A perfectly ordinary weathermare stumbles upon a conspiracy that threatens the survival of Equestria itself. But who can she trust and who is a part of the threat. Most importantly: who will believe a pony with a record?
It's just another day of weather bucking for Stormy Skies. Nothing special, as usual. Then, like a bolt out of the blue, everything changes and nothing is the same again. Now she finds herself accused for crimes she didn't commit and threatened by unknown assailants. But can she trust the mysterious mare, Misty Morning, or is she a part of the plot as well?
Being a weather pony in Ponyville wasn’t all that exciting. Okay. Make that unexciting. Strike that. Boring. Boring would definitely describe it, but it didn’t really express what she felt sitting in the back row of seats in Ponyville’s weather office. De-exciting? But it wasn’t precisely enough. Anti-exciting! That’s the ticket. Every last little bit of exciting was sucked out of it by the mare at the front of the room before the chalkboard.
Rainbow Dash struck the chalkboard with her hoof, poking at the grid that lay over a map of Ponyville with her hoof. “Okay! So I’m going to take care of the skies here, here, here, here here here, here, annnnd here. Over here too!” She said, gesturing to more than half the map. The cyan pegasus grinned at the rest of the assembled pegasi as they sat attentively on their benches. “Should take me about ten seconds, as usual. Then I’ll be off with my friends, if anypony needs me.”
She began to point at others. “Flitter. Cloudchaser. You two can go scatter this low pressure system coming in from the east. Thunderlane. Bulk Biceps. We need some heavy duty cloud busting for the latest weather front from Cloudsdale. Blossomforth? Make sure they get over to Ponyville by noon so that Dew Drop, Sprinkle, and Starlight can sculpt them into these designs for Silver Bow’s cutecinera.”
Dew Drop, a tiny blue pegasus mare sitting next to the aquamarine Sprinkle, waved her hoof. “Oooh! Oooh! Can we make a cloud bow shooting cloud arrows at a cloud target?”
“Sure. Go nuts.” Rainbow Dash smiled with a dismissive wave of her hoof. The trio gave a squee of delight and started whispering ideas.
“Can I make a lightning bow that shoots lighting arrows?” the mare in the back muttered a tad louder than she’d intended, getting a lot of looks from the assembled pegasi. Rainbow Dash scowled at her from the front of the room, and the mare in the back crossed her hooves and hushed up. The sooner this was over with the sooner they’d both be happy.
Rainbow Dash pushed on. “Cloudsdale seems to be getting a little ahead of schedule. They’re sending waaaaay more clouds than what’s on the report," she said, brandishing a clipboard with a wing. "So Stormy, I want you to snag the excess and drag them over towards Appleloosa before kicking them loose, just like last week.” She leveled her gaze at the charcoal pegasus mare with the brilliant lightning striped mane. “Is that clear, Stormy Skies?”
Stormy ran through her selections of witty repartee and answered, “Whatever.” It was a short list.
“I can do that,” wheezed a red mare. “I don’t mind the flight to…” The mare broke off in a fit of coughing, and everypony leaned a little bit away from her, shielding their muzzles with their wings.
Rainbow Dash wore an expression of wary sympathy. “No offense, Rosewing, but you’re probably best going home. If that’s feather flu, you’re better off in bed. Seriously, don't mess around with that. And like I said, no offense, but I am not spending a week sick. The Wonderbolt reserve tryouts are this weekend and I’m not missing them again.”
“But I-“ the red mare said, looking stricken. “It’s a big job.”
“That’s okay. I have no intention of letting Stormy go off by herself,” Rainbow Dash said firmly.
Stormy rolled her brilliant yellow eyes and sighed. “Surprise surprise.”
“She can go with,” Rainbow Dash began, sweeping a wing across the few unassigned ponies remaining, pausing for a moment on a gray colt intern, Derpy, who eagerly grinned back, and finally settling on a prim white pegasus pony. “You! New girl. You just transferred in from Cloudsdale, right? Mmmmm….” Rainbow screwed up her face as she furrowed her brows. “Mmmmoonlight?”
“Misty Morning,” the mare corrected with a nervous smile. “I just got to Ponyville two days ago. I would have been here yesterday, but some pink earth pony insisted on throwing me a party.”
“Yeaaaaah. That’s Pinkie. She does that. A lot. You get used to it around here.” Rainbow Dash flew over to the white pegasus, her mane a pale green with slightly darker streaks of blue. Unlike Stormy, Misty’s mane spilled like a wintergreen waterfall about her shoulders. She belonged at a Canterlot garden party, not weather busting. Rainbow Dash gestured to Stormy with a warm smile. “Misty Morning? Stormy Skies. Stormy’s been in Ponyville for longer than I have so she should keep you from getting lost.”
Stormy eyed the pale, delicate mare and gave a wave of her wing. “Hey,” she said as nonchalantly as she could. The dark gray pegasus ran a hoof through her short erect yellow mane.
Rainbow Dash’s flat gaze said volumes in return about Stormy’s ‘hey’. She then regarded Misty. “Anyway, you work with Stormy and get those extra clouds out of here and over the desert. I’ve never seen a desert upset about a little extra rain. Hopefully those feather-heads in the Weatherworks can get the shipments settled.”
“Don’t hold your breath,” Stormy muttered.
“Yeah, tell me about it. I-“ Rainbow Dash began, then glared sourly at the charcoal gray mare. The cyan pegasus turned on hoof and trotted away. “Rumble. Derpy. I think I know what you can do during the party.”
Stormy sighed. That actually went far better than usual for her association with Rainbow Dash. She regarded the nervous, pale mare. Not much of a partner. Not that it was her call, regardless. “So. Misty Morning?” The pale mare gave a little nod and a nervous smile. “Let’s go. The sooner we dump these clouds in the desert, the sooner we can get off shift."
The pair headed for the door when Rainbow called out. “One sec, Moony Meadows!”
“Misty Morning,” the white pegasus replied softly.
“Right. Sorry,” Rainbow Dash said and then narrowed her eyes at Stormy Skies. “One last thing. Keep your eye on Miss Stormy Skies here. If she gets her hooves on some lightning, I want you to tell me. If she picks up excessive static electricity, I want to know. If she-”
“I get it. No lightning!” Stormy Skies snapped sharply. The office suddenly became very quiet as every pony on the weather team stared at her in shock and disapproval.
“Um, okay,” Misty replied warily, her pale jade eyes moving from Stormy and back, before dropping to her hooves.
Rainbow Dash and Stormy held a tense gaze for several seconds, then Stormy turned away first, trotting for the door. “I’ll wait for you outside.” She trotted out on to the small cloud that held the weather office. She moved to the far side of the landing to wait. That way, she could avoid all the awkward expressions and conversations nopony really wanted to have. When her partner emerged along with Rainbow Dash, Stormy contemplated the perfect white boring clouds on the horizon. She waited for the loud swoop announcing Rainbow’s departure before glancing back at the hesitant white mare. “Sorry. Office drama.”
“I gathered as much,” she replied delicately, watching Stormy warily but trying for a smile. “So. Where are we going, again?”
Stormy accepted the olive branch and nodded to the north, and together they took to the skies. "It's not far," she said, and noticed Misty Morning glancing back at the weather team headquarters. "Oh, hey, don't sweat it. Once everypony on the team knows you, it'll be smooth flying." Storm knew this air; the updraft from Ponyville Square and Sugarcube Corner lifting her higher while she avoided the cold air over Ponyville pond. "Rainbow's not the best manager, but she does care about her fliers."
"And you?" she asked with a worried frown.
"Oh, that's a whole 'nother story," Stormy Skies sighed. To her credit, for all their clashes, Rainbow still hadn't fired her or forced a transfer. Once they both had enough altitude, they started their way towards the thick bank of clouds drifting towards Ponyville. Thunderlane and Bulk Biceps were ahead and above, and Stormy wasn’t in any mood to flock. Instead she moved more to the side while behind them a blue blur whipped through the air and did the work of ten ponies.
“So. Ponyville is… nice,” Misty said in a tentative voice inviting conversation. When Stormy didn’t answer, she went on. “It’s certainly… interesting…”
The charcoal pegasus sighed and said evenly, “You don’t have to pretend to be nice, Misty. I know you probably didn’t want to fly with me for your first job in Ponyville. Soon as we’re done, I’ll talk to Dash and get you partnered back up with Rosewing. She’s a nice mare. She at least ignores me when we work.”
“Well, I have to admit, I am a little curious how you blew up Ponyville… twice,” Misty said with a weak smile.
Stormy Skies sighed and rolled her eyes. “I didn’t blow it all up. Just a few buildings here and there. It was… a little accident with some lightning.” She glanced back at her flank. The strident yellow forked lightning bolt spread across her flank like a fan from a black thundercloud on her hip. “Story of my life, really.” She caught the smile on Misty’s lips and added with a roll of her eyes, “And not a story I’m telling right now. I’d need a whole lot of apple cider in me before I go into the gory details.”
“Alright,” she said easily, as if she said it often, pulling her eyes away and lowering them to the ground below.
Stormy Skies watched her fly quietly for several seconds. “So what’s your story, new girl?” She glanced back at Misty’s flank. Her cutie mark was almost invisible: three wavy horizontal lines that she supposed were fog or cloud. “Are you a condensation specialist? Cloud sculptor?”
She blinked back in bafflement and then smiled a little. “Oh no. Nothing like that. I’m just a weatherpony.” Stormy gawked, staring at her in confusion. Just a weatherpony? Might as well say a unicorn was just a horn head. Misty looked away after a few seconds. “I just… it’s a job. I mean, managing weather is what most pegasi do, right?”
Storm stared at her and then gave a wide grin. “Yeah! Everypony just dreams of kicking clouds around.” The sarcasm passed right over her feathers.
“Miss Rainbow Dash seemed eager to do so,” Misty replied with that soft, passive smile.
Stormy had to bite back at least a half dozen retorts in ten seconds. It wasn’t easy, they were all trying to crawl out her mouth at once, scrambling to be first in line. Still, she didn’t know Misty. She might be the kind of mare who ran to the boss and told her everything she said for a wing up to a better position. “Dash is a racer. She doesn’t want to bust clouds for a living. She wants to tear across the skies. It just so happens that skill corresponds with keeping ninty percent of Ponyville clear. She only needs the rest of us when she doesn’t need the skies empty, or she’s got training, or her friends need her.” Try not to sound too envious, Stormy admonished herself. “In any case, she’s the fastest flier in Ponyville and best friends with Princess Twilight so… yeah.”
“Lots of history between you two?” Misty asked with a sympathetic smile.
“I dunno. People say we’re too much alike.” She rolled her eyes at that theory. “I have interests other than weather and she has other interests. I like to slack off when I’m bored. She takes naps like they’re going out of style. I have an attitude. She has an attitude. The only difference is she was never blamed for blowing up Ponyville. Twice.” Stormy knitted her brows and glanced skyward. “Sorry. Guess it is an issue for me.”
“Could be worse,” Misty replied, fumbling through the air as they hit a little gust of turbulence. “Whoa… okay! Steady… whew…”
“Not top of the flyers team, are you?” Stormy said with a teasing smile. Misty flushed. “Hey, don’t worry about it. We don’t get much call for crazy weather flying out in Ponyville… ever.” She added flatly. “Just don’t let Rainbow Dash know.”
“Why?” Misty said with a worried frown. “She won’t think less of me, will she?”
“Pfft,” Stormy snorted. “No. She’ll tell you it's just fine if you’re not the best flier ever. Then she’ll tell you how she’s the best flyer ever. But it’s totally cool if you’re not. But have you heard about her newest maneuver she’s made up for the wonderbolts?”
“You have Wonderbolt issues too?” Misty asked, looking a little worried now.
“Hey. If you’re going to have issues, don’t settle for gales, go for hurricanes. Least everyone notices you,” Stormy said with a shrug.
“Yes. I can understand that,” Misty murmured as they approached the bank of clouds.
“Oh?” Stormy said, glancing over at the pale mare with a grin. “Do tell?”
Misty flushed. “Oh, there’s not very much too tell, really. But I was curious… you seem to be quite fond of lightning. Don’t you find it…um… scary?” she asked as her ears folded back.
“What, are you kidding? Scary? Lightning’s awesome!” Stormy Skies said with a grin. “You’re flying along and then all of a sudden, kerzap! Boom! Your life changes like that!” She snapped her tail. “I love the stuff!” Then she slumped. “Too bad Ponyville only ever gets D Class lightning.” She blew a raspberry.
“D Class?” Misty asked with a baffled look.
Stormy laughed, rolling her eyes. “What, did you sleep through weather front studies?” Misty flushed and lowered her eyes and Stormy’s laugh faded away. “You mean you really don’t know?” The pale pegasus turned away and Stormy coughed. It wasn’t often she knew more about something than most ponies.
“Okay. Remedial lightning. It was pretty much the only part I stayed awake for too. I mean snow. It’s cold. It’s white. So what if all my snowflakes looked the same? There’s a bajillion of them, right?” Misty’s eyes returned to Stormy with a small smile and she cleared her throat. “Okay. So there’s four types of lighting… well, there’s five, but you’ll never see that one. And I refuse to call static sparks lightning!” Stormy said with a snort. “Sure, you might blacken a rump with a well timed kick but other than that-“
“So D Class is the… weakest?” Misty Morning asked with a small smile.
Stormy tried to kick her brain back into position. “Yeah. Essentially it’s a byproduct of cloud formation. The cloud forges have their own magic, and the residue charges the clouds. Normally they brush it out and it crystalizes in type D lightning. Nothing fancy. I mean, I’ve been struck by D type bolts and didn’t do much but muss my mane,” Stormy said with a cocky grin.
Misty gave a little tremble. Great, Stormy thought, she’ll be an anti-volt nut. “And above that? C?”
“Right. If we have a real big order, the D Class bolts get all glommed together. C class is serious. You can really hurt a pony if you’re not careful. Light a building on fire. It’s more severe and restricted.” She rubbed her mane. “B class is even bigger. If someone at the Weatherworks is negligent enough to let a B Class bolt form in the static collector… well… they won’t be working there anymore. B Class gets hauled out to the Appleloosian desert for destruction.” She sighed and amended, “By highly trained and experienced lightning specialists who aren’t me, I should add.” Stormy glowered at the indignity of it all.
“Ah.” Misty said delicately, then went on, “Then A Class must be the biggest?”
“Pretty much. It’s the biggest you’ll ever see, if you ever see it, which I hope you don’t. Class A is weaponized lightning. It has to be specially built and only the best fliers and lightning bolt specialists can deploy it… which is why they’ll almost never ever use it. It’s unstable too. A hard sneeze can make it go off.” She glanced back over her shoulder. “They tried using it on Discord, but all he did was suck it into a weird little can and thanked us for the recharge.” Stormy pouted. “Stupid cheating magic.”
Misty gave a weak laugh, turning her eyes to the ground. “Yeah. Stupid cheating magic… heh…” She glanced at her. “You don’t like unicorns?”
Stormy rolled her eyes, “Oh, I guess I like them more than my parents do. They actually live in Cloudsdale, you know? The horn heads aren’t that bad in Ponyville. Not nearly as stuck up as those Canterlot unicorns. Just stay away from Rarity. She’ll try and dress you up in outfits that’ll drop your wingpower to zero.” She gave a little frown, rubbing her chin with a hoof. “Actually… aside from Rarity, no. I guess I don’t have any issues with them.” Stormy looked at her in bafflement. “Why?”
“Oh! No reason,” she said lightly, laughing and getting a skeptically arched eyebrow in return.
“O… kay…” Stormy said as they approached the clouds. She had her own embarrassing secrets. Maybe Misty was one of those freaky arcanosexuals or something. Best to focus on work. These looming clouds weren’t the nice bite sized ones they were supposed to be. They were huge, raw, fluffy things. Clouds that shouldn’t have even been allowed out of the Weatherworks. “Honestly, does anyone there even read our quality reports? Ugh.”
“They’re big,” Misty said with a swallow.
“They’re clouds,” she countered flatly. “Do they have a new manager or something in the factory? We’ve been getting these beasts off and on for the last six months. Seriously,” she said as she gestured with both her hooves. “How did anypony think this thing was ready for the skies? I’m no cloud sculptor but even I know that!”
“So what do we do?” Misty asked nervously.
Okay, this was getting sad. “Uh… duh?” she said, and then snapped her wings for some altitude, snapped them again into a flip, and snapped a third time to dive. She pierced through the thick cloud like a carving knife, tearing it into two jagged chunks. “You go ahead and give them a push out west. A few good strong flaps should get them moving the right way.”
Pegasi worked well as teams. There were stories going all the way back to ancient Pegapopolis with teams of pegasi doing great works together, whether it was fighting back a griffon horde or raiding an earth pony settlement for food or storming a unicorn castle for loot. So for most of the morning, Stormy split and Misty… well… Stormy wasn’t exactly sure what the mare was doing. The smaller chunks weren’t really going that far that fast. She wasn’t using her hooves at all. Just fluttering her wings at them or something. Sure, they moved, but they should have been moving faster.
Stormy wished Rosewing were here. Yeah, sure, they weren’t wingmates, but they worked. After a few hours, they’d gotten half the clouds busted up and bobbing off in a generally westerly direction. “Okay. Time to switch,” Stormy said with a sigh. They’d just drift back south if Stormy didn’t get them moving. “You bust some of these up and I’ll gust these little ones out of here. Should take me ten minutes, tops.”
“Oh… ah… kay…” Misty Morning said weakly, staring up at the large clouds. Stormy Skies set to gusting the clouds away from Ponyville. Off in the distance, she could see Bulk and Thunderlane doing similar work beating the clouds into more manageable forms. Most ponies thought pegasi just kicked clouds; they couldn’t understand the subtle work that came with making weather. Blasting a cloud to vapor wasn’t too hard for a pony like Rainbow Dash, but some clouds needed massaging to make them pliable, lighter, or heavier. Personally, cloud work made her want to scream, but there wasn’t much on weather duty that didn’t.
When she checked back, she saw Misty delicately tapping at the cloud with a hoof. “I swear she must have specialized in snow.”
“Hey Stormy,” rasped Rosewing as the red mare flopped down on a cloud, sneezing a wad of snot towards… Sweet Apple Acres below.
“Rosie? What are you doing here? You should be in bed. You look awful,” Stormy said, trying not to wince as the red mare sneezed again.
“I didn’t think it was fair Rainbow stuck you here with a noobie,” Rosewing said with a wan smile, her orange eyes darting around as she sweated. “I was thinking I could push some of those bigger ones out west and save you some time.”
That’s new. Rosewing hadn’t been a jerk to Stormy; she hadn’t been nice either. What gives? “Oh, that’s cool of you, Rose, but Misty’s going to have to learn cloudwork if she’s going to make it on the weather team. She’s doing okay… kinda…” Stormy looked over at the mare as she tried to chip at a dark cloud with a hoof; one that normally Stormy and Rose would have have just shoved out west. Trying to bust a dark one that big would take forever. Those were little things you learned on the job, which to break, beat, and blow. “Anyway, you go home. Odds are Bulk and Lane will join us as soon as they’re done prepping the clouds.”
Rosewing’s eyes widened as she watched Misty, before she bowed over in another fit of coughing. Then she croaked, “No, I gotta help you out with that big one there at least.” She pointed at the dark cloud. “Let's stop her messing around with it and get it out of here. I’ll buy you both an apple cider tonight.”
Huh. Rosewing had never offered that before either. “Well, okay,” Stormy Skies said as the pair made their way towards the large dark cloud. It definitely wasn’t to code. Twice as big and ten times as heavy as it should be. Somepony simply had to be screwing these orders up. Either that, or Dash had ticked off someone in management; that wouldn’t be a first. “Hey, Misty, stop rubbing your hoof against it. We’re just gonna push that sucker out of here.”
“No, I think I got it,” Misty said as she hovered before it.
“Sweet kid but she don’t got it,” Stormy Skies laughed. Rosewing wasn’t.
“Hey, you featherbrain! Don’t mess around with something that big. Just get out of the way,” the red pony shouted as she flew towards Misty.
Woah woah woah! “Hey, don’t call her that. I know you feel horrible, but go home. Don’t take it out on her,” Stormy said, getting in Rosewing’s path. The red mare shoved against her hard. “Hey! What’s with you?”
Suddenly there was a flash, an immense ripping noise like a thousand bolts of cloth tearing in two, and then a deep rumble that trembled down to the tips of Stormy’s hooves. The charcoal mare whirled around and stared at the sight of the cloud now split top to bottom. There in the middle, like a hot carrot in a bun, flickered a vein of chaotic blue and yellow. It almost appeared like one of those gems that earth ponies were nuts over, but this crystal danced with energy. Lightning… and not just lightning. B Class lightning… maybe even A. Such a beautiful sight would bring a tear to Stormy’s eye…
If Misty hadn’t been a few feet away from it.
“Don’t move,” Stormy said, fighting to make herself heard but also to not set the bolt off. Stormy knew lightning. “If you don’t disturb its electromagical field it won’t harm you.” That was a lie, but compared to what the bolt would do if it went off… “Grab the cloud. Don’t flap your wings. Don’t drop.”
Misty hooked her hooves into the side of the cloud. The electrical field made her mane and tail dance. “Rosie, go to Ponyville. Tell Dash and Twilight Sparkle. Quick.” Much as it galled her, unicorn magic was the safest way to get her away from there.
Instead, two hooves slammed hard against the back of her head, hard enough to make her flip over. Thankfully, Stormy had a thicker skull than most ponies as she whirled around to face her. “Rosewing? What are you do-“ What the red pegasus did was slam both her rear hooves into Stormy’s face. Stormy flipped end over end again and smacked right into another cloud, blood coming out her nose. Rosewing dashed in once, twice, three times… her hooves smashing into Stormy with each strike.
What was going on… what… she stared into the eyes of a mare she’d worked with for more than a year and saw a cold determination she’d only seen on the bad side of the clouds back in Cloudsdale. No laughing assault this…
She’s trying to kill me, Stormy realized in a daze, and got her wings out of the clouds, raising her wings to shield the next flurry of kicks. Rosewing wasn’t much bigger than Stormy, but she was fighting a lot better! Only the feather flu seemed to be slowing her down. Stormy folded her wings tight and let gravity drop her down as Rosewing streaked in a fourth time. The side of the cloud exploded outward, filling the space around them with mist.
The smart thing would be to go for help. Get Bulk Biceps and Thunderlane. Heck, Rainbow Dash would be great too! Right now, Stormy would happily have the assistance of a Wonderbolt cadet level flyer. If she did though, Misty was a goner. Class A lightning could stop a heart just with just an errant filament of energy. She had to get Misty away! Stormy made her way towards the dark cloud, keeping an eye out for red.
She saw it in the corner of her eye; the one that wasn’t swelling shut. Rosewing dove down, hooves aimed at Stormy’s neck. Stormy rolled away, the red mare swishing past. “What is your deal?” Stormy asked desperately, trying to get close enough to help Misty. The mare looked as if she were about to wet herself. That would be bad. “Look, if I pissed you off or something then I’m sorry! Whatever it is we can talk about it after she’s safe.”
Rosewing smile frosted Stormy’s feathers. “Personally, I like you, Stormy. You never ask questions. You two just have bad luck is all,” Rosewing said evenly, then coughed. “Damn flu. I’m going to have to make something up about why you two are gone. Passing gang of griffons, maybe.”
Stormy had known Rosewing for a long time. They’d gone to school together. She was about as close to a friend as Stormy got, but looking into Rosewing’s green eyes, Stormy realized she didn’t know this mare at all.
Stormy slowly moved back as Rosewing advanced, the two of them slowly orbiting the dark cloud with the lightning bolt. It was humming; a sign of instability. The bigger the bolt, the longer the delay, but the bigger the boom. As she came around, she saw Misty’s terrified eye staring back at her. To her credit, she hadn’t moved, but that wouldn’t keep her safe much longer. This bolt was going to strike, but where could she go? Stormy could probably get away, but what about Misty?
She glanced at the glowing crystalized energy. The flickers were starting to synchronize. When they did… could she kick the bolt? Yeah, right. Only Equestria’s finest bolt specialists could pull that off! What if…
Oh… that… might work.
“I don’t know what your problem is, but I’m not just going to let you kill us,” Stormy said, keeping her voice low. She glanced over and met Misty’s eye. “You should just let go of it. Drop your problem.” The white mare’s eyes widened, but she gave a little nod.
“We’ve worked too long and hard on this. Sorry, Stormy.” She dove straight towards Stormy. Didn’t look like Rosewing had paid close attention during her lightning management. The charcoal mare spun around, wrapping her hooves around Misty’s torso just as Rosewing dove straight in. Misty released the cloud, and with Stormy clinging to her back, the pair fell away.
“Oh no you don’t!” Rosewing shouted hoarsely next to the wildly flickering bolt of unstable energy, and dove after them.
As they dropped, Stormy winced, dropping towards the apple orchards below. “Why are we spinning around?” Misty asked weakly.
"Cause!" was all Story said. Come on, Stormy thought, looking back at Rosewing. There were three places you didn’t want to be when lightning went off. Third was above it. Second was around it. First…
Maybe it was her lightning cutie mark, or the adrenaline pumping through her, but when Stormy looked back, she saw the rolling waves of energy synchronize in one powerful pulse running up and down the jagged crystalline structure, and with one final downward surge, it exploded out the tip of the bolt. The length exploded in an instant, the bolt snaking and forking its way down to the surface. Stormy nearly tore her feathers off as she pumped sideways, pulling along the screaming Misty Morning as the lightning sought the earth. One powerful, central bolt snaked back and forth as it sought the ground while a dozen fingers spread out in a fan.
Rosewing wasn’t so lucky.
Time returned with the explosion of thunder that knocked them wildly through the air. The hammer blow silenced Misty and they tumbled down. Stormy tried to say that Misty needed to spread her wings and increase her drag, but all she heard was a faint keening squeal in her ears and as dazzling zigzags burned in her vision. She barely felt her impact with a tree, nor falling from branch to branch before crumpling in a heap at the base.
Sitting on her singed and smoking tail, body bruised and battered, Stormy stared at the hole in the sky where the lightning bolt had gone off. Say what you will, Class A lightning was awesome. Unfortunately, from the multiple plumes of smoke rising from the orchard… not to mention one prominent column from where… where Applejack’s barn should have been… woooo… world spinning…
“No! Pull yourself together,” Stormy groaned as she tried to pull herself to her hooves, blinking away the sparkles in her vision as she looked around for a wintergreen maned mare. Her whole body felt numb, but that probably wouldn’t last long. “Misty? Misty?” she shouted as she staggered amid the trees. Smoke wasn’t making things any easier as she searched, and she coughed as she smelled a sweet reek.
Then she spotted what was cooking. Her hide had been flash cooked like a bad steak, and what remained of her wings were blackened pinions. All of her limbs were bent at odd angles, frozen in place from the voltage. The sockets were empty; the extreme heat had likely flash boiled her eyes. “Misty… no… no…” Stormy had held onto her! Two ponies should have spread out the charge more, and they hadn’t been under the main bolt! They…
An apple fell on her head. She looked up, seeing a faint green and blue tail and two hind legs stuck in the tree directly above her. Stormy’s ears didn’t quite pick up her word. Something about ‘oh no’, and then Misty Morning fell on Stormy’s head too.
That was about the time Ponyville arrived. Not everypony, but it certainly seemed like it. There were the Apples trying to put fires out. Princess Twilight teleported in and, with Fluttershy’s help, evacuated the animals who were trapped inside the ruined barn. Rainbow Dash and the rest of the weather team were searching the clouds for any other bolts of that magnitude.
Then the prismatically maned pegasus found Stormy and Misty and asked the question that Stormy knew was coming. “What did you do?” Of course neither Stormy nor Misty was in any condition to answer. They were badly beaten up by the fall and both had thin, forking burns from where the lightning had passed over them. Misty was nearly unconscious when she was taken away, going into shock and whispering over and over again about how she was sorry.
Stormy Skies, though, wasn’t going to the hospital. A pair of gold armored pegasi pushed their way past the crowd and looked down at her. “Miss Stormy Skies. You’re coming with us,” they said in a voice she knew only too well.
Broken Accords Chapter Two: Weather Patterns By Somber
Ponyville didn’t have an actual dungeon, but it did have a jail. It consisted of one room in the basement of town hall with a lock, a cot, a stack of old books, and a toilet in the corner. It didn’t see much use; after all, most ponies were good, law abiding people who never caused trouble and generally didn’t make problems for each other. Even when they did, like Twilight Sparkle casting mind control magic on fillies or Rarity turning the roads to gold, they usually weren’t enough of a risk to merit confinement. Only when a pony seriously harmed another by their actions, or would attempt to flee justice, did they dust off the keys and lock a pony up.
For Stormy Skies, it proved surprisingly effective torture.
She curled up on her cot, eyes clenched shut, refusing to look at the walls. She had a history with this room… every time she was thrown in here, it tried to crush her. If she looked at the walls, the admittedly spacious room would slowly seem a lot smaller. Too small to fly. Too small to breathe. Of course guards didn’t like ponies that yelled and screamed to be let out. She’d learned that the hard way, too. Last time she’d sworn to never ever end up back in here again… but here she was. She didn’t even know if she should bother writing her family. No pony in Cloudsdale was going to visit her.
Instead, Stormy kept playing over the events in her mind to keep the thoughts of those stone walls grinding slowly- okay, stop it! Focus! Rosewing had tried to kill her. Not beat up. Not thump upside the head. Kill with a capital k. And a capital ill. And a capital ‘what the heck?!’ following it.
It made no sense. Like lots of weather pegasi, they’d both come from Cloudsdale. They hadn’t been close, but they’d known each other. Eaten relatively regularly together in the cafeteria at Cloudsdale Elementary. Rosewing had been a Wonderbolt groupie, like Rainbow Dash, but never a serious athlete. She had plenty of hornhead and dirtpony jokes. Ones that even got her in trouble a few times. Stormy had been transferred to Ponyville after her first big screw up, and lost touch with Rosewing for a few years. Then Rosewing transferred to Ponyville.
That’s it. Nothing to kill her over.
‘I like you. You don’t ask questions,’ she’d said. Well, Stormy was certainly asking them now, particularly because doing so kept her from speculating on how the walls were actually, magically shrinking around her. Probably personal.
That’d been Class A lightning. Maybe a little low on the oscilation, but still Class A. Class A didn’t just happen outside of the Everfree Forest. Ponies had to make Class A lightning, like when Discord and the Changelings ran amok. Few ponies outside the lightning fans knew that when Equestria had been threatened by those enemies, a few Class A bolts had been manufactured. Heck, they might have had some left around from when Nightmare Moon returned.
One of those bolts had gotten stuck in the cloud. That was major, exiled from Equestria and stuck in a dungeon wherever you were exiled to crime. But why? Stormy would do it just to see lightning like that go off… somewhere safe of course. The Appaloosan desert was a favorite spot for pegasi who just loved the flash and crackle; the lightning community. But killing for it? That was… about as unsettling as being in this cell.
Rosewing couldn’t have stuck the lightning in the cloud from Ponyville. Rainbow Dash was probably the only pony who could fly to Cloudsdale and back before anypony knew. So that meant somepony at the Cloudsdale Weather-works had snuck out a Class A bolt and put it into the cloud for her. Big risk. What was the payoff though?
Stormy Skies’s thought process came to an abrupt halt. Beyond entertainment or trying to drive off an attacking dragon, there was no other use for Class A lightning. None that she was aware of, anyway.
She cracked open her eyes and glanced at the window wondering just how long she’d be down here. The problem was the window was connected to the wall. The wall looked awfully close. Way too close. She clenched her eyes closed, pressing her wings into the wall behind her. How many feet were between them? A dozen? A half dozen? Any second she’d feel the walls contact her hooves, squeezing… squeezing…
The door clanked open and her eyes popped wide, the walls popping back to where they’d been when she’d first been stuck in here. ‘Next time’ they seemed to promise. She stared at the guard pony, a white pegasus stallion, panting hard with her heart thundering in her chest. Sweat beaded her brow. “Are you alright? I thought I heard shouting.”
“Yeah. Sure. I’m just ducky,” she panted, trying to hide her near panic attack. “Can I get out now?” In addition to her near panic in the cell, she felt battered and sore from the assault and tumble. Sadly, it was impossible to tell the latter from the former. She’d been bandaged up, given a few stitches and some asprin; she wasn’t even sure she could fly.
“We have some questions,” the guard said, stepped back and letting her out. She wasted no time stepping out into the hall. Together, they trotted back upstairs and to Ponyville’s courtroom. It also doubled as its assembly, meeting room, and reception hall. Stormy balked, looking at him uncertainly. Wasn't he going to question her down the hall in the guard station? “Other ponies have some questions for you,” the guard said evenly. Other ponies? What other po-
Princess Twilight Sparkle sat in the middle of a long table. To her left sat Rainbow Dash, to her right Mayor Mare. On the left edge, a stern yellow pegasus in a blue and gold thunderbolt uniform tapped her hoof against the tabletop while on the right edge sat a purple unicorn stallion in guard armor. It took Stormy a few seconds to place the pegasus with Spitfire, from one of Rainbow Dash’s posters. Stormy’s legs abruptly weakened.
A soft purple glow kept her from collapsing. Appearing before a Princess, the Mayor, her boss, the head of the Wonderbolts, and… whoever the purple guy was… well… all she needed was for Princess Celestia to fly in and that would be that! The magical field lifted her up, and Twilight’s horn flashed and conjured a comfy, simple purple chair for her to sit on. “Sorry for keeping you waiting for so long, Stormy Skies. Things have been a little bit crazy,” Twilight Sparkle said as she sorted through her papers.
“S’allright,” Stormy muttered.
Twilight gave her an encouraging smile; the only pony at the table who did. “Now, I read the statement you gave when you arrived here in town hall. According to you, Rosewing attacked you when your partner found a bolt of Class B light-“
“It was class A,” Stormy corrected, absently. Then it registered who she was correcting, and she swallowed hard.
Spitfire furrowed her brows. “From the damage, we surmised it was at most low grade Class B lightning bolt.”
What hack did they have analyzing the damage? “Sorry, but it was Class A,” Stormy said firmly. There were frowns, and several ponies wrote down notes. “I know lightning, ma’am. It was approximately one point one gigasparks, and the oscillation was all wonky, but it was class A.” More scribbling notes.
“Yes, you’ve had a very colorful history with lightning,” Mare Mayor said coolly as she regarded a scroll. “I believe it was your ‘lightning collection’ that destroyed town hall last year.”
“I didn’t know Ditzy was going to drop it!” Stormy Skies said heatedly, her face flushing. “That was nothing more than a collection of Class D lightning. If it hadn’t gone off all at once, the town hall lightning rod would have handled it.”
“Before that, you were supposed to be overseeing the lightning during a storm and things got so tornadoed that a tree ended up in Twilight’s bedroom,” Rainbow Dash said sharply. “You were only supposed to kick the clouds enough to let out a little lightning, not blow the tops off trees, Stormy!”
“Well… so I got a little excited! We never get cleared for lightning storms in Ponyville,” Stormy said, a familiar refrain. “And that tree had help getting into the library.”
Rainbow Dash started to retort when Twilight said brightly, “True. If Applejack had just left it alone, it probably would have been fine. She really doesn’t know her strength sometimes.” She glanced at the baffled Rainbow. “I told you we had a sleep over during the storm, remember?”
“You didn’t… I… ugh… fine. Okay, but still. You have to admit she has a pretty long term habit with lightning,” Rainbow Dash said.
“Indeed.” Spitfire nodded and lifted some papers with her wings. “It was lightning infractions that got you transferred out of Cloudsdale in the first place.” She read off the list, “Multiple inappropriate uses of lightning. Improper static disposal. Improper safety and transportation of lightning in the weather factory.”
“So what we want to know is was this just another ‘lightning collection’ that went off with tragic results?” Mayor Mare asked gravely, pressing her hooves on the table as she regarded Stormy Skies coolly. “While an accident will have consequences, they won’t be as dire if you admit them now.”
So that was it. “No!” Stormy said as she looked from one pony to the next. “This wasn’t another collection blowing up! It was Class A lightning.”
“We’ve run inventory and there was no Class A lightning missing,” Spitfire said flatly, taking some of the wind from under Stormy’s wings.
“But… what was Rosewing doing there? You sent her home sick!” Stormy asked Rainbow Dash.
The pegasus furrowed her brows in thought. “Well, I don’t know. Rose always liked doing a good job. I guess she didn’t want to let down the team just because she was sick.”
This was rapidly turning into a nightmare. If she were one of the Princess’s friends, no doubt they’d take her at her word. But she wasn’t… “But… it was… ask Misty Morning!” Stormy Skies pleaded. “She saw it.”
“We have,” Twilight Sparkle said as she lifted a different paper. “Unfortunately, she couldn’t identify the lightning. Only that it was ‘big’. She couldn’t tell if it was one big bolt or several small ones. And while she heard a scuffle, she was too distracted to recall particulars.” Twilight frowned and folded her hooves on the desk before her. “Do you still collect lightning, Stormy?”
Stormy opened and closed her mouth. She could lie, but a quick search of her home would show it. “Y…yes…” she said, feeling sick.
“Even when after the town hall incident you were forbidden from doing so?” Mayor Mare asked, just as gravely.
Unngh! “Yes, but it’s just static and small bits! Just enough to play with!” Nothing that would hurt a pony. But as soon as the word play left her mouth, she knew she’d doomed herself. Only the unicorn kept smiling, as he had been the entire time. “It’s not… you… she was going to kill me! How else do you explain how banged up we were?”
