Chapter 6: Red Skies
Chapter Six: Red Skies
Stormy and Misty trotted together out of the Fairweather Academy, through the throngs of angry, complaining ponies. Stormy couldn’t summon up enough curiosity to find out what everypony had a kink in their feathers over. “Well, that was frustratingly useless,” Stormy grumbled.
“What do you mean?” Misty asked as she walked alongside her.
“I was hoping, when we found somepony from the picture, that I’d have something to give to the Princesses backing me up and getting me back on weather duty. Now, I don’t even know if this picture is anything more than a memento of a summer trip Rosewing enjoyed.” Stormy shook her head. “Now I don’t know what I should do. Fly to Baltimare or Las Pegasus looking for what’s her name? Try to find out who Mr. Can't Remember is? I don’t have any kind of authority for that!”
Stormy was shoved by two angry pegasi trotting past her. “Hey, watch it!” Stormy snapped. Skies above, what was going on?
“At least the Accords thing was interesting,” Misty said. “I’ve never heard about them before. I mean, I’ve heard stories…”
“I thought unicorns didn’t have control over what magic they know,” Stormy countered.
“Well…” Misty hemmed a moment. “It isn’t so much that we don’t have control as it is that learning new spells outside our talents is really hard. Like, say I wanted to learn a cooking spell. There’s spell books that can teach me how to do it, but I’d have to get it to fit in with my talent. It’s all mental. And if you’re convinced the only magic you can learn is related to your talent, well, that’s all you’ll ever do. But there’s always been unicorn horror stories of a unicorn using their spells to do horrible things.”
“Like what?” Stormy asked, half curious. What was with all the noise?
Misty winced. “Like a unicorn using her cooking spell on… um… another pony. It’s just gross.” She shook her head and hurried on. “But there’s always other stories too. Like how you shouldn’t use magic to coerce other ponies. How you need to consider how your magic might harm others. They’re very strict about it in magic kindergarten. Even simple telekinesis can be harmful if you misuse it.” She looked away at the crowd, muttering, “How Princess Twilight has gotten away with a quarter of the things she’s done baffles me, but I suppose being the Princess’s special student and a Princess herself now makes all the difference. She must have failed magic kindergarten though.”
A pegasus shoved Stormy hard enough that she couldn’t savor the idea of a pony as smart as Princess Twilight failing a class. “Okay, that’s it!” Stormy turned and grabbed a pegasus by the shoulders, “What is going on?” The hapless blue mare blinked at Stormy, then pointed to where the crowd was thickest with her wing.
On a stage of piled up clouds paced a blue stallion with a megaphone who seemed to be in the midst of a rant. “…do we question how well the Guard police hornheads and their freaky magic? No! Do we question why earth ponies need exactly four inches of rain and not a drop more? No! So are we going to work when the other ponykinds make their snide accusations of negligence, incompetence, and malfeasance?”
“No!” the crowd roared in unison, sending a shiver up Stormy's spine.
“No!” yelled the pegasus on stage, “We’re not! If hornheads and dirtponies think they can control the skies better, let them try! When wild weather floods their fields, let them deal with it. When twisters and blizzards accidentally break out, let them deal with it. When they don’t have a drop to drink, let them deal with it! And when lightning falls, they can accuse somepony else besides us!”
“Strike! Strike! Strike!” the crowd began to chant in time with the stallion.
Stormy gaped at the crowd. “What is going on here?” she asked the blue pegasus mare, who’d just begun to creep off.
“Haven’t you been reading the news?” she countered in annoyance. She pointed a hoof at several newspapers strewn over a nearby table. Releasing her, the pair trotted over and looked at the headlines.
“Irresponsible Pegasi misuse of lightning destroys earth pony family?” Stormy read aloud. "Pegasi?" Her eyes fell to the sublines. “Parents still not found in the ruins. ‘Knew it was just a matter of time,’ quoted Grannysmith,” Stormy read aloud from the Manehattan Gazette. Her eyes found a lower article. “Pegasi weather in need of stronger regulation?”
“This one isn’t much better,” Misty said grimly as she read aloud off of the Canterlot Courier. “Pegasi deliberately target earth pony farm for annihilation from above. 'This ain't the first time pegasi destroyed Apple Family property. Last year Rainbow Dash demolished their old barn,’ says Hayseed Turniptruck.’ And here! ‘Are pegasi returning to their brutish ways? Unicorn experts are concerned.’ I can’t believe it.”
Stormy sat down hard, holding her head between her hooves. Misty joined her, crouching at her side. “It wasn’t… I don’t…” She started to shake. What was happening to Equestria? Ponies trying to kill other ponies. Now this? What was next?
“At least the Ponyville Press is keeping it to the facts. No ‘articles’ to stir things up,” Misty said, examining all the other papers strewn about the table. “Wish more people were paying more attention to it though.” Then she looked over as Stormy gave a little sob. “Stormy?”
“I’m going to turn myself in. Give the photograph to Twilight Sparkle and her friends. Let them handle it,” Stormy said bitterly. “This is too big for us to handle. Too crazy. If things keep going like they are, somepony else is going to get hurt bad. I don’t… I can’t be responsible for that again,” Stormy muttered.
