At first, Dumbbell blinked, dimly not understanding what the pony had just said. Or maybe he couldn't believe he had actually said it. Who was this sad scarecrow of a pony that he couldn't even give his name? At least be polite enough to do that. He faceted the scrawny stallion with his most intimidating glare, and it was returned. Not a returning glare of challenge, mind, but a fatigued wall of indifference, as if not a single inch of him could give a damn about Dumbbell or his objections.

“Sir, you are wasting my time.” The stallion’s voice wasn't monotone but it was certainly tinged with a blase’ melancholy on its edge. Dumbbell felt a sting of anger run through him.

“I’ll waste your time alright, you—”

“Good Evening, gentle colts!” a sing song voice behind him made him turn, surprised. A green form fluttered past, putting itself between him and the odd new comer.

“Oh, Dumbbell, I almost forgot!” Merry May held a hoof up to him in a polite manner, with half lidded eyes in an attempt to look calm. “Let me introduce you to Tangent.” she stepped over to the taller gray stallion. “He is a representative from the Royal Geological Survey, and will be up here with us for some time. I have already given him a basic tour of our facilities, but I would like it if you would be his guide pony for the rest of the night.”

He felt as if he could focus his glare into a solar ray and set Merry May’s mane on fire, but he knew he couldn't. So he took a step back and sighed. “You can count on me, May.” he managed to say. Bad first impressions aside, he couldn't toss away the night manager’s request.

Merry’s eyes sparkled. “Wonderful!!” She shuffled past the two stallions and stopped in the doorway giving him an especially meaningful look. “If you need anything, I’ll be in my office with the paperwork, oh and...”. She pointed at Dumbbell’s head. “Helmet. On.” Then she was off.

Despite how juvenile it felt, he rolled his eyes behind her back, then turned back to the scarecrow.

“So, Tangent. Right.” ‘Weird name.’ he thought. He figured he might as well say hello but Tangent wasn’t interested in introductions.

“I see...” the gray pony murmured lightly, writing on a notepad, the pencil gliding along easily from his mouth. “Failure to follow basic safety protocol. Noted.”

Dumbbell felt his bottom eyelid twitch as he silently bit down on his tongue. Tangent watched him, expectantly, maybe daring the weather worker to say something that might cost him his job later. When the quiet reached its limit, Tangent finally spoke. “Yes, that is my name.”
“Royal Geological Survey, eh?” Dumbbell forced the conversational tone, putting a slight emphasis on the word royal. When he looked at Tangent’s wingless sides he didn’t bother being subtle. “So that explains how you got up here?”

Tangent obliged him with a single nod. “A cloud walking spell, only a select few unicorns in Equestria know how to use it competently.”

“How long does it work?”. ‘Just a few hours if I’m lucky.’

“Hours, days, there are variables.” answered Tangent. “But this is an irrelevant topic, I’m here to inquire about the water purification facilities.”

“Don’t you earth ponies already know?” He knew he should have kept his tone professional, but couldn’t help it. He figured even if they didn’t, there wasn’t much reason to pry.

“We already understand the process,” answered Tangent, “I’m here because the quality of your output has declined. It is my job to find out why.”

“Who’s got a problem with our rain?” Dumbbell asked defensively.

Tangent brought out an old worn book from his saddlebag and flipped to a bookmarked page. “We keep a close eye on the acidity of your rain production. A 6.5 percentage on average due to Ponyville being an agricultural mooring, but in the past three weeks, your most recent production of rainfall has fallen well below the accepted acidic measure. This in turn can affect the harvest long term unless rectified.”

Dumbbell simply listened, he knew the jargon Tangent was spouting, but he didn’t understand why the earth pony’s presence was at all necessary. Weather managing wasn’t easy, but there was no way he or Dew Drop, or any of the other monitor ponies would let the quality slip so low that they would need to send inspectors from the ground.

Tangent had somehow gotten his hoof onto the print out, and he read it silently.

