Twilight Sparkle spoke to herself as she leafed through the pages of a binder. "Let's see... Mayor Mare's speech... Applejack's got the Plant Team... snowplow inspections... Amethyst Star leading the Animal Team... all bells accounted for... need more twigs and string for the nest weavers... unified timeline... Huh! The Weather Team section is still all outlines." Twilight Sparkle rolled her eyes as she looked up from her Winter Wrap Up Master Plan planner, shoved it into her saddlebag with annoyance, and launched herself into the air from in front of Town Hall, flying directly to the cloud house that hovered on the outskirts of Ponyville.
She landed, just barely stopping herself from casting a cloudwalking spell. Still not used to the wings, are we? After taking a moment to admire the air-plant gardens, she tugged the bellpull on the side of one of the Ionic cloud columns. A chime sounded and Rainbow Dash called out, "Come in!" from somewhere inside.
Twilight walked through the door, literally, and looked about the entryway in confusion. "Dashie? Where are you?" The fact that the house was made of cloud made it easy for Rainbow Dash to remodel.
A blue face popped over the edge of a cloud sculpted to form a railed gallery, above a greatroom, Twilight realized. A curved stairway led up the left wall. Magenta eyes glittered down at her, smiling enthusiastically. "Hey Twilight! How awesome is this!?" Hooves spread above the rail, indicating the artful layering of cloud.
"Yes, very nice, Rainbow." Twilight craned her neck. "About the unified ti..."
"Check THIS out!" Rainbow disappeared, there was a click, and a huge banner unfurled and hung from the front of the railing where it had been rolled up and hidden by a small patch of fog. The banner was written in rainbow-colored letters and read "WELCOME HOME, TANK!"
Should I ask her if Tank can read? Better not. "That's lovely," she replied, trying to keep the irritation out of her voice. "I'm sure Tank will be thrilled." Who could tell? "Rainbow, I've been asking you for your final plan for the Weather Team for the last week and you haven't turned it in. I really need it."
"Come on Twilight, we all know our jobs!" Rainbow Dash slid down the cloud banister, leaving a trail of rising mist, and landed in front of Twilight. "My team can do their bit with their eyes closed and one wing tied behind their backs! We've done it like... forever." She rolled her eyes theatrically.
Twilight started to lose her cheerful demeanor. "The times you did it without planning and organization, you were always late!" She stomped her hoof in frustration, but there was no sound, just a puff of vapor, and that was unsatisfying.
"Calm down, it'll be fine! You will be here for the big party for Tank tomorrow after Winter Wrap Up, right?" Rainbow Dash grinned, hopping up and down with excitement, her voice pitching higher and her speech coming faster. "My best buddy will be here tomorrow and I want all my friends with me to welcome him back, oh gosh oh gosh this is gonna be GREAT!!"
Twilight felt her anger leave her; she could never stay mad at her friends for long, and Dashie's foal-like enthusiasm was, after all, one of her more endearing qualities. Still, responsibility was not one of her strengths, despite the fact that she was a born motivator. She motivated me to hatch a dragon egg before I ever even met her... "I don't know if that's such a great idea, to do it on the day of. Maybe we could have the party the next day, when we've had a chance to recover from all that work."
"Come on, it'll be fine, Twilight. With you here to organize us, everything will go smoothly and we'll be finished with plenty of time to party!" Dashie smiled warmly, and the anticipation of having Tank back glowed in her eyes.
Twilight flushed a bit at the praise, momentarily distracted from her concerns. "Well, we'll see, I guess. But your teams had better be on schedule or your tail will be in a rainbow-colored sling, got it?" She leveled her best hairy eyeball.
Dashie saluted smartly with her right forehoof. "Roger that, Princess All-Teams-Organizer!" She winked and Twilight had to chuckle. "And I know you've still got a lot of organizing to do, with those other teams and the ceremonies and all!"
"Yes, seriously. Finish your preparations and I'll see you at sunup for Mayor Mare's speech. And I like what you've done with the place. Bye!" With that, she sped off through the door and into the sky to drop off the speech and attend to a dozen other last-minute details.
