Exploring Equestria

by A_guy_from_Earth

18. Exploring Cloudsdale

Twilight and Spike were returning to the Castle from morning shopping at Ponyville market. Purple alicorn levitated two paper bags full of vegetables in front of herself, singing a simple melody meanwhile. Spike walked behind, holding large bag with grocery. Little dragon could easily hide inside this bag, so it looked like the bag was moving by itself on small paws.

“Spike, isn’t it heavy to you?” Twilight asked, being concerned.
“Nah,” little dragon responded. “It’s only fifteen pounds. I used to carry things much heavier.”
“Oh, right…” alicorn made a little smile, remembering how her assistant carried all the bags of their fashionista friend.
“But thanks for your concern.”

Twilight looked at Spike and smiled again. They walked further and suddenly appeared under huge shadow.

“We came home!” little dragon said, trying to look at the Castle from above of the bag.
“Indeed,” spelled Twilight.

They climbed the stairs, and princess of friendship opened the doors with her magic. But only a little gap had been made, alicorn and her assistant heard thunderous angry voice:

“You call this junk hardware? These are pieces of crap! And nothing more!”
“But…” a weak voice tried to explain.
“Don’t tell me that these are the best you have! I’m a mechanic, I know how hardware should look like! Not mentioning that half items you brought are wrong!”
“But I thought…”
“I don’t want to hear anything! Take this junk back and bring me REAL hardware, or I’ll shove a brace in your butt and keep spin it until I reach your friggin’ diaphragm, understand?”
“Y-yes…”
“Good. Get the heck out of here!”

And assistant seller of Ponyville hardware store shot out from the Castle. Shocked Twilight and Spike entered the hall and saw Zet’rar muttering swearwords.

“…faery idiot…”
“What was that?” alicorn exclaimed.
“Oh, I’m sorry, miss Twilight,” technician apologized. “I’ve got angry and run out of patience.”
“That’s putting it mildly,” noted Spike.
“This lad did very stupid thing, and I barely tolerate stupidity.”
“But why it was necessary to yell?”
“I wish there was another was to deal with stupidity. Tolerate it all the time is not a way out.”
“Well… It is so,” Twilight agreed. “Oh, by the way, where are Berg and Erő?”
“Anti ordered them to move some furniture. They will return soon.”

In few seconds, just like in confirmation of his words, guards returned to their posts. At the same time Bluve came to the hall to greet the hosts of the Castle and take the food they bought.

“No, Calma,” Twilight responded to Bluve’s words. “You may take Spike’s bag, but I will bring mine myself. You won’t be able to walk if you take all the bags!”
“Don’t worry, miss Twilight,” biologist said. “I can handle it.”
“Well…”

Suddenly they heard a knock. Edez and Kor opened the doors, and two mares walked in. It was Rainbow Dash and Maud Pie.

“Hi, guys!” blue pegasus greeted everybody.
“Good day,” said Maud Pie with her usual imperturbability.
“Rainbow! Maud! Hello! What brings you here?” asked Twilight.
“And why you are together?” wondered Spike.
“We’ve just met near the entrance,” answered Rainbow Dash.
“Oh.”
“What brings me here?” pegasus turned to Twilight. “Well, I’m going to Cloudsdale to settle some matters, and I’m looking for a company. Does anypony wants to come there with me?”

Researchers quickly exchanged glances, and Edez and Bluve raised their hooves.

“Awesome!” Rainbow Dash smiled. “Wait… You are earth ponies, guys! Eh… Okay, we’ll go there by airship. I do not hurry. Let’s meet in two hours at the town’s airship station, okay?”
“Got it!” Edez and Bluve responded.
“Great! And don’t forget to enchant yourselves to be able to walk on clouds!” pegasus said, darted off and flew away through one of the opened windows.

When she was gone, Twilight addressed Maud Pie.

“I… came here to talk with Lierre,” gray pony answered. “Can you tell where he is now?”
“Hm… Last time I saw him he was in the garden behind the Castle,” answered Allegro.
“Thank you,” Maud Pie made a small smile and nodded.

Then she left too. Princess and her assistant gave Bluve the bags and went to the second floor. Biologist returned to the kitchen.

“Call Affi and Bluve and warn the others,” Edez told Zet’rar.
“Shouldn’t I call everyone?” technician responded.
“If we continue to discuss who will go each time when they offer us, it’ll start to look rather… unnatural.”
“True,” Kor agreed.
“Okay,” said Zet’rar and did what he was told.

Soon other researchers were informed, Bluve returned to the main hall and Affi descended there. Edez, Kor and Bluve explained her the situation. Second curator rubbed her chin and spelled:

“Hm… You did it on purpose?”
“What? No!” Edez shook his head.
“We just thought about possibility to leave,” said Bluve. “What made you think like this?”
“Well…” Affi said. “You know that the greatest technological mystery of this civilization is weather control. And Coudsdale is the very place where it is carried out. If we go there, we can take some samples and learn everything about it!”
“Take samples?”
“Well, you two are the most perfect candidates: you, Edez, know how to rob, and you, bluve, know how to smuggle.”

Researchers rewarded her with sour faces and scathing looks.

“She’s right,” said Kor.
“Fine…” spelled Edez and Bluve after a sigh.
“So, go equip yourselves, my dears,” Affi said them with a smug smile.

First curator and physiologist looked at each other and went to pack their bags and, later, ask Twilight to do the cloud-walking spell.

In an hour and a half researchers got to the airship station. They purchased the tickets, climbed on the platform and looked around for pony who offered then to come. Soon rainbow meteor hit the ground near them.

