“I kinda already expected that,” Dusk admitted when Storm told him the news.

“You expected her to forget about you?” Ashley clarified.

“Not exactly,” Dusk replied, “It’s just that I was gone for so long that she probably would have buried herself in something else.”

“I suppose she would’ve.” Storm said shrugging his shoulders. They were walking down the path to Oak Hill to try out something Storm suggested, a Sonic Rainboom. “I still think that you can’t do it,” Ashley said, lying down on Dusk’s back.

“Awww, c’mon, give me a chance!” Storm cried out exasperatedly, “You’re shooting me down before I can even try!”

Dusk simply rolled his eyes. The only pony that was recorded doing one in the past decade was the cyan mare Storm saw perform it and the previous captain of the Wonderbolts, Typhoon Burner. They came out onto the field and saw Cliff there, pounding on the oak tree. “Hey Cliff!” Ashley called out, waving at him.

Cliff stopped slamming the tree and turned to see his friends approaching. He waved back then resumed pounding the oak. “Alright Storm,” Dusk said pointing at the sky, “Are you ready to attempt a Sonic Rainboom?”

“Buck yeah!” Storm said, shooting up into the sky. Ashley simply sighed and watched, waiting for Storm to fail. Storm rose high into the sky before turning and plummeting straight down. He pointed his front hooves forward and flapped his wings as fast as he could. Soon electricity began building around him and trailing behind him. The sound barrier manifested itself around his front hooves. Suddenly, the sound barrier rebounded back on him, shooting him back up into the atmosphere. Storm’s ascension was stopped by a bunch of cirrus clouds, packed together by Dusk’s magic. Dusk brought Storm down in the cloud cushion.

“Well, you tried your best,” Dusk said. Storm popped his head out of the top of the clouds. “Again!” Storm shouted as he took off back into the sky.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Why can’t I do it?!” Storm cried out exasperatedly as he was carried down in the cloud cushion for the fiftieth time. It had been morning when they had started and now it was evening. “Maybe it’s your form.” Cliff pointed out. He stopped pounding on the tree about two hours ago.

“Mmmm… I don’t think so,” Dusk said, stroking Ashley’s top scales. She had fallen asleep while Storm was trying to break the sound barrier and was now snoring daintily. “It could be that he doesn’t have to required speed.”

“How fast do you have to go?” Storm asked, genuinely not knowing.

“I assume more than 330 meters per second,” Dusk replied, “Simply because that’s the speed required to break the sound barrier.”

“More than 330 meters per second?!” Cliff and Storm shouted together incredulously. Then Storm cried out, “That’s impossible!”

“Maybe,” Dusk replied, “But I have an idea of how to help you.”

“How?”

“Spin around in mid-air,” Dusk answered, moving his hoof in a circle to demonstrate.

“I guess I’ll give it a shot,” Storm said, shrugging his shoulders. He shot upward a repeated the same maneuver he had been doing for the entire day except with spinning. Everything seemed to be going the same as before until Storm began accelerating faster than normal. The previous trail of electricity behind Storm began to curve more than usual, melding together and creating a single spiral of electricity. As the sound barrier formed around Storm’s hooves, it too began to spin, becoming more pointed at the tip than usual. Dusk smiled while Cliff mouthed a ‘Holy Celestia’. Sure enough, Storm broke the sound barrier into a circle of blue electricity, creating a loud ‘BOOM!’ waking up Ashley in a fright and leaving an azure blue electric trail behind him.

“He did it!” Dusk yelled out, jumping around in a circle.

“Ummm… Are you sure he’s supposed to be still diving?” Cliff asked, a hint of panic In his voice. Dusk looked up and saw that Storm was spinning out of control, the trail behind him splitting into individual bolts.

The smile on Dusk’s face faded quickly. “Quick!” He cried, trying to bring the cloud cushion in front of Storm, “He’s losing control!”

When Dusk managed to bring the clouds in front of Storm, he just burst through it, destroying the cloud in the process. As Dusk tried to gather up another cushion, Ashley quickly sent an S.O.S. message to the princess. Cliff did not know what to do; he was frozen in his tracks. The scene that played out in front of him reminded him the incident concerning his parents, each flashback sending shivers down Cliff’s spine. “Cliff! What are you doing?!” Dusk yelled at the unmoving earth pony.

Suddenly, Storm took a nosedive straight down towards the earth, crashing and dying almost imminent. “NO!” Dusk screamed. Then, he charged straight to where Storm was to crash, his horn glowing. Ashley turned away; she could not bear to see the impact. Sure enough it came with a sickening ‘WHAM!’
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Cliff was snapped out of his trance by a loud sound. He turned to see Dusk and Storm in a heap on the ground. He ran over shouting “Storm! Dusk! Are you alright?!” He saw that they were in a horrible state. Dusk was bleeding out of his mouth and from his temple. His hind legs had to be broken, given the odd angle they were bent. Storm was on top of Dusk. His wings, bleeding and distended and his right foreleg had a bone sticking out the back of it. Both ponies were covered in bruises and unconscious.

Cliff just stood there, shocked out of his mind. Ashley came running over, only to gasp and cry at what she saw. Soon, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna arrived with a team of unicorns led by Shining Armor. “What happened?” Shining Armor demanded, clearly worried that his right hand pony was unconscious and severely injured.

