20 - You'll Make Your Mark
“Hurry along children,” the guide beckoned, the shadow of the weather factory looming above them.
Little Wing had never gotten so close to the ever so prominent structure within the city of Cloudsdale, despite the weather factory being both one of the most important buildings in the city and the place of her father’s employment. It was from this structure that the pegasi used their magic to manipulate the weather within Equestria’s borders to the extent that they did, and did so far more efficiently than a team of weather ponies could manage in the same time frame.
However, it did have a history of malfunctions. At least one of which was entirely Rainbow Dash’s fault.
But that was entirely beside the point. Little Wing and the rest of her classmates had been taken by the Junior Flight School on a school trip to come see the famed weather factory first hoof. They were to be given a tour around the areas of the factory designated as safe for such an affair, seeing the day to day lives of the workers and how the factory functioned.
Little Wing couldn’t help but gave a challenging glare at one of the protruding rainbows, considering it a cheap knock off compared to what her elder sister could pull off with her speed alone.
But as it was the class had been gathered around the front entrance by the accompanying teaching staff where a pegasus mare had been ready and waiting for them. The fillies and colts gathered around said mare as she called out to them, reading something from a clipboard held in one of her wings.
“Alright, everything seems to be in order…” she muttered to herself, her tongue slightly sticking out the side of her muzzle as she concentrated on what she was reading. “Alrighty then, let’s begin!”
The tour guide gave the class a welcoming smile, obscuring her clipboard beneath her wing before addressing the group once more.
“Hello there!” she greeted cheerfully. “You can call me Sunny Days, and I’m going to be your tour guide throughout your visit. Is everypony ready to go?”
She got a round of nodding and a couple of more audible confirmations from the children, and a final affirmative nod from the teacher in charge.
“Excellent! The tour shall commence in just a moment,” Sunny Days stated. “First, a few ground rules to remember. First off, do not touch the machinery under any given circumstances. Stay within the boundaries and do not trot where you are not meant to be. Do not disturb the workforce beyond a polite greeting, and do not eat or drink from your packed lunches until we reach the cafeteria. Any troublemakers will sadly be forced to sit the rest of the trip out, understood?”
“Pfft, like we’d cause any trouble,” Silver Breeze snidely commented from somewhere in the back.
Little Wing and Misty Gust both couldn’t help but roll their eyes.
“Now that the unpleasant bit is out of the way,” Sunny Days continued. “Do follow me. If anyone has a question, or just needs to use the little filly’s room at any point, don’t hesitate to ask.”
With that, the guide turned her backs on the group and walked through the main entrance of the factory, the teachers corralling the class in behind her like a group of pigs into a pen.
And there were many ‘ooohs’ and ‘ahhhs’ upon entering the entrance hall.
The vast room had a single reception desk sitting directly in front of the entering group. Behind the desk was a staircase heading upwards while two other doorways on the ground floor led into other areas of the factory. The structure was largely made from a mix of highly compact cloud and white marble, four pillars lining the room with rainbow fountains streaking down their surfaces. Upon looking up, Little Wing could see several loose clouds lining the ceiling with an almost misty affect drifting among them.
“Oh, that’s really pretty,” Misty Gust commented, her eyes glued to the ceiling.
Little Wing realised her friend’s family also worked at the factory, and suspected she now knew where the inspiration for her name originated from.
“Yeah, I guess it is,” Little Wing agreed. “Think we’ll see our dads?”
“I don’t know,” Misty responded. “I kinda hope so though. I’ve never seen my dad’s job.”
“I haven’t either. Well, there’s no better time.”
The guide approached the reception desk and gave the receptionist her clipboard.
“The class is accounted for, make sure to log it.”
The receptionist just grunted in bored manner in response, taking the clipboard. Sunny Days gave the pony a deadpan glare, before returning her smile back onto her muzzle.
“Alright class, follow me!”
Sunny Days led the class up the main staircase behind the reception desk. At the top of the stairs was a central door that appeared to be locked, with several other doors lining the second floor of the entrance hall. Sunny Days led the class to the doorway directly left of the locked important looking door, and led them on through it.
The doorway took the group onto a wide metal catwalk spanning across an extremely large inner space. As the class were led onto the catwalk they could see various large-scale machinery being tended to by a small army of pegasi. There was another catwalk on the other side of the room, and between them on the wall there seemed to be a control station that the important looking door almost certainly led to. The workface flew back and forth as they utilised the various machines, many of which seemed to be producing various elemental effects that would be imbedded within the clouds themselves.
Seeing all of this for the first time, the buried human inside Little Wing couldn’t help but balk at the sight.
“Here we have the main factory floor,” Sunny Days announced. “This is where the elemental effects produced by our various departments are transferred. These machines condense collected water vapor into the average cloud you might find out among the, well… clouds.”
