wings were aching; she just wasn’t built for speed like Dash was. Leela wasn’t helping either; although her flying had started off hesitantly, like she was out of practise, she had quickly improved and now her speed and agility were almost as good as Dash’s.
 
As if in response to her thoughts, Leela flipped back and shot past Raindrops’ shoulder after a fleeing Tag. The slower pony was pushed aside by her wake as the Griffin stretched out her neck and plucked the flying ball out of the air.
 
“Come on, Slow-one,” Leela called teasingly. “We still have much prey to take today.”
 
“Yeah, slow-one,” another voice came from above. Raindrops looked up to see Hoops, Score and Dumb Bell standing on a bank of clouds not far away. “Your team’s never going to win unless you can keep up,” Score taunted.
 
“Hey, Bow,” Dumb Bell called. “Think fast!” He took a Tag from his bag and threw it at the blue pegasus.
 
“I always do, Dummy,” she chuckled, easily catching the ball with one wing and rolling it across her back to the other wing before throwing it back at her ex-coltfriend, catching him on the head. It knocked him off the cloud, causing him to flap desperately to stop from falling to the ground.
 
Hoops took one of his own balls and tossed it at Rainbow, who easily avoided it, and – giving a whooping war cry – rushed towards the stallions, hurling a stream of Tags.
 
“Are we not supposed to keep the Tags as trophies of our hunting skills?” Leela asked.
 
“Yeah, we need them to score. Rainbow’s just being an idiot – it’s like she wants to lose her house,” Raindrops grumbled. She swooped up between the two battling teams. “Come on, stop acting like foals,” she cried angrily. Hoops backed away, ears drooping.
 
“Hey who put you in change, Raindrips,” Score taunted, tossing a ball at the yellow pegasus. She snapped it out of the air with her mouth.
 
“Yeah, lighten up, Raindrips,” Dash added. “We’re just having some fun.” She tossed a Tag at Raindrops just as the blue maned mare was turning; rather than bouncing harmlessly off of her back, the rubber projectile instead smashed straight into her sensitive snout. He head snapped back and her eyes filled with tears.
 
The flame within Raindrops – which she had been struggling to control for the whole day – burst into a raging bonfire, burning away all reason. She struggled with it for a moment, trying to wash away the fire, but the pain in her muzzle overcame her self-control. “Kill you!” she bellowed, blinking away the tears. Her vision seemed to become a long tunnel, with the surprised weather manager at the far end, warped by a red haze.
 
“Come on, Raindrops,” Dash said, backing away a bit as the raging pegasus flashed towards her at what she now considered a quite impressive speed. “It was just a joke, I didn’t mean to hurt you!”
 
“Stupid bucking Dash, it’s all a joke to you!” Raindrops roared, swinging out a hoof at her boss. Dash flinched back and the limb just missed her, but she could feel the force behind it and knew Raindrops’ intentions. Realising the danger she was in, Dash turned and fled just ahead of the enraged pony. Behind her, all colour drained from Hoops’ face and he began to fly away as quickly as his shaking wings could manage. His friends realized that things had gone too far and followed him in flight. Leela looked on in confusion.
 
“Get back here!” Raindrops screamed. “I’m going to knock some sense into you!” She gritted her teeth. She so wanted to bring her hoof down on the blue pegasus’s face again and again, to wipe that stupid over confident grin off of her face.
 
Dash turned on all of her speed to try and outdistance the berserk pony on her tail, but to her horror she only just managed to pull ahead of Raindrops’s flailing hooves and snapping teeth. Glancing forwards, her eyes widened further as something large and blue started to rise out of the clouds below her. She rolled to one side, narrowly avoiding whatever it was. Raindrops was less fortunate and she ploughed straight into the yielding material that made up the thing. She tried to tear through whatever it was but it resisted, throwing her away from the large blue hot air balloon rising upwards through the clouds.
 
“Hullo,” the Doctor cried from the basket beneath the balloon, doffing his hat. “Look what I found. Well was given really, apparently a gift from myself. Did I miss anything?”
 
Snarling in frustration at the thing that had gotten between her and her target, Raindrops rushed against the balloon again only to bounce back again. The basket swayed alarmingly.
 
“Stop that!” the Doctor cried. “I only just got this thing.”
 
Noticing a new target to take her rage out on, Raindrops charged at the Doctor, hoof outstretched. To her surprise she suddenly found herself pinned against the edge of the basket. She struggled but found herself unable to move.
 
“Venusian aikido,” the Doctor explained. “A Sontaran couldn’t get free. I’m not sure why I don’t use it more often.”
 
With a roar, Raindrops threw the Doctor back and turned towards him, eyes blazing.
 
“Oh, that’s why. I’m not very good at it in this body.” He ducked under a wild blow from Raindrops but the basket left him with little room to manoeuvre. Reaching into his pocket, he drew out a paper bag and held it in front of the raging mare. “Would you like a jelly, er.. foal?” he asked.
 
Raindrops froze in place in astonishment for a second, then recovered and opened her mouth to vent her rage again. Suddenly the Doctor did the last thing she would have expected; he shoved the contents of the bag into her mouth. She closed her teeth around the gooey substance and felt them stick in the gummy mass. Her taste buds were stimulated by a mix of fruity flavours. She slumped back onto her hind legs, totally discombobulated.
 
Chewing, Raindrops felt the fire within her die down slightly. Reason returned to her and she realised what she had almost done, how she had wanted to pummel Dash again and again, how she wanted to attack someone, anyone just to feel better. She remember the look of terror on Hoops face – a look she’d seen before. She looked down; her hooves were shaking for some reason and she couldn’t seem to make them stop. That made her even angrier; why couldn’t she control her own body? Trying to stop herself drowning in the fire again, Raindrops realised she had to get away before she hurt somepony. Giving something between a roar and a sob, Raindrops leapt from the basket and threw herself into the clouds.
 
“Leela, follow her,” the Doctor commanded. The brown griffin obeyed instantly and followed the fleeing pegasus. “And you,” the Doctor continued, pointing at a shamefaced Dash, “can tell me what happened.”
 


 
Thud
 
Thud
 
Thud
 
Crack!
 
