“You're sending me after a what now?” Rainbow Dash asked, cocking her head.
“A Typhon, Rainbow Dash.” Spitfire replied, rolling her eyes. “Now please refrain from interrupting me again.”
She paced back to the screen at the front of the room. A projector showed an image of a massive creature that seemed to be made partly of clouds. Liquid rainbow flowed from its enormous body, pooling on the ground below in vivid puddles. Deep hollows in the darkest of the clouds flickered with the blue-white light of lightning.
“Typhons are what happens when a weather factory gets too close to a source of wild magic. They're living storms, barraging the countryside with wind, rain, snow and more. We keep weather factories at least ten miles away from all powerful wild magic as a precaution, but somepony on this one got careless. You're to rescue any workers who might be trapped and stop the Typhon. Any questions?”
“Yeah. Do I have any backup on this one?” Rainbow Dash was no chicken, but the Typhon was like nothing she'd ever seen. She hated to admit it, but she was more than a little bit nervous about facing it.
“Afraid not Dash.” Spitfire said, shutting off the projector. “If any of the workers there are in flying shape, they might be able to help, but all the other Wonderbolts are off on assignment. Now can you handle this?”
Rainbow Dash saluted, unable to resist a challenge. “Ma'am yes ma'am!” She shouted, grinning.
“Go prove to everypony that you earned that badge Rainbow Dash. I don't think I need to tell you how important it is to keep this thing away from any cities.” She returned the eager new recruit's salute. “Dismissed!” She shouted, smirking as Dash dashed out of the room.
Once she was certain the blue pegasus was out of earshot, Spitfire smiled. “This is your final test, Rainbow Dash. A Wonderbolt needs to be able to adapt to new situations, needs to be able to put aside old rivalries and do what needs to be done.” She tapped the intercom on her desk. “She's en route now. Be ready.” The affirmative came back, nearly unintelligible through the static.
Rainbow Dash opened the file she'd been given. The Typhon, it explained, had formed over the Great Desert to the West. It had made its way through the Badlands, feeding on the old and powerful magic that lingered in the ground there. It was less than twenty-four hours away from Trottingham, coming out of the narrow strip of mountain that the Gryphons called home. Apparently they had dispatched someone to try and stop the Typhon as well, but had lost communication. Rainbow was to attempt to find them if possible. Putting the file aside, she donned her uniform. The blue fabric felt right somehow, and as she slipped the goggles over her eyes she knew that she had been born to wear it. She grinned, anticipation of her first real Wonderbolts assignment drowning out her anxiety. Rainbow Dash left her worries behind and did what she did best. She flew.
The world fell away beneath her as she soared above the clouds. She'd a long flight ahead, especially if she was to conserve her energy for the actual task ahead. As much as she wanted to let loose and go top speed, she restrained herself. Strong, steady wingbeats propelled her forward, each stroke cupping the air without even a thought. Miles flashed by at a steady pace, and she let herself fall into the rhythm. Feathers skimmed clouds, dragging out thin streamers of water vapor.
As she flew, however, she noticed something. The closer she got to her destination, the more powerfully charged the air felt. She stopped, hovering in place. Each strand of hair in her mane was lifted, her skin tingling from the energy around her. She dove beneath the cloud cover, and what she saw nearly made her lose control.
The Typhon was immense. Larger even than the city of Cloudsdale. Its massive body hung in the air, only a few vague traces of the underlying structure of the weather factory still visible. Streams of cloud formed crude arms that lashed at the air. Crystalline clouds of ice and snow belched from the chimneys, and the rippling streams of liquid rainbow swirled in mind-numbing patterns as the plummeted to the ground far below. The wall of wind that surrounded the creature carried a veil of sand with it, protecting the Typhon with a violent sandstorm. Dangling clusters of cloud trailed below it, tipped with clutching talons of ice. Its head, or what served as one, was a colossal storm cloud, nearly jet black, that pulsed with thick bands of lightning.
As Rainbow Dash struggled to comprehend the immensity of the monster, she caught sight of a miniscule brown and white speck clinging desperately to its side. It slipped, barely catching hold on a protrusion of ice to stop its fall. Dash flew in closer, and the speck resolved into a feline body with claws and wings.
“Hold on!” Rainbow yelled, unsure if the Gryphon could even hear her over the howling winds. She flew skyward, wings thrashing against the air. She flew up as high as she could, until the air began to grow cold and thin. At the peak of her climb, she tucked in her wings and fell. The wind was deafening, and she was grateful for the protection of her goggles as she picked up more and more speed. The air before her grew thick, as if resisting her progress. She pushed harder, wings flapping faster and faster, until she felt the barrier give, and then break. A coruscating ring of multicolored light exploded around her, and she truly flew.
