Stormy Skies

by ShadowKick

Chapter Seven

Scootaloo stayed inside for about ten seconds. Big Mac was busy scolding Applebloom for playing in a tree house during a lightning storm, and failed to notice the orange filly sneaking out through the back door. Sweetie Belle was far more perceptive, or perhaps just knew her friend better, and followed close behind Scootaloo.

"Maybe we should stay inside," Sweetie Belle said, looking back towards the door.

"No way. Rainbow Dash is out here, this is where I want to be!"

Scootaloo kept walking, rounding the corner of the house. The older ponies came into view, and so did the massive storm cloud that Ponawk had drawn to herself. The dark cloud was nearly black, thick and smokey, lit within by intermittent flashes of lightning. The setting sun shone brightly on one side of the cloud, making it glow red.

Both princesses were already in the air, circling the storm cloud and inspecting it. Luna stared intently into the depths of the cloud, her eyes darting around and taking in every detail. But Celestia's eyes stayed focused on the very heart of the cloud, the glowing center where Ponawk had hidden herself away. Scootaloo imagined that if looks could kill, Celestia would have already beaten Ponawk.

And then Celestia's smouldering glare burst into roaring flame. Real flame, roiling and hot, that flew out from Celestia and burned into the clouds. Lightning answered, spiraling back along the line of flame towards Celestia, but the sun princess was no longer there.

The battle had begun, Scootaloo knew, and she sat back in awe at the spectacle. She had watched Rainbow Dash perform many amazing flight tricks, but the cyan pegasus had nothing on the two princesses, who combined flight and magic in a dizzying dance.

Celestia and Luna spiraled and dove, twisted and teleported, first here, then there, and everywhere all at once. Flashes of lightning and gusts of wind shot out, but always where they had been. The princesses responded with their own magic, gouts of flame and blasting light flew from Celestia's horn. Shrieking streams of darkness and terror poured out of Luna. Their attacks sank into the clouds and were slapped away by the mystical winds of Ponawk's storm.

With a flash of color, Scootaloo saw Rainbow Dash join the fight. She cheered her mentor on, jumping up and shaking a hoof. Rainbow, skilled as she was at flight, could not dodge as well as the princesses. She was quickly tossed back by a gust of wind, and Scootaloo's heart skipped a beat until she saw Rainbow Dash recover, hovering in midair for a moment before flying down to the five other ponies watching from below.

Rainbow Dash and her friends gathered together, and Twilight closed her eyes in concentration. After a moment, the Elements of Harmony lit up, and Scootaloo squinted against the bright light. A beam of rainbow energy shot upwards, slamming into the clouds around Ponawk and blasting them away.

The clouds were nearly all destroyed by the time the rainbow beam spent itself, but immediately the storm began to reform. Lightning blasted outward in all directions, keeping Celestia and Luna away while Ponawk rebuilt her defenses, until the stalemate was restored.

Scootaloo frowned, "The Elements of Harmony didn't work."

"They couldn't get through the clouds," Sweetie Belle said, "Nothing can."

"Something has to," Scootaloo said, "Or else they don't have a chance!"

The Elements of Harmony were unleashed again, with no greater success. They simply did not have enough power to penetrate Ponawk's defenses and hurt the weather spirit. Scootaloo watched as Rainbow Dash spoke to her friends. They seemed to be arguing, and Twilight even held Rainbow Dash in place with her telekinesis. Eventually, the others appeared to concede Rainbow's point, and Twilight let her go. Rainbow Dash took off, heading straight for Ponawk.

Scootaloo stood up and shouted, "No! Rainbow Dash, it's too dangerous don't go near her!" Scootaloo did not realize she was running until Sweetie Belle pulled her back.

"Don't go, Scootaloo!" Sweetie Belle said, "You'll get hurt!"

"She'll get hurt, too."

Scootaloo could only watch as Rainbow Dash zoomed towards the clouds around Ponawk. Twilight was concentrating again, but Scootaloo doubted that the Elements of Harmony would work any better this time than they had before.

It was not until the last second that Scootaloo realized Rainbow Dash's plan. She had never seen Rainbow Dash fly so fast before, except when Rainbow was practicing for the Best Young Fliers competition. Praticing for the...