Thud
 
Thud
 
Crack!
 
Raindrops sighed, looking down at rocks beneath her hooves. She was standing part way up a mountain peak that emerged from the blanket of cloud. She had found a number of boulders and had proceeded to try to work out her frustrations by crushing them. Now all she had was a bunch of smaller rocks, aching hooves, and a hollow feeling inside; the fire had receded somewhat, but was still there. She was just so tired, tired of always having to be on guard to stop the blaze spreading, why couldn’t she be a normal pony? The look on Hoops’ face... She shuddered. She’d hoped she would never see that again. He was probably half the way back to Cloudsdale by now, ready to call the police and have her arrested. That might be for the best; at least in prison she couldn’t hurt anypony. Tears started to drip onto the rock. She was so messed up. She saw movement out of the corner of her eye and turned to see Leela slowly approaching.
 
The griffin made a strange gesture with her claws, clutching at her arms and legs before gesturing from her legs to her head. “I am sorry Raindrops, I did not know that you were a Hortzerka.”
 
“A what?” Raindrops asked, trying to blink away her tears. She looked confused.
 
“A Hortzerka, you have the spirit of the Horta within you.”
 
“I’m sorry, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
 
“The Horta is a powerful totem among my people. They are insects less than the size of a man’s hand but very fierce; they will attack creatures many times their size, and once they bite they do not let go until their prey is dead, even if they themselves perish.”
 
To her surprise, the image made Raindrops chuckle. She imagined that her brother would probably try to adopt such a dangerous creature.
 
“Those with such a spirit are mighty fighters much honoured in my tribe. In battle they slay many enemies and withstand wounds that would kill lesser warriors.”
 
“Yeah, I’m sure I would fit right into barbarian society. I’d probably be made queen of clan Drops or something.”
 
“You do not understand,” Leela said, alighting next to the yellow mare. “The Hortzerka are both blessed and cursed. They cannot tell friend from foe. They have to live outside of the village’s protection and are not allowed to take mates. Some have to be restrained or even killed for the good of the tribe.”
 
Raindrops looked down. “I’ve not exactly had luck on the mates front and sometimes I think it might be better if I lived outside of Ponyville where I can’t hurt anypony,” she said bitterly.
 
“No. The Hortzerka cannot control themselves, but you can. You have mastered your totem, you appear like any other warrior. If I had known you were Hortzerka I would not have shown you such disrespect.” She struggled and took off the bag around her neck holding it out to the pegasus. “I give you my prey to make amends.” She lowered her head.
 
Raindrops looked at the Griffin supplicating herself before her. “Um, thanks, but I don’t need your balls.” She gently pushed away the offered bag, and Leela strapped it around her neck again. “How can you say I can control my ‘spirit’ when I attacked Dash?”
 
“The Rainbow one was at fault; she was aware of your totem yet still attacked you and showed you great disrespect. Yet you regained your mastery of the Horta within you, and came here to give homage to the earth goddess rather than smite your foe. The Doctor has taught me it is what you do that is important, not what you fear you might do.”
 
“You really trust the Doctor, don’t you?”
 
“He saved my tribe and many others. His magic is strong, although he does not call it that.”
 
Raindrops looked down at the rubble beneath her hooves. Yeah, homage to the earth goddess. Still, she supposed she had decided to come here rather than carry on after Dash, no matter how much her boss deserved it.
 
She turned back to Leela, only to be interrupted as the balloon carrying the Doctor rose up through the clouds, followed by a rather contrite-looking Rainbow Dash.
 
“Ah, there you are,” the Doctor said. “I see you’ve managed to cool off. I think Dash has something she wants to say to you.”
 
“Er, yeah,” the blue pegasus said, rubbing the back of her head with a hoof. “The Doctor told me that maybe ragging on you about flying slow might not have been entirely cool, and that I should maybe thank you for helping me not lose my house.”
 
The almost apology hovered in the air for a moment.
 
“Dash,” Raindrops said, “you can be a bucking idiot sometimes, I have no idea how you got your job,” Dash squirmed a little, “and you don’t care about anypony but yourself.”
 
“Hey, I care about Fluttershy! She’s my friend,” Dash exclaimed.
 
Raindrops continued, ignoring the outburst. “But I know you hate having to apologize for anything so even that attempt must have meant a lot. So apology accepted, and I’m sorry I almost attacked you. You didn’t deserve that.”
 
“‘s ok, you wouldn’t have laid a hoof on me the rate you fly,” Dash muttered, then realised what she had said. “Err, sorry.”
 
“Well now that we’re all friends again,” the Doctor said, “maybe we can try to find the shard?” He waved the tracker around. “It seems to have moved, I wonder if another team has caught it? Anyway, it seems to be part of that storm over there,” he said, pointing to an area of dark cloud.
 
“What’s a storm doing here?” Raindrops asked in confusion.
 


 
“Hoops! Slow down dude, she’s gone,” Dumb Bell called. The startled stallion was flying recklessly through the thickening storm.
 
“Pull yourself together,” Score said. “You want Light to see you like this?”
 
That seemed to get through to the spooked pegasus, and he slowed to a stop before alighting on a dark cloud. His friends pulled up next to him. “You alright?” Dumb Bell asked.
 
“Yeah, I... I think so. It’s just seeing her like that, it brought back some bad memories.” His metal encased leg twitched and he grimaced.
 
“You should tell the police, that psycho should be behind bars,” Score said.
 
“Yeah, it looked like she was going after Dash back there,” Dumb Bell agreed.
 
“Dash can take care of herself, you know how she was at school, she’s tough.”
 
“Not all the time you know, sometimes she was soft.”
 
“You’re still carrying a torch for her?” Score said in disgust. “You remember what she did to you.”
 
“It wasn’t all like that, we had some good times,” Dumb Bell said, looking down with his face flushing.
 
“Yes, it was. I remember how you were after she left you, you were a mess.” He placed an arm over his friend. “‘Oh, Score she left me’, ‘Oh, Score the light of my life is gone’, ‘How ever will I carry on’. You were pathetic, dude.” He tightened his hug. “I don’t want to see you like that again.”
 