Silver Breeze snorted rather loudly.
Ignoring that, the guide continued. “Then our equipment uses their inbuilt magic to embed the elemental effects within the cloud itself, creating a variety of things from thunder to snowfall.”
“Could you make fire clouds?” a random colt asked curiously.
Sunny raised an eyebrow. “Theoretically yes, with the right enchantment. But I don’t think we’d want to do that anytime soon.”
“Oh, OK.”
Sunny coughed into a hoof. “Anyhow, once a batch is complete, and Cloudsdale as a whole has been positioned where we need it to be, the gathered clouds are released. This way we can give the land below the desired environmental effect to do things like help the growth of crops to simply bringing about the spirit of Hearth’s Warming. This is the whole reason why our fair city, unlike even some other cloud cities like Las Pegasus, does not have a singular fixed location.”
“But you do other stuff too, right?” another child enquired.
Sunny Days nodded. “We do indeed. Our weather controls stations can manipulate the strength of the winds, and with the cooperation of Princess Celestia we can even moderate the average temperature during the day. And, my little pony, I’m sure you have glimpsed the rainbows decorating the factory. Within Equestria only the Everfree Forest and Frozen North are beyond our manipulation.”
“How come?”
“The Everfree is a… special case,” Sunny Days answered simply, not elaborating. “As for the Frozen North, the wild elements are simply two powerful for these machines to handle. And are most certainly too much for any weather team.
“How does it work?” Misty Gust called out. “The machines and stuff, I mean. It’s really different to when weather teams do it.”
“It is, and in some areas not so much,” Sunny Days answered. “For one, only a pegasi’s innate magic can allow us to fully work this equipment properly. A unicorn might be able to wave his or her horn a bit, but not to the same effect. As for the rest of it, a blending of sciences both magical and industrial. If you’re interested, I’m sure you can endeavour to learn the technicalities as you grow older.”
Sunny Days then began to point out the various machines and exactly what effect each was imbuing within the clouds they produced. Little Wing was distracted from this, however, when she spotted a rainbow maned stallion wandering the factory floor. Bow Hothoof was moving aside a few tufts of excess cloud that had escaped the previous batch, before filling the now empty machine with some water. He closed up the hatch and twisted various dials until the machine began to give a soft hum, the water inside beginning the process of being condensed into cloud.
The stallion then glanced up at the catwalk, and spotted his daughter watching him from afar. Little Wing waved her little hoof at him, and with a smile he waved back, silently promising to catch up with her later. At the cafeteria for lunch, perhaps?
It was then that a panicked shout caught the attention of both father and daughter.
“And now, children, we shall move on into the rainbow pro-” Sunny Days was also interrupted by the shout, and then further as a cloud shattering BOOM rocked the factory floor.
The fillies and colts all screamed as a bolt of overcharged lightening obliterated the catwalk just ahead of them, the structure screeching and collapsing down to the floor below as pegasi bolted to get out of the way. They just had to thank their lucky stars that they had the foresight to enchant it so not to conduct electricity, all just in case of such an event.
As Little Wing’s eyes trained to the source, she saw that the machine responsible for the production of lightening clouds had all but burst open as a blackened mass inside spewed on out into the factory, flashes of light visible within.
“Storm cloud!” Sunny Days shouted in alarm. “Uh, children! Move back into the reception area in a calm and orderly manner, now!”
An alarm started sounding as the panicked foals began to scramble to safety. Many of the factory workers began moving off to a safe distance while others move to tackle the storm cloud. However, whatever malfunction the machine had suffered had severely overcharged the black mass, and it was spewing out near lethal bolts as frequently as Pinkie Pie produced parties.
Just as the group was moving through the doorway another streak of lightening shot out, narrowly missing both a worker and the group atop the catwalk. However, the bolt did strike the wall near to the exiting Little Wing. The small blast caused Little Wing both stumble and flap her wings in fright, the momentum sending her over the catwalk’s railing.
“Little Wing!” a panicked and upset Misty called out, just as she was all but shoved out of the main factory floor.
“Ugh…” Little Wing groaned as she rubbed her sore head. “Owie…”
The filly had managed to land head first, but had used her wings to slow her descent enough that she wasn’t seriously hurt beyond a throbbing headache.
Then another bang and the sound of rubble collapsing heralded a stallion scooping the filly up into his hooves.
“Little Wing!” Bow shouted in panic, examining his daughter for injury. “You’re… alright, oh thank Celestia!”
“Dad?” Little Wing looked up at her father’s worried features, and then over to the storm cloud that was retreating through a brand new hole in the wall.
A couple of the workers were slumped to the floor in serious pain, having been struck by one of the weaker bolts to be produced by the monster cloud. The cloud had left devastation in its wake as it fully exited the factory, invading the unfortunate city beyond.
