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The Reservation System
by WhiteRooster21
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Chapter 1
B:0 C:0 W:1 P:1
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High above Equis, a airship sailed silently threw the night sky, the gentle humming of the propeller blades cutting threw the midnight air and the groaning of the wooden floors is the only noise that can be heard as the Thunder Jacker made its silent get away from lands afar.
In the cargo hold two ponies with idol hooves stand before a large, black storm cloud, held down in place by wispy white ropes that seamed, at a glance, to have been made from the morning mist.
"Hey Box" the blue pony said, eying the massive cloud silently sitting there.
"Don't ask Boil" The gruff brown pony responded, trying not to eye the cloud.
"I was just gonna ask why we got to haul this bucking cloud all the way to Canterlot."
"Not your place to know Boil" Box turned to inspect some of the crates around the room.
"Well, isn't it just a bit odd, I mean here we are, crewing the Thunder Jacker, and all of a sudden we get an emergency order, Mercury running around being all hush hush and what, granted thats normal for the crazy mare but still, going mad for this bucking thing, I mean its a bucking cloud! Why would some rich snob on the mountain want a bucking storm cloud, last time I checked, they could make them on there own."
"Boil," Box didn't even turn to him, he just kept inspecting cargo "Didn't you ever stop to thing that this was no ordinary cloud?"
"what ya mean Box?"
"hear that?"
Boil rotated his ears, scanning the room "No?"
"Exactly," Box pointed to the cloud "This bad boy is a Thunder Head, category 4 at least, its so full of lightning none of the stuff can move, the lightning is so perfectly folded it might as well be a solid brick."
"Box, I know knowing cargo is your thing but, I don't think explaining things is.. What do they call it, forte?"
"Sweet Celestia Boil, for a pegasus you need to know a thing or two about clouds, I mean come on your a shame to the whole tribe."
"Hey your a flapper too Box!" Boil scowled "don't go saying I'm a shame to the whole tribe when you ain't done nothing good neither."
Box grunted before mumbling "like talking to a table."
"What'd ya say?!"
"A category of cloud is a measurement of its lightnings destructive force," Box explained " each category is twice as powerful as the one below it, so being as a category 1 cloud will dish out enough lightning to blow up a house..."
"Sweet Celestia who the buck starts at 'blows up a house' and works there way up?!"
"The military, but thats not the point, if a category 1 can turn a house to a crater with a single bolt, what can a category 4 do?" Boil's eyes shot open, his jaw nearly hit the floor. "Get it? This bad boy is a monster, a military grade weapon of mass destruction from way back when the tribes were fighting, perfected threw modern cloud smithing and made leagues worse then what they were."
"Okay" Boil stared at the category 4 for a moment before asking
"then who the buck wants a pegasus warhead in Canterlot?"
The ground shook, light poured in threw the windows before leaving in a instant, leaving only a trace to be found, a the roar of flame and ripping metal silenced any sound that dared remain.
"Sweet Celestia what was that?"
"I don't know boil, but look out!" The stacks of crates, laden with goods bound for Canterlot shifted as the floor sagged to the side, causing the contents of the cargo bay to fall atop Box and Boil in an avalanche of wooden cubes and cheep consumer goods.
The two ponies dashed to the exit, boils heart nearly stopped as a old suit of armor can crashing down next to him with a ear shattering Clang! but before he had the time to utter any profanity his footing gave way under the tilting floor, he slid like a rag doll down the cargo bay. Like a spider on a wet piece of glass Boil slid down the cargo bay, as incoming crates followed suite.
Box turned his head unwilling to stop his hooves he sees boil sliding down towards the Category 4.
"BOIL! FLY! FLY!" Box screamed over the sound of the avalanche of wood and baubles.
Boil's wings flapped, he took to the sky just in time for a falling crate to land squarely on his back, smashing him into the ground before the category 4. Instantly he was consumed, piles of wooden boxes covered him, taking him with them on the path of least resistance.
"Discord damn it BOIL" Box turned away from the doorway, back into the flurry of falling crates, he took flight, going as high as he could to avoid suffering a similar fate to his friend. Now the floor of the cargo hold had become a wall, the main cargo bay door was filled, and smoke started making its way into the room.
