The Skyborne Dance

Chapters

I'm Off to Visit my Parents in the Clouds
My Cousin is Having a Baby and She Needs My Help
My Uncle is Getting Married and I Haven't Seen Him in a While
There's a Construction Project that's Deperate for Workers
They've Had Some Really Wild Storms Up There Lately

I'm Off to Visit my Parents in the Clouds

A flying bolt of rainbow sliced down from the clear skies above, making the warm spring air shiver in its supersonic wake. Just before it would have pounded into the dirt path like a meteorite, it was slowed by a set of wings that beat the air in a furious blur, kicking up a cloud of brown and sending ripples across the grass.

Rainbow Dash shook her mane from her eyes and trotted the last few steps up to the cottage’s front door.

“Fluttershy? I got your note from Angel! What’s up?”

No answer. After a few seconds of silence, Rainbow Dash placed her forehead against Fluttershy’s front door and pushed, but the door didn’t budge.

“Fluttershy?”

Knock-knock-knock. After rapping at the door three times, Rainbow Dash sidestepped over to look through the window--surely Fluttershy had heard, and would have be coming to answer.

She found herself staring at a pane of glass and a thick set of curtains. That made her frown. Fluttershy usually left her doors and windows wide open, and she never drew the living room curtains.

“Hey! It’s me, Rainbow Dash! Are you okay in there?”

She turned back and walked back across the front of the house, thinking to check the other windows, but as she crossed the front door, it suddenly exploded open in a wooden blur that missed her nose by scant inches. Rainbow Dash let out an awkward yelp of surprise as she was yanked into the house by the tail and sent tumbling onto the rug. Her eyes focused in time to see Fluttershy buck the front door shut with a frame-rattling bang.

Rainbow Dash started to roll upright, then flattened back against the ground with an “Aah!” as Fluttershy pounced on her and glared down with a pair of seafoam-ringed eyes that were wild with panic.

“Did you come alone?” Fluttershy hissed.

“Wha--”

“Answer me!” Fluttershy growled, leaning down until her bared teeth were inches away from Rainbow Dash’s nose. “Did anypony see you? Did you tell anypony where you were going? Were you followed?”

“I guess? No! Maybe?” Rainbow Dash sputtered. “Fluttershy, just tell me why you needed to see me! I’m here to help!”

Fluttershy responded in a most unexpected way--instead of apologizing, or getting angrier, she stood up straight and blushed a spectacular shade of crimson.

“You... you mean you don’t remember? But I thought you of all ponies...”

She daintily un-straddled Rainbow Dash and started to back away. “Well, um...”

Rainbow Dash rolled to all fours and shook out her mane in annoyance, then perked her ears upright at the sound of a distant voice.

“Rainbow Daaaa-aaaash!”

Even coming through a sealed door and from across a considerable distance, Pinkie Pie’s voice was so bright and sharp that it even sounded pink.

What composure Fluttershy had managed to regain evaporated instantaneously. “Th-that was Pinkie Pie! You led her here! You led her here!”

Instead of protesting, Rainbow Dash let out a “gurk!” as she was seized around the base of her neck and dragged up the stairs with a soft, yet utterly tormented eeeeeeeee! sounding in her left ear.

She was dumped unceremoniously onto the wooden floor, and slammed the door with another bang.

“You know, you could just ASK me to come with--”

Rainbow Dash’s sentence trailed off into mute astonishment as she rose to her hooves and took stock of the scene of destruction in Fluttershy’s bedroom. It looked like the dresser had exploded, hurling its contents in every direction. Vests, dresses, hats, and capes of every size and color were heaped on the floor, the bed, the nightstand, and even the windowsill.

“Okay, seriously?”

Disbelief turned to annoyance as Rainbow Dash lifted off her hooves and hovered toward Fluttershy. “What the heck happened in here? And what’s with all the secrecy? Does it have anything to do with the fact that it looks like a tornado hit your closet?”

Fluttershy turned her head to the side, just far enough so that the fall of her mane hid her face from Rainbow Dash. Her words came out in a sputter as she started to slowly shrink back. “Well... it sort of... I mean... I just kind of...”

Rainbow Dash very carefully touched down in front of Fluttershy, on one of the floor’s few bare spots. “What, are you scared to tell me? I came because I thought you needed my help with something!”

From behind the concealing wall of hair, Fluttershy spoke in barely more than a squeak. “Well... I was born in Cloudsdale, like you. I mean, of course you remember that... so...”

Rainbow snorted a “So what?” but she had to admit that it was easy to forget that Fluttershy had been raised in Cloudsdale, weather control capital of the world and the home of the Wonderbolts. Were it not for her ability to fly, Fluttershy would be easy to mistake for an Earther, and sometimes even her ability to fly was uncertain.

“It’s our year, Rainbow Dash.” The veil of pink fell aside so that Fluttershy could meet Rainbow’s gaze with one turquoise eye. “We got our cutie marks ten years ago.”

Rainbow Dash’s frown broke into a wide, wolfish grin. “Well duh! You have no idea how hard it’s been to keep from blabbing about it!” Just thinking about the Skyborne Dance was enough to make Rainbow Dash’s skin tingle. She’d been looking forward to this day, on and off, for well over two years. But what did the Skyborne Dance have to do with Fluttershy throwing her clothes all over the place?

Something in Rainbow’s brain fell into place with an almost audible click.

“Wait... wait, that’s right! You’re cloudborn! It’s your year too!”

The one eye of Fluttershy’s that was visible narrowed into a glare. “We grew up together! We got our cutie marks at the exact same time!”

“Well... yeah...” Rainbow Dash scratched one hoof against the ground.

“I guess it’s just that... you don’t really act like much of a peg-”

Rainbow Dash bit her lower lip, much too late.

At first, Fluttershy’s gaze hardened further, and she took an angry, gritted-teeth breath--but then she bit her own lip as well, lifted off, and hovered over to the bed, where she sat with her head bowed. Rainbow Dash half-expected Fluttershy to cry, but instead she just sat in silent misery.

“Uh, I didn’t mean... It’s not that you’re not a pegasus, it’s just that you don’t...”

“I know,” Fluttershy said quietly, shaking her head. “It’s okay. I’m sorry for asking you to come...”

“What? No!” Discarded clothing flapped in Rainbow Dash’s tailwind as she flew over to the bed and squeezed Fluttershy into a hug. “Just stick with me, all right? You can be an awesome pegasus.”

Fluttershy squeezed back. “You think I can?”

“Aw, c’mon.” Rainbow Dash leaned back far enough to look at Fluttershy and flash her best grin. “I’m the best there is, remember?”

Fluttershy leaned in and rested against Rainbow Dash’s shoulder. “T-thank you.”

The door burst open with a fuchsia-tinted “THERE you are!” that catapulted Fluttershy off the bed and into the darkness of the closet with a high-pitched screech of terror.

“Wow! Were you having a clothing party in here?” Pinkie bent down to nose at at something silken and red. “Want me to bring my collection of lacy--nope, looks like you already have one. Ooh! is that a bridle on the bed?”

The closet whimpered.

Rainbow Dash shot an alarmed look at the closet, then turned back to the door. “Pinkie, what are you doing in here?”

Two long ears and a white puffball of a head emerged from behind Pinkie. Rainbow Dash glared. It didn’t take a pony with Fluttershy’s abilities to see Angel’s victorious smirk.

“I found Fluttershy!” Pinkie said proudly. “She’s in the closet!” She pointed. The closet whimpered again.

Yelling at Pinkie felt bad, but Rainbow Dash couldn’t contain her outrage. “You barged into her room!”

“Rarity told me to help her find Fluttershy because they were going to have tea at the cafe but Fluttershy was late! So I decided to ask Rainbow Dash to help me, but Rainbow Dash flew way over my head and didn’t hear me calling her name, so I followed her to Fluttershy’s house, and Angel let me in when I knocked, so--”

Angel excused himself from the room, bouncing through the doorframe, down the hall, and out of sight.

“Anyway, do you need help with the clothing party or not? Because I totally have a pink tutu that would look perfect on the--”

“No! The party’s fine! I was just helping Fluttershy with... you know, with pegasus stuff.”

The tip of a yellow muzzle emerged from behind the closet’s door.

“I’m packing for a trip.”

Pinkie straightened as if she’d just taken an electric shock to the rump. “Fluttershy’s going away?”

The rest of Fluttershy’s head edged its way into the light. “Well... yes...”

Pinkie’s eyes widened into discs of white. “For how long?”

Fluttershy pulled her head slowly back into its hiding place as she spoke. “Oh, um... Not TOO long... I mean, probably only a few--”

“I’m going too,” Rainbow Dash interrupted. “It cooould be a while.”

Pinkie’s eyes started to bug out.

“But not forever!” Rainbow Dash said hurriedly, an instant before Pinkie’s eyelids would have started peeling back over the tops of her eyeballs.

“But you’re going away?”

“Yeah,” said Rainbow Dash. “To Cloudsdale.”

“We both are,” said the closet.

“But not forever?” said Pinkie.

“Right,” Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy said together.

Pinkie nodded slowly, staring into the distance through still-widened eyes. Rainbow thought she heard the faint sound of an engine chugging. Then Pinkie’s face snapped into the more familiar configuration of an excited grin.

“I know EXACTLY what to do! Meet me at Sugarcube Corner in an hour to see how a professional handles a clothing party!”

“No, wait! You can’t tell anypony! It’s--” But Pinkie was already gone.

Rainbow Dash snapped her head toward the closet. Fluttershy was already staring back, her mouth hanging open in an expression of utter horror.

“Don’t worry,” Rainbow Dash said, forcing her lips to part into a painful smile. “I got this.”

If Fluttershy’s room had been a scene of destruction, then Sugarcube Corner was complete pandemonium.

Mr. and Mrs. Cake’s bakery had been host to some strange parties in its time, but not even the infamous Spring Fling Fertility Frolic had seen stockings and garter belts hanging from the ceiling fan like streamers. Mounds of sequined clothing dotted the floor, throwing flecks of light onto the walls and ceiling. The most striking decoration by far was the banner, which was barely large enough for its message despite how it stretched across the entire length of the store. It read GOOD LUCK IN CLOUDSDALE MAYBE FOR A WHILE BUT NOT FOREVER RAINBOW DASH AND FLUTTERSHY! in large block letters.

Perhaps nine or ten guests were milling about in various states of amusement and confusion, most of them clothed in capes that Pinkie was busy giving out for the occasion. Rarity didn’t seem to be there just yet, but that was a small comfort, because Applejack and Twilight were whispering to each other, their cutie marks visible from the front as they hid their conversation behind one of the larger piles.

“Okay, wow.”

Rainbow Dash ducked away from the window frame and crouched back down to where Fluttershy was pressed against the wall. “I gotta admit, for such short notice, Pinkie is throwing a pretty awesome clothing party in there.”

“There’s no such thing as a clothing party.” Fluttershy muttered.

Rainbow Dash raised her head for another peek. “There is now.”

“Ooh! They’re here!” cried a bubblegum-colored voice from inside.

Fluttershy’s eyes flew wide open. Rainbow Dash stifled her with a hoof before she could scream in panic.

“Chill out,” Rainbow Dash said, to herself as much as to Fluttershy. “I got this.”

Those words had barely left Rainbow Dash’s lips when the door was thrown open in a burst of confetti—confetti that, upon closer inspection, turned out to be a quantity of foal-sized socks. The familiar lilt of Pinkie’s favorite party music came from inside, along with—Rainbow Dash gulped, and she heard Fluttershy do the same—pointed stares from Applejack and Twilight.

“You made it! What do you think of the decorations?” Pinkie squealed. “Do I know how to throw a clothing party or what?”