“Come on, I’m getting you out of here,” Bow stated as he deposited Little Wing onto his back. “Hang on.”
“Wait!” Little Wing shouted. “What about the cloud?”
“We have ponies to deal with it,” Bow replied. “And they will, when they get here.”
“But what about before?” Little Wing asked, looking towards the hurt ponies. “Won’t more ponies get hurt?”
Bow grimaced. “Maybe. But everything will be fine, it’s just an accident. We need to-”
“I don’t want ponies to be hurt!” Little Wing announced, glaring out at the storm cloud that had ruined their day.
Before Bow could stop his child, she had shot off of his back at a speed that would have made her elder sister shed liquid pride. Her father’s shout was lost behind her, and neither did she notice him immediately turn to give chase.
Little Wing blasted on out of the hole and into open sky, shooting towards the offending and highly dangerous cloud.
There was a moment, just a moment, where she wondered just exactly what she was doing. Her previous parents had never thought she’d amount to anything, that she’d never do anything worthwhile for someone else. A waste of space and time, nothing more.
And here she was, facing down what could have been another early death.
She didn’t have time to regret her life choices as she narrowly avoided electrocution with a startled yelp, but her speed didn’t decrease. Another larger bolt struck out at a pathway just outside of the factory, nearly striking a family of three who had been sightseeing. A few inches to the left and they would have been fried.
That silenced the doubt. She had to stop it.
Trying to think back on her own practice and what she had seen both her sisters perform in their Wonderbolt related activities, Little Wing narrowly avoided another bolt as she twisted around and aligned herself so that she would impact the cloud hind hooves first.
And the impact cut the cloud into two perfect halves.
The cloud gave what sounded like a roar as much of its internal energy was expelled by the impact, but not completely. However, two weak halves were better than one strong whole. Little Wing twisted around one of the clouds and gave it a hard buck, unleashing its remaining lightening into the sky high above them. She then twisted and did the same to the second half, the second thunderbolt also striking high into the air above where any pegasi would be flying.
Little Wing then flipped backwards and observed her work. Only a few now white tufts of cloud remained, floating off by themselves to lands unknown. No other sign of the gigantic cloud remained, and with its passing so had the danger dissipated.
Little Wing was panting slightly, so mesmerised by what she had just done she completely missed the flash came from either side of her. Her brain was only just catching up with her actions, unbelieving as to what her body had just done.
“YAHOOO!” Little Wing shouted and laughed in victory. “TAKE THAT CLOUD!”
Her massive grin faltered slightly as she caught sight of Bow Hothoof out of the corner of her eye. She turned to face him, and immediately noticed his shocked stare and the fact that his jaw had fallen so far it might as well have been touching the rolling green plains below Cloudsdale.
“Oh…” she muttered sheepishly. “I’m grounded, aren’t I?”
Bow Hothoof blinked, and then shook his head to bring his faculties back into order. “Uh, no. Not quite, not this time.”
He gently flew towards his daughter, and then gestured towards her flank.
“I think you were meant to do that.”
Little Wing gave him a confused look. “Huh?”
The filly looked down to what he was pointing towards, and promptly froze. Right there, on her flank, was the silhouette of a majestic phoenix rising out between two separate gigantic wings rolled out alongside the bird.
A phoenix. Rising out of the ashes of the old and into the new.
Wings. She was born to fly.
“MY CUTIE MARK!” Little Wing gushed excitedly.
Streamers and confetti caked the walls as several ponies within the home of Bow Hothoof and Windy Whistles shouted in celebration. Several banners hung from those confetti covered walls, all depicting the same image of the phoenix between two wings.
“She got her cutie mark!” Windy Whistles exclaimed definitely not for the millionth consecutive time while pointing towards said mark with a grin even bigger than Little Wing’s own. “CUTIE MARK!”
“Alright honey, we get it,” Bow Hothoof said with a laugh, placing the shield shaped award with Little Wing’s mark decorated on it to one side. “Give her some room to breathe.”
“Yes please…” Little Wing muttered as she escaped her mother’s bear hug. “Breathing is nice. Breathing is good…”
“Yeah, you really showed that cloud who’s boss,” Rainbow Dash said, putting aside her mug of cider. “Couldn’t have done it better myself, squirt.”
Little Wing glowed at her elder sister and idol’s praise, glomping her in an enthusiastic embrace immediately after.
Rainbow Dash chuckled, placing Little Wing back onto the ground. “Yeah, love you too buddy. Proud of you.”
“We all are,” Scootaloo added in, ruffling Little Wing’s mane. “I remember when I got mine, wasn’t as cool yours though.”
“Nah,” Rainbow Dash denied while ruffling Scootaloo’s own mane in turn, much to her irritation. “Yours was awesome in its own way!”
The Wonderbolt reservist’s blush certainly contrasted with her coat colour.
