//------------------------------// // Aftershock // Story: Fluttershy's Cloud Lessons // by Skylight77 //------------------------------// The clouds in the sky were moved around to better positions for Fluttershy's next lesson. Fluttershy was placed on a different cloud, for the defective one was disposed of by Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash hovered in the air as she circled around Fluttershy, repeating the lessons that they went through. "Now, what have we learned?!" Rainbow Dash said, using her coaching tone again. "Focus, emotion, and balance," Fluttershy answered, following Rainbow Dash with her eyes. "Good! Why are they important?!" Rainbow Dash continued. "Mmm..." Fluttershy closed her eyes as she thought about it. "They control how pegasi can affect the weather. We use our emotions to control them and operate them." "WRONG!" "Ahh!" Fluttershy jumped a bit backwards as Rainbow Dash zipped right in front of her face. "Pegasi have no control over clouds!" Rainbow Dash shouted, leaving Fluttershy confused and afraid. "B-but, wasn't I-" "What you did Fluttershy, was manipulation, not control!" Rainbow Dash zipped over to a lone cloud in the sky. "You see this cloud?" Rainbow Dash motioned her hoof towards it. "Um..." Fluttershy hesitantly focused her eyes on the cloud. "This cloud is a tired cloud," Rainbow Dash announced, sounding like she was changing the subject. "Therefore, this one isn't capable of doing its duties anymore. That means we have to let it go!" Rainbow Dash finished by kicking it with both hind hooves, dissipating it instantly. *Click* Fluttershy flinched in fear with the way Rainbow Dash expressed that action. "These clouds have the same emotions as us ponies. Therefore, we use our emotions to tell them what to do." Rainbow Dash flew back up to Fluttershy. "That is manipulation. We tell them what to do, they'll cooperate, just like a pony on the job." Fluttershy let out a nervous, yet silent whine sound as Rainbow Dash placed a hoof on her shoulder, motioning her eyes towards where the previous cloud was. "If they're too tired or refuse to do their job, we let them go." Fluttershy's pupils shrank at this statement. "L-let them g-go?" Fluttershy hesitated, bringing her attention to Rainbow Dash. "By murdering them?!" Rainbow Dash's eyes went wide by this statement. "What? No! Clouds don't get murdered," Rainbow Dash corrected, turning her head's attention to Fluttershy. "W-what?" Fluttershy was now really lost. Rainbow Dash groaned and smacked herself on the forehead with a hoof. "Fluttershy, when we bust clouds, we aren't destroying them, we're dissipating them." Rainbow Dash continued her lecture, letting go of Fluttershy and hovering back into the air. "It means they shrink into smaller ones that separate in the air. When other clouds touch them, they form together as a whole, becoming one with their emotions." "Oh... my..." Fluttershy looked back down at the cloud she was standing on. She had seen Rainbow Dash busting clouds like these for years now and it never occurred to her that they had just about as much feelings as everypony else did. The thought that every single speck of cloud basically had feelings staggered her mind. "So if you want these clouds to do what you want, you gotta pony up and be assertive." Rainbow Dash pointed to the cloud Fluttershy was on. "You see that cloud?" Fluttershy was already looking at the cloud, but nodded anyway. "It hasn't listened to your emotions at all. So it's time for you to let it go!" Fluttershy gulped at the command. She felt as if she was working at the weather factory itself all of a sudden. She tried pushing it out of her mind and just focusing on Rainbow Dash's lectures. She really wanted to learn how to do this. She spread her wings apart to get herself ready. "Release your emotions like you're scolding somepony, and give this thing a good kick!" Rainbow Dash shouted. Fluttershy released the shyness on her face and put on a confident look. There was a lot more concentration to this weather managing than she had thought. Rainbow Dash made it look so easy that no pony could've known it was really this complicated. Summoning up her courage, Fluttershy closed her eyes to focus on her strength. She brought her hooves up into the air, and then down to stomp on the cloud as hard as she could, ready to let her wings keep her airborne. *Click* But nothing happened. Fluttershy opened one eye to take a look at the cloud. It didn't change at all. "Tch, tch, tch." Rainbow Dash shook her head. "No good. Too much confidence in your emotion, not enough scolding. Try again." Fluttershy squeaked in response to her screw up. She wasn't sure what she did wrong, but she did as Rainbow Dash said and tried again. *Pomph* ...No response. "Nope," Rainbow Dash shook her head again and put a more stern look to her face. "Come on Fluttershy, focus!" "Unh... what?" Fluttershy's mind was starting to panic. "You're punishing a cloud for misbehaving! Stop being so soft!" "U-um... why am I-" *Bam!