Misty sighed. “Come on. Which way to your sister’s?” she asked as she tried to get Stormy to her hooves. Stormy rose, if only to escape the din rising from the crowd. A weather strike? Stormy couldn’t remember one of those in her lifetime… but then given how her memory was these days…
“How is Princess Celestia gonna sort this mess out?” Stormy asked as she trotted towards Sunrise Spires, the soaring pair of cloud towers one of Cloudsdale’s prominent skymarks. “I mean, I know she’s princess and all, but I don’t think she can show up in three different towns at once and make everypony calm down.”
“And even if she gives a speech, it’ll take a while for the message to spread. The papers are just running with the story and seeing what people will buy,” Misty said, rolling her eyes a little. “Ponies can be so dumb sometimes,” she said with a scowl, looking back at the stallion now yelling about regulating magic and regulating farms. “Magic IS regulated, you dodo!” she shouted back at him, but her words were lost in the roar of the crowd.
Getting away from the crowd helped calm Stormy down a little, but only just a little. “I feel like I’m swimming again.”
“Swimming?” Misty asked in bafflement.
“I can’t swim, but when I moved to Ponyville, Rainbow Dash took the whole weather team to a swimming hole nearby. I didn’t want to look scared, so I just walked around in the shallows and everything was fine.” She shivered. “But then I stepped off a ledge I couldn’t see and went under. Nearly breathed in water. Rainbow Dash pulled me to shore. Since then, though, whenever I think of swimming I remember that feeling of stepping off into nothing and going down down down. I feel like that now. Like any second I’m going to step off.”
“I’m sorry. I wish there was something I could do,” Misty said with a sigh. “I haven’t been much help, have I?” Stormy stopped and saw her close her eyes, bowing her head so she half hid behind her mane.
“Hey, don’t think that. You’ve stuck with me. That’s more than I expected anypony to do,” she said with a small smile, which was reciprocated. “Come on. Let’s break the bad news to Sunny.”
The Sun Spires were the poshest place in the skies for any pegasus to reside in throughout Equestria. The two towers rose up through the center of the city; Sunrise to the east and Sunset to the west. Sunrise was the slightly better of the two. Cloudsdale’s executor, essentially a mayor appointed by... somepony... lived at the top of Sunrise. Was it Princess Celestia? It probably didn't matter. Still, for Sunny to afford an apartment in Sunset was definitely proof she’d made it far in this city.
“Your family lives here?” Misty asked, staring at the curving purple and red colored walls. Though cloud, they had the appearance of marble, even simulating the light clip clop of their hooves as they walked. Soaring pillars thinner than any of stone rose up the central shaft of the towers, and the walls were decorated with carvings of pegasi, birds, clouds, and more. Each level had its own motif, so a pony could know which level they were on without counting. The walls here were covered with pegasi and doves.
“No, just Sunny. My family home is down near the Cloudbottom. Old part of town. Lot more character and night life though,” Stormy said, quickly defending her home turf. She trotted up to a door between two pots of flowers. “Now, where does she hide that key?”
Misty considered the flowers themselves. “How are these growing up here?” She poked a red one with a wing, and it wobbled, expanding in a haze of red, then pulled back in. “They’re clouds?”
“Sure. You can make anything out of cloud if you really want to. Not the sturdiest of materials, of course, but then its cloud,” she said as she felt around behind the pot with a wing. Her wingtip found the key and drug it out from behind the pot. “A hah. Old habits…” she said as she unlocked the door and pushed it open.
The apartment was, appropriately enough, wide and airy. Its many windows along the outer wall looked out at the city bustling with life. A bland couch, two love seats, and a coffee table occupied the living room. The decoration was minimal, just a few paintings of sunsets over cloudscapes that Stormy suspected came with the apartment. In the kitchen was a raised voice, snapping, “I don’t care if those idiots go on strike. We’re going to have to work three times as hard when they decide to get back to work!” The strident tone was quite familiar.
She stepped around the corner and spotted a lemon colored mare with a smiling sun on her flank. Her mane was an orangeish red, and she had the sturdy build of a worker. The instant she came into view, she fell silent, citrine eyes disbelieving.
The other pony was a slightly younger mare, steel gray with a dark blue mane, with a dour expression. Her cutie mark was a sad raindrop. Unlike the other pony, she was dressed in a black turtleneck that covered her torso and front legs. Almost by reflex, she pulled the sleeves down over the thin gray scars around her fetlocks.
“Hey, Sunny. Hope you don’t mind I let myself in,” Stormy said, forcing a smile as she addressed the yellow mare now wearing a stunned expression. She turned to the other mare, saying casually, “Nice to see you again, Rainy. How are you doing?”
Sunny trotted over and Stormy braced herself, but then the mare put her arms around her neck and gave her a hug. “We were so worried,” she murmured.
"Uh… kay…” Stormy murmured, shocked. Rainy examined Misty with a detached look.
When Sunny finished hugging her, the yellow mare sighed, bowing her head contemplatively a moment, then reared up and slammed both hooves upside the top of her head. Stormy was laid out almost instantly. “You idiot! How could you almost get yourself killed, disappear, and then have the Royal Guard looking for you? Mother is worried sick! If she didn’t have the baby to look after…”
“Wait. Gusty, or a new one?” Stormy asked with a wince.