"Sonic rainboom?" Scootaloo said, and at the same instant a flash of bright rainbow light burst out from Rainbow Dash. The rainboom blew away the clouds surrounding Ponawk, and Scootaloo saw another burst of rainbow energy following directly behind Rainbow Dash. Twilight had used the Elements of Harmony again.

Stripped of her defenses and caught off guard, Ponawk was hit with the full force of the Elements of Harmony. A sphere of rainbow light wrapped around the weather spirit, and after a second Scootaloo realized that Rainbow Dash was caught inside the sphere as well. All alone with a powerful and angry Ponawk.

Scootaloo swallowed the lump of fear rising in her throat, "Come on Rainbow Dash, you can make it out of there."

***

No feeling in the world could compare to the explosive joy of a successful sonic rainboom. Rainbow Dash reveled in it, until she remembered why she had done the rainboom in the first place.

Looking around, Rainbow Dash saw an endless fields of flowing rainbow energy. She stood up and, looking down, saw that she was standing on a roiling mass of rainbow. Her eyes told her the rainbows were in constant motion, but her hooves told her she stood on solid ground. The inconsistency made her dizzy. She felt like laying down, but worried that this would only worsen the problem.

"Where am I?" Rainbow Dash asked out loud.

"Nowhere," a voice said. Rainbow Dash spun around in place to find the source of the voice.

Ponawk lay nearby, her golden form no longer glowing, but rather dull. Rainbow Dash approached with caution, prodding the weather spirit with a hoof. Ponawk winced and groaned, obviously in pain.

"Nowhere?" Rainbow asked.

"Or somewhere," Ponawk said, dragging herself into an upright position, "It is hard to define."

"Well that makes a lot of sense," Rainbow Dash said, snorting.

Ponawk hung her head, "What do you care? You have won. Holding off both alicorns and the Elements of Harmony, and then being hit by the Elements... it was too much even for me. I'm at your mercy, for the moment."

"For the moment?"

"If you wait too long, I will recover. So please, end it quickly."

Rainbow Dash was not sure what to do. On the one hoof, Ponawk had nearly destroyed Equestria. She had wrecked Cloudsdale, injured dozens of ponies, and was well on her way to wiping Equestria off of the map. It had taken both princesses, the Elements of Harmony, and a sonic rainboom to slow the weather spirit down, and there was no guarantee they would ever be able to pull it off again if Ponawk was allowed to recover.

On the other hoof, Rainbow Dash did not think she had it in her to kill the helpless being standing unsteadily before her. She thought back to Scootaloo, whose friendship had given Rainbow Dash the strength to hold out when the end seemed close, inevitable. Dash knew that she would never be able to look the little filly in the eye again after killing a helpless creature, even one that had tried to do terrible things.

"Why couldn't Celestia be here?" Rainbow wondered aloud, "I've never been good at making hard choices."

"What is so hard about the choice?" Ponawk asked, "Your kind have been my enemy since you started this. Surely you knew it would come to this sooner or later."

"What? We didn't start this!" Rainbow Dash said, taken aback, "You started it when you put that huge storm over Cloudsdale."

Ponawk took a step forward, getting in Rainbow Dash's face, "Oh ha ha, very funny. I knew the pegasi were evil, but I never thought you were cruel too!"

"Evil? What are you talking about?"

"I teach you to control the weather, and how do you use that power? Selfishly!" Ponawk was nearly screaming now, "You heartless ponies only care about yourselves! You never worry about what you're doing to the rest of the world!"

Rainbow Dash was not sure how to respond, "Wait, what are we doing to the rest of the world?"

"Don't try to plead ignorance!" Ponawk said, "I taught you how the weather works when I taught you how to control it. The cycle of water, the patterns of winds, the effects of mountains and plains, rivers and oceans. You know what you have done!"

"No, I don't," Rainbow Dash said, "I don't know what you're talking about at all. Mountains and rivers and stuff don't have any effect on the weather."

Ponawk blinked, apparently confused, then looked at Rainbow Dash with suspicion, "Are you really so ignorant? Have you really forgotten so much of what I taught you? How can I know you aren't lying to protect yourself?"