* "Ahh!" Fluttershy jumped when that lightning bolt struck. "That's why you're punishing it! Get it to stop!" Rainbow Dash continued to command, pointing a hoof at the cloud. "Oh... please stop," Fluttershy said to the cloud while she was hitting it more with her hooves, not even focusing on her mind. "Don't tell it with words, tell it through your emotions!" Rainbow Dash yelled again. Fluttershy's emotions started going wildly haywire and all over the place. Her emotions were causing the cloud to start creating wind. "H-how do I do that?!" Fluttershy's panic led to her to start having to yell. The wind was causing the hairs on her coat and mane to blow around, the mane smacking across her face. "Think about when your pets misbehave!" Rainbow Dash shouted, keeping her flight stance despite the wind. Fluttershy made a large grunt as she focused her emotions towards anger and struck the cloud again. *Bam!* *Click* "Ahh!" Fluttershy flinched as she caused more lightning to strike. ______________________________________________________________________________ *Tchh!* The animals that were playing outside of Fluttershy's cottage were brought to attention when that last lightning strike was absorbed by the lightning rod on top of the cottage. They were attempting to back away from the garden, fearing the wind power's force. Fluttershy's personal and most helpful pet bunny, Angel, ran towards the door to the cottage, opening it. He called out to all of the other animals outside and started motioning them to get inside. The weather was getting dangerous, so it would be safer inside. All of the animals listened to Angel's orders and scurried to the cottage. Angel kept the door open and waited until all of the animals had entered inside. Tank was the last one to enter, being the slowest out of the group. Once he was inside, Angel went inside as well, closing the door to the cottage. ______________________________________________________________________________ *Bam!* A lightning strike struck straight towards the ground, causing large scorch marks on the grass. "Balance Fluttershy, balance!" Rainbow Dash yelled over the wind. The clouds began clumping together as they grew darker, spurred on by the wind. "Aha! I'm trying, but-" *Bam!* "Whoa!" A lightning bolt struck towards Rainbow Dash. She moved out of the way before it hit her. *Bam! Bam!* "Fluttershy, what are you doing!? Calm down!" "Okay! Um..." Fluttershy clung her hooves on the cloud she was on, trying to find a way to ease her mind." *Bam!* "AHAAA!" Fluttershy's nerves stopped listening when that lightning bolt singed her mane. She continued stomping her hooves on the clouds, trying to get them to calm down while they were forming together. "Fluttershy!" *Tchh!* "Gaah!" Rainbow Dash's eyes flinched when that lightning bolt struck a nearby tree, instantly incinerating it, and causing it to crumble into a pile of charcoal. Rainbow Dash lifted her hoof away from her eyes and shifted her attention back at the cloud, growing increasingly worried at the sight. She wasn't sure what was going on anymore. This shouldn't have been happening. "Fluttershy! Get out of there!" "But Rainbow Dash, I have to learn how to do this!" Fluttershy yelled through the wind, keeping her hooves on the cloud as the wind violently blew her mane around. She didn't want to lose her confidence in maintaining weather clouds. "Tell me what I need to do!" Rainbow Dash wasn't liking this anymore. Fluttershy was showing a side to her that Rainbow Dash was forced to admit, had to put a stop to. "Fluttershy, drop your confidence!" Those words coming from Rainbow Dash made Fluttershy's stomach drop. "Listen to me and just-" *Bam!* "Gaah!" More lightning struck the ground, creating more small scorched craters across the land. The wind turned very cold all of a sudden. "Nngh!" They blew on Rainbow Dash with enough force to cause her to struggle staying airborne. Fluttershy completely stopped listening to Rainbow Dash's words. It was rare for her to do something new like this with a lot of confidence, and now it was being shot down. Her frustration grew as the cloud formed around her, filling up with more darkness. They kept zapping her randomly and they had to go away now. Fluttershy looked towards her cottage through the clouds, thinking about what her animals wanted. They wanted a calm weather to relax their spirits, and it was the exact opposite that this cloud was giving her. Squeezing her eyes, she scrunched her mind into one fact, pumping adrenaline in her hooves. She wanted this cloud gone now. "NNNGAAAHHH!!!" Fluttershy gave off an extended yell as she stomped her hooves on the cloud again. *Bam! Tchh! Bam!* "Argh!" Rainbow Dash forced herself to keep her eyes on Fluttershy while the winds fought to blow her away. That last strike Fluttershy did caused the cloud to split. Things were not going the way they should've been at all. "Fluttershy!" Rainbow Dash decided enough was enough. She flew towards the clouds, pushing her wings to flap harder to allow herself to fight against the powerful winds that blew on her. The cloud kept firing lightning bolts randomly, striking the lightning rod in one direction, and scorching the fields in every other direction. "AAAAAHH!!!" Large lightning bolts violently swirled around the area where the cloud split. Rainbow Dash zipped towards Fluttershy as fast as she could. *Tchh! Tchh! Bam!