Rainbow Dash grinned in her wake. She sure has improved her flying skills... Maybe there's hope for that egghead yet! She hopped up the stairs. "Right! Preparations! So... I'll need a punch bowl here..."
Morning came and Twilight was out in her tan, blue and green vest, wrapped up with a scarf and woolen cap in the false dawn. Rainbow Dash looked like she couldn't wait to get started; she fidgeted, tapped her hoof and looked around for the Mayor. Blue-jacketed pegasi jostled and joked with one another as they landed in their designated area
Applejack, clad in Plant Team green, stood with her fellow sturdy earth ponies discussing and disposing of half a dozen questions in as many minutes. They had all been here talking even before Twilight herself arrived. How late in the day should they start plowing the bottomland? What level of groundwater they could expect to encounter given this winter's snowfall? Applejack drove the extremely utilitarian conversation, but all the earth ponies had a chance put in their two bits, were listened to when the did so, and were satisfied with her decisions. She conducted a last minute health check on a couple of her plowstallions, recovering from injuries they suffered during horsehockey season. One of them, a tall bay, grinned at a joke she made and blushed as his missing front tooth provoked another round of chuckles from his friends. Twilight snorted at the cheerful goofery.
She turned to look at the Animal Team, who were gathered around Amethyst Star. This was the most diverse team, but also the smallest, mainly earth ponies but including many unicorns and pegasi. Twilight regarded Amethyst as the senior Team Leader, not only for her organizational skills, but because she wasn't one of her confidants and provided an unbiased assessment of her own leadership. Twilight trotted over to the group, who were speaking cheerfully about the paths they would be taking and the best volumes and pitches of bells to awaken each species.
Amethyst Star saw the princess coming and stilled the conversation with a polite cough. The group, including Fluttershy and Rarity, nodded rather than bowing, as Twilight had requested. Twilight smiled and nodded back. These ponies were her friends, not her subjects, and though she required some deference to do her job properly, she was the Princess of Friendship, not the Princess of Ceremonial Nonsense, and wanted to keep things familiar.
"Hello, Princess Twilight. Did you sleep well?" Amethyst might have resented Twilight for taking over her position as chief organizer of town events, but if she did, it was kept very well hidden. Instead of being bitter, she eased into the role of booster and supporter with cheer and good grace.
Twilight gave her a wry smile. "I think I passed out a few hours before dawn. I know it doesn't do any good to stay awake thinking about everything that can go wrong, but before something like this, I just can't help myself. Fortunately, Spike brews a strong pot of tea, and Coco Pommel's eye cream works wonders."
Amethyst chuckled in sympathy. "I'm the same way, though I have to say, with only the Animal Team to worry about, I was able to get a few more hours that you." Her mask slipped for a moment and she stepped closer to speak more quietly and in a serious tone. "Twilight, could I have a word?"
They reflexively glanced around, as one would when beginning a confidential discussion, and noticed Rainbow Dash watching them. Twilight raised her eyebrow and Dashie responded with a wave and a smile. Just her usual impatience; she's probably wondering what's taking so long. "Sure." She turned and slowly walked away from the other ponies, speaking in low tones as Amethyst followed. "What's up?"
Amethyst looked uncomfortable. "I looked at the unified timeline and..."
Twilight interrupted her. "Yes, I know. The Weather Team plan is a little sketchy, isn't it?"
"I'm not worried, just concerned. Also, Rainbow Dash asked me for a favor." Amethyst 's eyes tilted over to the Weather Team while Twilight unconsciously worried her lower lip. "She wanted me to wake her pet up first, but Tank is way at the end of Fluttershy's route. If we wake the animals out of sequence, they won't be able to get to the assembly areas without waking up all the other animals in their path. Then there would be chaos, carnivores and herbivores mixed together, wandering all over and all of them groggy or grumpy from just waking up... things could get ugly."
Twilight shuddered, recalling her own animal-awakening experience. "I understand. Did she?"