“New one,” Sunny said impatiently. “But that’s not-”
“That’s what, twelve now?” Stormy said as she smiled through the pain.
“Thirteen. And anyway-”
“Boy or a girl?”
“Girl, of course,” Sunny huffed.
“Poor Daddy was almost inconsolable. The depths of his despair palpable,” Rainy said mournfully. “Never shall his seed sow a male heir.”
“Oh stop it. You’d think by now he’d be resigned to it,” Sunny said, her glare switching to Rainy, then back down to Stormy as she huffed. “And before you ask, her name is Cloudy.”
Victory. Stormy sat up, rubbing her head. “Misty, this is my older sister Sunny Skies and my twin Rainy Skies. Sunny, Rainy, this is Misty Morning.”
“Our meeting is but a fleeting spark in the eternal twilight of existence,” Rainy said morosely.
“Stop,” Sunny said to her, worry around her eyes, then forced a smile for Misty. “Welcome. Nice to meet you. Welcome to my home.”
“A home? A home? What is a home? Six walls and a door? Is this what a home is?” Rainy asked.
“Twin?” Misty asked as she looked from Stormy to Rainy.
“Hey, don’t look at me. I gave up trying to figure out the genetics a long time ago,” Stormy said. Now that Sunny was off her rant, they could have a sane conversation. “As I said, Misty is in weather management. Rainy is… um…”
“I collect and recombine letters and punctuation in a futile effort for recognition and meaning, doomed to be utterly unappreciated and forgotten,” Rainy said, giving a great sigh.
“She’s also in weather, but she writes… stuff,” Stormy said with a half-smile to Misty.
“Stuff? Stuff? Can you weigh meaning? Can you measure it?” Rainy asked with a cool look at Stormy before turning back to Misty. “I compose verses bleak and profound. I’m only doing weather stuff till I get my first book of poems published.”
“Oh! Well, I’d love to hear it,” Misty said with a nervous smile plastered thin with sincerity.
Sunny and Stormy looked at each other and burst into action. “Oh yes you should!” Stormy said as she pushed Misty out of the kitchen.
“Read her that one about the futility of the universe! It’s really good!” Sunny said with a grin as she pushed Rainy out beside her. When both were ejected from the kitchen, they held their breath and then listened to sounds of hoofsteps retreating down the hall. They let out the breath almost in unison.
“So. Rainy, huh? Mom must have done another bedroom shuffle,” Stormy said as they trotted over to the breakfast nook. “Has she been… okay?”
“She hasn’t tried anything in a year. I suppose that's better than she was. Still have to keep knives out of the kitchen. She loves her dreary poetry though,” Sunny said with a sigh, considering Stormy soberly. “What’s going on, Stormy?”
Stormy bit her lip and sighed. “Okay, but it’s a long story.”
A few hours later she finished telling the story. Misty had come back twice trying to plead off listening to more poetry, but one sad gaze from Rainy and she returned to her room. Sunny listened intently, questioning almost everything and frowning with that critical eye that made Stormy feel a little sick. “Wow,” was all she said when Stormy finished. “So… why didn’t you tell Mom you were okay? She’s been worried sick since the Guard showed up this morning.”
“Cause'… I know what she’ll say. I screwed up again.” Stormy closed her eyes. “I know I did.”
“Screw up? How did you screw up?” Sunny asked, leaning back in her seat and looking at her in concern. “As far as I can tell, you didn’t screw up. Misty was damned lucky you were there. Anypony else, and she might have been killed.”
“So you believe me?” Stormy asked, chewing her bottom lip.
“Unless something big changed, you’re not a liar, Stormy. Impulsive, maybe, but not a liar. Plus, I know about your little lightning fetish, so I know you’d never save up that much to blow up a barn,” Sunny said with a smirk.
Stormy’s cheeks flushed as she stood on her hind legs, thumping the table. “I do not have a lightning fetish!”
A throat cleared. There, in the doorway, was Misty and Rainy. Misty appeared exhausted from exposure to Rainy's verse. “My throat is parched with the dryness of a thousand deserts,” she rasped. “In addendum… you totally do.”
Misty, blushing as well, just stared at Stormy. “Lightning… fetish…?”
“Let’s just say Stormy here likes putting lightning in places good mares shouldn’t,” Sunny said with a grin as Stormy made strangled sounds, planning the death of her elder sister. Rainy walked over and got herself a glass of water. Sunny just grinned at the silenced mare, saying coyly, “What? You do.”
“Hate you so much,” Stormy muttered.
“Existence itself is a perversity on the face of the universe. We are yet we are not,” Rainy said disinterestedly as she examined a hoof. “Also, I tried it too. I can’t really see the appeal. Bzzzzt. Squirt. What’s the point?”
Stormy laid her chin on the table, covering her face with her forelegs. “I’m in a coma. I’m in a coma and my subconscious is trying to drive me crazy.”
“That is my experience every iota of every moment of every second,” Rainy said, patting Stormy on the shoulder.
When Stormy lifted her face, she dared to glance at Misty and saw the mare was still blushing profusely. “You put lightning… there?” she asked weakly.
“I like it! It feels good! I’m a freak, okay!” Stormy erupted, waving her hooves over her head before finally rising to her feet and trotting away from them. “Leave me alone.”