Trailing a rainbow streak, she darted at the massive beast. Time seemed to slow down as she flew, and it was almost as if she could see the flow of the wind currents around the Typhon. She slipped with ease into the first barrier, following it around briefly before slipping into the second. Rolling to the side, she broke through into the still air within the whirlwinds. The gryphon still held desperately on the tiny ledge, the heat of its talons beginning to melt the ice. It turned its head as Rainbow approached, eyes widening as she raced along the beast's side.
Before the gryphon could do anything, Rainbow slipped a hoof around it and turned. Holding on tightly to her cargo, Rainbow slammed through the wind barriers. Finesse was abandoned in favor of brute force, and her sheer speed left a crater in the clouds and ice. She broke free of the winds and arced upward into the clouds, where she dropped the gryphon and landed, panting from exertion.
“What kinda moron are you, pulling a stunt like that?” The gryphon wheezed in a shockingly familiar voice. “You coulda gotten us both killed!” She rose from the clouds and shook out wings laced with ice and snow. “Well? Are you gonna answer me or-” She broke off. “Rainbow Dash?” The claw she'd balled into a fist fell along with her jaw.
“Gilda?” Rainbow asked, equally shocked. “You're the gryphon I was supposed to rescue?”
“As if!” Gilda sneered. “I don't need some lame pony like you to save me. I was just biding my time until I could get at that thing's core.”
“Core? There's a core?” Dash found herself wishing she'd read the file more thoroughly.
“You're a pegasus, you grew up in Cloudsdale, and you don't even know how a weather factory works?” Gilda rubbed her beak with one talon. “A Typhon is just a rogue factory. If you shut off the main power source you'll stop it cold.”
“I knew that!” Rainbow snarled, nursing her bruised ego. “So how do we get to the core?”
Gilda sketched a diagram in the clouds with one claw. A crude circle for the Typhon, swirling arrows representing the winds.
“There's an opening in the top. I saw it while scouting earlier.” She marked an X at the top of the drawing. “We just need to get past the winds. If you can pull off another rainboom, it should break up the barriers long enough for us to slip through.”
Rainbow nodded, putting her goggles back on. “Let's do this!” She lept into the air, Gilda following behind.
The plan had seemed so simple. A rainboom to break through the walls of wind, then a simple walk to the factory core to shut it down. Rainbow found herself wondering what had gone wrong as she galloped along a narrow metal catwalk, tendrils of ice and cloud hot on her trail. The machines that had once generated rain and snow now pumped out pony-sized cloud creatures that patrolled the labyrinthine building. Gilda was just ahead, a map clutched in one claw as she ran on three legs. Whenever they managed to throw off pursuit she consulted it, and Rainbow had to hope that the gryphon knew what she was doing.
The pair darted into a small room off the main factory floor, slamming the heavy steel door behind them. The room, a storage closet, was made entirely of metal. They'd learned the hard way that the Typhon had full control of all cloud-based components within its body.
“So,” Rainbow Dash began as they caught their breath. “What have you been up to lately?”
“Seriously?” Gilda cocked an eyebrow. “You seriously think this is a good time to play catch up? I'll never get you Dash.” She sighed. “After I left Ponyville I joined the army. Did my time and landed a cushy border patrol post. Then this thing showed up.”She gestured at the surroundings. “That's really all there is to tell. What about you Dash? Finally ditched those dweebs and got serious about your flying?”
“Don't talk about my friends like that Gilda! Without their support I'd never have made it to the Academy. I'm only a Wonderbolt because I stuck with my friends.” She glared at the gryphon, reminded of the less than stellar terms on which they'd parted.
“Geez. Always with the friends stuff.” A new voice echoed in the tiny room. “Though I have to admit, you might be onto something. You sure made out better than me.” A pony limped out from behind a tangle of wires and ruined machinery. Her coat was lighter than Dash's, her mane orange streaked with yellow. One wing hung limp at her side, and she winced every time it so much as moved.
“Who're you?” Gilda asked, feathers rising on the back of her neck. “And how are you here? I didn't think it was possible to survive inside a Typhon.”
“It's plenty possible, if you're as awesome as me.” She smirked, puffing out her chest. “Name's Lightning Dust, and I'd be in that Wonderbolt uniform instead of her if the Academy wasn't so afraid of me.”
“Afraid of you?” Dash asked, glaring at the other pegasus. “More like afraid one of your stunts might tear the place down!”