Rainbow Dash met Pinkie’s eyes, called upon her deepest reserves of willpower, and grinned right back. “It’s perfect! This is the best clothing party I’ve ever been to!”

With that, Rainbow Dash brushed her way past Pinkie. “All right, everypony!” she said as she strutted through the door and into the heart of the party. “The guests of honor are finally here! Time to get this clothing party into full swing!”

There was a scattering of polite applause, but the party did not noticeably change the level of its swinging.

“So!” somepony said. “Just when were you two plannin’ on telling the rest of us about this trip?”

Rainbow Dash made sure to cement her smirk firmly in place as she turned around to face a glaring Applejack.

“Ha ha! Sorry we forgot. It’s just, you know, weather patrol has been really busy lately, and…”

“Rainbow, we ain’t had nothin’ but clear skies for a week. Would it be so hard to take just a minute to tell your friends what’s goin’ on?”

“Hey! Clear skies are a lot harder than they look!” Rainbow Dash shot back. “First you gotta clear out all the rogue clouds, then there’s the humidity and the, um… Oh look!” She lifted off and started to edge toward the punch table. “Who made the punch? It looks really good!”

She was cut off by Twilight crossing in front of her. “I think what Applejack is saying is that we want to know what’s going on with you and Fluttershy. Is everything okay with you two?”

“Oh yeah—oh yeah! We’re doing great! We just, uh…” Rainbow Dash licked her lips, searching for the right line out of the few that she remembered learning from older cloudborns. “… We’re off to visit our parents. Yeah! Pegasi like to visit their parents in the spring.”

Another voice chimed in from behind Rainbow Dash. “Your parents, you say?”

One of the larger and more garishly colored piles of clothes slithered up from behind Twilight and Applejack, then shed one of its larger hats to reveal a white unicorn head with a blue-purple mane.

“Come to think of it, none of us have ever met your parents,” said Rarity. “I suppose they’ve never found time in their respective schedules to come to visit us here in Ponyville?”

Rainbow Dash gave an oversized, theatrical shrug. “I guess not. Cmon, guys, let’s enjoy the party! I’m gonna go for some punch.” She started to float away.

“Good idea,” Twilight said happily as she fell into step alongside Rainbow Dash. “You and Fluttershy can tell us about your parents over some nice cups of—say, where did Fluttershy go?”

Rainbow Dash had already filled four large cups with purple-red juice. She sniffed one of the cups, then gulped hard. Somepony had turned the punch venomously alcoholic. With a glance over her shoulder, she saw a magenta pony with a mixed-fruit cutie mark slip into the crowd with a cup of punch pinched in her teeth.

“Eh, I’m sure she’s off dancing or bobbing for, um… are they bobbing for underwear over there?”

A quick look around confirmed that none of those statements were true, except for the fact that the apple bobbing barrel was indeed full of panties instead of apples. In fact, Fluttershy was nowhere to be seen. Despite all Fluttershy’s faults, Rainbow Dash had to hand it to her—the girl was a master of stealth.

Applejack pulled up alongside Rainbow Dash at the punch table. “I bet you must be excited to see your folks again,” she said with a friendly, yet terrifyingly inquisitive smile. “I can’t even remember the last time you took a trip up to Cloudsdale that wasn’t just for a contest or a race!”

“Yep! Totally excited to go!” said Rainbow Dash, nodding hard. “Been a long time! Feels like years! Gonna be one awesome trip, uh-huh!”

Rainbow turned away from Applejack and took a solid swallow of punch. It tasted like syrup and markers.

“It’s a pity that they’ve never come to visit us,” Rarity said thoughtfully.

Rainbow Dash looked up from her cup as Rarity pulled up into a flanking position, trapping her between inquisitive white unicorn and well-meaning orange Earther.

“What are they like, if I may ask?” Rarity said in a dangerously sweet lilt.

Rainbow Dash turned back to her punch.

“Oh, you know,” she said to the punch.

“No we don’t,” said Twilight with a laugh as she circled to face Rainbow Dash from across the table. “But I’m sure they must be interesting ponies if they raised a pony like you!”

“Oh, you know,” Rainbow Dash repeated. One of the full cups levitated its way off of the table in a cloud of crystal-blue magic, but two more remained unclaimed.

Rainbow Dash tilted her cup back and drained the contents in a waterfall chug. Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, and Rarity waited patiently for her to finish drinking. Oh dear Celestia, how was a cloudborn supposed to answer that one?

“They were both born in Cloudsdale, and…” Rainbow Dash wracked her brains, but no help surfaced. “My dad had rainbow hair, and my mom, um… she has… nice wings. And they could both fly, and… yeah, they were great at flying! Not as great as me, but…” She cut herself off by closing her teeth on the rim of one of the untouched cups.

“Well, how’re they doing?” said Applejack. “I bet they’re worried about you, it’s been so long...”

Rainbow Dash swallowed another mouthful of sickly-sweet drink, then cleared her throat. Nothing, nothing, she had nothing. “I… don’t really know. Wait, I mean, um, I’m sure they’re fine!”

Rarity lowered her cup, clearing the way for a proper gasp. “Are they well? Is that why you’re off to see them? Oh my poor girl, you must allow us to accompany you to provide emotional support! I’m sure your ailing parents would understand if—”

Twilight straightened, and placed a hoof to her mouth. “Oh, of course! Rainbow, if something’s wrong, you don’t have to face it without us just because we can’t fly! I can—“

Panic shot through Rainbow Dash’s chest, scrambling her increasingly alcohol-addled mind.

“No! No-no-no-no-no! They’re fine! Probably! They just, you know... value their privacy?” She took her time drinking the rest of her second cup, the better to occupy her big mouth for longer.

“No need to be shy, dear,” Rarity said, raising a hoof and resting it on Rainbow Dash’s back. “I’m sure they’re perfectly lovely ponies. It wouldn’t be any trouble at all for me to take a few days off in the next week or so, especially not if it means spending time in such an exotic locale as Cloudsdale!” She raised the punch to her lips, took a sip, then lowered her cup and gave the liquid within a hard look.

Meanwhile, Rarity’s warm and comforting touch made Rainbow Dash shiver with fear. “Oh, I dunno… I think it’s okay if it’s just me and Fluttershy, you know? We both have such… uh, such close-knit families and all…”

Applejack tag-teamed in, still with that unintentionally terrifying smile. “Aww, c’mon, Rainbow. After all the trouble they went through raisin’ you, I think they’d be happy to meet your friends from down here on the ground!”

“No, really,” Rainbow Dash said. Then she took a deep breath and a very shallow, calm sip from the last remaining cup of punch. Fluttershy was counting on her—she had to stay focused! “We don’t really have guests over… um, ever. I don’t think they would be ready for everypony to just roll in through the door...”

Twilight rolled her eyes, her mouth bending with the first traces of a frown. “Well, if you’re going to be so stubborn about their privacy, I guess we’ll just have to ask you how it went once you’re back.”

Perfect! Rainbow Dash already knew all kinds of pre-loaded stories to tell after coming back from the Dance.

“Don’t worry! We’ll tell you all about it!”

Rainbow Dash grinned the first genuinely happy grin of the day. Relief washed over her mind like a cooling wave. She had done it! She’d deflected every question like the awesome cloudborn she was, and now she and Fluttershy would be off to the Skyborne Dance with their unicorn and earth pony friends none the wiser. Rainbow Dash laughed lightly at herself as she pulled the last cup of booze-punch closer with one hoof and cracked a joke. “Besides, how do you know what it’s like to raise a foal? Don’tcha think I would know better than you?”

“I dunno,” said Applejack wryly. “I’ve got Applebloom to take care of, and Rarity always seems to have her hooves full with Sweetie Belle.”

And Rarity laughed, which was such a relief that Rainbow Dash laughed as well as she silently congratulated herself on successfully defusing a potentially dangerous conversation. Out of the corner of her eye, Rainbow Dash saw Fluttershy edging along the front wall. “Hey, Fluttershy!” she yelled, a little too loudly. “Come join us! We just finished talking about our trip!”

Then Rarity’s laughing face froze, and she closed her mouth and slowly tilted her head to the side. “Pardon me, dear, but… what did you just say, a moment ago?”

Rainbow Dash leaned against the table. Her signature smirk had returned—she was in her element now. “I said, I’m pre-tty sure I would know better than you what it’s like… to…”

For a long moment, there was only the sound of Pinkie’s cheerful, bouncing party music.

“What…” Applejack monotoned.

Across the room, Fluttershy bolted for the front door, leaving a trail of spilled punch and jostled ponies as she barged her way through the party and into the street.

“Wait! Wait for me!” Rainbow Dash squealed before taking off in supersonic pursuit, flapping so hard that her tailwind kicked up a storm of flying socks, capes, and cups. A loud record scratch, then a terrible crash sounded as the endtable holding the gramophone toppled over.

“How rude!” Pinkie huffed in the following silence. “They didn’t even wait for the cake! And I went through all that trouble molding it like a pair of pants...”

Author's Note

I've been told that horses actually seek out fermented fruit because they like being drunk.

My Cousin is Having a Baby and She Needs My Help

Rainbow Dash’s cloud-door was unsuitable for slamming, but at least it was opaque. More importantly, it was located thirty feet above the ground, and had a cloud-porch that only a pegasus could stand on. Rainbow Dash took care to close it extra shut, first by sealing the cloudstuff to the frame as usual, then by fastening the never-before-used deadbolt, then finally by sliding the living room table across the floor until it was sitting flush against the wall.

The walls were made of a type of semi-solid cloudstuff that was notoriously bad about acoustics. As such, the next few seconds of silence were extra silent.

Then Rainbow Dash lunged at Fluttershy, and Fluttershy felt warm wetness against her shoulder as Rainbow Dash wailed a series of syllables that probably contained “I’m sorry” at some point. Not that it mattered, because Fluttershy wasn’t angry at Rainbow Dash. She was just… scared.

Very, very scared.

Applejack coasted to a gradual halt in the shadow of Rainbow Dash’s house.

“Do you hear that?” muttered Rarity.

“Hear what?” replied Applejack, but before the words even left her mouth, she heard it—a strain of raised but indistinct voices piercing through the house’s porous walls.

“Are they… shouting at each other?” Rarity said, biting her lip and placing a hoof to her chin.

“Nope,” Applejack said darkly. “I think they’re crying.”

“Well…” Rarity said, lowering her voice as if worried that it might somehow carry all the way up to the house, “what should we do?”

Applejack stared up at the house, pondering an answer. Then she puffed out her chest and loosed a full-force bellow.

“RAINBOW DASH! FLUTTERSHY!”

Out of the corner of her eye, Applejack saw Rarity wince. Applejack ignored Rarity and shouted again.

“Hey! We jus’ want to talk! Whatever it is, you c’n tell us!”

The top of a pink-maned head poked out, looking down from over the edge of the cloud.

“Oh… th-thank you, Applejack and Rarity, we’re very thankful for your support, but—”

Muted shouting sounded from the house. Fluttershy disappeared from sight with a “we don’t need any help packing!”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it!” Applejack yelled.

No answer.

“Fluttershy! Come back out, darn it!”

Rarity gingerly patted Applejack on the shoulder. “Honestly, dear, yelling louder won’t—”

Applejack turned a 180 in place and trotted back the way she came, snorting a sullen “hmph.”

Rarity fell into step alongside Applejack and spoke up with a singsong lilt. “What now? We tried it your way. Perhaps now you’ll reconsider my idea to—”

“We’ll go and talk to Twilight,” Applejack grumbled. “But I have a feeling she ain’t gonna like your idea any more than I do.”