“Lightning collections blowing up in a young mare’s face have that effect,” Mayor Mare said acidly.
Princess Twilight considered Stormy Skies with a sympathetic frown. “I’m sorry, Stormy Skies, but unless you have some actual evidence in favor of your claim that Rosewing attacked you, we really have to consider the most plausible scenario. What’s more likely, that somepony in Cloudsdale smuggled an extremely dangerous form of lightning from the city, even when Cloudsdale’s inventory says none is missing, and that Rosewing attacked you when you discovered it, or that a mare who’s gotten in trouble with lightning in the past had another illegal collection, that blew up and killed a coworker?”
“I… I…” Stormy’s mouth worked. “But it’s true! Use some of that horn head magic on me and make me tell the truth! It’s true.” If she hadn’t been so desperate, she’d never have used the derogatory term to the Princess!
“Truth magic wouldn’t expose the truth, just what you believe is true,” Princess Twilight said calmly. “And I think it’s pretty clear you believe just that.”
Stormy Skies swallowed hard, now contemplating a terrifying future. “Am I going to jail?”
The five shared a look that made Stormy’s heart stop. Then Princess Twilight smiled at her. “No. Misty Morning did confirm there was a fight. Without knowing the details, we’ll have to assume it was as you say, in self-defense. The damage to Applejack’s barn will have to be paid for through community service, though. And you’re off the weather team.”
“I… but…” Stormy just stared at the five. Even Rainbow Dash looked a little sympathetic. “What am I going to do?” she asked in a tiny, pitiful voice.
“Ditzy often needs help carrying mail. There’s always ponies needing courier services. Just nothing involving lightning,” Rainbow Dash said with a small smile. “It’s not the end of the world, Stormy.”
Yeah. I bet she’d say that if she was banned from racing for something she didn’t do, she thought sarcastically. “Now, we need to discuss contacting Rosewing’s family and other-“ Twilight Sparkle began.
“She didn’t have any,” Stormy Skies cut her off. Reckless and rude, but Stormy didn’t care. Throw her back into the jail cell. “Her mom and dad are both dead. Feather flu. She was an only child.”
“Well… we’ll see if we can find any relatives,” Twilight Sparkle amended. “If you’ll excuse us.”
“Yeah. Thanks.” For nothing. She trotted from the court room. A parting glance over her shoulder saw Princess Twilight talking to Mayor Mare and Rainbow Dash in close discussion with Spitfire. On the end, the purple unicorn that had stayed silent during the whole proceedings stared into her eyes. The pegasus guard closed the door behind her, but till the last second, he was still smiling.
Stormy managed to trot out of Ponyville town hall without falling over or being sick. She’d been fired, and cut off from the only convenient source of lightning, and just escaped getting tossed in jail for good. But as soon as she emerged from Ponyville town hall, it was hard for her to focus on any of that. What was she supposed to do now? Stay in Ponyville delivering packages and listening to the mutters of how she’d gotten Rosewing killed due to her lightning 'habit'? Go somewhere else unknown? Leave Equestria? Neither of those were very appealing; she liked Ponyville. Crawl back home? Her parents would love that! No doubt they had a few years' worth of ‘I told you so’s and ‘if you’d just listened to your mother’s saved up.
She glanced in the direction of Sugarcube Corner, and spotted at least a half dozen ponies staring her way and whispering to each other. Already the rumors were flying.
With nowhere else to go, no appetite, no direction, no job, a body that felt as if it’d been hailed on, and little hope, she headed home. Her wings ached so badly she couldn’t even fly; she simply limped along like a wounded bird.
Stormy, like lots of poorer pegasi in Ponyville, lived in an attic apartment. Hers rested above the Quills and Sofa shop. Two sets of large windows on opposite sides of the house let in a nice breeze and cut down on the sensation that the walls were closing in. She’d love to have her own cloud house, but at this point she’d be lucky to get her own cloud without ending up in jail for collecting static. Her last supply filled half a large pickle jar next to her bed, tiny little flickering crystals like glowing sand.
She flopped down on her bed, just a mattress on the floor really, amid her few belongings. Like most pegasi she knew, she wasn’t big on stuff. Stuff slowed you down and increased your drag. She had her lightning, a dozen or so magazines put out by the lightning fan community, and her instrument. Aside from a few dishes in the sink, that was about it for stuff. Stormy flopped on her back, staring up at the angled roof. She’d painted forking lightning running from the peak down to the walls, in imitation of her cutie mark.
“What am I going to do now?” she asked nopony in particular, staring at the jagged lines. She took a deep breath, trying to keep everything steady in her. The attack. The trauma. The cell. Losing her job… it was all starting to catch up to her. Was the air getting thick in here? Getting kind of hard to breathe. The loft felt a little too cozy, but going outside would mean seeing people…
“Am I intruding?” a quiet voice asked from the window. The sight of Misty Morning, the pale pegasus with a bandage about her head and left forehoof, helped snap her out of her looming freak out. She wasn’t going to cry in front of somepony she just met.
Let Misty Morning stay and feel resentful or send her away and let the feelings creep up on her? Decisions, decisions. “No. It’s fine,” Stormy said with a sigh. The white mare stepped in, her pale jade eyes taking in the sight of the lightning bolts on the ceiling with a small smile.
“It’s a nice place. Did you just move in?” Misty asked in that polite, small talk tone that made Stormy sigh.
“No. I’ve actually been here a while now.” She had a mattress to sleep on and a kitchenette to eat in. What else did she need? “How are you doing?” She might as well play out the small talk while she could.
“Sore. But I could have been worse. Much worse,” Misty Morning said as she trotted over next to her mattress and sit down. “You saved my life. Thank you.”
Stormy suppressed an urge to mutter about good deeds and managed to choke it down. “No problem,” she said with a dismissive wave of her hoof before sitting up. “So what did you tell them?” she tried to keep the accusation out of her voice.
Misty flushed, her gaze darting about the room as she ran a hoof through her long mane. “The truth. That there was lightning in the cloud. That you and that other pony were fighting. I…” she shook her head. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t think of anything else to say. I didn’t expect the Princess to be there.”
“Well, this is Ponyville. If it’d been Rainbow Dash who’d nearly be fried, she and her friends would probably be turning Ponyville upside down.” Stormy huffed. “I wish I knew who the purple unicorn was. Creepy guy didn’t say a single word. Just smiled like he knew I was guilty.”
“You didn’t know?” Misty sounded surprised. “That’s Captain Darkstar, the new head of the royal guard of Canterlot.”
“Darkstar?” She sat up and regarded the other mare, checking if she was serious. “How does a pony named Darkstar end up Captain of the royal guard? For that matter, who names their foal ‘Darkstar’?” Might as well name him Captain Suspicious Evilguy.
“You’re not the only one who’s said so,” Misty said with a little smile. “He had seniority when Shining Armor left to the Crystal Empire. There were lots of ponies who expected Celestia to pick somepony else, like Captain Sunbeam. I heard she was furious when she didn’t get the promotion.”
Clearly Misty paid attention to a whole different gossip circle than Stormy did. Misty folded her pale ears back in embarrassment. “Anyway, when I met with them... well... I was really intimidated.”
Stormy sighed. “It’s not your fault. I’ve got a bad rap with lightning.” She gestured a hoof over at the jar next to her bed with a little smile.
“You really like the stuff, don’t you?” Misty said as she regarded the little jar with a speculative little smile.
Stormy grinned and rocked forward, sitting up. “Yeah. Lightning’s awesome! I’ve thought so ever since I was a kid. Nothing and then ‘bzaaap’! More energy than you ever imagined streaking through the sky. I know most ponies are scared of storms, but to me, they were some of the most awesome sights ever! Made me want to be a lightning specialist.”
“Lightning specialist?” Misty blinked a moment. “Oh, you mean one of those cr- er… eccentric ponies that handles lightning?”
“Sure. Collection, transportation, disposal, and proper use,” she said with a grin as she took the jar and carefully unscrewed the lid and fished out a tiny crystal of static, holding it on the tip of her wing. Ironic, given one job of a lightning specialist was to confiscate lightning collections when they got too large. “Watch this,” she said, making Misty take several steps back. Stormy flicked it into the air, watching it fall, and then punched an hoof at the yellow gem. It shattered instantly, and a tiny lightning bolt cracked out sideways through the air.
Misty yelped and jumped back. “Pretty cool, huh?” Stormy began, then blinked and grinned sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head. “Um… it’s cooler if you haven’t almost been cooked by Class A lightning.”
“I’ll take your word for it.” Misty said with a shiver. “I’m sorry Stormy, but I just can’t see the appeal. How does lightning like that even exist, if it’s so dangerous?”
Stormy rolled on her stomach, licking some of the crackling residue and enjoying the sharp acrid taste... and getting a funny look from her guest. “Well, believe it or not, it’s not the worst kind out there. Wild weather can make Class A naturally. It’s part of why the Everfree is so dangerous. But essentially you take the electromagical charge and you make it oscillate in the crystalline matrix. Class D only has one wave. Class C two or three. Class B a half dozen. But Class A has a dozen or more. Soon as that oscillation’s disturbed, bang! All the energy gets released.”
Then she became aware of Misty’s faintly bemused expression and flushed. “Sorry,” she giggled. “You sort of loss me at ‘electromagical’.”
“Yeah. I get the same way when hornheads talk about their spells,” she said with a shake of her head, making Misty’s smile fade. “The point is that Class A has a whole lot more waves packed inside it. The more waves, the more likely it’ll explode.”
“Your interest in this is a little... unsettling,” Misty said with a awkward smile. “All I knew about lightning was ‘flash’ and ‘boom’. You get so technical about it.”
The charcoal gray pegasus sighed, her yellow mane frizzing a little from the static residue on her hoof. “Well. It guess I can see how it’s weird to other ponies. It’s just something I love. And it’s pretty useful stuff too!” She carefully extracted another crystal and reached for her instrument.
“What is that?” she asked with a little more curiosity. “Some kind of guitar?”
“Yeah. A guitar that runs on awesome!” She untwisted a little lid on the top and popped the lightning in. “There’s a unicorn in Manehattan that’s making these,” Stormy said enthusiastically as she flipped a few switches and knobs. Then she gave the metal strings a strum with her hoof, and from the speaker set in the body emitted an unholy racket. Stormy screwed up her face as she abused the strings as fast as she could, filling the small apartment with electric squeals and pops.
Misty’s eyes popped wide and she covered her ears with her forelegs as Stormy banged away for several seconds. Then the instrument let out a crackle and an electric jolt slammed through the charcoal mare, flooring her. “Oh yeah,” she groaned at the tingle. The guitar let out a puff of smoke as Stormy lay there. “It’s a work in progress,” she croaked.
“Stormy, I don’t know what that’s supposed to sound like, but that’s the most awful din I’ve ever heard. Where did you learn to play?” she asked with a frown, scrubbing at an ear with her hoof.
“Learn to play?” Stormy asked with a frown. “You just strum the strings as loud and fast as you can. What’s to learn?”
Misty gaped at her, sputtering a few words. Finally she groaned and took the guitar. “Load it up again,” she said as she turned the lid towards Stormy. As Stormy refilled the device with another small load, the white pegasus muttered, “If I get electrocuted for the second time today, Mother will never let me hear the end of it.” When the guitar was loaded, she gestured to the knobs. “This one is for volume, yes?” she asked, pointing at it. When Stormy nodded, Misty glared at it. “Why does it go to eleven?”
Stormy snorted. “Well duh. Eleven is louder than ten.” She must not listen to much music.
“But you… I… ugh… nevermind!” she huffed and turned the knob down to three and cradled the instrument correctly. She took a deep breath and began to play the Equestrian anthem.
“Woah. That’s… like… woah!” Stormy stared as the speaker let out music for the first time. “How’d you do that? That was awesome!”
“That?” She cocked her brow at Stormy with a crooked little smile. “You must not listen to much music.” With a crackle, the instrument fell silent again and she set it aside. “So what are you going to do?”
Stormy sighed and flopped back on the mattress; back to the topic she didn’t want to think about. “I dunno. Be a package carrier. Might be able to get a little lightning for my hobbies between deliveries.” But she’d never, ever handle the big stuff. She scowled as she glared up at the lightning bolts. “What I really want to find out is why Rosewing did what she did! I didn’t do anything wrong, for once. She knew that there was that lightning in the cloud!”
Misty Morning bowed her head a little in thought, chewing her lower lip. “Where did she live?”
Stormy blinked at her. “Huh?”
“Where did Rosewing live? In Ponyville, I mean,” she amended, glancing at me and then averting her eyes quickly. “I was just thinking that maybe we could see if we can get in and find something that explains what she was doing?”
Stormy Skies groaned, covering her face. “Oh, that is a bad idea, Misty. A really bad idea. They think I killed a pony accidentally. If I go breaking the law and trespassing and stuff, they won’t hesitate to throw me in the jail for good.”
Misty chewed her lip. “Yeah, but… I have a clean record. If I got caught, they might go easy on me?” she suggested hesitantly. Stormy could see the thunderheads on the horizon from here; it wouldn’t take much for the both of them to land in some very rough air.
“I don’t know. That’s…” she sighed, regarding the white pegasus, her face half covered by mane. “Why?”
“You saved my life, at the cost of something you loved. I owe you for that. I don’t know what Rosewing would have done if you’d run for help. Maybe set off the bolt, eliminate one witness, and lie that it was your lightning?” Stormy didn’t know either. She’d like to say nothing, but she really didn’t know.
Stormy stared at her for a minute, till the pale pegasus fidgeted in place. “Okay,” she finally said. “I don’t like it, but I don’t have any other ideas.” As bad as the trouble might be, giving up and moving on felt worse. If she suffered for it, so be it. She’d screwed up her life already. She just didn’t want to bring down another pony for helping her.
Rosewing lived over on Cloudy lane, a row of perhaps two dozen small white homes that floated in two rows over a green field. A road ran through the middle, with mail boxes and small bells at regular intervals for the earthbound to signal the occupants within. Stormy could have afforded a room here on her meager salary, but- ah, obligations. Rather than approach the cloud bank of homes directly, they circled around over Whitetail Woods and approached from out of town. Fortunately, Rosewing’s cloud was towards the end of the row. Unfortunately, Rainbow Dash’s virtual cloud palace was right next door. Really, how did she afford to live in a place like that all on her own? Being weather manager couldn’t pay that well!
The pair of them glided in at as low an angle as they possibly could. Stormy hadn’t been here often, but she knew there was a landing and balcony on the back. Together, they swooped around and out of sight. Stormy tried the sliding door in the back, the sheet of specially treated cloud transparent and hard as glass.
It slid open. That didn’t surprise Stormy; plenty of ponies in town didn’t lock their doors. It was just that kind of place. Kinda unusual for Rosewing, given the mare valued her privacy. Stormy pushed the door open slowly and pushed through the drapes.
For the second time today, she realized something was very wrong. The house was a mess. The cushions to the sofa had been slashed, fluffy cloud stuffing drifting in the dim air. Books and magazines had been thrown all across the room. Rosewing didn’t live like this. No pony did. Yet this couldn’t be a robbery. Two golden, garnet studded candlesticks lay undisturbed on the mantle. “We should go. We should definitely go,” she whispered, mouth dry. If anypony tied this to Stormy after Rosewing died...
Then from down the hall came a muffled crash and the pair froze. Stormy's eyes popped wide as she stared into Misty’s. If something was going on... if they left and got help, by the time they got back then who knew if they’d still be here? Each of them gripped a heavy candlestick in their mouths and prowled slowly down the hallway. Rosewing lived alone, with one of two bedrooms converted into an office. The crash had come from there.
Carefully they got to the door, and Stormy pushed it open far enough with a wing that she could see inside. A huge brown pegasus stallion was flipping carefully through files in a file cabinet and tossing a few of them into a large brown suitcase. She didn’t recognize the beefy guy. Suddenly, her candlestick seemed a whole lot less suitable as a weapon. Whatever those papers were, they had to be important.
Then the stallion kicked the drawer to the file cabinet closed. “Damn idiot should have hid these bet-” he froze as he turned and saw the two bandaged mares standing in the doorway. “Aw piss...”
Sanity would be running away and telling the guard what was happening here. Instead, she charged a stallion that was nearly twice her size, screaming around the candlestick. The stallion raised his forelegs and twisted, taking the blow on the shoulder and reaching out with his mouth to bite her wing, hard. The delicate bones let out an ominous crackle as he yanked his head around and pulled her off her hooves.
She slammed into the wall and two brown hooves pressed hard on her throat. Stormy struggled and coughed, her hooves kicking out as one wing flailed impotently and promised a trip to Ponyville Hospital if she escaped the morgue. Worse of all was the look in his eyes. He wasn’t angry or pissed. He looked... bored. Then the edges of her vision started to go black.
Then a gold candlestick came down right atop his head with a solid crunch that made him cry out and lash with his hoof. Misty was hit and went tumbling across to room to land on the other side. “Damn it. This was supposed to be an easy fifteen minutes. Why couldn’t you have shown up five minutes from now?”
Stormy would have loved to quip back, but she concentrated on breathing and getting to her hooves. The blow that Misty had landed had cut over his left eye socket and was bleeding pretty well into his eye. Stormy snatched up the candlestick and he gave a little smirk, sighed, and moved in slowly and carefully.
The charcoal mare threw the candlestick with all her might. It soared straight and true... right through the window, shattering it like a crack of thunder. Then Stormy drew in a long breath and screamed as loud as she possibly could.
Cloudy Lane wasn’t the busiest part of Ponyville, but screams were going to gather eyeballs. Especially when Misty let out a scream of her own that put Stormy’s to shame. The brown stallion’s eyes popped wide as he looked from one to the other, slammed the suitcase closed, and snatched it up in his jaws. With an angry glare at the pair of them, he turned and galloped back down the hallway. Stormy heard the sound of the sliding door slamming.
Misty trotted up to her. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” she said, her throat now extra raw. Then she tried to move her wing. Something in there was definitely fractured. “Okay... I’m alive. But we got to get out of here. He might change his mind, come back, and finish the job.” Brown pegasus... dark brown mane... brown eyes.... she hadn’t spotted his cutie mark. Even if the guards did believe them, could they catch him?
She staggered back into the hall and then paused. The door to her bedroom was just past the office. The stallion had said he’d wanted five more minutes. Maybe there was something, anything useful in there? Stormy trotted quickly into the room which was decorated far more thoroughly and tastefully than Stormy’s studio. “See if you can find something... anything... anything that’s just...” just what? What were they looking for? “Something out of place.”
Misty nodded and got to work on the dressers. Stormy checked under the mattress. Nothing. The closet was way too packed with clothes to be searched quickly, short of just tossing everything on the floor. Stormy let out a small sob as the attack caught up with her. First Rosewing, now this stranger. Something was going on; something much bigger than a failure of a lightning specialist should be involved in.
Then Stormy’s eye lingered on a small black and white photograph framed beside the bed. Funny, Stormy hadn’t recalled any pictures at all on her visits. But then, she’d never been to her bedroom. Stormy scooped up the hoof sized from and popped open the frame's back, extracting the grainy picture of six ponies arranged roughly pyramidal while grinning like idiots for the camera. There, on the lower left corner, was Rosewing; the mare at least three or four years younger. On the right of the middle two was a stallion who looked eerily familiar to the one that attacked her.
But that wasn’t what locked her gaze. Her eyes barely registered the light coated stallion in the middle of the bottom three nor the coolly smirking mare at the apex. Nor the nigglingly familiar elderly stallion adjusting his glasses for the photograph. No. All her attention was saved for the dark mare in the lower right corner. She had a short, wild manecut and though the picture was black and white, she knew her mane was a strident yellow.
Because that was how Stormy had worn her mane three or four years ago.
Broken Accords Chapter Three: Partially Cloudy By Somber
Stormy gaped at the picture in her hooves. There were Rosewing and the brown stallion that had attacked them, along with several others. When had she taken a picture with Rosewing? She appeared as if this had been during weather training in Cloudsdale, so three years back at least. Only the old stallion, a mature avuncular fellow, and Rosewing tickled her familiarity. In the background was some old cave. Her in a cave? She’d certainly remember that!
Wouldn’t she?
Stormy turned to search for more clues when Misty said, “Do you smell smoke?”
That made the charcoal pegasus roll her eyes. “Misty, we’re in a cloud. Clouds don’t-” She paused as she sniffed the air.
Wait. That was smoke!
She opened the hallway door and a roll of thick gray smoke poured into the bedroom. Stormy instinctively dropped to her belly. In the living room at the end of the hallway she saw magical blueish-white flames rapidly consuming the contents of the room and the cloud itself. The white walls melted like wax as the flames consumed them. Worse, both exits were that way.
Stormy slammed the door closed and rushed to the window, her bruised and battered body aching. Her hooves kicked the glass-like pane, shattering it. “Come on, let's get out of-” She gaped at the thin bars providing an elegant, yet secure, barrier to intruders. “Who puts bars on their windows in Ponyville?” she snapped, kicking out at them. Like the walls of the house, they were magically fortified cloud, and though they deformed a little at her blows, they snapped back into place a second later.
The smoke was starting to get bad, even with the opened window. Stormy beat at the bars in futility before all fears of punishment broke down to screams of help. The walls behind them sizzled, and then pale blue flame poured through as if the it were water. The heat of the fire made her eyes water. Stormy’s old fear of being crushed to death was making a brand new friend: being burned alive.
“Kick! Kick!” Stormy shouted frantically. A cloud home was a cloud, and even though the mist was magically treated to remain firm and keep its shape, it was still just a cloud. The prim Misty set her forehooves down and battered at the same section of wall right next to Stormy. Under their barrage, the wall began to distort and bulge outwards. Misty stared at the sinuous lines of blue fire as they crawled across the floor. The walls. The ceiling.
Suddenly the bulge popped like a blister and spilled the two of them out into the air. Stormy tried to spread her wings, but her injured wing refused to extend fully and she spun down out of control. She landed in a heap, the long grass cushioning her fall a little. “Owwww…” she groaned into the grass. “I really hate this day.”
Misty crash landed on the grass besides Stormy. Overhead, the house rapidly shrank as the blue fire consumed it. A minute later and the entire structure evaporated in a hiss of steam and a shower of tiny flecks of wet ash. Even the few things that hadn’t been made of cloud were gone. All that was left was the photograph in the grass before her.
“We have to get out of here,” Stormy said as she struggled to her hooves, tucking the picture under her tail. Indeed, the screams and fire were drawing a lot of attention. More people were looking at the rapidly disappearing cloud of steam, and not at the two mores that had just gotten free. Together, they struggled towards the woods. Stormy tried to flap her wing, but it was useless. Somepony yelled out her name, and the gray mare winced.
“You need a doctor,” Misty Morning said as they pushed their way through the bushes and out of sight.
“If I go to the doctor then the Mayor and guard are going to be asking how I got hurt. And if they think I just burned down Rosewing’s home after I ‘accidentally’ killed her then I’m pretty sure I’m going back in that cell. Even I think it looks fishy,” she said trying to think of what she could do. She was a pegasus and needed to fly. She couldn’t go trotting around like-
“Ooooooh…” she said softly, her eyes brightening. “That… That just might work.”
Stormy rapped her hoof on the door to the cottage. “Careful, she’s really shy,” Stormy warned Misty. “There’s a reason she’s not on the weather team.”
The door opened, revealing a smiling Fluttershy. “Hello, Twi-” she started to say, when the yellow pegasus balked immediately. The door closed a few inches and she shifted to let her mane cover her face more. “Oh. Um. Stormy… what an unexpected… surprise.”
“Hello, Fluttershy,” Stormy said as politely as she could. She had even less association with Fluttershy than she did with Rainbow Dash, but that might actually work in her favor. “I hurt my wing. Can you look at it?”
“Oh. Oh my. I don’t think so. I only do little birds' wings. And falcons'. And eagles',” she said, starting to ramble as she worked her way through avian families. “You really should go see the doctor. I can’t really help you,” she murmured as she started to close the door.
“Fluttershy,” Stormy whined. “It hurts and you’re here. Please?” Stormy tried giving her the weepiest look she could, pouting and showing her banged up wing. Doing anything with Fluttershy was a chore, especially if you weren’t one of her friends. Even Stormy was more socially well-adjusted than Fluttershy… mostly.
Fluttershy opened the door enough to look at her wing, then away, look again, then away. “Oh, okay. I’ll… um… see what I can do. But you should really see a… a real doctor.” She opened the door wide and the pair trotted in.
Misty balked at the sight of all the little animal homes built into Fluttershy’s cottage, but more so at the smell. It wasn’t so much unpleasant, exactly, as it was overwhelming strong. You simply didn’t get dozens of animals in a building without the word ‘musky’ being applied. Sure, Fluttershy had some windows open in the back so birds could come and go as they needed, but it did little to mitigate the smell. “Misty? This is Fluttershy,” Stormy said. “She’s Ponyville’s resident wildlife specialist.”
“Oh. I don’t know about that,” Fluttershy immediately stammered, looking down at her wings. “I just deal with animals a lot, which is how I know so much about them. And really, I have so much more to learn… like the secret of bees making honey. Or how robins are able to sing that one special note. They’ve tried to explain it, but… um…” Fluttershy became aware of Misty staring at her and shut down with a little whimper.
Stormy gave Misty’s shin a little kick and whispered out of the corner of her mouth. “Don’t stare. Shy. Remember?” Then she turned and extended her injured wing. The dark gray feathers were all bent and she couldn’t fully extend it. “Could you help my wing, please?” she asked Fluttershy as kindly as possible. While Fluttershy had overcome some of her social anxiety, that was primarily due to her friends. Get her alone and force her to interact and suddenly old habits came back in a big way. Maybe someday she’d help out with the weather too. Someday.
Fluttershy jumped a little as her blue eyes focused on the wing. “Oh. Yes. I… um… I think I know what might help. I once helped Mr. Falcon after he got his wing banged up by a quarray eel. This looks similar.” And she got to work. Stormy relaxed a little. Once Fluttershy was in motion, she tended to stay in motion until acted upon by a criticizing force. She led Stormy to her couch, made her lie down on her stomach, and carefully extended the wing with her hooves. “I think it’s probably just a sprain. If it were a fracture… well… it’s probably a sprain. Angel.”
A small white rabbit in a nurse's cap hopped out of a back room carrying a wooden box twice his size. He set it down next to Fluttershy, pulling it open and revealing a dazzling display of medicinal materials… and some not so medicinal. What was with the chewed up stick and why did she need a lump of beeswax? Fluttershy got to work, and Stormy kept still to let her help her wing.
A minute later, stings of pain shot along the wing, and she had to talk to try and take her mind off the zings. “Misty, how did that cloud burn? I’ve seen lots of things, but I’ve never seen that before.” It was the easier question to ask. The harder one was why she appeared in a picture with no memory of being in it. Oh yeah, and why were people trying to kill her? Twice. That was a good one too. “Is there some spell or something…”
“I don’t know. Why do you think I’d know?” Misty said, suddenly flustered, so much so that even Fluttershy looked at her in surprise. “I don’t know anything about magic! Why would you assume I do?”
Stormy just blinked a moment. Where did this come from? “Well, because in general most ponies are smarter than me, so I ask. If you don’t then you don’t. No need to get all worked up about it.”
“You should ask Twilight. She knows all kinds of spells, even when they don’t always work out like you’d expect,” Fluttershy said calmly, returning her eyes to the wing. “It could also be salamander mucus.”
“Salamanders?” Stormy frowned. “Those slimy lizard things?” A pinion got a strong yank that made her jump, and she had to keep from shouting.
“They are not slimy. They are amphibious,” Fluttershy said primly. “But no. Not those salamanders. There’s are salamanders that are covered in flame. Their mucus ignites when exposed to water. I suppose if you had fireproof boots or magic, you could collect the mucus, dry it out, and start a fire that way.”
That seemed a little involved, even to Stormy. Then Misty suggested in a quiet voice, “It might have been firedust too. It’s a very soft, crumbly metal refined alchemically or magically from minerals. When you throw it on water, it bubbles furiously and bursts into flame. I’ve never heard of it used on clouds though.” Stormy considered both. Then there was also the magic wildcard, but if there were a unicorn with a cloud burning spell… she didn’t like that possibility.
Didn’t like it at all.
“Um… why are you talking about clouds burning?” Fluttershy asked in a tiny voice. When they both looked at her, she squeaked and amended rapidly, “Not that it’s any of my business. I’m just… um…” she lowered her eyes again.
Stormy sighed. This was way more than a failed lightning specialist should handle. “I’m in trouble, Fluttershy. Did you hear about Rosewing this morning?”
Fluttershy shook her head as she bandaged her injured wing. “I saw the biggest lightning bolt ever over Sweet Apple Acres. After that, I was hiding under my bed with the other animals for a while.” She turned to Angel, “Please be a dear and get me some ice from the ice box. Pretty please?” The rabbit seemed to contemplate her request a moment, then hopped back into the kitchen.
“Well… Rosewing was killed by that bolt. Princess Twilight and the Mayor think that I’m responsible because I… have a lightning… thing.” Hobby? Habit? Obsession? “They think I had another collection that went off, like with Ditzy and Town Hall.” Fluttershy let out a soft ‘ahh’, nodding. Stormy continued, “But it wasn’t. There was a huge Class A bolt of lightning in there, and Rosewing attacked me. She tried to kill me, Fluttershy.”
“K…k…k…” Fluttershy gulped, shrinking away from Stormy as if the charcoal pegasus confessed to having a disease. “But.. no… certainly it was a misunderstanding? A joke taken too far?” she suggested, trembling a little. Stormy shook her head. “Temporary cloud rage?”
Stormy started to shake her head again, but paused. “That’s a thing?”
Misty Morning sighed, getting them back on track. “It’s true. I didn’t hear Rosewing shouting or anything like she was angry. She had no reason to attack Stormy, but she did. And fighting like she was, it almost got me killed too. I think Stormy’s right and something is going on.”
Fluttershy kept looking at the pair of them and glancing away, as if she really regretted helping her wing. Misty adopted an even softer tone. “We went to Rosewing’s house to try and fine something that could explain what she did, but a brown pegasus stallion was there ahead of us. He was taking papers and things. He attacked us too. And when we screamed for help, he left. That was when the fire started.”
Stormy pulled out the picture from under her good wing. “That’s the only thing that he didn’t take and that wasn’t burned up.” She tried not to fidget as Fluttershy examined the black and white picture.
Fluttershy chewed “This looks like…” she started to say and then looked at her.
“Me. I know. Only I don’t remember who any of them are except Rosewing. I don’t even remember taking the picture.” She pointed at the middle, youngest looking stallion. “He was the one who attacked us and almost burned us up at Rosewing’s house.”
The quiet yellow pegasus’s eyes looked from one to the other, then away, as she chewed on her lower lip. Finally, she said in a low voice, “You should tell Twilight.”
Stormy groaned, suppressing the urge to roll her eyes. “I tried that at the hearing, Fluttershy. She didn’t listen.”
“I don’t mean at a hearing. I mean just her. She’ll listen to you if you give her a chance.”
Stormy fought her frustration as Angel returned with an icepack over his head and a carrot in his mouth like a fat cigar. “I said I tried. I even told her to use some of her magic on me and force me to tell the truth. She told me it didn’t work like that.”
“It doesn’t,” Misty replied absently, and then realized that she had three pairs of eyes on her. Immediately, she started doing the looking away thing Fluttershy had a moment before. “I read it in a book. Truth magic is notoriously unreliable and illegal. The spells Twilight could have used wouldn’t have revealed anything you didn’t already believe was true. Essentially, she could have cast a spell to detect if you were actively trying to deceive her, but it might have not gone off because you convinced yourself it was true, or it might have gone off because you were trying to put yourself in the best light to not get in trouble.”
That did seem pretty worthless. “Why not just use a spell to make me only say the truth?” Stormy asked with a frown.
“Think about it, Stormy. If you’re clever enough, you can phrase anything to answer nothing at all, but still not technically lie. Like I could say I saw something that might have been a lightning collection, but that I wasn’t sure. Both are technically true. It might have been a lightning collection. I know it wasn’t but it might have been. And I would also be telling the truth about not being sure. But it would have gotten you in deep trouble.”
“Then a spell to force somepony to tell the truth?” That was getting serious, and even she could see that. “Same problem as before?”
“Or worse. They could ask you anything. About the lightning. About the worst possible thing you’ve ever done. They could make you sound really guilty by asking very slanted questions. And if they’re really unscrupulous, the person casting the spell can just say you’re lying anyway. That’s why Equestrian courts don’t allow truth spells to be utilized in interrogations.” Misty Morning glanced at Fluttershy. “Not that Princess Twilight would ever lie about the results of a truth spell,” she added hastily.
Stormy stared at her a long moment. “You sure do know a lot about this,” she observed, making her flush even more.
“I… read a lot?” she said with a sheepish little smile.
“I’ll say,” Stormy said lightly, then looked at Fluttershy. Go to Princess Twilight. It’d be so simple… but it was easy for Fluttershy to suggest something like that. She was friends with the Princess. She was friends before Twilight Sparkle was Princess. Stormy Skies was a nopony. A mare with a bad habit of screwing up, who had a record of mistakes and no evidence to support her beyond the testimony of a mare she’d just met. Stormy considered the pale pegasus; what if she got dragged down with her? Misty had been nothing but helpful so far. Sure she was a little odd, but right now beggars simply couldn’t be choosers.
Stormy sighed and bowed her head. She wasn’t one of the Princess’s friends, didn’t bear some magical Element. “I need some evidence first. Something that proves what happened to Rosewing and her house wasn’t my fault. Then I’ll happily let her and her much more competent friends handle it.” Fluttershy furrowed her brow, clearly not agreeing. “Please promise me you won’t tell Twilight till I find some, Fluttershy.”
“Oh. I… um… I’d really rather not. I don’t think… I mean…” she stammered as Stormy pleaded with her eyes, trying to will her to agree. “Okay… unless I think somepony’s going to get hurt,” she added, tapping her hooves together, “If that’s okay?”
“Yeah. That might be smart.” Stormy nodded. “After all, if something happens…” she trailed off, glancing at Misty.
Misty chewed on a wing tip a moment but then asked, “So what’s next? All we have is that photograph.”
“That I can’t remember taking,” Stormy said with a scowl. She set it out so that Fluttershy could see as well. “Do you recognize any of these pegasi?” She asked Fluttershy plaintively.
Fluttershy stared at the black and white picture and shook her mane a minute later. Misty did the same. Stormy sighed, narrowing her eyes at the picture of herself. The combed over mane. The happy, silly grin…
It was her… three or four years ago? She hadn’t worn her mane combed off to the side in Ponyville. That’d be before her first major fuck up in the Weatherworks. The first of many. “I think I need to go back to school. Ask the instructors if they recognize any of these ponies. I need some names. Maybe I can find out something about Rosewing too.” There had to be some reason the mare had tried to kill her.
Kill her. Two ponies. Ponies! Stormy felt her legs shake and swallowed. “Um, Fluttershy? Could I stay here till tomorrow? Just to rest my wing?” She did all she could to keep herself from crying.
Fluttershy gave a little sympathetic smile. “Of course you can.”
Stormy struggled to choke down the feeling in her throat. Misty gave a polite smile and rose. “I should get back to the bed and breakfast. I can find out... well... if there's any... you know...”
“Warrant out for my arrest?” Stormy said, trying to keep the gibbering sensation in the back of her mind from breaking through.
“Yeah. That,” Misty said as she trotted to the door of Fluttershy's cottage. She froze at the window. "Somepony is coming!”
Stormy sat up, her wing aching as she looked around for a hiding place. She heard voices outside. “Hide!” she gasped, not sure where they could find a hiding spot. Stormy's wing ached as she ran to a table and ducked under the white table cloth. Misty ducked behind a curtain. Fluttershy picked up her medical kit and slid it underneath the couch an instant before the a hoof knocked on the door.
Stormy could barely see through the tablecloth. Fluttershy trotted to the door and opened it, admitting Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight Sparkle. “Heya sugarcube. We wanted to check up on you. Make sure you're all right,” Applejack said as they trotted in.
“Oh. Ah... I'm fine.” She glanced over at the curtains and the table cloth. “The animals were terribly upset by that lightning. So was I,” Fluttershy said with a little fidget. Angel scowled at Stormy's hiding spot, rubbing his chin.
“So was I,” Applejack said. “Mindin' my own business and then suddenly, boom. Knocked me flat on my keister. That poor barn...” The farmpony gave a little sniff and covered her heart with her hat. "It lasted a good nine months.”
“Oh my, were any of the animals hurt?” Fluttershy asked.
“Badly shaken. Vet Snack Treat is taking care of them, but I just know they'd like you to visit them, Fluttershy,” Twilight Sparkle said as the three friends took a seat on Fluttershy's couch. A distinctive crunch came from beneath Twilight, making Stormy wince. She wondered if she had enough bits in the bank to replace it.
“Ohhh. Yes. I'll be sure to go right away,” Fluttershy said as she sat on her love seat. “Um... that was a pretty big bolt of lightning. Is it true somepony was... hurt?”
“I'm sorry, Fluttershy. Rosewing died,” Twilight said gently.
“If you ask me, Stormy got off way too easily, Twilight. That girl and lightning go together like Tank and slow,” Rainbow snapped, then added, “Uh, but bad, because Tank being slow isn't... oh, you know what I mean.”
