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           It's Like a Big Can of Weather Worms            
                     -by Pigeonsmall-                      
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                     A Weather Worker                      
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A Weather Worker
Chapter 1
“Jeez would it have killed you to wake me before you left?”
Dumbbell held his head low as he skulked into the supply room, still shuffling on the coat, and straightening the helmet between his ears before finding an inconspicuous corner, in hopes that his late arrival wouldn’t be noticed by any pony important.
“Dude, I tried,” A taller orange pony with a brown mane sidled up to him and opened a locker. “I knocked on your door for like twenty minutes. You didn’t even wake up enough to tell me to shut up.”
Dumbbell groaned in frustration as he maneuvered a set of double layered rubber boots onto his hooves. “Some friend you are, Hoops. Later today I’m getting an alarm clock.” he said, while pulling out a tightly bound coil of a netted like material from a pristine white locker.
“Hey if you want a decent sleep pattern, I suggest you take a sleeping bag with you when you go to the gym.” Hoops shrugged as he hoisted his own net, and laughed when his friend barely managed to stifle an incoming yawn for long enough to cast him a devilish glare.
“Whatever,” he said. “So what level storm do they need this time?”
“About a stage two,” Hoops answered. “With more rain than wind this time.”
Dumbbell couldn’t help but smirk as he slung the net over his shoulder. “They complained about wind?” he asked.
“More about lightning actually,” said Hoops. “ Like a bolt struck an old dead tree and caught it alight. It freaked some of the residence.”
They both walked to the cloud depot at a leisurely pace, passing the air pressure and wind current monitor room, and the snow melting plant, a large cylindrical construct of terminals and tubing, where the water was run through to the pumping station to be purified and separated for rain, fog and mist.
“That ain’t our problem, the warning system gave them a whole two days to deal with dead trees before we move a storm their way,” Which was true, sometimes even three days, yet sometimes it seemed the wingless ones below had a hard time doing just the little bit required of them to avoid accidents.
“Not much we can do about dead trees catching fire after the clouds start putting out.”
They reached the depot and flew out into open air. The depot itself was a large room on the west side of the complex, that sifted the clouds through pipes, that eventually floated out of a gigantic upturned funnel on the outside. Ten other ponies were already hovering around the mouth of the funnel with their nets stretched over the holes to catch the angry grey clouds as they drifted out and carried them into the open sky. Dumbbell looked out across the factory’s expanse and noticed something with begrudging recognition.
“Oh great, look whos here.” Dumbbell muttered. “Natureists at your six, Hoops.” This surprised his friend who turned around. From his position near the depot Dumbbell could see at least a dozen forms settling atop one of the suspended glass walkways. Half of them were holding big white signposts covered in bold black writing above their heads. Hoops tilted his head back and Dumbbell could tell he was rolling his eyes despite his obtrusive bangs.
“Oh great the protest pigeons are back!” Hoops shouted. “On a storm day! A stoooorm daaaay!”  
If the ponies on top of the walkway heard him they didn’t seem to take the hint causing the stallion to groan in resignation. “That’s just what we need.” His voice ran thick with annoyance.
A few of the other weather ponies saw the gathering on the bridge and flew closer to get a better look.
“Oh no, not them again — do you see them too?” A spring green and plum maned pegasus flew over head toward the smattering yet growing congregation.
“You are not allowed in this area!” The weather pony cupped her hooves near her mouth in an attempt to elevate her voice. “This is weather management property and airspace, please leave!”
None of the protesters moved and started chanting as if the mare’s approach was the signal to start. The weather mare tried again in vain to get the protest ponies to listen to her but they took no notice.
“Don’t waste your voice on them, May.” said Hoops.
Dumbbell nodded in agreement. “Yeah it’s not worth it.”
“These storm clouds are heavy with electricity.” Merry May turned back to them, worriedly rubbing her gloved hooves against each other. “If they fly too close without protection they could,—”
“Let’s hope they aren’t that stupid and leave them to security.” Dumbbell grumbled dismissively before grabbing Hoops’ attention and flying to the funnel, where another big grey cloud peaked like a brooding creature, heaving and bellowing over the sides.
If Dumbbell had to pick a date on which a series of strange happenings at the Cloudsdale weather management complex began,he would probably pick the third of April. He remembered it clearly because some jerk stole his lunch from the fridge, and the day after that was Rainbow Dash’s birthday.
He remembered because she had invited him to the celebration but he couldn’t go due to storm season. It was usual that at the end of March and the very beginning of April, most of the preparations for the rainy season began. That was typically when Cloudsdale reused all of the recycled snow collected from the towns and cities below, refilling the aquifers and giving spring a big jump start.
Unfortunately for him, Dumbbell was assigned to distribution duties during this crunch time and the higher ups decided it wasn’t in their best interest to allow him a day off on that particular week. That, and he had already used up his sick days before the invitation was given. He was a little bummed about that, especially when the stories started drifting skyward. It must have been a true spectacle.
But missed birthdays aside, the real problem actually started late winter. First there was a thing with the head manager of the cloud factory. One morning he walked in grey faced, an actual feat considering he was tortilla colored, and announced he was going to take the rest of the day off because he wasn’t feeling that great. His condition was so bad that when he made it to his house, his wife instructed him to immediately go to the hospital. Walk, not fly, to avoid injury, so it was serious. He was apparently suffering a bad fainting spell. A few of days of observation said it was the flu, and a week after that the diagnosis was some kind of stress related heart trouble.
This all came on a wave of bad timing since the Cloudsdale weather factory was the largest in Equestria, it was technically in charge of all the smaller weather factories that dotted the country.
Little villages were starting to grow into cities and it was the Cloudsdale manager’s job to make sure any township with the right prospects was provided with its own station. That included all of the equipment and machinery needed to generate weather, which were all produced in Cloudsdale only, as special orders. In this case it was a little town on the west coast called Reedsport which was the biggest commercial grower of kelp and other edible sea plants. It was decided that a small weather station be put there for the benefit of the crop, that needed specially monitored conditions for the best possible output. And to prevent natural storms from washing it all away.
But after the bosses sudden sick leave, it became obvious to the the staff that the move would have to happen without his guidance, something that hadn’t been an issue in most of their life times. The weather manager was good at his job, and without him, some of the other higher ups felt uneasy.
But by the time his shift ended, stolen lunches, intruding protesters, and managerial problems were the least of his concerns. He had someplace to be and things to do. Not that he ran a risk of being late, but he wanted to be early all the same.
Dumbbell flew across the weather factory and down to the residential district. Cloudsdale isn’t the easiest city to get to and most ground bound ponies, griffins and other foreign creatures think of it as one chaotic mass of clouds clinging together like dryer lint. With only the top most spires of randomly spaced buildings, the weather complex’s being most prominent, sticking out over the hazy covering. But in fact the innermost construct of the floating city was built like a stout funnel with layers connected by sturdy columns. Or for a baker pony’s comparison, a big upside down floating wedding cake with too much buttercream icing thrown on.
There was more than enough space for Hundreds of pegasi to fly to and fro across the hollow or “core” of Cloudsdale, making all of the receding levels easily accessible from the the center hub, in a way making it an open air freeway. Though unlike Manehatten, temper exploding traffic was no issue here.
He touched down in front of the gym, a grey building with no defining traits other than it looked like a big cinder block.
He stepped into the gym unnoticed, and saw several pieces of equipment already in use. It definitely wasn’t a swanky establishment in the rich part of town. A large one room affair partitioned to make three rooms filled front to back with the metal frames of weight racks, cable rows, a leg press, a self powered treadmill, and a large smith machine at the center. Stuck on the walls were the usual, practically obligatory posters of encouragement along with instruction charts on how to use the equipment correctly. There was a boxing ring on the other side of the thick curtain, along with gloves and bags and at least a dozen chairs to enjoy a show.
Though he came here often to work out that wasn’t the reason for his visit. In one shuffled corner three ponies stood next to a large white sign up poster sporting an illustration of an armored pegasus pulling a decorated chariot, as if buffeted on both sides by heavy ice and snow. Dumbbell had met those three particular ponies in November of last year. A beginner Chariot pull team with aspirations for the national competition. Their chance encounters won the Drumfires the race that kept them in the runnings and sparked a friendship that got Dumbbell involved as a reserve player.
“Hey, no need to fear.” Dumbbell called out and sauntered across and gained the three ponies attention. “Your star player is here.”
A long legged arctic blue pony with a yellow mane turned around, a smile wide on his face.
“You guys, is that a pony or a big ham coming towards us right now?”
After Highball, Tango was next to respond.
“Whoohahahaah!” The dusty mulberry colored mare with a streaked coconut cream mane didn’t notice when everyone in the building winced.
“Ham’s don’t have wings, Highball. I’m pretty sure we’re looking at a giant turkey!”
“Hah, funny.” Dumbbell’s wave of embarrassment ebbed away when he realized they were joking. “As if a turkey could pull your lightweight tails out of humiliating loss by gimped wing!”
“Ooooh, I dunno.” Tango creased her eyebrows. “I’ve seen some pretty athletic turkeys...”
Dumbbell had no choice but to turn her ridiculous logic around. “Alright, alright, so just admit out loud that you’re all so lame it took the hardlined will of a turkey to drag your sorry asses from the brink of defeat, and win you last year’s silver trophy.”
The Drumfire’s third and shortest member, an often silent stallion named Pompellyite tossed his head and snorted. “Good job making us sound completely pathetic, Tango. Could you try thinking out what you say next time?”
Tango’s new laugh lacked the volume and mirth of her first, and her ears went flat, deflated by thorough self humiliation.
“I take it back.”
Hightball’s smile returned without faltering. “Enough ham and turkey talk,” He brought up his hoof and prodded Dumbbell in the chest. “You’re a good racer, kid. But you’re still a rookie. The trophy we won last year was foal’s play. Real chariot races don’t happen on tracks.”
Pompellyite nodded with a stiff neck. “Harshest terrain, roughest weather.”
“Which is why get eight months to train.” Tango’s flightiness diminished. “This is serious stuff. And we need you to be committed.”
Dumbbell couldn’t help but meet their stalwart faces with his own sure grin
“When do we get started?”
They started that day, and flew out to the cloudeseum to test their agility and speed with sky hoops. After two hours of tiring exercises they decided to roost at the Lofty Waffle, a popular three meal diner that sat on a small island in the middle of the cloud city’s busy hub. The Lofty Waffle was nearly perpetually full but they managed to snag the only open table left and ordered something hardy.
“I mean I tried to warn her, I tried tellin her the guy was no good.” Tango shrugged before she took a strong sip of soda. “But she didn’t listen, and the next she knew, he was gone, with half her life savings!” She sighed and leaned back. “Sheesh, just like a stallion.”
“What?” The question from the two stallions sitting next to her was unanimous.
“What, what? You know it’s true!” Stubbornly she started grinding down on hay fries. “A typical stallion is always lookin for a mare who will set him up for life. It’s like, in your blood or something.”
“Is that what you think of us?” Highball looked crestfallen and somehow pathetic with a piece of lettuce hanging from the side of his mouth.
“Huh, I have no idea what mare crazy sewing circles you’re getting that idea from.” Dumbbell crossed his hooves against his chest. “But I suggest you stop going before they make you completely insane.”
“Heeey, what do you mean completely insane?” Tango eyed him intensely but her jab to his ribs was meant in jest.
“What I’m saying is —” He paused, suddenly he sensed the space next to him was empty.
“Did anypony see where Pomp went?” he asked, leaning over the seat to see better. He hadn’t seen him in the isles or around the front counter.
Dumbbell hadn’t noticed Pompell slip away to buy a newspaper that was always sold at the front of the diner. By the time he realized their stout teammate had gone missing, he was already walking back with the news paper clamped in his mouth. They all watched as he silently retook his place at the bar, uncurled the paper, shuffled a few of the pages with his hooves and quietly began to read.
Tango gawked with a slightly lowered jaw and a twinge in her left eye. “Uh, okay, rude.” But there seemed to be no recognition of guilt on the part of her teammate. Pompellyite sucked air through one nostril and slouched into his paper as if Dumbbell and the others had ceased to exist.
“Uh, Pomp, could you not start reading in the middle of our talk?”
The paper shuffled again as Pompell scanned the columns for his desired read.
“Pompell seriously?” Tango spat.
“I want to read the economy section.” The olive pony replied simply, but the annoyance twinge remained on Tango’s face.”At least read the sports section.” As Tango lifted her right hoof onto her teammate’s shoulder and peeked over at the grey and black print, the anger lines on her face started to soften. “Hey, I wanna see what my horoscope is.” she said.
Dumbbell managed to cough back half of a laugh but Highball didn’t bother.
“You don’t even turn that quick in the air, Tango girl.”
“Hey I’m working on my turning!” she glanced back at her friend to protest. “Which is why I need to know my foreseeable future.” She leaned back over the paper as Pompell was doing, prodding him to heed her request.
“Alright alright,” It took a minute but he finally succumbed. Just as he was about to turn the page, he paused again. “Hmmm, whats this all about?” he murmured.
“What? What is it?” By now Tango was practically laying on top of the shorter pony, her eyes were actively scanning but seemed to make no connection. Her voice suddenly sounded thick with anticipation. “Is it another star sugar scandal?”
“No nothing like that but just as curious.” Pompell’s statement brought Dumbbell and Highball around. They had been dumped to the side of the new conversation and were not going to stand for it.
“So what the heck is it, Pomp?” Dumbbell asked impatiently.