Calmed by the sound of his friends bickering, Hoops looked around. Banks of dark stormy clouds had started to build up around them. It was becoming harder and harder to see more than a few feet in any direction. “Where did all this come from?” he asked himself. Suddenly there was a rumble of thunder from not too far away. “Guys? What’s going on?”
 
Interrupted, Score and Dumb Bell looked around. “Maybe it’s some sort of obstacle course they cooked up special?” Dumb Bell said.
 
“They didn’t mention it,” Score said. A second round of thunder could be heard and this time the clouds around them were lit by lightning as well.
 
“Who... who’s there? Who’s doing that?” Hoops stuttered, spinning around.
 
A huge dark shadow quickly passed over the trio.
 
“Let’s get out of here,” Hoops cried, his nerve failing. He dove into a bank of clouds, but to his surprise, rather than passing through them he impacted on a solid substance and was thrown back. Score grabbed his friend as he fell back and steadied him.
 
“What the hell!” the blue stallion exclaimed.
 
“It’s cloudcrete!” said Dumb Bell examining the cloud bank. Although pegasus could easily shape clouds into building materials, they suffered from the problem that another pegasus could easily reshape your house or a burglar could just make a door to enter your house. Cloudcrete was the solution to this; a special type of cloud enchanted to be resistant to pegasus magic once set in shape, it could still be altered but it took a lot more effort and only the strongest Pegasus could force their way through it. Most cloud buildings were made of it.
 
“This has got to be somepony’s idea of a joke,” Hoops cried, prodding the clouds above them. With a rumble, heavy rain started to fall, and another flash of lightning illuminated the area. “This way, it’s clear up here.”
 
He pushed higher into the air, only to find the cloud bank above was thicker and darker than expected. He felt something long and flexible, like the leg of a giant spider, reach around him in the darkness. He let out a scream and tried to dart away, but the thing seemed to have snagged his satchel, and its strap pulled tight against his throat, choking him. He struggled for a moment, then managed to tear free of the restraining strap and streak higher into the cloudbank. He thought he heard a feminine giggle as he passed.
 
“Hoops!” Dumb Bell cried as he heard his friend scream. He flew towards the sound at full speed, but his shoulder caught on a block of cloudcrete, sending him spinning away. He tried to regain control and had almost managed it, before he slammed head first into another wall of the same material. Knocked unconscious, he went limp and dropped for several seconds before landing on a cloud bank and lying still.
 
“Dumb Bell!” Score screamed. “Where are you?” he spun around in a panic, looking for an escape from the trap he and his friends had found themselves in. Another rumble of thunder seemed to break out just by his head, and once again the dark shape could just about be made out in the clouds above, its huge wings overshadowing him. He launched himself up and weaved past a block of cloudcrete that loomed in his path. For a moment he thought he could make out an equine shape in the clouds; then suddenly a bolt of lightning flew past him and he could only see spots. Blinded, he flew straight on as quickly as he could, ignoring the buzz of the amulet around his neck signalling that he was too far away from his companions. He heard a mare’s cry of distress, followed by a bone jarring impact that sent him spinning. He blinked and his eyesight started to return when he saw a thunder cloud ahead; before he could react, he impacted with it at full speed, its whole charge discharging at once. He screamed as electricity crackled along his form, overcoming his pegasus resistance to lightning. Paralyzed, his wings locked, and he started to plummet to the ground so very far below him, but getting closer with every second.  
 


 
As the Ponyville weather team (plus recent recruits) watched, a small figure could be seen dropping from the bottom of the cubic mass of storm clouds that filled much of the sky in front of them. Instantly Rainbow Dash was off, pushing herself as much as she could. The chromatic pony split the air asunder as she sped towards the falling form.
 
She felt her necklace vibrate with increased strength, and for a second considered slowing – but the dark blue shape in front of her was still falling, and the ground was not far away. It was a shame – she liked her sky mansion, she had all her stuff there. Maybe she could move in with Fluttershy for a while until she could find another place. With an internal shrug, she forced herself forwards even quicker.
 
There was a flash as her amulet disqualified her team from the contest, but at the same moment she managed to get her hooves under the falling stallion and put all her effort into pulling up. Her burden was heavy, and for a moment she thought her wings would be torn straight off her body. She gritted her teeth; the ground still seemed to be coming up awfully fast.
 
“Come on dude, flap,” she begged, but her passenger was unresponsive.
 
The ground was less than a hundred feet away and she could make out the fields clearly. An orange pony was pulling a tarpaulin off of a bulky shape, helped by what looked like some sort of golem, but she ignored it. Fighting against her and her passenger’s inertia, Dash finally managed to start to gain some height as she skidded above the tops of a line of trees. Grunting with the effort, she started to reduce her speed and finally had a few moments to study the stallion she was carrying. Score was starting to stir and groaned quietly, his coat smoking in places and darker than it usually was, but he otherwise seemed unharmed.
 
Trying to be as gentle as possible, Dash lowered Score onto a low cloud bank. Rain began to fall on her. She looked up to see a tall column of dark clouds descending towards her. She gulped. That didn’t look good.
 
She shook Score, who gave out a grunt of pain and staggered to his hooves. “Get up, we need to get moving.”
 
“Dash?” he asked weakly, then shook himself. “What happened? Where’s Dumb Bell?” He tried to launch himself into the air but his wings could barely hold his weight.
 
“Slow down. You’re injured, you should rest. I’ll check on Dummy and see about that storm.”
 
“Don’t call him that!” he snarled. “I need to know that he’s alright.” Grimacing, Score began to slowly rise into the air. “Besides, you’ve hurt him enough already.”
 
Dash frowned but held her tongue. “Fine, have it your way.”
 
The pair of them flew into the black maw of the storm.
 


 
“The spirits are angry,” Leela noted, pointing at the storm.
 
“Somepony must have built all that for some reason,” Raindrops said, starting to fly towards the dark mass. “There could be other ponies in trouble in there – we need to help them.”
 
“If one of you could give me a hoof,” said the Doctor, playing with the burner in his balloon. “This thing isn’t built for speed.”
 