“According to this, everything seems to be in order.” he said, and Dumbbell wondered how the earth pony would even know what he was looking at. Tangent emitted a single grunt and looked back up at him. “But this piece of paper doesn’t mean mistakes weren’t made.” He set the paper aside like an after thought.

“Show me to the holding tanks.”

Dumbbell nodded once, pushed his work helmet firmly over his mane, and walked out of the small room in a stiff trot, fast enough to get a head start.

‘Who does this guy think he is?’ He thought, his mind filling up with veritable storm clouds. Ahead of him, a couple of ponies were waxing the floor. They either nodded in acknowledgement or didn’t look up at all as he went past in the peaceable silence. After a long hallway, they eventually came to a room full of bulking pipes that looped along the walls and ceiling, each one feeding into a large mixing tank. The tanks were twenty feet high, so they used a catwalk to see down into them. They were open for observation, the mixing blades at the bottom, spun quietly, easy to see in the clear liquid. Dumbbell leaned over the railing and looked down into the slowly mixing water.

“So,see anything that gets under your feathers?” he asked. Forgetting for a moment that he wasn’t speaking to a pegasus.

Tangent had already started silently scribbling, the pencil glided lazily over the paper as if nothing he saw sparked an interest. It wasn’t something he could fault him for, he’d never tell another pony that this job was well known for its excitement.

Tangent set down his pencil in order to speak freely when a sudden clanging sound lashed across their ears.

“What the—,” Dumbbell looked above him, the sound had come from the dense network of pipes above their heads. “What the hay was that?”

As if to answer his question there was a second, louder clang, followed by a series of long rending clatters and scrapes, intensified in the echo heavy chamber. Dumbbell flinched and jumped away from the edge moments before something smashed solidly across the railing, crushing it to bits. He saw that it was a section of pipe before it crashed into the vat below. Then the blistering noise of a whistle blasted against his ear drums.

“You! Stop right there!” A yellow and red mare galloped out of an entryway from the opposite side,full tilt, a stallion in blue uniform high on her heels. Since there were only two watch ponies on duty, he easily recognized this one to be Dandelion Breeze, the supposed security pony in charge, The bright orange stallion brought the whistle to his mouth and blew it again, but he had to stop running to do it.

“You are trespassing on property of the crown!” Dandelion shouted, huffing and puffing as he started running again.
The mare meanwhile was blazing. “Don’t worry, I’ll see my way out!”

“Holy hell!” Dumbbell exclaimed, looking stupefied at the pony running towards him. “You coulda just killed me!”

No reply given, the runaway mare took flight, zooming over their heads and dashing out into the blue and white corridor. The whistle blowing quite ineffectually behind her.

“Wait here.” He said to Tangent. Without waiting for an answer, he galloped over the catwalk after Dandelion and the runaway. He saw the two ponies slap dashing it through the corridor, the saboteur doing everything in her power to loose Dandelion who, Dumbbell had to admit, was doing a fair job at keeping pace.

‘That bitch is mine.’ Dumbbell took to the air and put on a burst of speed, leaving Dandelion Breeze in his wake.

“You’ll stop if you know what’s good for you!” he bellowed, but their intruder didn’t stop. Of course she wouldn’t.

“Fine, have it your way!” He closed the gap faster than the quarry anticipated. He saw the surprise on her face just as he body checked her against the wall.

They rolled several times across the floor, halting with Dumbbell on top, the mare laid flat with his weight firmly pressed down on her back.

He could hear her groaning when he leaned down to whisper in her ear. “You shoulda listened.” The whistle petered out into a pathetic warble as Dandelion Breeze landed next to them, with a slight wheeze in his breath.

“You...you are under...arrest.” Dandelion tried to smooth the stray hairs in his mane back in place.. “The authorities have been...will be...underway.”

Merry May was rushing down to them barely a minute later, a few other ponies close behind, attracted by what they must have heard through the halls.