Sunny was barely able to contain her mirth. “Wait. Wait. Let me see this picture,” Sunny asked, not able to hide the smile on her face.
Stormy lifted the picture from the bundle of gear on her back with her wings and flashed it at Sunny. “See?” Then shoved in back in the bag. She found her couch and carefully tested her coffee table. The bag didn’t fall through, showing the enchantment on the furniture. Good thing. In her mom’s house it’d be on its way to Cloudy Swamp below the city.
The other three followed her in and took seats. “So what are you going to do about this strike?”
“Pfft. Strike,” Sunny snorted. “Everypony will be back in the factory tomorrow, and we’ll be scrambling to try and catch things up. I know folks are angry right now, but ponies just need to calm down. Lightning kills a pony and blows up a barn, ponies are going to be alarmed because they start thinking about what happens if a bolt like that hits their homes. Apparently there’s been a complete run on magical lightning rods.”
“Pfft. Like we ever have storms big enough to use lightning on anymore,” Stormy grumbled.
“So what are you going to do, Stormy?” Sunny asked, growing serious again.
“Go back to Ponyville and throw myself before the hooves of Princess Twilight Sparkle, give her the picture, and hope for the best.” Stormy sighed. “Then look for a job carrying packages, I guess.” Stormy gave her sister a mirthless smile. “Best I can manage, being as much of a screw up as I am.”
“Stormy, you’re not that bad. Yeah, you messed up once or twice, but if you were that incompetent, somepony would have killed you,” Sunny said seriously, then tried to smile. “Besides, before your accident, I thought you were going to go far.”
“You did?” Stormy asked, skeptically. “As I recall, you thought I was likely to end up in some dirty magazine with lightning bolts coming out my-” Stormy went silent as she became aware Misty was blushing bright red again and amended, lamely, “-ears.”
“Okay. Yes, I said that. But you were smart, Stormy. I was sure you were going to end up in Disaster Response someday, saving the surface from rogue twisters and flash floods. Just bad luck is all.”
“We must have shared an ill auspice seed, womb sister, for I too am cursed. My art languishes in obscurity, while meaningless drivel is gorged upon by the masses!” Rainy tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Was it mother or father that supplied the cursed progenerate?”
“Well if Mom hears you say it was her, she’s going to be washing your mouth out with soap, so I’d say it was Dad. He’d probably agree with you,” Sunny replied, then sighed and looked at Stormy. “Look. Yes, I tease you. I’m the second oldest. It’s my prerogative. But growing up, you were smart, Stormy. More than me. Not egghead smart, but cool smart. You were the one who actually listened to all of Granny Thundering Skies's stories when she was in the old pony’s home. I don't know how you could stand it. She thought you were her sister. You read books all the time. You were awesome. Then… yeah… everything changed. I know lots of folks think it was a lightning thing. I dunno. I just know that in a world with lots of screw ups, you’re not as bad as you might think you are.”
“You saved my life three times in two days. That’s not a screw up, is it?” Misty asked.
“Unless you were trying to unshackle her from this mockery known as life,” Rainy pointed out.
Stormy sighed, then smiled. “Okay. Okay. So I’m not a complete screw up. I just want my life back. I mean, weather is our family’s thing. I like doing it. It’s my cutie mark. Sure, I might complain about no lightning, but I still want to do it. I don’t want to be the only Skies delivering packages.”
“Ah yes. Mother never forgave Uncle Murky,” Rainy said as if somepony died. “Made the foolish choice of trying to join the Wonderbolts.”
“Finished dead last in the academy, the dodo,” Sunny snorted. “What does he do now? Freight, right?”
“But… you want to be a poet,” Misty said, looking at Rainy, who turned a touch offended.
Stormy knew why her sisters were looking oddly at Misty. “She’s not from Cloudsdale.” The pair immediately gave a soft ‘ah’ of comprehension. “Cloudsdale’s… different. From a lot of pony cities I mean. It’s been around for a long time. Longer than Canterlot, even. I mean, most cities can’t be moved when the country does. It was originally Commander Hurricane’s fortress, and since then it’s been changed and changed. It has some really old families though. The Clouds. The Suns. The Rainbows. The Winds. Even the Skies. Families that have been around as long as Cloudsdale has.”
“You mean like unicorn lineages?” Misty asked, getting an odd look from the other two sisters.
“Kinda. Most ponies from Cloudsdale can trace how far they are from a big family. Cause' the families are big. There’s four or five 'Stormy Skies' in Cloudsdale. I’m just the only one in our family. But most Skies are involved in weather work. I mean, it's hard work, and pretty unprofitable… although...” Stormy considered the apartment and then arched a brow back at her older sister.
The expression scored a point; the yellow mare blushing. “Managers get these things called 'bonuses',” Sunny said defensively.
“Anyway, there’s also jobs you don’t take because of family history. Like Skies work great with Clouds. Clouds were… who was their ancestor? Pansy? Pitiful? Eh… anyway. They’re lots of workers, artists, shopkeeper ponies, and the like. The Rainbows are all Wonderbolt material. They’re buddy-buddy with the Winds, who are in transportation. The Clouds and Skies don’t get along so well with the Rainbows and Winds, so for me to try and become a Wonderbolt or get into transportation would be an insult to my lineage, but becoming a poet or working in a shop… eh, not so bad.”