“You’re already here!” blue pegasus smiled. “Awesome!” she climbed on the platform too.
“You don’t need a ticket?” wondered Edez.
“I purchased it hour ago.”
“Oh.”
“Let me ask what exactly you are coming to Cloudsdale for?” asked Bluve.
“Ah, just some instructions from main weather bureau,” Rainbow Dash answered. “It’s a matter of a couple of hours in the worst case.”
“You needed a company for a two-hour-long visit?” Edez was surprised.
“Well, I just wanted to hang around my home city for a while, before the instructions start. And, since you will be new there… Well… Walk around the city together. I can show you some places!”
“That’s very kind of you.”
“Oh, come on! We’re friends now! It’s not necessary.”
“As you say…”

Meanwhile the airship had arrived. Large oblong balloon painted in purple and gold like dragon skin with several steering crests attached to its top and bottom parts, relatively small nacelle – only for 30 passengers – decorated with wood, brass plates and lots of metal rivets. In short, it was a triumph of steampunk style. Very good-looking.

It slowly landed near the platform, and workers of the station anchored it with cables. Then they opened the nacelle’s doors, and ponies started to get in. Now there were not so many passengers – six tickets for this flight remained unsold. A small setback for the company, but, at least, passengers will fly with more comfort.

“By the way, how long the flight is?” asked Edez when they took their seats.
“These airships are rather fast,” said Rainbow Dash. “Usually it takes a little more than an hour.”
“Indeed, quite fast.”
“It will be your first visit to a cloud city?”
“Well, yeah,” said Bluve.
“There are no such places in Europonia?”
“Why, there are towns and cities, but our pegasi usually prefer to settle on the tops of the mountains. Or the tops of the biggest trees.”
“I see. They prefer solid ground under their hooves.”
“Yes.”
“Everypony’s up?” airship pilot asked loudly.
“Yes!” passengers responded.
“Good! We take off!”

The doors were closed, cables were unhooked. Pilot started the engine, and airship began to soar up. Very soon it already was above the clouds and lay on the course to Cloudsdale. Rainbow Dash looked out the window, researchers sat in a sprawl on big comfortable benches, being absolutely relaxed.

“You look very relaxed for ponies flying for the first time,” blue pegasus noticed.
“Why, we have flown a lot before,” said Bluve.
“Really?”
“Yeah. Airships is the fastest transport available, we regularly used them in Europonia.”
“Moreover, me and Calma parachuted several times,” added Edez.
“You too?” surprised Rainbow Dash looked at Bluve, hardly believing in what she had just heard.
“It’s so,” Bluve smiled. “Berg trained to be not only a hoof-soldier, but a landing trooper. And I… Well, all medics in Europonia should pass emergency cases trainings, and parachuting is one of their parts.”
“Why?”
“In case of situations when the only way to get to the victims is by air, and there are not enough doctors among pegasi.”
“Oh… Hey!” bearer of the Element of loyalty turned to Edez. “Erő told me that when you were in Celestia’s chariot, you all were still and terrified!”
“Without parachutes on back and having only low board separating us from open air – I think many earth ponies would be still and terrified,” responded Edez.
“Well, yeah… But still, it sounds contradictory to me.”
“Well, if you had no w…”

Suddenly the airship shuddered.

“What was that?” exclaimed Rainbow Dash and some other passengers.
“I don’t know!” responded others.
“We are losing altitude!” screamed one mare who looked in the window and noticed that clouds got closer.
“What?” other passengers exclaimed and soon panicked.
“I’ll go to the board technician,” said Edez to Bluve. “You – calm everyone down!”
“Got it!”

Edez rushed to the engines of the ship, Bluve stood up on the bench and loudly said:

“Calm down, everypony, please!”

There was no response.

“Please, calm down! The problem will be solved soon!” biologist tried again.
“We have no time!” one of the passengers shouted.
“We’re still losing altitude!” somepony exclaimed.
“We are doomed!” one mare wailed.

And new wave of panic had begun. Bluve sighed, shook her head, but made the third attempt.

“Calm down, everypony! Don’t worry!” she said very loudly. “We all will die.”
“WHAT???” all the passengers turned to her.
“At last, no panic,” Bluve smiled gladly.
“Eh?”

At that moment airship shuddered again, and soon it started to gain altitude.

“What happened?”

Slam of the door of engine compartment marked the returning of Edez.

“Don’t worry, people!” he said. “The problem is solved, but we’ll arrive to Cloudsdale about ten minutes later.”
“What was the problem?” asked Rainbow Dash and Bluve.
“One of the propellers jammed, and we had to stop it. Nothing serious.”
“I see.”

The flight continued in normal mode – other three propellers were enough to maintain sufficient speed. Passengers calmed down and sat back on their seats. Researchers and Rainbow Dash resumed their conversation and soon changed the topic from flights to central city of equestrian pegasi.

As it was said, the airship arrived to the Cloudsdale airship station with ten-minute delay. It docked with the “pier”, workers fixed the anchor cables, adjusted the gangway and passengers began to get out from the cabin. Bluve and Edez left the airship the last. They slowly descended the gangway and carefully stood on the cloud, like it was made of glass.

“Well, how is it, to walk on the clouds?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“Quite… unusual,” answered Edez.
“You’re doing well, I must say. Well, come on! We have lot of places to visit!”

They left the station, and researchers followed Rainbow Dash to the bustling center of the city.