“I heard a noise from my office!” exclaimed Merry, she stopped abruptly when she noticed Dandelion, and Dumbbell with another pony pinned under his hooves. “What in the world happened?”

“This happened.” Dumbbell punted a back hoof into into the downed mare’s sides. He wasn’t trying to cause her any more pain than necessary, but when he heard her slight garbled moan, he thought for a moment that he might have taken her down a little too hard.

“This pony caused damage in one of the holding tank rooms.” Dandelion Breeze said after regaining his ability to breath. “One of the large pipes, were torn away.”

“Yeah, good thing the pump was turned off.” Dumbbell said to confirm the situation. “Otherwise we would be halfway flooded right now, and the rest of the water would be fallin straight through Cloudsdale.”

“We were lucky in that case.” said another pony. Since it was but a skeleton crew, Dumbbell realized that everyone on the night shift payroll had surrounded him, all except for Old Sweep who was keeping a watchful eye over the protesting ponies at the front. Unfortunately it looked like he had let one of the loonies slip by.

As if picking up on this, Merry May asked, “Where is Old Sweep?”

“Front gate.” Dumbbell answered before Dandelion could open his mouth, which got a spearing glance thrown his way. He rebuffed it with a grin. Merry May nodded absently.
“Alright,then Dandelion go to the sheriff’s office and tell them the situation.”

Dandelion Breeze looked her over with a glance cultivated with frost.“Since I am the head security pony, I should remain here.” His voice was so full of posh that Dumbbell really wished Dandelion were the one being pinned to the floor.

Merry May sighed with a trying smile. “I want you to go because Sweep is too old to fly there fast enough.”

“But Dandy’s too fat.” Dumbbell replied.

“Quiet, you—!”

“Quiet! Don’t even start!” May shouted. She grit her teeth and stared iced daggers. Both the stallions stopped immediately.

“Dandelion, please, get the sheriff. Dumbbell will help me secure this pony here, then we’ll have to keep a closer eye on those protesters outside.”

Dandelion grumbled, but he finally turned around and left.

“And you...” Merry May looked down at the red and yellow mare who was still laying uncomfortably flat under Dumbbell’s pressure.

“I would say it’s okay to let you up, but I don’t know what you’d do.”

“We’ve never had this issue before, but we could use the broom closet.” said Verticy, a mare who was one of the primary engineers.

“That’s an idea, Verty.” Dumbbell slowly pulled his forehooves away causing the captured pony to groan with relief.

“Alright, get up.” he demanded. “Any wrong moves and you’re tasting wax floor again.”

“You found what?” Verticy’s jaw hung open, clearly alarmed.

The sheriff pony placed the objects down on the mat in front of them and shook his head.

“Looks like components used for a spell.” said the sheriff. He pointed at a slender crystalline object which possessed a killer sharp point. “A crystal dagger to carve it into the pipe,” Next to it lay a small empty vial. “And this was some kind of chemical mixture, the catalyst.”

Tangent was standing on the fringe of the conversation. Dumbbell only noticed when he walked too close to the patch of shadow the stallion was standing in.

“What are you doing here?” Dumbbell asked.

“My job.” was all Tangent said as he wrote down everything like an inspector on a crime scene.

“So then the spell...ate through the pipe?” May asked, wide eyed and hesitant. The sheriff’s nod was stiff but confident. “Yes, I don’t see this kind of thing often. Runes I mean, but crystal daggers are the usual for this sort of practice.

Though this is more of an earth pony thing, you know. Never seen it used in Cloudsdale.”
Merry May went a little pale. “I see,” The concern on her face was plain. “Brew will have to hear about this.”

Dumbbell looked up, surprised. “Brew who?”

“Didn't you know?” she countered his question with her own. “Oh well, I guess it hasn't been made official yet, but yes. Because Mr. Foghorn has been so sick, we had to bring in a replacement.”

