Thunder and Rain: Raining Changelings

Chapters

Chapter 1: What Happened Now?!
Chapter 3: Changeling Invasion
Chapter 4: Fire Rising
Epilogue
Chapter 2: Thunderlane, Dewdrop, and Dash

Chapter 1: What Happened Now?!

“Again, Thunderlane?! Seriously?” cried Dash as soon as she put down the phone. It had been peaceful for the last three years and now Thunderlane had to mess it up? AGAIN? >:(

“Ugh, okay I’m getting up. What the hay Dashie?” asked Spitfire.

“Sorry, Spits! My lieutenant is acting up again.” (Thanks a lot, Thunderlane.)

Dash had been planning a peaceful day. In the morning she was going to plot the next sequence for Sonic Dashfire, then just hang for the rest of the day. And now, thanks to Thunderlane, she had to deal with him.

“Hey Spits?” she called. “I need to go deal with Thunderlane. Can you take care of things here? Finish up my sequence for me would ya?”

“Sure Dashie. When’s our next show anyway?”

“Four days. I guess I’ll see you later.”

“Yeah. See you!”

Dash leapt out the window and one flap of her powerful cyan wings later, she was soaring east toward Celestia’s sun and Ponyville Weather Team Headquarters. Instinct and a well-flown route was guiding her, but her mind was full of thoughts. What did Thunderlane need now to make him learn? She couldn’t be too harsh, he was the most senior lightning wrangler they had. His career had begun a few weeks after Dewdrop’s and Dash’s. He was also Dash’s senior by six years. But she had let him know who was boss very… promptly. She knew the harsh fact, some ponies thought she was too young for her job. That hadn’t fazed her, though, and she was sure as hay not going to let it faze her now.

The downdraft of another pegasus’ wings jolted her out of her thoughts.

‘Ugh! What in the name of Celestia?!’ she thought. Dash tipped her head back and saw Cloud Kicker flying above her.

“Dash! Morning, ma’am!”, said Cloud Kicker with a jump and a salute.

“At ease, CK,” said Dash, “We’re equals right here, right now. NOT for the rest of the time, though. Just until this problem with Thunderlane is solved.”

“Problem with Thunderlane? Oh, what did that featherbrain do now?”

“Ruin Dewdrop’s shade, maybe?”

“Oh, no. Gotta get there! See you later, Dash!”

“Uh, bye?”

CK shot off toward HQ like a bullet. Dash followed in her wake, executed a perfect landing on the east runway and trotted into the building.

”Long walk ahead for me,” she mumbled to herself.

She knew that Thunderlane’s office was pretty far in. Resigning her mind to it, she trotted off.

Five minutes later

Finally, Thunderlane’s office door loomed up in front of her.

“Deep breath”, she said.

Dash straightened her posture, set her jaw, and opened the door. Suddenly, her ears were nearly blasted off by an onslaught of shouting between two ponies whose voices were worryingly familiar…

Chapter 3: Changeling Invasion

“Dash! Come quick! Princess Twilight… Changelings… The Elements… Spitfire…~”said Cloud Kicker until Dash cut her off.

“WHERE?!”

“Canterlot.”

“See you ponies later!!!”

Dash shot out the still-open window like a bullet out of a gun. She had to get to the Elements before the Changelings did. The sonic cone formed around her body and she didn’t even care. Five Sonic Rainbooms later, she found herself inside the castle wing with the Elements, which an unfortunate few Changelings had made an outpost in. They were easily dispatched with a few swift kicks. After grabbing the Elements she clasped her own around her neck and zipped toward the balcony where her friends, the full squad of Wonderbolts, and Spitfire were fighting against a horde of Changelings. ‘Not good’, she thought. The 17 ponies were pinned down in the middle of the balcony while a solid ring of Changelings advanced from left, right, up, front, and back. There were even more Changelings surrounding Canterlot, but Dash didn’t see the Queen of the Changelings, Chrysalis. ‘Good’. she thought.

After touching down, Dash handed out the Element necklaces and Twilight’s crown to her friends, and joined in the fight back-to-back with Spitfire and Blaze. The Elements would do their job in a few minutes.The Changelings, she soon found out, seemed sore from their last defeat. They fought more viciously than the last time she remembered.