“A reported incident at a Correctional Education Facility located in Tall Tale .” Pompell answered. He didn’t even seemed irked by the pressure of three adult ponies pressing down on his back.
“Tall Tale?” Dumbbell mused. He might have been there. Once. Or most likely he had only flown over and forgot that he did. The place was very small and surrounded on all sides by forest. Nothing about the place seemed interesting except that it was 300 miles south of Vanhoover and 800 miles north of Los Pegasus. The town sat on a slope of trees that eventually morphed into the great Smokey Mountain with no marked roads to be seen, making the place virtually impossible to access by hoof unless you took a train. Probably a scenic location,but it didn’t sound like the type of place Dumbbell felt would be the most comfortable of living spaces.
“Sounds spooky.” Tango said out loud. “This is one of those lonelier places near the coast isn’t it?”
Dumbbell nodded. “Yeah, with a fog that rolls in so thick you can cut it with a knife, and I guess they’re happy with that.” he said as he scratched his mane. “Our rotations don’t ever take us there.”
“So I hope you don’t mind when I ask...” Highball squinted over the tiny print. “Just what is a Correctional Education Facility?”
Tango seemed to have already thought it through and was quickest to answer. “Isn’t that a school?”
Highball shrugged, seeming to agree with that assessment. “It’s got education in the name.” he mused.
“Uh, but wait... what about the correctional part?” Dumbbell asked. “What are they correcting?”
“Hmmm correctional education,” Tango rubbed her chin in concentration. “Oh yeah, it’s got to be a school about fixing things. Like a mechanic!”
Highball stomped his hoof on the floor in triumph. “That’s got to be it!”
“Right, yeah, so, so the incident might have been an explosion!”
Pompell released a long graveled sigh. “It’s a prison.” That was quickly met with a strong silence.
Dumbbell grimaced. “A prison? Then why don’t they call it that?
Pompell shrugged. “Maybe they don’t want to worry ponies.”
Dumbbell shook his head, not approving of the weird dishonesty. In the brief pause he took the time to actually look at the article. It wasn’t very long, only a few lines with very brief, very vague wording.
Accident at Correctional Education Facility
On April 3rd at approximately 4:30 that morning, there was an explosion
at the First Equestrian Correctional Education Facility in the town of Tall Tale. Caused when a boiler at the bottom of the facility exploded. In the time it took to quell damages, three figures were seen running off into the forest and one inmate is reported missing. Authorities say the forest has been laced with hexes and trap spells in a ten mile radius, and the inmate should be returned in the very near future.
And the article was on a page at the very back of the newspaper. Huh, when did they think a pony would ever get around to reading this?
Tango finally got to her horoscope. It was something weird about remaining self-assured because of foreseen esteem challenges that needed to be settled. Then interest quickly shifted to the well reported and much less vague sports section, and the four sentence article about criminals loose in some remote part of the country was forgotten.
After the lunch, Dumbbell said his goodbyes to his teammates and finally flew back to his apartment, which unlike the gym, was not located on the low side of town. It was a much nicer arrangement on the near opposite side where all of the living spaces were comprised of beautiful high rises, luxury apartments, and small mansions on fanciful little hills of pearly white cloudstone.
It was pretty redundant to call any part of Cloudsdale hightown or lowtown given the nature of the city itself. It was only meant as a way to separate the more expensive part from the much more affordable side. In Cloudsdale, there was no such thing as a slum because the compact space simply couldn’t allow such a thing, but hightown was much more affluently decorated. How could a mundane weather worker afford affluent arches and decorated columns? The simple answer was he couldn’t pay the full rent for even the cheapest space and that was why he only paid half.
“Hey I’m back!” Dumbbell pulled his key out of the door and slid the door closed with a soft click. He was greeted with silence as he stepped down into the living room. Two hundred and twenty square feet of dark woven carpet rolled under two long couches that neatly framed the corners of an old solid oak coffee table. A really good piece of furniture that didn’t show its age. A few feet ahead of him was the long galley kitchen that had one of those nice looking refrigerators that looked liked cabinets, blending into the decor. Before the kitchen there was a room that lead off from the living room after walking into a small alcove. Dumbbell went to the door and saw the sign hanging off the latch from a string.
‘Do Not Disturb’
He smirked and rolled his eyes. No wonder Hoops hadn’t said anything. A curious side of him was impudent enough to try and peek anyway, but he knew better. “Didn’t take him long.” he mused under his breath before walking back across the living space to a narrow set of stairs that lead up to his own room.   
It was a small room with tan walls and an arched ceiling, but just big enough for a bed, a chair, and a desk, and that was about all he felt he needed to get by, since he didn’t spend very much time inside the place. Off to the side there was a small walk in closet, but he did nothing with that but fill it with various pieces of sports equipment and books. Nothing else stood out except for one particular interest that covered his walls.
Over the headboard hung one vertical poster of Fleetfoot. He wasn’t really a fan of the Wonderbolts but hey, he appreciated a nice flank on the wall greeting him every morning. The rest of the space was slowly being encroached upon by maps of all things, set up in plain wooden picture frames, physical, and topographical. Most of them souvenirs he brought back after his impromptu excursions around Equestria, and the few times he left the country when he could. Above his desk was a large map of Equestria that marked the land predating Luna’s banishment. Those were seriously hard to come by but he had a knack at putting on the heat to get things when he wanted it bad enough. That stall pony from the trader’s exchange four years ago wouldn’t disagree.
He jumped into the bed and lay his head on the pillow in anticipation for what he hoped would be a restful night. He sighed as he fidgeted in the darkness, letting his thoughts wind down and wander backwards, to his place on the chariot pull team, the vexing news article, and those protest pigeons that somehow managed to sneak past security. Those blue coats were slipping at their job, not that he didn't understand why. It was boring work, but also easy work, and sometimes he was tempted to ask for a position with them. There would be more protesters with their signs tomorrow, he was sure of it, but as long as they didn’t cause too much trouble he didn’t much care.
Author's Note
Well this is going to be the result of an cluttered unorganized outline I've been puttering over for maybe the last two months. I wanted to write a fic delving into the day to day of everybody's favorite "eview buwwy!"
So let's see how this goes.

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                        A Real Pal                         
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A Real Pal
Chapter 2  
Over the next few days, Dumbbell flew head first into his training with the Drumfires. They frequented one of the aerodomes which were separate from the cloudosseum, similar in structure, but smaller in size. Made mostly for training and smaller sporting events that didn’t require as much space. As far as meeting times were concerned, it wasn’t too difficult for them to find and keep a consistent schedule between training, sleep, work, and whatever other interests he had time for in between. As far as training went, as early as the second day, Dumbbell could already tell what he was in for.  
“Bell, watch your outside turn! You’re starting to lose control!”  
They had rented three wind machines, the kind used to help push clouds over long distances, and placed them around the arena to help simulate the kind of conditions they would be facing during a real race. Pulling the chariot in calm weather wasn’t the hard part. Before now, he had shown skill in zipping around a course with one strapped to him with ease. It was keeping himself from colliding with the side of the aerodrome as the rushing streams of wind assaulted him from every side that proved difficult.  
He struggled to stay within his invisible lane with the extra weight in tow, all of which dragged him lower than his preferred height. Ahead he saw Tango heading into the next turn. She went in fast, but the current had its way with the chariot, which was heavier than she was.  
“Tango you’re going into that turn too fast, slow yourself!” Highball barked out his order from the sidelines. But Tango didn't pay attention or simply did not hear him, either way it was too late. The rush hit the chariot at a bad angle and wrenched her to the side, throwing her into a spin out.  
“Dumbbell, look out!” Dumbbell heard Pompellyite somewhere behind him. He was the slowest of their team but expectedly the most controlled. From his position behind Dumbbell, he must have been able to see the collision coming. It was at that moment, with the chariot dragging Tango behind it like she was the cargo, that Dumbbell saw it coming too. Two words flashed sharply in his mind then.  
‘Shit, dive!’  
His wing muscles strained under the combating pressure as he forced his wing power to come to bear against the torrent rushing wild around him. He felt the mass of Tango’s chariot pass over, missing him by just under a foot of head space. He had avoided his face being crushed by a chariot, good show, but there was still a problem.  
“Can I get some help here?” Dumbbell shouted as he continued to struggle against the extra weight of his chariot, but he was already too far gone. He rolled and tumbled helplessly in midair, unable to reach the release mechanism as he was heaved around. He reached for the button again, but before he was able to push it, he felt the harsh jolt of the chariot hitting the aerodome wall. The collision knocked the air from his lungs, and for a moment he was stuck there, suspended. Then he felt himself lean forward as his weight pulled the chariot away from the wall, and both he and the chariot fell to the cloud floor, which was thankfully soft of course.  
“Ugh...that’s smarts.” Dumbbell pulled his nose out of the cloud surface and shook his head slightly, feeling the world around him dizzyingly rotate, but he was cognizant enough to tell that he wasn’t injured and began trying to stand up. As he pushed against the underside of the chariot which had flipped over and pinned him, he realized it was not as heavy as he expected. And then he noticed two pair of hooves visible from his place underneath it. The chariot flipped away, and the first thing Dumbbell noticed was that he could hear a lot clearer, as the gushing sound of machine-made wind currents finally ended, and he didn’t have to stretch his ability to hear to the limit to understand what the pony in front of him was saying.  
“Pro-tip. Do not set those things to full power the first time you use them.” It was Rainbow Dash.  
Of all the ponies Dumbbell expected to be staring at, she was pretty low on his list.  
“Sorry about that, big guy,” Tango landed next to him and bowed her head sympathetically. “Seriously sorry! I almost knocked you pretty bad up there.”  
“Don’t worry about it.” Dumbbell said after finally kicking himself out of the loose harness. “Look like you came out of your ordeal just fine.”  
Tango’s eyes brightened and she laughed loudly. “You’ve got Rainbow Dash to thank for that!”  
“Heh, yeah...” Rainbow Dash managed to say after her involuntary fit of flinching ceased. “It was nothing. But it’s a good thing I was overhead when I saw you were about to fly head first into a wall.”  
For a moment, Tango looked down at her hooves.“Mmhm, guess I couldn’t handle the turn as good as the straight away. Thought I was doing pretty good. But Rainbow Dash swooped down and saved me!” She knocked Rainbow Dash playfully on the shoulder. “ You should have seen her, just as good as a Wonderbolt!”  
The compliment put a big grin on Dash’s face which Dumbbell thought was more goofy than anything. “Thanks!”  
At that moment Highball and Pompellyite made it to them, both looking concerned.
“Are you two alright?” Pompellyite pulled away his goggles glanced worriedly between his two teammates.  
“Yeah, we’re good, Pomp.” answered Dumbbell. Then Highball looked at him, then at Tango, and finally over at the overturned blue-gold chariot.  
“Aw no,” he muttered and crept over to the chariot with a strange anxious caution. He levered a hoof underneath and gently lifted it up, eyes sweeping over the exterior.  
“I’m still paying for these. My brother is going to kill me...again.”  
Dumbbell’s ears pricked forward in annoyance. “Don’t worry about us, Highball, no near deaths over here.”  
Highball snapped out of his funk for a moment and saw his teammates again with a kind of reevaluated clarity, and his ears drooped.  
“Sorry about that,” he said, then paused and shrugged, displaying a nervous smile. “But neither of you got hurt, right?”  
“Well, haven’t you got the nerve!” shouted Tango.  
“Sorry.” Highball’s limp apology was all he could offer.  
Tango stomped over to fuss over him because he hadn’t fussed over her. Pomp rolled his eyes and followed to make sure she didn’t try to kick their chariot pull captain in his rear while he wasn’t looking. That left Dumbbell alone with Rainbow Dash and a pony he had never seen before. A stallion with a faded hazelnut coat and an iron-gray mane. He was at least as tall as Dumbbell and well built. Dumbbell could sense easy confidence radiating from his smile, and power rolling off of his primary wing feathers. The kind of pony who was good at whatever it is he did and knew it. For half a second, their eyes met, and Dumbbell could have sworn he had seen this pony before but his tongue went lax, not being able to remember where. Also, Dumbbell had a knack for picking them out, but the guy looked like an asshole.
Yeah, takes one to know one, right?  
‘Shut up you idiot.’ he thought back to himself. It took all two seconds of silence for these thoughts to pass through his head before he spoke.  
“So who’s your friend?”  
Rainbow Dash and the stallion traded glances.  
“The name’s Brew,” he held his hoof out for Dumbbell to shake. “And I’m Dash’s personal trainer.”  
“Trainer huh?” Dumbbell was lifting his own hoof to shake but stopped short. He looked at Rainbow Dash curiously. “What are you training for? he asked. Rainbow Dash kicked up a white ball he hadn’t noticed before and tossed it buoyantly from wing to wing.  
“Brew here is training me for a big airball competition coming up,” she said. “ A Cloudsdale wide event and first place gets a cool three hundred bits.”  
Dumbbell whistled. “Sweet.” Three hundred bits could buy a lot, especially in Ponyville.  
Rainbow Dash hovered and tossed the ball and with a single flap of her wings shot it up like a shell shooting straight from a cannon. It flew up several feet and came back down, landing on Dash’s outstretched wing like a perfect cradled fit. “And I’m gonna win it.”  
“Hey, invite me to the victory party!” Dumbbell brought his hoof up and she bumped it.  
“She certainly has the skills.” Brew laid an appraising eye against the mare. “All she really needs is to learn the rules and techniques.”  