* "FLUTTERSHY!!!" *Click* *Crash!* "AHH!!!" *BAM!!!* Rainbow Dash barely managed to push Fluttershy out of the cloud as it struck within itself, striking the separated cloud. The cloud was blown away by its force, spinning quickly and shooting lightning wildly as it was thrown across the skies. "Gnnh!" Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy hit and slid along the ground with a large thud. Rainbow Dash got Fluttershy and herself up on to their hooves quickly as soon as they stopped sliding. They immediately cringed as they looked towards the sky. *Gasp!* Fluttershy watched with wide eyes as the spinning, lightning tossing, cloud was blown straight towards her cottage. "NOOO!" Rainbow Dash was only able to reach a hoof out before the cloud made contact. *BOOOOOOOOMMMM!!!!!!!* The explosion blinded them as light lit up the entire area, leaving a shadow behind their flashing coats. *Tchh, tchh. Tchh...* ...They covered their eyes and looked away as that cloud left behind powerful bolts of lightning swirling around after hitting the cottage. When they looked back after the light went away, they witnessed the worst. The entire cottage was engulfed in flames, flashing a new light that resonated around the area. "NOOOOOOOO!!!" Rainbow Dash yelled at the top of her lungs and immediately dashed straight for the closest cloud near the cottage, acting fast. The flames reflected off of Fluttershy's eyes like they were sucking her soul out. The cottage was already collapsing before her very eyes. She could see many animals within going into full panic and scurrying across the area, but no where to go. The flames had surrounded them. Fluttershy could plainly see the terrified faces on both Angel and Tank in the center of it all. They shivered violently, shutting their eyes tightly while they held each other. Tank retracted his head and pulled Angel inside of his shell. It was the last thing Fluttershy saw before the flames blocked her view of them. Fluttershy's mind shut down on her. The wind from Rainbow Dash's flight didn't even register in her mind. She just dropped her rump to the ground without her notice. It was as if her heart had stopped beating when the realization beat into her mind. She had caused this... Rainbow Dash took one of the clouds in the air and immediately pushed it over the cottage. She could feel the heat wave surrounding her while the cottage was collapsing. She gave the cloud a good kick when it was quickly set into position. *Bam!* *Click* "Gah! Nngh!" More lightning shot forth as Rainbow continued to beat at the cloud, forcing it to cooperate. She didn't stop until it started dropping large amounts of rain. *Tssssss* A large amount of smoke dispersed above the cottage as the rain hit the fires. The smoke covered Rainbow Dash's vision, penetrating through her lungs. *Cough, cough, cough! Gasp, cough, cough!* Rainbow Dash started slowly hovering towards the ground. She continuously coughed away all the smoke while she landed lightly. When she recovered, she looked back towards the cottage. ...Rainbow Dash's form stuttered at the sight. She slowly backed away as she saw that cottage collapse into ashes. Even the lightning rod had crumbled to pieces while the rain was putting out the fire. Her voice stuttered in gibberish tones, realizing that she had failed to stop the fire before it was too late. Hesitantly, Rainbow Dash slowly turned her head towards Fluttershy with worried eyes.. Rainbow Dash saw that Fluttershy's body was scorched up slightly. She wasn't moving her body much at all and her mouth just hung open in shock. Rainbow Dash slowly walked closer to her, noticing the slightest shedding of tears coming from her eyes while her body shivered, yet stayed motionless. "F-f-fl-..." Rainbow Dash tried to say something, but the words wouldn't come out. She continued getting closer until she was positioned in front of Fluttershy. She could see a bit more tears coming from Fluttershy's eyes before her body slowly leaned forward in Rainbow Dash's direction. Rainbow Dash's eyes started forming tears as she embraced Fluttershy in a comforting hug. Fluttershy's tears soaked into Rainbow Dash's coat as her sobbing was becoming slightly audible, yet muffled through the coat. Rainbow Dash shut her eyes, trying to keep herself under control. She slowly brushed the pink mane, attempting to calm, not only Fluttershy down, but also herself. *Click* Rainbow Dash couldn't find anything to say. She didn't know what she could do at all. She could only do what she could think of at the moment and just be there for Fluttershy. Things weren't supposed to happen the way it did. She couldn't figure out why it happened the way it did. There were so many animals living in that cottage that Fluttershy cared so deeply about. And now it was just incinerated right before her eyes. ...Even Tank was... *BAM!