Leela grasped one of the balloon’s ropes in her talons and began to heave the ungainly vehicle through the air. “Thanks,” the Doctor said, pulling a hand telescope from a pocket and extending it. “I can see at least two other ponies over there, one up top and one near the edge. He seems injured.” He focused the telescope more. “There’s something next to him, I think it’s another pony.”
 
“I’ll check-up top,” Raindrops said, slowly climbing into the air. “You look after the injured pony. You’re the Doctor, after all.”
 
“Not that kind of Doctor!” the Doctor cried as Raindrops flew away.
 


 
Skirting the edges of the anonymous mass of cloud, Raindrops tried to catch up with Hoops. He had stopped fleeing but was flying in panicked circles, seemingly unsure what to do with himself.
 
“Stop!” she barked. Her target started and looked ready to bolt again. Raindrops cursed herself. “Please, stop,” she asked more gently.
 
The orange stallion came to a halt, but his eyes kept darting from side to side as if looking for a way out.
 
“Are you alright? You’re not injured?”
 
“No. I’m just scared. I’m always scared,” he admitted, dropping his eyes. “You did that to me. You broke my body and you broke my nerve; I’ve never been the same since. I used to have daily panic attacks. What you did to me was the second scariest moment of my life.”
 
“I’m sorry,” Raindrops said, ears and eyes drooping. “If I could change what I did, I would, but... wait, second scariest?”
 
“The scariest was last month... two words from my marefriend’s mouth; ‘I’m bleeding’. We’re expecting our first foal in a few months.” He squeezed his eyes closed.
 
Raindrop’s blinked. “I’m sorry.” She seemed to be saying that a lot, she couldn’t think of anything else.
 
“Don’t be.” He gave a small smile and opened his eyes, focusing on the mare in front of him. “It was a false alarm, she and the foal are both fine. Actually, maybe the second scariest moment was ‘I’m pregnant’. It sort of puts things in perspective, almost dying suddenly seems less scary than creating life.” He closed his eyes again and took a deep breath.
 
Raindrops recognised the reaction. “What do you see your fear as?”
 
“What?”
 
“You’re visualising, I do the same. I see my anger as fire; I try to put it out, raindrops sometimes work.” She smiled without humour.
 
“Oh. I see my fear as water trying to wash me away. I try to dam it up.”
 
“I guess we’re not so different.”
 
“No, we’re not,” he said with a nod. “I don’t want to be controlled by my fear. I don’t want to be defined by what you did to me as a foal. I want to be a father.”
 
“I don’t want to be defined by my anger either. I have friends… I have a family.”
 
He turned towards her awkwardly. “Look, I can’t say we can just kiss and make up, because you still ruined my life.” He tapped his metal encased leg. “Anyway, if we did Light Breeze would kill me. She’s just a little thing – well, not so much right now – but she’s got a mouth on her. I just want to put you behind me.”
 
“I... I can live with that. Look, I got to go back to see what’s going on down there.” She gestured back at the dark clouds. “You stay here.”
 
“No. I said I didn’t want fear to define me. It’s my friends down there too. I’m coming with you.” With that he rushed towards the storm, limbs only trembling slightly.
 
Raindrops followed as quickly as she could.
 


 
Leela peered through the dark clouds as they approached the prone shape of the pony she had seen earlier. Rain was pouring down, soaking her feathers and making flight difficult; the Doctor was partially protected by his balloon, but enough water was seeping around it to still get him wet.
 
The shape of the fallen pony seemed to be obscured, as if a cloak had been spread over Dumb Bell’s body. Confused, Leela left the Doctor’s balloon for a moment to get a closer look. To her surprise, the shape covering the stallion leapt up, and a long limb stretched out to slash at her. Startled, Leela threw herself back. Giving a cry of victory, the creature crouched over Dumb Bell and pulled the bag off of his shoulder before pushing off of the cloud he had rested on, causing it to fade away. No longer supported, the unconscious pegasus dropped out of the sky.
 
Leela turned to follow the creature as it flew away. “No,” the Doctor yelled, “save him.” He pointed at the falling pegasus. Glaring as her prey got away, Leela turned towards Dumb Bell and swooped down, catching him in her arms. “Well done,” the Doctor congratulated. “Now get him in the basket so I can look at him.”
 
Struggling against her burden’s weight, Leela complied and bundled the unconscious pony into the vehicle. She then perched on the top of the balloon, her eyes peering out into the storm, looking for enemies.
 
The Doctor took out a small pen torch from his pocket and used it to examine the brown stallion’s eyes, causing a groan of complaint. “You’ve been quite lucky, whoever you are,” he commented. “You’ll have a lump like a griffin’s egg, but there doesn’t seem to be any permanent damage done. We better get you to somewhere safe.”
 
“I can lay eggs?” Leela asked, sounding intrigued.
 
“Actually, I have no idea. You do seem part bird and part lion; maybe griffins hatch cubs from eggs. Image the omelette they could make.”
 
Leela was about to reply when there was an explosion of sound; a peal of thunder went off seemingly just next to her. With a yelp she spun around, slashing out with her talons as a yellow and white blur shot past her. Unfortunately, her wild swing missed its target and cut a large gouge out of the balloon instead.
 
The Doctor craned his neck up to survey the damage to his craft as it began to deflate with a loud hiss. “Leela, did you just burst my balloon?” he asked seriously.
 
Leela looked shame faced. “Yes, Doctor. I am sorry.”
 
He grinned as the balloon started to drop towards the ground at first slowly but then speeding up. With a sigh, the Doctor started to push the still stunned Dumb Bell to the edge of the basket. “Leela, take him,” he ordered.
 
“I will save you too,” she said as she lifted the large stallion into her arms.
 
“The two of us will be too heavy. Don’t worry about me.” He looked down. “We must be almost two miles up; I’ll have sixty, maybe seventy, seconds to come up with something clever. I’ve even brought some knitting to stop myself from getting bored.” He pulled a large ball of red wool from his pocket.
 
As Leela looked on helplessly, the balloon started to fold in upon itself and drop to the ground while the Doctor waved. Looking away, she located another cloud bank and started to drag Dumb Bell and her own sodden form towards it.
 