“Better than the Suns,” Rainy added, and Stormy and Sunny both nodded.
At Misty’s baffled look, Stormy explained, “The Suns are big in government. Lots of managers, bosses, and real rich ponies. If they’re not bossy, they’re Royal Guards. Basically they were put in charge of Cloudsdale after the Princesses took over Equestria. Pissed off the Rainbows, but what could they do? Argue with Celestia? Now Suns are all over Equestria, not just Cloudsdale, and most pegasi agree, they’re jerks.”
“You’re not from a pegasus family, are you?” Sunny asked Misty gently, with a smile.
“Ah, no. No. My family are unicorns,” Misty said.
The pair reacted as if Misty had just broken a prodigious amount of wind. “Oh… I… um… that’s…”
“Something the matter with that?” Misty asked with a worried frown.
The pair gave a look that, yes, there was definitely something wrong with that. But Sunny waved her hooves before her. “No no no no. Just… unexpected. Pegasi born to non-pegasi parents… well… they get a free pass. I mean, you could do anything. Just… might want to downplay the unicorns bit.”
“Why?” Misty said, a trifle cool with touches of offense in her tone.
“Well, unicorns think they’re better than everypony else because they can do magic. That’s all. I mean, your parents must look down on you because you can’t do magic," Sunny said. Misty clearly looked upset. “Sorry. Just how I imagine it’d be.”
“Their outdated obsession with obsolete oligarchical organizations occasionally obliviates organized obviance,” Rainy said with a sage nod.
“You made up two of those words, didn’t you?” Stormy asked.
Rainy looked a touch offended, then said simply, “Poet.”
“The point is most unicorns are okay, I guess. I don’t know many, seeing as how I live in the clouds. But the idea of magic using nobles telling us what to do while going to their high society parties and hording knowledge they think we won’t understand is just… really aggravating. Like the upcoming Equestrian Games,” Sunny said.
“What about it?” Misty asked in bafflement.
“Well, the Games are always a big deal to pegasi. We like to fly and do as many events as we can; see how many medals we can get. Earth ponies are pretty big in the weight events, no surprise, but there’s only a dozen unicorn competitors. So now we hear lots of unicorns turning their nose up at the games, wondering if they’re worth the cost, and whatnot. It’s annoying. And it’s not like there aren’t unicorn events! Fencing. Magic duels. There’s even that one little gray mare who placed gold in the lifting event last year. I mean, there aren’t many, but they’re there. So when we hear Lord So-and-So in Canterlot getting press about how he thinks our favorite past-time isn’t worth his attention and bits… it’s annoying.”
Misty sighed, then replied in her own annoyed tone, “You know, just because some unicorn has Lord, Count, or Baron in front of their name doesn’t mean they’re actually important. A lot of titles get handed down to ponies that don’t have anything else special about them. Celestia never actually strips old titles; they just get forgotten by younger generations. And since giving a title is a pretty easy way of rewarding a unicorn when it doesn’t mean much in the long term, it’s not a surprise there’s so many."
"I wouldn’t be surprised if Rarity didn’t have claim to being a baroness or lady of the court. It’d be ironic, at least.” Stormy laughed. “We’d never hear the end of it in Ponyville if she did,” Stormy laughed.
Sunny appeared thoughtful though. “Huh. I didn’t know that,” Sunny admitted. "I thought... you know... titles mattered."
Misty gave a particularly resigned sigh. “It’s rather silly. You can't imagine how many unicorns envied Twilight for being 'Most Faithful Student'. The truth is, unless you’re rich or landed, your title doesn’t mean much. Since Celestia always rules, there’s no chance ‘Prince’ Blueblood will ever be ‘King’ Blueblood, even if his ancestor thirty-five generations back was given that title. So it’s generally just a way we amuse ourselves,” Misty said with a smile. “I didn’t think other ponies thought it really mattered.”
Sunny shook her head. “Well when the rest of us don’t know which ‘lords’ are the important ones and which ones aren’t, it becomes kind of hard to keep them apart.” She turned back to Stormy. “Now, how about letting me see that picture?”
Stormy sighed and fished it out of the bag of stuff and passed it over to Sunny. “Here. The mare on the bottom right is the one who died yesterday and the stallion next to her is the one that tried to kill me,” she said flatly, expecting another dead end.
But Sunny stared at the picture in shock. “Stormy, I know him!”
“The one who tried to kill us at Rosewing's?” Stormy asked, rising to her hooves, “Or Doctor Epimethius?”
“No, not them. Him!” And she pointed her hoof at the middle aged stallion. “He’s… oh what’s his name? Sun Glare! He’s the production assistant manager at the weather factory.”
“Assistant manager?” Rainy murmured. “Does he manage or assist with the management?”
Sunny rolled her eyes. “He’s basically the number two pony at the weather factory. Young stallion angling to get promoted when old Cirrus decides she’s had enough. He’s got feathers all over the weather factory.”
Stormy stared, and then her eyes widened. “Spitfire said they’d taken an inventory of the Class A lightning, and that all the bolts at the weather factory were accounted for. But if this guy was in charge of reporting the inventory… I mean, I doubt that Spitfire herself went through and counted all the bolts in storage personally.” She stood up. “It’s a clear link between a Class A bolt getting to Rosewing and going off. He’d be able to put one in a cloud and she’d intercept it.”
