Cloudburst flew through the air over Ponyville, heading towards a sizable pillar of cloud. He had been called out to do, as usual, just what his name said. Bursting clouds was the one thing he could consider himself adept at, and among the pegasi of Ponyville, there was no equal to his skill at separating the giant puffs of water vapor. Apparently, a large number of clouds in the Everfree Forest had somehow joined, causing a monstrously large natural fortress of cloud. The clouds had drifted far too close to Ponyville, and from what some pegasi had seen, the insides of the cloud were a great roiling mess. This meant that the clouds were a potential storm, hidden by a seemingly calm cloud shell. His job, alongside several skilled weather ponies, was to gain dominance over the huge mass by separating it into harmlessly smaller clouds. The ponies on the ground had already been warned that there was a high probability of a heavy rainstorm, due to the stormy nature of the cloud's insides. Cloudburst led his team to the outskirts of the town, near to where the cloudy monolith bathed the surface of the world in shadow. He then looked at the cloud as it silently crept closer to the town, thinking about what to tell his team to avoid as much injury as possible, and still get the job done well. He then said "Alright, take a slight rest now. The cloud looks dangerous, and even the slightest starting exhaustion can cause injury when dealing with clouds like these. You all know our plan for splitting this thing, right?" Most of his team nodded, though one of them, a blue mare by the name of Sonic Rain, seemed too busy looking at the cloud to listen.
Cloudburst looked at the mare, who continued to gaze at the seemingly calm monstrosity over them. Grinning, he winked at the other pegasi, and creeped up behind her, then clapped his forehooves together, startling her. Sonic jumped six feet into the air without the aid of her wings, and fluttered around, calming herself. After a few seconds of her startled act, she glided to the ground, and looked at the other pegasi, embarrassed. Sonic then apologized with "Um, sorry. What were we talking about?" The other pegasi stopped laughing and giggling, and looked to Cloudburst, waiting for his explanation. He said "Alright, let's go over the plan, in case we missed anything the first time. The cloud's exterior structure is similar to how it was a few hours ago, so the plan should still work. Sonic Rain, you will attempt to separate that large pillar from the south face of the main cloud." The pegasus mare nodded, and Cloudburst turned to address another pegasus. He gave all of his team instructions, and they flew towards the cloud.
When they were near enough to the cloud to hear the low rumbles and the high-pitched screaming of wind, they split off into their respective positions of assault. Most of the pegasi split off to remove the largest limbs on the cloud, but six of them remained with him, in order to aid him in the assault on the most difficult part of the cloud, the rumbling, roiling body of it. They began first by confining and compressing the cloud, in order to prevent it from flying in random directions while they smashed and separated the interior into smaller chunks. When the cloud was at half the original size, the calm shell around it suddenly shattered, exposing the writhing mass of stormy matter inside. Suddenly, several jolts of lightning struck out of the cloud, shocking two of his team's pegasi. They plummeted to the ground, and two more of his team went to go and rescue them. His squad of six was now that of two, and as he was flying around the cloud with his remaining teammate, desperately trying to contain the huge, chaotic mass.
He roared for the other members of the weather team to help with keeping the storm away from the main part of Ponyville, for attempting to destroy the swirling, destructive force of the sky. He doubted they had heard him, but he saw one of the pegasi that he had sent to lope off one of the limbs heading towards him. He yelled as loud as he could "You! Head back to Ponyville, Cloudsdale, or wherever we can find reinforcements. We won't be able to hold this thing back for much lo-" He suddenly stopped his yelling, which immediately turned into a scream of pain, for one of the lightning bolts of the storm had struck him. He plummeted to the ground, and his vision faded to red within seconds. His last memory was that of himself landing on a light, fluffy surface, upon which he lost consciousness entirely.
Cloudburst woke to find himself on a soft surface, but not nearly as soft as the one he had passed out on. He opened his eyes to see a pale gray surface. His eyes swiveled in their sockets to see the rest of whatever room he was confined in, and a quick observation showed that it seemed to be a hospital room. He moved his neck to get a better view of his surroundings, and felt a tight soreness on his back, as if he had been sunbathing for far too long. He then tried to move the thin white sheets that were covering him, and a nurse in the corner noticed. She hurried over, put it back on him, and said "Sir, you're rather severely burned right now, stay in bed until we can get you healed, alright?" Cloudburst nodded, thinking
Burns, huh? that explains a lot. How did I get burned, though? I don't remember going into a fire- oh. I must have gotten hit by lightning while I was working on that cloud...