Rarity raised a hoof and knocked at the door to the library. To her surprise, it swung open under the force of the first knock.

“Twilight?” Rarity said as she slipped through the open door. “Didn’t you say you were gonna help Pinkie clean up?”

Twilight was sitting at the library’s reading table with three open books in front of her, lined up in a row. “Pinkie told me that you two would need my help more than her. She didn’t say it, but I think it was her Pinkie Sense acting up. How did it go over there?”

“Not real well,” said Applejack sourly.

Rarity stepped forward, reared up to rest her hooves on the table, and fixed Twilight with her best serious look. Surely Twilight Sparkle, whose Element represented the magic connection between friends, would understand…

“I think the only way is for you to use a scrying spell.”

Applejack’s hooves landed on the table next to Rarity’s. “An’ I told her that this ‘scrying’ thing is only one letter off from ‘spying.’”

Twilight’s eyes flicked to Applejack’s frown, then back to Rarity’s intense stare.

“Um, actually it’s two letters, but… Rarity… Applejack has a point. Are you sure it’s right for us to spy on them like this?”

“Told ya so,” Applejack muttered.

Rarity turned an eye toward Applejack, then pursed her lips together into a pout. Oh no no no, those two had another thing coming if they thought that Rarity would back down so easily.

“Rainbow Dash was crying! Why, she was openly bawling; you heard it better than me, you said so yourself! Don’t you think it’s it our duty as friends to help, whether Rainbow herself thinks so or not?”

Twilight’s eyes widened just the slightest amount. “She was… crying?”

“Yeah,” Applejack said, turning her eyes toward the floor. “Ain’t no doubt about it. Cryin’ hard.”

Twilight closed her books, levitated them into a neat stack, then pushed them aside.

“Rarity, there’s a prism in the top shelf of the storeroom. Would you fetch it for me?”

Rarity trotted off toward the library’s storeroom. She waited until she was out of sight to allow herself a whispered, victorious “Ha!”

“My goodness, she looks even worse than she sounded,” said Rarity. “The poor dear…”

The floating projection from the glowing crystal on the table sharpened, and the image came into full focus. Rainbow Dash was sitting on a mess of rumpled sheets, heaving with sobs, her face buried in Fluttershy’s shoulder.

“Is she okay?” Applejack said, leaning closer. “Consarn it, I wish we could go up there!”

Rarity tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Well, she certainly had a lot of that punch...”

Twilight shushed them both as the crystal emitted a distorted warbling sound, followed by the sound of Rainbow Dash’s scratchy, full-force bawling.

"I'm s-sorry, I'm so sorry oh my gosh I'm sorry..."

Unlike Rainbow Dash, who was melting into Fluttershy's like a discarded garment, Fluttershy was as stiff as a coatrack and staring into the distance with her lower lip held tightly between her teeth. "There, um... there, there."

Rainbow pulled her face back from Fluttershy's shoulder momentarily, so that she could fix Fluttershy with a teary stare and shake her poor yellow friend by the shoulders. "We gotta leave! We gotta leave, like, right now, before we see them again and I tell them even more!" And then she fell back into Fluttershy's shoulder again. "Oh Celestia, I'm so stupid, I'm so stupid!"

"Well, you did your best..." Fluttershy kept her eyes averted even as she ran one hoof down Rainbow Dash's back. "Even though, well, maybe you shouldn't have had all that punch..."

“And th-th-they asked about our parents! I couldn’t—” Rainbow Dash sniffed loudly, and it sounded like she was doing so through a thick coating of mucus. “I c-couldn’t come up with anything! Nothing! Nothing at all!”

"Nobody's perfect... it's okay... maybe it won't matter so much when--"

"And what I said about raising foals! Oh Mother, did you see Applejack's face?

Fluttershy stiffly patted Rainbow on the back. “It’ll be okay!” she squeaked. “It’ll all be okay! Once we get to the Skyborne Dance you can ask some friends for lines for that.”

Twilight gasped faintly. Rarity glanced over at her, but turned her eyes back to the projection when Rainbow Dash managed to let out another sentence between her fits of hysterics.

“W-what do I tell them? I can’t tell them! They’ll know that I blew our cover! I’ll go down in history as the stupid l-l-loser who--”

The image winked out, and the crystal dulled from the inside until it was milky and opaque.

“That’s all for now,” Twilight said. “The crystal needs to recharge for an hour.”

“The poor dears,” Rarity said quietly.

Applejack rubbed both her temples. “Why couldn't they just tell us what's wrong? For Celestia's sake, we just want ta help...”

“And what they said about their parents, and the Skyborne Dance,” said Twilight. “We’ve known them for so long, and…”

Rarity tilted her head at Twilight. “Have you ever heard of this Skyborne Dance?”

“Only rumors. We know that it’s a festival for pegasi who were born in the clouds.” She slipped the bottom book of the stack free with her magic, and fanned briefly through the pages, staring hard at them as they flicked past.

Rarity stared at the crystal, even though it had fallen silent and was quite inert. So many questions, so few answers, and coming from such dear friends who had been hiding so many secrets… “Some secret, ancient ritual, perhaps?” she speculated. “A relic of the ancient pegasus tribes?”

Twilight shook her head. “No, the books don’t make it sound that way. But either the pegasi never gave anypony a straight answer about what happens there, or nopony who got one ever wrote it down.”

Applejack leaned over the table, trying to stick her head between Twilight and Rarity. “I'm sure this is all real interestin', but does this dancing that they’re off to do have anythin’ to do with the fact that those two ran off in tears when we tried to ask about their parents?”

Neither Rarity nor Twilight Sparkle offered an answer to that question for several long seconds.

Rarity's hoof struck the table with a low clop. “It’s decided, then. Applejack and I will follow them.”

Applejack immediately wheeled around to fix Rarity with a glare. “What, spying on them once wasn’t enough?”

Twilight made a move as if to speak up, then closed her mouth when Rarity spoke over her.

“All we’re doing is taking a little trip up to Cloudsdale!”

“So that we can sneak around and follow them, right?”

Twilight turned back to Applejack.

“Sneaking? We are going to Cloudsdale with a noble and important mission! Just because we happen to be there at the same time as them…”

“I’m not THAT dumb, Rarity, and neither are those two!”

Twilight’s head twisted again, and kept turning rhythmically between her two friends at every step of their verbal tennis match.

Rarity pursed her lips. “Did you see the distress Rainbow Dash was in?”

“Rainbow Dash is a big pony, an’ she can talk to us when she’s darn well ready. Like when she’s sober, maybe!”

“She looked pretty bad either way,” said Twilight.

“You have such faith in Rainbow Dash’s ability to know what’s good for her,” said Rarity.

“You just want to sneak into this Skyborne Dance thing!”

Twilight turned back to Rarity. Rarity did her best to hold Twilight’s attention for a bit longer this time, lest the poor girl hurt her neck.

“I admit to being curious, but that’s beside the point! This could be the most important thing we ever do for them! Need I remind you that we are mending families?”

Ah. A direct hit. Applejack hesitated for a single, critical half-beat. “Well, yeah… but…”

Rarity leaned toward Applejack and laid on the pressure. “Even putting our friends’ parents aside, it seems to me that Rainbow Dash owes us all some answers, whether she thinks so or not!”

“Well, what makes you think we’re gonna find those answers up there?”

“There’s clearly some sort of purpose to this trip of theirs, or Rainbow Dash wouldn’t have gone through so much trouble hiding it from us!”

“It’s true,” said Twilight. “They didn’t tell us about the Skyborne Dance.”

Some of Applejack’s fire returned as she shot Twilight a look, then raised a hoof to thump it against the top of the table. “What if it turns out this dance has nothin’ to do with anythin’ at all? We’ll just go up and snoop on ‘em for no reason?”

“Well, we have to try!” Rarity huffed back. “I, for one, refuse to see such close friends in such distress without doing something about it!”

Applejack opened her mouth, but then her glare melted into a vaguely forlorn, distant gaze. “Rainbow… if only we could just talk to her…”

Rarity rubbed her chin several times, then narrowed her eyes into a look twice as serious as the one she had used on Twilight. “My dear Applejack, I would like to propose a compromise. We will go to Cloudsdale together, and if at any time you deem our presence in Cloudsdale needlessly invasive, then we will both return immediately to Ponyville, and we will apologize to our pegasus friends at the nearest opportunity.”

Applejack turned her eyes toward the ground, and her frown deepened. “I ain’t sayin’ yes just yet. What’s the catch?”

“You will help me investigate this Dance for one day.” Rarity straightened, holding her head high as she dictated her terms. “However invasive it may seem, however uncomfortable the truths we find, we will spend at least one day exploring this matter. After that, you may decide whether or not our outing will continue.”

"One day?"

Rarity nodded. "One day. Then, and only then, we can abort our mission at your sole discretion."

"Um," said Twilight.

"Deal," said Applejack. "We go for one day." She raised a hoof, spit on it hard enough to cause a visible splash, then extended it toward Rarity.

Rarity instinctually recoiled away from the spittle-covered hoof being extended toward her. She edged carefully past it, then patted Applejack on the shoulder. “I’m glad we could come to an agreement.”

“…So!”

Twilight, on the far side of the table, cleared her throat.

“Two sets of Shimmer Wings, then?”

My Uncle is Getting Married and I Haven't Seen Him in a While

Rarity flexed her wings, and despite the circumstances, she couldn’t help but crack a smile. True to their name, her pair of butterfly wings shimmered in the yellowing sunlight from the library’s downstairs window, glowing with pools of soft pink and beetle-shell green. They were even more beautiful than she remembered—instead of delicate pastels, the multicolored pools were vibrant and multifaceted, each sharply segmented with multiple shades like scales on a fish.

Fabulous did not begin to describe Rarity’s second time wearing Shimmer Wings. But Rarity was no fool, and this time she had the presence of mind to ask a crucial question:

“They’re more durable this time? You’re absolutely sure? Not, of course, that I doubt your magical skills, nor the raw magical power of a Princess, but…”

“Yes, absolutely!” said Twilight with two firm nods. She levitated a scroll in front of Rarity that was dense with what must have been abbreviations for magical lingo, arranged into formulas and diagrams. “There’s a reason I told you to let me work on the spell for a few hours. I was able to channel some pegasus magic into your wings this time, and just look how many avenues for new formulas it opened up!”

Rarity nodded placatingly as she searched the scroll and its formulas for any facet that might be decipherable by a laypony with only a basic grasp of higher-level magic. There were no such facets, of course.

“Yes, well, of course I trust your judgement, dear, but are there any …limitations that we should be aware of, this time?”

At that, Twilight folded the scroll and fetched a poster-sized sheet of paper that seemed to be a blueprint for a pair of curved butterfly wings like the ones currently adorning Rarity‘s back. “I told you, there’s pegasus magic in them this time,” she said. “This is some of the most exciting experimenting I’ve done in… well, ever! I might be the first pony to ever weave pegasus magic and unicorn magic together!”

“Glad you’re havin’ fun, but you do remember that yer’ betting our lives on these experiments of yours, right?” grumbled Applejack from where she stood leaning against the far wall. Her wings were pressed neatly together in a vertical fan, giving them the texture and sheen of coarse silk.

Twilight licked her lips, then nodded, not quite as quickly this time. “The pegasus magic made them much stronger than last time. They won’t be damaged by something as simple as direct sunlight, they should be more functional, and they’ll last for at least a week.”

Applejack just glowered harder. “We ain’t gonna be up there for a week.”

“Yes, well, we shall see about that.” Rarity cleared her throat lightly, and Applejack turned her head aside, still wearing a frown. Rarity pretended not to notice.

“Twilight? The final step, if you would?”