"Protect myself from what? You said yourself that we've won, you're at my mercy," Rainbow Dash said, "And besides, you never taught me anything. You haven't taught the pegasi anything in thousands of years, since before even Princess Celestia. We didn't even know you existed! I learned how to control the weather from an instructor at Weatherpony Training Camp."

Ponawk thought about this.

Rainbow Dash continued, "And you spent all that time in my head, reading my thoughts and memories," Rainbow could not help but shudder from the fresh memory, "Didn't you notice that I knew nothing about any of this stuff you're talking about?"

"This is true, though I did not think about it at the time," Ponawk said, "But how can this be? My most important teachings lost, while the most dangerous teachings live on? Why?"

Rainbow Dash shrugged, "I don't know. We've never even thought about it. What are we doing that's so bad, anyway?"

"What are you-" Ponawk chocked on her shock, "What do you know of the lands outside of Equestria?"

"Not much. There's a griffin kingdom, some diamond dogs and dragons. Why?"

"They do not have pegasi, do they?"

"Well... no."

"Who controls their weather, then?"

"I don't know," Rainbow Dash said, uncomfortable with where the conversation was going.

"But how do they have weather with no one to control it?"

"I... look, are you saying we're supposed to control the weather for the whole world?" Rainbow Dash asked, "Because there aren't nearly enough pegasi to do that all the time."

"No, fool!" Ponawk shouted, "The problem is too much control!"

"What?"

"You keep your weather here so neat, so orderly. Scheduled rainstorms, sunny days, clear nights. And what does it all add up to? Disruption! Equestria is such a small nation, but the knot of disruption it makes in the world's weather patterns radiate outwards."

"Disruption? What do you mean?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"I mean droughts! Floods! Hurricanes and tornadoes year round!" Ponawk lunged forward, shouting so aggressively that Rainbow Dash took and involuntary step back, "Storms that last for weeks, heat waves that desiccate whole forests! The world's weather is thrown into chaos by your small-minded insistence on order!"

Rainbow Dash's eyes went wide as the full realization hit her, "What? We had no idea!"

"Because you forgot! I taught you these things, warned you of these dangers. I taught the pegasi how to control the weather so they could survive, and even thrive, but I warned you that if you abused your power I would return. And now I have!"

"We didn't know. We didn't know we were hurting anypony!"

"Does that make them any less hurt?"

"No," Rainbow Dash stared at her hooves. The rainbow patterns roiled below, blurred by the tears in her eyes, "No, it doesn't."

"For more than a thousand years the world around you has suffered, and you never noticed. I was close to setting things right, until you and your friends came along and beat me down."

"You were hurting Equestria. We thought... we didn't know why you were doing it. If you had just explained to us, we wouldn't have stopped you."

"Oh really?" Ponawk said, "You'd let me cover Equestria in a century of storms? Just like that?"

"A century?" Rainbow Dash gulped, "Would it really take that long?"

"The weather of the entire world needs to be reset, and all of the problems are radiating out from here."

"But you control the weather. Can't you just, I don't know, make the weather be right?"

Ponawk glared, and Rainbow Dash shrank away, "I am powerful, but I cannot be everywhere. Only from here can one being fix all of the problems you have caused."

Rainbow Dash thought about this, "But what if there were more than one person working on it?"

"What do you mean?"

"There are thousands of pegasi," Rainbow Dash said, "If we helped you, couldn't we fix the world's weather much faster?"

"And by that you mean, couldn't you save Equestria from one hundred years of constant storm."

"Yes," Rainbow Dash said, "I won't lie to you, I don't want to see my home destroyed. But it would help you too, wouldn't it?"

"You are the reason there is any problem to fix!" Ponawk said.

"Because we didn't know what we were doing!" Rainbow said. She tried to think of something, some way to convince Ponawk that the pegasi did not mean to cause any harm, did not even know they were doing so. What would Twilight say? Rainbow Dash looked up at Ponawk, "We... we were like fillies. You gave us a toy, and we ran around smacking it into things because we didn't know it could hurt anything. And now that everything is broken we... we should help clean it up."

Ponawk fixed Rainbow Dash with a considering glare, "And you think all the other pegasi will feel the same as you?"

"I know they will, once they understand what's happening," Rainbow Dash said, "And princess Celestia will surely want to help."