"I think so, but she seemed so anxious to see Tank, I don't know if she took me very seriously." Amethyst's mouth was a thin line, then she glanced over Twilight's shoulder. "Here comes Mayor Mare. I better get back to my team. Thank you, Twilight." With that, she trotted back to her tan jackets and Twilight turned around to greet the Mayor. I'll just have to speak with Dashie after the speech.
Twilight had suggested editing the speech for time, but Mayor Mare had decided that there were other important points to bring up and as a result, they were already ten minutes behind schedule when the round of polite applause roused Twilight from her doze. The pegasi shot into the sky and formed into a three dimensional huddle. OK, looks like Rainbow Dash is taking charge. Still, I better make sure she's clear on a few things. She bunched herself up to launch into the sky, but before she could, she was interrupted by Rarity.
"Twilight, darling! I'm so sorry to bother you, but the load of sticks and twigs you said you'd have delivered never arrived at the nest assembly section!" Rarity's dramatic tone strongly suggested this was The Worst Possible Thing. The Gatherers and Carters... Next year we go to a color coded logistics system so whole carts of supplies won't get lost. And maybe create a Logistics Team with a leader so I only have one mane to grab. I mean, Ponyville has only been doing this for centuries, right?
Twilight relaxed her back muscles and stood up, turning to smile at Rarity. "I asked Shoeshine to make that delivery. It probably just got dropped off at the wrong place; maybe the Spring Cleaners. Somepony may have thought the twigs and straw were for making whisk brooms. Why don't you go there I'll go find Shoeshine and we'll meet back at the nest weavers' tables in ten minutes?" With that, she zoomed off to locate Shoeshine while Rarity galloped into town to find the Spring Cleaners.
After the cart was located in town and Shoeshine received some kindly-worded suggestions about writing things down, Twilight was kept busy with a half dozen other little foul-ups and never did get a chance to speak with Rainbow Dash. It was several hours later when she went to check on the progress of the snow plows that she was startled by a snowflake settling on her muzzle. She looked up, expecting to see clear blue skies, but saw nothing but roiling clouds. Sweet Celestia! By the time she reached the Plant Team, visibility was down to about twenty yards.
"Twilight, what in the wide world of Equestria is the Weather Team doing?!" Applejack yelled furiously above the gale that now blew across the fields, which were still thick with snow. "Everything is goin' to Tartarus in a hoofbasket!" She could just barely be made out amidst the snow-covered farm equipment and plow ponies.
Twilight hollered back, "I don't know! Maybe a front came in with a lot of moisture last night and they missed it! I have to get up there above the cloud deck and talk to Rainbow Dash, right now!" She caught air under her wings and fought the winds to get airborne, but the turbulence was fierce.
Applejack gasped. "No Twilight! It's too dangerous!" The earth ponies watched helplessly as their princess was buffeted, her wings and coat slick with ice as she struggled to make altitude. Her horn glowed, the ice on her body vanished in a puff of steam and what appeared to be an inverted tornado started to grow in front of her, tilting upward into the bottom of the cloud deck. She flew into the middle of the whirling air and seemed to zip up through the column of low pressure air at the center of the vortex, spinning furiously but climbing at high speed. As she disappeared through the clouds, she couldn't hear the cheering and sighs of relief from the onlookers below.
The world was a whirl of gray and white turned blue as Twilight popped out of the top of the cloud deck. She dropped her spell and used telekinesis to stabilize her inner ear, overcoming the wave of nausea as her eyes regained their focus; that was a tricky spell and only alicorns ever really needed it, not having the inborn rotational tolerance of a pegasus.
Up above the cloud deck, it was utter chaos. The Weather Team appeared to be playing some aerial version of hoofball where they pushed clouds around and nopony knew where the goal posts were supposed to be. There were four pegasi in the middle, arguing loudly and insistently with one another, and Rainbow Dash was nowhere to be seen.
She flew into the center of the scrum and shouted at the top of her lungs, amplified through a bit of magic Luna taught her, "HALT!" All action ceased. Pegasi peeked curiously over the tops of the clouds they were pushing, and the arguments came to an abrupt end as all eyes were trained on her.