He sat up, ignoring the nurse's protests, in order to inspect his back. It was slightly charred, only slightly worse than a severe sunburn would be. Oh, except that it was a lot more blackened. He flexed his wings, testing how his muscles would react to the burning. It stung, but not overly so. He folded his wings again, and finally submitted to the nurse's frantic attempts to get him back in his bed. The nurse then called in another, and she rolled him onto his belly as the other nurse spread a thick paste onto his back. It chilled the burned skin, and Cloudburst sighed with relief as the second nurse slathered the painkilling gel over his back and wings. The second nurse said something to the first one, and she left the room. She second nurse then spoke to Cloudburst, saying "The paste we put on your back should help with your burn, given a reasonable amount of time. Stay in bed for another day, and you will be let out of the hospital. However," she said, levitating a quill and paper, writing something, "You will not be able to use your wings for a few days. Even after that time is up, you shouldn't fly quickly or for any long distance for a few days." She then left the curtained area, and went to check on the other patients.
Cloudburst laid there, wondering what he would do for the remainder of the day. Thinking about what had happened, he wondered if his team was okay. Two of them had been hit by lightning in the same way he was, and they would no doubt be in the hospital. He was slightly irritated at the way that he could not see out of the window, to see if the storm was gone. Judging by the loud cracks of thunder, it was not. The clouds that must have been blocking the sky made it impossible to tell what time it was by the light, so he had no idea how long he had been out. He continued to lay on his bed, wondering about what would happen to him now that he had failed so thoroughly at destroying the storm. He would probably be demoted from head of cloud-breaking, if he didn't lose his job entirely. He had misjudged the storm, thinking it would hold its shape when they compressed it. He had put two of his teammates in danger, and possibly more. There would be no mercy from that. Depressed, he laid in the bed, brooding over what he would do after he was released from the hospital.
Suddenly, the curtain surrounding his bed opened, shattering his dark train of thought. He looked at the intruder, and was surprised to see a member of one of his team. It was Sonic Rain, the blue mare he had startled before they had left for the disastrous storm-busting attempt. She looked at him, taking note of his burned back and wings. Then she said "What happened to you? I got called back from the storm, and I was told you were in the hospital. Did you get hit by lightning or something?" Cloudburst then said "I think so, I was ordering one of the other pegasi to get reinforcements when it happened." She nodded, then replied with "That explains a lot. Why else would we suddenly have a work force three times larger than we started with? They are taking care of the cloud now, I think it is finally giving in." She walked to the window, and looked out, nodding as she did. "Did you know that they had to forcibly restrain Rainbow Dash from joining in and helping? She's still in the hospital after her most recent crash. I mean, she's the Element of Loyalty and all, but trying to join in to such a dangerous venture while she is still badly injured is kinda ridiculous" she said. Cloudburst chuckled slightly, but then asked the question that had been on his mind for the past half hour; "What do you think I'm going to do? I put my team in danger, two of them at least got hit by potentially lethal bolts of lightning, and I even had to call in backup. I don't even know if this has ever happened before, but I'm pretty sure that the consequences of this won't be good."
She looked at him for a few seconds, then said "I'm not sure. I guess you can really just hope for the best. However, the reason for my being here is not to talk about your job situation. One of the pegasi that came in with the reinforcements gave me this to give you. I don't know what it contains, but it looks official." She then took a scroll made of rich paper out of her saddlebags, and gave it to him. "Okay, I'll be going. They still need my help with the storm." She said, then left the room. The nurse came back in and took her place. The nurse then said "It's almost sunset, you need to sleep soon." Cloudburst was about to protest, but then he realized just how tired he was. He nodded in response to the nurse, and she reapplied the paste for his burns. She then left again, and he laid his mind to rest, trying to sleep. A few minutes later, he succeeded.