“C'mon, Elements. Do your job,” she mumbled to herself. Then a Changeling in the form of Wave Chill knocked her to the ground. Years upon years of combat training kicked in and the unfortunate Changeling went flying off the balcony in its natural form, taking a few of it’s comrades with it. One of the precious few Royal Guards not trapped in green Changeling goo dispatched it as it hit the ground. Fluttershy and Applejack were single-handedly, but barely holding off a group of Celestias, and Twilight, Pinkie, Rapidfire, and Lightning Streak had a mixed group of Lunas, Twilights, Applejacks, and Soarins to keep at bay. The rest of the fighters were randomly matched against themselves or forms of their partners and friends. Fluttershy and Applejack seemed the worst off, so Dash jumped into the fight with them and was immediately surrounded by about twenty Celestias. The Elements had to kick in soon, otherwise the fight would be lost. As if answering to what everypony was probably thinking, Fluttershy’s, Applejack’s, her’s, Rarity’s, and Pinkie’s necklaces began to glow. Twilight’s crown was glowing brightest, and the six started to rise into the sky, much like the times that they had defeated Nightmare Moon (twice), Discord (twice), and Demon Sunset Shimmer. Suddenly, to Dash’s complete and utter surprise, Spitfire began to rise too. Spitfire had an adorably confused “what-the-hay-is-going-on-i’m-not-using-my-wings” look on her face as the six became seven. Just in time, it seemed. Queen Chrysalis could be seen about ten thousand meters away, flying into the city with reinforcements.

“You cannot hurt anypony now, Queen Chrysalis. Nor can your Changelings. The true power of friendship will prevent you from coming any further,” said Twilight. “You and your Changelings will be gone, banished to the Arctic North with the windigoes. You have chosen the wrong path. And soon you will be destroyed. Goodbye, Chrysalis.”

A solid stream of rainbow poured from the seven and formed into a tornado around Chrysalis. Small side streams targeted each group of Changelings and reverted them to natural form. The green goo vanished, and the Changelings went flying off into oblivion. Still faintly glowing with a pink aura, the seven floated back to earth.

“What happened there?” asked Spitfire.

“I have no idea,” said Twilight, who was actually stumped for once. “I think you became an Element of Harmony, Spitfire!”

Chapter 4: Fire Rising

It was true. There was a golden necklace with Spitfire’s cutie mark on it around the mare’s neck. Spitfire’s and Dash’s mouths fell open simultaneously.

“That is SO AWESOME!” cried Dash, breaking everypony out of their trances. “Now you really are my equal Spits!”

“Hehe, guess I am,” said Spitfire with a slight tinge of pink on her cheeks. “I still don’t get it though. Why? How? Twilight, do you have any answers? I’m confused.”

“I really don’t know. When we get back to Ponyville I’m going to check my book. I thought there were only supposed to be six elements, not seven? Honestly, Spitfire, I’m as confused as you are,” replied Twilight. “Let’s get back home. Us unicorns and earth ponies will ride in my balloon. You guys can fly.”

“I’m with you,” Dash and Spitfire replied. They collected Applejack, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Rarity, and ‘Fire’s former team, and flew/floated out of Canterlot after receiving various praises from the city’s population, including the Royal Princesses themselves. The Wonderbolts peeled off about 10 miles off to go back to their base, waved a fond farewell by their former captain.

When the group reached Ponyville, they dropped Pinkie, AJ, ‘Shy, and Rarity off at their houses/workplaces, and Twilight, Dash, and Spitfire headed for the library. At Twilight’s order, Spike dug out the musty brown “Elements of Harmony~A Reference Guide” from the very top of one of the shelves, falling off the ladder in the process, and Twilight opened it with her magic.

“Elements, index… page 5...got it! Seventh Element… nope not here. Index… Loyalty… page… let’s see… 15… here. Element of Loyalty… picture, not helping… YES! Found it!”, called Twilight to Dash and Spitfire, who were, respectively, searching for a Daring Do book and a math textbook.

“You got it? Where?” asked Dash.

“Uh, right there, Dash?” responded Spitfire, suppressing a giggle.

