Hour of Twilight

After spending the better part of the evening in the Carrier's onboard gym in an attempt to calm down, Rainbow Dash was finally heading to the showers.

"Ah," she said as the water washed the sweat off her, "There's nothing like unwinding in a hot shower after a good workout."

Finishing her shower, Dash started heading back to her personal quarters, eager to go to sleep. As she stepped into her room, she noticed a roll of paper, with a neatly tied bow holding it together. Walking up to it, she pulled the ribbon with her mouth, allowing the scroll to unfurl. Looking at the six words written on it, she could only stand there with a confused look on her face.

'I haven't even seen or spoken to Pinkie for over 4 months,' Dash thought to herself, 'So how could I have made her cry?'

Meanwhile, outside the Carrier

"All troops are in position." (Translated from Gryphonian)

"Acknowledged. Begin operation."

As one, 200 wings expanded, allowing the gryphons to fly through the high windows of the Cloud Factory.

"Contact," A few seconds passed, "Neutralized."

"Neutralized."

"Neutralized."

"All outer patrols eliminated. Now comes the hard part. Prepare to breach!"

Two gryphons walked up holding a metal cube. Setting it against the carrier, they flipped a switch on the side, activating the cube. Slowly, the clouds touching the cube began to disappear, revealing the crystal wire mesh underneath.

"Bring up the clippers."

The gryphon cut through the crystal wires and pulled the section away, leaving a hole big enough for them to go through one at a time. Jumping through, one gryphon called out the all clear, and was quickly followed by his 99 comrades. Pulling a copy of the Carrier's blueprints out of a pouch on his back, the commander traced the fastest path to the Bridge and the Captain's Quarters. After ordering his commandos to spread out and capture the Carrier, eliminating any Equestrian forces they may find in the process, he started toward the Captain's Quarters. On the way there, he was stopped by a Unicorn who was bowing before him.

Speaking in Gryphonian, the Unicorn addressed him, "I trust the blueprints are helping?"

The commander only smirked as he sank his talons into the Unicorn's chest, puncturing it's heart and killing it instantly. "Knobruhey ryc hu ica vun dnyedunc" (Not translated from Gryphonian)

Stepping over the dead traitor, he continued on his way to the Captain's Quarters, reaching it without any further delays. Opening the door quietly, he snuck in and looked around. Not seeing anypony in the room, he closed the door behind him so that they couldn't escape without him noticing. Quickly searching the rest of the rooms, he found that there was nopony in them.

The commander's radio came to life, "The Carrier is secure. All Equestrian forces eliminated. You're not going to believe this, though. We found the Bomb Bay, right where you said it would be, and there were Lightning Bombs, three to be exact. What should we do with them, sir?"

"We're going to use them. Leave one here in the factory and attach a Long Range Detonator to it. We're going to make sure that the Equestrians aren't able to make another Carrier."

"Yes Sir."

Rainbow Dash heard all of this from her position in the vent above the Gryphon Commander.

'I'm glad I took Gryphonian as a second language in college,' She thought to herself, 'But Twilight's going to be pissed when she hears this.

Quickly crawling through the ventilation system, Dash exited the Carrier and flew straight to the entrance to the Hive, rushing to get to Twilight with the bad news. Arriving at her rooms, Dash continued to fly straight through the door, causing the splinters to fly across the room.

"TWILIGHT! WHERE ARE YOU?!" Dash yelled at the top of her lungs.

Twilight heard her and muttered some unladylike words under her breath before leaving her Isolation Room.

"This better be good, Rainbow Dash. I was in the middle of a very important meeting."

"Gryphons have taken the Cloud Carrier!"

Twilight locked up. Of all the things Rainbow Dash could have said, this was the worst one possible.

"What do you mean, Gryphons have taken the Cloud Carrier?"

"I mean, I'm the only pony left out of the entire crew that was up there!"

"This is bad," Twilight said as she started to pace, "How close was the Carrier to being finished?"

"We could have been in the air a few hours ago."

Twilight froze, her eye starting to twitch. Turning to face the Spectral Pegasus, she used her magic to force Dash into one of the cushioned chairs strewn about her room.

"Please stay here while I make sure those Gryphons aren't able to do anything with that Carrier," she said as her magic caused the stitching of the cushion to tie Dash to the chair.

"WAIT!" Dash yelled as Twilight teleported out of the room.

Appearing in the courtyard of Everfree Castle, Twilight was surprised to see Fluttershy standing there, looking up at Cloudsdale.

"Fluttershy?"

The yellow pegasus jumped, startled by Twilight's voice, "Oh. Hi Twilight. What are you doing here?"

Wanting to spare her sensitive friends feelings, Twilight only told a half truth, "Something bad happened in Cloudsdale, and I'm going to make sure nopony else gets hurt."

"I want to help," Fluttershy said, surprising Twilight.

"What?"

"If there are ponies in harm's way, I don't want them to be hurt, so I'm going to help you get them away from whatever the danger is."

Seeing that if she rejected Fluttershy's help, it would look suspicious, Twilight had no choice but to agree.

The two were about halfway up to Cloudsdale when the sky turned white. Gale force winds and large streaks of lightning threw them around like toys. Twilight could only watch in horror as a lightning bolt struck Fluttershy, turning her to ash. Looking down, she saw that Everfree Castle was gone, a large crater where it had stood. Acting on instinct, she used her magic to summon a shield around herself. This saved her life, as another bolt of lightning struck the shield. The residual energy from the strike caused Twilight's body to freeze, and she could only watch as the ground flew up to meet her.