“You seriously think that Stormy collected enough lightning to do that to a barn and a pony?” Twilight asked. “I did the math. If she collected one D Class bolt of lightning a day, it'd take her two years and nine days to gather enough to cause an explosion of that magnitude. Where would she hide all that lightning? Why would she be transporting it today in the middle of the day? Where? Why? It doesn't make any sense.”
“So a bolt of Class A lightning magically appears in a cloud?” Rainbow Dash huffs. “The Weatherworks might mess up cloud orders, but they took inventory. None of the Class A bolts were missing. So where'd it come from? And what about that fire? A cloud burned up.”
“And do you think you think Stormy could do somethin like that?” Applejack asked.
“If anypony could, it'd be her,” Rainbow replied. “Rosewing isn't the first pony that she's hurt. Badly.” The words make Angel bunny glare even harder at the concealed pegasus under the table.
“Why? What'd she do?” Fluttershy asked in a light voice.
“We've got special machines to collect the static from clouds to minimize lightning. She decided to crack one open. Bolts flew everywere. A dozen ponies were sent to the hospital. Stormy gets knocked out and doesn't even remember it. That ended her job as a lightning specialist then and there,” Rainbow Dash said as she looked at each of her friends. Then she spread her hooves wide. “But it doesn't end there. She gets transfered to Manehattan as a weather pony. Two months later, another lightning accident. Caused a fire. That got her in Ponyville.”
“Que Ditzy droppin' her collection on Town Hall. Girl sounds like a right menace,” Applejack said flatly. Angel seemed to agree as he grabbed the corner of the tablecloth and started pulling. Stormy bit the cloth on the other side of the table to keep from being exposed.
“Maybe... maybe there were some extenuating circumstances?” Fluttershy suggested, tapping her hooves together.
Twilight shook her head. “Nothing about this makes sense, but what are we supposed to do? Stormy's disappeared. I've asked the Guard to bring her in as soon as they find her. Misty Morning too.”
“Misty Mystery is more like it,” Rainbow Dash scowled. “I know she was transferred to Ponyville, but I've gotten nothing from Cloudsdale about her. No test scores. No certifications. Nothing. And she's disappeared too.”
“I don't like it,” Twilight said with a frown. “It feels like something's going on. I don't see how Stormy or Misty could be behind it. Lots of things don't make sense.”
“Think she's a changelin'?” Applejack asked. Angel Bunny's grip slipped and he went rolling away from the table. Applejack glanced his way, and he leapt to his hooves and pointed at the table. "Onery critter,” she said dismissively.
“It might be Discord,” Rainbow Dash suggested.
“It's not Discord,” Fluttershy stated firmly, then squeaked, “Er... probably.”
Angel dove under the table, grabbed Stormy's hoof, and tried to drag it into view. She wrapped her hooves around the squirming bunny and held him tight. He responded by sinking his carrot loving chomper into her leg.
“What I'm afraid of is it might be something new. Something we've never dealt with before. It's just between the lightning and the fire there's so many unanswered questions and a lot of ponies are scared,” Twilight's horn flashed, and a pair of rolled up newspapers appeared. “This made the evening edition in Manehattan and Canterlot.”
“Woah. Pegasi destroy earth pony residence in Ponyville. Fatalities reported,” Applejack read aloud. “Kinda playin' loose and fast with the facts, ain't they?”
“Irresponsible pegasi unleash lightning on Ponyville citizens,” Fluttershy read as well.
“They're making it sound like we're tossing Class A lightning around the skies for fun,” Rainbow Dash said.
“Celestia and I are going to make a formal announcement early tomorrow morning. Hopefully it'll calm some ponies down,” Twilight said. Angel finally wiggled free and ran over to where Misty hid. The little rabbit began to yank on the cloth, but oddly, it didn't move a bit. The little rabbit stomped his feet in frustration.
“Fluttershy, is he okay? He's acting a little weirder than usual,” Applejack asked.
Fluttershy flew up and picked up the rabbit in her hooves. “Oh... uh... he's just being fussy.”
Angel kicked his leg against Fluttershy's in code. She hugged him, covering with her wings so only his head stuck out. After a small struggle, he waved his ears like semophore flags at Twilight. “It seems like he's trying to tell us something.”
“Oh. Ah... um... probably that he's ready to go to bed,” Fluttershy said, flying him from the room, and upstairs.
“Is Stormy still a suspect?” Rainbow Dash asked. Stormy froze, her heart in her throat.
“She's a pony of interest,” Twilight said gravely. “After the fire at Rosewing's and witnesses saying she fled the scene... well... we don't know.”
“What are we gonna do about it, sugar cube?” Applejack asked just as seriously.
“I don't know. Was it an accident or is something going on? I just don't know,” Twilight said evenly. “Spitfire is checking the weather factory records and Darkstar is investigating any possible magic connection.”
“Darkstar. Really. Who names their kid that?” Rainbow Dash shivered. "Guy's creepy.”
“He's tops in magical offensive and defensive spells,” Twilight said primly. "My brother speaks very highly of him.”
“Doesn't change the fact he's creepy,” Rainbow Dash muttered.
Fluttershy returned to the others. "He just needed a little snack.” Her friends rose to their hooves. "Oh, you're going?”
“Yeah. I should check in on Bessy and the Oinker twins before gettin' back on the farm.” Applejack said with a sigh. "Having a barn roof blown off over yer head is very upsetting.” Fluttershy squeaked at the thought.
“And Spitfire wants me to go through all weather team operations for the last six months and find any places where Stormy could have stashed more lightning. It's, like, going to take forever!” Rainbow Dash whined.
“Well, that's what happens when you file your paperwork under the 'nearest drawer to stuff it in' system,” Twilight said primly before turning to address Fluttershy in gentler, more concerned tones. “If you see Stormy or a white pegasus pony, be sure to tell a guard right away. I'm not sure if they're dangerous, but I don't want to take chances. Okay, Fluttershy?”
“Oh... um... sure,” her friend replied, looking over at Stormy's table. Stormy nearly wet herself in the next few seconds, but didn't answer.
Applejack trotted over to Fluttershy and gave her a parting hug, telling her to come by and see the animals if she could. The others gave fond farewells also. Finally, the three left. For a few seconds nopony moved, then Stormy and Misty poked their heads out in unison.
“Um... thanks...” Stormy said sheepishly. Her sprained wing ached terribly from being stuffed underneath the table, but at least she hadn't gotten caught. "What'd you do with Angel?”
“Oh, he's just getting a little time-out. In a box of carrots. With a bottle of cherries,” Fluttershy murmured. Sounded to Stormy like a time-out in a lightning repository. She chewed her lower lip. "About Twilight...”
“I can't go to her, Fluttershy. Not till I have some evidence that clears me,” Stormy replied. She pulled out the photograph. “Three years ago I was in weather training in Cloudsdale. That's where I'll start looking and see if anypony knows the other four in the picture.”
“I should get back to my room at the bed and breakfast,” Misty said as she trotted to the door, checking out the little window set in it to see if the coast was clear.
“Uh... bad idea. The guards are looking for us, remember?” Stormy pointed out in alarm.
Her lips curled in a smile that didn't match her soft jade eyes. “Don't worry about me.” She opened the door.
“Misty, about what they said...” But what could Stormy say about it? All of it was true.
Again, the little curl of her lips with eyes about to cry. “Which part?” was all she asked in reply, then stepped out into the evening twilight. “I'll meet with you tomorrow morning. Good night.” And with a soft click, the door closed behind her.
All in Ponyville was still. The smoke from the dirtpony barn fire still contaminated the air, but what was new about that? The filth had always polluted the skies with their stink as they ran around, savages shackled to the ground. How could the pegasus ponies down here stand it? They must have lived down here for so long that they’d become inured to the reek.
Still, mudponies were better than horn heads. What did you call the top of a unicorn’s head? A lightning rod! He chuckled to himself as he waited in the dark eaves of Town Hall, staring across at the apartment atop Quills and Sofas. He’d been watching all night, regularly chewing one or two bitter brown beans every hour. Stay hydrated. Stay awake. Stay out of sight. Don’t take your eyes off the apartment for longer than a few seconds, but stay aware of your surroundings. Pee into a capped bottle so nopony was alerted by the smell. Dispose of said bottle so nopony asked gross questions.
So many things they didn’t teach you at the academy. Or weather school. He didn’t bear Stormy any animosity. If things had been different and she’d been more open minded, she’d be helping their work.
Now things were… complicated. This was damage control. Control the information. Misdirect. Stormy would be an unwitting martyr for the cause. Maybe when everything was over, she’d receive a hero’s pardon. It’d make great public relations. But for now, he had to know what she knew. Enough ponies had seen the pair escape, so they had to be somewhere.
Unknowns were intolerable in this line of work. He hadn’t gotten to that last room before they’d arrived. Rose might have held something incriminating in there. Something Stormy might have saved. If Stormy had nothing, she was no threat. He’d been through her apartment, carefully this time, and found nothing. The white pegasus was supposed to be at the bed and breakfast; there were infuriating inconsistencies about if she was or not. Regardless, she hadn’t had any saddlebags so it was unlikely she had anything incriminating. If she had, the pegasus traitors in the Royal Guard would no doubt be acting on it and they’d have to accelerate the plan.
Information. What did Stormy know? What would she do? Who would she tell? There hadn’t been any action from that damned Princess beyond helping the mudpony clear away the charred remains of her barn. Princess. He fought to not hiss through his teeth at the word. Jumped-up unicorn with wings she didn’t deserve was more like it. Unicorn becomes a Princess and they treat her like royalty. Pegasus becomes a Princess and they make her a foalsitter until she’s hitched to a unicorn husband.
Calm down. Breathe. There was a unicorn guard down there and he couldn’t risk alerting him. There was work to do. It was critical things be allowed to calm down. That the situation be controlled. He had the worst evidence from Rosewing’s apartment; she’d been dangerous keeping anything incriminating in Ponyville, but then Rosewing had been a stickler for detail.
It’d be fine. Calm. Breathe. Take the air in. Let the air out. Feel its power. Control its power. Wait.
Soon as dawn arrived, Stormy Skies started trying to stretch her wing. There were a few oddball pegasi who couldn’t fly around Equestria and were okay with it. Stormy would rather be plucked. The idea of not flying was as alien to her as not breathing. Gravity was a pain that earth ponies and unicorns dealt with, not pegasi. She shivered at the thought of being trapped on the ground forever...
So Stormy rolled out and carefully went through wing stretching exercises that she’d ignored since elementary school. Unwrap the wing and then slowly extend. Retract, extend, retract. Don’t go all the way at first but work it out. Then work the shoulder muscles. Up and down. Forward and back. The sore stiffness in her wing abated to the point where she could try and fly. With a hop, she went airborne.
It was hard to explain pegasus flight to anypony without wings. Unicorns scoffed about wing area and muscle strength, trying to explain something fundamental and simple to every pegasus. It was why she could hover with barely beating her wings and not blast the room with her down draft. Unfortunately, the feathers on her injured wing didn’t bite the air correctly and she nearly crashed into the wall.
Ugh, she’d have to preen them back into line, but at least she’d gotten off the ground. Taking a seat, she pulled her wing around and used her mouth to delicately tug, nudge, and lick the feathers back into alignment. Another try and this time she could hover stably.
“Your wing is feeling better?” Fluttershy asked nervously from the stairs. Angel rode on her back with that hard, unforgiving stare.
“Still sore and stiff, but at least I’m off the ground again,” Stormy said as she landed again. “Thanks, Fluttershy.” The complement made the yellow pegasus beam. “You really should be a nurse. Or at least a vet.”
That set her back a bit, and she tapped her hooves together as she dropped her eyes. “Oh, no. I’m not that good. I think that’s better left to other ponies,” she said hastily before going silent.
A knock on the door spared Fluttershy from further praise. Misty Morning stuck her head inside, peeking around and then smiling at the pair. “Oh, good. You’re up.” She trotted over with a pair of brand new saddlebags on her back. “I thought it’d be good to get some supplies. Food and water. A first aid kit. A map and compass,” she said as she set the bag down and started to take out one thing after the next.
When the sextant emerged, Stormy waved her hoof to the north. “Misty, we’re flying to Cloudsdale, not the Amarezon Rainforest! It’s four or five hours tops.” The pale green mare blinked at Stormy for several seconds. “Where’d you even get the money for all this junk anyway?”
“Oh! Um… I got a great deal last night at the Ponyville market and… um…” She looked at the variety of grossly unnecessary navigation tools. “Are you sure we don’t need them?”
Stormy gaped at Misty. “Okay. Didn’t you come to Ponyville from Cloudsdale?” she asked, trying to keep the scorn out of her voice and failing miserably.
“Oh. Well… yes. But I… um… took a very roundabout route through, um… Manehattan?” She tapped her hooves together. “I sort of got here by train.”
That was twice as far as just flying straight from the town. “Manehattan. Right.” Something was going on, but being that she was alone and Misty was willing to help, Stormy didn’t want to tell her to go pluck herself. Besides, if she was involved, it might be better to have her close. “Well, you can dump half of that. It’s just extra weight.”
Misty gasped and reached out, pulling the bags over and clutched them to her chest. “But I paid for them, Stormy! We can’t just leave them.”
“It’s just dead weight,” Stormy said as she lifted a spyglass. “And is that a bedroll? Why did you even get this?”
“Well the guy at the store said that it was the standard adventuring gear set.” She pouted, her pale jade eyes wide and teary. “It’s supposed to be the one that Princess Twilight and her friends use.”
“Oh no, I’m quite sure we don’t use anything like that. Well, not since we had to deal with that d…d… dragon,” Fluttershy squeaked.
“I knew that salespony was too good!” she wailed. “He took almost every bit I had. Now I’m broke until… um… I get more money.” In Stormy's experience, that was how it generally worked. What was weird was to say it so... weirdly.
“Brown pegasus? Stubbly chin? Blue cap and a red bow tie?” Fluttershy asked. When Misty nodded, she gave a flat look. “Oh. Yes. I know him. I’ll…um... ask Applejack talk to him about getting your money back.”
“Ugh,” Stormy groaned. “Fine. But just so you know, I’m not carrying any of that junk when it gets too heavy for you.”
“It’s not too heavy for you, is it?” Misty Morning asked Stormy for the twelfth time as they flew through the skies towards Cloudsdale. The gray pegasus struggled with the junk that Misty had insisted on bringing along. Well… not insisted, but she definitely turned pouty and hit the perfect note of whine. If Stormy hadn’t taken the saddlebags, they’d still have been in sight of Fluttershy’s cottage.
On reflection, that might have been the smarter solution.
“You know, I’ve always wanted to see a sextant drop from a thousand feet. I bet it’d leave a crater,” Stormy panted, sweat stinging her eyes.
“Just you wait. I’m sure that some of that is bound to be useful. Why, you never know when you’ll need a bedroll, and a spyglass is always useful,” Misty said with an encouraging smile.
“Bedroll? Misty, we can sleep on clouds. Hard to find a bedroll that can top that,” she grumbled. Due to frequent stops and Misty’s own poor flying, they were taking a more roundabout route out west over the edge of the Everfree Forest and Appleloosan desert. Stormy would have rather gone straight there and gotten out of the skies, but accommodations had to be made.
Also, sextants were heavy.
“So, what’s your deal?” Stormy asked the pale pegasus in annoyance.
Misty froze, “What do you mean?” Her tone may have been casual, but her posture was cut glass.
“I mean you’re weird, Misty. I don’t get you at all. You can barely fly, know more about magic than any pony I know short of Princess Twilight, and when you show up, Rosewing tries to kill me,” Stormy said pointedly.
Misty looked as if Stormy had struck her. Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes as she turned her head away. “I’ll go,” she said, barely above a whisper.
Hubazawah? “Misty, I didn’t-” Stormy began.
“I’ll go! I know when I’m not wanted,” Misty said, lunging over at Stormy and yanking at the saddlebags. “Thank you very much for putting up with me for a day. Thank you for saving my life. Sorry I got you in trouble. Sorry I hurt your wing. Give me back my junk and I’ll go away.”
Stormy’s mouth hung open. “Misty! You don’t-”
“I’ll go! I’ll go, okay? I know exactly where this is heading and I’d rather just cut to the end where you tell me to get lost,” she said as she reached down and yanked on the bags. Astonishingly, she got them unbuckled almost instantly and pulled them over her rump.
“”I… Misty! What is wrong with you?” Stormy gaped at her in utter bafflement.
“Everything, apparently!” she sobbed. “Goodbye, Stormy. Sorry for… everything…” and with that she stepped off the cloud and nearly plunged straight down to the forest below. Stormy nearly dove after her before her wings spread and she fell in a more controlled spiral.
“I just… fine! You know what? Fine!” She took off, flying for Cloudsdale as fast as she could. “Crazy mare that doesn’t make any sense!” Stormy growled. “Bringing all kinds of stuff we don’t need!” She drove through a cloud, scattering the vapor into whirling chunks. “Knowing stuff that makes no sense. Not answering a single question…” Stormy trailed off as she glanced at the dark forest below. What kinds of beasts and monsters might be lurking down there, ready to snag a pony? The Everfree was rife with dangers. Okay, maybe not to Princess Twilight and her friends, but plenty hazardous to normal ponies.
“Who just fell into one of the most dangerous places in all of Equestria,” Stormy groaned to herself. She could just go! Misty wasn’t her responsibility. She was a liability! She didn’t make any sense! She…
“Oh Luna kick my head for a fool,” Stormy groaned before diving for the forest canopy below.
It’d been about a minute, but there was no sign of Misty, which was worrying. Even weighed down by her junk, Misty should have still been above the canopy. Either she’d been dumb and actually gone down to the surface like some earth pony, or she’d been snatched. Stormy circled over the dark leaves of the Everfree. Where was she?
Then a brass gleam caught Stormy’s eye and she dove down to spot the sextant poking out of the leaves like a... um... tiny metal triangle. She scooped it up and looked around the small, leaf strewn clearing. Stormy wasn't an earth pony, but something seemed wrong. A great patch of leaves in the middle had been disturbed, and it reeked of musty leaves. Everything was torn up, like there’d been a brief struggle here. Stormy hooked the metal instrument on one wing tip. If she had to, she could hit something with it. Besides, it was Misty’s…
Stormy spun in place, biting her lip. Then she spotted the spyglass jutting up like a lighthouse in the middle of the dim wood. Stormy swooshed over and picked it up. “That’s it. Just keep it up,” she urged as she continued to follow the trail of junk. Thankfully the bedroll was next, so she had something to carry the stuff. Then another. Then another. The trail was winding down into a rocky crevasse, and she set the blanket down and listened.
“Such sweet pony! So pretty,” a female voice crooned like bubbling tar.
“So adorable,” a screechy girl with a voice like rusty wire cooed.
“So tasty!” a third feminine sounding like popping joints chuckled.
Stormy hovered down to a hole in the side of the rock face and peeked into the cave. There she spotted three of the most grotesque creatures she’d ever seen in her life. They were half vulture and half something like emaciated, shaved baboons. Wings with dirt-encrusted black feathers jutted from their backs and even dirtier feathers adorned their legs down to their bird talon feet. Their noses were stretched and curved down like beaks and their filthy, pallid skin was wrapped in disgustingly colored strips of pony hide. Taloned hands matched taloned feet. One was small and skinny like a kestrel, the second was tall and gaunt like a buzzard, and the third was fat as a dodo.
Their lair was as ghastly as the occupants. Bones, rusty knives, strips of sinew, and gnarled roots hung from the ceiling. The entire floor seemed to serve as a toilet. Garbage of all kinds littered the walls of the cave, from pots and pan, to parts of a wagon, to shredded books. The reek of offal was so strong that Stormy fought the urge to retch. Near the back of the cave, dangling from a hooked root, was the forlorn Misty wrapped in a net. Still, there wasn’t much in the way of cover to reach her without the three noticing.
And worse, a part of her knew if she went in there, the earth would close like a mouth and she’d be gone.
What were these things, anyway? Every pegasus received a basic education in flying perils, and that included creatures, but beyond the dragons they all just blurred together into ‘fangy, pointy, keep away’ in Stormy’s mind. She had no doubt at all that these three were planning on eating the pale mare.
“I want the tender bits,” Kestrel piped. “Sweet, sweet pony!” she drooled as she stretched a claw towards the helpless pony. Stormy had to go in there. She had to… only her legs and wings quivered at the thought. The cave was wide and round, but that low ceiling… the space seemed to narrow as she peered in.
Dodo smacked the little one with her flat, flabby hand. “Those bits is mine!”
“Sisters! We can share the tastiest treats!” Buzzard cackled, rubbing her hands together. Kestrel hissed and snapped at Dodo anyway; the fat bird woman spitting into the face of the little, bony one. “Stop fighting!” she screeched at the two and reluctantly they did. “We can take turns!”
They started to approach the hanging mare. She had to do something! She couldn’t just sit there fighting with her- wait… she blinked and swallowed, and screeched, “Me first!” The cave distorted her voice enough that they didn’t pick up the origin… so far.
The effect was immediate. “No, me!” Buzzard cried, knocking back Dodo with her fist.
“Mine!” Kestrel shrieked, leaping for Misty, but Buzzard grabbed her tail-feathers and hauled her back. The three wrestled on the ground, snapping at each other. Heh. Just like when Stormy was little... that was something at least. Still, Stormy couldn’t see how she could get to Misty, untie her, and get out without getting added to the menu.
“Enough!” screamed Buzzard. “We can’t all be first!” The three stopped fighting and glowered at each other.
Stormy swallowed. If they were allowed to think about it, they might realize the voice had come from the entry. She did her best to imitate Dodo’s tarry voice. “Cook her!” At least that might buy her time to get her tail in there. She even started to move toward it, before the thought of crushing stone halted her.
Dodo blinked and glowered around, but Kestrel shrieked. “Yes yes yes! It’s been so long since we’ve had pony, we can’t just eat it raw! We should cook her up!”
The three bird women seemed to come to an agreement and Buzzard yanked out strips of wood from the surrounding garbage. Dodo grabbed heaps of dead leaves. Kestrel approached with a pair of rocks and smashed them together vigorously till sparks flew. In a few seconds the three had a fire starting to crackle in the middle of the cave. Thick palls of smoke curled up and began to fill the space.
“Roast her!” cackled Buzzard. The other two licked their lips and rubbed their hands together as they moved towards the net.
“No! Stew!” Stormy cried.
“Bake her!” Dodo roared. The fat bird woman rammed the little one with her rotund belly, knocking her halfway across the cave. “Pony pie!”
Kestrel came around and ripped and scratched at Dodo. “Chop her up! Pony kabobs!”
“I said pony roast!” screamed Buzzard at the other two.
That did it. The three started fighting again, and with the smoke obscuring everything, now was the time. The smoke hid the low ceiling enough that she could imagine it wasn’t going to crush her immediately.
She snuck into the around the edge to where the net dangled. Misty’s coughing helped lead her to it. She flapped up and unhooked the net, made from what appeared to be old pony manes, and lowered her to the ground.
“Stormy?” Misty asked weakly as she peered through the smoke at her.
The squabbling abruptly halted. “What did it say?” Kestrel hissed as she pulled herself from the other two.
“That was not ‘no, please, no’ or ‘I don’t wanna die’,” Dodo blubbered. Stormy grabbed a knife from the stack and began to saw furiously beneath the knot at the top of the net.
“That was a name!” hissed Buzzard. And the three started towards the net. The ropes finally parted under the sharp edge and Stormy yanked the net off of Misty as the three stepped through the smoke. The tall, gaunt bird woman’s eyes widened in delight. She ignored the many cuts and scrapes in her pale, leathery hide. “Oh ho ho! Now I see! Not one pony, but two! Don’t let them escape, Hegla!”
“We’re gonna be eatin' pony all week,” Dodo gushed eagerly, licking her lips as she hung back, spreading arms and wings wide to block the exit. Kestrel moved in around the fire to the left, snapping her teeth at the air as she did. Buzzard stooped over as she approached from the right. Even with a rusty knife, Stormy doubted she could take one of these creatures, let alone three.
Suddenly two burning logs lifted from the fire and began to wave about at the two, making them jump back from the flaming tips. Stormy was so stunned the rusty knife slipped from her slack mouth and then she looked over at the pale pegasus…
Make that, the pale unicorn. Tears ran down her cheeks, eyes clenched shut, as her horn glowed with a pale green light around the unlit ends of the firebrands. A couple questions were answered and a whole pile more weren’t. With her eyes watering so bad from the spoke, she flailed the burning ends wildly, keeping the pair at bay and flinging sparks everywhere.
Like into the heaps of rubbish surrounding the edge of the cave.
With a fwoosh, the dry tinder caught fire in seconds, flames crackling and spreading as they eagerly consumed the fuel. Kestrel and Buzzard fell back, screaming in outrage as the flames became a barrier. Normally, Stormy would be quite fine with this except that these bird women were the ones standing over by the way out and the two pegasi had their backs to wood that would ignite any minute. The thought of burning alive made her knees shake.
“Get your wings,” she yelled over the crackling flame. Misty, eyes still clenched shut, concentrated. A white glow swirled around her, and her horn slowly disappeared and wings appeared on her shoulders.
“Looks like it’s going to be roast pony after all!” cackled Buzzard.
“Well done is better than none at all!” Kestrel agreed, clapping her taloned hands, well below the roiling smoke. Was it just her or did she feel the roof rasp against her ears?
“I’m sorry,” Misty whimpered.
“Don’t worry about that now. Flap!” she shouted, ignoring the squishy feeling inside her.
The pair of them began to flap their wings as hard as they could. The air in the dank cave suddenly came alive as their wings began to beat, curling around Stormy like a close and personal friend. Clean air was sucked in along the bottom in a stream that swirled around her, then blasted back along her wings back at the three creatures. The fire roared in response, and a tongue of fire like dragon's breath blasted across the cave at the three monsters. They stopped laughing, their eyes wide in horror.
Then all three tumbled out of the mouth of the cave trying to do phoenix impersonations.
She and Misty weren’t going to last much longer in here either. “Bite my tail,” Stormy said, swinging the end of her messy yellow tail into Misty’s mouth. The mare bit down and Stormy snatched up the fallen knife in case the three tried to ambush them outside the cave. Her wings kept trying to direct the wind to keep the fire away, but it was tough. The flames ate the air as hungrily as the rest of the remains in the cave. Finally she took to the air and flew the rest of the way out, Misty trailing after her like a kite. She managed a couple dozen feet, returning to the bedroll and discarded junk atop the edge of the gorge.
The two collapsed and Stormy spat out the knife, coughing and drawing in huge gulps of air. “Okay,” she said as she lay there in the dead grass, looking over at a mare almost as gray as she. “That’s the third time I’ve saved your life in twenty four hours. I think that means I get some honest answers.” She glanced over at Misty, who closed her eyes and turned her face away.
"Okay. Fine. You're on your own," Stormy said as sat up. "I don't know what's going on, but you're up to something!" She struggled to her hooves.
"Stormy, wait!" the sooty pseudopegasus said as she extended a hoof. "Please. There's a reason I didn't tell you."
"Tell me what? What are you?" Stormy yelled back at her, then fell into a fit of coughing. "Pegasus? Unicorn? Changeling? What?"
Misty wept, tears cutting lines of white in the soot covering her. "I... I'm sorry."
Yeah, me too, Stormy thought.
Stormy turned to go when a mare said in a soft, deep, exotic accent, "Oh my, what is this I see? You should not rest near the lair of the harpy!" Emerging from the forest with barely a rustle was the striped form of Zecora. Maybe it was the stripes, or the slightly leaner and stronger frame, or the tufted tail, but something about her set off little alarms in Stormy's head. The zebra wore her usual cloak and had a satchel almost bursting with various herbs and leaves. She walked silently past them to the edge of the gorge, looking over at the pillar of smoke rolling up from the hole. "My my, did this you do? I thought I smelled Harpy barbeque."
"Uh..." Stormy said, at a loss, not understanding half of what she was saying.
But the zebra smiled at the pair of them. "Come come, my sooty friend. I know where you can rest and mend." Then she shifted her gaze to Misty, her smile fading. "There is no need for tears, so please relax and calm your fears." Stormy looked at the pensive psudeopegasus and the zebra and sighed. She was half cooked and needed to clean up.
"Fine," Stormy muttered
A bit later, Stormy was glad they'd followed Zecora. The zebra, after getting their names, steered them past a number of dangerous spots and they made decent time through the forest. The looming trees weren't quite as bad as being trapped underground, but it did get her pulse up at times. Here and there, Stormy spotted something unusual: stone ruins. Here was a fallen column. There was part of a wall. "What is this from?" Stormy asked, regarding a vine covered statue of princess Celestia.
"Many secrets you can see, if you wander Everfree," Zecora said as she lead them over a natural log bridge crossing a stream full of hungry reptiles. "Long ago, or so I'm told, there lived many ponies here, brave and bold. But troubles arose and strife ensue, and so the ponies fled to a homeland new. In their absence, the forest grew, fed by order forced askew. Seeds of discord fed the sprouting, forcing the pony outing. Today the ponies live many places, united with their happy faces. Yet inspite of all the forest endures, and threats and secrets it now obscures."
"How do you do that?" Misty asked Zecora with a wan smile. "Always speaking in rhyme?"
"Why do I do it all the time?" The zebra laughed. "It is no matter of trick or guile. I find it simply makes me smile."
"Right. This is what I wanted to do. Troop through the Everfree with a rhyming zebra and a shape shifting freak," Stormy said sullenly. Zecora eyed her coolly as Misty looked away, and Stormy kicked herself.
"Our journey is over, never fear. I promised you safety and now we're here," she said as she pulled aside the drooping branches to reveal a stone pool. Water trickled into a stone basin that looked as if it’d been part of an ancient building once. Cracked marble statues of ponies surrounded it in a half circle, with two that appeared to depict Celestia and Luna. Stormy wondered if it was intentional that the former was larger and more central while the latter was smaller and sitting beside the former.
The water was cool and clear and felt great on her cooked hide. Stormy scrubbed off the soot and dirt from their walk on one side while Misty watched from the other. Then Zecora took some of her herbs and whipped up a poultice that, when spread on her burns, felt wonderful. I've needed more medical care in two days than I have in the last two years, Stormy thought. Ever since I met her.
Misty hadn’t said much as she lay down on some soft ground next to the pool and Stormy needed some answers. “So. You’re a unicorn.” She tried to make the distrust sound like enthusiastic surprise. It didn’t work. “You are a unicorn, right? Not a changeling?” Because that would explain a lot of things really quickly.
“No!” Misty said sharply. She flushed, glancing at Zecora and then back at Stormy. “No. I’m not a changeling,” she said with disgust, keeping her eyes turned away. “But it is the reason I’ve been pretending to be a pegasus.”
The gray mare fought her annoyance. Much as she wanted to beat through obfuscation right now, she had to keep a level head. For now. Stormy screwed her face up a little. “Uh… you’re going to have to untangle that a little more for me.”
Misty sighed and her eyes dropped to the pool. “All my life I liked to pretend I was other things. My magic talent is… well… copying other kinds of ponies. Like changelings do. Only…” She sighed and closed her eyes. Her horn withdrew into her brow and her body filled out a little, and suddenly Storm was looking at a pale white earth pony. Some more concentration and her hide became translucently sparkly like those… whatever they were called up north. Ice ponies? Crystal ponies? Glass? Ehh… She sprouted a pair of bat like wings, her body become lithe and almost predatory, and she stood there as a bat pony. Finally the fangs and tufted ears turned back to normal and feathers magically covered her wings and she was a pegasus.
Zecora clopped her hooves in surprise. “You are quite the actor! Are you, perhaps, in theater?”
For some reason, the question seemed to bring a smile to Misty. “Theater? Acting? Me? Oh my, mother would just love that.” She returned to being a unicorn once again. Then she sighed and gave a little half smile. “No, I'm not. There’s just one problem with that, if you think about it a second.”
It took her about fifteen, but Stormy blinked as she realized, “Your color and cutie mark don’t change!”
“Right. I spent years trying to do it. Even dyed my coat different colors. Can’t change a cutie mark though,” she said with a sigh.
"A mimic you seem to be," Zecora said, stroking her chin in thought, "Though I wonder, can you copy me?"
"A zebra? I don't know. I've only ever tried ponies." Misty peered at Zecora and concentrated. The mist swooshed around her and when it cleared a second later, a near stripeless zebra stood before Zecora. Very faint gray marks suggested stripes on her frame. What was odd though was that she didn't resemble Zecora precisely. It was more like a zebraish Misty. An imitation, not a copy.
"Yeah. Amazing," Stormy said sourly, then rolled her eyes. "If I were a changeling, that'd be a pretty clever way for me to cover up my shapeshifting powers."
"I'm not a changeling!" Misty shouted, startling birds enough to take flight. "I'm not! I was... examined. Twilight Sparkle zapped me with antimorphisis spells... which really, really hurt. I was locked up for weeks to see if I'd weaken. They examined my parents to see if I was some kind of half breed," she said as tears ran down her cheeks. "I think even my parents believed it a little too."
Okay, if she was a changeling, she was a darn good one. Stormy finally relented a little. Not happy but... "So you're a unicorn who can become a pegasus. Dad'll just love that. 'Hornheads are lookin' to replace us! Just you wait!'" she said in an imitation of her father's gruff, hyperbolic voice. "'First it's butterfly wings outta mornin' dew and next they're comin' for our jobs!'" Speaking of jobs, "So why were you in Ponyville?"
Misty averted her eyes. "Well... eventually I got so sick of everything in Canterlot that I… um…” she tapped her hooves together.
“You ran away from home?” she asked.
Misty bit her lip, glancing around, and then confessed. “No. I… told them I was going on an arcane studies expedition in Saddle Arabia and, um… jumped ship,” she said with a flush. “I ask them for money every few months and they send it in nice predictable allotments to a great aunt who's an importer in Manehattan. She forwards it to me,” she said with a sigh.
Stormy eyed Misty skeptically. The mare was... well... she was unsure what exactly she was. She seemed to have a talent for obfuscation and breaking the rules that came much too easy for Stormy's liking. Sure, Stormy might bend a rule or two about lightning, but breaking and entering? Lying to her parents?
“So you left the unicorn life to come to come to Ponyville and… be a pegasus?” Stormy asked with a crook of her brow.
“No. Actually, I spent a month as an earth pony on a rock farm working with another unicorn,” she said with a rueful smile. “Apparently we were both disappointments, but me more so. After all, earth ponies are supposed to be… well… tough enough for that kind of work.”
Stormy could understand that. If somepony threw a twelve hour work day at her she’d fly off to fairer skies too. “So then you came to Ponyville to be a pegasus.”
“Yes. I sort of fibbed about my credentials. Rainbow Dash is a nice pony, but she might want to keep better paperwork,” Misty murmured with a small smile. More lies. “I hoped I could just… pick it up as I went along?”
“Right. Because working weather is so easy that any hornhead can pick it up. Heck, Rarity could control all of Ponyville's weather all by herself. No need for a weather team at all then!" Stormy said sharply.
"I'm sorry," she whimpered as she clenched her eyes.
"I know you need to let off steam, but that is no excuse for being mean," Zecora told Stormy sharply. "While being copied may give alarm, best to ask yourself if she's caused harm."
Stormy grit her teeth. As much as it'd be easy to blame everything on Misty, Zecora was right. Misty didn't make Rosewing or the brown pegasus attack her. "Right. Sorry."
“So… you don’t mind I’m a unicorn?” Misty asked nervously.
"No. Why would I?" Maybe Stormy's reply would have worked better if she'd kept the scorn out of her voice.
"Well... you say things that... I dunno... I didn't think you liked unicorns. That's all." Misty kept her voice light and her eyes away.
"What? No. I..." she started to say and then sighed. "Look. I just don't like how some unicorns can do everything everypony else can, only better. Pegasi fly and manage the weather. That's our thing. Then Twilight gives Rarity wings and she actually competes in the young fliers competition. Or Rarity takes over Ponyville's weather like Rainbow Dash did it all herself. I can understand why the dirt... er... earth ponies don't let unicorns use magic to wrap up winter. It's hard work, but they pull it off without a unicorn flashing their horn and doing it for them." Misty didn't raise her eyes from the water as she sat there.
"What you are is important, this is true, but more important is what we do," Zecora said to her with a firm frown. "Do you want to be the pony who tears down a contrite friend with your scowls and frown?"
"I'm just... this is just my opinion, Zecora. I'm not a bigot or anything," Stormy said defensively.
"Your opinion you did just give. Now, perhaps, you should let her live. Clearly she is deeply sorry. Why then do you prolong her worry?" Zecora asked Stormy. The gray pegasus's mouth worked silently. "For months I came to Ponyville, from far over forest, and river, and hill. Yet one look at me and away they scurry; fear of me prompted their hurry. Yet what mischief did I actually cause? This question gave few much pause. Most wished me run out of town. Those meaner still to hunt me down. Fear and pride in equal measure do but hinder joy and pleasure. So condemn others if you must, but first be sure your ire is just."
The gray mare regarded the miserable unicorn and sighed. "Sorry, Misty. I know you didn't ask for any of this. And for what it's worth, I'm glad you've stuck with me."
"Thanks," Misty said with a sniff.
Zecora rose, "Well I am glad to see friendship renewed in the Everfree, I find I still have tasks to do so I must bid you both adieu." She took her satchel of herbs, bowed to each of them, and trotted from the ruin.
"Did that zebra just speak fancy?" Stormy asked in bafflement, then shook her head hard.
"I think she might have," Misty giggled softly, then caught Stormy looking at her and flushed, silencing.