“Do you think the professor’s involved?” Misty asked with a frown.
“Probably. I dunno. I’m not sure what’s going on here. I mean… what’s the point in stealing Class A lightning? But it is evidence that what happened to Rosewing wasn’t my fault!” Stormy leapt into the air for some improvised dancing. “I can hand this picture over to Princess Twilight and suddenly it’s not my problem anymore! Yeeee!”
There was a sharp knock on the door and Stormy grinned. “Yes, that’s probably the Guard right now! Come to take me away as a ‘pony of interest' for more questions! Well now I got answers, and somepony else can deal with them!”
“Or it’s just a delivery. I get those, you know,” Sunny replied flatly. “Rainy? Can you check?”
“It is ever the burden of the younger generation to toil and suffer under the onus of the elder,” Rainy said as she rose from her seat and trotted to the door, peeking through the small lens set in the door.
“That’s Rainy speak for ‘I’m not your slave’,” Sunny explained to Misty with a roll of her eyes.
“A parcel has been delivered from the great beyond,” she intoned as she opened the door. Stormy deflated a little. Oh well, now she’d have to go down to the Wonderbolts HQ and talk to them. Or maybe it’d be better to go straight to Ponyville?
“Delivery for Miss Stormy Skies. Is she here?” a stallion said from the hall.
“Her presence can be found within the confines of this dwelling, yes.” She turned and looked placidly at Stormy. “It’s for you.” But Stormy froze a moment, the voice familiar, then jumped to her hooves to give warning.
The brown stallion shoved Rainy into the room, a flap of his wings blowing the door closed behind him. On one hoof was a curious contraption that looked like a medical brace. Pinning Rainy to the wall with one hoof, the braced limb was swung hard and from a hidden sleeve a thin, six inch long blade slid out and snapped into place. He then brought the tip around, pressing it against Rainy’s neck.
“Give me the picture,” he said in a low, even voice. Bastard was calm. “Scream again, and she’ll be the first one to die.”
“In the fullness of time we are all dead,” murmured Rainy, her eyes wide with shock.
"Don't say that, Rainy," Sunny said sharply, in alarm. "Just stay quiet, Rainy. It'll be okay."
“That's right, Rainy! Don’t move…” Stormy said as she held a hoof out to him, as if that would halt either of them from doing something foolish. “Who are you?”
He didn’t roll his eye. Didn’t smile or frown. His expression was placid, almost bored. And his only answer was to push the tip of the blade into her neck so a trickle of blood flowed down the length.
“Stop! Stop,” Stormy begged, holding up the picture with her wing. “Let her go and you can have it.”
He eased the pressure somewhat, nodding to Misty. “You. Put it in my saddlebag.” Stormy's eyes kept going from Rainy's face to the blade pressed against her neck. The dark mare's lips were moving silently, as if she were reciting her poetry.
Stormy passed the picture to Misty. The pale pegasus slowly walked around towards the stallion. “You don’t have to do this,” Misty told him as she slowly opened the bag.
“I’m not going to debate necessity with you. I am going to pass on a message. Go about your lives. What we do doesn’t concern you. I have been told not to kill all of you. I think that a mistake. If I ever have to deal with you again, it will be permanently, do you understand?” he asked, keeping the blade at Rainy’s neck. When Stormy didn’t answer immediately, he poked Rainy again, cutting a second wound below the first. “Yes or no?”
Rainy touched the blood soaking into the collar of her turtleneck. “Yes! Yes! Now let her go,” Stormy demanded.
But Rainy then murmured in a distant voice, “I will not betray my own blood.”
“Rainy!” Sunny said in alarm. “No!”
“Stop! What are you doing?” the brown stallion said in alarm, but his eyes were on them and not his hostage.
“I will not betray my sister!” she screamed and shoved hard against him. The blade at her neck sliced along her hide and into the collar of the turtleneck. Instantly the black garment turned wet as he was shoved off her. Rainy turned to face him, her eyes wide and pupils small as she tried to hit him again with her hooves.
Without a word, he sunk the blade into her side all the way to his hoof. The three of them lunged for him, but the hoof moved like a sewing machine needle, burying itself in her two more times before Sunny and Stormy tackled him. Rainy fell immediately, curling up on her side as Misty covered her with her own body.
“Thank you,” he said as he stared into Stormy’s eyes, and suddenly snapped his body around in a spin, throwing the two mares off him. The blade came in towards Stormy’s chest, but she managed to deflect his hoof. That simply made him adjust his leg, the blade arcing back to slice at Stormy’s own neck. Sunny threw herself on his back, pulling him away before that edge sliced through Stormy's windpipe. Again, without missing a moment, he brought the limb up as if punching over his shoulder. The tip of the blade almost sank right into Sunny’s eye. She barely pulled her head away, suffering a vertical cut.
“I think I messed up again,” Rainy said weakly, her eyes closing as she smiled.
“No!” Stormy needed something to counter a metal blade. Everything in this house was made of clouds though! Everything except… “Stay with us. Stay awake!” Stormy ordered as she threw herself on the bag of junk that they’d brought with them. She tore open the cloth enough to pull out the rusty dagger taken from the harpy cave and bit hard on the grip. Then she lunged for him, ready to sink the blade into his chest!