Several thousand feet below, the Doctor took stock of the situation. By his estimation he had maybe forty seconds left before he became a spot on the landscape. The balloon above him was starting to collapse down towards him, so he quickly gnawed through the ropes to free the basket. It surprised him how sharp his teeth seemed to be. That left about thirty seconds, give or take. He looked up; the burner still belched flame into the sky, and that gave him an idea. A crazy, impossible, dangerous idea; his favourite sort.
 
Acting quickly, he threw himself towards one side of the basket, tipping it. He then hurled himself towards the other side as it tried to right itself. This time the impact was enough to flip the whole basket over. Pinning himself to the bottom of the basket, the Doctor got a clear view of the ground below; a patchwork of greens and browns he would become intimately familiar with in about twenty seconds. He searched through his pockets while admiring the scenery; he noticed a familiar orange pony working on a recently uncovered device. That one looked fun.
 
“Ah ha!” he announced, as his hoof found what he was looking for in his pocket. He carefully removed a small cocktail shaker. The metal container was covered with warning symbols noting that the contents was flammable, radioactive and a bio-hazard among half a dozen other things. He gingerly unscrewed the top and took a sniff of the contents. He grimaced as his mane started to smoulder; yep, it was definitely a pan galactic gargle blaster. It was a shame to waste it – it was so hard to get one mixed properly.
 
With a sigh, he used two of his remaining ten seconds to carefully pour out a measured amount of the smoking concoction. Considering for a precious second, he poured a single drop back into the flask before throwing the whole container at the burner. The effect was instantaneous; the small flame became a roaring column of light that reached the remaining thousand feet or so to the ground. The basket shuddered as if it had been kicked by a giant, and for a moment it was propelled further into the air before the flame started to die down and it began to tumble to the ground at a statelier pace.
 
Still, gravity was not to be taken lightly and the remains of the vessel struck the ground with significant force, sending the Doctor tumbling head over hooves across the ground to land in a pile near the edge of the area scorched to ash by his impromptu retro rocket. He carefully picked himself up and examined the remaining shot of the cocktail before swallowing it in a single gulp. His eyes bulged and his mane and tail stood on end for a moment. “That’s the good stuff,” he gasped.
 
With a pounding of hooves, Gimmick rushed into the crash site, followed by K-9’s metallic form. “Great Scott, Doctor! What did you do to my balloon?” he demanded. “And can you do it again?”
 
“Sorry, it’s a one off performance. I think I might be in need of another method of locomotion, Gimmick. I think I caught sight of something very interesting on the way down.”
 
“With the help of your assistant here, he didn’t half give me a fright when he turned up, I’ve managed to get another of the prototypes working.”
 
WARNING, MASTER, PROBABILITY OF DEVICE WORKING IS LESS THAN 1%,” reported K-9.
 
“Well that seems to come up nine times out of ten around here,” the Doctor noted. “So I should probably give it a go.”
 


 
“Hey, Leela. Are you okay?” Dash asked as she and Score caught up with the griffin and her burden. “Where’s the Doctor?”
 
“He... fell,” Leela replied as she dropped Dumb Bell onto a cloud.
 
“Fell? Is he alright?”
 
“I am sure he is, he is a clever man. He has survived many such dangers before.”
 
“Dumb Bell!” Score exclaimed, rushing over to the injured stallion and ignoring his own wounds. “Are you alright, man? Speak to me!”
 
“Score?” the brown pegasus moaned, staggering to his hooves. “My head hurts.”
 
“I’m sure Dummy’s fine, he only hit his head. It’s not like he uses it,” Dash said dismissively.
 
“I told you not to call him that! He’s not stupid! He’s a section head at the weather factory!” Score growled.
 
“Hey, it’s alright, Score. She doesn’t mean anything by it,” Dumb Bell mumbled, blinking to try and clear his vision.
 
“What’s up with this crazy storm anyway?” Dash asked, looking up at the mass of dark clouds and changing the subject.
 
“I think somepony built it,” Dumb Bell said, poking a nearby cloud. “It’s partially cloudcrete and thunder and lightning keeps getting set off.” As if in response a further boom rolled off the clouds and a jagged bolt of lightning lit the clouds.
 
“I think I can see somepony up there,” Dash noted, peering into the storm. “They must be behind it, let’s get them.” She leapt into the air, quickly followed by Leela. Score and Dumb Bell followed at a slower pace.
 
Almost blinded by the heavy rain and thick cloud, Dash reached out at a blurry figure in the storm. “Hey you! What’s going on here?” she cried. To her surprise a yellow arm swung out and grabbed her by the hoof before throwing her through the air onto a painfully solid cloud. Her attacker vaulted on top of her and raised another hoof above her head. “Raindrops?” she gasped.
 
“Dash!” the yellow mare exclaimed. “Sorry,” she said, “I thought you were somepony else.” Hoops floated a short distance away from her, looking around but never quite taking his gaze off Raindrops. “I thought I saw something moving in the cloud.”
 
“Yeah,” said Dash getting to her hooves, “That would be me.”
 
“No, something else, it didn’t look like a pony.”
 
“There!” Leela cried, pointing up as a large dark shape broke through the cloud bank above and hovered above them filling the sky.
 
“What is that thing?” Score asked as he and Dumb Bell perched on the same cloud as the mares.
 
Dash cocked her head and a frown passed over her face. “Wait! I recognise those wings. Downpour!”
 
“Hey she’s got my bag, and Hoop’s,” Dumb Bell pointed out, gesturing at the dark blue mare.
 
“Yes, thanks for the donation. Now I just have to make sure none of you make it back to Cloudsdale for a while to tell anypony about this.”
 
“What are you doing here?” Dash asked.
 
The large pegasus moved closer, dragging a large cloud bank behind her. “Winning, Dash, I’m winning.”
 
“What?” Dash exclaimed. Below her the three stallions were frozen, staring at the newcomer’s oversized wings. Stallions! Dash thought, stretching out her own slightly smaller than average pair.
 
“Winning. It’s what I used to do before you came to the camp. I was the fastest, no one gave my wings a second glance then. Then the ever marvellous Rainbow Crash arrived and I was getting beaten by a filly almost four years younger than me. Then it was all, ‘oh those are so fake’, ‘what’s she compensating for’. I hate you, Dash!”
 