"If they don't destroy me first."

"What? Why would they do that?"

"Because this place is coming to an end," Ponawk said, and Rainbow Dash saw that the colorful rainbows that had surrounded the entire conversation were indeed fading.

"What's happening?"

"Powerful magic forged this place, but it is not permanent," Ponawk said, "soon it will end, and we will be cast back to where we came from. I will still be weakened, and your friends will still consider me their enemy."

"You just need to explain to them-"

"As if they will listen. You only listened because you saw that I was no threat, for the moment. And your princess Celestia will not lose her resolve when she sees a chance at victory."

"Then I'll tell them!"

"If you're even conscious. If they trust that I'm not twisting your mind again."

Rainbow Dash did not know what to say to that, and before she could think of a response there was a rush of wind, and she felt herself falling.

***

Scootaloo felt the world explode around her. The deep, thunderous boom rattled through her chest and the bright light hurt her eyes even through closed eyelids. Rainbow Dash's sonic rainboom had mixed with the magic of the Elements of Harmony, Scootaloo had seen the sphere of rainbow energy form and hang in the sky for an instant, and then it had exploded outward with ferocious force.

Blinking, Scootaloo found her vision returning after a few seconds. She saw a dull golden figure falling alongside a ruffled cyan pegasus. The golden figure jerked away and flew away, two alicorns in close pursuit, but the pegasus landed heavily only a dark cloud and remained motionless.

Scootaloo ran. She heard an indistinct shout from Sweetie Belle behind her, but the unicorn filly was too slow to stop her this time. Ponawk was already battling the alicorn sisters again, and doing much worse than before, but Scootaloo only had eyes for that dark cloud with a single cyan wing hanging limply over the side.

"Rainbow Dash!" she screamed, trying to attract the older pegasi's attention, "Rainbow Dash, are you ok?"

Scootaloo was vaguely aware of Twilight Sparkle and four other ponies slowly dragging themselves to their feet, knocked flat by the explosion. They had been much closer than the little filly, and all of them seemed dazed. Scootaloo ran past, until she was just under the cloud with Rainbow Dash on it.

She looked up and yelled, "Rainbow Dash!"

There was no response. The cloud was too high up to tell if Rainbow Dash was even conscious. Scootaloo looked around and saw that Rainbow's friends were all still staggering to their feet, trying to get their bearings. Both alicorns were still dueling with Ponawk, slowly wearing the weather spirit down. Nopony else was nearby.

Scootaloo looked back up to the cloud. Rainbow Dash needed help, needed her, and Scootaloo would not disappoint her hero. She took a deep breath and began to flap her little wings. She grabbed the air with each flap, pulling her wings down, pushing against the air. For a moment nothing happened, but then her wings caught the air and she felt her hooves lift off of the ground.

She kept flapping, rising straight up towards the cloud. Her wings quickly grew tired, burning from movement they were not used to. Her breath became ragged, and each time her wings rose it took all of her willpower to bring them back down again, to grab the air and pull herself higher.

She looked up and saw that she was nearly halfway to the cloud. She looked down and saw the ground far below. Her heart thudded in her chest, racing from fear that she would fall before she reached the cloud. Her wings screamed protest with every flap, burning with exhaustion each time she moved them.

Scootaloo squeezed her eyes shut, concentrating on forcing her wings to move, to flow up and down, catch the air, pull her up. It hurt, worse than any pain the little filly had felt before. Her small wings struggled to move her heavy body, each flap harder than the one before until she was sure she could not flap again. And then she forced herself to flap again.

Soon, an eternity later, her hoof bumped against the underside of the cloud. She grabbed the edge, hauling herself up onto the soft platform and collapsing next to Rainbow Dash. Scootaloo lay there for several minutes, panting heavily and massaging her wings, before she looked up at the older pegasus.

Rainbow Dash was breathing, which Scootaloo took as a good sign. The cyan mare was bruised, her feathers ruffled and uneaven. Scootaloo prodded her with a hoof, and the only response was a small groan.

Scootaloo pounced onto Rainbow Dash, shaking her frantically, "Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash! Wake up!" she shouted, "Please, wake up!"

Rainbow Dash groaned again, slowly opening one eye, "Scoots, what are you doing?"