* "*GASP,* HHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!" Rainbow Dash was suddenly jerked away by Fluttershy when that last bolt struck. The screaming cry from Fluttershy echoed loudly, ringing her ears in a strong sense of pain. She saw Fluttershy running wildly away from the scene, letting tears slide off and drop behind. "Urk, Fluttershy!" *Bam!* "Gack!" Rainbow Dash tried to give chase to Fluttershy, but a lightning bolt struck in between their paths, scorching through the already burnt up grass land as if it was bouncing along it. The large cloud formation that Fluttershy had formed was becoming increasingly unstable. It was blowing powerful winds and shooting powerful lightning bolts across the area. "Nngh!" Rainbow Dash had to put a hoof in front of her face to block the wind that was attempting to blow her away. The power that this cloud was producing was making Rainbow Dash uneasy. She was slowly sliding across the ground while that cloud started moving in a certain direction. "T-that thing is... NO!" Rainbow Dash released her hoof and hopped closer. "If that thing gets into town, all of Ponyville could be destroyed!" Rainbow Dash looked over towards the direction Fluttershy ran to. "But... Fluttershy..." Rainbow Dash looked back to the cloud and then back at Fluttershy's direction, conflicted of what to do. Fluttershy was already leaving her view and she had no idea where she was going. She looked back towards the unstable storm cloud. *Bam!* The lightning strike shot near her direction, incinerating the tree that could house other creatures that was near Fluttershy's burnt down home. "Gaah!" Rainbow Dash smacked both her hooves on the sides of her head, knocking her senses under control. She spread her wings and went airborne, pushing against the strong winds and flying towards the large storm cloud. The storm cloud continuously shot lightning in random directions. Some tried hitting Rainbow Dash, but she avoided them as she flew. The cloud's winds started to reach the town. Some of the citizens of Ponyville already started screaming and panicking. There were just a few homes on the outskirts of Ponyville. The winds were blowing roughly against the trees, snapping off some of their branches, and causing destruction to those outside homes. Rainbow Dash darted through the large storm cloud as fast as she could, creating a large hole through it. She turned around to make another pass through the cloud, putting another hit on it with audible grunts. She continuously flew through random spots in this cloud, avoiding all of the electric currents that the cloud produced. She punched the cloud, kicked the cloud, avoided the lightning, and fought its wind resistances. As the cloud broke apart, the storm grew weaker. The cloud became increasingly easier to deal with as it grew smaller, calming the area down and relaxing the citizens. Rainbow Dash didn't stop until the entire storm cloud was dissipated. She let out one last grunt after taking out the last tuft. *Pant, pant* The storm was stopped before it had reached Ponyville. Some of the outskirts' citizens had witnessed the scene. They started applauding to Rainbow Dash's brave tactics of saving them from a disaster. But Rainbow Dash paid absolutely no attention to the praises. The sounds of their cheering grew silent to her. She hovered in the air, breathing aggressively, keeping her sight on the spot where the last tuft of that cloud laid. Her body shivered with rage as she thought about that storm. Rainbow Dash knew exactly what had happened now and she was not happy about it one bit. It wasn't just one of those clouds that were unstable, all of them were. A storm cloud couldn't have become that dangerous unless most or all of these clouds held unstable aftershocks. That only meant one thing, and that one thing was, somepony had sabotaged the clouds in the weather factory. Rainbow Dash's wings vibrated in a fury that was causing a powerful wind to blow on the cheering ponies. She ignored those ponies and flew away from them, causing them to get startled by her sudden display. Rainbow Dash flew back to her and Fluttershy's practicing site to go back to the camera that she set up. She went to reach into the camera. *Click* "Nngh!" The camera made one more flash, blinding Rainbow Dash a bit and causing her to jerk away. After recovering, she gave a frustrated groan. She ripped that last picture out and threw it away. Afterwards, she took out the other last picture that it had set off before the one that blinded her and shut the camera down. With the picture on hoof, Rainbow Dash immediately dashed off into the skies, causing the camera stand to fall over due to her wing power. She placed the picture in her mane as she flew off towards the weather factory's direction, ready to use the picture as evidence if she needed to. She had to have a word with those ponies as soon as possible, which was right now, whether they wanted it or not. ______________________________________________________________________________ A single pegasus pony was working at a receptionist desk at the Cloudsdale weather factory. She was flipping through her files with little care in the world, having a bored look on her face. *Crash!