Well, this awkward silence was going to get them nowhere. Stormy rose and looked at the ruin. “This is a pretty awesome place for the Everfree. I wonder what it was before the forest swallowed it up,” Stormy said as she trotted along the sloped edge of the pool opposite the pillars.
“Probably a unicorn villa,” Misty said as she gestured to the side. "There’s more ruins over there. And there too. This place was probably a farming community before the Everfree swallowed it.”
Stormy walked to the edge of the clearing where she could see the stone foundations and walks running in crooked lines between the gnarled trees. There had to be a half dozen buildings flanking the pool, all made of fine marble. How many other cruder structures had once surrounded the place?
“How do you know it’s a unicorn villa? It could be an earth pony villa,” she suggested, trying to sound as if she actually believed it too.
“Earth pony villa?” Misty asked with a wry smile as she walked up beside her, and she pointed a hoof at the statues flanking the Princesses. “Anyway, the proof is there. See? Unicorns are the closest to the Princesses. Then earth ponies, with their heads pressed to the ground as if they’re bowing to the Princesses and the unicorns. Then pegasi out on the fringes,” she said as she pointed to the ranks of statues around the princess.
Well, that certainly robbed it of some charm. “Unicorns first, huh?”
That made Misty flush. “Well… back then they certainly thought so. Today it’s Princesses first, and then everypony else equally,” Misty said. “As long as we have the Princesses, it doesn’t matter what kind of pony you are.” Deep down, Stormy wondered if that were actually true. Even if ponies didn’t come out and say it, how many might also be harboring little resentments.
That thought robbed the pool of what little interest she had left in it. “So, ready to get to Cloudsdale?” Stormy asked.
The unicorn nodded and concentrated, transforming into her white pegasus persona. “I think I’m ready to go.”
“Good,” and she turned, grabbed the bedroll, and thrust it into Misty’s hooves. “Your junk. You can carry at least half of it.” She picked up her own bundle of Misty’s stuff wrapped in vines and tossed it like a bolo over her shoulders.
“Awww…” Misty whined, but put the roll on her back. Together, they took to the skies.
One problem with flying to a city in the sky was everypony could see you coming. Normally, the process was simple. You flew in. Done. Get on with your day. Now, Stormy lay on a cloud, peering through a sheet of vapor with the spyglass as the pegasus guards flitting to and fro inspecting ponies arriving the city. The only other two ways were to approach from above or below. Misty wasn’t up for a high altitude flight; heck, Stormy wasn’t either. And flying up from below was… icky. Plus, it was probably watched. She couldn’t believe the Royal Guard didn’t have somepony guarding the outlets.
“We’re going to have to wait for dark. Like, right in the middle of the night, and sneak in that way,” Stormy muttered.
Misty gave her a kind, yet somewhat pitying smile. “You never snuck into clubs when you were underage and it was a school night, did you?”
This was never going to work, Stormy told herself over and over again as all of Misty’s belongings clattered and clanked on the bed roll that hung over her rump. They could be seen coming from a mile away, probably heard from even farther. The torn rag that covered her head half concealed her face, but that was the point, wasn’t it? Stormy’s heart hammered in her chest; she was going back to the cell! She should just throw herself on the mercy of the Equestrian legal system. She…
“Halt! Stop and identify yourself!” snapped the white stallion in his golden armor.
Stormy let out a squeak, but Misty cleared her throat and approached the pair of guards before them. The white mare looked quite out of place with a ragged sort of skirt around her waist and bits of trash woven into her mane and tail. Oh, the tufted ears, fangs, and bat wings were also quite different. “Ah. Greetings. I am the merchant Photoblea! I come from the surface with wonders from far away and distant lands for sale in your fine city.” Then she gestured a hoof to Stormy. “This is my capable assistant, Floppy.” She leaned in towards the guards and said in a stage whisper, “Careful. She has lice.”
Well, that made them put a little more space between them. The guards blinked and the one of the left said, “Isn’t far away and distant the same thing?”
“Ahah! Indeed they are! Photoblea detects some wisdom of the ages in this one!” she said as reached over and took the sextant from where it was tied to the bedroll. “This is an ancient earth pony artifact going back millennia to the ancient alicorns of Atlantica! Through this, they conducted some of their most powerful and terrible rituals!” She cackled and then extended it towards the pair. “Fifty bits! No! Forty-five! A discount for the fine guardians of the skies!”
“That’s a sextant. We use them for long-range navigation flights,” the guard on the right replied flatly. The guard on the left lifted up Stormy’s hood with a wing, and locks of tight white mane, like dirty wool, popped into view. The guard pulled his hoof away, wiping away potential parasites.
Misty didn’t falter in the slightest. “Why so it is. That is what you use them for today. But the ancient alicorns of Atlantica used them for a far more powerful purpose. Before their empire sank beneath the waves to become the domain of sea ponies, they-”
“Move along,” the guard on the right said dismissively, flying past them to the next group arriving.
“You are fools! Passing up ancient treasures! Twenty five bits! Twenty!” she yelled after them. “Fifteen!” she said after a moment’s hesitation, and then shouted, “Photoblea needs bits for her hotel room!”
“It’s scary how good you were at that,” Stormy said once they were inside Cloudsdale proper and could shed the disguises. The city had so many pegasi that it was simply easier to blend in with the crowd.
“Well, I wanted to just fly in nonchalantly, but you were acting so nervous that I knew we’d stand out. So I just made sure we stood out for something other than ponies wanted for questioning.” Misty sighed and looked at the bed roll, one side torn to shreds to make their rags and provide Stormy her curly white mane of stuffing. Still, they could wrap up the junk in the unstuffed blanket. “So where to?”
Stormy could only think of two places, and she’d rather be plucked than go to one of them. “The Fairweather Academy. This picture was taken a few years back. Maybe somepony might recognize the other ponies in it.”
It was the only lead Stormy had. They trotted together towards the weather factory. Immediately, Stormy noticed it wasn’t churning out great big clouds any more. In fact, it seemed as if it were shut down for the day. Next door was the large four-story Fairweather Academy, Cloudsdale's school for higher education and weather specialization. If a pegasus wasn’t in racing or transportation, they came here. The academy was its usual riot of pegasi flying around, in a rush to get to class or hurrying to meet up after class.
“It looks busy. Did you have a fun education here?” Misty asked as they glided towards the front. Stormy landed on the clearing in front of the busy school and… stopped.
Had she? She’d gone to the Academy. Graduated bottom of her class, but she'd graduated. No real friends. “I… um… I don’t remember much about that time.”
“Oh?” she said, then smiled a little wider. “You were having that much fun?”
“No,” I said, pressing her lips together and fighting the urge to snap. Misty's grin faded a little. “There was an accident. I was badly hurt. Others too. It… um…” Stormy sighed and tapped her temple with a wing tip. “There are some things in here that are sort of fuzzy. Most of my classes. Pieces of my childhood. So no. I didn’t… or if I did I don’t remember it.”
Her features turned to one of concern. “That’s why that picture bothered me. I mean, when Rosewing came to Ponyville… there was nothing. No hi. No how are you doing. I remembered her from grade school, but we weren’t friends. No laughing or smiling like what’s in that picture.” Stormy closed her eyes. “I can’t even remember all of my classes. I can name my last three instructors but before that…”
“We can get a transcript,” Misty said, and they trotted to administration. Thankfully there wasn’t a citywide pony hunt for them, because the bored looking young mare behind the counter trotted to the back without alarm. Through the door, they could watch dozens of ponies moving about. “It’s pretty busy here,” Misty observed.
“Well, this is the school for weather training,” Stormy said, rubbing her head. A familiar throb was starting that promised a doozy. What great timing. “I was always so eager to come here.”
“I thought that all the pegasus colts and fillies wanted to become Wonderbolts,” Misty said with an amused giggle.
“Stereotypes. Baseless stereotypes. Sure, the Wonderbolts are awesome, but weather employs a thousand times more pegasi than racing. My whole family has been weather ponies for... I dunno... ever. My mother was a tornado wrangler when she was my age and my grand mother was a lightning bucker back before they trained you how to do it. You either had the gift or you didn’t.”
“I had no idea,” Misty said lightly.
“Well, it’s the same with unicorns, isn’t it? I mean, you don’t all want to be Princess Twilight, right?” I asked with a wry smile.
Misty blushed a little. “Maybe now they do, but when I was young I thought every unicorn dreamed of being Starswirl or Clover the Clever… just a little. Of course, then we move on to other things. A unicorn can do anything, be anything, so long as they are excellent at it. There is no slack given to an incompetent unicorn.” She said that with such solemnity that Stormy wondered just how much pressure she’d been under growing up.
“I wonder how earth ponies are, growing up,” Stormy murmured, scratching her chin.
“Oh, I can’t even imagine,” Misty said with a small roll of her eyes. “Who can understand them? I mean, they farm rocks. I worked for them for a month without the slightest clue what it was all for. Rolling and shifting rocks around? It was utterly mindboggling, and yet they took it all frightfully seriously.”
Yup. They’d found common ground being baffled by the lives of earth ponies… It’d have been sad if it weren’t a little comforting. Misty examined the students, asking, “Do all the ponies here work at the Weatherworks too?”
“It’s an apprenticeship. First year, you’re here all the time for core classes. Second year you spend a little time in class, and more time actually doing the work,” Stormy said absently.
The mare returned with a form and Stormy gave it a cursory glance. Her name, classes, instructors, and grades had all been scribbled in. “May I?” Misty asked they walked out, and Stormy handed it over to her friend’s wing. Misty considered the piece of paper. “Oh my.”
“Yeah. Almost straight F’s my final year. Impressive, huh?” Stormy said dryly. “I was lucky I didn’t flunk out completely.”
Misty stared at me for several seconds, then asked, “Stormy, have you never seen you own transcripts?”
“No. What’d be the point?” Stormy said with a shrug. “I was told I wouldn’t be allowed to be certified in lightning handling and that I’d be working out of Manehattan. Of course, that didn’t last long.”
Misty wordlessly passed the paper to Stormy and she sighed, then looked at her own record of failure.
Basic Weather Tech.: A
Stormy stared for several seconds at the little letter, wondering if her eyes deceived her. That wasn’t right. She’d failed all of her classes. She’s never gotten an ‘A’ in her…
Summer 1st yearWinter 1st year Summer 2nd yearWinter 2nd year Basic Weather Tech.: A Reading: A Winter Weather: D- Emergency Weather: F Cloud Basics: A Equestrian History: A+ Water Distribution: D- Airborne Bestiary: F Wind Control: A Natural Science: A Team Flying: D Hazardous Weather Mats: D- Mathematics: A
And there, at the bottom.
Due to current academic standing, we cannot authorize advancement to Lightning Certification Program. However, we feel confident Ms. Skies will prove capable in any field office and encourage her to reapply for the LCP when her academic standing has improved.
“This…” Her head ached as she sat down hard. “This isn’t right. I wasn’t good at school. I’d never been good at school,” Stormy said as she stared at the paper. "There has to be some kind of mistake," she said, looking back at the mare behind the counter. Should she risk drawing attention to herself by pointing out there were way too many 'A's on this?
“What happened at the Weatherworks?” Misty asked gently, her hoof on Stormy’s shoulder. “The accident, I mean?”
“I don’t know. I can’t remember, remember?” Stormy couldn’t take her eyes off the paper. If she stared hard enough, reality would reassert itself and turn those A’s into D’s and F’s. “There was a static collector that overcharged. Proper procedure was to evacuate the area and shut down the cloud machine. My supervisor was addressing another apprentice. Apparently I thought I could fix it because I opened the casing. The charge arced to two other collectors, overcharging them. They each arced to two more.... you get the picture. Nearly a dozen ponies were injured.” No ponies killed that time... thank the air.
“When did that happen?” Misty asked.
Stormy pointed at the column marked ‘Winter Weather’. “First month in on my second year. Then…” she shook her head. “Nothing was the same after that.” Her head ached terribly as she sniffed and looked at Misty. “I thought that… I thought that it was just a photograph.” What else had happened in her life that she misremembered?
“Did you go to the hospital after the accident?” Misty asked sympathetically.
Stormy closed her eyes, the memories whirling like razor-edged autumn leaves in a gust. “Yeah. I was burned pretty bad. Both Princess Celestia and Luna came and helped magic away a lot of the injuries… first time I was really grateful for the Princesses’ magic. But there were supposed to be follow up therapies and … I really don’t like hospitals. I was glad my burns were healed; it was more than I deserved. After that I just wanted to put my screw up behind me. I got so many ponies hurt that day.”
“Do you have bad dreams?”
“Maybe. I don’t know. I don’t remember them if I do,” Stormy said with a frown. “What’s with the sudden interest, anyway?”
“I…” Misty balked. “Can’t I just be concerned for you?”
Stormy had no clue anymore. What was truth and what was trickery with this mare? Stormy wanted to get off the topic as quickly as she could. “Anyway. It happened. It was in the past. There’s nothing to do about it, so why worry about it?” She considered the list of professors; some she remembered vaguely and others she drew a blank on. “I guess we can just go right down the list.”
Of course it wasn’t as easy as that. Some professors were teaching. Some were absent. One had retired. The few they could get in to meet vaguely remembered Stormy and apologized for having so many students. Her wind control teacher remembered her fondly, and the mare offered sympathy for her doing so poorly her second year. “You should have had an A in Emergency Weather. If it hadn’t been for the accident setting you back,” the pink pegasus professor told her as they finished up their brief talk, “I think you would have been disaster response material.” Sadly, she hadn’t been able to identify anyone in the photograph, the elderly mare squinting hard at the page.
As they trotted out of her office, Misty asked, “Disaster response?”
“Wonderbolts for weather teams,” Stormy replied. “There were one or two in Ponyville after that bolt went off, I’m sure. Their job is to tackle freak weather, magical storms, and feral clouds.” She glanced over her shoulder, back at the classroom. That the professor had thought she had that potential… well, she was probably just being nice.
Stormy wasn’t sure this was going to get them anywhere now. It’d been two hours and they’d only found four of her teachers. Maybe it was time to just go back to Ponyville, turn in the picture, and call it a day?
Then she heard a droning voice that sounded… familiar. It came from a small classroom at the end of the hall. Stormy trotted closer, her ears twitching. Dry. Dull. Disinterested. The anesthetizing voice niggled at her damaged memories. She read the plaque outside the classroom. ‘Dr. Epimetheus. Equestrian History.’ What kind of egghead name was that?
She stepped into a classroom far different from the sparse, functional chambers of her other teachers. After all, when you were working with lightning and rainclouds, decorations were a liability. This room, on the other hand, was a clash between a rare book store, a cartographer’s shop, and an antique swap meet. If the walls weren’t decorated with dozens of old maps, then they were covered with books shelves filled floor to ceiling with tomes. Any remaining space was occupied by any number of strange artifacts: a pegasi warrior’s crested helmet, a unicorn skull on the desk with an old dusty silver crown atop its head, even a suit of barding suspended from the ceiling in the corner. As fascinating as the room was, only a nine students were in attendance. Four of which were sleeping, three who were reading, one who was doing homework for another class, and the last was staring blankly in the direction of the professor, drool creeping along the yellow length of wood. But all of Stormy's attention was locked on the professor...
One of the stallions from the photograph.
He was the oldest of the six in the picture. His coat was a dusky blue and his mane gray with streaks of white. The grayish blue tweed jacket he wore sported patches on the sleeves behind his front knees, and appeared just as dusty as the rest of the room. He looked thinner than he did in the paper, with dark patches under his eyes. Eyes which stared flatly at his audience as he spoke in the monotone of recitation. Then they turned slowly over to Stormy and a change swept over the thin, old stallion. His pale blue eyes sharpened immediately and a smile came to his lips. He lost ten years almost instantly.
“Something’s come up. Read unit four, chapters fifteen and sixteen, for next week. It will be on the midterm,” he said as he pulled off his wire frame glasses, tugged out a navy blue silk scarf, and polished the lenses briskly. His students jerked out of their stupor and quite happily began to file out, glad for the early release. When they vacated the room, he put his glasses back on and grinned. “My dear, so wonderful to see you again! Truly.”
Stormy could almost cry with relief. Here was a lead. Somepony who could answer her questions, put an end to her confusion, and maybe even write a statement. “Doctor Epimetheus. I can’t tell you how happy I am to see you,” Stormy nearly sobbed.
“Quite all right. Quite all right,” he said with a bob of his head. “I know you’re having terrible difficulties with that paper, but I’m sure that if we poke through the draft a little harder we can tighten it up nicely, alright Lightning Flash?”
Stormy let out a strangled squeak.
Ten minutes later they were in his office behind the classroom; it was so choked with books and artifacts that Misty was forced to stand in the doorway. Stormy could only imagine the enchantments on the rooms that kept everything from plunging down to the surface below. Doctor Epimetheus settled back in an overstuffed lounge chair with a sigh. “Dreadfully sorry for the mix-ups. I have so many students that frequently the names and faces blur together. But just ask me about the battle of Pegapolitia and I’ll right as rain… except when it comes to the duel of Shadowfall and Flarefeather. I can never keep those two mares straight. You see, Shadowfall was sixth in line to-”
“Doctor, please excuse me,” Misty said, breaking him off, “but Stormy here needs your help. She’s trying to find out the identity of certain ponies in a photograph.”
Stormy passed the photo to him and he adjusted the glasses. “Mmm… my word,” he murmured, then glanced up at the two. “Let me think. There’s you. And that’s… mmmm…” He pointed a wing at the ponies. “That’s… Cirrus?” he said as he pointed at Rosewing. Stormy almost collapsed then and there, but he tapped the paper with a hoof. “No. Wait! Tulipwing! Daisywing. Some-kind-of-plant-wing?”
It was something at least. “Rosewing! Yes. Rosewing. And the others?” Stormy asked as she pointed at the image of the stallion who’d attacked them. “I’m really interested in him.”
“That would be… erm… hmmm… Tumble? Tackle? Tussle? T-something-sporty,” he said, rubbing his chin with his wing. “He dropped out of the weather program as I recall… if I recall correctly.” Stormy leaned over and put her head on a stack of books.
“The other two… mmm… older ponies than I usually get. Generally that’s significant… mmm…” He turned the picture on its side. “The older mare is… ssss… Erm… Ah! Sunlight Sparkle. Wonderful mare. Works out in Las Pegasus… or was it Baltimare? Ponyville? Hrm. And the stallion is… mmm… I simply can’t recall him. Sorry.”
Stormy deflated. In a way, this was almost worse than knowing nothing at all. “What about the cave? I mean… you have to remember a cave?” How could any pony forget the certainty that any moment they were going to be crushed flat?
“Mmmm… I think that was during the semester break. A class excursion to Lithopolis I believe. Fascinating place for ponies who like rocks, I suppose,” he said with a dismissive wave of the hoof. “Rather hot and dusty, but I didn’t plan the trip.”
Stormy slumped. A dead end. No. Not a dead end. Just a fuzzy one. Stormy had no idea what her next move should be. Fly off to Las Pegasus or Balitmare looking for Sunlight Sparkle? Search around Cloudsdale in the hope she’d run into the stallion? Or should she do what Fluttershy suggested and just dump everything in Princess Twilight’s hooves and start carrying mail parcels?
Each option left her more disappointed than the last.
“Doctor? May I ask you a question?” Misty asked politely. When the old pegasus nodded, she smiled and asked, “Why would somepony need to steal lightning? Why not just buy it?”
Stormy huffed, opening her mouth to quote the half dozen or so Equestrian royal statues regulating lightning. Those she knew well enough, as she’d been lectured on them ad nauseam.
But before she could, the old stallion said, nearly casually, “Because it’s a violation of the Equestrian Accords, of course.” He blinked a second later and then added apologetically, “But that’s just a bunch of old law that’d bore you to tears.”
But this was something… odd. “Wait. What are the Equestrian Accords?” Stormy asked. She felt the profound sense that she’d asked that before.
He exhaled and took off his glasses, extracted a small silk cloth from his vest pocket, and polished the lenses. “The Equestrian Accords are the legal foundation for the land of Equestria.” At their expectant silence, he sighed again and replaced the glasses. “It is a particularly long and dull subject. I’m sure you have better things to do.”
But there was something about this that nagged at her. “I’ve never heard of them before. I thought all the laws were just things Princess Celestia decided,” Stormy said as she leaned closer to him.
“Princess Celestia has become the legislator, executor, and adjudicator of Equestrian law, but the foundations of the country’s legal system predate her rule.” He shook his head, pausing to remove and examine the clarity of his glass lens again with a frown. Misty glanced over at Stormy and the gray mare nodded firmly. He seemed to consider her for several seconds before giving in. “Well, if you insist…”
He cleared his throat and adopted an academic tone. “You’ve been to a Hearth's Warming Eve pageant before, yes?” They both nodded and he gave them a half smile. “Do you believe the events in the pageant are true to the historical facts of the day?”
“Well, I guess I never really thought about it,” Misty Morning murmured. “Aren’t they?”
He sighed, leaning back in his seat. “This is why ponies need to take history more seriously. So little appreciation for their heritage.” He folded his hooves before him. “Fifteen hundred years ago, the three major tribes of ponykind were locked in a rather acrimonious relationship.”
“Yes. The earth ponies raised the food in exchange for weather and the sun, right?” Misty Morning asked, hopefully.
“More like the earth ponies grew the food, the unicorns took the food, and the pegasi bought the food in exchange for terrorizing the earth ponies,” he said with a chuckle. “Of course, sometimes it was the pegasi taking the food, and anything else precious and not nailed down from the unicorn manor. And sometimes it was the earth ponies refusing to grow the food. Or the unicorns forcing earth ponies to grow it at sword point. Or… well… you get the idea.”
“The different pony tribes battled each other?” Misty asked, aghast. "I just thought it was... well... arguments and hoof fights!"
“The past can be a horrible place at times,” he said casually, sweeping a wing aside as if dismissing her horror. “The point is that the three ponies kinds were not friends. They could work together in times of crisis, or they could be at ends, and increasingly it was the latter over the former.”
“But then the windigos attacked and forced them to work together and find a new home, right?” Stormy asked. When the academic smiled patronizingly, she frowned, “Let me guess. That wasn’t right either?”
“Oh, there were certainly windigos,” he said casually. “But there were much worse things besides that. Unicorn mind control. Necromancy. Earth pony poisons and ravenous beasts. And, of course, pegasi with their Lightning Lances and Thunderforges. The conflict escalated. It magnified.”
“Lightning Lances?” The word thrilled her. “What is that? Like, class A lightning?” Her eagerness seemed to surprise him for a moment.
“A hundred times more powerful than mere class A lightning. Truly, a force to be feared and respected,” he said with a soft chuckle. “The raw energy of the storm condensed and focused in a Thunderforge to a single bolt easily wielded by a lone pegasus. The power was truly beyond modern understanding. Just one would have been capable of eradicating Nightmare Moon or Discord. Their energy disrupts and negates magic, making it a truly terrifying weapon against unicorn and earth pony strongholds.”
“That sounds horrifying,” Misty shivered.
“More horrifying than unicorns raising the dead, or creating and employing magical beasts like windegos?” the doctor asked with a dreadful little smile. “You were quite correct that the three tribes needed a new homeland, but the three did not do so to thaw a magical windego winter. Each of the three tribes came to this place fully prepared to make war.”
“But what happened?” Stormy asked.
“Accounts differ, but all agree that there was a battle between the three tribes, and one called for a truce. A time-out to collect the wounded and account for the dead. When the toll was taken, three representatives met and agreed the fighting must stop. That they would eradicate themselves if they did not. And in dire violation of their commanders and leaders back home, all three halted hostilities.”
“But… wouldn’t they be pleased?” Misty asked in a scared little voice. "If they stopped fighting in Equestria, they could stop fighting there too, right?"
“Why would they want to? The grudges of the three tribes were deeply entrenched back home. They wanted to annex this land for their own people. It was fertile, and lush, and whole. And so, in defiance to their leaders, Commander Hurricane, Princess Platinum, and Councilor Puddinghead all signed an agreement: the Equestrian Accords. It pledged unity and protection to all signatory members.”
He rose and trotted to a chest, pulling out an old, faded banner showing a green field, a cloud in a blue sky, and a mountain with a star-shaped purple gem in the center. “The homelands were outraged, and each sent an army to overthrow the rebels. Ironically, had the three armies worked together, they would have certainly overrun the fledgling nation. But the three armies fought each other more fiercely than the rebels. The early Equestrians played one power against the other, employing clever misdirection and valorous raids. And all the while, they allowed any of the enemy to sign the Accords and join them. In time, the armies of their attackers dwindled while the rebels grew. Some in the homelands actually fled to Equestria to escape strife at home.”
“So what happened after that?” Stormy asked.
He carefully folded the banner and slipped it back in the chest. “Nopony knows for sure, but the fears were realized. The old homelands were lost. To this day, how they perished and where the old homelands lay is unknown. Some claim the homelands were north of the Crystal Empire, buried in endless ice by a unicorn curse. Others that they lie far to the south beyond the Appleloosan desert, buried in the sands of an eternal whirlwind. Still others claim it was an great island continent that sank beneath the waves from a terrible earthquake.
“What did matter was suddenly three very different kinds of ponies were forced to live closely together, and they needed to be able to trust one another. They were awash in refugees who harbored deeply etched fears and hatreds, but who also dreamed of a better life. So, how could you have a unicorn neighbor, knowing that at any time they might cast a spell to control your will? Or a pegasus who might threaten to destroy your home with a lightning bolt? Or that your groceries grown by an earth pony aren’t poisoned? And so the Equestrian Accords were modified, establishing the Equestrian Council, and mandating that each group give up certain privileges and powers.”
“Like mind control spells?” Stormy asked, and the Doctor nodded.
“Indeed. There’s a list, but they largely boil down to spells which usurp the mind of a pony, spells that intentionally inflict grievous bodily harm to its victims, or spells which defile the soul of a pony. That includes necromancy.” He returned to his seat, sitting back with a groan.
Then Stormy frowned. “Wait. What about that time Twilight cast that spell that made everypony in Ponyville go crazy for her doll?”
“Yes, I read about that,” he said with a dark chuckle. “Interesting, isn’t it? A gross violation of the Accords. Of course, she was the Princess’s 'special student' and no pony was hurt, so I suppose that was why the Princess let it slide. Still, if any other unicorn made a similar mistake, she would have found herself in grave trouble. And if it was discovered she broke the Accords intentionally… well… there’s a place in Equestria for those ponies.” From his tone, it was clear it wasn’t a pleasant place. Misty actually shivered.
“And the pegasi gave up… what?” Misty asked with a small, nervous smile.
“We were no longer allowed to be… careless… with the weather. There were days when pegasi would craft thousand wing-power tornadoes simply because we could. Or drop snow in the middle of growing season. Or melt the winter snow all at once and flood a unicorn palace. Ah, those were the days,” he said with a chuckle. At Misty’s reproachful glance, he shook a pinion at her. “Oh, don’t give me that look. Don’t tell me you’ve never thought of dropping a gallon of sleet on an unsuspecting and stuffed up unicorn in their ridiculous ensembles.” He said, adopting a sarcastic accent for the word.
Stormy snickered, but then immediately coughed contritely at Misty’s cool stare. The doctor didn’t seem to catch it as he went on speaking, “We were also banned from creating Lightning Lances. All Thunderforges were broken down for scrap. All but one.” He craned his neck to look out the window at the cloud factory. “Cloudsdale retains an inactive Thunderforge, for extreme emergencies.” He rolled his eyes, “Though what that might be is unknown. If Discord and Nightmare Moon didn’t warrant its use, I shudder to think what would.”
“Are there any ponies who still know how to use it?” Stormy asked.
For some reason, that made him pause and smile. “A dozen, perhaps, and the knowledge is carefully recorded and saved for such an event,” he said calmly. “But I suspect it’s something whose time has passed. With Princesses, what need do we have for such things?”
Misty frowned, then asked, “What about the earth ponies? What did they give up?”
“Seeds,” the doctor said simply.
“Seeds?” Stormy repeated, skeptically.
“Oh yes. The seeds to a wide variety of… highly interesting plants. Some poisonous. Some magical. Some highly addictive. Some that sterilize the ingestor. Some that drive a pony insane. Dozens of these plants were cultivated by earth ponies in their underhooved war. They might not have had magic or control of the skies, but earth ponies were far from helpless. There was many a pegasus warlord enslaved by the chains of addiction, or unicorn noble slain by their soup. Of course the reprisals were terrible. Unicorns and pegasi both spent a great deal of time and effort ensuring their food sources were secure, but sometimes all it would take was one drop of an extract or one tainted pint of cider and…” he shook his head. “Some historians say earth pony baking should be considered weapons research.”
“Um… but those plants are long gone, right?” Stormy asked nervously, thinking back to the last mug of cider she’d drunk.
“No. Under the accords, each pony tribe is allowed a… repository. One Thunderforge. One book of forbidden spells. One collection of terrifying seeds. The Black Book of Canterlot is the recording of all illegal spells and how to cast and use them, in detail. The Manehattan Horticultural Society maintains their collection of plants, all overseen by the Royal Guard.” He tapped his hooves together. “Of course, said Guard are all earth ponies.”
“But why keep them around when we have the Princesses?” Misty asked.
The doctor sighed, shaking his head. “Why do so many ask that?” He adjusted his glasses with a wing as he looked at her. “Each pony tribe is responsible for their own well-being. We did not forfeit our right to defend ourselves from outside threats simply because Princess Celestia rules us. The fall of Princess Luna to become Nightmare Moon shows even Princesses are not infallible. What if Celestia were to fall in similar fashion? Or what if they were both corrupted by their power? A Lightning Lance is the only weapon that might allow pegasi to defend themselves.” He tapped his hooves together, saying soberly, “We do not keep these weapons to use. We keep these weapons in the hopes they will never be used.”
The two didn’t have anything to say to that. If Stormy hadn’t met Misty, she might have agreed outright. And while Misty didn’t precisely engender trust with her deceptive habits, Stormy didn’t think she was out to screw her. “And what happens if somepony breaks the Accords?” Stormy asked in a low voice, trying to keep the fear from coming through.
His smile was calm, almost serene, as he replied, “Interesting times, my dear mare. Very interesting times.” He sighed and rose, trotting to the window to his office again. “When Celestia and Luna took over rulership of the three tribes, it was in response to Discord attempting to get us to violate the Accords. We were close. So very close. His manipulation and torments were on one hoof gross and obvious, and on the other terribly subtle. The Princesses, however, were able to employ a different method of dealing with him… the Elements of Harmony.”
“When the Princesses took power after Discord, the Accords were altered yet again. The three tribes formally yielded much of their autonomy to their rule, giving them the right. The Equestrian Council became largely a figure head, with a few ceremonial and traditional traits. For instance, the unicorn ‘nobility’ in a country with one absolute monarch. Or earth ponies electing a mayor or sheriff for their communities. Or pegasi giving positions of authority in military fashion. The Council still exists, but they’re largely figureheads at this point. Many ponies don’t even know of them or their responsibilities.”
Misty cleared her throat, “Doctor Epimetheus… you don’t sound like you approve of the Accords.”
He waved a wing dismissively. “I absolutely appreciate what they did and were intended to do. What I do not appreciate was our ancestors yielding our authority to a monarchical god figure whose sister, forgive my vulgarity, spit her bit and tried to take over our people.” He sighed and shook his head. “But it seems Princesses are a permanent fixture in Equestria, regardless of certain dissenting opinion. Now we’ve at least four. Possibly more lurking in the wings.” He shook his head. “And the most powerful two, Princess Celestia and Princess Twilight, were unicorns originally. The two that were pegasi originally, Princess Luna and Princess Cadance, have far more minor roles in Equestria.” He sighed and waved his hoof again. “But that’s an academic arguing point going back a millennia.”
“Princess Celestia was a unicorn?” Misty said with clear surprise.
“Yes. Two sisters. One unicorn and the other pegasus… it was a potent symbol at a time when Discord was doing all he could to drive us apart. There are even myths of a third sister, an earth pony, but there’s been no corroboration of this. Certainly nopony has successfully broached the topic to Their Majesties.” He sighed and frowned at a clock on the mantle. “Didn’t I…”
He gasped and rocked forward to his feet. “Oh! Admin meeting. So tedious. Started ten minutes ago. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to hurry up so I can nod off at appropriate times. If you could tell me how to find you in case I remember something else, Miss… Victorious Volt? Zealous Zap? Er…” he paused, seeming to melt a little. “Perhaps you could write it down along with where I can get in touch with you?”
Getting in touch? How? Stormy had no idea what to do now. She was very close to simply throwing it all in Princess Twilight’s hooves and begging for clemency. It was just that that felt like it would be overwhelming failure. There was one option though… but… sweet air above, was she really contemplating her?
“If you do, just mail to this address. I can pick it up from her later,” Stormy said before scribbling down her name and the address.
“Thank you. Thank you,” he muttered as he looked at the note and frowned. “Sunny Skies? Sunny Skies… that sounds so familiar…” He blinked at Stormy. “By any chance…”
May as well confess it now, Stormy decided. Like ripping off a band-aid. “Yeah. Cloudsdale Weather Manager Sunny Skies,” Stormy said with a resigned sigh. “My sister.”
Stormy and Misty trotted together out of the Fairweather Academy, through the throngs of angry, complaining ponies. Stormy couldn’t summon up enough curiosity to find out what everypony had a kink in their feathers over. “Well, that was frustratingly useless,” Stormy grumbled.
“What do you mean?” Misty asked as she walked alongside her.
“I was hoping, when we found somepony from the picture, that I’d have something to give to the Princesses backing me up and getting me back on weather duty. Now, I don’t even know if this picture is anything more than a memento of a summer trip Rosewing enjoyed.” Stormy shook her head. “Now I don’t know what I should do. Fly to Baltimare or Las Pegasus looking for what’s her name? Try to find out who Mr. Can't Remember is? I don’t have any kind of authority for that!”
Stormy was shoved by two angry pegasi trotting past her. “Hey, watch it!” Stormy snapped. Skies above, what was going on?
“At least the Accords thing was interesting,” Misty said. “I’ve never heard about them before. I mean, I’ve heard stories…”
“I thought unicorns didn’t have control over what magic they know,” Stormy countered.
“Well…” Misty hemmed a moment. “It isn’t so much that we don’t have control as it is that learning new spells outside our talents is really hard. Like, say I wanted to learn a cooking spell. There’s spell books that can teach me how to do it, but I’d have to get it to fit in with my talent. It’s all mental. And if you’re convinced the only magic you can learn is related to your talent, well, that’s all you’ll ever do. But there’s always been unicorn horror stories of a unicorn using their spells to do horrible things.”
“Like what?” Stormy asked, half curious. What was with all the noise?
Misty winced. “Like a unicorn using her cooking spell on… um… another pony. It’s just gross.” She shook her head and hurried on. “But there’s always other stories too. Like how you shouldn’t use magic to coerce other ponies. How you need to consider how your magic might harm others. They’re very strict about it in magic kindergarten. Even simple telekinesis can be harmful if you misuse it.” She looked away at the crowd, muttering, “How Princess Twilight has gotten away with a quarter of the things she’s done baffles me, but I suppose being the Princess’s special student and a Princess herself now makes all the difference. She must have failed magic kindergarten though.”
A pegasus shoved Stormy hard enough that she couldn’t savor the idea of a pony as smart as Princess Twilight failing a class. “Okay, that’s it!” Stormy turned and grabbed a pegasus by the shoulders, “What is going on?” The hapless blue mare blinked at Stormy, then pointed to where the crowd was thickest with her wing.
On a stage of piled up clouds paced a blue stallion with a megaphone who seemed to be in the midst of a rant. “…do we question how well the Guard police hornheads and their freaky magic? No! Do we question why earth ponies need exactly four inches of rain and not a drop more? No! So are we going to work when the other ponykinds make their snide accusations of negligence, incompetence, and malfeasance?”
“No!” the crowd roared in unison, sending a shiver up Stormy's spine.
“No!” yelled the pegasus on stage, “We’re not! If hornheads and dirtponies think they can control the skies better, let them try! When wild weather floods their fields, let them deal with it. When twisters and blizzards accidentally break out, let them deal with it. When they don’t have a drop to drink, let them deal with it! And when lightning falls, they can accuse somepony else besides us!”
“Strike! Strike! Strike!” the crowd began to chant in time with the stallion.
Stormy gaped at the crowd. “What is going on here?” she asked the blue pegasus mare, who’d just begun to creep off.
“Haven’t you been reading the news?” she countered in annoyance. She pointed a hoof at several newspapers strewn over a nearby table. Releasing her, the pair trotted over and looked at the headlines.
“Irresponsible Pegasi misuse of lightning destroys earth pony family?” Stormy read aloud. "Pegasi?" Her eyes fell to the sublines. “Parents still not found in the ruins. ‘Knew it was just a matter of time,’ quoted Grannysmith,” Stormy read aloud from the Manehattan Gazette. Her eyes found a lower article. “Pegasi weather in need of stronger regulation?”
“This one isn’t much better,” Misty said grimly as she read aloud off of the Canterlot Courier. “Pegasi deliberately target earth pony farm for annihilation from above. 'This ain't the first time pegasi destroyed Apple Family property. Last year Rainbow Dash demolished their old barn,’ says Hayseed Turniptruck.’ And here! ‘Are pegasi returning to their brutish ways? Unicorn experts are concerned.’ I can’t believe it.”