Dumbbell looked at Brew curiously. Where had he seen him before? “So you’re pro?” he asked. Brew shook his head, his smile not changing. “Well, in a way you could say that I am,” he said. “But I don’t play the game professionally, I just train the players. Some of them the best in the league.”  
Before Dumbbell could ask another question, his vision was flooded by mulberry.  
“A professional trainer?” Tango’s wings fluttered. She was hovering upon her hoof tips to meet Brew eye to eye. “Are you serious? That’s amazing! Who did you train?”  
“Well, I’ve trained several, there was —”  
“Did you train with Cloud Kicker? Or Cool Corona? Desert Orchid? Oh-oh-oh what about Red Rum!” Tango moved back so she would have enough room to prance in place. “Red Rum is my girl! Airball champion three years running!”  
“C’mon lay off of the guy, Tang!” Dumbbell had to sidestep her to avoid getting his hooves stepped on. “You’re acting like a complete spaz.”  
“You are right on all counts.” Brew tilted his head back and glinted a smile full of pride. “In fact I expect to meet Red Rum at the next Cross Equestria flying event.”  
Tango had just then reared up on her hind legs. She froze, standing there stiff and awkward, her mouth hung open in a big flabbergasted “O”. Five seconds later she broke from her spell and resumed standing normally, though her wings were still stiff as boards. Her mouth pinched inwards and her eyes grew large, Dumbbell took a step back uncomfortably.  
“It’s an honor to meet you, Mr. Brew...C-can I...may I...” Tango stammered, eyes shimmering. “Have your autograph?”  
Brew graced her with a smile that could charm snakes. “It would be my pleasure.”  
Before Dumbbell even had a chance to protest, his teammate stepped away from the group, towards a little overhang under the bleachers, with the supposed all-star trainer, a healthy if not one-sided conversation well underway.  
Well damn, it's like they’re already at the top of their game. But before he could go and pluck Tango away he was intercepted by Rainbow Dash, an impish and expectant smile on her face. Dumbbell watched her for a moment, not sure of exactly what she was hoping for him to say.  
“What’s the problem?” was the only thing he could think of, straight to the point.  
Rainbow Dash sniffed once and cocked her head slightly to the side. Her smile changed a little. “So, where’s my present?”  
“Wha?” He creased his brow, not understanding. “What present?”  
Rainbow Dash’s smile quickly dipped into a frown. “Seriously? My birthday was just few days ago!”  
Dumbbell shrugged. “I didn’t get to go. I told ya that!”  
Rainbow Dash still had the airball clutched between her wing and her body.  
“You still could have got me a present.”  
In one deft movement she threw the ball at him with one wing, but Dumbbell jumped back a little and caught it with his own. Now he was smiling.  
“Tch, If I’d known you were a material girl, I would have got ya something.” he said. “But no guarantee it would be something ya like!” And Rainbow Dash shrugged, smiling herself. “Nah it’s not a big deal.” she said.  
They began walking together across the aerodome’s cloud tarmac without saying anything. Sometimes it look a little bit more to get the ball rolling, but it was a silence with communication.   
Dumbbell and Rainbow Dash had become friends roughly six months ago. Or had they been friends for much longer than that? No, that presumed far too much, maybe this was a re-lighting of an old friendship gone long cold, and had died. Dumbbell couldn't really decide. To him it felt like a new thing, yet at the same time there were memories which made it feel like he was starting over. Or being given a second chance. But ever since then, they had started to hang out more often, a toss up between athletic hobbies or hunting for new reading material at the library. It was weird how a fight over a book, one which neither of them even got to finish reading, started the chain of events that placed Rainbow Dash back in his life, but he didn't find himself complaining.
Dumbbell gripped the ball and bounced it up and down with ease. He then realized a bit too late that he was now doing exactly as Tango had done, albeit for a different reason, still he couldn't help but feel like he had bailed, despite the fact that he hadn't gone far. He looked back towards the bleachers and saw Tango and Brew, still chatting each other up like they were on a second date. He looked further out onto the field and noticed Highball and Pompellyite talking near the chariot about something he couldn't hear, but it must have been casual as they had pulled drinks from the icebox.  
Well, he could say their break was well deserved.  
“So, airball,” he wondered allowed. “When did Ms. Wonderbolts suddenly decide to get a profession change?”  
“Huh, you wish,” said Rainbow Dash. “Actually this isn’t a change, more like a...detour.”  
“Oh, I get it.” Dumbbell continued to bat the ball of cloud, rubber, and magic deftly between his wings. “Think if you win the upcoming airball tournament you’ll get the attention of the Wonderbolts.”  
“More than that.” Dash said. “I’ve been paying attention to this sport and, —” her pause was hardly noticeable as she caught the ball. “I think I can learn a thing or two if I get good at it.” She threw the ball back.  
“What’s your wing power?” Dumbbell caught the returning throw.  
“Seventeen,” Rainbow Dash said proudly. She was wearing her usual boastful smirk. “ And that's if I'm going easy, I’ve been workin out, or as you’d say, “ lifting?”  
"Oh, really?" Dumbbell scoffed. “I haven’t seen you at any gym!”  
“Well, obviously there’s one in Ponyville!”  
Dumbbell flew into the air several feet with the airball locked between his hooves. The cloud surface made holding it easy. “Yeah right, like I can believe that podunk little village could afford one.” he grinned. “What do you even bench press with? Rolling pins?” He wound up his throw and released with more power behind it.  
When he threw the airball down, Rainbow Dash didn’t catch it. Instead, she jumped into the air and angled her body sideways. A strong flap of her wing changed the ball’s direction mid-fall, straight up towards him, and twice as fast, he reached out and felt as the sphere scraped past his grip. Dumbbell was only just fast enough to catch it.  
‘Wow, that was fast.’ he thought. But he told himself that was only because he hadn’t anticipated the move. He looked down only to realize Dash was already in the air next to him, her nose against his, her fore hooves pressed against his own, grappling for the airball’s possession.  
“Let’s go a round, and I’ll show you what I’ve been lifting.”
It was late evening when Dumbbell flew back to the apartment, feeling tired but satisfied with the day’s events. He and his team had done seven more practice rounds in the aerodome with the wind machines at a much lower setting as Rainbow Dash had suggested, and gradually worked their way higher. By the end, they found that they were able to fly within the ranges between low and middle speeds with relative ease. It was the roughest winds that were trouble, so it was decided they would bulk up their wing strength over the next few months, as well as hone their ability to maneuver with a chariot around tight obstacles. As far as his brief bout against Rainbow Dash had fared, he decided it best to keep the outcome to himself.  
Dumbbell slipped the key back into his sling bag as he looked over the apartment. From Friday evening to Monday night the place was usually empty at all but the most remote hours of the morning. At that moment it was quieter than a crypt since Hoops rarely if ever spent his free time at home, and for the most part, it was a mystery to Dumbbell just where he went or what he was doing. It was enough to concern him, but he struggled with the idea of it being any of his business to ask.   
Dumbbell tossed his bag onto the couch in the living room and went to the kitchen, opened the fridge, and pulled out a ginger soda. Something cold with a sharp taste was just what he needed. He popped the top and tipped the bottle back. It wasn’t until that moment while savoring the drink that he noticed a light smell and a hissing sound behind him. He paused and looked over at the stove and saw the covered pot sitting on top of it, a small flame underneath, which was the source of the hiss.  
Slowly Dumbbell took another gulp of soda and walked over to the pot and the smell became more pronounced. Something like cooked barley or corn, but none of the other accompanying smells that came with activity in the kitchen. The things Hoops liked to eat usually filled the apartment with a smell so foul it was almost baffling, but now besides the mystery in the cooking pot, all he could detect was baking soda and detergent, the typical smells of a spic and span and unused kitchen.  
“That’s weird.” Dumbbell thought to himself as he leaned over the warm pot. It was dangerous, he was sure of it, but curiosity was getting the better of him.  
“You’re back! Awesome!”  
Dumbbell looked up and saw Hoops in the living room from over the bar. He was honestly surprised that Hoops was even there on a weekend, but looking at the pot gave him an idea.  
“Yo, Hoops,” Dumbbell moved away from the stove. “Are you making something?”  
Dumbbell rarely called anything his friend Hoops did over a hot stove “ cooking” . As he learned a while ago, the hard way.  
“I’m just going out soon.” was the answer. It felt like he was dodging the question.  
“Tonight?”  
Hoops glanced at a clock on the wall. “Iiin a couple of hours, yeah.”  
Dumbbell heard the bubbling ‘splorch’ of the contents in the pot and grimaced.  
“You’re not...feeding her are you?” he asked.  
“Well, actually I—”  
“I’m not gonna to be your guinea pig.” Dumbbell said all at once, lowering his head with a scowl, the way a cornered animal would. The sudden desperate reaction caused Hoop’s mouth to split into a grin, and then he laughed.  
“It’s not like that, dude! I’m taking her out.”  
Dumbbell felt the tension leave his feathers and he breathed a deep sigh. ‘Thank the light.’  
“But I do need a favor.”  
Dumbbell was halfway out of the kitchen, soda in hoof when he stopped mid-step and inspected Hoops with a sideways glance. “I can’t cover for you tonight,” he stated. “I’ve got work in the morning.”  
“It’s not that, I’m fine tonight.” Hoops offered quickly. “It’s something I need next week. And nothing too bad.”  
Dumbbell rolled his eyes. “Spit it out. What is it.”  
“Next week I need you to take my place on the night shift!”  
“No way.”  
“Aaaawww come on, Dumbbell, you’d be doing me a huge favor if you do this for me!”  
“I can barely wake up early enough to get to the factory on time in the morning.” Dumbbell complained. “What makes you think I’d ever want to waste my perfectly good sleeping hours there?”  
He couldn’t believe what he was seeing...well maybe he could at least a fraction, but had to turn his head away in embarrassment when his friend started to grovel at his hooves.  
“So you want me to take your place during the night shift so you can go on a date...” he sighed. “Why didn’t you get this figured out way before now?”  
“It isn’t my fault,” Hoops whined in that way that always made Dumbbell grind his teeth together. “The new manager just threw me on the night schedule yesterday, but I've already planned my date with Autumn Leaf!”  
“Another one?” Dumbbell asked. “Aren’t you going out to see her now?”  
“Actually I’m going out to see Calico.” Hoops admitted nervously. “But three days from now I got a date with Autumn.”  
Dumbbell dug his hoof into the carpet. “For the love of Neptune, you have got to be kidding!”  
Hoops slowly shook his head. “Nope.”  
“Then reschedule the other date!”  
“What?” Hoops leaped to his hooves, seemingly appalled. “I never reschedule!” He gave Dumbbell a look as if to signify he should know better. “I’ve got a reputation to keep up, you know.” He shrugged. "Besides, I've already got reservations."  
“Heh, right.” Dumbbell couldn’t help but raise a sardonic smile. “Tell that to Honey Rays.”  
“That’s not fair,” Hoops groaned and looked away, wings drooping. “That was different.”  
Dumbbell knew Honey Rays was crazy, but he wasn’t in the mood to feel pity. “Sure it was.”  
But he had taken a moment to think about Hoops’ request, as last minute as it was, there could be benefits. The night shift was just a skeleton crew, meaning he would almost have free reign of the place and more free time to have to himself if he wanted. On top of that those aggravating protesters wouldn’t be around, plus the easy pay would be nice.  
Hoops flopped backwards onto the plush couch and pulled a pillow down over his face, after a couple of deep sighs he started to mumble through it. “Ok, fine...I’ll just call up Autumn Leaf and...reschedule,” he sounded so pitiful that Dumbbell decided against letting him suffer any longer. It’d be better to end this quickly.  
“Fine.” But then he added. “What's be in it for me?”  
Hoops' shoulders rose in a shrug as he mumbled through the pillow again. “My paycheck, I don’t need it.”  
And that was all Dumbbell needed to hear. “Deal.”  
Hoops flung himself off the couch a little too fast and almost tripped over the coffee table in front of him. “Really? Aw dude you’re the best!” He moved forward to wrap Dumbbell in a big hug. “A real pal!”  
Dumbbell only realized too late that he should have dodged before Hoops was on top of him, crushing him into a bear hug. He wasn’t prepared for the weight and nearly fell over.  
“Ugh, get off me ya big fog headed lame-brain!”
Eventually, that day came, and Dumbbell took Hoops’s place on the night shift. As he flew up to the weather management district, he couldn’t help but think about all the sleep he was missing, and how that may affect his training.  
“ Oh well, it’s a paycheck, a nice easy paycheck,” he said to himself. “It might be alright if I think of it as a relaxing vacation. I mean, it’s only the night shift.”  
But before he even reached the front gate he was already regretting it.  
The sound of chanting just in front of the factory entrance was unmistakable.  
“Nature is Not for Profit!”  
“Say No to Engineered Weather!”  
“Don’t Stop the Natural Order!”  
Dumbbell could never really tell when the “natureists” started to show up. They just drifted in from whatever odd corner they came from, in small segments and flocks like migrating birds gathering at some ancient meeting place. For these pegasi that place was the weather factory. There were more of them that night, huddled but a street width away from the front entrance. Enough for the workers to get inside without feeling like they were about to get swarmed. He couldn’t understand why they were doing this. Surely they had day jobs.
They cycled through their phrases along with a few more for close to an hour each morning, swaying in concert with their big white signs. Sometimes when it seemed like they were touched  
by a real charged up zeal to denounce the evil of mass produced pegasus made weather, they could stay out there for more than two. But the fact that they had come back on the same night, on the night shift he agreed to take for Hoops...  