“Whatever.” Lightning Dust said, stepping fully out of the shadows. She wore a stained and ragged white coat, an ID badge pinned to the lapel. Parts of the coat had been ripped off and made into makeshift bandages, now spotted with dull red. “You two here to take this thing out?”
“That's the plan.” Gilda answered, cutting off the sarcastic reply forming in Rainbow's mind. “If you work here, maybe you can tell us how to get to the core. This map seems a little off.”
“It would be.” Lightning replied. “This place is mostly made of clouds. The thing keeps shifting everything around, no pattern that I can see. I don't think it can control the metal though.”
She unrolled the map and pulled a pen from her coat. Leaning over it, she began to draw.
“This is where we are now.” She circled a small room not far from the center. “And the core is here.” She circled the huge chamber exactly center. “The only way between them that is still open is this:” She drew a line between the two through an equally large room. “The Rainbow Room.”
“Rainbow Room?” Rainbow Dash asked. “That doesn't sound too bad.” The look on Lightning Dust's face, however, chilled her. “What?”
“When the thing first took over it rounded up all the employees with those cloud things. It gathered them all there.” She gulped. “The room itself isn't made of cloud, but a lot of the machinery is. I got out before it started, but the sounds...” She trailed off.
“Got out before what started?” Gilda prodded. “I need to know what we're up against here.”
“Those machines process gems and produce liquid rainbow. They can crush stone with ease.” She looked sick as she recalled. “The workers didn't stand a chance.” The look on her face told Dash and Gilda all they needed to know.
“Let's get to the core and shut this thing down.” The gryphon said, shaking out her wings as she stood. “Before it does any more damage.”
The trip was uneventful at first, mostly crawling through steel ventilation ducts. A few narrow escapes from patrolling cloud creatures set the trio on edge, but the constructs didn't seem particularly intelligent.
The relative peace was broken, however, with their arrival at the Rainbow Room. It was dark, a thick gloom that made every dormant machine seem like a lurking monster. A thick coppery scent hung in the air, and the floor was spotted with patches of sticky wetness. The trio crept along the narrow walkways, steps echoing in the vast chamber. They were nearly halfway across when a light overhead snapped on. The brilliant beam pinned them in place, blinding to eyes adapted for gloom. As they blinked, the machines began to move.
Made of clouds fused with metallic components, they ranged from overhead scoops to massive toothed grinders. The white cloud and gray steel were stained crimson, fur and feathers stuck to the stains. They lurched into motion slowly, as if it took a great deal of effort.
“Move! Now!” Dash shouted, galloping along the catwalk. Lightning Dust and Gilda followed close behind, hooves and claws clicking rapidly on the metal.
Behind them, a scoop dropped with a crash. Steel screamed on steel as it closed around the narrow walkway and pulled up. Far below, the massive grinding wheels spun faster, sparks flying as scraps tumbled down. The catwalk bucked and twisted, wrenched from side to side by the scoop's motion. Ahead, another dropped. This one remained closed, battering the walkway and crushing the railing. It rose slowly before dropping again.
“The catwalk can't take much more!” Lightning Dust yelled, jumping over a twisted length of railing. “We need another way across!”
Rainbow Dash met Gilda's gaze and nodded. The gryphon took the hint, falling back until she was alongside Lightning Dust.
“Brace yourself.” She said, wings already flapping. “This might hurt a bit.”
“What are you-” the pegasus began, but was cut off as a pair of strong arms wrapped around her. Her injured wing twisted awkwardly, pinned against her side, but she refused to flinch.
Gilda took off, slipping around the scoop as it crashed down. The wind of its passage ruffled the feathers on her back, and the catwalk collapsed. The grinding wheels below roared as tons of broken and twisted metal fell into them.
Rainbow flew along side her old friend, goggles hiding her eyes. Bolts of lightning arced between machines, the smell of ozone mixing with that of blood in the air. More scoops crashed down, as well as the cruel claws designed to move larger items. Articulated arms bristling with tools lashed out at them as they flew, re-purposed from repair to destruction.
One such arm, tipped with a spinning saw blade, traced a line of fire along Rainbow's foreleg. Although she cried out in pain, she kept flying. Another buzzed just over her head, sending a shower of rainbow-colored hairs falling.
The door loomed ahead, its frame twisted and distorted by the movement of the factory around it. Beyond was a corridor, and at its end a pulsating light. With a final burst of speed, Rainbow Dash and Gilda darted through. The intended graceful landing turned into a painful tumble along the hard metal floor, leaving all three winded and battered, but alive.
“This is it. The core is right ahead.” Lightning Dust said, rising on unsteady hooves. “It doesn't feel right though.”
