A Mirror of many Faces

by Jyuuma

Chapter 8: Sky High Trouble

Cloudsdale had always been, by nature, a place bursting with life and activity, as Pegasus ponies of all colors and sizes would be seen flying around from one spot to the other, the majority of them taking care of weather-related tasks on a daily, scheduled basis. Given the current situation, however, with so many ponies disappearing, such tasks hadn’t been taken care of as usual, which meant an extra strain on the remaining ponies.

Including, but not limited to, Rainbow Dash.

“I swear…I had never wanted a nap…so badly…” she sighed to herself as she barely made it to her room. Being an official Wonderbolt, she couldn’t escape from the many Search & Rescue shifts the entire force was being assigned those last few days. Flying all over Equestria, day in and day out, was taking its toll on her, and at this very moment she wished for no more but a decent break.

Maybe a couple of hours had passed since she just plopped in her bed, but she felt them like mere 5 minutes, when somepony knocked at her door. At first she tried to cover her face with a pillow, but after some persistent knocking, she whined quietly and replied.

“…Alright, alright, I’m coming...” She said. “This better be good or else…” she whispered as she attended the door.

In front of her was standing a slender blue pony, with a white fluffy mane combed in swirls upwards, wearing an orange bowtie, with clouds as his Cutie Mark. “I’m terribly sorry for cutting your rest short, Miss Dash.” Apologized a worried Fluffy Clouds.

“…It’s ok, Fluffs.” She replied, stretching a little. “What is it?”

“I’m afraid to communicate all pegasi off-duty are being called to the rain factory. They said it was an emergency.” He said in a hurry. “Please gather whatever you need and come with us.”

“…Right. I’ll be there shortly.” She replied. Fluffy Clouds nodded back and took off. She turned around, picked up her saddle bag and started grabbing a few items, among them some snacks. As she was gathering her belongings, though, she stopped for a moment to look at a photo she had sitting on a drawer. It was a photo of her with her friends. She couldn’t help but stare at it for a few moments, hoping that she could reunite with them as soon as she could. Letting out a heavy sigh, she placed the photo back on the drawer, tied her bag, and flew away.

As she approached the factory she could sort of tell what the problem was. The very bottom of the facility was nothing but black clouds that seemed to threaten to pour down more than an entire dam on Ponyville, even with sightings of heavy thunder. She spotted a crowd of pegasi outside of the place, and hurried to join them.

“Alright everypony, I trust y’all have an idea of what we’re dealing with this time.” She could hear Crafty Crate say as she and the last available pegasi were arriving. “Since we all haven’t been able to take care of the weather on these last few days, clouds have been going out of control and, as y’all can see, they are threatenin’ to pour down one of the meanest storms ever, lightnin’ included. Y’all know what to do.”

All the pegasi nodded and took off. Some formed groups to assess the situation, but Dash was among the few that went in alone. As she flew closer to the stormy clouds, she could get a better view of them. An entire week of the clouds not being given proper care had rendered them into a dark and large cumulonimbus, which indeed was threatening to bring one of the meanest storms onto Ponyville just below, complete with thunder and all.

Difficult, but nothing she couldn’t help handle. Dash nodded to herself and flew into the clouds.

---

It had taken roughly an hour, but the pegasi had managed to reduce the cumulonimbus. While it wasn’t completely gone just yet, it had gone from a menacing thunderstorm to just a heavy downpour. It would take just a little longer till they would fully dissipate it…

“Emergency! Emergency at the lightning storage!” Fluffy Clouds would shout and fly toward the group of pegasi in a hurry.

“What’s going on Fluffs?” Dash asked, taking a pause from the clouds, along with a few other ponies.

“There appears to be some ruckus happening at the lightning storage, it seems we got a burglar!” he said.

Dash raised an eyebrow, then rushed towards the place in question. The lightning storage was a medium-sized building where they kept mass-produced magic power cells, which were created, charged by lightning and shipped with the purpose of powering up a wide range of devices. They were mostly sent to and used at big cities like Manehattan to power up its many buildings, though they were sometimes used for emergencies at smaller towns like Ponyville and Appleloosa as well.

They were also popular among manufacturers by their instability if mishandled.

As she arrived to the storage, Dash could hear explosions, and a commotion from the ponies that had arrived before her.

“What’s happening!?” she asked to a nearby Pegasus mare.

“I’m not exactly sure, they mentioned something about a burglar, and by the time we arrived there were explosions everywhere already. Whoever it is it seems it’s throwing power cells at us to keep us away.” The mare replied.

“Alright, I’m going to take a closer look.” Dash replied quickly before flying into the building. She could see the storage was a mess: Broken crates everywhere, scattered equipment, she could see ponies fleeing everywhere, and a few injured along the way. She rushed to help them, and told them to look for more injured ponies and help them leave safely as well. As she continued flying to the center of the building, she began to ponder. “This place literally only holds lightning power cells, and at most some office supplies.” She thought to herself. “If this guy’s just throwing the cells all willy-nilly like this, then what could they be looking for?”

Flapping her wings to get rid of the surrounding smoke, she finally arrived towards the center of the ruckus. Right in the middle, he could see a Unicorn stallion opening a large crate, grinning as he looked at what was contained inside.

“Hey you!” She yelled at him. “What’s the big deal!? You can’t just barge in and start making a mess just like that!”