Cloudburst woke up, and opened his eyes to see a much, much brighter room than he had fallen asleep in yesterday. They must have finished clearing away the storm, he realized. He looked around, and his body moved much easier than it had yesterday. His burns must have healed as well. Those nurses really did work magic, and not just the ones that were unicorns. The nurse must have heard his bed creak, for she entered the room. She then said "Oh, good you're awake. How are your wings feeling? Not too sore?" He sat up and flexed his wings, finding them to be feeling fine, if a little cramped. "They are fine," he said, folding them to his side again. "Good, would you like to be let out now? Your wings and back look healed enough," she said, to which Cloudburst nodded. The nurse then helped him out of bed, and he stood beside it. He then picked up his few belongings, as the nurse reminded him "Now, make sure you don't use your wings for a few days, at the very least three. Here's the scroll your friend gave you, I found it on the floor near your bed." She then gave him the important-looking document, and he thanked her. The nurse then guided him out of the hospital, because unlike some pegasi, he was only very rarely in the hospital.
When outside, he thanked her and the rest of the hospital staff, and left for his home. The sky was now blue and cloudless, with no sign that the cloudy monstrosity had ever been there. He walked towards his ground-based home, for he had liked how solid materials looked in contrast to clouds. Now was an example of a time when he was glad for it, he would be unable to go to his own home if it wasn't grounded. As he walked to his home, he saw small remnants of the storm's damage. A fallen tree there, a broken window over there, and even some poor cat that was meowing from the school's bell tower. When he reached his home in the west side of Ponyville, he hurried to his table. There we placed the scroll Sonic Rain had given him, and he read it with increasingly widening eyes. It read
Greetings, Cloudburst.
You have been summoned for a private audience with Princess Celestia, for reasons that shall remain undisclosed. Please come to Canterlot Castle as soon as possible, for the matter you have been summoned to is urgent. Do not take this message lightly, the subject at hand is extremely important.
Sincerely,
Princess Celestia
Cloudburst was worried. What could the Princess herself want with him? Perhaps he had done even worse than he thought with the storm, and now Celestia wanted to punish him personally! He looked around, frantically considering what to bring. Well, whatever she had called him for, it was futile to resist. Her guards were powerful, and she would likely send one or two of them to him to capture him if he didn't come. The letter said to come as soon as possible, so he might as well start packing. He brought a little bit of formal attire with him, it would be foolish to appear before Celestia otherwise. Wondering if there was any part of the message that he had missed, he examined the parchment again. On the back part of it, he discovered a small envelope. Inside of the envelope, he discovered a round-trip train ticket to Canterlot. He sighed with relief, thinking that if the princess had wanted to banish him, she would have simply put it as a one-way ticket. Or maybe she just wanted to get the round-trip version, it wasn't like she was short on money or anything. She WAS one of the co-rulers of Equestria after all. He could only hope that she had a non-lethal, non-imprisoned-in-some-place-for-a-thousand-years punishment in store for him.
Shaking off the dark thoughts, he finished packing his saddlebags. The train ticket, upon closer inspection, was not of the usual sort. It had the princess's emblem on the lower right corner, a blazing sun insignia. Examining the actual writing, he found that in place of a set time and date, it said "Seat open on all trains, come at your convenience." He was stunned, this sort of personal, reserved seating ticket was supposedly only given to the most important of officials; even the princess's own student didn't have one, from what he had seen from Twilight Sparkle buying tickets to Canterlot. Wondering why the princess would give such an honor to somepony that had messed up so badly with his last storm, he walked to his kitchen. Cloudburst wasn't the best cook, but the food he made for himself was certainly good enough for him. He prepared himself a few sandwiches, and ate them as he walked out of his home.
He passed many ponies who were out enjoying the late morning sun, with a significantly more stoic expression than usual. Normally he'd be happy to be outside, happy to see his friends. This time, however, he was too preoccupied with wondering what Celestia wanted him for. Thus, he didn't even notice when several of his friends called out to him, waving. They had been preparing a picnic, but Cloudburst was completely oblivious to the calls. He hurried to the train station, and about halfway there realized that this could very well be his last time in ponyville, if whatever punishment the princess had decided to give him either banished him or locked him in the dungeon. He had definitely decided at this point that she had called him for punishment, as he had nothing else at all noteworthy in his life aside from his job. He sighed, looking around. He would miss this place, should he be banished or imprisoned. He had lived here for the greater part of his life, and he had enjoyed it. He had friends here, and they were always good to him. He shook his head, he could only be hopeful that whatever punishment the princess had in mind for him was not going to keep him from returning.