“Ah. Yes. I have it right… right here.” Twilight faltered, shooting Rarity an unreadable look, and then she used her magic to lift a cloth sack from behind her stack of books. From it she drew a silver hairpin. “Do you want help putting it on?”

The hairpin glinted in the afternoon sun. Rarity grimaced as just looking at it made her horn tingle with—yes, fear, that was the word for what Rarity felt as the little sliver of metal floated its way toward her in the grip of Twilight’s magic.

“Yes, please. I would prefer if you fastened it for me.”

Rarity swallowed and closed her eyes tightly. She felt the tiny tug at her mane, and then the tiny buzz of magic wrapping itself around her head…

“There. Remember, it’s only a visual illusion, and it’ll only stay for as long as the hairpin stays in place. It’ll give you a little signal if you start to use your magic, as a reminder not to.” Twilight bit her lip. “Your actual horn is fine, I promise. So you can handle it... right?”

“Yes, of course. Just an illusion.” Rarity raised a hoof to her forehead and took a deep breath. She could still feel her horn there, and that was what mattered. Her horn was still there, and it only looked like she had just been magically de-horned. It was invisible. Not removed. Her horn was fine.

“Hunh,” said Applejack.

“So!” Rarity said with a nervous laugh. “Do I look like a pegasus?” She didn’t turn to face Applejack. She was still staring intently into the distance in order to prevent herself from looking up at where her horn was meant to be, and indeed where her horn still was, so there was no need to look and see that it was gone...

“No,” said Applejack.

“Yes!” said Twilight.

“Quite,” said Rarity, through a deep grimace.

Applejack snorted. “Last I checked, Rainbow Dash didn’t have frilly butterfly wings.”

“She could,” said Twilight, “if she ever wanted them. The Shimmer Wings spell is much easier to use on pegasi, to temporarily transform their normal wings. In fact, according to some of these reports, quite a few pegasi liked to wear them to the Skyborne Dance.”

She turned and squinted at her stack of books. “Too bad nopony has any idea why.”

“So we’re going up in disguise? Am I the only one in here who thinks we should figure something out that’s more—you know—honest?” Applejack turned her glare toward Twilight, who quailed slightly.

“I know how you feel, Applejack, but... I tried to talk to them too, after you left. I thought maybe it would help if I flew up to Rainbow Dash’s house and asked politely, but they wouldn’t let me in.” Twilight swallowed, and hung her head just the slightest bit. “I think Rainbow Dash had sobered up. She wasn’t crying. But she sounded mad at me for coming.”

Applejack sighed, shaking her head slowly. “Why can’t they talk to us when we all jus’ want to be there for them?”

“You know why,” said Twilight. “Fluttershy can’t bring herself to talk about it. Rainbow Dash is too proud to ask for help.”

“Which is why it’s up to us to help them,” Rarity said, with another stretch of her wings. “And help them we will, whether they like it or not. Come along; we may as well follow while we can.”

Applejack breathed a deep sigh of relief as her hooves touched down, at long last, on a solid surface. Her heart still thumped with anxiety from being so far separated from the world that she called home, but at least now she could feel something beneath her hooves, even if that something was a sheet of water vapor suspended over a million billion foot drop. She tried with all her might to focus on the ivory columns and arches on the far side of the open-air walkway in order to forget the sensation of floating up, up, higher into the emptiness of the late afternoon sky, up until the strongest trees were mossy distant shrubs below, and she was miles and miles away from the solidness of the earth with just a pair of Shimmer Wings keeping her from plummeting to her death, those delicate translucent things affixed to her back by somepony else’s unicorn magic...

“Are you all right, dear? You look… pale.” Rarity touched down next to Applejack and scanned her over with a worried look.

“Yes! Jus’ fine!” Applejack said vigorously, forcing the words through her scrunched muzzle and seized-up chest. She raised a hoof and adjusted her hat—holding it to her head during the climb had been another of the last hour’s many harrowing experiences. “Never been better! Now let’s get on with findin’ this Skyborne Dance while I still—”

Then Applejack straightened with a jolt as she felt a feathered wing nudging her in the side.

“Hey, quiet down, there are groundbounds here!” said a stallion's voice with a husky chuckle.

The fellow standing next to Applejack had a stiff, upright white mane, a dark charcoal coat, and a highly intimidating grin. He winked. “Welcome home, anyway.”

Applejack stiffened in place. “Groundbounds? What’s a groun—“

“Oh, of course!” said Rarity in a hasty trill as she slid into position on Thunderlane’s other side. “Deepest apologies. Wouldn’t want to let any unicorns or earth ponies hear our discussion!”

“Don’t worry, it’s not a big—hold on." Thunderlane’s brows arched as he turned to look at Rarity. "You look really familiar. Are you--”

Applejack felt her wings snap into an upright position. For the second time in as many minutes, she pursed her lips into a scrunch and let her eyes dart away.

“Oh, no! We’ve never met, I’m quite certain!” said Rarity in a tight burst.

Thunderlane blinked several times at Rarity. “Hunh. You look exactly like… well, anyway, you’re in luck. This is gonna be one of the best years ever.”

Rarity tilted her head, circling in front of Thunderlane and allowing Applejack the opportunity to shrink away.

“The best, you say? And whyever might that be?”

Thunderlane’s grin came back. “Because it’s my year. And I hear it’s Rainbow Dash’s year, too.”

Rarity put a hoof to her mouth. “Oh, is it really? Well I, for one, simply can’t wait to see Rainbow Dash at the dance!”

Applejack curled her lip. Rarity was an excellent actress, and it was starting to grate.

“Don’t worry.” Thunderlane chuckled again, a dark gravelly sound. “Neither can anypony else. That’s why I’m gonna start heading for the jump-off before it gets crowded.” He started to trot away, then turned his head and said over his shoulder: “Oh, and your wings are beautiful, by the way. You two look like you’re out to have some real fun. I’ll make sure I keep an eye out for you!”

“What’s a jump-off?” Applejack said out loud. “I don’t think I like the sound of that.”

She was shushed by Rarity, though Thunderlane was already out of earshot anyway. “Careful, darling,” Rarity said in a conspiratorial whisper. “We musn’t compromise our disguises, lest we alert Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy to our presence.”

“You’re enjoying this,” Applejack said with an accusatory glower. Then she motioned to Rarity’s chest with her muzzle, where a half-full coin purse was hanging from a cord. In fact, Applejack recognized it as Rarity's favorite coin purse, gem-studded and artfully cut so that it might be mistaken for a fashion statement rather than a functional accessory.

“Y’all even brought money! What, to buy souvenirs with? No, wait—maybe to offer bribes, is that right?”

Rarity cleared her throat daintily, then flicked her wings and rose a few inches into the air. “All in the course of fulfilling our purpose here in the clouds. Now, shall we?” And she drifted forward, without waiting to see if Applejack was following.

Applejack kept her wings pressed firmly together as she trotted along. She kept her eyes pasted on the cloud-buildings ahead, in order to keep herself from looking at where the platform she was standing on faded to nothingness.

Rarity had seen Cloudsdale once before, but most of her previous visit had been consumed by a tour of the inside of a factory, and the rest had taken place in a specially constructed arena far from the core of the city. The attentions of the worker ponies had been a fine thing, to be sure, but if she had known of a place like this hiding only a short flight away from the weather facility, well… suffice to say she would have passed on the opportunity to learn about artificial rainbows and wind currents.

The road running through the heart of Cloudsdale was a wide strip of beaten-flat cloud, lined on all sides by towering works of cloud-architecture. Weightless staircases supported by nothing but wind and magic led to pavilions that sat on top of ornate buildings with arched entryways and sculpted pillars, while massive statues of rearing pegasi with flared wings watched over both residents and tourists from their pedestals. The afternoon sun glared down sharply, coloring the city in smooth gradients of grey-white-gold.

Most of the activity, however, was located on the ground level. A steady stream of pegasi flitted between molded-cloud vendor stands that studded the street on either side. Some of the stands were humble tabletops; others attracted the eye with tall shelves and sculpted flair.

Rarity simply floated in place and drank in the view until Applejack’s voice pierced her reverie.

“Any ideas for where to start, Rarity?”

“How ‘bout right here?” somepony said in a too-loud basso blare.

Applejack and Rarity both pivoted—Applejack with a snap of the head, Rarity with an awkward, wobbling twist—to see a vendor waving at them from only a few paces away. His cloudstuff table, pale ochre coat, and white mane had almost entirely camoflaged him against the side of a building.

“Don’t be shy!” he said, beckoning to Applejack. “I got plenty for you two if you’re just starting your shopping.”

Applejack glanced up at Rarity. Rarity nodded to Applejack.

The stallion circled around the corner of his table to meet the two as they approached. “You two visiting the hometown, or just sightseeing?”

Out of the corner of her eye, Rarity saw Applejack giving her a look. She ignored Applejack as she touched down and folded her wings. “Visiting home, of course!” she said, flashing the vendor her best charming smile. “It’s… ah… it’s our year!”

He smiled back. “Of course it is, if you’re wearing wings like that. Go on then, have a look. Ask me if you have questions.”

Rarity’s eyes widened as she approached the stand. “These are… why, they’re simply amazing,” she said, and this time there was no need for acting. She barely stopped herself from asking what are these? and instead settled on poring over them.

Most of the items laid out were jewelry, along with a set of thin vials that looked to be full of liquid rainbow. All of the earrings, bracelets, and necklaces were set with what looked like thick chunks of glass, filtering the glaring sunlight into colored sparks with their prism-like surfaces. As Rarity leaned closer, she saw that they didn’t merely catch the sun—each gem glowed with a tiny colored flame from within, so that the razor-cut facets glinted with living light.

The vendor grinned. “Glad you like the ice. I make them myself.” Then he rocked his head to one side. “Except the dye, of course. I may be good, but I can’t Rainboom. Though I hear there’s a certain somepony coming to town this year who can.”

Now that she was closer to him, Rarity could see the fellow’s hard jawline and the the shallow wrinkles around his eyes.

Applejack looked up from the table with a raised brow. “Tha’s not the first time we’ve heard someone talk about Rainbow Dash. Sounds like she’s gonna have her hooves full with ponies lookin’ for her.”

He cleared his throat with a rumbling cough. “Something like that. She’ll be popular, sure enough. But, hey! We’re here to talk about you, not her. See anythin’ you like?”

Applejack tipped her hat. “Thanks, but I think—“

“Only everything!” Rarity gushed. “Give us your full sales pitch, if you please!”

The old vendor’s grin came back in full force. “Thought you’d never ask. The frozen lightning and sundrops would be perfect with your dark mane. And if you’re pierced, I’m the only one out here who has aurora-shard studs as bold as these. Snowfeathers would make a nice contrast, or you could dab some dye on your coat…”

Between the fanciful names and the brilliance of each gem, Rarity could hardly keep up. The aurora-shard studs caught Rarity’s eye most of all—crystalline and column-shaped like growths of quartz, with soft, richly colored shimmers dancing within. She nearly reached out to lift one in her magic, then hurriedly held herself back when she felt a sudden buzzing sensation from the enchantment nestled in her mane.

“So,” said the only true pegasus in the vicinity as he hovered over Rarity’s shoulder, “is this your first time coming to a Dance?”

Rarity nodded without taking her eyes off of the gems. “It is indeed! Will you be attending as well?”

To Rarity’s surprise, the old fellow broke out in hearty laughter. “Ha! Trying to get a better price on the ice with flattery? Nah, I don’t need to go and be the crusty codger in a party full of kids. I’ll just let you look while I take care of your friend, all right?”

“Of course,” said Rarity absentmindedly.