"WHERE IS RAINBOW DASH?" In the sudden stillness, the words hit with the force of a hurricane. They rolled across the cloudtops, leaving a ripple to mark their passage. Pegasi stared in shocked awe as they realized that there was a very angry, very powerful alicorn princess in their midst, demanding an answer. Many of them bowed their heads and spread their wings, which was the pegasus form of mid-air obeisance. Nopony answered as they looked at one another and her with fear in their eyes.
"Oh, sorry. Sorry! Didn't mean to... um... the spell... shouldn't have, um..." Twilight stammered in embarrassment, having forgotten to drop the amplification spell. "Anyway, hi guys! Where is Rainbow Dash?" She smiled as cheerfully as she could manage.
One of the four pegasi who had been arguing managed to respond with a quaver in his voice, "She's not here, your highness. We don't know where she is. She just led us to the target area, said she had some urgent business elsewhere and we knew what to do, that she had confidence in us and she'd be back in a little bit. And... well..." He shrugged and scuffed his hoof along the top of the cloud deck, looking abashed.
Twilight's eyes narrowed. She had some idea where Rainbow Dash had gone, and what she was about. "Who is in charge here, then?"
The four looked at one another with some anger and they all replied in unison, "I am!" The one who had spoken previously continued, "We're the Weather Team squadron leaders for the East, West, North and South cloudbuster squadrons, your highness. I'm Whitewash and these are Thunderlane, Midnight Strike and Bluebell." He indicated the other stallion and two mares who nodded as they were named. "And I'm in charge because I'm the oldest!"
"No, I'm in charge because I'm the best flyer! Two-time aerial slalom champion, your highness!" Thunderlane grinned at Twilight, flaring his wings ingratiatingly as be bowed.
"But I've been a squadron leader the longest, I have seniority!" Bluebell bellowed, surprisingly loud despite her small stature.
Midnight Strike gritted her teeth. "Seniority my left wing! We were all appointed at the same time; your name was called two seconds before mine was because the list was in alphabetical order! I should be in charge because I had the highest grades in flight school!"
Twilight stared at the four squadron leaders. "So...Rainbow didn't pick one of you to be in charge? She didn't delegate her authority?" The four of them stopped arguing and nodded. "And is there anything about the chain of command in the Weather Team operations manual?"
"Operations manual?" Thunderlane looked at the other three, who turned back to her, dumbfounded.
Twilight smacked her hoof into her face. One more for lessons learned and I want it written yesterday. "Alright. Bluebell, you're senior even if only by a second or two. You're in charge." The other three started to argue as Bluebell glowed with pride. Twilight interrupted the squabble with a slightly amplified, "Is there a problem?"
Once again, the argument vanished. "N-no problem, your highness." Thunderlane and the others bowed as he stammered his response.
"Good. keep it that way. Bluebell, get these skies cleared on the double or your tail will be in a sling next to Rainbow Dash's, got it?"
"Yes, your highness!" She immediately turned to speak to the other three. "Execute Plan 2B, right now! To your squadrons, pegasi!" They all nodded and flew off in four different directions.
Now, to find your errant leader. Twilight sped off in the direction of the animal trails. The clouds thinned out and she glanced down at the pure white of the frozen lakes. Hey! She banked and came in for a landing where the Icebreakers were skating in their Weather Team blue vests, looking for Pinkie Pie and not seeing her. One of the skaters saw her and skated over; she recognized Flurry from the Hearth's Warming Eve pageant they performed a few years back. "Hello Flurry!"
"Hi there, Princess Twilight!" The earth pony mare sprayed up ice and came to a stop. "Sorry, we seem to be a little behind. There's more cloud cover and its colder than we expected. Also, we're not really working as a team right now. Sorry, we seem to have fallen back to our old habits."
Twilight smiled reassuringly. "I'm sorry about the cloud cover; that's being taken care of, but where is Pinkie Pie?" She scanned the skaters. "She's usually pretty hard to miss."
"Well, um... she was sort of... foalnapped. A little."
"Foalnapped a little?" Twilight looked at Flurry in astonishment.
"Rainbow Dash came by a few hours ago and spoke with her, then she just picked her up and flew away. Pinkie was yelling, so, well... it didn't look like she went along willingly, that's all. But they're friends, so I thought maybe it was a joke until, well, they didn't come back." She looked abashed.