Scanning the room below three things become known to Box: First was that the far wall as become the floor, meaning that the ship is facing ass down, meaning its lost all buoyancy and is in the middle of crashing. Second, that it was getting far too hot in here, especially sense everything was being moved to one side.
Third was that Boil was no were to be seen.
"BOIL!" Box scanned the room, everything was alien all the boxes were stacked at the far wall, nothing was were it should be, nothing except the category 4, still sitting there, tied down with ropes of mist and morning dew.
a sound. A cough. A blue limb sticking out of the crate pile.
"Boil, sweet Celestia no, no" Box dived knocking piles of worthless due dads from atop him to the side "Boil, speak to me man your going to be okay." Boil said nothing, Box touched his chest, feeling for a pulse.
he found one.
"Boil, you got to get up, the ships going down and you ain't the captain! Come on man get up!" Box limply slapped his face, which let out a weak cough.
"Boil," Box swallowed hard "Brother, I'm not leaving without you, your not going anywhere, not like this." Box threw Boil's limp body over his shoulder, his faint breathing barely felt threw Box's skin, flapping his wings as hard as he could he took off, out of the cargo side bay doors and into the night. He tried his hardest not to think about the wet spot growing on his back, or the faint metal smell that came with it.
Box flew as fast as he could to Canterlot, to a hospital, to hope, he never looked back, never slowed down, no matter what his wings screamed, no matter how much his body burned, he flew to that city on the mountain, that city of lights.
As Boil and Box vanish into the night the Thunder Jacker descended to the forest below, its massive balloon ruptured and spewing fire, the wooden ship, the main vessel that hung below the balloon was hanging limply in the air, its main cargo bay doors jammed with boxes, and thew few wax soaked tethers binding the main vessel to the balloon, were burning.
As the ship went down its crew of twelve, now ten, with the flight of the brothers, was panicking, all of them screaming, running to the one life boat, or taking flight like the brothers before them.
All of the crew but one.
Captain Anchor Ball stood silently on what used to be the exterior wall of his office, looking at the balloon go into flame, the right engine struggling to keep them aloft, smoke pouring out every orifice of the ship, and his men panicking, screaming for there lives. And he wondered, Why?
Why had this happened? We were so careful, we followed every regulation, played it clean from day one to now, never took a unnecessary risk, never raised a hoof in violence, so why.
Why had someone shot us down?
But Captain Anchor Ball didn't have time to think about that, his men were shouting at him, the life boat floated beside the wall Anchor Ball stood on, a deck hoof, what was his name? Port something, it didn't matter, it was the end, one cable left, soon the Thunder Jacker would go down, and what kind of captain abandons his ship?
Anchor Ball swatted away Port what ever his name was hoof, as the life boat floated away from the burning wreck that was once the Thunder Jacker, Captain Anchor Ball closed his eyes, and remembered better times, when he didn't have those liver spots, or that trick knee, when the Thunder Jacker was only a single generation older then the ships of the line, rather then the derelict it was now, back when he was young, when his heart was full of adventure and childish dreams to be made true.
Back to when his ship, his home, his oldest friend, wasn't dying.
There was a Snap! The eighth snap, the last snap, the world lost all weight to Captain Anchor Ball, as the floor left him, and he fell to his doom.
Or so he thought.
His eyes shot open, and we was flying.
"Dear Luna you are heavy" A pink pegasus wrapped herself around him, her wings flapping like mad to keep herself and the larger stallion afloat.
"Put me down you brat!" Anchor Ball bellowed, his voice a whisper to the wretched sound of the Thunder Jacker hitting the forest below, "The Captain gos down with his ship! Now leave me be you little wretch!"
"Not gonna happen grandpa!" The mare stuck out her tung, making her way to the lifeboat, bobbing up and down as the old captain flailed.
"GRANDPA!?"
"Yeah grandpa, because you've obviously gone senile saying 'Grr! I'm a tough old sky dog and I'm going to go down with my ship grr! I mean its not like I have insurance for this kind of thing, you know because its the law and all grr!' Seriously, who dos that?"
"Mind your mouth!"
"Says the stallion who called the mare saving his life a wretch." she said with a smug grin.
Dropping the Captain on the life boat the pink pegasus takes inventory "Okay, is everybody here-"
Blindness. Deafness. Numbness. All of their senses were bombarded, the life boat shot off into the sky, propelled by a wall of wind into the night to destinations unknown.