The impression city made on researchers was double. On the one hand, Cloudsdale was fairly compact city, so lot of places was crowded. It hadn’t permanent location and constantly cruised around Canterlot mountains, Hyppoic range, so in order to make the cruise easier, it was built small. On the other hand, architecture of the city was aerial, in every sense of the word. Main buildings were large, grandiose and richly decorated in ancient style. Although all their beauty a pony could see only from air, they were real pleasure for one’s sight even from the ground.

Rainbow Dash, hovering in couple of steps from the “ground”, toured researchers around the center and briefly told about the sightseeing and what episodes of her life are connected with these places. Honestly, blue pegasus wasn’t the best guide: usually she only told about how awesome or boring the place is, and she often switched from speaking about the place itself to speaking about her past or what other cloudsdalers think of them. Bur, still, it was possible to get quite a lot of information from her tale, so Edez and Bluve listened attentively and regularly asked questions.

Arena, watchtowers, amphitheater, aqueducts for rainwater and liquid rainbow, Forum… Cloudsdale preserved all the elements of ancient city, when it was the second capital of Equestria together with Manehattan. Rainbow Dash showed Edez and Bluve all of them. Looking at these buildings, it was hard to believe that they are actually more than two thousand years old. However, the solution was simple: they were made of clouds, which have never been durable material. Citizens of Cloudsdale had to renew the buildings regularly – that’s why they looked like have been just built.

Rainbow Dash even managed to show researchers the flight camp, which was situated on the outskirts of the city. She afraid that her new friends could only watch it from a distance, but researchers showed that they are able to take a close look at it even if they have no wings: by jumping from cloud to cloud. Edez and Bluve managed to surprise their guide greatly by this, since average distance between clouds was about fifteen steps. So they examined the camp. Until Edez was found by camp keepers and asked to leave since each his jump caused a cloudquake.

Considering master researcher’s weigh, it was indeed the case, so they had to leave the camp and return to the city.

“Well, what next?” Edez asked when they reached city limits.
“Hm… We have two more hours, so… Let’s have a snack and go to the Museum then!” answered Rainbow Dash.
“Museum?”
“What?” surprised pegasus when she saw researchers’ reaction.
“P-pardon me, but…” Bluve uttered. “You don’t look like a pony who is so into museums.”
“Well, it’s the Pegasi History Museum, the most awesome in the world!” Rainbow Dash answered, widely smiling. “It has the best collection of pegasi artifacts! And, the best part, you can tough the exhibits!”

“That’s the argument for you…” thought researchers.

“Well, let’s go then!” responded Edez.
“Awesome! Come! There’s one little café in three hundred steps. They have amazing air muffins!”

Edez and Bluve trotted forward, following Rainbow Dash, when suddenly…

Wooden panel fell right behind Bluve. It landed with a loud splat, which made the timid researcher freeze in horror. Edez and Rainbow Dash saw what happened, so rushed to help her, but just a few seconds later a potted flower stuck into cloud “ground” in half of a step in front of Bluve. Now Edez and Rainbow Dash got shocked too. However, they quickly recovered and finally managed to help their friend.

“Calma! You hear us?” said Rainbow Dash in worrying voice.
“Calma, dear!” Edez took her in his hooves. “Wake up! Speak to us!”

He gently shook her.

“Wha…” physiologist muttered.
“How are you?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“Awa… Ama… I’m… fine. Will be.”
“Should we take you to a doctor?” Edez worried.
“N-no! I’ll be fine… Just… give me some time…”

Edez put Bluve down. She took several deep breaths and looked up at the nearest building. There, on one of the balconies of the third floor, four loaders were.

“Excuse us! We’re sorry!” they tried to apologize.

Bluve managed to stand firmly and addressed her friends:

“Give me a minute.”
“Eh, okay,” neither Rainbow Dash, nor Edez knew why she asked this.

Biologist meanwhile entered the building, and soon her friends heard quite clatter – she was climbing up the stairs. And one more minute later… They heard terrible sound, which barely resembled to gentle and soft Bluve’s voice:

“You assholes! Safety rules aren’t written for you, dammit? Why the fucking area was not enclosed? Answer!”

Workers only trembled and babbled in response.

“Immediately enclose the area!” Bluve growled. “Fucking idiots…” she turned and went away.

Soon she returned to her friends.

“Holy… Calma!” Rainbow Dash was shocked.
“That… was something,” said Edez. Though he knew her well, he didn’t expect such gush of anger.
“Oh…” Bluve sighed. “Excuse me. I lost my temper. Usually I control myself…”
“You served them right!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash. “It was their fault! They didn’t warn anypony! And you even was lenient with them! If I was you, I’d punch them all in faces!”
“…okay,” Calma didn’t know what else to say.
“Well, I think we all should cool ourselves a bit,” Edez said. “So, where’s that café?”
“Oh, it’s right here!” pegasus pointed.

They came to the place, took a table on the terrace and made an order: six air muffins, ten air ice creams and three big glasses of soda. Cold fresh desserts helped them to chill, but they had to ask for supplements. Air muffins and air ice creams were named like this not without reason: they were very bubbly, so, in fact, there was not so much to eat.

After providing some good revenue for café owners, Rainbow Dash, Bluve and Edez finally went to the Pegasi History Museum.

The Museum turned out to be old large classical building with impressive colonnades and massive portico. As the rest of Cloudsdale’s constructions, it was snow-white, but thanks to cornices, columns, bas-reliefs and other decorative elements that made bizarre figured shadows it looked differently. Even the first impression said that it was the perfect museum, which seemed to be as good as the best Europonian ones.