Stormy sat down hard, holding her head between her hooves. Misty joined her, crouching at her side. “It wasn’t… I don’t…” She started to shake. What was happening to Equestria? Ponies trying to kill other ponies. Now this? What was next?
“At least the Ponyville Press is keeping it to the facts. No ‘articles’ to stir things up,” Misty said, examining all the other papers strewn about the table. “Wish more people were paying more attention to it though.” Then she looked over as Stormy gave a little sob. “Stormy?”
“I’m going to turn myself in. Give the photograph to Twilight Sparkle and her friends. Let them handle it,” Stormy said bitterly. “This is too big for us to handle. Too crazy. If things keep going like they are, somepony else is going to get hurt bad. I don’t… I can’t be responsible for that again,” Stormy muttered.
Misty sighed. “Come on. Which way to your sister’s?” she asked as she tried to get Stormy to her hooves. Stormy rose, if only to escape the din rising from the crowd. A weather strike? Stormy couldn’t remember one of those in her lifetime… but then given how her memory was these days…
“How is Princess Celestia gonna sort this mess out?” Stormy asked as she trotted towards Sunrise Spires, the soaring pair of cloud towers one of Cloudsdale’s prominent skymarks. “I mean, I know she’s princess and all, but I don’t think she can show up in three different towns at once and make everypony calm down.”
“And even if she gives a speech, it’ll take a while for the message to spread. The papers are just running with the story and seeing what people will buy,” Misty said, rolling her eyes a little. “Ponies can be so dumb sometimes,” she said with a scowl, looking back at the stallion now yelling about regulating magic and regulating farms. “Magic IS regulated, you dodo!” she shouted back at him, but her words were lost in the roar of the crowd.
Getting away from the crowd helped calm Stormy down a little, but only just a little. “I feel like I’m swimming again.”
“Swimming?” Misty asked in bafflement.
“I can’t swim, but when I moved to Ponyville, Rainbow Dash took the whole weather team to a swimming hole nearby. I didn’t want to look scared, so I just walked around in the shallows and everything was fine.” She shivered. “But then I stepped off a ledge I couldn’t see and went under. Nearly breathed in water. Rainbow Dash pulled me to shore. Since then, though, whenever I think of swimming I remember that feeling of stepping off into nothing and going down down down. I feel like that now. Like any second I’m going to step off.”
“I’m sorry. I wish there was something I could do,” Misty said with a sigh. “I haven’t been much help, have I?” Stormy stopped and saw her close her eyes, bowing her head so she half hid behind her mane.
“Hey, don’t think that. You’ve stuck with me. That’s more than I expected anypony to do,” she said with a small smile, which was reciprocated. “Come on. Let’s break the bad news to Sunny.”
The Sun Spires were the poshest place in the skies for any pegasus to reside in throughout Equestria. The two towers rose up through the center of the city; Sunrise to the east and Sunset to the west. Sunrise was the slightly better of the two. Cloudsdale’s executor, essentially a mayor appointed by... somepony... lived at the top of Sunrise. Was it Princess Celestia? It probably didn't matter. Still, for Sunny to afford an apartment in Sunset was definitely proof she’d made it far in this city.
“Your family lives here?” Misty asked, staring at the curving purple and red colored walls. Though cloud, they had the appearance of marble, even simulating the light clip clop of their hooves as they walked. Soaring pillars thinner than any of stone rose up the central shaft of the towers, and the walls were decorated with carvings of pegasi, birds, clouds, and more. Each level had its own motif, so a pony could know which level they were on without counting. The walls here were covered with pegasi and doves.
“No, just Sunny. My family home is down near the Cloudbottom. Old part of town. Lot more character and night life though,” Stormy said, quickly defending her home turf. She trotted up to a door between two pots of flowers. “Now, where does she hide that key?”
Misty considered the flowers themselves. “How are these growing up here?” She poked a red one with a wing, and it wobbled, expanding in a haze of red, then pulled back in. “They’re clouds?”
“Sure. You can make anything out of cloud if you really want to. Not the sturdiest of materials, of course, but then its cloud,” she said as she felt around behind the pot with a wing. Her wingtip found the key and drug it out from behind the pot. “A hah. Old habits…” she said as she unlocked the door and pushed it open.
The apartment was, appropriately enough, wide and airy. Its many windows along the outer wall looked out at the city bustling with life. A bland couch, two love seats, and a coffee table occupied the living room. The decoration was minimal, just a few paintings of sunsets over cloudscapes that Stormy suspected came with the apartment. In the kitchen was a raised voice, snapping, “I don’t care if those idiots go on strike. We’re going to have to work three times as hard when they decide to get back to work!” The strident tone was quite familiar.
She stepped around the corner and spotted a lemon colored mare with a smiling sun on her flank. Her mane was an orangeish red, and she had the sturdy build of a worker. The instant she came into view, she fell silent, citrine eyes disbelieving.
The other pony was a slightly younger mare, steel gray with a dark blue mane, with a dour expression. Her cutie mark was a sad raindrop. Unlike the other pony, she was dressed in a black turtleneck that covered her torso and front legs. Almost by reflex, she pulled the sleeves down over the thin gray scars around her fetlocks.
“Hey, Sunny. Hope you don’t mind I let myself in,” Stormy said, forcing a smile as she addressed the yellow mare now wearing a stunned expression. She turned to the other mare, saying casually, “Nice to see you again, Rainy. How are you doing?”
Sunny trotted over and Stormy braced herself, but then the mare put her arms around her neck and gave her a hug. “We were so worried,” she murmured.
"Uh… kay…” Stormy murmured, shocked. Rainy examined Misty with a detached look.
When Sunny finished hugging her, the yellow mare sighed, bowing her head contemplatively a moment, then reared up and slammed both hooves upside the top of her head. Stormy was laid out almost instantly. “You idiot! How could you almost get yourself killed, disappear, and then have the Royal Guard looking for you? Mother is worried sick! If she didn’t have the baby to look after…”
“Wait. Gusty, or a new one?” Stormy asked with a wince.
“New one,” Sunny said impatiently. “But that’s not-”
“That’s what, twelve now?” Stormy said as she smiled through the pain.
“Thirteen. And anyway-”
“Boy or a girl?”
“Girl, of course,” Sunny huffed.
“Poor Daddy was almost inconsolable. The depths of his despair palpable,” Rainy said mournfully. “Never shall his seed sow a male heir.”
“Oh stop it. You’d think by now he’d be resigned to it,” Sunny said, her glare switching to Rainy, then back down to Stormy as she huffed. “And before you ask, her name is Cloudy.”
Victory. Stormy sat up, rubbing her head. “Misty, this is my older sister Sunny Skies and my twin Rainy Skies. Sunny, Rainy, this is Misty Morning.”
“Our meeting is but a fleeting spark in the eternal twilight of existence,” Rainy said morosely.
“Stop,” Sunny said to her, worry around her eyes, then forced a smile for Misty. “Welcome. Nice to meet you. Welcome to my home.”
“A home? A home? What is a home? Six walls and a door? Is this what a home is?” Rainy asked.
“Twin?” Misty asked as she looked from Stormy to Rainy.
“Hey, don’t look at me. I gave up trying to figure out the genetics a long time ago,” Stormy said. Now that Sunny was off her rant, they could have a sane conversation. “As I said, Misty is in weather management. Rainy is… um…”
“I collect and recombine letters and punctuation in a futile effort for recognition and meaning, doomed to be utterly unappreciated and forgotten,” Rainy said, giving a great sigh.
“She’s also in weather, but she writes… stuff,” Stormy said with a half-smile to Misty.
“Stuff? Stuff? Can you weigh meaning? Can you measure it?” Rainy asked with a cool look at Stormy before turning back to Misty. “I compose verses bleak and profound. I’m only doing weather stuff till I get my first book of poems published.”
“Oh! Well, I’d love to hear it,” Misty said with a nervous smile plastered thin with sincerity.
Sunny and Stormy looked at each other and burst into action. “Oh yes you should!” Stormy said as she pushed Misty out of the kitchen.
“Read her that one about the futility of the universe! It’s really good!” Sunny said with a grin as she pushed Rainy out beside her. When both were ejected from the kitchen, they held their breath and then listened to sounds of hoofsteps retreating down the hall. They let out the breath almost in unison.
“So. Rainy, huh? Mom must have done another bedroom shuffle,” Stormy said as they trotted over to the breakfast nook. “Has she been… okay?”
“She hasn’t tried anything in a year. I suppose that's better than she was. Still have to keep knives out of the kitchen. She loves her dreary poetry though,” Sunny said with a sigh, considering Stormy soberly. “What’s going on, Stormy?”
Stormy bit her lip and sighed. “Okay, but it’s a long story.”
A few hours later she finished telling the story. Misty had come back twice trying to plead off listening to more poetry, but one sad gaze from Rainy and she returned to her room. Sunny listened intently, questioning almost everything and frowning with that critical eye that made Stormy feel a little sick. “Wow,” was all she said when Stormy finished. “So… why didn’t you tell Mom you were okay? She’s been worried sick since the Guard showed up this morning.”
“Cause'… I know what she’ll say. I screwed up again.” Stormy closed her eyes. “I know I did.”
“Screw up? How did you screw up?” Sunny asked, leaning back in her seat and looking at her in concern. “As far as I can tell, you didn’t screw up. Misty was damned lucky you were there. Anypony else, and she might have been killed.”
“So you believe me?” Stormy asked, chewing her bottom lip.
“Unless something big changed, you’re not a liar, Stormy. Impulsive, maybe, but not a liar. Plus, I know about your little lightning fetish, so I know you’d never save up that much to blow up a barn,” Sunny said with a smirk.
Stormy’s cheeks flushed as she stood on her hind legs, thumping the table. “I do not have a lightning fetish!”
A throat cleared. There, in the doorway, was Misty and Rainy. Misty appeared exhausted from exposure to Rainy's verse. “My throat is parched with the dryness of a thousand deserts,” she rasped. “In addendum… you totally do.”
Misty, blushing as well, just stared at Stormy. “Lightning… fetish…?”
“Let’s just say Stormy here likes putting lightning in places good mares shouldn’t,” Sunny said with a grin as Stormy made strangled sounds, planning the death of her elder sister. Rainy walked over and got herself a glass of water. Sunny just grinned at the silenced mare, saying coyly, “What? You do.”
“Hate you so much,” Stormy muttered.
“Existence itself is a perversity on the face of the universe. We are yet we are not,” Rainy said disinterestedly as she examined a hoof. “Also, I tried it too. I can’t really see the appeal. Bzzzzt. Squirt. What’s the point?”
Stormy laid her chin on the table, covering her face with her forelegs. “I’m in a coma. I’m in a coma and my subconscious is trying to drive me crazy.”
“That is my experience every iota of every moment of every second,” Rainy said, patting Stormy on the shoulder.
When Stormy lifted her face, she dared to glance at Misty and saw the mare was still blushing profusely. “You put lightning… there?” she asked weakly.
“I like it! It feels good! I’m a freak, okay!” Stormy erupted, waving her hooves over her head before finally rising to her feet and trotting away from them. “Leave me alone.”
Sunny was barely able to contain her mirth. “Wait. Wait. Let me see this picture,” Sunny asked, not able to hide the smile on her face.
Stormy lifted the picture from the bundle of gear on her back with her wings and flashed it at Sunny. “See?” Then shoved in back in the bag. She found her couch and carefully tested her coffee table. The bag didn’t fall through, showing the enchantment on the furniture. Good thing. In her mom’s house it’d be on its way to Cloudy Swamp below the city.
The other three followed her in and took seats. “So what are you going to do about this strike?”
“Pfft. Strike,” Sunny snorted. “Everypony will be back in the factory tomorrow, and we’ll be scrambling to try and catch things up. I know folks are angry right now, but ponies just need to calm down. Lightning kills a pony and blows up a barn, ponies are going to be alarmed because they start thinking about what happens if a bolt like that hits their homes. Apparently there’s been a complete run on magical lightning rods.”
“Pfft. Like we ever have storms big enough to use lightning on anymore,” Stormy grumbled.
“So what are you going to do, Stormy?” Sunny asked, growing serious again.
“Go back to Ponyville and throw myself before the hooves of Princess Twilight Sparkle, give her the picture, and hope for the best.” Stormy sighed. “Then look for a job carrying packages, I guess.” Stormy gave her sister a mirthless smile. “Best I can manage, being as much of a screw up as I am.”
“Stormy, you’re not that bad. Yeah, you messed up once or twice, but if you were that incompetent, somepony would have killed you,” Sunny said seriously, then tried to smile. “Besides, before your accident, I thought you were going to go far.”
“You did?” Stormy asked, skeptically. “As I recall, you thought I was likely to end up in some dirty magazine with lightning bolts coming out my-” Stormy went silent as she became aware Misty was blushing bright red again and amended, lamely, “-ears.”
“Okay. Yes, I said that. But you were smart, Stormy. I was sure you were going to end up in Disaster Response someday, saving the surface from rogue twisters and flash floods. Just bad luck is all.”
“We must have shared an ill auspice seed, womb sister, for I too am cursed. My art languishes in obscurity, while meaningless drivel is gorged upon by the masses!” Rainy tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Was it mother or father that supplied the cursed progenerate?”
“Well if Mom hears you say it was her, she’s going to be washing your mouth out with soap, so I’d say it was Dad. He’d probably agree with you,” Sunny replied, then sighed and looked at Stormy. “Look. Yes, I tease you. I’m the second oldest. It’s my prerogative. But growing up, you were smart, Stormy. More than me. Not egghead smart, but cool smart. You were the one who actually listened to all of Granny Thundering Skies's stories when she was in the old pony’s home. I don't know how you could stand it. She thought you were her sister. You read books all the time. You were awesome. Then… yeah… everything changed. I know lots of folks think it was a lightning thing. I dunno. I just know that in a world with lots of screw ups, you’re not as bad as you might think you are.”
“You saved my life three times in two days. That’s not a screw up, is it?” Misty asked.
“Unless you were trying to unshackle her from this mockery known as life,” Rainy pointed out.
Stormy sighed, then smiled. “Okay. Okay. So I’m not a complete screw up. I just want my life back. I mean, weather is our family’s thing. I like doing it. It’s my cutie mark. Sure, I might complain about no lightning, but I still want to do it. I don’t want to be the only Skies delivering packages.”
“Ah yes. Mother never forgave Uncle Murky,” Rainy said as if somepony died. “Made the foolish choice of trying to join the Wonderbolts.”
“Finished dead last in the academy, the dodo,” Sunny snorted. “What does he do now? Freight, right?”
“But… you want to be a poet,” Misty said, looking at Rainy, who turned a touch offended.
Stormy knew why her sisters were looking oddly at Misty. “She’s not from Cloudsdale.” The pair immediately gave a soft ‘ah’ of comprehension. “Cloudsdale’s… different. From a lot of pony cities I mean. It’s been around for a long time. Longer than Canterlot, even. I mean, most cities can’t be moved when the country does. It was originally Commander Hurricane’s fortress, and since then it’s been changed and changed. It has some really old families though. The Clouds. The Suns. The Rainbows. The Winds. Even the Skies. Families that have been around as long as Cloudsdale has.”
“You mean like unicorn lineages?” Misty asked, getting an odd look from the other two sisters.
“Kinda. Most ponies from Cloudsdale can trace how far they are from a big family. Cause' the families are big. There’s four or five 'Stormy Skies' in Cloudsdale. I’m just the only one in our family. But most Skies are involved in weather work. I mean, it's hard work, and pretty unprofitable… although...” Stormy considered the apartment and then arched a brow back at her older sister.
The expression scored a point; the yellow mare blushing. “Managers get these things called 'bonuses',” Sunny said defensively.
“Anyway, there’s also jobs you don’t take because of family history. Like Skies work great with Clouds. Clouds were… who was their ancestor? Pansy? Pitiful? Eh… anyway. They’re lots of workers, artists, shopkeeper ponies, and the like. The Rainbows are all Wonderbolt material. They’re buddy-buddy with the Winds, who are in transportation. The Clouds and Skies don’t get along so well with the Rainbows and Winds, so for me to try and become a Wonderbolt or get into transportation would be an insult to my lineage, but becoming a poet or working in a shop… eh, not so bad.”
“Better than the Suns,” Rainy added, and Stormy and Sunny both nodded.
At Misty’s baffled look, Stormy explained, “The Suns are big in government. Lots of managers, bosses, and real rich ponies. If they’re not bossy, they’re Royal Guards. Basically they were put in charge of Cloudsdale after the Princesses took over Equestria. Pissed off the Rainbows, but what could they do? Argue with Celestia? Now Suns are all over Equestria, not just Cloudsdale, and most pegasi agree, they’re jerks.”
“You’re not from a pegasus family, are you?” Sunny asked Misty gently, with a smile.
“Ah, no. No. My family are unicorns,” Misty said.
The pair reacted as if Misty had just broken a prodigious amount of wind. “Oh… I… um… that’s…”
“Something the matter with that?” Misty asked with a worried frown.
The pair gave a look that, yes, there was definitely something wrong with that. But Sunny waved her hooves before her. “No no no no. Just… unexpected. Pegasi born to non-pegasi parents… well… they get a free pass. I mean, you could do anything. Just… might want to downplay the unicorns bit.”
“Why?” Misty said, a trifle cool with touches of offense in her tone.
“Well, unicorns think they’re better than everypony else because they can do magic. That’s all. I mean, your parents must look down on you because you can’t do magic," Sunny said. Misty clearly looked upset. “Sorry. Just how I imagine it’d be.”
“Their outdated obsession with obsolete oligarchical organizations occasionally obliviates organized obviance,” Rainy said with a sage nod.
“You made up two of those words, didn’t you?” Stormy asked.
Rainy looked a touch offended, then said simply, “Poet.”
“The point is most unicorns are okay, I guess. I don’t know many, seeing as how I live in the clouds. But the idea of magic using nobles telling us what to do while going to their high society parties and hording knowledge they think we won’t understand is just… really aggravating. Like the upcoming Equestrian Games,” Sunny said.
“What about it?” Misty asked in bafflement.
“Well, the Games are always a big deal to pegasi. We like to fly and do as many events as we can; see how many medals we can get. Earth ponies are pretty big in the weight events, no surprise, but there’s only a dozen unicorn competitors. So now we hear lots of unicorns turning their nose up at the games, wondering if they’re worth the cost, and whatnot. It’s annoying. And it’s not like there aren’t unicorn events! Fencing. Magic duels. There’s even that one little gray mare who placed gold in the lifting event last year. I mean, there aren’t many, but they’re there. So when we hear Lord So-and-So in Canterlot getting press about how he thinks our favorite past-time isn’t worth his attention and bits… it’s annoying.”
Misty sighed, then replied in her own annoyed tone, “You know, just because some unicorn has Lord, Count, or Baron in front of their name doesn’t mean they’re actually important. A lot of titles get handed down to ponies that don’t have anything else special about them. Celestia never actually strips old titles; they just get forgotten by younger generations. And since giving a title is a pretty easy way of rewarding a unicorn when it doesn’t mean much in the long term, it’s not a surprise there’s so many."
"I wouldn’t be surprised if Rarity didn’t have claim to being a baroness or lady of the court. It’d be ironic, at least.” Stormy laughed. “We’d never hear the end of it in Ponyville if she did,” Stormy laughed.
Sunny appeared thoughtful though. “Huh. I didn’t know that,” Sunny admitted. "I thought... you know... titles mattered."
Misty gave a particularly resigned sigh. “It’s rather silly. You can't imagine how many unicorns envied Twilight for being 'Most Faithful Student'. The truth is, unless you’re rich or landed, your title doesn’t mean much. Since Celestia always rules, there’s no chance ‘Prince’ Blueblood will ever be ‘King’ Blueblood, even if his ancestor thirty-five generations back was given that title. So it’s generally just a way we amuse ourselves,” Misty said with a smile. “I didn’t think other ponies thought it really mattered.”
Sunny shook her head. “Well when the rest of us don’t know which ‘lords’ are the important ones and which ones aren’t, it becomes kind of hard to keep them apart.” She turned back to Stormy. “Now, how about letting me see that picture?”
Stormy sighed and fished it out of the bag of stuff and passed it over to Sunny. “Here. The mare on the bottom right is the one who died yesterday and the stallion next to her is the one that tried to kill me,” she said flatly, expecting another dead end.
But Sunny stared at the picture in shock. “Stormy, I know him!”
“The one who tried to kill us at Rosewing's?” Stormy asked, rising to her hooves, “Or Doctor Epimethius?”
“No, not them. Him!” And she pointed her hoof at the middle aged stallion. “He’s… oh what’s his name? Sun Glare! He’s the production assistant manager at the weather factory.”
“Assistant manager?” Rainy murmured. “Does he manage or assist with the management?”
Sunny rolled her eyes. “He’s basically the number two pony at the weather factory. Young stallion angling to get promoted when old Cirrus decides she’s had enough. He’s got feathers all over the weather factory.”
Stormy stared, and then her eyes widened. “Spitfire said they’d taken an inventory of the Class A lightning, and that all the bolts at the weather factory were accounted for. But if this guy was in charge of reporting the inventory… I mean, I doubt that Spitfire herself went through and counted all the bolts in storage personally.” She stood up. “It’s a clear link between a Class A bolt getting to Rosewing and going off. He’d be able to put one in a cloud and she’d intercept it.”
“Do you think the professor’s involved?” Misty asked with a frown.
“Probably. I dunno. I’m not sure what’s going on here. I mean… what’s the point in stealing Class A lightning? But it is evidence that what happened to Rosewing wasn’t my fault!” Stormy leapt into the air for some improvised dancing. “I can hand this picture over to Princess Twilight and suddenly it’s not my problem anymore! Yeeee!”
There was a sharp knock on the door and Stormy grinned. “Yes, that’s probably the Guard right now! Come to take me away as a ‘pony of interest' for more questions! Well now I got answers, and somepony else can deal with them!”
“Or it’s just a delivery. I get those, you know,” Sunny replied flatly. “Rainy? Can you check?”
“It is ever the burden of the younger generation to toil and suffer under the onus of the elder,” Rainy said as she rose from her seat and trotted to the door, peeking through the small lens set in the door.
“That’s Rainy speak for ‘I’m not your slave’,” Sunny explained to Misty with a roll of her eyes.
“A parcel has been delivered from the great beyond,” she intoned as she opened the door. Stormy deflated a little. Oh well, now she’d have to go down to the Wonderbolts HQ and talk to them. Or maybe it’d be better to go straight to Ponyville?
“Delivery for Miss Stormy Skies. Is she here?” a stallion said from the hall.
“Her presence can be found within the confines of this dwelling, yes.” She turned and looked placidly at Stormy. “It’s for you.” But Stormy froze a moment, the voice familiar, then jumped to her hooves to give warning.
The brown stallion shoved Rainy into the room, a flap of his wings blowing the door closed behind him. On one hoof was a curious contraption that looked like a medical brace. Pinning Rainy to the wall with one hoof, the braced limb was swung hard and from a hidden sleeve a thin, six inch long blade slid out and snapped into place. He then brought the tip around, pressing it against Rainy’s neck.
“Give me the picture,” he said in a low, even voice. Bastard was calm. “Scream again, and she’ll be the first one to die.”
“In the fullness of time we are all dead,” murmured Rainy, her eyes wide with shock.
"Don't say that, Rainy," Sunny said sharply, in alarm. "Just stay quiet, Rainy. It'll be okay."
“That's right, Rainy! Don’t move…” Stormy said as she held a hoof out to him, as if that would halt either of them from doing something foolish. “Who are you?”
He didn’t roll his eye. Didn’t smile or frown. His expression was placid, almost bored. And his only answer was to push the tip of the blade into her neck so a trickle of blood flowed down the length.
“Stop! Stop,” Stormy begged, holding up the picture with her wing. “Let her go and you can have it.”
He eased the pressure somewhat, nodding to Misty. “You. Put it in my saddlebag.” Stormy's eyes kept going from Rainy's face to the blade pressed against her neck. The dark mare's lips were moving silently, as if she were reciting her poetry.
Stormy passed the picture to Misty. The pale pegasus slowly walked around towards the stallion. “You don’t have to do this,” Misty told him as she slowly opened the bag.
“I’m not going to debate necessity with you. I am going to pass on a message. Go about your lives. What we do doesn’t concern you. I have been told not to kill all of you. I think that a mistake. If I ever have to deal with you again, it will be permanently, do you understand?” he asked, keeping the blade at Rainy’s neck. When Stormy didn’t answer immediately, he poked Rainy again, cutting a second wound below the first. “Yes or no?”
Rainy touched the blood soaking into the collar of her turtleneck. “Yes! Yes! Now let her go,” Stormy demanded.
But Rainy then murmured in a distant voice, “I will not betray my own blood.”
“Rainy!” Sunny said in alarm. “No!”
“Stop! What are you doing?” the brown stallion said in alarm, but his eyes were on them and not his hostage.
“I will not betray my sister!” she screamed and shoved hard against him. The blade at her neck sliced along her hide and into the collar of the turtleneck. Instantly the black garment turned wet as he was shoved off her. Rainy turned to face him, her eyes wide and pupils small as she tried to hit him again with her hooves.
Without a word, he sunk the blade into her side all the way to his hoof. The three of them lunged for him, but the hoof moved like a sewing machine needle, burying itself in her two more times before Sunny and Stormy tackled him. Rainy fell immediately, curling up on her side as Misty covered her with her own body.
“Thank you,” he said as he stared into Stormy’s eyes, and suddenly snapped his body around in a spin, throwing the two mares off him. The blade came in towards Stormy’s chest, but she managed to deflect his hoof. That simply made him adjust his leg, the blade arcing back to slice at Stormy’s own neck. Sunny threw herself on his back, pulling him away before that edge sliced through Stormy's windpipe. Again, without missing a moment, he brought the limb up as if punching over his shoulder. The tip of the blade almost sank right into Sunny’s eye. She barely pulled her head away, suffering a vertical cut.
“I think I messed up again,” Rainy said weakly, her eyes closing as she smiled.
“No!” Stormy needed something to counter a metal blade. Everything in this house was made of clouds though! Everything except… “Stay with us. Stay awake!” Stormy ordered as she threw herself on the bag of junk that they’d brought with them. She tore open the cloth enough to pull out the rusty dagger taken from the harpy cave and bit hard on the grip. Then she lunged for him, ready to sink the blade into his chest!
But he saw the attack coming and once again, turned. Sunny was brought around, and Stormy had to halt her lunge to keep from cutting her sibling. The blade dropped down and cut into Sunny’s thigh, and the yellow mare cried out in pain, letting him go as she fell and clutched her limb. Misty scrambled out of the way, climbing onto the table top.
When he finished turning around he faced her with calm indifference. Even with her dagger, she wasn’t a threat to him. She could see it in his eyes. If she attacked, she’d have to move her entire head. He’d dodge and slice her open easily. If she waited, he’d move in around her faster than she could swing her body. Only the nominal threat kept him from finishing them all off. He couldn’t risk her getting lucky, so he wouldn’t.
Skies above, she hated this guy.
Then a glow surrounded the dagger and pulled it from her mouth. “Allow me,” Misty said as she pulled the weapon with her magic. Stormy turned in astonishment to see the unicorn standing on the coffee table over the bag. She pointed the dagger at him. “En garde!”
The effect on him was instant. An expression of utter loathing and malice exploded on his face, “Unicorn spy! I should have known you’d be involved!”
Then the dagger started to jab and stab and fly and whirl through the air, and he was completely on the defensive. His blade was perfect for assassination, but not for combat. He was barely able to parry the glowing weapon, and all it would take was one solid hit to snap his weapon. Old though it may have been, the dagger had enough of a point on it to spill his blood with a lucky hit or two. Worst of all, he couldn’t get close enough to attack Misty.
Stormy pushed down on the wounds in Rainy’s side. She didn’t know pony anatomy well enough to know how bad it was, but she was pretty sure being stabbed anywhere in the chest was bad. Brown clearly was frustrated by Misty’s magic, but the fact was he wasn’t going to break through soon.
“We have what we need. I’ll finish you two off later. Especially you,” he said as he looked at Misty with clear malice before backing to the door, opening it with a wing, and slipping out into the hallway. Misty magically slammed the door closed and locked it.
“Sunny! Tell me you still have them!” Stormy asked desperately.
“Down the hall, in my bathroom under the sink,” Sunny replied. Stormy raced past the closed front door, down the hall, into the farthest back bedroom. Right where her sister said it would be was a small box. Stormy bit it and raced back to where Rainy lay bleeding. Stormy threw open the box, revealing a trio of small purple potions. Her hooves shaking, she extracted one, pulled out the stopper with her teeth, and poured it into Rainy's mouth. She immediately repeated it with the second. She looked at Sunny and the yellow mare said, “I’m fine, it’s not too deep!” Stormy gave Rainy the third as well.
The three puncture wounds glowed a faint purple and began to close.
“What are those?” Misty asked.
“Zebra healing potions,” Stormy replied. “Rainy… has a little problem. Sometimes she gets hurt. We keep them around just in case she… has an accident.” That was as detailed as she was going to get right now. “Come on, Rainy. Come back.”
Rainy coughed and then opened a steel blue eye, glancing up at Stormy. “Damn…” she muttered, closing her eye again. “I messed up,” she muttered.
“That’s my line,” Stormy replied, patting her mane.
It took them a few more minutes to make sure Rainy wasn’t bleeding anymore and to bandage up Sunny’s leg. “Sorry I brought this on you,” Stormy muttered.
“Don’t you apologize for this,” Sunny said. “We can go to the Guard and tell them everything.”
“But we don’t have the photograph anymore,” Stormy said. “If it’s our word against Sun Glare's, who knows how long it will take before they investigate?” Stormy did not have a lot of confidence in the Guard rushing to believe her. “Twilight and her friends might be able to cut through the red tape, but unless we have something that proves he lied to Spitfire, he can deny and stall.”
“Worse, they could just have an accident occur and blow up a few more Class A bolts. At that point it’ll be impossible for anypony to say how many were and were not there.” Misty had returned to having wings once more, letting her step on clouds once more. Stormy remembered what the brown stallion had said about 'unicorn spy', but this wasn't the time to bring it up.
“And there’s also the fact that whoever is behind this, whatever they’re up to, they’re going to need at least one more Class A bolt to replace the one that blew up Rosewing. Tonight, the weather factory is going to be closed down. I can’t think of a better time to get one.” Stormy chewed on a wing tip as she looked out the window at the setting sun.
“This is crazy talk. Crazy. The only place you are going is to the Guards and we are going to the hospital. We’re going to leave this whole crazy thing behind us,” Sunny said firmly.
“No!” Stormy said. “Look, I don’t know what’s going on. I’m just guessing here. For all I know, this assistant manager’s innocent, but it feels right! You’re going to the hospital and get Rainy checked out, and then you’re going to the Guard. Tell them whatever you have to to get them to really check the number of bolts stored. Send a letter to Princess Twilight… Spitfire… Princess Celestia! I don’t care who, but get them to take a second inventory of all the Class A lightning. If I’m wrong… well… I’ll probably be going to jail.”
Sunny looked at her sister as if she’d never met her before. “Why? Stormy, what are you going to do?”
Stormy stared out the window at the still hulking building that was the weather factory as the setting sun played across her face. “I’m going to break in to the Weatherworks and find out what the hay is going on.”
“You know, this wasn’t what I expected my first visit to Cloudsdale,” Misty said as they flew underneath the city. “I was more envisioning seeing jousting in the Cloudiseum. Touring the Palace of Arts and admiring Le Vague’s rainbow sculptures or Moonbeam’s Elegy of Light display. Getting a pony pedi at the Sunrise Salon at the top of the world.” Her eyes lifted to the nearly black underside of the clouds above her, cracks and faults patched with lighter, newer cloud. The rough surface was broken by hundreds of little ports and holes. Below stretched an immense, reeking bog. “Not flying around, looking for a-” She stopped short as a slurry of brown water poured out in front of her, barely missing her, her mane and tail spiking in alarm as she hovered in place. “What was that?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Stormy said with a smile as she continued to search the broken, uneven underside. “And really, down here is way more interesting than up there. Cloudsdale is the oldest settlement in Equestria. Some of these old guys were here before there even was an Equestria,” she said, tapping the dark clouds, each the consistency of granite. “Cloudsdale was Commander Hurricane’s fortress, way way back. That’s long gone, but the foundations remain. They built Cloudsdale all around it, and then on top of it.”
“But why park such a lovely city over such a disgusting swamp?” Misty asked, glaring down at the mire below, which was strangely colorful in the worst possible ways. Bilious reds mixed with noxious greens, toxic blues, and murky browns in the water below.
“Um, Misty. The swamp wasn’t here before Cloudsdale,” Stormy informed her. One of the outlets gave an perfectly timed gurgle and spat gray water at the mire far below. Misty’s pupils constricted to points as every one of her feathers bristled.
“That’s it. I’m going home now! Flying over swamps of poo under a city dripping with… no! No no no, I draw the line here!” Misty said firmly, shaking her head.
“Well, suit yourself. I mean, I saved your life and everything but I understand if that doesn’t mean much when confronted with a little icky water,” Stormy said with a sigh. “Oh, and saving you from getting eaten. That too.”
Misty gave a strangled sort of mewl before narrowing her eyes at Stormy. “You are…” She paused and her eyes softened, before she continued, “Getting better at this.”
“Eh. Mom’s been using guilt trips on all of us for years. If you don’t want to come then go back and wait at the hospital. I’ll be fine,” Stormy lied, but again… 'mom’s lessons'.
Misty shivered as one outlet let out a particularly heavy splat. “Just… what are we looking for, again?”
“One outlet. A big one. Colorful,” Stormy said as she looked around them.
“Colorful?” Misty asked, eyes boggled. “What are you pegasi eating up here?”
“It’s not-” Stormy began when she spotted it. “There!”
The outlet was a crusty ring extending three feet out from the bottom of Cloudsdale, big enough for three pegasi to fly up wingtip to wingtip. The sides of it were streaked with all manner of colors, mostly collecting into a brown crust. “The Cloaca Spectra. This is where Cloudsdale discharges all its rainbow waste.”
“Rainbow waste?”
“If they mess up the colors and they can’t fix them, then they drain it out here. You’d be amazed at the colors they can mix up. Lots are pretty nice. They really should swap out indigo for teal. But others are just horrible. Nopony will ever forget the infamous load of foal poop green. Tubs and tubs of it. Almost went out on the rainbows.” Stormy stuck out her tongue and then gestured to the colorful outlet which was streaked with the stuff. “They dump it into the swamp. Same thing with any waste water.”
“Is it dangerous?” Misty asked.
“I wouldn’t eat it if I were you,” Stormy advised as she poked her head up into the dark hole. Very dark. Very tight. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea after all. There was the tiniest point of light in the distance. “Normally it’s always flowing with junk and there’d be no way to get up it without getting your wings gummed up, but with a strike on…”
“We can fly straight into the weather factory,” Misty said, looking up the shaft. “Ugh, I know why they’d never think of it. This is so gross.”
Tight. That was what Stormy thought. It was a tight space. Sure, the pipe was more than big enough for her to fly up, but some part of her brain was convinced it had to narrow. When it did, she’d somehow be pulled in and squeezed into spaghetti. But the alternative was to try to break into the weather factory when it already had a lot of security guarding the perimeter, and that was on a normal day.
It’s a pipe. Fly up. Get out. Reach the lightning vault, stop Sun Glare from stealing another Class A bolt. Or else she’d made a whole mountain out of cloud and soon as Princess Twilight or some other pony flapped their wings she’d be left with nothing but a great big dose of embarrassment and a career carrying packages.
Misty stared at her for several seconds. “Are we going?”
“Oh! Yeah. Yeah. Sure,” Stormy said, the question giving her enough of a boot to her brain to get moving. It was just a pipe. Fly up. Easy… peasy…
Ten seconds later, it was clear this was a big mistake. The air in the pipe was filled with a stingy fume that made it hard to breathe, her mouth and nose filling with a spicy, sharp favor that made her gag. With only the smallest circle of light below and above, it became almost impossible to see the edges of the drain. The encrusted rainbow colors had a mottled, organic appearance that reminded Stormy of a throat. Any second she knew it would swallow, mash her up, and spit her back to the swamp below.
She accidentally backed into the wall of the pipe and her wings hit something the consistency of tar. She jerked forward and smacked face first into the wall of gunk. Panic began to rise inside her as it got in her mouth and gummed up her eyes. Every wing beat became a struggle. And then her head slammed into something soft and mushy. She couldn’t see it. Oh Celestia she was going to get both of them killed. She was going to be stuck to the wall and slowly entombed in the foal poop green and puce discharges. Hysterical gasps threatened to turn into screams at any moment!
Then she felt hooves wrap around her, just as she had held Misty when lightning had crackled inches from her face. “You’re okay,” Misty said in her ear. “You just hit a big lump of goop sticking out from the wall. You’re fine.” Misty pulled her back and up. Stormy wiped her eyes clear and saw there was more light above than below.
Stormy started flapping her wings again and Misty released her. “Thanks,” Stormy murmured in embarrassment.
“That’s for the harpies,” Misty replied quietly with a smile.
Stormy’s ears perked up as she heard voices above. Apparently somepony had thought to guard this outlet after all. Raising a hoof to her lips, she kept her eyes focused on the edge of the pipe. The mouth of the drain was an enormous funnel gaping underneath dozens and dozens of valves and spigots. Every vat had a waste drain that lead to this small, dingy round room. Stormy knew it well, having spent a month in here before her transfer to Manehattan. There was only one way out into the factory proper. And there were guards. A pair of pegasi guards stamping in agitation, huffing and breathing hard. The noxious smell of rainbow waste took some time to get used to. “How long do I have to wait here?” one of the white stallions asked.