"Not your fault. Which way did she go?" Twilight had a suspicion, and Flurry confirmed it pointing west. Rainbow Dash's house... Celestia, don't let me kill a mare... Twilight nodded her thanks and flew off to the west. Soon, Rainbow's house was visible, with Pinkie Pie on the ground in front of it. Twilight landed next to her and saw that she was sketching some sort of complicated schematic in a notebook. "Pinkie! What are you doing!?"
Pinkie waved her to silence and sketched furiously. "Pink..." The hoof waved again.
"I'm on the verge of a breakthrough! Just a second!" Pinkie sketched with a rapidity and precision that shocked Twilight. She was drawing something that looked like a very complicated tube on top of some sort of frame. There seemed to be compartments in it, a nozzle on the back... it was hard to make out, it was so detailed, but she could make out labels like "Cake Delivery Module" and "Confetti Dispenser."
"What is this? What is going on? Why aren't you cutting ice?" Twilight was more curious than angry.
"OK, just... there! All finished! This will revolutionize party technology!" Pinkie turned and grinned at Twilight excitedly.
Twilight blinked and opened her mouth to say something, but she couldn't form any words, she was so astonished.
"I know, breathtaking, isn't it? Well, once Rainbow Dash explained to me how important it was that Tank have a proper welcome-back-from-hibernation party, and after she foalnapped me and brought me to her house, and after I fell through the floor because you weren't there to cast a cloudwalking spell on me and Rainbow Dash caught me just before I made a pink splatter on the ground and I explained to her that I can't just fire off my party cannon and set up the decorations and everything else, because I just don't have the range from down here, I'd need a party howitzer, and there's no way to fire a party from the howitzer that would go inside her window before deploying, it would just splatter all over the outside of her house, so then I had this great idea, Twilight! A precision-guided party delivery system!" She waved her sketch, finishing her machine-gun monologue. "This changes EVERYTHING!"
Twilight shook her head, trying to get the insanity out of it, and refused to speculate on Pinkie's lung capacity. "Pinkie! It is Winter Wrap Up! Today! You have to carve the ice on the lakes! Now!"
Pinkie looked at her in confusion. "But Dashie told me to do the party first, and she's in charge of the Weather Team." She touched her hoof to her blue vest, and Twilight ground her teeth.
"Yes, Pinkie, she's in charge of the Weather Team, and you haven't done anything wrong. But please stop advancing party technology for now and bounce on back to the lakes and get those ponies cutting in grids like we did last year. Alright? And one more thing; where is Dashie now?"
"Oh, she went to wake up Tank!" Pinkie closed up the sketch book, stuffed it into her mane, waved goodbye and cheerfully bounced back towards the east.
She's waking up Tank. Could this day get any better? Twilight grimaced and shot off west to the forestlands. She looked up and the skies were still cloudy, though it seemed to have stopped snowing.
When she got to where the critters were hibernating, ponies were running around, trying to herd, calm or pacify the animals. Out of the chaos, she picked out Fluttershy staring down a bleary-eyed Harry the Bear as he growled and slavered. Twilight flew in next to her, out of the grumpy bear's reach. "Fluttershy! Where's Dash?"
"Just a second! Harry! Just calm down. Stay there and we'll get you a nice big pie!" That seemed to mollify Harry, who thumped down on his haunches and scratched his neck, allowing himself to be distracted by the mad menagerie all around him. Fluttershy turned to Twilight, worry in her eyes. "Just promise me you'll take it easy on her, Twilight!"
"Take it EASY on her? This is a calamity!" Twilight thought that of everypony, Fluttershy would be the most upset, given the situation with the critters.
Fluttershy flinched. "I'm going to deal with the animals gently, Twilight, and straighten everything out. I want you to do the same with Rainbow Dash. Please!"
"I'm not going to hit her or anything. I may want to, but I'm not going to." She's right, Twilight. You have to be rational and calm. Rainbow Dash may have screwed up royally, but she's your friend and you love her.