“Let's just pull the plug on this thing and call it a day.” Rainbow Dash said, starting down the hall. “I've had enough near-death experiences for a lifetime.”
“You got that right Dash.” Gilda said, following the pegasus. “I think I'm done with adventures for a while. Might go back home and help dad at the bakery.”
Lightning Dust limped after them, looking even more ragged and disheveled than when she'd first joined them. “All I know,” She said, “is I'm never setting hoof in a weather factory again. Not even for all the gold in Canterlot.”
The core was enormous. A glowing ball of pure magic, it hovered in mid-air over a pit that led to the outside. It spun in place, energy arcing from its surface to the walls. It should, according to the files Rainbow had been shown, be perfectly round and spinning slowly. It was neither.
Bloated and misshapen, it rotated at an erratic pace. The colors playing across its surface were wrong somehow, painful to look at.
“That's the control panel.” Lightning Dust said, pointing at a small pedestal in front of the core. “We need to start the shutdown sequence and get out, fast.”
“How fast?” Rainbow asked, glancing at the other pony's wing.
“When this thing shuts down, all of the magic in the system will be released. It's gonna blow, big time.” She seemed genuinely afraid, lacking her usual arrogance. “We don't wanna be around when it does.”
The three stood at the pedestal. It was simple, just a clear gem set into the cloud surface.
“Um...” Rainbow began. “How do we shut this thing down?”
“That jewel monitors the flow of magic and keeps it from overloading. If we pull it out, the core will draw in more magic than it can handle and overload.” Lightning Dust said. She gently gripped the gem and turned to the others. “Once I pull this thing, we jump. Got it?” Gilda and Rainbow Dash nodded. “Three...Two...One...GO!”
The light blue pegasus pulled the gem from the panel, tossing it aside and throwing herself down the pit. The others followed suit, wings tucked in as they plummeted.
High above them, the core began to swell. With a flash of impossible colors, it burst. The explosion tore apart cloud and metal alike, ripping apart what remained of the building as it raced along halls and fissures.
The three fliers burst out of the bottom, followed by a blast of light. Rainbow and Gilda caught Lightning Dust and pulled her out from the Typhon's shadow and up into the clouds above.
The beast had stopped moving, thunder rumbling through its enormous bulk as the winds surrounding it weakened. Explosions shook it, vast swathes of cloud blown loose with each. Its numerous limbs thrashed, tearing at the ground below. Finally, after a long struggle, it began to fall. The clouds holding it aloft dissipated, no longer sustained by the magic that had coursed through it.
“Aww Yeah!” Rainbow Dash shouted, wishing she could jump for joy. Without the adrenaline rushing through her veins, she was utterly exhausted. “We showed you, you overgrown squall!”
“That you did, Rainbow Dash.” A pair of blue-suited ponies landed beside the trio. “Couldn't have done it better myself.” The speaker pulled back her hood to reveal a mane like fire.
“Spitfire?” Rainbow sputtered, jaw dropping. “I thought you said all the other Wonderbolts were off on assignments. What the hay are you doing here?”
Spitfire grinned, clearly enjoying the younger Wonderbolt's confusion.
“I never said what assignments, did I?” She asked as her companion lowered his own hood. Soarin gave Dash an apologetic grin and a shrug. “I had them all watching you. This was your final test, your chance to show that you are truly Wonderbolt material. You needed to be able to put pride, as well as old grudges, aside and do what needed to be done.”
“Old grudges?” Rainbow asked.
Lightning Dust rose, tossing her white coat aside. She paced over and stood by Spitfire.
“I'll field this one, boss.” She said, stretching her injured wing until it popped back into the socket with a loud crack. “Spitfire offered me a second chance at the Academy in exchange for helping her with this. All I had to do was get inside an angry Typhon. Easy.” She flashed a cocksure grin.
“Gilda, you know anything about this?” Dash sighed, turning to the gryphon.
“Not a clue Dash.” She shrugged.
“So wait. You arranged this whole emergency for a test?” Rainbow asked. “The Typhon and all?”
“No, that was a real emergency. Conveniently timed, but not arranged.” Spitfire said, pulling a badge from her flight suit. “But that doesn't matter right now. Rainbow Dash, I'm proud to say that you are now officially a full Wonderbolt.”
Author's Note
Well guys, here it is. Hopefully better than my last one-shot, although I still think there are some issues. They're in there, I'm sure of it, I just haven't the foggiest idea how to go about fixing them. I also rather fear that if I do I'll screw things up worse.
The prompt for EQD said to pair up a character with their foil, but Dashie has two fun characters as foils and I just couldn't make up my mind. Ah well.