“Don’t any of you have anything better to do with your lives than sitting out here screaming at a building!” he shouted down at the crowd but none of them listened. Or more accurately none of them could even hear him.  
“Hey, Dumbbell don’t encourage them.” A blue jacket watch pony was patrolling the front walls nearby. Despite the slowness of the night, he already looked tired and ready to put in a few hours of shut eye, so the last thing he wanted was even the barest hint of a confrontation. “ Just go inside and do your job, and I’ll make sure this lot stays civil.”  
“Whatever, Old Sweep. Just don’t let them fly all over the place this time, okay?”  
The mustached watch pony nodded curtly. “If you happen across Dandelion Breeze tell him he doesn’t have to fret over splitting his ends with this crowd. They’re loud, but not too rowdy.”  
Dumbbell couldn’t help but smirk. If he caught their oh so diligent head of security asleep on the job again, he would give the pampered prig more than just words.
“I can’t believe they’re out there...at night...are you serious?” Dumbbell spoke to no one in particular as he opened his locker to pull out his worker’s uniform. A headache was already standing on the welcome mat of his skull before even reached the locker room. To think that he would be free of that stupid perpetual chanting, nope, seemed the natureists were more serious than he gave them credit for.
“Of course, as long as they know some pony is inside to hear them.” said Merry May as she walked past and happened to be within earshot.  
“Just like yesterday... and the day before that,” Merry sighed listlessly. “But at least they are only at the front of the building today.”  
“They have been at this for three months.” Dumbbell muttered between his teeth. “When is somepony gonna tell em to stop? All they’ve done is get in the way.” He thought back to when they were out moving thunder clouds.
“How’d they get past security anyway?” Dumbbell asked. “Did they catch Dandy during one of his cat naps again?”  
“If even that,” said May while she browsed a clipboard to keep track of the night crew’s itinerary. “Sometimes I wonder how that stallion managed to keep his job this long.”  
“Question of the century.” Dumbbell said after slapping his locker shut and walked out of the room.  
“Oh and before you get too far,” Merry May leaned out of the doorway and held up the clipboard. “I’m actually glad that you took Hoops’ place this week. You see, Dewdrop couldn’t make it in tonight but I need a pony up in the observation room,” Merry blinked and looked down at her clipboard again. “Apparently there is an issue with the pH.”  
“Sure, sure, I’ll be up there.” Dumbbell nodded and made his way to the stairwell, where he noticed some pony hung a large flyer over head to announce an upcoming holiday. Big blue letters and pastel colors, a mother's day flyer. He filed the notion away and continued walking.
Of course he hadn't counted on a completely work free night, but a part of him was bummed that Dewdrop was oh so conveniently AWOL. On a skeleton crew there were just enough ponies assigned to run the weather complex at its most basic capacity. This normally consisted of the weather factory’s night manager, ponies to monitor the nocturnal weather patterns, and basically keep things warm and ready for the day crew, plus one or two engineers on staff, in case something went wrong, like a malfunction or a pipe break.  
There were no large storms on the schedule. Actually it was going to be clear the whole night, so in all, only about ten or so ponies were present at the facility, doing monitory, custodial, or maintenance work. More like twelve if you counted the two ponies on guard duty. Dumbbell was an assistant monitor pony but with Dewdrop’s absence it seemed that would be his main job that night.  
The observation room was a relatively small one due to nearly two-thirds of the space being given over to one computer that took up the entire north wall. A big copper-colored block covered in dials, buttons, switches, and gauges with obscure runic symbols carved intricately along the surface. The far left and right sides of it lined with thick black wires that attached to read out apparatus installed in the walls.
As soon as he was alone, he took the helmet off of his head. He always felt silly wearing the thing, and even though it was weather factory protocol, Dumbbell would usually take it off when alone or at least when nopony was around who was uppity enough to care.
Dumbbell walked up to the panel where a clipboard and a single sheet of paper lay, it was a read out. He picked it up and examined what was there, grinding a stray pencil he found on the desk methodically between his teeth as he did so. Everything looked on point yesterday, when had the levels gotten so low? Dumbbell scratched the back of his mane as he thought, sometimes making the calculations could be complicated but Dewdrop wouldn't make mistakes like this.  
Oh well, it wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle with just a few changes. Using the previous read out as a guide he pressed the appropriate buttons and twisted the right dials, to feed the correct information into the computer, the carved runes glowed and shimmered in calculated response.  
“And...that oughtta do it,” he said to himself as he punched the last button. It took ten seconds for the read out to shoot out of the side wall on a pristine square piece of paper, he reached over to pull it out of the slot.  
“Let me see that.”  
The unfamiliar voice made the stallion freeze in place, he turned yet saw no one in the doorway.  
“Who is that?” Dumbell asked, thinking he had maybe overheard a snippet of discussion not related to him until he turned around again and—.  
“Holy sh— who the hell are you?”  
In front of him, stood a light gray stallion with a charcoal mane. He was very lean and stood about half a head shorter than Dumbbell, but his legs were long and lanky. In fact, lanky was the word Dumbbell would use to describe all of him, from the tips of his ears, past his deeply shadowed eyes, down to the base of his hooves. A total lightweight. Nothing about his face suggested cheer or good tidings either, and for a moment Dumbbell wondered if the pony was angry with him for some reason. But he had never seen the guy a day of his life. Then there was, of course, the obvious lack of wings.  
“Who are you,” Dumbbell said more measurably a second time. “And how did you get here?”  
“Unless you are the pony rightly designated for this station then who I am is none of your concern.” the gray pony’s voice dripped with distaste and no nonsense. He gestured towards the paper. “The read out.”
Dumbbell frowned. He didn’t appreciate this guy’s tone. “Seriously buddy, you’re not getting jack squat until you tell me who you are and what you’re here for.”
The gray pony closed his eyes for a moment and sighed, as if he were the one dealing with a problem.
“Well?” Dumbbell demanded, bearing down on the stranger.
“If you don’t already know why I am here then the problem must be worse than I thought.” his voice was level, slow, and patronizing. And then he opened his eyes again, staring at Dumbbell with a full on no nonsense gaze.
“I’m here because none of you pegasi can perform your jobs correctly.”

//-------------------------------------------------------//
                   Earth pony in the sky                   
//-------------------------------------------------------//
Earth pony in the sky
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.

//-------------------------------------------------------//
                   Rainbow's Star Punch                    
//-------------------------------------------------------//
Rainbow's Star Punch
Dumbbell imagined the sound of a round bell striking as he and Rainbow Dash met in the middle of the ring, they touched gloves once and immediately began the predatory circle. Then Dumbbell realized something he had not expected, as he went in already on his guard, expecting Rainbow Dash, as was usually her way, to explode into a fury of punches. When that did not happen, Dumbbell switched strategy and took the offensive, his height advantage made it easy to corner her. He threw out a few jabs, and Rainbow jumped back, weaved left, then right, and slipped around out of reach. He was already feeling a hit to his side before he caught up and threw another punch that was deflected. Cheers and whistles of encouragement buzzed around them as their advancements became more aggressive. He absorbed two more body blows, opting to keep his face guarded, and threw another row of hard swings. But Rainbow Dash rolled with the punches, taking much of the bite out of them.
“Go! Keep em on his toes!”
“Be smooth, Dash, use your jab!”
“C’mon, get her on the ropes, Dumbbell!”
“Don’t lean out too far, Rainbow!”
Dumbbell heard the last comment clearly between the others, though he was too busy concentrating on the fight to pinpoint just who had said it, but it was an interesting tell. After another brief bout of punches and the dodging of said punches, Dumbbell slid his gaze passed her well-formed legs to notice Dash’s hoofwork. While whiplash quick, sometimes suffered a lack of coordination, and he understood then that while Dash had been practicing to fight while remaining on two legs, she had not fully mastered the art of keeping the motion fluid. So instead of stepping quickly, she literally had to hop every time she needed to dodge.
‘Let’s test this, shall we?’ And then he went in quick with no regards to guarding, focusing every possible movement onto Rainbow’s chest. She balked and ducked, practically bending backwards to avoid his swings, and when she was finally able to move, she didn’t step back, she jumped back like a kangaroo. And as he had surmised, this put her too far away from him to deliver a good hit. He watched as she over extended her upper body to make the swing count. He parried her blow, then feinted an attack on her left, and that was when it happened. Her attempt to slide away put her so far off-balance that her back legs practically wrapped around one another.
This was most likely the main reason boxing would not take off as a massively popular sport in Equestria. It was one of the most popular sports in Taurus Minoa for various reasons, mostly because it was meant specifically for natural bipeds, something a pony was not. But Dumbbell had been exposed to several, if not hundreds of boxing matches in his lifetime, and at some point during his youth, had started practicing standing on his hind legs. He taught his younger cousin, Score how to do it and it just went on from there, with the sport catching on among niche circles.  
It was a challenge, something a pony could never really do for the long haul without a lot of practice, and running in that mode was flat out impossible.
All coordination had gone Rainbow Dash pinwheeled for a second to regain her balance. That was all the time Dumbbell needed. Sure, he thought, it wasn’t really her fault that she tripped. It was a natural biological limitation that most ponies would never overcome. Could he really...really take advantage of such a blatant handicap they both shared?
‘Yes.’ his subconscious smiled wickedly. The princess of athletes could take a tablespoon of humility. His straight, flew right into her cheek, a clean hit. It was not the hardest he had ever hit another pony, far from it, but it was enough to get the job done. He saw her face scrunch up against the contour of the glove before she launched backwards. Her legs struggled to keep her up before buckling almost completely, the only thing keeping her upright were her arms suspended by the guard rope. The crowd around them pitched a fit, howling in excitement and trepidation, with many voices begging or demanding Rainbow Dash to get back up.
Dumbbell glanced sideways and happened to pick the little orange filly from the crowd. There was no fear on her face, instead she was standing up, with her forelegs pressed against the back of the pony in front of her, yelling and hollering with more competitive fierceness than anyone else. Dumbbell heard Rainbow Dash grunt and pull herself back up to a standing position, with her mane stuck over her forehead and eyes like rough tassels, framing a disgruntled sneer.
“So about that doctor visit.” Dumbbell hit his gloves together. He saw Score standing ready on the side lines, the only pony in the small space who wasn’t in a frenzy. One hit would be enough and he would end the round. He went forward, ready to deliver the last blow. She was up again but Dumbbell already knew he would reach her first, but the sight of her clenched teeth, flared nostrils, and earnest rise and fall of her chest made him stop mid swing. He met her fierce gaze and felt his joints go cold.
“Hit him, Dash! Come on you can get him!” There was Squirt again jumping up in the crowd. He honestly had no idea why he could pick out her voice out of all the others. Was she that shrill? Or maybe it was because she was the youngest pony in the room.
‘Huh, if Rainbow goes down, Squirt won’t be very happ—’  
The thought flew out of his mind like a bullet out the back of his skull when Rainbow Dash’s uppercut crashed into the bottom of his chin.
“Urk!” He staggered backwards, one hit, two hits, three hits, four, five, six, quick as lightning right to his middle. That time the stance mistake was his, as his center of gravity slipped out of his control, but there wasn’t a rope to stop his fall.
“Yeah go Dash!”
“Looks like a knock out!”
Rainbow Dash leaned over him wearing a victorious smirk. “Better luck next time!”
‘Next time, yeah right.’ He’d give her five seconds to gloat. Score jumped into the ring to begin the countdown. Just before he closed his eyes to fake being passed out, he saw Rainbow Dash turn her back to him and wave at the crowd. Big mistake.
“Four...five—”
He jumped up in the middle of the countdown, Score jumped out of the way in time, leaving Rainbow Dash open to attack. She seemed to have sensed his movement and turned, but she wasn’t fast enough. When he brought his wing power to bear several things happened at once. Rainbow Dash fell back hard, emitting a sharp bark of pain, the sheer force knocking the wind out of her. The gust of air shot past her and into the tightly packed crowd. It was enough to knock over chairs as well as the ponies sitting in them, the rest flew helter skelter,bumping into bodies and wings to escape the flying objects.
“What the hay, Dumbbell?” one of the stallions said after he’d picked himself off the floor like several others. They were all throwing complaints and disdainful jeers his way.
“Wings are against the rules! You should know that!”
“Don’t be a sore loser, Dumbbell!”
“Yeah, way to be a cheater!”
He stood rebelliously as the audience reformed in front of the ring. “Cheating against what? We’ve all got wings, we’re all pegasus here!” he reasoned. At that moment, the very last thing he expected happened. A little pink unicorn poked her head in through the door, her ears pricked forward in earnest as her eyes darted around the room.
“I heard a loud noise! Rainbow Dash, what’s going on in here?”
Everything after that was sort of a blur.
Heedless to the previous objections, Rainbow Dash returned fire with her own powerful blast of air. More heavy objects flew back,this time, thankfully, not in direction of the crowd, though both the onlookers and Dumbbell cautiously braced themselves when a weight rack flipped over. She landed back in the ring solidly, forehooves up and ready.
“So, you wanna play hardball, huh? Then let’s go!” Dumbbell noted with a frightening amount of excitement, that she was smiling.
They both launched into each other at the center of the ring, bringing their physical strength and wing power to bear. Dumbbell’s felt his glove connect moments before Rainbow Dash’s hook caught him right on the end of his snout. A sudden symphony of violent crashes rumbled against his ear as the turbulence created by their combined wing power pushed outwards.
