Cloudsdale Frenzied Factory Zone: Transportation Department (Sign-up in OOC Thread)

[Bramble Rose]

Rainbow Dash darted this way and that - she pushed the clouds into new positions, gave an extra *oomph* of wind here and there as needed, trying to get the cloud formation stabalized. They had too much of a good weather front going to just stop and move in a different direction, but they could curve the clouds if they did it carefully!

No worries, though. With these pegasus ponies around to lend a bit of support, Dash could do this almost by herself! No worries at all. But that rainbow was getting kinda close, and look at the wind pattern across the trees down there! "Right!" she called, mimicking her words with the right hoof gestures. "Slow down, and bank right! Little harder! Pull those clouds in tighter over there!"

Her power wasn't needed just now, so once again she zipped off to the side, helping keep the cloud formation packed nice and tight by tossing in a cross-breeze.

Then it hit. The counter-cross-breeze just as she was getting everything set, and with no indicator down below with the trees. It was actually going the opposite direction from the wind below! Lousy Everfree weather... It hit her like a hammer and sent her flying back through the air, and just as she was straightening out, she punched through the rainbow with an *oof* and was sent tumbling again, spinning through the air. Her first instinct was to pull herself out - this wasn't too bad - but after a brief moment of that, she decided she needed to set a good example. After all, just a little over an hour ago, she'd told everypony NOT to try to do that!

She stretched out her hooves and her wings, slowing her descent as she tumbled through the air, and waited to see how her team would react to her uncontrolled fall.

​

[Pretzelparty]

Mistral Was making sure to focus only on their leader's voice for the moment, she however did pay attention to her teammates as they spoke. One teammate had begun singing during their journey adn the other had simply been cheering the intrepid group of flyers.

"Right!" she called, mimicking her words with the right hoof gestures. "Slow down, and bank right! Little harder! Pull those clouds in tighter over there!"

[/bg]

Listening to their leader's orders, the ivory pegasus slowed down a bit and banked right as instructed. Flying was always sort of relaxing, especially the pleasant feeling of the wind around your wings. Mistral's relaxation was cut short by the arrival of cross-breeze that knocked their leader into a rainbow they were coming up on. Deciding not to dwell on the irony of the situation, Mistral got to thinking quick and broke formation for a moment shouting to her teammate,"I think I got an idea ta get Dash outta dat fall. You guys keep on course I'm breakin' formation."

Just like she said, the black maned mare broke off and dragged her cloud along with her. Her experience as a weather mare and with cloud manipulation allowed her to keep her designated cloud together as she sped up immense and stopped on a bit in front of several small clouds. Gathering up differing measure of strength in her legs she bucked several small clouds to a spot below dashes fall. She'd made sure to account for the cross breeze so she made sure to have all the clouds she bucked merge together into one large enough to catch the slowly descending leader. If Dash kept slowing her descent it seemed likely she'd land on the newly formed cloud below her unharmed.

Leaving it to brambles weather or not this idea works

[Lux]

"You got it," Sky Flare said as he pushed the cloud to the right but not too fast so as to lose it. Despite the strange winds and the incident at the factory, the moving of this first cloud mass was going fairly well. So what if he couldn't do his epic stunts, he was still flying and most importantly helping ponies out, and these were the best for him. Suddenly things took a turn for the worst as as cross breeze blew in. Sky managed to grab hold of the cloud to keep from being blown away, but their leader wasn't so lucky as she sailed through a rainbow, one of the markers telling the group where not to go. The last thing she saw was Rainbow Dash disappearing in a controlled yet still fast fall to the ground.

"I think I got an idea ta get Dash outta dat fall. You guys keep on course I'm breakin' formation."

"Alright, but if you need anything just shout," Sky shouted to the pony as she broke off to recover the rainbow manned Pegasus. Now it was just him and Sky Sailing.

"Ok, we got to keep this cloud from blowing off course. So you take the right corner and I'll take the left. We'll keep it moving at a slow pace until we hopefully get out of this Everfree wind."

[Blueblood]

With his song to keep the tempo, and one ear out for their leader's commands, Sky Sailing was able to keep his end up on the formation. Of course, things couldn't keep that smooth. Like a discordant crash on a piano keyboard, a particularly sharp cross-wind jarred him from his singing, and sent Rainbow Dash spinning out of control!

Sky was frozen in shock for a moment, but thankfully his two wingponies were quicker on the uptake. Mistral went to retrieve the spinnign cyan mare, and Sky Flare took over the leader position in the meantime. "Oh? Alright!" Sky Sailing called out in acknowledgement. It was easier said than done, however, to keep the formation going, even at a slow pace. Without time enough to get into a musical rhythm, Sky had to concentrate on each move consciously, which was beginning to exhaust him, physically and mentally. He'd worked deliveries before, but they were usually more routine than this!

[Bramble Rose]

Rainbow Dash saw the cloud bank and ponies getting further and further away above her, and found herself a bit annoyed - why weren't they coming to rescue her? Then in another spin, she saw the clouds converging below her. Ah! Clever, the finest of techniques for a rescue. She tucked in at the last minute as she plowed into the thick cloud, sinking deep into the fluffy substance. A few seconds later her head popped up again, spitting out a plume of cloud above her, and she gave an approving grin. "Good job! Thanks for the save! Now let's go get that weather corralled!" She pulled herself out and shook the wisps of mist from her wings, then crouched down and took off into the sky, returning to the cloud formation far above.