“You mean those things are real!” Dash exclaimed.
 
“Yes! They’re real!” she screamed and with a grunt she threw the cloud bank down towards the group of pegasus and Leela.
 
“Throwing clouds? Come off it that foals, oof,” Dash cried as the cloud hit her. Rather than dissipating as she expected, the cloud knocked her back into Raindrops and pushed both of them back towards the cloud on which that stallions were standing. Leela managed to avoid the cloud, and with a cry charged towards Downpour. The pegasus lashed out with one of her oversized wings, knocking the griffin back into the path of another bank of cloud, pushed by a yellow pegasus mare who had appeared as if from nowhere. Opposite her, another pegasus – a white stallion – kicked another cloud bank towards the group of pinned ponies encasing them entirely.
 
“Good work Donner, Blitz,” Downpour called as she and her companions settled on the neatly created bubble of cloud and started to seal it together.
 
Within the ball of cloud, Raindrops struggled to right herself. A random hoof slapped her in the face and she gritted her teeth trying to keep down the fire within her. “Everybody stop struggling!” she growled as she pushed out at the clouds surrounding them. They seemed solid without any give. “Cloudcrete! We’re trapped!”
 
“When I get my hooves on Downpour, I’m gonna...” Dash muttered darkly as she tried to untangle herself from the others.
 
Finally orienting herself, Raindrops stood up and carefully examined the wall of cloud. She tried to gently push her hoof through; there was some give but the material resisted like thick rubber. Taking a deep breath, she drew back a hoof. “Yaaaah!” she cried, driving her limb forwards with all her strength. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Hoops jump back, his face pale. Scowling, she examined the impact site. She had managed to dislodge a small divot of cloud. “This could take a while,” she admitted.
 
“I’ll give you a hoof,” Dumb Bell said, trying to squeeze past the other ponies. “This isn’t just for show, you know,” he said, indicating the weights on his flanks.
 
“As will I,” Leela said, starting to claw at a wall.
 
“Nice to see you’re good for something, Dummy,” Dash said, throwing herself against a wall and bouncing off into Hoops, who gave a squeak of surprise.
 
“Hey, my Dumb Bell is worth at least two of you, Dash,” Score exclaimed.
 
“Your Dumb Bell?” Dash said, frowning as she got up. “Are you two together?”
 
“Yep, Score’s my better half,” Dumb Bell noted, kicking out against the wall with his hind legs causing a small dent.
 
“Really? I know no one can beat my sheer awesomeness but surely you could do better than him,” Dash joked.
 
Dumb Bell stopped kicking at the wall and turned to the blue mare. “Rainbow, I had fun with you, but Score is the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” he said seriously.
 
“You left him a wreck when you skipped town, Dash. I helped him get back on his hooves and it made me think about how much I care for him,” Score said, nuzzling his coltfriend.
 
“A wreck? You said you were fine with splitting up,” Dash said, looking confused.
 
“Well...” Dumb Bell started, looking awkward. “You leaving hurt more than I thought it would.”
 
“You never told me.”
 
“You were moving on in the world and I know you never felt the same way about me as I did about you,” he mumbled.
 
Dash stepped forwards and gently put a hoof on the stallions face. “I’m sorry Dumm.. Dude. We had fun together, but I didn’t see it going anywhere.” She looked down.
 
“Well it was fun, but I’ve got Score now.” He hugged the blue stallion.
 
Raindrops looked on with a silly smile on her face. “Aww, that’s so sweet!” Then she shook herself. “I mean, keep working! We’ve got to get out of here!” she continued more gruffly.
 


 
“Good work guys,” Downpour said, smoothing down the last of the cloudcrete bubble surrounding her rivals.
 
“You really think Dash will give you her house after this?” the yellow mare asked.
 
Downpour shrugged. “Probably not, Donner, but getting beaten again will hurt her more than anything else and show everypony that Hoofington’s weather team is superior to Ponyville’s in every way.”
 
“Blitz,” she called to the white stallion. “Start clearing away the storm, we don’t want to leave any evidence here.”
 
“Sure thing boss,” he saluted. “Race you sis,” he called to Donner.
 
Downpour grinned as her assistants rushed off to disperse the cloud maze they had created. While they were busy she unslung the satchels she had managed to snag from the stallions now trapped below her. It was a shame she hadn’t managed to grab Dash’s too, but she still had fifty or sixty Tags, easy. No way could another team beat her now, but she better head back to Cloudsdale soon; she didn’t want to miss the end of the game. It was a shame Dash wouldn’t be there to see first place be awarded to her, but she could always rub her snout in it later.
 
Downpour’s ears pricked up as she heard a strange buzzing sound from beneath her. Looking down, she was astonished to see the brown earth pony stallion she had seen earlier rising up on a strange device. He was furiously pedalling with all four hooves and the mechanism was somehow spinning a propeller above his head which was keeping him in the air. In his mouth he clutched the tracker which was beeping loudly.
 
“‘ello,” he said doffing his hat, removing a hoof from the device resulted in his craft dipping slightly.
 
“Hi,” said Downpour automatically.
 
He spat out the tracker which remained attached to his waist by a cord. “Do you mind if I look through that bag you’ve got? I think there might be a shard of the barrier protecting your universe from destruction in it.”
 
The long winged mare blinked in surprise. “What? No!”
 
“Suit yourself. Now, I thought I left some of my friends up here but I don’t see them. Do you know what’s happened to them?”
 
Blitz swooped down to get a closer look at the strange arrival. “What’s this?” he exclaimed. “A flying earth pony? That’s unnatural.” He sounded disgusted.
 
Downpour shook herself. “They’re in there,” she said, pointing at the ball of cloudcrete. “But I’m afraid you won’t be able to do anything about it. We’ll have won the game long before they get out.”
 
“Really,” said the Doctor, manoeuvring his craft over towards the prison. “I thought Pegasi had no problem passing through clouds.”
 
“Ah, this is cloudcrete,” she said proudly. “It interacts with pegasus magic, solid as a rock.” She tapped it with a hoof.
 
“So no pegasus could pass through it?”
 
“Yep.”
 
“But an earth pony without pegasus magic could?”
 