Bearer of the Element and researchers went in the large entrance hall of the building, bought the tickets and began the visit. They entered the first exhibit hall and… researchers didn’t know where to look. There were many so wonderful things, so many descriptions…They wanted to look at all of them. They were excited like little kids. Seeing grown-up ponies being like this made Rainbow Dash giggle.

“Come on!” she said to researchers, smiling. “I’ll show you the place.”

Bluve and Edez nodded and, having calmed themselves a bit, followed their guide. The exposition turned out to be arranged very cleverly: a visitor did not lose the interest when he moved forward, from one place to another. No matter how much time he spent in the Museum, he wanted to learn more – until all the exhibits will be seen.

The Museum was divided into three sections: right wing represented social history of pegasi, left wing – history of their everyday life, and the main, central section was devoted to military history. In the section of social history a visitor could see old law books of pegasi and other official documents, dioramas of the most important events and objects of cultural heritage, like paintings, cloud and ice sculptures, models of famous cloud buildings and ancient cities. Sections of everyday history was more interesting, since there were more exhibits that one could examine directly – to put it simply, touch them. To look at old furniture, clothes and utensils wasn’t so interesting, but there were many small surprises. For example, researchers got very puzzled when they saw the plate with description “Special flying suits” under some dummies dressed in something more similar to fish costumed for Nightmare Night. Turned out that these “fish suits” made flying easier and gave greater mobility thanks to their “fins”.

And then there was the centerpiece of whole exposition: section of military history. It took the largest halls, contained the most impressive exhibits and had the most interesting excursion programs. There one could find full set of weapons pegasi used during the history, incredible variety of uniforms – not only from Equestria, but other countries too – huge layouts of the greatest battles of the past and lot of old military equipment. All of the exhibits visitors could examine directly, and, in case of uniforms, even try them out. It was one big educational attraction, full of happy foals and glad adults.

By the offer of Rainbow Dash researchers took part in the fun too. Since Edez was too big even for an earth pony, he could only hold some weapons. Bluve and Rainbow Dash, in their turn, have all the possibilities to try out different uniforms. And they used them fully. Thanks to similarity of appearance researcher and bearer of the Element, when they dressed up, made perfect couple of mare officers. Some other visitors even photographed them.

“That was great!” pegasus smiled, putting off the armor. “Let’s move to the modern age hall!”
“Agree!” researcher supported her.

They put the armors back and went to the necessary hall, when everybody head sound of breaking glass. Rainbow Dash and researchers turned to its source and saw brown pegasus holding ancient golden shield, escaping from curators. He swept above the heads of visitors, flew through the hall entrance and rushed to the exit.

Everything happened in a couple of seconds. Edez dashed forward and broke through the wall between two stands. The thief flew to the hall where they had already been, so researcher foresaw the escaping path of the scoundrel. Having broken the wall, he appeared just in twelve steps in front of the brown pegasus. He had no possibilities neither to fly round the researcher, nor to slow down.

With one move Edez punted the shield from the thief, with another – sprawled him on the floor. Then he caught the shield and carefully put it down.

Soon curators of the museum ran to the place. The sight of the thief already served for the police surprised them, but when they saw who did it, everything fell into place.

“Thank you,” curators bowed to master researcher. “You saved the Golden Thunder Shield!”
“Well… It’s a duty of every responsible citizen…” Edez responded “…especially former guards, like me, to resist evil.”
“Still, thank you very much.”
“What can we do for you in return?” another curator asked.
“Sixteen free tickets for us and our friends would be wonderful.”

Curators and researcher shook their hooves, and Edez, Bluve and Rainbow Dash got the right to visit Pegasi History Museum next time for free.

Soon the visit was finished, and they left the Museum. Rainbow Dash, when they got outside, looked at the clock on the small tower near the main entrance and gasped.

“Oh! The meeting starts in six minutes!” she exclaimed and turned to researchers. “Guys, I gotta go. Hang around, while I’ll be absent, okay?”
“Sure, but…” Bluve spelled. “We have already visited most of the places.”
“Yeah… Oh, right! You may go to the city’s Weather Factory! They regularly tour visitors around the complex! And it’ll take you just two hours!”
“Sounds good,” Edez said.
“Yeah,” Bluve agreed.
“So where should we go?”
“Go down Wind Street until it ends,” Rainbow Dash pointed the direction. “There it will be.”
“Got it.”
“Meet near the airship station, okay?”
“Sure.”
“See ya!” blue pegasus smiled and darted off.

Researchers saw her off, then looked at each other and went to the Cloudsdale Weather Factory. In a couple of minutes they got there and asked about the nearest tour. Turned out that the nearest one will start just in several minutes. So Bluve and Edez quickly bought the tickets and hastened to join the tourist group.

About thirty ponies, mostly young pegasi, gathered near the main entrance. Soon the guide, snow white for gray hair pegasus stallion, greeted them, and the excursion had started.

Security guards opened the doors, and old stallion led everyone in. They walked down the long corridor, the Factory’s history hall. Walls of this room weren’t visible because of numerous portraits, pictures and shelves with awards. Weather Factory had great and glorious history, and their guide managed to tell everything about it in twenty minutes. He gibbered like an auctioneer – he could easily compete even with Pinkie Pie. Nevertheless, his speech was structured and very informative – he had many years of practice.

After the review of the Factory’s past they passed to the its shops. They climbed up and appeared at one of the galleries above the facilities. The guide told that since Factory never stops, they will have to watch how it works from these galleries in order not to interrupt workers.