“Yeah but—” He cut himself off. He didn't know too many Brews, but still.

“Don’t worry about it,” she said before turning her attention back to the sheriff. “I’m sure you’ll meet him soon enough. He’s a very nice stallion.”

A day later, Dumbbell met up with Highball, Pompellyite and Tango near the local gymnasium.

“You’ve got to be kidding.” said Tango. “And then what happened?”

“What they did after that I’m not too clear on,” Dumbbell answered. “But I know the authorities flew in, cleared the protesters out and took that one crazy mare into custody.”

“This whole protest thing sounds like a barrel of bats.” said Highball. “What’s gotten to them so bent out of shape that they feel the need to destroy property?”

“I don’t know all the details, but its got something to do with worshiping weather.” He said with a shrug. “Literally worshiping it.”

“But what does that have to do with the factory?” asked Highball.

“To them, pony made weather is the worst ever offense. They think we’re messing up the natural order, clogging up the mana streams or whatever it is they say.”

They reached the gym’s front steps and passed under the archway. “Either way, it’s a load of horse apples.”

All around them were ponies, the majority being stallions, on various pieces of gym equipment. From his place by the entrance,Dumbbell noticed a familiar face walking amongst the exerting bodies.

“Hey cuz! How’s it hangin?”

Score took notice, walked over and bumped hooves with him. The stocky, dark gray pegasi was a common sight at the gym since he’d left the weather factory and took the job of assistant trainer a year ago. Mostly weight training, but he found a particular enjoyment in boxing, and Dumbbell was hard pressed to remember any pony who could last a round with the guy for more than four minutes. What Score lacked in height, he made up for in muscle, that was hidden under a sheen of fat. This made it easy for his opponents to get the idea that they could tackle him easily, but that was never the case.

“A lot of the usual.” Score said with an easy shrug. “Grunting, sweating, and leaving gross puddles of sweat on the benches that I used to be loathed to clean.” he grinned. “It’s amazing how much gym etiquette improves after a few ponies are tossed out on their backsides.”

The gym was a small affair, packed but not cramped, sectioned off into different areas with walls. One room was dedicated to treadmills though most considered their use inferior to actual running in a field or track, space was usually at a premium in Cloudsdale. But if a pegasus wanted to stretch their legs there was always one of the aerodomes or the biggest gymnasium that sat right at the center of the city. It had plenty of space but the membership cost at least one forehoof a month, and as far as Dumbbell was concerned it was just an overpriced country club for sponsored athletes.

“Looks like we picked a bad time to show up,” said Tango as she looked around. “It’s busy this morning.”

Score motioned to them with his wing. “There’s a smaller weight room in the back.”

As Score lead them through the building, they passed one of the smaller rooms that had been converted into a boxing room. Dumbbell was familiar with it, but as he peeked inside, something grabbed his attention.

“Well, well, well, look who we have here.” He changed course. “If it isn’t The Crash, here to grace us humble peons with her awesomeness.”

Rainbow Dash turned around, surprised. She was leaning on the ropes of the boxing ring, appearing to be making chit chat with an orange filly on the opposite side, a pair of boxing gloves strapped to her forehooves, which were ridiculously oversized. Before she could speak, another pony crouched in some corner of the room spoke up.

“Hey! My peon is far from humble.”

Dumbbell grimaced. “Nice.”

Rainbow Dash glanced at him humorlessly. “Pfft, meatheads.”

“Yeah? What up Bro?” Much to his amusement, she immediately cringed.

“I hate it when you say that!” she uttered.

He slowed his speech a little, pronouncing the short syllables sharply. “What. Up. Brah.”

“Ugh!”

“Yeah, what up, Dashbro! You’re among friends!” Tango and the others had caught up.

Dumbbell leered down at the blue pegasus. “You might as well drop the egghead facade while you’re here.”

“So are you like,the king of meatheads or something?” The orange filly had climbed up the ropes to meet him face to face, her little wings buzzed when she spoke.