The two ponies galloped over to where Twilight had the book suspended, and read:

‘Element of Loyalty, part two. The Element of Loyalty has two parts. Special qualities: much the same as part one, ponies have to be same gender and type, two parts will come together for use. Will be formed when a pony with the same gender/type as bearer of part one proves herself/himself.’

“I think I get it now. So I guess I proved myself, and became the second part of the Element of Loyalty. And I’m the same gender and type as Dash, so that makes sense. At least there’s something that makes sense about this whole thing,” said Spitfire.

“I wonder what happened to Thunderlane and Dewdrop,” whispered Dash to Spitfire. “I should check.”

“No need for that,” came Dewdrop’s voice. Startled, Dash whipped around and saw the cerulean blue mare standing in the doorway. “I’m already here. And by the way, I took care of Thunderlane. He won’t be bothering us for a while, unless he botches up his regular job too. He has media duty for six shifts and he can’t handle any cloud other than thunderheads for five months. You know he hates media duty.”

“Heh, that’s exactly what I was thinking,” replied Dash. “Good. Hmmm, funny, you’re telling me what you did to Thunderlane, while we were off saving Equestria. Well, technically I thought of it first.”

“No, I did,” said Dewdrop.

“No, I did.”

“No, you.”

“Yes, me.”

“Wait, what?” asked Dewdrop with a confused look on her face.

Dash, Twilight, and Spitfire started cracking up.

“Old trick from Pinkie Pie,” laughed Dash. “Gotcha!”

Spitfire, Dash, and Dewdrop decided to stay at the library for the night, and the four hit the hay.

“Goodnight,” all of them said.

“Nice job saving Equestria, by the way,” Dewdrop said. But all of them had fallen asleep.

Epilogue

A few months later, Spitfire had gotten used to her status as Element of Loyalty, part two. Pinkie had thrown a huge bash to welcome the fiery mare to the Mane Six, now the Mane Seven. Saving Equestria on a monthly basis had become routine, and Spitfire’s Element had a new home, inside a locked, jeweled box with Dash’s that had been donated by Rarity. Writing letters to the Princess, having friendship adventures with the rest of the Mane Seven, and all that was routine now. It was fun and exhausting, same as Wonderbolt training. All was well in Ponyville, and Equestria, again.

Chapter 2: Thunderlane, Dewdrop, and Dash

Dash stood in the doorway, stunned as if she had been rammed over the head with one of Soarin’s pie tins as she watched two of her senior team heads going at each other with blazing glares. After a few moments she broke out of her trance, slammed the door, and stalked toward her subordinates.

“WHAT in the name of FEATHERING CELESTIA is going on in here?!”

Thunderlane and Dewdrop’s right hooves shot up to their brows in picture-perfect salutes upon hearing Dash’s furious voice. She stifled a laugh at their faces. Dewdrop performed an excellent about-face that would’ve made Spitfire proud and came to stand by Dash’s side.

The two advanced on Thunderlane, who backed away from the fire glowing in Dash’s eyes (inherited from Spitfire) and the lightning glowing in Dewdrop’s (grown from years of dealing with problems).

“All right, Thunderlane, Your game is up. What have you done?” asked Dash.

“I have some questions for you too. Why is it always MY things that you mess up? Who messed up my surprise for Dash? You. Who thought it was fun to mess up my perfectly organized papers? You. And now this?! I have half a mind to give you a one-way ticket to Tartarus with my own four hooves!”, yelled Dewdrop.

“Oh, Dewdrop? It was Raindrops who messed up your papers, not me. I saw her doing it. You can ask her.”, said Thunderlane.

“Okay. But why did you get rid of my shade? It’s shade, for Celestia’s sake!” said Dewdrop.

“Well, I thought we were having a feathering STORM today!” yelled Thunderlane, apparently reaching his breaking point.

“Seriously, Thunderlane? I think you need to organize your office. This place is messier than Princess Luna’s private quarters! That was yesterday’s orders!” yelled Dash in response.

“Er… oh. Oops.” said Thunderlane sheepishly.

“This is more than ‘oops’, Thunderlane! You’ve created over an hour of work for my team and I! THIS IS NOT A MATTER OF~” Dewdrop broke off as Cloud Kicker shot through the window and came to a screeching halt half an inch from the desk.