//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: Remembering Loyalty // Story: The Night's Light // by Keeper of time RD //------------------------------// Days had passed since Luna had left Fluttershy and now the princess of the night had found herself staying with the unicorn Twilight Sparkle, at Ponyville’s library. Limping into the library in a minor state of magic fatigue, Luna complained, “Using unicorn style magic to conjure up rain clouds is horribly inefficient.” The purple unicorn, with the darker purple mane, responded when an equal fatigue in her voice, “I know. But ever since that disaster in Cloudsdale caused that flashflood the other day, the pegasi have been saying that the Cloudsdale weather factory is offline and we’ll be having a drought for a few weeks while they try to replace all the water that was lost in the accident.” “Do we even know what caused the incident?” Luna asked. Twilight bowed her head slightly as she answered, “Officially they are saying that an equipment malfunction made one of the machines at the weather factory explode, and that the resulting blast tore apart one of the walls of the factory reservoir.” “Thou does not sound so sure.” “Personally I’d be content to accept what the ponies from the weather factory are saying.” After pausing to release a deep sigh, Twilight added, “But Rainbow Dash doesn’t seem to believe them. And as much as I hate to admit it, when Rainbow Dash says there’s something wrong she’s usually right, even if her own theory as to what’s wrong is completely off the mark.” Having only met the pegasus in question sparingly, Luna simply nodded, unable to make her own judgment call on the matter. Twilight continued, “Speaking of Rainbow, I’m worried about her. She’s been working herself too hard, flying the Las Pegasus run to bring rain clouds in from their weather factory several times a day.” “Forgive my inquiry Twilight Sparkle, but what purpose is served by telling me these things? Should you not share thy concerns about Rainbow Dash with Rainbow Dash?” Motioning to her sides, Twilight said, “For starters I don’t have wings. And even if I did cast the temporary wings spell, I seriously doubt that I’d be able to keep up with Rainbow long enough to make her hear me out.” “Surely even she rests.” Twilight’s gaze shifted inward, as she began to think out loud. “Hmm, the timing of her trips always puts her in Las Pegasus around lunch time… but. That’s actually a good idea! The weather team has been working overtime these past few days. So it shouldn’t be too hard to talk Pinkie Pie into throwing a thank you party for them at the end of the day. And that should get Rainbow Dash to stay still somewhere I can talk to her! Oh thank you Princess Luna!” With a newfound energy, Twilight darted out the door as soon as she finished speaking. “Happy to be of service,” Luna answered to the now empty room. * * * * * * * That evening, the party came and went, and Rainbow Dash had only stayed long enough to enjoy the free food. On top of that, from what Luna could tell, she had brushed off Twilight’s concerns when they had been voiced to her. Now back at the library, Luna headed out to the balcony, to check on Twilight. With a raised eyebrow and her original question forgotten, Luna asked, “Your telescope is aimed a bit low for stargazing.” “That’s because it’s aimed at Rainbow’s house,” Twilight answered, without flinching from the eyepiece. “I may not fully understand the ways of today, but spying on one’s friends was considered rude even a thousand years ago.” “And that’s still true today,” Twilight answered. “But when I spoke with Rainbow Dash the fatigue in her voice was even worse then I anticipated. However, that stubborn mule of a pegasus insists she’s fine when it’s clear as day she’s not! Since she insists of playing the part of the invincible-tough-pony she’s not giving me much of a choice but to figure it out behind her back! And… got ya!” she interrupted herself. After a second the smile on Twilight’s face turned into a frown, as she thought aloud, “Now where do you think you’re going in the middle of the night?” With her own gift of night sight, Luna didn’t need a telescope to see the lone figure flying away from Ponyville and toward the north. “Looks as if she is headed to Cloudsdale,” Luna said. With a groan, Twilight Sparkle said, “Of course, Celestia forbid she go someplace I can follow her easily. Look Princess-” “-Luna” “Right, no title. Luna, can you go see what Rainbow thinks is so important that she feels the need to run herself into the ground with sleep deprivation over?” Twilight asked. Bowing her head