The pink pegasus opened her eyes,felt the rushing of the wind, and saw the stars, getting further away. Her wings opened on instinct, flapping up a storm she slowed her descent, shaking her head she came back to her senses. She scanned the horizon to find any trace of the crew, the ship, anything. And she gasped in horror upon seeing, the light before her.
The world was on fire.
Everything below the cloud line was burning, the forest had become a field of matchsticks, and nothing was left to tell her were the crash was, there was nothing but heat, fire and stones raining from the sky.
Oh, and that ringing.
She just sat there, flying in place, she didn't know how much time had passed, she didn't even see them come, the Night Guards on their silent leathery wings, they were speaking to her, but for the life of it, all she could hear was that blasted ringing.
As the world slept, lightning arched across the sky, bouncing from cloud to cloud until each cloud in its path was filled, before it went on its way, it made it pretty far, across the sky of Appleloosa and threw the ponyville air space, but not quite far enough to make it to Cloudsdale, stopping just a mile out, just a mile away from a complete catastrophe.
For Cloudsdale at least.
Breaking glass.
Rainbow Dash's eyes shot open, in a moment she was in the air, searching for some unseen threat, reaching into a drawer by her bed she removed her trusty night vision goggles, and began the hunt for what ever was going on.
Her house was spacious, after all it was built to be flown in, the cloud make rug that covered most of the floor, like the rest of the house, was no pure function, that function being able to be shook out so that she never needed to vacuum. Her main room was filled with enough Wounder Bolts memorabilia to start a museum, each singed in person by the team at each and every event the piece was purchased from.
Rainbow hovered in her main room, her glowing green night vision imbued eyes scanning for any who would dare and rob her of any piece of her precious collection, only to find broken glass fragments scattered threw out the room.
"What the?" Why was there broken glass everywhere? Taking a look at her ceiling gave away the answer.
"Why the hay did a bulb break?" Rainbow eyed the empty socket, the jagged base of the bulb was all that remained "The dumb thing wasn't even on!"
Rainbow floated around, checking each room one by one, from the Tank room, dedicated to her beloved pet and his maintenance, to the kitchen to the Daring Do room, each room in order, in order in ever way except one.
"Why the hay has every bulb in my house exploded!" Rainbow gritted her teeth and took off, flying outside of her cloud home, stopping at a metal looking box labeled 'Breaker'. Opening the metal panel she found the insides of the box were fried, the safety gage on the top of the box was in the red.
Rainbow Dash cursed. Her house had been over charged, so much so that the breaker got fried and every bulb in the house went boom at once.
"Article 1: Cloud Safety Subsection 6: Housing" Rainbow recited the fact begrudgingly from memory " In the event of a over charge evacuate the premise immediately before calling your local weather office for a Decharge kit. Using a personal Decharge kit is a criminal offense in this situation, see Article 4 for more blah blah blah blah looks like I'm bunking with Fluttershy tonight." Rainbow Dash sighed, flapping away from her worldly possessions, down to the world below.
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The Reservation System
by WhiteRooster21
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Chapter 2
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Fluttershy awoke bound.
She sat there, eyes closed, wrapped up tight, her legs pressed against her body, her face the only thing sticking out of what ever was cloth held her.
"Mom" Fluttershy gritted her teeth "every time."
Fluttershy unrivaled the oversize baby blanket, hopping off of her bed and headed into the darkness of her home with a scowl.
She made her way down the stairs across the living room and into the kitchen, there she found her, making oatmeal from a box, humming a merry tune as she gently swayed side to side.
Fluttershy's scowl faded as her heart wavered, her legs shook, and every mussel in her body said to get out and hide.
"Hello Dear, did I wake you?" the figure turned to Fluttershy, her warm smile melting any hope of malcontent.
Fluttershy tensed, fighting her flight instinct she met her gaze and smiled.
"Hi Mom" Fluttershy took a deep breath, maybe today was the day? "N-no, I always wake up pretty early."
"To feed your dear little animal friends, right?" Mom placed a bowl in front of Fluttershy, the smell of hot oatmeal filled her senses.
"Yes, Mom." Fluttershy took a bite of the oatmeal. Too hot, but that was expected.
