Chapter 3: Dash
The cumulonimbus roiled ominously as it approached the outskirts of Ponyville. Twilight and Rainbow were situated on a hill overlooking the town. The cloud seemed to dwarf even the new castle that dominated the town.
“This doesn’t look good,” Rainbow muttered, staring at the cloud. Twilight nodded silently, staring at the shifting puffs of water vapour.
“Okay, first thing’s first, we need to stop that cloud,” Rainbow said. “We’ll need the whole weather team, maybe some of pegasi in ponyville to do this as well as your magic, Twi’.”
Twilight looked confused. “Why would we need so many pegasi?” I’ve seen you move quite large clouds.”
Rainbow snorted. “I thought you would have already read up on this. A cloud that size and density is easily over one million tons. The ones that I’ve moved around are barely a few hundred pounds.” She hesitated, then added, “I don’t think even you could handle this on your own.”
Twilight’s eyes bulged slightly and she looked at the cloud apprehensively. “You’re right, that’s surprisingly heavy.”
“That’s why I told you this cloud is serious business. We need everypony pushing on it to slow it down and a few other pegasi to break it up and spread it out. Even if I were at my best it would be a challenge, but I never leave Ponyville hanging.” Rainbow paused and dropped her gaze. “But I’m not fit to do anything right now,” she added softly.
Twilight could see that the fact Rainbow was confined to the wheelchair—to watch as her friends and her colleagues were all tackling the approaching monstrosity—was killing her. She forced a confident smile and brushed her wing along the edge of Rainbow’s, like Fluttershy had taught her. Rainbow looked up in surprise.
“Friends will always be here to help another friend,” she said, taking off.
Twilight didn’t see what Rainbow’s reaction was to that, but she liked to think it was a smile.
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In the air, Twilight yelled out towards the loosely gathered weather team. Her ear crackled as Rainbow spoke to her through the small magical link that allowed quick communication between them at a distance. It was experimental, but today it would be given one heck of a field test.
“The push will have to be along the south edge of the cloud’s front. Make sure you have a few on either side or the cloud may bend inwards and break into three sections. That’ll make it much harder to manage,” Rainbow instructed through the link.
Twilight nodded. “Okay, got it,” she said.
Louder, she addressed the others. “We’ll fly in—” she paused briefly to listen to Rainbow “—in delta formation. Cloud Kicker and Cloud Chaser break up and go to the East side. Cerulean Skies and Drizzle take the West, please. Everypony else, with me, I’ll need help out front, using magic to help slow this cloud down.”
Twilight headed the group, the fliers bound together in a loose v-shape formation. A crackle through the link disrupted Twilight’s quick calculations on the velocity and momentum of the cloud.
“You know…” Rainbow started, her voice distorted, then it faded away. Twilight thought the unstable link had broken up but the thought died when Rainbow muttered, “Never mind.”
“What? What is it?”
“I just realised that you sounded different all of the sudden. You’re leading, like a natural. For a moment you sounded a bit like Spitfire.”
“I-I’m just organising ponies, Rainbow Dash.”
“No it’s different. You’re flying on your own now,” the voice was heavy with emotion, uncharacteristic of the overconfident pegasus.
“Don’t say that, Rainbow, I’ll always need you, just like I’ll need everypony else. How am I supposed to know about wind currents or how heavy that cloud was? Or tight manoeuvring? Or any of the practicality that comes with wings? I can’t replace that.”
The link fell silent again and the seconds dragged on with Twilight anxiously listening to the transmission. The little pops and clicks transmitted across the link somehow made it worse. Twilight gritted her teeth.
With only a hoof-full of seconds left to reach the cloud front, Twilight tentatively called out through the link again.
“Rainbow?”
There was a raspy chuckle and Rainbow’s voice came back stronger than ever.
“Sorry, Twi’, I guess I was thinking about things too much. I’m turning into an egghead, no offence.”
Twilight smiled. “None taken, you’ve just been cooped up too long. Nopony likes sitting alone with their thoughts.” Twilight could imagine Rainbow nodding during the pause.
“You got that right.” There was a pause. “Sorry for being mopey, I don’t know why I was like that, especially at a time like this,” Rainbow muttered awkwardly. Twilight smiled, banking and fluttering. The forced inactivity while watching on must be taking its toll. She gestured to the sides and the pegasi took their positions at the storm front.
“When you see the glow, you’ll know I’ll be actively trying to push the cloud back. That’s your cue to jump in while the spell is holding most of the force back. The push and the break-up team will then come in and start breaking off chunks of clouds. Before we do this, any questions?”
Everypony shook their heads and Twilight was gratified to see the determination etched into their expressions and stance.
“Alright, let’s do this!”
With Rainbow muttering commands through the link, and Twilight relaying them to the team, the cumulonimbus rapidly slowed down. A magenta sheen encapsulated the front half of the cloud, buffering the impact. Twilight briefly checked the time and glanced at the ground. She had to remind herself to keep perspective, from this altitude the distance will be different to the ground. She frowned, the cloud was slowing but not enough.
“Rainbow! I’m slowing the cloud and the pegasi are trying to break it up as fast as they can but it looks like it’ll still reach Ponyville.”
A sharp gasp echoed down the link. There was silence for a few tense moments as Rainbow grunted trying to think of a solution.
“If the cloud is more than half within the city limits, the spell inside the cloud will break and it’ll start raining. It’s designed to break connected so as long as we break it up so more than half is done, it shouldn’t break and we can control the downpour.”
Twilight was impressed, she assumed weather working was a fairly relaxing job what with Rainbow always taking naps and relaxing on the job. Now she knew the wealth of experience behind Rainbow’s command and she smiled, saying slyly through the link.
“If that’s not leadership I don’t know what is, Rainbow.”
As Twilight rounded up the pegasi to break up more of the clouds, she heard a faint chuckle across the link that made her grin.
It took them almost three hours but the monstrous cloud was finally broken up and divided. Exhausted pegasi collapsed to the ground as worried onlookers sighed in relief. Twilight observed as the last of the pegasi cut into the cloud and she released the magic quickly, the cloud rubber-banding enough to disperse the remains.
Twilight landed in front of Rainbow, her first thoughts being that her wings felt like they were made of jelly. They drooped, unable to take any more punishment. Twilight reflected that she wouldn’t do any flying for a few days. She glanced at Rainbow as she sat in her wheelchair beaming at her friend.
“That was awesome!” Rainbow exclaimed. “Not bad for a first time weather worker.”
Twilight gave Rainbow a weary, but hearty, smile.
“I was worried a bit there, but you carried me through.”
“I never leave a friend hanging.”
Twilight was distracted by movement in her periphery. She looked down to see the rest of their mutual friends galloping towards the hill. Though weary to her bones she straightened up and waved with Rainbow to the rest of her friends.
The rain continued to pelt down from above, but Twilight and Rainbow were not kept down. Though sopping, freezing and wet, they were still buoyant and elated and among friends with kindred spirits. They had pulled together and pushed back the clouds
And nothing could take that away.