Applejack abruptly turned her head away from the cloudscape and back toward the stand. “Oh, uh, I dunno if—“

Their host clicked his tongue as he gave Applejack with a contemplative once-over. “Lessee. The rainbow dye would be perfect in that lovely long mane of yours. And maybe the darker auroras for your coat color? Uh, hold on. Groundbounds nine o’clock.”

A dark mauve unicorn with a camera hanging from her neck trotted up to the booth, with a burnt-orange earth pony following close behind. Before the two could join Rarity in examining the display, their path was blocked by a wall of grinning pegasus. His voice jumped nearly a full octave into the upper register as he met them both with an enormous grin.

“Well hey there! If it ain’t a couple of cloud-walkers up seein’ the sights! Welcome to Cloudsdale, friends!” He slid up to the unicorn and hung one hoof across her shoulders. “You enjoying our city so far? Whaddaya think? Bet you want a souvenir of your trip, eh?”

The groundbound tourist visibly straightened, and her lips pursed together just the slightest amount. “Err,” she said. “Yes, I… that is, my husband and I…”

“We wanted to visit the city center before our cloud-walker spells expire,” the earth pony of the pair said curtly. “Is there some kind of fair going on?”

“Nah, nothing so fancy-shmancy. Just a kinda… you know, a meet-up thing for selling little knick-knacks. Like a… whaddaya call it…”

“Like a flea market,” replied the earth pony with a flat stare.

“Yeah!” said the vendor, nodding so hard that it made his mane fly. “A flea market! Now, can I interest the pretty lady in some rose quartz? Colored crystal? I import my stuff all the way from—“

“Er… no thank you, I… we’re just browsing.” The unicorn detached herself from the salespony’s wing and drifted back to her husband’s side. “Thank you!”

The two walked off. Rarity saw the earth pony glance backward with a faint but unmistakable frown. The seller, of course, had already turned his back on them in favor of his original two customers.

“Sorry ‘bout that. Where was I?”

“Did you just call these things quartz and crystal?” Applejack said, leaning to the side to look past the seller and toward the two retreating cloud-walkers. “I thought you said—“

“What can I say? I’ve forgotten more lines than most of you kids ever bother to learn. When it was my year, my friends and I used everything from ‘my cousin’s having a baby’ to ‘they need help with hurricane season.’ I think we even invented some ourselves. We told a story about a lovebird infestation, once. Ha!”

“A lovebird infestation,” Rarity echoed. “I… I see. Very clever of you.”

He nodded sagely, then wrinkled his nose. “Nowadays all anypony learns is the one about parents. I swear, sooner or later somepony’s going to blow it big time because they know so few lines. Nopony likes having to do damage control because of some idiot getting drunk and fumbling a line. And we always remember who did it, too.”

Rarity glanced at Applejack. Applejack seemed to be intensely interested in the rainbow dye.

“Well!” said Rarity brightly. “I would love a set of light blue aurora studs, a few of the large snowfeathers, and one of the… erm, the frozen lightning, was it called? And two vials of rainbow dye for my friend.”

This time, Rarity remembered to use her hooves instead of her magic to open the pouch hung around her neck. “And how much would that be?”

He rocked his head back and forth thoughtfully as he scanned over the items Rarity had selected. “For you two, just fifty for the lot. You deserve to look good on your year.”

Rarity paused with her hoof still inside her jeweled coin pouch, and looked up with her head tilted. “That’s a very... a very reasonable price.” Even without knowing a thing about the gemstones she was buying, she found it hard to believe that it was appropriate for items of such beauty to be sold for so little. “Are you quite sure?”

The old stallion gave a low snort. “Please. I don’t gouge. I don’t think it’s right to charge out the flanks for things that’ll just melt in a month or two.”

Rarity furrowed her brow. “Melt, did you say?”

She bent closer to the large stone that she had selected, peering at it with new eyes. She had overlooked the gem’s numerous flaws on her first inspection because of the dancing white-yellow spark trapped within, but now Rarity’s expert eyes were able to look past the unfamiliar beauty and see the white filaments and tiny air bubbles trapped inside. It almost looked like…

“Don’t worry, my ice is as solid as it gets without using glass to cheat. Just don’t wander too far out with them. They still need to be around wings and weather, or else they’ll be nothing but plain old frozen water.”

Rarity’s mouth hung half open as she stared at her chosen piece of ‘frozen lightning.’ Somehow, she managed to blindly locate a fifty-bit gem and deposit it into the vendor’s outstretched hooves.

Applejack cleared her throat. “Rarity? Put all that stuff on, and then we oughta go. Wouldn’t want to, you know, be late to the dance.”

“Yes, of course.” Rarity reached for her purchased “jewelry.” True to its name, the frozen lightning was cold to the touch, but it was absolutely dry—it seemed no more likely to melt than a sapphire that had been left on the windowsill on a cold night.

Using hooves instead of magic to affix a clip to her mane was simple enough, and the soft white “feathers” were attached to loops that tightened easily, but inserting the studs was a somewhat more delicate procedure. Just once, she bit back a yelp as the sharp rod missed its mark and prodded her in the soft part of her ear.

The seller leaned against his table as he watched Rarity. “Just so you know,” he said, “you’re right next to one of the easier jump-offs. Circle behind the big pavillion, fly straight out and punch through the big cumulus bank, then climb by about fifty lengths. The Storm Wall is looking mild this year, but you should be able to see it just fine once you’re through the veil.”

“Well, thank ya kindly!” said Applejack, toying with one of the vials between her hooves. “We’ll just be off to the, uh...”

She swallowed audibly.

“We’ll just be goin’ to the ‘jump-off’ now. Thanks for all yer help!”

Minutes later, Applejack was standing upright on a narrow ledge of cloud, with her back against a wall of cloud, and a million billion foot drop inches away from her hooves.

“Jus’ one day,” Applejack muttered, raising a hoof to her hat and pressing down on it until it nearly covered her eyes. “Only here for one day…”

Author's Note

For those who have already read chapter 2, I made a very large change to it after publishing it: Rarity and Applejack now know much less than they did in the previous version. Go back and have a look if you weren't already aware of this.

There's a Construction Project that's Deperate for Workers

Surprisingly, Applejack found that hovering was much less terrifying than standing on a ledge. Compared to lifting herself up and away from the solid, familiar earth, it felt almost normal to use her wings for moving forward through space, or flapping them to hang still in the air. In fact, pressing through the veil of cumulus had been the easiest part of all—the lack of visibility made it impossible to look down and see the ground so far below.

Rarity hovered closer. “You see? I told you it wouldn’t be so bad!"

“G-glad yer havin’ fun,” Applejack said through gritted teeth. “Let’s just find this Storm Wall before I—”

Rarity raised a brow. “Erm.”

Applejack gritted her teeth harder. “’Erm’ what?”

“I believe that may be what we’re looking for?”

As she turned her head to follow the direction that Rarity was pointing in, Applejack felt her left eye start to twitch. Rarity was pointing at one of the biggest, darkest storm clouds that Applejack had ever seen.

Applejack knew what a serious storm was supposed to look like: a horizon-spanning stripe of charcoal grey that dulled the landscape beneath with torrents of distant rain. This storm, of course, was different. It still stretched for what seemed like miles in either direction, but it wasn’t rolling in from the horizon. Instead, it was directly in front of her face, heavy and menacing, and apparently she was supposed to fly right on through it.

As if hypnotized by the menace of the Storm Wall, Applejack floated slowly forward. She came to a halt with her muzzle inches away from the surface of the storm. It was artificial for sure—the cool late-afternoon air was calm and breezy, heedless of the monster in its midst.

Rarity’s distant voice had a distinctly nervous tremor to it. “I’m sure it’s just a little bit of camouflage. They wouldn’t intentionally make this Skyborne Dance dangerous… would they?”

Applejack extended a hoof until it passed through the storm cloud’s surface. It was like dipping her hoof into a cold bath. Fine, stinging droplets of rain struck her skin in a continuous spray, at a nearly horizontal angle.

“Or perhaps there’s a way around it? It’s called the Storm Wall, so it stands to reason that there might be a Storm Door somewhere...”

Applejack tipped her hat off of her head and clenched it between her teeth, then backed up by a flap or two and took a deep, slow breath.

Rarity must have seen the determination in her eyes, because Applejack heard an alarmed voice from somewhere to the left saying “Applejack! What are you doing?”

Applejack dove headlong into the storm.

The wind immediately siezed her by the wings and wrenched her to the left like a leaf caught in a freezing gale. Panic shot through her from nose to tail and acid surged up from her stomach as the world spun into a blur of howling chaos. The rain came in solid sheets of hostile cold, the wind howled at her from every direction at once, and worst of all, there was no end in sight--there was nothing to see all around except the grey walls of the storm.

Applejack strained her wings and kicked and twisted and flailed with every muscle in her body as if she could somehow swim through the air or at least twist herself upright again, all the while clenching down on her hat so hard that her jaw started to hurt. Nothing helped, because Applejack was only a pale imitation of a pegasus, a foolish little earth pony with decorative paper fused to the small of her back. She tumbled through the air until the panic in her chest started to give way to ice-cold dread, and her muscles started to lock up from fatigue.

Something slammed into Applejack from above and squeezed her painfully around the ribs, dragging her into a climb and banking firmly to the right. In another few seconds, it was golden sunlight pouring onto her face instead of wind and rain. Then the hooves clamping her body dumped her in mid-flight. She crashed into a pillowy surface, bounced once, then tumbled to a halt.

For a too-short few moments, Applejack simply rested, buried in the warm cumulus. With a flicker of satisfaction, she realized that her hat was still clutched between her teeth.

Then the realization struck, with gut-wrenching force.

“Rarity,” Applejack muttered into the cloud. “… Rarity!”

She thrashed her way to all fours and turned an awkward about-face on the uneven surface, temporarily forgetting that she had wings.

True to its name, the storm formed a looming wall of grey, cold and opaque even where it should have been lit by the sun. Just as before, it could have been nothing more than a hanging veil of rain-gorged cloud—nothing escaped its borders, not a single gust of wind or drop of rain.

“H-hey! Somepony’s trapped in the storm!” Applejack yelled. She looked around—she was standing on a tuft of cloud that crested into a steep hillside, and there was nopony else in sight. It was just Applejack, alone, soaked from nose to tail, staring up at a huge grey wall of death. “Somepony, please, help!”

“Incoming!” yelled a mare’s voice in reply.

Two rain-soaked ponies burst free of the cloud—a soaked and wind-tousled Rarity, being carried by a pale violet pegasus. Applejack scampered out of the way as savior and passenger whipped overhead to slam into the upright part of the cloud, sending cloud-fluff flying in a violent puff of white.

The vapor cleared. The impact zone had been partially obliterated, leaving a crater around Rarity and her rescuer. The good Samareitan was still clutching Rarity with all four legs, having twisted in the air to place herself between Rarity and the cloud. After a moment, she decoupled from her passenger and hopped to a light landing.

“Everypony all right?”

“Are now, thank Celestia—and thanks to you, too!” Applejack said, her heart still fluttering with traces of adrenaline.

The stranger flicked rain from her spiked white-blue mane, then extended a hoof to help Rarity out of her sprawled position in the impact crater. “Let me guess—first time wearing Shimmer Wings?”

“Somethin’ like that,” said Applejack.

“Second time,” said Rarity. She grimaced as the unpleasant memories surfaced—first falling from the sky, now being tossed helplessly by a storm. “The first time didn’t go terribly well, either.”

The stranger chuckled. “Don’t feel too bad. It’s real different taking the Storm Wall with Shimmers on. Or…” She gave both of them a curious look. “Maybe you haven’t done it with real wings, either?”

“Can’t say I have,” said Applejack.