Fluttershy must have seen something change behind Twilight's eyes, because she smiled gently and waved her hoof up the trail. "She's at Tank's burrow."
"Thanks Fluttershy. I'll go easy on her, don't worry." Twilight turned up the path as an earth pony ran up with a big blueberry pie on her back. She made a turn and went deeper into the woods when she heard a bell ring up ahead. A few moments later, she saw Rainbow Dash hunched over a mound of dirt at the edge of a clearing. She was going to gallop up to her, but something made her pause and listen.
"Come on out Tank. We're gonna have so much fun!" A bell, purloined from a member of the Animal Team, rang. "Come on out, fella! It's Spring! Wake up!" The bell rang again. Twilight approached quietly. "Why won't you come out, Tank?"
"Rainbow? What are you doing?"
Rainbow Dash didn't turn around. "I'm just trying to wake up Tank, Twilight. I can't wait to see him." All enthusiasm was gone from her voice, replaced by a note of sadness. "But he won't wake up, Twilight. He won't wake up."
"Maybe it's too early. Tortoises are a little slow." Twilight walked up next to Dash, and Dash turned. Her eyes glittered with unshed tears.
"But what if he doesn't wake up, Twilight? What if he doesn't wake up?" Having given voice to her fears, the tears spilled over, and Rainbow's voice turned ragged. "What if he never wakes up!?"
Twilight was horrified. "Oh Dashie! No! No, no, no, he'll be fine honey!" She leaned into Rainbow Dash and the pegasus laid her head against her shoulder and cried her heart out. "Shush, shush, it will be OK." Thanks for the warning, Flutters.
Rainbow Dash choked on her tears as she spoke, "You don't know that! Animals hibernate and don't wake up! It happens; I read about it last month! They don't eat enough before they dig in, or they get sick when they're asleep and nopony knows to help them. What if that happened to Tank?"
Twilight didn't say anything; she just stroked her friend's mane and made soft noises of comfort until Dash was cried out, then she backed away and looked her in the eye. "Dashie, I'm not going to say you're worried over nothing. Something could have happened," Rainbow Dash's eyes widened and Twilight hasten to continue, "but tortoises are very tough and they usually live a very long time. I can't guarantee that Tank is alright, but he's a young tortoise with a lot of good years ahead of him. He's probably just sluggish because a certain pegasus delayed the start of his hibernation, that's all."
"D-do you think so?" Hope bloomed on Rainbow's face. "He just needs more sleep because I screwed up?"
"Almost certainly." Twilight smiled. "It's OK for you to be worried about Tank, but your fear led you to shirk your other responsibilities. If you were this worried about it, you should have told me. I could have found somepony else to lead the Weather Team."
"I'm sorry about having woken up Harry that way; I didn't mean to. But I'll make it up to him and Fluttershy."
"Rainbow Dash, you've been looking down at Tank's burrow this whole time, haven't you? Look up."
She looked up and gasped. "But... that's supposed to be all blue! What's happened?"
"Confusion. And without Pinkie Pie, who is developing some sort of super-party-weapon as we speak, your Skaters aren't getting their jobs done either. And the Plant Team can't plow because there's a blizzard over the farmlands!"
Rainbow Dash went pale as the realization hit home. "I... I'm sorry Twilight. I've let everypony down. I've screwed up beyond anything I've ever screwed up before. I don't deserve this." She took off her Weather Team vest and dropped it in front of Twilight. "This is all my fault. I resign."
Twilight shook her head. "This isn't all your fault. It's also my fault. I realized that you had a problem, but I let myself be distracted by things I could have delegated. I should have spoken with you and gotten to the bottom of this. If you don't deserve that," she indicated the vest, "then I don't deserve this, either." She shucked her ATO vest and dropped it on top of the blue Weather Team vest.
"But Twilight! You're the ATO! Nopony could do a better job of that than you can. You're like the best organizer ever!" Rainbow Dash was aghast.
"Maybe, but I can't fix this. Pick it up."
"What? You want me to be the ATO?" It was Rainbow Dash's turn to be horrified. "I'm the worst organizer ever! I screwed all this up!"