The smile dropped from Downpour’s face as the Doctor manoeuvred his craft beneath the ball of cloud and the rotor started to disperse the fluffy material.
 
“Stop him!” Downpour yelled as she leapt towards the earth pony. She flicked out a long wing at the Doctor’s helicopter, knocking it aside and twisting the frame. The rotor blade flew off, slashing a hole in the cloud prison. A rather surprised Score stuck his head out.
 
“Doctor!” Leela gasped, pushing her way past the stallion to get out of the cloud.
 
“Don’t worry, I’m prepared this time,” the Doctor cried, pushing a button on the device he was riding. A number of large balloons inflated and he started to drift gently to the ground. “Just deal with them, will you? I need those Tags.”
 
“On it, Doctor,” Dash yelled as she shot forth from the disintegrating cloud, followed by the rest of the group. Quick as a flash, she shot off after Downpour, who immediately turned and flew away as quickly as she could, while Raindrops struggled to keep up with the two of them.
 
Leela dashed off after the white stallion, leaving the yellow mare to the stallions.
 
“Now you and your friends hurt me and Score,” Dumb Bell said, approaching Donner. “But I don’t want to return the favour. Just give up,” he said reasonably.
 
“Oh, don’t worry you won't,” the mare said, grabbing two scoops of cloud with her wings and slamming them together. There was a loud clap of thunder and the three pursuing stallions were thrown back by the shockwave. She gave a grin and turned to leave, but to her surprise something struck her in the face, snapping her head back and sending her tumbling.
 
“Got you!” Hoops crowed, retrieving another Tag from Score’s bag and dexterously spinning it on his hoof before flinging it at the falling mare. The rubber ball caught her in the chest and forced the air from her lungs. She gasped for breath and tried to right herself, but before she could recover, Score and Dumb Bell grabbed her holding her tightly.
 
“You’re not going anywhere,” said Score.
 


 
“It’s just you and me,” Blitz said as Leela approached him. He raised his hooves in a fighting stance. “I know how to fight,” he boasted.
 
Leela grinned and raised her own talons. “That is good, there is no honour is defeating a helpless enemy. However, you are a pony, I am a griffin. I will enjoy eating you.”
 
“Eating me!” the stallion exclaimed, his pupils shrinking to points.
 
“Of course. I am a predator, you are prey. I am sure your liver will taste sweet.”
 
Blitz’s hooves dropped. “Hey, this was just supposed to be a joke, nopony said anything about getting eaten. I surrender,” he squeaked.
 
A look of annoyance passed over Leela’s face. “This is no fun,” she said with a scowl.
 
“Hey, you said there was no honour is defeating a helpless enemy. I’m helpless, honest,” he pleaded.
 


 
Gently landing on the ground, the Doctor untangled the strings attaching him to his balloons. Looking up, he could just about make out the pegasus flying about above him; it looked like a fight was taking place. Gimmick’s base was only a short distance away and the orange stallion was setting up the third of his gadgets. He saw the Doctor approaching and sighed. “The whirligig as well, Doctor?”
 
“Well, it’s not my fault it was so fragile. Anyway, I need to get up there as fast as possible.”
 
“Oh, fast won’t be a problem this time, Doctor.” Gimmick grinned and pulled the cover off his third device to reveal a large catapult.
 
The Doctor look intrigued. “You know, I suggested something like this to the Greeks a long time ago, but they decided on a wooden horse instead.”
 
“It’ll certainly get you in the air quickly, Doctor. And this,” he threw a large backpack at the Doctor, “should get you down safely.”
 
“I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS COURSE OF ACTION, MASTER,” K-9 said.
 
With a little trepidation the Doctor ignored the robot and clambered onto the catapult. He activated the tracer and swung it about. “Okay, the target is in this direction about half a mile away and a mile or so up.”
 
Gimmick quickly adjusted his device. “Ready?” he asked. The Doctor nodded. “Good! K-9, turn that wheel nine times.” With a hum of power the giant dog heaved a wheel around, tightening the catapult’s mechanism.
 
“How many times has somepony used this thing?”
 
“Including this time?” Gimmick seemed to think for a moment. “One.” He pulled the leaver.
 


 
Rainbow Dash was in her element, streaking through the air. Downpour was a small but quickly growing spot ahead of her. There was no way the dark blue mare could get away from her, not in a straight race. Sensing this, her target swerved towards a large cloud bank; if she made it there, then Dash might lose her.
 
Pouring on more speed, Dash managed to intercept Downpour just before she reached safety. “Come on, give it up. Even with those freaky things,” she gestured at her opponent’s wings, “you can’t get away from me.”
 
“I am not a freak!” the dark blue mare screamed. She spun around and lashed out with a wing, snapping Dash’s head to one side. “You know how it is, somepony has to come first and somepony has to lose, and that somepony is you.” She struck out again, catching Dash in the chest. The rainbow pegasus tried to fight back, but her opponent’s greater reach was impossible to overcome.
 
“Now, just to show everypony how useless you are, I think I’ll take this.” Downpour reached out with a wing and snagged the satchel bulging with Tags looped over Dash’s shoulder. She tugged at it but Dash fought back. For a moment, there was a tug of war as the two mares fought over the container, but then the strap got caught up in one of Dash’s frantically flapping wings. Sensing victory, Downpour gave another tug at the bag, yanking Dash’s wing against the joint. Dash gave a scream of pain and dropped from the sky, cradling her injured limb.
 
“Dash!” Raindrops cried from some distance back, and redoubled her speed to try and catch Downpour.
 
“See you loser!” Downpour crowed as she turned away from her injured opponent, only to be struck in the face by an earth pony.
 
“Hi,” the Doctor said as he grabbed hold of the pegasus mare. “I think you might have something I’m looking for.” He felt something vibrate on her chest.
 
“Argghhh! Get off! Get off!” the panicked mare yelled, trying to maintain her altitude with the added weight.
 
“Certainly! I just need to grab these.” He grabbed the bags held on Downpour’s back. “Oh, and you might like to look at this.” He held her necklace in front of the mare’s face before closing his own eyes.
 
“What? I don’t…” Downpour started. Suddenly the amulet flashed, indicating that she had been disqualified, and temporarily blinding her.
 