"Good work!" she called as she looked over the weather front. A few more clouds ripped apart at the edges than she'd have liked, but they built that sort of safety excess into the deliveries. "You kept your heads just fine! Now Mistral, you take over from Flare! I'll take the center! And Flare! You go over there and do what you can do to break apart those winds from the Everfree before they can reach us! Show us what you got!"

​

[Lux]

Sky could see that his partner Sky Sailing was having a hard time controlling the cloud while the winds were howling around them. Obviously the pegasus had not dealt with such a task before with moving clouds before. Even Sky, who had moved a few clouds around Cloudsdale and Ponyville before wasn't used to such a challenge either.

"You're doing great Sky Sailing. Just keep this cloud patch on an even pace, no need to over think this. I know this is tricky out her, but hopefully things will be smooth sailing once Mistral and Rainbow Dash return."

To his relief Sky Flare could see Rainbow Dash was safe, returning with Mistral back to the rest of the group. He was too busy trying to keep the cloud on a straight path while fighting the winds from the Everfree Forest that he couldn't tell how Mistral managed to save the rainbow manned Pegasus, but sometimes the hows didn't matter as long as somepony was safe.

"You kept your heads just fine! Now Mistral, you take over from Flare! I'll take the center! And Flare! You go over there and do what you can do to break apart those winds from the Everfree before they can reach us! Show us what you got!"

"You got it," he said with a grin as he first waited for everypony else to get into their positions before taking off in a flaming contrail, cutting through the winds as best as he could.

"Alright Everfree winds, you think you can throw my teammates around like we're leaves? Not going to happen. I'm Sky Flare, stunt pony and future Wonderbolt! Prepare for a lesson in awesomeness!"

The Pegasus then began doing a series of spins, corkscrews and other aerial moves, creating a strange contrail design in the sky if anypony should be on the ground looking up.

Sky Flare's theme's for listening pleasure

[Blueblood]

Crisis averted! In his relief, Sky Sailing gave one great shake, as if he were trying to crack his spine like a whip. It would take more than that to loosen the tension from his muscles, though; the pegasus could feel the knots that came from tiny, constant movements needed to keep a formation intact in the teeth of a gale.

Still, now that their formation leader was back, things ought to go more smoothly. Sky gave his wingponies a wide, silly grin as they sought to keep the cloud delivery up to scheduled time. "Glad to see you can keep your heads; it's all I can do sometimes to keep mine in one place, even when the wind's not trying to blow it off!"

[Bramble Rose]

Rainbow Dash grinned at Sky Sailing. "You seemed to do all right! Don't worry, we'll get past this shortly and we can take a quick break!" She knew she needed to keep her attention on the clouds, as the main experienced weather pony here, but her eyes kept straying over to Sky Flare's aerial acrobatics. She could see just what he was doing - using his stunts to break up the currents, and it was making their job a lot easier, but she also could see where she would do things just a little differently! A finished corkscrew ... which she would have finished up with a quick 90-degree turn straight upwards. A spin that she would have carried through for another 360 degrees if it had been up to her ...

Augh! She wanted to be doing that! But she was needed here, and she couldn't let her ponies down.

"All right, just a little further! Sky Flare's breaking it up long enough that we can get past! Just one! More! PUSH!" And then they were past the rainbow markers, and the crosswinds cleared up, and she let out a sigh of relief. "Good job, everypony! You lot settle down atop that cloudbank and let it coast for a bit! Chat a little, get to know each other - I'm gonna see if I can round up some of the stuff that got shredded off. But really! Good job, everypony!"

​

[Lux]

It was pretty safe to say that Sky Flare was having a blast in the skies above the Everfree Forest. For a moment the young stallion felt like he was practicing his stunts just like any other day, but he was quick to remember the added bonus that all of his loops, dives, and hairpin turns were doing in breaking up the strange winds that lashed at his friends and fellow cloud pushers.

He paused to check on their progress and to his delight he could see that the three were hanging on and doing fine. With a sigh of relief they had cleared the rainbow warning markers and were now resting. Why, even Rainbow Dash was admiring his stunts, an added icing on the awesome cake of performing his stunts seeing a mare known for her own brand of crazy moves to note him!

"AWWW YEAAAHHH!!!" Sky Flare said in victory as he did a sommersault, "Take that wind! Thought you can blow our cloud to pieces and send us crashing to the ground? Not going to happen! So come on, is that all you got?"

Right after saying that the winds picked up, as if in protest to the stallion's bravado. Suddenly a strong gust hit the stallion with a force that knocked the wind out of him and jostled. As the stallion tried to recover, another wind hit him, and another. While the stallion could easily cut through the moderate gusts, these much stronger ones gave his body a beating and soon the helpless white Pegasus could barely see straight let alone fly very well. With a windy blast that bore down at him, Sky Flare quickly started falling out of the sky towards the Everfree Forest below!

Going to wrap up Sky's involvement here. See what happens to him in This Thread

[Blueblood]

At last! All the team's efforts had brought them through the slicing gale. As for Sky Sailing himself, it took no great push from Rainbow Dash to tell him to take a break. The pegasus had not had a very clear idea of what this work would mean; it was turning out to be much harder than simply hauling crates at the Cold Storage Warehouse. With a loud exhalation, he collapsed onto the cloudbank as it coasted along.

It would have been an ideal spot for relaxation, until he saw his acrobatic wingmate begin to plummet. "Whoa, look out- YAH!" Sky had attempted to spread his wings for a sudden take-off, but the motion, after so much strain, had caused his own muscles to seize, leaving one wing stuck painfully in an upright position. There would be little rescue-work from this part-time singer...