“Really? Then you gotta let me show you two around! Right after I give you the old blow-dry treatment.” She flexed her wings, then started to flap madly and turn tight loops around Rarity and Applejack.

“Blow-dry?” It took a moment for those words to sink in. Then Rarity shook her head rapidly, sending her still sopping mane flying. “But… Oh Celestia. Wait, wait!”

It was too late. The lavender pegasus whipped into a lavender blur that buffeted Rarity with a stiff, blustering wind from all sides, not unlike the power of the storm, only without the rain, or the darkness, or the danger—the treatment was rather pleasant, all told, if a bit overwhelming. The only problem was…

The source of the blow-dry flung herself free of the spiral and drifted to a halt. The wind died down.

“My MANE!” squealed Rarity.

“Sorry!” the mare said hurriedly. “Thought you would want to dry off!”

And now Rarity had two reasons to keep her eyes pointed straight ahead. Having a hornless forehead was bad enough, but at least she could still feel the reality of her intact horn. As for her mane, there was no escaping the fact that it now looked and felt like a frizzy, wind-ravaged disaster. Rarity took a deep breath, straightened her neck, and put on a practiced, diplomatic smile.

“Yes, of course, very thoughtful of you.” She raised a hoof to touch her mane, and immediately regretted it as she felt the puff of fuzz where there ought to have been a smooth, perfect curl.

Applejack shook out her mane a few times, then contentedly plopped her hat back onto her head. “I’m just glad to be warm and dry.” The jewelry vendor had been right, Rarity thought—the stripe of rainbow running through Applejack’s long mane made for a nice accent, even if it was largely obscured by that clunky brown hat that the farm girl insisted on wearing all the time.

As Rarity looked Applejack over, Applejack turned toward Rarity and chuckled. “The snow-feathers kinda make you look like a peacock.”

Rarity cringed, then gave their would-be hostess a pleading look. “Do you think you could help me in acquiring the use of a brush?”

“Hmm,” the mare said.

“No need for a complete fashion array! Just a brush. For my mane.” Rarity gave in to temptation and touched her mane again. It was still fuzzy. And, apparently, it was also fanned out like a peacock’s tail. “Please,” she added, letting just a shade of desperation slip into her tone.

“Hmm,” the mare repeated. “I… don’t really know.”

Rarity tapped her front hooves restlessly. “Just a simple brush?”

She took the question with an alarmingly casual shrug. “Well, you’ll probably find somepony who’s into that stuff where we’re going. But seriously, let me give you the tour!” She flapped twice, lifted off, and started to slowly climb until she was hovering overhead. “C’mon!”

With that, she disappeared over the crest of the cloud’s hill.

“I think I know her,” Applejack said quietly.

“Oh? Who is she?” said Rarity.

Applejack sniffed. “Her name’s Cloudchaser. She came to Ponyville for the tornado. And again with her boyfriend Apple Cinnamon for my family reunion.”

Rarity swallowed. “Oh.”

“You coming?” called a voice from the other side of the hill.

“Right behind you!” replied Rarity.

Compared to the heart of Cloudsdale, the view from inside the Storm Wall was… less beautiful, perhaps, but far more overwhelming. There were no streets; there wasn’t even a main artery of pony traffic. There was a natural-looking cloudscape that bunched into peaks and dropped into sharp cliffs, and there were buildings that rose seamlessly from the clouds or floated on cumulus cushions of their own without any regard for the lay of the “land.”

The party of three touched down on a “hilltop.”

“I’ll never get tired of this,” Cloudchaser said. “This is the fifth Dance I’ve been to in a row, and my year was two years ago.”

Applejack stood transfixed by the view, her brow faintly furrowed as if she was having trouble taking it all in. “How do y’all even find your way around, the way it all floats willy-nilly? It’s makin’ me dizzy.”

Cloudchaser snickered. “Yeah, I know, the place is big, and traditional architecture can be confusing. My secret is not bothering to find the same party twice. You’re only here for six days, so you might as well see as much as you can in one run, right?”

“Ya really love it here, huh?” said Applejack, still staring out across the distance.

Cloudchaser responded by pursing her lips together in an airy whistle. “Just you wait. Whatever you’ve heard about the Dance, what’s actually here is better.”

“Do you think you could find us a place to rest, before we begin our little tour?” said Rarity. “And a brush, of course.”

“Oh, right, yeah, of course.” Cloudchaser nodded, then lifted off and drifted the first few lengths forward. “I’ll help you find one of the ‘racks, and we can find a brush there. But after that we’re gonna go out and have some fun, yeah?”

“Racks?” said Applejack.

“Sounds lovely,” said Rarity. “Lead on!”

Rarity had to admit that Applejack had a point—flying through the jumble of buildings was dizzying, especially with so many of their fellow pegasi swishing past in every direction and at every angle. It quickly became apparent that the ponies responsible for the layout considered “up” and “down” to be cardinal directions. The sound of pony activity emanated from some of the buildings—laughter and loud conversation, mostly, along with the occasional lilt of music.

They flew along in relative silence for a short time, and then Applejack piped up with a question. “Why wouldja set up that crazy Storm Wall but keep it all clear above our heads?”

Rarity floated closer to Applejack, in order to elbow her. Applejack shot a sidelong glare and kept floating along behind Cloudchaser.

“Well, it’s not like any cloudwalking tourists are going to fly out here and look in from above,” Cloudchaser said.

“They certainly wouldn’t want to fly through the wall,” said Rarity thoughtfully.

Applejack didn’t glare this time, but her mouth took on a distinctly tight, unhappy shape.

Cloudchaser laughed. “Yeah, probably not. Someone told me that in the old days it was to keep out really young and really old ponies. Now I guess it just makes trouble for amateurs with Shimmers.” And she turned and winked.

“Sorry to be a bother,” said Rarity, a bit timidly.

Cloudchaser spun a 180 in the air and started floating backwards so that she could blow a raspberry and flick her hooves in Rarity’s direction. “Oh, don’t give me that! Helping newcomers out is just as traditional as everything else around here. Anyway, we’re here. Home away from home—the ‘racks.”

She turned to face forward again, and dropped onto the front landing of one of the largest enclosed structures, and probably the single least attractive—a boxy thing with rows of identical windows along its two stories. It was easily six times the breadth of Carousel Boutique, and had a rectangular entrance wide enough to admit five ponies walking side by side.

“Of course,” Rarity muttered. “Barracks.”

The room beyond the front door was large, square, and perfectly featureless save for a desk in the far corner, attended by a blue-on-blue stallion with his forehead resting on the surface and a paperback book laying open next to his outstretched hooves. Behind him, the wall opened into a perpendicular hallway.

“Hey, Blues!” Cloudchaser called out as she trotted up to the desk. “You’re volunteering?”

“Blues” planted both hooves on the desk and lifted his upper body into an upright position with a low grunt. “Uhn. Hey, Cloudchaser.” He nodded, still rubbing his eyes. “Yep. Three days. My roommate talked me into it.”

Cloudchaser clicked her tongue. “Sucks.”

“Nah, I’ve done it before. It’s kind of fun seeing everypony who passes through, and Clear Skies has the morning shift, so I don’t have to wake up early or anything.” He leaned sideways to look past Cloudchaser. “Who’re your friends? Whoa—nice wings!”

Blues waved. Applejack and Rarity awkwardly waved back.

“Two first-timers,” said Cloudchaser. “Rescued them both in the Storm Wall.”

She turned and shot her two ‘friends’ a smile.

Blues tilted his head toward the hallway. “The lounge is pretty much empty if that’s what you brought them here for. Rooms are on the left.”

Cloudchaser shook her head. “We’re just here to fold our wings for a minute before we go exploring.”

“And I was looking for where I might find a brush,” said Rarity.

“A brush, uh… I guess I could lend you mine. It’s here somewhere.” Blues’s head disappeared behind the counter.

Rarity tapped both forehooves nervously. The chance to finally sort out her mane was so close. “Are brushes difficult to find at this event?”

“Well, not impossible,” Blues replied from behind the desk. “I used to like the groundbound look too, back when I played shows in Canterlot.” An age-worn plastic brush surfaced from behind the desk, followed by Blues’s head. “There you go.”

“Groundbound look? ” Rarity echoed. “’Groundbound’ clothing as well, then?”

“Definitely!” said Blues, nodding. “You’d be amazed what some ponies are willing to drag through the Storm Wall. I see a lot of ponies sharing luggage so that they can team-carry it.”

“Goodness knows how we suffer for fashion,” Rarity said absentmindedly as she angled the clumsy tool in her hooves. Brushing without being able to hold the brush telekinetically was more difficult than she cared to admit, and she couldn’t even imagine how she was going to get to her tail. She very nearly made the mistake of removing the frozen lightning pin and Twilight’s enchanted clip from her mane.

Blues tilted his head as Rarity’s mane started to take on a semblance of its proper shape. “Speaking of fashion, you look a lot like a designer I liked.”

Rarity froze momentarily, then continued to carefully run the borrowed brush through her mane, not daring even to turn and make eye contact with Blues.

“Do I, now?”

“No joke—you could be a cloudborn clone of her. Uh, that’s a good thing. She was really beautiful.”

Rarity wasn’t sure if she wanted to blush or run. She decided to fall back on her disarming smile and a skillful flutter of the eyelashes. It worked—Blues blinked and swayed slightly, telltale signs of a stallion caught off-guard by Rarity’s wiles. Rarity dared to approach the desk and its attendant with lowered, half-lidded eyes.

“Well, if this designer of yours is so very lovely, then I’m delighted to hear such a lovely compliment from such a fine stallion.”

Unfortunately, Blues almost immediately regained his balance and returned Rarity’s sly look with one of his own.

“I didn’t catch your name. It’s obviously not Rarity, unless you really are her clone.”

Rarity nearly doubled over as she accidentally yanked at a knot in her mane. She felt that if she had been drinking tea, she would have spit it out.

“I am Elusive,” she said, much too quickly for her own liking. “And my friend is, erm…”

Blues rolled his eyes. “And mysterious, and beautiful, I’m sure. I let you use my brush, don’tcha think I’ve earned your name?”

“No, no,” said Rarity. “My name is Elusive.”

He rolled his eyes again. “I’ll just call you Elusive. And who’s your friend?”

Rarity flattened her ears. “No, honestly! I—“

“Uh… my friends call me AJ,” Applejack said. Her eyes were darting again. “Just AJ.”

Blues shrugged. “Well, both of you should come back when the sun’s setting and my shift’s ending. This place has a real nice lounge.”

Cloudchaser leaned over the table to cut in. “Whoa whoa whoa. I saw them first.”

Rarity pulled the brush through her mane one last time. There was no chance of properly drawing it into its usual smoothness, but at least it wasn’t giving any more resistance in the form of knots. She interrupted Cloudchaser and Blues by placing the brush onto the desk. “Thank you, mister Blues,” she said. “Shall we be going, miss Cloudchaser? You did ‘see us first,’ after all.”

“Thought you’d never ask!” Cloudchaser said happily. “The first couple days and the last day are always the best. I dunno about you two, but I want to start this year off on the right hoof. You ready to go?”

“You go ahead,” Applejack said with a very pointed look at Rarity. “I’m gonna get started on, you know, the reason we CAME here.”

Rarity grimaced as her mind raced for some way to excuse Applejack’s impatience, but both Blues and Cloudchaser just laughed cheerfully.

“Eager to get started, huh?” Blues said. “You know, whatever you’re looking for, following Cloudchaser around is a pretty good bet.”

“I’ll be fine,” Applejack said with an irritated flick of her ears.

Cloudchaser gave a low whistle. “I don’t doubt that! Maybe we’ll even run into each other out there, yeah?”

