It was a quiet and peaceful morning for Ponyville. The sun was shining, birds were chirping, and only a few of the early risers were up and going about their business. One such pony was a disgruntled cyan colored mare with a rainbow colored mane and tail.
“Stupid morning weather duties, stupid group rotation, stupid clouds everywhere.” Rainbow Dash muttered. She had drawn the short straw and had to take care of the early morning weather this week. Needless to say she was less than pleased.
“Finally!” She called out as she pushed the final cloud in place. But before she could settle onto a cloud and take a quick nap, she noticed one of the larger clouds starting to spin. “Oh come on!” She said as she flew over. “Ditzy, did you fall asleep in one of the rainclouds again?” She called out, only to fly back as the cloud grew dark and began crackling with electricity.
“Ok, that’s not normal.” She said as she flew around the cloud, investigating it. The cloud had now formed a spinning vortex, coursing with energy, but leaving everything around it intact.
“Gah, where’s an egg head when you need one?” Rainbow Dash muttered under her breath. Twilight had been called away yesterday by Princess Celestia, something about needing to teach her an important lesson.
Any thoughts on what to do about the cloud were wiped from her mind, when a loud bang and a black blur erupted from the cloud. By the time Rainbow Dash managed to find the mysterious object, all she could see was a small black speck high in the sky.
“Was that the sound of a balloon deflating?” She muttered as she started to fly after it, only for a second crack to alert her that something else had come through. This time she managed to get a good view of it and saw what looked like a black bird with it’s wings outstretched and a gold horseshoe on its back rocketing toward Canterlot, with a trail of green flame behind it.
“You can’t just mess up my hard work and fly away!” She yelled as she took off after it. She quickly closed the gap between the two. On closer inspection, the “bird” looked less like a bird and more like a... hang glider? When she was just about to pull up alongside, a loud roar filled the air as the trail of flame grew longer and the glider shot forward.
“Hey! Don’t think you can out glide the best flyer in Equestria!” Rainbow Dash shouted as she tensed her muscles and shot upward, rapidly gaining altitude before going into a steep dive. With her hooves outstretched, Rainbow Dash felt the shock cone form and then immediately pulled up in a flash of rainbow colors.
Rainbow Dash quickly gained on the hang glider and almost pulled alongside when it abruptly veered upwards, rocketing through the atmosphere and piercing through a layer of clouds.
With a grunt, Rainbow Dash pumped her wings and followed the glider up through the clouds, punching a hole with a buck and darting through to see the hang glider gliding lazily among the clouds.
Rainbow Dash continued her chase, the hang glider speeding up on cue as the two began to fly through a valley of clouds. The sheer speed of their movement pulled the clouds closed behind them, shifting them in the process.
~~~Meanwhile, on the ground below the chase.~~~
Shining Armor and Cadance sat on a blanket, gazing peacefully at the sky.
“Oh Shining, it is so nice to get out of the castle and away from all the stress every once in a while.”
“I know, those royal duties are a real bore sometimes. I am just glad we could get out for a while to enjoy ourselves.” Shining Armor said.
“Should we have really given those advisors the slip? I mean, they are probably going to be really mad at us shirking our diplomatic duties here.”
“Don’t worry about all that. Right now, all we need to worry about is each other and watching the clouds.” Shining Armor said as he gestured to a cloud with a hoof.
On cue, a rainbow and green blur flew around the cloud and reshaped it into some words, with an arrow pointing down to them.
“Princess and prince are here.” The sign read.
“... well, buck.” Shining said before a group of rabid politicians swarmed the two.
~~~ Back in the air with Rainbow Dash ~~~
Rainbow Dash’s wings burned as she finally gained on the hang glider and pulled alongside, only to nearly forget to flap when she spotted the pilot. Before she could recover, the hang glider blasted away from her in another burst of green fire.
“Was that a… penguin?” she muttered before resuming her chase.
~~~ Meanwhile in Canterlot~~~
The entire city was on alert and encased in a glowing, pink shield. Although the citizens were worried about the possibility of an attack, most went about their day like any other. The two guards on the watch tower, however, were not.
“Tell me again why we have this stupid shield up?” Asked one of the unicorn guards to his captain.
“Look, I’ve already told you a dozen times. The princess said that she was expecting trouble. I wasn’t told what kind of trouble or how she knows it’s coming, so just sit down, concentrate and stop pestering me about it.”
*THUNK*
There was a slight pause before both stallions turned and looked at what appeared to be a sandbag strapped to a zeppelin.
“Is that supposed to be a penguin?” Asked the guard.
“I’m more concerned about the beeping metal gizmo.” the other stallion muttered.
KRAKA-THOOOOM!
Lights and noise filled the air as a huge explosion rocked the mountainside. Where the guard tower once was, a pile of rubble now stood. A few rocks began to shift as the two guard ponies pushed themselves out of the rubble.
“What the buck was that?” One guard called out as a hang glider flew by overhead, unnoticed.
~~~ 1 minute earlier inside the palace.~~~
Princess Celestia and Twilight were sitting in one of the many waiting rooms around a small table with a teapot and cups set down on it. The room was nice, having an assortment of bookshelves and a large window that gave a magnificent view of the courtyard and the city below, but Twilight wasn’t here to enjoy the view.
“So why did you call me here on such short notice again?” Twilight asked as Celestia took another sip of tea.
Celestia smiled and set down the cup before addressing Twilight. “I’ve told you, to teach you a very important lesson.”
At that moment, a large explosion rocked the palace, causing many of the books to collapse on the duo.
“Ugh, what in the name of you just happened?” Twilight groaned to Celestia as she unearthed herself, when a loud crash drew her attention to the window.
“A-a penguin?” She said in disbelief as said penguin walked across the room, hang glider and jet engine strapped to it’s back. It boldly walked up to the now recovered Celestia.
*SMACK*
The penguin nodded, turned and promptly leapt out of the window, leaving the two stunned alicorns behind.
“Wha-wha, wait what! How?” Twilight managed to blurt out as Celestia gently rubbed her cheek with a hoof.
“And that, my dear Twilight, is why you should never troll a penguin.” Celestia said with a chuckle.
Author's Note
I made this on a whim, and also to celebrate the fact that Learn to fly 3 is coming up. This is also the first completed story I've ever uploaded, so give me plenty of feedback on what you guys think.