“Yours was the coolest!” Little Wing claimed. “You did a sonic rainboom. You could have taken out, like, a million storm clouds with that!”
“You did do a sonic rainboom,” Scootaloo agreed.
“Yeah, I am awesome,” Rainbow noted. “But this isn’t about our marks, this is the squirt’s day! And that cutie mark is pretty damn cool!”
Rainbow Dash looked over at one of the banners displaying the very cutie mark they discussed. She put a hoof to her chin, humming in thought.
“Though, it’s actually not what I expected you to get. I thought there would be a cloud in it.”
“A cutie mark is rarely what you expect,” Scootaloo stated, also looking at the banner.
“I’ll take you word for it,” Rainbow replied. “You are the expert after all.”
“Yeah, Cutie Mark Crusaders!” Little Wing added in.
Rainbow nodded. “So, Miss Crusader, what does her mark mean?”
Little Wing’s smile fell, and she suddenly felt a little worried. “Uh, I mean… does it matter?”
Scootaloo didn’t hear her, too busy studying the mark. “We’ve gotten pretty good and translating the various meanings of cutie marks, and the wings are obvious enough. Flying, soaring through the air like she did to batter that storm cloud into submission. But the phoenix…”
Okay, now Little Wing was feeling more than a little nervous.
“I’m… not entirely sure. It usually means things like rebirth, resurrection… But I guess it could also be the flight of a phoenix.”
“Or maybe she’s destined to be Philomena’s caretaker,” Rainbow Dash joked. “It has to be the flying thing, Dad was pretty descriptive about the moves you pulled back there.”
Little Wing allowed her worry to die away, replaced with a blush. “Well, I mean… I couldn’t let it hurt anypony else.”
Rainbow Dash chuckled, giving her little sister a light nuzzle. “And that, Little Wing, is the real reason you deserve that cutie mark.”
Little Wing giggled at the attention, nuzzling her elder sister back.
If only she hadn’t then caught sight of that alicorn watching her, standing in the corner of the room where none but Little Wing reacted to her presence.
And then, in but a blink, she was gone again.
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Cutie mark!!! Woohoo!
Neat cutie mark I wonder what the future holds for Little Wing.
Could mean that she will own a Pontiac Trans Am when she's older!
Now I really think that Penumbra has something planned for her.....
it's oblivious the phoenix means that is gonna burn D0wn the FoUnDAtI0ns 0F h0mE AnD RiSe Up t0 bECoMe a GOd
MWHAHAHAHAAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA THEN SHE SHALL TAKE OVER ALL OF EQUESTRIA AND CREATE THE
NEW! WORLD! ORDER! YEEEESSSSS!!!! MWHAHAHAHAHHA!!!!!
well that happened
Ah, the weather factory! One of my favourite theories about it... (NOT related to Rainbow Factory)
it might be better to say "as often s Pinkie Pie defied physics".
So Little Wing's cutie mark is sporting some big wings. Well, better than
https://didj.deviantart.com/art/Applebloom-Comic-281915168
yes first moment of real awesomness for Little wing
I kind of whished to see the reaction of the others if her class had seen it.
this is no complaint, but I hope they use it like that, destiny is fine but that they are allowed to interpret it how they want.
I think the picture in my heard from that cutiemark looks a bit better than that thing that looks like a police mark, but it's alright.
A really cool cutie mark. Still, wonder why the Princesses haven't caught the presense of this alicorn yet?
Ohhh, Hello.
Maybe her destiny is to become a musician and face down the terror that is... performing Stravinski.
The artist in me has to ask, shouldn't the phoenix in Little Wing's Cutie Mark be orange?
I get it's a bird rising up, but it doesn't convey a sense of "phoenix" to me...I think I've mentioned this somewhere else on the forums too
8544678
Well specifically it's the silhouette of a phoenix
8544695
Fair enough.
This is why we don't arrange elementary (or primary) school field trips to industrial complexes of any type.
So you're saying that her cutie mark is.... being a JOURNEY fan?
Don't stop believing Emma/Little Wing
what no rainbow factory reference
GODDANG IT
8543732
Maybe she exists on a different plane than the others.
Yay!
8655317
mayhaps only those touched by something beyond the realm of the living can see her properly?
Is it wrong that my very first thought was WoodenToaster's Rainbow Factory?
At this point, I expect to see her again in chapter 30, then 40. She only shows up every 10 chapters, it seems.
“Yeah?” Said a colt named Storm Cloud.
REFERENCE NUMBER TWO!
Like, uh..
What's it called, URANIUM, YES!
Uranium would do the trick!
*nervous laughter after realizing no one is gonna get the joke*
9346546
looking back on this it's a terrible joke
9346546
Balefire bad
Always with the silly questions, Firestorm. Where DO you get such ideas?