* Rainbow Dash burst through the front doors of the weather factory with no hesitation, causing the receptionist pegasus to get startled. "Hey!" the receptionist started. "You can't just-" "Enough chat buster!" Rainbow Dash interrupted, flying up towards her. "Somepony left unstable clouds in this factory's storage facility! Why did you allow this!?" "Wha-at? Me?!" the pegasus argued back, placing a pile of papers in front of her to block her view of Rainbow Dash. "I didn't allow any defective clouds in here!" "Your job is to inspect all the clouds that get put into this storage!" Rainbow Dash yelled back, smacking the papers away and slamming her hooves on the desk, getting closer to the other pegasus. "Which, there are none! I know!" The pegasus looked away from Rainbow Dash, crossing her forelegs. "Really?!" Rainbow Dash challenged, flying in front of her to regain eye contact. "Why don't you check now and tell me otherwise?!" "Rainbow Dash, get out of here!" the pegasus yelled back, keeping herself at her desk and just looking at Rainbow Dash. "I don't need a lazy feather brain like YOU telling ME how to do my job!" The last comment riled Rainbow Dash up more so than she already was. This pony was not cooperating at all. She suspected that this was done on purpose now. She let a steam of breath snort out her nose as she changed her tactic. "Fine! I'll do it myself!" Rainbow Dash was finished with this conversation. She started flying up to the storage, but was stopped when the ignorant receptionist flew in the path blocking the storage area. "I said go away Rainbow Dash!" the receptionist yelled. "Move it!" Rainbow Dash yelled, moving the pegasus aside. But the pegasus provided violent resistance. "I am in charge here! And I'm telling you to-" The receptionist tried to punch Rainbow Dash, but Rainbow Dash stopped it and retaliated. *SMACK!!!* The receptionist was sent flying quite a distance away from the storage due to Rainbow Dash's kick. She hit the solid floor with a loud thump. Her pain was evident by her audible cringing grunt, curling her hooves around her face. Rainbow Dash wasted no time in opening up the storage room. She flew to the first cloud she saw and hit it without hesitation. *Bam!* The lightning strike shot towards the other clouds in storage, linking from one cloud to another, giving each cloud a small activation. The receptionist from earlier managed to recover slightly and enter the storage room. "Oh no..." The receptionist's pupils shrunk as she witnessed those clouds' activations. Rainbow Dash saw that the look on the receptionist's swollen face was not a pleasant one. "I suggest you leave now," Rainbow Dash said, predicting exactly what was about to happen. She dashed straight past the receptionist, causing her to get knocked down due to the wing power. Rainbow Dash went to the receptionist desk and went up to the microphone for the intercom. "EVACUATE!!!" Rainbow Dash yelled as she smashed her hoof on a button that would activate an alarm. *Bam! Ring!* Rainbow Dash immediately exited the weather factory in frustration. She already saw the clouds becoming unstable as she was flying towards Ponyville's direction. She could see many other pegasi flying away from the weather factory. It looked like they didn't hesitate to heed that alert. The entire weather factory was going dangerously unstable with lightning bolts as all of the pegasi flew away from the place. *BOOM!!!* The explosion of the weather factory lit up her coat even through this distance. Rainbow Dash didn't make any sort of flinch when the factory exploded. Her mind focused on one thing and one thing only. Fluttershy... She really didn't deserve what happened to her. It wasn't fair at all. Rainbow Dash felt so stupid for not paying attention to the signs. She thought all of that lightning was being caused by Fluttershy's increasingly startled emotions. She didn't expect them to get powerful enough to cause such a dangerous storm. But that storm wasn't caused because of Fluttershy's emotions at all. That storm was created by all of the aftershock that came from each one of those clouds. Their continuous activations only caused them to become stronger and more unstable than ever. It was even more unfair that Fluttershy's confidence was used against her so punishingly like that. Rainbow Dash always liked seeing Fluttershy be more confident with out going activities. But now... the one day Fluttershy was the one who asked for herself... *HHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA...* Rainbow Dash squeezed her eyes as they started tearing up again. She could hear Fluttershy's high-pitched scream echoing in her mind as she flew. Why was it that these things had to happen the way it did? It was just so unfair. "*Sniff* Fluttershy..." Rainbow Dash shivered at the thought of her. What was she doing now? She had to find her. She wanted her to be okay. She couldn't think of anything else. All she wanted was to find Fluttershy and make sure she was okay... somehow...