When he had reached the train station, he was surprised to find one of his friends there. The mare's name was Sonic Rain, the same pegasus that had given him the note, and a good friend and(rarely) coworker. She wasn't on active weather duty, she worked as a musician. He walked over to her, wondering why she was at the train station. She was waiting at the train platform, watching the tracks in the distance. He walked over, considering a repeat of the prank he had performed before they had left for the storm. Cloudburst decided against it, she looked like she didn't want to jump into the air and generally make a fool of herself again.
Instead, he walked up to her, and said, "Hi, Sonic. I didn't know you would be here too." She looked startled, even though he had tried to avoid it. She looked back at him, and said "Well, I could say the same for you, Cloudburst. I'm waiting for my cousin, he's visiting Ponyville. He lives in Canterlot, so I'm going to pick him up here." He nodded, but then Sonic said "But why are you here? Is it about that one scroll I was told to give you?" Cloudburst was startled that she had figured out why he was headed to Canterlot so quickly, but he quickly recovered. It didn't take a genius to find the connection between the fact that he'd been given an important-looking scroll and that he was leaving for Canterlot the day after. "Yes, apparently I've been summoned to an official audience, with Princess Celestia herself. I don't know how long I'll be gone, but from what I've heard about palace affairs, it will be a few days until I actually go to the audience. You got any advice? I don't want to make a fool of myself before the princess." He said, hiding his thoughts of punishment and walking towards the edge of the tracks, to see if he could spot the train coming from Canterlot.
After a brief scan of the territory in the capital's direction, he saw the smoke-belching snake rather far off; an hour at best. He went back to the inner area of the platform, this was going to take a while. He and Sonic chatted idly about the message for a little while, then she took a book out of her saddlebag and began reading it. Cloudburst sat down near the wall, brooding over whatever punishment the princess would be giving him.
About an hour and a half later, the train to Canterlot pulled into the station. A few ponies walked out of it, most of them looking like they went to the capital as tourists. One unicorn stallion, however, walked out of the train with a fancy looking hat. He looked around, and seeing Sonic, smiled and walked over to her. Sonic said "Goodbye, Cloudburst. Good luck in Canterlot!" as she turned to walk away with her cousin. Cloudburst then walked over to the conductor, who was helping an elderly mare out of the train car, and asked her "Hello. Do you happen to know when the next train to Canterlot will be leaving?" The conductor finished helping the old mare, then pulled a paper from her saddlebags and checked it. She then replied to him with "The next one to Canterlot leaves in an hour and a half. Doesn't your ticket say that, though?" Cloudburst shook his head, and took out the one he had received with the letter. She examined it extensively, and then asked "Where did you get that? That's supposed to be royalty-only." Cloudburst then said "It came in with a letter from the castle." The mare examined the card again, and then said "Okay, the train will be a while. You won't need to worry about missing it, though, this ticket can take you to and from Canterlot to Ponyville any time you like."
Cloudburst was glad he had been given a train ticket, he wouldn't have been able to fly to Canterlot even if he wanted to risk injuring his wings further. He sat down again, this time considering what could have caused the cloud to unexpectedly explode in the way it did. It hadn't reacted to compression in a way that any other cloud had before, and this could be cause for worry. Perhaps it just had such a chaotic interior that it couldn't withstand the pressure it was being subjected to. Maybe. He would have to research it while he was waiting for his official summons. Or maybe he should be writing his will? Of course, then it would be useless if he was banished. He was planning on taking a nap on the train ride, he was still quite tired from the lightning strike he had been hit by. Cloudburst sat down on the platform, thinking about what he would do with his possessions, should he be sentenced to death.