slightly the unicorn added, “I know you’re on vacation and wanted to see how ponies acted in the day and everything, but could do this as a favor for me?” “Very well, at the rate things are going I shall have to spend time with each of you spirits of harmony anyway. Now is as good a time as any to try hanging out with loyalty I suppose,” Luna said, as she spread her wings and took off into the cool night air. * * * * * * * A smile crept onto Luna’s face as she soared under the light of the moon for the first time in days. Glancing away from the stars, she scanned the sky for her target. Seeing as most pegasi avoided flying at night, the lone pegasus approaching Cloudsdale was easy to find. Not so easy, was catching up to said pegasus. When Rainbow Dash disappeared into Cloudsdale, Luna took advantage of her alicorn magic and teleported the remainder of the way to the floating city of clouds, rounding the corner just seconds after Dash had. Spotting the lone pegasus turning another corner at the far end of the street, Luna teleported once more to catch up. After that Dash’s path proved straight enough that Luna was able to follow without the help of magic. Finally, Rainbow Dash came to rest on a lone cloud near the weather factory. As Luna approached, Dash didn’t turn her head away from the weather factory but said, “Hey, Luna.” “Thou knew I was following you?” Luna asked. “Heh, I hate to break it to you but clouds are awfully good reflectors. Even putting a building between us, I noticed the flashes of light behind me. I’m guessing Twilight asked you to follow me,” Rainbow Dash answered with a bit of a grin. “Thou are dangerously perceptive Miss Dash. And thy guess is correct,” Luna said, tracing Rainbow’s gaze to the weather factory before them. After a moment it became clear that Rainbow Dash wasn’t going to answer the obvious question unasked, so Luna asked, “For what reason are you here in the middle of the night?” Still refusing to break her gaze on the cloud building before them, Dash answered, “Do you see any guards?” First taking a moment to look around, Luna answered, “At the weather factory? No.” “And that’s why I have to guard it.” “Guard it from what?” “Whoever sabotaged it in the first place.” That response raised an eyebrow from the princess of the night. “Sabotage? I was under the impression that an accident led to the drought conditions. That a piece of equipment ruptured the reservoir.” Rainbow Dash shook her head slightly as she responded, “That’s just what the administrators here at the factory are telling everypony. But I was here on day one, before they fixed the damage to the buildings.” Stretching out her hoof Dash point to the factory before them and asked, “See that big rectangular building with the pipe coming out of it? That’s the reservoir building.” Luna nodded. Swinging her hoof across to the other side of the factory grounds, Rainbow continued, “That building on the other side of the pipe is the cloud assembly building.” Tilting her head to the side Luna asked, “What are those two building between them?” “The smaller one closer to us is ‘snowflake crafting’, and the farther one is ‘management headquarters’, where they plan the weather schedules.” “Interesting, but I believe that we hath wandered off course, why does thou think there was sabotage here?” “No we haven’t. Don’t you see? The high-pressure steam machines are all over there in ‘cloud assembly’, and there’s nothing in the reservoir building that even can blow up. On top of that, on the day of the ‘accident’ there were two holes, one in cloud assembly building and one in the reservoir, but those two building between them were completely untouched!” Returning her gaze to the weather factory Rainbow Dash wore a smirk that announced she knew she was right. Luna’s eyes slowly became wider as the pieces fit together in her mind. “So there is no way that a blast from the cloud assembly building could even reach the reservoir without completely demolishing the two buildings between them!” “Exactly.” Bringing a hoof to her chin Luna pondered this for a moment, and then asked, “Thou makes a convincing argument, why have thee not brought this to the attention of the guards?” Rainbow Dash shook her head slightly as she answered, “I did. But when they investigated, the ponies in management told them the same crap about an accident. And then the guard told me that as long as the officials from the weather factory insists that it was just an accident, they have no grounds to investigate further on ‘just my word’ and that I’d have to bring them some real proof that it was sabotage. So here I am, the only one