It ended surprisingly quick, by the time the dust settled, he was laying definatively flat outside of the ring, and Rainbow Dash who was again clinging to the ropes as if for dear life, was still in it.
“Rainbow Dash is the winner!” Score shouted, the crowd cheered exuberantly, and the little filly jumped through the ropes to give Rainbow as big a hug as she could manage. Rainbow reciprocated while still wearing the boxing gloves.
“I knew you would win!” exclaimed the filly who was smiling more brightly than anyone in the room. “You made it look easy!”
“Did I?”
Dumbbell coughed loud enough to grab their attention, rubbing his sore jaw and spitting out the mouth guard.
“Damn that smarts.” he murmured, and turned to Rainbow Dash and the squirt with a heavy scowl, and they stared back with wide questioning eyes. Then he broke into a grin and reached a hoof out over the rope. “Congratulations.”
“Thanks.” Rainbow replied and bumped her hoof to his. “You didn’t make it easy.”
“Scootaloo! Where are-oh, there you are, Scootaloo are you okay? Was there an explosion? Did you get hurt?” The unicorn from earlier ran up to them, climbing clumsily between the ropes and pulled the orange filly to her chest. Scootaloo appeared a little less than thrilled at this. Then she looked at Rainbow Dash with a far less than approving glance. “Heaven of Mercury, what in the world were you thinking, Rainbow Dash?”
To her credit, Rainbow did look ashamed. She blushed and pinned her ears back. “Uh, Sorry, Moonglow. I guess I got a little carried away.”
Moonglow’s brow crease deepened. “Yes, a little.”
“No way, mom!” Scootaloo protested. “Didn’t you see it? It was awesome!”  
She had just survived what could be considered an explosion.
‘This is the kid’s mom? Yikes’
“Oh, yes, yes, I did.” Moonglow sighed. “But I’m even more glad that I didn’t see a chrome weight smash into your head.”
Dumbbell saw Dash cringe when she hastily tried changing the subject. “Oh yeah, uh, I had plans to go to the library today and Scootaloo hasn’t seen it yet—”
“The one with the really big mural?” asked Scootaloo.
“The one and only.”
“Can we go now, mom?”
Moonglow’s ears went flat and her eyes dilated. “Like...right this moment?” Her breathing grew heavy, as if the very idea compelled her to run for the hills, but she seemed to give it some thought.
“Oh,well...h-how much solid gr-uh-cloud is between us and the library?”
Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Enough.”
Scootaloo hugged one of Moonglow’s forelegs. “Don’t worry, I already know where it is, it’s right at the center of Cloudsdale.”
Moonglow’s mournful gasp was like a cat dying. “But there’s hardly anything at the center of Cloudsdale!” she said, her breath beginning to hitch. “It’s...it’s-it’s just like a big hole!”
“We can take a sky chariot.” Scootaloo lifted Moonglow’s hoof with her own and started to lead her away. “Come on I promise it’ll be safe, lets go!”
“Alright if you insist...I guess a trip to the library would be nice, and quiet, and safe.” She turned back to Rainbow Dash, eyes pleading. “Will you be coming?”
“Right behind you.” she turned to Dumbbell. “You’re coming, right?”
‘...Uh...’
He looked over to see Score leering at them. Scootaloo and Moonglow had since left and the other ponies were picking their way through the mess, still adrift from the previous excitement. Eventhough his eyes were completely covered by his thick forelock, his mouth was set in a frown.
“If my boss walks in on this, that’s my hide on the wall.” he growled, ”I said no wings for a reason.”
Dumbbell grinned. “But we put on a good show ,right?”
Rainbow Dash scanned the room and it was clear that the knocked over chairs were the least of their concerns.lucky for them, nothing was badly damaged, just thrown far and wide from their original positions.
“Ah, heh, sorry about that.”
Cleaning the sparring room felt twice as exhausting as the actual fight itself, because Score wanted to be a heel, and make them pick up all of the fallen equipment and chairs without even a chance to rest. By the time they were finished, everyone else had shuffled out.
“Well that’s finally done,” Dumbbell wiped a forehoof across his brow after setting the last piece of training equipment upright. “Time for a shower.”  
The shower room was empty when he made it inside. He picked the nearest stall and turned on the water, eager to stop smelling like concentrated used gym socks. The tension in his muscles deflated under the warm water striking his body. He wiped his damp mane out of his eyes and reached for the soap, just as he heard a set of hoofsteps pass into the room behind him. The steps stopped somewhere next to him though not directly, he glanced over and saw Rainbow Dash turning her faucet and lathering a dollop of shampoo into her mane in round slow circles. He liked the scent when it reached him, something smooth with a hint of spice, almost like a cider.
‘Ask what brand that is.’ Some part of his subconscious piped up with what he knew was the most idiotic suggestion ever. You don’t just...talk to ponies standing next to you in the showers. Not unless you were spoken to, at least that was his mode of conduct inside the place, and by the looks of things Rainbow Dash was too preoccupied with cleaning herself to want to share words. The suds clung thick to her shoulders and back. From his angle, Dumbbell could tell that her eyes were closed to keep the stinging substance out of them.
‘Ok then.’ the voice in his brain said. ‘Then stop gazing at her like she’s some kind of prized trophy, you dope.’
“What the...” He suddenly felt strange and looked away. He had been standing under the water for a few minutes now and hadn’t even created a lather.
‘She's really not too bad from this angle, why not take another look—’
‘Ok, shut up, brain. Shut it up right now!’ He scowled, and crushed the pitiful bar of soap into paste between his hooves. This was the last thing he needed to be thinking about, especially with other ponies around. Off to his side he heard humming of the Cloudsdale Anthem.
‘Go on, enjoy the view, you know you want to. She won't know.’
She was already rinsing out the lather, gracefully shaking strings of water from her glistening mane. Rainbow tipped most of it behind her ear, letting it hang flat in a delightful wave around her face, only a few strands flecked teasingly over the bridge of her small nose.  
Despite their rough bout in the boxing ring, both of them had opted to use the showers while standing upright again. A lot of ponies did that anyway even though the shower room was built so that you could stand under the heads normally. It was just easier for the water to hit more of your body at once that way and it prevented awkward rump brushing from accidentally occurring. A lot of ponies also chose to simply sit as they washed. It provided a new point of view rarely seen when a pony stood normally, a view he realized he appreciated a lot.
At some point he had given in. He couldn't help but admire the way her bright mane followed along the delicate curve of her back, like a kind of rainbow river flowing down the center, stopping finely just short of her rear.
"Hey Dumbbell," She was turning towards him.
His mind exploded into a choir of curses and reprimands as he turned away from her just in time. If not for her unintended warning, Rainbow would have seen his shamelessly adoring viewing of her backside.
“Uh, yeah?” he coughed against his shoulder, hoping to dispel any sign of discomfort. “What is it?” He chanced another glance. Since Dash had spoken, looking at her figure would stop being a crime. She was sitting down with her back facing into the stream of water, letting it trickle off her plumage.
“Sorry if I hurt you too bad back there.” she said.
‘She didn’t see me gawking at her...’ Dumbbell thought as he sat down, feeling relieved.
’Good.’
He realized that he needed to respond.
“Hurt me?” he scoffed. “Right, as if. I let you win.”
Rainbow, of course, wasn’t convinced. “Pfft, yeah right! That is so not true.”
“You can keep tellin yourself that, Crashie.” Dumbbell said as he shrugged and went back to trying to wash himself with the soap mush he had created. Though it came apparent that even it it’s new form, the former bar of soap was not good at producing any lather.
"Say that again?”
He turned around and went rigid. Rainbow Dash was right next to him then his shower head now covering them both with water. The use of her childhood , well, nickname would not be the correct for it but that’s essentially what it was, must have drawn her over to him like a wasp whose nest had just been disturbed. She looked at him with unhappy regard.
“In that case, Dumb-bell.” She said his name in a way that emphasized the first syllable. “Why would you let me beat you in front of all your gym buddies?”
‘Good question. Why did I?’ he thought glumly. He turned the question over in his mind. In truth he hadn’t let her win. And in truth he could have won the match easily as had been his plan after she’d practically wiped the sky with him in a game of airball, and while it seemed to be her goal in life to be best at every sport she deemed worthy of experiencing, He knew she was a novice at best at anything that didn’t require fast flying. With her ego on the line, he knew it would be easy to lure her to her defeat. So he wondered, when he the chance to finally lord a victory over her in the presence of an audience no less, why had he hesitated? It was his hesitation that doomed him, and the reluctance that gave Rainbow the upper hoof. He thought about the little orange filly, what was her name? Either way, he noticed how close Rainbow seemed to be with the kid.
“It was because of the filly.” he finally said aloud, content with his own answer.
“Hm?”
“You know, the kid who follows you around like a puppy, what’d you say her name was? Squirt?”
“ Yea-no. Her name is Scootaloo.” She jabbed him once in the ribs. “Come on, Bell, don’t play dumb.”
“I’m not!” he laughed. “Thats what you call her any time I’ve seen her around you. And I figured she'd be heart broken to see you lose.”
“Yeah but you know her name is Scootaloo. I've told you,” she said. "And don't worry about upsetting her, she's tough stuff. Like me."
“Sure, I’ll try to remember that the next dozen times you call her squirt.”
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and looked at the undefinable yellow soap mass between his hooves.
“I really hate the soap they use in this place. It doesn’t make suds at all. ” Then she brought up the bottle of shampoo she was using.
Suddenly, Rainbow Dash pushed the oblong bottle of shampoo into his hooves. He looked down at the bottle dumbly.
“Um, what are you giving me this for?” he asked. He turned to wear Rainbow Dash had been standing just before only to see her walking away. She had heard him and looked back,with a brief smirk.
“You think I’ve got time to stick around and bathe you? I’ve got places to be.”
Dumbbell’s left ear flicked involuntarily.
“You can give it back to me later so don’t use all of it.” she said and walked through a cloud partition, she was completely dry once on the other side.
“Oh and before I go,” She reached up and flipped her forelock back to mimic his own. “I like how your mane looks pulled back like that, you should wear it that way more often.”
He narrowed his eyes. “What?”
But she had already left the shower room.
“Hey wait a minute, when am I supposed to...eh, forget it.” He looked down at the little orange-reddish shampoo bottle.
‘At least I know what the brand is now.’ he thought. He could smell the spicy scent through the closed top. Yeah, definitely cider.
Around twenty minutes later Dumbbell landed on the steps of the library. Every pegasus learned in school that Clousdale was the first among their race’s cities. But even Cloudsdale had a beginning, and that beginning was on the ground. Dumbbell had never heard the details on why Cloudsdale had been made, just that something had scared the pegasi into lifting their city off the ground and into the clouds… somehow.
Not much remained of the old city, except the library. It was a colossal structure, many-columned halls affixed to a shallow dome, all built with pale, gleaming marble, polished to a shine by the winds of time. Here and there, spots of paint could still be seen on statues and reliefs, relics of a more garish era. The roofs were done in red tiles, some faded from long centuries under the sun, some bright and new replacements. Some tiles were completely out of place; most modern pegasi were more at ease working with cloud-stuff than with mud bricks or slate.
But all was not well with the ancient library. Around many cracked pillars, cruel iron bands were wrapped, holding them together. Some pillars stood slanted, like legs splaying outwards under a heavy burden, and even some of those had rings as well, added years ago. Here and there were metal rods holding walls up, though they couldn’t stop the obvious tilts and sags. Rumor had it that three mighty chains were wrapped around through the dome to stop it from collapsing inward.
It wasn’t that the pegasi were bad engineers; indeed, it was the opposite. Their library still stood while others from that lost time had long ago fallen into rubble. But history had its way with all things, and now it worked to ruin even their proud library. Fortunately, the inside was still holding up against time’s march. The entrance hall was open and airy, always cold too, Dumbbell had found. Many of the citizens of Cloudsdale came here in the summer just to get out of the hot sun. There were desks and chairs and even a small cafe tucked in a corner; obviously not an original design element. After that, the library truly began.
Most of the lower halls were dedicated to ordinary books on all subjects, from law to adult fiction. Height was not an issue for pegasi, so the cases went nearly to the ceilings, a good thirty feet up. Reshelving was probably a nightmare, Dumbbell guessed. The efficient use of space allowed the Cloudsdale library to hold more volumes in less space than similar libraries in Canterlot or other important ground cities.
There were few windows, the library had been built in a time before ponies knew how to leave huge openings in walls that would allow them to support the weight of a roof. In the past, he’d need a lantern to get around in here, otherwise it’d be nearly pitch-black. Dumbbell could only imagine how many horror stories had potential to happen in such a dark, vast building. Luckily, the city had installed its own lighting system years ago, magic stones that shined with a clean and smooth light that mimicked the sun. At night, the stones faded into a soft fire-glow which did not burn the eyes of tired ponies. Not that many ponies were ever supposed to see the night mode of the stones, as the library closed in the evening. Dumbbell’s curiosity had a habit of getting the better of him, though.
Under the dome, in the deepest hall of the library, laid the true literary treasure of Cloudsdale: manuscripts and scrolls from the old days, going back over a thousand years. The guardianship of these things were the original purpose of the library. It was not unheard of to find earth pony or unicorn scholars visiting to uncover some obscure slice of history that had only been preserved here, beyond the reach of the fires and earthquakes and storms and floods that plagued the world below. Cloudsdale’s library was a place out of time, and a vital gateway into Equestria’s past.