“That guy said an hour or two. Just keep your eyes open. There’s some crazy mare who might try and break in and do something with the lightning. The same one that blasted that farm in Ponyville,” his companion said, before departing.
Stormy bit her hoof to stay silent, and was rewarded with a mouthful of goo tasting strongly of spoiled turnips. Ugh, when colors went bad, even the taste matched. Not only had they almost killed her and her sister, but now they were setting her up for whatever was going down here? She had to stop them… or at least find something that would get her clear of this! The first guard huffed, but stayed firm on his hooves, eyes scanning the pipe choked room.
She had no illusions of winning a fight with the pegasus guard. And if she trotted up and turned herself in, it would only confirm the ‘crazy mare’ break-in theory. That was if something worse didn’t happen to both of them. Morbid as it was, there were a lot of ways to hide a body in the Weatherworks.
Stormy glanced up at all of the spigots and valves overhead. Not taking her eyes off him, Stormy pawed a clump of brown goop and threw it over to the side. The guard’s ears perked and she ducked down. A few seconds later he returned to his firm stance. Another toss of goop, larger this time. He frowned and started over, trotting past the mouth of the pipe.
Stormy pulled herself from the pipe and flew up to a large red valve. She hooked her hooves and waited. Three feet. Two feet. One… She heaved her hooves against the wheel and it let out a metallic shriek.
“Who’s-” he started to say, looking up just before the faucet above him unleashed a torrent of neon green. It coated him head to hoof, and he flailed, falling on his side as his feet slipped out from under him. She cranked the wheel the other way, shutting off the flow. From the heap of green goop a head burst free. “Lima beans!” he gasped.
“Sorry about this,” Stormy said before she bit down on the helm, which now resembled a paintbrush, and pulled it from his head. Then she swung it hard and clanged the armor against his skull. Twice. He collapsed into a neon green heap.
“Wow,” Misty said from the outlet. “You just assaulted a member of the Royal Guard. For a mare trying to prove your innocence, you sure do break a lot of laws.”
“I- They- He…” Stormy sputtered, then froze. Misty looked as if somepony had turned her into a piece of modern art. Every color of the rainbow, and many others that didn’t belong in any rainbow, coated her hide so that only her pale jade eyes remained. Stormy couldn’t help herself, but immediately started laughing. “You look…”
“Better than you,” Misty finished with a smirk. Stormy examined her own coat. No wonder the stallion hadn’t spotted her in the mouth of the outlet. Her whole hide was covered with huge, colorful splotches and drizzly white and brown streaks. Her mane lay flat, plastered against her skull.
Okay, they couldn’t go trotting all over the rainbow factory like this, leaving a colorful smear in their wake. Fortunately there was a wash station right outside the door. They both stepped in, pulled the handle, and immediately the nozzles all around them hissed to life. The shower blasted warm water at twice the pressure of comfort and the soap was harsh, industrial grade stuff, but it did the job.
“Wash my backside and tail?” Misty asked as she scrubbed her mane.
Wait, what? “Ummmm…” Stormy blinked amid the rivulets of water. “You want me to… uh… wash your… what?”
“Backside. Tail.” Misty turned and looked at her, blinking in bafflement. “What?” Then her eyes widened. “Ohhhh…”
“No!” Stormy immediately protested. “No 'ohhhhh!' Definitely not 'ohhhhh!' There is no 'ohhhh' involved what so ever!”
“Well there’s nothing wrong with it,” Misty said with an amused smile. “You’d hardly be the first!”
Brain... mind... lightning... priorities... gah! “Just… do you want me to wash your butt or not? This is hardly the time for… for the nothing that is not going on!” Stormy huffed. Right now, that was the last thing she needed to deal with. She didn't mind mares liking other mares. Mares liking her though was a little too... experimental... for stormy.
“Well… if you insist,” Misty said with a coy flutter of her lashes. In a few more minutes they both cleaned up enough that they wouldn’t be leaving a trail through the factory. The harsh soap did its job well…. mostly. “Wait… why am I still blue and pink and green?” Misty asked as she rinsed off the goop.
“Well… let’s just say raspberry jam’s got nothing on rainbow stains,” Stormy said, her mane still a clash of chalky white and neon green with a few flashes of yellow. Misty’s throat let out a strangled sort of mewl. “Don’t worry, it’s usually not permanent,” Stormy added, and Misty’s mewl rose in pitch. “Usually… Though most don’t get smeared in pipe gunk.” The mewl lifted above Stormy’s range of hearing… or the pale pegasus’s throat had closed entirely.
“When we’re through with this, I am getting a full Canterlot Spa treatment,” she said. “Which way?”
“Through the winter staging area and the condensitorium. Come on,” Stormy said as she hurried down the hall. The problem with the Weatherworks, like most pegasus buildings, was that most of the architecture was wide open and airy, with little cover. Moving down the hall, they had to dart from column to column when the patrolling guards' backs were turned. They just barely made it through the double doors into winter staging.
Immediately the wet ponies started shivering as they went from summer to the depths of winter. Massive stacks of boxes filled with snow filled the cavernous space. The massive warehouse held enough snow to cover Equestria in several feet, all kept chill by a constant frigid blast from vents in the roof. Flying brought them closer to those freezing vents, and given their coats were soaked, they trotted along as quickly as they could. “Come on. There’s an exit on the far side,” Stormy said. Unfortunately due to the strike, the far side was pretty elusive. There were boxes out of place and pallets blocking the path to the exit.
“I used to love winter,” Misty said as she shivered, icicles forming in her mane. “Now I’m wondering why we even bother!”
“Depends on who you ask,” Stormy said to keep her teeth from chattering. “Earth ponies say that the land needs three months to rest. Personally, I think it’s just an excuse for farm ponies to get three months off work every year.” She spotted the exit on the far side of the cavernous space.
“Oh, Celestia it’s cold,” Misty gasped, staggering in the chill air. “Is… is it true no two snowflakes are alike?”
Stormy snorted. “No. That’s just a popular myth. Can you imagine what a pain in the tail it would be to check that each one’s unique? There’s a couple thousand different styles though. Some are pretty rare and famous.” Stormy wracked her brain to keep thinking as they crossed the chilling room. The trivia was keeping her mind off the hoof-biting cold. Most ponies who worked in these areas wore heavy jackets and coats, and none of them came in here dripping wet. “Snowdrop gave us the six sided flake. There’s been some folks that try for three, four, five or seven sided flakes, but they never caught on.”
They almost reached the exit when two silhouettes appeared in the frosted glass. Panic was enough to get Stormy and Misty in the air, hiding behind the nearest towering stack of snow. Two guards walked in and took position inside the storeroom, flanking the door. Worse, they wore heavy, fluffy coats over their armor. Up here, closer to the vents that blasted out freezing air, Stormy felt a dangerous lethargy start to spill over her.
There had to be another way through before they both froze. Stormy pressed her back to a box in the stack, shuddering. Cold was all she could think about, though. It was so chilly she couldn’t feel the ends of her hooves! Lessons from her winter weather class bubbled up in her mind. What were the steps in hypothermia? Lethargy. Confusion. Numbness. A strange warm feeling...which made no sense to her. Confusion... wait she'd counted that one, hadn't she? Fatigue. At that point, they’d just have to give up. Normally it’d take several minutes, but being wet had accelerated everything.
Stormy felt the stack behind her suddenly shift and she stared up, watching the pile sway ominously above her. She peeked at the pair standing stoically in their warm coats and heavy armor. Stormy flew up to the highest boxes filled with the newest, fluffiest snow… and closest to the vents. Icy air buffeted her, oddly drying her off as all the moisture in her coat froze… along with her. She looked at where Misty seemed on the verge of passing out below her and grit her teeth, slamming the top of the stack with her body. It shivered again. Come on. Another hit, and the boxes below shifted.
The pair looked up just as Stormy threw her body as hard as she could against the stack. All at once, the boxes fell, tumbling over and dumping their snowy contents over the pair. An avalanche of white poured down on the pair with an enormous ‘whump’ that drowned out their shouts of alarm. Stormy tumbled down end over end, not quite remembering how her wings worked. A second later an armored head popped out of the snow. The guard blinked and stared at Stormy in bafflement, then the other guard emerged with a tiny conical cap of snow upon his head. “Sorry,” Stormy murmured, barely audible for her chattering teeth. “Shoulda said look out below.”
The pair started to struggle out of the snow, when a glittery pair of hooves trotted up. The helmet was pulled away, and the glistening hooves smashed down on the head beneath. Then the other. Stormy looked up at a crystalline Misty. “You’re… walking?”
“Most ponies can walk on snow,” she said. “I’m glad that crystal ponies aren’t bothered by cold.” She returned to being a pegasus, and dragged Stormy through the double doors and into the hallway beyond. The warmth was so abrupt it hurt, but was oh so welcome. “Will they be okay?”
“They have nice warm coats and are tough stallions. They’ll be fine,” Stormy answered sourly as her body tried to both ache and shiver at the same time. At least she hoped they would be. Neither one had been their brown attacker.
How long would it take to get a message to Princess Twilight or Princess Celestia? There wasn’t a telegraph to the skies, but instead they used a light beam that would flicker and flash in Moose code. But what if there was some other threat or peril the Princesses were dealing with? Some… dragon or monster or pony only knew what?
She tried not to think about that.
The warmth of the factory invigorated her and together they went into the condensitorium. Dozens of huge kettles sat waiting for their workers, steaming slightly. They’d release puffs of water vapor that condensed into cloud when they hit the cool air drifting from vents near the roof. Then pegasi would gather them up into clouds and send them on their way across Equestria. Only instead of workers, a half dozen guards patrolled back and forth along the middle of the large, empty chamber.
Stormy and Misty darted from cauldron to cauldron, using them for cover. If these had been on, they’d have been cooked quick. Another moment the strike worked in their favor. They cleared the far side of the room and Stormy pushed open a small side door, leading down. A soft rumble filled the air as they descended.
Here the clouds were darker and an ominous rumble moved through the room. “We’re here. This is the lightning level.” A large sign on the door warned that only authorized lightning specialists were allowed in here. Stormy pushed it over, and immediately was struck by the acrid tang of ozone and breathed deep, smiling. “I love that smell,” Stormy murmured.
Inside were dozens of pillars and glass tubes. Yellow, blue, and purple lightning flickered and flashed from machine to machine. Pipes of all sorts ran from one device to the next, gurgling with fluid and hissing with steam. Crystals and gems throbbed with power. Tiny little crystals of condensed energy lay scattered around the bases of the equipment. “Oh wow,” Misty murmured. “That’s amazing.”
“They usually don’t show this part of the Weatherworks to tourists,” she said, pointing at the equipment. “That’s the heart of the whole factory. The power plant. That energy goes into everything we do here.”
“It’s powered by magic?” Misty asked softly as she stared at a spiral tube filled with flashing blue bolts zipping around a larger tube of bubbling water.
“Well, it is now. In the old days they’d have to wrangle wild clouds and fight them into position. Squeeze rain out of thunderheads. Snow back then was more like hail hammered out of clouds with big ol’ mallets. Now we got all these new ways of magic to make whatever weather we want,” Stormy said as she peered around, looking for the guard she knew had to be down here. The constant crackle more than covered their speech. “It’s why pegasi who think we don’t need unicorns don’t know what they’re talking about. We’d never be able to manage all the weather all over Equestria doing things the old way.”
For some reason, what I'd said made Misty smile. "What?" Stormy asked, worried. "It's true. I mean, it takes forever to milk rain."
She shook her head, still smiling. “Nevermind. So, who provides the magic?” Misty asked.
“Oh there’s a few unicorns up here with enchanted horseshoes or cloudwalking spells on all the time. They charge the thunderstones with their horns,” she said as she gestured to a head-sized rock that whirled with a rumble inside a casing full of copper wires. “That makes them spin for days, and the spinning somehow produces the lightning that runs everything.” Stormy rubbed the back of her head. “I don’t know the details beyond that. I’m not even sure where thunderstones come from.”
“Earth ponies, I suspect,” Misty said, peering through the long, stretched out hall. “Where’s the lightning vault?” Misty asked.
Stormy pointed at the end of the long hall and they walked their way along the machines. There was no way to shut these down without completely killing the factory for days. At the base of each were baskets collecting the yellow condensed crystals of lightning. The further along they walked, the larger the bolts became. “Careful,” Stormy said as she lifted a foreleg long bolt. “Class D.” She looked around and spotted a long, tapered sling of sheet rubber attached to a strap. She slung it around her neck and slipped the Class D bolt into the sling. “Might come in useful.” Misty arched an eyebrow and Stormy flushed. "What? It might."
“Right. We’ve assaulted three royal guards so far. Electrocution sounds good,” Misty said, shaking her head.
The lightning vault was a large block of black clouds at the far side of the hall. It rose two-stories and had a massive door of real metal, no doubt enchanted to stick in the clouds and prevent a pegasus from kicking their way in. Before the door were a trio of large sky wagons filled with silk padding. At least twenty guards were standing around attentively, as well as a half dozen lightning specialists, identifiable by the hooded rubber unitards they wore.
“We’ve been waiting for more than an hour,” said a lanky blue stallion harshly, the one from her picture. Sun Glare certainly didn’t seem all that threatening; he wore a tight business suit and a pair of wire frame glasses. He had a cutie mark of a sun with a slightly cheesy lens flare. He resembled nothing less than a ill mannered, but otherwise unassuming middle manager.
The dark purple unicorn he addressed, however, was one she knew well. Captain Darkstar stood casually on the clouds, giving the blue stallion a faintly patronizing smile that seemed calculated for maximum annoyance. “And we’ll wait for another hour if we must. Or two. Or three. The Accords requires a representative from all three races to supervise this transfer from Cloudsdale to Baltimare.”
“A waste of time,” Sun Glare scoffed, dismissively. “Lightning is the property of the pegasi people. You unicorns have no say in how we manage it. This move to a ‘secure facility’ is nothing but brown clouds. It’s simply an old castle outside of town.”
“Well one of your bolts obliterated an earth pony barn. A bolt which was in your custody and which should never have left this vault,” Darkstar said with a dry smile. “I think we’re all eager to have the vault moved elsewhere. So we wait.”
“Now what?” Misty asked.
“We have to wait too. Eventually Spitfire or the Princesses will come,” Stormy said, hoping that they came soon. Then there was a bellowing from the other end of the hallway. “Alarm! Alarm! The Weatherworks has been infiltrated!” A neon green stallion with puce splotches raced down, followed by two faintly frostbitten guards. “Stormy Skies is here in the weather factory!”
Sun Glare looked at the other guards and swept a wing. “Well don’t just stand there! Find her! Search everywhere! Make sure she’s not in the ducts or the storerooms.” He glared around at all the constrained lightning about him. “Sweep this room first! She’s a madmare. It wouldn’t surprise me if she’d done something in here.”
Stormy froze, looking every which way. While there were plenty of places to keep out of sight, there weren’t enough to evade detection by a dozen determined pegasus guards. Then Misty clambered on her back. “Hold still,” she said in Stormy’s ear, and then Stormy felt something like spider gossamer tickling her hide. She looked over her shoulder… but saw nothing but the faintest outline of the unicorn. Stormy stared at her own transparent hoof.
A pegasus guard came around the corner, his gaze sweeping over the flickering machines. For a heartstopping moment, his eyes lingered on the pair of them. Then Stormy felt her insides turn to water.
It was him. The brown pegasus. Really, she had to think of a name for this guy. He wore the uniform with a bit of difficulty; it was a size or so too small for him. If Stormy hadn’t known him, though, he would have appeared to be just another royal guard. His eyes wandered off her and then he continued past.
Stormy felt Misty’s sweat dripping off her back. With a soft gasp, the spell broke and the unicorn slumped. “It’s easier to lift a buffalo than maintain that spell.”
“You can turn invisible? Why didn’t you say you can turn invisible?” Stormy asked in a harsh whisper.
“Because it’s not easy,” Misty whispered back. “And aren’t we hiding?”
“We have to find her. I have no doubt that that maniac is planning something,” Sun Glare murmured, wiping sweat from his brow. “She’s sick. She’s caused catastrophic damage to his room before and just killed another pony with her disregard for lightning. She should be locked up.”
“That is one theory,” Darkstar nearly purred. “There is some evidence to the contrary.”
Stormy’s mind worked furiously. “We have to get in there,” she murmured. She was going to be the scapegoat for whatever it was they planned. Stormy could practically read the headline: ‘Mad lightning mare blows up weather factory. Spends rest of life locked up professing innocence.’ The only question was if Misty would be locked up with her?
Then Stormy’s eyes stared at the lightning specialists and an idea started to form. Most of the guards had moved on to search elsewhere. Now was their chance. Stormy gestured for Misty to follow to a side door. As quietly as she could, she pushed it open to a store room with cubbies full of equipment for maintaining the factory’s electrical systems. As well as a half dozen rubber body suits. She pulled one off for herself and Misty.
Stormy pulled one off the shelf when she heard a faint giggle. “You are a bad pony,” a stallion snickered.
“Oh, be kind chère. Life up here in the clouds is so full of beauty. Like you, mon amour,” a stallion replied. The two were right on the far side of a row of lockers. Stormy peaked around the row at a while pegasus stallion curled up with a light gray earth pony stallion with a shaggy blue mane. Both had their armor nearly removed, scattered about a heap of cloud. On the ends of the earth pony’s hooves were four silver horseshoes stylized with wings.
Unfortunately, that was the exact moment he glanced up. “Ah zut alors, mon pérégrine, it seems we are discovered.” The white pegasus stallion froze for several seconds, but the gray gave his cheep a peck. "Dommage."
Misty pressed her hooves to her muzzle as she went red, suddenly giggling at the sight of two stallions cuddling. Stormy sighed... really? She looked at the pair. “Oh, don’t mind us! We won’t tell a soul. We were just getting suited up too,” Stormy said as she lifted the clingy rubber suit.
The phrase sent the handsome white pegasus diving for his armor as the gray earth pony gave a sigh and a roll of his eyes. "Ce la vie," he muttered as he more languidly began to dress as well.
Stormy and Misty drew back. “Oh stars and sparkles,” Misty said with an embarrassed smile as she pulled back, giggling sporaticly for several seconds. “Oh my. Two boys... oh... that was... ahem..." she finally regained control of herself, though her blush persisted as she held up the floppy unitard. "How do you put something like this on without magic?”
Stormy reached out with a hoof for a large container of powder and immediately shook it all over herself, flitting her wings and swishing her tail to make sure every inch was covered. Misty mimicked Stormy, who then stretched open the crotch of the suit, pulled her head through, then her forehooves, then her wings, and finally she tucked her tail down the inside of one back leg. A few tugs to adjust and she had it on. She then grabbed a pair of tinted goggles that covered most of the rest of her face and snapped them in place. Misty finished right after her. They transferred their assorted ‘adventuring gear’ into rubber utility pouches.
The pegasus slipped out, rushing out of the store room as the earth pony stallion trotted out after her. He… didn’t look like most royal guards Stormy’d seen, but then she hadn’t seen many earth ponies in the Royal Guard. He didn’t have the stern, focused air of most guards she’d met. Instead an aura of scruffy messiness emanated from him. His mane was untidy, his face speckled with darker mane growth hinting at a beard in the future. His armor had decidedly a few too many dings and even little patches of rust. He looked at the door the mare had just vacated and sighed, “Ah me. I finally meet un étalon attirant in the clouds and away he flies at the first startle. Ah well…”
He gave the pair a casual grin. “Pardonnez mio, chères. My name is Razorback,” he said, looking at the door. “I guess it’s time we got down to it, oui?” Stormy and Misty continued to stare. “What? Did I put on his armor by mistake?”
“You’re a guard?” Stormy asked, fighting the skepticism in her voice.
“C’est vrai. Shocking, I know. Just un poulain from the bayou of New Hornleans,” He said with a sigh, patting his chest. “That angel of the skies flew down to the swamp saying they needed an earth pony representative for some important bizness, so here I am,” he said, his casual grin returning. “Perhaps when the serious bizness concludes, the three of us could enjoy some more pleasures amid the clouds?” He grinned at the pair of them, wiggling his eyebrows in what he must have believed was a seductive manner.
“Weren’t you… just… with a boy?” Misty asked faintly.
“Oui,” he replied casually. “Un futé poulain.”
“And… you’re flirting with us…right?” Misty asked, and his smile spread.
“C’est flirting only if you don’t like it. Autrement is it a promise, non?” he said with that easy grin and a wink.
“There’s nothing wrong with it. He’s hardly the first,” Stormy said to the flustered Misty. “Let’s hurry.”
They trotted out and walked towards the vault. Razorback passed the stallion from the storage room and gave him a cheeky wink, clicking out the side of his mouth. The white stallion turned a vivid pink. Sun Glare gave Razorback an evil eye. “There you are! What took you so long?”
“Pardonne moi, good sir, but this city of yours is très difficile for a poor bayou pony from New Hornleans to navigate. All that up and down, it’s boggles the mind.” He turned towards the amused Darkstar. “C’est vrai, non?”
“Certiment. mais nous parlons equuslais pour amis?” Darkstar replied smoothly. A vein on Sun Glare’s temple pulsed in annoyance as one eyelid twitched in frustration. “Now, shall we get to work?”
The assistant director seemed to want to have a few more words with the tardy Razorback, but turned away with a huff. The director trotted to the door to the vault and drew a key from his vest. It appeared carved of pure light. He slipped it into a hole in the center and lines of power radiated along grooves carved in the metal. Suddenly the grooves twisted aside and the door dilated like an iris. “Fancy,” Darkstar murmured with his usual dry sarcasm.
The door opened to a long low, wide room that made Stormy balk. Within lay the strongest lightning weapons in Equestria. Each of the Class A bolts rest on a long, thin table on a padded cushion. The jagged yellow crystals flickered with the energy oscillating within. Fifteen on one side, fifteen on the other. Every single one accounted for.
So where did the bolt that killed Rosewing come from?
The lightning specialists trotted to the first bolt, a pair on each side, and they reached out with their hooves and carefully lifted it from its bed. The bolt’s flicker remained stable as they moved in unison towards the first wagon. It was a careful ballet that would blow up in their faces if they screwed up. Together, they set the bolt in the padding lining the cart. Clouds would make the bolt unstable over time. One transfer took several minutes of tiny, careful steps.
Stormy became aware that Razorback and Darkstar were watching them. If Sun Glare realized he had two extra lightning specialists… She nodded to Misty to head further back. “There’s thirty. There shouldn’t be thirty,” Stormy murmured.
“Maybe they replaced them already?” Misty asked.
“Manufacturing Class A lightning is a big deal, though. They couldn’t be manufacturing it without ponies knowing. When they made the set for Discord, there were sparks and the power flickered and… it's just not something ponies would miss.” Stormy huffed softly as she looked at the racks of bolts.
Then she saw the door in the back of the vault and she froze, feeling a distinct sensation of familiarity with the door. Like the outer door, it had a tiny hole in the middle. Stormy, almost in a daze, pulled out the small D bolt from a utility pouch and pressed the tip into the door. A part of her feared some kind of grind or rumble, but she knew the door was silent. It swung inwards, and Stormy stepped through.
“What… what are you doing?” Misty asked as she followed. Then she fell silent too.
The Thunderforge.
It towered above them, a massive construct of black cloud, black steel, and black stone. Colossal pegasus figures supported the massive construct with uplifted hooves. The top resembled outstretched wings, with a dozen notches coming together in the center. Beneath the center lay a jagged bolt shape cut along a natural fissure in the stone block. The whole device reeked of ozone and set Stormy's mane tingling. She could almost hear the faint rumble in the stone. As she stepped closer, she felt a strong pull on the metal in her pouches.
“That’s where they put the lightning. Ten Class A bolts. They feed their power into a central point that liquefied the lightning, pouring it into the mold. While it hardens, they hammer it into place, concentrating and compressing it.” Stormy then frowned. “Wait. Where are the hammers?” She stared around the room. Then she looked closely up at the center of the forge. “And there should be…. something… something there! A gem… or crystal… something!” But it was gone.
A profound sense of outrage rose up inside Stormy. This was her heritage! Something unique and irreplaceable. It’d been vandalized. Desecrated! “How do you know?” Misty asked.
“I…” Stormy balked. “Somepony… told me I think…” she offered weakly, looking at the gaping hole where a gem should be. “Maybe it was removed? For all we know, Princess Celestia has it. Or the director of the weather factory. Or the head of the wonderbolts?”
“So this is the fabled Thunderforge,” breathed a stallion behind them, and Stormy froze as Darkstar walked in behind them. “Quite impressive,” the stallion said without any sense of irony or sarcasm. “A relic of a much less civilized time.”
Razorback whistled in agreement. “Now that is très redoutable,”
Stormy swallowed, looking up at it, then at Razorback, and then at Darkstar. He didn’t invite the same kind of confidence as Princess Twilight. “It’s been vandalized, sir.”
“Has it?” He sounded surprised.
“There’s a piece missing. A big yellow gem in the middle. As big as a pony’s head. See the hole?”
“Ah. I think she is right. See?” Razorback gestured at the hole with a hoof. “The edges are all rough, like it was chipped away.”
“So there is. How fascinating.” He leaned in closer. “Who knows how many centuries, or millennia, ago it could have happened.”
“Do you think Princess Celestia has it?” Misty asked.
“Celestia? I should think not. Princess Celestia maintains no authority over the Thunderforge, the Black Book of Canterlot, or the Bitter Harvest in Manehattan,” Darkstar replied. “That was the agreement when the three tribes ceded control to the Princess. That way, if Celestia or Luna went bad, the tribes would have weapons to use in their defense.”
“But Luna did go bad,” Misty pointed out.
“Which is why Princess Celestia used the Elements of Harmony on her, and tasked Twilight Sparkle to do the same on her return. Had Celestia not done so, the three races would have been tripping over themselves to break the Accords and slay Nightmare Moon themselves. Celestia knows that once the Accords are broken, even in self-defense, then events will rapidly spiral outside of even her control. The Star Order would immediately start referencing the Black Book. The arborists would plant forbidden seeds… just in case. Such power, once touched, is difficult to put away again.” It would have been the best time to bring up who she was and her suspicions, if it wasn’t for the note of longing in his voice.
Then a harsh voice said, “First one, now the others. What are you four doing in here?” Sun Glare glowered at them all, silencing any opportunity to speak. "Can't anypony stay where they're supposed to?"
“Um… just… looking?” Misty asked, gesturing to the forge. “Isn’t there a piece missing, sir? It looks like there’s a piece that was taken out.”
“That piece was removed by Commander Easy Glider. It’s under the control of the Wonderbolts. Now don’t you have a job to do?” Sun Glare asked sharply. Every iota of Stormy wanted to scream ‘liar’ at him… but he was the assistant manager of the factory. She was a fugitive who really shouldn’t be here. Keeping her face low, she turned and headed back inside. Stormy had expected to find missing bolts of lightning. Now what was she supposed to do? How could she expose a conspiracy without being caught up in it as well?
Stormy walked along back towards where the carts were being loaded. Maybe if she followed to Balti-
Wait… why wasn’t that bolt flickering? Stormy stared at the innermost bolt for several seconds. No flicker. Just a steady yellow glow. That wasn’t right. Crystalized energy flickered from the energy contained inside it. This bolt was flat. Dead. Stormy pointed at it with a hoof. “This isn’t Class A lightning,” she stated as Darkstar, Razorback, and Sun Glare walked past.
“What are you talking about?” Sun Glare asked. “Don’t be stupid. Of course it is.”
“It’s not, sir,” Stormy said as she pointed at the bolt. “No oscillation.” Then she pointed at the one next to it. “Nor that one… nor that one… that one…” Stormy’s blood ran cold as she realized that each of those fakes meant a missing bolt. How many of them were fakes?
“They look like lightning to me,” Darkstar said with a small frown.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about. Get out of here. I’ll have you reassigned to…” Sun Glare paused as he stared at Stormy and Misty in their rubber suits and scowled. “Wait a minute, who are you?” His eyes widened in shock. “You!”
Stormy did the only thing she could think of. It didn’t help that she had endured days, threats, attacks, and frustrations. She reached out with her hooves and hefted the enormous bolt and did something… rash.
She threw it at him.
Sun Glare gave a little fillyish shriek as he raised his hooves. The Lightning bolt struck him and shattered into a cloud of crackling, snapping motes of energy. Tracers of lightning flashed over him, and his skeleton was magically illuminated within as he spasmed wildly in the air and then, just like that, it was over. His mane stood on end, his blue coat blackened with scorch marks, and his body gave the tinest little twitchs. Both Darkstar and Razorback were untouched behind the glowing shield of magic that had warded off the shock.
“If that was Class A lightning, we’d all be dead. It’s not. It’s a really big low charge class D. Lots of these are,” Stormy said as she pointed at the bolts lying undisturbed in their pillows.
“You’re Stormy Skies! You’re that terrorist!” Sun Glare shouted, the real Class A lightning flickering brightly and making everyone tense. Stormy pulled off her goggles and tugged back the hood of the suit. “Help!” he shouted as he ran for the exit.
“Stop him!” Stormy cried. At that moment, Razorback sprang on her, and his heavy weight crushed her to the floor. “No! Him! Stop him.” She struggled to get free.
“Keep her there,” Darkstar said as he looked at the fleeing Sun Glare. His magic formed a glowing chain hooked to a manacle which zipped through the air at the blue pegasus. Magically it closed around his rear hoof, yanking him to a halt right where the lightning specialists were moving another bolt.
The blue stallion flailed his hooves and wings as he fell, knocking into the four specialists and sending the flickering bolt flying…
…straight back at the four of them.
The Class A bolt flared with light as it flew through the air, the oscillations becoming unstable. The slightest impact and they’d burst from the crystal matrix and set off the rest. Stormy yanked her hind legs free and dove under the falling bolt. She spread her wings wide to distribute the impact wide enough. The bolt was twice her wingspan and immediately she felt herself drenched in static charge as she caught it across her wings. The rubber suit was keeping her from providing a path to discharge, but the magical field still tingled in every cell in her body.
“No magic!” she hissed, the bolt’s field causing the magical chain to melt like wax from its proximity, increasing the bolt’s oscillation and instability. Fingers of lightning crackled out as the crystal matrix deformed, creating paths of escape. Normally a good thing. Not good if you were surrounded by dozens of other bolts. Don’t get everyone killed, Stormy, she thought furiously as sweat poured under the rubber, which was rapidly heating as well. The bolt was elongating, the oscillations stretching the matrix, trying to explode out the tips.
Misty moved up to help but Stormy shook her head. Touching and moving lightning was an art. “Don’t touch it! No magic. Get out of here…”
There was only one place she could think to throw it. She looked back at the door in the back of the vault. Misty moved aside, and Stormy started walking. Everypony moved back as she got to the door to the Thunderforge and pointed it inwards. One end was pointing towards the ancient machine and the other was pointed back into the vault and the rapidly scattering ponies. Stormy watched the wild oscillations running back and forth along the length, synchronizing… building… this was not the approved lightning discharge technique, but sometimes a pony had to improvise!
The energy raced towards the point pointing at her friends and she gave the bolt a heave, launching it, spinning, in the air. The wave of energy raced back towards the other tip, and just as it passed, Stormy thrust her hoof up and struck the bolt in a careful, sharp tap. The impact created another oscillating wave trailing the first. The energy struck the tip and started back, hit the trailing wave she’d created, and then concentrated all the energy in the tip. She threw her face down and covered her head.
The bolt transformed from a solid to energy three feet above her. Stormy’s layer of rubber shielded her from the countless fingers of crackling energy that blasted out above her. If it hadn’t, she would have been the next Rosewing. The vast majority of the energy blasted into the Thunderforge chamber, bouncing off the walls in a blinding circuit like a living, caged beast. Every impact sent dozens of white fingers of energy flashing deep into the clouds with a rumbling boom.
In the other direction, some lightning discharged, but the other rubber-clad lightning specialists lifted into the air and caught the blast with their wings, keeping it from striking the other Class A bolts.
Finally the bolt struck the Thunderforge directly. The dark stone sucked in the lightning like a sponge absorbed water. The eyes of the colossal Pegasi statues flared to life momentarily, then dimmed slowly. The machine released a tone like the ringing of a gong, so low that Stormy felt the vibration in her teeth. She also felt as if she’d come within a few seconds of being cooked. Class A lightning was not supposed to be handled in such a manner!
“Get her out of here before she kills us all!” Sun Glare shouted. He started to run but Razorback charged him, pouncing upon him as he’d pinned Stormy earlier.
“Non non non mon petit couchon,” Razorback told him . “You not goin’ anywhere till we got this figured out.”
“He’s a criminal! He’s working with a brown stallion to steal the lightning!” Stormy countered. Her eyes flew from one pony to the next. Where was he? “He was dressed as a guard!” One brown stallion pointed at himself with a hoof and a baffled expression. “No! Not you!” Where was he? “Misty?”
“I don’t see him either!” She looked from one guard to the next, but Brown was no where to be seen. Darkstar eyed them both skeptically.
“Get her out of here! She’s insane! Completely in-” Sun Glare yelped.
Then there was a loud bang from in the power plant outside the vault doors. One of the delicate, intricate, and powered devices erupted as the cannonball-sized thunderstone within went rocketing out of the casing. It obliterated the tubes holding water and channeling lightning, and the two mixed with explosive results. Another generator exploded, its thunderstone skipping down the central corridor and smashing into one of the parked wagons outside the vault. The impact blew the wagon apart as the stone continued through, straight at the vault, the lightning, guards, and workers.
A wall of magic snapped up, the color such a dark purple that it bordered on black. The thunderstone struck it with such force that the thousand pound sphere exploded with a resounding crack. Countless pieces of wagon shrapnel pulverized themselves against the field of magic. As chaos reigned in the power plant, Stormy saw Darkstar standing with his hooves firmly planted. Even when lightning melted holes in his magic, he patched them within seconds.
Just as suddenly as it began, the chaos ended. Only a few thunderstones still whirled plaintively in their housings. The heart of the weather factory was in ruins. Water sloshed from countless shattered pipes. Sparks spat fitfully into the air. The wagons that had been waiting for their bolts were smashed to pieces. But Stormy felt something was wrong. “That explosion wasn’t big enough.”
“What?” Misty asked, pointing at the ruined room. “That wasn’t big enough?”
“No!” Stormy said. “There were Class A bolts out there, remember?” It was hard to tell, but Stormy doubted there were enough pulverized remains for three wagons in all that mess.
“She’s right,” Darkstar said grimly. He turned to the lightning specialists. “How many bolts did you put in the wagons?”
“Just thee, or was it four?” The lightning specialist mare was clearly frazzled, and after that explosion, who wasn't a little rattled? “But we got a bigger problem. We need to get out of here. Now!”
“No one is going anywhere till this is figured out,” Darkstar snapped. But Stormy saw what the specialist meant. Class A lightning was touchy stuff… particularly around magic and other lightning going off. The bolts that had rested in their beds peacefully now flickered erratically. With time, the specialists could stabilize one bolt, but not dozens.
“They’re right! They’re unstable!” Stormy warned.
“Out. Walk. Don’t run. No magic!” The specialists said tensely as everyone left the Vault. The specialists pulled a lever, and the doors closed.
“That’s not going to contain the blast,” Stormy warned.
“It doesn’t have to,” one of the specialist replied as the pair flew to two other large levers and pulled with all their strength. The floor below them let out a loud thunk, and there was a woosh as the vault disappeared into the floor. A second later the power plant filled with sunlight from the bottom of a shaft as the vault fell like a steel strongbox into the bog below. Across the gap, the Thunderforge sat in its chamber, with a faintly disapproving air about it.
The vault disappeared beneath the colorful muck in seconds. Then the mire below exploded in a dazzling light show of arching lightning and crackling spheres. The electric display lasted for nearly a minute, the flashing and buzzing accompanied by a feculent reek.
That was going to make taking inventory damned hard.
“Bad day in the bayou,” Razorback said. Sun Glare started to inch towards the open door leading out of the power plant as more guards and pegasi rushed in. The gray earth pony hooked the pegasus’s neck with a forehoof and drew him almost casually into a choke hold. “Non non non,” he said absently, not taking his eyes off the still flickering swamp below.
“Let me go! You can’t do this to me. I’ll sue!” Sun Glare protested. “When my lawyers get done with you- urrk!” He was silenced as Razorback tightened the chokehold.
“Shhhh, you fâchè perruche,” Razorback said as his other hoof petted Sunglare’s mane. After several seconds, the assistant manager went limp and Razorback released the lock, but kept petting his mane.
Darkstar totted up and looked down at Stormy and Misty gravely. “It seems there’s much more going on here than simply a lightning collection exploding. I’m afraid you’re going to have to come with me,” he said as he looked down at Stormy. “You’re under arrest.”
“I don’t believe it. I just don’t,” Rainbow Dash said as she read the scroll for the umpteenth time. “Three months before the weather factory is back on line? That’s forever!” The six friends were gathered together in a meeting room at the Wonderbolts' office in Cloudsdale. From here they could see the black smoke and steam still leaking out the windows. The haze seemed the poison the pristine blue skies, though testing had shown the ugly fume to be mostly harmless. That hadn't stopped the papers in Canterlot warning everypony Toxic gasses from Cloudsdale Disaster may imperil Canterlot! As if pegasi had lost their wings along with the Weatherworks.