But he saw the attack coming and once again, turned. Sunny was brought around, and Stormy had to halt her lunge to keep from cutting her sibling. The blade dropped down and cut into Sunny’s thigh, and the yellow mare cried out in pain, letting him go as she fell and clutched her limb. Misty scrambled out of the way, climbing onto the table top.
When he finished turning around he faced her with calm indifference. Even with her dagger, she wasn’t a threat to him. She could see it in his eyes. If she attacked, she’d have to move her entire head. He’d dodge and slice her open easily. If she waited, he’d move in around her faster than she could swing her body. Only the nominal threat kept him from finishing them all off. He couldn’t risk her getting lucky, so he wouldn’t.
Skies above, she hated this guy.
Then a glow surrounded the dagger and pulled it from her mouth. “Allow me,” Misty said as she pulled the weapon with her magic. Stormy turned in astonishment to see the unicorn standing on the coffee table over the bag. She pointed the dagger at him. “En garde!”
The effect on him was instant. An expression of utter loathing and malice exploded on his face, “Unicorn spy! I should have known you’d be involved!”
Then the dagger started to jab and stab and fly and whirl through the air, and he was completely on the defensive. His blade was perfect for assassination, but not for combat. He was barely able to parry the glowing weapon, and all it would take was one solid hit to snap his weapon. Old though it may have been, the dagger had enough of a point on it to spill his blood with a lucky hit or two. Worst of all, he couldn’t get close enough to attack Misty.
Stormy pushed down on the wounds in Rainy’s side. She didn’t know pony anatomy well enough to know how bad it was, but she was pretty sure being stabbed anywhere in the chest was bad. Brown clearly was frustrated by Misty’s magic, but the fact was he wasn’t going to break through soon.
“We have what we need. I’ll finish you two off later. Especially you,” he said as he looked at Misty with clear malice before backing to the door, opening it with a wing, and slipping out into the hallway. Misty magically slammed the door closed and locked it.
“Sunny! Tell me you still have them!” Stormy asked desperately.
“Down the hall, in my bathroom under the sink,” Sunny replied. Stormy raced past the closed front door, down the hall, into the farthest back bedroom. Right where her sister said it would be was a small box. Stormy bit it and raced back to where Rainy lay bleeding. Stormy threw open the box, revealing a trio of small purple potions. Her hooves shaking, she extracted one, pulled out the stopper with her teeth, and poured it into Rainy's mouth. She immediately repeated it with the second. She looked at Sunny and the yellow mare said, “I’m fine, it’s not too deep!” Stormy gave Rainy the third as well.
The three puncture wounds glowed a faint purple and began to close.
“What are those?” Misty asked.
“Zebra healing potions,” Stormy replied. “Rainy… has a little problem. Sometimes she gets hurt. We keep them around just in case she… has an accident.” That was as detailed as she was going to get right now. “Come on, Rainy. Come back.”
Rainy coughed and then opened a steel blue eye, glancing up at Stormy. “Damn…” she muttered, closing her eye again. “I messed up,” she muttered.
“That’s my line,” Stormy replied, patting her mane.
It took them a few more minutes to make sure Rainy wasn’t bleeding anymore and to bandage up Sunny’s leg. “Sorry I brought this on you,” Stormy muttered.
“Don’t you apologize for this,” Sunny said. “We can go to the Guard and tell them everything.”
“But we don’t have the photograph anymore,” Stormy said. “If it’s our word against Sun Glare's, who knows how long it will take before they investigate?” Stormy did not have a lot of confidence in the Guard rushing to believe her. “Twilight and her friends might be able to cut through the red tape, but unless we have something that proves he lied to Spitfire, he can deny and stall.”
“Worse, they could just have an accident occur and blow up a few more Class A bolts. At that point it’ll be impossible for anypony to say how many were and were not there.” Misty had returned to having wings once more, letting her step on clouds once more. Stormy remembered what the brown stallion had said about 'unicorn spy', but this wasn't the time to bring it up.
“And there’s also the fact that whoever is behind this, whatever they’re up to, they’re going to need at least one more Class A bolt to replace the one that blew up Rosewing. Tonight, the weather factory is going to be closed down. I can’t think of a better time to get one.” Stormy chewed on a wing tip as she looked out the window at the setting sun.
“This is crazy talk. Crazy. The only place you are going is to the Guards and we are going to the hospital. We’re going to leave this whole crazy thing behind us,” Sunny said firmly.
“No!” Stormy said. “Look, I don’t know what’s going on. I’m just guessing here. For all I know, this assistant manager’s innocent, but it feels right! You’re going to the hospital and get Rainy checked out, and then you’re going to the Guard. Tell them whatever you have to to get them to really check the number of bolts stored. Send a letter to Princess Twilight… Spitfire… Princess Celestia! I don’t care who, but get them to take a second inventory of all the Class A lightning. If I’m wrong… well… I’ll probably be going to jail.”
Sunny looked at her sister as if she’d never met her before. “Why? Stormy, what are you going to do?”
Stormy stared out the window at the still hulking building that was the weather factory as the setting sun played across her face. “I’m going to break in to the Weatherworks and find out what the hay is going on.”