He made his way past the arts, music, and health branches, made a left turn at music, crossed a courtyard, took a shortcut through the sports, law, and the massive history section until he found the general area of fiction and non fiction. He had to mill around the general area for a few minutes before finally noticing Rainbow Dash tucked away in a little alcove, gym bag tucked to her side. The installed solar lamp emitted a soft cone of white light, bright enough for a pony to read by. He saw a book between her hooves, she was reading it with vested interest
He managed to get close enough to see the words on the page before Rainbow noticed him.  
“You told me to fly all the way over here to help, and you’ve already found something?”
Rainbow jolted back to the present, becoming aware of her surroundings all at once. When she saw him, she paled slightly and closed the book, pushing it down to the seat next to her.
“Uh, hi, when did you get here?” she asked shakily.
Dumbbell looked at her oddly. “Just now.”
“Well it took you long enough. For a while I thought you wouldn’t show.”
He immediately fished the little red bottle of cider scented shampoo out of his gym bag and put it on the table. “Here, you can have this back now.” He had felt a little weird holding it.
“It makes your mane feel awesome doesn’t it?” she giggled.
“You were reading something,” He said, unwilling to leave the subject. “Is it what you’re going to show at your book club night?”
Rainbow went silent and looked down at the book, probably to make sure it was out of his line of site, before finally stuffing it inside of her gym bag and then kicking the gym bag against the wall.  
“No it isn’t.” she looked annoyed, but he noticed the slightest wash of color on her cheeks.
“Then what is it?” he asked, casually sliding onto the chair opposite.
“It’s nothing.”
“...Right. I’ll just take your word for it.”
They sat quietly in the little alcove, passively observing their surroundings as the slightest murmurs bubbled up and echoed along the walls of the large hollow space.
“So...” Rainbow Dash tapped her forehoof idly on the table top. “Have any ideas?”
“It depends.” he responded. “What are the other ponies interested in?”
Rainbow Dash groaned and leaned back in her chair. “Romance, sex, adventures in sex and romance, forbidden love, and exotic kinky crap.”
Dumbbell stared at her wide eyed. “Is that all.” He tried not to flinch when her forehead hit the table.
“Do you see what I have to deal with?”
He couldn’t help but feel a twinge of pity.  
“Yeah, that’s pretty bad,” he said with a nod. “But I can think of at least one book that might save you, c’mon.”
He left his chair and made his way to the vertical sea of books. A few minutes later both pegasus hovered half way between the floor and the ceiling at the heart of the historical fiction section. Dumbbell scanned at least two rows before he came across the correct one. “Ah, here it is!” He slid the book off the shelf and presented it to Rainbow Dash.
“This should impress them.”
Rainbow Dash cautiously took the book, examining the cover with an eye of a critique.  
“Lady of Griffins...” she mused aloud. “Written by...uh...Sy..si-neh burg Li-pen-wirtha,” She shot a testing glance his way when he’d started to snicker at her. He stopped and she went back to the cover.  
“Translated by Ace Inkwell.” She looked completely baffled, the cover featured a luxurious looking unicorn mare with a smug smile, sitting cross legged on a throne of iron, two hulking griffin drakes standing tall on either side. She looked up at him, apparently too impatient to read the information on the back.
"What kind of book is this?"
"It’s a time travel mystery story with a lot of adventure...and a little romance."
"Oh really." Dash didn’t look impressed and Dumbbell wondered if it was because of the cover or due to the inclusion of a romantic aspect in general. "Adventures in what, exactly?"
“It’s about the heroine going into the past to stop an evil king from wiping her lineage out of existence.”
“Huh, well that sounds pretty awesome actually.” she said, she looked down at the cover, reconsidering. “Anything else happen?”
“If I tell you everything that happens now then what’s the point?”
“Because I’m on a time limit, Dumbbell,” she said. “I’ve already lost a lot of time from having to change books so close to the next meet date, and I may not have time to read as much as I’d want to in just under a week.”
He rolled his eyes. “Fine. Think Daring Do but with a ton of political intrigue, and an ongoing love story between a unicorn princess and the griffon king’s younger brother.”
“Hmmm,” she absently flipped through the pages. “Well, I guess I’ll have to trust you.” she finally conceded. “There aren’t any other libraries around that I can get to in a reasonable amount of time.”
“Hey just trust me, alright?” he said. “The book is good.”
“ You even like those awful mushy parts?”
He shrugged. “Yeah. Why wouldn’t I? Do you got a problem with it?”
Rainbow’s back stiffened slightly, He saw how it affected her ability to remain aloft. “No, I don’t have a problem with that kind of stuff.” She looked away and Dumbbell couldn’t help but wonder if there was some kind of subtext there that he was missing.
“It’s just that I always think they’re badly written.”  
Dumbbell felt the corner of his mouth twitch upward. “So you’ve been reading enough romance to form an opinion.”
She gasped, apparently being caught in a lie.  
“No I haven’t! I don’t like them!”
“You’d have to have read at least,like, five of them. Because there are thousands. Especially of that real sappy stuff. It’s everywhere.”
Rainbow didn’t answer, instead she turned away, flying back to their original place in the lobby area. “It’s none of your beeswax.” she mumbled crossly.
Dumbbell thought about the book Rainbow Dash had been leaning over when he arrived, how into it she looked, and how she nearly sat on the thing to keep him from seeing what it was.
“There’s no reason to be ashamed of it.” Dumbbell pressed when they landed outside of the isle of books. “I mean, I can’t say that I read any of them myself, but if I did, it’s not like I’d hesitate to just take the book up to the counter and buy it. It’s easy! No reason to be scared of a book, ya know?”  
He didn’t get a response as they walked, so he continued.
“It would be a sad sad spectacle to see the great Rainbow Dash, cowed into anonymity because she was too scared to be seen buying a two bit romance novel out of a drug store!”
She stopped so fast that he bumped into her.  
“Shut it.” she groused. “Or at least keep your voice down, we’re in a library.”
He lowered his voice to a hushed tone “Right,right,but tell me something first.” he said. “Just how do you keep other ponies from recognizing you?”
Rainbow Dash huffed and lengthened her gait, she was practically trotting now, but Dumbbell kept pace. “No need to tell me, I can already imagine you slinking through the front door all done up in a trench coat and shades, probably a big hat, hovering around the register like some kind of sleazy corner urchin looking for a quick f—”
“I’ve read one or two of them, okay!” Rainbow Dash slammed the stack of books she had collected onto the table. “There I admit it, you can turn jerk Dumbbell off now.”
“You seem to think there’s an off switch.” he scoffed. “I don’t think you know me very well.”
“Oh yeah?” Rainbow Dash turned and lifted a curled hoof. “I think I know just enough to shut you up.”
Dumbbell frowned. “Oh yeah? Well—”
“Shh,shh,shhhh! There is to be quiet inside this library. Please refrain from using your outside voices.”
They whipped around to see to see a prim middle aged mare with a mane kept vertical with at least a dozen pins pushing a cart. She was looking down her nose at them, not at all amused by their arguing. A brief glance made it clear that she was not the only one.
“Sorry.” They both said. The librarian pony nodded once before walking away, the frown on her face still plainly visible.
“So, um, think we’re done here?” Dumbbell asked, his volume consciously lowered. Rainbow Dash stacked the small collection of books she had acquired under his recommendation.
“Yeah, I think so. I’ll go round up Scootaloo and her mom and we can get out of here.”
A few minutes later, Rainbow Dash checked the books out, and located Scootaloo and Moonglow chowing down in the cafeteria. The day was drawing long into the afternoon and it was clear from the shadows laying soft against the cloud that evening was approaching.
“How beautiful.” Moonglow looked out at the cloud city under the gradually setting sun. “I don’t think I could ever grow tired of this.”
‘Just try living up here, lady, and you’ll see how long it takes.’ Dumbbell kept his thoughts to himself.
“But it is getting late, Scootaloo.”  
“Aaaww, mom!”  
“Did you even finish your homework before we came up here?”  
“Mmmost of it.” the filly smiled her best winning smile.  
“Then it’s time to leave.”  
Scootaloo groaned as they made their way to the hot air balloon docks. “Of all the things that got exploded two months ago, why wasn’t the school house one of them?”  
“Are you asking to be grounded on top of the homework?”
Rainbow Dash slowed her pace and hung back with Dumbbell chuckling softly to herself as mother and daughter walked down the cloudstone path.
“So a unicorn in Cloudsdale.” said Dumbbell. “You don’t see that every day. Unless there’s something going on that I don’t know about.”
“Moonglow is crazy afraid of heights,” Rainbow Dash stated. “But she really wanted to be up here with Scootaloo, it took two months just to convince her the balloon would be safe enough to take, and longer than that to convince her she wouldn’t fall straight through the city.”
“Is that what they call a cloud walking spell?” he asked.
“Sort of, did you notice the shoes she’s wearing?”
Dumbbell had observed that Moonglow was wearing a set of dark shoes with small gold wings on the sides, there was a slight shimmer to them.
“Cloud walking shoes, it’s kind of a new thing actually. Moonglow was too paranoid to trust a regular spell, said she needed something to physically proves that it works.”
By balloon, the return trip would take over half an hour since Cloudsdale was at least a mile high. Rainbow Dash told Scootaloo she would hang out with her again later, since for a flying pegasus, the trip would only take a few minutes.
“How much longer will you guys be hanging over Ponyville before heading south?” she asked. She was asking about Cloudsdale’s annual rotation around Equestria. They usually drifted towards the port towns in a counter clockwise motion starting from Neighgra Falls all the way down to San Palomino, and then making their way back up the eastern shore. Besides local management teams and individual weather stations for major cities, this was the best way to distribute weather. Ponyville was an agricultural town so it received extra attention.
“A few more weeks to a month maybe.” said Dumbbell. “It depends on how fast we can finish off the rains for the farm land, and make sure the reservoirs are full. And that’s management’s call.”
They made their way to the very edge of cloudsdale where the clouds became more wispy and thin but still thick enough to walk on, some moisture had condensed, turning into tiny rivulets that twisted down the cloudscape, eventually rolling over the side. Some pony had been out there sculpting cloud flowers and cloud ponies in a scene depicting a snowball fight, probably a group of kids having fun after school, and Dumbbell had to admit they had done a pretty good job.
“Fly down to Ponyville with me.” Rainbow said suddenly, shoveling her hoof into the thin cloud. “I found this game at Shields and Satchels that might catch your eye.”
“Really? What is it?” he asked. It may have been something he had seen before in a Cloudsdale shop.
“Oy,” Dash rolled her eyes. “The name doesn’t matter, just come on,” she hesitated a little, seeming almost shy. “You don’t already have plans do you?”
No he didn’t have any real serious plans. He thought for a little bit about catching up with Highball, Tango and Pompellyite but figured too much of the day had passed for any kind of chariot training to be productive. He could maybe find Hoops and get a drink with him if he wasn’t too busy, but Dumbbell had a feeling that wouldn’t be the case. And Rainbow Dash seemed oddly eager for him to tag along.
“No plans,” he said finally. “So let’s go.”
Author's Note
Another chapter that was starting to run long so I've cut it in half.
As usually critiques and comments are welcome.

//-------------------------------------------------------//
              Alcohol Makes Everything Better              
//-------------------------------------------------------//
Alcohol Makes Everything Better
Three minutes at a good clip and they were gliding in just over Ponyville from the east side, where Rainbow’s house floated in the fields slightly away from the main settlement.
Ponyville was still the very postcard of picturesque, even with the dark scarring. After Tirek, Dumbbell had gone groundside, along with over half of Cloudsdale to seek out loved ones and ascertain the damages. The cloud city hadn’t been over Ponyville at that time, but that was the one place he really wanted to be. And the first thing he knew was that the tree was gone. The really big one that used to be a library. Most of Ponyville south of the river no longer existed for that matter, it had all been reduced to a black smeared crater. What little remained was far too charred and damaged to be considered salvageable.
What stood across the bridge remained mostly untouched. Rainbow Dash had told him that a few bits of fiery debris had launched from the initial explosion like shrapnel, it hurtled over the water and smashed into the homes on the other side, houses made out of wood and straw.
Rainbow Dash had told him that, in the chaos, it was pretty lucky that Ponyville didn’t burn down completely. But hey, being a pegasus with the power of rain at your beck and call had its perks, and in the face of multiple fires, panic, and disaster, the weather team had done their job commendably.
Repairs went underway immediately, though several hundred residences dealt with displacement, it wasn’t too much of an issue to temporarily house them with friends and neighbors.
While the east and south sides sustained the brunt of damage, Ponyville’s west area was virtually untouched, and the game shop, Shields & Satchels, was on that side, but being in no hurry, Dumbbell and Rainbow Dash decided to take their time in getting there. At some point they stopped on a cloud to pony watch the construction. Dumbbell marveled at the progress: the crater was gone, filled in with stone and dirt, the promising frames of new homes dotting the outer rim. There wasn’t much to see though; with evening well underway, activity dwindled and most workers were already putting their tools back in place and going home.
“You ponies work fast,” he commented. A stallion on the ground noticed them and waved, and Rainbow waved back.
Rainbow Dash nodded. “Yeah, this whole town was built by hoof, at least thats what they say in history books. The earth ponies are really good at it, and even more stubborn to boot.”
“So no magic, huh?” Dumbbell had a thought. “What about the pegasi?”
“Well we all do our share, the whole no magic idea is pretty old fashioned though. Heh, just don’t let any of the old ponies catch you at it. Like during the last Winter Wrap Up, I’ve spied a few unicorns who thought they wouldn’t get caught with their horns glowing.”