This made researchers upset. Yes, it was possible to get a lot of information by usual tour, but they needed more. And it was impossible to get samples walking along these galleries.

Edez and Bluve had no choices but use their criminal talents.

“We have to leave the group,” master researcher whispered to biologist. “And faster. We have only two and a half SM’s.”
“Yeah, but… it’ll be fine with me, but everyone will notice that you are absent!” she responded.
“Well… There is one little trick. Prepare to activate HLSII’s.”

Bluve gave a nod. Researchers slowed down and let other visitors to come forward. When they appeared behind everyone, Bluve took two hard-light sub-intellectual imitators from her bag and activated them. Meanwhile Edez bowed like he was going to lift a coin dropped by accident. Small metal cylinders hovered above the floor and flashed. Two hard-light holograms of Edez and Bluve were formed in a moment. And real master researcher, when no one looked, grabbed his friend and instantly hided in one of the side service passes.

Now these hard-light dummies will replace them, playing the role of silent tourists. Edez and Bluve will have their own excursion around the Factory.

If they want to learn everything about the Factory, they have no need to examine every shop – they just have to find the main control center. Then, using one of unfalizan’s instant particle scanners, they will “take a panoramic shot” – later it will be possible to reconstruct everything what they want. After this their only job will be to take the samples.

Researchers activated their holographic invisibility shields and went in search. Near the stairs from gallery to shop floor they found the Factory plan and, thus, found where the main control center was. Two floors below, two turns to the right, one to the left. Approximately in two thirds of milligrad from them.

Edez and Bluve descended to the place and stood near the necessary door. Biologist took the life energy detector and scanned the room.

“Dammit…” she cussed quietly.
“What’s wrong?” Edez wondered.
“There are seven ponies in it.”
“Hmmm… Follow me. I have an idea.”

Master researcher went to the nearest storeroom. He quickly broke the lock by melting some of its parts with own energy and got in. Bluve followed him. When she closed the door, she saw that Edez stood near the wall and put his hoof to it.

“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Gimme a moment…” Edez answered.

Bluve was confused. What is her curator up to? A moment had passed, then another, then third… And, suddenly, white smoke started to come from under Edez’s hoof, and area around it changed its color to reddish. Now she understood master researcher’s plan.

Soon fire alarm sounded throughout whole building. Researchers quickly escaped from the storeroom and hid behind a corner to watch what ponies in the main control center will do. As expected, disciplined pegasi followed all the instructions: they quickly left the room and rushed to the safe place.

Perfect. Now they have some moments before workers realize that alarm was false. Researchers rushed to the center, took the device, switched it on and left the room. They closed the door, and in a second scanner flashed, making the shot.

First step had been done. Now they can pass to the second phase.

“Grab the scanner and go,” Edez told Bluve.

She gave a nod, ran into the room and took the device. But when she turned to the exit, she froze, looking at one of the walls.

“What are you doing?” hissed Edez.
“Just a moment!..” she replied. “Got it!”
“Got what?”
“Where the storage of laboratory equipment is!”
“Great! Lead us!”
“Okay.”

And they went there. The storage was not so far from the main control center: in the adjacent shop building, less than in one milligrad. However, to get there was quite an adventure: after fire alarm corridors were full of ponies, so researchers had to crawl, tip-toe and freeze regularly to let other pass by. Some places where so crowded that even Bluve under invisibility shield barely could hide. And Edez… somehow he managed to remain unnoticed, but during those minutes he sincerely wished to have abilities to hover and to press own ribs into own body.

Nevertheless, after twenty minutes of some inconveniences and running out of swearwords in seven languages researchers reached the place. But there they faced with a problem: three security guards were in the side corridor that led to the storage, carefully watching the entrance. Some ponies had already returned to their posts, having learned that fire alarm was false.

“Dang,” spelled Edez.
“You can’t take them down?” Bluve wondered.
“Without significant harm – no. Probably two, but not three.”
“Hmmm… Eh… Oh! Edez, I think I know what to do…”

She whispered her plan to master researcher. He attentively listened and agreed without any objections, having said that it is wonderful idea. Researchers gave each other a nod and started the implementation of the plan.

Suddenly marine-colored mare run into the corridor, panting.

“What are you doing there?” guards grew wary.
“Oh, excuse me,” Bluve said. “I… I’ve lagged behind my group, lost the way, and…”
“Okay. Don’t worry, miss,” said the guard in the center. “I’ll take you to your group.”
“Thank you!”

He approached Bluve, and suddenly she turned to him.

“You know, I’ve never met stallions so handsome…” she spelled. “I want to kiss you right now!”

She embraced him and did what she has just said before guard managed to do anything. Meanwhile Edez with lightning speed jerked forward from behind the corner and zapped two other guards. Bluve released her victim, which fell down like a rag-doll – even a small dose of her venom was enough.

“I don’t know what was worse: my neurotoxin or your electroshock,” said Bluve, looking at the defeated guards.
“Yeah, that was pretty rough…” Edez responded. “Say…” he looked at Bluve’s victim. Pegasus was unconscious for sure, but had wide silly smile on his happy face. “Having such abilities, why you are not popular?”
“Well, probably because only few ones saw what I’m able for… Wait… Quit it, Edez! We have work to do!”
“Agree.”

Edez sat near the door, released his claws and started to break the lock, but suddenly he paused in the middle of the process.

“What’s wrong?” Bluve asked.
“When I’ll open the door, don’t go in,” curator responded.