"Yes, and now you're going to fix it all up." Twilight nudged the vest. "Pick it up, and put it on."
Rainbow Dash hesitated, not taking her eyes off of Twilight, and then bent to slowly pick up the tricolor vest. "What am I supposed to do?"
"You'll think of something." Twilight gave her a small smile, and then they heard the cries of geese coming over the horizon. Their heads turned and they saw a great flock of geese, ducks, herons, bluebirds, robins and dozens of other migratory species winging in from the west, led by Derpy in the traditional goose costume. "That's funny; I thought they'd be coming in from the south."
"She must have led them around the storm. Good job Derpy!" she called up. Derpy waggled her wings in response and continued on course, the skies above briefly darkening as the mass of birds passed overhead. "Well, at least something is going right!"
"Seems like she saw a problem and found a way around it." Twilight gave her friend a direct look. "That's the sort of thing I'd expect from Rainbow Dash."
Dash said nothing, but a fire kindled behind her eyes. She assumed the position of attention and snapped a smart salute that was all business, and said, "I'll take care of it."
Twilight nodded seriously in response. "And I'll stay here with Tank, so he isn't alone when he wakes up." Then Rainbow Dash was gone, leaving a multicolor contrail in her wake.
"North Squadron, Wheel Right... Wheel!" Bluebell called out formation maneuvers as the sky was slowly cleared. She was worried; things were getting done now, but they were still way behind schedule. North Squadron wheeled, herding a mass of cloud into the path of West Squadron. "West Squadron, Charge!" West Squadron flew forward with a cheer and dove through the mass, dispersing it. She sighed, looking at all the work left to be done, then Rainbow Dash was in front of her, for some reason wearing the ATO vest.
"Good work, Bluebell! Plan 2B, huh? Smart, given how much the cloud cover has thickened, but we're going to need to get creative here. Get the other squadron leaders over here, please." Bluebell flew off and returned with the other squadron leaders. Rainbow Dash cleared her throat.
"First, I'm sorry. I let you down. I let myself get distracted and caused all sorts of problems, and I'm going to need your help to make things right again." Her subordinates said nothing, but all of them nodded, paying close attention. "Right. Mass formation. We're going to clear this cloud layer out with a lateral vortex." Their eyes widened. "We can use a vortex to pull water up from the ground, right? Clouds are just water, so we put a vortex on its side and we can pull all these clouds up north. Just instead of everypony turning together, we'll be looping together. You can all do loops, right?"
Applejack trudged through the heavy snow. At least the storm had abated, but it had dropped another foot of snow on top of the winter's accumulation. It was slow going, but they were getting the job done. They pushed the plows as far as they could go then went back to start another cut.
She looked up at the leaden sky. With no sun, they'd never be able to finish before nightfall; they needed this stuff to melt. She noticed a strange disturbance in the air. She'd seen the pegasi breaking through the cloud deck before, and sometimes saw a patch of blue, but the breaks in the clouds soon filled as moisture re-condensed. But what was going on now?
Other ponies looked up in amazement as a long tube of whirling wind became visible through the clouds. There was a sound like a train and the clouds over the center of the field started to thin out. In less then a minute, a patch of blue sky was visible, and the sun lit the snow. The plowponies cheered raucously as the vortex moved around, hurtling cloud northwards. In less than twenty minutes, the skies were clear everywhere except to the north, and a south wind blew warmly as the snow piles shrank.
"H-a-a-a-a-a-l-t-t-t-t!" Rainbow Dash struggled to keep herself in the air, the world spinning crazily around her. Bluebell flew shakily, almost bumping into her.
"Wow, that was... intense!" Her eyes were crossed as the other squadron leaders meandered to their woozy leader. "But you did it!"
"No, you guys did it! Uhhh... hold on." She shook her head. "Wow, that was intense!" She looked out at the squadrons which were formed in rather ragged ranks. "I think we're good here, but I have to go to the lakes now."
"What are you going to do there?" Thunderland was perplexed, though he was regaining his equilibrium.
"My job! I'm the ATO." She was off, and minute later did a wingover and landed next to Pinkie Pie, as the Skaters made straight line grid cuts on the ice.