Cloudburst had been sitting on the platform for seemingly only a few minutes, when he looked around to see a few more ponies than were there before. He checked the clock on the wall, and was surprised to find that more than an hour had passed, and the train would be boarding soon. He looked around to see if he could identify the ponies around him. Most were Ponyville residents, who looked like they were going off to tour the capital. All but one, in fact, he recognized. The unknown pony was a light orange unicorn mare, with the strangest shade of purple for her mane. Her cutie mark was a rock of some sort with a stick going through it. Cloudburst hadn't the faintest idea as to what that meant, but he was unable to ponder what it was due to the loud voice that cried out "The train is ready for boarding. we will be leaving in twelve minutes." Cloudburst, glad that he would be sitting on a more comfortable seat soon, walked into the now-open train. He immediately headed to a seat, and sat in it. He snuggled himself into a comfortable position, and pulled his earmuffs from his saddlebags. he put them onto his head, instantly blocking out most of the sound. Content with his position, he drifted off to sleep...
...Only to be woken again a few minutes later by the conductor, who was checking tickets. The conductor was a different pony, this time a unicorn stallion, and he took out his ticket as he passed. The conductor checked his ticket, then levitated a pair of hole-punchers onto it. When the ticket was marked, he moved on without another glance at the royal-class ticket. Cloudburst decided that he must have been told of the ticket by the conductor that came before him. Hoping to go back to sleep, he replaced his earmuffs and returned to his comfortable position. Within a few minutes, he was asleep again.
A few hours later, when the train was about twenty minutes from Canterlot, he was woken again by a bright flash. He opened his eyes again, to see the unknown unicorn mare from the platform walking quickly towards him. He removed his earmuffs, and extricated himself from the chair he was in. When the mare reached him, she said, "Cloudburst, correct? I need to speak with you." Cloudburst nodded, removing the last traces of sleep from his mind. "Sure, what is it you need?" He said, wondering what the mare wanted. "There is a rather severe issue with something deep within-" She was suddenly cut off by a loud crack, and she immediately flew backwards. She hit the wall, instantly vanishing from sight. It didn't have the bright flash that usually accompanies teleportation, it instead seemed as if she simply vanished from the car without fade nor flash. Cloudburst watched, dumbstruck, as several other passengers jumped out of their seats in fright. The conductor walked into the room, to check on what the cracking noise was. Seeing nothing out of place aside from a few frightened riders, he grunted and left the car. After a few minutes of silence, they started talking to each other, discussing what had happened to the mare. Some of them had some rather wild theories, ranging from an invisibility spell to her being a projection. Cloudburst himself didn't know what to believe.
A few minutes of discussion later, the conductor walked into the room and requested "We'll be pulling into the Canterlot station now, please sit down. We don't want any of you falling over from the deceleration." The passengers who were out of their seats complied, and then stopped discussing the vanished mare as they began to ready themselves to leave the train. A minute or two later, the train decelerated into Canterlot. When it had stopped completely, the conductor opened the doors and alerted the sleeping passengers that they had arrived. Cloudburst was still wondering how the strange pony from the train had vanished so rapidly, without a flash. Perhaps there was some sort of new spell for unicorns that teleports without a flash? That must have been it.
Cloudburst left the train, still pondering what aside from a spell might have made the unicorn vanish. It was a good distraction from the gloomy thoughts he had been having at the Ponyville station. However, now that he was in Canterlot, he wasn't sure where he was supposed to go. The letter had said that he should see the princess immediately, so he decided to go to the castle. He stopped by a small stall at the end of the train station, and saw that they were selling tourist maps of the city there. He paid for one, as he would be unable to simply fly to the castle. He then proceeded to walk through the streets of the capital, sometimes taking out the map to check whenever he found a landmark. Eventually, he found his way to the castle. Standing before the huge structure would have been breathtaking.
Cloudburst, however, did not notice this. He was too busy walking up to the guard at the side of the door. When he reached the stallion, he opened the conversation with "Hello, I've been given a summons from Celestia. It's..." He pulled the letter from his saddlebags, saying around it "Huphere" As he gave the letter to the guard. The guard then read it, and then nodded and allowed for Cloudburst to pass. He then walked into the castle, dreading his upcoming audience with Celestia.