willing to stand watch here.” “No, the only two,” Luna responded with a smile. Returning the smile Rainbow Dash asked, “Really? You’ll help?” “Indeed I shall. Though I am on vacation and can not give orders to the guard, especially on thy testimony alone. However I have heard enough that I would like to see to this matter myself. Thou has my word Rainbow Dash, I shall remain by thy side while we investigate this, together.” “Yes! I get a personal adventure with a princess! I am so going to have to trade stories with Twilight when this is over. I wonder what kinda adventures she’s had with Celestia,” Dash cheered and pondered. Shaking her head she added, “So where do we start?” “Perhaps thou should start by telling me why you think the saboteur will even bother returning here,” Luna suggested. Rainbow shrugged off the question, answering, “Oh that’s easy. Braking the reservoir once will only cause a short drought. Even now, with all the emergency work we weather pegasi have been doing, we’ve already refilled part of it. It won’t be long now before we have enough water in there to make do until they can find another place refill it properly and we’re back in normal operation. So maybe there’s a bad harvest or two here and there, but otherwise it’s no big deal. But if you can bust it a second time then you could make the drought last long enough to cause a famine.” Raising an eyebrow, Luna commented, “Interesting, one would think there would be more interest in defending this place.” After taking a moment to think about the situation, Luna added, “Keep watch, I shall search for our culprit.” A soft blue glow appeared around Luna’s horn, and silver light washed over her eyes. “Whoa, that’s kinda cool. What are you doing?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Dream-walking, a guilty heart tends to reveal itself far more easily in the realm of dreams than in the waking world. So I am searching Cloudsdale for guilt laden dreams,” Luna answered. Lowering her head slightly Dash said, “That’s… kinda creepy. So you know every mistake I’ve ever made or something don’t you?” “No, I know only the errors thou has dreamed about, and only on the nights where thy dreams caught my interest above others. I believe Scootaloo has told thee of my usual dealings in the realm of dreams, has she not?” Nodding her head Rainbow answered, “Right, normally you protect dreams from nightmares.” “Indeed,” Luna answered, shifting her attention more fully to the field of windows she perceived in her mind, each one being the portal into a dream. * * * * * * * The night’s search had turned up nothing. True to her word however, Luna had remained with Rainbow Dash, and currently the two were pushing a large rain cloud away from Las Pegasus. Glancing down at their shadows, Rainbow Dash said, “Come on slowpoke, we gotta fly faster if we’re going to make Cloudsdale by lunch time.” Luna couldn’t help but chuckle before responding, “Thou are the first pony to truly honor my request to be treated like any other. Thank you” “Heh, no problem Luna. Oh! If you can stand her crazy hyperactive antics, you might try hanging out with Pinkie Pie, she likes to treat everypony the same too,” Rainbow suggested. A shiver ran down Luna’s spine. “I shall keep that in mind,” she replied quietly. Then Luna took notice of the terrain beneath them. “I think we are headed too far south,” she said, more then happy to change the subject. Poking her head down, to see under the cloud, Rainbow Dash answered, “Naw, that’s Ponyville dead ahead.” “Ponyville? Were we not headed to Cloudsdale?” “Nope, sweet apple acres is due for rain today. So this rain cloud is headed there, to make a late morning storm. We’re going to have to set that up before we head to Cloudsdale,” Rainbow Dash explained. Luna blinked. “Oh, now I see the reason for thy haste. I didn’t realize we had a detour between us and Cloudsdale,” she said, flapping her wings all the harder. Using her magic to further aid her flight Luna added, “Thou truly impresses me, even with only a few hours sleep you fly with great fervor.” That made Rainbow Dash laugh, “Heh, what can I say? I’m just that awesome!” * * * * * * * Once they’d arrived at sweet apple acres, Rainbow Dash made quick work of cutting the large cloud into smaller ones and positioning them throughout the apple orchard. With that out of the way the two made a quick flight to Cloudsdale, where they had an early lunch. After which Rainbow Dash promptly passed out. Now sitting in the lobby of the weather management headquarters building, Luna passed a glance to the bench that Rainbow Dash was now sleeping on. “Princess