“Bye!” the Doctor said, releasing his hold on the flailing mare and dropping towards the ground. He yanked a cord on his backpack and a parachute erupted from it, knocking the already disoriented mare away.
 
Blinking away the spots in front of her eyes, Downpour peered through the clouds surrounding her. Behind her, Dash was limping towards the ground and wincing in pain with each flap, while below her the earth pony was drifting away. The yellow pegasus and two of the stallions were still following her, but she would be no problem to avoid; at least she could get out of this with only her pride injured. She frowned for a moment. She thought she saw something through the clouds. Suddenly her eyes widened as the haze cleared and she saw a mountain rising up only a few feet in front of her. She desperately tried to turn away, but it was too late; one of her wings caught on the rocks and she was thrown to the ground. She tumbled and bounced for a few seconds before landing in a groaning heap.
 
For a few seconds it was quiet. Then with a loud thump Raindrops landed next to her. “Why? Why did you do all this?” the enraged pony demanded, spittle flying from her mouth.
 
“I.. I wanted to win, I wanted revenge on Dash for what happened at school,” Downpour cried, looking up at the yellow pony with fear in her eyes.
 
“This is all about some stupid playground grudge? Grow up! Score, Dumb Bell and Hoops used to be total jerks, but they grew out of it. What’s your excuse?”
 
“You don’t know what it’s like to be different. To have people talking about you behind your back,” she sobbed.
 
“I don’t know?!” Raindrops roared, striking Downpour with a hoof and knocking her back to the ground. “Even my friends fear me, nopony wants to be with me. You don’t know anything about me!” She raised a hoof over the cowering pegasus’ head.
 
The fire was burning inside her now; it was everywhere, it was all she could see. Rain couldn’t put it out, the whole ocean wouldn’t be enough. She raised a hoof over her battered foe’s head. She was vaguely aware of Score trying to pull her away; he was shouting something, but she couldn’t make it out above the sound of the fire. No, it wasn’t a fire; it was a horde of voracious insects, mindless creatures just existing to eat and bite and kill. But she knew how to deal with insects. She summoned a vision of a lanky colt with a gormless look on his face: her brother, Snails. The insects would love him, would do what he wanted; and he would not want them, not want her, to attack a helpless pony. She couldn’t disappoint him, she loved him. With a struggle she forced the insects back.
 
Returning to her senses, Raindrops lowered her hoof and let Downpour drop to the ground, whimpering in fear. “Just get her out of my sight,” she snarled. Turning, she saw Hoops looking pale, but he nodded to her.
 


 
The rather bedraggled party of pegasi eventually found the Doctor on the ground, talking with Gimmick and K-9 next to the catapult.
 
“Ah good, you’ve all made it,” the Doctor said. “I’ve got what I’ve been looking for.” He held up a lump of crystal. “I shouldn’t need to do anything like this again for at least a lifetime.”
 
“We have captured our enemies,” Leela announced in triumph.
 
The defeated team looked much the worse for wear; Donner was rubbing a large bruise on her head, and although Blitz was physically unharmed, the stallion seemed cowed, stumbling along on shaking hooves and keeping his eyes on Leela. Downpour was likewise laid low, her wings dragging along the ground and her face bloodied. The rest of the group didn’t look much better; Score’s coat was still singed and Dumb Bell’s face was bruised from his earlier crash, while one of Dash’s wings hung limp at her side. Both Raindrops and Hoops – although relatively uninjured – looked exhausted.
 
“Now I can feast upon them!” Leela cheered.
 
The rest of the party looked aghast at this. Blitz paled and collapsed in a faint.
 
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Leela. They’re probably rather stringy and brimming with saturated fat. Very bad for your heart.”
 
“But you said griffins ate ponies.”
 
“Well maybe, but you’re not exactly a griffin are you? You just look like one.”
 
“I suppose you are correct,” Leela agreed grumpily.
 
“Well, I normally am, except when I’m not, of course,” he said, grinning toothily. “Anyway, we better be on our way – time and tide waits for nopony.” He turned to the orange stallion next to him. “Thanks for your help, Gimmick.”
 
“Well, next time I need somepony to test my inventions I won’t hesitate to ask somepony else, bits or no bits, Doctor.” He rested a hoof on the twisted pile of tubing that had once been a helicopter. “It’ll be safer on my poor babies. K-9 was a great help, though. I don’t suppose you’d be interested in selling him?”
 
“I’m afraid K-9’s not really mine to sell – he’s really his own robot, isn’t that right?”
 
AFFIRMATIVE, MASTER,” K-9 said, tail wagging.
 
“Shame. I guess I’ll have to carry on by myself then.”
 
“Keep trying. I’m sure there are many grounded ponies who would be interested in flying.” He turned to the rest of the team. “It was very nice to meet all of you, but I really must be off.”
 
“I was glad I met you, Doctor. And you too, Leela,” Raindrops said. “Your talk to me about the Hortzerka helped.”
 
“It was an honour, Hortzerka,” Leela said, bowing low. “May your blade never dull and may you bear many strong children.”
 
“Yeah,” Dash agreed with a smile. “We’ll have to get you started on that.” She turned to the stallions. “Any of you guys got any single friends?”
 
“Drop it, Dash,” Raindrops grumbled.
 
With a wave of his hoof, the Doctor, Leela and K-9 set off towards a small blue dot on the horizon.
 
Raindrops watched them shrink into the distance before turning to the rest of the team. “Well, now that Leela’s decided not to eat our prisoners, what do we do with them?”
 
“We should probably take them back to Cloudsdale,” Hoops said. “We can tell the Cloudtroller and the police about what they were doing. Plus they’re probably wondering what happened to us.”
 
“Even if they’re not arrested, I’m sure they’re going to get fired.” Their captives’ ears dropped even further.
 
“Hey, that’s right,” Dash said, “they cheated. Do you think they might rerun the game?”
 
Raindrops look at her boss in horror. “What?” she asked.
 
“Well, it’s not like I really lost. We can all try again – I’m sure I can win despite this wing.”
 
The rest of the team groaned and started to plod away from the rainbow mare.
 
“Come on, dudes. Who’s up for another game? Maybe next year?”