Tornado Twilight

by Twippledash

Chapter 1: Trouble in Cloudsdale

Chapter 1: Trouble in Cloudsdale

“Emergency meeting for all pegasus ponies of Ponyville! Seven o’clock in the library!” Rainbow Dash shouted, flying over Ponyville. “Direct orders from the weather factory! Spread the word to the other pegasi!” She dropped several fliers with more details over various groups of pegasi as she flew by them.

Twilight Sparkle was in the market buying groceries for the evening as she heard Rainbow repeating those lines over and over, sweeping back and forth over Ponyville and trying to cover every inch to spread her message to everypony—or to every pegasus at least. Twilight was standing in front of Applejack’s stand, about to buy a few apples, but now found herself just looking up in the sky.

“Ya reckon what that fuss is all about?” Applejack asked, also having been watching their friend zigzagging overhead.

Twilight shook her head and looked down at Applejack. “I don’t know,” she said. “Last time Rainbow called for all the pegasi was when they were needed to spin up that tornado to raise water up to Cloudsdale, but it shouldn’t be Ponyville’s turn for that this soon again. And didn’t she say ‘emergency meeting’? I doubt getting water up to Cloudsdale would qualify as an emergency, since as far as I know they usually plan ahead and refill their water tanks well in advance.”

As Rainbow flew overhead again, she dropped one of her notes so that it fell right between the two and continued flying towards the other end of Ponyville, still shouting her announcements all around.

“Well, guess we’ll find our answers in this here paper,” Applejack said as Twilight levitated up said paper and started read through it.

“Hmm... a mandatory emergency meeting in library seven o’clock for all Ponyville pegasi... that we heard already...” Twilight skimmed through the leaflet, humming silently. “Hm... aha! Here’s the explanation,” she said after a few seconds.

“An extract from the minutes of an emergency meeting of the Cloudsdale Weather Factory high council,” she read aloud. “There has been a severe miscalculation concerning the rainwater regulations in the Cloudsdale Weather Factory, causing many areas to have been flooded with excessive amounts of rain. Consequently, they have prematurely run out of water to make rainclouds, causing many cities and towns of Equestria to have been left in drought with only miniscule amount of rain, if any at all. In addition to that, a wing fever epidemic has been spreading in the large cities at the eastern parts of Equestria, leaving majority of pegasi bedridden and unable to fly. These cities include Baltimare, which was supposed to be the next rainwater provider for Cloudsdale. Due to these unplanned circumstances, the council orders Rainbow Dash, the highest ranking officer in Ponyville division, to gather up all the grown-up pegasus ponies in Ponyville to raise water from their local reservoir up to the Cloudsdale Weather Factory by four o’clock tomorrow afternoon.”

“Well I’ll be,” Applejack said. “They’ve sure messed up quite bad this time. Runnin’ out of rainwater? If my farms were hit by a drought because of some miscalculation up in the weather factory, I woulda be mighty riled up too.”

“Yup, and that’s what the farmers in those places left without water have been complaining about,” Rainbow Dash said, swooping down next to them and joining the discussion. Her saddlebags were now empty, all the leaflets distributed all around Ponyville already. “Thus why we need an emergency meeting to get the cloud machines up and running again as soon as possible. The last thing we need is food shortages because of drying crops, or in worst case an Equestria-wide quarrel between earth ponies and pegasi, just like in that old Hearth’s Warming play.”

“That seems unlikely to me,” Twilight noted. “A single accidental drought wouldn’t cause earth ponies as a whole to start rebelling against pegasi, even if there may be some tension here and there.”

“Heh, yeah,” Rainbow said, scratching the back of her head. “Maybe I was exaggerating that a little. But that doesn’t make the situation any less serious; it’s weather factory’s responsibility to provide rain for all parts of Equestria, and drying crops would cause problems to both farmers and the weather factory at the very least. We still need to fix the situation as soon as possible, and that means I have to gather up all the pegasi of Ponyville once again and give a quick refresher training so we could whip up that tornado again. So I’d better make sure everyone’s heard the news. See you later!” She took off and disappeared behind a row of buildings before either Twilight or Applejack could say anything.

“She’s sure got her hooves full of work for once,” Applejack said, turning her gaze from where Rainbow had disappeared to Twilight still standing in front of her market stall. “So, were ya gonna buy some apples, or did ya come here just for a chat? I’ve got some fresh ones here picked this morning.” She gestured towards the baskets full of apples next to her.

“Oh, yes, apples,” Twilight said, turning back towards Applejack. “That’s what I came here for. I’ll just have six of those red delicious apples.” She levitated up a pouch from her saddlebag and placed four bits on the table, and then levitated half a dozen of bright red apples into the her saddlebags.

“Thank ya kindly,” Applejack said, placing the bits into a bag behind the counter. She looked back at Twilight, keeping up the conversation. “Do ya think that call for all pegasus ponies includes you too? You’ve got wings nowadays after all.”

“Huh? Oh! Uh...” Twilight glanced back at her relatively new appendages, fluttering them a little instinctively. She hadn’t even thought that she may have to be in the tornado duty too. “I don’t know,” she said, looking back at Applejack. “I can’t really fly all that well yet, so I don’t think I would be much help for them.” While it was true she was still a weak and hesitant flier, even more hesitant than Fluttershy, it may have had something to do with the fact that she hadn’t really even tried to fly that much. She was simply more interested in magic, books, and science than flying. But that was a minor detail.

“Didn’t stop Rainbow from draggin’ Fluttershy into it last time,” Applejack pointed out.

“Oh, right. Well... I would be there anyway to help organize the whole thing, just like I did last time. But if I can avoid it, I’m not going into that tornado.”

“Good luck convincin’ Rainbow Dash to let you stay out.” Applejack chuckled. She smiled and waved. “Bye then. See ya later.”

Twilight said her goodbyes and left the market, apples being the last item in her shopping list. As she walked towards her library, she pondered whether she would have to be in the tornado tomorrow, or if Rainbow would be content with her just helping with organization again without her needing to do any actual flying. She wasn’t really fond of flying, and sometimes she even wished she hadn’t gotten those wings in the first place—not that she would ever admit that to anyone, especially to Rainbow Dash.

Comments

[Akita]

Twilight lives at the library, wouldn't she know?