“Hey!”

“Well I wouldn’t call him the king of meatheads,” said Rainbow Dash with bogus thoughtfulness “I’d say maybe more of a court jester.”

“Try not to flatter me too much...” Dumbbell growled, the laughter behind him making the heat in his face suddenly rise.”Whatever, what brings you to this patch of cloud?”

“Repairs are still going on in Ponyville, and we've both been real busy with that. So I decided that before you guys floated back towards the coast, I’d give my protégée here...” Rainbow Dash accented her statement with a quick ruffling of the smaller pony’s mane.”an awesome tour of Cloudsdale!”

“Yup! It’s been great!” the filly confirmed,swaying back and forth on the ropes. “First we went to the clouddoseum, and then weather factory, then the post office, and the museum, and even the shipyard!”

“Heh, too bad there wasn’t much going on at the clouddoseum, but the other places were as busy as ever.”

“Those airships are huge! I’ve never seen one so up close before, but they looked super awesome!”

Dumbbell suddenly felt appreciative of the girl.

“Yeah, it’s been a long day.” Dash chuckled. “So now we’re here so I can teach her some sweet boxing moves.”

“You’re...into boxing?” Highball asked.

“Well, in my experience, you never know when the ‘ol one two might come in handy!”

Dumbbell rolled his eyes. “Right, and what do you know?”

“Well, there’s what you’ve been teaching me.” she said. That got a reaction out of the others.

Tango’s voice flowed like velvet. “Oooh, when have you two been sneaking off to have ‘private lessons’?”

Beside her, Highball was practically in stitches.“Hah, look at him. Stop it, Tang before he bites your head off!”

And Dumbbell thought he just might, but now wasn’t a good time, there was a malicious thought forming in the back of his head.
“So you think you got what it takes to knock a pony out in the ring?” he asked.“

“I can certainly hold my own.”

“Why don’t we test that out now.” Dumbbell smiled. In his mind he had already won.

“I need your help.” she said.

As Dumbbell was working on fitting the mouthpiece in properly, he glanced at her from the corner of his eye.

“If you still need help putting the gloves on then this is a lost cause.” he said. Which was met with a hard stare that told him that wasn’t the help she needed.
“Yeah, what’s up?”

Rainbow Dash took a seat on the bench next to him and leaned forward, her hooves tapping the wood distractedly.
“You remember that I told you, about the book club down in Ponyville. And that it’s once a month, right?”

Dumbbell nodded as he slowly pulled the gloves over his hooves, securing them on with two velcro straps.

“Yeah I do, how’s that going by the way?” he asked.

Her grin was sardonic.“Oh, pretty good.” she answered. “Besides our meeting place getting blasted to smithereens a few months ago.”

“Oh. right.” Dumbbell didn’t need to ask how that happened. He already knew, anything substantial that had been blown apart were the results of the Tirek incident. A near apocalyptic event that razed the earth and shattered the sky, and nearly sucked up enough magic to doom most if not all of Equestria, and every pony that could have suffered a one hundred mile drop to the earth. Being an isolated civilization, Cloudsdale had no idea of the dark sorcerer’s movements until they witnessed his attack on Canterlot. Then everyone bugged out, fleeing the city en masse. No pegasus wanted to be caught off the ground when Tirek finally turned his attention to the pegasus city, as that would have been certain death. In the end, Cloudsdale had been spared. Most earthbound cities, towns, and villages had not.

“Yeah well, we’re working on fixing the clubhouse so to speak, but right now that isn’t my problem.” she said as she slouched back. “My nights coming up, but I don’t have a book to present!”

“Run out of Daring Do?” Dumbbell asked.

“No.” Rainbow Dash shook her head, appearing downcast. “I just don’t get it!” she said.“We’ve been through six books, but there are five left in the series that we haven’t even touched, but the other members want to read something else!”