"So, Mom, what brings you here from Canterlot?"
"Can't a mother visit her foal every now and again?"
Coy, as always. When was the last time she simply told some pony what she was doing? Fluttershy didn't remember.
"Its a long way from here to Canterlot, Mom. I just wish I could have gotten a little bit of warning, so I could um, tidy up?"
Mothers eyes narrowed as she looked down at her "So you could hide? Like at the running of the leaves?"
"I-I wasn't hiding," Fluttershy stuttered, shrinking before her mothers gaze. "Mom, I was with my critter friends!"
Tap.
"And tea with your aunt? Were you so busy with your critter friends that you couldn't stop by and say hello?"
Fluttershy pulled back into her chair, she had to get away, out of her mothers surgical attack.
"I-I was a little late, I'm sorry."
"Late enough to miss me, but not your aunt?
She was trapped. She stuttered, searching for words that just wouldn't come. After a while mother let up.
Tap. Tap
"Eat your oatmeal dear, before it gets cold" Mother turned to the dishes, filling the sink with hot water "we are a family, and no matter what happens, I will always be your mother, and I will always be hear for you."
Fluttershy looked into her oatmeal, wishing there was enough for her to drown "Y-yes Mom."
Tap. Tap Tap Tap Tap!
Fluttershy and her mother both jerked there heads at the direction the tapping was coming from, only to see a floating figure behind the kitchen window. Fluttershy looked at the creature and for a second, wondered if it was one of her nocturnal critter friends coming back early. But something was off about the creature, it was too big to be flying and more importantly, none of her critter friends had giant glowing green eyes.
Fluttershy screamed.
Mother struck like a pray mantis, flicking the window open and grabbing the owner of the glowing green eyes and slamming her onto the table, the oatmeal Fluttershy had been previously eating flew into the ceiling with a satisfying splat.
The intruder squirmed under mothers grip, as her limbs moved they got a sense of the creature, two eyes, four hooves and a rainbow mane wearing moderately expensive looking night vision goggles made it clear who was on their kitchen table.
"R-Rainbow?" Fluttershy looked down at her friend pinned to the table by mother.
"Hey Fluttershy and -" Rainbow's pupils shrunk to pin pricks when she got a good look at who was holding her down "Ms. Fluttershy's Mom, nice to see you! Also, can't breath here, heh heh" mothers grip lessened, allowing Rainbow room to breath.
"Rainbow what are you doing here so early in the morning?" Fluttershy said.
"Yes Rainbow Dash, its not like you to be awake so early." Ms. Fluttershy's Mom stated in her normal professional manor. "You nearly scared Fluttershy and myself to death."
Rainbow Dash shot Ms. Fluttershy's Mom her best 'are you kidding me?' look.
"And why are you wearing those scary green goggles?" Fluttershy tacked on.
"Well" Rainbow pulled the goggles off her head, "these are my night vision goggles, Pinkie showed me this place, over in griffin country that ships them real cheap, so I bought a pair."
"So you came here to show Fluttershy some toy?" Ms. Fluttershy's Mom arched a eyebrow.
"What? No I got these a month ago, I came over because my house is over charged."
The Fluttershy family's eyes shot open.
"R-Rainbow are you okay?! Oh my goodness how could this of happened!" Fluttershy panicked, checking Rainbow Dash over for injuries.
"I'm fine, Modern cloud houses are pretty resistant to over charges, as long as you don't turn anything on your okay, if ya turn anything on then ya gets fried." Tears welled in Fluttershy's eyes "b-bu-but I didn't so there is no need to worry at all Fluttershy!"
"B-but" Fluttershy stammered as she clung tightly to her friend before her mother pulled her off Rainbow Dash.
"She is fine dear, her house just needs to have its excess electricity bled out and she will be home in no time" Ms. Fluttershy's Mom turned to Rainbow Dash "I take it you came over to crash at Fluttershy's then?" Rainbow nodded "then take a seat, I made oatmeal." Ms. Fluttershy's mom beamed as the oatmeal fell from the ceiling onto her head.
The pink pegasus was carted off shortly after the medical chariot arrived, taken to Ponyville General, it being the closest hospital to the scene. The emergency weather teams were called to make quick work of the fire, the Guard not wanting to risk the scene being contaminated, left the local weather teams out of the loop.