“And what do you do?” he asked.
“Me? Well,uh, mostly I just help with the raw materials. With enough speed at the right angles, I’m good enough at breaking rocks, so it’s that and hauling logs.” She shrugged slightly. “I mean, there’s not much else I can do. I know squat about carpentry or building, so...”
Her wings sagged as she threw a silent glance behind her, and he realized she was looking at the vast space where their library used to stand.
“That old tree. It meant a lot to you, didn’t it?”
“You don’t even know,” she sighed. “Twilight’s library held so many memories, I still can’t believe it’s gone.”
The twinge of sadness he felt for her drove him to console her in some way but he hesitated, and his mouth hinged shut, no words of particular use came to him. Rainbow Dash didn’t appear to notice and continued speaking.
“But it isn’t just the library. It’s everyone, I mean, heck, Ponyville is pretty much a magnet for catastrophe, it comes with the territory of being right next to the Everfree I guess.”
Dumbbell nodded before following with a quick “Yeah.” Since her head was turned, she couldn’t see him.
“With every day that goes by, the more I think I’ll probably never leave this place. At least not for long. Everypony here means something to me, and I feel like I owe them protection...and when the fire started, I could see it from where I was...but.” Rainbow Dash grit her teeth and pawed at the cloud they sat on. “I could do nothing.”
For Dumbbell, what followed were several painfully awkward seconds of silence.
‘Stop being such a featherweight, Dumbbell, just tell her what you think.’
“You’re good to this town.” he finally managed to say, though he must have said it too quietly, or she had been absorbed in thought to hear him, because she turned to him with a questioning look. He felt the pang of regret for opening his mouth.
“What I mean is, I know a lot of weird things happen in this place, some really weird things actually. The grapevine is faster than the speed of sound up in Cloudsdale.” he said. “But you’re a hard hitter, one of the hardest I know, and you’re, well, you—,” He looked up from his hooves and saw how intently she was looking at him, with ears pinned, and her eyes framed an uncertain mix of curiosity and anxiousness.
“And you...” The words were slippery and difficult to grasp.
“Just listen, you’re a far better pony than this two-story town could ever hope for.” When Rainbow Dash frowned, Dumbbell rolled his eyes.
“Aw, come on, Rainbow, do you really need anypony to spell this out to you?” Dumbbell gave his wings one long flap, signifying his frustration. “You’re a damn hero, okay? Even better than the comics or the books. Every time something crazy happens, like whatever insane threat decides it wants to roll in and cause havoc, I always imagine you blasting out of the sky and kicking it in the face. And you do! So yeah, I’m pretty sure without you, Equestria itself would be in a pretty dank place right now.” He exhaled deeply, averting his eyes. “I suck at this.”
The quick snort of truncated laughter brought him around, Rainbow Dash was trying her best to contain herself but bit by bit the chuckle broke into a healthy guffaw.
“You...yeah..haha...” It took a moment for her to speak properly.  
“Yeah, you kind of do,” she giggled. “But I think I get what you’re saying and I appreciate it. Thanks.”
They shared a laugh for a moment, the smile unfurled onto her face was enough to make the world around him fade into the background, then they sat silently in the peace of the waning day, it was some undetermined period of time before Rainbow Dash moved suddenly.
“Oh crud, what time is it?” She looked around frantically, her sudden actions being enough for the world around Dumbbell to jump back into focus. The sun had long since started its descent, and the clouds were taking on the slight colors of tangerine.
“We burned too much daylight, come on! The place’ll be closed in a few minutes!”
They jumped from the cloud and started toward the business district, high enough to see most of Ponyville below them. It was pure chance that he looked back across the river, and saw something that hadn’t been there before.
“Yo, is that Fluttershy?” Dumbbell pointed a hoof down at what at first like a big mobile dust cloud.
“Say what?” Rainbow Dash turned to where he was pointing.
Down below the dust cleared just enough to reveal a small stampede of dogs of all sizes, tethered together by several red leashes pulled taut, all barking and yapping in frenzied happiness, pulling a hopeless yellow pegasus in their wake.
“It is Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash dived immediately and Dumbbell followed close behind. The barking and stampeding dog paws grew louder as they drew into speaking distance.
“Fluttershy, what’s going on?” Rainbow Dash had to shout over the dogs and hold up a hoof to shield her eyes from the dust. A helmet covered Fluttershy’s head so an answer wasn’t immediate. It took a moment to flip back her visor to talk.
“Just...a little evening walk,ngh!” Fluttershy flinched away from a richoteing pebble. “F-for the dogs!”
Dumbbell saw what was ahead of them and did a double take“You might wanna end that walk a little early!” The dogs were tearing down the path, fortunately away from Ponyville, unfortunately from their current position and due to Fluttershy’s complete lack of control, they were going to be running out of ground very soon.
“The lake!” Rainbow Dash picked up speed and grabbed the leashes. “Pull Fluttershy, c’mon, freakin pull!”
“I am pulling!” Fluttershy hollered. Two pairs of back hooves drove into the ground, their combined effort seeming to have some effect but not enough. They were on a downhill slope and the dogs had momentum. Dumbbell pulled in close and gripped the leashes behind them, his strength combined with their own was enough to tip the scales. Gradually the dogs slowed until, snap!
The forerunner, a massive gray sheepdog broke his collar, and rocketed forward without the extra weight holding him back, changing course and tearing a path around the lake.
“Niblet, stop!” Fluttershy yelled, but there was no way she could catch up to the large dog and keep charge of the seven others that had stopped.
“Where is he- *cough* Where’s the mutt going off to?” Dumbbell managed to shout through a harsh coughing fit. He was still in the air but the dust was high enough to affect him.
“Not again,” Dash groaned. “He’s running for the farm!”
“Farm? Which farm?” he asked in exasperation. “There’s like six of them around here!”
Rainbow Dash coughed several more times as the dust settled. “The apple farm obviously, here, help Fluttershy hold this wild pack of wolves back while I go get Niblet!”
Dumbbell did as he was told as Rainbow Dash streaked forward after the rapidly disappearing sheepdog. By that time though, the other dogs had already settled down, most of them were laying down in the dirt, tired out by their own exertion. This left Dumbbell without anything to specifically concentrate on, if the dogs weren’t going to cause trouble he could just leave, right? Maybe Rainbow Dash could use his help, the “Niblet” was bigger than she was. The silence drew on into awkwardness, and he felt the urge to look over at Fluttershy but managed to suppress it.
“Now,now, Coco, stop nipping at Patch’s ear, you know that gets him riled.”
He heard her, practically whispering to the animals in a low tone, and Dumbbell wondered if she seriously spoke that way all the time, like she was sitting in a dark theater or if that was natural. Maybe Fluttershy didn’t want him to hear her, not that he cared but still it was strange. He had always found her strange.
Still he couldn’t help but feel an intrusive need to say something to breach the ice before Rainbow Dash returned, if she returned. Not only was the sheepdog basically the one pulling all of the other dogs in his wake, Niblet seemed to have been on a mission.
“So uh, what exactly were you doing out here?” he asked airly, trying for conversation. “Trying to start a sled team?” His question was answered by dead silence, he finally did peek over his shoulder to see Fluttershy turned staunchly away. She was still but uptight, not looking down at the ground or fiddling with her hooves the way he had always known her to do and seen her act.
“Right, stupid question, there isn’t any snow.” he said, and then he grimaced.
‘What a dumb thing to say...hah’
“So, uh, what about the weather, eh? It’s been real nice hasn’t it?”
Fluttershy looked at him flatly, her lips pursed into a line.  
“Yes, very nice today.”
“Uh...yeah.” Dumbbell quietly cleared his throat and turned away again, distancing himself as far as the few leashes he held would allow.
‘Come on, Rainbow Dash, where are you?’
A short gasp from Fluttershy and a turn of her head signaled Rainbow’s return.
“What do you put in this dog’s dinner bowl, Fluttershy? Powdered lightning?”
Rainbow Dash was already huffing as she pulled Niblet back up the hill. She was aloft with the dog’s red collar clasped in her hooves, forced to drag him since the brute didn’t want to return under his own power. To Dumbbell it looked like Rainbow Dash was struggling to drag a two hundred pound sack of flour.
“A dog this size, you wouldn’t think he could be so fast!” Rainbow Dash continued. “Not that catching him was a problem, but I’m glad we happened to see you struggling down here or else you might have gone for a swim!”
The sheepdog whined and made another effort to twist free, prompting Rainbow Dash to latch on harder. “Oh no you don’t!” But at this rate all forward progress had stopped. Fluttershy was there moments later, to help bring Niblet back under control. Dumbbell couldn’t help but be impressed by Fluttershy’s influence on the animal, in fact she didn’t even speak to it, a hard stare and the dog collapsed into a submissive grovel, his stubby tail wagging pitifully in defeat as Fluttershy hooked another leash onto his collar.
“Now behave.” Was all she said as she and Rainbow Dash lead Niblet back to the top of the hill where he stood with the rest of the dogs who surprisingly, were not taking the opportunity given to them to go running off in every direction.
“It’s only, Niblet.” said Rainbow Dash who seemed to have picked up on his mental quandary. “Every time he gets down wind of the apple farm, he catches Winona’s scent and it’s heaven and earth trying to keep him under control.”
“And Winona is a girl dog, I’d guess.” said Dumbbell, now seeing the sheep dog in a new light. “Well then, that’s not a bad thing is it? Just following the call of the wild!” he chuckled and looked to see if the two mares were going to share in his joke, when they didn’t, his laugh came to a slowly dying end.
“Did your sense of humor just slide into a black hole? You understand, right big guy?” He reached out to pet Niblet, only to pull back when the dog emitted a low growl.
“That’s not cool, Niblet, cut that out!” Rainbow scolded,giving an apologetic glance towards Dumbbell. “Sorry, Dumbbell, I’ve never seen him growl at anypony before.”
“He doesn’t know you.” Fluttershy brought Niblet to her side, speaking without even once looking the stallion in the eyes. “You shouldn’t be so forward with dogs who are not familiar with you.”
Speechless, Dumbbell averted his gaze. The frost in Fluttershy’s voice was even enough to hold Rainbow Dash to an unwilling silence. Fluttershy seemed to tune into this, her eyes softening at Rainbow Dash’s questioning look.
“But anyway, thankyou, for bringing Niblet back and...I’ll have to remember to keep upwind of the farm the next time I take the dogs for a walk.” She quickly gathered the rest of the dogs together. “It’s getting late so I think I’ll be heading back to the office now.”
“Right, well, see you later, Shy.” Dash said. Fluttershy nodded curtly and gradually lead her charges back to the veterinary office. They lost sight of her quickly in the dying light of the setting sun.
“Sorry,” Dumbbell rubbed absently at his foreleg. “I don’t know much about dogs.”
“No don’t worry about it.” Rainbow replied, still trying to appear casual but Dumbbell could tell she was slightly rattled about her friend’s behavior, judging by the way she saw Fluttershy off with a questioning gaze, until her form was lost in the haze of sunset.
“Is there still a chance of making the game store?” he asked. Rainbow Dash sighed, looking up at the sky.
“No, it’s definitely closed by now. I’m sorry I bought you all the way down here for nothing.”
“Yeah, pssh, thanks for the trip.” he muttered. But when Rainbow Dash seemed to wilt, he was quick to correct himself.  
“I was kidding, it’s no big deal! Cloudsdale is going to be pulling away from Ponyville in a few weeks anyway, so I was bound to fly down here and take a peek at the place eventually,” he shrugged. “Might as well have been now.”
Rainbow Dash scuffed her hoof lazily back and forth across the dirt. “Yeah well...” her gaze returned to the town, down the main street of residences, many windows flickered with dull yellow candle light, and an idea shone in her eyes..  
“Well the game shop is closed, but I know at least one place that’s open.” she grinned. “Why don’t we go get a drink or two at Dizzy’s?”
The Dizzy Weasel was a well established brick tavern near the center of Ponyville with a large sign that glowed alluringly above the door. The interior was fashioned in dim light, red walls and wooden furniture, two large fireplaces sat on the west and east walls, currently unlit but used to draw in plenty of heat on cold winter nights. Near the front of the tavern and adjacent the bar was the stage area where a large grand piano stood as a permanent fixture. A small band would often play music in shifts.
Dumbbell took another shallow sip from his mug before scratching quizzically behind his ear.
“So where was Luna during all this?”
“That isn’t even what I’m talking about right now. Pay attention!” Rainbow Dash flipped the napkin over and started drawing another crude diagram of the castle in rushed squiggles and crooked waves. “So here I was, right in the center of the throne room, surrounded on all sides by changelings.” She denoted this by quickly filling in a large portion of the white space with little black dots jabbed into the paper. “Cut off from everypony else! And need I remind you, some of the bigger ones are covered in poison barbs.”
"Poision, hm." Dumbbell lifted a questioning eyebrow. “Seriously?”
“Six inch fangs, leathery wings, sharp claws and clubs for tails. It was enough to make even me nervous, I’ve gotta say.”
Dumbbell snorted into his mug, almost causing him to cough. “Yeah right.”
Rainbow Dash frowned. “What do you mean ‘yeah right’?”
“It must not have occurred to ya that I might actually know a couple of stallions in the royal guard who were there when all of that went down.” Dumbbell finished off the last of his drink. “And from what they told me, changelings look nothing like that.”
Faced with this information, Rainbow Dash didn’t skip a beat, as if she had it all rehearsed. “Most of the Royal Guard were completely hoisted in the sneak attack by then, there’s no way they saw what I had to deal with.”
