//------------------------------// // Chapter 14 // Story: Night Crew // by NFire //------------------------------// And it didn’t. They were pushing the stormline hard, the three mares. Cornflower was almost worn to the bone along with Hangfire and Chryse. Clouds from the Everfree had intruded along the front while Hearth’s Warming was being held, so it had to be handled or the snow would get far too deep. Manager Jerk had reappeared, to their dismay, giving them glowers of pure hate as they walked into the weather offices. They ignored him, purely and wholly because they simply did not care what he thought anymore. The three mares were good weather ponies and they knew it, so did Jerk and his hoity-toity buddies that never seemed to do any work. Before they had left that night, Hangfire had sat Hazy down with the papers they’d purloined weeks ago. “Look, Hazy, I know you’re really good with math, we need to find out what’s in these.” She tapped a hoof on the stack of parchment. He nodded, eye-balling the stack and the amount of writing on each one. “I...sure...Hangfire, I...can...do...that.” “I know it’s not much, but something in these is going to tell us what’s going on.” She gave the big stallion a hug and went off to get ready for work. So now, stuck on a front line that was far too variable and getting worse with each moment, her thoughts turned to Hazy and hoped he found something when they got back. She back kicked a cloud into place, tearing apart another wild one while keeping an eye on Chryse and Cornflower. Her eyes focused on a bank of fluff a few hundred lengths away, suddenly zeroing in on a shadow darting from behind the white bank. “The hay?” She spread her wings wide, slipping through the roiling maelstrom, closing in on the shadow. It was moving from place to place, sneaking along the line and getting closer to where Chryse was working alone for now. Hangfire’s anger burned like a smoldering ember, remembering the shadow she had seen before and what happened to Blue. It wasn’t going to happen this time! By Luna’s Moon it wasn’t! “Oh no you don’t!” Slapping her wings downward, she shot up into the sky, twisting against the wind and rolling over in a perfect Immelmann. Her eyes targeting the black shape in the clouds as she barreled into the night, gaining speed at a tremendous rate as she tore through the clouds. Her goggles protecting her eyes as they targeted the unknown pony, wings a V shape as they punched through the air. She was like a hunting falcon, blinkered eyes only seeing the prey as she got closer. The shadow was unaware that one angry mare had essayed him for destruction. She could see almost nothing of the pony behind the cloud, the shadows and dark night making it hard. Flurries of snow slapped across her face as she poured on the speed, flipping around at the last second, back hooves forward like a battering ram when it hit her. Wait a second...he’s got no wings! The thought raced through her mind just before she connected with a powerful hit, her hooves smashing into the unwary pony. The hit pounded them both, flipping Hangfire forward and off-balance. The unknown pony went shooting off the cloud and into the freezing air. Chryse was suddenly watching her as she pointed to the falling pony, pinning her wings to her sides as she stooped into a dive. Forgetting their duties for the moment, they both went after the falling shape. It was tumbling around in mid air, hooves flailing wildly as it tried to regain it’s balance. But..no wings! What in the stars is this? The thought was pushed into the back of her mind as they raced toward the figure, getting closer with each second, trying to outrace the reach of gravity. They were both gritting their teeth against the cold, slicing through the night air to get to the falling pony. She could almost make out the cutie mark on the falling pony, just a bit closer! The glow of magic surrounded the falling shape as it disappeared into the night, leaving an empty space in front of them. It caught them both off-guard, spreading their wings wide to catch the air, flapping heavily to hover in place. “Did you see that? It was a Unicorn!” She shouted over the wind in their ears. Chryse goggled for a moment shaking her head as she yelled back “What was it doing up here?” Hangfire shrugged, “I don’t know, it was sneaking up behind you in the cloud bank and I rammed it! Remember what happened to Blue?” The snowy mare nodded, rubbing a hoof along her chin, “A Unicorn. Did you see it’s color? Or mark?” Hangfire hovered a bit closer, “I didn’t, I wasn’t close enough!” She looked around, Cornflower was making her way to them already as she checked the stars, “We’re done for the night anyways, let’s get back, we don’t need to be out here!” They slammed the clouds into place, holding the line, tamping it for the day crew to take over, making sure nothing was going to get wonky while the shift changed. Grateful for the warmth of the offices, if not Manager Jerks glares, they changed clothes quickly and headed out. She had been so sure it was Manager Jerk, she’d been almost positive! The way he acted, the way he always treated them like they were nothing, she was positive it was him. Now that theory was blown to Tartarus. In Hangfire’s mind it had been simple, the whole problem. Manager Jerk just wanted them to go away, but a Unicorn? That put things in an entirely different perspective. Why would a ‘Corn be sneaking around the cloud front, and the spell for cloudwalking wasn’t well known she’d heard, nor was teleporting. This was getting stranger by the day. As they landed on the balcony of their home, slapping the snow off their hooves to go inside and warm up, Hangfire was lost in thought, bumping into Hazy as he stood in the hallway. “Hazy? You okay?” He nodded, bags under his eyes showing he hadn’t slept in a while, “I’m...still...working on...the...parchment..” She sighed, prodding the big stallion off, downstairs and into his bed, “You get some sleep, hit em again later. Go on!” Giving him one last push, she sauntered off into the kitchen, fixing herself a cup of coffee as she stared at the pile of papers Hazy had separated neatly on the table. Her eyes wandered over notes he had written. One word caught her attention as she sipped her drink. Bonus.