As the moon left the night behind and the sky sat empty, two Night Guards, both sporting the leathery wings that marked them as Thestrals or as most called them 'Bat Ponies', floated above the lake of ash.
The Night Guard looked down upon the scene, the fire was gone, the weather team was packing up their clouds, ready to call it a night, and all that remain of the Thunder Jacker was a crater the size of a small town, and a white ash field the size of Canterlot with match stick trees sprinkled throwout.
"What could have done this?" the Night Guard mare said, surveying the scene.
"Well, it was one of the older models, you know how they were filled with gas instead of clouds right?" The other, more masculine guard nodded sagely.
"Every airship made in the last 200 years was built so that if the balloon did catch fire, which didn't happen much baring a dog fight, it wouldn't explode, just a slow burn off."
"Well, maybe thats whats happened here? I mean look at all this ash!" The Masculine guard opened his fore hooves, as if to grab the scene in a bear hug.
"Slow burn offs don't leave craters so big that they sent rocks the size of my head falling over a mile away!" the mare guard seethed, looking down at the hole below them.
"Maybe the failsafe', I don't know failed? Besides, 'as big as your head' is kind of an exaggeration there Detective."
"Thats Detective Berry to you Junior! Besides the Thunder Jacker was a 'medium sized' cargo ship, and thats the 'medium sized' they used 40 years ago when the model was no doubt released, now the bloody thing might as well be called a dingy."
"So?" The Junior Night Guard shrugged.
"So? So?! So how could a dingy make a blast big enough to level the bucking capital?! The thing was moving bloody nic knacks! Those Daring Do dolls everyponies foal is running around with! Nothing that could send a city to its grave! Or make a good chunk of the Everfree into a ash pit! Something is going on!" Night Guard Black Berry huffed in frustration.
"WHAT" The Junior Night Guard looked like he had seen a ghost.
"Well, seams like I broke threw to you-"
"MY KID HAS BEEN WAITING FOREVER FOR MORE OF THOSE DOLLS TO GET HERE! SHE'LL BE CRUSHED!"
Berry sighed, "Not the response I was hoping for but can I count on you Bell?"
Junior Detective Blue Bell blinked "Count on me for what?"
"Why, to investigate of course, its kind of your job now, remember?"
Fluttershy went about her morning labors, preparing dinner for the nocturnal critters, and breakfast for the rest. As she went about her task fluttering about in silence, Ms. Fluttershy's Mother and Rainbow Dash watched from a distance, unwilling to disturb her.
"So Rainbow Dash," Ms. Fluttershy's Mom sat down passing Rainbow a glass of water, "how have you been holding up?"
"You know," Rainbow Dash Snickered "you ask me that every time we talk, ever sense I moved to town when I was a little filly, you know that right?"
Ms. Fluttershy's Mom nodded, still smiling, as always.
"And for that last few years whats always been my answer?"
"Just wanted to be sure." They watched Fluttershy for a few minutes, before Ms. Fluttershy's Mom spoke up again.
"Any growing pains?"
Rainbow Dash's head looked like a cherry.
"Ill take that as a 'yes'."
"Y-you s-ssh-shouldn't go asking such embarrassing questions like that!" Rainbow Dash huffed, looking away from her.
"Come now Rainbow Dash, its a natural part of growing up and nothing you should feel ashamed of~" Ms. Fluttershy's Mom giggled.
"I 'grew up' already I am a legally recognized adult thank you!"
"Well, yes the court dos view you as an adult Rainbow Dash, however physically-"
"Physically I don't want to talk about this!" Rainbow Dash took to the sky above "I'm going to go help Fluttershy!"
Ms. Fluttershy's Mom just shook her head, "Rainbow Dash, when are you going to learn your not alone in this? Every pony on the reservation knows what your going threw."
Rainbow Dash stopped, just sitting there in the air for what seamed like an eternity, before turning to look at Ms. Fluttershy's Mom.
"You know thats not true." Rainbow Dash's gaze was uncharacteristically cold.
"Rainbow! Why would you think I would be lying to you?" Ms. Fluttershy's Mom gasped
"Its not a lie, but not every pony in town knows." Ms. Fluttershy's Mom eyes focused with clarity.
"Every pony in town knows, every pony except Twilight."