"Oh, hi Rainbow Dash. Here to foalnap me again? Hey, what's with the vest? Did you foalnap Twilight too?"
"Yes. Where are we at?"
"Well, now that the sun is out, things are going better, but the ice is pretty thick. It takes twenty passes." She indicated the skaters, cutting deeper on every pass over the same section of ice. "We've only done five cuts on this lake. We're not going to get finished before sundown. Sorry."
"Pinkie, could you clear the ice for me?"
"Okie Dokie Dashie! Hey everypony, clear the ice! Watcha gonna do?" she called over her shoulder, skating away.
"You'll see. But you may want to cover your ears." Rainbow launched herself into a steep climb until she got to high altitude, then stooped into a power dive. She had to time this right... she felt the pressure wave building up and suddenly the trill of the Sonic Rainboom was shooting through her body. She pulled up sharply, skimming over the surface of the ice as it fractured, the force of the Rainboom causing it to shatter along the lines scored by the skaters. There was cheering from the ponies on the lakeshore as she turned to bleed off some of the energy before coming in for a landing.
The floes looked like so many ice cubes as they bobbed on the surface of the lake. "Wow, Rainbow, great job!" Pinkie's voice was filled with enthusiasm. "And just think, only eight more lakes to go!"
"Oh yeah... that will be... awesome!" heaved Rainbow Dash, catching her breath.
About two hours later, an exhausted Rainbow Dash made her was slowly towards the animal lanes. Her whole body ached and she was lathered with sweat from head to hoof in the warming afternoon. She looked down and saw that order had been restored; animals were being led from their assembly areas and were being fed and getting medical checkups before they moved on to their spring habitats. A gingham pattern caught her eye and she came in for a landing near Fluttershy, who was hosting a tea party for Harry the Bear and some of her critter friends. When Harry saw her, he growled.
"Hi... Fluttershy." Rainbow staggered a bit on landing.
Fluttershy jumped up. "Rainbow Dash, you look exhausted! You get to bed right now!"
"No, I... I need to apologize. To you..." she breathed heavily, "to Harry and... to all the animals. I'm sorry... I made such a mess."
Harry the Bear rose up, lumbered forward around the other animals, and reached a mighty paw down to Rainbow Dash. "Grrr?"
"Yeah. Friends." Rainbow put her hoof out and it was engulfed as Harry shook it gravely, then returned to his place at the tea party and elegantly picked up a cup to sip.
"Good, that's done then. Now, off to bed with you!" Concern filled Fluttershy's face.
"No, just... one more... where's Twilight?"
"Right here." Twilight Sparkle walked up from the forest path. The obvious question went unasked as Rainbow Dash slowly removed the ATO vest.
"I have... something here... of yours." Then, while holding the vest out, she slowly slumped to the ground.
Twilight looked down at her exhausted friend. "And I have something of yours." Her horn glowed, and from her back a blue bundle rose to be placed before Rainbow Dash's muzzle. It was her Weather Team vest, rolled up. And then the bundle moved. A green head with little beady eyes poked out at Dashie and bumped noses with her. She smiled and sighed with worn-out relief.
"Tank! Hi buddy! Awww... I'm sorry, I... wanted to have a... big party for you... but... so tired..." She yawned and Tank crawled forward out of the vest, moving into snuggling position. Within moments both of them were fast asleep. Fluttershy looked over at Harry, who stood, picked the pair up gently in his arms, carried them to his tree and placed them in his bed.
That evening, Twilight was at her castle with Amethyst and Applejack for the Lessons Learned meeting. "Where's Pinkie? She's supposed to fill in for Rainbow Dash." Twilight went to the window to look for her and her eyes widened. She ducked under something coming in through the window, and suddenly the room was filled with streamers, balloons, confetti and three ponies covered in pink icing.
Pinkie Pie opened the door and came in. "Oopsie! Looks like the Cake Delivery Module needs some tweaking!"
Twilight wiped her face off with her hoof and put it to her mouth to lick it. "Mmmm! Strawberry! My favorite!" Then they all laughed.