Luna! Forgive me for keeping you waiting, you seem to have caught us on our lunch break. I’ve been told you wanted a tour of the weather factory, is the right?” a light-brown pegasus stallion, with a dark-brown mane, said as he entered the lobby. Spotting the sleeping mare on the bench he added, “Do forgive us, I promise you that most weather pegasi are more… professional.” Shooting a glare at the stallion, Luna responded, “Actually Miss Dash is with me. Furthermore, given the work I have seen her do these past few days I am truly surprised that she made it all the way to Cloudsdale before passing out.” “Yes, of course, she does have a bit of a reputation for… how shall we say? Working on her own schedule. Although I hear the quality of her work is exceptional when she does get around to doing it. I suppose the fact that Ponyville made her their weather team captain at least proves that they are satisfied with the quality of her work. It’s just that some of us feel it reflects poorly on weather ponies as a whole for her to be seen sleeping on the job,” the stallion said with a nervous laugh. “Well thy need not concern thyself, she hath proven an excellent example, even if her methods don’t conform to most ponies norms. Regardless, as for the tour, I wish only to see the sights of the accident responsible for the drought conditions of late,” Luna said, as she charged her horn with magic and lifted the slumbering Rainbow Dash into the air in a similar soft-blue glow. Bowing the stallion responded, “Of course, your majesty. The rain cloud machines are this way.” Entering the cloud assembly building, they found the room devoid of other ponies. The hum of a dozen machines set to standby roused the sleeping Rainbow Dash. Blinking her eyes until she understood why everything had a slight blue haze, she said, “Heh, sorry my nap went long. Did I miss anything important?” Once released from Luna’s magic, Dash took to hovering along side, as they continued to their destination. Shaking her head Luna answered, “No, thou has missed nothing of importance.” Walking to the back of the massive room, they passed several cylindrical machines, most attached to an array of pipes that came off of a larger central pipe along the ceiling. Coming to an empty spot where there was a raised base much like the ones under the other machines, the guide said, “This is where the malfunction happened.” Motioning to the pipe overhead he added, “As you can see we’ve capped off the pipe that use to feed into it. Since the site as already been cleaned up, I’m afraid there isn’t really much to see anymore.” Taking notice of the wall Luna asked, “Why is part of the wall more white then the rest?” “Ah yes, repairing cloud building may be quick, but heavily reinforced cloud takes time to make. It will likely take maintenance a few more passes of reinforcing these walls before they are as strong as they were before being rebuilt. Once that’s done they’ll regain their slight blue-ish color, like the rest of the walls here,” the stallion answered. “Ah so this marks the exact hole the blast punched in the wall?” “That’s right, the pressure unit that failed ruptured on that side and directed the bulk of the force of the blast out as a cone at that wall. And unfortunately the reservoir,” the guide said, nodding his head. Glancing at the windows above the blast mark, Luna quickly counted off five windows from above one edge of the blast mark to the other. ‘I presume a similar mark is all there is to be seen at the reservoir?” she asked. “Yes, did you want to see it?” the stallion offered. “Indeed,” Luna said. At the reservoir, Luna made a show of ‘inspecting’ the blast mark in the wall, while discreetly tossing glances down the alleyway leading back to the cloud manufacturing building. As Luna made a mental note that the alley was only wide enough to see three windows on the cloud manufacturing building from here. Turning to their guide, she asked, “So my understanding is that if this were breached a second time, the drought would last long enough to impact agriculture, possibly cause crop failures, is that correct?” “I’m sorry princess, I wouldn’t know that kind of thing, I work in public relations. Somepony in the weather planning and scheduling department would know more about the needs of farms then I do,” the stallion answered. “I see, then I shall presume the previous advice stands. Please inform your superiors in management that starting tomorrow I shall have guards posted to watch over the reservoir until the drought conditions are past. Thank you for your time, you may go now.” With the princess’ dismissal the stallion