He continued the break-in, and soon the door could be opened. Master researcher gently pushed it, but Bluve, as he ordered, didn’t move. Edez stood up, focused and in few seconds physiologist felt quick, but perceptible shock – her curator released electromagnetic pulse.

“Now it is safe,” he said with small smile of gladness.
“Why it was necessary?” Bluve wondered.
“Security spells,” Edez explained. “Very powerful and susceptible, but quick EMP can switch them off for some time.”
“Then let’s not waste a moment!”

Researchers rushed in and began the sampling. Bluve started to walk along the shelves and look for equipment that was widespread, but unknown for them. Turned out that pegasi used the simplest tools for weather creation: scales, mixers, measuring utensils, burners, presses, hoof tools and the like. Details for complicated machines, like cloud- and rainbow-makers could be successfully replaced with components of typical mixing machines, ventilators and pumps. There was nothing special – among all those things Bluve took just several strange-shaped mechanism units because she couldn’t guess what they are used for. But the storage contained not only spare parts and tools – the other its half was the storage of chemicals. And it was the place full of surprises: liquid rainbows, magic powders, cloud samples… The only “normal” things there were jars with water, snow and ice. Rows of identical flasks and banks marked with a code and several words – names of places where they were taken. They all looked absolutely the same, but Bluve still took one flask from each place just in case. They don’t know the reasons of all the secrets. Probably local features are the key.

Meanwhile Edez methodically broke cabinets and safes. Contrary to all the expectations, here, in the Weather Factory, it was rather boring. To deal with stratagems of security codes was really amusing, but results were disappointing. Turned out that Factory employees used safes and locked cabinets only for the most expensive equipment already known for researchers. There was nothing surprising. Edez just quietly sighed and hoped that soon the situation will change.

Eventually, he looked in all the safes except the last, the largest one. Before start of its “processing”, master researcher took a little break. He took a deep breath and looked at how his friend was doing. And he learned why anxaimans were one of the most successful smugglers: he saw Bluve in action. Having chosen the next sample, another jar with chemical, she stood on hind legs to reach it, took it and then… with a little effort opened the “scar” on her belly and shoved the jar inside. The sample disappeared in silver-blue veil of transformation surface of warped space block, which Bluve put there before the trip started.

“That’s pretty disgusting,” Edez noticed.
“Eh, I know…” Bluve responded. “But nothing can be done if we want to get more samples.”
“By the way, how many did you already take?”
“Hmmm… About 370 or so.”
“Wait, you have Mark 16 space block there?” surprised Edez pointed to her belly.
“Mark 19. My bag is almost twice bigger that average anxaiman’s.”
“Oh… Wow.”

Edez shook his head and slowly turned to continue the break-in of the last safe. Three moments of painstaking work, and the job was done. He opened the massive door and… finally, found something different. The largest safe had thirty shelves full of little jars of white or grayish powder or sand-like substance. Master researcher gently took one jar and opened it. Bluve noticed it, stopped the sampling and came closer. Edez looked closer at the substance in jar and then smelled it.

“That’s it!” he gladly smiled.
“What?” Bluve surprised.
“Remember what I said about the reason of “higher palpability” of clouds for pegasi?”
“Yeah, salts are the secret… It’s them?”
“Yes,” he looked at the shelves. “Probably it’s the most valuable thing for us here… Bluve, have you finished?”
“A dozen more – and, yes, I’ll finish.”
“Then come here and take one jar of each substance, and we are moving out. I’ll check one more place meanwhile.”
“What place?”
“I noticed one door when I broke in the safes. I think it’s additional storage.”
“Okay.”

Researchers gave each other a nod and proceeded. Bluve finished with ordinary shelves and moved to the safe. Edez went to the door what he spoke about and quickly broke it. He opened it and…

“Holy!..”
“What’s there?” Bluve asked.
“That’s… something! One moment, I’ll be quick.”

He ran into the room. While he was absent, Bluve took all the necessary samples from the large safe. Then she came closer to the opened room, and soon Edez returned, holding some jars with… lightnings. Or, to be precise, glowing something crystal-likes that had shapes of lightnings.

“What’s that?” Bluve exclaimed.
“I don’t know! I don’t even have an idea! We should take them.”
“Okay.”

Physiologist quickly put the jars into warped space block.

“Okay, now let’s go,” said Edez.
“Wait!” Bluve suddenly exclaimed. “What about the mess we made here! When those guards wake up, they’ll raise the alarm!”
“They won’t,” master researcher responded and took small device that looked like metal Rubik’s cube from his saddle bag.
“Is that…”
“Yeah, it is. The Reconstructor.”
“Oh, you sly rascal,” Bluve slowly shook her head, smiling. Her curator took everything into account and brought the dreketanian criminal genius masterpiece, which helped villains of this race eliminate all the traces.
“I am. Our pegasi friends will notice only small shortage some time later,” Edez activated the device, they put on their invisibility shields and run out of the room.

In three moments the countdown ended, and the Reconstructor started to do its job. Incredible amount of energy and information constructs was released. It spread across the room of storage, scanning the atoms and learning about their previous states. Then, using energy released, the last long existed state was reconstructed. Just in couple of seconds.

After several minutes security guards woke up with terrible headaches and fragmentary memories for last half of an hour before fainting. The first thing they thought about was that they were knocked out by robbers. So they rushed to the door, but it was locked. Guards surprised. There was no robbery? Nevertheless, they looked in the storage. Everything seemed to be fine. Guards looked at each other, shrugged and closed the door. They continued to do their job, guessing about what had happened.