“Please help,” Was all Cliff could utter. The princesses levitated the injured ponies and the hysterically crying Ashley away, leaving Shining Armor alone with a shocked Cliff.

“It’ll be okay kid,” Shining Armor reassured the earth pony, “It won’t be like with your parents.”

At this, Cliff snapped back to reality and turned to Shining Armor. “You know my parents?” He asked him.

“Of course,” Shining Armor replied, “Your dad was my mentor, the great wizard, Arcane Hanger.” He began to walk toward the castle, then looked back and called to Cliff, “You coming?”

“Yeah…” Cliff replied, walking after Shining Armor, shocked that a pony in the castle was so close to his father.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ashley was crying her eyes out in the waiting room outside the operation room when Cliff and Shining Armor arrived at the infirmary. A nurse came out into the hallway. “How is he?” Cliff asked. The nurse shook her head sadly and said, “Not very good I’m afraid. Apart from their external injuries, they have severe internal ones as well.”

At this, Ashley began to cry even louder, screwing her tiny fists into her eyes. Cliff could not blame her, she was about to possibly lose two of her closest friends, one of which raised her from a baby. “Can we go see them?” Shining Armor asked worriedly.

“You are,” The nurse replied pointing at Shining Armor, “Your magic is necessary.” Then she turned to Cliff. “You however are not. Please wait outside with the baby dragon.”

Shining Armor entered the operation room followed by the nurse while Cliff sat next to Ashley. He gave the bawling dragon a hug. “It’s going to be okay Ashley, don’t worry,” He cooed.

“H-How d-do y-you k-know,” Ashley said in between sobs, “W-What i-if t-they d-d-d-” The last part was drowned out by more crying.

“Nopony is going to leave you.” Cliff replied, rocking her back and forth. His usually expressionless face was now replaced by a face of immense worry and anxiety.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

After what seemed like days, both princesses left the room, followed by Shining Armor. “How are they doing?” Cliff asked softly so as to not wake up Ashley who had fallen asleep on his lap.

“They are fine for now,” Princess Celestia replied. She looked worn out the other two ponies in a similar state. “Go get some sleep Cliff, you deserve it.” Princess Celestia said as she went back to her room to retire. Princess Luna flew off to survey the night despite her tiredness and Shining Armor trotted off down the hallway. Cliff looked down at Ashley. She had cried so much that the leg she was sleeping on was soaked in tears. Even as she slept, she sniffled periodically. Cliff leaned on the backing of the waiting bench and fell asleep.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Cliff was awoken by the medicinal smell around him. He leaned up and looked around. Then he remembered where he was and what he was doing there. He lay Ashley’s head on the waiting bench and slowly but cautiously entered the room in front of him. When he entered, he saw his two best friends in separate identical hospital beds, similar to the one he woke up in the day after he met them. Both of them were hooked up to a large complex machine that showed their respective heart rate. Cliff went to check on Dusk, he was sleeping soundly and his heart rate had stabilized. His head was partially bandaged and both his hind legs were in casts and suspended. He checked on Storm and saw that he was in a similar state except he had a neck-brace and his right foreleg was in a cast and sling. Cliff sighed in relief and walked back out into the hallway where he bumped into another pony. “Oooof!” The other pony grunted as she landed on the floor.

“I’m so sorry,” Cliff apologized as he offered his hoof. The other pony reached out and grabbed it, pulling herself up. “Thanks,” She said, dusting herself off.

Cliff looked at the mare another time, she was a white unicorn with sparkling light green eyes and a similarly colored mane. On her flank, there was a cutie mark of an orb with rings encircling it. “Hi, my name’s Oracle,” The mare said, running her hoof through her mane to straighten it, “What’s yours?”

“Cliff Hanger,” The light brown earth pony replied, scratching the back of his head. There was an awkward silence until Oracle said, “Ummm… I have to go now, so I’ll… see you later?”

“Fine with me,” Cliff replied.

“Okay then, meet me tomorrow evening at four on Oak Hill. Okay?” Oracle said, twirling a lock of her mane around a hoof.

“Sure,” Cliff replied. As Oracle dashed off, Cliff thought to himself, “Wait, did I just converse normally with a mare and get a meeting out of it?”

He was snapped out of his thought by Princess Celestia. “Cliff? Are you alright?”

“Huh? Oh, Ummm… yeah I’m just… wondering about something,” Cliff said truthfully.

“May I know what is on your mind?” Princess Celestia asked.

“Ummm… sure, do you know a pony by the name of Oracle?” Cliff asked back.

“Oracle?” Princess Celestia replied, “Oh she is a unicorn who helps out in organizing my library. Why the sudden interest?”

“N-Nothing,” Cliff stammered, trying his best to hide his blush. Princess Celestia let out a small giggle at the sight. She turned her gaze to the two hospitalized ponies.

“Anyways, I came to check on them,” She said, “It would seem that their condition has stabilized. Knowing so, I can return to my work with a piece of mind.”

She let out a sigh of relief then turned to leave the ward. Cliff sat there in the ward, thinking about how he would approach Oracle on their first… ‘Date’?

Author's Note

Sorry about the long delay! I had exams and then a lot of stuff to do so I was busy for a while. I'll try to update this story more frequently now that I have some free time on my hands.