“No. That’s three months,” Twilight Sparkle said as she read another report. “And all things considered, that’s paying for expedited work. We’ll probably hear the cheering of glassblowers in Lithopolis from here,” she said, the roar of a demonstrating crowd demanding respect, justice, or simply roaring to roar booming outside. No rain without respect! Pegasi are ponies too! Let them eat hurricane! Her horn flashed, dulling the noise somewhat. Somepony must have seen the flash. No magic can silence us!
Applejack regarded pages and pages of 'fancy mathematics.' “It’s a bargain in the long run, Sugarcube. If the weather ain’t back to normal by spring, we’re gonna be lookin' at a mighty hard year,” Applejack said. Then she glanced out the window and scowled. “Ah'course, that’s assumin’ everypony pulls together. After hearin’ the nonsense comin’ out o’ Manehattan, I’m not sure that’s gonna happen. Protest marches? It’s like them idjits think the pegasi blew up the factory on purpose!”
“The rumor mill in Canterlot isn’t much better, darling,” Rarity said with a shake of her head. “Half the nobility and business are furious that taxes might be raised on them to cover the expense. I don’t mind paying my fair share for a good cause, but there’s always ponies that think a single bit more is a bit too much!”
Pinkie Pie sighed, frowning. “I don’t know what’s gotten into everypony. I mean, I can only do so many parties to cheer ponies up!” She suddenly smacked one hoof against the other. “That’s it! We should use the Elements to create one massive party wave that’ll wipe out all these gloomy Gus feelings!”
“We can’t. We gave the Elements back to the Tree of Harmony, remember?” Fluttershy reminded gently.
“Oh, yeah,” Pinkie Pie said with a little smile. “Gee. Life sure was easier back when we could just zap the baddies with a rainbow beam and call it a day.”
Twilight Sparkle sighed, turning away from the table to trot to the windows looking out at the Weatherworks. “With everything going on… I don’t know… Maybe we should consider canceling the Equestria Games.” Her friends immediately started shouting their protests, and she stomped, “I mean it. With everything going on, can we really afford to hold them?”
“That might be a little premature,” a mare said from the doorway. Twilight and her friends turned to see the beautiful Princess Cadance enter. Behind her entered Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.
“Cadance!” Twilight immediately rushed to her and embraced her once foalsitter and sister in law.
“I believe that Equestria could use the games to rally against these old grudges which are raising once again,” Celestia said calmly as she stepped up next to Cadance.
“Besides. The preparations for the games is complete. Cancelling them wouldn’t do anything to help with restoring the Weatherworks,” Luna added as she flanked Cadance.
Twilight’s friends immediately bowed to Equestria’s royalty. Celestia bade them rise with a gesture of a hoof and a kindly smile. When they’d straightened, it was clear that the normally placid leader of the land appeared drawn. “What we have to reconsider now is if there is a dire threat to Equestria, or not.”
“Beggin my pardon, yer majesties, but there’s protests all over Equestria at the moment. How’s that not a dire threat?” Applejack asked.
“Equestria has endured centuries of these old arguments. Unicorn snobbery. Pegasi superiority. Earth pony insecurity,” Celestia said gravely, with a wave of her wing. “Every few generations, the old grudges become intense enough that ponies express their differences inappropriately. This is not the first time, dear Applejack, and I fear not the last. In fact, the founding of Ponyville began due to friction between the unicorns of Canterlot and the earth pony wanderers seeking a new town to settle.”
“It did?” Applejack asked with a frown. “But Granny Smith said ya’ll gave us Ponyville as our own.”
“And I did, Applejack, but have you ever wondered why earth ponies never settled Canterlot?” Celestia asked with a weariness in her gentle eyes. “Many unicorns approved of Canterlot’s placement on the side of a mountain to discourage earth pony settlers. After all, it’s hard to farm the side of a mountain.” She sighed and rubbed her face. “Little grudges. Old distrusts. Ancient prejudices.”
“History lesson aside, what about what happened in the Weatherworks?” Rainbow Dash demanded. “You can’t tell me that’s happened before.”
“Not on this scale, no,” Luna said with a shake of her head. “What seems clear is that some lightning in the vault may have been removed inappropriately by unknown parties. With the vault destroyed, it’s impossible to confirm it, or ascertain how many bolts were taken. Nor can we determine why. Class A lightning has few applications, none of them good.”
“It seems there are two possibilities,” Twilight said thoughtfully. “Either Sun Glare is right, and the disaster in the Weatherworks is Stormy’s fault… or Stormy is right and there’s some kind of larger conspiracy at work.” She lifted papers. “I trust everypony read their statements?”
"Yeah. All it was missing was an angry dragon. Then I think it would be a nice rival for Daring Do and the Troll's Tooth," Rainbow Dash said, regarding the blank looks of her friends. "It's the worst in the series," she added bluntly, then frowned. "Seriously? Are me and Twilight the only academics here?"
Twilight sighed and shook her head. "That aside, it does seem a little... involved. I'm not sure how credible she is."
“Stormy did have a photograph showing Sun Glare and Rosewing together,” Fluttershy said immediately, shrinking back when all the eyes turned to her. “Well, she did…” she added in a timid voice.
“When did you see this picture, Sugarcube?” Applejack asked.
Fluttershy dropped her eyes to her hooves. “The day before yesterday, when she came to me for help. She told me she was in trouble, and needed my help. I saw it then,” she murmured, then glanced up at their shocked expressions. “I promised….”
“Oh, darling,” Rarity sighed. “You should have told us.”
“I’m sorry,” Fluttershy apologized, “but I promised Stormy, and I thought that if she had a little time she could find something to help her. You have to admit, there weren’t many ponies listening to her at the time. And she did have that photograph of the six of them together.”
Celestia gave Fluttershy a reaffirming smile. “And I believe you, but without that picture, there’s little we can do to hold Sun Glare. He’s been put on paid leave pending a review, but we can’t simply lock him up just on our suspicions,” Celestia pointed out.
“You can’t?” Rainbow Dash asked. “But you’re Princesses. Can’t you just command it or something?”
Twilight Sparkle shook her head, explaining, “Princesses don’t have absolute power, Rainbow. Many ponies think we do, but we are bound by laws just as everypony is. Ponies have rights too. Without evidence of a crime, the Princesses can’t pass summary judgments. And anypony that contests a charge has a right to a hearing, and following that, a trial,” Twilight said, and then flushed as she saw her teacher beaming down at her. “I might have researched a few of those details after the whole Philomena incident,” she added, sheepishly. Celestia gave a fond, reflective smile.
“The Accords allowing us to rule grant those powers and protections. Otherwise we’d be able to become tyrants,” Cadance said. Almost as if pulled by gravity, far too many eyes turned to Luna, who dropped her gaze to her hooves. Cadance continued on, powering through the awkwardness, “The Accords are binding in the Crystal Empire too. I agreed to them after we defeated Sombra.”
“I guess it would be a little much for everypony to just hand over an empire to an alicorn they barely knew, even though she banished their previous tyrant,” Rarity mused.
“Yeah. I try my best not to say ‘blargh, crystals’ too often,” Cadance said with a smile.
“There’s more than enough evidence to punish Stormy Skies for years. Trespass. Assault. Destruction of state property. Misty Morning too,” Twilight said with a frown, then shook her head hard. “I just can’t put all of this on two ponies though. It just… feels wrong.”
Twilight regarded all the scrolls and reports. “If we go off Stormy being right, and there is a larger conspiracy at work… what do we do? How do we fight enemies that are hiding? How do we determine who’s involved? We don’t have any evidence of where the lightning is going or what it’s intended for.”
“Well, why would anypony steal lightning in the first place?” Applejack asked. “Think practical. I reckon there’s easier ways ta level barns.”
“Class A is really dangerous, and touchy. You could use it to do some severe damage to a small town like Ponyville,” Rainbow Dash said as she regarded her friends.
“That’s not the kind of party I think Ponyville needs right now,” Pinkie pointed out.
“It can also be used to supercharge magic, but that’s highly experimental and radical research,” Twilight pointed out. “It’s not something a unicorn can do casually.”
“Figured that out when you turned town hall into cheese?” Applejack asked with a grin.
“That was once! Just once! And I was able to change it back before it started to smell,” Twilight retorted, pouting. “You mess up tinkering with the laws of the universe once and nopony lets you forget it.” Everypony stared at her. “Twice.” The stares remained and she protested, “Look, making mistakes is how we advance our understanding!”
“Uh-huh. Just keepin' y’all honest,” Applejack said with a wink, then rubbed her chin. “I can’t think o' any agricultural uses fer lightnin’. Pinkie?”
“Well, I don’t think you could use it for baking!” she said immediately. “Not unless you needed to cook a bazillion muffins like, ZAPP! Muffipockolypse! Oooh… maybe that’s it! Somepony is trying to bury Equestria in mass produced mountains of muffins!”
Twilight and her friends shared a look. “We can explore that theory later, darling,” Rarity said in tones that suggested it’d be never rather than later. “I suppose they might simply be selling it. Maybe to somepony in Equestria. Perhaps to someone outside it. Griffins perhaps? Or dragons?”
“Maybe. I don’t know what they’d use it for though,” Rainbow said, shaking her head. “Dragons don’t need much help causing damage.”
“Unfortunately, all we can offer now is speculation,” Luna said firmly, cutting through their musing. “There are only two known applications for Class A lightning, as a weapon in and of itself, and as a component for the forging of a much stronger weapon. A lightning lance.” At the multiple baffled expressions, Celestia and Luna walked them through the basics.
When they finished, everypony looked like they could use a smoke. “Pegasi used to make them things? Intentionally?” Applejack marveled.
“Earth ponies used to grow hemlock. Intentionally,” Rainbow Dash countered.
“Ponies, please,” Celestia said firmly, and both friends dropped their eyes. “Nopony’s even tried to make a Lightning Lance since…” Celestia trailed off as she stared at her sister.
“Since I betrayed you and became Nightmare Moon,” Luna finished grimly, raising her head, her face stoically composed. “You banished me before they could kill me.”
"That's why you banished her right away, isn't it?" Twilight asked, in tones of drawing comprehension, looking at her mentor.
Celestia closed her eyes. "Nightmare Moon was proof of all they feared about our rule. I knew there were elements who would not wait long to exploit the breach of the Accords." Luna trotted next to her and put a wing across her sister's shoulders. Celestia gave her a grateful smile. "Let it never be said being a Princess was easy."
"No, I doubt I'm going to be thinking that anytime soon," Twilight muttered, glaring back at her own wings before refocusing. “You think these conspirators are going to try and use the Thunderforge?” Twilight asked, pointing towards the Weatherworks with a wing tip. Luna gave a small shrug. “I don’t know, Princess. It seems silly for them to smuggle Class A lightning out of Cloudsdale and then back into Cloudsdale,” Twilight pointed out, still skeptical.
“And the Thunderforge was disabled anyway, right? The gem that makes the whole thing work’s been yanked out. Probably being used as a doorstop in this very building,” Rainbow Dash said glancing around as if it’d be sitting on a shelf in the conference room.
“Perhaps, but there’s no record of where Commander Easy Glider put it, nor even of the Thunderforge being disabled,” Celestia said with a note of irritation in her voice. Everypony looked at her and she sighed, “I apologize. For any ruler, lack of knowledge is… frustrating. I know the Accords play a vital role in the operation and freedom of Equestria, but there are times I wish I could tear the things up and toss them in the fire.”
“Beggin’ yer pardon, Princess, but I wouldn’t go sayin’ things like that loudly if I were you,” Applejack said flatly.
“Applejack!” Rarity gasped.
“No Rares. Honesty, remember?” she said as she pointed a hoof at the four alicorns. “Hate to admit it, but y’all scare me some. Not a lot, mind, but ya do. When I think of what you did,” she said as she moved that hoof over to Luna, “and what y’all could do,” she said as she gestured over to the other three, “I gotta admit I’m glad there’s somethin’ keepin’ ya from doing somethin’ right evil ta the rest of us. Fer our own good, o’course.”
A tense silence filled the room as the words were spoken. Applejack regarded the others, presenting with the chance to disagree. None did. Twilight stared at her friends. “Do you… are you afraid of what I might do?”
Nopony answered immediately. Then Fluttershy said, “You turned me into a feral vampony bat by accident, Twilight. I mean, I got better but…” She trailed away, staring at her hooves. Rarity tossed her mane and didn’t say a word, trying to look coolly disinterested, but more than once her eyes turned back to Twilight with a wary glance.
“No offense,” Rainbow said with a sickly smile, “but we worry more about what you might mess up magically. The thought of you going Nightmare Twilight… well…” Her smile melted away. “Not cool.”
Pinkie darted to her purple friend, taking her forehooves and sqeezing them. “It isn’t that we don’t like you or want you to be our friend, Twilight,” Pinkie Pie gushed. “We super duper do! And we know that you’re a good pony who wouldn’t do bad things! But…” she balked, her blue eyes going watery as her grin quivered, “Please don’t be upset and think we don’t want you as a friend, Twilight!”
Twilight sighed, shaking her head. She took a moment and then looked at the other three alicorns, seeing the sympathy for what she felt in their eyes too. A knowing that as good friends they had been once, there were some barriers between them now. Had Celestia gone through this? Luna? Would Cadance? Would she? Twilight gave Pinkie a weak, wavering smile that fooled nopony. “I know, Pinkie. And I’ll always try and be more careful in the future,” she said with a nod to Fluttershy. “I always was afraid of what this…” she gestured to her wings and body, “would do to us. I hoped that nothing would change, but change always happens, doesn’t it?” She gave them all the same sad smile.
Her friends also seemed to fidget and worry, sharing looks. Twilight sighed, closing her eyes and bowing her head. Suddenly they were upon Twilight, hugging her. “Maybe it does, Sugarcube,” Applejack said, “but that don’t mean it can’t change for the better, right?”
“For such an egghead, you can be a real dummy sometimes. I never leave my friends hanging!” Rainbow Dash said as she squeezed her. “We’ll never leave you hanging.”
“If you could forgive me for my horrid use of that magic book, how could I hold what you might do against you?” Rarity chimed in. “That’s simply unfair, darling.”
The rest of her friends echoed their agreement. Twilight looked over at her lone teacher and her sister and received a wistful, happy smile from both. The rift mended, even if the fault lines remained. “Thank you… all of you…” Twilight murmured with a sniff.
After a minute or so, in which the observing Princesses gave Luna a slightly more discrete hug with their wings, the friends regrouped. “Okay. So, focus time. What are we going to do about… whatever the hay is going on!?” Rainbow Dash asked with a passionate thump of her hoof on the table and then blinked and asked a slightly hapless tone. “Uh, do we know what’s going on?” Her eyes traveled from one to the next. “Do we have a clue about what might be going on?”
“It’s as we said, either Stormy has happened upon some conspiracy against the crown involving illegal lightning, or she’s a seriously disturbed mare who’s caused a long of destruction and possibly even a death. And she’s drug Misty along for the ride," Twilight laid out. "Or something even more bizarre."
"Discord," Applejack stated bluntly, drawing every look. "Wut? He's always up to no good."
Fluttershy coughed, flushing a little as she tapped her hooves together. “Stormy was telling the truth about the photograph. I think we should give her a chance,” Fluttershy said as she fidgeted. “I don’t think she’s a bad pony.”
Rainbow snorted. “Maybe, but I had Professor Epididymis too and I can’t see any way he fits into a lightning stealing scam. The guy’s lucky he remembers what year it is. He always called me Rainbow Flash,” Rainbow Dash said, then looked at the furiously blushing Twilight. “What?”
“It’s Epimetheus, Rainbow. Professor Epimetheus. The epididymis is… uh… forget about it,” Twilight said as she shook her head. “We’re getting off track. We could... We might... maybe..." She looked back at her friends. "I mean, I know we're busy getting ready for the Equestria Games next week but we should be able to do something!"
The others shared various looks. Fluttershy stepped forward and took Twilight's hoof between hers. "Twilight, I know you want to do something yourself. The fact is that there isn’t much we can do. I mean, you could try to oversee the investigation in Cloudsdale, but the Wonderbolts are on it. We could try and dig into Rosewing’s life more, but the Royal Guard has already gotten us almost every scrap of paper." She gestured to the table and its scrolls and books. "Apart from an eighteen months between leaving Cloudsdale and coming to Ponyville six months ago, we know what she was doing, more or less."
"We could..." Twilight started but stared at the research. The fact was there were no leads they could follow on the research. Rosewing had no family nor close friends. The Wonderbolts had dug into Cloudsdale records, and the Royal Guard the little bit of paper from Ponyville.
“And there’s the fact that the Equestria Games are in a few days. Fluttershy and I are scheduled to compete, and all four Princesses are supposed to be there along with all kinds of boring, snobbing, high-society, muckety mucks,” Rainbow Dash said, then smiled sheepishly as she turned to a coolly disapproving unicorn. “No offense," she added.
"None taken, darling," Rarity replied grandly, with a flush.
“And we can’t cancel the games. They’re exactly what Equestria needs right now, with so much old animosity and division being stirred up,” Cadance pointed out. “Celestia already promoted them as a unifying symbol.”
“Indeed,” Celestia said as she gazed out the window, her stare troubled. “I feel that something is amiss in Equestria. That there is some enemy out there causing dissention and exploiting old fears and grudges. But this enemy isn’t like others we’ve faced. It’s elusive. Subtle.”
“That means you’ve rejected Sun Glare’s argument, sister?” Princess Luna asked.
“I’m skeptical. The lightning experts didn’t have a chance to examine all the bolts. Were they really fakes, or defunct bolts like Sun Glare suggested?” She rubbed her temples with her wingtips. “I’m tempted just to keep them all in a cell till after the games at least. Find some plausible excuse…” That got a startled look from more than just Applejack.
“We could ask Discord,” Fluttershy suggested lightly, getting almost two dozen looks ranging from glares to shock to wariness. “I mean… he can be surprisingly… um… useful. Sometimes,” she said, voice growing fainter with each word.
Twilight and Cadance shared a long, thoughtful glance. “Well, maybe. He owes us for that whole Blue Flu debacle.” In a trice, they cast the summoning spell and Discord appeared in a cloud of sparkles. He wore a tweed jacket, holding a glass of wine in one hand while a levitating record player playing classical music floated besides him. He examined a stack of stapled papers with a studious glare through wire-frame glasses.
“What, I just betray her like that? For him? Where’s the motivation? Where’s the art? What hack wrote…” he flipped to the front and narrowed his eyes. “Not even Larson. Wait till I talk to my agent.” He glanced over at the assembled ponies and at once his eyes bulged and in a flash the accoutrements and outfit disappeared. Then he glanced at the levitating phonograph and waved a hand at it, banishing the device in a puff of lavender smoke. “Ladies! Not that it isn’t a joy to see you, but I’m afraid you really should RSVP ahead of time!”
“I’m sorry, Discord,” Fluttershy said as she tapped her hooves together. “It’s just, there’s some trouble going on and we need your help.”
"Think nothing of it, Fluttershy,” Discord said dismissively, then smirked smugly at Twilight. “So! What is it little miss sparkly butt can’t figure something out on her own and needs my capable, crucial help?” He urged with a grin and an unctuous tone, “Do go on.”
Twilight summoned up all her patience and explained the explosion in the Weatherworks, and Discord’s smile rapidly faded. More than once he pulled out the pad of paper as if checking it for notes. Twilight Sparkle narrowed her eyes and demanded sharply, “Hey? What’s that?”
He snapped it closed, rolled it up, and ingested it with the noise of a buzzsaw. “Sorry. Shouldn’t be bandying that about.” He coughed a plume of paper dust at the scowling alicorn. “Excuse me. Now. You’re telling me that things are amiss in Equestria involving destruction, mistrust, and chaos?” He grinned eagerly, tapping his fingers together before glancing at Fluttershy’s troubled frown. “All horrible things that I have nothing to do with whatsoever, I assure you,” he added hastily, a halo popping in place above his head.
“Yes. Worse than usual,” Celestia said evenly. “Have you sensed anything?”
He pursed his lips thoughtfully. “Now that you mention it, there is a rather foul odor of chaos in the air at the moment.” A loud blast of breaking wind sounded, along with a noxious smell as almost two dozen eyes popped wide with shock. Green clouds swirled around their hooves as the ponies coughed.
“Ew!” Pinkie Pie protested, reaching out of sight behind her and pulling on a gas mask. “Discord!”
“Hey now, he who smelt it, dealt it, Pinkie Pie,” Discord said defensively, putting a hand on his chest before rising up and continuing, “But as I was saying: yes, there is quite the reek of naughtiness afoot. A rather wet and scheming scent reminiscent of locker rooms, root cellars, and infrequently cleaned toilets.” The coughing of the ponies made him smirk as the green clouds floated about with little pooting noises.
Rainbow Dash fanned her wings, blowing the clouds away. Applejack narrowed her eyes at the amused draconequus. “And I bet you’re just giddy as a pig in slop, ain’tcha?” Applejack accused.
“Me?” Discord blinked innocently, then teleported next to her, putting an arm around her neck. “Honestly, Applejack, there’s more than one flavor of Discord. I’m much more interested in spontaneous bafflement that challenges preconceptions and blind trust, challenging bonds and oaths… like friendship,” he said with a smirk.
“And this stuff is different?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Would I conspire with ponies to steal and destroy?” Discord asked in return.
Twilight opened her mouth to snap at him, then paused as the thought clashed with how Discord usually operated. “Well, no,” Twilight admitted. “That’s really not your style. Turn it all into peppermint, maybe. With chocolate rain.” Pinkie snapped off the mask, grinning eagerly.
“Thank you. Whatever is going on here is big, but sneaky. You’re dealing with something that doesn’t want to be caught. And most importantly, someones who are reacting to your every move. I hate to say it, but you ponies are dreadfully predictable. It’s one of the reasons why you’re so fun to play with,” he said with a grin at Celestia.
“Then what do you suggest?” Celestia asked evenly.
“My my my. You’re asking me for my suggestion? You must be desperate,” he mocked. He surveyed the assorted glares till his eyes met Fluttershy’s worried gaze and stiffened, then slumped. “Oh alright.” The room flashed and drew them all together and he wrapped his elastic arms around them. “My suggestion, dear ponies,” he said in a stage whisper, “is let somepony else do it.”
“That’s your suggestion?” Twilight asked in annoyed tones.
“Indeed it is. Somepony unknown. Somepony unpredictable,” Discord said with a smile.
Pinkie sighed and pulled out a strip of pink cloth, tying it about her head in a bandana, then applyed black grease paint stripes below her eyes. “Well, it’ll be a tough battle, but I’m in it to win it,” Pinkie Pie said with a grim expression.
“Sorry Pinkie, but I think Discord means somepony else,” Twilight said evenly.
“What?” Pinkie gasped, then pulled off the bandana and used it to wipe her face clean. She glared at Discord. “I am too unpredictable! Is this-” she reached behind her.
“Glasses and mustache,” Discord said, boredly as Pinkie Pie pulled out a pair and jammed them on her face. Her eyes widened, then blazed as they narrowed to slits and she reached again. “Rubber chicken.” Discord said, just as she whipped out Boneless as well and swung it at him. He yawned. “Whoopie cushion,” he said before sitting down with yet another pooting noise. “No offense, but you’re far too predictably unpredictable. It’s a common problem for pranksters of our caliber,” Discord said with a show of humility, pressing his claw to his chest and paw to his brow.
“Can we please get back to dire conspiracies of lightning smuggling?” Rarity asked. “Some of us do have outfits to finish for the Equestria games.”
Celestia hadn't taken her eyes off the dracoequus. “You mean Stormy Skies and Misty Morning."
“Do I?” Discord blinked. “Well, I suppose I do. You send them to find the proof, and when they flush your enemies out in the open, then you can use your rainbows of doom to deal with them.” The stack of paper appeared in his claw again. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to rehearse my lines. Adieu,” he said and then flashed away.
“I still want to know what he was reading,” Twilight growled.
“Who knows? It probably wasn’t that important,” Rainbow Dash said.
Fluttershy fidgeted a moment, then spoke up, “I think his suggestion was the right one. I think we should let Stormy Skies and Misty Morning try to find out what’s going on.”
“They might be criminals, Fluttershy,” Rainbow Dash countered. “Actually, they are criminals. We’d be crazy to just let them go.”
“Maybe, but if Stormy’s been tellin’ the truth the whole time and we haven’t believed her, I can’t say I blame her fer goin’ mustang on us,” Applejack counter countered. “I would too, if it was the right thing ta do.”
“You’re both right,” Celestia said, cutting off the argument instantly. “Call them both in. I know what we must do.”
This is it. The moment where my life ended forever. Stormy and Misty trudged into the meeting hall. Well, that probably wasn't precisely true. Even Nightmare Moon hadn't been... she tried to keep her mind off that. Still, being forced to sit in a giant metal birdcage hadn't helped her feelings since her arrest. Misty and she had given statements, and Sun Glare had been removed from the cage ages ago. Sure, it had been after Stormy bucked him halfway across the cage, but still not the best sign of her future.
Now all four Princesses now stood in judgment of them, with Twilight’s friends watching from one side while Dark Star, Sun Glare, Spitfire, and Razorback watched from the other. From the rather smug look on Sun Glare's face, Stomy felt her world crumbling. I’m going to be banished forever and ever for crimes against Equnity. I’ll be remembered shamefully for the rest of my life. Parents will use me as a cautionary tale about young ponies playing with lightning.
“Stormy Skies. Misty Morning. Please step forward.” The pair did, swallowing. “You are charged with trespass and assaults on the guard of the realm. Do you contest these charges?”
“Wait, you don’t understand. We did it to-” Stormy began.
“We have read your statements and repeat the question. Do you contest these charges?” Celestia asked gravely.
Stormy was about to shout yes, when she paused. Trespass and assault? Those were serious charges, sure, but what about the destruction at the Weatherworks? Or Rosewing’s death? She looked over at Misty, and the mare shook her head. “No, your majesty, we did not.” Stormy suddenly felt like the entire world was shrinking slowly upon her. Had she make another mistake?
“And on the charge of willfully destroying property of the realm?” Celestia asked immediately. “Do you contest this charge?”
“Yes!” Stormy said at once, in unison with Misty.
“Very well,” Celestia intoned solemnly. “Then by the powers vested in me by the people of Equestria, for the charges of Trespass and Assault, I sentence you to compelled service to the realm.”
This was it! It was all ov- wait. What? She stared around haplessly for a few seconds, and she wasn't alone, before Twilight supplied an answer. "Community service, Stormy."
The silence strained like winter ice, shattered by Sun Glare’s incredulous, “What?!”
Celestia continued, “This service, beginning immediately and continuing until its conclusion, will be to assist the Royal Guard in the investigation of the illegal removal and transportation of Class A lightning. You are to be accompanied at all times by Guard Razorback until concluded. As you are contesting the following charge, a tracer spell shall be cast upon you so that you may be retrieved for a hearing after the conclusion of the Equestria Games. Understood?”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” both said in unison.
Celestia looked to Twilight, and the purple alicorn stepped before them and levitated as her horn and eyes glowed a brilliant purple. A band of light appeared around their hooves like a shackle, then faded away, leaving behind a purple ring like a stylized tattoo. “And you can find me if you need us?”
“We can do more than that,” Twilight said. Her horn flared and the band around Stormy’s hoof glowed again, and suddenly the pegasus found herself flying at Twilight. Twilight’s eyes widened in shock and then Stormy smashed her hoof firmly against Twilight’s face. The Princess collapsed in a heap.
“Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! I totally didn’t mean to do that!” Stormy gushed as she checked over the dazed mare. “Are you okay, Princess?” Stormy asked meekly as Twilight's friends stared in shock.
“Assaulting royalty,” Dark Star said dryly. “My, I think you’re well on your way to being Equestria’s most notorious criminal ever.”
“I didn’t mean to do it!” Stormy wailed as she lifted Twilight’s head in her hooves. “Tell me you’re okay, Princess! Say something!” she begged, bawling in desperation. “I just wanted my old job back!”
“Such a hardened criminal,” Luna sighed, shaking her head gravely.
Cadance giggled, “Twilight’ll be fine. She’s handled worse shots than that.” Fluttershy began hunting about for a first aid kit.
“I think we’re done here,” Celestia said with a sigh, shaking her head. “Twilight, when you’re recovered, perhaps you can join us? Dark, please escort Sun Glare back to his office. I know the Weatherworks director has many questions for him regarding his career.” The three alicorns left, then the stunned Sun Glare with the unicorn captain.
As he left, Stormy paused as she saw the look in the gaunt pegasus’s face. Anger, sure, but there was a worried fear in his eyes too.
“Hey, Stormy?” Rainbow Dash said closely, “Could you stop squishing Twilight Sparkle’s face?”
Stormy became aware that her hooves were squeezing Twilight’s face between them and she jerked her hooves away as if burned. Twilight shook her face hard, “I’m sorry! I totally didn’t mean to hit you in the face, Princess.”
“It’s okay, Stormy,” Twilight said, sniffing and working her muzzle around. “I probably shouldn’t have tried to summon you so hard when you were so close.” She then gave them both a firm, teacherly smile. “You understand the two of you aren’t quite off the hook just yet, right?”
“Right,” Stormy said, trying to relax just a bit. “You’re giving us a chance to clear our names though. Honestly, it’s more than I thought I’d be given.”
“Can’t say I agree one hundred percent with Princess Celestia, but ya’ll don’t seem like liars, so I guess this is the best fer everypony,” Applejack said as she looked from Stormy to Misty. “And if you two get into more trouble, I reckon it’ll be that much more rope ta string ya up with.”
Yikes. Stormy hadn’t thought of that! As she pondered just how much deeper she could get into trouble, Misty replied to Applejack, “Oh no. I’m quite a liar. To be honest, I’m terribly dishonest. And that’s the truth.”
The orange earth pony blinked and her face ran through several slightly constipated looks before she retorted, “Are you making fun o' me?”
“Oh no. I’m being perfectly sincere. I am quite a liar,” Misty said, her face a model of seriousness. Applejack made a few more highly amusing expressions of pained thinking before stalking away.
“Well, ma chères, it looks like we’re gonna be enjoying each other's company a bit longer, non?” Razorback said as the scruffy earth pony approached.
“Cousin Piggy Pie!” Pinkie squealed, launching herself at the armored earth pony and flooring him. “I haven’t seen you in forever!”
“Non, Pinkamina! It’s Razorback. Razorback,” he tried to summon as much machismo as he could to the name, but it was a little hard to do with a Pinkie Pie atop you.
“Oh, you’ll always be cousin Piggy Wiggy to Pinkie Winkie!” she said giving him a hug. “Remember?”
“Certainement,” he said with a lazy grin under his battered armor. “Mais you was a petite pouliche last time I saw you. Now you all grown up.”
“Didn’t she just say she was your cousin?” Misty asked with a knitted brow.
“Not as bad as ma sœur, non?” he said with a laugh. Stormy didn’t know what he was saying exactly, and she suspected she didn’t want to know. Bayou earth ponies were a little more than she was used to. Apples were hard enough to understand.
“Cousin Piggy always taught me the funniest words. Like pickle barrel and kumquat,” she said with a giggle. “It was hide in the pickle barrel and play with the kumquat, right?”
“Somethin' like dat,” he chuckled.
“Where do you think you’ll go next?” Fluttershy asked as she smiled gently at the pair.
Stormy pondered that herself. “Well, I doubt we’ll be able to stake out Sun Glare. I suspect other ponies will be doing that anyway, investigating the explosion. So I think that I’ll go looking for that cave in the photograph. Professor Epimetheus said that we went to Lithopolis during a summer trip. I guess we can try and find out why we were all there together three years ago.”
“Finding a cave in Lithopolis is like trying to find a cake in a bakery,” Pinkie Pie said, but then brightened. “Hey! Maud might be there! She knows all about rocks. She might know all about caves too! You should totally check her out!”
“That’s not a bad idea,” Razorback said as he lifted himself to his hooves.
“I can get you part of the way there, if you like,” Twilight said with a smile. “I’ve been practicing my long range teleportation spells.”
“Are you sure about that?” Rainbow Dash asked warily. “Last time you got us all the way to the Crystal Empire, Twilight."
“Yup!” she said proudly. “A new record.”
“We were trying to reach Appleloosa,” Rainbow pointed out, making the Princess blink.
“Well… I wasn’t looking forward to the heat and thought the cool Crystal Empire air would be nicer!” she said defensively. “I promise. Lithopolis. No sweat.”
Stormy stared at the earnestly smiling alicorn and gulped. “Sure. That’d be great. First, I need to see somepony though.” Stormy had been given a second chance. She might not be off the hook, but for the first time in a long time, she felt optimistic. Of course, if they didn’t find anything, that third charge was more than enough to send her away for a long time.
Sun Glare stormed into his apartment. Everything was neatly placed, in line, and organized from smallest to largest. It was a bachelor’s pad, functional and serious as the stallion himself. The only signs of personality were a number of small figurines of pegasi in flight, made of pure light. He’d spent hours explaining himself to those damned princesses and Twilight Sparkle’s friends. The Princesses he could understand, but Twilight Sparkle’s friends had as much place interrogating him as a stone directing weather. Why couldn’t they stay in their place, out of the way, and be grateful? That was what stung the worst: the ingratitude.
Sun Glare trotted over to the refrigerator, already compiling the list in his head. Some day there’d be a reckoning. Some day soon. He pulled out a carafe of milk, pouring himself a cup, and downing it in one go. It was as hard a drink as he ever allowed himself. He pulled out some apples and a paring knife and proceeded to neatly peel them to try and focus himself. A nice cinnamon apple pie would help him regain some focus; cooking was one of his few passions. He didn’t care so much for eating the results. It was the making that mattered. Taking base materials and turning them into something more. It was why he’d excelled at the weather factory, turning magic and water into all kinds of weather. In another life, maybe he might have been a chef... but cooking was an earth pony career.
“Is everything okay?” a stallion asked, and Sun Glare whirled, spotting the Wonderbolt standing casually in his living room.
“Yes. Everything’s fine! Thank you for watching me!” He growled. “At least the birdcage was more honest!” he said with a sweep of his wing.
The Wonderbolt stepped closer, and Sun Glare glowered at him. “What are you doing in here at all? You have no right to be in…” Sun Glare’s eyes wandered to the tiny strips of hide visible around the eyes and mouth. The brown hide. For the first time today, he felt a little frisson of fear. “You! What are you doing here?”
The brown stallion in the Wonderbolt suit wore a simple, matching backpack. “Needed to touch base. You were in custody a long time.”
“But the lightning-” he began.
“Is taken care of. She’s on it,” he said evenly as he pulled off the backpack. “We just have to take care of one little thing.”
“You needn’t worry. I didn’t tell them anything,” he said with a casual smile.
“I know. I listened in,” he said with a casual smile. “You have no idea how glad I am that you didn’t. I had a distraction ready in case I had to extract you, but that would have removed all doubt on Stormy. Worse, I might have gotten caught.” A small smile formed in the corner of his lip. “Can you imagine all the awkward questions that would raise?” He chuckled, but Sun Glare was little comforted. In fact, he was annoyed.
“If everything is taken care of, then what are you doing here?” Sun Glare asked. “You’re risking everything!”
“Actually, we’re doing the opposite", he said as he drew something out of the backpack. Something round and white, with a pointy bit, two holes and… there was a flash of purple and Sun Glare froze in place. A few seconds later the glow diminished. “You need to kill yourself,” the brown stallion said calmly.
Sun Glare’s eyes remained locked on the white orb like object in his hooves, the twin voids seeming to devour his resistance as the point still glowed a faint purple. “Okay,” he said faintly as his lips and eyebrows twitched as a part of his mind screamed in terror.
“I already searched the place. Do you have anything hidden away? A little stash of incriminating evidence?” the brown stallion asked as he put the object back in the pack.
“Yes,” he said as he stood and walked like a drunk across the room to the little figurines. Clumsy hooves pushed them off the shelf, sending them bouncing across the ground. His hooves pushed on the wall, and a hidden panel popped free. Within was a shallow space and a neat attaché case. The brown stallion took it in his hooves and flipped it open, looking at the pictures and notes within.
“Sun Glare. You were all set to sell us out!” the Wonderbolt chuckled as he flipped through the contents brightly. “I bet if they’d squeezed you a little harder you would have sung like a canary.”
“I thought about it,” Sun Glare admitted casually as the rest of his mind thrashed, fighting to regain control. “I would have if they’d jailed me.”
“Well, so glad you were so loyal to our cause,” the Wonderbolt said, with a warm smile. “Is there anything else? Anything we should know? Anypony else you’ve confided in?”
“No, nopony else. This is everything. My lawyer knows about this space,” he said in a slurred voice.
“You can put your suicide note inside that space for your lawyer to find. Write how the suspension has stolen your will to live. That you can’t stand the indignity of being doubted and accused. Make it convincing. Then kill yourself. Knives, I think. You still do your own cooking, right?” The brown stallion asked. Sun Glare gave a jerky nod. “Good. Those will do nicely. Last question. Stormy. Has she remembered anything?”
“No,” Sun Glare slurred.
“Thank goodness for small favors,” he said as he packed the satchel away. “I really should have been more specific last time. I really thought the static collectors would have done it. Still, we’ve got to take care of her sooner or later.” He stomped his hoof. “That reminds me. Wait an hour or two. Make sure you take some aspirin first, strip, get in the shower, turn on warm water, and cut deep vertically along the back of your fore hooves. Tell nopony I was here. Don't speak to another pony at all if you can help it. Understood?”