Dumbbell lifted an eyebrow and smirked. “I’m shocked.”

Rainbow Dash stood up and rounded on him so fast that he flinched. “I’m not joking! I’m facing a revolt here!” Her tone was sharp enough that he leaned back on reflex, if there was anypony who knew what it felt like to be on Rainbow Dash’s bad side, it was him.

"You don't have any other books?" He asked.

"Of course I do, its just that I don’t really know of any other books that are as good, you know?” She put a hoof in the air above them, trying to signify a lofty standard. “Something that feels as real or genuine, everything else I’ve come across kind of falls flat. And I can’t go in there presenting something mediocre.”

Dumbbell nodded, thinking it over, figuring Dash probably suffered from tunnel vision when it came to reading, either that or her Daring Do bias was really that bad. Though he figured he couldn’t blame her since the novels were the first books she had ever read for pleasure. And the firsts always feel like the best, in a nostalgic sort of way. In the end he probably had a broader purview when it came to this sort of thing, at least by a little.

“Well you gotta think about the other ponies in the club, Dash.” he said with a shrug.

“I know that!” she snapped and rolled her eyes with a resigned sigh. “I’m asking you for ideas.”

Dumbbell shrugged and held up a gloved hoof in defense. “Alright, alright, I get it, I’ll help.”

“What in Equestria are you two doing over there? Discussing honeymoon plans?” They looked away to see Tango leaning over the ropes, flanked by Highball and Pompellyite, the three of them looked amused, apparently having overheard their talk for the past minute.

“Hurry up and fight before we consider you both forfeits!”

Rainbow Dash got off the bench, and Dumbbell noticed she did a good job staying up on her hind legs, not even a slight sway of imbalance, and she walked with confidence to the ring.

‘Yep, she’s been practicing.’ He thought, though he didn’t feel the need to feel concerned...yet. Rainbow Dash set one gloved hoof on the top rope and expertly flung herself over without need of her wings. She landed and turned to the little orange filly was sitting all bunched up on another bench between several other spectators. She pumped her forehoof and pointed it towards the orange filly.
“Watch and learn, squirt!”

“You’ve got this, Rainbow!” Squirt hollered back followed by a chorus of cheers from the spectators.
Dumbbell smirked and lept into the ring. “Hey how about some love for last week’s champ! C’mon!” he called out to the crowd, and everyone immediately switched from cheers to jeers, though light hearted and playful and not actually sincere. Because of his boisterous attitude, and the fact that he liked to push around the newbies, hel was used to playing the role of bad guy whenever he fought a new pony at the gym. It was like a weird play or something. He sometimes wasn’t sure he got it.

“Tsh, it’s always the dramatic with you ponies.” he said throwing a theatrical wave off back at the crowd, playing along all the same. He turned to face Rainbow Dash from his corner. She looked relaxed, casually rolling her shoulders.

“So, do we hit the library after this?” she asked with a pleasant tone. As if they were just walking through the park.

Dumbbell tilted his head to one side as he presumed his boxing stance. “Library? Sorry, Dash but you might need to see a doctor after this.” With the mouth guard his speech was a little slurred as if he had a lisp, but he thought he still managed to sound intimidating.

“Hey,Bell, this is just a practice match.” Score deadpanned in warning. “So try not to break anything.” He clung to one side of the ring’s rope, a serious look on his face. “And remember, keep your wings in.”

Rainbow Dash didn’t seem to hear Score’s objection and practically talked over it. “Hah! Doctor? As if!” She was jumping back and forth in small leaps of bouncing energy. “If any pony’ll need to see a doctor after this, it’s gonna be you.”

Dumbbell slid his tongue around the plastic mouth guard, biting down on the smooth gelled surface.
“Bring it.”

Score groaned, then gave the signal.

Author's Note

Welp we'll see how this goes in the next chapter.
I didn't want this chapter to be overly long, so this is technically half of a chapter.