Edez and Bluve meanwhile took the bearings on the HLSII’s and went there. The tourist group was about to finish the excursion already. Researchers commanded devices to slow down and rushed forth.

In few minutes they reached the group. Although now their hard-light holograms were behind everybody, they had to wait a little more to show real themselves. Remaining under the invisibility shields, they followed the tourists till the first sharp turn. Then they, when other ponies had already made the turn, so no one watched, quickly switched off the holograms and deactivated the shields. Then they accelerated and caught up with others near the very end of the route.

“Well, that’s our Cloudsdale Weather Factory,” old guide summed up. “You liked it?”

Other tourists gave a nod and exclaimed “Yeah!”, “Yes!”

“Indeed…” researchers quietly spelled with sly smiles.
“Wonderful! Well, that’s all, folks! It was nice to see you!”

They said goodbye to the guide and left the Factory. The mission was completed.

“Well, what now?” Bluve asked Edez.
“Let’s go to the airship station,” curator answered, looking at the clock above the entrance to the Factory. “We have eleven minutes left.”

They slowly went there and were about to hide at the bottom of one of small streets, when city’s notification system activated. Few seconds of metal rasp, then beautiful, but loud mare’s voice announced:

“Approaching Ponyville.”
“We are near…” Bluve was about to ask. “Oh, right! The city is moving!”
“This gave me an idea,” Edez smiled. “Come, Bluve. We have to find one special shop…”

Rainbow Dash flew to the airship station right at the agreed time, but researchers hadn’t come yet, and pegasus couldn’t see them anywhere around. She shook her head and started to walk around, waiting for researchers. One minute had passed, then second… Rainbow Dash wasn’t a patient pony, so after fifth minute she was very angry already:

“Where the heck they are?” she growled.

She was about to soar up and start to look for her companions, when she felt the trembling of the “ground”.

“Finally,” Rainbow Dash breathed with relief.

In few seconds Edez and Bluve, panting, were in front of her.

“We are sorry for being late,” they said between inhales and exhales.
“The visit was long?” Rainbow Dash guessed.
“No,” Edez shook his head. “We’ve heard that Ponyville is near now, so…”
“Ponyville is near?” she turned and looked down from the floating foundation of Cloudsdale. Thatches of Ponyville were visible already in the gaps between the clouds. “Oh, excuse me,” Rainbow Dash turned back to researchers. “So, what you were going to say?”
“We heard that Ponuville is near now, so thought that in such case we can save some money, forget about the tickets and go right there!” Edez finished.
“What do you mean?”

Bluve and Edez smiled and turned sideways to her to show parachute bags on their backs.

“You want to jump there?” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
“Yeah!” Bluve confirmed. “We can do it together.”
“I understand that you’ve parachuted before, but… Are you sure?”
“Absolutely.”
“Well, you don’t have to tell me again,” Rainbow Dash smiled and flew up.
“Let’s do this then!” smiled Edez.

Researchers checked the parachutes again, just to be sure. Then Rainbow Dash, Bluve and Edez, walking together, approached the edge of cloud mass and stepped into the void.

However, Rainbow Dash still thought that her friends went insane. Jump from Cloudsdale to Ponyville, three miles below and about five miles to the side – even considering that they had parachuted before – was madness. The distance was too great. And aren’t they afraid, after years without practice?

Pegasus looked at her friends and… Couldn’t believe her eyes: they were smiling with joy.

“Are you… okay?” she muttered.
“Absolutely!” responded Edez.
“We’re just fine!” smiled Bluve.

They were sincere. The joy of their faces, sparks of their eyes… They were enjoying, were happy indeed. They even managed to do simple tricks during falling down: revolutions, somersaults… Looking at this, Rainbow Dash made sure. Now she wasn’t worrying about them.

And soon her attitude changed to the opposite.

“Hey, is that everything you can do?” she asked researchers challengingly.

Edez and Bluve looked at each other.

“Watch!” Bluve grinned and performed complicated series of somersaults.
“Wow!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. She was glad. “And what about you?” she addressed Edez.

Researcher grinned and… In less than no time grabbed both Bluve and Rainbow Dash. He pulled them to himself and dived down.

Just in half of a minute they accelerated almost twice. They pierced through cloud layers and appeared in the open air less than in a mile from the ground.

“Whaaaaaaaaa!” girls screamed.
“Yeeeeeee-hooooooo!” Edez rejoiced.

In few more seconds he finally released them. Rainbow Dash immediately spread her wings and slowed down. Bluve made several flips, but then managed to remain in stable position. The ground was already near, so researchers pulled the rings. A snatch, then mighty jerk behind, and parachutes were opened.

“Well, how was that?” Edez asked, still grinning.
“You were the first pony who scared me when flying for the last year,” Rainbow Dash said. “It speaks for itself.”
“I’m glad you’re happy.”
“Hey, we are approaching Ponyville!” Bluve exclaimed.
“The wind is favorable,” curator said, having made a check.
“Then we’ll be near the town in no time!” Rainbow Dash said.

The rest of the way was calm. Edez, Bluve and Rainbow Dash slowly descended, having flown above the farms surrounding the town, admiring the sight of the setting Sun, and landed on the edge of the town park.

“That was awesome!” said Rainbow Dash when they already were on the ground. “Though you have no wings, you can fly, and fly well!”
“Thank you,” researchers responded.
“We should do this again someday.”
“Agree.”
“Oh, and do other have such experience?”
“Well, among us only Lierre and Antilipsi hadn’t parachuted before,” answered Bluve.
“Then we’ll teach them!” blue pegasus grinned.
“They will not mind.”
“Heh, okay… Again, thank you for making me a company.”
“Thank you for awesome visit!” researchers responded together.
“You’re welcome! See ya!”
“Goodbye!”