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Don't know if folks are still interested in this story...
...Stormy seems to like lightning a little too much...
Also, damn, Stormy just seems to have an endless string of bad luck.
Well, it's a second reason to keep tiny bits of probably otherwise uninteresting, even to her, lightning around, after powering the guitar. Well, not uninteresting, but more of an appetizer than anything that would satisfy on its own.
Hey Somber, long time fan. First and foremost, let me say that people definitely are still interested in this story. I check both this and PH daily for updates on them; you've got me hooked.
I know you've got a great story to tell here, and so far its building up to be one heck of a ride. Keep it up man. So Stormy has a twin, and a very interesting one at that. I hope she returns later and we get to learn more about her past.
Some (small) errors I noticed:
Section 1 -
Paragraph 3 - "...backing me up and getting be back..." -> "getting me back"
Section 2 -
Paragraph 5 - "You can may anything out of cloud..." -> "can make anything"
"...of course, but then its cloud,” -> "then it's cloud,"
Paragraph 7 - "The instant she came view, she..." -> "came into view, she..."
Paragraph 29(?) - "...turning back to [line break] Misty." -> Unintentional formatting error
Paragraph 34(?) - "I suppose that better than she was." -> "suppose that's better..."
Section 3 -
Paragraph 27 - "...all of Granny Thundering Skies stories when..." -> "...Skies' stories..."
Also, more FoE references. Kudos to you sir.
4921177 Thanks. I also wondered if any one would catch that reference.
"How Princess Twilight has gotten away with a quarter of the things she’s done baffles me, but I suppose being the Princess’s special student and a Princess herself now makes all the difference. She must have failed magic kindergarten though."
Friendship, in this case with somepony who can bypass the judicial system, is magic! :D
…Huh. Judging by those newspapers, either this conspiracy is much farther-reaching than I'd though, or things have been heating up under the surface for a while…
Poor Rainy.
re the entire lightning fetish thing:
:D
Some nice information about both Cloudsdale and unicorn noble culture.
And suddenly combat! Which… did not go very well for our heroes.
…And this plan could go wrong in so many ways. But with the plot continuously thickening, a possible time limit, and the loss of the evidence that would bring the big guns in…
4920562
Well, I am!
4920562 Just curious: what makes you think so? Keep in mind you're writing an all-OC story. The FO:E fandom is pretty much the only one that accepts and encourages all-OC fics; every other fandom tends to reject them.
(Haven't actually read this chapter yet. Noticed your comment and had to respond.
)
Checked this out after catching up on PH. Man, I'm absolutely adoring it. You do intrigue so well. I can really see this building into something great.
Glad to see this chapter didn't go where I expected because I was totally convinced about midway through that you were going to kill Stormy's family and somehow have her blamed for it.
Good on Pip for winning that medal.
satireknight.wikispaces.com/file/view/confusion.gif/499990442/confusion.gif
Ha ha, wow, got some Assassin's Creed stuff going on with Brown Stallion's hoofblade. And Rainy is a hillarious (and sad) character. Says quite a bit when one needs to keep imported medical supplies around for self-inflicted injuries.
Stormy, with her backstreets background, really should have known better than to feel secure at an easily found family residence. Conspiritors won't give up that easily.
Such a quirky family + ally. I'd hug pretty much all of them. <3 To bad that jerkguy had to come and stab everyoneever but he'll die eventually, so yay death!
wait that sounds wrong. Yay, protagonists!
Also, hot.
4929475 There's lots more to come. Most of it is headcanon, but I think it lines up well with the show. Also glad some folks are enjoying the story. I just wish I knew how to get it highlighted. u.u
4930116 Oooh, awesome! Looking forward to it. : )
Man, this just gets more interesting with each passing chapter. And Misty continues to get more mysterious.
Speaking of which, is it just me, or did Misty seem... intrigued by Stormy's fetish?
On reread, the meaning of the Broken Accords title only just started to click in my head.
Also
The way these two statements come back to back is characterizing *something* even if I don't personally entirely understand what exactly it's implying. It might be that she's a bad liar when she tries, in how much she immediately responds to the claim, which might also fit in illustrating the impulsive aspect. That wouldn't do much for guarding emotions and misleading.
Or. It might also fit in demonstrating that she doesn't believe she has a fetish for it or didn't consider it as such, despite her actions aligning with the idea. That would give more reason to defend her stance to be correct and truthful, but more likely it was just an embarrassment type denial thing. Which would also work towards reinforcing her sister's assertions.
Anyway. Neat. I still relate with this protagonist on at least 8 different points now.
(Also, I tried drawing porn of her. It went horribad. It's on the Retl2 blog.)
4920562 Well, i don't know about other people, but i know i'm hooked. best of luck, Somber!
Ok, now I really want to read more about this plot and this weird lightning fetish.
Got up to chapter three so far. All very interesting.
I'm enjoying seeing the change in Fluttershy's personality as she goes from meeting strangers, to getting into a task that she's familiar with. Even that slight change of character when Stormy talked about salamanders seemed very much like Fluttershy.
Read the rest so far, all seems interesting
Poor Rainy! Hang in there!
Rainy is awesome all she needs is a wafer thin cigarette and she would pass as a French Existentialist.