"Trying to wake you up!" Scootaloo said, smiling at her now conscious hero, "You fell so far, and Ponawk is still fighting with the princesses, and nopony came to see if you were ok."

"Ponawk?" Rainbow Dash asked, "Wait, are they still fighting?"

"Yeah, but don't worry, the princesses are winning now," Scootaloo's smile faded as she saw fear overtake Rainbow's face.

"Oh no!" Rainbow Dash said, "I've got to warn them!"

Scootaloo tried to ask what Rainbow Dash was talking about, but Rainbow Dash took off towards the three combatants at a close approximation of full speed. Scootaloo peered over the edge of the cloud, and quickly decided to rest a while before trying to get back down.

***

Rainbow Dash raced through the air as quickly as her tired wings would carry her. She could see the two alicorns fighting with Ponawk ahead, and the weather spirit was quickly wearing down. Celestia was relentless, firing powerful spells and raw energy down at the weakened Ponawk.

Dash redoubled her efforts, putting every last drop of energy into her wings. The distance closed quickly. As Rainbow approached, she saw princess Celestia charging up a powerful spell. Her horn glowed brightly, brighter than Twilight's hard while fighting the Ursa Minor. There was not much time.

"WAIT!" Rainbow Dash screamed, throwing herself between Celestia and Ponawk, "Princess Celestia, wait!"

"Move, Rainbow Dash!" Celestia said, aiming her spell, "This ends now!"

"Wait.. don't..." Rainbow Dash said, gasping for breath after he wreckless charge across the sky.

"Move, or I will assume Ponawk has taken your mind again."

"I..." Rainbow Dash panicked, knowing she could not survive an attack from the princess who raised the sun every day, "Twilight! When the... changelings. When they attack, Twilight warned us... but you didn't believe her. You were wrong then... maybe... maybe you're wrong now."

Celestia continued to charge her spell, but Luna flew forward with an uncertain look on her face, "We are defending our home, Rainbow Dash," Luna said, "I do not know what Ponawk has done to trick you, but she attacked us first with her storm over Cloudsdale."

"No, that's not it at all," Rainbow Dash was finally catching her breath, "We, the pegasi... we abused our power. She taught us how to control the weather, but we've been doing too much."

Even Celestia began to look intrigued.

"All the order we've brought to the weather in Equestria, it's been disrupting the weather everywhere else. Droughts and floods, and stuff like that."

"Is this true?" Celestia asked.

"I... I think so?" Rainbow Dash said, "It's what Ponawk told me."

"And why do you trust her?" Luna asked.

"Because I had to," Rainbow Dash said, "She was helpless, powerless, after being hit by the sonic rainboom and the Elements of Harmony. I just... I couldn't bring myself to hurt her, weak and alone. I couldn't do it."

Celestia looked at Rainbow Dash, then shifted her gaze to Ponawk. The weather spirit was panting, barely able to keep herself aloft, looking at the white alicorn with desperate eyes. Celestia let her spell drop, and smiled wearily.

"I do not blame you, Rainbow Dash," she said, "Killing is a hard thing to do, and nopony should ever have to make that choice."

"She said we could help," Rainbow Dash said, "With fixing the weather, I mean. She said that with the pegasi's help she wouldn't have to destroy Equestria to repair the damage."

"Even if Equestria were not endangered, we would offer our help in this," Celestia said, "If we really have done harm to the others of this world, it is our responsibility to help undue the damage we caused."

"Does that mean we don't have to fight anymore?" Rainbow Dash asked, as Ponawk flew up on tired wings.

"It does," Celestia said.

"And does that mean we can rebuild Cloudsdale, it won't be destroyed?"

"It does," Ponawk said.

"All right!" Rainbow Dash said.

"It also means you have an awful lot of work to do," Celestia said, "Once you've recovered from your injuried."

"I'm the best weather pegasus in Equestria," Rainbow Dash said smugly, "Of course I'm going to be doing all the work."

"After you have recovered," Celestia said, firmly.

All four slowly lowered themselves to the ground. Rainbow Dash limped off towards her friends while Luna and Celestia began planning with Ponawk.

After all was said and done, Rainbow Dash thought it had been a pretty good week.