left, heading toward the management building. Stepping forward Rainbow Dash asked, “Uh, Luna, I thought we were taking care of this ourselves?” With a sly grin Luna said, “And we shall. Once my threat is made known, I will have forced our villain’s hoof. They shall know that they must strike tonight or not at all.” Suddenly, Dash shared the grin. “And we’ll be waiting for them.” * * * * * * * As the stars sparkled overhead, the light of a half moon shown down on the now empty weather factory. Empty except for the two souls sitting on a high cloud watching over the reservoir anyway. Rainbow Dash fidgeted as she sat. “So how long does a stakeout take anyway?” “Until the culprit shows up,” Luna answered with a quiet giggle. Sitting up and folding her front legs, Dash complained, “Well they’d better hurry up and get here. I don’t have all night.” Luna blinked. “Are thou not here because thou does have all night to stand guard?” “Well technically, yes… It’s just that the afternoon nap was nice and all, but if I want to get Twilight off my case about pushing myself too hard tomorrow, I’m going to need some real sleep tonight.” “Ah,” was all Luna said as she returned her attention to the weather factory. The minutes of silence that followed were broken when Rainbow Dash bolted into the air saying, “Got ya!” Looking ahead of the eager pegasus, Luna saw that the target of Dash’s pursuit was a shadowy figure that had just entered into to weather factory airspace. Opening her wings and leaping off the cloud Luna gave chase as well. “Hold it right there!” Rainbow Dash called out. Not even bothering to look to the source of the cry, the figure surged forward, towards the buildings of the weather factory. Although the darkness of night hid most of the figure’s features, Dash had gotten close enough to make out a few details. Most notably, that the shadowy figures was size and shape of a pegasus stallion, and that the stark contrast between his light, seemingly colorless, wings and his dark body strongly hinted that he had some kind of bodysuit on. The shadowy pegasus spiraled around the main water pipe, flying at high speed in his attempt to shake the mare tailing him. Matching him move for move Rainbow Dash drew even closer, even getting close enough to see that the stallion’s mane and tail were dark blue in color. Approaching the cloud manufacturing building, the stallion arched high, folded his wings and smashed through one of the windows, shattering the cloud-glass into water vapor. A second latter, Rainbow Dash darted through the hole, just in time to see a shadow disappear behind the high-pressure boilers. Diving right at him, Rainbow gave the figure little choice but to take flight and the chase resumed once more, weaving through the rows of machines on the factory floor. As the two pegasi darted between the boilers, as if they were large and unforgiving pylons for a race, the shadowy stallion kicked a wheel-valve in the pipes just overhead, releasing a blade of hot steam from the emergency vent near by. Lacking the room to fit between the burning-hot steam and the boilers, Rainbow Dash broke off her direct chase, pushed herself forward to the next gap between boilers, and shot out into the open, only slightly surprised that her target wasn’t in sight anymore. The sound of shattering cloud-glass behind her, alerted Rainbow that her target had just escaped out of a window on the wall opposite the one they had come in. Performing a half loop Dash, turned herself around and shot out the newly empty window frame as quickly as she could. Having explored the weather factory more then enough times to know the layout by heart, Rainbow Dash turned her head to the building nearest their makeshift exit, the rainbow factory. A smile graced Dash’s face as she sighted the shadowy figure making the final sprint for a column in the rainbow mixing pool area. The mixing pool area had no walls, and only sparse columns holding an extremely high overhead ceiling, and to top it all off, being the middle of the night even the mixing paddles were inside the formal rainbow factory building. In short, there was plenty of open airspace and nothing dangerous to crash into. With no reason to hold back, Rainbow Dash surged forward. Even with only the light of a half moon to see by, the prismatic motion blur stood out clearly against the backdrop of the night’s sky. Seeing that he’d been spotted the shadowy stallion bolted from his hiding spot, looking for somewhere else to lose the persistent mare. Uttering a curse when he realized that there was too much space between him and anything else, he braced himself for the