Rainbow Dash soared up and flew away. Researchers packed the parachutes and went to the town.

Before going home, they decided to visit the Castle and check are their friends still there and how young masters are doing.

The Sun had disappeared under the horizon, and the sky had become golden and red, when they climbed the front stairs and knocked on the door. It began to open slowly. If so, then it was Kor.

Soon the doors were opened wide enough, and researchers went in. As they expected, they met their big brown colleague near the entrance. But, except him, there was no one around.

“Good evening,” Edez and Bluve greeted their friend.
“You too,” Kor responded. “How was your trip?”
“Amazing!” Bluve widely smiled.
“Cloudsdale indeed is very interesting place to see,” said Edez.
“And…”
“We brought the samples,” Edez interrupted Kor, having understood what he was going to ask.
“Entire hundredweight of samples,” added Bluve.
“Well, ain’t that something!” Kor smiled.
“Yeah, now we have everything to understand their weather control mechanism!” said Edez.
“Say, where are the others? And where are miss Twilight and Spike?” Bluve asked.
“Others are already home, preparing for the Event. Our young masters are in the library. They told me that we may go, but I decided to stay here if you decided to look in.”
“Oh, and how Sheim was?” Edez wondered, smiling slyly and maliciously.
“Sheim…” Kor suddenly paused. “Dammit! Right! We’ve forgot to get him out of the chest!”
“You what?!”
“What happened to him?” Bluve was terrified.
“Well, turned out that Maud Pie fell head over heels in love with our Sheim and decided not to hide her feelings,” Kor explained. “We don’t know exactly what she did to him, but after the dinner Sheim, all foamy, ran there and asked us to hide him somewhere where Maud won’t be able to find him. We hid him in the chest in our storeroom. Later Maud came here, looking for Sheim. We had to do our best to rescue our friend and say that we haven’t seen him. Maud attentively listened, then just sighed, looked around like she was scanning, said “Okay then” and went away.”
“Jeez.”
“Eh… Is it even safe to get him out now?” suddenly Edez asked.
“I dunno,” Kor shrugged. “But as far as I remember, Pinkie Pie said that her parents and sisters on the farm go to bed early.”
“Okay… Let’s help him.”

And they went to the storeroom.

Some time earlier, in one of the hotel rooms in Dodge City…

“Hey, what is this letter?” asked Cloubreaker, seeing that Dim Silhouette returns from the reception holding an envelope with her magic.
“It’s from Headquarters,” she answered.
“I have a bad feeling about it,” uttered Razor Edge. “If they sent a letter to us here… Definitely more bad things happened.”
“Or they wanted to inform us about something very important,” Hidden Path supposed. “Dim, open it.”

Gray mare nodded, got out the letter from the envelope and quickly looked through it.

“What do they say?” asked Grace.
“They want to inform us about mysterious observation made at Steedpeak Observatory. Astronomers there reported on two strange supernovas they saw two weeks before.”
“And what so strange was about them?”
“Astronomers say that they just call them “supernovas”, what it was exactly they have no idea. They registered two flashes between Aphrodite and Ares, short, but rather powerful, in the area where there were no visible stars. There were no fiery tails like meteors have. And those flashes happened at the same time.”
“What?” Grace and Razor Edge exclaimed.
“This is pure madness!” terrified Cloudbreaker shook his head. “Ponies with abilities that no other equines have, then artificial annihilators, then that murder, and now this! What’s going on here?”
“I-I don’t know…” spelled Grace. “But all these things are connected, definitely!”
“What should we do?” uttered Razor Edge.
“Learn more,” Hidden Path said.
“What? Learn more?”
“We still have only facts set, and, looking at them, our logic says that all these things are connected. It looks obvious. But we have no proof of those connections. To do something about it, we must find the confirmation.”
“But… where?” Dim Silhouette asked.
“Hmmm… We must split. I’ll return to Ponyville with Dim. You’ll have to watch our strange friends and inform us about their moves,” he said to gray mare. “I’ll check Calma’s reaction on some of the latest news. You,” he turned to others, “stay here and investigate that murder thoroughly. Grace, you’ll be in charge. If you won’t find anything, return to Ponyville HQ.”
“Got it.”
“There’s something really scale happening out there. And it can be far beyond our imagination…”

Quasi sat still on the bed in his hotel room, eyes closed, breath and metabolism slowed down. Lights were off, windows were curtained. Whole room was plunged into darkness. It seemed that time stopped inside the room. But, in fact, Quasi was active as never before. His mind flashed through lands around and far away from Dodge City. He was scanning. Scanning everything.

Having spent several days in city’s library, he learned everything what he needed for now. There was no one here able to resist ga’ke, except for five very special being, which could become a problem. He estimated the possibilities for Coming, now he had to prepare the planet – eliminate all possible obstacles.

Let’s see… Beyond the forests, huge white castle on the mountain, two beings, incredibly powerful. Five hundred and seventeen milligrads away. Beyond the forest, on the other side, small town, two beings, the most and the least powerful ones. Three hundred and forty eight milligrads away. Far away, among snow and ice, crystal palace, one being, not the most powerful. Three thousand one hundred and nine milligrads away. All five gather from time to time in that white castle, the capital residence. If so, then it should be the place where he must go. Departure – in the morning.

Quasi focused one more time, and images of the beings were obtained.

“Aims are taken,” he said and opened his eyes.