The stallion turned around and snarled at her, clearly annoyed at yet another pegasus trying to interrupt him. He began to levitate a power cell and promptly threw it at her, but she managed to dodge it with ease. He levitated a few more cells, and began throwing them at her. However, he seemed to just throw them in her general direction, constantly failing to hit her.

“This guy sure has pretty bad aim.” Dash thought. After evading a few more cells, though, she started to realize the stallion’s intention, as the smoke she had dispersed before had returned, blocking her vision.

“Dang, is he trying to cover his escape? Not gonna happen!” She whispered to herself as she dived straight into the smoke again. Just as she did, though, the world around her felt as in slow motion, as another power cell was heading straight onto her face, her eyes widening as it started glowing…

Next thing she knew, her entire body was lying down in pain, particularly her head, her ears were ringing badly, and she could barely open her eyes. She only managed to spot the stallion through the dispersing smoke, as he grinned, levitated the crate, and teleported away.

“…N…no…w…w-wait…”

She tried with all her might to stand back up, but her body would simply not respond as she wanted. She was surprised to be conscious, or even alive, after the cell exploded right in front of her. She had little time to think of this, though, as the building was now in flames around her. She had to hurry out or surviving the explosion would be for naught. Knowing herself, she totally wanted to brag about surviving such a blast in the first place.

As she kept trying to stand up, thought, she managed to see a cloaked figure teleporting in, evidently another unicorn, looking around and spotting her, and rushing towards her to pick her up and take her to safety.

“W-who…are y…you…w-hy…are you…helping…m..e…”

Her ears were still ringing but she managed to hear the mare. “Sshh, worry not Miss Dash, you’ll make it out of here.” The mare unicorn replied in what sounded like a rushed voice, even though she tried to keep her composure. “I’m terribly sorry for arriving this late, we weren’t certain where exactly He would appear again, but at least now we have a better idea of his current plan…” She continued, as she carried Dash away from the debris.

“…he…plan…wh-what…” Dash trailed off, as she started to lose consciousness. She could hear the mare telling her to stay awake, but it was for naught, as she would finally faint, but not before being able to spot the mare’s cutie mark, a crescent moon covered by a fine mist.

---

“…hm…uh…hu…huh?” Dash mumbled, before she shot up, eyes wide open, and looked around herself. She was sitting in a hospital bed, bandages everywhere. Next to her bed, Spitfire, the current leader of the Wonderbolts, was sitting nearby.

“Hey Dash.” She greeted, smiling. “Glad to see you made it.”

“…Spitfire? I…what…where…how long…” Dash started, but stopped as a sharp pain cut through her side, making her wince.

“Now now, don’t rush it.” Spitfire said. “It’s been almost a day since the incident. The doctors said you were pretty lucky to survive an exploding power cell to the face. What were you thinking?”

“I…sorry.” Dash apologized. “There was this stallion at the storage…he was taking something…I just wanted to stop him. I didn’t think he’d try to trick me like that.”

“Stuff like this is part of the Wonderbolts training, you should have known better.” Spitfire said with a stern look in her face, making Dash look down. “Don’t worry, I’m not mad, just worried. We are friends, remember?” she sighed, her expression softening a bit.

“Besides, I’d hate to lose one of the best flyers in Equestria.” She joked, making Dash look up a bit, letting out a soft chuckle.

“Well, guess I get to brag about surviving a lightning explosion to the face, don’t I?” Dash grinned.

“You sure do.” Spitfire replied with a smile.

A few moments of silence passed before Dash spoke again. “Is…everypony alright?” she asked Spitfire.

“Don’t worry, we didn’t lose anypony.” She assured. “Just a few injured that spoke well of you too, and asked me to thank you for helping them out.”

Dash sighed, relieved, before she began to ponder. “Do you know what that guy took from the storage? As far as I know it’s only used to keep power cells, and he was throwing them all over the place, so I’m guessing he wasn’t looking for them.”

“I was wondering about that too, and went to ask the crew at the factory.” Spitfire said. “From what they told me, the only other thing kept in there besides power cells was an old device, some sort of prototype for a larger cell or something.” She continued. “They apparently never got it to work though. Other than that it seems he did take a few power cells anyway.”

“I see…” Dash replied, then she remembered something else. “Wait! There was somepony else, a mare that helped me out after the explosion! If it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t even be here.” She continued. “She also seemed to know more about that stallion as well.”

Spitfire raised an eyebrow. “From what the ponies that were outside the storage said, you were found lying alone outside as well, far from everypony else. There was nopony else with you.”

Dash stared at her, then looked down, deep in thought. After a few more seconds, she lied back down, and began speaking again. “After all this mess, I’d really like to talk with Twilight and the rest of my friends now, though I know they’ll be mad when they learn of what happened.” She said. “As much as I’d like to hurry back to them, though, my body just won’t respond as I’d like just yet, and I don’t want to make them worry more than what they already would…so I think I’m going to write them a letter instead.” She blushed a little. “Um…think you could help me with that?” she asked Spitfire.

She smiled back at Dash and nodded. “I’ll bring a scroll and a plume. And worry not, I’ll make sure to swiftly deliver it myself to Miss Sparkle and the rest of your friends as well. For now, just rest. We are going to need you back up as soon as possible.” She finished as she stood up and went out of the room.

Dash smiled at her as she saw Spitfire leaving the room, then stared at the ceiling, still deep in thought. She began to wonder about her friends in Ponyville, hoping they were all ok. With this wish in her mind, she felt her eyelids closing, slowly drifting to sleep.