inevitable, just before being tackled in to the clouds. “You?!” Rainbow Dash said, as she was finally able to make out the details of the stallion’s black and purple flight suit, with the emblem of a winged skull on the flank. “But you’re… I thought… How can…?” Dash muttered, dread building in her voice with each unfinished phrase. “Your first mistake is trusting anypony,” the stallion said quietly, with a wicked smile. A spotlight from Luna’s magic further illuminated the two pegasi as the princess caught up. “Masterful work, Miss Dash!” she called out, although even Luna’s eyes shifted in surprise when she too saw the uniform of their opponent. Looking back up, at the alicorn descending toward them, Dash practically yelled, “What the hey is going on here?!” The moment Rainbow Dash turned her head away, the stallion lashed out with his front hooves, kicking the mare in the chest, knocking her off. As he took flight he said, “Your second mistake was turning your back on your enemy.” Luna flapped her wings harder, giving chance to the fleeing stallion. Rubbing the pain from her chest, Rainbow took a second before getting back in the air, although her gaze was on the alicorn now. The shadowy stallion headed back toward the reservoir, although Luna never gave him the chance to reach it. With several light blue blast of magic, the third bolt struck home, sending the stallion back down to the clouds. “Explain thyself! Who art thou?!” Luna demanded as she landed. Rainbow Dash landing beside her a second latter. Removing his hoof from his chest, the stallion surprised both mares, revealing the hole in his chest. Both Luna and Rainbow breathed a gasp as they saw all the way through to a matching hole in the stallion’s back, right where Luna’s magic had struck him. Even more disturbing was that the wound was expanding as his body was dissolving into shadowy bubbles. Looking up at the princess of the night, the stallion said, “You may have won the battle for the sky, but we will meet again on the ground. There you’ll taste my power.” When he had finished speaking the dark magic spreading over his body sped up and his form melted away into nothingness. After a moment of silence Rainbow Dash spoke up. “What just happened? Did you just… kill him?” Luna shook her head, “No, pegasi do not die like that. That… thing, was a shadow puppet, a mere conjuration controlled from afar. I dare say that our foe was never ‘here’ to begin with.” “Just like the shadow bolts you, er Nightmare Moon sent to trick me?” Dash asked. With a nod Luna answered, “Indeed, though if thou are suggesting that it was mine, thou are mistaken.” “Then who’s was it?” Putting a hoof to the base of her muzzle, Luna responded, “Yes, that does beg the question, what unicorn was controlling the puppet?” “What makes you think it was a unicorn?” Rainbow Dash asked, raising an eyebrow. “Hmm, well I suppose an alicorn can use that kind of magic as well, but I don’t see Princess Cadence or my sister having any more desire to sabotage Equestria then I do. Hence my assumption.” Dash nodded. “Right. So how do we find out who made… that?” she asked motioning to the spot of clouds formerly occupied by the false stallion. “You are right to be suspicious of me you know,” Luna said. “What?” asked Dash, as a confused look crossed her face. “There are two conditions to the magic we just witnessed. First a magic user with both the power and knowledge needed to create a shadow puppet. Second, they would need to know of that shadow bolt uniform, that I’m fairly certain I made up on the spot when I was Nightmare Moon. That doesn’t leave a lot of suspects.” “Wait, you made that up?” Nodding, Luna answered, “Forgive me if the details are fuzzy, I wasn’t entirely sane at the time, but I think I peered into thy dreams and found an image of the wonder bolts. Then I adapted that and played off of your desires to present something thoroughly tempting to you. So yes, prior to that moment there was no such thing as a shadow bolt uniform.” Lowering her head Dash sighed. “And I went and copied it for a nightmare night costume, so every unicorn in Ponyville could be our suspect.” With a quick nod, Luna added, “Or anypony whom has heard an account of thy costume, or any tail of thy encounter on the night of Nightmare Moon’s defeat that included a description of the original costume.” “So this isn’t over then is it?” Rainbow Dash asked with tired voice. “For us, I suspect it is. Thou heard him, he spoke of challenging me again on the ground. Although I shall pass news of tonight’s events to my sister and I suspect she will make good on my threat to post guards here.”