“Reckon we might,” Applejack said. Rarity saw her suppressing a frown. “Have fun, ‘Elusive.’” And with that, Applejack trotted her way out the front door of the barracks, spread her wings, and floated out of sight.

“Don’t mind her,” Rarity said placatingly. “She doesn’t take well to being patronized. I, on the other hoof, would love a guided tour!”

“Awesome,” said Cloudchaser. “First things first—I’m hungry. Let’s find a stand or the mess cloud. If that’s cool with you?”

Rarity nodded. “Lead on!”

They've Had Some Really Wild Storms Up There Lately

After a few minutes of flying, Cloudchaser found them a vendor booth atop a smoothed-out cloud. A crowd of patrons stretched across the cloud in the vague shape of a line, all waiting for their turn at a tiny counter in front of a huge set of shelves.

Cloudchaser turned to Rarity as they landed. “Do you like flight food? I mean, I guess it’s kinda tough luck if you don’t, but we can try to find something at the main mess.”

“Not to worry—I adore flight food.”

As she said those words, Rarity turned her head from side to side, trying to catch a glimpse of other customers leaving with their “flight food.” What she saw was less than informative; the patrons always flew away instead of walking past the line. The few who passed directly overhead appeared to be carrying woven green sacks.

When Cloudchaser and Rarity reached the front of the line, they were greeted by a yellow-green mare with a warm salmon mane and a dazzling smile. “Hey there!” she said sunnily.

“Hey,” Cloudchaser returned with a nod. “What’ve you got?”

The mare gestured behind her at what looked like a cloud-built pantry full of vegetables, along with hundreds of stacked and folded sacks. “Cabbage, mint, spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, and sweet basil. The tomatoes are the good stuff. I’ve been snacking on them.”

“Basil for me,” Cloudchaser said. “How ‘bout you, Elusive?”

Rarity scanned the shelves curiously. She had been expecting a food vendor, but it seemed that Cloudchaser had found a produce stand. “Do you have anything cooked?” she asked.

Cloudchaser turned her head. “Thought you said you liked flight food? You wanna see if the mess has roasted corn or something?”

Rarity opened her mouth, then closed it and cleared her throat. “Oh, er… I was just inquiring as to the selection. I’ll have spinach and sun-dried tomatoes, please!”

The sun seemed to glint off of the server’s teeth as she nodded her acknowledgement. “Sure thing!”

As the yellow mare turned toward her cabinets, Rarity opened her coin purse again, dipping her hoof into it and feeling out the various denominations of gems within. When the server returned with two baskets of vegetables, Rarity slid into position in front of her.

“Please, allow me to cover for both of us.”

“Err, what do you mean? Do you need anything else? …Oh!” Her brows lifted in recognition as she noticed Rarity reaching for her purse. “We’re not supposed to accept tips. But thank you!” And she smiled again.

Cloudchaser had already picked her sack up in her teeth, but she put it back down and turned toward Rarity when she heard that. Her eyes fell to the gem-encrusted bag hanging from Rarity’s neck. “Is that a purse? You aren’t gonna need it. Wanna go back so you can leave it with Blues?”

Rarity pulled the drawstrings on her purse and stepped aside so that the high-spirited volunteer behind the counter could move on to the next pegasus in line.

“No, no… I’ll just keep it secure. It survived the Storm Wall, after all!”

In retrospect, of course, had Rarity known about the Storm Wall, there was no way she would have been willing to carry so much money in such a delicate little pouch. Come to think of it, she was surprised that her purchased jewelry had made it out the other side.

Cloudchaser shrugged. “If you don’t mind carrying it, I guess. Anyway, let’s find a spot to eat.”

They climbed to a gently sloping stretch of nimbus, where Cloudchaser promptly dumped her bundle and—to Rarity’s surprise—took a large bite out of it, bag and all. As she landed next to Cloudchaser and set down her own bag, Rarity saw that the green weave was made entirely out of grass.

Cloudchaser chuckled when she saw how intently Rarity was examining the bag. “Never seen one of these before, huh? Just another traditional thing. No waste, no dishes.”

Rarity took an experimental and perhaps excessively dainty bite from the thickest part of her sack, then let out a polite “Mm!” of approval through her full mouth. The sack was tough and a bit stringy, forming a kind of shell around the tender spinach and tangy sun-dried tomatoes. It felt like a waste to eat such good ingredients raw, but Rarity contented herself with savoring the tomatoes, which were just as good as the booth attendant had promised.

“So,” said Cloudchaser, folding her legs into a sitting position, “do you live in Cloudsdale, or did you fly in from somewhere else?”

Rarity took her time chewing and swallowing in order to buy extra time with which to answer. “Canterlot,” she said. “It’s a lovely city.”

“Really? What made you move from the clouds to Canterlot?” said Cloudchaser. “When I went there, it felt like one big convention for snobs.” She wrinkled her nose. “Maybe I just didn’t like being surrounded by Unis.”

Rarity, with a tremendous force of will, contained her offense.

“Well… I…”

“Sorry, I’m sure it’s a really nice city in other ways. But, I mean… okay, have you ever been to Ponyville?”

“Err… yes, once or twice. What about Ponyville?”

Rarity steeled herself for the answer.

“I moved there for a couple years so that I could join their Equestria Games team. Everypony says that it's this great melting pot, but in the end it’s still on the ground and you’re gonna be surrounded by groundbounds." Cloudchaser wrinkled her nose. "I even tried it on with an Earther for a while. Don't ask me why I thought that was a good idea."

Rarity tried her hardest to respond to that. Cloudchaser saved her the trouble by speaking up again.

“Question number two. Mares or stallions for you?”

There was no chance of holding back the reaction this time—Rarity nearly choked on a bite of bag. “What?”

Cloudchaser took a large bite from her bag and swallowed it, as casually as if she were asking Rarity’s opinion about the weather. “I said, ‘mares or stallions?’ You know, for partners.”

Rarity felt herself growing faint from rapidly growing alarm. “Yes, I heard your words, but… I… That is an inappropriate question, and— and—!”

Cloudchaser leaned back from Rarity’s outburst with a raised brow. “Whoa whoa whoa, what do you mean ‘inappropriate?’ Dancing is half the reason we’re here, right?”

“Dancing…? Ah!” Relief struck Rarity with nearly the same impact as the initial shock.

“What did you think I meant?” said Cloudchaser, tilting her head.

“Well!” Said Rarity, tapping her hooves together uneasily, “Well, I can’t say same-sex couples dancing is a commonly seen form in Canterlot. Not that I would be averse to dancing with either gender at this event, of course!”

Cloudchaser snickered. “Like I needed another reason not to live in Canterlot. Don’t worry—I'll make sure you have an awesome time before you go back to snob country.”

“You’re too kind,” said Rarity meekly, before turning her attention back to her bag of salad.

“You even sound like a Uni,” Cloudchaser said with a scoff. “We better get you dancing, or you might actually turn into one. Hurry up ‘n finish eating—I’ve been dying to check out one of the clouds I saw on our way to the ‘racks.”

From afar, their destination looked like a miniature Storm Wall: a monolith of cold grey floating in place amid white clouds and calm air. It was almost comical, until it suddenly erupted with lightning. At least four lightning flashes lit up the structure’s walls in rapid succession, and the cottage-sized cloud threw forth a sound like a rupture opening in the sky itself. Without anything to echo off of, there was no rumble of thunder--each thunderclap was a single explosive rush. Rarity recoiled in mid-flap, sending her into a clumsy zero-gravity wobble.

“What in Equestria is that?”

Cloudchasere wheeled in the air to double back for Rarity. “That's called a soundstorm.” She licked her lips, then laid a foreleg across Rarity’s shoulders, urging her forward. “Or you could just call it a really awesome party. C’mon!”

Rarity barely managed to keep from cringing, both at Cloudchaser’s touch and at the prospect of joining the “party.” She managed a smile, or at least she parted her lips to show her gritted teeth.

“I once talked to a weather designer about how they make these,” Cloudchaser said as she steered Rarity into a banking left turn. “Instruments, acoustics, lightning. Totally amazing. You’ll see once we’re inside.”

“Yes, of course,” Rarity said. “Inside.”

It had been hard to see from afar, but the cloud was actually tall and cylindrical, with a slice near the bottom cut away to form an entryway and a protruding landing pad. As Cloudchaser brought Rarity closer, the solid storm started to emit a thrumming growl.

“Been waiting all year for this,” Cloudchaser said. “You have no idea.”

“Is this safe?” Rarity said. The arm laid across her back was feeling less comforting by the minute.

Cloudchaser gave Rarity a vaguely annoyed look, then rolled her eyes. “Oh c’mon. These were built by pure-blooded cloudborns, not grounded amateurs.”

She separated from Rarity as the two of them touched down on the landing pad. Rarity realized, as she approached the entrance, that the rumbling coming from the “soundstorm” was more than just noise—it was music, thrumming and dissonant, like a pipe organ accompanied by a brass section and a giant set of tympani.

“Sweet,” muttered Cloudchaser. She took off toward the entrance at a trot, and Rarity followed.

The moment Rarity entered the false-night darkness within the soundstorm’s walls, the music unfolded from a bass hum into a roaring symphony that assaulted the ears from every direction. Above, the air churned with the shadows of a hundred pegasi or more, most of them wearing “ice” like Rarity’s aurora studs and frozen lightning. The tiny colored lights weaved and spiraled like multicolored fireflies, filling the vertical room with chaos.

“Check out the musicians!” Cloudchaser yelled into Rarity’s ear. She pointed down, past the circular walkway, and into the pit below.

Cloudchaser was pointing at two pegasi who filled the entire pit with a high-speed dance. They bounced off of the floor as if it were a trampoline, swirled around the pit’s perimeter, and even converged in the center like airborne figure skaters before throwing each other outward again. It was mesmerizing, and dizzying, and it was all in perfect sync with the music. At first, Rarity wondered why Cloudchaser had called them “musicians,” and then she saw the hundreds of open pipes lining the pit’s walls.

When the musical acrobats flew past the smallest arrays of pipes, the air sang with a piccolo trill. When they struck the floor with their hooves, the walls shivered with an airy thump. The pegasi in the pit weren’t dancing to the music, no—their dance was the music. When they somersaulted and rolled, tumbling over and past each other with rapid beats against the floor, the soundstorm surged with their fervor. When they spread their wings to glide in smooth, synchronized arcs, they flooded the cloud with sonorous joy.

They met in the center, rose together to the level of the walkway, flipped, dove—

They landed as one, and a bolt of lightning slashed across the ceiling with a sound like cymbals smashing against a rough brick wall. A cheer sounded from the swirling dancers above.

Rarity leaned closer to Cloudchaser and raised her voice to be heard. “Is… this the type of ‘dance’ that you were alluding to earlier?”

“Ha!” Cloudchaser replied with a huge grin.

“Was that funny?” Rarity said timidly. The music swallowed her words.

“Don’t worry, it won’t get THAT rowdy. Guess you never know, though—depends on who’s up there—c’mon, let’s fly!”

With that, Cloudchaser spread her wings and pumped them in a single flap, sending her up and over Rarity’s head in a twisting somersault.

Rarity openly gasped in surprise as Cloudchaser seized her behind the forelegs and forcibly lifted her. It was the same grip that had been used to pull her out of the Storm Wall, but this time Cloudchaser was plunging Rarity into the roiling heart of the storm instead of rescuing her from it.

Cloudchaser pumped her wings in full strokes, towing Rarity through air that was thick with fluttering wings and bone-rattling soundwaves. She released Rarity and set her hovering in place once they reached the bottom edge of the crowd and were surrounded by other dancers.

