• Published 13th May 2012
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Austraeoh - Imploding Colon

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Cloud

“Okay, hooves,” Rainbow Dash murmured, licking her lips and leaning forward. “Work your pegasus magic.”

Carefully, she stuck her hooves into the columns of steam wafting out of the metal vents. She brought her forelimbs together and pulled them toward her chest, as if she was hugging the air itself.

“Come on... Come on...” she whispered.

With twitching feathers, she curled her wings forward like an extra pair of limbs. Nimbly, she formed a dome around the rising steam with the combination of her hooves, chin, and downy appendages. At first, it seemed as if nothing was happening. Then, in the haze of a distant lantern hanging along the wall of New Ring, the mist grew thickier and foggier within the pocket built by Rainbow's body parts.

“Oh yeah... There ya go...” She murmured, grinning wickedly. “Just like sculping cumulus clouds back at home. Come on... You can do it...”

The vapors coalesced. The steam from the vent was now feeding the blob of murky air. The improvised cloud grew even thicker, and soon Rainbow Dash had a veritable platform bouncing in her grasp. The cloud started to rise, as if from its own volition. Rainbow Dash's wings buzzed as her body levitated to match the ascent. To her satisfaction, none of the auto-turrets above were making a single noise.

“Yes... Yes, this is it...” She gulped and pressed her body deep into the center of the rising platform of mist. She sense the lanternlight along the wall growing fainter as she rapidly climbed the smoggy Darkstine sky. The leering metal bodies of the gun turrets were just within a sneeze's distance, and she chanted over and over again, “I'm a cloud. I'm a cloud. I'm a cloud. I'm a cloud...”

Sure enough, not a single blast was to be heard. Rainbow Dash's body was encased in steam and moisture. The turrets' magic found no pegasus intruder to target.

“Hah! Yeah!” she cackled victoriously as the misty bed brought her beyond the topmost height of the wall. “Rainbow Dash is best cloud! Ahem...” She flicked her tail so that it no longer dangled out of the vaporous disguise. “Okay. Now to just... go west.” She gulped. “Going west isn't so hard, r-right?”

Her wings flapped, gently at first. Slowly, she began propelling herself away from East New Ring. Soon, her steamy platform was violating the airspace of Duke Zaap Nator's districts. She glanced below, her ruby eyes squinting as she tried to make out the shapes of the buildings beyond the deep pit. The wall was the only part of the city still lit during the current power outtage. While all of the Darkstinians' homes were pitch-black, the one symbol of the province's political divide was burning like a birthday cake. She tried not to distract herself with pondering over that ironic detail.

“So just where the heck was Flower Gears staying...?” Rainbow Dash scanned the various shapes and shadows below. “If the learning facility was something the Duke was monitoring, then it couldn't have been too far from the wall. That stallion seems to like hearing himself give those crazy speeches. Ah!” She smirked suddenly.

There were a quartet of rectangular shapes space apart from each other with a broad courtyard in the middle. Rainbow Dash judged that it was no less than a five minute trot from the wall, as well as the deep pit of the missing obelisk itself. It help that she was seeing the lavender light leading into the cylindrical abyss, otherwise she might have noticed the buildings.

“They look enough like bunkers to me.”

With a deep breath, she began piercing her blue hooves through the bed of steam.

“Alright, now to just deflate this a bit and softly descend—”

The cloud dissolved in a vaporous gasp.

“Poopsicles!”

Rainbow Dash hissed, flailed, and fell. She dropped like a naked rock through the airspace of Darkstine. Clock towers and frozen pendulums soared up past her. She plummeted past walkways, skyscrapers, and a shiny monorail track. Just as her body rocketed into the courtyard between the four bunkers, she flared her wings out, dragged air, and landed heavily on all four hooves.

There was a loud, coordinated beeping noise as eight menacing sets of auto-turrets swiveled in the darkness and aimed directly at her in the center of the courtyard.

Rainbow Dash froze still in the shadows, her legs bent, her face twitching under a sheen of sweat.

Silence...

The turrets beeped again, swiveled away from her, and pivoted back towards where they were witlessly guarding the sky.

Rainbow Dash's entire body slumped down to the metal surface. “Whew....”

And then, with a loud crackle of deep bass noise, the power to the city switched back on. Four sets of lanterns flashed to life overhead. As a result, a golden halo of bright light was shimmered directly onto Rainbow Dash's figure, exposing her like a blue needle in a haystack.

Beeping madly, the auto-turrets swung back and immediately fixated on her. Their noises turned into a shrill banshee cry as the barrels grew hot with plasma discharge.

Rainbow Dash grumbled, “I really don't like this place...”

And then her voice was drowned out by weaponized thunder.

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