Dumbbell rolled his eyes and leaned back exasperatingly in his chair. “And next you’re gonna tell me ya saved the captain of the guard single handed, right?”
Rainbow took a moment to glance at him from her meticulous napkin drawing. “I was getting to that,” Then she noticed a form in her peripheral vision and looked out across the floor. “Hey, bartend! We need a refill!”
Dash slammed her hoof flat against the wooden table probably a little harder than she needed to but, it achieved the desired reaction when the waitress two tables down flinched and turned their way.
“We?” Dumbbell was keeping count. Six mugs total between him and he had only just finished his second.
“Shouldn’t ya, maybe, slow down?” he asked.
“Me? Slow down?” Rainbow Dash huffed. “Who do you think you’re talking to, lightweight.”
He grumbled at the insult. “Who’re ya callin a lightweight? No pony gets drunk off of cider unless they can’t handle anything else.”
“Exactly,” Rainbow Dash smiled. “Which is why I have graduated to mead.”
“You’re already drunk.” he said.
“I’m not drunk!” she stated, that time was loud enough for several other patrons to notice and look back at them in vexed curiosity. Rainbow saw their faces but didn’t appear phased, she smirked, knowing they wouldn’t be bold enough to complain. “Just because I’m loud doesn’t mean anything.” She lowered her voice enough and fiddled with the pen, staring down at the scribbled over sheets of napkin. “It’s only a couple of drinks.”
The waitress was there to replace their empty glasses with fresh frothy ones until Dumbbell put his hoof out to stop her.
“Eh, sorry, we’ll take sodas instead, and.” He paused for a moment to think. “Got any pretzels?”
“Peanuts.”
“That’ll work.”
“Who do you think you are? My dad?” Rainbow bristled and took her mug of cider off the tray.
“I’ll stop when I’m good and ready.” she looked at the waitress. “Go on and give this colt his soda if he wants it.”
Dumbbell exhaled slowly and lifted the second mug off of the tray. “Nevermind about the soda,” He watched Rainbow Dash start in on her mead and sighed. “But we’ll still take those peanuts.”  
The waitress nodded and left.
“What is this, a contest?” Dumbbell turned to Rainbow and asked.
“Yes it is, like it was the last five times, and I’m not gonna let you beat me this time.”  
The waitress was quick with the peanuts but Rainbow Dash’s mug was already half empty by the time she returned.
“I’ve already got a headstart so you’d better start playing catch up. And don’t think you can trip me up with soda, who do you think you’re kidding?” Dash cracked a peanut and popped one into her mouth, crunching slowly and loudly. “You must think I’m a filly.”
“Nah, I’ve known fillies who could hold liquor better than you.” Dumbbell laughed when Rainbow’s faultily misguided hoof missed his nose by a foot.  
“See?”
“Maybe I wasn’t trying to actually hit you.” Dash stated, though Dumbbell noticed she was speaking her words carefully.   
”Just trying to fake you out. To see if you’d flinch.” She smiled. “I remember when you used to do that. Throw fake punches at the other kids to see if they’d jump away, and then when they did you’d call em cowards.”
“Why would you remember that?” he asked.
“Why wouldn’t I? You did it all the time to Fluttershy and me. Buuut I was the one filly who hit back.”
Dumbbell rolled his eyes. ”Do I need to be reminded.”
Rainbow lowered her mug to a mere third before answering. “Yes. Just in case you start getting ideas.”
“Well, thanks for your vote of trust.” he answered glumly, staring into a mug he had hardly touched.
Rainbow Dash laughed lightly. “Kidding, kidding! You couldn’t tell that I was only joking?”
He shrugged and looked down at Rainbow Dash, annoyed. “Alcohol loves to get ponies saying what they really think.”
“Aw come on, we’re supposed to be having fun, but now you’re the quietest guy in the bar. When did you become my chaperone?”
His eyes flicked over her quickly, gauging her condition. “Because ya already look like ya can’t make it home under your own power.”
“My house isn’t that far away.” she complained.
“You’re Crash for a reason, add alcohol to the mix and I’m afraid of what I might see.”
Dumbbell revelled under Rainbow’s glower as he took a moment to drink. “Don’t want to give the construction ponies any more work to do, do you?”
Rainbow pushed her mug away and leaned back in her chair. To her credit, after five mugs her eyes weren’t too bleary. “Oh,I get what this is about.” she said.
“What is it about?” He eyed her cautiously.
“It’s about this morning! You still can’t get over the fact that I toootally kicked your flank in that boxing match.”
‘Is she serious?’  “That was just a practice match.” he said. “And I told you I let you win.”
Rainbow Dash eyed the bar and stage as she addressed him. “Yeah, I still don’t believe you.”
“Oh come on, I’m the one who taught you how to box in the first place!” By then their small bouts of shouting remained mostly ignored, as several instrument laden ponies were now standing on stage, accenting the atmosphere of the tavern with a slow yet voluminous tune.
“And the student surpassed her teacher,” Rainbow Dash shrugged and swished her mane in a victorious flourish, “It’s a common occurrence.”
Dumbbell finished his mead in a few aggressive gulps before slamming the wooden table top with his mug. “Then I demand a rematch!”
Rainbow Dash chuckled. “Why? You didn’t get enough the first time?”
Dumbbell felt his nostrils flare as a familiar vein in his head jolted. “So I can finally make you choke back that ridiculous ego!”
“Pfft, it’s been years and you’ve never been able to, ever since we were foals. Just admit that I’m the superior pony and you’ll start feeling a lot better about yourself.”
“You may think you’re the best pony in every sport possible, but trust me, you suck at boxing.” he grumbled.
“Yeah, yeah,” Dash nodded and popped a few more peanuts smartly into her mouth. “Give me the date for our rematch and I’ll gladly make my victory official.”
For what felt like forever, Dumbbell just sat their glowering at her, wanting to say something but the words seemed incapable of holding enough bite. He would just have to explain it to her through action.
“Fine. Next week, same time, same place, and this time don’t bring your ‘protege’.”
Dash grinned sardonically. “That’ll be fine. I’ll just colorfully explain to her how I knock you out harder than a buck to an apple tree. She’s already seen me do it once.”
“Psh, whatever, Crash.” He crossed his arms over his chest, feeling his mood go dark. “For her sake I might go easy on you.”
“Oh, like you did last time?”
“Shut up.”
She did, and for a moment an uncomfortably squirming silence built up between them like pressure on a dam. Dumbbell was feeling those old frustrations rise. Damn Crash, no matter how much he wanted to deny it, she had a point against him in practically everything, she won every race, past ,present, and most probably the future, she could only get better. But there was one thing, at least one thing Dumbbell knew he had in his favor, and he was more than willing to bet Rainbow Dash wouldn’t last a minute in a ring with him if he really wanted to make those blows count.
“Until then, just practice your hoofwork, it needs a lot of improvement.”
“Yes, coach.”
This caught his attention and he turned around. Rainbow Dash’s back was still turned to him but he had heard the undeniable humor in her voice.
‘Coach. Heh, I like the sound of that.’
“Yeah so...” his eyes drifted to her now empty mug. “Why aren’t you drinking cider anyway?” he asked. “I thought that was your favorite drink.”
Rainbow Dash turned back to him, then absently examined her mug. “The cider they serve here isn’t as good as the kind my friend makes.” she said. “She runs like the biggest apple farm in Equestria, and her cider is hooves down the best.”
“She doesn’t supply Dizzy’s?”
Rainbow Dash shook her head. “Nah, not all the time, just seasonal and that supply runs out really quick.” She reached for the bowl and rattled around the remaining peanuts, she seemed to be surprised that they were so few left crumbled at the bottom.
‘I should have gotten her more than a measly bowl of peanuts.’  Dumbbell thought.
“But anyway,” Rainbow Dash continued. “To fill the demand, Dizzy imports her cider from some place else, and well, I just don’t like it as much.”
Dumbbell nodded. “Makes sense.” Then he had a thought. “I bet the reason your friend can’t make enough cider to last is because she’s an earth pony.”
Rainbow Dash chuckled. “Just for the record, that’s what you said, not me. And for your own safety don’t ever let her hear you say that.”
“A little magic wouldn’t kill em.” Dumbbell commented with a grimace.
“Yeah that’s true. But Applejack is a stickler for doing everything the earth pony way. Between herself, her brother, and the farmhands, they actually do get a lot done.”
Dumbbell only knew of Applejack tangentially through Rainbow Dash and her descriptions from the many adventures they shared . He met the farm pony only once during his fledgling friendship with Rainbow Dash, and unfortunately, the first impression he had given happened on the before side of the friendship line. And he couldn’t even say that their second meeting was one of much substance, though she seemed honest, good natured, and open, the mare had been too busy to make the conversation last. Not that it mattered, it had been a brief fly by visit to the apple farm while on their way to catch a ski event in Vanhoover. Yet despite hardly knowing Applejack as anything other than an acquaintance, he knew well enough that she was the hardest working pony in all of Equestria, strong of mind and body, and just as furiously loyal to those she loved.
For a short while, he pondered the prospects of a second, Celestia help him, more positive second impression. He knew the brief farm visit wouldn’t have been enough to impress any of his better personality traits onto one of Rainbow’s best friends, and...
“Being an earth pony wouldn’t be so bad.” he quietly admitted.
“Wha?”
Dumbbell simply nodded. “Yep, if I lost my wings tomorrow, my biggest issue would be finding a new job and a place to sleep.”
Rainbow’s smile grew wide. “You’re full of it. You love flying!”
“My wings are great and all but they aren’t everything.”
“Then back at school, at flight camp. What was all that crap about the weak fliers not belonging?”
“Just some crap I picked up from some older kids after school.”
“Seriously?”
He shrugged. “Yeah, not that I’m making excuses or anything, I mean, I did believe them.”
“You’re so lying!” “In my whole life I’ve never met a single pegasus who would be okay with losing their wings. Not even Fluttershy!”
Dumbbell had to disagree. ‘If there was one pegasi who could wake up with no wings tomorrow and not even notice, it would most definitely be Fluttershy.’
“Speaking of Fluttershy,” said Rainbow Dash.
Dumbbell felt his stomach lurch.
‘Ah no, do we really need to talk about this?’
“Did you notice how weird she was acting earlier?” Rainbow Dash continued. “I really need to talk to her about that.”
Dumbbell already knew what she was referencing, but all the same...
“Talk to her about what?” he asked, feigning ignorance.
“You know exactly what I’m talking about. You!” She pointed at him accusingly. "She became as stiff as a board with you standing so close.”
Dumbbell couldn’t help but wonder. “Isn’t that just how she acts around everypony?”
“No it isn’t.” Rainbow’s words lowered to a dark simmer.
“Let’s just get one thing straight,” she said. “The last thing I ever want to hear from you are jokes about Fluttershy.”
Apparently it was still a raw issue. Dumbbell nodded solemnly as he looked down at the floor. “Right.”
“I-” Rainbow started to speak but her words seemed to hang. So instead she sighed and slumped back in her chair. “Sorry.”
Dumbbell looked up at her, his deep frown shifted only slightly with curiosity. “What are you sorry about?”
“I shouldn’t pick on you about something that happened such a long time ago.” Rainbow Dash responded. “I mean, I know you’re not like that anymore.”
Dumbbell shifted slightly in his chair and laid his chin against his hoof. His gaze rested on the small band on stage changing its song. “But it’s still a problem.”
“Yeah, it is,” Dash responded, one of her ears flicked irritably. “I'm gonna try and fix it.”
Dumbbell shook his head. “Don’t bother.”
“Huh? Why not?” She leered at him. “You know after everything, she deserves an apology at the least.”
“You think I haven’t tried already?” Dumbbell felt the corners of his mouth quirk upwards. “She didn’t wanna hear it.”
“Well you have been a complete jerk to her since the moment you’ve known her.” Rainbow Dash was quick to add. She locked eyes with him and her gaze pierced, but Dumbbell did a good enough job at hiding it.
He slumped back further in his chair, trying to appear low key and nonplussed by Rainbow Dash’s savagely on point accusations. But he couldn’t look her in the face, and that’s what gave it away.
“When did you go see her?” Rainbow Dash asked. Her voice held an air of mystification and even a bit of surprise.
“About two weeks ago,” Dumbbell scratched nervously at his foreleg again for a second time that evening. “Just a couple of days before your birthday. I thought it was time to bury the hatchet, but...it didn’t go well.” He trailed away with a listless shrug. In the dim lighting of the club he looked up at the ceiling, trying to find something to occupy his mind and keep it away from its trailing memories. “I don’t know what to do now.”
“I’ll talk to her.” Rainbow said, more resolutely this time. “I probably won’t be able to change her mind, but she listens to me.”
“If you talk to her then I have to be there with you.” Dumbbell frowned. “The last thing I want is other ponies trying to clean up my messes.”
“That would be an idea but just trust me, if I know anything, it’ll be best if I speak with her alone.”
All he could do look at her hopelessly, his mouth partly opened to protest but something heavy held him back.
“That isn’t right.” Under the sedate melody flowing across the floor of the dim tavern, Dumbbell looked bleakly down into his empty mug and wondered where all their cheer had went.
Author's Note
More like Alcohol Makes Everything Bleaker.  
After breaching a sensitive subject for the two of them, the chapter ended on a bit of a downer but things will get better.
A picture of the Dizzy Weasel here: http://mysterymelt.deviantart.com/art/The-Dizzy-Weasel-Ponyville-Bar-347149950