One of the dancers peeled away from the crowd with a loud “Hey!” and bodychecked Cloudchaser.

“Cloudhumper! You’re late!”

Cloudchaser wobbled, then recovered, and shoved back.

“Lightning Dust! You’re…” Cloudchaser leaned back to peer at Lightning Dust’s face. She rolled her eyes at whatever it was that she saw. “… You’re totally blustered. How’re we gonna dance tonight when you can’t even fly straight?"

Lightning Dust drew closer to Cloudchaser, until she was close enough to extend a hoof and run it up the side of Cloudchaser’s neck. “Oh, I’m sure we’ll think of something.”

Even with the darkness obscuring Lightning Dust’s face, the intimacy of the something was clear enough. Rarity cleared her throat and drifted closer. “Terribly sorry, I would hate to monopolize your partner’s attention... I’ll leave you two to your dance?”

Lightning Dust let out a snort so long and loud that it sounded for a moment like she might be choking. She pivoted to float side by side with Cloudchaser, and laced one hoof across her back. “Who’s the funny one? Hurry up and introduce me!”

Rarity felt herself subconsciously shrinking away from Lightning Dust. “Was… that… funny?”

Cloudchaser stuck out her tongue. “We just got here! If you want her, you’re gonna have to catch her first!”

Rarity managed a frightened “What?”

“Whatever—have fun!” yelled Lightning Dust. She planted a firm kiss on Cloudchaser’s cheek, then flapped her way back into the crowd.

This time, Rarity raised her voice. “What do you mean ‘catch’ me? I’ve never—“

Rarity ended her sentence with a startled “eep!” as Cloudchaser clamped her shoulders and forcibly spun her in a full circle. Then, while Rarity was still dizzy, Cloudchaser curled a hoof around the back of her head and kissed her full on the mouth.

Not a chaste kiss, either—it was a hot, demanding attack with lips and tongue that channeled the fury of the soundstorm, and it still wasn’t over by the time Rarity recovered from being disoriented and became properly shocked. Meanwhile, the music swelled to a howling, frantic climax—a climax and then a fade-out—a breathless moment of intense hush—

Out of the corner of her eye, Rarity saw the two musicians ascending through the center of the column: the eye of the soundstorm. Some of the pegasi cheered and whistled as the pair reached their apex, flipped their rear hooves toward the ceiling, and plummeted, spiraling together in a perfect helix.

Cloudchaser broke the kiss, and winked. Then, with a powerful heave, she hurled Rarity into the winged swarm above.

The musicians slammed into the pit with meteoric force, and the world exploded.

The walls strobed white with a chain-firing barrage of forked lightning, and a blasting chorus of thunder shattered the air. The winged storm rode the thunder-roar’s shockwave to even greater heights as the music surged back to full force, and the throng let forth a unified cry of passion.

Rarity slowed to a floating halt, only to feel somepony brush past her from behind. A hoof slid unapologetically across her haunch, flank, and back, followed by a shiver-inducing rush of feather-tips against fur. When Rarity turned to confront the culprit, somepony buzzed past to bump flanks with her, and then a dancer with a jewel-studded mane whipped past her face, hooked her by the foreleg, and turned her in an aerial do-si-do. By the time Rarity regained her bearings, all three ponies had disappeared into the surrounding flock.

The next time Rarity bumped into somepony, they pressed closer instead of backing away, and Rarity felt fur and body heat against her upright back. The walls flashed white again, and there was a stallion with wild eyes and a tangled mane so close in front of Rarity that she could feel his hot breath against her nose. He twisted into a diving position and slid the entire side of his damp-warm body from shoulder to haunch across Rarity’s chest, sandwiching her between himself and the pony obstruction behind her. He flicked his tail across her face as he dove past, and then he was gone.

Rarity moved forward, away from her inadvertent dance partner, extending her forehooves into the light-studded darkness to avoid another accidental collision—she found some space, and started to float downward, toward the walkway—

—A winged projectile cannonballed toward Rarity, seized her by the outstretched hooves, and swung her like a trapeze artist to slingshot her back into the frenzy. Rarity soared helplessly, turning a slow head-over-heels somersault until somepony intercepted her with a banking swoop.

“W-Wait!” Rarity stammered, nowhere near loudly enough to be heard. She felt the side of her new partner’s head nuzzling against her own, so she tried again: “Wait, stop!”

“You okay, honey?” Rarity’s new partner said. A mare, as it turned out.

“The ground!” Rarity yelled back. “I want to go back down!”

The stranger laughed in Rarity’s ear. “If you insist!”

“Aaaaaaah!” cried Rarity as she was wrenched upward, then backward, then upside down in a gut-churning vertical U-turn. “Waaaaha-ha-ha-haaagh!” she added as she plummeted face-first through a maze of glittering lights and fluttering wings. A peal of thunder punctuated her descent, and the flash of lightning captured a freeze-frame of the mayhem that she was whistling past on her way down…

The stranger pulled Rarity to a halt with a powerful grip, then deposited her neatly onto all fours.

Rarity took her first deep breath since Cloudchaser had thrown her to the birds. Her legs were trembling, but at least her hooves were resting on a solid surface.

“You done for the night?” the stranger yelled as she touched down next to Rarity. The soundstorm was turning from dark to pitch-dark—what little sunlight pierced the dense cloud was starting to fade. Rarity could hardly even see her savior’s face.

“Yes,” Rarity gasped. “Yes, I think I should be off for the night.”

“Want some company?” the stranger said.

For the umpteenth time that day, Rarity snapped her head back in offended disbelief. “EXCUSE me?”

The pegasus mare raised her voice to a shout. “I asked if you feel like some company back in the ‘racks!”

Rarity glanced urgently in both directions—to her relief, there was nopony on the walkway who might have heard.

“No, I do not! I am not that kind of mare!”

The stranger straightened visibly. “Sorry! I saw you with Cloudchaser, thought you’d be into mares!”

“That,” Rarity seethed, “is a highly invasive question, and my intimate preferences are none of your—“

There was nopony there. Rarity pivoted and cantered toward the exit. She was angry. Angry was good. The angrier she got, the less she had to think about being buffeted by the fury of the soundstorm.

At first glance, the barracks were nearly unrecognizable as the building where Rarity had enjoyed an emergency brush-up earlier that evening. It was crowded, for one thing—Rarity had to weave through groups of standing or floating pegasi just to make it past the entrance. It was also dark. Before, the lobby had been lit by the sunlight filtering in through its thin white walls. Now it glowed with a warm but shadowy yellow light, courtesy of a set of ‘lanterns’ that looked like giant versions of Rarity’s frozen lightning.

Rarity nearly decided to walk back out to the landing pad and resume her search for a place to sleep. Cloudchaser and Blues had implied the existence of multiple ‘racks; perhaps Rarity had taken a wrong turn somewhere on her way back and found her way to an identical-looking set of sleeping quarters—it had been very dark, after all, and following a trail of flickering lanterns had been anything but easy with the way nothing was arranged in a sensible pattern.

“The 'elusive' mystery mare returns! Did Cloudchaser show you a good time?”

Blues had his rear hooves propped up on the counter and his forehooves laid over the arms of a mare whom he was using as a backrest. She hugged him tighter around the neck as she curled her wings to cover his eyes with a set of thoroughly ruffled feathers.

“Hey! I wanted you to myself!” she said with a tinkling giggle. “Go to the lounge if you want to flock!”

Rarity took the opportunity to slip behind a group of four stallions as they bustled in through the door. They made an even more perfect screen than she was expecting—they were so loud that the crowd parted for them as they went, though they still carelessly bumped a few of the partiers on their way through. Their drunken-sounding shouts and laughter easily pierced the rest of the noise and activity filling the lobby, and they hardly even bothered to land before heading for the hallway and taking a right.

By the time Rarity’s cover dispersed, Blues seemed to have lost interest in locating his “elusive” mare in the crowd. In fact, it was hard to see him behind his companion’s body as she sat on the counter and reached down to him with her wings as well as her arms.

“Y’all kin jus’ set me down now!” said a voice in a thick country twang. “What, y’think ah cain’t even walk straight just ‘cause I cain’t fly so good?”

Rarity pivoted her head toward the entrance. At first it looked like it was Cloudchaser supporting Applejack with the now familiar rescue-carry grip, but as a gap opened in the crowd, Rarity saw that the only resemblance was in the colors. Applejack’s “helper” wore a broad bow, and had a softly flowing mane that was pale seafoam instead of Cloudchaser’s almost-white.

Applejack freed herself from the pegasus carrying her with an indignant shooing motion, but as soon as she was left to stand on her own legs, she staggered to the side and nearly collapsed.

“AJ!” Rarity shouted, waving both forelegs in the air. “Here I am!”

The Cloudchaser-colored mare shot Rarity a smile and a lazy sort of salute, then headed for the exit. Applejack waved and started to make her way over.

“Rarity!” Applejack half-shouted.

“Shh!” Rarity bit her lower lip as she shot a look around the room, hoping desperately that the buzz of the crowd had been loud enough to cover Applejack. “My name is Elusive! Honestly, what happened to you while we were separated? You look positively frightful!”

It wasn’t an exaggeration: Applejack’s hat had been pulled hard onto her head at a crooked angle, her forced-wide eyes were fidgeting in their sockets, and only half of her mane was still being held by the band that she used to tie it back; the other half was hanging raggedly across her face and shoulders. Additionally, it looked like somepony had added an extra patch of rainbow dye to her hair by accidentally spilling a vial of the stuff onto her head.

She licked her lips repeatedly as her eyes jittered their way up and down Rarity’s body. “Y’all ain’t lookin’ so purty yerself.” Her accent was twice as thick as usual.

Rarity winced. Somehow, the issue of what had happened to her mane while she was being thrown around like a pinball had slipped her mind. “Well, no need to worry about the stresses of this little excursion any longer. As promised, we’re going home in the morning.”

At that, Applejack’s already wild eyes hardened, and she shook her head as if trying to scare away a fly. “Nothin’ doin’, Rarity. We ain’t leavin’ this here party till ah get some answers.”

“It’s Elusive!” Rarity hissed. “And—” She blinked as the second part of Applejack’s statement finished processing. “Pardon, dear, what did you say about… answers?”

Applejack grimaced. "Ah said we’re stayin’. Y’all were right 'bout spyin' on this dancin’ business. This here’s plain an’ simple th’ right thing ta do.”

“But... what in the world changed your mind?”

Applejack licked her lips, then suddenly twitched—a tight little spasm in her neck and front knee. “Uh… how ‘bout y’all tell me 'bout yer day with that Cloudchaser gal first?”

Rarity shook her head. “No, no. You first.”

“Dunno if yall'd even believe if ah told ya.” She cleared her throat with a loud hacking cough, then twitched again, so hard that she accidentally shoulder-checked a passing stallion. “Don’t even rightly know where ta start.”

“Try me,” Rarity said. “I insist.”

Applejack took a slow, deep breath, and this time she managed not to let it be interrupted by a spasm. “Don't say I never warned ya. We better get one o’ them private rooms fer this.”

They headed for the hallway and turned left, into a wing of the barracks with open doorways placed seemingly at random on either side of the hall. Some of the walls moaned lewdly as the two walked past. Applejack didn’t seem to notice as she placed a hoof on Rarity’s back and pulled her into an open room. As soon as they were through the doorway, she reared up and--to Rarity’s amazement--pulled the wall shut as if it were a curtain.

Rarity's jaw dropped. “How did you do that?”

Applejack rolled her eyes as she turned away from what was now a solid wall. “Used mah hooves. Now jus’ siddown on that there bed. This is gonna get a mite bit complicated.”