Sun Glare gave a little nod.
“Thank you, assistant director. Have to say we couldn’t have done this without you,” the brown stallion said as he trotted out the door with the backpack now bulging. In the hall, he saluted the Royal Guard. “Keep up the good work.” And with that he closed the door behind him, giving one last little smile to Sun Glare.
Sun Glare sat there, not moving, simply twitching as his brain struggled for some way to shake the enchantment firmly gripping his mind. He walked over and calmly finished peeling his apple, rolled the crust, prepared the filling, and set it in the oven. Then he cleaned up. After all, he needed everything tidy. No need to leave everything all dirty… after all, he was going to make quite mess in just a little bit. But first he slid over a piece of paper and started to write.
Some days, being manager just isn't worth it, Sunny Skies thought as she winged her way towards Sunrise Apartments. Being responsible for Cloudsdale's weather was an envious position, rivaled only by controlling the Weatherworks itself. She had fifty ponies reporting to her directly, and two hundred managing the complicated task of getting the right weather to the right location at the right time and with nothing going wrong. Coordinating things with Earth ponies might have been tedious, but that constant work prevented flash floods and famine. No pegasus, no matter how good a flier, had managed to get apple trees to grow on clouds. They'd tried... oh how they'd tried.
Stormy had come by to check on Rainy before leaving for the ground. Hadn't that been awkward... No, wait. When mom had shown up! THAT was the awkward point in the afternoon. Sunny had been ready to head off the old accusations and arguments, but then she'd gotten the letter from old Wrinklefeathers Cirrus, production manager of the Weatherworks, to head over to Sun Glare and make a list of what they'd need to get operations going again. She'd left just before the shouting started. Uuuuugh...
Mom might have been the matriarch of the family, but Sunny'd kept things going. When her sisters were angry with mom, Sunny dealt with it. When mom wanted things done, Sunny played both informer and manager. Sunny might not get in trouble if one of her sisters did wrong by mom, but there'd always be that sigh and look of 'why didn't you tell me sooner / tell your sister not to / fix this yourself?' And then mom took care of it, whether it was shouting at a bully's parents, tending to a broken wing, or patching a hole in the wall. That was half the reason she'd worked so hard to get out of that place and get a good job; so she'd never have to go back.
Of course, she never really left. Worry kept her constantly in touch with her siblings to make sure things were getting done. Calm Skies hadn't tried to do the same job when she became oldest. She moved in with whatever stallion or marefriend and made it clear that whatever problem it was, it wasn't her problem. That'd left Stormy and Rainy as oldest. Stormy tried to do Sunny's job, but where Sunny could manage mom, Stormy just got in epic shouting matches. She'd gotten better for a while though, and then she'd had her stupid accident. That left Rainy as 'oldest daughter'.
It'd almost killed her.
At least mom hadn't inflicted that degree pressure on any of her other kids, but it'd tainted their relationship. Rainy moved in with Sunny simply to spare her that constant feeling of worthlessness. Mom simply couldn't manage eight colts and fillies and her older children too. Some habits never changed. Windy was the 'responsible' child now, and hopefully she listened to Sunny's advice. 'You will never be good enough, but you will always be appreciated.'
She landed outside Sunglare's apartment and raised a hoof, rapping sharply on the door. "This isn't going to be pretty," she muttered, seeing as how Stormy was involved in this mess. She'd just have to keep pointing out that getting the Weatherworks working as soon as possible would be great for his career. That should suppress some of his standard snippiness.
Sunny Skies froze as her nostrils detected something amiss. An acrid smell that had no place in the clouds. She'd only smelled it once before, when there'd been a dragon filling Equestria with...
Smoke.
She rapped on his door rapidly with her hooves. Although fires were rare in Cloudsdale, they happened. Clouds might not burn, but there were plenty of things brought up from below, enchanted not to tumble through the clouds, which could burn. Pegasi were horribly sensitive to smoke, and while the fires might burn enough to threaten them, they could still suffocate! "Sun Glare! Sun Glare!" she shouted as she hammered her hooves on the door. A sour stallion stepped out, glowering at her, and she shouted at him, "Get the Royal Guard! Now!" she snapped as she would at any of her team, and the stallion blinked in shock and then flew down towards the exit in the floor.
Sunny stared at the cloud walls; formed and thickened just a year ago. It'd take her a week to batter through them. That didn't mean that was the only way in, though. She flew down stairs where a mare was poking her head out. Sunny barged right in past her. "Hey!" she protested, but Sunny paid neither her nor her tacky little apartment much attention as she started to poke at the ceiling. Just as she thought. The floors were firm, but not as dense as the walls. "Get out of here before I get the guard!" the puce mare snapped at Sunny.
"Get them! Quick! There's a fire upstairs!" she snapped as she dove for the floor, spreading her wings wide. Clouds were an amazing substance, and Sunny had made manipulating it a career. The cloud indented, then propelled her straight for the ceiling. Stormy tucked her wings in tight, hitting the ceiling with her hooves. A hole the size of her foot appeared, thick gray smoke swirling within, and she repeated the process again and again. On the fourth time, she smashed right through the ceiling and into Sun Glare's apartment.
This might be a mistake, she though as she immediately started to cough and retch. The smoke was thickest above, so she all but crawled across the debris strewn floor. Sun Glare's precious figurines lay flickering all over the floor, many of them smashed, but providing enough light for her to open the door. A great stream of smoke poured out. Fortunately, the lay out was the same as Sunny's own apartment, so she went to the kitchen and opened the windows. Black smoke poured from the stove, and Sunny quickly extracted a cremated apple pie. It wasn't on fire, yet, but clearly this was the source of the smoke. Sunny couldn't stand it, and tossed the smoldering dessert out the window.
"Sun Glare!" she croaked, dropping low again and crawling along the floor. She heard the sound of hissing water, and Wingerian operas howling dramatically. "Sun Glare! Are you okay? Sun!" She shouted as stretched up a wing to turn the knob. Sun Glare had to be unconscious from the smoke. She shoved open the door, freezing.
Not again. Blood everywhere. Asprin on the counter. A pony laying in the shower as water sprayed.
Almost automatically, she rushed to the tub where the stallion lay in a bloody mess. His mouth moved feebly as he held his bloody forehooves over his head. He'd slit from fetlock up to his knee just like Rainy; worse, he'd gotten both legs. Sunny barely thought as she turned and rushed to the kitchen. Coughing, hr eyes watering from the lingering smoke, she checked the kitchen for what she needed, found it, and rushed back. Biting his mane she drug him out of the tub with barely a whimper of protest. Not good.
She yanked a perfectly folded towel off the rack and patted his bleeding forelegs as dry as she could. Then she opened the container and poured salt directly into the wounds. Now Sun Glare gave a groan of pain, stirring slightly. Good. The salt would dessicate the wound, spike his blood pressure, and hurt like the dickens, keeping him from falling unconcious. She wrapped another towel around each leg and twisted it, increasing the pressure. "Help!" She screamed as loud as she could. "I need help!"
As she drew a breath, Sun Glare whispered, "I have to do it. I have to do it."
Sunny stared at him as distant shouts became closer and clearer. "What do you mean you had to do it?"
"I have to do it," he whispered though pale lips, his eyes wide and desperate.
Then the wonderbolt was in the doorway. "She's in here!" the mare shouted. "We need one cloud transport to the hospital now!" The deminuative mare moved to her side. "We need you to move aside, ma'am. Go out in the hall and be checked out. You should probably go to the hospital too."
"I just came from there," Sunny murmured. Sun Glare's lips moved silently over and over again, in audible over the rucus. Two Wonderbolts at the door and rear windows fanned their wings furiously, blowing the smoke out and into the clear skies. Sunny half tumbled, half flew out the front door and into the atrium, coughing hard. She slumped to the floor, and watched as the Wonderbolt carried Sun Glare out on her outstretched wings, transfering him to a near by cloud. As he was carried past her, his eyes stared at her, pleading, his lips moving silently.
I have to do it.
Not had. Have. That was the only difference between Rainy and this. Sunny watched him being moved off towards the hospital. Royal guard pegasi in their golden armor kept gawkers at bay. Sunny just focused on breathing. Off to the side, she heard the sallow mare from the apartment bellow demanding her arrest for breaking a hole in her ceiling. No good deed...
"Sunny Skies?" A mare asked in a deep, authoritarian voice. Sunny turned and froze, then struggled to her hooves and gave the first salute she ever had. This pegasus just had that kind of effect. The helmet she wore encased her entire head, and the barding she wore covered from head to hoof. Her powerful wings were more than capable of carrying the weight. Yellow eyes stared down with a steady gaze that stiffened Sunny's shaky legs and weary wings. Oh her chest was Celestia's glorious sun.
Resplendent Sun, commander of the pegasi royal guard, was a mare that made an impression.
"Yes, ma'am!" Sunny said as forcefully as she could.
"I want to thank you for your quick thinking. You not only saved the life of my brother, but also potentially many other lives if that smoke had spread to apartments above this one. I'm going to suggest an accommodation be rewarded to you. The Silver Cloud," she said as she gazed down at her. Her brother? That explained why she was here. She lived in the same building, all the way at the top. "I have just one question. Did my brother say anything to you about why he did this?" she asked, her voice steady and soft.
Sunny opened her mouth and closed it again, frowning at she looked at the magnificent armored mare. "He said..." she balked again, not exactly sure why. "He said he had to do it."
"Ah, poor Glare," Resplendent said with a shake of her head. "Well, the stress of this disaster was simply too much for a pony like him to bear. I suppose it had to happen." She turned away from Sunny, and the mare relaxed, but then faced her again a moment later. "Oh. One other thing. Sunny Skies was it? Any relation to Stormy Skies?"
There were plenty of Stormy Skies in Cloudsdale, but Sunny knew precisely which of the half dozen she was referring to. "Yes, ma'am. She's my younger sister."
"You should do your best to rein her in. History has shown that bad things happen to pegasi who can't fly in formation. You don't want to risk losing your sister, after all. What could be more precious than family?" She maintained the stare for a few seconds longer, then turned and went to talk to two Wonderbolts who were staring at a piece of paper; a note from the apartment.
Sunny could barely stand after that exchange, let alone walk. Her heart was going a mile a minute, and when some ponies offered to carry her to the hospital as well, she shook her head. "I've got work to do," she said faintly. As she staggered to the door, she spotted the Guard Commander watching her with that piercing yellow gaze.
"So, have either of you two fillies been to Lithopolis before?" Razorback asked as the train tootled away from Rainbow Swamp. Stormy folded her hooves under her, staring out the window and seeing the past. Mom and she hadn't screamed anything new at each other. 'You nearly killed your sister,' was novel, but too similar to 'you could have killed a dozen ponies'. Stormy had taken it as long as she cloud before she'd run, like she always did.
"I've never even been on a train before, Razor," Stormy admitted, the strange earth pony's talk drawing her away from the past. It wasn't like the cell; even though she was enclosed, there were windows she could open. So she wasn't supposed to leave while the train was in motion. She could trot out the door if she wanted too. So why did it seem like the far end of the car was shrinking before her eyes? She sat next to an open window, watching the trees flash by.
"It's an earth pony town, isn't it?" Misty asked.
"Ehhhh..." he twisted an upraised hoof back and forth. "Comme ce, comme ca. It is home to earth ponies, vrai, but they are not like most earth ponies you know."
"I don't know any earth ponies," Stormy admitted, getting a surprised look on Razor's face.
"How did you manage that, ma canarie? The earth pony is not exactly rare in Equestria," he asked as he tilted his head.
"I know of earth ponies, but I don't know any earth ponies like friends. Most ponies I knew were other pegasi on the weather team," she fidgeted a little at the blank look of bafflement on his face. "I knew the Cakes. They're earth pony bakers. Like Applejack... she bakes pies... and stuff. That seems to be an earth pony... thing." Razorback probably cooked mud pies.
"Ah. Oui. And they are skilled at it, certainment. Still, not all earth ponies are the same," Razor said as he leaned back. "Not like pegasi and unicorns."
"What?" Misty asked simultaneously with Stormy. They shared a look and Misty went on, "We're not all the same."
"Pegasi fly. Unicorns do magic. What's more to know?" Razorback gave a dismissive shrug.
"Right. The Rainbows are just like the Skies and the Clouds are the same as the Suns. That'd get you in a fight in Cloudsdale!" Stormy snorted with a toss of her mane.
"And unicorns vary widely in their application of magic, as defined by their lineage and ancest-," Misty began just as hottly before she relaxed. "And that's your point. Earth ponies aren't just bakers."
"Voila," he said with a grin to her, clapping his hooves together. "Certainment, many earth ponies bake, but many more do not. When you talk about le poney de terre, you must keep that in mind." He scratched his nose and regarded the almost empty train car, then back to the pair. "Some earth ponies are farmers. Some work the wood, others the stone. Some work in cities. Some in villages. When you think about earth ponies, you must ask what they do, and where they live. Then you can start to understand us."
It didn't sound much different from Cloudsdale, Stormy admitted. "Okay, so what about you? Your from Neigh Horleans, right?"
"C'est vrai. The great port on the Equestrian river, settled by earth ponies and unicorns from Prance. I grew up in the bayous, working the river barges and living in the swamp. C'est beaucoup amusaunt," he said with a grin.
"Right, living in a swamp is fun," Stormy snorted.
He spread his forelegs wide. "Certainment! Swimming. Fishing. Climbing trees and escaping monsieur alligator. Exploring. And when older we gathered moss and grass and rare herbs used in fancy unicorn cooking. Working the barges and rafts, poling up and down the river," he gave a lusty sigh. "Les étalons et juments..."
"Wait. How do you climb trees with hooves?" Misty asked with a baffled expression.
"Prudemment! Very carefully," he answered with a laugh, then waved a hoof. "But if you put me on a farm... zut alors... I would be one sad poney. All that work, and no river to fish in or swim. I do not know how they stand it!"
Stormy started getting the picture. It was easy to just pretend that earth ponies were all the same: boring. "So what are the earth ponies in Lithopolis like?" Stormy asked, now a bit curious. Back in Ponyville they'd just been... there. Like clouds in the sky. You didn't pay them much attention beyond buying lunch from them.
His smile faded. "Lithopolis is a old city. Old as Equestria. Older than the princesses. And very serious. When ponies built Manehattan and Canterlot, the stone came from Lithopolis, and the ponies who live there. They are not earth ponies, but les ponies des roche. Rock." Now he didn't smile at all. "They cut the stone that Equestria is built from. It's in their blood. In their bones."
Stormy rubbed her temples with her wing tips. "You'd think I'd remember a place like that," she muttered as the train wound through the steep slopes of a canyon. Then she glanced at Misty, "Is there some way you can check to see if someone did magic on me?"
Misty swallowed hard and shook her head slowly. "I couldn't, but a magical specialist might. You'd need a unicorn doctor at least. Maybe a psychologist. It's not as simple as just casting a spell and looking for holes in your memory. It takes an expert."
"Right," she muttered as a train passed them on a parallel track; a freight train pulled by a team of earth ponies and engine, hauling huge blocks of stone. "Well, I guess we'll be there soon enough."
The last few miles of track stopped following the contours of the canyon and simply started punching straight through every curve. At every tunnel, Stormy barely suppressed the dread welling up inside her that that moment was going to be the one in which the tunnels decided they were going to give up and come crashing down. Each one heightened her anxiety, and she found herself cursing the entire earth pony race for being stupid dirt hooves, mucking about in the soil with their rocks and wanting nothing more than to go home. Whatever Lithopolis was, it wasn't worth her time. Nothing was worth these crushing moments of dread that made her fear soiling herself.
Then the last tunnel opened wide.
Lithopolis...
Cloudsdale had once been a military base in the skies for pegasi, and she and most Pegasi were proud of that fact. Stormy knew no lack of ponies who snickered behind their wings that Canterlot was compensating for something, or condemned Manehattan as that over crowded hive of earth ponies. Even smaller towns like Ponyville were often dismissed as 'boxes of dead wood', though at least some Pegasi lived in proper cloud homes. Lithopolis was a hole in the ground.
The most beautiful hole she'd ever seen.
The city cut down into the earth in tiers, following the different strata of the earth and creating thick, sculpted layers. The city was about a mile in diameter, and she didn't want to think how far down it went! Overhangs were reinforced by round ionic pillars. Water pouring in from above channeled into cascades tumbling into pools that flowed like aqueducts through the city. The homes were dug into the cliff face itself, many with large windows cut into the front. Every surface gleamed with polish, reflecting the light that did make it into the vast hole.
The train wasn't even pulled into the bottom. Instead, the station lay on a wide ledge about halfway down. Here, freight cars like the one that had passed them were being loaded up with slabs of stone, bags of gravel, and boxes of gems. They didn't even bother with engines in the yard. The Earth ponies simply shoved the cars around as if they were absolute nothing. When the trio disembarked, Stormy was cut off by a mare smaller than her hauling a slab of stone bigger than stormy's body. "Coming through," she said lackadaisically, as if carrying nothing at all.
I do not want these ponies mad at me. Not for any reason, she thought.
"Got to watch your step, fillies," Razorback warned amiably as they trotted along the edge of the flat. Down below, the digging continued. Hundreds of earth ponies quarrying, digging, and hauling minerals out of tunnels bored into the earth. They tied the slabs to ropes, and earth ponies inside wheels trotted forward, pulling them to the ledge the trio occupied. It was then that Stormy realized how few non-earth ponies there were. No pegasi weather control. No unicorn levitation or magic tricks. Ponies that built this wouldn't care about incidentals like weather.
"Where are we going?" Misty asked, equally gawking at the sights in all directions.
"Hôtel, bien entendu," Razorback replied. "Earth ponies from out of town stay here. You'll be most comfortable there." As they walked, Stormy noticed few, if any, paid them attention. She took to the air, but it was a struggle to stay aloft. That got a few looks, and little else.
She landed again, "Are they all... why are they all so?" Weird, she wanted to say. Quite a few had bright pebbles they kicked ahead of them like tiny balls, or drug them along on leashes. Then she saw a pair having lunch... of rocks. The sight of them chewing pebbles made her mane stand on end. If they could chew and digest stone, what were these ponies?
"Not everypony wears their heart on their hoof, fillies. I promise you, they're noticing," Razorback explained. The hotel was easy enough to find. "Hotel." was carved in the stone above the door ten feet tall. Most of the homes she could see were similarly labelled. 'Doctor. Store. School.' Since every building was carved into solid rock, it made sense they'd have to label the buildings within to know who was inside without going in to each.
Stormy made it as far as the foyer. To be fair, that was pretty spacious. More spacious than she expected. The pillars were polished till they gleamed, and there were dozens of potted plants growing around the windows. Magical gems illuminated deeper within, a small concession to magical convenience. It didn't change the fact that if she tried to stay here, she'd die. Her butt magically adhered to the ground and refused to go any further.
Misty turned back to her. "It's okay, Stormy," she said in as soothing a voice as she could. "This place has probably been here for centuries. It's not going to collapse now."
Stormy jabbed a hoof at her. "Now that you said that, it will!" she blurted irrationally, then pressed her face to the rock. "I can't stay here. I can't even go in here!"
Misty turned to Razorback, who watched with concern. "Is there anywhere else she can stay? Maybe up top?" The question seemed to shock and even insult the ponies behind the counter.
"Up top?" the mare behind the counter snorted indignantely. "If you'd rather stay in a slum rather than a nice hotel, by all means, go up top!"
"She's claustrophobic," Misty said sharply, to the bafflement of the mare. "She's afraid of enclosed spaces." If anything, that made her look even more baffled.
"I'm not afraid of nothing," Stormy growled into the rock, "I just know for a scientific fact I'm about to be squished like a bug under a bajillion tons of stone."
Another mare in the hotel uniform approached. "Miss, we might have a room you'll be comfortable in. If you'll come with me?"
Shamed at the concern in the gray mare's voice, Stormy forced herself to her hooves. She led her into a tunnel, and took the first right. She had till Stormy passed out, because she couldn't breathe in here.
Then the door opened out into the sky. Stormy gasped, getting a needed breath, and stepped in on to the clouds covering the ground. The sun was high in the pristine blue sky. So relieved was she that she didn't question. She just let out a whoop of delight and soared into the room. "Wait!" the gray mare warned, but she didn't care! Free! Free! Fr-
She smacked right into a wall, landing back on the 'clouds' which felt flimsier than any mist the weatherworks would ever produce. With her wits rattled, Stormy reached out and touched the sky. The smooth blue stone was polished to almost perfectly match the sky. "Hemimorphite," the gray mare explained. In the corner, a old brass humidifier put out the 'cloud', the water vapor condensing against the cool stone.
"It looks so real," Stormy murmured. Real enough that her mind wasn't screaming at her that she was about to be crushed. After all, you couldn't get crushed by sky. That was just silly.
"We don't get many pegasus guests, but when we do, we put them in here. Just don't try and fly too far. It's a dome, so you can get a little altitude, but be careful." She stomped her hoof twice, and the radiant gemstone in the ceiling changed color and dimmed to soft moon light. Tiny gems in the ceiling sparkled like constellations. "Would this be acceptable?"
Stormy took in a deep breath. It wasn't perfect, but she could breathe in here. There was even a breeze coming from some cleverly hidden vents. "I guess. Sure." She gave the gray mare a smile and nod. "Thank you."
That taken care of, with Razorback paying for the room since they were officially investigating, they went out into the city once more. "So now what?" Stormy wondered, still a bit shaken by the enclosure.
"Now we find Maud and find the cave that you took that picture in," Misty replied, looking to Razorback. "Right?"
""Oui. I wrote ahead. She'll be meeting us for lunch," Razorback said as they trotted through the crowd. Stormy was used to cities, so the sight of so many ponies just causally walking around felt off to her. Some seemed to just walk along in no hurry. Others seemed trapped in some sort of slowness field. In Cloudsdale, ponies had things to do. Stormy stayed aloft, and Misty grew wings to join her, leaving Razorback to maneuver through the crowd. These ponies didn't jostle or shove; they crushed if you happened to get caught between them.
They entered into a market of sorts, where the crowd spread out enough that Razorback could catch a breath. Stalls were set up in neat rows, and Misty immediately landed. "Oooh, what are they selling?" she asked as Razorback caught up with them.
As if it wasn't obvious.
Rocks. All kinds of rocks. Each vendor seemed to have their own particular minerals for sell, and they stood at the front of their stalls boredly croaking things like "Marble. Get your marble here. Fine marble." Or "Granite. Nothing beats granite. You can take granite for granted." Stormy stared in bafflement, as if witnessing some kind of horrible accident that she couldn't look away from. "Mud here. Fine, premium mud. You won't find better mud anywhere." Offered one vendor as she pointed her hoof at jars of gray... mud.
"Uh, pass," Stormy said flatly, flying past--
Or she would, if the vendor hadn't stepped on Stormy's tail, stopping her dead in her tracks. The brown mare leaned in, her face passive, eyes half closed, and yet she gave the impression of an imminent mountain slide. "Are you saying my mud is no good? It's the finest mud in all of Equestria, and I won't stand for you disparaging my mud."
"It's... mud," Stormy said weakly.
"Beautiful mud! Wonderful!" Misty said in a rush as she picked up a jar, then blinked in surprise. "This is good mud! This would cost you thirty bits at a salon in Canterlot!" She gushed leaning towards the vendor. "How much?"
"Five bits a jar," the vendor replied passively to Misty, pointing at a piece of slate with prices scribbled upon it.
"I'll take three!" she said eagerly, getting the jars and putting them in her saddlebags. The vendor was now mollified enough to let Stormy go. Misty nearly danced on her hooves. "Eeee, these will make such wonderful presents back home."
"You spent money, on mud, to give mud as a gift?" Stormy asked, having a better understanding of her relatives who thought contact with the ground robbed you of all your good senses. "It's mud!"
"It's hydrated clay, useful in removing toxins and excess oil from ones coat," Misty replied primly.
"I'm with you," Razorback told Stormy. "If I want mud I can just go roll in it. Why buy when all it takes is a garden hose to make your own, am I right?" Stormy stared flatly at him. "Que?" he asked in bafflement, and Stormy chocked up an little more evidence that Uncle Murky was right.
She turned away just in time to have a green stallion thrust some green rocks at her. "You want to buy some alexandrite," he declared flatly.
"I do?" Stormy blinked, and then shook her head. "No I don't! I don't even know what that is!"
"It's what's missing in your life," the stallion murmured, holding out the green gems at her. "I look at you and I see on your face this need for alexanderite." The stallion waved his hoof at her, droning, "You want it. You need it. Buy Alexanderite."
"I don't! I really don't!" Stormy blurted, backing away... or trying to. Instead, she backed right into another stallion holding an immense crystal on his back. Stormy gaped at the massive white crystal seemed poised to tumble down upon her. Where was Razor and Misty? She twisted to and fro, but only saw earth ponies and their rocks. I have to get in the air! I need air! She thought desperately, launching herself into the skies.
Or rather, straight into the side of a red hunk of rock. She collapsed beneath the mare holding it, who turned and muttered, "Hey. Don't touch my sandstone." A pause and a blink. "Are you okay?"
No. Not okay. Definitely not okay. Her head spun as she staggered through the crowd, banging into one pony after the next. She crashed into stalls, sending carefully stacked piles of rocks clattering to the ground. She smashed into ponies bearing boulders that would smash her to the ground. Half the vendors thrust more rocks at her, stating their high quality, low prices, and desirability. "You want my beds. Fine matresses. Softest talc you'll ever sleep on."
"Talc? That's at least fifty percent gypsum. Might as well sleep on the ground," a passing mare replied.
Then Stormy collapsed. The town, the vendors, and the stones all came crashing down upon her, and everything went black.
When she awoke, she found herself in a nice, quiet, wide open chamber alcove. The air felt lighter up here, and she took in several breaths before sitting up and peering around. This looked like some kind of amphitheater with a large pink stone monolith prominently on display. Two lines of earth walked up and tapped their hooves against the enormous stone in pairs. She watched in silent bafflement at the display, laying on her side. She could hear Misty and Razorback talking with a third mare. She'd passed out again, hadn't she? Shame welled up in her, strangling her throat. She'd been so proud to make it in and out of that stupid hotel, only to pass out in a dumb market. Dumb market. Dumb earth ponies. Dumb everything.
Then a pair tapped it, and the slab let out a warm musical note as it resonated like a chime. Immediately the crowd began to stomp their hooves as the pair embraced, kissed, and moved on. Then the ritual tapping resumed. "How nice," the strange mare said, and Stormy signed and rolled over.
It was the first mare she'd met almost as gray as stormy herself. Straight mane cut, straight tail cut, and a flat expression half the ponies in this place wore. Eager to head off talking about what happened to her in the market, Stormy asked, "What was that?"
"The Choosing Stone," the gray stranger replied, was silent for a second, then went on, "When two ponies touch it who are a good match for each other, it lets out a note of approval."
"Are you oka-" Misty began to ask.
"Even if they're complete strangers?" Stormy asked over her.
"The Choosing Stone only knows the ponies who touch it," the stranger said in her strange monotone.
"Stormy, you-"
"What if there's two stallions? Or mares?" Stormy talked over Misty again.
The strange pony stared at her for three seconds this time, blinked, and repeated, "The Choosing Stone only knows the ponies who touch it."
"Stormy-"
"The stone knows?" Stormy asked, fighting the scorn in her voice. "How does a stone know anything?"
The mare's face and tone didn't change in the slightest. She just leaned towards Stormy, and a sense of dread washed over her as she said, "The stone knows."
With this conversational avenue shut down, Misty blurted, "Are you okay, Stormy?"
"I'm fine. Who is she?" she asked as Misty's ears drooped and she looked away.
"Ma cousine, Maud Pie. She's working on her rocktorate degree, oui?" Razorback answered.
"My thesis is on the effect of natural magical fields and the formation of geological phenomena, predominately in crystal formations such as quartz, fluorite, malachite, and rhodonite," she said in one breath, as relentless as a boulder.
"You're studying magic's effects on rocks?" Misty asked with a smile.
Maud didn't answer for several seconds, then simply stated, "Yes."
"But you're not a unicorn," Misty pointed out. "How do you study magic without, you know?" she pointed at her horn.
Again, that lean towards Misty gave the sensation of a rock face about to collapse. "Not all magic comes from horns. The land is magic."
"Oh, I just assumed-" Misty said as she averted her eyes.
"Yes. Many unicorns do. There are other forms of magic though, and some are much deeper and older than ponies themselves," she said, her voice not changing a bit, but Stormy found herself captivated.
"It's like the spirit of the sky story," Stormy replied, and got three blank stares back. "It's an old pony tale about an earth pony who loved the sky so much she begged the spirit of the sky to give her wings. It did, and she left the earth behind forever. When other earth ponies saw how happy she was playing in the clouds, they also begged the sky to give them wings as well. That's where pegasi come from."
Maud replied, "Facinating." All the eyes turned to Misty.
"Oh. Ah. Well. There's many stories. Like where we were created by the stars, but some were born without horns and became earth ponies, and others experimented with magic and became pegasi. Things like that," she said with an awkward laugh. "Most do have unicorns coming first, though."
"I hate to interrupt l'heure du conte, but we're here for a reason, oui?" Razorback asked. "Maud's agreed to help us find that cave in your picture."
"How?" Stormy asked.
"Yes, how? Are you going to use your earth pony magic on Stormy? Find a single fleck of dust in her ear and trace it back to the origin?" Misty asked in a rush.
Maud stared at her for a long moment. "No," she answered, then rose. "Agate?" she called out across the plaza.
A pretty blue mare with a blue and white striped mane looked over from the crowd of ponies around the choosing stone. She approached with a smile, but was there something wrong with her? She appeared... shiny. "Oh, hiyas Maud!" she asked brightly, gesturing to the stone with a glittering hoof. "Going to give it a try?"
To Stormy's shock, for one moment Maud's eyes popped wide, before reverting back to their flat stare. "No," she stated in a note of utter finality. "This is the pony."
"Oh, I remember you!" Agate said brightly as she regarded Stormy. "The pegasi spelunker!"
"You remember me?" Stormy asked, warily.
"Sure! You were with all those pegasi a year or two ago? Looking for a special mountain on a map? A regular treasure hunt!" Agate said happily, dancing on her sparkling hooves, as the light made odd hexagonal patches on her eyes. "Did you find it? Did you?"
"I don't remember," Stormy muttered. "There was a map?"
"Sure! An old map straight out of a Derring Do novel! You were so excited to find out where it lead. The store I worked at outfit you with caving gear and three days worth of supplies. I hoped I'd see you coming back, but I guess you went straight home," Agate said, then her brows knit together. "You really don't remember? You said I was the prettiest earth pony you'd ever seen." She admired her own hoof, at the light that passed through it like dark bottle glass.
Of course the question made Stormy go bright red. "No. I mean you're pretty! Er, sparkly! I mean-"
Razorback laughed. "Un tel poney rouge! But did you see the map?"
"I got a glimpse of it. That old professor you were with was pretty protective of it, but I was curious. I'm pretty sure it was south west, into the Stone Spine mountains. I recognized the Hardhoof and the Mareterhorn; hard to miss those. I think it was due south of both of them. Maybe near the Dromedary or Unicorn Pride?"
"I know that area," Maud said.
"Great. You can point them in the right direction then," Agate regarded Stormy, "Oh, you're so lucky! You get to have a grand adventure twice!"
"Yeah. Lucky," Stormy murmured.
"Going back to try again for love?" he asked with a nod if his head towards the Choosing Stone.
"You know what the say: seven thousand, four hundred and ninety sixth time's the charm!" Agate said with strained merriment as she gave a wave of her hoof, back away, then leaned in towards Maud. "Are you sure--"
It was astonishing how Maud seemed to loom over Agate without moving a muscle, so that the crystal pony waved her sparkly hooves in panic as Maud said in a voice to universal finality, "No."
"Okay! Okay! You don't have to! Just thought it'd be fun, you know, to touch the choosing stone with you! I should go! Oh, look at the time. Hah, hah, hah!" she said before trotting away with a smile frozen on her face. Most of the crowd around the Choosing Stone seemed to be thinning out as well.
"She wanted to touch the Stone with you?" Misty asked, and then blushed bright red. "Oh my."
"I've very popular," Maud stated.
"I can't imagine why," Stormy muttered under her breath, getting a gasp from Misty and a frown from Razorback.
Maud, however, smiled. A tiny curling of her lip, but there it was. "Me either." And then it disappeared as if it had never been as she said to Razorback, "Come with me to the college. I have survey maps of that area."
"Oui," Razor nodded, the said to the pair, "Meet back at the hotel?"
Misty nodded, while Stormy just stared at her hooves. The pair walked off and Stormy approached the now abandoned Choosing Stone. "What's wrong? And don't tell me nothing, please."
"Nothing," Stormy began, and got a glare from the white unicorn. "It's just, the pony that Agate described. Me happy? With a map? Spelunking? It sounds like she's describing another mare, but she seemed sure it was me."
"Do you have any memories of a map?" she asked.
"No, I..." she paused, then closed her eyes, trying to remember anything that might involve a map. "I remember talking with my Granny." Yet, the memory was muted. Granny's lips moved, but no words came out. And then Granny reached for... she reached for... A spear of pain stabbed through her head and she cried out at the migraine. Purple light seemed to be pushing in the corners of her vision, but though her eyes watered, she tried to keep on the memory. Granny was talking, and reaching for... reaching for a picture of a mountain. And then she opened the back... and... a secret between Granny and her. A folded piece of paper! And it unfolded... unfolded into... into...
A second spear of pain sliced into her head, and she staggered sideways. Misty was crying out. Grabbing her as the pain grew and grew, her head spinning as she tried to see what was on that paper. It unfolded... it opened... a picture of a mountain... Granny telling her a story... it opened...
"Stormy!" Misty cried out, and she opened her eyes just as she tumbled over the edge, Her wings were worse than useless as they flailed. Then a pale green aura gripped her and Misty leaned over the edge, gripping her hoof. The deep pit of Lithiopolis loomed like a mouth beneath her, threatening to swallow her up. Stormy hooked her hooves around Misty's, and the unicorn pulled her back on to the ledge. Her head continued to throb, but the stabbing pain abated. "What happened?"
"I was trying to remember the map. It was hidden in a picture of a mountain." But there was a map! Agate hadn't been mistaken! Then she looked next to her over the edge, and experienced the disturbingly alien sense of vertigo. How could a pegasus be afraid of heights too? She rose and staggered away from the lip. "I really don't like it here. I don't know how I ever made it into a cave."
"I'm just glad my magic worked at all," Misty replied, flushing. "When you went over the edge, I was afraid I was going to drop you."
"Something's wrong with your magic?" Stormy asked, brows knitted.
"It's just not working like its supposed to. I haven't been able to hold another form for longer than a few minutes. It's like..." She focused at a pebble. "Like this city doesn't like unicorn magic."
Stormy blinked at her and then gave a sheepish smile. "I haven't really felt like I could fly since we got here. This place really is... well... earthy." She thought about what Maud had said about the land itself being magic. Razorback hadn't been comfortable in Cloudsdale. How would either of them feel in Canterlot? Still, the fact that it wasn't just Stormy having problems here helped a little. It wasn't her. It was here.
When she could stand on her hooves and the pain faded to a dull throb, they moved over in front of the Choosing Stone. It didn't seem special, just a rock with a heart chiseled in the front of it. "You really resented her, didn't you?" Misty asked, then when Stormy boggled at that, she elaborated, "Maud. When she said she was popular."
Stormy sighed. "Yeah. I mean, it would be nice to be the pony that other people liked, you know?" She sighed rubbing the back of her head. "I guess that's why I always clash with Rainbow Dash. Not that she's a good flier, but because so many people look up to her. She even had a fan club for a while, if you can believe it."
"Well, I like you," Misty said with a small smile. "You saved my life twice, and you interrupted the lightning theft. That's important and pretty admirable. All I've done is follow you around and hope to make myself useful," Misty said as her eyes fell to the ground. "Not that I've been all that useful."
"You've been plenty useful! You got me through the Weatherworks, and into Cloudsdale, and you make more sense than Razorback!" she said with a smile, one that Misty barely returned. "Look, I'm glad you're here. You're the first friend I've made in a long time."
"Mmm," she said, now with a more sure smile. "It's not as good as you think it is. Being popular, I mean. I was popular too. I was supposed to me the pony everyone wanted, whatever they wanted me to be." She then looked at Stormy and beamed, "It was fun doing cloud stuff with you."
Stormy wasn't sure why, but she flushed and looked at the Choosing Stone. She grinned through her embarrassment, "Hey, Misty? Wanna touch it with me?"
Now it was Misty's turn to blush! "What? How could- I mean you- What if it does something? What does that mean?" She asked.
"Do you think it's going to?" Stormy teased and then pressed her hoof to the warm, pinkish stone. "Come on, what have you go to lose?"
Misty chewed her lip, stretched out a hoof tenatively, closed her eyes and withdrew it, and finally pressed her hoof to the stone. Stormy flinched as well. The pair stood there with their hooves to the rock, looking up at the Choosing Stone, then at each other. Both of them gave a nervous laugh. "Heh, dumb rock!" Stormy scoffed dismissively.
"Whatever were we thinking?" Misty asked with an embarassed grin.
"Come on. Let's see if we can find anything decent to eat in this place that won't break our teeth." Stormy said, and together they trotted from the plaza, leaving the Choosing Stone behind them.
Then, a minute later, a long, sharp chime sounded in the empty air, dwindling away into nothing.
